January 1, 2004, 09:00
The moonfolk kingdom
The sky Castle
There's a huge crowd of soldiers running forth and backwards around the castles main entrance, and that's enough of an indication that the peace making meeting didn't go that well.
Evdokia is angry. No, fucking furious.
She doesn't think this is fair, not to her people, not to her father. All those soldiers corpses did nothing wrong. All those innocent lives did nothing to be cut out of the circle of life this early in their youth.
She's thinking about dad, Amara, and Felony, praying and asking for them to come home safely. She knows it's a lot to ask, that she knows her father and brothers well enough to know that they would never turn their backs to their people and army, that they'd fight, fight and fight till their last drop of sweat and blood. Dad didn't even take that much of their army in the first place, knowing that this was just a peace making conference between the clans and kingdoms.
Evdokia is throwing up in her private bathroom when she hears a knock on her room's door.
"princess Evdokia, the army head has arrived."
Evdokia's heart jumps up to her throat, and the next thing she knows is that she's running up and down the castle's corridors, jumping off the railways from time to time to reach the throne hall faster.
She meets her mum, also running to the same destination, out of breathe. They both reach the half opened door at the same time, and the first thing they see is blood. There's blood of someone who was dragged into the room. Hilla freezes in her place as Evdokia opens the door wide.
Evdokia's heart drops to the ground and back up to the sky from what she sees.
It's Amara, with dad and Felony between his arms. There's a huge puddle of blood underneath them.
Felony's eyes are shut while dad's are shallowly open, fluttering around looking for two familiar faces, and Evdokia could tell that he's taking his last breathes. Evdokia runs to father's side and he smiles weakly at her as he reaches his arm to catch her. Amara has his face buried in Felony's hair, sobbing his heart out. She focuses at dad's face, dad's smiley peaceful face, getting blurry with every second she looks at him. He moves his hand to reach Evdokia's cheek, flooded with salty tears. She thinks she hears someone behind her scream that her mother fell and passed out, she isn't sure. All she could hear was her father breathing, feeling his chest rise and fall unsteadily as she clutches his shirt.
"Evdokia." He calls out softly.
"Dad." It's weak and broken in every possible way. She knows what's coming, and she, in no means, ready for it to happen.
"Take care of our people, yeah?" she sees a tear fall from his eye as his hand on her cheek falls in surrender.
"I won't have to, you're going to be okay, everything is going to be okay." Evdokia sobs with a smile on her face, hysterically nodding her head.
"someone call the medics!" she thinks she hears Dagher behind her scream, she could hallucinating for all she knows.
"Never kneel to the bad, always follow your heart, my beautiful chújú."
"Dad, stop! You're not going to die, you can't die!", Evdokia shouts at him as he closes his eyes, a single last tear falling from between his lashes, leaving a trail along his ice cold cheek.
"No no no no no no, DAD, NO!"
It takes her a moment to remember that..
"Mum." She whispers to herself, the realisation hitting her like a blizzard falling off the top pf the highest mountain.
"MUM." Evdokia leaves her father's hand and shirt and runs to her mother, where she's surrounded with doctors, who also could tell what just happened because they all stop what they're doing the moment it hits them.
Artem and Hilla are soulmates, were soulmates.
Dad and mum are connected through the strongest connections to ever exist is their world.
Physically and mentally.
And as they were meant to be born together at the same hour, they were both also meant to die together.
Evdokia stops between the two bodies, one splayed onto the ground, the other still bleeding out as Amara holds tight to him in one of his arms. Evdokia looks over at his side, looking at Felony. She sees that his chest isn't moving, and it breaks the last drop of sanity she posses.
Evdokia falls to her knees and screams. She screams and screams and screams. She screams for someone to reverse time for her. She screams for someone to hold her hand and tell her everything will be alright. She screams for someone to carry her. She screams for someone to tell her what to do. She screams for someone to help her in this fight. She screams for someone to take that weight of hers off her shoulders.
But no one answers, instead, she starts hearing voices of people screaming. Her people screaming.
Take care of our people.
