Chapter 40.4- And So the Dragons Danced

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The afternoon came without much fanfare. Toph finally managed to drag herself away from her ever-growing pile of poorly seasoned meat to join us in the office and she and Toji decided to strike up a game of chess. Pai Sho existed in this world as opposed to Chess, but very early on in life, I’d made the decision to never play the dreadful game and to burn every set I came across. The old man had managed to swindle a dozen wins in a row out of mw with the game’s nonsensical rules, but once I’d ‘invented’ chess, we found ourselves in a slightly more even situation- in that he managed to beat me once in every five games.

In school, I’d introduced the game to my friends but Toji had been the only one to ever take to it with the same interest and passion that I did. I’d been a passable player in my first life and so that meant that beyond explaining the rules and a few basic opening principles, there was little I could do to accelerate the game’s development here. Toji already won against me more often than he lost, and considering just how much trouble he was having with Toph already, the girl was something of a prodigy in the making. The fact that they played with stone pieces would probably be Toji’s defence for the close win he was about to secure- maybe accuse the girl of some subtle cheating with no heat behind it.

Of course, I knew she was actually cheating. Her bishop and Knight had switched places when my friend wasn’t looking. I could have called her out on it but I wasn’t the one playing and when it came to morality, I much preferred to teach her to avoid getting caught rather than to be some unimpeachable bastion of morality like most adults would expect from their children.

She would make her own mistakes with time, what was important was that she had the right set of frameworks to overcome and deal with things as they came. Of course, that thought had not even completed itself when the day suddenly began to darken. I gasped as I felt my hold on my inner flame slip for a few seconds before reasserting itself and then slipping again.

“It’s time?” Toph asked, as I nearly fell to my knees from the internal loss.

“Yes. Yes it is” I replied even as I walked to the balcony with lead feet.

I stood and watched as the moon moved to completely cover the sun from view as the day seemed to turn to evening in just a few seconds. Whatever precarious hold I’d managed over my inner flame had disappeared like it was never there.