Beginning

Amira smiled and shook Vesi's hand the moment she felt the absence of Aya.

"It was nice catching up with you" she added to which Vesi nodded and went away.

Amira smirked and opened her right hand to reveal a strand of hair belonging to Vesi in her palm. Her smirk grew and she sighed victoriously, it wasn't a great feat to get something from Vesi after all, now what she had to concern herself with is to pray that Vesi truly feels for Lady or everything would be for null. She looked back and saw Vesi now talking to an old lady with a smile on his face.

******

Mai and Aya materialised in the common realm, right in the fields where everything went downhill for Aya.

"Ha" Aya sighed "Sure sparks some memories, doesn't it sister?" she turned to Mai.

"It sure does and I hope everything that happened remained intact in your memories as it is very well planted deep in mine" Mai replied with a sinister smile.

Aya laughed hard and held her stomach "I see you still have your sense of humor"

"I still have, and hopes to keep it too" Mai replied with a laugh of her own.

"But on a more serious note" Aya trailed off as her facial expression changed from a silly one to a serious one, she straightened her back and jutted her chin out with confidence "I don't think you brought us here to reminisce about our memories and comedies" her voice dripped with venom.

"Still as clever as ever" Mai chuckled "And yes, I brought you here for another reason" Mai stated with an ice cold tone.

"I'm all ears"

"Let's just cut to the chase" Mai crossed her arms "Why were you and your little minion talking with the Prince under a spell?"

Aya faked gasped and placed a hand on her heart "You wound me deeply sister" she sighed sadly "Can't I or Amira just discuss something private with the Prince?" she smiled and continued in a taunting tone "Especially as she is the head pillar"

"Aya" Mai began "I have no time for riddles and puzzles or any of your little shenanigans, and if you want tell me just know that I'm going to find out all the same, my eyes are always on you"

"Wow!" Aya exclaimed and clapped "Wow, I was expecting no less from you, seeing as it is your job to see what I'm always up to as if you don't have duties of your own" Aya ended with a sneer.

"Be careful how you choose your words" Mai warned.

"And what exactly is going to happen if I don't?" Aya smirked with eyebrows raised.

"Aya, let's not get started" Mai began "As this might not end well for some of us"

"But I'm all set to go" Aya said as her hands sizzled and a long golden spear appeared in her hand.

"Well, I'm not so bent on fighting you and I think we are done here, so if you want a fight, I'd be happy to oblige but just not now" Mai trailed off ready to take them back when suddenly Aya lunged at her.

Mai with her fast reflexes turned about ninety degrees in her heels and evaded the attack. She stood firm on her feet and glared at Aya,

"Don't do this, big sister" her jaws clenched.

"I am absolutely doing this" Aya laughed maniacally and lunged again.

"So be it" Mai muttered and called forth her twin swords and ran to confront Aya.

Metal clashed upon metal, feet turned and twisted and bodies turned and rolled as Aya and Mai went head to head. They both were well versed in weapon combat and also strong as well but Mai was not going to allow someone to destroy her efforts, efforts she had worked hard to build.

Mai raised her swords and swiped at Aya who blocked it but toppled over with the amount of power Mai used to strengthen her attack. Aya grew furious and casted as a spell on her spear to make it more lighter and deadly, she smirked when she finished and lunged herself at Mai with a clear intention to kill Mai. Mai knowing full well how Aya fought also casted a spell on her weapons and clashed with her.

After long moments of fighting on the ground and levitating in the air with their weapons at each other's throats, Mai striked Aya down with a furious energy that hurt Aya in the process and broke her weapon into two. Aya fell to the ground but hurriedly got up on her knee, her power and essence seeping out of her, she looked at Mai with eyes red with rage and laughed.

"I see you have gotten even more stronger but don't just getting delusional yet" Aya laughed stopping with a shaky cough "This is just the beginning" she snarled and disappeared.

Mai watched as the breeze blew through the fields and her hair with Aya gone. Her chest heaved up and down as she took in large breaths to satiate her lungs and calm her body down. She looked around, at the remnants of their fight and a single stray tear fell out of her eye, history was repeating itself, not so long ago she had fought with Aya in these same fields and rendered it just as bad. There were holes from where their weapons touched the ground and where they fell or their feet stomped, the grasses were parched brown and dry from the immense amount of power they witnessed, it was an excruciating sorrow that what once stood as beautiful as the morning rainbow became as disdainful as a summer night's cold dream.

Her weapons fell out her hands, landing with a heavy and loud clang, echoing in the quite fields. She exhaled as the last words of Aya rang through her head 'this is just the beginning'.

*******

It had been a whole lot of hours since the ceremony ended and Lady still couldn't get a single trace of wherever Mai was. She paced back and forth in her room with a hand stroking her chin, first of all, her mother was acting weird and she was sure she was up to something and now Mai also disappeared without so much of a word, talk about unending frustrations and she was sure she would be the very epitome for it.

"Where are in the universe are you, Mai?" Lady groaned.

And as if on cue Mai appeared behind Lady with a long exhale "Somewhere extremely bad"

Lady turned and exhaled "And you.." her voice got caught in her throat as she saw a very unkept Mai with her hair going in all directions and some few bruises here and there.

Hurriedly, she went to Mai's side "What happened?"

"Aya and I talked with our fists, that's what happened" Mai answered and dropped onto Lady's bed.

"Wait, what?"

"Yes, I wanted to know what her evil scheme was and the only way to do that was to fight with her" Mai clarified.

"I really don't get you, why should fight when you could have just used your power or something" Lady shook her head "Now look at you all battered up"

"My dear friend, not everything requires a spell or power, sometimes you have to use to use some brains and brawns" Mai sat up " You think Aya would have just stand there for me to use my power on her?" She paused "No right?"

Lady nodded.

"So I took the easiest and less pretentious way, Aya always let's her guard down when she fights especially when she feels overpowered, so I took advantage of that to dive into her mind" she continued.

Lady laughed "Isn't it sheer stupor to let your mental guard down when in a fight?"

"It's easier said than done, fighting and controlling your mind is one heck of a big deal, besides, Aya prides herself with the notion that she is the goddess of combat, which is true by the way so she believes she has the upper hand in battles" Mai rolled her eyes and exhaled.

"So did you get what you were looking for?"

"Yes, I did but since Amira has been doing the major work I couldn't everything though I got something important all the same" Mai answered.

"And what would that be?" Lady asked.

"Amira distracted the Prince so Aya could get a strand of his hair" Mai stated.

"What?" Lady frowned "Why would they need Vesi's hair?"

"That is something I'm also trying to figure out and I know they are up to no good with the hair that they got" Mai sighed.

"Yes, I agree"

"I don't know but I have this weird feeling that they are going to use it against you" Mai rubbed her temples.

"Really?" Lady raised an eyebrow "And what makes you so sure, maybe they are just using it to fight against your rule or maybe against the royal family?"

"No Lady" Mai started "Whatever I feel deep down is always right, it's one of my perks as the goddess of creation, just as you humans get a gut feeling sometimes, I also do. That characteristic was given to humans by me"

"Hmmm" Lady sighed convinced "So what do we do now?"

"We have to prepare for anything at all, things are just about to take a drastic turn but I'm afraid it is only the beginning of a possible end" Mai replied.

Lady paled and swallowed nervously but nodded nonetheless, she had signed up for this after all when she accepted being the Makri.