The Coming Chaos

by D. K. Holmberg

  “It isn’t a game for everyone,” Rayen said.

  “Hmm. Perhaps you’re right. As Carth was happy to tell me, not all are capable of playing. Those who can aren’t always that skilled.”

  “How about if we finish this, and if I can win, you answer my questions?” Daniel said.

  The man glanced to the game board, and there came a moment of clarity, one that lingered for no more than three heartbeats, long enough for Daniel to realize that the man’s flighty demeanor was little more than a ruse. He was calculating, and regardless of how he might seem, he still had his wits about him.

  “It would be a shame to beat you so quickly, but perhaps you aren’t much of a challenge anyway,” Alistan said.

  “Probably not,” Daniel replied. He smiled at Alistan, looking at the board. “Do you get to go first?”

  “I think I do,” the man said.

  It would be good to see how he played. There was one thing Carth taught him about observing while playing Tsatsun. It was helpful to know how each person would respond, and the more you watched, the better you would be able to understand their tendencies. Carth was often able to determine someone’s tendencies in a few moves, taking in as much information as she needed in order to decide if she would be able to easily defeat them, or if she needed to work a little bit. It was part of the game that had always impressed him. Not so much the ability she had with strategy. Daniel believed she overemphasized seeing the board and the hundreds of possibilities that existed. In his mind, you could know the various possibilities, react to them, and make plans as needed, but there was also a need to understand your opponent. While he still had quite a bit to learn about the various moves, evaluating his opponent was something he had already begun to master.

  Daniel credited a lifetime of learning from his father. It was all a part of his father’s strategy with understanding the different people who might pose a challenge to his authority in the future. His father had used every bit of guile he had to ensure he knew who he might be facing. Daniel had learned that strategy from him.

  Even though Alistan had a strong position on the board, he made an aggressive move, sliding one of his Bowmen along the edge of the board. It was designed to weaken Daniel’s position, though it was already weak. Most of the pieces had been sacrificed already, and there was very little chance of him securing the Stone through traditional means.

  Rayen squeezed his shoulder, and he wondered how much of the game she had already worked out. Probably as much as him. For all the teasing he gave her, she was a skilled player.

  He made another move, this time designed to simply fortify his position. Daniel slid back one of his Archers, keeping it off to the side, away from Alistan’s pieces. It would keep him from getting attacked as quickly, but it didn’t do anything to move onto the offensive.

  Considering the way this game looked, Daniel wasn’t sure if he would even be able to go on the offensive. It was possible he would have to play completely defensively, looking to isolate Alistan before he was able to remove a piece. Depending on how skilled a player Alistan was, isolating him might not be possible. If he was skilled—and considering how long ago he would have met with Carth and learned about the game, Daniel suspected he was—he would be prepared for various maneuvers Daniel might make, all of which were designed to separate him and his players from the rest of the board.

  That meant that Daniel had to get creative. Draw him out.

  Would there be any way to do it while testing the questions he had about the game? He didn’t think he’d be able to do so while trying to test his ideas about not sacrificing another person’s players, but perhaps he could do it while testing his theory about not sacrificing his own. It was possible he would need to play in such a way.

  Alistan made another move, this time equally aggressive. It brought another Bowman along the other side of the board, as if he intended to squeeze Daniel, forcing his pieces together.

  There were several different maneuvers Alistan might be making, and they were interesting, many of them similar to moves he’d seen Carth make over the years.

  “Perhaps we should have started fresh,” Alistan said as Daniel made another play. This one was designed to protect his pieces, and in doing so, he collected them toward the center of his side of the board. All he was doing at this point was running from Alistan’s attack, but so far, he thought he could avoid the other man getting another of his pieces.

  “Perhaps, but you agreed.”

  “What did I agree to?” Alistan asked.

  “You agreed that if I won, you would answer my questions.”

  Alistan arched a brow, looking up from the board. “Did I agree to that?”

  “Look at my side of the board,” Daniel said. “It’s unlikely I would be able to win this game.”

  “Perhaps that’s true. What do I get if I win?”

  “Seeing as how you started with the much stronger side?”

  Alistan smiled. “You recognized that?”

  “I recognized I was taking a chance.”

  “And still you decided to sit on that side?”

  “Where’s the value in winning otherwise?”

  Rayen squeezed his shoulder, and he wanted to smile.

  “Indeed. I suppose my victory would be too easy. Then again, I would have been content to beat you from a neutral board. Perhaps I would have negotiated more information about what Carth has been up to over the years.”

  “You can still negotiate for that,” Daniel said.

  “I get the sense from your friend she is not too eager to share anything about Carth.”

  “There’s only so much she knows. She doesn’t travel with Carth anymore.”

  “No? And what does Carth do these days? The last time I saw her, she was attempting to secure safe transportation for her people. While I believe she was successful in it, I had hoped to see her more frequently than I have.”

  “We can talk more about that if you win,” Daniel said.

