🐲 Dragon and Phoenix (Path of Light and Fire Book #2) (Completed) 🐲

Chapter 37

It had been four days since Yulan had seen Fama and all had gone well. Mostly. Disa still housed them with barely contained contempt.

Terrick was the opposite. He talked to them endlessly, most subjects leading to the well-being of one of the Seriens. It took time for Yulan to make the connection, his sister was the Hruh-yite who drew Berius's ire in Sikati. Yulan hadn't seen her since then, but the way the Wind Witch spoke of this Leena made it seem as if she were important to Yusabin, even more than the other Seriens.

Although, that was not Yulan's focus. With so much time on his hands, he had considered the Wind Witch's words about making his own path with greater detail. He had a rare moment to make his own mark on the world, not as a continuation of his ancestors, but as Lan, the person. She was right. The ceremonial mask was not a symbol of hate and misfortune. It was a blank slate, one who's fate he could decide.

He also needed to get the monster inside of him under control. After his meeting with Fama, the voices had stopped or changed; Yulan was not sure which. These two facts connected in some way to the disappearance of the voices and the appearance of Fama, yet Yulan had not discovered how. Even his deep mediation, the state in which he sought answers, was continuously interrupted by thoughts of Fama.

"You're coming to see me, aren't you Yulan?" her voice teased.

They'd only talked for a few moments, but its tone burned into his brain. Gone were the wispy, angry voices that insisted with ferocity. They were replaced with her sultry voice. A kind, gentle voice that nudged more than pushed his consciousness.

Images of her shapely figure and mischievous wink replayed in his mind, over and over again. Her likeness invaded his dreams and his waking moments with the tenacity of a lioness and the subtlety of a hammer.

Yulan only had one excuse to return to the marketplace and see her; his new clothes. Every day he awaited word of their completion and each day without it left him more agitated. He hated the clothes of commoners and would gladly don his loincloth, yet they were an opportunity to see her and leave the suffocation of this home.

He suspected that Disa would make the trek to the marketplace without him, just out of spite.

"Do you know any tricks?"

Terrick's voice pulled him from his thoughts. He was an irritatingly cheerful man, who wanted to make friends with him. Yulan should show gratitude to him as he was the only reason Disa tolerated their presence. Yet this man had the sweetness of an overripe fruit.

This man is much too cheerful.

He sat across from Yulan in a peach colored sofa. Everything in this home, other than the wood, held a bright hue. The coach upon which Yulan sat was a similar hue of green.

"Don't fill his head with that nonsense Sebastian," Disa said. She sat cross-legged on the floor as the Wind Witch sketched her in a black notebook. She was a master at such drawings, she'd drawn him two days prior and he could scarcely believe what had jumped from the page.

Yulan smirked and spoke louder for Disa's benefit. "I know tricks that would kill a man. Do you think they'd allow such a thing here in Affil?"

Terrick chuckled and wagged his finger at Yulan. "I know a few of those too. Did they not tell you who I am?"

Yulan shrugged. "An innkeeper?"

Terrick leaned forward and waved for Yulan to do the same as if he were confiding a secret. When he smiled, Yulan thought he caught something other than joviality behind that smile. That something grabbed his attention, so Yulan followed Terrick's example.

"I'm a mercenary," Terrick whispered.

Disa cleared her throat.

Terrick turned his head towards Disa. "How did you hear that?" He shook his head and turned back to Yulan. "Alright, I'm a former mercenary," Terrick corrected. He scowled for a moment, then it was quickly replaced with another toothy grin. "They named me Terrick the Terror. Disa over there was called Disa the Dagger."

"She was a mercenary?" Yulan asked.

"Yeah, though she doesn't like to talk about those days anymore."

Yulan looked at Disa, who hadn't moved from her spot in front of Alaina. When he focused on her, he could see it in her posture. She had the monster too and was trying to run from it.

Is that why she disapproves of our presence?

Yulan stood and waved Terrick over to the kitchen area. It wasn't far from here they sat – the home was only so big – but he didn't want her to accidentally hear his next question.

Terrick nodded and pushed to his feet, joining Yulan just in front of the stove. He could see the mercenary in Terrick now. It was obvious in his gait and in the way he held himself without fear. Even in the presence of a man who could end him as easy as breathing.

"You need to be more aware of people," Fama's voice teased. "They can surprise you."

He shook his head and focused on the blue-haired man in front of him. "Then you must have it."

"It?" Terrick asked. "Oh, I get what you mean. It is a terrible thing, taking the lives of men, but when you were raised as I was, you learn how adapt."

Adapt?

There was a quick series of rapping near the door. It meant someone was about to enter through the cloth. He pulled on the Blood, sprinting into the living area and snatching the mask from the sofa. He slid it on, just as a young boy walked inside. There was no such thing as privacy here. People would enter their home at all hours announced. That knock was about as polite as they came.

Yulan wondered why there wasn't more crime.

Terrick clasped his hands and inclined his head. Yulan had seen the action enough times to grasp it was a greeting.

"Nômoshkar, Raghu," Terrick said.

"Nômoshkar, Terrick," the sunburned boy replied. He smiled and continued, having spent the limits of Yulan's understanding. The brown-haired boy was new to Yulan and roughly Terrick's height, but with the face of someone who still had time until he hit his adult-year. When his eyes landed on Yulan's masked face, he stopped speaking and stared at him open-mouthed.

Disa chatted with the boy from her spot in the floor. It took some moments before Raghu pulled his brown eyes away from Yulan and responded to Disa. They spoke for a few moments, then he tilted his head from side to side and left.

"He asked when you would perform, since his grandmother is done with your new clothes," Disa said. "I told him you have come down with an illness, and it will still be time until you are ready. Maybe Terrick is right, you might have to come up with a performance for you," Disa said.

"Maybe?" Terrick asked. "Of course, I'm right."

If Yua was merciful, Yusabin would return before he had to show them how horrible of a singing voice he had.

"This is your opportunity," Fama said. "If you perform, I'll be there."

Yulan nodded. He hadn't considered the possibility until this moment. Now, he knew he didn't have to depend on a chance meeting. He could make his own path.

This was his opportunity to find her again.

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A/N: How do you feel about this chapter?

Let me know in the comments.