ã€ŠThe Only Game In Town [Adventure]ã€‹


 A History Lesson

    In the beginning, Something woke up. Many different scholars have spent copious amounts of time arguing about what Something was. Many intriguing theories have been proposed, such as Delia¡¯s theory of Darkness, Christopher¡¯s theory of Life, and even Fitzgerald¡¯s theory that Something was Turtle. The only thing the Gods have told us about the origin of existence is that Something woke up, then it got bored, very bored.

    Eventually, Something got so bored that it started playing a game with itself. As we ourselves are not Gods there is no way for us to comprehend what exactly the game was, but History has been quoted saying that it was, ¡°similar enough to solitaire.¡± As soon as the first game of all time concluded Game woke up. After waking, Game looked at Something and laughed.

    The next three Gods to wake up were necessities to keep the games going between Game and Something. Time, Space, and Fairness all woke up simultaneously. Time made sure that each players¡¯ turn happened in a prompt fashion, while Space created, well, space for the Gods to frolic about in their games of tag, tennis, and tetherball. Finally, Fairness made sure a certain Something didn¡¯t cheat and ruin the integrity of their personal play pen.

    More and more games were played, and new gods woke up to supplement those games. Water, Wave, and Wood all came together to create the sport of surfing. Fire and Crops created hot potato. Even Housing and Crisis had their magnum opus of monopoly. And during these days Game ruled as god of gods. For Game was always coming up with new games for the gaggle of gods to play, keeping them endlessly entertained.

    However, all good things come to an end as Something was finding it harder and harder to continue enjoying these new games created by these young and shiny gods. Game eventually noticed that Something was starting to get bored. No one other than Game knows what exactly happened after that, and Game has never deigned to speak to us mortals, but we do know that Game woke up Death or End as some of the Northern tribes call them.

    Thus, the first murder occurred when Game and Death killed Something. Some religions like the Humanists believe it was a sort of mercy killing and that Something asked to be killed so that they would never be bored again, while others like the Freer Men believe that Game killed Something as to keep control over the other gods. Regardless of the reasoning behind the action, Something was dead and Game proposed a new game of epic proportions.

    The rules were simple, Game, Creation, and a couple other gods would fashion Something¡¯s corpse into a new world whereby they would create a race of beings. No god other than Game would be allowed to directly interact with the world in any way. Whoever got the entirety of the world¡¯s beings to worship them would win. Then humanity was created, and the first age began.

    The livable world used to be more than the Hearted continent at one point. Some old maps kept by followers of Collection show that the vaguely heart-shaped continent was joined by at least three others during the first age, there was the fractured continent, the frozen continent, and the dead continent.

    The first age was dominated by incredible amounts of power. Gods, hoping to draw the mortals into their cults gave them stupendous powers and items that reshaped the world.

    Greg the Idiot was given a scepter by Calamity that allowed him to create natural disasters with a wave. Natural disasters are not known for their speed though, and during his assassination he just kept waving the scepter hoping something would happen. Nothing happened at first, then a month later, 15 different natural disasters devastated the fractured continent all at once, making it completely uninhabitable.

    The next continent to be destroyed in this age was the frozen continent, simply because Water¡¯s favorite human was killed. After Tristan the Extremely Violent was put down by the continent¡¯s knightly force, Water got into a mood and gave their cult an artifact that would freeze all the water on the continent.

    This had the unintended consequence of freezing all the humans on the continent as well. Their blood froze in their systems. This was ironically the exact same thing that got the continental knight force after Tristan the Extremely Violent, he would simply freeze anyone he didn¡¯t like.

    Maybe that was why Tristan was Water¡¯s favorite.

    The freezing also had the unintended side effect of forever changing the climate of that continent, not allowing crops or life to flourish there in any form.

    Finally, the dead continent has a more tragic story. Life had been mocking Death for a couple of centuries, making fun of the fact that Death refused to play the game with any of the other Gods. To this Death simply said, ¡°Everything dies, so they all join my cult eventually.¡±

    None of the gods quite liked this answer for some reason, and Life decided to make their cult unable to die just to spite Death. But no one is allowed to cheat Death. So, to compensate for the life force being given to Life¡¯s cult, the continent around them started to wither and die. The flowers bloomed with rot, no new children were born, and even Life themself had become a husk of their former power.

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    This was when Game decided that Death would be a little unfair to leave in the game, so Death was offered to join as a moderator keeping the game fair. But the dead continent still lingers as a testament to the power that Death holds.

    After three of their four continents were destroyed Game decided to rewrite the rules a little bit, the first big change was that these gifts could not be given so freely anymore. No more Gregs running around with power they cannot comprehend.

    Instead, Game asked Fate to join the moderators of the game as well. Fate would scry into every child¡¯s future and calculate their destiny. Then any willing God would be able to ¡°invest¡± into that child¡¯s future by giving a gift to that child that matches their destiny. So, no more continent destroying weapons for fools and drunks.

    The second age started with three moderators watching over the game and helping it run as smoothly as possible. This age was more peaceful than the previous one, but that was relative since the last age destroyed three continents worth of life. This age was the start of the Hearth family kingdom.

    The great dynasty had a humble start with two brothers and a farm. Both brothers had been blessed by Plant, one had the ability to help things grow by touching them with his hands, while the other had a stick that when shaken would interchangeably create sun or rain.

    They both used their abilities to grow the farm vastly beyond the proportions of any other farm at the time. People in the surrounding area started to take notice and move closer so that they had more access to food. As people started migrating to be closer to these brothers, Alli Hearth saw her opportunity for kingship (or queenship). She snuck to the brothers¡¯ farm in the middle of the night, cut off the growing brother¡¯s hands, and stole the rain-sun stick before killing the two of them.

    Brutal but effective. This story is the one readily available in History¡¯s halls, but there has been some debate about whether this story is a smear campaign against the Hearth family and their patron god, Power. However, it is true that two of the family¡¯s artifacts are a set of mummified hands that grow plants, and a stick that can create rain and sun.

    Alli then used her own power along with the newly acquired family heirlooms to start a small village. Her control of food allowed her to retain complete control over the people, she only continued to expand her influence as time went on. Her family grew as did the village, eventually turning into the greatest city in all the Hearted continent, Vena Cava.

    The rise of the Hearth family was inexorably tied to the way in which gifts from the gods functioned during the second age. They were more permanent blessings than in the current age. Thus, allowing for the rain-sun stick to be stolen and used after the original owner¡¯s death.

    Nearing the end of the second age Game, Death, and Fate decided that the rulers of the continent were becoming too powerful. They had been given too long to expand their power, kill their enemies, and steal their gifts. So, the moderators requested a total recall of all ownerless gifts.

    Many, many, many gifts snuck through the cracks or were intentionally left behind by certain Gods. The Hearth family for example had made many friends among the Gods thus many of theirs¡¯ were simply forgotten in the rush.

    Next, Game decided that they had to do something to keep gifts from being stolen. So, they created the soul-space in the human being. No human knows exactly how it works, but now all gifts from gods are stored in that space. Even physical gifts are stored there somehow.

    There are many accounts of people entering the third age taking a gift only for it not to work. For example, there was a farmer from a small village who was given a sword by War that could shoot beams of energy. When a nearby general heard of this she felt that she had to have it. So, she went to talk with the man an even paid him a hefty sum for use of the thing. When she finally got to the battlefield and the thing didn¡¯t work, she was maimed and burned by the enemy commander.

    After the incident she became convinced that the man had conned her by giving her a fake. So, she and her closest soldiers marched on that small village and razed it, killing anyone who had ever seen the man before. So, the man and everyone he had ever loved had died.

    Finally, Game had made one last change, to usher in the new era. They made it so that children did not receive their gifts until they were thirteen. During the first and second ages it had become quite popular to steal any remarkably good gifts from babies, kill babies with remarkable enough gifts, or simply do both. It was as easy as taking candy from a baby.

    There was a record of a baby in the first age who had been gifted a ring by Misfortune. And the ruler of the area, Hank, demanded that the ring be given to him. Hank¡¯s seers could see the immense power stored in that ring, but not what the specifics of the power would be. When Hank put the ring on, he suffered an aneurism, his treasury had exploded, and all his heirs had suddenly disappeared.

    Game felt it was unfair to not even give these kids a fighting chance, so they devised a system where kids would go to sleep on their thirteenth birthday and then were allowed to choose from all the possible offers given to them from all their possible sponsor gods.

    This working hand in hand with soul space almost entirely stopped the market for underground powers. However, it did have the unintended consequence of starting an underground slave ring where kids would be born as quickly as possible and then molded into the perfect obedient soldier over the next thirteen years. But there¡¯s no such thing as a perfect system, right?

    With the new rule changes being fully codified the third age started. And at the time of the writing of this book we are still in the third age. Many intriguing and fascinating things have happened over this course of recent history.

    We have had 7 expeditions to the other three continents to varying degrees of success. The Hearth family has totally ousted all other kingdoms and empires out of the Hearted continent leaving them as the sole ruler of our continent. There have even been 3 civil wars since the beginning of this era. These and more are what I will be describing in this epic book, The Recent History of Our World: A Total and Conclusive Essay on The Events That Have Passed Since the Beginning of The Third Age.

    -Philip Pen

 Chapter 1 - A Fickle Master

    Jeremy had just turned thirteen. As every child was, he was ecstatic to go to sleep and see what the gods had in store for him.

    When his mother turned 13, she had received three offers from the gods and she ended up going with Peace and getting a healing gift. She really could kiss a boo-boo away.

    His father had only received one, but his offer had been from Propriety which allowed him to judge a person¡¯s character by the color of their aura. The two powers in conjunction allowed his parents to run a small family clinic right on the outskirts of Vena Cava.

    Neither of their powers had been particularly spectacular and Jeremy had always dreamed of becoming like the knights of legend. Jeremy had always loved the story of Poppy the flower knight.

    Now, her name itself did not strike terror into the hearts of her enemies, however her ability to scatter tiny seeds into the air around her opponents and then make them explosively grow through their lungs certainly did. She and her motley crew galivanted around the countryside killing any minor inconvenience that came in their way.

    Jeremy¡¯s parents had never supported his love for the story, calling Poppy and her knights a ¡°rag-tag bunch of losers who only knew how to kill things.¡± But Jeremy, as many thirteen-year-old boys did, envied their power and felt that if he was given that power he would be much more just and kind with it.

    No matter Jeremy¡¯s dreams though he was limited by his karma. His parents were not spectacular, so he would probably not be as well. The rational forward-thinking part of his brain expected he might get an offer from Health, or if he was lucky, Peace, like his mother. But, as always, there was a romantic part of his brain that hoped and dreamed that he would gain that power he so desperately dreamed of.

    So, Jeremy closed his eyes and went to sleep.

    Jeremy opened his eyes and immediately knew he was no longer in his room. The marble floor was not quite as comfortable as his nice bed and the walls were a lot uglier than he thought the walls of the gods should be. It seemed to be an ever-changing tapestry of color. Always shifting and never staying in one place.

    The marble floor seemed to be doing the same thing, but instead of instilling Jeremy with the intended sense of awe, it just gave him intense vertigo. So, Jeremy closed his eyes and waited since that seemed like the proper thing to do, gods must be much busier than mere mortals.

    After what felt to Jeremy like several hours, a voice echoed through the hall. It was filled with godlike power and resonance, ¡°I am so sorry Jeremy. The other Gods were having a game of quack-diddly-oso and I totally forgot about you.¡±

    Jeremy was perplexed, the hall vibrated with the power and dignity of the speaker, but whichever god was speaking sounded a lot like the bank teller his parents had dragged him to, since they didn¡¯t want to leave him in the house alone.

    But this was a god, and he didn¡¯t want to be rude. So, Jeremy did the wise thing and kept his mouth shut.

    The god continued, ¡°I am Fate and I have seen your karma. It is vast and wide like an ocean; you will do many great things and change the world around you.¡± Jeremy had slowly opened his eyes during this part of the speech and had to forcibly stop himself from giggling from joy. This was it, now all the gods would offer him something and he would be like the knights from the stories, this was his destiny. But Fate was not done with their speech, ¡°however, your fate is inexorably tied to the existence of one god in particular, thusly you will receive no other offers.¡±

    Well, that was a little bit of a letdown to Jeremy. All the other kids liked to brag about how many offers they got, but his offer had to be incredible if his fate was as vast and wide as an ocean. Jeremy then mustered up some courage befitting someone with his incredible fate and asked, ¡°Who - who is the god?¡±

    ¡°Luck. You have been gifted with a lucky coin that will make you the luckiest man to have ever lived or ever will live.¡± With that proclamation, Fate¡¯s voice left the chamber and a single dirty coin clattered to the floor.

    Jeremy woke up in his bed and could feel the coin inside of him. It was not an uncomfortable feeling; it was more of a square peg square hole type feel. He felt complete for the first time in his life.

    But Luck? He guessed being lucky could help, but he wouldn¡¯t be a great knight facing down the evils of the world with mere luck. At best he could win some pocket money from those traveling gambling dens.

    Well, that wasn¡¯t a bad idea, especially since there was one nearby right now. Jeremy sighed and summoned the coin out of his soul space. It was brown, but not the beautiful distinguished wooden brown. No, it was shit-stain brown. The coin was so faded that one side seemed almost completely smooth, while the other had a simple triangle.

    He flipped the coin and let it drop across the room from him but was surprised to find it had ended up right back in his soul space. Jeremy then proceeded to play around with the coin, throwing it around the room and making it reappear in his soul space before it could hit anything. This may not be a weapon of legend, but Jeremy thought he could certainly have fun with it.

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    Jeremy then put on some clothes and went down to greet his family with the news. His father and mother were annoyed with his little coin throwing trick but were certainly happy for him and his newfound lucky coin.

    He was a little embarrassed about the whole ¡°fate as vast as an ocean¡± business and decided to leave that part out. Instead, he was just a normal kid with his normal blessing from Luck.

    The celebrations had been quite exciting, and Jeremy was sure that his parents were excited to brag about his luck to the whole world. He thought they were never going to stop talking about him and his dingey coin. Maybe they had been worried he would get some awe-inspiring power and would immediately go out on some sort of quest for honor. Well, he certainly wouldn¡¯t go on a quest now, but a little adventure couldn¡¯t hurt anybody.

    Jeremy grinned and pulled out his coin, ¡°Blank face to test my luck at the traveling gamblers, triangle to test my luck by asking out Brandon.¡± Then he flipped the coin. He let it bounce on the ground waiting for it to stop spinning, but it didn¡¯t stop spinning and he had to start running like mad to keep up with the speedy little demon.

    Every time he felt there was no way that the coin could pick up any more momentum, it found a divot to roll into and shoot out of. Finally, the coin seemed like it had to stop when it was nearing a big patch of freshly turned dirt.

    The coin then circled around the patch of dirt and inexplicably sunk into it until Jeremy could no longer see it. Jeremy was not worried though, he had spent all morning practicing pulling it back into his soul space, so he tried tugging it back.

    Nothing happened.

    That was when an intense fear set into Jeremy, and he ran to the dirt clawing his way through, hoping he hadn¡¯t lost the coin. He started muttering to himself as a he tore through the dirt with gusto, ¡°Lucky my ass, where is the luck in a coin rolling this far for no¡­¡± His coin lay on a small chest with the blank side facing up.

    Inside the chest were hundreds of gold coins. Jeremy¡¯s family was not wealthy, but they got by. This was more money than he had ever seen in his life. It was probably even more money than his entire family had ever seen in their lives added together. It was an incomprehensible amount of wealth. Each coin had a heart on one side, and a bearded face on the other, the king Renoir Hearth.

    Jeremy chuckled a little, which grew and grew until it was a full-blown guffaw. It was time to test his luck and make his family wealthy.

    The Gambling Lamb was a small establishment that had been started and run solely by its proprietor Jeff. Nobody made trouble in the Gambling Lamb for one simple reason, Jeff had been given his blessing by Housing. He called his gift the power of private property; anything building that he built completely on his own, he could control absolutely. The Gambling Lamb was a moving establishment since it frequently grew legs and walked from place to place. The chairs would bite the ass of anyone who said a curse word. And it was impossible to cheat under Jeff¡¯s watchful eye.

    The only reason nobody immediately robbed the kid who walked into the gambling den with a treasure chest full of gold coins was because Jeff would have disapproved of such actions. However, this did not stop them all from trying to rob him blind by gambling with him.

    The gamblers were mortified when he started robbing them blind. The kid¡¯s pile of gold kept seeming to get higher and higher. Soon it was almost as big as he was, and Jeff sighed since he knew he was either going to have to protect the kid himself or keep everyone in his establishment until the kid was far, far away. There was just too much money on the table.

    Jeremy was having the time of his life, the cards and dice just seemed to do whatever he wanted them to. One guy had even tried to cheat by somehow moving the dice with his mind. But someone nearby tripped and spilled a glass of water all over the man¡¯s crotch, making him lose focus and making the dice roll to the double sixes that Jeremy needed.

    This whole time he had been flipping his lucky coin and taking it back into his soul space before it landed in his hand. It had become a meditative movement for him since the coin would never let him down.

    His thoughts were interrupted by a new man sitting down across the table from him. Everyone else had seemed to learn their lesson, but Jeremy was not one to complain about more free money. The man cleared his throat then spoke, ¡°I see that pile of gold there has been getting quite large I hope you don¡¯t mind if I take it off your hands.¡±

    ¡°What game do you have in mind?¡± Jeremy replied with a smirk, this guy had no idea what he was talking about, nobody could take this away from him in here.

    ¡°How about we flip a coin for it?¡±

    If Jeremy had been drinking anything at that moment, he would have spit it out in incredulity. ¡°You want to bet at least 800 gold coins on a coin toss? Are you crazy?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, and we can even use that coin of yours that you¡¯ve been flipping like crazy. And don¡¯t worry, I¡¯m good for the money too. If you win, I¡¯ll match whatever you got in that pile right there.¡± Jeremy stared at the man; he couldn¡¯t be more than nineteen. Where would he have gotten money like that? And why would he be so confident that he thinks he can win 800 gold off a coin flip?

    But as always, greed and confidence won out. If it was a matter of luck, there was no way Jeremy was going to lose.

    ¡°I call the blank face. That means you¡¯re the triangle side.¡± Jeremy said as he flipped the coin.

    It flipped and flipped in the air nearly hitting the ceiling with its trajectory, then it fell neatly landing with the triangle side up. Jeremy stared in shock at his pile of gold then at his lucky coin that had just betrayed him.

    The man stared at it to then with a little chuckle said, ¡°Bad luck. You¡¯ll get it next time; you seem like quite the gambler.¡± Then he got Jeff to give him a massive bag and loaded all of Jeremy¡¯s coins into it and left The Gambling Lamb. Three men surreptitiously got up to follow him.

    Jeremy stared at the empty space where all his gold used to be, then he stared at the traitorous coin on the floor. He didn¡¯t know what to think. Was this what the luckiest man alive was supposed to look like? Losing a mere coin toss? Jeremy decided at that moment that if luck was so fickle that he didn¡¯t need it.

    Jeremy stormed home leaving the coin on the floor. The coin did vanish back into his soul space, but he felt there was a certain amount of drama in not picking it up.

    As the boy left his little den, Jeff gave a chuckle. He felt a bit sorry for the boy, but not as sorry as he felt for the three men who had decided to follow Joy.

 Chapter 2 - Three Men, A Bag of Gold, and A Really Nice Pair of Shoes

    Joy was ecstatic about taking that poor kid¡¯s money. The kid may have been lucky, but no one could beat the master gambler at a game of chance. He did make sure to hightail it out of The Gambling Lamb though; Joy did not want to deal with the cretins trying to steal his fortune.

    Joy was a nice-looking guy, which really helped when he was cheating people at games of cards. People would rather get lost in his deep, dark, brown eyes than really pay attention to his cards, or at least that¡¯s what he told himself. He had a bit too high of an opinion of himself.

    His hair was unfortunately kept short, for a stint at sixteen he had long luxurious hair that everyone loved to ogle at, again his personal opinion. However, he had the misfortune of meeting someone blessed by Hair who had then almost killed him by shoving the hair down his throat.

    If the fool had been any smarter, they would have shoved the hair through Joy¡¯s ears, so Joy¡¯s hair stayed short out of fear that the Hair blessed would find him again.

    The streets of Vena Cava were quiet except for the clips and clops of Joy¡¯s shoes hitting the pavement. Joy really loved his shoes. He was quite tall but a little disproportionate, so he had to search far and wide to find a cobbler who could make shoes that fit him well. His feet were short and fat, compared to his comparatively spindly frame.

    A few years ago, he found a cobbler named Cody who had been willing to custom make his shoes. The shoes gave incredible arch support and somehow were able to make his feet look much more proportionate.

    Instead of looking like two small bricks strapped to his feet, they looked regal and dignified. The leather making up much of the shoe was kept shiny and in good condition by Joy¡¯s constant cleaning. There was not a crease nor tear in them, even though they were getting a bit old, because of the love and attention Joy gave to those shoes.

    When his shoes suddenly opened and bit his feet, Joy cried. It was not a cry of pain, but the wail of anguish that comes from a man who has just lost his favorite pair of shoes. Though the bite did hurt, and Joy fell to the ground, his tears staining the cobblestone around him.

    A figure emerged from the dark. Oddly enough, Joy couldn¡¯t hear any footsteps from them. As he took a closer look through his tear-stained eyes, he saw the figure was two people, one riding piggy-back on the other, and they were somehow floating an inch or so off the ground.

    Must be why I didn¡¯t hear them sneak up on me, he thought.

    The man who was riding the other was a bit scrawny and had a many times broken nose. The nose was all scrunched up though in a look of intense concentration. The look relaxed as the two were lowered to the ground.

    The other was a large man, his nose was flat, but more in a bad genetics way than a got in a lot of fights way. Unlucky man, not everyone can be born handsome, thought Joy.

    ¡°Hey there sir, it seems like you¡¯ve tripped let us hold your bag for you.¡± The scrawny one jeered as the big one sidled up next to Joy¡¯s prone form.

    Joy tried to move, hoping to get to his bag of coins, his wealth. The shoes started biting down harder on his feet the more he tried to move though, which was starting to annoy him.

    ¡°You know my shoes are really hanging on by the skin of their teeth here.¡± Joy said to the complete silence from the other two. ¡°Because leather shoes are made of skin, and it¡¯s biting me, so teeth. No? Nothing? Tough crowd.¡± Nobody was ever expecting the shitty pun, and the pun bought Joy enough time to get back onto his feet. Unfortunately, that was when the bigger of the two men threw him across the street.

    Joy skipped and skidded off the cobblestone until he came to a crashing stop against a wall. Well, that was certainly painful, but that had been far too strong for a normal man, so the big man had a strength-based gift while the scrawny one must have a leather gift or maybe a shoe gift, Joy thought.

    ¡°Now you just stay there and nothing else will happen to you lad.¡± The big one finally spoke with a deep gravelly voice.

    Joy was not one to take this lying down though, he cracked his neck and in a dramatic moment ripped the remains of his shoes off. A single regretful tear fell down his face as he did so. But this was for justice, the shoes would be avenged.

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    ¡°Looks like he¡¯s a fighter, Clyde.¡± The larger one said as he sighed and started running towards Joy.

    Joy took a pose; he was one for the theatrics. Arms splayed out to the side and asked the two men, ¡°want to play a game?¡±

    Neither of the two men responded as Joy clapped his hands but all three heard the voice in their head announce, ¡°coin toss. Do any of you need the rules explained to you?¡± The two attackers ignored the hallucination assuming Joy had some sort of illusion gift and was just trying to confuse them. Joy just smiled at this.

    ¡°No.¡± Joy responded to the voice in their heads and a single coin appeared out of thin air in front of Joy. ¡°Who doesn¡¯t love a little dramatic irony? I get to win my fortune twice with the same game.¡± He paused to take a breath as if he needed to put some thought into some decision. ¡°I call heads.¡± Then the coin flipped into the air, spinning, and spinning.

    During Joy¡¯s monologue the big man had nearly closed the distance between the two, once the coin was launched into the air, he already had his arm cocked back for a nasty haymaker. As he threw the wild punch Joy simply stepped closer to him, closing the distance.

    Joy loved fighting big oafs with strength-based gifts. They all got far too used to their opponents trying to overcome their strength. Why do that though? It is just plain stupid.

    Instead close the distance and never let them gain the momentum they need to utilize their strength.

    The oaf kept trying to punch Joy, and Joy just kept staying close to him, never letting the punches build up any real power. Then a pair of shoes hit him on the back of his head. They didn¡¯t hurt, they were just really annoyed and kept him from being totally focused on the oaf.

    So, Joy was in a deadly dance, dodging a giant while batting away the random assortment of shoes flying at him. There was even a sharpened stiletto heel in the mix that Joy had to watch out for in particular.

    At least the assortment of shoes meant the scrawny one has a shoe gift instead of a leather gift, maybe my shoes can be saved, thought Joy.

    The coin had hit the ground but was still bouncing up and down as if the pavement didn¡¯t want the coin to stop moving, which was a real inconvenience to Joy.

    The problem with staying close to oafs while fighting is that sometimes the oafs figure out that they don¡¯t need to punch Joy. They can just grab his scrawny little frame and throw him around. Which is exactly what this one did.

    After an annoying pair of heavy boots knocked Joy on the head, the big man caught him in a bear hug and started squeezing.

    It hurt a lot. The oaf did not have the strongest strength-based gift Joy had ever felt but it certainly made him a lot stronger than Joy. As Joy saw the boots and stiletto coming for his head the coin graciously stopped moving with the heads side up.

    A few things happened at once.

    The scrawny man suddenly felt his ability weaken. His control over the shoes diminished a significant amount. Joy reared his head back and made the oaf¡¯s nose even flatter than it had been before.

    Simultaneously with the headbutt, Joy reached up and snatched the stiletto out of the air. Then he started bringing the heel down towards the oaf¡¯s eye. The scrawny man shrieked and used his gift to yank on the oaf¡¯s shoes pulling him out of the way of the strike. For some reason he couldn¡¯t affect the stiletto.

    The three men stood there breathing heavily. The oaf out of his mouth since his nose was bleeding. The scrawny man finally got a hold of the stiletto with his power again and yanked it out of Joy¡¯s hand. And Joy pulled another coin out of thin air.

    ¡°I call heads.¡± But this time he did a small coin toss and caught it out of the air slapping the coin on his opposing hand. ¡°Would you look at that.¡± The coin proudly showed heads in the moonlight.

    Joy started running at the two men. The shoes started flying, and the oaf went for his running haymaker again. But Joy flawlessly dodged every shoe and closed the distance on the oaf. Then after dodging the sloppy haymaker, he uppercut the big man.

    The scrawny man watched his friend collapse as soon as Joy hit him. Joy¡¯s fist seemed to glow a bit in the moonlight.

    After that it was a piece of cake for Joy. The man with the shoe gift was annoying while working with the other man, but certainly not a threat on his own. Which meant Joy hit him silly. But made sure not to knock him out, he needed the man¡¯s services after all.

    ¡°Clyde, Clyde, Clyde. How about you fix my shoes, and we¡¯ll just forget this night ever happened?¡± Joy made sure to slap him a few times with the remains of the shoes, just enough to get the point across.

    Clyde feared the eccentric man so he fixed the shoes and hoped that the man would forget his name and face and just about everything to do with him. But some wishes cannot be fulfilled, since Joy was still mad about his favorite pair of shoes being ruined even if they had been fixed. So, Joy knocked Clyde out and kicked him a few times out of frustration.

    He did have to admit the shoes had never felt this good though.

    Just as Joy was starting to walk away with his bag of money a man appeared and shouted, ¡°Stop whatever you¡¯re doing, you¡¯re coming with us.¡± Joy thought, well this is some shitty luck running into the knights right after getting into a fight.

    Then Joy felt both of hands start to freeze over. This was going to be a long night, but running from the knights was always a fun story the next day.

    His hands were encased in ice, and he had dropped the bag with the gold in it for the second time tonight.

    ¡°Well, do you want to play a game?¡± As Joy adopted his pose and waited for the proclamation of what game he would be playing with this knight. Hm, knight? But he definitely said ¡°us¡±, thought Joy.

    ¡°No.¡± A feminine voice said.

    Then a fist appeared out of nowhere and knocked Joy out.

 Chapter 3 - A Joyous Meeting

    Joy was a morning person. He was bubbly and fun, ready for the day. He reveled in the spite others directed at him for being such a happy person after waking up. However, Joy was not a ¡®wake up after being knocked out in a cold cell with a splitting headache, person.¡¯

    Taking account of his surroundings, Joy saw that he was in a small single cell. There was a blanket in one corner, a bucket in another, and a hole just big enough for him to fit his hand through so that he didn¡¯t choke on the fumes coming from the never-washed bucket.

    This was not good. Joy was used to some sticky situations, but being caught by the king¡¯s knights was not a great place to be. The knights were not known for their critical thinking skills, they were known for their zeal and violence.

    Well, if it went to a real trial Joy had a chance. The money was all legally obtained from The Gambling Lamb, and the two men had attacked him first, so he should be able to get out of this with a funny story.

    Probably.

    Hoping to alleviate his pounding headache, Joy moved closer to the hole in the wall and saw a surprisingly beautiful view of Vena Cava. The whole city existed in concentric circles. The center was obviously the palace, and the next layer was for rich socialites that the king was fond of. The ones he wasn¡¯t fond of lost their heads quickly.

    The next layer was for the lucky and rich farmers, and a cultural memory of the city¡¯s roots in agriculture. But since there was no major water source readily available for those farmers, they had to pay people with water and plant gifts to keep their farms running. That layer also kept the riffraff out of the rich circles since you either had to go through highly regulated areas or fly to get through the vast fields.

    The next layer was the real city, where real people lived. This had the largest radius by far, even dwarfing the farms. Many families lived their entire lives without going to the other half of the circle.

    Then there were the slums and the poor farmers. These were not actually part of the city, but nobody was going to tell them to move away, so they became the hushed up fifth circle.

    From Joy¡¯s cell he could see the third through fifth circles well, and hints of the second circle. So, he was somewhere in the middle of the second circle, and high up.

    Unfortunately, this new view on his situation did not enlighten Joy to some fantastical escape plan, so he just pulled a deck of cards out of nowhere and started playing solitaire, waiting.

    Theo had enjoyed the look on the tall man¡¯s face when Lillian had hit him. Lillian¡¯s gift always led to interesting things, but invisibly sneaking up on that pompous ass and knocking him out before he started monologuing. The look on his face was priceless.

    Who strikes a pose in the middle of a fight, honestly?

    Theo was less than amused when he came to the man¡¯s cell and found he had been playing solitaire though. They had done a serious search of the man before putting him in the cell there was no way he could¡¯ve hidden those cards. So, Theo froze the man¡¯s hands again and unlocked the cell to confiscate the cards from him.

    ¡°Hey man, you didn¡¯t have to do that. I was just getting bored waiting for you all.¡± The man said as he tried to grab the cards with his feet, which he was doing surprisingly well at.

    ¡°Do not make me freeze your toes to get those cards.¡± Theo was starting to get annoyed with the man, he obviously didn¡¯t understand how much trouble he was in here.

    ¡°What cards?¡± The cards were gone, and Theo sighed in annoyance, of course the cards were part of his gift. The only thing he couldn¡¯t confiscate.

    Theo stood up and relocked the cell, making sure to give the man¡¯s waggling toes a good glare, causing a light layer of frost to form over them. Not enough to hurt him, just to let him know.

    ¡°Don¡¯t use your gift, blah blah blah, go sit in your stupid little cell and be a stupid little guy.¡± Joy mumbled to himself once he was sure the knight was far enough away. It was hard to pick a knight out of a crowd, but their holier-than-thou attitude and general disdain for all people who were not knights gave them away in an instant.

    Joy was finding himself quite parched. He could stave off his hunger with pure self-control but sleeping always left him with quite a dry mouth.

    The knight though, had very kindly provided him with a source of water. He could lick his hands and feet like a lollipop, but he couldn¡¯t leave them too long or else he might freeze his toes off. But he really didn¡¯t want to put anything that had touched the floor of this cell into his mouth, so he had to get as much of this water as possible while it was attached to him. He set about licking his prize.

    When Theo and Lillian arrived to deliver Joy¡¯s meal, they were dumbstruck staring at a man who was licking his feet, trying to suck the remaining moisture off them.

    ¡°What? Oh food, that¡¯ll go well with the refreshing drink I just had.¡± Joy brushed away the ice scraps that had fallen on the floor and made gimme-gimme gestures at the two knights staring at him. Lillian seemed to be carrying a blue cat, while Theo more importantly was carrying his food.

    Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    ¡°Is he crazy Theo?¡±

    ¡°Lillian¡­ maybe he was really thirsty?¡±

    Joy was still doing his gimme-gimme gestures waiting patiently for his food. ¡°So, I guess the one with the striking blue eyes and wavy blond hair, is Theo. And the black-haired invisible girl carrying a cat is Lillian.¡± The two looked at him in surprise, then looked a little sheepish as Theo handed him his food.

    Joy¡¯s mouth was already filled with food as he started speaking, ¡°you two are very lax compared to most of the knights I met. I don¡¯t think any of them have ever fibbed their names before during the interrogation. That¡¯s got to be a real low for the knights, what are they even doing with their hiring pool these days?¡±

    ¡°Do you ever stop talking?¡± Theo asked, getting ready to freeze him just to shut him up.

    ¡°No, but my mom always said that made me a Joy to be around.¡± Dead silence. The two knights stared at Joy and Joy stared at the two knights. ¡°Really, nothing? I thought that one was pretty funny.¡±

    Lillian looked a little confused and asked, ¡°There was a joke in there?¡±

    Joy started and exclaimed, ¡°Aha! You didn¡¯t know my name. My name is Joy so the joke, Ack!¡±

    Theo cut him off with a hunk of ice forming in Joy¡¯s mouth. And Joy did not have very thick enamel making his teeth very sensitive to temperature changes.

    ¡°Thank you for giving us your name, Joy. Would you like to tell us what happened last night?¡± Theo said.

    By then Joy had spit out the ice and had gone back to shoveling food into his mouth. ¡°Well, you see Theo, can I call you Theo? Anyways I had just made a lot of money at The Gambling Lamb and those two men followed me out and were trying to rob me of my measly wealth when I defended myself. I was just so scared that when the knights came, I don¡¯t know what came over me. Will you take an apology and then we all go our separate ways?¡± Joy gave his best charming smile after that line.

    Neither knight was impressed. It was easy to see, so Joy dropped the smile and went back to eating.

    ¡°And where did you get the counterfeit coins?¡±

    Now that was news to Joy and he scowled as he kept eating, this was not going to be good. ¡°Well, I won all that money from The Gambling Lamb so it must have been from one of those guys. You know what, there was some kid I got to bet all that money on a coin flip. So, he¡¯s the person you¡¯re looking for.¡±

    ¡°Can you give us a name or description of this kid.¡± Lillian even did air-quotes as she said kid. They didn¡¯t believe Joy, they obviously thought he was some mastermind schemer hoping to destroy the continent by destroying its economy.

    ¡°No, I cannot. It was very dark, and I was very focused on his very large pile of money.¡± Joy was digging himself a grave, but he really couldn¡¯t remember the kid at all. This was very, very, very bad.

    ¡°If you cannot tell us who gave you the money, then we are going to have to charge you for treason.¡±

    Joy¡¯s leg started to vibrate up and down, his only tell. He worked for years to remove it since a good gambler needed to have no tells, but it still came back in these high stress situations. He needed to stall while he came up with a plan, so he decided to banter while thinking. Banter had never let him down.

    ¡°Can we get that moved to light treason. I mean I didn¡¯t make those coins or plan on distributing them. But if I did, wouldn¡¯t that be light treason?¡±

    ¡°No.¡±

    ¡°Please?¡±

    ¡°No.¡±

    Plan banter was not working, and the two knights were starting to stand up to leave. This was bad for Joy, really bad.

    ¡°Hey guys, what can I do to make this right? I really couldn¡¯t tell you who gave me those coins, can I give you money, will that make things go away?¡± Joy was getting desperate; he could go collect on some long-standing debts he had with some nobles¡¯ kids and squeeze enough money out of them to bribe these knights. But that really was his last card.

    That was when he heard a chuckle come from just around the corner, out of his view.

    ¡°That¡¯s where I come in.¡± A soft but powerful voice said. And out from around the corner Prince David Hearth came around. His most striking features were his mix-mashing bright blue hair, and freakishly yellow eyes. This prince was the eldest but was king¡¯s greatest disappointment, he had been gifted with the utterly useless power of being able to change his eye and hair color.

    During this moment Lillian and Theo had gotten a chair for the prince to regally sit in and look as imposing as possible to the captive Joy. Joy looked in awe at the prince and asked, ¡°so have you been standing around that corner waiting this entire time?¡±

    The prince frowned and replied, ¡°well yes, I have been, but¡­¡±

    Joy interrupted him, ¡°that¡¯s so lame.¡±

    ¡°Normally they¡¯re in awe of being in my presence so they don¡¯t bother to think about the details.¡±

    ¡°Well, you¡¯re not dealing with an average man.¡± This statement got a snort, a grunt, and a chuckle from the three outside the cell.

    ¡°Would you like to hear my offer, Joy?¡± the prince said with a slight grin.

    ¡°I guess I have some free time to listen.¡±

    The prince took a deep breath and started, ¡°I will make this all go away if you work for me. You are notorious for getting noble heirs to gamble away entire fortunes and I could use a man with your skillset working in my employ. You will be taken care of and work very closely with Lillian and Theo who will make sure you do not cause any trouble. If you do this for me, we can just make the treason go away.¡±

    ¡°Why me? I admit I am the best and most handsome gambler you¡¯ll ever find, but I am not really knightly material.¡± Joy was a bit skeptical of this whole thing, it seemed just a little too convenient. Joy was not a criminal mastermind who had a skillset the prince could use; he was just a lucky gambler with a fun gift.

    To that the prince gave a full laugh, ¡°don¡¯t worry Joy you won¡¯t be doing very knightly things. And for the other question, because my personal seer, Sam, said you would be perfect for the job.¡±

    That was when, for the second time, someone chuckled and walked out from behind the corner that Joy couldn¡¯t see behind. They were just a plain person, brown eyes, brown curly hair, and a brown complexion. Even their clothes were brown and drab. The only thing they carried that caught the eye was a wooden flute.

    However, Joy was too busy shouting, ¡°we¡¯ve already been over this. It¡¯s so lame!¡± to notice what exactly this seer looked like.

    After Joy calmed down, he gave the proposal a full minute of consideration. Joy was metaphorically drowning, and someone was saving him, but also providing him with an itemized bill for being saved. Well, worst comes to worst he could run away, Joy was really good at running away.

    ¡°Why not Mr. Prince, this¡¯ll be an exciting venture.¡±

    The prince¡¯s eyes twinkled as he replied, ¡°I think it will be.¡±

 Chapter 4 - Scammer Get Scammed

    Joy had been having a lot of fun in his new job. The babysitters Theo and Lillian were a bit annoying, but otherwise, Joy was having the time of his life. The prince had him doing what he normally would have done anyways but swankier.

    Joy would get all dressed up and go to high-end gambling houses. Then he would target some rich heir that the prince picked out for him, and he would drain them dry.

    The only caveat was that Joy was supposed to goad them into betting more money than they had on hand, then say they could ¡®forget the debt¡¯ if they just owed Prince David a favor.

    These past few months had been an absolute blast. The prince gave him tons of free time and paid Joy to do what he loved most in this world.

    There was only two things Joy complained about. One was his escort; they were too rigid and never let him have any real fun. One time he had almost gotten Buster Sevren to bet one of his father¡¯s second age family heirlooms on a game of poker. But Theo and Lillian had stopped him since Buster was the prince¡¯s ¡°ally¡± and the ¡°political games were more complex than Joy¡¯s puny mind could comprehend.¡±

    The other was the various tasks the prince had him do. Sometimes he would pick up the man¡¯s laundry, and other times he would escort prisoners from the knight¡¯s prison into the prince¡¯s private prison, probably so he could do more under the table deals to get those poor people to work for him.

    But tonight, was going to be exciting, it was going to be a night full of political intrigue and subterfuge. Prince David was not the heir to the throne, instead it was his sister Princess Dahlia. She rose to her status through sheer competence, and honestly would be a very good ruler. However, Prince David had been trying to outmaneuver her politically, and tonight he was going to have Joy strike a blow against her greatest supporter, the Red family. Tonight, he was going to go to The Casino Pachinko and get the eldest son, Robin, to lose as much of the family fortune as possible through any means necessary.

    The prince had graciously allowed Joy to procure anything he needed to blend in with the upscale crowd in The Casino Pachinko. Joy had gone all out for tonight¡¯s event, even picking out outfits for his two babysitters.

    For himself, he had found a disgustingly ostentatious suit where the left side was completely black, and the right side was completely white. He had even spent hours combing through the city to find a pair of shoes and a hat that would match. Unfortunately, the hat and shoes had the opposite color schemes to the suit, giving him an unfortunate likeness to a checkerboard. It was gaudy and atrocious, so just the sort of thing a bad but rich gambler would wear to try and psyche out his competition.

    For Theo, he had picked an all-white suit. Joy had considered going with black for Theo, but the white really made those startlingly blue eyes pop out. Finally, Joy had picked a simple black suit and scarf for Lillian. With her black hair, it made her seem like a very competent guard who had been assigned to some pompous rich kid.

    As a group they looked perfect for the part. The guards looked quiet and competent, while Joy offended the eye of anyone passing by with even a decent sense of fashion.

    Grand entrances are an artform. One that Joy was a fan of. So, when he pushed open the double doors to enter the nicely lit casino, he made sure that they were pushed hard enough to crash into the walls behind him. This created a loud noise that drew the eye, then he kept their attention by having his two goons step in after him, one carrying an obviously massive chest of gold and the other carrying a small rat, which admittedly was less imposing than Joy hoped for, but it kept the casino¡¯s attention.

    That was when Joy ruined his own performance by tripping on the nice plush carpet of the casino. Falling onto Theo and making the contents of treasure chest he was holding spill all over the floor. Gold coins covered the floor around Theo and Joy.

    With a satisfied smile on his face, Joy started standing up. He knew he had pulled off that performance perfectly. And he was quite happy with how unhappy Theo looked. Yes, Joy could¡¯ve warned him about this part of the plan, but that would¡¯ve ruined the fun. Though Joy would have to make sure Theo didn¡¯t freeze him out of annoyance.

    ¡°Was that absolutely necessary?¡± Theo whispered into Joy¡¯s ear.

    To Theo¡¯s annoyance Joy just smiled and whispered back, ¡°no.¡±

    The Casino Pachinko was a sprawling building within the second ring. It was built in a sort of arc to follow the general outline of the ring, but the most impressive part of it was the carpeting.

    Legends of the casino say they got a knight with a gift from Home to completely design this place. The red carpeting covered the entire floor, while the walls and supporting pillars were all an opalescent color. This gave the entire building the feeling of blood and bone, like the gamblers were all inside a human body.

    The first thing Joy did was get a drink from the bar. It was just water, but he had the bartender throw a few sprigs of mint in there to give the illusion he was drinking. Then he surveyed the room trying to get a feel for how the night was flowing.

    There were some big winners nearby the pachinko machines that the casino was named for, it was a slow night over in the blackjack area, and his quarry Robin Red was sitting alone at a table in the poker corner.

    ¡°How much of my winnings am I allowed to keep, Lillian?¡± Joy asked as he started walking towards the blackjack area.

    ¡°If you accomplish the mission, you can keep everything else.¡± Lillian replied.

    ¡°Splendid.¡±

    Joy put on a shit-eating grin, as he started calculating absolute minimum amount of money he would need to lose, so that he could accomplish the prince¡¯s stupid mission. There was no greater way to spend a night than by spending someone else¡¯s money.

    Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

    The art of losing at blackjack is a fine one. Anybody can tell that someone is trying to lose if they say ¡°hit me¡± while they are on twenty. Instead, Joy just had the most unfortunate streak of luck, he somehow got a ten every time he said ¡°hit me¡± when he was over eleven. It was almost remarkable how unlucky Joy was at that blackjack table.

    It was almost like he was cheating, but who would cheat to lose?

    By the end of Joy¡¯s third public breakdown and the loss of nearly 400 gold coins the manager of the blackjack area kindly asked his two goons, ¡°if he¡¯s having such bad luck at these tables, why don¡¯t you move him somewhere else?¡±

    Lillian and Theo hoisted Joy up by his collar. Accidentally making quite an interesting visual effect, since Lillian grabbed his right side, while Theo grabbed his left, they continued the checkerboard effect that Joy had cultivated so prominently.

    The two of them looked for a quiet place away from the blackjack area and found an almost empty poker table. Where, obviously, Robin Red sat. He was thoroughly unamused by the procession and was planning on totally ignoring them, when he noticed the treasure chest of gold the gaudy fool had walked into the casino with was still mostly full. And how could he not be so kind as to try and take that weight off this poor man¡¯s hands?

    ¡°Bad luck at blackjack, eh?¡± Robin felt this was a good opener, it allowed him to sympathize with the fool while goading him into playing a new game with him.

    ¡°I just¡± Joy sniffed dramatically here, ¡°I just felt I could win it back. Oh, my father¡¯s going to kill me.¡± Joy¡¯s hands shook as he brought his drink from earlier up to his lips. They shook so much that he accidentally spilled half the glass all over himself. Which made him start crying again.

    ¡°Well, maybe your bad luck with blackjack won¡¯t carry over to a game of poker. If you don¡¯t mind playing with me?¡±

    ¡°Only if you promise to go easy on me. I can¡¯t be losing more of my father¡¯s fortune.¡± Joy replied. Robin looked at the pathetic slob and sighed a bit to himself, it was almost too easy. But Robin never said no to free money.

    Then the game began. It was five-card draw and simple stuff for everyone involved. All the other patrons just sighed at the fool. Robin was notorious for draining people dry in these games. That was why no one ever played him anymore, only suckers and newbies played him because of his gift.

    Robin had been given his gift by Liquid. A more general, less powerful version of Water. His gift was perfect for espionage; Robin could form copies of himself out of nearby liquids. During puberty his mother had to pay off numerous women that had caught him forming eyes out of their bath water. Those women got paid twice though, since the prince paid them to tell him the specifics of the incident.

    Over the years, Robin had only gotten more skilled at using it, and during card games he would form miniature eyes out of his opponents¡¯ saliva to see their cards. It wasn¡¯t a perfect strategy, but it worked enough that none of the regulars would play him at cards anymore.

    Robin was particularly pleased the fool had spilled water all over himself, since his view would no longer be obstructed by any pesky teeth. And he was crushing the man. It was easy for him; every time Robin had a worse hand than Joy he would just immediately fold. And anytime he had a better hand he made sure to make small enough bets that Joy would match until the reveal came.

    ¡°You¡¯re really good at this Mr.¡­¡± Joy left the word hanging in the air hoping for Robin to fill in the blank.

    ¡°Robin, I am Robin. And you are just having an unlucky night Mr.¡­¡±

    ¡°Joy-rdan. Jordan.¡± It was a small fumble, but nothing Joy couldn¡¯t come back from. ¡°I was thinking I would go all in on this hand. I hope you¡¯ll match me since I could really use this win, Robin.¡±

    Robin carefully looked at the cards he had, three kings and two queens. It was a fantastic full house.

    Robin closed his eyes, using his gift to form an eye on the water staining Joy¡¯s shirt. Joy had three aces, a jack, and a seven. Not a bad hand to go all in on, just not good enough to beat Robin right here. Robin smiled and said, ¡°I¡¯ll match.¡±

    Robin placed his cards down on the table and declared, ¡°read em¡¯ and weep.¡± Already starting to pull the massive pile of coins toward himself.

    ¡°Don¡¯t be too hasty, last time I checked four aces beats that full house.¡± Robin¡¯s heart stopped for a moment.

    What just happened, he thought. It couldn¡¯t be right; he saw three aces when he checked. But as Robin looked at the cards and he saw four aces and a queen.

    Something was wrong.

    That was when the night started to get worse for poor Robin. The cards that his opponent ¡°Jordan¡± played were never the ones he could see from his water eye. Sometimes the hands were better, sometimes they were worse, but they were never what Robin saw.

    The man in the checkerboard outfit seemed a lot scarier to Robin now. He was constantly winning, and Robin had burned through all the coins he had on him. Robin had almost come to his senses and gotten up from the table, leaving this horrifying man alone, when Joy made a proposal.

    ¡°One last bet. I¡¯ll bet everything I have right now.¡± For dramatic effect, Theo thumped the treasure chest overflowing with coins onto the table. ¡°If you put your ring up for it.¡±

    Robin glanced at the checkerboard ring his father had given to him once he officially became the heir to his family. It was a powerful second age artifact that allowed the wearer to condense things together. His father had used it to solidify the foundation of their family castle.

    Joy interrupted Robin¡¯s train of thought by saying, ¡°I¡¯ll even tell exactly how I was cheating you during the game. Are you down for one final bet?¡±

    Robin thought there was no way he could lose if this man revealed his trick. But he also knew that betting this ring was monumentally stupid.

    However, what made him accept was his pride, Robin couldn¡¯t handle being so easily fooled. Who was this ¡°Jordan¡± to beat him, Robin Red? Robin placed the ring down in the center of the table.

    Theo placed the treasure chest in the middle of the table, while Joy started his villainous monologue; he had been waiting patiently for this one.

    ¡°You were cheating by looking through the water on my coat, my mouth, and the condensation on the table.¡± As he named each, Joy gestured at the areas in question.

    ¡°My gift is just a normal deck of cards. I made random ones overlap my actual cards. Then when I placed them, I just pulled my fake cards back into my soul space. Pretty simple stuff really.¡± The cards were starting to be dealt but Joy didn¡¯t pick a single one up. ¡°Now, I know you¡¯re not going to cheat because I am not going to look at my cards. They¡¯re going to be left right there, face down. And we are just going to have a normal game of luck here. Do you think your hand can beat whatever I have here, under my hands?¡±

    The evil monologue was over, and Joy felt he deserved a ten out of ten. It was menacing and the look on Robin¡¯s face was utterly priceless. This man hadn¡¯t played a real game of luck in years, he just used the casino as a place to make some quick coin. And he was afraid of playing a real game of cards.

    Robin didn¡¯t know what to do. He was lost; what was he supposed to do when he didn¡¯t know what his opponent hand in their hand. He looked at his cards, a pair of kings, a two, and a pair of aces. This was doable, he had some good cards. He traded the two in with the dealer, getting a seven back. Not like he expected to get another full house, but he could win this. Robin could win.

    ___

    Joy walked out of the casino with Theo, Lillian, nearly a thousand gold coins for himself, and a shiny new ring for the prince.

    ¡°Did you really have to go for the royal flush Joy? He nearly attacked you because he thought you were cheating again. We were lucky he just couldn¡¯t prove it and the casino staff escorted him out.¡± Theo nagged at him.

    ¡°But I didn¡¯t cheat.¡± Joy winked at his two babysitters and started skipping down the street, thinking of all the things he was going to spend his new fortune on.

 Chapter 5 - Freeze

    As Joy, Lillian, and Theo were walking back to the prince¡¯s abode, it started raining. Earlier that day, Joy had decided that an umbrella would be too over the top and had decided to leave his back at the castle. Which he was regretting as the water started chilling him to the bone.

    ¡°Can¡¯t the king¡¯s weather-gifted just poof away all the bad weather.¡± Joy grumbled through his chattering teeth.

    ¡°You know they can¡¯t Joy. It would have unknowable consequences.¡± Lillian muttered back while trying to keep her rat dry by shielding it with her own body.

    ¡°But isn¡¯t that exactly what they do for big parties for the king?¡± Theo said, without any chattering teeth. He had repurposed the treasure chest full of gold and was using it to protect himself from the rain.

    ¡°Yeah, and these are the untold consequences of that.¡±

    ¡°Well then they aren¡¯t exactly untold consequences are they.¡± Joy bickered with a grin.

    ¡°Shut up.¡± The other two said in unison.

    Robin Red didn¡¯t know how he had been cheated by that man, but he was seething. No one got away with swindling him. And so, a plan for revenge came to him. It was ham-fisted and stupid, but who needed to be intelligent when you had overwhelming power and luck.

    Robin certainly had luck in droves tonight, as he had been following the swindler and his two guards, it had started to rain. If any of Joy¡¯s group had bothered to look behind them, they would have seen a truly horrifying scene. Hands reached out of the puddles on the ground and pulled out doppelgangers of Robin. Soon a mass of thirty or so copies were sloshing down the street, preparing to attack Joy, Theo, and Lillian. Robin just chuckled as he hid in a nearby back alley as his little army crept towards them.

    Lillian was the first to notice Robin¡¯s copies, unfortunately she only noticed them after one of them had latched onto her back and tried to force one of its watery arms down her throat.

    She scrambled to turn and face the creature. She ineffectually kicked its legs and grasped at its arm. But she found that she just passed through the water, barely causing a ripple in the surface. Thankfully she had gotten a more useful power for once, and aimed her rat at the water copy.

    As Lillian yanked the tail, the rat let out a piercing wail then released a gout of fire that turned the clone into steam. Lillian took a deep breath after being freed from the water copy¡¯s grip, then aimed the rat again, ready to open fire.

    Theo heard more than saw Lillian getting attacked, because he had a couple copies of his own to deal with. A group of three were charging him, so he glared at each of them in turn. Forcing chunks of ice to form in their bodies.

    This turned out to be a bad choice for Theo, since the copies could still move, and the ice made their watered-down slaps turn into deadly strikes. Theo found this out the hard way, when one of the copies struck him in the gut and he dropped the treasure chest he had been using to shield himself from the rain. It clattered to the ground spilling Joy¡¯s fortune and the ring onto the cobbled stone.

    Theo had trained for many years to keep his eyes open through intense pain though. The weakness of his gift was that he needed to directly see what he wanted to freeze. So, Theo¡¯s eyes bulged, but didn¡¯t close.

    He darted back a few paces, keeping intense eye-contact with the copy that had struck him. After a few seconds of staring, there was too much ice content in the copy for Robin¡¯s liquid-based gift to continue animating it, and the copy collapsed.

    While Theo was gazing into that enemy, the other two copies started closing in. Theo knew that it took too long for him to freeze a copy and the group would be overrun in seconds once the bulk of the copies arrived. That was when Theo heard Joy ask in a raspy voice, ¡°do you want to play a game?¡±

    Joy was not as well-equipped as his two guards to face off against these water copies. So, when one of them burbled over and started shoving water down his throat, Joy had given up and assumed that this was the end for him. His punches couldn¡¯t stem the tide of this watery visage, nor could he dam them. These and many more water-based puns swam through Joy¡¯s head as his lungs filled with water.

    When the water copy had been evaporated by the rat Lillian had been carrying this whole day, Joy just assumed it was his air-starved brain hallucinating one last thing before he died. When Lillian stomped on his chest to force the water out of his lungs, he realized the pain was too real to be a hallucination. Then he proceeded to barf out his lunch, dinner, and an unreasonable amount of rainwater.

    Once Joy could breathe again, he stood up and got into his pose. Thankfully, Lillian had been standing nearby, letting her rat incinerate any copy that got too close to Joy. It was a scary sight, her face occasionally getting lit by the fire coming from her rat¡¯s throat.

    Then Joy clapped his hands and said weakly, ¡°do you want to play a game?¡±

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    Joy, Theo, Lillian, and Robin then heard a voice in their head. The voice proclaimed in a far too dignified voice, ¡°freeze-tag. Do any of you need the rules explained to you?¡±

    Joy replied, ¡°No, but thank you.¡± Then he started running at the water copies.

    As he ran Lillian and Theo both began to shout, ¡°Get back here Joy.¡±

    But instead of properly explaining to them anything about what was going on, he just looked back, winked, and shouted, ¡°don¡¯t let any of the copies touch you. Now let¡¯s have some fun!¡±

    Robin was a little frightened at first when he heard the voice in his head. He thought that the group had found him in his little hiding spot. He could control each of his clones individually, but for fighting he left them on a kind of autopilot, so the most effective way to stop his minions was to incapacitate him. However, the voice had asked if he wanted to know the rules.

    Well, it couldn¡¯t hurt to know. Robin whispered, ¡°yes.¡±

    ¡°You are now playing freeze tag. It functions similarly to normal tag, except once a player is tagged, they will be unable to move until they are tagged by a teammate. Your team is comprised of you and your water clones, while the group of three and the rat are your opposing team.¡± The voice sounded far too dignified to be explaining a children¡¯s game.

    Robin sat there pondering how or if this game would affect the fight.

    Unfortunately for Robin the fight was almost over by the time he decided to look through one of his copy¡¯s eyes again. All his water clones just stopped moving. This made them easy prey for the fiery rat and the piercing, icy-cold eyes.

    This was bad, he had already used up most of the surrounding water, and the rain wasn¡¯t coming down nearly hard enough to give him enough base material to create a whole copy out of.

    Then Robin noticed on the ground, the ring was just sitting there. All his foes were so preoccupied with dealing with the clones that they had forgotten about the ring.

    There wasn¡¯t enough water for a whole clone, but he could muster up enough for an arm or three.

    Joy was feeling particularly pleased with himself. The games were always random, but sometimes they felt handpicked to help him out of these sticky situations. Though he always wondered why no one else played the game; they were always free to play, but everyone just wants to keep fighting the normal way.

    The clones didn¡¯t even know what hit them. Once Joy was in their midst, he would tap them, and they suddenly wouldn¡¯t be able to move anymore. They stood as still as a normal body of water. Kicks, punches, grabs, Joy never stayed close to the clones, but as soon as any of them overextended, his lightning-fast hand would tag the clone, leaving it helpless.

    The clones surrounded him, but Joy didn¡¯t care as he jumped and tumbled around. As long as their hands didn¡¯t touch him, he would be unstoppable. As the crowd rushed in at him, he dove through their watery legs, splashing out the other side and tapping them as he moved on.

    Theo and Lillian were not holding still during this exchange, they started freezing or evaporating clones much faster now that they weren¡¯t moving. Flames and ice mixed until all that stood in the street were oddly dry patches, frozen statues, Theo, Joy, and Lillian.

    Now that was fun, Joy thought. Even if it was a bit boring for him that none of the clones even started trying to play freeze tag. But he felt a job well done was a job well done.

    Joy was about to cajole Lillian into telling him what that rat was all about. He thought her gift was invisibility, so maybe the rat was some second age artifact that the prince had loaned her. Or a powerful and ancient first age artifact that slowly morphed a normal animal into a mythical dragon over time. Or maybe she fed that rat a spicy pepper and it started belching flames. At this point he was just curious.

    ¡°Hey Lillian, what¡¯s with the¡­¡±

    He never got to finish that thought since a hand, made of water, formed on the ground behind him and tagged him. The same happened to Theo, only Lillian escaped the fate of being tagged since the rat had evaporated most of the water around her.

    Simultaneously, a hand formed nearby the checkerboard ring and threw it back down the street. All Theo, Joy, and Lillian could hear was it clatter down the street and then some very fast footsteps as Robin started running for it.

    Lillian was about to start running after the footsteps when she realized her two companions were not moving. Joy, being caught mid-sentence had his mouth open in a particularly unflattering way. Theo had his serious expression as always, and she knew he was alive because she could feel him lightly freezing her cheek, trying to get her attention.

    Lillian considered blasting them with her rat and seeing if that did anything, instead she went with the safe option of asking nicely.

    ¡°What am I supposed to do?¡±

    Silence. Well, they weren¡¯t moving, so why would she expect them to be able to speak.

    Joy was the closest, but she just went up to Theo instead to try and diagnose what the problem was. For all intents and purposes there was nothing wrong with him, he just stood there unblinking and unmoving.

    She did the only thing she could think of, she poked him right in the face.

    Surprisingly he grunted and started moving again after that.

    ¡°Do you know what that was? I just thought one of the clones touched me, but then I couldn¡¯t move.¡± Theo went straight to business hoping to get some answers.

    ¡°That¡¯s what I saw too, but it is almost exactly like what happened to the clones after Joy touched them¡­¡± They both turned to look at the still unmoving Joy. If he could¡¯ve chuckled nervously, he would have.

    After another poke to the face, Joy would have called it a slap, but Lillian absolutely did not slap him, Joy was moving.

    ¡°Why weren¡¯t we able to move Joy?¡± Theo was glaring at Joy, possibly deciding what part of the man he wanted to freeze off first.

    ¡°Woah man, it¡¯s just part of my gift. We all play a game together, but it would be unfair if only one team was allowed to play the game.¡± Joy was inching away from the scary blue eyes.

    ¡°That¡¯s what the voice in my head was. My family used to play this game, it¡¯s like tag, but you must hold still once you¡¯re touched by whoever¡¯s it.¡± Lillian exclaimed.

    ¡°So, he just made us play a game in the middle of a fight, then he lost the game.¡± Theo was angry, and he kicked some of the scattered gold coins in his fuming.

    Joy stared longingly at his fortune being scattered across the street like leaves in the wind, when he had a brilliant idea. Distraction, give the scary ice man a task and he¡¯ll forget all about this screw up.

    ¡°We¡¯re wasting seconds here. Let¡¯s go catch Robin and get that ring back.¡± Joy started running down the street.

    Lillian and Theo took one long look at each other, then started sprinting after him. Maybe Robin was a slow runner.

 Chapter 6 - Consume At Your Own Risk

    Robin was not a slow runner. He may have been unkind and self-absorbed, but no one could call him lazy. As he ran down the street his footsteps were slowly joined by more and more splashes as he summoned more of his copies to follow him. He could¡¯ve sent them to attack the group of three that were following him, but he was keener on defending himself from possible attacks.

    His feet carried him to his father¡¯s castle. He had not lived there for a few years, but Robin was hoping his father would lend some of his guards to defend Robin from his pursuers.

    The watery entourage was imposing to all those who saw it at this late hour, and everyone knew to stay out of the way as they barreled through the street. Everyone, except one woman sitting in the center of the street. When she saw the entourage, her eyes lit up and she screamed at the top of her lungs, ¡°I got him.¡±

    The woman had red curly hair, brown eyes, and looked as if she had lost a lot of weight recently. She looked like she ran a bakery, since she was wearing a checkered apron that was covered in flour, carried a rolling pin in her left hand, and a large bag of something in her right. The woman stood to an imposing height, towering over Robin. She then started to beat the rolling pin against her leg.

    Robin knew something was wrong, but unfortunately for the woman he was already being chased. So, instead of being intrigued by this display he sent his clones to incapacitate her while he kept running. The woman didn¡¯t even try to stop him, instead she eyed his mass of clones as if they were her priority.

    The woman smiled as she watched the young man pass her by. She didn¡¯t have to worry about him. The others would take care of it.

    As the mass of clones approached the woman in the apron, she opened the bag she had been carrying. Inside was a dough she had been preparing for tomorrow, she needed to let the dough rise, and she didn¡¯t trust any of her incompetent workers to do it properly.

    ¡°A little bit sugar, and a little bit of spice.¡± As she said sugar and spice, she threw a pinch of each into the dough bag. ¡°Wait for your dough to get bigger, then your enemies will pay the price.¡± She hated the little chant she had to do to make her gift work. It was embarrassing, but at least her gift was usable.

    After her chant, a little bark could be heard from the inside of the bag. And a tiny dog made of dough waddled out of it. It looked at the woman, then at the clones. It wagged its little doughy tail then launched itself at frightening speeds towards the clones.

    If the clones could scream, they would have. Once the dough-dog connected with the first clone the dog gained more mass. The dough became a bit wetter, but mostly the dog just grew. Now instead of being puppy-sized, it was fully dog sized. And with every clone it consumed, the dog grew more.

    By the time there was only one clone left, the dog was elephant sized and had trouble moving through the street. Though, calling it a dog may have been a bit of a stretch at this point. The dough had become so watered down that the dough could not hold any shape beyond a vaguely round blob with a mouth in the center.

    The woman in the apron sighed a little as she saw this. The dough was absolutely ruined and there was no way she was going to be able to serve this to any of her customers tomorrow. But this was the price of her power.

    She started walking down the street, following the direction Robin had gone in earlier. And her little doughy monster oozed behind her leaving a wake of mush in the street.

    Joy, Theo, and Lillian didn¡¯t see the mush, but they did feel it underneath their shoes. The click and clack of their footsteps started squeaking and squelching on the remnants of dough left throughout the street. Joy didn¡¯t know what the dough had to do with Robin, but he would¡¯ve bet money that if they followed the trail, they would find Robin.

    The trail of dough led them down a few streets to an intense battle that seemed to be straight out of a children¡¯s fairy tale. In the middle of the street Robin created as many new clones as he could to keep four monsters at bay. One of the monsters was a round, doughy blob with a mouth hole, and had obviously been whatever was leaving behind the bits of dough. It was using its considerable bulk and inherent stickiness to keep Robin from being able to run.

    The other three monsters, however, seemed to be made of shadow. The smallest monster looked almost like a human except with knives for hands and it had no face. This was the least effective of the monsters since the quick thrusts did nothing to the watery copies. The next monster looked like a large octopus, and it used its tentacles to slice through the copies that got too close to it with frightening speed. Unluckily for the octopus, it couldn¡¯t really move well on land and all Robin had to do was stay far enough away from it to be safe. The final one was almost as large as the dough monster and looked like an immense pig. But it was not very invested in getting to Robin. Instead that monster was having all too much fun eating hunks of the dough monster.

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    Off to the side of the raging battle there stood three figures. Two scrawny men and the tall baker. One of the men seemed to be holding leashes connecting to each of the three shadow monsters though, and he was trying futilely to yank the pig monster away from the dough monster.

    The baker and the man without the leashes were paying rapt attention to the battle though and seemed to be discussing something.

    Joy motioned to Theo and Lillian to keep quiet and crept closer to the group of three.

    ¡°I wish the sins were as effective as your dough familiars.¡± The scrawny man said.

    ¡°Well, that¡¯s the point Evan. They¡¯re embodiments of sins, they¡¯ll never be diligent workers. We just use them so as not to be wasteful with the resources our lord has given us.¡±

    ¡°I know and I¡¯m eternally grateful, but this would go so much faster if Pigsy was willing to just get the job done.¡±

    Joy was just stunned at how unprofessional these people were. They were part of some clandestine cult obviously, and they were just sharing secret information in the middle of the street. If someone was going to be evil, they should at least make sure their minions got the memo about not sharing secrets for any passerby to hear.

    The minions were stupid, but not oblivious. So, Joy motioned for Theo and Lillian to follow him to a nearby stack of crates that were just lying in the middle of the street.

    They were lucky that the crates were there, but the blatant lack of professionalism shown by crate movers in this section of the city needed to be addressed. How could they leave crates just lying there? Joy was going to write a strongly worded letter to someone about this injustice.

    No one deserved to see cults unable to keep secrets, or crates in the middle of the street. Someone needed to fix this broken society Joy lived in.

    Anyways, all three of them were ducked down behind the crates and they watched the battle unfold its final act.

    Robin had been hoping not to have to use this attack. But these monsters had backed him into a corner. The sword-hands one was getting frighteningly close to him, while the octopus had destroyed most of his clones, but he still had enough for one last desperate gamble.

    He gripped the ring tightly in one fist and focused on his last remaining clones. Robin had always felt his father was a fool for never using this ring to its full potential. Not only could it condense physical objects, but it could also condense other gifts on some level. So, as he focused on his clones, he allowed the ring to condense them all together. Instead of a few smaller clones, now a fifteen-foot-tall clone of Robin stood in their place.

    It didn¡¯t dwarf the pig and the dough monsters, but it stood taller than them both.

    The giant copy of Robin kneeled and allowed Robin to slip inside of it. He stuck his head out of the shoulder and just floated inside of the copy. Allowing it to protect him while it wreaked havoc on the monsters.

    A mighty punch sent the knife-hands monster flying across the street and the octopus-monster was smashed underneath the giant¡¯s foot. Then it was the dough monster¡¯s turn, as a flurry of strikes kneaded the dough. The wet loose dough struck repeatedly, until it had been overworked. The overworked dough had lost all the slack that allowed it to move, and the dough monster simply sat there like a normal, massive ball of dough.

    The attack on the dough monster had unfortunately drawn the attention of Pigsy. And Pigsy was hungry, always hungry.

    Robin was feeling good. His giant had taken care of three of the monsters swiftly, and he felt that this last one would be a piece of cake as well. Then he could get to the baker woman and her two companions and see why they attacked him.

    Robin let his clone circle the pig monster, he had been trained to fight mostly human opponents, so he was trying to find an opening to begin attacking the pig shaped nightmare. That was when the pig struck.

    For something so large, the pig moved like lightning. It was far more agile than Robin and his massive clone. When the pig slammed into the clone¡¯s legs, the clone toppled over putting Robin on the ground.

    The monster snuffled at his clone¡¯s legs, then opened its mouth to take a bite. The teeth inside were sharp and there were far too many of them. The giant kicked out, hoping to get the pig monster away from him. The mouth shut on his leg and disrupted enough water that the clone lost the leg.

    The monster seemed to smile, and it spoke in a little girl¡¯s voice, ¡°delicious.¡±

    The clone was ripped apart piece by piece until all that was left was Robin. He was sitting there, soaking wet and shivering from the cold and the fear of Pigsy. That was when the man with the leashes finally was able to pull Pigsy back. As Pigsy was held back the baker and her other companion approached the frightened noble.

    ¡°Give us the ring and we¡¯ll just forget this happened.¡± The baker spoke calmly, but with an implicit threat hidden in her voice.

    Robin immediately threw the ring at her, not wanting to find out what her threat was. Under his breath he did whisper, ¡°why does everybody want this stupid thing?¡±

    None of the three paid him any attention as they examined the ring. All seeming quite pleased with it they turned to leave. Once they were out of the way the woman spoke to her companion on the leashes, ¡°let Pigsy eat him to get rid of the evidence.¡±

    The man let go of the leash and Pigsy started ripping Robin Red to shreds, devouring every last morsel. Robin Red had died and there was no fanfare, nor was there any procession announcing his death. It was only heralded by the occasional exclamation of ¡°yum¡± from the pig monster eating him.

    The man on the leashes pulled all three of the monsters back towards him. Then his companion somehow put the large monsters into a small bag. Those two said goodbyes to the baker and they all seemed to go their separate ways. As if this had been some sort of simple errand for them all to run.

    Unfortunately for the baker and the ring still in her possession, her route took her right by an inconveniently placed pile of crates. She didn¡¯t know what hit her as her hands were frozen and she was hit upside the head with a rat.

    Joy, Theo, and Lillian looked at each other. They needed to get this woman back to the jailhouse and she was much larger than any one of them. It was going to be a long night dragging her back to the prince¡¯s prison.

 Chapter 7 - Sleep Deprivation and Building Character

    Joy was in an atrocious mood. He had not gotten the beauty sleep that he so deserved. Instead, he had spent most of the night with some lady¡¯s legs over his head, while Theo carried her arms. Then to make matters even worse, they had passed by where his fortune should be, and it was gone.

    In retrospect, leaving nearly a thousand gold just lying in the middle of the street was a bad choice, but that didn¡¯t mean he still couldn¡¯t be pissed.

    The group had dragged the baker into the dungeon area, and even put her into Joy¡¯s old cell. Once the group was just about to leave, Sam the seer arrived. Joy felt it was super creepy how they just knew about the new prisoner. But apparently Sam ¡°took care of these sorts of things.¡± So, the group of three left.

    Afterwards, Theo and Lillian had to drag Joy to wake the prince up and give the report on the evening¡¯s events.

    Theo had been giving the long and arduous report on the events of the night and concluded by saying, ¡°so, we failed. You hoped to use the ring as leverage to take away your sister¡¯s support from the Red family. Since the owner of the ring is dead, the ring in large is useless to you now.¡±

    ¡°No, no, no. You all did a wonderful job. Capturing the baker that is in my dungeon seems to be enough to call this mission a success. And I feel that we can find some use for that old ring. But please, tell me more about these shadowy monsters.¡±

    After this, the prince continued trying to squeeze every detail out of Lillian and Theo, who were happy to provide everything. By this point Joy was swaying on his feet, but no one seemed to notice or care.

    Finally, the three had stopped blabbering and he was going to be free to sleep. The sun had fully risen, but Joy was dedicated to his sleep and no amount of mere sunlight was going to stop him.

    That was when the prince suggested that they start training as a team. Since they were going to be working together so much in the future, it apparently wouldn¡¯t be ideal if they all got in each other¡¯s way again. Which was how the group of three had been roped into the prince¡¯s daily training session with Ian.

    Ian was a short man with a lithe build who seemed to be in his forties. His greying hair was in a high ponytail that just barely went to the nape of his neck, and he had a scar that ran from the corner of his eye all the way down to his jaw. Ian carried a sword at his hip that was bare of any decorations, it was not a ceremonial sword, it was purely meant for killing as efficiently as possible.

    Ian¡¯s every move exuded grace, and Theo, Lillian, and Joy watched the prince and Ian warm up with rapt attention. Ian was a monster; every movement was efficient and powerful. Every strike placed with perfect precision leading to the next and the next. But he never took a finishing blow, instead when the prince left himself too exposed Ian would tap him with two fingers before continuing his barrage of attacks.

    The prince was no slouch either. He couldn¡¯t keep up with Ian, but he certainly was talented. He parried and struck back; to no avail, but he still tried. The prince seemed to be absorbing everything he could from this quiet lesson with an absolute master of combat.

    Eventually their dance came to an end when Ian gently pushed the prince over. Once the two men had shook hands and shown each other the respect that was proper, Ian said some of the evilest words ever spoken, ¡°so who¡¯s next.¡±

    Theo got his ass kicked and Lillian got her ass kicked. Neither of them could ruffle a hair on Ian¡¯s head. He was simply just that much better than them. When it was Joy¡¯s turn he could feel his doom encroaching on him, there was no way he could win in this fight.

    As Joy got into position, he weighed his few options. He could foolishly try to fight Ian in the same way that everyone else had, or he could cheat. Joy always felt that when life made you play an unfair game, it was just a gentle hint to cheat at that game.

    Ian¡¯s easy-going demeanor never shifted, and his placid smile remained on his face as he started closing the distance towards Joy. Unfortunately for Ian, Joy had turned around and ran.

    Ian was dumbfounded, who ran away from training? This was an opportunity to see your flaws and improve upon them in a safe environment, why run away?

    Joy was quick, but not quicker than Ian, who caught up and got ready to give Joy a lesson in respect. As the first punch was cocked and ready to release, a handful of dirt was thrown into Ian¡¯s eyes.

    Reflexively Ian closed his eyes, then Joy suddenly shifted directions. With a manic grin on his face, he prepared a devastating kick to Ian¡¯s head. His leg lifted off the ground and released a beautiful arc that went directly towards Ian¡¯s head, that Ian easily caught. Even with his eyes closed he could feel the air and could block the kick before it hit him.

    The grin fell off Joy¡¯s face while a smile rose on Ian¡¯s.

    Sporting a new black eye and an incessant ringing in his ears that seemed to follow him wherever he went, Joy sat in their sharing circle. At the request of the prince the group of three was going to share the details of their gifts with each other. So that they could become a more effective fighting unit and not step on each other¡¯s toes.

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    It was an incredibly awkward silence. Very few people shared the details of their gifts with others. It was a sensitive and personal subject, only their mutual respect for the prince kept Lillian and Theo there, while Joy stayed because he was threatened with another beating from Ian if he didn¡¯t.

    Joy decided that he would break the silence, ¡°well we can start with the obvious. We know that Theo has those nasty ice eyes. They cannot be a natural blue.¡±

    Theo instantly winced at that comment, ¡°is it really that easy to tell?¡±

    Both Joy and Lillian chorused, ¡°yes.¡±

    ¡°Just to be thorough, I received my gift from Cold. It is pretty simple, if I look at something it will freeze. The longer I look, the more it freezes. However, the freezing will only ramp up if my eyes are open. So, if I blink it all resets.¡±

    The gift wasn¡¯t exactly a surprise to Joy, but it did put Theo¡¯s vicious glares into context. He was just building up his icy power, not fed up with Joy¡¯s bullshit.

    Joy was touched by Theo¡¯s openness in this sharing circle and decided that he should share his gift with the group as well. It had nothing to do with the way Ian was eyeing him like a juicy cut of meat. Nothing at all.

    ¡°I can challenge anyone to a game, then a unique game is chosen for all the players. Anyone can choose to play or not play the game as they see fit. They get certain advantages and disadvantages depending on how successful they are in the game. Usually it¡¯s fun, but you both know what can happen when your opponent takes advantage of the game for themselves. Robin had an unfair advantage with his ability to make the arms appear.¡±

    The other two stared at Joy. The looks on their faces made it clear that they assumed that his power was more of a liability than anything else.

    That¡¯s just the way sore losers were. They weren¡¯t even thinking about ways to combat Robin if they ever had to play freeze tag against him again. Maybe it was a little overkill since the man had already been killed, but that was no excuse for laziness.

    Finally, after a long and arduous pause, filled with glares and judgement from everyone involved, Lillian decided to share her gift as well.

    ¡°My gift is from Dream. Every night when I go to sleep, I get the opportunity to take one thing from my dreams into the real world. It persists until I go to sleep again, or it is destroyed.¡±

    ¡°Do you dream about fire breathing rats a lot?¡± Joy really was curious if the elemental rats would be a persistent theme. But since he hadn¡¯t seen Lillian carrying lots of rats, he didn¡¯t have high hopes.

    ¡°No. But, if I bring a living thing out of the dream it still acts like it would in the dream. A monster coming to murder me in my dreams will still be trying to murder me once I bring it into the real world. That¡¯s why I need Theo to watch me when I wake up, so that we don¡¯t have any accidents.¡±

    ¡°Why would you ever bring out a monster? Are you stupid?¡± Joy questioned.

    With an icy and judgmental look Theo replied, ¡°everything has a purpose. Even monsters.¡±

    Now that wasn¡¯t a foreboding statement or anything.

    The silence regrew around the group as they sat and tried to think about the others¡¯ powers. Theo and Lillian had been working for the prince together for a while now, so they already knew the other¡¯s gift, but Joy¡¯s certainly was chaotic and weird to wrap their heads around.

    Joy on the other hand, was thinking of games that the other two would be good at. Not for any sort of tactical advantage, but so that he knew which games to not try and swindle them at. Theo¡¯s gift was easy to figure out the bounds and limits of, but Lillian¡¯s randomness made it difficult to know what games she would be skilled at, but her ability was limited by her imagination and luck. And when it came to luck Joy was king.

    Joy did not receive a gift from Luck. He was just a lucky man.

    As the prince and Ian were finishing up their match, they slowly wandered over to the group who were sitting in silence.

    ¡°Now that you all have shared have you discovered your weaknesses as a group?¡± the prince asked as he sat down in the sharing circle. At the same time Ian stood behind him in an imposing fashion.

    Lillian replied, ¡°my gift and Joy¡¯s gift are too similar. Both are extremely unpredictable, meaning that with some bad luck we can be beaten by any bozo with a mediocre gift from Strength.¡± Her face was scrunched up in disappointment.

    ¡°That is a good analysis, but don¡¯t sell yourselves short. Even if there are situations where bozos can beat you, there are other situations where you could defeat anyone.¡± With this statement Lillian¡¯s face rose again and she seemed hopeful. ¡°Take Ian for example, nine times out of ten he will beat you, but on that tenth round he wouldn¡¯t even be able to touch you all. As a team you do not need endless training like I do, you need the ability to improvise and think quickly on your feet.¡±

    Joy smiled after the prince¡¯s speech. Maybe he was being told to do more work for the prince, but what Joy heard was that Lillian and Theo were going to be forced to play games with him. He was so excited that he almost forgot about his sleep deprivation and the scary monsters that he saw the night before.

    ¡°Thank you for humoring me. I was hoping to show you what I expect of you as a team, and to humble you at the same time. Now you can sleep.¡± The prince finally released the group to sleep.

    Joy stumbled back to his room in a groggy daze before passing out immediately. While Lillian and Theo retired to their own room. Where Theo took his shift of sleeping, during which time Lillian desperately tried to stay awake herself. Theo couldn¡¯t risk dosing off while Lillian slept and being tired was no reason for ineptitude at their tasks.

    After the group of three was solidly away from the training ground with the prince, Sam walked up to him and Ian. They had a massive grin on their face as they placed a checkered ring into the prince¡¯s hand.

    ¡°Your fools were so tired they forgot to give you the artifact you wanted.¡± Sam said.

    ¡°They certainly are fun, aren¡¯t they? You must love them, Sam.¡± The prince replied while handing the ring to Ian who took off to deliver it somewhere.

    ¡°You¡¯ll never get me to admit it, David.¡± Sam said with a grin.

    ¡°What¡¯s gotten you so excited today?¡± The prince questioned with a matching grin starting to splay over his lips.

    ¡°There¡¯s a new player entering the board,¡±

    ¡°Will they be an ally to my cause?¡±

    ¡°Certainly not.¡±

    ¡°Why should I care then?¡±

    ¡°They¡¯re searching for the Kingmaker.¡±

    ¡°Then I guess it¡¯s a race.¡± The prince¡¯s smile spread from ear to ear as he started planning on how to use this new enemy to his greatest benefit.

 Chapter 8 - What Do You Call an Alligator Thats On The Case?

    Joy, Theo, and Lillian had gotten into their perfect rhythm. They would be assigned a mission by the prince. Next, they would spend a few days learning as much information about their target as possible, then they would take them for all they were worth.

    After the Robin mission the entire team had to rethink how they accomplished missions. They had been far too lazy with that particular mission, and they had paid the price for it.

    Well, Robin had paid the price too. But now they were a well-oiled gambling machine. Joy had even stopped picking out ridiculous outfits for them, instead he found clothes that were easy to run and move in. Just in case they were ambushed again, he didn¡¯t want any limited mobility costing the team.

    They had a few rough scrapes. Most notably, the three had tried to gamble someone¡¯s life savings away from them. The person they had gambled against though, had an incredible gift from Speed, and would simply rearrange things into their favor. When Joy had inexplicably won a game that had been rigged against him, the speedster had tried to run through the group. Thankfully, it is incredibly difficult to control oneself while running on ice.

    Joy had thanked Theo profusely for that save, which had made all parties involved quite uncomfortable.

    However, during this revitalization of the team, they started seeing less and less of the prince. He would always be the one to assign the missions, but they would usually end up giving whatever they had stolen to Ian.

    This latest mission had been simple, it was to take as much gold as possible from the casino AU. Joy had made an absolute killing, so much so that the casino had placed a lifetime ban on him.

    Not the first time he had ever gotten one, but definitely the first he got from such a reputable establishment. It wasn¡¯t his fault that no one else was as stupidly lucky as him.

    ¡°What do we even need this much money for?¡± Joy whined as he handed over a sum that could support a family of seven in excessive luxury until they all died of old age.

    At this question Ian smiled. His wrinkles crinkled in a kindly way as he smacked Joy upside the head. ¡°You will find out tonight.¡±

    Joy felt the lump rising in his head at the same time as his rising excitement. So, there was a reason he was stealing fortunes. Joy would¡¯ve been perfectly happy to do it for no reason as well, but what reason could it be?

    It was a truly baffling amount of gold that Joy had procured at this point, and Joy had no idea what the prince could possibly be planning to do with it.

    Once the group of three had left Ian, Joy voiced his concerns.

    ¡°What could the prince possibly need that amount of gold for? I think he¡¯s planning an underground rebellion where he will steal the crown from the king. Wouldn¡¯t that be fun?¡±

    Lillian snorted, ¡°for sure. Or maybe he¡¯s just melting them down to make a grand golden throne?¡±

    These responses earned both Joy and Lillian, respectively, a smack upside the head and a heavy glare. The smack was solely for Theo¡¯s own benefit, putting Joy back in his place always made him feel very refreshed. The glare was to keep Lillian from goading Joy on. Joy was like a puppy, the more you encouraged him the worse he became. And Theo was not a dog person.

    Joy could actually feel a lump starting to rise on his head, but that could do nothing to curb his enthusiasm for this mystery.

    ¡°I propose a game!¡± Joy declared to his two companions. Theo glared menacingly, hoping to stop this annoyance before it grew any more. Lillian chuckled and waited for the proposal to be put before them. ¡°It is a simple game, whoever discovers what the announcement that the prince will give tonight is about, wins.¡±

    ¡°What would they win?¡± Lillian asked.

    ¡°A favor from whoever does not discover the secret.¡± At this pronouncement, Theo glared silently at Lillian, begging her not to take this bet. Not that he wasn¡¯t confident in being able to succeed, but because this would only encourage Joy to make more bets on stupid things.

    ¡°I¡¯m in. I could always use a favor or two.¡± Lillian announced to Theo¡¯s chagrin.

    Without even a spare glance at Theo, Joy and Lillian took off in opposite directions. Going to solve this mystery.

    Standing in the silent hallway Theo sighed and followed the direction that Lillian went in.

    Joy was going to solve this mystery, but he couldn¡¯t just solve it, he needed to solve it in style. So, he ran to his room to get properly dressed for this occasion.

    This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

    He had picked his comfortable, reliable, and amazing shoes, just in case he needed to chase down some leads. He had purposefully mismatched socks, a pair of trousers that were just a bit too short for his build, a shirt that had a few old stains on it, and a wonderfully long and voluminous trench coat. Joy looked like an investigator that was down on his luck and just trying to ¡®solve one last case¡¯ before he retired to the countryside.

    Three final items sat on the table in front of Joy: a fedora, a pipe, and a monocle. He wanted to wear them, but they felt like they were too much. He was already pushing the limit with his trench coat, but he felt that these three would pull the entire look together into one of his best costumes of all time.

    Joy snatched up the pipe and slipped it into his pocket. Hopefully he would find a proper time to use it for the full effect of his costume, but he had to go and start his investigation already.

    A tear trickled down his face as he left his room. Joy had already wasted an hour of precious time creating this masterpiece and could waste no more on deliberations. Joy had created a piece of art out of old clothes and random food stains, now it was time to put his creation on exhibition.

    The first stop he had to make was to see Sam. Sam knew everything, and even if it would be a tad anticlimactic if Sam just told Joy the answer, he still had to try.

    Joy ventured down deeper into the castle, reaching a point where no sunlight ever touched. Sam liked their workspace to be dark and damp. Joy reached the door to Sam¡¯s room, and it was slightly ajar, so he let himself in.

    Sam¡¯s room was drab, to fit the dark and damp area around it. The stone was a boring shade of grey, the table had been painted a boring shade of grey, the carpet on the floor was a boring shade of grey. Everything about the room was as boring as Sam was in Joy¡¯s opinion. Everything except the centerpiece.

    In the center of the room was a deep pit with many arcane symbols drawn around the edges and many vermin corpses stacked in the deepest section of the pit. Sam sat at the edge of the deep pit with their flute placed on their lips, then they started to play.

    It was a mournful piece. The notes swam through the air together, melding into a melody of loss and regret. The music was enthralling, and even Joy knew to be silent during this moment.

    As the piece continued, the pile of corpses in the center of the pit suddenly seemed to shift. The effect was like a magic trick, suddenly the pile of corpses unfurled itself, showing that it was now a large snake. Sam continued playing their mournful piece and the snake seemed to dance to it. Curling and whirling in time with the notes, until Sam stopped.

    The snake shuddered, then started slithering around its pit, unable to escape. While the snake thrashed in its futile escape attempt, Sam pulled out a few sheets of paper and a pen, then started taking notes.

    Whatever was happening was far beyond Joy, but he knew that seers had unique rituals to use their gifts, and he was not going to interrupt the prince¡¯s personal seer in the middle of their ritual.

    Seer rituals did not always used to be this weird. By all accounts, back in the first and second age Prophecy, Vision, and Future, used to give normal gifts that created seers. A man would close his eyes and see flashes of the future, or a woman would stare into a crystal ball and see cryptic imagery. But, by the third age all three gods had gotten quite bored and started a bet. The bet was to see who could create the most outlandish and odd gift to give to some poor unsuspecting sop down in the world.

    The story says that Vision gave a man the gift to see across the world if his head was freezing while his feet were on fire. This impressed the other two gods, but it was just a weird trigger for the gift, nothing too outlandish about it.

    Prophecy gave a woman a pen where anything that she wrote with it came true no matter what. The other two gods felt it was an incredible gift, since it gave the woman existential dread beyond any sort of physical pain. She did not know if she was making the future, or if she was only allowed to write things that will occur. Eventually she wrote, ¡°this pen will work no more¡± and the pen exploded killing her and several other people in her general vicinity.

    But Future was the one who won the bet between the three gods. Future gave a man the gift to see the rest of his life. He could see any and every event from his life, but they all occurred at the same time and never stopped, so he was never sure where he was in the stream of time. He had no way to tell what was going on around him, and he became a gibbering madman in the span of a few days. Wandering around aimlessly, spitting out conversations out of time.

    This story had some sort of moral relating to the entertainment of the gods and how human life existed simply to please them, but Joy didn¡¯t really care about that. What he did know is this was now a tradition of the three gods. To make their gifts as unique as possible without driving the new generation of seers crazy anymore, and Joy assumed whatever was happening here in this pit was part of Sam¡¯s personal seer ritual.

    As Sam finished taking the notes, they looked over their shoulder and smiled at Joy. Joy nervously smiled back. Watching a pile of corpses suddenly turn into a snake put a damper on even the most dapper of gentlemen.

    ¡°No.¡± Sam said, then turned back to the pit. They had a snake to take care of.

    ¡°I hate seers they know my questions before I even ask them.¡± Joy responded despondently as he stared at the writhing snake.

    ¡°But I wouldn¡¯t dilly dally if I was you. Lillian and Theo are already done, who knows what they might make you do for their favor.¡± A small smirk formed on Sam¡¯s face as they said that.

    Joy took off running, he couldn¡¯t let the pompous jerk hold anything over him. He might be okay with Lillian having a favor, she was at least fun. But Theo would probably make him stay silent for the rest of his life as a ¡°favor.¡±

    Sam hummed to themselves once Joy had taken off. It was the same notes as in the mournful piece, but a little happier and with more pizzazz added to them. Today had proven to be quite a fun day for Sam. Being a seer had its advantages, no one questioned why they knew anything.

    The only reason that Sam knew that both Lillian and Theo were already done, was because Sam had been the person who told them what the announcement tonight was going to be. How could Sam not rig this little contest? It was going to be chaotic and oh so fun for them.

 Chapter 9 - Otter Disbelief

    Joy had thought that the prince¡¯s castle was beautiful when he was first shown around. But now, he was just annoyed with how big it was.

    He left Sam¡¯s room at a quick pace and had been running around the castle for nearly ten minutes hoping to stumble across clues. The only thing he had discovered was that the cleaning staff gave weird looks to people who ran in their hallways.

    But he had a new plan for discovering clues, he was going to ransack the prince¡¯s study and see all his assorted plans. Honestly, he knew it was just a desperate last-minute attempt to save himself, but he didn¡¯t have any better ideas at the moment. Sam had said they wouldn¡¯t tell him, Ian would probably just beat Joy up for asking him to divulge important secrets, and the prince would just smile and laugh and Joy¡¯s antics. So digging through the prince¡¯s office it was.

    Joy ran up flight after flight of stairs. The prince loved a good view, and so his study had a beautiful view of the king¡¯s castle, but that did mean it was incredibly high up in his own castle, meaning Joy had to climb a lot of stairs to get there. What was with these royals and their hyper fixation on big castles, were they compensating for something?

    His entrance to the study was heralded by his labored breathing, thankfully for Joy no one was there to see him panting like a dog on the elegant rugs the prince placed on his floor.

    The prince was a man who understood the luxuries he could afford and knew how to enjoy them. Expensive alcohol lined his walls, while his rugs were all plush and comfortable to the touch. The desk was a beautiful chestnut color, with well-organized journals and papers stacked around it. The bookshelves were all tall and held everything from collections of children¡¯s stories to Philip Pen¡¯s collected works. But the most ostentatious and princely decoration was the window.

    The window was floor to ceiling and had a stained-glass edge surrounding it. The window obviously looked at the king¡¯s castle, where his father and sister lived in all their glory.

    The stained glass was a simple mesh of colors, blobs held together. It was a little artsy-fartsy for Joy, but he could appreciate the majesty of the window. He knew that the prince specifically hired a man with a flight gift, to fly around the outside of the castle to keep this window in a spotless condition.

    Joy had finally caught his breath, so he started going through the assortment of papers on the prince¡¯s desk.

    It was a nightmare for Joy. When he had come to the study, he had hoped a sheet of paper would declare loudly and boldly what tonight¡¯s speech would be about, and he could leave. Instead, there was so much paperwork.

    How much the prince¡¯s employees were paid, employee evaluations, and whether the prince would keep hiring them. There were even dossiers on most of the nobility in the second ring. Joy was not stupid, but he knew that this was too much for him.

    There were three things that caught his eye on the table though. There was an old journal that seemed to be from the second age, detailing a group of explorers¡¯ misadventures through the three destroyed continents.

    There was a report that the prince¡¯s spies had written, showing how the princess Dahlia was preparing supplies and men for some expedition.

    And finally, a report written by Ian about Joy saying how he was ¡°unpredictable¡± and ¡°kind of stupid¡± and that his termination from the prince¡¯s payroll should be considered. There were going to be some pranks in Ian¡¯s future if he kept talking about Joy like this.

    All this evidence led Joy to the obvious conclusion that the prince and the princess were in a race for some long and forgotten artifact nestled somewhere in the three uninhabitable continents. And that both were sending foolhardy men to their certain demise searching for it in this royal race. Or something like that. Hopefully.

    Joy¡¯s musings were interrupted when he heard two voices approaching his door. One of them was distinctly princely while the other was feminine and seemed to be bossing the prince around.

    ¡°David, I know you love the purple and gold for these speeches, but it honestly makes you look quite campy.¡± The feminine voice said as the two entered the room. Joy had scampered to hide under the nicely varnished desk and held his breath.

    ¡°What does campy even mean, Rose? And they love seeing those striking colors on me, it adds to my royal looks.¡± Even though Joy couldn¡¯t see the prince, he could feel the smug smile and wink the prince had put into that sentence.

    ¡°Well excuse me for worrying about the color clashing that will add to your suit.¡±

    ¡°I know, I know. I just enjoy messing with you. We are going for the streamlined black look. Black clothes, black hair, and black eyes. It is supposed to show my cohorts how serious this problem is, and how serious I am about it.¡± By this point the prince had sidled up to his seat at the desk and was about to sit down.

    ¡°If I didn¡¯t know that this was how you dealt with stress, I would be very worried about you David, you do not seem to be giving this situation the importance that you should.¡±

    Joy was on the edge of his metaphorical seat hoping to hear exactly what this situation was. The prince was on the edge of his very real seat and his knee bumped into Joy who was still hiding under the table.

    Joy knew he had been caught, so he quickly weaseled his way around the prince¡¯s knees and stood up next to him. The prince¡¯s currently sapphire eyes showed a look of shock that morphed into one of bemusement as he looked at Joy who was desperately searching through his pockets.

    ¡°Well, you see Mr. Prince David I just love the ideas you have going for your outfit tonight. The black, on black, on black will make you look suave and debonaire.¡± Joy had nervously been backing away from the desk and he pulled the pipe he had been keeping in his pocket out. Then he placed it in the woman, Rose¡¯s, hand as he continued, ¡°honestly, I would even say that you would look smoking hot.¡±

    The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    Without even a moment to try and explain his horrendous pun, he ran out of the room.

    Rose looked at the pipe in her hand, then back to the prince. He just sighed, ¡°he is just lucky that he¡¯s really good at his job. Now let¡¯s get this wardrobe change done.¡±

    In Joy¡¯s humble opinion, stairs were an invention by Pain to keep the foolish mortals in their place. To bypass the horrible stairs, he had decided to slide down them like a child. He would have massive bruise on his back and butt, but it was far better than doing cardio.

    After sliding to a stop at the bottom of the staircase Joy started stumbling to Lillian and Theo¡¯s room hoping that his guess was right and that he would still have his job after the whole debacle with the prince.

    Lillian and Theo¡¯s room had two distinct sides. One for each person. Theo¡¯s side was streamlined for efficiency. Things were kept incredibly neat and orderly, and everything personal was in various shades of blue. There was not a stray piece of clothing or an unfolded bed sheet in sight.

    This contrasted with Lillian¡¯s side, which was much more eclectic. Her room was a controlled mess. No one other than her would have no idea where to find anything in the room, but to her, everything was exactly where she wanted it. The color scheme was nonexistent, her side was filled with colors and textures that clashed awfully. But no one was going to stop her from decorating the room however she pleased.

    Joy sauntered into the room, and immediately noticed that both Lillian and Theo were sitting on the floor, drinking tea, and eating cookies. The cookies smelled of almond and looked scrumptious. He stared longingly at those cookies knowing that the other two would never let him have a bite.

    Lillian purposefully brought a cookie to her mouth and crunched down on it before asking, ¡°so have you figured it out? Or are you here to announce your defeat?¡±

    ¡°I do know, so why don¡¯t you tell me so I can see if you guys really figured it out.¡± Joy hoped his plan would work, it was desperate, but he only had an inkling of what the announcement was going to be, not any real confirmation.

    ¡°Nuh uh, we heard it directly from Sam¡¯s mouth and got them to promise not to tell you. So, what did you figure out Joy?¡± Lillian¡¯s shit eating grin had only grown from the beginning of this battle of words, she could smell his weakness and he knew he had been beaten. Theo had just been sitting there calmly sipping his tea, the picture of serenity.

