How Mazoku Lords play chess

[moonshadows]

            ::XELLOSS!::

            The command is arrogant, imperious, and annoying, but I obey. It wasn’t a summoning per se, just a command that I attend him. He’s not even my Lord, but with the situation at hand, obedience is best.

            “Yes, Lord Hellmaster?” He’s lounging on that throne of his as though the world were his chess board, wearing that ridiculous form he thinks is clever and innocuous. I enter the physical plane already on one knee, head bowed submissively, wearing my usual form.

            “Gaav’s pathetic minions have made nuisances of themselves and sealed Miss Inverse’s powers.” The high, piping voice is out of place coming from the roiling cloud of Lord Hellmaster’s aura.

He tells me nothing I do not know; after all, I am still watching Lina most intently. The smirk does not show on my lips, and the amusement is hidden within my carefully bound aura. I can feel the amusement of My Lord Beastmaster deep within me, as well. Bishop threatens the Queen, Knight comes in from the side to block the Bishop. It’s so obvious when you realize that there are three sides to this chessboard, not two.

“What are your commands, Lord Hellmaster?”

He smirks, badly. Thinks he’s being clever. “Go and help her out a little. She’s no use to me unless she can cast. And make sure those pathetic minions of Gaav’s don’t see you.” Knight, go block the Bishop and make sure the Queen is free. Just as My Lord Beastmaster predicted.

“Of course, Lord Hellmaster.” Like he has to remind me. If that shamanist chimera hasn’t picked up on me by now, Mazenda certainly won’t. Her blind loyalty and short-sightedness are her weak points; she thinks three steps ahead but can’t imagine that someone else could be thinking another two steps ahead of her.

I revert back to the astral plane and let the anchor I’d planted pull me back to Seyruun. My Lord Beastmaster doesn’t even have to tell me that this is a perfect opportunity; I’ve been following her complex plots for centuries and can see exactly where the pieces should go. Rook and the other Knight distract the Bishops, Queen and Knight retreat behind the line of Pawns.

The barrier over Seyruun doesn’t bother me very much – a minor irritation, like being around Amelia. I dart back and forth through the royal palace until I find Lina. Her fiery, dark aura, normally so strong for a mortal, is covered in a mesh of containing wards. I could break it, of course, but why bother? It’s more amusing and useful to leave it where it is and use it to further My Lord Beastmaster’s plans. The conversation comes to me faintly through the tap I’d long ago planted in Lina’s aura. Mt. Rune, eh? Perfect. Now, where did I leave that other Pawn? She’ll be a good distraction and keep Lina off-guard enough that she won’t have the mental energy to suspect me any more than usual. I let go of Lina’s anchor and focus on Martina, zipping off to a nearby town that fortunately is situated on the most direct route to Mt. Rune.

Martina’s desire for revenge against the petty gang of bandits from a few days back seems to have resulted in her trying to sell penny curses. I touch one gently, infusing it with a speck of my power. The hapless customer suddenly finds himself compelled to buy it. Martina demands he try it out right then and there, and I step out of a shadow to watch.

“You shrew, you burned my dinner last night! Trip and fall into a mud puddle!”

Not very creative, I must admit. The bit of darkness in the charm shoots out and tangles itself into the woman’s aura, and she does indeed trip and fall into a mud puddle. With the sudden crowd of customers, it is several minutes before my Pawn notices me.

“Mister Xelloss! What are you doing here?”

“Why, Martina! What a lovely surprise! I was wondering why this town seemed to shine, but now I can see that your presence gives the whole area an extra luster. Please, if you can spare the time, will you grace me with your presence for lunch?” I give her the adoring look I’d honed for several decades and smirk inwardly as she convinces herself that she’s in love with me.

Once the crowd has thinned, she imperiously closes the little booth and sweeps me to a café. I pretend to eat, but the angry and irritated waiter is more appetizing to me, and Martina’s slavish devotion is a nice dessert. Almost all the money she’s just made goes to pay the bill, and I sadly comment that since I have to wait for a companion that I’ll be joining on a trip to Mt. Rune, I don’t have much to spend to take her to lunch in return. The light of greed ignites in her face, and she promises me that she’ll more than make up for it. Highly amused, I follow her to the booth and watch as she re-opens, charging a silver piece for the curses instead of a copper.

A few hours later, Lina comes riding up as expected, and there is a small but delightful scene between her and my Pawn. Martina’s newfound obsession combined with her desire for revenge result in a jealous decision to accompany us on the trip to Mt. Rune, just as planned. I express careful concern about Lina’s sealed powers, which only fuels the revenge plots and guarantees that Lina won’t be thinking about why I’m coming along. I innocently invite myself and Martina to join her, and in fending off my Pawn, she doesn’t get a chance to say no. A little lavish praise of what I consider to be Martina’s best character traits, and Lina is caught up in thinking again that I’m a weirdo, and that maybe if she’s lucky, Martina will be eaten by a bear.

The journey is fairly uneventful. A little annoyance, a moment of amusement caused by leaving the two women alone. Raise the Pawn’s hopes for revenge, then dash them by reining her in by her devotion to me. Her antics serve to amuse me and push Lina further off-guard, making her forget anything I’ve done lately that was suspicious in the least. I admit, playing with lightning and pushing them into a catfight was immature, but it amused me and that’s all that counts.

My other Pawn is right where I left her, too. The ‘accident’ that killed her parents damaged her astral form badly enough to require intervention, resulting in an easily-controlled girl who will take orders from me without hesitating. We left her mostly intact, just grafted a generous bit of our substances onto her astral body. Combined with the things she learned from her grandfather, she’s been acting as the sorcery doctor for a few years with naught but adoration from the people of her little village.

