The board is set. It always is.
Tutor is waiting on my move. It is typical of our games.
Currently, we are playing "Wizard Chess". Yes, we wizards put the prefix 'wiz' in front of everything, but this time, wizard chess is actually very different than regular chess. And no, fangirls, this is not something we stole from Harry Potter. Screw you J.K.
Tutor is excelent. She has beaten me every day for the last two years. But I am getting better, too. At first, my improvements were met with approval. She would contgratulate me for losing by only 93 points. Then some anxiety. Lately she has done everything in her power to keep me from winning. She must know how pathetic it is to resist me.
Lately, her demeanor has changed. She is more relaxed. It is not difficult to understand why. Currently Tutor is only beating me by twenty-nine points. Her lead ought to increase in the next few rounds. But I am planning to come from behind.
I need to move my wizard. I know that moving my wizard is the right move, but once I move that piece, it is incapable of using any more magic for the rest of the round. Maybe I should use magic against her wizard to keep it from moving. Her witch is already off the board. All I have to do is trap her rouge and destroy her elf.
I move my wizard into a danger zone. If she takes the bait, I will be able to curse her destroy her rouge.
Her next move blows me away, literally. Her griffon traps my dragon and kills my witch in a single move. I roar in frustration. She backs off, frightened, but does not run. Why?
Half of the game is playing your opponent.
She does not fear me. Surely this part-elf must know that I am a psychopath. I mean... really, she is not stupid. No one knows how I came back, nor what happened to Max. The rumors abound though.
See, that bothers me. I know Tutor is afraid of me, but not terrified. When I get this frustrated with Alex... well, now she knows to flinch.
Now how come Tutor is not afraid? What does she know? The rebel, she must know Crumbs' plan. I have heard some new rumors; a champion, taught by Crumbs, not endorsed by the council, but powerful enough to stop me. Who can put my mechanics aside?!
Alex... right? It has to be her. But she has been so silent.
I lose the game. It is the highest deficit of points in weeks. Tutor packs up, assuming I am done. Usually she would be right. Now I recognize that my habit of losing has made me reject anything than I cannot beat. It is a weakness.
I grab her hand, startling her, "One more round."
We play. She is winning. I wait to make my aggressive move. It should have been obvious: I never finish first.
(Yeah... that sounded kinky in my head.) I now realize that I only win after being mocked, tred upon. We start to talk. I tell her how well she is planning. At first, her humility (The boring kind, not the kind where my slave is forced to debase herself) steels her mind. Then, slowly, her confidence grows. She gets cocky. A flash of the eyes... a slit of a smirk... a snort at my worst move yet.
It's Alex I'm playing.
I almost win, almost. Towards the end, Tutor becomes terrified of loosing. I hit her left and right, all the while talking.
"Your wizard is about to lose the ability to use magic."
She guards it, "I still have my centaur." I scoff, it is not enough.
"There's no safe place left," She pauses, checking, knowing I'm right, "Go on the offensive. You have no other hope."
"You've forced my hand, Justin, congratulations." She plays hard and fast, the way it ought to be. Her hand is on her temple; it is a sign of deep concentration.
Tutor must know what I am doing. Still, she cannot help herself, "You will lose Justin, you have already sown what you will reap." She engages me, eye to eye contact. You will play, and you will lose."
I know what she is talking about, "The game is not over yet." She mutters something vague about hope.
I destroy her wizard. She practically gasps. Two more moves and it is over. She has her victory. She lays back and sighs. Her beauty has been maintained. I still want to kiss her, to hug her, do whatever she wants. But my mind is now steel. I know what I really want. It is not some blond. I want something hard-core, and brunette.
I grab her again, "I know." Her eyes go so wide, that terror, it feeds my darkness. For a second, I want to give into the urges I have fed for so long. Throw the pieces on the ground, push her onto the table, listen to her scream as I open...
No, not yet, maybe not ever. I get something important from her. I get her mind. She challenges a part of me that few can. She makes me feel stupid at things I am well-versed in. It improves me.
Taking her would ruin that. It would be cheating. Alex cheats, I do not. I let out the breath I was holding, "See you around." I drop her arm. She calms immediately, knowing she is safe.
...It's always been about power. Back when I started to slip into the darkness. I had power flowing through me. I wanted to keep it, to lord it over others. But power is not enough. Wizard chess is proof of that.
Rape is not about lust. It's about power. People think, "Oh she's pretty," or, "She's ugly, no one would rape her." They're wrong! It's about hurting someone who cannot fight back. I have power, I just need the pieces. If the rebel is Alex, if she is who they're putting their trust in... I have to destroy her, control her so much that everyone knows that I have the power to do that.
I go through my personal portal and drop off my journal. Sometimes I want to take Tutor, just to be mine. But... it does not feel right. Does that make sense for a man with no conscience? Well, I flash back to my home, and orchestrate a take-over in Maine. I have total control over New England.
That is when I decide I will keep Tutor. Back when she just played chess with me, she was not a threat. Now that our games are the background for intelligence, it is time to take her, break her, and remake her. Then I will know what the other side knows.
I flash into my lair. Once I am on the other side of the portal, I will drop by her house. I know where she lives. I know what can hurt an elf. I dial up her wand.
As I step to the portal, all thought is gone. Monsters dead, or about to be dead are literally falling all over themselves to apologize to me.
I kill them all.
Some part of me realizes that Tutor just heard all this. Her voice comes out from the other side; "The board is always set. Now the pieces are in motion." The line goes dead. I will not see her again. Unless I take over the Wizard World too.
My pride stings. I want to add her to the list, to hear her beg me... but no. She is right, always right... the pieces are set. And I do not know how to win.
Yet.
A.N. I swear, this fiction is done. I will be revising soon. For those of you who read the beginning, the truth is, I ended it with Alex entering the journal. It's just... it felt sexist. The man wins because of his penis. Go men. Anywho, I felt like Alex never had a chance at adventure. This is a different story. Next up, an actual update!