Nychta - The Bloodrose Kingdom

Chapter 4 - The Serpent's Treachery

The guards were obviously hesitant. They took slow steps before ensuring that the wall of wind never came again from whatever it was deep inside me that caused it. This was definitely the gem, but I didn’t know that such a power can exist in it. It was after all, a black one, a color that I have never seen before. Yellow was for electricity, red for fire, magenta for mind control, and the other spectrums represented other colors.

But none can match the black, for it as the darkness that gave power in an extent unknown and never seen before.

They took me by my elbows, with me surrendering to them. I was a ragdoll dragged brashly, their hands shaky but their minds focused on taking me.

Too weak, too uncalculated, too foolish, the voice said. The words came in like iron dropped on water, heavy and true, as much as I tried to deny. I was lithe, I was slender, I was fast, but I definitely did not have an affinity for this ability. This was magic, pure and simple, and it was a magic I have never used before.

The guards turned the captain’s body. I gasped in shock.

The left side of his face was burnt, his eyes violet and shut, with the whole skin in a blue hue that looked like it will never heal again. His right eye was opened widely, fear evident as tears rolled down. It was an image of a terrified child. It was a terrified and coward man whose power was invalidated by a girl he thought little of.

It was right and just, and I completely agreed with the voice inside me as it said “He got what he deserved”. It might take some time before I get used to it, but it definitely did help me earlier. A voice of steel wit and courage, though with a grit of rust and evil, will come in handy.

Mighty hands of a brute force dragged me, my numb feet scraping the mossy ground. I was exhausted, my will and power drained out of me.

“She was a monster, that was what she was!” the captain said from behind me in a frantic tone. He pleaded the guards to kill me right at that instant, but something kept them from doing it. Was it fear? Curiosity? Hatred?

I was passing out at regular intervals, but my body was still dragged with force. In those brief instances, I was able to get blurry traces of the forest.

Once, it had been a dark vast field of barely known life and wonder, silver light illuminating it for the small details to be seen. Now, it was a beautiful sight, the carvings on the trees now seen brighter. The carvings were of a language I didn’t know, from the forefathers of the nychtas ourselves. My heart was torn between awe and tension, from the sight of the forest and the events that may happen when they bring me back to the town.

“This girl is something else,” one of the guards who were dragging me said, a light voice coated with a raspiness only years of shouting will bring.

“A black gem? And did you see what she did to our captain? We have brought something sinister,” one of them replied.

Sinister. I liked that.

When the mighty and towering green and silver bricks of the town was evident from afar, my senses came rushing back. Maybe it was the time spent carrying me, or just the fact that I have never seen the town be as bright and detailed as it was today. The town’s mark, the serpent, was to be seen clearly, intricate carvings of perfect precision and skill seen in its thousand scales and sharp eyes.

The town was trying its best to act normal today, but none of them could quite convince themselves of what they were seeing today. Some of them were still peeking out occasionally into the skies, hand covering them from the newfound light from the sun. We were a people of night, truly.

The mood dropped from mundane to tense in an instant, with them seeing a bruised girl being dragged, boots dredged with mud and vegetation. I was already the town’s proof of what the guards were able to do, putting a helpless little bandit in such a misery.

My head was tilted, head looking at the ground. I was ashamed for being caught, for dropping whatever luck I had through all these years. Just when I had discovered such a power. Just when I had discovered that I have been capable of something much more than I knew.

My hair was wet from sweat and mud, silky black strands that served as my mask to cover my hurt pride.

“So that’s the girl who has been stealing from us all along,” one of them said, the woman who sold linen by the entrance. She was always an option during winter, when I was barely capable of living through the blizzards and harsh cold.

“Serves her right, that wretched rat,” the guy who sold meat said. “I just hope they catch the rest of the filthy scums.”

The guards stopped marching.

What little of conversation that ran earlier died in an instant, fear evident amongst them.

