Chi Myst'wing

"I still don"t think it"s Lord Amo who had killed Vincere," said Zhanshi, breaking the silent journey. The answer he received was the looks from Chi and Vincere that hinted he would never realise in his lifetime of how inhuman Lord Amo had become.

"Then, who had really killed Vincere?" said the real Vincere.

"There are similarities between the deaths of Chief Ti, Phopo and Vincere," said Zhanshi. "Their wounds are sharp. Only a sharp blade could inflict an acute wound. I had served Lord Amo for many years, and I"m familiar with his attack. He"s not the one who uses a blade. His method of attacking is to controlling pressure within his enemies, ripping them from inside."

"If I am the killer," said Vincere. "I would not use my own attack to tell everyone that I"m the killer."

"Lord Amo is not the one who likes to hide," said Zhanshi. "He never afraid to tell the world what he will do and he had done."

Vincere was at a loss of his words. Perhaps Zhanshi was right; he knew more Ziwo than him.

"Zhanshi, how does it feel?" said Chi. "Lord Amo"s pressure controlling."

"Excruciating," said Zhanshi. "It did feel like being ripped apart."

"How do you know?" said Chi.

"I felt it before."

"Lord Amo used his attack on you?" said Chi, sounded a bit stupor.

Zhanshi didn"t answer, but he gave his grave nod.

At midday, they stopped by the lake for rest. Chi was enthralled by the fishes swimming by. Vincere was looking over the lake while Zhanshi was resting under the shade. Chi had a sudden thought of her practice which she hadn"t been practising for some time now. And she thought of what her mama had said to Vincere and gazed at him which he hadn"t had any clue of what would happen… she launched a sudden swing of her palm to Vincere.

Luckily, Vincere managed to block her hand, which was just inches from his face. Probably Chi had held her swing.

"Chi, what are you doing?" said Vincere. He was jolted as in his voice.

"It"s been so long me never practice," said Chi with an innocent smile. "We can practice together here. Besides, me had lost to you to the tournament. And it was because me was poisoned. It wasn"t fair…"

"I hate you, Chi." There was a hint of sarcasm in Vincere"s tone.

Chi giggled and continued to launch another of her supple moves. Vincere used what he had learnt from her to deflect her arms and launched another successive move. She countered and evaded. Both chuckled and were enjoying in exchanging blows and practices.

While enjoying herself, she spotted a disapproving shake from Zhanshi, "…these children…" and she gave a jerking-head signal to Vincere. He replied with a naughty grin – Chi and Vincere both pulled streams of water from the lake and launched the streams on Zhanshi…

Zhanshi got all soaked. Chi and Vincere both laughed out loud.

"How dare you…" Zhanshi didn"t show sign of ferocity on his face when he sprang to action with his fist, readying his dragon conquering skill toward the two big children. Not long, three children were chuckling to themselves and exchanging skills.

After some time of having fun in their practices, they decided to rest near the lake.

The next dawn, they continued their journey and reached the South River. Once they cross the river, they were in the Solluna"s territory, which was a terrible place to live.

"I never thought I would return to Solluna," said Zhanshi. "I had vowed to leave this place forever."

"This must be the sufferings you experienced," said Chi as she found Zhanshi nodding. "Me understand. Me had the same feeling, too, when me returned to Igniswing."

Rough voices were chatting merrily, and the trio found out that was from Solluna clansmen which were walking not far from them. So lucky for the heroes, there were trees for them to hide. And from there, they watched three clansmen walking toward them, nearer and nearer until Chi, Zhanshi and Vincere jumped out from their hiding place and hit the unlucky clansmen at their shoulders. Each of them dropped on the ground without any sound. The trio then dragged them into the bushes. They took black robes from those clansmen and dressed with it. Added with Chi"s transformation water, their disguises would be perfect. Vincere and Zhanshi each took one last drop of transformation and Zhanshi and Vincere"s faces changed into the looks similar to two of the Sollunas. And they were also lucky to find a boat by an abandoned dock which they used it to cross the river.

"Though we had drunk the sweet water," said Zhanshi. "We need to be careful. Solluna followers are everywhere."

