"Can you believe what CM. Shuling said?" Halha Myeling fumed, stomping into the Heir's Shared Hall, throwing her overcoat aside as she plopped herself down on the nearest couch. Her slender, pale fingers were pulling at the roots of her light, mauve hair, keeping the straight strands away from her light face.
"Well, he is Yang Shuling. The Shuling family isn't known for utilising the most humane methods throughout history," Eldorado Grueling muttered, rotating his joints and stretching his sore limbs after having sat through an exhaustive meeting.
Yue Shuling swerved around an adjacent sofa, ivory robes rustling, and casting his fellow heir a playfully incredulous stare. To which Eldorado replied with his hands up in surrender, and said, "No offence, mi amigo."
Turning slightly, he stretched out his arm and gestured to Halha and continued with, "And I'm sure Halha means none too." She shrugged, arms closing around a plush pillow for comfort.
Before anyone could slide in a comment, Eldorado turned to face Halha fully, snapping his fingers as he said, "You owe me one for saving you from dear Yue."
With a face of pure disagreement, Halha sent the pillow careening towards Eldorado. And in response, Eldorado leapt away laughing, "Mercy, my lady!"
Larkspur Starling and Amber Fairling set themselves down beside Halha, both thoroughly drained. Larkspur closed her pale blue eyes, her black locks tumbling down the heavy navy sleeves that lined her cream-coloured arms. She was usually a quiet person, who either observed the sights around her or the sounds beside her. Her clothes fit her body, keeping to herself, staying in the shadows.
Amber, despite being a girl of sixteen, carried herself with the grace and composure of a grown adult. Her back was straight, allowing her golden hair to cascade down her spine in its loose braid, which was a stark contrast to her brown skin. Her golden eyes were tired, yet bright and clear. Her billowy golden skirts pooled over the side of the couch, spreading out like a thin blanket.
"Ugh, I was thinking; what would our ancestors think of our genetically modified features?" Eldorado asked, still prancing around the large room from sculpture to statue.
"Genetic engineering on humans was taboo and banned two centuries ago. Apparently, it wasn't ethical, so I guess all of us are unethical products, then," Ilya mumbled, never looking up from his gadgets strewn around him on the floor. Even with wavy black curls tickling his lashes, Ilya did not let his attention stray away from the devices in front of him. His pallid fingers danced across the screens, shifting holograms around, sniffing sleepily. His violet eyes of near blackness were alert, scanning through the images as his mind processed them.
Stopping for a brief moment to send a frown in Ilya's direction, Eldorado then waltzed to the centre of the room, steps random and seemingly unsteady. "I thought Yue over here was supposed to be the clever one."
Glancing up from the holograms in front of him, Ilya stared at the much taller male, unimpressed. "I'm a Krowling. We're in charge of technological advancement. Of course I'd know a bit about the history of technological advancement."
Yue, who had been reading a book about wars which had occurred a millennium ago, stood up in one swift, clean motion and sauntered over. Elegant robes drifting, they rippled as he sank to his knees and wrapped his arms around Ilya in a tight, adoring embrace. He smiled warmly, not letting go even as Ilya squirmed in his firm cuddle. "Well, Doro, you've got to admit that Ilya is quite a cute, clever, little one."
Furrowing his brows at the adjectives, Ilya pursed his lips as he attempted to refute them, but was cut off when Beryl scurried over to tear Ilya from Yue's suffocating grasp. The boy coughed slightly, reaching for his gadgets. Beryl's sweet face sullen as she slapped his hand away.
"Just stop bothering Ilya. Do try to be a little more… mature," Eirian sighed, silver eyes meeting Yue's white stare, almost flinching at the startling depths.
Glancing between Eirian and Doro—lingering on the latter for a moment too long—Yue shrugged, a questionable smile plastered on his face.
Immediately noticing his countenance, Doro marches up to Yue with a theatrically displeased expression as he began to bicker with the smiling male.
Sorrell Tarrling was a good two meters away, watching the spectacle as he plopped some small packets of beef into his mouth. His muscular form was relaxed as he laid back, legs stretched out before him. His maroon eyes and cerise curls were striking against his rich brown skin. His ensemble of various shades of reds, browns and yellows was a wild party of colour.
Ilya was stuck right in the middle of the conflict, gazing longingly at his gadgets, lips pursed. At this rate, his older peers would be in a mess for possibly hours on end. Eldorado had no problem blabbering for two long hours, Yue had no difficulty debunking every bit of evidence presented, Larkspur was perfectly fine with commentary, and Eirian did not mind scowling for the rest of his life. Glimpsing hastily between them, Ilya quickly said, "Shouldn't we do something about the game?"
Instantly, the commotion halted.
Sorrell smiled, his grin wide and wild as he strode over, feverish that some lunacy was going to be gradually pent up for the future discussion.
With everyone still and waiting, Ilya leaned sideways as his hand swooped up his devices. Larkspur pale blue eyes were searing straight into his skin as she instantly saw through his ploy, and he had no doubt Yue's eyes echoed the same. Damned Starlings and Shulings. Too observant. One of them is freaking spy trained in gymnastics and the other is a diverse, capable scholar. Oh, this fortune.
