Imperial Capital Ava

Queen Elisse threw the crumpled paper to the fireplace with irritation. It landed on the burning coals before rapidly catching fire under her eyes. 

That fool acting so hastily! She fumed. 

The letter was from her brother stationed in the east. It was to inform her that he already cleaned up the trash for her and that all she has to do now is to relax. Continue to coax the emperor to her side while slowly whittling down the empress's support. 

During this time that she's carrying the royal seed, no one in the court or the palaces will dare antagonize her. 

Elisse let out an exasperated breath. Her brother talks confidently, just like a little boy always eager to show off his achievements regardless of the methods. Whether it could implicate them or not. If this incident breaks out, they will become the first suspect. With the prince's accident happening right into his mother's territory, the emperor will spare no effort to find the culprit. 

His suspicion on her is already a dark irremovable stain. She needs to have a bargaining chip to lessen his wrath and divert his attention. That brother of hers better know the consequences and make an achievement quickly!

On the other hand, if the prince dies… there was an inexplicable moment of satisfaction in her heart as she watched the paper in the hearth combust and finally become ashes. As if it was her great enemy who had perished not mere rubbish.

A little while later someone entered the door to report the latest situation outside. 

"The Holy Temple was pleased with Your Highness's generous contribution." Clara, her lady in waiting and confidante relayed the elder's verbal message.

"Contribution?" She repeated mockingly. 

"Lady Lucia, Your Highness."

Elisse narrowed her cat-like eyes, "Oh, her."

"The Holy Temple extends their gratitude saying that they will do their best to safeguard your person now that her power was recognized." 

Just when she was waiting for good news, perhaps this can help quell the emperor's fury when the prince's mishap finally reached him. The next words however thoroughly wiped her budding good mood.

"Lady Lucia herself wishes to send her regards to Your Highness as well. She regrets she could not come and visit the queen's palace because of the ceremonies needed to attend now she is a person of the temple."

Lucia's message includes a subtle hint that she was no longer the same mouse she picked up a few months ago. She is now an adopted daughter of a baron and her healing power is slowly gaining recognition. Although she was thankful for the queen's support, she emphasized that because the Holy Temple has seen her worth, she must follow what her path leads.

The queen wiped her hand with a kerchief and sneered. "If not for her use I wouldn't mind reminding that woman who it was she owed her life with. As long as everyone is aware that if it weren't for my generous offer she wouldn't stand where she is, the public's opinion will always be on my side."

It was from the House Sybil that the empire added a precious diviner in their ranks which was both an achievement and honour none of these great houses has done so far. The emperor better recognizes that. 

That night while Ayan was in a deep sleep, the fairies gathered together for a rare serious discussion. 

"Now that the fairy ring has fully awakened, all six of us can finally help Ayan with her task. As people of the fairy clan, let us do our best to prevent the Dark Continent from succeeding in invading the mortal realm." Old White asked again. "I believe that as soon as Ayan fulfilled her task, the princess can finally be absolved of her sins." 

Red jumped unhappily, "If it weren't for that dragonkin's trick, the princess wouldn't have defied the Fairy King and get punished. It was all that dragon's fault!" 

Coco tied an apron on his waist, a wrap on his head and a spatula in his hand. "You guys should remember that we are currently serving Ayan, not the fairy princess. Our task is to aid her complete the final ceremony for the barrier, and the only way to do that is to help her reach the highest tower of the Holy Temple for Entreaty." 

"I know…" Red mumbled. "But it has been centuries since the highest tower opened. Will Ayan be able to reach it?"

"She can," Coco said firmly. "I believe in her."

Old White robbed his beard lovingly and nodded, "It was her destiny originally. Unfortunately, the path that should have been hers was stolen by an invader causing a lot of time and opportunities to be wasted in these five years."

"Then, what do we do?" Blue asked anxiously, 

"Nothing." Old White replied. "The lives of mortals are not for us to master. We can only watch it flow. Deviations are inevitable but no matter how long things will eventually return to their origin. The same as no one can force a fate that wasn't theirs. Sooner or later, everything will return to the place where they originally belong."

