Chapter 18: Arc 2: Princess of White (END)

The aptly named Princess of White Incident left behind a wreckage of aftermath.

Aside from the crown princess’ public condemnation of the Spade’s administration and her subsequent resignation, Spade had to deal with the farmlands destroyed in the slimes’ attack, burnt section of the Forest of Separation, remuneration for the families affected by the skirmish and damaged magical barrier for the city of Cutler.

Xiahana wasn’t kidding. After that event, she disappeared. Hunter Westerna deployed countless search-team to locate and invite Xia to the capital, but they couldn’t catch a strand of Xia’s platinum hair. Rumors of her entrance at the darkest hours, unprecedented usage of White Magic and final condemnation at Spade turned Xiahana into a legend — the Princess of White.

Elizabeth La Louve, Betty, bit into a chocolate chip cookie and shivered in the respite it bought. With the palace being flooded by issues, it took a fortnight of exhausting work and blame-game with Spade to bury the last of her problem under the ground.

Thankfully, not all things produced in the last two weeks were horrible. A couple of days after the Princess of White Incident, a mysterious bakery emerged. People reported random appearances of red-brick tiled, caramel colored cottage with a cute chimney all over the country. Visitors described a redhead matron from the cottage selling cookies for one brief hour. Those cookies were seriously under priced for how good it was. It even came with a useful bonus effect from Mana recovery to increase in attraction and luck.

The cookie’s brand was a simple word: Unity.

Soon the nobles, both big and small, began buying Unity in bulk. However, with the limited supply form the mysterious cottage, the price of Unity’s confectioneries traded within the noble circles went complete bananas. Noble’s skirmishes for precious snacks already caused so much turmoil, Hunter Westerna himself attempted to regulate the insanely good cookies.

Alas, the might of Unity couldn’t be defeated, even by Curtis hero. The entire Military Police were infested by the cookie believers, led by none other than Deputy Commissioner and the cookie church’s high priestess, Carolina Westerna herself. With enemy besieging from both outside and within, Hunter caved and Spade quickly followed.

Betty savored every bite of her cookies. They were a mark of the strength of connection and favors, the trophy of the ongoing cookies war engulfing the palace. Those few days of bakeries engagement with high priestess Carolina left Betty drained.

Betty finished her snack and gazed at the smoking ruin of Springsong. With Xia — the one woman crutch — gone, the town predictably fell into anarchy. Fires and looting occurred ten days between her disappearance and the Princess of White Incident, reducing the shambling settlement into a pile of smoking charcoal in record time.

However, this place was the only lead Betty had to find for her sister.

Behind her, a crow landed on the carriage and watched Betty silently entered the charcoal corpse of a town.

…

Betty was surprised she found more than a clue.

In front of the burning pile of wood that used to be the condemned mayor’s office was a red-tiled cottage with its well kept lawn. The little house and its greenery sat in the middle of the street with a folding table, accompanied by two teatime chairs shielded from the sun by a white beach umbrella.

A woman waited for Betty’s approach in one of those chairs, and even now she couldn’t believe how much her sister change.

Xiahana La Louve had fully embraced her moniker. She wore a white, sleeveless linen summer dress which show her neckline. Tied around her waist was an orchid leather belt with silver buckle. Her leather sandals with crisscrossing design were also predictable white. Like her times as a mayor, Xia sported a cape flowing from her shoulder to the middle of her back, but it wasn’t the same creased and wrinkled navy blue. Xia’s new cape matched her aesthetic — pure white linen with embroidery featuring artistic cloud patterns.

Xia smiled at her fuming little sister, “Hello, little sis, love my new clothes? Sure beat the garbage I wore while running this hellhole.”

“Do you know how much trouble you created?” Betty demanded. “And where did this cottage come…”

Then she noticed the plate of familiar cookies on the folding table and connected the dots.

Betty didn’t take the discovery well, “No. Way.”

“Got to love it,” Xia couldn’t stop smiling. “This is,” she grimaced at her raw shamelessness, “my lover’s idea. We want a stable income. He pitched the idea, I contributed some of my knowledge, and viola to Unity. I need to thank you all.” Xia pointed at her dress. “My hubby cannot produce this out of nothing, and I am looking forward to my new wardrobe.” Xia admired her new cape’s embroidery. “Darn, I can’t believe how much he improved.”

Betty (single) silently gagged at Xia’s shameless gloating about her lover. Truth to be told, she wasn’t the only listener suffering from the lonely-heart deathwatch.

