Chapter two: return of the Beast in Mentor Chi

The streets of the Omen village are in silence, like the graveyard of their ancestors down the hills next to their lake, wind blows the dusty fields of the village as the maize in the farm wave their leaves as if they are waving a goodbye to their king.

It had been months since the disappearance of Prince Lawrence, and the village was in lock down following the command that the first lady posed. Although the royal house tried to keep the information to themselves, but the walls of the Omen village had ears and the villagers were already aware of their king’s disappearance. 

The children on the village always had a question to ask, every household failed to answer their children’s questions ‘could King Lawrence be the mightier king of kings?’ Although the children knew what their all-nights fairy tale stated but they needed an assurance. 

The elders of the village had stopped telling the fairy tale as a bedtime story. Because it would have been like they are telling stories and making the matters of the royal house an everyday thing to talk about, with that being said, telling this story in their land was forbidden. 

Mentor Chi then started to bring out the beast in him, as he hated his sister with every inch of his heart, mind and soul. Although he did not want to show it, he assumed his sister no longer considered him as part of the royal family since his role as the mentor had ended following the mystery of their missing king.

Chi thought that the throne would be his because the king had no child, and he was his mentor. But his sister’s actions spoke the opposite of his mind, because she was already acting Queen of the palace.

‘Summon my brother for me, it had been months since he came to see me,’ said the first lady, walking down the stairs from her royal room as she headed to her breakfast on the royal table. One of the guards rushed to mentor Chi’s house to call him.

Chi’s beard had grown and was grey in color. This was his way of dealing with his anxieties and stress, he developed his technique after he brutally murdered his wife (a self-willed woman quiet to the verge of obstinacy, religious to the point of fanaticism) and through his looks with long hair and beard, he would find comfort.

The guard entered mentor Chi’s house without knocking. ‘I will cut off your hand place it in my shelf and I will use it for you to knock next time,’ said mentor Chi, with a soft slow voice and in harmony, as he sat on his chair behind his table sipping a cup of hot tea.

‘My apologies sir,’ said the guard in a cracking voice full of fear. Mentor Chi was a well-known warrior in his village, many knew him because of his cold and cruel heart, yet he hid his true characteristics behind being the good mentor of his nephew, he became famous after boiling his wife in a barrel to death. 

‘I have come to summon you to the royal house,’ the guard continued, his fear had taken away the gut to look mentor Chi in his eyes, thus, he faced down, ‘the queen wants to see you,’ said the guard, Chi’s reaction changed, as he processed the anger in his heart after hearing that the villagers now call his sister ‘Queen.’

He stood up, took his white sheep-like coat and raised it above his shoulders, ‘after you’ he said. They both left mentor Chi’s house and headed to the royal house where the queen was having her breakfast.

Rubi was delighted when she saw her brother entering her royal presence. She stood and approached him as she widely opened her arms ready to hug him, ‘could not have been a better day without me seeing the resemblance of my father,’ she said, although her heart was in sorrow, but her brother’s presence cheered her up.

As soon as her serotonin inhibited, she noticed her brother’s long hair and beard, at that moment, she knew something was troubling him. ‘Chi-moa what’s eating you?’ she asked, ‘nothing,’ said mentor Chi. ‘Come on, I know something is not well with your soul,’ ‘and how do you know that, Rubi?’ ‘I am your sister remember? And I know you well, I have seen this person before.’ Said the Queen. 

It was at that moment that mentor Chi remembered how he developed that technique. ‘It is my nephew Rubi, his disappearance does not sit me well, my heart cannot process his absence,’ he lied, hiding the fact that what troubled him was the person before his eyes. 

‘Let us hope for his return Chi-moa, what is done is done’ said the queen, leading her brother to the royal table where she was having her breakfast, ‘come break with me,’ they both sat, and Rubi served her brother with a smile on her face.

Mentor Chi’s heart was deeply in the dark, that he could not see the love his sister had for him, his black eyes were fixed to his sister as he dug in the food, she had served him.

‘She must be pretending,’ said mentor Chi to himself in his house later that day. ‘She just wants me to turn a blind eye, so she is to strike me first,’ he continued, placing a glass on his table ready to pour his white wine, ‘but she has it coming for herself. Yes, she will not strike, because I am going to end her first.’ Mentor Chi’s assumptions led him to plan a way to end his sister’s life. 

