"Let a serpent into your garden, it'll sink its fangs into the garden's sweet fruits"
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After the time frame given to her by Prince Shiro, lady Kalah waited patiently until one night before the day of their defection.
On that night, lady Kalah made her way to the outskirts of the village populated by those belonging to the flower family, the area she went to happened to belong to a minor branch of the family, but she had business there before her defection.
Looking up, her pale face was illuminated by the bright moonlight. She wore a black scarf with red flower patterns on it over her mouth as she stalked the streets of the village until she arrived at a particularly run down home.
Once she stopped at the wooden door, she pulled a hairpin from her hair and jangled it through the doorknob until it jerked open, and she let herself into the dark home.
lady Kalah cautiously scouted the home and listened intently until she could hear a single person's heartbeat coming from a room just down the narrow hall.
After taking some slow paced steps, she slowly pushed open the door of the room and saw a woman around a year older than herself, sleeping on an unkempt bed.
Lady Kalah approached the unconscious woman, and recognized her features.
Her face was sweaty and pale, she also had short messy hair. And her figure was slimmer than the previous time lady Kalah could recall seeing her.
But the main thing she noticed was the growing bump on the woman's stomach.
After she spent a few moments thoughtlessly staring at the woman's stomach, she spoke in a hushed tone and said:
"Miss Aiko. You need to wake up."
In the next second, the woman jumped up with wide eyes. Her chest rose and fell hastily as she crawled out of the bed and towards a dark corner of the room.
Lady Kalah sighed at the sight. Her attention on the frightened woman and on the heavy rain slamming against the window for a moment before she took a few steps toward the woman with raised hands.
"No need to be frightened Miss Aiko, it's me… Kalah."
Once Miss Aiko heard her voice and name, she nodded and placed a hand on her chest as she tried to calm her pounding heart.
"Lady Kalah… is there anything I can do for you?"
Lady Kalah paused for a moment to glance at the woman's growing stomach again, and asked:
"How far along are you?"
Lady Kalah caught herself and shook her head. Unsure of why she even asked that, she then said something else.
"Nevermind that, I came here to tell you something important."
Miss Aiko silenced her breathing, as the next words left lady kalah's mouth.
"After tonight, the title of the flower family's matriarch will be passed down to you."
At first, Miss Aiko hadn't been sure that she heard lady Kalah properly. But it wasn't something that surprised her all too much considering how much lady Kalah despised nobility, and how much conflict she had with the royal families.
"Pardon me?"
Lady Kalah sat against the wall right next to Miss Aiko and said:
"You heard me properly, so I won't repeat myself. But listen to what I'm about to say next and don't question it… because I need your help."
Miss Aiko felt her skin grow colder with each word lady Kalah spat, but forced herself with years worth of "training" to keep quiet and listen as lady Kalah continued.
"Tonight, I'm going to kill the flower family's branch families, my mother and father."
Lady Kalah glanced over to Miss Aiko's face which looked as if she'd seen the most bone chilling thing, and fought back a laugh.
Miss Aiko then exclaimed:
"Why on earth would you ever do such a thing?"
Lady Kalah's thoughts for a moment went to her elder brother, who was currently sitting isolated in prison just a few hundred meters below the ground before she continued.
"You know how this family is. If anything, I'm surprised I'd be the first one to even do it, but you know just as well as I do that it needs to be done…"
"Look, I'm not going to try to convince you why the special powers are corrupt and why you should help me rebel against them. But just like me and Kahal, you've seen what war looks like and what it does to children like the three of us…"
"So you know why I'm attempting what I'm doing. Which is why I'm not going to try and force you to have the same beliefs as me, but I'm begging you, please help me attempt to give people like us even the slightest chance at a better future."
Miss Aiko understood lady Kalah's words all too well, unfortunately. Thinking back to a time when she Met both lord kahal and lady Kalah when they were abandoned children doing anything to survive between six war ravaged nations, she felt a tinge of sadness.
And the look in lady Kalah's eyes didn't make it any better. And so Miss Aiko then asked:
"Even if you die trying to attempt something that seems impossible?"
Lady Kalah immediately nodded. Though her heart slammed against her chest as she waited for Miss Aiko's answer.
"…okay. What do you need me to do?"
A tight smile tugged at lady kalah's lips, and she then spent the next few minutes explaining to Miss Aiko exactly what she wanted her to do.
After about half an hour had passed of them discussing how tonight would go, lady kalah rose to her feet and made her way to the home's front door after giving Miss Aiko a bag of various venoms she'd extracted from various animals and plants.
Before she left, she turned and asked Miss Aiko:
"Have you thought of a name for your daughter yet?"
