The Scarlet Phoenix and the Prince of Winter

Chapter Sixty

Coming to the Palace was an easy feat, but not getting alarmed while being there was hard. The whole Palace located on top of the valley was filled with treasures too, most especially gold, and it caused me so much discomfort that I decided to stay at one of the grand balconies and refused to enter into the hall despite the plea of the court servants.

This caused the Royal Family to arrange the balcony where I was so that it would look okay to be stayed upon while I waited for Volo to come. I was informed that he went on an important trip, that is why he was not here when I arrived. The young Queen entertained me while I waited, although I was getting bored with her stories.

"The Luria is now officially part of our council," said the Queen who introduced herself as Hayana. She was a tall, thin woman who had long black hair who was proud to have come from Kajos, the town up in the mountains. She said that she was born from a family of perfume-makers and tailors, which is why she always wears clothes elegantly. "And I know it is not my place to offer this to you, but the whole kingdom of Aure would be very much glad if you decide to join us in the council," she added while bowing to me the entire town.

That gave me some discomfort. "Council? What do you mean? You mean Volo is part of your council?"

"He is, my dear deity," she replied with grace. "The deity of winter, the mighty Volo is part of our council and is serving as the Great Adviser of the King. His role is about guiding the King, instructing him when he needs it and warning him when enemies come into our land."

"And he is okay with it?" I asked incredulously. How can a deity act to a mortal like that? Has ha hed no more decency and pride? Why is he serving a mortal King?

"The great deity of winter welcomed the role with all his heart, my dear deity. After all, it is a role that a deity such as the two of you are worthy of having. That is why we would love the idea of you joining the great deity as well. It would give the people great assurance and confidence that even if invaders come again into Aure, we could already defend it better than how we did the last time."

She had a point. There is a saying that two small crows are better than a solitary eagle, and this is what she is trying to tell me. And I could not deny that it is such a great idea, since if that is the case then Volo and I would be able to dismantle any army that would try to invade Aure again.

But the problem is, I don't think I can commit to such a great responsibility the way Volo can, so I don't think that I will be able to do that for them. I love my freedom more than anything else. I do not want to be tied into something for a long time. That would mess up my time.

"I think having my Gypsies in your council is enough, Queen Hayana," I said briskly and she replied with a timid smile. It seems that she had expected that I will definitely refuse her offer the first time she will mention it, but I also don't see her determination waver. I think it only made her more dedicated in getting my support.

"I agree with that, my dear deity. Your Gypsies are indeed great people. They are such a good addition to our council, which decides everything that concerns our people. The Luria tribe is also one of the most skilled tribes in all of Aure. Being nomads back in the day, they have great knowledge about anything under the sun, which will help our people more. It also helped bridge the gap between us and their ancestors, who decided to leave their towns in the day in search of greener pastures. Welcoming them into the council also served as their homecoming, and I was one of the happiest person when they joined, with your blessing, of course."

That was right. I did agree that my followers join the council of the Palace. It was a monumental occasion, as I forbid my followers before that decision to engage with anyone other than their relatives. Joining the council meant that I was finally allowing them to interact with other people for the first time in decades.

But I only allowed it because I had seen how it was beneficial for us that my followers can interact with other people. The fact that they learned something new about a deity's weakness from those pirates proved that we need to be open to the outside world if we wanted to cope up with the changing world. If we wanted to stay relevant in these changing times, we have to open our doors and let the wind in our windows. The tides are changing now and those who don't learn how to swim will drown.

"Thank you for accepting my Gypsies. Ever since they have left their homes they felt like they were no longer citizens of Aure, and I can understand if that was the case. However, we can't deny that their roots came from here, in this beautiful kingdom, so I appreciate what you did for them. I was glad that you invited them to join the council. Now, they can feel at ease that whatever happens, they will have a place where they can return to and call as a home."

"It is our pleasure that we now have this kind of relationship, my dear deity," she replied and offered me a drink. It was what they called as wine, and if I remember it correctly this was one of those alcoholic drinks that can make a mortal drunk.

