Book 3. The Long Journey. Chapter 16. Madwoman.
“What’s wrong?” Agnes asked, inevitably noticing the sudden halt the boys came to and the worrying change in Yin’s facial expression.
The General’s words seemed to have brought Yin back to reality as he slowly put the cup down, but quite apparently needed to grit his teeth right afterward as to not vomit because of how nauseous he was feeling. He breathed strongly for a few seconds, but despite having regained the ability to think he couldn’t calm himself down in the slightest.
“There’s no way... how come this thing is here? Why did this woman try making us drink it? Why is she giving it to her family? Does she even know what she’s doing?”
The questions swelled in Yin’s mind one after another, his thoughts remaining in complete chaos as flashbacks of the scenes he really wished he had forgotten began flashing before his eyes. Before he noticed it he went down with cold sweat, his face turning pale white. He would have probably succumbed to this panic attack, had it not been for the warm hand which grabbed his own trembling palm under the table. At once the sensation of Laien’s presence and the concern his friend was feeling for him came back, allowing him to shake off the nightmares of the past; at least for now.
“It’s just…” Yin forced himself to speak up hurriedly, subconsciously deciding that revealing everything right here and right now would be extremely unwise. His voice trembled though, so before he finished he coughed twice or thrice and took another deep breath. “I had a very unpleasant experience with something that smelled just like this tea, so when I sniffed it…” he tried to explain, not sure what he should say to make Agnes think it wasn’t anything important.
Agnes snorted a little and gave his wife a dissatisfied look. “I told you nothing good comes from those teas of yours. Don’t bring them out again when we have guests,” he said sourly and waved his hand, collecting both the kettle and all the cups from the table into his interspatial ring.
Clementine looked at her disappearing tea pitifully, wishing at least she could have drunk some more of it. She sighed a little, by the looks of it coming to terms with the fact that her favorite drink was gone. She would be able to have more of it later, so there was nothing to worry about.
“Are you okay?” Tan asked worriedly, very much sympathizing with Yin’s reaction. He hated his mother’s tea too and wouldn’t be surprised if he vomited again were she to force him to drink it. He felt it was a bit embarrassing to say aloud though, kinda unmanly, especially when his father was listening, so he didn’t bring the incident up.
“I’m fine,” Yin said and shook his head. Yet, despite what he was saying and despite the normal look which returned to his face he grabbed Laien’s hand tightly, forcing himself not to tremble. Back then when he refused to tell Laien more about himself… it wasn’t because he distrusted him, but he had really been unprepared to face those terrible memories and relive them once again.
“Could you tell us what we need to know, and then we will leave?” Laien suggested to Agnes, who nodded after a second of consideration.
“You are heading to the Eclipse Academy, right?” Agnes inquired, seeking confirmation from the party before he would start speaking.
“Yes,” Laien said simply, at the moment seriously considering the option of asking this talk to be put off for some other time. However, he was quite sure that the moment he thought about it Yin disagreed and wanted to have it over with as soon as possible. He couldn’t tell for sure given how all over the place Yin’s emotional state was, but Yin was steadily calming down so it should be fine, hopefully.
“And you got exiled into that place for ten years? Well, around nine if we include the time needed to travel all the way there and back,” Agnes asked, wanting to have a clear enough picture so he could offer a suitable advice.
“Yes,” Laien answered impatiently. Normally he would have explained that it was him who got exiled and Yin was accompanying him out of his own volition, but he couldn’t be bothered to go into the details at the moment.
“Nearly ten years in the Eclipse Academy,” Agnes said with a fatherly smile. “I know that given the circumstances, you might see this as a serious punishment, but I believe the two of you can benefit greatly if you commit yourself to training and studying during your time there,” he reminded the two, then laughed in his heart. He would have liked the two to be joining this conversation instead of monologuing, but he could forgive them given the unpleasant accident from a moment ago.
