Authors note: If you haven't read Our Farewell I suggest you do before reading this story, otherwise you'll be pretty much confused. Not an interesting chapter and such, I know, I just thought that before starting the real story I might as well introduce the most important OC's.
CHAPTER 1: From Anger To Fire
I could finally see through the thick fog, the blur that had covered my eyes a couple of minutes ago. The room I was staring into, was big, grey and empty, and I could feel no breath of wind, I could not feel my shoulder length black hair, it was like I was isolated from the room, the rest of the world may haps. As I tried looking down on my body, I realised that I no longer was in my human, or Mazoku form, however my mind was still clear, still focused on what had happened not too long ago, but there was one thing I had yet to figure out.
Where was I?
I sat in what used to be called the dining hall, playing with my food. I refused eating elsewhere. My long, black hair was strutting, hanging around my head like a cloud as I had just woken up. Instead of eating I was listening, listening to the people of New Makoku's morning stress. Their footsteps, shouts, tinkling glasses, it could be heard all over Blood Pledge Castle; I didn't like stress, in fact there was a lot of things I didn't like. I muttered as one of the maids entered the room.
"You are not eating this morning, Heika," she said carefully. Even though I didn't look at her, I knew it had to be the maid with long, dark blue hair and big eyes, that Hahaue secretly, or so he thought, had told to watch me. I stopped playing with the food, letting the fork fall with a 'bam' on the plate, getting up. My eyes met hers, anger rising inside me.
"There is no way I will eat such a low classed meal," I said angrily. "Why isn't Hahaue cooking this morning?" The maid looked down on her hands, not really looking like she knew what to say, may be too afraid to answer. They all were, gardeners, servants, maids, you name it, soldiers even were afraid of me, or my behaviour more like it.
"Wolfram Geika has important matters to attend to," she said, her voice shaking. "He might be too busy to-"
"How can I possibly reply to such a thing?" I yelled cutting her off, almost tearing my hair off in frustration. "Hahaue. Hahaue!"
"Heika, please calm down," the maid said, almost daring to confront me. My cold eyes met her somewhat scared ones, I wanted Hahaue, it was a matter of life and death. How could anyone expect me to stay alive if I did not eat?
"Hahaue," I screamed, clenching my fists. "Ha-"
"Ronja," a familiar, calm voice said from the entrance of the dining hall. He waved at the maid, as if telling her to leave. She bowed, leaving the two of us alone. Hahaue closed the door, his appearance as usual elegant, his blonde hair so perfectly surrounding his face, his red dress suiting his figure. His emerald green eyes wandered from the door to me; I did not look like him at all, people did however exclaim that I had his former attitude. Whatever that meant.
"Stop screaming, Ronja, you are fifteen not three," he said calmly. "If you do not give up what you want once you will never get it." My fists were still clenched, I was almost crying of frustration, I hated it when my will wasn't carried out; when things didn't turn out the way I wanted them to.
"Hahaue," I said, my voice cracking. "I'm so hungry and they wouldn't take me to you or let me see you or bring you to m-" Hahaue raised his hand, shutting me up.
"This has got to stop, Ronja. You're fifteen and within a year, you will become this country's king. Your father wouldn't have wished for you to be like this, it's ridiculous that you refuse to eat the food made by the best cooks in our country because.. Because why, exactly?" He crossed his arms, waiting for an explanation from me. I was about to protest, but looked down, nodding.
"I will improve, Hahaue." He nodded, sitting down next to me. Even though he'd had sort of like a blast, he was calm, and his eyes were kind not angry. It was hard to believe that my uncle was.. Well, my uncle. He was always so angry with me especially since I enjoyed sewing more than knitting. Hahaue on the other hand was kind and gentle, even though I sometimes didn't like to admit it.
"Go on," he said, interrupting my thoughts. I gave him a weird look.
"What?" He frowned, putting on a scary facial expression, the expression he used when he wanted me to learn, or do something.
