On a clear morning with a light breeze, Asana and Kutsaya were in the echo corridor in the Vulcan Palace, under Chatrang.

"Ah, Sara, I don't want to go like that, can you give me back my appearance." Kutsaya said as she looked at the piece that had been captured by Asana.

"Kutthea, I've given you one chariot and one knight." Asana said, "You don't want to win by repentance, do you? ”

Kutthea pouted and said, "Sala, you're going to give me back this time." ”

Asana shook her head and smiled, returning the Xiang to Kutsya and withdrawing the knight from the square where the Xiang had been eaten.

"Kutsaia, you don't seem to have a way out." After continuing the game on the chessboard, Asana looked at the chessboard and said to Kutsya.

Kutsaia bit her delicate index finger and looked at the board for a moment, then her face turned pale and she said, "Hey, I lost again..." ”

"You're playing a lot better than the last game." Asana comforted Kutthea.

"But Sala. . . I learned Chartlange first. It's only been a few days since I taught you last time, and I haven't beaten you in several sets in a row. Kutsea said.

Asana smiled softly and said, "Kutsea, don't be in a hurry to move the pieces when you play chess, you should think more before acting, then you will play better." ”

"Well, okay, I see, Sala." Kutsaia said.

"Alright, you can go with me to the rose garden." Asana said, getting up from the porch chair.

"Sara, do you know, I dreamed of a man last night. You can't guess who it is. Kutseea said, getting up and following Asana a few steps.

"Who is it?" Asana asked.

"Guess what."

"Hmm... Is it Sohrabian? Asana asked.

"No, guess what." "You can only guess three times." ”

"Noor?" Asana thought for a moment and said.

"No, Sarah, you have one more chance." Kutsaia smiled and said, "If you can guess correctly, I'll show you how about doing a dance." ”

"Okay, then I'm going to see you dance the 'Sea of Sand under the Moon'. Asana said with a smile.

"Okay, but you have to guess right." Kutseya said, "It's a chance." ”

Asana looked at Kutsaya and thought for a while, then finally spoke, "It's Yao Ping, right?" ”

"Wow.." Kutsaia was surprised and said, "Sala, you can even guess who I dreamed of is, no wonder you can win my chess." ”

"Kutthea, how did you dream of that little merchant of Iro?" Asana asked.

"I don't know. Anyway, I dreamed last night, and I dreamed of the sea he described to me. Kutsea said.

"And what does the sea look like in your dreams?" Asana asked.

"Hmm... It's like boiling herb soup. Kutsaia thought to himself.

Asana smiled and said, "Kutsaia, did you have the herb soup you had for dinner yesterday?" ”

"Sala, it's not strange for you to say, I dreamed that Yao Ping took us to the sea, and the sea was green and bubbling." Kutsaia said.

"Sounds a little scary." Asana said.

"Sala, do you remember when Yao Ping left us, and he said that he was going back to his hometown by the sea to farm the fields?" Kutsaya asked.

"Well, I remember." Asana looked at Kutsya and asked, "Are you worried that his hometown will be flooded by the sea?" ”

"Yes, Sala, I was still thinking about it this morning, people are talking about the rising sea, I think Yao Ping's hometown is on the seaside, it will probably be flooded by the sea, right?" Kutsaya asked.

Asana nodded lightly and said, "I think so." Not only Dimi and Zhanluo, but also Hodadi, even the southern part of Yasol and the Golden Coast have been invaded by the sea. Come to think of it, Ilo East is not immune. ”

"Hey, it's so pitiful, I don't know what Yao Ping is doing now, if his hometown is flooded by the sea, he will probably go to Yaoshanguan to Cardo again to do business." Kutsaia said.

"Maybe." Asana said.

"I also told him that if he had the opportunity to go to Caldo again in the future, he would definitely go and meet us again." Kutsaia said.

"Even if he does go back to Cardo, he won't be able to find us." Asana turned to a smile and said, "Alright, Kutsea, I guessed the person you dreamed of. Now you should dance and show me. ”

"Alright, Sala, I'm willing to gamble." Kutthea said with a smile.

Kutsaia said, after looking around the rose garden, "This rose garden is good for dancing, but there is no piano player to play it. Sala, looks like you're going to enjoy a pantose dance. ”

"How can a dance be called a dance without musical accompaniment?" Asana smiled and turned to the palace maid not far behind her, "Barbat. ”

Seeing that the maid immediately turned around and quickly left, Kutsya asked Asana, "Sala, what is Barbat you just talking about?" ”

"It's the piano that Yao Ping and their Yiluo people call "crackling". Asana said.

"Crackling?" Kutsaia asked, confused.

"Actually, it's the ancient oud, but after it was introduced to Ilo, it was improved by the Ilo people and called the lute." Asana said with a smile, "And after it was introduced to Dimi, it was called Balbat by the people here. ”

"It turned out to be a oudqin!" Kutthea asked in surprise, "Sala, do you want to accompany me with an ancient oud?" ”

Asana smiled and nodded slightly, "Yes, I'm going to use Oud to accompany you." ”

The maid quickly brought the barbat and offered it to Asana. Asana took the piano and stroked the wooden curved body of the Barbat, then gently plucked the strings with her fingers.

