The chains stopped midair and Serenity looked at us with a neutral expression. Marlowlia was sorta shocked but she didn't move a centimeter. Serenity's threat wasn't that dangerous, after all, it was just some chains.
"Are these chains special or something?" I asked.
The chains wrapped around my body and Serenity spoke out,
"Test them then."
It constricted tightly and cut off blood flow to my limbs. Trying to move around but to no use, I was completely trapped and stuck. Floating midair, I tried to break out. The flower on my cheek lit up as if it knew I was stripped of my freedom. Illuminating even more it expanded down my throat and up my eye. The black mist sank like liquid nitrogen and formed pools of black substance below me.
"Looks like your Aeon hates mine." Serenity said.
What did she mean by hate? Is the Aeon of Freedom and Serenity hating each other? Does it mean that they have a bad history with each other? It probably goes deeper than that.
The Aeon of Freedom went crazy, it covered my body in a black veil, completely swallowing my whole body.
Serenity then let go of the chains and congratulated me.
"Well, well, well, would you look at that, you rusted my chains."
Did I rust her chains? Was it like a special accomplishment?
"Well, you earned my respect, aeon of freedom. Come lets go." She said.
She lead us to the main shrine, offered us tea, and asked what we wanted from her and her shrine.
Aylin tried explaining that she wanted help with the curse of desire. Explaining that she wasn't happy and wanted true happiness?
"So what is true happiness then?" Serenity asked.
Aylin looked at me for an answer but I didn't respond. Her gaze fixated on me, not turning away.
Serenity looked at me, and with a grin, she started laughing maniacally.
"Ain't no freaking way," pfff, hahahhahaa.
"You are one lucky fella," she said holding her stomach.
"Remembrance sure loves you," she said.
What did she mean by remembrance? Like the Aeon of Remembrance?
"What is the Aeon of Remembrance's power?" I asked curiously.
Before answering my question, Sekito asked me a really weird question. Hearing the question I was confused and angry for her asking it. Why would she inquire about something so random?
Marlowlia and the rest of the girls looked at me bewildered, wondering why I was mad for Sekito asking that question.
"Why did you bring her up? Why? She abandoned me!" I yelled out.
Unbothered by my remarks she continued,
"So Vivshi, what do you think true happiness is?" She asked sternly.
I sat there, thinking for a few seconds before responding.
"Being able to protect what you stand for," I answered.
With a disappointed expression, Sekito sighed.
"Your answer is not wrong nor correct, but it is lacking."
Sekito stood up and snapped her fingers, the room transformed into the insides of an old house.
Emovi woke up and looked around confused.
"Hey sis, where are we?" She asked nervously.
I responded that we were in the mountains of Serenity and we were in one of her shrines. Emovi looked even more confused now, she looked at the people inside the room. She started counting the people, from me to Aylin then Serenity.
"Wait, that is Serenity?" She asked shocked.
The Aeon of Serenity introduced herself to Emovi as the Aeon of Serenity, Sekito. She welcomed Emovi to her mountains.
"You guys can go rest for a bit before you continue with this," Sekito said.
Emovi walked around the room and as she approached the door, Sekito snapped her fingers. Everything returned to normal and Emovi collided with a piece of furniture, knocking her over.
She sat now on the ground in a V-shaped position and Marlowlia asked if she could go see the animals. Sekito agreed to all our requests, with only one condition, to rest properly this night.
Marlowlia sauntered excitedly out of the shrine to the animal section.
"Goats, goats, goats!"
The four of us sat in the room and Sekito explained that we would be getting our food from the shrines. The animals would deliver the food to us. After explaining all the simple stuff, she causally walked out and went back into her tree.
"Well, let's go guys, let's check out of place," I said.
Exiting the main entrance and wandering out onto the colorful mountain field. We saw Marlowlia in the distance watching goats. She suddenly shifted her attention to the yellow ducks that were swimming in the pond.
We could hear her in the distance asking,
"Do you want some grapes, mister duck?"
How cuteee, but what were we supposed to do now? The only thing entertaining was watching Marlowlia admire ducks.
I walked to the shrines Sekito pointed out earlier. It was a medium-sized building coated in red and white paint. I walked inside and saw that everything had already been properly handled, from food to futons. All our amenities were present.
Aylin had pulled Emovi to check out the flower field and I was left alone. I sat down on the tatami mats, taking up the food. It was marvelous, meticulously made. It had a special sweet floral fragrance, and the colorful food made it look even sweeter.
"Let's dig in!"
My eyes widened and I am overwhelmed by the flavor. It wasn't anything I had tasted before, it had a mountainous, fluffy, airy flavor. The taste had also a weird earthy but sweet taste. It wasn't meat, but it was truly juicy.
The juice trickled down my delicate throat without complications, it was magical.
"It is the juice nectar of the flowers on the mountain."
