A Weapon’s Serenade

When Famine returned, the girls had made their way a few metres deeper to the sea floor. Isha was showing them a siren game. She had drawn four concentric circles into the sand, connected by twenty-four lines from the centre to the outer most circle.

“It’s an older game but a favourite among the young since it barely needs anything to be played. Each of us gets three little rocks and we start by all placing a rock on the intersection of the line in front of each player and the outer ring. Then we take turns. When it’s your turn, you can either move any of your rocks up to two intersections. Each point you move needs to be connected to the previous one, so you can move either along the circles, the lines or around a corner, but not diagonally. If there is a rock owned by someone else in the way, you take that rock and stop moving where that rock was. Instead of moving, you can also place a rock on your starting position and potentially take the rock that is on it if it’s not yours. You can use captured rocks as your own and the game ends when one player owns all the rocks.”

Melody nodded along. “Seems simple enough. Now we just need rocks.”

“Here you go.” Isha conjured a bunch of fist-sized stones. “I’m sorry I can’t do much smaller.”

“It’s alright, you need to be able to pick them up too. So we all place one stone in front of us?”

“Yes. Should I go first so you can see how this works?”

“Absolutely.”

 Isha was good at this little game, as was Kuria, but Famine was better. She was sly and managed to get some very early advantage by capturing a few stones which she promptly used to setup intricate traps. The siren looked quite proud as the inquisitor captured her last stone.

“Well played, that was a crazy play.”

Famine returned a satisfied smile. “I may not play often but I do enjoy games.”

Anne chuckled. “And you seem to be pretty good at them too.”

“A claim also made by War. I am not sure if to believe it.”

Isha shrugged. “I would. You did really well and this was your first time playing, right?”

“Yes.”

“Then that was even more impressive. Would you all like to play another round?”

Everyone agreed.

This time, Kuria took the win by focusing heavily on taking Famine’s stones while the inquisitor was busy attacking other players.

“It appears you do have a weakness, inquisitor.” Kuria put on a smug smile.

“Yes, other players.” Famine shook her head, then let out a tiny giggle. “You did well in exploiting that.”

“Thank you, that is high praise indeed.”

Famine simply nodded.

Isha made a happy sound. “I want to hear about your games, even if we can’t play them under water.”

Melody nodded in agreement. “We all have our favourite games, so let’s go over them all.”

“Yes, please do that!”

“I love trivia games, games in which the gameplay contains answering quiz questions. My absolute favourite of those is literally just called The Game of Science. You move a little figure around the board and whatever colour square you land on determines the category of the question you need to answer. When you get it right, you get a little piece of that colour and when you have all the colours collected you have to answer a harder question from a special selection to win. If you don’t get the answer right, you can try again next turn.”

“A quiz game… I would need to learn a lot more about the world we will share but that would be fun to play eventually.”

“I think you would enjoy it.”

“I have no doubts, I love learning things after all.”

“I think we all do.”

Serena agreed. “We absolutely do. That’s how we got here in the first place.”

“True, I don’t think I would have risked coming to the surface to meet you if I hadn’t been curious about you all. Anyway, Serena, what is your game?”

“It’s called The Settlers. You lay out a little island with some cardboard tiles and then gather little resources from the island and spend them to build towns and roads and settle the island. You get points of achieving certain things and when one player reaches ten points, they win.”

“Certain things like creating a long road or making big towns, I guess?”

“Yea, or having the most guards. Every town you build gets you a point too. I am really bad at explaining games, I’m sorry.”

“It’s alright, you can show me eventually and we can play it together.”

“I look forward to that so much.”

“I do too. I want to play all the games you love with you all. And maybe share a few more of ours. So, Anne?”

Anne made a thinking noise. “I know it’s the obvious for all of us here, but it has genuinely become my favourite game over the past years. It’s a card game called Heroes of Sword and Sorcery. You essentially collect cards from a large pool and build a little deck with them including a hero, a special card that you pick because you really like the character it depicts. What your hero is and does influences what the rest of your deck should be. Once you have a hero and a deck for them, you play against others with their own decks and heroes. The idea is to simulate a little conflict with the heroes as leaders.”

“If you get to pick out some cards out of a large pool, you don’t need to own all the cards, right?”

“Yea, and often people trade with others for the cards they need. Owning all cards is really expensive and some are difficult to get a hold of. But in the end, the deck you build usually is a reflection of you in a way. That’s also why we stuck with it and the demons started playing it. The game is made by humans and new cards come out all the time, but with the ability to really make your deck yours, it’s a way for demons and humans to engage in a little friendly conflict on equal terms.”

“Those cards, what are they made from?”

“Cardboard, annoyingly enough. So, sadly no playing under water. They are also pretty small, about half the size of my hand.”

“Oh, that is tiny. I guess that would be best played when I can be small too.” Isha smirked. “I would love a deck of my own.”

“We can help find the prefect hero for you and get the cards.”

“I would love that, thank you. That just leaves our two demons. Kuria?”

“I too am very fond of Heroes, but I want to pick something else… With most of my life being dictated by strategy and tactics, observing and controlling the surroundings of my host, it was a big step to learn to appreciate randomness. I never thought I would love it as much as I do, but Yahtzee is a lot of fun. It’s a game of rolling dice and scoring points based on the combination of numbers you roll.”

“What are dice?”

“Little polytopes with numbers on each side. In this case, it’s a small cube with each side having one number from one to six. You roll five dice for Yahtzee, you may roll any number of them again up to two times, to potentially get a better combination. Everyone gets a little chart to fill out that lists all combinations worth points and the games ends once all players have filled out the entire sheet. With some combinations worth a variable number of points, the person with the most points wins.”

“Fascinating. I wonder if we can create dice that work under water.”

“I don’t see why not.”

“I am just thinking about problems rolling them, but I am happy to try.”

“I will see about getting some dice in your size next time.”

“That would be very sweet of you, thank you.”

Kuria returned a warm smile. “So, Famine, what’s your favourite game?”

The inquisitor raised an eyebrow. “I have never thought about it. I love Heroes, I enjoy games of chance, strategy games might be my favourite though. We have an abstract game called The Game of Kur. There is a small Game of Kur, played in a few hours, and a large Game of Kur, played over weeks. It is not a simulation of anything real but an abstract exploration of thought and mind, attempting to understand the logical steps of others as you compete with them for limited resources to create a picture. You have to complete challenges, alone or against another player, of different kinds to acquire what you need or want to slowly build a piece of art. In the end, you need to create something that has meaning in the process of creation and in the final result. Whoever creates something with the most understandable and most interesting meaning in both the path to it and the final artwork, as voted on by all other players, wins. Often, players agree on a theme to pursue at the start but you can play it with everyone able to create whatever they wish.” Famine seemed to withdraw a little once she had finished her explanation. She was clearly not entirely comfortable having taken so much time to talk about something she enjoyed.

Isha tilted her head. “That sounds complex and really intriguing. Art as the goal of a game of strategy. Even if it is beyond me to play, I would just love to see how it is played and with what.”

Famine simply nodded shily.

The siren smiled at the inquisitor. “You aren’t used to sharing something like this, are you?”

Famine shook her head.

“Then I appreciate it even more that you did. And I think I understand why you like that game so much, expression without speaking about it.”

The old demon nodded.

“Please, never feel forced to speak with me, okay? I am always happy to have your company, but there is no need to force yourself to do something you are uncomfortable doing. Just being here with us means a lot to us all.”

Famine chewed on her words for a bit. “I need to share more. This was simply a lot at once. I got excited.”

Kuria swam a little closer to Famine. “Sharing something that excites you is always great. You know you get all the time you want with us, so please, share whatever you want. We will listen. Always.

“Thank you, that means much.”