Shards of the Broken Heart

The next day, I woke up early in the morning. I opened my eyes and saw my sister sleeping beside me with her hand on my chest. Her eyes were closed, but her expression wasn’t of cheerfulness. There was some amount of sternness in her tender face.

I looked at my scar-marked chest and understood the reason somewhat. There was no need to hide these scars from Alice. And it was better for her to be much more determined in her fights. But still, I wished she could retain her cheery and bubbly nature even after overcoming those hardships.

I stayed lying on the bed for a few minutes, looking at her face. I combed the locks of her hair, which were tickling her face, tucking them at the back of her ear.

After having looked at her face for a long time, I gently removed her hand from me and got up from the bed. I then covered the sheets over Alice. Feeling the warmth of the sheets, she huddled closer in them. I washed my face and went outside the inn to stroll a little.

I had many thoughts that were swirling inside my mind. After getting the visions inside the Turquoise Realm, I started perceiving others not only through my senses and intuitions but also through some ‘colours’.

These colours were not visible to me, but I felt that every person had a mix of a particular set of colours. I could feel these colours and understood some thoughts of the others. A good example would be Alice. Before getting the carriage, Alice had cheerful, bubbly and happy colours, but after getting the carriage, there was a tint of annoyed colour.

And this morning, she had lost the cheerfulness colour by a small but significant amount, and a good amount of resoluteness colour had emerged. Many other colours were present in her, but I couldn’t sense them. Similarly, I had also perceived a few colours from the crown prince.

But the main issue was that there was a dark colour present at the core of my sister. This colour was not like the other colours present in her body. Other colours had an attractive effect on me, but this dark colour repulsed me greatly.

After sensing this colour, I felt like I couldn’t give Alice my unconditional love. The more I focused on that colour, the more my feelings towards her became chaotic. Sometimes, I felt some amount of hate towards her, and the reason for this hate was still unfounded.

I walked around the streets near the inn. It was very early in the morning, and the sun had just started rising. A few people could be seen moving here and there. According to their apparel, most of them were servants who were probably going to market to get fresh ingredients for their respective residences.

I could sense a small amount of their colours, too. Some were radiating happiness colour, a few were depressed, and another few were angry. Their swirling colours matched the expressions on their faces, too. But I never felt the contrasting sense of colours exuding from them, just like I felt from Alice.

I walked around for about an hour, feeling and comprehending the meaning of the colours exuded by the various people. When I thought I had enough understanding, I returned to the inn.

Alice was still sleeping. I could now distinguish the colours more efficiently, and the effect of the dark colour also diminished. But still, it was potent enough to warp my emotions towards my sister. I shifted my attention away from that colour.

Until I got more details about this newfound ability, I decided not to fully trust and use it. I had sufficient experience now to will myself stop seeing the colour of the people. So the colours on Alice faded away after I willed them to.

I walked to the bed and looked at my sister’s sleeping face. Now, I could only see her gentle expression with some sternness mixed in it. I didn’t feel any aversion towards her like before, to which I was pretty grateful. I woke her up after shaking her gently for a little time.

Alice hadn’t appropriately slept during our journey, so she took her sweet time to wake up. After waking up, she freshened herself up while I meditated for a while. Afterwards, we went outside the inn to get a change of carriage from the carriage company branch of Stilpan.

Stilpan was different from the previous city. Although it was small in overall size, there were many people on the streets. These streets were filled with hawkers and merchants. The throngs of people gathered around the stalls to either buy goods or sell something of their own.

We made our way through the crowd and reached the carriage company branch. This branch was much more prominent in size when compared to the previous one. Many people were leaving the area with their own beast carriages. They were probably merchants. We went inside the building and specified our request to the receptionist.

In this branch, all the receptionists were young boys, which was quite unusual. Generally, women were preferred over men for the receptionist position as they were naturally polite and talented to guide the ones availing the services with less hassle. But here, all receptionists were young boys, clearly indicating the preference of this branch’s head.

The receptionist had a smile on his face and said.

“Dear customers. We indeed have a ‘Snow Frekin’ beast carriage available for renting. But as it is a one-of-a-kind carriage, I need the branch head’s permission. I will go to her right now and get her approval.”

After some time, the young receptionist returned with a voluptuous lady beside him. The lady had red hair and green eyes. She was wearing a low-neck dark green dress. Her long white legs flitted out of her dress whenever she moved. She was like an incarnation of any man’s desire.

She was the second most beautiful woman I had seen after my mother. She had a different appeal but still would be able to fight with my mother toe-to-toe in the beauty department.

Even I was absorbed into her allure for a second. I chased out these thoughts racing in my mind as soon as I could and regained my composure. The woman came before us and smiled. Although she smiled in a business-like demeanour, there was a seductive pull in her smile. She looked at both of us and then spoke.

“I am the head of the carriage company branch in Stilpan. My name is Anais Delara. You can call me by my name, Anais.”

Getting a polite introduction from her side, we also introduced ourselves and once again asked for the service of availing the ‘Snow Frekin’ carriage. The woman, Anais, listened to our request and put forward the conditions for the carriage.

