***Tirnanog, Mount Aerie***

***Magnus***

My comrades weren’t happy about my decision to go along with the Patels' friendly invitation. There was no question, walking right into their den posed a risk.

But if I backed out now, wouldn’t that just prove to Etan that I wasn’t ready to be handed responsibilities and power? Hadn’t he given me this task to show I could stand next to his daughter?

Also, there was no other way to learn how to deal with elders of the Patels’ calibre than to meet them on their terms. If we managed to get the clan to move against the Thich, meeting elders from other stratas and ensuring their support would be a daily occurrence.

Not to forget, I wanted to have the Patels' measure before I decided to do anything I couldn't take back. Burning bridges before I even knew these people sounded stupid.

Maybe they turned out to be reasonable gangster bosses. I had no problem with such personages. Back on Earth, I had to deal with all kinds of less than trustworthy folk.

In my experience, as long as one had to offer the right incentives, gangsters were just as reliable as the most popular of politicians.

The goons, who turned out to be the Patels’ elite guard, led us down a winding set of tunnels, taking us away from the third’s more frequented areas.

At last, we arrived at an inconspicuous metal door, guarded by two people in gold-plated armour. They opened the doors and stepped aside, their eyes focused on a point in the far distance.

“Fancy,” I commented while stepping into a rustic, but perfectly maintained elevator which wouldn’t have withstood several of Earth’s stringent regulations on how to build such things.

For one, the silver metal cage had large open sections which allowed an unhindered view of perfectly smoothed and polished marble walls. Nothing was preventing the occupants from jamming a limb between the elevator and the wall. And from my waist up, there was no protection at all, allowing an unobstructed view of the marble.

Someone tried to allow for a panoramic view and forgot the glass!

I was by no means a security fanatic, but this construct went against my more than bendable sensitivities for such things.

There was one redeeming feature, however.

The elevator was more than spacious enough to comfortably fit twenty people, allowing me to take a central, and hopefully secure, spot on the elevator's platform.

Once I paid more attention to the details, I noticed that every square centimetre was engraved with decorations, turning the elevator into a work of art.

“Is this vanity some kind of statement?” I questioned the leading goon once I and my guards, plus ten of our watchers had entered the spacious gilded cage. Now that I was inside it, the entire thing reminded me of one of those pompous, golden birdcages.

Just with silver in this case.

“Just wait until you see the pit,” the goon commented. “It pays to work for the boss.”

Winston placed a hand on my shoulder and whispered into my ear, “Don’t allow yourself to be misled. What use do we have in this world for shiny things?”

I nodded, taking the advice as the warning it was meant to be.

And well-placed advice it was because the boss’s pit was indeed a glamorous thing.

The elevator emerged into what looked to be a natural geode of mountain crystal, large enough to house an entire concert hall. Skilled hands had polished it and placed golden candelabras which shed their light in just the right way to make the entire cavern sparkle like a disco.

From approximately fifty metres above, I got a nice view of the scene, making it obvious why someone had chosen to make the elevator as unsafe as it was.

A group of dancers in frivolous outfits were delivering a show together with a band playing unfamiliar music that sounded like a strange mix between tribal and classic. It was nonetheless pleasing to the ear and allowed for polite conversation.

Revellers populated the dance floor or sat at tables cut from obsidian, eating and drinking.

It was like one of those dancing bars I had visited as a student. Just much more opulent.

Everything was made from the finest of materials, painting a stark contrast to what I had seen throughout the rest of the third.

Of course, I noticed the theme here. There was no wood or organic materials of any kind. Everything represented the riches that the third had dug out of the mountain. I briefly wondered whether the huge geode was possibly natural, or had it been crafted?

I didn't have time to make up my mind before my attention was drawn away from the walls and ceiling.

The elevator reached the ground and our guides bade us exit.

A blonde woman with soft, flowing feathers instead of hair greeted us. Her headdress didn’t look as functional as the set of wings which emerged from her back. If someone had decided to attach a halo to her head, I would have believed her to be some weird angel.

She was dressed in a scandalous outfit. A silken shirt that left little to the imagination and a revealing split skirt that had me grateful for the skintight trousers she wore.

