The game went on for quite a while longer, each player trying their hardest to win. They sacrificed pieces to get an advantage, used the lay of the land to lay traps and ambushes, and displayed their tactical abilities to adapt, improvise, and overcome. There were bold attacks meant to taunt, distractions, and strategic retreats. There was repositioning, goading, leading the enemy into an area where they were completely surrounded.
Both were focused on the board to the point that everything but it lost all importance. Each move they made was measured and calculated, carefully planned. Mostly, they played like poker players, not allowing any indication of frustration of glee to escape them through body language or vocal clues. The whole time, Yana felt her stomach tingle and her asterism pulsating rapidly as the excitement accompanied her during the game.
Yet, for all her efforts, she didn’t win.
Perhaps unexpectedly, but it happened nonetheless. Knowledge of how the game was to be played counted for something too, and in that part, Rathaan was her superior. She congratulated him, admitting defeat graciously when it became apparent she could no longer win. Of course she did, there was no shame in losing to him at all. They were two of a kind, after all.
And besides, he hadn’t won by that large a margin.
She thanked both Rathaan and his father for playing, laughter and joy seeped into her voice, and she asked to play again another time. Yana wouldn’t lose next time, not now she knew how to play. And as she left the room and closed the door behind her, she was certain that the father and son duo was quite aware that next game would be an entirely different beast altogether.