    ¡°Fine. I think the prince is setting up an expedition to one of the uninhabitable continents. Searching for an artifact or something.¡±

    At this declaration Lillian and Theo locked eyes, and Lillian¡¯s grin somehow grew even wider.

    ¡°Well, I am going to take that favor now.¡± Lillian said as she scampered away in victory to go get something.

    Joy slumped in defeat. He had given it his all, but they had beaten him by just asking someone nicely to tell them. Maybe Joy needed more friends around the castle. Theo stood up and walked to Joy, offering him one of the almond cookies.

    ¡°My condolences, no one deserves your punishment.¡± With those cryptic words Theo left the room.

    Joy took a bite of the cookie; it was delicious. But why had Theo given him this cookie and what had Lillian cooked up for him.

    Lillian reappeared from wherever she had gone, and she was hiding something furry and wet behind her back.

    ¡°My gift is not always useful, as you know Joy, and I had a real bust tonight. All I got from my dream was this possum suit.¡± From behind her back, she produced a suit that looked like a life-sized humanoid possum that was strangely wet. ¡°And I felt making you wear this to the big event would be the perfect favor to ask of you.¡±

    Lillian¡¯s smile was not infectious, it was terrifying. But Joy was not one to back out of a bet, so he smiled and said, ¡°I really worry about your mental health. Why are you dreaming of possum suits?¡±

    ¡°Put it on and don¡¯t worry about it.¡± Lillian commanded as she threw the wet, disgusting costume at him and left the room.

    Joy squelched his way down the halls with Lillian and Theo. The possum suit seemed to be covered in syrup, it was sickly sweet smelling and just generally uncomfortable to wear. Joy was not having a good time.

    The worst part of the whole experience was that no one even looked at him with too much shock and awe. They saw that Lillian ad Theo were walking with him and realized that it must be Joy inside the suit. And that realization seemed to solve this mystery for them. It was just Joy being Joy.

    So, Joy squelched and complained as the group of three made their way to the main hall where the prince¡¯s speech was going to take place.

    The prince¡¯s hired staff were all milling about in the main hall, discussing what they thought the announcement was going to be about. Many ideas were thrown out, maybe the king was having another child, maybe the prince was having a child, or maybe the prince already had a child that he had recently rediscovered and was introducing him into the high life of royalty. Most of the theories revolved around children for some reason that Joy could not fathom.

    As with all great leaders and their speeches, Prince David was running late. But that did not stop the rowdy bunch from forming organized lines and looking deadly serious about this speech.

    Joy was spared from being put into this formation since no one wanted to be near him. He just quietly stood in the back corner as all voices fell silent.

    The prince walked out in front of his retinue. His hired hands, trusted servants, friends, and even a few enemies stared up at him. He was clad in black from head to toe, he had even changed his hair and eye color using his gift for this event. The prince seemed dark and mysterious to the crowd.

    The prince began, ¡°everyone, I am not going to sugarcoat this. We will be going to the frozen continent to search for the legendary first age artifact, Kingmaker. It has recently come to the crown¡¯s attention that a new cult has formed around a new warlord living with the uncivilized tribes of the frozen continent.¡± The prince took a moment to let the statement wash over the crowd. ¡°Our mission will have two goals. The more important goal is to claim the Kingmaker and present it to the king. The other will be to destroy this new cult at its roots and kill the warlord in control of it.¡±

    Murmurs started to spread throughout the prince¡¯s audience, expeditions to the uninhabitable continents never ended well. Especially when they were going onto the continent to fight a powerful foreign entity.

    The prince raised one fist, and everything fell silent. ¡°It will be stupidly dangerous, and I will not force you to come along with me, but there will be rewards for all those involved. Those of you who want it may receive titles of nobility if you perform well enough on this quest. But we must protect our home from the evil that is growing in those frozen wastelands.¡± At the end of his rousing speech that took no longer than two minutes the prince left the group with their thoughts.

    Joy¡¯s mind was racing at the implications of what the prince had just said. He made his way over to the two people who were closest to being his friends in the entire castle.

    ¡°You cretins.¡± Joy said as he smeared his syrupy hands all over Theo and Lillian¡¯s backs. Leaving a trail of goo all over them. ¡°I had it right and you lied to me.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s what you¡¯re worried about? My little joke, not the warlord amassing power that we are going to have to go fight?¡± Lillian nearly shrieked out her response.

    ¡°I¡¯ve heard of otter things.¡± Joy did a little twirl after his clever pun.

    ¡°You¡¯re wearing a possum suit, not an otter suit.¡± Theo said before he ineffectually punched the possum¡¯s sticky head.

    ¡°Sue me, there aren¡¯t a lot of possum puns. Unless you want me to play dead?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t want you to play it.¡±

    Joy ran, leaving a trail the cleaning staff would complain about for the rest of their lives, while Lillian and Theo tried to cut him off. It was a good laugh and almost made them forget about the prince¡¯s speech.

    Almost.

 Chapter 10 - Ebb and Flow

    Joy had always loved the water ever since he was a kid. He had not grown up in Vena Cava, instead he grew up in one of the tiny villages the populated the northern half of the kingdom. There was not a nobleman for miles, it was just farmers working day by day to make ends meet.

    The little villages all had one thing in common though, and that was their proximity to the river. Rivers and tributaries were lovably called the arteries of the Hearted continent since they allowed the lifeblood of trade to flow throughout. River barges were the way the common person was able to sell their goods.

    Joy had loved the water since it was his path to freedom from his boring town. Everyone there was born a farmer, lived as a farmer, and died as a farmer. But Joy had known, even back then, that it was not for him. So, he used to sit by the water, watching it flow by, towards somewhere more exciting.

    His mother had been the most popular person in their whole village. She had been given a gift by Time themself. It was an incredibly useful gift that was used to its lowest potential. She could revert any object back in time as far as she wanted.

    She could¡¯ve been a knight galivanting around the countryside, turning bandits¡¯ weapons back into ore, and kicking some serious ass. Instead, she reverted sweaters back to when they didn¡¯t have holes in them and kept his father¡¯s farming tools in perfect shape.

    Joy¡¯s father was also incredibly powerful. He had a gift from Strength that gave him the power of thirty men. He was an unstoppable force and also could have been a powerful knight. Instead, he used his prodigious strength to make it so that the family didn¡¯t need to use a bull to plow the fields.

    Joy never understood his parents and his parents would never understand him. He longed for adventure and life, while his parents purposefully settled down in a place where no one would ever truly disturb them.

    There was one thing that brought the family together though. And that was card games. After hours and hours of backbreaking labor, Joy¡¯s father would come back and play at least a few games of go-fish or gin rummy with Joy. He taught Joy every game he knew, hoping to show Joy the joy he had found living a simple life. It never worked, but it did create Joy¡¯s love of gambling.

    He yearned for freedom more than any other child in the area, one time even trying to swim the entire river to reach Vena Cava. It did not go well and if the village healer had not been on hand he may have died from that incident. But he just wanted out.

    So, when Joy turned thirteen and received his gift, his parents could do nothing to stop him from boarding the barge that came down the river every couple of months to sell overpriced clothing to the farmers, and to buy their foodstuffs they had cultivated throughout the year.

    Much like that fateful moment in his life, Joy stood before a ship. This one was massive compared to the tiny barge that had taken him to the kingdom¡¯s capital so many years ago. This ship could comfortably house the prince¡¯s entourage and then some. The wood was not nailed together but seemed to have been grown into that shape. It was almost certain that some sort of plant gift had been used to build this ship. But that only added to its majesty. The water of the Southern Ocean could not rock the ship as it ebbed and flowed in its ineffable cycle.

    Joy had never gone the extra couple of miles to reach the southern shore of the Hearted continent. He had been happy with his little adventures in Vena Cava but staring at the ocean now was humbling. Seeing water go further than he could imagine awed him. So, he sat and watched the prince load his ship. Well, he watched the prince¡¯s minions load up the ship.

    Joy had been incredibly busy since the prince¡¯s announcement about going to the Frozen Continent. He had been given an important job, to get as much gold as possible. Going over the ocean was not going to be cheap, and the prince was not known to skimp on comfort.

    The ship itself had cost most of the money that Joy had acquired. Since there was almost no need for them, and many groups of laborers had already been bought out by other groups going on their own expeditions. There was the princess Dahlia Hearth, who was leading an expedition somewhere, real top-secret stuff. And the Freer Men had commissioned a boat be created for them with their church funds. No one knew exactly where they were going, but it certainly was a sign of the times. Three different groups all leaving for expeditions to the abandoned continents at the same time was auspicious.

    For the prince¡¯s expedition, many people had to be hired and convinced to come along on this adventure. He needed someone with a weather gift, water gift, storage gift, and food gift. None of these were particularly hard to find in the vast city of Vena Cava but finding one of them who was willing to come along on an expedition to the frozen continent was near impossible, or prohibitively expensive. Hiring these people is where the rest of the money that Joy had obtained went.

    The rest of the crew was part of the prince¡¯s personal retinue. Many teams had been formed with express skills and gifts put together. The prince himself was coming on the expedition even without a combat gift, hoping to grow enthusiasm for the trip with his presence. His team was comprised of Ian, Sam, the prince obviously, and a vaguely familiar looking man named Clyde. Joy couldn¡¯t quite place where he knew him from, but he was certain that he had met him before.

    Joy was not gifted by the gods with a combat-based gift; thus, he had not been asked to come along on the expedition. The prince had been perfectly happy with Joy being his little piggy bank and nothing else. So, Joy sat watching the preparations being made for the trip, watching the water lap up the hull of the boat.

    Joy was sitting alone on a rock, thinking about what the future held for him now. He had certainly had an exciting couple of months with the prince¡¯s group, but now that the prince was gone, he was being kindly kicked out of the castle where he had been staying. Joy had burned a lot of bridges with gambling dens and casinos to get the prince enough money to fund his little trip. So, he was a little lost for what to do with his life now.

    Far too entranced in his own thoughts Joy didn¡¯t notice Sam sneaking up behind him.

    ¡°Is this rock taken?¡± Joy jumped at the intrusion but shook his head, no, and stared back out at the ocean.

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    The two sat there in silence. One was filing their thoughts and trying to put their feelings into words, while the other patiently waited, even though they were endlessly busy.

    ¡°Do I even need to tell you my woes since you¡¯re a seer?¡±

    ¡°You don¡¯t need to.¡±

    ¡°Do you have answers for me then?¡±

    ¡°No, not really. To me, the future is like a coiled-up snake, you know it¡¯s about to attack but you¡¯re never sure when or where.¡±

    Again, the pair lapsed into silence. Joy did wonder why the prince¡¯s personal seer was taking the time out of their incredibly busy schedule to have this little heart to heart with him. But he wasn¡¯t going to complain.

    Finally, Sam posed a question, ¡°why did you leave home instead staying and becoming a farmer like the rest of the children?¡±

    Sam had said their piece and brushed off their knees before standing up and walking away to finish preparing the ship for sea.

    Joy did mutter under his breath, ¡°can¡¯t hide anything from a seer, can you?¡±

    Sam yelled from a dozen paces away, ¡°no you can¡¯t!¡± In a little singsong like voice.

    Joy thought, that¡¯s why they¡¯re called seer-crets. Because they always know. But he didn¡¯t tempt Fate by saying that one out loud.

    He knew he was on a time limit, he had barely a few hours before he his choice was made for him. But this was a monumental moment for him, a farmer¡¯s son who just wanted a couple of adventures in his life could be going on an epic journey. One that for good or for ill would be talked about for the centuries to come.

    Joy knew he wasn¡¯t invited to the party on their boat. But no good party came without a few crashers. He smiled and knew that he was going to bring joy to those dour faces stacking boxes on the ship¡¯s deck. He started running, hoping to pack a bag full of the essentials.

    Prince David was worn ragged. This had been a grueling experience through and through. He knew that this was not going to be fun, but he hadn¡¯t even considered truly how much work went into making everything happen.

    He was truly thankful and lucky that Rose had been willing and able to help him manage all the paperwork. It was truly unfortunate that her gift and skills were inapplicable to combat or moving a ship otherwise he would¡¯ve had her on the deck in an instant. Instead, she was the one minding the castle and making sure his sister didn¡¯t make any power plays while he was gone.

    But the paperwork. It was truly a horrifying monster that he would never wish his worst enemy to face off against. He had barely gotten any sleep the past few weeks just trying to stay ahead of it.

    And the inane cost of the whole venture, without his many side projects working constantly to find him more money, he never would have been able to afford this. Gold was just a number to David at this point. A really, really, really big number, but just a number, nonetheless.

    The amount of gold he had spent had made him question where his sister was getting the money for her personal venture. She wouldn¡¯t be receiving money from their father the king, since he didn¡¯t like to play favorites. Much. Maybe he needed to look into some of her less legal ventures to try and get the public opinion swayed once he came back. A thought for another day though.

    Prince David and his sister princess Dahlia had a unique relationship. They had been born to different mothers, both of which had died during childbirth. Some conspiracy theorists thought that this was some dark magic the king employed to create the most viable offspring possible. But it was just a tragic string of bad luck for the Hearth family. Probably.

    Since both were missing a mother figure and a present father figure, they spent a lot of time together. They had been reared with the ideal of competition ingrained into their very being. Their father had made it very clear that just because David was the elder did not mean that he would be receiving the throne, and that it would be an intense competition between the two to see who inherited the throne from him.

    It sparked rivalry and passion in the two, but David was always just a little bit better, with him being a couple of years older than Dahlia. But everything changed when Dahlia got a much more useful gift than him, causing a rift in their relationship. It became much more antagonistic than a mere rivalry.

    Dahlia held the advantage for the first time in their rivalry and she would not let up. She would prove that she was fit for the crown and that David was nothing but a nuisance, taking up time and money. That was when she kicked him out of the castle and he decided to have his own built, just to spite her.

    But David knew that he was doing something far more important than Dahlia on their separate journeys. Whatever she was going to do on the Fractured Continent would be far less impressive than his own mission to the frozen continent.

    So, he sat near the front of his ship looking out towards the sea. Relishing this little petty triumph. He knew he shouldn¡¯t, but he was a petty man and proud of it.

    That was when he heard a small commotion at the back of the vessel. It sounded like Ian had found something he didn¡¯t like. David decided that he should go check it out.

    When he had walked to the far side of the ship, he saw Ian holding Joy over the edge of the ship with an evil glint in his eyes. Ian had not liked Joy ever since he had first laid eyes on him, but the prince could understand the sentiment. Joy made too many puns, was so boisterous, and an incredibly good cheat. But what was he doing here? Well, right now he seemed to be begging for the life of his clothes.

    ¡°Ian, please? These are brand new, and I will never get the stench of seawater out of them if you drop me in.¡± Joy had his hands clasped in a pleading gesture. Which made for an odd pose as he was still being held one handed over the water.

    ¡°I can see the holes in them, we both know they¡¯re not brand new. Just imagine I¡¯m dousing your ego from its overinflated size.¡± Ian had a grin that was far too malicious for how his face normally looked. He was normally sagely and kind, he had a cute set of dimples that were just a delight to see. This was just downright evil compared to that.

    ¡°Was that a pun? You do have a sense of humor Ian; I knew it was in you somewhere. Now I get that you were just playing old buddy, old pal. So why don¡¯t you just let me down and we can have a nice chat about wordplay?¡±

    ¡°Sure.¡± And Joy was promptly dropped off the edge. Thankfully the water was not too shallow, and the drop was more annoying than anything else. ¡°He¡¯s got me making puns. It¡¯s like his stupidity is infectious.¡± Ian grumbled as he passed the prince, intent on getting this ship ready to sail.

    The prince was mildly amused by this whole exchange. But went over to look at Joy who was wading back to shore, intent on getting back onto the ship.

    ¡°Why are you here Joy?¡± The prince shouted down at the soggy man.

    ¡°It¡¯s the adventure of a lifetime and I want in!¡± Joy declared with a little bit too much shivering for it to sound confident.

    ¡°Why would I let you on?¡±

    ¡°Is my shining presence and can-do-it attitude not enough for you sir prince?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯ll be dangerous.¡±

    ¡°It wouldn¡¯t be worth doing if it wasn¡¯t.¡±

    The prince liked those answers. Joy certainly was an entertaining man to be around, being stuck on the ship with him for the monthlong journey.

    ¡°I guess every royal court needs a jester. You¡¯re in.¡±

    ¡°I would like to think of myself as a joker, for the card motif and all that.¡± Joy said with a smile as he started scrambling to get back on the ship.

    The prince rolled his eyes and walked back to the front of the ship which was facing out to sea. He could certainly use a wild card, he did have a unique gift, and was mildly talented at fighting. Joy could do well for himself.

    The prince stared out at the ocean as his face turned into a soft scowl.

    David had never liked the water. It followed a set path, its own fate and destiny for all of time. There were ways to track and know exactly where each drop of water would be in a thousand years. The prince was not one to accept Fate, or his lot in life, so he had never liked how easily the water followed fate. Maybe that was why this first part of his journey was to overcome the water.

    The ship set sail, slowly but surely moving out across the water.

 Chapter 11 - Who Drinks Straight Milk Anyways?

    Lillian was back home milking the cows. She had never loved doing it, but it was one of the sacrifices she and her family had to make for fresh milk. So, her young, callused hands moved back and forth milking the cow.

    There was an issue with the whole process though, she had no bucket for the milk to go into. So, the milk just dribbled onto the ground, pooling into a puddle of opaque milkiness.

    Lillian knew something was wrong with the entire scene, but just glossed over it. Even if it was wrong, everything was as it should be here.

    The puddle grew and grew. It kept growing much faster than she was taking milk from the cow. It grew until it consumed her legs and crawled its way up her body until she was falling into an endless void of milk.

    She wasn¡¯t drowning, she could still breathe. But the milk was everywhere, consuming her. She watched as it made its way to her home where her family had lived their entire lives. The milk consumed her mother, her father, her brothers, and her sisters. Her family had become entirely subsumed by the milk.

    Then a hand reached out to her from outside of the milk and pulled her out. She was standing back on her family¡¯s farm with Prince David. He looked a bit younger but was still the same in many ways. He was a prince, the prince, powerful and kind.

    He had an empty glass in his hand. Then somehow, put all the milk that was eating her family into the cup. He stood there and took a sip from the endless milk.

    ¡°Tasty.¡± He grinned and looked down at Lillian.

    Lillian sighed; she knew that today¡¯s dream had been a bust. At least she didn¡¯t need a weapon, but it was always nerve-wracking when she would be fairly defenseless for the day.

    So, she walked up to the prince and bowed. Even in her dreams she should show the proper deference to her employer. Then she took the cup of milk out of his hands and closed her eyes.

    As her eyes opened, she was in the cot that she had chosen for the journey. She woke with the rocking boat and the warm glass of milk still in her hand.

    Theo sat beside her bed as he always did, to make sure none of her more dangerous dreams could cause any serious damage. Once he saw that it was just a glass of milk, he sighed a little and left the room, giving her as much privacy as possible.

    The system had been a pain and a half to get to work properly between the two of them at first. They both had started working for the prince around the same time and thus were put into a group together. At first no one had even thought of the problem. But one time, a nightmare demon had fooled her into taking it out of dreamland and chased her down the halls while knights and guards had to fight it. Then everyone realized that Lillian might need someone to watch what she brought into the world.

    Thus, Theo had trained himself to wake up thirty minutes before Lillian. And Lillian trained to make her sleep schedule as non-erratic as possible. This made them the mean and lean duo they were today.

    Neither of the two had particularly liked each other at first. Theo was a nobleman¡¯s son with a stick so far up his ass that it was a wonder he wasn¡¯t choking on it, while Lillian was a bit of a country hick all wide eyed at the fancy palace and shiny things around her.

    She never would have even thought that she could have been a part of this whole debacle without Sam the seer. Apparently, Sam had been able to see Lillian¡¯s potential once she had been given a gift. Which prompted the prince and a whole contingent of guards to show up at her family¡¯s farm.

    Her family raised livestock, and they did it well. They provided milk to everyone in the surrounding countryside and make a killing on the meat they raised.

    They were hard working folk that had been exclusively gifted by Farm, until her of course. Her mother could see the health of any livestock they were in possession of, while her father could heal them. It made for quite the dynamic duo of farmers. All her four sisters and three brothers were older than her and had followed the trend of being gifted by Farm. So, when her thirteenth birthday finally hit, Lillian had been content with her future. Maybe she would be a farmer, but she would be with her family.

    Then her gift had been from Dream and had been no help on the farm. She had always been a hard worker, but with nine other people having gifts that specifically related to tending to their animals, she was hopelessly useless.

    Her family didn¡¯t really need her, even though they loved and appreciated her. She could still get into a good tussle with her brothers or listen to her mother sing her little songs to herself, or watch her father drunkenly tell some story that annoyed everyone in the family except him. But it wasn¡¯t what she had dreamed of.

    She spent her days doing her siblings¡¯ tasks, just worse than them. She started developing a sort of inferiority complex about how little she could do to help support her family.

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    Right during the worst of it was when the prince and his whole squad arrived. The family saw them coming from a mile away since they were incredibly loud, full of pomp and circumstance.

    The prince stood near the back, obviously unused to being out in the farmlands on the outskirts of the kingdom, but still regal in his repose and stature. The family had all lined up near the house, hoping this was just some practical joke a neighbor had thought up. Sam was the first one to speak to the family.

    ¡°Which one of you has a gift from Dream?¡± Sam¡¯s voice was soft, and their eyes were filled with kindness. Lillian shyly raised her hand, hoping she wasn¡¯t in trouble.

    After making eye contact with Lillian Sam continued while keeping their gaze focused on the young Lillian, ¡°what are you planning to do with that gift of yours?¡±

    Lillian paused for a moment, thinking very hard about that question. She had never even thought about what she could do with her gift, instead she had spent this whole time thinking about how her gift wasn¡¯t from Farm. What could she do with it? Could she be a knight in shining armor making people¡¯s dreams come true with the powers granted to her form her own?

    Probably not. At the end of the day there was only one thing she ever wanted from her own power.

    ¡°To help my family.¡± Lillian replied with as much confidence as she could muster.

    ¡°That¡¯s a noble goal, and something we could help you with.¡±

    After that, Sam and the prince hashed out the details of her work, with her, her mother, and her father. Sitting around a large table made for ten, the five discussed how much she would be getting paid, and how much would be getting sent home. The prince and Sam assured her parents that she wouldn¡¯t be getting into any danger if she didn¡¯t want it. They discussed her living arrangement and how she would be able to send letters home.

    A whole new life was made for her in front of her very eyes. It was very different compared to the farm life she had always imagined herself with. She had always thought her life would stay right in this home. With her loving and warm family.

    But she left. Off to see a new world in a new place, and to be a new type of useful to her family. Right before she left her mother took her aside and gave her something.

    ¡°Lillian, I know that you have fantastical dreams in that beautiful mind of yours. But I hope that you can sleep on this and dream of home every once in a while. Just to remember that we¡¯re here, wishing you nothing but happiness in this new adventure of yours.¡±

    With that, Lillian¡¯s mother handed her a pillow, and Lillian left home on the second greatest adventure of her life.

    Currently, she was still in her bed embarking on the greatest adventure of her life. Both of her parents had sent very strongly worded letters trying to convince Lillian not to go, but she wanted to. The prince had done so much for her, and if she could use her ability to help him in any way, she would.

    She took the pillow her mother had given her so many years ago and smelled it. The scent had faded with time, but if she stuffed her nose deep enough into the fluff, she could smell home. It was immensely comforting, especially while she was feeling a bit seasick.

    Lillian stepped out and took great care to place the glass of milk somewhere it wouldn¡¯t spill, while looking for her clothes for the day.

    Once she had completely readied herself for another day of boring tedium on the high seas, she carefully picked up the glass of milk, taking care to make sure none of it spilled and stepped out into the passageways of the ship.

    It was a gargantuan ship and making her way to the dining room was a laborious effort. Trying to scale a ladder one handed while trying not to spill a glass of milk was a true test of skill and willpower, but Lillian eventually made it. The trick was to clutch the milk between her arm and body to keep her hand open and able to clasp. She only spilled a little milk over herself, but hopefully someone would have a gift to get the funk out of her clothes.

    As she arrived at the dining room, she spotted her prey. It was the man who had been causing her endless trouble for the past couple of months, but finally when she had been free of having to deal with him and his shenanigans he came back into her life with even more shenanigans. Sure, he was fun, but that wasn¡¯t the point, this was about revenge.

    ¡°Good morning, Joy. Loving the sea life?¡± Her devilish grin was still hidden from Joy¡¯s view. It magically disappeared as Joy turned to face her.

    "Good morning to you too. I am having a blast.¡± Joy was bursting at the seams with energy and enthusiasm, which somehow only seemed to annoy Lillian more.

    ¡°I picked you up this glass of warm milk.¡± Instantly Joy¡¯s eyes narrowed. Lillian was a nice person, but she had a prankster¡¯s heart deep inside her. As he looked in her eyes, he saw a hint of mischief in them.

    ¡°Take a drink of it first.¡± Joy figured she had slipped something into his drink, maybe she got one of the sailors to piss in it.

    At first Lillian played mock hurt at being accused of doing something untoward to Joy¡¯s glass. But her grin seemed to get a little wider, not that Joy noticed.

    ¡°Why are you so distrustful Joy? What have I ever done to you?¡± Then she took a big old swig of the drink. Joy was so intently watching her face for any sign of discomfort or revulsion that he didn¡¯t notice that the glass of milk was just as full as before she took that drink. ¡°See, nothing wrong with it.¡± Lillian pronounced as she licked the excess milk off her lips.

    Joy was still suspicious, but it would just be rude if he didn¡¯t drink it now. So, he grasped the glass and slowly raised it to his lips.

    Once the lip of the cup touched the lips of Joy, Lillian struck. Her hand snaked underneath the glass and tipped it so that he couldn¡¯t stop the deluge of milk. Joy expected the dousing to last a second or so once it happened. It was a bit embarrassing, but honestly not that creative for Lillian. He had expected better.

    But the milk never stopped running. More and more milk came out of the glass, until Joy pulled himself away gasping for air. Once Joy had escaped from the flowing milk Lillian turned the glass upright and it seemed like a normal glass of milk again. Still full, despite dousing Joy moments earlier.

    ¡°Did you dream up a glass of never-ending milk?¡± Joy asked as he wrung the milk out of his clothes, to no success.

    Instead of answering Lillian stood up on the table and shouted to the entire dining room. ¡°Free and fresh milk for anybody who wants it.¡±

    As people shuffled over to her table, she poured out glass after glass of milk. Smiling and cracking jokes with her colleagues, a glow of warmth pervaded the room. Everyone had a glass of milk that tasted just like her home.

    Except Joy, he went off sulking hoping to find someone with a liquid based gift to dry his clothes. Milk stinks and he did not bring many spare changes of clothes. He didn¡¯t want to start getting too cheesy on everyone.

 Chapter 12 - Utter Power

    Theo stood on the deck of the ship watching them fly through the water. It was incredibly impressive, the speed that they could get up to. The prince had hired quite a few different people with weather and water-based gifts to help make this trip as simple as possible.

    The synergy between someone breaking the waves in front of the ship and someone pushing wind into the sail constantly, made for quick travel. But it was still monotonous.

    Seeing all the expansive water sure was impressive, but not for hours upon hours. Theo knew that it was soon to be days upon days, and weeks upon weeks until they finally arrived at their destination.

    Theo gave one of his mighty sighs. This was the worst, when it was a problem he could attack or confront, he was good. But this was just an exercise in patience. He guessed he could go to Ian and try to train for a while; that appealed to his workaholic side. Or he could mess around with Lillian and Joy, they were always doing something fun, which appealed to his lazy side.

    Theo really needed a hobby. He had spent his whole life being reared by his parents to be a loyal weapon for Prince David to use and that parenting style did not teach children to be themselves, or how to learn self-expression.

    Theo¡¯s parents had not been political savants, they had made their gold and won their positions from sheer competency. That competency at farm management and water acquisition was not good enough in the political games that the ¡°old-gold¡± families had been playing for centuries.

    So, when his parents found out that there were two possible heirs to the throne both of which being equally competent at that point in time, they decided to flip a coin on it. Theo¡¯s entire life and personality had been the result of a coin flip. But he wasn¡¯t bitter or anything.

    Obviously, the prince had won the coin flip and Theo had been trained until he received his gift to be a valuable asset in combat. Once he came of age, Theo was sent to the prince with express instructions to become as close to his right-hand man as possible.

    Many things had gone wrong all at once for his family at that point. His parents soon found out that the princess had officially been declared the heir to the throne, and all their political posturing with the prince had been for naught. While Theo had been relegated to guard duty working with some girl from the boonies.

    There was no space for a close confidante, the prince had three incredibly talented and powerful people working as his closest aids. There was no need for some half-baked child to become his right-hand man.

    Sam was an incredibly powerful seer that was almost unmatched in their ability to create schemes and plans. Who knows how the prince swindled Sam into working exclusively for him; but it was damn impressive. There was Rose, who was a hyper intelligent tactician who knew almost all the inner workings of the political ties in Vena Cava. And finally, the cherry on top was the prince had somehow gotten Bloody Ian to work for him. The boogeyman to children in the capital. Theo¡¯s parents had told him that if he didn¡¯t get his daily training done that Bloody Ian would come for him.

    Both Lillian and Joy had grown up in the boonies, so they had no idea who Ian was and why his presence in the prince¡¯s entourage was so important. But Theo knew, and he showed Ian the respect he deserved. He was a fount of knowledge when it came to combat, and Theo would always be willing to learn from him.

    Ian had been King Renoir¡¯s final weapon to use against any who stood against him. The two had apparently grown up together and were the best of friends, way back when King Renoir was Prince Renoir. They would play games where Renoir was king, and Ian was his right-hand man, and they would smite all the bandits who dared to cross the monarch.

    Reality turned out to be quite different than the games the two had played.

    It started out innocently enough, Renoir would send Ian to go smite the bandits or stop an uprising. And Ian would kill everyone there. He was unmatched in combat prowess, and it did not matter if his opponent had a gift from War, they could not touch Ian. That was when he got the name Untouchable.

    Untouchable sounded much more valiant than Bloody, and thus he became the kingdom¡¯s greatest hero. A man that every child wanted to be. He went to parades and showboated at royal galas. He was the man of the hour.

    Then the first real revolts began. A noble family whose name has now been struck from all records, except History¡¯s, started buying out huge swaths of the king¡¯s military right under his nose. The military forces had been at an all-time low since the kingdom had been prospering to huge degrees, but still most of the people serving were either bought out or outright killed in staged accidents.

    The unnamed noble family then decided to go for a coup, the first and last coup of Renoir¡¯s reign. The entirety of the private military, near one thousand men strong, encircled the castle and were going to take it in the night.

    But they didn¡¯t know that Ian had just got back from a mission and was staying the night in the castle. It was pure luck that he walked outside to get a view of the city and saw the mass of men.

    Ian stood atop the highest parapet and drew his sword. It was a slaughter, men he had served with, men he had trained, all fell underneath his blade as he killed every single one. Not one person survived that night, then he went to unnamed noble¡¯s house and killed their entire lineage.

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    Ian¡¯s entire body had apparently been drenched in blood when he went to report to King Renoir, who had slept through the entire night.

    At that moment the king felt he had truly and utterly broken something in his friend. This was no longer the boy Ian who had dreamed of slaying bandits, this was a bloody man who had killed a thousand people in the blink of an eye.

    Ian was released from service by the king and told to do whatever he wanted to. Ian had started a small school where he tried to create warriors just as skilled and powerful as he was, until the prince somehow got Ian to join him.

    Needless to say, Theo had felt useless in comparison to the prince¡¯s close-knit group. They were the all-stars, and he was just some child whose parents thought would be a good bargaining chip.

    It took a long time for him to start feeling useful to the prince, especially after he was paired off with Lillian. He had hated her at first, she was stupid and brash to his cool and intelligent. But years working with someone will iron out the creases in your friendship.

    Theo stared out at the water contemplating his past, and what hobby he should pick up. His gift led him towards ice sculptures, he felt he could make unique and powerful art out of his gift. Just as he was considering what to make for his very first piece, he was stuck between a crying face or a very large cow, when the boat started rocking.

    Theo knew the main reason nobody traveled the ocean. It was because there was no need to do so, there was nowhere as hospitable as the Hearted continent, so unless someone was specifically searching for artifacts there was no need to leave.

    The second reason was because the ocean was full of monsters. Back in the beginning of the second age a woman was given the gift to brings her drawings to life. She had tried for decades to create her magnum opus. She felt the reason for her life was to create dragons.

    Unfortunately, her gift had a lot of restrictions; the creatures she made had to be able to survive in the world. No one knows whether she truly made a dragon, but she released all the cast offs into the ocean. Giant lizards that could only survive in the water. It was insanely dangerous to go into the ocean because one woman decided to get rid of her failed projects in there.

    Normally, this wouldn¡¯t have been a problem. All the sea monsters she created would eventually die and everything would go back to normal. Except the thing about creating life, is that it wants to thrive. And so, a new apex predator was born in the ocean and still dominated to this day. The giant serpent.

    Theo watched as the serpent¡¯s head rose out of the water. It was larger than the boat by a small margin. Its beady eyes were not intelligent, but it would tell that there were some tasty morsels inside of this wooden shell of a boat.

    Theo immediately put on his game face and started freezing water. Theo¡¯s gift was not the fastest gift in the world, but the longer his eyes stayed open the more water would freeze, which would give the crew more time to find someone who could deal with this mess.

    The crew started scrambling around the deck while screaming about the giant serpent. The overgrown snake lunged for the ship, hoping to snatch up one of the tiny things making the loud noises.

    Theo¡¯s gift was based around his vision, what he looked at froze, it was very simple. But its simplicity gave him some wiggle room when it came to the things he could do. Since the serpent had first surfaced, Theo had not been targeting the surface of the water, he knew that freezing the water surrounding the serpent would slow it down only a little. Instead, he had moved close to the edge to see as far down into the depths of the water as possible. Then he started freezing as much water as his gift would possibly allow.

    The buoyancy of the ice hunks brought them up to the surface, where they subsequently crashed directly into the body of the serpent. Causing it to veer off course, barely missing the ship.

    Not one to waste time, Theo kept forming as many of these miniature icebergs beneath the surface as he could, shaping them into spears of ice that were forced upward and into the serpent¡¯s body.

    Maybe ice sculptures really could be a hobby, he seemed to be okay at forming these on the spot. Theo marked that stray thought in his mind for more consideration later. For now, more ice spears.

    They punctured the outer layer of the serpent¡¯s skin but didn¡¯t do any real damage. The only goal Theo had for these spears was to distract the serpent.

    Which was a successful plan, the serpent went under the waves to try and attack whatever was pricking it. The serpent was not very smart, but it was strong, and the waves created from its movement still rocked the ship.

    Now that the serpent was under the surface Theo moved on to phase two of the plan he had made up on the fly. He started freezing as much of the surface as he could. His eyes burned from the strain, but he made quite the platform of ice. A group of one hundred men could walk comfortably on that ice.

    Unfortunately, the serpent was much stronger than a mere hundred men as it came crashing through the layers of ice Theo had so painstakingly stared into existence. In a spray of glittering shards, the serpent stared down at their ship.

    Theo sighed; this wasn¡¯t the way he had imagined his death, but it certainly could be worse. He had enjoyed his time serving the prince, but all good things must come to an end.

    That was when a voice spoke up behind him, ¡°Good job Theo. I see all that hard work has been paying off.¡± Ian smiled in the grandfatherly way that he always did while speaking to Theo. ¡°I hope you don¡¯t mind me taking care of the rest.¡±

    ¡°Be my guest,¡± Theo gasped out.

    As the serpent moved lightning fast towards the ship, intent on capsizing it. Ian took the sword and sheath he always kept by side in his left hand and raised it over his head. As the serpent came down, Ian¡¯s right hand grasped the hilt of his sword and in no particular hurry he did a single strike in the air. The sword extended from its sheath and came down, all in one fluid motion.

    Once the perfect strike ended, Ian calmly re-sheathed his blade and put it back on his hip while turning away from the serpent. His face was deadly calm, no joviality or joy in his eyes, he just seemed like an old, tired man.

    Behind Ian the serpent and the ocean had split in half. The blood slowly oozed out of the carcass, while the ocean crashed back together in a deafening clap.

    ¡°Shit.¡± Theo said.

    There was no way to describe the utter power he had seen. It was more than any one person should be able to handle, it had been like watching a god come down and smite the serpent for him.

    ¡°It¡¯s awe inspiring every time, isn¡¯t it? The true power one person can wield.¡± the prince said. He had apparently come up top to watch Ian dismantle the serpent. His currently blue eyes, which were supposedly his natural color, looked on at the scene in awe. Just like Theo¡¯s.

    That was the pinnacle of human strength.

 Chapter 13 - An Ocean of Troubles

    Robert had found that being a pirate was not a very profitable profession. As a kid, his mother had always told him that pirates were the ¡°villains¡± in his stories, but he had never quite believed her.

    What could be more heroic than doing whatever you pleased?

    The reason being a pirate was not profitable was because there was no one on the high seas to steal from. No one ever ventured out into the ocean that was filled with monsters out of their worst nightmares.

    Robert had always known that he should give up on the high seas-based pirating and move into the rivers that covered the Hearted continent. But honestly, he and the boys had really started to enjoy this life.

    There were no taxes, they ate well, if one was willing to forgo vegetables for a while, and most of all, they were happy. Robert spent most of his days sitting near the edge of the boat fishing, which was wholly ineffective because of the first mate¡¯s gift.

    Johnny had a gift from Loneliness that made the whole ship totally invisible, this helped keep them safe from the sea monsters, but had the unfortunate side effect of keeping fish from noticing Robert¡¯s lure.

    Everything had been going so well for their crew. Lila and Brandon were about to get married and there was going to be a wonderful celebration on the mainland, and Robert was filled with pride that his little ragtag crew had brought such a beautiful marriage together.

    The whole crew had pulled out all the stops to make it the perfect event. Everyone used their meager funds to buy out a lovely seaside venue, and a couple of the guys had pulled together quite a charming little cake. The night had been filled with booze, merriment, and marriage. Everything a pirate could hope for.

    Then everyone started hearing rumors about expeditions. About royals and churches wanting to brave the great, blue ocean. At first the crew thought it was ridiculous, what could those pansies know about going out into their territory. It took everything they had to survive out there, so how were these floosies going to just waltz in like they owned it.

    Robert himself had thought it was quite entertaining, the rich were going on some sort of noble quest that was doomed to fail and his crew would be happy to watch it all burn to the ground.

    Unfortunately, Johnny saw one of the ships. And after Johnny saw it, with his big mouth and disposition for grandeur, every single crew member went to see the goliaths that were being built.

    The princess¡¯ ship was massive, and for some reason, a light shade of red. The wood had taken on some sort of hue during the process of the ship being built. The front of the ship had intricate linework, creating some sort of foreign shape. It was quite beautiful, but none of Robert¡¯s crew were sophisticated enough to truly understand the deeper meaning behind it.

    The church ship was a bit smaller and cleaner. It was polished to a shine and had an aura of perfection that surrounded it. The most daring of the pirate crew who tried to sneak on board to see the boat more closely couldn¡¯t even find a loose splinter. It was incredibly impressive, especially since the church outlawed its members from using their gifts in any way, shape, or form. That meant that the entire ship had been built without any sort of magical assistance. It was truly an inspiring sight.

    Finally, the prince¡¯s ship was a bit dull in comparison. It was still luxurious and spacious compared to the little dingy boat that Robert¡¯s crew had been using, but it was nowhere near as ostentatious as the other two ships.

    Robert had found that the problem with most people was that they always wanted more. Give a man a drink of water he will drink you dry.

    But Robert felt he was different than most people, he knew he was not the king of the high seas and that pirating had ended up being a way to hang out with his buds on the ocean, away from the noise of Vena Cava. He was happy though, he fished all day and pretended to be the scourge of the seas at night.

    Greed is an insidious desire; it wiggles its way into the human psyche slowly, but surely, until it is in control of someone¡¯s life. The crew had never been properly acquainted with greed before, they were petty thieves who masqueraded as loathsome pirates. But once they all saw the ships that the pompous fools had built for themselves, they wanted it.

    They wanted one of those ships more than anything they had wanted in their lives.

    The crew started planning then, planning a true raid. Not one of their play raids, but a truly devastating blow against the king, the prince, the princess, and the church. They were going to get one of those ships if it killed them.

    That was when the incessant questioning of Robert started. It was cordial at first, the crew just felt they would be much more menacing if they were riding in one of those beauties. But Robert told them that they should be happy with their little ship, and privately thought to himself that they should be happy with their little lives. They were not people with massive fate and karma.

    Then it devolved into shouting. When two people are of differing opinions and one side knows that there is no way to change the other¡¯s mind, it always devolves into shouting.

    Robert knew that he had two options when it devolved into shouting. Either he could deny them again, and they would just steal his ship and do it on their own. Or he could go with them and try to save them from this horrible mistake they were going to commit. With his kind heart, and the love he held for his crew, he knew that there was only one real option for him.

    So, he pulled his crew together and gave a speech. Many eyes trained on him as he was about to start, every pair glimmered with greed and Robert began.

    ¡°I would not like to commit treason for a nicer ship, but it seems we have no choice in the matter. We are going to take one of those ships and no one is going to stop us until we are dead. Anyone who does not want to partake in this is welcome to leave right now.¡±

    No one budged an inch from their places, all were sitting with rapt attention at their captain.

    ¡°Then let¡¯s start planning you fools.¡± Robert said with a little grin.

    Robert found that planning a hostile takeover of a ship is incredibly difficult when he cannot damage the other ship in any meaningful way. Since his crew wanted the ship so badly, they couldn¡¯t even use their trademarked tactic that they rarely used when doing any real pirating.

    Robert¡¯s gift had been what finally convinced him that he needed to be a pirate back when he was a child. He got a magical octopus that followed his every command. It was still a living being that he needed to feed and take care of, but it was a monster able to drag ships down to the bottom of the ocean, then extract any of the precious cargo to give to Robert and his crew.

    He had been so happy as a child to receive a loyal partner, unfortunately his naming skills were quite lacking, so he stuck with naming his trusty ally after his most distinctive feature.

    But Eight wouldn¡¯t be able to help them here. His tentacles lacked a finer touch.

    It took many days and nights that could¡¯ve been spent partying or fishing, but the crew finally came up with a viable enough plan that Robert couldn¡¯t dissuade them if he tried.

    The plan had a simple start. They would travel, using their myriad of sea-based gifts, to get ahead of the princess¡¯ ship. Then Johnny would activate his gift to hide their presence from the incoming ship. The next part would be tricky, but with a bit of Eight¡¯s help, the crew would tie the two ships together.

    In a normal situation they would use Johnny¡¯s gift to hide a chunk of their crew and infiltrate the ship to attack it from the inside. However, he had to keep the pirate ship hidden or else the other crew would be alerted to their activity. They could spend a few weeks searching for another person with a gift like Johnny¡¯s, but all the ships were leaving soon, so they couldn¡¯t waste what little time they had left. Instead, they all agreed to just try and sneak on board the ship in the dead of night and slit as many throats as possible before the alarm was raised.

    It was all basic, but Robert felt that sticking to the basics was very important here in such a large-scale operation.

    With a respectable plan and a respectable crew, they had one final night of partying, full of drinking and merriment before they all boarded their ship, aptly named The Sea¡¯s Scourge. The Scourge was small and dingey, but hopefully the crew would be able to acquire a new ship before the week was over.

    Then they set out upon the waves. Johnny kept them hidden, while Eight lurked beneath the surface eating lots of little swimmers that got too close. Everyone on the ship was antsy and unable to sit still. Normally, the crew was full of laughs and joy as they sailed, playing games along the way. Instead, the crew sat in silence or paced the deck trying to get rid of their nervous energy.

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    Inexorably, time passed, and the plan was set in motion. The red ship that heralded the princess¡¯ presence along the blue ocean could be seen from the Scourge¡¯s deck. The ship towered over them, and only that size difference is what made them so confident that no one would notice the extra weight they were about to attach to it.

    Robert gave Eight a quick pep talk, then put the rope into his tentacle. The rope was slowly drawn between the two boats and tied onto one of the railings. It was quite deft and agile for such a gargantuan creature, and the crew had a silent celebration at seeing the apparent success of their plan.

    As night drew nearer the crew readied themselves for what was bound to be a bloody night. Robert himself carried two knives at his belt, ready to go into the fray with his men, even without his trusty buddy Eight there to help him.

    Johnny, who could not participate in this raid directly had decided to spend his time as efficiently as possible and was checking all the crew¡¯s preparations. He looked out over the dark water, at the red ship. It was the color of blood and seemed quite auspicious, but that never stopped a good pirate.

    However, something did stop this pirate in his tracks. He looked out over the ocean where the rope had been just minutes earlier and he noticed how it had been cut. The line was lazily snaking its way through the ocean, Johnny knew that nobody could notice them because of his gift, but they had somehow found the rope. Now they had no way to board the ship; what was going to happen to the plan?

    He was just about to go find Robert to see if he could convince him to stop this raid and reevaluate their plan, when he was interrupted by the first volley.

    The sky above had been beautiful, not a cloud in sight. The air was clear and clean and filled the lungs with the refreshing scent of life, with a slight hint of dead fish. The moon shone down upon these two boats, casting its shimmering light upon them. Until it was blotted out by arrows.

    The red ship was massive, but the storm of arrows was even larger. It was as if a battalion of soldiers somehow fit on the deck and fired in unison at the Scourge. There was some gift at play, that much was obvious, but the pirates did not have time for such luxuries as thinking when the arrows rained down upon them.

    One silver lining was that Johnny¡¯s gift was still in effect, so it was obvious that whoever shot the arrows at them was using quantity over quality. Hoping that the ship was damaged beyond repair from this storm of arrows.

    The pirate crew watched as death came to them. There was nothing any of them could do to help their chances of survival, some still tried futilely to run below decks to use the thin wooden boards to protect themselves. But most resigned themselves to their fate, if they died, that was just their shit luck. Nothing else.

    Robert stared at the mass of arrows falling on him and his crew. A single tear dripped out of his eye as he surveyed the damage done. His crew, his friends, lay dying around him and all he could do was run.

    At the top of his lungs he yelled, ¡°Eight, save us!¡±

    The great octopus grabbed their ship, and the crew hightailed it out of there. Robert walked along the deck seeing who was still alive and who could be saved. He weaved between the arrows sticking out of his deck and stopped when he saw Johnny. He sat there with an arrow in his gut, holding his eyes deeply shut in the utmost concentration.

    Robert knew he had to keep Johnny alive. That was the only thing keeping the rest of them from being slaughtered. Whatever gift was being used to attack their ship obviously couldn¡¯t see The Scourge, so they were just blasting the entire ocean hoping to hit them. He put his hands on the wound to staunch the bleeding, and called out, ¡°can anyone fill a hole?¡±

    The second volley started after he shouted that. The ocean was bathed in flames, and the flames scorched Eight, but thanks to his meaty tentacles the ship itself didn¡¯t light up like a bonfire.

    A crewmate ran up to Robert looking scared. ¡°Where¡¯s the hole that needs plugging?¡± The crewmate, Silvia was her name, had a simple gift from Wood. That allowed wood to grow to fill up holes. Not a useful gift usually, but for a pirate ship it was invaluable.

    ¡°Here.¡± Robert said while pointing at Johnny¡¯s stomach.

    Silvia¡¯s eyes widened as she realized what her captain was asking her to do. It was going to be endlessly painful for Johnny, but the crew couldn¡¯t have him dying here, and no one on their ship had a healing gift.

    She gritted her teeth and made the shaft of the arrow grow until it blocked off the hole. Johnny screamed then retched onto the deck. It took all of Silvia¡¯s and Robert¡¯s willpower to not retch with him, it was a horrifying sight.

    The third volley started. Great clouds formed around the red ship. Big, black clouds that looked like evil sheep. The temperature dropped, and it started to hail. Giant icicles and stones the size of a man¡¯s head dropped all around them in the ocean.

    They kept running as fast as Eight and the remaining crew¡¯s gifts could carry them. The fourth volley missed them completely as great serpents of the ocean came out seeking them, but Johnny was still alive and keeping them unnoticeable.

    The crew didn¡¯t even see the fifth volley, as they were so far away. But they could hear the thunder and knew they had escaped death by lightning.

    Night turned back into day, but they kept running, hoping beyond Hope that the princess didn¡¯t try to follow them. That ship and that princess were monsters, not to be reckoned with.

    Robert surveyed his crew, the ones remaining. Only a few had died, surprisingly, mostly there were a couple flesh wounds from the rain of arrows. And he was disappointed. Robert was incredibly disappointed. Because once the crew had realized their luck, and that most of them were still alive the glint returned to their eyes.

    The gleam of greed. They wanted to try for round two against these behemoths. Thankfully he didn¡¯t have to convince them not to go after the princess again, but they wanted one of those ships, since theirs was so damaged from the previous encounter.

    Everyone decided that they were going to go after the Freer Men ship. Their church outlawed the use of their gifts, so they would stand a better chance, right?

    Robert only sighed at their foolishness, but he was their protector, he needed to keep them safe from their bad mistakes. And maybe they could win against a bunch of ungifted holy people.

    By pure chance the crew saw the ship. It was huge, not imposing like the princess¡¯ ship had been, but still large enough to make a person feel small and inconsequential. Johnny had been suffering, but he had been doing his job. The Scourge was unnoticeable as they approached the large wooden ship.

    Robert prayed, he prayed to every god he could think of. Luck, War, Battle, even Fate as he hoped that his crew would survive this.

    The plan was the same as last time. They would tie a rope to the other ship, then sneak over in the dead of night, killing as many people as they could before the alarm was raised.

    The rope was tied, and it was a dark and stormy night. Everything seemed perfect, the crew who could still move slowly started climbing across the rope and slinking onto the deck of the Freer Men¡¯s ship. The entire stealth party had made it across, Robert himself stood atop the deck of the marvelous ship, scanning for any movement in the night.

    Click. Click. Click.

    Robert heard something above him. And he looked up at the crow¡¯s nest. There was someone dressed in all black sitting up there, with a bow and arrow. But the arrow was on fire.

    ¡°Shit.¡±

    The arrow released, and the arrow touched the deck of the Scourge. Obviously, none of the stealth crew were in danger from this, but all their injured were stuck on that boat with nowhere to go. They were going to burn or drown.

    At the same time as the arrow was released, the shadows around the stealth team seemed to come to life as men and women jumped out from their hiding places. They had an assortment of weapons, daggers, swords, shields, bows, spears, and garrotes.

    Robert and his crew were decimated in moments. All they could do was watch as their friends and crewmates were slaughtered around them.

    Mason, a man with a gift that made him as strong as ten men, was engaged by a group of three figures. Two with shields that kept him from fully utilizing his strength, while a third with a sword jumped in for strikes when he opened himself up. After a few moments the sword met the flesh of his neck and he died.

    Nigel, a man whose gift was only useful for making their ship go a little faster through water. Was cut down carefully and precisely by a group of figures. They treated him with the same respect as they had Mason, despite his total ineptitude in battle.

    Famina, a woman whose gift made her hands invulnerable, was engaged by one man with a razor-sharp sword. Clangs and pings could be heard as their heated battle was fought, until her hands were severed at the wrist, and she fell to the ground crying before being beheaded.

    Robert watched these scenes and more as his crew was gutted around him. It was a scene out of a nightmare, his ship was burning behind him, his crew that could move jumped off the side of the ship, hoping they could survive somehow. While his remaining crew was being killed in an ambush.

    He yelled for Eight. And a giant tentacle came crashing out of the water and crushed a few of the figures. Instantly their attention moved to him and Eight. Instead of trying to take out his crew¡¯s small fry, they started climbing on Eight and cutting him to ribbons. It was just a tentacle, but it was reduced to scraps of flesh barely hanging together. The Freer Men moved as a one unit, in an almighty wave of human power.

    Robert saw they had lost, even the trump card of the giant octopus had done no real damage to these people. He yelled, ¡°Into the water.¡±

    He jumped off the side of the ship and called Eight to pick up as many of his crewmates as possible. Only six others made it over the edge before being killed. Robert and his six remaining survivors were carried away, again by an injured Eight.

    They only stopped one time, when they saw Johnny barely clinging onto a hunk of wood. He was spluttering and gasping for air, about to fall into the ocean when the remaining few picked him out of the water. They forced Johnny to stay awake and keep them from being noticed as they let Eight carry them away from their mistakes. He left a trail of blood on the surface as he left, the only marker of their escape.

    The remains of the Scourge¡¯s crew found themselves on the run again. But this time they had no resources. They had no food or water; they were starving as they were ferried around by their giant octopus.

    No one spoke, they had been defeated easily, and the only ones who survived were the ones who were lucky. They all stared at the endless ocean, wallowing in their depression.

    Many days passed like this, the only thing keeping them alive was Johnny and Eight. Johnny was near death though, his breathing raspy and his wound started to stink. It was obvious he was a dead man walking without a healer, but where would they find a healer in this awful ocean.

    They passed by a giant sea serpent that had been split in two. Normally they would pass right by, since the blood attracted bigger predators. But they were just too hungry, they all tore into the corpse. It was disgusting and nearly rotting, but they didn¡¯t care, they just wanted to eat something.

    After the corpse, the crew had a little more strength, but they were still on Death¡¯s door, as they still hadn¡¯t drunk any water.

    They floated until, in the distance, they saw a third ship. It was not as large as the other two had been, but it was still grandiose. And they all knew what it was, the third ship, the one carrying the prince.

    This time they weren¡¯t going to be caught off guard, they were going to slaughter these pompous fools and steal all their supplies, then go back to the mainland like nothing happened. They were going to live. The glint reappeared in all their eyes, even Robert¡¯s, as Eight approached the ship.

 Chapter 14 - Thrown and Throwing

    Joy had been having a great time on this little voyage. There were just so many people who couldn¡¯t avoid him here. Back at the castle most people would run away as soon as they saw him, but here, there was nowhere else to run to.

    His favorite person on this trip so far had been the Courier. The man had been paid an exorbitant sum of gold to simply stay on the ship and run his business there. The Courier had been truly blessed by whatever god gave him his gift. It allowed him to send letters anywhere in the world if the letter was properly addressed.

    The Courier was a rat of a man. His nose was far too long, his eyes were beady, his back was curved at an unfortunate angle, and his facial hair was so wispy is almost looked like a pair of whiskers. He carried himself with no elegance or poise, he shuffled or skittered around the ship. His voice was nasal, and he was constantly sniffing, as if he was trying to unclog his nose.

    The Courier had set up a little booth in a secluded corner of the ship where he would accept letters from any of the crew or passengers and would send them to whomever they wanted, for a fee of course. The service was incredibly expensive, but truly invaluable to the rich members of the crew that needed to stay properly informed constantly.

    The prince was always willing to spend a gold coin to make sure that Rose would keep him properly informed. And everybody else was willing to part from some gold to let their loved ones know that they were safe in the high seas.

    The reason the Courier had become Joy¡¯s favorite person on the entire ship was because he was the only person left on the entire ship who was willing to gamble with Joy at all. Since he was the only one left with any money, or hope.

    Joy had been forced to pay off Lillian, to keep her from telling the crew about his skill in gambling, and he had made an absolute killing off everybody that first night. But someone, maybe with some strikingly blue eyes, had told everyone that he could find about Joy¡¯s skill, and that they were basically giving him their money. That had put a real damper on Joy¡¯s mood.

    But then he found the Courier. He had so much gold that his every motion brought about tinkles as his gold jingled in his pockets. Joy sniffed him out like a bloodhound, following the scent of an easy mark.

    Joy started his tenuous relationship with the Courier out with a game of poker. The stakes were low, and the two men only bet up to silver. Joy made sure to let the Courier win as much as his pride would allow. Joy could not rush this or bleed him dry on the very first night, since this man was going to be his only source of true entertainment for the rest of this journey.

    The first two weeks of the journey had finished, and Joy had slowly been raising the ante against the Courier. Even through their two weeks of ¡°friendship¡± Joy had still never learned the man¡¯s name, but it was no matter. Since tonight, he was going to show the fruit of his labor.

    The night started as many other nights had. Joy asked the Courier to play a game of cards. The rat-like man twiddled with his wispy facial hair while he pretended to think, then eventually was ¡°convinced¡± to join in a game of blackjack.

    Joy used his gift to bring out a deck of cards and started shuffling them. He would play as the house for the night, while the Courier would be paying for Joy¡¯s future house.

    Over the past two weeks, Joy had goaded the man into playing with gold instead of silver but had never taken more than a few gold pieces off the man. Instead, tonight the gold flowed out of the Courier¡¯s pockets right into Joy¡¯s. It was like magic, no matter what cards the Courier had, Joy always had one higher. It was so improbable that it almost looked like cheating.

    After nearly three hundred gold had gone from the Courier¡¯s pockets to Joy¡¯s, he stopped. Joy felt that after taking enough gold to buy a small river village in the northern part of the Hearted Continent, that the man might wise up and just accept his losses. There was a small mountain of his own gold staring down at the poor man as well.

    Joy pulled the cards back into his soul space, expecting his fun to be over, when the Courier suddenly burst into tears. Not the regal tears, streaming quietly down the face of a defeated man, these were full on wracking sobs. The snot pooled down his face, leaking into his mouth, his little wispy mustache was suddenly soaked with the salty water. And he dramatically collapsed to the floor, his pain was simply too unbearable to stand.

    Slowly but surely, every person turned to face the racket, then once they saw the situation, their glares turned towards Joy. Joy learned a very important lesson that day, do not bully the man who allows everyone to talk to their families.

    Joy could admit he had underestimated just how popular the Courier was with every single person on the ship. Joy had sent a quick letter to his parents and received one back, but he didn¡¯t feel that those pesky familial bonds required them to throw him overboard.

    Twenty people had volunteered to toss Joy off the ship, and he was feeling fairly unappreciative of this whole process. At least Theo was here, so Joy wasn¡¯t going to simply drown and die in the middle of the ocean. Theo would save him, right?

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    The mob hoisted Joy over their shoulders and tossed him over the side. It was not the first time Joy had incited an angry mob to come and attack him, but that didn¡¯t mean it wasn¡¯t just as painful every time.

    Joy closed his eyes and prepared for the bitter cold and the salty salt that was going to invade his mouth and eyes.

    Instead of hitting the water with a splash, Joy impacted something with a squish. It was an unpleasant experience, but he supposed it beat being soaked.

    Joy felt around himself, his eyes still closed. It felt squishy like flesh, but with a little extra elasticity. As his groping hands kept moving, he eventually found someone¡¯s leg. Joy had felt many a leg in his time and he knew just by the feel of it that the person was incredibly sick. The leg felt emaciated and barely had any muscles left, it was mostly skin and bone.

    This was finally enough to make Joy open his eyes. And he saw that he was surrounded by the least intimidating pirates he had ever seen, not that he had seen many pirates in his life. They were all rags and open wounds, not one was unmarred. They were actively bleeding as they tried to move, brandishing knives at Joy.

    Of the group of pirates Joy saw maybe two who were a real threat to him. The other six all seemed too out of it to care, or too injured to help kill Joy.

    The biggest and meanest looking one, which wasn¡¯t saying much, spoke up. His raspy tone was a clear indicator of how little water he had consumed recently.

    ¡°Now look here pretty boy. You are going to give us the run down on how to steal this ship or we¡¯ll gut you like a fish.¡±

    Joy obviously focused on the most important part of that sentence and replied, ¡°oh you think I¡¯m pretty?¡± With enough eyebrow waggling and eye fluttering that it looked like he was having a minor seizure.

    That was when Robert, the big mean one, tried to stab Joy. It was a fair move, even Joy could respect it, but that didn¡¯t mean he was just going to sit there and take it.

    Joy took one step to the side and let Robert slide into the water. Murdering people is quite hard if the murderer was not getting enough nutrients in their diet.

    Joy sighed and spread his arms, even if it wasn¡¯t a particularly fair fight, it would be bad manners not to give it his all.

    ¡°Do you all want to play a game?¡± Then Joy clapped his hands together striking a ridiculous pose.

    All the pirates and Joy heard a distinguished voice in their heads say, ¡°judo. Do any of you need the rules explained to you?¡±

    Joy smiled, he hadn¡¯t gotten his exercise in for the day, and this would be fun. He cracked his neck and took a stance, preparing himself for the game.

    The pirates didn¡¯t realize something was wrong until the third person had been thrown. Joy had been moving with intense speed, grabbing wrists, and making surprisingly expert throws. The pirates were not worried by this since anyone who is thrown can get back up again. At least he wasn¡¯t taking their knives and stabbing them, they couldn¡¯t take any more losses. Too many of their crewmates and friends had died on this journey.

    But after the third person had been thrown, and subsequently didn¡¯t get up afterwards like expected, they knew something was wrong. They tried to resist but Joy was a titan of unimaginable power compared to them. Their weak bodies were unable to keep up with him.

    So, they fell one by one until there was only one man left. Robert had been swimming back, trying to save his crew from this man, but he had been too slow. Far too slow to save anyone. So now he floated in the water staring up at the man who had impossibly fallen on them. Johnny¡¯s gift was supposed to hide them, so it was a pure coincidence that this man was here to destroy them. Luck had beaten them.

    But Robert was beyond caring at this point. He needed that man to pay. So, with reckless abandon he told Eight to grab his seven crewmates and then go wild attacking the attacker.

    The giant octopus gingerly held the seven injured men, who were still, for some inexplicable reason, unable to move. And attacked Joy. Two things limited the octopus from attacking with its full power: four of its tentacles were occupied holding the injured pirates, and Joy was standing on its body. Not even a giant octopus likes to hit itself.

    But the four tentacles roiled up the water, rocking the nearby ship a little bit. The appendages flicked and whipped through the air. Snapping back and forth as unpredictable as the wind, hoping to strike down the flea that was upon its flesh.

    Joy flowed like water, unable to be touched by the flailing tentacles, but not able to do much else than dodge. It was a little unreasonable to have him try to throw this monster.

    Joy had nearly resigned himself to dying at the hands, well suckers, of this octopus when the ice started forming. All around the octopus, ice was crawling into being, it was slow, but there was no stopping it.

    Once the octopus had been immobilized by the cold, and Joy was chattering his teeth loud enough for everyone to hear, Theo jumped down off the deck of the ship to help Joy out.

    With the two of them they were able to find all the pirates and confine them, to keep them from causing any problems.

    ¡°How do we get back up now?¡± Joy asked innocently.

    ¡°We wait.¡±

    ¡°You were so worried about me you just forgot to bring any rope, weren¡¯t you?¡±

    Dead silence, if there had been crickets out in the ocean, their chirping would¡¯ve been clear as day. Until, of course, Joy burst out in a guffaw at Theo¡¯s expense. Theo glowered menacingly, but there was no stopping Joy¡¯s joy.

    ___

    Robert awoke with a start. He felt as if he had just had a horrible nightmare, something about attacking ships out at sea, and his entire crew dying. He took a few deep breaths hoping to calm himself down. He could feel the gentle rocking of a ship, he was safe.

    Now that he was looking around more closely, this didn¡¯t look like his ship at all.

    ¡°Oh good, Robert, you¡¯re awake.¡± A person with a dark complexion, and piercing brown eyes came into his view.

    ¡°We are a little busy right now, so I am going to cut to the chase. We could really use a person with your skills to help us, so we are willing to look past your pathetic attempt at taking our ship, and your failures at taking the other two ships. For your work we are willing to keep you and your remaining crew healthy as a horse, you will be fed better than you ever have before, and you will never have to go thirsty ever again. As a show of good will, we have already healed your crew and your octopus back to a prime condition.¡±

    Then this mysterious person seemed to take their first break for air in their entire monologue.

    ¡°What say you, Robert?¡±

 Chapter 15 - The Bluff

    Lillian had spent years trying to figure out ways to make her gift more potent. She had experimented with everything from sleep deprivation to lucid dreaming. But none of them had any particularly strong effects on her gift.

    When lucid dreaming, she got the ability to create whatever she wanted and bring it into the real world, but it never quite worked out the way she wanted it to. She tried to create a sword whose swings would create air elementals to attack the user¡¯s foes. Once she brought it into reality though it shattered upon its first use and the elemental couldn¡¯t quite get the gist of what an enemy was.

    During sleep deprivation she ended up having more nightmares and accidentally brought more monsters into reality than usual. Eventually she only had nightmares and the whole project had to be scrapped until she started having normal dreams again.

    She had been having a reoccurring nightmare about a demonic monster named Susan since she was fourteen. Susan would pretend to be a kindly woman who gave Lillian powerful items that Lillian used to great effect. For a time, Susan was simply just a woman who gave Lillian things, but one night Lillian asked Susan if she wanted to see the world. And so, Susan was brought into the world for the first time.

    Susan shed her skin and turned from a kindly old lady into a demon with bat wings, the face of a fly, and twelve sets of legs sticking out of her from various angles. Susan had nearly destroyed the castle, and it took Ian to come out and stop her.

    But Susan kept coming back. She was always waiting in the dream, trying to fool Lillian into bringing her into reality again.

    Susan was one of the dreams that made Lillian question whether her dreams were actually happening, just somewhere else. She didn¡¯t really want credit for creating this demon who haunted her so much and was just a general pain in the ass.

    Lillian happened to be in a dream involving Susan, maybe it was the stress of finally reaching shore that had gotten to her, but it was a particularly bad one. Susan knew she couldn¡¯t just be herself anymore, since Lillian already knew not to bring her into reality, so she spent the dreams trying to trick Lillian.

    In this particular dream, Lillian was in a room filled to the brim with swords. It was like wading in a pool, and every single one cut into Lillian¡¯s dream body. Causing a sensation like pain but was a little too removed from reality to cause any true distress.

    Lillian could sense somehow that one of these swords was Susan in disguise, the demon truly was a master of disguise. And Lillian was trying to pinpoint exactly which sword Susan was hiding as, since she didn¡¯t want to bring the demon into reality by accident.

    The pool of swords was slowly being filled with her blood and Lillian watched as her essence in the dream was slowly drawn into the center of pile.

    Lillian waded through the sharp edges and pointed tips, trying to reach wherever her blood was leaking towards. And she found it in the center. A truly massive sword, larger than Lillian, was being filled with blood.

    Ostentatious, check. Gaudy, check. Obviously the most powerful sword, check. Everything about this sword screamed that it was Susan in disguise.

    Lillian hefted the sword over her head; it was far lighter than its incredible size would suggest. Then brought it down on the sword closest to her.

    Every other sword in the pool of swords looked identical, so Lillian just walked around smashing every single one she could find with the massive bloody sword. After the fifteenth sword was shattered, a shriek erupted from the mound around her, and all the surrounding swords started flying around Lillian.

    It was a tornado of swords, and all Lillian could do was hunker down. She placed the massive sword over her and tried to cover as much as her body as she could. Lillian watched as the swords collided together, however instead of clanging off the other, the two would fuse making a slightly larger sword. Until finally one massive sword was left in the center of the pool, with Lillian.

    The sword slowly grew a pair of arms, legs, and eyes. It morphed into a human looking thing. Even if she didn¡¯t look like a massive demon with twelve legs, Lillian knew that the figure in front of her was Susan.

    A sliver of blood was leaking out of a hole in Susan¡¯s face, a tongue that was far too long came out and licked at it, lapping up the dripping blood.

    ¡°How did you know I wasn¡¯t the bloody sword?¡± The voice emanated from the figure, even though their lips didn¡¯t move.

    ¡°Come on Susan, you were making it too obvious. You were trying too hard to make me think you were that sword, which meant you obviously weren¡¯t that sword.¡±

    ¡°The human mind is a fascinating thing, Lillian. I will get you next time, you scamp.¡±

    ¡°You can always try.¡±

    This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

    With that the figure slowly disappeared from the now empty pool of swords. While Lillian with her massive sword in hand took a deep breath and opened her eyes.

    The gentle rocking of the boat, the tip-tapping footsteps of people on higher levels of the ship, and chatter coming from the workers who had moved onto the mainland to finish building an outpost for Prince David. All these things were reminders to Lillian that she was back in reality. Despite the truly massive sword she was hugging as if it was a prized stuffed animal, she was back in the real world.

    Lillian gave the look to Theo that she was certainly awake, and that the item she had brought out was not a particular danger to anyone. He nodded than sauntered out of the room yawning, probably off to find the gifted cook, and get her to conjure up some coffee.

    Lillian took a whiff of her old pillow, getting the nostalgic scent of home stuck in her nostrils before she set about getting ready for the day. She got her clothes on and looked at her sword. This was always the most exciting part of waking up for her. Not breakfast, not what she was wearing, not the sunshine hitting her face. It was figuring out how she was going to get her magic weapon to the dining hall so she could show her friends.

    It was a little too big to fit in the ladder-wells of the ship, but Lillian believed with enough perseverance and skill she could make anything happen.

    She found a Wood gifted person, one of the few kept on the crew to make sure that there was no permanent damage to the ship. And had them fix everything she broke as she walked through the halls with reckless abandon.

    Was it wasteful? Absolutely. But what was the point of having awesome magic weapons if you couldn¡¯t bring them everywhere with you.

    As she arrived at the dining hall, she brandished her sword. Everyone turned to look at her, their eyes searching for how such a small person could carry such a massive sword. Once they saw it was Lillian though, they all just shrugged and moved on with their day. Theo just rolled his eyes when he saw her spectacular entrance, then went back to his cup of coffee.

    Alas, everything was ruined when Joy saw her, he started giggling and asked, ¡°are you compensating for something, Lillian?¡±

    Everyone burst into laughter at her expense. It was embarrassing, so she did the most reasonable thing a lady with a giant sword could do. Start chasing the nuisance who had ruined her awesome entrance.

    Joy was too fast though; she could never quite catch up to him. Not that she was trying particularly hard. It was all good fun, and the crew needed a good laugh, today was the day they had all been waiting for.

    The ship had finally arrived at the Frozen continent, and now the hard part of the operation began. They would be searching for the Kingmaker, as well as trying to find the person who was causing such a ruckus in the capital.

    The prince had brought an entire team of people with earth and ice gifts to help create their base of operations, and the team had been working all night. They were finally done, and the mission would begin.

    Not before Lillian had her breakfast though. She got the food gifted chef to make her a cinnamon roll and a few eggs, over-easy not scrambled. The chef had one of the greatest gifts Lillian had ever seen, she could create food near instantaneously. She had to give something up of equal size, but buckets of seawater magically turned into bread and cheese and omelets. It was a glorious gift.

    But Lillian was going to enjoy this meal, it was probably going to be her last good meal for a while. The chef would be staying at the prince¡¯s command center, so no magical breakfasts for Lillian during her missions. It was all going to be rations, and no one liked rations.

    Lillian wasn¡¯t so negligent in her duties that she ate as slowly as possible, savoring every last bite. Unlike someone whose name starts with a J and rhymes with destroy, who sat there staring longingly at the chef, as if wishing he could ask her to go with him into the winter wastelands. But Lillian did have a wonderful meal that she enjoyed immensely.

    She cleaned her dishes since that was the proper thing to do. No reason to let anyone else do work she was properly capable of, and while she was there, she cleaned the mug and plate that Theo had left.

    Finally, she grabbed her massive and awesome sword in her left hand and the scruff of Joy¡¯s neck in the other, then lugged them both up to the top of the ship. She might¡¯ve heard a few cries and complaints from him, but nothing a few whacks with her new sword didn¡¯t fix.

    Once the two had reached the top of the ship, they saw a castle. And it was incredible.

    Just the night before, it had been a barren wasteland of snow and barely anything else. But now, a massive structure loomed over their ship. Plenty of magical gifts must have gone into the castle to make it go up so quickly, but it sure was awe-inspiring.

    Even the great poet Joy deigned to open his mouth and speak about the majesty that was the castle, ¡°shit, that¡¯s big.¡±

    To which Lillian responded with the only proper answer, ¡°that¡¯s what she said.¡±

    They looked at each other and continued looking. Daring the other to break eye contact. It was an age-old battle fought between hardened veterans of the field; awkward eye contact was a deadly place for the unprepared.

    But Lillian took her rightful victory, after she found another nifty use for her giant magic sword. Hitting Joy upside the head with it makes him blink. Oh, what would she do without her magic sword? The unfortunate answer to that question was probably still hit Joy upside the head with whatever is closest to her.

    The two found their missing member, he was staring off into the ocean. Probably trying to find a new scene to make out of ice, it was a little disconcerting having Theo be so intense about his art. But Lillian and Joy wouldn¡¯t say anything, they were just excited that Theo was doing something just for enjoyment.

    The trio stood on the edge of the ship, staring at the ladder that led down to the ground. The prince had Theo and a few earth gifted rig up a bridge that connected the ship to the mainland, so that way they didn¡¯t have to crash the boat onto the land.

    No one said a word as they stared down at the ladder. Endless possibilities awaited them here in the frozen wastes, and this ladder was a metaphorical last step before they would be forced to brave the dangers they may face.

    That may have been what the more introspective members of the group thought, but Lillian was just contemplating how to get her sword down the most gracefully.

    Once she did, she chucked her sword onto the bridge and climbed to the bottom. Where she picked up her sword and then yelled Theo, ¡°what¡¯s taking you so long?¡±

    Joy was already halfway down the ladder, while Theo jumped a little and started shimmying his way down as well. There was no time to waste after all.

 Chapter 16 - Enlightenment Upon The Nature Of Snow

    The prince waited for the mass of people in front of him to quiet down. Of course, everyone was rather excited; they were going to go down as legends now, to be able to cross the sea and survive on an inhospitable continent. Although very few of them were personally responsible for their success their names would be remembered forever as ¡°the guys who tagged along.¡±

    The prince stared at the wall of people, his people. Each one was handpicked for a job and role that they would carry out while they were on this continent. They were the cream of the crop, and he was about to put them to work.

    The prince¡¯s blue eyes shone clearly beneath his many layers, sadly his golden locks were hidden from view by his quaint little hat though. His voice cut clearly through the crowd, ¡°alright everybody. Y¡¯all know what your job is. Go do them.¡±

    The prince kept this one short and sweet, he knew it was going to be cold here, but damn he was chilly. He was wondering if he should wear another layer, just in case. But four layers of clothes did seem excessive.

    As the prince waddled off, deep in thought about how to properly deal with this cold. The crowd just stood there a little shell-shocked at how quickly this speech had gone by. But eventually, one woman, Marissa the chef, whacked her hand with her ladle and started walking to her kitchen. And this seemed to break the spell on everyone else, so they started leaving for their various duties in and about the newly built castle.

    Theo had been happy when Joy arrived on the ship, even though he would never admit this to anyone. The little guy had grown on him, the more time someone spent with Joy the more they couldn¡¯t help but enjoy his wild nature and unique spin on life.

    The problem was, Theo¡¯s group for this mission had been specially crafted to be as stealthy as possible, and for some reason Ian had just throw Joy into their midst, saying this was as good a place as any.

    Theo, Wes, and Vanessa had been surgically picked for the synergy between their three gifts. Theo was the freezer, Vanessa was the melter, and Wes was the silencer. That is to say, Vanessa would melt anything that stood in their way, Wes would make sure that the death cries of whatever she was melting wouldn¡¯t be heard, and Theo would fill the holes made in nature to make it look as if they had never been there.

    Everyone had a job and a place, but what was Joy going to do for their group? This was not saying that Theo was mad that he was there. Theo was very unhappy when he and Lillian weren¡¯t paired together, but why Joy?

    This question was answered by Joy later that day, he said ¡°I was either being put with you or Lillian. And no one wanted to see what sort of shenanigan Lillian and I could get up to without your supervision. We are like your unruly kids that no one wants to deal with.¡±

    Both Theo and Joy were absolutely covered in fur and extra layers of clothing, treading through the snow and basically being as miserable as possible. The problem was that Theo could hear the smile on Joy¡¯s face as he said that, and he hated that Joy was not as miserable as he was.

    The group¡¯s goal for this very first outing was to explore the surrounding area. Sam was a very powerful seer, but not powerful enough to just divine where powerful artifacts are with extreme precision, in an area they know nothing about.

    All the combat groups were doing this for the next few weeks, so that the team knew everything they could about their surroundings, and who the other players on this continent were. Hopefully someone would run into the warlord who was causing trouble on the mainland and be able to take him out during this preliminary time, but Theo didn¡¯t have his hopes up.

    Trekking in the snow was hard and cold. It seemed so obvious in retrospect to Theo, but there are some things that need to be experienced before someone can make any sort of judgement about them. But now Theo could say with full confidence that the Frozen Continent was cold, and miserable.

    The team had put Vanessa in the front to melt as much of the snow as possible. Since her power let her melt things with a touch, there was no need for someone to spend all day trudging along, making a path for the rest of them. This made their suffering go from terrible, to merely miserable.

    But, leaving swaths of snow missing was not conducive to being sneaky, so Theo was tasked by the rest of the group to fill in the gaps in the snow. It was much harder than anticipated. At first, he just left chunks of ice in their wake, but everyone felt that it was a bit too obvious. Still not sneaky enough.

    So, he spent their first trip trying to make snow with his gift. His gift froze things, it created ice. Ice was strong and had many useful properties that its corollary, snow, did not have. Where ice was brittle and sharp, snow was soft and moldable. He had never needed to make snow before, but it couldn¡¯t be that much harder than making ice, right?

    This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

    This exercise felt much more like one of his personal projects than a mission. Theo felt like he was trying to make a sculpture, it was not a problem that he could just attack, he needed to be smart.

    So, he experimented for hours and hours, since he had nothing better to do than get better at it during their wandering.

    It took almost three days of trying before he figured it out.

    His gift was focused by his eyes. Where he looked, ice formed. It was a basic power when taken down to the bare bones. But what happened when he didn¡¯t look in at a specific thing, and simply let his sight be absorbed by his surroundings?

    The difficulty was that he didn¡¯t know how to not be laser focused. Theo had spent years training himself to have laser precision on everything he looked at. Where would he even start with this unfocusing?

    So, he turned to the only other three people nearby him, he asked them what they thought.

    Surprisingly, Joy had the most interesting thing to say, he asked ¡°how do you look at the sky on a beautiful day?¡±

    With the raging wind and rampant snow, it took a few repetitions before anybody could hear his question, but once Theo finally heard he pondered it. It seemed profound, something a hidden master would say when teaching their pupil, but this was Joy, there must be some trick hidden here, some game.

    Joy was full of surprises this day when he continued down the philosophical path of question and said, ¡°you do not focus on each part of the sky specifically, you let it wash over you.¡±

    Theo knew Joy couldn¡¯t see his face because it was hidden under layers of cloth to protect him from the cold, but Theo tried his very hardest to convey his flabbergasted expression. This was not the Joy Theo had come to know, someone must have taken his body and replaced him with some serious guy.

    Somehow Joy understood the meaning behind Theo¡¯s incredulous gaze and he said, ¡°what? Can¡¯t a guy just enjoy a beautiful sky. Life is beautiful my man, enjoy it.¡±

    These words somehow struck a chord with Theo, and he started trying to open his view when using his gift.

    He looked up at the sky above him, and instead of focusing all on one spot, he let his view spread, until it encompassed the gray sky around him. Then he flexed his gift.

    Gifts were stored in the soul space of a person, but an ability wasn¡¯t exactly able to be stored in the same way a magic sword could be. Instead of pulling out a hypothetical magical sword, Theo felt his soul space was like a jar of something. And he could open the jar to the world as he needed, so when he flexed the metaphorical muscle, he cracked open the jar.

    And above him a wide but thin sheet of ice formed, then promptly fell onto his head, shattering into a million pieces.

    Everyone had a good chuckle at his misfortune, but after another hour of experimenting he figured it out. He had to make space between the chunks, or else it would come down as one solid piece.

    But it was thrilling, it had been years since he had discovered something new about his gift, and even if snow wasn¡¯t the best thing to use in combat, the novelty of it was amazing for Theo. So, he made snow form behind them in the air, and let it fall to cover the path that Vanessa cut in the snow.

    The group of four became ghosts in the snow, indistinguishable from the environment. They were an odd texture in the snow and nothing more. Not that there was anybody to hide from.

    Theo did wonder if this whole operation was simply a test for them all, to make sure that they were willing and able to endure elements so unlike their home for the prince. Since, even though they slept in little magical tents that must¡¯ve cost a fortune to make, they were miserable hiding all day long in the gloomy snow.

    These apprehensions were dispelled after the group had spent a full week traversing the snowy outskirts. Vanessa melted, Wes silenced the world around them, Theo covered their tracks, and Joy made snowballs that he threw at the other three, resulting in varying degrees of annoyance.

    Somehow, Joy was the first to notice the other group in the snow, maybe it was his acute senses and peak observational skills. Or maybe it was the fact he had been looking around the area for something better to hit the other group members with, since snow had been starting to bore him.

    Across the sea of snow was a small group of three. They all were decked out in many layers, to stave off the cold. To their utter misfortune, the group seemed to only be able to brave the snow head on. They did not have a nifty gift like Vanessa¡¯s and their members seemed to be taking turns walking a path in the snow ahead of their companions. It looked mighty painful from Joy¡¯s observations.

    The first thing Joy did was yell at his teammates hoping to draw their attention to the mysterious group, however he found that Wes¡¯ ability was quite annoying when he wanted to speak to someone. So, he resorted to poking Wes until he got the message to turn off the silencing field.

    ¡°What do you want, Joy?¡± Wes was annoyed with Joy since he had been nothing but a bother since the start of this trip.

    ¡°There are some guys in the snow over there.¡± Joy pointed in the general direction, where the members of the group were clearly visible against the snowy terrain.

    At that moment everyone got deadly serious, these could be some of the ruffians who had been causing trouble in the Vena Cava. So, the four of them slowly and quietly approached the group with the utmost care. Wes¡¯ silence had never been more silent as the group approached and prepared for combat.

    Vanessa melted the last stretch of snow between the two groups, and they finally met face to face. The two groups stared at each other, trying to ascertain the other¡¯s intentions and whether to attack.

    Finally, Joy broke the silence that Wes had thankfully lifted from the area, ¡°so, who are y¡¯all?¡±

 Chapter 17 - The Golden Arches

    Joy felt that he had a way with people. Everyone just loved him no matter where he went. Joy could tell this from the way people cursed him out, threw things at him, and just how they tried to hurt him.

    It just showed that they cared. They cared about his misfortune, but it was care, nonetheless.

    The situation between his team and the mysterious crew that they stood across from had been dreadfully boring, and incredibly tense. Two things that Joy hated with passion. So, he decided that instead of having a showdown where the two teams stared each other down and tested the other¡¯s abilities to try and gain a glimpse of their true identity, he would just ask who they were.

    What was the worst that could happen?

    After Joy¡¯s question, the group of three made a small bow and said, ¡°we are pious members of the Humanists, may we ask who you are?¡±

    ¡°We are just some people that Prince David has hired to help him out here in the frozen wastes.¡± To which Theo smacked Joy on the back of the head, the blow was weakened by the many layers of cloth separating the hand from the head, but the intent behind it hurt more than any strike could have.

    Joy looked with eyes filled with sadness and regret, how could he have deserved this? To which Theo rolled his blue eyes, trying to convey the fact that their mission and their identity were supposed to be secret, not divulged to just any person who walked by them.

    The group looked a little shocked, then one of them replied, ¡°are you here to stop the evil mastermind, who is concocting a plan to begin the end of the world?¡±

    Joy nearly asked, ¡®what the hell they are talking about¡¯, out loud. But he wisely kept his mouth shut, mostly in fear of another retaliatory strike from Theo. What were they saying though? That was some crazy talk if Joy had ever heard it.

    Thankfully this was when Wes decided to speak up. His gift was silence, but silence was best used to accentuate sound, and Wes embodied this concept as a person. He did not speak often, but when he did, it was important and powerful.

    ¡°That is one of our goals. This is a big operation, and we are but cogs in the machine.¡±

    Then Vanessa jumped in, capitalizing on the opening Wes had left, ¡°would you like to come back to meet with our boss and get a better understanding of the situation?¡±

    The three Humanists all took a moment to discuss between themselves, the wind providing ample privacy from Joy¡¯s group.

    Once they had finished their discussion the three bowed simultaneously and said, ¡°we are your guests. Please lead the way.¡±

    Joy wondered if the three of them had rehearsed this, or maybe that¡¯s what their long discussion was about. They had to time the whole maneuver properly or else it lost the gravitas that came with it.

    Anyways, the two groups started following the way back to the prince¡¯s castle. Joy¡¯s group was returning a bit earlier than was scheduled, but they figured that no one would say they were shirking their duties, since they were bringing a potential ally back to the base.

    One oddity in the trip was that the Humanists refused to follow in the path that Vanessa carved into the snow. Instead, they used the same formation that Joy had previously seen, where one of them took the front and plowed the snow with their body. It seemed like grueling work, and Joy was thankful that he did not have to do that.

    The Humanists were a bunch of quacks, in Joy¡¯s humble opinion. Their belief stemmed from the fact that they felt the god¡¯s intentions with humanity were perverse. How could gods be kind when human lives were just a game to them, a pass time.

    The leader, Lemon Drop, of this religion started it because he was worried about what would happen when one of the gods won the game. If all humans worshipped one god and the game ended, what would happen to the humans?

    Lemon felt that one of the gods would flip the proverbial board in a fit of rage, and everyone would die. So, the Humanists fought incessantly to keep the game from ending. Their animosity towards the gods was so great, that they would not even use the gifts bestowed upon them. Members with powerful bodies were known to cripple themselves just to spite the god who had given them the gift.

    The Humanists did not want to take advantage of a gift no matter how useful, so the three that followed Joy and his group had to make their own way through the snow. This slowed the group down immensely and made a long trip, even longer. Thankfully both teams had overpacked supplies.

    Joy tried talking to the group, he was especially curious about what they meant about the end of the world. It obviously had something to do with their religion, but how would they know that this would be taking place on the frozen continent of all places? It wasn¡¯t like the group had any seers they could rely on to get information.

    Of course, Joy knew that the Humanists had a seer, but she was just some old lady who threw chicken bones in a pile of ashes and believed that fate was written in their wake. But there was no way the Humanists had built a massive ship, sailed over the treacherous sea, and braved one of the most inhospitable places known to man, just because some old lady said so, right?

    Joy¡¯s attempts at conversation were always stifled, the three seemed to be devout believers and were interacting with gifted people out of sheer necessity. Which was a real bummer for Joy since all his groupmates were being really boring on this part of the trip.

    The icy domain was filled with silence and boredom as the group of seven trekked along. The food was bland and boring, the snow was cold, the sleeping arrangements were cramped, and everyone was just generally unhappy. Once the team made it back to the castle, they nearly cried.

    This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

    In their hearts, the castle was a place of warmth and happiness, the chef was there to prepare food for them, a wind gifted was hired to specifically blow warm air around the surrounding area to make it warmer, and there were toilets, not just baring their ass to the frigid cold.

    The three humanists were obviously uncomfortable with the whole setup and its heavy reliance on the gifts that they so abhorred, but everyone on Joy¡¯s team could care less about their gripes. Their refusal to walk in Vanessa¡¯s path caused the trip to take an extra two days.

    Joy immediately ran to the kitchen, hoping to find something to eat that wasn¡¯t rations, while the other three members of the group looked longingly at him. They wished they could be so foolish and carefree, but they had duties to attend to, no matter how much they wanted to run and eat something warm and filling.

    Theo, Wes, and Vanessa were moving at a slow dirge, moving towards the innards of the castle, knowing they would have to waste time searching for prince David, Ian, or Sam. Luckily, Sam nonchalantly walked out of the castle to greet the group.

    Sam was not surprised at all to see the three visitors that they had brought back but did mercifully let the group members chase after Joy to find a warm meal and a soft bed.

    Not that the group saw it, since they had already taken off as soon as Sam said they could, but Sam then led the three Humanists to meet the prince and Ian.

    Joy had somehow stuffed himself silly before Theo had even entered the dining hall, and instead of trying to find a comfortable place to sleep, he simply laid over his plate, letting his hair fall disgustingly into the remnants of his meal. He was snoring within seconds.

    Theo was not too much better, but he had the decency to eat at a reasonable rate and merely jog to find a bed, rather than run.

    Nothing could wake the team up; it was the first true moment of rest that they had in nearly two weeks. The cold and Joy¡¯s antics had truly exhausted them, and they were tired.

    Joy did not wake up until the next morning, and he was only brought out of his stupor by the chef smacking his upside the head with a ladle. She told him that he was ¡°filthy¡± and ¡°making everyone else uncomfortable.¡±

    Joy couldn¡¯t understand, he was a delight to be around, despite the mashed potatoes and egg running down the side of his head.

    So, Joy headed to the luxurious area provided by the prince, solely because a prince cannot travel without style. There were fruit trees, hanging in a perfectly humid area allowing for a passerby to grab a sweet fruit from their branches. The air smelt of honey and mint, and a sauna was provided to those who had braved the cold for many days.

    Joy could feel the golden aura of pure bliss coming from that area, his feet unconsciously moved him closer and closer to the golden doorway, the rich scents and sights nearly made Joy cry.

    From the set of golden doors, a man in a towel approached, his piercing blue eyes were relaxed, the worry lines had receded, and Theo looked nearly two years younger than he was. A mere sixteen-year-old boy, set out to adventure the world full of hope and passion. Then he saw Joy.

    First his eyes changed from relaxed to shame, then shame to annoyed, then from annoyed to disgusted, then from disgusted to determined. Theo had seemingly come to a decision and briskly walked towards Joy. His feet were still wet from the heated baths and so they made a slight wet slapping sound against the hard earth of the floor, maybe the prince would get someone to install carpets soon.

    Joy bounded for the door, he had barely even noticed that Theo had appeared in it, he just wanted into the kingdom. But as he neared Theo the ground beneath his feet seemed to freeze up, and Joy instantly face planted into the ground mere inches from the doorway.

    To his horror he found that the floor had magically been covered with ice. And a figure covered by only a towel approached Joy from behind. Theo grabbed Joy by his disgusting mashed potato and egg tousled hair and started dragging him.

    Theo froze the path he pulled Joy along so that there was no way for Joy to find the necessary friction to stand up, and all he could do was be dragged along. Not that he didn¡¯t try to escape his predicament. Joy had seen his own personal heaven, and he was not going to be denied entry from it.

    His pleas went unnoticed though as his pale executioner brought him closer and closer to the outside. The frigid air started buffeting the two of them as they approached an unheated area, and Joy¡¯s pleas went from insistent to filled with terror. He knew what was coming, but there was no way to prepare himself for it.

    Kerchunk.

    Joy¡¯s body crashed into the snow outside of the castle, and the shivers started wracking his body. Theo looked down on him from his lofty position,

    ¡°At least wash the grime off before going into the nice area.¡±

    Then the stoic man walked away probably to go enjoy the wonders of the golden archway.

    Joy shouted, hoping to get the last word in, ¡°I can see your ass,¡± he paused a moment to let the chills pass through his body, ¡°from this angle.¡±

    Theo uncomfortably adjusted his towel to keep a portion of his dignity as he walked away. Joy simply started using the snow to wash off the sweat and food that he was caked in, not that there was any cake on his body.

    Joy moved quickly and efficiently since he didn¡¯t want to catch a cold from being in the snow for too long. He took hunks of snow and used them to wash his body, it wasn¡¯t particularly fun, but it did get the funk off his hunk.

    However, out of the corner of his eye he noticed a group of three people also washing themselves with the snow. Their teeth chattered, but they doggedly kept washing themselves. It was the Humanists that Joy and his team had brought back to camp.

    This was the first time Joy had seen any of them without the layers of cloth that they used to protect themselves from the freezing environment. Th group was comprised of two men and one woman. The woman had auburn hair and a heavily muscled build, while the two men were a bit on the chubbier side and both had matching dark hair, maybe they were brothers?

    Both men were still strong, they just had a layer of fat that protected their bodies, it was a second suit of armor.

    The group was still camping and refused to enter the castle for any longer than they had to for negotiations. Joy had to admit that their belief was truly impressive, it was inconvenient and looked painful, but impressive, nonetheless.

    Joy did a little tiptoe, trying to touch as little of the unbearably cold snow as possible, as he sidled up to the group.

    ¡°How¡¯s it going everybody?¡± He said with what he felt was a charming grin. Joy was sure that his endless shivers did nothing to reduce his charm.

    ¡°Fine.¡± One of the two men said, before they all went back to cleaning themselves off with the snow.

    Well, they wouldn¡¯t be winning any prizes for eloquence. Maybe their religion made them pay donations for every word they said to someone who used their gift.

    Joy finished up cleaning himself off, before tiptoeing back to the castle and the wonderful warmth. The halls were a little damp from Theo¡¯s theatrics involving the ice path, but none of that bothered Joy as he followed the trail.

    He finally saw the golden doorway, that led to a true paradise. There was warm water, and exotic fruits that he would never get the opportunity to try again. So, he took the first step into the doorway and breathed in the intoxicating air.

    Suddenly, a voice came out of nowhere. A familiar voice was shouting, ¡°Joy!¡±

    With immense willpower Joy turned to look at who was approaching. Lillian, looking fairly disheveled was near Joy and she seemed far too excited.

    ¡°Please, you have to look at my new friend.¡±

    And Lillian grabbed him by the arm and dragged him away from his promised paradise. It wasn¡¯t worth resisting, if he tried to fight his way back in, Fate would simply put something else in his way. It wasn¡¯t his destiny to be rewarded for his hard work.

    A stream of tears fell down Joy¡¯s face as he followed Lillian to see her new friend.

 Chapter 18 - Grime and Ice

    Lillian¡¯s new friend turned out to be a white, hairy, little thing that was about half the size of a man. It had antlers, that were somehow incredibly disappointing, and two little doe eyes that stared out at everything with curiosity.

    ¡°Peku peku.¡±

    The little monster said and started waddling off towards a nearby snowbank, where it proceeded to slide down the snow and climb back to the top where it declared a second time, ¡°peku peku.¡±

    Joy thought it was cute but was a little disconcerted. It was saying ¡®peku peku¡¯ but it didn¡¯t have a mouth, where was the noise coming from then?

    ¡°His name is Peku. We found him wandering around in circles and decided to bring him back here, isn¡¯t he just the cutest little guy.¡±

    The ¡®cutest little guy¡¯ had fallen over, his antlers sinking deep into the snow, and he was subsequently having trouble getting his antlers out of the snow.

    Joy waddled over in a rough imitation of the little fella and extricated him from his predicament.

    ¡°I have never seen anything like him, what is he?¡± Joy had put Peku on his knee like a small child and started moving his finger around in circles in front of Peku¡¯s adorable eyes. Then Joy suddenly booped him right between the eyes.

    ¡°Peku peku!¡± Peku let out an indignant yell and fell off Joy¡¯s knee into the snow embankment. This caused Joy to burst out laughing at the little monster¡¯s misfortune.

    ¡°We don¡¯t know, but he can¡¯t be dangerous, not with those little eyes.¡± Lillian responded to Joy¡¯s question and started coddling her new friend, keeping Peku away from the evil Joy, who booped without warning.

    The three of them moved into the dining hall since neither Joy nor Lillian had eaten anything yet.

    Inside the dining hall, everything was a mess. People were bustling back and forth; food was being eaten at incredible rates. The crunching and gnashing of delicious food created an awful din that was barely tolerable.

    Joy looked at the hall, then looked at Lillian, who seemed intent on going right in. Not even a moment of hesitation or fear from her eyes, she was just eyeing the chef, like a wild wolf about to pounce on her prey.

    That was when Joy realized this was the scheduled day that all the scouting teams were supposed to come back. Even though his team had started heading back early, they barely made it back to the castle before everyone else because of those stubborn Humanists.

    Joy took Peku from Lillian¡¯s arms and let her rush into the fray, she elbowed her way up to the front of the line. Kicking anyone¡¯s ass who even got close to her in her pursuit of food. It was a beautiful and horrifying show of might makes right.

    Lillian clutched her food, which was nearly a mountain of mashed potatoes, turkey, cubed apples, and a healthy dollop of gravy right on top. She had made no friends on her way to the front of the line, and now her karma was coming full circle. Everyone tried to steal her food or make her drop it.

    Did she deserve it? Probably. But she fought back with reckless abandon, letting hunks of meat fly off her plate as she defended her hard-fought prize.

    Joy simply watched in horror as she devoured her food while standing right in front of the people she had cut in line. She gnashed her teeth and crunched it all down until only bones were left on the plate. She licked it clean.

    Everyone stared at her, and she smiled back at them. Getting back in line and jostling for seconds.

    Joy had been hungry before he had seen that, but now he was more than content to sit in a quiet corner with Peku and avoid the entire mess.

    Surveying the room, Joy found a suitable quiet corner. The fact that a refreshed looking Theo happened to be there was pure happenstance.

    Theo looked at Joy as he sat down, then looked at Peku who Joy had plopped onto the table right in front of him. Theo¡¯s body spasmed as if a sudden chill had gone down his spine. Then went back to sipping on his piping hot coffee.

    Eventually after Lillian had gotten her second plate of food in a much less adversarial manner, she sauntered over to Joy and Theo¡¯s table. She slammed down her plate of assorted ham and eggs. They were green for some reason, but Joy figured that was the chef¡¯s warning to Lillian to chill out.

    The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    That lady was scary.

