A Fool's Wish

A chilly breeze kissed the tip of Yuna’s nose. She moaned in her sleepy stupor as she reached for her phone to check the time — it wasn’t there. Under her covers, her hand moved up and down the side of her bed probing for it but she came up with nothing. It must have fallen onto the floor. Another icy breeze brushed up against her cheek. I thought I closed the window…

Yuna sat up in bed and leaned over to turn on the ligh t—

Her light stand was gone. She looked around her room-

Her room was gone. She blinked her eyes over and over again, letting them adjust to the darkness but she was in disbelief of what she saw.

Stars surrounded Yuna’s bed, twinkled amongst swirling, dark red nebulas in the deep void of space. The nebulas shifted from dark red to purple and then to blue before going back to dark red in slow pulsing intervals.

“T-this is-s a dream.” Yuna touched the side of her mouth where her mother scratched her, feeling slight stinging pain. She looked at her finger and saw a tint of red from her split lip. Everything felt so real.

Yuna frantically looked for a way out and in response, checkered titled platforms rose from the darkness next to her bed forming a sparse bridge. At the end of the bridge was a large building looming in the darkness.

Hesitant, Yuna hovered her foot over the first platform before applying her weight to it. It was cold against her bare skin but the platform held firm despite the fact it was floating in space with no visible support. Yuna grabbed her hoodie from her bedpost and zipped it up over her pajamas before fully stepping off her bed onto the first platform. She looked down and saw clusters of stars swirling in a far-off galaxy. Yuna began to tremble but she clenched her fists and stepped onto the next platform. The building in the distance became closer and closer with every platform she hopped to. Until she finally arrived at a staircase that ascended up to a pair of large wooden double doors. The metal sign next to the door read,“Ravencroft Senior Citizen Home - Visiting hours 9:00 AM - 4:00 PM Monday - Friday.”

Yuna reached up and traced her hand over one of the metal door knockers-

CREEEEK!

“Jeez!” The door slowly opened; Yuna to jump back.

From behind the door, the twangy sound of a harpsichord could be heard echoing off the walls of the corridor. The instrument made a fast rhythmic progression, moving from soft pizzicato to a strong staccato as the mysterious player played their aggressive melody.

“What the hell is going on here?”

As if in response to Yuna’s question, the harpsichord’s melody became playful, as if to invite her in. Yuna took a step towards the door and the twangy instrument played a chored. She took another step and the instrument played another chord. Yuna picked up her pace, but the harpsichord keep playing chords to match her steps until she was standing in the middle of a big beautiful lobby which reminded her more of a palace rather than a retirement home. The door closed behind her with a clatter and a click of the lock. The harpsichord changed to a much slower rhythm and was joined by deep booming cello. Together the instruments formed a serene medieval-sounding ensemble.

Yuna looked around the lobby, a crystal chandelier hung over her head and the walls were covered in art pieces and masks from various cultures. From where Yuna stood there were two hallways, one to her left and one to her right as well as a staircase directly in front of her. At the top of the staircase was another set of doors that had a sign that said “Game Room” with dice and playing cards chiseled into the decorative wood. There were candles all over the lobby neatly hanging on the walls in glass containers. When Yuna stepped to the left the door to that hallway shut with a bang and the candles around the door blew out cloaking that side of the room in pitch darkness. When she stepped to the right the door and candles repeated the same actions. Then the rest of the candles in the room went out, leaving Yuna under the sole light of the chandelier.

Suddenly.

The chandelier’s light shifted to a deep blue. Then the candles all reignited in sequence up the staircase, their blue flames swayed back and forward to the medieval music coming from the game room beyond.

Yuna’s toes curled when she placed her foot on the first wooden step. As she made her way up the stairs the candles behind her dimmed two by two until she was once again standing in front of a big ominous door in the deep blue gloom. She tentatively reached for the handle and tried to turn it but it wouldn’t budge. She tried harder, jiggling the handle and putting her weight against the door-

“Frick!”

Altogether the music stopped and Yuna stumbled into the room as the door gave way against her weight. When she regained her composure she was actually disappointed by what she saw.

