Arbiter's Gambit

1

I remained.

The other champions all vanished in the blink of an eye, but I alone was left behind. So that’s what that looked like.

The arbiter slowly descended and came to my level.

“Ryota, Ryota, Ryota…” she said, as if wondering how to confront me. I could almost see gears turning inside her head. “Why was that your question?”

“Excuse me?”

“There were better questions—better truths—to ask of me. I could predict them, you know. I may not be Fate itself, but I was made from its essence. I could see all the possible questions you champions would ask—no, fated—to ask. And out of everything you could choose from, you asked if you were all sent to the same world?”

I blinked in surprise, then slowly relaxed my shoulders. That was the reason she left me behind? I thought I was going to get punished or something.

“Why?” I asked. “What would I have asked normally?”

It wasn’t my future with Ilyana, was it? I would’ve at least asked that in a whisper.

The arbiter crossed her arms… and looked stumped.

“I don’t know…” she said. “I feel like I should know, but I don’t. But I suppose that’s part of why I chose you.”

“You chose me? I thought it was fate that did.”

“True!” the arbiter said, pointing at me with both index fingers. She had a playful wink, while she stuck her tongue out. It was very reminiscent of the emoji stickers she used to send me back on earth. At this point, it was more like she was forcing herself to act human. Reel it back a bit, lady. “I did say that, though I was mainly talking about the others. But you have to forgive me, my champion, I am… somewhat new to this job.”

“Champion?” I said. “Don’t you mean contestant?”

The arbiter floated about, regaining her smile.

“Like I said, I was new to this job.”

“So you kept me here because you wanted to know why I chose my question specifically?”

“Yes. I decided I wanted a truth of my own.”

“Huh,” I said, placing a hand on my chin as if trying to think. “That’s weird. We had to work to get our truths, but you can just ask for it outright? That isn’t fair.”

The arbiter laughed. “What if you ask me your other questions, then? I’ll answer them. Would that not suffice?”

“That’s what you want?”

“I have a feeling that you don’t actually know why you chose that question. Perhaps it was simply what you were most curious about. Or perhaps it was just whimsy on your part.”

She wasn’t wrong.

“But yes, I want to hear the other probabilities of your questions coming directly from you, Ryota Rutherford. It’s like seeing other worlds!”

“Fine, then,” I said. “But I’ll need your word this isn’t a trap and that there won’t be any consequences. Not to me or my friends.”

The arbiter hovered close to me, placed her hands on my shoulders, then leaned forward. “Done. You have my word.”

“Okay,” I said. “Why were we sent to the same world? And not just us. Yin was also a contestant, wasn’t he?”

The arbiter smiled, then let go of me.

“I sent you all to that world because it’s special,” the arbiter replied. “And yes. The man you knew as Yin was a contestant sent by a different arbiter.”

Different arbiter?

“What made that world special?”

“It’s special because Fate chose it specifically as a world to test all arbiters.”

“Why?”

The arbiter crossed her arms. “That wouldn’t be a question you’d know to ask as a reward.”

Okay, fine.

“Why did Fate choose that world specifically to send us?”

“Because Fate has a plan, and Fate is curious. Fate had chosen many, many heroes from the beginning of time. Heroes that would come and save the universe. So many versions of the same story. Fate knew everything except for which is best. For you humans its like choosing between apples and oranges. It’s like… choosing which question to ask.”

The arbiter and I stared in each other’s eyes. Her golden irises begged to understand this ‘truth’ she was seeking. This wasn’t just her playing around with me.

“That was how us arbiters came to be,” she continued to say. “We were made to safeguard the universe and govern over the heroes. We were tasked to pick which one among you is the best, so we decided to pit you against each other. Fate acknowledged this and allowed us that problematic world.”

Huh. I wondered why she called it that. But did that mean there were more contestants in that world?

“You know what’s funny though?” the arbiter asked. “Come on, ask me another one.”

“Uh… what’s funny?”

The arbiter grabbed my shoulders again, this time with enough force that I floated backwards. “You wouldn’t have asked that question! Imagine what the other champions would think, if, during your reward you asked, ‘what’s funny?’ That would’ve been weird! There was an almost zero percent chance you would’ve asked that question!”

It wasn’t zero percent?

“Okay, I get it!”

I thought about it for a bit. She already told me why the arbiters were created, so… Wait a minute. If the heroes were pitted against each other, then…

I tried to form my question carefully.

“Is an arbiter like you really set to fulfill what fate demanded and save the universe?”

The arbiter placed a hand above her heart, then closed her eyes with a smile. “I am.”

“If there are other arbiters, are they all working to fulfill Fate’s vision and save the universe?”

The arbiter crossed her arms and looked to the side as if to consider the question. Come on lady, let that one slide. She shrugged.

“That’s what’s funny,” the arbiter said. “Fate created us… based on you. Human. This meant that we have our own wills. Our own interpretation of what Fate wanted us to do. And so, we don’t always agree. And in some cases… even go against what Fate determined, thinking it’s the right thing to do.”

