Just and arbiter.
Written by Jlargent.
Decim calmly wipes a shot glass left over from a recently arrived guest. There’s just something about the mundane tasks of a barkeep that puts the arbiter at peace, maybe it was the dull repetitiveness of it until guests arrive to play a game. That was his role in this purgatory, he didn’t particularly care if one guest was a monster in human form and the other a veritable saint, his only job is to enforce the rules of the games and make sure that the guests don’t get out of hand. Admittedly he has erred when making judgments on which souls receive their final destination, and it hurts him nonetheless to know that he had sent an innocent soul to the void while the other one gets away with his crimes unpunished.
He stops polishing the glass as the familiar sound of the elevators hint at the arrival of two new guests. The one thing about the Quindecim is that it gives off an atmosphere of relaxation putting the recently deceased at ease before the game begins, unexpectedly instead of the usual sound of footsteps the sound was odd as though there was more than two people.
‘It seems that Castra is throwing me the proverbial curve-ball as it were.’ Decim decided as the newly arrived guests were not human at all, the first was a charcoal grey unicorn wearing regal armor, green eyes with slitted red irises with purple smoke exuding from them. He waled with the air of arrogance and superiority over others.
The other appeared to be a winged unicorn with a light pink coat, blue eyes and minimal regalia. and was looking around nervously, obviously not expecting to be here. But she was hiding it expertly.
Finally they arrived near the entrance “Welcome to the Quindecim, I am Decim and I shall be your bartender this evening.” Decim replied in his usual greeting.
“Where are we exactly?” the winged unicorn approaching the bar before catching herself “I apologize I am Princess Amore, and I need to get back to my kingdom as soon as possible.”
The unicorn snorted “Like anypony would care if you were there or not princess.” he growled. Decim ignored the banter between the two and served two glasses of scotch on the rocks.
Decim puts his hands behind his back “Now before I can explain things, there are a few rules that you must follow while you are here.
[1] I cannot tell you where you are.
[2] We will now have you play a game.
[3] We will have you choose the type of game by roulette.
[4] We will have you stake your lives on the game.
[5] Until the game is over you cannot leave the bar.
Predictably, the charcoal grey unicorn slams his hoof onto the bar, nearly hitting the glass that he had been served “I am King Sombra and you cannot tell me what to do mongrel!” he hissed at him.
Decim merely flips a hidden switch parting the stained glass to reveal a collection of mannequins “Keep in mind those that refuse to participate will join my ever growing collection.” he flips the switch again to close the stained glass, from the looks of the two guests they were disturbed at the imagery “Now as per the rules we will now decide the game in which the two of you will play.” he spoke flipping another switch bringing down a six-panel screen and pulls out a red push button “Press the button to start the roulette. Once the game is decided the two of you will play until the game is completed.” he said, the princess looks at the button hesitantly before pressing it, the screen lights up and it randomly jumps from one panel to another until finally it stops. The green panel turns red revealing a singular word:
CHESS
Suddenly there was an explosion of smoke making the two monarchs turn to the source, and a large chess board with respective pieces appeared from the smoke, Amore moves to the white side while Sombra heads to the black respectively.
Decim stands near the board “I shall now explain the rules of the game, the first to successfully declare a checkmate wins the game. In addition each piece that you capture you will feel their pain, this pain will increase more with each piece that is captured by your opponent. And finally, take a look at the pieces themselves.” Amore and Sombra look at the pieces for Amore the Pawns were lightly armored knights of the kingdom armed with short swords, the Bishops were that of Celestia and Luna respectively, the Rooks was that of the castle of the Crystal Empire, the Queen was her deceased husband and the Knights were heavily armored versions of the Pawns carrying lances. For Sombra the Pawns were lightly armored slaves under his control armed with spears, the Bishops were shadowy robe like ponies, the Rooks were black obsidian obelisks, the Queen was what seemed like a corrupted version of Luna, and the Knights were heavily armored versions of the Pawn with heavy axes “Now without any further delay let us start the game.” With that Decim steps back to allow the two to play the game.
