Aggy's Last Day with Laniss

"Is this seat taken?"

Laniss looked up from his book and blinked at Agamemnon.

"You brought that seat with you, so, no."

Agamemnon grinned, plonked his stool down across the low, fine wood table at which Laniss was sitting.  "You'd forgotten I was here, hadn't you?"

"The Sanctum is a large place."

Agamemnon gestured at the numerous unfeasibly tall bookcases that constructed rather than merely resided within the grand library.  "It'd have to be to handle having this sat in it."  He reached into his satchel and pulled out a bottle.  "Yes?"

"Cuirdethinis.  Where did you get this?" the mage asked, taking the bottle and examining it.

"Queer what now?  It's elf wine."  Agamemnon laughed as he watched Laniss try not to respond to that.

~~~

"Not long now until we're done," said Laniss, his voice remarkably clear given how much they had both drunk.

"You could be talking about anything."

"I am."  Laniss smiled to himself.

Agamemnon picked up the bottle.  "About two glasses until we're done.  You in?"

Laniss nodded and slid his crystal glass across the table for a refill.

"Cuirdethinis means 'gift of friendship'," said Agamemnon, staring into the now-empty old bottle.

"If you translate it literally it means 'God's face travels backwards'."

"Since when have our people ever said anything literally?"

"'Our people'?  You consider yourself an elf now?"

"Of course!  I've always considered myself an elf."  Agamemnon looked into his glass and thought.  "I know people think that's a joke, but it's not.

"When I was young, I couldn't live in the human community in which I grew up.  They rejected me as an orc.  So I went and lived with orcs, and they hated me for being an elf.  So I went to live in the Dales ... and they accepted me.  They were the only ones who looked at me and said, 'We're not deciding what you are; you decide what you are'.  So much for elven xenophobia, hey?

"What about you?  Have you always considered yourself an elf?"

Laniss blinked.  "Why wouldn't I?"

"Good question, but not the one I asked."

Laniss rolled the heavy glass between his delicate fingers.  "What I am has never been as important as what I will be."  He paused for a few moments.  "I don't do introspection."

"Thanks fine," said Agamemnon, reaching slightly unsteadily for his satchel and pulling out a well used elven wood chess board from his satchel and dropping it and the pieces on the table between them.  "I have a back-up plan."

Laniss blinked again.  "You play chess?"

"'Course I do.  I'm an elf, aren't I?"

~~~

"That is a surprisingly orthodox opening."

Agamemnon grinned.  "Those of us who are free of spirit seek to surprise, and being surprising is the least surprising thing there is.  When you're surprising, like, as a person.  You get what I mean."

Laniss nodded and waggled his fingers in that way that meant he knew what you were saying and you could stop talking now.  It was much more convivial a gesture now that Laniss was only just very, very slightly twinkle-eyed from the wine.  Agamemnon assumed he must have let himself feel the effects, otherwise he would still be perfectly poised.  For his part the cleric was blotto, but orcish constitution made "blotto" a relative and dynamic state.

"How much time do we have?"

Laniss gestured around him.  "Here?  All of it."

Agamemnon nodded.

"And also ... very little.  I wish I had more."

Agamemnon nodded again.  That was about the most forthcoming Laniss had ever been, so he decided to chalk that up as a success.

"You're aware you just vocalised that thought, yes?"

Agamemnon blinked.  "Wha'?"

"About my being forthcoming and this being some sort of personal victory for you.  You are quite drunk, Agamemnon."

"It's your fault.  I only brought one bottle with me, and yet somehow, magically, we've drunk four."

"I would have kept them in reserve if I had known alcohol would make you play this poorly."

"Poorly?  Whatcha talkin' 'bout?  I have executed my plan most expertly!" Agamemnon drawled before hiccuping.

"It is highly unlikely you will win from this position," said Laniss, indicating the centre squares on the board.  "You have no control.  The best ... the best result ...  Oh."

Agamemnon grinned at him.

"You're playing for a draw."

"My orthodoxy lured you into a false confidence," the priest said most of between hiccups.

"I ... see."

"Sometimes you can play by the rules without playin' by the rules."

Laniss squinted.  "That sentence offends me."

"'Cause it's perfectly by the rules but still nonsense?"

"No, because I understood it."

Agamemnon laughed.  "Cuirdethinis'aman'taru."

"'God's backward's face is amalgamated'?  What?"

"No!  Sorry.  Like, cuirde'aman'tho'taru.  Inis.  Something.  Fucking elven declensions."

"The joy of .. Oh, cuirde't'aman'tho'tinata?  'The joy of friendship is togetherness'?"

Agamemnon nodded.  "Yeah, that one.  Why would I want you to lose this game?  We're friends."

"Then why play ... Oh.  Tho'taru.  I see."

Agamemnon nodded solemnly.  "Although, if you look at it another, more accurate way, I won, because I achieved my goal and stopped you achieving yours."

Laniss glared at him.

"I'm just sayin'.  Like, yeah, we're friends and all, and that's important, because we may not be here much longer, but, like, in the end, all that matters is, I kinda won at chess."

"You did not win."

"No, but, I mean, I kinda did."

"No, you did not."

"I forced us to a draw, though."

Laniss leaned across the table and stared at Agamemnon.  Then moved his rook.  "No.  You didn't.  Checkmate."

Agamemnon looked at the board.  Then looked accusingly at the fourth bottle of elf wine.  "Well, shit."

Laniss smiled.