He burst up laughing loudly and I suddenly found him standing a few feet away.. he repeated my words and laughed again.. oh, my .. I saw this face before.. it is certainly familiar but .. eh, this ovoid handsome face and piercing eyes.. he walked away and then turned around,

               “Wyee tells me that you keep forgetting the instructions given to you.”

               “I remember the things I like.” I was surprised at my own boldness.

He turned to look at me in astonishment, then he slowly said,

               “Well, I am glad we have established this right now. I hope from now on, you shall like what you are told, and keep it by heart.”

He walked away and stood near the platform, oh, no… what happened.. did my eyes deceive me.. his face .. his face has changed.. that square profile with the sharp jaw angle.. and I know this face.. I am sure but.. yeah, cannot remember where or when..

               “you are brooding.. what is wrong?” he softened his tone..

               “N.. No.. I just thought..” I stammered, “never mind”

               “Ok.. this usually happens to those who see me for the first time.” He chuckled, “Anyway  your time at the BSC is over.. you are now going to Primore, you have been elevated to the rank of contender.. others may kill to reach this rank..and in the next games you shall have the opportunity for further elevation ..”      

It all sounded gibberish to me.. but I didn’t try to enquirer. Obviously Geetieh was supposed to tell me about these things but failed to do so. Then my host climbed to his throne and sat there with a big smile on his .. round face.. round? It must be a trick of lighting.. I tried to find the source of the diffuse red light without success.. then I was shocked to hear him say,

               “You think that you saw me before.. yes you did.. and you wonder where and when..”

I walked towards the platform slowly without saying anything. So he continued,

               “You see.. I go to many places.. I meet a lot of people.. they don’t know who I am.. and that helps me in so many ways.. you shall see me again.. repeatedly, and sometimes you will not know I was there..” he stopped and then stood up, came down the stairs and stood in front of me,

               “I know what they told you about Deemeon.. some of it may be true.. but.. very few people know the real me,” he walked away and when he turned to face me again, “you are now as close to me as anyone has ever dared.. let us see how that works.. several members of my council are furious at my plan for you.. they don’t think you are worth it.. but I shall prove them wrong..” He laughed out loud and added, “I told them you are pristine .. you are exactly what I want to win this war.. yet woe to you if they turn out to be right though..”

He continued to laugh and I found myself shaking involuntarily. I hated to feel this vulnerable, and I hated his extreme arrogance.. but it seemed that the situation stirred up some inner sense of arrogance inside me as well without even realizing it. When finally he stopped laughing, he pointed to an area on the wall next to the platform and the light in that spot became very bright to show what appeared like a model map..

               “This is our world..as you may know it.” He said proudly, “I control all this.. all the other countries around us which claim to be neutral or uninvolved in the war.. they are secretly under my thumb.. only this .. this sore spot .. is at war with me.. and I must prevail.. sooner or later I will.”

I walked towards the model and saw the amazing details. I pointed to an area highlighted in red,

               “What is this?” I asked without turning to look at him.. I was startled when he answered inches from me,

               “This is the mountain range.. the fiercest battles go on there.. that is why, nobody is allowed there, only special troops are equipped to handle this kind of warfare.” He grabbed my shoulder to force me to face him, “there is a map like this in BSC .. you must have seen this before..you couldn’t forget such basic information.”

His grip was icy cold, so I struggled to free myself,

               “Indeed.. how can I forget something like that.. But no, I never saw such map before.” I was indignant.

He let go of me and walked away thinking.. then he returned to continue,

               “Anyway.. you can see here these castles are away from the front lines.. you are going to this castle.. Primore”

               “Why is the front line separated into three different colors”

               “because it is handled by three different camps on our side.. but that should not be your concern for now..”

               “Is this where we are now.. this UKC.” I pointed to the spot.

               “Yes.. good.. you are picking up.”

               “but it is separated from the front line by the mountain range__”

               “Later .. later you may be able to deal with this.. first you have to prove yourself worthy in your position in the inner castles.” He stopped to think for a moment, then he smiled and said, “It is getting late, you should go.. you shall find everything already prepared for you.” He pointed to the door and even though I wanted to ask several more nagging questions, I had to comply. So I walked slowly to the door and didn’t look back.

I found a young man waiting for me in the waiting room,

               “Master Hort, I am Alore, your assistant. I shall take care of all your needs.”

               “OK .. well Alore, shall we go to the Primore castle..”

               “yes Master, I have prepared the horses outside.”

He lead the way through the corridors cleverly, until we were outside the palace. The horses were attended by a soldier at the foot of the stairs. We rode lowly through the gardens of the palace till we were outside the gate and then Alore lead the way through the vast greens towards the intended castle.. along the way I heard some muffled screams at the distance which got me to stop and look around, but he prodded me to keep going,

               “these screams are normal in this area.. we hear them from time to time.. but we are not allowed to go near the source?

