In the empty quiet she knelt next to a small pond that festered within the serene night. The woman tried to stare out of her tiny two-dimensional world towards her three-dimensional counterpart, but she kept being flooded and knocked out of existence by the large droplets that fell onto her. The droplets fell from the eyes of her greater self. The woman in the puddle wondered what sort of complicated and terrifying life must exist outside of the confines of her small puddle to cause her greater self to act this way. A part of the woman in the puddle could empathize with the struggle; she had no need for breathing but still found herself hyperventilating along with the being above her. It seemed that no matter how hard and how quickly she sucked in and out, no air seemed to flow through. It was like she was trying to purge some horrible unwanted darkness from within, but it clung on tightly to her heart, it hadn’t allowed itself to be expelled for the past twenty eight years and it wasn’t allowing itself to be expelled tonight. The harder she searched into herself to pull the darkness out, the harder it clung twisting and tugging at her heart. Her chaotic breaths turned to gagging. The woman in the puddle wanted to help her greater self, wanted to tell her that she would always be there for her, but she could not speak as the stomach acid and half-digested meat struck her down in a swift fatal blow.

The woman fell onto her back and gazed towards the sky. She had to wipe her eyes first to see anything beyond a vague blur. She had to wipe her eyes a second time because they seemed to get blurry again rather quickly. Once she managed to sustain visibility, she could see the beautiful uncaring sky with its dazzling stars accompanied by an eternal black. She wondered if they were far, if she tried, perhaps she could go visit one. Of course, she knew that this would never happen, she would be too worried that someone lived on the star and she wouldn’t want to intrude into someone else’s home. The woman raised her left arm up with her palm facing to the ground. Her arm was quite thick, many would tease that a woman should not have such toned muscles, but she ignored such insults. Her left arm was completely hidden in thick dirtied bandages. Perhaps she should replace them with cleaner ones she thought. She eventually decided against it, she didn’t want to see what was underneath, not now at least.

The forest floor was slightly damp, the mud oozed around her creating a small little human groove for her to settle within. She dreamt for a little that the mud would keep separating and she would keep sinking down deeper and deeper becoming a delicious fertilizer for whatever dark fungal creatures hid in the unseen cracks of trees. Her powerful body could even be enough to feed and nurture one of the small mushrooms into another great and powerful deity of nature and the sodality of rain would be invaded by a second cruor swamp. It was so easy to come up with whimsical dreams when embraced by the lonely nature. The truth was much blander, she wouldn’t sink into the mud and no monstrous swamp or fungal rulers would sprout either. Her head fell down to her side as she stared back to her left arm reflected in the puddle that she laid next to. Maybe that’s what a human is for.

Sometimes she would get overwhelmed by this sense of apathy and lethargy. She thought that she was just going to stay exactly where she was with the irritating prick of broken twigs crushing against her hardened back; but her will was stronger than even she realized at times. The overbearing doubt never lasted long and she quickly casted it aside. Embarrassed by her earlier thoughts, she desperately tried to move her mind onto a less defeatist topic.

She started to become more and more aware of the painful twigs stabbing into her back; rather than move, she decided to divert her attention towards the treetops in search of the story of the twigs. A broken branch here, a broken branch there, leaves delicately bent and twisted out of the way; she started imagining what kind of animal would cause the disturbance, was it clumsy prey or careful predator? Her eyes narrowed as she focused as hard as she could to see through the darkness at the story overhead, clumsy prey or careful predator, prey or predator, it was: predator!

She returned to the camp where the rest of the squadrons were resting. She approached the open campfire at the edge of the encampment, the bustle and laughter caused her to halt in her tracks momentarily. She made sure to properly wipe her eyes before proceeding. The group of friends were sat around a warm yellow flame with jolly ale in hand. They were all laughing and reminiscing of old adventures had. The Banausic Cardinals had just recently arrived to help the militia and so they were sharing countless tales of woe and wonder. The second she met the Banausic Cardinals she realized that they were nothing like how she imagined the famous group to be. She always pictured them as stoic and grand paladins, she pictured a very serious group whose sole purpose was the eradication of evil. Turns out they were just a bunch of kids having fun and trying to make their way through life with friends and laughs; at first, she wasn’t sure if she was disappointed or relieved. The Cardinal’s upfront and friendly personalities allowed them to puncture through her more closed off personality and they quickly became good friends, as shallow as that statement may really be.