The woman smiled and performed a perfect curtsy, using her wings to billow out her skirt around her. “Travis and Bruce Patel greet you to their humble abode.”

I smiled, thankful that Astra had pointed out all the elders when we attended the council meeting. Given her misleading greeting, I would have believed her a simple servant. Even if I hadn't already known, I might have gotten a hint from the revellers who were giving her more distance than was necessary to be respectful.

“And I am thankful for the invitation, Travis,” I replied.

Travis stood and folded her wings back together, arranging them like a mantle.

I wondered whether they were functional, like Thalia’s, or whether they were a part of her mutation. Since they were much smaller than those of Astra’s friend, whose leathery membranes could fold and package a lot of surface within a small area, I almost didn’t believe Travis could truly use hers to fly.

The woman gestured for us to follow and the sea of revellers parted in front of her without command.

I turned to look at Winston, who shrugged. His expression said everything. I had gotten us in here, so I had to get us out.

We were led through the dance floor, but the partygoers barely paid us any attention.

It made me assume that people being received here was a normal occurrence.

Our destination was a large, round table at the other side of the hall, where a group of three men and two women were playing cards. At a guess, I would have said that all of them were paired couples, but I could be wrong.

No, two of them weren't paired for sure. Their mutations were too distinct and my experience was for paired couples to look very similar in their phenotype.

Travis joined the guy who was sitting alone and took the empty chair next to him.

Unlike his blonde partner, Bruce Patel was dark feathered, one could say. Additionally, the wings around his shoulders had two menacing-looking talons.

When I double-checked Travis, I realized her talons were hidden beneath a bloom of feathers.

Bruce looked up from his game and greeted me with a devilish grin. “Greetings! Tulkas, I believe was the name?”

I nodded, seeing no need in correcting him. At least publicly, I had always used the moniker, even if Astra and I hadn’t been as diligent in private. “I admit I was a little surprised when I received this unexpected invitation.”

Travis wagged a finger at me while she linked arms with her partner. “Can’t have been too unexpected with you nosing around our strata for days. How long did you expect it would take us to notice an outsider?”

“Longer, to be honest,” I answered blatantly. “Especially since I haven’t asked questions of importance. Just tried to get to know the people.”

Bruce narrowed his eyes at me. “Which is strange. Our clansmen told me that you were just fooling around – which I don’t believe. What are you searching for in our strata, if I might ask? If it’s something exotic, coming to us directly would have been the better choice.”

I showed him my open palms, spreading my fingers. “Nothing. The truth of the matter is that Etan isn’t confident in my abilities. He told me to get to know the various strata before he would give me a task of importance. And so, here I am, to watch and learn.”

“Here you are,” Travis echoed my words and followed up with a question. “Several days in a row? How long does it take to have our strata’s measure?”

I shrugged. “Takes time to get to know the people and the land. Please remember, I am newly exiled. And while my wife did her best to educate me, experiencing the real deal is so much different from being told. I thought about investing one or two weeks in each strata.”

She tilted her head. “So, you started with our strata… why?”

This was interesting.

How did she know I had started my quest with the third? It required knowledge of my absence from the twelfth. Had Etan overlooked a spy? Or was there another way for elders to discern my whereabouts?

“Please!” I chuckled and enthusiastically gestured towards the ceiling, indicating in the general direction of the third’s living quarters. “My wife gave me a brief tour through the clan, but your strata seemed the only one remotely interesting. The others are well organized towards their purpose – boring even. Yours was the only one with signs of a more interesting demographic. I saw the graffiti and public speakers and thought to myself, if you start with a strata, then why not the one which looks to be the most troubled.”

Bruce’s expression hardened, but his wife placed a hand on his arm. “I believe Tulkas thinks himself to be a study of people. I am sure he meant no offence to our leadership.”

I kept up my excited spiel and winked at the two of them. “Of course! Astra told me everything about the third’s role within the clan. I find your way of keeping things together quite effective if a little pragmatic. The good old game of propaganda, bread, and games for the common folk.” I indicated the club. “Keeps everyone in line. I couldn’t do it any better, given the kinds of people you have to work with. There is nothing harder than to keep discontents in line.”

