Chronicles of Eden - Act XI

by Alexander Gordon

  “You can still beat her, Max! I believe in you!”

  “Go ahead, make your move. It’s all over now.”

  “Watch out, Max! Don’t let her get you!”

  Max slowly looked between the two girls, seeing Bermuda smugly grinning at him and Lelu hopping about anxiously, then down and scratched his head as he considered his options. After a moment to decide he reached his hand out, with Bermuda snickering to herself while Lelu covered her eyes in fear yet still peeked between her fingers. The two girls saw him move his rook atop a chessboard to a new square before he shrugged at the arachne.

  “Checkmate,” he said, with Bermuda gasping in shock while Lelu smiled brightly and jumped again next to the table they were playing on in VelRyan’s observatory. Bermuda quickly moved around to examine the board from all angles before groaning loudly and slumping down in aggravation.

  “How?” she cried out shaking her head. “How do you always win like that? You said you’ve never played this game before!”

  “I haven’t,” Max admitted with a small smile. “This is my first time playing chess with someone. It is pretty fun. Thanks for teaching me.”

  “You did it, Max!” Lelu cheered while hugging him from the side. The boy laughed a bit while the centaur kicked about with her rear legs. “That’s four times you’ve beaten her now! You’re the best!”

  “Well Bermuda made the game easy to understand,” Max admitted. “She’s a good teacher. And it’s not so hard to play. Did you want to give it a try, Lelu?”

  “No, I’d much rather watch you best her at her own game. Nice try, Bermuda, but you’re no match for him. Better luck next time.”

  “Oh yeah?” Bermuda snapped as she cracked her knuckles. “It’s on. Let’s go, round five. This time you’re going down!”

  “That’s four times she’s said that now,” Lelu teased with a smug grin towards the arachne, her arms still holding Max’s head against her bosom that he was trying not to peek at. “Go ahead and try, Bermuda. Max will wipe the floor with you just like he always does.”

  “I’ll try my best,” Max weakly chuckled. “Honestly I think it’s just beginner’s luck.”

  “Your luck is about to run out,” Bermuda growled as she quickly reset the pieces on the board.

  “Maybe,” Max admitted rubbing the back of his neck. “You are pretty good at this yourself. Did your dad teach you?”

  “Of course,” Bermuda proudly replied. She glanced behind to VelRyan who was seated at a desk further away. The man was going through a book with a pile of tomes resting on the bench and what appeared to be a few crystalline stones that had a soft blue glow to them.

  “He’s taught me so much,” Bermuda continued looking back down to the board. “He taught me this game, taught me magic, how to read and write, how to sing…”

  “Sing?” Lelu wondered. “You sing, Bermuda?”

  “Not anymore,” the arachne said with a saddened smile. “I used to, but not so much anymore these days. Anyway, it’s because of him that I am who I am today. Him and my mother…”

  Bermuda took a moment to compose herself, a look of sorrow briefly coming over her before she shook it off and smiled at her friends again.

  “But enough talk about all that. Time to reclaim my title as chess champion of Shadow’s Refuge.”

  “I believe Master VelRyan still holds that title, my dear,” Syliandanchevas giggled. The children looked to see the fey walking over to them with a tray that held five cups of tea on it. “If I remember correctly, nobody has ever beaten him at chess before. Except for your mother.”

  “She cheated,” Bermuda plainly quipped. “She had to have. He cheats. He has to. No other explanation.”

  “Oh my,” Syliandanchevas mused with a smirk. “Did your father also teach you to make excuses? Because that was a very lousy one if I do say so.”

  “If he did I would have come up with a better one,” Bermuda sighed. Max and Lelu laughed a bit along with the fey who handed out drinks to each of the three children.

  “She was the only one who could best him at that game,” Syliandanchevas recalled looking to the board. “Your father was at least a good sport about it. Never complained once, just aspired to one day defeat her at the game. The poor man, he never did.”

