A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor
Chapter 1377 - 1377: Secrets of the Past - Part 7

"I am not so poor a player that a little distraction should throw me entirely off my game. And as for Ser Patrick, I do suppose that a bit of a distraction might be good for him," Volguard said. "He has taken to playing Battle as if he were performing a thousand repetitions of his sword. He has ceased the joy in the creativity that it brings."

"…I've noticed that myself, but it's hard to keep doing new things," Oliver said.

"The novel is not a constant requirement for the creative," Volguard replied. "We must simply allow our mind a greater degree of freedom than we normally do, so that it might stray from our pre-established way of thinking."

"And you suppose having Nila here to talk to as we play will help with that?" Oliver said.

"I have not the faintest idea," Volguard said. "But truth be told, I do not get the sense that I know how to solve your problem either. I have tried to train you like I have my other students, and the effectiveness of that method has continued to get worse. As a teacher, I must adapt, just as a student must adapt, when he sees himself beginning to flag."

"This sounds awfully a lot like talk of progress, Professor," Oliver said, making the first move with his spearman, plunging it deep into the centre of the board.

"Perhaps it is," the Professor said, responding in kind, with a spear unit of his own, giving it a short advance.

"Speaking of which, I had wondered why it was Claudia, of all the Gods, that became Stormfront's deity… The Verna have Icaron, and the Yarmdon have Varsharn, Goddess of War," Oliver said. "Why Claudia for us?"

"We do not choose the Gods. The Gods choose us," Volguard said. "Make your move as you talk, Patrick, else we shall be here all day."

Oliver swept out a cavalry unit to the side of the board.

"How do we know that the Gods have chosen us?" Nila asked.

"We see that in the direction our Boundary Breakers take – who it is that grants them their Blessing. Country wide, there are always certain biases, just as there are certain exceptions," Volguard said. "It was Claudia for you as well, was it not, Lady Felder?"

"It was…" Nila said hesitantly, unsure whether she would admit to it. "And Lady Blackthorn as well."

"There is a hesitancy that one has in speaking about their particular Fragment," Volguard noted. "We all have a different relationship with them, after all. To expose it, and its nature, would be to expose a piece of ourselves, closer to the true heart of us than most pieces."

The board continued to develop in a very modest manner. Oliver, vaguely, had a want to break free from the normal divots of his play. He'd played thousands of games and this point, and felt as if he'd tapped into every possible way of playing the opening few moves, but still he had a want to see freshness in his play.

His conversation with Volguard kept him distracted, however, and with Nila there, he couldn't help putting as much attention to her as he had the board. He noted how attentively she listened when the Professor spoke, as if she was trying to gobble up every word that he said.

"We begin to find ourselves in known territory, I do believe," Volguard said, as their pieces took the centre stage, with three ranks of spearmen each facing off against each other, and their cavalry lurking ominously to either flank, waiting for the main body of both armies to move up and support the spearmen.

"Every game, for these first ten moves or so, we find ourselves looking rather similar," Oliver said, with a degree of exasperation. "It makes me wish we could start in the middle of the game. That seems to be where strategy is present, where there's actually decisions to be made."

"Ah, but the middle of the game only comes about as a result of the coalescence of all the ideas made up by our opening play. If you don't understand the particular properties of your opening moves, you will have trouble finding your next sequence," Professor Volguard said.

"I suppose so…" Oliver said.

"Is this what it usually looks like?" Nila asked, peering over the board. She seemed to be particularly curious about the carved wood pieces that Volguard had brought. They seemed almost realistic in their depiction of the units they represent. They were human-like, after all. Only each human bore strangely cartoonish, comical expressions.

They reminded Oliver of some of the gargoyles he'd seen carved into the stone walls of the Academy castles.

"There are many variations of play, Lady Felder. Does it arouse your curiosity?" Volguard said. Oliver knew by now what the particular glint that Volguard wore behind his glasses meant. He was ever a teacher, and it didn't matter who his student was. If he thought he had something to teach – even to another teacher – he would seize the opportunity, like a predator seized prey.

It didn't surprise Oliver in the least when Volguard asked his next question. He almost sighed at how predictable the old man was. But, the freshness of his curiosity quickly swiped away any irritation. He wondered what Nila would do with a noble's education, as he'd been given.

"What would you do in my position, Lady Felder?" Volguard asked.

"In your position, Professor?" Nila said, humming in thought. "Wait, I don't know what each piece does."

"Think not on it. Tell me in terms of a battlefield what you suppose ought to be done now, and I will translate it onto the Battle board. That is what this tool we toy with initially served to do, after all," Volguard said.

"Well, it's not as if I particularly know battles very well either," Nila said, studying what was in front of her. "You both seem equally matched… I don't really understand how one of you would seize the advantage… unless the other one made a mistake… Oh. You could threaten him into making a mistake. Maybe your archers could chase away the spearmen?"