Bruce didn’t seem pleased with me, but he nodded. “So Etan and Teresa are grooming you two as their heirs. Makes sense to make you aware of everyone's role within the clan. And a few graffiti are hardly a thing to worry about.”

I nodded, seeing another chance when I recognized the cards.

“Ah, and are you playing the Gathering, by any chance? I recognize the classic set. You are playing cube?” I stepped closer to the table. “You have a free seat, by any chance?”

“You know the game?” Bruce’s opinion of me seemed to improve slightly. He looked at one of his goons. “Bring the man a chair. We were about to go for a new round anyway. I don’t believe anybody minds.”

The other players at the table shook their heads, going along with their leader’s decision.

“Of course!” I took the incoming chair while they made space for me at the table. “I studied physics back on Earth. No better way to get introduced to nerd culture. And let’s be honest, the game is eternal by now. Not recognizing it is like someone not knowing chess or poker by sight. You playing the power nine?”

“A slight variation of it,” Travis admitted. “Instead of drafting a normal deck, we are going with commander rules. It’s better if you have a large table of players.”

“I see,” I nodded as the cards were shuffled back together.

“How is Earth doing, by the way,” Bruce asked. “It has been over a hundred years since I was exiled.”

The man next to me, a rotund fellow dealt out stacks of thirty. It wasn't what I was used to from a normal drafting game, but it made the deck-building process much faster.

“You are an exile like myself?” I asked. “Then I have to draw my hat before you. Coming here and becoming the elder of a strata, it had to be a path with many pitfalls.”

“It’s not like you aren’t on a similar path,” Travis pointed out.

“Regarding how Earth is nowadays.” I shrugged. “Not much has changed since your time. The World Government still claims itself to be a democracy, but we all know there is nothing democratic about a system that can’t be de-elected. If anything, the parties to choose are a case between lobotomy and cancer in my honest opinion. And if there is a promising candidate, one can be sure that he will be corrupted within months of being thrown into the feeding pen with the rest of the pigs. The people of Earth have done a decent job at enslaving themselves within an administrative system supposedly aimed at freedom and equality. And everyone who doesn't conform is left at the wayside. Your solution is preferable, I must say.”

I gestured around, indicating the third and the clan as a whole. It wasn't perfect. Nothing could be. But on Earth, the third's people would have been segregated away to their own subculture and allowed to fester at the edge of society.

It was the lot of those who were dissatisfied with the choices a stuck political system would offer.

Here, they had at least their strata to identify with and a voice among the leadership.

Bruce let out an aggravated sigh. “I suppose nothing much has changed then. It's fascinating how a good idea can be corrupted until the end result resembles the totalitarian regime it was meant to prevent. I was a politician back then. But when I proposed to add a mechanism to prevent the formation of nobility-like parties, they called me an anarchist. And when my national referendum went through, I suddenly found myself charged with countless immaterial accusations. I was dragged before the World Court and found myself exiled.”

I had been picking cards while the stacks of thirty went around the table, tasking one of my subconsciousness with selecting them.

Travis idly played with her partner's hair. “I am glad about you landing in my lap.”

That's when it clicked.

I flicked my finger. “You are Bruce de Brus! The one who almost managed to have northern Europe split away from the World Government by declaring independence!”

It was a huge scandal at the time and went down in history. Troops had been sent to beat down what was seen as a revolution against world peace. In a time where individual countries were nothing more than the federal states of a united government, trying to form a separate institution of equal standing was nothing more than heresy.

Bruce chuckled. “I no longer go by that name. Has everyone picked their cards?”

The last depleting stacks went around the table before people started building their decks.

Not knowing the exact card pool, I had stuck to the good old B.R.E.A.D rule. Bombs before removal, evasion, aggro, and duds. Among the game's five colours, I had ended up with quite a funny rainbow deck. Normally a problem, because it would be hard to find the corresponding resources to cast the spells.

But my alter ego had solved the issue by picking a lot of colour fixing, things that ensured I would have the right colours available and more than enough mana to cast the big spells in the long run.