"I won't leave this room and neither will you until you've finished that meal."
It was my turn to frown.
"Another pigeon for His Majesty, Kakaa," Raveryn said. His tiny fingers handed me a note. I sighed, yet again knowing what the note would say. That man was truly desperate. I brushed my dark, gray hair backwards, continuing to sign the documents which I within one year would be freed from.
"Why can't you just give it to my foolish nephew yourself, you are one of his most loyal men." The purple haired man smiled, closing his eyes.
"Heika does not listen to me. If I were to give him another message from him, I would surely lose my job."
"That boy only listens to my little brother," I replied, referring to Wolfram. "If you think that it's better that I deliver-" Raveryn's sigh interrupted me.
"Understood, Kakaa," he said. "If it's that bad then I will have to go myself."
"He won't fire you," I replied to calm him down. "He seems to enjoy yelling at you after all." Raveryn's worried expression erased from his face, a smile spreading across it.
"You're right, Kakaa. Complaining is Heika's hobby after all."
"Hahaue?" I whispered. I was resting my head on his lap after my Japanese studies, which I managed to do by myself as no one at the castle understood Japanese. It was really interesting as it had been my father's native language, I had studied it for years. Hahaue had told me that it would surely be useful one day.
"Yes," Hahaue replied, smiling. He was knitting, the blue wool was resting on my tummy and the bit he'd already knitted kept hitting me in the face. I didn't mind though, I loved spending time with him like this.
"How do you know that I'm the future Maou?" I asked. I bit my lip, slightly worried that he would tell me that my father would choose somebody else. Even though I was far from fit to become the Maou, I wanted to continue my father's rule. I wanted to make him proud. Hahaue put the wool aside. He ran his fingers through my black hair, his lips shaping into a smile.
"There is no way your father would choose anyone but his own son," he replied. "Why do you ask?"
"Well because.. Because I'm selfish and I'm not fit to become the Maou, you know this. And because I'm always so angry. Fire represents anger, right? Fire is your element. And may be it's.. May be it's mine too. To become the Maou I need the royal power of the-"
"You worry too much," Hahaue said, cutting me off. "That, you have from your father. And you're not selfish, you just inherited my attitude I suppose." He was still smiling, meaning it couldn't be a bad thing. However, I'd never seen Hahaue do something that I could call selfish. I didn't behave like him at all.
"Where do you get that from?" I asked. "You've never been selfish." He laughed.
"I was 85 when I had you, Ronja. 85 years is a long period of time, and I must admit that I was quite a 'selfish brat' as people liked to call me." I looked up, my eyes meeting Hahaue's emerald green, which were nothing like my black. I had to admit that I was rather surprised about his confession.
"Then why'd you change?"
"Your father surely changed me quite a bit, but it was the fact that I was having a child that made the transformation complete. When having a child you must stop acting immature, and one day you will understand that." I raised an eyebrow, having a slight clue as to who he was referring to. Hahaue noticed, and giggled softly.
"I guess you are looking for to the banquet next week," he said, changing the subject. He couldn't hide his smirk even though he seemed to try hard. I felt slightly annoyed by his behaviour.
"I thought you said something about growing up when having a child," I murmured under my breath.
"Who says bugging your one and only son once in a while is against the rules?" he asked, poking my chest. I was about to reply when the door opened. I looked up, spotting a certain purple haired man by the door. He bowed slightly, greeting both me and Hahaue.
"Geika, Heika. Excuse me for interrupting at this late hour but.." He fumbled with something in his pocket, before finally finding it, picking it up. "This arrived earlier. For Your Majesty." I felt anger and annoyance rise inside me.
"Well what's the problem?" I wheezed. Raveryn who was used to my behaviour, wasn't as easy to scare as he had been when beginning to work in my service.
"Like I said, it's for-"
"I heard what you said," I replied shortly, cutting him off. "And as you always come to me with this garbage you should know that I as usual will decline. It's too early for me to even think about-"
"Let me see," Hahaue said, interrupting me. My eyes widened in anger.