Lina is understandably less than enthused about Kira-turned-Runan, and Martina’s less-than-subtle skepticism doesn’t help. I, as always, am quiet and mildly amused. In her defense, Kira is rather gifted at what she does and if left to her own devices, probably would have been able to cure Lina. But that’s not what My Lord Beastmaster’s plan calls for, even if it’s what Lord Hellmaster wants. Martina unwittingly performs her task beautifully, dumping poison into the momentarily unguarded cauldron and completely ruining the cure. In the cover the explosion gives me, I slip the book we’ve kept hidden here (for just such an occasion) into an astral pocket in the side of the cauldron.

Hmm, Kanzel sent a minion to hound us. Pawn moves to try to take the Queen. A bold move, but not unexpected, and an excellent opportunity if it can be timed right. My young Pawn and I leave the scene quietly and wait for the right moment. She can sense the minion’s aura, and knows that I’m more powerful than it is.

“Are you sure we shouldn’t help them?” She carefully doesn’t use the accusing singular; after all, she may only be part mazoku, but she still knows better than to accuse her superiors.

“There are a lot of complications with that,” I tell her only what she needs to know. “I can’t operate openly.”

She nods, grasping the hint that politics are involved, and we continue to watch the fight. Lina, true to her nature, challenges the minion’s purpose, and if I had to breathe, I’d hold my breath. We have our suspicions, of course, but I’m not one to turn down free answers. She doesn’t get any, much to my disappointment, and the Pawn looks about ready to take the Queen. Lina tries shamanistic magic, but the wards sealing her are good ones, and she’s completely helpless.

“I’ll help you just this once.” My voice is heard on the physical plane before I fully materialize; Martina’s not looking and the minion won’t last long enough to report my presence, so I don’t bother being sneaky about it. I reappear just out of Lina’s peripheral vision.

“You!!”

Why is that always the first reaction I get? Well, since I’ve been discreet around Lina and her companions, I should be grateful that all I get is incoherent babbling from the pathetic minions that keep showing up around her.

“Lords of Darkness of the four worlds!” I intone clearly, arms up in a calculated gesture, wrists displaying the other two Demon’s Blood talismans. Lina’s attention is completely fixed on me, so I go slowly enough for her to pick up the incantation. “I call upon thee! Grant me all the power that you possess!” The talismans obediently start to glow, and that light is reflected in Lina’s eyes. She knows what these are, in a general sense, and she wants them. Badly. I’ve never cast a spell she knows in front of her before; by using these now, she naturally assumes that I rely on them for my abilities. “Blast Bomb!”

The lesser constructs are vaporized, and the minion is engulfed in flames. It’s not enough to kill him, but it hides us both from sight for the crucial moments. The less-powerful mazoku has recovered from the shock of seeing me, and I don’t want him revealing anything to Lina.

“Why are you here?” He demands, panicking.

“That’s a secret.” My trademark smirk doesn’t waver as I obliterate him. When the flames die down, there’s no indication that it wasn’t the Blast Bomb that killed him.

Right on schedule, Lina demands the talismans from me. My Lord Beastmaster has full confidence that this Queen will be able to take out the King, but we’re still walking a knife’s edge doing this. I haggle with Lina enough to make her think she’s tricked them off of me, but it’s the only way to get them into her hands. If I’d just given them to her, she would have been too suspicious. No one gives away powerful magical amplifiers like these.

“There’s a bigger problem, too.” Lina dismisses my warnings that she still won’t be able to cast, even with the amplifiers. “Why are those mazoku trying to kill me?”

Uhoh. Lina’s smart enough to figure things out if she’s given enough time to think about them; time for a diversion. The book falls out of its astral pocket, right into Martina’s hands.

“Hey, what’s this?”

“It can’t be!” My feigned shock and disbelief is enough to distract Lina, and she jerks the book out of Martina’s hands.

“A Claire Bible manuscript!” She starts flipping through it immediately, committing the incantations, theories, and diagrams to memory almost instantly.

Her excitement radiates out from her almost visibly; manuscripts that illustrate spells drawing on L~~~~~’s power are extremely rare. The Clair Bible holds all knowledge, and most manuscripts contain rare but irrelevant information. My Lord Beastmaster has had me destroy those useless copies so as to whet Lina’s interest, and with the object of her dreams in her hands, she’s single-mindedly committing its contents to memory. This, then, is the point of no return. If Lord Hellmaster even suspects that I was responsible for this, it will force My Lord Beastmaster’s hand much too soon. The board is not yet arranged in our favor.

Between my Pawn’s question and my misleadingly incomplete answer, Martina is distracted enough to let Lina read in peace. However, I carelessly let my expression be too intent on Lina’s reading, and Martina’s easily-fanned jealousy rages once again. The last page has been carefully scribbled on – Good Pawn! – and Lina’s flare of frustration gives Martina the opportunity to snatch the book. Oops, we’ll have to take care of that. She won’t be able to read it, of course, but such knowledge is not for her eyes. Hers, or anyone else’s, except those My Lord Beastmaster has decreed worthy. With hardly more than a thought, the book mysteriously bursts into blue flames. Lina dives for it, trying fruitlessly to pat out the flames. When the book has burned to ash, she shoots me a murderous glare and turns her back on me as if to say ‘I don’t need your crummy book, so there!’

I’m not worried, and neither is My Lord Beastmaster. After all, Lina pieced together the Giga Slave from much less.