That morning I made it down to the quiet and calm cafeteria where there were barely any people. It was only 5 AM after all. My mom decided to fetch some coffee and Emovi was still sleeping. I sat down at a table with a sandwich in my hand. There was a chess board on the table and I started to fiddle with the king whilst slowly eating the sandwich in my hand. My eyes felt sluggish and my mouth felt like the dunes of Dragonspine.
I had barely gotten any sleep over the past few days and was feeling like I could fall asleep at any second. Suddenly I heard a thump and felt someone sit down in front of me. Was it my mom who finally finished getting her coffee? I looked up and saw a white haired lady with blue tips sit down in front of me. She had a mage's hat and white ribbons in her hair. It seemed like she was deep in thought not even noticing that I was sitting there in front of her.
But when she finally realised that there was a person sitting at the table already she smiled and warmly greeted me.
Still groggy I managed to mutter out a coarse hi that made her giggle a bit.
"Calm morning isn't it? Care for a little chess match for the start of the day, young man?"
Normally I wouldn't accept such an early game but something inside of me refused to decline an intellectual battle and I accepted her offer.
She was white and I was black. Her opening was the king's gambit, a risky and aggressive opening that opened up her king in exchange for early pressure. I accepted her gambit and planned on crushing her attacks entirely.
But as the game continued she managed to break open my defences and make a move on my king. I sat there wondering how I should defend here next and that's when I felt the Aeon of Dexterity chiming in and telling me to sacrifice my queen.
Such a random queen sacrifice right into the attack of two pawns, rook, queen but when I finally realised what Dexterity saw I was in awe. The queen could be captured in 4 different ways but if she accepted the sacrifice, she would be brutally checkmated and it wasn't as if she could ignore it either because it was threatening checkmate next move. She bared her vampire teeth in exhilaration as she saw my queen sacrifice.
People who were spectating the match were so amazed by that move that they all started to applaud and throw livises at us.
The Mage also started to applaud and said that she resigns and praised me for it was a spectacular move. Never in her life has she seen such a stunning move played in her life before.
I told her that she played really good as well and said that her aggressive play style almost suffocated me.
She asked me for my name, and I introduced myself as Vivshi. She introduced herself as a Mage by the name of Solci.
"Solci?"
"Is something wrong?"
That name was mentioned by the Aeon of Dexterity when I was in the void. She would be the key to finding the Aeon of Desire! Solci the Aeon Mage.
Should I tell her immediately that I needed her help?
"Well then, Vivshi I will excuse myself now, it was an honor to play against you." Solci started to head out of the cafeteria.
My mother had finally come back after buying coffee and looked around and saw that I was gone.
I had gone off chasing Solci and as I approached her I heard her mumbling in the distance.
"How could I get beaten… in a battle of intelligence furthermore!" Solci mumbled with a furious tone.
She bit her lips and turned around after hearing my footsteps approaching her.
"Vivshi? Can I help you with anything?" She said with a smile, obviously hiding her frustration.
"You are the Aeon Mage Solci right?"
Her smile slowly dissipated as that question left my mouth. The ribbons around her hat and in her hair started to glow as loxes filled them.
She lifted two fingers into the air and I could feel how loxes started to flow towards her hands and she readied for an attack.
"Wait, wait! I'm not here looking for a fight!"
"That wouldn't explain why you would chase after me."
"I need your help," I said in a serious tone.
She kept her guard up and was still in position to attack.
"You wish to uncover the secrets of the Aeons right?"
She raised an eyebrow and slightly lowered her guard.
"And what about it?"
Her pupils dilated as she feasted her eyes upon the Aeon of Freedom. She lowered her finger and slowly took a step towards me.
"You… are.. an Aeon."
"Are you willing to hear me out now?"
I took her back to the hotel where Aylin was and once she entered the room her excitement exploded as she saw all the Aeons situated in the same room. It was like watching a kid in a candy store.
"AEON OF REJUVENATION!!?!!" She pet the cat as she tried to analyze the lox structure inside the cat.
"AEON OF REMEMBRANCE?!" She went in circles around my mom asking her if she could bring out old forgotten memories but my mom was too overwhelmed by her enthusiasm and just laughed awkwardly.
She greeted Emovi who hid behind me.
"Who is the little one?" She asked.
I introduced my sister to her and but Solci suddenly stopped me.
"Hey, I have seen you before. You were at the royal castle, and you were the princess of the kingdom. What are you doing here?"
Solci quickly connected the dots and looked at my mother.
"I see."
The mage finally turned her attention to Aylin who was lying in bed.
"And finally, the sleeping damselette, The Aeon of Desire."
She walked up to Aylin and put her hand on Aylin's chest. I gave Solci a side eye as she closed her eyes to sense the lox signature inside of Aylin.
"There is no hint of Aeonic loxes inside of her. But…"
"But what?" I asked curiously.
"There are loxes on the outside, from the Aeon of Desire."
"And that means?"
"It would entail that spirit-wise, her soul is gone. Normally in cases like this when the human soul is separated from their Aeonic host, they die. But mysteriously Aylin is alive, and this barrier surrounding her body is most likely the reason why she is alive."
"In exchange for helping you find out more about the Aeon of Desire, you let me study your Aeons. Deal?"
I nodded as it sounded like a pretty good deal. We would get assistance from an Aeon researcher in exchange for letting her see our Aeons.
Solci started to pull out a book, a book which contained the logs of the Aeons she had encountered in her lifetime. If it was possible she recorded their Aeon signature and tried to copy it.
It was a tedious and time-consuming process trying to decipher the Aeon's lox signatures but with enough time everything is possible. Let's start with you, Miss Remembrance.
My mom nodded and Solci put her hands on her back.
"Noted!"
"Come here kitty kitty…"
She crouched towards Oslovi and gave it some crunchy cat food and then placed her hand onto its belly.
"Alrighty!"
"Now lastly you Vivshi."
Her hand approached and I felt how she touched my chest. She closed her eyes to analyse the lox signature inside of me.
*In Solci's mind*
It was just an empty void, there was no lox signature at all, no! It was everywhere, his body was overflowing with loxes that I couldn't even recognise anything. But as she squinted to analyze even one signature she heard a voice speaking out.
"You have the gall to peek into my soul? Know your place, filthy mongrel."
Solci's left eye started to bleed and she was cast out of my body.
She fell onto one knee and held her bleeding eye. That was the punishment for looking at something that she was never meant to observe. A power which she could never comprehend.
Oslovi ran up to her and tried to heal her with the powers of Rejuvenation but no matter what, her eye couldn't be saved. With a bleeding eye, Solci conjured fire and cauterised her eye, effectively blinding her left eye forever.
"What happened?!" I asked worriedly.
"That Aeon inside of you, is no normal Aeon. I have seen hundreds in my lifetime, yet I have never seen one like yours."
Even with paying the price of peering into Freedom, she smiled and told me that she would continue studying us. She said that her eye will serve as a sacrifice for the knowledge she will gain.
She put on a black eyepatch and told us that she would try to uncover as much as possible about the Aeon of Guilt for us and that she would be back in a week or so. With that Solci left the room and I breathed a sigh of relief that things somehow worked out in the end.