A Game of Marbles

He carried with him a felt pouch. Its drawstring was taught as the contents made the pouch bulge out with round bumps. He would peek inside every few minutes as he walked, just to make sure what was in the pouch was still there. To be even more certain, he'd reach his hand in and try to count them out by feel. He'd rub the smooth surface of each one before adding it to his palm. Ten in all, as it should be. This time and the previous.

The game was waiting for him. He would play it every week or month or whenever the time felt right. Some were already there, waiting for him. He was almost there himself, barely containing the excitement of getting to play. The same lame game with no real aim. You just need a pouch with the right things, just like he had. Like he had so painstakingly collected and battled for. This was an earned pouch.

When he arrived, the other players sat patiently. The air was heavy with strained patience, so he quickly sat in his place amongst them. Tardiness was not uncommon, but punishment for it could vary. He had seen some lose everything for excessive lateness. Others had seemingly nothing happen at all. Things could range from expulsion to a slap on the wrist. Things weren't so clear, just like the game they were about to play. Some things are better that way.

At the start of the game, the horn sounded and the players commenced. Each took out their custom pouches proudly containing their treasured items. Glass spheres resembling marbles. Each one had beautiful and intricate designs that glowed from the centre. No two were fully alike, and gaining as many of these was in simplest form the main goal of the game. How exactly one gains more of these marbles is largely unspecified. Any two or more entities competing against each other had to make a gambit. This could be anything, as long as the entities agree to its terms.

This is where the game got its fun. Each gambit's ambiguity and uncertainty allowed for any number of combinations.

He took a sapphire sphere that had a soft green glow.

"I got this one recently. Stuck in the mud, just a little tormented by her thoughts. I would say that she's still got more suffering to offer."

The marble twirls in his expert fingers. It flickers as it does, the brilliant illumination shaking leaves a trail of light.
He tosses the marble up. Instead of landing, it hovers in place. Time for a wager.

"I've seen your collection. I like the brazen one. The one who sleeps in the pit. I have heard of how you feed off him, telling him things he shouldn't hear. Almost like a cheater."

His opponent doesn't react, simply fetching the desired marble for a moment to stare at it once more.
"No. Some things, you wouldn't understand."

It goes back into the pouch, infuriating the other who pulls out three more marbles and tosses them. Each one sticks in the air, frozen in time. He points at each one.

"This one has eaten things forbidden and craves it deeply yet again. This other murdered their whole family in cold blood and no one has found out. And this last one, I think you know well!"

The last marble creates a notable impression on the opponent. His eyes widened as he realized what it was. Teeth gritted.

"You flaunt that? Again?"

"I flaunt what I've earned."

"You didn't earn it, you took it from me."

"Then you should've won your gambit."

Furious, he pulls out the marble again, the one the other called "brazen".

"This one is different from what you've come to expect. You don't know what you're getting into."

He ignores it and proclaims the wager.

"We shall see, how likely it is to be."