  Alistan chuckled. “We might as well talk about it while I win. And you might as well enjoy your wine.”

  “After,” Daniel said.

  “After you lose?”

  Daniel shrugged. As he did, he pushed one of his pieces forward, one space away from the Stone. It was a safe move in that Alistan wouldn’t be able to attack that piece, but it also was a strong move in that it gave him proximity to the Stone. Having that proximity allowed his pieces to be protected. They couldn’t be easily removed from the board when they were so close to the Stone. There were still ways in which to do so—Carth had destroyed him one time when he had thought to move a couple of his pieces up along the Stone—but the likelihood of it was much lower.

  Alistan studied the board for a moment. “An interesting maneuver.”

  “Is it? I still have quite a bit to learn about the game.”

  “It is one of lifelong learning. The only master I know of is Carth.”

  “She has played a long time,” Daniel said.

  “Not just played it, but she teaches it. There is benefit in teaching. You must understand the intricacies of something in order to teach it.”

  “And yet, some teachers are terrible players.”

  “You think so?”

  “It’s been my experience that some of the best instructors are those who understand technique, even if they don’t understand the best way of putting it together.”

  “What sort of instructors have you had over the years? You are a young man.”

  “Mostly with the sword.”

  Alistan rested his hands on the table, looking up at him. “I would think an excellent swordsman would serve as an excellent teacher.”

  “There are things you can learn from an excellent swordsman, but there are many more things you can learn from someone who understands the technique, even if they aren’t as skilled at utilizing it.”

  He made another move, sliding his piece up and near Alistan’s. It was positioned in such a way that
Alistan wouldn’t be able to attack, but it would force him to continue to move in order to ensure that Daniel didn’t claim one of his pieces. More than that, it gave him additional proximity to the Stone.

  Alistan studied the board. “How often have you played Tsatsun with Carth?”

  “Not as often as I would like. She’s busy most of the time.”

  “How long have you played?”

  “The better part of a year.” With that, Daniel claimed one of Alistan’s pieces, setting it off to the side.

  “Ah, that explains it, then.”

  Daniel glanced up, holding on to his pieces. “What does it explain?”

  “Explains why you chose that side of the board. It takes a long time to gain skill at Tsatsun. Some never progress beyond the basics, whereas others quickly become skilled players, though rarely masters. True masters take—”

  “A few months,” Rayen said softly.

  “What was that?” Alistan asked, moving one piece to the other side of the board.

  “True masters take only a few months. Carth learned to play in only a few months.”

  “I believe that is merely legend. It’s difficult for me to believe Carth became as skilled as she was by playing that short a time.”

  “It doesn’t matter what you believe,” Rayen said. “All that matters is what happened.”

  “Were you there?”

  Rayen shook her head and squeezed Daniel’s shoulder a little harder. She was getting frustrated, and he didn’t know why that would be. Did she dislike this Alistan that much? He thought he understood. Alistan came off as arrogant, but Daniel didn’t know how much of that was real. It was possible most of it was only for show.

  “If you weren’t there, then you wouldn’t know how much of Carth’s playing was from when she initially learned and how much of it came from later on in life. As I believe she’s told you, she has played the game for a long time.”

  Daniel made a move, taking another of Alistan’s pieces. He had claimed five now, and Alistan had yet to take one of his. He continued to position his pieces in such a way that he was defended not only by his placement on the board but also by the Stone, preventing the other man from maneuvering around him.

  Alistan glanced at the board. When he was done, he looked up at Daniel. “Interesting. You’ve only been playing for a year?”

  Daniel nodded. “We don’t have Tsatsun in my homeland.”

  “Elaeavn, I believe?”

  Daniel nodded. “You know it?”

  “I’m afraid not many people are allowed into Elaeavn. It’s closed, though I suspect you know that better than most. It was the eyes, you see. The deep green eyes of Elaeavn are widely renowned.”

  “Sometimes for the wrong reasons,” Daniel said.

  “You be surprised. There are plenty of people who have green eyes who weren’t born or raised in your city, but they still are impressive individuals.”

  Daniel hesitated, faltering with his move. How many people from the city were there outside of Elaeavn? It was something he hadn’t given much thought to, but that seemed significant. All those years, they had been exiling people, and many of them—most—had remained outside of the city. As far as he knew, Galen was the only one who had returned.

  He should have given thought to what had happened to all those exiles over the years, where they had gone and what they were up to.

  Could all of this be tied together?

  Was even Olandar Fahr an exile?

  That seemed to be too much. He knew the Hjan attack had been about that, but the Ai’thol were something else.

  He slipped his piece over, completing his move. In doing so, he eliminated another piece from Alistan and strengthened his position on the board even more. Within a few more moves, Daniel would be well positioned to ensure his survival, but it would take quite a few more in order for him to defeat Alistan. The longer he played, the more likely it was that he was going to conquer the man.

