The Games We've Played Are Now At an End

Seryale watched as she accepted his title sink in, swearing he heard a click in her brain as though it had been processed and stored. He wasn’t too satisfied with the fact his tongue slipped over his otherwise hesitant objections in his mind. His weak state was the cause of the informalities and he knew he would regret it later on. With his right eye twitching for hating what he had just revealed, he took a breath and looked back down on the wet form too anxious and alarmed from what had just happened. He didn’t like the fact she was just staring at him with bewilderment, almost as though she wanted to hear an apology or a comforting term. The long silence was also vexing him at a rate where he felt his temper slowly boiling in his throat. He flexed his fingers.

“Seryale,” she repeated slowly, her gaze now reaching the floor. She understood it but it was obvious from his view she thought it foreign.

She became silent again. He hated that. He hated that pregnant pause.

“I’m sorry? I believe I was trying to converse with someone who was capable of speech and hearing. Clearly I was wrong and have been presented with a mute,” he hissed quickly. He watched her shoulders flinch in his bitter tone.

The girl raised herself and looked him with determination in her eyes. “Why have you saved me? Why have you come?” She had calmed down from the representation only a few moments ago. Her voice cracked somewhat. She was intimidated.

“Do you not think that you are in danger?” he inquired, standing feebly and leaning unto his support. His legs buckled from his weight. “Do you not even question of why you are here?” He slowly paced himself towards the grand window. He stared outside, the moons now in rise in the crisp grey sky. “Do you not question your very existence in this world and what lies for you in the next?”

He turned his head to look at her, she now sitting on the corner of her bed post hanging to his every word. “The gods have put us here for a greater use than to amuse their needs. There is a greater connection where we are all intertwined. Nothing happens by accident. It is fate. It is destiny. And it is of a bigger resolve far complex than even the most advanced will ever understand.”

Seryale limped back towards her. “For why did I bring you up from the dungeons? It was a calling and I am not sure of what the stars will reveal. But it was necessary to follow the instructions intended for this chapter of an eternity.” He stood before her again, staring down with his fingers tightly gripping his clutch. “Believe me when I say that if it was left to me, I would have ignored the call so you may have become forgotten and corrupted of dirt. I would have let you rot and decease where you have belonged.”

The words hurt. She looked away from him, new tears forming but filled with anger. “So, I am just your toy! I am dirt to you?! If anything here that is pathetic in this room it would be you for pulling me down just because you think you are of higher than me!”

Seryale grabbed her chin and pulled it towards him, his face fuming with offense. “You have already meddled with my affairs and those of others!” he spat, his nails digging into her pale skin. “It is you who has helped the murder of what was and you who have displeased the gods!” He clenched her jaw, his heart hurting. “I am higher, far superior and more powerful than you’ll ever be! And if you dare speak to me with that tone to your own savior, then I will have to retreat into violence!”

He shook her face before pushing it away. “You have best be afraid of me, young one.”

She whimpered and held her face, tears streaming down her rosy cheeks. She stifled a sob but he felt her courage still fueled on despite the hurt she was given.

“Now, I will continue of what I have begun only if you halt such foolish tears and not interrupt me with a childish voice.” He brushed his bangs out of his right eye. “Do we understand that?”

She nodded.

He waited for her tears to stop despite his temper had just broken seconds before. Even if he was cruel and harsh, Seryale was a gentleman but was cold towards many other women. It took a few minutes where she wiped her eyes, sniffled and was ready to force herself to look up at him showing she was not terrified. If she only knew.

“Tell me,” he intruded, swooping over her sitting form. “Did you see the moons last night?”

“Briefly,” she answered quietly.

“Did you notice that Stryphus was high in the night sky? Higher than it ever was and that it collided with another, causing an eclipse as it shadowed Hisheme?”

“I saw it rise. But not entirely. I was distracted by a servant.”

“Daniel?”

Her eyes widened, shocked. “How do you know?” she asked. But as she blinked, he was gone before her vision and was greeted by warm air breathing down her back. Seryale leaned forward and whispered menacingly, his fingers pushing away her wet tangled hair where his nails scratched into the back of her swan like neck.

“Believe me, little girl, I know what you’ve been up to.”

It sent a chill down her spine, the hairs on her skin standing up at the few words he had murmured. Seryale smirked, scratching even deeper into her neck. She flinched at the thought of what he had seen, what he had heard. He had violated her space and her privacy. He could read the running thoughts in her mind, each filled with shame and embarrassment. “Because I do need something to amuse me as I sit and wait, don’t I?”

