“I need your help.” Daios’ words scratched at the edges of the flowy Lekuan language.

Another awkward silence spread between the two -

Merciful, Arratoria broke it. “My help.”

"Yes, that would be nice of you, you don't have to. Just thought it doesn't hurt to ask."

His light response bounced off the hall with a small echo. Daios nodded, he didn’t take his eyes off of the face of Arratoria. Black markings ran down their face, like swirled ink blending into the dark skin at the edges.

Arratoria hardly moved as he glared back. Daios had a hard time figuring out what their expression meant. That was, until Arratoria leant back just a touch, straightening their back, looking away from the alchemist, then looking above him, taking a deep breath and then looking back down to their expectant guest.

They started their sentence with that same blank expression.

“How about a deal. A game is played - my choice - and if you win, I shall help your cause, whatever it is.”

They smiled, baring sharp teeth, “If I win, I shall take your life.”

Daios heart rose and then plummeted with a start. He felt the lightheadedness return, a tight heat in his chest. It wouldn’t be easy, of course it wouldn’t. He could die. He just might. But it was the thought of the choking man that brought him back to the ground. The images of piles of mangled corpses, an invisible enemy taking them one by one. The unbearable heat of the flamethrowers. A rotting from the inside, undetectable, unavoidable.

How much worse could a death at the hand of Arratoria even be? What was an hour of suffering compared to the rest of his life in fear and a drawn out 2 weeks of a slow and then sudden decline. Choking and sputtering, no air left, no energy. A body, that fails you.

How bad could it be, he thought, and smiled back at Arratoria. He felt goosebumps all over his body, “What are we playing, then?” He held out his hand to shake.

Arratoria stopped again. The smile faded from their face. They glanced to the outstretched hand.

Under Daios skin itched an anxiety like electricity. But he buzzed in stillness, as Arratoria watched, then turned before him, walking off into the dark. Daios willed his legs into moving.

They walked as a shadow glides across a smooth floor, Daios jogged to keep up.

”Toak’Go”

“I do not know what that is.”

“A card game. 15 Rounds. Each round the winner gets to ask a question - if they win again the questioned must answer it. If the questioned wins, however, the asker must answer their own question.”

Simple enough.

"Good. And how do you win the round?”

“It's a strategic war game. Think.”

He’d never even heard the game’s name before… He tried to keep his sense anyway, cutting through the hazy nervousness. To quell his anxious mind, he tried to do the math in his head, how many questions and-

”Won’t one of the questions not get answered at the end?”

“Yes.”

“I assume you enjoy the mystery?” Daios tone pitched upward, the mask hiding a smile on his face.

Arratoria let Daios friendliness rot in silence as they walked.

They walked to a low table, that looked as if it had grown out of the stone ground.

It wasn't perfectly even or symmetrical. The top of it was round, and Daios found none of the intricate carvings he’d found everywhere else.

The table shifted. Out of the flat surface grew a raised field. It fell off in steps, each broad and long enough to lay a card on. There was a ridge in the middle, a bridge looming over it in one part.

He let himself fall, sat crosslegged across from the entity. Even seated, they loomed over him.

Arratoria placed a deck of cards on the table. The deck too was made of stone. Reddish stone, carved intricately, dark ink inside the grooves. The back of the card had a piece of art carved into it, all the lines flowing with an organic feeling, lively plants sprouting around the edges of a square. In the square, an eye stared back at the alchemist.

Daios felt it’d almost be a shame to play with them.

The entity shuffled, and then handed out 7 cards to Daios and then 7 for themself.

The cards on Daios hand were just as beautiful on their front as their back.

There was small lekuan writing on each card, a beautiful illustration above it. He couldn’t read all the names. Could hardly decipher the curly handwriting that explained what the cards did. A dial was built into the bottom of the front of the card.

3 Soldiers, a musician and an archer.

A person with a long twirled hat. They held scrolls and strange plants.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

A bulky person in heavy armour. A banner was attached on their back. They held a sword.

Daios looked over the items, hardly enough time to read the text on each card.

“Set one as your champion- Don’t tell me. A small switch in the back of the card can be used to mark your champion. Do so, discreetly."

"Right. Let me think a moment." He considered the bard. It didn't seem they could even attack, so there was no reason for Arratoria to go after them. He set them as his champion.

”The rules are simple. Set up your army, you can keep some on your hand if you wish. Whoever kills the others champion first, wins the game.”

"Wonderful!" Daios placed his archer in the raised plateau (mountain?), the soldiers in a triangle formation before the bridge. The large armoured one he placed amongst the soldiers, at their front. The musician to the archer, and so the one with the hat.

