CHAPTER 8 - EMOTIONAL DISTRESS FEES

Before the sun had risen to its peak in the sky to signal that it was the middle of the day, Carmen had managed to plow the fertile ground of their little courtyard with little Kazu doing most of the heavy work as he refused to have her do it herself, so all she could do was to instruct him on what to do. They didn't have access to any proper tools that they could use to do farm work, so they could only find the thickest stick they could and use it as a substitute to turn over the soil. A few decently spaced-out rows were created, as her plan was to plant one type of crop in each. This wasn't something she had done in her previous life, although she knew that there were some taboos in farming, she wasn't all that knowledgeable. However, from her memories of the planting videos she would occasionally come across while surfing the internet she remembered that peas and beans needed to be soaked before they can be planted, so she decided to do just that. She would let them soak overnight so they could be planted the next morning, but they made sure to get the hardest part of the job over and done with from that day. 

Carmen went over to the two water containers they had in the yard and uncovered them only to see that one was nearing the bottom having only five inches of water while the other was half empty, but they were both filled with the muddy water they could only collect on rainy days. She couldn't help sighing loudly and rolling her eyes, before calling over Kazu to come with the basket. She through all the peas and beans they had collected from the servant's kitchen into the container with only five inches of water along with a handful of corn kernels. Her plan wasn't to plant all of them, but the peas and beans needed to be soaked before they could be cooked, hence why she threw in all of them.

After all the hard work they did, they sat down together, and both had a bun each and a mouthful of water to help prevent them from choking. However, as if timed, as soon as they finished cleaning up and putting away their food to keep it from insects the door to their courtyard was kicked open. 

Shocked out of her mind by the loud bang, Carmen looked up to only find the door laying on the ground, like the door of their hut had also been days prior and still wasn't fixed yet. She looked up at the sound of rough footsteps approaching her to see a bulky old woman, who reflected decades of hard labor and hearty meals, boasting muscles most men who spent hours in a gym all seven days of the week would kill to achieve.

This woman stomped in with her head held high and using a rolled-up whip to smack her palm while dressed in a brown, puff-sleeved dress. She looked around their yard and tutted before spitting on the ground, at this action Carmen couldn't control the lift in her brow. It was certain that this woman was no friendly acquaintance of theirs at first glance. This was further confirmed when Kazu quickly stood in front of her in a protective stance as if shielding her from the approaching woman.

The woman again spat on the ground when she was almost towering over their tiny frames. "And here I thought you wretches were finally dead, since I haven't seen you coming around for days," she snarled.

It was only after the snarky voice filled with false nobility and laced with cruelty that the original owner's memory of this women came to Carmen's mind. At all the horrid memories that flew through her mind at lightning speed, a gasp for breath escaped Carmen's lips. Her face had been unrecognizable to her because the original owner had only ever seen her face with blurry eyes, but her voice was something that haunted her even in her dreams. The images of this woman beating her and little Kazu to their last breaths on more than one occasion for even just breathing audibly, feeding them out of the dog's food bowls, making them wash days' worth of clothes for multiple people in the dead of winter with cold water while barely wearing anything, and berating them whenever her eyes laid on them came to her mind as if she were the one experiencing them all.

Kazu turned his head to see her slightly struggling to breathe and soothingly rubbed her back while mumbling that everything was going to be alright to help her. Soon she got her breathing pattern back and began breathing properly on her own, then she patted his hand on her shoulder to show that she was okay. After seeing that she was indeed breathing normally again, he went back to standing in front of her as her shield with a tough expression.

Looking at their reactions, the woman, who went by the name Faman, showed a pleased smirk as she continued to smack her palm with her whip. "Since you brats are still alive and kicking like roaches, you have work to do. Come on with me," she commanded as she turned around and walked back out of the courtyard.

Kazu only slightly hesitated before following behind her, and almost instinctively Carmen followed behind him. They followed Faman into a very big and luxuriously designed familiar courtyard with servants doing all kinds of yard work around to maintain its appearance. 

The servant stopped their work to watch them as they walked pass them and whispered in hushed voices to each other while pointing at them. The muscular woman, Faman, brought them directly into the center house of the courtyard where they came face to face with a viciously beautiful middle-aged woman.

Carmen, as soon as her eyes caught the woman's, uncontrollably fell to her knees with her head hung low and her hands fiddling with each other in her lap. She was trembling all over as cold sweat ran down her forehead and spine. The mere sight of this woman made fear, in its rawest form, consume her entire being so much so that her reaction was completely instinctive. Carmen had never seen this woman in the two days since she had come to this world, yet she was kneeling down humbly at her feet unable to even raise her head an inch to make eye contact again, it could only mean that the woman sitting leisurely before her while enjoying grapes being fed to her by maid servants and fully dressed in silk and gold, had left such deep fear in the original owner's heart that even with the absence of her soul her body unconsciously remembered the fear it felt in this woman's presence.

Faman walked up to the woman's side and called out, "Lady Ifka, I have brought the wretches to you." She only hummed in response as she continued to allow the maid servants to feed her, uncaring of the two children kneeling kneeling before her.

