It had only been in the last four years that Perdita had finally felt ready to strive for more knowledge on learning to become Immortal.

She had noticed that her feathers had changed yet again, to show more colors, but no books had anything much about them. When she had last perished, she had the extra colors of green, white and yellow. Now she had purple and red as well.

Since the colors had been added, and not something that she was already born with, Perdita thought it means something, but the problem was finding out what that actual meaning was!

And that was why it was taking so long! Because she had no idea upon how to proceed!

 

There didn’t seem to be any books that had information for the Phoenix Creature at all! She had looked up some of the colours though but only two colors seemed to have meaning, while the others didn’t have much of a clarification.

The strangest thing did happen though, upon understanding the two colors that she did read upon, which was that she reached into the Mental Mind Realm without even realizing it!

All she was doing was putting her past into what the colors meant and wondered if that was why her feathers had changed…

Awakening, was a ‘reason’ behind the green color, not the only one though, but when Perdita had seen this, she not only was reminded of when she was born and reborn but even when she made her decision to become strong in this life too…

Then, Clarity, seemed to be a ‘reason’ behind a yellow color, which sent her thoughts into the same time this life when she had decided to be strong…

But…How can reminiscing put someone into the next Realm?

Perdita did not understand…

 

What came clear to her though, was once she did go into the Mental Mind Realm, she was able to focus and clear her head better.

And what was said about the other colors and the ones she already knew about put her into an extra type of confusion because she suddenly felt like she understood but didn’t at the same time.

She knows now why she had gained purple and red, it was because of inspiration and courage but…Is this…What she was supposed to do? Look up definitions of colors and understand them?

It sounded like it was wrong yet…She felt it to be right and could only accept those colors.

Obviously though, it wasn’t enough to get her to the Immortal Realm, so more work was needed, but what work?

 

Then she looked up bird creatures, to see if there could be a bird meditation that she could use but it looked like none of them were suited for her Phoenix.

What was even worse, was that she couldn’t let anyone know what she was looking for either! She knew it should be kept a secret, upon what her creature was, but she was more worried that people would treat her badly if they found out. So, not telling anyone what she was looking for was more out of fear then secrecy.

To Perdita, not being able to start on the journey to reach Immortal Realm was a bit of a letdown for a while…

 

She felt that if she knew this earlier, perhaps she would be finding ways out by now, but she was only now just seeing that there was nothing about the Phoenix in books!

…Were there perhaps other things that would hold information then?

Was there a type of ring that she needed? Was there a type of jewellery?

It was all just guess, all of it!

Even a book about a Golden Serpent going into the Immortal Realm was not helpful to her at all!

She had tried some of the techniques but none of them had worked!

But…Right now…

She couldn’t think more because…She was on her way to the Dragon King.

 

Her master had called, and she was ‘obeying’…

Granted she had made her master wait long enough, it had been a year or so since she was first ordered to come to here, but Perdita didn’t have more courage to make her master wait longer then she already had…As it was, she had been threatened and yes…Something drastic had occurred…So now, this was her last option, at least for now, while she was still weaker than her master.

If only she had already reached that of being immortal. Yet, she was just reaching into Mental Mind Realm and that, she believed, only happened by chance…

She couldn’t rely on her luck further, she had to do as she was told before something would stop her from continuing the path that she had chosen.

 

She didn’t want to go backwards!

She didn’t want to go back to hating everyone and being scared all the time!

This…Was not going to be easy though, she was going to lie to the man that invades her dreams. She was going to lie to him, to his face, to save herself.

Was she still so weak?

She was already able to do so much more, like fight her strongest master off and cloud the link between them, but how could she still get so petrified that she felt like she had no other choice but do as her master commands?

 

***

 

The Dragon King had seen that Sharlae obviously didn’t want to tell him where Perdita was when they had been still in Nature’s Call Clan. In fact, the Dragon King was wondering, in the smallest degree, if Perdita might have been his Phoenix in the first place.

At first, he had been excited. All he had to do was touch her and he’d know. The problem was, after years had gone by, with Sharlae never bringing Perdita up in conversation, nor Perdita coming to them in any degree, the Dragon King was getting more and more angrier.

If Perdita was indeed his Phoenix…Would she act as she had?

If Perdita was his Phoenix, why would she run away?

If Sharlae was lying, what had she said to his Phoenix to make her run?

It was…Confusing and conflicting.

 

Duke wasn’t really someone that knew how to step in other people’s shoes, but he really did wonder why Perdita would run away from him if she really were his Phoenix!

That was why, he was not sure…

If she were the Phoenix, why would she not say anything!?

If she were the Phoenix…

And that was how Duke was able to think of enslavement once again…Yet…

If she were really enslaved, somehow, who then would be her master?

 

It sounded extremely bad when he thought the master to be Sharlae for a moment, but if she thought as he did, when liking someone, how could she possibly do such a thing to him!?