Those words are the only thing she could hear at that moment. All the screams, whaling, cries and moans are becoming vivid. All she could see was blood, every cell in her could only think of one thing.
Fight.
Fight.
Fight.
Evdokia wipes her tears with the back of her hand. She takes a couple of breathes in and out. She sets her mind onto it, she's protecting her people, or she's dying trying. She goes up to the throne side, where her father's sword lies while he left the castle unarmed yesterday.
"Eve." There's a weak voice behind her when she's almost out of the room, sword out of the scabbard and ready to be her arm in this fight.
She stops abruptly in her steps with a squeak by her shoes friction against the floor. Evdokia turns around and looks up at Amara. He's off the floor, taking his coat off and covering both his father and younger brother with it. Evdokia could see that he's critically injured in his waist, and she runs to his side to hold him up straight before he topples to the ground.
"You should take guards with you, run as far as you can, Eve." He murmurs with all he had of energy left.
"And you? You expect me to leave you here in this state to fight?" she questions.
"yes, you don't have that much of an option, Eve."
She gets it. She gets where he's coming from. But she also knows better than running away.
"we'll fight them." She insists, foolishly stubborn, "we'll fight them together."
Amara looks down on her and wonders, when have his little sister grown into this grown up adult, ready to put on an armour and face one of the most capable and viscous armies in their realm.
She doesn't leave him a chance to disagree as she swings his arm behind her neck, balancing him out as they walk out of the room, remembering to tell the retinue to announce an evacuation in the kingdom and to take off to the Atlantic empire.
*
May 1, 2021, 6:17
Beijing, china
Mogra safehouse
Evdokia stares up at the ball of fire, gradually illuminating the land with it's honey tangerine colour. She listens to the chirping of the birds, as they dance around with the wind, unconscious of the good and evil running around them in this world.
It fascinates her, how animals of the wild can live their daily lives without having to worry about the changes of other creatures around them. She has always felt connected to them in some way. Valodya have always told her it was because of her moonfolk essence and their connection with nature. Nevertheless, she has always felt that it was a different kind of relationship, she wanted to be as carefree as an early bird or even a red emperor fish.
The sun has already painted the leaves of the trees and branches with warmth by the time Jean was awake. He walks over to Evdokia were she has been sitting cross legged on the cliff looking right at the water of the river.
"Good morning to you too, darling." Evdokia says as she pushes the ground underneath her, getting up from her position knowing that Jean likes taking his morning walk at this time of the day. Jean chuckles.
"I've thought about it." said Jean turning around to start the walk accompanied with the moonfolk.
"Yeah?"
"Yeah."
He doesn't say anything for a few minutes and Evdokia doesn't push it. She knows that he is as sensitive to this topic as much as she is.
After a few minutes he speaks again." I trust your judgement enough."
She doesn't say anything, instead she stares at the green bushes with pops of violet purple they are about to pass by.
"Evd-"
"I know, I just need time to clear up my mind." She throws behind her back while bending down to pick up an anemone flower.
Evdokia can feel Jean shoulders relax a bit when they start walking again.
The silent conversation stretches, the two feeling at peace with the comfortable company.
The picked up the speed of their snail paced walk when they approached the safehouse, seeing the rest of their team already awake, enjoying the last few peaceful moments of their lives, Evdokia thinks.
Jean gets next to Valodya where he's leaning on the apricot tree trunk, jumping shallowly picking up one of the small fruits hanging from the branches.
"You're here early." Jean states while looking at the apricot attentively making sure it doesn't have any holes. Evdokia hugs Valodya the moments she's close enough too. He has removed the cast off his ankle.
"Always early for you, your highness." he says without a hint of sarcasm in his voice and as always, Evdokia cringes at him.
"I slept like a rock last night, which means I'm all ready for some action boss." Ira chimes into the conversation.
Evdokia lets go of Valodya and sighs loudly, letting gravity drop her body to the grassed surface without fighting it.
"Oh no," says Robin, joining them," We lost her."
