Rows and beads I carry with ease, ancient tool to calculate with ease.

I am a lord under the earth, I am a dwarf above it. I have five icy children who, circled in my arms, I covet. I once shared my family’s title but have been stripped of my worth; discriminated by my size and position of my birth.

I fly high on a metal frame. Could be a message or a claim. If I am white - a soldier’s request. If I am red - danger’s assessed.

I sit atop my steed with my three brothers As I silently take children from their mothers In my wake I leave all I touch bereft I determine not who is right, but who is left

I am the finality, the end. No further moves exist. I am a victory achieved through the surrender of all options. Though my arrival is often swift, the path leading to me is a labyrinth of strategy and sacrifice.