From the dock, they strode through the gra.s.sy path and not-so-dense jungle deeper into Solluna"s territory with caution and even more cautious when they had reached a town. The town had a troubled atmosphere; every townsman was scared and uneasy, walking so fast as though they were afraid that they couldn"t reach their destination in time. The trio entered the town centre where they saw something shocking – a stone statue which resembled Lord Amo Ziwo. This made Zhanshi even more disappointed.

"When I left Solluna, this statue is not even there. Looks like he has proclaimed himself like a G.o.d."

A loud cry pierced the town, and it came from the town"s outskirt. The trio made fast to the source of the scream.

"Please, have mercy on us… please…"

The cry came from two townsmen. They were being oppressed by three black-robed Cyaians – the followers of Solluna. Their mercy begging was ignored, and their groan and agony made the followers laughed even louder.

Chi felt disgusted at the sight of the oppression. As she was about to march forward, she was held by Vincere and Zhanshi.

"Chi, no," said Zhanshi. "We wouldn"t want any attention here. We can"t risk our plan. We must find Violetia."

Chi felt as if she needed to be reminded, but she hated to see the strong mistreat the weak and how she wished she could have a chance to teach the oppressors some lessons they would never forget.

"Alright." Chi switched her view from the group of oppressors to a newcomer in a purple hooded cape. From the new comer"s shorter height than the oppressors", slim figure and the way of walking, Chi could figure out the newcomer was, in fact, a lady of n.o.ble rank.

"Stop it!" said the lady in the hood, her sweet voice was strict.

The black followers swung to the feminine voice and laughed. "Mind your own business, lady!" A follower with a rough face bellowed to the lady. A follower with a perverted look said, "your body is quite slender. How about serving us for a night? Then, we will let go of the townsmen."

"How dare you!" Her voice was so sharp that everyone who had heard that may imagine that she would slap them hard. Instead, she unveiled her hood, revealing her beautiful white face whose eyes and long hair was purple. "I shall punish you for your insolent and oppressive behaviour." She had said that in a calmer voice.

Not long when the follower had enjoyed kicking the townsmen and gave rude remarks to the lady, the second they saw the lady"s face, their behaviour turned shocked and sorry. They kneed fast, like lightning and stammered. "Lad… Lady Amo… For… forgive us…"

The townsmen around were shocked too; with lightning-speed they kneed. Zhanshi and Vincere also kneed and dragged Chi to her knee.

"The Universe has helped us. Lady Amo have appeared before us," said Chi, and she was surprised at Zhanshi and Vincere"s faces.

Those two, were like they under a trance that they both looking at Lady Amo without even blinking their eyes.

"h.e.l.lo, are you two listening?" said Chi.

"What, did you had said something?" Both Zhanshi and Vincere replied Chi after an interval, but they still couldn"t take their eyes from Lady Amo.

"Nevermind," Chi said in a way that she almost rolled her eyes. She turned to look at lady Amo instead –

Lady Amo was so beautiful, elegant and n.o.ble in her violet dress. No wonder Zhanshi and Vincere couldn"t take their eyes off her.

"Thank you, Lady Amo." The townsmen looked up at the lady. Now that the oppressive followers were gone, they were happy that the Lady Amo had come and saved them. A townsman said, "If the lord is like…"

Violetia gasped, and with haste, she placed her finger before her lips. "Shhh… go now."

The fear struck the townsmen when they saw their lady gasped that they rose in haste and left.

"Let"s meet Lady Amo." Zhanshi and Vincere now both looking so merry since they could seek an audience with Lady Amo.

"Now you two have back," said Chi as she followed fast behind Zhanshi and Vincere.

"Greeting, Lady Amo," said both Zhanshi and Vincere, even faster before Chi could greet her.

Violetia switched her view from the statue of her papa to them.

"We"re the Warriors of Benevolence," said Vincere. "We have come here to seek your help."

"My help?" Violetia looked baffled.

"Yes," said Zhanshi. "Your help, Lady Amo. Regarding Lord Amo."

