I stared at the blood moon as my father continued to yell at the Monks as they just silently watching without being phased at his anger- they could all team up to take him down, that's if they weren’t more concerned with accidentally ending the transfer to whosoever was taking my power which wasn’t me. I sighed trying to keep a level head and thought for a bit, the only people that can take the power from the emperor are his wife and his direct children of the banished empress. None of my cousins could take the power of the emperor, didn't bless their mothers or from my father's other family. So I narrowed it down to just the main family we needed to get into contact with. I opened my eyes and cleared my throat which got eerily dry.

“Guards!” I yelled and five guards leapt into my view.

“Yes, your Highness.” they all said bowing to me.

“I want you to give me the contacts of my siblings, I need to speak with them” I ordered them.

“Shall we get Prince Tsubaki and the other prince too?” one spoke out.

He spoke of my locked up disgrace of a brother, “Well, I doubt Tsubaki has enough might in his body to be even remotely considered for the amount of pain Blood Magic will put him through- it would be a waste of time. And for the other his body is too weak, if that was the case we would have heard him scream by now. But yes, still call them” 

Three guards came forward, taking a seat around me. They started to gather their energy between their hands and extended their arms as the energy grew larger. Soon each ball was powered by each guard's power as they each turned it into a disk as the images of various guards came on. The first guard was none other than Min Rong’an Tsubaki’s guard, the second guard was Bashu Tranwei the guard of my younger sister Lingjiang and last but not least Hang-shu Hin guard of my feeble brother Peru. They each took their bow and asked if my process was going alright.

“Well, it would have been if I was in pain and not on the call with you. Now more importantly is there anything unusual with any of my siblings, because it seems someone else from the main family is receiving my powers.” I spoke.

They wore shocked expressions on their faces, taken aback by my words- I was like them too when I found out only a few minutes ago. 

“Not that I know of, you can speak to her highness for she is right beside me drinking tea.” Tranwei moved aside and Lingjiang gave a weary wave to the disk.

“Well, the only thing I can say is that Prince Peru has been quiet but as the blood moon started he stared out the window for a while but didn’t fall under any pain than his usual ones,” Hang-shu spoke out next then looking beyond the disk maybe at the sickly boy. 

“I just looked at Prince Tsubaki and he was sound asleep when I last checked him. I can look again if you like?” Rong’an asked.

I grew even more frustrated, “You may leave.”

The disk faded into the air and the guards that were maintaining them took their breaths. I started to become nasty and looked at my father seeing what he was thinking. I left him be- I don’t want that anger to be redirected to me. I ordered the guards to start calling up my cousins for I was contemplating if this was one of those things where it went into the second family.

“No your highness, Princess Anoki is reading a book as we speak.” Charlotte shook her head.

“No, your Highness Prince Yunmo is playing poker with Prince Juneko.” another said.

It was like this for all of them, no guards reported anything remotely suspicious so there was only one thing left for me to think- what if the empress had a child outside of who we know who is receiving it right now. 

I looked at my father, “Father before the mother was forced out of the palace, did she ever have a child outside of my known siblings? Because if so I think that might be the problem- mother might have had another child to use against us.”

The look father gave was worrying enough as if he never thought of it before- he quickly stared at me baffled and I swallowed the saliva that built up in my mouth. He started to get angry and his bloodlust grew stronger around him. 

“Guards, I want you to find that woman, find her and bring back any child that she might have given birth to over the 19 years she has been gone. The child will die by my hands and that woman will suffer grave price for dishonouring the Hun name,” he yelled.

“Yes, your majesty.” And with that, they were off- in search of the very woman that used to look at me with such distaste in her eyes. I hated that woman for she never recognized me as her son- she mainly loved Peru, Tsubaki, Ruoqiu and Lingjiang but never me. I laughed as she was stripped of her title and forced out the empire walls, the best day of my life so to speak.

“I want you Monks to continue with the ritual but slowly. I do not want the powers to go to anyone other than my eldest son. I can maybe meet them halfway and redirect it to you Pan-An, be ready son.” father commented.

“Yes, father.” I solemnly said as I got and strolled to my room.

