The Gospel said that, when the kingdoms were teared apart, Masha cried so much for Bran that the gigantic crater that divided the kingdoms filled up with her tears and became the sea. In the swinging of the huge and wealthy sailboat, Cael observed the green water wondering how could someone cry enough to fill all the extension that divided their kingdoms; after all, as much as he had — shamefully — cried a lot in his life, he had never got to the point of filling a bucket.
Suddenly, he felt someone's presence and faced his friend Kian, who was making him company in that trip.
"What are you thinking of?"
Cael shrugged, ignoring the question.
"Have my father told you something, before sending us in this trip?"
Kian looked ahead. The kingdom of Cashel was already in sight and he could see the tiny figures walking around in the harbor.
"Speak," he ordered.
"The same as always," Kian mumbled. "You know your father better than I do."
That was the advice before boarding: in the case something happened that could put Cael's life in danger, he should do nothing about it.
"Let the destiny fulfill his wish," Iran warned him, with a sarcastic smile on his lips that almost made the young branian draw his weapon and call him out for a duel.
He raised his face again. His best friend's eyes were far away in that island that only a few men got closer to. Cael was so lonely, so abandoned that, even if he was unable to understand his feelings, he ended up becoming his most loyal companion. He was always beside him, in the brothels or in the nights he would cry, hidden in his bedroom. Secretly, he tried to protect him, even without interfering in Iran's aggressive 'lessons'. No one should get involved between the relationship between father and child and he complied with the sacred rules. However, as soon as they ended and Iran was gone, it was Kian who would help Cael to dress his white shirt and he was the one who would carry him in his arms until they were near the castle.
Sometimes the beatings were so energetic that the young Prince of Masha almost died. The fever would hit him and he stayed locked in his bedroom for days and nights, fighting for his life. Kian was always there. He was present in every second the redhead would breath.
And he would breathe for him if necessary.
"So," he changed the subject, trying to make him smile, "it has been a long time since you've seen someone from Masha besides your father, right?"
"I see the mashian girls in the figures of the books," he agreed. "They are very beautiful."
Kian nodded, even though he had never seen one through his life. However, it was undeniable that those figures with long red hair were excessively attractive. He always smiled whenever he looked at those books.
"How is the young girl's name?"
"Rhianna."
"Why did they wanted to give her to the kingdom of Cashel?"
"The sole finality of shortening this trip was the urgency my father has regarding the execution of this marriage. Another month in the sea would have made me no harm. Besides, I would have loved to see the land of my mother once again. Iran, nonetheless, cares about nothing apart from his plans."
The laconic answer made Kian lower his head.
"If the marriage..."
"I still haven't decided between the war and the exile," he answered, even without the whole question. "A part of me feel pushed to fight for what is mine by right. The other, is too tired and believes that living in that isolated island beyond the kingdom of Masha wouldn't really be all that bad."
"Maybe…"
"The divine law forbids me from killing my father," Cael proceeded, without paying attention to his friend's talking, "but what if I killed Cedric?"
Kian was shocked and almost wagged him in face of such a terrible statement, but he was cut by the man's laughter.
"I'm joking," he warned him. "If I could, though… I would do anything to mess up with my father's plans."
His words had a prophetic effect. Kian looked ahead once more and faced the kingdom. From his place, the vision was astonishing. The chain of mountains, the same that had been responsible for the death of the fair King Atho, elevated itself up to the sky. It was also possible to see the beautiful green forest in the south and the white sand of the beach in the north. It was a dreamy vision.
***
Cael didn't accept help to get off the sailboat. For the first time in many years a mashian set foot in Cashel and he was surprised with the amount of uncleans he saw there, all of them black with emerald eyes and gaping in front of a white man.
He ignored them, turning to one of the men that served his father in the harbor. Nam was a cashean that hadn't rebelled during the war, just the opposite: he sold food to the redhead army, acquiring his fortune with that. He turned himself into a port bourgeois, buying and selling all sort of products that got to his hands.
"Has the bride of Prince Cedric arrived yet?" he asked, without even greeting the man.
"We are waiting for her," the man answered. "She must be in the harbor no later than tomorrow. In the meanwhile, it would be an honor to receive the Prince of Masha in my humble home."
The 'humble home' he referred to was a small palace built through the sweat of the many uncleans Nam employed as slaves. Cael was bothered with the fact that, among those poor men, there was no one who would fight for any rights. Actually, an unclean, in the eyes of the kingdoms, was less than an animal.
Suddenly, he realized that the son of Cedric and Rhianna would also be an unclean. Maybe, an unclean King of Bran would change things a bit within the kingdoms. Who would imagine that a plan from Iran could be beneficial?
