“Alright, now that the introductions are over with, I think it’s time we get to business. I’m not sure if you already know the rules, but just for the sake of making sure everyone’s one the same page, I’m gonna go over them anyway.” said Barnabas. Their voice light, croaky, and distinctly musical.

The child reached out and slapped their hand down onto the table. Then suddenly there was a box sitting there. A dull brown box with splash image on the cover that depicted a clock floating in a pool of blood.

“We’re going to be playing the midnight game, ladies and gents!” said Lamont. Unceremoniously lifting the cover of the box and then shaking the box’s contents onto the table. Earning a dirty look from Barnabas, our apparent host.

“The rules are simple. The game lasts between one and thirteen nights. There can be up to fourteen players, but there needs to be at least seven. The actual number of ‘pieces’ varies. We all have five pieces ...but since you only have one piece, we’ll…*cough* give you handicap.” said Barnabas. Giving Lamont a final annoyed look, while making a point not to look at me at all.

“Ah, thanks for that.” I said. Smiling broadly but making sure not to let the smile reach my eyes. I was well aware that if I’d given a weaker impression, they’d have had no compunction with cheating me, as they’d intended.

There was no mistaking the fact that they were the ones that limited the party size for the job posting to three players. Ensuring that even if our group had been a little larger, we’d still be at a disadvantage.

Looking at the dark leanings of this particular group of immortals, I could predict how things were supposed to go had I been some hapless mortal.

First my ‘piece’ would die, then they’d kindly offer me a chance to stay in the game, by acting as both a piece and a player. Eventually I’d die too, and they use my life and the life of my partner to help refine the chunk of hyper-reality.

“Like all of the games our kind like to play, the pieces largely move on their own. The game is played in phases with each night being a phase.” continued Barnabas.

“The pieces do their own thing just trying to survive through the night. What we control is the events that take place during the phases and the setting that the whole game takes place in.”

“Spinning the wheel decides whose turn it is. We chose two cards from the two decks. One is a deck of bad shit. One is a deck of good shit. There’s even a third deck for random shit, events that can either be very good, or very bad, depending on what our pieces do. Tossing the die decides the weight of the changes you can make. After the master of the phase is decided, the rest of us spin, to see who’ll get to make three adjustments to whatever the master of the phase does. The changes made by the master of the phase and the three modders are controlled by the cards.”

“The winner of the game is the one with the most pieces still alive at the end of the game.” said Lamont. Earning himself another harsh look from Barnabas.

“Oh? My, my...seems I’m really at a disadvantage here.” I said. Loosing a bit of baleful aura to remind the group that I wasn’t going to allow myself to be cheated.

“Relax, fam. We’ve got you. Don’t we, Barnabas?” said Lamont. Slinging an arm over the child-shaped devil’s shoulder.

Barnabas shrugged off Lamont’s arm with a look of annoyance, and then met my gaze with a hint of challenge.

“Hmph, we already said we’d make up for it. No need to go on and on about. No one here is trying to cheat anyone.” said Barnbas.

I didn’t say a word in response. I just raised my brow at the little fiend, momentarily increasing the amount of pressure I was putting out, before pulling my aura back.

“Come on, man...No need to get ornery. Barney, how about you tell the man his options.” said Stefanos. His tone was carefree, his aura was refreshing, like a cool drizzle on a hot day.

“Urgh...Right...So, like we said, we can make things fair by offering you a handicap. If you’d like since we failed to inform you that you’d need to bring four other people we can give you the right to intervene directly on your pieces behalf four times.” said Barnabas.

I was a hair away from leaping at the offer, but I could tell that the little devil had more to say.

“Or…?” I said.

“Or, as an alternative. You can take a piece from three of us, and you and the donors can enjoy a lesser handicap in gaining the ability to directly communicate with your pieces at the end of each night.” said Barnabas.

I sat back in the seat, tapping my bottom lip. I was still quite tempted to take the first offer, but then something stopped me. My akashic feed had just brought in a packet very interesting, very troubling, information.

“Would I get to choose the pieces I took?” I said.

Barbanas’ expression turned even cloudier than it had been before. The group turned to each other. Communicating wordlessly. Eventually, Barnabas turned back to me and nodded.

