"I could answer your question, but do you know enough about my character to know whether or not I'd lie to you now?" Kein inquired.
Dr. Jekyll opened the jar, removed a small sample, placed it on a petri dish, and then exposed it to an ultraviolet light, and the substance turned to ash.
"Wait here while I collect your salt," he told her.
"I was wondering if there's another substance that you might carry," she called after him as he went behind the curtain.
"What is that?" he inquired as he moved to a cabinet similar to the one in the first room of his lab which also had dozens of drawers, and he opened a drawer, pulling out a small bag of salt.
"Do you have access to colloidal silver?" Kein asked.
"Liquid silver? I do. What do you want it for? The silver content in the liquid is more for medicinal uses than as a weapon against anything living within the Basement Level," Dr. Jekyll told her.
"I need it for a personal matter," she replied, and then she asked, "How do you deal with the werewolf pup in the hallway?"
"I give him some scrap of meat or a bone. A bone works longer," he replied. "Here is your salt. Leave... I answered your questions for today."
Kein grabbed the bag of salt and said, "True you answered my questions, but I would like to know one more thing. What would you like in trade for the colloidal silver?"
"I need nothing right now," Dr. Jekyll told her as he returned to what looked like a drawing in his journal. "Return later today and ask me again."
"Thank you," she spoke before she left.
Dr. Jekyll lifted his gaze as she thanked him, and then as if someone had scolded him, he spoke after her, "I should thank people when thanking is due, and I should receive thanks when I have earned it, so... you are welcomed."
Kein smiled at his appreciation, then she entered the hallway and found that the werewolf pup was absent again, so she hurried to her next destination, glanced up at the image of the fish, and felt a sense of longing for someone greatly loved and missed. She entered and found the Atlantian sitting on the ten-foot dock reading.
"Is the book any good?" she called out to him from the railing of the twenty-foot dock.
"I am not sure," he replied. "It is the first book I have read on VR technology, and I had actually been daydreaming and not reading."
"What were you daydreaming about?"
The Atlantian turned and looked at her like he wasn't going to answer, but then he replied, "A time long ago when I was still a child and I was playing with the youngest of my family, my little sister."
Kein leaned on her elbow that rested on the railing as she said, "It must be nice to have such memories. I envy you."
"Do you?" he questioned her, then lifted his webbed hand towards her as if to pull the truth of her words from the air, and said, "You do not lie." The Atlantian lowered his hand, then set the book he was holding on the dock, and stood as he asked, "Are you any good at games?"
"I don't know. I haven't played many."
He asked, "Would you like to play one now?"
Kein peered at the soft cover book and noticed its title was VR Technology For Dummies, and then she answered, "I think I would like to. Oh... and by the way, I have your salt."
He looked to the bag she held out towards him, and then he said, "I am surprised you were able to get it. I am amazingly surprised."
"The task didn't seem all that impossible to me," she told him.
"I am surprised because you are still alive. Would you come and sit beside me while we play the game?"
"I don't think I can," Kein answered as she glanced around at all the water.
"Your fear of drowning. How about I make a bargain with you? I can never hurt you while we are playing a game."
She countered with, "How about you can't hurt me from the moment you say you want to play a game to the point I leave your swamp whether or not I accept?"
"Interesting," the Atlantian spoke. "Let me counter with one more point then. You cannot deny playing a game with me three times in a row."
Kein smiled, and then she said, "A bargain has been struck."
"A bargain has been struck," the Atlantian repeated. "What sort of games do you know?"
"Very very few... but I do seem to pick up on games quickly," she told him. "Would you like to teach me one of your favorite games?"
"I have no favorites, so I will teach you checkers."
She placed the bag of salt in her pocket, then climbed down the ladder to the ten-foot dock, and waited for him there. The Atlantian left and came back sometime later, carrying the checkerboard along with the checkers. He set up the board between them while they sat on the ten-foot dock. The Atlantian explained the game, and then they played as they talked.
"You have been an interesting addition to the Mortem?" the Atlantian spoke as he double jumped and took two of her pieces.
"How so?" Kein asked as she examined the move he played against her.
"You were never part of the Draft and yet you arrived on Opening day and came down to the Basement Level shortly before the start and somehow wound up in the thick of things. You abandoned contestant after contestant, fearing for your life as if you were so overwhelmed by fear you could not think, but you still managed to strike a deal with Controller and the Coaches. There are monsters all around you and yet you refuse to pick up a weapon or arm yourself in anyway beyond your wits. You talk to the Kumovon as if you are long lost sisters, and you became angry with the vampire for... for being a vampire. You made a deal with King Ammon on the verge of him killing you, and you actually made the doctor come out of his shell long enough to tell you that you were welcomed. These tiny little things on there own are nothing, but when you start to add them up... You have been out playing the Mortem. So many small details... so many pieces falling into place when they need to. Look at you now... You are sitting here with me actually enjoying a game you have never played before and all because... all because someone sent you here, but they sent you here without your knowledge."
