The Asters of Ogaza

Fire, Water and Illusions

         “Asters,” Master Poja started to address them after their Etiquette class. “Your Captains brought me a suggestion. They want you all to play a game.”

          The Asters exchange excited murmurs and chatters. Zina and Amare looked at Angel who just shrugged.

          “Now, now,” Master Poja quieted them down. “This is the idea, all 20 of you would be divided into two groups of 10 but both Captains cannot be in one team. The Princess and I would select the games you would play every day for a week. The games would last between the hours of 2pm to 3pm. At the end of the week, whichever team wins most of the games would be declared winner. If it ends in a tie, you would play a tie breaking game. However, these games are primarily to make you have fun, relive your childhood. It is more about bonding with each other than fostering unhealthy competitions.”

          “What reward does the winning team get?” An Aster asked.

          “Can the winning team skip training for a week and be treated like Royalty?” the boy with the Afro asked and the Asters shushed him    

          Master Poja smiled. “The reward is a secret. A secret specially made by the Princess.”

          The Asters murmured again and Marjani’s eyes burned with competitiveness. If the reward was from the Princess, she would do everything possible to win.

          “The games would not be easy,” the Princess said. “They would be basic games you’re familiar with, but you would have to think deeply and apply strength and wisdom to be able to win.”

          “Exactly,” Master Poja chipped in. He and the Princess always spoke in harmony like they rehearsed what they would say before saying it. “The games would start tomorrow and next Wednesday would be the finale. Remember, enjoy the game, have fun. You may never get another opportunity to play like you did when you were a child.” He observed them as they watched him with eager eyes.

          The Princess brought out a bag and poured the contents unto a table. They were twenty, small, folded papers. “Alright. Come forward and pick one. Don’t open it until you’re asked to.”

          The Asters went forward one after the other to choose papers. “Open!” the Princess commanded when they were done and they did. The murmurs amongst them picked up again as each Aster started looking for who had the same paper as them.

          “If your paper is colored blue, come to me. If yours is colored red, go to the Princess.” They all filed out in tens beside the Princess and Master Poja, and wrote their names down. “Very well, then. From this moment, every one standing beside me is a member of the Water clan, and everyone standing beside the Princess is a member of the—”

          “Fire clan,” they all chorused and cheered. Master Poja smiled.

          “That’s correct. You can have the Captain in your clan as your leader by default. But if you’re not okay with that, then you can choose a new leader amongst yourselves. The games would begin tomorrow, and may the best clan win, but may all the clans have fun.”

          The Asters cheered and clapped as Master Poja and the Princess went off. Marjani was a member of the Fire clan, and Angel was in the Water clan.

          “Water quenches fire, you folks better watch out!” someone from the Water clan bellowed and the members of the clan bellowed along in agreement.

          “Fire runs very wild, when its bigger than the size of the water trying to quench it, then it consumes even the water.” A member of the Fire clan said.

          “Too bad we’re the same number!” the boy with the Afro jeered and the Water clan members patted his back and high fived him. Angel laughed too.

          “Alright,” he faced his clan members. “Let’s meet by four in the garden between our dorms. Then, we can pick a leader.”

          “Leader? We have you,” someone said.

          “Exactly,” another agreed.

          “We want you to be our leader, Angel.” Zina smiled and the others supported. Well, except Jael. She unfortunately wasn’t in the same clan as Marjani. Angel didn’t have any option, he couldn’t say no, so he asked them to still meet at 4 in the garden. They went away.

          “Water clan, we definitely should win this.” Zina linked her arm through Angel’s.

          “I’m excited!” he did a little dance and Zina giggled.

          “Really? You two get to be in the same clan and I’m stuck with Marjani? I want to switch.” Amare complained when he came to meet them and the two Asters taunted him.

          “Well, we’re stuck with Jael, so I guess we’re even,” Angel said, trying to appease him.

          “It’s not fair. You have each other, I have nobody.”

          “You have . . .Marjani!” Zina sneered and ran behind Angel when Amare made a playful attempt to choke her.

          “Remember our deal?” Marjani asked Angel as she came to meet them, that feigned cute smile on her face.

          “The purpose of the game is to have fun, Marjani. And that’s all I want to do. I’m not interested in competing with you.”

          “Oh,” she laughed her odd girlish laughter and Zina and Amare scrunched their faces in disgust. “Neither am I. Lets see who the best Captain would be.”

          “This is not a competition, Marjani,” Angel said but Marjani had already trotted off.

          “What was that about?” Amare asked.

          Angel sighed, “Her condition for the game is that whoever wins would get to be the only Captain for a week.”

          “That makes no sense,” Zina said. “Master Poja clearly said the purpose of the game is to relive our childhood and bond. What’s her deal?”

          “She’s probably trying to belittle me again.”