This is why Coco doesn't fear that Ayan might make a misstep. Although he cannot reveal to her the truth, he can secretly give her hints as a push towards the path of a diviner and eventually a person worthy enough to sit in the high tower.

"By the way, our stall can now open into six different locations. But I assume Ayan would have her arrangements for this." Old White said. 

Coco nodded, "Then I will inform her as soon as she wakes. It will be up to her to choose who will handle the stalls."

The four coloured fairies listening on the side perked their ears eagerly. They thought they were going to battle it out with rock paper scissors today. Since the final decision is in Ayan's hand, they have no complaints about it.  

Sunshine slipped through the gaps in between curtains creating a long line that crawled from the carpet up to the foot of the bed where the sleeping person lies.

"Awake?" Schon asked the person who opened his eyes.

Beck blinked once, his sights moved from the ceiling down to the chair on his right and finally rested on a familiar face. He tried getting up but his body felt like it had been slapped by a thunder bear. 

Schon hastily stood pressing him back to the bed. "Don't make any rash movements yet. Your body is still recovering." 

Recovering? The memory of his struggle against the Shadowmongers flashed in his mind making his head sting. Until now he can still feel it. The desperation, his anger and the helplessness when he was maimed mercilessly. Beck squeezed his eyes tight trying to blot out the scene that had been haunting him before waking up but the moment he closed his eyes, the images became even more vivid. 

"Ahh!"

"Reginald!" Schon patted him soothingly. 

"My, my leg...." he was breathing heavily as if drowning. In a short span of seconds, his whole body was already drenched in sweat. He reached out to yank the blanket off but Schon stopped his hand.

"You have to calm down first."

His old friend's grim face made his heartbeat accelerate. It couldn't be… 

"No, no, I know what happened." pushing Schon's hand away he took the thick blanket off and looked at the right leg wrapped in gauze and almost wept. 

"It's fine," Schon assured calmly. 

Beck was silent for several beats as he stared at his perfectly intact limbs, "Your damn funeral face is going to be the death of me!" He roared after breathing a sigh of relief.

"I told you to calm down, didn't I?" The other replied straight-faced, "I checked the injuries carefully. The bone is only a little cracked and easy to heal and aside from the stab wounds in your arms there are no other remaining heavy injuries."

No more…? He paused in silence and tried to feel his own body. Unconsciously, his hand touched his chest. No pain. Not even a difficulty in his breathing. 

"We came to the scene last night and thought…" Schon found it hard to speak. 

He still could not believe that Reginald was able to escape death to that degree. Blood was everywhere that the falling snow could not even cover. The foul stench in the air remained for hours more and was too long to dissipate. When they found him in the tree hole, he thought for sure they had lost him but by some luck, he thought wrong and he only had a few deep wounds left.  

"I almost died. I know. But someone came…. I thought I was dreaming..." he said hoarsely. The dryness in his throat was unbearable; it felt like it would bleed any moment but instead of asking for water he turned silent trying to recover the foggy memory from last night.

He was in so much pain that he wished he could just die. From his skin to his veins down to his marrows, everything felt as though it had been scorched by liquid fire. Yes fire, and he even saw one. The dazzling colour of red that seems so alive it could have touched him anytime burning everything to cinders. 

Then someone fed him something. 

He didn't know what it was but the moment it slid down his throat the agony ended and there was a  lingering fresh taste on his tongue. Soothing his ravaged nerve endings.   

"Someone came to save you?" Schon asked according to his intermittent description.

He nodded. 

"Do you know who?"

Early in the morning, Ayan woke up with a weak start. Her head slightly ached and her chest was stuffy; it felt like it had been pressed by a boulder. She was slow at first then realized that it might be a precursor to the common thing called fever. 

Maybe because she stayed too long in the cold with sweat stuck in her back. She knew why she would have a headache but chest tightness? 