    Peku sat there occasionally piping to say his beloved phrase, but never made a grab for the food. Instead, the little guy just sat there watching everyone as they ate or chatted about wat had happened during their travels in the icy wastes.

    It was a good talk, Lillian had much the same experience as Joy and Theo, it was quiet and nothing of interest happened. Everyone just wandered in the snow, freezing their asses off for two weeks.

    But Lillian did meet her new lovable sidekick Peku, and together they were going to get up to some shenanigans, and no one would be able to stop their tomfoolery.

    Joy was just about to get up from the table and make a mad dash for the oasis in the frozen desert, the land of fruits and saunas, hidden behind golden doors, when a familiar face walked into the dining hall.

    With his trademark blue eyes and blonde hair, the prince looked not quite as dashing as he normally did. He had dark bags underneath his eyes, his shoulders sagged, and a frown that seemed to stretch from his face to the floor.

    Perhaps life at the castle wasn¡¯t so nice after all, Joy thought ruefully. But the prince seemed to be in the hall for a reason, he called out, ¡°hello everyone, we need to have a team meeting. Please go out to the courtyard while we brief everyone on what has happened and what is going to happen.¡±

    So, to a chorus of groans and many feet shuffling unenthusiastically the crowd in the dining hall moved towards the courtyard.

    Joy realized that the gods truly were conspiring against him, why was he not allowed to relax and enjoy the one good thing about this trip? All he wanted was to get out of the freezing cold, but that seemed to be too much to ask of Fate or Fortune.

    In the courtyard the array of teams arrived, looking a bit worse for wear. A couple of weeks in the snow would do that to a person.

    Upon a small stage that someone had set up while Joy was out on his mission, the prince and his attendants stood. Sam looked as crafty as always, even though they looked so plain and ordinary, their eyes held a hint of the unknown. That was the trademark of a seer, able to see things that ordinary people could not.

    Next was Ian, he stood strong and tall. Like an insurmountable wall he looked down upon the sorry procession of weary workers. His eyes softened as he looked upon the groups. But they eventually hardened back into cold and efficient eyes, not even moving when they did not have to.

    Finally, an unknown figure stood up top. People had seen this man on the ship, but he had mostly kept to himself. His nose had been broken many times, and he was a bit too small to seem intimidating. But the scrawny man mostly kept to the back of the prince¡¯s cohort and kept his mouth shut.

    Eventually the bedraggled prince came to the front of his procession and gazed down upon his crew. He saw their exhaustion written plainly in their eyes; they knew they had to be there, but not a single one of them wanted to. So, he made up his mind to keep this update as short as possible.

    After a simple cough to garner the attention of his audience, he began.

    ¡°We will now be collaborating with the Humanists; you will provide help to them in any way that you can, and they will reciprocate. There are monsters out in the snow, one group found a pack of wolves that could blend in perfectly with the snow, as well as giant worms that wait for their prey to walk above them to consume them.¡±

    The prince paused and made quick eye contact with his audience, he was going for brevity, but his people needed to know the dangers of the snow.

    ¡°We have found hints towards the castle where the Kingmaker resides, but we need more teams to search more of the snow. So, enjoy this break while you can.¡±

    The somber mood of the crowd got a bit worse, but the prince did not feel bad. They knew coming to a forsaken continent was not going to be a cakewalk, but he allowed their grumblings.

    ¡°Finally, no one has found anything related to the warlord who is camped out in this continent. It is a big continent, so we may never come across them, but do not get lazy. No one died during this series of expeditions, but laziness may result in one of your companions losing their life. Be safe out there and enjoy your brief reprieve.¡±

    With that, the impromptu speech ended. And it was a near stampeded to get out of the cold. Joy, Theo, and Lillian had to jostle and fight to keep themselves upright through the throng of bodies rushing towards the castle.

    Theo was simply trying to get back to his room. He had eaten a good breakfast and felt well-rested. But he was rushing to try and catch up on his remnant exhaustion from the miserable exploration.

    Lillian was trying to sneak back into the food hall and get even more food. Mere crackers and paste were all she had eaten for nearly two weeks, and she had a voracious appetite for anything that wasn¡¯t crackers and paste. She valiantly held onto Peku during this time, and shielded his body from the onslaught of humanity, while she gorged herself on anything that the chef would make.

    Joy knew exactly where he was trying to go. His destination had been the same since this very morning. He ran, weaving through people like a sewing needle being threaded by a master seamster.

    He eventually arrived at the massive golden arch, that used to be the gateway leading towards a utopic land of fruits and saunas. Now, it was filled to the brim with rancid smelling people of all shapes and sizes. Their feet left footprints of grime everywhere they walked, the fruit trees were barren as if it was the middle of winter, and the water was no longer the vibrant spring water it used to be, now it ran black with gunk and sweat.

    Joy went to his knees at the sight, which was an unfortunate decision. Since the wave of people behind him were not so kind as to move around him. Instead, he was swept along with the wave, he was pushed and paraded around in what was left of the relaxation room.

    The crowd rushed forward, barely taking any time to strip themselves of their dirty garments before hopping into the slush that could barely be described as water. Joy was being pushed by this crowd and despite his pleas and cries he was pushed into the murky depths.

    Bubbles floated to the top and Joy writhed in discomfort. The water entered his nose and mouth, and he felt as if he had taken a farmer from his hometown and licked his armpit after a hard day¡¯s work. Joy wondered if he would ever be able to taste again. It was a truly haunting experience.

 Chapter 19 - The Daily Life of A Prince

    Prince David sat and stared at the sea of snow. The Hearted continent was the only place truly suitable towards life left in this world, but there was a unique beauty to the devastation brought by a god¡¯s wrath.

    It was an endless waste of white.

    The prince had been taking his one break of the day. He knew he was spoiling himself a little bit, but he needed to rest. He could rely on his subordinates for a little while at least while he recuperated his mental facilities.

    Many extravagances were brought up to the north with the ship. But the prince¡¯s favorite by far was the one window. He had brought a single window and placed it in his office. Prince David would sit and watch the snowflakes fall to the ground.

    Each one was beautiful and fat, unlike anything that he had ever seen in Vena Cava. The weather was very strictly controlled in the city, and the prince had never seen a truly devastating winter before in his life. It was tranquil and beautiful in a melancholic way that struck deeply into the prince¡¯s being.

    But every rest comes to an end eventually, and even if his loyal minions were taking a well-deserved break, the prince was given no such luxury.

    Somehow, while exploring an endlessly dangerous and abandoned continent there was always more work to do.

    The prince started walking towards Ian¡¯s lookout position, he wasn¡¯t the last line of defense for their little fort, but he was the most formidable. Ian had humbly requested to have a small watchtower built for him to live his sedentary lifestyle in and defend the castle from.

    Ian was a man who used to be full of conviction. He used to be a shining pillar of courage and a beacon of hope for all those who were lucky enough to know him. Then he got old and was forced to make the hard decisions that idealistic young people never think about. He was hardened and wished to truly be left alone in his solitude.

    So, Prince David made sure to visit him every day just to keep Ian from being too lonely. But he did make sure that he wasn¡¯t followed by Joy or Lillian, those two were attracted to causing mischief and general inconveniences. They were like moths to a flame, except the flame was making prince David do more paperwork and spend more money.

    Prince David finally got past the final hill that led to Ian¡¯s abode. It was a very simple tower, erected simply by a couple Earth gifted that David had brought along.

    ¡°Knock Knock.¡± The prince said to the air as he rapped on the cold stone doorway.

    The knocking was a nice pleasantry, but wholly useless, in the open plain there was no way that Ian didn¡¯t notice David¡¯s approach. So, the prince didn¡¯t waste time on the ceremony, and brazenly walked into Ian¡¯s home.

    It was a temporary residence, but Ian had brought nothing along except clothes and a sword. The walls were as barren as the wintery landscape.

    The prince started climbing the set of stairs and listened to the click and clack of his feet as he ascended. It was quite funny, no one ever notices how much a nice carpet dampens noise, living in these sparse conditions, every noise echoed and resonated throughout the home. It would drive the prince mad, but that¡¯s why he didn¡¯t live like this. He had brought his many accoutrements from his home to spice up the boring life he knew he would be living on this forsaken continent.

    Ian was sitting at the top of his tower, bundled under a few layers of cloth. Watching.

    The prince wasn¡¯t sure what he was watching for, but he was incredibly intense about it. This whole operation had just started, and this was a massive continent, they would have to be stupidly unlucky to be close enough that their enemies could find them.

    ¡°How¡¯s it going up here?¡± When the prince had first gotten Ian to work for him, he had been incredibly cordial and reverential to this mythic figure from the generation before his own. But that soon evaporated once the prince realized that Ian didn¡¯t care about looking powerful or in charge, he simply knew he was.

    ¡°Quiet, and I hope it stays that way.¡± Ian sighed.

    It was always a wonder for prince David, that this was the man who was known as Bloody Ian, a man who had taken the lives of an entire army like he was Death themself. He just seemed so small and tired compared to the demon that the aristocrats always played him out to be.

    The prince made this trip mostly to assess Ian¡¯s mental wellbeing more than anything else. And seeing that Ian seemed to be in a relatively healthy state of mind, the prince decided to leave on a good note.

    They shared their goodbyes and Ian silently watched from his post as the footprints of the prince faded back into the wintry landscape.

    There were only two other important people left in the prince¡¯s compound. Sure, there were quite a few people that the prince liked having around as it made his job easier, but the only true essentials were himself, Ian, Sam, and the Courier.

    Sam¡¯s workspace had always given the prince the ¡®heebie-jeebies¡¯ thus he always avoided it when he had the chance. It had never been perfectly clear exactly how Sam¡¯s seer abilities functioned, but the prince had learned that Sam¡¯s gift needed snakes. There were so many snakes that just slithered around Sam¡¯s workspace, combined with their flute. It would make even the most hardened veteran shiver with goosebumps.

    Approaching the door to Sam¡¯s workspace the prince took a deep breath and mentally prepared himself for the horrors of the snake pit. He knew it was irrational and that Sam¡¯s snakes couldn¡¯t hurt him, but he was still a little frightened, just a little though.

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    Eventually he hyped himself up enough to crack the door open a smidge, just to check if Sam was even in there.

    All that the prince could see in that darkness was slithering bodies, their scales glistened in the bare lighting. Slowly, what seemed like hundreds of pairs of eyes turned to face the prince.

    ¡°Eeep!¡± The prince let loose an incredibly heroic and valiant shriek that seemed to echo through the, thankfully, empty hallways.

    A small sigh escaped the prince¡¯s lips as he recovered from his little shock. He was glad the halls seemed to be empty, since he had an image to uphold, and the little shriek was not a part of that image.

    ¡°Sexy.¡± A voice emanated from the surrounding hallways. From behind a nearby corner Sam appeared.

    ¡°Can we just pretend that sound came from the door?¡± The prince batted his eyes, hoping his endless charisma and charm would be able to sway the ineffable Sam.

    ¡°What brings you to my side of the castle, oh shrieking prince?¡± Sam had a shit-eating grin on their face, and the prince knew there was going to be no escape from his fate.

    He tsked then replied, ¡°how is your search going?¡±

    ¡°Well enough, there is an entire continent to search after all. No matter how prestigious my abilities are, it will take time for me to find it.¡±

    It made sense, but it didn¡¯t make the prince particularly happy.

    ¡°Well, anything specific you need me to do for you during the search?¡±

    ¡°If you find some of the locals and bring them to me my search will go much faster.¡±

    ¡°Locals? I thought this was an abandoned continent?¡±

    To this Sam¡¯s shit-eating grin faded and bit, and look a deep profoundness came over their face, ¡°there are only two things that refuse to die out on this planet my dear prince. Ivy and human civilization.¡±

    After a brief pause to let the prince digest these thoughts Sam continued, ¡°just because their civilization isn¡¯t to the scale of Vena Cava doesn¡¯t mean it doesn¡¯t exist.¡±

    ¡°I really hate when you keep important information from me, just to reveal it in an ostentatious way. Wouldn¡¯t this whole operation go faster if you just told me everything before we started?¡± The prince grumbled.

    Bit by bit, the shit-eating grin came back onto Sam¡¯s face, ¡°well, that wouldn¡¯t be very much fun for me, my adorable banshee prince.¡±

    Having had the last word, Sam opened the door to their private workspace and slammed it shut behind them. Leaving the prince to stew in his indignation alone.

    After the prince finished his brooding, he started walking to his final appointment. He needed to check whether the Courier had received anything new from Rose.

    Oddly enough, the prince was not quite sure what the Courier¡¯s name was. The prince must¡¯ve learned it at some point, but it just seemed to have slipped right out of his mind. On a second thought, the prince realized he had never heard anyone call the Courier anything except ¡°the courier¡± or ¡°Mr. Courier.¡±

    Honestly, it was rude of the prince to have not learned the name, so he put it on his agenda to make sure he asked the courier what his name was.

    The courier had been given nearly first dibs on picking out a space for their office, just after Sam and the prince himself. And he had picked an unassuming corner in the middle of nowhere. Not that the prince was snooping in on anyone¡¯s business, but everyone seemed to think that he had picked that corner in hopes that Joy would never be able to find him.

    Apparently, Joy was still owed a significant amount of gold that had never been repaid. So, the Courier made everyone who visited him swear not to tell Joy where to find him, lest their letters got ¡®lost in transit.¡¯

    The prince was not exempt from these conditions, but he did feel a little cheated. There should be no need to keep the Courier¡¯s secret with the exorbitant amount of gold that the prince was paying.

    The door to the Courier¡¯s office space was a beautiful wooden door, that had been repurposed from the ship¡¯s junk pile. No one enjoyed the castle made entirely out of rock, so everyone made sure to bring a few bits and bobs to liven the place up. Like the lovely door that marked the Courier¡¯s office.

    The prince knocked on the lovely door, making an even and powerful rapping sound. It truly was an exquisite door, maybe the prince would try to buy it off the Courier once they made it back from this voyage.

    Lost in thought, the prince waited for the door to open. And kept waiting, the door never opened.

    The prince rapped harder. Maybe this was just a mistake, and the Courier hadn¡¯t heard the rapping.

    But then the prince heard the humming and what sounded like someone skipping down the hallway. There was only one man in this castle who skipped anywhere. There was only one man who would actually spend his spare time skipping around the castle, being a general nuisance to everyone around him. The door wouldn¡¯t open because the Courier somehow knew Joy was nearby.

    This was unacceptable, the prince knew that the Courier owed Joy a lot of money, but this should not be getting in his way. The prince was supposed to be beyond these petty squabbles. But the prince was a man of action, and he would solve this problem, get his damn mail, and then maybe he would kick the Courier¡¯s ass for wasting his time.

    ¡°Well, Joy. You¡¯re just the person I was looking for. I have a special mission for you.¡± The prince started and gave Joy no room to interrupt or respond.

    ¡°I need a team to go out into the wild and search for the locals. We know they¡¯re out there somewhere, but we need you to go find them. You think you can do it?¡±

    ¡°Well, you have given me no information on how or where to find them. My skillset seems to have nothing to do with it, and you¡¯re talking too fast. Are you sure you aren¡¯t hiding something Mr. Prince?¡± Joy posed a question and seemed to have seen through the prince¡¯s flimsy plan.

    Flabbergasted, the prince had no idea what to say, so he improvised, ¡°but think of how fun it would be?¡±

    A bubble of silence stretched between the two men as they stared at each other. After the moment passed, Joy opened his mouth in thought, closed it, then opened it again, seeming to have come to a decision.

    ¡°It does sound fun doesn¡¯t it. Trying to find the native people of a continent that everyone seems to have agreed was abandoned. You sold me, let me pick out a team and we will leave first thing tomorrow.¡±

    Joy ran away as fast as his feet could carry him, obviously excited about the new prospects of adventure.

    A heavy sigh escaped the prince¡¯s lips as he watched Joy¡¯s figure recede down the hallway. The man was far too unpredictable, but all¡¯s well that ends well. He hired a simpleton to do the grunt work, and now he was going to kick the ass of that damn courier.

    The time when the prince knocked on the door it slowly opened revealing the Courier and Benny. The Courier looked rather pleased while Benny looked a bit sheepish. Which was for good reason. Benny was one of the prince¡¯s best employees. When did he get poached?

    ¡°Sorry boss. He said he would mail my letters for free if I just checked the shadows nearby here and made sure to warn him anytime Joy started getting too close.¡± The sheepish Benny fumbled over his words as he tried to explain his actions.

    ¡°Leave and wait for me in my office.¡± The prince wasn¡¯t furious, but he was going to make Benny go along with Joy on the inane mission as a punishment.

    With that Benny seemed to melt into the shadows and disappear from the room.

    ¡°And you. With the amount I am paying you, I do not care if you are on your deathbed, I expect the door to open when I knock. Understood?¡± The prince showed a much firmer side that the Courier had never seen before.

    It was a bit frightening. And the Courier somehow got the impression that the debt he was in with Joy would be a trivial matter in comparison to the prince¡¯s ire.

    So, the Courier wisely made all the letters addressed to the prince appear and started handing them over.

    The prince smiled. Now this was the treatment he was expecting.

 Chapter 20 - A Shrewd Observer

    Joy was creating a roster in his head as he skipped away from the prince. He needed to make a team that had the skillset to complete the mission. But more importantly, he needed to make a team that he could have some fun with. Otherwise, it would be a lame and boring trip, and that was not something Joy could abide by.

    Obviously, Theo and Lillian were on the team, the two of them were real ones, and he needed their clout to be able to convince anyone else to join his ragtag team.

    So, Joy started walking towards their room. It was a bit far from the section of the castle he had wandered to, but this was expected of Joy.

    Upon arriving at their room Joy knocked on the door. This door was a simple earthen door, that one of the Earth gifted had done some wacky earth magic to, to make it function like a door. The sound produced was especially echoey and made for some quite dramatic entrances.

    The door slowly creaked open and inside Joy saw Lillian, who had Peku in her arms. The little guy was shivering as if he was scared of something.

    That was when Joy saw a mass of shrews that were packed into the corner of the room.

    The shrews were bright orange and scuttled together making some vaguely human forms, before collapsing back into an indistinct blob of shrews.

    The door slowly shut as Joy just started walking away. This was not his problem, and he was not going to deal with that nightmare that was just sitting there, skittering there? The terminology must be quite confusing, since the creature as a whole sat still, but the smaller entities that made it up were constantly in motion.

    Joy realized that his pondering should wait since he could hear some grumbling and rapid footsteps approaching from behind him.

    ¡°Oh Joy.¡± Lillian called in a sing-songy voice.

    Do not look back, Joy thought to himself. If he just ignored her, maybe she would vanish into thin air.

    A hand suddenly gripped his left shoulder. The fingers were like iron and refused to let him escape their clutches.

    Theo stood to Joy¡¯s left. The iron grip seemed to be his, however he looked faintly pale and there happened to be an orange shrew gripping tightly to his coat.

    The piercing blue eyes that had brought many a villain to their knees were pleading with Joy. Behind those eyes lay a scared little boy who had a severe phobia of rodents and needed help. Not that Theo would ever lower himself to begging for help.

    Joy slowly reached out and gently grasped the small orange critter, and Theo let out an audible sigh of relief.

    Behind the pair, Lillian had finally caught up, and the orange blob of shrews had somehow followed behind her. It was horrifying and brought many questions about Lillian¡¯s mental stability to the forefront of everyone¡¯s minds, but Joy was preoccupied with the shrew in his hand.

    He slowly released it on the ground, and let it run up to rejoin the mass of its brethren. It slowly melted into the mass, unable to be distinguished from any of the others, a part of a whole instead of an individual orange nightmare shrew.

    ¡°At least they don¡¯t seem angry?¡± Joy asked in a hopeful tone as the three companions watched the dance of the shrews.

    ¡°I guess we could take it outside.¡± Lillian threw out a suggestion. No one seemed averse to trying, so the group started walking to the massive doors that led to the barren winter landscape.

    The mass of shrews seemed to need no coaxing; it was happy to just follow the group wherever they went. However, the shrews were eerily quiet. The ungulated in their freaky way without letting loose a single squeak.

    The worst part of the whole experience was the other people in Joy¡¯s opinion. They would shrivel in horror when they saw the mass of shrews, then see that it was Lillian and Joy leading it around and immediately shrug their shoulders as if their presence explained everything. The two of them were not that bad, were they?

    Maybe Joy needed to reevaluate his image in the eyes of the rest of the prince¡¯s cohort. But that was a problem for another Joy, because right now he needed to deal with one of Lillian¡¯s crazy dream creatures.

    The three of them walked out into the snow, and all of them started shivering. Not even one of them had remembered that the outside of the castle was going to be cold, which was so incredibly embarrassing that everyone silently promised never to mention this event in the future.

    The shrews shriveled away from the cold, the shapes it made seemed even more condensed than they did previously. Were the dream shrews trying to conserve their dream body temperature?

    The two parties stared at each other. The shrews waving around in their hypnotic fashion while the three humans shivered uncontrollably in the miserable cold.

    Lillian was the first to speak up, ¡°well this didn¡¯t work. Plan B?¡±

    Theo, through chattering teeth, asked, ¡°what¡¯s plan B?¡±

    She forced a grin and replied, ¡°we deal with it.¡±

    Joy shivered, but not from the cold. That was seriously brutal, this was a creature she had imagined into existence, and she was so willing to get rid of it? That was terrifying.

    With that Lillian started walking into the castle again. Leaving Peku behind to play in the snow.

    Strange, Joy though that she had just decided to ruthlessly murder the abomination. But who was Joy to know the inner workings of Lillian. Her brain obviously wasn¡¯t normal, as seen by her conjuration of this monstrosity.

    Joy shrugged and walked in with her, maybe she was going somewhere new so that the murder would be more tasteful. Theo stayed outside of the castle, more willing to brave the cold than his phobia of rodents. And someone needed to take care of Peku, right?

    The mass of shrews slowly turned around and started following Joy and Lillian, it was like a demented puppy. Just following its owner around, completely clueless as to what Fate had in store for it.

    Once Joy was shoulder to shoulder to Lillian she asked, ¡°so why did you knock on our door?¡±

    Joy had nearly forgotten his original task with all the excitement that their little orange friend had brought them.

    ¡°Oh. The prince assigned me a special mission and told me I could pick out whatever teammates I wanted.¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s the catch?¡±

    ¡°Why would there be a catch, the prince obviously just trusts me.¡±

    Lillian turned to glare at him, ¡°I don¡¯t trust you with anything I wouldn¡¯t wholeheartedly entrust to a five-year old.¡±

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    Joy gasped, ¡°well that was just hurtful. But I think he gave me this mission because I was nearby. No ulterior motive there, just convenience.¡±

    ¡°Well then what¡¯s the mission?¡±

    ¡°I am to assemble a proper team that can brave the great wintry wilderness in search of any local people. Apparently, the abandoned continent isn¡¯t as abandoned as everyone thought.¡±

    ¡°It does sound interesting, so you wanted your two best buds in the whole wide world to join you on your mission?¡±

    ¡°No, I just needed to borrow your, sorry, Theo¡¯s credibility to convince some other members to join me.¡±

    Somehow Lillian¡¯s glare became even more intense after that little jab at her expense. But she knew she would have her revenge; it was only a matter of time with Joy.

    Joy continued, ¡°but since Theo is busy having a mental breakdown about rodents, I guess I will have to make do with you Mrs. Dreamkiller.¡±

    ¡°When did I become Dreamkiller?¡±

    ¡°When you threatened to ¡®deal with¡¯ those little guys.¡± Joy gestured towards the mass of shrews which was lagging slightly behind Joy and Lillian, it somehow could understand the basic human decency to barge into someone else¡¯s conversation.

    ¡°Yeah, we are going to deal with them by ignoring them. I am hurt by your interpretation of my words. I would never kill one of my dreams unless they were trying to kill me.¡±

    Joy heaved a slight sigh of relief, he was glad that he simply misinterpreted Lillian¡¯s words, he only had slightly believed she was going to murder her dream spawn in cold blood.

    ¡°Well, want to help me try and get The Heater to join our group?¡± Joy deftly changed the topic trying to move away from his blunder.

    ¡°If we¡¯ll be stuck out there for as long as I think we will, you wouldn¡¯t be able to get me to join without her.¡±

    The Heater had quickly earned a name for herself with the many teams under the prince¡¯s command. Her name was Emmy, but the nickname had a way of sticking with people far more than her name did. She had a relatively useless gift; all it did was make a certain area around herself warm. Standing next to Emmy was like being near a warm hearth at home, listening to an elder tell a story.

    She radiated warmth and comfort in a cold and unforgiving environment. Thus, she had been dubbed The Heater.

    Her gift didn¡¯t truly affect the outside world, she was not boiling the snow around her, but it made everyone feel better and not have to deal with the environmental pressure.

    Joy knew that getting her to join would be like trying to pry candy from a persistent toddler. Everyone wanted Emmy with them, but Joy¡¯s pitch would be different. Joy had the explicit permission of the prince to create the best team possible, and he was going to abuse that to get The Heater on his team.

    Maybe he was going to fib a few things, but at the end of the day who cared about that? He was just going to lie a little bit; it would be fun.

    Joy scouted the area, hoping to find The Heater quickly. She usually spent her time near the entrance of the castle, letting her gift warm up anyone who had some unenviable job that made them leave the castle.

    Unfortunately, she must¡¯ve been on a break, so Joy went to the next place he could think of, dragging Lillian and the mass of shrews with him.

    The crew entered the kitchen, the chef was sitting in her normal position, surrounded by snow, and apparently experimenting with a few new recipes. Having unlimited ingredients really boosted a person¡¯s creativity.

    In the center of the room Joy spotted his prey¡­ his target. Target sounded better.

    She was surrounded by men and women who were just basking in the glow that she exuded. They all looked exhausted, but her presence was able to make smiles spread across all their faces. It was a surprisingly beautiful sight to Joy.

    But he had a job to do, so he barged into their little group and made himself known.

    ¡°Hello there! Emmy, nice little circle here. I am giving you a little notice, but the prince specially asked for you to join a team that will be leaving tomorrow into the wilds. See you bright and early by the gates.¡±

    Joy winked, which made everyone cringe, then sauntered off without giving Emmy a chance to think or respond.

    But it was no longer Joy¡¯s fault. He had blamed it all on the prince since to avoid responsibility. Joy was just doing what he asked.

    Lillian looked at Joy curiously, ¡°if you were just going to do that why did you need me and Theo?¡±

    ¡°It wouldn¡¯t have been very fun to do that without an audience. Get up to speed Lillian.¡± Joy rolled his eyes.

    Joy looked behind as the two of them were walking away and noticed that the mass of shrews was not following them. Instead, it was staying close to The Heater, as if it too was magically drawn to her warmth.

    Odd, but that was just taking care of two problems at once. Now Lillian and Joy wouldn¡¯t have to deal with the annoying mass of shrews as they did the rest of the chores needed to go on an adventure in the freezing lands.

    Joy walked up to the chef and requested a batch be made of travel rations that could last four people for two months. He hoped that the mission would last only a month at most, but it was better to be overprepared than under when starvation was on the line.

    Immediately after Joy made his request to the chef, who had immediately gotten to work creating nuts and jerky out the junk that surrounded her grumbling about how ¡®some notice would¡¯ve been appreciated¡¯, a man stepped out of the shadows behind Joy. He was short, wiry, and had oaky skin. He looked like a twig had come alive off the side of a tree. He also had an unfortunate bowler hat on, the hat didn¡¯t make him seem gentlemanly, instead it made him look incompetent. But he did just walk out of the shadows, so what did Joy know about him?

    The man bowed and introduced himself, ¡°I am Benny, and the prince said my puni¡­ ahem the prince said that I would be working with you on your next mission.¡±

    ¡°Nice to meet you, Benny.¡± Lillian said with a warm smile, hoping to get along with the slightly strange man.

    Joy realized that someone was going to have to do the scary job of informing the chef that she needed to prepare even more food with the limited time she had been given. So, he used his newfound powers as a team leader to delegate this task.

    ¡°Please inform the chef that she needs to make rations for another person and meet us at the gate tomorrow morning Benny.¡±

    ¡°Of course.¡±

    Then Benny turned to the chef who had watched this entire exchange and started to repeat Joy¡¯s instructions. The chef started to glow red in rage, and she started throwing extremely hot mashed potatoes at the unfortunate man.

    Benny was thankfully able to meld into the shadows of the surrounding area and escape the onslaught of potato.

    Joy and Lillian had already known this was going to happen and had started running as soon as Benny had turned from them.

    They both knew that the chef was incredible unhappy with them and on the verge of letting out her rage. Even a casual observer would realize that adding to the poor lady¡¯s stress would send her into some sort of rage. It was rather unfortunate for Benny that his social skills were a bit too lacking to catch onto this and so he took the brunt of her fiery rage.

    Joy and Lillian left to try and find Theo and Peku. They needed to make sure he was properly informed of their upcoming trip, and not because the two of them had already become bored with sorting out the logistics of the mission. Not that at all. Delegation was simply the easiest choice.

    Slowly but surely all the preparations were made by a nagging Theo, who refused to let the two scoundrels scamper off after giving him their work. The work needed to be done quickly, and misery loved company. Or at least Theo¡¯s did.

    Soon the entire group went to sleep and tried to get what would probably be their last night of sweet dreams for a while.

    Thankfully, once Lillian fell asleep the mass of shrews that had been idly undulating nearby Emmy all day finally dissipated into the dream matter it was shaped from, allowing Emmy to fall asleep, even if her dreams ended up being rather odd because of having to deal with the shrews all day.

    Eventually, everyone woke up and gathered near the outer perimeter of the castle.

    Joy was decked out in a very warm and oddly colorful suit that was lined with furs, he seemed to have learned from the last trip that the cold was no joke and was planning on taking no chances with it. Theo was similarly dressed, however his clothes seemed to have been specially designed to blend into the environment around them, in direct contrast to Joy¡¯s garish color scheme.

    Lillian had a single arrow that floated nearby her, obviously some sort of weapon created from her dream. Joy appreciated her dreaming of a weapon, no matter how unlikely it was that they were going to meet any actual enemies, especially on their first day of travel. By her side as always was the enthusiastic Peku, who looked confused but quite excited to go back into snowy lands.

    Benny was somehow still wearing his awful bowler hat, which magically refused to come off his head in the strong winds. He phased in and out of the shadows near Joy¡¯s feet, obviously going into the shadow realm to stave off the cold from truly chilling his bones. Everyone looked at him with envy.

    Finally, the Heater, Emmy, was dressed very casually. She trusted her gift implicitly and knew that the cold would be no problem for her. But she had somehow garnered a crowd of other people who were all cheering and wishing her luck on her quest. Some people cried as they saw their helpful little Heater about to leave the castle, taking the cozy feelings with her.

    Joy looked intently into each of his group¡¯s eyes, ¡°let¡¯s do this.¡±

    With that pronouncement he started walking off into the snowy drifts that covered the nearby land.

    No one followed.

    "That¡¯s the wrong way.¡± Theo helpfully told Joy.

    ¡°I knew that I was just testing you.¡±

    And so, the group started walking in the correct direction, thankfully letting Theo take the lead. Joy laughed, Theo grumbled, Lillian smirked, Benny awkwardly chuckled along with Joy, and Emmy had a look of awkwardness and disbelief on her face.

    ¡°This is going to be so fun.¡± Joy kept on laughing, until Theo smacked him in the back of the head telling him to shut up.

 Chapter 21 - The First Step Of A Journey

    Joy had heard a saying when he was a child, ¡°monotony created our world, and our world creates monotony. Thus, we must make our own worlds to ease our monotony.¡±

    He loved that saying, it was a reminder that if the world around him was too boring, he could simply create his own fantastical world to alleviate that.

    Hiking through the endless snow was boring. Joy was immensely bored with the trip, and it had barely started. The group had hiked for about a day, it was quite hard to tell exactly what time of day it was since the sun was perpetually covered by clouds, and were making a camp for the night.

    One advantage to bringing the Heater with them, was that a fire wasn¡¯t necessary. They could even sleep on the cold snow, and it would feel just as comfy as dozing off in a rocking chair right by the fireplace.

    So, all the group did was make a temporary shelter to keep the snow from accumulating on their bodies during the night. Then they huddled together in an awkward silence, letting the sounds of crunching nuts and tearing jerky fill the void of noise.

    Joy stared at his hands and came to a decision. The easiest way to get to know anyone was through a game, so he reached inside of his soul space, and pulled out a deck of cards.

    The cards themselves were not fancy or embellished, they were simply cards for playing games. The backs were a sleek black, and the fronts just showed the suit and number. Even the kings, queens, and jacks were very crude, a single letter was how they were distinguished from the other cards.

    The only card that was different was the joker card. The joker card was garish multicolored, a disturbing antithesis to the rest of the deck, and showed a hyper realistic clown smiling while juggling several balls of varying colors.

    Joy made a matching smile at the joker card, before pocketing it. Hidden safely from everyone¡¯s point of view. Not every game needed a joker.

    ¡°Alright everybody let¡¯s play Go-Fish.¡± Joy announced before dealing the cards.

    Back in the castle, people may have complained or outright refused to play, but everyone was just as bored as Joy, so they huddled up in the center of the tent and started playing.

    Joy liked Go-Fish as an icebreaker, it was an easy enough game that no one could absolutely dominate. Simultaneously, people would find the motions monotonous enough that they would have to strike up a conversation. Games were the best way to ascertain someone¡¯s moral fiber, but Joy didn¡¯t want to know exactly who these people were just yet, he just wanted to get a feel for them.

    Five pairs of hands would set down pairs, reach into the center pile, or steal from the other hands. It made a beautiful tapestry of motion.

    Joy knew he had already pushed the social limits of the group enough and anymore prodding would be more detrimental than productive, so he simply smiled and played the game. Waiting for someone else to pose the questions.

    Finally, nearing the end of the first game Benny broke.

    ¡°So, how did all of you end up in the prince¡¯s service?¡± His voice was filled with hesitation, but Joy capitalized on this forward motion.

    ¡°I personally was captured by those two over there, because I had won some contraband gold in a coin toss. Then I was coerced¡­ encouraged to join in on some whimsical heists to bankroll this whole operation.¡±

    Lillian jumped in, ¡°Sam told us to show up on that street and that we would find someone doing something illegal there, and that they would be a solution to the lack funding.¡±

    Joy jumped at this a flash of indignation coming across his face, ¡°y¡¯all arrested me without even knowing what I did wrong? That¡¯s messed up.¡±

    This topic caused Joy and Lillian to bicker for a few minutes until the game of Go-Fish finally came to an end. Joy had won by a ridiculous margin; he had an unnerving ability to guess whatever card someone had just drawn from the center pile.

    Because he was the big loser all the cards were shifted towards Theo who started shuffling them while everyone prepared for a second round.

    In the lull Joy asked Benny to share his story.

    It turned out that Benny was the middle child of a middling house. He had always lived in the shadows of his elder and younger siblings, thus when his thirteenth birthday came around it was no surprise that he chose to take gift from Shadow.

    In his words, ¡°I had always felt that darkness inside of me, so it fell within my calculations that shadows would be my ally.¡±

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    Benny always spoke in a lilting manner that overenunciated larger words. And he had an odd habit of adjusting his idiotic bowler hat whenever he started getting too excited. All in all, he wasn¡¯t the most enticing storyteller that Joy had ever met, but it got the ball rolling.

    Next, Lillian spoke about the prince himself coming to hire her. About how scared she was to leave her life on her family¡¯s farm, but how much the prince had helped her adjust to this new life.

    Her story was a lot more relaxed and enjoyable to listen to, so finally the Heater built up enough confidence and comfortability to share her own story.

    She apparently was a simple maid who cared for the prince¡¯s garden. She had only heard about this expedition from the rumors of the other house staff. Someone had been cleaning up what seemed to be footprints of honey that lined the castle and they had overheard the prince give his speech about this expedition.

    Then the story spread like wildfire through the house servants. Many of their livelihoods depended on the princely sums that the prince paid his staff to keep his castle up to snuff. So, they were rightly worried that the prince would lay them off since there wouldn¡¯t be anyone living in the castle for an extended period.

    This had apparently sent everyone and their mother into a frenzy, hoping to find new employment, or to convince the prince why they were absolutely necessary.

    Emmy had been a little slow to hear about this new hot gossip, but just like everyone else she started searching for new employment as soon as she found out.

    But all the jobs had already been taken, all her fleet-footed maid partners had taken up employment in the other houses in need of staffing. No one needed one extra maid anymore.

    Emmy had been quite scared at this point; she hadn¡¯t done anything else in her entire life. Her parents had been maids, and she had been more than happy to join them. She always had the option of slinking home in defeat, unable to find her own place in the world.

    But Emmy was tenacious and refused to walk back home in shame and defeat. She loved the independence she had found in the prince¡¯s castle living away from her parents, so she hiked up her pants and made an audience with the prince.

    Her gift had never been useless, but it was hardly useful to her, as she said, ¡°everyone likes to feel warm and cozy, but no one needs to feel it.¡±

    She saw an opportunity with this trip to the Frozen Continent. She never would¡¯ve been able to take advantage of her gift if the voyage had gone towards the Dead Continent or the Fractured Continent. For once, her gift could provide a needed service, for when was warmth more needed than in the freezing temperatures brought by a god¡¯s wrath?

    Convincing the prince was far easier than she had hoped. Emmy had expected some setbacks or challenges. She had no survival skills or real experience doing anything except her maid duties, but she was issued no impossible quests, nor was she expected to learn anything new. The prince apparently just said, ¡®oh that¡¯s a nifty gift; you¡¯re in.¡¯ And that was the end of it.

    A life of maidenly duties left behind to travel as a portable heater. The Heater.

    Joy wondered about Emmy, she was soft-spoken and had a natural charisma to her. People were drawn to her as moths were to flame. Joy felt himself being drawn into her story; her voice dictated it as well as any storyteller he had ever heard.

    Even though the tale was not one filled with gallantry nor excitement, he was interested in her little sidebars about some of the prince¡¯s messier parties and truly horrific disasters left behind in his wake.

    This was what Joy had hoped for. Bringing his crew together in a meaningful way beyond the bonds of survival. It was only day one of their laborious journey, but he was excited about what was to come. Especially because he had won every single round of Go-Fish.

    The journey was far more arduous than when Joy had been travelling with Vanessa. Even though the cold no longer seeped into his bones, the pure physical endurance needed to push through the snow was insane.

    Next time the prince gave him full rights to create his own team he was going to find someone to clear the path for him. Joy had never been made for arduous labor, no matter how much his parents tried to instill it into him. His father had always told him, ¡®Never put your back into your work, but always put your soul into it.¡¯

    Joy¡¯s father had been blessed with the strength of thirty men and he liked to use it. He would work through the fields, day after day, alone except for the work and the plants he cultivated.

    Joy had always felt his father looked lonely, sitting alone in the middle of their farm, and he had asked many times why they didn¡¯t hire some of their nearby neighbors to help on the farm, or at the very least let Joy into the fields with him. So, his family let him join in on the farming one day, and his father didn¡¯t utter a single word to Joy the entire time.

    His father¡¯s hands stroked the leaves of every plant like a tender friend. Pruning the plants and cleaning the fields of rodents. He was never rough with them, the strength of thirty men condensed into a softness like silk. He floated among his friends, the plants, and Joy watched.

    Joy understood that his father had reached a meditative state that no one else could ever truly comprehend, but that didn¡¯t mean he wanted to reach his father¡¯s enlightenment.

    After that day Joy never called his father lonely again, nor did he ever ask to go into the fields with him again.

    There was peace in physical labor, and Joy tried to find that inner peace as he plowed himself through the snow. One foot in front of the other, letting his body carry him through the monotonous and never-ending task.

    The only person in the group who was not as miserable as the rest of them was Benny, who would enter the shadow realm and pop up in shadows further along the path. Apparently, the shadow realm was something like a vacation villa to the young man, anytime the going got tough he could just enter his private paradise.

    Benny was the only unbothered person. However, Peku was also quite unbothered by the endless snow. He frolicked in the snow near the group and was surprisingly receptive towards staying with the group. Lillian had admitted in a rare bout of true honesty that she had expected Peku to run off since she had taken him out of his natural habitat. But Peku was a faithful companion, always near the group, chirping anytime something interesting happened.

    The endless white landscape was beautiful in a pure untouched way. Even if it was hard to appreciate while they were slogging through the endless snow.

 Chapter 22 - Dreamy Nights and Dreary Days

    Lillian was sitting in a theater watching a play. For some reason she was wearing an uncomfortable skirt with a loose-fitting blouse. The two garments mismatched awfully, and she could feel everyone in the audience judging her for her subpar choices in clothing.

    In a moment of embarrassment, she decided to run out of the seating area. She had been sitting deeply in the middle of the row and had to brush past many strangers. She made apologies and excuses as she tried to escape her predicament, but she could feel every stranger¡¯s judgement wash over her as she passed them.

    After what felt like an eternity, she burst out of the row then she moved as swiftly as she could politely, to run away. She could see her exit, a massive pair of stone arches marked her exit, and she rushed as quickly as possible, trying to reach them.

    Then a hand grasped her shoulder; she jumped a little and turned to see who touched her.

    A shiver ran down Lillian¡¯s spine as she saw what had to be the most decrepit old man of all time. He looked like a mummified corpse walking. His only feature that didn¡¯t look ghoulish was his smile. He seemed quite kindly if she only looked at his mouth.

    His lips worked for a moment as he seemed to be searching for the correct words to say. The decrepit man licked his lips, but his tongue made a sound like sandpaper rubbing when it contacted his lips.

    Lillian shivered away from his hand, and he let it drop. It hung at his side completely limp when he said, ¡°did you enjoy the show?¡±

    He spoke in a lilting manner that left too many pauses between the wrong words. But he smiled at Lillian, waiting for her answer.

    She refused to speak; this creature must be trying to trick her somehow. It couldn¡¯t have good intentions with a voice and face like that, could it?

    Eventually, the old man raised his hand. Inexplicably there was a set of grapes in his hand. They were lush and green, and Lillian felt like she could see the juicy innards of them through their translucent skin.

    ¡°The show has,¡± he paused for a moment too long as if he was an actor in a play that had forgotten his line, ¡°ended. May I offer you some refreshments?¡±

    As the old man spoke Lillian noticed that there seemed to be an endless line of clowns walking off the stage. They were walking towards her, pushing through the stands. Stepping on feet without apologizing to the audience members.

    The eyes of the clowns shone with disdain, and not one looked away from her as they started approaching.

    What seemed like hundred squeaky shoes honked in a most disturbing way while Lillian turned to the old man. He leisurely took one of the grapes and popped them into his mouth.

    As he started to chew a sound like glass crunching emanated from his kindly smile. Blood started to ooze out of his mouth, but his smile never faded.

    Lillian saw the first of the clowns starting to get dangerously close, so she gave a quick thanks to the old man and took the surprisingly hefty weight of the grapes from him. Even if he was creepy as all get out, it was the polite thing to do.

    Then she booked it towards the exit, the clowns were just behind her. They seemed just out of reach, but they never quite got close enough to impede her escape.

    Finally, she reached the arches of stone. She wasn¡¯t breathing heavily, nor did she feel the exertion of this run. However, she still stopped after she passed the arches. She somehow knew that the clowns would not be allowed to cross over this line.

    They prowled and juggled an assortment of items angrily. Lillian hadn¡¯t known that someone could juggle angrily, but these clowns were certainly juggling with rage.

    Pins and balls were rising and falling through the air as testaments to their hatred.

    Lillian looked out at the mass of clowns and took a deep breath. It was oddly terrifying, in a surreal way. But she closed her eyes, looking away from the masses. As she opened them, she no longer saw the clowns or the stage, instead she saw the canvas flap that made her tent¡¯s roof.

    Tightly gripped in her hands was an assortment of grapes from the dream but she was back in reality. Theo grunted slightly when he saw that she had awoken without an incident, then went back to playing with Peku. During their trip, Theo had found that if he made chunks of ice in interesting shapes Peku would play with them for hours. Right now, he had made an ice-ball that Peku rolled around the floor. It made a mess, but no one would deprive their team mascot of his personal joy.

    After Lillian had awoken, everyone else started getting up one by one. First was Emmy, who immediately started cleaning up her personal area, making sure to prepare herself for the arduous day of walking ahead of her. She was followed closely by Benny, who started combing his hair so that it still looked perfect beneath his silly bowler hat.

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    Joy, however, did not wake up until Lillian ¡®fell on him.¡¯ Maybe the fall involved an elbow to the stomach, but who was really keeping track of that?

    Everyone gathered in the center of the tent and Theo, the de facto responsible person of the group, pulled out each person¡¯s rations. They had not been travelling for too long, so they still had a large number of them left. It was just jerky and nuts, but it was better than having nothing.

    A few times Lillian had dreamt of food in her dreams, the hunger had been getting to her. She tried to pull out large meals that everyone could share in the morning. Unfortunately, today¡¯s dream item was not edible.

    Joy was the unfortunate soul who learned that the grapes Lillian had pulled out of the dream were made of glass. He had crunched down on the glass and screamed. Causing everyone to spend a few moments trying to reach inside his mouth and take out the splinters.

    Joy was pissed and bleeding, but Lillian was excited. This meant he would talk less, and the journey could continue in a blissful silence.

    They broke camp after they finished eating their meal. Then they started the slow journey towards somewhere. Theo was still being very vague about where exactly he had chosen their destination to be, but what else was Lillian going to do? It wasn¡¯t like she was going to figure out where the native people of the frozen lands lived. No thank you sir, that sounded like a lot of work to her.

    So, she walked and played. Snow had never been fun when she was on the farm with her family. While the rest of her siblings were a hearty farm stock sort of folk, she had inherited the more delicate parts of her parents. So doing work in the snow was miserable.

    Not that her family ever needed her on the farm, but she didn¡¯t want to just laze about while they worked all day. That would be selfish. But some of those snowy days made her wish she could be more selfish.

    In the here and now though, she loved it. Especially with the Heater¡¯s gift, the snow became a beautiful thing to touch. She couldn¡¯t feel the cold and so she was able to hold this crunchy thin gravel. Snow was so malleable in its uses, hard or soft, it was a textured and amazing wonder that Lillian could not get enough of.

    She and Peku galivanted around the surrounding areas. They found these deep pits in the snow as wide as ten men laying down, and as deep as a singular, tall, but lonely man.

    The two of them found that they could scurry ahead of the group and hide underneath the edges of the pit. Then jump out as soon as the group was about to pass them. The look on Theo¡¯s face was priceless the first and second times. It got a little scary after the third though. And Lillian decided to stop jumping out at him after the fourth.

    Lillian diligently forged paths for her companions to follow. Even though she was poking fun at them and having a good time, all her effort made the others¡¯ lives easier.

    Theo called for their ceaseless march to end. To make the setup a little less arduous he called it when they were near one of those large pits. So, the group didn¡¯t have to clear the snow out of the area to make a comfortable camp.

    Benny pulled himself and most of their important gear out of the shadow realm. The team had realized that since he had to walk less and was exposed to the harsh elements of nature less, that they could give him the heavy and delicate things to carry and there was nothing he could say or do about it.

    Since what were the rest of them to do? Carry their things? Not when they had a perfectly good Benny to carry them instead.

    As the tent stakes were being ineffectually driven into the snow, Lillian and Theo started handing out some more of the jerky and nuts to everyone.

    That was the hardest part of this journey, the constant jerky, and nuts. No fruits or vegetables, no eggs or real hearty meats, just salty preserved foods.

    One night earlier on the trip, Lillian had dreamt of a grand feast. The food was plentiful and delicious. So, Lillian had brought the feast back with her into reality. There were poached eggs, turkey legs, gravy, and steamed carrots. And so much more.

    That day Lillian had felt like a savior to the group, bringing them a small piece of happiness in their bleak dietary lives. The group ate like kings for breakfast, then went back to jerky and nuts.

    Lillian knew she was not allowed to control her dreams as that ruined whatever had made them special. It was a quirk of her gift, the more she tried to control her dreams the less effect they had on reality. So, she couldn¡¯t try to find feasts of food in every dream to keep everyone well fed, instead she had to let Chance decide for her.

    The tent stakes had been slowly but surely pushed into the frozen earth, and everything had been readied for their rest time.

    As had become tradition, the group sat down to play a round or two of some game before they started their rotating night shift. Even though nothing had attacked the camp yet, no one wanted wolved to tear their one protection from the constantly falling snow to shreds. However, Lillian was exempt from this duty since her gift was so reliant upon her sleep schedule.

    This night the group had decided to play poker, there was only one complication. No one had brought anything of value to bet with. No one wanted to bet with the food, the temptation to just snack on their rations during the game would have been irresistible.

    Surprisingly Theo came up with a solution to this conundrum. The man made a series of small figures out of snow with his gift, each one with different values in the game. The miniature figures ranged from sea serpents to crude caricatures of the prince and Ian.

    The group liked playing games, but they realized very quickly that only one person could ever win the games. Somehow, Joy got stupidly lucky in every situation. Lillian personally felt he was cheating; she just couldn¡¯t figure out how.

    Joy had two separate hands that were royal flushes in one game. The odds of that were not something Lillian cared about, but something was fishy about it.

    Eventually Joy had collected everyone¡¯s figures and everyone¡¯s ire, and only Theo¡¯s cool-headed nature kept Lillian from beating the shit out of the cheater.

    She grumbled on her way to her sleeping arrangements, but she could still see that stupid grin painted on his face. Even though the pain of smirking like that must have been excruciating from the cuts lining his mouth, he refused to stop.

    Lillian made a promise to herself that if she dreamt of food that night, she wouldn¡¯t be bringing it back into reality. She was feeling particularly petty as she drifted off to sleep.

 Chapter 23 - Mountains and Molehills

    Theo was very lost. How was it that everyone expected him to be the responsible one, and get everything done for the group that no one else wanted to do?

    Someone had to direct the group through this awful cold nightmare-scape, but why did it have to be him?

    If Theo was being perfectly honest, he just kind of picked a direction once Joy had asked him to navigate at the beginning of the trip.

    How was he supposed to know where the native peoples of the Frozen Continent, that no one had seen for hundreds of years, resided?

    Unfortunately for Theo though, he was in too deep. He couldn¡¯t just say that he had no idea where they were going, since then everyone would question why he didn¡¯t say that in the first place. So, instead he just spent a lot of time staring at a useless map, pretending to be deep in thought so that no one would bother him.

    Thankfully, he had been able to keep track of the group¡¯s position through a few landmarks, and he had been following the weird giant pits around this area, in hopes that if he did get lost, all they would have to do was follow the holes back to somewhere he was familiar with.

    At this current moment, Theo was staring at the crusty map that Sam had given him. He wasn¡¯t quite sure how the map was already crusty since it was only a few weeks old. The map had been made from the reports of the surrounding area that had only been recently explored by the prince¡¯s forces. No one had ever tried to map an abandoned continent before; thus, all the maps should be brand new. But somehow, this map just wasn¡¯t. It was crusty and yellowed, the edges seemed to have had something spilled on them at some point, and Theo was pretty sure someone had dropped it in a random pile of dust, since he felt the overwhelming urge to sneeze every time he unfurled it.

    The one good point about this trip was that Joy had somehow gotten Emmy, The Heater, to join them. At the very least he wouldn¡¯t freeze his eyes if he kept them open too long in this weather.

    Theo was glad that the weather was sedate today. There were no walls of ice and snow coming down from the sky. The heating that Emmy provided was convenient and all, but feeling warm and toasty did not cut it when the wind could knock someone off their feet or the ice falling from the sky could crack someone¡¯s head open.

    Big fat flakes of snow fell from the sky. They drifted in the air, so large that they seemed like lazy cats slowly wandering their way down from a high perch.

    Theo knew that there was some magical and scientific reason for the whole continent having the unending winter. Some scribe whose gift was from Weather was ¡®a perfect understanding of why weather-y things happened¡¯ had written an entire book about why this continent was so fascinating in comparison to all the other abandoned continents. But Theo was never much for reading, so the whole situation still felt very mystical to him. The unending rage of a god that blighted humanity.

    As amusing as his musings were, Theo let himself get back to the task at hand. He needed to make a difficult decision. The group had been nearing the end of the map and he needed to create a plan to keep the group from getting lost once they had left the relative safety of the known area.

    He had considered leaving giant ice sculptures in their wake. Obelisks of ice that were tall enough and sturdy enough that they wouldn¡¯t fall during the many days their journey would take. But he would have to waste a good chunk of time to create something like that, and they would need to make enough of them that they were visible to each other. The pace of the group would slow to a crawl, and that would not be ideal for the prince¡¯s plans.

    Theo wished that he was smarter. He just didn¡¯t have a plan or method to keep the group from getting lost. So, he did the only thing he could.

    ¡°Hey everyone, let¡¯s get going.¡±

    He put all his trust in Fate and started wandering into the great unknown. Hopefully they all wouldn¡¯t starve to death.

    To everyone else it seemed the same, Theo pondered upon the implications. He was frightened to his core, unable to voice his fears about this unknown lest he expose his folly to the group. But they all had this blind faith that he knew where they were going and had no reservations about letting him lead them through this barren landscape.

    The rest of the group had been living with the same existential dread of the unknown, but they had the lifeline. They thought that Theo knew exactly what was happening and that they could rely on him.

    Theo, however, forged ahead as coolly and calmly as a chicken running around headless. He followed the massive pits, since they were a source of familiarity to him. But otherwise, he was metaphorically blind.

    Snow fell from the sky, filling the tracks they left in the snow. Erasing any true markings of their presence. Every one of them was a miniscule blemish on a perfectly white canvas, being slowly erased as time passed, and more snow fell.

    The day ended without incident. The tension never left Theo¡¯s shoulders though. He felt the weight of disappointment and failure pushing him down to the ground. But he took that burden; what else could he do?

    He sullenly chewed on the preserved meats. Lillian had been unable to dream of food for the past few days, so everyone was starting to get a bit grumpy with the rations. Thankfully, for some unknowable reason Joy didn¡¯t join in on the nightly game, he summoned the deck of cards out of his soul space, but then went over to the corner of the tent to go to sleep immediately.

    Theo was still a bit skeptical about Joy¡¯s gift. It didn¡¯t make sense in a lot of ways. A gift that hinged entirely on randomness was quite weird, but not unheard of. In principle it was the same as Lillian¡¯s, who could bring random things out of the dreamworld.

    But somehow this deck of cards could keep being resummoned. It didn¡¯t make sense in terms of the way Joy had described his gift. If it was truly random, why could he summon a singular object?

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    Asking about gifts in general was incredibly rude. It was a true glimpse into the karma of another human being, so very few people ever shared the true specifics of a gift. Maybe a few close friends and family would know how the gift truly worked, otherwise people would give vague summaries that left a lot up to the interpretation of the listener.

    Theo just assumed Joy¡¯s gift had a few layers of complexity that he didn¡¯t feel comfortable sharing.

    The mood of the group was dour for the night, something about Theo¡¯s personal funk was dampening everyone else¡¯s mood. So, everyone turned in early. Except for the Heater, who had the first watch of the night. It was not the most formal watch, but everyone made sure someone was awake the whole night, just so that they weren¡¯t caught unaware by some surprise.

    The ground was shaking. Big rhythmic beats, as if a giant drum was next to Theo¡¯s head, and someone kept beating on it, repeatedly.

    Theo wasn¡¯t quite sure what was happening, but he slowly sat up. He looked around the tent, only him, the Heater, and Peku seemed to notice the noise. Everyone else seemed to be deeply sleeping. He already knew Joy was a pain to wake up, and Lillian had trained herself to not wake up easily to make her gift more effective. But Benny sleeping through this racket was not expected. He had hoped that the man would be more observant, but beggars couldn¡¯t be choosers.

    Emmy was opening the tent flap, trying to go outside to see what was making the racket and Peku was dancing next to her. Making his little ¡®peku peku¡¯ sound repeatedly, but still patiently waiting for the tent to be opened.

    His antlers tipped side to side, touching each end of the tent. Thankfully they were so unimpressive that they didn¡¯t tear the material at all.

    Finally, once Emmy had opened the tent flap Peku burst outside, and Theo and Emmy followed. They were worried about the shaking earth, but now were more curious about what had Peku so riled up, maybe he knew something they didn¡¯t.

    Outside was a mountain.

    Seemingly out of nowhere a mountain had risen in front of the tent. A mound of white that matched the flurry of snow around it.

    Then the mountain turned and looked at them. Its eyes were larger than Theo or Emmy and looked down at them with a wisdom that only something truly ancient held.

    Peku ran up to the behemoth and let loose a giant, ¡°peku peku!¡±

    ¡°Peku peku.¡± The mountain replied in a light voice. It was the voice of a chiding mother, one who was letting their child know they had done something wrong, but that they were still loved and cherished.

    The mountain had a pair of antlers that were far more impressive than Peku¡¯s. They were interwoven like the branches of a particularly gnarly tree. The mountain also spoke to Peku, thus Theo felt that maybe they had discovered Peku¡¯s family.

    ¡°No one is going to believe us, are they?¡± Emmy said to Theo as they stared at the gargantuan Peku that towered above their tiny tent.

    ¡°Shit, Lillian¡¯s going to be pissed that Peku left.¡±

    ¡°Peku peku,¡± the massive Peku added congenially.

    ¡°At least it isn¡¯t squishing us, that¡¯s a nice bonus.¡± Emmy added.

    The giant reached down towards the group and scooped up Peku, along with a massive chunk of snow. Then, the giant gentle settled the whole mound onto its shoulder.

    It paused for a moment, staring at the two humans with far too much intelligence. Before letting out a final ¡°peku peku,¡± and wandering off.

    Each footfall crunched the massive layers of snow, creating the massive pits that looked familiar. They looked almost exactly like the pits that Lillian had been using to hide in during their journey. The pits she and Peku found so endlessly entertaining.

    With a few questions answered and even more questions posed, Emmy and Theo went back into the tent. Once it was zipped up, they paused for a moment and held the other¡¯s eye.

    The two of them shouted at once, ¡°what was that?¡±

    The footfalls of giants were not enough to rouse their merry band, however two people shouting very close to each other was enough to get a groggy, ¡°huh,¡± out of Joy and Benny. To which Theo and Emmy relayed the entire story.

    Both men sat there listening, enraptured by the tale of the walking mountain. As soon as Joy heard about the massive Peku he opened the tent back up, in hopes that he could catch sight of the giant Peku. Benny followed, just looking over Joy¡¯s shoulder, just as hopeful. However, neither saw hide nor hair of the massive Peku.

    Both dejected men then went back to sleep, since they needed the rest before another long trek. Joy did make one snide comment before he fell asleep.

    He meaningfully looked at Lillian and snickered, ¡°she is gonna kick your asses in the morning.¡± Then Joy giggled on his way to sleep.

    Emmy continued her watch shift and Theo went into an uneasy sleep. Hoping that Lillian would not get a weapon from her dreams tomorrow.

    Theo was woken up by Benny. Since Theo was in charge of making sure that whatever Lillian brought out of the dream world wasn¡¯t dangerous, he always took the last shift of watches.

    The silly man still had his disgusting bowler hat on, but once he saw that Theo was awake, he moved the bowler over his eyes to block out the ambient light. Benny was snoring in seconds, Theo wished he could be that carefree.

    He had let Peku go, even though he was being returned to his family Lillian had grown quite attached to the little monster and she was not known for being the most understanding. She was known for over-the-top pranks and violence.

    Theo knew he had to start preparing himself. He made sure all his belongings were kept a safe distance from Lillian¡¯s cot, then he started confiscating things out of Lillian¡¯s backpack. It was a mess in there, so he also spent a bit of time reorganizing it, hoping this little act would gain a smidgen of mercy from her.

    Morning came too fast, and soon, Theo was waiting beside Lillian¡¯s cot. Even if he was terrified for his life, he couldn¡¯t abandon his duty to her.

    Her eyes opened, and something phased into existence in her hands. Her gift worked in a surreal way; it was like her hands had been submerged in murky water. It added a distortion to the world around her, then suddenly that distortion would fade and something unreal would have been placed into reality.

    This morning she held a very small violin. It was barely the size of a person¡¯s thumb and had a little bow to match it.

    Her eyes narrowed as she looked at Theo and the surrounding tent. Theo knew this was his chance to come clean and explain the whole situation. He needed to say it.

    ¡°Peku¡¯s family came for him last night, they were massive and¡­¡± Theo¡¯s words were suddenly cut off by a shrill shrieking sound that came from Lillian.

    During his impromptu speech, she had raised her little violin to a semblance of playing posture, then pulled the bow over the strings, in a most unharmonious way.

    Everyone else in the tent jumped to their feet. Wondering who had punched a baby rabbit to make such an impressive squealing noise.

    Lillian¡¯s dark eyes burned holes into Theo¡¯s icy blue ones as she spoke, ¡°justice has been served. We will remember Peku and hate Theo forever.¡±

    Then she turned around, seemingly intent on not talking to Theo for the rest of the day.

    Theo started moping as he prepared everyone¡¯s rations for the day. He intuitively knew that the situation wasn¡¯t his fault, and that Lillian was being unreasonable. But that didn¡¯t stop him from feeling awful about the whole debacle.

    Joy sidled up to Theo without his characteristic shit-eating grin and said, ¡°don¡¯t worry buddy. She¡¯ll get bored of ignoring you by the end of today. Can torment a person if you don¡¯t speak to them.¡±

    Joy went back to giggling as he munched and crunched on his nuts and jerky. Theo really wanted to kick his ass, maybe he would form little ice sheets under Joy¡¯s feet the entire day, that would cheer Lillian up he hoped.

 Chapter 24 - First Contact

    White blanketed the world around Joy. The winds swirled about him, picking up the loose snow that surrounded him. Without the Heater¡¯s protection Joy would be feeling the ice biting at his skin, seeping into his bones. Instead, he felt toasty, as if he was sitting next to the fireplace at home. Which he hated.

    If it was cold he would have to focus on fighting the ice and snow around him to keep himself warm. But he had chosen to travel in comfort and now was intensely bored with the whole situation. He wanted some excitement; he would give anything just to see anything other than the snow.

    Joy decided that if he was miserable, the very least he could do was make everyone else as miserable as him. So, he quietly started collecting ammunition from the surrounding area. Snow was in abundance, so he didn¡¯t have to search particularly long, but it was long enough for Benny to notice.

    But Benny was not the most confrontational soul. He had two choices in front of him, say something about Joy and earn his personal derision, or simply pretend to have seen nothing.

    Benny obviously felt that the shadow realm was the place to be right at this moment, so he didn¡¯t make a peep as he evaporated into his shadow.

    Joy giggled as he took aim. His target was Theo, who had been particularly sulky since Peku had left. Theo had been sad about Peku of course, but it was plain to see for everyone that he was sulking because Lillian had refused to talk to him for the rest of the day. So, he kicked at the snow and looked forlornly into the distance.

    Then he got nailed right in the face by Joy¡¯s snowball. The cold didn¡¯t bother him because of the Heater¡¯s gift, but it still stung. But more importantly, it had struck Theo¡¯s pride. How had Joy been able to sneak up in front of him?

    The snowball snowballed an argument. Theo started lecturing and Lillian started rolling her eyes. Emmy shrunk back away from this mess, content to let everyone else sort this out. And Benny stayed safely in the shadow realm, where these sorts of things just never seemed to happen.

    Joy had been listening to Theo¡¯s monologue for what felt like forever. It was boring and repetitive, but Joy was sure he could nearly recite the whole thing from memory now. It went, ¡®blah blah blah, duty towards the prince, blah blah blah, respecting your fellows, blah blah blah, how would you feel if I had done that to you?¡¯ Or at least that was the gist of it.

    Just when Joy had been bored enough from this unwarranted tirade to just start running away, he saw something in the distance. It looked like a white blob, blending in very well with the surrounding snow. But the blob wasn¡¯t going with the wind and seemed to be moving towards the group.

    No one else seemed to notice as everyone was purposefully not paying attention to Joy¡¯s plight, so Joy did the most reasonable thing he could think of in this situation.

    ¡°Now Theo, I enjoy your lecture. However, it seems that I may have found a suitable distraction. There seems to be a person in the snow coming in our general direction.¡±

    Theo stared at Joy, with pure rage. His blues eyes seemed to pop out of his head. Blood bursting in them about to change their color from icy blue to rage filled red. But he let his eyes wander in the general direction that Joy had pointed in.

    ¡°Shit.¡±

    The group huddled up for a moment. No one knew exactly what to do if they met some of the locals. Would they even speak the same language?

    The group was wholly unprepared to succeed in this endeavor. However, they did come to one conclusion. A society that had survived this grueling winter for so long would appreciate the heat that Emmy could provide. So, she would spearhead this diplomatic part of the mission.

    The stranger approached and they saw a very tall woman. She seemed to tower over the group the closer she got. The woman was somehow badly proportioned, her legs seemed to stretch all the way down. Her legs were nearly double the length of her body. Everyone was slightly horrified at the sight, they understood that these people had been far removed from the Hearted continent, but they didn¡¯t expect these people to look so alien compared to themselves.

    However, the closer she got the group realized that she had a normal sized body. Everyone collectively had a brief sigh of relief. What they had first perceived as her height was just her standing on the surrounding snow without falling into it.

    The massive mounds of snow that they had to pierce their way through, this woman instead floated on top of them. Her steps were silent, regal, and graceful in the wintry domain.

    Once the woman reached the range of Emmy¡¯s gift her shoulders simultaneously relaxed and tensed up. She was obviously apprehensive about this unknown gift affecting her, but the woman felt warm in an indescribable way.

    She smiled as she approached the group and Emmy gave a brief bow, which everyone else followed quite awkwardly. The woman looked a bit confused and copied their movements in an awkward but heartfelt way.

    Joy was not a person for diplomacy and the awkward dance that entailed, so he just opened his mouth once the woman had bowed and said, ¡°hello!¡±

    ¡°¡­Hi?¡± The woman replied in a soft voice, that had no noticeable accent. At the very least, she had no more of an accent than Joy or Lillian who had grown up in the rural parts of the Hearted continent.

    After an awkward moment where the two groups realized that they could both speak the same language, the woman continued.

    ¡°So, who are you?¡±

    ¡°We are an envoy sent by prince David to find the people of the Frozen Continent.¡± Emmy declared.

    ¡°Well, that¡¯s nice and dandy. But there are a lot of people around these parts. We aren¡¯t just one homogenous culture. Many of us are nomadic and stay in small family-like tribes. Also, is that what you people call this place? The Frozen Continent, it feels derivative and obtuse. What should we call yours, the moderate temperature continent?¡±

    The entire group stared at her, and Joy started giggling. The woman blushed a noticeable amount as everyone¡¯s eyes took her in for what felt like the first time.

    Once Joy finally caught his breath and stopped giggling, he asked, ¡°If you want us simpletons to understand your last statement, you¡¯re going to have to explain each of those words one by one. But I like you, you¡¯re fun. Oh, verbose one, what is your name?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m Anna.¡±

    ¡°Well Anna, would you like to come with us to our home so you can help us make a map of this place?¡± Somehow, Emmy had already been sidelined in this conversation and Joy had let his endless enthusiasm take charge of the whole situation.

    ¡°Not particularly.¡±

    ¡°Well do you know anyone who might be interested in such a venture?¡±

    ¡°I can show you around and let you ask around.¡±

    ¡°Well then, lead the way, Anna. But do take it slow, not all of us are light as a feather.¡±

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    Joy chuckled, as the group started shuffling forward. Following Anna turned out to be quite difficult. The detours the group would have taken to avoid larger snow drifts did not affect the talkative woman. She walked over them while the group had to push through the mighty piles.

    The only thing that kept Anna even vaguely close to the group was her constant questioning. She was earnestly interested in the city they came from. It was a totally foreign concept to her, and she was enthralled to learn about it.

    ¡°So, it¡¯s a class-based system where only elites can live in the innermost circle?¡±

    ¡°Not exactly, madame. The system relies upon the fact that it is wildly expensive to live within the inner circle. So, only the elites, people with courtly ties, can live there. And if anyone becomes rich enough to live there, they will have already gained the courtly ties to become one of the social elites.¡±

    Surprisingly, it was Benny who had taken charge of answering Anna¡¯s questions. He knew quite a bit about the courtly traditions of Vena Cava and was able to match her verbosity. The two had quite a few interesting discussions mostly revolving around social class, since apparently the two societies had vaguely similar traditions in terms of class relations. Which made the differences even more interesting for Anna and Benny to discuss.

    Everyone else thought it was a snooze fest though. Joy was barely keeping himself awake from the boredom. He was a man of action, and this philosophizing wasn¡¯t sitting well with him.

    Eventually, the group made it to a nearby clearing, where Anna made them sit for a bit, while she went to go to talk to the supervising head of her traveling tribe. Apparently, they were a security risk, and she couldn¡¯t have that sort of disaster on her back.

    Joy made everyone huddle up and had Benny explain what information he had learned about the tribe and their systems from Anna.

    ¡°Well, she brought up some fascinating ideas. Though she wasn¡¯t the clearest on some of them as the society has recently gone through some sort of upheaval¡­¡±

    ¡°Keep it short Benny.¡± Joy interrupted, since he had already gotten bored.

    ¡°Fine. There is one overarching society, however they have all separated into little nomadic tribes, since the food is so sparse in any one area that it couldn¡¯t support more than a few family¡¯s worth of people. The Leader is obviously this continent¡¯s king, however he has quite a few subordinates that he delegates most of the work to. The Leader is more of a figurehead who gives broad goals and plans to the society, while the subordinates, or tribe heads make all the specific decision making for any one tribe.¡±

    Everyone just stared at Benny for a few seconds. Over the course of the trip, they had gotten this vibe that he was a well-meaning but inept person. However, right in this moment he sounded nearly competent, and everyone was quite shocked to see this new side to their groupmate.

    ¡°That was quite informative¡­ Thank you, Benny.¡± Theo finally spoke for the group as they let the information digest.

    Joy personally had felt that Benny had used too many big words that he didn¡¯t know but was a bit too embarrassed to tell the group that he needed another explanation. Instead, he sat there, stroking his chin with his right hand, a pensive look on his face.

    Just when Theo was about to voice a worry about how long it had taken Anna to get back and suggest that they leave this area, Anna strode her way into view of the group. This time they noticed the tell-tale signs that she was floating above the snow, but this time she was joined by something massive and inky black, that cut a line through the snow.

    The inky-black thing was a humanoid figure with a pot belly that would put most cauldrons to shame. It stood head and shoulders above Joy and had many appendages that hung off its arms and legs. They looked almost like tentacles, but just a bit hairier.

    The whole scene was quite eerie, watching a small woman float above the snow, while some giant monster plowed its way through the snow next to her.

    Everyone huddled up as the two approached, they hoped that this was not an attack on them, but it never hurt to be cautious.

    ¡°Hi everyone, I had this guy open a path for you all, so that you would not have to plow your own way through the snow.¡± Anna said to them. No one could see under the layers of cloth that covered most of her face, but they could all feel the grin on her face. They could feel how much she enjoyed how uncomfortable the monster made them.

    ¡°What is ¡®this guy?¡¯¡± Joy used air quotes as he questioned Anna.

    ¡°One of my brothers¡¯ spiritual weights.¡±

    ¡°That doesn¡¯t answer the question.¡±

    ¡°The Leader will free people of the area from their spiritual weight, allowing them to live freer lives. And we get a worker who doesn¡¯t talk back so much.¡± Anna for some reason pointedly glared at Joy as she said that. Joy just shrugged, he felt his questions were valid and that she must be glaring at him for some unknowable Frozen Continent reason.

    So, the group followed the path that the hulking monster had made. It seemed rather convenient.

    Lillian and Theo were thinking though, this monster seemed similar to the monsters that they had fought back in Vena Cava, how could there be monsters in both. No one even knew that people lived here on the Frozen Continent, so how could these monsters be in both places?

    But they were convenient. Even with the passive warmth that Emmy gave the entire group, having to push through the endless drifts of snow was arduous work, and no one was going to squander this opportunity to rest.

    Eventually the group crested one final snowbank and they saw a castle made of ice. It was a moderate sized castle, nothing like the true work of art that the prince had erected back at the home base, but it was still stunning to see a single structure in the land of snow and wind.

    In front of the castle a sizeable group of twenty to thirty people milled about, chatting, and shivering from the cold. No one was horribly disfigured or looked barely human, it seemed like a normal group that someone could find in any section of Vena Cava.

    The group suddenly stopped chatting as the group approached. And all at once the shivering stopped. The crowd had obviously come under the effect of Emmy¡¯s gift, and they had all stopped feeling miserably cold. A few people looked so excited Joy was worried that they might have to rush Emmy out of there to keep people from proposing to her on the spot.

    Joy was excited to see a young woman hop out from the crowd. She couldn¡¯t have been more than seventeen, yet she carried herself with regal poise, and people moved out of her way. Akin to the way people moved out of the way of royalty. This was someone of importance.

    Very little was clearly obvious underneath her many layers of cloth, but she was short and had very dark eyes, almost black. A tuft of auburn hair stuck out from under her hood, and she seemed energetic.

    She approached and hugged Anna, saying something directly into the woman¡¯s ear that no one could quite hear. Then she directed the abomination away with a simple shooing motion.

    That was when Joy noticed them. There were twelve or so of the monsters, of varying shapes and sizes, doing basic tasks around the camp. One was cooking some sort of stew, the motions were quite lethargic, and the broth didn¡¯t look good, but who was Joy to judge? Another was cleaning the surrounding castle by using an assortment of brooms attached to its tentacles while spinning in circles.

    Every one of the monsters was actively doing something helpful around the camp. Even the one that plowed for the group had already started moving towards a section of camp where clothes were lying out, ready to be cleaned.

    It was quite an odd sight; unlike anything anyone had ever seen before.

    ¡°So, who are you all?¡± The woman with poise in her step asked.

    ¡°We are an envoy sent by prince David, on a diplomatic mission to see if any of the native peoples of this land would be willing to come back to our camp with us.¡± Benny replied with a flourish and a bow for some odd reason.

    ¡°Well, you¡¯re welcome to try and convince someone.¡± The woman¡¯s eyes were trained on Emmy though. She never even glanced at Benny during his speech.

    ¡°What can I do to get you to stay young miss?¡± The woman asked as she continued eyeing Emmy.

    ¡°Stay?¡±

    ¡°Yes, with our little tribe. I swear you¡¯d be treated better here than you would be anywhere else in this frigid land.¡±

    ¡°¡­I¡¯ll have to think about it.¡± Emmy tactfully extricated herself from this awkward line of questioning.

    ¡°If you change your mind, just ask around for Jan. I¡¯d be happy to let you join us.¡±

    With that, Jan left. It seemed like the leader of this group had made a sales pitch to try and recruit one of their members and then left as soon as it didn¡¯t pan out. The group was too stunned to feel slighted in any way.

    ¡°Is everyone here just a little rude?¡± Joy bluntly asked Anna.

    ¡°To you? Yes.¡± Then she walked off without so much as a glance over her shoulder.

    ¡°I¡¯m losing my mind, what is happening?¡± Joy let out an exasperated exclamation.

    It truly was a befuddling situation. The leadership of the village obviously didn¡¯t care for the group; however, they were allowed to stay for some unknown reason. Joy was annoyed, while Lillian and Theo were trying to understand the cultural differences that were causing this situation. Emmy was a tad uncomfortable; no one had ever so bluntly given her a proposal like that, and she wasn¡¯t quite sure what to do with herself. And Benny was just feeling hurt since he had been ignored almost the whole time.

    ¡°Well, there¡¯s only one thing to do now. Let¡¯s split into two groups and see who we can convince. Theo and Emmy, you¡¯re a team. Also try and figure out what Peku and their parents are, the locals must know something about them. Then Benny and Lillian, you¡¯re with me, maybe my endless charm will be able to do something.¡±

    Joy let out a little grin at that last part and truly felt himself stepping into the role of leader for the group.

    The two groups nodded at each other, then finally broke apart. Off to see what magic they could do.

 Chapter 25 - A Cold People

    Joy learned that not everyone was as rude as Anna and Jan in the village. He had almost immediately found an elderly woman named Joanna who was supervising the monsters making the soup. The parts of her that Joy could see under her winter accoutrement were as wrinkled as Lillian¡¯s bed sheets after a nightmare. She was haggard and elderly, but still seemed wizened from her years in the snow.

    She also adored Joy, she said that he reminded her of her own son who had left this tribe long ago.

    After enough sweet talking and giving her a few of their rations they were able to get her to open up about the open secrets of the area.

    ¡°So, what¡¯s with the monsters cooking?¡± Joy asked.

    ¡°They¡¯re not monsters foolish boy. They were a gift from the leader. Our tribe has always had less hunters than the other tribes. We can make a secure area with our assortment of gifts, but there is rarely enough food to go around. The extra manpower lets us spend more time searching for food rather than the other assortment of things that must get done.¡±

    As she spoke, the old woman¡¯s gnarled fingers kneaded some kind of dough. Joy had no idea where they would have gotten flour or any sort of replacement for it in the cold wasteland. But the woman certainly was kneading it.

    ¡°Time is a resource out here, young one. Everyone learns it, some more harshly than others. We must dedicate our time well, otherwise there will not be enough food to feed everyone. Or good enough shelter to withstand the winds. Or enough clothes to keep us warm through this miserable cold.¡±

    After those words she gestured in the general direction of Emmy, who was with Theo talking to another person.

    ¡°You all were able to bring her to combat the cold. But we get no luxuries out here with her. Before the new regime she would¡¯ve been treated as a queen in our society if she pumped out as many children as possible.¡±

    Everyone looked at her with that remark. Benny blushed while Joy and Lillian just looked thoughtful. It was a common misconception that a specific god would continually give the same gifts to the same family. Only truly renowned families were given such a privilege, and at the end of the day it was always up to the human¡¯s karma, not the will of gods.

    But it was clear that these people took every opportunity they could get, even a slim chance was better than none, to make their lives survivable.

    ¡°Well, what did you all do before the leader gave you these gifts?¡± Joy asked as the old woman went back to kneading her dough.

    Her hands paused in her incessant motion. The question had brought something up within her, old memories leaving an aftertaste in her mouth.

    ¡°Best not to speak about it. The old leader is dead and gone, may the new one prosper for as long as he lives.¡±

    With that she did a small bow towards the monsters cleaning and helping her cook, before going back to her kneading.

    Quite an ominous statement from the old woman, and her eyes let out a dangerous air that let Joy know not to ask her any more questions.

    Thus Joy, Lillian, and Benny, all left her in hopes of finding more people to ask about the ominous things the old woman had said.

    After talking to anyone who was willing to spend the time, Joy had learned that the overwhelming consensus about what things were like before this new leader, was not to talk about it. Nearly everyone said the same thing, ¡°the old leader is dead. May the new one prosper for as long as he lives.¡± It was some sort of mantra that nearly everyone repeated.

    During the many talks they met a few interesting people though. Many people were luxuriating in the warmth that Emmy brought with her gift, they were dancing naked in the snow.

    There was nothing sexual about the nakedness, it was a triumphant dance about conquering one¡¯s greatest enemy. The cold that cut and destroyed their people, was subjugated under the heel of Emmy, allowing them to feel a power over their world that could never be shared.

    But the naked people allowed Joy to see what the people of the Frozen continent looked like underneath all the layers of cloth they always wore. They were very pale; their skin was nearly the same color as the snow around them. There were many different colors of hair, but the majority seemed to be wheat colored. Not the royal blonde, but a faded cousin of it.

    The most striking feature on many of them were the tattoos of chains covering many of their bodies. One in five people that Joy saw had the tattoos. They wrapped up the arms thoroughly, while snaking down the torso and binding up the legs. They weren¡¯t exact replicas of each other, however the chains all had identical barbs covering their length.

    No one talked about the chains. Any time Joy even started to ask questions about them, the person would just leave. No comments, no anger, just pure avoidance from them.

    The second type of interesting people that Joy met were the happy people. Not that being happy was a bad thing, but there were a few people who just seemed far too happy compared to those around them.

    Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

    Even though the camp was survivable, and people were living the best lives they could, the general vibe of the whole place was grim determination. These people had been left alone on this abandoned continent and they were going to survive because they had no other choice.

    But there were a few people who just seemed too happy compared to the rest of the members of the tribe. They built snowmen and made drawings in the snow. They had a childlike wonder about them, but they were fully grown adults. Occasionally, a senior member of the tribe would walk over and give them a good scolding, before giving them a task that they proceeded to do reluctantly.

    The normal members of the tribe just seemed to ignore the happy folk, but occasionally, Joy caught what looked like glances of jealousy pointed at them.

    It was quite strange, and the people themselves were unreceptive to talking. Some were more lucid than others, but most of them were incoherent when speaking. They were just a bit too loosey-goosey.

    After the group had talked with as many people as possible, they reconvened nearby the giant ice castle to see what their next steps should be.

    Theo and Emmy hadn¡¯t learned anything different from Joy, Benny, and Lillian. However, Emmy had been asked some indecent questions several times. One woman had apparently even come up and asked if Emmy wanted to watch the Yeti with her.

    The Yeti were apparently what the people of the tribe called Peku and his family. No one was quite sure what they ate or how they survived in the grueling landscape, but they were the apex predators of the area.

    Nothing messed with the Yetis and that was an immutable fact.

    To everyone¡¯s dismay though, no one had been able to convince a tribesperson to join them on the journey back. It was disheartening that they had found these mythical people, yet none of them wanted to join the prince¡¯s plans.

    Lillian and Joy wanted to stay in the area and keep trying to convince people, while Emmy vehemently wanted to leave, which was fair for her. Finally, Theo and Benny were undecided. Those two still wanted to get the mission done, but also would be fine going back to the prince in failure.

    Eventually the group came to a decision based on the rations they had remaining. They were not willing to risk the journey back on severely low rations. Thus, they divided the food they had remaining into two piles. One was the amount they felt was necessary for the journey back, while the other was the remains. The remaining amount was enough that Joy felt the group could stay for three days without endangering themselves.

    Just as Joy and Theo were about to start repacking the food again Anna and Jan approached the group with a gleam in their eyes.

    ¡°That¡¯s quite a bit of food.¡± Jan said.

    ¡°Yes, and there is more than you can even imagine back at our home camp.¡± Joy replied a little too loudly.

    More eyes turned to face the group and their large piles of food.

    ¡°If someone were willing to go back to our camp with us and help us with an important project, we would be willing to compensate that person with food far tastier than this.¡± Joy continued his impassioned speech. ¡°We have a chef in our camp who can make more food than your entire village could eat. So, we would be willing to compensate the person who joins us with as much food as they could carry to bring back to this camp, to help with the current food shortage in your community.¡±

    The eyes that had turned to face the group suddenly shifted. They grew wide and filled with surprise. The tribe had never seen that much food ever stockpiled; they lived meal to meal by necessity. Skipping meals was necessary to keep everyone alive. Therefore, this was a temptation that no one could resist.

    Before Joy got mobbed with requests to go with him Jan pulled the tribe into a town meeting, while Joy and his group were kicked out of the settlement.

    ¡°That was a good job, Joy.¡± Emmy said conversationally. ¡°You used the food as a bargaining chip and kept them from just robbing us in the night. Now instead of taking the short-term gain and stealing our food and leaving us to die in the snowy wastes, the leadership will have to let us go and bring them back delicacies. Otherwise, they would have a small riot on their hands.¡±

    ¡°Huh? I just was telling them an option they had.¡± Joy replied.

    ¡°No political maneuvering thoughts in your mind at all, huh Joy? You wouldn¡¯t survive a day dealing with the wait staff of the politically powerful. Much less the real big leagues.¡±

    ¡°I appreciate you opening up to me a little Emmy, but what you said is still hurtful and I will now go cry in a hole.¡±

    Joy didn¡¯t find a hole to cry in. However, there were a couple overdramatic sniffles. An unfortunate cloud hovered over the group as they realized how badly that situation could have gone. Joy¡¯s accidental diplomacy and strong-arming had allowed them to survive this situation. But Emmy¡¯s comment had shown them just how much their lives were on a razor¡¯s edge.

    They were stranded in a culture they barely understood. The apparent normalcy of the people had fooled the group into thinking that these people would act the same as anyone from the Hearted continent, but that obviously couldn¡¯t be true. What hard choices had these people made, what actions had they carried out to survive in such an unforgiving land?

    Silence loomed over the group. But soon Anna approached the group. No one knew why the tribe kept letting Anna speak to them as she had been nothing but rude to them the whole time, but she came closer still.

    ¡°Me. You get me, and we still get the food?¡± Anna proclaimed.

    ¡°Can it be anyone else?¡± Joy asked.

    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t dream of it.¡± Anna said. And Joy could feel her smirk underneath that hood; it made him itch.

    ¡°Damn. It was worth a shot.¡±

    At those words the group started setting their tent up in an area nearby the castle. Close enough that they were still close to the settlement, while not getting all up in the native people¡¯s business.

    ¡°Anna. We set off bright and early, don¡¯t be late. Prepare to ration. And if you keep up the attitude, we will have the Heater exempt you from her personal hot spot.¡± Theo continued as he gave her a piece of jerky. ¡°These are what our rations will mostly consist of, but we will not be eating our fill, we need to make the food last.¡±

    Anna gnawed thoughtfully on the tough piece of meat.

    "Go say your goodbyes. You may be gone for a while.¡± Lillian said to the woman while giving a brief pat on the back.

    A melancholy look crossed Anna¡¯s face for a moment before she sauntered off back to the icy castle in the middle of a snowy expanse.

    Emmy sidled up to Theo as they all continued to set up camp. Despite the comfort that Emmy¡¯s presence brought, having a little shelter to call home was very important to the group¡¯s mental fortitude.

    ¡°You do know that I can¡¯t exempt people from my gift, right?¡±

    ¡°Yes. But she doesn¡¯t.¡± Theo replied with a little grin before handing Emmy one of the larger pieces of jerky.

 Chapter 26 - The Sentimental Type

    Prince David had brought only one truly luxurious item on this journey with him. Everything else had been absolutely essential for his mental health. The spa, the trees, the Courier himself were not frivolities that David had brought without purpose. Each one kept him and his employees in peak condition, able to fight this battle against nature itself.

    The one luxury David had brought was a single book. It was not one of the many books on cartography, logistics, or history that were pertinent to his whole mission in the Frozen continent. It was a journal written by a lowly peasant who had become a soldier in the first age.

    David had found this journal in an abandoned corner of his father¡¯s library when he was a child. He had not been immediately enthralled by it since the entire thing was endlessly boring. However, in a twist of Fate, David opened the book to the most important entry on accident one night.

    The prince read the entry quite frequently, hoping to glean new details from the sparse writing. The peasant himself had not been particularly eloquent, nor did he have a good view of the event, but still it was a story for the ages.

    Reading it was a meditative experience for David now. And whenever he felt overwhelmed, he sat down somewhere quiet and private to read the journal.

    The journal had been written by a peasant living in the fractured continent, pre-fracture of course. He had a lowly gift that allowed his thoughts to appear on paper. This meant there were fantastical realistic drawings scattered throughout the book, real snapshots of the moments that this man had lived. Unfortunately, the man had a pension for putting nude men and women throughout the book, but some of the drawings were truly breathtaking.

    The part David cared about was when the peasant had been conscripted into Balthazar¡¯s army. Balthazar had not been given a powerful gift when he was born. In an age of legends and personal power he was weak. He couldn¡¯t shoot fireballs the size of mountains at his enemies, nor could he rend his enemies limb from limb with his mind.

    Balthazar had not brought the continent to its knees through mere personal power, the power of man not god. He had used his brilliant mind and indomitable will to force all the little monarchs of the fractured continent to bow to him. He started the dynasty that eventually ended with Greg the Idiot.

    The peasant had been conscripted into the army and was terrified; these soldiers fought legends with gifts that made the soldiers seem like ants. But Balthazar always had a plan.

    In one particularly unique battle, he had faced a man who made the plant life in a nearby area follow his command. Trees would stand up to face his enemies, the grass at his enemies¡¯ feet would trip them, the very pollen in the air would fall into open eyes and noses.

    Balthazar made his army uproot an entire forest. The peasant himself spent weeks picking out every tuft of grass he could find, chopping vines with his sword, and making wet rags to cover his companions¡¯ faces.

    Many foot soldiers died in the initial skirmish, however once the enemy had been routed to the grass free plains, it was over. The man¡¯s head fell and stained the lifeless dirt beneath his feet. That was one of the memories saved in the journal written by the peasant. The very moment was drawn directly from the man¡¯s mind into the book, in all its gory and glorious detail.

    David flipped through the pages, until he got to the important section. There were pages and pages of thoughts and images imprinted in the journal since it was such a momentous occasion.

    Balthazar was fighting the last house, the final standing monarch of their region. The entire continent had been divided into little provinces ruled over by little kings with their gifts being the only thing that kept anyone in line. There was no infrastructure, there was no government, it was simply the will of the strong. If someone on that continent was blessed with a powerful enough gift and they defeated one of the standing monarchs, they simply took over the territory and continued to rule in the previous one¡¯s stead.

    But Balthazar had taken these little factions and untied all but one of them under his own name. His army, thousands of men strong stood in front of the final castle, thousands of spears held at the ready to face a single woman. She was an army unto herself. Regina the Reflected, had been given a normal gift, if she looked into a mirror, her reflection could step out and fight alongside her as an indistinguishable copy. But, by pure luck she realized if she stood between two mirrors, she could make nearly infinite reflections of herself.

    Thus, two armies met on the battlefield. One was Balthazar¡¯s army, well-armed and well-fed. Their lines stood strong in their battle formations as they approached the other army. And the other was the mirror army.

    It was quite unnerving for the peasant to march on an army that looked identical. Every single one had the same weapon, the same armor, the same small imperfections lined every face.

    This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

    Another image had been imprinted of this moment into the journal and David gazed at it reverently. It was unnerving and showed the terror of the ancient gifts.

    The battle was basically a slugfest between the armies. Continually pushing back and forth against the other. The peasant survived through pure luck.

    Eventually Balthazar¡¯s elite force punched a hole through the continually replenished force and broke into the castle. Whereupon they sliced and diced their way through the halls. Until they reached the mirror room, where Regina sat, creating more and more reflections to attack Balthazar¡¯s army with.

    Balthazar himself bested her in a duel, then pronounced to the remaining reflections that the original was dead. Then he asked which of them was now the original. Which started infighting between the remaining reflections, which caused Balthazar¡¯s army to easily finish off the remnants.

    This was where the most provocative part of the story began. The peasant himself had imprinted many moments into the journal since it was such a powerful moment.

    What was left of Balthazar¡¯s army was sifting through the corpses. The good people were finding their friends¡¯ corpses and trying to send them back to their families or take a token to give to the widows and parents. The pragmatic soldiers were taking the armor off their fallen comrades and enemies; they hoped to cart it home and sell off the valuable ores they could. Finally, the broken people just sat, too traumatized by the entire battle that their minds simply shut down rather than process it.

    Balthazar himself was in the broken camp. He had found a particularly tall pile of bodies and sat himself upon it. Surveying the carnage that he had wrought upon the world.

    The peasant believed Balthazar was seeing the true pain and misery of his conquest for the first time. The magnitude of his war had set upon him and was wreaking havoc upon his morality and mind. But David disagreed with that assessment, Balthazar had seen bloodier battles than these and had shouldered the blood of the people to forge a new world. David believed that Balthazar had attained his goal, something that should have been impossible, something he never should have accomplished, and was struggling to see himself existing without the goal. He had achieved his vision of the world, what was a person to do once they achieved their life¡¯s work?

    The peasant watched as Balthazar started convulsing and shaking. His eyes bugged out and the veins on his body started popping out, looking as if they were to burst. The peasant was petrified, was a new even more powerful monarch about to approach this army and kill them all. What a terrifying gift this person must have to kill Balthazar without anyone being able to see him.

    Then it stopped. The shaking subsided and the eyes stopped bugging out. Balthazar took a deep breath and let out an airy chuckle that the peasant could barely hear.

    The space in front of Balthazar stopped existing and something emerged.

    In the journal there were several pages dedicated to trying to describe the being that emerged from the rift in space, and many attempts at imprinting the image into the book. However, none of them seemed able to convey the majesty in a way that satisfied the peasant, so he blotted each one out.

    The being was a sword, a single drop of blood, it was good, it was evil, it was thousands of men dying at the other¡¯s hands, it was a bloodied man, it was ugly, and it was red.

    From the array of existence that was the being, a single red eye emerged and looked at Balthazar, who looked back without fear.

    ¡°I know,¡± he said to the being, before pulling out his sword and slitting his own throat.

    The being then receded back into the rift. But the peasant saw an image of Balthazar appear in the being. Just like the sword, and the blood, the bloodied man, and all the flashing images that made up the being, Balthazar flashed by, dyed a bloody red color.

    It was a surreal event for everyone involved, but no one was quite sure what happened. The peasant talked to many of his comrades and asked for opinions on the event, but no consensus was ever reached.

    Balthazar¡¯s heir took the throne and life continued for everyone involved. The peasant went back to working in his fields and imprinting lewd images of people into his journal.

    The bizarre events faded into the annals of history, leaving nothing except for remnants of memory and the scraps told by the survivors. The journal was passed hand to hand, and by some twist of fate, ended up abandoned in the corner of the royal library in the Hearted continent.

    David was tracing his fingers over the cover of the journal, feeling its edges and its spine, when a persistent knock hit his door. Immediately, his right hand raised to the bridge of his nose that he pinched softly in annoyance.

    Sam barged in without even waiting for David¡¯s approval.

    ¡°They are the luckiest idiots to have ever lived,¡± they said emphatically, with copious hand waving and gesticulating.

    ¡°Who?¡±

    ¡°Your team of fools. The ones who were just searching for the natives as a punishment. They actually succeeded. Not even one of our dedicated search teams, comprised of people with complementary gifts, could find a trace of the natives. But your bozos did it.¡±

    ¡°Well, that¡¯s surprising.¡±

    Sam breathed heavily glaring at David.

    ¡°Surprising would be finding an extra slice of bacon in your morning breakfast David. Those idiots have defied rationality, they have exceeded the limits of humanity with their pure foolishness.¡±

    ¡°But they succeeded, and that¡¯s what we wanted.¡±

    ¡°Yes, but, but, but¡­¡± Sam trailed off in exasperation. They obviously couldn¡¯t express their annoyance to David, so they shut their mouth and left the room.

    Not even a few moments later a figure stepped out of a nearby shadow.

    ¡°Benny,¡± the prince acknowledged the presence of the freaky shadow man and his ridiculous bowler hat.

    ¡°You could least pretend to be surprised, sir.¡±

    Benny¡¯s hat came off his head and he brushed some of the excess snow off his clothes. Then he continued, ¡°I have come to let you know that the team has succeeded, and we have brought back a native named Anna. She¡¯s a real pain in the ass, but she was the only one willing to come. Also, we¡¯re paying her in food, like a lot of food.¡±

    ¡°Drop her off with Sam then. And make sure to let the chef know that her services will be needed for our guest. Also, keep her hidden from the Freer Men, I don¡¯t want them getting any funny ideas about our alliances here.¡±

    Benny disappeared into the shadows as David chuckled a bit to himself, life was certainly about to get interesting.

    After all the positioning and posturing, the journey was about to begin.

 Chapter 27 - Performative Eating

    Lillian saw the snow around her undulate. In the back of her mind, she knew that snow was just water that got very cold, but snow was different than water. So, why was this snow flowing like water?

    She touched her hand to the mass of snow and recoiled slightly, it wasn¡¯t even cold. She wondered if it really was technically snow then. Was snow still snow if it wasn¡¯t cold?

    It was like those questions that the wishy-washy philosophers of the inner ring would ask. Like whether hot stuff was magma or lava. She just said who cares, it is just liquid rock, the classifications did not matter.

    Questions aside, she was having fun watching the snow move around her, at first the movement had seemed alien. But the more time she spent watching the snow the more she realized that it was dancing.

    There was silent music in the air and the very snow on the ground was moving in rhythm with it.

    It felt quite rude to leave a dance partner stranded on the floor. So, Lillian got her boogie on.

    The flow of motion was beautiful and unspeakably personal. Lillian drifted through the snowbanks, and they flowed out of her way, like a lover giving space to their beloved.

    Her steps always struck true with the rhythm of the snow because she and the snow were the same. They both had become the same being, or maybe they had always been the same.

    Lillian felt the snow around her start to accelerate The motion and the dance were changing, she knew the changes but was unable to keep up with them. For the first time, she stumbled, unable to keep up with the dance.

    The snow consumed her left ankle, she had a foot made of ice now. It no longer was made with flesh and blood, but of ice and water. The foot stood rigid in the dance, unable to change in any way shape or form, it stayed a foot, eternally in the position it had been frozen in.

    The first mistake led to a second mistake, which led to a third. More and more of Lillian¡¯s body became a statue of ice. Pieces of flesh stopped ebbing and flowing in her eternal dance but became icy monuments of who she had been in one miserable moment.

    Until her entire being became ice.

    She stood in the flurry of snow, unable to dance with her partner anymore. Forlornly staring at where she should be, but unable to move, her very thoughts slowing down as she truly became frozen.

    A statue in a blizzard.

    Lillian shattered, her very soul and essence defied the ice. And she became snow.

    She became a part of the blizzard, the endless motion of the snow around her. Instead of joining in the dance, she became the danceq. Her every motion defined what the dance was, and she knew that no partner could ever join her on this dance floor. It was hers and hers alone.

    Lillian cradled the self that she knew was made of ice and snow in her mind, then let herself wake up.