“Yes...I don’t see a reason why not. However, the player you choose to take the piece from has the right to refuse.” said Barnabas.

I frowned for a moment, taking care not to look at Darla. I steepled my fingers as I considered my options. Then I created a partition of my mind that I detected to the task of researching the immortals at the table just in case I needed to haggle.

I decided that I was going to pass on the four chances at direct intervention. I trusted Margot to not need my help too badly. If that wasn’t the case there’s no way I would have been on board with her picking this job. Plus, I figured that being able to communicate would make up for us not having that direct save option.

Finally, as I looked at the data that I’d pulled up on my fellow immortals and their ‘pieces’, I realized that I was kind of forced to pick the second option. If Margot knew who else was in that grinder box of a playing field with her, I knew what choice she’d want me to make.

“I guess I'll be picking option two then.” I said.

“Nh, okay then. Are you sure?”

“Yes,...wait, one question. How much are we allowed to say for each night?”

“Well, I wasn’t really going to put a limit on it...so, so long as you don’t go overboard I guess its fine to say whatever.” said Barnabas.

“Oh, alright. Then yeah, I’m sure.” I said. Nodding as if trying to convince myself of the decision I’d already made.

“Cool...Then who do you want to take your pieces from?” said Barnabas.

I saw six sets of eyes turn in my direction. I swore beneath my breath as I realized most of the people seated at the table was going to try and get their pound of flesh from me, if I asked them for a piece.

“First off, Maci?...Would be you willing, give me the young man with the swords of light.” I said.

“You know the ‘playing field’ either nullifies or reduces the pieces powers, right?” said Maci.

“Yes.” I said.

“Mhm...Alright, then. He’s yours.” said Maci. Surprising me by deciding to be nice despite her severe and austere appearance.

“....”

I was left momentarily speechless. When it came to immortals they, we, generally didn’t give things away freely and she hadn’t looked like one of the benevolent types. In truth, I was pretty sure she was a dark goddess, so honestly, I was more than a little taken aback.

After thinking it over a little, I realized that she was trying to build a bridge of goodwill. That made me even more nervous because making goodwill with one immortal usually meant making enemies with ten others. Ultimately, I decided to just worry about the here and now. So I moved on to picking my third piece.

“Stefanos...there’s a certain uptight, young woman, a hero out-of-costume. Probably sent to you by her guild as a form of tribute, I suppose.”

“Oh, that one? Sure, take her.” said Stefanos.

Julian simply stared at me. Giving me creeper vibes, and making me wonder if we knew each other from somewhere.

I ignored Julian. I narrowed my eyes at Stefanos and the bronze-bodied deity smiled back at me. I looked around at the table warily, trying to scent for a trap. I realized that the sea god was trying to build a bridge of goodwill with me as well, and I immediately began to wonder what was happening in the immortal realms to make getting friendly with an unknown element like myself seem like such an attractive prospect.

Finally, there was the last piece. This wasn’t a priority like Tommy and Ashley had been but since I was here and there was no one else I absolutely needed to save I decided to extend some good will of my own.

“Darla, there’s is a gray industry heiress amongst your pieces. Last name Albani.”

“Ah, I know the one. She’s currently playing my game so that I’ll fish her cousin out of hell for her. What will you give me for her?” said the fairy queen.

I found myself relaxing a bit as I entered familiar waters.

In response to her question I magicked a piece of paper, and a pen, into my hands. I took the paper off the table, using my aura to obscure the view of the immortals around me. Then using my knee for support, I wrote a set of numbers and names onto the paper. Once I was done writing what I needed to write, I folded the paper in half and slid it over to the woman.

Darla took the piece of paper, she opened it, and then she scowled at me, her expression simultaneously amused and annoyed.

“Very well, you can have her.”

“You’ll still be honoring your agreement with her right? I just want her for the game, I’m not taking responsibility for your burdens.” I said. Wanting to be absolutely clear on the matter.

“Yes, yes...Being traded into another team isn’t something under her control so naturally, my bargain with the Albani girl.” said Darla. Snorting and pointedly looking away from me, which earned the two of us, a few curious stares from the others at the table.

“Cool...so that’s it for the trades, which means that we can get this game underway while the night’s still young.” said Barnabas.