Black: Queen d6>b4

In the realm of the gods:

Uzulu continuously chanted throughout the game in his ancient tongue, obscure even to Valkyrie, in whom the chanting aroused suspicion and its passionate cadence, though she’d never lower herself to admit it, aroused her in other ways as well. Wanting to disrupt the trickster god’s rhythm on the suspicion that he was magically influencing her, Valkyrie said, “With that pawn’s capture, our game is now tied.”

Uzulu continued his chanting while looking in Valkyrie’s eyes and saw her lip involuntarily quiver as he refused an immediate answer to her inquiry. He sat there, staring, trying to rattle her more before responding, “You are mistaken. The game was never about number or rank.”

“I suppose that’s true,” Valkyrie conceded. “But as far as position is concerned, I like my placement better than I like yours.”

Uzulu responded with a cocky smirk, “I’m certain you do. From your perspective it looks like winning whether my mortals take yours or yours take mine. Your girls get what they want anyway. As their goddess, you feel the same temptation.”

“If that were true,” said the Nordic goddess, haughtily, “I would surely be making far more sacrificial moves. These daughters of the North cooperate well with each other, they look after each other as their ancestors did. These ties strengthen their team and prevent them from succumbing to such trifling temptation as your men might present. Your men should learn to do the same, and not just let the slaver hog the glory.”

“That is the key to my eventual victory,” Uzulu boasted, “although my sons pursue individual pleasure, they can jointly reap its profits when the slaver captures your girls. With this advantage, every one of them aims to make more of your women into slaves, though they remain as capable of taking your women for themselves.”

As the conversation continued, Valkyrie found herself distracted by the possibility that Uzulu was playing mindgames with her. His strategy seemed too straightforward for a trickster god and he did little to disguise his playstyle. He didn’t appear to be cheating, so there had to be some kind of manipulation going on. Uzulu repositioned his queen, consistent with the strategy he had described, to a spot where it could threaten the maximum number of available white pieces. In the mortal realm, Charles decided to take action and left in hopes of finding more potential slaves. Among the gods, Uzulu’s chanting resumed.

Uzulu suppressed a grin. Valkyrie had not yet caught onto the fact that his chanting was a spell that he was placing her under, so that she could feel second-hand imitations of what her mortals experience as they move about in this contest. Through this magic, Uzulu hoped to **** Valkyrie to have lapses in judgment that would turn her moves from well-formulated defensive strategy into error. The magic’s early effects were more likely to result in marginal errors that would ease taking of pawns, but as the game progressed and the effect of the spell grew stronger, he expected that it would cause her to err in more severe ways. Uzulu hoped that he could make Valkyrie err in this instant, as she had momentarily safe options available, but with such a mistake Charles could take another into slavery.

(Link to board: https://lichess.org/editor/rnb1kbnr/pp1p2pp/2p5/P3Np2/1q1P1B2/2N1P3/1P3PPP/R2QKB1R_wKQkq-_0_1?color=white))