"Are you going to argue that it's immoral or illegal?" Eirian smirked, noting the movement of the mind-guided, metal extension of his hand which he had made with Ilya. The silver-eyed male could care less about being virtuous. Though he was most things but an anarchist, Eirian had no qualms about breaking laws to meet his goals.
"That's my job," Halha muttered, sighing, the fingers of her left hand still threaded through her light hair.
Smiling faintly, Yue straightened his ivory robes, letting Ilya's head rest on his shoulder as he said, "The system of the RCR's worked too well at growing the population, and too faulty at maintaining the sufficient amount of food production rate that will support growing the population."
With his peers either sitting on the sofas or sprawling on the tiles, Yue gently shrugged Ilya's head away as he rose to his full height to open some files. With the proficiency and elegance of magicians, Yue slipped out infinitesimal H2-2D-180°-3.3 PJ (Projector) from his sleeves, attaching them to his fingertips with suave speed. Holograms with white outlines popped up as his fingers graced the air to assign the little circles of metal in empty space.
With his peers' attention on him, Yue waved at one section presented in the projection, which was a two dimensional view of the building their parents had brought up in the recent meeting. Smoothly flicking his wrist, the hologram flew to his left fingertips while Yue used his free hand to stack 3D-270° APJ (Adapting Projector) on each of the four working ones. Splaying his right fingers, pixels began forming across to form a second layer over the original display. Yue shifted his hands apart, stretching the image to become a three dimensional display.
The building was located in a deserted wasteland in the Ebony Countries, as evident from its somewhat futuristic design and jagged cuts. Most of its walls stood in tact, though the years of neglect surrounding the building was stark.
"This building has one hundred floors, four of which contain hazardous substances that would take far too long to dispose of, two of which contain too much plant life for any activity to take place, and another few of which require unnecessary maintenance because of the game," Yue stated, enlarging the display, rotating it as squares of text and information popped up.
"Yeah, but the Council probably hasn't decided upon the contents of the game. And without knowing what's going to happen within the game, they probably won't know how much space to utilise. Thus—as of now, at least—the space that can be used for the game is not the most important detail as of now," Eldorado uttered, frowning before absentmindedly ruffling Ilya's hair when his junior yawned, exhausted. Eldorado's frown deepened playfully as Amber slapped his hand away without cutting him a glance.
The only sign of acknowledgement on Yue's pale face was his left eyelid drooping more than his right. He returned to his attention to the holograms.
However, instead of the three dimensional model, Yue swiped the holograms around the chamber left… left… left.
Until it reached a page from a article regarding the history of card games.
"You know, we could decide."
Silence panged through the space.
"I know where you're going with this and the law dictates that that perfidy is utterly lawless," Halha warned, caution dark as she glanced around the room. She loosened a breath upon noticing Ilya closing a digital screen regarding the security system in the holding chambers.
"I'm not signing up to get my head cut by a blade of hot iron off my shoulders," Eirian groaned, the little metal ellipsoids curling into a first upon realising his vexation.
"I'm here for the lunacy," Sorrell shrugged. Finishing her gulp of tea, Beryl stuffed the cork back on a small tube which hung as a charm around her neck. She agreed, "Cult that."
Ilya was silent, blinking furiously as he tried to stay awake. Cult? Oh, cultivate.
Wordlessly, Yue shifted the poker cards around the screen. Swiping card after card off screen, he tipped his head as he was left without the jokers, kings, queens and jacks.
Larkspur blinked slowly. "What do you want me to do? Tell the public their lives depend on a century old poker game?"
Yue swiped the tens offscreen. "Wouldn't that be thrilling."
"Well, I don't have a problem with people literally gambling their lives away but the public does," Eldorado muttered and yelped as Amber smacked him on the back of the head. He turned to the
"If only we could control the game, instead of them," Yue uttered, ivory eyes glinting.
"We should control it," Eirian scowled, the sphere which he formed with his ellipsoids crumpling.
Tension spread through the space between the heirs, numbing their limbs, heightening their anxiety.
Waving his fingers swiftly, the Projectors retracted back to Yue's palm.
As he turned to face his peers, Yue's smile was sweet and soft and bright, yet his eyes glinted dark and wild and mad.
"If we want it, then power is ours," he smiled, pacing slowly as Yue's linked fingers pressed lightly against his lips.
Swiftly, he stopped and swerved to face his peers, smirking while he slipped out ellipsoids from his sleeve—the ones akin to Eirian's—and hooked on a metal piece around his ear. The ellipsoids leisurely twisted to form a wine glass which Yue swirled its fictitious contents.
Now, while all the Heirs resonated with surreptitious interest, they gathered closer and began their cloak-and-dagger colloquy.
Now, while all the Heirs resonated with surreptitious interest, they gathered closer and began their cloak-and-dagger colloquy
Though this book will be separated into "acts" and "scenes", it is not a play… because of its structure.