The Primordial Record novel Chapter 2227

Chapter 2227: A Heavy Choice

The Cancellation had closed the asking, and the Erasure would close the having asked. It would remove the question and everything it had ever produced from the past.

The branch of the Tree that the woman by the stream had founded would not have happened. The hundred and forty thousand years of compounding habit, the order, the faculty, the instrument, the word, the song, the signature, the propagation across one hundred and three branches, the slow, gentle decline in the Cancellation’s effectiveness, all of it would unhappen.

Holding the Erasure in his hand, the Painter did not make a move; he just continued looking at the board.

The piece was a small thing in the Painter’s shrouded hand, as most of the great pieces on the board were small; this was a thing Eos had learned during the first age.

Size on the board was not a function of importance; size on the board was a function of the dimensions the piece operated through, and a piece that operated through few dimensions was large and visible, and a piece that operated through many dimensions was small and almost not there.

A drop of water crushes a star, and an ocean of it could barely move a tree. This was the mental image that was painted when Eos observed this process, and he thought it was a rather fascinating way to hide what you do not want your enemy to see.

The Erasure was almost not there. It had the appearance, in the Painter’s hand, of a chip of stone, the color of nothing, and the chip was so small that even at the resolution at which Eos saw the board, he had to attend to it carefully to keep it in his perception.

And so, Eos shamelessly observes the piece. If the Painter was not displaying it, then Eos would not hold back in his observation.

No matter how quiet and gentle this game seemed from their side, it was deeply terrifying on so many levels that normal combat could not even touch.

The Painter held the piece for a long time without setting it down.

This was unusual. In all the moves the Painter had made in the first age and the early second age, the lift and the placement had been a single fluid gesture, a continuous motion that did not give the opponent time to adjust between the lift and the placement.

The Painter holding a piece in the air was the Painter giving Eos time, and the Painter never gave time without a reason.

Eos frowned as he considered why the Painter would be doing such a thing, and the answer came to him... it wanted him to make the first move; this was an open invitation.

This was not a generous invitation. Eos would be a fool if he thought it was. This was the next move in the game, and the Painter lifting the Erasure and was now declining to place it was a question, and the question was: will you trade?

Eos understood the question and did not answer it for a long time.

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