Ayakashi Chronicles

Part II - Awakened

"Tonight we will be entertaining the guests at the main celebration in the Palace Court rooms. The king has told me, personally," Lady Poh paused, smirking. "the king has personally told me that he wants all the entertainers to be present for the guests. Considering the extraordinarily high number of guests we are having tonight, even the young dancers must be present."

Soo Mei felt her heart jump a little. She had never seen the insides of the most beautiful palace in the world even though she lived right beside it.

"You all have six hours to get ready. The young ones to be taken care by older girls, now!" Lady Poh narrowed her eyes at all the girls sitting down in front of her and then stood up to leave. Soo Ri watched as she left and after she was far enough, she ran to her older friend, Mak Bo.

"You'll help me paint my face, wont you!" Mei exclaimed.
"Of course! Let's do you first so that I can practice my dance with the others later." Mak Bo and Mei hurried back to their rooms.

Mei quickly undressed herself and stood in front of the mirror. Mak Bo ran around the room, collecting various items used to properly paint the entertainers face.

"Can you believe that I'm finally getting to see the palace! I'm secretly going to explore the other rooms when nobody is noticing too, you can join me!" Mei jumped excitedly, her cheeks turning red at the thoughts of having to get dressed up nicely for the first time in her life.
"First of all," Mak Bo gently hit Mei's head.

"ouch!-"

"You need to stop moving!" she put her hands tightly over Mei's shoulders. "Second of all, I don't think you should explore the palace, haven't you heard?"

"Heard what?" She looked over her shoulder as Mak Bo tightened the ribbon around her silk Kimono.
"The demon prince is obviously in there somewhere." Mak Bo whispered right before Mei sighed.

"That's just a rumour."

"Is not! One of the maids working in the palace claimed that they've kept him locked up inside."

Mei stayed quiet because she knew better than to argue with Mak Bo about the 'faceless prince'. Amongst the girls working for Lady Poh, the topic of the Prince often got majority of them turning red out of anticipation that the Prince obviously had to be extremely good looking and charming. Mei had no opinions about this. All she ever wanted was to see the palace and nothing could stop her that night.
"Guess what, even if I meet the Demon Prince, he'll be so stunned by my beauty that I'll have enough time to run away." She joked and laughed at her own sense of humour. Mak Bo sighed and proceeded to paint her face. The two girls were patiently getting ready before there was a loud noise near the door.

"WHAT'S GOING ON HERE!" Lady Poh barged into the room unannounced. "WHO ASKED YOU TO DRESS UP, YOU LOOSE GIRL!" she pointed at Mei and screamed. Mak Bo stepped in front of Mei and bowed down as if to apologise.

"I'm sorry, Lady Poh, but we were just obeying your commands. As I am older to Mei, I am helping her prepare-" Mak Bo started to stay before Lady Poh pushed her aside and lunged at Mei.
Mei wanted to scream but she knew better than to raise her voice at Lady Poh as she grabbed her long black hair in one hand and dragged her across the room to the door. Mei held her mouth shut as she tried to get up on her own feet but Lady Poh pushed her out of the door and proceeded to grab her hair again.

"How dare you waste precious face paint on yourself!" she said while pulling her towards the well somewhere behind the main quarters.
"I'm so sorry, I didn't know I wasn't-"
"Shut up! You're so ungrateful" Lady Poh violently pulled up a bucket of water from the depths of the well and emptied it on top of Mei. She proceeded to do the same again until Mei was completely soaked and shivering.