“Come out” Seyran exclaimed coldly. She could sense a presence with her but was unable to locate its real position. It was annoying, to say the least.
Concentrating once more, she created another fire on her palm, a little quicker this time, and before it even had the time to form itself correctly it had been snuffle once again. The damn thing was daring! Searching around the little room and seeing nothing had her furrowed her brows. Was it that it could become invisible?
She stopped trying to exteriorize her mana. Magic shouldn’t be used haphazardly. Feeding others while her own reserves were barely enough to be manipulated wasn’t something she would do. This body of hers had been strengthened by mana and like it should, it would certainly render her unable to use more mana if it felt her reserves too low. She was powerless at the moment it seemed and that realization, the one who had once been a queen ruling over bellicose beings with undeniable supremacy, didn’t like it at all!
Her mouth twitched the sole sign of annoyance on her face as she decided to even the score another time.
Seyran closed her eyes, breathed in, and dived into the now boiling water, not letting a single strand of hair outside. Far from suffering her body was soothed by the temperature; it was a sensation far better than it had been in Unzu and her pores were giving her the impression of basking in energy. She had always been okay with heat and now it seemed it can restore her mana as well. So she brought her face out to breathe a few time before returning down the water. However, that new ability was limited in time she concluded when she started feeling uncomfortable after a little while. Even so, she tried staying under the water with her breath caught, longer this time, wanting, needing more mana. Without it she wasn’t feeling herself, not really anyway; but then again she needed to breathe not able to hold it in any longer. She surged out, heavily breathing. The bubbles of boiling water were now splashing and bursting violently around her and her pale white skin started to turn red. She chewed her lips, not liking that this body hadn’t been reinforced enough in her early years to let her play with the heat as she pleased.
It had been good the time it lasted anyway. She let out a contented sigh -her aching body no longer aching as previously and her eyes no longer killing her- as her feet touched the wooden floor, wetting it. Her feet were light and steady as she stopped by the basin near the entrance. Wrapping herself with the big towel in the recipient, and with the smaller one that was at the bottom, she rubbed her hair and wrapped it too, she closed her eyes and delighted herself with the steam around her. As little as her playing time had been, it had still been beneficial for she was now in a better shape than last night.
Almost sliding the rice paper, she stopped her movement and gave the room a last gaze. She inspected the place for a time still feeling that presence by her side but still unable to see it. Not being in a position of power wasn’t something she was used to and Seyran wouldn’t start being used to it now. But using magic against an unidentified opponent without knowing his characteristics wasn’t wise and, looking at her palm, it would just be feeding him her mana anyway. That thing seemed okay gulping down the fire she created and it even feasted on the mana she concentrated on her palm so no, it wasn’t the time to confront it.
Seyran slid the rice paper and she was back in her bedroom. In the middle of the place, on a wooden hanging, were hung new clothes. They were white with red chrysanthemums at the bottom. Touching it, she found the first material smooth, the second, under, was even smoother. The following one was a little rough compared to the firsts. The style of clothing was identical to the one she had removed before her bath; way too many folders in her opinion. That kind of many sleeves where was the use of them? So, she only took the outer garment, the silk used as undergarment hanging by the other side and the socks that were on them. She hung the towels on an empty space of the hanging, letting them dry here.
Yenaigai, surely being the one having brought those clothes, was nowhere in sight and she wondered a little, putting a hand on her stomach if he went to cook for something. Her body may be reinforced with mana but it didn’t change the fact that food was delicious and was one of the great providers of mana! Not eating wouldn’t kill her –not by the usual period anyway- but it wouldn’t help her growth either. Her body would shrink, become skinny, her muscles atrophied and her whole being would ache. Seemingly what already happened to her!
Sliding the paper rice to exit the room, she was greeted with the view of a peaceful courtyard. Simple and vast. Maybe too simple, without any floral decoration or anything else, not even a tree. Just a big emptiness and the possible directions were well drawn on it. Seyran looked up at the sky. The sun was shining to its fullest; the day was a little hot but it was the perfect weather for her. As she was thinking along these lines, a sudden gust of air, a little crisp and fresh was shot at her. Her frosty angry eyes stared at the general direction it came from and as soon as it started it stopped. This thing was really making its presence unforgettable! She wouldn’t indulge it anyway; promptly ignoring it, she took in her surroundings. The house was entirely made of wood. The floor was covered with gravels and three passages ways with big flat stones stood out.
She looked at her feet then at the floor some steps ahead again. There hadn’t been any shoe inside the room and she didn’t really feel like searching again. Instead of calling for Yenaigai, she chose to explore this place a little, with only socks on, starting by the location of her fire’s bath. Not really knowing -or should she say remembering?- this place, she was in no hurry. She followed the left side of the verandah and then turned left.