“To be honest with you I always wished our south held a bit higher opinion of spiritual practitioners. I’ve had a chance to see the terror and destruction a well-coordinated unit of spiritual masters can lay upon the battlefield,” he hinted and smiled when he saw in Laien’s eyes that he caught on. Satisfied with this much, he returned to the main topic.
“There are three paths you can follow if you want to go to the Eclipse Academy. Well, technically there are five but one is impassable and the other one impractical,” he began explaining, at the same time noticing that Yin was calming down and now looked more or less okay. Of course, he hadn’t bought this story with ‘an unpleasant experience’ the kid tried to sell him, but he wouldn’t pry into the matter if the two didn’t want to bring it up on their own.
“The first one would be going the long way around the Forbidden Lands. You’d need to head north from here and pass through the Funnel Pass, then through all the eastern countries and travel the whole north from east to west. I might have even suggested you go this way a few years ago, but with the number of deserters and rogues that appeared when the east descended into a series of wars two years ago I must say it would be a very poor choice,” he informed calmly and after a short pause, went on.
“Another option would be going through the lands of our and Ciene Kingdom’s vassals and taking a ship, then risking the journey through the Sea of Betrayals, to then travel the remaining distance by horse either way. Personally, I don’t like the one in ten odds of sinking into the sea amidst those goddamn storms that appear out of nowhere, so that only leaves the third option,” he said with a little smirk, having experienced one of such storms personally. By a miracle their ship didn’t get pushed right into the cliffs of the northern lands and although he as a martial master would have been able to fend for himself, the intensity of the storm would kill anyone else who was unlucky enough to fall into the water and its unpredictable currents.
“What I recommend you do is to travel through the Anarchic Lands, enter the lands of former Eulean Union and keep going north until you reach the high grounds and the mountains of the northern lands. From thereon you would need to keep going north-west until you reach the island the Eclipse Academy is located onto,” he said without getting into the details, at least not yet. However, before he could explain on his own someone asked him a question.
“Former Eulean Union?” Ruan couldn’t resist asking. He had traveled through the Eulean Union many times before and truth to be said, he couldn’t imagine any of the western powers conquering or destroying it so quickly. The region had its own problems… but they didn’t appear that bad when he was there last time, about ten years ago. What in the world could have happened there for this powerful entity to have collapsed?
Agnes sighed bitterly, then elaborated as he had planned to anyway. “A civil war erupted in the southern half of Eulean Union about a month ago, it’s still quite chaotic there even though most of the fighting should already be over,” he said with a resigned sigh. “As for the northern half, it seceded earlier this year and established the ‘Holy Alliance’. It happened right after the King of Boran got challenged for his crown by one of the country’s three Grand Dukes and got killed in the duel. The northern half should be relatively peaceful and they should let you go through as long as you show them our military sigil,” he explained, not at all amused by this development in the middle west of their continent.
“Before any of you ask, the information from that part of the world isn’t spreading to us because of the war in the southern part of Eulene. The western part of Anarchic Lands is now filled with so many bandits and thieves that only elite units with multiple martial masters can afford to pass safely. Now that the civil war is about done however we should soon be able to learn more in the days to come,” he explained, himself wishing that he knew more about the situation there. As much as the Eulean Union was a fairly peaceful entity, he feared that its new rulers would turn their eyes to new prey after conquering the previous one.
“That civil war…” Ruan began saying, hoping to get to know at least a something more, but Agnes only shook his head and waved his hand as he interrupted him.
“I don’t know any specifics, only that it was those fanatics who won and are now in control of the south,” he said grimly. The population of the Eulean Union alone had been nearly a billion people at its peak, whereas the south held at most two hundred million people at the most peaceful of times. Of course, their experts and even their average soldiers were a cut or two above of those from the west or east, but they had no spiritual masters. If the Eulean Union, of what was left of it, and the Great Emirate of the far west attacked the south… the casualties on both sides would be immeasurable.