Violetia had expected her papa to be mentioned. "It"s not safe to speak here. Let"s go to the Tavern of the Rising Sol, which is not far from here. It is much noisier so that our conversation would be harder to be overheard."

The scene switched from the town centre to the entrance of the tavern where they entered. Immediately the sound of chatting and rough laugh and the clinks of gla.s.s were loud and crisp in their ears. n.o.body paid much attention to them as most of the Cyaians there wearing robes too. They sat at the corner table away from the centre, which was quieter and it was away from attention. Once they sat, they ordered four gla.s.ses of malt.

"Lady Amo," said Vincere.

"No, no. Cut the courtesy. Just call me Violetia."

Zhanshi and Vincere"s faces began to revert to their original faces. Zhanshi"s face was transitioning to a protruding dragonic head while Vincere"s face had returned to his original solemn face. Looking at the changes, Chi was startled and had lost her words. Violetia gasped not because of their changing faces, but she saw Zhanshi was before her.

"Brother Zhanshi?" said Violetia. "Is that really you?"

Only that Zhanshi realised the effect of the water had worn off. When he turned to Vincere, he saw Vincere too was in his original face.

"Yes, It"s me Zhanshi."

"Brother Zhanshi," said Violetia. "It"s such a long time since you left Solluna. I always believe you will return someday. This day finally comes."

"It has been a long time, Sister Violetia," said Zhanshi. "Now I return with my friends, Chi Myst"wing and Vindicta Patriarca. I"m sorry that I return in this very situation after much had happened to Solluna. I come to seek your help for the sake of Solluna and the Eastern Land."

"Brother Zhanshi. Please tell me. I would glad to help."

"We believe your papa has two pieces of Draven"s treasure," said Zhanshi. "We need to make sure your papa has only a piece. If your papa has two pieces, I believe he will conquer the Eastern Land, and everyone would suffer."

"If I do not remember mistakenly, my papa"s only piece of treasure was stolen months ago."

"Stolen?" The trio was curious. The had expected Ziwo to own two pieces, but now Ziwo had lost his only half-part of the relic.

"I don"t know who"s the theft," said Violetia. "But my papa knew the theft was Lord Imperiare based on the dagger he left. The dagger was Imperiare"s Edge. And with the evidence, my papa believed the theft was Lord Imperiare, and so he attacked Imperiare tribe. But my papa failed to retrieve anything since Lord Imperiare"s son had run off with the treasure."

"We had recently found the dead body of Vincere," said Vincere. "He was killed after the Igniswing battle, but we couldn"t find any treasure on him either. We believe it was Lord Amo who killed Vincere."

While Vincere was speaking to Violetia regarding the fake one, Zhanshi looked as though he was wondering why n.o.body believes him that Lord Amo is not the killer.

"I heard of the battle too," said Violetia. "But my papa hasn"t leave Solluna recently."

"Then who killed had Vincere if not Lord Amo?" said Vincere. "And who had killed Chief Ti and Lord Phopo? The killer may be the same person."

"The killer had killed Vincere for the treasure," said Chi. "Then, he may be the one who had stolen it from your papa."

"I always believe Lord Amo is not the killer," said Zhanshi. "And he"s not the theft."

"But that is your guesses only," said Vincere, still looking disbelieved at Zhanshi. "There is no evidence." Then he turned to Violetia. "Violetia, to prove your papa"s innocent, please allow us to seek inside your papa"s treasury."

"Alright." Violetia nodded. "I believe my papa doesn"t have any half-piece."

"I believe you, Sister Violetia," said Zhanshi. "Your papa could not have the half piece anymore."

"Zhanshi, how could you know?" said Vincere. "Decision that is based on a.s.sumption and without evidence is dangerous."

"I believe Lord Amo," said Vincere. "… could have a piece."

"Wait," said Zhanshi. "Do you know anything about the theft?"

"The theft is a male," said Violetia. "Disguised as a mystic and pretended to foretell papa"s destiny. With the foretelling ritual, he made my papa sleep so that he had time to steal the treasure."

