In a small dimly lit room a gathering was in session, the assembled members bowed in
unison at the entrance of a figure. Her crimson hair hung in a loose braid resting on her
shoulder, a maroon dress draped her tall figure that swept the floor as she walked in and a
black netted veil covered her face to disclose her identity. She took her position facing the
gathered members and then she sat down motioning for them to lift their heads. A white
haired male with an eye patch over his left eye and a sword in his hand stood behind the
seated female.
"Braun what about the task?" the female spoke monotonously.
"Yes my lady about that" he couldn't dare to look up knowing he had failed to complete the
task.
"What could we do....she got away" Levi cut in nonchalantly.
"Levi!" Braun reprimands him "My Lady forgive his rudeness" he keeps his eyes fixed to
the floor.
"She got away?" her golden eyes turned cold.
"But my lady she ran into the Forbidden Forest there is no way she could have survived" a
member of the guards spoke up.
"Is that so, come here boy" she calmly beckons him to come near her, to which he
obediently responds and kneels before her. She bends and holds the boy's cheek and tilts
her head a little to the side then continues "So boy, are you sure she is dead?" The guard's
face begins to show lines of red as his skin slowly colors into tints of brown and traces of
smoke escape his body. He cringes in pain at her touch and his body begins to heat up. He
struggles to speak "My..My Lady..I.."
"What I want are results not excuses, I shall not tolerate useless talks" she says.
"My Lady Rowena" the white haired male whispers "You need not dirty your hands to set
an example, I shall do it".
She sends him a side glance then removes her hand from over the boy's cheek, the latter
falls down to the ground writhing in pain. The white haired male stands over the boy's
body ready to slay him.
"Leave him be Zen" Rowena orders him and then stands up and starts to make her exit but then she
stops and faces Braun "I am willing to overlook your failure but there won't be a next time
Braun" saying this she walks out with her bodyguard behind her.
"Yes My Lady" Braun simply whispers.
Meanwhile deep in the Forbidden Forest three figures hurried through the underground
tunnel of an abandoned shrine. After cleaning up and changing into a clean set of clothes
first, Rei and the old couple quickly made their way down below the shrine making haste.
"Rei we must hurry there isn't much time to waste" Joletta ushers her into a cave with
Remus behind her. The baby was now all cleaned up and wrapped with a white cloth and
nestled comfortably in Rei's arms. She notices that the old members were in different
clothing, both were dressed in white long dress coats which had red lines at the edges of
the coats, she tried to find a reason as to why they wore such attire but her thoughts cut off
when her eyes met the entrance of the cave. The cave was quite spacious; two cherry
blossom trees grew at the entrance and upon entering the cave Rei looks in awe. The
ceiling of the cave had transparent string like blue lights dangling from it making the entire
walls of the cave look blue; it felt like she had stepped into another world entirely. She
looked ahead to find the end of the cave in utter darkness.
"Princess, allow us to enter your sacred sanctuary" Joletta says looking in the direction of
the dark end of the cave. The moment she said those words, blue flames immediately lit up
in a row on either sides of a cemented path bridge directed straight towards the end which
led to a huge altar revealing a statue of a blue fox. There was a huge cherry blossom behind
it with an arch built over it. Taking a step onto the cemented path bridge Rei notices that
there was water on either sides of the path, there were beautiful fishes in the water that
looked like silver transparent bodies filled with lights. She looked up and what she saw
enamored her, the ceiling on the part of the cave was different to the one she saw at the
entrance. Instead of a rocky surface she saw the sky with white fluffy clouds and to her
amazement she saw stars twinkling bright in the sky and a crescent moon half hidden by
the clouds.
'What is this place?' she gasps at its beauty still staring up while walking. She wanted to see
more, she wanted to take in her surrounding inch by inch but she knew it wasn't the time
to sightsee. The three figures hurried up a small flight of stairs till they found themselves
standing before a huge marbled table. Rei noticed that it had intricate carvings of fairies,
climbers, flowers, winged-unicorns and the constellation on all sides of the table and lastly the center piece of the marbled surface had nine tails spread around within a moon carved
into it.
