“I was once challenged to a duel by a constipated barbarian. It took hardly a minute for my Monarch to demonstrate its unfathomable power, and only seconds for him to understand. I traded my honor for an everlasting memory that day. He traded his problem for a pair of soiled undergarments.”

- The late Prince Maximillion

Thankfully, the trip through the woods went without incident. Percy assumed that was because everybody else had already obtained their entire decks and met back up by the source of the fireworks, as informed. And because of that, there probably weren’t any Summons left in the woods to attack him. Either way, he was happy that he didn’t encounter anything else as he stumbled blindly in the direction of the “explosive flares” Headmaster Blask had told him about.

A half hour later, Percy stumbled out of the woods and into a meadow. His feet were aching, but he pushed through it, making his way toward the large building at the far end of the field.

The building was a large house with a wraparound porch, painted white in a Victorian style. A large tree covered in vibrant green apples sprouted out of the ground nearby and several kids in the the same uniform as Percy sat around the trunk eating them.

“Hey!” one of them called as he approached. “So you survived, huh? I thought for sure you’d be dead after what I saw Ethan and his goons do to you.”

The tall blonde boy wore a mischievous grin, his green eyes twinkling as he slapped a hand onto Percy’s shoulder.

“You saw that?”

The boy frowned. “Saw it? I was there. You…” he trailed off, nodding as he came to a sudden realization. “Got it.”

Before Percy’s eyes, the boy’s features softened, his blonde hair growing down his back and forming itself into a ponytail. He didn’t grow any shorter, but his shoulders pulled together, his features becoming more delicate than defined. And as Percy watched, the appearance of the person before him completely changed.

Now, a tall blonde girl stood in front of him, smirking. The most beautiful girl Percy had ever seen. And he recognized her. It was the girl from the forest. The one that had been trying to bind Plumeria into a card.

“You’re the girl that made those other guys go after me!” he exclaimed. “The reason I got tossed into a volcano! What was your name… Sarah? No… Selene?”

“Selena,” the girl corrected him with a smile. “I’m surprised you remembered that much, considering the circumstances.”

“I have a decent memory.”

She nodded, looking him over. “So I can see. You said the goons threw you into a volcano? And you survived?” She frowned. “Are you human?”

That made him laugh, even as a crowd of students started forming behind her. “Yeah, I’m human. My free barrier saved my life. Guess getting pushed off a cliff counts as a hostile attack. Good to know.”

Her frown deepened. “Free barrier?”

“Yeah… Didn’t you look where the crystal was? I double-checked it to make sure I hadn’t missed anything and… voila! The free barrier.”

Selena’s eyes widened. “I missed something? But my mother…” Her voice trailed off, and Percy looked past her, realizing now just how terrible he looked in comparison to the other students. His clothes were covered in soot, the end of the cloak slightly singed. He didn’t expect his face to be any better, but at least whatever dirt was on it was probably disguising the embarrassment on his face. His ears burned.

“Hey is there a bathroom anywhere around here?”

Another student stepped forward while Selena muttered to herself. He was a short brunette, stocky, and hairy all over. “Hey,” he said warmly. “I’m Kollum. I’ll show you inside.”

The crowd dispersed, some of Selena’s friends pulling her back toward the tree and giggling as they talked about whatever it was girls of that age talked about. Percy certainly didn’t know. So he just followed Kollum into the main doorway of the house.

“What’s your name, by the way?” Kollum asked, pulling open the door and waving the other boy inside with a meaty fist better suited on a gorilla than a teenager.

“I’m Percy. Sorry,” he apologized out of habit, stepping inside the large house. Kollum laughed but didn’t say anything, just following in after him.

“Name?” came a raspy voice from beside the two, causing Percy to jump. Perched before a small desk shoved into the dark corner of the foyer was a wrinkly old man dressed in classic baby blue wizard’s robes. He was sat in a seat far too small for him, his long legs splayed out to either side around the desk, topped with matching shoes that came to a curly point. Poulaines, if Percy’s memory of history served him correctly.

“Percy,” he answered.

The visibly uncomfortable wizard looked at him over the tips of his glasses, an eyebrow raised and his lips pursed. “Surname?”

“Oh! Uh, Sm—Allblythe.” Percy remembered his new name at the last second, the fantastical sound of it exciting him as it left his lips. He wasn’t sure who’d given it to him, or why, but he was happy with it.

The wizard nodded, scanning a long paper he held in his right hand. He squinted. “Percy Smallblythe. I see you here… Says you’re attending on a scholarship. Congratulations. That’s very impressive.”

“Um, thank you?”

“Thank you, sir,” the wizard corrected.

“Oh. Thank you, sir,” Percy amended.

“And your Monarch?” the old man continued, producing a quill with a flourish and penning something down. “Let me see the card.”

“Oh, I have him here.” The boy reached down to his waist, flipping open the deck box and pulling out his cards. The dragon eyed him from the front of the pile, silent, and Percy placed him down on the desk.

