Coin Toss

I never liked the idea of luck. I preferred to think that you could do anything if you worked hard enough. It made me feel better about my chances of becoming a Seeker, even though several sects rejected me. Funnily enough, I’m now a Seeker, simply because I was chosen to participate in some crazy survival game. Is that luck? Or just a coincidence?

. . . . .

Three openings appeared in the walls but, this time, no weapons fell out. Instead, Orion was faced with three horned lizards. They were each the size of a pit-bull and had sturdy red scales. Every time they moved, the scales rubbed together and emitted hot sparks.

Orion took a deep breath. “Alright. Not too bad. They seem sturdy enough.” He flipped the broken sword in his hand and looked around. He frowned. “Guess there’s no other way, huh?”

He ran forward and punted one of the lizards across the room. It smacked into the wall, a shower of sparks punctuating the blow. A whip of heat hit him in the lower back. He spun and pat out the fire. One of the other two whirled in a circle and dragged its tail on the ground, sparks flying. Its tail caught fire and the lizard let fly a second whip of flame at Orion.

“Damn. Some kind of fire lizards? This might get difficult.” He ducked the flames and charged toward his aggressor. The other lizard blew a stream of smoke at him, obscuring his vision. He waved his arms to clear it, just in time to duck another whip. He grit his teeth and rolled forward, getting close enough to smack Smokey on his head with the pommel of the sword. Smokey went down.

“One left.”

Orion tried to close in on the last one, but it was wary. It constantly spun in circles dragging its scales along the ground. As he closed in, it hissed and rolled deftly, its entire body catching aflame. Unfazed by the fire, it leapt at Orion!

He dodged, grimacing at the intense heat as the lizard passed by. “I should’ve brought some sunscreen.” He wiped some sweat from his brow. “Can’t let that thing touch me. I’ll cook in an instant.”

Orion dodged and weaved around the fiery little reptile. He gained a few singes when it glanced his arm, the skin turning red almost immediately. He set his jaw and continued dodging. If he couldn’t endure a bit of pain, the lizard would kill him.

Finally, his chance came. After a minute of burning, whatever it was that fueled the fire had run out. There was less fire and more smoke coming off its body. It seemed to notice this truth and started spinning again to relight the fire... to no effect.

Orion reeled his arm back and threw his sword, hard as he could. It whirled through the air, wind rushing noisily. The lizard heard it and dodged. But that was what Orion wanted. He flanked it from the side, one of its unconscious companions held by the tail. Just as it was distracted with the sword, Orion spun, igniting his reptilian weapon, and slammed the two together. They erupted in a storm of sparks and fire, bright enough that Orion had to shield his eyes.

The light faded, revealing the two, charred black and twitching. Orion loosed a breath and looked to the ceiling. “Hey, I beat them! What’s next?” He smiled. “And I managed to do it without killing them. Not bad.”

The mark on his arm changed, Congratulations. You’ve won a second chance. Flip again.

He searched the floor for a telltale golden glint. He found it underneath the lizard he’d kicked into the wall. The coin was a bit charred, but it seemed fine. At least, he could still tell which side was heads.

“So, do I just keep flipping ‘til I get heads?” He frowned. “That’s not good. If I keep getting tails, I’ll probably have to fight wave after wave of monsters. Eventually, they’ll wear me down.” Statistically, it wouldn’t be that strange to get tails several times in a row.

He sighed and set the coin on his hand. No point wasting time. The coin spun, rising into the air, then clinked on the stones of the ground. It bounced, then again, and rolled in a circle. Then it fell. Tails.

Orion pinched the bridge of his nose.

Graham frowned and flipped a page. “So… focus Qi into your hand and just… swirl it like a vortex?” If it sounded simple, that was because he was simplifying. If that was all he had to do, it wouldn’t need to be more than a sheet of paper. Most pages were taken up with calculations describing the optimal speed and dimensions of the vortex for the best effect. Math wasn’t Graham’s strong suit, so he skipped them.

“Maybe I can ask Orion to help me out when he gets back? I mean… he’s an accountant, right? He’s gotta be good at math.”

There was even a page dedicated to the—somewhat minor—effects of rotating clockwise compared to counter-clockwise. He skipped that, too.

“I don’t really need to understand those. As long as I can gather some water, I can afford to waste a bit of energy,” he thought. He glanced at Robin, who was picking at the vines on her arm. They responded to her touch lethargically, like a roommate that didn’t want to wake up.

“Hey, can you pass me the scripture?” he asked. She was currently waiting until she recovered enough to circulate again, in the hopes that it would finish off the parasite. She looked up, slipping her arm back in its sleeve, and got up. She rolled up the scroll and brought it over, sitting next to him.

