Betrayal

Since found, Yeongsin (named after kingdom of Yeoson's wind god) has been Adara's shadow wherever she went. The Council went surprisingly warm in accepting it as Adara's companion given its one of its kind and that the bird is of Celestial origin. The only problem was its diet and size. Yeongsin grew exceptionally huge day by day and within a couple of years, she became full-grown about fifty feet tall. Therefore it mostly stays away from the residential area and keeps only to the forests within the Community with seldom flying over the borders to hunt. It has a strange mind connection with Adara as whenever she needed; Yeongsin would appear in front of her. Adara since then has been riding it to hunts as Yeongsin can fly above the clouds making it a perfect stealth for them both. The first ride was a little difficult for Adara as she was yet to adjust to climb on her back and to stay controlled where she has to clutch on its feathers to avoid falling off. Once she did fall off but Yeongsin being the loyal protector caught her with her huge feet clutching Adara safely between its talons and bringing her down on the ground. Since Adara has refused to put any bridle on Yeongsin both has to fly a lot before becoming comfortable.

That day when the friends got together for their night out in the woods they found Yeongsin by the cliff lying down. Seeing Adara it gave out a mild screech to express its happiness to see her. The four friends settled down by the rocks near Yeongsin by the cliff which looks over the two ranges of the mountain that borders Tianxia and Yeoson. Dilara and Mongmit gathered a bunch of dried sticks and branches and Adara casted a fire spell to light it up creating a bonfire. They chatted and gossiped of a while. The sky was clear with a few stars. The valleys of Tianxia and Yeoson looked mysterious during the night.

Yanvi said, "Do you think we will be able to go to these kingdoms some day? Because I really want to, just reading about them in the lessons is just not satisfying."

Yanvi was more like Adara in nature. They both share the same enthusiasm of travelling and experiencing new places. But Mongmit and Dilara do not like such things. Especially Mongmit being a little introvert prefers to stay within the community and rarely ventured out. In the meantime Yeongsin came and sat behind Adara, who stretched herself on her soft feathers. Answering to Yanvi's statement about visiting other kingdoms Adara exclaimed,

"Tell me about it Yan. So do I, but Baba won't even let me go hunting without a group let alone going across the borders", Adara sulked.

Suddenly the message trinket Adara made along with Daksh sometimes back glowed. They both have one with each other for whenever they need to communicate or call each other. Pretending to stretch out after sitting for long she stepped aside towards the cliff and responded to the message. Daksh somehow came to know about their night out plan and decided to follow Adara for a possible meeting with her alone, something which Adara too wanted, which she regretted later.

"Hey guys, I hate to tell you people that one my juniors need some help with vitomancy and I completely forgot about it. Actually his mother asked me to tutor and train her so I have to leave to meet her" Adara said.

"Whoa we planned to spend the night. Why suddenly you are leaving?" Mongmit exclaimed.

"I know but you see it will be disrespectful towards her mother's request otherwise I would have stayed." Adara lied convincingly.

"Ok then let me walk you till the edge of the forest" Mongmit said and was about to get up.

But Adara stopped her, "Oiii no need just stay you guys I'll take Yeongsin with me. She will drop me off by the town."

Saying this Adara bid them goodbye and they reluctantly let her go. Adara swiftly mounted Yeongsin who carefully stood and spread her huge wings and took off from the cliff into the sky flying towards the Tianxia-Shrughnan border before turning towards the community town.

Unbeknownst to Adara this rare scene caught the eye of a person who secretly camped on a cliff on the border in Tianxian territory overlooking the Shrughnan Mountain. The guy had a slender build with slanting yet piercing eyes and thick sword-shaped eyebrows. His shoulder-length dark brown hair was unruly and wavy and was in a half-up small ponytail with a few locks covering his temples. His skin was pale white with an oval long face and an exceptionally long neck with a distinct Adam's apple. He looked haggard with fine spots on his facial skin, yet was strangely handsome. He stood with one of his hands supported on a tree trunk and a wine gourd jar in the other. Dressed in typical Tianxiaian swordsman fighter clothing, with a double-edged sword and a dart rope clinging on his leather belt, he saw the rare scene and flashed a lopsided smile mixed with surprise and intrigue.

