Chapter twenty-four: Confessions of the Ignorant

Before the rising sun and breakfast scene

Zaru and I sit at a side of my bed to wait out the time for one of us to fall asleep. The mirror led us to my designated room in this place apparently. I just let the glass of water rest on my lap as I stare blankly into the clear liquid. The still ambiance fills me with a sense of calm and comfort.

“You okay?” Zaru’s voice breaks the quiet and covers the room with life.

Still in an unresponsive state, I timidly reply with my eyes locked on the water, “Yeah.”

“Don’t lie to me.”

My grip on the glass tightens and my body tries to curl up. The words climb out of my mouth as I muster up the courage to even say them, “I’m scared.”

Zaru takes the beverage from me and leaves it on the night stand away from me. He pulls me in closer toward his strong frame which activates my emotions on this situation again.

“I’m so sorry, I didn’t know about anything before my sixteenth birthday, and I didn’t know the mess would turn up this big-“

“Hey, hey, it’s okay. I’m sure none of this is your fault, so there’s no reason to apologize.” He lets in some silence to calm the scene. “What’s going on anyway?”

I manage to calm down and gather the strength to put the story into words. “I guess I should start-from what I know to be the beginning.” A deep breath fills up my lungs and I exhale. Here it goes. “You’ve already met Vensen, he’s my grandfather, and head of the Stuki clan. My mother directly came from his side, and my father is a servant of his who married himself into the family. For some reason, after I was born, they tried to make an escape. Vensen somehow found out and managed to trick my mom into selling me to someone who turned out to be himself.” My blue eyes look up to him to explain the rest. “This is where it gets complicated. When my dad, Sommi, came to emancipate me from him, he ended up supposedly killing Vensen in the process and we ran away to Kai. On my birthday, nine years later, when I came home from my part-time job, Sommi was gone, and then everything just went downhill from there.” My hurting throat makes an attempt to impede me, but I go on with the story, “He killed anyone who stood up against him: the policemen, the villagers, the armies, everyone that I knew in Kai-they’re all dead. He would of killed you three-if you didn’t take that emergency call to the city.”

“I don’t know about that.” Zaru keeps his voice in a smooth and observing tone. “When I first met him not too long ago, he didn’t strike me as an idiot who just randomly attacks. It was like he was waiting for me to show up and make the deal with him. He was probably also counting on us to be in town away from the action back in Erekin. I’m willing to bet he has more up his sleeve than a few tricks.” Zaru’s words give me goosebumps. I don’t want to know the worst of what else he has in store for us.

“Excuse me,” the man who tried to coo me earlier knocks on the door and opens it with a rolled-up mat in one arm, “The master said it was a little late for preparing a whole room for you, so I brought you some things for a comfy night on the floor instead.” He walks into the room and begins to unfold it.

“Thank you,” Zaru replies.

“Wait.” I walk up to the man and bow, “Thank you for earlier.”

“Huh; oh that, no need to thank me.” He smiles with that insignia on his face.

It calms my nerves a little to see him in a cheerful mood. “My name is Vila by the way.”

He lays the futon across the floor next to my bed then takes my hand as he bobs before me. “I am Sosen, and I shall be your ipeii* while you stay with us.” Sosen straightens with a hand politely raised close to his head and flattened out. “Please call my name if you need anything, and I shall do my best to satisfy.”

Zaru introduces himself to the kind gentleman before he leaves us alone again. Zaru then turns to me in his casual manner. “Hey.”

“Yeah?”

I’ve been meaning to ask you about that outburst you had back in Erekin but couldn’t find the time to do it in private with you. I hope you don’t mind.”

My eyebrows raise to the remembrance. “Oh that, no I don’t mind. I’ll try to explain it the way it was to me.” I pause for a moment to gather my thoughts. “Um-I remember feeling despair as I watched Vensen-“ I take a deep breath to push past the emotional reoccurrence, “Vensen stood over her corpse, Reina’s I mean, and then I was shrouded in darkness.”

“You passed out?”

“Yes-no-I mean-in a way-just let me finish.” Another deep breath. “I was in darkness, like as a place, because what I could see of myself was visible to me as if I was light. Then I saw a little screen of myself-having my outburst-and then Vensen appeared. He explained to me that my tsavi had been awoken.”

