Lotus Is A Girl

It was dark.

At times, it was cold. Other times it was hot. Her skin was burning, her heart was freezing. There was an unbrearable pain running down her spine and her head was in pain.

"Kill them..."

"Vengeance."

"It's your fault.'

Whispers continued to trickled into her ears as she struggled to move in the darkness. Enticing her, angering her, wanting to coax an outburst from her. But she knew this....

She always known about this... During the last ten millions years of her absence...

Her back was burning, and it felt as though her flesh was being torn from the bones. Yet, knowing that the assassins dared to make her mother feel such horrible pain angered her more and gave her a reason to stay sane. Sensing her anger, the curse found fun in this and sneered wickedly as an idea conjured up in its mind. It reached out to her and left its previous vessel completely!

Sensing this, Peony felt a foreboding sense of shock and horror. She quickly summoned her lightning qi and tried to form a barrier with it. Sure enough, Lightning was a weakness of this evil spiritual energy. It stopped itself from approaching her, but it lingered around her just waiting for a chance to find an opening spot. However, her barrier is thick of qi energy and the curse struggled to sneak past her defenses. It huffed a chuckle knowing the weak spiritual energy this child still possesses and decided to wait for her to run out of spiritual qi.

It was right and Peony knew that it would only be a matter of time before she could no longer uphold this barrier. Despite this, she was also struggling to fight back against the evil energy she had already absorbed into her body while still trying to keep it from tainting her soul!

As she combated against these two forces between a wedged space, Peony noticed small trickles of energy entering the space between them and it was flowing towards the shining yet faint soul of her mother! The energy began to grow as a voice vibrated in their ears, "You wicked monster... Stay away from my daughter!"

"Big Sis!"

With that, a shining soul grew stronger and brighter pushing the darkness out! How?!

"Mom...?" Peony muttered in surprise struggling keep the cursed energy in her in check when soon collapsed.

However, something picked her up as she was slowly growing weaker.

"You-!" The queen appeared as the shining figure and glared upon the new intruder.

Riding on the Qilin, they approached Peony, who had blacked out from the struggle, and the stranger as the fairy grew more and more furious but managed to calmly state, "We appreciate the prince's help for saving us. As show of our gratitude, we kindly as that you return our princess to us, Prince of Briar Valley."

Malleus looked down upon the princess with shocked expression on his face as he muttered in disbelief, "Princess?"

He had seen the princess from afar in the video and once in their dreams as children. However, the girl in his arms is nothing like that strong headed child who shone so brightly or the glamorous woman that ripped the skies apart like a wild fire. Instead, she felt no different from an ordinary desperate human only with the power and knowledge of the unknown. Yet, her bold actions and reckless behaviour somehow make her strengths shine all the more. Even without the blood of fae or fairy in her. Perhaps, she would have the answer to his questions.

"Are you listening to me, Young Master of Briar Valley?" The Queen scowled.

"Ah, yes." Malleus responded and quickly handed her back into the arms of the queen.

The queen checked to see her daughter's state of being before muttering to herself nervously, "She still has remnants of dark magic in her body... Curse it all... My foolish little Peony... Taking on my curse..."

"If I may ask..." Malleus spoke up curiously, "The princess is not of fairy descent. However, her knowledge and power goes beyond the abilities of light faes and dark Faes. Will the princess be harmed because she is a cultivator?"

Angered by his lack of manners and awareness to the situation , the queen looked to the prince with an angry scowl, "You should withhold that curiosity, your highness. Although you have earned my daughter's trust for now, you are not your grandmother and so have not gained mine yet. Till then, you would know better than to question any topics in regards to my daughter or the princess."

Malleus raised a brow with a look of surprise as he realized that he had offended the Queen of Fairies so quickly upon meeting one another. The fact that she would mention a human princess as her daughter and her title sounds as though Peony certainly holds a very special place in her heart.