The weird thing was, Sharlae stood out the most…

She could be the master, but then, she had not really left his side much to go and become the master of the Phoenix.

His Phoenix could be coming of age now to bring out her creature and…Sharlae was close by…

In the chance of him leaving her, to search for Perdita on his own, she may have had time then, but she had really tried to be nice to him and it was so questionable, that it was giving him headaches!

Striking her with his lightning might break the connection but…He had never had the chance to strike at someone in Immortal Realm before…So, he wasn’t even sure if the enslavement would even be broken if he did that.

 

On the strange chance, there was one time when he was with Sharlae and there was a storm, Duke had used that opportunity to strike at her with his lightning bolt.

She had been unconscious for so long after that, that Duke really did wonder if she had any type of enslavement at all!

Being Immortal didn’t mean that she didn’t feel pain anymore, it just means undying…And so, the Dragon King had felt terrible afterwards because he felt like if she had not been Immortal, she probably would have died!

Of course, not to the Dragon King’s knowledge, Sharlae had exerted all her energy to keep that link that she had with the Phoenix, seeing that it had mostly been destroyed!

In the time that she had been ‘sleeping’, she had been extremely busy inside her mind. For a whole month, the pull from the Phoenix had not given her any leeway at all.

The Phoenix was indeed an Alpha and Sharlae felt how strong the pull was to be freed…

 

What was enslavement though, really!? Of course, she wasn’t going to give her consent to let the Phoenix go!

So, all the time that she was not waking, she worked and worked, until finally she was connected better once again to the Phoenix.

After that happened, Sharlae had been incredibly angry with the Phoenix and had gotten her revenge!

For weeks…Months…Sharlae would strike at their link many times, forcing pain upon her slave and laughing at her!

She had been a good master and not done much, leaving her be! She felt like she hadn’t deserved such a fight and nearly losing!

Oh, it was very refreshing!

Whenever she was upset, she would strike at the undeserving Phoenix, then forgetting about her afterwards…She was nothing after all!

 

Sadly, Sharlae might have felt like she had no conscience, but the Dragon King did.

He thought continuously about Perdita and his Phoenix, his Phoenix and Perdita…To which none of them had been found!

All the questions he had, with no answers!

Was Perdita the Phoenix?

Where were they both?

Perdita’s age interfered with him, thinking it was her, and as a matter of fact, he had not really felt the Phoenix for a long time as well, making him all confused.

With all these thoughts and ponders, Duke wasn’t sure if she was the Phoenix or not. But…What was worse, was that he couldn’t find out because she was no longer someone he could just touch and find out!

He couldn’t help her get her creature out either, if she needed the help still…

 

***

 

It was two years ago, unable to hold out any longer, that the Dragon King had gone to Sharlae once more.

If Perdita wasn’t the Phoenix, then she still was the subordinate of Sharlae.

And since so long had passed, where Sharlae could have been lying, the Dragon King was no longer able to just watch anymore. He needed…More!

In fact, he wanted more within the first few weeks but had decided to watch Sharlae more closely instead.

He had searched for Perdita, many times, but to no avail…His work had piled up, but he would still be able to feel loss…Feel that he was incomplete, all this time…

 

With his order, to get Perdita to come to him, Sharlae had flown off, accepting his order but of course…She was wondering what to do.

As weeks went by, as she dilly dallied around, pretending to search for Perdita, while instead finding ‘worries’ in cities that she fixed. She hoped that the Dragon King would just forget and so she went back after a few months, only to have the Dragon King demand Perdita’s return or to have her to never return instead!

That had done it!

The Dragon King had valued Perdita over herself and so she made sure that she wasn’t followed and flew towards her link to the undeserving Phoenix.

 

It was utterly maddening to have had to demand her slave to come to her, as she couldn’t go to her, because of her cold-blooded creature!

How dare she go somewhere that I couldn’t!

But what she didn’t really think could happen, really was happening…

The Phoenix was getting too strong for her to always manage!

For a whole week, she was completely ignored!

Every time she called to her slave, there was absolutely no response and Sharlae even wondered if her order was getting to the undeserving Phoenix at all!

Really, Sharlae was really considering killing this nuisance!

She was sure that becoming reborn takes a little while, but…

It wasn’t really enough time!

Yet, wouldn’t it be better if she just returned to His Excellency and stated that the girl died instead?

 

What about letting them meet but have it so that the Dragon King couldn’t touch her anyway? Sharlae thought.

Perhaps a skin disease…No…That probably wouldn’t work with the Phoenix’s real powers and well, even if it were a tattoo or painted onto her skin, would the Dragon King even care?

