Everson spun around, shocked to be facing a person of equal stature and terrified to see that she brandished his sword above her head. Not a person, he realized. She was obviously made of some metallic alloy. Her face and body were silver in color and elaborately constructed with intricate detail. The serene, almost kind, features of its face were undoubtedly feminine, framed by flowing metal locks so finely wrought as to seem almost fluid.

Instead of cleaving Everson’s head in two, the android inexplicably turned the tip of the sword toward her own face. Everson watched in confused amazement as she pushed the sword into her own mouth. The blade disappeared slowly in a glow of molten metal and spitting sparks until there was nothing left but the hilt. The android then casually tossed the useless hilt aside, turned to face Everson, and held her hand to her mouth. Everson half-expected her to burp.

Something did emerge from the android’s mouth, but it was less predictable. She began spitting gleaming coins, freshly minted from Everson’s blade. They tinkled brightly into the android’s hand until there were twelve in all. She then approached the apron-topped table and, with a tilt of her silver head, indicated that she wanted Everson to follow.

The android woman settled into position on the far side of the table, and Everson stopped on the side opposite, facing her. With a slight of hand almost too quick to follow, she laid out the coins on the apron in alternating squares as if starting a board game. She looked up to Everson expectantly. The prince eyed both the board and the strange android dubiously.

“You must think I’m dim,” Everson said. “What are we playing for, my life?”

The android simply tapped the table.

Everson sighed with as little petulance as possible and simply muttered, “Blazes.”

He scanned the board for a moment and made a hesitant move, unfamiliar as he was with the rules of this particular game. The android moved without hesitation. Everson moved again, more confidently this time, a strategy materializing on the checkerboard pattern before him. Again, the android moved immediately after. And so it progressed, quickly and with growing aggression until Everson gleefully jumped every one of the droid’s pieces with one of his own.

“Ha!” the prince exclaimed triumphantly.

His victory was short lived. The blue neon grid exploded from the checkerboard with a metallic growl, and Everson cringed. The coins in their blue squares began to glow with an intense silvery light. The points of light quickly detached from the metal and floated upward, stopping at varying heights above the tabletop. Everson studied the configuration and, for the first time in this disingenuous dungeon, understanding came quickly. The android moved around the table to join him, assessing Everson like a mentor awaiting proof of a postulate. Everson nodded slightly at his silver hostess.

“I know what that is,” he said simply.