Ayakashi Chronicles

Prologue

It was way before time that mythical creatures even existed. They were known to all humanity too and it wasn’t that big of a deal. Except for a few. The ones who had to be hidden away.

Emperor Yu Lan was a powerful ruler of the mythical land of Ghor. He was just and sympathetic to his people as long as they obeyed him. He had only one son, Prince Yu Jun. The strange thing about this prince was that he had never been seen by the public. After the mysterious demise of Queen Shei, the Palace of Ghor had been rather secretive of their inner workings. The people feared to question Emperor Yu Lan’s ways and so, they never even talked about it.

Like any secrets, this one had its own set of rumours. One of the rumours speculated the demise of the Queen, saying that the king had killed her by mixing poison into her drink. Another one said that the Prince was not Emperor Yu Lan’s son and so the Queen went behind the kings back to have a Demon’s son. But that felt rather far fetched, even for the people of Ghor. Either way, the people never dared speak of this outside of their houses for the fear of being burnt alive by the king.

The Palace of Ghor was probably the most expensive monument to be designed and built. The walls were made of gold and the ceilings were rubies and emeralds. The rooms were said to be limitless in number. One could easily get lost within this huge treasure. The Imperial Court room had been designed by the Queen herself. The walls sung of the great battles that had been won by Emperor Yu and his ancestors. The floors were precious marbles brought from foreign lands and most of all, the roof was intricately decorated with gold and diamonds.
The people of Ghor were very adherent to their culture. Dance and other forms of art were recognised as soon as one was born. The Palace had its own set of well trained dancers and singers who lived within the walls of Inferior Palace which mainly consisted of rooms for the working staff. As the King was very particular about the cultural activities of the kingdom, the dancers and artists were often subjected to extreme hardship. They had to be the best amongst all in terms of literature, history and their art form. If they were even slightly behind, they could be forced out of the palace and made to live like a beggar in the commoners town.

The head of the dancers was Lady Poh. She was a tall and strict women. Nothing would go unnoticed under her watch. She was also a distant cousin of the demised Queen and hence she lived in the main palace quarters. Unfortunately for the young dancers, Lady Poh would resort to sticks and stones if they had missed their duties for the day or had not done their homework. She also disliked her young students because of their natural beauty and youthful bodies. Some say that she would often disguise herself as a maid and go into the Women’s public bath just to look the young girls and make sure that no one was talking about her. She hated every single one of her pupils but their was one girl in particular, who she couldn’t stand – Master Fei’s daughter, Soo Mei.

Soo Mei was seventeen, young and very spontaneous. Ever since her father went missing in the war ten years ago, she was put under care of the Palace. The king, noticing her beautiful face and big brown eyes, assigned Lady Poh to take care of her and give her the best education possible. Soo Mei had never once disobeyed Lady Poh but she often found herself getting abused by Lady Poh’s famous “wrath of the bamboo stick”. She resorted to endure the pain and suffering because she knew that without her father, she had no place in the commoner’s town. A girl of her age would only be sold into slavery or prostitution. Other than that, she was happy and good natured. She hated going to public baths so she would sneak out of her room every night and go deep into the forest to a hot stream only she knew about. Her back was always painted with blue or black marks against her pale skin but the warm water from the stream always made everything a little better.