A Sad Love Story

When she met him

"I can't believe the king agreed to meet us." A very happy Johan said as he walked proudly between his father and their translator.

"It's been three months since we arrived, though." Fei mumbled. "He could have replied faster. Bigger kings have agreed to meet merchants in the next few days from their arrival." She commented getting a warning glance from Papa Krum.

"No trouble, remember?"

Fei pouted and nodded. She had to be nice and quiet now that Papa Krum also learned how to trade in hangul. It wasn't much but it was enough to talk to the locals about accessories and fabric.

The five foreigners were asked to follow a stiff elderly man through the palace and into the throne room. Servants gawked from the sides, although all five of them were dressed in hanboks. Their faces and heights were all above most people they had met but some officials at the court and ladies seemed to be taller than the plebe. The difference in status was heard and felt from the moment they stepped inside and it made Fei realize that no matter the corner of the world, the skin color or religion, people will always be searching for a status.

"Come this way," the elderly man said, "When you enter, do not look at the king directly. Just bow and wait for him to speak first." He added obviously speaking to Papa Krum who looked to be the most trustworthy.

However they all turned to Fei who translated every word. Then the doors opened and Fei gasped at the number of people inside. Some were on the left while others were on the right staring at the foreigners with mixed emotions. They had to walk a few feet before they were instructed again to bow. There were five pillows where they were told to sit and start speaking.

"Your majesty, we have come a long way from Denmark and France. We may look odd to you but I believe you will be most pleased with our stuff. I have gathered the most expensive fabric, jewelries and shoes for you and your subjects." Papa Krum said in Danish. He was sweating a lot and forgot all the words he learned until then.

He glanced at Fei in sign that she was after all going to play translator for them. Since she was used to look in the eyes of her interlocutor in the past, she did raise her head a bit enough to take a glance at the king. To her surprise he also looked straight into her eyes. Right away she was scolded by a man who actually glared at her.

"Keep your head down, stranger." He said as if he was about to get up and slap her for it. She glared coldly before she returned her sight on the king.

When she died because of him

Fei had seen wars between thousands, if not millions and she had to fight among them at some point. And yet she was caught walking just outside the village on a sunny day.

The guards led her to the king through the middle of the village at an hour when the streets were crowded. Fei was a proud creature, she glanced at the villagers but the people she once helped were now whispering between themselves and not making eye-contact. She chuckled to herself and sighed in disappointment.

She had her hands wrapped together with rope in front of her and the sun seemed to follow them as they arrived in front of the palace. The doors opened and she was surprised to see quite a few ministers and even more guards in the front yard. The steps to the front made her remember how she felt when meeting Ares for the first time. His eyes froze her blood and stopped her heart and she was more than happy to give her whole being to him just to be able to live forever. Now, it was more or less the same emotion but for a different subject.

When she was forced to stop, she could see the person that ordered this intervention. He was a middle-aged man with a long beard and dressed in green clothes. His eyes were particularly long and narrow and his orbs were black. He looked more like death than Hades.

"Here she is, the devil!" he started in a loud, booming voice. "She arrived with the foreigners and she didn't leave when they did! She chose to stay." He added glaring at Fei. "My highness, you gave her more than she should have deserved! You let her roam the palace and the village by herself and you gave her the opportunity to spy on us!"

Fei looked up at the king, who seemed cross. All eyes were on him and his mother and wife were each on one side, whispering to him something that Fei did not want to hear.

"This is the first country in the east that I had ever been to." She said calmly.

"Is it? How come you can speak Chinese, then?" He asked.

"I can't." She replied with an eyebrow raised.

"Then what are these?"

One of his acolytes came and brought some of her notes. They were translated from Hanja into Greek and the information was mostly about the Joseon dynasty. Moreover, the translation was made with the help of the king himself.

"Well? No answer? I'm going to tell you, then! She is gathering information about our country in order to give it forward to possible new enemies!" He shouted at the top of his lungs. "My lord, she even used her powers with the villagers and your servants! She entered their minds and hearts and made them poison you!"

Many gasps were heard from all around her. Some guards glared at her with gritted teeth but the king didn't mutter a word.

"I think you're misunderstanding my intentions."

"Don't utter another word, wench!" He shouted and smacked her. The king's eyes widened and he got on his feet, surprised how things turned so bad.