Sharlae wasn’t sure about the Dragon King, but she was sure that the Phoenix could probably heal herself, so that idea was not a good one! Especially when she remembered that the Phoenix body was hotter than normal. If she were to get someone to touch Perdita…Yeah, it sounded stupid…Not only would they know that she was the Phoenix, but the Phoenix would not let anyone touch her.

 

But…Sharlae remembered back to the past and wondered if she could control the Phoenix’s heat like that of the last masters.

It was obvious that the Phoenix had been tested on and touched before, perhaps she had some influence there!

After a good moment though, Sharlae shook her head, it still wouldn’t matter! If it’s not her that had to paint or tattoo her skin, then it was nobody!

Sharlae didn’t practically want to do that, so she continued to think of ideas.

…What about having clothes that covered her whole skin?

Maybe I could make Perdita state that she got her creature and it was a cold blooded one, like mine, and wear gloves, the whole works! Sharlae thought.

 

Married?

Oh, Sharlae thought, what about forcing Perdita to state she was married and even pregnant! Hell, forcing her to marry wasn’t beyond anything! Get her some bastard and make sure that she’s ‘taken’!

Sharlae was sure that the Dragon King was someone that was one to smell someone’s scent…All she had to do was get the undeserving Phoenix with a man, before she is to see the Dragon King, and he would know!

…Why would the Dragon King touch another’s woman?

Why would he bring harm to a harmless woman who was ‘pregnant’?

Yet…Sharlae knew, the link was weaker now, how was she able to accomplish all this?

Being hit by a lightning bolt had really been horrible luck!

If she had not been Immortal, having to use her powers to fight the Phoenix, she would have lost the enslavement! There was no doubt about that!

Then the Phoenix would be known to her man and he would most likely fly straight to her!

Thank goodness it didn’t work!

 

After that two weeks, it was another two weeks that Sharlae was using their link to give her slave pain until she finally relented and opened up the link for her to give orders through.

The problem was, even with the link not so ‘clouded’ anymore, Sharlae experienced problems!

The Phoenix did not come!

Having used up a lot of her strength, to give the Phoenix pain, and still unable to bring her to her, Sharlae could only come to the conclusion that she had to come up with something that the Phoenix will not refuse her for!

Going around the towns close by to the unlivable arctic area, Sharlae picked up a few thugs, with creatures that could handle the harshest of weather conditions, and after gathering them all up and telling them what to do and what they’ll get, sent them towards the Phoenix!

 

Sharlae watched upon her link, seeing the Phoenix fighting the thugs.

Now she saw that the Phoenix was in the Mental Mind Realm and that she had indeed some control over their link, as when she was fighting, Sharlae saw that she could gain more control.

And so, with this, Sharlae sent more thugs, gaining more and more control over their link, until finally, she demanded the Phoenix to come to her!

Smiling, Sharlae saw the Phoenix come towards her unwillingly and thought she looked great!

She had lost weight, had bags under her eyes and looked like she was just about ready to give up…

Using the link, Sharlae led the Phoenix towards a place that would marry her off and finally, the Phoenix showed more of a fight!

 

“No!”

Sharlae smirked at the undeserving Phoenix, hating that the years that had gone by did not show on the girl’s body.

She still looked exactly the same as how she last saw her in the flesh!

“Choose!”

Ah, how refreshing!

Watching the Phoenix bite her lips, then walk defeatedly into the place that had a man waiting for her, instead of going the other direction, where even more men were waiting for her, Sharlae trotted in after her.

The proceedings of a marriage took place and she could feel how terrible the Phoenix felt through their link.

It wasn’t until then that Sharlae found that the undeserving Phoenix had feelings for the Dragon King and felt like she had done the right thing!

 

If it had been any other plan, it may not have worked because of the Phoenix’s feelings!

Sharlae was happy! She had saved herself the terrible possibility of the Phoenix fighting her and telling the Dragon King of who she was and of her feelings towards him.

Now…Now she was married and had no right to be touched by another!

The man that she had chosen to be the Phoenix’s husband was a subordinate of hers that will keep a secret.

His life was on the line and he knew it but didn’t know of the actually secret yet.

In fact, he didn’t know of the secret for some time!

 

 

Perdita, even knowing she was married now, continued to fight for her own right…She did not want the marriage to become real!

Sadly though, Sharlae, as well as a husband that not only had Sharlae on his back but was now a husband that wanted his wife, was also making things hard for Perdita.

After a week went by, giving pain upon the undeserving Phoenix and a husband whom was getting more and more courage, Sharlae put the Phoenix in another predicament of choosing one or another…

Again, it was just a whole heap of men, or her husband…

Feeling the depression setting into the Phoenix, Sharlae finally forced herself to control her and finally a time was then made for the Phoenix to finalize her marriage…

But, Sharlae can only go so far when it comes to consummating a marriage by mind control…And that meant that a bond, or otherwise known of becoming mates, was not formed between the husband and wife, and their creatures…