Portals to Maestosia

Chapter 10: The Game of Chance and Death

After tumbling for a few seconds, we landed onto a soft cloud. What? I thought we had been thrown into a chimney. I slowly cracked my eyes open and saw that my suspicions were right. Ben looked at me in confusion, and I shrugged my shoulders. We stood up, and the cloud we had landed on disappeared into a puff of smoke. Ahead of us lay an narrow, endless, marble-tiled hallway, completely empty of anyone or anything except for us.

"...What is this place?" Ben wondered aloud, and his question was quickly answered by a 50-foot wide hologram that appeared a little further down the hallway. The hologram depicted a strange man with a mysterious, masquerade ball mask covering most of his face, a stubby beard, and a silver crown on his head. He was sitting on a luxurious, golden throne, looking as if he had been expecting us.

"This is my castle, dimwits," he replied gruffly.

"Lord Chronowind," I accidentally whispered out loud, wishing I could see his face.

"Yeah, that's me," he acknowledged, breathing out an exaggerated sigh. "Although, if I'm going to be picky, I'd prefer that you both refer to me as 'The Mighty King Chronowind' from now on. You know, I'm really tempted to just kill you and get that over with, but I've decided to teach you guys a little lesson first."

"What are you talking about?" Ben worried, venturing down the echoing hallway to touch the hologram. As his hand went right through, the image fizzled.

"Welcome to the Game, my friends. Welcome to the Game of Chance." he smirked, folding his hands together and raising one of his eyebrows above the mask. His crown shifted over his mousy brown hair. Murky, dark winds came out of nowhere and stormed around us, making it impossible for us to see as the villain rolled out the rules of his twisted joke.

"I'm going to give you two some dice. Depending on what you roll, you'll be transported to different floors of the castle. Each floor will have a different surprise for you. You might find the rules unfair, but sorry, kids, that's how probability works. If you survive the challenge- which you won't- I'll be at the top, waiting to kill you. Have fun!" Chronowind cackled, his voice sounding somewhat familiar but impossible to place. The shadowy winds continued to whirl around us, making it hard for us to hear him over the noise.

"Why are you doing this to us? What have we ever done to you?" I screamed, shielding my eyes so that dust wouldn't get inside them.

"Since I'm in a good mood today, I'll answer your second question if you get up to my floor. As for your first question- well, maybe I just want you two to see my point of view before I slaughter you. You see, life itself is like a game of chance, isn't it? Fate rolls the dice, and you're stuck with what you get. You may feel lucky or unlucky with what you start out with, but it doesn't matter. Either way, I want you both to know that you'll never get to the top unless you control the dice yourself by predetermining how it lands. And you can't do that. So, long story short, you're both going to die," he cackled.

Ben and I looked at each other worriedly, both realizing that we had no choice other than to beat his sick game if we wanted to defeat him and find out why he tortured us. We also needed to save our friends and find the antidote, which I desperately hoped we could find along the way. Terrifyingly enough, we didn't have much time.

"Here's the rulebook. You have exactly one minute to read it before it disappears again," the king sneered, and a glowing, blue scroll promptly appeared before us in a puff of purple smoke. A holographic timer appeared below Chronowind's image, rapidly counting down from 60. I quickly grabbed the page and Ben leaned over my shoulder, the both of us frantically skimming over the rules.

"If 2 or 12 is rolled: The players will be restored to full health and will be allowed to freely move up one room.

If 3 or 11 is rolled: The players will be sent all the way back down to the first floor and will have to redo any already finished floors if they wish to proceed.