  “Mother never did go easy on him,” Bermuda fondly remembered. She looked at her tea for a moment then took another cup from the tray before skittering over towards her father. She hopped next to him in an attempt to startle him, with the man merely giving her forehead a light tap without looking before smiling at her as she got flustered and started fidgeting on her legs. He held her cheek and said something with a gentle voice, making the arachne calm down and lower her head with a blush before she handed him his drink. The two clinked their cups and sipped their tea together before Bermuda looked at the open book on his desk and started talking with her father about it.

  “If I may ask,” Lelu slowly spoke up. “What happened to Bermuda’s mother?”

  “Lylyian,” Syliandanchevas gently said lowering her head. “She was a wonderful arachne. So kind and loving, so generous and thoughtful with others. Nothing like the arachne you children have seen or heard about, I’m sure. She and VelRyan were so happy together, and they raised a beautiful girl in this world. I do miss her so much. I wish she were here with us still.”

  “What happened to her?” Max asked.

  “She fell ill,” Syliandanchevas softly replied. “A very nasty illness. She and Bermuda, they both got very sick with it together. It was horrible. They suffered so much from that accursed disease. The poor dears. Bermuda was fortunate to survive, but Lylyian…”

  “She died from it?” Lelu worried.

  “She did. Though she didn’t leave this world without performing one last act of kindness to show us. She was an angel right to the very end.”

  “What did she do?” Max wondered.

  Syliandanchevas looked over to where Bermuda and VelRyan were talking at his desk then set the tray on the table and sat down next to Max. She glanced between the two children then looked down to the board and gently used a finger to tilt the queen piece around on its base.

  “There exists a disease known as Velaprean Exi. It only affects monster classes of the bug and insect variety. Very contagious, very deadly, but also very rare. One day we took in a giant butterfly from the southern province, one who was brought to us for what everyone believed to be a bad stomach flu. She was able to walk and fly, but was in constant pain and unable to eat anything that wouldn’t get thrown back up. I tried to treat her, we thought we knew what the problem was. We were wrong.”

  “She had Velaprean Exi, didn’t she?” Max asked.

  “Unfortunately yes. Abdominal pains are one thing, but coughing up blood and pieces of your stomach, that’s another.”

  “Oh god,” Lelu feared.

  “She died not long after she was admitted here. We sent word to her grove to let them know what she had and to take precautions, but we were too late. Her entire village had already died from the virus by the time our messenger got there. Every one of them, mother and child, dead from what was certainly a painful exit from this world.”

  “That’s horrible,” Lelu mourned. “I never knew such a disease existed.”

  “And then Lylyian and Bermuda got it, didn’t they?” Max worried.

  “They did,” Syliandanchevas said with a slow nod. “They started exhibiting the same symptoms soon after. They couldn’t eat, they couldn’t sleep, and their coughing got worse and worse. We were so scared we were going to lose them.”

  “So what happened?” Max asked. “If Lylyian died from it but Bermuda lived, how did she survive?”

  Syliandanchevas sniffled then noticed Bermuda slowly skittering closer to the table, a saddened frown on her face as she had clearly heard their conversation. The arachne set her cup down on the table then lowered to sit on the floor with her abdomen while holding her arms under her chest.

  �
��Syliandanchevas was able to work up a potion to cure the disease,” Bermuda softly continued. “She knew what we had before we were about to die from it, she had more time to prepare an antidote to save us. My father and Vale raced out into Eden to collect all that she needed, all that they could get to make the potion. The cure for Velaprean Exi, the ingredients for it aren’t exactly common or easy to obtain in Eden. Father and Vale searched night and day for what was needed to save us, but in the end…”

  “I only had enough to make an antidote for one,” Syliandanchevas remorsefully said. Lelu quickly held Max’s arm and hand as the two feared where the story was going to go. “Just enough to save one. I tried, I tried to make more but… I just couldn’t do it. There was barely enough for just one antidote.”

  “So you ended up giving it to Bermuda,” Max realized.

