769 Privy Questions
It never got any better, any easier.
I thought it would, like slowly, surely, I’d just gradually beco accustod to whatever batshit insanity life had piping hot and ready to serve today on a silver platter.
For whatever reason, however, Alia was where my suspension of disbelief decided to finally put its foot down. Every step with her as company was like walking across a valley of the uncanny.
She never did answer my question, killing it, leaving it with only a trace of her wicked smile… filling my head with the buzz of intrigue, which I’m sure was what she had intended.
Mission accomplished.
“How senseless,” Alia remarked, leering over at a ga of horseshoe to the side in her usual air of snide. “Surely there must be less obtrusive and asinine ways for you people here to pay tribute to your traditions.”
“What? There’s no such thing as celebrations in Kronocia or sothing?”
“Oh, countless,” She huffed the word out. “But at the very least, Kronocian n had the common decency to not pester the entire province with their debauchery.”
“The entire province, or just you in particular?” I asked. “I think it’s just you in particular.”
.....
She scoffed at that, turning away from in a way that seed to regard as beyond any sort of regard.
Supposed to be acting like a loving couple here, but if anything, I felt more like a dog tugged along on an invisible leash, and she as that posh, prim and proper princess taking her little poodle out for a walk.
Not exactly what you’d generally call a romantic relationship. Unless you’re into that kind of play. And I’m making it clear right now, I’m not into that sort of ga.
We continued to just stroll along the path, speaking very little to each other while taking turns on whims without rhy or reason. No need for caution, no need to steer away from hanging, blaring loudspeakers either. For once, a large group of people in our way didn’t an having to find a detour instead.
Alia marched onward just fine, all the laughter, all the noise, simply just annoying her instead of outright debilitating her.
And under the guise, swathed in the identity of her sister, I needed a pause, a second to process just what I was seeing… knowing there once used to be a ti and mory when Adalia didn’t need help, comfort, doing what to everyone else was simply trivial… and wondering… still always wondering, if there’ll ever co a ti when she’ll be able to again.
More judges ca to pass their judgnt on us too. So brand new, while others familiar, and with every dilemma they threw at us to ponder through, I was beginning to notice that a lot of Alia’s answers were kinda… pragmatic, I guess?
It’s like she was sorta detached from the moral quandary of the questions themselves.
She’d leave a relationship with when she no longer had anything to gain from it.
A freak accident had her prioritizing her life over mine.
And worst of all – she absolutely refuses to share the last slice of pizza with .
It was starting to feel like she was sabotaging more than she was helping, and when I called her out on it, explained how she just let those easy points slip from our grip, she just turned her nose to the air.
“Is it a vice to be honest?” She said to . “I ask, what good is a relationship built upon a sham of pleasantries? If soone were to love , then they would love as I am, not as they desire to be.”
“Yeah, okay, agreed,” I said, exasperated. “But newsflash: You’re not you right now! Don’t act like you, please. Seriously, Adalia was – ”
“My sister would have thought the sa as I,” She quickly spoke over . “Or are you still completely ignorant as to how she used to be before?”
I groaned. Not this again…
“Is that why you’re doing this? Really? You’re still gonna go on about that here? Right now? Look, I don’t need any reminding.”
“Watching from afar, however, it seems to that you do. So long in her company, and yet not once have you truly asked her what you should.”
“It’s not about that. This is all just about getting points, alright? That’s it.”
“I ask you, what’s the point of these points, of professing your love to her this way, if you simply continue refusing to know all of her?”
“Look, you’re doing this to help your sister, aren’t you? How is harping on to about this again supposed to be helping her?”
“And how awfully pragmatic of you to think allocating aningless points in an inconsequential ga is the only sole ans I have in helping her,” Alia crossed her arms, the muddied silver of her hair blowing, nearly obscuring the scowl in her gaze. “I’ll always help my sister in every way I am able—every way. And should you choose to refrain from asking her the question she must answer, then I shall help her with that too.”
“I am not afraid of getting an answer, alright?!” I snapped, hearing what was left unsaid in her derisiveness. “Look, it’s Christmas, it’s our date, it’s our special mont with each other. Why do you insist I ruin that by prying into her past? It’s not the right ti.”
“On the contrary—a day commorating one’s love and one another’s bonds. To love her, to know her…” Alia blinked, her face resting, and in a passing mirage, I saw Adalia looking right at through her once again, speaking to . “...could there really be a righter ti than now?”
