Mere months ago, General Guo Quan had stood in Weiyang Hall watching as Grand Protector Li was stripped of his title and dragged to the imperial dungeons, serving as a warning signal to the nobles that the young man they'd thought they controlled in the palm of their hands had grown into a voracious dragon, guarding its pearl (1) within its ferocious maw jealously.
Guo Quan was no stranger to the concept of death. He could deal it to others on the battlefield, he'd seen his soldiers cut down before his very eyes.
But he was starting to realise just how much he feared for his own life.
It was long past the time of commencement for morning court but the winter sun had yet to break over the horizon. A layer of frost had since formed over the red awning outside of Weiyang Hall, where the court officials knelt in tandem to try and force their liege to meet them. The bitter cold bit at their faces and made elderly joints ache with a deep throbbing pain but no one dared to complain.
