Welcome back, all! I apologize for my year-long hiatus, and won't bore you with excuses. Please enjoy!
Just Another Playing Piece
Chapter Eight:
And so the Plot Thickens…
The Fuhrer stiffened at the question, face as stoic as ever, "Explain yourself, woman."
Remaining uncharacteristically impassive, Tianxian spoke again as if speaking to a child, "Your country is in danger."
"I would suggest you stop speaking in riddles, Xing girl," Bradley rested his chin on his folded hands, "I find it exceedingly difficult to handle people of your caliber with a kind hand."
Tianxian stood gazing at the window thoughtfully as she weighed her options.
Finally, she murmured still looking away, "I do not know much, but I do know that there is someone who has ill intentions for the whole of Amestris. There is a…man…who desires to turn your country into a nation-wide transmutation circle, and transmute souls within it into…something."
"Tell me," Bradley spoke in his strong gruff voice, "Just who are you to know all of this?"
The girl snorted derisively. Of course he would question her legitimacy. Not that she could hardly blame him.
She supposed from his point of view, here was a foreigner, a royal concubine at that, ranting about how some apparently unseen megalomaniac was hell bent on using alchemy to destroy a nation known for its alchemic prowess with no proof other than her word. Not that her word was meaningless, Tianxian, for all her veils of deception, was an honest individual. Abrasively, so.
"I suppose that is fair enough to ask," Tianxian examined her nails rather nonchalantly, "Though I regret to inform you that I have no more proof than my word. I assure you that I am no liar…well, typically not anyway."
Bradley narrowed his one visible eye and gritted his teeth. The gesture was not lost on the young concubine. Sensing that this conversation was heading passed the point where she could steer it in her favor, Tianxian approached the Furher's desk with wary steps.
"Listen," Tianxian fiddled nervously with the paper she had handed over earlier, "I am unable to tell you how I know all this information without explaining the rise and fall of a nation and perhaps inducing you to question the meaning of life itself, but I have written here all that I know."
Bradley continued to stare back stonily at her, seemingly unaffected by her declaration, and brushed the parchment away.
"So, if you want to continue having a country to rule over, then you need to trust me when I say that alchemy could be its ruin. In exchange, I ask that you give me solace in your country, providing that you do something to save it knowing the information you have now."
Tianxian finished more haughtily than she had intended while attempting to maintain enough composure to hold his intimidating gaze.
A heavy air hung in the room for a pregnant moment. Finally, the Furher rose slowly from his seat. Once standing, he addressed her again.
"I have absolutely no reason to believe your preposterous accusations against the fate of this country. However, since you have already wasted my time as it is, I might as well humor you. You believe Amestris is being made into a nationwide transmutation circle…how so?"
Feeling herself grow faint underneath the weight of his attention, Tianxian ended up taking the seat she had denied earlier. She wiped her sweaty palms on her cheongsam. However, she had yet to break eye contact.
"I do not know in precise terms, but—"
The Furher interrupted, "I did not ask for an addendum. If you are unable to answer that, then might you tell me who is behind this proposed mass genocide?"
"Well, I am not exactly sure of that either, but my source of information is relia—"
Again her answer was interposed upon by a voice which should have sounded much more exasperated than it did smug, "Then what do you know?"
Uncomfortable, all-encompassing silence. Had the girl not been so flustered, she might have noticed the barely perceivable smirk that curled around the Fuhrer's moustache.
"I know that your arrogance could spell the end of your people!" Tianxian snapped, red in the face, "I know that the only way to counteract any of this is to create an opposing array just as large. I know that this is all to occur next Spring during the solar eclipse. I know destruction is imminent, and if you are willing to keep an open mind I will thoroughly explain how I came to hold such information. And, I know that you will be sorely mistaken should you decide my claims be false."
The girl huffed in frustration taking long, measured breaths to calm her indignation. Her anger had been spiked by his accusations against her intellect. This man was attempting to make a fool of her, and Tianxian was never one who would sit idly by and see her reputation go down in flames.
"I see," Bradley seemed to cough out the statement reluctantly.
The Furher carried himself over to one of the windows that hung behind his desk. For a man his size his footfalls were incredibly light. Despite his age, he still moved quite agilely.
