The Average Week

Wednesday

7:54 AM

" Someone's looking cheerful today."

" You'll be fine. The most they'll do is attack you with handshakes. And you don't spark at those."

" Yeah, if you can stand up to someone…someone like Yue and Chul. Chul's much more terrifying."

" He is?" Syaoran blinked in the sunlight. He then thought about it for a moment. " I guess you have a point."

Inside Chul was on the phone.

" Why is this my problem?" He demanded. " I told you it was in Tomoeda."

It was not Ichiro on the phone, however. It was Eriol.

" I know it's in Tomoeda." Eriol sounded equally exasperated. " But they want Syaoran to take care of it."

" They want Syaoran?"

" It bred, there's no telling which flamingo it was. They want Syaoran to ask the gods."

" And you agreed to this?"

" Of course not." Eriol sounded offended. " But until they hear a concrete answer why not, such as, say, Syaoran's father downright refusing, they won't stop harassing me."

Being Chair of the Magical Council, Chul was more than familiar with such things. " I am not dealing with this issue. I already gave them a break by calling for an early Council. This is already at the inconvenience of everyone in the Council. If they interrupt one more time, tell them I will remind them that I am Park Chul, and I have other means of silencing them."

" Maybe I can temporarily mute my powers or something." Syaoran was saying as they walked.

" You don't really want to do that…" A waterspeaker said cautiously.

" I do not want Sakura involved." Eriol replied.

" I do not want Syaoran."

" Cheer up." The waterspeakers told Syaoran. " It won't be that bad. Think about it. You get to meet great people. What are we? Chopped liver, as far as they're concerned."

" You guys are waterspeakers." Syaoran replied. " That automatically makes you guys special."

" A hundred and twelve waterspeakers in the world, versus one thunderspeaker. Yeah, that's pretty special."

" Oh come on." Syaoran scowled. " Don't tell me you're jealous."

" Not a chance, mate. We're not stepping into your pot of boiling water."

Laughing, they walked on.

" The flamingoes will have to wait." Chul replied. " Look, I still have to talk to all these people. I don't have a time for a bunch of blue birds."

" I don't either!"

" Well bug someone else. This isn't the type of mischief to be brought to me. I need to take care of other more important issues."

Chul was right about that, and Eriol was forced to admit that if anyone should take this responsibility, however unjustly, the Chairperson of the Council is not the one.

oO

4:30 PM

Amazingly, Syaoran was not nearly as anxious about the upcoming birthday party now that he was actually home. The other children, also, did not harass him about the fact that he was invited to the birthday banquet and they were not. Ritsuko helped Syaoran get dressed (and it was a bit of a complicated affair). About half an hour later Chul and Syaoran met up downstairs.

" You alright?" Chul asked, pointing at Syaoran's chou. " You can't wave that thing around too wildly when you're by the ocean, mind you."

" I know." Syaoran scowled. " I'll be careful.

Taking advantage of Chul's levitating mist, Syaoran used his chou to propel himself through the air. It was a beautiful view; whatever pollution might have been caused by its neighbors, Korea was a beautiful land, and the earth was strong enough, so far, that life can still thrive despite the toxins in the environment. They sailed over the glistening sea with the sun setting in the west behind them, the sky slowly darkening to a rainbow of colors that grew redder as it approached the horizon. Chul dipped down to distill the water and Syaoran descended in that area.

The ocean was a dark place, thick with minerals. Chul's magical presences guided and led Syaoran down. From past experience, Chul was able to control the density of the water, and though Syaoran was still tempted to hold his breath, the Water Lord was experienced enough that Syaoran was actually able to breathe underwater. When they were far enough down, Syaoran could see a bright shining light, which looked like a fluorescent bulb that could be any creature, but was actually the lamp marking the entrance to the Dragon Palace.

Chul materialized, and as he did two guards also materialized. Without much question, they bowed low and a pair of large doors shimmered into view, sending a burst of bubbles floating towards the surface.

Chul walked in when the doors opened by themselves, and Syaoran gingerly followed him. He was nervous again. The Li clan had hosted their share of banquets, but there was something to the fact that it was all under water that made everything seem more frightening. Sensing his distress, Chul lifted a hand and rested it on Syaoran's shoulder for a moment. Remember, they're more afraid of you.

