“You fuckers took your time,” Haiddeck yelled, as he threw open the door to his cottage. Just like Darius’s home, the inside of the building was a lot bigger and lit by windows which weren’t apparent on the outside. “Get your asses in here before the blasted Elders come over.” Max held his tongue as Cy led the way into the house, removing his hood the moment the door was slammed shut behind them. “So, the cunt’s staying?”
Story Name:
Haiddeck of Hibiscus House
Genre:
Drama
Description:
Guide the sheltered, young youth as he is forced to grow up in a cold community.
Goal:
Help raise Haiddeck to welcome in a new age.
Difficulty:
★☆☆☆☆
How to Start:
Encourage Haiddeck to be himself!
“For now.” It was a struggle for Max to keep his words to himself. Maybe it was because he had just come from a life with children of his own, the urge to discipline was strong. Ellie would’ve killed Haiddeck if she heard him talk like that.
“Where’s Delrid? Max only has a couple of hours before he has to meet with Elder Aris.”
“That bitch?” Haiddeck was taken aback.
“It’s a requirement for me to stay here,” Max begrudgingly confirmed.
Haiddeck snorted to show his disapproval as he led them into a cosy living room. The atmosphere was warm with natural light from the windows and several candles in every corner of the room. Under a giant window, there were several small bowls filled with water. Did they have pets? The room was clean, and a lot of thought and time had gone into organising it. Max had assumed Delrid was behind it before seeing Haiddeck clean up a mug and coaster on the coffee table. “The fuck does he want?”
“I have to check in with him periodically.”
“Can you take Max to him later?” Cy asked, before making himself at home on one of the sofas. Max felt a bit betrayed, Cy never mentioned anything about them parting ways today. “I need to see Elder Charaka.” The feeling vanished in an instant and was replaced with concern.
Haiddeck let out a groan, but quickly followed with, “Fine. What would you bitches do without me?” Without another word, he disappeared behind a door with the empty mug.
“Are you feeling alright?”
“I’ll be fine. I just need to pick up something.” Medicine? “After you check-in with Elder Aris, Haiddeck will take you to Elder Ji-min.”
Max sat down next to Cy, who slightly shuffled away. He whispered, “What’s the deal with the kid? I know you said to be more forgiving-”
Meow.
A cat? Cats.
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Story Name:
Meowvelous Mysterious Mistress
Genre:
Feminist
Description:
Overlooked in the community, the sharpest mind needs a stepping stone before she can take over.
Goal:
Install Delrid as the Master Elder of Tsujuma.
Difficulty:
★☆☆☆☆
How to Start:
Expose every Elder’s weak point to Delrid.
Max turned around to see a sleepy young woman surrounded by a colony of cats by her feet. Hair unkept and dressed in black, she rubbed her eyes before looking down at them. “Ah, you’re home, little Cyrus.” Cyrus just replied with a relaxed smile. “And this is your friend with the scrambled sentence?”
“Max,” he confirmed. “I heard Cy passed it on to you. Thank you for taking a look.” She only replied with sleepy nods as she sat across them on the other sofa. “I don’t know if you’ve seen-”
“I’ve already solved it,” she muttered before she began rummaging in the drawers under the coffee table. The cats cried and scattered as she began throwing away the contents while searching for something. Max had assumed she was looking for the answer to his problem before Haiddeck reappeared with a tray of sweet treats and glasses filled with juice.
“For fucks sake! Now’s not the time for games, Delrid!”
“Now is always the time for games,” she snapped back as she pulled out a chess set. “You’ll play with me, won’t you Max?”
“That cunt is busy doing shit. He’s got an appointment with Elder Git later today.” Haiddeck gently put down the tray before starting to clean up after his sister. He tried to shoo away the cat horde as he tidied up but was mostly ignored as they tried to rub and lick his hands. Without invitation, Cy began dishing out the juice and sweet treats.
“We probably have enough time for a quick game,” Max entertained the idea. Chess wasn’t his favourite, but he played plenty of games against June. “You can go first.”
Delrid looked up at him with an expression he didn’t understand before quickly moving 1. d4, the Queen’s Pawn Opening. She pulled out a scrap of paper from her pocket. The poor penmanship couldn’t have come from Cy, so it wasn’t the original message passed to her. Messily scrawled was: emnAh TstiSgl eyb esRtea. “I’ve solved it. Have you, Max? I heard a rumour that you are good with languages.”
“That’s one way to put it,” Max moved his pawn in front of hers, almost an invitation for her to play the Queen’s Gambit. “I haven’t put too much thought behind it, to be honest. The capital letters spell STAR.”
“Probably a coincidence,” Delrid dismissed. She avoided the gambit. Haiddeck took a seat next to her as he and Cy watched the game in front of them. “Or it’s connected in a way that I can’t discern without more information.”
“Maybe,” Max admitted. He moved another pawn. Delrid replied by moving her own pieces quickly, almost without thought. The moves caused him to speed up as well. She had not seen the other words or the story prompt outline, no wonder she would dismiss it. Perhaps he should fill her in. “I know SWAP, STAR, LOCATE, and BREAK LOGIC are connected to it somehow.”
“You never mentioned that part,” Cy muttered.
“Didn’t seem relevant at the time.”
“It still isn’t relevant,” Delrid tutted, as Max checked her king. “If anything, I would guess they were instructions or hints about what to do next.”
“Next? Check.” Max felt slightly proud for winning the game so quickly. His joy was short-lived when Delrid ignored his statement and took his king with her bishop. “…Wait…” Max had to do a double take as he stared at the board. The bishop wasn’t in a spot to check his king a few rounds before. Otherwise, he would’ve seen this coming. Cy and Haiddeck didn’t say anything, but they looked amused at his loss.
“I win.” Delrid proudly announced, while she began setting up the pieces for another game.
Max didn’t bother to hide the irritation on his face. “You cheated?”
“And you didn’t notice until the end,” Delrid countered. “People break the rules and cheat in real life, why shouldn’t we do it in games as well. Want another go?” She saw his unwillingness to agree. “Go on, let’s play again. We have enough time.”
Reluctantly, Max agreed. “Any kind of cheating is okay?”
“As long as the other doesn’t notice until the end,” Delrid confirmed, but Max quickly dismissed her as lying. She was just as pushy and assertive as the Elders of this community.
“Sounds fair.”
Delrid finished setting up the pieces. “Shall we begin? You can go first.” Max was about to put down his pawn for the King’s Pawn Opening, when Delrid dropped a bomb. “Rebel Against The System.”
Max’s breath got caught in his throat causing him to cough. “Excuse me?” Surely that wasn’t enough for her to receive a penalty. He glanced at Cy, who was frowning in confusion.
“Honestly, you seem like the kind to unravel it yourself. Assuming the capital letters were the start of words and the numbers of letters and spaces were unchanged, it wasn’t very difficult… Are you going to let go of that pawn? It’s an illegal chess move to pick up and put down a chess piece without moving it, you know?”