               “So what is the source?” I was curious.

               “we don’t know.. as you can see.. there are so many scattered cottages around in these vast green spaces.. it must be the red cottage, because that is the one which carries a warning”

               “A warning? What do you mean?”

               “the road to that cottage has a clear sign saying do not proceed.. if you approach you may be subject to severe punishment.” He turned as if to whisper, “no one dares to cross beyond that sign.. mind you all the other cottages are very nice.. you can go there and invite your friends to have a good time.” He winked to deliver the meaning without words and continued, “there are cottages all over the UKC like this.”

               “you do not need to whisper Alore.. nobody is around but me..”

               “Oh, no master Hort, Deemeon has ears in the ground.”                        

               “Really..” I giggled and as I saw the gate of the castle in the distance, I pushed the horse into a gallop.

Alore rode ahead of me and lead me to my quarters, he took care of the horses while I opened the door to enter my large house..

               “Hello Master Bryane..I am in the bedroom.” A woman’s voice preceded her appearance at the door of the room, “Oh, sorry.. I thought..”

               “This is Master Hort.. Master Bryane has been transferred to the front castle.” Alore answered her as he just arrived, “you should have known that Osheer ..”

               “It’s all right,” I said, “I may call for you another time Osheer.”

She went back into the room collected some stuff and left in a hurry.

               “So this was the house of the previous contender?” I asked.

               “No Master Hort, Bryane was a commander, but he was transferred to command the OC Front .. he became a its special commander..” He corrected.

               “Oh.. this is confusing.. you know Alore, I was told that I shouldn’t be asking too many questions.. it demeans me or something.. but what I find demeaning, is the fact that much of the information was withheld from me by the very person, whose only job was to inform me.”

               “Sorry to hear that master, um.. you.. you prefer to go out for dinner, or maybe I bring you dinner here.. “ he politely asked.

Primore is a large community of dimwits. At least this is my impression of it after a few days I spent there. They live leisurely completely oblivious to the war outside their castle. They only become active and mindful about their existence when the games time is set. That is to say, when it is their turn to join the fight. As an internal castle, they have their turn to prepare to fight the entrapped troops of the enemy once one of the frontier castles has drawn them inside the Vycee to become easy target to be captured and enslaved by Deemeon. That was the explanation given to me .. well, that is the conclusion I could reach out of the numerous attempts to explain the situation by different people I met in various occasions.. however the most interesting encounter happened almost four days after my arrival.. I was having dinner in a small pub near my house, when an old man came in and sat at my table uninvited.

               “would you mind if I join you?” He asked after taking his place across from me.

               “Not at all. Be my guest.” I chuckled.

               “I am Oldefol, I am now a contender.. like you.” He explained. I just nodded with a smile, so he continued, “The position of Commander was stolen from me  after the last games, but I intend to be more forceful next time.”

               “Would you like me to order some food for you?” I tried to interrupt, but he insisted to continue,

               “They tell me, you are new.. just fresh with no experience.. I don’t understand why Deemeon would put someone like you at such high rank? It ___”

               “Listen.. whatever your name is, I would like to have my dinner in peace..” I forced the issue, “I have no quarrel with you or anyone else.. so, just drop it.. uh u  .. no more.. thanks and good bye”

But he didn’t move.. he sat there staring at me for a while.. then slowly he got up and left without another word. Now that was a man who hated me already without even knowing me.. yet, this encounter made me think.. who was the actual commander of this castle.. and why didn’t he show up to see me until now.. mind you my curiosity was satisfied a couple of days later ..

I was in a picnic lying down by the lake side with Alore, Osheer and a couple of other people.. it was a nice day and we were having fun when a rider came by and cast a dark shadow over me .. he stopped there for a while without dismounting.. I tried to squint to see who it was, and could only catch the silhouette of a man with a large frame and wide shoulders,

               “Do you mind moving, you and your rotten horse.” I snapped angrily

               “This is Pryade, the commander.” Whispered Alore.

               “Oh so this is the rotten commander of this, nitwit castle.” I snapped again loudly.

               “And you are the loud mouth they brought here to be disciplined..” The horseman said scornfully.

I stood up slowly.. looked closely at the man still atop his horse.. he had a massive build and large ugly face..,

               “You know, your face is so ugly, it needs to be rearranged..” I said and laughed merrily

               “Listen little creature.. if I have to punish every idiot like you, there will be a few idiots left.. we need idiots like you to entertain us sometimes.” He kicked his horse and galloped away.

The group witnessing the exchange were left speechless. They withdrew one by one until I was left with Alore.. I was surprised,

               “Are they afraid of this twit..” I asked.

               “He has the backing of his father.” Alore answered but I didn’t hear him because I was already running towards the water for a final dip.. I wonder, Had I heard him in time, would it have made any difference in the sequence of events. 

