The Reunion: a journey through Klin and back
Author:© WebNovel
Chapter 1: Chapter one
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 bank.
Zazuza wasn’t afraid of bandits, thieves, or charlatans. She was afraid of Zizina’s rotten blabbering. This was why she had been keeping Yan a secret for all these years. One hundred years. She waited for the full moon to rise, and she was thinking about 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 finished. 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? "Yan 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 life. 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 class! The horror! Don’t you know how to answer questions?"
"Why do you ask?"
Yan 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 Yan were sharing news and Yan had something very important to share about his latest promotion.
Zazuza: I’m happy to hear about your promotion! I can’t believe you’re the Clan Court’s Inventor now.
Yan: About that… I want you to come with me. After I propose to your father, you should come to Nih-Kah. It’s like nothing you’ve ever imagined.
Zazuza: 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.
Yan: Wait? That’s all we’ve been doing!
Zazuza: I’m just saying that there is a lot of tension in the air since the last time we spoke face to face.
Yan: Do you mean since ``the incident``?
Zazuza: Yes, everyone is blaming each other for what happened … One day Zaidus blames Zora. Zora blames Zizif but the moment they’re all present they take back their word and act as if they’ve never seen each other.
Yan: It’s been a while, what happened exactly?
Zazuza: Someone’s been tinkering with the dam. Zaidus says he saw Zora late at night, near the irrigation channels. My father says that is impossible because he’d be doing himself more harm than good, since the next day he was supposed to go work there.
Yan: And what did Zora say?
Zazuza: Zora denies it being there and blames Zizif, he says that since the drought showed up, he wanted to make sure he can feed his cattle.
Yan: What about Zizif?
Zazuza: He denies it, too. My father suspects him though, says that he’s the only one with something to gain out of the whole business.
Yan: I see…
Zazuza: That‘s why I can’t leave. And that’s just our smallest problem. 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.
Yan: What about your older brother? Can’t he deal with these problems instead?
Zazuza: He could, should, must but he always leaves me hanging. You could say he’s under ``the influence``.
Yan: Not his old schoolmates, again?
Zazuza: Quite so… all they do is drink, fight, and stroke each other’s ego. Yesterday he woke up in a tree.
Yan: Sounds uncomfortable…
Zazuza: And what annoys me to no end, is that father insists on giving him chances. That man is never going to change.
Yan: Your father is a good man and that’s his son, hopefully, one day you’ll be wrong.
Zazuza: I hope so. I miss the old Zico.
Yan: Me too.
Zazuza: We’re hiring some mercenaries for protection, in case anything bad happens during the Council Meeting next month.
Yan: From the city?
Zazuza: No, humans. Near the Tai Mountain chain, there is an impressive archer tribe. They have a good reputation.
Yan: Isn’t that barren?
Zazuza: I think they don’t rely as much on farming as we do. I wish there was something we could do instead…
Yan: …
Yan: Come here, I want to show you something.
Zazuza followed Yan into the caravan, inside there was a library case and after she helped him push it aside, a small, locked door was revealed.
Zazuza: What’s this about? Is it a surprise?
Yan: Even better. Watch your head.
They crouched and inside there was an alchemist’s laboratory, chaotically filled with potions and discarded papers all around.
Zazuza: So this is where you make your inventions? All these years and I had no idea.
Yan: What you’re about to see, is classified. Do I have your word that you will never speak of this to anyone?
Zazuza: What’s with the serious tone, are you alright?
Yan: What you will see, must never leave these walls. Do you understand?
Zazuza: What’s gotten into you?
Yan: ….
Zazuza: Fine, I know how to keep a secret, you know that!
Yan 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.
Yan took a knife in his hand. Zazuza panicked and started to yell at him `
`What’s going on? What are you doing? ``
Yan: 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:
Zazuza: Why?! Are you out of your mind?! Why did you do that?!
Yan 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?
Zazuza: What? How? Your finger…
Yan: I’m fine. This potion is extremely potent for a very short amount of time.
Zazuza: What do you mean?
Yan: Remember that herb, Foxes’ nose, the one I’ve been studying for all these years?
Zazuza: The cold remedy? What about it?
Yan: 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.
Zazuza: What’s that?
Yan: You all take the potion, including the mercenaries, and overthrow the Chief. After that, you put Zico in his place. We flee to Nih-Kah and live happily ever after.
Zazuza: You lost it. How can you speak of such things?
Yan: What? I’m saying it like it is: you have an advantage, use it.
Zazuza: You’re talking about betrayal, murder, and thievery. My family pleads our allegiance to the Chief.
Yan: You’ll be pleading for your lives soon, instead if you don’t listen.