She quickened, ready to push him off but he was gone and had somehow managed to sits casually in the lounging chair situated on the foot of her bed. He kept a gaze on her. It was cat-like, evil and yet unusually seductive. Was he not threatening her mere minutes ago? And now what was he up to? Was he seeking a reward? For all that, she would not even dare to go beyond those limits of one whose mood changed rapidly-

“If you think I would be tempted even to touch you lustfully, you are completely wrong.” He yawned, his palm cupping over his mouth. “Even if I was forced to, the thought itself makes me disgusted. I’d rather kill myself.”

“Enough with the games, Seryale!” she managed to shout. Her fingers intertwined with the sheets, fisting and clutching and the silk and velvet. “I asked you a question! Will you get on with it?! Besides, I wouldn’t dream of being lured by you either. I prefer sophisticated men.”

He rolled his eyes. “Sophisticated you say. Know this as I was trying to keep the truth less painful to your deaf little ears. What you think of your precious shrike is in fact juxtaposed to the truth of his masks.”

The curtains flew and closed over the light that was beaming into the large room. Pitch black and cold, his presence enveloped her. Suddenly, a red light appeared in the middle of the room, mist revolving slowly around the orb it had become. She watched transfixed by this magic show but never letting her guard down. From the weak luminosity it had given off, it revealed that her captor was once again gone without a trace.

“Last night the moons had been disarranged where Stryphus was centered. Though it has always been behind and not too far from Hisheme’s shadow, it is usually never held at such a position. Most do not acknowledge the importance of this rotation. Many ignore it. But for the educated and holy, we recognize the sign that the gods have been called.”

The orb flashed and a system of moons came forth, revolving around the room, Seryale in the middle with his back towards the girl. He raised his left arm where the reddest moon waltzed towards his open hand. Gently he motioned it to meet with the ceiling where the rest of the display had disappeared and it was dark again except for the warm glow radiating from the faux moon.

“In the late evening, a summoning occurred.”

The moon became darker and brighter in scarlet, now dripping with liquid.

“In my blood, I felt the burn of what had begun. Someone in this mere radius had issued a ceremony for Stryphus. Simple meditations do not cause an effect to his priests. No, it is only when it is powerful, full of anger and hate that it disrupts the balance.”

A silhouette of a dragon flew over the moon, its growls and cries echoing in the room.

“Even more so, it was shed in innocence where vengeance was demanded. No humility was shown. Though in anger my god was, a strong spiritual chain held him from escaping the mass. He quenched in the glory of all was, the fire in black hearts and listened. Sacrifice was in immediate return and so the war god was pleased.”

The moon became bigger, nearly touching the floor.

“And then it happened.”

A loud roar whisked inside the room causing all objects to trembled. The moon exploded an array of many shades of red floated into mere space. Stelon didn’t know if she was seeing things in reality or in her mind but it disturbed her. There were screams from every corner, flashing images of immaculate white drenched with blood, black clouds forming over the horizon, a heart being torn from its corpse, fire burning structures and wings tearing from the skin among other gruesome unmentionable demonic things. She could feel the pain in each millisecond and it continued, her body quaking in the deep vibrations and pounding in her mind.

“Stop it!” she screamed. “Stop it! I can’t take anymore!”

With that the images became gone, the voices were silenced and white light flooded the room. She flinched at the shock from her eyes. Seryale was now standing before the window again, watching the birds and sprites fly past.

“I fear that a curse was summoned last night,” he explained.

“But, by who?”

“Can you think of no other?” he asked, bitterly.

She paused, staring up at him in disbelief from what he was implying. “No. Not Larkin! He would never do such a thing. He is kind and generous and warm and would never-“

“Never kill anyone?”

“Yes.”

He turned his head towards her, but his eyes never leaving the window. “Then can you explain why there is one dead, two more gone and another alone and confused?” There was pain in his voice from a memory forlorn.

She closed her mouth, confused at why he was prodding her with such statements before making her mind and continuing. “But they were all wrong! I admit that she even led me to believe- She never explained why other than-“

“Friendship. And she too relied on you for loyalties but had chosen to betray her.” He leaned his forehead on the glass. “There are far many secrets that we have yet to learn and visions to interpret. And now with a curse at hand, we are all doomed despite thinking we are safe from harm. But it is the opposite of what we expect.”

She stood, reaching slowly for him. “You knew… Miraye?”

Knock. Knock. Knock. “Ms. Stelon?” a voice emitted behind the door. Knock. Knock. Knock. “Ms. Stelon? Are you in there? May we be of service?”

“I warn you of what may come. Do not believe everything he sweetly whispers to you. Do not accept more than what you are in need of from him. Do not become alone only with him in your presence. It is of you fault and ignorance if you choose not to accept the precautions of what I have given you.” Seryale made his way towards the wall he had come from. “If you choose to trust me, I will be here. Otherwise you will be on your own and I will only look down upon you with empathy.”

He pressed his hand against the wall and passed through.