Chapter 53a
Chapter 53a
“It has been a while since you have sought me out,” Rhythis said. “Not only that but for a game we haven’t played in 218,862 years.”
Wekime nodded, his clawed fingers picking up a piece on the board and setting it down slowly. “It has been too long, but as I did the last time I came, the reason was worth it. Have I ever made a bad bargain with you?”
Two older fingers lifted a piece on his side of the board, setting it three boards higher, taking the square where one of Wekime’s had been.
“Once… but that was—”
“I don’t need the years counted off for me, Rhythis,” Wekime said, cutting him off. “We both know how long it’s been. Besides, you know as well as I do the game has changed much since then.”
Wekime didn’t hesitate, picking up another piece and setting it on a different board.
“You’re giving me things, and we don’t even have a deal… Or are you setting a trap I haven’t noticed yet?” Rhythis asked. Two fingers full of life took a piece and tapped it against young lips, removing another piece from his opponent’s board. “What do I get from this bargain? Something has changed. We all know it, and yet I’m not sure what. You know how I feel when I cannot see what is coming.”
“You never see everything,” Wekime said, waving his three fingers in the air. “You and I both know the pattern changes all the time.” Once more, the god of Force picked up a piece and set it before his opponent, smiling as he did. “You don’t seem to understand… the pattern, the skein, the image… it is all in flux. Unlike the other times, the threads are… different.” Two tiny fingers, barely able to wrap themselves around the piece, lifted one upward and once again captured another of Wekime’s. “What do you know that the rest of us don’t? Why have two of the others gone silent?”
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A smile grew, golden scales along the snout as a pair of golden eyes glowed. “Rhythis, time might be running out. My offer only stands for so long.”
Sand filled the room they were in, cascading off the god who sat across the boards in the room. His image shifted slightly, a muscular bald man, glyphs burned into his skin, eyes glowing like the sun.
“You dare say I am running out?!” Rhythis boomed. “You come seeking a bargain and then mock me?!”
Wekime sighed, glanced at the board, and selected a piece on a far-off board, moving it to the main board, near the piece that determined the fate of the game.
“I believe you’re about to lose,” Wekime said, his smile still present, a hint of smoke rising from his nostrils. “I make no threats. I never do that. I was wrong once. It won’t happen again. Now, end this show you are displaying. We both know you’re not a fool, and only a fool would touch another one of us.”
Slowly, the fire that raged within Rhythis’s eyes dimmed, and the sand that had filled the room once again covered his body, like a robe. He stared at the board, focusing on the piece he had considered, but ignored it because no matter what scenario he ran, it had no value. “You sacrificed all of those things for this moment… You knew I would take each one.”
“Since I have known you, Rhythis,” Wekime replied slowly, “you have never changed. You are constant. That makes you easier than some to work with. I’ll leave you with this, a saying you once used to make me endure too many times. The sand is running out. Decide. Take my offer or don’t. My next move will end this game.”