The room she was now standing in look like any normal retirement home game room. A room with comfortable wooden chairs and folding tables. Nothing about the room was unusual or luxurious as the rest of the building so far-

“Grandpa?” Yuna slid her feet across the rough carpet floor, inching closer to a darkened silhouette in the center of the dim room. There, sitting at one of the game tables was an elderly man with bleach white hair hunched over a game board setting up the little pieces.

“Grand-” Yuna stopped on the opposite side of the table from the old man who looked up at her with kind eyes. He was dressed in a button-down shirt and a sweater vest, typical of an elderly gentleman — but around his neck — a noose that had been cut just a few inches from down the length of the rope, hung like some kind of sick, twisted fashion statement.

“Ah. Yuna, so nice of you to join me.” The old man wore a sweet little smile. “Care to have a seat? I already prepared the board for our rematch.”

“A-am I d-dead?”

The old man was taken back by the question. “No… I don’t think so…”

“But y-y-you are d-d-dead. Y-you ha-have b-b-been d-d-dead for o-over a-a-a y-year n-n-n-ow.”

“Huh?” The old man looked down at the noose. “Oh! This? I have must have forgotten to take it off. Does it bother you?”

Yuna wasn’t sure how to answer that question. She just stood there staring at what she could only conceive to be a ghost sitting across the table from her. However, the man very much looked exactly like her grandfather. He wasn’t transparent or pale or sickly like one would expect a ghost to look. He looked like a healthy old man, which is much better than the last time Yuna saw-

“There,” the old man said removing the noose from his neck. “Now have a seat. I want to test your skills to see how worthy you are,” he said motioning to the chair.

Yuna sat across from the old man. The room around her seemed to grow darker, the ceiling lamp hanging above the table the only source of illumination. On the table was a game she was familiar with, a game called Camelot. She use to play it with Arthur and taught her grandpa when she use to visit-

“You have look on your face as if you are finally remembering. And I thought MY memory was bad. I told you I would win one day didn’t I?” The old man said with a grin. “Time to show you how much I have improved since last time, Yuna-”

Yuna slammed her hands down on the table. “Alright, enough with the charade. I know you are not my grandpa.”

“Yuna? I…”

“My grandfather neeeever in my whole life referred to me as Yuna. He always referred to me as little missy.” Gritting her teeth, Yuna stared daggers into the old man. “Now… I’m going to ask you this only once. Who. Are. You?”

The old man simply chuckled. “I bring you here and you think you can sit there and make demands of ME? Hahahaha.” The old man’s irises turned a dark shade of indigo. Gone was the gentle smile of a sweet elderly person and its place was a twisted grin of some strange inhuman creature. “Looks like I underestimated you. Fine. My name is Nodem the Administrator, but you may call me the Game Master or simply The Master, whatever suits your fancy.”

“Game master?”

“I have traveled far and wide across this universe and countless other universes studying the very idea of games.” The Game Master folded his hands and squinted his indigo eyes. “You know that nearly all cultures play games, but have you ever wondered what exactly makes a game work?”

“Are you going to get to the point or not?”

“No love of theatrical spectacle huh?” The Game Master leaned his head back and stared down his nose at Yuna. “Rules. All games are made up of rules. The very thing that makes up the backbone of society all starts with children playing tag or red rover or hanaichimonme or what have you. Seriously, have you ever stopped to think about that?”

Yuna folded her hands and rested her chin on them. “What? The fact that children make up games with rules and the whole goal of the game is to play within those rules?”

“Exactly!” The game master spread his hands with a childish grin. Yuna raised her head off her hands and glowered in disgust. Though this thing used her grandpa’s face its mannerism was nothing like his. It gave Yuna the creeps.

The game master produced an open palm. “The very essence of a game is the limitation - the rules. Rules make the challenge and the challenge makes it fun. Even after a child grows up and becomes a member of society rules are what shape that functioning society, but at some point, to them, the rules are no longer fun challenges to play with. They are just inconvenient trivialities to most, but that doesn’t make them any less important now does it?”

“No,” Yuna said plainly.