The wood under her feet was clean and of good quality. It could be seen the great caution with which it had been taken care of. Delicately her feet left the wooden floor and touched the gravel as she followed the path where lead the verandah.
After turning left at the end of the corridor once again, she ended up finding the back of her bedroom. Differencing the water room came easily. The place reserved for the toilet was a little elevated and an arrangement was reserved under it for the woods that heated the bathtub. Even now, said woods were still on fire even though it was almost extinguished. A wooden bucket filled with sand was left by the fire’s side so she just pushed it with her left foot.
Afterwards, she kept her on with her exploration. Soon, the simple courtyard left place to an unkempt arid garden. Another courtyard was passed. It was half destroyed, its ground without any esthetic with dirt everywhere. The two following yards were in more severe states. The courtyard she just came from and the outside were such a deep contrast. Her own courtyard had been kept beautiful and may pass as something if not new, quite well conserved; but that vast manor, way too big and old, was generally ill conserved and seemed quite desolate. It was a big place but everywhere was condemned, some rice papers were cut, houses were running down and she wondered if some kind of war had taken place on its premises for there were demolitions far too great to be simple.
This sorry state was, it seemed, the manor’s true one for even after walking for a long time no place had been as good as her own.
Taking one more step further from her yard, a sensation traversed her. She could faintly feel the pull of her own mana somewhere in this manor. Was this from the one that was tailing her? But why would it be more intensified than it had been one second ago? The pull was so faint that she didn’t really know which direction it came from, so she just put it at the back of her head for now and kept on with this place’s discovery.
So used she had been to teleport from one place to the other that she found after several minutes that walking was tiring and all the more for her atrophied body.
The rest of place wasn’t interesting, just covered in dust, dirt, animals’ traces. Some residence seemed ransacked by wild beasts.
After a long while, a clear path, bigger than others, stood in front of her. Maybe it was leading to the exit of this manor so she took it and after a while of walking, she saw trees’ shapes.
The whole residence, she realized given the number of trees, was surrounded by forest. Seyran tried hard to concentrate her mana to levitate to determine the size of the said forest but either she hadn’t enough mana or whatever was following her since the bathroom had fed on it the exact moment her mana surrounded her body for the levitation. She couldn’t really tell for it was her first time dealing with a limited mana and her first time too having her mana tail as if it was but food. Nevertheless, the pull seemed clearer with each step she took in that direction so this was where she went, the exit.
Without others alternatives, she kept on walking!
She stopped, at the main gate apparently, if the two statuses of big animals by the large doors could be trusted. Some meters in front was her servant crouched working his way with the soil. And before seeing Yenaigai or the lighted torch to his left, she saw the rock the size of a hand by his right foot. It was integrated into the ground. She frowned upon sensing her own mana emanating from it. It seemed it was infused with her mana and some kind of other energy.
When she was little before claiming the throne back in Unzu she used these kinds of subterfuges to drive out anyone with ill intentions. While she couldn’t stay by her sisters’ sides she would infuse a large quantity of her mana in an object and let it with them. It created a barrier against any being with intention of harming them. Even hungry animals weren’t welcomed and would stay by the other side of the barrier, unable to progress further.
But such a big stone why was its range of action so little? Back then she used to give her siblings things the size of three fingers and its range was around one kilometer and a half. With this stone’s size, if it was her old self, wouldn’t this whole manor and whole forest be covered, maybe it could have gone a little further!
She approached and touched it. It was really a protection, one with too little mana for its own good though and, that other energy she sensed had her imprint as well. She failed to recognize it yet it was still calling to her.
“Aah” shouted Yenaiga in fright all of a sudden upon turning his head. “Beast! Go, go!” he was shouting, pushing a burning torch at her face before quickly letting it fall upon recognizing her.
“Princess?”
Yenaigai was a little startled seeing her here. She used to stay in her room before and either she didn’t like coming out or couldn’t come out. It was too painful to move she used to say when they were little every time he asked. With the passing of years, she stopped answering him when he made suggestions along these lines only staring at him for a while before looking by her bedroom’s windows. Her gaze would linger in the direction of the capital for a moment afterward she would pick up her brush once again to write or she would close her eyes and meditate. Her gaze grew lonelier each time so he stopped asking altogether silently sitting by her side.
But here was this same person now though.
“What are you doing she asked?” remembering she had looked for him.
Yenaigai showed her proudly two big potatoes.
“S…Mistress, this servant is going to prepare dinner” He was saying happily.