“Um, excuse .”
We both instantly spun forward, our attention diverted by the sa noise, and just as abruptly, suddenly, I felt a kick from inside my lungs expelling all the air out of my system.
Three things.
The click of a pen.
The flutter of pages.
And most importantly, a slightly surly-looking Hayley in front of us carrying both.
“Oh, uh, hah,” my brain responded on autopilot still in the process of loading. “Hey, Hayley.”
“Surprised to see ?” She cocked her brow, forming a little smile that paled in comparison to the ones she usually wears. “I’m a judge, rember? I’m here to judge. Speaking of which, I was beginning to think I was gonna lose my chance to run into you two…”
And at the ntion of us ‘two’, her gaze wandered over to Alia on my right, and much like every other judge we had encountered in the past, Hayley squinted at my partner with an expression clearly sensing sothing amiss, but unlike everyone else, however, she wasn’t brushing it off as a trick of the light.
“Lost your eye contact, Adalia?” She asked her. “You know, I don’t think I’ve ever once seen you without them.”
Almost as if sensing her astuteness, Alia just slowly nodded in the sa way Adalia would have.
“Different dress too,” Hayley continued to point out. “Thought I saw you wearing sothing different.”
“She changed. Changed a lot, ” I said, shedding light onto that mystery there. “You got a question for us, Ms. Judge? Otherwise, we’ll just be on our way.”
Seeing her slowly drift her eyes back over to set off a feeling of unease stirring within , and beca all too aware of the little bump in my pocket brushing against my leg.
“How about two questions?” Hayley batted quaintly at . “One for you, and one for your… other significant other.”
“Ask away,” I said, keen to get this over with as soon as possible.
She raised her pad, readied her pen, and in a single breath without pause, went ahead and rattled my head even more.
“You’re married, you have kids, and then suddenly one day, you decided to cheat on your wife,” her eyes were as cold as ice. “Do you think you deserve or should expect any sort of forgiveness from your daughter, or do you believe you should just rot in hell?”
It occurred to to wait, stay silent, and see if the real question would pop up at any mont. Suffice it to say, it didn’t. This was a real question, and I was supposed to answer it.
Honestly, sincerely… speak exactly what I thought about it all.
“I’d rot,” I muttered, saying no more than that.
Hayley scribbled sothing on her board, wearing a blank look that conveyed absolutely nothing, before directing her focus back onto Alia.
“Honestly, I can’t really think of a good question to ask you,” She admitted to her with a weary sort of chuckle. “So, instead… how about a bonus point to Team Wisdom, hm?”
Again, still knowing no context, Alia just nodded and played along.
“Well, since you really do seem to know your Asterian lore so well, how about…” with a faint twinkle glimring in her eye, Hayley asked. “In the wake of Leonardo’s return, a small warrior village, the very best of their kind, had devoted their numbers to the cause, only to ultimately amount to nothing. Why?”
It didn’t surprise one bit that Alia was unfazed by a question that hits too close to ho. I’m sure Irene had already filled her in on what’s what. That there exists a ga based closely off her world, that Jay had seen to its creation through reasons yet to be brought to light.
What did surprise , however, was the answer to that question.
“That village was slain,” Alia quietly said. “Gron, in the southern region of Astra. A massacre. No survivors.”
“Wow, you really did scour through every codex entry in the ga, didn’t you?” Hayley said, impressed in spite of her somberness. “And what got them in the end?”
“An ambush by demons…” my eyes found hers again, and in a mont ever so fleeting, I managed to spot Adalia again. “... and a Matriarch hidden among them.”
“Yep, that’s full points, alright” Hayley proclaid, her wrist twirling in a big fat circle. “Good answers, very good answers. The both of you.”
I didn’t get a chance to even react before I was once more blitzed by another surprise bombshell.
“By the way, it only just ca in… but venue tis have changed,” Hayley said. “The final event of the contest starts in exactly fifteen minutes.”
My eyes began blinking so fast it was like I was looking at snapshots of the world.
“What?”
“We all got radio-ed earlier to inform every participant we see, you see,” She said as she strolled away past , “Not that I’d want you to, but I’d hurry over if I were you,” before parting away with an even moodier smile. “Gotta prove your love, right?”
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