“If there was a civil war there just the last month, is it really wise to travel through those lands?” Ruan asked, worried that the boys would get them all into some kind of trouble. If it were up to him, he really would have rather risked the journey by the Sea of Betrayals… but the boys would be quite unlikely to agree to two months long, boring cruise.
Agnes appeared to be somewhat annoyed if not angered by Ruan’s question, but he answered him nevertheless. “Those fanatics might be touched in the head, but they never attack travelers and merchants unless provoked in some way. Just obey their rules for the time being as you go north and I dare say it will be safer than sailing the Sea of Betrayals.”
Ruan nodded reluctantly. He knew how to get around Malazans and understood a few things about their faith, so what Agnes was saying made sense. Only… eh. There was no point worrying about something he had no control over, was there?
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
“Is there anything else we should know?” Laien asked to be sure. Although some bits and pieces of things Tei’ru had forced him to learn about the Eulean Union and its people were coming back to him, he wouldn’t know how to act as to ‘not provoke them’, whatever it meant.
“As a former courier, the captain of your guards should be familiar with the remaining points. There is no need for me to blab about them,” Agnes answered with a slight smile, quite apparently cutting the conversation short.
“Thank you,” Laien said with a smile, grateful to Agnes for both the information and the relatively brief way in which he delivered it. He stood up and so did Yin, who by now he was calm enough to let go off Laien’s hand as to avoid causing another stupid scene with those women.
“If you feel like it, you could join us for the dinner,” Agnes suggested, his words meeting with an enthusiastic approval of his son and a grumpy reaction from his daughter.
Laien glanced at Yin, after what the latter said politely. “Thank you for the invitation, but we will be on our way. The journey awaiting us is long.”
Agnes raised his eyebrows slightly, but once again refrained from prying into the boys’ reasons in front of everyone. “Be on your way then,” he said, planning to approach the youths in private to inquire about the strange incident from the breakfast.
“You sure you won’t stay a bit longer?” Tan asked hopefully, quite sad that Laien and Yin intended to leave so quickly. “I could introduce you to everyone! All the girls I know would be all over you, I’m sure!” he bargained, but after a second his expression changed as he realized something. “Oh, right; well I’m sure boys will be too! If they are interested, um, if you are interested… I mean, I would be interested… wait, I mean…!” he spoke hurriedly, but ended up completely twisting his tongue. He groaned and smiled at the two, hoping they more or less understood what he meant.
Laien couldn’t help but chortle when he saw the kid trying so hard to make them stay. “I do like girls too. I’m pretty sure it’s the same for Yin, though I’ve never asked before,” he said with a smirk and glanced at Yin, who however didn’t appear to be in the mood for anything of this kind.
“I’m grateful for the invitation, but I want to be going already,” Yin said in a harsh and cold, very much unlike him tone. He surprised Laien by acting in this way, but the one to whom it got the most was Tan. The seven-year-old looked down on the table, very much stressed over having his request denied in this harsh way. His face even flushed from the unpleasant embarrassment and disappointment he was feeling.
“Was it something I said?” Tan asked quietly, almost so that the boys couldn’t hear him. He really wanted to make some true friends and he felt like Laien and Yin could really become such, so he was the most distressed by the outright refusal of Yin’s. “I’m sorry, I know father is always telling me I’m speaking too much but I do it anyway…” he apologized, wishing that the two at least wouldn’t be angry with him.
“It’s nothing you said,” Laien assured strongly, pretty frustrated with Yin for acting in this way. He had felt how extreme and painful Yin’s reaction was though, so he couldn’t truly be angry because of it. If it was him… he wouldn’t have been in the mood for making friends and acting all happy either.
“Sorry, I just want to go already,” Yin said in a tone that was hard to discern for Tan and even for Agnes or Ruan, but one which was very familiar to Laien. The sadness mixed with melancholy and helpless anger… he knew those emotions all too well.
“Okay…” Tan said timidly, not sure if the two were only saying so to make him better or if they really meant it.