She glanced at the place the rock was protecting. It was a distance of three feet radius approximately, around the rock and he was using it as a field. That said, it was almost bare, just some herbs and a little space for the potatoes’ plantation. She failed to see the necessity to protect that.
And why was he so cheerful. It was just two ugly dirty potatoes. And beside him was a little bowl where laid some little herbs. Weren’t these kinds of ingredients a little lacking nutritional elements? Him so proud about these two, it wasn’t that he planned to cook only that right?! Her mana was protecting this place alright, it could actually add some strengthening properties to the potatoes and herbs alright, but fundamentally it didn’t change the fact that it was not enough… Was this why he was so skinny? Her mana was infused with it so the potato was sufficient to give someone the bare minimum but surely no one was supposed to live with the barest.
How could Yenaigai know he was actually downgraded in his mistress’s evaluation, he was way too happy right now. Ah, he really wasn’t regretting the golden piece he spent on this oracle. Ah, this time, this time would really be different. Look, look her very presence was the proof, he felt like shouting. Since when hadn’t his mistress taken a foot out of her courtyard? But here she was, contemplating his magnificent plantations. Was she going to felicitate him? She should he thought. It hadn’t been easy to cultivate here, he had worked the floor hard until almost collapsing, for many months and now it was producing. Wasn’t he a genius?
But his splendid expression didn’t stay long for once more, his usually silent princess was talking.
“You’re all skin and bones. How can you be so when we’re surrounded by forest?”
Yenaigai had a wronged expression on his face, seemingly pouting a little. Wasn’t this mistress of him being unnecessarily cruel?
She took in his state. Filthy clothes full of holes, dirty hands full of calluses, sorry shoes.
“How long have you been inside this manor?”
“For nearly ten years.”
“And since then one still didn’t learn how to pick more food inside the forest! Isn’t this forest vast? Or is it that there aren’t any beasts living inside? Surely one can find something more nutritious than two potatoes and some herbs!”
“The beats inside this forest are terrifying!” He exclaimed shuddering at the thought. He hadn’t the ability to confront them!
“Potatoes with herbs. That potion is it really this big?!”
Seyran was angry and she didn’t know why. This state of his angered her and was shaking her with guilt. A guilt she didn’t want to feel, so the anger was bubbling higher. Looking at him like that, there was inside her a furious desire to apologize that she was giving her all to reign in. Why should she apologize? She didn’t know, but it seemed important that she did so.
Those memories she couldn’t recall, what did they hide?
The uncomfortable feeling of seeing him in this state was still growing and the anger she felt in her was akin to the one she felt when her sisters were doing unnecessary things, troublesome ones that endangered them in order to help her.
While she was taking in his state he was also taking in hers. Her feet weren’t protected for the walk but for that, he had no solution. However for the other one…
“Should I dry mistress's hair?”
She may have rubbed her hair with a towel but they weren’t completely dry and her hair was dampening her clothes a little.
Seyran didn’t really care but redirected her thought to her hair. By reflex, she took hold of it and placed her hand in front of it. She concentrated her mana on her hand and even felt the beginning of a gently heated wind but the moment the wind was formed on her palm the very mana she was using was sucked once again. Her lips twitched.
Really the guts of this creature were big!
“Mistress?” asked Yenaigai a little perplexed by her movements.
Seyran was a little annoyed now. “It will dry by itself!” she coldly replied, letting go of her hair choosing not to fan it again.
“Yes!”
She will be settling this debt in a further date; she knew how to be patient.
***
She followed Yenaigai back in her courtyard, and in the kitchen of her yard –despite his protests-, letting him have his ways. If he wanted two potatoes then two potatoes it should be.
The door of the kitchen was wooden and at it bottoms there were some scratches. A blue bird and a white cat with some black spots came to her mind. She could almost taste their names on her mouth but her memory refused to supply the remainder.
And, as she was looking at him working with a satisfied smile on his face while she was leaning against the door’s frame, her head started hurting a little from overthinking. Was she still Seyran Kuroro or had she always been Xian Jue Seyran and everything else had been some kind of illusion created by her mind?
“Are we the only ones here?” she asked him.
And when he had said no, she hadn’t asked anything further.
He didn’t really know what to do not having talked with this princess of his since they were little. Back then too she was a little cold. And each time her disease struck, seizure after seizure, she grew colder and colder. However, a part of her stayed warm enough for him to not complain. She had never really liked animals but had been kind enough to take in the kitten and the parrot he had saved from misfortune at the hand of his female cousins.
“Do you know what mana is?” she asked again.
“This… this servant…” He seemed lost. Had he never used it?
“I was the one who gave you that stone in your field, wasn’t I?”
That he knew.
“Yes, mistress said when we newly came here that it will ward off anyone trying to harm any being, human, beast or contracted beast.”
