Climbing the walls [idiom]: to feel frustrated, helpless, and trapped.

(949 AD)

(Assembly Chamber, Cheondeok Hall, Songak)

~Gwangjong's POV~

"As punishment for treason, I hereby sentence Wang Won, the 9th Prince, son of King Taejo of Goryeo and Lady Dongyangwon, to die," I announced. There was neither mercy nor grace in my tone, even though my subjects often liked to praise me as merciful and gracious whenever they knelt and bowed in complete deference to me.

When the day was done and I could retire to my private bedchambers, I stopped myself from thinking about how I'd dealt with the government. Instead, I found myself wondering if I really know what I was doing. Here I was, callously issuing penalty for fratricide, but wasn't that what I was doing as well?

Taking a life, it blackens your soul. It's a weight you carry with you all of your days. Haven't I got enough burdens already?

When I was growing up suffering under my adoptive family's abuse, Won was raised and loved by his own mother. What a contrast. He was spoiled since a young age. Whatever he wanted, he could get, handed to him on a silver platter, as long as he handed out his money. Me? I couldn't even get what I needed, let alone what I wanted. I would never, ever forget how I was starved as a child in Shinju. It was ironic, really, how the tables had turned. I had risen high and he had fallen low. There was honestly nothing he couldn't acquire using his wealth, except redemption and exemption from a death sentence warranted by his King, of course.

Then again, life was full of exceptions. I knew I was one. I'd always thought that I was the least worthy of being King, out of all of my brothers. My eldest brother Mu was our father's favorite son. My 3rd brother had courtiers' support and our formidable mother's backing. My 8th brother was no doubt the brains of the family, an exemplar. My 14th brother was an excellent warrior, just like our father. Now that I looked back, I realized that I'd actually never had any obvious kingly qualities at all. I never thought it would be me. But look at how far I'd come.

If there was one thing I'd learnt when I was fighting to be where I was now, it's that I could only rely on myself. I could not count on others, especially not on family. I never really had a loving and warm family, but I doubted any of my brothers ever had it. How chilling and devastating it must've been for Yo when he realized that all that our mother even cared about was her own gain, and we, her sons, were merely her tools, pawns, puppets, to be controlled and manipulated. Eun and Soonduk almost got killed because of his grandfather's ambitions. And while Won was rotting in a cell, his relatives had abandoned him as soon as they could. This had taught me that family we chose was more meaningful that family ties by blood.

On many occasions I had been labelled bloodthirsty and cruel and ruthless, basically every name under the sun, and I hated it. I was capable of showing mercy, but only to those deserving of it. For instance, I spared Won's two wives and their young sons. I was not a wolf dog; I was a human, and I had human sentiments. I did actually feel sorry for my nephews that they had a foolish father who had overestimated himself so drastically. But I wouldn't hurt them or make them pay for crimes that they did not commit. How old were they again? 6? 7? Too young to understand the gravity of traitorous actions, plots and schemes anyway. It was only in their hearts and minds that I could find innocence, something so precious that it had gone extinct in Songak.

I sighed and silently counted how many siblings I used to have and how many of them were left. My eldest brother Mu, dead. My eldest sister Chuja, dead. My 3rd brother Yo, dead. My 8th brother Wook, very ill. My 9th brother Won, dead. My younger sister and wife Yeonhwa, survived. My 10th brother Eun, survived but exiled. My 13th brother Baekah, survived. My 14th brother Jung, survived. I didn't want more of them to die too. I would like nothing more than to see them living happily with their wives and their children, a privilege I would not get to share. I could neither marry the woman that I loved, nor raise our daughter Seol. These were the regrets that would plague me for the rest of my life.

We all had regrets. But before that, we had innocence and we had love, regardless of how our lives had turned out to be. Life used to be so much simpler back then. Let's turn the clock back to 7 years ago, back to when all of my siblings were still around, back to when Hae Soo was still alive, back to when I still wore a mask that hid my ugly scar.

(942 AD, in the late years of the reign of King Taejo of Goryeo.)