"Nah, I feel her, I would like to lay down and wait for the ground to swallow me too" says Jean.
"Same" says Valodya.
"Immortals." Ira rolls his eyes at them.
Jean throws the stone fruit's seed that he just ate at Ira "Shut up squidward." And Ira takes offence to it, which makes Jean laugh even harder.
"So, are we going to talk about it?" Says Robin before those two start a crawl they'll never hear the end of.
"About what?" Evdokia asks softly, stretching out her arms with a loud pop in her shoulders.
"Who wanted LiQin?"
There could be a million people who would want LiQin dead, Evdokia knows that much. The thought of two of those people does sneak up on her and shakes her in fear if she is right about them. They're up for a big fight, if she's being frank with herself, and it scares her to death someone else on the team getting hurt in the process of clearing it out.
It's always her biggest fear on every mission, the fear of losing one of her men. They're more than family to her, they're everything she knows in life, and she's not ready to lose any part of it for now.
But this time it's different, it's not just a mission. That part is already over, the real deal is the price of being involved in it. And she's one to know better than anyone else about paying a price for dipping a pinkie in stranger waters. The last time someone saved LiQin's life and hid him, their whole worlds shattered to sharp bits and shards, too dangerous to even think about it.
A selfish part of her wants to give LiQin in to them, whoever they are. She doesn't want to involve her team and Reema's team. The last time it happened was family business, now, she's not sure if it's the same, given that she's the last living folk in her family.
Who they are, is the real question. They could be the vampires clans, specifically Ivar. They could be Onis clan. They could even be elves who lost their loved ones and are after him now too. There are countless of other creatures who would want to see LiQin's head off his shoulders and on a platter, although, as far as Evdokia knows, everyone knows that LiQin died, or so she thought.
There isn't much they can do for now, well, except for hiding and being smart about it, not until LiQin is conscious, who is currently under the supervision of Ufuk, as he's the best medic on both teams.
And then there's reporting it to the FBI. How can she explain that they only left two kids alive because they were creatures without actually saying it. How the fuck can she explain a wolf attack on the kidnappers and not leaving a single one of them alive. How can she explain only attacking the compound herself without the rest of her team. And most importantly, how is she going to hide LiQin from this case but at the same time keep him in the open because one of the victims were his son. It's a lot to unpack and think about, and quite honestly, she isn't thrilled about it.
They carry on with their plans for the next week as they walk back to the house. They find Reema and Andy in the kitchen making them breakfast, ZiYan sitting along with Hook, Valodya's dog, on the couch and watching whatever is on the television. He stands straight once he sees them entering the house one by one, almost as if his military leaders have arrived. He walks up to them and bows 90 degrees in front of them.
"thank you, for everything. " he says in one breathe.
Robin smiles at him and pats his shoulder, unbending his back for him.
"It's okay, kid, it's the least we could do."
ZiYan seems a bit at ease hearing it and it shows on his face. It's moment like these that remind her of why she loves her job. Other than the fact that she can beat people up black and blue for fun, she also saves lives and spirits while doing it, two in a one sale. Quite the offer, really.
"where's YuNing?" Ira asks as he turns on the water boiler.
"He said he's too tired to move out of bed." Answers ZiYan.
"understandable." Hums Jean.
When they're done with the breakfast preparation, they make YuNing a tray of food, and Evdokia takes it upon herself to deliver it to him.
She climbs up the stairs carefully balancing everything on the tray. She knocks softly before opening the door, loud enough in case if he was changing and low enough in case he was sleeping.
She opens the door slowly, and she's met with big black eyes, lined by black circles and messy hair all over the place. He looks like shit, but in a good way, she thinks.
"I brought you food." She smiles at him kindly.
He doesn't answer and keeps on staring at her. It weirds her out, but she chooses to ignore it and goes to landing the tray on one of the bed's side tables.
"Morning." She smiles at him softly, but she's met with the same wide eyed glace.
Evdokia clears her throat and stuffs her hoddie's pocket with her hands.
"Well, if you need anything, you know where to fi-" she starts but he interrupts her.
"Why?"