"I take your offer. However, I've been in the sea for more than a month and I would like to walk for a while in solid ground."
"I would be honored to have one of my daughters accompanying you."
The girl, who seemed to be fourteen, looked at him behind his father, shyly.
"I wish to go by my own."
Kian just bowed when he moved away.
Everybody in the docks knew about his presence. There was no danger because they were unaware of the kind of love he received from his father. No one would dare hurting him, afraid of retaliation.
The place smelled like fish and sewer. The docks were horrible, without any color or joy. The men would cross his path, almost sleepwalking, without actually seeing anything. The unclean ones had a heavier load of work, he noticed. The other black men, though, also seemed to be tired and exhausted.
He had walked for almost two hundred meters when he noticed the red strands of hair in a passer-by. The person, covered by a hood, was looking down and no one seemed to notice it.
Could it be…?
A woman?
A mashian in Cashel?
Mesmerized, he followed her.
***
After three months confined in the bedroom, Emerald realized she could become mad. She knew, without any spoken words, that her brother was already regretting going to the harbor. They had believed it would be safer there, but the situation wasn't good for the unclean women anywhere in the world.
The house where they had rented room stank of mold. She was tired of that dark place and needed desperately to walk for a while in the sun and breathe some fresh air.
She tied her rebel curly red hair in a bun, without realizing that a few strands of hair had untied from the bobby pins. Then, she wore the cloak and the hood. Discreetly, she left the house and started walking towards the forest in the south of the quay. She just wanted to breathe, to walk and to stretch her legs for a while. In less than half an hour, she would be back to the bedroom.
She didn't feel unsure, in spite of that. Her sword was in its case, tied to the waist of her dress. Emerald was sure she could protect herself, if necessary.
She went straight to the trees. She sighed in relief when she got there. Raising a hand, she touched the stem bark, feeling the pure air invading her nostrils, calming her soul.
"Hey!"
The sound made her turn around.
For a moment, she forgot she was supposed to hide herself. She was there to take a walk, not to fight. If Randu learned she was disobeying him, anything could happen.
However, when she faced the owner of the voice, her eyes bulged. It was a white man… a white man with a hair as red as hers.
She had never seen anyone that wasn't black. She found the paleness of his skin completely strange, but she soon realized that her astonishment was shared with the man who had followed her.
He took two steps. She retreated, taking a hand slowly to her sword. The lad, however, didn't seem to fear, and walked towards her, touching her face.
"How…?" he mumbled.
"Who are you?" she asked, annoyed, putting his hands away.
In a sudden, he took his hands to her shirt and ripped it, frightening her.
"What are you doing, idiot?"
Emerald tried to cover her breasts quickly and closed the shirt once again. However, the buttons had been ripped out and she wasn't too lucky in her intention.
"An unclean…" he mumbled.
The only feature that would tell her apart from the pure mashians were her breasts. Mostly, they were medium sized and had a huge black halo. He had known an unclean branian in one of Bran's brothels. The woman, the daughter of a black woman and a white branian, had been taken by her father, in the end of the war, to serve in his house and to escape the persecution in Cashel. Nevertheless, as soon as she arrived there, around the age of two, she was expelled from the house by her father's wife. Taken in by a priest, she lived in the temple until she was near ten years old and when she was found, she was chased out and, since then, she needed to sell her body to survive.
In the kingdoms of Masha and Bran, usually the unclean ones weren't killed; most likely, they were chased or enslaved.
Cael remembered her saying she wouldn't be a mother. She told him that whenever the herbs failed and she got pregnant, she would stick a long needle in her vagina and would poke it until killing the child.
"It seems cruel", she said, with an unmoved expression "but it's even crueler to be born unclean. I hate my parents for that."
"Yes," she faced her steady. "What do you want?"
Cael's eyes suddenly fixed on her face. Mashians were usually very alike, but…
He took a small mirror out of one of his pockets and handed it to her.
The girl didn't move.
"What is this?"
He laughed, stupefied.
"Have you never seen a mirror before?"
Her gaze was enough to answer his question.
"It reflects your image," he explained.
Her emerald eyes bulged, astonished.
"Is it magical?"
"No, it's just… Look at yourself, please."
She then placed her hands around the mirror. With the movement, her shirt opened again, but Cael strangely felt no excitement at the vision of the beautiful breasts.
The woman lifted the object to her face. She gaped, in surprise, and then, her eyes wandered to him. Once again, she faced her own reflected image.