"Unbelievable! It's a Shrughnan shyenagaru. I wish I had one, 'Lucky Shrughnan'" he said directing to the faraway person who just rode it and flew off.

His visual indulgence of such a rare sight was abruptly intervened by a person's voice behind him.

"Yi gege, it is time. Let's go" he said.

He glanced once more towards the cliff before parting away with his companion into the dense forest.

Adara landed at the edge of the forest onto a meadow which separates the forest from the city. Yeongsin scooped down for her to get down on the ground. Adara turned towards her ride and said, "Yeong, stay okk. We might need you."

To this Yeongsin lightly nodded. From a distance Daksh approached and Yeongsin became alert of its natural instinct to be on guard for Adara around strangers. Daksh became nervous but Adara managed the situation by calming Yeongsin down.

"It is alright Yeong, he won't hurt me."

Sensing that Adara is comfortable and not scared Yeongsin calmed down. Daksh asked her,

"I thought your friends won't let you go. I am sorry but I wanted to meet you and talk"

"It's alright. Shall we go somewhere then? How about a place where no one would disturb since we stealthily agreed to meet?" Adara said.

"I am good but do we have to fly over there?" Daksh asked

"Don't worry you will be fine. Yeongsin is very capable of handling her rider".

They both mounted Yeongsin with Daksh being extremely nervous. He sat behind Adara and while Yeongsin took off under Adara's command he spontaneously grabbed her waist. A whip of lotus flower fragrance hit his nose as he came closer to Adara and he can't help but indulge even more into it. Yeongsin flew high above the clouds as Adara directed to avoid being spotted and after a few minutes they landed near a rocky place at the edge of the forest near the slopes towards Shrughnan plains.

"Wow! I have never been to this place before. The view is mesmerizing" Daksh was awestruck.

The rocky place overlooks the Shrughnan plains and as it was night time the whole place was twinkling with lights from the towns and villages down. This scene was quite the opposite of the Tianxia and Yeoson's border area where the four friends were camping, which was pitch black because of the mountain ranges covered by dense forest. Adara turned towards Yeongsin and commanded her to go as she assured her that she is safe here with Daksh and she spread her wings and took off swooping down towards the valley plains.

Both sat on a rock under the clear sky and started chatting with Daksh telling her how they ended up here in the Mountain Community. He talked about how narrowly his family escaped without getting killed by the raid and that since then he had this deep anger towards the present ruler. This reminisce took Adara back to the day she remembers as to how her life completely changed and she lost all her family members. The truth of who she really was is only known to Mongmit. For good reason her father Shera strictly concealed the truth and Adara being old enough during that time to understand the risks concealed her identity as well. After all she gradually realized that a commoner life wasn't that bad.

Daksh kept talking about his views about life and the experiences he faced and revealed that he considers power as the ultimate weapon to survive. Emotions can cloud judgments making life harder. However this was a complete different notion to Adara's outlook. So she blatantly said that emotions to her are as important as power. For her power can let you achieve certain things in life but love and emotions is what keeps you human. While engrossed in such deep talking them both suddenly realized that they have come very close to each other with Adara practically sitting in Daksh's embrace. Conscious about their closeness they became more alert and attracted towards each other. Finally, when their feelings reached the saturation point they could not avoid but to share kiss. The first kiss was short and more like a peck. However, almost immediately they went back kissing each other, which were now deep and more sensuous and went on for a long time. After they parted a sense of shyness arose in Adara who was about to look away but was grabbed by Daksh to keep facing him.

He took deep breaths and with a heavy voice holding Adara's face in his palms he asked, "So you don't like power?"

Adara keeping her gaze down answered, "No. I don't at least not as a priority for life."