After a few chords had subsided, Asana said to Kutsea, "This is the first time I've plucked the strings again in the two years since I left Yasor. ”

"Sara, would you like to familiarize yourself with the instrument first, and then we can start after recalling the tune of "The Sand Sea Under the Moon"? Kutthea asked.

Smiling slightly, Asana took the piano and walked to the rose garden, where she sat on a white marble bench carved with Dimi flowers, crossed her legs, and placed the piano at the base of her legs. She lowered her head to tune the strings, and then she flicked her fingers and played the beautiful prelude to "The Sea of Sand under the Moon".

The sound of the barbat is melodious. To the sound of music, Kutsya nodded and smiled at Asana, and then stepped onto the meadow in the rose garden. With a light dance, Kutsaia removed her thin veil, and her thick black hair spread out like a waterfall. As Kutthea danced, strands of her hair fluttered back.

Kutseea and Asana in the dance looked at each other and smiled, and at this moment they seemed to have forgotten all their sorrows and troubles, and were completely immersed in the music and dance.

Asana and Kutsya are like two flickering elves, and the rose garden has become a dream.

In the aftermath of the barbat, Kutthea swayed and swirled, smiling like a flower.

Just as the two of them were intoxicated by the lotus song, the sound of the piano in Asana's hand suddenly stopped, and Kutsya stopped dancing in amazement, and she turned to look at Asana. She saw that Asana was a little flustered at the moment, and put away the oud, and turned her eyes to the corridor next to the rose garden.

Following Asana's gaze, Kutseya was surprised to see that the person standing in the corridor was none other than Dimi's "King of Kings" Sahedah. And Sahedah, he was looking at her at the moment.

Looking at each other, Kutsya was at a loss under Sahedah's torch-like gaze, and then she curtsied to Sahedah in a little panic, and immediately picked up the scarf she had untied earlier, and quickly covered her face and hair again.

After Kutthea had dressed properly, Asana smiled apologetically at Sahedah. After looking at Kutsya for a moment, Sahedah smiled politely back at Asana, and then turned away with his servants.

Watching Sahedah and his servants leave, Kutsya said to Asana in shock, "Sala, I didn't wear the veil according to the rules of the palace just now... Sahedah he... Will he punish me? He.. He... Will you think I'm being too presumptuous? ”

"No, it won't." Asana smiled at Kutsea and said, "Don't worry about Kutsea, it's nothing. ”

"Really?" Kutsaya asked.

"I could feel it from the way Saheedah looked at him just now, he was actually very happy to see us playing the piano and dancing." Asana said with a light smile.

On the night of the seventh day after playing the piano and singing in the rose garden, Asana, who was resting with Sahedah in the imperial bedchamber, was suddenly awakened by the sound of hurried footsteps. At the same time, she felt Saheedah's arm around her suddenly loosen. Sahedah sat up before Asana.

The attendants guarding outside the door of Sahedah's dormitory immediately reported to Sahedah in a loud voice through the door of the dormitory as the footsteps came.

The content of the chamberlain's report was brief, but the content was a special way of expressing it in Dimi, and Asana naturally didn't understand what it meant. However, after hearing this brief briefing, Sahedah was stunned for a moment, and then suddenly hid his face and burst into tears.

Seeing Sahedah suddenly hide his face and cry, Asana couldn't help but be shocked. Although she didn't know why Sahedah suddenly cried, she also guessed that the announcement just now must have been a bad news. Thinking of this, Asana immediately approached Sahedah, and she took his arm with one hand and gently stroked his back with the other to comfort him.

Sahedah had no time to care about Asana's comfort, and after a brief burst of tears, he quickly left the bed. He didn't even have time to get dressed, and he quickly rushed out of the door. Seeing Sahedah leave in a hurry, Asana called the maid to learn the specific content of the report from the chamberlain to Sahedah just now, and it turned out that the bad news was that Sahedah's mother had died in the palace.

"What am I going to do about something like the death of Sahdah's mother?" Asana was dressed with the help of the maids, and she asked them in Dimi at the same time.

"Your Royal Highness, in three days, you need to go to the funeral with Sahedah." The maid said.

"Funeral?" Asana asked, "Do you want to go out of the palace to deliver it?" ”

"Yes, Your Royal Highness, because Sahedah's mother is a devout Flame cultist, her body will be sent to the Tower of Silence outside the City of the Seven Days in three days, and all the relatives of the deceased will go to the Tower of Silence for burial." The maid said to Asana.

"Tower of Silence.... Where is that? Asana continued.

"Your Royal Highness, the Royal Tower of Silence is on a hill not far east of Seven Days City." The maid replied to Asana.

"On the hills, is that to bury the dead on the hills?" Asana asked the maid.

"Your Royal Highness, are you talking about burial? The Flame cultists do not bury themselves, and the Tower of Silence is where bird burials are performed. The maid said.

