บท 21: Amber's Perspective #2
Fire no longer scared her. If anyone, she found it fun playing with fire. It no longer burned her, only danced with her and now her mother played a fire game with her. Louis had named it "Find and Catch", where she would have to find small balls of light her mother made and she had to wrap her qi around it to catch it. Once she caught it, her mother would make one more.
Amber won the first game, but in the second game, many orbs popped up and Amber could not catch them all before they disappeared, since each only lasted a minute. She again and again she played, sometimes she would win, sometimes she would lose. She was certain she won more than she lost, though.
Either way, her mother always watched her as she played and always told her "Good Job" when she won. They ate fruit snacks, sometimes cake, but her mother would not let her eat many of those. She would have to get Louis to get some for her later.
They played until every day, sometimes it was the only she thing she did besides eating. The game gradually got harder and she began to lose more and more games, at least it felt that that.
The moment Amber sat down, her mother activated the array and eighteen balls of light appeared in front of her. Amber, used to this, immediately summoned her qi and swallowed the closest ball of light with her own qi. It took her four seconds to eliminate it. She had to act faster. She immediately moved to the second ball of light and shot qi at it. Three seconds. The moment it disappeared, she aimed for the next one closest one. Three seconds.
After she "found" the last orb, the array stopped. Fifty eight seconds total. Two seconds left to spare. She did it.
"Round one over." Her mother said, looking at her with a playful smile.
Amber had never seen her smile this way before they started playing this game and she never liked it. Her mother would always cheat or do something unfair when she made that smile.
"Ten more rounds to go." Her mother said. "Best six out of eleven."
The array activated instantly and nineteen grape sized orbs of lights appeared around Amber. Amber moved quicker this time. She was ready and prepared. The instant she saw the first one light up, she caught it and proceeded to move onto the next one. Faster. She needed to go faster. She caught all of them in forty-seven seconds this time. She finished round three, round four and round five just as quickly, but when round six came around, she was breathing hard.
Each round only lasted a minute and there were only fifteen to twenty orbs each time, but the density of each orb varied, some of them were easy to destroy and some of them required a long time or a lot of qi. Winning a round or two, even three, was simple enough for her. Some of the rounds were even given to her to let her guard down, but to capture all the orbs within a single minute was difficult. She had to save as much qi as she could but that required instant, accurate judgement, something she did not have. To compensate for her judgement, she used speed and qi and now she was running out of qi.
Round six had twenty orbs and Amber easily destroyed the first one, so she began to save her qi for the next four ones, which fell just as easily. On the fifth one, she put some more qi into it, but it popped just like the rest. She put the same amount of qi for the next one, then the next one and the one after that, yet all of them popped far too easily. On the twelfth one, she used less qi and the orb failed to budge, so she put more qi once again and popped it. Yet, the amount of qi within it was extraordinarily high, so she used the most amount of qi than she did for any other round just to pop it. Pop, it blew up easily. She moved onto the next one, that one costed too much time. She used a higher degree of qi than normal, perhaps to compensate for the easier orbs beforehand, and each of them fell just like the first, with a single touch. At the twentieth orb, just as she was about to pop it, it disappeared.
"Time up." Her mother said. "That's one round for me. You were so close too." She smiled, then waved her hand, as the next batch of orbs appeared.
There were only eighteen orbs this time. Amber used a decent amount of qi to break the first one, but it would not budge. Then she tried again and again and again. It took her seven tries until the orb popped. She rushed for the rest of them, but she was two away this time. Her breathing got harder and she got increasingly more frustrated.
When the next batch of orbs appeared, Amber did not do anything, taking the entire time to catch her breath, same with the following round. In the tenth round, there were fifteen orbs this time, the fewest she ever seen. Part of her rushed but she rolled over and did not look at them as much as she tried, barely managing to suppress herself until the round ended. In the final round, Amber's breathing had recovered and twenty orbs appeared. Amber used an above average amount of qi to pop each orb. Pop. Pop. Pop. The orbs became fragile like bubbles, but on the eleventh one, the orbs became steel. Amber wanted to grab the orb and start bouncing it and, if she could, throw it away. She used a large amount of qi and destroyed the eleventh orb, but the twelfth orb only laughed at her struggles, as she used the last bit of her qi in her last attempt and failed miserably.
"I win." Her mother said.
"You cheated." Amber said, glaring at her.
"No, I played fairly and followed the rules. You wasted too much qi too early but saved too much in the sixth round instead of going all out. Instead of winning all eleven, you exhausted yourself and only won five."
"Play again. I will win this time." Amber said.
"Well, after we both eat a Fire Qi Replenishing Pill first."
The entire month passed with her and her mother playing games all day, much like she used to do. This month passed in record speed and although they only played the same game, Amber kept playing until she could win three games in a row. According to her mother, if she could not, she would not truly win and will not get any extra birthday presents, but if she did, she would get a lot of birthday presents. However, Amber always won these "need to win three games in a row for extra presents matches". Easy presents for her. Talk about a great deal.
