“I’m sorry,” Tay said, staring down at the mess of cards, feeling like his limbs now weighed more than bricks.

His deck had fallen everywhere—across the table, over the game, and even onto the floor. He didn’t dare pull his eyes away from the table though. Was everyone in the shop staring at him? Why was he so nervous all of a sudden?

It was just that, every single play he made, got him either closer to or further from ranking through Bronze. Atro’s words echoed over and over again in his mind. There really only was every one right way to play Runicka. Except, now, those sole right decisions he needed to find, also either brought him closer to his mother’s amulet. Or, if he chose poorly, they’d increase the distance between him and Rantho, until Tay become nothing more than a stain in the memory of that spoiled jerk.

Without a word spoken and not even a grunt given, Purvon leaned forward and quickly collected all of Tay’s cards. He left the board state as it was, and then proceeded to lean over the side of his chair to pick up the cards left on the ground. Tay wanted to tell him to stop, but his voice caught in his throat and he realized what he was doing.

This game wasn’t the entirety of his journey to figuring out who his mother had been. Part of him had known that, but he had ignored that fact. There would be plenty more steps to getting her amulet back and finding out the truth about her—and he’d get no closer if he let this tournament stop him up.

Tay leaned over and helped Purvon clean up the last of his cards. When the silent man handed them back over, he placed a gloved hand on top of Tay’s and bowed his head with a friendly smile. He could feel comfort coming off of the man like wind from a summer’s breeze. This wasn’t a game he needed to worry about over and over in his head.

“Just a friendly game,” Tay said.

Purvon grunted to that, and then picked up his hand again. And the game resumed. Purvon spent his next turn taking full advantage of the fact that he was still temporarily aligned to Chaos 2.

(20) Mourncrest Hound Unstable Volatile << 5

The card showed a leaping dog, with quills upon its back much like that of a porcupine. Its face was massive and wide, and Tay would’ve done anything to avoid having it come after him, had this been a battle duel.

It had the Volatile aura, which meant that the card would sacrifice itself during Purvon’s End Phase this turn. Volatile cards were particularly nasty, Tay’d learned, as their effects tended to be super impactful the moment the card hit the table, and changed the nature of the game in a blink of an eye.

Purvon pushed his hound forward, attacking his Hound into Tay’s Apprentice. Nothing could really stand up to the Hound’s 5 Power though, so Tay moved his revenant to Oblivion, before placing back his Grimoire of the Warlock.

“Since it has Echo, it comes back whenever it’s sent to Oblivion as part of a fusion,” Tay explained.

Purvon gave that a long nod, and then placed another card down beside his Mourncrest Hound.

(15) Mourncrest Thief Stable Shout: this revenant gains +1 Power for each revenant your opponent controls. Replenish < 1

Funnily enough, this card’s art showed two figures—one chasing the other. The one behind, with the small black mask on was definitely the Thief. The other was a man in an expensive-looking jacket, with pockets full of gold spilling over and out onto the road.

Purvon moved his Thief forward too, and Tay’s Grimoire, with only a Power of 0, was sent directly to Oblivion. Then Purvon then pulled out a small clay statue from his pocket, no bigger than the palm of his hand. It was of a woman in a flowing dress with a frowning mask on her face. In her forehead, a violet ley-crystal glowed softly. In her two hands, there were ley-crystals practically humming with vibrant powers.

This had to be Purvon’s Talisman, and he was tapping at the one of the emerald ley-crystals.

“Are you using your Talisman?” Tay asked.

Purvon nodded, and so Tay leaned in to get a closer look at the stone. He had to squint his eyes and exhale a few times to clear his head, but eventually, he forced the gemstone into revealing its hidden abilities.

(15) Stabilizing Shadowstone Target revenant with Volatile loses Volatile. @4

And Purvon gestured to his Mourncrest Hound, meaning it wouldn’t be leaving the table at the end of Purvon’s turn because of its Volatile aura, nor any turn after. Which meant Tay had a problem with 5 Power, and needed a way to deal with it before it ran over everything in his deck. After all, he had nothing he could draw nor play which could go toe-to-toe with that revenant.

When it was Tay’s turn again, he took some time to rectify the board state against what he had in his hand. He had a couple of Chaos 3 cards, including his powerhouse card of the Warlock of Midnight Darkness, but those wouldn’t do him much good until his next turn and he needed an answer now. Who knew what more explosive cards Purvon was still holding onto?

The only upside to the current state of the game was that Purvon had to put himself down to 20 Life to get to where he was. It would take him some time to recuperate that Life back through attunement, so if Tay could somehow deal with his two revenants and then swing at him for some damage, then he might have a shot of closing the game out.

Therein lied the problem though.