“So… do you think you can do it?” she asked.

Graham spread the scroll out in front of him. “Maybe. The bad part is that I only have a short window to do it.”

She tilted her head. “You do?”

He nodded, taking a deep breath and closing his eyes. “I can only circulate for ten seconds… roughly.” He peeked at her out of the corner of his eye. “You didn’t feel the energy fading after a few seconds?”

She furrowed her brow. “I… don’t know. I was kinda busy…”

Graham smiled faintly. “True.” He placed his hand on the sigil and felt the energy rush into him, filling him with temporary strength. He grasped his wrist and raised his hand to eye level, coaxing the energy down his arms and to the tips of his fingers. It moved in waves, each time going a bit further like an incoming tide.

Finally, he could feel the buzzing energy gathered in his fingers, eager to be released. He visualized the energy spiraling around a point in the center of his palm, going faster and faster. He shut everything out and focused his mind on that one task. The air around his hand began to shimmer and twist.

Graham frowned. “It’s not going fast enough. I’m gonna run out of time.” He furrowed his brow and willed it to speed up. The shimmering grew more pronounced, distorting the area around his hands as if he’d plunged them under turbulent water.

The vortex spun, faster and faster. It began to lose ragged bits of energy, sending them drifting into the air until they disappeared. Graham could feel his hand stiffening. “Damn! That means I’m reaching the limit.”

He let out his breath and relaxed, the stiffness settling into his joints as the energy left him. He flexed his hand carefully, noting a thin layer of moisture on his palm.

“It didn’t work?” Robin asked.

Graham shook his head. “I couldn’t get the vortex to spin fast enough. But, I think I can get it with some more practice.” He glanced at her. “You think you’re ready to try circulating again?”

Robin looked at her hands and nodded. “I think so. I mean, it couldn’t hurt…” Her eyes widened and met his. “Could it? It won’t hurt, right?”

Graham pursed his lips. “It might, if you tried over and over again. Circulating seems to leave your joints stiff for some reason, and it gets worse the more you do it.” He scratched his chin. “I’m really not sure why. I’ve watched plenty of Seeker Battles and never seen any of them acting… stiff or whatever.”

Robin frowned. “Um… Seeker Battles?”

Graham’s jaw fell. “You don’t know about Seeker Battles? It’s like… one of the most popular things to watch!”

Robin winced and shrugged helplessly. “None of my friends watch it and I’m usually up in the air.”

“Huh? The air?” Graham asked.

Robin smiled. “Oh, right. Did I not tell you? I’m a pilot.”

He raised his brows. “Like, an airplane pilot? Is that safe?”

Robin waved her hands in front of her. “Oh, totally! I actually spread monster repellent around farms to protect the crops, so the flying monsters leave me alone… on account of the repellent.”

“Huh.” He squinted. “From the way she acts you’d never think it…” he thought. “So, what’s it like up there? I’ve never been in one.”

Robin nodded sagely. “Yeah, there aren’t many.” She sighed. “It’s really great being in the air. Total freedom and no worries. It’s really relaxing.”

Graham grinned. “No worries except possible impending doom if you make a mistake.”

Robin huffed, slapping his shoulder. “I’ll have you know, I’m a very good pilot! Seven hundred hours in the air with no crash to speak of!” She lowered her head and sighed. “But… I got fired. A couple days before…” She waved her hand around. “All this.”

“What for?”

She stuck her lip out. “My manager was promoted and someone else took her place. She used to let me fly the plane an extra few hours after I was done spreading repellent. I didn’t really consider that my new boss wouldn’t… so I didn’t ask…” She rested her cheek in a hand. “He didn’t like that. So, now I can’t fly. And there aren’t really any other jobs that would let me fly, either.”

“Hmm… well, you should hurry and build a Foundation. Then, you’ll be able to fly without a plane.”

Robin blinked. Her jaw fell and she grabbed his shoulders. “What?! Are you serious?!”

Graham smiled and removed her hands. “Yeah, didn’t you see Seraphim flying away?”

She slapped her hand over her face. “No!” She groaned. “I wasn’t paying attention. I mean, there was a man dying in front of us! How could I notice anything else?”

Graham set his jaw, running a hand through his hair. “Yeah, good point.” He grimaced. “I guess that makes me the weird one. Do I lack empathy?” He sighed and shook his head. He blamed the internet. It desensitized him, considering all the shocking things you could find on there.

He stood and worked some of the stiffness out of his shoulders. “You should give circulating another go. I’m gonna get some sleep.” He hopped onto the ring of seats and lay down.