"Since your papa"s palace is heavily guarded," said Zhanshi. "How he managed to steal from your papa?"

"I believe he got help from the inside," said Violetia, shrugging.

"Since the palace is heavily guarded," said Vincere. "The theft is probably still in the palace. He could have never escaped. Then, the piece is still in the palace, and we need to make sure it is not in your papa"s hand anymore."

The look of Violetia had on Vincere was bitter because she felt Vincere only half-trusted her.

"Maybe we need to begin from the treasure vault the theft had broken in." Chi glance at Zhanshi, Vincere and Violetia and they nodded to her at the same time.

Chi, Vincere and Zhanshi went into a moment of silence. Their faces could have told Violetia that they may be wondering how to infiltrate into her papa"s palace.

"My papa"s birthday is on next three days," said Violetia. "We can infiltrate my papa"s palace at that time. The security around the palace is usually high. Still, since it is my papa"s birthday, more people would enter, and the guards would be very busy attending guests. Only guests with the invitation can enter. If you with me, you need no invitation. More people would mean more distraction, and this will make our infiltration goes smoothly."

Another fortunate blessing for the trio was Lord Amo"s birthday at the next three evenings. They could have more than sufficient time to plan how to sneak in, create diversion and escape route. The days pa.s.sed so fast that the day of Lord Amo"s birthday had arrived. Violetia rehea.r.s.ed their final plan to Chi, Zhanshi and Vincere before they get started.

"There are two places where my papa keeps his treasure," said Violetia. "One is inside the bedroom, and another one is the treasure vault. Chi and I will have to appear before my papa so that papa would not grow uneasy of my absence. Then, we head straightway to my papa"s room."

Chi nodded at Violetia"s words.

"Brother Zhanshi and Vincere," said Violetia. "…will search in the treasure vault. Be extra careful as there are guards at two locations."

Zhanshi and Vincere both nodded, agreeing to Violetia"s words.

"Now you three need to find suitable attire for the birthdays. Fortunately for us, there would be many Cyaians to attend my papa"s birthday. We can just borrow their clothes." Violetia said as she looked at both Zhanshi and Vincere. "Chi can wear my dress," said Violetia when she turned to Chi. Then, they hid behind the bushes to wait for the unlucky Cyaians to come.

From the bushes, they had a glance of Solluna City. To Chi, it looked more like Well-met Town but darker and gloomier. How Violetia could live in such a grim place. No wonder she loves to travel outside the city.

Not long, they saw a carriage stopped by the roadside. Then, two Cyaians in a gentleman manner came out from it. One of them, a humanoid goat was furious with his friend, an ox-like humanoid. "I told you to help yourself before we departed. Thanks to you that we have to stop by the roadside with many people look at us. Ow, this is so embarra.s.sing!" Both the gentlemen were moving toward their direction. With swift hand, they grabbed both the gentlemen, covering their mouth, dragging them into the bushes and Violetia performed a sleeping spell for the gentlemen. Zhanshi and Vincere switched their clothes with those gentlemen and Violetia performed magical spells to change Zhanshi and Vincere"s faces.

Now that Zhanshi and Vincere having dressed, Chi, Zhanshi, Vincere and Violetia left those unlucky sleepers among the bushes and headed to the carriage and continued travelling to the city entrance. The guards bowed upon seeing Lady Violetia, and without any ha.s.sle, they pa.s.sed the guard and went into the city. They were glad because with Violetia that they could enter Solluna City with success.

The carriage stopped by the palace south entrance. The four of them leapt out from the wagon and went pa.s.sed the guards who bowed at the sight of Lady Amo. They strode along the stone path and stop at the hall"s entrance. "You two wait here," said Violetia. "Chi, let"s get to my room to dress up."

The groups separated into two; Violetia led Chi to her room while Zhanshi and Vincere waited at the hall.

The moment Chi entered Violetia"s room, she sensed a fragrant smell of lavender. The room had a theme of vibrant and lovely violet. "Chi, you can choose one of my dress." The moment Violetia opened her wardrobe, Chi was struck with awe. Violetia"s dresses were mostly in hues of violets though there were few in white.