We rolled dice for the right to go first and the honour went to the rotund fellow next to me.

He placed a plains card and immediately played his first white creature, which made me assume his strategy aimed at flooding the board with small, cheap stuff. It was one of the colour's trademark strategies.

I placed my own land, a dual plains and mountain which entered the board tapped and unusable as a downside. Then I passed the turn.

“Have you already met Gerald, by any chance?” Travis asked from Bruce's side while she studied the cards in his hand. She wasn't participating in the game, so I said nothing about it. “He is a very useful asset we came across recently.”

She indicated the rotund fellow next to me, who nodded with a pleasant smile. “Well met.”

He looked mostly human, aside from a set of ridges on his temples. And his white painted fingernails were quite the eccentricity. But it wasn't like I could complain about such things.

I replied in kind. “The reason why you are pointing this out is?”

“You are trying to prove yourself to Etan,” Travis explained. “I propose to send Gerald along with you as a consultant of sorts. To build relationships. His mutations are nothing to brag about, but he has a very sharp mind.”

“Sharp indeed. I have been a specialist for economics before I was exiled five years ago,” Gerald commented and played his second land once it was his turn. He immediately cast an equipment artefact and laid down his second creature, essentially proving my assumption about his strategy.

“Hmhm...” I hummed along, feeling a slight tickle in my mind.

This Gerald seemed to know his stuff, judging by his actions so far.

The game went five full rounds without anyone doing much aside from small attempts at preventing their opponents from building up their boards too much.

The woman opposite from me had a few of her creatures destroyed, but her black deck revolved around a revival theme, so it didn't bother her much.

Bruce suffered a few attacks, but his white/green life-gain theme immediately remedied the loss and generated an army of token creatures which would be threatening soon if nobody did something about it.

Gerald lost a few creatures, but he had an enchantment that easily allowed him to rebuild his army thanks to card-draw each time he successfully dealt damage with some white flying creatures.

The woman one seat over concentrated on artefacts which prevented her from being attacked conventionally while she slowly gathered her assets. I expected a wild combo to go off any moment.

The fifth player's deck was a random pile of cards that focused on value enchantments and powerful creatures.

I held back, reacting to threats rather than acting.

This game mode was as much about the game's strategy as it was about interpersonal relationships. A player could draft an extremely powerful deck, but if he revealed his true power too early, the others could easily gang up on the threat and take it out of the game.

The state of the game advanced steadily while I made small talk with Bruce and Travis.

Gerald added his two cents of wisdom from time to time and I even found myself defending his army once. The woman with the artefact deck tried to cast a board wipe which would have returned all creatures to their owner's hands, but I had a counterspell ready.

Gerald and I, we had formed something of an unspoken contract with each other while I chatted with Bruce.

Gerald didn't attack me and in turn, I kept his army from suffering complete annihilation. His steady stream of creatures also kept the woman with the revival deck in check – as her troops had to be held back to block Gerald's army, should he decide to attack.

Meanwhile, I kept building up my resources, piling up lands and artefacts to cast the largest spells possible.

“And exchanging advisers is common among the strata's leadership?” I asked, continuing our conversation from earlier.

“Of course,” Bruce replied with what sounded like complete honesty.

“The question is then... what would you want for Gerald's services?” I turned my attention towards the man who had apparently read my thoughts when it came to our silent contract.

“Oh, nothing really.” Travis waved me off. “I am sure Etan will thank us for our support in his quest to educate you. There are always ways in which stratas can help each other out. I am sure you bringing home such a valuable advisor will be an eye-opening experience.”

“Hm. I guess then I have to thank you for your generosity,” I nodded along. “I wouldn't have thought to find a few players of the game on this world. It's a very nostalgic feeling to sit at a table like this with others.”

“Please, it's nothing to humble yourself about,” Bruce waved me off. “But for the sake of political education, I do have one last piece of advice to give to you.”

“And that is?” I asked.

“You see, I like this game because beneath the complex rules, it's very simple.” Bruce tapped all of his creatures sideways. “I attack you with everything I have.”