Once Tianxian was left with his broad back facing her as the man gazed out into the early evening sky, he spoke again in an eerily calm voice, "Well, you certainly have caused enough ruckus, Miss Shi. However, I will eagerly supply you with new accommodations in Central City."
Shifting uncomfortably in her set, the concubine eyed the Fuhrer as his hand drifted towards the saber at his waist. He carefully caressed its golden hilt before sliding the blade from its sheath. As he turned with his blade drawn, panic bloomed in her chest and fear seized her heart.
"I believe you'll find your grave to be very accommodating."
Tianxian did not even get the chance to scream for help before the tip if the blade flew towards her neck.
Lan Fan was at her wits end.
Her nerves were shot and her prince was nowhere in sight. Even though the Xingese guards had scoured every nook and alleyway of the city, they had yet to catch sight of the young lord. Though she was already prone to fits of hysteria where it concerned Ling's wellbeing, the guard was beginning to fear that some true harm had befallen him.
Currently, Lan Fan was perched upon a rooftop behind Central Command to catch her breath before resuming her search. Fu sat cross-legged several paces away attempting to sense the Dragon's Pulse to no avail. It seems that the only way they would find their prince is if he was aiming to be found. After all, he was rather ingenious when it came to escaping death and the like.
The unexpected sound of breaking glass garnered both of their attention. Fu flashed to his granddaughter's side. Together they peered at the looming fortress of Central Command, expecting to see the golden jacket of Ling suddenly make an appearance.
It was not their prince they found plummeting rapidly from the third story window of the building, but the figure was equally as familiar nonetheless.
"Grandfa—!" Lan Fan cried out in distress at the sight.
Before she had the chance to finish, Fu flung himself towards the quickly falling mass of crimson robes. By the time he reached his target, the tangle of robes had righted themselves and a second figure was descending from the shattered window. He landed emptyhanded beside the hunched form of his Xingese compatriot, Tianxian Shi.
Standing at her full height, navy eyes erratically surveyed their surroundings until they came to settle upon the elder bodyguard. When Lan Fan landed behind them an instant later, the gaze swung to her. The haughty concubine had never appeared so relieved to see members of the Yao clan. The relief, however, was near instantly replaced with an apprehensive grimace.
"Run, you fools!" Tianxian barked in Xingese as she tugged the pair forward by the sleeve.
The warning flap of an Amestrian military cloak as it rushed through the air and the sheen of sunlight hitting an impeccably polished blade spurred all three foreigners into action.
Lan Fan and Fu immediately took to hopping rooftops, leaving Tianxian to scurry from alleyway to alleyway. The girl was doing her best to keep up with the guards from the ground, but was beginning to fall behind. In an action she might later regret, Lan Fan swooped the concubine onto her back before bounding back up to the rooftops.
While neither were exactly a fan of the rival clan heiress, they would side with a fellow Xingese national, no matter how irreverent, over an Amestrian any day.
Although the female guard was unsure whom exactly was tailing them or why, she could feel an aura of ill intent nipping at their heels. She was hoping that they would be able to lose their pursuer in the cover of night. As the gentle tap of footsteps grew louder, her hope seemed to become more unlikely.
"I truly hate to be the one to suggest this," Tianxian voice murmured next to Lan Fan's ear, sounding abnormally flat, "but taking to the sewers might prove beneficial for us."
The last person Lan Fan wanted to take a suggestion from was Tianxian Shi, but considering their current predicament, she would let it slide. Spotting a manhole cover up ahead, the young guard shot passed her grandfather, knocking the cover away, and swiftly entered the sewers. Fu followed suit, replacing the cover as he descended below the cobblestone streets.
With baited breath, the three waited in anticipation as to whether they had managed to allude their hunter. After an extended period of silence, Lan Fan felt it proper to assume they had made it to a safe location. She made sure to commit the effectiveness of the sewage system to memory in case she ever came across a tight spot again.
She set her burden back down upon their own feet. Tianxian stumbled sightlessly, but managed to gain her balance in the sewage water. They all stood in the darkness unsure of their next move.
Fu was the first to break the silence, "Shi, would you care to explain just who you sent chasing us through the streets?"
One of them sloshed through the water.
"Well, that would be the leader of this country, I suppose." Tianxian grunted into the darkness, "Something dark is afoot in Amestris, and it starts from the top down."
