Wen1Literally wen (sun). Name of one of the three Empires, Wen, Ran and Sen. (Sun, Moon and Star) FeiWan2Literally fei (raging / furious) + wan (fire) couldn’t believe his own eyes. That was it!, he decided. He must be reading it wrong! In fact, his hands were shaking so badly that he could barely distinguish between the blurry letters filling the piece of paper he held in front of his own eyes. And yet, no matter the amount of disbelief impelling him to try and deny it, his mind kept capturing two unmistakable words. ‘Wen’ and ‘GinWan3Literally gin (golden) + wan (fire)’.
Freaking Wen GinWan! Surely this must be some kind of bad joke! And who the fuck had ordered such an absurd attack? And GinWan? Freaking GinWan?? Since when was his psycho half-brother capable of commanding an army. Sure, they hadn’t given him that many men. And they were all men who had originally belonged to GinWan’s Province of Tei. But still! He would probably end up murdering his own men out of sheer boredom, before they could even reach their intended destination.
Glancing towards the man still kneeling on the ground, FeiWan really wanted to grab him and shake him until the poor bastard assured him that that fucking report was nothing but a silly, unamusing, bad joke. His intentions must have been too clear on his face, since the poor man immediately bent his head, pressing his forehead hard against the stone floor.
Taking a deep breath, FeiWan did his best to calm down. In fact, it was all he could do. That and obediently swallow his anger and frustration at how stupid the people around him could be.
Seriously?? Launch an attack on Nox4Literally nox (night). Where Nox is the name of the Clan, also the name of a Province.? Led by his freaky half-brother? What? Even if they were right, and Nox ZaiWin5Literally zai (blade) + win (chaos). was hiding in some small village near the border. Did they really expect him to just sit there and wait for them to come for him?
Nox was the wildest and most disorganized Province of the Empire, filled with thieves and cutthroats that, apparently, were making an effort to … amend their ways? Apparently! Because it was still widely known that, if you wanted someone killed in the dead of the night, or if you wished for someone to mysteriously disappear, Nox’s underground bands of thieves and murders were still the best at their trade. And now, all that criminal riffraff was surprisingly under the command of the Governor of Nox, many of these notorious men making up what people politely called the ‘armed forces of Nox’. Of course someone was bound to warn that bastard that they were coming for him! Or had they all forgotten how he could practically disappear from one place to the other? If cornering him and apprehending him were that easy, FeiWan would have dragged him in chains all the way to the Palace a long time ago!
And yet, even more than how absurd that whole plan was, what he really couldn’t swallow was the choice of Wen GinWan to lead the armed detachment sent on that ridiculous mission.
For one, GinWan rarely left the Palace, much less without his twin sister. Then he had no military knowledge or experience, since he had repeatedly refused to participate in any military campaigns. Forcing him to do so had always resulted in a lot of unnecessary human losses, especially amongst the lower soldiers. And then, like his twin sister, he was clearly deranged in a very, very bad way. Sure, no one in the Palace would dare say so out loud, since, like FeiWan, he was one of the El’Gin6Literally el (supreme) + gin (gold). Name given to the male children of the Emperor. Could be translated into prince in the common language.. But they all knew it. So what were they really trying to accomplish by handing him control of an armed detachment?
More importantly, who had ordered such a disastrous mission? Because sure, the signet at the bottom of the order was, without question, the El’Dur’s Imperial Seal. FeiWan didn’t even have to lay his eyes on the original document to know this. But he was equally as sure that the plan itself hadn’t come from his father’s obviously increasingly dimwitted mind. Someone else had orchestrated the whole thing. And either they were completely demented, which FeiWan highly doubted, or capturing Nox ZaiWin was far from being their main purpose. And if that wasn’t GinWan’s real mission, then what was it?
His mind was so fully engrossed in possibilities and questions that only led to new questions, that he couldn’t help frown in annoyance when another man burst into his study without as much as asking for permission.
Immediately falling on his knees, the man bent forward, slamming his forehead so hard against the stone floor that FeiWan could hear the sound his skull hitting the ground. Still gasping for air, he did his best to make himself understood.
“Honorable El’Gin!” he blurted out, aspirating a mouthful of air before going on. “The White Pavilion! It’s empty! They have all disappeared!”
It was as if the entire world had suddenly stopped moving and FeiWan could only gape in shock at the sound of those words. For a moment he even forgot he had to breathe to stay alive, all the anger, annoyance, and frustration that had burned inside his chest just a moment ago completely gone. But then his heart started slamming hard against his chest, the blood flowing through his veins heating up as overwhelming fury rose from his stomach.
“What?! What do you mean! They disappeared??”
“We were just informed that the Demon Clan was granted permission to leave. And that they did so in the middle of the night.”
“Granted Permission?? By who? And why wasn’t I informed of this sooner?” he demanded, his thundering voice filling the room, and the two men kneeling in front of him cringed visibly, as if they hoped to shrink in size and simply disappear.
“Tha-tha-that I wouldn’t know, my Lord,” the man who had brought him the news stammered in fear. “All we know is that one of the El’Dai7Literally el (supreme) + dai (light). Name given to the Empress’s handmaids was seen delivering a letter, yesterday evening. We thought … we thought it was just another invitation.”
“You thought??!” FeiWan blared back and the two men trembled. Even the flames, silently burning in their fire-holders, flickered, answering to his anger.
Those fucking, useless people! He ought to burn them all to a crisp! He had given them a simple task! A very simple task! Keep an eye on the Demon Clan and immediately report to him every move they made! Especially CalRimRan8Literally cal (bright) + rim (cold) + ran (moon)! How hard could that be?
He was so angry that all he could do was grit his teeth in a tempt to hold his explosive temper down. Or he would probably render the entire Red Rose Pavilion to cinders!
And then it suddenly hit him. CalRimRan was gone … Just like that. Without a single word. He had simply gone back to his boring village in the middle of the mountains. Just like FeiWan had ordered him to do, the last time they’d talked. Better yet. The last time they’d argued. Without him even noticing, CalRimRan was now somewhere out there, away from his sight. Worse even, out of his reach! And he still had so many things to ask him! So many things he wanted to …
FeiWan was on the move before he could even think about what he was doing, the men still kneeling on the floor urgently scooting out of his way, not daring to even raise their gazes.
Ve a por tu hombre!