Hirsu regarded the tunnel cooly. He began to gather stones from the beach, collecting both dry stones and reluctantly reaching through the waters to collect wet ones from the edges of the river. He set down his satchel, and laid the flap flat upon the ground. He shook the stones within his cupped hands, and blew over them, giving them a taste of his life. He cast the stones down upon the flap, and carefully read the omens present in their pattern.

Hirsu saw the patterns present. He was in a place anathema to himself; the guide was trustworthy, though none could truly claim to be a master of such treacherous terrain; he saw the Eater of Bones, watching him, waiting for the chance to take his soul. He saw the path was clouded. He knew that chance was on his side; he'd probably leave this place with his life intact. But there was a cost - always a cost.

Hirsu nodded to himself, and poured the rocks out on the ground before replacing his satchel over his shoulder. As useful a tool they might have been made into, he had no desire to take more from this place than was necessary.

He spoke quietly to the smoker. "It will be difficult, but we will press on. Let's get going."

He got a firm grip on the smoker's hand, and continued into the tunnel.

The tunnel was dark and dank. Not unpleasant, however. Red fungi lined the cavernous walls, illuminating the blackness with the smatterings of blood. The smoker of herbs and Hirsu walked for a small while, finally reaching the end of the tunnel: a door. Crafted of simply wood, and yet Hirsu found that he could not move beyond. The smoker sighed, cursed in his native tongue.

"You can't pass because you are not one of the dead," said a strange, noble voice behind the two. "You do not belong here, and my gate can see that."

Hirsu turned slowly to see who had spoken. He wasn't expecting an attack, not right away, since they had announced themselves. He nodded slightly in greeting. "No, I daresay I am not dead at this time. I am Hirsu."

He glanced slightly at the smoker, allowing the man the chance to make his own introductions, and see what the guide might do in this place.

The thing was tall, lithe, but muscular. His skin was dark, like night, and yet Hirsu could perceive him clearly in the gloom of the tunnel. He wore a strangely kemetic garb wrought of gold, and a stave of bone hung from his waste. Tattoos, depicting the cycles of life and death, were cast upon his body. The teeth of the thing jutted strangely from its lips, depicting a sinister snarl, and the fingers of the creature seemed wroung of scythe-like bone.

Hirsu felt strangely calm.

The guide has frozen. This was the first time Hirsu had seen his friend lose his sense of calm. Fear gripped the mortal.

"No. You are a creature of Life - a creature of certain Life! I have not met such a being. Still, I do not own your soul, and you have broken none of our laws save one - you are not allowed in this place. It is well within my right as Ahamait to care you up and feast upon your bones.. unless, of course, Creature of Three, you'd prefer to play a game. The Eaters of Bone, see, love their games.."

Hirsu studied the creature, both fascinated by this being and concerned over the effect it was having on the smoker. He decided to keep this being's focus on himself, to save the smoker from having to endure its direct engagement.

The name the Eater had called him, the Creature of Three, intrigued him. It told Hirsu that it knew and recognized gods, and it also told him much regarding the Eater's normal interactions with his kind. He smiled slightly, not completely concerned at this point. His mind began considering how a bargain might be won, and the name the Eater gave itself gave him a few ideas.

"A game might be more entertaining than the violence we would visit upon each other. What did you have in mind, and what name might I call you?"

"You may call me the Ahemait of Ahalamra," said the strange thing, "For that is my title. I have enough knowledge of witchcraft to understand that a being such as myself shouldn't be going around so openly.. but enough of that. I know who you are, Irshu of Elahn. Zealot of life. Such a loyalty is admirable.. if ultimately unwelcome in this place."

He grinned.

"We'll cut us a game, then. If you win, I'll let you go free, and your servant-guide, too. If I win, you may still leave, but I gain sovereignty over your soul - don't look so alarmed, it only has affect when you meet death - and I mark you, thus, as my own.

"As for the game itself.. hrmmm. Cards is the favourite 'round here, Irshu. But I suppose you know how to play Sixteen Wars, now, do you?"

Hirsu considered the creature's offer. "By let us go free, do you mean your gate will not impede our progress, and we can continue to where we need to go, or would you simply have us go back the way we came?"

Hirsu grinned. "Please excuse my exacting questions, but one such as myself can't be too careful. Which of my deaths do you refer to? The first death, from which my kind return, or the final death, from which we normally do not?

"And no, I can't say I'm familiar with the game. What are the rules?"

"By the clause, 'I shall let you go free', I mean to say that I will personally guide to you the Living Realms - to whichever Living Realm you care to go," said the Ahemait, smiling grimly. "=And, naturally, I speak of the Final Death. The others.. they're rather temporary naps in comparison."

Hirsu suddenly noticed that the smoker of sacred herbs was gone.

"Do not worry," said the Ahemait. "I sent him back to his own fertile fields. His soul is near worthless - bonded to another - and he is a good man. You keep good company. But Sixteen Wars.. it is a game of impulse and instinct as much as cold logic. It has its laws, certainly, but the game is older than most and there are no hard rules to speak of. It is all we play, down here. The only thing that can hold our attention."

Hirsu smirked, realizing that the act of generosity allowed the Eater to rid him of his only possible advisor in this place, and he knew his own inexperience with this place must be showing. All without him noticing that the Eater had done it. The smoker's fear of this creature was indeed warranted.