Miss Aiko rubbed her stomach and thought of lord kahal. And with a small smile on her face hidden by the room's shadows, she said:
"Aaliyah."
Lady Kalah smiled, and left the home with just a few more words.
"I won't die before I get to hold my niece."
***
Two hours passed, and in that time Aiko went around every brothel owned by the flower family's branches in the village and laced the alcoholic beverages with the various venoms given to her by lady Kalah.
Upstairs inside one of the brothels, Miss Aiko looked out from an open window which had a thin sheet hung from it, swaying with the strong winds.
Remembering the schedule for male sorcerers, this time would've been the time of night that sorcerers would be arriving home after fighting during the day, which was perfect for lady Kalah's plan.
Aiko rushed downstairs of the brothel, and said to the comfort women:
"I need you all to bring in customers… tell them that tonight's services are completely free. And when you get them into the rooms, make sure to fill their alcohol with these venoms given to us by lady Kalah."
The women all nodded, and soon after they would all be successful in bringing in sorcerers using the seductive tactics they've been taught since they've began working at the brothels.
Some of the women went out and sparked up conversations with the men, while others simply adjusted their robes to show off their cleavage while they stood silently with subtle lustful expressions.
"Hi there gentlemen. We'd like to thank you all for your efforts to protect us all day… for tonight only, our services are completely free of charge."
After just a few moments, the brothel was packed with dozens of tired sorcerers who either sat at tables barking orders at the workers to bring them warm alcohol, or others who'd hassle the women to bring them to the rooms for special services.
As the comfort women led the men to the back rooms, Aiko felt a tinge of worry in the back of her mind for these women, silently praying that the plan would work.
The roaring thunder and rain from outside at least eased her nerves a little. She stayed next to the swinging doors until she noticed one of the men started barking at one of the passing women.
"Hey! It's getting hot in this place, do something about it!"
The woman holding a wooden tray with cups of alcohol hastened her legs as she passed by, paying the man no mind.
But the man then noticed something strange beginning to happen. As his ignorant eyes scoured the room, he noticed that his vision began to grow blurry.
"What the hell?"
After that, he then started foaming at the mouth. Feeling a thick liquid substance stuck in his throat too long to inhale, and before anyone could react, the man collapsed.
The other men around him slowly began to notice, and the scattered conversations died down.
Immediately after, more of the sorcerers began to cough up blood and collapse to the floor after long moments of agonizing pain.
Once they all fell down, Aiko cautiously walked over the bodies and approached the halls. The doors to the rooms were each cracked open, and she peered in to see the women straddling the laps of the drunken sorcerers.
One even began wrap his hands around a woman's neck as the venom slowly ate away at his body, but quickly felt a long hairpin penetrate the side of his head, killing him on the spot.
The plan had worked. And with the night rain covering the scent of the venoms, the women began to dispose of the corpses, while Aiko waited patiently for lady Kalah to finish things on her end.
"All hell Will break loose in the morning."
***
Further into the village stood the pristine estate of the flower family stood tall above the branching estates.
Around every corner of the walls that Seperated the smaller estates from the main household, decomposing corpses of the clan's combatants littered the dark streets.
Lady kalah once entering the main estate, first snuck her way into her parents room.
She could smell the scent of their souls and by that alone she knew that they were both asleep in their bed.
Looking at their disgruntled faces even in their unconscious states, lady Kalah searched herself for any trace of hesitation but found none.
Even frightening herself with how little she cared that she was going to be the one who took the lives of her own parents. But those feelings were washed down as she towered over the forms of both the patriarch and matriarch.
Before she swiped her hairpin across the necks of her parents, she took two deep breaths.
And after, the hairpin sung through the air as it sliced through the patriarch's throat. Blood pouring across the bedsheets, some even splattering on lady Kalah's eyes.
Once that happened, a loud gasp escaped the matriarch's mouth as she tried to jump out of the bed.
Before she could scream, lady Kalah's hand pressed roughly over her mouth. The matriarch fought desperately, with trembling eyes to escape lady Kalah's grip.
But lady Kalah straddled the elderly woman's short figure, and sent the long hairpin through the matriarch's throat.
Just like that, the room fell into an uncomfortable silence for lady Kalah.
The only sound being her own heavy breathing. But she had no time to rest.
Suddenly, the dark room was lit up with lanterns coming from outside. Her eyes shot to the windows and saw groups of sorcerers discovering the decomposed corpses of the clan guards.
One of the sorcerers said to his comrades:
"There's no mistaking this… it was lady Kalah's doing."
"Alert the special powers."
Once she heard those words, she silently slipped out into the rainy night yet again…
And made her way towards the outskirts of the mainland.
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Continue in chapter 128: An act of war
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