          “Well, she’s failed already!” Zina scoffed. A Royal maidservant was coming toward them and Zina already knew. “See you guys later.” She went instead to meet the maidservant. Marjani watched them leaving, the inside of her cheeks bleeding from her biting it.

                                                                                     ****

          “What are you thinking, Taye? That will never happen, not in this Royal household, not in this kingdom!” Zina heard someone yell from inside the Princess’s room. The Empress, it has to be her.

          “Uhm, maybe I should go. This doesn’t sound like a good time?” Zina told the maidservant who shook her head.

          “She said she wants you to wait for her.”

          It was awkward for Zina, just standing there, listening to the Empress yell at her son.

          “It’s already happening, Mama. People deserve to know the truth. Haile is my sister, I would never be happy if I wrong her like this,” Crown Prince Taye said.

          “She is my daughter!  I gave birth to her, the same way I gave birth to you. Are you insinuating that I am wronging her?”

          Princess Haile roared, her laughter reverberated past the doors and into the hallway Zina was standing in.

          “Wronging me? You’ve been wronging me all, my life. From the moment I was born till now, all you have done is look past me, put me to the side, act like I wasn’t born from your womb. If you didn’t want me, why didn’t you give me away? Why didn’t you kill me? Why do you love him more than me? Why do you hate—”

          Zina gasped as she heard a loud sound that only fingers colliding with face could make. The Princess stopped talking abruptly, so Zina knew she was the one who got slapped.          “Your father must never hear of this. You’re going to be married and coronated as Emperor. Royal Statesman Olar’s daughter would be here any minute now. Get your act together! The both of you.”

          Silence filled the room and Zina flinched when the door opened and the Empress stepped out. She bowed and the Empress flashed a tight smile that disappeared almost immediately before walking away.

          “Come in,” Princess Haile said with a shaky voice. The maidservant and Zina went in, and Zina bowed at the Crown Prince and the Princess. He looked at her like her being there wasn’t real.

          “What is she doing here?” he turned to Zina.  “Have you . . . how long have you been standing there?”

          “Long enough to hear very despicable thing this family is made of.” Princess Haile answered.

          “Haile!” Crown Prince Taye bellowed, the veins in his neck and forehead becoming more prominent, like they would break through and run out.

          “Get out!” Princess Haile retorted. “Get out of my room. I don’t want to see any of you here again. Leave!”

          Crown Prince Taye watched his sister plop on her bed and pick up a pillow she grasped too tightly. He scoffed. “What are you doing. Haile? Is that how lonely you are? Befriending Asters and putting them at risk when they hear things like these?” she didn’t respond and he kept glaring at her. He heaved.

          “That’s Raya’s pillow, isn’t it? Is that how tightly you’re still holding on to her?”

          The Princess sprang up now and slapped him very hard across his right cheek. “Get out! Get out!” she shoved him. “Get out and don’t you ever mention her name again. Ever!”

          Crown Prince Taye massaged his cheek, and then said, “Put yourself together, Haile.” Before slamming her door behind him. The maidservant scurried off too, leaving Zina alone with the Princess who had now began to sniffle.

          It was too much, Zina thought. This was too much for her to hear, or witness. She didn’t want to be a part of their family crisis whatever it was. But the Princess was dragging her right into it.

          “Princess,” she whispered, and then went to the Princess’s vanity to get her tissue. She dabbed her eyes dry, and patted the sides of her bed for Zina to sit.

          “I didn’t know they were going to take this long. I shouldn’t have called you over.”

          Watching the Princess like this made Zina wish she never despised her so much in the beginning. She still didn’t understand exactly why the Princess was particularly fond of her, but now she knew that it had something to do with Raya. And this Raya, she might be dead.

          “It’s okay. Have you been eating?”

          The Princess took her gaze off the pillow and landed it on Zina’s face, she smiled, even as tears kept dancing out of her eyes. “I have.” She dabbed the tears again, and then dabbed her nose and tossed the tissue into a waste bin.

          “Even the people who everybody thinks are perfect are messed up. This family . . . it’s nothing but pain, and unfairness. At least to me. I used to be able to live through it with Raya before . . .” she shook her head slowly, like she was feeling pity for herself. “And then PJ has been in my life since we became Asters, and he’s helped me through the pain as well. But then . . .nobody understands it like Raya does. And Raya’s not here, and everything is just . . .”

          She started her restrained crying again, stuffing her face into the pillow. Zina rubbed her back, bolder than the first time. She did that until the Princess took her head out of the pillow, her faint makeup leaving prints on the yellow pillow.

          “It hurts, to lose someone. You lost her, right?” The Princess nodded and then took Zina’s hands in hers.

          “But she came back, she came back for me. She didn’t want to leave me. So, she came back. Through you.”

          Through . . .me? Zina’s heart banged against her rib cage. Deep in the Princess’s eyes, she could see that she meant every word she was saying. She wasn’t joking, and it made sense to her now. Princess Haile sees Raya in Zina. She thinks Zina is  Raya.