Chapter 8: Poison Sect Stage

Count Samuel Gerald served as the aid to the second prince. By diplomatic necessity, the first prince had to marry abroad. This meant that the second prince was a key piece in rising the power of most noble families. However, the second prince was instead tied to the Lockheed duchy, a trade on part of the royal family. Tying the two meant that the royal family gained influence on the affairs of the Lockheed's, and the duke in turn gained legitimization of his half noble daughter. They had hoped for more, but the former duchess was so scorned by the duke, that influence was the best the royals could hope for.

"To think that someone that is engaged to the royal family would harbor such a fugitive." Count Gerald was acting count, serving as the aide to the second prince. He had just reached the age of majority and was transition from heir to induction as the new count of Gerald lands. Despite his young age he was sharp enough to know why he was called instead of anyone else.

"Are you insistent that Lady Lockheed will be remanded to the imperial palace? The 'education' is quite strict." Though well hidden, it was known to a few that the second prince got carried away. It was also known that the second prince had no desire to marry Valentine Lockheed, daughter of Countess Lectica.

"Prince Able is also does not desire to marry someone so easily swept away and would be quite demanding."

"I have done what I can for my daughter. Since it was found that she needs an outside hand, it was all I could do as a father to see that she gets the best care possible." What utter contempt. A father, even the count knows that the man was never one to Lady Lockheed. This entire affair was just an excuse to shove his troublesome daughter out of his house, in a way that wouldn't make him look bad. With no home to return to and ruin and disgrace shrouding her, the second prince was given free reign to do whatever he wished to a young girl.

That would teach the women to try and be an heir.

"You're interrupting my afternoon." Lady Valentine had just walked into the empty door frames, it stood to reason that it took more than two hours to make new doors. Count Gerald was surprised but refused to look it.

"Pack your things, the imperial palace has agreed to oversee your education for being married to the second prince." Barking orders was something nobles did by default, it always unglued them when they weren't followed.

"Education?" Valentine was irritated, she was only seven chapters into her new book. These impudent upstarts dare bother the 12th elder of bladeless sect when she's reading.

"Becoming part of the royal family is no small burden. It's necessary that Prince Able will have to take charge of you to ensure that there are no disgraces." Count Gerald said, full of arrogance and contemn. Valentine paused for several long moments.

The girl had changed out of the stuffy dress into some of the martial clothes that Iris had brought. An emerald trimmed robe crossed over her chest with a dark belt. She had an elder's coat over the simple slacks. White with her sect's name and elder position inscribed on the back in characters of the martial realm. Her red curls and sparking eyes stood out, not a hint of the old quite lady that almost never spoke.

The count had been shocked to see her standing with such confidence, her outfit would get her laughed out of high society. Unfortunately, the quiet noble lady was fantasying how to brutalize the two men in front of her. He had known the girl as a quite person, who would greet as required than often say nothing. It was beyond him to think that she could ever change. Yet once again after a few words-

"No, Iris and I are having a quiet afternoon with a new book and tea."

-She would be docile and agree.

Count Gerard rarely heard the word no, after between the prince and his own status, no one wanted to earn his ire. Her father finally turned around.

"This is why! Refusing to listen to your father! Consorting with commoners and love affairs with another women? No this is the only way to ensure that you can become a proper lady." His outburst was cold and reveled more than he would have wished.

"My, I was unaware that the heir to the duchy heir had fallen to such depravity. We simply must have escort her right away." Count Gerard was too gleeful to notice that he had angered a nascent soul cultivator. Things were not going as expected, but Duke Lockheed had given everything needed to secure the entire Lockheed family to the second princes bid for the throne.

"Are you courting death? I believe that's what Iris would say." Looking down at the man seated on the sofa, she once more went over the more painful ways she intends to harm him.

"I am doing nothing more than what is needed of me." Smirking arrogantly. "Sir Edwards, come get the lady! With how things went I have no trouble justifying the harsh treatment we will need to educate the lady. The duke will see to it that the servant girl who led her astray is-"

There were two things that the Bladeless sect was good at. One, hurting others with their hands and feet. Two, improvised weapons turned lethal weapons.

One didn't become an elder by being poor at both.

Snatching the count by the ankle she used him to smash the first guard that made it through the empty door frame. The second received the same. Letting the count fall with the pair who had been blown aside. Elder Valentine raised her palms.

Ghost Steel, thousand-year iron, fire cracked tungsten would have been too hard to simply bash through, common steel? No resistance as she kneed the next armored man in the sternum, shattering it. Extending her heal destroyed the visor on the next. The last two of the six took a moment to round the door frame, and received a pair of open palm strikes, catapulting them into and out of the corridor, by the far wall.

"If you have any thing to say it can wait until tomorrow, I'm having a quite afternoon with Master Iris." Flicking her curls aside she left the open-mouthed duke speechless. After a moment the guard fell from the bookshelf to clatter in an otherwise silent room.

!@# !@# !@#

Iris didn't mind recounting old stories, but it was hard to make exciting the hours spent in a wooden ball hanging like a cherry. There had been more to the exact story, so she gave a brief recount of the conversation between the Poison sect leaders father and daughter.

"What is wrong with you daughter! Why would you kidnap someone you don't know!"

"Bub-but, daddy isn't it mean to kidnap someone you do know?

"Aw how thoughtful of my daughter…Don't kidnap people at all!"

