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Disclaimer: I do not own the Ronin Warriors or characters. To sue is to show that you have severe mental problems that must be remedied before doing anything else.
Dynamite
Part 9
“The Princess must die!”
“The Princess must die!”
“The Princess must die!”
Over and over again, Yullie heard those words after being forced to swallow that bluish gunk. And what scared Yullie the most was that he had believed in those words. For some reason he had felt like the words were completely true. The last thing he remembered was thrusting a knife towards the Princess, but something stopped him and now he was here. Yullie looked around to get a better picture of what ‘here’ was.
He was at a intersection of two hallways in the palace. At the north passage he could see a light. He couldn’t make out what it was coming from though.
Maybe I should go there. That way could lead outside-
*Ring Ring Ring*
Yullie’s thoughts were interrupted as he heard the ringing sound. Yullie listened very carefully to try to determine from which way it had come from.
I think it came from the east... or maybe south-
*Ring Ring Ring*
Definitely east!
Yullie ran down the east passage and prayed that he would find whoever made that ringing sound. As Yullie ran down the hallway he noticed that his shadow was now in front of him. He turned his head and gasp with surprise. A ball of white light was behind him. It appeared to be chasing after him.
That must be what made the light and it’s chasing me! But something tells me I don’t want that thing near me.
*Ring Ring Ring*
Yullie turned his eyes to look ahead of him. He had now been running for a few minutes and it was evident that the ball of light was catching up to him. But the light from the ball also allowed Yullie to see a glimmer of something ahead. It was the Monk’s staff, standing in the air by itself. With the rings on it’s two golden wings clashing together.
*Ring Ring Ring*
The ball of light was now only a few feet behind Yullie. He could feel heat eminate from the ball. He kept his eyes straight on the staff though and reached out with one hand to touch it. He felt the smooth touch of the wood under his hand before everything went black...
Yullie could still feel the nice smooth touch of the wood, but now he was on his back. And everything was still black.
“I’m blind! Death hasn’t taken me, but it has taken my sight!” cries Yullie in agony.
“Open your eyes you Doof!”
“Don’t shout at him like that Nanko! Show a little kindness you brat!”
“Well maybe if you used smarter pages to work for you I would!”
Yullie slowly opened his eyes and blinked a few times. His right hand was touching Nanko’s staff and he himself appeared to be on a bed in a strange room. Nanko and Mia seemed to busy bickering to notice that Yullie had opened his eyes.
“And how did you help him wake up like that anyway?”
“It’s a Monk trick.”
“Oh no, your not going to use that excuse again. I want answers!”
“Could both of you please stop a second. I believe it is best to question Yullie of what happened.” stated Sage as he gave both Nanko and Mia a stern stare. Yullie glance his way in surprise, not seeing him right away. Nanko and Mia nod and turned to face Yullie. It was then that Yullie noticed Sekhmet in the room as well. Four sets of eyes looked at him filled with questions...
An hour later in the Throne Room...
Other than Sage and Sekhmet, every other Royal Guard was in the throne room. Each of them felt a little agitated. The question kept coming up over and over again.
Why would Yullie try to kill the Princess?
He always showed absolute loyalty to the Princess.
*Creak*
All the warriors turned to see Sage, Sekhmet, Nanko, and Mia enter. Mia considered whether or not she should go sit in the throne, but decided against it.
After what I’ll tell them, they probably will get upset at me sitting there. What ever you do though don’t look at...him. God, I still can hardly believe it.
Mia stood with Sage to her left and Sekhmet to her right. She turned her eyes towards the ground. She didn’t want to see the looks in their eyes after she made her confession.
“I have to apologize to all of you. Three days ago I lied to everyone of you.” stated Mia.
All of them looked at her with curiosity. What was so important about telling one lie?
“I’m...I’m not the Princess Mia, but simply someone who looks exactly like her. The real Princess had died from the poison she had taken. My name is Mia, but I’m from another world. A world like this one in someways and different in otherways. I accident got here when trying out a spell.” said Mia and braced herself for their response.
A few of the warriors chuckled which took Mia totally by surprise and she looked up to see a few of them smiling.
“That is a very funny story for you tell Princess. But I think we should take this situation more seriously.” said Anubis as he smiled at her.
Mia sighed and turned to Nanko and Sage for help.
“Everyone please turn around.” said Nanko simply in response to Mia’s glance at him.
The Royal Guards did so and for a split second everyone was silent.
