Written for the semi-finals of the Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition. I'm Chaser 3 for the Falmouth Falcons
Prompts: Write about the Magical Chess Board.
(Restriction) No using ?
(Emotion) Paranoia
(Dialogue) "Hey! Don't objectify me."
The rules of capitalization of King/Queen and the various other chess pieces are confusing, but I've tried my best in following it here.
"I couldn't have asked for a better queen." His eyes seemed to be made of something other than stone when the White King said those words. As the Black King lifted his sword, her king mouthed, "Please forgive me."
As the white pieces scattered across the board and they lost the game, she knew they had also seen the last of their king. It broke her heart, but at the same time, she had always known she would live longer than he ever would.
When the board called the magic forth that would assemble the pieces to become whole again, she said, "Don't call for the White King to come back."
They were all children of war, lovers of war, champions of war, and true warriors. War was all they knew. Missing someone was a waste of time, especially for someone like the White Queen; she had lived for centuries. Only the chessboard was as old as her now, but it didn't bear the burdens of chess. Whispers told the tale of how kings died earlier than any other piece because of this. Second came the queens—except for her.
"He was a good king." The Right Knight laid a comforting hand on her shoulder. He was usually not so bold, but the circumstances allowed it for once.
"Thank you." She looked over her shoulder to meet his eyes. For a fraction longer than acceptable, they stayed like that.
"New king arriving!" the Left Rook called out. Both she and the Right Knight looked to where it was pointing.
Had their clothes been made like humans, his hand would have left an imprint for her new king to see. Instead, she felt the loss of the comforting weight more than she had felt the hand that had previously been there.
Undeniable loyalty, her previous king had called it. But the ever present presence to her right spoke volumes in constant silence.
"Welcome to our chess board, White King," she said.
He barely glanced at her before he looked to the rest of the white pieces. "So, you are my subjects."
Something about his tone made her tighten her jaw and square her shoulders.
But, it was the next words that affected the rest of the pieces. "This is going to be fun."
For a lot of pieces, she had seen that first impressions can be deceiving, but with the new king, first impressions didn't even begin to cover it.
He was cocky and confident beyond his skill set. He lost game after game, and she was starting to show strain from being repaired many times with little rest in between.
Yet, she felt devoted to him. She figured it had something to do with the magic that had created the chess board and them in the first place. If they weren't devoted to one another, how could they fight for each other?
"This isn't working."
"Maybe if you listened to some of the advice that the other pieces and I give you—"
"No, I mean you and me. We aren't working." He held his sword tighter. "You need to start taking orders like a good little girl."
"Hey! Don't objectify me."
"You are an object."
"So are you, so don't act like you are better than me."
"I'm the king. I control all that we do."
"I'm supposed to be your queen. We're supposed to be in this together."
"That can easily be changed. Any one of the pawns can step up and become my queen if something happens to you."
"Don't threaten me."
"I don't really need to. The board and I have been talking; you're no longer fit to be a White Queen. You are dirty. Almost to the point of being black."
"Don't say that like it's an insult."
"But it is." He stepped closer to her, and she saw the Right Knight's panicked expression when he was too far away to step between the two. "I think it's time I got a new queen."
He swung the sword with intent to kill, but she raised a hand and caught it before it could harm her.
"You can't take me out." She pulled the sword out of his arms. "You might be the king but you don't have the skills to take out someone like me. You only have the power to control others that can."
With that, she turned her back on the White King and the pieces she had so valiantly fought beside for centuries.
The trek across the board had never felt more ominous. Both sides of the board could now be considered her enemy. Magic roared inside of her, telling her to respect her king, to respect her colors, but she did not care to listen to it.
When she arrived at the other side, she raised the sword and stabbed it through the Black Queen with such force the pieces scattering would be hard to reassemble. Then she threw the sword at the Black King's feet and put her arms akimbo with an upturned chin. "I'm your queen now."
The Black King did not dare to protest, and neither did the board. The magic that would usually be called by the board to reassemble the queen remained uncalled for.
She took her place next to the Black King on the board, and the black pieces bowed to her, showing her the respect she deserved.
Right across from her was the empty spot she had called home for a century. But she didn't miss that nearly as much as she missed the Right Knight standing next to it with a forlorn look in his eyes.
