74 Trial of Patience - II

Hyeon Jong the empress of Goryeo was done for the day. Lifting the last of the heavy head pieces from her hair, she leaves out an imperceptible sigh, cracks her neck and leaves the last few hair pins for Lady Noh to pick out. Long coils of hair escape their confines and fall to frame her face, as she wipes her cheeks and neck with a towel soaked in scented hot water. Despite having worn it for more than a decade, the face in her mirror is still timeless and strange. A price she had paid to change the course of time, her fate itself and the fate of those around her. A reminder of what she had given up to achieve what she now had in abundance. 

Unknown to where her thoughts had led to, lady Noh starts to brush her hair. Behind them the other ladies begin to extinguish the candles on the queen's solar and gather the cups left behind after the empress met her firstborn.