There wasn't the time to think. The gazes around the table felt nearly oppressive. If only there was someone he could ask, some way to solve the problem on his own…
He reached into himself, and tried to feel that feeling of Command that he'd felt when he'd taken control of those villagers. It had felt like a physical change, like the gaining of a second beating heart. Maybe that was required of him here? Maybe he needed to properly connect with the board and its pieces, as the professor had said.
As Gargon goaded him on, telling him to hurry up, Oliver gently tapped the pieces on their heads, in what felt to him like pointless superstition. But he had seen stranger things, and he had done stranger things, so until he tested it, he wasn't quite willing to set it aside as a possibility.