At the end of the month, her mother brought her into a new room. It was smaller than the one she shared with Louis and the one she shared with her mother. It had a small bed on a large, black marble slab with an array inscribed onto it she did not quite understand. Louis was already in the room, adding the finishing touches.
"Eat these pills," Louis said, holding two pills in his hand. He sat within the array, beside the bed. "Close your eyes and just follow the bright blue dot within your right hand like last time, alright?"
Amber nodded as she laid on the bed. Her mother stayed outside the array and Louis held her right hand. When she closed her eyes and looked into her right hand, the bright blue orb was waiting for her. Before it moved however, a cool stone was put into her left hand.
"Whenever you run out energy, remember, you have a spirit stone in your left hand to help you. Use it when you are tired, it will help you." Louis said, then the bright blue orb started moving.
Amber guided her qi to follow it and once her qi was reaching her chest, she lost consciousness.
When she opened her eyes, she was lying down in the "Find and Catch" array. Her mother was smiling at her.
"Good morning. Today is the final 'Find and Catch' game. If you win three games in a row, you get extra presents. If you lose, you lose all your presents." Her mother said. "Let's start immediately."
Twenty orbs of fire surrounded Amber and Amber eliminated all of them like she normally did, in forty-eight seconds. She was the best she had ever been right now. She won the next five rounds with similar ease and closed out the game with record ease. The second game started with another twenty orbs. Just like the last game, Amber aimed to complete the round like she normally did and close out the next two games. However, the first orb did not pop after she caught it. She required six more tries to pop the first orb and every single orb after that. She had not popped the ninth orb when the rest of the orbs disappeared.
Frustrated, Amber shouted. "You cheated. Only one orb can be like that, not all of them."
"There are no rules against it," her mother said. "Let's continue.
Without a moment to catch her breath, the next round of twenty orbs appeared. They, like the first round, required seven tries before popping. Amber used a significant amount of qi, almost four times greater than her normal output, to instantly pop the orb and each following orb within the round. The next four rounds passed the same manner with just one exception: in the fifth round, Amber reduced the amount of qi she used to her normal levels, but it required her seven tries to pop it, so she used her normal about of qi again for the remaining orbs.
"Last game." Her mother said.
Amber, who was panting and looking around for Fire Qi Replenishing Pills, was annoyed that the game had not stopped. Her mother never let the match reach this point, always allowing her to rest. She wanted to stop, but the game continued. The twenty orbs this time were even tougher than the orbs in the previous game, causing her to raise her qi output to eight times before she could succeed with a single blow. Still, her experimenting costed her precious seconds she needed to finish the round. Before her qi reached the orb, the round ended.
"Round two." Her mother said.
Amber was out of qi at this point. She did not consider the last five rounds with her previous attempt and now she was completely spent. Where were the Fire Qi Replenishing Pills when she needed them? The second rounded ended without Amber even managing to collect enough qi to break a single orb.
"Round three." Her mother said, in a neutral tone.
Her voice was quiet, but it was deafening to Amber. Amber closed her fists as she glared at her mother. This was unfair, the rules were broken again and again, but her mother did not care. Louis would have been much nicer to her. She would have left him something, always remembering to sneak her cake, fruits and snacks. Even Fire Qi Replenishing PIlls and a spirit stone once or twice.
Spirit stone. Louis had said, she had a spirit stone in her left hand and if she needed it, she should use it. She looked in her left hand and closed her fist multiple times but where was it? Louis could not be wrong, could he? No. He had never been wrong before. She closed her eyes and fist. When she opened her eyes and fist, a spirit stone would be there. Louis never lied.
When she opened her eyes, the spirit stone was not there. When she threw her hands down in frustration, a spirit stone appeared on the floor. Amber shouted and rushed to grab it. She started to absorb the qi within and felt her exhaustion alleviate significantly and her dry meridians taste the sweet liquid qi after a long drought.
"Round five." Her mother said.
Amber, fully restored, ignored her. She preceded to use eight times of her normal use of qi for each orb and successfully passed the array. The next five rounds were easy as a pinch, with her fully restored qi. When she won, the world around her shattered and a deathly darkness surrounded her, without a speck of light around.
When Amber opened her eyes again, Louis was still sitting next to her. Her mother was just outside the array. Her body never felt better, but she never felt so confused. She was just playing against her mother in "Find and Catch", why was she here now?
"Welcome back." Louis said, passing her a Fire Qi Replenishing PIll. "You are safe now." He leaned down and hugged her.
"I was playing against mother in 'Find and Catch'. Why am I here?" Amber asked, looking at her mother.
"You were here in this array the entire time. The game you played with her was a dream, a dangerous dream. And you succeeded." Louis said. "Let's eat cake to celebrate."
Amber looked at Louis confusedly, but smiled with the mention of cake. It was just a bad dream, after all. Nothing bad. Her mother and Louis always treated her the best.
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