While this had not comforted Syaoran too much before, now it was a great relief to know that he was perhaps more intimidating than the dragons themselves. The hall they walked through was made of coral, and fish zipped back and forth, some pausing curiously to watch them as they passed. Syaoran reached out to poke one of them. Chul let him. Chances were, if one of the fish did happen to be a servant in their real form, they probably would not have the nerve to feel offended anyway, and Syaoran seemed generally amused by their reactions.

As they walked, two more guards appeared in the front, followed by the materialization of another, smaller, set of doors. When these opened, the light illuminated the hall, followed by loud chatter. There were many people gathered at the party already, even human ones, as though the area was all water, the water had been enchanted to people could still breathe. One of the guards entered the large room, announcing, " His Greatness, Lord Chul of the Water Elementals, and Lord Syaoran, the Thunder Elemental."

Chatter almost instantly ceased as Chul and Syaoran entered following this announcement. Syaoran was still trying to wrap his head around the fact that he had been called Lord Syaoran, when a tall, regal looking young man, dressed in robes, and an older, white-bearded lord with even fancier robes stepped forward. The older man laughed in genuine delight as he approached, stretching his wrinkly hands at Chul. Syaoran could see he had two horns poking out of the elaborate headdress on his head and wondered if this was a demon.

" My lord!" The old man clasped his hands together and bowed in an almost prayer-like fashion, " It is a great honor to have you! A great honor!"

The younger man next to the older lord did likewise.

Chul did not salute them. He merely inclined his head in acknowledgment. " Your Majesty. You are looking well." He said, not unpleasantly, but not warmly either. There was a touch of arrogance in his tone, but Syaoran had a feeling it was necessary.

" Yes, yes! All is well! And this must be the young Lord Syaoran." The Dragon King saluted him as well.

Syaoran, not sure what to do since he was at once facing his elder and his inferior (and also trying hard not to completely fry everyone present by his nervousness), clasped his hands together briefly, the way the King did, but did not bow. It seemed to be appropriate, as no one remarked or acted differently, and Chul did not poke him, magically or otherwise.

The prince (Syaoran assumed he was the prince) also saluted Syaoran, but did not speak. For all the interest Chul had implied, the young man certainly did not seem to be too curious about Syaoran at the moment. It could be that this was not the right prince, but no—Syaoran sensed that the Dragon Prince that had been harassing Chul with invitations was the one standing in front of him. Perhaps it was purely propriety that prevented the prince from showing any intentions.

" What of Her Highness?" Chul inquired. " It is her birthday, I believe?"

" Ah yes. Daughter!" The King turned around. From the crowd of people a young woman stepped out. She looked a little strange—not entirely human, but that was to be expected. She was very beautiful however, and seemed very shy.

" Come welcome our guests, my child." The Dragon King beckoned.

" Yes, Royal Father." She replied, and, gliding over, curtsied low. " Thank you for coming. You honor us with your presence."

" Come." Chul allowed a smile to spread across his face. " Birthdays are always festive occasions. Your Highness, this is my son, Li Syaoran."

Syaoran repeated his earlier gesture, while the princess curtsied. He felt very awkward. His new status as thunderspeaker apparently was of higher rank than he ever anticipated. These deities and spirits that are bowing to him were once deities and spirits he had been bowing and kowtowing to with his mother. It was very bizarre to find himself suddenly their superior.

Luckily, despite being higher status and all, Syaoran was still a child, and children had their own forms of entertainment. While the King and prince spoke to Chul, Syaoran spotted a group of children and, as they were distracted, slipped away to join them.

The children here were as open as the waterspeaker children. They had been clustered tightly in a group, but when he approached they separated to allow him to join.

" Hey guys," Syaoran greeted, noting their robes were as elaborate, if not more elaborate, than his, so he decided to act casual, " What's going on?"

" Wizard's Chinese checkers." One of them replied. " We're also trying to get wizard's Go to work, but that's not coming along as well."

" Why not?" Syaoran asked, curious.

" Because," And obviously, these children were wizards, " With checkers, you drop the marbles in the hole. With Go, we can't seem to get the stone to go on the intersection of the lines."

" Huh?" Syaoran blinked. " Any luck with Chess, then?"

" Yeah, that one was easy. It's just squares."

" Well why don't you shift the grid?"

" What do you mean?"

" I mean, how are you playing wizard's chess?"

" Well we command the space and tell it which square to move to. Columns are letters, rows are numbers, and we just say which column and which row should go to which column and which row."