Arratoria placed a paladin toward the very front. A gladiator next to it. Then, one soldier, similar to Daios own, right next to the paladin. There was a unit, just like a soldier, but holding more plans. A strategist, Daios read on the card as Arratoria placed it with a short distance behind their front row.

Into their own mountain range, they placed a hunter and an archer. And at the sidelines, a lancer on a steed.

“Considering you are my… Guest. I shall let you begin.”

“Thank you!” A rush of excitement, until he looks down and- “So I… Move? My. What do you call this unit?”

“Berun.”

“Berun, thank you, it-they he. Uh. Attacks your gladiator.”

A moment of silence passes.

“You are done with your turn?”

“I can do more?”

“Yes.”

“Okay! Uh. The archer, they shoot at your, soldier.” Daios waited a second, watching Arratoria carefully. Arratoria (unbothered) looked back. “And then. This soldier, follows the Berun, and they go and attack, the gladiator too.” Daios again looked back to Arratoria, who made a motion just through the air and rolled dice onto the table.

“This one is for your Berun,” Arratoria pointed to a six-sided dice that had rolled a 5, “this for your archer” a eight-sided one that had rolled a 4, “and this for the soldier” a six-sided one that had rolled a 3.

A small dial on the cards rotated, to show what they had lost.

In his turn, Arratoria split his hunters piece into two (surprising), moved his lancer across the water (surprising) to target a soldier from behind.

However, once his pieces had been placed, Arratoria focused all three of their turns on attacking the Berun. Together, Arratorias Strategist, Footsoldier and Archer managed to take down the Berun.

When they flipped the stone card, they stopped for a second at the unflipped switch on the back of it.

“Right.” They hummed and placed the Berun to the side. “Your turn.”

Seeing his first unit fall, put a pit in the stomach of the alchemist.

He focused his attention on the footsoldier and the gladiator first. His first two actions had taken down two of Arratorias pieces, and once again the deal became sweeter.

“Arratoria?”

Wince.

“Mh”

“This piece”, he points to the one with the funny hat, “What do you call it? What can it do?”

“Deiara. It can deiar other units at the cost of one of yours.”

“Thank you” Daios answered hastily-then stared at the piece for a second. Arratoria watched him.

Then Daios drew a sharp breath: “I don’t know what that means”

“Make more appear, magically.”

“AH!” Daios loud exclamation echoed through the hall, and then he whispered “Yes. Uh. So- You sacrifice a unit to.. deiar, summon, more?”

“Yes.”

“I think in proznian I’d say summoner.” The last word sounded much harsher than the smooth lekuan the two had been speaking.

“Mh.”

“But.. I don’t think I want to kill any of my pieces that’d be… counterproductive. I don’t think I will, I’ll just.. Uh.”

A last hit, he focused on the paladin, who was still bottlenecking the fight at the bridge. The three footsoldiers stood in row on the bridge.

In retaliation, Arratorias paladin ripped through the soldier that had attacked it. Daios watched slightly shocked as the lancer and hunter each ripped through the rest of his soldiers.

Each time a piece was defeated and Arratoria watched with increasing hesitance under the pieces, only to see that none of them were marked a champion.

Daios laughed, a dreadful panic rising in his chest. “You.. Play well.”

“Mh. Your move.” Arratorias voice remained flat.

He targetted the strategist with his archer, but before Daios could say he used all his actions for attacks on the strategist, he was stopped.

“Your bard boosts you now, having lost so much. Roll first, then decide on the next move. My advice.”

“Thank you! I didn’t… Know that”

Arratoria didn’t look at Daios as he answered.

First the archer took out the strategist in one hit, and then the lancer in two.

Curiously, Arratoria didn’t use their paladin, but rather kept their Hunter, Archer and Lancer attacking.

His own archer couldn’t withstand the attacks, despite the low rolls from Arratoria that round. And Arratoria seemed to glare even longer at the unflipped switch.

The situation was grim. In his head, he thought through whatever he could possibly do but each road lead to his defeat. He sighed, “I want to.. sacrifice the summoner to get more units…” Daios said after a moment too long of hesitance.

Arratoria pulled 3 more cards from the deck and handed them to Daios.

The three new units summoned were a doctor, donkey merchant and a polearm soldier. Even with the very boosted attack of the polearm, which struck down the opposing hunter, it was not enough.

Arratoria targeted solely the bard.

They won.

“14.. more rounds! I totally still have a chance you know” Daios reassured more himself than Arratoria, “Now that I know the rules.”

“Mh. My question for you is, what you need my help with.”