Chapter 10 (Part Two)
Residence
11 Months later
Switch had been very busy this year. He, along with Presley, volunteered to help the Empress with the Rain Clan at first, then ended up helping the rest of the Murkcloud continent.
As he fixed up a recent problem just outside of the Rain Clan, at a river side town, he felt a disturbance within the magical barrier that he had put up around the Emperor"s quarters.
Smiling for the first time in months, he looked up towards where the Emperor"s quarters would be, from where he was. The little runt has finally come out!
He hadn’t seen her once this entire time. Feeling like if he saw, she would probably get mad at him for not leaving her alone!
So, he had missed her but found other things to do, to attempt to occupy his mind with something else…
When he had openly asked the Empress to be of help, she had freely smiled at him and nodded. He had then been somewhat of a loyal subject since, becoming a very popular citizen of the people in the Rain Clan. He was even more popular than the current Emperor!
He had gone to help clean the town, fix houses, fix the poor and homeless. Everyone had a house now and food. He would talk to people without work and give them specific jobs that they would be happy to do.
This job now, it could have become a problem in the future, if left unattended, so he had come to help. The water could have become either contaminated or flood the area, so he had fixed the problem, even making a slightly higher edge to the river, just in case.
Quickly finishing and saying goodbye to the residents there, he teleported back to the palace to search for Anonym. He hadn’t been back to the palace in a couple of days, as he had travelled all over the Murkcloud continent, with a few jobs in hand. It was really quite a normal routine for him now.
What he saw really made him stop breathing for a moment. The palace was in ruins and people"s dead bodies were found scattered around the place.
Instantly, he teleported straight to the Emperor"s quarters, to find that the place was knocked over, fallen bricks everywhere...
Where was she?
He didn"t find a body in the room, even her treasures were gone. But what he found in a corner, was blood, it was a decent amount of blood that made his heart stop. To bleed to that degree could be life threatening!
What in the world happened here!?
He ran around the palace to find anyone that was still alive, but found no one. It had really only been a short time since the disturbance, but no one in the close proximity could be found…
Racing out of the palace, he pulled up the first person he saw and asked them what was going on.
They shivered and didn"t look at him in the eye.
"Tell me!"
The person looked at him and then away again, "During the night...Everyone died in the palace…During the night. Even the Emp…Empress. When dusked arrived, we saw that they were using any means necessary to get to a part in the palace. Their force was so strong that we didn"t dare...Didn"t dare to stop them! They told us that the palace was off limits…That we wouldn’t get hurt if…"
They started to whimper and apologize, they all had become very loyal to the new Emperor and late Empress, but...How could they have done anything against the people who could do that much damage!
Presley...Switch tried to think of where Presley was right now. In the last year, Presley had become very well known, he started off by flying people around to help make them happy. As time went on, he ended up helping with long distance trades within the Murkcloud continent...What was he doing when this happened? Was he possibly taken too?
Switch panicked even more. This wasn"t the first time that something like this happened to him...
Trying to calm down, he sat on the palace stairs and tried to think. What could he do? What could he do? Why did this happen!?
Breathing in and out for awhile, he then stood up and got out his staff. Then he disappeared.
Pain...
Anonym was kicking herself for not cultivating further in the art of Rejuvenation. Some of this could have been healed due to that! Even if she didn"t do the art of Rejuvenation, she could have advanced in the art of Healing. Sadly, she hadn"t, she had chosen another stupid talent that doesn’t help stop the bleeding!
Trying to focus, instead of falling unconscious again, she knew the best and fastest way to cultivate the art of Rejuvenation, would be exactly like this, thirsty, hungry or bleeding.
Since they had interrupted her cultivation, she was going to continue it!
Getting into a more comfortable position, very slowly, she closed her eyes and focused on picturing herself. She wasn"t very good at this part, hence why she hadn"t learnt it beforehand. But there was nothing like the present to give it another shot!
Not letting the chains, that held her prisoner, and the sound of the carriage speeding away with the horses, get to her, she focused extremely hard.
The first part of the art was understanding the water in your body, what it did and how it flowed. Understanding it that much that you could feel it naturally and at any time. It was much the same with the second art of understanding nourishment, but instead of water, it would be the process of food. The third art was more intense, as it didn"t consist of just blood, but flesh, muscle, bones and nerves. Each one had to be observed and understood, to understand how to complete and master the art.
Luckily for Anonym, the people who had taken her, only checked on her a few times, but they had a long way to go. They would only save her enough to have her weak, they had finally caught this powerful person! There was no way they would let her go now!
***
Switch had found Presley, he hadn"t been hurt or taken away. Luckily, he had been doing a trading trip and Switch had given him a rare hug.
Presley was really happy to receive such attention from Switch, who had inattentively gone back to his expressionless ways since Anonym had gone into secluded cultivation.
But his happiness had dwindled into nothing, upon learning about of the abduction and possible life-threatening situation of Anonym.
Switch looked at him seriously then, and said that he was going to find her. Presley didn"t want to stay behind and forced Switch to take him with him.
After Switch had relented, together they went back to the Rain Clan and looked for clues on how they were going to find Anonym.
It was at this time that Mark appeared in the Rain Clan. Seeing that something bad had happened to Anonym, and Switch and Presley had also gone, he wanted to take over for them…At least until the same ‘Crowned Prince’ returns. He showed himself to the townspeople and stated that he will make sure that they are safe to the best of his ability and continued as a subst.i.tute Emperor. Within the day, the people changed the town to white, in mourning for the late Empress, and Mark situated himself with the highly valued General Clish, because of the ruins of the palace. Mark felt happier upon finding out that his sister had finally wed someone and had been out of the palace for two months. The General was also very thankful, deep in his heart. He had worried about Prince Mark very much. Having him return and even looking healthy, the General happily let Prince Mark take the position.
A week later, Anonym was no longer pale and weak. She opened her eyes and breathed out in frustration. She had no idea where she was because she had to concentrate so hard!
The people who had forcefully taken her, only checked her to see how strong her pulse was and felt that they didn"t have to do anything, so they didn"t worry about her this whole week.
Feeling herself being constricted, she remembered she had chains connected to her. Unable to look outside, she sighed...
This is a bit nasty...These b.a.s.t.a.r.ds obviously want to die...
Should I leave or take revenge?
In the end, she decided to test out her new mastered Shapeshifter talent. Honestly, she was curious on what would happen, so she didn’t run away, instead…
Presley flew on, following tracks that they had found. Switch watched Presley and teleported towards him. In this week, Switch had realized what must have gone wrong.
Not thinking it to be a problem, news of Anonym, Presley and himself had gotten out. But a secret he hadn"t even known, was that people have come to know that there was a powerful person on the land and people have come to think of it as Anonym. He hadn’t thought that the earth trembling in the books, that he had read, were actually true. It seemed like he should have known it earlier and felt ridiculous that he hadn’t…
Having seen someone in a close by inn from where the tracks went by, they questioned that somebody because he looked suspicious.
The person didn"t know how the news of Anonym being the ‘power person’ had gotten out, but he had told them where they were going and that the Emperor of Parched Badlands wanted to tell the world that this ‘powerful person’ was in their hands. They thought that since she was a little girl, they would get her onto their side and in the end, she"d willingly do as they bid.
Switch had used what he had learnt from Anonym after that, to kill that man, because of what he had said.
Does everyone think that she"s just some kind of play toy? Some kind of thing? That she can"t think for herself!? People are pathetic!
As they raced off again, Switch had shaken his head to these people, they are idiots if they think she"ll do as they ask her to! They brought a demoness of h.e.l.l to their front door!
Still, he didn"t slow down, the blood he had seen in the Emperor’s quarters haunts him and he wanted to see her as soon as possible...It had been a really long year, and now, he had to wait even longer!
Being a week behind, Switch was still able to find the tracks that lead into a small clan, the problem was, he didn"t know what happened to them after that.
The man that they had found, a couple of days ago now, had said that they had taken her to Parched Badlands continent. Switch had preferred to see her before then but how was he going to, if he couldn"t find her. Only having one lead, he went in that direction, making Presley invisible again.
Another week went by and Switch hadn"t seen a hint of Anonym. He had changed his clothes and even covered his face with a mask. When they made it to the biggest clan, the Barren Clan, Switch made a cave outside for Presley and closed it up.