(The royal court, Songak)

~Chaeryung's POV~

I was hoping today was going to be another uneventful day at Yeondeok Palace, but apparently not. Lady Soo had been out for many hours. Lady Myunghee was getting worried and had dispatched me and several other maids to go look for Lady Soo. We split up and took the hallways near the main gate of the royal court, whereas my colleagues searched the corridors in other areas.

As I kept looking, I came across a familiar face, but it was not Lady Hae Soo. It was my childhood friend Woljin, who also worked at a maid here in Songak, but not with me. I approached her and told her about my predicament regarding Lady Soo.

"Have you tried the Damiwon yet?" Woljin asked.

"The Princes just began bathing. I'm not allowed to search there yet," I replied anxiously.

Before either of us could say another word, we had heard a horse's loud and painful neighs coming from right outside the front gate. Startled, Woljin and I exchanged looks and wondered what was going on, but in less than a minute's time, servants and guards were running about and announcing that the 4th Prince So had returned to Songak.

"I'd keep looking with you, but I've an errand to run at Okrin Palace," said Woljin sympathetically.

Okrin Palace. The residence of the 9th Prince Won. I used to work there, but after a while I was assigned to work in Yeondeok Palace, the household of the 8th Prince Wook, instead. It wasn't that I didn't like working for the 8th Prince and his family here. But if I had the chance to go to the 9th Prince, I would take it. It would make me very happy if I got to see His Highness every day.

I decided to detain my friend no longer, and proceeded to continue with my search for the missing Lady Soo.

(Hyunhui Mansion, Songak)

~Woljin's POV~

I returned to my post at the residence of the An family and reported to Lady Choi, the only wife of Lord An and therefore the matriarch of this household.

"Your Ladyship," I bowed and said politely. "I have done as your lady daughter has instructed. Lady Dongyangwon is very pleased, and wishes to inform you that Her Ladyship will be visiting tomorrow."

Lady Dongyanwon was one of King Taejo's more higher ranking concubines, and was the mother of the 9th Prince Won. She and Lady Choi were close, and the 9th Prince was closest in age to the An family's only daughter, Lady Hyeong, so they grew up as best friends.

Ever since I began working here at Hyunhui Mansion, I had been assigned as Lady Hyeong's personal handmaiden. As usual, I went up the stairs to attend Lady Hyeong in her bedchambers. A new batch of winter clothes was readied and delivered to Her Ladyship, and I was supposed to organize her wardrobe. From time to time, she would come across some old clothes that she wouldn't wear anymore, and she was kind enough to let me have them. It might seem like nothing to her, but it mattered to me, because the fabric was of rather high quality and would give me enough money to send to my family. I'd thank her and smile humbly, forever grateful and honored that I had found my mistress easy to please, compared to handmaidens in other households who had it much tougher. Of course it wasn't easy laboring as a maid, but overall, my life had gotten a lot better ever since I came to Songak to work.

I was from a poor family. My father had a certain kind of sickness that was treatable yet apparently incurable, according to the unreliable physicians in the backward village that I came from. When he died, it was discovered that my elder brother had inherited that disease, and nothing else, as opposed to the lands and titles that aristocrats in their palatial and capacious mansions would inherit in heaps. We had spent all of our savings on keeping him alive. When we eventually went broke, our mother announced that she was about to marry a rich landlord. At first it was good news, as that meant we would be able to afford better quality medication. But as soon as our mother had bore her new husband a son, he began to treat us, his stepchildren, abusively. His cruelty soon became known all over town when he slaughtered a tenant for paying rent late. Since then, nobody was willing to rent his houses or purchase them, so once more our family was hit by a financial crisis.

To deal with this, my stepfather tried to force me to work as a prostitute, and when that didn't work, he even attempted to sell me to a slaver from China. But there came a ray of hope for me, when ushers from the royal court of Goryeo were sent to each town, big or small, to hire a dozen maids to work in the palace. My friend and neighbor Chaeryung and I were both sent into royal service. Since then, I was rid of my stepfather, although not a day went by that I didn't fear for my mother's and brother's safety and health.

