The world inside Karas room didn't just shatter, it dissolved into a fever dream of noise and malice, the atmosphere was so cool and quiet, one could hear the drop of pin.
Zaliyah was still lost in the silver hum of his own power, his soul tethered to Karas's weakening heart, his consciousness floating in a different world entirely.
To him, there was no room, no guards, no father, only the life-essence flowing between them. He was engulfed in the moment, completely unaware that the veil of his secret had been torn wide open.
"YOU... YOU...."
Lord Caius's voice was a strangled, horrified rasp.
To Zaliyah, still half-submerged in the trance, his father's voice sounded like a distant echo from across an ocean. But the illusion of peace was obliterated when Caius's lungs found their strength.
"MEI!"
The scream was like a physical blow.
Aunt Mei and the guards, who had been standing in a dazed trance in the hallway, were jolted awake.
The magical fog Shakdam had cast over them snapped.
They rushed into the room, a stampede of boots on polished wood.
The maids, who lived for the gossip they could never speak, practically fought one another to reach the doorway first.
They stopped dead.
Their mouths fell wide open in a collective gasp of pure, unfiltered shock. To their eyes, the scene was a nightmare, Zaliyah, with glowing demonic marks pulsing on his forehead, was hunched over the unconscious heir.
In their twisted perception, this wasn't a life-saving kiss ,it was a demonic sexual assault.
"Oh heavens! Oh heavens!" Aunt Mei wailed, her hands clawing at her throat. "The Ruo Han has been cursed! It is a curse!"
Lord Caius stood paralyzed, his blue eyes so like Karas, yet so cold burning with a light that suggested he was looking at a venomous snake.
He pointed a trembling finger at the bed, refusing to even step close enough to touch Zaliyah.
"Push him off!" Caius roared at a guard. "Get that demonic homosexual off my son! Do not let his filth touch him a second longer!".
A guard lunged forward, his heavy hands slamming into Zaliyah's shoulders.
Finally, the trance broke. Zaliyah's eyes snapped open, the purple glow fading into a terrified shimmer.
He was thrown to the floor, the cold wood biting into his skin. He broke into a sudden, freezing cold sweat.
How did things go so wrong? the thought raced through his mind, a frantic, looping scream.
He looked up from the floor, and for the first time in his life, he saw the true face of the household.
All those eyes....the maids, the guards, his own father were looking at him with a heavy, suffocating disgust.
This was the one day he feared the most, the nightmare he had tucked under his pillow every night, and it had finally come to pass.
What would mom think of me now? What would Riru think?his mind raced. He wondered.
Zaliyah's lips trembled. He opened his mouth, a desperate "Father, please" forming on his tongue, but as soon as he moved, the crowd shivered.
They scrambled back, stumbling over their own feet, their faces pale with the terror that he was about to lay a demonic curse upon them.
Lord Caius didn't care for his fear. He signaled two guards with a sharp, motion of his hand. "Drag him out Now!"
Zaliyah didn't fight. He couldn't. His legs felt like lead as they hauled him through the halls, his heels dragging against the floor.
They reached the exterior of the Ruo Han residence and, with a violent shove, they sent him sprawling onto the cold stone floor of the public square.
The impact was loud, and it worked like a dinner bell for the city.
Passerby stopped. Merchants abandoned their stalls.
Within seconds, the crowd multiplied, forming a suffocating ring of judgment around him.
Aunt Mei, having locked Karas safely in his room, rushed out onto the porch, her face twisted and ugly. "You little abomination! Is this how you repay the Ruo Han?".
Lord Caius stood tall above him, his voice a roar that shook the very air. "This is all Riosuka's fault! Her blood, her choices".
The crowd was a sea of confusion and growing malice.
"Isn't that the youngest son of the Ruo Han?" one man muttered, leaning over his neighbor. "Why is he seated on the floor like a beggar?"
"Hai," a woman spoke, her voice dripping with condescension. "Such fine silk being stained by this earth. What a waste."
A young boy, wide-eyed, whispered to his mother, "Wow... so pretty. Like a flower."
Even now, in the dirt, Zaliyah's beauty was the loudest thing in the square. It was that beauty that seemed to make Aunt Mei even angrier.
"He's not only a demon, but a dirty homosexual!" she screamed, her face paling as if the very word made her sick.
The word hit the crowd like a spark in a hayloft. Chaos broke out. A hundred voices rose at once, a cacophony of hate.
"A demon?"
"A homosexual?"
"Is that why he is so pale? Like a ghost!"
"White hair... and a face that doesn't look older than a decade and a half!"
