Legends travel from one hut to another before wise men were born to write them down. A story enhanced with the power to leap over mere brushstrokes. This is what a legend sounds like in nature and vision. Atalante was once united, her people merry-making as one large family. Despite their varying skin color or the way their tongue rolled, these people shared sorrow and joy. Shouldered disasters large and small not as separate kingdoms...but as Atalante.

There we no kingdoms, it was solely,

A single plain.

A history of a great civilization.

At one corner rested serene lakes encircled by lush mountains so green it bought healing to any kind of shattered soul. The other edge, completely opposite of what was mentioned, growled beneath raging snowstorms and late-night twinkles. The north and the south of Atalante were such. Standing apart like yin and yang, these parts met at the core where people settled down to their heart's extent. A paradise where humans lived under the protection of the heavens and the watchful gaze of evil.

Before the Yulong empire came into existence, Atalante was a mix of Folks with eyes as thin as tea leaves. Some with taller physiques and the others with colorful hair. Many enjoyed rare delicacies, invented at the hands of unity, peace wrapped inside a thin sack of smooth rice coating. Each day was a new song, every single ray of light that shone upon them hesitated to return so they settled amongst the commoners who gave life to humanity that served as the spine for long-lived lives.

This was eons before the oppressive rule of tyranny. At those times, none would have believed that such a homely place would breed a generation of ragged beasts. The vibrant days where children heard only one legacy then fell into ruins.

 

Squeezing into oblivion of ink. She exhaled hastened clouds of trepid air while the strange sounds of unrest grew louder,

Roars...cries...steel clashing...tents falling...thunder clapped lightning...fire wheezing...

"Brother," a woman whispered. "Why?"

Next came a bland thud followed by a fresh whizz of something sharp, like a sword unlatched from its prison.

"Out of all the suitors we found you, that imbecile was the final pick?" Maeve heard an angry voice of a man. "There were so many who wanted your hand in marriage yet you went away with that NOBODY! I'M ASHAMED!! ASHAMED YOU HEAR ME?!!"

"I LOVE HIM!" the woman cut in, "the difference between your suitors and him was the fact that he loved me as much as I did to him!"

For a person to understand, they must need both vision and hearing. What stood in front of Maeve's vision was nothing but thick darkness, it was as if her eyes were glued to their lids and were refusing to open up. She had no choice but to enlighten her hearing to unravel the situation happening ahead.

"Faye," once again, the man hissed. This time he sounded sincere, desperate, and vulnerable. "Never had anyone loved a stranger to our kind, he is of another race. Entirely another species. How would you expect me to accept him and...and the..."?

-

Silence.

She stopped adjuring and chuckled while soft silk shuffled against a cloud-like surface.

A mismatch of images swirling in a sea of eerie foreshadowing.

"My kind already abandons me. He is facing a large crowd of angry men outside. What we both did must end with us, must be dragged to our graves and stop by that." By the shaking utterance, Maeve could understand that her heart was soaked in sorrow none could discern.

"But why must you push this burden on my child? Why should my baby suffer? What had he done for you to end him even before his birth? YOU'RE HIS UNCLE!!-"

"SHUT UP!" the man boomed. "Ending his life will be the best thing that would happen rather than being labeled and tainted by the society...Faye, excuse me for my rash behavior."

"FAYE."

CRACKLE! CLASH!!!

Whoever was welding that sword knew the best martial skills but they were extremely novel to the youth who winced at the ripping sensation which caused goosebumps on her thin robed skin.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!"

Everything fell into chaos at that moment. A thick splash of blood washed onto Maeve's face, the woman screeched continuously, it was getting warmer and the stench of blood grew heavier. What happened afterward could not be described for she covered her ears at the feet of inhuman shrills.

The night was long, and so was her pain...speck by speck more blood hit her face, body, and arms. Unable to take it anymore, she parted her lips to scream,

 

"GAH!"

"Next time it will be a pail of water." Looming over Maeve was a buff soldier with dark skin and cracked lips. The sun burned within his black eyes that stood firm on a glare.

"Every day," Maeve groaned and slapped her face twice. "This is annoying." She stretched herself on the rough straw bed and grabbed onto a wooden cup set on the floor nearby.

"After all we go through day and night you still have time for nightmares?" Draugur chuckled as he removed his upper robe. "that's damned good for a soldier."