There was a pause again. Everything was now in the pot so he couldn’t distract his thought from her and the pressure of this silence was too much.
He wanted to fill in the silence. It had always followed him and he was scared it will continue. Yenaigai contemplated the idea of telling her about the misfortune those poor things suffered in the arms of her family, cute little companions they were, but their end had been quite cruel. Then he decided against it. She may look healthier but it was just yesterday that she had waked up. He should let her recuperate for now.
Seyran, not knowing what thoughts ran inside this little one's head, was still thinking. This place was so familiar but she failed to have any real recollection of it. It seemed a little abstract; even this comfortable sentiment in being here she was feeling didn't feel real. If she could muster up a big enough quantity of mana and with her recollection of incantations, was it possible to go back in Unzu? Did she want to go back?
She stared a little dazedly at the fire under the pot without really seeing it, wondering what really happened. She died back then at Unzu right? So why was she here in the first place?
Sometime later, the food was cooked and Yenaigai was in a dilemma. Should he give her her share to eat in the kitchen? She was still a princess and for the Yande’s people, their queen; was he daring enough to make a queen eat here? But she declined his suggestion of bringing her food to her bedroom and sat by the low table in the corner of the kitchen. He placed a big bowl in front of her. She looked inside the bowl. She could scratch the idea of increasing her mana by eating. It wasn’t this kind of food that was going to make her body grew anything!
But then again this servant almost poured into her bowl the whole soup he had prepared. Was he planning on dying? This uncomfortable feeling rose again and she ordered him to bring his bowl over. The thing was almost empty so she poured her share into his and ordered him to eat here. She ate, steadily and swiftly while he stared and her, not daring to eat.
“Waiting to be fed?”
Her voice hadn’t been a shout nor had it have any fluctuation but he knew the displeasure in it and he knew better than to utter a sound. He quickly gulped his own share, scalding himself a little.
“Why are we the only ones here? Where are others?” She had inquired once he was finished and he lamented a little in his heart that she didn’t say anything about the taste of his cooking.
“Mistress chose to come here to stay away from the palace.”
To stay away, it seemed like even here, she didn’t have an easy going life. But this wasn’t telling her much and she wondered a little if he did know the answers she was seeking for anyway. If it was her past self, she wouldn’t confide in others, they would only see the result, never knowing the process, the what the where the why. Even her sisters didn’t really know everything for she was sparing their minds over some matters.
After some more questioning though, she learned that there were some books handmade by herself in this manor so she had him fetch them. By the look of it, it seemed this was her handwriting. She closed them and asked about the library he previously mentioned.
“Take me to the books’ room” she ordered
“Mistress shouldn’t” he responded without thinking.
She gave him a stare that had him shuddered.
“This servant…this servant misspoke.”
And hastily he brought her where she asked. It was in one of the wrecked yards. The room was like the manor: big but in a pitiful sight, like what lied after a storm. The door was in pieces, the floor was covered in water, many shattered books were strewn everywhere.
She picked up one parchment and stared at her handwriting on it, wondering a little. If she used the library then this place, how come it became desolated as though it hadn’t been occupied for centuries?
Yenaigai saw her concentrated and with a troubled expression, he left. Maybe he was too used to it by now. Letting her by herself.
She went to the shelves where still rested some books and parchments. Their titles were what interested her. Cultivation. Core. Qi. Yande. The Xian’s Lineage. The matriarchal system.
She had no recollection of any of these, maybe the matriarchal system but she doubted it would be the same as the one in Unzu.
A gust of wind raised the dust when she lifted her hand to grab one book. Her blue eyes glinted with anger and with speed she called forth the water lying on the floor and splashed it in the corner of the room. Not having materialized the water herself, it didn’t consume much mana and was faster in action. She just thought that whatever had been impertinent would run; never had she thought that water was its weakness and that it would actually be trapped under her water jail. Such an easy prison to break, it had gulped down her mana, absorbed her fire yet it was unable to break free from such a simple trick!
She grabbed her book and approached, blowing the thick dust on the cover in its direction, hearing some squeaks. It was a tiny little red bird. Never having been someone fascinated by animals, certainly not birds, she couldn’t recognize its species; but to be able to become invisible, it certainly wasn’t an ordinary one.
She crouched by its side with a dangerous glint in her eyes.
“So you’re the one stealing my mana since I woke up.”
The little thing seemed to be throwing daggers at her with its tiny little eyes, so angry was it that one would wonder if it wasn’t actually it that had been wronged.
Not feeling a little bit sad about it or influenced by its looks, Seyran smiled, her expression quite radiant and, for those who really knew her, deadly.
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