“Just go already and don’t come back,” Cecile snapped at Laien and Yin angrily, not happy to see them making her little brother so sad.
Agnes sighed meaningfully, causing both of his children to quiet down. He glanced at the boys and gestured with his hand telling them to go already; he wouldn’t call this breakfast a catastrophe, but it was pretty close to that.
Laien and Yin nodded at the General, turned and left. Ruan, on the other hand, didn’t leave immediately as he was still baffled as to how did a simple breakfast evolve into… well, that. A few seconds after the two disappeared behind the doors he stood up, bowed to Agnes and his family and followed in suit. In the corridor he saw that Laien and Yin didn’t wait for him, so it wasn’t too hard to assume they wanted to talk alone; he sighed heavily and headed to the tavern where the rest of their team should be. No matter what, they would almost certainly be leaving soon.
“It didn’t quite go as imagined,” Agnes complained aloud and patted his son on the head. “Want to go to the city with me? I’ve heard our men are preparing some kind of surprise for those two so it would be a good opportunity to make friends with them if you still want to,” he suggested and instantly saw the look in his son’s eyes brightening.
“Yeah!” Tan answered energetically, not letting one failure discourage him. Yin must have been in a bad mood because of the horrible tea his mother served him, so the next time it would be okay!
“Good,” Agnes said with a laugh and tousled Tan’s hair. “Cecile, as for you, for the time being, you are grounded for a month,” he said to his daughter, intending to straighten her up properly.
“Yes…” Cecile grumbled unhappily, but knew there was no point arguing with her father; all she could achieve was a longer punishment than she had already gotten.
Clementine, on the other hand, took out her tea set right after the guests left and was once again savoring her favorite tea without paying attention to her surroundings.
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“Yin,” Laien spoke up as the two of them were walking through the corridors of the castle, but failed to get any response from his friend. “Yin,” he repeated more loudly but got the same reaction as before; meaning no reaction at all.
“Yin!” he raised his voice a little and shook Yin by his shoulder, and only then managed to get his friend’s attention.
“… Sorry, I wasn’t listening. What were you saying?” Yin asked, his thoughts having wandered away the moment the left the dining hall. He really didn’t want to ponder his past… but he couldn’t help it. Now that those memories were roused, they kept coming back to him persistently. The more he tried not to think about them, the more annoyingly would they show up in his consciousness.
“I was asking what was whole this tea about. Was it poisoned or something?” Laien repeated the question, holding himself back from asking about Yin’s past.
“This tea…” Yin began slowly, then sighed and explained. “I know its smell and it wasn’t a simple poison, it was something worse. This kind of brew is made from the leaves of the Datura Flower. The flower and roots have strong healing properties, but its leaves… the ‘Aethern Leaf’ is deadly,” he said and paused for a long moment, his throat clenching painfully. He didn’t need to say anything; he knew Laien could tell how he was feeling and that he would wait for him to calm down.
“This Aethern Leaf… even a little of it causes anyone to become strongly addicted,” Yin continued, his face once again turning somewhat pale. “At first there are no big symptoms, as long as you keep drinking more and more of the brew. However, the more you consume the worse you will get. First problems with concentration, then sudden shifts of the mood… then your memory will start failing, you will become aggressive and impulsive… then hallucinations…” he kept saying and with each word was growing more nervous, his breath growing shorter and more uneven.
“I… have drunk a bit of a tea made from Aethern Leaves when I was six,” Yin continued in a shaky voice, his mind having mostly gone blank as the memories of the past began overflowing. “It was just a little bit, a few gulps… it didn’t really taste that good so I left it alone. Yet… how it feels when you want more of it when your body screams and hurts, when you can’t fall asleep, when you can’t think about anything else… you yell you fight back, you hurt yourself, you would do anything just to get some more of it… day after day… for over two weeks…” he kept going half-consciously, not quite aware of what he was saying.