Unable to suppress her raging heart, Betty walked to a no-win battle, “Xia, you are a princess. You cannot just float away and marry a nobody. This is outrageous. Hunter will blow his top and Spade will come down on you!”

“Hence, I quit,” Xia shrugged. “Go ahead. Time to shine, Betty, you are the new crown princess now. Put Spade on the parade. Legalized Lesbian marriage and bedded Carolina. Have Hunter do a moonwalk. You can even set the entire Hecate on fire.” Xia insisted. “I don’t care, Betty. My dear hubby doesn’t want to babysit Curtis, and neither am I.”

“It isn’t that easy!” Betty wailed against Xia’s unprecedented dismissal of responsibility. “Hunter is throwing a fit. Spade and a sizable amount of the nobility are convinced you are a threat to the crown. If you elope like this, you will bring this boyfriend into a cross-hair!”

That ineffectual threat tickled Xia’s funny bone, “Spade and Hunter want to kill my hubby?” she giggled. “Tell them to get in line. They aren’t even qualified as a threat after failing to find me for half a month. Good luck finding my boyfriend when you do not know who he is,” Xia wiped her tears of hilarity. “Speaking of a try-hard,” she waved at the crow, listening to conversation from the cottage’s roof, “how are you doing, Carolina?”

…

In her office within the palace, Carolina Westerna was so surprised to hear Xia’s friendly greeting from the crystal ball that she fell from her chair and accidentally shook the table. The high priestess of cookies’ eyes widened as she witnessed the wobbling cookie jar fell off her desk. With a yell, Carolina dove and barely saved her precious snacks.

…

Betty looked at the crow — the zombie crow — and asked, “How did you notice? Carolina is a pretty decent necromancer.”

“Oh, one of my sister was a master at detecting trespasser,” Xia showed Betty a milky, dove-shaped cookies. “Want this? We are planning to sell these as premium products.” Xia gestured at the invisible title card. “White Love — Joy of Devoted Dove. It is a great amplifier for all things White Magic, with mental healing and counter-curse effect. You are lucky you are my sister to get the wonderful sample before it hit the market.”

Betty glared at the cookies in a cocktail of greed and resentment. This version of Xia operated on a totally elevated set of logic above Betty’s understanding. Is this upgrade fueled by the Power of Love? If so, Betty hoped no one ever weaponized it because she had no counter-fire. She was losing whatever argument they were in by a mile, and she needed to rely on the forbidden weapon to bring back the usual Xia.

“What would father think if he sees you now?” Betty touched Xia’s reverse-scale for a reaction.

“That is rich,” the question hurt Xia, but the Power of Love prevailed. “And it might have worked.” Xia tanked psychological attack and countered. “But you know what, Betty? After those days of introspection, I get you. You, Spade, even Westerna, are really obsessed with dragging me and father to your level.” Xia shrugged. “You slandered father, then claimed to speak for him. Do you achieve the same Color Transcendence?” Xia leaned in closer and verbally socked Betty. “I did, and I can tell you he won’t care. Father put his people above the vague concept called Curtis. I know he would insist I do the same.”

With Betty’s do-or-die-psychological-dynamite fizzled out impotently beneath Power of Love’s impregnable fortitude, the dispirited Betty were down to throwing the pebble of humility, “Are you mad about the suicide mission?”

“I want to be,” Xia shrugged. “But I am not, sis. Thank to those bumbling morons and your non-support, I nearly face certain death.” Xia smiled charmingly. “However, because of that fall, I fell in love with a good man. That suicide mission is the best thing that happened to me in the last two years. Betty, I sincerely thank you for not getting in the way.”

It was a stomp. The hit registered at Betty’s soul, but she impotently continued, “I don’t get it. You are throwing everything you stand for in the last two years for a guy?”

“My hubby is just the final straw,” Xia buried her sister beneath the verbal cement. “Tell me, what did you and cuzz give me that is worth preserving? I can’t recall a single word of appreciation. Not a person on your ivory tower care for me when I worked myself to death.” Xia hosed the flamethrower down. “Betty, I believe my hubby might steal my heart anyway, but it could have been much harder. You, and your merry band of losers, lowered the difficulty so much he succeeded without even trying. It is difficult to not fall in love with the man who stays awake overnight to nurse you back from hypothermia. Excuse me, but the warmth in my soul when someone actually cares about my opinion for the first time in two years is quite addictive.” Xia was on the roll now. “And guess what, I am finally rewarded for something. First five minutes after the kiss, and my lover gave everything you starved away from me. We make a choice about what we protect, and frankly, Curtis without father isn’t worth more sweat that I already gave to this wreck of a town.”