“Which leaves you wide open for the others to attack while not killing me,” I pointed out. “At best, it takes both of us out of the game.”

“Ah, you see,” Travis clicked her tongue. “That's the political part of the game.”

“I see.” Somehow, I managed to keep my mask of friendly politeness in place.

Over the next few turns, each player at the table unleashed all the nastiness they could on me.

My creatures were destroyed and my graveyard exiled. I was forced to discard most of the cards I managed to build up. By the time it was Gerald's turn, I had nothing left.

When Gerald's eyes met mine, he shrugged. “No hard feelings, mate?”

I sighed. “Do what you must.”

“No hard feelings indeed, but this is what awaits you among the strata.” He also tapped all of his creatures, attacking me for lethal damage.

There was nothing to be done about me departing the game first. “Then I guess I will use my last breath to leave the table a gift.” I still had that neat little enchantment that allowed me to cast sorceries as instants. And so I used a spell called Prosperity to allow everyone to draw twenty-four cards.

It wasn't enough to kill everyone at the table since not being able to draw a card from your deck was an automatic loss according to the game's rules, but everyone who had drawn a lot of cards throughout the game suddenly found themselves with their entire remaining deck in their hands.

Among those were Gerald, Bruce who I intentionally left with exactly zero cards in his deck, and the artefact lady. The remaining two hadn't relied on card draw too much and would have to duke out the rest of the game between themselves.

“And with that, I will take my leave.” I stacked my cards back onto a pile. “Maybe we can repeat this another time – without the backstabbing part.”

Bruce looked a little miffed since he would lose the game right after me as soon as it was his turn, but Travis took it in stride. “Oh, please do come back. Bruce likes to flaunt his power, which is indeed taking the fun out of it at times. So, I like the scorched earth approach you took.”

“Well, I appreciate the lesson in diplomacy nonetheless,” I bowed and excused myself.

Winston and my guards surrounded me on our way back to the elevator. This time, the Patel guards didn’t see the need to escort us.

It was only once the elevator was already on the way upwards, that I turned my attention towards Gerald.

“Somehow, I wish you hadn't followed me,” I mused as I looked directly at him.

He didn't get it. “Why? Wasn't Bruce clear about my usefulness?”

I pursed my lips. “Clear enough. Say, you have no other mutations than mindflayer? Nothing that allows you to fly?”

“No-” His bemused answer broke off once he fully processed my question. “Wha- rgh!”

My arm blurred, hitting Gerald's Adam's apple with the edge of my hand and an unhealthy sounding crack! Grabbing his collar, I pulled him towards me while I went to one knee.

His weight fell onto my shoulders and for a moment, I had him in an awkward fireman's carry.

Then I heaved with all my might, letting out a grunt of effort as I lifted him up, and sent a surge of energy through my entire body as I straightened.

Gerald's body was flung out through the elevator's panorama, sailing far and wide right before the elevator passed into the marble shaft which blocked me from viewing the results.

From far below, I heard muffled screams.

In my mind, I imagined the weighty man landing right on Bruce's gaming table, bursting open like a ripe tomato. At least I had aimed for the table, but it was on the other side of the hall. I wasn't quite so confident in my ability to toss someone that far, no matter the height advantage.

Speaking of, what would a fall do to a man in this world's higher gravity? I intentionally waited for the elevator to reach the highest possible point before I threw him out. Forty or fifty metres were more than enough to kill back on Earth.

Hopefully, he would land at least close enough to the Patels to get the message across.

“Wha- Wha- Wha-”

I turned and raised an eyebrow at the stuttering Winston and the guards who looked at me like I had lost my marbles.

Winston finally managed to arrange four words together. “What did you do!?”

“I acted in self-defence against someone who used a mindflayer ability on me,” I explained.

“The Patels will be mad!” Winston looked at the floor in their general direction.

I grinned. “Guess we have to run fast as soon as the door opens.”

“Or we run now!” Winston jumped at the ceiling, grabbing hold of the cage's silver bars.

Within a moment, he had them bent apart and was scrambling through the opening, followed by one of my guards and then another.

“Or we run now,” I admitted, deciding they probably had the better survival instincts in situations like these.