“It is in this day when the capture of a girl so vile is caught. Through a series of chases and undesired encounters through the years, we have finally brought justice and reduced the filths in our community,” one of the guards said loudly.

It should be a shame for them to only catch me for this time, for they surely had no other things to bring out their rage from the loss of our queen than a mere thief like me.

I weakly raised my head, trying to scan the crowd in the middle of the small divisions in my hair. There were a lot of men and women, children also, huddled in a semi-circle in front of us. They had their arms crossed in a distrusting position, wary of what just happened to the poor man who had tried to defend the baby from yesterday.

The guards were supposed to be an image of protection, of safeness and security. But they were instead the enemies instead, who ruled the land with a rogue power that only a selected few choose to resist against.

There have been quite a few civil revolutions now, starting from mere literary oppression complaints, the rights of the poor, and gradually scaled to the suggestion of the abolishment of the Monarchy system itself. They took in different forms, which all ended in one bloody mess.

It is true that the power of the gems is scattered to every nychta, the power not only being able to the rulers of Bloodrose itself. However, those who possess such strength only had two options in the game: to be against Bloodrose or to be with Bloodrose. Most chose the latter.

In occasional scans, I noticed that there was a tiny and fast movement along the people. Some of them were backing away from unseen forces that were moving in an unusually quick and speedy way.

It was in that moment when I realized: the Serpents were in the move!

Sixteen years is unbearable for a child like me to survive for so long, and so it was only natural to join a faction survive. Being born without a mother, I convinced the town’s already-dead librarian, whose name was Gretta, to make me stay inside. It lasted for seven years, with the woman being a nice plump woman, with gray streaks in her hair and an aroma of rose always evident around her.

I never talked to her though, and only approached her when I asked for food, for I was not the type to easily socialize. She was definitely not a mother, but she fed me in all of those years.

But those years quickly passed, and when I finally emptied the last of her storage after she died of old age, I hunted for food outside the town. I made a treehouse in the forest, eager to hunt for whatever I can find. Rabbits, deer, and even birds that kept me from starving throughout the night. It was bearable during summer, but it definitely wasn’t during winter.

And that was when the Serpents entered.

I was seven at the time of my first robbery, a petty attempt at stealing the bread from the same fat guy who was now the reason why I was being humiliated in the town.

It failed of course, for I was a child of books and poetry and literature, not of purloining in the streets.

It was in a mellow and warm night where they saw the despair in my eyes, when I tried to take a single bun of hot and steaming bread. It was all in my luck when Eman, the leader of the gang all in my age group swatted my hands away.

I was shocked of course, and looked at his eyes intently.

With the experience of a thief whose parents taught him the hard ways themselves, Eman took not only one but an entire line of bread in that exact night. It was enough to give me a smile that was rarely seen on my face, and enough to invite him over to my treehouse to tell stories with. It was also enough to give me my first heartbeat, even though he was scrawny and sickly and mischievous through all those time.

He was the one who showed me the ropes, even though I never met his other friends for fear of making company, one which was to be in my personality for as long as I lived. We grew up together, even though I was mostly the only one attracted to him. Had a girlfriend he said. Had a life to look forward to, even though we were still thieves now at the age when his body became thoroughly defined and when his air of mischief turned into one of seriousness.

He was definitely one of those who were running in the crowd, carefully dodging from the sight of the people and the guards. Were they here to help me? Or were they simply taking the opportunity to use the distraction to take as much as they can?

Eman’s black hair, which matched with mine came from behind two unsuspecting women, who were both staring at disgust while the guards kept on displaying pride in taking me as their captive.

“Not only did we manage to capture the lass, we have also discovered something far worse,”

At this, the crowd’s mood shifted. They were now all curious, eager to see whatever it was that the guard’s promised. Their heads turned to my position, eyebrows raised in wonder. This day had been very eccentric, with the arrival of the sun, and it was totally not unbelievable for them to expect something more from today.

