Yeyan's arrival into the palace was without ceremony, just a new lamb thrown into the grand slaughter house disguised as a royal court.
His entrance to this new domain , as silent as his birth.
As Yeyan walked the path leading to the place he would call home, his steps sturdy dispute the pain from his still healing wounds from his cleansing, he thought of what fate awaited him in the forsaken pavilion.
His new master, the seventh prince is said to be a cursed beast. But what right does he, as abandoned child who only by grace got chosen to inter the palace as a eunuch have to speculate on his master.
Yeyan sighed as he walked onward, he had placed top of his class and was meant to be sent to serve an affluent master, but now he has been shoved into the lowest and most dangerous place.
How can a child picked off the street have money to bribe his seniors? He just got here, his pocket cleaner than his face.
Yeyan could still remember the look of disdain on the faces of the senior eunuch and his fellow newcomers who unlike him came prepared.
So here he was, assigned to the worst possible place no small thanks to the jealous mates adding fuel to annoy the senior and also in part to his eyes that has always resembled a void making it feel out of place on his young face.
The path leading to the pavilion surprisingly went through a back mountain, one he was sure was not on the official palace map he had to memorize to avoid death due to entering the wrong place.
It was just pointed out to him by a trembling maid who then promptly run away.
The path wound like a serpent through fractured ground laid with black quartz and covered by odd whispering mist even though it was midday.
Autumn had long since died here — no blossoms clung to life, no birds sung in twisted pines. Only wind remained, eeryly scraping secrets from stone.
This was no place for a human, much less a ten year old child like him. He was small for his age yet straight backed beneath his gray silk robes.
His offial robes were stripped of insignia as his master has non, no sash denoting rank as he was his master's only servant, no jade pendent hung at his waist for as the lowest eunuch doned in gray he was only worth a small wooden plaque with name branded on.
He was not sent here as anything of significance, just a disposable nobody with a name plate that can be put on his grave. Just another body on the list of failed attempts to put people around the prince.
Yeyan had heard it, the hushed tones of their voices filled with mock pity and hypocrisy as they watched him leave.
'He's going to die soon yet', one of his mates had said.
'I heard that beast spers no one ' another added, disdain on his face.
But yeyan didn't care, he had been called things too, abandoned as well. He could not care what sort of beast his master was, he was just going to survive like he ones did.
I his hands he held a jade slip, it contained in it the special edit he was handed in secret. It held information about the prince and an order to follow.
Yeyan stopped and placed it among his few possessions. He carried little : a bundle with spare clothes to wear, a slate inkstone tucked into his sleeves besides three brushes of varying thickness — one fine-tipped for delicate script, another broad for urgent notes and one for painting, all bound within folded paper, stitched cloth and a personal journal stumped with a wax seal bearing a single character 观 - Observe an addition to the jade slip.
For his official charge from the edict was laid out: To watch his master by order of his majesty.
Yeyan was not only not expected to not live long, he was also expected to spend what time he had left not serving his master, not help or give care in any way or loyalty but to spy.
The edict in the jade slip habit been coldly precise.
' Record all behavior, habits and or changes and transformations of the seventh prince. '
Currently the prince is housed within the pavilion of nine graces or at lest what is left of it. He was to send monthly reports through the jade slip until told otherwise or death, whichever came first.
He was now both the prince's only servant and a records keeper. His death was expected as six keepers had died before him and more before them.
Yeyan lost in thought still made it to the sealed gate of the pavilion. It towered over him, an unknown path before him.