“Now within a society, there are those who play within the rules of what is normal and socially acceptable but don’t outright break the rules-”

“If you are going to make the cliche analogy of “life is a game,” then I think you are mistaken,” Yuna moved her lips to the side in irritation.

“Oh? Skipping right to my point huh?”

“What do you mean?”

“Continue that thought,” the Game Master said waving the front of his fingers toward Yuna. “You may find that our philosophies are as different as you think.”

Yuna sat back in her chair and crossed her arms. “Sure life has rules, hell, the very laws of nature have rules, but to say they are a game is to say we actually have control over what happens. We as humans DO NOT have control. If that were true then the man whose face you are wearing would still be alive, my mother wouldn’t be a drunken monster, and my best friend would not be sitting in a hospital room waiting for the grim reaper to come knocking on his fricken door.”

“Choice and circumstance, huh?” The old man twirled the noose in his hand. “We MAKE choices in REGARDS to our circumstances, but ultimately our choices do NOT completely determine the outcome. That bit of chance IS what makes life a game, the chance you will win in life and the chance you will lose. Of course, some will choose to lose on purpose...” The game master slapped the noose against the palm of his hand; Yuna’s blood ran cold in her skin. “But… that choice was still theirs all the same.You seem to have this notion that there are some things in life that have already decided, destined as it were. What if I told you you could break those rules just this once. What if I told you that that one desire you have, that one wish, could become reality? Would you be willing to give your life for it?”

Yuna stirred in her chair. One rule-breaking wish?

“Of course, in the spirit of our conversation, there will be a couple of conditions. First, for simplicities sake, your wish can only affect the destiny of one person, whether it be you or… someone you love, perhaps.”

Yuna curled her fingers against the table.

“The wish itself must be tangible. I will not be making you into a god. Besides, life actually can get quite boring when you are all powerful.”

Yuna nails continued to dig into the table.

“Second, you need to beat my game.” The Game Master tilted his head trying to see Yuna’s eyes under her bangs. “So my dear. With those two conditions in mind. I’ll ask again. Would you be willing to give your life to gain what you desire?”

Yuna slowly raised her head, gazing directly into the Game Master’s indigo eyes.

“Yes… I would…”

The Game Master’s face morphed into a yellow toothy grin. “Excellent.” He folded his hands once again. “Now, because I went through all the trouble of getting this setup. How about we play a quick match. After all, I hear you are pretty good at this game.”

Yuna looked down at the Camelot board. At a glance it looks like a chessboard, but with a number of distinct differences. The main square of the board was ten by twelve three with additional rows on each of the player’s side of the board. The additional rows were made of ten spaces then eight spaces with the last row directly in front of the player is only two spaces. In the middle of the board, each player had two rows of troops which were just two spaces across from the enemy troops. The front row of troops was six across with four pawns and a knight on each end. The back row of troops was eight across with six pawns and a knight on the ends just like the front row.

The game plays out in turns. Each player can take a turn to move one of their pieces by either moving to an adjacent space or jumping another piece. Pawns are only allowed to jump either your own pieces or your opponent’s pieces but can’t do both in the same turn. However, once a pawn has jumped over a piece it can keep jumping as long as there are pieces to jump over, if those pieces are enemy pieces they are destroyed. Knights on the other hand have the special advantage of being able to jump both friendly and enemy pieces in the same turn. The goal of the game is simple, either annihilate all the enemy troops or get two of your own troops onto the two spaces on the far side of the board also known as capturing the castle.

Yuna marveled at the game set. Her pieces were tiny detailed carvings of little soldiers with spears and knights on horseback made out what looked like emeralds. The enemy pieces on the other hand seemed to be made out of rubies. The board itself had a wooden base and the spaces looked like they were woven with grass, the alternating checkered patterns resembling a mini battlefield. The two sets of species on either end of the board were raised and made of stone, like tiny castles. This was a much more luxurious version of the game than the one she has played with Arthur when they were kids.

“Alright, I’ll take you on Mr. Nodem,” Yuna said with a smirk.

“Visitor gets the first move my dear,” The Game Master said mirroring Yuna.