"I think you're right about that," Kein told him as she managed to take one of his pieces and ended up having him crown her one piece. "And you're right about everything else you've said so far. I am a coward."
He said nothing to her comment but continued making ones of his own as he said, "I was contemplating leaving. I was becoming so bored here, but maybe I will stay a little longer just to see what you will do."
"How were you going to leave?"
"I will keep that small secret to myself for a while," he spoke as he made several more moves and cleared the board of her pieces. "I have won this round. Would you like to play again?"
"I would," she replied.
The Atlantian set up the board while she watched.
"You don't have a favorite game, so what about a favorite type of game?" she questioned him.
"I especially enjoy games like chess where one can manipulate the pieces to attack and sacrifice in an attempt to win the match, but my most favorite games are long drawn out ones like the game of Risk where you have to strategize many moves ahead which is also like chess."
"Is that why you're here in the Mortem, it has something to do with your love of games?"
"All who are in the Mortem are here to fulfill their ultimate wish, and many of them are complex, but maybe my wish is simple. Maybe I just want to play the best Risk game of my life, so I need to find a worthy opponent," the Atlantian stated, and then he got this cherished looked in his eyes as he spoke, "I had one once, but that was a very long time ago."
"I bet it was your little sister," she stated.
The Atlantian inquired, "Why would you guess that?"
"You love her so much, but I also sense a rivalry between you, but a healthy rivalry like one would have if one enjoyed competing against the other."
"You seem to have extraordinary intuition," he stated, and once he finished setting up the board, he said, "Tell me something about yourself Kein."
"I don'
t like to be called Kein," she replied.
"Why is that?"
"You remember me telling you it's not a name, but more of what they believe I am. The meaning of the name... it's cruel, so I don't like to be called by it."
"Allow me to call you, mi cha," he spoke.
"It sounds nice. What does it mean?"
"In a way, I am calling you little sister, but it is more like I am your senior."
"I think I understand," Kein said. "The first school I went to also had ways to address the other students around me. I like mi cha."
"Mi cha, it is," the Atlantian stated as he started the second game.
They played longer this time around, but the Atlantian still easily beat her.
"I better go," she said. "I still need to talk to King Ammon and Shukujo." Kein stood then climbed up to the twenty-foot dock, took a step to go to the door, then turned and said, "I almost forgot... I need to give you your salt."
"I wondered if you would remember. You are just like my real little sister," the Atlantian stated as he stood and walked towards her on his webbed feet.
He walked all the way to the dock just below where she was standing and held out his hand. Kein tossed the bag to him, and he caught it. He opened it, stuck a finger within, and then licked the tip of the salty goodness.
"Does it remind you of home?" she asked.
"No," he said. "The salt origin is nowhere near my homeland, but it is still salt. What do you want in exchange."
"The salt is yours whether or not you help me, but I was wondering if you have seen the Waters of Life within this world?"
"I am not sure. What does it look like?"
"I don't know myself," she replied. "I will see if I can get a little more information on it."
Kein turned and started to leave when her stomach growled loudly.
"You must be hungry," he said.
"My points don't amount to much. I've only had an apple since breakfast yesterday. I need to figure out a way to earn more points."
"You should have enough points from winning Opening to feast for weeks. It sounds to me like someone may be bending the rules a little too much. Do not worry... If they continue to do so, they will be punished by the Mortem," he stated, and before she could ask him about it, he changed the subject by saying, "There are side quests that the Controller will allow you to do if you request it. They range in all sorts of difficulties and point ranges. If you are to attempt one, I would suggest you do so early before you are too weak to survive."
"Thanks, I'll remember that."
Kein went into the hallway and still saw no signs of the werewolf pup.
"Controller," she called out.
"I am here," he replied. "I am always here."
"I need food and water, and I heard that I can earn points by taking on quests."
"Residents can. You aren't a Resident."
"I'll be dead of dehydration and/or starvation before I become a Resident. There has to be some way I can earn points."
"Rules are rules," Controller told her. "You could always steal food from one of the Residents or beg for them to have mercy on you."
"Begging for myself isn't really who I am," she replied. "How can I make points as a contestant?"
"Surviving," he replied.
"So what you're saying is, if I make it through today, I'll make as many points as I made yesterday?"
"No, you won Opening yesterday. Your points will be different today."
King Ammon's tomb...
Kein quickly went in the room, so she wouldn't have any distracting visions from the pyramid symbol above the door. She called out to him when she found the area just inside empty. King Ammon's sarcophagus came screaming out of the tomb as it did the other time, but when he emerged from it, he didn't seize her with his wrappings.
"I believe I have found the location of the Waters of Life, but I need to know what they look like if I'm to retrieve them for you."
"Waters of Life is a spring," King Ammon told her using his mind. "They flow as light, and they can restore almost anything."
"Does the Waters of Life need to be stored or contained in anything special?" she questioned.
