Veri
"State your business, old man."
Veri looked up at the gatekeepers of Liranel, "I am here as an envoy under orders from the Spire of Tur."
Hushed whispers came from above. "Tur?" A few men and women looked over at Veri before disappearing again.
Soon enough the gates opened, and they revealed a woman wearing a long white gown.
"Spire." Veri kneeled to her and awaited her command.
"You're just in time, envoy." The Spire gestured for him to rise. "Have you ever seen an ego war?"
"No, only the occasional ego duel."
"Then follow me."
Veri followed the Spire, trying his best not to step on her flowing gown which dragged behind her. Liranel was much different than Tur, with merchant shops and small celebrations everywhere he looked. 'This city seems . . . happy.'
After living in Tur for thirty years, Veri had never seen such joy from its citizens.
"We have . . . abandoned some of the old ways."
"What do you mean?"
"I see the way you're looking around my city." The Spire turned around to face Veri. "How do you think we have found hope?"
"We also have hope in Tur. What you have is a temporary happiness."
"Maybe you have hope, envoy. What about the uncountable slaves in Tur who live their entire lives without a chance for freedom?"
"I have given thirty years, more than most." This woman was beginning to get on Veri's nerves. A Spire has no understanding of what it is like to be marked.
"I mean no disrespect. What I was getting at, was that we simply have no need for slaves." The Spire gave Veri a smile as she began walking again. "Everyone in this city has the potential to become a spark, but we leave that up to those who can awaken on their own instead of locking it up for the few."
Veri stood still as he processed that information. 'Thirty years. . .' He eventually followed her again, but he felt a dark seed dig inside of him.
"Great Spire." A woman bowed, and gestured for them to pass through a wall of trees. Once they walked past a few sets of trees, Veri saw a vast amount of land with not a single man-made construction.
"We've arrived at the war field, envoy."
The field felt like it didn't belong inside a city, as if it was left to fend for itself and grew to its own whims. There was plant life everywhere, along with various small animals which lived amongst the splendor.
In the middle of the field there was a rectangular floor of stone, which was cracked with various weeds growing from them. There was a large group of people standing around it, with one man with scars all over his arms looking in their direction.
"Spire, we have been waiting your presence to begin."
"I hope I didn't keep you waiting too long." The Spire put a hand out towards Veri. "We have a guest with us today, who will be spectating this quarrel."
"Quarrel? There is some serious coin being bet on this."
"Is becoming the next Spire not enough, Chale?"
"From what I can tell, it's nothing but entertaining people like our special guest." The man laughed, but no one else followed his lead. "I only care for the aftermath."
"Spoken like a true vehicle of wrath." The Spire shook her head. "Enough talk, lets begin. Everyone, stand on the board."
Veri watched from the sides as people from the groups were bid on, similar to the forging. This time it was the Spire's who bid to fill out their side of the board. Ten pawns, two knights, two bishops, two rooks, a queen, and a king.
There were a flurry of bids, mainly splitting people up into pawns. It took quite a while for higher bids to show, but there was a woman who had looping marks around her body who Chale and the Spire seemed to fight for.
"Queen." Chale gave the woman a thumbs up, but she turned away with no emotion.
"King." The Spire gestured for the woman to join her with a smile. Chale frowned as he watched the woman walk to the opposite side of the board.
Eventually all the spots were filled, with some people cheering as they got a higher bid than they thought they would.
"Relinquish your egos, and find your places." The Spire motioned to Veri.
'Why is she involving me?' Veri felt sweat drip down his face as each of the participants gave him their egos.
"We need a mortal to watch over the egos, or else the risk of them being conquered would be too high." The Spire gave a quick glance to Veri.
'Conquered?' Veri had never heard of such a thing.
The participants walked onto the board, and found their respective places.
"Let's begin, Chare." The Spire pulled out multiple egos, some coins, and a few dice.
The two of them flipped their coins and rolled their dice onto the board, which melded into the stone. For each checker there was an ego and instead of just being black and white they were varying colors, and had various symbols and numbers depending on what the ego landed on.
Once the last space was filled, the board flashed and the people on it turned into small chess pieces.
"As the challenger, you can go first." The Spire pointed to Chare.
"I might just win this time, look at those horrible rolls." Chare laughed, moving one of his pawns forward onto a square with a six. Wherever there was a piece on a square with a one and in some cases a two, his pieces vanished and the people who were positioned there reappeared. Most of them were slightly injured, but some looked dead or close to it. The ones that could still stand took their egos back from Veri before leaving the field completely.
The pieces that remained on Chare's side grew larger, which seemed to depend on how good of a number/symbol they were on.
"My turn." The Spire moved a knight which was on a one to a symbol of a blade. Most of her pieces vanished, leaving only the knight, a few pawns, and the king. Veri was surprised to see that even pieces that were on a special symbol vanished as well.
The Spire's king had become twice the size of any other piece on the board, and a second king was created just beside it.
Veri watched as the pieces moved, becoming bigger and smaller as they traversed the board. Soon enough it was just the two kings against all of Chare's pieces.
"Do you surrender?" Chare waited a moment before moving his queen so it was right in front of the kings. Three of his pieces were aimed directly at the kings, ready to finish the ego war.
"You underestimate Feira." The Spire moved one of the kings forward, and the queen vanished. On that square a new king was made, so there were now three on the Spire's side.
Veri could hear the man's teeth grinding as the kings continued to multiply on the board every time they fought one of his pieces. It only took a few more moves before he only had his own king left. Soon enough it was surrounded, and vanished like the others.
"Well fought, Chare." The Spire put her hands together in the man's direction, but he simply dropped his face.
"An entire year's worth of coin, for nothing."
The board fizzled, revealing the ego's used to create it. The two of them collected their own, and Veri saw the woman with the marks again.
"You are truly worthy of being my king, Feira. As per tradition, take one of your freshly created egos for yourself." Fiera looked between the various ego's that she had returned with, took one, and handed the rest to the Spire without a word.