Jiji no. 8

Lullaby

Xin Holder Viscus had no idea what was running to his life anymore. He was just unconsciously following the flow of the world. Earlier, when he had heard what the King said to the public, it felt as if a huge boulder was thrown by a giant to his back. Sankt Vessel users… people are expecting too much from them. Perhaps, the seven first Sankt Vessel users can meet the expectation, but for him, it felt impossible. He was just here inside the Central Palace for a few days, and then the burden he had felt was then extremely high. Now, he felt he have to find himself training in a harder way.

He had finally, fully accepted his role to the Kingdom. That was after hearing and seeing the hopes of the people of the Agnosbadtt as they mention their group, the Sankt Vessel users.

He had accepted it.

He is a Sankt Vessel user.

Soon as he heard those people expecting high towards them, he immediately felt the extreme wanting to train, despite his condition. He could do it. Pain in the body is just a pain in the body—he believes. But he was facing two problems at the moment:

One. Jiji was not beside him, and he can’t find where he was. To be a Sankt Vessel user, one must need a Sankt Vessel. If Jiji was not beside him, then he was just a normal, weak person.

Two. A woman was dragging him towards gods knows where. Just kidding, Holder knew where he was being dragged—towards the palace. But he never had any chance to find the identification of the woman.

While the woman was pulling Holder from the crowd, he had to purse his pale lips to suppress his extreme wanting to scream because of the burning pain in his body. They passed through the podium, and quickly went towards its back, and towards the overly huge arched gate of the palace. The only place people could use to enter towards the Central Palace.

“Hey, are you allowed to enter—” Holder was about to ask if the woman was allowed to enter the palace. Only those who has the entrance seal on their wrist, just like what Holder has, can be allowed to enter the central palace. Once none, they were not allowed. And once they forced themselves to enter, the guards and the soldiers are allowed to kill them.

But Holder was mystified when the woman just passed through the gate, with guards not minding the woman—or more like not seeing her… and him. They passed through the line of guards who holds spears, lances, and swords. And they seem not to have any idea that they are passing through the gate.

“Hey, what’s happening?” Holder asked incredulously.

“Keep quiet,” the woman said. Quickly, he followed what the woman wants. It was as if he followed it because it was a command, or some cursed words that if he did not follow, would be the end of his damn messed up life.

“Who are you, by the way?” asked Holder when they finally passed through the lines of the guards, and was now travelling inside the labyrinth garden. “How did you do that? The skill you’ve done. It was as if we’re invisible to the guards.

The hem of the cloak the woman was wearing had fluttered with the fast wind that streamed towards the alley of the labyrinth. It then swept the hood that covers the whole face of the woman.

Holder was at the back of the woman as she grabs his arm, and pulling him, guiding him towards where she plans to go. And so, what Holder first saw was the hair of the woman. Its strands where as if a shiny silk too rare to be sold in the market. It was tucked upwards, weaved criss-crossed, and encircled upwards as if a bun. The position of the hair made her nape be exposed from where he stood. He saw small dark dot—a mole—near the left portion of her neck. Holder swallowed hard.

“Wh—who are you?” he asked.

And then she turned. “I said be quiet,” she said.

No need, actually for her to say those words in order for him to fell into silence. As Holder looked at the face of the woman, he found no words forming on his tongue. Speechless.

‘What a beauty!’ he wants to say.

“Can’t you hear it?” the woman asked.

With curiosity, Holder finally found his voice again. “Huh?” he asked.

“The lullaby,” the woman answered.

“Lullaby? I don’t hear anything. Why would there be a lullaby inside the central palace? That was—”

And again, he cut off his words.

Because he too, had heard it. The lullaby. A woman singing softly, echoing in the walls of the labyrinth made up of plants, its leaves, and flowers.

“What is that?”

“The secret lullaby, I call it.”

“Who is the one singing?” asked Holder.

“I don’t know. No one knows. I mean, no other people knew there was a singing woman inside this labyrinth. Only us,”

“No one except us, knew that a woman was trapped here? What if she just finds difficulty finding the exit? We have to find and help her,” he said.

“No, we won’t find her here.”

“Huh? Why?”

“Because this labyrinth garden is not as complex as it seems. Even a ten years old child can enter here and manage to find the exit. Besides, if she was trapped, I would have already saved her the first time I heard her singing. That was ten years ago.”

“T—ten years ago? She has been trapped here for ten years already?” Holder asked in fascination.

“I suspect the lullaby was not just a simple, normal song of a woman. It was mystified. Creepy, yet magical.”

“What do you mean?”

The woman smiled. “Can’t you feel it?”

“The what?”

“The magic. The healing effect it gives to the beaten body.”

And then, Holder realized what the woman was telling. He had not remembered it because he was too focused to the beauty of the voice of the mysterious woman singing a lullaby. Now that she told about the ‘beaten body’, he remembered that his body was suffering in pain.

But, not now. Not again.

“H—hey, I am now fine,” he said. “My body is not aching anymore.”

“I have just discovered, when I was fifteen years old, that the lullaby I fell in love listening to, has a healing effect. It can heal the pains of humanity.”

“Just like the pain I have in my body.”

“Just like the pain in your body. And more than that. Can you feel it?”

Holder did not ask what it was. He tried feeling his body. What has changed? What something new had he found in his body?

“Emotion?” Holder asked. “It had lifted the emotion I have felt.”

The woman nodded, smiled. “The lullaby has a healing effect more than just a cure in the body. It too, cures the emotion. It too, cures the soul.”

“Wow,” Holder exclaimed, fascinated.

“When my feeling is down, and when I feel void and emptiness in my heart, I always took this labyrinth as my resort. It cures me. It had helped me more than a hundred times already. And I felt it, that when you heard what the King told, the feeling of being in burden had eaten you alive. Because people was expecting high for a Sankt Vessel user.”

“And now it was gone. It was as if I have no huge responsibility weighing in my hand.” And then he laughed.

“I am glad you’re fine now,” the woman said, smiling.

“By the way, I have been talking to you. But I do not know your name yet. Would it be nice if you tell me what your lovely name was?”

The woman again smiled. “Let’s go to the palace first.”

“What was your work in the palace? And how did you know that I am a Sankt Vessel user? No one knew who the Sankt Vessel users are, except to those who are in the higher ranks.”

“I am just nothing,” she said.

He kept asking as they walk, finding the exit of the garden. The woman never answered. And when they finally found the end point, they met group of guards, waiting for them.

At first, Holder thought that they are going to be captured. But, the guards bowed down. They laid one of their knees on the ground in a knight-like fashion.

One guard said, “Princess Ellaine Grend, the King and the Queen has been looking for you. They were worried that you did not show to the Grand Podium.”

“Tell them I am fine.”

“We will, Princess. Take care of your self.”

The Guards dismissed, probably going to the podium and would tell to the King and Queen that the princess is alright.

Princess . . .

Princess . . .

Holder stood frozen. As the woman—now Princess Ellaine, the only daughter of the King and Queen—looked at her, he bowed down, panicking.

“Hey, Holder—”

“Forgive such atrocity I have done, Princess! I should have not disrespected you in anyway you would think is disrespecting!”

The Princess then laughed, hard, yet sweet, but full of joy and amusement. As Holder listens, he thought; it was a harmony in his ears.

“Stand up, Holder. Everything is fine for me. I just wanted a friend.”