Winged: A Novella (Of Two Girls) (26 page)

When everything had settled, the main
representative from the Phoenix Court arrived. It was whispered
amongst the gathered family heads that she was the Crown Princess,
taking the place of her esteemed mother, Her Majesty. Quiet, clad
in subdued blue colors and wearing a simple and yet elaborate
headdress, she came, escorted by her father, the Consort of the
Empress and one of her aunts. The family heads marveled how young
she looked and how adult her bearing was. Her face had a hint of
sorrow, a poignant gravity none of them saw but could not
understand. An invisible weight seemed to rest on her
shoulders.

Yet when she sat down, she smiled warmly and
began the negotiations by saying “Let’s all start on a clean
page.”

***

The negotiations were more grueling than
she’d expected. The discussions grew heated at times and the main
speakers had to take time to rest and ponder on their next move.
The Artian contingent laid their expectations out on the table,
revealing generations of hurt and broken dreams. Their emotions
were raw, honest.

Crown Princess Min Feng had a brief respite,
walking through the Stern-Aus greenhouse to clear her mind. The
diversity of the plants found in the indoor garden was amazing.
Ferns. Succulents. Flowering plants with alluring aromas,
reminiscent of twilight in the Imperial Gardens. Vegetables grown
to fit families, all lush and leafy-green. She stooped to examine a
shiny red tomato, her troubles only temporarily forgotten. This
place was heavenly, obviously made to act as a sanctuary. It
certainly soothed her nerves. It had probably done the same for the
Stern-Aus family.

She drifted away from the vegetable section
and wandered down the aisle of herbs and medicinal plants. Someone
in the family was evidently interested in herbs and had collected a
whole variety of them. Reality nudged at her. Someone did research
on the herbs and derived dangerous substances from them. The herbs
looked so innocuous, emerald jewelry glistening with dew.

Min Feng stood still for a blessed moment
and breathed in the earthy sappy fragrance. She had retreated into
herself during the journey to Artia, sequestering in her own
private bed-cabin. She had yet to come to terms with the death of
the
fai
and that she had a major hand in it. She wanted to
protect her family, her mother. All that came out through the rage,
fuelling the phoenix flame until it burned too brightly, too
fiercely. Stories had already been woven about her deed, courtesy
of the security guards present during that fateful day. She wanted
to put a stop to these stories – they had a tendency to be blown
out of proportion. Her father checked her and said no. These
stories boosted the morale of the guards and in turn the citizens
of the Imperial City.

She did not want to become a legend.

Her timer beeped and she smoothed her gown.
Time for another round of negotiations
. This time, there
would be a breakthrough.

***

They managed to work a treaty out. The
Artians agreed to re-establish their supply of crystals and in
return, the Phoenix Court would give them the recognition they
deserved. Solar panels would be brought in, for auxiliary sources
of energy to power their homes. They had stated very firmly that
the crystals in the mines were finite and could not have lasted
long. So, the Phoenix Court agreed to find another sustainable
energy source for the crystals powering the energy cores of their
starships. Likewise, an Institute would be set up for students of
both Artia and the rest of the Alliance Planets to learn from each
other. Knowing that many of the Artian youths were albinos or
near-albinos, the Phoenix Court and Artia promised to instill
respect and tolerance. So, with an ultra-violet seal on special
parchment paper, Artia’s obscurity was removed and it rejoined the
Alliance Planet as a full-fledged member. Sighs of relief could be
heard around the table. The negotiations were over.

The suggestions for a sustainable energy
source and the Institute were made by the Crown Princess whose calm
during the talks was admirable. She had thought it through, just as
her teacher Aunt Betta had taught her. She delivered her ideas and
formulated her words with sincerity, while gauging the body
language of the Artian family heads.

Later in the week the Artian family heads
threw a small state function for the Phoenix Court delegation. It
was a modest affair but well-attended and filled with optimism. The
Crown Princess politely refused any offer of wine and simply
smiled, preferring to stand next to the ceiling-to-floor window and
stare into the sparkling expanse of space. She was more concerned
about the recovery of the Empress and tactful folk gave her due
space.

The Empress regained consciousness a week
later. Her responses were still extremely weak and the Imperial
Physicians were concerned at her slurred speech, pointing to
potential nerve damage in her brain and the possibility of a
stroke. Her right side was stronger than her left; the Physicians
were checking if the muscles were slack or feeble. So far it was
only the slurring of speech that constituted their major
concern.

Min Feng visited her daily, taking turns
with the Dowager and the rest of the Imperial siblings. The
interaction seemed to rejuvenate the Empress and she made attempts
to smile as well.

“I heard… what… you did…” The Empress told
Min Feng once, her voice fragile, soft. “You …did… to pro…tect…
Never… doubt… your… gift.”

Min Feng kissed her mother’s limp hand. “I
know.”
But it doesn’t change the fact. I still killed
someone.

“Well…done. You are… a …good… diplomat.” The
Empress struggled to look directly at her daughter, her eyes intent
and intense.

“Rest, mother,” Min Feng caught the stern
eye of the nurse-in-charge who was determined to make sure her
patient get sufficient rest.

