2
"Okay, you've gotta be fuckin' kidding me, ma'am," Rocky said, bursting out in laughter. "That would start a war, uhm, Jessable?"
"It's Dyesebel, stone bearer," Dyesebel answered.
"Alright, alright. I understand your predicament, but if you want the Chinese out our seas, you gotta ask the military or the government for help."
"Your government is imbecile and won't do anything to stop the Chinese. They just don't care at all, because if they do, they would have driven the Chinese away. My people are suffering and our population has declined since they first started occupying the Western portion of Maharlika."
"So, you are a kingdom in West Philippine Sea?"
"Yes."
"Haven't heard of you before but if you are the queen of West Philippine Sea, isn't it supposed to be your responsibility to protect it?"
"Matters are really complicated, Stone Bearer. We share jurisdiction and responsibility of protecting the sea with your government. Thing is, your leader doesn't seem to be doing anything to do his part. We are the ones who are badly suffering in an effort to protect it. These foreign invaders, they are killing our marine life slowly, including our people. They are driving the Sama Bajau tribe to extinction and we cannot do anything because we got no help."
"So what do you want to do now, Dyesebel?"
"I want you to help me eliminate them. I tried to drive them away, but their fire power is way too much for me to handle."
"So you want a war?"
"If it takes a war to free our people, I'd be willing to risk it."
"Something doesn't make sense to me, miss. You are Sama Bajau, so that means that you are...merpeople?" Ding asked.
"Yes. The kingdom of Maharlika is divided into five regions" Dyesebel opened the shell hanging from her neck and a bright blue light came out of it. The light filled the room, and it slowly began to make shapes of the Philippine map surrounded by seas, like a 3D hologram. "Everything that the sea touches and beneath the oceans belong to the Kingdom of Maharlika. The first region is in Pangasinan, we call it Alaminos"
"Yeah, like Alaminos is not a real place in Pangasinan," Rocky sarcastically said.
"Oh, you don't have an idea, Stone Bearer," Dyesebel answered.
"Will you stop calling me Stone Bearer? My name is Rocky."
"I don't really care what your name is, but sure," Dyesebel said. "The second region is what you call Spratly. The third is the Southern seas, the fourth is the Marianas in the East, and the fifth is where I live, the Central West, or what you call Tayabas. Three of the five are now badly damaged and are occupied by the Chinese, Alaminos, Central West and the Spratlys. If we do not do something, in no time, they may try to occupy the Southern Seas and the Marianas."
"Hold up, the Chinese doesn't have a valid claim on the south and east."
"They don't, but it doesn't mean they won't advance."
"Really now?"
"Yes." Dyesebel closed the shell, and the blue light gradually disappeared. "And the reason why they are doing it, is because of this shell."
"What?" Rocky raised her eyebrow in anger and confusion.
"The Chinese after what is inside this shell, the Perlas ng Silanganan."
"So they are after that Pearl and you decided to go up here. Do you fuckin' know how many Chinese people are here in Manila?"
"I was left with no other choice. Last night, they shot me with a cannon ball and I barely survived. If I have another option, I certainly would not ask the help of someone who worships Alunsina."
"Now who the fuck is Alunsina?"
"Don't fool me, Rocky. You possess the Eye of Alunsina, and yet you deny that you know her?"
"Never heard of her."
"Aren't you an Adarna?"
"Whatever Adarna means, I am most certainly not one of them. I am a police captain, not an Adarna"
"That's odd. You, possessing the Eye of Alunsina, is proof alone of your lineage as a member of the Flying Visayan Amazons."
"I can fly if I want to, but I am most certainly not one of them. Not that I am aware of."
"I see." Dyesebel paused for a moment, hesitated and then started speaking again. "Alunsina was the goddess of the Adarna tribe. She killed my father, Aman Sinaya."
