“Still not talking?”
The little bird swallowed audibly. It could feel her patience wearing thin and that killing intent was arousing yet again!
“This one forgot!” It hastily said, swallowing the insult it was prepared to say the moment she got up.
Seyran’s lips curved and the birdie almost wet itself. This wench was going to kill it, she was really going to!
“I swear I do not know. In this whole forest I am the only one like that!”
Really, it didn’t know. But it was majestic for certain. The nobility was engraved in its blood, like basic instinct telling it that it was born to be higher than others beasts. So, humans, that it already considered inferior to beast, of course they wouldn’t enter its eyes.
“How disappointing!” whispered Seyran. She looked at Yenaigai, he appeared completely oblivious to what the birdie was saying, staring at it with deep concentration still trying to see if his memory had any information about such a beast. Utterly disappointing she thought. In the end she understood, she could hear him just because it was her mana that it ate, thus creating a certain kind of link between them.
She touched the upper extremity of the cage and pressed it. The cage started to shrink, losing its height little but little.
“Does it already have a master?” asked Yenaigai surprise by her sudden motion. He immediately regretted it and apologized in a small voice, a little afraid. But it didn’t seem like his mistress was listening to him anyway. Her eyes were so clear and had such a deep blue. A suffocating atmosphere was create around her and he was doing his all to not take some steps back.
“None” the birdie shouted at once, at the top of it lungs, yet only heard by Seyran. “None, none none none. This one is willing to lower itself to help you” It was saying.
But the crying voice in her head just made her accelerated the shrinking.
“Isn’t it excessive? Aren’t you too ruthless? I ate just a little of your fire, it wasn’t really that delicious you know!”
She kept an inexpressive face, still decreasing the cage little by little. It would end up crushed right?! Better loose face than life!!!!
“Okay I lied I lied I lied, it was the best. And that essence was the best of the best, way more nutritious than any qi I have tasted so far.”
The bully, she was a big bully, not even acknowledging her target’s repentance.
“It was just a little stealing. Anyone would die without food you know!” It was agitating itself now, flapping its wing in big movements, wanting to be listened to. “My bad, I won’t take your essence again. But I felt like dying you know!? When there is a lifebuoy in front of you how can you be heartless and let it go to waste. Ah, I couldn’t afford to lose this life you know!”
But the woman wasn’t hearing at all! Was it really going to be crushed? This one had no heart ah! The little bird tried to change into fire, it tried its hardest, it really did; but it couldn’t anymore. So powerless was it that it collapsed and started wailing. Hungry, it was so hungry. It’s been two years since it hadn’t eaten and now it would die because it dared steal where it shouldn’t.
“This great one” It started then ended in a pitiful voice that was cracking “this one, beg your pardon”
Seyran stopped; the cage was just one time and a half the height of the bird. There hadn’t been any sneak attack, it seemed like this bird really hadn’t any energy left.
Yenaigai saw the little bird antics and wondered if it could communicate with his mistress. It seemed to be pleading though.
“You’re hungry.” It wasn’t a question and the bird didn’t treat it as such, just let the silence continue, ashamed as it was.
Seyran was unusually patient with it actually, contrary to what birdie was thinking; otherwise, had she really wanted its death, she wouldn’t have taken the time to crush its ego! Who asked it to curse so much and at her at that!
“What do you usually feed on?”
The little bird clung onto the possibility of being saved and docilely replied.
“Fire and qi. There hadn’t been any fire in this forest for such a long time. I can’t eat my own fire.” It was talking so quickly, not sure it could understand what it was saying itself or if it even made sense, just one thing in its mind, to distract that woman and made her forget about killing it. “The qi of this forest’s beasts are disgusting, not tasty and not nutritious at all! Yet this whole courtyard had always smelled so good but today it was especially bewitching. You have quite a magnificent core; I just thought the qi you would be cultivating would be delicious too.” The bird paused, seemingly a little afraid to continue but in the end it thought why would a dead one care if its corpse is being whipped – it was already in a mess, no matter what it did that fact wouldn’t change. “The fire you create made me feel like I was born to taste it. A life without tasting it isn’t a life at all! And that essence-”
“Mana.” Said Seyran, supplying its correct name.
