✵ Ein, Zwei...

It was late in the evening, and the casual cafe down the block lay dormant as it usually was. By then, the only people who hung around were Captain Liberius, his apprentice Kylo, and the shopkeeper sweeping away at the dust on the wooden floors.

Kylo and the Captain sat across from each other at a small round table covered in playing cards, constantly taking turns withdrawing their gaze from their kortlek of numbers and symbols to watch each other and sneer. For the last hour, Kylo’s knees had been aching from the fixed position he sat in for hours on end. Hours on end, he had to listen to Captain Liberius hastily tap his foot on the ground, and watched as he found more ways to seemingly stall their never ending match. At that point, he could feel his eyes sinking into his sockets, and his fingers losing their motion. 

Eventually, after a few minutes more, the game came to an apex, with the both of them only having two cards in hand. With a premature smile of glory, Kylo confidently slapped a card on top of the card pile: plus vier (plus four).

At first, he felt relieved, assuming that the match would end on his terms and victory. But then, The Captain drew from his deck and placed a peculiar card on the table; something that made Kylo wriggle out of his frustration and fatigue combined.

Plus two.

Kylo thought for a moment. His eyes twitched.

Plus two?

“...Um, yeah no,” he mumbled, pushing the card off the main pile. “That’s not how that works, cap.”

The Captain stopped to eye him before sinking down to his chair and sighing. His hand dismissively swept the air above the table while he shook his head, cackling.

“...What the hell are you talking about, Schnecke?”

Kylo pointed to the double card he’d placed on the used deck: plus two upon four.

“That,” he noted. “You don’t stack twos on top of fours. You have to stack another four or draw cards from the deck! You’re breaking the rules cap!”

“No—This is how I’ve played it for years,” groaned The Captain, rolling his eyes.  “This is the way it goes.”

“The way you’re playing?”

The Captain slammed his arm onto the table.

“The right way, Schnecke,” scoffed him. “As Goddess Neorah intended.”

They both stared at each other with intense anticipation.

The Captain’s finger stabbed and twisted the pile of cards.

“Kylo, your captain stacks two upon the deck,” he murmured. “And as of now, you will draw 6 cards, if you haven’t another two or four for him.”

He paused to take a breath. 

“You will play a card.”

Kylo furrowed his brows together as he leaned over at The Captain from across the table.

“Where did you pull this out from, the dirt?”

With a loud “skrrrrt” from his chair, The Captain stood up and glared Kylo in the eyes.

“The gully.”

Kylo fell and slouched back into his chair, crossing his arms and shutting his eyes, deciding that he had enough.

“Yeah, the mud, in a trench probably,” he said. “Which is exactly why you do this weird stalling thing. Knowing that you never win a game, so you make sure nobody wins...duck and cover everyone. Everybody else is gonna die.”

Without another word, The Captain swept the table clean of the cards, scattering them onto the floor in a flock before sitting back down in his seat. He crossed his arms and gripped his coat tightly.

“Or perhaps the boy doesn’t know his strategy,” he jeered. “And so, he plays whatever card comes up to his index.”

After a few minutes of silence, the shopkeeper came back to the mess on the floor and yelped in terror at the newfound mess. Kylo turned his attention back to the cards on the floor, and then back to The Captain, not even turning an eye to the distraught situation.

“Well, there’s Captain Liberius’ strategy,” said Kylo, turning his hand. “Right, just say ein and go home, yeah?”

“...Very well.”