"Where the birds are buried... Okay, so what do I need to do once I get there? Asana asked the maid.

The maid thought for a moment and said, "Your Royal Highness, you don't need to do anything. All you have to do is stay in the Temple of Fire outside the Tower of Silence and watch over Sahedah for seven days and seven nights. ”

Asana nodded.

"Your Royal Highness, where are you going now?" The maid, after helping Asana get dressed, saw that she seemed to be going out, so she asked her.

"Of course I'm going to go with Sahedah to his mother now." Asana said.

The two maids looked at each other and then said to Asana, "Your Highness, you can't go, for in our Sacred Fire Doctrine, when a person dies, his body is quickly taken over by the god of decay. No one can touch the corpse again. If it's a woman, you can't even look at the corpse again. ”

Asana was stunned for a moment and asked, "Even Sakhedah, can he no longer touch his mother's body?" ”

"Sahedah is not allowed to touch the corpse." The maid said, "Corpses can only be touched by the lowliest corpse bearers." ”

"Corpse Broker?" Asana asked.

"Yes, Your Highness the Imperial Princess. The corpse collectors are the lowest pariahs, and they are born to serve the dead. The maid said.

Asana nodded, then sat back on the edge of the bed, "When is the corpse collector coming?" ”

"Your Royal Highness, they will come to the palace in three days to carry the dead. Then it's time for the funeral. The maid said.

Three days later, when the corpse collector loaded the body of Sahedah's mother into the uncovered sarcophagus and carried it to the east corridor of the Fire God Palace, almost all the magnates of the Dimi Empire had gathered on both sides of the corridor, and Asana was naturally among them.

As the sarcophagus gradually passed through the corridor, Dimi's magnates also consciously lined up in a funeral procession according to their status, and followed the uncovered sarcophagus to the outside of the palace. In this funeral procession, which was full of Dimi magnates and was consciously lined up in front of the hierarchy, Asana was at the front of the procession, and she followed Sahedah and several other royal children and other royal concubines.

As she walked through the square on the side of the Fire God Palace, Asana suddenly saw the group of corpse hunters carrying the sarcophagus in front of her. She saw that the group of corpse snatchers were wrapped in tattered strips of black cloth, covered in mud, and each of them was scrawny but carrying a heavy sarcophagus high. The sarcophagus was held high so high that the body could not be seen.

After the team walked out of the Vulcan Palace and led directly to the side gate outside the city, Asana suddenly realized that it was the first time she had come out of the Vulcan Palace since she married into the Vulcan Palace, and of course, this was also the first time she had left the Seven Days City again.

Breathing in the air outside the city, Asana felt a long-lost feeling of freedom.

As soon as the procession left the Seven Days City, Asana saw the Dimi Immortal Army on both sides of the road, heavily armed and guarding the funeral procession. Asana had known the name of this army when she was in the palace before, and she knew that, unlike the Flame Army, which consisted entirely of devout Flame cultists, these Immortal Army, dressed in black armor, wearing spiral helmets, and hideous masks, were made up of untouchables.

The team continued on its way, and soon a barren hill appeared not far away, and above the hill, a majestic circular roofless structure was built.

Upon reaching the foot of the Tower of Silence, everyone in the group, led by Saheedah, stopped. Only the corpse collectors carried the heavy sarcophagus on, and they slowly ascended the steps up the hill below the Tower of Silence, and passed through the tower to the top.

As the corpse broker placed the sarcophagus along with the corpse in the center of the platform at the top of the Tower of Silence, a hungry vulture appeared in the sky in a short time. At first, there were only one or two, but soon they came one after the other, circling in flocks. Flocks of vultures let out a terrible cry, and as soon as the corpse collector had left the sarcophagus, they swooped down to the top platform of the Tower of Silence to feast on them.

When Asana saw this, she realized that the so-called bird burial was to let the vultures peck at the corpses of the dead. And this way of burial is exactly what Asana is completely unacceptable. Because in Cardo, in Sinwa, in the culture and thinking she accepted, she believed that human bodies were sacred, and that dogs could never be destroyed by animals, and not only that, but the body needed to be tightly wrapped in pure white cloth and sealed in a coffin for deep burial so that the deceased could rest in peace. She thought that for that alone, she couldn't become a Flame cultist anyway.

The process of pecking at the corpse of the vultures was not long, and as a large number of vultures flew in, the corpses were quickly pecked away.

Although the vultures quickly pecked at the corpses of the deceased, by the time the corpse brokers carried the sarcophagus down the Tower of Silence, the sky had become a little dark.

The bird burial ended, but the formation of the entire funeral was not completed. After the corpse collectors left, the mourners were guided by the Flame monks to a fire temple not far from the Tower of Silence.

This royal temple is not very large, but it is surrounded by a large number of elaborate huts. After the monks of the Fire Temple had brought the funeral dignitaries into the small houses of the temple to rest, Asana realized that she had spent the seven days in the hut in the temple.