The corpse of the real Princess laid in front of the throne. It had been a few days, but she was still in good condition. Her skin was pale white and their was a slight decaying smell to her. Otherwise she and Mia looked exactly alike.
“Princess!”
“No, it’s a trick!”
“We’ve failed...”
Mia decided to continue before they got over their shock and started asking questions.
“When I got to this world I found the Princess dead with Sage and Nanko. Nanko was able to determine that the killer was part of the Royal Guard. So Sage asked me help by pretending to be the Princess. That’s why I claimed to have amnesia and that my memory was coming back. This way the killer would surely make another move and then we could catch him.” said Mia. She couldn’t help, but notice that Sage was looking away from everyone. Especially her..
“But Yullie was the one who attempted to kill you.” said Rowen as he kept looking at the corpse and then Mia.
“Sekhmet told me that someone stole one of his books on poison. I had Sekhmet brought to me and asked if the information in the book could be used in anyway to hurt me since I was now immune to most poisons due to his elixir. It turned out that the book told about one poison that could be used as mind control. It crossed my mind then that Yullie had been gone for a long time.” said Mia. Everyone was listening to everyword she said. The more they heard, the more shocked they seemed.
“And is Yullie ok?” asked Cye. He seemed the least surprised out of everyone. He had be known about the plan with Sekhmet. He was surprised when he heard Mia say she wasn’t the Princess. But then he remembered how Mia had said ‘She’ instead of ‘I’ when she heard about Ryo.
“Yullie is fine. The poison was suppose to kill him after he did his job. But with the combine efforts of Sage, Nanko, and Sekhmet we were able to save him. And he remembers who drugged him...” said Mia as she kept her eyes to the floor.
Don’t look at him. Whatever you do, don’t look at him!
“Yullie recognized his captor to be...Ryo.” said Mia and it was only then that she looked up. Those surrounding Ryo looked at him with disgust and anger. Others with simple disbelief. Ryo paid no attention to any of them. He was still staring at the Princess’s corpse. It was very likely that he hadn’t taken his eyes off the corpse since he saw it.
“Take his swords off him.” said Sage to Cye and Kento. Cye nod once and then nudged Kento slightly. Kento kept staring at Mia with such intent that it was starting to make her uncomfortable. After Cye nudged him a few more times he turned towards Ryo and reached for one of his swords in his scabbard. Cye reached for the other one. Ryo made no move to resist as they took the weapons off him.
“We shall have to initiate the Tear Soul now. Nanko are you familiar with how to cast the spell that will cause the Tear Soul?” asked Sage.
“Uh yeah, I know how to do it.” said Nanko. He looked extremely pale.
“Wait a minute. Isn’t that the ceremony to take one’s armor off and will probably kill him? Why do you need to do something like that so fast?” said Mia as she turned to Sage. She knew that they would probably use the Tear Soul on him, but she didn’t expect it to be this soon.
“It must be done as soon as possible. We cannot risk letting Ryo keep the armor of Wildfire any longer than necessary.” said Sage. His voice lacked emotion.
Mia wished that somehow they were wrong. But Yullie’s words kept coming back to her mind...
An hour earlier...
“Who gave you the poison Yullie?” asked Sage. It was the first question he asked when Yullie woke up.
“You mean that bluish gunk. It was..I..can’t remember...” said Yullie as he looked away from them.
“Your lieing. That poison shouldn’t have affected your memory in anyway before you had taken it. Tell us who gave you the poison. This is serious.” stated Sekhmet with a hiss.
Yullie stubbornly looked away. As Sekhmet made a move to approach Yullie, Mia went between them. She carefully touched Yullie’s cheek and moved his face towards her. He looked like he was close to crying.
“Yullie I don’t know why you won’t tell us who this person is, but he tried to hurt both you and me. Let’s stop this before he hurts anyone else, ok?” said Mia in a gentle tone.
“It was Ryo!” cried Yullie while flinging himself into Mia and began to hug her. She could see his whole body trembling and hear sobs escaping his lips. She closed her arms around him and began to stroke his hair. It seemed to calm him down. Mia looked towards Sage. For the first time she saw rage on Sage’s face. His cold deamonor was completly broken. Mia wanted desperately to cry herself, but knew it would have to wait.
Back to the present...
It just doesn’t make sense! He seemed to care so much after I told him I was poisoned. Could he really be that good an actor? Is Sage right when he said that Ryo would resort to a blood oath just to- wait a minute...