Picking up the card, the man examined it boredly for a moment, muttering, “Ah yes, Silvaroth. An excellent Monarch for an excellent—wait.” He interrupted himself, his eyes going wide and his mouth dropping open as he stared at the card. It slid from his hands, falling to the desk. Then, he leapt into the air, knocking over the desk and exclaiming, “Malko’s mother! That’s Silvaroth! The dragon?!”

He dropped me! Silvaroth exclaimed furiously as his card sailed through the air. I’ll have his head!

“A dragon?!” Kollum exclaimed from behind Percy, pushing him to the side as he leaned over the desk and peered at the card with wide eyes and a smile. Then, he grasped Percy’s shoulders and shook him in excitement. “You got a dragon?! I’ll trade you! Look! I’ve got Hjelnard! I’ll even give you whatever other cards you want from my estate!”

Percy gulped. He hadn’t expected Silvaroth to have made such an impact. Well, he hadn’t known what to expect, really. He leaned past the animated boy and picked up Silvaroth from the floor, dropping him back into the deck box.

“Sorry, he’s… not for trade.”

Kollum’s face fell for a moment, but then a grin spread back across his face. “That’s alright! I wouldn’t trade him either. Dragons are incredibly rare, after all.”

The old man stared at him in shock, unmoving. Percy thought he might’ve died on the spot, but then he shook himself, a twitch that rippled throughout his entire body. Regaining his composure, the wizard reclaimed the pen and paper, writing something and retaking his seat.

“An excellent Monarch for an excellent applicant,” he said, not looking up from the paper. A wave of his hand shoed the two boys away, but Percy glanced back to see the old man eyeing him. His expression was tough to read.

---

The shower was even better than Percy had expected. In a fantasy world, he’d expected to find himself doomed to bathing in an uncomfortable tub, or showering under a waterfall. But instead, the house—which seemed even bigger once he was inside—was equipped with working faucets, with both hot and cold water on demand. And to top it all off, it was in a personal bathroom attached to what Kollum said was his room.

“First come, first room,” he’d said. “This one’s empty, and I’m right there.” He pointed down the hall at a door perfectly identical to all the others. Percy had no idea how he remembered which one was his, unless he counted each time. At least his room was on the end, so Percy wouldn’t have to worry about it.

He’d tried asking Kollum about Selena’s magic—the spell that let her disguise herself as a boy—but Kollum had shrugged him off and told him to ask her himself. So instead, Percy ended up heading into his room, discovering it had a bathroom attached, and taking a nice, long shower in the bronze tub. He soaked in the steam, scrubbing dirt and soot off and watching it wash away. A bar of soap had been left on one of the shelves, so he used that. It smelled like pine.

Getting out of the shower and drying off, Percy hung his towel on the back of the door to dry. It was an ingrained habit from his time in the orphanage. If you didn’t hang your towel, you’d have an earful from Ms. Morrison, and Percy hated the smell of cigarettes on her breath, so he did his best to keep out of her face and keep her out of his.

When the boy was all done washing up, he headed back out into his room, passing the standing mirror as he did so. New clothes had been laid out on the bed by someone while he’d been in the bathroom, his old ones having vanished.

He was used to that. Ms. Morrison used to lay clothes out for the kids in the orphanage to wear whenever they went somewhere fancy. Well, fancy by the orphanage’s terms. Going to the museum counted as fancy, and the kids all wore their best clothes to it.

He slipped on the new clothes, surprised at how well they fit him. Somebody had paid attention to the room he’d picked. And somehow, they had his measurements.

Scooping up the deck box from the dresser and clicking it to the new belt on his waist, Percy leafed through the tome. First, he flipped to the page with Silvaroth’s information on it. There was more stuff beneath the name now, including an additional form which none of the other cards had.

#002: Silvaroth, Awoken Calamity

Found in: Silvar Volcano.

Idle Form

Silvaroth, Slumbering Avarice

Monarch

Tribute

Summoner gains 1 Mana per turn, increased by 1 each time the Summoner successfully destroys an opposing monster without Silvaroth’s ability.

Affinities: Fire, Wind, Shadow

Aversions: Light, Earth, Water

Cost: 50 Loyalty

Active Form

Silvaroth, Awoken Calamity

Monarch Summon - Dragon

Spend 10 Mana: Silvaroth obliterates the field.

Generates 10 Fire, 10 Wind, 10 Shadow RPT.

10,000 / 10,000

“His three favorite things are: sleeping, riddling, and eating. So don’t wake him up unless you want to deal with the other two.”

“Well,” Percy said as he read the flavor text. “I wish the tome could’ve warned me about that earlier. Thanks, tome.”

He scrolled through the tome, finding similar information about each of his other cards. The name, each version of card art of the creature, and then their card texts were displayed, followed by flavor text. Percy found the hatchling’s flavor text particularly funny.

“I’ve trained them so well I could put my hand in their mouths. They’d bite it off, but I could do it.”

- Dragontamer Brakkis

He chuckled as he read it. Then, a knock at the door drew his attention, and Percy stood up to answer it.