Chapter 3: 03
"Thank you for letting me have this book," I say to Asima, the middle aged Kitaba scholar in our neighbourhood. "You had helped me a lot with my education. I don't know how I will ever repay you."
She takes the book graciously. Asima Jwahun has an intelligent grace to her. Golden skin face with glasses on. She has a soft yellow veil hung down to the wrists over matching robes. Strangely, she persists on wearing pants under robes. I had also found it strange that she lived in the working-class area, though she explained it was for the studies.
"What happened with your husband, Kericki?" She studies my weary condition as she asks.
"Ever since he has been put in prison that night, there is no sign of a coming trial since," I say.
"It has been half a month now?" She clicks her tongue. "I'd always thought this city's justice system was laughable. But this is even worse than I realized. While Antoro is rapidly growing in power, its people are increasing becoming liars and cheats."
"This is what Teus says when I go to him. We have no option but to bear it patiently," I say with a smile.
"That boy is a God fearing person, a staunch follower of the prophets' teachings. But there is a limit to let a corruptor do what they want." I blink at her words.
She adjusts her glasses, thinking. "Let me help. I will buy you from that woman. Then we will go to Kitaba and prepare a case to get your husband back."
"Thank you," I say and bow my head respectfully. "But I will not burden you any further. This is between me and my Mistress. And I will solve it."
I begin to leave.
Asima looks surprised. "What are you planning? Don't do anything stupid! You are a wife of a slave. You don't have any power."
"Exactly, I am a wife and I will do anything to save my beloved husband."
The sky turns dark and I begin to blend with the scene in my black coat. This one is different from usual shabby blue coat I used to wear. It is made from leather and wool and had lots of inner pockets and belts. The travel coat I was in when Teus and I first arrived. I remember the unbroken determination is his bright blue eyes that night. That fire flickered in that cage he is now.
"Ah, it's you," Mistress says calmly, lying on one arm on her bed. A smoke pipe in her another hand. "So you finally dared to show your face to me."
"Why did you frame Teus of rape if you loved him so much?" I ask in the same calm voice.
"You had always believed in him," she says. Her voice betraying sadness and anger. Of loving a man who rejected this proud woman's feelings. "From the beginning, you never feared Teus will betray you. You remained unbothered even after seeing him leave my room that time, not suspecting in the slightest."
"You will never understand this, Mistress. To be a wife of an upright honest man."
"It does not matter. Disappear from my sight, both of you! I will have you sent to a slave master next morning."
"And what do you plan to with my husband?" I ask, still keeping the calm tone.
"Let him rot in that prison for all I care. Do you think I am going to stake my reputation to bring him back now?"
Then the change in her expression shows she senses a change in the air.
"Honestly, I only bore with you because of gratitude to save my life by taking me. But you crossed all the lines, Mistress," I tell her with all humour lost from my face.
All composure leaves her face. "Guards! Guards!" She shouts.
"There is no use calling them. They cannot hear you." I close the door behind me as the room darkens despite the rows of candles in her room.
"What are you? Leave me alone!" She screeches, seeing the glow in the pale blue eyes.
"You have power in this world. Humans obey you. This is why you are called a mistress. But there are certain humans, who are selected ever since birth, to be obeyed by the monsters from the other world. Do you know what the likes of me are called? Yonmistress."
"But you people are killed!"
"No, no, don't mistake me for the petty magic users who try to summon the what is way more powerful than them. But you are right, our number have dwindled a lot.
"You must know the saying – we each have a monster that chases us. Should I show you what has been trying to come after you, Mistress?" I say with a lift of an arm.
The pressure in the room changes and the air jolting into movements take the candlelight out. With that a creature takes full liberty to crawl from the roof to the walls. Its body is huge and long. Its legs are sharp and small. Like a giant centipede. I know its name. It has told me.
The Mistress watches this and cries. But her cries do not last long. As the creature's bulbous head full of teeth pounces on her. Monsters do not eat human. Not the physical flesh atleast. It crosses through her body and she stops screaming. The large centipede body passes through her frozen form.
Finally when the monster leaves, what is left is the Mistress we know. But she is not there either. She looks in my direction but her eyes are dead. Her face is chalk white. She is alive and she cannot live. She cannot feel emotions. It is snatched from her.
Now she just sits there like this forever.
Presence of another shocks my senses. I did not want to let this one come. A powerful monster with red wings and a giant bee-like body. A big sinister grin on its eye-less face appear before me.
"If you had made a pact with me, this would not have happened," it says with a hissing voice. "Kericki."
"I have nothing to do with you, Kovrieu."
"Aww think of it," Kovrieu says. "Don't you love your husband? What if he had died because of her? With me, you will be powerful enough that no one dare touch you."
Some monsters have the ability to lure you with their speech. And Kovrieu's words has brought my fears of losing Teus crashing in. I almost say yes. But hold myself in time.
"Getting saved by you is the last thing he'd want," I say. "Get out of here."
It does. My muscles relax and I drop to my knees.
Teus suspects as soon as he is released. He wants me to tell him how he is free and I tell him. The Mistress simply ordered his release, writing a letter like a puppet. He is not pleased.
"I told you to not do that. What if the monsters had gotten you too? You promised you would not do that."
I look down.
He sighs and holds my hand. "I'm sorry it's my fault."
"Don't say that," I say. He looks at me with regret. "Stop taking everything on yourself and have trust in me. I trust you too, you know."
"I do," He says.
"You are a yonmistress," Asima says when she catches me on road one day.
"Teus told you?" I ask.
She clicks her tongue. "Please, I'm smart enough to guess how and who caused that state to the general's daughter. And especially the way everyone is strangely silent on this matter. I have been trying to locate you people for ages! And it turned out one was walking right under my nose all this time," she says with annoyance. "Is your husband a yonmaster then?"
"No. And He tries to keep me away as well. You know how dangerous dealing with the monster is, right?" I say.
"What a waste," she says. "You are so good at this. Don't think you can escape me until I have done my study on you. Think of it as your repayment."
She smiles and winks.
I sigh but smile as well. "Guess I'll never escape having a troublesome mistress."
Now that Teus is a freeman. And I... have an ambiguous status. He easily gains favours of some of his peers in the military and earns a position good enough for a respectable life. We buy a house in the eastern borderland. A simple house with lots of natural greenery there. No more decorated gardens. I buy a horse for myself and start a little orchard where Memi, Rei and Sono work together with me.
Around us, the world is changing and becoming something unfamiliar. I sense the presence of the monsters outside the city more frequently. It worries me deeply. At night I wonder what is coming for us.
For now, we are fine here.
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