Control.

It was all about control. Tay’d managed to control himself thus far in the tournament, and although he was playing a former champion of Runicka in all of Stormwall, if he maintained control over himself, then he just might have a shot at winning.

So, really, it was too bad the instant he crossed the threshold into the card shop, he lost control.

Sally rushed out from underneath his arm, and scrambled down the glass counter, pressing her face and gasping at every shiny card or precious rarity she could feast her eyes upon. She all but crashed into Atro, who laughed and received his card back from Em—Tay caught the five small stamps on the bottom as he approached.

Tay meant to chase after Sally, when Atro said, “Hey, Tay, that was a really good game. I really thought I was going to have you there when I summoned my Crystalline Smasher.”

“Yeah,” Tay said, craning his head around and seeing that Sally was jumping all over the glass counter on the far wall. What had he done? He’d unleashed a monster, and this one hadn’t even come from a card.

“Yeah,” Tay said again. “Sorry, really, you know—about your card.”

Atro glanced down into his hand and flipped up the Bronze card to reveal that he indeed had five featureless stamps aligned on the very bottom of the card. Null. If he wanted to ever climb through the ranks of Runicka, getting up to Iron and whatever came beyond, he’d need to save up enough coin to purchase another Ranking Card.

Which only begged the question…

Tay turned to Em, who was tidying whatever Sally had knocked down when she’d all but shaken the counter, and asked, “How much are new Ranking Cards, exactly?”

Em shrugged and said, “Well, it’s going to depend on what rank you want to buy in at.”

Tay shook his head. “Wait, you can buy higher Ranking Cards than Bronze?”

“Indeed. You can buy Bronze, Iron, or Steel, but it’ll cost you a pretty hefty sum for each rank you want to bypass.” Em glanced over to Atro, and then said, “I’m assuming you’re wanting to know the price of a Bronze Card. That’ll cost you forty Gylls.”

“Forty Gylls?” Tay only made ten Gyll a week working with Mond, and he thought he was making some good coin. “That seems outrageous—how is that supposed to be fair?

“It is what it is. Price is mostly defined by the Runic Council, if you don’t like it. The world’s not all that fair when it comes to things of coins and cards. You just have to learn to live with it, or get out of the game.”

Tay was working on a rebuttal when Em and Atro’s gazes were both pulled and pointed up over Tay’s head. The hairs on the back of his neck were the first to alert him of a presence looming up behind him. Without looking, Tay knew who it was.

Without looking, Tay knew what Mond wanted.

“There are a million places in Duskborough, Tay,” Mond said, pretty much just picking Tay up and spinning him about to look him right in the eyes. “A million places, Tay.” Mond spun him further, until they were both looking at Sally crawling over the glass counter.

Em groaned to that, and then yelled for Sally to get off of it while moving to chase her away. Atro laughed and watched the whole charade go down, with Sally rolling off of the counter and beginning her climb over the walls of card packs and deck boxes.

All the while, Tay could hear Mond’s deep breaths right against his ears. “I would take Sally to all those million places than ever bring her in here, Tay.”

Tay stepped forward and said, “She wanted to be here, Mond, and I wasn’t about to stand in her way.”

“She doesn’t know any better, Tay.” Mond gestured to his sling and said, “Do you want her to end up in one of these? This is the fate of all Runicka players who climb too high, Tay. You experienced firsthand what someone like Rantho is willing to do to win at this game. You really want her experiencing that? She loves this game, but she doesn’t understand the darkness that it can bring out in people.”

Before Tay had a chance to respond, Em returned, hair frazzled and completely clutching Sally by the collar, who looked somewhat akin to a puppy placed in a room full of cooked steaks. “Alright,” she said. “One of you needs to watch this. Well, you both are playing in the final round though…”

“Sally, dear,” Mond said. “I love that you love being here, but this really isn’t the best place for you to—”

“I want to play here!” Sally said aloud, yanking herself away from Em’s clutches. “I want to play Runicka. In tournaments, and everything!”

Hear her say that while knowing just how much it cost just to be able to get a Ranking Card now made it seem a little silly that he’d indulged Sally’s wishes. He wasn’t wrong to have brought her in here, but how practical was it for her to climb the ranks of Runicka when just to qualify for serious play, one needed to fork over four weeks’ worth of pay?

“There’ll be a time and play for that, dear,” Mond said. “When you’re older.”

“No! I want to play now, Mond. With you, and with Tay.”

“I’ll watch her, Mond,” Tay said. “It’ll be no issue.”

Em raised an eyebrow. “You sure? During your final round, you’re okay with devoting your attention to her?”

Truth be told, he wasn’t. He needed every last thought focused on defeating Mond. But he also needed Sally by his side. She supported him—believed in him. She was just too much of a gamble.