Yuna jumped one of her front-row pawns over the pawn behind it, placing it in the back. The Game Master moved one of his back row pawns so it was now next to his knights. Yuna repeated her same action with another pawn in her front row and the game master repeated his action but this time on the opposite side of his troops.

Each player continued to move pieces around until they each had their own formations. Yuna’s troops were split down the middle with two clusters of seven - five pawns and two knights. She had her formation set up so there was a three-space gap between her clusters, just enough so if an enemy troop moved in range a knight could destroy it. The Game Master on the other hand formed a wall that spanned almost the length of the board, the pawns making the ends and the knights towards the middle.

“I see you are taking a defensive position.” The Game Master moved a pawn.

“If you are trying to get into my head it won’t work,” Yuna moved a knight to the back of one of the clusters.

“Hehe.” The Game Master moved another pawn. “That strategy seems familiar somehow… You didn’t use it the last time we played-”

Yuna glared at the indigo-eyed freak and moved one of her pawns.

“My, my such passion,” The Game Master said moving one of his knights into position. “Do you think Arthur would be proud to see you using his formation?”

“SHUT! UP!” Yuna moved jumped a pawn with her knight so it was now in front of the cluster.

“Hehehehe.” The Game Master sneered. “It seems you don’t have your boy-toy’s touch in more ways than one.” The Game Master hopped one of his knights down his train of pawns and then over Yuna’s knight and two of her pawns before stopping in front of his wall of pieces. Yuna’s knight and two pawns popped into crystalline dust with glass-like shatter before a breeze blew the dust away. “So disappointing.”

Yuna’s eyes were hidden in the shadow of her bangs.

“Oh come now, my dear.” The Game Master said, drumming his hands on the table. “The battle has just begun and you are sulking. Is it because I mentioned Ar-

Yuna looked up at the Game Master with her own twisted grin. “Gotcha.” Yuna jumped one of her knights from one cluster of pawns over to the other cluster then up The Game Master’s line of pieces before ending at the far end of the chain.

POP! POP! POP!

One after another the Game Masters pieces began to explode into dust until he only had four pawns left, scattered from each other on the board.

“You should have paid closer attention,” Yuna said, still wearing an evil grin. “When you make a chain for your knights to travel on, the enemy can also use that chain. It is better to make small chains rather than big ones. Even if you manage to nab a few of your opponent’s pieces, if your opponent is ready for it then they can turn the tables in an instant. Although it looks like I wasn’t able to wipe you out entirely. If you want to try to re-group and make a dash for my castle then you are welcome, but with no knights, I doubt you will last very long.”

The Game Master eyed his four remaining pawns and then looked at Yuna. He didn’t seem at all shocked, in fact, he seemed pleased. “This is exactly the kind of person I thought you were underneath. Always thinking a few steps ahead.” The Game Master clapped his hands and the rest of his pieces turned to dust. “You win this round.”

Yuna breathed a sigh of relief. She was kinda disappointed, her matches against Arthur use to go much longer and tended to end with both of them with only two pieces left.

“Now,” The Game Master said. “Time for your reward.”

“Yes, I want yo —”

Before Yuna could voice her desire a tiny figurine appeared in front of her in a flash of light. Yuna picked up the figurine and held it in her fingers. It was a tiny green stone carving of a Jester. It was in a stance as if it were winding up to pitch a baseball. The Jester wore a cap with four prongs splaying off and had a little bomb in one of its gloved hands. The detailing was so perfect it almost looked like an actual person.

“What is this?” Yuna said with a hint of irritation. “Didn’t you say I got a wish for beating you?”

The Game Master waggled a finger at Yuna. “I said you get a wish if you beat MY game. Camelot isn’t MY game.”

Suddenly, the Jester figurine burst in an explosion of light causing Yuna to blink in suprise. She pointed a finger at the Game Master. “You-”

Yuna’s finger began to crumble, then her hand, then her arm. Soon her whole body began to turn into dust. Yuna let out a scream which end in an echo as her dust was carried off by the wind.

The Game Master waved playfully at Yuna’s dust cloud as it was blown out of the room. “Welcome to my world, Yuna Serizawa. HAHAHAHAHA!”