The world of Avatar was vast, and everywhere you could find places that had once been the site of great events that shook history itself, and sometimes these places were the last strongholds where people went to spend the last days of their lives in complete peace and pleasure. Zaofu definitely belonged to the latter category, because as soon as I entered the small settlement, I felt a sense of peace that was difficult to describe: the mist coming from the lake, the slight coolness and the excellent air quality created such comfort that I wanted to stay there until the end. Nevertheless... Afka found nothing strange here that would distinguish this place from others. Only one very remarkable grave, almost in the centre of the town.
There, on a large stone from which a crystal tree grew, was carved the name of one of the leading conquerors of the Earth Kingdom, the Crystal Knight Cheng. There was some connection to Bumi, but what exactly had happened here was yet to be understood. Logically, it made sense to talk to the locals, preferably those who had seen a lot in their lifetime.
Taking off the rags from my head and removing the mask from my face so as not to alarm the relaxed locals with my appearance, I walked through the streets. Despite my appearance, life here flowed sluggishly, as if everyone were floating along a slow, warm stream. A woman was taking laundry off the clothesline; a couple of kids were running around a gravestone and almost knocked over a fisherman carrying a bucket of fish from the lake. On the porch of a cosy house, a few old men were gathered, playing some kind of board game. I decided to approach them.
"I hope I'm not disturbing you too much?" I began slowly, trying not to disturb the cosy atmosphere. "Can I join you?"
"Would you like to play Pai-Sho?
"I'll take it," I replied, and sat down next to the man. The only thing missing was tobacco in it — and that was a good thing, because otherwise I would never have sat down next to him.
"Always happy to see you.
The second replied, without looking up from the board. He still had hair on his head, and it hadn't even turned grey yet; his physique revealed that he had once been a very strong and resilient man, but it was his eyes that attracted the most attention. Deep, incredibly focused. I sat down next to them while my companions caught their breath and continued playing as if nothing had happened, without explaining the rules or giving me any chips. I had to sit and watch until they finished.
"By the way, they say there's some kind of circus touring the conquered villages," the oldest of them began, apparently continuing a conversation that had been interrupted by my arrival.
"Entertaining the people they conquered?
"No, the soldiers who are in those territories.
Since the game was new to me, watching what was happening became a learning experience. Everything took place on a round board divided into squares, and the game was played with round tokens with different pictures on them. Afka was also sitting next to me, but with a much more understanding look, as if, unlike me, she knew all the rules of the game. However, those few hours of simple observation made me realise that the local elders really knew a lot, and their interests covered a wide range of topics. But I didn't rush to join in until I had tried the game myself.
"Want to play?" Three hours later, the oldest of them, whom they had called Yo during the conversation, turned to me. He had won, forcing his friend to concede, and now he turned the board towards me with a smile. It was... interesting. The game was much more complicated than simple chess, somewhat similar to Go, and had an incredibly ancient history.
"With pleasure. It's as atmospheric here as in the temples of the air nomads, where the world tournaments for this game were held," I decided to stir things up a bit to see what topics I could discuss with them.
"But getting there was quite a challenge. Just to play, you had to conquer the highest peaks — my bones aren't what they used to be," said my opponent.
"A test of spirit," nodded the second, who was now watching my game intently. His name was Shu. "King Boomi once showed his spirit; he was one of the few who went to help the nomads at the beginning of the war. Let him learn the first bitterness of defeat there, I believe he paved the way for himself to become king. Going to help them in their hour of need is far more valuable than some game.
I blinked in surprise, raising my head from the board. Yo picked up Shu's words:
"He was young, but steadfast. I remember that after making many mistakes, he began to gradually achieve great victories. He became a commander of the troops here nearby and defended the border.
I think I began to understand how all this could be used.
"Since he defended the surrounding area, he must have heard stories about crystal magic from the locals and improved his skills based on their rumours. After all, as we know, King Boomi doesn't like to read, and he wouldn't have learned skills from books," I nodded knowingly, but now the old men themselves looked up at me. They looked closely and nodded.
I picked up the thread of the conversation. No matter what the topic was, I often managed to add my two cents, thanks to my knowledge of history and other fields, which allowed me to learn many interesting details about Boomi himself and what was happening in the world. Needless to say, I literally forced the old men to tell me fairy tales. It wasn't childish, but rather embellished attempts to describe various magical tricks.