“It’s not a problem then,” Atro said, stepping forward, coming up behind Sally. “Because I can watch over her to make sure she doesn’t get into any more trouble. Besides, I’m sure she’s just as eager as I am to finally get to see the legendary Mondromo play in an actual tournament again.”

A look passed over Mond’s face, and he gazed over to Tay. But for all the face-reading Tay’d done today, he was completely lost at the blank expression Mond now wore. The man was partial to grins and smiles, but not even a wrinkle showed on his somber expression. It was like all hope that extinguished inside of him.

Tay understood why he didn’t want Sally here—he really did. But it was Sally’s choice to be here, just like it was Atro’s choice to watch over her. And Tay’s choice to go after his mother’s amulet.

“Well then,” Em said, clapping her hands together. “I believe that means it’s time to get our final round underway. Runekeepers, if you please, would you follow me over to the table.”

Em swept her way out of the glass counter, and made sure to pull out both of their chairs before allowing either of them to take and seat. “Congratulations to the two of you,” she said. “This is the final round of the tournament. The winner here will get a stamp on their Ranking Card toward Iron, and will get three whole Aens of store credit they’ll be able to use to purchase anything in the shop.”

Tay nearly choked when her heard that reward amount. Three Aens? How many weeks of work even was that? Ten, fifteen maybe? His mouth went dry, and Sally quite literally jumped up and down on his shoulder asking over and over again how many cards he’d buy for her.

And Tay too could hardly keep himself from imagining all the amazing cards he could buy with that sort of coin. He’d have a deck that could get him all the way up to Iron in no time. But his daydreaming was halted the minute Mond pulled out his deck of white-glowing cards.

This was the first time Tay was seeing Mond’s deck up close. The cards, like all Runicka cards, showed no signs of age nor wear. But his deck box, leather in make and rough in shape, was pealing and had a couple of water stains on the top.

It was Atro who ended up flipping the coin for them, and though Tay called heads, it came up tails. Sally shook his arm though and said it was fine. Just because he was going second didn’t mean that Mond had any sort of advantage.

But, looking over his hand and knowing that cards in the Will of the Warlock really liked targeting foe revenants, Tay didn’t have any problems in going second. In fact, if it was up to him, he would’ve chosen it, considering that all the turn one plays in his opening hand required having Mond play something on his first turn.

And luckily enough for Tay, it seemed that was exactly what Mond meant to do, drawing for his turn, and then attuning to Order 1. He said, “Now, I can’t see of a better way to start off this game than to summon one of the oldest cards I own—the Tamsian Swordsman.”

(15) Tamsian Swordsman Stable Gains +1 Power while attacking, so long as you control another Tamsian revenant. Barrier 2 >

There was quite truly no way of telling an old Runicka card from another. Their edges were pristine, and they all glowed with steady intensity. The only difference was the artwork, which was always in the same ultra-realistic style, with this one being a heavily-clad soldier raising his thick blade aloft over his half-helmet.

“I hate that card,” Sally said, leaning in close on Tay’s left. “It has Barrier.”

“And it’s a good Fusion Base,” Atro said, from his right.

“You’re going to want to get rid of it, Tay,” Sally said. “Fast!”

“Noted,” Tay said. What were they going to try and be an encyclopedia for him now?

But it was nice to have people watching out for him—cheering him on. He couldn’t imagine ever having that before back in Pyrewood. He’d been all alone all the way up until he’d come to Stormwall—until the man across the table had plucked him from the sky.

“While I think it’s nice that both of you really want to help Tay,” Mond said. “I think it would be best from giving him any sort of play advice during tournaments—that could get Tay disqualified. I won’t tell for now, but maybe let Tay face me with the strategy and skills he’s picked up the last couple of weeks?”

Atro stiffened. “I’m sorry. I was just expressing my opinion, sir.”

Mond waved his hand. “I know you were. Still, perhaps it’s best not to encourage those among us with less control?”

Sally crossed her arms and sulked, and Tay felt bad for her. She had only been trying to be involved in the game she loved. And while Tay definitely didn’t want to be disqualified on technicalities, there was something about how Mond viewed Sally’s relationship to Runicka that set him on edge.

Tay was still trying to win for himself, but now he also felt like he needed to win for Sally too.

Mond plucked another card from his hand. “The Swordsman might be an old favorite of mine, but this one is new blood—the Neo Tamsian Skymourner.”

(10) Neo Tamsian Skymourner Inert Shout: target Tamsian revenant gains Decay. Replenish 1 >

For all the age he couldn’t tell from the Swordsman, there was something eerily new about this Neo Tamsian card. Perhaps it was the fact that they were both wearing similar style helmets? But where the Swordsman’s had been plain, the Skymourner’s had steel trimmings, and a highly-polished exterior, as if it was a newer iteration of the same helmet.

“The Skymourner will give my Swordsman Decay, because his pain of loss will serve to protect others.”

