Nocte Yin: Anti-Villain, Anti-Hero and Anti-Everything Else

Part One: Anti Villain - Chapter One

Nocte stood in the middle of the field, the long green grass waving in the wind like the ripping of the blue waters of the ocean. Her long black hair, unbound, rushed pass behind her, whipping like a flag. Her dark eyes were closed against the warmth of the mid-day sun; her glasses dangling from her fingers and a short brown scarf in the other. Her mouth opened to taste the sweet air, showing straight, white teeth; her retainer placed in a drawer in her room.

She wore a dress - a dress! - that fluttered beside the small, white butterflies straying about for nectar. It fell just below her knees, the colour of brown earth with a wide collar settling over her tanned shoulders and short, puffy sleeves. She was barefoot, and for a moment she felt like she was a part of Erisire as much as She was a part of her – as if they were one large breathing being, overseeing the microorganisms running amuck across the land. As if she were more than just… this.

"Mistress."

Sighing quietly in the wind, Nocte opened her eyes and then, all at once, she was back and no longer a part of a bigger being. She was, once again, a small speck in the universe with a short lifespan and being dealt cards that did little to no help in this journey called life.

"Yes, Witley?" she enquired, lifting up her arms to bind her hair with the brown scarf. "Is it another financial issue? Perhaps Lord Nán is unhappy with my property boundaries –again. Well, if that's the issue, tell him to ‘fuck off’ or I'll sic the empress on him."

Melissa Witley, clothed in an off-shouldered purple shirt showing her perfect tan and green shorts making her long legs seem even longer, smiled at her Mistress' lack of propriety. Shaking her long auburn hair over her shoulders, her light brown eyes took on a soft, guarded look and she informed, "Lord Yin has sent a letter."

Nocte placed her glasses back on her nose to show that she was all right when, in fact, she was not. Her older brother, Lord Gash Yin, the One Hundredth and First Head of the Yin Clan, had not spoken a word to her for the past half year. For him, or for any of her family members, to suddenly contact her was most startling to say the least.

Getting her bearings together, she asked, "Where is the letter?"

"In your office, milady," the spy answered.

With a tense nod, Nocte ran her hands over the cotton of her dress before turning toward the small mansion across the field. Melissa bowed low as her Mistress made her way through the grass and the small village established on the estate.

Nocte's estate, a rice farm by the name of Laurel Tree, consisted a flat plain that rose up in high hills and covered with many, many laurel trees (hence the name). When she and her entourage of soldiers, villagers and supplies had first arrived in the lush, but empty, land, it looked like a lot of work. Most of spring consisted of building tents for housing and ploughing the field. Fortunately, her estate was on a running river, theYuè Guì, which worked well for the irrigation system. When summer came about, the plain and the hills were sprouting rice stalks, villagers had decent homes (that would be improved when Nocte's funds came about), and Nocte, herself, had a good-sized mansion.

Lord Nán, the Governor of the Nán province, had been ordered to assist Nocte as much as possible, but due to Empress Měi Fèng of Xon's obvious preference to Nocte over Lord Nan, his opinion of Nocte was soured from the get go. They did not actually have a friendly relationship, what with Nocte finding him annoying and he finding Nocte inexperienced.

She sighed as she entered the threshold of her residence, leaving behind a crowd of respectful villagers as she went. She did not think of the mansion as her home. Home was where her mother, Malise Yin, was, bedridden and no longer lucid. Every day, Nocte had to fight off the instinct to return to the Yin Mansion to care for her mother, but she had to stop herself. Her younger sister, Occult, the great psychic, would not allow her. It was, after all, Nocte's fault for turning their once stunning sorceress mother into... a woman who was very sick.