It was soon made clear that the White King had made a grievous error in judgment when he had told her to leave. Clear to everyone but the White King that was.
The Black King took her advice on strategy quicker than any of the white kings had ever done.
When the White King moved the Right Knight to be killed by a pawn, she cried out and left her post to go stand over him.
"It's alright." He stroked a hand across her cheek. "I could not live with having another queen."
Magic drained out of him to leave pieces of stone. She had lived a century without a crack appearing on her until that moment. But seeing him die created a crack through her heart that would never disappear.
Her revenge didn't come as swift and earth shattering as she wanted. Every battle they won seemed to break her a little more when the White King would reassemble without a crack in his armor or falter in his step. The years were catching up with her at last.
"We have to destroy him," she told the Black King while she paced the edges of the board.
"We've been over this. All we have ever done is fight the white pieces; we aren't going to stop now." His hand reached out to touch her in comfort but came up short and lingered in the air where she had been, unnoticed by her.
"We have to do more! I want him to feel the way I do."
"He shouldn't matter to you anymore, you have me."
His voice echoed around the empty room they had been stored in when the humans had ceased to care about them. Their prison was not only the board but also the severed ties to their creators and any sign of life beyond themselves. Tales of humans dictating their moves seemed a legend to all but the few who had lived through it.
"It doesn't help. Everyone is out to get me." When she saw he was about to protest she waved her hand and rolled her eyes. "Don't tell me I'm crazy! I see the way they look at me, and how they seem to huddle whenever we're not around."
"They care about you nearly as much as I do."
"That's the magic of the board, and I've already proven you can break through that. If I can, anyone can." She continued her pacing while she avoided looking at the Black King. If he looked at her with begging or pity she would lose her mind.
"That's not true, you're special."
"I'm not! Stop trying to tell me that I'm wrong; I have eyes!"
From the other side of the board, the white pieces stared at her. To her, it seemed even they had turned against her. They had been loyal, and then she turned sides. She wouldn't trust her if the board was turned. Once a traitor, always a traitor.
The words rolled through her mind like a voice whispering the truth people cannot bear to hear.
"I love you," the Black King said.
"You're only saying that. You don't know what love is."
"I know how I feel."
"Please don't lie to me."
"I'm not like your last king, I would never—"
"Don't. Just don't." She put her cracked fingertips over his lips. "Don't promise something you can't keep."
She turned to face the knights talking behind her. "You two, stop talking about me!"
"We weren't," the Right Knight protested. He looked exactly like the man she had lost, except for his tones being dark instead of light. It hurt to see the face of someone devoted and loyal lie to her. It wasn't him, but the face blurred her mind to reason even more. Emotions swirled in her stony heart and mind, making the faces before her seem hostile.
"I need to destroy him."
The Black King took her hand in his and held it tight. "I know. Even if it's the last thing I'll do, I will send him to his death, I promise."
Piece by piece, she fell apart. The Black King tried but he could not fix what had been broken. While he tried to hold her together, the White King got smarter and started to win more and more games.
During a game, she fell over and could not be awakened. Her body of stone turned to sand and dust, feather light and ethereal, her leftovers glimmered in the dimmed light.
The board could never be the same without her. They had all lost their true ruler to a cocky, horrible king that had taken everything away from her and blamed her for it.
As the gray dust of the Black Queen floated across the surface of the board, magic lost to loyalty, devotion, and love. The chess board was created to always be Black against White; anything else would go against the rules and nature of the game.
Everyone took to arms; pawns, rooks, knights, bishops and one king got ready for war. The White Queen did not understand the emotion behind their actions, but she stepped back when they moved closer to the White King.
"You destroyed her," the Black King said as he sized up his opponent. "But you're nothing but a tiny man that doesn't understand the value of others."
The White King moved his mouth to speak but was cut off by his white knights grasping his shoulders tightly.
"You don't get to speak," they said in unison.
"Her greatest wish was to destroy you, and we're all happy to oblige."
Every piece of the board took a turn in beating him. No one would ever know who delivered the lethal blow. With the destruction of the White King, the board and all the other pieces were destroyed too.
In the end, it didn't matter, for without their queen, they were nothing.