One of his deck’s biggest weakness was damage. Or, rather, that it didn’t have much in the way of it. And none of the cards in his hand could really get all that much Power out on the board to threaten Purvon. Tay could just picture Atro talking over how the Will of the Warlock was supposed to work, saying how Tay needed to trust in the deck’s usual win conditions and take his time in controlling the board.

If he just did that, then victory would be all but assured. Or, at least, that’s what Atro would’ve wanted him to believe. Of course, Atro’s strategies hadn’t even worked against him a majority of the time, so who really knew the best play Tay could have made?

In the end, he was just having a friendly game with Purvon, so Tay decided to go with what felt right.

“I’m attuning to Chaos 2,” he announced. And he enjoyed gaining the 10 Life that came with it, putting him back up to 90. “Then I’m going to summon my Fiend of Many Faces.”

(10) Fiend of Many Faces Inert Shout: this revenant and target foe revenant swap Power. Provoke << 2

There were many monstrous-looking cards in his deck now, but none were quite so unsettling as the Fiend of Many Faces. It had an elongated body, like that of a salamander, with a nub-like head. Four different faces showed in each direction, granting the Fiend sight in all directions and an unsettling nature beyond reason.

“And I’ll swap its Power of 2 with that of your Mourncrest Hound. Then, I’m going to go ahead and summon Headhunter of the Warlock, which is going to reduce your Hounds 2 Power to 0 Power when it hits the board.”

(20) Headhunter of the Warlock Stable Shout: target foe revenant loses Power equal to this revenant’s Power. Then, add a card from your deck to your hand equal to or less than that amount. << 2

Compared to his Fiend of Many Faces, the Headhunter wasn’t anything special—just a regular man standing in the middle of a dark abyss, with an axe and short sword strapped onto his belt. He had a fine cloak, but not much more, aside from a mean stare.

But mean stares could do a lot of damage. Tay had learned that from Rantho.

“My Fiend will attack obliterate your Thief, and my Headhunter’s going to take out your Hound. I don’t have anything else beyond that though, so it’s your turn again.”

Tay’s Life: 60 Purvon’s Life: 20

Purvon took his fair share of time on his next turn. The man attuned to Chaos 2 and put himself back to 30 Life, but then stalled for a long while as he considered all his options. He grunted every now and then, and the longer he made Tay wait, the more Tay could feel his nervousness creeping back into his mind. It wanted him to think about how close he was to winning, and how that anticipation toward victory might be snatched away this turn with whatever Purvon decided to play.

All that dried Tay’s throat and nearly made him sick, until Purvon put his next card down with a thin smile. The card was just a woman, in a dress, with a heavy purse. She had her hair done up, with thick curls, and wore a fur coat to show off how financially endowed she must have been.

(25) Wealthy Damsel Stable Oblivion: until the end of your next turn, align Chaos 3. Replenish < 1

Then came another card—this one more sinister seeming than the last. It was a gaseous cloud, with two vortexes for eyes at its center.

(20) Consuming Will Unstable Shout and Oblivion: obliterate target other revenant. Volatile << 2

Tay had played Atro enough times to make him think that he knew what play Purvon was going for. He’d even seen this Consuming Will in action before in his practice duels. Purvon would obliterate Tay’s first revenant with its Shout trigger, and then do the same for his other one with its Oblivion trigger.

Instead though, Purvon reached over and moved his Wealthy Damsel into Oblivion.

Why would he send the only thing he had on his side of the board to Oblivion? Summoning two revenants meant he was already at 1 Life. As it was, Tay would just have to play a single card next turn and smack Purvon for the win. Surely, there was going to be more to his play than this.

Purvon grunted and met his gaze. There was something in his good eye that Tay couldn’t rightly discern. He’d never been too good at reading people. So far, that had worked out in his favor. Probably for the best if he never knew how much he’d hurt the people he’d stolen from.

Yet, Tay had never wished he could read people better than he did in that moment, sitting across from Purvon, before the man played his next card while aligned to Chaos 3. When it hit the table, Tay admired how it seemed to suck in and absorb all the darkness of their light-lacking corner of the shop.

(10) Mourncrest Assassin Unstable This revenant gains +2 Power for each revenant with Volatile you control. Flurry, Volatile <<< 6

For art being simply a man standing calmly in the middle of a light breeze, it sure had quite the amount of Power. And Flurry too, which meant it could use those dual swords of its twice in a single turn. Except, Purvon didn’t attack with his Assassin first.

No, first came the Consuming Will, which Purvon pushed up against Tay’s Headhunter. And since they were both 2 Power…

“Oh no,” Tay said, as he realized what was going to happen. “They’ll obliterate each other, which means my Fiend of Many Faces is obliterated too?”

Purvon grinned and nodded. And then he pushed the 8 Power Mourncrest Assassin forward. Twice.