“We will initiate the Tear Soul in the Teaching Garden.” said Sage. Cye and Kento began leading Ryo to the hallway as the others followed.
“Wait just a minute.” said Mia as she approached Sage. The warriors stopped. Even though they knew now that she was not the Princess, they responded to her voice out of both habit and instinct.
“Sage I want to look into something. Can you hold off the Tear Soul for just an hour?” asked Mia.
“No”
“But-”
“May I remind you that your not the real Princess, Mia. Now please leave this business to the Royal Guards. Their is no more need for more investigation. Continue taking him to the Teaching Garden.” said Sage and turned to follow the group. Their was an anger in his eyes while he talked. Mia knew that their was no way she was going to make him change his mind. Mia looked over at Nanko and could see that he was extremly nervous. Nanko turned towards the hallway and began to walk in that direction. Mia stepped in front of him before he took three steps.
“Nanko I know we argue a lot, but I need your help now. I need to look into something that may prove that Ryo wasn’t responsible. But I need you to give me some time.” whispered Mia as she glanced over her shoulder nervously.
“And how am I suppose to do that?” whispered Nanko in frustration.
“Um well stall I guess.”whispered Mia in response.
“Nanko hurry up. The faster we get this over with the better.” shouted Sage from down the hallway.
Nanko gave Mia a single nod and then ran down the hallway.
Mia began running down the hallway as well, but turned left at a intersection and headed towards Sekhmet’s lab.
At the Teaching Garden...
The Teaching Garden was the place that royalty went to be taught their classes in history, science, and other subjects. Their were flowers with every color. Rare and beautiful trees that were planted in several spots. And a beautiful pond in the center.
Ryo stood on the sidewalk of the garden with the other Royal Guards surrounding him in a circle. Sage slowly turned to Nanko.
“Begin the spell.” said Sage.
“Um right...” said Nanko as he tried to think quickly.
Stall she says! How am I suppose to do that?! The spell only takes two minutes to cast, but maybe I can add a little here and there...
“It will take me a little time to summon the energy I need to cast this. Their is custom though that should be done before we start the Tear Soul. I’d like each of you to state how your armor affected you life.”
“I don’t remember such a custom.” said Rowen suspiciously.
“And how many Tear Soul ceremonies have you witnessed?”
“None but-”
“Then you really don’t know anything do you.” interrupted Nanko, “Cye why don’t you start.”
Cye looked at Nanko in surprise and then gave a cough.
“Well I guess my armor...”
At Sekhmet’s laboratory...
Yullie had been left at Sekhmet’s lab to rest some and gain his strength.
“Oh please let him still be here, please.” muttered Mia as she opened the door to the lab. Yullie was right where Mia hoped he would be. On the bed fast asleep. Mia quickly went over and began to shake him. But Yullie had been dead tired from his experience and wouldn’t wake up.
“Come on Yullie. Wake Up!” shouted Mia as she shook Yullie harder, but he still didn’t open his eyes.
Finally Mia stopped shaking him and took a deep breath.
“Page Yullie! Get me my pillow at once!” said Mia in the best royalty voice she could do.
“Yes your Highness.” muttered Yullie as he opened his eyes and began to get up.
“Yullie forget the pillow. I need to ask you something about when you saw Ryo drug you.” said Mia as she helped Yullie up. Yullie turned a shade paler, but noded.
“Did you get a good look at his hands at the time? Did you see his hands up close?” asked Mia while hoping to hear the answer she wanted to hear.
“Yes your Highness, he had to use his hands to force my mouth open. Before placing that tube down my throat.” said Yullie with a shudder.
“Yullie did you see a scar on the palm of either hand? It’s very important that you think about this carefully.”
Yullie spent a few seconds recalling when he saw Ryo.
“I didn’t see a scar on either palm of his hands. Both looked fine.” said Yullie.
Yes! But don’t celebrate yet Mia. It’s a far cry from proving his innocent.
“Was their anything strange about him Yullie? I know it’s hard to remember, but please think. Did he seem taller than usual or seeme different in anyway?” asked Mia as she felt herself get desperate.
Yullie tried to concentrate on remembering the terrible memory even though it made him sick and afraid to do so. The Princess was counting on him afterall. Then Yullie remembered the words that Ryo kept telling him over and over again.
“The Princess must die!”
“The Princess must die!”
“His voice was different when he told me that you had to die. It sounded more...sleazy.” said Yullie as he remembered Ryo saying the phrase over and over again.
Does this sound witty, I hope so.
Dynamite