Oh, geez...it's been exactly a month since I updated. I'm so sorry for the long wait! Here we have the continuation and conclusion of the "Desert Recap Arc." Enjoy!
A SUPER THANKS to Juliedoo and mun3litKnight for reviewing last chapter. This chapter is dedicated to you lovely people. ;)
Just Another Playing Piece
Chapter Six:
"Runaway Bride II"
Two and a half months prior...
Ugh, so he's a Yao brat.
Tianxian turned her nose up in disgust as she eyed the young man who sat smiling across from her. Her breathing was haggard, and despite using the stolen sword as a crutch, she still swayed side-to-side. She was dangerously close to becoming unconscious again. At this point, it was only her enormous ego keeping her from passing out, because heaven forbid she fall on her pride and damage it.
"I am rather offended that you do not recognize me," Tianxian said, thankful that it was words that came out of her mouth instead of vomit.
Ling cocked his head to the side, his expression imploring, "Oh, really? Tell me. What have I missed?"
"Are you that low brow as to not recognize royalty?" The concubine rolled her eyes derisively.
"Ah, excuse me for not keeping up with the latest proceedings of the royal court. You could say that I have been a bit distracted as of late." The ebony-haired boy replied nonchalantly as justification for his seeming ignorance.
Tianxian made a sour face, obviously displeased with his lack of imperial knowledge. Well, it was her most sincere duty to correct that now, wasn't it? As a cultured woman of the court, she had a responsibility to educate the uncivilized and vulgar common people.
With that thought in mind, Tianxian began a proclamation that, unbeknownst to her at this time, would be repeated on countless occasions, because despite her inflated sense of self-importance, very few people knew who she was or would even respect her title once they did,
"I am the two hundred and sixteenth heir to the illustrious Shi Clan, newlywed royal concubine of the current Emperor. Now that you are aware that you are in the presence of royalty, you no longer will have to fight the urge to bow at my feet. My name is Tianxian Shi, but to make it more comfortable for you, you may call me Your Royal Highness, Lady Shi."
Silence permeated the group. Blank expressions decorated three out of the four faces, though only one was visible. Even the wind seemed to have dulled in a comedic pause.
Tianxian's frown deepened further. These people were obviously imbeciles. First not to recognize that she was the most recently crowned imperial consort, albeit she had made a mad dash for it not three hours after their union, was somewhat understandable. But, to not properly fall at her feet once her title was flashed, that was inexcusable.
"Hmpf. Well?" The disgruntled girl growled out from between clenched teeth.
Laughter. Boisterous, unrestrained laughter assaulted Tianxian's ears. Ling Yao clutched his stomach as a bout of uncontrollable chuckles escaped from deep within him. Tears sprung to his eyes, his face turning red from lack of oxygen.
Attempting to look as intimidating as one could with a broken nose, Tianxian snapped, "I hardly see the humor in this situation."
The mirth filled boy quieted to a soft titter, "Ah, forgive me. It's just that this is all much unexpected. It is an honor to have the opportunity to acquaint ourselves with a lady of the court. Don't you think so, Lan Fan, Fu?"
Two shadows passed from behind Tianxian to stand next to a crouching Ling. The battered girl observed them warily. The pair was clad in the traditional combatant uniform of her home country, the dark clothing stood stark in comparison to the light sandy hues that served as their backdrop.
There was something about their stance that struck Tianxian as odd. Something about the way the two flanked the boy who had introduced himself as Ling. The mask-wearing pair were turned just the slightest towards him, chins almost unperceptively bowed. The way they carried themselves was almost…subservient. More like bodyguards than companions.
Then it dawned on her. Companions that are submissive. The phoenix starburst embroidery woven into his silken shirt. The minutest lilt to his speech. Those familiar-looking angular features that made her nauseous. Without a doubt, these all could only add up to one thing.
"I see now. You are right. This is rather unforeseen. It appears that we are two royals crossing paths in the desert. How unusual. Now answer me this, which child in the lineup are you?" Though her eyebrows rose in surprise at the revelation, Tianxian's tone was thoroughly disparaging.
One of the bodyguards sent a kunai whizzing by her shoulder. She felt the cold steel rip through several layers of her bridal robes, leaving the left sleeve hanging precariously by a few threads. If she had, had any fluid remaining in her body, Tianxian would have been embarrassed to say that she would have wet herself from the close call. She was particularly attached to maintaining both of her arms, and did not feel the desire to lose one anytime soon.
"How dare you speak to Master Ling in such a way! A lowly consort is inferior to a prince of the royal court!" The indignant shout resonated from behind the mask with the Yin sign etched on the forehead. The voice was undeniably female.