  “No,” Syliandanchevas said shaking her head. “We didn’t make that choice. Lylyian did. She wasted not a second, she didn’t give it another thought, she didn’t care what would happen to her. The moment I told her and VelRyan I only had one antidote I could administer she grabbed it and gave it to Bermuda without saying a word. She made Bermuda drink it all and… and she… she…”

  “She smiled at us,” VelRyan continued as he walked over behind her. The group saw him showing a similar saddened smile just as Bermuda now had while he gently swirled his tea. “She just smiled at us. She didn’t care she was going to die, she was just happy her daughter was going to live. She gave her life to save Bermuda’s without a moment’s hesitation. After that, even though she was in constant pain, she continued to smile as Bermuda gradually recovered. She was happy with her choice until the very end, until one night when…”

  Syliandanchevas lowered her head and tipped the queen piece over onto the board with a clack that everyone heard in the silence that befell the hall.

  “The queen of Shadow’s Refuge fell,” she finished before removing her glasses and wiping her tears away.

  “That’s so sad,” Lelu whimpered. “That’s horrible. Losing her like that, that’s just awful.”

  “I’m so sorry,” Max said, looking between VelRyan and Bermuda as Lelu snuggled closer to his shoulder with quiet sniffles. “I’m sorry you lost her like that.”

  VelRyan looked down to his locket over his chest then gently opened it, admiring what was held inside with a warm smile before turning it to show everyone. Within the locket was a picture of an arachne from the chest up, her long silver hair having two braids running down along the sides of her rolling locks while also having a red bow tied behind her head. She wore a light blue shawl over her shoulders that had golden embroidery swirling around its edges, and her smile was as benevolent as could be.

  “Most arachne out there care very little for others, even their own offspring,” VelRyan told them. “Lylyian wasn’t anything like them. She loved her daughter. She loved me. She loved life. Even though fate was cruel and took her from us she smiled until the very end and gave her life so Bermuda could live. I loved that woman with all my heart and I will continue to do so until the day we’re reunited. She certainly proved it during her life, but now she is without a doubt an angel in the heavens.”

  “She certainly was,” Syliandanchevas agreed before sniveling a little. VelRyan gently rubbed her shoulder, her hand quickly moving to take hold of his as she whimpered with a remorseful smile on her face.

  “That bow in her hair,” Max said looking to Bermuda. “It looks like yours.”

  “That’s because this was hers,” Bermuda replied, tenderly holding a hand to her ribbon. “I wear it always, so no matter where I am or what I’m doing she’s always with me.”

  She lowered her head and wiped tears away from some of her eyes while Lelu was looking at the fallen chess piece with a sympathetic gaze. Max looked at his tea for a moment, thinking about the arachne who was everything that most arachne weren’t in Eden, then slowly lifted his cup up with a small smile.

  “To Lylyian,” he proposed. Bermuda stared at him in wonder while Syliandanchevas had a curious smile on her face as she wiped a tear away, the same expression that Lelu and VelRyan also had as they saw him holding his drink up.

  “Are you proposing a toast to a monster?” VelRyan asked with a raised eyebrow. “Is that true, Max?”

  “No,” Max said shaking his head. “I’m proposing a toast to a woman and mother who deserves to be honored.”

  “Max…” Bermuda breathed out.

  “Are you certain you’re from a family of monster hunters?” VelRyan mused with a smirk. “I do wonder how your sisters would react to hearing of you toasting to the memory of an arachne.”

  “They’d be pissed,” Max admitted with a nod. “They wouldn’t understand or even try to. But I don’t care. I’m glad I got to learn about her, and also meet Bermuda because of her sacrifice. I want to do this, for her.”

  “Me too,” Lelu agreed holding up her cup. “Thanks to her I know not all arachne are evil monsters in this world. To Lylyian.”

  “To Lylyian,” Syliandanchevas said holding hers up.

  “To Lylyian,” VelRyan agreed holding his cup out.

  “To Lylyian,” Bermuda softly said, holding her cup up while her eyes remained locked on Max. He smiled at her and nodded before they all drank to the memory of the arachne who was anything but a cold-hearted monster.