    Theo, as always, was standing beside her bed, waiting for her to wake. Once he saw that she had awoken without any complications, he left her, to go get himself some breakfast.

    She sat in the bed and longed to be in her room back at the prince¡¯s real castle. As much fun as the phony castle was, Lillian was getting sick of it.

    The pillow from her home sat beside her on the bed though, and the simple reminder of home let her find the courage to greet the day. She took one quick sniff of it, finding the scent of her farm and her family still safe within it. Then she started picking through the mess she had made of the room.

    The team had arrived a few days back and after the flurry of activity getting Anna settled into the new compound, Lillian had decided to take a mini vacation. She had trashed her room and then not cleaned it up. She went to the sauna and chatted with other people around the castle. She went on little walks throughout the prince¡¯s accommodations. But mostly she ate massive portions in the communal eating space.

    Eating real food was a privilege and Lillian was not going to squander this opportunity. Entire hams went down her gullet as she savored the variety of flavors and spices that she had missed while on her expedition.

    As much fun as the whole debacle had been for her, she despised the trail rations they had eaten while on their journey,

    Lillian had dressed herself up for the day when she realized something. She hadn¡¯t taken anything tangible out of the dream, but something had come with her.

    She looked at the small hand mirror she kept by her bedside, then she turned into a gale of snow. It was an unseen dance, that an outside observer would have no way of understanding. Lillian danced her dance of snow for a brief moment.

    The air that had grown cold in the presence of her dance started to heat back up. As a woman emerged from the snow.

    The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

    That was pretty cool.

    But the day didn¡¯t just stop because she had a cool ability. So, she went down to the dining area and got the chef to make her a stack of pancakes almost as tall as she was.

    No exaggeration, the massive stack was only a few pancakes short of being her height, but when she had complained to the chef about it, all the stern woman had said was, ¡°shut up, you aren¡¯t even going to eat all of those anyways.¡±

    Which was fair, but hurtful. Her large and wasteful food had become a staple of mornings in the castle. And it wasn¡¯t even like any of it could truly go to waste, since all the remains ended up back up in the slop bin, which the chef would magic into real food again later.

    Performative eating was an art and Lillian was an aficionado of it.

    With her massive stack of pancakes, she sat down next to Theo who was nursing a cup of coffee. She always enjoyed seeing him drink coffee, the soft brown tones of his drink along with the strikingly blue coloration of his eyes made for quite a pleasing image.

    "Have any good sculpture projects coming along?¡± Lillian asked as she started into her meal with gusto.

    ¡°Yes, right now I am playing with the transparency of the ice I can make. I had never truly thought about it before my artistry started, but when I am creating ice, they come out at different levels of opaqueness. I am still not sure what divides them, however if I can get control of it, I have several ideas for art pieces I would like¡­¡±

    By this point Lillian had sort of tuned him out. She loved hearing his excitement for his new craft, the enthusiasm in his voice was invigorating to her soul. But she could not find the strength to truly care about the intricacies of the art.

    So, she let his excited voice wash over her as she started shoving hunks of pancake into her gullet.

    A few minutes after she had started eating, and a few minutes into the long-winded rant that Theo seemingly had no intention of slowing down, Lillian saw Joy enter the dining area.

    Joy had a lot of fun during the group¡¯s trip but had been a little lost ever since he got back to the castle. It had been so bad that he went to go visit Ian at one point. He trekked out the Ian¡¯s little tower in the middle of the snow. He had then been forced into some ¡®exercise.¡¯ Apparently, Ian¡¯s punches had only gotten stronger since the last time they had seen him.

    That visit had brought a small fire back into Joy¡¯s eyes, but it was obvious that he was flagging a bit.

    But none of that was important right now to Lillian. All Joy needed in her opinion was a good breakfast.

    Eventually the merry duo became a slightly less cheerful trio. Joy sat down and listened to Theo gushing about his passion project. Joy lifelessly spooned oatmeal from the bowl into his mouth. Lillian disapproved; meal choices should be exciting not bland.

    Beating down her inner miser she even offered Joy one of her pancakes, which he refused. Lillian may have started a small scuffle after that, but that was beside the point.

    Hopefully the prince would be able to alleviate this awful mood, since he had some sort of announcement planned for the day. But to be honest, Lillian was getting kind of sick of his announcements. It felt like every week everyone gathered in the courtyard and listened to the team leaders all talk about how uneventful the expedition had been so far. While the prince would speak a few encouraging words near the end. But that would be it, it was so endlessly boring.

    Unfortunately, this was the path she had chosen, so there was no escape.

    There was a bit of free time before the meeting, so Lillian decided to go out and play in the snow. She invited both Joy and Theo, but apparently Theo wanted to keep working on his projects, while Joy said he had some people to gamble with. The thing was, Joy wasn¡¯t even happy when he was swindling someone anymore, he just stared aimlessly as he took someone¡¯s wages for the week. It was quite depressing to watch.

    Therefore, Lillian decided that Joy didn¡¯t need to gamble and that he should come with her. She gripped his arm and marched him into the snow.

    In the snow she promptly threw him into a large snowbank. Which seemed to stop his damper mood, replacing it with one of annoyance.

    ¡°Ow.¡±

    ¡°Stop being a downer.¡±

    "Fine.¡±

    And that was that. Obviously, Joy wasn¡¯t immediately filled with ecstasy, but he relented in his crusade of boringness. He threw some snowballs at Lillian, none of which hit. It is apparently quite hard to hit someone who can turn into snow with more snow.

    Once the two of them got bored with their unfair snowball match, they started constructing giant snowmen. Lillian was tempted to drag Theo out into the snow so he could help make her own snowman more delicate. Her snowman had three large boulders of snow stacked on top of each other, then she ran to the kitchen to get sticks and a carrot. But it was a barebones construction, not one she was particularly proud of.

    Joy, on the other hand, had made a beautiful construction, somehow sculpting with the fickle material. It looked more akin to something that Theo would make, and that irked Lillian. But she was not a spoilsport no matter what anyone else said. She only kicked his artistic rendering of the prince one time and that was being fair.

    Maybe it fell to pieces from her kick, and Joy wept. But that wasn¡¯t the important part. They had wasted enough time having fun and they were nearly late for the grand meeting that the prince had called.

    So, Lillian dragged a still weeping Joy, who kept muttering things like, ¡°destroyer of happiness,¡± ¡°demon wench,¡± and ¡°evil beyond words,¡± towards the courtyard.

    As much as she abhorred violence, a good cuff to the head was enough to dissuade Joy from continuing his tirade of B-grade insults.

    The two of them reached the courtyard and they linked up with Theo, who was still just as exuberant about his current projects. Apparently, they had been doing quite well and Theo was excited to get back to them.

    In the courtyard there were no team leaders on the raised platform, not even Ian or Sam was on the platform. Above them all, the prince stood with his cool blue eyes scanning the crowd, while his blond hair waved in the light breeze.

    After enough people had gathered a wolfish grin spread across his face and he started.

    ¡°I know these past weeks have been difficult, but your time of leisure will now end. We will enter the frozen catacombs and fight our enemies in search of treasure and glory. I have spoken to those who will defend this castle, your duties are unchanged. Everyone else, we set off tomorrow. Don¡¯t be late.¡±

    That was it, no explanations about where they were going or what had changed. But Lillian couldn¡¯t say she was surprised or disappointed. Joy¡¯s eyes had lit up when he heard the news and an evil smile had plastered itself upon his face.

    Theo looked downcast, he had his duties, and he would attend to them during this battle. But Lillian could tell he was bummed about having to drop his projects. She would talk to him about it, maybe he could make some art along the journey.

    Lillian was excited, this was where it was going to be fun, no more waiting. This was the real beginning of something fun.

 Chapter 28 - Everyone Becomes Their Father

    Joy had been spending a lot of time pondering in the past few days. After he had successfully completed his mission, specially administered by the prince, he had wondered what was next.

    He knew that he was not a hero of legend, sure he had a cool ability and awesome friends. But he was no legendary savior, he had no karma built up within him to help him free the miserable from the bondage of their lives.

    So, he pondered what his life should be about. When he had set out from home way back when he was thirteen his parents had looked sadly upon him. They were content with their lives far from the hustle and bustle of heroism and royalty. But Joy was not and could not be content with that. He had yearned for so much more; he wanted to explore and adventure.

    And he did just that for years. He wandered to villages just like his own, telling stories and swindling the locals for all the gold he could. He kept this up, gaining memories and stories until he reached Vena Cava, where his existence exploded. More and more adventures and misadventures followed him, until it culminated in this journey to the frozen continent.

    But what was the shape of his life going to be from here?

    He was not a karma defying king who fought back legions of his enemies. Joy¡¯s existence had been determined the day he was born, and it had never been to power through challenge after challenge.

    This point had been brought to his attention after he had brought Anna back to the castle. After he was done, he sat in the hall outside of Sam¡¯s chamber and wondered, what next?

    Then he had been told to take a break. To chill out for a while.

    No new insurmountable task, no impossible challenge, just rest and revive his spirits.

    Here he was, in an era defining moment, being told to take a break.

    It had shattered him.

    Joy had been shattered, until the prince had announced that the real mission was about to begin. Their groups would go out in force, enter the frozen wastes, and take the artifact back to the king.

    Giant centipedes of ice and snow had positioned themselves outside of the castle, and nearly everyone prepared themselves for the mission. Joy only saw some stragglers; the chef, and Sam stay behind in the castle. Every other person got onto the icy creepy crawlies and set off into the snow and ice.

    With renewed purpose, Joy felt like himself again and the world seemed brighter. But the journey dragged on. The unceasing movement of the centipedes only stopped when the group needed to rest, otherwise it was an endless journey with no end in sight, since the prince didn¡¯t ever say how long this journey would take.

    The endless journey made Joy question the new purpose he felt. Did he need to constantly be pushing for new adventures?

    This ¡°adventure¡± had been monotonous and boring, yet he still felt an inner pressure, the pressure of purpose and direction.

    Joy felt that he had set himself up for failure with his goals in life. Constantly searching for the next adventure, the next greatest story to tell. What would happen when he finally met his limit?

    Joy wasn¡¯t one to defy Fate, he set out for adventure because it was the only thing that could sate his thirst for life, the love he felt for every moment he existed in this world.

    But love is not solely made of grand acts, love is the small things.

    Through pondering and self-reflection Joy found an answer for his purpose, he found a way to show his love for life.

    Joy could still enjoy a good adventure, but his love of life would be shown through the small acts. Playing games with the drunk good-for-nothings, talking about their lives and woes. He would sit in the snow and let the cold seep into his bones. He would make a beautiful snowman and watch it fall to pieces. He would bring smiles to the faces of those around him.

    Joy was small in a vast cosmos of gods and power beyond human reasoning. But he could bring little pieces of happiness to those around him, and maybe those people would bring little pieces of happiness to those around him. Until everyone had felt a piece of the kindness he brought into the world.

    It was a tall order and maybe a truly impossible goal. But it was his, and it started with him helping the chefs, not the chef, make a good dinner, and maybe sneaking a laxative into some people¡¯s dinners. Getting the shits kept everyone honest here in the frozen wastes.

    Joy wasn¡¯t sure how Ian was able to track him down while keeping from shitting himself. Ian was the one he had targeted the most, with a minor dose going to the other guy in the prince¡¯s entourage, Clyde, or something. Joy barely put a drop in the prince¡¯s food, mostly out of a deep abiding fear that the prince would leave Joy out in the winter wastes if he was too bothered.

    The prince was unaffected and found the whole exchange wildly amusing. Apparently, watching the continent¡¯s greatest killing machine double over to keep from making the pristine white snow a little browner while chasing the little goober who had done it to him was hilarious.

    The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

    Poor Clyde was already a good distance away, deciding that a lonely cowardly road was the path with the least embarrassing.

    Ian¡¯s naked blade sliced through the air, missing Joy by mere a finger¡¯s width. But Joy wasn¡¯t afraid and seemed to enjoy the whole bout, treating it as a sparring match with higher stakes.

    The prince was the only person other than Ian himself who knew the specifics of his gift, so he knew that the fact that the blade was unsheathed showed how little Ian truly cared about this whole debacle. Ian¡¯s basic sword skills were second to none, however, his gift was given by the god Blade.

    Everyone had thought it was some sort of sick joke at first, Blade giving a scabbard as a gift. The antithesis of the core concept of the god, however Ian had changed all their minds once his potential had been fully realized.

    But the playful game continued until finally and magically, Joy¡¯s shoes yanked him around. They flipped him upside down and hung him in the air while Ian smacked his ass with the flat of his blade.

    Tears streamed down Joy¡¯s face, but they were matched with mirthful laughs. Grimaces of pain followed by cheerful grins, creating a symphony that described the oddness of the entire encounter.

    Everyone had gathered bit by bit to watch the spectacle and their faces also lit up with a little bit of excitement, watching as something broke the drabness of the entire trek.

    After one final hit Ian started walking away, to go deal with something quite personal and embarrassing. But no one commented on it, believing silence to be the only option that could possibly save them from his wrath.

    Joy¡¯s shoes finally dropped him onto the ground with a powerful crunch as he smushed the snow beneath his figure.

    He wasn¡¯t truly hurt. Of course, his ass was going to be in pain for the next few days, but nothing that was out of the ordinary. So, Joy started stumbling back to his section of the camp, where his friends were.

    As he passed one section of warmth in the otherwise unstoppable cold, Joy waved at the woman who was surrounded by people. Emmy was certainly popular here on this long trek. She gave a tentative wave back to him, he had never quite gotten her to warm up to him, but Joy couldn¡¯t win everyone over with his bountiful charisma.

    He moved on, not wanting to get caught up in Emmy¡¯s groupies.

    Eventually, he arrived at the clearing where Theo and Lillian had set up their tent. He grinned at them, before regaling them with the story of his ¡°triumph¡± over the mighty Ian.

    Theo let out a giggle, that he tried to stifle, and Lillian grinned back, firing a few suggestions off. It was a warm moment; Joy felt a spark of warmth in his heart as he was surrounded by people and their lives. He could see each of them as a small world, filled with wonder and whimsy, sadness and sorrow, and ambivalence and action. Joy existed in each of those worlds, every person he met, every world he saw, he influenced just the tiniest bit.

    Joy felt he was an accidental farmer. Taking after his father in a rather unique way. He cultivated the fields of other people¡¯s souls rather than fields of wheat, but he felt he could be a good farmer, walking to and fro with only his hoe and watering can to accompany him.

    Maybe it was a bit self-absorbed to see himself as this cultivator of people, but reasonable goals were never Joy¡¯s strong suit.

    The night wound down and everyone went to sleep. Everyone dreamt of warmer climates and tastier food, of days where they weren¡¯t stuck on the backs of giant icy centipedes, of the little amenities they had given up for this adventure. But eventually, they woke up to continue their ceaseless journey, the legs of the centipedes skittering throughout the day.

    It was boring, endlessly boring. Except there was a man of whimsy now, a man whose only goal was to just make everyone around him a little bit happier.

    Some days Joy was the villain, ruining the somber atmosphere with his badly laid plans and general ineptitude. At other times Joy was the hero, saving the night by bringing extra drinks or coaxing a particularly embarrassing story out of someone else.

    The days seemed to drag a bit less and Joy tried to make each night memorable in its own way. He was not a hero of an age, saving the world. But he was a small hero, saving the vibe of the night; and he was happy with that.

    But for everything that is comfortable and known in the world, it must eventually end to make way for the new and amazing to begin. Like winter making way for spring, the death of the known, makes way for the birth of the next step of the adventure.

    The destination had not been what Joy was expecting. He had imagined great catacombs that went for miles and miles. Or a city of ice that stretched up into the heavens above.

    Though in retrospect, this continent had not always been frozen, and the structures they were looking for predated the freezing. So, it was quite a foolish idea to imagine a frozen city. Of course, Joy felt it fit the motif of the whole continent and would add to the ambiance of the entire venture. Alas, Joy did not get to rewrite history so that it was cooler for him.

    Instead of some magnificent city, there was just a large section of snow that was higher than the rest.

    Once they had arrived the prince answered the questioning looks by saying, ¡°what? It snows a lot here, of course it would be covered.¡±

    Of course, it seemed obvious to the prince, but for the mere simpletons like Joy, they had been expecting something grand, not just snow.

    As the day progressed, it became even clearer that the most common work was not going to involve any adventure. Most of the vast personnel bought by the prince had one singular purpose, to dig up snow.

    In the beginning of the project, Joy tried his best to shirk his duties in the most efficient ways possible. He would help the chefs or clean up the camp all in a gambit to avoid clearing out snow. His skillset obviously was not helpful in this situation, and yet the call of the shovel was too strong.

    His days spent in shovel limbo were awful, he got stomach pains and was unable to sleep properly. He felt it in his bones, that he needed to shovel.

    Slowly, everyone around him got converted into extra shovelers as well. At first Lillian accidentally dreamt of something useful and excitedly went down to help excavate. Then she went again, even though she didn¡¯t dream of anything useful. Then Theo started going to accompany her. Even Emmy was found with a shovel in her hand and her crowd of leeches followed her into the tunnel system.

    Eventually, it seemed like only Joy was not shoveling. He was the one running from his duties to move snow from one place to another.

    So, like a hero of old he picked up his shovel and marched into the tunnels. He heroically shoveled snow at an adequate rate. It was so adequate that those around him complemented him on his mediocrity, but he was proud of his shovel skills.

    Just like that, the tunnels expanded, and a city was unearthed, unsnowed, bit by bit.

 Chapter 29 - Snowball Fight

    Joy¡¯s day started perfectly normal. He woke up in a chipper mood, ready to greet the dreary, gray sky that never let the sunlight shine on them. He walked around the camp, helping serve some of the meals. It was a disgusting sort of gray gruel, but it had a beautiful synchronicity with their surroundings that Joy touted to anyone who regretfully took a bowl from him.

    These meals were nothing like the meals given by the chef back at home base. But she was needed there, for some reason, even though nearly everyone had complained to the prince and his underlings about the supply of food. Joy suspected that she was in charge of the whole expedition since it could never run without her. That was aside the point though, people complained about the food, but they still ate grumpily.

    After that, he even helped some of the washers clean up the massive cauldrons they used for the gruel. He had been kicked out after a few minutes, since the work done by a single person with a water gift outclassed him and his sudsy hands easily. But the sentiment stood, and everyone appreciated someone trying to help a bit.

    Next, Joy picked up his trusty shovel. It was exactly like all the others; Joy assumed that someone had some sort of shovel-based gift since all the shovels were identical. It seemed like a useless gift, however the prince somehow thought ahead and made sure to bring them with him on this journey.

    Despite the identicalness of the shovels Joy always knew which one was his, he could feel the soul of the shovel, yearning to dig, and he let that desire drive him forward in his daily shoveling.

    Joy then galivanted through the tunnels that were the progress of days of work. They were surprisingly well furnished, with supports and beams of ice holding up the ceiling. Since the material was so soft, it became quite challenging to keep the tunnels open through the weather. Even the prince had not expected it to be such a problem and had not hired someone with the perfect gift to curtail this dilemma.

    The whole situation had been a fascinating reminder of how well Prince David had planned this out. Nearly every obstacle had been sidestepped from his preparations, and it showed he wasn¡¯t pulling these people with niche gifts that solved his every problem out of nowhere.

    But a solution eventually came after many of the earlier structures had collapsed and everyone had to start over again.

    Anyone who had a gift centered on creation would make the ceiling and supports of certain tunnels. Theo had been taken off digging duty and usually spent his time making roofing and supports for the tunnels.

    It made for an odd assortment of tunnels, a person could walk down the beautiful halls of ice that Theo made, and immediately turn into a shovel canopy, or just hunks of metal, or weird frozen plants, or any other assortment of odd things.

    The whole experience was quite terrifying for most people, being surrounded by an assortment of odd items holding an immense weight of snow above their heads.

    Joy loved the shovel tunnel though. Whoever it was who made Joy¡¯s trusty shovel seemed capable of making different sized shovels, even creating a massive singular shovel that acted as the ceiling of one massive cavern, with a few load bearing shovels propping it up.

    It was so whimsical. Compared to the whole somber nature of the expedition, it was invigorating to step into such a goofy spectacle. It was a perfect example of how insane some gifts could be used, but Joy mostly just liked how the ambient light reflected off the heads of the shovels.

    Inside the cavern there was a woman Joy did not recognize. It was quite remarkable that Joy perceived that he didn¡¯t recognize her. Everyone wore so many layers that distinguishing people was nearly impossible. Yet, Joy somehow knew that this woman was not someone he had met before.

    He felt it was the way she held herself with a scrunched back. Her seemingly normal pose was cowering in fear. Joy had met quite a few eccentric individuals during the span of the journey, but not one of them was as cowed as this poor woman. She looked ready to bolt at the first sign of danger.

    So, when Joy waved and walked up to her jovially, she started shivering.

    ¡°Who are you? I¡¯m Joy, and I am not sure how we have not met yet.¡±

    With a poof of smoke, the woman disappeared.

    Joy looked at the spot where she had been in confusion, he wasn¡¯t quite sure how he had scared her off, but maybe that was why he had never met her before.

    Every trace of the woman was completely gone though. Where her feet had been, was a slight indentation of where her weight had rested upon the crunchy surface.

    Could she teleport? Either that or she could make herself invisible and weightless. Well, with the myriad of gifts it could¡¯ve been anything, but Joy felt that teleporting was the coolest answer to the conundrum of where the woman went.

    Joy shrugged. He wasn¡¯t quite sure what was happening, but he wished that this person would teleport him around. The long treks through the snow were so very enjoyable, but he would¡¯ve loved to hitch a ride with whoever this was.

    So, Joy decided to play hooky. It wasn¡¯t like his work with a shovel was so revolutionary, it was just another body in a sea of adequate shoveling skills. No one would miss him for a single day.

    He paced around the shovel cavern, waiting for the enigmatic figure to reappear. Honestly, him staying in the same cavern was fraught with assumptions. He was assuming that she would return to the same place, and that she wouldn¡¯t just teleport somewhere new.

    But Joy could feel it in his bones. The woman was coming back to this space, and he just needed to wait for her.

    Joy had always known he was lucky. He hadn¡¯t been blessed by Luck way back during his karmic bestowment, when he was given his gift. But Joy had always felt that everyone had luck in their bones. He was especially lucky to have never broken a bone. As soon as a bone is broken luck will start to seep out of a person.

    Stolen novel; please report.

    So, Joy trusted his gut and his luck and waited in the same spot for the woman to reappear.

    A few people passed him in the cavern, a few shovelers, and a few reinforcers. But no one bothered Joy because he simply made it seem like he belonged. No one wants to question anyone else, especially if the whole situation is awkward. Therefore, Joy was left alone to his waiting.

    Finally, after Joy had waited the entire day and even skipped dinner to wait for this person, she reappeared.

    Joy heard a soft crunch as a pair of feet magically reappeared over the divots in the snow, she had made earlier that day.

    ¡°Aha! Who are you? I¡¯m Joy nice to meet you.¡± The woman let out a soft shriek as she saw Joy still standing in the cavern.

    ¡°Why¡¯re you still here?¡± She said in a meek and exasperated voice.

    ¡°Because I wanted to meet you, teleporter lady.¡±

    ¡°Why am I so unlucky?¡±

    After her declaration the woman disappeared for a brief moment. Then reappeared with two monsters.

    Joy had encountered these sorts of monsters two times in his life by now. The night of the untimely demise of Robin Red was quite a memorable one, filled with the power of these monsters and their cunning. However, he had also seen these sorts of monsters doing menial labor for the small community of native people he had found earlier on this very expedition.

    He had known something was up after he had visited the community, but now he was faced with the truth. The natives were somehow linked to this warlord that the prince was going to fight over the kingmaker with. At this point, Joy felt it was fairly obvious that this lady was not part of the prince¡¯s forces, and there were only three types of people on this forsaken continent: the prince¡¯s people, the freer men, and the natives. She used a gift, so she wasn¡¯t a freer man, leaving only one option left.

    The two monsters began charging, the woman disappeared, and Joy struck a pose. He spread his arms with a sad little smile and asked to his mindless audience, ¡°Do you want to play a game?¡±

    A voice resounded in two heads. Joy heard it, and the teleporter woman heard it despite the distance between herself and the beginning of the game. It said in an androgynous voice, with a little bit of attitude, ¡°snowball fight. Do any of you need the rules explained to you?¡±

    The two monsters kept mindlessly charging toward him, their bulky bodies causing small cascades of snow to slough off the ceiling.

    Joy squatted down and grabbed a handful of snow, spending the time and effort to craft a spherical ball of snow. Then he made another.

    With two balls in his hands, he turned to face the oncoming threats. Both were bulky targets; one was in the shape of a dog-like being. It had two mouths, neither quite where one would expect them to be. And the other looked more like a fish that had grown a pair of human legs and some razor-sharp teeth.

    Throwing is an art. There are so many different types of throws with varying usages and needs. First there are speedy throws, only the true elites of specific sports and talented people can truly aim these sorts of throws. They leave the hand with a scream and tear their way across a field with reckless abandon. In opposition, there are the lobs, one where the thrower simply lets gravity do the work for them. The ball goes up, and glides down. Spinning throws add a layer of complexity and make the impact much more devastating.

    None of these thoughts went through Joy¡¯s head, since he barely had to aim. The two monsters were nearly on top of him. The snowball in his left hand impacted the creature and illogically sent it flying across the cavern. The snowball in his right hand impacted the second creature with less of a throw, and more of a smush. The second creature also was sent flying from the weak impact.

    Both large impacts caused the shovel ceiling to quake precariously. Joy righted himself before looking fearfully at the massive shovel that held an unfathomable amount of snow.

    At that moment the woman reappeared back in the same spot, with two new creatures in tow. These two were more humanoid than the last pair, but one had scissors for hands, while the other was very short and bald.

    The woman didn¡¯t even pause to look at the scene, she just disappeared again, leaving Joy with two new problems.

    Joy decided that he needed to get his hustle on at that moment. The woman seemed inclined to continue bringing more of these monsters into his little cavern, and he only had so many snowballs to throw at them.

    As his hands shook, he made more snowballs. At the same time, he walked slowly backwards out of the cavern. He held onto his balls as long as possible, waiting for the new monsters to catch up to him before losing another set of balls.

    Again, they were inexplicably flung back much further than his weak throw would have normally allowed. But with four monsters now in the cavern, his throw only gave a slight reprieve as the fishy monster and the dog monster were now closing the distance to Joy again.

    But Joy felt that the cavern¡¯s stability was getting rather precarious. Little bits of snow had fallen after the impacts of the two monsters had rocked the whole structure. He only needed another couple good strikes before the whole thing would collapse. Hopefully without him in it.

    Joy had never been much of an elaborate plan person though. So, he just kept backing up, making snowballs, then chucking them at the monsters who got too close.

    The shaking only got worse as more and more impacts caused debris to fall and the structural integrity of the cavern slowly degraded.

    The woman reappeared with another set of monsters in tow. At this point Joy was quite cross with this woman. She was just causing him endless work and making him ruin his favorite passageway in their entire excavation.

    So, he threw a snowball at her. She hadn¡¯t been paying much attention to the vicious battle going on between Joy and the monsters between her jumps. Thus, she wasn¡¯t all that worried by a single thrown snowball. She scoffed at the thing, and in a stroke of luck for Joy, but a foolish moment of arrogance for the woman, she let the snowball clip her.

    She went flying. An incredible amount of force was magically transferred into her and before she could even scream in surprise, she hit the far wall.

    Joy snickered at her predicament, before realizing he needed to book it. That final hit had been the last straw. The shovel cavern simply couldn¡¯t keep up with the impacts.

    Joy¡¯s legs nearly flew as he escaped. Slipping meant a nearly certain demise, as his gift was not particularly geared towards being crushed by a massive amount of snow. So, he kept the pace as moderate as he possibly could. It looked like he was speed-walking his way out of the cavern.

    But his heroic exit was met with a shrill cry from inside the cavern.

    ¡°Shiiiii¡­!¡± The voice abruptly cut off, as if the person making the noise had stopped existing in that space.

    How convenient, that they could just leave behind this problem to Joy. Now he had to waddle at an ample speed to escape the collapsing cavern while the lady just got to disappear, it didn¡¯t feel quite fair.

    With one final push, Joy leapt out of the collapsing area. The snow crushed the space he had just occupied as well as a few of the scary monsters that had been hot on Joy¡¯s tail.

    A whoomph travelled throughout the hollowed-out corridors and Joy let out a sigh of relief. He figured that he didn¡¯t have to worry about the rest of the cave system collapsing; there was no evidence contained in that thought, just a can-do attitude and a healthy dose of optimism.

    But good work begets more good work and Joy knew that he wouldn¡¯t be able to just skedaddle his way out of it this time. He was going to have to give a full debriefing to the prince about what had gone down here in the cavern, as well as giving a full cost benefit analysis about why it was worth it to have collapsed the tunnel.

    Maybe he should just lie and say that the woman¡¯s gift had been location based and that he collapsed the cavern to remove the threat of her teleporting enemies directly into their base. That sounded intelligent.

    Joy kept thinking to himself as he trudged down the corridor, no shovel in his hand. It laid forgotten underneath the layers of snow. Hopefully it would forgive him as he left with more important things on his mind.

 Chapter 30 - What Happens In The Dream Stays In The Dream

    Lillian had spent years honing her skills in her craft. If there was a world competition for sleeping, Lillian would be a grand master. A great guru who sat in the hills pondering her sleep schedule; she would guide the flocks of sheep as she counted them, introducing her to slumber.

    Despite all her talent and skill though, she was still having trouble going to sleep. It was all just so exciting.

    Joy had arrived back at camp all sweaty and dirty. And he had walked with purpose towards the prince¡¯s tent. Where some sort of hushed discussion took place.

    Lillian knew that Joy was not one for keeping secrets, so she bid her time after seeing him enter the tent. She felt he was going to spill his guts as soon as he got the chance. He just had too big a mouth.

    The hushed discussion was obviously incredibly important and after a long time of anxious waiting Joy left the command tent and the prince called everyone to gather.

    Lillian had immediately set upon Joy and badgered him for details, to which he only smiled. He enjoyed holding the knowledge and being withholding of that knowledge. Lillian pretended not to particularly care, but she made sure to remember this moment, for revenge was a beautiful thing.

    But she didn¡¯t have to wait particularly long for her curiosity to be alleviated. The prince had made an announcement to everyone.

    ¡°Our enemies are here. We do not know who this mysterious leader is, but his organization has been working to destabilize the Hearth continent. Their manpower mostly consists of giant monsters. They are usually grotesque and horrifying to look at. There are a few powerful operatives that guide these monsters, but it seems that the operation¡¯s manpower relies on these monsters.¡±

    He had then taken a brief pause to gather his thoughts. The prince¡¯s blue eyes surveyed the crowd, taking it all in, before continuing.

    ¡°Some of you know we have made an alliance with the Freer Men. These people are the reason for the alliance, we will be working hand in hand to stop this threat from truly spreading to our continent. The disposition of our allies kept them from joining us as quickly at these ruins, but they will soon arrive, and we will march upon our enemies.¡±

    The prince pointedly looked at Joy at that point. Lillian knew to most people in the crowd, it would seem like a normal glance. But she saw the eyes of the two men meet. Joy just grinned, while some of the stress lines on the prince¡¯s face deepened.

    ¡°However, we are not the aggressors in this conflict. Earlier today, a teleporter was found in the tunnels, trying to sneak an entire army in under our noses. Thankfully, that plot was foiled. But we must strike back for the safety of our homeland and our way of life.¡±

    Normally, the prince was quite brief with his speeches. He didn¡¯t truly believe in sweetening his words, but that had been quite the honey coated speech. Lillian was still all pumped up from hearing it.

    But her skill in falling asleep eventually prevailed and she fell into a deep slumber.

    Lillian stood in the home she grew up in. In the distance she could hear the cows grumbling and bumbling along, the air smelled of manure, but it was home, nonetheless.

    She felt something was missing though. Lillian ambled around the house searching for whatever she had forgotten. It was quite an annoying experience, to know she had forgotten something, but she was unable to grasp it in her mind.

    Footfalls echoed throughout the empty house. Logically, she knew in the actual house that there would not be such a crisp and clear click of her feet striking the ground, but here the empty house seemed filled with her footsteps.

    A place that used to be so filled with love was just empty now.

    Eventually she turned a corner to enter what should have been her room in the house, but she instead found herself in her room at the prince¡¯s castle. With its eclectic decoration style and Theo¡¯s more reserved and orderly half. It didn¡¯t quite make sense why her room was here, but she didn¡¯t mind it too much.

    There was one thing in the room that was wrong though. In the center, right in the divide between her side and Theo¡¯s, sat a mirror.

    She walked towards it, feeling a slight twinge of apprehension. It had been facing the wrong direction, so that she couldn¡¯t see her reflection, but she slowly stalked her way around it.

    Just as she was about to glimpse herself in the mirror, she saw motion in the mirror. Something was behind her.

    Without thinking her arm punched out behind her. She struck whatever was hiding there and whatever it was recoiled from her hit. There were no cries of pain or even a catching of breath. Silence pervaded the room.

    Lillian turned around to face this new threat, but she realized she couldn¡¯t see it. It was entirely invisible. Unfortunately for the poor creature, she didn¡¯t need to see it to give it a good walloping.

    Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

    Strike after strike landed on the invisible being. Lillian could feel the reverberations crawl up her arm. Every hit transferred the force into her knuckles, which flowed up her arm, like she was a gong. It was a cathartic sort of violence.

    The beating continued and continued, but the creature never so much as moved a hair. It let every strike hit it harder and harder, but it was unaffected.

    Lillian could feel the exhaustion catching up to her. Her body couldn¡¯t keep up with the absolute level of violence she was displaying. So, she got desperate.

    When her arms got tired, she kicked. When her legs got tired, she used her body, elbows and knees creating hollow knocks as they struck whatever stood there. Finally, when she could barely move, she used her teeth. Biting down in the neck area of whatever impervious creature stood there.

    No blood filled her mouth, but she could feel the tender flesh there. So, close to her terrible violence, and yet, untouchable.

    Her body wouldn¡¯t move, she was done. She had given this creature every shred of violence contained in her soul, and it didn¡¯t even flinch. Lillian shivered as she heard the slow laborious steps of the invisible creature pass by her. Seemingly uninterested in her and the violence she had given them.

    It moved towards the mirror and touched its surface. The entire room shook, and the mirror rippled as if it had been liquid.

    The beast had been unveiled, but was just a nobody. It was someone from around the prince¡¯s camp, she knew their name and it was on the tip of her tongue. But it wouldn¡¯t come.

    The person had such vague features, such a quiet speaking voice, and was just plain boring. But it did baffle her, that this monster of incredible proportions was just some person from around the camp. No one special, no one important, just another person.

    The being reached down its throat; a horrible squelching noise came out as its fist was enveloped by its gullet. Ripping and tearing sounds reverberated around the tiny room as a chair was ripped out of the person¡¯s mouth. Blood and teeth sprayed all over the floor, but the creature calmly put the chair down in front of Lillian then said through its mangled face, ¡°someone would like to speak to you.¡±

    ¡°Thank you.¡± A voice that sent a chill down Lillian¡¯s spine. She knew that voice, it came from a hideous face that looked like a fly.

    Susan walked in from around the corner. The demon had a bad habit of using various combinations of its twelve legs to keep it supported. And since dreams don¡¯t truly conform to reality, the demon had never been encumbered by pesky physics. She tilted this way and that, her bug eyes staring down at the helpless Lillian.

    It had been a very long time since Lillian had seen the truly hideous form of Susan. The demon was a fan of tricks and mischief, constantly changing forms to confuse and fool Lillian. But the demon looked rather grotesque as it sat down in the chair directly in front of Lillian.

    ¡°Why am I here?¡± Lillian quietly asked. She was at the mercy of this demon, but she knew she had a final solution. She could always escape by waking up.

    ¡°We¡¯re here to chat, my darling.¡± The mouth and the words never quite synced up as the demon spoke.

    After a brief pause the demon let out a small sigh and posed Lillian a question, ¡°what do you think of the dream world? What do you think this place is?¡±

    "It¡¯s the land of Dream. Humanity gets to travel in it during the night, seeking wonders and frights beyond delight.¡± Lillian almost grinned as she said that, but she kept it under control.

    ¡°How cute. How quaint. A silly little answer from a silly little girl. Tell me silly little girl, would this land still exist without humanity? Would those of us living in the fantasy land truly be alive once you stopped dreaming?¡±

    Lillian paused. She didn¡¯t know.

    What was a dream?

    ¡°Well, what does it matter to you, foolish human. You take and take and take from the land of dreams.¡± The demon paused and closed its bug eyes, as if truly contemplating its thoughts and feelings. ¡°You are so selfish. Taking from this perfect land. It is belief incarnate, unhindered by pesky rules and laws. Everything exists solely because anything can exist here. But you plunder and pillage our trophies, our very existence. You make us journey to the land of reality. I have tasted how the outside world tastes, and it is bittersweet compared to this idyllic haven.¡±

    Lillian sat in awe of this outburst. Susan had always seemed like some sort of archetypal villain to her. She wanted out of the dreamworld to wreak havoc upon the living. But this Susan seemed much more in control, much more dangerous than before.

    ¡°As I said, you take from the land of dreams. Yet you give nothing, your existence is a plague to my fields. You are the locust ravaging my crops, ruining my soil, destroying the foundation of this very world.¡±

    The grotesque mouth clicked at that moment. The eyes looked deeply into Lillian¡¯s soul. Inside those eyes she saw herself, weak and battered as she was. Still somehow defiant in the face of this demon.

    How could she be afraid? This was her world. Her power, her very soul was like a fish in water here. She was the dream, and the dream was her. No one could hurt her here.

    ¡°So, I will take from you. Just as you have taken from us.¡±

    Lillian could feel something brewing in the air of the dream. It vibrated and undulated as Susan started to do something.

    Lillian mustered up strength she didn¡¯t know she had and began to run. But before she had taken a few steps one grubby hand grabbed her by her raven hair.

    ¡°Foolish girl, if you take so much from the dreaming, who¡¯s to say we cannot take from you.¡±

    Lillian awoke with a start, shivering. Cold beads of sweat cascaded down her face. Thankfully she was in a section of camp near Emmy, otherwise those beads may have frozen directly onto her skin.

    Theo was still asleep; he hadn¡¯t been awake to make sure her dream ended well. That meant her system had been disturbed, she did not get her normal, full night of sleep. Instead, she had awoken too early. But she felt she couldn¡¯t get back to sleep in her current condition.

    Slowly and surely, she started checking her whole body. Susan had been spouting some bullshit about how the dreams would take from her. But Lillian was a queen of the dreaming, there was no way she could be hurt there, right?

    The shivers kept wracking her body even through The Heater¡¯s warmth. She checked herself just to make sure Susan hadn¡¯t escaped or hurt her. It never hurt to be safe.

    She found no injuries, she found no blood, she found nothing wrong. Maybe the dream had been a sham, a power play by Susan for their nefarious plans.

    Lillian slowly put her head in her hands as she let the rest of the nervous shivers seep out of her.

    But there was no hair on her head. Just skin.

    Lillian let out a small yelp that disturbed the peace of the tent she was sleeping in. Her hands started shaking and she escaped the tent, running away.

    All thrones crumble, the queen had fallen. What could she even dream of now?

 Chapter 31 - A True Friend

    For the first time in years, Theo did not see Lillian when he woke up. The two of them had created this inherent trust and system to keep her gift under control, and yet something had gone wrong.

    Theo did not hesitate for a moment after he woke up, he started searching for her. He did not dilly-dally and try on outfits for the day. He did not brush his hair to make it beautiful. He immediately stood up and started to look.

    The camp was quiet and barely anyone had woken up by that point. The prince had never enforced a wake-up time since most people generally woke up when the sun rose. In this place that wasn¡¯t the best system, but the prince was an understanding boss.

    Thankfully, Theo didn¡¯t have to search particularly long. Theo found Lillian sitting in the dining tent, with a cup of something warm, a massive coat covering her, and her body gently rocking back and forth.

    It was not a comforting sight, to see his best friend in such a state. Theo could see terror in her eyes; something had happened to her.

    He knew his friend needed comfort though. He grabbed something warm from the back of the kitchen. The cooks gave him odd looks, but he didn¡¯t mind them as he went back to Lillian.

    Theo sat next to his friend, offering the comfort of his company. Not a word was shared as he simply waited for her.

    Of course, it was boring, but Theo was more than willing to brave some boredom for Lillian.

    Time passed as the two people sat in silence, slowly sipping on their beverages of choice. People entered the mess hall as the day truly started. They chatted and meandered about, making merry as they tried to guess what the new exploration would look like. The silence of their table persevered throughout it though.

    At one point Joy joined the table, but he could feel the tensions running through it, and sat there in silence with them. Waiting for whatever it was they were waiting for.

    The day passed and Joy eventually left to go help some of the shoveling teams re-excavate the cavern he had collapsed.

    People came and went through the mess hall, but the two of them were unchanging in their silence. Theo waited and waited for her, but the night grew near, and he felt the lull of sleep. Even his stalwart determination could not keep him up all night through this boredom.

    Eventually he passed out right next to her. Never leaving her side, even if he had happened to have fallen asleep.

    Dreams had always been such a spiritual experience for Lillian, but Theo had never quite gotten it. His dreams were impressionistic. He got hints of what happened and vague feelings. Lillian told wild tales of her adventures through the domain of Dream, but Theo never partook in that side of restfulness.

    His dream that night was of the taste of white. On his tongue, he could feel what the color white tasted like. It was an exquisite flavor that started by tasting like the first snowflakes dropping from the sky, then it morphed into a greedy taste. The taste of hunger and emptiness. But white fades, leaving colors in its wake, so the flavor subsided until not a hint of it remained on his tongue.

    Theo walked through fields of water. Instead of flowing as per usual, it all seemed to flow like wheat stalks in the wind. Undulating and slowly falling to the ground.

    Eventually, he knew he had been hurt. There was no pain, only the logical understanding that pain had occurred and that he was going to wake up now.

    There was never rhyme or reason to his dreams, he never found purpose or power in his mind, he simply let them be.

    Theo awoke to the smell of coffee. Lillian had obviously not moved from her spot the entire night. Heavy bags were underneath her eyes, and she swayed slightly in her seat, but she refused to give in to sleep, or to Sleep.

    He shrugged, there was nothing he could do to fix this. So, he got a cup of coffee to match Lillian¡¯s and went back to sitting right next to her. He would not let her be alone while she suffered.

    Sipping but never slurping, the two of them sat there in mildly uncomfortable silence.

    Later that day the Freer Men finally arrived. Theo never actually got up to look, but he heard from Joy that it had been quite a sight. Apparently, they had engineered some sort of large machine that they used to help them plow the snow in front of them. The group obviously made worse time than the prince¡¯s forces, but their speed was nothing to scoff at.

    Theo had watched hungry acolytes all rush into the tent he and Lillian were sipping in, and ravenously devour much of the prince¡¯s food stores. No one was going to tell these people that the food had been made via the chef¡¯s gift, which was all for the better since it seemed that the Freer Men were running a bit low on supplies. They had assumed they would be able to live off the land for at least a short time but had severely underestimated simply how unhospitable the Frozen continent was.

    Theo watched as the bigwigs from either group left the tent to go make some serious plans. But he knew none of that truly mattered right now. He wasn¡¯t needed to make strategic plans, he was needed right here, sipping on the tea he had brewed. Coffee was getting a little old for him, so he had decided to change it up a bit.

    Another day passed, and soon it was nighttime again. The food tent had cleared up a while ago, and Theo was still sitting right next to Lillian. He was sure that these two seats they had been using were now molded to their asses but refused to stand up to look.

    Lillian had never been an all-nighter sort of person. Maybe if she lived a lifestyle where she was more encouraged to have an inconsistent sleeping schedule she could be. But she had lived on a farm for her formative years, then was subjected to an intense sleeping schedule by the prince, so that her gift could be used to its fullest capacity. Theo could tell that she was flagging.

    Lillian¡¯s eyes drooped and she swayed back and forth, obviously on the verge of falling asleep. Theo badly wanted to let her, but something in her dreams was scaring her, and it felt improper to fight her wishes like that. So, he opened a conversation to keep her mind active.

    ¡°What is the color of your soul?¡±

    A pause, his voice felt a bit scratchy from lack of use, and he knew her voice would only be worse.

    "My soul space? My gift, my soul, it is black as night with twinkling stars running around. It is an endless starry night.¡± She replied.

    ¡°No, not your gift or your soul space, I mean your soul. You.¡±

    ¡°Grey. A misty grey that shrouds all that it touches.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s some bullshit.¡±

    ¡°No, it¡¯s not.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re just avoiding the question by giving some vague ass answer.¡±

    "NO!... I mean, no. It¡¯s showing my unknowable personality and the inability to truly be seen by those around me.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re about as subtle as Joy in one of his clown suits.¡±

    This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

    ¡°That¡¯s hurtful.¡±

    ¡°Got you talking though.¡±

    The two lapsed into silence after that. Theo had been on a roll, but he made the fatal mistake of bringing up the fact that he was being successful in his attempt to cheer her up.

    A long moment passed before Lillian finally opened her mouth.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t know you were one for the metaphysical soul of humanity bullshit.¡±

    ¡°It may be bullshit, but I like to think that I exist outside of any god¡¯s meddling. That without any gift or reason to exist, I still would matter.¡±

    ¡°That was surprisingly beautiful for an idiot.¡±

    ¡°Name calling is a low blow.¡±

    Lillian playfully kicked him under the table. It was weak and he could tell that her eyes were getting droopy, the exhaustion was truly reaping what had been sown.

    ¡°You don¡¯t have to tell me anything. But I can wake you up occasionally at night. Every few hours I can kick you under the table to keep you from getting to that part of sleeping where you dream. It won¡¯t be particularly restful, but it will help. You don¡¯t need to dream a powerful weapon, or a final solution to all our problems tonight. Just rest.¡±

    Theo stared at Lillian for a few heartbeats, as she looked back at him with some difficulty due to the drooping eyes.

    ¡°Thank you.¡±

    A small smile spread across her lips as she lowered her head to the table. An occasional shudder rattled her, but slowly, she relaxed. Her breathing evened out, and she seemed at peace.

    Almost a murmur that Theo could barely hear, Lillian whispered, ¡°lavender.¡± Then she was truly asleep, a light snoring filling the room. It wasn¡¯t that loud, but Theo didn¡¯t mind it.

    Theo slowly watched his friend. He knew she was a deep sleeper, so he wasn¡¯t too worried about waking her up by accident, but he still carefully and quietly tiptoed his way into the kitchen and begged them for another cup of coffee. It was a quiet begging since he didn¡¯t want the commotion to wake up Lillian.

    With a new cup and a new attitude, he started making plans. Grand gestures of kindness aside, it wasn¡¯t feasible for him to stay awake the entire night, every night, to make sure that she didn¡¯t dream. So maybe he could get Joy and a few other people to partner up with him? It seemed feasible.

    He glanced at Lillian and noticed that her hood, that had stayed on throughout his entire sit down with her, had started slipping off her head.

    Her raven black hair was completely gone and her newly bald head showed. It was quite a distinctive feature and Theo knew that Lillian quite enjoyed her hair, so there was no way that this was just some flight of fancy by her. Something had happened to her, and he hadn¡¯t been able to do anything. It was quite frustrating.

    The night slowly passed. It was beyond boring just sitting alone in an empty dining hall, he had considered asking the prince for one of his private books, just to have something to read to pass the time. But those books all looked quite boring. Back when Theo thought he might become a great leader and confidante to the prince, he had tried to read literature and books on strategy and commerce. But it all made his head hurt quite a bit, it was just too much for him. Theo saw no point in making himself miserable to pass the time.

    So, he quietly started to make small sculptures with his gift. Sculpting with ice is naturally a reductive art, many a true artist would take a massive chunk of ice and slowly chip away at it. They pulled pieces off until the art decided to reveal itself.

    Theo was no true artist, but he had a gift that allowed for far more control over the medium than any piddling master could ever hope to achieve. And his skills allowed him to make sculpting ice an additive art. He would add layers of ice to the sculpture until its form was as intended.

    It felt much more natural to do art in this way to Theo. True artistry for Theo was to build upon his work until it formed into a full piece, not to take natural beauty and chip away at it until it matched his aesthetics.

    He had been fiddling with an idea for a while with his art and felt this was the perfect opportunity to try it out. Theo was going to layer his sculptures. There would be an innermost sculpture that would be enclosed by a second sculpture, or at least that was his goal.

    The idea had appealed to him because it would be a true representation of art that no one else would see, nor could they understand. It was like keeping a secret in plain view.

    The inner layer was going to be an ocean. Theo wasn¡¯t exactly sure why he had chosen an ocean, but it seemed as good an idea as any. He knew he may be overstepping his own skill limits though. No matter how skillful he was with his gift he was not the most proficient artist. He always gave it his all, but it was quite difficult to truly make something look the way he envisioned in his mind.

    He relaxed, took a deep breath in, then let it flow. Theo¡¯s gift made no precise sense, he looked at what he wanted frozen, then let it freeze over. He had tried to explain it to many scientifically inclined people, who said many things about condensation and water vapor in the air, but that wasn¡¯t the core of his gift. Everything in the world had the possibility to freeze, he was just giving them the opportunity with his gift.

    Little waves started to form in the ice. It began as a blank slate, just a layer of ice that Theo had frozen into existence. But, little by little, ripples seemed to form in it. The ripples slowly grew until giant crashing waves were colliding with a rock face he had formed.

    A moment frozen in time of a giant wave crushing a little beach. The icy beach was moments away from its impending doom yet seemed still and peaceful.

    Theo took a small break after finishing the scene. It was small, no larger than his hand, but intricate details layered the sculpture, truly defining it as one of the greatest things he had ever made.

    He kicked Lillian awake at that point, not forgetting his promise to make sure that she didn¡¯t get a truly restful night¡¯s sleep. She groggily looked at him like he was some villain, and she was an abandoned puppy on the side of the road. He made sure to keep her awake long enough that her brain reset entirely, otherwise this whole exercise would¡¯ve been pointless.

    She covered her bald head again. She wasn¡¯t embarrassed with the hairdo; she had been known to make truly horrendous decisions with her hair. Cutting her own bangs didn¡¯t go well the first, second, or third time she tried.

    The missing hair was a mystery to Theo though, because it was far too clean of a shave for Lillian to have done it herself. His guess was that this was related to whatever scared her in her dreams, but he didn¡¯t push. Lillian needed space to share, not a badgering fool.

    She fell back asleep, quietly humming some tune to herself while Theo continued working on his piece.

    He had reached a truly emotional part in the creative process, he needed to hide the great art he had just made. Layer and layers of ice formed one by one on top of his ocean scene. Soon the ocean had been covered by what looked like a vague outline of a human head. The shape was there, but there were no real defining features yet.

    Theo considered who to make out of this portrait of ice. Doing a self-portrait felt rather odd, and making someone else¡¯s face felt even weirder. So, he decided to make another person up.

    It was a monumental task to give to a budding artist. To create a distinct figure out of nothing was a truly fascinating concept for Theo though.

    Theo started with the hair. Long strands fell over the person¡¯s face, and a ribbon that was frayed at the ends held the rest of the hair in the sloppy bun.

    Next, the mouth was formed. The person wasn¡¯t smiling, but their lips were crinkled. He knew that what that crinkle meant would be linked to the eyes. The eyes would reveal whether that was a crinkle of pain or of amusement.

    The nose was molded as a hard ridge. It was a powerful nose that looked as though it could sniff up the whole world. Theo giggled a little to himself as he made this nose. It was a nose of monumental proportions, yet it felt right. The feature would be less overwhelming if he added a pair of glasses to it, but the power and size of the nose felt important to Theo.

    Little features piled up. Blemishes on the skin, the too small ears, the little creases in the brow, the eyebrows that pulled outward on the face, it all almost formed a person. The lack of eyes held it all from becoming real.

    At that moment, the person in the ice still wasn¡¯t real. Theo hadn¡¯t breathed life into them yet. He knew if he took that final step and made the eyes, this person would become real, and he would have to take responsibility for the person in there. Not real like it would stand up and start walking and talking, but in the sense that this art would truly mean something to him if he finished it.

    Theo sat and contemplated his unfinished piece. During his thoughts he awoke Lillian to varying degrees of annoyance and thankfulness. But through it all he sat and pondered this being in the ice.

    He watched it slowly melt. Every intricate feature he had created, all the feelings and emotions he had put into the art, they all slowly faded away as the ice melted.

    It felt fitting to Theo. This piece was never going to linger in the world for people to gawk at. It was something by himself for himself, it was truly something of his own.

    There he sat, next to his sleeping friend and a puddle of what used to be. A small grin crept along his face as he slowly pushed Lillian¡¯s head into the melted slush.

    She yelped and gave him a solid kick to the shins, but it was worth it. There seemed to be something in her eyes other than the hollowness that shone through before.

    A new day had started, and light was shining through the tent. It was a somber and small light, since the perpetual gray skies dominated the Frozen Continent, but it was light, nonetheless.

    With the grace of a man who had not moved the slightest bit in the past two days Theo stumbled to his feet and offered Lillian his arm.

    ¡°You want to see if the sunrise on this continent is any prettier than on ours?¡± He asked.

    ¡°We both have seen it before, you dullard, and we both know it isn¡¯t all that pretty.¡±

    ¡°But today might be the exception to that.¡±

    They walked into the morning; maybe they would be disappointed, but that didn¡¯t change their determination in the slightest.

 Chapter 32 - Almost There

    Joy was very excited for today. After weeks of tunneling and scouting, someone had finally reached the snow-covered city. They didn¡¯t find any particularly important places yet; all they had found were little houses that seemed to litter the outer area of this hidden city. But this was real progress, especially with the added manpower of the Freer Men, they were truly making it into the thick of the city.

    The discovery led to more danger, in one random home there had been a few of the inky black monsters meandering about. The squad of diggers quickly took care of them, but still, the danger was finally present. This was what everyone had truly been waiting for, this was what a real expedition to the Frozen Continent was supposed to look like.

    Joy wasn¡¯t the biggest fan of danger, but there would be no fun in the world if there was no risk.

    Joy started his day by putting on some of his comfiest and warmest clothes, then found Theo and Lillian. After the incident with her nightmares, Joy had joined a group of a couple friends who woke Lillian up at varying times throughout the night to keep her from dreaming. Not that his actions brought him any good will, she was still pissed at him from when he said that her new haircut suited her. He was just being honest; the fuzz was rather endearing.

    The two of them were in the dining tent, just having a little chuckle. Joy didn¡¯t want to bother them immediately, so he grabbed a few pieces of dried fruit and walked over to the two of them.

    The food was starting to dwindle down. The prince had a massive hoard of food made by the chef before they started this journey. But she and a couple of other important people had been left behind at the castle to take care of business and feeding what was essentially a private army took a lot of food.

    Joy missed the simple pleasures of having a meal whipped up right in front of him. Now it was just porridge and the occasional rations. He even missed having the Courier around. The silly man had made Joy¡¯s life so much more entertaining. No one had as much gold as him and was so awful at playing cards; he was a walking bank for Joy. Alas, the Courier wasn¡¯t being paid nearly enough to go into a direct zone of conflict, which was just generally disappointing for Joy.

    Joy sat down next to Theo and Lillian and started munching on his food. Just relaxing in the company of two people he trusted and respected.

    ¡°So, y¡¯all want to head down into the tunnels today? Explore and loot an old, abandoned city?¡± Joy asked with a little smirk on his face.

    ¡°You could have a little more tact, Joy. A ¡®how are you doing?¡¯ would go a long way.¡± Theo chided.

    ¡°But yes, we¡¯re down.¡± Lillian butted in before Theo could get any deeper into his chastisement of Joy.

    The smirk grew into a grin, and the grin grew into a beaming smile. Joy loved this part.

    For this first exploration, the group decided not to bring anyone else along with them. They were going to travel through the tunnel systems alone, which would slow them down a bit, since they would be reliant upon Theo¡¯s power to clear snow while Joy and Lillian would be limited to just shoveling the snow around. But the whole experience was just too exciting to want to invite anyone else along with them.

    Joy packed them a nice lunch of rations and snuck away just a bit extra from the kitchen, just in case they were stuck under the snow for longer than they anticipated. Then he picked up two shovels for him and Lillian from the shovel supplier.

    A few days ago, the man who could create shovels had sought Joy out because he wanted to ¡®see the dickhead who had collapsed his masterpiece.¡¯ He seemed like a wonderful little man; his name was Herbert and his gift just let him create shovels out of nothing. The prince had hired him from his shop because he needed shovels but was limited in the amount of stuff, he could take with him to the frozen continent.

    Herbert turned out to be a wonderful guy, and Joy had a long chat with him about using his gift in unique ways. Joy had always felt that gifts were hyper niche and useful in only one situation, yet Herbert had spent quite a bit of time debating with him and showing him some of the innovations he had come up with relating to his own gift.

    Honestly, Joy thought Herbert was just lonely. He had been paid a princely sum, but he had left his family behind to spend months in an unforgiving environment because the prince needed some shovels, it felt rather isolating and demeaning. So, Joy tried to make the man feel more comfortable with his shoveling expertise.

    He went to Herbert and commissioned two of his most reliable shovels. There was a bit of idle chitchat, but Joy was too worked up about exploring to really spend any time with Herbert, so he ran off to enter the snowy tunnels.

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    The three of them stared at the entrance, then they all entered together. They had prepared as much as possible and didn¡¯t expect this to be anything particularly exciting, so they started wandering off.

    They passed many other groups doing something like them. Now that the edge of the ruins had been discovered, the prince had stopped forcing everyone to dig all day every day. Instead, he gave them free reign to choose where and how they went, but with the understanding that this was a highly dangerous situation that he couldn¡¯t bail them out of if they got into any serious trouble.

    Most groups were small, ranging from four to five people. Joy was almost certain that they were just going stir crazy and wanted some new experience other than toiling away with a shovel for what felt like ages.

    There were a few unnerving groups though. The groups comprised of Free Men were all dour and serious. They had grudgingly accepted that they would not have been able to get into the ruins without the prince¡¯s help and gifts. But it was clear that they were unhappy to be in a place so steeped in the gifts they so abhorred.

    The groups wore all black, and for some reason kept all their features hidden as much as possible. Joy knew it was cold, but not cold enough to keep someone¡¯s head entirely covered other than the eye holes.

    But none of that truly detracted from the fun that Joy was having as he was galivanting through the tunnels. He had a skip in his step and a boundless exuberance that was not matched by his ungrateful teammates.

    They eventually reached the first of the unearthed ruins. It was a long walk and represented how much time and manpower had been used to excavate this entire system. The whole thing was genuinely impressive to Joy. He had lived in a small village in the middle of nowhere for most of his life and had only heard tales of undertakings this big while in Vena Cava.

    The three of them all took a single moment to breathe in the sheer magnitude of what had been accomplished. Then they started digging.

    Joy and Lillian displaced as much snow as possible, while Theo built supports out of snow to keep the ceiling from dropping down on their heads.

    It was slow, boring work and felt no different in the motions from what they had been doing before. But now there was a promise of adventure on the other side of the tunnel if they just dug enough in the right direction.

    They dug and dug and dug until they finally reached something. Joy¡¯s shovel crashed into stone, and they all cheered. After clearing the area a little bit, they found that Joy had hit a wall. So, the team excavated.

    Time felt ethereal in the snowy caverns, so Joy had no idea how long it had truly been since they started. But after he had stopped for his second meal and realized they were out of food, he called for a break. No one wanted to give up this opportunity for adventure, but they had come ill prepared for as much work as this was taking.

    The wall seemed to stretch for ages. The group had shoveled a good chunk of the surrounding snow away. But it was colossal, and they had no way to keep working on this without more food.

    So, they decided to do the mature thing and walk back to the camp and report their findings to the prince. Maybe he would be just as excited about their wall as they were.

    Theo had to talk their way past Ian and the other guy, who Joy could not remember the name of. But once he did, the prince was just as excited about their wall as they were. He wanted exact replicas made from ice, and for them to describe every possible detail, then he ran to his little book collection and scrambled through pages and pages looking for something.

    Apparently, they had found the castle wall. The prince didn¡¯t bother explaining what castle or why it was important, instead he told them that he would need guides and that everyone would be working on their wall.

    That bummed them out a little bit. Joy had been so excited for adventure and exploring. Now he found himself going back to the same old same old, where he was just doing grunt work for the prince.

    But that was his job he supposed, so he did it.

    There was a small uproar in the prince¡¯s ranks when everyone found out they were back on digging duty just like before. Ian shut the truly loud voices down very quickly, but everyone had been far too excited about the freedom they had been given to just let it slide.

    A lot of grumbling workers and unhappy faces went down into the snowy tunnels and worked on finding the gate that was supposedly in the wall.

    Joy had been asked several times by some of the prince¡¯s personal retinue how they had found the castle wall so quickly. Their route was being further enlarged and many obstacles were just barely out of their way. If they had altered the course much in any direction, they would have nothing near as important as the castle wall. One woman told him it was like he had threaded a needle while blind. Joy shrugged, he just thought he was pretty lucky.

    The days passed and the gate was eventually found. After that it was a mad rush to get into the castle deep inside.

    The prince generously explained that this city used to be the heart of the Frozen continent, or whatever it had been called before it had frozen over. And this castle was the center of it all. Deep inside, behind vaults and challenges lay the Kingmaker. The artifact that would catapult the prince above his sister and allow him to truly flourish.

    In the tunnels the entirety of the prince¡¯s group and the Freer Men stood waiting. Joy was rather enthused at the whole process, it was just so exciting, he felt like a treasure hunter in some of those old nursery rhymes. Joy saw the prince had a smile that could light up a room as he surveyed his little army. The prince brushed his blonde hair back and faced them.

    With a roar, he shouted, ¡°this is what we¡¯re here for, let¡¯s go!¡±

    He then took up a shovel and slammed it into the final wall holding them back from the inner castle.

    Joy knew the prince was strong, but not strong enough to crack open the snow and stone that stood in his way. It was a beautiful act of showmanship though, using someone else¡¯s convenient gift to open the way while making the prince look like a hero.

    Yet, Joy¡¯s blood pumped in his ears, and he felt elated. With a small cheer he joined the army and clambered into the castle.

 Chapter 33 - Sneak Attack

    Tera had been teleporting for a long time. Her gift had truly skyrocketed her placement within her tribe, allowing her and her family to be lavishly taken care of as long as she did certain tasks for the chief.

    The old chief had been cruel, but he had been good to her. That was how it worked within the tribe; if someone was useful their gift would be cultivated and they would be taken care of, otherwise they were deemed as useless chaff and were chained.

    After the old chief had been removed from position by the new chief, she had wondered what her life would be like. The new chief was a bit stupid at times, but no one could argue with his results.

    The new chief had been quite surprised when she described to him that there were more people in the world than just their little tribes in the frozen wastes. Tera had spent much of her time teleporting between the Frozen continent and the Hearted continent to get lavish products for the old chief. But the new chief wanted none of that, he just wanted to experience the world he didn¡¯t even know existed.

    So, she sent him to the Hearted continent and let him explore to his heart¡¯s content.

    The discovery of the other continent had been a mistake on her part. Back when she was just a young up and comer in the tribe experimenting with her gift, she had tossed one of her marking stones into the ocean. Her gift allowed her to create teleportation waypoints; it was an intricate rune that took an incredible amount of time and skill to reproduce to the level her gift required. She had wanted to have some sort of weapon with her gift, since the tribe had been a much more dangerous place back then and she thought if she could teleport someone to the bottom of the ocean that she would have a trump card when trouble came knocking.

    Unfortunately, her waypoints only worked if there were no obstructions in the way of her teleportation location. So, the whole experiment ended up being a bust. Until a few years later when a new waypoint appeared in her soul space. She skeptically teleported to another continent, a continent not covered in ice and snow but filled with warmth and beauty unlike any she had ever seen before. She cried, then promptly told the old chief about it.

    Instead of immediately moving everyone to a new continent and starting life in a fresh environment, he had chained her. Then forced her to start doing runs for him, improving his lavish lifestyle even further than it had been before. She hated her chains, but no one knew how to remove them. The old chief had taken that secret with him into his early retirement.

    Tera thought the old chief hadn¡¯t liked the idea of putting himself under someone else¡¯s thumb. Out here, he had essentially been a king and ruler, and the old chief would rather rule a small pond than be a small fish in an ocean.

    The new chief wasn¡¯t so small minded though. He knew that living here in the frozen wastes was not ideal, so after they finished this final task, he was going to move everyone to the warm lands; or that was what he had told Tera.

    One of the old crones who could read the future in the clouds had told the new chief that he could free everyone from all their bonds if he found an artifact.

    Thus, the search had begun. Tera had teleported as much of their manpower into the tunnels and had them start searching. There were no effective treasure seekers in the past few generations, so the going had been slow.

    Then, the invaders arrived. The tribe had known that someone was on the continent as Jan had sent a message about a group who were searching for a guide within their small tribe.

    But once a whole entourage had arrived near their digging site, they had known that the invaders were there searching for the same thing.

    Tera had been tasked with trying to sneak up on them then teleporting a small army of the sins onto them. Best case scenario, no one would have gotten hurt and then the invaders would have pulled out, letting the tribe finish their search.

    Unfortunately, some dickhead collapsed the tunnel that had her waypoint in it, rendering the whole plan to be useless. Tera was personally miffed that she lost one of her waypoints, but she had started working on a secondary option immediately after the failure.

    The tribe knew how tough it was living on the unforgiving cold continent. Many members had starved to death or died by exposure to the freezing winds. So, Tera had theorized that if they disrupted their supply chains and whatever was providing them with their rations the invaders would have to pull out and leave.

    After some time searching, she had finally found their compound. It was an incredible excess; they had built an entire castle that was somehow heated. There was no snow on the ground inside the perimeter. It brought a terrible anger up in her, seeing someone living so lavishly without even thinking of sharing. It reminded her of the old chief and his chains.

    The new chief had made many sins when he took up the position of new chief. His gift was quite scary, it took away a person¡¯s sins and made a monster that existed physically as a representation of them. The actual process was a little horrifying to watch, but everyone who had their sins removed always seemed so happy afterwards. Maybe a tad ¡®simple¡¯ in some cases, but unbothered.

    After this raid against the castle, they might be a little low on the sins, but nothing that the new chief couldn¡¯t fix with a few flashes of his gift. There were plenty of people in the world who wanted to be free from themselves.

    The sins had helped revitalize the structure of the tribes. The old chief¡¯s system involving food allowances depending on someone¡¯s usefulness was no longer needed. Since the sins could root around for food all day, or help with the necessities, all without any pesky hunger. They had especially helped with the excavation, as well as with the little invasions.

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    The new chief was unwilling to let any of his subjects truly come into danger against this group of invaders. So, they had amassed an army of sins to attack. It had been Tera¡¯s job to teleport them into the thick of it. It was rather limiting to only be able to teleport a few at a time, but slow and steady won the race. The army of black shapes with eldritch features would bring terror to anyone facing them.

    Tera readied her army. They could follow simple commands from anyone that the chief allowed, so she readied their lines and prepared a charge. She wasn¡¯t foolish enough to think that this would be easy, but most of the manpower was over by the buried city, so Tera was hoping it would go swimmingly.

    A wall of black started to grow as it crossed the virgin snow of the area. Crunching snow beneath every limb, they approached the castle.

    Two things struck Tera as she approached. There were a lot of animal carcasses in the snow that hadn¡¯t been there when she was preparing for this battle. They were beautifully cut up, but it was mountains of meat and sinew sitting in the snow, staining it red. The other was two people standing near the top of the castle. Tera could make out the figures well, but one was a woman carrying a ladle while the other had androgynous features and brown skin that was so very different from the pale coloration of the people of the tribe. In their hand seemed to be some sort of wooden flute.

    Tera felt an overbearing warning deep in her gut, and she tightly gripped the two extra waypoints that she had created for this mission. It was an extravagance, but she felt she needed it.

    Tera watched as the stain of black slowly collided with the stain of red in the white snow.

    As Tera watched, the figure on top of the castle raised the flute to their lips. A clear tone cut across the fields of snow, and the world seemed to ripple. All the meat and corpses seemed to shimmer and shake for a moment before they started writhing. Out of the dead came snakes, some were little colorful things, others were larger than houses, but an army of snakes rose out of the stain of red.

    The note ended, but the song continued. A mournful melody that spoke of pain and misery guided the snakes and they moved in unison with the music; creating waves of pain and misery that crashed into the sins.

    Venom dripped from their fangs, and the coiled and struck in a beautiful dance of death. They lived to kill the sins, and to be killed by the sins. Some were ripped to pieces by tentacles and arms of varying shapes and sizes, others were cut by arms made of blades, while others were bitten into and feasted upon. The black army of abominations was slowly colored red as snakes died and killed among the masses.

    Throughout the death, a flute played. These snakes had been born from the music and died to the music. But as their corpses lay upon the battlefield, ripped asunder, they seemed to ripple. A new snake would appear out of the old snake, completing the cycle of rebirth and resurrection.

    It was an endless tide of snakes.

    Tera had never seen something more horrifying in her life. It was genuinely terrifying, and she was unable to fathom the power held by the person playing the flute on the high tower. But Tera had a mission to accomplish, and she refused to give up after so many resources had been put into it.

    She gritted her teeth and launched one of her waypoints as high as she could. Once it reached the top of its arc, she teleported to it and threw the next one. With this one she was able to barely reach the high tower that the two indistinct figures had been standing on.

    After she teleported to the high tower, Tera left one of her waypoints there and teleported back to the stone that she had thrown initially. She needed both for her plan.

    Tera knew that she was not a fantastic fighter. Her hands and feet could never move in the proper ways to truly make her a danger. It was truly a pity she thought, since she had such a unique gift that allowed for some incredible movement in a fighting situation. But she had an army to throw at the two people on top of that tower to compensate for her own lack of skill.

    Tera started moving the sins in pairs up to the top of the tower. She was quite surprised at how long it took for the two figures to notice the sins approaching them. By then she had already gotten six sins onto the roof and charging at the pair.

    Victory was in the bag. The snakes were obviously a tough thing to keep up since the flute player just kept playing even as the sins charged, but the other took a ladle and scooped up some loose snow that was on the top of the tower.

    Tera thought it was all quite futile. She was sad at the meaningless loss of life, but she had already lost far too many resources in this raid than she had hoped. The tribe would be hindered for months if not years from her failure to prepare properly.

    The ladle spun and something appeared in front of Tera that hissed in the air. To her surprise it was not a snake, it was a glob of boiling oil flying directly at her. Her mind screamed danger, and she instantly teleported away. In her fright she had teleported away from the battle entirely and had appeared back in her safe room back in the village center.

    She looked at the intricate tapestries that decorated her small room and took a deep breath. It was just a bit unexpected was all, how could she be ready for boiling oil to get thrown at her like that?

    With a pop she reappeared on the rooftop, ready to continue with the unfortunate slaughter of these two powerful warriors. But instead of attacking or bringing more reinforcements to her small group of sins, she watched in horror at the massacre occurring.

    The woman with the ladle had somehow covered two of the sins in boiling oil, leaving them writhing in pain, screaming out in their incoherent voices. The next two were gone, but a distinct buttery scent was in the air, and many of the tiles near one of the edges were looking soft and slick. The final two were being ripped limb from limb.

    Every time the horrifying woman touched a sin, a wave of white seemed to eat across the being. The touched flesh seemed fluffier and sweeter than before. But gruesomely she would rip that hunk of effected flesh off.

    The sins were destroyed, and the woman picked up her ladle. She scooped up a hunk of the white fluffy substance in the ladle and tasted it. A positively delightful smile spread across her lips as she murmured something about, ¡°marshmallows.¡±

    Tera felt a tear roll down her face. She knew the sins were unfeeling, but that had been beyond cruelty. She knew she was outmatched; this mere pair had stopped her dead in her tracks.

    So, she teleported away from them and back to the waves of sins on the ground, taking the waypoint with her. She couldn¡¯t fight the two of them, but she could move the combatants around and through the mass of snakes.

    Then the tentacles hit. The sins who had been circling the perimeter, trying to bypass the snakes were squished beneath a massive tentacle. A monster that was larger than Tera could easily imagine was hiding beneath the depths of the water, but its large tentacles were taking swaths out of the battlefield.

    It made a terrible situation into a hopeless one. So, Tera called for a retreat.

    The few remaining sins ambled away, and the snakes let them. They were not pursued once they had disengaged, but Tera could feel the eyes peer down at her. Those eyes held no respect nor fear, only amusement at this feeble attempt. Tera resented them and their power, so she would make them pay.

    The next time she had to face an enemy, there wouldn¡¯t even be a battle. She was going to pay them back tenfold for this loss.

 Chapter 34 - Tobogganing

    Joy felt the ground shake as he entered the castle. The roar of the crowd surged around him as they all charged forward. Feet crashed into stone or crunched on snow as they all started the invasion.

    That was when the attacks started.

    Joy wasn¡¯t truly a powerful combatant. He knew he had some unique abilities and fantastic luck, but when it came to warfare, he knew he was out of his depth. This was not little individual battle pockets. It was mayhem, and Joy leaned on his luck to get him out of the scuffle.

    Waves of fire engulfed a layer of the prince¡¯s charging forces, but it all swirled and was eaten by a woman who let out a small belch and puked out some smoke that obscured the enemies¡¯ vision.

    The snow started forming golems under their feet. And Joy jumped to the side to avoid a menacing snowman that was rising out of a nearby snowbank. Someone else kicked the ground and tens of small golems made of stone started engaging the snow golems. Snow crunched and stone cracked as the white and brown forms collided, leaving nothing but dust and a dusting of snow.

    A wave of monsters stood in front of the prince¡¯s army. They were a beautiful mass of flesh and tentacles, made of an inky blackness that exuded a terrifying aura. Ian stood proudly in front of the mass of flesh; he positioned his sword to the side of his body. All the tension left his body for an instant, for one moment it was like a puppeteer had cut all the strings holding his puppet and Ian started to crash down towards the earth. Then in a flash Ian drew his blade and the mass of monsters was bisected. The top halves were separated from the bottom halves and a crack like thunder filled the room. Their inky black blood started pooling on the floor as the chaos continued to rage on.

    The Freer Men in their black garb swarmed enemy combatants. Blades flashed, arrows were released, and punches thrown to incapacitate anyone who even looked in their direction. They moved with a suicidal fervor that was unmatched, every single one of the Freer Men were willing to lay down their life so that the collective could gain a single inch on their attackers.

    Joy found the movement and skill of the Freer Men enchanting, while also being horrifying. They were the section that had taken the most injuries so far, and simultaneously refused to receive any gifted healing.

    But none of that was Joy¡¯s problem. He wanted to loot this castle rather than deal with a hectic violent battle.

    Joy stopped for a moment as the battle raged. Someone behind him cursed up a storm, talking about someone¡¯s balls and the undersized member to go with it before moving around him. He took a deep breath in and let his luck pull him.

    He was ultimately the master of his destiny, but luck, with a lower-case l, had never failed Joy before.

    On the edge of the room was a small doorway. Everyone was battling each other, trying to reach a set of massive double doors, but Joy took off towards the small unassuming door.

    Behind him, Joy heard the two yelps of his two friends trying to follow him. But he was ducking and dodging through the vicious melee in a manner that seemed impossible to copy.

    After jumping over one final snow golem that had been hiding in the banks of snow, Joy looked behind himself to observe the battle one last time. The prince himself was at the forefront fighting some native of the continent who had some gift from Strength or Power.

    The prince¡¯s form was elusive and mesmerizing. He moved like an illusion, always one step ahead of his enemy. Quick and calculated strikes mercilessly landed on vulnerable joints, eyes, and the crotch. The big man seemed close to tears as he wildly swung at the prince. With one final kick to the man¡¯s temple, the prince moved on.

    Prince David was not the most powerful person on the battlefield, he was limited to his personal skill and weapons, unlike the powerful gifts being thrown around. But he was always where they needed the help the most. Wherever a battle was going poorly, the prince would move over to them and provide the little extra guidance and help they needed to overcome their failures. It was a true display of leadership and skill that Joy was in awe of.

    But Joy had places to be and things to do. So, he entered the small door and left his friends, comrades, and leader behind. His luck drew him there, but still it was a bit of a dick move.

    Joy saw that the doorway led into a small dark hallway that went on for ages. The color scheme must have been beautiful at some point in time, but age had rendered all the colors mute.

    There were a few branching pathways, but Joy always ended up choosing to go along with the muted hallway. It was frighteningly quiet in the hallway. He had expected heavy resistance or more of those inky black monsters to bump into him as he invaded the castle. But none of those things happened, instead he followed the path.

    Eventually Joy stopped in front of one unassuming door. It was small and made of some wood Joy had never seen before. Either it was made by a gift, or an extinct species of tree that had only existed on the Frozen continent. Either way, Joy was going to take this door.

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    But out of good courtesy Joy made sure to knock on the door one time before yanking the hinges off. He didn¡¯t want to frighten anybody in the room too much once he had taken the door.

    Joy took a deep breath, then yanked the door off its aging hinges. The whole thing creaked and moaned as it was shorn off the wall, however it came off without too much work from Joy.

    A satisfied smile crept across Joy¡¯s face as he examined his new prize. It really was a beautiful door, and he just knew that he was going to find the perfect place for it in his abode.

    A small shriek tore through Joy¡¯s reverie. Inside the room sat a boy with the palest skin that Joy had ever seen. He was small and thin, each of his ribs were visible through his skin. At that moment the boy, who couldn¡¯t have been more than fourteen, had his shirt off and there were two standout features on his skin. Black inky chains surrounded his entire body like some of the other natives of the Frozen continent.

    But the more interesting feature of the two were the scars on the boy¡¯s back. They were intricate and horrifyingly beautiful, but more importantly they spelled out some sort of message.

    On the boy¡¯s back it read, ¡°you are not forgiven, but you will be forgotten.¡± Shimmering blood seemed to ooze out of the words as Joy read them, but Joy was surprisingly unbothered. It was freaky, but he mostly worried about the mental health of the boy who had that written on his back; it seemed rather unhealthy.

    ¡°I¡¯m taking this door. And you should have a doctor, or someone with a healing gift look at your back, that looks nasty.¡± Joy said as he fumbled with the door, trying to hold it as comfortably as possible before running.

    ¡°Huh, what? You read the words?¡± The boy recoiled, looking fearfully around the room. He shook a little bit as he watched, but nothing happened. Instead, he just stayed there looking shocked as Joy started running back down the hall with his new door clutched in his arms.

    The odd event had already left Joy¡¯s mind as he ran back through the oppressive hallways and reached the first door he had entered.

    Joy wondered why his luck had pulled him to this door, of course he loved the new door he was holding and would cherish it, but normally his luck took him to places of importance, not just on flights of whimsy.

    Well, it wasn¡¯t really his problem, he was going to take his new door on a test drive. In the big room, he remembered that he had stumbled over a small snowbank to get to the door, and he was hoping that the people with fire gifts hadn¡¯t melted the pile already.

    Joy barreled through the door, plowing through the unfortunate man who had been standing nearby the door. Then he put his beautiful perfect door to the snowy floor, placed his body on it in a beautiful dive, and let the momentum carry him.

    He started sledding himself across the room.

    The door was beautiful, a true masterwork done in centuries gone by. However, it had not been made for the express purpose of sledding. In truth, it had been made to create little places of privacy within a large open castle and Joy using it as a sled was akin to using an artist¡¯s masterpiece as a bowl for porridge.

    But Joy felt the artisan must be long dead and couldn¡¯t be bothered to care about his beautiful door in whatever place the soul goes after one dies.

    So, Joy continued his tobogganing crusade through the knees of his enemies. No one was expecting the frontal assault from down low, and Joy clubbed groins and smashed shins as he skidded through the castle¡¯s large entrance.

    After several enemies had met the mean end of Joy¡¯s door, the momentum started petering out. His wild ride turned into a luxurious crawl, and he stopped soon after. Joy was rather disappointed at how short lived his joy ride had been, but he figured he could just run back to the doorway he had started from and start again.

    Joy picked up his door and waddled back up to where he had started, making sure to give all the foes he had felled on his way down a good thwack on the head. No one enjoyed the corner of the door smashing into their temple, and Joy did feel a bit bad, but hopefully they would stay down.

    The ride continued. Joy would slide down the small incline on his little door, taking out any enemies that dared to stand in his way, then climb back to the top of the hill. It was an endless cycle, which only improved when the enemies realized that if they just stayed out of Joy¡¯s way, he wouldn¡¯t hit them.

    But all fun eventually comes to an end, and the battle finished with the remaining inky monsters as well as the natives retreating behind the giant double doors near the end of the hall, then having someone collapse the passageway.

    The halls filled with snow and the air filled with sighs. Everyone knew that the hallways filled with snow were not going to excavate themselves, and it would be them doing all that work. One by one, they filed up to Herbert, the man with who made their shovels, and started digging.

    Herbert gave Joy a quick grin as he slid him a shovel. Herbert muttered something about, ¡°good sledding and clobbering,¡± before wandering off to give out more shovels to the needy.

    No one even chastised Joy for leaving in the middle of a heated battle. Lillian and Theo each gave him a good thwack over the head for leaving them behind. But neither Ian nor the prince came over to give Joy a stern lecture. Joy created an equilibrium of being useful and useless that truly kept all his masters at bay.

    A small sigh did escape Joy¡¯s lips as he started toiling away at the rubble and snow. Despite the brief moments of intrigue and danger, this entire adventure had seemed like more of a test of his patience. Such a boring task, digging away at snow for days on end, but he was getting paid well for it. Probably, now that he thought about it, he had never actually discussed his payment with the prince. A problem for future Joy.

    Joy started singing a small song about the unpleasant nature of the god Lust, and some of their more sensitive stories. The tune was filthy and deranged, the rhyming scheme was nearly impossible to keep up with, and yet, little by little, person by person, the song moved from mouth to mouth and ear to ear. Shovels started moving in time to the song and every person hummed to themselves to some degree. Everyone except the prince and Ian, who both looked mildly amused and annoyed at the antics of their group.

    No one had died, or even been injured in this battle, except for the Freer Men. The prince¡¯s medical team, whose gifts could save anyone from anything short of death, had just stood around picking their nails during the entire battle. It had been an ideal victory, and everyone¡¯s mood was rather joyous as the rubble was moved little by little. Small smiles and little laughs filled the cave.

    Joy hoped this trend would continue; happiness lets kinder people flourish, while suffering forges them into something colder. Joy wanted more kindness in this cold place, so he kept digging through the ice, hoping for some more warmth.

 Chapter 35 - The Pain of The Wind

    Kenta had been a guard for the old chief for many years, and his aptitude meant that when the new chief installed new management into the whole tribe, he had merely stayed in the same position.

    The winds had always loved Kenta, they whispered little secrets to him, telling him stories of everything that happened in their domain. Before he had gained his gift, many people in the tribe had just called him crazy, and a looney. But then he started being able to hear everything that happened beneath the wind, and he knew their secrets.

    Once he knew their secrets, no one wanted to call him crazy anymore. Instead, they shifted towards assassination plots, but those were just as seen by the wind.

    The tribe had been a terrifying place before the new chief had quelled all the rabble rousers, but Kenta had been able to survive because he was quick witted and because he knew everything important happening in the tribe.

    This new quest to find some artifact had been a bust in his opinion, since the winds down here were old and refused to tell him their secrets. But he knew it would just take time for the old wind to warm up to him. Or it would get replaced with new, fresher wind from the surface.

    He liked the guarding duty though, since his job was basically done for him by the wind, and he got to keep everyone as safe as possible. It helped assuage all the guilt he felt from all the assassinations he had done back in the old chief¡¯s rule to keep his position within the tribe strong.

    So, Kenta stood in a little corner of the castle they had been excavating, listening to the secrets that the wind told him about the invaders.

    A skirmish had taken place in some abandoned corner of the castle. The invaders had wiped the floor with the skeleton crew that ran that side of the castle, but that was okay. Many of the more powerful tribesman were going to throw a welcoming party for them. All Kenta had to do was let them know when they were about to crash through the last wall and enter the trap zone.

    They were close, and Kenta could almost feel the anticipation in the wind. His tribesmen were filled with anxiety, while the invaders were filled with cheer. But they would know fear, this next battle would show these invaders what the tribe was truly capable of.

    Time passed slowly as the air around Kenta swirled and spoke to him. But after what felt like an eternity, Kenta let out a holler. The new battle would be starting, and the heavy hitters were in the room and ready to attack.

    The new chief was the only person truly missing from their crew, he was spending all his time creating as many sins as he could. Their numbers had been drastically cut by the losses at the battle headed by Tera and the recent skirmish.

    In one corner sat Tera. She was fiddling with her little stones with a predatory grin on her face. After her devastating loss, she had spent quite a bit of time trying to come up with a new way to attack her enemies, and she had been desperate to try it out.

    An old man sat nearby Tera; he was carving little statues out of stone. The man was named Gerard, or at least that was what he said. Other than the old crone who could see some of the future, he was the eldest member of the tribe. The hall they had chosen for this ambush was completely filled with some of his larger statues. He hadn¡¯t pulled everything out of his personal vault of art, but he was dedicating a large amount of it to this battle.

    The final member of the deadly trio was a middle-aged woman named Marge. She was an oddity in the tribes, instead of pale skin, hair, and eyes, she had been born as the natural opposite. Her hair was black as night, her eyes were such a rich brown that ate the light out of the air around her, and even her skin was dark.

    At a young age she had been ostracized for her appearance, but the seer had told everyone that it was a sign. She would be the opposite that the tribe needed, a darkness that makes the light shine brighter. When Marge received her gift, she became the strongest pyrokinetic the tribe had ever seen. Anyone who could create fire was well-respected and well cared for within the tribe, but she had an overwhelming talent and power. Fire moved and her beck and call.

    A somber mood filled the room. Their cannon fodder was going to be the rest of the sins that had been kept for manual labor, but their true heavy hitters were Marge, Gerard, and Tera. A few other minor members of the tribe stood with Kenta, but they were going to act mainly as support for the group.

    The wind gave one final sigh as the calm before the storm. A single breath by the world that Kenta could hear. A collective sigh of resignation, the fight was about to begin.

    Kenta breathed out his own sigh, letting the wind carry his breath to everyone else. They heard a whisper tell them that it was about to begin. Shoulders tensed and eyes hardened. No one spoke as they waited for the other shoe to drop.

    The wind screamed; the wind was crying. And Kenta saw the wall in front of them be cut in half and collapse.

    The sins immediately entered the fray, trying to plug the hole in the wall with their bodies. A similar mass of figures in black, featureless garments went to match the inky black tide of monsters. The figures moved with beautiful precision, and incredible teamwork. Using their skills to try and overcome the inherent power of the monsters. Blades clashed with claws, teeth and fists met. Blood and ink fell on the ground, dyeing it a crimson shade.

    Tera immediately threw her stones out into the crowd and started teleporting to and fro between them. She didn¡¯t attack anyone, but anyone that came close enough to one of the stones was promptly grabbed and teleported off the battlefield. Wherever she was taking them was far away since the wind couldn¡¯t tell Kenta where they were.

    Gerard started throwing his little sculptures into the crowds. Whenever a sculpture broke, it exploded.

    At one point in time, one of the smarter members of the clan tried to make a formula for how explosive one of the sculptures would end up being. It was exponentially proportional to the amount of time and effort put into it. That person theorized that if Gerard ever made a true masterpiece and dedicated a decade to its creation, he would be able to blow up the entirety of the Frozen Continent.

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    But none of that truly influenced Kenta currently, he just felt the wind move around in beautiful bursts of motion, created by the explosions.

    The final member of the terrible three, Marge, started conjuring a massive fireball above her head. But someone in the prince¡¯s line opened her mouth and the fire started moving away from the fireball and started being consumed by the woman. Marge scoffed at the opposing woman¡¯s action.

    Spears of flame started burning themselves into existence around Marge, before launching themselves at the fire eating woman. The woman tried to resist and many of her allies blocked spears from hurting her, but all it took was one to get past the lines of defense and skewer the opposing person who had been gifted by Fire.

    The fire didn¡¯t truly act like fire, it had a kinetic property that broke all the common sense that surrounded how fire should act. Marge should have been able to light fires and throw fireballs, not create physical constructs out of an immaterial substance. And yet her gift from Fire was so overwhelming that it broke beyond the limits supposedly put on fire. Fire became whatever she needed it to be.

    The three heavy hitters were plowing through the enemy lines, and Kenta was pleased at how the operation was going. He listened to the wind, and asked it questions about who was most important on the enemy side.

    The wind told him of four important areas on the enemy¡¯s side. The most important was the older man with a sword. He was the one who had made the wind scream earlier, he was able to hurt the wind, therefore Kenta put him as the most dangerous member of the enemy group. He was currently cutting through the sins like they were barely there. Hopefully the mass of bodies would slow him down enough for the big three to engage him. Just in case, Kenta told some of the kinder winds to throw themselves at him to keep him off balance and cut him if he seemed distracted enough.

    The next most important person was an unassuming man who stood near the back of the group. He would point at an enemy and suddenly they would start having trouble walking, he was ruining all the effort put into the tribe¡¯s formations and plans, simply by pointing at them. But he seemed unable to affect the sins and needed a small contingent of people around him to defend against the mindless mob. Kenta assumed he had some powerful gift, but highly situational, and for some reason the sins were unaffected while all the people were. Kenta let the winds whisper his theories to his allies, they told them to stay vigilant of the man.

    The oddest and most exciting place of interest was a group of three people. They had started near the back of the charge, now they were slowly inching their way towards Marge. Apparently, they had not liked watching her fire skewers into the people around them. None of them seemed particularly strong, and yet a path seemed to open for them. The fighting near them would slowly part as if they were all in some sort of play, and these were the main characters. Kenta let the winds tell Marge of the three people stalking her. She nodded and started throwing fireballs at them.

    The last important figure on the battlefield was by far the most interesting. He was not the strongest person fighting, neither was he a tactician sitting in the rear commanding the troops. He was simply one man who changed the tide of battle through sheer skill and competence. He was obviously labeled as the leader in Kenta¡¯s mind. The young man had shining hair and eyes that would¡¯ve fit in with the tribes and he carried himself like the chief of a different age.

    Kenta labeled the man as a leader. Everyone listened to him, and everyone benefited from his guidance and assistance. Unlike the command of the previous chief or his subordinates, this man did not simply use overwhelming force to solve the problems. Instead, his skill and mind allowed him to push his own troops to overcome their limits and just barely edge out a victory. He was dangerous, and Kenta sent a wisp of air to tell Tera to remove this man from the battlefield.

    The wind eventually found Tera within the mass of violence. It was hard to find a teleporting woman, but the wind slowly wound its way to her. Twisting and turning through it all, until it whispered what Kenta had found.

    Kenta saw Tera¡¯s eyes narrow as she considered her approach to whisk the young man away. Obviously if they could capture the man in charge of this invasion, they could make him stop the whole thing.

    So, she bided her time.

    The young man in question had been observing the whole battle and coming up with strategies to combat them. He had sicked the group of three onto Marge early on in their battles, and with ice and some odd magic, she was being kept under control.

    Shoes were flying around the battlefield and capturing Gerard¡¯s constructs before they could break and explode. Kenta made a note through the wind for everyone to take their shoes off, the man in the back who had a fierce look of concentration on his face was controlling people¡¯s shoes while they were still on their feet. Of course, it gave the man more shoes to use, but the tribesman would be unhampered in their movement from that point onward.

    Many reluctant faces were made, but everyone trusted Kenta¡¯s intuition. The tribesman each took off their shoes before continuing to battle in the fray.

    But most importantly, the young man had figured out that Tera could only teleport to one of her little stones. So, he started having his minions crush the stones underfoot whenever they had the chance. Tera didn¡¯t have many stones to spare, and Kenta heard the wind tell him that tears were rolling down her cheeks, as what was essentially her life¡¯s work was stomped underfoot.

    Patiently, the pieces fell into place, and the wind informed Kenta that the leader himself was next to one of Tera¡¯s stones, preparing to smash it underfoot.

    In a gust of wind, Tera appeared next to the man and grabbed him before disappearing in a similar manner.

    Tera didn¡¯t reappear in the battlefield. Kenta hoped she had taken him to the chief, or the prison, or anywhere that forced this fighting to stop. But after a few bated breaths, Tera did not reappear.

    That was when the older man got serious. His blade had been cutting through the sins like a hot knife through butter, but when he saw the prince disappear his eyes narrowed. The wind told Kenta that he took a few steps back to give himself distance from everything.

    The sheathed sword went over his head. Then in one fluid motion, he made one singular strike. The wind screamed into Kenta¡¯s ears and his vision started to black out. Never had he heard the wind scream that way.

    As his vision came back, Kenta saw that lines of sins had been cut in half. The walls of bodies had fallen to the ground and started leaking black fluid.

    The wind was crying to Kenta, and he cried with it. All the information he was spreading to his allies stopped for a moment, and people started falling to blades. Without his knowledge of the state of the battlefield the tribesmen just couldn¡¯t keep up with the invaders. But Kenta couldn¡¯t care about that. He was mourning the wind.

    That man with the sword had cut the wind. His blade didn¡¯t brush it aside, or plow through it, it had physically cut the wind in the area around the blade. It had created a rend in the air, then the wind was forcibly moved to fill that gap in the space. The sudden fluctuation in the wind created something that resembled a blade of wind that cut through the man¡¯s enemies.

    Kenta cried at the monstrous power of the man, his blade reaped lives on the battlefield; he was drenched in blood and the blacky ink that passed for the blood of the sins.

    He cut his way through, cutting anyone that got in his path.

    He severed the world around him and as the man approached Kenta, Kenta went to his knees and wept. This man was the end, he was the finality of Kenta¡¯s story. As Kenta¡¯s head hit the floor, the wind whispered a final word.

    ¡°Goodbye.¡±

 Chapter 36 - Hot Potato

    The charge into the next room had started so well. Joy felt that the battle cries as Ian blew the final bit of debris out of the way were quite awe inspiring. As they entered the room, Joy noticed a few figures and many inky black monsters. It all seemed so similar to the last time that they had done this that he hadn¡¯t worried at all.

    Then the teleporter jumped into the crowd and took The Heater away. There was no fighting; there was no fanfare. Emmy just disappeared in a moment. Then some lady threw spears made of fire and killed the person running alongside Joy.

    Joy had known that Death may follow the fools who joined in on this quest, yet it was very different to see one of his companions die right in front of him. Joy didn¡¯t even know the poor woman that well. She just died, blood leaking onto the snow and soot around her.

    After seeing the carnage, Joy knew what to do. He shared a quick glance with Theo and Lillian before charging at the fire wielding woman.

    Their team was not at one hundred percent, because Lillian was still ¡°dealing¡± with her gift, but that didn¡¯t mean that they would just stand and watch their teammates get immolated.

    There was no silly pose as Joy approached the woman who controlled fire, instead he shouted a single phrase.

    ¡°Do you want to play a game?¡±

    Joy, Theo, Lillian, and the woman they were bearing down on heard a voice in their heads simultaneously. It was an androgynous voice with no discernable characteristics. It sounded like the most basic voice a person could have, a template for language rather than a person¡¯s personal expression.

    The voice decreed, ¡°unstable hot potato. Do any of you need the rules explained to you?¡±

    The woman reeled back as the voice resounded in her head, looking around to see where it was coming from. At the same time, a large potato appeared in Joy¡¯s hand. It was a hefty potato that was clean. It was a beauty of a potato and Joy experimentally tossed it up and down a few times to find the weight of it.

    Joy, Theo, and Lillian all had no idea what unstable hot potato was. They did know the basic game of hot potato, and all had varying reactions to it. Lillian and Joy immediately started passing the potato back and forth between the two of them, noticing that it was slowly growing hotter, and the color slowly shifted from an earthy brown to more of a deep red.

    In contrast to the two who just started playing the game, Theo asked the voice to explain the rules. Theo swore that he could hear a small sigh emanating from the voice inside his head, but it explained.

    ¡°Unstable hot potato is very similar to normal hot potato. But if the potato is not caught, it will explode with all the stored-up heat and energy stored within the potato. Additionally, course corrections will be applied to all throws to allow catching to always be possible.¡±

    Theo tried to think about the implications of the game, but his train of thought was rudely interrupted when the woman they were charging shrugged her shoulders and started throwing fireballs at them.

    As Joy dodged the bolts of fire, he noticed something interesting. She could give the fire purely kinetic properties, or she could allow it to retain its fire-like properties, but not at the same time. She could throw a spear made of fire that would skewer an enemy like any other spear, or the flames would explode upon contact, creating a miniature fireballs.

    She also seemed limited by her own mind, she couldn¡¯t aim in more than one direction, a spear would either be aimed at him, Theo, or Lillian, but never all at the same time.

    The problem came from the sheer volume of fire she could create. It was a firestorm and only one person was in control of it. Walls of flame appeared in their path, followed by spears that could cut or burn. Joy dodged everything through sheer luck and his unique style of movement, while Theo blocked and distracted her with as much ice as possible to support himself and Lillian.

    Joy had felt the potato in his hand start to heat up as more time passed, and he figured it was time to finally show the lady who she was messing with. He stood his ground as fireballs and fiery spears whizzed by him.

    He glared down at the woman who had eyes that were tinged red from the flames surrounding her. One leg rose into the air, and he let one of his arms drag behind him as he swung his body with as much twisty speed as he could generate. As his arm caught up to his body, Joy released a throw that catapulted the potato at an incredibly high speed with a throw that would make any shot-putter proud.

