Zazuza and her servant were walking through the forest, at sunset. They kept walking until they met
a crossroad and stopped. Zazuza glanced around sideways to make sure they weren't followed. She
passed three coins to Zizina. It was good to keep them handy: as a way to repel stirrers.
Zizina was one of these stirrers. It was a tradition that to pass the crossroad, Zazuza had to pay the
toll.
-Are you sure you don't want me to come with you?
-Yes.
-But will you be safe? What if anything happens to you?
-Yes. But why are you so worried?
-I must worry and care about you. Our family served this clan since the war.
-You weren't worried last week.
-You promise me, you must return by Sunday evening.
-Yes.
-Where do you even go?
-I go shopping, of course.
-Me too, how strange that we don't seem to run into each other.
-I-
-Oh, I see… you want to keep it a secret. It's a guy, isn't it?
-What?
-It's alright. Do you have enough money to return to the village?
Zazuza sighed and dropped a coin she was hiding under her right hand's thumb.
-You've bought my silence, my lady. Great doing business with you! Come again! She laughed all the way to the town.
Zazuza wasn't afraid of bandits, thieves, or charlatans. She was afraid of Zizina's rotten blabbering.
This was why she had been keeping Wang a secret for all these years. One hundred years. She waited
for the full moon to rise, and she was thinking how strange life was. Few humans lived that long. For
them, it's considered a blessing to live such a short life, they call themselves lucky. Time flies for
them, it's unforgiving… while for us: time is on our side. We have all the time: all the time to make
enemies. One mistake, one misplaced word, one mean look, and you're done with. Fate is their foe, ours is foolishness. Nothing can hurt you more than stupidity itself. At that moment, two hands
covered her eyes.
-Oh, butcher's son, is that you?
-No, try again.
-Then it must be… that man who sells watermelons at the corner of the street.
-No.
-That one handsome guy who went to the same Calligraphy class?
-What? Which one? Wang raised an eyebrow and acted upset. By the time he put on an act, Zazuza
hugged him.
-Some anniversary this is! I come here by carriage, one month's trip! I sneak around, without making a sound, to find out if she is cheating on me. And then… oh, then! I arrive to find that my girlfriend was expecting not one. At least not three, I'll give you credit… But TWO other GUYS! Oh, woe is me.
-I missed you!
-Shush, I'm not finished. I'm heartbroken! I was, hoping to ask for my girlfriend's hand in marriage
tomorrow. I wanted to make future arrangements for a wonderful future. Just to have her STAB. ME.
IN. THE. BACK…
Zazuza yawned.
-Don't yawn on me, woman! This is serious! So tell me: who is that one guy from the Calligraphy class?
-Remember Timons?
-Wrong! I AM that one handsome guy from the Calligraphy classes! Don't you know how to
answer questions?
-Why do you ask?
Wang squeezed her in for a hug. And after he kissed her forehead, just ended the conversation
with``You're hopeless."
Later in the night, at the camp side, near the outskirts of the city, Zazuza and Wang were sharing news and Wang had something very important to share about his latest promotion.
-I'm happy to hear about your promotion! I can't believe you're the Court's Inventor
now.
- About that… I want you to come with me. After I propose to your father, you should come to
China. It's like nothing you've ever imagined.
- I don't know... I don't want to leave my family behind. I'm the sole viable heir, and it's a bad
time. Maybe we should wait for the proposal.
- Wait? That's all we've been doing!
- I'm just saying that there is a lot of tension in the air since the last time we spoke face to
face.
- You mean since ``the incident``?
-Yes, everyone is blaming each other for what happened … but the moment they're all present they take back their word and act as if they've never seen each other.
-It's been a while, what happened exactly?
-Someone's been tinkering with the dam. (...)That's why I can't leave. And that's just the least of our problems. Since the drought, there is a lot of pressure to pay with gold instead of products this year. It makes no difference though since we don't have enough of either.
-What about your older brother? Can't he deal with these problems instead?
-He could, should, must but he always leaves me hanging. You could say he's under ``the
influence``.
-Not his old schoolmates, again?
-Quite so… all they do is drink, fight, and stroke each other's ego. Yesterday he woke up in a
tree.