Interested, I drunk it but even after a couple of glasses, I could not still feel the said effects of the alcoholic drink. But it was the opposite for the young Queen. It was too obvious that she was already drunk as she was now dancing on her toes to the tune of the music that they played from the music hall as part of the welcome celebration that they prepared for my arrival. The young Queen clearly had her mind now clouded with alcohol as her voice became louder as she giggled with her own stories and her choice of words became less regal.

But instead of getting pissed or disappointed, it made me happy because now I understand what Volo meant. I could see that it was fun to let loose sometime, and then the next morning you are excused with how you acted because everyone accepts getting drunk as a reason for your inappropriate actions. That what was happening right now to the Queen and I was so amused.

She was now telling me how the Royal Family is indebted to Volo. It turns out that their great ancestor, the founder of the kingdom, used to have a disease that could have killed him. But Volo made wonders and cured the King, saving not only the bloodline of the Royal Family but the entire kingdom as well.

"Imagine, just as when we thought that our great ancestor was about to die without an heir, the great deity of winter, Volo, showed up with a concoction made of mysterious juices extracted from rare plants and gave it to the great King. When he drank it, he did not only get well but he also lived longer than expected.

But that intrigued me. It made me question Volo's actions, so when he finally arrived I cornered him when it was only the two of us who were awake. He was surprised by my actions, especially that I slapped him hard.

"What is this all about?" he asked, wide-eyed from my attack. "Did I do something to you?"

"You did," I said. "I don't know how but you were able to find my flowers, and you used it to cure that King right? You stole my rare flowers and use them on those mortals. You have no shame, Volo---"

"I'm sorry!" he said suddenly and knelt in front of me. "I had no choice! You were hibernating back then when that happened! If you were just awake I would have asked permission from you first, but I was tempted since you were asleep."

I could not keep my anger towards him. My wings which were made from flames suddenly lit up and illuminated the balcony. I was sure that if there was someone who would see me now, they would assume that I was on fire and that the balcony was burning. This is how angry I was with what he did.

"But those flowers were poisonous," I said. "It was not easy to pick it and use it as a medication. So why don't you tell me how you did it, Volo? What trick did you do to be able to use it?"

"I purified it."

My eyebrows arched at that. "Purified? What do you mean?"

"I went to some potioneers and asked them for a way in which I could extract the juice of those flowers only and not the poison. And they said it was possible if the juice from it would be purified. They do it by mixing a mortal's blood to the extract."

I gasped with horror. "But that would have been a terrible thing to do!" I said indignantly. "If it was my blood, it would have been fine, but using a mortal's blood to purify the poison? That would have been a sacrifice! So tell me, who sacrificed their life in exchange for the potion that you can make out of that flower?"

"It was the King's old mother," Volo confessed and to some extent, that information disturbed me. I don't even know why I was so affected by someone I don't know in the first place, but that was a total shock for me. Who would sacrifice for someone else when that would mean it was the end of your life? Even if it was your relative, that still took a lot of courage to do something as crazy and brazen as that.

But according to Volo, the poor mother of that King volunteered to do it. She died in exchange for her son, as the poison in that flower was so potent that it needed a lot of blood from the same person, which means, instant death as humans don't have the luxury of losing too much blood.

And it was worth it since the King survived and had lived longer than a normal human would. He died without the knowledge that his own mother sacrificed her own life for him, and that's where the cycle of that sacrifice started. For in the next years, a member of the Royal Family would be born with the very same disease, and the very same procedure would be repeated in order to save that child. A life in exchange for another life and to me that was the most ridiculous thing that humans had ever done.

"Let us not talk about it anymore," Volo said in a more calmer tone. Now that I told him that I was no longer about what he did since it was for the kingdom, he wanted to talk about what Kentan wanted. "Did you know that deities like us could be reborn as humans?" he told me plainly. "He wanted to do that to us."

"What did you say?"

"I was wrong when I assumed that he wanted to kill us so that we could no longer get in his way. The truth is, he wanted us to die in that bay so that we could be reborn as humans, as it turns out that if we die there we are reborn us mortals, and after we lived a full life as humans, we return as deities again and we gain another power. That was what he was after. He wanted us to die so that we will gain powers, and then he will take it from us using his own ability to steal them. That was his true intentions," said Volo and from that moment, I knew that I was at the start of a new adventure which involves us becoming humans.