Seeing this, Malleus was soon reminded of his grandmother when he was still in the form of a child. How she spent hard earned breaks to spend time planting roses with him on his birthday which he has taken for granted back then. Those days were one of the most carefree times of his life. He did not have to worry about losing those around him before they slowly left their seats beside him. Did not have to worry living a world without them. Now...

He recalled how easily Vil aged just because he had the vitality of his years sucked out from him and trembled. He was surprised. For so long, he had not trembled physically like this in a long time. He was not there when he lost his parents. He was also not there to hear his grandmother's grief upon losing her son and daughter. But, now he is nearing those times and do not know how to react to a world without the people he had come to know around him. Can he really continue to live without them?

Even the scene between the fairy queen and her daughter was rather ridiculous. Perhaps she can live for hundreds more years than a human, however, they will live for thousands of years. How can a thousand years compare to the life span of a few hundreds?

However, his question next was neither of those as he had noticed Peony's body temperature was rather cold to the touch and opened his mouth again, "The temperature of the princess is very low. I recall she has made a contract with a phoenix. So, why is she so cold?"

"Does the prince not heed my warning?"

Despite her threatening tone, the prince simply raised a brow surprised by her reaction and opened his mouth, "The princess claims to have close ties with the queen of Briar Valley. Should anything happen to the princess, the queen would be saddened. Naturally, as her grandson, I care for her condition just as much."

"You-!"

The queen was at a loss for words by his bold behaviour. It was simply a question, yes. However, it was a question pertaining her daughter, their princess and her Peony. Had it been the other students or high-ranking bachelors, she would bare them some leniency. Just a little. However, the children of Briar Valley's nobles and royalty are not allowed to even touch a hair on her daughter's head!

As such, she was already very furious knowing the prince had gone beyond that, but gave face still because this was the grandson of the person who supported her daughter and political connection between their two kingdoms. Yet, this man was so bold as to take one foot and ask for a mile! The audacity!

"Sister has been struggling with protecting her mom from the curse these past few days. So, she's not in the best shape." The horse with a dragon scales on him responded, "She knew this, so she intended to weaken the curse by separating it in half. Unknowingly, this curse was so powerful that it has a conscious and tried to take over the princess just now."

Sister? Malleus frowned and, seeing the queen treating it so well, questioned curiously, "Pardon my rudeness, but what monster are you?"

"I'm not a monster nor a horse." The horse snorted angrily, "I'm a spiritual beast called a qilin and I have a contract with big sister. I'm Little Jun. She wanted me to come and protect her mommy while she fights against the curse."

Qilin? He has never heard of such beasts before. Not even Lilia mentioned about them from his travels. He secretly made note of it on his sleeve with magic and continued, "I fought off the curse just now, correct? If we get rid of it, will the princess be able to recover?"

"This..." Little Jun hesitated, "Big sister doesn't have enough spirit- She doesn't have enough mana right now. Removing the curse is okay. However, she needs more mana to recover properly."

"Why mana?"

"Spiritual beasts and human cultivators are the same in regards to how we require mana. We need mana to live a long time. Without mana, we became as weak as a human that can't use magic. Humans life span can even revert back to its original life span."

"They won't overblot?" Malleus scowled.

Little Jun shook his head nervously under the growing tension, "Sister said that mana is like the blood running in our body. It is a vital energy we need to live. We take it in and we release it back into the earth. Without it, we just stop functioning."

You mean, she will die without mana! Malleus hummed in deep thoughts. He had never heard of cultivators until recently. If someone takes in too much mana than they can handle, their life could be in danger. However, he's never heard of someone who needs a constant flow mana through their body just to live. As he scribbled a couple words down the inside of his sleeve secretly, he continued, "So, is this why she's attending Night Raven College?"

"What?"

Malleus folded his arms and responded with a huff of dismay, "Princess Peony is Lotus Xue, is she not? No. Lotus Xue is Princess Peony. Lotus is a girl."