Looking around the room, Orb says, "Where is Suzuka?"
Maple turns her head and says, "Where is she?"
Cyrus says, "Maple got up to go get you to calm the situation?"
"I didn't see her?"
Orb and Maple stare at each other, and a wave of sweat rushes over both of them. Stiprais sees them turn to Veekeeris and says, "I think there might be a chance she got caught in it."
"Got caught in what?" Maple says, jumping over the table.
Vėja says, "The Queen's defence system."
"The what!?"
Location: Hallways of Soarele Blestemat
ΦMoving as fast as I can, across the paths in front of me, I say, "WHERE IS THE ROOM!"
Stopping, I smash my head against one of the walls and say, "I should have returned by now! But it's like my eyes can barely make out the presence of the hallway."
Taking a deep breath in and out, I say, "Think Suzuka, think. Remember the path you followed. First, you went straight forward, but then you came across a crossroads, and went left, then you kept walking for a few minutes, but no matter how far you walked, you didn't see anyone, so you tried to circle back to the crossroads, but haven't been able to reach it."
As an idea dawns on me, I say, "Did I get caught in a curse? Maybe someone's in the castle playing a trick on me. But what would be the point of that? It's because they hate me, isn't it? They just want stupid scum like me to be in pain. Dammit, I should never have been born!"
Feeling despair start to enrapture my head, I fall to the ground just lie down. Feeling tears come forth from my eyes, I say, "Orb, Cyrus, Maple, Willow, Ian-. Guys, come and help me."
"Let me help you then?"
"Wait, this voice." Standing up, I hold my hands against my head and say, "It's you again!"
"Trust me, I am like you, I will be there for you."
"No. Who are you? I don't trust your words. I won't listen to anything you say."
"You don't have to just allow them to overtake you, to be one with your soul."
What is going on? It feels like my mind is becoming more and more numb, like I can barely think at all, like I am about to fall asleep.
Φ"Will you really help me?" Suzuka says as her eyes hold no form of consciousness.
"Of course, we are the same. We have always been connected to one another. Just walk forward."
Suzuka's body begins to move one step at a time, and as it does, the voice says, "Everything will be okay? Just follow me; it will all be okay. Just take a step forward."
Her little feet pitter and patter forward until she comes close to a hallway with a giant door at the end of it, and hears, "Just a little bit more, and you'll reach the pest who keeps me imprisoned, who restrains my freedom."
A small voice plays in the back of Suzuka's head as she moves, "Do not let him out; he doesn't care for you at all."
The first voice gets louder and says, "Suzuka, you and I will truly be free after I am released. Together, all the hate and frustration in your heart will vanish, and under my guidance, we shall get revengee on all those who hate us."
"Why would this happen?" Suzuka says as drool drips from her mouth.
"Don't listen to him. He only wishes to control you."
"Because the world hates those like you and I. We are beings burdened with the mistakes of others. Their legacies of hate and pain weigh our futures down, and only together can we break free and create a place of peace."
Suzuka reaches for the doorknob and stops. "What is wrong, Suzuka?"
"Place of peace? Suzuka is trash, but she has been given a place of peace with Orb, Maple, Cyrus, and everyone else. Suzuka is always at peace when she is around them."
"It won't last, and you know it. You'll never be able to truly stand beside them."
Suzuka's hand moves forward, and another voice says, "Even if that's the fate given to you, don't insult the resolve they have to stay with you. It may break them, it may break you, but even if the world rejects it, for a moment that means everything to you, you will be able to stand beside them."
Suzuka's body completely freezes, and the voice says, "LISTEN TO ME!"
Her eyes fill with life, and as she regains her awareness, her hand moves forward as she says, "Stop!"
"It's too late, I am taking what's rightfully mine!"
Feeling a tight grip around her wrist, Suzuka hears, "What are you doing?"
Turning her head, she sees Dragoste, then says, "I don't know."
Looking at the door, his face burns with anger and fury as his grip gets tighter, but as a string of pain washes over the face of the little girl in front of him, he lets go and says, "Sorry."
Suzuka, holding her wrist with an embarrassed look, says, "Sorry, I shouldn't have been here. I just got lost."
Placing his hand against his head, Dragoste says, "Of course, you did. I should have put up signs. Sorry, the only people who enter this entire section of Soarele Blestemat know of how the castle operates. This entire castle, and especially this area, is made up of a series of cursed items that affect perception. It's why you got lost."
"Really? I didn't even notice that I was affected?"
"For this section, it is a combination of minor impacts across all your senses as well as the architecture that looks repeated, which tricks people. Unless you are aware of it, nothing will seem out of the ordinary. Though I am surprised you made it all the way here without knowing the right way to move."
Suzuka says, "It felt like a voice was guiding me?"
Dragoste's eyes open wide, and he turns to face the door. Then Suzuka says, "Maybe I was reading a man's thoughts."
"Wait, a man?"
"Yeah, people's thoughts are kind of told to me in their voices when I read them, so whoever it was is definitely a male."
