Prince and His Fool

Chapter 10: Ah-Zian! Ah-Zian!

Rong Zian's peace of mind had been restored once those two mutt heads had left. He had a strategy to tackle this problem and that was to study as much as possible so he could pinpoint where the shards of the amulet had landed.

Mysterious encounters were a keyword, the pieces had to be around areas where the most unusual events were reported. On the map, he pinned all the areas where the cases took place hoping by the time he was done three clusters would be apparent.

It worked because by midnight he could clearly see where the clusters were and it was only after he had his cold dinner that had been sitting on the table since seven o'clock that he developed an interest in what the amulet actually looked like. He read through the books and studied the drawing of the amulet closely but the longer he stared, the more he felt discombobulated.

Though he felt confused he couldn't bring himself to stop and as though the room was spinning, he fell backwards to the ground as a woman in a sweet voice called out his name.

Thinking he was going to land on the cold ground, he mentally prepared himself to feel pain but to his surprise, he landed on thick fluffy clouds. It was as though he was in a bizarre dream where he could walk on clouds as though they were steady ground.

A woman's voice as sweet as before echoed in the clouds saying, "Ah-Zian.Ah-Zian look what they did to my people. How can I let them be Kings?"

The environment quickly changed from a harmonious blue sky to a deep bloody red colour with people appearing from nowhere. The deafening screams and stench of death were extremely horrifying. An elderly woman who seemed as though she was digging with a pick, stood beside him and stopped to say, "keep digging Ah-Zian otherwise they will whip you to death."

Rong Zian obediently raised his pick to dig when he noticed a rotting corpse right at his feet covered amidst the clouds. Scared out of his mind, his ears were ringing to the point of deafness, he felt a sharp pain as though his flesh was being ripped off his back. He knelt down in agonizing pain trying to figure out what had just transpired but his eyes caught a glimpse of a serrated whip coming for his face. He shields his face with his hands and the guard yelled at him, "work or death, make your choice?"

Rong Zian struggled to get up holding on to his pick whilst coughing out blood, the pain on his back was excruciating and unbearable he couldn't move, so the guard dragged him by his hair to the execution platform. Though he kicked and screamed no one came to his rescue or even bothered to look in his direction, they all seemed terrified of the consequences so they kept digging.

When they reached the platform the guard harshly flung his head onto the ground and tightened his grip on Rong Zian's hair, looking down on him he said, "You have clearly made your choice." The guard stood up and stepped aside as the executioner lowered his blade down towards Rong Zian's neck. Terrified, he let out a scream as he anticipated death but when he opened his eyes, he was back at the place with the pleasant blue skies.

Just as he had finally calmed down and wiped the blood off his mouth, the voice began to speak again, "A-Zian..Ah-Zian..Have you felt my pain Ah-Zian..If you don't find my amulet Ah-Zian, who will save them?" Rong Zian didn't feel like responding, he was terrified as it is and the pain on his back hadn't subsided.

The woman didn't wait for him to respond and continued to say, "Look down below and tell me what do you see? Stretch your hand and tell me what you feel?"

Obediently he looked down and saw the whole of Hepeng in darkness as though it was night, but at the borders of the nation, he saw three lights outshining the rest, scattered all over. He stretched out his arm and each time his hand pointed at one of the bright lights, he felt his whole body being violently pulled towards that direction.

The woman cheerfully laughed as he found the exact locations of the three pieces and praised him, "You are as brilliant as I expected, worthy to be called my creation," and as though she knew what question he was going to ask, she appeared out of thin air and placed her index finger on his forehead, "go and save my people Ah-Zian."

She shoved him and Rong Zian began to fall from the sky scared to death. He couldn't help but wonder if this was how he was going to finally meet his fate.