Obrecht and I are ushered by Vera to sit at two adjacent seats nearby. In the middle of this round dining hall was where Lady Amani sat with Vera and a bigger table. Looking down at the floor, there was a formation with their table lying at the its eye. It's this exact table is obviously the goal, but I have no idea what kind of game it is.
"Why don't we start a new game after Videre and Obrecht have finished eating? How does that sound to everybody?"
Everybody pretends to be doing something, averting their eyes from us and the Lady's. This behavior is extremely odd. Why aren't they talking?
"Very well then", Lady Amani says, pleased that there were no objections.
I look down at the food in front of me. The fragrance is indeed appetizing, and I can't detect any other smell other than food and seasoning. It didn't seem like it was laced with something, but my gut really says there's something there. Turning my head, I see Obrecht guilelessly eating his share.
Finding that I am looking at him, he words, "It's fine."
Considering that everyone in the room is fine other than not talking, perhaps the only side effect of the food was temporary voicelessness?
I take a spoonful of the soup and start digging in. There are a lot of vegetable and meat side dishes. The rice is soft and delicious paired with the soup. If you ignore the odd atmosphere, it would have been a good dinner.
"Since you're going to the Faerie Valley soon, why don't I give you a few tips of advice to guard against them?"
The Faerie-kind? What kind of guarding would we need against them? I do remember Mother saying that typically, the older a Faerie-kind is, the younger the actual age is, and the younger looking they are, the older their real age is. But it's not a fixed thing.
"This is the first time I'm hearing about this", Vera exclaims. "Obrecht, you're going?"
Obrecht simply nods his head once, focusing on his food.
"Ah, I want to go to! Krael, Virgil, Raguk, don't you wanna come too?"
When I entered the dining hall, I was too bothered by the atmosphere and the odd silence that I didn't notice them. Surprised, I look up to see Raguk giving me an indecipherable look before closing his eyes to rest. Nobody says an affirmative answer, but neither do they argue.
Swallowing my food, I speak up to ask Vera if they're free. After all, they're here for Lumean matters. Don't they need to hurry their return? Shouldn't they bring Obrecht with them and go in haste?
"Why is Obrecht annoyingly cute?"
Huh?
I double check somebody else spoke, but everybody else is looking at me. Obrecht looks surprised but pleased.
...Did I just—? In front of everybody?!
Vera laughs, "Videre, you look completely stumped. What a refreshing sight!"
"You can tell?" Theo doubtfully looks at my inscrutable expression, then at Vera.
At times like this, it's useful to have trained facial paralysis, but that's not it! I'm pretty sure that wasn't what I was going to ask!
Meanwhile, the stone mike gleams for barely a second.
"A quick shine means you spoke of the truth. I thought it was a secret. I was expecting it to be alight for at least half a minute. I seem to be mistaken." Lady Amani merely smiles. "Now then, for the first lesson, before I let Vera explain the game rules, let me remind you all: never consume any of the food the Faerie folk give you. The Faerie-kind grow a particular truth-telling plant named xyltosia, that exclusive grows in their valley. They make tasteless and scentless truth potions out of the soft stalks, sprinkling them on the food they offer outsiders and watching them foolishly expose their own secrets as a form of entertainment. Though I'm not from the Faerie folk, I am on friendly terms with them and they send me a few truth potions and xyltosia stalks every now and then. You should be careful from now on, Videre."
By the looks of everyone, it seems no one here, even Girtro, didn't expect the Lady to have spiked the food with a truth inducing potion. Now I understand why they kept their silence. Every time they speak, they carefully note what they're saying, otherwise, unguarded speaking results either in a truth or a secret being uttered.
I'm never eating at Faerie Valley even if I starve. That goes for your house too, you sly landlady.
Amani turns to Vera, "Do you mind briefing our late arrivals and first timers with the game rules?"