A week went by, and Chi had already planned how he was going to wipe out his sister the queen. On those days the village of omen was still under lock down, the streets were silent to the verge of obstinacy, people were kept to the following of the order that was posed by the queen.

It was early in the morning, when the colds of the morning creeped down the hills of Omen Village to the valley on the feet of the mountains. Chi was up and he already had prepared breakfast, he summoned one of his servants and sent him to the royal house to invite his sister the queen to come have a breakfast with him. In a minute, the queen entered, and Chi served his sister.

‘It is my honor to have your royal presence in my house sister,’ said Chi. ‘Ow! Shut up’ the queen responded with a smile on her face, ‘you stop joking, you know I’m your sister Chi-moa, to you, I’m no queen but a sibling.’ She spoke. They both sat down behind the table that was before them and began to eat.

‘You must have had someone prepare this food brother, for I know you no good cook,’ said the queen mocking her brother. ‘You right sister, there you had me. I had my maid prepare it for us.’ Said Chi, looking at his sister, bringing out the smile he gave his wife on the day he killed her. 

‘I suppose you trust your maid Chi-moa, or what, is she more than a maid to you?’ Chi looked down as he could not respond to his sister. Chi knew that it was forbidden for any member of a royal family to be in a relationship with any servant, yet the maid they spoke of was three weeks pregnant with Chi’s child.

‘No sister, she is nothing more or less than a maid,’ he lied. Any time from then, anything could happen to the queen, because the beast in her brother had returned to destroy those he envies. In a minute, the queen stopped eating as she could feel something was not right in her system, she reacted to the stimuli and held her chest.

‘My queen, are you alright?’ Asked one of the guards. She tried to stand up, but the act was too much for the week body, she fell. Her crown broke into two pieces, but no one noticed that as their eyes were fixed to the queen. Chi stood up slowly, looking at his sister down the floor, breathless. He heard a voice in his ears saying, ‘for if you do well, you will be rewarded but if you do evil, evil will do you, and when guilt rises, death opens the grave and hell becomes your home.’

Chi stood there frightened by what his ears were conceiving. He moved slowly towards his sister, hoping she was still okay. He set his eyes on the crown and noticed it was in two pieces, he knew from that moment that his sister was no more. ‘She is gone,’ said Chi to the guards with tears of guilt in his eyes and a voice full of shame.

One of the guards asked Chi how he knew that. ‘In this village Haiden, when a king or queen dies, their crowns break into two pieces, one for their terrestrial bodies and the other it is believed for their celestial bodies,’ said Chi, responding to the guard. 

A servant was then urged to gather all the villagers to announce about the death of their queen. The villagers were astonished when they heard, and their spirits were troubled. Chi issued a way of burial three days after his sister died, because it was believed that a royal member should be buried quickly after their death.

On the day of burial after covering the queen with a lioness skin, before placing her inside the mountain of Herod (a mountain in which all the previous kings and queens were buried), the sun hid from the surface of the earth, and it was dark. The villagers were shocked and wondered what was happening. 

‘The village of Omen is under a dark cloud hanging over it, because the great king Lawrence has heard it all and cursed his people.’ Spoke a loud voice in the darkness, it sounded like raging water. A moment after, the sun gazed upon the earth and suddenly there was light, when they looked at the cave of the mountain Herod, there, was a lady in a huge red garment.

They stirred at the woman as they could not recognize her, she took the queen’s body and entered the cave, Chi tried to follow, but after the woman had entered the cave, the opening was nowhere to be found. They all were shocked and overwhelmed with fear.

As they gazed at the mountain, the woman returned and where she appeared came out a mist, her garment was no more red but white. ‘I return to my village punished by the gods of the Omen village, my face was burnt after I ran from the village, thus, you cannot recognize me,’ said the woman.

‘I placed your queen in her rightful place, and I did it myself, because none of you is worthy to enter the mountain Herod because you all are cursed by your king in the spiritual realm.’ Said the woman, ‘now allow me to introduce myself to you once again. I return and remain the daughter of Olevia Quan, your Oracle. I am your Oracle,’ she spoke