"Why do you like chess so much?" a four-year-old asked.
The little girl with the long black hair and silvery eyes, with even brighter flecks like the stars themselves smiled at him. "I like chess because it's like life, Jas."
Jas tilted his head. "That's dark," he said.
She giggled. "It's true, though. Everyone has pawns they use in order to conquer their opponents. Then they have those special pieces that can do so much more than pawns, that hurt more if you lose them, but in the end they're still expendable. The only piece that cannot fall is the King."
"But my Daddy said a King can't rule without his Queen," Jas said, holding up the discarded black queen.
"The queen is the most valuable player, yes," agreed the girl. "But in the end, the war doesn't end, even when she falls." She picked up the white queen, and the piece turn to ash in her hand, littering the board in a sad grey snow.
Jas pouted. Sometimes he really didn't know what went on in his playmate's head. He huffed and jumped down from his small chair, storming around to her side and plopping the black queen down in one of the knight's spaces.
"That's not where it goes, plus white and black pieces can't mix," the girl said, exasperated.
Jas got even more mad. "Why not?" he whined.
The girl just stood from her own small chair, taking three deliberate steps away from him. "Because light and dark don't mix well. Because whenever there's grey, chaos ensues."
Jas frowned.
She sighed snatching the black piece from his hand and pointing to the white king. "The white King. He's noble and rules his subjects fairly and justly. If he falls, then the kingdom will fall, which is why he has so many pieces to move in order to protect him and destroy his opponent, the black King. The black queen is just another pawn to the kind, used to annihilate the enemies before him." She put the piece in front of the white king, flicking it over with her finger. "She falls, yet nothing happens. Expendable. Used even by the one she calls her King."
Jas frowned. He moved closer, taking up the black Queen. "How about she stands by the white King instead," he said, standing her in the place where the white queen had been. "That way she won't be a useless pawn! She'll be loved by the white King because he's noble and gentle and kind!" He smiled. "Isn't that right? I promise I'll protect you, always."
The little girl's eyes were wide before they softened. "I hope you never do, because that will be your downfall."
.
Kings were the only pieces that were important. The pawns in real life were so much more expendable than in a chess game, because there were so many to use, so many who would be persuaded by something as materialistic as as money or something as fictional as love.
This chess board had been planned out carefully, over more than a decade, and each piece was considered carefully before it was added to one of those black and white squares. Pawns, Rooks, Bishops, Knights, the Queen, and the King.
Almost all of the pieces had arrived, but a few were still missing, lurking off the board, waiting for their moment to step in.
He'd learned how to play chess before he could talk, and he was using every possible skill and trick he'd learned from that little girl.
Because she was right. Life was just a game of chess, and everyone but the King was expendable.
This chess board was still missing quite a few pieces, but the key ones were already there. The white Queen, the first white Knight, the white King, both white Rooks.
But everything was moving too slowly. Before the white pieces were assembled, they'd be devastated by the black forces.
.
"I'm here!" Jas announced, running into the courtyard, eyes going to the chessboard and pieces already waiting.
But she wasn't there.
"Azuraeru?" Jas called. She'd always waited for him after his lessons, never showing up after him, not once. Why wasn't she here? "Azuraeru!"
"Why are you calling me?"
"Arae!" Jas looked up where the voice came from, finding her in a tree, swinging her legs. "What are you doing up there? Why don't you come down so we can play? I think I can finally beat you!"
Azuraeru just looked down at him. "Fine. One game. If you win, I'll play with you again tomorrow. If you lose, I have something I need to tell you." She jumped down from the tree, landing lightly on the grass, her black and dark silver hanfu swirling around her. She sat down on the black half the board. "White goes first," she said.
Jas skipped over, plopping down. He thought for a moment before picking up his left knight and moving it three spaces up and one to the right.
She moved.
The game lasted only twenty six moves, though it lasted over thirty minutes.
Jas sighed. "I was playing in your hand the whole time, wasn't I?" he asked.
"Yes," said Azuraeru bluntly.
Jas walked over to her side and plopped down next to her. "What did you want to tell me?" he asked.
She exhaled through her nose. "I can't play with you anymore."
Jas frowned. "You're joking, right?"
Azuraeru just looked at him with her grey eyes. "I never joke. I won't be here with you anymore. I need to go."
"Go where? Y-you can't just leave!" exclaimed Jasper.
Arae looked at him. "Why not? It would be only too easy for me to knock you out and escape without being found."
Jas was devastated. His best friend... "Why do you have to leave? Why do you have to leave me?"
Something new flickered in her eyes, something Jas had never seen in his friend, though he'd known her for a little more than a year.
"Why? Aren't I your friend?"
Her eyes hardened instantly. "Just because I played with you when you were bored doesn't mean I'm your friend. Friends know everything about each other. Do you know anything other than I'm a girl and I like chess?"
"I know you don't like to eat," he said back.
She looked genuinely surprised, but just shook her head. "I have to leave because something very important is about to happen, and I can't miss that. I'm sorry. Jas___, goodbye." She stood from the bench, spreading huge skeletal wings, a single flap sending her into the air.
"Do you think saying sorry is going to make everything fine? If you leave, I'll never forgive you!" Jas shouted after her.
Then she surprised him even more than her sudden declaration that she had to leave.
Azuraeru turned her head and smiled gently, a thin line of tears on her cheeks. "I hope you don't," she said. "It would make everything so much easier."
Then she was gone.
The guards had found him crying in the grass hours later, unable to get anything out of him but "She's gone. She left me."
When even his mother and father and younger sister were unable to calm him, a girl sharing all of his features patted his head.
"I'm sorwy," her little voice said. "I'm sorwy. I promish you I'll never leave you, Jas!" She promised over and over again, ears falling from her eyes.
"No, no. I'm sorry," he said, rubbing her head. "I'm sorry, Allu. I shoudn't be acting like this. I'm fine." He rubbed his twin sister's head again, petting her hair. And when he looked into eyes that mirrored his, he realized then that she would be his queen. He would do anything and everything to protect her. He smiled slightly bitterly at the thought of Azuraeru, but he stood and walked back inside with his mirror.
.
'I will protect her,' thought Jas as their parents were killed.
Then they ran away from home, from a monster.
And then he left her, alone, taking his younger sister and running.
Then he started to plan and plot, pulling the strings of fate into alignment, into the largest and most intricate scheme ever. Every detail was immaculate, making sure there were several ways to get the one thing accomplished. Nothing was overlooked, down to the precise hour things would happen.
Life was a giant game of chess, afterall. He'd learned to play from the best.
The only way his plans could fail would be if he was playing into her palm the whole time. Which was actually quite likely.
After all, he'd never won a game against her. If she lost, it was because she wanted to.
.
"People call me a monster."
He'd become a monster.
"People call me cursed.
He'd become cursed.
"They say I'm worthless."
He would make himself nothing more than the Artemesian dust.
"Will you not run away, though you know all this about me?"
He would not. He would make himself just like her, make himself experience the same pain she'd gone through.
"Why?"
He didn't know.