I felt bitter and worthless as I flung myself into the bed, I didn’t mind the dirty clothes my garment had picked up, I just wanted to sleep this awful day away.

~~~~~~

It has been two days, Monday was awful, Tuesday came and I went back only to get back the same results as the night before. Today was Wednesday, the break between the transfer process. I watched as my father grew weak as time slowly passed by, he exclaimed that he started to feel the power slip from him but said he was consciously holding on to it. If we were to figure out who has the powers and where my mother was, we were going to have to act fast. 

“Your Highness, your father has asked for your presence in the interrogation of the Banish Empress.” the messenger informed me.

“They found her?” I asked.

“Yes, she was close to the Weng-gu Empire. She was dragged here after she put up a good fight, injuring four of the ten guards that went to get her.” 

“Sigh, disgraceful but understandable.”

I got up and walked to the back of the Royal Prison Grounds, opened a door then walked down the stairs going to the last room in the hallway. A guard unlocked the door and I went in seeing the empress chained to the wall, clothes torn and bloody, bruised all over and my father with a bloody rope in his arm. I guess he already started the torturing part without me. I looked over at my pitiful mother as she tried to catch her breath and maybe try not to blackout.

“Tell the truth, woman, do you have any other children than the one we caught you with?” my father asked.

I was baffled by my father's account, “Child?” 

“I already told you no. He is the only one please leave him out of this- he is innocent I never wanted him to be exposed to this life,” she begged.

“That child will be dead in a matter of minutes to seconds. It's up to you if you want us to kill him now or later.” father demanded. “Now tell us, are they any other?”

“And I said, no you old man.”

The rope came into contact with her face and her head slammed against the wall behind her. Luckily the binds decreased people’s powers or else she would have broken free a long time ago. A guard came in with a skinny teenage boy who was kicking and screaming- yelling for them to let his hair go, when the said teen saw my mom he fell to his knees wailing, even more, screaming, “Mama!”

“The kid claims as well that he doesn’t have any siblings, your majesty. And we made sure he wasn’t lying for his mother. We even searched through his memories.” the guard said.

“Why would you do that to him?” she yelled which earned her another slap.

“I ask the questions. Kill the boy, he is of no use anymore.” my father turned towards the guard.

The guard slightly nodded and raised his hand above his head- his arms glowed with a greenish-yellow coating. He was going to behead him but the cut might not be clean with the kid kept moving. My mother screamed for the guard to stop and to kill her instead- ironic. Before he could carry his hand down on the kid’s neck, I commanded him to stop.

“Son, why would you do that?”

“I believe that boy would be better serving his empire instead of death don’t you think. We should instead send him to the farmlands to work with the other people there. Make him learn discipline under his superiors, no?”

My father pondered for a bit, “But what if he comes to get us back?”

“That's what memory erase is for now isn’t it?” I smiled back.

“Good enough for me then.”

The guard went to my father, giving him the teen- he placed his hand on the boy’s forehead and his hands glowed which made the kid scream while grabbing his hands. After a few minutes, the teen went numb and unconscious, given to the guard to go place him in the farm’s care now.

“And for you woman, I shall punish you for sharing blood outside the palace. You will die by starvation, a very nice, long and painful death for the woman that dishonours the very blood she is related with.”

I left as I saw father started to beat her once again- I had better things to do than to watch her scream even if it would be fun. I walked to my office and found a new scroll on it. I looked at it seeing that it was sealed. I channelled my power into it, breaking it- opened it and it read-

Dear Crowned Prince, I am sorry that I couldn’t have said this earlier. But I think you should know that Prince Tsubaki has been going through some sort of unbearable pain for the past two days. He has screamed, bled and ran very high fevers which seems to be unhealthy. I know that you haven't been receiving your powers so maybe Prince Tsubaki is undergoing the process instead of you. I am sorry but it took a while for me to deliver this because Empress Annabelle was preventing such actions. I felt like you needed to be informed, what should I do?

~ Min Rongan

I screamed as I got up running to my father to tell him the news. I was furious that my little brother was the one, who was always so soft-spoken and afraid of everything taking what was mine. Father wasn’t pleased either, we immediately set off towards the Wolf Empire to get the very brother that had the audacity to be so brave in facing me and a father with a temper.

~~~~

Tsubaki’s Pov

I slowly opened my eyes but closed them immediately as the sun burned them. I took some time to feel my body- I felt heavy but empty for some reason. I felt cold and very tired which I couldn’t comprehend why. I slowly sat up and winced as I heard a yelp.

“The prince is finally awake!”

Soon I was overwhelmed with maids, and doctors checking me- did I blackout, was I sick?

“What happened?”

“You were sick, prince.”

“For how long?”

“Two days, today is Wednesday.”

My eyes widened and I stared at the door as I watched my guard and the empress walked in. She came over looking into my eyes, I could feel her powers going through my veins to access parts of my body that I didn't even know I had. 

“Why do you seem so dead, someone who is supposed to be alive shouldn’t have such low temperatures, have such pale skin with no sort of fat on their bones,” she exclaimed.

Did I lose weight?

“Worst of all, your hair and eyes changed. I am afraid that you are undergoing something that you shouldn’t, Prince Tsubaki.”

I was handed a mirror and I froze as I observed my dust blond hair was pitch black as ink and my eyes were now crimson red. I felt my body shaking violently and I guess I started hyperventilating. 

“I’m gonna die, I’m gonna die. They are going to kill me, they are going to kill me. This shouldn’t be happening to me- I am gonna die.” I kept repeating.

I felt a calming sensation flow of energy released into my back and I started to slowly breathe. I looked up to the empress as she shook her head reassuring me that it wasn’t my fault. She doesn’t know, none of them knows how much my father hates it when his ways don’t go as planned and how he isn’t afraid to beat or torture someone especially if you are family- his right to harm you or heal you. I watched as they confirmed that I was stable- but I began to cry when I heard that my brother and father were coming to this empire. 

“Hey Tsu.”

I looked up to see that Eden was beside me, his hair now had white roots and black tips and one of his eyes was purple. 

“What happened to you? Do the others know?”

“First, others don’t know. Second, I am here to help you from your family.”

“Eden, you can’t help?”

“I can- I have my god on my side this time.”

My eyes widened as a man slowly began to fade into my vision behind Eden, he was smiling.

“Hello Tsubaki, I hope we can work together.”

I stared at the ghost that floated behind Eden, a man with long white hair, purple eyes and had a heavenly aura around him. I broke into tears, I didn’t know if I was thankful that a god who I didn’t worship was going to help me or that Eden was always there for me and still is now.