บท 101: Masquerade
People, dressed in the most exaggerated colors and clothes, stood and sat around the smaller-sized hall, heads turned almost grotesquely towards me, faces hidden behind a messy assortment of masks and broad-brimmed hats.
I gasped, and then music blared from invisible instruments.
Now this. This is a masquerade.
I found it so surprising, and so otherworldly, that I removed my mask, wanting to see it without any cloth filming the scene away. However, the music was just as glaring and the colors were just as shocking.
It would have been fine, perhaps, if it simply ended at that. However, the masked people --- mannequins, strange-moving supposedly-inanimate creatures --- twitched and danced soundlessly towards me, while the blaring music edged into the background, the violin scratching painfully in a loop of extremely high notes. Even my trained mind could not take the sudden frightening scene, like a childish nightmare come straight into reality. They were twitching, flinching, and making their steady way towards me. My feet stepped back, and I bumped into something.
I realized I had collided into the butler, and I looked way up at him, my eyes pleading for help, however...
"Hurgh!" I shouted out in surprise and jumped away from the tall man, promptly dropping the mask from my hand.
I don't know when it had happened, but his face now bore a silver mask, a face drawn on it so crudely in the portrayal of pure ecstasy. I scrambled away from them all, but they approached me with two steps for every single step I backed away. My breaths, I realized, have become shallow and irregular. My heart drummed so hard that I could feel it echoing in my ears.
My retreat was soon cut short when my back hit the cold, corridor wall. I cursed shakily. They have now perfectly surrounded me.
And then... I calmed down.
'Notes,' my muzzled mind manage to think, and so I gathered it around me. Perhaps I've never encountered such creepy creatures before, but I can surely defend and attack. As frightening the prospects might be, I simply couldn't die because of terror. And so, I mustered my will to form a ball of magic --- fire, water, or whatever --- but then I heard something unnerving.
One of the masked mannequins started shaking, an eerie laughter coming from inside it.
I held my breath, waiting for it to do something, or explode, or anything! However, an unexpected voice came from my other side. Another masked person-thing broke out from its unnaturally bent position and simply stood up straight. Then, it sighed irritably and spoke, "Collin, you idiot! You broke the act!"
Then, the previously laughing one replied, "It was still fine! I just couldn't hold it in! I mean, he seemed so ridiculous!"
I blinked, finding the normal humanly exchange unfamiliar amidst the surreal sights surrounding me. And then, one by one, the masked people started to stand up straight, rubbing at their joints and murmuring complaints. Some of them went on and blamed the one named Collin. The others blamed the other one. Others simply groaned and sighed.
In the sudden, anticlimactic result, however, I realized one thing: they were simple humans, and I was duped.
I glared at them, my fear disappearing to be exchanged by anger.
"What... is this supposed to be?" I asked, my voice coming out small, yet my aura must've been enough for them to all quit talking.
The second person to speak, the one who chided Collin, coughed a little at my anger, and slowly took his mask and broad hat away. There stood in front of me was the most peculiar human being I've ever seen. Hair as white as snow, eyes as clear as water, and a smile befitting the gods themselves.
I spluttered out in shock. "Wha- Who are... you... sir?"
The one called Collin chuckled from in front of me, and I flinched. However, that proceeded to calm me down, and I managed to glare at the serene looking man, even though all I wished was to gape at him in awe.
The white man, seemingly glowing on his own, said apologetically, "This is a silly prank our Mare does every time a new member comes along. I hope you forgive us for our... disjointed welcome."
Then, he came towards me, and knelt down on the bare ground. That surprised me so much that my eyes went wide in shock. He then gently took hold of both of my hands and pressed it on his chest, right where I could feel his steady heart.
"Will you forgive us for our moment of childishness?" he asked beseechingly.
I could only reply, "I- Yeah, yes, I forgive yo-"
Even before I could finish replying, the whole group started cheering loudly. They whooped and jumped in their masks, which now made them look silly rather than scary. I could only watch the weirdness of everything while my hands were still stuck to the white man's chest.
I looked back at him and he stared back with an eager expression, his joyous smile almost bringing me to tears.
I quickly retracted my hands away, and started to fidget around. All around me, the people were either dancing around, or returning back to the room they came from.
I soon felt a hand on my shoulder. It was the butler, his frightful mask now gone from sight. He said, "Come in. I suppose you have a lot of questions."
~~
The room was actually a smaller sized hall that could be used for holding private parties. There were no windows, but the numerous magical lights made it look as though we were outside on a bright, sunny day. The music seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere, but it was calmer now than before. All around were pastel colored tables placed in random, just like their numerous colors, and some of them were even placed in the middle of the dance floor...