Amore moves her right Knight onto the field testing the waters as it were, Sombra responds by sending a pawn out two spaces, the game starts off slow enough, each monarch carefully gauging the strength of their opponent, until Sombra spotted one of his pawns being able to capture one of Amore’s singular Pawns. Grinning, he swiftly moved a Bishop to capture the piece, Amore did not realize this until it was too late and let out a scream of both surprise and pain as the shadowy Bishop literally came to life and used it’s tendrils to wrap the Pawn and squeezed it until it shattered. Amore watched as Sombra drew first blood from the encounter, she then noticed that one of her Knights was in position to capture the Bishop that destroyed her Pawn and she moved in for the kill. Sombra yells out in pain as Amore’s Knight literally stabs the Bishop from behind reducing it to nothingness, you could tell that Sombra felt the pain lingering. Before Sombra could make his next move he turned to Decim to ask a question.
“You said that we’re playing for our lives correct? You neglected to mention what happens to the victor or the loser of this game. So after the game what happens to us?” he inquired.
“Post ludum in eadem capsam rex et servus ponuntur. Your majesty.” he replied much to the confusion of the two players. They decided to continue on with the game despite the ever growing pain that will happen. From there Sombra began playing more aggressively and capturing any pieces that are nearby to not only further increase the pain he could inflict on Amore but to also bring him closer to victory, whereas Amore began on the defensive by steadily advancing her Pawns to the other side of the board as well as capturing any pieces unfortunate enough to be in the way.
But like all games it was soon close to the end of the game, Sombra’s suicidal tactics has left him with only a Knight and a Rook as well as his King. Amore’s defensive strategy was equally devastating having lost all but two Pawns and her King piece. Both players were shaking from the pain that each accumulated capture had taken from each other, but were determined to finish the game. Amore moved her Pawn to the other side of the board successfully promoting it, she promoted the Pawn to the Queen rank, Sombra scowled at Amore acquiring a much needed piece for her win. He looked at the board and moved his Knight to place the King in Check, Amore merely moved the piece to a safer location , Sombra moved his Bishop for a flanking position. Amore promoted her second Pawn to Queen, Sombra was cursing inside that Amore could turn it around if he didn’t act fast, and began moving his Knight to intercept, unfortunately he had forgotten that he left his King unguarded allowing Amore to move a Queen in for Check.
Sombra moved the King to a safer position thus allowing Amore’s second Queen to intercept and...
“Checkmate Sombra.” Amore said with a finality and turned to the host before speaking to him “May I ask you something Decim?” she inquired. The bartender nodded “I’ve noticed several things throughout the game, the fact that the pieces represents someone we knew and the familiarity of them leads me to conclude that, we’re already dead aren’t we? And this game is to decide where we go in the afterlife correct?” she asked the man.
Decim nodded “Correct, the Quindecim is on the fifteenth floor of purgatory and as such each level is hosted by a different arbiter. Even if you did not arrive on this floor the results would still be the same. One soul gets the chance to be reincarnated while the second shall enter the void.” he explained. Sombra growled at the man.
“You knew Amore would win didn’t you? It makes sense that the bitch would cheat to win.” he accused.
“I assure you that I have had no hand in the game’s overall outcome. The victory was all Princess Amore’s doing.” he calmly replied. Sombra looked at Amore and threw himself at her wanting to kill her again but before he could reach halfway to the princess several strings emerged from Decim’s fingertips and wrap themselves tightly around him immobilizing him “The game is over King Sombra, as per the rules of the Quindecim you will be sent to your final judgement.” with that he throws Sombra into the ground knocking him out and levitating him with the strings to take him to the elevators which the two arrived.
Amore looked at the Peaceful Mask that was on top of the elevator “So, this will take me to be reincarnated?” she asked the bartender.
“Yes, while that one...” he motioned to the Demon Mask on top of the elevator Sombra is now occupying “Will take him to the void.” he explained.
“I thank you Decim, maybe someday you’ll leave here yourself.” she said as both doors of the elevators close taking their occupants to their final destination.
“Who knows Princess. Who knows...” he mused to himself as he makes his way back to the bar to polish the glasses as per usual.
The End