Despite the fact that the game wasn't so much about winning or losing, pieces could still be taken if they represented something. So seeing Anatoly leave his bishop open for the taking gave Svetlana pause. The bishop was their representation of pride in this game. Pride comes before a fall. And in that very next move, Anatoly did something Svetlana had never seen him do before. He knocked over the knight... representing all in one that very saying that had flickered through her mind. He had let pride rule him and now he had fallen. The knight had no songs to be sung about it's heroic deeds. He had broken each of his vows and now he stood at the precipice of their life together. One wrong step and he'd fall.
Honestly, Anatoly was full of surprises tonight. First in using a pawn and what it had represented and now him knocking over his remaining knight. There was no promise to her to be the protector. What good would a promise even do right now? Still, Svetlana looked between the board and Anatoly, not even bothering to mask her confusion, her uncertainty of the situation before her. Oh. She understood just what he was saying. In the stories they had always told the girls, he was the knight. It was more than a fairy tale. It kept the romance alive. Or it had before Molokov had shown up. Then the stories changed, at least when Svetlana told them, she never knew what Anatoly told them. But the emergence of the Rat King had shown up. Distracted the knight, but he would persevere.
So did she take his sacrificial piece? She didn't want to do this alone. Protect the girls. But the knight was protection and promises. Neither of which he had done in the past five years. He had started to again while here, at least with the protection. She didn't know what to make of it, but he still showed up to protect her and in the process of doing so, confuse her. Did she accept his sacrifice? Or make him fight? But any fight would be pride filled. Just empty promises. She was covered with scars she had done nothing to earn and he was seeing that. By sacrificing his promises, he was acknowledging where had had failed her and the girls.
Things needed to be done differently. They both knew that. So taking a breath, Svetlana hesitantly reached over and took the fallen knight before she moved her rook to take the bishop. The protection of her family would take out pride and Molokov. Or try to. Because she knew Molokov was there. He was a threat and he'd always hold power over her because of that. But she would do anything to protect her family. Anatoly included.
Why that had been a hard move to make, Svetlana didn't know. Well, no. Taking the bishop hadn't been hard, but the knight? The fact that he had knocked it over on his own? She didn't know how to respond to that. Even if she wanted to say something, she didn't know what to say. But the moves were done, and she had left herself vulnerable to Anatoly by taking his pride. It wasn't even planned this time, but it was true all the same. By taking the bishop, she acknowledged that she had taken his pride. By taking his knight, she had acknowledged that he wasn't making promises and that left her vulnerable and unguarded. She was letting him open up to her instead of shutting him down. She was accepting what he was saying and not brushing him off. And in doing so, she was willing to let him into her heart again even when logic screamed at her to run away.