2 Chapter 2. The Beginning of Yuliah Ib.

The Ethereal Spirit destroyed my world. It started as a strange disturbance that came in the night shaking the grounds and scaring everyone. There was not a Kingdom or person who did not feel its arrival. As the ground shook through the night, everyone thought they were going to die, but when daylight came, they were still alive happy but worried and confused as to where this unexplainable disturbance came from. Not a single Kingdom could figure out where it was coming from even after they formed the Council that gathered the brightest minds across the Lands together; they still could not figure out where the disturbance came from.

These disturbances continued for many years eventually people got used to the ground quaking but then a crackling sound followed the quakes, and this started to worry everyone because it sounded like bolts of lightning were being thrown from the sky and they were exploding right next to you. It was hard to ignore. This quaking and crackling would happen several times throughout the day and into the night, lasting only briefly but long enough to unnerve people. Then it became so constant that the ground appeared as though it would burst open.

Until one day it happened the ground finally tore open in the northern territories cutting off the North entirely from the rest of the world. No one could get in or out of the North because where the ground tore open a Forest formed and from inside the Forest came an Ethereal Spirit, but it was dark and twisted bent on devouring everything it touched. It brought with it magic, monsters, beings that look like Men, and beasts; Men had never seen before. They spilled onto our lands killing thousands of people and destroying entire Kingdoms and with the fall of the Kingdoms came anarchy and chaos. By this time Men were not only fighting against the things from the Dark Forest but also each other until they almost died off as a race.

That's when they came, a race of beings similar to Men but more intelligent, stronger, and with greater agility who willed the power of the Ethereal Spirit and with that power they helped Men bring some order back to their lands. By the time I was born the North had already reestablished its Kingdom and what used to be the five Kingdoms full of different races of Man now became just the one Kingdom known as Vane with a blended raced of Man.

This Kingdom is where I was born, raised, and also being forced to get married to a Man I despise entirely and hate. I decided tonight I would go and try to talk to my Father about ending my engagement to Liang my fiance. I waited until my Father came home, had dinner, and retreated to his private room before I went to see him. He was sitting at his desk looking through a pile of letters when I let myself in.

"I can't marry Liang. It doesn't feel right." I tell him, but he acts as though he didn't hear me and continued looking through the pile of letters on his desk.

"Is that what you've come to see me about?" Finally, lifting his head to look at me.

"Yes, you know how I feel about this Kingdom and Liang. It oppresses people, and the people oppress each other! I can't stay here; I'm suffocating can't you see that?"

"Then what do you want me to do about your emotions that you can't control?" His sigh was loud and deep that's how you knew he was annoyed of you. Then he goes back to the pile of letters on the desk and starts looking through them again wholly ignoring me.

I snap my head back, "Cancel the wedding that's what I want you to do!" My voice was turning into a high and pitchy tone now because I was angry and offended.

"You know I can't do that," he looks up at me briefly and then back to the letter in his hand.

I can feel my face burning hot, "Controlling Men and having no voice as a woman is why I hate this Kingdom. Women have no choice in who they marry or what they want to do with their lives. Everything is decided and controlled by Men, for once in my life I would like to make my own decisions."

As his tone of voice raises, he tells me that, "The King has arranged your marriage already, to defy his orders would be a death sentence to this family."

I walk closer to him my voice pleading, "Then let me leave quietly tonight. No one has to know."

"Where will you go? You know a woman is not allowed to leave the Kingdom on her own."

"Have Yujen go with me. I heard the Kingdom in the South allows women to choose their own life or even decide who they marry."

"Is this what all your fussing is about? You're marriage to Liang?"

I'm angry that he doesn't understand why I don't want to be married to Liang, "Do you even know what Liang does to me or how he treats me?"

"I've already talked to his Father. If you would stop refusing his love for you."

Before he could even finish his sentence, I cut him off, "Oh, so you'd rather pick them over me?"

"It's more complicated than that Yuliah. Did you think about the position you'd put me in or this family? When I say this family, it is not just you, me, and your step Mom. There's Yujen, our entire Wey clan, all my workers, soldiers, the men who pledge allegiance to me, and their families too!" his voice roaring towards me.

"Yes, it's always everyone else over your child," I scuffle at him.

"So where would you go then? You think there's a place for you out there!"

My emotions have been on edge lately being forced to marry Liang and all, and I was getting very tired of everyone telling me what a great Man Liang was and how fortunate I was, but no one knows him as I do. Under all this stress I let my emotions get the best of me and scream at my Father, "So stay here and be Liang's bitch!" My eyes were bulging as I walk closer towards my Fathers desk. Am I this unimportant to him that he won't even look at me! I grab the stack of letters from his hands throwing them on the table. "Do you even know what he's doing right now? He's out in your stables fucking my friend Gao!"

He slowly gets up and delivers an open-handed slap to my face. "Is that how I taught you to speak and behave?"

I stare blankly at him but still managed to utter, "No," as my eyes start to turn watery and I place a hand to sooth the stinging sensation across my cheek. He had never hit me before but now he does, and he was being exactly like Liang, beat me when I don't obey him. The Kingdom of Vane has always been backward about woman's rights that's why I hate living here and the Men too. I turn around to leave, but I wanted to hurt him just like he did me, "You taught me," as my voice trembles, "You taught me that you couldn't protect me like how you couldn't protect my Mother."

The veins on General Wey's head bulge and his jaw tighten. "Yes, your right I can't protect you or your Mother! You know why! Because you both have bad blood!"

I turn around to look at him disgusted.

His voice rings across the room even though I'm only a few paces away from him. "You have the same blood just like your Mother, that bad blood that'll bring dangerous things in the night! Go! Go and see what hunts your bad blood! You can't even imagine!"

"What did my dead Mother's blood have to do with this?" I shake my head at him, "Why did you even get married to her if she was this terrible? Or better yet why didn't you just let me die along with her! It's better than living here!"

General Wey could feel his own eyes starting to burn. This girl has always been as willful as her Mother; it was a bad thing to be in this part of the Lands. Men here don't treat women like Yuliah and her Mother with much tolerance. He turned to look at the painting behind him so that Yuliah could not see his tears forming because he felt weak knowing he could not protect his daughter or wife. The painting was of Yuliah's Mother, he thought about how much he missed her Mother as more moisture filled his eyes. He wanted things to be different with Yuliah's Mother but it wasn't and dwelling in the past would only create more pain. Why didn't Yuliah come to him sooner? If he had known about Liang sooner things could have been different for Yuliah, but it was too late now.

"I can't believe you are my Father," I shake my head at him and storm out making sure I slam his door extra hard.

He turns around and sees Yuliah storming out as an eerie feeling sets in, a feeling that this may be the last time he'd see her again. Brushing it off as anger and her leaving soon to get married, General Wey turns back around to look at the painting hanging on the wall. Pushing the painting aside to reveal a secret compartment from which he pulls out a small box. It's a tiny box adorned with jewels and two crimson birds — jewels not seen in these lands. He opens up the box and inside sits an amethyst ring.