The Foundling: AU – In the golden years of the Celestial Empire, 16-year old Ying-Fa is a humble foundling raised in the Jade Temple. She is the object of pity and derision because of her lack of magic and her lack of a dowry--which is as good as a curse in the ancient city of Li-Cheng. Will she find answers in the magical manuscripts of Clow?
Disclaimer: CCS belongs to CLAMP.
General Notes: Thanks to all who reviewed, placed my story in their alerts and favorites lists. I really appreciate it! I guess this fanfic has more readers than "Technology is Magic." (Shameless plug :P) If you have time, please tell me what you think about that too. Pretty please!!!
I'm on vacation so I'm posting the next chapter again so early!
Chapter 4. The Wolf and the Sakura
The Jade Temple is also a renowned school for noble and upper-class ladies in learning "fine magic". That is magic they can use when they marry and become mistresses of their husbands' households. Its usually very useful stuff like lighting "little" fires to heat their husband's tea (very fancy and curly tongues of fire are preferred); embroidery, changing the color and texture of cloth, healing minor cuts, etc. There are not-so-useful stuff too like how to sweeten the tone of your singing voice; make little glow lights for guests, perfume the air with their fans, float a few feet above the air (for dances and songs), make young people sleep (for a short time only), etc. All these things are taught at the Jade Temple. Poor young ladies are taught by their mothers at home.
For young men of all social standing, the magic they learn is usually more for use in battle or protection or for crafts. Soldiers in Li-Cheng are usually those with strong battle magic. They are taught by the Li Elders.
Some very exceptional magicians, like the Li Elders have more advanced magic that cannot be taught but are rather "given" by the Jade God and can only be used after years and years of practice. Most Li Elders fall under this category. Some say the Li Queen Yelan has very strong magic, stronger than her son's.
All youngsters are expected to demonstrate signs of magic by the time they are twelve years old. There are only very rare cases where the child manifests magic earlier than twelve. The young Li King is that one exception. He began to practice magic at 10.
Ying-Fa hates "magic classes" the most. She can't do any of the magical things taught in the Temple. The teachers all pity her since she has not exhibited any signs of being magical even at 16, so she is placed with the children's class (about 7-9 years old). She assists the magic teachers in the classes where the children all like her. Sometimes she is also called to assist in the magic classes of young ladies of her age, but she mostly just watches them, prepare their robes or hold the lantern for their "Brides' Dance". The Brides' Dance is done in front of prospective suitors and of course, the most desired suitor/husband would be the current Li King, young Xiao Lang.
There had been about three annual Brides' Dances so far and he had not yet chosen a bride, so rehearsals are very intense this year. Ying-Fa watched with much sadness as her fellow young ladies practiced—they all had dowries for their husbands. She felt that she might be destined not to marry and she felt doubly bad especially after seeing that handsome young man in the Mountains just a few days ago. She could not explain why she felt that way though.
She was so deep in thought that she did not notice Lady Ziyi's hand on her shoulder. Her foster mother had to playfully shake her shoulder. "I'm sorry Lady Ziyi." Ying-Fa said, turning away so the Lady cannot see her eyes bright with unshed tears.
"Come, let's go to the marketplace and distribute the fruit." Lady Ziyi's own heart is crushed whenever her foster daughter had to endure the daily magic classes. She does all she can to assuage her suffering and wishes that there was something else that she could do.
"All right." Ying-Fa obediently followed the older lady. Her cheerfulness returned. They were to distribute fruits from the tress in the Jade Temple's extensive grounds to the poor in the marketplace. It was supposed to be the duty of the Temple Mistress as a symbol of her humility, but Mistress Cixi always seemed to "fall ill" whenever she had to do it.
The cart was loaded with baskets of berries and apples. The poor of Li-Cheng waited for the day excitedly because they greatly admired the "kind lady from the Temple" and her "lovely young assistant".
They reached the busy marketplace in a short time, the brown-robed children were already there holding wildflowers that they gave to Lady Ziyi and Ying-Fa. Their parents stood behind them.
"Ying-Fa! Ying-Fa!!" They greeted in welcome. Ying-Fa excitedly jumped off the cart and hugged her little friends. "We missed you Ying-Fa! Do you love us?"