“Your tsavi?”

“Yeah, he said that it’s like-a bridge-between the world and the void, or something like that. Supposedly, it was lying dormant within me and could only be activated from dramatic emotions, like despair. He then told me that it’s a blood trait, which is how I found out that we’re related. Oh, he also told me that at the time my soul was disconnected from my body, so I guess that would mean I came back from the dead.” An awkward smile falls upon my face during the last part.

Zaru jumps to my last sentence. “You were dead during this period? No wonder I couldn’t find your heartbeat, I was trying to necessitate it back into motion until your eyes popped open.”

“Yeah, but there’s a little more. This is the last of what I know, promise.”

He leans in closer with his full attention.

“Well, while we were in the darkness, he also told me that he’s not human and the rest of the family are half-bloods. Then he went on about how he’s the-‘manifestation of the void, which is nothing’ or something like that. It was a lot to take in.”

Zaru stares at me for a little while to allow an unpleasant ambiance sink in.

Probably should have let that run through my head a little longer before letting it go through my mouth.

His hand touches my shoulder and turns me back to the bed. “You’ve had a lot of eventful experiences in a short period. Why don’t you try taking a nap before Tethalia comes?”

I look at him with concern.

“Don’t worry, I’ll keep my hands off of you-“

“That’s not it,” I interrupt his accusation and feeling a little embarrassed from it, “I don’t know if I can sleep here, knowing that he’s around the corner.”

His eyes soften with pity, but it’s not like the kind that arrogant people wear, more like-he really does care. Zaru’s arm coils over my back and he pulls me in gently. His sweet voice soothes me as he says the words, “I won’t let him hurt you again.”

This calms me, at least, to the point where I can sleep a little until dawn. “Thanks Zaru,” I murmur under my breath.

He then heads over to the mat. “See ya in the morning.”

“See ya.”

The lights automatically turn off and it catches us off guard slightly, but Zaru presumes with shuffling into his blanket, aided by the moonlight.

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In the morning

Before I know it, I can feel something poking my face cheek while my eyes refuse to open.

“C’mon sleepy head,” Zaru’s voice calls out to me in the dreamy darkness, “time to wake up. We don’t want to keep your relatives waiting.”

Slowly, my eyes do manage to crack open some to see Zaru leaning over me while I lie on the bed. “Wha?” Perhaps last night’s events are finally catching up to me to fill my body with exhaustion.

He advances to poke me along with his taunts, “You won’t get any breakfast if you don’t force out that gumption, Freckles.”

“Don’t call me Freckles,” I bite back at him.

“Then get up, Freckles.”

My frame somehow rolls off the bed despite my fatigue and now I lie on the carpeted floor.

Zaru gently lifts me up from underneath my arms. “Almost there Freckles, we do have someone waiting for us at the door.”

“We do?” My voice is slowly regaining energy.

“Yeah, said his name is Yamato or something.”

“Yamato?” Why does that name ring a bell? “What about Sosen?” I’m now standing on my own.

“I asked Yamato about that and he told me that Sosen wasn’t feeling too well when he woke up this morning.”

That’s odd, he seemed just fine last night. “Well, I hope he recovers.”

“So do I, not sure if this Yamato guy is trustworthy.”

Anyway, Zaru takes a step out of the room to wait with this “Yamato” person while I freshen up a bit. It would be rude to come at the table in my nightgown. Oh yeah, I even forgot that I was still wearing this outfit from Caru the whole time during the craziness of last night… Once I borrow some clothing from the closet, I finally open the door to a tall mitsu and a semi-prepared Zaru.

I look at my self-proclaimed bodyguard confused as he stands there in a new shirt and pants: a simple green shirt and dark brown shorts.

“Yamato said that all the rooms have a closet full of attire, he said I can borrow something from one.” Of course, Zaru states this in a completely casual manner as if there’s nothing wrong with stealing clothing meant for someone else.

My attention then goes back to the mitsu and I take my chances with getting close to him. An odd silence flows between the two of us before the line slips out from my mouth, “You look familiar; have I seen you somewhere before?”

