Vision Of Escaflowne Fan Fiction ❯ Ayashi no Kijutsu ❯ six: to tell the story ( Chapter 6 )

Aya fulfills the first part of the long-lost prophecy by acquiring successfully the secret box that is said to hold the secrets of the past. With Touya, Hitomi, Suzumi, Yuuhi, and Yuuhi's father, she opens the box to find the illusion of a Tennyo from the time of Atlantis itself! A memory created by her true self in the past, she is a memory whose purpose is to tell the "destined ones" of the mistakes the Atlanteans made in the past.

And this is the story she told...

AYASHI NO KIJUTSU
(Eerie Magic)
Chapter Six: To Tell the Story

The Empire had existed for more than two hundred years at this time, and was stable and powerful. Even though there were continents that refused to admit that they were under Atlantean control, they were forced to pay tribute to the Main Continent yearly. The network of star-watching posts spread all over, at special places. They also served as marks for measuring distance, as they were all placed apart according to a measuring system. They lined up to be on the same latitude or longitude, and created a large network of lines to measure the earth by.

The Atlantean was a proud race. They believed that they deserved the best of everything. After they built artistic and sturdy houses to live in and beautiful, breathtaking cities to flourish in, they began creating servants. Some were in the form of animals, but there were some in the shapes of young children.

They were all, however artificial in material. None of them were of flesh and blood. After many years, the men there began craving women. Perfect women. So a group of advanced scientists began mixing different genes and bloods together, in hopes of creating perfect beings. They were playing around with nature. They were playing gods. And it destroyed them at the end.

After years of trial and error, who they believed to be the most intelligent, beautiful, and loyal woman was born. I woke up one day on a stone table in the middle of a room in total darkness. And throughout the next few days, they filled my mind with information about the history of the Empire, how I was created, and my purpose.

I was sent as a gift to the Emperor. He did not have a given name. None of the emperors did. They were called Prince when they were young, and Emperor when they inherited the throne.

The Emperor was good to me, as was his wife, to most people's surprised. He loved me more than anything else in the world, but the Empress treated me like a sister. She had been, at the time, left alone by the Emperor for a while. He hadn't touched her for years.

I immediately became a favorite, and the Empress loved me for it. She loved the Emperor whole-heartedly, and she missed seeing a loving Emperor. And to her, I was the one who made him loving again. She was glad that he was happy, even if she wasn't the one who made him happy.

I was like a sister to her, she said. I never needed anything, because all I needed was provided by her. I never wanted anything either, because I had everything a girl could ever want. She was the most wonderful person ever. She neither hated me for being a favorite.

After being a title-less slave for three years, the Emperor began gradually moving my station from a slave to royalty. I was at first a concubine (which was really the same as the sexual slave I started out as, just with a fancier title), then a princess, and then Second Empress.

The First Empress had wanted to give up her station for me, but she didn't at the end. The Emperor felt that the people would have been angry at him.

During the first seven years of my time with the Emperor, the scientists who created me began creating other women of my race. They called us the Heavenly Maidens. For, they said, we were truly from heaven itself.

---

"King Van," Rayin, the fortune teller, fell to her knees before him.

"If there is something you want, Rayin," Van remarked patiently, "just say so."

"I am not in need or want of anything," Rayin replied. "You, my lord, has provided us with everything we could ever need or want. The reason I kneel to you, Van-sama, is that I have seen a vision. It is a great one, bestowed on me, even though I am undeserving."

"What is this vision, then?" Van allowed himself a small sigh. He never particularly liked visions. Every time Hitomi had a vision, something, oh, say, unpleasant, happened.

"I saw..." Rayin trailed off here.

Van waited patiently.

"Perhaps," Rayin murmured to herself slowly, "I could show it to you. I think I can, any how. It might be hard, as my magic is a weak one. But this is important..."

"All right then," Van replied, "If you think you should, go ahead."

"I must first lay a spell," and with that, Rayin began to draw out tools and ingredients for the proper image spell.

---

After many years, there was a great dissatisfaction among the slaves. Their masters gave them no mercy and no rest, and they wanted freedom. The Atlanteans had become prideful, and no longer loved the Heavenly Maidens. They treated the slaves as what they were called. Sexual slaves, and nothing more. Most were born with a mild nature, and withstood the emotional pains for many years. After all, they were designed to respect and be loyal to their masters.

One particularly bitter slave, Maell, grew to hate her master. She requested my audience, and I gave her permission to talk to me in my quarters at the central palace. I like to hear from my peers about what life is like outside the palace. The Emperor still loved me as a person, and often took me to beautiful places. But I always liked to hear about life in the common cities from the mouths of other Heavenly Maidens.

Maell told me about how much her master beats her for not obeying him and not bedding him every night he requires her to, and showed me scars as proof. She told me how he was always sexually dissatisfied, and how she wished she had the freedom to choose whom she wanted to bed, instead of being a sexual slave. She wanted to feel the love, she said, that I felt for the Emperor. She wanted to be treated like a human being.

And I agreed. We have feelings too, even if we were created by human beings. I freed her with what power I have. The Emperor always lets me go about and do whatever I wish, because I never really find much reason to manipulate my power. So I freed her, and took her in as a maid. And she was happy, it seemed, under my other maids' care.