“You see. Those little puppies are my precious darlings. I raised them up from when they were little. Their mother was killed, and they were hunted by humans. So only after taking care of them for many months, they started trusting me. And thus, we formed an irreplaceable bond between us. These puppies only listen to me and no one else. Therefore, every time, I have to accompany the ones availing their service. Also, there is no need to pay money if you can fulfil one of my requests. Otherwise, the cost of the service is about 2000 origin stones.”

Her conditions were satisfactory. I had sufficient capital of origin stones. Also, there was no issue if she were to travel with us. My intuition told me that this woman may seem seductive, but there was no malice in her. I tried to sense her colours and found they were the general mix an ordinary woman or girl would have.

She had kind and generous colours. There was a colour shifting in her in large quantity, and I felt the colour to be of perseverance. This colour stood out the most. I tried to check the colour at her core, but the only thing that I could know was that it didn’t repulse me. Other than that, I couldn’t determine anything else.

I looked at Alice, and she also agreed to the proposal. Just when we were going to finalise the deal, a group of yellow-robed men entered the building in a pompous manner. The man in the lead scanned the entire reception area only to focus on us. Who could he be besides his esteemed Royal Highness, the Crown Prince Walton?

He walked straight in the direction and looked at Alice before looking at the branch head, Anais. His eyes, which were discretely gazing at Alice earlier, were now hungrily devouring the woman. This time, he couldn’t hide his faux pas from the eyes of others. But with his thick skin, he deflected that and started talking with Anais.

“Can I get the name of this lovely maiden?”

His facial features were already outstanding, and with his confident temperament and slickness, any girl would have lost in his charms. But Anais was not some ‘any girl’. She had seen through the eyes of many men, and Prince Walton’s eyes were no different. She politely introduced herself with her professional demeanour.

“I am the head of the carriage company branch in Stilpan. My name is Anais Delara. You can call me as Miss Delara. Now, gentleman, how can I help you? What type of carriage would you like to avail for your service?”

“Ohh, what a beautiful name you have. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Miss Delara. My name is Walton, and I would like to get a ‘Snow Frekin’ carriage for my upcoming journey to the northern part of the continent. I will be very grateful if you could arrange it for me.”

The Prince continued to try to woo the woman and blatantly tried to usurp our soon-to-be finalised deal for the carriage. Anais slightly shook her head and continued to speak with a smile while indicating in our direction.

“I am sorry, sir, but they have already availed of the same service, and we were going to finalise the deal. If you want, I could get a different carriage for you.”

Walton took out a golden tablet. There were inscriptions of dragons and phoenixes rising to the heavens on the tablet. Handing it over to Anais, he said.

“Miss Delara, take this tablet as an advance payment for the ‘Snow Frekin’ carriage. I think this tablet will be more than satisfactory for the collateral. After reaching the destination, I will pay you the full sum for the service and take this tablet back.”

After taking a good look at it and then running the fingers on the tablet, Anais's eyes widened in surprise. She returned the tablet back to Walton and bowed.

“Greetings, your Royal Highness. I must apologise for not recognising you as a subject under you.”

After giving a formal bow to Walton, Anais lifted herself up and continued.

“Forgive me for my incompetence as I can’t fulfil your wishes. These two have already finalised the deal for getting the service of the ‘Snow Frekin’ carriage. In our Beast Hall, it is always a rule to be unbiased to others. And as they were the first to finalise the deal, I can’t bend the rules and deprive them of their service. It will be unprofessional on my behalf, and my superiors will take me liable for breaking our code of conduct.”

I knew that this crown prince wouldn’t have given up after our last meeting and would try to meddle in our affairs again. But this woman named Anais was incredible. She had a solid backbone, not like the previous branch head. She even had a good head on her shoulders.

The woman had conducted her professionally and politely. She didn’t bend according to his wishes and even pointed out his mistake without giving him any chance of rebuttal.

The Prince’s face darkened, and he gazed at Anais with displeasure. But she still maintained a calm business smile. Exasperated at his loss, Walton left the building without saying anything more. But I felt his hostile gaze in our direction before he left the building. Alcie, who had been silent from the start, started complimenting Anais.

“You are badass! That guy made trouble for us in the previous carriage company branch. He stole our deal right under our noses. Thanks to you, teaching him a lesson this time made my vexation disappear. I am quite happy. We agree with your conditions. In fact, I will be happy with your company during our travel.”

Anais was happy with Alice’s reaction. She then instructed the receptionist to make the arrangements. She told us to wait for some minutes, and she would be back with the carriage. After half an hour, she drove a big carriage with 4 wolf-like beasts pulling it.

They had snow-white furs, and their bodies were fit but large. The moment we went near the carriage, the beasts started growling at us. Anais patted their fur, and they became mellow. She motioned for us to climb in the carriage, to which we readily obliged. Alice mounted at the front of the carriage and sat with Anais to chat with her while I entered the carriage to cultivate.