A few days later I was having my morning coffee in the veranda, when I was surprised to see Deemeon coming in for an unexpected visit.

               “Stay seated,” He said even though I didn’t try to stand up. Then he sat next to me

               “That’s a nice surprise,” I replied, “want some coffee?”

               “you seem to have build up some opposition already.” He said without looking at me or answering my question.

               “You follow the news in such lowly places,” I laughed, “you brought me here among the nitwits and simpletons.. cannot help it.. sorry.”

               “Don’t be sorry.. this is exactly what I want.. you are proving me right.. keep it up, and at the final results we shall have a great outcome… but, seriously, nitwits .. and simpletons?” He chuckled.

               “I didn’t provoke anybody.. I mostly keep to myself.. any dialogue with anybody here, usually degenerates into a stupid argument about nonsense.. I don’t really understand.. they all keep talking about the games.. as if it is the only thing that matters.. is that what you refer to as the final results?”

               “more or less.. I have changed the schedule by the way.. Primore had its games a month before your arrival.. the next games should have been after the other castles have had their turns.. that would be almost a year from now.. so I decided to let Primore have a shot at the next games, a few weeks from now.. to give you a chance to prove yourself.”

               “Wow.. changing the schedule for me.” That is a big deal, isn’t it?” I was really surprised, “may be then those lazy bums out there should move and do some training and preparation.. Frankly, I don’t see how this ragtag group of misfits can fight together and win any battle, especially when everyone hates everyone else.”

               “Ah.. you touched the essential element in the equation.” He shouted triumphantly.

               “What essential element?”

               “Hate.. hate is essential.. it is the most important factor in our battles.” He smiled at me, “don’t you see.”

               “How .. they hate me, I hate them.. and they hate each other..how is this a formula for success?” I was further confused.

               “You miss the point.. You see. Yeah, they hate each other, but they hate the enemy much more.. and they know very well that they need each other for survival.. so they fight desperately against the enemy and help each other with minimal chance of betraying me.. for they know I am the one who guarantees their reward and their survival.”

               “This is.. I mean, this a screwed up logic..It____” I tried to finish but he cut me off.

               “It worked.. it always works.. I don’t like it when these troops here are too affable to each other and then they start to get big heads and conspire against me..” He waited for me to comment and when he saw me stare at him in a baffled look, he continued, “Like I said It worked before and it works for me all the time.. Hatred is one of my best techniques.”

               “All right, so tell me how do these games work? I heard a lot of confusing things about it.”

               “it is a simple process.. one of our front line castles initiates a skirmish with the enemy troops and draws them into our territory .. once they are close to the intended castle, like Primore, they are encircled in a manner to drive them to surrender.. yes, a few will resist until death, but the rest will think to live in order to fight another day .. this is one of the ways, how we increase our ranks by new blood ..”

               “increase our ranks?” I was astonished, “How .. do you convince them to join your ranks?”

               “You mean our ranks.. Eh, we have our sophisticated system to entice even the most hardened soldier.. you shall learn about this in due time.” He stood up and walked towards the small flight of stairs leading down to the garden, then he stopped and turned to give me a piercing look, “How do you like your uniform?”

               “Oh.. that.. it.. looks nice.. makes me look so.. so..” I couldn’t find the exact word which would not stir up his anger..

               “So.. so what?” He prodded..

               “I mean.. of course.. that bright yellow coat with  the gold stripe and .. and the hat.. oh the hat.. it is nice.. make me.. very.. conspicuous .. yes.. conspicuous.”

               “That is the idea.. you have to be noticed by everyone.. there are only two or three contenders in every inner castle.. the commander is chosen among them after the performance in the games.. these things must have been explained to you in the BSC.”

               “A lot of things should have been explained to me there.”

               “Are you trying to say it was not.”

               “you agree with Wyee that I forgot..but I didn’t forget anything.. if it was explained to me.. I would have kept it and even made notes of it.”

               “She thinks your injuries made it difficult for you to retain information for a long time..and the doctors who treated you seemed to agree”

               “Believe what you like.. I beg to differ.” I smiled and played it cool. He kept his gaze leveled at me then walked toward the door to leave.. But he stopped when he heard my voice,

               “You did change your appearance several times during that last meeting, why? Was it only a trick of the lights? Or there was more to it.. you thought I should be frightened?”

He turned around to see I was still seated.. I turned to face him and found him smiling.. the sharp look and handsome triangular face ..

               “Were you frightened?” He asked. I did not answer. Just smiled. Then he continued, “If I meant to frighten you, you would be frightened out of your wits.. never forget that .”

Was that a threat, or a warning? I wondered, but I kept it to myself. He stood there with one raised eyebrow and a crooked smile for a few moments, then turned around and left.