"Rei, hurry and place the little one on the center of the table", Remus tells her while standing
at the left end of the table with Joletta at the right side. Rei nods her head and takes a look
at the infant in her arms, she places a soft kiss on the little forehead catching traces of the
little one's irregular heartbeats. She gently lays her child at the instructed spot on the
center piece carving of the table and looks painfully while covering her mouth to prevent
tears.
"Okay now move away from the table" Joletta calmly motions her to step down the stairs.
Rei did as she was told and with heavy steps she trotted her way down. Joletta and Remus
place both hands on either sides of the square table and with closed eyes they try to
concentrate and seconds later strings of white light crawl across the surface of the table
and form a circle around the infant which instantly turn blue, then again thin strands of
yellow light appear all around the table forming vein like structures connecting themselves
to the blue circle of light. Rei watched the proceedings in silence, her fragile body trembling
almost on the verge of collapsing; she perked up at a loud voice that belonged to Joletta.
"Oh! Heavenly Princess, Rise from thy slumber It is not against its wishes I have awaken
thee. Behold and come forth, save thy vessel thou sees. Come Princess Inga, thy humble
servants call upon thee".
Instantly the table glowed up and the vein like yellow lights began to move towards the
blue circle finally being consumed into the circle. The blue circle began mixing into lights of
blue and yellow gradually getting into a circular movement and within seconds strong
waves of wind took over the table creating a small tornado over the infant's body.
"JOLETTA!! WHAT'S HAPPENING?!" Rei cries out, but both the old people were too
engrossed in the ritual to hear her voice. Panicking she runs up the stairs to reach out to
her baby but was instantly blown away, she was flung across the stairs, her body skidded
across the cemented bridge path but she managed to hold on to the parapet of the bridge
thus preventing herself from being further blown away. Meanwhile the mixture of light was
acting as a barrier to prevent any disturbances to what would be happening within it in a
while. The carvings of the nine tails beneath the little body began to disappear and take the
form of real transparent blue tails, it seemed like they had a life of their own as they
emerged slowly from both sides of the body and slowly took up an upright position and
then came down with full force piercing the infant's heart and thrusting itself deeper into
the little body till it fully submerged itself in and then disappeared inside. The wind picked
up its pace and began to gather around the blue and yellow tornado while the rotation of
the wind increased building up a momentum. The small tornado lifts up slowly and
undertakes a sphere like form hovering over the body which gradually takes the shape of a gigantic fox mid air. The form slowly opens its thin slant eyes to reveal its emerald green
pupils. Rei watched in horror at the creature hovering above her child, she remained stuck
to her position unable to move 'Just what is that thing' she tries to comprehend. The fox
form simpers spreading out huge nine tails in all directions then it explodes into millions of
tiny lights giving an impression of floating fairy lights before they slowly dissipated into the
atmosphere.
"It's done "Joletta and Remus say in unison breathing tiredly, their face showed no signs of
relief nor calm because they knew it wasn't entirely over yet. Rei ran up the stairs and held
up her baby in her arms, her eyes widened letting out a breath in disbelief and in between
sobs she painfully says
"She's not …she's not breathing…"
The old couple looked at each other dejectedly "Forgive me Rei....We tried....I told you it was
too risky" she says, her droopy eyes stuck on the floor.
"No....NO!!!!! " Rei fell to the floor and screamed out, her violet eyes clouded in sorrow, tears
streamed down her pale face as she clutched her baby against her chest. The cave
resounded with the mourning of the pain stricken mother. At that moment a warm blue
light emitted from the little girl's chest. Rei looked down wide-eyed, her tears glistened in
the blue light and as a tear rolled down her cheek the light gets sucked back into the baby's
chest and then a miracle happened. A sweet cry vibrated in the air resounding through the
cave walls, the cry belonged to the tiny little form clasped tight to her mother's bosom. Rei
took in a deep breath, her worried brows relaxed and as if she had tasted the sweetest fruit
she had been craving for, she threw her head back in elation closing her eyes and letting the
sound of the cries seep into her.