Bab 13: "None of the Strong are Sane."
\Plot: Slightly longer chapter and the part near the end is not for the faint of hearted and it is recommended you keep a pillow and a target near you so you can vent if you get furious at the development.\
{I'll start with myself first since you've been non-stop nagging me about it. Then I'll get into the topic of our worlds.}
[Good.]
{I don't need to say this but I will anyway for the natural storytelling atmosphere.
I am Rose Riso... no, I am Rosetta Iridel. I was born in the year 2003 and I'll be 42 in the January of next year, 2045. My father was a member of the Iridel clan and got my mother pregnant when she was fooling around with him on a whim. That's right, my mother was fooling around with him, my mother is Kaila Iridel, a direct descendant.
When I was born, I was one of the most average kids you could see, that was, if you didn't interact with me. I was born mute and unable to communicate with people until I was 3 when I could write. Even when I was able to, communicating with people was tiresome to me. Until I was 7, I just read books and lived out the 4 years.
It was thanks to my parents that I could live 7 years in that place. Then, along with 22 other direct descendant children of the Iridel clan, I was sent to a forest. All 22 of us were 7 years old. Apparently, the Iridels have a 'Mating Season' which is sickening to me. That 'mating season' was the reason we were all less than a year apart in age.}
[Hold up, hold up.]
{Yeah?}
[A 'Mating Season'? Are they beasts?]
{They might as well be. The Iridel Clan has several unwritten rules but you'd at most get a finger cut off if the rule was severe, the few written rules will get you killed if you don't follow them. They were imprinted into each of us again and again.}
My voice took a tone of listlessness as I recited them.
{Rule 1: Until the age of 15, you are forbidden from leaving the estate with limited exceptions;
Rule 2: Direct Descendants may only choose 'mates' from the Members and Members may only CHOOSE from outsiders or servants, they can be chosen by Direct Descendants only, and I mean ONLY, if they are unmarried;
Rule 3: Direct Descendants must go under a ritual at the age of 10 and an initiation at the age of 7, if this rule is disregarded, the offenders, both the parents and child(ren), will be killed.
Rule 4: Should you betray the Iridel Clan in any way that is considered betrayal by the elders, you will be hunted down no matter what world you run to.
Rule 5: Even as a direct descendant yourself, you must never kill another direct descendant.}
[Quick question, I know you'll tell me later, but can I at least know how many worlds are known so far?]
{270}
[Thanks.]
{Anyway, after we were dropped off in the forest, each of us was fed something. I didn't know what it was back then but now I know what it was. A Racial Awakening Orb. The Iridel Clan is built up on three factions.
The Felines, The Canines and The Aves. The cats, the dogs and the birds basically. I was in the Canine faction and when they used the orb, well, let's just say there was a lot of screaming.
The others had never been used to pain and as for me. Well, I also screamed. A lot.}
My face turned red as I remembered how much I screamed.
{Anyway, once the transformation was done, my hair was the color it is now and I had fox ears and a tail.}
[Speaking of, shouldn't you have those now too?]
Taking a moment for that to register, I felt my tail, a sensation that had escaped me since... a long time. I also felt for my ears and felt a certain 'rightness' to be like this.
Then I realised something else.
I got up and changed into the clothes set on the bar of the bed before sitting into a chair and continuing my conversation with Janice.
{After that, they separated us into the three factions before telling us our task. We had to play Capture the Flag in the forest.}
[What's that?]
{ARE YOU FUCKING SERI-}
[Joking~]
{...Then we were brought to different places and a whistle blew signaling the start.
Of the 22 children, we and the Aves had 7 while the Felines had 8.
Our group was actually the best for the situation, whether that was planned or not, I don't know but I do know there is no way there were ONLY 22 children at our age. Anyway, the 6 people I was teamed with were actually pretty nice, even now I keep in touch with them.
So anyway, two of the others were my siblings and the other four were cousins of mine. Despite my pretty good memory, I barely remember their faces. This is mainly because I left the clan, they 'blur' your memories of faces in the clans.}
[Wait. Y-you mean? You don't even remember what your parents looked like?]
{No. No I don't remember.}
[What the hell... w-why would they do something like that? They made you forget your own family, WHAT KIND OF BULLSHIT IS THAT!?]
{It doesn't matter whether I remember their faces or not, either way, I hate them to this day.}
[Wha- why...]
{Let me continue my story telling and you'll find out.}
[...]
{The 6 with me were Emir, Kai, Fii, Illio, Cyra and Maris, all Iridels of course. So, we all made a plan for the event. I won't retell the entire thing since that'd take way, way too long. The initiation lasted a week after all.}
I chuckled weakly, slightly lost in my reminiscence.
{Our plan was pretty simple. We make a camp and have one of us guard it while the others go out to look for the flag regularly. I was the one guarding the camp since I couldn't communicate with them easily.}
[But, your bloodline was potent enough to heal your muteness, wasn't it?]
{It was but, I knew, they wanted me to regain my voice.}
[Isn't that a good thing?]
{I don't know whether to laugh or cry at your belief that my family has some humanity left. While one or two in the entire clan might, the others have tossed it aside. So. As the week went on, I always taught the six of them how to do things with pictures I drew in the ground, I made images of herbs and fruits that could be eaten and that couldn't.
That continued for 5 days. On the 6th day, they came back running with the flag. We never knew that the moment someone got the flag, a whistle would signal that. A whistle that'd be by the people who got it. The other clans were chasing them. Emir, who was holding the flag, pushed the flag into my arms turned me around and pushed. I knew what that meant, it was because I was the fastest.
It meant run.
So I did.
I ran for a full day before arriving at the place with the flag. I had hope that once I got there they'd go get the others... but they never came back. I only knew how bad our clans could be when I was 10, when I realised that. I knew that those 6, they probably died to torture. They died because those 15 others vented their frustration at not winning on them.
At 11, I found out exactly what happened from one of the ones who did it.
They pulled out their fingernails and toenails before cutting off their tails. Then they ripped up their ears but not completely destroying their hearing. They gouged out the boys eyes and they bled the girls dry as the boys listened. Once the girls were dead, they bled the boys dry too. The real sickening part is that after they died they beg-}
[STOP!]
{...}
[Just... s-stop. I don't want to hear anymore.]
{After I heard all of that, I did what any insane person would do.}
[What are you talking about...]
{At 13, under the clan's noses, I kidnapped every single one of them and tortured them till they died. Then, I tied them up above the clan meeting room and when they began their meeting, the one not meant to be disturbed. I dropped them in front of their parents who were in the meeting room.
The result was that at 14, I was to depart from the world. Or, that's how it should've gone. My master, the previous 'Fox', came to the Iridel clan that day, unaware of anything, and chose me as her successor. The Iridel factions who lost their children argued against her since they had lost their children to me but I refuted them with simple words.
"At least you got to see your children grow to this point. The parents of those who died in that forest never got to see them again. And now, neither will you."
No one dared speak since the mere fact that I could speak meant that I had planned to kill them for years. That I had fooled the entire Iridel clan.
Is what I wish. The clan head was never fooled. He even walked in after I tortured one of the children.
His words were simple after me refuting them.
"An Eye for an Eye, Blood for Blood,
Death, for Death."
I asked my master 'why' at the time. Why did she accept me.
Her words were few.
But impactful.}
I then mumbled out loud.
"None of the strong are sane."
PERTIMBANGAN PENCIPTA 
The_Aegis
The_Aegis Hope this clears up some stuff, see if you can name a few hints that popped up!
Next chapter is purely worldbuilding so no plot development until the chapter after that.
Thanks to all of you who voted for my book and have been staying to see how it turns out!
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone