Voyage With The Pirate King

Two pairs of eyes gazed at each other for a very long time without any words being said. If anyone else had passed by they might have thought it awkward or weird but to them, there wasn't any uneasiness in the air.

It was as though they were communicating with each other with no words. Qilin Hao brushed away some curls partially obstructing Ji Wen's view. "How did you know?" she asked brushing his hair out of the way.

Ji Wen let her do as she pleased watching her like he was afraid she would disappear in the next second. He parted his lips as though to say something but he fell silent again with his gaze on his hand that was rubbing Qilin Hao's arm. After much thought, he finally said, "Your behaviour..... Why don't you tell me what's really going on?" As he asked this his gaze shifted back to her face his expression dead serious..

Qilin Hao who couldn't stand that look sat up straight and said, "I didn't want you to worry. I just.....," pushing back her hair on either side of her head.

Ji Wen sat up on the bed and looked at her as he asked, "Aren't I your husband? If you don't tell me then who else can you tell?" in a gravelly voice like he had been hurt.

Qilin Hao glanced over in his direction at a loss for words. She had never had anyone care for her before she met Ji Wen and didn't know what is expected of her in a loving relationship. Niuq examples of loving relationships were almost non-existent and the rules were different.

So when she decided to keep things from Ji Wen she was just doing as she observed in Niuq among her clan. This resulted in years of suffering and unnecessary pain. Since Ji Wen wanted to know she decided to bare it all for him to see.

She bit her lower lip clutching the quilt tightly before saying, "My mother was a gorgeous Qilin.... the first of her kind. She brought people to their knees the moment she stepped on the scene. It was because of this my father..... the nameless one picked her. He believed no one was more deserving to marry this transcendent beauty than him."

"The problem was that she didn't respond to him. She um.... she wasn't interested in him and her body's reaction said it all. The moment he would get close she would become vigilant and at times fend him off," she continued with a wan smile on her face.

"She didn't like him either but because her status in the clan was low she had no one to defend her. So she decided it was best she left the clan and start anew elsewhere because her family was also urging her on. Who wouldn't want to marry the only heir to the throne, right?"

Wiping away her tears that had unconsciously streamed out or her eyes she further explained. "The uhm... uhm problem was that she got caught before she even went far and that night he forced it..... coupling with her without her consent."

"He thought everything would be fine... she would love him because now she had no choice but to be with him..... but my mother couldn't bear his touch. She felt like her entire body was on fire with just a touch on her wrist what more when he does his marital duties?"

"The more he touched her the greater the torment and it didn't get any better with time. Even when he made her drink his blood all he did was make her see only him but she still hated his touch. And when she conceived me she got so ill that the clan doctor thought she would die in the first few months of her pregnancy. No one actually said it to me but I know it was because of me."

"If she couldn't stand my father's touch then what more his seed in her belly. It was as though he was touching her from the inside with his bloodline so she got seriously ill."

With a dry laugh, she looked up to the ceiling wiping her eyes dry before saying, "They honestly thought both of us were going to die my father included. He hated the fact that she didn't want him so much so that he decided to pretend as though he never married. He locked her up in the deepest part of the palace and said if she lives she lives, if she dies she dies.... it's all up to her."

"She did die that is right after giving birth to me. The wet nurse said it was as though she had lost her mind as she kept mumbling 'be happier than me' while circulating her seraphic energy inside of me. The wet nurse tried to stop her because newborn cubs can't handle that much power but she fought back. It was as though she was removing something from me.... but whatever it was my father caught her before she could finish."

Ji Wen who was listening to her couldn't help but ask, "Did you ever find out what it was?" as he embraced her kissing her tears away.

"No, but the wet nurse said he took me away and no one saw me for an entire month. My mother died shortly after that from grief and never got another chance to see me again," she said wondering what her mother was trying to hide. What she didn't know was that in Niuq there was forgotten or ignored history.

Thousands and thousands of years ago when the clans were united as one, a new king or queen would be born with an unusual stone in their aether known as Acany. It was the stone of kings embedded in their aether and this automatically made them the next ruler.

But after the Huishe clan had so many kings born in a row there was conflict. They were accused by the Qilin and their allies of having discovered a secret to make their cubs be born with such a marker.

What happened next was obvious. Niuq became a divided nation with several clans. This was also the beginning of the conflict between the Qilin and Huishe clans.

Over the years Acany became a myth among the Nocru and a rarely discussed subject. Though it hardly manifested itself, parents of such children born with this marker would destroy it by exposing cubs to their seraphic energy to avoid trouble.

This might be so but the Qilin clan never had a turn to rule and wanted to rule. An Acany never appeared in their clan.