Maeve chugged a handful of muddy water and wiped her lips from the back of her upper arm. The patched-up tent they lived in was ready to fall anytime soon. Soldiers from every platoon practiced for hours to feed the people at this time of famine. What the oh-so-mighty empress was doing was out of the question, for those aristocrats and royalties never tasted hunger before.

It was the peak time of the day and the sands hissed in flames. She could hear distant shouts and the usual dynamics of the East Wing. There were men and women of all the kingdoms present in the Yulong military. Some were taken as slaves and some ended up for money that wasn't enough to purchase a steamed bun.

For five years... Maeve bled and fought to become a rabid dog under this spartan roof, her body which was weak and deflated after the duel with the empress had grown a hundred times stronger through passing seasons. She was ruthless, wielding the power to grab dominance in any battle faced. The harbinger of defeat and death, a young girl with calloused hands and unpredictable sanity.

"Yeah, well it doesn't seem to end sooner so I may as well suck up to it and just let it be." 

Like the clear winds that crash against mountains, her voice was never the same as compared of other female soldiers. She spoke with a heaviness that sounded so lighthearted. Her tone dripped with authority, a base melody of discipline and indifference. One could say that its eccentricity had been the talk of the day for a while.

Such changes bloom at the roots of grave reasons... and the death of her loved ones now gone even the ashes turned over dust, left deep mars that scabbed deep inside of her up to date.

"This time...you spoke." Draugur leaned over a basin of lukewarm water. He could see his beaten eyes and the exhaust laced in them. When would he ever be able to find that homely scent of water that ran joyfully at the rivers of Goue ryk?

Maeve did not bother to stop whatever she was doing and casually threw in, "what did I say?"

The latter tilted his head, scooped up a handful of water, and splashed at his face. Normally the heat would leave when the cold strike of water collides with their skin but the raging sun had finally decided to drag them off of that luxury. He groaned and swore under his breath and heard the other chuckle.

"I do not know whether what I heard was the correct word," Draugur grabbed a nearby piece of cloth used by all the soldiers in the designated barrack – " but I'm pretty sure that you said Zhan."

"Hmm?" now she was queer, "Zhan?" She raised an eyebrow.

Draugur nodded. "You called onto a person named Zhan."

Perplexed but rather indifferent, the young soldier shrugged. "Screw it." 

Her chopped black hair jumped out at every corner whenever she tried to put it onto a bun therefore after so much effort and frustrating failures, she let it be as it is. Trim over the edge and a slash over the curves helped her maintain a reasonable length which Draugur platted into thin strips whenever he was bored.

"When are you going to remove them?" he smiled, watching the latter try to leave with the plats he did last week.

"I'll keep them," Maeve answered. She reached out open the doors of their humble battered tent and looked back with a slight glint of tender appreciation, "they make things easy."

 

 

"The sun rode up to heaven and then the moon followed for a thousand times,

                            Spring has fallen, the first snow chimes a million rounds now in number..."

 

A weary figure stood behind the shadows hidden by a set of tents and stables. She was taller than the other beside her, mightier than anyone in the palace. It was who she was trained to be on this very ground by her own father. Now...gazing at the only woman she truly loves jumping and wrestling around on the dust-caked lands, she could not help but marvel at the way the teenager had grown.

Her hair was brown when she first saw her on that rural street, now it was darker – possibly from the acidic flames of the unforgiving sun. The energy in her warm eyes blinded the spectator. They drizzled on her soul like homely dew. Of course, they were never the better. All she had felt in the past, the present, and the future was bound to be one-sided.

Chaining both – one in hatred and the other in greed.

"Your majesty," Gu Chao Xing could not watch the inconsolable back of the other anymore. "Please return to your chambers, we need to prepare for the journey."

Exhausted amber eyes shone with merciless rage even when she was casually feeling the mid-day breeze that washed at her face. With a slight curve formed on her sharp lips, the empress dismissed his words and continued to watch the girl spar with her companions.

"She's happy."

Gu Chao Xing couldn't help but commiserate with the tyrant who knew nothing of the truth. 

"Your majesty."

Wang Huan threw her face away from the scene ahead, chuckling with such vigor that it gave extreme pain to the general. "I haven't seen her after the day I let her enroll in the military and yet here I am..." she shook her head as if she couldn't believe what her own mouth spilled.

