Day Fourteen : Gambit - Pawns

Gambit

Definition

1 : a chess opening in which a player risks one or more pawns or a minor piece to gain an advantage in position

2 a (1) : a remark intended to start a conversation or make a telling point  (2) : topic

b : a calculated move : stratagem

In 1656, a chess handbook was published that was said to have almost a hundred illustrated
gambetts. That early spelling of gambit is close to the Italian word gambetto, from which it is derived.
Gambetto, which is from gamba, meaning "leg," was used for an act of tripping—especially one that
gave an advantage, as in wrestling. The original chess gambit is an opening in which a bishop's pawn
is sacrificed to gain some advantage

I clearly remember the feel of the hero’s boot as he tripped my leg from under me and pushed me out
the third story window of the castle. 

“Sorry about that mate!” He called after me as I plummeted to either my death or severe disability.
He dashed off, his recent victim (me) clearly completely forgotten, to rescue the princess no doubt
(who was, in my opinion, a spoiled brat who, quite frankly, was in need of a good telling off. If her
daddy hadn’t doted on her so much, she wouldn’t have become such a little beast and wouldn’t have
incited the neighbouring country to invade under the pretense that her father was an overbearing
tyrant who oppressed the peasants (our peasants were the most educated, healthiest peasants in the
country, with multiple opportunities for advancement should they wish for a different path in life). All
because she thought the hero’s eyelashes looked good in the afternoon summer sunlight and she
wanted another opportunity to meet him! I mean, i’d also admire her near psychotic determination,
if that hadn’t resulted in the current situation of me falling to my death.)

It was the dung heap that saved me. The king was big on his roses (the sadly departed Queen had
adored them and he kept them in her memory) and was all about the natural compost. True, it stank
but at least i was alive and mostly unbroken.

As I lay there in the shit and listened to the screams of my fellow guards (good men, men who mostly
applied for a solid job with good benefits and most, admittedly, barely knew one end of a sword from
another. However, they were genuinely loyal to the King who had hired them anyway.) as they got
brutally beaten and cut by people who were clearly superior with a sword and also good enough to
know when they completely outclassed their opponents. To the point where it’d be a joke to fight
them. Dishonorable even. 

That obvious truth didn’t appear to slow down, or even bother, the heroes at all. 

I narrowed my eyes. Bastards. Useless skin-bags of humans who’s only skill was to bully and beat
down those who were weaker than themselves - and then get praised for it!

I crawled out of the dug heap, trying to breathe only through my mouth. As i at last crawled free and
stood upright, the cannons sounded from the castle and the neighbouring country’s flag unfurled from
the rooftops. The King had fallen. 

I’d had enough of this shit. 

***

Three years later and the kingdom was rapidly in decline. The peasants were now some of the most
starved in the country and these days, if you were born a peasant, you died one. Employment, ranks
and rewards were now given to those of ‘pure blood’ and not gifted by merit and skill as they were
previously. Which meant that the financial system of the kingdom was a complete wreck after one
year of being handled by some noble’s son. 

The princess, having achieved her goal of meeting the hero again, was quickly married off by the
conquering country to some backwater prince far, far away so that she couldn’t cause trouble. 

Apparently, she’d had to be dragged to the carriage in her wedding finery, right along the now dung
strewn floor (the street sweepers had been one of the first to suffer under budget cuts. Apparently
they were an ‘unnecessary expense’. That year we had more sickness and plague than we’d had in
generations. Despite the Chancellor of the Exchequer being firmly ensconced away from the
‘dirty peasants’ he’d still managed to contract the plague and was now hideously disfigured.
Funny that.)

The entire kingdom had turned out to see the princess leave for her wedding. They watched in grim,
silent satisfaction as she was dragged, kicking and screaming every inch of the way, and thrown into
the waiting carriage.

It had iron bars on the windows to prevent her from bolting. 

Credit, slight though it was, where credit is due, she did not once beg the waiting crowd to save her.
Even in her self absorbed, spoiled little mind, she could see that only the merest sliver of self control
was holding back the crowd. Had she begged them to save her, her who had doomed them all to the
gutter, that self control would have snapped and they would have swarmed on her, tearing her limb
from limb. 

It had taken me three years. Three years of studying, of making applications, of collecting money and
the people I needed but I was ready. Thank the Lord for the previous King who had always, always
insisted that education and knowledge are the most important weapons a person could have. 

I was about to rain down hell on those that had destroyed our country.

And I was going to do it legally too.

At first, they tried to laugh me out of the castle but I stood firm. I had my Writ and, more importantly,
I had my lawyer. 