"Yes! I love you!" Ying-Fa giggled, lovingly pinching each of their round, glowing cheeks.
"Can you live here with us and be our Queen?" The children asked.
"Hush little ones, there is only one Queen—and that is the Li Queen." She playfully scolded the youngsters.
Lady Ziyi smiled at them happily. They started to distribute the fruits. The fruits from the Jade Temple used to be bitter or overly sour, that was why it was usually given to the poor by Mistress Cixi. Ying-Fa felt very sorry for the kids who had to eat the bitter fruit, she was still about eight years old then. She prayed and cried hard to the Jade God to make it sweeter. Then the Jade God answered her prayers. The fruits were then so sweet afterwards. Lady Ziyi decided to keep it a secret from Mistress Cixi, lest she have them "sell" the fruits to the poor instead of just give it to them for free. It puzzled Lady Ziyi greatly when Ying-Fa told her of it since it has never happened before.
They had almost finished giving the fruits when Ying-Fa noticed that a young boy of about 10 crying in a corner. She approached him quietly. "Little one, why are you crying? Are you hurt?"
The boy shook his head and wiped his tears on his brown robe. "My grandfather has not arrived with our farm produce yet. He usually gets here on time on our old horse. So we cannot sell it in the market."
"Hush, don't cry, I'm sure he'll arrive soon. We'll help you sell the produce, all right?" Ying-Fa smiled at him and gave him a large red apple, which he took shyly. The boy cheered up when he ate the apple and joined the other children in listening to Ying-Fa's story:
"There was once a mighty emperor who lived in a great palace. He was rich and had many servants. But he was not happy. His wife had died giving birth to their son, who was a hunchback. The emperor loved his son but the son hated his father and blamed him for his deformity. So the son grew up and became evil and left the palace of his father.
The lonely emperor went hunting in the woods one day and he heard beautiful singing from a grove. He followed the voice and saw a very beautiful woman with long, dark hair. They fell in love with each other.
(The girl children swooned, while the boy children pretended to be disgusted—they really loved to watch Ying-Fa tell the story because she was very pretty.)
The Emperor married the lady and they had a son. He was very handsome—with brown hair and brown eyes. He had strong magic and became a very powerful warrior. His parents were very proud of him and the Emperor even gave him the Green Robes—which were only used by the Crown Prince.
But then the older Prince went back. He hated his new stepmother and stepbrother but he could not harm them because he was afraid of the Emperor. One night when the Emperor went on a journey, the Evil Prince placed a curse on his brother. The brother turned into a wolf every time there was a moon in the sky, his mother's powers could not cure it.
They were told that only Sakura blossoms can cure the handsome prince but Sakura trees only comes from the magical island of Fusang, which was very far away. (AN: Fusang is a mythical island often interpreted as Japan). So the mother of the handsome prince used all her powers to magically transport her son to Fusang, but by doing this she died.
The handsome prince suffered greatly when he went to Fusang. The people feared him because of his curse. The prince of Fusang wanted to kill him. Now the prince of Fusang was not evil, he was just very protective of what is his and he felt that the handsome prince/wolf will take away something precious from him.
Meanwhile, the handsome prince/wolf hid in a magic grove of Sakura every night of the Moon and he never turned into a wolf whenever he was there.
The prince of Fusang followed him and almost caught him there so he had to run away. When he went back all sorts of magical protection was around the Sakura grove. The handsome prince/wolf had to use his magic and fighting powers to get pass them. And he did!
At the end, he saw his favorite Sakura tree turn into a lovely maiden with green eyes. She was also cursed to remain in the form of a Sakura tree and only a prince from a faraway land can cure her after fighting obstacles for her. The Prince of Fusang is her brother and he allowed them to get married but they stayed for about 2 years with him before he let them go back.
The Emperor was very pleased when they returned. He was about to punish his eldest, disfigured son but the younger son begged him for mercy. So the Emperor split his Empire into two – North and South. The North he gave to his older son, the South to his beloved younger son. When the Emperor died, his body was buried in the lands of his younger son.
The younger son and his wife ruled their people well and his older brother had agreed to respect his land's boundaries out of gratitude for his help.