  He had started on this side on a whim, doubting his skill was such that he would be able to outplay him from such a weakened position, but the more he played, the more it seemed as if he were increasingly likely to succeed.

  Alistan made another move. This was a shift in tactics, and he switched from trying to play aggressively—a strategy that had backfired—to backing up and becoming more defensive. The challenge with such a change in strategy was that it was difficult to rearrange the pieces to move from steady attacking to a defensive posture. Daniel made another series of moves, and with each one, he claimed another of Alistan’s pieces.

  “You were playing me,” Alistan said.

  “How was I playing you?”

  “How long have you really been playing Tsatsun?”

  “Ever since I met Carth,” Daniel said.

  Alistan leaned back, crossing his arms over his chest. “She put you up to this, did she? I suspect you’ve been playing with her since you were a child.”

  “Unfortunately not. I grew up in Elaeavn, as I told you, and it wasn’t until about a year ago that I began playing Tsatsun with Carth.”

  Daniel made another move. At this point, he had pieces nearly encircling the Stone. He thought he might be able to finish far more rapidly than he had believed. He’d never tried the strategy of circling the Stone, and he doubted he would have had he not been hoping to better understand the Council of Elders.

  “That is a technique I’ve not seen before,” Alistan said, leaning forward over the table. He studied the placement of Daniel’s pieces. Daniel had thought the other man might be angry with the way he played, but Alistan seemed more intrigued. His demeanor changed. “Why play like this?” Alistan asked.

  “There is a benefit to positioning the pieces in such a way,” he said.

  “I see that,” Alistan said. “With you surrounding them like this, it strengthens each position. That is most interesting.”

  And it was something Daniel hadn’t even considered. He had recognized he could maneuver the pieces like this, sliding them around so that he could surround the Stone, but even as he had played it out, he hadn’t realized doing so would create a level of strength to his position. The pieces were additive.

  But only in this way. It wouldn’t work if he had used similar pieces. They had to be dissimilar, and there was a specific arrangement that mattered.

  Studying the board, he focused on what placement would be necessary, looking to see if more than one approach would work. It was possible that it would.

  Then again, as he studied it, it seemed almost as if the pieces demanded that they be arranged in a specific fashion.

  Daniel frowned. That was not a coincidence. While there might be hundreds upon hundreds of possible moves when it came to Tsatsun, and the nature of the game would allow those various moves to play out in an equal number of patterns, the fact that this pattern around the Stone was important was surprising.

  Maybe Alistan was right. It could take a long time to truly master Tsatsun. Certainly his experience had been that the game took years to really learn.

  But this was something different. This was not only seeing that the game board played out in a way he hadn’t expected; it also was a matter of how the pieces worked together.

  Alistan sat back, watching Daniel. He shook his head, smiling. “I can’t believe it.”

  “What?” Daniel asked.

  “It appears as if I don’t have any additional moves I can make. You have managed to isolate me. I am most impressed with how you played.”

  “Does that mean you’ll tell us the answer to any question we have?”

  Alistan smiled at him. “I suspect there’s only one question that you have, and only one reason you’ve come.”

  “That’s not true.”

  “Isn’t it?”

  “What do you think we came for?”

  “I think that you came for the same reason Carth stayed.”

  “Which is?”

  Alistan smiled widely. “Come, friend of
Carthenne Rel. Let me show you.”

  36

  Lucy

  Waves crashed on the shore, and Lucy stared out at them. It felt to her the chaos continued to build, rising all around her, swirls of not just the waves, but the thunder rolling in the distance, mixing with the wind whipping at her hair and her cloak.

  And still there was something comforting about it.

  It was a strange thing for her to enjoy the chaos and the cold as it whipped around her, but she did. She had always appreciated structure and organization, and that was part of the reason she had wanted to be a caretaker, but it was unlikely she would enjoy the same thing were she to return to Elaeavn. It was hard for her to even think about going back. If she were to go back, what would she be able to do? She doubted she’d welcome the same quiet and solitude as she once had. Now she savored the questions, the chaos, and the change.

  Lucy breathed in the salty air, listening to the waves crash along the shore, the rumbling of the thunder as it rolled toward her. The swells slamming against the rocky coastline suggested this would be a particularly violent storm. As she looked into the distance, searching for any sign of other ships as she often did—and finding none—she couldn’t help but wonder if perhaps she should go inside.

  At least there was no rain—yet.

  The chaos of this place seemed a fitting time and location for her to look deeper inside her thoughts, to search for anything that might help her find answers about the Architect.

  Ras was right—if she could uncover that, if she could find anything that might help her understand where he was going and what he was doing, they would be able to reach Olandar Fahr.

  The more she focused on him, the more certain she was those answers would be there. Now it was a matter of finding them.

  It was a question of locating a familiarity within her mind, of reaching for that knowledge. She knew it was there. It was difficult for her to parse through the various thoughts she’d encountered, but the Architect was one she had enough familiarity with that she thought she could.