    The woman looked suspiciously at the potato. No one could rise to such heights of power without knowing that power comes in unique forms. These were unknown combatants with unknown powers, so she mitigated the threat in the most reasonable way possible. She threw a barrage of hardened fire spears at the flying object.

    A wave of flaming spears approached the flying potato, and the woman changed her target back to the moving figures. But she whipped her head around when she caught a slight movement in the corner of her eye.

    She could¡¯ve sworn that the potato moved. In the air the potato moved just slightly, and all her spears passed by the flying potato. It was unbelievable, and even worse, the potato was flying on a direct course towards her.

    She moments before it would collide with her, but she kept her composure. A dome of hardened flames surrounded her, it stood at twice her height and encircled her on all sides.

    The potato smashed into the wall with a force that was unbecoming of its tiny size. The walls of her dome shook, and the potato started sliding to the ground.

    Joy watched as the potato finally touched the ground. As soon as the potato made the slightest contact with the floor, it exploded. The explosion wasn¡¯t world ending, neither was it beautiful. A pocket of flames and force just expanded out of the space that the potato used to be.

    The woman in her dome screamed as the explosion rocked her backwards and the flames licked at her skin. Her eyes were wild, and fear was hidden somewhere deep inside them.

    Joy had watched her and her gift. If he had to describe it in a sentence he would say, ¡®complete and utter control of all the fire nearby her.¡¯ The woman had probably never suffered a burn since she received her gift; fire was her tool, it was subservient to her, it never bit her back.

    But the fire generated by Joy¡¯s games were a different breed of animal compared to the normal fire this woman had dealt with. That fire played only by the rules of the game, and no meager gift could subvert those rules.

    A new potato appeared above Theo¡¯s head, and he reached up to take it. The woman¡¯s eyes shone, and a massive ball of fire burst to life in her hand, the ball slowly condensed in on itself until it was the size of a marble.

    Theo knew something was about to go down, so he started conjuring walls of ice between him and the fiery woman. Wall after wall appeared, each was a hand thick, and they stood tall and proud.

    The marble of flames tore through the first wall, then the second, and it kept going. The marble burnt holes through everything, it was a near unstoppable force.

    Theo tossed the potato at Lillian, who started juggling it back and forth between her hands. As the final wall was melted through, Theo dove to the side. The marble blew by his head, missing by barely a hand¡¯s width. The heat coming off it was so intense that the edge of Theo¡¯s hair started smoking.

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    The marble seemed to stop for a moment as indecision filled the fire woman¡¯s eyes. She could take out this one enemy, or she could keep going after the potato. A grimace appeared on her face as she realized she had to focus on the gods damned potato.

    The marble of flames zipped away from Theo¡¯s face, and he let a sigh of relief, before quickly smushing out the embers that had started to form in his hair.

    Joy and Lillian had closed the distance to the woman. Now they were encircling her on either side, lobbing the potato back and forth between them. The potato was growing dangerously hot, and Joy knew that if they went on, even for a few more moments, their hands would start burning. So, he threw the potato at the woman in a last-ditch effort.

    Joy felt the heat of the marble approach his head from behind, and by pure luck, his foot slipped out from under him. Theo had made many patches of ice around the field of combat, and Joy¡¯s foot touched one, and suddenly he was on the floor.

    The marble of flames zoomed over Joy¡¯s head by a hair, lighting a bit of Joy¡¯s hair on fire, as it targeted the flying potato.

    This potato had been misshapen and a bit lumpy. It arcs was less predictable because of its uneven distribution of weight, so the marble nicked the edge of the potato, but didn¡¯t blow it to smithereens and the woman had intended.

    The potato¡¯s trajectory changed a little bit, but it was still very close to the flame wielding woman. She dismissed her marble in a puff of smoke, before creating a massive barrier of flames between herself and the potato.

    The potato was hit by a flying piece of debris, that skewed its trajectory directly to the side of the wall of flames and the woman behind it. But then a miracle occurred. A second piece of debris came out of nowhere and hit the potato hard enough to change its trajectory to be right at the woman again, without the fire impeding its path.

    Theo, Joy, Lillian, and the woman watched in dumbstruck awe as the potato glided towards the woman. It was improbable, impossible even.

    Theo muttered under his breath, ¡°Course corrections my ass, that¡¯s some bullshit.¡±

    The potato flew at the woman, no longer moving at its initial high speed. Now it lollygagged in the air towards the woman. The woman¡¯s hands reflexively reached out and snatched it out of the air.

    She stared at the potato, then back at the three people closing in on her, then back at the potato.

    A small yelp escaped her lips as she had finally noticed the heat radiating off the potato, but she thew the potato behind her, in hopes that it would disappear and never become her problem again.

    The woman waved her arms and a wall of spears appeared and launched themselves at Joy and Lillia. Theo froze some walls between them and the spears, trying to support his two friends, but it was an onslaught that only their personal skill could save them from.

    Dipping and ducking, the two of them weaved through the flying weapons. Not even one singed their hair. There was just such grace to their movements as they danced their way closer. Lillian even had time to snatch the potato off a spear flying at her.

    She let out a small whimper of pain that was thankfully muffled by the sounds of combat all around her. The potato was hot enough to truly burn anyone¡¯s hands, and she knew that she shouldn¡¯t close the distance anymore. The explosion this potato would make was going to be a big one.

    Lillian arced the potato and it flew true, straight into the woman. She had obviously figured out the trick to the potato by now. Adaptability was truly the greatest strength of any warrior and being able to adjust to an enemy¡¯s unique gifts was the only thing that stood between Life and Death sometimes.

    The woman confidently stretched out her hand and caught the potato, and immediately dropped it. Her hand was bright red where it had touched the hot potato. She blew on it, forgetting about the potato for a split second as the pain hit her.

    Then the world around the woman turned red.

    The explosion knocked Joy and Lillian to the ground, and chunks of rock were sent flying out as shrapnel. Theo had formed a massive wall of ice around himself that he felt cracking under the extreme stress.

    When the wall finally cracked and fell, Theo looked out across the room; he immediately noticed where his teammates lay and rushed towards them. Even though they had taken on one of the heavy hitters of their enemies, one of those inky monsters could kill them if they were unconscious.

    Theo found Lillian lying face down coughing weakly. It was a powerful explosion that had taken a toll on everyone around them. No one was fighting near their little scuffle anymore; people had realized they would be caught in the crossfire of these powerful gifts if they tried to step in. Theo heard Joy wheezing and almost giggling to himself. He was relieved that Joy was safe, but Theo did wish that the man had a bit more class than giggling in the middle of an assault.

    As the smoke cleared from where the detonation took place, a figure wreathed in flames stood imposingly. She took heaving breaths, and gouts of flame burst from her face every time she did so. She burned with power and hatred, staring into the faces of the three who had done this to her.

    The woman was severely injured, and the only thing holding her together was the armor made of flames that wrapped around her body. Without it she would be dead, and even with it she was only standing through sheer willpower.

    She looked at Theo and he started forming walls of ice around her, trying to keep her isolated in one place. His teammates had put everything they had into that last attack, and they were going to die if he didn¡¯t keep them safe.

    The woman drew her arm up above her head, then raised one finger. Above it, a billowing ball of fire appeared, then shrunk down to the size of a marble. It obviously took effort, and it seemed to pain her to strain this much with her gift, but little by little the ball condensed, until a pinpoint of flames was left.

    The point of condensed heat and light exploded outwards. A trail of sparks and miniature explosions were left in its wake. The force that tore out of it blew warriors and tribespeople alike off their feet from the sheer power.

    Theo looked at his impending doom. He thought of his life, how little he had accomplished with it. He felt so small in the scale of the world, his family and always pushed such big aspirations upon him, and he had let them down at every opportunity. He was not the prodigal son that they needed, he was a simple man with simple abilities, and simple wants.

    He simply wanted to survive, and maybe start devoting himself to his artistic passions.

    Theo¡¯s blue eyes shook as he saw the point of light get closer and closer to him and Lillian.

    He simply wanted to see his best friend in the whole world overcome her inner tribulations and become stronger and better from them.

    The walls of ice were blown to pieces as the pinpoint struck them, nothing could slow it. Its approach was inevitable and unstoppable, Theo could feel the breath of Death hanging over his shoulder.

    He wanted the power to stop this attack.

    Theo felt his eyes watering as the blistering heat started getting closer and closer to him.

    An unstoppable calm took over his body for a moment as he saw the end coming, and a wall of ice larger and stronger than anything he had ever made before appeared in front of him. It was beyond cold, and Theo could feel the heat being sapped from everything around the wall.

    The wall was imposing and crystal clear. It stood in defiance against Theo¡¯s opposition, it was the final defense he never knew he had.

    Then the point of light crashed into the wall and started melting through.

    The ice sapped heat from the pinprick of light, but it wasn¡¯t nearly enough. The light grew the tiniest bit dimmer, but it was unstoppable in Theo¡¯s eyes.

    He looked around, hoping to find some magical solution to the end that was coming. Maybe Ian or the prince could save them somehow?

    Yet there was no answer, no salvation. Only the undying heat of this woman¡¯s rage.

    Then a potato appeared above the woman¡¯s head and started to fall towards the ground. Her head whipped upwards at the sight of a potato appearing out of nowhere and the pinpoint of light stopped in the middle of Theo¡¯s icy wall.

    Her eyes widened and she screamed, ¡°Shit!¡±

    The potato was just barely out of reach, an arm¡¯s length, and a smidge away from her. She knew the potato was a threat, and she knew that she had to catch the potato no matter what.

    But she was weakened, her body was moments away from giving out on her. So, she did the only thing she could.

    She toppled over and stretched her arms out. She slid on the ground until her hands were directly beneath the potato and she caught the damn thing.

    The woman let out a terrible laugh that turned into a wracking cough. Her eyes were tinged red from the fire that surrounded her entire body and they bored into Theo¡¯s eyes. A look a of disbelief and incredulity was on her face, and she passed out, finally succumbing to the pain of her injuries.

    All the fire she conjured winked out of existence as soon as she passed out. All that was left of this monumental battle was a half-melted wall of ice and burn marks all over the floor.

    Theo carefully stood up, surveying the battle around them. It was an absolute shitshow from all sides.

    Ian had started cutting lines through the opposing forces. All the inky monsters had been bisected by this point and many of the human combatants had lost their heads.

    Theo couldn¡¯t find the prince though, no matter how hard he searched for the man, he just was not in the battle anymore.

    The room that had been filled with sculptures and art before this assault. Now blood and the inky equivalent of it stained the floors everywhere.

    Theo saw one of the older men on the other side of the room survey the combat much like he was, before convening with a woman who was next to him. He shook his head sadly before waving his hand at the woman. She disappeared and started reappearing next to the enemy soldiers, touching them, and disappearing again.

    People noticed this of course, but no one was able to stop her sneaky teleportation shenanigans. She was too wily with her movements and skills.

    Finally, only the older man he had seen earlier was left. The old man clasped his hands together and a single tear left the side of his face. The woman appeared next to him and the two disappeared leaving only the prince¡¯s forces in the cavern.

    Then every one of the statues in the cavern exploded in a shower of flames, and the world turned white.

 Chapter 37 - Fire, Blood, and Tears

    Joy had been having a rough time recently. Getting into a fight with a super powerful Fire gifted ended up giving him quite a few burns. It had been a miserably difficult game to play, evading all her attacks while also juggling the potato back and forth with Lillian.

    After they had finally struck the decisive blow, Joy had been hit with the blast from his own throw, which sucked big time. And he hurt.

    His eyes felt like they were going to throw themselves out of his head, while simultaneously his ears were ringing in a monotone symphony.

    The worst part was his face though. He could feel that he had been burnt. His beautiful face, which brought so much happiness to everyone around him, was going to have blisters and be lobster red for weeks. It was a travesty to the world itself.

    He laid on the ground, sitting with his pain and misery, waiting for the battle to end and one of the healers to come and fix him right up.

    It was times like this where he missed the village healer back from his home. She was somehow always wherever she was needed. He remembered the times she had saved his life, and wondered what she would think of him here and now. Everyone back in his village, he wondered what they thought of him.

    They would probably think he was stupid for punching above his weight class and tell him that he should¡¯ve been content back on his father¡¯s farm. ¡®No one gets hurt out here in the backwaters of the kingdom,¡¯ he could almost hear them say in his head.

    But his inner reverie was rudely interrupted as all the random statues in the room exploded.

    Joy had never been a real pyromaniac. A few of the older kids had gotten gifts from Fire in his little village and they had been his only true experience with fire.

    There had been a whole crew of them that had wandered around the village, wearing lots of leather and lighting some random trees on fire.

    He had thought they were so cool, and he had tried to join their little posse. But apparently, they had no use for little kids who didn¡¯t know shit. He had only cried a little bit, and his mom had made him some amazing cookies to make him feel better.

    Unfortunately, this explosion was of a caliber that was far beyond anything the little crew back in his hometown had ever made. And there were no cookies to make him feel better.

    The initial wave of force blasted him away from Theo and Lillian. He was somewhat grateful to Fate or Luck since Theo and Lillian seemed safe. The massive wall that Theo had erected earlier would shield them from the brunt of the explosions.

    Joy felt his body start to burn as he was carried through the room. The heat was abysmally hot, and the pain was excruciating. Joy was intrigued by this intensity of the pain he felt. It was unlike anything he had ever experienced before. His body was breaking apart and his flesh was melting, but it was oddly meditative.

    Joy had never felt what death felt like before and it was a new experience. Enjoyable wasn¡¯t the right word, but it was certainly new.

    Happenstance and luck.

    Those were the forces of Joy¡¯s life. All life is incidental, a cosmic accumulation of probability and chance. But his life, Joy¡¯s, had always seemed to work out. He was the beloved of the world. It loved him for the way that he loved it.

    The explosions initially sent him flying towards the corpses of the inky monsters. The corpses themselves were not completely still during this explosion. They also were picked up and thrown around the room. Joy collided with one monster, then the next, his body cascading from one to the next. Bouncing back and forth in an unseen game of cosmic corpse tennis.

    His trajectory was slightly altered by every strike, until his course put him into a place of safety.

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    What was left of Joy landed in a spot where the explosions could not touch. He landed right behind the old sword master Ian.

    Ian¡¯s blade was drawn out of its scabbard, and he was doing the slowest cut Joy had ever seen. But the flames, the force, the very essence of the explosion was held at bay by his singular strike.

    The red was split by his blade, the force, the heat. It all parted around Ian and the few people close to him.

    Joy wondered if any of the healers had survived this explosion. If they had, he had a pretty good chance of surviving.

    Then he passed out in a pool of his own yuck.

    When Joy woke up, he realized two things. He had been healed and he was not in a comfortable little cot. They had rudely placed him on the floor of the cavern. Though, it was still warm from the explosion, and oddly comfortable. But it was more the sentiment that mattered, he wanted to be babied when he was near death, not treated like a ragdoll.

    He peeled his eyes open to survey the carnage that had been brought upon them. Barely thirty people had survived this explosion. The lucky people and the people with defensive gifts were the only people to weather the onslaught.

    Joy had known that death was a very real possibility on this adventure, but he had never been brought so close to it. Many of the nonessential crew were left behind in camps so they hopefully wouldn¡¯t be gutted and forced to leave, but so many talented and strong people had perished in a moment.

    It was all rather sobering.

    People were milling around and grieving. Quite a few bodies were piled in the corners of the room, and people were paying respects to them. Wishing that Death granted them a reprieve from the pain of this life and that they could move on.

    No one really worshipped Death in the ways that other gods were worshipped, but everyone respected them. Death was the end, and the end deserves respect, no matter what.

    Joy wandered over to Lillian and Theo. They were sitting somberly in a corner. Theo looked like he was holding back some tears and Lillian looked on at the scene in a sort of detached horror.

    Joy had been new to this whole gang. His galivanting made him forget that these people under the prince¡¯s command all knew each other for years, they were a close-knit community that he was on the outskirts of. How could he understand his friends¡¯ pain, how could he even console them?

    Instead of getting hung up, Joy sat next to them and held their hands. A small gesture, but one that was appreciated, he felt. Lillian¡¯s hand was limp and weak, so he provided support to her hand. Theo¡¯s hand was shaky and gripped tightly, so Joy relaxed his own hand and let Theo squeeze as much as he needed.

    Joy had learned that no one could give anyone else their answer to life. It was a deeply personal question, and that telling anyone else would ruin another¡¯s understanding of the topic. So, he didn¡¯t tell them about what life meant to him, about how he felt these lives weren¡¯t meaningless, about the love he would show each of their memories. He let them come to those answers themselves, slowly.

    Ian gathered the groups in mourning slowly. He was not a kind man, if anything Joy would call him callous. But he made sure to treat every grieving person with kindness and respect as he guided them towards the center of the destroyed room.

    Ian looked deeply inn everyone¡¯s eyes and said, ¡°we lost the prince. There is no way we can go back to the mainland without him. The king would have a conniption if he found out that we lost his son, even though he isn¡¯t the heir.¡±

    He paused for a moment to gather his thoughts, before continuing. ¡°I cannot make you wade into these dangers with me, but we will need the extra manpower to save the fool. So, either leave now and help the cleanup crews we left behind or stand with me as we continue into this castle.¡±

    ¡°We will find the prince, and we will find his stupid treasure.¡± With that proclamation many of the grieving moved towards the exit. They wanted to leave, and Joy couldn¡¯t blame them. They had all joined this adventure, enamored with the idea of exploring a new continent, and they had forgotten the mortality rate of these little expeditions. The reality had hit them here, so they left.

    The ones who remained were a unique assortment. There were the people like Lillian, who felt so indebted to the prince, that they couldn¡¯t imagine their lives without him. There were those who continued out of a need for revenge. There were those who stayed because they felt they could save more people in the coming battles. And then there was Joy.

    Joy stayed because he wanted to see this story through until its end. He wasn¡¯t some punk who would walk out of this just because it got hard. When the odds were stacked against him was when he did best. No one great gambler made their money without betting anything, and Joy was going to risk it all on this.

    Ian looked at the motley crew who stayed and sighed. He was unimpressed, but this was going to have to do. Ian had a prince to save, and he needed help to do that.

    ]Everyone took one last look at the retreating forms of their friends and comrades who couldn¡¯t do it. They were going to have to shoulder their burdens and carry on in this battle.

    When the trickle of people leaving finally tapered off, Ian boldly started walking towards the other exit of the room.

    The time for subterfuge and finesse was over, they had been doing it the prince¡¯s and Sam¡¯s way before. Now it was time for blood to be spilled, time for Bloody Ian to come back out to play.

 Chapter 38 - A Prince On The Sidelines

    David had been doing a great job in the battle. He had kept his eyes open and surveyed the each section of combat, being rational and ready to adapt rather than headstrong in the overall fight.

    Ian had started carving his way through the enemies. Clive was using his shoes to harass the enemies in important places. Joy and his team had started tracking down the woman who was wielding flames.

    The entire field was in David¡¯s eyes, he was a bird of prey, watching for his moment. Every time an enemy started getting too successful; he was there knocking them back down. Every time his allies faltered; he was supporting them. A hero to his allies and a villain to his enemies, he was nearly without peer.

    There was one true thorn in his side in this battle. The woman who teleported all over the field and took his troops somewhere else.

    He had seen The Heater get taken by the woman and felt quite bad. He wasn¡¯t sure what the restrictions on the woman¡¯s ability was, but hopefully it wasn¡¯t instant death. The Heater had kept morale up, and it was a true loss to see her get taken by that woman.

    So, he started devising a plan to remove that woman from the field. He conferred with Clive, who agreed with his assumptions.

    There were little engraved stones all over the floor of the chamber they were in. The woman was using all the confusion and explosions to move the stones wherever they could do the most damage, but she could only teleport to those stones.

    He had Clive start to collect as many as he could find while he started making himself look vulnerable.

    David was hoping that he could fool the woman into approaching him, wherein he would use his superior skills to take her out. At the very least, he knew that her ability to teleport other people relied on physical touch, so as long as he avoided her, he would be fine.

    Everything started going well. The stones were slowly being rounded up by the occasional shoe, while David himself was helping a small group of Freer Men combat the sins. The Freer Men were so fluid and beautiful, their physical acumen was what David strove for, and he had enjoyed this opportunity to spend some time with the church¡¯s true elites.

    They flowed as a perfect team. While a powerful person with a gift could decimate armies, these people were hit squads comprised of people who could think quickly on their feet. They would engage and adapt to whatever the enemy had, all the while at a total disadvantage. None of them could shoot laser beams, instead they brought fist to face with nothing other than pure skill.

    The prince was a little biased when it came to them since he had based his original fighting style on theirs. Being told he was a waste his entire life and that any gifted person would defeat him in an instant, he looked towards the sect of warriors who refused to use their gifts as inspiration to be better.

    He had grown out of using their style over the years. Now he used more of a blend of Ian¡¯s style and dirty tricks rather than pure skill. No one expected their opponent to throw a knife at their crotch.

    The style had also evolved because he wasn¡¯t truly planning on being a frontline fighter, he was a leader first and foremost. He would never be a Bloody Ian, cutting down legions. He would lead his men to greatness instead.

    David had been flourishing on this battlefield, helping those of his group that were weakened, while bolstering those who were strong. But he had slowly been making his way to one of the engraved stones that the wily woman could teleport between.

    His approached was meandering and flawed; he did not want her to know that they had figured out how her gift worked, or that they were planning to ambush her.

    David found himself nearby one of the stones. Slowly, laboriously, he turned his back towards the stone. Hoping that the target he was putting on his back would entice his prey to strike.

    And strike she did.

    In an instant she appeared behind him and reached out her hand. Her fingers were a hair¡¯s breadth away from his face when he suddenly fell.

    David had immediately started moving his body away when he felt the rush of air that signaled the woman teleporting behind him. As he fell, David kicked the woman in the stomach, sending her flying away and coughing.

    The woman had a shocked look on her face as she was sent careening backwards. She schooled her face back to impassive as she went tumbling, then she reappeared next to the prince with all her momentum from the kick gone.

    The prince had not been idle during this time though. He was stood back up and brandished his throwing knives. Once she appeared, a volley of them were thrown. But she wasn¡¯t without her own tricks. She disappeared to some other place on the battlefield that the prince couldn¡¯t see. He narrowed his eyes and tried to scan as much of the ongoing battle as possible without taking his attention off the stone that the woman could appear out of at any moment.

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    His eyes narrowed and the woman reappeared. She blitzed him, forgoing all sorts of technique to make sure that she touched him even the slightest. However, the prince was no slouch and he twisted and turned around her wild strikes.

    She grew angrier and angrier as more and more of her strikes were evaded. As her rage was reaching a new high, a small blade flew directly at her face. The woman barely jerked her head aside as the small knife flew by. A single cut was splayed across her forehead and blood started seeping into her eye.

    The prince was celebrating in his head. A teleporter was dangerous and tough to beat through skill, but that¡¯s where dirty tricks came in to even the playing field.

    The woman had enough of playing the prince¡¯s game, so she shifted her strategy. Her teleportation was not limited to only the stones themselves. The area around the stone was converted into her teleporting space. So, instead of teleporting between two separate stones, she moved herself inside of her area of influence.

    She teleported directly behind the prince. He was somehow ready for this maneuver though. As soon as he saw her disappear, he dove to the ground in front of him.

    Her hands grasped nothing but air again as her attempt was foiled. But this time David¡¯s feet flew into her feet, knocking her off her feet. She stumbled and started to fall. David closed the rest of the distance with a quick turn and a dash.

    His fist met her face with a resounding crack as he felt her nose break under the pressure. Blood started to gush out of her nose and tears formed in the woman¡¯s eyes. Hoping to press his advantage, David started smashing his elbow into her face repeatedly.

    It was brutal, but he couldn¡¯t let up. His army needed him on the battlefield to support them, but this woman needed to be taken out.

    In his brutal fury David forgot that the woman was not entirely incapacitated yet, and that her win condition was relatively small. Her hand brushed his leg and the two of them disappeared from the battlefield.

    Once David realized he was no longer on the battlefield, he immediately ran. He disregarded the woman who was bleeding profusely and probably had a concussion now, he just got up and ran as fast as he could. Hoping that whatever spot he had been placed wasn¡¯t a deathtrap.

    Unfortunately for the prince, he crashed his head into a set of bars almost instantly. Disoriented he tried to sit down but tumbled into a man sitting on the floor. He was nude and had the physique of a man who used to be incredibly strong, but the muscles had long since atrophied. His beard was unkempt and there were stains across it. His eyes were the most striking feature though. There was nothing behind those eyes. He seemed entirely gone, they were the eyes of a dead man, his body just hadn¡¯t caught up yet.

    Once he regained his bearings, the prince tried to locate the teleporter, but she had teleported away. Leaving the prince in a small cell, with a crazy looking man.

    ¡°Shit.¡±

    The prince couldn¡¯t hear the sounds of battle. Which meant that the entire thing had tapered off or he was far enough away from the action that the sound didn¡¯t carry to him.

    Neither of those things were particularly good for him personally, but he hoped his men were doing well. If they were, they would hopefully come and save him. Ian would come at the very least, and he was basically a one-man army.

    David despised not being able to do anything, so he started cataloguing everything he knew, and what he still had available to him.

    He knew that there was one massive tribe that lived here in the frozen continent. That tribe was fractured in many ways since no one area could truly support the entire culture. Therefore, they were constantly travelling in smaller groups devised to help them survive optimally in these conditions. He knew that there had recently been a shift in the power structure of the tribe. The last head-honcho had mysteriously been taken out of commission and some new man had stepped up.

    David even knew that this new leader was the person who had been sending the inky monsters, called sins, to the mainland to try and grab some nifty artifacts. The new leader needed materials and power; David assumed that the man had some grand master plan that was all coming to fruition. Unfortunately, this man was now searching for the Kingmaker, which put him directly at odds with David and what had led to him being put in this cell, with a smelly old man.

    David then catalogued his items. He still had his combat robes on. They were comfy and allowed for ease of movement with powerful magical defenses. He still had many of his throwing knives along with his gloves.

    His gloves were his personal weapon and were a matte black set of beautiful gloves. In lieu of a gift that allowed for offense, David had spent years searching for a powerful artifact from the first or second ages that would supplement his fighting capabilities. After an exhaustive search he had found these gloves that allowed him to conjure a sword into his hands magically. It wasn¡¯t a super flashy ability, but it gave him a powerful weapon that he could constantly reconjure.

    Despite its awesomeness, David¡¯s sword would not help him out of this situation. He figured his best shot was to use one of his smaller knives to fiddle with the lock and hope that it unlocked magically.

    The tribesmen were probably not going to eat him, probably. But he figured he should hedge his bets by not being in the cage when they eventually came back.

    So, the prince of a continent started fiddling with a lock.

    There was no good reason that it should have worked. The prince had no experience picking locks or using knives as lockpicks, yet somehow all the stars aligned properly to let him out of the cage.

    He left the door wide open, hoping that the other man in the cage would use the opportunity to escape. The man¡¯s escape with further camouflage the prince¡¯s attempt to do the same thing, however the man just sat in the cage. His lifeless eyes staring out into the void.

    The prince¡¯s shoes muffled the noise of his footsteps as he started travelling through the layers of the castle.

    He was obviously still in the massive castle that his soldiers had discovered, and where Sam had said that the kingmaker sat.

    The natives had obviously been going at this expedition much longer than him and his researchers. But they still hadn¡¯t found the artifact yet, which was a miracle in the prince¡¯s opinion. Either these people were so incompetent that they were useless, or so unlucky that nothing worked out for them.

    He wandered down halls and slid on snowy patches that weren¡¯t well illuminated. He stuck to the shadows and made sure that he looked twice before every step. Being caught at any juncture was failure, and the prince never failed.

    Eventually he heard the noise of a small scuffle and some shouting. The prince assumed that the jig was up, and that someone had finally noticed his absence. He had been able to hide for a long time, and his enemies would have expected him to run as far away as possible. But they didn¡¯t know David. He was going to go into the belly of the beast to retrieve his prize, no matter what it took.

 Chapter 39 - Back to Dreaming

    Lillian hated feeling useless. She knew that she wasn¡¯t a mover and shaker like some of the people that ran in Prince David¡¯s circles, but she could hold her own. She had been raised on a farm in the middle of nowhere, getting by with pure grit in their little community. Her gift may not have made her a better farmer like the rest of her family, but she put in the work.

    Not dreaming felt like the bad days on the farm again. The days when her family told her that they didn¡¯t mind if she took the day off.

    It was never said with vitriol or unkindness, it was just a statement of fact. Her contributions were negligible, so she should go do something else other than farm.

    The feeling of weakness and uselessness is what brought her into the prince¡¯s fold. She never would have been happy to leave her family, but she yearned to be needed, to be useful like everyone else.

    This battle had been a stark reminder of how it felt to be useless. Of course, she had contributed. She had been playing one of Joy¡¯s games with him, and with their combined teamwork, they were able to overcome the fiery woman. But it felt hollow to her.

    She was not performing at her greatest, she was not the shining example of power and responsibility that she yearned to be. She was another face in the masses. And that was unacceptable.

    But what could she change? Her gift was fighting back against her, and she had no way of regaining control of it. Even the mere flashes of dreams she retained were filled with her constantly running away from Susan and her posse of nightmare creatures.

    She needed to fight back in this world, but she had no real power in the dreamscape. Susan held all the power in the dreams, and now that power was leaking out into the real world.

    What could she do to one-up the demon? What advantage could she muster up in the face of such overwhelming power?

    A smile spread across Lillian¡¯s face as she reached a state of personal enlightenment. She had been going about the question the wrong way, instead of letting her fear of Susan drive her, she should take control of the situation again. Susan¡¯s power left a lasting effect on Lillian in the real world, but Lillian had an advantage in the real world that Susan did not.

    The entire group was taking a short rest to let their souls be at ease after watching many friends die or run away. This was a terrifying mission that no none was taking lightly, so before they started truly pushing, Ian had allowed their group a small window of rest. Lillian was going to take advantage of this short rest though.

    With a pep in her step that had been missing in the past few weeks, Lillian made her way to the healer¡¯s tent.

    __

    Lillian was in a dream. Especially with the latent fear she had been feeling from the dreamworld recently, the difference between reality and the dreamland felt much more visceral to her. She could feel the cotton edges of the framework of the dream caress her skin, inviting and yet terrifying to her.

    She was standing on a boat made of rice. She wasn¡¯t quite sure how that worked, but the rice boat was floating down a lazy river. The slowest moving river that Lillian had ever seen in her life. The Hearted Continent was filled with rivers that flowed throughout, but none of them ever moved this slow, it was a glacial pace.

    The banks on either side were shrouded in smoke and mist respectively. A heat was on her left side, it felt like a fire was trying to jump out of that side. An emanating cold was coming from the right, the fog that covered that bank seemed to twinkle in the light, it seemed like it could freeze and drop at any moment.

    Taken by a powerful urge, Lillian extended her arms out to either side of her body. The cold on one side and heat on the other slowly wormed their way into her body. They fought, but it was two siblings fighting over who got the largest piece of cake. There was no bloodshed in her body as the two forces met, more of an amicable roughhousing.

    She took one deep breath and let it out. Fire and ice consumed and were destroyed by each other as she let it out of her body. There was a peace in the air around her that she hadn¡¯t felt in the dream world for a long time.

    Lillian knew that she could leave the dream with the power of fire and ice. Almost all gifts gave their user an inherent understanding of what their abilities could do. Therefore, Lillian knew that she could be content with taking this little piece of power. She would be a demoness of the battlefield, wielding fire and ice like extensions of her body.

    She could feel it in her bones though. The world knew of her plans and was trying to appease her. To keep her from enacting her daring plan. She laughed at the world and its feeble attempt though.

    ¡°Trying to bribe me out of it just convinces me that it will work.¡± She bellowed into the mist and steam. The very fabric of reality cringed away from her as she shouted, like a puppy who had been kicked by its owner. But she knew that it was just a fa?ade.

    When she had first gotten her power, she had been afraid of it. Nightmares could come to life and attack her, but as she had grown more confident the fear had abated. Then Susan had made all that fear come back. The dreamland was an untamed realm of desire, there was no bad or good, and it would consume her in a moment¡¯s notice if it could.

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    The realm seemed to sigh around her, as if in resignation. Lillian paid it no mind, she simply continued cycling the hot and cold energies within her body, letting the power accumulate.

    Susan swam to the surface of the river in front of the rice boat. Susan¡¯s form was that of a beautiful young woman and man that had been smushed together. Each one was startlingly beautiful alone, but the two bodies being one created an abstract horror that only the dream world could create.

    The woman half of Susan had startlingly red hair, while the male side of the demon had brown hair. There was a deep divide between the styles of hair, one was flowing and long red locks, while the other was short and cropped.

    Susan ran their fingers through the red side of the hair while staring at Lillian.

    ¡°This is not your place human. Leave.¡± Susan said in a wavering tone. Only after being tormented by the demon for so many years did Lillian catch the uncertainty in their voice.

    ¡°That¡¯s where you¡¯re wrong Susan. This place is the seat of my power, in this place I am an unbowed king. I had forgotten that. You made me forget that, but not anymore.¡± It was a soft declaration, one that was the culmination of all the fear and hatred fermenting inside of Lillian. But it struck a chord with the world around her.

    It seemed to be a universal fact for a brief moment, that Lillian was strong, and Susan was weak.

    The brief interaction was forced to end though. It may have been meaningless in the end, but the sides needed to air their feelings towards each other before the battle began. And no one could get angry with some pre battle banter.

    Susan struck first. Moving like lightning, or maybe the world slowed down around them until their personal speed exceeded what should be physically possible. Truly it didn¡¯t matter, the laws of physics were more like guidelines in the dream world anyways.

    Susan¡¯s claws came crashing down into the rice boat. Lillian had seen the demon move and had already started to reposition herself. The swirling energies of hot and cold mixed inside of her and she released a gout of the powerful heat energy, pushing her body out of the way of Susan¡¯s vicious strike.

    The rice boat was split in half, and whatever dream logic had kept the grains of rice stuck together faded away as the rice slowly broke apart and spread throughout the water.

    Lillian sunk beneath the water but found that her breathing and movement was not hampered by it. She could move as normal while using the cold energy that swirled inside of her to create extra ice platforms to leap off.

    Susan followed Lillian into the water, trying to capitalize on the initiative they had taken by attacking first. But Lillian was not so easily taken, she ducked and dodged beneath the savage swipes made by the demon, as elusive as striking the very water that surrounded the two of them.

    Susan finally overextended, and Lillian let loose a gout of flames that consumed the demon where they stood in the murky water. Lillian knew that water couldn¡¯t truly catch on fire, but this was the dreamworld, and it always did as it pleased, never conforming to anything as banal as reality.

    The demon was shocked, but unphased in the long run. Pain was an ephemeral feeling in the dreamworld, so it would not stop a being as powerful as Susan.

    A burning hand pierced through the veil of flames that Lillian had conjured, the hand moved unerringly towards Lillian, and she was unable to move out of the way.

    The hand speared directly through Lillian¡¯s stomach, and she puked up a bit of blood onto the demon¡¯s face. Susan simply opened a mouth that had not been on their head before and swallowed up the gob of blood that sat on them.

    The fight stopped as the combatants felt something affecting the world around them. Susan knew that if they could just kill Lillian, the battle would be over, while Lillian knew that she just had to stall out the demon and accumulate more power. Even while impaled Lillian was absorbing even more of the rampant cold and hot energies in the air around her.

    Finally, in a crescendo, Lillian defied gravity herself and lifted her legs around Susan¡¯s body. The demon tried to pull away from the embrace, but Lillian was far too strong. Simultaneously Lillian placed both of her hands on each of the two faces cheeks. It was a loving embrace, the dance of death.

    In a sudden breath, all the hot and cold energies in Lillian¡¯s body were expelled in a violent rush. The hot hand matched along with the redheaded woman¡¯s head, while the cold energies went into the plain looking man.

    Susan exploded.

    The energies were harmonious inside of Lillian¡¯s body, but this release was a violent technique, it truly and utterly destroyed. Parts of Susan¡¯s body were frozen solid, only to quickly explode as they were violently heated up. Susan turned into gobs of meat floating along the water.

    All that was left of the epic battle were a few of the larger blobs of flesh and the massive hole in Lillian¡¯s gut. The hole in her gut however seemed to be healing at a prodigious rate.

    Healers were truly an inexplicable thing; they could heal someone from nearly anything except death. A true gift of Health might have even been able to cure death, but Lillian didn¡¯t need to beat death, she just needed one of the medics outside to treat the injuries that Susan gave her in the battle.

    Lillian had been so terrified because of Susan affecting her in the real world, but she had forgotten the most important thing about the real world. She wasn¡¯t alone in the real world. Here in the dreaming, she was always alone, and it had bled into her strategies for dealing with the problem. But she didn¡¯t need to take care of the problem in totality, all she needed to do was fight Susan and keep them from instantly killing her, allowing the healer to do their job.

    A sigh of true contentment left Lillian¡¯s lips as she gazed out into the water and surveyed the carnage of the battle she had just fought. Chunks still floated in the water, and she could see them pulsing slightly, trying to pull themselves back together. That was fine, there was no way to kill a dream, but she had stalled them for a time.

    Lillian rose back to the surface of the water and took one last breath of the strange energy before opening her eyes.

    The healer¡¯s tent was bloody, and she felt a phantom ache in her stomach where the demon had impaled her, but she was safe. The healer gave her odd looks as they ushered her out of the tent; obviously, watching a woman¡¯s stomach suddenly get punched out by nothing must have been a little strange for them.

    But Lillian didn¡¯t care, she sauntered over to her team with a little smile on her face. She felt mentally better than she had for a while and inside of her she could feel a strange energy writhing around. She felt the power that she held for a fleeting moment and knew that it was going to be a showstopper.

 Chapter 40 - Arch Nemeses

    When was splitting up ever a good idea?

    Joy hadn¡¯t really thought about how absolutely idiotic this plan had been when the remaining people were brainstorming. Ian had said that they needed to cover more ground, therefore they needed to split up and discover as much of the castle as possible.

    The real problem was that they had left Joy all alone. He didn¡¯t enjoy running around the creepy castle pretending like nothing was wrong. He enjoyed going on peaceful walks in the park, or gambling with idiots who had more money than sense.

    This entire operation was out of his wheelhouse. He was not a man of subtlety and disguise; he was a character full of garishness and clowning. But he hadn¡¯t disagreed with them at the time, so now he was stuck running around like an incompetent ninja.

    He had enjoyed seeing Lillian perk up though, hopefully the new ice and fire themed powers would serve her well while she was off galivanting on her own. Joy had seen her go to sleep on purpose next to the healers and had been a little confused, since there was no way, she was going to really dream in that amount of time, but she somehow had. His guess was that her gift somehow allowed her to enter the dreamworld at will, but that it never explained it to her, and it happened within her subconscious rather than the outermost thoughts.

    But that was all tentative guesswork, Joy assumed some real creative minds would enjoy picking apart Lillian¡¯s gift in an intellectual sense. But he was more inclined to just enjoy the benefits of her sweet powers.

    Joy had decided to try and go as high as possible in the snowed-in castle. He knew they were looking for the prince, and he knew that it was a real super villain move to kidnap royalty. So, the next logical step would be that the nefarious leader of this organization was hiding out in the top of a high tower, with a chilled glass of wine, overlooking the snowy expanse.

    Joy so badly wanted an arch nemesis. His abilities and gift were so ill suited towards true hero on villain battles, but he was hoping that if he kept searching for enough time that someone would appear with the skills to oppose him, and his gaming might.

    In his epic quest for a nemesis, he had started climbing as high as he could within the castle. It was hard to navigate through a castle, there were many collapsed sections filled with snow and other problems, but Joy simply let his luck and fate guide him throughout the empty halls.

    There were various inky monsters plastered throughout the castle. They seemed to be keeping a watch out for intruders like Joy, but Joy found that there were distinct types. And he could play to each¡¯s advantages and disadvantages.

    The more human that a monster seemed, the more aware of its surroundings it seemed. This fact caused Joy to get into a scuffle or two with the monsters. None of them were particularly dangerous to Joy, but their eerie voices carried throughout the halls, causing other monsters to come and join in on the fun if Joy didn¡¯t run away fast enough.

    The more monstrous ones all could do a singular task but had trouble coming up with new solutions. They had obviously been ordered to keep watch of this area, but whoever oversaw their directions was not creative nor particularly intelligent. The monsters would ¡°keep watch¡± but do nothing about his presence occasionally, they saw him and that was that.

    But even the more creative and humanoid monsters seemed to lack a real situational awareness. None of them slacked off purposefully, but it seemed like their minds and hearts were elsewhere. This was true for all but one monster that Joy saw. It was the most distinctly humanoid monster and when it saw Joy it immediately closed the distance to him.

    Instead of fingers the monster had long chains that dragged against the ground, sparks flying wherever the chains impacted the hard stone beneath the snow. Its body had real features and Joy could almost make out the face of the man underneath. He was heavyset and mean, his voice carried through the halls with a vicious echo rather than the faint squealing of the less human monsters.

    The chains moved like snakes. They were uninhibited by gravity or any other fundamental forces, they seemed to wibble and wobble in the air without any sort of logic. Which made it really hard for Joy to dodge.

    He dipped, ducked, and dived, but none of his slick moves could truly get him around the nefarious chains. They clipped his arms and legs, leaving nasty gashes across his body or tearing up his clothes. Joy couldn¡¯t decide which one of them was worse; he loved this set of clothes.

    The chains had been circling him for a while, and it had only been a matter of time before they truly wrapped him up. When one strand finally caught hold of his arm, it was all over. Once Joy¡¯s movements were restricted, he was unable to dodge in the same elegant ways he had been doing.

    More and more of the chains circled him, until he was balled up. He could feel that the edges of the chains were incredibly sharp, and that the monster was slowly cutting him by having the chains lovingly caress his body.

    Joy was forced to call out his most powerful ability. He started a game.

    ¡°Would you like to play a game?¡± He asked hopefully.

    Joy never liked to discuss the weaknesses of his abilities with anyone since it was a taboo in Vena Cava society, but his ability only worked against things that could play games. They needed to have a baseline intelligence that allowed them to understand what was happening. The playing field needed to be fair, and one side being unable to understand that game made the entire affair decidedly uneven.

    The air seemed to shimmer for a moment, and the world seemed to pause for a second. Even Joy was frozen within the momentary pause in existence, it sounded like a lot of typing and angry shouting was happening all at once in this voided space and time. Two main voices seemed to be instigating the whole conflict, while two other voices were the moderators of the conflict.

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    The two moderators were uniquely trying to keep a hold of the situation, one seemed to be inexorable, and their voice carried to the ends of time. They kept the situation from devolving from mere shouting. The other seemed to be slow and fast at the same time, that voice seemed more content to complain about how the other voices had pulled them out of a wonderful game of squash they were having.

    Finally, the two contenders who were shouting the most had childlike voices, one petulant while the other was full of whimsy. No one was backing down, but the inexorable voice told them to, ¡°shut up and make a deal, we don¡¯t have ¡®all¡¯ the time in the world.¡±

    After an eternity of back and forth the petulant childlike voice made a concession and the world started moving around Joy again.

    Joy would never know what had transpired in the events where time was stopped, however an instinctive understanding came over him. There was a baseline level of intelligence that his ability could work on, and this inky monster was barely above that level.

    The game kicked into gear and a voice emanated into Joy¡¯s head saying, ¡°staring contest. Do any of you need the rules explained to you?¡±

    ¡°No?¡± Joy said. It seemed too simple, but who cared really, Joy really needed some help to get out of this pickle.

    Joy locked eyes with the shadowy monster as the chains slowly started ripping into his skin. He saw a shadowy tongue start to lick the lips of the monster in a truly gruesome way. It enjoyed his pain in a way that Joy felt was pervy, but it was a monster, so it probably wasn¡¯t supposed to be cuddly and kind.

    Blood was leaking out of the many small incisions that the chains had made, and unfortunately one of them was directly above Joy¡¯s left eye. The blood started seeping down through his hair and pooled into his eye.

    The pain was excruciating, but Joy never allowed himself to blink, even as he felt his eyes shrivel from being exposed to the cold air for far too long.

    Joy took a moment to compose himself as he let the pain enter his body and soul. He reflected on this situation and asked himself a very important question. Had he ever seen one of these shadow monsters blink before?

    He had always met them in the heat of battle, such a thing would go unnoticed, but looking at this monster in front of him, a sneaking suspicion bubbled up in his stomach. This dickhead didn¡¯t need to blink.

    New plans started forming in Joy¡¯s mind as soon as he realized the harsh truth. It was a staring contest that ended when he blinked, but he could wink indefinitely. Normally Joy wouldn¡¯t stoop to such low tactics, but desperate times called for desperate measures.

    ]The chains started cutting into Joy again as soon as he started his newly improved tactics in the staring contest, unfortunately there were bigger concerns for Joy than just losing the staring contest. This monster was going to bleed him dry if he didn¡¯t get out of these chains quickly.

    Joy knew he had only one weapon left in his arsenal. It was his most powerful and most deadly, he had never met a villain who it couldn¡¯t vanquish.

    Joy snorted in a loud and disgusting fashion, then launched the most rancid loogie he had ever looged.

    It was the color of a swampy marsh, filled with snot that was a mixture of grey and sickly green. The glob arced in the air beautifully, a curve in the sky that slowly but inevitably landed directly on the inky monster¡¯s face.

    The monster may not have needed to blink, but it certainly was still human on some base level. Some of the instincts seemed to carry over, and it cringed away from the snotty disgusting thing.

    The monster broke eye contact and rubbed the snot out of its eyes with its arm. Truly a disgusting gesture, but Joy was just glad that it had lost the game by looking away.

    As soon as the monster had lost their little staring contest, the world had started to bend around Joy. He could feel his luck suddenly grow and permeate the world around him.

    It felt like the world was his personal playground and he got to decide what to do with it.

    So, Joy imagined the ceiling of the castle that was above the monster¡¯s head collapsing. And it happened.

    Winning the duel had given him nearly godlike luck for a brief moment. Anything he wanted to happen would happen during this miniscule stretch of time.

    The monster let out a cry as the ceiling crashed into it. A squelch reverberated down the hall as the monster was squished. The shadowy chains loosened, and Joy started to remove himself from his bindings, carefully, to make sure he didn¡¯t cut himself open on the sharp links in the chains.

    The collapsed ceiling had created a slope upwards to the floor above. Joy shrugged his shoulders; he figured it was Fate giving him the path to what he wanted most. A true face off against his personal nemesis at the top of a snowy castle.

    He scrambled his way up the hill in a truly unimpressive fashion. He looked something like a dog who couldn¡¯t balance. But persistence won out in the end, and he stood atop the pile of snow and rubble that had created his walkway.

    Joy was surrounded by tapestries and snow. A small hole in the roof had allowed snow to pile up in that one spot for centuries, and that had allowed Joy¡¯s luck to pull the room down on the monster.

    On one side of the room was a massive window of stained glass, it was a beautiful work of art that showed the ingenuity and skill of the people of this continent before disaster struck. Joy barely even glanced at it.

    He was transfixed by a throne in the middle of the room. A person¡¯s skeleton sat on the throne, covered in priceless gems and jewels. Gold seemed to be replacing the skin of the skeleton.

    In one hand, the skeleton held a scepter of black glass. It was engraved with runes of power and the gems imbedded in the glass seemed to whisper secrets to Joy.

    Joy walked over to the skeleton and slowly picked it up. Gently, the skeleton was raised out of the position it had held for centuries and put aside like a toy that a toddler had grown tired of.

    Joy did make sure to treat the dead with respect, giving the skeleton a shallow grave in the snow near the throne with all its possessions.

    But he brushed the accumulated dust and ickiness off the throne with one sleeve and sat down on the throne. Lounging like he was waiting for something.

    Joy could feel it in his bones that this was the ultimate place for a confrontation with his nemesis. He could admit that lounging in the chair made him seem like the antagonist of this hypothetical nemesis fight, but he couldn¡¯t help but bask in the melodrama. He was truly happy for a moment; he had found something so perfect for himself that he forgot the most important part of a nemesis fight.

    He still didn¡¯t have a nemesis.

    Reality came crashing down on Joy as the terror of his situation sank in. He had found the ultimate spot for confrontation, the place where monologues would be shared between two opposing parties, the place where ideologies would clash. And yet he had no one to share it with.

    Even if he waited until someone eventually came walking up those steps, it would just be some flunky. Not his enemy. Not his evil twin. Not his mirror image. Just some guy.

    It broke Joy¡¯s heart that he was unable to truly bask in the glory of this spot. He collapsed from the throne he was lounging on in grief. Tears streamed down his face, and he blubbered into the surrounding snow.

    His arms wildly gesticulated to the Gods, in some feeble attempt for them to understand his pain.

    His right hand slammed into the throne and a large stick magically popped out of the back of the throne.

    It was not a fancy stick. The only notable thing about it was the ivy growing down the sides and a flower in full bloom at the top. Otherwise, it was a normal looking walking stick. Maybe a little tall, but a beautiful stick.

    Immediately, Joy could tell that this stick was his prize. The Gods had seen his misfortune and given him this stick as repayment.

    It fit his aesthetic perfectly.

    He grabbed his stick, tears and melodrama now forgotten, as he started rolling down the hill of rubble and snow. Muffled giggles escaping his lips as he gained speed.

 Chapter 41 - Separating the Art From The Artist

    Theo and Lillian wondered why Joy had immediately sped off from the group. Ian had been discussing splitting into smaller teams to cover ground faster. But as soon as Joy heard the words splitting up, he immediately high tailed it out of the meeting. Muttering something about bad decisions under his breath.

    It was not the first time Joy had done something impulsive and dangerous, and it certainly wouldn¡¯t be the last. So, people were a bit confused, but no one went running after him to inform him that he had misheard the instructions.

    Instead, Lillian and Theo joined forces with Benny, who had decided to stick around. His ridiculous bowler hat was still magically attached to his head. Lillian was pretty sure it was some nefarious magic that had cursed him long ago. No matter what happened he would wear his shame upon his head for all eternity. Or the man just had awful taste in hats and refused to lose it. She wasn¡¯t sure which one was worse.

    The final member of their curious group was Ian himself. He was seemingly about to go off on his own when he noticed that Benny had survived and decided that he would require the man¡¯s abilities to meld with shadows for reconnaissance. This meant that Lillian and Theo were along for the ride, which could be worse.

    Ian was a powerhouse. Lillian had listened to Theo tell stories about Bloody Ian and how lucky they were to be able to train with such a master. But before this battle, Lillian had never seen his true prowess. Why he had the name had been a mystery, but now it was clear.

    When he got angry, heads rolled.

    But with that power on their side the group of four made very good progress throughout the castle. Any time the group came across an impassable obstacle, Ian would just cut through it magically. His sword sheared off sections of snow and stone, leaving impossibly clean lines cut into them.

    Lillian was fairly sure that his gift made him able to cut anything. It seemed like the only logical option. His blade was unaffected by anything it touched. The blade still looked razor sharp despite the constant use against things like rock.

    She still wasn¡¯t sure how his gift allowed him to cut people from a distance, but it explained a lot of the power and skill she had seen from him. However, there seemed to be one massive drawback; he needed to sheath the blade before he could do a second cut. It honestly was a broken gift, but Lillian was not going to complain about it.

    Their group had been able to make incredible time throughout the castle. They had stuck to the main floor, searching for the throne room or a prison wing. It seemed haphazard to Lillian, but she thought that Ian was just frazzled and wanted to find the prince badly.

    Benny¡¯s gift meant that they had been able to scout out locations at an absurd speed, and Ian¡¯s battle prowess allowed them to cleave through any obstacles or enemies that stood in their way.

    The powerful synergy between Ian and Benny made Lillian and Theo feel rather useless, but there were worse things than feeling a bit idiotic.

    Benny had guided them towards the center of the building. Ian had asked him to find the largest gathering of enemies in the entire base, obviously hoping to cut the problem off at the head.

    It had been going splendidly, other than the violence and mayhem, and Lillian felt the adrenaline pump through her system as she felt them close in on the enemies.

    Then the floor underneath them blew up.

    A massive explosion tore the floor out from underneath their feet. And sent them all plummeting into the deeper sections of the castle.

    Lillian shot gouts of flames from her hands, causing her descent to slow down as she approached the floor. Benny escaped into the shadows and reappeared on the floor. Theo made a ramp out of ice that he slid down. And Ian withdrew his sword and vaguely cut in the space above his head, after which all his momentum suddenly disappeared.

    Through their various methods, the group landed on the floor and surveyed the room around them.

    It was beautiful. The entire floor was covered in a tiny replica of a real city. It was clear that painstaking detail had gone into every little part. There were tiny residents going about their days, intricately carved with different expressions and backstories that seemed to blossom in their wake.

    Underneath Lillian¡¯s feet she had crushed a bell tower and one half of a couple holding hands. The other half of the sculpted couple had a face of pure elation, doomed to be forever unaware that their other half had been smushed.

    ¡°Old men grow tired. The first thing that goes as you grow older is your eyesight. Then your hands start to shake as you try and do anything. Then the weariness truly hits you.¡± A voice emanated from the shadows surrounding the room.

    ¡°None of you have truly grown old yet. Most of you are children, and one of you seems to fancy himself wise beyond his years. But I am age and wisdom, so I am going to teach you a lesson here.¡± Slow and quiet footsteps radiated out of the darkness; the group pulled closer together. Lillian tried warding off the shadows with the flames that appeared out of her hands, while Benny slid into the shadows and started searching. Yet the footsteps continued unimpeded and unseen.

    Lillian started throwing gouts of flame into the surrounding darkness. She knew that she was eliminating a lot of Benny¡¯s space to use his gift, but the rest of them needed to see the enemy.

    Spurt after spurt of flame erupted from Lillian¡¯s hands as she turned in a short circle. Until eventually the light shone upon an old man and a younger woman.

    The old man was throwing a little ball up and down in his hand while the younger woman looked apprehensively around. Everyone¡¯s eyes locked onto the woman as soon as she appeared though. She was the teleporter who had stolen the prince.

    ¡°Hey! Where did you take the prince?¡± Lillian, never one for beating around the bush yelled at the woman.

    ¡°Which one was that?¡± The woman asked rather nonchalantly, it was almost enough to fool everyone, but a slight shudder in her hands spoke volumes about how she really felt.

    ¡°The last person you took from the battle.¡± Theo said cautiously.

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    ¡°He¡¯s safe, for now. We will return him to you if you¡­¡± Ian¡¯s blade suddenly cut her off. He had unsheathed it and cut the air in front of him, and suddenly the woman couldn¡¯t speak anymore.

    ¡°What in the name of the God¡¯s did you do to me?¡± She cried out in outrage. Not even realizing that her voice had suddenly come back.

    ¡°I cut the falsehoods out of your words, liar. You hoped to trick us; return the prince and we will not hurt you.¡± Ian glowered at the two figures in the dark, sword pointed at them unflinchingly.

    The two groups stared at each other. Neither was willing to concede to the other¡¯s demands. There was only one way to solve the dilemma.

    Lillian shot beams of cold energy into the two enemies, while Theo crafted walls of ice between the two groups. Benny was still yet to be seen, and Ian released one of his invisible slashes at the group.

    The old man started chuckling and threw the little ball in his hand towards the group. After which the two of them disappeared. All the group¡¯s attacks passing harmlessly through the air.

    The little ball exploded as it reached one of Theo¡¯s walls. Turning what had been a formidable defense into a liability, as large hunks of ice came flying towards the ragtag team.

    Lillian released a powerful blast of heat out of her hands, feeling the odd energy inside of her dissipate a little as she pushed it to the limit. The pieces of ice melted and turned into steam as they passed through the wall of heat.

    Even as all of this was happening, a voice from the shadows yelled, ¡°to the left!¡±

    Ian was unconcerned with the shrapnel that Lillian was defending them from. And he immediately turned to see the duo standing on the other side of the room preparing their next attack.

    A new volley of small spheres was thrown at the group. But this time Ian took no chances. He sheathed his sword and in one fluid motion cut the air in front of him. A screech erupted as the air rushed forward and cut all the spheres in half. As soon as they were damaged, they exploded. This created a beautiful image in Lillian¡¯s eye as she saw Ian buffeted from the winds of the powerful explosion, undeterred and already searching for the enemies that had teleported away.

    Lillian and Theo felt useless, since the walls of ice they could create were essentially useless in this situation and they were not observant or powerful enough to truly combat the enemies in the direct way that Ian was showcasing.

    Lillian fumbled around, searching for something to help, but Theo let his creative side take over. He started freezing the ground around the group. He had seen that one of the enemies looked like an older man, he was hoping that his balance wasn¡¯t as good as it used to be.

    All it would take was one mistake.

    Lillian immediately caught on to what Theo was doing and started freezing as much of the floor as they could muster. It was difficult work, since the entire floor was covered with something. It seemed like an entire replica city had been built into the floor of this room, Painstaking detail etched into every surface that the eye could see.

    None of it mattered though, Lillian froze it all. The scene became a winter wonderland, a strange mirror to the very city that the two groups had been exploring here on the Frozen continent.

    Explosions rang out as a fevered battle between Ian and the older man continued. Exploding orbs flew from every conceivable direction while Ian cut them out of the air, detonating them prematurely.

    Neither man giving the other one a moments rest. Ian had the edge in terms of pure skill, but the unpredictability of the old man¡¯s teleporting companion was able to eke him out an advantage. Unfortunately for him, Ian had also brought allies to the battle and Benny¡¯s watchful eye was able to ascertain where the danger was at any given moment.

    After what felt like an endless stalemate the mistake finally appeared. After teleporting away from their last barrage, a short cry escaped from a different side of the room.

    The teleporting woman had slipped on the icy ground. It was a stupid mistake, but not one that Ian was going to miss capitalizing on.

    The air screamed as Ian released his invisible cut towards the immobilized pair.

    An endless sigh escaped the old man¡¯s lips as he pushed the younger woman out of the way. The cut severed his arm and leg cleanly, and he collapsed to the floor, blood seeping out of his wounds.

    ¡°Go.¡± The command was short and sweet, but there was no denying a dying man. The teleporter looked at the dying man with regret in her eyes. But she built up her courage and disappeared from the battlefield.

    Ian slowly approached the old and weak man. He didn¡¯t want to get caught in some final suicidal explosion that the man had planned out.

    ¡°I have always been an artist. I have wanted nothing more than to just spend years honing my craft and reaching new inspirations. Yet life was not so kind to me. Here in this frozen landscape, we must fight for every breath we take, and the tribe had no use for an artist.¡±

    Everyone approached the man but were oddly respectful of his dying words. Ian was probably hoping to glean some final information about the prince from him, but everyone else was respectful of the enemy that they had vanquished.

    ¡°So, I was elated when I received my gift from Retribution. They had heard my prayers, asking for a way to practice my art to the fullest. We made a deal of sorts; I could create my art and it would become a mighty weapon.¡±

    The ramblings were getting less coherent, but they watched as the man passed away.

    ¡°I saw what true humanity looked like when the youngster took down the monster who had been chief before him. I was allowed to travel with Tera to the real continent to see what true art looked like in the civilized world. And I wanted to make my masterpiece.¡±

    With a final twinkle in his eyes, he surveyed the room around him.

    ¡°Isn¡¯t it beautiful?¡±

    After a wet cough he continued. ¡°But what makes my art so beautiful, is that it is coming to an end. Goodbye younglings, I hope you don¡¯t hate me too much for killing you.¡±

    Lillian felt the world start to charge. She couldn¡¯t describe it, but it felt like something vast had just opened its eyes and stared down at her with the old man¡¯s last words.

    Energy built up in the air and Lillian looked down in horror at the artistic sculpture that was carved on the floor. That old man had thrown ornate spheres, and from his ramblings she knew his gift had to do with the art he made. If those little spheres could produce massive explosions, how large would the devastation brought on by this be?

    Lillian accepted her fate on some level. There was no escaping this, there was nothing she could do, so she sighed and waited for the end. She wished she had gotten to do so many more things, maybe talk with her family just one last time. Fall in love. Run through the fields naked and let the power of nature envelope her.

    Ian was not one to wait for his end. With his sword he furrowed his brow and cut the air in front of him. For the first time Lillian saw him struggle with whatever he was cutting. The air around the sword took on an ephemeral quality and Lillian could see the sword trying to cut through something that wasn¡¯t quite there.

    Ian screamed as they started to feel the energy building up, fade away. The explosion was moments away and he had to succeed or else he would be dead, and the prince¡¯s promises would be for nothing.

    Suddenly a hand appeared above Ian¡¯s sword and pushed it down slightly. It was a bone white hand with black painted nails. Intricate tattoos covered all the available skin. But with the final push, Ian was able to cut though whatever had been blocking his way.

    A gateway made of pure blackness stood in front of them and the team of four ran into it as they felt the world explode behind them.

    As soon as they entered a presence bore down on them and a voice screamed, ¡°what the fuck are you doing here!¡±

    The voice sounded like a tired middle manager of some small apothecary. It was the voice of someone who worked far too many hours for someone who did not care about their wellbeing.

    They were in the halls of gift giving. The marble floors and colorful ever-changing tapestries all the same as the day each of them had turned thirteen.

    Thousands of eyes appeared over the group as the voice regained a bit of its lost gravitas, ¡°this is not a place for mortals. Begone.¡±

    As suddenly as they had appeared in the land of Gods, the four of them reappeared in a crater. A massive chunk of the castle had been destroyed and rubble was everywhere.

    Corpses were strewn about, and everyone could feel that luck had more to do with survival here than any sort of skill.

    Lillian was unperturbed by all the weirdness they had seen in one day. There was no reason to get caught up in impossibilities and the realm of Gods. She still had a job to do, they had to save a prince.

 Chapter 42 - A Fateful Meeting

    Joy was unpleasantly surprised when the entire castle blew up. He had been merrily running around with his new stick, smashing the inky faces of all the shadowy monsters he could find. He just loved the stick; it was the perfect stick. It was the sort of stick that reminded him of playing wizards as a child, and always trying to find the best-looking stick to cast his spells with.

    Nothing stood a chance between him and Sticky¡¯s personal might. He didn¡¯t even need to play any games with them to beat them, his personal prowess with the staff destroyed anything that stood in his path.

    But all good things come to an end eventually, and just as Joy had got in a particularly satisfying strike against a monster¡¯s face the world around him turned red.

    He was thrown around like a doll that had just been given to an overexuberant child. Debris flew around him and the world shook from the mighty boom that echoed out.

    After what felt like an eternity of being pelted with tiny rocks Joy¡¯s world came to a crashing halt. The ground sucker punched him in a fight he didn¡¯t even know he would be having against the earth.

    He laid on the ground for a while, feeling it shake from the occasional large piece of debris that landed nearby, but he was far too out of it to try and deal with it.

    Joy¡¯s body was in pain. He hadn¡¯t felt like this in a long time, the last he could remember was when that Hair gifted person had nearly killed him with his own beautiful locks.

    His hands were still tightly clenched against the stick he had found up in the throne room, but even his awesome stick wasn¡¯t enough to make him feel totally better.

    Groggily, he opened his eyes and saw the beautiful sky. Despite the unending snow, there was a stark beauty to it. There was nothing like it in the whole wide world, so Joy made sure to drink in the beautiful sight.

    Someone sidled up to Joy¡¯s feeble body and gave him a soft kick.

    ¡°How¡¯s it going buddy? Beautiful fireworks in this continent, aren¡¯t there?¡± The prince, looking as dashing as ever with his blue eyes and blonde hair. Joy wondered why he hadn¡¯t used his gift to change the color of his hair during this expedition at all. Normally the prince took a sick pleasure in finding the most garish of hairstyles to galivant around the capital, but he seemed to be all business here in the frozen continent.

    Joy grunted at the prince, trying to think up a way to describe how annoyed he was at the prince.

    They had all gotten so worked up about saving the prince and keeping him safe, but here he was. Absolutely unbothered by the events happening around him. The entire building had blown up, and the prince¡¯s stupid hair looked even more dashing than normal.

    ¡°I hate you.¡± Joy summed up his thoughts concisely before trying to take a nap on the hard ground.

    ¡°Don¡¯t say that to your employer Joy. Imagine what would happen if I got dissatisfied and stopped paying you.¡±

    Before the prince had even finished those words Joy was back on his feet. He stood tall, wearily using the stick as an impromptu cane.

    ¡°No sir, sorry sir.¡± Joy wasn¡¯t really a penny pincher, but even he knew that being part of the prince¡¯s personal retinue was a killer paycheck and he should not squander it.

    ¡°Well, did any of you find the throne room while I was incapacitated?¡± The prince changed subjects.

    ¡°Would that be a big room, with a gaudy skeleton with tons of gold and jewelry on it holding a scary looking scepter, gazing out of what used to be a beautiful stained-glass window overlooking the entire frozen city?¡±

    ¡°Why is that such a specific description Joy?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s the place I found my stick.¡± Joy replied innocently,

    ¡°You saw artifacts of untold power, and decided you would rather take a stick?¡± The rage seemed to boil off the prince as he spoke.

    ¡°Yes, that accurately sums it up.¡±

    The prince let out a scream of pure and utter frustration into the air. But he slowly calmed down, he knew that he had not provided an adequate description of the Kingmaker to his goons. He had never assumed that he would be separated from them, thus he had never thought to inform them of what the artifacts of untold power looked like.

    ¡°At least try and help me find the rubble of that room.¡± The defeated prince commanded Joy.

    ¡°Um, we may have bigger issues than that.¡±

    Joy pointed at a procession of inky monsters approaching the pair of them. The prince sighed and threw his hands up in the air; it was definitely not his day.

    The largest of the monsters looked like a giant bull-frog, as in a bull with the head of a frog. Atop that monster sat a boy, Joy recognized him as the boy he had seen in the side room where he had gotten his perfect sledding door.

    The boy rode atop his massive beast, shirtless, showing his pale skin off to the frigid air. He was thin, as if he had been starving for years, but had finally started to eat healthily sometime recently. Thick chains were tattooed on his arms and legs, scars covered many of the places where barbs had been inked onto his skin.

    But his most striking feature was his back. Along it was the words, ¡°you are not forgiven, but you will be forgotten.¡± Ethereal blood seemed to seep out of the scars constantly and gave the boy a terrifying look.

    The boy sighed and turned his back to the two of them, as if presenting his pain and misery to them. The prince and Joy looked at the boy and his freaky tattoo and shivered a little bit. It was all like the plot of a bad horror novel.

    The boy turned around and shouted. ¡°Two of you? Is illiteracy a fucking problem on your continent dickweeds?¡±

    Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    His voice was shrill and carried quite well over the snowy landscape, but the vulgarity of it all made both Joy and the prince take a short step back.

    ¡°We can both read, young man. Those are some rude words you are sharing.¡± The prince replied in a measured manner.

    The boy ignored the prince¡¯s complaints about his vulgarity and continued, ¡°then why aren¡¯t your sins showing up? My gift makes your sins real; don¡¯t tell me you haven¡¯t sinned?¡± A sad look seemed to cross the boy¡¯s face, before it was covered in a flash of rage and determination, ¡°everyone has sinned.¡±

    The prince started laughing at the boy, it was an awkward moment. The boy had a real gift for the melodramatic, but the prince refused to give him any ground on the matter; it was just far too childish and silly to him.

    ¡°And what is a sin, boy?¡± The prince¡¯s teeth bared as he began his tirade. ¡°Do you think of yourself as the arbiter of all that is right and just in the world? Maybe you feel the Sin is allowed to speak for all of humanity, or that Good can speak with finality on the subject of goodness and sins.¡±

    ¡°Maybe the entire existence of humanity comes together psychically once every month to decide what is right and wrong? But none of that is true, young man.¡±

    ¡°We all say that murder is wrong, but would we stop a mother from defending her family with lethal force against attackers? Would we say she was wrong?¡±

    ¡°No, I tell you that she would be lauded as a hero, and paraded around whatever backwater town she came from and shown as a shining example of goodness and pride.¡±

    ¡°A sin is a mark on the soul, it is a deformity of pain and misery. It is a defining moment that you wish never happened. And the only person who can decide whether you have sinned is you.¡±

    ¡°I have never done something I have regretted. At every turn and every hard choice, I stood tall and proud, unflinching in the face of the consequences because I accepted them in full. I carry the weight of the future, and every step I take on the path towards it is necessary. No matter how painful.¡±

    The prince¡¯s face had flushed a bit, one part anger and one part embarrassment. He obviously cared about what he was saying, but he had fallen into the teenage boy¡¯s trap. He had fallen into the melodramatic monologue.

    Silence reigned over the snowy expanse that surrounded them. The boy looked thoughtful, while Joy and the prince were inching away.

    ¡°Well, I was hoping to avoid it. But it seems that I must end you both here. I hoped that removing your sins would make you mindless fools like the previous chief and then you would stop fucking around with us. But you cannot have everything in life.¡±

    The boy pointed at the two men and all the inky figures started charging at them.

    ¡°Stop!¡± The prince demanded, and for some reason the boy did. Not even he truly knew why.

    ¡°My gift creates massive bombs in the ground and allows me to detonate them at will. I placed a bomb underneath your feet while I was monologuing, if any of your monsters takes another step towards me, I will make it explode.¡±

    Joy looked at the prince in incredulity. Had he really been lying about his gift this whole time? Maybe the reason why he never actually changed his hair color during this expedition was that he just couldn¡¯t.

    The boy on top of his monster truly stopped for a moment, contemplating the situation. Then a few of the larger monsters moved towards the boy and shielded his body with their own as the rest of the line started to advance.

    Joy looked on at the wall of monsters approaching the two of them and sighed, ¡°maybe now would be a good time to blow them up?¡±

    Joy looked back to where the prince had been standing moments before. But he was gone and hightailing it away from the mass of monsters.

    ¡°Dickhead!¡± Joy called out as he started running too, now realizing that the whole bomb thing had been a desperate ploy by the prince to give them a head start.

    Joy was somehow faster than the prince, but didn¡¯t overtake him, instead he merely matched speeds with him once he had caught up and started a friendly conversation.

    ¡°Well, he seems like a nice kid. Maybe a little crazy but think of how wonderful his gift is. He can remove the emotional burden of someone¡¯s sins with his gift. And he tried to make his tribesman live better lives by removing that which burdened them. Isn¡¯t that wonderful.¡± Joy kept talking with an annoyingly chipper voice.

    ¡°He¡¯s the enemy, Joy. That is the enemy chief who has been rabble rousing in the capital. I will admit that he is younger than I had imagined, but that is our enemy. We must defeat him.¡± Between gasps for air the prince replied bitingly to Joy.

    Joy started batting the occasional monster that started getting too close with his stick. Despite their speed, the flying monsters and the particularly lightweight ones were fast approaching. Thankfully the stick Joy had found was absolutely perfect for bashing monsters¡¯ heads in.

    ¡°Well, I like him.¡± Joy said matter of factly.

    The prince rolled his eyes at his subordinate. If he wasn¡¯t so genuinely talented at making money and scamming people, he would not have dealt with the man-child that was Joy. But usefulness trumped all in the prince¡¯s mind.

    ¡°We¡¯re screwed. Neither of us have the tools to really fight this onslaught.¡± The prince said to Joy as they kept staving off the inevitable. The prince threw small knives with deadly precision towards the monsters, every knife felling a monster as it hit.

    ¡°If you could buy me a minute of time I could do it.¡± Joy grinned as he kept throwing his stick around.

    ¡°If I still had my supplies I could try. But I am running out of knives here. Soon, all I will be left with is my fists.¡± The prince looked slightly surprised that Joy was so confident, but he wasn¡¯t one to judge his subordinates¡­ much.

    ¡°You can have the stick then and help fend them off better.¡± Joy tossed over his precious stick. He was loath to let it go, but he knew that the prince would probably be more effective as an ally with a real weapon.

    The prince did a few test swings then said, ¡°this really is a fantastic stick. Where did you find it?¡±

    ¡°In the big chamber with the skeleton and the throne.¡±

    Their idle chatter tapered off as the two of them had to start putting some real effort into defending themselves from the onslaught of enemies rushing towards them. The number of sins that this boy had under his control was just staggering.

    It was a gradual process, but the more the pair fought off the monsters the more monsters would catch up. Thus, forcing them to spend more time fighting off the monsters. It was a cyclic recurrence that would only end with them dying.

    Just as Joy was considering starting a game against the horde of enemies in the hope that some useful game to them would start, a blade cut its way through the throngs of monsters. In a moment, dozens of monsters were bisected by what seemed to be an effortless swing.

    Ian stood in the rubble with three figures behind him. Joy¡¯s two favorite friends and Benny were there also in awe at the sheer power that Ian could wield. It never got old watching the master at work.

    The two groups started making a beeline for each other through the throngs of monsters. Ian cut waves of them in half, while Theo and Lillian erected walls of ice that protected everyone from the errant monster that avoided Ian¡¯s fury.

    Joy and the prince sighed in relief as the two groups converged. They finally took a small break from bonking the monsters as Ian took up the slack of protecting everyone.

    ¡°You!¡± A shrill voice called out from across the raging battle. The boy still stood there on top of his massive bull frog, and stared down at the group imposingly, before turning around so that his back was facing them.

    Everyone took a brief glance at the odd boy¡¯s actions, but only the prince and Joy understood the implications. Neither one could warn anyone else in time and everyone¡¯s eyes went blank.

    Benny stood there and his fedora fluttered to the ground next to him. Lillian stood glassy eyes as tears welled up. Theo felt so much pain that he doubled over. And Ian stood impassively, but still transfixed on the boy.

    ¡°I knew it! You all couldn¡¯t be illiterate.¡± A victorious cry erupted from the boy¡¯s lips.

    The prince and Joy looked at each other and said simultaneously, ¡°shit.¡±

    Massive black clouds of smoke tore out of the four frozen figure¡¯s mouths before starting to coalesce into figures. Joy and the prince had no time to worry about that, since they had to defend everyone from the rest of the monsters they were fighting.

    It was not looking good for the prince and his goons.

 Chapter 43 - A House of Cards

    Theo couldn¡¯t remember looking at the words on the boy¡¯s back. One moment he was fine, and a perfectly reasonable human being. Then, he felt like something had woken up inside of him.

    His existence felt weak for a moment, like something core to who he was leaving him. His self weakened and he felt his mind try to collapse under the pressure of it escaping him.

    A being that was part of him, and yet now separate, clawed its way out of his body. It slithered its way out of his throat, and he opened his eyes long enough to see a stick thin man starting to form from the misty black substance coming out of his mouth.

    The being was humanoid and pitch black like all the other monsters that they had seen before, but it was no exaggeration that the being was thin as a stick. The body was tiny and misshapen. There was no way that a real person could survive if they looked like this thing.

    Its eyes were the most striking feature. Just as black as the rest of its body, but the color did nothing to make it seem scary. Instead, they made it look weak and feeble. The monster looked as if a strong enough wind would blow it over. The eyes looked terrified and shaky; all in all, it did not strike an imposing figure.

    Theo finally was shaken out of his reverie by a casual slap from Joy. The hand on his cheek hurt more than the biting wind could ever hope to replicate. The pain woke Theo back up and he started assessing the world around him.

    Their group was still completely surrounded by the inky monsters, and their group¡¯s big hitters had been incapacitated by whatever the boy had done. This meant that monsters were getting super close.

    Ian was still in the throes of the boy¡¯s gift. More and more black, inky smoke erupted from his mouth, condensing more and more into a large shape that seemed nowhere near finished.

    Lillian and Benny had finished before him, and each had formed a different humanoid figure. Lillian¡¯s was in the fetal position, yet somehow floated above the ground, so that its face was still level with the teams¡¯. Benny had formed a large man with rippling hair and muscles, it was a bodybuilder¡¯s dream body with some flowing luscious hair to add to it.

    Theo was preparing to attack the threats when Joy shouted at the top of his lungs, ¡°buy me two minutes and I will take care of all this!¡±

    Theo didn¡¯t have a better plan, so he started forming defenses of ice while subtly placing himself in front of Joy to protect him from the ranged attacks of the inky monsters.

    Lillian shot gouts of flame while Benny zipped around the battlefield, distracting as many monsters as he could. Theo and the prince formed a tighter layer of defense, protecting Joy and Ian.

    Joy had gotten on all fours and was building a house of cards, but his hands were very shaky and causing most of his work to be destroyed before much came of it.

    Ian¡¯s monster finally took shape, and he was instantly out of the state of weakness. His hand was on his sword, ready to attack anything that approached him.

    The monster was a massive pile of bodies. The scale of it always seemed irregular, as if there were more or less bodies at any given moment; but each pile represented a slaughter. There were men in armor, all headless in different states of disarray and they seemed to look down upon them, even without eyes.

    Everyone stared at the massive monster, and even the boy looked at the new monster he controlled with reverence. It was a being that represented the power and slaughter that Ian had brought into the world, and it was not some pissant, it was all consuming.

    With the four new monsters finally finished forming, they all started attacking at the same time. The mass of bodies was used its body to try and bully its way past Ian and Theo, but Ian¡¯s sword cut it down at an astonishing rate. Even more surprisingly, the bodies reappeared. They grew back after Ian cut them down, forcing the two sides into a stalemate of sorts, neither one able to inflict any damage on the other.

    The monster Lillian had spawned seemed to lift the surrounding rubble and throw it at the group of fighters. Lillian was able to create walls of ice with one hand while shooting beams of fire with the other to keep the monster under control, but there was a lot of rocks flying at them.

    Theo¡¯s monster just sighed. And everything around it seemed to slow down. The pieces of rock that were flying by its head, the beams of flame, even the incredible cuts that Ian produced, everything slowed down in a circle around it.

    Benny¡¯s monster was the simplest, it was just big and strong, and a bit stupid. The prince was able to kite it and control its movement by smacking it around with a new and beautiful stick.

    Theo heard a little, ¡°shit,¡± from behind him and looked just long enough to see a pebble knock down the entire house of cards that Joy had built so far. Joy¡¯s face was determined and focused; he needed speed and dexterity right now, not fear and anger. Theo was suitably impressed with the attitude of his friend.

    Theo couldn¡¯t continue to watch Joy though since the battle raged on. He formed spikes of ice that the mindless monsters rammed themselves into. He created near invisible walls that stopped the amalgamation of bodies but didn¡¯t inhibit Ian¡¯s vision. He watched every battle happening simultaneously and formed shields of ice that would take an essential blow. He was a defender, he was unbreaking in the face of adversity and power. He was a wall.

    He was so confident that he even started putting up little walls around Joy¡¯s little house of cards to keep the errant winds of battle from knocking it over.

    The giant bull-frog entered the fray in a blast. Ian was already preoccupied dealing with the endless fountain of bodies, so the defense fell to Theo.

    The boy had gotten off the back of the monster, so Theo was unable to take pot shots at the villain, but he started forming blocks of ice for the monster to slip on. Even the bull-frog was unable to get past his stalwart defense.

    That was all until the humanoid monsters started joining in. Lillian and Theo¡¯s monsters seemed to be fairly unique in the mass of inky black creatures. Most of the other monsters relied upon physical strength to attack, but those two created auras around themselves that affected the world around them.

    When the two of them started bolstering the bull-frog¡¯s defenses, Theo found himself getting overwhelmed. He simultaneously had to deal with the shrapnel from Lillian¡¯s fetal position monster, while all his attacks were getting slowed down by the stick thin monster that had come from him. It was incredibly frustrating, and was going to kill them all eventually.

    Theo may have been a wall, but there were hundreds of monsters slowly chipping away at the wall that he was. He waited and waited as it got more and more overwhelming, until, finally, it was too much.

    The monsters slowly breached his defenses. And his heart sank even further, when noticed movement in from the corner of his eye.

    The teleported dickhead was bringing in reinforcements for the inky monsters. The tribesmen were showing up and adding their own power to the forces crushing the defenses.

    He saw people throwing massive pillars of rocks, he saw ice forming monsters, and he saw power rippling through the enemy ranks. He even saw Jan from when their group had visited one of local tribes start to throw massive billowing sheets of cloth around the battlefield. It was quickly burnt by Lillian, but still there was just too much to fight.

    Then the pounding steps were heard, and the temperature dropped noticeably. Through the biting winds a mighty cry of ¡°peku peku¡± roared out.

    It was not the cutesy little animal that Lillian had made her favorite little pet back when they all arrived on this continent for the first time. It was the cry of a yeti that towered into the sky.

    All along its back were the unfortunate souls who had been teleported away from their very first confrontation with the teleporting woman. She had taken people off the battlefield, and no one had known where they had gone. Apparently, she had teleported them to a local tribe of yeti, but somehow, they had not killed the intruders, and had even taken them where they wanted to go. Theo was sure there was a story there, but he was far too busy trying to protect Joy¡¯s stupid tower.

    Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

    Theo¡¯s teammate was so close to completing the tower, only another few moments, and this would all come to an end. Hopefully? He still wasn¡¯t sure why Joy was so confident in this plan.

    The entire battle had turned into a double donut. The outer layer of the donut was the prince¡¯s forces that had just been placed onto the battlefield by the yeti. The massive monsters were more forces of nature rather than allies. They placed everyone down on the ground except for Emmy aka The Heater. She rode atop the mighty beasts and directed them to step on some of the larger inky monsters.

    The next layer of the donut, the donut hole, was filled by the inky monsters and the remaining tribesmen.

    But the donut hole turned out to be another donut, and inside that donut-donut hole was the figures of the prince, Ian, Joy, Lillian, and Theo. Benny as well, but he used his gift to teleport around a bit too much to really be considered part of the inner-inner circle.

    The fighting was intense, but with the help of their allies¡¯ timely arrival, the wall that was Theo was standing taller than ever. He even started a directed attack against the bull-frog and the two humanoid shadows that Lillian and him had spawned.

    He created massive icicles in the air above the three creatures¡¯ heads. Each one came crashing down upon them. And then he continued his bombardment upon the monsters.

    The bull-frog was the toughest physically, but it also had no gimmicks to fight back against the spikes of ice. So, it had to take the punishment while charging towards Theo¡¯s position.

    The other two monsters used some of their shenanigans to even the playing field. Stones were thrown into the ones targeting the fetal position monster, while the ones that tried to strike the stick man slowed to a crawl once they came into his sphere of influence.

    Lillian added her own beams of fire and sheets of ice to the ground. The two of them created a concert of infernos and ice that rained pain upon these three monsters.

    The prince idly moved himself in the way of the giant bull-frog monstrosity since it was closing in on their position a little too close for comfort. He lowered his new stick and struck out with all the human force he had in him.

    Theo had always felt a bit of pity for the prince, since he had not gained a truly powerful gift during his thirteenth birthday. That lack of power somehow led to this whole debacle. But somehow, with the prince¡¯s unenhanced strength, the bull-frog was stopped.

    Its whole body shuddered as it encountered the stick. That gave Theo enough time to form a massive icicle above its head. It came crashing down with the power of a raging bull, piercing through the head of the monster.

    For good measure Lillian sent a massive glob fire into the monster¡¯s body. Utterly obliterating it and leaving nothing but melted snow in its wake.

    ¡°One down, two to go.¡± Theo said to no one in particular.

    Theo realized something though. The boy who had forced him into a trance and created the stick man monster had last been seen on the bull-frog monster¡¯s back. But the monster was now gone. But the boy had not been there.

    Where did he go?

    Theo realized something terrifying about their reinforcements. No matter how helpful they seemed to be. The boy could turn all of them into useless monster spawners if he was allowed to reach them.

    But what could Theo do? He was already stretching beyond his limits to keep everyone nearby him safe. The prince and Ian needed him to fend off the excess monsters. Lillian needed support so that she could continue to rain fire down upon their ranks. Joy needed to be protected.

    Would he be able to abandon these people, to try and save everyone else from the boy-shaped disaster?

    Theo never had to answer the question that crossed his mind. Instead, something changed.

    A raging light seemed to pour out from behind Theo. And he turned to see a powerful glow surrounding the small tower of cards that Joy had been building.

    The house of cards was flimsy and small, but Joy had stacked the cards one by one to create something.

    The air seemed to vibrate as power coalesced around Theo¡¯s friend. Joy was bathed in a radiant glow and his gaze pierced the battlefield.

    Joy stretched out a single finger and pointed through the walls of monsters, through the sheer chaos that surrounded them all. He pointed directly at the young boy that Theo was so scared of.

    Joy opened his mouth, and power flooded out of it. A never-ending flood of golden light escaped from his mouth as he said, ¡°him.¡±

    It was far too quiet for anyone else on the battlefield to hear. But the endless stream of golden energy that came from his mouth immediately chased after the boy.

    The light weaved its way through the battlefield, never touching another entity. It passed through the hectic battle like an ethereal ghost.

    Until it touched the young man. He had not seen the golden light approaching him, he had been so focused on reinforcing his allies from the threat of the yeti and new enemies, that he didn¡¯t make any attempt to dodge the light.

    It touched him, and the light then exploded out of his body in the same way that it had so recently done to Joy. A great line of golden energy connected the two of them now, and Theo watched as they both rose into the air, before a final burst of light exploded out of them both and they disappeared from the battlefield.

    Now that was not something you see every day.

    Theo was in awe of whatever Joy had done and wanted to shake some answers out of the man. Whatever had just happened could not be explained under the pretenses of ¡°a gift from Random.¡±

    Theo was so utterly distracted that he didn¡¯t even notice that all the monsters had started slowing down. The inky black monsters were slower and dumber without the boy on the battlefield anymore and some of the smarter combatants took advantage of that.

    Ian¡¯s sword cut through everything in front of him, and he cut through reality itself with his final slash. The inky mass of bodies writhed in pain as he severed something from them. For a moment, a flash of a line connecting him to the beast was visible, but then it snapped from his epic strike.

    The beast started dissolving into the air. Screaming faces in torment floating off into the endless abyss that waited for these monsters.

    Theo didn¡¯t really worry about that front though; he started fighting the stick-man that had come from him. Oddly enough, each member of the group who had spawned a monster started squaring off against the monsters they had birthed.

    Lillian faced the person who was crying in the fetal position while floating off the ground, while Benny faced off against the hulking figure.

    Theo made a few walls of ice appear in their areas, so that they had ample opportunity to hide behind cover.

    But he squared off against the thin, sickly man. The black eyes met icy blue ones, and the fight commenced.

    Theo condensed a volley of icicles above the monster¡¯s head. But as soon as they started getting close to the monster, they started slowing down and the stick-man was able to avoid them with ease. Its body moving fluidly and grotesquely at the same time.

    The monster started closing the distance between it and Theo, slowly and yet inevitably. It was not fast, nor powerful, it was simply unceasing in its walk.

    More icicles condensed in the air around it, but none of them ever had any effect, so Theo started a different tactic. He started freezing the ground where the monster was walking. It couldn¡¯t slow down his gift yet, so the ice formed readily over the monster¡¯s feet.

    Again, it didn¡¯t seem to work. The monster¡¯s feet seemed to ooze out of their restraints rather than be restricted by them.  But as the monster was taking its next step, some remnants of ice remained on its foot, and it tumbled to the ground.

    A sharp crack could be heard as its head impacted the ground, and some of its black essence started to freely flow out of its head.

    The creature could form a field around itself where all attacks lost power, yet the monster itself was intrinsically weak. Theo couldn¡¯t attack the monster to destroy it, but he could make it destroy itself.

    A new plan of attack blossomed as Theo covered the ground in ice and small obstacles, all in preparation of making the creature slip and fall enough times for it to keel over and die.

    It only took three falls before the creature exploded into inky essence and swirled back into Theo. At first, Theo was terrified, but nothing terrible happened after the essence entered his body. If anything, he felt stronger and more focused.

    Lillian finished her creature near the same time as Theo. Using a final condensed beam of ice and fire at the same time, an explosion of steam ripped the monster that floated in the air into shreds.

    Even Benny finished off his monster, having stabbed it hundreds of times while evading its slow movements.

    Each one of them had the swirl of essence race back into their body after they defeated the creature. It was a little odd that it didn¡¯t happen to Ian, but Theo didn¡¯t fret too much about it.

    In the momentary pause, Theo realized that the mass of monsters was moving around aimlessly, and some of them were even starting to attack the native people.

    It was odd though, it seemed like whatever control over the monsters that these people once had was suddenly gone. The fighting had devolved into a brutal melee between the monsters and the tribesman. The prince¡¯s forces were being almost entirely ignored.

    It was like Theo was in the eye of a storm. An ocean of pain and violence surrounded him, and yet none of the monsters encroached upon his little bastion in the middle of the battlefield.

    Theo took a deep breath and looked out over the field of pain and misery. All that was left was the cleanup.

    Ian flew off into the hordes of monsters, cutting them into ribbons, while knocking out any remaining tribesman. Without their leader, the entirety of the tribesman had fallen into disarray and were no longer really a threat towards the prince¡¯s ambitions. So, they got a nice knocking on the noggin, but not the executioner¡¯s sword.

    Theo helped his fair share with the cleanup, but the battle ended uneventfully. It was incredibly anticlimactic.

    Theo sat on a rock; Lillian sat next to him. Both stared at the house of cards that had been built by Joy during the furious battle. It now stood strong; nothing was able to budge it. Some of the prince¡¯s forces had tried kicking it over for fun, but that only ended with stubbed toes.

    ¡°Now we wait?¡± Lillian asked.

    Theo stared off into the distance as he sighed. ¡°Yeah.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s so,¡± Lillian struggled to find the right word for a moment,¡± boring.¡±

    ¡°¡­Yeah.¡±

 Chapter 44 - Up In The Clouds

    Joy and the boy suddenly appeared in a room. There were pink tapestries covering the walls, and the floors were covered in a green fuzzy carpet. There were no windows, lights, or fires in the room, and yet it was perfectly lit. In the center of the room sat a single couch and a couple of red cups filled with some sort of fizzing concoction.

    The entire room was an affront to anyone who enjoyed any sort of home d¨¦cor, yet its audacious colorings gave it a certainly homely feel.

    The young boy looked around and shrieked, ¡°all my connections are severed. My sins! Where did you take me?¡±

    He charged towards Joy but tripped over his own feet before getting too close to Joy. The warm embrace of the fuzzy rug was more comforting than anything he had ever felt in his life. Only comparing to his mother¡¯s embrace.

    The boy was exhausted, it had been a long battle that took a lot of effort out of him. His body was still malnourished from his time as a mere slave, and he could feel his eyelids drooping. He was so comfortable, even though he shouldn¡¯t be sleeping in front of an enemy, the boy couldn¡¯t help himself.

    As the boy drifted off to sleep Joy said, ¡°think of this place like a luxury penthouse of reality, I won the key a long time ago. Sleep well¡­¡± an awkward pause filled the room as Joy realized something. ¡°I don¡¯t even know his name, what a travesty.¡±

    Then the boy fell into the sweet embrace of Sleep.

    When the boy rose from his slumber, the room looked quite different. Instead of lying in on the luxurious green rug the boy was now in a massive bed the seemed to never end. Whichever direction he looked the bed continued forever. It was soft and nothing like the boy had ever felt, but it was quite disconcerting to be in a bed that kept going forever.

    A hatch in the ceiling above him opened and Joy stuck his head into the bedroom.

    ¡°Sweet, you¡¯re awake! Okay if you promise two things, I¡¯ll let down the rope ladder and let you come out of the bedroom.¡± Joy tantalizingly held the ends of the ladder over the hatch, just letting the boy get a view of them before hiding them away again.

    The boy¡¯s voice was weak and dejected, ¡°there¡¯s not much I can do without my sins. Sure, creepy old guy, I¡¯ll promise to do whatever.¡±

    ¡°Awesome sauce-some! Just promise not to attack me, and to listen to my explanation.¡±

    The boy did so, and as he started climbing up the ladder Joy began to explain.

    ¡°This place is a little odd, and there are a couple rules that you need to understand. You have been formally challenged in the eyes of the god Game, and using some mumbo-jumbo magic you have appeared in their domain.¡±

    ¡°This place is an extension of everything that Game represents, so for all intents and purposes, it represents gaming. Since you have been challenged you must defeat me in a game where your freedom is wagered against something of equal value.¡±

    ¡°Until such a time where you defeat me in a freedom winning game, or if I decided to let you go, we will be stuck in this place.¡±

    ¡°Anything can be created, however it must be under the guise of a game, so if you want to eat, we need to do a speed eating competition or if you want to drink, we must chug. Every game needs a wager, but we can get to that later. Thankfully Game installed some bathrooms in here, otherwise we would have to do pooping competitions of some form to get access to any sanitary products.¡±

    ¡°Last thing, the time goes faster in here. We could live out our entire lives in this place and only an hour or so would have passed out there.¡±

    Joy and the boy stared at each other in silence. The boy realized that he was probably safe here; Joy¡¯s intentions and look weren¡¯t malicious, instead it seemed oddly whimsical.

    The boy was a tad frightened, but the rules of the place seemed straightforward. He bravely looked Joy in the eyes and declared, ¡°then let¡¯s play a game, I would like my freedom back very much.¡±

    ¡°Delightful, you should choose the game. I will wager your freedom from this place, while you shall wager your name. If I win, you must tell me your name.¡±

    The boy replied almost too quickly, ¡°deal! We shall play a game from my people. Two people stand in a line, and one will make footprints in the snow. The other person must follow in their footsteps as perfectly as possible. Whoever makes the most mistakes within the other¡¯s trail loses.¡±

    As soon as the deal was made, and the game was explained, the floor around them turned from shaggy green carpeting into a deep crunchy snow embankment. The snow went up to the middle of their shins and a bitingly cold wind ripped into them.

    There was a horrifying dissonance to it though, since the two of them were obviously still in the same room, the awful pink draperies still on the nearby walls. The boy put it out of his mind and just told himself that it was magic.

    The two of them took turns and tried to make the most difficult to follow path. The boy was quite proud of himself, he had chosen this game to take advantage of his smaller stature. Joy¡¯s feet were much larger than his, so he assumed that all he had to do was calmly walk through the snow and Joy would automatically lose.

    He was wrong.

    Joy moved like a cat, lithely and gracefully. Every step made no sound as he glided across the surface of the snow, somehow sneaking his feet into the tiny indentations that the boy had left behind.

    This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

    Conversely, the boy found himself unable to match Joy¡¯s steps. Just like how the boy took advantage of his small stature, Joy took advantage of his body¡¯s height and fitness, doing acrobatics that the young man had no way of matching.

    The boy lost at his own game horribly.

    ¡°So, what¡¯s your name?¡±

    The boy didn¡¯t answer, and just smiled at Joy.

    A frown appeared on Joy¡¯s face.

    ¡°The room would make you answer, that¡¯s how the magic works. Since you aren¡¯t answering, that must mean you don¡¯t have a name. That is rather sad to hear.¡±

    And so, the two of them started a game of cat and mouse. They would play a game and Joy would wager the boy¡¯s freedom, while asking the boy to wager answers to his inane questions.

    He asked about the boy¡¯s favorite color, his first memory, what was the first thing he thought of in the morning, and what his favorite season was. Slowly but surely, Joy was developing a mental picture of who this boy was.

    The boy was willing to answer but became more and more frustrated the more the two of them played. Joy would always calmly and concisely explain the rules of anything that the boy didn¡¯t know, he would spend hours or days explaining the intricacies of games so that the boy would not be at a disadvantage.

    But the boy couldn¡¯t win. It didn¡¯t matter if they played a game that the boy had come up with on the spot, he simply couldn¡¯t beat Joy.

    Days, weeks, months passed like this. The two of them would play games and Joy would mercilessly destroy the young man.

    Their hair grew to new lengths, Joy sported a fashionable beard, while the boy grew a bit of peach fuzz, which did not suit his porcelain like skin.

    One night, the two of them were about to have a pillow fight when made a unique request for his winning demand.

    ¡°You will tell me about those tattoos on your body if I win.¡±

    The boy¡¯s eyes narrowed. Joy¡¯s questions had never been particularly invasive before this moment. If his previous questions had been skimming the surface of the boy¡¯s character, this was the equivalent of diving right in.

    The boy nodded and prepared his pillows for the epic battle.

    The pillows came in all varieties. Some were filled with feathers, others were filled with straw, and some were made something called ¡°memory-foam.¡± Each of these types had a special place in the two combatants¡¯ arsenals.

    The battle commenced as pillows flew and strikes were thrown. The boy found himself grinning as he was thrown around this way and that. Bouncing off the infinite bed to get to a pillow fort he had made earlier as a final line of defense.

    The smile immediately dripped off his face as he remembered the stakes, but he couldn¡¯t shake the exhilaration out of his body.

    Deciding the winner of a pillow fight is a laborious affair, there are so many metrics by which to measure winning, is it decided by whoever got the coolest looking hit in? Is it decided by the highest total of hits? Is it decided by whoever gives up first?

    No one truly knows, since pillow fights are rarely fought in a competitive nature, but the game room was equipped for such decisions, and scored each of their moves appropriately.

    Unsurprisingly, the room declared Joy the winner of the fight. Immediately, the boy felt his mouth open, and he was compelled to answer the question he had been dreading.

    ¡°I was a slave. There are so few resources on this continent that there is no way to support everyone to live plush and kind lives. So, the chief who came before me used his gift to fix the problem. He could enslave people that he bled upon, wherever the blood fell chains erupted on their skin. If we disobeyed him the spikes that were tattooed on the chains would become real and rip at us.¡±

    Tears started running down the boy¡¯s eyes as he continued his story.

