“Rue!” Syron called out jovially. The boy in question turned from the notebook he was writing in and looked at Syron with a grimace.

“Forrester, could you please not speak to me so cordially? People are… well, they seem to have noticed and may get the wrong interpretation from it.” Rue was sitting at a rather large table by himself in the center of a common area. Every other table was packed to overflowing, but this huge table in the center was empty except Rue. Syron’s heart hurt a little looking at the kid that was clearly being bullied. Well, he could be a bit of a screaming handful though.

“I could, but I won’t. Want me to call you something else? Make me.”

Often times, the easiest way to befriend the aggressive types is to meet them on common ground. Or maybe that is completely wrong. Oh well, worst comes to worst he’ll just blow up again and I’ll kick his butt. I know there is some ‘dere’ in there packed behind all the ‘tsun’.

Rue just sighed theatrically and gestured to the seat beside him. Half of the students at the tables surrounding them let out a collective gasp. Syron just rolled his eyes and made a disgusted face. It doesn’t matter what Rue’s situation is, it’s not like Syron was going to catch the cooties from sitting next to him.

Is that something twelve-year-olds worry about? That seems pretty old. They stop doing that at like eight, right?

“Alright, so this is what I’ve got worked out so far. The biggest issue with your game is how inclusive it is between each group, right? You have all these rules and guidelines in place, but you would have to rely on the honor system if you ever allowed anyone to bring their own character to an event. This means that forever your events would have to be similar to your previous one, though hopefully a little less… almost kills me. You can’t trust people to not just show up with a maximum strength character and claiming they had been playing with their friends everyday for a month preparing. Even if you could, the next issue comes into play is that in your booklet, you say the most important aspect to enjoying the game is the ‘role-play’. How can you have meaningful role-play if people aren’t allowed to play their own characters?

“This makes me bring up two major points for us to discuss. One, how can you legitimize personal characters for a public venue? If everything is just ink and paper, mistakes and forgeries will be common. You will be forced to either accept the liars and cheats, ruining the credibility of your game and crippling any enjoyment legitimate players might have experienced… or you have to have templates like the competition I played in. While a fun idea, those games are not enjoyable enough to keep a large group of people involved for long. Low level tactics are enough to break any semblance of balance, never mind the lack of your desired ‘role-play’.

“The other major point only comes into play if you can successfully figure out the first one… assuming you can guarantee the characters, how do you guarantee the games? I assume you won’t be personally putting on every single campaign personally, no? Therefore, how do you maintain quality control on games being played, whilst simultaneously ensuring that they are fairly distributing items and experience?

“These two points are only important if you go as big as you were talking. When we were at the café you started talking about a ‘league’ and ‘party finders’… quite frankly it is too much for you. I can understand why you used your favor from me to get me involved, I just don’t understand why it is so important to you.” Rue finished his rather lengthy diatribe while massaging his temples.

Any anger he had shown in the previous two engagements was nowhere to be found. Was he actually trying to earnestly fulfill the favor? How… honest of him. He could have just acted as shameless as me and pretended like he never made a promise.

“Well, I’ll just start with telling you why I care so much. I just really like the game and I want others to be involved too. Also, I really like my magic and the game is such a nice way for me to utilize it without people raiding my estate with torches and pitchforks. Maybe, just maybe, I can change the way people feel about illusionists. I sincerely doubt every single illusionist becomes a thief, even if they don’t have the resources at their disposal that I do. If it is true, perhaps if they were given an opportunity to work without prejudice they wouldn’t have been in a situation where they felt the need to? That’s why, for your second point, I want to hire illusionists. Illusions make the games better. If they are down on their luck and blamed by society for a crime they’ve yet to commit, why not give their lives a little bit of support and hopefully avoid that fate? So… two birds. I hire illusionists, then train them up to become event masters too. Then, only characters that are like… what… licensed? Yeah, only licensed characters can be used in proper venues. People can still play at home with the rules, but the real deal is at Syron supported establishments. Well, perhaps my mother would be willing to put the Forrester name behind it instead of just mine. Eh, at any rate, that also resolved your first issue.”

Rue took on a pensive look. He shook his head from side to side while thinking, his eyes out of focus.

“There is a registry for all aptitude holders. I can ask my father to get me a list of potential candidates for your ‘event masters’. Ah, knowing him, he’ll get me the whole registry and think it is a good test to have me find the candidates myself. To have ‘establishments’, you’ll need land and I assume buildings. That will cost a lot of money. Even your likely sizeable ‘pocket money’ will not be enough. You could always make it a place you have to pay to play at. Doing so will certainly bring in at least some income, though probably not enough to pay for the property and taxes. Any of the rest will have to come from your own pocket.”

“That sounds like a good idea. Alright, let’s do that. I’ll leave locating the buildings and candidates to the contacts you said you had. I’ll get together the necessary funding and finish up my revision for the rules. After months of hating the temporary name, I still haven’t come up with a good one for the game…” Syron scratched his head and smiled before pushing away from the table. He pat Rue on the shoulder while he passed by, again bringing about a collective gasp from the surroundings.