The listeners all clapped when Ying-Fa had finished the tale, which made her blush. "Lady Ziyi can tell it so much better." She said.
Suddenly the little boy who was crying earlier jumped for joy. He pointed to the city gates. "Our cart! Our cart it's here!!" Ying-Fa and the others looked at where the boy was pointing. The nearly-full produce cart was being pulled by two men—a mature-looking man with gray hair and a young man with brown hair and wearing brown robes. Ying-Fa looked closely at the young man and gasped. He was the young man she saw bathing in the mountain pool! She didn't know what to do!
"Um. Lady Ziyi? Can we go now?"
"Let us stay a little while longer, child. The Mistress Cixi is not expecting us until much later."
Ying-fa tried very hard not to look or sound nervous. She stood still as the cart went closer and closer to where they were standing. The cart pulled by the two men reached them presently. The poor boy's grandfather very happily thanked the two men who pulled his cart for him. "May the Mighty Jade God bless you sirs. If my horse did not run away from me on the way to the city, I would have been here much earlier. My lazy horse would probably be back home by now."
"My companion and I are glad to be of help." The gray-haired man with a beard said kindly. He was well-built and looked like a warrior. "But we must go now." The brown-haired young man stood quietly beside him.
"But wait, sirs, may we offer you some cold water?" Lady Ziyi graciously offered. (She can use her magic to turn water cold or warm.)
The gray-haired man bowed his head and smiled. "Why yes, that would be most welcome," he saw her green robes, "thank you Lady of the Jade Temple."
"Ying-Fa, if you please." Lady Ziyi said.
Ying-Fa's face colored. She bowed her head quite low as she served cold water to the two men. She served the gray-haired man first, who bowed to her. She could not help herself and looked at the young man's face. He was even more handsome up close and he was looking very intently at her. "Here, sir." Their hands brushed as she handed him a cup filled with cold water. She held back a gasp. The young man bowed to her, with shy smile on his lips.
"Well, well, well, if it isn't the bastard foundling prancing about with a common laborer". A haughty voice was heard. It was Lady Mei Yee and her daughter Lady Mei Ling who were sitting inside their carriage. Mei Ling looked embarrassed for her mother's rude behavior.
"It is not good to look down on others, Lady Mei Yee." Ziyi said, her eyes flashing.
"Who are you to speak—you don't have any children, cursed woman. Don't ever talk back to me, especially since my daughter will be the next Li Queen." Lady Mei Yee laughed as their carriage sped away.
The gray-haired man and the young man looked annoyed with the arrogant lady. They bowed again to Lady Ziyi and Ying-Fa and left quietly.
The people helped Lady Ziyi and Ying-Fa into their fruit cart and they drove off to the Jade Temple soon after. The children sadly said goodbye to Ying-Fa and she hugged them.
On the way home, the young lady looked at her foster mother sideways. She hated it when people reminded her of the fact that she did not have any children.
"I'm all right, my dear." Lady Ziyi said.
Ying-Fa smiled comfortingly at her. They had to stop their cart when they saw a town crier climb his post. "People of Li-Cheng, Her Majesty the Li Queen would like all of us to warmly welcome her guests from Nihon, led by Lady Sonomi. They will arrive at the palace tomorrow morning."
Lady Ziyi looked happily at Ying-Fa. "You can finally see the Li Royal Palace! Whenever there are guests all Temple attendants are required to go to the Palace and welcome them."
Ying-Fa smiled back. She was silent for the rest of the way home, trying hard not to think of the handsome young man she saw for the second time today. She did not even get to know his name. He and the gray-haired man were wearing brown robes, so that means that they are laborers or peasants. She did not mind one bit. She had never thought of herself highly since she is only a foundling and had no magic. She hoped the handsome young man wouldn't mind if he found out. She wished she would see him again soon.
Color "coding" of clothes in Li-Cheng:
Li royal family - white robes with wide gold and green border at the hem (because people usually have their heads bowed when they speak with them)
Nobles – gray robes with thin gold border at the hem
Soldiers – red robes over gray tunics
Mages/Teachers- blue robes
Temple Servants – green robes
Merchants – yellow border
Commoners/Laborers – brown robes