Eman looked at me from his vantage point, brown, burning eyes that hated seeing me in my position. I was supposed to be strong. I was supposed to be deadly and swift. I was supposed to be the one that matched his skills through all these years, achieving it with a steel wit that only I had supposedly mastered compared with his other gang mates.

But I was now the one who was trapped like a weak prey, which I probably really was.

My heart thumped at the arriving moment. He had reinforcements, as it seems, members with unfamiliar faces circling around the unsuspecting crowd. The sunlight was in full light now, the first noon that this town had witnessed.

Three, Eman’s lips said in a silent spell, his blue gem’s light signifying the start of his misdirection powers. He used this to confuse and steal easier. He used it now to save me instead.

In a barely seen but fast moving event, clones of random faces and clothes spread around the crowd. They were just a replica of them, reacting with the same way they all did. They crossed their arms, looked at the sun, and fumbled their pockets in an unassuming and unobvious way. What was he planning to do?

Two, Eman’s lip said again. The true gang members had something in their hands. As I looked closer, I saw that it was knives hidden in plain view.

One, Eman’s lip said finally. It was in that moment when they set the plan in motion. But the guard kept on rambling.

“This girl right here has an interesting gem on her forehead”.

The members stopped in their starting tracks, one foot forward, interested in hearing about what it was that was with me. I tilted my head lower.

“Show them!” the guard said, voice commanding in tone.

I wasn’t showing them my gem. This would cause a commotion. This would cause chaos beyond control. What was their purpose in doing this? Scaring the crowd?

The temper of the guards forced one of them to grab me by the hair. In a violent yank, my head was lifted, chin raised above unwillingly.

A heavy, cold weight went down my heart as my full face was exposed. My eyes saw the terror and shock from the crowd, their hands shifting to their mouths as they tried to cover it. Others were trembling, while some started to clasp their hands in unison, praying for whatever the Creator was planning for us.

I would definitely do the same too.

“This girl, carries a power so violent and untamed, causing our captain’s face to be brutally defaced. It is not within our capabilities to keep such a beast in our town,” the guard said.

I looked desperately at Eman. He, too, was shocked, an emotion I have never seen from him throughout these years. He was confident, controlled, and very amusing. But he was never shocked of anything, for his mind was trained through all the years of hardship and thievery.

But the black gem had its own power, one that no amount of physical force can carry. It was the strength of fear, of trembling cowardice and misery. It put terror in their hearts, and I wasn’t capable of doing anything to reassure them.

I pleaded through my eyes, tears pooling in them. I was desperate for help. Desperate for anything.

“That girl is wicked!” one of the crowd said.

“That girl is evil!” another said.

We were the land of evil, but being called one by even worse ones definitely tugged my heart heavily.

I knew that I was breaking a promise of the thieves: never drop your mates, but I was hopeless, and he was the only one I knew I could count on.

“Eman!” I shouted heavily, my voice hoarse from exhausting and pain.

“Eman!” I shouted again, the crowd now looking at his direction.

But he only joined the crowd in their search for him. He blended like one of the fools, looking at all directions to make himself hidden.

I only cried in reply as he turned his back from me, not even staring once. From all those years of mutual help and friendship, it looked like it was enough for him to abandon me easily. Just like how my parents did. Just like how the rest of the people easily swayed me aside when I needed help.

A hate so deep and pure formed in my heart. I was getting revenge on them, on all of these people. I was going to dance on their graves. Evil thoughts entered my mind as I looked furiously at all of them.

They barely looked back at me, afraid of what I was capable of.

I made a mental note to remember every single of them as I was dragged by the guards again, the crowd silent with fear as I looked at them. Fools. Wherever I was being dragged to, I was definitely going back here. Ready to kill.

And so the little raven went away

Not with wings but in shining chains

Casted from the land of which she defiled to survive

With a hate so pure and a power uncontainable