the chess game

chapter 3

3

She was exited, a date. dinner. with him, Quintus. she hadn't worn anything breathtaking or brilliant. just your standard jeans and a t-shirt. as if to say whatever. her mother would have been thrilled. a boy had asked her to dinner, most boys stayed away from her. not because she wasn't pretty, quiet on the contrary, she had striking green eyes and long wavy brown hair. but because she was trouble, a rebel, one who didn't speak the only languages. she stood out and that made people scared. the cowards, Solas thought, they don't want to dance the dangerous dance of bravery and draw the line of humanity, the cowards.

Solas was light itself. Quintus’s world revolved around her at that moment. she wore nothing special but thats not what made her shine. it was the way she walked, the way she held her head high and did not cower in the slightest. it made him smile when he saw the little frown on her face, as if she was deep in thought.

Olah, she said

Buenas noches, he replied

she smiled her beautiful smile and started to talk of the weather outside the  small italian restaurant. the sea churned and the sun set and they drank and ate and talked about nothing at all.

no one bothered them only to take the dirty dishes. no one understood them.

well, all except one.

He heard. He understood. He didn't like it.He was young and poor. he wanted to be rich. Only the government could do that. Or would do it for information. If he played his cards right.

it was a chess game. love. or so she thought. he was nice, funny, even charming. he did not cower. he was not scared to dance that dangerous dance of hers. it made her smile.

He wore a suit. He was walking. Maybe to his death. Probably not. They wouldn't kill him if he knew something they didn't. Like name of those who spoke the old languages.It was forbidden, he knew, to speak the old languages. They didn't like it at all.He walked faster, his head down. He walked into the lobby. They weren't expecting him.

his brothers were married. they laughed at him for not being. his sister was married, she hated it. then again, who likes being married to a drunk. there was no divorce in the new world, there had been in the old world, not after a whole new cult turned into a whole new religion. they were bound to it. the world. all human beings. he'd read about a church once, a church with a god. it was a real religion, this was a sham. a sham with rules that people were too scared to defy. it was a sham of world peace. there was still war. they didn't say there was. but he knew. his younger brother Tom had gone to war. to fight. For speaking. now Quintus knew he was dead, for he had never come back. he never would.

He walked out. he was alive and rich. not poor. That was good, he supposed. What was better was that he'd been forgiven for speaking. now maybe he'd be able to get a job without being frowned at and abused. he was forgiven but the scars remained. they always would.