Empress Khione: Her Revenge

Desperation

"I die?" Khione repeated after the princess. "Surely you don't mean that."

There had to be a double meaning to Princess Electra's words. It didn't make sense for Khione to die. In fact, everything she was planning to do was dependent on her being alive! Dying was like giving up. How was she to successfully avenge herself if she were dead? Dying would just give her enemies exactly what they wanted.

"No, I do," Princess Electra said, her face clear of any emotion that could allude to Khione misunderstanding. She was being very transparent. "If you want your plan to be successful, you need to die." 

"Right," Khione scoffed before she sarcastically added, "What am I going to do? Haunt them in my ghost form?" 

Princess Electra pressed her lips together, annoyed that the young girl was not taking her words as seriously as she should be. With a serious look on her face, she stepped forward before she pulled Khione's sleeves up to show her once again her bruised body. 

Khione gasped at the state of her arms. There was barely any sign of her skin colour left. Her pale skin had been covered in almost nothing but purple and dark yellow bruises. 

"Your wolf is breaking. Even if I'm blocking out the pain, your body cannot handle the damage for much longer." 

Khione inspected the rest of her body and as she had expected, her entire body was bruised. She suddenly felt as if there was really nothing to her life left. What was even the point of making revenge plans if she only had at most a few days left to live.

"You won't have only a few days left," Princess Electra told her after hearing the thoughts that were going around in Khione's mind. "Not if I have anything to do with it at least."

Although Khione did not know what she meant, she felt her spirits slightly lift. She may not have known anything about Princess Electra, but there was just something about her that really made Khione feel safe. Which was strange considering Princess Electra was supposed to be one of the most evil creatures in the universe. 

"What do you mean?" Khione asked the Princess, her eyes wide with hope. 

Princess Electra sighed as she stepped closer to Khione. 

"I wasn't joking when I said you need to die," she began, holding her hand up to silence Khione's protests. "But that doesn't mean you will stay dead." 

Khione's eyes narrowed in confusion. 

"I'm a werewolf," she told the princess before her, "not a fox spirit. Once I die, that's the end of my life. I don't get nine chances like you do."

"I know," Princess Electra told her. "But what I also know is that I am able to transfer my XiQi to you." 

"Your what?"

"My life force," Princess Electra said, closing her eyes in frustration. She knew that Khione was going to ask many more questions so she began to explain before the young wolf started. "Do you know how the fox spirit was born?" 

Khione shook her head. To her, nine-tailed foxes were just myths that she simply had no interest in. 

"Our ancestor, the great Karuma, accidentally killed the beloved of a powerful sorceress. Back then, fox hunting was a sport that the humans enjoyed. Being brave and talented enough to hunt down a fox gave them pride and honour," Princess held a look of pure disgust on her face as she spoke. "One day, Karuma was out with his friend picking up the bodies of their fallen children when he saw a human pulling his weapon out of Karuma's sister's chest. Thinking that the human killed his sister, Karuma enacted his revenge by killing the human. 

"The human's wife, a powerful sorceress, witnessed the scene and in a fit of devastation and rage, cursed Karuma and his entire lineage a long life of misery. Of course, Karuma thought she was just being a dramatic human, simply shrugged his shoulders and walked away. But then the nightmare began. He suddenly had bloodthirsty urges. He constantly craved human blood and to make matters worst, his mind was filled with nothing but evil thoughts. He became angry and irritant until he could no longer take it and ended up killing his entire family.

"Feeling as if he committed a grave sin, he went to the highest mountain and attempted to die. However, he found that rather than going to Hell like he deserved, he just woke up in deep pain. He tried a few more times and in the end found that there was nothing that could kill him. He also found that every time he tried to die, his became even more blood thirsty and his thoughts became more and more evil. 

"This went on for years until he found the sorceress again and begged her to tell him about his curse. She told him about his fox spirit and she told him about his tainted soul. Feeling glad that he was not indeed immortal, and wanting to prove to the sorceress that her plan would not work on him, Karuma lived the rest of his life looking for ways to tame his evil spirit. 

"Karuma lived the rest of his life practicing different cultivation and meditation techniques in order to prove to the sorceress that even though he was cursed with an evil spirit, he could live his life in an honourable way. In the end, some of the techniques he practiced darkened his soul further and eventually took his last life. But his research taught the rest of us what we need to do and not do, which is how I'm able to talk to you right now without wanting to suck your blood dry."

Princess Electra suddenly stopped speaking and looked down, a distant look in her eyes. Khione did not say anything for she knew that the princess would continue to speak when she was ready. 

"All my life, I thought that my XiQi was part of my life and that it was something I was forced to live with for generations. However, after going through what I did with the wolf king, I found out that that's not true at all." 

"When he stole your lives, he essentially stole your XiQi," Khione said in realisation.

"Exactly. That was the first time I heard of such phenomenon. Unlike werewolves, we're not grouping animals and after we're born, our spirits are free until we find a vessel," Princess Electra told Khione, telling her another fact about herself that Khione was not aware of. "All the other nine tailed foxes I have come across have never said anything about such a possibility either. So it was not precedented as far as I am aware." 

Khione nodded as she listened to Princess Electra with wide, interested eyes. She was very invested in the princess's story. All her life she had only known of the existence of werewolves, humans and the werewolves' blood enemies, the vampires. But it made sense to her that there would be more creatures out in the world if werewolves and vampires existed. And since Princess Electra was so new to her, she wanted to find out more. 