It was chaotic, but the people inside seemed to like the arrangement. Once in a while, one of them would execute a magic so showy I would look over in mere shock. A sudden burst of pink fire. A gust of candy flavored breeze. A dance so fierce I had to step back in fear of being injured from the person's sharp movements.
Strangely... it reminded me of Malaya, even though everything was much stranger than the floating island.
I was sitting in silence with the butler and the whit man, on an orange colored table at the far corner of the hall. I was grateful enough for them giving me some time to take it all in before they proceeded with the talking, but the dazzling scenes. scents, and sounds only made me more curious, so I asked them, "What are you people?"
The white man giggled while the tall butler remained stoic. I only stared at them both, waiting for an answer.
The white man stopped giggling when he noticed my look. "O-Oh! You were serious... Well, we're just like you. Students of the Academy. Although Kartik here is our guiding professor. All mares have one, you know? Although I suppose most Sinus Fidei won't actually be aware that your dear Professor Hippy is your guiding professor."
That surprised me, although I suppose it made sense. I only ever knew the head professor and the second head professor, but there must be a hierarchy right under them.
"So... ummm, Professor Kartik, you are the guiding professor of which mare?" I asked the butler-looking teacher.
He smiled at me wordlessly and turned to the white man beside him. That made me look over to him as well. He smiled in his glowing white demeanor, and explained, "Didn't I tell you? He's the guiding professor of our mare."
Somehow, he managed to place a lot of emphasis on "our" mare.
I pursed my lips. "So... Mare Frigoris?"
"Goodness, no."
"Mare Imbrium, then," I reasoned.
He laughed, his voice tinkling divinely. "Good try, but no."
I huffed, and started to doubt everything. The only mare left was Mare Cognitum, and that mare was almost simply a legend for the Sinus Fidei. Very few made it to Mare Cognitum, and these people are saying that they...
However, looking around, I can't help but entertain the idea. I remembered how seamless the show magic they were performing earlier. No Sinus Fidei could ever be able to do that so easily. Yet here they were, sprouting out magic after magic of the most peculiar magics.
Could they really be... ?
I looked at them both in turn, and asked evenly. "Mare Cognitum?"
The white man looked at me in surprise for a long moment, and then let out a snort. He then guffawed into the air, and it was so inelegant that I forgot his divine image almost immediately...
"Ha! Ha ha ha!!!" he laughed loudly enough to illicit annoyed shouts from the other students. He then turned to me. "You think us Mare Cognitum?"
"Why is that so funny, Tora?" the butler --- Professor Kartik --- asked. "Aren't you in Mare Cognitum yourself?"
I gasped at that, and turned to the white man, Tora. He sunk down on the table, pouting and groaning at the professor. "Aww... You know I don't particularly like being in that mare. The rest of the ring members are just so boring!"
"I, uh..." I managed, confusion frankly swallowing me up. "So this is Mare Cognitum then?"
Tora looked up at me from where he was resting his cheek on the table and smirked. "Nope, you're wrong yet again."
I sighed in exasperation. "Then I don't understand. I've listed out all possible mares and you agree to none of them. The professor says you belong to Mare Cognitum, yet you claim to belong to another. So, what is it then? Nothing about this is logical at all."
He too let out a long breath from his mouth and slid back into a proper seated posture. He smiled at me. "Well, that's only if you assume that one student can only belong to one mare, and if one believes there are only four mares in the Procellarum. Well, to both of which the answer is false. A student can indeed belong to at most two mares, and there are indeed more than four mares in the Procellarum."
"..."
I stayed silent, but a particular thought came to mind. It was simple, really.
I then added, "And if, to say, that particular fifth mare is supposedly kept hidden and secret... then I suppose that could explain why most students can only name four out of the five."
He looked at me in shock. "... You are either privy to us or beastly intelligent."
I shook my head. "I'd have to say that I'm neither. If what I guess is proven true, then it is only due to luck."
He smiled wider, yet his eyes, pure and clear, grew almost darker in seriousness.
"Please," Tora said. "Tell us your thoughts."
I gulped down once, and muttered two simple words, "Mare... Desiderii."
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Hua_Li_An
Hua_Li_An Hey guys!
Is it really it? Did Elle stumble upon the hidden Mare Desiderii that her friend, Joren, spoke about?
Thanks for reading! Once again, I hope you guys leave a comment, vote, or a review!
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