The Moon Symphony

Eye of the Sea

Ingo left the room after helping me clean the wounds that I have. I already changed to a clean set of clothes that he let me borrowed. How can such a person be nice even if we just met and don't know me personally? 

I forgot the most important thing. I forgot to ask if where I was, I mean this place. It's really different from the areas that I reached in Orient Seas. I can tell just by the design of the house.

I want to talk to Mayari, but just like before, I can only communicate with her if there are essential things that she wants to discuss. It can't be helped since she is one of the most important deities in the celestial seat. If I remember correctly, she is also one of the surviving deities aside from Tala and Anitun Tabu. The two, Apolaki and Hanan's whereabouts, were unknown. Baku said that they were locked up or sealed in some distant dimension, and who did that was unknown. 

Ingo went back to the room carrying a wooden cup with water and handed it to me. I took the container and drank its contents. I was so thirsty. I did not bother checking what's inside the cup, but the aftertaste hit me differently. The flavor was like those Ester made for me when I was recovering. 

"I'm sorry, Ayari. I added medicine to your water." Ingo said. 

"It's okay. Thank you so much for this. You know what, you are just like my siblings. They usually do things like this," I said. 

Ingo sat down in front of me. 

"Is it okay if I ask if where they are?" Ingo said. 

"It's okay. I got separated from my siblings when we were traveling together." I said. 

"I'm sorry to hear about that. So before I found you near the seaside, that what you meant that you got separated from them, correct?" Ingo asked.

I guess there's nothing wrong if I tell Ingo the whole story. I told him about traveling with my siblings and friends, and I was given a mission to find some people. I said to him about the encounters that we had with the enemies, the Herald of darkness. After hearing what I said, there was a sudden change in Ingo's expression. It was like he was afraid. Could it be that this place fell victim to the forces of evil? 

I've meant to ask, but I'll just let him tell me instead. I'm not going to force the question because he was already trembling from what he heard so far about the enemies. I continued to the point about my encounter with Bansot. I stopped because he was already shaking from fear. 

"Hey, Ingo? Are you okay?" I said and tapped his shoulders. 

Ingo suddenly removed my hands from him, and he left the room for no reason. I guess I was right. This place was attacked by enemies. This explains why this place looked like this. I feel bad for Ingo. I'm so stupid. I should have stopped when I saw that he was in fear already. 

I thought about following him to apologize, but maybe I should give him time to cool off. I just stayed in the room thinking about how I can apologize to Ingo. 

----

Forest of Retribution, Makisig's Place

"Do you have any news about the whereabouts of Yari?" I asked Makisig. 

"I'm sorry, Apo, but it's still the same. I tried talking with the nature spirits, but they did not see Ayari or someone looking like him. Besides, the spiritual energy that I felt the other day was totally lost." Makisig explained. 

"I know you are worried about my brother as much as we do, but we need to find clues first. We must do things calmly, okay?" Anan said and tapped my shoulders. 

"How about you, Ani? Got some any predictions?" I asked her. 

"It's still the same; what I can only see is sand and the sea. I can't grasp the whole place because it was not clear." Ani explained. 

"I guess we have to go and ask for some help. I'll go back to Pine Lagoon and ask Saldang and Lagas." Baku said. 

"Let me go with you, Big brother Baku," Ester said. 

"Okay, let's go there first thing tomorrow morning, okay." 

Where are you now, Ayari. I hope that you are safe. 

------

Ingo's Place

I stood up, but I can still feel the stinging pain from my injuries. I don't know, but I feel so lonely being alone here in the room. I got used to talking with people. I decided to look around the place. 

Well, this house is actually big. There were several rooms aside from the one I was staying in. I did not bother checking the rooms one by one because it might be an invasion of privacy. Even if the place is worn down, this is still someone's house. I noticed that the decorations in this place were made from fine wood, and the materials were expensive if I were to compare this to the real world. It looked like an old antique house for me. There were also statues at every corner of the place, which resembles warriors. I took the liberty to check on the figure, and I was amazed that it was very detailed. I never saw craftsmanship like this. 

The sad thing is some parts of the statues were broken already, a hand was missing. The body was broken, and it is such a waste that it got destroyed. 

I continued to venture around the room, and I heard someone was singing. It was a beautiful melody, and it was calming. It was lifting up my mood, and it's like it was calling me. Suddenly, I felt that the mark on my left hand was reacting to the tune that I was hearing. Without thinking, I followed the source of the music that I heard. 

The healing winds of skies in a souls release,

In a secret place, a silent prayer is made,

a sign for the future hidden in the past.

Every little bit of fear to let the daylight in

Put all your cares aside for the healing of the stars.