"Sure. " Vera clears her throat. "The rules are simple: First, each player can confess a truth or a secret at will. The order can be decided in any way but we just opted for counterclockwise rotation earlier. If what you confess is a truth, you can pass to the next player but you won't move. You see the formation under your table, right? If you confess your own secret, you'll move forward for at least two places, depending on the magnitude of your secret is to you. If you confess a secret of one of the players involved, you'll move one place forward while that player will move backwards for one place. If there are no places to move back to, you'll be penalized to strip off one article of clothing or remove any object attached or on to your body, but you can exchange them for a secret as well.
"Secrets that at least three other people present know don't count. Secrets of people outside the players don't count either. If you don't confess at all, you'll still be penalized with the same earlier penalty. The first person to reach the middle of the circle, where the Lady and I are, will be the victor and allowed to drink the anti-confessing antidote. The formation below will shut itself down once the game has been finished, or when the winners have all drank the antidote. I think you'll get it after playing once."
I direct my sight at the small shot glasses as she speaks. There are twelve of those, one of which is empty, three are purple in color, while the rest are dark green.
"The winner is allowed to remember everything." Vera traces the rim of the purple drink before her finger hops to the rim of the green-colored one. "The losers, on the other hand, will have to drink this serum to forget which secrets they've confessed. Interesting, isn't it? You can confess a secret but the winner may know it already so you have to take note how many people know it including yourself, otherwise, you're confessing for nothing~"
"You can only say it's interesting because you confessed Via's secrets. Of course nobody wouldn't even know any of that." Amani glares at Vera who laughs at her.
"We're of one body, it's only fair ah! Well, I won anyway so I've protected her secrets one way or another."
"And what of the three other winners, how will you make them forget?"
"Eh... I haven't thought of that yet hehe..."
Lady Amani raises an eyebrow at her as if to say, "Look at this shameless cheater, exposing my ex-daughter's secrets, though I was curious so I'll let it be."
Frantic to change the topic, Vera explains, "The winner to loser ratio is one is to four, by the way. So since there are twelve of us here, there are three other winners who can join me here at the victor's table."
"Alright, why don't we opt for an alphabetic naming order and start this round with our first timers? Since Videre has already confessed—Obrecht, care to do the honors?" Lady Amani asks.
In alphabetical order, the names of the players, excluding Vera, are Girtro, Krael, Laris, Letitia, Obrecht, Raguk, Theo, Tukare, Videre, Virgil, and Zara Serena. Beginning from Obrecht means that there are three people before it's my turn. If I feel pressured like this for even being fifth to confess, I can't imagine what it feels to be like to be in Obrecht's shoes.
"Oh", Obrecht answers Lady Amani. "I don't have any secrets."
The stone in front of him lightens briefly, meaning what he said was surely the truth. Everybody silently discerns Obrecht and the stone. Did the thing malfunction?
Turning to see Krael and Raguk, and even Vera, means that they each had secrets despite being Lumeans who prioritized this type of honesty. Yet I didn't expect Obrecht to actually have none.
"I see, well that is indeed troubling", Amani replies. "Would you still like to play otherwise?"
"Hm, sharing other people's secrets isn't as fun." Obrecht glances at me at the corner of his eye. "And besides, there are other people's secrets that I want only me to know."
Vera makes intrigued noises and keeps inquiring. Nonetheless, Obrecht doesn't elaborate.
There are eight places in between us and the middle table, which means that one can confess four secrets and be done with it, but it's easier said than done. Things you guard so much in your heart can't readily be said no matter when or where. There's also the limit of having at least three people. This means that if there are more than two other people who know your secret, it becomes invalid. Nobody is as transparent as Obrecht.
"What a shame. Why don't you join us instead and watch the fun then?"
"Alright, but would it be possible to remain in my seat?"
"Of course."
A few people stiffen. Obrecht standing up and walking up to the middle table means one less anti-confessing potion!
"The next player please?" Lady Amani looks around, only to have his eyes land at Raguk.