Then they tried to argue, but I stood firm. I knew my rights. 

Then they tried to threaten me, but I stood firm. I had my second lawyer - and a witness from the
Supreme Court of Justice. They went very pale when I brought her out. 

As I said, it had taken me three years but I had managed to form the Union of Mobs. The Heros had
their Guilds, which came with certain protections, such as lawyers, medical professionals and also
secured their employment rights. Background characters, like myself and other people such as
village girls, shepherds, bakers, candlestick makers, farmers and the like had nothing like that. To the
main players, Prices, Overlords, Knights, Heroes, Villains and the like we were nothing more than
painted scenery. Only our King had ever treated us as individual people with our own aspirations and
goals - and had helped and encouraged us to reach them. He had also been the one who had told me
about unions. 

The Union of Mobs invited in every bit player, mob character, sacrificial pawn. Individually we might be
powerless, but as a group, well. Mob characters kept the country running doing all those things the
important people didn’t really think about but would be desperate without. The world wouldn’t work
without us. If we all got together we could be unstoppable. 

Every ‘unimportant’ citizen of our beleaguered country was now a member of the Union of Mob. we
had approached the Supreme Court of Justice with the lawyers we’d hired from the people’s
membership fees and demanded justice - or else we, as a kingdom, and every other member in the
surrounding kingdoms (and there were a lot, once they’d heard about UoM there’d been a stampede
to join - people were sick of getting trampled for the enjoyment of the minority) would go on strike. 

We must have locked serious enough not to try and call our bluff. They reviewed our case and agreed
we were in the right. 

They sent me back, along with their representative, to serve Notice on the new conquering rulers of
our kingdom, to whit that they had acted unlawfully, that they had wrongfully imprisoned the rightful
ruler (I was so glad to find out our King was still alive), that they had committed acts of larceny, felony
and GBH and had caused severe detriment to our kingdom and its inhabitants therein.

Therefore, they must evacuate the country immediately, reinstate the rightful King and provide all
reparations for the damage inflicted on the kingdom for the past three years. In full.

If they did not agree to this, then their other option was execution, banishment and imprisonment of the
leading members of the invasion and occupation. 

After much futile stamping of feet, red faced shouting and veiled (and not so veiled) threats about how I
was nothing but a mere commoner, they left the castle.

They let me open the cell the King had been imprisoned in. It was at least warm and dry, but there was
not a book in sight so i knew my King would have been going stir crazy from boredom. Or perhaps not,
I thought to myself, as I noted the far wall have been covered in chemical equations for, I guessed as I
squinted at it, a new form of compost. 

The King looked up as i came in. And blinked.

“Hello my Lord.” I said cheerfully, “We’ve taken back the castle. Ready to go back to Kinging? The
country’s a bit of a mess right now i’m afraid so there’s quite a bit of work to be done.”

“Oh,” he said bemused. “I didn’t hear any screaming.”

“I used lawyers my Lord.” 

“Then I'm even more surprised I didn't hear screaming.” He thought for a bit and then grinned. “I told you
education was a good idea.”

“I can assure you that, right now, you’re the only noble in a hundred mile that thinks so my Lord.”

“Even better.” he swept past me and out the room. “I’ve told you before, this world needs shaking up.”

He peered out the windows to the grounds below as we descended the stairs. “Good lord, what have
those barbarians done to my roses?”

“They did worse things to the treasury i’m afraid.” I said regretfully. It was wonderful to have my King
back in action but could we really undo all the damage that had been caused.

“I should have guessed.” He sighed. “What on earth is it with nobles and shiny, expensive,
useless things. They’re worse than magpies!”

“Couldn’t say my Lord. Always preferred edible things myself.”

“Sensible lad.” he paused. “How did you manage to hire lawyers?”

“Formed a Union for mob characters sir. There’s a lot of us after all. The nobles tend to forget that.”
I wondered what he would think. After all, as King, he was a main player. Although he had always
treated us with respect and care, would he still do so after i had taken such a massive leap from my
position in the background onto the main stage - and worse yet, dragged the rest of the background
with me. 

He stopped, turned and stared at me. Then he let out an enormous, honking laugh. His whole body
was shaking from it. 

Eventually, tears streaming from his eyes, he managed to splutter out, “A union? Genius! They’ll
never be able to stop it now!”

“Stop what my Lord?” I asked cautiously, slightly alarmed by his exuberant reaction. 

He grinned at me. “What I've been aiming for ever since I took the throne - social revolution of course!
Come my boy, let’s go turn this rigged game on its head!”