Rain pelted the ground in unceasing heavy lines as a delegation in grey approached the palace gates - the men at the front and back carrying long poles adorned with grey and red fabric - the colours of the Revenet flag. How confident they were.

How brazen.

A golden sedan chair, flanked on both sides by silver chairs, was in the middle of the cluster, the men surrounding them carrying large swords at their hips, their hair tied high on top of their heads secured with pewter pins and clasps and their large bodies were clad in shiny armor.

General Lang stood at the gate with a few other members of the military, his heart rate steadily increasing as the sheer size of their group caught him off guard. But now was not the time to show any weakness - not the time to show even the possibility that a weakness might exist, despite what everyone already knew. He mounted his horse as they came to a gradual stop and the front-most guard presented a token. The general only nodded and nudged his horse, leading the way through the massive palace grounds. The thought that they could probably cause a massacre inside if they so wished flittered around in the back of his mind. Others might want to run, but he wouldn't. Even if it was a useless effort, fighting and dying for something he loved and believed in was better than just handing it over on a silver platter.

King Zhan bit the insides of his cheeks, barely able to handle the suspense as he waited for the Demons to arrive.

Why now?

They could have easily flattened the entirety of Ranhara without warning if they so wished. Revenet was a big country and Ranhara had no allies in combat. It was a small country, not unnoticeable, but almost looked like a footnote at the side of Revenet. The Demon nation was an odd shape, a crescent surrounding a large body of water where a peninsula protruded out, with a large square area towards the south. On the map it looked like a rugged crystal ball and was one of the largest nations in the world.

And powerful.

The Revenets had a history known only to themselves, and that made them all the more dangerous.

Why now?

Zhan frowned as he stared at the edge of the table in the hidden negotiations room - a place his father never once talked of because it had never been used before. Their history was surprisingly free of conflict, their military only ever having been used to quash republican uprisings in the country, never for international incidents. No other country would be brave enough to stand up to Revenet, he didn't think. Maybe they would shed some light on that when-

"Your Highness! The envoy from Revenet has arrived."

Three handsome faces smiled in a way that made Zhan feel uncomfortable - his heart hadn't stopped hammering in his chest, sweat dripping down his back and neck as he faced futility. Crown Prince Jing Han, after congratulating Zhan personally on becoming King and throwing in a comment about his jealousy since his father was still ruling, swiped his cup from the solid wooden table and drank the remainder of his water before clearing his throat.

"I've come with a proposal." he said simply. "Ranhara originally belonged to us and we want the land back."

"Since when?"

Crown Prince Jing Han scoffed, the man on his right who Zhan remembered as being the messenger from the previous week mirrored this, though the man on his left did not.

"Since before it was annexed from us at the end of the Golden War seven hundred years ago. We want to take back what is rightfully ours."

"What war?" Zhan frowned, looking to General Lang, who shook his head. He didn't know. There was no record of a war that recently in Ranharan history. "There exists no records of any such war in our history books."

"Then you've been lied to, Your Highness."

"How do you know you haven't been lied to?"

Every Demon in the room erupted into laughter for a long minute before it died down and strangely enough, Zhan didn't doubt that what they were saying was true.

"There's pieces of Revenet all through this land. Ranhara was gifted to the Witches left stranded far from their homeland after the war by a temporary peace-keeping body who made a treaty amongst our nations that expired the day after your father did."

"You-!"

"I'm offering a peaceful resettlement. Western Pernesia is willing to accept their own kind back out of concern for your wellbeing, even though they have no obligation to do so."

"I've never heard of this treaty!"

"I brought our copy in case you didn't believe me."

"And ours?"

"It wasn't an agreement that needed your approval since none of it was your land to begin with."

The man on the right of Jing Han, who had remained polite the entire time handed over a thick file earmarked with all the important pages. More water was brought over as Zhan silently read through the documents, only raising his head to ask if she had arrived yet and was informed that she was coming. Zhan turned his attention back to the file, ignoring the three faces opposite him, embarrassment burning through him the more he read.

Ara huffed as she rushed through the hallways, barely able to remember where the meeting room was. Somewhere down a secret passageway behind a statue in the court room. Luckily the crier had witnessed the small mass of people entering behind the statue of King Ultan to the left of the thrones and so it was there she headed, finding an arched entryway and scuttling down. The passage went on and on, straightforward but much too long. It took her a good few minutes to reach the end where she found non-descript wooden doors. Striding forward, she knocked with confidence and entered after a guard on the other side opened it for her.

Slightly breathless, she greeted King Zhan with a polite curtsey and raised her head, turning to the Demon envoy to do the same, though froze instead.

Jun.

What was he doing there?

Sitting beside their Crown Prince, what was he...?

Her fingers tightened in the fabric of her robes as she forced herself to curtsey to them, trying her best to ignore the whirlwind of emotions that suddenly raged inside her. Helping Zhan was her priority. That was the only reason she was there.

"Ara, have you heard of the Treaty of Oma?"

"I haven't."

King Zhan handed her the thick file that she immediately flipped through. Jun finally dared to look at her as she studied the document intensely and he could tell that she knew... she knew it was real. The quiet realisation on her face and the look in her eyes that showed sadness and resignation were making him feel very guilty indeed. Crown Prince Jing Han had expected an argument over the treaty expiration, expected to go to war immediately with the flimsy offer of resettlement for their people.