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Betty knew it was over. Her sister had officially gone rogue. Xia waved goodbye to Curtis and went all-in to her new identity.

“They will come for you?”

“They can,” Xia nodded. “Once they stop needing those cookies.”

“Amy,” Betty connected the dot.

Xia raised her eye-brows, but refused to elaborate.

“How did you rope Amy into this and made the disappearing cottage?” Betty futilely asked.

“Take a guess,” Xia gave her sister a sweet smile. “You are always the smart one.”

Betty had nothing for that. Out of angle to use and pebbles to throw, Betty performed the equivalent of voicing her grievance via seppuku to get her old sister back.

“Sis,” Betty began. “I am sorry. I know I wronged you and spat on father’s memory.”

“Oh, father would understand,” Xia stated the obvious. “And look, I am doing fine.”

“Then come back,” Betty pleaded. “You can even bring your boyfriend! Just don’t—”

“Don’t what, Betty?” Xia interrupted. “Don’t tear Curtis in half? Betty, sis, when you apologize after these years, is it out of guilt? Or is it because appealing to my emotion is the only card in your hand?”

“Sis,” Betty pleaded again. “I care about you.”

“I believe you,” Xia unexpectedly agreed. “But you are too much of a survivalist, and a thing about survivalist is that they are shortsighted.”

“Fine!” Betty lost it. “I admit I should have discussed that plan with you. I should have brought you in together with Hunter to reign in Spade! There I said i—”

“Not this again!” Xia cut Betty’s confession. “Sis, I am over that history for half a month.” For once, Xia’s voice contained genuine frustration. “I am more piss-off at the mess your decision created!” Xia’s cheek blushed at the reminder of happy memories. “This last two weeks, my hubby and I snuggled every night, and talking about our future—”

“Please, I don’t want to hear about your love-life,” Betty (and Caroline) shielded their Virgin lonely-heart’s ears from the Chad Love Power.

Xia ignored Betty’s protest, “And when we come to your little escapade, not even dearest has an answer! And after he explains his lack of solution, even I admit your ‘I am sorry’ won’t cover it!” Xia was mad. “Betty, you have effectively screwed the entire Eastern continent.”

“What?” Betty was confused at Xia’s sudden revelation. “Spade isn’t that dangerous.”

“And this is the worst of you sin!” Xia raged, pouring out her anger for a reason Betty didn’t understand. “You don’t even know you kicked the domino by torpedoing father’s plan! Now, we are so late into the chain reaction, even hubby gave up stopping the powder-keg the capital had turned into.”

“Sis, the capital is my home!” Betty pointed out. Even the eavesdropping Carolina couldn’t help but be interested. “I know it likes a back of my hand.”

“There it is!” Xia yelled. “The usual arrogance! Betty, if there is one reason we are so doomed, it is your need to validate your superiority. Everything about you reek of that — your plan two years ago, playing hard-to-get with every noble under the sun, your Black Magic,” she ignored Betty’s shock, “yes, I know about that, and I know why you are hiding it? Both you and Carolina are being exploited by this stupidity!”

“What are you talking about?” Betty suddenly realized the surrounding space warped.

“Sorry, but I have another meeting,” Xia addressed the two women as the domain faded away. “Both of you should be careful about the carrot she is dangling in front of you nose.”

…

“Who is this ‘she’ you are talking about?” Betty asked but only found herself back in the ruin of Springsong with the only evidence of her meeting being the bag of cookie

The final insult was the cookie tasting delicious.

…

Later, Carolina (single) was drawing circles with her fingers while being consoled by cookies and wines in her office.

Xia’s Love Power had obliterated her ego and left her muttering on the floor.

Worst, Carolina (single) had no one to blame but herself for Neo Xia. Her drunk rambling were downright melodramatic, “We'd created a monster we couldn't control. We tortured and eviscerated her. We brutalized her mind, but she didn't succumb,” she hiccuped, “Until this guy came. And it wasn't his wealth, not his gifts, not his empty promises.” Carolina cried in the language of the lonely heart. “It was something else. It was that somehow, using the power within us all, a man had learned a way to see inside an ugly broken thing and take away her pain. Goddammit! Why can’t I find a boyfriend like that too!?”

…

Thus ends United(?) We Stand: Princess of White

We now suffer the consequence…

Coming soon…

United(?) We Stand: Dark Witch and Dominos

 

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