Dragoste fills with thoughts, and looking at him, Suzuka tries to read his mind right before a jelly is placed into her mouth. As the jelly hits her tongue and an overwhelmingly bitter taste comes into her mouth making he says, "WHAT IS THIS!"
Giggling as the taste hits her, Dragoste, with a giggle, says, "It's a little prank I prepared for Orb. It seems like it is effective if it was able to overcome your sense of taste."
"BLEH!"
As Dragoste laughs, Elia walks through the corridor and says, "I knew I heard the pathetic whimpers that could only originate from you, Suzuka."
Calming down, she says, "HEY! STOP BEING SUCH A BULLY!"
Elia, walking over to Suzuka, puts her hands against her face, and says, "You're just so cute I can't help it," with a completely emotionless expression.
Blushing Suzuka says, "Really?"
"Whoa, it actually is that easy, Orb isn't a liar."
She tosses Elia's hands off her body and charges away, saying, "Orb, I will kill you!"
As Suzuka dashes off, Elia smiles and walks away. With Dragoste saying, "You were able to navigate your way here?"
"I have rather strong perception. I can tell when off even by a bit. Crystal breaks easily, Dragoste."
With those words, she walks off, and Dragoste walks into the room in front of himself.
-Break-
20 years ago
Φ Ivana Balint, the name of the 5th daughter of Stiprais Balint, the name I was given as I was born to walk on this hopeless planet. I have three older brothers and one elder sister, and my father loves each of us deeply, yet I was never happy.
The Cursed Land Region is the building block of the country of Blestemate. It has control of the vast majority of land within the country and houses the most people among the four regions, but more importantly than that, it is the region in charge of the people's food supply. The land around Blestemate has many fertility issues due to the curse warping all of it. So much of the land is useless, and has only regained the ability to sustain crops due to the widespread efforts of the people in the region. Throughout the generations, as the relationship between Nightmares and humans has been unstable, the Cursed Land regions' crops have been solely responsible for keeping our people fed throughout it all.
Yet it is a taxing job. The maintenance of the soil, and the methods we even use to grow crops, despite the curse,s are wide and varied. Growing wheat in the east of the region is different from the west, and these differences can be apparent even between neighbouring towns. We don't have large amounts of space for error, so structure and order reign over all aspects of society. You must fit in your place, you must not disturb what is expected of you, and all you do must be in perfect harmony with the rest. For a single failure can cause the end of us all.
And my father, as the descendant of a long line of farmers who entered the stage of politics to guard what he saw as lax attitudes that were destroying the order and causing food shortages.
In his heart, he carries the ethos of the Cursed Land Region more than anyone else, and it reflects in his heart. For him, there are only two ways a woman can be: the Queen of Blestemate, a perfect intellectual warrior queen who will never falter, and never betray the trust and fate put in her, exceeding at all she strives towards. Or like my mother, a perfect carer and supporter, elegant in every movement she makes, and the very image of a lady. My sister fits the mould of the queen perfectly, standing at his side during all military escapees, yet I am neither.
I cannot be a dominating queen like our beloved ruler.
In the middle of my family's estate, as my elder brother clashes his wooden swords against mine, I fly backwards and land on my butt, filling my eyes with tears, and walking over to me, my father grabs my hands and says, "Sorry, it seems a warrior's life is not ahead of you."
And at the same time, I cannot be the image of an elegant lady either.
Sitting beside all the members of my family around the dining table, I look to my youngest brother stuffing food down his mouth at high speed, and as he smirks at me, I start doing the same, using my hands to grasp the mashed potatoes across my plate and stuff them right into my mouth. Though a loud, "STOP!" Rings through my ears, and my father, glaring at me, says, "You're a lady, not a pig, control yourself."
Pointing at my brother with potatoes over my hands, I say, "But what about him!"
"That's just how warriors like him are, their rough around the edges. You were unfit for such a path, unlike your sister, so control yourself, Ivana or else you will fall into chaos."
He said words like that often to me, and if that was it, I would have been able to survive. But it wasn't, he taught me proper ways to talk, proper ways to walk, proper interests for a lady to have, again and again, no matter how much I didn't get, or how much it made me sad.
"You need to learn how to fit in Ivana."
"Our lives are the ideals the people of the region look towards."
"You must try, because without this, Ivana, you have no value to the world around you."
The only solace I had was the matches of the Knightmares I used to sneak out and see play. The feelings I felt when I saw a group of orphans trying to top the world in cursed chess made my heartbeat relentlessly. I tried my best to support them using the cash I was able to ask my mother for to buy their shirts and keep them in my home.
Yet I wasn't even allowed that.
Looking down at the Knightmares' shoddy jersey ripped to shreds beneath me, I raise up my head to my father, who says, "Doing such things like watching cursed chess matches and screaming like that is unbecoming of you. Stop being so crass, or else I will throw you out of this home."
Lying on the ground covered with the fragments of the only love I had left, the only thing I was assured about was that I didn't know why I was still alive.