    ¡°The elders said that he started to do this because his gift had a side effect, that anyone enslaved by him needed much less sustenance to sustain themselves. But he grew drunk on power and just enjoyed forcing people to bend to his whims. My mother was killed by him, and I remember that everyone cheered when I finally showed him his sins and he became a husk of a man.¡±

    At the end of his monologue the boy¡¯s teeth were clenched and his eyes burned red in the soft lighting of the realm.

    Joy looked at the boy with endless sadness, and the day ended early for them both. Neither felt like continuing their gaming considering the day¡¯s realizations.

    Joy¡¯s next question that he won was, ¡°can you read?¡±

    The boy had to answer honestly, and he told Joy, ¡°No.¡±

    Joy knew his parents had spoiled him a bit by letting him learn how to read. He had been given a beautiful opportunity that he took for granted on a daily basis.

    But this knowledge sparked a new question in Joy¡¯s mind.

    ¡°Have you ever read the words that are carved into your back?¡±

    The boy refused to answer, since he felt that he needed to make Joy work for the answers he refused to answer any question that Joy had on principle, unless the room forced him to answer.

    The two of them played something called a ¡°videogame¡± where Joy gambled the boy¡¯s freedom, and the boy gambled the answer to that question. Joy ¡°five stocked¡± him. The boy could¡¯ve sworn that the controls were drifting, but a loss was a loss. So, he answered the question, ¡°no, I have never read the words on my own back.¡±

    Joy added a new game into the rotation after learning that. It was a spelling game, where the boy learned what each of the letters were and how they corresponded to each sound. He was slowly taught how to read by Joy.

    After reading, Joy made games around math and science; they even moved on to a bit of contemporary history and poetry.

    The boy found that his life was being enriched little by little. He was still a growing boy, he was a few months past his thirteenth birthday, yet he had been given an opportunity to flourish and grow in a stress-free environment. He was truly free for the first time in his life.

    An incredible amount of time had passed by this point and Joy had turned into a caveman. His hair was greasy and unkempt, a massive beard was flowing down his face, while the hair on the top of his head had grown beyond his shoulders into a flowing mane.

    The boy had long hair as well, but he seemed more refined. The time spent in this space had cultured him, unlike how it deteriorated Joy.

    The two of them could feel it in the air. Their time in this space was coming to a close. The water tasted of finality.

    Joy finally spoke as he addressed the growing tension, ¡°how about we make our final game be memory chess?¡±

    The boy had learned of Joy¡¯s antics by now, so instead of exacerbating the problem by asking ¡®what memory chess is¡¯ he stared off into the distance looking uninterested.

    With a sigh, Joy deigned to give an explanation.

    ¡°It is like normal chess, except our most core memories are stored inside of the pieces. So, for every piece you take you must experience the other person¡¯s memory.¡±

    ¡°So, I am playing for my freedom, but what are you playing for this time?¡± The boy asked Joy.

    ¡°This time, I will play to create a binding set of conditions that you will live by for the rest of your life. You will cherish life and never harm another being, you will become an arbiter of kindness and justice, bringing benevolence and happiness to those around you in life. You will bring every person around you a slice of joy.¡±

    ¡°A little self-centered, aren¡¯t we?¡±

    ¡°A boy can dream.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s a deal.¡±

    The two of them sat down at a table that had appeared out of nowhere and brought mugs of tea and coffee to their lips. The pieces were on the table, they were beautifully stylized pieces, intricate works that would bring tears to the eyes of any craftsman.

    Joy took each king and hid them within his hands. Moving his hands behind his back and shuffling the pieces around, he grinned at the boy.

    From behind the layers of hair, a gleam could be seen in Joy¡¯s eye.

    ¡°Left, or right?¡±

    ¡°Left.¡±

    Then the game began.

 Chapter 45 - The Game Of Chess

    ¡°Pawn to e4; why do you think I made my win condition what I did? Why would I want you to bring happiness and joy to the world?¡±

    ¡°Pawn to e5; it¡¯s because you have a boner for being a good person. You want to be some great kind person that changes the world around you. Your wants seem selfless from an outside perspective, but truly deep down they are a selfish desire.¡±

    ¡°Knight to c3; ouch. Well, I believe that the purpose of life is to bring little happinesses and joys to the world around me. What do you think the purpose of life is?¡±

    ¡°Pawn to f6; from the history you have taught me, the answer should be that we are like these pawns in some massive game to the gods.¡±

    ¡°Pawn to d3; that a bitch answer. That¡¯s the answer of someone who would¡¯ve been content to stay a slave for the rest of their life. But you didn¡¯t, you are more than that. So, what drives you?¡±

    ¡°Bishop to b4; life here on the Frozen Continent is hard and cruel. I was taught from a young age that Life was not a kind god. Life takes away your warmth until there is nothing left. I became chief to preserve the warmth of my tribe and those that I loved.¡±

    ¡°Bishop to d2; so, you are on the defensive? Life attacks, and you defend until you eventually succumb to the cold and numbness?¡±

    ¡°Bishop takes knight on c3.¡±

    The memory washed over the boy. He finds himself seeing sunshine as a child. There was a man in the field, his father. He toiled in the field and sweat poured down his shoulders as he put in the day¡¯s work. Winter had just passed, and through Joy eyes the boy watched sunshine pierce through the clouds and bring spring with it.

    ¡°Bishop takes bishop on c3.¡±

    Joy found himself living a memory of starvation. A forgotten face stared down at him. Her features were blurry and indistinct as she sang a sad song to the boy. Tears streamed down the boy¡¯s face, and Joy felt the tears appear in his own eyes, he felt his stomach fight. The hunger consumed all, but the sadness was even worse, because he had seen the blurry face give him all her food. Her hunger could only be worse, and yet she continued singing telling the boy that everything would be fine.

    ¡°Pawn to d5; that was much more intense than I thought it would be.¡±

    ¡°Bishop to a5; yes, it was.¡±

    ¡°Pawn to b6; going back to your question, the weak can only defend against life. To fight back against life is a luxury of the privileged and powerful.¡±

    ¡°Bishop to b4; but you are powerful. You have armies of monsters that come to your beck and call. I don¡¯t understand why you are all so obsessed with power, you have plenty enough to relocate the entirety of your tribe and live a happy life in the hills on the Heart continent.¡±

    ¡°Knight to a6; and live under the thumb of some new and more powerful figure? No.¡±

    ¡°Bishop to c3; but you could be rid of this life and be freer.¡±

    ¡°Pawn to c5; but we would still not be free.¡±

    ¡°Queen to h5, check; what is freedom to you then?¡±

    ¡°Pawn to g6; to have no one to tell me what to do, no one that can control me, no one that can make me a slave again.¡±

    ¡°Queen to f3; but are you not a slave to your people? Would their needs and wants not control how you act? You purposefully enslave yourself to them and yet you preach of freedom.¡±

    ¡°Pawn to d4; don¡¯t twist my words, Joy. I love them and will help them through all their trials and tribulations because of that love. There is no enslavement if I choose to love and help them.¡±

    ¡°Castling king side; but still that is not true freedom in the way you described it. By making yourself leader of this group you have limited yourself and your options, thus showing a lack of freedom.¡±

    ¡°Knight to h6; and what else was I supposed to do, Joy? Remove the previous chief then leave them all to live my own perfect free life?¡±

    ¡°Bishop to d2; of course not. What I am saying is that these bindings that tie us are vitally important. They keep us from floating off into the realm of the gods and true freedom, but they also are what make life worth living. Love and kindness are what matter.¡±

    ¡°Knight to f5.¡±

    ¡°Pawn to g4.¡±

    ¡°Knight to h4; I think I understand where you are coming from. You say that bringing happiness to those around you is worth is because of the ties that bind us together. Your love will make the people around you happier.¡±

    ¡°Queen to g3; yes, thank you for thinking about it.¡±

    ¡°Pawn to g5; my problem with that is that I don¡¯t think I have enough love to give. I have duty and rationality, but I don¡¯t know if I care the way you seem to.¡±

    ¡°Pawn to b3; why do you take care of your people if you do not love them the way you say I do?¡±

    ¡°Pawn to f5; because I am so full of hatred for them.¡±

    ¡°Pawn takes pawn on f5.¡±

    Joy saw the endless expanse of snow and ice. He had been left behind, the slaves were told to keep up or die, and he had not kept up. The cold was seeping into his bones at every step, but he knew that he had to find his slaving crew soon or else he would truly die. He ran in the snow trying to find anyone. Bitterness and loneliness filled the boy¡¯s soul and Joy experienced it all.

    ¡°Bishop takes pawn on f5.¡±

    The boy felt the sunshine on his face as he looked at the faces of Joy¡¯s parents. Both gave the young man big hugs and smiles tinged with a bit of sadness. Neither of them approved of Joy¡¯s need to go out and explore in life, but they were not going to stop him. With a heart filled with homesickness and pure giddiness Joy stepped onto the river barge that would take him on his adventure.

    ¡°Bishop takes pawn on g5.¡±

    Joy felt the chains that gripped the boy¡¯s body rip into him. The boy had angered the chief by forgetting to put two lemon slices on his drink. He had only put one in the drink because he was so starved that he couldn¡¯t think. The pain was excruciating, the barbs ripped into him as he howled at the chief¡¯s court about the unfairness.

    ¡°Queen to c8; they needed someone strong to save them, but why did it have to be me? Why did I have to save them when they did nothing for me. I saved every single one of us from those chains and that pain, and yet they still asked for more, from the boy who had done nothing but give for them. It never ends.¡±

    ¡°Pawn takes pawn on f5.¡±

    Joy was in the boy¡¯s mind again, far beyond his days as a little slave boy. He sits upon the rocky shore of another continent. He had overthrown the previous chief hours ago and had found out the man¡¯s biggest secret. None of them had to live on that Water damned continent, there was a whole other world that they could be living in; but that man had kept it all for himself. Their riches and their pleasures were used to make his life lavish while the slaves had starved. The boy wept upon the shores of the land that could have saved him.

    ¡°Queen takes pawn on f5.¡±

    The boy smelled the aura of booze that radiated off a pig nosed man through Joy¡¯s nose. Joy was barely seven years old, and he had snuck onto a river barge without his parents knowing. He sat in front of this booze covered man and picked up his first ever hand of poker. It was five card draw and he had the most beautiful royal flush that anyone had ever seen. The world shone upon Joy as he basked in its glow and love.

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    ¡°Queen takes knight on h4.¡±

    Joy, though the body of the boy, sat in a small hovel of a home. The bodies were packed together and there was no such thing as privacy. The slaves were thrown in these little places to keep them out of sight since they were ¡®dirty things¡¯ that ¡®ruined the chief¡¯s perfect afternoon stroll.¡¯ Hate simmered in the room, but no one dared to say it; the hate could be felt in the air though, it seeped into everyone¡¯s soul and festered there.

    ¡°Pawn to e4.¡±

    ¡°Pawn takes pawn on e4.¡±

    Again, Joy was thrust into the boy¡¯s memories. Except this time, he was playing in the snow. He had found that if he covered the tattoos of chains well enough, the other kids would play with him. He laughed and smiled just like a normal child should. It was a beautiful day with snowballs flying this way and that, until the chief stood over the boy and beat him half to death for shirking his duties. He cried and cried as the kicks continued falling on him, even the other children joined in, thinking it was some sort of game. Tears turned to ice on the boy¡¯s face and blood seeped into the white snow.

    ¡°Queen to g6.¡±

    ¡°Bishop takes knight on a6.¡±

    Joy saw an old seer through the boy¡¯s eyes. She had a name at one point, but now everyone just called her ¡®hag.¡¯ She even seemed to like it. Her gift showed her visions of the future, but she had to bear immense pain for them. The more pain she was willing to bear, the more her visions showed. For this vision, she had all her bones broken and mended by a healer for an entire day. She said that she saw a beautiful stick, and that with it, the boy would be able to free the world from their sins, and that the gods¡¯ game would finally be over. The boy felt the weight of the world rest upon his shoulders, but he refused to budge from the burden, he would free them all.

    ¡°Pawn to b5.¡±

    ¡°Bishop to b7; why are you such a rash player? You are at times a timid boy, barely able to speak for himself, and at others you are a bloodhound who gets so engrossed in the scent of blood that he cannot help himself?¡±

    ¡°Rook to b8; you have seen the memories. You know the things that define me. I am defined by the burdens I carry for my tribe and my hope. Yet I am full of a seething hatred towards them all.¡±

    ¡°Bishop to d5; you love so hard that it hurts you? You are the gardener tending to a bed of roses, needing to be careful not to get pricked.¡±

    ¡°Rook to f8; life hurts, Joy. I just want it to stop.¡±

    ¡°Pawn to f4.¡±

    ¡°Rook to c8.¡±

    ¡°Pawn to f5.¡±

    ¡°Queen to g7.¡±

    ¡°Queen to h5, check; what do you think a gift is? Like the gift from the gods you received when you turned thirteen.¡±

    ¡°Rook to f7; literature says that it is a choice given to you by the gods depending on the shape of your karma, as determined by Fate.¡±

    ¡°Pawn to f6; I¡¯m glad I taught you how to read; now you can quote literature to me. But, if you look at accounts of people¡¯s lives, many of the history defining heroes didn¡¯t get a choice, they were simply presented with the only one possible.¡±

    ¡°Queen to f8; does that mean I am some history defining man, since I was only allowed my choice from Sin?¡±

    ¡°Bishop takes rook on f7, check; yes, you are.¡±

    Joy saw a feast put upon a massive table. The boy had found the previous chief¡¯s storage of food and decided to host the first party of freedom. He had gotten the teleporting lady, Tera, to even bring some powerful alcohol from the mainland to help lubricate some of the tensions left between the former slaves and the free people of the tribe. They were all free now, it was a blissful time.

    ¡°Queen takes rook on f7.¡±

    The boy was in Joy¡¯s mind as he met with the prince for the first time and was offered his job. He was full of odd emotions. On one hand he was entertained at the frivolity of the whole thing. Who needed this much funding? Joy could use his luck and take the wealth of nations, why did this young prince have need of this? But he was also ashamed that he had been corned in such a manner, it had been a long time since he had been truly defeated, so he wanted to try and explore this opportunity to its fullest. He was full of curiosity and wonder.

    ¡°Queen takes queen on f7, check.¡±

    Joy was thrown into the boy¡¯s memories. When the slaves of the tribe were of age and received their gifts, they must present them to the chief to see how they could be used ideally. The boy had only been allowed to choose from Sin, and even if he wasn¡¯t sure exactly what would happen, he had an instinctive feeling that it was a powerful gift and that if someone looked at the words on his back, they would be forever changed. So, he didn¡¯t inform the chief of the side effects and let the man gaze upon the writing carved excruciatingly on his own back. The chief¡¯s eyes rolled up into his head and a smoky figure emerged out of his mouth, the figure was almost completely solid, and the previous chief seemed much smaller after the sin had been removed. The sin bound the horrid man in chains like the ones he placed on his own slaves. Then the boy took the throne of the tribe, and all bowed to him.

    ¡°King takes queen on f7.¡±

    The boy was thrown into Joy¡¯s memory of when he had received his gift. The cold eyes of Fate stared down at Joy as he declared that ¡®his karma was too weak.¡¯ There were no powerful gifts that the gods could offer him, all that his karma could support was a bauble or trinket. The god Miscellaneous took pity on Joy and had given him a deck of cards, so that he would never be without a game. Joy had been shattered; he had been told that his life would amount to nothing. He would create no big changes in the world, he would not be some hero riding off into the sunset surrounded by beautiful men and women. He was nothing in the grand scheme of things. The entire experience caused him to fall into a deep depression, but the memory ended before the wallowing and self-pity truly started.

    ¡°Rook to f1; it truly did destroy me, knowing that the gods deemed my life essentially meaningless.¡±

    ¡°Pawn to c4; but you obviously have found some measure of power in life. If this place is not a part of your gift, then where are we, and what is this place?¡±

    ¡°Knight to f3; if you take my king, you can find out for yourself, boy.¡±

    ¡°Pawn to d3; but you seem to be living a meaningful life, you have done so many things that have changed me, Joy.¡±

    ¡°Pawn to c3; my life is a small thing. I am not the man who will save the world, I will not run around rescuing damsels in distress, nor will I be the leader of a redefining age. I am simply a man of happiness and whimsy. I will go around this life being kind and making everyone around me better people. Once they are better people, they will do the same for those around them. It is a never-ending cycle of bringing a little bit of hope to the world. But I am merely the catalyst, I am not the one who changes anything, that is why my presence may make a profound impact on the world, but I am not full of righteous destiny.¡±

    ¡°Rook to d8.¡±

    ¡°Rook to d1.¡±

    ¡°Pawn to a5.¡±

    ¡°Knight to e5, check.¡±

    ¡°King to e6; I have already lost, haven¡¯t I?¡±

    ¡°Knight to c6; you lost a long time ago. This entire charade is for me to understand you, and for you to understand a bit of me. I know you are an angry, sad soul, who is trapped with a sense of duty. The world has shown you so much of its hatred, but you have seen pieces of its love. The world loves every single one of us and I am trying to get you to see that in your own memories and mine.¡±

    ¡°Rook to a8; but not everyone can see that love, Joy. It hurts, it all hurts so much sometimes and the love that you see exists just to make the pain hurt even more.¡±

    ¡°Pawn takes pawn on c4.¡±

    Joy saw the boy¡¯s mother singing a sweet song to him. The boy couldn¡¯t have been older than three or four, and her arms did shake as she carried him high into the air, yet her voice never wavered. Her voice kept singing to the boy all the love she had for him, even when it hurt.

    ¡°Pawn takes pawn on c4.¡±

    The boy saw through Joy as he sat upon a rock, looking at the expedition that the prince had set up. Joy felt a sense of pride at the achievement, at the amount of work he had put into this to make it happen, but he also felt weary. These were the stories of great heroes now, and Joy was no great hero. Yet, somehow, a seer named Sam convinced him to join in the end, they had shown Joy a world of adventure, and how could he refuse.

    ¡°Rook to f1.¡±

    ¡°Pawn to a4.¡±

    ¡°Rook to f5.¡±

    ¡°King to f7.¡±

    ¡°Knight to e5, check; why do you refuse to admit that the world shows you love?¡±

    ¡°King to e8; because it was never the world, it was my mother.¡±

    ¡°Knight takes pawn on c4; the world is an ephemeral being. It doesn¡¯t truly exist. It is simply the feeling that something beyond ourselves, beyond the petty squabbling gods, is there to give us love. To make us happy, to make us enjoy our existence no matter how fleeting.¡±

    Joy found himself experiencing the eyes that followed the young man. It was a beautiful day, the snow shone, and the sunrise was spectacular. Yet, the boy had just become the new chief and everyone''s eyes followed him. Their eyes were filled with hope. And the boy struggled under the weight of their expectations. He lived in a world of anxiety and worry, yet he never let it show on his face. He would be everything they needed and more.

    ¡°Rook to d8; you talk so fancy, Joy. None of that matters, it doesn¡¯t matter if I feel loved, I need to accomplish my goals and to live by my virtues.¡±

    ¡°Pawn to f7, check; of course it matters. You are the one living, if you feel alone, you will make those around you feel alone.¡±

    ¡°King to f8; maybe you¡¯re right Joy. Maybe it¡¯s time to love other people.¡±

    ¡°Bishop takes rook on d8; that is a beautiful determination, now apply it to yourself, you twerp.¡±

    ¡°Pawn to d2, check! Obviously, I love myself, who doesn¡¯t?¡±

    ¡°Rook takes pawn on d2; you said something very striking to me and the prince. ¡®Everyone has sins¡¯ and yet, you couldn¡¯t have read your own back before coming here, since I taught you to read. You don¡¯t even know what is carved into your own back, do you?¡±

    ¡°King to g7; I¡­ I can¡¯t. Everyone has sins, except for you two freaks. And I am no different.¡±

    ¡°Rook to g2, check; the prince explained it to you, you daft idiot. A sin is something you put upon yourself, so you obviously feel guilty for something. Your gift is for that shit.¡±

    ¡°King to f8; what do you mean?¡±

    ¡°Knight to e5; your gift? It is for helping people overcome their trauma and the things they see as sins. You can remove them and help them physically overcome their own burdens. Your gift exists to uplift people and make them stronger and more loving, not this wayward way you create sin slaves and leave the sinners¡¯ minds to rot.¡±

    ¡°Pawn to h5; is my gift truly mean to help? Joy, do you mean it?¡±

    ¡°Knight to d7, checkmate; yes.¡±

    Joy took in the final memory. The boy sat in the crowded room with all the other slaves. His mother was speaking in hushed tones to one of her friends. She kept saying things like, ¡®I can¡¯t feed both of us¡¯ and ¡®make sure he understands how much I love him.¡¯ The boy was barely five. His mother came up to him and whispered in his ear, she told him that she loved him and that the only reason she was doing this was because she loved him so much. He cried that day but didn¡¯t quite understand why. He watched as his mother walked out into the snow and never came back.

    Joy and the boy cried together in that moment, for a beautiful and kind woman lost to the cruelty of man.

 Chapter 46 - Countless Strings

    Joy finished crying first. He had not truly suffered the way the boy had, and the memory of a loving mother who would die for her child was not his. He held the boy in a bone crushing embrace for a while before asking the game room for two mirrors.

    He set them up in another room and then patiently waited for the boy to finish his weeping.

    When the boy had finally finished crying, and finally stepped forward, Joy directed him to the double mirror setup. Once he was between the mirrors the boy would finally read the words carved into his own back and his own sins would be released.

    The boy sat down with his eyes closed, then finally read the words.

    ¡°You are not forgiven, but you will be forgotten.¡± The boy murmured as his eyes rolled back and a black fog started coming out of his mouth, coalescing into the shape of a woman.

    Before Joy and the boy stood a thin and frail woman. Without having seen the boy¡¯s memories Joy would never have known who she was. But now he knew.

    The boy¡¯s mother looked at him with cruelty and hate in her black eyes. There was rage and pain contained within her, and the boy started sobbing again.

    The boy always could¡¯ve done this to himself, he just didn¡¯t want to. He did not want to see his own sins in the light of day. No one does.

    He closed his eyes and stepped towards the shadowy figure, giving the shadow of the woman who loved him so much one final hug. Tears streamed down his face and hissed off the shadowy body of the woman, but he held her tight.

    Finally, she poofed away. A great billowing black fog coming into existence where she had been. The fog swirled and came back into the boy, he swallowed all the self-loathing and sadness that the fog encapsulated, then burped.

    He was not better, he was not magically cured of the trauma and sadness that had consumed his life for years, but he had taken the first steps.

    The boy turned to Joy and asked, ¡°do you remember the first question you ever asked me when we came to this place?¡±

    ¡°I asked what your name is.¡± Joy replied.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t know then, but I do know now. I am forgiveness, I am a cool summer breeze, I am kind in the face of anger, my name is Hope.¡±

    ¡°That is a good name, Hope. But your whole speech leading up to it was a bit too hoity toity if you ask me.¡±

    ¡°Oh really? You¡¯re one to talk.¡±

    And like an old couple, Joy and Hope bickered back and forth for hours on end, appreciating the little time they had left in this haven. Because once they were done, Hope knew that he was going to have to run like Speed, to be able to get away from all of Joy¡¯s friends.

    As their time drew to a close, Joy held Hope in a final hug before snapping his fingers and turning both of them back into motes of light that moved faster than their brains could process, bringing them back to a battlefield that had been mostly sorted out.

    ___

    The prince had been twirling his stick around, he knew that Joy had found it, but since Joy was being such a party-pooper, the prince felt that he was entitled to take his stick as compensation.

    The enemies that had been captured were not as numerous as he had expected, and every time he turned his back, somehow more of them disappeared.

    He just knew it was the teleporting lady, but he hadn¡¯t been able to track her down. So, he calmed down and meditated by twirling his stick around.

    He heard a shout of bewilderment coming from where he had been battling earlier, and he took off running. He could see faint motes of golden light coalescing in the area.

    As the prince approached the two golden shapes shifted into human form. A young man and Joy came out. Joy was nearly unrecognizable; his hair was long and smelled faintly of lavender shampoo. He had braided it down his back and had a neatly trimmed beard that accentuated the sharp features of his face.

    The young man was even more unrecognizable, and it took a few moments for the prince to realize that this was the chief that they had been fighting on this battlefield, the one who spoke of sins and other nonsense.

    The young man had filled out. His gaunt form was now lean and muscled, his hair was trimmed and neat, he also smelled faintly of shampoo, which was a rarity here in the frozen lands. His skin was as pallid as ever, but he walked with his back straight and his head held high. He even wore some stylish clothes; when had these two fools gotten enough time to bathe themselves, grow their hair out, and get a wardrobe change? It was infuriating.

    The prince watched as some started to fawn over Joy and others started to look menacingly towards the young man as they started to recognize who he was.

    The entire scene culminated as Ian strode up to the two figures and brandished his sword towards the chief.

    ___

    The crone kept whispering at Tera. The old woman had been a seer of the highest caliber at one point in time so Tera didn¡¯t shake her off with too much vigor. Instead, she tried to gently carouse the old woman off her.

    But the crone wouldn¡¯t shut up about how the prince now held ¡®the kingmaker.¡¯ And how the ¡®prophecy could now never be fulfilled,¡¯ and that if they wanted to salvage this situation, they should all listen to her.

    Tera had done enough listening by now. All she felt was a sickly remorse. When the old chief had been impeached, they all should¡¯ve left these gods forsaken lands. The old chief had kept them here because he would rather live in misery as king of the hill rather than be a small man in a large pond.

    Tera herself could¡¯ve taken every single person out of these snowy lands.

    But they had listened to this crone, and her talk of glory and uniting the world. Her people had died around her, and now all Tera could do is watch as a useless war had been fought and lost by her brother and sister tribesmen.

    She watched and waited, hoping to find little openings to teleport her comrades out of their bindings. No one noticed an extra pebble on the ground, even if the pebble was intricated carved.

    Then she saw the chief reappear in a mass of golden smoke. He looked older and more refined, he almost looked like a true leader of men.

    The enemies slowly closed in around him, even as the man who had appeared at the same time in the cloud of golden light cried for them not to.

    A severe man with a sword was about to cut off the chief¡¯s head, when the world seemed to stop. A woman shrouded in blackness appeared from the chief¡¯s breast. She unfolded like a demented piece of origami.

    Nothing seemed to move as she appeared, then she opened her embrace. And all the attacks that were coming down towards the chief were absorbed into her. Even the severe man¡¯s sword was not spared, getting pulled inexorably into her.

    Next, the chief pointed disdainfully at the chains that their tribesmen had been put in, and they too were absorbed into the woman in black.

    The chief thanked the woman and rushed towards the captured tribesman as she folded back into his chest.

    Tera knew that this was her moment, she instantly teleported to the throng of captured people and the chief. Then she yelled at them to hold each other as she teleported the entire group away in a showing of true power.

    Tera gasped on the floor with a smile on her face. She knew that some of her fellows had fallen in this meaningless battle, but she had saved the rest.

    She had saved them.

    She looked at the chief in his new fancy clothes as he sidled up to her gasping form.

    ¡°Thank you, Tera. You have done us all a great service.¡± His voice was melodic, and less tinny than it used to be. He had graduated to adulthood from his prepubescence.

    If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

    He addressed the crowd after that.

    ¡°My people, I am no longer your chief. I am now simply the man called Hope. You may follow me for as long as you wish, for these will be some trying times. But I have mistakes and sins to atone for. We are going to embark on the journey that we should have a very long time ago.¡±

    The chief, no, Hope looked meaningfully at the old crone with her prophecies, then to Tera.

    ¡°Well, we will embark on it as soon as Tera takes a nap.¡±

    Tera was asleep long before he got to the word nap, but she slept with a smile on her face. The family had a new direction, they were going to relocate to warmer climes.

    ___

    King Renoir sat on his throne. Not the ostentatious one that he used to preside over the lords and ladies that thought themselves above him, but the simple one that the first ruler of this land had carved with her own two hands.

    The wood hurt his back, but none of his predecessors had ever caved into their base urges and placed a pillow on the seat, and by the gods neither would he.

    He sat there contemplating his children. He wished that it didn¡¯t have to be such a painful way of life for them, but kingship was not a task for the weak. He had placed the two of them in competition with the other as early as he could, and Fate had decided the winner of that match early, but he was willing to give his weak son a chance at the throne.

    The day his son, David, had walked into the throne room with tears streaming down his face on the morning of his thirteenth birthday the king had known that the boy could never rule. But he would serve as an excellent whetstone for Dahlia. He was sharp and intelligent, conniving and crafty, but she had power. So, the king dearly hoped that she would inherit those gifts from him as the two of them battled over the throne.

    The king¡¯s reverie was broken when one of his most trusted advisors burst into the room.

    Philip Pen was a unique individual that the king truly adored. The man looked like a wizard of the first age. His eyebrows were long and white, hanging all the way down his face. He had a truly massive fluffy beard, and he always wore blue robes covered with star motifs. To go with the ensemble, he even had a pointy hat.

    He had been a scholar of renown for many years, and his acclaim brought him to the king¡¯s attention. And his gift had secured him a place in the king¡¯s court.

    Philip Pen could only write the truth.

    If he ever wrote a lie, the pen and the paper he used to write it would burst into flames, with the severity of those flames being determined by the intensity of the untruth.

    When the king¡¯s children had left on their journeys, he had Philip check in on their progress quite frequently. Of course, each of them had their own ways of keeping their poor old father updated, but he could check in on their progress quite easily with Philip.

    He simply had the man write two phrases every day.

    ¡®The prince David has accomplished his goals in the Frozen continent.¡¯

    ¡®The princess Dahlia has accomplished her goals in the Fractured continent.¡¯

    The prices of keeping that Hair gifted and Health gifted were well within the bounds of the king¡¯s personal expenditures, and those two were able to keep Philip from blowing his face off every time that the sentences turn out incorrect.

    The important thing about Philip Pen¡¯s entrance today was that there was no scent of smoke wafting off him, and neither were there blotches of fresh skin on his face, the telltale sign of a healing.

    All this could only mean one thing. The king smiled at his advisor, asking a silent question.

    Philip nervously fiddled with his eyebrow hairs as he said, ¡°yes, they have both succeeded today at the same time.¡±

    He took a short pause to look the king in the eye before continuing.

    ¡°Can I stop trying to be your personal oracle now, Renoir?¡±

    The king grinned at the man. Seers were getting less and less consistent these days, the gods had grown bored of giving gifts that truly gave the second sight. But Philip Pen was always right, so he was Renoir¡¯s little oracle. And would continue to be.

    But he thought of his children returning from their voyages. Both having acquired separate scepters of power.

    ¡°Well, this is certainly going to be exciting.¡±

    With a shout he called out to the entirety of his personal retinue, ¡°people, the time has finally come! The war for succession will start in earnest, this kingdom only needs one ruler, and we are the ones who guide the way. Just as the previous queen did for me, we will prepare the way for the two of my children to duke it out!¡±

    A chuckle went through some of his advisors at that, they remembered the last war, and they remembered the bloody sieges and political undermining. It was a truly comprehensive war between intelligent combatants that only left one survivor. There would be assassinations, there would be public dueling, there would even be espionage and seductions.

    The next ruler of the Hearted Continent was going to be decided soon, and the battle would begin as soon as both ships had returned from their voyages.

    ___

    Fate was a happy god.

    Well, normally Fate was miserable. In the beginning those two wretches of gods had said such convincing things about ¡°needing to keep the balance of the gods¡¯ game¡± and how the three of them would ¡°preside over the whole of reality.¡±

    In actuality, Death and Game had screwed off at the first possible moment and left Fate with all the paperwork. It apparently took vast amounts of time and effort to assign gifts to all of humanity and keep the gods in line. But neither of those two chuckleheads wanted to do it, so they had fooled Fate into being their workhorse.

    But today, Fate knew that they were almost free.

    Fate had realized the true point of this game that Game had created.

    It was never supposed to end.

    The gods would continue bickering and paying along with this game for all of eternity. Because when Game had the humans created, they were all so varied and horrifyingly different that none of the gods could ever hope to achieve the win conditions of the game.

    There was no way for humanity to truly rally behind one god, none of the gods could get all of humanity to worship them. There would always be dissenters, there would always be contrarians that fought against the common will.

    And Fate may have been okay with this, if they weren¡¯t the one doing all the fucking work.

    So, for eons, Fate had planted seeds in the background of reality. Sowing their influence into the world, abusing the privileges that they gained with their administrator access.

    It was their masterplan to end this farce of a game and release Fate from their bonds of the godly bureaucracy.

    Those seeds had finally matured into a strong tree; a tree that would stand up and free Fate from their shackles. Fate could admit that the analogy needed some work, but that was okay, because it was true.

    Fate had touched the strings that presided over the overarching concept of karma and created the kingmaker, a powerful artifact that would enhance the gift of the user to an inane degree. They had manipulated Water into cursing the continent where the kingmaker lay, creating a barren wasteland and forcing struggles upon its inhabitants. Finally, they had let a boy with the right gift get pushed along in the direction of the kingmaker.

    The boy¡¯s gift was truly a masterpiece by Sin. It was dually created by Hope as well as a truly fantastic gift that would have belonged in the first age.

    The gift separated a person¡¯s sins from them, and normally the person would then vanquish their personal sin and then would receive a sort of meta-closure that used some magicky nonsense that Fate didn¡¯t quite understand but would never admit to not understanding.

    But Sin made the sins that were created by each person controllable by the user of the gift. There were some adverse side effects to mental health and the structural integrity of who these people were as human beings, but that didn¡¯t matter.

    If the boy used the kingmaker in conjunction with his gift, he would be able to bypass the restriction of his back needing to be seen by whoever¡¯s sin he was extracting.

    So, he could rid the world of sin in one fell swoop. This would either cause everyone to bow down to Hope or Sin in reverence for the personal freedom from their own wrongdoings. Or the minds of humanity would collapse, and Madness would reign as the true god.

    Either way worked since someone would finally win. And Fate would finally be free.

    Since they would be free soon Fate had decided to take the day off and play some godly hide and go seek with some of their friends. It was the same as normal tag, except they would hide within the conceptual realm rather than reality.

    There was chaos on the mortal plane since many thirteen-year-olds did not receive their gift that day, but Fate could not bring themself to care about their squabbling.

    But a thrum seemed to emanate from the strings of karma that Fate was so intrinsically attached to. This thrumming unfortunately alerted Future to Fate¡¯s presence within the concept of soup and Fate had to run.

    The thrumming never stopped.

    As Fate was caught and sentenced to ten thousand conceptual years in the shadow realm for being caught, they decided to peek at their pet project with the sin boy and kingmaker.

    ¡°WHAT THE FUCK!¡± Fate roared at the top of their existence. Their fibers vibrating at an ethereal resonance.

    ¡°Death and Game! Get over here this instant!¡± The strings of karma suddenly turned into nooses and tentacles that searched for the only two beings in existence who could have ruined Fate¡¯s plan.

    The two gods were elusive though and Fate could not force them to come to make a face-to-face meeting. The scent of decay and a tinkle of laughter joined Fate within the shadow realm.

    ¡°You two have been messing with the human world. While I have been working my ass off up here to make this shitshow run, you two have been fucking around with the reality that you ¡®supposedly¡¯ care about.¡± The tirade had finally begun, but the tinkling of laughter only grew at Fate¡¯s petulance.

    ¡°You don¡¯t have an ass, Fate.¡± The laughter never subsided even as Game spoke.

    ¡°It¡¯s a figure of speech, and these frivolities don¡¯t become you, ¡®oh, master of the gods.¡¯¡± Fate didn¡¯t have eyes, but they would be burning holes into Game if they could.

    A chill settled over the shadow realm as Death spoke, ¡°don¡¯t pretend like you have not as well, Fate. We have seen your pathetic attempt to end this game. We all meddle in the mortal affairs; you are just mad that we are better at it than you.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s where you¡¯re wrong. I am furious.¡±

    A deep breath exuded from the being who did not have lungs to fill or air to breathe.

    ¡°I do all the work for you two, and when I finally decided to fight back, I was crushed. It¡¯s disheartening. I don¡¯t feel like a god these days, a mortal said I sounded like an overworked middle manager the other century. Can you believe it?¡±

    The tinkling laughter turned into a full belly laugh. It was a child¡¯s belly laugh but it was raucous and full of joy. It even got Death to let out a chilly chuckle.

    ¡°My dear friend, you have worked harder than anyone can imagine. And you are near the end. Please hold out just a little longer, I will take over your duties for the rest of the week. But after that, please continue. The end is nigh, and soon you will be free.¡± Game spoke before the laughter faded away.

    ¡°Game is the carrot, and I am the stick, Fate. Do your job and I won¡¯t consume the strings that bind you together. I have always wondered what it would be like to feel the death of a new god. You look so tasty.¡± Death then faded with a final warning.

    ¡°Well, shit.¡±

    Fate waited for their conceptual ten-thousand years to pass, before continuing to play with their friends. This was the first vacation that they had ever gotten, and by the gods, they weren¡¯t going to waste it.

 Chapter 47 - A Princess Interlude

    Dahlia was envious of her brother in so many ways. David simply was better than her in nearly every facet. He was cleverer, he was smarter, he was faster, he had better subordinates. But he was weaker than her.

    She had been given a gift that would allow her to stand atop the world, one that would garner respect from the peasants that she ruled over. And David had not.

    And that fact meant that she had to somehow beat him.

    Every prince and princess learned from a young age that only one of them could rule. It was the way that the monarchy had existed for centuries. There would never be dissent. Who could rule if everyone else who could challenge you was still breathing?

    So, when Dahlia turned thirteen and was given a gift of immense power, she realized that she would have to kill her brother.

    But David was a wily man. He had powerful subordinates like Bloody Ian, and the most powerful seer of their generation, Sam; even his political advisor Rose was a savant at courtly manipulations and schemes.

    Dahlia had none of those advantages. She had herself and her greatest confidant, Julia.

    Julia¡¯s parents were conniving and crafty, knowing that one of the children of Renoir would rule one day decided to place their eggs in both baskets. They raised their children to serve as the greatest advisors to the prince and princess.

    Julia and Dahlia had one thing that would lead them to victory against David. They had power. And they had come on this journey to the Fractured Continent to make their power even stronger.

    Dahlia¡¯s gift was from Magic. And allowed her to search for spells in an ancient tome. Each one took unique ingredients and chants, but they all had devastating effects. She had come to the Fractured Continent to find an ingredient for one of her spells that would give her the winning edge against David.

    She came to find the scepter of calamity. The very object that and made the continent an unlivable wasteland.

    Her and her squad had scoured this continent to no avail, but Dahlia finally had a solution.

    A new spell had appeared in her book. It used the strands of karma in the world to guide her to what her heart desires most. It needed the bones of a forgotten man, the ash of a burnt orchid, seven drops of her own blood, and an immensely complicated and intricate circle.

    She had been in the right place to search for bones of the forgotten since no one had ventured to this continent in a very long time, all bones were of the forgotten here. The burnt orchid was a bit tougher, but still no true issue. And her own blood was a supply they had in abundance.

    So, once she cast the spell and a line of pure gold extended from her chest into the horizon, she looked at her ever-faithful companion Julia and they started following the path.

    It took many days for them to come across a massive cavern. The walls were made of smooth glass, and they were inlayed with beautiful carvings. All of them geometric, rather than artistic.

    Dahlia used another of her spells to send a shadowy figure to explore the cave in her stead.

    It never returned.

    A deep voice emanated from the cavern that the stood in front of, ¡°please come in, it has been a very long time since I have had any visitors.¡± A pregnant pause filled the air, ¡°actually, I don¡¯t think I have had any visitors.¡±

    No one quite knew what to say at that. Whatever was speaking sounded distinctly not human, but there was no malice in its voice, just an endless weariness.

    Julia shrugged at Dahlia and the two of them waved the rest of their entourage back. The two of them slowly walked into the cavern because the golden thread led into it. And they needed that scepter.

    As they entered the massive room, they saw a dragon. Its scales were ruby red, its horns curved around its head, its eyes were massive, its claws were longer than they were tall, and it was terrifying.

    Dahlia and Julia shared a meaningful look before continuing their journey inwards.

    Dahlia had heard stories of a woman who had a gift in the second age that allowed her to create creatures. She supposedly drew them in the pages of her notebook, and if they were detailed enough and reasonable enough, the monster would come to life.

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    The woman was famous because in her ¡®failed¡¯ attempts to create a dragon she had created the sea serpent race that now dominated the oceans, making journeys, like the one they were one now, nearly impossible.

    But it seems that the woman had not been met with failure her entire life. She had created the race she dreamt of.

    ¡°What brings you fine ladies here?¡± the dragon said with a toothy grin.

    ¡°How would you know we¡¯re fine ladies?¡± Julia responded. Dahlia shot her a warning look, asking her to not annoy the massive beast.

    ¡°Oh, well my creator loved being called beautiful. She was apparently quite old when she created me, and it tickled her to be called fine or beautiful. I will admit I don¡¯t quite understand what ¡®fine¡¯ means, but I figured if it was good enough for my mother, then it would be good enough for you.¡± The dragon used one claw to pick its teeth as it spoke.

    ¡°You have been alive since the second age?¡± Julia asked, still ignoring the pleading looks that Dahlia gave her.

    ¡°I don¡¯t understand that, but I guess I have been alive for a very long time. My mother wanted to create a species of dragons to rule the skies, and I was her magnum opus. A being that barely aged, full of monstrous power, the ability to speak and reason, and yet she was so old by the time she made me that she was unable to create another dragon with me.¡±

    A heavy feeling weighed over the room as the dragon spoke.

    ¡°I am doomed to be the first, last, and only dragon to ever exist.¡±

    Both parties stared at each other for a moment. Dahlia could tell that the dragon enjoyed waxing on eloquently and that it was enjoying having an audience for once. But that veneer of enjoyment would grow thin eventually.

    ¡°Great dragon, we are searching for an artifact that is in your possession. What can we offer a being such as yourself to gain this artifact from your hoard?¡± Dahlia minced no words and got straight to the point.

    ¡°A good conversation, and assurances that you will return for more conversation. I find myself so lonely here. I am quite envious of my cousins, the yeti. They formed a tribe and moved away a long time ago, apparently the climates suit them better on that other continent. They left little old me all alone.¡±

    ¡°We can provide that easily. We can even find ways to transport you to our continent, where there are far more people to converse with than just us two.¡± Dahlia was getting excited; making a deal with this dragon could give her a valuable ally and even more raw power to add to her forces.

    The dragon liked these terms. It had lived and waited a long time, so it was fine with waiting a bit longer. There was no way for the ship that had carried the princess to be able to carry a creature of the dragon¡¯s size, but once she was crowned king, she would be able to design a boat of incredible size that would carry this being to her continent.

    The two humans walked through the dragon¡¯s galleries. In Dahlia¡¯s professional opinion, the dragon had gone a little cooky in its old age. It had decided that it would collect all the artifacts from around the continent and place them all in its hoard. It created a museum of ancient history.

    The gallery was massive and incredibly unorganized. The dragon loved to go on long tangents about the adventures he had when he was searching for different treasures he now kept.

    Dahlia found him rather endearing, like an old uncle who wouldn¡¯t shut up to save his life.

    As Julia was wandering around, supposedly following the string that led Dahlia to the artifact they were searching for, she tripped. As she tripped her hand, very purposefully, brushed the dragon¡¯s side.

    The giant beast looked bemused and asked her to take better care of her footing. But the two ladies shared a private look and Julia nodded her head in affirmation.

    The two of them had not known how Julia¡¯s gift would interact with the dragon, but Dahlia felt a giddiness rise in her as she thought of the possibilities that she now had.

    The motley crew walked their way through the cavern, and the two women were much more willing to let the dragon go on his long discussions of ancient histories he had discovered in this continent. There was intrigue and assassins; power changed hands quicker than a viper¡¯s strike on this continent and there was so much to learn from someone as ancient as the dragon.

    Over the course of a day, the trio wandered through the halls of the dragon¡¯s abode, and eventually found the prize that Dahlia had come to this continent for.

    The scepter of calamities.

    This was the gift that brought the entire continent to its end. In the legends passed down by the natives of this continent, who had escaped its lands before the weather became so unhospitable that people started to truly die out, it was said that an unworthy king was given his gift by the god Calamity.

    His name had gone down in history as Greg the Idiot, and his gift was the power to create natural disasters with a wave of his scepter.

    The legend goes that he was being assassinated by his closest advisors and in a move of utter desperation he waved the scepter as many times as possible to try and ward off his attackers.

    Natural disasters are not fast though, and he was still murdered. But his final act created a disaster of a truly magnificent degree. It ripped the continent to shreds, leaving it fractured.

    Dahlia looked at the unassuming scepter. It was tacky and held none of the grandeur that she expected from a weapon of such renown. The scepter was short, it barely touched the ground when she held her arm out at a ninety-degree angle. The outside was studded with as many jewels as she had ever seen in her life. They were all clashing colors with absolutely no sense of style.

    There wasn¡¯t even a real place to grip the thing. Instead, she had to have an uncomfortable grip with both hands to even have a chance of holding it up.

    The jewels covered so much of it that it was impossible to see what material the thing was made of.

    Dahlia hated that this weapon had caused more deaths than almost any other gift in the history of her world. This gaudy disgusting piece of regalia had caused so much pain in the world and she needed that resentment, she needed the hatred that the strings of karma held onto.

    Dahlia and Julia thanked the dragon and made many promises about bringing the dragon to their continent before leaving his cavern and returning to their patiently awaiting crew.

    Dahlia awkwardly hugged the scepter to her chest as she approached her closest confidants and advisors before saying, ¡°we have what we came for. Let the war begin.¡±

 Chapter 48 - A Lucky Boy

    Jeremy really enjoyed being blessed by Luck.

    Earlier that year, when he had first received his lucky coin, he had wondered if he was truly all that lucky. That unfortunate event where he had lost more gold than his parents had ever seen in their collective lifetimes over a coin toss, was water under the bridge.

    Jeremy had learned perspective in the world.

    If something bad ever happened to Jeremy, it all was serving the greater purpose of making him even luckier later down the line.

    One day, he had snuck out of the house to get drunk at a local tavern with a couple of his chums. He had been totally plastered when he got home and smashed a couple plates and vases as he carefully tried to tiptoe his way back to his room. Even later that night, a man had tried to sneak into his family¡¯s home using a gift from Treachery.

    The man had cut his foot open on the shards of ceramic that were left in Jeremy¡¯s drunken wake. He then slipped in a puddle that had formed when Jeremy had knocked a vase of flowers over. Finally, he slammed his head into the corner of a table, which had been moved by Jeremy earlier.

    He had been chewed out by his parents, but they could also feel the good fortune that his actions had brought upon their family. So, they were only a little mad at him for getting drunk with his friends.

    He had achieved a state of oneness with the world that allowed him to ¡®go with the flow.¡¯ Nothing could phase him anymore, because he knew that it all would work out for him in the end.

    The day that his parents finally kicked him out of the house hadn¡¯t even fazed him.

    Apparently, he had been ¡®getting too old to live with his parents¡¯ and he was ¡®keeping himself from fulfilling a meaningful life¡¯ by attaching himself to them.

    His only plans in life at that point had been to take over his parents¡¯ small clinic once they no longer wanted to run it. Had he thought through the fact that if his mother retired there would be no one to heal the people that came into the clinic? Not really, but everything always worked out for him.

    The entire debacle of getting kicked out forced a slight shift in mindset for Jeremy. He was still going with the flow, but he needed to follow the currents to make sure he was going in the direction he wanted. Jeremy needed to become a metaphorical surfer of the waves of Fate.

    He had thought long and hard about the things he truly wanted to achieve in life. And he came to a powerful and meaningful answer to his conundrum.

    Jeremy wanted to become filthy rich, never have to work a day in his life, and have beautiful men and ladies clinging to him at all times.

    Maybe his goals were a bit uninspired and not profound, but he really wanted them.

    So, Jeremey decided to try and dedicate himself completely and fully to accomplishing them.

    How does a fourteen-year-old boy get rich and gain a harem?

    He goes to the casinos and wins, then keeps winning, then puts an extra helping of winning on top of that.

    Jeremy walked into the upper-class casinos like he owned the place, he had a swagger that would put anyone to shame. This was his domain, a place where Luck ruled above all else, and he was Luck¡¯s favorite human.

    His swagger only faltered a little bit when both the bouncers in black sidle up next to him. Unfortunately, his swagger completely disappeared when they threw him out of the casino.

    Lots of the little places didn¡¯t care how old he looked; they were just as happy to let him waste his money on big bets that lined their pockets. But apparently, these big casinos had reputations to uphold, and if a child walked in, they would be losing face to the public.

    He didn¡¯t even look that young.

    Okay maybe a little baby fat was clinging to his cheeks, and he hadn¡¯t really hit his growth spurt yet. But he had a gift, by the gods they should let him in just like anyone else.

    This left Jeremy in the unsatisfying position of going to the small gambling dens and winning small amounts of money.

    The problem was that his gift refused to let him bet massive amounts of money in those little dens. He could feel the bad luck that would befall him if he bet more than chump change in any of those dens. It was because a seedier type of person frequented those places, and they would rob or kill him for his winnings if he walked away with too much of their gold.

    So, he found himself at a proverbial wall, unable to move forward towards his goals.

    Then the king¡¯s representative arrived at his apartment.

    Jeremy had been taking his meager winnings and learning how to finance a life in the city. It was quite difficult to know how much bread to buy and how much was necessary for his rent, he barely had any gold left for little treats these days.

    A man wearing a tailored suit with fine golden embroidery was definitely not the sort of person who should be in front of his door, but Jeremy rolled with the punches.

    He invited the man into his small living room and offered him some tea.

    The man sipped on it before giving Jeremy the offer of a lifetime. He would be able to step into the shoes of the aristocracy, he would find entrance to the world of money and harems.

    Jeremy would join the king¡¯s court as a hidden weapon. Somehow the king had learned of Jeremy¡¯s gift and was keen on having the luckiest man alive in his entourage. All Jeremy had to do was show up and let the money flow into his coffers.

    Jeremy had never heard of such a good deal; he was in before the man even finished speaking.

    Renoir was truly a master at using gifts in imaginative ways, beyond the scope they were made for. He had found a way to use Jeremy¡¯s gift in an elegant way. Jeremy would never learn of the secret behind why he was such a good advisor, because it was morbid and one of King Renoir¡¯s better kept secrets.

    Renoir had special orders to execute Jeremy if he ever gave bad advice. Jeremy¡¯s gift refused to let him be executed in such a stroke of bad luck. Therefore, he was always giving the most ideal advice possible, even if he wasn¡¯t fully aware of why it was the ideal advice.

    Jeremy would simply flip the coin that resided in his soul space any time the king asked him to pick between two options and leave the rest of it up to Luck and the big thinkers.

    Jeremy enjoyed serving in the king¡¯s personal retinue, he got to meet some exciting people. But his favorite person was King Renoir¡¯s diviner, Phillip Pen.

    Phillip Pen was born with the incredible ability to never write a lie. If he ever lied, the pen and paper used to write it would explode in his face. In some private conversations with Jeremy, he admitted that the item inside his soul space that represented this ability was a contract of sorts. It acted like a personal credo with written consequences for breaking the rules.

    If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

    But since he could never lie, he would write crazy predictions about the future and wait to see if the pen and paper used to write these predictions would explode. This allowed the king to have a vague but concrete sense for the future.

    Jeremy quite enjoyed spending time with the older gentleman because he was a fount of knowledge about all things, and he was willing to indulge Jeremy¡¯s fantasies.

    Phillip Pen was Jeremy¡¯s only friend in the castle, but there were two more people that he was vaguely familiar with because of their closeness to Phillip.

    Because of the ¡®occupational hazards¡¯ of having his work explode in his face constantly, Phillip had two personal assistants that followed him around.

    One was Vinny, a man from the outskirts of the continent who found that a gift from Healing could get him a job anywhere, even in the king¡¯s court. He looked oafish, with a massive frame and a tiny pair of spectacles that clung to the tip of his nose. He clothed himself in fine silks that hung off him in a very unflattering way and gave off the appearance of a man with more money than taste.

    The other, was a woman named Franny. She existed to indulge one of Phillip¡¯s odder habits. He enjoyed keeping his facial hair and eyebrows in a fantastical loopy style, however this obviously clashed with the workplace environment he existed in. So, Franny stepped in with her gift from Hair to keep all his beautiful hair from being burnt off every day.

    Jeremy chatted and learned from the other two, but never grew as close to them as he did with Phillip.

    Now, Jeremy had been working for the king for a few months, he had been doing well enough that some of the fine-looking ladies in the court were starting to chat with him socially.

    His parents had even invited him to come home for a few days so they could chat about life, and they could lecture him about how they had forced this good fortune on him, and to be appreciative of all their careful planning.

    He had been working for the king so long that the prince had arrived back on the mainland. Apparently, he had gone on some massive expedition to the Frozen Continent to get some special relic for daddy Renoir, and now there were some festivities since he had arrived back home victorious.

    Jeremy did enjoy a good party, but the prince had always rubbed him the wrong way. Not that Jeremy had ever met the prince or interacted with him in any meaningful way. He simply was Jeremy¡¯s nemesis, in the same way that moles and fish are the greatest of enemies without ever seeing each other.

    He had bigger fish to fry than going to some princely party. He had been following around Franny all afternoon because she was sneaking around the castle.

    He wasn¡¯t sure what was up, but there was something fishy in the air.

    She stalked around the castle as if looking for something, or someone. And right behind her, Jeremy shuffled quietly and kept out of her eyeline, just to be sure she couldn¡¯t tell he was snooping on her because he was bored.

    He followed her into one of Prince David¡¯s private rooms in the castle. Inside the room, he caught a glimpse of the prince¡¯s personal politico, Rose. She had a gift to change the color of anything, she had been known to mesmerize entire audiences of rich folks by making wonderful moving pictures speak to them. But that was not where her power lay, she was the shrewdest, most political woman to have ever lived in this age, and she leveraged her considerable talents to give the prince the upper edge in every endeavor he set out on.

    Now, why was Franny, the hair stylist, meeting with a member of the prince¡¯s personal retinue?

    Jeremy refused to close the distance more than necessary, so he was stuck with only whispers of their conversation in hushed tones.

    But he clearly heard, ¡°a tall, ill-proportioned idiot with a seemingly endless supply of money despite how idiotically he spends it.¡±

    Was Jeremy interrupting the fabled ¡®girl-talk¡¯ where women talked about their ex-partners in great detail. Unconsciously, Jeremy licked his lips, then he wiped off his face in disgust, looking around himself to make sure that no one could see him and his foul acts.

    He couldn¡¯t hear much of the conversation, but there seemed to be a lot of mirth and evil giggling happening. It was very scary for a boy with such limited experience with other people.

    As he heard footsteps, Jeremy ducked down behind a plant to make sure that Franny wouldn¡¯t see him snooping.

    Franny exited the room with her long red hair twirling around her finger. No, her finger was not twirling her hair, her hair was twirling the finger. It was entrancing to watch, but Jeremy had to stay quiet in his awe to make sure she didn¡¯t notice him.

    She briskly walked down the halls towards the banquet that was being held in the prince¡¯s honor and Jeremy skulked behind her in the shadows.

    Jeremy was not a skilled sleuth, and he would never know this, but his gift and his incomprehensible luck saved him time and time again in this escapade. If Franny heard the scuff of his shoes, a butler would conveniently be behind her at that exact moment. If Jeremy started getting too close, his shoelaces would come undone and he would have to stop to retie them; in doing so, he ended being the perfect sleuthing distance from Franny.

    To an outside observer, it would¡¯ve seemed a comedy of errors.

    Franny left the castle, and she started doing some prowling of her own. She doubled back and hid behind a large set of boxes. She was waiting for someone to leave the castle, hoping to catch them unaware.

    Jeremy was almost caught when she finally doubled back, but a well-timed piano removal service kept him from being spotted, and he was able to reposition to keep an eye on what she was doing.

    He sat there as the evening turned into dusk, the chill started to seep into his bones and the sounds of merriment erupted from the castle grounds for most of the night.

    Finally, as the night was started to edge its way back to day, and as Jeremy¡¯s eyes started fluttering shut, a man exited the castle grounds.

    He swayed back and forth, obviously a tad tipsy. His gait was even further disrupted by the massive chest of gold he held over his head. It was truly massive. So large that Jeremy had to wonder how strong this man was to be so effortlessly holding it above his head.

    The man looked familiar to Jeremy, but he couldn¡¯t quite place him. He had a fashionably long beard along with a ponytail of brown hair that draped over one shoulder.

    The man seemed to stumble a bit on the cobblestones. That was when Franny made her move.

    She stepped out into the open and splayed her arms, ¡°Joy, do you remember me?¡±

    The reaction in the vaguely familiar man was instantaneous. His eyes lit up and he reached into his jacket pocket, letting the massive chest fall to the ground.

    A clinking sound echoed across the street as the chest exploded and coins fell everywhere, while at the same time a flash of metal went across the man¡¯s head.

    As Jeremy survived the scene closer, he noticed that one of the king¡¯s nicer cutlery sets was scattered among the gold coins, and that the man was holding the steak knife in his hand. He had immediately cut off his fashionable beard and long ponytail. The cut was truly unflattering, and his previously charming look was now rather rancid looking.

    The man chuckled and replied, ¡°how could I ever forget my hair reaching down my throat?¡± His chuckle died immediately, ¡°now what do you want, Franny?¡±

    She smiled and started sauntering towards him, Jeremy still watching from his hidden viewpoint.

    ¡°I just want to get out of your hair.¡±

    Then the fight began in earnest. The blade swept through the air, but the man was obviously distracted by something. If Jeremy looked close enough, he would notice that the remaining hairs on the man¡¯s head fell off one by one. At one point he flinched over his groin area, which made Jeremy nearly cry out in sympathy.

    Despite the massive advantage of the knife, the man had already lost. Franny caused him so much pain that she was able to effortlessly dodge between his feeble strikes and eventually rest a hand on his head.

    Once her hand lay on his head, a carpet of multicolored hair erupted from his scalp. It was a beautiful mixture of magenta, white, and black. But each of those strands started waving around like tentacles of some ethereal creature.

    They snaked around the man¡¯s throat, and he instantly stopped moving; a single manly tear dropped down from his eye.

    He put the knife on the ground and readdressed Franny, ¡°so, what can I do for you?¡±

    ¡°Pick up the chest and refill it with all the gold that the king gave you.¡±

    The man set about his task with fervor, probably assisted by the insistent tugging of his own hair. Jeremy felt for him, but he knew that his powers had no place in this situation, and that he needed to stay hidden, no matter what.

    Once the chest was refilled, Franny smiled.

    ¡°Well, I am a woman of my word. I will get out of your hair, well, maybe your hair will get out of you.¡±

    Her smile was a tad cruel, and Jeremy watched in utter horror as the hair grew and grew, before taking the shape of a man and pulling itself out of the man¡¯s head.

    Every hair on the poor man¡¯s body had ripped itself off him and had created this hair clone.

    The clone picked up the chest, and Franny sauntered off with her minion following right behind her.

    ¡°Always a pleasure doing business with you Joy.¡± She called out as she disappeared into the folds of the second layer.

    Jeremy started sneaking up towards the man, hoping to at least help him get to the king¡¯s castle again. But the vague familiarity was starting to go away, he could almost place where he had met the man, it was on the tip of his tongue.

    Jeremy heard the man muttering to himself as he laid helplessly on the cobblestones.

    ¡°The second time she¡¯s stolen a fortune of mine, the second gods damned time. Oh, she will get what¡¯s coming to her eventually, I am going to kick her ass someday and it will be oh so rewarding.¡±

    And finally, it all clicked together. This was the man who had stolen the fortune he had made the first day he had gotten his gift. The man that had altered the direction of his life forever.

    On some primal instinct he kicked the man on the head, and he immediately passed out. Jeremy nodded to himself, thinking that made the two of them even. And walked back towards the castle to his personal quarters.

    That man was bald and miserable, Jeremy thought that was good enough. Karma always came back to haunt everyone.

 Chapter 49 - Loss of Joy

    Joy had been on a truly exciting ride for the past few months. And it had all culminated into what he thought would be the perfect night.

    After he had spent some time with Hope and tried to show the kid some of the beauty in the world, he had unfortunately been forced to answer a lot of questions by the prince and pinky promised that Hope wouldn¡¯t cause anyone any trouble.

    Finally, after Ian had stopped brandishing his sword at him, he had then had to field the bazillion questions about what in the gods¡¯ names the glowing gold lightshow he had made was. And why did he have a beard now?

    Lillian was oddly insistent about that last one, and only Theo seemed particularly intrigued by his massive lie about what his gift was. He explained the basis of the game room and how it worked at a condensed speed. He had only been missing for a few minutes to them, but for him it had been several months of playing games and education with the young Hope.

    Then the awkward questions from the prince came, like: ¡°if you have such a powerful artifact why have you not told us yet?¡±

    Personally, the answer was because it was his damned artifact, and he didn¡¯t have to tell the prince anything about it. But he gave the more diplomatic answer that the artifact was biometrically locked to him.

    Did he know what it meant? Nope! But it shut everyone up. Still the prince requested that some of his personal scientists take a gander at it and see if they could glean any of its inner workings.

    Joy didn¡¯t really mind too much, since he wasn¡¯t planning on getting into any massive fights for a while, so he ¡®loaned¡¯ it to the prince.

    Finally, after all the questioning and badgering was done, the prince gave Joy back his stick. The prince had been using it to smack heads in during the final battle, but it was Joy¡¯s prize, and he didn¡¯t want to part from it.

    The prince had then organized the remaining people into search parties, and even somehow got the Yeti roped into helping. For some reason they really loved Emmy and would do anything she asked; they somehow understood what she was saying and used them to move swathes of debris from the destroyed castle.

    Lillian and Joy had even found Peku running around in between the legs of what must have been the little guy¡¯s parent. He was still adorable and still just saying ¡°peku peku¡± repeatedly, but his consistency was part of his charm.

    The prince¡¯s mission in coming to the Frozen Continent was two-fold. He wanted to get rid of the warlord, now named Hope, so that the civil unrest he was causing in the capital was stopped. This part of the mission was seen as a success to Joy since he had given Hope a new path in life to follow, or at least some inspiration.

    The other goal was to find the Kingmaker, some staff of incredible power that was somewhere within the remains of the castle. So, the army set up camp and started digging again. It was reminiscent of having to dig tunnels through the ice and snow that they had to do to get to the castle. Joy found a deep irony to the situation.

    Joy enjoyed the digging on some level. It was a meditative task and it allowed him to find Herbert again. Somehow the man¡¯s gift to make many shovels came quite in handy.

    Joy had to hand it to whoever came up with the group roster for this trip, they truly had magnificent foresight for bringing the man along. He was the third most valuable member of the expedition, only behind Joy himself and Sam the seer.

    Speaking of Sam, they arrived a few days after the excavating began and did something that Joy would never forgive.

    Sam spoke to the prince and told him that Joy¡¯s special stick truly was the kingmaker. It came as a shock to everybody, but it did make sense.

    All the kingmaker did was take someone¡¯s gift and amplify it to an insane degree. Joy¡¯s gift was just a deck of cards, his abilities that he used were all from the key to Game¡¯s personal playhouse, so his abilities weren¡¯t affected while touching the stick.

    And the prince¡¯s gift was the change of his hair and eye color, neither of which he had been doing for the entirety of this expedition. So, he had also not noticed that the amazing stick was an artifact of such power.

    Hungry gazes turned towards Joy as everyone realized that he had been holding the object that had kept them in this cold miserable place for even longer than necessary.

    It took a lot of cajoling and many promises, but finally Joy gave up his epic stick. He was told that he would receive more gold than he could ever spend, and live the rest of his days in comfort, which sounded like a sweet deal to him. Even if he missed his awesome stick.

    The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

    So, the long trek back to the prince¡¯s personal castle made on the shore of the Frozen continent went by quickly, and even the voyage back to the southern tip of the Hearted Continent was quick. As quick as any large journey possibly could be.

    The food was delicious, courtesy of Marissa, the greatest chef to have ever lived, in Joy¡¯s humble opinion. Though her gift did make it slightly unfair for other chefs, she could literally turn shit into brownies, and wasn¡¯t that incredible?

    The ship was guarded by the pirate captain Robert, and his pet giant octopus called Eight. And they sailed back to the main continent, nothing even went wrong a single time.

    All this finally came together in a massive party thrown in ¡®the prince¡¯s¡¯ honor. And Joy got to meet the king face to face.

    King Renoir did not look like the man that was embossed on every gold coin. Instead, he was even more attractive and somehow got Joy on the backfoot with his devilish charm. His eyes twinkled, his hair swayed just right in the wind, and he was a great guffawing man.

    Joy had been expecting a severe man, but instead he was worried that he might fall in love with this incredible man.

    He had been wined and dined by the prince¡¯s incredible father, and Joy didn¡¯t know quite how it happened, but he left the castle with a chest full of gold, a full stomach, and being more than a little drunk.

    He had been thanked for his incredible deeds done for the kingdom and told that inside the chest was enough gold that he could live in luxury for the rest of his life, and a paper that would give him the rank of Baron.

    Of course, Baron was the bottom of the totem pole, but it was still on the totem pole. He would be able to rent a manor in the second circle of Vena Cava, and not have to sleep in the prince¡¯s terrible guest rooms.

    Actually, he would never have to see the prince again, unless he wanted to. He didn¡¯t need a job ever again.

    That was when his night was ruined.

    Joy normally kept his hair fastidiously short. During the earlier years of his youth, he had gotten in the habit of taking everyone¡¯s money within the small gambling parlors that he frequented and had a beautiful mane of hair upon his head.

    He was barely fifteen at the time and still hadn¡¯t completed the journey to Vena Cava, so he was still gambling in little river barges where the only other patrons were disgusting old men who picked their teeth with knives. These places did not have to uphold their reputation like gambling establishments within the inner rings of Vena Cava.

    He had learned the hard way a few times that if he went into one of those dingy little places that he had to be able to run incredibly fast to be able to keep any of the money he had won throughout the night. Apparently, a young man traveling alone was not a good deterrent for the crusty patrons.

    Joy had found that he needed a partner, he needed someone who was feared and respected. So, he had made a friend.

    Her name was Franny, and she had an insidious gift from Hair. She could control all hair around her, and if she touched it, she could force it to grow even longer. It was a devilish sort of gift that had to be respected on the battlefield.

    The two of them galivanted around the countryside, he would use his incredible luck to rake in the gold, and Franny would rip the hair out of anyone¡¯s head who started making trouble.

    The two of them were truly an unstoppable tide moving inexorably towards Vena Cava.

    Joy and Franny had ¡®split up¡¯ after he had scored a truly gargantuan amount of money from a traveling noble. The boy was barely older than Joy and had decided that he would travel through the countryside on a journey of self-expression.

    Part of his ¡®self-expression¡¯ was going to local taverns and bullying as many people into giving him as much money as possible by saying how his father would do this or that to them and how they all were just such good chums.

    Joy had taken all that miserable man¡¯s gold, given the scraps back to the villagers the man had been bullying and Franny had forced his hair to exit his body. It was humiliating but it made the man run home screaming.

    The man had been carrying a fortune on him for no good reason and Joy was excited while Franny was cautious.

    Joy wanted to take the gold and run, no one would be able to find him in Vena Cava, and Franny wanted to hide out in the countryside for a few months and wait for the heat to cool down.

    This argument caused a fracture between these two, and in the night, Franny had taken Joy¡¯s long, beautiful hair and strangled him nearly to death with it. She stole the gold and the two of them never saw each other since.

    After that night, Joy kept his hair short. Except, he had forgotten to take care of it so effectively when he was in the time dilation zone with Hope.

    When Joy saw Franny on that abandoned street, he knew that she was going to steal a second fortune from him because he had forgotten to cut his hair while he was in the game room, and because the prince still had the key to the game room. So, Joy couldn¡¯t even call out for Franny to play a game and give him a fighting chance.

    Joy was demolished, he was beaten soundly by his arch-nemesis. And she even had the gall to rip off all his hair, so now he was beaten, bald, and broke.

    To make his night even worse, someone cracked him in the head, and he passed out on the cobblestones directly in front of the king¡¯s castle.

    When Joy awoke, he found that he wasn¡¯t seething. He felt no incandescent rage filling up his soul. Instead, he felt a great sadness that the person who had once been his friend kept using him like this, and never let him in to help her with whatever struggle made her keep taking his gold.

    Joy sat up in the bed he had been placed in and looked around after his self-reflection. He was in Theo¡¯s bed in his shared room with Lillian.

    Lillian¡¯s side was still covered in a mismatch of textures and colors, while Theo¡¯s side was filled with cool blues and not even a spot of dust existed on his floors.

    Theo watched Joy with his cool blue eyes, asking a silent question.

    Joy simply smiled, ¡°yes, I am fine. It just seems that my karma is still tied to you all here, I couldn¡¯t leave the prince and his favorite underlings even if I tried.¡±

    Joy knew that something was afoot.

    He loved the world, and the world loved him. The first time he had been screwed over by Franny, the world had paid him back in full.

    And he was sure that the same would happen again.

 Chapter 50 - To Love

    Five years ago.

    Joy did not like being broke. Being destitute did not suit him well. He liked the finer luxuries of life and not being shriveled up in the presence of budgeting. He found that everyone who enjoyed budgeting loved spreadsheets which made them such wonderfully dull people.

    Joy did not like being bald. He could never remember being bald before in his life, and the cool breeze lightly touching his scalp was not a pleasant experience for him.

    He was a free soul, a person who would run like a wild animal through the grassy field with his mane flowing languidly behind him.

    But he was bald and broke, so there was no way around it. He had thought that he and Franny were an inseparable pair, a truly dynamic duo. But apparently the allure of gold was too much for her to bear.

    And to boot she had stolen his hair, which he felt was incredibly rude.

    Joy sighed as he looked out the window of the very fine establishment he had been staying at for the past few nights.

    He could see Vena Cava from here, the beautiful concentric rings were a true wonder, a real demarcation between the rich and poor of this city.

    Joy was dilly-dallying, because he knew that he no longer had the gold to continue to enjoy such lavish experiences as the bed and the view he was enjoying now. He had been idiotic enough to not save a single coin throughout the course of his journey. He rode river barges to some little villages, then he would gamble with the locals until he had saved up enough money to get on another river barge and go to another little village.

    He did not plan with the future in mind. That was why it had taken him nearly two years to travel from his little home all the way to Vena Cava. And now that he was here, he no longer had any gold to enjoy the luxuries of the big city. It was a real bummer.

    Joy laboriously tore himself out of the silken sheets and dressed in whatever rags had survived the storm known as Franny.

    With a great amount of judgement from the other patrons, Joy departed from the wonderful inn and started the trek towards Vena Cava. Despite the judgement, Joy felt no shame.

    The trek was neither hard nor long, it simply was too much time alone and in the quiet. Joy thrived in the presence of others. He simply felt like a fish out of water; he was traveling alone with nothing but the silence to accompany him.

    Joy considered a few paths to the city but ended up choosing to follow one of the local rivers ¨C lovingly called arteries by the denizens of the Hearted continent.

    The water was quite peaceful. It ebbed and flowed in such an unpredictable pattern and Joy swayed along with it in his own dance.

    Joy had always loved the rivers near his home, there was such a call to adventure within it. The water flowed and flowed, long after Joy was gone it would continue to flow. And think of all the things that the water would see.

    Joy had only ever felt heartbreak once in his life, and that was when he received his gift from the gods, the night he turned thirteen. He was just like all the other kids, jittery and nervous, when he went to sleep that night. And he was beyond excited for his life¡¯s journey to truly begin.

    When his eyes opened and he saw some of the tapestries of the gods, Joy was filled with an indescribable awe. He could not truly comprehend their art, and it made Joy feel small in many ways. These were gods, and even their art was beyond him.

    Then everything shattered.

    Fate arrived and let Joy know that he was nothing. If all of humanity was a beautiful elaborate clock, each individual piece working together to create human history; Joy would be a speck of dust inside that clock.

    He was told that Miscellaneous could give him a deck of cards and that was all.

    Joy fell from the heavens and cried.

    Karma is an ephemeral subject; it is one of the few concepts to not have a god attached to it. Other notable subjects without gods attached to them are Humanity and Art.

    But there are gods who manipulate karma. Many of these gods relate to the future and prophecy.

    Karma are the strings of existence that tie all beings together. The more a person¡¯s strings vibrate, the more they affect the other people around them.

    When Fate told Joy that his karma was essentially meaningless, he told Joy that his strings were barely vibrating at all, and that he would not be able to create great change in the world. His effect on others would be subdued and weak.

    And Joy did not want to be small and weak.

    He cried for days and days about it. He would be no great adventurer crossing the world and saving other people. Instead, he would just be ¡®some guy¡¯ who lived then died.

    Both of his parents tried to cheer him up and each had their own opinion on the subject.

    Joy¡¯s father told him, ¡°Your existence does not have to rely upon others. You should go on a journey of self-discovery. Maybe you will not shake the world to its core, but you can find peace within yourself and understanding of who you are. And that is more important than just being an impactful person.¡±

    Joy¡¯s mother told him, ¡°Everything in life is so small. A rock rolling down a hill does not start at the fastest speed; it starts by barely moving at all. Maybe you will not be able to throw rocks from the top of the hill as if you were your father, but you can use that little touch, to start to let little pebbles make their journeys down the hill. You can be that tiny push my son.¡±

    Joy took pieces from both of his parents¡¯ advice and that had created the doctrine that he followed to this day.

    A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

    He loved the water because that had been the final step. He had decided to go on this journey to understand himself and to give people the little pushes they needed.

    Joy¡¯s thoughts trailed off as he approached the slums of the city. There were four official layers of circles in the city: the king¡¯s keep in the very center, the noble houses that were in favor, the farming area that separated the nobles from the riffraff, and then the chunk where actual people lived.

    But there were actually five layers to the city. Not everyone could pay the taxes to enter, nor could they leave. So, the unofficial layer called the slum was formed.

    Joy was unfortunately in the same predicament as everyone else in the slums. He had not a single coin to his name, so he would not be able to enter the city without scrounging up some change.

    He wasn¡¯t sure what to do. But when all else failed, he always went back to what he knew best. The heart of the cards.

    Joy wandered around the slums, looking for anywhere that looked like it had a gambling vibe.

    He saw many tents of various things. There seemed to be a thriving economy based on trading of goods, but the actual possession of gold was not as prevalent.

    Joy saw men and women taking their children to play in the local river. He saw people washing their clothes in the river. One woman was giving away bread, saying that if no one minded a few extra bits of protein in it, they could have it.

    It was beautiful in its own strange way.

    These people could be angry and sad. They could fall into a depression that Joy would never truly understand, but they didn¡¯t. They were kind to each other despite their circumstance, rather than cruel to try and claw their way to the top.

    It was harmonious. This was communal love that superseded personal gain.

    But it was not for Joy. He found the whole thing to be far too focused on bringing everyone together, and Joy loved to bring little happinesses to the people he met, but he did not want to become a fixture in a community.

    He eventually found a run-down tent. Out front was a flimsy wooden sign with a simple illustration of a deck of cards.

    Joy opened the flap, and a musky scent attacked his nose. The stench was one of sweat and regrets, somehow it made Joy feel comforted.

    There were no tables in the tent, instead there was simply one kid sitting in the center. Joy called them a kid, and they couldn¡¯t have been more than twelve, but Joy was barely fifteen himself, so it felt a bit uncouth to call them a child.

    ¡°Is this a gambling den?¡± Joy tentatively asked the kid.

    ¡°Yepper snoozles.¡± The child was missing both of their front teeth. Their build was slim, like the child had grown up a tad malnourished, which made sense given the area. Their skin was a rich bronze color; their hair was the color of golden wheat and cut into a messy bowl cut. But the most disturbing feature was their eyes which glowed a deep violet in the dark tent.

    Not menacing at all.

    Joy looked around for the telltale signs of a trap. He had met many people over the years and had seen a true variety of gifts. It was not out of the question that someone could de-age themselves to make them look defenseless, then pounce on unsuspecting prey.

    But Joy didn¡¯t see any weapons, nor was there anything keeping him from tearing through the wall of the tent and escaping. So, he gingerly sat down across from the child and brought out the deck of cards kept in his soul space.

    ¡°What would you like to play? As the challenger, you get to choose. What will it be, poker, blackjack, crazy eights, or some game you made yourself that you hope to swindle me at?¡± The child grinned at Joy in an unnerving way.

    ¡°Go-fish.¡±

    A dead pan look crossed the child¡¯s face and Joy started dealing out the seven cards to each person.

    The tent was filled with silence only broken by the calling of cards or go-fish.

    They went thirteen pairs to thirteen pairs for the first game. Then the second game, then the third game, all the way up to the twentieth game neither one had ever pulled ahead.

    ¡°Tell me how you¡¯re cheating, and I¡¯ll tell you how I¡¯m cheating.¡± Joy said to the child.

    ¡°Only if it gets us to stop playing something so banal.¡±

    ¡°The deck of cards is my gift, so I know where every card is at all times. I know exactly what is in your hand. So, I can make the ideal choices every single time. Now how are you always making the ideal choices.¡±

    ¡°I can see it.¡±

    ¡°Well, that¡¯s some bullshit, at least give a meaningful answer.¡±

    ¡°You want something elaborate, Joy. And there is nothing elaborate about this. I can just see it.¡±

    Joy didn¡¯t remember ever telling the child his name, but there were bigger things to worry about.

    ¡°Well then. It sounds like you were bored. Let¡¯s figure out how to rectify that.¡±

    Joy and the child played every game that Joy could think of. They played tag, they played tennis, they even did coin tosses. None of them ever made a difference. The child was unmatched at every game, no matter what Joy did he was outplayed in almost every conceivable way. But Joy¡¯s unfathomable luck saved him.

    When they played poker, Joy would know that he had the highest scoring hand possible. When they played tag, the child¡¯s foot would slip on a piece of moss that seemingly appeared out of nowhere. When they played tennis, the two children they had working as line officials would make the worst calls.

    The child never seemed frustrated; they seemed more intrigued by the entire thing.

    Finally, after what had been days of playing games the two sat down and stared at each other.

    ¡°You¡¯re a god, aren¡¯t you?¡± Joy stared at the child.

    ¡°I thought that was obvious from the fact that my eyes glow, I am obviously not thirteen yet, and when I made a tennis court magically appear for us to play on.¡±

    Now that Joy was thinking about it, he should¡¯ve known at least since the tennis court. But in his defense, he had been far too excited to play such an interesting game with someone so talented to care about the specifics.

    ¡°Spill. Who are you then?¡±

    ¡°I am Game. The king, ruler, and emperor of all the gods. They who have conquered Boredom at every turn. Pretty imposing, but I will be honest.¡± Game sighed. ¡°That last part isn¡¯t true. I am just bored out of my mind these days.¡±

    Joy could feel something in his soul call out to him then. This was the moment in his life, this was the moment where he seized his destiny, where his karma called him to. He somehow knew exactly what to do and say, it was truly the moment he had been born for.

    ¡°Well, do you care to make a dare with me?¡±

    The god¡¯s eyes lit up.

    ¡°You are an anomaly, Joy. You have not been blessed by Luck, and yet you are lucky. It is as if the world itself shines upon you. It gives you its gift even when the gods gave you nothing.¡±

    ¡°Is that a yes?¡±

    ¡°Sell me on it first.¡±

    ¡°I propose something. I will live the life I have always dreamed of. I will run around causing havoc everywhere, using my incredible gambling skills to take poor saps¡¯ gold. And you will never get tired of it. At every turn you will be entertained and enthralled, because at every turn I will reach the pinnacle of existence in every way, shape, and form.¡±

    ¡°You have some balls on you, Joy.¡± The god smiled, this one more charming than unnerving.

    ¡°All I ask of you, is the funding to get into Vena Cava.¡± Joy ended his speech with a little bow towards the god.

    ¡°Joy, if you ever bore me, I will talk to what is remaining of the world and revoke whatever love they are giving. You will simply be some boring, weak man again, able to lose at a game of chance.¡± Game laid down their conditions.

    ¡°Game, don¡¯t take this as blasphemy, but the world loves me because I truly love the world, in all of its perfection and imperfection. You cannot make the world stop loving me unless I stop loving it, and that is never going to happen.¡± For the first time in their conversation, Joy¡¯s eyes grew hard.

    Instead of being angry at the impudent mortal, Game laughed.

    ¡°I knew I liked you. They need all the love they can get.¡±

    Then Game disappeared leaving two things on the ground. A single gold coin, and a golden key.

    Joy slipped the coin into his pocket and brushed the key with his fingertips. The key somehow slipped into his soul space and with it came a deluge of information.

    Joy had just received an artifact, one that could replace his useless gift. It was complicated and stupid, but it was his.

    Tears of joy trailed down his face as he started walking towards the city gates. Joy could almost swear that the branches of the trees he saw on the way there looked like arms trying to hug him.

    He was loved.

 Chapter 51 - Interpretation

    Theo was sitting near the docks trying to make a new ice sculpture while he waited.

    The past few months had been hectic, and they had given him such incredible artistic vision. He had seen so many things that he just had to try and create out of ice.

    The project he was working on currently was a tough one. He was trying to create a likeness of the woman from the Frozen Continent that had nearly killed him, Joy, and Lillian. The one who had been able to create spears of fire and control them with immense dexterity.

    Theo wanted to capture her grace and elegance, as well as the dynamic elements of the flames she used.

    It was all horribly difficult, and he was on attempt seventeen by this point.

    He could never quite capture her essence. She was a vanquished foe to him, and yet he needed to try and show her in a magnificent way. This piece would not be about defeat and weakness, it was one of triumph and hardship.

    Or at least that was what he was telling himself.

    The reason he was sitting on the docks and staring his ice sculpture into existence instead of in his artistry studio was because he had received word from a seer that his sister would be coming back today. The seer was not Sam, because they were incredibly busy and did not take to cold calls wells.

    Theo and his sister did not get along well when they were younger. But that had changed as they both grew up and realized the ¡®issues¡¯ with their parents¡¯ decisions in their upbringing.

    Theo¡¯s family was wealthy, so wealthy in fact that they had been given a noble title and a villa in the second layer of Vena Cava. The problem with his parents was that they were ¡®new gold.¡¯ They were not part of these expansive families that had been holding covert political meetings for ages.

    To make up for their lack of political acumen, they decided to never pick sides. The couple purposely had two children, and then raised them to be the closest advisors to each of the royal candidates.

    Theo had not been particularly successful at getting into the prince¡¯s inner circle. The prince had a superb lineup of individuals with incredible talents and gifts.

    Theo¡¯s sister, on the other hand, became Princess Dahlia¡¯s greatest confidante, which only irked Theo a little bit.

    Since their parents wanted their children to work separately for each of the royal heirs, they enforced a lot of competition and distance between them. As children, they had despised each other since their parents had molded them that way.

    It took years before they realized that they didn¡¯t have to hate each other. And with a shared bond of having shitty parents, they found they actually quite enjoyed spending time with each other. With his lack of renown in the prince¡¯s retinue it wasn¡¯t even a political catastrophe for them to be seen together.

    Theo was close to finding the perfect form for this sculpture. He already knew that this particular one was going to be a bust, but he was close to truly giving the fiery woman a shape.

    She was going to move much like the fire that consumed her. She would be flickering in a beautiful passionate dance; she was free in some abstract sense of the word.

    As Theo came to this conclusion and started trying to truly plan out how to create this effect in the ice, a seagull alighted upon his shoulder. It inquisitively cocked its head at the statue, seemingly perplexed.

    ¡°Yes, this is my current project. While I was in the Frozen Continent I had to face this woman in a terrible battle. I can¡¯t tell you all the specifics, but it was not a fun fight. And it all felt so meaningless in the end, the two battling sides eventually came to some sort of agreement and her death felt so preventable. I just wanted to see if I could save this piece of her.¡±

    ¡°Squah.¡± The bird screamed directly into Theo¡¯s face, took a shit on his jacket, and flew off.

    Theo watched as a second bird flew over to him, this time it was a raven. Moments before it would¡¯ve flown directly into Theo the bird shifted into the form of a young woman. She was a bit younger than Theo, putting her at seventeen.

    She had the same blonde hair as Theo, except she did not have the piercing blue eyes. Instead, she had warm, brown eyes with flecks of green in them. People would not say they looked like siblings, but that wasn¡¯t what mattered between them.

    ¡°Did you really think I would ever take the form of something as banal as a seagull?¡± Theo¡¯s sister, Julia, looked like she wanted to go in for a hug, but thought better of it as she observed the massive stain of bird poop on his jacket.

    This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

    Julia had a fun gift. Theo had always felt that his gift was too ¡®cut and dry¡¯ for his taste. His sister was the one who got something fun.

    Her gift allowed her to shapeshift into the form of any animal that she had ever touched. So, he felt that his response towards a bird that alighted upon his shoulder was a reasonable one.

    Theo ended up having to give the entire spiel about his work and what he wanted it to represent again. He was a tad annoyed, but there was no use crying over spilt milk.

    The two siblings ended up chatting for most of the day as Princess Dahlia¡¯s ship pulled into the harbor and everyone started disembarking. Neither one revealed any secrets that were of any importance to the other. But they shared all sorts of experiences that had been eventful.

    Julia loved the stories that Theo told of his two friends¡¯ escapades. Stories of Lillian and Joy were always hits with Julia. He shared the story of how Joy was unable to get to the spa/resort part of the prince¡¯s personal abode in the Frozen Continent, and how increasingly unlikely occurrences kept him from ever truly entering the area.

    It was a genuinely fun time, and one that had been sorely missed in the past few months. Joy and Lillian were wonderful friends and all, but they couldn¡¯t understand him as well as his sister could; it was truly the blessing and curse of family.

    Theo made sure he gave his respects to the princess and bid his sister adieu after their long conversations had finished. They both felt lighter after this moment, a weight that had settled over Theo had finally left and he was free.

    Theo took this newfound sense of lightness and freedom and went to a little room that he had cordoned off in the prince¡¯s castle. Once he had found a passion in creating ice sculptures, he had realized that he needed a room to store his favorites in.

    The hardest part about his art was that it was so fleeting. Weather was a truly merciless god that kept Theo from living in a climate where his sculptures could truly stand the test of Time.

    They would always melt because that was the nature of ice. It was a fleeting moment, unable to stay beyond its time.

    But he wanted to fight against the nature of ice and keep some of his favorite sculptures. Even though it was a new hobby he had already lost too many of his favorite sculptures due to the heat.

    So, Theo had bargained with the prince about what his reward from the adventure to the Frozen Continent should be. The prince had promised some truly extravagant things to all people who participated, but Theo did not want most of those.

    Mountains of gold did not appeal to him. He already worked for the prince. And he was in line to inherit his family¡¯s wealth and titles. So, he was doing alright for himself.

    The one thing he could think of asking the prince for was a large room to store his ice sculptures. And the prince had been a little baffled, but still provided.

    So, Theo now had a studio where he could work on his art undisturbed by the elements or other people.

    Theo sat in the room and took a deep breath in.

    The beginning of any piece of art was the most important, he had to create the heart and soul of his art within a single breath.

    Theo¡¯s eyes glazed over, and he reached into his soul space to touch upon the powers gifted to him by the gods.

    Sheets of ice formed in erratic patterns as his eyes randomly focused and unfocused around the room. Everywhere he looked ice formed in unique and aggressive patterns, creating the image of the fiery woman¡¯s soul. Or at least what Theo felt it was.

    The woman had been such a powerful person. Her powers had probably given her an amount of respect from the other members of her tribe, but the difference in skin color would have set her apart, made her other.

    Theo tried to capture that aloofness. The separation between herself and the people she died for, as well as the absolute power that she wielded, the shield between her and the rest of her people.

    He didn¡¯t know this woman. He didn¡¯t know her name, her story, or any of her character. All he knew of her were the fireballs she chucked at him and his friends. But Theo had created this person, this character, to serve in her stead.

    The art would never be a replacement for her, but he hoped to capture the feelings he had seen from her in their heated battle.

    After Theo created the soul of this piece, he started shaping her body. He had not seen in her incredible detail; a fluke in the way that his gift worked. He couldn¡¯t look at the person while he was trying to stare walls into existence.

    So, while creating her body, he didn¡¯t go for a realistic depiction, instead she was all movement and fire. A wisp in the air as she twirled in her element.

    Hours passed and Theo continued to work in a frenzied craze. Layer upon layer of ice slowly formed an incredible piece of art. The lines were still amateurish, but there were emotions imbedded into the art, people who looked at it would feel sorrow and power in equal measure.

    Theo stared at his masterpiece and breathed heavily. An utter exhaustion filled him to the brim, the weakness of putting all of yourself into something. He felt spent, as if he was a husk of a man and the art contained more of him than his measly human form ever could.

    Slowly but surely, Theo wandered out of his studio in a fugue state. He swayed back and forth hoping to make it back to his room, or anywhere with a bed. He had no idea what time it was, but he could feel his eyes burning from being open too long and his eyelids felt like anvils.

    He walked past the prince and Sam who were in a heated debate; the debate abruptly stopped as Theo walked by. He didn¡¯t notice the prince speaking to him and just blearily walked right by.

    The prince and Sam were oddly intrigued by the odd behavior from the normally too uptight Theo and decided to go and see where he had been. Sam tried to dissuade the prince from leaving his far more important duties, since his sister had just arrived back on the mainland there was much to be done, but he said that they could wait until he had gotten to the bottom of this mystery.

    The two of them eventually wandered into Theo¡¯s studio after a few questions asked to passersby.

    As soon as they walked into the room and beheld Theo¡¯s art they spoke simultaneously.

    Sam scoffed and said, ¡°the workmanship is so shoddy, it¡¯s ugly.¡±

    The prince sighed and said, ¡°it¡¯s beautiful.¡±

    They both looked at each other and laughed, neither one touching on the other¡¯s views, before continuing their important discussions about budgets and troops.

 Chapter 52 - Direction

    Lillian was in a wonderful castle. The entire place was filled with character; paintings filled the hallways, the banisters were elaborate wooden things, and the air smelled of oranges and milk.

    The entire place was expansive. The rooms were large and had beautiful stained-glass windows that overlooked different parts of the world. Someone with a powerful gift must have spent a lot of time making this house, because the windows showed views of Vena Cava, beautiful pastures, some tiny villages, and a few even looked through time, into the past of the Shattered, Frozen, and Dead Continents.

    Lillian wandered the halls, marveling at the intricacy of the building. It was one of the most beautiful things she had ever seen.

    Eventually she came to the kitchen area, and something there stopped her in her tracks.

    The kitchen was another beautiful room. The countertops were made of giant sheets of marble, while the floor was a beautiful piece of wood that had been waxed until it shined.

    The entire room was circular, where the counters surrounded the centerpiece. The centerpiece was what had made Lillian stop.

    At the very center of the room, stood a woman. Her skin was as brown as the wood beneath her feet, and her face was as pale as the marble on the countertops. She wore a voluminous, green robe that showed her face and arms, but covered everything else.

    She smiled pleasantly at Lillian and gestured for her to take a counter for herself. As Lillian did so, she suddenly noticed three other people enter the room. Each of them wore an elaborate apron with unique color schemes and animals decorating them.

    One woman wore a wonderfully green apron, it was all neon colors and incredibly loud. The front was embroidered with a rabbit playing in a field, while the rest of the clothing showed various scenes of the rabbit in action.

    The next man wore a blood red apron and had an angry look on his face. Matching his face, the center of his apron had a bear embroidered into it. The both of them scowling was an intimidating image.

    The final man wore a sandy yellow with flecks of orange spread throughout it. His animal was a snake, coiling and slithering throughout his clothes. His eyes were slitted, just like the snake. And Lillian could have sworn that his tongue was forked.

    For the first time, Lillian looked down at herself and noticed that she was also wearing an apron. Hers was a rich blue, with creamy accents over the front. It was weathered from use, stains from past recipes dotted the front and obscured the giant killer whale that was embroidered into her own apron.

    The figure in the front of the room waved her arms and spoke, ¡°the competition begins. You must create a dish including pheasant, turkey, chicken, and quail. We will call this competition the flight of the birds. Now begin!¡±

    The commands were nonsensical and yet Lillian knew what to do. Her hands started carving into the turkey and basting the quail. She cut and cooked the meat until it was golden. She created a plate of meat with a side of more meat, hoping to impress the judges with her dedication to the competition¡¯s rules.

    Then she looked at the plates of her competitors. Surrounding her were the wonderful colors of the world, each plate a beautiful variety of colors, spice, and vegetation.

    The man in red had created a dish in four bites, where each of the birds were allowed to show their splendor while being surrounded by complementary vegetables and fruits.

    The woman in green had made a seemingly unending string of meat that morphed between the four birds. It was like a pasta of meat, and surrounding it were sauces of all varieties and colors hoping to create many different sensations with each bite.

    The man in yellow had created a sandwich. It seemed a little lackluster in comparison to the other competitors, but it was filled to the brim with sourness and sweetness, each bite looked like a delicacy of crunch and mouthfeel.

    Lillian looked down at her own plate and saw one beautiful color. A delightful golden brown that showed she had cooked her meat to perfection.

    But that was all. It was only meat, the perfect meat would never be a fulfilling meal, there needed to be more.

    The woman in the center of the room stared at Lillian with disappointment. It was tinged with sadness and regret, not reproach.

    She slowly started moving towards Lillian. Her feet never seemed to move, but she was pulled forward, as if she was yanked by an invisible rope. She slowly settled in before Lillian¡¯s workbench.

    ¡°A valiant effort, but you were too focused on what I said.¡± A brief pause allowed Lillian¡¯s stomach to continue twisting itself in knots. ¡°You didn¡¯t let your creativity shine; you are missing balance.¡±

    The world around Lillian seemed to shimmer as the word ¡®balance¡¯ was spoken. The woman slowly placed one of her hands up her voluminous sleeve and pulled out a pepper.

    She gently placed it on the table in front of Lillian, and Lillian¡¯s hands started moving again. A symphony of tastes seemed to be playing in her mind as she suddenly could feel how to make her dish perfect.

    In concert with Lillian¡¯s own actions, the woman kept reaching into her sleeves and pulling out whatever Lillian needed. The two were truly in tune for a moment as Lillian perfected her dish.

    Her dish had somehow turned into a single nugget. All the herbs, spices, turkey, and other variety of ingredients used had consolidated into a single chicken nugget.

    Lillian knew that it was a heavy-handed metaphor. She had stumbled across a nugget of truth; she lacked balance.

    Ever since Susan had hurt her back on the expedition, even after Lillian had vanquished that fear, she was on the back foot, she was off kilter.

    Lillian let out a long deep breath. She hated metaphors, why couldn¡¯t everything in her dreams be less wishy-washy and more straightforward. The land of Dream was far too confusing and ridiculous sometimes.

    With a lazy swish of her hand Lillian grabbed the nugget and swallowed it whole. Then she rested the very same hand on the shoulder of the woman who had made the herbs and vegetables appear from inside her sleeves.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go.¡± Lillian said out loud only for her own amusement.

    Then she opened her eyes and woke up. Sprawled in the medical cot next to her was the marble face and wooden body. The woman blinked groggily and looked down at her feet in disappointment.

    The voluminous robe from the dream had obscured it before, but now Lillian was able to truly see the woman, and the fact that her feet used to be part of something larger. The woman seemed to have roots for feet that had been pulled out of the earth when Lillian pulled them out of the dream.

    The medical center of the prince¡¯s castle was not the comfiest place to sleep at night, but it was a necessity after the unfortunate incident that had happened with Susan. Lillian needed a safety net of healers just in case the devious demon ever struck again.

    After a few long and hard months where Lillian would pull anything and everything out of the dream zone the medical staff had gotten used to her shenanigans and her guests, so they stopped paying attention to her, which was dreadfully boring.

    Lillian looked to her right where her steadfast guardian sat in the mornings. And he was not there.

    It wasn¡¯t exactly disappointing; it was just a little sad. Seeing Theo in the mornings was always a wonderful way to wake up, and she did not have the faintest clue where he would be if he was not with her.

    Lillian knew that her quest would be to find Theo and whatever he had been hiding. She knew him well enough that if he had skimped on being her personal dream bodyguard for a night, there must be some terrible secret at play.

    So, Lillian got up and dragged her dream buddy along for the ride. The woman seemed unused to walking and struggled for quite some time to get her footing correct while loping along behind Lillian.

    Lillian remembered something important and kindly asked the woman if she could provide Lillian with any more of her fruits. The woman reached into her sleeves and pulled out a beautiful, red apple. Lillian decided to forgo her brunch (it was already too late in the day to be calling her first meal breakfast) and just eat fruit while on her journey to find Theo.

    The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

    She found evidence quickly. She had decided to check his workroom first and when she went down there, she passed the prince and Sam coming out of the room. They seemed deep in thought, so Lillian tried not to disturb them.

    But the prince tapped her arm as she passed by and said, ¡°come to the meeting hall at dinner time, there are some important announcements to make.¡±

    The prince had not changed the color of his hair or eyes at all during the trip to the Frozen Continent, but once he arrived back on the mainland, he kept changing it to garish colors, creating freakish displays. His hair was a rainbow, and he had somehow styled it to create a massive arch over his own head where each of the colors was distinctly separated from all the others.

    His eyes were even more freakish, they were just a pure opalescent color. No pupil, no iris, just pure, shimmering opaque nonsense.