Is that what Mond thought he was doing when he denied Sally permission to come to card shops? But Tay had also lost a lot. That was an understatement. Until he’d come to Stormwall, he’d always lost. Plain and simple.

And Atro—standing to his right and keeping his eyes on Sally, supporting him in his endeavors to win this tournament despite already having been knocked out—was testament to why a person should never glorify their loss, and the pain that came with it. If Tay had let his pain of losing Claudus as a friend transform into delusions of protection, he might’ve conceded to Atro in the last round.

Or not. He might’ve done the opposite, and completely undermined his friend.

Tay had done awful things to Claudus to escape Pyrewood—things he’d never think about again, given the choice, but Mond couldn’t use the pain he had from losing his touch with Runicka guide Sally’s life.

Atro leaned over the table and scoffed. “New blood? I’ll say. These are the Neo Tamsian cards. They only just came out with the latest set—Winds of the West.” When Tay perked up one of his eyebrows, Atro added, “Kind of an ironic inclusion in that set though, because the Neo Tamsian cards don’t even have any of the Flying cards their Tamsian brethren were known for back in the day.”

“Hey now,” Mond said. “Remember that we agreed on no play advice.”

Atro took a step back from the table and held up his hands. “Ri—right, sorry, sir! I don’t believe me stating what the card is counts as play advice though. The Neo Tamsians are fairly common knowledge. They were a well-received addition to an outdated archetype. I, for one, really enjoy when they release old archetypes in the newest sets.”

Tay frowned, and then shared a look with Sally. They both worked it out at the same time, and he could see the epiphany form by how her white eyes widened.

“Newest set?” To Mond, Tay asked, “You bought new cards then?”

Mond’s face blushed from a pasty white into a ruby red, and he tried to hold up his hand to block their eye contact. But his cards were white, and glowed with the intensity of four brilliant candles. Plus, his face was quite a great deal bigger than Runicka cards, so his embarrassment was only more apparent.

“I just thought, with how impassioned you were about improving at Runicka, that my deck could use a little bit of an upgrade. Especially if I was going to be competing in this tournament against you.”

“That’s not fair!” Sally all but jumped up on the table. Atro was quick though, and moved about the table to hold her back.

“It’s not fair—not fair—not fair,” Sally said.

Tay found himself echoing the words of Em. “It is what it is. The world’s not all that fair when it comes to things of coins and cards.”

Mond must’ve overheard him, because his chest swelled and he lowered his hand to glower across the table. “You want to talk of fairness.” He gestured to his arm in the sling. “I rescued an urchin who’d gotten himself in heaps of trouble—more than any person who doesn’t have a death wish ever ought to be in. But I’m not complaining. Why? Because I know my place. I can protect people from the awfulness of this game.”

Mond had risen from his seat, and was looming over the table, casting their whole game into shadow. Snowy white illumination from his cards outlined the rough edges of his snarling visage.

Sally had quieted down, and was pressing herself back into Atro’s waist. Atro didn’t say anything either, instead just casting his gaze down to the ground. Mond glanced over at both of them, and then returned to his seat again. For once there was finally some peace and quiet in the shop for a second.

Then Mond said, “Just take your turn, kid.”

And so, Tay did. But not before Sally grumbled. “Beat him, Tay. Beat him. Please.”

Before Mond could get a word in, to Sally, Tay said, “I will.” He drew for his turn, declared Chaos 1, and then slapped down his first card. “I’m going to bring forth the Grimoire of the Warlock!”

(15) Grimoire of the Warlock Stable Dormant: target foe revenant loses -3 Power until the end of the turn. Then, if its Power reaches 0 by this effect, it is obliterated. Echo < 0

It was funny that even though Tay was the one playing with cards that excreted darkness incarnate, Mond was the one sulking in the shadows. “Next, I’m going to be fusing my Dark Siphoner on top of it.”

(15) Dark Siphoner Stable Shout: target foe revenant loses its auras and -1 Power. < 2

Even though it wasn’t a Warlock revenant per say, the Dark Siphoner might as well been. She wore a hood and cloak, and her hands were like two whirlpools in air, draining green and dark powers straight into her body. Tay got the feeling that there was nothing left of her underneath that hood—just an insatiable hunger looking for more to feed on.

So, he set her appetite on Mond’s Neo Tamsian Skymourner. “And since, before the fusion resolves, Grimoire of the Warlock’s Dormant effect triggers, I’ll be targeting your Tamsian Swordsman with it. When its Power reaches 0 by the Grimoire’s effect, it’s obliterated. Finally, I’ll swing my Dark Siphoner into your Skymourner and leave you with nothing on the board.”

And as Tay ended his turn, even though it felt wrong to get a leg up on Mond—who’d paid for him to enter into this tournament, who’d given him employment, who’d saved him from his own mistakes—Tay actually believed he had a shot at winning this. For Sally. And for himself too.

He finally felt in control.