Carmen and little Kazu stayed knelt down for more than an hour. After she finished eating the grapes, she instructed the maid servants serving her to massage her. The two children had to wait for an hour until Lady Ifka had had her shoulders, legs and temple massaged by her attending servants.

During that time, Carmen had to sift through the original owner's memories again to see what she could learn about the Lady Ifka as she quickly realized that quite a bit of the original owner's memories had not appeared in her mind before as they were carefully hidden away by her and she soon understood why.

If Faman was a sword then Lady Ifka was the wielder, if Faman was a dog then Lady Ifka was her master; she obeyed no one else's orders. This Lady Ifka was the single actual cause of their current lives of hardships. When baby Hazia was just born and sent to the cold palace after her birth mother committed suicide in front of the king, her mother's personal maid was sent in as well to take care of her. And for a while they lived decently, never interfering with the powers that governed the cold palace and always being careful not to offend anyone until her wet-nurse had mistakenly blocked the path of Lady Ifka who then had her beaten to death, leaving her with no one to care for her. She then sent some maids to make sure I survived, claiming that she was remorseful, but Carmen could tell that this Lady Ifka was the type of person that only wanted to see people suffering and in pain, in fact she enjoyed other people's misery. That was the sole reason she had for allowing her to live for so long. Little Kazu, on the other hand, was just unfortunate to be perceived as close to her otherwise he could've suffered less. There were many other children like them in the cold palace without backing or support from the outside or inside the palace, yet they were given some little care from the servants. They at least had proper food, clean clothes, and even the opportunity to become servants of the palace and receive wages; even if the food were what the other servants would mostly not eat, the clothes were worn out and old, and the wages were much less than what anyone else doing the same work they did would earn, it was still better than them having to fend for themselves because of Lady Ifka's orders to have them ostracized within the cold palace. Because of her no one dared to show them even a little bit of kindness.

From memories of her foresight, there was not much to recall about this woman, except that on the day Kazu was crowned King she had committed suicide before the soldiers could arrest her, and her body... it was thrown at the in front her father and brothers who had been locked up in jail for days without food or water to drink and out of pure, mind-consuming hunger, they fed on her rotting, maggot-infested corpse. Once they came back to their senses and realized what they had done they were unable to come to terms with their desperate actions, causing them to bite their tongues and suffocate on their own blood to death.

"Have them clean my chamber pot," she suddenly said.

"Yes, Lady Ifka." Faman was quick to start ushering them out of and away from Lady Ifka's sight.

The two children were led to an area behind the center house where they saw four uncovered porcelain pots waiting for their attendance. As they got closer, Carmen raised her hands to cover her nose and mouth the horrid stench had hit like an 18-pound brick it was like she could even taste the stench on her tongue. She uncontrollably stepped back while Kazu only frowned without many other changes in his reactions, and Faman cleared her throat and stepped back a few steps out of the range of the stench.

Faman touched her nose twice before instructing, "Make sure you clean those pots properly. If you don't do a satisfying job, then don't even think of receiving a bit to eat," then she swiftly turned on her heel and left in a hurry.

As soon as she left, little Kazu took up a small bundle of sticks and went toward the first pot but Carmen quickly grabbed his arm to stop him from going further. She was now well-aware that that Lady Ifka and her most loyal hound dog, Faman could not stay. She had already decided to stay in the palace for a while since if they just left without any money, protection, or knowledge of the current situations they would be killed without mercy as they were still technically defenseless children.

Carmen raised her head and saw that nightfall was quickly approaching, then looked around until she saw another path hidden by a tree, she took his hand and led him there. She saw that it was the backyard of about five houses, she approached the window, as there were no backdoors, of the smallest one. She dug her toes and fingers into the cracks between the bricks of the wall and climbed up to gently open the window. Inside the little house she saw boxes, big and small, plain and bejeweled, some stacked on top of each other and others displayed on shelves. Carmen concluded that it was probably the warehouse; after making sure no one was in there she turned around to look at little Kazu and told him to follow her inside.

After they were both inside, she made a shushing gesture towards Kazu to which he nodded in understanding to. Carmen walked around with the help of the light shining through the paper windows and lifted the covers of some of the boxes only for her to be near blinded with all kinds of silver, gold, jade and pearls. Seeing her Kazu also lifted the cover of some boxes which contained silks, cotton and shear clothes as well as paintings and other scrolls. 

Carmen quickly devised a plan. She first grabbed a large cotton cloth and folded it into the size of a blanket before laying it flat on the ground, then she carefully took up the silver, gold, jade and pearls and placed them in the middle. She packed as many as she could onto that one blanket before tightly wrapping it up like a cloth bag and handed it to Kazu.

"Do you know any secret paths that lead back to our courtyard?" He firmly nodded his head in response. "Okay, then use that path and bring this back and make sure to hide it so no one else can find it," she instructed. "I'll stay back and pack some more things and you can meet me outside when you return."

She walked him to the window and climbed up on the boxes they had used used to come in, once the area outside was clear she made way for him to climb out and gave him the cloth bag once he was out. She waited until he had dashed off into a direction before closing back the window.