"Look at his skin , no bruises, no scars. It's unnatural!"
Zaliyah shivered, his hands clawing at the stone. "I... I... I am not a demon!"
"Liar!" the people yelled.
Aunt Mei appeared with a heavy wooden bucket. With a grunt of effort, she dumped a load of dirty kitchen garbage and foul water directly over his head. The stench was immediate. The scraps of food clung to his white hair, the grey water soaked his expensive silks.
"You're not a demon?" Mei sneered.
"My brother, the guards, all of us saw it with our own eyes! We saw those glowing marks on your forehead! We saw the poison you were transferring to Karas through your mouth!"
The guards and maids nodded fervently, their faces hardened into masks of righteous fury.
Caius stepped forward, his shadow falling over Zaliyah like a shroud.
"Did you try to kill my son because he rejected your dirty advances? Answer me!"
Zaliyah's breath hitched, a sob breaking in his chest. "D-d-dad... this isn't true... I was..."
SLAP!
The sound was like a whip cracking.
Zaliyah's head was thrown to the side. Fingerprints, angry and red, spread across his fair cheek. The skin, once perfect, was now marred by his father's hand.
Caius leaned down and spat on him. "I always knew you were an abomination."
Aunt Mei stepped up beside him, her eyes burning.
"Such disgrace you have brought to the Ruo Han name! We gave you a family! We gave you a name! A home to return to! And this is how you repay us? Trying to kill your own brother because he didn't accept your disgusting love? How dare you bite the hand that fed you? You demonic dog!"
The dam broke. The crowd joined in, their voices a roar of insults. People began to reach into the gutters, throwing trash, rotting fruit, and dirty water.
Zaliyah was at a loss for words, his head bowed, his whole world falling apart in the mud.
In the deep, shadowed silence of his library, Malachi froze. A sudden, sharp ache blossomed in his chest a tether he hadn't known existed was being pulled tight.
Something was wrong. Terribly wrong.
He looked up from his manuscript just as a maid entered, her voice trembling. "Your majesty... Lady Ailla is not in her chambers. She has left for the surface."
Malachi didn't wait for the rest. In a blur of dark energy , a portal emerged and he teleported to the human realm.
In the shadows of an alleyway overlooking the square, Ailla sat with her chamberlain, Shakdam. They watched the spectacle like a play.
Now, the truth was clear, Shakdam, under Ailla's direct order, had hypnotized Caius and the guards, timing their entrance perfectly to catch Zaliyah at his most vulnerable.
Ailla smiled, a cold, beautiful thing
. "Good job, Shakdam. I owe you a reward, just name it.
The Chamberlain bowed low. "As long as my Lady is happy."
Ailla's eyes fixed on Zaliyah's shivering form. "Why don't we make things interesting?".
Shakdam tilted her head. "Stoning to death?"
Ailla's smile widened. Shakdam knew her far too well.
Shakdam's eyes flared with a hidden light as she reached out into the minds of the angry villagers. Her words slowly spreading like venom "stone him to dead , stone him to dead , stone him to dead"
Suddenly, the mood shifted from insults to execution. Men and women reached down, their fingers closing around heavy, rough stones.
A man in the front row raised his arm, his face twisted in a trance-like rage. He threw the first stone.
It whistled through the air, aimed straight for Zaliyah's temple.
But before it could connect ,before any stone could touch him the world exploded.
A huge gust of wind, like a localized windstorm, broke out from the center of the square. It was a roar of power that sent people flying backward.
They clamped their hands over their mouths and shut their eyes, screaming as the dirt and debris blinded them.
When the wind finally cleared and the air stilled, the square fell into a terrifying silence.
Zaliyah was nowhere to be seen. The spot on the cold stone where he had been shivering was empty.
"What just happened?"
"Where is he?" the crowd roared, their anger turning into a panicked, superstitious fear.
"A windstorm out of nowhere?" a maid shrieked, clutching her apron.
Aunt Mei fell to her knees, her face pale. "Oh heavens... such a curse has befallen us! He is indeed a demon! He vanished into the air"
"The Ruo Han residence is cursed!" a villager screamed. "The land is cursed!"
The crowd broke, people running in every direction, fleeing the "calamity" that had struck their town.
In the shadows of the alley, Ailla's face was no longer smiling. It was a mask of pure, unadulterated fury. She squeezed her teacup so tight the porcelain shattered, the shards cutting into her bronze palm, blood mixing with the tea.
The Chamberlain stepped back, her voice a whisper. "Do you think...?"
Ailla's voice was a low, dangerous hiss that promised death.
"Malachi."