Snow opened his eyes. Even though he hadn’t intended to, he had apparently fallen asleep. He wasn’t completely sure of that, either.
He was still sitting on the floor, back against the hard wall, and he didn’t feel like he’d slept at all.
“How are you feeling?”
That soft voice made him look towards the bed that he had abandoned in the middle of the night. Leaning forward, elbows on her knees, VinWei1Literally vin (hard) + wei (crystal) was watching him with a worried expression on her face.
“Better …” he whispered but, even so, couldn’t help wincing in pain. Although much better than the night before, his chest still hurt every time he breathed.
With a second thought, Snow quickly scanned the dim-lit bedroom.
“He’s not here,” VinWei freely offered him the answer he had been clearly looking for.
Lowering his gaze, Snow couldn’t help feeling a bitter disappointment at ZaiWin2Literally zai (blade) + win (chaos).’s absence. Not that he had wanted to find him there, watching him as he slept, he considered. In fact, after all that had happened, he didn’t even know what to say to him, the next time they met.
“But he watched over you the entire night,” VinWei added, noticing his depressed expression and, sure enough, those mere words were enough to raise Snow’s spirits. “He only left your side at dawn, to go and find me. Last night he was in such a hurry to take you away and bring you here that he completely forgot that your bracelet had shattered.”
That’s right, Snow thought, looking at his naked wrist. The small crystals of his bracelet had basically exploded when ZaiWin had launched that dark spear-like attack against him.
“But don’t worry. Thankfully I have been trying to grow crystals in one of the smaller caves. I’ve already gone and cut a few chunks,” she said, showing him the small, glass-like, glistening pieces resting on a white scarf, open on her lap. “I’ve been working on them since then. But it will still take a while, until its finish. I’ll try to have it ready by the end of the day.”
Snow lowered his gaze once more.
“It’s okay …” It wasn’t as if he needed it, anyways …
“Really?” VinWei’s surprised tone made him look up at her again. “I mean …” she hesitated for a moment, a confused expression on her face, as if she were trying to find the solution to some strange, difficult problem that someone had just placed in front of her. “Just a moment ago ZaiWin was nagging me to have it done as soon as possible. Because you’d be too scared to look at him without it.”
Snow’s eyes widened in disbelief.
“I guess … he’s wrong?” VinWei carefuly wondered.
Averting his gaze, Snow hugged his knees.
“I’m not scared … I know what he looks like …” he simply stated. After all, for a long time, he had barely known that ZaiWin actually had a human face, the same as everyone else. No. What was scary wasn’t the dark monster hiding inside him. No matter what he saw when he looked at him, ZaiWin was always ZaiWin. What really scared him was nothing like that. The most frightening thing of all was what was happening inside himself.
VinWei sighed as if she felt suddenly too tired.
“Won’t you tell me what happened? No matter how many times we ask, he just won’t tell us a thing.”
Snow instinctively squeezed his own tunic.
“It was my fault … I lost control …”
VinWei frowned as if she were having a hard time believing that.
“Wasn’t it the other way around?”
Snow pursed his lips, leaving another sigh on VinWei’s lips.
“I’ve seen him lose control, once before,” she suddenly declared, immediately gaining Snow’s attention. “Actually, it happened just a few days after I met him. Back then there was some inner turmoil in Wei. Some people weren’t happy with the way the Province was being governed. And my silly sister got herself kidnapped. They wanted to use her as leverage, against my father,” she told him and Snow silently listened to her. MenTar3Literally men (lake) + tar (wind) had already told him about something like that, he recalled.
“Back then I was still young and very impulsive. So, the moment I heard about this I left home to chase after her. Since I knew my father would never allow me to do so, I didn’t tell anyone about it. And so everyone thought that, like my sister, they had kidnapped me as well,” she added with a small smile.
“My father was left in a very difficult situation. On one hand, he was worried to death about us. But, on the other hand, he was still the Calzai4Literally cal (bright) + zai (blade), or Blade of Light. It can be translated in common language as General, one of military leaders of the Empire. Each Province has it’s own Calzai. of Wei, and had to take his position into account. Coincidentally, at the time, ZaiWin was visiting Wei5Literally wei (crystal / precious stone). Wei is the name of the Clan (family name), also the name of a Province. in search of some military support to deal with the harsh situation back in his own Province. And, of course, my father immediately took advantage of him, asking him to go and retrieve his lost daughters in exchange for the help he needed.
“A few days later, ZaiWin and ZenTar6Literally zen (silent) + tar (wind). managed to catch up with me. I was staying at an inn, in a small village where, according to the information I’d gathered, the kidnappers had established their main camp. I guess they got access to the same information I had and, since there was only one inn in town, we were bound to meet each other. Of course they were surprised to find me there. After all, they thought I had been made a hostage as well. At first, I didn’t trust them at all, either. ZenTar was one thing. He was older and obviously experienced in combat and other such situations. But ZaiWin?! He was just a seventeen-year-old kid, three years my junior.
“I had seen him before, a few years back, in this big event where all the noble kids are forced to participate for a whole week. In the beginning of that event, I more or less held a good impression of him. But then he suddenly dropped out on the fourth day. People were even saying he had been killed. So yeah, I didn’t think all that much of him.
“To make things worse, the relationship between those two was obviously weird. I guess I could have placed some trust in them, if ZaiWin were something like ZenTar’s pupil or something like that. But no. The damned kid was actually calling the shots. And the thirty-four years old man accompanying him obeyed his every command without question. So, as you can easily guess, my expectations were considerably low, regarding their usefulness.
“Still, they had been sent by my father. And if there’s something every noble child of Wei learn at an early age, is that the Nai Calzai7Literally nai (transparent / translucent) plus cal (bright) + zai (blade), or Blade of Light. It can be translated in common language as Invisible General, one of military leaders of the Empire. Each Province has it’s own Calzai. To distinguish them they were given different colors. The Nai Calzai refers to RimMyu from Wei. has a very good memory, and that a deserved punishment will never be forgotten. I knew I was already in trouble for having run away from home and placed myself in danger without telling anyone about it. I was in for a certain punishment, no matter how long it took me to return home. And so I figured I might as well not antagonize my father any further than I already had. Maybe if I worked together with those envoys of his, maybe they could even put in a good word for me.
“Needless to say, I was immediately well impressed, the minute that boring, indifferent-looking kid opened his mouth. In a matter of minutes, taking into account what little information I’d managed to gather, he quickly assembled a plan that would allow us to infiltrate the kidnapper’s camp. They were hiding in some closed mines, and so we didn’t know exactly how many men they had. So we had to use a ruse to infiltrate their camp. And I even got the unique chance to dress up ZaiWin like a beautiful girl,” she added, a mischievous smile on her lips. “You should have seen him. He was really cute.”
Snow almost gaped at that. Cute? Really? Was she talking about the same person he knew? No matter how hard he tried, he just couldn’t begin to imagine what ZaiWin would look like, dressed like a beautiful girl.
Umm
I think you meant things-not thongs. Lol??
Definitely things lol
UWU my heart broke for zai thinking he was seen as a dark monster