That time during the breakfast when everyone was watching he had given his best to suppress those memories, but now they came back to him with full force. And not only them, everything else that was even worse, even more painful started coming back… scene after scene flashed before his eyes. He had wished to die back then, he didn’t want to live anymore… he had suffered through so much, but he was losing everything… and he could only watch, helpless, terrified.
Before he knew it, he found himself sitting on the ground, Laien holding his arms and saying something he couldn’t hear to him. He breathed in and swallowed, only now realizing that he was crying and certainly looked terrible. He quickly wiped his face with the sleeve of his shirt. He smirked to himself; before he raised his hand he couldn’t even tell that he was shaking all over. Really, he showed Laien something he really didn’t want to.
“We must get out of here, quickly,” he said decisively, throwing Laien a bit off with the sudden shift in the way he was acting.
“Wait a second, tell me what happened with you first,” Laien insisted. If there was something capable of reducing Yin to such a state just by having him recall it, he wanted to know! He wanted to help! Although he wouldn’t be able to change past, he knew full well that talking about painful things was a good way to ease the suffering; after all, Rune had helped him in exactly in the same manner some years ago.
“I will tell you later,” Yin dodged the question and shook his head. “You don’t understand. There’s no way no one noticed what is going on with those two, yet this General is doing nothing. The girl isn’t too far in yet, but her mother is already hallucinating. They are being fed those leaves, Laien, don’t you get it? We need to get out of here, this place is crazy,” he insisted quietly, not wanting to get involved into anything dangerous for no reason; especially if it involved Datura Flower and its leaves.
“What are you saying? What if they don’t know?” Laien asked in disbelief, shocked that Yin wanted to do nothing and simply let that two die.
“It’s too late for those two anyway,” Yin replied somewhat angrily. “Whoever wants them dead has already accomplished his goal. He will pass it off as them going crazy and no one will suspect anything; not many people know about Aethern Leaf’s properties. Think about it, what will happen if we try to face this General with the information and it proves he knew all along and attacks us? Do you think we can fight off a martial master as strong as him?” he asked in return, unwilling to die for the sake of someone he didn’t know or care for… and more importantly, unwilling to once again lose a person he came to treasure for the sake of helping someone else.
“So you just want to leave it, just like that?” Laien asked, refusing to agree with Yin’s choice despite understanding the danger involved. How could they simply let innocent people die horrible deaths? If those ‘Aethern Leaves’ or whatever were so uncommon, then maybe they didn’t know what they were drinking! He even knew that Yin also understood this much, but was still refusing to act! It was making him feel so angry!
“Yes, just leave it like that,” Yin said with a frown. “Don’t you get it? We aren’t strong enough to be trying to save the world; we can’t even save those we see with our own eyes! We both watched our families die because of others, we couldn’t do anything! Do you want to try your luck and die if the people here actually want this woman and her daughter dead?” he kept asking, angry that Laien wanted to be so selflessly good when he lacked the strength to do so.
“Oh, there you are.”
However, before the two of them could finish their argument a familiar dreamy voice of a woman interrupted them. They both looked to the side and saw Clementine walking down the corridor, accompanied by six men and two women, most likely her personal guard.
The eight didn’t sense anything when Laien and Yin simultaneously released their auras, which they had instinctively enhanced with the Aspect of Awareness, but it didn’t make the boys all that happy. Every one of those eight guards was at the first Realm of Heroes, while Clementine herself was at the third! She didn’t show any signs of having sensed their auras, but given her behavior, they couldn’t be sure if she did or didn’t.
“I was worried you might have already left,” Clementine said with a smile, putting the palm of her hand to her cheek and tilting her head slightly. “I know you meant no harm and are good children deep inside, and I apologize… but I can’t risk having you return here,” she said calmly, her expression turning cold and the smile disappearing from her lips.
“I just can’t have you tainting my little girl. I can’t allow her to end up like me, you know? That’s why, for my little girl’s sake… can you please die?” she asked sweetly, a smile once again returning to her face; this time however in a more twisted, mad version.