- Sounds rough…
- And what annoys me to no end, is that my father insists on giving him chances. That man is
never going to change.
-Your father is a good man and that's his son, hopefully, one day you'll be wrong.
- I hope so. I miss the old Zico.
-Me too.
-We're hiring some mercenaries for protection, in case anything bad happens during the Council Meeting next month.
-From the city?
-No, humans. Near the Maris river, there is an archer tribe with a good reputation.
-I wish there was something we could do instead…
-Come here, I want to show you something.
Zazuza followed Wang into the caravan, inside there was a library case and after she helped him push it aside, a small, locked door was revealed.
-What's this about? Is it a surprise?
-Even better. Watch your head.
They crouched and inside there was an alchemist's laboratory, chaotically filled with potions and
discarded papers all around.
-So this is where you make your inventions? All these years and I had no idea.
-What you're about to see, is classified. Do I have your word that you will never speak of this to
anyone?
- What's with the serious tone, are you alright?
- What you will see, must never leave these walls. Do you understand?
-What's gotten into you?
- ….
- Fine, I know how to keep a secret, you know that!
Wang nodded and looked around the shelf for a certain potion. He dusted off the top of the flask with the palm of his hand and took one large sip. Zazuza was wondering what was going to happen.
Wang took a knife in his hand. Zazuza panicked and started to yell at him ``what's going on?
What are you doing? ``
-Look away.
That single sound was so haunting and frightening that Zazuza began to cry and was unable
to speak for what felt like an eternity. When she was finally able to speak, she started to yell,
furious:
- Why?! Are you out of your mind?! Why did you do that?!
Wang just sighed and said: ``Calm down, look again. ``
Zazuza couldn't believe her eyes; she knew what she had seen. Was it all an illusion?
-What? How? Your finger…
-I'm fine. This potion is extremely potent for a very short amount of time.
-What do you mean?
-Remember that herb, Foxes' nose, the one I've been studying for all these years?
- The cold remedy? What about it?
- Turns out, that in very high doses, it has an unexpected benefit: it makes the body impervious
to damage and it cranks up the body's healing ability to the extent of what you've just witnessed. I
have a plan.
-What's that?
- You all take the potion, including the mercenaries, and overthrow the Chief. After that, you make Zico take his place. We flee to China and live happily ever after.
- You lost it. How can you speak of such things?
- What? I'm saying it like it is: you have an advantage, use it.
- You're talking about betrayal, murder, and thievery. My family pleads our allegiance to the
Chief.
- You'll be pleading for your lives soon, instead if you don't listen.
- How did you even make such a discovery?
-I was studying the effects of foxtail on humans and found out something... revolutionary.
- Foxtail activates a recessive gene in those born from human and immortal parents.
Zazuza: What's that?
- A recessive gene is a gene that stays dormant in the child. A recessive gene for you is your eye
color. Your parents have brown eyes, but because your grandmother had blue eyes, something
activated in your genes and now you have light-coloured eyes. A dominant gene is your hair, since
both your parents had light hair. Your brother has dark hair because his mother had dark hair.
Darker genes are stronger than lighter genes, they're dominant.
-I see... but what does this have to do with humans?
-You know how a child of an immortal and a human always turns out human? Turns out foxtail
activates the recessive gene of the immortal.
- So you're saying... we were all human once?
- Yes.
-That's... wow.
-It changes everything we ever knew about our origin.
-What else have you discovered?
- We can change our genetic make-up and gain abilities such as I have just shown you. This is my
latest project: this mask can modify the wearer's features into anything they imagine. I want you to
have it.
-Why would I want that?
-You could be anybody else. Isn't that amazing?
-No thank you, I'm happy just being myself.
-Take it with you, I insist. And don't forget this.
Wang took off his feather earring. It had two pearls sitting on top of each other: a black and a white
one.
-The black one has ink. The white one has cyanide inside. In case we fail, you know what to do... Now let's go. Take these potions with you, and I'll walk you back.
-I'm fine.
-What are you talking about?
- I'll see you tomorrow evening.
-But it's so late! I can't let you go on your own.
- It's fine.
-Very well, we'll meet tomorrow then.