"Clay or glass," he told her. "No metal."
"Please give me the container that's the appropriate size for what amount you need."
He eyed her as if deciding something about her, but it appeared that he didn't make up his mind about her. She was about to say something when a clay vessel floated to her that had originated from the tomb; it had a lid.
"I need it completely full and no less," he told her.
Kein took the vessel and started to leave, but then turned back around, and said, "I don't know what your story is or why you have entered the Mortem, but I wanted to say... umm... never mind. It's stupid."
He called after her as she turned to leave, "Tell me, daughter of fear."
"I don't know if it'll upset you to say it."
"Speak, and I promise to hold my wrath back if you should incur it."
"Your daughter, I believe I sense her here or I should say, I sense the love you have for her here. It's so strong. It's stronger than all your rage and hatred."
King Ammon's wrath didn't burn within him, but a few fleeting moments of joy did spring forth from his memories.
"I would like to get a better sense of you, daughter of fear. Tell me of your father."
"I never knew my father. I don't even know his name."
"Tell me of the one who instructed you. Tell me of the one who was like a father to you."
"There was a teacher. The man I consider my second teacher, but I don't consider him a father. I don't think he liked me."
"Daughter of fear and fatherless one, I will reward you if you are able to bring me the Waters of Life. I will reward you by showing you something no one else has seen."
The way he told her... Kein got this sense that it would be something wondrous to see.
"I think I would like that," she told him and then hurried out.
"Fail..." he spoke after she left. "And you will incur my wrath."
The Atlantian's swamp...
"It did not take you that long to return," the Atlantian stated as she walked out to the end of the twenty-foot dock.
"I know what the Waters of Life are," she said as she held the jar that was half as big as her. "I was told that they are a spring of light." She started to ask a question, but caught herself, and said instead, "I need this container filled with the Waters of Life. You only need to tell me what I need to give to you in exchange."
The Atlantian said, "I have seen the place in my watery domain where the waters of light enter the darkness of my world. I will retrieve this water, and in exchange, I want a book."
"What sort of book?" Kein questioned. "Tell me the title of the book."
"I do not care. I only want something that I have not read, and in my lifetime, I have read many books."
"The Waters of Life need to be placed in this clay vessel," she said as she set in on the dock. "I'll be back when I find you a book."
"If you find me a book," he said.
"No when..." she repeated. "I have to win this Mortem."
Kein started out when the Atlantian shouted to her, "Mi cha, obtaining the Waters of Life will not be easy for me, so if you should fail to bring me a book I have not read, I will kill you as a reward for my effort."
"Reward..?" she muttered. "What sort of reward is that?"
She said nothing more to him, left, and went to Shukujo's lair.
Chapter Seven
Tormenting And Teaching
Shukujo's lair...
Kein was exhausted, hungry, and thirsty, so she went straightway and sat in her corner where her pillow was and lay down on her back. She noticed as promised that the truck cart dolly was there near the corner. She removed her backpack, set it beside her, closed her eyes, and she heard a lot of movement in the dungeon castle area, but never opened her eyes.
"What
do you think you are doing?" Shukujo questioned her.
"Can't you tell?" Kein spoke through a sleepy voice. "I'm thinking."
Shukujo peered at her closed eyes and commented, "You have a peculiar way of thinking. You have a peculiar way of doing many things."
"People keep saying that," Kein spoke as she grew ever tired. "I didn't think I was that weird."
"Baka, you are the most unusual person I have ever met. You are even more unusual than my dearest friend."
"I didn't know you had a weird friend," Kein spoke as she smiled, thinking of Shukujo's imageless friend. "I bet she's a Kumovon just like you, and probably just as pretty."
"She was very pretty," Shukujo told her. "She was very beautiful."
"It must be nice having a friend," Kein spoke. "Tell me some of the things you would do together."
"We would climb the highest mountain on a cloudless night and peer up at the ocean of stars. She taught me her constellations, and I taught her mine. She liked to talk about the love of her life, the one she would marry and have many children with. I would tell her how I had no interest in marriage and children, but I was secretly jealous that she had already found her mate. She enjoyed singing, but much to the regret of my ears, she had no ability in such things."
Kein imagined everything the Kumovon spoke of as she teetered between the waking world and the one of dreams, and she asked, "What other things would you do together?"
"We would..." Shukujo began, then realized she had dropped all of her carefully placed guards, opened up to this human, and thought about a past she wanted to forget, so she immediately dropped the conversation and said, "I would not sleep if I was you."
They had come so close to having a normal conversation, and Kein was saddened that she was back to being considered an enemy. She said nothing to Shukujo's comments. She didn't know what to say, and she was very tired.
Shukujo stated, "I have banished a few of my children from my lair."
"You shouldn't have done that," Kein said as she opened her eyes, hearing of the tragedy, and she saw that Shukujo was in her usual spot near the white borderline. "They're your family."
Monster of Monsters #1 Part Two: Mortem's Contestant Page 7