Warrior Of the East (Under Editing and Revision) (Completed)

III. The Last Day Before a New Life

"We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another."

Jonathan Swift

My sisters are just like any other, and even if we grew into royalty, we never minded being with other people. Even in our court, we're considered strange as status would always be status, but our mother was different. She's of high birth, but her father is kind beyond compare, and she inherited that till she died. Father has joked that all of us inherited parts of her kindness with the most share with Evione, then Marianne, then me, and least of all is George. Not that George is a cruel man, he still has a share.

Evione would've gone in my place if she could, and she'd gladly do it without having to think about it, but she's engaged to a man she loved, and we're not the kind of people who would push her to break something so rare. Mother once told me that what she and father have isn't for everyone. Not everyone is as lucky. All of us knew that, and we're thankful that Evione has that.

"Are you serious?" Marianne says the moment she got through my bedroom doors still in her outerwear of leather pants and a blouse. I'm already in my nightgown with Sasha brushing my hair to prepare for the night. "Why would you just promptly take the position as if there isn't anyone to consider?!"

I put my hand over Sasha's strokes. "older sister, I'm the logical choice."

"I see no logic in it!"

"There is" I pat Sasha's hand and tell her to rest for the night. When she walks out of the room, do I finally face Marianne. Her eyes are as wild as our mothers, but she inherited the blueness of her eyes from father, and her dirty blonde hair is always tied back into a tight bun ever since she started being a nurse.

"Why must you act as if you're older? I can do it; I can marry a Westerner" she throws her hands up and runs one hand up in her hair. Untangling what used to be a pristine tight bun and pacing back and forth in my carpeted floor. "I was born after Evione and therefore your superior at birth, then I should go."

I feel my wry smile. "You barely could stand to be in the same room with them"

"I have helped numerous Westerners! And you haven't heard of me killing any of them!"

"You're right" I smile smoothly now. "I haven't heard anything. Perhaps it's by design."

She glares at me. "Don't insinuate that I kill my patients, which I have not! I made an oath to father and to the spirits that I would not kill anyone whether it is a Westerner or an Easterner."

"Older sister, it's already been decided."

"It could be undecided again! I would take your place! You're a wanted woman with a bounty on your head. Don't act as if you're not their number one enemy" She huffs and drops to the lounge chair by the foot of my bed. "You're a prized enemy of the West! Your bounty is bigger than any one of us combined!"

"It makes life exciting, doesn't it?" I sit by her foot and take her boots off with my hands.

She huffs. "Arrow! Stop that insufferable answers and teasing! Take this seriously and listen!"

"You know that it comes naturally to me, especially when you're yelling at me" I take her boots off and neatly tuck them to the side. She's pouting now with her eyebrows pinched together in frustration. The exasperation just oozes off of her in waves, and that makes me smile even more. "Mother and Father always knew that I'm everyone's weakness. The only one who could annoy the usually calm Marianne, Evione, and George. They are right."