The move strikes at the heart of black’s formation threatening to kill black’s dragon. The crowd grows uneasy as the master’s move is considered. It is a bold move but it is unclear to those watching where it will lead. The young challenger wastes no time.

TACK.

Black defends.

TACK.

White continues his attack.

TACK. TACK. TACK.

A flurry of activity begins. The game has spilled over and there is no turning back.

TACK. TACK. TACK. TACK. TACK.

The moves are set, expected, there is only one way for the game to go now and so the stones flow out like water. The player’s hands each reaching in turn, each stone following a familiar arc towards its destination.

TACK. TACK. TACK. TACK. TACK. TACK.

And then silence again.

The hands are removed. The masters hands now lay below him limp as he once again concentrates on the board. The master’s face appears exhausted, lifeless as he counts. The game has ended, there are no more moves left to be made. The audience stirs once more as they realize what has happened.  The master grunts again, he has finished counting. The challenger gets up from his position and observes the board from above, his expression does not change. The challenger looks up from the board to the old man sitting across from him. The challenger notices the master’s face as his skin appears to become translucent. The master has lost. The master’s eyes raise to find his opponents. His clear blue eyes appear to strike out from his sullen face as he meets his opponent’s gaze. The master’s mouth parts and his smile is revealed with several teeth among many gaps. His eyes become wet and the challenger can see the board reflected in the master’s eyes; the culmination of a game that took 6 months to complete. Their eyes remained locked, each filling each other until the master’s eyes overflow and a solitary tear begins to work its way down through the old man’s crevassed face.

“Now, I am free.”

Pure joy runs across the master’s face as the stones on the board begin to shake. Vibrating in time with one another they begin to rise up from the board, an invisible hand lifting and swirling the stones above the crisscrossed pattern below. The old man too begins to lift, his arms hanging limp at his sides as he is caressed from below. The stones spin faster, as the observers look on franticly rushing now to help the master while yelling at the young challenger to do something. Yet he is unaware of the flurry of activity around him only seeing the reflection in the old man’s eyes showing the game being played out franticly, reaching the end as quickly as the last stones had dropped.

TACK.

The sound falls dead. Stopping as soon as it was created as if it had existed only in the minds of those who had heard it. The room is stunned to silence. The challenger has lost the master’s eyes yet he finds himself looking at a stone directly in middle of the board. The white stone is alone; all of the others have disappeared. Instinctively the challenger moves to pick it up and as he does he notices that there is no one sitting across the board from him. The master was gone.

The challenger looks once again at the shiny white stone in his hand and is amazed by how it catches the light. He holds it out at arms length to where the master should have been and begins to laugh.

“A flurry of activity! A flurry of activity! I can see it all in the master’s eye! A flurry of activity!”