There were twelve people sitting around the fire, six of whom formed the Cardinals. The Cardinals were distinctly younger than the other soldiers around. Their team was made of four men and two women. The tall blond man on their team noticed her approaching first. He initially showed some concern on his face which made her worry that perhaps she wiped her eyes too much, but his face quickly changed, and her worries left when he spoke.

“Hey Weltschmerz, you were out for a while. Take a big dump?”

The blond was quite crude and didn’t hold back from speaking whatever came up on his mind. She thought if she had to actually know him that he might be a little annoying but as it was, he was just a little awkward. He managed to get a laugh from the drunk crowd though. The girls of his team reddened; one began scolding his indecent behavior while the other apologized to Weltschmerz for her friend’s incredulousness. In all honesty, the specifics of what he had said hadn’t even registered in her mind. She was single mindedly obsessed with her discovery, so much so that she almost felt like it caused a burning sensation on her left arm.

“I think there were mokoi scouts around here. We need to scan the forest.”

She spoke so quickly that each word was barely distinct from the one before. She was ashamed of herself for what she thought back in the forest and really wanted to kill some mokoi right now. This was her usual pattern.

“You’re probably just psyching yourself out, feeling vulnerable with your pants down. Nearly all the mokoi are out on a hunt somewhere.”

One of the older soldiers stepped in. It seemed that most of the people didn’t believe her hypothesis, or perhaps they just didn’t want to believe it. The militia was comprised of mostly volunteers, random men desperately escaping the nagging banality that was their peaceful homes. They had no sense of urgency or caution, if it wasn’t for her constant watch and paranoia this whole battalion would have died ages ago.

“The latest report said that they had lost track of the hunting unit. Perhaps they know a route that we aren’t aware of and slipped by.”

She could feel the panic settling back in a little, that darkness clinging onto her heart.

“This is our territory; we know of all the routes.”

The older man tried to calm her.

“It hasn’t been our territory for nearly a millennium now, we can’t know!”

Weltschmerz shouted at the top of her lungs even waking the soldiers who had fallen asleep. A few of the soldiers grimaced to her antagonizing shout. Most people of the sodality naively ignored the state of their territory. None were willing to admit that it wasn’t just their own, that they had been bested. Weltschmerz wasn’t afraid, she knew what was really happening, and she felt like she was the only one who really wanted to change it.

“Alright, we still need some soldiers stationed at this checkpoint to make sure they don’t waltz by while we’re gone, so how about we’ll look around instead, just in case.”

The blond man, although crude, was always confident and rational when things got serious.

“Will that make you feel better?”

The blond quickly chugged the rest of his drink before placing his mug down on the tree stump where he was previously sat.

“We have to tell the main garrison to strike now. If the hunting unit gets back to the valley before the invasion tomorrow, then there’s no way we’ll win!”

Her breathing was turning erratic once again, she was trying to remain impartial and calculative but as her mind swam through all the things the mokoi could do when their full power returned, she couldn’t help herself.

“Let’s not say anything to the garrison yet. If you were mistaken, we don’t want to cause an unnecessary fuss, and if you’re right then they could have already made it back to the valley and it’ll be too late.”

The blond waved to his companions who were silently watching the debate unsure how to act. When they saw his signal, the whole of the banausic cardinals stood up and started gathering their equipment.

“But they can’t come back yet. We were so close.”

She was desperately holding back her tears from exposing themselves to the world; she clenched her fists so tight that they bled. Her left arm felt like it was about to explode, she could feel it being touched again, she could feel the leather hands handle and pull it around, she could feel the cold steel.

“If they really did make it back to the valley, and that’s a big if, then we’ll just wait for the next hunt. There will always be another chance. Now let’s go do our job and actually figure out IF they are back.”