“Um… okay. Goodnight,” Robin said.

Robin grimaced as her shoulder popped. Then the other. An elbow, her knee, her wrist, the other wrist. She could hardly move after circulating for the third time. She flexed her hands a few times and sighed. “It doesn’t hurt, but it’s really uncomfortable,” she thought.

She slipped the jacket over her shoulder, pulling out her arm to check on the vine. It was still there, snaking around her forearm. It was about as thick as a pen and it didn’t seem like it was going to shrink any more.

She groaned. “I wish it would just get off!” The vine moved. Robin squeaked. It slithered back up her arm and past her shoulder, leaving her arm bare. “D… Did it just do what I told it to?” She brought up her trembling arm and thought, “Come back.”

It moved again, curling up and around her arm, wrapping itself snugly against her. Robin couldn’t breathe. “Graham! Graham, wake up!” She crawled over and shook him awake. He stirred and she tried to tell him the situation in one breath.

“I circulated a few times like you asked me and the vine didn’t die and I feel stiff all over and I told it to go away and it did, then I told it to come back and it did and I don’t know what to do!”

Graham blinked hazily and rolled over, closing his eyes. Robin’s jaw fell. “Graham! I’m having a crisis here!” Her eyes narrowed and she brought a hand close to his face. She closed her eyes in focus and the vine stretched out to caress his cheek.

Graham flinched and smacked it away. “What the hell was that?!” He propped himself up on his elbows and stared at the vine hanging from her arm. It waved at him.

“Are you awake, now?” she asked, frowning.

Graham gulped and nodded.

Robin sighed and made the vine retract. “It’s… it’s listening to me. I don’t know why, but it does what I want it to.”

Graham pinched the bridge of his nose. “I… I’m not sure what to tell you… I have no idea why it’s doing that.” He put his hands in his lap. “If there was something more I could do, I promise I would but… I’m at a loss here.” He looked towards one of the doors. “The only thing I can think of is to get those books and see if there’s any information on it.”

Robin nodded sullenly. “I’m sorry for waking you like that. I was… I was just scared, I guess.” She wrapped her arms around her knees. “Do you think we should go, now?”

Graham shook his head. “I want to wait for Orion. I’m interested in what his door was like. And, who knows? Maybe he already picked the bestiary or the apothecary primer? It might save us some trouble.”

Robin smiled. “Yeah, that’s a good point.” It’d be nice to have Orion back. He wasn’t very talkative, but he seemed reliable. And from the way he took out Gloria and James, he’d be a great help if they were attacked. Robin would take all the help she could get in that department.

Out of the corner of her eye, she caught Graham wincing and adjusting his shoes. “Are you alright?” she asked. “You must’ve been walking quite a bit the last day or two. I hope you don’t have any blisters.”

Graham paled and slipped his feet to the ground, ensuring the seats blocked them from her vision. “Oh, it’s no big deal.” He chuckled. “Just adjusting the laces, is all.”

Robin frowned and recalled a conversation she’d had with Orion. “He said Graham had lost his shoe… But he has both, now.” She pursed her lips. “Should I ask him?” Normally, she wouldn’t be so nosy, but Graham was lying. She knew he was. Nobody was that evasive when they didn’t have something to hide.

Her gut twisted at the thought that Graham was hiding something. “What is it? Something that Graham doesn’t want me to know.” The possibilities spun around her mind. What if he’s not really nice and just wants her to lower her guard? What if he’s secretly a murderer? Maybe he attacked one of the other players before she met him?

Every thought, every possibility, every ‘unknown’ caused the knot in her stomach to twist tighter. She shook her head, almost hunched over with imaginary pain. “I have to ask. Just ask! I don’t think he’s a very good liar, so all I have to do is ask! And if he tries to avoid the question again, then I’ll know something’s up.”

She took deep breaths to calm her nerves. Then something touched her shoulder. She squeaked and flinched away. Graham crouched in front of her, looking concerned. “Are you alright?” he asked. “You looked like you were having trouble breathing.”

Robin gaped, eyes swimming. “Uh, well… yes. I-I’m fine.” She nodded frantically. “Just fine. Nothing to worry about.”

Graham smiled and the knot in her stomach untwisted a little. “Good. I’m just going to give that spell another go. Maybe I can get it to work this time.”

“Oh, uh, alright. Good luck!” She smiled weakly as he sat on the floor and flipped through the spellbook. When she was sure he wasn’t paying attention, she sighed. “That scared me. But… I don’t think he’s pretending to be nice…” She shook her head. “Still, I wonder what he’s hiding?”

She didn’t have long to think on it as one of the doors clicked open.