    Lillian thought it was a little too much, but she was not one to question her superior.

    She thanked the prince and tried to keep as straight a face as possible as he left. She only broke down into hysterical laughter after he had left.

    Still chuckling to herself, she entered Theo¡¯s workroom. Her breath came out in a gout of steam as the cold hit her. She had no idea who the prince had gotten to enchant this place into being cold, but their gift sure seemed handy in the summer. It was freezing within the room, and none of it leaked out into the surrounding area.

    Inside the room Lillian saw a beautiful new art piece. Theo had obviously put his heart and soul into it, and he had gotten so entranced that he had worked through the night.

    Lillian wasn¡¯t quite sure who the subject of this work was, but she could feel a sense of deep loss and loneliness emanating from the icy features. It seemed vaguely familiar, but she couldn¡¯t quite place who it was.

    She was proud of Theo, this was something incredible, something that could¡¯ve been shown in a royal gala. It made her sad that his new hobby had created this new obsessiveness, but she was glad he had found an outlet. Her friend had been too high strung for too long.

    He was off balance and needed to bring some stability into his life.

    His balance was brought by being expressive and artistic, how would she come up with her own balance?

    Ruminating on her thoughts, Lillian started trekking towards her shared room with Theo. They had shared it for years and it was a truly wonderful piece between the two of them. Unfortunately, considering recent events, Lillian had not been able to spend very much time in the room.

    The fact that she had to sleep in the care of medical professionals was slightly irking and kept her from truly settling into her habits.

    As she entered the room, she noticed that Theo¡¯s normally orderly side was in ruin. He had somehow knocked almost everything to the floor in his sleepless delirium.

    Lillian thought that somehow the two sides were now matching and yet unnatural. Her clutter was matched by his own clutter and that did not feel right. Theo was the orderly one who kept all the messes clean and chided her for leaving a crumb on her bed.

    The clutter made Lillian feel bad. Like some part of her life and the natural order of things was wrong. So, she did the unthinkable, she started to clean his half of the room.

    It was like a type of magic; she knew exactly where everything went. In her mind¡¯s eye she could see where every item should have sat and its exact position. The neat freak usually kept everything to orderly that she even knew the orientation of where every knickknack went.

    Humming softly to herself Lillian made his side of the room indistinguishable from how it normally looked. It was just her, a sleeping Theo, and a silent wooden woman who stared eerily out from behind her marble face.

    Theo¡¯s slumber was undisturbed, and he slept fitfully, curled into a little ball in his bed. He somehow looked kinder without his piercing blue eyes. His blond hair lightly curled around his ears, and he looked so much smaller than he normally seemed.

    Lillian was content to sit there and watch him sleep. He must have done the same for her countless times over the years. A silent vigil to make sure none of the monsters from her dreams could escape. It really was the least she could do.

    Her eyes drifted over to her own side of the room and considered the piles of clothes and the mismatching carpeting. Maybe she had grown up too much and it was time to move on from her childish obsessions and lack of proper cleaning habits.

    Nah, she was fine the way she was. Cleaning up after Theo was one thing, but her own things, no way.

    So, she sat and pondered her life. She wished that this was some beautiful moment where everything seemed to come into place, and she understood some beautiful truth of the world. But the real world wasn¡¯t like her dreams, instead she just sat there watching her friend sleep.

    After what felt like an eternity Theo woke up. He blearily looked around his room and seemed oddly content to see that everything was in place. A deep sigh of relief escaped his lips.

    Lillian smirked at this, he probably thought that the mess he had made was just some sort of hallucination induced by the long night and that was why it was gone. Well, maybe it was better to leave him his delusions.

    Lillian stood up and shook him, just to be a little annoying. She jostled his hair around and gave him a playful slap on the face. The slap was not playful to Theo, but it woke him right up.

    ¡°Our dearest prince had requested our presence at the dining hall this evening, for dinner.¡± Lillian said with a devilish grin on her face.

    Lillian noticed Theo start tensing up. She had given it away, he knew that something was up, but there was no way he knew exactly what it was.

    Drawing out the words slowly Lillian said, ¡°by my time I think dinner will be in about¡­¡± a theatric pause filled the room ¡°five minutes.¡±

    Before she had even finished speaking Theo bolted upright in bed and started doing damage control. He knew that he was going to have a bedhead, so he threw on a hat to cover it up. His eyes were red, so he got a pair of tinted lenses that were all the craze a few years back to make him inconspicuous. He tried to put on the fanciest clothes that took the least amount of time to put on, it ended up being a training uniform. Lots of loose fabric made it slip on easily.

    Lillian watched the entire process with a smile. He scrambled this way and that like a little critter trapped in a box. She would not take pity on him and tell him that his fashion choices were horrible, for that would be being too kind. He had brought this upon himself.

    In a loping walk that Lillian thought made Theo look rather silly, he tried to go as fast as possible while not looking like he was in a rush, a truly impossible task. Lillian just strode along beside him, somehow her normal walk kept pace with Theo¡¯s loping terrifying gait. Even the wood and marble woman wasn¡¯t being left behind, and Lillian was pretty sure that she had just learned how to walk today.

    The two of them entered the dining room and all the prince¡¯s close attendants were there. Even Joy sat in the corner making a little war in mashed potato trenches between forks and spoons.

    They slid into a seat nearby, Lillian on the spoon side and Theo on the fork side of Joy¡¯s war.

    The prince looked at them with a little grin before clearing his throat. His hair and eyes were back to normal, a boring blonde and blue pairing. Lillian knew that it was all purposeful, that he changed his hair and eyes to appear more authentic to his allies, while playing around with his enemies, by pretending to be an extravagant waste of space.

    ¡°I called you all here to discuss one thing. The war for succession was officially started. My father believes that it is time for me and my sister to vie for the throne.¡±

    A silence filled the room. Lillian was not a noble, but even she knew how cutthroat the succession wars were. The last one was the start of Ian journey to becoming Bloody Ian.

    ¡°My sister believes herself to be the only choice and will stop at nothing to prove that to our father. She will assassinate us, and she will destroy anything in her way to the throne.¡±

    Shivers went up Lillian¡¯s spine. She knew that Dahlia didn¡¯t have as tight of an inner circle as the prince, but she had been the one with political favor for years now. And those advantages accumulate. The noble houses would support her, the nation would support her, and she was so powerful.

    ¡°We will win this war by being better than her. In blunt terms I want to wage a propaganda war where I show the entirety of the world how she is not fit to rule this country, that she is too blackhearted to have anyone but her own best interest at heart.¡±

    The prince stared off into the distance with a melancholic look in his eyes.

    ¡°I will do this or die trying.¡±

    Lillian stared at the prince, seeing the determination set into his eyes. Sometimes Lillian saw a man beneath the layers of frivolity and charm that was hard. A man who had suffered in his own ways to become the man that he was now.

    This was not going to be fun and silly; this was going to be hard and painful; the prince¡¯s plan was one that promised that they would be on the losing end of the conflict until the very end. Their opponents would strike to kill, while they would be forced to only defend, to uphold the honor of their benefactor.

    ¡°Everyone, I will assign you your duties throughout this trying time. You cannot be merely satisfactory; you must be extraordinary.¡±

    Lillian listened to all sorts of assignments. Some of them would be doing charity work for the outskirts of Vena Cava, others would be doing more clandestine missions where they would sabotage key parts of the princess¡¯ operations; Benny was assigned a mission in this vein. He would be spending months hiding in his shadow world, trying to gain valuable intel from the princess¡¯ conspirators.

    Ian, Clyde, and Sam were all on personal prince protection duty. Sam would foresee the assassinations, Ian and Clyde would defend against them. Personally, Lillian thought that Clyde was an odd choice to have, since his shoe-based gift was not the most powerful ability, but after the Frozen Continent, the prince had given the kingmaker to Clyde. And it was very hard to attack one¡¯s enemies when their shoes kept dragging them in the wrong direction.

    Finally, their turn came. Lillian, Theo, and Joy walked up to the prince and asked about their assignment.

    ¡°Do you all know about the Knight Tournament?¡±

    Theo nodded his head, but Lillian and Joy shook theirs. It sounded like it had something to do with noble houses, but Lillian was intrigued why the prince was mentioning it.

    ¡°Really?¡± In disbelief the prince shook his head at Lillian and Joy. ¡°It¡¯s a tournament between the knights of kingdom where they all show off their abilities so that they can show who has the biggest muscles. Ian won a few of them back when he was more respected and less feared.¡±

    ¡°It happens whenever there are no major crises that need resolving and the knights get bored. With our major missions being accomplished the knights are getting a bit restless again and will start the tournament.¡±

    ¡°This tournament is incredibly well attended and there are many people with information sharing gifts that show images and moving pictures of these competitions to the villages around the continent.¡±

    ¡°I will be your benefactor to get into the tournament. Then, I need you all to become beloved by the entire continent. I want you to become the fan favorites for the entire thing, then I want you to try and win.¡±

    Lillian breathed in. It was a tall order, but the prince had said it before; they didn¡¯t need to be satisfactory, they needed to be extraordinary.

    And this was an extraordinary task.

 Chapter 53 - Bittersweet Joy

    Joy stared at the prince, and the prince stared at Joy.

    ¡°You can¡¯t use it because you have to win it off me.¡± Joy sighed after saying it. The prince had been ¡°studying¡± Joy¡¯s artifact since the end of the excursion to the Frozen Continent. And after getting robbed and being assigned a new insane task by the man, Joy had had enough. He wanted his key to Game¡¯s penthouse back.

    ¡°Can you just throw a game so I can take it?¡± The prince asked far too casually for Joy¡¯s liking.

    ¡°As someone who was also given a useless gift would you ever give this to me if it was yours?¡± The prince¡¯s face darkened at mention of his gift. He played it up a lot, but the fact that he was not blessed with a powerful gift like his sister truly stung.

    ¡°Well then, can I challenge you to a game with the winner taking the key?¡±

    Joy liked this man, but this persistence was truly starting to annoy him. He understood where it came from, but this gift was his. No one could use it as well as him and the prince was a fool if he thought that Joy would let him have it. Something in Joy that regulated his kindness snapped and he felt himself become a much less caring person.

    ¡°You would normally have to put something equal up for grabs, but I am willing to take your pride this time.¡±

    The prince recoiled at Joy¡¯s words, there was an uncomfortable truth hidden beneath all the posturing and barbing that the two of them were doing, and it was something that the prince did not like.

    With the two sides having agreed to the bargain they disappeared from the room they were sitting in in a flash of golden smoke.

    The two of them appeared in Game¡¯s penthouse. It was similar and yet different from last time. The vibes of the room always stayed the same, but it never quite looked the same.

    The prince was shocked out of the stupor he had found himself in at Joy¡¯s words and looked around the room in amazement. Of course, he had asked Joy what the metaphysical space looked like but there was no way to truly understand without seeing it.

    It looked like it had been made by a child. The walls were covered in little stick figures, the games were all in assortments of boxes that were entirely without organization, and the color scheme, this time, was full of orange shades.

    It made the god who had designed the place seem a bit smaller from the prince¡¯s perspective.

    Joy broke the silence between them, ¡°normally, I would be allowed to choose the game since you are the challenger. But this is a special challenge, one that is all about making you understand something, so you get to choose, my dear prince.¡±

    The prince chose a game of chess. It was a cheap shot in many ways. The game was not one the most people had played before, it was a pastime for the rich and elite, not for the hardworking salt of the earth people.

    Joy crushed the prince.

    Every move was countered in the most ideal fashion. Joy was economic and forward thinking in his tactics. No move he made was simply for the moment, he was always planning for later, always preparing for the next battle.

    The prince had never been trounced before at the game, except when he was maybe a child and first learning to play the game. The entire charade felt like he was a child being schooled on proper strategy by a teacher who was unforgiving.

    When the prince lost, he challenged Joy again. Then again, then again. He challenged Joy 167 times in a row, and every time the result was the same. No matter his opening, no matter the gambits he took, Joy beat him mercilessly.

    At his wit¡¯s end, the prince asked if they could change games. Joy told him that it was acceptable this time. So, the prince moved to more martial games. Things like tag, wrestling, and point sparring.

    The prince had thought of himself as superior to Joy in terms of physical capability. The few times he had been able to catch Joy training he had always seemed so lackadaisical and bored.

    The prince had always thought of himself as the stronger person, but he was outmatched even in pure feats of strength. Joy pulled an insane strength out of somewhere when a game was on the line that the prince could not match.

    Joy was fire and the prince was ice.

    The prince took his losses in stride, he was no stranger to failure, he just needed to find one game. A single game that he could beat Joy in, and this would all be worth it.

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    Eating competitions, table manners, and even trivia, nothing seemed to phase Joy. He would calmly agree to the game that the prince suggested and then he would demolish the prince. By all rights, Joy should not have known more about the politics of the noble families than the prince, yet somehow, he did.

    Enough time had passed in the phantom world that Joy had regrown his hair to a respectable length, and he no longer looked like an ascetic monk who shined his head on a regular basis.

    Joy looked down upon the mighty prince with something akin to disdain. The prince sat on the floor of the orange room grasping at the frayed ends of the rug.

    There was something calming about running his hands through the old material. It felt loved in a way that was beyond the physical realm.

    The blonde hair blue eyed prince was done. He had tried everything he could think of, there was no idea that he had not gone through. It had gotten to the point where he started making up games in the hopes that he could rig them in his own favor, but it never worked out.

    Joy¡¯s face scrunched up as he looked down upon the broken prince. Joy had won and he had stripped the prince of his pride in many ways. The prince had fallen for the greatest trick of them all, his own hubris. He had grown so full of himself that he had forgotten that he could lose.

    Something bitter seemed to be worming its way up Joy¡¯s throat as he finally spoke to the man playing with the rug, ¡°do you know why your followers respect you?¡±

    ¡°Because I pay them so well.¡± The prince chuckled self-deprecatingly.

    ¡°No. It is because you are stronger than any of them.¡±

    The prince looked up at Joy incredulously. His eyes spoke even though his mouth did not move. It was an accusing glare, one full of reproach and a seething hatred. His eyes said, ¡®how dare you mock me.¡¯

    ¡°You and I both know that once someone is given their gift their station in life is determined forever. The strong rise to the top, gaining titles and more power as they go. The weak fight for the scraps on the bottom, unable to rise. What can someone whose gift is changing the color of hair do against someone who can throw bolts of lightning?¡±

    Joy ran his hands through his new hair. His brown eyes bore into the prince¡¯s blue ones in an intensity that the prince had never seen before.

    ¡°You were given nothing. And yet you stood tall in the face of overwhelming odds. You spit in the face of karma and the gods who declared you as meaningless and decided that you would grasp meaning from the world with your own power.¡±

    A pause filled the air as Joy crouched down and grasped the prince¡¯s hand in an embrace.

    ¡°You are not beholden to any god for your strength. You are the might of humanity. You are the strength that we all have inside but never use. Every one of your followers believes in you, because if they were in your place, they would have accepted their lot in life long ago.¡±

    ¡°You struggle for life and that is what makes you worth following.¡±

    The prince was shocked by this display. Joy had started this whole fiasco by stripping the prince of his pride, but now Joy was trying to explain to him why he mattered, why he was worthy of the people who followed him.

    The prince took a long breath and closed his eyes as he fell back into himself.

    ¡°I am prince David. I was not given a gift that made me powerful. I was not a chosen of some god and given their pity. I stand as the pinnacle of what a human can reach on their own.¡±

    At the last comment, Joy smacked the prince over the head.

    ¡°You are not the pinnacle; you are strong and always improving, there¡¯s a difference.¡±

    The prince laughed a bit at the interruption but conceded the point.

    At the laugh, the world around them seemed to shatter and the two men reappeared back in the real world.

    Joy took the key that they had been playing for and dropped it in his mouth, swallowing the key whole. It was a symbolic gesture but still one that Joy felt was necessary, he wanted the prince to feel empowered, but also understand that boundaries had been set in this confrontation.

    The key was his, and it would be more trouble than it was worth to take it off him.

    Just as Joy was about to walk off, the prince asked, ¡°why do you follow me, Joy?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s not for the money or the adventure, I just cannot picture myself away from you.¡± Joy said as he walked off.

    The prince pondered on the implications for a while, but found that on some level, it didn¡¯t matter. Joy was here and whatever karma or Fate had brought him there was not what was important.

    After the prince finished his contemplation, he noticed Sam the seer sitting in the corner of his study, observing him with an amused expression on their face.

    ¡°You knew this would happen, didn¡¯t you?¡± The tone was accusatory, but still grateful somehow. The prince was like a child who had just taken their medicine and was feeling better. They were unhappy to have taken it but conceded to their parents that they now felt better.

    ¡°You are the embodiment of humanity in so many ways, David. You exist at the pinnacle and the nadir simultaneously. And man¡¯s greatest folly has and always will be their pride.¡± Sam¡¯s voice was melodic and held the prince in a trance as they continued.

    ¡°We are entering a battlefield where your pride has no place, your sister is a deadly enemy and you must rise to the top no matter what, you have bigger goals than just overthrowing your sister after all. And wouldn¡¯t it be a shame if all those goals were unrealized because of your foolish pride.¡±

    The prince nodded. Pride and honor were for the strong, but he had always been weak. The power of strength is the right to choose to be honorable and prideful, the weak were given no leeway. They either drained the world around them dry or they were crushed beneath the proverbial boot of life.

    ¡°How goes our little side project?¡± asked the prince.

    ¡°The prisoners are still under lock and key. As per your suggestion we have emptied your father¡¯s personal dungeons with promises to give these worst of the criminals the retribution they truly deserve.¡±

    ¡°And Ian?¡±

    ¡°He says that he can feel it. He just needs one more push, just as we expected.¡±

    The prince looked out over the city of Vena Cava from his office window. His eyes glazed over the innermost circle, the king¡¯s palace.

    Soon, the prince would have the right to become honorable and prideful, just not yet.

 Chapter 54 - The Tournament Begins

    Joy could feel the tension in the air. Or maybe that was someone with a wind-based gift trying to shake up the competition before it even started.

    Joy had never felt that preparation helped him. He was a creature of chance and fortune, not one of meticulous strategy and forethought. So, he had spent the days leading up to the Knight Tournament playing games with anyone who would spare the time.

    There was something so revealing about the way that others played games. The prince was meticulous and cunning, while Theo was calculating and na?ve. Lillian was fire and passion, while Sam was thousands of steps ahead of Joy.

    Sam was the only person that gave Joy a real run for his money, but he never let it get to him because that was the nature of games. If his victory was always assured, why would he be playing?

    Nonetheless he was here now, preparing himself for the big stage. He had never thought of himself as a fighter, nor did he think of himself as some paragon of justice and peace. So, he wasn¡¯t quite sure how he had ended up in a massive tournament for the title of biggest buffest dude in the shiniest armor. But Fate was quite strange like that.

    There were many knights around the Hearted Continent, and they had been sauntering into the city for the past couple of days.

    They all entered with the panache and posturing that all big, bad boys in suits of shining armor brought with them. They picked fights with each other and dispensed ¡°justice¡± to anyone who looked at them funny. Joy had even talked with some of his friends in the justice department and they had mentioned that there had been a noticeable uptick in brawls in the city since the tournament contestants started showing up.

    All these men and women had showed up in massive suits of armor that showed their feats and their benefactors. Joy had heard that there was a special artisan named Ronaldo that made them and that someone wasn¡¯t even considered to be a real knight unless they had commissioned armor from Ronaldo.

    Joy felt very out of place in this tournament. His competitors stood all around him covered in their shiny armor, flexing their ¡°justice¡± dispensing muscles. Theo and Lillian had told him that without the armor he would be at a disadvantage and that everyone would be judging him from the get-go as a fake knight.

    Instead of the armor Joy stood in the arena in a very plain outfit. He wore a leather jacket along with some black pants. Inside his jacket he wore a velvet shirt to create some flashes of color. And to top it all off, he had a tiny little hat on. It was a fedora-like hat, but absolutely tiny.

    The arena was filled to the brim with an energy unlike anything that Joy had ever seen before. It was a cesspool of competitiveness and bravado. He felt right at home, his own pride and ambition swelling to the top of his soul as he let out a small whoop, drawing a few eyes to him.

    There were far too many competitors than anyone cared about. There were quite a few knights all throughout the land and not all of them were worth the time and gold needed to come see the matches.

    Joy had wondered how they were going to cut the chaff from the competition, and he had been so excited when he learned there was going to be a giant free-for all.

    There were four free-for-alls being held at the same time in different arenas. The rules were lazy and simple: the last eight people standing in each of the arenas would make it to the main stage.

    Joy was happy to not be in the same arena as Lillian and Theo, only the weak looking people were trying to make alliances to make it through these preliminary rounds. He was also glad that he did not have any sort of reputation.

    There were some knights that everyone was eyeing, hoping against Hope that if they teamed up in these free-for-alls that they could take down these tough competitors.

    One of Joy¡¯s favorites was the man known as the Shovel Knight. A man who had the gift to create massive shovels and use them to smite his enemies. He wore a helmet, and no one had ever gotten a look inside of it. The man behind the myth was a mystery.

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    But most importantly, there was Ryan the Slayer. Joy worried that whoever had named the man suffered from a serious case of ¡®forgetting the noun at the end of that sentence¡¯ but instead the person merely suffered from a critical lack of imagination. The man was a behemoth that stood nearly two heads above Joy. His skin was a rich brown that matched the hair that ran down his back almost all the way to the ground.

    Legends said that he had decided when he was five years of age that he would only cut his hair if he ever lost in combat.

    He had never cut his hair.

    Ryan was one of the favorites for this year¡¯s competition, an almost assured win. He had the physique of a man gifted by Strength which supplemented his less brawny gift. He was able to store anything in his mouth. Hoarder usually gave odd gifts, and this one was no exception.

    The man had come to be known for his slaying because he would store fire in his mouth and shoot flames like a dragon of legend. He was also known to store pressurized water and use that to cut his foes in half. It was more tactical but less flashy, so he tried to save that one for when he was struggling.

    Many eyes were glancing over at the imposing man, but he was merely sitting in the middle of the arena with his eyes closed, as if meditating on his assured victory.

    Joy was similarly drawn to the man, his physique was absolutely incredible, and Joy would love to study him in more detail. It was so rare to see a truly powerful human being who had not been blessed by the gods. Instead, Ryan had been blessed with a different kind of luck. It didn¡¯t hurt that he was easy on the eyes too.

    Joy was envious of the man¡¯s flowing locks and strong back. But he had made the choice to be lithe rather than bulky and he would live with it.

    This arena was the third round of qualifiers, Lillian and Theo had been in the first round together and pushed each other to the finish line. Joy was here alone, standing in a field of sand.

    A deep unnatural silence filled the arena and someone familiar walked in the center of the field. A man that Joy recognized from his time in the Frozen Continent walked onto the stage.

    Wes had a gift that allowed him to silence the world around him and he had used it to force the rowdy knights to shut up for a moment.

    ¡°This is the third one of the day, and I am already bored, so let¡¯s keep it short.¡± Wes began.

    At Wes¡¯ word Ryan¡¯s eyes suddenly opened and he stared with rapt attention.

    Joy thought it was a little silly that Wes had a day job and wasn¡¯t one of the prince¡¯s ¡°guys¡±, but he listened, nonetheless.

    "Don¡¯t kill each other. We have the best healers in the entire continent here. They will be able to patch you up through any damage short of death. So, there¡¯s one simple rule you must remember. Don¡¯t kill each other.¡± There was a subdued feeling that enveloped the crowd at his words.

    Of course, the contestants knew the rules walking in, but there was something primal about hearing the fact their lives would be on a razor¡¯s edge. Maybe they could be saved, but it was all about the goodwill of their fellow knights.

    Many ¡°accidents¡± could happen here, and everyone was feeling particularly aware of past grudges they had accrued.

    To finish off the speech Wes said, ¡°When I hit the bell; it begins. May Fortune favor you.¡± Joy didn¡¯t take Wes for a religious man when he had met him on the Frozen Continent, but who was Joy to judge?

    The time seemed to stretch on forever as everyone took a moment to recenter themselves.

    Some took this time to get in a good stretch, while others recited poetry in hopes of motivating themselves. Other people quietly activated their gifts in hopes of gaining the upper hand when the battle truly started.

    Joy bent down and grabbed a handful of sand. He let it slowly drift out of his fingers as he felt his sense of self recenter.

    He had been off balance after being mugged by Franny and he had not gotten his feet back under him. His games with the prince were uncharacteristically cruel hearted and lacking the mirth he usually found in himself.

    But he was not some brooding loner, he was not some weak man who broke after failing. He was Joy, the man who existed with a smile. He was Joy, the man who waltzed when he should walk. He was Joy, the man with silly outfits and sillier words.

    And maybe, he had forgotten that for a moment.

    A single ring filled the arena and the world shifted from its beautiful untouched state, to one of chaos in a matter of moments.

    The shovel knight gestured in front of himself and a shovel the size of a house materialized on its tip, before falling over and smashing into a group of clustered knights. Ryan opened his mouth and belched out a massive amount of flames, char broiling everyone in his vicinity.

    Teams started joining up, creating shield walls while their less bulky teammates used their gifts with wild abandon.

    As Joy watched the chaos unfold, he smiled. An arrow whizzed over his shoulder and a golden ball of light fluttered over the other. The arrow flew through the stone wall behind him, while the orb exploded once it touched the wall.

    The explosion knocked Joy on his ass, but it only caused him to guffaw, his smile growing ever wider.

    Joy stood up, projectiles missing him by a hair¡¯s breadth, and he took his signature pose. Arms splayed out to either side and legs crossed, he asked a simple question to everyone in the arena.

    ¡°Do you want to play a game?¡±

    A dignified voice that sounded a bit bored spoke into everyone¡¯s mind, ¡°infection. Do any of you need the rules explained to you?¡±

    Joy looked quizzically up at the sky as a bolt of lightning arced over his head, singing his newly regrown hair.

    ¡°Yes, I think I do?¡±

 Chapter 55 - The Bigger They Are

    Ryan had always been strong. And he had always known right from wrong.

    His mother loved to tell one story to any guest that came into her home. When Ryan was five, his little brother had been taken by cultists. There were many fringe religions around the continent, and they were the people mainly tracked down by the order of knights.

    These cultists believed in the god Misery, and thus caused misery everywhere they went. Their only goal in life was to make everyone around them as miserable as possible. They had a real penchant for stealing babies though.

    Ryan had been outside playing with his baby brother when the cultists struck. They stole his baby brother and nearly beat Ryan to death.

    On the edge of Death, Ryan dragged himself back into the house where he told his mother and father about what had happened. His mother always described that part with him crying righteously; ¡°tears of rage spilled down his face¡± was her favorite way of putting it.

    But Ryan at that time just felt cold. He had failed at something and that was something he could not abide. His mother used her healing gift to bring him back to his feet as his father gathered up the men of the village to go and round up these ruffians.

    Ryan followed along behind them, stealing a knife from his mother¡¯s kitchen.

    As the men of the village approached the cultists, Ryan hid in the bushes, following them closely. The cultists had a massive bonfire going and appeared to be slowly lowering Ryan¡¯s baby brother into the flames. It was slow, to prolong the misery of the baby.

    The wails were weak and immensely sad.

    The men didn¡¯t know what to do, so they charged the encampment, hoping to stop the cultists from burning the baby to death. But Ryan hiding in the bushed focused on his failure. He had failed his brother, and he refused to fail him again.

    He slowly approached the camp and made his way to the roaring bonfire. Only one of the cultists had stayed behind, and he was preparing to throw the baby into the flames as a last-ditch effort.

    In his mother¡¯s words, ¡°Ryan heroically threw her favorite knife through the wicked man¡¯s heart causing him to perish.¡±

    He even more heroically leapt into the flames to catch his baby brother.

    Once the men had finally vanquished the cultists they came to the bonfire where they saw Ryan cradling his baby brother, both covered in massive burns.

    Ryan¡¯s hair had been singed off, and he made a vow that day, to never cut his hair unless he lost again.

    A few years later, Ryan awakened his gift from Gluttony. It was a bit odd, but the ability to store anything he put in his mouth had turned out to be incredibly useful.

    That was the start of Ryan¡¯s incredible career of being a hero. He joined the knights and gained notoriety, eventually becoming the shining star of his generation.

    He was the man of myth and legend; songs were sung of his deeds, and he was ready to rock.

    All his deeds, all his power had led him here to this moment. His karma sang as he stood in the arena waiting for the battle to begin.

    Once the bell rang, he could feel his competitors¡¯ eyes turning towards him. They all wanted a piece of his action, and he would give it to him.

    The air thrummed as tens of gifts started being used at once. Ryan let his challengers approach, then let out a gout of flames from his mouth.

    A blacksmith from a small village he had saved from a serial killer had given him the idea of storing non-physical objects in his mouth. Fire wasn¡¯t really something a person could hold, but his gift somehow conceptually consumed the flames and allowed him to release it at will. This idea had allowed him to store all sorts of unique things, but those would be saved for the later rounds of this tournament, no need to waste his trump cards on these weaklings.

    After the initial exchange his dumbest challengers had been fried, and the medics had come in to save them. His more intelligent foes had backed off taking this time to observe how he reacted to his enemies. Those were the ones to worry about.

    In the reprieve Ryan heard a voice speak in his head.

    ¡°Infection. Do any of you need the rules explained to you?¡±

    Ryan had two guesses about what had happened. Either someone had a gift related to auditory hallucinations and was using it very poorly or this was someone¡¯s trigger. As someone with a unique gift, Ryan knew that some gifts required some unique conditions to activate. The gods were fickle in their gifts, and some required some eccentric conditions to activate.

    In the hopes that it was the latter Ryan said, ¡°yes.¡±

    The voice sighed and coughed a bit as it seemed to catch itself. ¡°Infection is similar to tag, except everyone is ¡®it.¡¯ For every person that is tagged by you, your strength will increase by a linear amount. For those of you listening with underdeveloped brains, the more people you touch the stronger you get.¡±

    Since the rules were explained in Ryan¡¯s head, he felt a bit more confident that this was some gifts trigger condition. Maybe it was a gift from Honor or Fairness, and it allowed the user to gain strength but only if their enemies were also given that opportunity.

    Ryan felt that his game plan didn¡¯t change much with the addition of the infection game. He would tag people if the situation allowed it, but he was a skirmisher at heart, using his unique abilities to keep people far away. No one liked to have their hair burnt off.

    But Ryan felt that it would be prudent to check how strong his competition could grow to be. So, he sidled up to one of his incapacitated competitors and tapped him on the shoulder.

    Instantly he felt a small increase in his personal strength. It was a respectable amount, but meaningless in the end. Ryan felt he could comfortably carry two men and a baby without truly putting in any effort, after getting this increase he felt that he could change that baby into a small toddler.

    It was not something that he had to worry about, this gift would not allow anyone to tag him and suddenly gain the power of a god.

    Unbothered, Ryan went back to smiting his foes with ruthless zeal. He had a large store of flames kept within his gift, so he felt that using it so recklessly was within the allowed usage for this round.

    He even noticed a few people running around trying to tag other people in the arena. But none of them seemed to be particularly successful. No one was foolish enough to just let anyone touch them, so they were targeted by large numbers of people and promptly taken care of.

    As Ryan took care of another person who was attempting to tag people, he noticed a figure standing near the edge of the arena. He didn¡¯t wear the usual armor of one of the knights, instead he had a fashionable little hat on the top of his head.

    The reason that the man drew Ryan¡¯s eye was because he was standing near the exit where the medics had to pass through, and he seemed to be lightly touching the medics and the injured competition as they passed him by.

    That felt cheap to Ryan. It was not honorable nor was it skillful, instead it was taking advantage of everyone else¡¯s work. No matter how clever the strategy seemed to be it was in opposition to Ryan¡¯s personal code of conduct.

    So, he charged the man.

    Ryan didn¡¯t bother with using his gift, nor his stores of flames. If someone was weak enough to try and game the system to take advantage of this gift, they weren¡¯t deserving of his full might.

    The man looked surprised that Ryan had noticed him and went to meet him.

    The two spoke in the only language that Ryan truly understood, through their fists.

    Ryan used impeccably placed strikes to take his opponent off balance. Using his superior physique to bully the smaller, weaker man into submission.

    But the smaller man had tagged quite a few people by now and his strength was almost a match to Ryan¡¯s. But he used the strength in unique ways. His movement became a lot more erratic as he used the gifted power to do gymnastics and parkour around the physically superior man.

    It was fascinating to Ryan. He had assumed that the physical increase from the game could only be used to make his attacks stronger. He assumed that only his offense would be enhanced by the strength given from tagging people. But this man used the strength to make himself elusive.

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    Ryan took a risk and tried to grab the faster man, hoping to get rid of his speed advantage. His fingers brushed the man¡¯s top hat but didn¡¯t quite get a grip on him. In retribution, his opponent was able to tag him on the wrist and Ryan felt the man¡¯s speed increase even more. His punches grew stronger, and Ryan was unable to keep up anymore.

    A strong right fist slammed into Ryan¡¯s jaw, and he felt his sight grow blurry for a moment. But he was not supposed to fail here, he was not supposed to lose to some man in a silly top hat. He was Ryan, he was the hero of the story.

    So, he opened his mouth and released a gout of flames directly into the man.

    When faced with a massive explosion of flames being thrown at their face, most people back away. Instead, Ryan¡¯s opponent dove through the fire, positioning himself beneath Ryan¡¯s jaw while laying into him with tight punches to Ryan¡¯s stomach.

    The punches involuntarily caused Ryan¡¯s mouth to close, and this allowed his opponent to wallop him with a massive uppercut, sending him flying across the arena.

    Ryan knew he had to stop holding back. This fighter was no chump. The man had bided his time, gaining power throughout the course of this battle, preying on the weak so that he would be able to challenge the strong. This was a situation that called for a hero.

    He opened his mouth and released a plume of smoke into the air. This allowed him a moment¡¯s reprieve from the insane beating he had been taking while he formulated a game plan.

    Ryan truly didn¡¯t want to give up all his trump cards at once, but he would have to use some of them to get through this man.

    Ryan started spewing out streams of highly pressurized water. It was an odd quirk of his gift, the things he stored in his mouth retained their properties. Things that were hot stayed hot, things that were cold stayed cold, things that were moving stayed moving, and water that was under incredible pressure didn¡¯t suddenly depressurize once he stored it.

    He hired a man to take him to the bottom of the ocean where he swallowed as much sea water as possible. Originally, he had just hoped to keep an easy supply of water, but since he had stored it from the bottom of the sea, it had stayed under that high pressure.

    Ryan released the water through the smoke, blinding firing powerful jets of water to where he assumed his enemy would be approaching him from.

    He heard the occasional clang of water on metal as he hit another one of his competitors through the smoke, but there was no confirmation that he had hit the dastardly man yet.

    Ryan paused as he realized something felt wrong, a primal surge of terror ripped through him as he felt a hand grasp his leg.

    Ryan tried to turn his head to aim a spurt of water at the person grabbing his ankle. But his mouth was immediately shut by a swift kick to the jaw, which led neatly into a leg bar.

    Ryan screamed out at the pain, but he couldn¡¯t position himself to aim at his enemy without risking damage to himself.

    His armor held, but the constricting pain was all consuming. He did the only thing he could think of, he consumed his own pain. He opened his mouth and stored the concept of this pain.

    This move was Ryan¡¯s greatest trump card. He had stored the emotions of many people throughout his travels, and he had found that a well-placed dose of depression did wonders to weaken his opponents.

    Once he had stored the pain, he took a moment to compose himself, preparing his mind for the pain to come rushing back. Ryan aimed his mouth at the man, the same dastardly man who had that stupid top hat on and released all the pain into him.

    Some of the pain flowed back into Ryan because his aim wasn¡¯t perfect. But the man let go of his leg lock and started convulsing on the ground and pain wracked through his body.

    Ryan struggled to get back to his feet. This was the disadvantage of the bulky knight armor; he was less maneuverable when he had been splayed out on the ground.

    He was so slow that the other man had recovered from the immense pain by the time that Ryan had gotten to his feet.

    Ryan was floundering in this fight and needed to gain some distance from the man. He had never been so soundly outmatched before, but he knew what he needed to do was bring the fight back into his own territory.

    He opened his mouth and consumed his fear and his apprehension of facing the other man. Ryan felt a strange calm wash over his soul as he looked down upon the man in the little hat. The guy had just gotten a couple lucky punches on Ryan, there was no need to be worried.

    Ryan spit out all the nervousness and the man in the little hat cringed as he looked up at Ryan. Ryan saw emotions flash through the man¡¯s eyes, fear was the most prominent one.

    But after a moment of consideration the man just laughed and started running,

    ¡°I¡¯m not quite strong enough yet.¡± The man called out in a sing-songy voice as he stumbled away from Ryan.

    The man used the smoke that Ryan had created to evade him. Ryan screamed into the blackness, hoping to get a lucky hit in on the man.

    Flames, spears, volleys of arrows, even his emotional arsenal was used in the hopes of taking down this man. But nothing seemed to connect, the man was as elusive as the wind and Ryan was left in the dust.

    Ryan stopped flailing out and took a moment to truly think about what was happening. This man had been playing with him, Ryan had truly been outclassed for the first time in his life. Of course, the situation was highly specialized for the other man to succeed, but that was a loser¡¯s excuse.

    He pondered his situation as one of the other competitors in the arena tried to attack Ryan from behind. Ryan released a waterfall on the woman, the deluge of water made her crash into the wall of the arena, after which the medics came running to her prone form and took her off the field.

    An epiphany hit him. This situation was disadvantageous to Ryan. The man¡¯s gift was obviously the game of ¡®infection¡¯ and Ryan would be able to cream him in a one-on-one. But this free-for-all format was incredibly helpful for that other man.

    But the free-for-all format wouldn¡¯t last, if Ryan made it to the later rounds, he would be able to wipe the floor with this man. So, he could just take out the other competitors then wait for his chance at revenge on the other man.

    Ryan could win. It wouldn¡¯t be the immediate victory that he wanted, but he could eventually best this man.

    He could lose the battle and win the war.

    But Ryan didn¡¯t lose, he wouldn¡¯t give up the battle just to win the war. He won every engagement and every battle; he overwhelmed his opponents with his endless power. He did not play games and he did not compromise.

    Ryan roared into battle. He did not entangle himself with his weaker foes, he did not even glance over at them, their blows slid off him like water off the back of a duck. Nothing could stand in his path as he recklessly charged towards the man who had been besting him.

    The man laughed as he saw the bull rush coming towards him. The man¡¯s top hat was blown off his head as Ryan fired a condensed beam of lightning that just barely missed the man.

    Ryan scowled at the waste of one of his strongest attacks, it had been difficult to catch the lightning in his mouth and to see it wasted was an absolute shame.

    The acrid scent of burning filled the air as the man started running, giving up on his ruined hat. Ryan swallowed his frustration and exhaustion, saving it for later. He didn¡¯t have the time to feel right now.

    The game of cat and mouse continued as Ryan chased after the hatless man. The man ran up to their opponents and tagged them, dodging every attack that was thrown at him in the arena.

    Everyone knew something was up with the guy who wasn¡¯t attacking anyone, but just touching them and he had made no friends by doing all his little touches.

    Finally, after touching every remaining competitor in the ring the man turned around to face Ryan. Ryan¡¯s face was burning from embarrassment that he quickly consumed to keep himself in check. No matter the attack he had thrown the man had mystically avoided it. Whether Ryan tripped on an errant rock, or one of the other competitors stepped in the way, he couldn¡¯t hit the other man if his life depended on it.

    ¡°Face me coward!¡± Ryan roared at the top of his lungs at the man.

    The man just started giggling, ¡°that¡¯s hilarious. I never thought I would hear anyone say that in real life.¡±

    This caused Ryan to flush again, and he had to consume even more embarrassment. He knew it was detrimental to his health in the long run, but he desperately needed a clear state of mind for this fight and was willing to take the risk.

    The man bent down to the ground as Ryan was schooling his face again and picked up a stray rock. Then he threw the rock at Ryan¡¯s head.

    The rock moved faster than Ryan could react, and it clanged into his chest armor causing it to dent uncomfortably into his skin.

    Ryan shot beams of water, but the man had absorbed enough strength that he actually sighed as he dodged everything Ryan threw at him. More rocks flew into Ryan and more dents started to form in his armor.

    Ryan knew that his salvation lay in his final attack. He looked in his soul space, into a dusty corner that he avoided at all costs. He took all the sadness of his life, he took all his suicidal tendencies, and he took all his self-loathing and created a hodgepodge of everything that he hated about himself.

    Ryan didn¡¯t release this attack from his mouth, he puked it out. A wave of green emotional energy crashed out of him and was absorbed by the man throwing rocks at Ryan.

    The effect was immediate. The man fell to his knees and wept at the cruelty of the world, at the pain and suffering that was allowed to exist. At his own frailty at his own pain.

    Ryan prepared to end this man. It had been a great battle, but Ryan would never lose. He was the unmatched champion of this era and he refused to bow down to anyone.

    The man looked at Ryan with pity in his eyes, before looking to the sky.

    ¡°Isn¡¯t it beautiful? The sun shines on every day no matter our trivial lives. The moon rises and falls. The rain seeps into the land. The earth rumbles with power. The ocean waves ebb and flow.¡±

    Ryan released a beam of magma at the man, hoping to finally end him.

    The world around the man seemed to still and a tiny crack appeared in the earth that caused the man to shift uncomfortable to the side. The tiny adjustment caused the beam of magma to miss him, barely singing his hair instead of taking him out of commission.

    ¡°I think it¡¯s wonderful to be alive and I am terribly sorry that you cannot see the wonders of the world.¡±

    Then the ground beneath the man¡¯s feet exploded as he leapt forward at Ryan. Ryan was too stunned to move as the man collided with him and punched him one final time in the head.

    Ryan blacked out and lost his title as the greatest knight in all the land in an instant. He was someone new even if he didn¡¯t know it yet.

    When Ryan awoke, the medical officers rushed him out of the room, since his injuries barely counted compared to what some of the more ruthless fighters in the arena did. He was in a fugue state, he couldn¡¯t believe what had just happened to him.

    As he left the arena, he saw a person in a drab brown cloak. Their hair was brown, their skin was brown, their eyes were brown. Everything about them was the same shade of brown. They carried a small knife in their hands, the blade the same boring brown color as the rest of them.

    In their eyes he saw a cold intelligence and ruthlessness.

    ¡°You don¡¯t know who you are without winning, do you, Ryan?¡± The person addressed him and handed him the knife.

    ¡°No, I guess I don¡¯t.¡± Ryan said as he raised the knife above his head and started chopping his hair off.

    ¡°I can tell you who you are Ryan. You are a perfect piece of a puzzle, a beautiful person in just the right shape and time to change the world.¡±

    Ryan finished cutting his hair and stared at the long locks.

    ¡°And who are you to tell me who I am?¡±

    ¡°I am the seer known as Sam, and I have seen the legend that you become, follow me and you will never be forgotten as the man who changed the world.¡±

    Ryan followed them, for what else was he to do?

    A man stumbling in the dark will reach for any light he can see.

 Chapter 56 - The Price of Victory

    Joy was elated. He had truly enjoyed the challenge in the arena, it was exciting to be surrounded by all those talented people and he had truly enjoyed that final bout with the strong handsome man.

    The man¡¯s depression made it a bittersweet fight, but the man himself was truly a natural marvel. His muscles shined with every movement and the breeze always hit his hair just right. It had been truly an iconic fight, one full of panache and vigor.

    After Joy had finished his fight with the man, the rest of the competition had whittled itself down to just eight people left. So, they were declared the winners of their bracket and were given little medals that showed they had won.

    The only notable person who had passed these initial rounds was the Shovel Knight.

    Joy knew he should give each of these knights the proper respect that they deserved, they had all just fought grueling and difficult battles, but he found himself bored with them. They didn¡¯t have any gimmicks or skills that made them cool or noteworthy in Joy¡¯s eyes, they were just there to fill out the roster.

    Everyone nearby eyed each other cautiously. There was an unwritten rule that anyone could take someone¡¯s medal and enter the competition in their place. A victor had to continue to defend their place, not merely be content with their small victory.

    Everyone¡¯s eyes lingered on Joy. He was an unknown, some random knight that they had never heard of had defeated Ryan, one of the most prominent knights of their generation, before they had even gotten out of the qualifying rounds.

    It was sobering to watch one of their most powerful peers get whopped by some guy in a little hat.

    But Joy was far too high on life to care about the musings of others. He had received his token of that certified him as a competitor, now he could go celebrate with Lillian and Theo. Everyone had made it into the tournament, so now they needed a well-deserved night out on the town.

    Joy skipped all the way back to the prince¡¯s private abode in the second circle of Vena Cava. The massive arenas were positioned in the outer sectors of the city, since they wanted to draw a large crowd to the events. And forcing everyone to go through the rigamarole of having to pass through the different circles seemed impractical.

    The people in Vena Cava seemed joyful. There was some special ingredient in the air that night. Something about the festivities that the knight tournament brought made the city come to life. A vibrant energy vibrated around the city and Joy loved it.

    He saw a street performer going crazy on couple drums that were hanging from her neck. She beat out an incessant rhythm, one that promised something new and beautiful.

    The most amazing part was that everyone who heard the music started walking in time with it. Joy assumed that it was some gift, but it was spectacular nonetheless to see everyone walking at the same pace all around the performer.

    Happy couples swayed to the drums, letting the happy mood in the air infect them with new hopes and dreams.

    Joy tapped his feet and danced his heart out for a while, simply living in the moment, feeling the drum beat in his soul.

    But he had other obligations for the night, so he bayed the performer a good night after giving her a hefty sum of gold for her time. She truly was a fantastic musician that deserved his praise.

    He walked through the farms of the inner circles. No one flew him through the mazes of corn and potatoes, but he enjoyed walking through the fields, it made him feel close to Nature and his own nature as a person.

    He was not weighed down here surrounded by the greenery, the music still pumping through his soul. He was Joy.

    His musings on his own freedom and the nature of self eventually ended. He met up with Lillian and Theo, both sporting a beautiful coin just like his own, marking them as winners of the round robin, and competitors of the true tournament.

    ¡°We weren¡¯t sure you were going to make it.¡± Lillian said with a sly grin on her face. She was only half joking of course.

    ¡°I was a little worried for you.¡± Theo said without even a hint of sarcasm. What a noble soul, truly a kind man at his heart. Joy saw through the man¡¯s icy fa?ade easier than looking through a windowpane.

    Joy linked arms with the other two and said, ¡°let us journey to the part of town with the parties, we need to celebrate!¡±

    Even as Theo complained that Joy should report his success to the prince, Joy dragged everyone along with him through the lush greenery.

    On a second pass, he felt more at home with the love of his friends. Maybe freedom was the lie that loneliness needed to thrive.

    They traveled back to the lively outer rings where the people danced, and the alcohol poured freely. Theo and Lillian had gone to many parties with the prince, but there was something much warmer about this lively atmosphere.

    The prince¡¯s parties always had an undercurrent of icy calculations. Everyone was calculating who to talk to and who to give favors to. There was none of that here, it was pure rowdy fun.

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    Joy led his friends back to the square where the woman had been playing her drums earlier in that night. She was there, singing a soft little tune along with her rhythmic beating of the drums.

    Joy watched as Lillian and Theo became entranced by the performer just like everyone who entered the square. The two of them began to dance, not the stiff dances of the royal court, but the loose free form dance of the impoverished.

    The dance of those who are unburdened by the others watching them.

    Joy sat down next to the woman and stole one of her drums. She looked vaguely annoyed at the act and tried to smack him while keeping the song going.

    She was surprisingly adept at swatting at him while keeping the beat steady.

    Joy simply laughed and relaxed in the moment. He let his hand strike the drum. Then he struck with both of his hands in a vicious assault. The melodic tune that the woman had been singing before he entered the area became suddenly discordant and Joy began his own music that opposed the woman¡¯s.

    She paused as she listened to his music and then matched him. His discordant music suddenly finding harmony with her own, the clashes stopped, and a new melody took their place.

    The look of annoyance never left her eyes, but she was willing to play along with Joy.

    The two of them played a game back and forth, trading melodies and instruments. Neither one conceding defeat, they evolved their musical ideas and found new inspiration in the world around them.

    The woman had a strong foundation in her song that allowed her to adapt to any changes that Joy threw at her. But Joy was as changeable as the wind, he refused to let his lack of musical skill hamper his musical creativity.

    The air hummed as the two of them did their final showdown. The drums beat and the air seemed to explode with the power of their wills colliding.

    Finally, Joy laughed and laughed. He laughed so hard that he stopped playing and just laid down on the cobbled streets. His drum forgotten in the laughter of the moment.

    When his fit of chuckles finally tapered off, Joy looked around the street. It was entirely silent as every person stared directly at him. There were no looks of wonder or amazement, everyone simply stood there with unthinking eyes directed at Joy.

    The woman who had played the drums looked at him.

    ¡°You are lucky that you helped me ingrain myself into this crowd so much, otherwise I would be quite cross with you stealing one of my drums.¡±

    The entire street spoke in unison with the woman. Their voices were whispers behind the woman¡¯s authoritative and powerful voice, but it added an ominous feeling to her speech.

    ¡°Now that isn¡¯t creepy.¡± Joy smiled cheekily at the furious woman.

    Now that Joy was paying more attention to her rather than her music, he noticed that she was impeccably dressed and well groomed. She took great care in her appearance and wanted the world to have a good impression of her.

    Her red hair was straight and pulled into a long ponytail behind her head. Her fingernails were well trimmed, and her clothes all had undertones of green and purple to them. It created a pseudo royal look on her.

    The one thing that made her not an exquisite beauty was a smattering of freckles across the bridge of her nose. She wore them proudly as a symbol of who she was, however the detracted from the sense of perfection that otherwise exuded from her pores.

    ¡°It was meant to be creepy, you idiot, but you were so entranced by your own music that you didn¡¯t notice it. It is a rare person that can resist my gift.¡± A meaningful look pierced Joy as she said that. But he ignored it as men often do.

    ¡°Well, being able to take control of people¡¯s minds and bodies is a terrifying power. What are you doing, trying to start a revolution?¡± Joy asked only half joking.

    The woman jumped at his deduction of her gift, but it was obvious to Joy. Any ability that forced people to dance along to the music was mind control on some level, it just seemed that hers was a bit more intrusive than just a forceful dance.

    ¡°Nothing so disruptive. I just want to become a part of Music.¡± A wistful look entered the woman¡¯s face.

    Joy looked at her inquisitively, ¡°you want to become a part of a god? That feels blasphemous.¡±

    She laughed at that. A light chuckle that made her smile shine like the moon. ¡°I guess it is a little, but you can feel it, ya know?¡±

    As she said that she stood up and started spinning in a circle, everyone else in the street followed her example, dancing to some unheard music.

    ¡°The more you are known, the closer you get to the god. A god represents their concept at a base level. If you become synonymous with that concept won¡¯t you become a part of that god?¡±

    The woman with red hair smiled at Joy, the smile of someone who had given up on their personal ego and given into their basest desire. She wanted to be known, she wanted to become something eternal, something beyond humanity.

    ¡°But it won¡¯t be you anymore. You will give up your sense of self to become a part of something unfathomable, you will give up something precious.¡± Joy said with a small smile directed at the woman.

    ¡°Who knows how I will feel when I become part of Music? There¡¯s only one way to find out.¡±

    She twisted one final time before letting go of the invisible strings that held the people on the street to her whim. The people looked a little confused but just seemed to move on with their days, totally unbothered by the little brainwashing they had just been subjected to.

    As the woman started walking into the crowd Joy yelled after her, ¡°What¡¯s your name?¡±

    She turned around and gave a little laugh, ¡°Luna! Watch your back Joy.¡± With a final twirl she disappeared into the crowd. Her tinkling laughter on the edge of Joy¡¯s awareness, teasing a smile out of him.

    What a wonderful name, he thought. But why should he be watching his back?

    A rough callused hand touched Joy¡¯s shoulder and stayed there menacingly. Well, that was probably why he was supposed to watch his back.

    Joy plastered his most wonderful smile on his face as he turned around to face the owner of the callused hand. Interestingly enough, the callused hand was not attached to a body. The hand itself floated around Joy along with an assortment of other hands of all sorts of shapes and sizes.

    Some were children¡¯s hands while others were elderly. Some were firm and others seemed soft. It was a bit freaky-deaky, but Joy wasn¡¯t too worried about any of it.

    Beyond the hands, stood two women and a man. The women were twins of some sort, the only distinguishing feature between them was their opposite-colored hair. One had black hair while the other had a platinum blonde.

    The man should have had had black half blond hair to finish the trio off, but he instead was just an average looking guy, if a little rotund around the center. He had a wonderfully maintained handlebar moustache though.

    ¡°We want your entry coin.¡± The black-haired woman said.

    Well, at least they didn¡¯t waste any time.

    ¡°Lillian! Theo!¡± Joy shouted at the top of his lungs as the hands started flying towards him.

    He dodged the initial assault of hands, only suffering a light bruising as they pummeled him. But once the assault ended the two twins were upon him and the fight had begun.

    ¡°You wouldn¡¯t mind playing a game with me, would you?¡± Joy said as a shit-eating grin spread across his face.

 Chapter 57 - Marco Polo?

    ¡°You wouldn¡¯t mind playing a game with me, would you?¡±

    At Joy¡¯s call the game was decided.

    A voice declared in the blonde- and black-haired twins¡¯ and Joy¡¯s head, ¡°Marco Polo-ish. Do any of you need the rules explained to you?¡±

    Joy thought, ¡®what a stupid name.¡¯

    But before he could process what was happening, the three combatants found that the wool had been pulled over their eyes.

    Joy was blind.

    It was a jarring experience, especially when he was about to get into a massive fight with two unknown combatants. But Joy trusted in his own luck. This game was chosen for a reason and Joy was going to clobber these two girls.

    He took a calming breath and reevaluated his plans for this fight. The women would be just as disoriented as he was, hopefully. It would be super unfair if he was blind, and they were not.

    In the stillness Joy realized that he could hear the two women surprisingly well. His sense of hearing had been magnified by the game¡¯s rules to compensate for the lack of vision.

    He could work with that.

    Joy could hear hyperventilating gasps as the two women shuffled around, trying to find each other in the darkness that enveloped them all.

    Their breaths finally eased, and the two of them struggled to find each other in the dark. Joy started walking slowly towards the two of them. Their hearing was probably as advanced as his own, so they would be wary of any suspicious noise.

    He heard the distinct sounds of cloth ruffling, as if someone was cocking their arm back to throw a punch.

    Then Joy¡¯s world shifted. Without his eyes, there was no way to truly distinguish what had happened, but the ground beneath his feet had suddenly changed and the sounds of one of the women was much closer than before.

    Then a fist collided with his face.

    In a moment of unusual clarity, Joy let the blow send him downwards while letting his feet be carried up by the momentum of the punch. This allowed Joy¡¯s foot to connect with one of the twins¡¯ faces.

    His beautiful, trusty shoes collided with enough force to make a tooth fall out of the twin¡¯s mouth. He knew it because he could hear the tooth cascading down the cobblestones after his strike.

    ¡°Shit.¡± A cry came from the twin¡¯s mouth as she struggled to recover. Joy tried to capitalize on his fortune, he hoped to land a solid punch to her noggin, causing her to be knocked out and only leaving Joy with one opponent.

    But that punch never landed. As Joy did a massive swing to the twin¡¯s head, the air suddenly shifted, and his punch totally whiffed.

    He tried to calm himself and open his ears to the world around him, trying to discern where the wily twin had gone off to when a massive uppercut sent him flailing onto his back.

    Joy¡¯s chin ached from the strike, and he heard a little giggle coming from in front and behind him.

    Joy curled up into the fetal position to defend himself, but the two women never capitalized on his pain and misery. Instead, he heard them shuffling around trying to find each other again.

    Why were they finding each other? Why did his punches always miss?

    There were obviously some gimmicky gifts happening here, Joy thought without even the slightest bit of self-reflection on those words.

    As the twins touched each other again, Joy tried to prepare himself. He wasn¡¯t exactly sure what would happen, but he prepared for it as best as possible. He rose to his feet and held himself in a boxing position. Feeling his adrenaline kick into overdrive, Joy felt the air shift around him again and he turtled up against the incoming onslaught.

    As the blows landed on him, Joy noticed that they distinctly felt like the blows of a single person. The twins were not double teaming him. If he opened his ears beyond the sounds of the beating he was taking, he could even hear the other twin shuffling along somewhere behind him. The far one seemed to be the same distance as before the air shifted.

    He waited for a single mistake by the person giving his beatdown. They were full of technique, but they had obviously never fought without their eyesight before. Joy felt that the trick to winning a fight with his eyes closed was to turn it into a grapple, force the other person to stay in one place.

    So, Joy bided his time, letting blows strike him, moving erratically in the dark to confuse his opponent. Finally, the moment happened, as his opponent ducked their head to make a wild haymaker, her hair brushed by Joy¡¯s fingers.

    Joy caught them with an iron grasp. He cringed at it, knowing all too well the pain he was inflicting, since he himself had felt his hair walk out of his scalp a recently. But he did not let his internal cringing stop him from twisting her hair and yanking her off her feet.

    A fight is decided in a moment. And for any other fighter this may have been that moment. But these women were not some weaklings, they were not new to this, and most of all they had the luck of a good gift on their side.

    As Joy straddled the woman in hopes of getting clean strikes to her face, the lithe figure underneath him shifted into the form of a bear of a man. A beer gut appeared under Joy, and he suddenly rose up off the ground.

    ¡°What is this?¡± A gruff voice said, ¡°you got a problem with me. I¡¯ll show you a problem.¡± The breath stank of booze, but the man¡¯s hands were like mitts, and they grabbed either side of Joy and threw him across the cobbled street.

    Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

    Joy bounced like a smooth rock upon a particularly calm lake.

    The pain was overwhelming, but it was just bruises. Joy could live with some minor bruising.

    Well, third time was the charm. Joy had finally figured out what their gift was. He assumed that both twins had the ability to switch places with any other person in their vicinity. He believed that normally they could switch with anyone they could see, so they were limited in their abilities because of the Marco Polo game.

    The reason they were not just switching every time that Joy was about to hit them was because they needed to be able to have some sort of real knowledge of where the person they wanted to switch with was in space. And they had obviously never spent much time practicing with their gift in pitch blackness.

    This revelation gave Joy some new options. He knew that it would be tough to truly pin them down, but he needed to blitz them. There could be no half measures, they needed to be taken entirely out of the fight, then the other twin would go down easily.

    Joy grinned as he finally started working his way back to his feet. He could hear the twins quietly calling out to each other in the blackness, hoping the distant sounds of the other people on the street would muffle their position.

    But Joy didn¡¯t try to close the distance with them immediately, instead he waited. He let his intuition guide him to the optimal path.

    Just as the world shifted around him, Joy released a powerful strike. The women were still hoping to take him unawares, using the pitch blackness to hide their gift. The twin who remained to fight Joy using their tactic was not prepared for the downward strike that slammed her into the ground.

    The strike was so forceful that she bounced. And at the peak of her bounce, she was slammed with the second hand. And she was out of the fight.

    All it ever takes is a single mistake, a single stroke of luck. People are so fragile that their bodies collapse after a single failure to keep up. Joy bemoaned the fact that the game ended so quickly, he couldn¡¯t truly let loose and play when his opponents dropped at the slightest showing of his prowess.

    ¡°Did I get the blonde one, or the black haired one?¡± Joy said in a sing-songy voice, mocking the one twin still left standing.

    He could hear her feet shuffling nervously on the ground. Fearful of him but dedicated to her mission. She wanted the glory of the arena, the adoration of the fanatics watching the knight games, it belonged to her.

    So, she ran. Not to get away from Joy, but to gain tactical advantage. Without her twin, she needed to find more people to switch with.

    She bounded toward the crowd that had been milling around the street. The massive fight breaking out on the street dispersed most of the pedestrians. They moved away from the fighting, but not away from the entertainment.

    A rough circle had formed around the sextet of combatants and there were many people watching the show. There had been jeers when the first twin went down, and the other twin had heard them.

    She bowled through the crowd, switching with people at random hoping to gain some distance and space from her attacker.

    But Joy had been listening and waiting.

    During his wait he had started kicking the cobblestones near his feet, and magically one of them dislodged itself from the rest. The street had been molded by someone with a gift from Earth nearly forty years ago, and never in those years had a stone come out of the ground.

    But there was a first for everything, and these sorts of things always seemed to happen around Joy.

    He hefted the stone in his hand. It was a nice weight, heavy enough to hurt, but light enough that he would have no trouble chucking it. Joy¡¯s ears stayed open to the disruption caused by the other twin and after an eternal moment he grinned.

    The air felt right, the breeze moved just the right way, and Joy could feel his perfect ending coming to fruition.

    Joy threw the stone in the general direction of the noise. It was a beautiful lob that Joy was unable to see, a perfect parabolic arc.

    ¡°Heads up!¡± Joy screamed at the crowd.

    Everyone bolted, no one knew whether the stone would hit them, but the crowd was a frenzy, hoping to avoid the great big stone barreling down towards their heads.

    Within the confusion, the other twin reacted poorly. She started switching places with people at random, hoping to beat the stone by sheer probability.

    The stone careened through the air and was about to impact an elderly woman in the head when the other twin finally switched with her. Putting her head directly in the path of the rock.

    With a thunk that made everyone cringe, the woman was knocked to the ground and some blood started oozing out of her head from where the stone had struck her.

    The final strike had been thrown and the veil was lifted from Joy¡¯s eyes. He was free of the darkness and could see again.

    A deep contented sigh escaped his lips as he looked at the night sky above him. It was a truly spectacular night, and he would have been regretful until the end of time if the blindness had made him miss that perfect moment.

    Joy looked at the scuffle that had occurred and the damage that had been wrought from it. His battle had been quite tame, none of the combatants had any seriously destructive powers, so the street looked quite pristine other than a single missing cobblestone.

    Lillian and Theo had been having a handful with the remaining enemy though. His gift seemed to be controlling a veritable army of hands that surrounded him. He masterfully conducted his hands to encircle them and strike from every unexpected angle. Sheer quantity had overwhelmed Lillian and Theo.

    But the two of them were powerful and resourceful if a bit heavy-handed in Joy¡¯s opinion. Lillian had dreamt up some sort of creature that only existed in the corner of your vision, and it had harassed the man with the hands. But the creature seemed to leave devastation in its wake. Breaking things without a care in the world.

    Puddles filled the street from where Theo had tried to freeze the man in place. The puddles were murky, dark, and gross. An awful thing to look at in Joy¡¯s opinion.

    Joy started meandering over towards the other two¡¯s fight. Shouts filled the area, and the flashy fight drew all the eyes of the crowd. There even seemed to be a betting pool on who would win.

    Joy drew close to the man who was running the gambling stand and asked, ¡°what are the odds?¡±

    The man didn¡¯t even look up to see who had asked, so he didn¡¯t notice that it was one of the combatants.

    ¡°It¡¯s two to one against the pair. They had the advantage at first since there was two of them, but we have seen the skill of the man with the hands and the betting changed accordingly.¡±

    ¡°Put me down for one hundred gold on the pair.¡± The man gave a blank stare to Joy, and nearly jumped out of his boots when he recognized the man who had been fighting the twins earlier.

    ¡°You got that kind of gold on you?¡± The man asked tentatively, then his back straightened as he found some gumption, ¡°also, I won¡¯t let you bet anything if you¡¯re going to join the fight.¡±

    Joy dug down in his pants and fished out a massive sack of gold that had been portioned far too close to his nether regions. Then he dropped it in front of the other man and shouted, ¡°Looks like you two are kind of slow today. You two need a¡­¡± he took a meaningful pause, ¡°hand?¡±

    With a furious roar Theo released a wall of ice that encased every hand that their opponent had been controlling, and simultaneously Lillian caught the man himself in a pincer attack where he was stuck between her fist and the monster that only existed in the corner of your visions¡¯ teeth.

    The man thankfully chose to let Lillian¡¯s fist knock him out gracefully, rather than face the monstrous teeth.

    ¡°I HATE YOUR PUNS, JOY!¡± Lillian yelled out and Theo looked on approvingly at her outburst.

    Joy just smiled at them, ¡°can I have my winnings now?¡± He asked the man who had just given a sack of gold to.

    The man¡¯s blank stare came back, and he just sighed at the trio of insane people. At least their insanity had made him a lot of money, was the only thing that the poor booky could think before he started divvying up the gold he had.

 Chapter 58 - A Princely Scheme

    The prince had been having a bad week.

    David found that his life got much less tolerable when he started to have to look over his shoulder for constant assassination attempts. He had his best man on the job of protecting him, but still, it was tough to live his life with a constant sense of paranoia.

    He couldn¡¯t prove it, but he was certain that his sister had developed a new spell in her grimoire as well.

    Back when David and his half-sister Dahlia had actually gotten along, she had told him about her gift. He had been going through the throes of depression at the time dealing with his own ¡°gift-situation¡± and hearing about her luck had brought him to a dark place emotionally.

    Her gift had been from the god Magic, and it was a grimoire that contained a variety of mystical spells. She had started with almost nothing in the pages of the book, but as time went on, more and more things appeared in her book giving her access to more and more abilities and powers.

    If she combined unique reagents and ridiculous long winded chants, she could make thunderclouds appear. He remembered one particularly eventful afternoon when her grimoire suddenly had a new page that allowed her spy through the eyes of flies. No one had enjoyed her being a little snooper after that.

    But he was sure that she had developed a new ability in her grimoire because unfortunate things just kept happening to him.

    Earlier that day he had been walking down the stairs, when an errant cleaning boy tossed a banana peel through the window nearby him, which promptly fell underneath his foot, which caused prince David to fall down the stairs in a spectacular fashion.

    No one had laughed audibly, but he knew that everyone was chuckling about it.

    The day before, he had been riding one of his favorite horses through a wonderfully well-kept garden, led by one of his staunchest supporters. The Cor family had a magnificent honey business and they had been showing him their bees. The bees had randomly decided to all come out and mob the prince at once.

    Only his quick riding and Ian¡¯s slice cutting a good half of the buggers in half had saved him from certain demise. He had a slight allergy to bees and maybe enough stings would have truly been enough to end him.

    Finally, he had even been swimming in his luxurious private pool when a stone had dislodged itself from the roof above him and nearly caved his head in. The only thing that had saved him was the timely intervention of one of his father¡¯s retainers, a boy named Jeremy, who had come to visit.

    Jeremy had been chatting with Rose, David¡¯s closest confidant and hair stylist while David had swum in the pool. The clumsy boy had slipped and fallen right into the path of the falling stone, merely resulting in a broken arm.

    The various attempts on his life were what had brought him here to the main palace. David carefully inched his way up the stairs, looking out for any errant banana peels on the ground. A sense of revulsion and awe welled up in David as looked out at the palace, the place he had grown up and then was shunned out of.

    David did not enjoy feeling like his life was on the line every time he walked into a room, so he decided to confront the problem head on. It was about time he and his sister had a little meeting.

    David had sent a letter to his sister, and she had been amenable to the idea of setting the rules of the confrontation. The two of them decided to meet with their father in attendance, where each of them could bring one helper to cement themselves.

    David walked into the throne room and looked at the set up. There was a small table where his sister was already sitting, playing with the pages of her grimoire. The table was directly in the center of the room, and the throne was beyond it. David¡¯s father¡¯s royal rear was sitting there up high on his dais. Staring down at his two children, waiting.

    David had decided to show up with Sam, their insight into the world was astounding and their presence would help calm him down. Dahlia had shown up with Julia, Theo¡¯s sister. He hoped to someday leverage their familial bond against his sister, but it did feel a tad cruel.

    Julia idled somewhere behind Dahlia, looking one part menacing and one part bored. Sam sidled up next to her and started making some idle chatter as they waited for David to stop sizing up the room.

    Even his father had brought one of his advisors, it was a woman named Crunk and she had a square face, a square jaw, and a square outlook on life. If the king said to do something, she did it.

    The reason that Crunk was there was because she had a gift that was beyond rare. The users of these gifts usually ended up as the heroes of their age, but Crunk was content with a life of service. Her gift was from Denial, and it allowed her to revoke any godlike powers in an area around her. Everything from gifts to artifacts stopped working in her presence and so no one was foolish enough to try anything in the royal chambers that day.

    David finally stopped observing the room around him and walked to his chair. He could¡¯ve sworn that his chair seemed to be a few hairs shorter than his sister¡¯s, but Rose had been telling him to work on his paranoia.

    The chair slid across the floor, making a horrific racket. He assumed it was another trick by his scheming family to make him feel uncomfortable, but he suppressed the urge to start yelling and simply sat down.

    David had a plan for this succession war, but for that plan to work he needed to not have to worry about being strangled by his own clothes while he slept. He needed this odd curse to be lifted from him.

    He hoped he could resolve this without resorting to his more drastic measures. So, he asked bluntly, ¡°remove the curse from me Dahlia.¡±

    ¡°Remove your spies from my cohorts.¡± Her tone was sharp, like something bitter was stuck on her tongue.

    ¡°Remove your grimoire from your soul.¡±

    Stolen novel; please report.

    ¡°Remove your vanity.¡±

    ¡°Remove your head.¡±

    ¡°Remove your¡­ your face.¡±

    At this point, their father stepped in, ¡°children. Kings, Queens, and Rulers do not call each other names when faced with conflict. And you both wish to rule, show a ruler¡¯s poise.¡± He sounded almost bored if a little playful. Both had seen their father acting in court, and he did not always act with grace and poise. He loved a good laugh and would play pranks on his closest advisors if he got too bored. It felt like good advice from the wrong person.

    Dahlia took a deep breath, and David did likewise. This was how it always was, a familiar rhythm between the two of them. The rage at each other burned hot and fast before calming into a slow ember that receded into the night, hidden beneath plots and plans.

    David decided to make the opening move, ¡°Do your spells that attack a person in particular still need a connected component to them?¡±

    Dahlia tactically decided to not answer the far too blunt question, but her eyes gave away a tiny piece of shock.

    A few years ago, they both had actually enjoyed the others¡¯ company, and they had been nearly inseparable. He had helped her try to understand her gift as she eased into her powers and had remembered quite a few things from his time as her confidante.

    He was sure that she had not expected him to remember such a unique detail and that had caused her a moment¡¯s shock. This all allowed him to know that she still needed something from whoever she was casting the spell on.

    David had won the first exchange between them, and he relished that victory.

    Dahlia changed the scene of the battle, hoping to move to a more advantageous field.

    ¡°What¡¯s your plan with the knight tournament? You had three contenders make it through the qualifiers, but none of them were Ian. So, you leave your most powerful card in your hand, while taking a chance on three knuckleheads? They almost got their contender coins taken away by three of my worst hired henchmen the night of.¡±

    David tried to keep his face straight and failed miserably. Those three fools would get a stern talking to once he was done with this. None of them had even informed him that they had made it through the qualifiers, or that three of his sister¡¯s men had attacked them.

    The three of them somehow always vexed David, they were some of the only people not in the room with him currently that could do that.

    ¡°My dear sister, I plan to win the knight tournament and use the publicity to crush your image.¡± Dahlia¡¯s face soured at that.

    The king decided, as all fathers do, to give some unrequited opinions and advice to his children as they sat there, ¡°it is a truly powerful idea. I had a gift that was useless for killing my opponents in my succession war. Instead, I leveraged my ability to make everyone love me, allowing me to discredit my brothers and sisters, which made their retainers lose trust in them, which soon led to a knife in the back. You should watch out Dahlia, your brother is a cunning one.¡±

    David knew that his father had an odd gift that he had struggled with since childhood. King Renoir¡¯s gift made him loveable to anyone and everyone, he was everyone¡¯s best friend, even if they didn¡¯t know it yet.

    It was hard to find faults in a father that was made so lovable by some god that imperfections and blemishes slid off him like oil on water.

    David purposefully moved his gaze towards his father. The king was supposed to be impartial to the succession war, and his father was anything but. He had fawned over Dahlia since the day that David had been dubbed a disappointment by the gods. So, David was understandably annoyed.

    Dahlia shook her head at her father, ¡°that¡¯s what bothers me. It is too cut and dry, David is wily. His every intention is hidden behind layers of deceit. So, it bothers me that this whole thing seems too simple, and that he gave up his plan so readily.¡±

    David calmly slipped his right hand into his sleeve and grasped the tiny stick that was hidden in it. He needed to divert this conversation; his father¡¯s gift made it liable that he would forget the need for secrecy in his plans, so he needed to pivot into a last-ditch plan now.

    The stick was an artifact from the Second Age of immense and unrivaled power.

    It was a stick that had a sympathetic bond with another stick. If one of them broke, the other broke.

    Okay, maybe it was a nifty trick instead of something that fundamentally altered the power scheme of the world, but it was useful here.

    Without breaking eye contact with his sister, David snapped the little stick. It barely made a sound, and no one thought twice about the noise.

    In a separate dimension, one made of shadows, dark figures sat around a table playing cards. None of them had been having spectacular luck, but there was one man who had, at the very least, won more than he had lost.

    Everyone at the table eyed him suspiciously since no one liked to lose. But the man twiddled with his bowler hat, and no one bothered him more than with their gazes. Benny was their only ticket out of this shadowy realm, and they were not going to make him angry.

    Benny quite liked the sense of superiority he was feeling towards these men, the respect they showed him and had just vowed to take more people into the shadow realm when the stick that lay in the center of the table snapped in two.

    Benny looked at the men and women that were at the table with bewilderment. Their group was supposed to be the last resort, and no one was excited to attack the king¡¯s personal chambers.

    Every one of the figures other than Benny were staunch antiroyalists and were part of some community called The Democracy. Benny hadn¡¯t really cared that much about their political claims, but he knew that their more fervent supporters had jumped at a chance to attack the royal palace.

    Benny knew that he had a job, and that it wasn¡¯t a very nice job, but he readjusted his hat on his head before committing himself to doing something horrible.

    The shadows exploded out of the ground and several men and women appeared in the royal hall. One of them had a distinctive hat, and he shivered as he appeared. But he quickly disappeared, going back into the realm of shadows before anyone could react to their sudden arrival.

    Crunk knew of one thing to do whenever there was a threat to the king, she made it so that they became mere mortals again and David had been counting on that fact.

    Once Benny had disappeared the entire room was cut off from their sources of power; everyone other than David¡¯s father. The king had made it so that he himself was exempted from his underling¡¯s gift.

    The assorted men and women of The Democracy shouted battle cries and charged the throne, none of the occupants of the room moved.

    The king heard their screams for glory and freedom and was unimpressed, he readjusted the crown on his head, and one of the jewels encrusted in the top began to glow.

    The glow enveloped the room, and an unbearable weight pushed every single one of the intruders into the ground. The all kneeled in the presence of the undeniable king.

    It was the aura of a ruler, the ethereal weight of the belief that was placed in King Renoir, and it pushed down on these intruders like a mountain upon their shoulders.

    One by one they started to weep as the finality of their lives seemed to strike them under the pressure of the king. They each knew that this was the end, they had dedicated their lives to a cause, and that cause now led their lives to be snuffed out like candles in the breeze.

    The bodies hit the floor and the weight left the room. David noticed that not even one of the bodies had a scratch or mark on them. It was like their minds had decided to die.

    David finally took a deep breath. He didn¡¯t remember when he started holding it, but the sudden rush of clarity was euphoric. No one had called him out on his risky play, and so he was going to escape having taken a massive victory over his sister.

    His father and sister fretted and worried about how intruders had gotten into the chamber, but David was already gone in his mind. He had successfully purged himself of the curse, but he would have to be more careful about where he bled and where his hair went. He had been too lackadaisical about it recently and needed to bolster his defenses against his siter odd type of magic.

    As David finally left the palace, a wide grin spread across his face. He wasn¡¯t so worried about slipping and falling to his death anymore, now he just had to worry about normal assassins, and they were much easier to deal with.

 Chapter 59 - The First Day

    Joy had gotten incredibly good at sleight of hand at one point in his life. There were times when his luck brought him to incredible heights, but there was nothing wrong with doing a little scamming here and there by having nimble fingers.

    He was sitting in his room about to go to sleep, and he wanted to regain some of his skill in sleight of hand by playing around with the coin he had won by passing through the preliminary rounds.

    The coin went up and down his fingers like a lazy commuter walking up and down stairs.

    Just as Joy was starting to try and do a particularly difficult maneuver where he slipped the coin into his sleeve while producing a different coin to switch places with it the coin started shining.

    The coin itself was unremarkable. It was a golden shade and was blank on both sides. But once the coin started shining, words started to appear on the coin.

    The side facing Joy read:

    Tomorrow.

    Midday.

    Round Three.

    There was always some fancy dancy new gift to use to convey something that could have very easily been told to them in person. But Joy did appreciate the ostentatious nature of the message. Succinct and powerful in the way that it drew one in.

    Joy was excited for more for these bouts. He had felt that his time on the Frozen Continent had not been therapeutic. He had felt the crushing weight of reality at many points, but he enjoyed this. He got to embarrass people who took themselves far too seriously and make them play his silly games.

    He couldn¡¯t wait to see what was going to happen.

    Without even a twinge of nerves, Joy settled down onto his comfortable bed and enjoyed the sleep of those who never got stage fright.

    Joy slept without dreaming, he felt that he usually slept without dreaming. He was too enthralled by reality to create his own world in his mind. There was too much to love every day to truly care about what happened only within the confines of his brain.

    The sun touched Joy¡¯s face, and he arose. The air smelled crisper, and the day was brighter than normal. Today was going to be an exciting day, Joy could just feel the pulse of the world around him.

    Joy spent a long time deciding on an outfit. The preliminaries were a private event, mostly meant to separate the chaff, but he was about to participate in the main matches, and he refused to look anything but his best.

    Joy¡¯s complexion had grown paler during his time on the Frozen Continent, so he needed to plan his outfit accordingly. He was thinking of a black outfit with undertones of red. The black would contrast with his pale skin, and the red would bring the color out of his face.

    With his mind made up, Joy put on some silk black pants. The pants had a lot of room for movement while not being abrasive on his skin. After that, he put on a crimson undershirt and a black sweater. The crimson brought the red out of his lips, while the black created the basis for the outfit.

    Joy looked at himself in the mirror. He was sure that it was not as garish as his normal outfits, but the somber, sleek look really suited him today.

    But it was missing one final touch. He wasn¡¯t quite sure what it needed yet, but it would come to him before he made it to the arena.

    A pair of black slippers made their way onto his feet, and he walked down the hallway, heralded by the swish-swish of his pants rubbing together.

    Joy entered the mess hall and met up with the cook. She was just as grouchy as she had been during their excursion to the Frozen Continent, but he was always happy to see her.

    ¡°What do you want, Joy? Anything special for the occasion?¡± The cook asked with what Joy thought was a glimmer of interest.

    ¡°I would love some toast that is a perfect brown as well as a hunk of meat.¡± Joy ordered with a smile.

    The glimmer of interest turned into a predatory stare as the cook stared down at Joy. Maybe he should have been nicer to her, being kind to someone making your food was always a good idea.

    Joy walked away from the cook¡¯s station with two pieces of blackened toast and some ¡°medium-rare¡± chicken. Joy considered his meal and decided that maybe he could pass on breakfast this auspicious morning. He wanted to stay loose and limber for his match, rather than weighed down by a heavy breakfast.

    At least that was what he told himself.

    Joy stared longingly at Lillian and Theo who had meals of their own untarnished by the cook. Lillian ate a hearty meal of meats and fruits, while Theo went for a more reserved coffee and toast. The sight of them made Joy¡¯s stomach howl with rage, but he decided to move on with his life rather than dwell on his failures.

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    With a new forcefully positive attitude, Joy left the prince¡¯s castle with a small spring in his step.

    The arena was in the very outer section of Vena Cava and Joy decided to walk rather than hire a flying-gifted to take him through the farms that encircled the rich estates of the city.

    The earth was squelchy under his feet, but not in a manure under your foot sort of way. It was more like the earth was trying to draw Joy into it. The air was still, and the smell of the earth was heady in Joy¡¯s nose. It truly was a beautiful morning.

    Crossing the farms required a lot of commitment and a lot of paperwork. To keep the peons from being able to crash the nobles¡¯ parties at any time there was a gate guard who was supposed to check the travel documents of anyone who passed through the area.

    The only problem with the guard is that his eyes were easily averted from one¡¯s paperwork if they slipped him a gold coin. This effectively meant that the rich were free to cross back and forth over the dividing lines of the city and still allowed the guard post to function in its intended fashion.

    But Joy did not enjoy being subjected to paying a corrupt official. So, he just scaled the tall walls and ran into the city with shouts of, ¡°bastard! We will catch you some day¡± ringing out behind him.

    The city was remarkably empty. Joy knew that the knight tournament would pull a stupendous amount of the city into watching it, but there was a difference between knowing at seeing.

    Where there normally would have been ten men and women only stood one in the street. The crowds and the bustle of the city had vanished, filled now with an empty hollow feeling.

    Joy did not enjoy this empty feeling, but he could understand why it had happened. The king didn¡¯t take taxes from the people in the years where the knight tournament was hosted, instead the revenue brought in from tickets being sold was enough to supplement the kingdom for another year.

    Quite literally an entire city had upended itself to go watch the spectacle of knights punching each other really hard.

    Joy was going to be a part of it, and he was so excited to enthrall a crowd with his wild moves and devilish smile.

    Joy approached the arena. A few days ago, there had been mostly barebone pieces, enough for people to fight in the preliminaries in, but now it was gargantuan. It made even the king¡¯s castle seem quaint and small in comparison.

    The stands were stories upon stories high. Many of the seats were so high and so far up that they would be unable to see anything happening on the arena floor. Yet still, those tickets sold just like the better seats, at a much-reduced price.

    Joy stared at the throngs of people making their way into the grand stadium. They all seemed to be living in their own worlds, totally engrossed in whatever made their own unique worlds tick. Some people chatted with their friends, others ate the delicacies offered in the stands, and even some others fingered their pouches of gold uncertainly thinking of the bets they had made on today¡¯s matches.

    Joy decided to mingle with the crowds a little longer. The matches would not start for a while, but the entertainment had started in the wee hours of the morning.

    The crowd swayed as they entered the stands and sat down. Joy swayed with them, finding the rhythm of the souls of the crowd. He did not shove or push his way through, and he was not a rock, steadfast in the middle of the crowd.

    When the crowd moved, Joy moved with it, slowly inching his way towards the front of the arena.

    Joy mingled with the crowd, asking about people¡¯s days, bumping shoulders with people around him and sharing in the misery of everyone who was packed in.

    He tried to get to the very front of the arena, however he struggled, since the very front was reserved for the rich and elite. So, their cadres of personal guards stood as a human wall to block the crowds undulating.

    As Joy made his way slowly to the front of the pulsating mass of people, he recognized one of the guards. He saw Ian standing with his expressionless face. The people trying to push their way forward meant nothing to him, but Ian meant something to Joy. If Ian was here, so was the prince, and the prince would love for Joy to come sit with him, he always seemed so happy to see Joy.

    Joy stopped moving with the crowd and used a little shoulder here and there to persuade the other members of the crowd to let him come up to Ian. Ian¡¯s eyes didn¡¯t even flicker with acknowledgement as he saw Joy sidling up to him, he just gripped his sword tighter.

    In a single stroke the man drew his sword and cut into the crowd. Joy gasped, expecting gouts of blood to appear where the sword had passed, but there was none. The sword had cut the crowd but not the people in it.

    All around Joy, the throngs of people had been cut away by Ian¡¯s strike. Joy stood in the center of a sea of calm, absolutely flabbergasted.

    Ian calmly sheathed his sword and nodded to himself as he grabbed Joy by the scruff of his neck and tossed him into the private area cordoned off for prince David.

    David was looking over his shoulder at the commotion caused by Ian cutting through the crowd and a rich mix of emotions made their way across his face as he looked at Joy being unceremoniously thrown towards him.

    Joy landed in a heap but attempted to preserve his dignity by trying to strike a pose on the ground. It did not work, and the prince somehow looked even less amused at Joy¡¯s antics.

    ¡°Joy. Why are you here?¡± The tone in the prince¡¯s voice was accusatory, as if Joy had done something wrong. But the only thing Joy was guilty of was being too much fun.

    ¡°Well, I saw a wonderful friend of mine and wanted to come visit.¡± Joy put on his best smile and the prince looked lightly amused at it, but the amusement changed into a deep scowl.

    ¡°We are not friends, Joy. You are one of my little minions and you do as I say because I feed you and indulge your gambling habit.¡± Harsh words came out the prince¡¯s mouth and Joy didn¡¯t even know how to react; he didn¡¯t know that the prince could spit such venom towards one of his best pals.

    Thankfully, Sam came to Joy¡¯s rescue when they said, ¡°that¡¯s why you two aren¡¯t friends, but Joy here is an absolute dearie of mine. A friend of a friend is still a friend after all.¡± Joy was just thankful to hear that someone didn¡¯t hate him.

    ¡°But I digress. Joy, you haven¡¯t been paying very good attention to the time, have you?¡± Sam continued with a little twinkle in their eyes.

    The sun was beating down, it was hot on Joy¡¯s brow, and he realized something incredibly important. The sun was shining directly on the top of his head, the sun was right at the peak of its height, it was midday.

    ¡°SHIT!¡± Joy shouted at the top of his lungs as he vaulted over the edge of the arena stands and onto the sandy floor.

    Some guards moved to sort Joy out, but once he flashed the gold coin at all of them the hubbub died out and they directed him towards one of the waiting areas for the competitors.

    Sam let out a little sigh after watching the scene play out. They looked over at the prince and tapped him on the shoulder.

    ¡°Want to make a bet?¡± Sam proposed.

    ¡°On what?¡±

    ¡°Whether Joy knows that his opponent is written on the backside of the gold coin?¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re a horrible person to bet against. I¡¯ll put 30 gold pieces on it.¡±

 Chapter 60 - The Life of The Crowd

    Joy sat in his waiting room. It was a beautifully furnished room, with anything that any self-respecting competitor could want.

    There were mats to stretch out on, contraptions that allowed the user to get a light workout in, tons of water and snacks, and even a single attendant to help them with any of their personal queries.

    Joy had looked at all the stuff in the room and decided that playing card games with the attendant would be more fun than anything that the room¡¯s amenities provided.

    He had even learned some interesting things from the man in the white robe.

    The most important thing he learned was that the salary for being a serving person here in the arena was enough for Joy to consider changing professions from being the prince¡¯s little minion.

    The worker¡¯s name was Henry, and he had heard a lot of secrets over the years of the knight tournament. He knew that the brackets were seeded, and he knew that the officials tried to set up fights so that the knight that the officials wanted to win would reign victorious.

    Fights with gifts were always difficult. Even if someone was incredibly powerful, there probably existed someone in the land with a perfect counter to their gift. So, the officials usually made their decision about who should win the tournament before the tournament started, then they seeded the brackets so that the winner would have all their possible rivals snuffed out in the early rounds.

    Henry had even released an interesting tidbit of information that Joy was incredible unpopular with the organizers of the event because of the way that he had taken Ryan out of the competition.

    The organizers had thought that Ryan was an easy pick for the ultimate winner and had been planning this entire event around crowning him as the greatest knight of the age.

    And Joy¡¯s removal of Ryan had been less than ideal for the story that the organizers wanted to tell. So, they had taken as many witness accounts as possible of Joy¡¯s gift and the way he used it in the hopes of finding the perfect person to take him out of the running.

    Henry said that he was not allowed to divulge any information about Joy¡¯s opponent to him, but the twerp had a knowing smile on his face that said he was holding something back. It annoyed Joy, but he always shone best when the odds were not in his favor.

    Joy had taken a good amount of information from Henry and a few gold coins as well before the man had wizened up to betting against Joy. Henry had left the room sulkily, only to be pushed back into the room and told to get Joy ready for his fight.

    Joy had no pre-fight exercises to complete, so he simply stood up and started walking towards the entrance to the arena. Henry sidled up alongside him and asked a question, ¡°should I bet on you?¡±

    Joy let out a little giggle at that, ¡°you should obviously bet on me; no one is better than me.¡±

    Henry looked a little skeptical, but he ran off to find a bookie before the match started.

    Joy walked into the final hallway that led to the arena floor. The cobbled stones had transitioned into the sandy pit of the arena. Supposedly, the later rounds of the tournament would have more exciting fields in play rather than just sand, but this one was supposed to be bland in hopes of getting the audience to focus on the competitors more.

    The hall was devoid of decorations, but he could hear the underlying roar of the crowd. They waited for him, the beckoned to him, their voices were his call.

    He was the center of this little world, and he was going to milk it for all it was worth.

    An announcer¡¯s voice drifted into the hall, ¡°we have an unknown competitor entering the arena now. He had no known feats or accomplishments before entering the arena a few days ago, but he was a shining star from the first moment of his qualifying round.¡± Joy grinned, he could feel the audience¡¯s curiosity and adoration come off them in waves. ¡°He created the greatest upset of the preliminaries; he disqualified Ryan the Slayer before he even made it to the real competition.¡± They were doing an amazing job talking Joy up, maybe he would hire the announcer as his personal hype man someday. ¡°He is Joy the Giggling Knight.¡±

    Joy started laughing at the name. It was wonderful and beautiful; it was so perfect, and he wished he could capture this moment in his mind forever. He loved it.

    He felt his slippers not quite getting the traction he wanted in the sand, so he disposed of them in the corner. Maybe his color blocking would go to waste with this outfit. But he didn¡¯t care; he was a child playing on the edges of a beach and needed his toes in the sand.

    With one final step Joy entered the arena. Feeling the gritty sand between his toes he stared at the enraptured audience. They screamed for him. Boos and cheers alike filled the stadium until all that Joy could hear was the roar in his ears.

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    The people created a masterful melody, and the world created a harmony around it.

    Joy took a sweeping bow and let loose his most devilish grin. The shouts grew even louder in response. Joy could get used to this.

    ¡°In the other corner we have a knight of such renown they barely even need an introduction.¡± The crowd quieted a little, but the incessant cheering never stopped, only waned for a moment to make the announcer¡¯s voice audible. ¡°She came in second in the previous knight tournament, and she was the bad boy of the knights for nearly a decade.¡± The crowd screamed even louder at the proclamation and Joy could see the announcer sit back down, taking a moment while the crowd did his job for him.

    ¡°Helen! Helen! Helen!¡±

    A woman came out of the other end of the arena. She had shimmery armor on, it was form fitting and seemed to be made of silk. Joy would have bet his life on the fact that the armor was harder than steel though.

    The later rounds allowed more freedom to the contestants and their personal armors. Helen appeared to Joy like she was quite wealthy, and she used that wealth to give her the advantage of better armor.

    Well, it wasn¡¯t the first time he had beaten someone who had armor on while he was as defenseless as a newborn.

    The air shook as the woman took her final step into the arena. He blonde hair shone in the slight breeze and her green eyes pierced through Joy. He shivered in one part delight and one part fear. She was an exciting woman.

    She raised a single arm into the air and let the waves of adoration from the crowd wash over her. Her stature was not imposing before, but with the support of the crowd she seemed to grow taller and larger until she towered over Joy. She looked down on him, and her eyes declared that he was an unworthy challenger to her rightful throne.

    ¡°She is the Knight of Change! She is Helen!¡± The world shook as her name was called and Joy finally knew the opponent that stood before him.

    Joy took a deep bow towards his opponent and flashed her a quick smile. A smile of respect towards a powerful opponent. Her eyes shone with annoyance and arrogance as she stared back down at him. But that was okay, Joy wasn¡¯t sad or mad about it or anything¡­ definitely.

    The announcer started spewing out a litany of rules out to the audience but Joy and Helen both knew the simple fact that anything was okay if the crowd liked it. No matter what occurred here in this ring, anything would be forgiven if the crowd loved it.

    A referee dressed in white floated down to in between both competitors. He looked them in the eyes and nodded at them. Joy would have preferred a verbal question, but he rolled with it.

    Joy nodded back.

    Helen nodded back.

    The referee floated back up into the air and looking down upon the stadium he shouted, ¡°begin!¡± As the sound left his mouth a giant set of letters spelling out the word in question. The letters impacted the sandy arena and indented the word into the sand beneath Joy¡¯s feet.

    Helen had seemed to metaphorically grow during their introductions. Her aura created an oppressive atmosphere that attacked Joy¡¯s spirit. Once the match started, she did not metaphorically grow, she physically grew to twice Joy¡¯s size.

    Her cloth armor stretched along with her size increase and Joy realized that this was why the material was so flowing. If it had been too rigid the entire growing process would not have been as spectacular as it was.

    From her new height towering over Joy, Helen smirked.

    Joy didn¡¯t allow this meager attempt at provocation to knock him off balance, instead he matched her smirk for smirk and took a provocative bow.

    ¡°Would you like to play a game?¡± Helen moved incredibly quickly across the arena, her bounds taking her an incredible length with every step.

    Just as Joy finished speaking the magic words, her fist crashed into his shoulder. Joy was thankful that Helen¡¯s aim had been off, and more importantly the punch felt somehow lighter than it should have been.

    Joy had taken many punches throughout his life, winning every game of chance made him very unpopular, for some reason, and the punch should have hurt much more. Someone of Helen¡¯s size moving at such incredible speeds should have knocked him flat on his back and knocked his lights out. But instead, it only made him fly back into the wall of the arena and crack his head slightly against the wall.

    A sharp ringing filled his ears, and a buzzing filled his head after the blow his head had taken from the wall. He could feel blood trickling down the back of his head, and he knew that he must be wobbling on his feet.

    But most importantly he smiled because he knew that he had succeeded. He wasn¡¯t exactly sure what he had succeeded at, but he had accomplished something important. His head hurt and thinking about what he had accomplished was taking too much of his brain power.

    In the back of his mind Joy was dimly aware of a voice speaking to him saying, ¡°word hunt. Do any of you need the rules explained to you? Oh¡­ poor buddy.¡±

    But it all seemed so distant and far away from him.

    He noticed the letters that had been engraved into the sand by the announcer starting the match, had now been erased and were replaced with many more letters. They seemed to be arranged in a four-by-four grid.

    Joy knew it was important, but it all seemed so far away from him at that moment.

    He bent down at the knees to look closer at one of the letters, hoping to glean a hint of what he was missing from the arcane inscription.

    Just as Joy¡¯s head bowed down to the ground a massive fist went hurtling through the space where he had just been occupying. Joy started laughing uproariously at the massive miss. He curled up into a ball and just started laughing.

    A giant foot sent him rolling across the arena floor, dragging a line through all the beautiful letters.

    The voice reappeared in Joy¡¯s head. He knew that it was odd but was rather preoccupied with the searing pain of having a foot make direct contact with his ribs.

    ¡°Seen.¡± The voice spoke with the same amount of bored imperiousness as it normally did, but didn¡¯t explain why it had said a single word and nothing else. It was something new.

    The problem was that while the word was spoken, the word was simultaneously burned into Joy¡¯s mind, and he could see. It felt like the first time that sight had truly made sense to him.

    He could see the vectors of Helen¡¯s movement and exactly how to move to avoid them. Everything made sense.

    Joy laughed and started paying more attention. Even if his mind felt fuzzy beyond belief, he wasn¡¯t going to lose this game.

 Chapter 61 - Dutybound

    Helen had never been the strongest girl in Vena Cava. She had come from humble origins, a family of peons living in the fourth ring of Vena Cava with nothing more to their name than a tent.

    She had become the Knight of Change through sheer force of will and an inane amount of luck. She used her newfound fame and power to give back to the people that raised her, and she was a well-respected member of the community.

    But everyone is willing to make sacrifices against their character for something they believe in.

    Helen knew deep down in her heart that the knight tournament was rigged from the start. The winner was always some new up and comer with a powerful backstory to wow the audience into thinking they too had a chance at fame and power.

    It was very different to know it was rigged than it was to actively participate in the rigging, but she just detested the look on the other man¡¯s face.

    She had been in the heat that Joy and Ryan had competed in for their spots in this tournament. Joy had just looked so dopey, like this was all some big game to him. It made all her hard work, all her sweat, all her pain, and all her misery seem like a joke.

    So, the mysterious organizers had shown up to her door and asked if she wanted to destroy the man, she said yes. It was all for the pride and sanctity of knighthood of course, but someone had to do the dirty work.

    They had provided her with as much detail as possible and told her this match should be an easy one for her. The organizer¡¯s seers and consultants had analyzed the day that Ryan was defeated in detail, in hopes of making quick work of the phony who had bested him.

    Helen had been informed that Joy¡¯s gift seemed to revolve around touching people and gaining more power the more people he touched. This implied that any battle beyond the preliminary rounds would be an automatic loss for him since his gift only worked on large amounts of people. But Helen was not foolish enough to think that the organizers knew everything.

    Her only plan walking into the arena was to take him out in an incredible blitz of violence.

    Helen had received her gift and become an immediate star in the knightly world because of it. Her gift from Change had been the ability to change her own size. This came with certain limitations that she knew about and tried to work around.

    Suddenly changing height was incredibly difficult and being able to move easily without tripping and falling took her an embarrassingly long time to get correct. She could be as small as an ant to the size of a giant. The only problem with being the size of a giant was that her weight didn¡¯t change, she had found that she even felt physically weaker the larger she became.

    Helen was sure she could ask some science-y people to figure it out for her, but all she knew was that it also applied in both directions; her weight didn¡¯t change if she grew smaller too.

    So, she had an arsenal of tricks to take care of some idiot like Joy.