With that answer something strange swept over Daksh body and he went down to kiss her ferociously which Adara reciprocated. Daksh kept drowning in the lotus fragrance Adara gave off deepening the kiss even more. Like this they spent almost the entire night together and at dawn Adara and Daksh sneakily returned to their homes. For the next few months they kept on meeting each other. They used to meet frequently and were much like those lovey-dovey couples. But somewhere Adara felt that something was missing. She herself was not sure of her feelings at the start. But slowly without even realizing she fell so deeply for him that even she was bewildered. This turned into a vicious whirlpool of self-hate and loathing when things went terribly wrong. She hated for the fact that there were glaring red flags and this relationship was not what it should be. The person she thought was humble, righteous and loyal turned out to be extremely disrespectful, un-loyal and uncaring towards her. Gradually she realized that her preferences and wishes didn't matter and even realizing this truth she helplessly gave in to Daksh's every wish and even cancelling her friends' plans or her own. The first time she realized this truth was during the time they were about to leave for a hunt which was about to take a few days. It was to a small province to the northwest of Shrughna where reports have been received that many young men are being mysteriously killed with all the life force sucked out of them leaving just a dry corpse. Since the province was a little far away from the Mountain Sect the group decided that it will take them at least a week to investigate and deal with the problem. So since Adara was close to complete her formal training she was assigned to almost every important mission. This one came after a couple of months she and Daksh entered into the relationship. She told her about the mission and that she has to leave a day later and when the time came for their departure she asked Daksh to meet to see her off as it will be a week that they won't be able see each other.

"Why should I come to see you off?? You can go on your own what is the big deal" Daksh blatantly said before leaving the training grounds. Adara never considered the fact that he would be so cold to her, who valued emotions and feelings above anything, and found it normal between two people who like each other to see off while the other is going anywhere. As a result she was a bit shocked and disappointed and left with the group. Yet still she brushed off the feeling thinking that it is fine for people to have different preferences. Her self-dignity and respect kept on getting bludgeoned under this toxic relationship. The hunt proved to be another milestone for Adara's skills as an aura. After coming back, to her utter shock and surprise Daksh never made an attempt to meet up or enquire about her return or how the hunt went or whether she was alright. While reeling under this thought she suddenly came to realization that since the beginning of their relationship it was Adara who always made effort to meet or enquire to keep the communication going on. If she ever could not be able to do that there were little to no effort on behalf of Daksh to communicate or meet. With this realization she decided to be headstrong and not contact him to see if he does it or not. But her hopes were crashed again when even after three days passed Daksh never tried to contact her. It was as if she doesn't even exist for him. Adara eventually gave in to her weakness and ended up contacting him. She asked him why he hasn't contacted her when he knew that the group was back for three days now, to which he replied,

"I was a little busy with training the young auras and also one of my friends is getting married so he threw a party for us. And what is the big deal you eventually came to me. Why create unnecessary issue out of this trivial matter."

Adara felt a surging anger rise within her and snapped back at him, "So I don't matter to you? Our relationship doesn't matter? You don't care about how I am doing or not right?"

"Oh please stop. You always become aggressive like this" Daksh argued back.

"Really? Have I now? Okk fine don't talk to me or contact me anymore", saying that Adara left.

To her more surprise and disappointment Daksh really didn't talk or contact her for the next one week. And yet again Adara succumbed to her feelings for him and ended up talking to him.

This thing went on for over a year until that fated person came into Adara's life. Mongmit always disliked Daksh and always tried to reason with Adara to not to succumb to her feelings disregarding her value and self-respect. For Adara it proved to be particularly hard because her feelings were so deep that she couldn't shake it off. Even when things were toxic between them Adara can never actually convince other people, who by this time has already knew about the relationship since they were seen many times together hanging out. Because behavior wise Daksh was perfect. Also he was never was physically abusive towards her. Even when they made love he never forced himself on Adara or proceeded without her consent. In spite of that the mental trauma and disrespect he inflicted upon her was nothing less than any physical trauma. Adara was actually never happy or content in true sense in that relationship. The feeling of being loved and wanted was never there. Daksh never said that he loved her rather he blatantly told her that it was not possible for him to promise a future for the relationship as his family has a conservative mindset and will only accept a girl from their own province. Still, Adara couldn't let him go and stayed in the uncertain relationship. Just when this couldn't get any bad for her Adara started noticing more changes in Daksh. Now he blatantly refuses to even meet citing flimsy reasons. Adara has another quality which proved to very useful to her at times. It was intuition; and right that time her intuition told her something sinister is going with Daksh. To her horror it turned out to be true. Daksh have been cheating on her with another girl from Mongmit's tribe community. The affair started after one year of their relationship. The magical message trinket which Adara had made went answered most of the time. Adara became impatient and started to probe about what was going on. She soon found out about the girl and took Mongmit's help to find what exactly happened. One evening they finally met and what she found out took away the last remaining respect for Daksh. She first confronted the girl and asked her to explain what is going on. Turns out Daksh even lied to her about not being in any relationship and that they even slept together on multiple occasions. Not just that; the girl herself was in a relationship which was going through a tough time as well. So she just went along with Daksh after he confessed that he was in love with her, something he never expressed to Adara. The girl said that she never confessed that she was in love with Daksh and that she needed a break from her troubled relationship that's why she went along with him.