Well, that's... quite the question.
"I need you to be more specific. " she answers him, even if she knows what he meant.
"why am I seeing you in all of my dreams? Why are you around me all the time? Why are you everywhere I go or look at? You've made me lose my mind, you know?" His tone is louder than Evdokia's personal preference when being talked to, but she keeps it in. She thinks about her conversation with Jean last night.
"umm.. have you considered that It's just in your head?" She says calmly. She knows where this should be going, but she restraints herself from heading there.
"No, you don't get to tell me this, tell me exactly what's going on, I know that there must be an explanation regards it." YuNing is losing his shit, which isn't his normal attitude. "I can hear your voice like I've been possessed by you, its like...its like you're standing right behind me the whole time." He's at a breaking point, and Evdokia doesn't judge, she realised this really isn't that of a normal phenomena.
"First of all, calm down," Evdokia says, not having it with the way he's talking to her, "second of all, yes, there are explanations for everything you just asked about, but I think we'll need to get into them when we-"
"Eve, LiQin is up!" Robin shouts from the first floor.
She stops in her speech and looks behind her at the door, she has her priorities. And so, she walks back out of the door, leaving a pissed off but confused YuNing behind, who eventually follows her out of the room.
Both teams walk to the garage, where they find an injured LiQin being wrapped up with gauze. The first person he locks eyes with is his son, YuNing.
He holds eye contact with YuNing, and he could see the tears flowing out of YuNing's eyes, his round innocent eyes. It hurts, being the reason behind your child's tears, but every bad thought he had flies out the window when YuNing runs to his arms to embrace him.
It still feels the same, the same embrace YuNing would ask for when he was five and had a bad nightmare, the same embrace he gave YuNing when he scrapped his knees while playing at the park, the same embrace he gave him and his mother's during his first performance on stage, the same embrace he gave him when YuNing graduated high school and got into his dream college.
Its a long hug, possibly a two minute one.
"Don't cry, please." LiQin says as he pulls away from the hug, wiping the tears off his son's delicate face with his finger tips.
He realises they're being watched when he looks up. LiQin wipes his own tears quickly and pulls himself together, clearing his throat and all.
"Where do I even start from?" he asks no one in particular, chuckling. LiQin doesn't know what to expect from Evdokia. The last he heard of their realm was not pretty, and he knows he played a huge part in it. Does she blame him? Does she hold piled up hatred towards him? Does she want him dead like everyone else does?
"Is your little angel not getting a hug too?" Evdokia smiles at him, and warms and constricts LiQin's heart like a thousand phoenixes coming back to life.
He lets go of YuNing and runs to Evdokia, almost forgetting that their height difference isn't the same as before and that he doesn't need to kneel to get to her. It's a parental hug in every possible aspect, a hug only him, Valodya and her lost parents could give.
"my little angel isn't so little anymore, eh?" he says between chocks from crying.
"No, I'm a big girl now, look at those guns." She steps back and shows off her arm muscles and it makes everyone in the room laugh through emotion. LiQin looks up at the rest of the people in the room and he recognises a bunch of faces. He goes to hugging Jean and Ira, Evdokia's royal partners in crime, and it seems like they're still following her orders no matter how dumb or dangerous they might be, and it only paints a sincere smile onto his face. They're missing one though, but he doesn't dwell on it.
He can also recognise the love birds, Robin and Reema, Jean's god parents, and last but not least, the two guardians of Ira and Evdokia, Mizuki and Valodya.
"I missed you all, so fucking much." He whispers as he gets a group hug by all the elders.
"we missed you too, hag." Reema whispers back playfully.
"Oh no, now I don't. " LiQin pulls away from the hug and walks backwards which earns him barks of laughter all round the room.
He sees three new faces and perks a questioning eyebrow at them.
"Ah, allow me to introduce my team, Ufuk, Andy and Dodo. " she has her arms around her team , like a proud parent and all.
"How the fuck do you know them?"
Evdokia would be lying if she said she didn't forget that YuNing and ZiYan were still in the room with them.
*