The little bird was now crying.
“It was succulent. After having been hungry for so long this one couldn’t let go! Wuwuww”
Yenaigai was bewildered, seeing the animal crying with real tears. Were beasts supposed to be able to do that?
Seyran lightly tapped with her finger on the table on which the cage was on, glancing outside by the opened windows. The sun was setting, giving the sky an orange color. She was hungry too, that thing prepared by her servant not only it wasn’t nutritious it was also disgusting having no savor at all! When he had begged her not to enter the forest to hunt by herself, she let him have his way because she didn’t really know what lie inside. From his very reaction, she could deduce it wasn’t something simple. That aside, she didn’t really know if there were contracted beasts inside and she wasn’t confident enough to be able to battle with them in unknown territory seeing her meager mana. She turned to the bird, sinister laughter in her eyes making its shuddered.
“Meat for mana”
It took some seconds to understand. It lifted itself, staring skeptically at its bully. Why was she suddenly willing to negotiate?
“Not willing?” She asked making it trembled in fear.
“Very willing” it answered immediately. Who cared why she was willing, he would size the first opportunity to flee!
She tapped on the cage and it shattered in thousand pieces. Concentrating her mana on her right palm, she brought it near him, letting him absorb it to regain some energy.
“Absorb more and I shall kill you!” she said when it seemed like the bird would jump on her hand to absorb the mana in her very body.
The birdie instantly froze. It had just been transported by the sensation okay? Couldn’t she have added a little more on her hand then?! Yet it dare not vocalized its complains for the meal was still delightful. Normal fire was bland and provided nothing at all, but this girl, her fire smelled so pleasant, and that energy that flowed through her was the best thing he had eat. It was a pity he wouldn’t stay by her sides to experience more.
“Be it tomorrow or in a century, a debt must be paid. Yet I have never been good at holding grudges. I act instantly.”
After saying that, she regained her placed besides her books, leaving Yenaigai to wonder about the meaning of her words, while the little bird swallowed and let a nervous laugh. So able! She could even read its thoughts. Hadn’t she just promised to make it regretted it if it dare not come back?
As it flew away it kept on mumbling “There really is no free meal under the sky”
***
She opened and closed her fists; they had become painful, as well as her body. Her reserves were low, the remaining mana was now impossible to use for it was maintaining the equilibrium in her body. As such, she started feeling sleepy but instead of going to lie on the bed, she leaned against the wall on the corner. That bed was really too uncomfortable for words. She ordered the candles to be lit and took one book to read, wanting to stay awake until the return of that animal.
Closing her eyes, the only things she saw were her sisters’ faces, the palace, and ultimately her death. She was both angry and sad and didn’t know how to cope with such emotions. There wasn’t wine nearby either. In a sense, she was unwilling to sleep for she didn’t know how to face the darkness.
Yenaigai had been scared when she closed her eyes for five seconds but breathed a sigh of relief when she opened them later. It was silent once again he found. A little too silent. He lowered his head, biting his lower lip. The deafening silence had long grown into something terrifying for him, so he dared lifting his eyes to look at his princess turning the pages of her book while trying to comfort himself that he wasn’t alone anymore, she was awake and wouldn’t go.
She read a little of Yande’s story. The country was first formed by her ancestor, Xian Yuuna, usually called the conqueror. Since then the country was left to her family to govern. A smile appeared on her face. So here, it was your birth that made you qualify to govern? Weren’t they scared the person wouldn’t have the ability?
In Yande, like in many country of this world, the matriarchal system was used. Female dominance. Matriarchy was a social system in which females held primary power, predominated in roles of political leadership, moral authority, social privilege and control of property at the specific exclusion of men, at least to a large degree. It was really different from Unzu’s matriarchy; that being said just a bunch of clans in Unzu respected that anyway. Back there it was just the privilege of giving one’s child her maternal family name. Most of the time thought, the stronger one got to pass his name to his upbringings. Not that she ever felt like vying for this kind of things was important.
