The Marked Phoenix: Little Red Bird - Chapter 13

Emerine’s lungs were ready to burst while sweat dribbled from her forehead and back. She couldn’t breathe any faster as she made her impossible sprint but she knew she had to keep going. It was either she ran for her life or left it all behind. Nothing sounded louder than her drumming heart, on the brink of exploding. She knew this was unhealthy, but when you’re potentially the last survivor of a dynasty as old as time, you’d do everything to guarantee your survival, and she was doing exactly that.

As she ran, she tried to not look back, even though she was fearful and paranoid that a group of soldiers could be chasing her. She fretted about the idea of lieutenants urging their men deeper and deeper into the neverending forest. No one would make it out of this forest alive, no one except Emerine

This was how the forest was designed. As long as one bared the markings of a Kastrel, this forest would welcome them with open arms and a path out of the madness.

It wasn’t until Emerine stopped dead in her tracks did she realize she had outrun the miles of trees and Kalesin’s magic. It was either she had outrun the distance limit of his magic, or he had died behind the palace, on the lowest level. She prayed with all of her heart that it was not the latter.

Emerine didn’t realize she had collapsed onto the ground, panting with exhaustion until she felt the gentle touch of uneven grass. Even in its untamed state, it was beautiful to her, especially its imperfection.

She closed her eyes and tried to think of where she should go. She could go to the Northern Kingdom and beg for help. That is, if she was able to survive the frigid walk into the wintry mountains with icicles the size of boulders. She could run to the Southern Kingdom and beg the queen for help, but she couldn’t disgrace her pride like that. But the South was farther away than the North and who knew how long it’d take for her to get there? She had nowhere to go. Nowhere to run to. Was this checkmate for her?

She struggled to open her eyes, but her entire body was weighed down with exhaustion. She couldn’t even perform the simple action of peeling her eyelids open. Sweat drenched her entire body as her hair stuck to her forehead. It was dangerous to lie here where wandering people from the town could perhaps find her. If they get past the forest barrier, of course.

“Papa” she muttered, weakly and tiredly. “What have you done?” Her thoughts drifted back to the Essence Roses and wandered to what other sinful things he could have done. Did she want to know? Or was ignorance better for her fragile heart? As much as her pride wanted to deny it, it was the former With these thoughts in mind, Emerine slipped into a nightmare that drowned her.

– – – – –

Six years ago.

“This is the basic knowledge of our world! How can you not have it memorized?!” King Augustus paced impatiently in his study with his hands folded behind him. He was the perfect image of a disappointed father. With her idiocy, it would be a miracle if she could even handle the paperwork of this kingdom.

“The Fundamentals of Affinities, is it so hard to memorize?! You’re surrounded by large households with their own special affinity, yet you couldn’t bother memorizing all of it?!” King Augustus snarled with disgust, thoroughly shaking his head as if everything in this world wasn’t going his way. He was known to detest violence, but violence wasn’t limited to actions. There was violence in words and the way it forcefully jabbed into someone.

In Emerine’s opinion, she would prefer physical violence than violent words. He had never laid a hand on her face, but his words had slapped her more times than she could count. Even now, his stance was intimidating. Towering over her tiny form, her gentle father appeared frightening.

“Little Kora is six and she’s already demonstrated her affinity in more ways than one. When I was your age, my affinity was already more powerful than my father, your grandfather.” He bit out, “Why can’t you be more like your younger sister? Don’t you find it disgraceful that someone as young as her outshine you? Doesn’t it upset you?”

Emerine kept her mouth shut, but chin raised and her eyes defiantly staring ahead. She could’ve curbed his anger by at least pretending to be apologetic. She truly was. But she would never relent to her father, not in this scenario. She’d never give him the satisfaction that he had hurt her.

“Fine. Maybe you’re a late bloomer.” King Augustus stopped from anxiously pacing and that made Emerine more fretful than his previous words. “I’d accept that, Emerine. Not everyone is born the same, not everyone is perfect.”

Emerine’s eyes flashed when she thought to herself, ‘Funny how you think Kora is perfect.’

“It was only one slip up, PaFather.” Emerine bit her tongue until she could feel nothing but pain. It was hard to adjust the way she addressed him.

“One slip up?! That slip up was an embarrassment to the Kastrels! Even more embarrassing than” King Augustus caught himself before he could allow the words to slip out. Emerine thought he was referring to her lack of magic, but it was far beyond that. It was something she couldn’t change, but he always wished she could.

“You disappoint me, Emerine,” King Augustus spat out the words faster than one would spit out poison.

Emerine should’ve reacted, but she didn’t. She remained aloof in front of him, even when her heart dropped to her stomach and she felt a gnawing feeling to lash out at him. “Just like how my birth disappointed you?”

“Does self-pity empower you?”

“Does yours empower you?” Emerine boldly asked him as she watched his face morph from frustration to pure indignation. She had never seen an expression as frightening as his, but she stood her ground. “How does it feel, Father? To have favoritism between your daughters? To despise your eldest daughter for what she couldn’t prevent? How does it feel to degrade me, Father? Because I know how it feels.”

She didn’t wait for his reply before sprinting out of the room. His lack of retaliation towards her words should’ve allowed relief to course through her small body, but it was the very thing that spiked her anxiety. She would’ve preferred for him to violently lash out upon her, rather than the tranquility that submerged the castle for an entire week.

Fear ate her alive, fear over what he would do to her. For a week, she was tormented with fear while stressing and overthinking about the consequences of her words. But nothing harsh fell upon her, not even a slap on the wrist, nor a glower her way.

With his lack of response, Emerine slowly began to calm down. She thought, perhaps her words would’ve impacted his heart and allowed him to experience a change of mind. Oh, did he experience a change? But it wasn’t for the better. It was for the worst. And it manifested into the worst of the worst that a person could think of.