Queen Hiraya

Bailong ran. His soles hurt, every muscle in his body burned, and his stomach churned inside out from hunger. His breath stuck in his throat, making it hard to breathe. He couldn’t stop running. The valley of trees was slopping down, and every so often, his feet slipped. He scrambled, dodged, and jumped. To stop for a breath was not an option.

“Where can you go, little dragon? Or should I say, little snake?” Behind him, the dragon mocked with a light-hearted laugh. The words sent chills down his spine. The dragon knew. His mother’s illusion had broken. He had to find the cave, the passage. He had to get away. If he wanted to save his family, he had to stay alive.

The forest opened onto a flat wide path; running became smoother. Bailong ran faster. The turn was right ahead. Bailong felt eager and afraid to reach it.

“Mother. I am coming,” he called. The voice was his, but also not his. It was Qinglong's voice. He looked around. Alongside him, in the forest, ran a faint blue spirit dragon, looking at him. Its large blue iris reflected his speeding image, changing and expanding. The image of a white snake, as large as the dragon, with wings as wide as the dragon but with the body of a snake, thin and long, stretching every minute.

This was not him. He turned away from the Qinglong’s unusual spirit and turned around the corner of the thick forest. There was no mother, no path, no cave, no passage, only more forest. He kept running.

Then a scream filled the air. The ear piercing pain in the familiar voice halted his steps. It was the bloodcurdling, despairing, and pain-filled scream of his mother.

“Mother.” he called in the darkness, and Qinglong called in his head as they sat up straight. Dream. It was only a dream, he realsed instantly. Everywhere around him was darkness. Bailong caught the vague shape of a man in the corner. Alarm rose in his body, springing to his feet in a defensive position, right where he sat, his mind swaying with his body. His eyes shifted into his other vision. An image of broad back light illuminated the Headmaster’s distinct figure overlapping the reality of darkness.

He felt Qinglong’s relief, just as Headmaster’s voice soothed, “You are safe here.”

Headmaster Wama was a tall man with a broad back and legs so thin that portraits could never catch the delicate balance right. On him, it fit together perfectly together, under the man’s authoritative, sharp, deep-set eyes. Once the headmaster lit the back light, he spoke again, “You are in no danger here, Prince Bailong.”

Bailong, strung tight from his nightmare felt his bones languid just before losing his human form and shifting to beast. He tried to calm down while Qinglong asked, “Mother?”

He couldn’t respond. The events that happened in Aliferous after he started running, only he had witnessed. Qinglong had not woken up inside him at that point. This was the first time his brother had heard those words and seen that image. Distractedly, he looked around and discovered a hard, simple bed under him with brown bedding and covers, characteristic to Kaizen. The room was bare, except for a low table and lamp. Even his brother’s sharp eyes could not beautify the dullness of the room. The room was as big as five footsteps walking space, with a single door to his right. By his head was the familiar pouch. His hand moved over the pouch, the events still too vivid in his head, from the knife and blood curling scream to ever present target on his back.

“Prince Bailong. What happened at the Dragon Palace?” Headmaster Wama’s walked forward, hands clasped together in the front, and stopped at the edge of the bed, an urgency under the solemn tone. Bailong weighed his options before answering.

“It Was A Coup. The Black Dragon Captures The Dragon King.” Bailong spoke each word separately, raising his guard with his rising voice. The air around was a taste of dull rot on his tongue. As his brother’s senses were overtaking his body, his own were weakening.

Headmaster Wama shook his head, the solemn expression falling off. Only the urgency remained behind, “Queen Hiraya? Crown prince Qinglong?”

Bailong shuddered involuntarily but kept his eyes on the headmaster. The memories threated to overtake him. Bailong pulled his lips together and looked at the disproportionate man keenly. The inquiry was unusual. It was customary for people to inquire about Qinglong, for the future of the Dragon kingdom rested on his shoulders. It was unusual for anyone to inquire about his mother. People didn’t even remember her name anymore. His mother’s unusual action, coupled with the headmaster’s inquiry, made him weary. “My mother has been in exile for a long time.”

Headmaster Wama’s forced a calm. “We knew each other as roaming cultivators before she married the Dragon King.”

“Standard response,” Qinglong was weary of the Headmaster, too, “Mother is from the islands.”

Seeing no response from him, the Headmaster asked, “Has Queen Hiraya ever told you how she met the Dragon King, the then Dragon Prince?”

Qinglong felt anxious. He shook his head, and Headmaster Wama gave him a sad smile. “Your father had always liked Princess Hiraya while she was traveling the lands. After her travels, she went back home only to return during the border war. She came back and agreed to marry the dragon prince.”

“Was she… Did she come back to stop the war? Why? The islanders don’t care about land wars.” Bailong couldn’t stop himself from asking.

“And the islanders were angry at her for this. The Naga king had to take drastic steps to calm the islanders.”

Border wars were common then, and the islanders despised them, considering them a sign of greed. Why would she care about one such war out of the many, especially at the cost of her family and life back on the islands? That wasn’t the response to his question, but Bailong listened. It didn’t tell him something he didn’t already know. What had, any of it, to do with her acquaintance of Headmaster Wama, if any?