What made this world’s matriarchy significant was peculiar. The female dominance was highlighted by the fact that females were the ones who could easily cultivate. Turned out that for humans, contrarily to beasts, the gender was important in matter of cultivation. At the age of ten, most girls formed a core and since then the real cultivation would started. Men were at a disadvantage. Cores didn’t come effortlessly for them; actually they usually didn’t have one at all. It was speculated that that fact had something to do with pheromones.
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Thus the male gender was dominated upon. Men here were more like decoration, beings used for reproduction, without really having power. They were given odds jobs and rarely taken into consideration. That being said the ones among them who could cultivate were treated very well and given important tasks.
Isn’t it all just about cultivation then, Seyran asked herself but was disturbed by a voice chirping in her mind.
“I can’t transport it ah!”
She tried to respond in her mind, but it seemed she couldn’t make herself be heard by it, making her wondered a little why so; however she didn’t dwell in that for long.
“Yenaigai go and take a look at what that bird brought back.” She paused, taking in her servant’s shape. “If it’s too small tell it to fetch another thing. Something with lots of fat and meat.”
Yenaigai bowed and left to search for it in the residence, yelling right and left ‘Little bird, birdie’.
A little while after, the small animal flied to him and made it followed it to one of the desolated courtyard. Seeing where they were going, Yenaigai’s steps paused a little. Wild beasts sometimes came during the night; he was a little scared since he couldn’t defend himself.
“What are you waiting for” Shouted the little beast angrily at him shooting hot wind in his direction. “Do you want that demon to come here?”
“Stop, stop, I’m following, lead the way, I’m following.” He may not be able to hear but it was obvious the little thing was dissatisfy seeing him stopping here.
And so he was lead in front of three ravens. They weren’t really amazing in sight but they were big enough.
Little bird looked at them with a little pity.
“Forgive me, I also need to eat ah”
It had hunted them one after the other, first creating a bubble of air around them, when the oxygen would be exhausted, the animals would suffocate and fall down from their perch on the rooftop.
Yenaigai was imagining his plate already; his saliva was dripping on the floor.
“You’re awesome.” He complimented generously at his savior.
“I know I know” replied the birdie, as it perched itself on the servant’s shoulder; however Yenaigai couldn’t hear. “No need to tell me. It’s a basic instinct. Like you know it that your’re ugly I know I’m great!”
Not hearing the insult Yenaigai complimented some more, boosting the bird’s ego that his mistress had bruised so ruthlessly.
They came in front of Seyran showing the ravens and an excited Yenaigai forgot his place and interrogated happily.
“Master, what’s its name?”
Without lifting her eyes from her reading, she replied.
“Do you want to give it a name?
“How humiliating, this one does have a name!” He flied from Yenaigai’s shoulder to the table where Seyran laid her books. How could it let simple humans give it a name when it already had one? It wasn’t a pet!
Seyran looked at it seemingly asking it to give its name then but instead, it lowered its head in grief, anguishly saying in a small little voice.
“I just momentarily can’t seem to remember.”
Yenaigai who still couldn’t hear the bird was happily suggesting names.
“How about red?”
The bird immediately lift its head and chirped at him, not that he could understand anyway.
“Stupid human, do you think me a color?!”
“No, too common” he was saying again. “Birdie?”
“What is it in this head of his; does he even have a brain?” Exclaimed said birdie, flying to the servant, picking his forehead in anger.
“Stop, stop, not this one then” he negotiated, protecting his forehead with both his hands. “How about flame?” Said flame was too exhausted to burn him, so it resumed its pecking, more fierce now, cursing savagely this dense human.
“Stop, stop, I beg you. Let me choose a better one, I can’t think like this.”
“Huang.” Said a soft voice.
Both the human and the animal paused and stared at the one who talked. She was still holding onto her book but Yenaigai had a hunch that she didn’t want to hear them anymore so had randomly proposed a name to shut them.
“From now on you’re Huang.” He muttered to the bird.
Did it dare refute the name? Of course not! She would call him rock that he would feel blessed. This was the one on whom his surviving was depending ah.