The other bodyguard whose mask held the Yang sign, in a much older sounding and decidedly male voice, chastised, "Stand down, Lan Fan! The Young Lord has not given us orders of attack."
Meanwhile, the young prince that was the center of all this attention crossed his legs with his elbows balanced on his knees and his face resting in the palms of his hands. From the moment Tianxian had opened her eyes, his unsettling grin had never faded. It almost seemed like he was enjoying the novelty of the situation.
Both bodyguards looked towards their charge in anticipation of his order. Yet, no order ever came, and he did not even spare a glance at their quibbling. His dark eyes, which were just opened a fraction of an inch, seemed resolutely trained on Tianxian.
Typically, when a young lady had the great fortune of catching the eye of a fetching prince, they would more likely than not describe the feeling in their stomach as butterflies. An anxious, but pleasant sensation. However, Tianxian fell into the later "than not" category. Instead she would describe the feeling of having Ling's gaze on her more like a nest of angry hornets set free in her gut. Completely disagreeable.
"My, the women of the Shi clan appear to be quite the adventurous sort," were the words Ling broke his contemplative silence with, "I'm curious. Are all Shi women this gregarious?"
Tianxian snorted rather unladylike, "I would not know. As the non-official head of the Shi Clan, I have been sequestered from the normal dealings of my clanswomen for quite some time."
"I suppose that I could say the same for myself. Though, since you seem to be in dire straits, how about I offer you a deal?" Ling suddenly suggested taking the girl, as well as his bodyguards it seemed, by surprise.
"A deal?"
Ignoring Tianxian's apparent look of shock which quickly rearranged itself into calculated suspicion, the cheeky prince continued, "Yes. A deal, a pact, a contract, a treaty, a transaction, an agreement…whatever you may wish to call it. However, before I make any agreements, I need a few answers from you.
Seeing as you are lacking in any manner of provisions and you appear to have been desperate enough to leave in your wedding robes, I can assume one of two things. The first, you made an unplanned escape sometime briefly after your nuptials with my father. He is not exactly what I would call a caring man, so I can understand your distaste for such a husband.
Or the second, you have been forcibly kidnapped. However, since there seems to be a startling lack of shady characters in the area, I can only conclude that you have wound up in the middle of the desert based on my first assumption.
Or, I could be wrong altogether, and it could be like Lan Fan suggested to me earlier. You are a spy or an assassin. This would be the most unfortunate possibility for you. So, humor me, will you? Which option are you?"
What a fox. He was only playing the fool, Tianxian realized as the prince looked imploringly at her.
She had misjudged him. While he did appear to be a jovial sort of person, Tianxian could now ascertain that cheeriness was part of an elaborate false persona. Perhaps, not so much as false as it was misleading. His chirpy attitude was quite genuine. It was just manipulated in a fashion that deliberately drew attention away from his innate astuteness.
Tianxian weighed the words in her mouth, unsure just how much of her plans to give away to insure her safety, but eventually spoke,
"To assume that I am a spy or an equivalent thereof is only to flatter yourself, Yao brat. You are just one of many vying for the seat of Emperor. There are your siblings whose names I do not have to ask for, yet know. When you in comparison have to tell me yours and of your undiscovered greatness. Do you honestly think that the Shi Clan has the resources to waste targeting a low ranking whelp like you? Nevertheless, the matters of clan warfare no longer pertain to me. I seek asylum beyond the borders of Xing for personal reasons, you could say."
The concubine felt the bodyguards bristle at the clear insult. Regardless, she paid them no heed, she only had eyes for the young prince sitting before her. She knew if the master posed no threat, then his guard dogs would have tuck their tails and stand down.
"My, I do believe that this is a case of the pot calling the kettle black." Ling mused, unperturbed by her slight, "Even though you have told me who you are, I still lack understanding of where your sense of pride comes from. After all, just as you so eloquently said, I am one of many. The irony is, so are you. What I can ascertain, though, is that you pose neither myself nor my traveling party any threat."
Tianxian wanted to strangle him for his imprudence. It wasn't that he was wrong. In actuality, he was very right. The problem was that he had hit too close to the truth, and that made her very edgy.
"Well, now that we've cleared that up," the insufferable prince began again, "my offer. My retainers and I are headed to a country in the west, Amestris, for…personal reasons, you could say. At this rate, it is a certain fact that you will die here, and it would be terribly ungentlemanly of us to leave you stranded in the middle of the desert. I suggest that you travel with us at least until we cross the border. We can offer necessities and protection.