After this meeting Adara slipped into a terrible depression. The heartbreak was just too much for her. The revelation of this ugly truth was so overwhelming for her that she started running away towards the forest. She ran and ran alone in the night to that same spot where she and her three friends spent night outs. She reached there started crying uncontrollably. Yeongsin being spiritually connected with her rider soon came swooping down from somewhere and landed beside Adara. A distraught Adara saw her most trusted companion and ran and hugged her from the front. Since Yeongsin was huge and Adara looked a tiny doll grabbing her huge frontal belly. She slowly opened her wings to cover Adara in a warm embrace and gently sat down.

Adara wept inconsolably hugging Yeongsin and said, "You never left my side, always protected me, yet I ignored even you Yeong. Can you please forgive me?"

Yeongsin brought her wings even tighter to show that she doesn't hold it against Adara. They stayed like this for a long time and after Adara calmed down Yeongsin flew with her and dropped her near her home by the lake. Councilman Shera has noticed Adara for the past few days so he confronted her as soon as she returned.

"Where have you been? It's a little late don't you think?" he asked

"Ohhh, Baba, I was with Yeongsin by the edge of the forest, just wanted to clear my head. Sorry for the trouble. It won't happen again" saying this Adara was about to leave when Shera stopped her again and asked,

"It's about Daksh, right? "

Adara was shocked that he knew about it. But being a father how couldn't he?

"I might not have given birth to you beta but I did bring you up like my own flesh and blood. You thought I cannot see when my daughter is hurt?"

Adara broke down into tears and hugged the man who brought her up with all the love she deserved, who never made her feel that in reality, she was an orphan. Seeing Adara's miserable condition Shera's heart wrenched in pain and he comforted her.

"I will talk to the councilman about this. He should know what his son is up to", Shera angrily said.

"No, Baba, don't. This pain is mine to deal with so I will talk to Daksh. Promise me you will not say anything to anyone. You have raised me to be a strong person. Please have faith in me and let me prove to you that you have not failed" saying this Adara left for her room.

But her condition worsened. She stopped eating, practicing her martial arts, and even refused to meet her friends. Her only solace was to go on a ride with Yeongsin. Finally one day she left a message through the message trinket to Daksh that she wants to meet him urgently and asked him to dare not to refuse because she knows everything about his infidelity. After a long time, Daksh promptly replied to her agreeing to meet. She asked him to meet him at the same spot they met for the first time.

That evening Adara reached the rocky spot they met for the first time. Yeongsin stayed by her side this time even after Adara asked her to leave because she knew that Adara needed her. Daksh arrived on his horse sometime later.

"Ok, you wanted to talk?" Daksh said with a tinge of nervousness in his voice.

"Why did you do it? Why did you sleep with her knowing that we were in a relationship?" Adara coldly asked

"I was confused. I didn't want to hurt you." Daksh said

"And yet you did. You made me into a joke. You told people that it was I who chased after you and that you were not interested in this relationship." Adara snapped back

"Isn't that true to some extent? You saw how I hardly ever took the initiative to get connected to you or meet. You could have taken a hint by that" Daksh shamelessly answered.