"You know it's just another one of those-"
"It might not be," he said. Raveryn handed him the note, and Hahaue's lips moved silently while reading it.
"Hm, it is another one of these marriage proposals as you expected," he said. "Yes, decline it. My son is obviously not ready for marriage just yet." Raveryn nodded.
"Unless you've changed your mind," Hahaue continued, waving the note in front of my face. From what I could see, I recognized the handwriting. I frowned, marrying him wasn't something I would consider.
"Get that out of my sight," I said, almost whispered. "If ever receiving more pigeons from this person then just send it back with my fake signature saying I decline the proposal. I can't be bothered wasting my time signing them myself." Raveryn bowed slightly.
"As you wish, Heika." He grabbed the note and disappeared.
Hahaue picked up the wool, starting to knit again. The sound of the sticks meeting each other, somewhat calmed me down, and I closed my eyes. My mind wandered from present time, to past. To that day Hahaue had revealed that father was never coming home from his "journey."
"Hahaue," I whispered, not bothering to open my eyes.
"Yes," I heard him say.
"Do you miss Dad?" The sound of knitting slowly disappeared. I felt something warm on my cheek, Hahaue's hand. I smiled slightly.
"Every minute of the day," he whispered. "But this keeps me going." He traced his finger along my upper lip.
"What?" I opened my eyes.
"Your smile." The smile on my lips widened, and so did Hahaue's.
"You should smile more often, Ronja. You are so alike your father when doing so." I didn't reply as I didn't really know what to say. I hated the fact that Hahaue missed Dad, but could hardly blame him as I missed him myself. And I hadn't even met him. I guess seeing Eru and Lea both with both of their parents and siblings awoke feelings in me, and even though I hated to admit it I was slightly jealous of the two girls.
I was studying Japanese in my father's old office the very next day when hearing familiar footsteps coming towards the door. The fast, very female like, yet smooth steps made me roll my eyes. Without knocking, a girl appeared by the door, white hair, and eyes just like her father's. I didn't care looking up, just continued reading.
"Ronja," her tiny, yet strong voice said.
"To you it's Heika," I muttered, writing down a couple of words on a piece of paper. She leaned over the desk to see what I was doing, as usual bugging me while studying. I sighed in annoyance, closing the book with a small 'bam.' I looked up, meeting her dark blue eyes. She was smiling and I could tell that she carried a secret. I knew she knew just how to make me curious, so I didn't bother with the foreplay.
"Alright, what is it?" She leaned closer to me, I could feel her warm breath on my cheek.
"This morning," she whispered in my ear. "This morning Dad taught me how to use Maryoku." My eyes widened, my cheeks turning red of shame. Lea, a girl and on top of that a couple of months younger than me, had taught how to use the powerful Maryoku that we Mazoku possessed before me, the future Maou. What could possibly be more shameful?
"A-And?" I stuttered, trying to hide the disappointment in my voice.
"And I wanna test it on you," she said happily, grabbing my arm. I almost stumbled onto my own feet, Lea was, and had always, walked faster than me. Personally, I preferred to call it running. However I didn't mind, if Lea had learned to use Maryoku then it was about time I did too.
"I hope you're not scared," she said, I could almost feel her smirk. I gritted my teeth.
"I'm not," I replied. "I possess more Maryoku than you ever will."
"If you've learnt how to control it," she laughed. I frowned and she let go of my arm, having lead me outside.
"I don't have to learn anything," I wheezed.
"Very well," she replied. "Prove it." My eyes opened wide as her hands started to glow. So she had been telling the truth after all, maybe this was the day when Lea would take my life. I put my hands in front of me in defence, concentrating on the Maryoku I knew I possessed. Since the Maryoku she was using didn't seem to affect me, I dared opening my eyes. They widened when I noticed the large amount of fire coming from my hands.