"Assuming that she's happy out of no conclusions."

At the distance, Maeve fought with all she had against Draugur and the empress could notice a flimsy smile appear on the edge of her lips. The elder doubted whether she should feel content or not.

"The soldiers contribute greatly towards the famine. I am sure she was attending to the piled-up work that increased from west and east." The general voiced a humble comment and it made the other nod.

"I agree." Wang Huan hummed, "by the way she never appeared whenever I came to inspect the barracks, it seemed as if she was occupied with a lot of work."

At the mention of her own words, she could hear her entire being hiss – 'BLIND!'

She had walked into the East Wing for thousand times and more but on every occasion, Maeve was never to be present. She manages to walk away...each...and...every...time. At times, Wang Huan barged into all the tents and searched for her one by one, sometimes she would slip into the barracks at night alone. Be it day or night, the break of dawn or the burning light of noon, Maeve was never found, never there.

"What could she possibly do at midnight?" Gu Chao Xing blinked at the sudden question.

"How many hours do soldiers work?" The heavy eyes of the great ruler of Yulong began to narrow. Fat red veins of fury and rejection snaked into the white and engulfed her amber pupils visibly.

"Why is she the only one to work so hard?"

"Your majesty." A shaky hand reached out towards her shoulder but paused as it dropped the next second, she felt an agonizing tear run down her cheek.

Wang Huan felt her body go numb at the picture of the faraway youth who sat down to bathe under the sun. If there was a moment where she would see Maeve's head standing amongst the wave of soldiers even for one static moment she could sleep well on forever. Who knew that a chance encounter would go this far as to cause intense depression and blood-retching grief? What in the world happened when Wang Huan was slapped by that frivolous girl on the streets of Ye Gang?

"She never wishes to see me."

Voice as broken as the particles of a fragile ceramic,

"She despises the sight of me."

Wang Huan shook at the imagination of Maeve's tear-struck face that yelled at the burning mountains of the Forbidden Forest. She could feel the flames eating her skin alive as the dreadful words were thrown at her. Who knew that loving someone would be so complex? Who was there to tell her that she was indeed a monster destined to live her life in isolation and never even dream of receiving affection and attention?

"Five empty years had already passed General Gu." The empress lamented, "Five centuries of tasteless, sleepless desires and nightmares that haunted me to death." Her fingers spasmed and she balled her fists – cracking the knuckles to keep her emotions in harness.

"It is best to return...If I may risk my life to say this, your majesty." Defeated and pierced by the state of his master, Gu Chao Xing gritted out. He wanted to drag the empress away from these cursed plains. It was painful to see such strength kneel at the feet of love. 

A love that would never be acknowledged.

"Tell me," Wang Huan growled, "had she ever been a victim of an inevitable circle of trauma where you return from the dead every night?" her eyes scanned the far away tents but her mind ran around another set of thoughts.

"Would she ever realize that this is the last time I would come to see her in this form of humanity?"

Between these five years, the entire plains of Atalante had faced numerous downfalls. Ones including the despotic government and the corrupt ministers who scraped even the last piece of bread from the hungry commoner. Wang Huan increased her labor base and the number of slaves filled up to the brims. Almost all the remaining kingdoms gave away their power, and the great kings who ruled under her constitutions met gruesome ends. And she did all of these to attain one thing.

Supreme authority over heaven and earth.

The legends speak of four primordial spirits who gave life to the heavens and created Atalante at an early age. What the empress wanted was their immortality so she could rule the lands and see no end to it. The entire court of ministers and her kingdom had come this far to finally unravel the very first step that would lead her to attain heavenly powers.

Unfortunately, every silver opportunity comes with a rare price.

"I feel the need to warn her." Wang Huan sighed. "It's no use to sob over the fact about her ignorance."

She closed her eyes and exhaled the familiar setup one last time. Then her spiteful eyes caged Maeve. They screamed out in silence, dreading the future of this young girl whose life would be at the hands of a creature no different than an actual monster, the almighty Tian Feng Dijun observed the young girl carefully. She wanted to imprint this image in her core. Maybe then, she would leave the journey with a sane mind.

Gu Chao Xing heard the empress mumble,

"It is I, the only one who defied time that flew,

                                          For she never intended to return, nor wanted to be loved by me."

 

 

 

"It is not my fault if she is to face me after I return."