Now, as for your end of the deal, when I eventually make my proposal for Emperor, I require the allegiance of the Shi Clan. Upon my request, you return to Xing for an unspecified amount of time to quell any uprisings in your clan, and encourage your people to pledge loyalty under the Yao Clan heir taking bid for the throne, that being me. Seems like a fair trade, hm?"
"And, just why should I trust you?" The concubine drawled skeptically, the irritated expression on her face clearly spelled that she was expecting a lackluster answer.
Ling lifted has head out of his hands to cock it slightly, seemingly confused by her suspicion. In a light voice he responded, "Why, because we're family, of course."
Silence passed through the grouping once more before a proverbial bomb detonated.
"Are you demented?! How have you deluded yourself into thinking that you and I have any sort of relation to one another?!" Tianxian bellowed to a completely unaffected Ling.
"Well, you are my mother, aren't you?" The boy in question shrugged.
A thin eyebrow twitching and a vein bulging at her temple, "Your…mother? Do I look like I gave birth to you?!"
"Of course not. My mother is much more beautiful." He said it with a flippancy that sounded factual rather than purposely insulting. "But, since you are married to my father, that would technically make you my st—"
"Step-mother? You could have me killed and reincarnated a thousand times over, and I would still never play mommy to the likes of you!" Tianxian interrupted, the repulsion clear as day in the inflection of her voice and by the way that she had subconsciously shifted her upper body away from him.
Ling easily waved away her ire and directed their conversation back to the main point, "So, what do ya say? Deal?"
Really? He was still stuck on this utterly insane idea that she would suddenly somehow shift allegiances and side with a Yao? Not only a Yao, but one that was in line to attain the emperorship? Oh, but Tianxian's horror did not end there, because not only was he a Yao with imperial roots, but he was a Yao with imperial roots and a pretentious asshole.
She opened her mouth to firmly decline, when suddenly her stomach twisted and bile mixed with stomach acid burst forth from her lips.
Oh, so there was that vomit she was expecting earlier. Here to make a spectacular late entrance.
Tianxian's palms had become too clammy, and her grip on Ling's sword slipped. Without the weapon holding her up, she slumped to lay on one side, face partially buried in the sand. Raspy heaves escaped from her lungs as her chest rose up and down from exertion. The adrenaline that had fueled her body since she had awoken was spent, and a new level of exhaustion that was far worse than earlier settled into her being. It was a type of weariness that incased her straight down to the very core.
"You are dying."
Though her body was weakened, the fire was still there in her eyes as her eyes shifted to take in the person whom had spoken. It was the man wearing the Yang symbol mask. He had moved forward to hover just to the left of her prone figure, the mask hanging around his neck to reveal a grayed mustache and an assortment of hard-earned wrinkles adorning his face.
"I recognize the signs. You have heat exhaustion that obviously has been coupled with severe dehydration," the man Tianxian believed she had heard Ling refer to as Fu continued, "You have pushed your body passed its ability to maintain proper homeostasis. First, your stomach will attempt to purge itself, which we see has already occurred. Next your kidneys will cease to function, and then your breathing will shallow. If you do not receive the proper attentions soon, I say you have until sunset at the latest."
Then the female bodyguard stepped forward unannounced, but did not remove her mask, "Stifle your pride, Shi girl. It would be wise to weigh your situation before you speak."
Tianxian knew she was closer to death than she would like to admit. After all, it was not the first time she had felt this sensation, the odd feeling of one's soul beginning to detach from their body. It was her shear egotism that was keeping her alive at this point, however, it was that same vanity that was currently keeping from accepting the prince's enticing offer that just might save her life. Was she truly so shallow as to stake her life on an errant strain of narcissism?
Again Ling leaned forward to encompass the entirety of the girl's view, "Let's help each other."
It was the time for decisions. Now or never. Her life depended on it. She had higher ambitions that needed fulfilling, and now was not the occasion to falter in the face of what she had already so desperately fought to obtain.
"Yao brat," her voice was barely more than a mumble, but the clan heir still heard her despite this, "bring me to the Amestrian border, and then I will accept your deal."
Ling's smile shrunk for a fraction of a second before it returned brighter than ever, "A deal it is, then. Oh, Mother, I am absolutely ecstatic that you have finally come to your senses!"
Tianxian was completely unprepared to have the young lord launch himself full force at her frail frame. Though she was laying down, he still clutched her shoulders pressing the full length of his body against her, and excitedly rubbed his cheek against the side of her face.