“Alright, I don’t know what your deal is, but he’s just a person. Stop treating him like some sort of disgusting monster, it’s irritating me. You should support your peers, not isolate them.” Syron announced to the suddenly silent crowd. He roughly pushed open the doors to the common area, surprising a pair of girls into dropping their books. Syron looked around with a frustrated face for a second, then shook his head. A slight smile could be seen on his face while he helped the girls pick up their belongings. He then apologized for causing trouble and held the door for them politely.

Figures I’d screw up and not stick the landing. Still though, I can hardly tell them to ‘support your peers’ and then not help the kids I personally inconvenienced five seconds later.

Syron disappeared behind the common room door as it latched shut. The two girls just looked around the stunned room, feeling insecure from how everyone was staring at them.

“I just don’t get the difference in treatment. I nearly die because of him and he talks to me like trash. He merely bumps into a couple of girls and then what… politely apologizes and holds the friggin’ door for them? What the hell, Forrester!? Am I not treated fairly because I’m not feminine enough for you!?” Rue yelled out loud, startling a few of the silent onlookers. He looked around the room and how everyone was now averting their eyes from him before turning scarlet.

I said that out loud, didn’t I? $#!&! How humiliating…

Rue ignored the fact that it was his own fault that he yelled something embarrassing into a silent room full of people. He also didn’t realize that rumors would soon start to spread about how ‘Prince Rue acts like a jilted maiden around Syron Forrester!’ Quietly, of course, as negatively perceived rumors about royalty often were dealt with severely at the source.

Rue just closed his eyes and shook his head a few times, taking a deep breath through his nose. He didn’t get angry at the way Forrester treated him anymore. Not since he was the only one that worried over Rue at the infirmary. He may have been assigned more guardians, but Rue couldn’t help but remember how he had been abandoned when it looked like Syron was going to kill him. It was possible that Rue’s death was being encouraged behind the scenes to bring trouble to the Forrester House. Go figure the only person to help him at that point was the foul-mouthed hoodlum that caused the greatest issue plaguing the kingdom in the first place.

No matter. It seems I’ll be needing to visit my father for a request again. Over the same game, no less. I think my life would be better if the informant from Vanguard had never told us about this ‘rule booklet’ spreading from the Forrester House. Then I never would have become infatuated with the idea of this game… and I never would have encountered either of those Forrester monsters. Honestly, who’s ever heard of an illusionist turning perfectly invisible? How did he not kick up dirt and cause foot prints? Was he using illusions to cover them up too? How did he not make a sound in that wide, silent arena? How did he leave a copy of himself so convincing that even I, a prince with the greatest magical tutors in the kingdom, could not detect even a wisp of magic in? Patricia Forrester is definitely not the only monster in that family. Come to think of it… his little sister had a powerful aptitude as well. Perhaps that family is just genetically potent?

Rue left the common room among a storm of excited whispers. He tried to ignore them all but his cheeks started turning red again after finally returning to their usual tone. He got on his private carriage and returned home to the palace. After being greeted by two rows of nearly twenty servants, he made his way to his father’s private chambers. After requesting a meeting with the posted guard, Rue went to visit the minister of commercial affairs and received an already authorized form for starting a business. After filling out everything except the name of the venture, he placed the form in his bag and awaited a messenger from his father. It was several hours later that he finally got the requested meeting.

King Korfus didn’t seem interested in the slightest in Rue starting a business, but he did have words to say about his association with Syron.

“Your situation is precarious. Do not throw your money or life away over a petty squabble.”

What Korfus meant was “I’m worried about you.”

What Rue heard was “I don’t care enough to protect you, but this issue is a stupid thing to die over.”

Rue just thanked his father for his time, as it was clearly far too valuable to spare any more for a child he had abandoned to the monsters, then left to go to bed. The next day, while contemplating what to have for lunch after class, he was called for by a far too casual future Grand Duke.

“Rue, I’m starving. Let’s go grab something and talk about the game some more. I was up all night trying to think of a name for the stupid thing! Ugh, can you believe it? I just couldn’t figure out anything I liked.”

That reminded Rue that he had yet to name the business he was starting jointly in his and Syron’s name.

“But finally I decided on calling it Myth. It means two things. The first is ‘story’. Since that is what is most important to me in the game. The second is ‘assumption of beliefs’ about something. People assume that illusionists are all just thieves, so I’ll change the rhetoric.” Syron waxed happily while he pushed Rue from behind towards the cafeteria.

“In what way does that made up word mean anything, Forrester? What language is that supposed to be?” Rue asked pointedly, his face reflexively changing to a scowl. Syron’s own face looked panicked for the slightest of moments but Rue didn’t see it.

“Oh… um… I made it up? Yeah, ‘Myth’ means those things in a made-up language that I totally invented. So… yeah!” Rue just shook his head in irritation because of his ‘friend’.