Zazuza: How did you even make such a discovery?
Yan: I was studying the effects of foxtail on humans and found out something... revolutionary.
Yan: Foxtail activates a recessive gene in those born from human and immortal parents.
Zazuza: What’s that?
Yan: 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-colored eyes. A dominant gene is your hair since both of 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.
Zazuza: I see... but what does this have to do with humans?
Yan: 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.
Zazuza: So you’re saying... we were all human once?
Yan: Yes.
Zazuza: That’s... wow.
Yan: It changes everything we ever knew about our origin.
Zazuza: What else have you discovered?
Yan: We can change our genetic makeup and gain abilities 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.
Zazuza: Why would I want that?
Yan: You could be anybody else. Isn’t that amazing?
Zazuza: No thank you, I’m happy just being myself.
Yan: Take it with you, I insist. And don’t forget this.
Yan took off his feather earring. It had two pearls sitting on top of each other: a black and a white one.
Yan: The black one has ink. The white one has cyanide inside. In case we fail, you know what to do.
Yan: Now let’s go. Take these potions with you, and I’ll walk you back.
Zazuza: I’m fine.
Yan: What are you talking about?
Zazuza: I’ll see you tomorrow evening.
Yan: But it’s so late! I can’t let you go on your own.
Zazuza: It’s fine.
Yan: Very well, we’ll meet tomorrow then.
Zazuza walked for a bit and then sprinted as if her life depended on it.
“What. In.Hydra’s.Name.Was.That?!”
She thought to herself, running chaotically.
“Who even is he?! I’ve known him for all these years and now? Now it’s for nothing!” she tripped on a tree root and fell.
“Wake up! Did you hear that, too?” a strange voice said nearby.
“Darn! Someone heard me...” Zazuza dropped down and waited for the bandits to pass.
“ Do you see anything?”
“No, what do you think it was?”
“Probably a cat or something.”
“ Thank the Hydra they left.” She sighed in relief, and when they left the camp she started to crawl, very carefully.
“ Darn why does this stuff keep happening to me.” Suddenly she felt a strong stomp on her hand and she let out a yell.
“ You were wrong, gents. It wasn’t a cat, but a sneaky, slithering, snake. “ all she saw was the sly smile on the thief’s face.
“ Well done, Lit! It’s good we took you with us tonight, after all!” Two men pinned Zazuza down and gagged her.
“ I’ll get the rope!” one of the men said, excitedly.
“Of course,” Lit replied. “We’ll take her with us to the market, three towns from here.”
“ Why go through all that trouble? Why not just sell her to the next town?” one of the men asked.
“Because she’s a Hydra, someone’s bound to ask about her around. But if we play it safe, we’ll make some good money on the side.”
“How do you even know that?”
“It’s all in the clothes, see the pattern? The geometric shapes mimic snake skin.” Lit answered.
One man started the fire, and they all began to drink by it, singing merry songs and talking about how they’ll earn cash off their new slave.
„Lek, go give her some water, she needs to be in high energy tomorrow,” Lit said.
„Yes, sir.”
Zazuza was struggling to escape but stopped when she heard one of the men approaching.
„Hello, darling. I see you’re all tied up. Get it?” he took off the gag and Zazuza spat out the awful taste.
„Here you go, sweetie.” He grabbed her face and pulled her chin up while pouring water from a flask. Due to his incompetence or ill intent, some water got up Zazuza’s nose and she began to choke.
„You know, Lit said that he doesn’t expect to get too much for such a common face. But I can see your true potential. There’s nothing a nice dress and make-up can’t fix.” He began to stroke her hair and Zazuza bit his hand.
„Aah!” Lek screamed.
„What was that? Are you having problems with the prisoner?”Lit asked.
„No, sir! I just stubbed my toe, is all. It's very dark, sir.”
„Watch yourself.”
Lek’s expression turned sour, and he covered Zazuza’s mouth with the gag.
He grabbed the metal flask and slapped her hard across the face while letting the flask drop by her feet.
„Oh no! I dropped the flask! How clumsy of me!” Lek yelled. „Found it!”
„As I said, nothing a little make-up can’t fix.”
Zazuza kicked the flask into the tree and it made a loud hard noise as it kept bumping into objects.
„Lek! What are you doing?” Lit asked.
„All is fine, sir. No need to worry about me.”
„Go get the flask and stop messing around. Did the prisoner drink, yet?”
„Not yet, sir. I’m on it, sir.” Lek said, sycophantically. He then turned to Zazuza, grabbed her hair, and told her:
„Listen here, I will return, and when I return you will obey, or else you won’t see daylight.”
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone