"What will you have me do then?", asked Lucian in a surprised manor.
"Battle.", stated Eliot as he pulled out a wooden checkered board.
"You'll be playing multiple chess matches against three different people, this will help you developed your adaptation skills."
"I understand sir, but um, what is "chess"?", asked Lucian dumbfoundedly.
"you'll find out soon enough.", Said Eliot as he left the room.
All there was now in the room was Lucian, the chess board, and the young woman who had served Eliot coffee, Lilith. "I'll be your first opponent for today." said Lilith in a sweet and polite tone.
"I look forward to it, but how do I play?"
"You'll have to learn as I beat you over and over again. Orders from Eliot himself, the only rules I can tell you are that the white pieces are mine and the black pieces are yours." stated Lilith as she set up the strange looking figures in individual squares.
Lucian sighed and said, "I guess I shouldn't have expected this to be easy."
Lilith relaxed and said with a smile, "I'll go first."
The first piece she moved was one of the many small figures forward two squares. Lucian followed up with moving the same piece three squares.
"Restart."
Lucian put his piece back and moved it forward once. Lilith then moved another small piece diagonally across the board. Lucian did the same with the strange piece.
Right now, my only goal should be to get to know how the pieces work. Winning isn't possible currently so I should do what she does instead. That first three-square move was just a test to see if that piece could go any further.
After Lilith and Lucian had moved more pieces and multiple restarts, he'd gotten to know how each piece worked. Finally, Lucian moved one of the small common pieces forward, but then, Lilith moved her piece over his and took it off the chess board putting it next to it on her side.
Does she need to do that to all of my pieces or is it one of the more movable one's that she's trying to capture. Suddenly, Lucian noticed a strange piece that not he, nor Lilith had moved. It had what looked like a crown with a cross on top.
Judging by how she hasn't moved that piece yet, then that must be important. Trying to go for it this round would end in failure. When she beats me this round, it'll guarantee that that's the win objective, then I can go for it the following rounds.
One after another, Lucian kept copying Lilith and getting his pieces taken away. Then finally Lilith said, "check mate, I win!", in a joyful tone.
"You seem quite happy winning against someone who doesn't know how to play at all."
"This is the first time that I've actually ever won a game of chess."
"Beaten by an amateur, huh?
"H-Hey, I'm not an amateur! I'm an experienced player."
"At loosing?"
"I'm the one that one against you, you can't say anything."
"Fair enough. Shall we move to the next game?"
"Sure, don't think you'll beat me though."
After two more games Lucian had finally gotten the full premise of the game, and had Lilith tell him what the piece names were because she forgot to. After three games after that, Lucian was able to start capturing Lilith's pieces, including the queen! One game after that Lucian managed to get close enough for a check but lost.
On the eighth game, "Check mate, looks like I've finally reached amateur level."
"Still took you ten more games."
"Is that not impressive? I thought it'd take me a hundred more, but I guess you weren't bluffing about your skill level."
Lilith pouted, "I'm not your only tester, your next opponent is someone your quite familiar with and has a whole lot more skill than me."
The only Ethereals Lucian could think of that he knew well were Ozzus and Priscilla. It'd be scary if he'd have to face Ozzus. He never expressed a large sum of power nor intelligence, but the feeling Lucian got when he was around him made him feel like he was in a dragon's den.
Lilith brushed her hair to the side and said, "I'll be going now, I wish you luck on your next matches.". Her warm smile made Lucian feel reassured that her luck would help him.
A couple moments after Lilith left, a younger girl walked in. It was a girl with black flowing hair that went down to her waist, she didn't wear anything to formal, just a common dress. Her bottom lip was painted a radiant light red that brought out the elegance of a noble. If Lucian had met her on the streets and not a rickety old ship, then he might have mistaken her to be the daughter of a nobleman.
"Good afternoon, Priscilla.", Now that I think about it, I haven't seen Priscilla since the day after we went to the Crowe household. It most likely has something to do with her being an Ethereal and all.
"Hello Lucian, how have you been?"
"I could be better; I did just have to chase one of your colleagues for a bit and almost get shot."
"Sorry about that, I wish I could have told you."
"Are you telling me that you and Ozzus were in on this the whole time?"
As Priscilla heard those words leave Lucian's mouth, she averted her gaze avoiding eye contact, making it obvious that she felt guilty, "Maybe.".
"Of course, why did you guys decide this for me anyway?". Lucian was clearly tired about himself being the only one in the dark.
"Sorry but that's a secret."
"Still?"
"You'll learn soon enough, I promise."
"Fine, shall we start the match?"
"Sure, but don't think that I'll be as easy to win against as Lilith."
In the next four matches, Lucian couldn't even manage to get a check. It appeared that Priscilla had a strategy in mind and used her superior knowledge to beat Lucian in a heartbeat. Looking back on it, Lilith only moved her pieces at random and used zero strategy. Does this mean that Lilith was just winning by chance in our previous matches!?
The difference in playing against a player with a strategy versus against one with none was a lot larger than Lucian had anticipated. In seven more rounds Lucian was barely able to get check, but on the eighth, he finally noticed something. While Lucian was having a hard time getting to check, he realized that he was only focusing on the more powerful pieces. He was able to take a large sum of those but in each round, his king was taken by a pawn almost every time. Priscilla was using tactical sacrifices just to win the game!
I finally understand how she plays, all this time I've been focusing on getting to the other side and stopping knights and bishops, etc. I just need to focus more on her pawns as well.
In the following matches, Lucian found it easier to get checks. He also found himself loosing less pieces. Finally, on the 24th match, "Check mate."
"What!? How!?", no one's supposed to be this skilled at chess already! It took me weeks to get to my level, how have you gotten here in only a couple of hours!?", asked Priscilla in an annoyed tone.
"Could it have something to do with my lost memories?"
"No, that's not possible, the only things you still have after losing them is language, emotions, senses of familiarity, and a small sliver of your former personality, not skills. Although it could have something to do with your mind having been wiped clean. Younger beings usually learn and adapt faster than those who're older."
"Are you calling me a child?"
Suddenly, Priscilla burst out laughing, "I actually never thought of that but now that I do, I guess you are."
Lucian put his hand on his face and held his head down in embarrassment as Priscilla kept laughing.
Once she had finally calmed down, "Sorry but since you won, you'll be facing your next opponent, I'll have to warn you though, he's on an entirely different level than me. If I had to sum up his skill, I'd say he's the best chess player out of every person working as or with Ethereals.", stated Priscilla.
"How am I supposed to win then?", asked Lucian, a bit shocked that he'd go up against someone like that.
Priscilla stuck out her tongue and said, "How should I know?", and left the room.
A couple minutes later a blond man tying his hair back up into a bun walked into the room. The man that Lucian had to run after and the man who got shot in the ally. The only difference was that he was completely fine, there was no bullet hole, no blood, nothing. It was like he was exactly the same man he was on the ship with Ozzus, Theo Lundqvis.