But based on them, it was already possible to try to recreate something, as King Boo himself did.
We got so caught up in conversation that I practically stopped watching the game. The discussions we engaged in gave our pastime a special atmosphere. The freedom of my reasoning attracted the attention of the old men, and Shu began to glance in my direction more often. At one point, as soon as I suddenly realised that I had lost and the pieces on the board had formed a strange pattern, my gaze met that of the old man who was looking at everything meticulously.
"You're out of luck," he concluded. Indeed, as if to spite me, my opponent always managed to make more risky moves and outmanoeuvre me. Nevertheless, a certain lotus symbol formed by the checkers on the board inspired some thoughts. Could this be a coincidence? I certainly couldn't have planned for the final position of the pieces to look exactly like this. Someone was clearly directing the game.
This position... A lotus. A pure flower, symbolising a large but mysterious organisation. The old men said nothing, they glanced briefly, stood up and left. They left me with the board, which I continued to stare at.
"This... is terrible," the monstrous truth suddenly dawned on me. I covered my eyes with my hands, amazed at how simple a method these old men had used to convey something so obvious to me. All my plans, future strategies and possible ideas would simply crumble due to an endless series of failures and a lack of experience. I had never made long-term plans before; all my life I had only made decisions in the here and now. I would not be able to take control of my destiny unless I learned to think like my enemy.
Anubis can't play the game called life for me.
"Af," but just at that moment, when my opponent on the other side of the board was gone and I was lost in thought, Afka sat down. With her paws, this creature returned the chips to their places, stuck out her tongue, and waited for me. Still in amazement, I reset the game board and made the first move for the sake of interest. Afka responded. We played for only a couple of minutes, not wasting much time talking, and I lost, not believing it myself. Every one of my pieces was destroyed and eaten.
My gaze was empty. Fun? When you lose to a cheeky fox, losing all your soldiers, it should be called something else — total humiliation, disgrace, the defilement of your entire family. And yes, considering the fact that I was completely unlucky, I wanted to give up and...
"Choose:
1 - Learn to play (By honing your skills in a game created by the spirits themselves, you will be able to predict your opponent's moves. You will be able to join the White Lotus Order. This secret organisation is engaged in the dissemination of all kinds of information, so you will have an additional source of knowledge. You will spend a significant part of your life perfecting your strategy and tactics)
2 - Division of responsibilities (After talking to Liu, you realise that you will never be better than someone who has devoted their entire life to their cause. Only if you invest as much as they did will you be able to achieve anything, so you must continue to develop your strength. Among the multitude of people, you can still find someone who will become your loyal tactician and skilled strategist.
3 - Be cunning (You have learned to make less than honourable decisions...)
My eyes darted across the text and slowly narrowed. I don't know, it's quite possible that I was just winding myself up, but Anubis's choices were mesmerising and drew me to the bottom of society... I can't describe why I started to like the less than honourable decisions he proposed.
If the first option involved investing my soul, a lot of free time and money in this direction, and the second openly took away an important part of my strength, even though it freed up a titanic amount of time, then the third... was called the happy, golden middle ground.
***
"Wow...
"Hard to believe," Shu frowned, rubbing his eyes from a sleepless night. "Is it just me?
"No, our dear guest really is that incredibly lucky," Yo shook his head, looking at my calmly seated figure. I feel like a piece of shit, and for good reason — what I did suppressed my chakra of truth a little. After all, I had brazenly and unscrupulously cheated innocent old people, winning every single one of them at Pai Sho.
"3 - Be cunning (You have learned to make less than honourable decisions. Use Afka's invisibility and her legendary mind to win at Pai Sho and become a member of the White Lotus. If you continue to abide by your agreement with Wang Sheng Tong, you can force Afka to develop strategic plans for you, but only when you are defending yourself. You can spend the freed-up time on whatever you want. You will owe Afka a great debt.)"
"Sorry, guys, but there's no way I can fight a dog with a moustache. First, I'll make you tell me about the White Lotus, and then I'll use your knowledge to pay Afka back!"
***
Advanced chapters:
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