FORTUNE
Fortune’s footsteps fell noiselessly into the mist as she strode down the corridor with Death at her side. The cloud-shouldered castle of her father, Lord Sky, seemed especially mutable this evening; its walls and floors and ceilings churned with movement and changed in color as thunderheads prepared to deluge the unsuspecting world below. Lightning rippled beneath her feet as she walked, then chased its quicksilver self away and into the distance.
“Our brothers and sisters will be jealous,” she said, her steps causing the misty veil to swirl about her feet, leaving a wake of raindrops as she passed.
“When are they not?” Death asked. He caused no noticeable disturbance as he moved. Had it not been for the force of his presence, he would have left no trace of his passage at all. “If it is not this, they will find some other petty grievance to bemoan.” Above her, eagles with wings held wide and still circled on thermals of air that only they could detect. “You’re being cruel.”
“I’m being honest. Come, Sister: It is a simple wager: We each claim to be more powerful than the other, and we propose a game of caissa to settle the matter. If they are jealous, they may make their own wagers. We need not convene a council over such a thing.”
She nodded. “There we agree.” They came to the collection of rooms that made up her apartments.
The cloud walls parted to reveal an exquisitely furnished antechamber in shades of blue and white, almost an extension of her chosen clothing, the dark accents of the room perfectly matching her hair. She stepped aside, allowing her brother to enter before her, then followed him in as the mists closed like curtains behind them.
“I am only suggesting that the potential familial discord such a wager is bound to create might be diffused should we provide advance notification that it will occur,” she continued.
“We need not seek their permission, but any number of them do not like surprises, and they can be most unpleasant when they are perturbed.” Death moved further into her chambers, coming to the sitting room. He moved toward the caissa set along the far wall. The board sat on an ornately carved pedestal, its black and white squares—nine wide and nine long—gleaming expectantly in the light of the star which peeked through her wall.
In their beginning positions along the back two rows, the pieces of alabaster and onyx—the castles, knights, cantors, kings, queens, avatars, and of course the pawns—stood complacently, waiting to commence the battles they had rehearsed for millennia. A matched pair of dragonskin chairs sat one on either side, worn smooth and supple from centuries of use.
“It is none of their concern.”
“I did not say that it was,” Fortune replied. “Though it seems fair to suggest they might feel otherwise. They will be angry.”
“Then let them be angry,” Death said. “Truth be told, Sister, are you not bored? Doesn’t the possibility of doing something different stir you toward some small measure of excitement?
I would prefer their anger to the placid and vapid interaction that shrouds our current discourse. Wisdom with her smug superiority, Light smiling like a fool, and Father’s voice booming over it all, of course. Let them be angry, Sister: I would prefer an argument to more of the same countless days.”
“You might not get an argument. You might get a war.”
Pawns in a Larger Game Description:
It begins with a simple wager. To relieve the monotony of their immortal existence, Death and Fortune place a bet with one another, each claiming to be the more powerful god. To settle the matter, they elect to play a game of caissa. In the hands of the gods, however, the figures of alabaster and onyx—the castles, knights, cantors, kings, queens, avatars, and of course the pawns—are not merely pieces on a board, but rather human lives upon the mortal plane.
As the game unfolds, those lives begin to come together in strange and unusual ways. A monk comes to Kersen for the first time in forty years, and what he finds there will alter that realm’s sad and unfortunate history. In Sarha, an emperor awaits word from his troops at the front, but when word finally comes it threatens to unravel the very empire he worked so hard to rebuild.
And when the god of Peace falls in love with a mortal, the afterlife and the immortal plane become fair game, as well. Suddenly, no man or god is immune from involvement, and both the living and the dead become drawn into the fray. Alliances are formed and cast aside. Riches are gained and lives are lost. Everyone must play the game but only a few can win, as Fortune favors some while Death waits for all.