Lan Fan expected the loquacious girl to continue, but it seemed she was done.
"Come," Lan Fan gestured despite no one could see the action, "We still need to find the young lord."
Following the faint call of the Dragon's Pulse, she set off into the cavernous expanse of sewage with her grandfather at her side and an exasperated consort flailing blinding behind.
Smoke signals.
A smoky sky was the first thing Tianxian noticed when the Xingese trio reemerged topside at the break of dawn. Though she was no expert, she was fairly certain that they were not something one would commonly see in a large city like Central. Thankfully, Lan Fan seemed to be able to interpret them easily enough, and brought them all to a neighborhood of condos desperately in need of a fresh coat of paint.
Lo-and-behold, in the alleyway behind one of the condos sat the Twelfth Prince of Xing himself.
Lan Fan immediately genuflected, "Prince!"
Fu copied her bow, "We've searched all over for you!"
"Hey, that was fast." Fanning the smoke from a fire pit, Ling took note of their arrival with a wide grin around his meal of roast fish.
Had Tianxian not been so frazzled by the events of the last few hours, she would have found the energy to roll her eyes with a mock bow. Instead, she shifted uncomfortably from foot-to-foot at their side. She felt out of place.
The prince blinked lamely as he sensed her disgruntled presence, "Ah, and Mother is here as well. Such a surprise!"
Tianxian raised a delicate brow, "The surprise here is you, Yao. Last word I caught of you, I heard you were rotting away in a jailcell indefinitely."
The prince's response was to laugh awkwardly, "Yes, well, I am an exceptional dealmaker, it would seem. Eastern real estate seems to be a commodity around here."
Tianxian shared a confused glace with Lan Fan when Ling suddenly pulled Fu away. They whispered for a few moments before Fu disappeared from sight, and the prince stumbled over towards Tianxian.
He pretended to trip over his own feet, and used it as an excuse to throw his arms around the girl's slender shoulders. Her wiry frame sagged under his weight. He took the opportunity to whisper into her ear.
"How did you get that neck injury?"
Tianxian stiffened.
Her fingers ran along the thin, pink line that circled her neck. I appeared more like an old scar rather than a new wound. It almost looked like her neck was healing from recently being decapitated. It was so light that, to notice it, it would have taken a great deal of perception.
Tianxian dodged his inquiry with a low warning, "Give up on that Philosopher's Stone business if you want to return alive enough to lead your people."
"Oh?" Ling twitched at the namedrop of his most pressing obsession.
Tianxian pushed against his chest and he obliged by taking a step backwards. Hands on hips, he looked her up-and-down curiously. She glowered sourly back at him.
"Is it my imagination or do I detect concern for me in your voice, Mother?" Ling grinned mischievously.
A beat of silence passed, before the concubine scoffed, "Your imagination, clearly."
The prince stepped forward and stooped to the small woman's eyelevel, "Ah, but you hesitated."
Tianxian reached up and tugged violently on the end of his ponytail.
"That was not hesitation!" She announced, "I was merely fighting down the urge to vomit at your suggestion, Yao brat."
Painstakingly, he pried her thin fingers from his hair. He turned to head into one of the apartments which he encouraged Lan Fan to enter with a flick of his wrist. After his female bodyguard's back vanished behind the door, he paused when his reluctant other companion spoke again.
"You have lived as a fool, do not die as a fool. I am certainly no admirer of yours, but I hardly want to attend your funeral pyre," Tianxian said in a low, obnoxious voice
Then, as if she had not spoken at all, Tianxian pointed her nose in the air and brushed past him into the apartment.
After a matter of moments, Ling followed her inside marveling at what a curious creature Tianxian Shi was becoming.
Author's Note: Once again, I apologize for my long hiatus. Life took a nose dive for me, and that affected my ability to write. It was cruel for me to leave you guys with that cliffhanger, although I'm sure this chapter led to more questions than answers.
The reason this chapter exists is due to the Guest who left my a review recently that vastly encouraged me to pump this chapter out. Your reviews really do make a difference, and all of your continued support is appreciated. I hope this chapter made up for the long wait.
Please follow, favorite, and review should you feel inclined to do so. Please keep my passion for writing this story going.
pseudo ~