" Well shift the grid. Make the lines correspond to their coordinates instead. It's simple math."

" Well yeah." The wizards replied patiently, " Except if we do numbers for both columns and rows, it gets confused because it doesn't know which is the row and which is the number, especially since nothing's actually on the board. And if we do letters and numbers, it tries to move to the space."

" Huh?!" Syaoran cocked an eyebrow. " That's the weirdest thing I ever heard."

" You're obviously not a wizard." Another child said wryly. " What are you?"

" Sorcerer."

" Oh, that explains a lot." The kids groaned. " You guys have it easy. Got any spells to use?"

" Uh, I can try—what do you have so far?"

The Dragon King had gone to greet other guests, but the Dragon Prince and his youngest sister remained behind for a moment to speak to Chul. While the King had ultimate power in this kingdom under the sea, the prince was the one who represented the dragons in the Council, hence the invitation from him instead of his father.

" He will be at the Council Gathering, yes?" The Dragon King asked.

" Not this time, no." Chul replied. " This is an early Council Gathering, meant for a slight emergency." He was, in fact, looking intently at the wizards at the party, and trying to determine if they were German, because if they were, and if they were the ones causing the trouble recently, Syaoran was not going to be the one ending the party. Not that Syaoran ever was.

" There was?" The Dragon Prince was surprised. " We never received such notification."

Chul frowned. It could not be Ritsuko. Something was wrong here. " Communications must have been flawed lately." He said. " However, it will be rectified. I would recommend keeping this to yourselves."

A little uneasy, dragon father and son glanced at each other.

Except for the children, many members at the social were in awe of Chul. Mingled among other children, very few noticed Syaoran, or if they did, very few recognized him as Chul's heir. Also, the fact that Syaoran was using little bits of magic (he found, to his chagrin, that his control seemed to have become a little out of practice of late) did not help them realize Syaoran was an elemental. The magic itself was as strong as it had been, but Syaoran found it wore him out much too quickly, despite his light elemental traits boosting his stamina. Soon he was physically too tired to try any more spells.

" You must have had a hard day," The wizards observed, when Syaoran sat down to rest.

" Yeah." Syaoran replied, deciding that was the best excuse he could give, anyway. He was not sure how he felt about his weakened magic. True, he probably should have expected it, having not practiced it much with the waterspeakers, but it had been how long? A year? Should it have gone away that quickly?

He glanced over at Chul, who was in a group, talking to various figureheads. He was suddenly thinking about the first summer, when Lee Senyan had still been around, and Chul had guarded him, day and night, without complaint at all. Never mind that Syaoran himself was Lee's son; Chul had seen past that. And afterwards, especially after that whole trip to the other dimension, where they had seen what had become of Lord Park, Chul had eventually softened his personality. He was a great father, and had such a wealth of knowledge gleaned from his many decades as waterspeaker. Those days when Syaoran had felt alone and lost in the world seem like a distant dream now, but then, so did his family, really. He was starting to forget, already, what his mother's voice sounded like; he had only heard her voice for a year prior, did not feel her presence except through the magical bond, nor seen her features in real life.

Now he never will.

And the magic she gave him was leaving too.

" Ah, there he is," The Prince had returned, his features very amiable as he approached the boy. " Shall we head to the feast?"

Oh. Syaoran thought. The crab people holding refreshments; that's the pre-banquet appetizers. Geez.

He stood. Everyone was starting to stream away from the rooms, and into the main dining hall.

" Syaoran," Chul called, before the Dragon Prince can say any more. Syaoran went over to him after a slight salute to the prince.

" Are you alright?" Chul asked softly, so others would not hear. " You seem depressed."

" I'm okay." Syaoran smiled, thinking this could wait until later. " Let's go."

oO

7:32 PM

As Chairperson and Chairperson's son, not to mention the most powerful being in the world, Chul and Syaoran were granted the honor of sitting at the head of the table during the banquet. Back at home at the village, Syaoran did not feel quite so out of place. He mastered things with ease but he was also at ease with his friends, who knew all his secrets, really, since they all lived together, and therefore did not treat him like he was some remarkable rare piece of work. Here, he was suddenly struck with the sense of how important he was going to be, with the respect and cordiality of everyone at the banquet—it was absolutely unnerving, and he did not like it.