But as much as Tay hated taking 16 damage in one turn, that still left him at 44 Life while Purvon remained at 1. And when Purvon’s turn ended, though he drew back up to three cards, he had to sacrifice his Assassin because of its Volatile aura. That left him with nothing.

Purvon had no revenants with which to defend himself. No Talisman to hide behind. Nothing.

And Tay had Life to spare. And Purvon’s hazy look suddenly cleared up into distraught hopelessness. He’d known the previous turn that there was nothing he could do to defend himself. His deck, while aggro and quick on the draw, had been out-controlled by Tay’s slower plays.

Which meant… Tay had won?

He didn’t announce it. Nor did he draw. He just stared at Purvon’s empty board as if in disbelief. Because he couldn’t have won already, could he?

Purvon had used all of his Life, and they’d had some good trades. But last turn was usually the point where Atro came in and swept the game away from him. That hadn’t happened this time. No, he’d been able to bring it back into his favor.

Unless Purvon had some crazy play that Tay could never see coming, which was why he then drew and attuned himself up to Chaos 3. He then dropped the most powerful card in his deck onto the board.

(20) Warlock of Midnight Darkness Unstable

Shout: reduce all foe revenant’s Power by half (rounded down).

Uproar: obliterate all foe revenants with less than 3 Power.

Decay <<< 3

“I attack with the Warlock of Midnight Darkness,” Tay said, as if it didn’t feel like something he could do. “Does it land?”

Purvon grunted, and Tay leaned in, cocking his head to the side. The man gave no indication, other than that terse grunt, of whether or not Tay had claimed his first victory. Eventually, Purvon did begin picking up his cards though, still not meeting Tay in the eyes.

“So, have I won?” Tay asked.

Purvon gave a short nod.

And for the next couple minutes, Tay lost his mind. One second, he’d been asking permission to win the game, and the next, he’d won his first official tournament game in Runicka. And he’d done it marvelously too. He’d controlled the board, and stayed ahead of Purvon, and only messed up by dropping his deck.

Which reminded him of how polite Purvon had been in helping him, so he only thought it prudent to do the same for the quiet man. Tay helped Purvon pack up his cards. He then noticed that the other tables were emptied and all the other competitors were over near Em, probably letting her know the results of their first games.

Checking to make sure everything was squared away with Purvon, the two of them shared another, final handshake, before strolling across the shop and joining the rest of their peers. Though Tay could see Mond’s huge silhouette towering over the crowd, it was Atro that found him first, practically jumping in Tay’s away.

“Did you win?”

Tay stammered for a second, before grinning and giving away the answer to that question without actually speaking.

Atro smiled back. “I knew you had it in you. You’re a real prodigy, Tay. Plus, you’ve had an excellent teacher.”

Tay nudged Atro before the two of them pushed their way up and next to Mond. The big man nearly swung Tay about with his one good arm when Tay told him the results of his first game.

“I knew there was a reason you were coming here after every shift,” Mond said. “You weren’t wasting time. What did I say, Tay? You’ve already done more than this. It’s going to be easy for you.”

Tay laughed Mond’s compliments off, all the while wondering how true that statement would hold up if they were to be placed in their next games against one another. In fact, that was all Tay could think about as Em collected the results of their games and created the list for the second round. Out of the three of them, they’d all won, which meant they’d be moved into the winners’ bracket.

The losers weren’t out yet. They’d be placed in the losers’ bracket, because while their Ranking Card would be stamped with a loss, they were all still playing for minor monetary rewards. Apparently everyone but last place got to receive some part of their buy-ins back, as store credit, of course, Em was quick to point out.

Tay was both a mixture of ecstatic and terrified while Em moved around the gathered crowd and posted the list of names on the shops far wall, tearing down the old list in the process. Tay hung back with Atro and Mond while the others pushed their way to sort out which seat they’d been placed at.

“Who was your first game against?” Atro asked Tay.

Tay glanced around for Purvon, and spun about a few times, but couldn’t find the wordless man. He glanced around a couple times again before turning back to Em and asking where his former opponent had gone.

Em shrugged and said, “They don’t all have to stay. If they want to take the loss and leave, that’s their prerogative. Just means that someone’s going to get a bye and advance up to the next round in the losers’ bracket. His store credit’s going to go to someone.”

“Was he a regular?” Atro asked.

To which, Tay shrugged. “Never saw him around here before. Didn’t say a whole word while we dueled. Don’t think he could. Nice gent though.”

Mond then placed his giant hand against Tay’s back and all but threw him across the room. “Come along now. The crowd has cleared. It’s time to see who we’re facing.”

And while Mond wandered off to find his next foe, Atro and Tay glanced over the whole list before finding their names at the very same time.

Seats one and two.

Their gazes met each other as they worked over what this meant. They then spoke at the same time.

“My next opponent is you.”