Fei's eyes widened at the courage this old human had but she was not going to lose her cool for him.

"I only instructed the servants to bring me what I needed in order to make the king a traditional recipe from my country. It was not poisoning, he just didn't like it. I also gave him medicine for that." She replied in the same calm manner.

"What about the queen then?" The villain asked, his bushy eyebrows narrowing at her.

Fei looked up at Hyang's wife. That woman was vile and she was a liar. The way the two women were looking at each other was enough to know there was no friendship between them.

"What about her?"

"You tried to poison her too."

"No, I didn't." Fei answered with a smirk, "If I tried to poison anyone, I'd be successful. She's still alive and well, as we can all see."

That brought another set of gasps from the viewers. Hyang looked down at his fumbling hands, knowing his wife was not happy with his allegedly foreign concubine. And yet what he felt being with Fei was far above anything he had felt until then. The queen was jealous, that much was obvious. But would she poison herself just to blame Fei?

"What about this then?" he asked showing everyone her journal. Fei's eyes widened as did Hyang's. "It's all written in your language but I noticed you use names of other gods. Are these spells? Is that how you bring the dead back to life?!"

Fei raised an eyebrow, confused by what he was rambling about. And then he mentioned to someone to come forward and Fei's whole body tensed.

"Did she bring your boy back to life?" He asked a thin woman who was trembling from every corner of her body.

"Y-yes," she answered.

"How?" The evil lord asked the peasant. She pointed at Fei and with wide eyes she started to shout.

"It is the truth, my highness! She is a witch! I listened and watched as she brought back my Hun from death! She asked me to bring her some really weird plants and then she put one hand over my son's eyes and chanted!"

Fei's hands were shaking in anger. That woman begged her to save her son, cried at her feet to help her in exchange for her life. She promised not to tell anyone about what she had seen that night and yet...

"She made me swear to secrecy or else she would kill me!" she added falling on her knees and crying. The minister seemed to gloat in joy at the little act.

Fei watched everything with a bittersweet taste in her mouth. She was angry, Hyang could see that much. The people she devoted her time to were now going against her. The wind picked up and the hats of several guards were blown away.

Something in her eyes must have scared the people standing close to her, the minister included. They all backed off as the wind cut the rope around her wrists.

"This is why gods abandon humans in need. Why bother if they're not loyal."

"See, my highness?! She's controlling the weather now!"

Fei's eyes moved on him and he swallowed nervously.

"She lied to you and said she is a merchant and a scholar but she is actually the devil! She's here to curse our lands!" He added.

Lee Hyang sighed and couldn't really tell them to let her go because he already had the seed of doubt planted in his mind. There were definitely weird occurrences ever since she arrived and there were many times when he felt like she had other intentions, especially in the last month when she said she'd like to visit Japan while holding tightly onto her journal. Besides, he told her so many secrets, so many disclosures about the kingdom and himself as a human being. The pressure of his ministers, wife and mother was incredible. They wanted Fei gone but he knew she was always very sincere with him, always protective and noble. She was living by rules that he couldn't understand but it never occurred to him that she could ever hurt him.

"I know the devil and he wouldn't bother coming up here for you." Fei said, her tone bitter.

"A witch, indeed." The minister said with a glint in his eyes that reminded Fei of a demon.

"Since you all believe me evil, I may as well kill someone right here and right now, right?" she asked sarcastically but all the guards got defensive. She was surrounded by loyal people ready to send an arrow through her skull.

"Halt! Don't shoot!" was heard from the king as he took a few steps closer. His wife went to his side and grasped his hand.

"Don't you see, you highness?! She is ready to kill someone and show you what she really is! She seduced you, that's why you can't see her for who she is!" the queen added more lies to the already confused and shaken king. "Who are you going to believe? Your loyal subjects or some foreign witch who doesn't even know our history, culture and tradition?"

Fei heard everything perfectly. That was indeed the problem and she could see that he was torn between his heart and his responsibility. She sighed and tried to calm down so that she won't have to put him in a worse position.

But then the minister came really close to her and leaned in, whispering in her ear.

"Do you see that? He's wavering. It's a matter of time, but believe me, I will see you dead."

She didn't look at him, she kept her clear green eyes on the man she loved. She noticed his mother whispering something too and then he sighed.