Just like the performers of Yunha. They didn’t really know what happened to their old country, so they came up with different ways to express it.

“Giving you all these answers is one example of that,” the arbiter said. “This was my own choice.” She then spun herself upwards into a stretch, as if fully flexing her muscles from getting sore. As if she had a long day at work. “Well, that was enough to satisfy me! I saw so many variations of your questions and now I understand. You’re just… you. Human. Thank you for indulging me, Ryota Rutherford. I will now send you back. As a boon for entertaining me, I will—”

“Wait!” I shouted. “I have one more! You’re probably going to want this one because it’s a question I really wanted to know!”

The arbiter raised an eyebrow.

I didn’t ask this because I thought it would’ve been a waste of truth. But earlier she just said she chose me. Not Fate, her.

“Why me? Why am I your champion?”

The arbiter looked dumbfounded, then she started to laugh.

“I’ve been seriously thinking about it,” I said. “Back in Shusui. Why me? I kept assuming my engineering background would come into play, but it never did. Anybody could’ve solved the riddle of the map. You don’t need to be an engineer to do that. Same thing in Joren. I never actually used my past knowledge or expertise for that. I just played it by ear! So why me?”

“Well…” the arbiter started. “To tell you the truth, Ryota Rutherford. It was never about you.”

“Huh?”

“I’ll give you a bonus answer. This will be your boon. We arbiters are given by Fate the chance to choose our own champion. Just one. We can also read people’s destinies and know what they can do, so, in order to assist the real heroes, we are allowed to pick a… helper, if you will. A supplementary support character.”

“That was me…”

I wasn’t even a character you could choose from a roster of heroes. I was an assist type meant to throw a fireball distraction.

“Most arbiters choose strategists, scientists, detectives, philosophers… some don’t even bother picking one. So then, I thought to myself, who would I choose as mine? I was conflicted. And then I remembered. Fate had a favorite.”

A favorite? I made sure to not distract her by asking. What favorite?

“Out of all the heroes that there is and will be, there is one that Fate deemed the strongest, the one most destined to save the universe! Of course, this hero wasn’t necessarily the best answer. This hero is simply… the most likely answer.”

Who?

“But unfortunately for me, this hero wasn’t mine to govern. So, I picked the next best thing. I picked the person this hero loved.” The arbiter hovered close to me again, her eyes brimming with what I could only describe as satisfaction. “You are loved by Fate’s favorite, Ryota Rutherford. And so I thought, if Fate’s favorite picked you, then I should pick you too.”

I… I… what?

“You’ve proved yourself so well.” The arbiter suddenly moved close to me and held me in a tight embrace, rubbing the back of my head, like a mother proud of the son she raised. “I tested you. I sent you to your first world with only two hours to complete it. I could’ve given you two days, but I didn’t. Wasn’t that funny?”

I pushed the arbiter away.

“It wasn’t!” I shouted. “What the hell?”

“When you came back for your second mission, I thought of many ways to try and see if I could get more out of you. I briefly tried to increase my own appeal to your eyes, but seeing I’m not human, that barely worked.”

The arbiter sighed while shrugging theatrically.

“But then I thought, it didn’t have to be me. What if I make it so that you and Jennifer Watson are lovers in the world you go to? Would that stoke the fires of affection similar to Fate’s favorite? Could Jennifer ascend into becoming that hero?”

“So that really was your handiwork.”

“And it worked to some extent. You helped Jennifer Watson shine like the sun! You even lifted Allen Fitzgerald and have him play an important role when he wasn’t even meant to be there. I was right in this little experiment. You are the perfect supporting character.”

The arbiter flew around me, then leaned on my back and whispered in my ear. “In this game Fate made us arbiters play, you are my trump card. My gambit.”

She flew around me again, then settled just in front of me, stretching her arms a second time. “I talked so much! How do you humans do this so often? Well, whatever. Our time is up. For real this time. Like I said earlier, ponder whether you want to come back or not and blah, blah, blah.” She narrowed her eyes at me and let her smile linger. “But personally, I think you already know your answer.”

2

I was suddenly sent back to earth. It was so startling, that I literally jumped out of the bed I lay in nearly two months ago.

I immediately lost my balance thinking I’d keep floating and fell back to my bed. I breathed heavily, trying to process all the information I just learned.

Fate’s favorite?

Loved?

She used Jennifer as an example, so it was a kind of romantic love, right?

I felt like I knew who the arbiter referred to, but I didn’t want to admit it. Because if I was right, then in a way, the arbiter answered my question about my future relationship.

I wasn’t overthinking this, right? I could confess?

But then… I thought about the reality of my situation. The reality of our situation. If I was right, then I wasn’t the only one going to another world.

I looked at my window and noticed that the sun was peeking at the edges of my curtain. A good few hours have passed in this world since I left. That was good. I quickly turned around in my bed, found my phone on the desk, grabbed it, then quickly scrolled past all the messages I just received. There was somebody I desperately needed to call.

And the arbiter was right. I already had an answer.