Chapter 5: How a Princess Should Act

Aki cried her eyes out in her room. It was almost daylight but she hadn’t slept a wink. She couldn’t understand all the mixed emotions she was feeling. Mostly it was indignation about Temujin’s innocence and her clan’s unfair treatment of him. But it was other bigger issues as well; older issues. Temujin just stirred up all the frustrations she had long been denying.

On the strict regimen of a princess and under the watchful eye of the Emperor and his extensions, she felt like a bird in a cage. It was golden, but a cage nonetheless. There were also many things they wouldn’t tell her; about her father, that day ten years ago when he perished before her very eyes. It was strange but all the knowledge she had of him was the little she could glean from History books and from that sole, hazy memory of her childhood.

They had always treated her like a child, incapable of making her own decisions or surviving on her own. And every mistake she made was magnified in the eyes of her tutors and attendants. All her life thus far had been in preparation for her duties on the throne, for when she would be judged by the public eye.

She wanted none of it! She wished she was a normal person, able to do anything she pleased and travel anywhere she wanted. Her tutors always told her that mistakes strengthened the spirit and made one a better person. But if they were going to catch her every time she fell, how was she supposed to learn?

She felt suffocated, trapped. She screamed against her pillow so the noise would be muffled. Her tears moistened the pillowcase and she bit down hard. Because of her strong emotions, she was appearing flickery again, like the rapid images on a thaumatrope; a very literal indication that she wanted to disappear but couldn’t.

Temujin was the first outsider she had ever met. In her eyes, he represented everything free and spontaneous in life. And in spite of his rough childhood, she envied him his freedom, his spirit to defy expectations and break the rules.

There was a gentle knock on her chamber door. Aki guessed it was her mother, Crown Princess Kiyo. She pretended to be asleep, turning over to her side with her back to the door. Her eyes were wet from all her crying but she stopped sniffling.

“Aki? May I come in?”

She didn’t reply. She heard her mother’s voice telling her retinue to wait outside. She felt her slide the door open and shut then walk towards her. She sat on the edge of her bed. Aki kept her back turned to her mother, shutting her eyes tight to trap the stubborn tears. 

“Aki, I know you’re awake,” her mother’s sweet and gentle voice rang in her ears.

It wasn’t a whisper but her mother had that unique ability to always sound calm and soothing. It pacified anyone who heard it, including Aki’s father when he was alive. Aki wished she had inherited that from her.

“I also heard from the Yin-Yang Master what you’ve been doing.”

{The Yin-Yang Master!} Aki thought to herself. {When I’m in charge, the first thing I’ll do is fire all the Emperor’s advisers!}

“Listen, my daughter. I know it’s been very rough for you without your father and with the weight of the throne on your shoulders. I think I have some idea how that feels. But I want you to bear in mind that everyone just wants what’s best for you. And we DO know what’s best for you.

“All these things… they’re all very confusing now but I promise you that, in the end, everything will work out fine. Just believe in the people who love you. Trust in them. There are bigger things happening that you’re not ready to know yet and it’s our duty to protect you from them. As the Crown Princess and as your mother, it’s my duty. We don’t want you to do anything you might regret.”

For a moment, Aki wanted to say something to her mother. Her heart yearned to do so. But she held back because they had been through the same discussion before. The same arguments. Nothing would be different. Sometimes she felt that her mother, no matter how peaceful and content she appeared to be, was more of a prisoner than her. And how could she help her daughter if she was unable to help herself? Aki kept her mouth shut.

She waited for her mother to say more. But she had finished. She had said her piece. She bent down to kiss the back of Aki’s head, her white hair, and rose. She gently slid the door shut and Aki heard her and her retinue’s footsteps receding.

{For crying out loud,} Aki thought to herself, {what’s wrong with me? And more to it, how can I fix me?}  

The problem was that they didn’t trust her enough to do anything herself. But how could she earn their trust if they would never let her do anything? If they would not let her leave the Ethereal Nest?

The Yin-Yang Master said there had been an incident in the Treasure Vault. That only meant one thing: that Temujin was telling the truth and the Dragon God’s Egg, just as everyone feared, had been stolen. Only such a thing could throw the entire palace into a furor. And she was 100% sure Temujin wasn’t the one who took it. He was even trying to warn them of it. If only the court or her grandfather had listened, they might’ve prevented the Egg from being taken.

To sum up, the Egg was missing and Temujin would most likely be executed for being an accessory to the crime. 

Now the question was: What was she going to do about it?

×

With the aid of an Invisibility Spell (Sukeru Majutsu), Aki was able to get into the imperial barracks without much trouble. It felt weird using the powers of the elite mages against their own imperial troops, but Aki steadied her nerves and reminded herself that what she was doing was for the greater good.

Now she was wearing her Slayer garb, which was very similar to Temujin’s except that it was completely white and didn’t have the metal forehead protector or the face plate. Instead of those, it had an eye shield with lenses made of transparent mica and rested on the forehead of her mask when not in use.

But the biggest difference was that the shōzoku suit of the Clan of Stork was more form-fitting and designed like a one-piece garment. There was a lot more to it than met the eye. Under the arms there were rivets and on both sides of the body down to the hips there were folded steel frames which, when hooked to the wrists, could stretch large flaps of silk. The Storks had mimicked and adopted the mechanics of both the hand fan and the musasabi, the flying squirrel. A similar flap of loose cloth could also be extended between the ankles, which would then serve like a bird’s tail.

Contrary to popular belief, a Stork suit didn’t grant its wearer the ability of flight. The suits let the white Slayers move through the air by gliding, often from one cliff face to another, while slowing descent and lengthening time in mid-air. The first prototype was created by a white Slayer who floated using a giant kite, and then dropped on top of an unsuspecting Hai-Riyo; a Dragon Bird.

Aki passed by Imperial Guards in all manners of vigilance. A few were napping like the one she encountered in the dungeons (she now hoped she hadn’t gotten him into too much trouble) while many were alert for the slightest sound or sign of anything amiss. Several times she only narrowly avoided being discovered by a highly sensitive sentry or patrol. She would pass very close to them and overhear their conversations, but every sound she perceived at her state of invisibility was garbled as though she was moving underwater.

Still, she was able to gather enough information. The whole castle had been placed on high alert because, indeed, the Dragon God’s Egg had gone missing from its supposedly secure and confidential location. Temujin was being blamed for this because, as per the court’s ruling, he had distracted the palace defenders and was in effect complicit in the theft. When he was unable to share information beyond what he knew, the court deemed him uncooperative and decreed he be executed by daylight, which meant Aki just had a few hours to uncover the truth; if that was at all possible.  

The punishment would be beheading, as tradition dictated. The fact that Temujin had been given the most severe penalty in the Ethereal Nest showed the gravity of the charge. The Egg was the most powerful relic in all of Pan-Terra and the Gold Lotus Throne would do anything to retrieve it, and teach a harsh lesson to anyone who would hinder their goal.