"Sniff- daddy is being so loud…I just wanted to help with the flame ceremony. I, I wanted to do my part."

"Its ok my daughter, there there. No need to cry, just run along back to your room, Ill take care of it all."

"All right, ill trust the best daddy in the world!"

Suisho Tangee was a spoiled brat. Her father, being the sect leader, and the natural isolation meant that even a crime was overlooked. It would have been an issue, but the girl had a rare physique the Mad Lords Rampage. It conveyed a natural immunity to a hundred poisons, perfect for a sect that practiced poison arts.

"I just wanted to help." Suisho griped, clutching a large plush carnivorous flower pillow. Her room was wooden but coved with stuffed toys and pinks like the princess she had wished to be. With long legs, generous chest, slim cheeks, and high brows made her one of the most elegant ladies in the whole sect. It also meant that she was seen as a cold ice woman, rather than the cute, adorable princess who everyone loved. Her mother had always made her feel like she was the most special little girl and her father had embraced the idea as well.

"I shouldn't have called her sacrifice, she was so, so," Iris was shorter a bit broader but on the stockier side. In time when she filled out, she would be a taller women who would stand proud as one of the ten great masters, but for now she was, was,

"What am I saying?!" Flushed Suisho couldn't finish her thought.

Iris had been freed and was currently walking with an outer disciple of the sect. Most of the area for the disciples were public spaces, so an outsider wandering about wasn't an issue. If she stayed out of the groves, she was free to act as any outer disciple would. Wandering around it seemed that the outer cultivation ranks were in the low ranks of the foundation stage. The scale of the decking and construction indicated a large sect so the Sect leader must be a nascent ranked cultivator. The girl who hogtied her had been about the same as her, mid ranked foundation period.

"Outer Disciples and travelers, please come closer for the history of the Sanguine Apple Blossom flames rebirth." A crier for the local stage was advertising for the upcoming ceremony.

"Rebirth?" Iris muttered to herself. The only thing she knew at this moment was that the flame existed somewhere in a vast wooded area. Taming an essences fire was also not an easy task.

"Might as well." Carefreely, she followed the crowed into an assembly area with a simple stage.

"Hear ye! In the days of mist and legend, when the peaks remained uncrowned, and the swamps never let prey go." Coming in from behind a small wooden screen, a thin tall elder projected his voice to the crowed commons.

"Last week, a traveler passed by. What a remarkable lady it was. Never in all the land had there been a something so round, so large, so perfectly shaped, in the history of all hindquarters. The lady however was so-" A stage hand had walked up whispered to the elder.

"Oh, its not the comedy show but the history." Stroking his beard. "Are we sure? I was about to get to the part where they find out it's a horse."

"Positive it's the Fire history? Well than it was in the days of three thousand years ago"

Flame formations and other events when something 'broke through a year barrier were the large events that made up the history of cultivation. Every time something gained a digit, going from zero to ten, ten to a hundred and so on it was accompanied by a breakthrough. The time passed was not important but rather the 'years' something gained. It was a standard based on how long something would take if it had no outside influence. If one gained insight or wisdom, energy from others, cosmic intervention or other means one could reduce the time it would take to become a thousand-year flame.

"The Apple blossom trees were numerous and many harvested and scavenged in this harsh environment for its sweet fruit." The storyteller continued.

"The beast and plants used the trees as bait to feed themselves. The left-over offal was left to rot and feed the apples that brought man here. Despite being held sovereign by the forest, a single tree grew in the shadow of the great oaks of the center jungle. It bore a single fruit, but its location meant none would taste it. Left with no option, it slowly grew roots along the paths carved by greater trees."

With his sentences he would make gestures, mimic trees, adding symbols to his narrative. Iris found it endearing, wondering if she could do the same one day.

"The years past and the roots slowly spread to the whole forest, and when the day was right it began to grow its one single fruit. It was not unnoticed; the whole forest could tell something was drawing its strength from the wood. Even beyond those on the outskirts were aware that something large was to happen. War. War was the only option when so many wanted to covet something yet knew not what it truly was worth."

"Blood, glittering rubies splattered in fell. As men stormed the sanctum of the great oaks they were felled by the true majesties of the wood. The plants fought and burned; sap drizzled as it oozed from the destroyed vines. Life qi and blood seeped across the whole of the forest and into the shadow of the apple tree. Dyed crimson the tree roared to life claiming sovereignty in the fiery mess. As it did the cynosure of an essences flame took root. It was the largest ever to be as it encompassed the whole tree."

"Eruptions occurred, the vines and roots withered, and the forest went wild, from the very heavens tribulations, the heart of the apple blossom sanguine flame was born, and with it, the true form."

True forms were important, Iris knew that the only way to draw an essence flame into your heart was to capture its true form, and hope it didn't destroy you, conflagrating from within.

"In present time every one hundred years the flower rebirths itself. Soon, to coax it from the roots a sacrifice of blood is made. A pine boar normally. It is at that time the ceremony to honor the flame is held by the Poisson Blade sect. This time in a few days the daughter of the sect leader will attempt to claim the fire for herself, as each sect leader had done before."

So that was what this sacrifice was about, they wanted to replace a boar with her. She was certainly going to get even at some point with the leggy tart that put her in the cell.

"Be wary however." Gravely words of warning came from the storywright on stage. "Despite being the newest of fires, many covet it, warry that it means to make an enemy of the poison sect for life to interrupt such a sacred ritual."