THE ARTIFACT (Part 9)

-A serialized story-

Times have turned strange. Time is no more, yet it has arrived. How weird that is.

***

Even after the fifth game of Kosklimet, the rules were still not entirely clear to me. As far as I understood so far, the goal of the game is to have the number of cards in your hand be exactly three. Then, as fast as you can, you yell Koslimet and win the round. You have to say it before your opponents notice and say: “I void Kosklimet.” That part made sense. But how to actually get down to those three cards was still a mystery.

“Alright people, the qualifiers are over. Now we move on to the finals. There can be only one winner. That one will wake up. The rest wait for another chance. But only if they get that second chance. They might never get it. So, the stakes are high. That’s why it’s so interesting and exciting. Let the adrenaline pump through your bodies, let your blood boil, keep your wits about you, and good luck.”

A woman – no, a girl of about twenty Virteleon revolutions – was cheerfully chirping this motivational message, directed at a small group around a round table where, by chance, I was the only man. Two older ladies, already silver-haired, with wrinkled faces and hands, sat to my left and right. Across from me sat a young girl and a young woman. Maybe her mother. I don’t know why that thought crossed my mind. It absolutely didn’t mean any of these women were connected in any way. Just like I had nothing to do with them. But here we were, sitting at the table, playing Kosklimet, fighting for first place. The place that leads to waking up.

Waking up! Oh right, how stupid can I be. I fell asleep in the open sea in the middle of the night, lying face down on a wooden shoal. Sleeping wasn’t a good idea after all. Now I have to win to wake up. Was all of this planned just to…

The woman who recited the rules snapped her fingers right in front of my face, yanking me out of my thoughts.

“Are we ready, dear sir? Sir…?”

“Ortol, my name is Ortol.”

“Well, Ortol, focus. You don’t want to fall asleep again, do you? That would be your certain end.”

I nodded, offering my hands in a gesture signaling her to deal the cards.

Everyone received exactly five cards. The only marking on each card was its color. Green, blue, yellow, brown, and red. The strength of the cards followed that exact order, green being the strongest and red the weakest. The cards were laid face down on the table; you couldn’t see the color. By picking a card, it would flip over and reveal its color. Once everyone flipped their chosen card, the comparison of strength began. Whoever held the strongest color lost their card from the stack, meaning they moved closer to the exact number of three needed for victory. The game was played to five won rounds.

Hmmm, so it seems I actually do know the rules. Subconsciously, I learned them while playing these qualifiers. Or maybe it just clicked all of a sudden.

“Ortol, focus, I won’t warn you again!” – her fingers snapped unpleasantly before my eyes once more.

“Pick your cards.” – the host of the game said.

I drew a blue card. That’s good, second strongest. The two older ladies drew brown, the young girl got red, and the woman next to her got blue.

When identical colors are drawn, cards are drawn again between those players. Until someone wins the round. I draw a new card… yellow. Weak. The woman across from me draws a card. Brown.

I won this draw. I have four cards left. Eliminate one more and I win the round. The first of five.

The game seemed very simple. And it truly was. But it could drag on for hours. And that’s exactly what happened. After what felt like four or five hours, I was leading with four victories. The others all had three. I hope the final round is starting now so I can wake up.

I tried to focus exclusively on the game and the cards, without engaging or talking with my opponents. Talking to them felt like a bad idea, considering I could get emotionally dragged into their word games and thoughts.

3Of course, as it usually goes in my life, I didn’t win the next four rounds. Now we were tied. Everyone had four victories. That meant only one thing. We were finally entering the last round. Whoever wins now becomes the ultimate winner.

“Excuse me, can I refresh myself?” – I asked the host.

“Focus, Ortol! No refreshments, don’t squirm out of this. No getting up from the table until it’s over.”

The young girl picked her card first. Yellow. The two older ladies drew yellow as well. It was my turn. Blue. Good. I eliminated everyone except the girl across from me. The three remaining contestants left the table with grim expressions. I think I heard muffled sobs. Irrelevant to me at this point.

For the first time, I looked closely at the remaining girl. Long black hair, so disheveled that strands covered her face, preventing me from getting a clear look at her features. Piercing black eyes peeked from between the locks, somewhat threatening and cold. Calculated and focused.

Time slowed down as she reached her hand toward a card. She hovered her hand, hesitant. Afraid. I knew I was winning this hand. There was no doubt. Of course I was. I’m in a dream; these are all projections of my mind. I am the master here.

Green.

How is this possible?

The girl cheered with joy, clapping her hands.

“Bravo Inaka, you are the winner. You get to wake up.”

Those words stabbed through me like needles of a cold winter.

“And what about me, what do I do now?” – I asked in despair, literally having no idea what was waiting for me.

“Nothing now. You wait, be patient, and when the opportunity comes, you play again…”

A smile lit up my entire face. I felt the warmth of my lips stretching into a victorious grin. She didn’t remember. But I did.

“I void Kosklimet!”

The host was right all along. All I needed was focus.

As an invisible force yanked me out of that room into the reality of Mount Sumtra, a thought crossed my mind.

All of this is strange. We played this game, and I did understand the rules. And yet, I didn’t. There were loopholes in the rules, and everything turned out a bit chaotic. But it’s as if my waking self slipped the idea into my head, a reminder to say “I void Kosklimet” at that exact moment.

Be that as it may, strange as it was, I am returning to reality as the winner. That doesn’t happen to me often.

-End of Part 9-