As soon as the servants finished arranging my new room, I dismissed them, leaving me and Kiku alone. I stared at my reflection, eyes narrowed and painted lips pursed, thinking deeply of the name running around my head.

Ancestrals as the soldier had screamed earlier. A creature of some sort. If I hadn't seen the giant falcons, I would never have known that something like those animals were actually living among us.

If they exist, then what else does?

Behind me, Kiku was brushing my hair with a wooden comb from the crown of my hair to the tip.

"Didn't Geviv send you and some of her birdies to infiltrate Migza?"

"Once," Kiku stated without looking up.

"And none of you heard of these creatures' existence?"

She stopped, comb hanging at midsection. I looked up at her reflection to see her eyes staring at my hair, unfocused, as though she was remembering something only she could see. Then it dawned on me.

"You knew," I stated as a matter of fact.

Kiku raised her head, cold and expressionless. I was facing Kikuhara, not the meek and quiet Kiku.

"So this is why your Master does not want me to marry into Suza's country, is that right?" I asked, face set like stone, eyes sharp and observant.

Like a hawk looming over its prey. The problem was, the prey was also a predator, but who cared. I leaned back on the chair, crossed my legs over the other and held her gaze. "Speak."

ΔΔΔΔΔΔΔ

Torches had been lit, showcasing the real damage forced upon our ship and to Matius's men.

When I came out of the cabin, soldiers were busy clearing up the dead in two separate lines; one for their comrades, the other for the apparent enemies. Captain Lenos approached Matius who had been assessing their loss while pushing men to their work with bleak orders.

"I apologize for this unexpected ordeal, Princess." Matius curtsied when he came to stand beside me. This close up, I could make out splatters of blood across his pale face. Not his, but the enemy's.

"I have heard of what happened at the lower cabin, you must be tired and shaken from all this." He continued.

"Tired, yes I am. Shaken?" I asked, glancing over the dead bodies of the attackers. I couldn't help noticing that they weren't half-naked, and they didn't carry stone necklaces, or any red tattoos. The weird man was not a pirate. "With giant flying creatures and a barbaric man popping out nowhere, of course I am shaken."

Matius's eyes widened in surprise from my reply, and he glanced sharply at Captain Lenos for, perhaps, confirmation. The captain's lips pursed into a tight line before nodding his head as though it was a bitter pill to agree for my words' likelihood to be true.

"I'll talk with you later, Captain. You are dismissed." Matius commanded coldly. His voice devoid of any emotion. It was apparent he wasn't happy with the news.

Captain Lenos curtsied at us before calling off his men and directing them to helping the other soldiers.

"Angry, Ambassador?" I asked, gingerly poking around the tension growing from him.

"Disappointed, Your Highness." Matius was not looking at me. He was busy watching over the scene across the deck.

I glanced over the horizon, two warships from the border were approaching our beat up vessel.

"I have prayed you would not be exposed to such horrendous creatures this early in your arrival to our land, especially to those barbaric Folks. The Council and I hoped that you would be introduced to them in a much... civilized manner and in a somewhat less violent environment."

"Folks?" I asked. "Who are they?"

"They are..." Matius hesitated and his face scrunched up with apparent disgust, "a tribe from Heofon Mountain. They breed unusually large... animals that are considered rare nowadays. We call them Ancestrals."

They considered them rare nowadays? Was he saying there was a time when their land were full of these massive creatures? Seriously? There were no such animals in the southern continent, not even in the Western countries. If there were records of these creatures, I would have known.

"Poachers," I said out of nowhere, remembering the large cages on the sunken ship.

Matius paused, as if treading carefully on how to explain this information to me.

"Yes. How they got across the patrols will be on General Huk's head, not anything we shall worry about. King Suza will not be happy with this news though, but with your arrival, I am sure your presence will pacify him." Matius smiled at me with his gentlemanly demeanor. Gone was the brooding ambassador. 

Based on my observation these past few days, I have concluded that Suza was the only one who could soften and lift Matius's spirit. Like a doting butler, who follows his Master's every beck and call. Makes me think of Kikuhara over Geviv.

Which reminds me, the little twit had the gall to keep his mouth shut.

No matter how much pressure and tension I'd pushed on Kikuhara, he would not budge. Of course he would not! Not when he'd been trained by the Temple of Heavens, especially if Geviv commanded him not to spill the tea.

If Geviv was so worried about me, she should have told me the truth about Migza and laid off from her vague explanations. Or at least gave me a head start about what I should expect. I have prepared myself to accept the customs of Migza, but my brain was not ready for giant-ass-falcons.

I had gone ahead of myself believing she finally shared something vital to me. But they were all shit in a golden pot.

"Is there other things I should know before I end up getting a heart attack?" I flashed Matius my most harmless smile.

Matuis chuckled. "There are a few things you must be aware of if you will rule by the king's side. However, why don't we take it one step at a time from here on? There is no rush because you'll be one of us from now on."

His words were sensible. But something uneasy curled in my gut. And my warning meter told me there would be no one step at a time, but a huge leap like five steps ahead or... bigger.

Earlier, when I tried to direct him to speak about the poachers, he changed the flow of the conversation to lean towards Suza and me. A great parry against my subtle poking. 

He was no ordinary politician.

If Matius did not want to entail information about the Folks or Ancestrals, which I believed to be national secrets,  then I had no choice but to find them out by myself. 

He started it, so why don't we play his game of hide and seek.