It was the first time seeing her reflection. She had never imagined she had such generous lips, not such a straight nose. There was something else in that vision, though.
"We're…"
"Identical," he completed. "Were you born during the War of a Thousand Days?"
"A while afterwards."
Cael could bet they were relatives, but the only member of his family who had gone to the war was his father, Iran. And Iran hated women. He laid with his mother against his will, always preferring to sleep with men. He had witnessed the amount of men that would come and go from his father's bedroom along those years.
No… that young unclean girl shouldn't be his relative and, most likely, there was a plausible explanation right in front of his nose. However, he wasn't actually able to think straight, since another thought kept imposing itself forcefully in his mind.
"Tell me, it might not be easy being an unclean in Cashel…"
She returned the mirror to him, realizing that she had no need to fear him.
"And is it easy to be an unclean in any of the three kingdoms?"
He liked her feline response.
"What is your name?"
"I'm Emerald."
"Cael." He bowed in front of her and she laughed. "I have a proposition, dear Emerald. A proposition that might save you from all your trouble."
The girly laughter made him smile as well. He definitely liked that unclean woman.
"A savior? Just my luck!"
Turning away, she covered herself with her hood once again and started fastening her steps when realized she was being followed.
"I don't want to be unfriendly, but I don't like strangers in my heels."
"I can save you from your situation."
"I'm not interested in your proposition, mashian."
"I can give you everything you wish," he continued. "I can accomplish your greatest desire."
She turned to him.
"My greatest desire? Can you point me the man who raped my mother?"
Cael faltered.
"Well, it wouldn't be easy to find him, but I can try..."
"I have a clue."
"Do you? Which one?"
"Not now," she mumbled, thinking about her necklace, hidden amongst her clothes, in her bedroom. "When I fulfill my role, will you do yours?"
"Don't you even want to know what I have to propose you?"
Her emerald eyes sparkled.
"For that bastard's head," she said, in a firm tone, "I would do anything."
***
"I don't get it," Kian faced the young Cael with a mashian beside him. "Wasn't it supposed that Rhianna would arrive only tomorrow?"
"Emerald," he introduced her to his best friend. "Her name is Emerald, but forget it. From now forth, you will only call her Rhianna."
"I…"
"Listen," Cael cut him, "We will trade the pure blooded mashian for an unclean," he clarified his plan. "I'm ruining my father's plan."
"An unclean?" Kian lifted his eyebrows, "Cedric wouldn't realize the difference as soon as he laid her? As soon as he saw her with no clothes?"
"Cedric loves Lyn and don't want to lie down with any other woman," Cael affirmed, assured. "All we have to do is exchanging the ladies and then watch my father agonize by seeing his plans failing miserably. However," he faced Emerald, "if the King wishes to sleep with you…"
"I'll subject myself to him," she accepted, promptly. "And I will find a way to hide my condition. Don't worry. If you fulfill your word, I'll fulfill mine."
Kian faced her. She had a strange resemblance to Iran, even though she was almost identical to Cael.
"And what about the young Rhianna?"
"Give Nam some gold for him to deliver the lady and send her to the islands at the south of Masha. Until she can return home and tell anyone the truth, "our Rhianna" will already be queen."
Cael's heart was beating strongly while the plans were forming inside his head. More than destroying his father, he wanted to see Cedric's misery. He wanted to see him in pain, just as he had been through all those years.
"When will we leave?"
"As soon as we can. Emerald will only say goodbye to his brother."
The woman nodded.
It wasn't entirely true. She knew Randu would never accept her to do such a madness, relying blindly into someone she had never seen before. However, looking at Cael from the corner of her eye, her heart softened. There was something between them; she didn't know what it was, but she was certain that she could trust him with her life, a connection that only Cashel could explain.
Later, when she returned to her rented room, she searched for graffiti and paper, to write him a goodbye letter. She reaffirmed how much she loved Randu and how she wanted to see him happy, married and prosperous, not enslaved by an unclean sister. He would be free now. She hoped he would be happy.
In the meanwhile, she would search for her father. She would kill him, she was sure of that, and she wanted to tell her beloved brother what she would do afterwards, but honestly, her life ended there. The revenge was the only thing that driven her to breathe.
"I love you," she concluded. "Please, one day, when you can, forgive me."
She signed with tears on her eyes. She needed to be strong, however. For herself. For him. For Brione.
Hiding the necklace in the pockets of her skirt, she looked once again to her brother's coat. Then, she turned her back on it.
"Mother," she mumbled, after closing the bedroom's door, "I'll make that man curse the day he laid his hands on you."
It was a promise Emerald would fulfill at the cost of many tears.