The Dowager had quietly drawn her aside once
and said with no uncertain terms that if her mother could not
recover that quickly, she might have to ascend the Phoenix Throne.
The prospect was sobering enough. She had to meditate on it and
still could not find any form of comfort or solace. She wished that
she had more training. She wished to see Javen. She wished… and
still her possible ascension frightened her.

“You are the heir apparent to the Throne,”
the Dowager had whispered to her and her eyes were hard like flint.
“It is your path, Min Feng.”

Javen
.

She gazed at the Empress now sleeping
peacefully on her bed.
How am I going to step into her
shoes?

Min Feng breathed a slow lungful of air.
I will do it. I am the daughter of the Empress and bearer of the
phoenix flame. I am a phoenix. With purpose. With my family around
me, I will do it and do it well.

The audacity of those thoughts startled her
and she chuckled aloud, eliciting a concerned glance from the
nurse.

Javen Windwalker had heard the news of the
failed assassination of the Empress from Aunt Betta and reinforced
by his mother and the rest of his aunts. They also informed that
Min was now acting Empress, as the Empress seemed unable to recover
from it immediately.

It took some time to absorb the import of
the news, especially the part where Min was now acting Empress.

I am going to miss you
, Javen thought
with a sharp pang in his heart and remembered her laughter. Her joy
at the sight of the slot canyon and the clear water pool. The smell
of her skin on his. Her voice.

His textbooks waited for him. He thumbed the
personal mail reader. A whole list of communiqués from faculty
staff and from his classmates downloaded swiftly, all demanding to
be read. Perhaps reading through mail would distract him and give
him some time to
think
.

A familiar name popped out at him and his
spirits rose.

Want to go back to the slot canyon? I
miss the pool. A bath in it will be great
.

Min Feng was coming back.

The Phoenix Court was a matriarchal Imperial
family set in a distant future. The Empress who ruled predominantly
in a closely-knit Alliance of Planets (Alliance Planets) was
descended from a long line of women – the Court itself was
matrilineal with generations of mothers and daughters passing down
the ancestral bloodline and knowledge to each succeeding
generation.

The bloodline was also extraordinary as it
included the gene that enabled women to transform from human female
to a mythological avian creature – the Phoenix. The gene was
dominant in one generation and recessive in another. In the current
storyline, only few women – the Empress, Princesses Min Feng and
Min Xin – carried the dominant gene. The rest, including the sons,
had the recessive gene.

The Court was modeled after Imperial Qing in
the 19
^th
century. In terms of administrative style and
governance, female family members and relatives were sent to govern
the planets and were in charge of key administrative positions,
including captaincy of starships and warships in the Imperial
Fleet. Men played important roles too: they served as consorts to
the Empress or to the various Phoenix Court women, as well as
governing and providing leadership roles to military positions,
planetary governments and auxiliary Imperial families.

Princess Min Feng – The main character and
protagonist. Masqueraded as Earnestine Thorne.

Princess Min Xin. – The youngest sister of
Min Feng.

Princess Min Le – One of the sisters, older
than Min Xin.

Empress Ze Tian. – The Empress of the
Phoenix Court and the mother of Min Feng and Min Xin.

Duke Lukas Zhang – The consort of Empress Ze
Tian and the father of the Phoenix Court children.

Admiral Medea – Fourth Aunt of Empress Ze
Tian and grand aunt of Princess Min Feng.

Captain Helena Zhangzi – Cousin of Empress
Ze Tian and captain of the
Raptor.
Deceased.

Bei de Channey – Cousin of Princess Min
Feng, from the planet Solaris. A duchess.

Mei Hu and Mei Hua – Mirror-twins and
maids-in-waiting to Min Feng. Also distant cousins/relatives.

Edward and Malik – Guards.

Envoy Tung – Diplomat sent to the planet
Artia. Deceased.

Javen Windwalker – A Navajo/Dine boy from
the planet Mesa.

Aunt Betta – A Navajo/Dine woman
trader-merchant from the planet Mesa. Javen’s aunt.

The abbess – Abbess of a nunnery in the
Ermei Mountains.

Julian Stern-Aus – Eldest son of the
Stern-Aus clan.

Elizabeth Stern-Aus – Matriarch and mother
of the Stern-Aus clan.

Yrant – hermaphrodite assassin from the
planet Onn.

Aim-hawk – a kind of bird-of-prey, similar
to a hawk but larger in size.

Artia – Mining planet.

Imperial City – The planet where the Phoenix
Court resides.

Minx-cat – a felinoid predator.

Onn – Pleasure planet.

Neo-equus – a new breed of horses, mixed
with Arabian and Thoroughbred genes. They are touted to be hardier
and more tractable.

Solaris – Partisan planet of the Phoenix
Court.

The Left Quadrant – A famous part of the
Markets selling foodstuff from the Alliance Planets.

The names of the Phoenix Court Imperial
family are all in Mandarin Chinese, partly because of their
dominant Han (Chinese) racial type and in keeping with the
traditions of Imperial Qing. The racial types are actually, in
reality, more varied and the characters are more Eurasian when it
comes to race and ethnicity.

Fai, fao, fa and fei – Gender-neutral
pronouns from the planet Onn. – used by the hermaphroditic
courtesan caste.