When Ayan opened her eyes, she saw a ball of white fur snoring smoothly on her chest. No wonder it was hard to breathe. She carefully took Milk off and placed him beside the boys.

The poor cub must have felt lonely when the two shifted their attention to an impostor. The twins were sleeping sweetly on the side hugging her six-foot teddy bear as a pillow. Ever since she took it out, they have fallen madly in love with it, making Milk sad. 

"Milk is still the cutest." She chuckled and poked his soft belly. 

The bed was nice and very comfortable. She doesn't want to move but although she feels extremely lazy and wants to bury herself in the sheets there are a lot of things waiting for her to do.

Such as cooking breakfast.

There are still a few meat and bones left from the last mushroom sauce steak she made the other night. Today she plans to make them into meat porridge with added beef tripe and boiled eggs. Thinking about the bouncy and chewy texture of the tripe on the hot and soft glutinous rice made her hungry all of a sudden. 

Ayan stretched her limbs deliciously and yawned, fumbled for her robe and slippers before finally getting up. 

Achoo~ 

Milk's ears flicked but there was still no sign of waking so she got dressed and climbed down the stairs to start the day. She had coffee first then cooked today's meal in the space house to make things a lot faster. The wood-burning stove in the kitchen only has boiled water as a cover. As long as people see smoke on their roof, no one else would mind where the food came from.  

With the help of the six fey folks, they began clearing the roof and yard of the snow accumulated from last night's heavy fall. They were halfway finished in the yard when Karmen came to visit. 

She thought that the mother and sons would need help in their yard but seeing that nothing out here needed to be fixed, she put her mind at ease. 

"How are you and the children? Not scared of the storm last night, are you?" 

Ayan enthusiastically pulled her into the house for an idle chat. 

"You're a bit feverish, dear," Karmen commented when she touched her forehead. 

"Just a tiny cold, nothing to worry about." 

"Are you sure? I will send you some dried herbs later. You can boil and drink it before it gets worse, alright?"

Ayan smiled and thanked her then they went to another topic mainly about the problems brought about by the storm. 

She knew the problem during winter does not only include Beck's accident but many others as well that involves the whole domain of Her Majesty Empress Delphine. If there is anyone here who can help here find out the current affairs, it's best heard from a local herself. 

She learned from Karmen that the situation in other places was not as enthusiastic as here in Arpeggio. Many houses collapsed during the night, so now people are running into Morrigan estate, the closest fief to the border, to seek shelter. She mentioned some landowners who were friendly with their lord that had been least affected by the storm. Perhaps because they reached an agreement before winter to prepare, that was why none of them suffered too much. 

Karmen also talked about the people coming from other territories, in fact, the ones who stopped by in the estate were only a small portion of those who hurried into the city because of the sudden rise in the price of grain and firewood in their hometowns. Thankfully, the soldiers of each fief were appointed earlier to control the influx of refugees coming or there would be chaos.

Ayan was waiting for the bad news when she heard of this. It looks like the problem of Arpeggio was controlled in the earlier stages and it wasn't as terrible as she knew. 

Lastly, Karmen cautioned about strangers.

"It's different now that new faces came into our village, although we are only tenants ourselves and don't own much, still friction is unavoidable when talks get heated. There is also a shortage of food and people from outside are hungry, you know how that goes. I did not want to scare you but at least impart some caution especially because you are a lone woman with only two babes and a cat."

Ayan nodded obediently, she was a little embarrassed that she doesn't have much to share about herself without revealing the truth and their origin so she let Karmen handle the conversation most of the time. 

"And if there is anything you find suspicious do not hesitate to come to us. Knoll and the rest are big sturdy men who can protect you and the children."

Her heart warmed hearing Karmen's concern for them, "I'll keep that in mind, thank you."

Before finally concluding the conversation, Ayan wrapped a parcel for her three girls. She hadn't met them yet but she knew that each of them has distinct personalities and for that reason, her gifts were chosen purposefully.

bananapink

Slice of life is a little tricky to write sometimes because not many likes this kind of genre... maybe I should remove the tag??? *cries in confusion*