"Just, put her in a cell for now or-"

He was muttering to himself but the mere thought of sending her into a cell while everyone else was going to manipulate this young man into killing her was too much.

"If you want death, I'll give it to you." She whispered to the old man.

Fei grabbed him by the neck and rose him enough for his feet to get off the ground. Her usually bright eyes darkened visibly and she turned to the king.

"Is this what you want? You already see me as an evil demoness so why not give you a real reason for that?" She asked with a chuckle. "This man is so full of greed and hatred, his soul will go straight to Hell. Real demons will have a feast."

The guards and other ministers panicked. One of them was being held by his throat, in the air, and he seemed to be suffocating.

And then it happened. She got shot right through her heart. Only one arrow. One deadly shot.

"NO!"

She heard the king shout. The pain was real. Fei looked at the king, straight in his eyes, as she felt tears roll down her cheeks. His expression was hard to decipher because her vision grew blurry as she lost the power in her body. She crashed down, all the while staring into Lee Hyang's eyes. Her breaths were short and heavy, her heart stopping eventually. She was dead.

When she was sentenced

The great hall that she was brought into was dark and cold.

"Do you know why you were brought in here, Fei?" A voice echoed throughout the whole room. She didn't have time to answer because the voice continued, "You were the cause of a massacre. Thousands of lives were taken because of your tongue."

"That is highly incorrect. I only helped during wars, I never started one." She said with confidence.

"After stealing more years for you to live now you dare correct me? I know who you are and what you have done." The voice raised in volume.

"Then you know I made a deal with Ares who granted me immortality. I didn't steal anything, I earned it." Fei spoke ardently, defending herself. "I am not dead so why am I here?"

The answer did not come for a few long minutes. In the end, a man dressed in all red and with a hairstyle worthy of a Korean king came from the darkness. He expected Fei to bow or show some type of respect but she didn't.

"Your Gods are gone now and you came to us by yourself. You were curious how eastern gods are, weren't you? Well, now you know. There are rules and you broke them." He said looking at Fei with superiority. "People died because of you and you must be punished."

She was ready to speak her mind when she was forced to bow her head.

"Lord Hades," she mumbled surprised that he made an appearance.

"You are right, Lord Hwanung, this ungrateful nymph has come to your land and brought a lot of trouble. But we both know she didn't start the war between Joseon and Japan."

"She gave them information-"

"I never looked at army documents while I was there. As you know, I was...busy with other things."

"You seduced the king, you mean." Hwanung said coldly.

Fei glared at him and she really wanted to curse this godly figure but Hades forced her to bow once more.

"And she deeply regrets it, don't you, Fei?" He said subtly urging her to agree.

"But I didn't," she whispered to him however Hades threw her a look that silenced her.

"She does deserve to be punished but we can't have her take the blame for what humans provoked. The regeneration period that she went through took more than five years. When she woke up, the Japanese troops were already ravaging villages." Hades defended her using facts, not emotions.

"I didn't tell that general anything about the army. If anything, I just pointed out the scum in the palace. Even after more than five years, they were still very much alive and active." She added to her plea although it wasn't helpful.

"Shut up now and let the adults speak." Hades hissed at her and she looked down like a compliant puppy.

"Why are you helping her, Hades? You are the last of the Underworld Greek Gods...her life means nothing, I can easily take her immortality."

"I am the God of the Underworld," he corrected Hwanung with authority. "And Fei is a nymph not a human. A deal once made between a God and a lower deity cannot be broken. I will take responsibility of her for future references. She is part of who I am, part of the ancient beliefs."

Fei bit her lip nervously. If Hades was vouching for her then she was saved but he was going to make her pay for this favor.

Lord Hwanung moved his sight from Hades, who had his own rights and power, to the witty nymph and came to a conclusion.

"Very well. I, Lord Hwanung, Supreme Divine Regent thus proclaim that Fei, the Greek nymph, does not hold a fault in the massacre in Joseon. But she did leak information that should not have been known and she lied to the king Lee Hyang and led him to an early demise."

She wanted to correct him that she didn't do anything and she never lied to him but Hades stopped her by forcing her to bow once more.

"Therefore, the punishment is the following: Fei shall not be able to leave this land and will live all alone in the forest of the Jiri Mountain."

Both Hades and Fei thought it was acceptable.

"And Fei, from this moment on, you will not be able to lie to a human. Never again will your words bring pain."