Chapter Twenty-One

Ambrose was surprisingly good at tic-tac-toe. He would play with himself when he was bored or trying to pass the time. In fact, he had a memory involving the game. It played through his mind like he was hitting on a mental VHS tape.

“How do you win every time?! Totally unfair.” Alice crossed her arms, glaring up at her husband.

They were playing on a notepad as they lay on the couch together. Alice's legs folded up underneath her, and her green eyes had a dangerous edge to them. Her lips were pouty. Ambrose laughed and tried to tuck a strand of black hair behind her ear. She shook her head and pushed his hand away,

“Nuh-uh! No lovey-dovey stuff when you cheat like that!”

Ambrose laughed again, holding up his hands,

“I didn’t cheat! You just have to know the trick of it.”

“Hmph. What’s the trick then?” she said, blowing a black lock of her hair away. It stubbornly popped right back on her face. Alice sighed, uncrossing her arms,

“Okay, you can move it.”

Ambrose smiled and tucked the lock behind her ear.

“I don’t know if I can so easily give up my secrets,” he said to her, tugging his lips into a wry smile.

Alice pushed a finger into his chest,

“You better, mister. Or someone will be on the couch tonight!”

Ambrose snorted. He knew as well as she did they had trouble sleeping alone.

“I don’t know. I think I have to demand a price.”

Alice arched a brow,

“Oh, and what price would that be, hmm?”

Ambrose shrugged, moving his bottom lip upward,

“Oh, I don’t know. That cheesecake, maybe, would do it.”

Alice fought a smile. The smile won, and she let out a silvery laugh,

“Fine! You win. Just tell me the trick to the stupid children’s game!”

Ambrose grinned at her before picking up the pad and tapping the upper right corner of the tic-tac-to lines he had drawn on the pad.

“See the corners?”

Alice rolled her eyes,

“I mean, obviously.”

“Well, miss obvious, that’s the trick. See, if you put an X in the corner on the first move, you’ll likely win every time.”

Alice brightened,

“Let’s play again, then! This time I go first.”

Ambrose gave her a knowing smile, shrugged, and drew out a new board before passing the pen to her. She stuck her tongue out to the right side of her mouth, wriggling her brows as she put an X in the top left corner. She practically threw the pad back at him.

“There! I basically win now, right?”

Ambrose shook his head, taking the pad and marking a circle in the center before returning it.

“Not quite, princess. Sadly, for you, I know how to counter the corners.”

Alice gasped as Ambrose brought the game to a draw.

“How are you so good at this?! I thought you said the corners mean you win?!”

Ambrose thumbed the bridge of his nose,

“It does if you don’t know how to counter it. Even if you tried the center like I did as your counter move, I could probably win.”

The memory faded as Alice threw up her hands, fading away into chatter and laughter as they played some more.

Ambrose came back to himself with a soft smile turning his lips.

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“X in the top right corner,” he said to the devil.

A red X appeared in the spot Ambrose indicated. Todd smiled,

“Ah, you’re going to be much better at this game, aren’t you?”

The devil put an O in the center.

“Sadly, friendo, I know this game as well as I do the first. You won’t win so easily.”

Ambrose smiled as the memory of Alice played in the back of his mind.

“You couldn’t have picked a worse game for you, devil. See, I had a feeling you were going to win rock, paper, scissors. I tried, but you’re too good at twisting words and manipulating the way you need to. This game, though? It isn’t about psychology. You either know the counters, or you don’t.”

Todd frowned, ruby eyes contracting together as they glittered in the light of the screen.

“You believe you know the counters, do you?”

Ambrose nodded as he pointed to the bottom left corner.

“Put an X right there.”

There was now an O between the two X’s. Todd’s eyes narrowed with just a slight twitch of his brows, and his lip curled ever so slightly downward.

“It appears you cannot counter as well as you thought, friendo! I have this BBQ sauce I’ve been dying to try. I think I’ll use it on your biceps when I’m chomping down.”

He put an O in the bottom right corner. It was his first mistake. Ambrose suppressed the smile and put an X in the top left corner instead. When he did, the devil cursed, bringing his fist down on the desk with a bang and a hiss as he saw that Ambrose was going to win no matter where he put the final O.

“I guess you aren’t as stupid as you look, ape. Don’t get comfortable. You have to win one more round.”

Ambrose leaned back, smiling at the devil child.

