Asher the Insane

84 - The House of Curses and Blessings

She looked around the room, shuddering at the eerie atmosphere. The candles flickered, casting an ominous glow on the faces of the ghosts. A chill ran down her spine as she saw their eyes glinting with an otherworldly light.

"Curse?" she whispered, her voice almost trembling with fear.

The ghosts laughed, a hollow sound that echoed through the room.

"A gift, a blessing? A curse? Who cares?" Liangci sneered. "It's a curse, plain and simple. We are trapped here, forced to do the bidding of some unknown entity, forever maybe."

Aini could feel her heart pounding in her chest. She wanted to leave, to run away from this haunted place, but something held her back. She had to know more, to understand the story behind the ghosts and their curse.

"Honorable ghosts," she said, her voice shaking. "I ask of you to tell me of your story."

The ghosts looked at each other, then nodded. Yisang spoke first, his voice filled with bitterness. "In my living life, dunno how long that's ago now, I was the second ruler of Al, before the merge."

"Merge?" Aini asked, her curiosity getting the better of her.

"Before Alaran was what it is, it had been three, Al, Ar, and An. There's a reason why it's called an empire." Diyi said.

Yisang continued his story, his voice growing more and more agitated. "Al wasn't a great country, but it also wasn't bad, just primitive. Most of us were farmers, back then there weren't many of us, and when Diyi wanted to forge an alliance with Al, I thought it would be the best for my people to be protected under them. But then he simply took us over after killing me, of course. I mean, how did I expect to die after I killed my own father to gain the position I then went on to hold? They did too, you know," he accused his associates.

"It's true," Liangci cried, "I killed my very own dear papa just to hold power early. The throne of An was something I was always jealous of and when I did have it, it was oh so satisfying."

"I killed my father because he was weak," Diyi justified. "The people of Ar needed someone to look up to, someone who showed them strength, and my father was not such a person."

Aini felt sick to her stomach as she listened to their gruesome stories. These ghosts were not the friendly apparitions that she had read about in books. They were murderers, ruthless and cold-blooded.

"So he killed me," Yisang said. "Took over of what I had, then the newly formed Empire of Alar made an alliance with An. Then not even after a year, Diyi had been poisoned by someone he should have by then called a friend, Liangci."

"I already said I'm sorry, but look how it turned out for the people of Alaran. This girl doesn't look too shabby for an empress, maybe with a new coat of paint because, girl, these robes do NOT fit you at all," Liangci criticized.

"All the same, but it did make me feel better when I heard that you were hung by your own people, not a month after my death, because they thought you were so annoying," Diyi said.

Yisang wanted to finish the tale. "Then, after we all died, we found ourselves in this house, in this form. Some sort of being, for me, it is too long ago to remember what it looked like, must have come from heaven or hell and it told us:

'As punishment and atonement for what you three had been in life, you are to be put in the position of judge of the new rulers of the empire you have formed with your very own sweat and blood, which flowed from all your bodies. You are to determine if they embody your best attributes you had in life, strength for Diyi, grace for Liangci, and love for the people for Yisang.

And so, the new ruler, which had been coincidentally the nephew of Diyi, had been given the message that every time a new ruler has taken over, they should visit us to see if they fit these categories. Many did, some didn't. It's not really hard for us to give you a yes.

Hey, do you guys remember who put us on this task?" The ghosts asked the others.

"No," they said in unison.

"Make sense, it's already been a long, long while."