“Then why did she do it?” Bailong wasn’t expecting an answer when he asked. He wasn’t expecting Headmaster Wama’s eyes to turn downcast either, “I don’t know the whys, but I can answer some of the what. Everyone who knew her then knows this. She convinced the new king, your father, to end the war based on some strategic reasons.”

“How do you know her, exactly?” Bailong had deduced the answer before he had asked the question.

Bailong had heard tales of wonderful places his mother had seen around the world. She told him the world was too big for a few hundred years of life. When she ended her exile, she wanted to travel to find an immortal. She talked about her friends she had traveled with, some simple beasts, some extraordinary, each a marvel in their own right. This is the standard response Qinglong was talking about. Their mother knew many people far and wide. Some of these tales, the brothers had heard first-hand.

“We traveled together for a while.” Headmaster Wama repeated himself.

Qinglong gave a mock bark of laughter in his head, “she met a lot of people. How do we know he is telling the truth? For all, we know he could be someone who saw her and her traveling companions from far away.”

Bailong reframed the question, “How can I trust you?”

Headmaster Wama wasn’t a simple person. He was the most influential person in Kaizen. His authority in the south was equivalent to a king. He had Toru backing and held higher cultivations that any king of the lands themselves.

“It was a brief encounter. Lady Hiraya was traveling alone when she met the group I was traveling with. We traveled together for some time before I parted ways with them and she continued. Some years later, she found me for a task. I was in a tough place at that time. We helped each other out.”

The answer, though sounded right, was still pretty vague.

“Not getting around that easy.” Qinglong snickered before Bailong spoke evenly, “My apologies, Headmaster Wama. That still doesn’t tell me anything. Your acquaintance with Mother only speaks of mutual benefit. Why are you helping me now?”

Headmaster’s Wama smiled tightly under the faint glow on the side of his squared jaw. Bailong needed proof of Headmaster Wama’s acquaintance with their mother, not empty stories. Headmaster’s next words were far more tactful, “I will aid your goals in return for Kaizen’s safety in the next reign, yours or your brother’s.” Bailong saw him as the force he was known to be, reaching into his lapels as he said so, producing a paper.

“Fair enough,” Bailong responded, eyes on the folded paper that Headmaster Wama placed in the lamplight. His first thought that it was deal, immediately dissipated as the Headmaster spoke. “The last time I met Queen Hiraya was during the celebration of your birth. She left this with me.”

Bailong got off the bed, picking up the pouch and placing it in the lapels of his fresh Kaizen robes and walked over to the candlelight. Only now, he noticed how tall Headmaster Wama was. All the emotions the man had displayed before, worry, eagerness, and concern, were now reigned in.

“Do you think mother had seen this coming? You, me, the letter, the pouch, it all shows that she did.” Qinglong spoke thoughtfully.

Bailong turned to the Headmaster and asked solemnly. “Can I please have a moment to myself?”

Once he was alone, Bailong spoke, “I don’t trust him fully, but we have no other options for now… Either way, I, too, think Mother prepared everything far in advance. She saw it coming. I only wish she would have said something.”

“About the war? About the coup? About.. This?” Qinglong asked.

“I am not sure.”

“There is a lot we don’t know.”

“True.” He barely sighed at the words as he felt Qinglong’s agitation within him. Or was it him?

“There you go, having the last word again.” He smiled at Qinglong’s attempt to distract him. He opened the letter Headmaster Wama had given him first. With a painful push against his chest, Qinglong materialized- a dull blue dragon, his luminescent all gone, crouched against the ceiling. He felt Qinglong’s sadness expand within him, but neither said a word, turning to the letter in unison.

Bai and Qing, my treasures.

Only after going through tribulations does life become better, beasts become stronger, and humans become immortals. Yet, all great immortals start as children and every parent wants to protect their children. Forgive me, for forcing you into a soul bond. It is the only way I could find.

The path of soul-bonding cultivation is difficult, but for both of you to survive, it is the only path now. I promise we will meet again and I promise I will answer everything then. Have faith in yourself as much as you have in each other.

Bailong’s hand clutched the paper, shivering. It was a meaningless letter. She had asked for forgiveness but not explained anything, neither her vision nor the soul bond. Bailong felt lost, tears he was unwilling to shed wheeling up in him.

“This is useless. What preparation is this? All we get in this letter is a ‘soul bond.’ Nothing about how to break it, reverse it, or anything at all.” Bailong let the letter go.

“I forgave her a while ago. She tried her best to change our destiny. If only I had listened to her,” Qinglong spoke uncharacteristically calmly. There were some underlying uneasiness, anxiousness and the sense of loss that resonated his own. However there was no anger in Qinglong which frustrated Bailong. Qinglong folowed with a playfully snide remark. “She is going to hear it for the rest of her life about it, though.”

Bailong shook his head, unable to resonate with his brother’s forced lightness. Qinglong, though rebellious, had long since accepted what happened to him. Despite the sadness, Qinglong had accepted his fate of residing in Bailong’s body. Qinglong had let go.

“I am not as forgiving as you.” Bailong had not.