Sakura_Charmash

First born princess of Goryeo is promised to Silla in marriage. What has begun as a promise between families becomes a pact sealed in blood when her betrothed is mysteriously killed. Now what binds Seol, the lady Ha In of Goryeo to Silla is a blood debt – to turn away from it would be to topple the country into irreparable chaos.
Yet, her heart lies with another.
Raised from obscurity of illegitimacy, fate of concubine - born last son of northern Kang clan rests on the emperor’s grace. However, being tasked with the guardianship of the imperial princess is the last of his worries. In the whirlwind of emotions that she brings along, it is not just his title that is at stake, but his heart and a secret that he had brought from a grave of a different time.
Theirs is a fate from an age gone by, but a love impossible to attain. Theirs is a story written upon dying stars.
***
From inside: 
The snow caressed him in a way she yearned to; fluttering against his lashes, tangled up in his hair. She has always felt home in north, in the valleys that filled themselves with her namesake and with this man beside he, arrows slung over his shoulder and laughter in his eyes. Silla and her betrothed would never take that place.
Seol opens her mouth; it is now or never.
“Don’t say it,” he cuts her off, a hand stretched out for a lonely snowflake to perch upon. It turns translucent against his roughed palm.
“My hand isn’t made for snowflakes,” he sounds joyous, as he always does – when she is weeping within. His eyes remain resolutely elsewhere.
“I’ve been summoned to the garrison,” he continues in that same flat tone. “My last duty here will be to deliver your highness to your betrothed.”
She is unaware of the tear that has escaped, until an ice cold thumb brushes it off.
“Don’t cry,” he says then and she sees the laughing spark in his eyes for what it truly is; longing. “It breaks my heart.”
 ***

Snow n' Starlight

<p>Palace revels in the soft flutter of first snow, in the return of normalcy, in the health of its emperor and the proven innocence of its queen and her princes. By dusk celebrations had reached a crescendo and moved to more intimate inner halls of palace that Seol finds herself secluded outside, where new untouched flakes are hastily covering well trodden snow from earlier that day. She finds Seo at the astronomy tower, the highest point of the imperial palace. Slumped in the shadows of the observation terrace, his back resting against the railing and windswept hair obscuring his face.</p>

<p>It was gratitude and relief that had brought her here, she tells herself in the pause that she takes to consider her actions. Or perhaps she had wanted to confirm for herself, that by her fear fueled whimsical actions she has not ruined something beautiful forever. Or it was selfishness, that she was unwilling to let that quicksilver dream of a future with him go just yet.  </p>

Thorny Crown