“It won’t matter. I’ll win no matter what. Why don’t you go first this time? You could stop me from using my corner trick if you wanted.”

Another hiss,

“You think I need tricks to beat you, ape?”

Ambrose shrugged,

“Do you? Or are you going to let me goad you into allowing me to go first again? Who’s the manipulator here again?”

Todd’s face went utterly blank in an utterly inhuman way.

“I’m going to enjoy eating you, ape. I’m going to crack your bones and make broth from the marrow. I’ll use flour to turn your brains into dumplings. It’s going to be delicious.”

The devil delivered the threat calmly as if stating a fact or a chore he needed to complete. Ambrose set his mouth into a grim line.

“First or second, pick.”

Todd waved a hand,

“I’ll go first. Putting an X into the bottom left corner.”

Ambrose responded with an O in the center. Todd's black eyes glittered like obsidian in the sun, and his red pupils pulsated like candle fire. He placed another O, and Ambrose played him to a draw. Todd said nothing. They merely started again with him putting an X in the corner again. Ambrose played him to another draw.

It went like that for a while, with Ambrose consistently playing the devil child to a draw. Finally, Todd let out an explosive hiss and played an O at one of the edge spots in the middle. Ambrose played an X in the center, and the devil put another O on the opposite edge. The board now reads O-X-O.

Ambrose kept his face neutral as he put an X in the far-left bottom corner. Todd’s left eye twitched, the black of his eye starting to swirl. He blocked Ambrose from winning by going for the win for himself by putting an O in the top right corner. Ambrose smiled then, beaming at Todd.

“Good game, Todd. Good game. X on the bottom left corner. Checkmate.”

No matter where Todd went, Ambrose would get a third X. The devil sprang up, flipping the desk with strength beyond any normal child. It crashed into the screen as he swore up a storm and began to throw balls of eldritch green fire, which detonated against the room, washing everything in a sickly green glow. Finally, the devil mastered himself, sucking in air through his nose.

“Very well. You have won the day, Knight of Avalon. The grimoire is yours.”

The room shifted until they both stood in a smooth, grey stone room. In the middle of the room was a pedestal. A book as black as the depths of Hades rested on the pedestal. Orange, gold, and red glyphs pulsed and shifted along the bindings. The book had no title, and when Ambrose used [Insight], he got back

[???]

Todd nodded at his expression, and his voice became somewhat sober.

“Long have I guarded this ancient tome, Knight of Avalon. I’m assuming you do not know what this tome is or does, do you?”

Ambrose shook his head,

“You’d be right.”

Todd flicked his black, red-eyed gaze to the tome as he began to walk around it.

“Allow me to tell you a story, Ambrose Severen. Listen well to my tale. Long ago, some say, Avalon was a sealed realm before the System itself. The planet you knew as Earth before the Integration had a connection to it, I know not how, but it did. That connection birthed the myths you know as Arthurian lore. Twisted and different, but with a kernel of truth. In the lore, there is a wizard you know as Merlin.”

Todd looked at him to see if he was following him along. Ambrose waved for him to continue.

“Merlin was born of a devil and a human enchantress. It gave him great power, a power so great, in fact, that it was desired…and feared. Merlin took an apprentice, Morgana Le Fay. She betrayed him, sealing his power away in a crystal. However, power such as that does not lay dormant forever, and it found a way to express itself. It bound itself to a mortal host, giving that host a portion of its power.”

Todd shook his head,

“Those bound to the crystal found it changed form sometimes. Now, it is the grimoire. The grimoire was passed down or sealed away whenever one bound to it died. It was supposed to go to Arthur, but he refused the power, saying it was Infernal and thus evil. He called in a favor that I owed him and set me to guard it, allowing me to put whatever trials I wished to whoever came to try and possess it.”

Ambrose crossed his arms,

“Is it evil? The power?”

Todd laughed,

“All power can corrupt, Knight. You have merely to look at your own human history to see that. The multiverse is no different. Strength reigns supreme, with those who are weaker either under the heels of the strong or culled. Arthur was a fool if you ask me. Always seeking what was good, bah! No matter, take the grimoire, Ambrose. Embrace the power it offers. Or don’t, I have fulfilled my obligations and shall be returning home very shortly.”

Ambrose gave the book a wary glance, but his hesitation was brief as Alice’s dead eyes flashed through his mind. Clenching his jaw, Ambrose Severen stepped up to the pedestal and picked up the grimoire.