"What an honor it is to have Mother accompanying us! I was just thinking earlier how I was missing a mother's touch. ~"
The way Ling's voice dipped mischievously at the end of his sentence was not lost on Tianxian, the innuendo far from being hidden. A shout of retaliation rose in her throat, but quickly died as the prince's arms snaked around her back and two fingers innocently pressed against a pressure point in her neck. That son of a…
Just before her consciousness scattered to the wind, Tianxian was sure she heard Ling whisper, "Nothing personal. This is just to make our travel go by more swiftly. Oh, and the answer to your earlier question…I am number twelve."
Again oblivion washed over her mind and everything was lost to the encroaching darkness.
Present...
When Tianxian awoke this time, she was relieved to see that no one was looming over her. However, this was probably because she was hanging upside down slung over a broad shoulder. It was a strange position to wake up in, though not the first time she had been in it either.
She looked down half expecting to see the cured leather of Lan Fan's body armor, but was instead greeted with a face full of purple shirt. With each step the person took, she face planted against a solid back. As if her head wasn't pounding to begin with.
The young woman took a moment to gather her thoughts in an attempt to decipher how she had gone from the middle of the desert to being carried through a brick alleyway. Whimsical humming caught her attention. She twisted her torso to peer at the back of the head belonging to the person whom was manhandling her through the streets. Immediately she recognized the curl of black hair that twirled out just in front of his ear, and she paled.
It is the owner of that automail shop that the heathen alchemist used earlier…Tianxian though miserably.
Now she realized why she was being slammed against his back every step. It was because rather than walking cautiously, Garfiel was prancing through the streets to the tone deaf tune that he was humming. She wasn't sure how she had managed to miss the sparkling rainbow that seemed to trail behind them with every skip.
Tianxian wrinkled her nose in disgust. Now she remembered. She had been running through the city to escape the rage of that pintsized blonde Amestrian after skipping out on the pie bill. She had just managed to round a particularly sharp turn in between two merchant stalls when something had collided with the back of her head knocking her unconscious right then.
That meant that the memory of her time in the desert had just been on replay in her dream. Even in her sleep she could not break free from the stifling presence of a certain irritating Xingese prince. To her that made it more of a nightmare than a dream, really.
But, wait, hadn't that same insufferable Yao brat been with her then, too? So where…was…he…?
Her eyes immediately flew to the tight grip around one of her hands. For someone who prided themselves on attention to detail, Tianxian felt like a complete moron for not noticing that Ling himself was slung across Garfiel's other shoulder in very much the same position that she was in. He appeared to still be unconscious, and Tianxian deduced that the two must have bumped heads landing them both knocked out cold and now in the flamboyant clutches of Garfiel.
Yet, that was not what caught her attention. It was his hand that encased her own hand that was her focus. Even in unconsciousness, he still held her hand just as he had when they were fleeing through the town earlier.
Tianxian snapped her head the other direction, a blush coursing through her veins all the way from the roots of her hair to the tips of her toes as her face evolved into an unattractive grimace. She snuck a hasty peek back at Ling's peaceful expression, but just as quickly shifted her eyes away from him again as her heart skipped a few necessary beats.
What the concubine did next, she would never admit even under the threat of death.
Just ever so slightly she allowed her fingers to loosely curl around the palm of Ling's hand, tightening her grip against his.
She wasn't quite sure why she did it in the first place. Perhaps, because he looked so innocent without that mischievous smile decorating his face? Perhaps, because he was a symbol of home, which she missed greatly despite having run away from, in a faraway land? Perhaps, because for once someone was holding onto her as if she were truly valuable?
Regardless of the reason behind her actions, Tianxian thought,
Just this once, you idiot prince. Just this once.
That's a wrap for the "Desert Recap Arc." As you all can tell there is still much left to tell about the shenanigans of Tianxian and the Xing crew from their desert adventures, but not in this story. Would you all be interested in a separate series of one-shots about those adventures? Let me know and I'll see what I can do. :)
Thanks for reading the sixth chapter of Just Another Playing Piece! Hopefully you all enjoyed Ling and Tianxian being sass masters to each other. And, oh? What is this? Is our self-righteous little Tianxian beginning to have a crush on our favorite goofball? Hmm...
A HUGE THANKS TO: Juliedoo, Loving-you-is-a-crime, RedSoleil, Synodic, The Name Is Greed, TheWeepingWillow555, Z0mbieMart, kitcat93, oxCuteKataraox, and xYandere Senpai for following last chapter! , Juliedoo, Minerva Nargles, SearchingTheSkies, and Z0mbieMart for favouriting last chapter! a special shout out to Juliedoo and mun3litKnight for reviewing last chapter! Your support is always appreciated. :)
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