The original name was FengHuang, the name of the phoenix in Unzu. This bird may be a little ugly to be called phoenix but she felt that given time it wouldn’t lose to the fire of the king of birds. It already had its narcissistic personality anyway.
“The three birds must be prepared” she said out of nowhere, cutting Yenaigai’s thought who was already seeing how he would store two birds.
Hearing her talk, Huang’s heart almost stopped before understanding that she wasn’t talking about it but the ravens. What would it do if she suddenly decided to taste it ah! Fellow birds, you must satiate her for this great one! He demanded the already dead birds.
Yenaigai took the direction of the kitchen bringing with him the ravens, quickly followed after by Huang. It didn’t have the guts to stay beside this crazy woman! Far better the uncouth human.
***
An hour and a half later, and her book finished, Yenaigai brought the dinner. He had picked some more herbs and potatoes and made a soup with the ravens. Her eyebrows twitched seeing the dishes being lain down on the table. Didn’t he knew how to make anything else?
Seeing him took his leave she ordered him to fetch his plates and come eat here. He stammered a little and in the end couldn’t say no, thus obediently did as ordered.
The meal was, like the afternoon, noiseless; a contrast to her precedent meals with her sisters. The just didn’t know how to shut up. Upon recalling them, she frowned and stopped the track of her thoughts.
Huang was perched on Yenaigai’s head, careful to not even meet her eyes. Finishing her bowl and full for once, she was in a relatively good mood. So she materialized her revitalized mana on her hand.
“Aren’t you hungry?”
Huang looked up. Timidly, he flew to her side and landed near her hand absorbing her mana at distance not daring to touch in case it would be punished. ‘Nothing shameful ah’, it convinced itself. ‘My great self is being paid for helping. It’s my pay.’
“Hungry?” asked Yenaigai surprised. “Can’t it just cultivate to let the sensation disappear?”
“Stupid” chirped the bird at the servant. “If I could, would I be coveting other’s qi?”
But the idiot couldn’t hear it and suddenly, Huang felt quite pitiful. Its great self, reduced to this state, accompanying a murderous human and a foolish one. It was retribution, it really was. As they say, the crime can be forgiven but punishment was inevitable. This wench was still punishing it. Anyway, it was a surviving exercise, it comforted itself. Until its core was alright once again, it would keep on surviving. The greater the hardship, more pleasurable would be the outcome. So, with renewed courage, it kept on absorbing mana for some more minutes and a little scared that it would absorbed more than what she intended to give, it stopped before being full and went to perch itself on Yenaigai once again. Yenaigai, who was able to eat to his satisfaction, was more than willing to let himself be his perch.
Seeing the bird fly away, Seyran let the mana on her palm returned inside her body.
This body was a little perplexing to her after her lecture thought. Why was it strengthened with mana? This world was functioning by cultivation yet this body had been strengthened by mana since little. Was her soul really occupying another’s body or was it, like she thought, hers? She looked at the fast asleep bird on Yenaigai’s head, wondering why they resonate so perfectly that it could absorb her mana without any harm to it. She really didn’t know and it wasn’t this birdie with no memory that could help. But, looking at the naïve bird, her eyes got a deeper shade of blue; if there was an opportunity to increase her reserves and she let it go to waste, wouldn’t she be foolish?
She looked at the manuscripts that were on the floor and then at the book she just read, lost in her thoughts. Her eyes then fell on her servant and she watched him still eating for some moments before asking herself if it did matter anyway?
This servant that she couldn’t remember, why did he stay here in this desolate place turning himself into such a miserable figure? Wouldn’t a strong wind break him as he was?
Yenaigai also finished his plate after a moment, but the silence continue. He wanted to get up and cleared the table but honestly talking, he was a little scared. Seeing her so soundless, made him wondered if she would fall asleep now that she had eaten. With the passing years, he came to fear her sleeping form more than anything. But looking up, he saw that her eyes were still opened, and she was now looking at the windows, like she used to do.
Maybe it was that he used to come to talk by himself in this soundless room, Yenaigai didn’t really know, but he started talking once again his mind not really here.