They never expected that the Ranharan people had never been made aware of this.

They never expected that even their Royal Family hadn't the first clue.

Ara handed the document back to Jun, their gazes never meeting as she kept her head down, not daring to look at him lest she beat the living daylights out of him... or burst into tears out of shame. She didn't trust herself not to react and so she kept her attention on the King.

"Ara..." Zhan trailed, his confused face turning to her. "Have you had any visions about-"

"I know exactly how this ends, Your Highness." she replied.

He didn't need to ask any further to know what that meant.

His nostrils flared, jaw set as he regarded the three men in front of him.

"Regardless, this is our home. We will fight for it."

"An unwise decision, Your Highness." Crown Prince Jing Han commented with a half-hearted laugh, brushing a strand of icy blonde hair out of his eyes.

"You can crush my skull under your own foot if you so wish, but I'm not leaving Ranhara."

"Then so be it."

Ara watched with puffy red eyes as the envoy left the palace, keeping herself hidden in an alcove in a window above the court room. She didn't like that her heart still leapt as Jun looked back at her with an apologetic smile, his expression pained somewhat. Who was he to look pained? Who the hell was he to make her fall for him and then pull the carpet from under her feet? Ara wiped the tears that dripped down her cheeks as she took a deep breath in and out.

She felt so foolish.

Angry.

She should never have fallen for him, she should have known better.

But how?

She blamed herself, and didn't.

Their relationship still seemed independent of this whole fiasco, until it wasn't. Until the one facing her behind enemy lines was him. What was his motivation in going this far? What exactly was he trying to get out of knowing her? She had never shared anything too personal with him, only the superficial things that never really mattered. Only her thoughts about life and everything else that popped up in conversation. Never about the country. Never about what King Zhan was planning and now that she thought about it... Jun never asked. He was only ever concerned about her, or so it seemed.

In the middle of the night Ara lay in her bed, unable to sleep. She tossed and turned and eventually gave up, sitting up and grabbing the most boring book she had nearby. It wasn't helping much as she found herself still reading two chapters later, though couldn't remember a single word. She pushed on, trying to force herself to focus on the words, though the sound of flapping wings distracted her and she tossed the book down as a fiery red bird landed on her desk, an envelope secured around its neck.

Ara threw the covers back and scurried over, whipping the envelope off the bird and flinching as it suddenly took off through the window it came from. Returning to bed, she carefully turned the envelope over in her hands. It was unlike anything she had seen in Ranhara - a shining lilac envelope made of a beautiful fabric and secured with golden thread. She was afraid of what was inside. She was afraid that she was in love with someone who was going to leave her without a homeland. She was afraid that the Ranharan people would refuse to go and end up losing their lives over a futile conflict. Going along with the Crown Prince's offer was the wise thing to do. It wasn't noble, and after so many centuries the Treaty of Oma seemed redundant, but they were following what was agreed upon. They had contacted other countries that had participated and they had confirmed it. How much of what she was taught about Ranhara was the truth? How much else had they tried to erase and why?

They were the last to know, and it was too pitiful to even laugh at.

Finding her courage, Ara slowly unwound the golden thread and pulled the delicate paper out, carefully unfolding it:

My Dearest Ara,

I don't know what you are feeling right now, I will not pretend as though I do. It was an uncomfortable day for everyone, but once again your discomfort trumps that of everyone else. I wish that I could convince you that my feelings for you are real, though I admit I never intended to fall for you - here I am, hopelessly in love.

I am sorry for lying about who I am and where I come from, though my name really is Jun. Actually, my name is Wang Jun and I am a member of the Revenet aristocracy. My cousin is Crown Prince Jing Han. I work as an advisor and handle home affairs in the Guorun Palace.

You will be rightfully angry at me for everything that has transpired.

You will have many questions that can be answered by me, but shouldn't be. In time you will know what those questions are and who is answerable. When that time comes, I hope that our relationship will make more sense to you. All I will say is that I wanted to confirm something by making your acquaintance, and I was able to do so quickly, yet I kept coming back to meet you because I am so taken with you and I appreciate that you were able to be yourself around me - that you felt safe enough to be open about your feelings and I will never betray that trust you had in me. I had one reason in going to meet you, and once that reason was satisfied, everything else was exactly as real as it felt.

I love you, Ara.

And I won't marry anyone else.

But I know very well that, even though we are well suited, I am a Demon and my country is acting on a treaty that was signed seven hundred years ago to take back the land where you live. I knew about this for a few years and never cared about the consequences until I met you. I am doing my job and serving my own country by honouring the treaty, and you are doing the same for your country by trying to protect the land you have called home.

I don't know how our story will end, but I hope it won't be like this.

I will do everything to protect you during the takeover - no matter what happens. There may be things that will be brought to light at the end of all of this and I promise I will be by your side no matter what.

Please remember that.

If you are left with nothing else in this world, I will be there when you need me. You may fight and refuse me and push me away with everything you have, but I will always be there to shield you from the rain.

Take care, my Ara.

With all my love,

Wang Jun.