  “Thank you, Max,” Bermuda said with a small smile. “Really. It means a lot to me hearing you say-”

  “For crying out loud!” Grace’s loud roar echoed in the hall, with everyone looking over to see the elf marching up the stairs into the observatory then towards them with a furious expression on her face.

  “It’s been all day!” she yelled marching up to VelRyan and stomping her foot. “I’ve been waiting all fucking day in this boring dump to be taken back, and I’m still waiting! How much longer until you get me out of here, goddammit!”

  “You ruin everything, don’t you?” Bermuda quietly muttered.

  “Take me back right now!” Grace shouted at VelRyan. “I have shit to do and I can’t do it way the fuck down here in this godforsaken crap hole!”

  “Take you back where exactly?” VelRyan questioned as he set his tea down. “As you know Vale is currently out there, scouring the land around not only your home but also Max’s in order to see where it would be safe to take you three. We’re not just going to drop you off in the middle of The Outerlands and wish you luck, that would be the equivalent of a death sentence. So Vale is searching high and low for a safe place to take you. For elves to drop you off under their care, for Max’s sisters who are sure to be looking for him, for any place that would be safe for us to leave you without fearing for your lives.”

  He then turned to the elf who was looking down with a flustered grimace, the girl slowly glancing up to see him watching her with a solemn expression.

  “And in the meantime you’ve all been welcome guests in my home. We’ve given you shelter, food, friendly company, washed your clothes, kept you safe within these walls. And yet still you complain and yell at me, treating me as if I’m the villain here?”

  “But…”

  “I’ve heard you quite clearly,” VelRyan continued crossing his arms. “Every hall you’ve stormed across, every balcony that you’ve expelled your frustrations out from, every obscenity you’ve spoken very loudly in not only my home but within earshot of many of our residents that are trying to rest here, trying to recover, trying to pull their lives back together. I hear all that goes on within these walls, young lady. I know very well how ‘pissed off’ you are. However my patience for others isn’t everlasting and you are pulling on the last thread I have.”

  “I just…” Grace muttered looking down. “But…”

  “I’m honestly surprised to see the daughter of a revered elven priestess behaving as you are. No manners. No gratitude. No respect. Only anger and vulgarity, and those are not qualities for a young lady to grow on.”

  Grace shut her eye
s and clenched her hands, fists trembling at her sides as she tried her best not to let out any more of her current volatile emotions in the face of his statements. She then felt VelRyan taking hold of her hands, her eyes opening to see the man kneeling before her with a calm look on his face.

  “I am sorry for the hardships you’ve gone through, I truly am. You have every right to be angry with those who have taken so much from you. I have every bit of confidence possible in that if you had a bow and quiver of arrows at your side while standing before your home right now you would boldly charge in to reclaim your forest and people’s freedom with all your might.”

  “They need me,” she whimpered. “I have to help them. I have to get our home back from those assholes.”

  “And I also have confidence that if you were to try right now you would die,” VelRyan warned. “Which is why we didn’t send you back home to Green Haven yet. We don’t want you to throw your life away so foolishly. We don’t want you to get hurt, Grace.”

  “But I have to try!” Grace insisted. VelRyan held a finger to her lips and silenced the elf while shaking his head.

  “Running in there with arrows blazing will only lead to your death and their victory, Grace. All your people will see is the daughter of their priestess falling before them. I understand your desire to help them, but you must think carefully of how to do so. A good bow and arrow is fine, but a sharper mind can be more useful.”

  Grace lowered her head and sniffled as VelRyan stood up and walked over to the table to get his tea. He held the cup to his lips then paused for a moment, thinking carefully about something before turning to the elf who rubbed her tears away with her fists.

  “Do you like archery, Grace?” he asked, with the elf looking up to him curiously. “I don’t want to seem racist by assuming you do, so I’ll ask you first. Do you like archery?”

  “Yes, of course I do,” Grace said nodding.

  “We have bows and arrows here,” VelRyan mused with a shrug. “Nothing like the quality you elves are renowned for I’m sure, but we have some. This may be a sanctuary but there are weapons here and there in case we need to defend our home.”