I turned around to see Sekito levitating behind me. She flew around me and is face to-face with me. She asked if I enjoyed the meal which I had to agree was delicious.
"Well then, what do you think your mother is doing?" She suddenly asked.
Again with this shit, how could she be so insensitive.
"I am telling you, she ABANDONED ME," I exclaimed.
Sekito looked at me with sad and disappointed eyes. Looking down and sighing,
"C'mon dude, use your brain a little more. Why would a mother leave their child? A mother's love is something that can't be shown, it is much deeper than that. Why would she just leave you after carrying you for 9 months and raising you for years?"
She paused for a second before continuing,
"Don't you remember what happened when you encountered the Aeon of Fear? All those times you di…."
I cut her off, telling her to shut up about me and my mother. I didn't want her to continue talking about my mom or my past. I didn't want to remember those things. I'm just a vagabond right now and it is best left as it is.
Sekito stopped talking and then materialized a chessboard in front of me.
"Play with me."
She continued by saying that if I won she would help me know the truth and the truth about true happiness.
If I lost she would lock me up for eternity with her chains.
"Now you may be wondering why you would accept such an offer. But let me tell you something. I know where your mother is and why she left you."
Fuck it, let's play, I don't care anymore, I just wanted to know why Mother left me, why she abandoned us.
"You can start," she said.
The first move is E4, just a typical move. Sekito responded by going E5, mirroring my pawn. Grabbing my knight and moving it to F3. I had been taught some chess by a lady at the park. She invited me to play some and taught me how to move the pieces and some strategies. I am truly grateful for her teaching me.
Knight C6, bishop C4, it was a typical Italian game, now the difficult stage begins, tension building up and I started to focus more. My eyes shifted and my brain analyzed the possible plays I could make.
Sekito then played bishop to C5, responding to her aggressive attack I gambit one of my pawns, B4.
Sekito then started laughing,
"Well, well, well, let's see if you can handle pain."
Bishop takes B4, I looked at my hand and saw it was gone. As soon as she took my piece, my hand disappeared, but the pain pulsated into my wrist and I started to bleed.
"Don't worry, you won't die, I cast a little thing on you, that juice you drank, will replenish your blood fast enough to make you last 2 hours, at least."
"Well isn't that reassuring? Let's continue then, Serenity."
With my left hand, I moved pawn C3, and she responded by moving back her bishop to A5. Now I shoved the middle pawn up to B4.
"Are you a masochist? You just giving yourself pain you know?"
She took my B pawn and now I felt that I was missing my left foot. As I suspected, I lifted my leg to see blood dripping from the absent foot. I sat down calmly again, trying to ignore the pain. I had been through a lot of pain and had learned to control myself whenever it came to pain. But it was still really difficult to focus without a right hand and left foot.
But what was next?
"Hey Sekito, does it take the thing down there?"
"Well, last time I played this with someone, in retrospect, it was a girl, so I have no Idea. Just continue playing to see if that happens."
I castled short side and waited for Sekito to make her play.
She continued down her D pawn to the third rank. It was weird for her to do that. She looked playful though.
"How long was it since you played with someone?"
She looked at me happily, answering,
"It was 124 years ago I played with someone, so I am pretty excited to have a play partner."
Well, that must be boring, I moved my queen to B3, preparing to attack the weak F7 square. Seeing my impending attack, she finally moved the queen, QF6. Sekito was looking for a castle, a way to get her king to safety.
Not allowing her to breathe, I push my E pawn, threatening her queen.
Sekito's eyes lit up as my attack was coming as if she was taking up the defense with happiness. She moved her queen one more step to the H file, still defending the weak F7 square.
Pressing the attack I backed up the E pawn with my rook. She responded by moving her knight in front of her king. I still had the very useful A3 square where I placed the bishop. The bishop now covered a large area and was threatening to take the knight.
Sekito spoke out loud,
"The best move for any ordinary human would be to castle short side, but I am curious, what would happen if I moved this pawn forward?"
She sacrificed her B pawn by moving it to B5.
"Well? Take it. I wanna see what happens if that piece disappears."
"Alright Sekito, don't blame me if you lose something."
Queen takes B pawn and we paused for a second. Sekito was looking around for any missing limbs or fingers.
Until I pointed out that her white dress was bleeding. She slowly tilted her head down to look at what was missing.
"… MY CHEST, NOOOOO."
"MUAHHAHAHHAHA, that is karma for taking my foot."
But then I wondered, if you played this type of game before, how did she recover all of her body parts?
I asked the disappointed Sekito who is massaging her missing boobs how she recovered all her limbs and parts after the chess game.
"Well… I just drink from the oak tree, it got healing properties. You drank before the match therefore it isn't healing you, just extending your time to live. But you can drink some juice after the match if you want." She winked.
"No thx, I got a cat. Now let's continue our game."