Aster Gray sits in front of a chess board, examining the pieces with a bemused look upon his face. “I quite enjoy the game of chess, you know. Black and white squares, black and white pieces, the forces of good and evil facing off against one another and mixing upon the board move by move until the entire game is turned to gray.” He taps the king, moving it idly.
“Most would say, that the king is the most important piece. You lose without it, don’t you? Yet, it exists to be slaughtered. Rather, the most important piece, to me, is the queen.” Picking up the piece, Aster twirls it in his fingers. “The queen, you see, is the most versatile piece. Why, you can move it anywhere on the board and use it to both push the offensive and bolster your defenses with ease. While every other piece is confined to a certain square or a pattern, the queen is free to roam as she pleases.”
Aster frowns, slamming the queen onto the board, shaking it. “So why, pray tell, does our queen find herself upstaged by a mere knight? Narcissa, our beloved Hera… You were supposed to be our queen, the power laden piece in this game of chess between OSW and our forces. Yet, at Rise, we saw as Jasper bested you in violent fashion. A man who has but a fraction of the freedom and power that you have was able to knock you over without a second thought. I watched with my own two eyes what happened, the whole of your precious board of pieces bore witness to a lesser piece, one with a mere fraction of your power, left you on your back on the board.”
Mr. Gray leans back, tenting his fingers as he eyes the board. “And now, as invade the ranks of Olympus, every piece ready to raid OSW and decimate their forces, I find that you once again find yourself facing a member of the Uprising. You find yourself facing me.” He chuckles a bit, rocking his head side to side. “The whole of Arcadia is watching, they’re dying to know if you can prove yourself a capable leader, one worthy of leading the miscreants in your employ. Truly, you must knock me over and assert your dominance and versatility or risk being seen as a false monarch wearing a crown of failure upon your head.”
The Gray Man snakes his fingers beneath the board. “But what you fail to realize, Ms. Balenciaga, is that I am not a piece. No, I’m not even the player. I am the observer of this little game. I may help move the pieces, I may participate in your wars. But, I do not follow the same rules.”
Aster flips the board, pieces clattering lifelessly on the floor. “In an instant, I can bring the game to an end. Despite how it seems, nothing is black and white.”
“And you are powerless against the gray the lies in-between.”