Reunited over a game of chess, Sterling and his younger brother Arthur talk about their turbulent family when Arthur learns his brother’s sacrifice play wasn’t in vain, as he has one more trick up his sleeve.

Created for the Solstice Raven Writing Battle, which is a 500-word peer-reviewed writing contest, “The Castled King” really came out of nowhere.

I received the prompts for “fish out of water” (genre), “golden child” (character), and “chessboard” (object). My mind did its thing, and I was cooking up some weird stories about actual fish coming out of water to play chess. Who wouldn’t want to read a story about the first fish family to walk on land being led by their golden child, only to find out there’s nothing to do, so the younger brother invents chess?!

That story evolved into a much darker, more emotional story, keeping the two-brothers motif but incorporating the prompts in very different ways.