“Her majesty came here ten years ago.” Seyran lightly tapped her finger on the table, not stopping him and he took it as a sign to continue. “Two years after your settling here your queen mother went to war with the two neighboring countries and never came back. One year later she was reporter dead. The queen younger sister ordered your entire servants to come back to the palace. At that moment your sickness was working on you again and you were sleeping so you couldn’t react. The population thought you return in the palace and your family entertained that notion while at the same time making your return difficult. The beasts in the forest that had long been docile started to attack us out of nowhere. The ransacked the residence, but they never set foot in your courtyard.”
If simple beasts, she thoughts, then the smell of her mana, even in her sleep, should ward them off to a certain distance. She looked at Huang with renewed interest. Wasn’t this little one foolish to call her toxic mana delicious? Yenaigai continued.
“Words that that our queen had been missing prolonged to other countries and they came to invade us. The protector came back and froze them all.”
She halted her hands
“The protector?” That was the name given to the conqueror’s contracted beast in the book. “Fenrir?” It was both familiar and foreign to pronounce this name.
Ah, mistress isn’t this sickness of yours too much this time, Yenaigai thought to himself, was nothing left at all? He dared not voiced it though.
“With his return, the enemies were defeated, the beasts stopped acting rashly and the country was stabilized.”
She looked at him and he hurriedly looked at the floor. Either he was lying or concealing informations. She chose not to confront him for now and kept on listening.
“After that we were left in peace. The queenless country was governed by the assembly kept for three years. At your sixteenth birthday you were unofficially recognize as the queen. You were named crown princess. The real crowning should take place at your twentieth birthday one year and half a month from now.” He bited his lips with anger. “The people think that the one governing them and instituting inhuman regulations is you.” He had red eyes Seyran remarked. “Since they can’t simply snatched the throne when the real successor is still alive, they decided to blackened your name. Your family is antagonizing the people, wronging everyone using your name.”
“Isn’t my death a quicker way?”
If it was her, there was something she wanted and someone was blocking her road, she wouldn’t drag the matter endlessly.
Yenaigai was a little startled. A memory from ten years ago came to his mind, the princess standing in front of him with blood splashed on her clothes saying to the body at her feet. “Death comes easily to me.” He shuddered a little, not knowing if it was good or bad, but in the end, she didn’t change.
“Maybe because Fenrir came back they didn’t dare physically touched you. You are after all a descendant of Yuuna, its master. This servant thinks he wouldn’t let them kill you.”
She looked at him. He was a little rosier now compared to some hours ago but his overall features didn’t change. He wasn’t at all like what a princess’s servant should be, he resembled more like a beggar on the streets, if not more pitiful than them. Since when hadn’t he eaten to his satisfaction she wondered.
“It has been hard on you.” She voiced before even registering she was talking.
The chopsticks he was playing with paused in his hands, he tried to talk, to deny. Then memories of sleepless nights, of his burns as he was cooking for the first time in his life, of the death of his mistress’s cat and parrot, memories of his loneliness cut by his mistress waking up then sleeping once again for a longer time, making him even more lonely. Hot tears ran down his cheeks as he mumbled some unintelligible words.
Looking at him she thought about the word devotion. Did he devote his life to her because he didn’t have any other alternative or because he was really loyal?
And she, had she once devote her life to her sisters because she loved them or because she would actually be nothing without them?
And now what? Did he want her to fight for that throne? She used to fight to keep her sisters safe. To do so, she used every means she could think of. She fought to avenge her mother and fought too to make their name a source of fear and respect. Yet now, in this seemingly troubled world but where for her, it could be considered quite peaceful, she felt like she owed no one anything. If they used lineage to govern then maybe they didn’t need her way of ruling.
“Your royal position?” he asked after wiping off his tears and collecting himself. He has waited for some moment, hesitating as she seemed deep in thought yet at the same time detached from the world.
“Didn’t you say that my royal family was taking good care of it?” she replied with a smile.
In this lifetime she thought, if no one troubled her then she wouldn’t go out of her way to make others’ people’ life difficult.
Yenaigai lowered his head a little unsatisfied. Was it selfish of him to actually wish that she would reclaim the throne and at the same time kill those who made them suffered?