The princess, he found, was not entirely happy with the event either. She was constantly asked to show her social skills by interacting with various flattering lords. Syaoran was really happy that Chul decided Syaoran's birthday was to be celebrated as a personal affair; strictly among waterspeakers, and of course, whoever Syaoran himself chose to invite. Actually, he remembered back when the Li Clan would host grand birthday parties for him and he would more often than not, have to show his progress in some way or another.

That part he did not miss.

The children did not notice his absence. There were many of them, and they all talked together, leaving Syaoran feeling a bit left out.

" Why not show Lord Syaoran?" He suddenly heard, and turned around to figure out what the context was. Chul gave him a knowing look.

He tried to appear interested so no one would see his bluff. The princess, while not exactly annoyed, seemed a little impassive to the suggestion as she rose. Chul gave him a light nudge. It's okay. She'll just show you the gardens. They're quite beautiful, actually.

Well at least his father seems confident.

They left the scene of the banquet and headed down the dark coral halls, illuminated by fluorescent lights. A heavy, awkward silence fell over the two of them. Syaoran kept wondering what to say, but the princess was inscrutable. At length, they finally reached the garden.

It was a garden of anemones, of different water plants, clams, coral, sponges, exotic gems and crystals, everything of all colors and of all shapes and sizes. Seahorses danced among the kelp, urchins dotted the ground, starfish slid over the coral to the sand.

" Wow." Syaoran exclaimed, overcome with wonder. It was wonderful, really. " Living here must be awesome!"

" Indeed." The princess replied. Syaoran turned to her and grinned.

" Less impressed because it belongs to you?" He asked, knowing the feeling.

Seeing his smile, the princess smiled uncertainly as well. " To a degree. They lose their wonder with familiarity."

" I know what you mean." Syaoran nodded. " The Li Clan was like that."

" The Li Clan?" As if just remembering, the princess uttered, " Oh that is right—you are Lord Li Syaoran."

Syaoran nodded, turning his attention back to the gorgeous garden.

" I…I am sorry for your loss." The princess said quietly.

It has been a long time since anyone had said that to him. The comment almost took Syaoran by surprise. He turned to her.

" Chul is very kind to me."

" So I can see." She smiled.

Syaoran smiled back, but suddenly a tingling of warning shot up his neck. He whirled around just as he saw a shadow of a figure zipping behind the corals.

" What is it?" The princess asked, noting his sudden movement.

" Is someone supposed to be in the garden?" Syaoran asked.

" No…" The princess blinked, " The servants are all to attend the banquet with the rest…only the gardener comes here out of them all, but I saw the gardener when we left…"

No, don't use light. Light equals bad, especially in seawater. They were not allowed to bring weapons to this event, but Syaoran did not need weapons to hold his own sometimes. If only I still had a good grasp of magic. He was still worn out from the earlier usage.

Suddenly, they heard a cry. The princess whirled back as something attacked her. She blasted with water magic at the figure while jumping back to where Syaoran stood.

Instinct had Syaoran reaching for his chou, but he quickly dropped the idea. He dashed forward and dove down to get low, rolled to his feet, then slammed his hands into the robed figure. A spurt of blood squirted from the mouth and the attacker stumbled and started floating.

" Guards!" The princess cried, though at this point it was too late—Syaoran knew he had taken care of the assassin, for he felt the heart tremor from the impact and knew that, if he did not outright kill the assassin, he had incapacitated him.

Syaoran? Chul called, sensing the agitation in the water.

Dad, someone tried to kill the princess. Syaoran suddenly sat down, a little stunned. I think I killed him. He had not even thought about his actions before he did it.

In shock, for a moment Syaoran blanked out. Before he knew it, Chul was there, holding him. " Syaoran, it's alright."

" He's unconscious." Syaoran heard.

" Abuji?" He found his hands were actually trembling.

" It's alright." Chul said quietly. " You did good, son. He's still alive?"

" Very much so."

" He was just there. Lord Syaoran was the first to spot him." The princess was telling her father.

More talk—Syaoran did not register much—it was good to have his father there with him. Everything is going to be fine.

It was different, killing someone in person.

He heard the Dragon King declare their debt to him but again, did not really acknowledge it. Chul murmured in his ear and held him tight.

" I need to take my son home." He told the dragons, who understood. Chul then picked Syaoran up.

" Come on." He told the child. " We're going home. You'll be okay."