Let your voice be what the word is known

When I fall apart, just find me in your heart.

I see mercy in the sun, lifting all these tears of rain

I see compassion in the moon, healing all these wounds of pain.

I entered the room where the singing came from. I froze in my tracks when the music stopped. I was surprised by the person who was singing the tune. It was a beautiful maiden. Her skin was the same as Ingo, it was pure white, and her hair was so long it touched the floor. It was decorated with accessories that looked like butterflies and flowers. On the top of her head was a flower crown made from roses. 

"Who are you?" The woman asked. 

Even the way she speaks, it was so beautiful and relaxing. 

"Oh, I'm sorry for barging in without asking for permission, I am-

Then all of a sudden, I felt someone from behind grabbed me. I looked behind me, and it was Ingo. He hurriedly pulled me out of the room. 

After leaving the room, I instantly bowed my head and apologized to him. I told Ingo that I was looking for him to apologize for what happened earlier. 

"It's okay, Ayari. I had some sort of phobia when it comes to things like that. I feel I was freaking out earlier. It's because of what happened here at our village." Ingo explained.  

"By the way, can you tell me if where this place is?" I said. 

Ingo started walking towards the hallway, and I followed him. We kept on walking, and we reached the front door of the house. I was shocked by what I saw. 

The whole place looked like an ancient ruin. Trees and plants were already growing on the buildings. You can tell that there was so much destruction in this place. The building was already crumbling and claimed by nature again. 

"This place is called the Pinatubo. Everything here was abundant before. Life was flowing here. But after that disaster twenty years ago, everything changed." 

"Disaster?" I asked. 

Ingo continued on walking on the open path, and I followed him. I can feel the loneliness from the place. What you can hear was the rustling and humming of the wind. I looked around, and there was the building carved with ancient texts. The houses were made from stones and wood, but only a few traces of timber were used. 

"Pinatubo was once the wealthiest land here in Orient Seas. It was considered the center of commerce, and many people from all over the place came here to visit and trade." Ingo said. 

We sat down on the ledge near an old house. 

"What happened next?"

"The monster that was locked up in the mountains of Cordillera ravaged the lands here twenty years ago," Ingo said.

"How did the monster broke its seal?"

"The one that you mentioned earlier, the Herald of darkness, were the people behind this incident. Only me and my sister were the remaining survivors of Pinatubo. Everything here was full of vegetation, but you will see that sand was covering the surroundings once you venture out further from here." Ingo added. 

"The enemies really know how to destroy a whole place. What's on their mind was destruction and violence. So, where's the monster that you were referring to?" 

"He is still in the Cordilleras and made its nest there. No life thrive to grow there because of the presence of that creature." Ingo said. 

"Can I ask, do you know how far this place from Bulan?"

"Bulan, you mean the land of the moon?" Ingo asked. 

"Yes, I came from Bulan."

"Seriously, this place is on the other side of Bulan. And you need to cross the sea to get back to the mainland. Pin-atubo is a separated island from the mainland, but this place is part of the orient seas." Ingo said. 

"What? Is that true?" 

"Yes, Ayari. The only way to get back to the mainland is to ride the boat that comes here twice every month." 

"Oh my goodness, I need to get back to my siblings as soon as I can. I can feel that they are in danger." 

"There is another way that we can try to can get back to the mainland."

"And how do we do that?"

"Defeat the monster at the Cordilleras," Ingo suggested. 

"Wait, what? Are you sure about that? Can we really do that?" 

"Of course, based on my observation, you have an overflowing spiritual energy, though some it is still untapped," Ingo said. 

Untapped? I believe I have awakened them from the last time at the Moon temple. 

"You can tell?" I asked.

"Yes, it's because of my ability—the Eye of the Seas. I can check on the spiritual energy of every living thing here. You can say I can appraise items with their value." Ingo said and smiled at me. 

"I don't know that abilities like that exist here. I only know a few abilities." I answered. 

"Orient Seas is as more extensive than what you think," Ingo said and laughed. 

"Also, I noticed something. It's like that you are not from this world, am I right?"

Wait, he can even tell that? It's like he is poking at my privacy. Don't tell me he can read my mind too. I just looked at him and smiled, not answering his question.

"Don't worry, I can't read your mind. My ability is limited to the extent that I can tap on a person's spiritual energy and activate or disable them." Ingo said and chuckled. 

What a scary ability. 

"That's some excellent ability that you got there, Ingo," I said. 

"Not really, Ayari. My ability is not awakened to the extent that I can control it perfectly. It still has a lot of holes in it. Also, in return, every time I use it above its limit, I have to pay the price." Ingo explained. 

"And what would that be?" 

"My sense of sight."