An Honest Person

Rita launched the first question at Darren, erasing any doubts of whatever play or not the game. He was already in and he needed to act.

"How many books have you read and how many did you memorize?"

"T-t-t-t-t-Three thousands two hundred and twenty two read, Eight hundred an thirteen memorized"

Darren answered, stuttering at first before deciding this was not the moment to let his nerves take the best of him.

Rita simple nodded without any reaction, hiding her actual astonishment very well. She knew Darren have studied more than an average person only with hearing his ideas about her chair. But this number was ridiculous.

Darren meditated for a moment, thinking carefully of what question he should ask first. Unfortunately for him, he realized too late that they never agreed in a rule of turns.

"Why do you received the queen's letter?"

"Wait, that's cheating"

Rita simple pointed at her arm, reminding him that the time limit rule was still present. Darren could heard Elias laugh besides him while they walked.

"I have no clue. I simple wanted to read a book without interruptions wen an Iron giant appeared and hand it to me. I'm as confused as you about it"

"What do you plan to do when we arrive at the palace?" Rita asked, again, without giving him any time to ask something else. It was then that Darren finally could understand how the rules worked.

-We have till we arrive at the palace to ask what we want to know. There are no turn so it all depends of your mental agility to ask before the other. We have five seconds to answer and we can't lie. If i want to make my questions, my answers need to be concise and direct, however, not to the point to let her be indifferent. I need bring a reaction out of her to ask in that space of time-

Darren thought, surprised to notice that he was actually having a good time.

When he talked to other people, there where no rules except for those he didn't knew. People would get offended without him knowing why, people would judge him without him knowing why, people would react in hostile and hurting ways without him knowing why.

Everything was chaotic, but here, the rules where simple and as long as he played by those rules, everything would be alright.

"That depends. Personally i would like to turn back to my easy and peaceful life. But, if the queen wants something of me, i would like to know what that is"

"What do you think is"

"How does your chair works?" Darren asked, interrupting Rita at the middle of her question.

The rules had a loophole Darren exploited shamelessly. Nobody said anything about letting the other finish their question. The one asking first was the only thing that matters, in that sense the one with the shortest question had the upper hand.

"Tsk" Rita clicked her tongue feeling a little angry. She didn't expected Darren to catch the rules so quickly. Usually they would spent several minutes answering her questions, too terrified of the time penalization to realize how it worked.

"The gears are propelled by the combustion engine. I use Mana to turn oxygen into a lighter gas to fill the chambers and impulse the mechanism without needing any fuel. As gases are easily altered with Mana, the consumption is relatively low, so i could keep moving without any problems for a while."

"How do you change direction?"

"It had two motors controlling each wheel independently. If i stop the Mana supply to one of them it will change direction"

"The others mechanisms now in"

"Why do you think the queen call you?" Rita asked, making use of the same weakness in the rules that Darren use before. Apparently, only the shortest questions would have the opportunity to be answered, that was forcing Darren to think in more precise ways to formulate his doubts.

"I'm not sure. I assume it has something to do with the book i published this year"

"which book"

"Introduction to Universal History"

"Why do you think that?"

"Because aside from that, i have never done anything worthy of interest"

Rita gone silent after that, thinking carefully in what else she should ask. Darren didn't let this opportunity slip away.

"The resting pieces. What do they do?"

"Tsk. They activate some mechanisms i'm not currently using"

"What is their function?"

"They allow me to move in environments that are, not as comfortable"

Darren felt a little disappointed with Rita's vague answers. But the rules didn't specify how much detail they should give, vague answers where legal as long as they where sincere. Rita wasn't dumb, she wouldn't play a game that didn't let her save some little secrets here and there, she was a mage in the end.

However, there was one thing that Darren have been wanting to ask since he saw the elaborated design of Rita's chair.

"Elias leg, did you made it?"

"Yes"

"Why your arm looks better?"

"It isn't"

"Why"

"Tsk. The design is more primitive. It's functions are closer to those of a real arm and the control is more precise. However, that doesn't make it a good prosthesis. The Mana intake is too high, the first time i tried to use it was the day I lost my legs."

Darren looked at her speechless. He didn't know what to say, after all, he couldn't imagine what should have felt. To realize she take an arm back at the price of both her legs for a mistake. To realize that all that time of experimentation and research trying to find the right enchantment have gone to waste.

-What could I do to help her?- Thought to himself.

"From where do you get money?" Rita asked while Darren was wasting time feeling petty and guilt.

That was a bullseye, Rita might be a lot of things, but she wasn't dumb. People needed money to survive and, according to Darren, he hasn't done anything with his life but writing one book that same year.

It was impossible to him to read as much as he claimed while having a regular job. He needed to survive somehow. Darren give a heavy sight when he notice he was trapped.

-She won this time it seems-

"My father sends me money from time to time. Just enough for my basic necessities, necessities usually unattended because I waste most of it in books."

At the end of the road, the Royal palace's doors could be seen, it looked like the time for questions was about to come to it's end.

Darren have many questions left, there was still a lot of things he wanted to learn about enchantments and the technology behind Rita's inventions. But under the game rules, those questions would remain unanswered.

-Well, if that's it, there's still one thing I can do- Darren thought with a grin.

Even if Rita have won the game asking him the exact one thing he didn't wanted to tell, he still could turn the tables at the end by not being the only one feeling ashamed. He looked at Rita with an evil smile on his face.

"By the way, I'm a pink elephant of 500 years with a hat" Darren said with a smile. Like he expected, absolutely nothing happened despite his obvious lie.

Rita frown feeling annoyed while trying to hide the flush on her face, Elias in the other hand was about to fall of laughter.

"How"

"Did I knew nothing would happen? Like i said, I have read everything that can be read about magic. Those enchantments you mentioned before didn't exist. Even assuming there are undocumented enchantments it still couldn't work. Magic is a force of nature like any other, it works with the natural laws, not above them. For something like that to work there should be multiple enchantments taking place at the same time, one of linking, one of detection to identify the things that might highlight a lie, one of regulation to differentiate those signs and so on and so fort. Even with all of that is impossible for an enchantment to take the Mana of another's mage body. All mages are responsible of their own Mana with their own spells and their own enchantments."

Rita looked at him with hostility in her eyes before answer.

"Now what? are you going to laugh at me for taking it seriously? Are you going to call me a hypocrite for trying to fool you? are you going to tell me you where lying the whole time?"

"Not at all"

"then what?"

"I just want you to know that some of us can still be honest with no need of threats and test. Besides, i have a lot of fun"

Darren noticed that they have already arrived to the palace. He departed by his own to make sure the guard let them pass, leaving Elias and Rita behind.

"Well, what do you think?" Elias asked standing besides her with his same old smile. He knew this was going to happen, he expected the experience would teach Rita a little bit of humility and trust. He suspected she would never met her full potential without lowering that spiked shield in her heart.

"Is the first time someone gets the rules from the beginning and follows them anyways"

"I see" Elias said, caressing his long beard with a smile.

"Tsk, he still is an arrogant cheater" Rita said, pushing her chair towards the doors leaving Elias alone. He remained there for a moment, laughing softly

"Kukukuku. Let's see how all of this unravel" Elias said walking with his cane towards the door. After all, the queen was waiting.