Piper: The Gods of Dansarun (TPM #1)

8 | Kai-Se

Kai-Se stared at Nao-Zai and the soldier stared right back. Crap. He's been busted.

"What are you doing?" Nao-Zai demanded, his old-man tone creeping into his voice yet again. As far as Kai-Se was concerned, didn't he already reprimand the soldier for using that tone on him?

Kai-Se glanced at his sandals and his piper attire which seemed leagues lighter. "I'm heading out," he said. "Shouldn't you be...I don't know, sniffing flowers or something?"

Nao-Zai cursed and set a steaming cup of tea down on the nearest shelf he could find. "Look, Your Highness. I meant no disrespect but you shouldn't be doing this."

"Why not?" Kai-Se challenged. He had been doing exactly this for the past ten years and now a soldier whom he barely knew was telling him he couldn't.

"Also, who's that girl?" Nao-Zai asked.

Kai-Se whipped towards An-Ri whom he had forgotten was hovering beside him all along. Nao-Zai drew his sword and dropped into a stance. Oh, dear. "Your Highness, get away from her."

Kai-Se raised his hand to placate the soldier. "At ease. She's—"

Nao-Zai lunged. An-Ri's feet tapped lightly against the floorboards and waved her fingers. White strands of hair danced with the wind as she did. The sword on Nao-Zai's hands turned into a wooden stick.

"Careful how you swing that thing around, boy. You might hurt someone," An-Ri said in a flat tone like she always did. Her purple eyes were both hard and gentle. She went back to hovering beside Kai-Se while Nao-Zai gaped at the stick that once have been his sword.

"W-what...wh...?" Nao-Zai blubbered which was so uncharacteristic of him Kai-Se had to remind him of this moment for all eternity.

Kai-Se clicked his tongue. "I told you she's with me," he snatched the stick from the soldier's hand and placed it beside the steaming cup of tea. From the scent wafting in his nose, Kai-Se could tell it was good. "You should have listened before acting like a complete baboon."

"I-I apologize, Your Highness," Nao-Zai flicked his gaze at the stick. "Can she turn my sword back?"

"No," An-Ri checked her nails even though her ancestral spirit appendages were already perfect beyond human measure.

Kai-Se held back his snickers. His amusement vanished when Nao-Zai's face morphed into his stern expression. Oh, here comes the lecture.

"Your Highness, forgive me for I will be very direct," Nao-Zai said. "But all this time, you're the piper out in the streets? This is why you're disappearing every night? That's you, telling stories to the Shencai locals? What are you thinking? It's dangerous out there, especially when they're not your people. You shouldn't be going out like this."

Kai-Se clenched his fists beside him. An-Ri didn't look up from her nails. If anything, this was something she had seen enough of in her infinite lifetimes and across the Xuijae royals she once protected. "You don't know what I am, don't you?" he asked, his voice dropping into a dangerous edge he wanted to avoid for the longest time.

Nao-Zai knitted his eyebrows. There was no understanding in his eyes. "What do you mean?"

"I'm a prisoner, Nao-Zai," Kai-Se said, running a hand over his hair. "This job, this family, and even this stupid tour is my cage. People are supposed to be able to choose who they want to become and what to do with their life. But that's only a luxury given only to others. Royals aren't part of the population."

He sighed, resting his twined fingers atop his head, and began pacing. "I don't want to be begging all the time just to feel a little bit free," he met the soldier's eyes from across the room. "We shouldn't even beg in the first place."

Nao-Zai didn't speak. He just stared down at his boots. Kai-Se sighed and perched back on the only low table in the room. "Telling stories is the only way I get to feel like I'm not a prince with the heavy burden of one day ruling the Empire in my father's place," he said. Why was he even rambling with An-Ri and Nao-Zai present? "When I'm out in the streets, I wasn't a prince. I wasn't anyone important. But somehow, the applause and the offerings felt more genuine and welcome than the thousands of greetings and pleasantries I get as the eldest child in the Najizaki family."

"That's why I need to do this," Kai-Se finished. "Because when I tell my stories, I feel...free."

Silence reigned in the pockets of space between the three people in the room. Kai-Se waited for Nao-Zai to insist on keeping him in this room or do anything so like him such as bursting into a lecture or telling him to reconsider. Instead, the soldier smiled and chuckled. "You don't need to explain it like that, Your Highness," he said, his tone was gentle and nowhere near the reprimanding one he constantly used. "I understand. I apologize for my behavior but rest assured it was only because I was looking out for you as my charge."

Kai-Se blinked. Wasn't...wasn't the soldier supposed to be predictable? What was this, then? He certainly didn't foresee this.

Nao-Zai rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, now that you got that out of the way," he said. "What are you going to do?"

Kai-Se nodded at An-Ri who ran a hand over her head. With a spark of light, her hair changed from white to dark. From across the room, Nao-Zai blinked. "That's the girl?"

He turned to the soldier. "Nao-Zai, meet An-Ri. An-Ri, meet Nao-Zai," he said. "Try not to impale her from now on. She's my guardian which the spirit world of Shaoryeong grants to the Imperial Family as a reinstatement of the vow sworn by humans and spirits a long, long time ago."

"How come I didn't see her before?" Nao-Zai asked.

Kai-Se fished his pendant and let it dangle in the faint moonlight streaming from the room's window. "Her essence is stored in this," he said. "She retreats to this pendant when she doesn't want to come out into the world or if she feels she's not needed."

A confused look clouded the soldier's face. "So you didn't need me all along?" he asked. "You've got an ancient spirit with you. Is that why you could cast magic as well?"

Kai-Se nodded. This guy was sharp. He also didn't count on that. "An-Ri's essence allows me to draw a little bit of the forces from the spirit realm," he said. "But what am I still doing here? It's time to hit the streets."

Nao-Zai opened his mouth to say something but Kai-Se had already braced the window sills and hauled himself into it. The wind blew against his hair and kissed his skin. Freedom. It's near despite how fleeting it was. He turned back to the soldier who stood inside the room. He winked at him. "Oh, your collar's crooked," he said.

The soldier's lips spread to a wide grin. "I don't have a collar, genius," he jerked his chin towards the window. "Go."

Kai-Se didn't need to be told twice. He launched himself into the fray and felt An-Ri's magic wrap around his body. Then, the next thing that greeted him was the city. For the next few hours, he wasn't Najizaki Kai-Se anymore.

He's a piper.