“You sayin’ that you don’t remember me?” He answers as the scar on his face starts to look less intimidating.

Feeling a bit cruel, I try to understand his phrase. “So we have met before? I’m sorry, but I don’t remember the occurrence exactly.”

As the man looks to the ceiling, he holds his chin with his hand as he becomes reminiscent. “Guess I can’t blame ya too much, you were only about three or four, but, there was the time we bumped into each other back in Kai.”

“Wait, did we know each other before my parents tried to escape?” I sort of neglect the second half of his sentence.

He turns back to me like we’re both having a revelation. “Yeah, I was supposed to look after you whenever your parents weren’t around or something.”

The moment starts to sink into my brain slowly until the cogs finally start to turn. I burst out with the recollection, “That’s right, you’re Yam-yam!”

Zaru consumes all his strength to not burst out in laughter and controls it enough for a loud chuckle instead.

Yamato jolts a little from the sudden outburst and then directs his anger towards Zaru with a rather scary threat, “Keep laughing at me and you’ll be kissing your own ass Hot-Shot!” He then Straightens his white apron some more and escorts us to the proper place where everyone awaits us.

My bare feet scruff up against the deep red carpet as the decorations on the walls pass my vision. The feel of a fuzzy substance tickling the underside of my feet allows the nostalgic wave to splash me. I haven’t even seen a carpeted floor since I left Gonma’s, I mean, Vensen’s last place. Next, the walls catch my attention with their coated pattern of foliage and garden-like theme. Spry little flowers pop upwards from the floor, attempting to be like their fully-grown ancestors. I don’t know why, but the house has this ambiance of an old-fashioned hotel, no, more like a place for old people who don’t have anyone to take care of them.

Yamato steps to the side and allows us a path into the dining room before him where everyone is waiting for me at the table. Where’s Vensen?

The moment my foot lands onto the carpet on the other side of the threshold, an invisible wall hits me. The setting around me disintegrates into a morbid state. Walls made of kukal* surround me and the material scales well above me to the tall ceiling that’s pointed upwards like a peak. The room is instantly filled with a myriad of noises that ricochet in multiple directions. A hall stretches before me with square holes cut into the walls with bars barricading whatever lies in the rooms screaming. Men and Women are crying out to their gods with the loud cracks that accompany their hollers. The sound of men shouting their commands and insults instantly fills my heart with fear.

Where am I?

I turn around to look at Zaru, but all I see is a continuation of the corridor.

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Back at the mansion with Zaru

“No!” Zaru thrusts himself into the wall in hopes of phasing through the same portal that Vila just walked through. His cross face turns to Yamato with his hands clutching to the green man’s black sweater underneath the apron. “Where did she go?” The anger simmers in Zaru’s words as he awaits his moment to beat the guy to a bloody pulp.

Yamato expresses himself in a calm manner with his hands up in defense, “I’m just following orders, I have to do what Vensen says.”

Zaru pulls him closer to amplify his intimidation. “You had a choice, you could have ignored it.”

Yamato makes his own remark with his tense and grumbling voice, “Don’t insult me, I’m not some kind of animal.”

The tight grip on Yamato’s shirt loosens until Zaru finally decides that violence won’t help his situation, besides, this guy could probably beat him in a fight just by not being affected by his blows. Zaru steps back and allows the air inside of him to cool down.

Once Yamato dusts himself off a bit, he invites Zaru to pass the time with him, “Now that we’ve avoided one conflict, how about we have a drink while we wait for them to come back. It’ll be a while anyway.”

A pit forms in Zaru’s stomach as the quietness drags on.

Yamato shifts his body casually and gives another blunt statement to him, “C’mon whattaya gonna do, sit on the floor with your back on the wall and whimper till she comes back? Trust me when I say you could use a break.”

The young man slouches his broad shoulders in defeat. “Alright, I’ll relax a little, but no funny business.”

A little smile appears on Yamato’s stale lips with his scar remaining still. “I’ll show ya to the back where the servants hang out.”

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Ipeii- A Male servant in the conventional sense.

Kukal- A mixture of mud and other fast-drying liquids to create a substance that works much like concrete or clay to make buildings or adobe, basically the equivalence of concrete or clay.