Upon settling down at Songak, I got deployed to Hyunhui Mansion where I would work for the prestigious An family. And thus, Chaeryung and I parted ways, but still ran into each other occasionally when running errands for our masters.

I had only just turned 14, a mere year younger than Lady Hyeong, when I started my work at Hyunhui Mansion. But she was not always nice to me. She used to be difficult and unreasonable.

At that time, Her Ladyship was immature and spoiled and bossed me around for fun, mocked and laughed at me and bullied me, and made life difficult for me in as many ways as possible. But eventually I could not tolerate it anymore, and at the cost of not losing just my job but also my head most likely, I snapped and unleashed my frustration. It was also how my background and hardships in life were made known to Lady Hyeong, who at that time had not had the faintest clue that there were a lot of people outside Songak who were leading tough lives in destitute, struggling to survive even. The idea was inconceivable to Her Ladyship, because from the moment she was born, she was privileged in many ways, and whatever she wanted she could get without much trouble. Her world consisted of merely the royal court, situated at Songak, the capital of Goryeo. She became obnoxious, and thought that her family's high status and power would give her the right to be bossy. But my outburst of emotions and complaints of injustice must have been a wake up call for Lady Hyeong. It was from then on that she began to treat me with more respect, and behaved much more maturely toward all of her servants, which paved the way for our friendship to grow. Whatever valuable items of garment or accessory that Her Ladyship didn't feel like keeping anymore as she had an excess of those, she'd give them to me, and I'd use that as a source of income for my family. Lady Hyeong hadn't much changed in terms of how shallow and materialistic she was, but she definitely had a kinder heart and was much more polite.

Dressing herself in glamorous attire was one of Her Ladyship's main concerns in life. As there was practically nothing for her to do all day, she spent her time on clothes and accessories and being pretty and all forms of materialistic enjoyment. Her family could give her inexhaustible wealth anyway as they just kept rising higher and higher in society. She was aware that it meant she was of a high enough station to be married off to a Prince, even, but she knew that it would not be her responsibility to think about it — her parents would be in charge of planning her marriage, just as they had done for her elder brother, Lord Geolha. He was married to a very rich noblewoman and they were expecting their first child together, but not even that could bring him to show any love or affection for her, for rumor had it that his heart belonged to someone else, someone he could never be with.

"Woljin, you're back," said Lady Hyeong spiritedly. "I think I have some good news for you. My brother's wife Lady Nangyung is going to give birth soon. I'll try to arrange for your mother to work as a nursemaid here once my sister in law gives birth. By then we will surely be short staffed, since my brother does not care enough to employ nurses."

"I am thankful, my Lady, for your thoughtfulness, but then who shall take care of my sickly and frail brother then? And who shall look after my baby brother too?" I sighed. "My stepfather spoils his son, but I do worry that if my little brother spends so much time with him he will become sordid and depraved like his father too."

"And that's the last thing you want for him. I understand," she replied. It was ironic to think that I, like Her Ladyship, had an elder brother and a younger brother too, but our destinies and family backgrounds were basically opposites. "But trust me, Woljin, I will find a way to make sure that your mother and your brothers are in better hands. It might take some time, so you must be strong. I'll do for you and them whatever I can."

"I cannot thank you enough, my Lady," I said sadly, lowering my head.

(Assembly Chamber, Cheondeok Hall, Songak)

~Chronicler's POV~

Today, King Taejo decided he wanted a day off work, so His Majesty did not summon his counselors to an assembly. He still sat in the chamber, seated on his throne, and had his astronomer, Choi Jimong, discuss with him the future of each of his royal children, especially that of the 4th Prince So, who was returning from Shinju today.

Seeing as the King was relatively unoccupied, Princess Yeonhwa had decided this would be a good time for her to visit her royal father and present to him a gift she had made for him. Her brothers the Princes got to saw their father pretty often as sometimes they'd be called in for meetings about matters of the state, but Yeonhwa herself, as the only Princess at Court, seldom got to spend time with His Majesty. Still, father and daughter shared a good relationship. She was able to win his affections and he doted on her.

"I thought it was time for a new pillow, so I made this for Your Majesty," said Princess Yeonhwa happily, the smile on her face even wider as she saw with her own eyes how pleased her royal father was with her present.

"I must be the King of Heaven to sleep on such finery," Taejo commented jocundly. The King did not smile often, and even when he did, there wasn't necessarily any mirth in his smile. But this time, he was smiling with his eyes and it was genuine. More than genuine than his daughter's, in fact. It wasn't that she was feigning all of it — but she knew that it was important to be in royal favor. As a woman in Goryeo, her life and future depended on the men around her. She knew this from a young age and always kept this in mind, and treaded carefully.

Yeonhwa shielded her gaze humbly. "My skills are still lacking."

Taejo closed the lid on the box that contained the pillow, looked at his daughter, and said with a slight sigh, "they say fathers with daughters can easily become fools. I am one of them," he admitted. "You are such a beautiful young lady. Who can I marry you off to?"

"I am sure you will choose well for me, Your Majesty," said Yeonhwa, confidently, because she was confident that if she appeared subservient, it would make the men around her fall into the trap of believing that they were truly in charge, and that way, she could stand a better chance at getting what she wanted, and pull the strings from behind the scenes.

"I want you to live happily like my elder daughter," Taejo replied. "Though it is unfortunate that I don't see her often."

Although Yeonhwa was the only Princess in Songak whereas there were 8 Princes, she was not the only daughter her father had. She had a paternal half-sister, Princess Chuja, who was 8 years her senior. However, they had never met before, as before Yeonhwa was born, Chuja was already sent to Khitan to enter a political marriage. From time to time, Taejo would receive letters from Khitan and it seemed to him that Chuja was happy, and was fortunate enough to be in a loving marriage with the Crown Prince then and the ruler now of Khitan, and had a couple of children. This seemed a perfect life Taejo had envisioned for his daughters: a dynastic match that served Goryeo diplomatically, at the same time a happy one. Although there was no economic need for Taejo to send his younger daughter to Khitan as well, he'd certainly want to put her into a marriage that would be beneficial to Goryeo without compromising her happiness.

Yeonhwa's heart sank and she wore a grave expression on her pretty face, albeit only temporarily. She would not dare openly articulate disagreement with the most powerful man in Goryeo. Instead she opted for lowering her head slightly in subservience once more. "Does that mean you wish for me to live far away from the palace?" She had to know. If she was allowed to stay in the palace, she certainly had great plans for herself and she was going to lay out her own path to greatness. If she were to leave, she then needed to make the according adjustments with haste.

Yet the King was no fool. He could tell from his sweet daughter's tone that sending her away would not be an arrangement to her preference. "Why? Do you not want to?" He asked, but did not indicate that he would drop this option if she did not desire it.

Yeonhwa lifted her head to look at the King, plastering a convincingly saccharine smile on her face once more. "If it is a place you choose for me, I will be happy wherever I go," she said in reassurance. She reminded herself that she must be an obedient daughter.

King Taejo chuckled gently. "Yeonhwa, how is it that you only say things that bring me joy?" He truly wondered. "You are my greatest joy in my old age." She was the apple of his eye and he had genuine affection for her.

"I will wait for you to find a good match for me, Your Majesty." Yeonhwa thanked her father once more at the end of her conversation, and exited the Hall gracefully. Once she was out of Taejo's sight, she allowed the grimness in her heart to resurface. She had to think about who or what she could use as an excuse — or a very valid reason — to get to stay at Court.

As she stepped out of Cheondeok Hall, she crossed paths with a strange-looking man, clad in black. Half of his face was covered by a mask which was in turn covered by his hair. She knew that this must be her 4th brother So.

"You're back, 4th brother," said Yeonhwa softly, but in fascination.

Prince So did not give a response to his sister. He strode into the Assembly Chamber emotionlessly. Yeonhwa, on the other hand, wondered if this might be an opportunity for her.

A/n: Thoughts? Please review! :D