Liar's dice
Liar's dice is game for two or more players
requiring the ability to deceive and detect an opponent's deception
The cell is damp and smells like a sickening combination of moss, blood, piss and any other body fluids imaginable. Water runs down the stone walls, half of it getting greedily drunk by the coloured mosses on the wall, the other half dripping on the floor in a continuous drip, drip, drip. He counts the time between the fall of two droplets, times the futile punching of his fist against the wall in time with it. It's useless, will never get him out these damp, dark cells, but it fits for punishing himself.
He's in Nottingham. The small town right on the border between king Leopold's and king George's kingdom. If he listens carefully he can hear the sheriff still proudly proclaiming his capture of 'the legendary Robin Hood'. To be caught by such a man as the sheriff of Nottingham is, on its own, already a good enough reason to punish oneself. Frustratingly, however, it is by a flaw of his own character that he, famed outlaw Robin Hood, finds himself in this cell that is hardly worthy of a two-penny thief.
Because he'd gotten cocky, gotten impatient. He'd had a good gig, ambushing carriages from George's kingdom as they passed into Leopold's. As long as he waited for the carriages to pass into Leopold's kingdom, it put him outside the reach of George's knights and robbing George's carriages instead of Leopold's put him outside reach of Leopold's wrath. There had been investigations at first, but George had made the crucial mistake of accusing 'Robin Hood', the stuff of legends, as the culprit. Trust and cooperation between the kings had waned since with both sides throwing accusations across the border.
Yet he'd gotten impatient, and it had all ended. He hadn't had enough patience to wait for the carriage –it had broken an axis before and had left Robin waiting perched in a tree for hours on end. He had been cocky, fashioned himself indeed the stuff of legends and had ambushed George's carriage while still on George's soil. Little did he know that the old king's men had been waiting for him to do for months, luring him out with delayed carriages and stalling at the border. It was therefore that he found himself caught, bound and thrown in a cell in George's kingdom, awaiting what would undoubtedly be horrid punishment for his actions.
"There is our legend." The howling of the sheriff of Nottingham as he throws open the door shakes Robin from his memories of regret. He has to squint his eyes closed against the sudden light emanating from the door and only notes the other figure when he's already seated in front of him at the other side of the bars. His voice is calmer, deeper, older and more terrifying than the incessant jeering by the sheriff.
"You have been quite a nuisance for the last years, Robin Hood." Speaks the man. The man then turns towards him, sunlight casting a glimmer on his balding head and deepening the creases carved in his face. "Do you know who I am, outlaw?" He asks on a calm tone and Robin can do nothing but stare into the man's menacing yet cool eyes. Of course he does, he may be an outlaw, but he was still raised as a noble. (the house of Locksley had never been rich and had fallen into disarray when he'd been young, but he'd still learned enough to know the name and appearance of their king.)
"I do. You're His Majesty George the third, by grace of the gods, of Thedas and the Mist Isles." Robin rattles the words from where his mother had practically crammed them into his mind.
"Information is a little outdated." The king answers gruffly. "But it does seem I do not need to introduce myself."
"Your legend proceeds you." Robin answers and if he sounds a little cocky, well, he won't ever get the chance to mock the king again and he does not count on any count of mercy anyway. "As does my own, apparently, since you are here to speak to me yourself- in person. –Your majesty."
The king seemingly does not deign his reaction worth a reply, simply stands up and gestures towards the sheriff, who moves quickly to open his cell. "You have committed many crimes and cost me more gold than I can count, However…" The king turns towards him. "You steal my gold on Leopold's soil, yet distribute it only amongst my people. That tells me you are loyal to your own country, in your own way. You are committed to your own people, my people, not Leopold's."
Robin eyes the king watchfully, while keeping one eye on the door that is still open. The king seems not intent on running a sword through him, but the death sentence is hanging above his head and the sheriff will certainly not hesitate pre-emptively carry out the sentence.
"In addition to that, you have also managed to inspire quite a following amongst the common folk. Killing you will make you a martyr, and I do not wish to incite a civil war with Leopold's army marching upon my borders."
"That sounds like your problem to me, your majesty." Robin answers shortly, unwilling to speak politics or make deals with those he so despises. "Now, I do not know what you are getting at, but make your point."
The king eyes him with a stern gaze for a few seconds. "Very well." He finally answers. "As much as I do not wish to incite a civil war, I will kill you and then cut down all who oppose me in your name, as I'm certain they will. I am, however, prepared to spare your life and, as a result, that of your followers. Now you are a nationalist, you love your country in your own way, so I am asking you to serve it, for once."
For all the ways in which Robin has despised the king and all those belonging to him in the last years. He cannot deny the truth in the kings words, suspicious as he remains of the man. It is therefore that he responds with a wary: "What could I possibly do to serve the realm?"
The king smiles, a small smile that does not reach his eyes, but bares his teeth before him as if he were a predator. "Glad you asked. Now I trust you know some of the tensions between my kingdom and Leopold's, after all, you have been profiting off it for years. That old fool Leopold is as unpredictable as he is undependable and I do not trust him to be intent on keeping the peace, fragile as it already is. I need to know what he is planning, I need a man on the inside." He makes a gesture towards the open door. "You are free to leave this cell, but when you do, you will go with the next envoy towards Leopold. The man is growing more paranoid by the day and is desperate to hire new guards. Your face is unfamiliar to him, but I'm certain he will recognize your skills immediately. I want you to infiltrate his castle posing as a guard, find out what he's planning and report back to me regularly. Do this and you and your followers will escape with their lives. Refuse my offer and you will die."
A silence falls between them, Robin's thoughts flying from his youth and his hatred for all that is noble and royal to the common folk who love him, to the merry men who he loves. Who took him in as a scrawny boy of fourteen and looked after him for the following ten years until he found himself here, in his damp cell.
"Do you accept my offer?" The king asks.
He swore never to serve the system that cost him his childhood, swore to oppose the monarchy until his death. Yet it is the common folk, the merry men who will pay the price of his rebellion. They're not responsible of his fate, do not deserve to pay the price for it. It is with these thoughts that he answers the king with a slow nod and trembling breath, resigning himself to play this wicked game of liar's dice.
"I accept."