"The game sounds interesting, and does sound like one I should learn to play. But you can't expect me to make such a wager without first learning how to play, now can you? I would like to at least witness, and have explained to me, a match between two experienced players before I might play for such stakes.

"Speaking of the stakes, could you tell me more about this marking process? It doesn't involve eating one of my bones or something like that, does it?"

"Not at all," grinned the Ahemait. "Well, not until you're dead, at least, and then it is my prerogative to gnaw on them for all eternity. To be marked by me.. is to hold the way of death. To bring more to me by association. To carry plague and famine. To earn more chips for the one who owns your soul.

"The game itself.. is not something you can simply watch. It must be played to be understood. Nevertheless, I understand your concerns. I am willing to engage in a practice game of Sixteen Wars with you, just this once, so that you might learn the rules of the thing."

Hirsu frowned. To be marked by this one would be to be corrupted, tainted. Such a marking would defile his purpose, perhaps his very soul. As he had thought, the stakes were much higher than he had suspected.

"All right, let's play this practice match, and go from there."

Hirsu suddenly realized that behind him there was a table, and on the table, various chips made of bone - crude coinage - and a large, ornate deck of cards. Tow seats.

"Sit, sit," said the Ahemait. "We shall play Sixteen Wars. In time, you will grow to enjoy it, I am sure.. it is the fate of those not of the Rivers, to enjoy our games. Death holds - a certain curiousity."

Hirsu smirked, but held back his retort. He didn't need to aggravate this creature any further. He would learn this game, and see how things proceeded. He sat down at the table.

Hirsu feels shock for a moment, then dread, and finally awe. There was no life in this place.. his sacred Sight could not assist him in any way. It was not an absence of life-force, mind, but a simple non-existence. Hirsu couldn't even check the life-force of himself..

The Ahemait, if he saw Hirsu's hesitation, ignored it, sitting down opposite Hirsu.

He picked up one of the bone chips. Hirsu saw that there was a single black smear on each of the chips - ten in all - and that the God of Life's own chips were blank.

"You have ten," said the Ahemait. "You are to place your thumb upon each coin. This will mark them with your presence. When all ten are marked, we may begin."

Hirsu wondered at the existence of this place with a creeping horror, along with some curiosity over what his current passage through this place meant for him. Was he temporarily dead? Undead? Or was life transformed into a different form here, one he could not understand? He was now more curious than ever how the magic of life and death functioned here, as well as how his own divinity worked. The creature had recognized his nature with a glance, even though he physically resembled his guide in many ways.

AS these thoughts whirled maddeningly through his head, he tried to focus on the game in front of him. He picked up one of the chips between thumb and forefinger, examined it, then placed it back on the table. He touched his thumb to each chip once, marking each.

The walls dripped maddeningly. As Hirsu touched the bone, it was stained with his essence - a deep brown-green. Once all were marked, the Ahemait smiled, took the cards, shuffled them.

"Sixteen Wars is an extremely simple game. You are dealt five cards, with the option of drawing an additional card at certain intervals. You cannot draw more than three cards; eight in total; hence, Sixteen Wars. Each card is a war.. in a way. It is one of the oldest games, a story-telling game. You must tell stories. If you are a God, mythology should not be alien to you.. following?"

Hirsu nodded. "Yes, I believe I follow your meaning so far."

The Ahemait grinned.

"So you have a maximum of eight wars, and you must devise a war that will cause the deaths of as many mortals as possible. You may use as many cads in a single war as you wish, but know that there is a single war per game, and that the loser is decided when he has no chips left. You may buy additional cards at a chip a card at any time. We play as many games as possible until a loser is found. More chips can be bought - at certain prices, to be explained further in the game."

The Eater of Bones withdrew a strange, clicking statue in the form of a vulture from his robes, placing it on the table between us.

"This is the the Aspect of the Primordial Watcher," the Ahemait said. "When you play your cards, it will elaborate and decide upon the winner of the match. It is as simple and as quick as that."

Resignation clouds Hirsu's face, his features set into a stone mask. "This is more than a simple game of cards, isn't it? Each death represented here will actually occur somewhere else, won't it?"

"Every death taken is a true death, yes," said the Ahemait. "But the wars do not occur because of the cards - rather, the cards come about because of the wars. These chips are the minor powers available at the beck of the Ahemait, but as this is a practice game, there is no wager - and our terms for the game after are already set."

Hirsu nodded grimly. "Very well, Ahemait. Let's see how this game plays out."

The Idol of the Watcher blinked, and Hirsu felt a series of five cards appear, face down, in front of him. The same had occurred to the Ahemait.

It was awfully cold, in the Land of the Dead.

"I bet a single chip blindly," he pushed a single chip forward. "Will you match me?" The Ahemait sat back, examining his cards and smiling.


Hirsu - Chips 10 / Cards 5 / Wars 0 / Deaths 0
Ahemait - Chips 9 / Cards 5 / Wars 0 / Deaths 0

Hirsu resisted the urge to shudder, resisted showing his discomfort. Instead, he took up one chip, and placed it alongside the chip the Ahemait's. "I match you."

He picked up his cards in a pile, and fanned them out in front of him. He examined them carefully, noting numbers, symbols, and designs.