I imagine this will be the prologue of a fic to come.
Anti-T&E people may like it.
Definitely NOT for Mei Ling haters.
Please enjoy!
Raye
=====
raye_j@yahoo.com
http://members.tripod.com/raye__1/
"I... am a... LIBRARIAN!"
- Evelyn, "The Mummy"
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Get personalized email addresses from Yahoo! Mail
http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/
-- Attached file included as plaintext by Listar --
-- File: Meiling.txt
-- Desc: Meiling.txt
[untitled]
by Raye Johnsen
**********
Card Captor Sakura is copyright Clamp.
**********
I am without magic.
This fact defines my existence. I am Li Mei Ling, and I
am without magic.
Perhaps, for another, this fact would not be so
fundamental. I have met several such; those for whom magic is a
legend and has no impact upon them whatsoever. They, too, have
no magic. Yet somehow I pity rather than envy those souls. I
would rather have my lack than their ignorance.
I am a daughter of the Li, and I have no magic.
**********
Even as a small child, I knew I was lacking. I would
listen as the others of the clan described their magic lessons.
Lessons I could never attend. I watched as my parents and
siblings cast small spells, but when I tried, nothing happened.
Not even a mistake, but simply nothing.
By the time I was six, I knew that I was one of those who
were not spoken of in the clan - the ones who the clan would do
what it could for, but who could never be a part of it. For the
Li are a family of mages, and a child of such a family must also
be a mage.
That was why I was so surprised, and so happy, when my
mother told me.
"Your aunt has decided that, when you are both of an age
to wed, you will marry Xiao Lang."
I couldn't believe it. My aunt was the Head of the clan;
as the most talented of her children, Xiao Lang would be the Head
after she abdicated the position. I, the child without magic,
was to become the wife of the Clan Head! Not only that, but Xiao
Lang was handsome and kind and clever! I was to be married to
*him*!
It was, of course, too good to be true, but I didn't
realize that when I was six.
**********
I don't think it would be too much to say that I doted on
Xiao Lang for the next five years.
I treasured him, cooked for him, admired him, bought
clothes for him, and loved him. Love is much more a matter of
choice than people would like to think. I would be married to
Xiao Lang, will I or nil I - so I sought to make it 'will I'.
He didn't like all my attention, I knew, but he didn't
refuse it. He could have, easily, and he knew it. I think he
enjoyed them, actually; I put no pressures on him to do or be
anything except himself.
So that was how matters stood until the elders felt the
Clow Cards activate, and sent Xiao Lang to retrieve them from
Japan.
I did wait. I waited so long! But three months passed
and he didn't come back. So I went to him.
It didn't take much to see that Xiao Lang was attracted
to both the Card Captor (who was a young girl of my age) and to
an older boy. No matter how much I tried, I was not what he
wanted - *they* were.
At first, I couldn't see why. The Card Captor was just
like me, only with short hair. But there was one very important
difference.
She had magic, and I did not.
************
After five months, the school year ended, and the Card
Captor won a trip to visit Hong Kong. While she was there, she
visited our family home, and my aunt made time to see her.
After she left, before Xiao Lang and I left for Japan, my
aunt sent for me.
I was confident as I approached her study. I was sure
this interview was to urge me to improve my studies. I couldn't
have been more wrong.
It was the Head of the Li Clan who greeted me, and the
Head who informed me my betrothal was over.
"My Lady?" I stammered, my eyes wide with shock. "I - I
don't understand -"
She sighed. "Xiao Lang will marry the Card Captor, Mei
Ling. Her magic must be brought into the Clan. You will tell
everyone that your engagement was a matter between two children,
and was never serious."
Her eyes met mine, understanding but implacable. "The
Clan will do what it can for you, Mei Ling," she added gently,
after a moment. "After all, it is not your fault -"
I stood up hurriedly, so fast I almost upset the chair.
"I understand, My Lady," I answered quickly, tightly. "I will
obey my Clan Elders, as always." Bowing quickly, I retreated
from her study, before she could say the phrase that had been the
bane and definition of my life. The phrase that everyone always
repeated to me, as if it justified everything.
'After all, it is not your fault you were born without
magic.'
***********
So it all happened as the Elders decreed.
I announced that I had 'forgotten' that the promise to
marry was a promise exchanged between children, and I went back
to Hong Kong. Where, while the family might pity me, and
sometimes remember to avoid speaking of magic in front of me, I
at least didn't have to watch the man I'd grown up loving falling
in love with somebody else.
My heart took its time recovering, and I don't think I
ever will *not* love Li Xiao Lang. Still, there did come a day
when I could think of him without crying; and I even came to be
able to speak of the Card Captor without jealousy.
I remained the imperfect Li daughter. Though I excelled
in the arts of the home, obtained high marks in my schooling,
mastered strategy and the traditional arts of combat, still I was
never courted, and for all of my achievements, I could never win
the respect of my peers. I was, and remained, the one born
without magic.
************
It was when I was sixteen that I was called to the former
Li's study once more. Technically it was Xiao Lang's study now,
but until he returned to Hong Kong, his mother, the former Li,
performed the duties of the Clan Head for him.
Her eyes were calm and unreadable as she looked me over.
"Mei Ling, you are sixteen now, is that not correct?"
"Yes, My Lady," I replied as calmly and expressionlessly
as possible. Perhaps she had arranged another marriage for me?
"You are in the second-last year of high school and you
are receiving good marks."
/Straight A's,/ I felt like saying, but contented myself
with, "Yes, My Lady."
She smiled. "It has come to our attention that it is
possible for you to spend a year in a foreign school, while a
foreign student spends a year in school here."
I managed to stop myself from gaping in shock. She'd
called me in to disuss me being a foreign exchange student? "I
didn't realize I qualified for the programme, My Lady," I finally
answered her.
"Ah," she replied enigmatically. "It has come to our
attention," she continued, "that Tomoeda High School in Japan
participates in these exchanges."
I felt my heart sink. She wanted me to go to Tomoeda
again? Then I thought again. With any luck, the Card Captor
would be the one I was exchanging with. Xiao Lang would
naturally return to China for his final year if *she* did, and
Miss Daidouji would follow her 'dear Sakura' to the ends of the
Earth - Hong Kong was but a step across a very small sea. All
three would be here, and I there... it was a very attactive
prospect.
"If you wish me to participate, I will," I told her
calmly.
My aunt smiled. "Good. You will begin at Tomoeda High
School in two months, at the beginning of the first semester of
your final year."
I nodded, and, taking that as the cue to the end of the
interview, stood to leave.
"Do well, Mei Ling," she admonished me as I stood at the
door, "and when you return I will have arranged a marriage for
you."
I bowed and withdrew.
************
(PREVIEW OF NEXT PART)
MEI LING: Whaaat? I *didn't* exchange with you?!
TOMOYO: You've grown up to be really nice, Mei Ling!
ERIOL: I don't believe we've met.
XIAO LANG: ... Either she's gotten really good at controlling her
temper, or there's going to be an explosion any minute
now. Are there any old bomb raid shelters around here?
SAKURA: Hoeeee?
.---Anime/Manga Fanfiction Mailing List----.
| Administrators - ffml-admins@anifics.com |
| Unsubscribing - ffml-request@anifics.com |
| Put 'unsubscribe' in the subject |
`---- http://ffml.anifics.com/faq.txt -----'