Chi took out the long white dress with floral embroidery and went into a dressing part.i.tion and wore the white dress. The dress was as smooth as flowing water that she liked the feel of soft flowing silk on herself. Before the standing mirror, she saw a fairy in white and Violetia had appeared by her side with a violet ball dress.

"Chi, a lady shouldn"t be just graceful and elegant in the heart but at appearance too." Violetia led Chi to a dressing table and beckoned her to sit. She opened her make-up box and powdered Chi"s face, trimmed her brows and eye-lined her eyes, and then combed Chi"s hair and tied half of her shoulder-length hair behind.

"Look, Chi. Now you"re beautiful like a G.o.ddess," said Violetia with great fulfilment.

Chi looked at herself before the mirror; she did look like a G.o.ddess. And when she observed Violetia; she was beautiful too, but in an elegant way.

"Chi, you look younger than your age. It must be something you eat or your thought."

"En. Mostly salad, grains and beans." Chi then examined her face. Her face really looked younger that she looked like a twelve-year-old.

"Alright, Chi, Let"s go down to the party," said Violetia as they both begun walking.

Violetia took a chance to see how Chi walked, and she almost shook her head.

"Chi, it"s not an elegant way to walk," said Violetia.

Chi stopped; she was perplexed, and she observed how Violetia walked, which she walked by placing her foot before her previous foot in a graceful manner.

"Elegant," said Chi. "But is it really that we need to behave like people want us to behave? In fact, we should behave naturally."

Violetia was silent as she was pondering on Chi"s opinion. "Well, it"s quite hard not to behave as what others" are expecting."

"Just be our own self, Sister Violetia."

"Alright, Chi. You"re right." Violetia nodded. "Let"s go down. My papa"s birthday"s celebration is about to start."

Chi and Violetia made their way to the main hall. Along the way, Chi felt uneasy since many Cyaians and guards glancing on her.

When they reached the entrance of the hall, Zhanshi and Vincere were nowhere to be seen. Maybe they had entered into the hall. Thus, Chi and Violetia entered and were welcomed by the path of the red carpet along their way. The music playing for the birthday dinner was joyous. Chi could know the foods were delicious by seeing the variety of colours on the buffet table. But that wasn"t her primary concern as she spotted everyone was watching Violetia and her that she felt her heart beating hard on her chest. Everyone curtsied upon seeing them both.

"Violetia," said Chi. "This is awkward and uncomfortable."

"You"ll get used to it, Chi."

"h.e.l.lo, lady." A gentlemanly voice spoked behind Chi.

Chi spun behind and saw a tall roc in a bluish cape. "My lady, would you like to dance with me?"

"No." That was her immediate answer.

"You even didn"t think before you answer me."

But Chi just walked away.

The roc took out a round gold mirror and had a look of himself and then he combed his hair straight. Then, a short gentleman asked her for dance which she turned down too. Violetia were asked for dance too, and she turned them all down also. Chi and Violetia needed to focus on their mission. They must find Zhanshi and Vincere. But where were they?

"There they are!" said Violetia.

Chi looked. Zhanshi and Vincere were helping themselves with c.o.c.ktails.

"Zhanshi, Vindicta!" Chi and Violetia hurried toward them.

Zhanshi and Vincere seemed were under trance again when they glanced Chi. She felt so awkward that her face reddened.

"Hi, Violetia," said a lady in a crimson dress.

Violetia turned and yelled, "Sister Vera!" and gave Vera a hug.

At the moment, Chi noticed Zhanshi twitched his head as if he wanted to look another direction.

"This is Sister Vera," said Violetia, looking to Chi and Vincere and she spotted Zhanshi had acted like he did not welcome Vera.

"Hi, all. I"m Vera Xin."

All those greeted Vera but Zhanshi stayed silent. Zhanshi could have known Vera too but why he had ignored Vera?

"Hwa hwa hwa!" The loud laugh had broken up the peaceful atmosphere in the party. Chi saw a man in a white face with long white hair was laughing so loud and was surrounded by several of his happy followers.