"Then how are you a princess?" Khione suddenly asked, looking slightly confused. Wasn't there supposed to be some sort of kingdom for there to be a monarch? Yet Princess Electra was telling her that she had no contact with other nine tailed foxes. 

"I am the direct descendant of Karuma. Even though we don't have a monarchy, as the blood descendant of the original fo spirit, I am naturally called the Princess of the Fox Spirits. My father is still alive though so I don't have to worry about fox spirits bothering me day and night. Only after he dies do I have to take charge."

Khione wanted to ask more but she suddenly had another question that she was more curious about. 

"What does this all have to do with me though?" 

She enjoyed hearing Princess Electra's story but not only did she have limited time left to live, but the princess was also telling her that dying was part of the grand plan. And Khione had yet to put two and two together to understand what was going through the princess's head. 

"You have no option but to die," Princess Electra reminded Khione what she had never forgotten. "Your body cannot handle the damage and the only way to put an end to it all is to die. But that does not mean you have to stay dead."

"And how would that be? Like I said w–"

Princess Electra stopped Khione mid sentence. "I can transfer one of my lives to you." 

Khione's eyes widened and a gasp escaped her lips. It made sense, so much so that she was beginning to feel hopeful. But at the same time, she was scared that she may get her hopes up for no reason. 

"All these years, I have spent trying to understand how such an act was possible. I have studied everything possible about XiQi and read hundreds of ancient manuscripts. And then I started studying sorcery. The witch who was able to transfer my XiQi to the Wolf King was a sorceress, so I studied sorcery in hopes of finding the answer to my questions."

"Did you find it?"

"No," Princess Electra simply stated. "But then I thought about it and the answer appeared."

Khione waited expectantly for her to answer the question but when she didn't speak, she impatiently asked.

"What was the answer?" 

"In order to take my lives from me, the wolf king needed to wait for me to die so that in the split second that my XiQi was taking action, he was able to transfer it to himself. But do you know what method he had used to kill me in the first place?" 

Khione thought about it, and remembered that Princess Electra told her that he killed her while they were mating by breaking her neck.

"He wasn't breaking my neck," she cut through her thoughts. "He was draining my blood."

Princess Electra sat down on the floor in a meditative pose with her feet crossed, her voice becoming almost distant as she continued to speak. 

"All of the fox spirits up until now either had a direct blood relation with Karuma, or as history would have it, they were regular foxes that were turned by a power hungry spirit that had unrealistic ideas of a coup d'etat. That obviously fell through but we had an abundance of fox spirits now. 

"But what about those that share Karuma's blood indirectly?" She asked, her voice still sounding distant, although eerily near. "Like the wolf king?"

Princess Electra suddenly sprang up from her seat on the floor, giving Khione a mini heart attack in the process. 

"He drank my blood and as a result, he was able to take my XiQi. If he had been able to handle all the power, then maybe he would have been able to take all of my lives. In that case, I either would have permanently shifted into my fox form, or I would have lost my life altogether. But the fact is, by drinking my blood, he took my lives!" 

Princess Electra began to walk up and down, looking excited. 

"Of course, there was magic involved but I have already practiced removing my qi from inside my soul. Of course, it was forced back in but with a new vessel, it won't be."

"And I'm your new vessel," Khione stated, unsure of how to feel.

On one hand, she was beyond excited about the possibility of being able to avenge herself and achieve all her goals. However, she couldn't help but feel as if she was just being used as Princess Electra's experiment. She did not know whether it would work, she just hoped it would. Not to mention, she was doing it all for her own selfish reasons, not for Khione. 

"You're right, I don't know if it would work," Princess Electra said, reminding Khione that she could read minds. "Heck, the chance of it working isn't very high. But what other option do you have. You have one life and it's about to end. So even if I don't know whether this will work or not, it's your best option." 

She had a point and Khione knew it. There was nothing she wanted more than to avenge herself but in order to do that, she needed to live. Her options were already limited – in fact, her option was limited to one option, and that was to die. And it wasn't like she had anything to lose at all. 

With such thoughts in mind, it wasn't hard for her to make a decision. 

"Fine," she said, her voice sounding all most hollow. "I agree." 

Princess Electra looked happy but it didn't last long. As soon as the ghost of a smile grew on her face, it disappeared. 

"There's just one more thing I need you to know," she said, looking away from Khione as if she had committed some sort of crime. 

"What is it?"

"As you know, the fox spirit is evil by nature," she began, her eyes returning to meet Khione's. "The Xi in XiQi  represents evil. By taking my XiQi, you are also essentially taking a portion of my tainted soul. If you do not cultivate the powers you will take from me, then it will swallow you up and turn you into an evil puppet." 

Khione sighed but she had assumed something of the sort already when Princess Electra told her about Karuma. He was forced to cultivate his powers to dim out the evil from his soul. And Princess Electra also claimed to have cultivated her powers, so Khione assumed that was already part of the deal. 

"All I have to do is cultivate the power, right? If I cultivate and understand how to keep it under control, nothing will happen to me?"

"That is correct, although your soul will still be tainted and you may still have evil thoughts. Also, I do not know how it will affect your wolf." 

Khione looked away guiltily upon remembering her wolf. She had gone through so much the past couple of days, and Khione knew that her wolf was suffering so much more than she was. Khione was only feeling the secondary effects of the rejection whereas her wolf was the one that was directly attacked. 

And although she did not know what would happen to her wolf, Khione was sure that she would forgive her. Besides, Khione was sure that she wanted revenge as much as she did. Her wolf's feelings reflected upon her after all. 

"I'll have to take the risk," Khione finally said. "There's nothing I want more desperately than to live."