But one day, her master, Rokul, came to my husband, and said to him, "Your slave has taken my slave from me. A slave should not be able to free her peers. Where has your discipline go, Emperor? Where has your grand power gone? Even a slave of yours is freeing another slave in the country. Is that right?"

And so, due to this speech of Rokul's, the Emperor was forced to give Maell back to him. For if he did not, he would be called weak, and such things are not good for the Emperor. Before she went back to her master, she swore she would kill him one day, and destroy the rest of the kingdom that has brought her life and pain.

Two more years passed, and I bore a child at last. The child, being the Emperor's first, as his first wife never bore a child for him, was named the Prince. But he, unlike his father and I, was a cruel child. As the only child and heir of the Emperor, the Prince was spoilt, and got everything he wished.

The prince eventually began to help rule the kingdom, at his sixteenth birthday. The East Pagan Continent was given to him to rule. And he luxuriated in the power that was given to him. The Prince owned many Heavenly Maidens, although his father only had me. The Emperor said that I was enough for him. But the Prince was greedy, and bought many slaves. Throughout all this, I never grew old, for I am a Heavenly Maiden.

Among the slaves he bought was Maell. Maell's master, Rokul, was given a handsome price for Maell, so he willingly gave her up. Maell, through all this, did not complain. She was, I suppose, still waiting for her chance to destroy her former master and the rest of the kingdom, if she could ever manage it. I never heard from her again until after the war began.

[A/N: At this point in writing, I must say that I was listening to Ashes Faded Away, a background song from Ayashi no Ceres and Into Gaia from the Escaflowne movie. So if I were you, and I had the pretty songs, I'd listen to them right about now. Also, yes, Maell is *much* older than The Prince, but remember, her physical state is still at about twenty, so she's not that much old than him in body.]

Nothing important happened in the Central Continent for the next twenty years. There was one exception that was important to me. The First Empress died seven years after the Prince was given his continent to rule. This was the only great thing that happened, and the Kingdom mourned. But more important were the outbreaks from mobs and such in the East Pagan Continent, for my son was cruel and heartless, and did not care for his people. There was weeping everywhere, and this was the first stage of the war.

The Heavenly Maiden did not really involve themselves in this stage of the war, and all was peaceful in the Central Continent. The war began four years after the Prince began to rule his continent. It continued until after the Empress died, and even after the Emperor's death.

The Emperor died before my own eyes of an illness no one could cure at age seventy-five. I was about fifty years old then. Our son, the Prince, came into rule. He died four years after the war began. The new Emperor was twenty-four.

[More Author's Notes: And here, I was listening to Black Escaflowne from the Escaflowne movie. Very dramatic song.]

The Kingdom wept for the Emperor's death, and wailed at the beginning of my son's rule. I became the queen mother, and did not know at all of my son's cruelty until a very long time later. My son was always good and gentle to me to gain my favor, for now I held great power over many slaves as well, and it would not do for the Heavenly Maiden to rebel, for each was given basic powers to protect herself.

The rebels continued fighting for many years. On the twenty-first year of my son's rule, the East Pagan Continent rebelled. It was a great continent of many people, and this was when I found out about my son's true nature. A maid I had could not stand the cruelty anymore, and kneeled to me, begging that I do something to end the sufferings of the slaves. And this maid, Oruue, was the one to tell me that the new rebels from the east was led by a Heavenly Maiden and her companions. That Heavenly Maiden was Maell.

A Word To the Reader About This Chapter

Thanks for reading. This chapter's, as you can see, all about the past. Yes, I said that this chapter would end it nice and evenly, but it went on for much too long, and I had to cut the story here. The next chapter will hopefully end the first arc o.0. Yes, all the names in here are just random syllables strung together. And yes, the war will last for a total of about a little past half a century, maybe. Those poor people. Poor Eve! Also, I might need a beta reader sometime in the near future. If anyone's interested, tell me so. And my goodness. That was a SHORT chapter!

Author's Random Ramblings

Ugh. Life has been just as pathetic as before. To add to it, I'm bored. It's a stupid time to be bored. There are two more weeks until the third quarter of the school year ends. So busy. But still. I'm so bored that I was arguing with Edwin about what the definitive Seven Holy Names of God were. We got as far as, I think, Jehovah, God, and that's about all the correct ones in my opinion (other ones included the Father, which was more of a general term, IMHO [in my humble opinion, that means, if you didn't know. People keep asking me about it. It's annoying]). I think the other five are Prince of Peace, Immanuel, Everlasting Father, Alpha/Omega (I'm not quite sure about this one), Messiah (again, not sure). Possibilities? I don't know. I'm not that familiar with the Bible anymore. *shrug* If I was still 9, I'd know. My God. I had no life then.

Ramblings About the Process of Writing This Chapter...

Ugh. That was long and painful. This chapter and the next were composed of something that's been swimming around in my head since late December/early January or so, and just begged to be let out of the cage. These two chapters are basically the entire basis of this story. But this chapter took a few weeks to write. I've been busy with school, what with scheduling next year's classes and whatnot. And I feel dreadful, half-hoping that my friends would not make it into Honors classes, just because I didn't. It feels horrible, seeing those people closest to me slowly drift away. And I love every one of my friends so much. And it hurts me when it seems like they don't care. Some have shown hints of sorrow at being separated from me, but others don't seem to care. And that hurts. Because I love them all. *sigh* I'll now shut up.