"This"s my papa," said Violetia. "Come Chi, we need to show my papa I"m here." She held Chi��s arm and brought her to her papa.

"Find the piece," said Chi as she managed to see nods from Zhanshi and Vincere before she turned around and saw them hurrying to a door at the side of the room. Chi noticed a glance from Vera at Zhanshi and Vincere before they disappeared in the ma.s.s of guests.

Lord Amo was surrounded by sweet flatterer followers as he noticed Violetia. "That"s my Violetidear."

Her papa"s followers gave a honey-sweet smile to Violetia and then to Chi, demanding her introduction.

"Papa, happy anniversary. Wish papa to have longevity as the Southern Mountain and be prosperous as the Eastern Sea. By the way, she"s my new friend, Chi Mystia from the Southern Isles."

"Greetings, my lord," said Chi as she only stood with only her head curtsied to Lord Amo.

"Looks like you did bring a wonderful friend from there," said Amo.

"Ya, papa," said Violetia. "The people there are not so bad, after all."

"Any prince charming from there?" said Amo.

"No, papa."

"Violetidear," said Amo. "Do you find any prince or gentleman you like here?"

"No, papa. Why must I like just anyone here?"

Her lord papa was speechless; he could only give a relaxed laugh.

"Papa, see you later." Violetia led Chi away from her papa.

"Girl, you"re gorgeous, but you need to smile," said a gentleman. Chi spun to the voice. He had a big snort which reminded her of Emceepy. That gentlemen seemed had an aura of bigoted orthodoxy mindset.

"You guys are bigoted and judgemental," said Violetia in a rebuffing tone. "When a lady smiles to everyone, you think she"s flirtatious, and when she doesn"t, you think she"s arrogant." Chi knew Violetia wasn"t angry and she added. "Never ask anyone to behave like how you behave..."

"Lady Mystia," said one of the sweet flatterers of Solluna. He was a vulpine. "Your beauty matches the heavenly G.o.ddess. I would be ple…"

Then, a gentleman in an eye mask and black tuxedo came with a rose at his hand. He then recited a poem his mind.

Peach blossoms bloom,

Grow to pink floral;

s.n.a.t.c.h a maiden"s gloom,

Present her to a bridal.

Now, Chi felt awkward, so awkward. Never before she had been flattered like this… and Violetia saved her from such awkward situation by pulling her away.

"Your papa"s friends are so weird," said Chi.

Violetia sighed. "There is so many good for nothing sweet talkers here to celebrate papa"s birthday. They are all here to please my papa, just to gain favour. Anyway, just ignore them like they never exist."

Chi never had been in such a situation before. So many gentlemen of a sweet talker, so many flirting… beauty matches the heavenly G.o.ddess. She never thought of that. Admittedly, it was such a honey-sweet, flirtatious opening.

Once at a safe distant, Violetia said to Chi. "Let"s head to papa"s bedroom."

The two beauties headed to Lord Amo"s room. Violetia reached and pushed the lever. As the bed slid upward and revealed a dark and hidden stairway, as Chi followed Violetia into the secret cellar.

It was a dim chamber, illuminated by torches which hung by the wall. The treasures inside glimmering with the light from the flames. Even while descending through the stairway, Chi and Violetia felt the cellar hot and humid.

"All these treasures are my papa"s favourite," said Violetia. "The treasure piece is a part of a round and complete piece. My papa"s piece had a carving of a dragon on it."

Chi and Violetia began to search for the treasure piece, rummaging through the treasures of clothes and dresses, paintings with faint clanks, clinks and bangs. They tried to produce no sound as they could, but some of the treasures were heavy that they couldn"t handle it in gentle hands. After some time of rummaging through the collections, they could not find the treasure piece they want.

"Violetia, is that you?" Chi pointed at a painting of a lady. The lady had white skin and purple eyes and hair, just like Violetia.

"That"s my mama," said Violetia. "But my mama"s gone."

"Me so sorry," said Chi. "Your papa surely did treasure your mama. You did look like your mama. Your papa surely loves you, sister."

"Papa was a kind and good ruler. That was before mama died."