The blond went into his tent to reemerge in leather armor holding onto a pristine and magnificently adorned bow. Every member of the Cardinal was fantastically dressed and equipped. It was clear that they were a very successful group.

Weltschmerz guided them all to the place where she initially found the broken twigs. She showed the Cardinals the broken twigs on the floor and the disturbed treetops above. One of the girls of the group, Mortise, a mage dressed in an intricate and bright white robe was confusedly staring at a human shaped groove imprinted in the mud.

“Uhm… what exactly were you doing out here?”

She asked while inspecting the human notch

“I was… powdering my nose.”

Mortise was wholly unconvinced, but the rest of the group seemed too distracted in observing the treetops up above and were thankfully pushing the conversation forward. Well, most were looking to the treetops; Errant was instead gazing into a murky puddle on the ground. Errant was by far the largest member of the entire group and his weapon reflected that fact, a massive slab of metal nearly twice his height and just as thick as he was. The slab of metal was shaped like that of a sword, but it convinced no one, this behemoth was so unwieldly that Weltschmerz couldn’t possibly imagine how it could be used as a weapon.

“Errant, do you see something?”

The blond asked to his larger friend. Errant just blankly stared at the water without responding. The blond walked up behind Errant and shook his shoulders to try and get his attention. He finally responded.

“No, it was nothing.”

While Weltschmerz was distracted with the twigs below, Fetter, the other female Cardinal had somehow climbed up to the treetops. Fetter shouted down to the group below.

“Bad news. It definitely looks like something big that didn’t want to leave a mark was here. But there’s no trail or anything. I’m looking all around, and I don’t see any signs of where they came from or went. Like it just flew in and out.”

“That’s a good sign at least. If it was some sort of bird, then it couldn’t be the Mokoi.”

The blond responded in an attempt to be hopeful.

“That’s one big bird.”

Fetter commented back. The blond was quick to take control, he clapped his hands together to gather everyone’s attention and then spoke.

“Well whatever it was, it clearly didn’t want to be found. So maybe it just got better at hiding itself and the twigs here were just a slip up. We should go ahead and do a perimeter check just in case and see if we can find anymore spots like this. Mortise and Way, you two go with Weltschmerz up north. Infirm and Fetter will go south with me. West is camp so fingers crossed there’s nothing that way. Errant, you’ll be fine searching east on your own?”

Errant nodded his head in assurance.

“Alright, let’s just do a quick search. Lucky for us, the morning star has come out to say hi so it should get easier to look. Chances are it’s just a bird but If you do find something don’t initiate a fight, just head back and alert camp.”

All three groups then split off in their respectful directions. Weltschmerz was grouped with Mortise and Way neither of which were particularly great trackers so Weltschmerz would have to do all the scanning. Thankfully the two of them were fast and quiet so the group was able to make plenty of progress without any delay. The empty dawn left only the sound of their footsteps to fill their ears. Mortise and Way although serious still seemed too relaxed in Weltschmerz eyes. She knew that the tracks were more than just a bird, it must have been a mokoi! Her left arm felt like it was on fire by this point. Weltschmerz accelerated even faster.

“Woah! Slow down Weltsch. How are you even able to track at that speed?”

Weltschmerz stopped in her tracks. The morning star exposed the thick forest of all of its secrets. It would appear that it didn’t have any secrets. Mortise was right, she was getting lost in her own head. Perhaps this foreboding feeling was just created from psyching herself out. Perhaps nothing bad was going to happen. Two bells then chimed. One bell was out in the distance nearer to the rest of the cardinals, the other right in the center of the group.

Mortise readied her staff and preemptively readied a spell. Way unsheathed his rapier poised for combat. Weltschmerz raised her fists, prepared to cleanly strike anything that approached. Between the three of them where that bell had chimed, a pink rhombus suddenly grew out of thin air. Or it was a rhombus, but its body would reject any stable state. It would shift and transform, shrink and grow, continuously morphing into other shapes. The pink shape finally locked into a form resembling that of a featureless human with only one limb. The arm was outstretched towards Weltschmerz holding a glowing parchment: It read.

You have been invited to The Tournament You are The Asset