"Well yeah that you did, but you sure enjoyed sleeping with me and never missed one opportunity on that. You have a lot of nerve blaming me right now, do you?" Adara said, starting to lose her temper.

"Not only that you were shameless enough to sleep simultaneously with both of us. Why did you do that?" Adara asked, this time with a strong and louder voice.

Daksh got startled and hastily answered, "Well she is my girlfriend so I will sleep with her obviously."

This shameless blatant statement broke the remaining control Adara was holding onto. She landed a tight slap on his face the moment he finished his sentence. Daksh was dumbfounded. He shakily said,

"How dare you slap me?"

To this Adara landed another slap on his face which made Daksh break down crying.

"How could you slap me? How could you?"

"Because I can and have the very right to", Adara screamed.

"That girl was with you to take a break from her boyfriend. And you slept with her not only knowing this but also you never broke up with me. So yes, as your girlfriend, I have every right to slap you left right, and center you filthy creature. Now get lost or else you know what Yeongsin can do to you with just one command from me."

Saying this Adara turned towards Yeongsin to leave. At that moment Daksh got up and the humiliation he just faced angered him so much that he spontaneously threw a water-drowning charm toward Adara as his element of power was water. Adara got hit by it with a bulk of water surrounding her that started to choke her as if she was drowning. For the fact that such despicability came from the person she genuinely loved from the bottom of her heart snapped her and the emotions surged in the form of power within her. Suddenly, out of nowhere she brought forth a fire charm and with a whip of her hand controlled the wind that was blowing. The combination of these two powers created a tuft of hot air around her evaporating the water and destroying the water charm. Yeongsin flapped her wings in anger toward Daksh but Adara had strictly ordered her not to intervene.

With the shocking scene unfolding both Adara and Daksh were dumbstruck. Daksh blurted out spontaneously out of shock, "Youuu…you can control wind too? Your element of power is fire and I heard you controlled the mind years back and now wind? How many elements can you control?"

Adara, herself driven shocked by the incident and disgusted towards the person in front of her, cast a glance at him before turning back to leave with Yeongsin.

'Yeong, can we fly a little before heading back home?" Adara sadly asked for her ride.

Yeongsin gave out a little shriek letting her know that whatever Adara needs she is there for her. She flew soundlessly towards the other side of the mountain and went up a little higher where the wind was cooler and smooth. Yeongsin flew along the Shrughnan and Tianxia border while keeping within the former. Adara rested her head on Yeongsin's back in a half-sit and lying position. Tears rolled down her eyes and with the wind brushing on her face she felt the places of her face where the tears rolled, turn cold. Her jet-black waist-length hair was flowing. Yeongsin kept her pace steady and not so fast. The weather was clear that night and with the moon shining with its full vigor, the surroundings were more visible than on normal nights. Due to the moon's bright shining light, anything flying in the sky was clearly visible from the ground as well. Adara was so drowned in her own heartbreak that she was too uninterested to pay attention to anything and thus totally missed the person who not only spotted her but started to ride his black stallion trotting side by side on the ground.

"Well hello, again 'lucky Shrughnan'! Or should I say 'lucky lady Shrughnan" he said to himself before starting to trot side by side with her.

With a similar faint smirk on his face, the person rode on the tiny forest path by the mountain edge alongside Adara, his eyes not leaving her for even a second. There was inquisitiveness; unknown admiration and a little impressiveness in that haggard handsome face so much, that it prompted him to leave his camp and follow this Shrughnan stranger who has created an invisible pull in him since the first day he saw her. It was quite strange that in spite of not knowing what she looked like or who she exactly was he felt this way. He is very popular among women and has slept and been with many, but was always cold and heartless towards them. But this stranger whose face is still unknown to him stirred up something unexplainable in him. The first time he couldn't figure out the gender of the rider but today he can clearly identify that thanks to the shining moonlight. But soon the shyenagaru turned towards Shrughna which prompted the rider to stop. He stayed where he stopped, staring at the gradually flying away sheynagaru with the mysterious lady riding it. He so wished that he could at least see her face but the distance between them made it impossible even with the strong moonlight shining through.

"Zài jiàn!" he uttered and smiled before riding back to his camp.