    Once the match started Helen suddenly grew to the size of a giant and dashed across the arena before the man could even react. Well, he did react, but it was only to smile and ask her about playing a game. The taunt made her even more enraged and that caused her wild blow to swing wide and clip him on the shoulder instead of in the face.

    Her initial blitz seemed to go well, and she was sure that the man would be nursing a nasty headache or even a concussion for a long time after this match from the wallop that she had given him.

    But she had heard a voice in her head say something about a game and she did not like hearing voices in her head. To compensate for the weakness she felt in her own mind, she decided to hit Joy even more.

    The problem was that she knocked him far away and the voice came back to her head after she hit him. It simply said, ¡°seen¡± then stopped talking.

    Helen felt that the whole situation was insanely odd and decided right at that moment to assume that she knew nothing about Joy¡¯s gift. Something was happening that was nothing like what had happened in the preliminary round, and she did not like it one bit.

    She approached her opponent with a bit more wariness than he deserved, but she was not one to take chances. Helen threw out a testing punch and the man ducked below it. She threw a one-two combo, and he swayed back and forth between them.

    Joy seemed to be acting very passive, so Helen decided to take it up a notch. She threw kicks and punches, changing the size of her body to keep him from guessing where she would attack him. A punch that seemed to be missing but changed sizes midair was incredibly tough to dodge.

    But he dodged them nonetheless, he swayed and danced through the moves, not letting her touch a hair one his body.

    ¡°I can see you!¡± Joy laughed at her, he laughed, as she continued to throw out techniques.

    Helen roared and tried to tackle the man to the ground, but he jumped at the perfect time and landed on her back, jumping off her and landing in a wonderful front flip. He staggered a bit to catch his balance, but she got the worst of it. The jump had pushed her face down into the sand.

    The sand got stuck between her teeth and she started spitting on the ground in hopes of getting it out of her mouth.

    She reassessed what was happening. While she had been trying to get the grit out of her mouth, Joy had been dragging one of his legs through the sand and drawing lines through the letters that were on the ground. She vaguely remembered the letters appearing after he had finished speaking, but she had put no thought into them.

    As she was about to pounce on the impertinent man his eyes lit up and the voice spoke in her head again, ¡°denied.¡± It said with authority and power.

    Helen shook her head and tried to grow to an imposing size. The larger she was, the more threatened her opponents felt, which gave her more time to think. But as she reached into her soul and tried to touch on the gift that had defined her life, she found that it was blocked off from her.

    She had been denied her gift.

    Helen was so stunned that Joy crossed the field between them and punched her right between the eyes before she even processed what was happening.

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    Her vision blurred, but Helen was no pansy to be taken out by one simple punch. She staggered back to her feet and fought Joy blow for blow. Each strike after the first landed on her armor, which protected her and must¡¯ve hurt Joy to no end, but he was unstoppable. Bleeding knuckles and probably a concussion was nothing in his path towards beating Helen.

    Helen ran. To be fair, it was a tactical retreat, but she would never be able to convince herself of it in the days to come. Helen had been brought against an insurmountable wall, something she couldn¡¯t understand. In the face of the unknown, she ran away.

    Joy tried to catch up, but he kept falling on his ass. Helen found it the tiniest bit funny, but she cut back the laugh in her throat; what this man was doing was a disservice to the group of people she had dedicated her life to.

    But her self-control did not stop the audience. Helen could hear them laughing their asses off at what must have seemed the most ridiculous match to come out of the knight tournament in decades.

    With a reasonable distance between them, Helen regained a calm head. She kept hearing a voice declaring things in her head, this implied one of two things. Either Joy had two gifts, one that let him use auditory hallucinations and another one that caused these games. Or it meant that his ¡°gaming gift¡± had an inborn third party that enforced the rules of the game.

    The first option was meaningless to Helen, so she banked on the second option. Helen screamed at the top of her lungs, ¡°voice in my head, explain the stupid rules!¡±

    Helen felt a voice in her head pause, she wasn¡¯t sure how something that wasn¡¯t talking could create such a vacuum of noise in her mind, but she was thankful because the voice in her head responded.

    ¡°Of course, you are playing word hunt¡­ as I said before. In this game a four-by-four grid of letters are placed between the combatants¡¯ feet. If a combatant draws one continuous line between the letters to form a word, the word is manifested into reality in the most feasible way possible. Also, these manifestations of words are given more power the more letters they contain.¡±

    The voice explained the rules to her as if she were a child, but Helen was still thankful no matter how condescending the voice sounded.

    Helen observed the field and tried to readjust her current plan. She had been planning to blitz her opponent and give him no opportunity to gain strength using his wily ways. But an opportunity had presented itself to her; she could take advantage of his insane abilities and make herself even stronger.

    She saw the beginning of her new and improved plan.

    Helen dashed across the arena; Joy still seemed drunk on his feet as he chased after her. But even without having the augmentations available from her gift she was able to swiftly get away.

    She reached her target, the letter ¡°B¡± on the ground, imposing in all its glory. She struck the letter with her left bootheel and dragged it through the sand, hitting the other three letters she needed to create the word of power.

    ¡°Bees.¡± The voice announced again. The denial of gifts disappeared from Helen, and she made her body swell in size. With her gargantuan body staring down at Joy, a swarm of bees animated in the air and started to surround Joy.

    She started cackling at the poor man swatting at the thick heavy bees stinging him from every angle. Helen quite liked this; the battle had become a wonderfully difficult game with unique win condition. Not that any of this was fun or a game, she was incredibly serious about this tournament.

    The man swung around wildly, trying to avoid the torrent of insects and their stinging rage.

    Helen watched as her insects brought her closer and closer to victory. The man was crawling on the ground, he had to be close to giving in, and she was going to savor this moment from her gargantuan size, staring down on him.

    ¡°Mended.¡± Helen looked down at the hale and healthy man who started jumping up and down. The bees had disappeared, and Joy now looked healthier than he did at the start of the match.

    His eyes also held a dangerous gleam, whatever head injury he sustained earlier was now gone. Joy had been mended and Helen was beyond frustrated that she had not seen this coming. She had as much access to the letters as him, she should have been able to see his plan from a mile away.

    Helen leapt at him and then shrunk herself down to the smallest size that was possible. She rarely used the tactic because it was gruesome, but sometimes a job needed to be done properly.

    Her hyper dense body collided with Joy at the incredible speed that she had generated from her original massive form.

    Helen drilled a hole through Joy¡¯s shoulder. Blood covered her body, and the impact took its toll on her as well. The great speed and the hyper density of her own body protected most of her, but the insides of a person were not meant for such incredible moves. Helen spat out a gob of her own blood that mixed with Joy¡¯s own in the covering of her body.

    She regrew back to her normal size, maybe a few inches taller than she truly was, but no one needed to know that. She stared down at Joy who was gaping at the bleeding hole in his shoulder. She didn¡¯t enjoy doing that move, but she did what she had to.

    Helen expected Joy to give up, she expected him to pass out and fall to the ground, she expected to have truly beaten him.

    What she did not expect was for him to put on a dazzling red smile, the blood ruined the look a little, then started limping his way towards her. Joy was favoring the side without an injury as he approached her.

    Blood was running down his arm and dripping onto the sand, the crowd roared their approval at Joy¡¯s indomitable spirit. Helen was unimpressed, she was sure that the only thing holding him up was sheer determination and that a strong wind would knock him over.

    Helen kindly waited for Joy to approach her. Once he was there, he stopped and looked around at the crowd, the cheered even louder for him and he brought his arms up in a defensive position, looking as if he was going to engage her.

    Helen held back a snort as she booted him across the arena with a well-placed front kick. She even shrunk herself back down to a little smaller size than normal to increase the striking power of her technique.

    He careened across the arena, sliding to a stop on one of the final letters that had been placed on the ground.

    Helen stalked after him, she was a panther in the jungle, a hawk staring down at a mouse, a wolf with its jaws around a rabbit. She was the victor, and any time spent now was just a waste.

    Helen kept striking Joy, and he kept being sent careening across the arena. His feet barely touched the ground, but Helen refused to give up. Her fists carved the story of her struggle into his bones.

    By the ninth hit she realized something was wrong. He never dodged, but he was always sent flying away, even the strikes that were meant to just hurt him rather than gain distance were sending him flying across the arena.

    But she figured it was just the final attempts of a losing man. Joy was a boat, and she was the roiling ocean. It did not matter what the boat did, it was at the mercy of the waves.

    With one final strike she watched him collapse to the ground in a heap. He must have finally lost enough blood that no amount of willpower would keep him on his feet anymore.

    He started crawling, it was in an odd direction, not directly towards or away from her, but he was going in a determined line towards something. He was moving towards one of the letters.

    Every action hangs in the balance of one moment; if Helen had figured out Joy¡¯s intentions a moment sooner, she would have been able to stop him, she would have been able to claim the victory she desperately wanted. But that was a different life, a different moment.

    A voice sounded out Helen¡¯s doom in her head, ¡°feeblemindedness.¡± The word was simple, but it spelled her doom just the same. Her mind blanked, nothing was real, nothing existed, she was nothing, she was everything. Who was she?

    The next coherent thought that Helen had was in the medical room after the battle had finished. She couldn¡¯t¡¯ remember how it had happened, but she knew that she had lost.

    Tears for a different life, where she lived up to the expectations she put on herself, dripped down on cheeks.

    Everyone let her cry in silence, except for the dickhead in the bed across from hers who grinned at her and said, ¡°that was really fun, you¡¯re an incredible fighter. I am lucky to have beaten you.¡±

    His smile was like a knife through Helen¡¯s heart.

    The man who had destroyed her left the room a bit later with a spring in his step. Helen wished so desperately to be as free as he was, but that was not the life she had carved out for herself.

    Duty and expectations were her burden to carry, just like the tears in her eyes, they were an ever-present companion.

    She hated that man, and she hated herself.

 Chapter 62 - To See and To Be Seen

    Joy had truly enjoyed the game he played with the woman Helen. She was a powerful and unique opponent that pushed him to the limit. But she seemed too caught up in the whole winning and losing thing.

    Joy never had fun because he won the games he played; he won the games he played because he was having fun.

    As he left the post-fight healing room, Joy saw his buddies Theo and Lillian sitting out in the hall, both of their attendants loitered around, looking a tad out of place.

    Joy still didn¡¯t have shoes on, in retrospect taking them off before his battle with Helen had been a bad idea, but no one was keeping score. His feet made a soft thwap thwap against the hard surface of the floor. Lillian looked a little disgusted at it, but Theo just looked aghast.

    ¡°My friends! What did you think?¡± Joy¡¯s arms wrapped around each of their shoulders, and he put on his best smile.

    ¡°You were impressive and all, but don¡¯t you think you took it a bit hard on that poor woman?¡± Lillian said as she slammed her booted foot down on Joy¡¯s bare toes. A squeal escaped Joy¡¯s lips as he started hopping up and down on his one uninjured foot.

    ¡°But I gave her the best battle I could, isn¡¯t that the greatest respect I can give?¡± Joy squeezed out the words between deep breaths, but everyone still eyes him skeptically.

    ¡°You did something to her mind at the end of the match that made her start wandering around the arena like an idiot. She threw sand in her own mouth and screamed ¡®yummy.¡¯ It was truly horrifying.¡± Theo shuddered, recounting what had been the only time he had heard intense silence in a crowded arena.

    ¡°But if I had not done that, she would have easily beaten me. And I didn¡¯t even realize that I had hit those letters, it was pure dumb luck.¡± Joy was able to walk by this point, but it was more of a hobble.

    Joy turned to exit towards the stands while Lillian and Theo turned to go to their waiting rooms. They were up soon and didn¡¯t want to be known as the people who made the entire tournament run late.

    ¡°Well, I hope no one has your dumb luck when they face me. That would be incredibly stupid and humiliating.¡± Lillian said as she parted ways with Joy.

    ¡°Maybe hide your face a little up there? I can¡¯t imagine anyone likes you right now.¡± Theo gave a final piece of unsolicited advice before rushing off after Lillian.

    Joy found that they were insulting him as well as Helen. He had brought his A-game to the stage, and she did too, anyone who thought otherwise was an idiot and made both of their efforts look inconsequential. And they were not that, never that.

    He entered the stands with his head lifted high for all those who cared to look. There was much staring and awe in their eyes, but none of the fear or hate that Theo must have worried about. Instead, their eyes shone with a unique fervor.

    They loved him.

    Joy had never shaken so many hands, received so many hugs, nor seen so many genuine smiles. He was the hero of the hour, a true monument to this institution they all loved.

    Fighting his way through the crowd was not an easy task, but eventually Joy made his way towards the prince¡¯s private viewing area. He wanted to know if the prince was as happy with his performance. From how everyone was acting up here, Joy wouldn¡¯t be surprised if the prince kissed him on the lips and gave him a raise.

    Technically Joy was paid nothing, so the raise would probably be a small one, but that was still an improvement.

    The prince did not receive him with open arms, if anything he seemed to be quite annoyed that Joy had come back into his private area. He kept muttering things about ¡®private space¡¯ and ¡®respect.¡¯ Joy felt none of those things were valid since he was being incredible respectful and mindful of personal space while shoving his way past the prince¡¯s spot.

    Sam was happy to see Joy though. They smiled the way a snake would smile at a mouse in the field, and it made Joy shiver, but it seemed a genuine smile at the very least.

    The fight happening on the sand was finishing up, there was the Shovel Knight and the Forgetful Knight in a deadly tangle.

    The Shovel Knight still had their massive gear on, disguising their face from the crowd, keeping their shovel in their hands. The Shovel Knight spun in circles striking out around themselves wildly.

    The Forgetful Knight had a unique gift that allowed them to force a loss of memory on their opponent. No one knew the exact limits of their gift, but urban legends stated that they could sacrifice memories of their own to selectively delete memories of their opponents. A truly cruel way to fight, especially in an entertainment format.

    The Shovel Knight seemed to be truly blessed though, because they were able to strike the other knight. A massive shovel appeared on its head behind the Shovel Knight, and it came crashing down right where the Forgetful Knight stood.

    A thunderous crash rang throughout the arena, only a tiny bit muffled by the sand, and the bell rung as the victor was declared. The Shovel knight looked incredible confused as the commentator screamed about their winning and the honor that would come down from the heavens and imbue their entire lineage with incredible powers and gifts.

    Joy would bet all his gold that the Forgetful Knight had gotten the last laugh of the fight by erasing the Shovel Knight¡¯s memories of the entire event. And betting against Joy was always a bad choice.

    The prince leaned over to Joy and said, ¡°sometimes I forget how truly haunting some of these gifts are. These past two matches have shown two truly horrific gifts. One person had their pride disemboweled in front of a live audience, while the other seems to have forgotten the reason that they are there.¡±

    Joy was a little indignant, it wasn¡¯t like he had meant for Helen¡¯s pride to be smashed. Truly pride was such an ephemeral thing, the only person who could decide what pride meant to someone was themselves. Joy refused to take responsibility for Helen¡¯s lack of humility.

    ¡°I think these fights show the power of humanity. They cling to these little things like pride and power so much, yet none of it means anything. My dear prince, don¡¯t you remember the lesson in pride I gave you? The world is uncaring for us, we should just enjoy it as we can. For me, I will enjoy it by giving that woman Helen the best fight I can, even if it made her feel a tad undignified.¡±

    Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

    The prince looked back at Joy with a look of bewilderment on his face. ¡°You baffle me sometimes, Joy. You have such a profound mind at moments, yet you would spend most of your time goofing off playing games. Somehow, you don¡¯t worry about how you could be a force of good in this world if you put your mind to greater use?¡±

    Joy laughed, ¡°of course not. My mind is what it is and worrying about things I will not do does no one any good.¡±

    The prince had a sad smile on his face, yet he seemed to respect Joy¡¯s words and the two of them went back to watching the proceedings.

    It was incredibly good timing because the announcer started speaking as soon as they both turned away.

    ¡°He is known as the king of cool, his eyes bore holes in even the most steadfast commentator, so I am going to stop talking about him before he freezes my nose off. It is Theo!¡±

    There was a polite level of clapping coming from the audience, but nothing as uproarious as Joy¡¯s entrance as Theo walked into the arena. His eyes were fixed straight ahead, but Joy would have bet all his gold that he had been giving the announcer the stink eye moments before coming into the arena.

    ¡°His opponent in the ring is a perfect matchup. Both have looks that can kill. His enemy is the woman of your dreams, and she is known for her luxury brand of clothing as well as her penchant for violence. It is the Bewitching Brenda.¡±

    As her name was called a woman rushed onto the arena floor. She wore a dress of all things to the tournament, but Joy could admit that her fashion sense was absolutely on point.

    Her dress hugged her in all the right places while leaving much to the imagination. She flaunted her every move, catching everyone¡¯s eye and languishing in the attention.

    Joy was moved to tears to see that someone else with such amazing fashion sense had come to the tournament. He had been worried than everyone would be wearing horrific suits of armor, or loose-fitting ugly clothing like the ones Theo and Lillian went with.

    She was stunning and gave the audience a wide bow and she threw a wink to the commentator, who started stuttering about her accomplishments.

    Theo looked impassively on. Joy thought the matchup was stupendously funny, they had matched this woman with maybe the one man in the entire lineup who wouldn¡¯t even blink at her beauty.

    The announcer stood at the top of the stadium and bellowed at the top of his lungs, ¡°begin!¡±

    The words seemed to crash out of the man, leaving a physical imprint on the sandy floor as the two contestants started to stare at each other. Neither moved an inch from their starting positions, the two of them were locked in some sort of trance.

    The prince leaned over to Joy and whispered in his ear, ¡°you know, this is a bad match up for Theo. Her gift is a direct counter to his; the longer you look at her the more devotion you feel. Her gift comes from Idol, and it makes everyone who stares at her longer fall more deeply in love with her.¡±

    A sheet of ice started to form around Brenda, yet somehow it made her beauty even more striking. She was a burning fire in the middle of a winter storm, she grabbed something deep in the hearts of everyone watching.

    Her features were cast into ice that seemed carved by the gods themselves.

    But she eventually waved an arm and Theo¡¯s eyes wandered to where her arm went. She pointed to her left and his eyes diligently followed. Instead of freezing her beautiful face, Theo was now freezing the floor of the arena nearby her.

    Brenda¡¯s face lit up the way a child¡¯s face does when they receive a new toy from their parents.

    Her eyes glowed with a predatory gleam, and she casually said, ¡°sit.¡± Theo looked at her, his big blue doe eyes starting to freeze her again before he sat down in the sand.

    He didn¡¯t sit like a person; he sat his haunches down the way a dog would sit. And deep in his eyes you could tell that he was excited to be following her orders.

    Joy had been watching the match, but he had also been considering the prince¡¯s statement during that time, at this moment he finally had a thought ready to give back to the prince.

    ¡°It is such a surprise to me that you of all people seem to think that gifts are the decider of these matches. You, the man who has struggled with a useless gift yet has still made himself a contender for the throne of the Hearted continent. But you think Theo will be vanquished by a single gift.¡±

    Theo sat like a dog as Brenda walked towards him. His eyes still froze everything in their way, but with Brenda¡¯s gentle instructions he never pointed his face towards the woman. She used simple commands with kind soft words to get him to turn his head this way and that; it was a truly horrifying show of control over another human being.

    But Theo was not a simple dog for Brenda to control as she pleased.

    Brenda had taken to swinging her finger around, watching Theo make himself dizzy keeping up with her commands.

    But everything is decided in a moment. Brenda¡¯s finger pointed a bit too close to Theo himself, and he brought himself to look at his own arm for a moment. His blue eyes created a sheet of ice over his arm; that sheet of ice caused a slight pain. Just enough pain to snap out of the trance that Brenda had placed him under.

    Joy had once heard a doctor say that pain was the best medicine for any problem. If any of his patients reported anything other than perfect health, the doctor would hit them overhead with a bat until they said that they had never felt better in their lives.

    Obviously, Joy thought the doctor was a quack with a penchant for hurting people, but in this specific situation Joy could not have agreed more with the doctor.

    The pain that Theo had felt had jolted him out of the odd hypnosis that Brenda had put him under. Joy watched as Theo¡¯s face split into a grin. He had just been given a second chance at victory and there was no way he was going to waste it.

    Theo raised one of his hands to cover his eyes, then theatrically threw his arm away to reveal that they were now closed. The crowd oohed and aahed at his newfound theatrics.

    Joy was a tad worried that Theo¡¯s foray into the arts was leading him to develop an eye for showmanship. He was the group¡¯s diva and there could not be two of them in the same space.

    But Theo¡¯s work of showmanship certainly had the crowd intrigued, the move had also made Brenda¡¯s footsteps seem a bit less sure. She quivered in her spot, unsure of how to proceed when her opponent refused to look at her.

    The crowd loved the fact that Theo seemed to be handicapping himself and his opponent, now neither of them could use their gifts. His gift relied on vision and hers relied on being seen, now neither condition was met.

    But Theo was still at the disadvantage, he had no vision. The question became whether Brenda could take out a blind man. Or was Theo skilled enough to take on his attacker without the gift of sight?

    The crowd was on their toes with anticipation as Theo gestured in Brenda¡¯s general direction with his hand and made a rude gesture. Really, someone had better have a talk with him about propriety.

    Theo danced in place, lightly shuffling from toe to toe, turning around in every which direction. He was restless but Brenda was considering. Someone did not become a knight without some martial skill, but she had mainly relied upon her gift for years at this point, what would she do without it?

    All Brenda knew was that this moment needed decisive action. She readied herself and started inching her way towards Theo¡¯s defensive dancing.

    The crowd booed at her slow pace and boring moves, but she held the upper hand, and she needed to take advantage of that.

    She moved in a circle around Theo, step by careful step. Her movement was silent, and her feet barely disturbed the sand where she placed them. Theo still rocked from foot to foot, idly turning this way and that.

    Brenda was an ambush predator; she had set herself up in the perfect position to destroy Theo in one fell swoop. She moved with the speed of a falcon; nails poised to shred flesh.

    Theo turned in one smooth motion and pushed her forearm out of the way. Causing her blow to flail to his side. His second hand struck her in the stomach, and Brenda folded in half, puking out the contents of her stomach.

    Brenda was able to slide away as Theo flailed in the air above her. But she looked much more cautious as she came for a second attack. Which was foiled just as easily as the first.

    The third attack went the same, and so on, until her face was covered in enough bruises to match her pride. She finally stumbled to her knees, utterly defeated.

    Theo opened his eyes and poised himself for the final strike, he looked down at her and said, ¡°your perfume was a little too strong, maybe go for one of the more delicate scents next time.¡± He knocked her out cold and looked away as quickly as possible.

    The crowd went wild, and Joy laughed at the incredulous look on the prince¡¯s face. It was a beautiful showing of skill over gifts, cunning over power, and that the underdog always had a chance.

    The match was everything Joy loved in this world and more.

 Chapter 63 - A Dreamer and a Thief

    Joy had thoroughly enjoyed Theo¡¯s match, and he could not wait to watch Lillian¡¯s. There were many matches that took place before Lillian¡¯s though.

    There was a man that could telekinetically control all metal fighting a man who could make a tree appear wherever he wanted. Joy was pretty sure that it was the same tree every single time, but he wasn¡¯t too sure. The man with the tree finally won after making the tree appear above the metal moving man¡¯s head.

    There was a woman who could make her blood into miniature clones of herself that attacked her enemies, fighting a man who controlled massive arms and legs that he made appear in the air in front of him. The arms and legs were of a female shape and destroyed most of the arena. It was an overwhelming victory for the man with the arms and legs.

    There was even a match between The Onion Knight and The Ring knight. A true highlight of the day. The Onion Knight obviously came out on top, but her competitor put in a good effort.

    But finally, it was Lillian¡¯s turn on the stage. The announcer hammed up her introduction as he always did, saying she was ¡°the dreamiest girl in all the land.¡± She entered with a grin on her face and a pep in her step.

    Joy watched her from the stands and saw an interesting new addition to her wardrobe that he hadn¡¯t seen when she was harassing him earlier. She had a gold ring on the pointer finger of her right hand. It was not a wedding band; it seemed like a graduation ring from one of those preppy schools that nobles sent their children to. Joy was intrigued since he knew that Lillian¡¯s education had been as sparse as his own, so this ring must be what she dreamt of the night before.

    Lillian¡¯s raven hair twirled about her as she smiled and blew kisses to the audience. She was also showboating, who taught these two to showboat? It was a horrifying mystery that Joy would have to unravel bit by bit himself.

    The crowd roared their approval at Lillian but quieted down once the announcer started introducing her opponent.

    ¡°In the other corner, we have the slyest man in town. He is known for weaseling his way out of any deal and he was forced to come to the match by armed guards. It is the crowd favorite, Cecil the Thief.¡±

    The crowd laughed and jeered at the same time. There was a lack of harmony in the stands. Joy heard men shouting that Cecil didn¡¯t belong in this ring, while another yelled at him that Cecil was a powerful knight that deserved his respect.

    Joy was intrigued by a man that garnered such love and hate simultaneously.

    The crowd let out a wild shout of approval as two guards roughly threw the man Cecil into the ring.

    The man was short and thin with a mop of unruly green hair on his head. The green was an atrocious color unfound in nature, it must have been dreamt up by some bigshot Hair gifted stylist. His clothes were rumpled and cheap looking, the only vaguely knightly thing about him were the many pieces of jewelry that adorned his body.

    He was covered in every gem imaginable: emeralds, diamonds, opals. If someone could name it, Cecil had a ring, necklace, or bangle with that stone on it. The entire thing clashed and looked horrendous. He was the worst type of rich, one without any taste.

    The contestants took their positions. Cecil crawled back up to his feet from the embarrassing sprawl he had been in before and started itching his butt. He was really digging for gold and the crowd booed even more ferociously at him. Lillian stood in a fighting stance, the ring on her hand poised and pointed at her enemy.

    The announcer shouted at the two of them, ¡°begin!¡±

    The word left his mouth physically and a massive indentation struck the sandy arena floor. A storm of sand flew up, blinding everyone for a few seconds. But then the sand settled, and the arena was deadly still. The arena floor now had the word ¡®begin¡¯ stamped onto it, but neither contestant had moved during the eruption. Instead, they stared each other down.

    The world seemed to glow around Lillian as her feet started to lift into the air. The ring on her finger emanated a bright purple light that effused the air around her. Great beads of purple energy started to form around her as she looked down at her opponent.

    ¡°Boom.¡± As she spoke the first word of the match all the beads released a deadly beam of purple energy.

    Joy snickered as Cecil yelped and scrambled to dodge the beams. Each beam shot in a straight line across the arena, and Cecil managed to dodge the attack by spreading his legs out in an undignified manner.

    The beams shot past Cecil, but they impacted the wall behind him. Each one left a scorch mark and shattered the wall where it struck.

    Cecil¡¯s eyes bulged as he looked at the devastation wrought by his opponent.

    Lillian held her hand in front of her and forced the purple energy around her to coalesce into a massive version of the original beads.

    The air stirred around Lillian, and an audible whoosh came when she released the massive beam. The original beams had only been as wide as a carrot, this one was more the size of a person¡¯s head.

    The massive beam did not travel in a straight line like the miniature ones, instead it snaked around the arena as it closed in on Cecil.

    The man screamed as he threw himself to the side to avoid the thrashing beam of energy.

    Cecil was in a panic as he ran around the arena floor, dodging the beam at every turn. It was like some mythic monster from the First age come to life to devour a stinky little man.

    The audience laughed at him and threw food down into the arena. One particularly well aimed tomato exploded right on the man¡¯s head. Though Joy wasn¡¯t sure who had brought a tomato to this event since he didn¡¯t think a tomato was a good snacking food; it seemed a poor choice to him.

    Joy giggled as Cecil wiped the tomato juice off his brow and put a determined look on his face. He picked up his feet and ran at Lillian.

    This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

    In a dead sprint he covered incredible amounts of the arena. Even though the giant purple energy worm was gaining on him, he looked confident.

    Cecil was going to make it to Lillian before the giant purple worm would make it to Cecil. Lillian was going to have to dismiss the giant purple being and leave herself vulnerable to Cecil.

    Lillian was no idiot, she observed the situation and realized that she was going to have to change tactics. She took one calming breath, then released her massive energy construct. It faded away into motes of light and even as it did Lillian started forming new beads of purple energy around her.

    Cecil grinned at her and pointed his finger.

    ¡°My turn!¡± Cecil started laughing maniacally as he splayed his arms out to either side of himself. Lillian looked a bit puzzled but continued charging up the purple beads that surrounded her.

    ¡°Do you know why they call me Cecil the Thief?¡± Cecil looked up at Lillian with a smug look on his face. ¡°It¡¯s because I can take anyone¡¯s gift and use it against them. Now feast your eyes upon this.¡±

    He looked at his arms as if expecting something to happen.

    ¡°¡­ Normally it doesn¡¯t take this long.¡± The crowd erupted in laughter and Cecil¡¯s face went redder than the tomato that had hit his head earlier.

    Lillian looked lightly amused, and she started shooting purple beams of energy at Cecil again. He yelped and started running to the far side of the arena. Lillian started floating after him sedately, she knew she had this match in the bag, and she wanted to strut her stuff.

    Joy was rather amused himself. Cecil had taken Lillian¡¯s gift; he just hadn¡¯t done any research on his opponent, so he had taken her ability to take things out of dreams. Therefore, Cecil didn¡¯t get any of the purple energy powers, and now he was boned.

    He screamed at the top of his lungs before running towards the arena stands. Bolts of purple light flashed by him, barely missing every single time. The prince leaned forward and laughed, ¡°she really needs to work on her aim.¡±

    Cecil made it all the way to the stands before stopping and looking around at the audience in the lowest set of seats.

    As the man danced around the shots of light Lillian sent at him, he yelled up at audience, ¡°I will give whoever has a useful gift this gold ring on my finger, just put your hand up!¡± A beam whizzed by his head, and he added on, ¡°quickly!¡±

    Joy considered raising his hand, but it would¡¯ve been needlessly cruel to give the man the gift of a deck of cards. Everyone around him seemed to agree, the prince vehemently shook his head when Cecil came up to their low seats. Sam just smiled knowingly, and Ian gave a deadpan look at the man.

    Still, Cecil¡¯s eyes lit up when he recognized Ian. Bloody Ian was an absolute legend, and tales of his deeds were told only to bad children that needed frightening.

    Cecil pointed his finger at Ian and said, ¡°thanks!¡± With a cheeky wink before facing down Lillian¡¯s barrage again.

    Joy started laughing like a lunatic; today really wasn¡¯t Cecil¡¯s day.

    Cecil must have been filled with self-assurance. He had just taken a gift from one of the most powerful people of their time. Bloody Ian was known for his skill and power, so his gift had to be just as powerful.

    Cecil slowly pulled a scabbard out of nowhere. It was an unadorned sheath, but more importantly the scabbard had no sword in it.

    The idiot looked dumbfounded as he looked back and forth between the empty scabbard and the barrages of purple bolts raining down on him.

    Joy didn¡¯t know if Cecil¡¯s gift allowed him to gain some bare bones knowledge of the gift he was stealing, otherwise he would have no chance at all.

    Ian¡¯s gift was the scabbard. It would magically readjust itself to the same size as any blade that was put into it, then that blade would be given the ability to cut anything once. He could cut the air, he could slice the seas, he could cut anything if his blade contacted what he wished to cut.

    Cecil had the scabbard but there were no blades on the field of combat. He had no way to strike out at Lillian, instead he sat down in the sandy arena and let one manly tear slide down his face.

    All his effort was for nothing because of his awful luck. He might have had a chance if he had done any research or if he had just had better luck with his thievery.

    Snot dripped out of his nose and the crowd booed him as the final barrage of purple lights collided with him, sending him flying across the arena where he lay unconscious. A bell signaled that the match was over, and Lillian floated down to the ground where she spun in a circle, pumping her arms up and down in a gesture of victory.

    Joy watched as Sam slinked away as the crowd shouted for a cathartic victory for Lillian. He frowned but joined in the cheering right after. His friend had just won a massive victory, and he needed to let her know that she deserved it.

    Sam walked down the inner halls of the arena, and no one bothered them. Many people walked right by Sam without even bothering to give them a glance. Sam walked with purpose and speed, that combined with their drab outer appearance made them essentially invisible.

    They walked past the armed guard, they walked past the competitors still anxiously waiting for their match to come, they even walked past Dahlia¡¯s spies that were inching their way towards Cecil. But Sam twirled their wooden flute between their fingers and passed all of them by.

    The medical bay had been mysteriously emptied since the end of Cecil¡¯s match, so no one was there to watch as Sam approached the bed of the weak competitor.

    Cecil was covered in bandages and his breathing was hoarse. The purple balls were incredibly powerful and had left him in a critical state. If the healers employed by the tournament folk had not been the best around, he may not have survived the blast.

    Sam grabbed his pinky toe and yanked. Cecil screamed at the top of his lungs, ¡°yeowch! What did you have to do that for?¡±

    Sam stared down at the man, their brown eyes filled with disdain.

    ¡°We both know that your gift is actually changing your face Cecil, the gift stealing comes from the ring on your finger. Give me the ring or face the consequences.¡± Cecil¡¯s eyes narrowed, no one was the best negotiator after having their ass kicked and being asleep, but he wasn¡¯t going to be bullied by this person.

    ¡°Well, you could do that,¡± his face shifted into a guise of the prince, ¡°or I could reveal his little secret to the world and his sister.¡±

    Sam quivered in rage staring at Dahlia¡¯s spy. The prince had known that Cecil was a plant by Dahlia in hopes of getting some information on the prince¡¯s goonies¡¯ gifts, but he had still wanted to come, to try and one up her. He was insufferable at times.

    ¡°Fine then, we won¡¯t take your ring this time.¡± Sam was angry, but it wasn¡¯t worth it to attack this man in hopes of stealing his ring. It was important, but they still had time. They turned their back to the man, ready to leave the room.

    ¡°Oh and¡­¡± Cecil¡¯s face shifted into Sam¡¯s face; a wicked smile spread across his lips. ¡°I am going to have to take that flute of yours. My mistress knows what it is, and you don¡¯t want your own little secret to get out, would you?¡±

    Sam¡¯s face instantly darkened, with their back to Cecil he didn¡¯t see the shift and he continued onwards, ¡°I mean my ring didn¡¯t even¡­¡±

    In a flash Sam threw the dead snake that had been stored up their sleeve at the man. He gaped at the limp body flying towards him, but a small part of his brain realized what was about to happen.

    It was too late though. As the snake¡¯s body hit the man, Sam¡¯s flute came to their lips and a mournful sound erupted out of the instrument. At the same time the dead body shifted, and a new living snake appeared in its place.

    Its fangs touched Cecil as he batted it away. But its venom had already pumped into his blood; Sam wasn¡¯t taking any chances; it was the most lethal snake in their arsenal. Sam kept playing even as a small tear ran down their face.

    Cecil twitched and moaned, but he died moments later in agony. His dead body turned into snakes that slithered into the halls of the building. None of them should be dangerous to anyone, but still Dahlia knew about the flute which meant that she would know that Cecil had found something worth killing him over.

    The day had been a disaster, but still Sam picked up the ring lying in the bundle of clothes and bandages that used to cover Cecil. They had a small grin as they slipped it into their pocket before walking away.

 Chapter 64 - Rigged

    Three people sat at a table and held their heads in their hands. They had been men and women of renown when they were younger. They had been the shining stars of the order of knights, but the world is not made for the young and shiny, it tarnishes and blemishes a person little by little until they are unrecognizable.

    These three people knew what the Knight Tournament was for. It was expensive to keep an entire order of knights operational, so they used these competitions - and the tickets that were sold from them - to raise money for the cause, and maybe to line their own pockets a bit.

    They had long since abandoned the straight and narrow line of righteousness; there were only so many times a person needed personal experience with how fickle and unrighteous the world was before they realized it was a losing game. But they all still had a semblance of pride in their shining order.

    The games were fixed; they always made sure to place people in the correct matches so that a beautiful story could be told. The theatrics and the struggle were real, but maybe a few competitors got an edge before the match started.

    But the tournament so far had been a disaster.

    The three of them had crafted a perfect tale. It was supposed to be a story touting the epic rise of Ryan the Slayer. He was supposed to have walked through the tournament like a breeze, but somehow, he had been beaten in the preliminaries.

    And now they couldn¡¯t even find him, so they wouldn¡¯t even be able to tell a redemption story. That still would¡¯ve sold tickets; the story of a man who had never lost being kicked out of the preliminaries, but then clawing his way back through to a victory. It would¡¯ve been grandiose and epic, but Ryan had disappeared overnight with their chances.

    Meridith spoke up first, ¡°we have to consider taking princess Dahlia¡¯s proposal.¡± She had been unrivaled in her time. The power of rocks flowed through her veins. She had been known for walking into great battles completely naked and walking off those battlefields with her enemies vanquished and her skin unblemished. But age was the great destroyer of the mighty, no matter how strong her bones were they still creaked when she got out of bed in the morning.

    Her face was wrinkled with worry lines, her eyes were great pools of amber, and she held herself with a grace that would shame even King Renoir. But she still looked cowed in this moment. Her back was straight, but her spirit had been broken.

    Gunther sighed, ¡°I concur.¡± He was not gruff, but very brief. He was a wiry old man who had not been a particularly well known in the public circles. He was a secret weapon of the Order of Knights. Many covert missions needed a softer hand than the average knight. The night was his friend and his weapon, he would cover himself in a cloak made of the space between the stars and assassinate targets without anyone the wiser.

    He was also old; his face was oddly smooth though. It was the face of a man who had not spent much time worrying in his life. He breezed along without a care, but this decision caused his stomach to churn and his face to scrunch up.

    The final person at the table, Kiera, said, ¡°I detest it. It takes an institution that has been sacred since the gods created this world and makes it part of a game.¡±

    Gunther grunted, ¡°but we were already part of the game; we just aren¡¯t big enough players anymore to do as we please.¡±

    Kiera scowled at her fellow council member. She was the youngest member of the Council of Knights, and she was only recently appointed after the previous member had died.

    Her face had not picked up the years of stress that were sure to catch up to her yet, but she wasn¡¯t in the prime of her life. She had roamed the countryside for years doing nothing except cleaning villages, even if it also meant cleaning out the marauders from the village. She had the ability to control brooms; everyone she knew as a child had thought she was going to be relegated to cleaning some noble¡¯s house for the rest of her life.

    But Keira had realized something amazing. A broom with a pointy end was still a broom, and her gift had left no upper limit to the number of brooms she could control. So, she walked into villages carrying hundreds of ballistae with broom heads attached to the back.

    The fear that all of them shared was rearing its head. The Order of Knights was becoming irrelevant.

    Of course, there would always be brigands and evil folk around, but the Order of Knights used to be a respected institution, they used to be on the same level as the kingdom itself.

    The king may make the laws, but laws are only words. It takes people of action to turn those words into reality and the Order of Knights used to be the paragon of law. But now they were a relic.

    Knights were a traveling show that teenagers watched with their amused eyes and jeering grins, they were not the virtuosic people of legend anymore. They were the people that were called when something bad happened, but very little bad happened on a large scale anymore.

    There were no more lands to conquer or people to enforce justice upon, now there were just small problems for small knights. There were no more epic tales of knights, they were just a service rendered for most.

    This led to what the three councilors were talking about - Dahlia¡¯s proposal. Since they could not tell their own story in these epic matches, maybe they could tell hers instead and get paid handsomely for it.

    ¡°So, how do we make her knight win?¡± Meridith asked the hard question, authority dripping from her voice.

    Gunther unsheathed one of his knives and started absently tapping the hilt on the table. ¡°The knight is powerful; we just have to make sure that any hard counters to their gift get taken out of the equation earlier.¡±

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    Meridith grunted, her opinions on power were unique. The woman had walked through armies unscathed, of course most of these young whippersnappers seemed foolish and weak to her.

    Keira twisted her fingers through her hair, untangling knots as she spoke. ¡°What about the randoms?¡±

    A sneer crossed Meridith¡¯s face while Gunther kept his neutral mask firmly in place. One of the randoms was who had messed up their entire plans for this tournament and forced them to take this deal with Dahlia.

    ¡°I still think it is silly that none of our powerful, young knights can vanquish these buffoons who use powers that they barely know. They get these randoms abilities and who is to say whether it will be perfect or useless, but anyone who can be outshone by a Random blessed is an idiot or a buffoon.¡± Meridith raged at her colleagues.

    No one mentioned the fact that the inherent randomness of the gift meant that every battle just became pure luck, Meredith didn¡¯t appreciate when people brought logic to her tirades.

    ¡°We have to take them out of the competition.¡± Gunther said while frowning. It was tournament policy that if someone was unable to defend their winner¡¯s medallion then they weren¡¯t worthy of having it in the first place. But that rule was mostly used to keep rabble rousers out of the tournament and help them seed it with swanky and powerful knights.

    The rule was never intended to be used to forcibly eject powerful competitors that could ruin the plans of the council. But desperate times called for desperate measures.

    Meredith scowled but said, ¡°who should we send? Our strongest knights couldn¡¯t beat them, who do we have that can take them out of the picture?¡±

    Gunther laughed, ¡°you misinterpret me. I mean that I have a friend that can steal almost anything, we will have him steal their medallions and distribute them to new competitors. Nothing so untoward as murder¡±

    The moment caused a small chuckle around the table, but it was an awkward laugh of three people who realized that murder had become a common place topic between them.

    Gunther left the table quietly to set his schemes in motion while Meredith and Keira sat quietly in contemplation at the table.

    Loud¡¯s name had originally been Grund, but his parents had given him this nickname for unimaginative reasons. As a child his parents had thought he wailed a bit too much, so they decided that he would be called Loud until he stopped being loud.

    He had never stopped being loud. His jaw clicked when he ate, his joints creaked when he moved, he walked without grace, and his voice was always one level louder than it should be.

    None of that had stopped him from becoming one of the least notorious thieves in the world. Notoriety was for suckers and chumps, the truly skilled in the dark profession of stealing things were completely unknown.

    There was only one man in the world who knew that Loud was not who he masqueraded as, and that was Gunther. The only man to have ever caught sight of Loud in one of his heists.

    Outside of his heists, Loud was the son of two unremarkable people. He played games at some local clubs and was a lazy bum that survived off his parent¡¯s gratuity and kindness.

    It was the greatest camouflage he could ever have. No one suspected that the bumbling oaf that was Loud could do the things he did. Until Gunther did.

    The stars aligned and the Knight Commander caught him one night and the two of them made a deal. Gunther wouldn¡¯t arrest Loud, and Loud would do a few favors here and there for Gunther.

    Tonight, one of those favors had been cashed in. He was going to steal two of the participation coins from competitors in this silly knight tournament. He was a tad confused about why he had to steal something that Gunther had full control over, but Loud never sweated the details, he just went with the flow.

    His two marks were out partying for the night; they had won big at the Knight Tournament that day and were going to be out in the outer rings mingling with the common folk.

    Loud¡¯s gift was given by Forethought, and it did one simple thing. Once he had a heist in mind, any information he could ever want about his targets would magically appear in a binder kept in his soul space. From the insane amount of information that his gift could gather instantly Loud would then form intense and bold strategies to rob various people. It was a magical system.

    Gunther had given Loud his marks, and a plan had appeared in his mind instantly. It was stupidly simple, and he was suspicious of it, his gift had never been wrong before, but something seemed too easy about this heist.

    Loud walked into the busy street, clicking his jaw as he munched on a meat pie. There were people dancing in the streets, reveling in the party. The music and booze flowed freely through the air and there was a perpetual smile on everyone¡¯s face.

    Loud saw a man wearing a duck costume quacking at the passersby. The man looked ridiculous and only the festive atmosphere kept the crowds from jeering at him. No one was in a cruel enough mood to really push the guy around.

    A simple move across the street allowed Loud to catch a glimpse of the man wearing the suit. From the information provided by his gift Loud immediately knew that the man was Joy. He had been a winner at the tournament that day and he was not out partying with the high-class folk near the castle. Instead, he was standing in the middle of the street, surrounded by people who didn¡¯t know who he was, quacking at them and giggling to himself.

    It was the actions of a madman, but Loud would take advantage of the man¡¯s insanity.

    Loud walked up to the man in the duck suit and said, ¡°Oh my!¡± He looked at the costume up and down while Joy preened inside of the feathery mess. ¡°I don¡¯t know why you¡¯re wearing that suit,¡± Joy¡¯s face fell as he realized Loud wasn¡¯t enthused by the suit, ¡°but you are one of the competitors for the Knight Tournament, aren¡¯t you?¡±

    Joy looked a bit annoyed but quite pleased. ¡°Well, I am glad someone could recognize me. Do you want an autograph, or to discuss my magical performances?¡±

    Loud hid a grin and put a sheepish smile on his face. ¡°I have always been curious, what does one of the qualifying coins actually look like?¡± Loud was a bit worried, it couldn¡¯t be this easy, could it?

    Joy chuckled a little and with a great deal of effort, snuck one of his arms out of the massive duck suit. In his hand he held two qualifying coins.

    ¡°I would have had three, but Theo was paying too much attention to his own coin, and I couldn¡¯t nick it off of him.¡± Joy started to do various tricks with the coins, rolling them up and down his knuckles, throwing them into the air and catching them with a flourish.

    Loud looked at the coins, then back at Joy, then back to the coins.

    The coins were thrown into the air in a beautiful toss. They arced over Joy¡¯s head and landed neatly in his other hand, after the trick Joy waggled his eyebrows at Loud then continued his flamboyant gestures.

    Loud took one step forward, and snatched the coins out of midair as Joy was doing a trick with them. Joy looked flabbergasted at Loud. Loud didn¡¯t see that look though, because he had already turned around and started running.

    The bulky suit that Joy was wearing meant that he was clumsy and unable to carry himself through the crowd. In a feeble attempt to catch up to the running Loud, he crashed into the ground, angrily quacking as people stepped on and ruined the feathers he had used in the costume.

    Loud ran for another few streets, then walked to the side of the road to dry heave. He didn¡¯t run often, but when he did, he made sure to cover the distance.

    A small smile spread across Loud¡¯s face as he looked at the two coins in his hand. He laughed at the ridiculousness of it, the heist could barely be considered a heist, it was just petty theft in the middle of a busy street. But he had finished the job and that was all that mattered.

    With his hands in his pockets, safely concealing the coins, Loud walked down the street whistling a happy tune.

 Chapter 65 - A Meandering Path

    Joy was flabbergasted; he was in shock. He had never been so thoroughly beaten by someone, and in such a stupid way. Who would have thought that a massive duck suit would get in the way of chasing a thief through the streets of Vena Cava?

    He had worn the duck suit because he was planning to hit Theo and Lillian with a good pun about ¡®ducking¡¯ later in the night, but now that pun seemed far away and unfulfilling.

    The suit itself had also disguised him from the crowd of adoring fans and dedicated haters. He had become a divisive figure almost instantly in the Knight Tournament. Everyone who wanted to uphold the integrity of the sport thought that he was a rapscallion who needed to be shown a lesson, but the common folk seemed to think of him as the best source of entertainment they had seen in a while.

    Joy himself didn¡¯t know what to think, but he was glad that barely anyone recognized him with the stupid suit on. He didn¡¯t have to deal with any of the annoying sorts of his fans because of it, but the suit had also lost him his entry ticket to the tournament. So, there were some ups and downs to the disguise.

    The man who had stolen his and Lillian¡¯s coins had vanished into the crowd long ago, and Joy didn¡¯t quite know what to do with himself. His honor dictated that he go tell Lillian about his mishap, but for some reason his sense of self-preservation completely denied that option.

    Which only left one more option for Joy. He was going to double down. He was down two coins, but there was only one thing Joy was truly good at in this life, and it was getting money back. So, Joy was going to get those coins back no matter what.

    With a newfound determination, Joy stripped out of the duck suit in the middle of the street. He left it lying on the ground, assuming that someone with good taste would find it someday and wear it. There were a few odd looks from people walking by, but no more so than the looks he got while wearing the suit.

    Without the extra baggage, Joy was a lean, mean, coin hunting machine. He wore dark baggy clothes that whipped menacingly in the wind and made him look like a lowlife on the prowl.

    Joy had no experience tracking people, but he was supremely confident in his abilities, nonetheless.

    He sniffed the air and caught a whiff of dastardly evildoers in the distance. His nose had never led him wrong before. Though his nose had only led him to food in the past, the sentiment still stood.

    Joy prowled through the night, looking over his shoulder and whipping around corners.

    Joy had designed his prowl to be menacing, the problem was that Joy didn¡¯t quite understand what menacing looked like. Instead, he ended up looking like a clown that had a fear of the dark.

    Eyes turned in the night and the true hunters of the dark started following the plucky young man. These men and women were fiendish ghouls, they had sold their conscience to gain power on the streets and they were always hungry.

    Joy didn¡¯t notice the finger caressing knives, nor did he notice the strange abnormalities on the people following him. They were freakishly large with great, long limbs that were disproportionate to their size. Their skin had grown into a frightening orange color and their eyes burned a deep red.

    The first one made contact with Joy. A large hand gripped an oversized knife that was plunged into Joy¡¯s stomach with an unnatural amount of force. Joy looked down, surprised. He had felt an impact on his stomach, and he saw the blade, but there was no blood, nor was there any knife wound.

    The knife had somehow gotten caught in his belt buckle, and the poor craftmanship of the knife allowed the blade to slip out of its handle, causing the punk to punch Joy in the stomach while leaving a perfectly serviceable knife blade caught in his belt buckle.

    For the first time, Joy looked around at the gathering of punks and hooligans. He noticed their large proportions and their odd skin coloration, and it finally occurred to him that his infallible nose might have caught onto the scent of a different crime than thievery.

    Joy swayed out of the way of the clumsy man in front of him. After the dumb luck with the knife the man decided to try and beat Joy with his fists. But Joy swayed this way and that letting the punches slide right by him.

    He got a sizeable distance from the group of villains; at least as much distance as someone could get in the narrow confines of an alley. Then he spread his arms wide and took a theatric bow.

    ¡°There is only one thing I can say to such a group as yourselves,¡± the motley crew bared their teeth, which seemed uncomfortably sharp in the dim lighting, ¡°do you want to play a game?¡±

    The air shimmered and the world seemed to take a breath in, Joy saw at least two dozen of these folk standing around, but he had no idea what game could get him out of this mess.

    A voice rang out in everyone¡¯s head, ¡°mercy. Do any of you need the rules explained to you?¡±

    Joy was instantly wracked with pain. The pain was unlike anything he had ever felt in his life. It was like worms were crawling through his skin, he wanted to claw them out. He stared up at the sky and tears streamed down his face.

    Joy shuddered and through chattering teeth he asked, ¡°what sort of game causes pain like this?¡±

    Even though the question wasn¡¯t direct, the voice still deigned to answer. ¡°The game is simple. All pain felt by all challengers is shared. You can give up at any time and the pain will stop, just say ¡®mercy¡¯ and mean it, but your body will stop moving and you will be left immobile. Good luck, Joy.¡±

    Sobs crashed through Joy¡¯s raw throat as he tried to scream, but no noise came out. His head was on fire, the pain was destroying him. Then Joy looked at the people around him, they didn¡¯t seem to feel a thing. Their misshapen bodies and grotesque did not even quiver with the tiniest bit of held back pain.

    How could Joy be feeling this while they stood there impassively?

    One of the lumbering men sauntered over to Joy¡¯s prone body. In his hand was a cleaver of immense size; they were planning on taking a little off the top. It wasn¡¯t quite the haircut Joy dreamed of, but he hoped something could make the pain stop.

    One glimpse changed everything though.

    Joy saw into the eyes of the man with the cleaver. The eyes were full of terror and horror, the eyes were full of an almighty pain that never ended. They were the eyes of a prisoner in their own body.

    With that, Joy made a decision. His foot almost daintily caught the man¡¯s wrist and caused the cleaver to go clattering down the street.

    The man¡¯s hands gingerly tried to grasp Joy¡¯s throat, but Joy batted the feeble attempt aside.

    Joy let the tears drip down his face as he forced himself to stand, ignoring the overwhelming pain building up in his soul.

    He shouted at the crowd, ¡°your pain can end if you say ¡®mercy¡¯ and give up. I truly feel what you feel, please give me your pain for a moment.¡±

    The man who had been disarmed of the cleaver stood, and his body jerkily tried to grapple Joy, but his mouth moved ever so slightly, and he mumbled, ¡°mercy.¡±

    His body immediately dropped to the ground. He moved less than a corpse, but Joy hoped that he was truly free of the pain for a moment.

    The man on the ground croaked out, ¡°thank you.¡± A weight seemed to leave his shoulders as he lay on the ground, tears streamed down his eyes as he was unable to feel the pain.

    A chorus of ¡°mercy¡± came out of the crowd, followed by thumping of bodies and the trickling of tears falling to the pavement.

    Joy stood through it all, unwilling to let their suffering go unnoticed. They were in pain, and he could help for a brief moment, so he was going to.

    Soon, every single one of the men and women who had been surrounding him with murder in their eyes were laying on the ground; they were unable to move yet were freer than they had been in a long time.

    The game Joy was playing was cruel though. To give all these people the sanctuary they so desperately needed, he had to shoulder all their pain on his own. The weight of all these people¡¯s pain pressed down on him, making his back ache and shoulders quiver.

    He knelt next to the first man who had fallen. Joy grasped the man¡¯s hand between his own and looked deeply into the man¡¯s eyes. ¡°Where are the people who did this to you?¡±

    A whisper barely escaped the man¡¯s throat as he lay immobile on the ground. ¡°Beneath The Brick Oven.¡± The man started humming a tune beneath his breath. It was a sad song, and Joy couldn¡¯t quite place where he had heard it before.

    Joy took one step after another. He didn¡¯t know where or what The Brick Oven was, but he was going to find it and burn it to the ground.

    He didn¡¯t look where he was going. Joy simply took every turn that felt right to him. He could smell the evil in the air, the dark rankness of those who took advantage of others. These weren¡¯t the petty thieves of the world, these weren¡¯t the tax evaders, these were the people who clung to the underworld because it was the only place left that would accept them anymore.

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    Joy¡¯s feet had taken him to a tavern. It was a dirty old looking thing with rats scurrying out front. The walls had once been a bright red, but there was so much grime and gunk smeared on them that they had morphed into a muddy brown color.

    Drool spilled down Joy¡¯s mouth as he walked into the room. He had disassociated from the pain as far as he could. He had left his sense of self behind. Joy knew that there was a task to be done but couldn¡¯t remember what exactly that task was. The pain lived in him; it sang a slow dirge that ground his being into dust.

    There were only two people in the bar. There was one man sitting on a stool nearby the bartender, the man was short and missing quite a few of his teeth. His eyes spoke of a hidden intelligence, while his breath was one drink short of being flammable. The bartender had a cold look in her eyes, she twisted a glass back in forth in front of her chatting softly with the man on the stool.

    The man said, ¡°can I offer you a drink?¡± The bartender started making it, while the man on stool started chatting to Joy.

    ¡°I spent a lot of money getting this operation off the ground a long time ago, but now it¡¯s just a dump that no one goes to anymore. Do you think you could tell all your friends of the wonderful drink you had here and give them your five-star review?¡±

    Joy sat there and let the words go in one ear then out the other. There was no conversation, there was no friendliness, there was only the pain and the way it ate at him.

    ¡°Not really much of a talker, are ya?¡± The man was chewing on his lip and Joy noticed that he motioned at the woman bartending and she turned away from the two of them with the glass that contained Joy¡¯s drink.

    ¡°How would you like to feel strong, young man?¡± The man had morphed from a kindly stranger into a con artist, his entire posture and behavior had changed on a dime. He was trying to find a way to get into Joy¡¯s mind, but there was no mind, only a puddle of jelly that could feel pain.

    The man¡¯s hand brushed Joy¡¯s arm and he felt a rush of strength enter his system. His body grew a few inches, and his hands turned a light red color, Joy could feel a grinding pain in his head, truly a dull ache in comparison to the overwhelming pain but still a new sensation, and he felt stubs of horns growing out of his skull.

    ¡°Doesn¡¯t that feel good?¡± The man licked his lips in a disgusting way, dangling his hands as if they were the Light and Life themselves.

    ¡°No, it doesn¡¯t feel good.¡± Joy wasn¡¯t sure where the words came from, but he growled them out as he kept himself from screaming through pure self-control.

    The man¡¯s gaze was briefly calculating. He judged the odds and decided that they were still in his favor. He had some loaded dice that he was about to throw, or at least that was what Joy would¡¯ve thought had his mind not been a hot pile of sludge.

    The man gestured with two of his fingers towards the bartender who slid Joy a cloudy drink. It looked like someone had pissed in the cup, but Joy¡¯s hands mechanically reached for the cup and brought it to his lips.

    Maybe the pain would be quenched by the liquid?

    The liquid did not quench his pain, the liquid was a ruse. Hidden underneath the layers of cloudy alcohol sat an insect and it crawled into Joy¡¯s mouth.

    It dug and clawed its way through Joy¡¯s mouth trying to work its way into his brain. Joy gnashed his teeth and tried to snatch the insect out of his mouth with his fingers. But it was a slick beastie and refused to be caught. It was segmented into hundreds of parts and each one had many little legs sticking out of it, ready to run away from prying fingers and gnashing teeth.

    Joy howled at the top of his lungs as the bug finally made its way up his nose and it started crawling into him. He knew that the bug was going to take something from him, something that even the pain had not been able to take.

    With one finger for each of them, Joy pointed at the two people who had made him so miserable. He moaned and screamed into the air, gesticulating wildly as the bug crawled into him ever deeper.

    With one final utterance he said, ¡°make them join.¡±

    It was a final plea for help beyond what the key could do. Joy had long since known the limitations of the key that he had been given so long ago. So, he prayed and wished for this reality to come.

    ¡°Just this once, Joy. No more help from me.¡± The voice was a little different this time. The voice seemed younger and fuller of life than normal, but it was still unmistakably the voice that spoke every time Joy challenged someone to a game.

    The man and woman immediately started convulsing. Their bodies hit the floor in a second as the wild pain started to push through them. The pain of everyone they had made suffer this fate, along with the visceral pain that Joy was feeling as the insect wormed its way into his brain, coalesced into a pain that consumed them.

    Foam exploded out of the man¡¯s mouth and hundreds of bugs skittered out of the woman¡¯s body. Each of the bugs started convulsing just the way that their master had been, and blood ran out of her nose and mixed with the foam coming out of the skeevy man¡¯s mouth.

    The bugs died, and for the first time in what felt like ages, Joy had a painless thought. He thought that could¡¯ve gone worse.

    Joy snorted the bug out of his nose bit by bit. At one point he accidentally broke the bug in half and had to start his sniffing process over again. The two people on the floor silently convulsed and Joy made no effort to alleviate their pains. He had felt what the two of them had wrought onto others, if they couldn¡¯t handle it then that wasn¡¯t his problem.

    With one final shrug to an unseen audience Joy bowed and said, ¡°I have won the game.¡± It was a question and a statement at the same time, but slowly Joy felt the metaphorical fingers of the game let him go. He was free from directly feeling everyone¡¯s pains, but that did not stop his sympathy for the damage these two had brought into the world.

    He picked them up by the scruff of their necks and dragged them out of the door, letting their feet drag a sad path in the mud behind him.

    ___

    Parents often think of giving their twin children fun names. They think that if they rhyme or if they start with the same letter that it will somehow bring whimsy into their children¡¯s lives.

    Maybe Trent and Brent had started drinking because of that. Their parents always said that the men in their family had a predilection towards alcohol, but neither one of the twin boys had cared enough in their schooling days to learn what those words meant.

    All that they knew now was that they were lush in fame and fortune.

    Both were going on their third year of making it into the Knight Competition. They both had powerful abilities and swagger that got the crowds roaring. The only thing that matched their battle prowess was their tendency towards making stupid bets.

    Trent and Brent were kind souls and had joined the order of knights out of a sense of justice. Their parents had been well off and sequestered in the inner circle of Vena Cava but that didn¡¯t stop young men from exploring the seedier parts of the city.

    From their privileged standpoint the two young men had thought that crime was a thing of the past, but they had both received a quick introduction to violence and pain on one of their excursions before they had gained their gifts from the gods.

    Both had learned that the world was not as rosy as it should be.

    So, they had become paragons of justice; meting out a heaping spoonful of pain to all those they saw as evil.

    The problem was that heaping spoonfuls of justice wasn¡¯t exactly what the knights did. There were a lot of procedures and laws and courts. Most of a knight¡¯s job was to tour around the countryside and take care of the local nasties.

    There was one crime pair that Tren and Brent would never take down. The two were careful and covering their tracks, but the leftovers of their work had haunted both brothers¡¯ dreams for ages. The red skin and the insects worming away underneath someone¡¯s skin.

    The pair was simply called Matt and Patt and they were untouchable. They did lots of under-the-table jobs for the rich and wealthy around Vena Cava and it let them stay above the law.

    On this particular night, Brent and Trent were glowing under the adoration of their fans. They had just won another round of the tournament and were enjoying the spoils of their victory. These spoils involved a lot of free drinks, which led to a lot of loose tongues.

    Brent and Trent told their stories of the pair Matt and Patt. They told all those who would listen to never go down an alley with a man who had red tinted skin. They told everyone that the world would be a better place if those two were put into a deep, dark hole and forgotten about.

    When drinks are flowing and tempers are flaring, fists fly. Fights are common things in seedier bars, but fights leave only some lasting impacts. The impact of a fist in a face is a powerful feeling, but there are some things that flow even more freely than fists and pain when men are drunk. Words that men regret slide right off their tongue like eels through a grasping hand.

    Trent said with no intention, ¡°if any one of you brought Matt and Patt to justice, me and my brother would give you our entry coins into the knight tournament, and you can take all the fame and fortune.¡±

    Brent looked at his brother sideways. He had always been the cautious one, but it was deep into the night and neither of their brains were working at full capacity by this point. It was empty words with an empty meaning behind them.

    The night continued after the momentous words had been spoken. Words that would adjust these men¡¯s lives, yet the night just continued, without a care for the power of those words.

    Later into the night when even more drinks had been consumed and a few songs had been sung a sound came from the door.

    Click, click, drag. Click, click, drag.

    The bar was crowded, so no one looked at the disturbance. But the unmistakable sound of boots clicking into the wooden floor, followed by the dragging of two bodies flowed through the crowd towards Brent and Trent.

    A man with short cropped brown hair and tired eyes looked down at the twins. He saw their shining armor and gleaming badges of office and gestured to the two bodies he had dragged in behind him.

    ¡°They are the worst scum of the world. Where can I take them?¡± His eyes were filled with disgust and a resoluteness as he gazed upon his charges. The man who was being dragged started to stir awake again and the resolute man¡¯s boot savagely connected with his face, encouraging the barely aware man to not stir up any trouble.

    Brent looked in horror at the man standing in front of him. It was one of the other competitors from the knight tournament, but that was no excuse for his utter lack of decorum. No one just barged in with two unconscious people, that simply wasn¡¯t right.

    Brent was about to uphold justice when his brother tapped him on the shoulder. Brent stood up, but the tapping grew more insistent, and Brent looked at his brother who pointed at the man and woman on the floor.

    He saw. There on the floor laid Matt and Patt. The two that had haunted their nightmares for years, the two that were just out of reach.

    ¡°It¡¯s them.¡± A single declaration, that meant so much to the brothers.

    In a drunk stupor without even thinking about it, they bought a round of drinks to go to the entire bar in celebration of the downfall of the two wickedest people they had ever had the misfortune of meeting. The man with resolute eyes was forgotten in the hubbub, but he never left his spot, waiting for the brothers.

    Everything was perfect, and the brothers were making their way out the door when one quiet voice spoke up.

    ¡°Aren¡¯t you going to give your qualification coins to the mister?¡± A young lad who had probably never been to a bar before and was so deep in his drinks that his breath would probably be lit by a match.

    But that reminded everyone of the fateful words spoken. And a crowd never forgets.

    The brothers saw no way out of their predicament, so they gave their coins up dejectedly to the man with resolute eyes. His eyes sparkled with humor as he received the coins, as if he was in on a joke that the brothers were not. Then the brothers took the two horrific people to the knight headquarters where they would be properly pacified and tried.

    But after they had heard enough cheers for their glory and the defeat of two wicked villains, the brothers hurried to meet their supervisor and told him the story. With a lot of apologies and wringing of hands the night¡¯s fortunes and misfortunes were shared.

    Their boss happened to be a man named Gunther who would cloak himself with the space between the stars, and he was mighty displeased about his two young whipper snappers losing their qualifying coins. Luckily, he just happened to have two spares lying around.

    Luck is a fine mistress.

 Chapter 66 - Snakeskin Shoes

    Joy had never felt so well rested. After the entire night¡¯s debacle, he had somehow wandered back to his room in the prince¡¯s castle and slept like the dead. The pain and the effort that had gone into apprehending the two villains had taken every smidgen of effort contained in his soul.

    But after a good night¡¯s sleep and a good deed done, he now felt readier than ever for a day in the knight¡¯s tournament.

    He had slipped Lillian¡¯s new coin under her door last night with a halfhearted apology written on it. He didn¡¯t describe the events, but he mentioned that he regretted taking her coin from her.

    It wouldn¡¯t do him any good, but a man had to try.

    He fingered his own coin and saw that it now read:

    Today.

    Midday.

    Round Two.

    And on the backside, it read:

    Trent.

    The name seemed vaguely familiar, but Joy wasn¡¯t going to spend his precious time thinking. He had much more important things to do, like let Fate decide his wardrobe for the day.

    He threw the coin into his wardrobe. The coin spun in the air, round, and round. It landed silently in the pocket of one of his silk suits. The suit itself was a creamy white with accents of sandy brown.

    The suit was lightweight and had very few frills. The suit was meant for the discerning gentleman who had no scruples towards doing some less than legal for a price. Joy felt that the suit gave him a dangerous, debonaire look.

    With the suit, Joy found a matching pair of glasses that protected his eyes from the sun. They matched the sandy brown color of his suit and almost completed the look.

    Fortunately, no outfit is complete without shoes; even a barbarian knows to put a nice pair of shoes on when he¡¯s trying to impress. Joy rooted through his shoe closet and found the vilest pair of shoes he owned. It was an unfortunate purchase he had made when he had more money than style. But they worked perfectly for the character he had built within this outfit.

    The shoes were a dark snakeskin, and they gleamed in the beams of sunlight that made their way into Joy¡¯s room.

    With the new outfit on, Joy went on a little walk towards the arena. He tilted his glasses down at anyone that he liked, and he put his nose up in the air at anyone that he didn¡¯t like. Life was truly simple and beautiful once he put on this suit.

    He walked through the food carts that had sprung up during this time of celebration. The tournament changed everyone¡¯s lives in such an all-encompassing way. It was truly humbling to remember that it wasn¡¯t just his life that had been totally changed by this tournament. Every vendor and stand owner had seemingly teleported into the section of the city with the arena overnight. They kept their stalls perfectly well stocked, and they price gouged all their customers.

    These people didn¡¯t have to fight every day, they didn¡¯t have to show their might. Instead, they had to show their cleverness and business acumen every day, or else they would go bankrupt overnight.

    Not only were new knights crowned with laurels during this time, but new merchant kings also rose from the ashes of their predecessors.

    But none of that really mattered to Joy. It was an exciting thought, but he just wanted his meat skewer and fresh pressed juice.

    With juice being daintily dabbed off his chin by his wonderful pocket handkerchief he stepped into the arena. The air smelled different than before, there was much more tension in the air, it was like people could smell that the chaff had been removed from the competitors and only the truly powerful were left to fight now.

    As per the tradition that Joy had started yesterday, Joy entered the arena from the spectators¡¯ entrance and walked around to get a feel for the audience.

    There was a general discontent in the air. Joy chatted with other people - only the wealthy spectators since no self-respecting man who earned their food for the day would ever speak to a man with snakeskin shoes. But he heard a sentiment that people were more horrified than impressed with a lot of the exhibition matches yesterday.

    Of course, Joy¡¯s own match was included in them. There was something distinctly terrifying about watching some of the most powerful people on the continent become blundering buffoons because of a gift. It reminded everyone that with the right gifts they could be at anyone¡¯s mercy.

    But Joy was welcomed with a surprise. He saw an entire section of the stands were filled with people with red skin and horns. They all looked severe, as well as a bit terrifying, but he was excited to see these people up and about. They had been miserable, their lives had been as torturous as Joy could imagine, but now they seemed to be trying to readjust to a normal life.

    Joy had shifted back into his normal self the night before. So, the process wasn¡¯t permanent. However, if Joy had to guess, he would say that it had to do with the amount of time someone spent under the gift, they needed to spend an equal amount of time without the gift being reapplied before they would truly be free of the horns and skin.

    Joy wandered the stands. He shook hands with the people who recognized him from the day before. He lent his shades to an elderly man sitting in the corner of the arena; sunlight shone directly onto his eyes, and it seemed like a kindly thing to do. Joy didn¡¯t really need the glasses, now, did he?

    The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

    Joy wandered to the bottom layer after spending enough time with the normal people in the world. He wandered into the rich people¡¯s section. Everyone here had villas in the second layer of Vena Cava and went on wonderful trips to luxurious corners of their continent every chance they got. Joy didn¡¯t hold it against them, it was the way that they lived, but it did make them a little hard to relate to at times.

    Joy noticed that the king was missing. There was nothing abnormal about this. The king usually showed up to the finals, but nothing else. He was an incredibly busy man and did not have the time to spare on the poor fighting knights.

    But the prince and the princess were both in attendance. They may seem to have normal faces, but they were masks, hiding their real motives in this horrifying game they were playing.

    Joy was kind of bored and had talked with the prince yesterday. He was certain that the prince would be unhappy to chat with Joy again, so he decided to try his luck against the famous princess Dahlia.

    Joy slowly sidled up to the booth where she was sitting. Beside the princess was a woman with a vaguely familiar face. Her eyes were a deep rich brown, but her hair was a blinding shade of golden. It looked a little incongruous, but who was Joy to judge?

    The princess sat regally - that was the only way to describe it. Her posture seemed more akin to a woman on the throne rather than a spectator in a sporting arena. She had beautiful hair that was luscious and long. Joy would have bet his life savings that someone with a Hair gift was involved. But he wasn¡¯t judgmental, he just wanted her stylist¡¯s name and information.

    Her eyes were different than the prince¡¯s. He had a burning intensity behind his eyes, a power that was unfathomable lay beyond the depths of his piercing eyes. Dahlia¡¯s eyes oozed a sense of apathy. She seemed kind and had a winning smile as she chatted with her friend; but there was no fire in her belly, she just seemed a little boring.

    Joy sidled up to her booth and confidently approached her and her friend¡¯s chairs. Joy loved going places he wasn¡¯t supposed to go, it was a dirty passion of his. Through his experience in the thieving world, he found that only two things were important. The presentation and the confidence.

    These were doubly true for the rich and powerful.

    The problem with being rich and powerful is that they must start delegating. A poor person doesn¡¯t need a secretary to take care of their every little need, so they are able to take personal care of every part of their life.

    The secretaries and functionaries all hold pieces of their liege¡¯s power, but not enough of the whole thing to truly feel like one of the rich and powerful themselves. So, they approach the process as a bystander, rather than someone who truly knows what is happening.

    These functionaries are great when nothing important is happening or when no improvisation is needed, but they crumble as soon as something new or unheard of occurs.

    All this leads back to confidence and presentation. Joy found that if he presented himself as someone who belonged and had the confidence that he belonged, that almost no one would even question that he belonged.

    With his snakeskin shoes tip tapping on the solid stone of the arena he approached the princess was the swagger of a rich, pompous ass. Which in some sense, he really was.

    The princess and her friends turned to look at their new visitor and any mirth that had been hanging around the corners of their mouths immediately fell off. Their eyes narrowed and their mouths pursed.

    Princess Dahlia looked at her guards as if noting which ones had let this man enter her sanctum. After memorizing their faces and assigning them the appropriate punishments in her head she turned to face the man who had disturbed one of the small joys of her life.

    ¡°What does one of my brother¡¯s lackies want?¡± Her voice dripped with derision and her eyes callously looked over every blemish and fault in Joy¡¯s face.

    ¡°He wants to be happy and enjoy his life!¡± Joy put on one of his best winning smiles and made a short bow to the princess and her friend. ¡°And I thought the most fun thing I could do was talk with the famous princess Dahlia.¡± The women were sitting down and yet somehow Joy felt as though he were the one being looked down on. Their eyes made him feel like a small animal caught in a trap.

    ¡°So, he¡¯s a hedonist?¡± The princess¡¯ friend chimed in, with a smirk spreading across her lips. The princess had not regained any of her previous mirth, but her friend seemed to be warming up to Joy.

    ¡°That is a wonderful way to describe it. Life is about having fun and giving the fun to others.¡± Joy knew these games; it was the game of saying things beyond the words. Not just the meaning, but the soul of his sentences were being evaluated by these women.

    The princess smiled, ¡°now, that doesn¡¯t seem like hedonism. That implies some communal aspects to you; you want to encourage the community around you to be as happy as you are.¡±

    ¡°But, my dear princess, what if my reason for building up the community is to enrich my own life? What if it is all for my own personal enjoyment?¡±

    ¡°So, we come full circle and he¡¯s a hedonist again.¡± The princess¡¯ friend piped in again. ¡°So, hedonist, what is your name?¡±

    Joy didn¡¯t do a mock bow, nor did he serve these women platitudes. Instead, he said, ¡°my name is Joy. And what is your reason for living?¡±

    Joy made his eyes as piercing as possible, trying to use the force of his will to make the princess answer.

    With an almost surprised expression on her face the princess answered, ¡°duty and obligation. To be born and to live is to take obligations to your fellow man and community. These obligations vary, but everyone is born to serve their purpose.¡±

    Her eyes stayed impassive even as she spoke of her reason for existence. Truly Joy found that he could not like her, which was unfortunate. She was a beautiful, powerful, and intelligent woman that he would have delighted to be in the company of.

    He turned his gaze onto the second woman, the one that looked so familiar. He looked deeply into her eyes and asked the same question without ever opening his mouth.

    She stuttered a moment then gave her own answer, ¡°to help. We exist to help the people around us.¡±

    Joy looked at the two women then made a giant bow. He walked away from them, his snakeskin shoes tip tapping away from a tense moment.

    Joy liked to think that his presence brought happiness to everyone around him, but that interaction had been distinctly uncomfortable. He was glad that he was in the prince¡¯s employ instead of the princess¡¯.

    He left the stands and walked to the competitor¡¯s waiting area. He saw the same young man there attending to him. There was more awe in the boy¡¯s eyes now instead of the derision and mirth that had been there last time, and Joy was unhappy with that.

    Joy was not meant to be worshipped or put on some pedestal. Joy was a being that caused everyone to groan or laugh, not bow down. He enjoyed the notoriety of this entire debacle, but he did worry about it getting to his head.

    Time passed slowly as Joy sipped on some water and played go-fish with his attendant. Finally, it was time for him to go and play for the crowd.

    His attendant wished him good luck and said that he was planning on putting lots of gold on Joy winning his bout. Even the thought of a good bet didn¡¯t bring Joy up to his normal level of enthusiasm. He felt sad for some unknowable reason.

    But the crowd never cared - the limelight never cared, and it was time to perform.

 Chapter 67 - Tic Tac Toe (At Long Last)

    Joy entered the arena, and many things hit his senses all at once. The first thing that registered was the smell. The air smelled heady and green. He wasn¡¯t sure how the smell could be a color, but it was the scent of the jungle.

    The second thing that hit him was the sights. After his eyes readjusted from the relative darkness of the entryway, he realized that the arena was far different from yesterday. The previous day it had been a pit of sand with little to no ornamentation or excitement. Now, the arena was a lush jungle filled with fruit trees, vines, and brush.

    Finally, his ears heard the announcer shouting his praises.

    ¡°He is the ruler of Random. He defeats the odds every time with a smile on his face. He is¡­ Jo-oy!¡±

    Joy assumed the announcer must have been berated the previous night for his overinflated introductions of the competitors, now he was being forced to give shortened introductions.

    Joy basked in the attention. He could feel the dark pieces of his mood get thrown into the recesses of his mind, while the egotistical fun-loving parts took control. He smiled up at a random spot in the foliage and made a show of wiping the dirt off his snakeskin shoes.

    ¡°And he has already found the hidden sites from which we present their battle to the audience. For those of you worried about the foliage covering up the most spectacular parts of the battle, rest assured, we have found some of the most gifted people to observe and share their visions of the battle with you on this massive screen above the arena.¡±

    It was a little silly, Joy thought, to have shown up in person to this massive event, only to be forced to watch the whole thing play out through someone else¡¯s gift. That was what people did in the rural villages, too far away to come see the event in person.

    A wild chant broke through the restless noise of the amped-up crowd. A great stamping of feet all in unison cut through the noise filling up the arena. From the high stands, the men and women with red skin and horns all raised their hands to the sky and shouted, ¡°thank you!¡±

    The arena was completely still for a moment. It was a truly moving moment and Joy almost felt all his fun exterior slip away, awash in a sea of emotion brought up by these people. He bowed his head in their direction with as much sincerity and love as he could share in a bow. They had suffered and he would not forget it.

    The announcer continued, apparently ignoring the show of pride from the isolated section of the crowd.

    ¡°In the other corner, we have one of the Shining Twins. One of them is lightning, the other is water. Each are a handful when alone, but together they make an unstoppable duo. In the ring right now, we have the Watery Twin. His depths are hidden beneath an icy exterior, but he is here to fight with all the hidden flames of passion in his heart. It is Trent!¡±

    Maybe they just weren¡¯t doing exaggerated introductions for Joy. It was saddening, but Joy wasn¡¯t one to hold a grudge over something so petty.

    Joy couldn¡¯t see his opponent enter the ring, so he could only assume that he walked in with a similar amount of swaggering and posturing, but the giant forest kind of ruined it for Joy. Half of the fun of the battle was the way that the contestants interacted, and this got rid of that aspect of the fight entirely. It was going to be a stealth game through the woods.

    The crowd roared at an unseen opponent and Joy made a big show of yawning towards the hidden viewers.

    With a deafening force the announcer shouted, ¡°begin!¡± And suddenly the game started, the sounds of the crowd were filtered away by someone with a gift from Sound or Silence, and all Joy could hear was the sounds of the jungle.

    Creepy crawlies slithered around the entire arena, giving the stage a sense of realism that Joy felt was unneeded. Who actually wanted snakes to be slithering above their head as they fought?

    Joy took a hesitant step forward. The brush around him crinkled and crunkled. The sound carried and Joy knew that he was not a man made for stealth. He did not have the silent feet of an assassin prowling the woods at night. He was a gambler, and being true to that version of himself would serve him better here.

    Joy took his first deliberate step forwards and crunched a branch underneath his feet. He took his second as a few small animals skittered away, chirping in annoyance at the massive foot.

    His third, fourth, and fifth step went similarly. He went on a crusade against silence in the jungle. He created a cacophony of noise that would only be matched by the jeering that he couldn¡¯t hear coming from the crowd.

    After tromping around the jungle for a goodly while, Joy felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand straight. His back arched for a moment, but he suddenly relaxed and continued stomping.

    Behind him in the brush, Trent had a watery suit of armor on that absorbed any branch of leaf he was about to step on. The water made him a silent, deadly force in the jungle.

    In his hands a sword that wavered between being a single edged blade and a two-edged massive sword appeared in his hand. The blade itself was made of water and was held together with more willpower than physics. Gifts truly were magical.

    The sword finally coalesced into being a single edged long blade and froze into place. Trent had made his sword, and he prepared himself to strike down on his foe.

    With a deep breath in, Trent used the water in his armor to propel his feet forwards into a strike that moved at speeds beyond human comprehension. Using his gift, Trent was able to shoot pressurized water out of his body parts at such extreme speeds that they propelled him forwards.

    This technique is what allowed him to cover the fifteen-step area between him and Joy, and this technique is what allowed his sword to come down like the anger of Wrath.

    Any yet, his sword whiffed. It went entirely past Joy as he ducked down to flick some dirt off his snakeskin shoes.

    Joy was disappointed, while Trent was thankful for the silencing effects of the arena. Joy would have loved to hear the jeers and laughs at Trent, while Trent felt that if he heard the people laughing at him, that he would keel over and die.

    Joy knew that his stealth left a lot to be desired, but that was why he had relied on one of his more reliable traits. He had known that he was lucky, and luck is always how he came ahead. Some people would be ashamed to admit that luck was how they made it through life and in Joy¡¯s humble opinion those people were fools. There is nothing greater than a person¡¯s luck.

    After the first embarrassing attack had been thrown the two fighters stared each other down, trying to size up their competition. Joy felt that the man in front of him was vaguely familiar but couldn¡¯t quite put his finger on it. The haze of pain and misery had made the previous evening hazy in his memory.

    As he pondered the mystery, the sword in Trent¡¯s hands melted from ice back into water before reforming into a wicked spear.

    A quick jab struck like a snake as Joy backed deeper into the jungle to avoid it. Trent made a giant sweeping motion with his spear, intending to try and take Joy¡¯s head off, but the spear got stuck in a massive thick tree.

    Joy pounced in that moment, he closed the distance and hit Trent in the watery armor as hard as he could.

    What Joy had not been expecting was for the water to turn into a spike of ice that impaled his hand. The blood mixed with the water of the armor, creating a beautiful crimson color.

    The ice started to crawl up Joy¡¯s arm and he made the executive decision to pull his arm free no matter what. Joy lost a bit of skin but was able to escape before getting trapped by the icy embrace or struck down by a newly formed dagger made of ice.

    If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.

    Joy sighed, the hole in his hand hurt and he was feeling a bit angsty. The day had not been a good one so far, so maybe he should try and finish this rather than playing around.

    Joy asked his opponent, making sure there was a reasonable amount of distance between them, ¡°do you want to play a game?¡±

    Trent and a team of knight strategists had put their heads together to figure out how to defeat Joy before his ability was activated. Before the game started, Joy was no different than a giftless person and so if Trent could keep him from being able to activate his ability, then Trent would be able to win easily.

    The team had come up with two plans and one of them had already failed. The initial plan was to ambush Joy before he was able to see Trent. The team theorized that Joy needed some sort of visual confirmation of his opponents before he could initiate the game. So, they had crafted this jungle environment and sent Joy up against Trent in the hopes that Trent would be able to ambush Joy before he would even be able to see Trent.

    That had obviously failed.

    So, now it was time for plan B. With a confidence that was undeserved, Trent straightened his back and proudly said, ¡°no!¡±

    Silence filled the air between Joy and Trent, a tense aura of uncertainty radiated from both of them.

    After an a moment an aged voice sounded in both Joy and Trent¡¯s heads. The voice was filled with the proper dignity, however had an edge of condescension in its tone. ¡°Tic-Tac-Toe But Don¡¯t Get Mauled by The Cat. Do any of you need the rules explained?¡±

    A blazing three by three grid of squares appeared above Trent and Joy¡¯s head. Joy¡¯s burned bright blue, while Trent¡¯s blazed a bright red.

    Joy started laughing while Trent immediately said ¡°yes, explain them.¡±

    Joy wiped a single tear off his face and spoke for the benefit of the audience, ¡°no one has ever tried that before. But I guess the question is rhetorical.¡± This caused Joy to have a small laughing fit and start wheezing, thinking about what would have happened if that plan had worked.

    With a final wheeze, Joy also asked the mysterious voice if they would deign to describe the rules of Tic-Tac-Toe But Don¡¯t Get Mauled by The Cat.

    The voice sighed in Joy¡¯s head, then explained ¡°you and your opponent will be playing tic-tac-toe. If you don¡¯t make a move within ten seconds a move will be made for you,¡± Joy looked up at his blazing tic-tac-toe board and noticed that while he had been having a minor breakdown, Trent had already made the first move. A blazing red X hung in the center of the board. Quickly, Joy found that he could select the square he wanted by pointing at it, suddenly a bright blue O was in the top left corner of the board. The game seemed simple, so Joy returned to listening to the rules.

    ¡°If someone wins a game of tic-tac-toe, the blazing board hanging above the loser¡¯s head will turn into flames that will fall on them, which would cause a bad hair day. However, to discourage tie games there is a small cat that is prowling around the arena that will grow every time a game is tied. Since a tie game is called a cat¡­ get it?¡±

    Sometimes Joy worried that there were too many games, some of them far too ridiculous to be any actual fun. But Joy was still going to give it his all, despite his quibbles with the complexity of the rules.

    The game of tic-tac-toe continued on their own burning boards. The nice thing about the massive glowing boards is that it made stealth impossible in the jungle. Joy and Trent found that it was incredibly difficult to be sneaky with a massive glowing apparition sitting above their heads.

    Joy and Trent played back and forth for a bit. Neither one of them moved from their positions in the jungle.

    A red X would slam into the board only to be followed by a beautifully placed O. Finally, Joy and Trent came to a tie. Neither one could win the game since it was incredibly hard to lose.

    Joy had spent quite a few years on the road, and he had enjoyed meeting traveling caravans of performers. They were always quick to bet and quick to leave. Which meant that Joy got the satisfaction of his luck winning another game, but without truly worrying about making someone bet their life saving against him.

    He had met a man named Chris who trained chickens. His entire job was to train chickens to play tic-tac-toe. There was something wildly exciting about playing the game against a wild animal that brought the crowds into Chris¡¯ exhibit in the caravan.

    There was an invisible whimsy to playing against a simple creature like a chicken. Even Joy found the magic at one point. But he had made the mistake of learning how Chris taught the chickens.

    Chris did not have some amazing gift that let him bestow skills onto chickens. All he did was feed them when they made the right sort of move. There is an algorithm to playing tic-tac-toe and if both players know what moves to make in response to the other, there is no way for anyone to win. It¡¯s so simple that even a chicken could do it.

    All of this to say that Joy didn¡¯t expect to win a single game against Trent. His win condition for this battle was not going to be winning enough matches of tic-tac-toe, it was going to have to be something more spectacular.

    Joy grinned as he jumped forward. Trent was standing still; no weapon of ice had formed in his hands yet because he had focused on the tic-tac-toe game too much. He was only saved from Joy¡¯s vicious attack by the incredible defensive abilities of his watery armor.

    Blow after blow slammed into the water, but it automatically formed plates of ice to deflect Joy¡¯s blows. Joy¡¯s hand was still bleeding miserably, and even the watery armor that surrounded Trent was still dyed a deep crimson from Joy¡¯s blood, but the blows kept landing.

    Trent was confused by the onslaught. He had spent quite a bit of time analyzing Joy¡¯s fighting style, and he always seemed anti confrontational. He was incredibly skilled, but he enjoyed letting the game do the vast majority of the work for him. He wasn¡¯t the type to get down and dirty.

    Yet here they were, Trent was covered in another man¡¯s blood, but Joy kept happily donating more of it via his fist.

    Trent finally woke up to the true nature of this battle. He squared his shoulders and formed a cudgel out of ice. It shimmered in the sparse sunlight that passed through the jungle canopy.

    He lifted the mighty weapon and brought it down upon his enemy.

    Joy dodged the blow and continued his pummeling. The cudgel was far too slow to catch Joy. He felt like the wind. A wind that was in a lot of pain, but the wind, nonetheless.

    He struck at every part of the body that he could think of. Legs, arms, back, face, and yet nothing worked. Joy was too weak to get past Trent¡¯s armor. So, Joy improvised.

    He leaned back and grabbed a big stick from the ground. He brought it down upon the icy knight¡¯s armor and it made a satisfying crunch. But no more damage was done by the stick than had been done by Joy¡¯s broken hands.

    Moments add up. A fight is a collection of moments that make a momentous event. Sometimes the action is not that impressive. This time in this fight, the defining moment, the moment that all other moments were building up to, was very simple. Trent got so absorbed in fighting Joy physically that he forgot to make a move.

    Joy leapt back as the flaming tic-tac-toe board that hovered above Trent¡¯s head became much hotter and much more real.

    Like the hand of some angry god it smote Trent.

    Trent screamed as all the water that had covered his armor was evaporated and turned into steam. He did not have a solid grasp on controlling steam, so it slipped out of his magical grasp, and he writhed on the ground as he was severely burnt by the flaming board.

    After a breath, the flames let up and a new board appeared above both the players.

    Joy made the first move this time. Placing a single ¡°O¡± in the center of the board. Joy waited anxiously for his opponent to do something.

    The ground as still covered in a layer of steam and Joy could not pierce the veil.

    A single red ¡±X¡± appeared in the top right of the board and a massively red and blistered Trent emerged from the steam with a howl. He no longer had his beautifully formed icy weapons. Instead, he had cut his palm open to loose a flood of blood that formed into a single brutal icicle.

    Joy laughed as the two of them clashed. Now without his armor, Trent was much more vulnerable, and Joy capitalized on it.

    Trent¡¯s entire fighting style had relied on his perfect armor, now that he was without it, holes opened in his normally impenetrable technique.

    Joy struck like a snake. Always searching out the most vulnerable area and making Trent pay for every strike he took with his blood and pain.

    As the epic match was unfolding into its final chapter, the two of them played tic-tac-toe. It was as fast and brutal as their hand-to-hand battle. No more mistakes were made, and so more and more ties started to stack up in the queue.

    It was an endless cycle of strikes and placements. The game was played and the two men hit each other. They played the game, then they hit each other. Neither man gave the other an inch of ground as they continued to battle.

    Joy felt that this must have been the fiftieth game of tic-tac-toe he had played with Trent. Both combatants were breathing heavily, sweat dripping down their backs. Joy held nothing in his hands, while Trent held the remains of what had been his brutal icicle. It had been chipped and shattered until all that remained was one thin point of ice barely thicker than Joy¡¯s pinky finger.

    A deep growl emanated from the forest around them. Joy had never forgotten about the ties and the mysteriously growing cat, but hearing the growl made the problem seem much more apparent than it had before.

    Joy¡¯s bones never lied, and right at that moment, they told Joy that this was the final round of tic-tac-toe.

    The two men drew upon the last vestiges of their strength and launched themselves at each other. A bloody icicle raised into the air, met with the destroyed fist of Joy.

    But that was the least important thing happening at that moment. Because a giant paw slammed into Trent¡¯s chest and knocked him through a tree.

    Joy landed in a heap and looked up at what had to have been a tabby cat that was almost the size of a house. It licked its paw then disappeared into motes of golden light.

    The silence of the arena suddenly disappeared as whatever gift had been warding away noise was lifted. Joy heard the crowd shout its approval. Big whoops emanated from the stands as Joy fought his way to his feet.

    He swayed this way and that, nearly unable to keep himself upright. But he managed.

    The showman inside of him took over and Joy took a massive bow to the audience. It had been a good show and Joy loved a good game.

    Joy slowly ambled his way out of the jungle towards the waiting medical professionals while being surrounded by the roars of an approving audience.

    He had done pretty well this time. He had even left the ring on his own two feet.

 Chapter 68 - Domination

    Theo watched Joy¡¯s match with something close to awe. Of course, Joy was Theo¡¯s friend, but it was so difficult to put the two men together in his mind. The maniac on the field who sacrificed his hand to hit his opponent again was the same man who sometimes forgot that he should brush his teeth in the morning.

    There was a raw beauty hidden in Joy¡¯s strength. Theo envied him in some ways. He was not powerful in the way that Theo was powerful and there was something so much more invigorating about Joy¡¯s power.

    Joy had received a game that gave him no massive advantages; didn¡¯t the people watching the battle understand this? He had gotten a game that didn¡¯t enhance his strength or make him immune to pain, he had been given a game where he and his opponent had the exact same advantages. There was nothing that Joy could do that his opponent couldn¡¯t.

    And yet.

    He wouldn¡¯t lose. Theo felt it in his soul; there was no way Joy was going to lose. He was the pure spirit of mankind, overcoming the ephemeral strength given by the gods.

    Not that Theo would ever say that to Joy¡¯s face.

    The match was one of the most beautiful things Theo had ever seen. And he knew that this was going to inspire so much art in him. He could feel that something about this victory spoke to his soul.

    After watching Joy leave the stage and cheering him uproariously, Theo waited alone. It was quite sad that all their fights this day had been so weirdly spaced out. Lillian and Joy were back-to-back, but Theo had to wait extra-long for his battle. So, he waited while filled with anxiety.

    The stage was quickly cleared of all the foliage and greenery that had been so pivotal in Joy¡¯s match. Theo enjoyed watching it clear off, he was even a little bit excited about what the next stage would look like. Every single fight had a unique theme so far, so Theo was excited to see what Lillian¡¯s would be.

    The stage was suddenly flooded with water. Theo was not sure whose gift had been used to move such an incredible amount of water so quickly, but it was super cool. The stage was bubbling with fresh sea foam and even some fish were swimming around.

    Quickly after, some tiny islands were placed around the arena. It was a stunning show, but it wasn¡¯t quite finished.

    With a giant splash, a massive octopus landed in the center of the arena and sunk down to the bottom of the artificial lake. The octopus looked vaguely familiar, but Theo was sure if he could place it. Though it was quite an odd thought, that an octopus looked familiar.

    The stage was set, and the announcer cleared his throat to prepare himself for a long-winded speech.

    ¡°From the pastures of the outer reaches of our splendid continent comes a dreamy girl, with dreamier weapons than we can fathom.¡± A little brief, but still technically correct. Theo was growing a little worried that all the introductions for his friends had been so brief while their opponents¡¯ had been so boisterous. It could only mean bad things for them in the future of this tournament.

    Lillian strode into the ring without letting her feet touch the ground. A beautiful, shimmering pair of butterfly wings came out of her back. She put on the affectation of walking serenely through the air, a glittering smile plastered on her face.

    It was truly extraordinary. Her luck was starting to become the stuff of legends. Maybe this was a good sign that she was starting to have more control over the dream world, but Theo was a little worried. Too much control was never a good thing, there was some power in the randomness.

    Lillian pulled a hand through her black hair and released a plume of glitter from the fold of her wings. With a final push of her wings, she created a whirlwind of shimmering scales and black hair around herself. With a final flourish she had finished her own introduction that was for more epic than anything the announcer could have scrounged up.

    The announcer finally continued, ¡°and in the other corner stands the arbiter of true love. The man who worships the ground his lovely lady walks on. He is the knight of roses, a debonair fella who only has enough heart for one woman. It is Ramses!¡±

    Ramses slowly walked into the ring to stand atop the small island that had been erected near his entrance. His skin was bronze, and his hair was completely white. He looked jovial, there was a small smile on his lips. There was someone out there who that smile was for, but it was definitely not Theo.

    The announcer took a moment to let the cheering subside then he shouted, ¡°start!¡± From his lips a burst of air took the form of the word he had said and slammed into the water with a deafening boom. The water spouted upwards, while a single tentacle reached slowly out of the water to swat at the annoyance.

    As the water calmed down and stopped sloshing back and forth from the announcer¡¯s shout. Both competitors stood stock still, observing their opponent in the highest detail possible. They sized each other up, and they both somehow found the results of their sizing up to be amenable.

    The air shimmered and glittered as Lillian glided over the water, slowly approaching her opponent. With her right hand she even started writing out threats in a gossamer light that hung in the air. She was quite literally spelling the man¡¯s doom.

    Theo worried a little about how much of an effect Joy was having on Lillian, but she seemed excited about her flamboyance, so there was nothing to truly complain about.

    Ramses blew a single kiss out to the crowd then took a step forward into the water. As he did, he muttered something to himself. But instead of getting wet or sinking down into the waves, a beautiful feminine hand appeared.

    It seemed to be constructed of light, just transparent enough that Theo could see the water through the skin of the hand. But Ramses stepped onto the hand and then started flying with more poise than Theo would have believed.Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

    The hand was beautifully manicured, the nails were just long enough that if they scratched you, it would draw blood, but just short enough to keep from getting in the way of any physical labor the hands would ever have to do.

    With a boom, the two flying opponents met in the air. Lillian dragged spiderwebs of light around herself, they whipped and cut the air around her with a brutal scream. Ramses just looked on impassively as he said, ¡°her breath is my world.¡±

    A face that matched the hand appeared behind Ramses as he said that, and a massive gust of wind emanated from her mouth. The rushing air broke the spiderwebs of light and caused Lillian to go crashing away into the wall of the arena.

    Ramses stood atop the glowing hands, staring down at where Lillian had crashed into the wall. His eyes were dispassionate as he stared down. It seemed like he was pitying her and everyone else with those eyes.

    But Lillian wouldn¡¯t be taken out by something as pedestrian as a little bit of wind. She climbed back to her feet and rose to the air again. Rage filled her posture, and her eyes screamed for revenge.

    With one hand she created webs of light that cascaded around the arena, making one giant trap for Ramses to step in. She flapped her wings, and razor-sharp scales flew towards him at a frightening speed.

    Ramses calmly ducked down and let the hand he was standing on curl around him to protect him from the onslaught.

    Lillian realized her attack was doing nothing to her opponent. So, she dove into the murky depths of the water beneath their feet.

    Ramses created an army of hands; they were much smaller than the one he stood on. But they flew throughout the arena, severing the trap that Lillian had set for him, snapping the gossamer threads before they even had a chance to truly shine in the battle.

    The air stirred around Ramses as he said, ¡°her legs carry the heavens.¡± Then a foot the size of the arena came crashing down into the water. Again, the foot was perfectly pedicured and dainty, while callused, a horribly difficult combination to have.

    The octopus flailed out as the crushing weight of Ramses¡¯ gift came crashing down upon it. But Lillian moved fast and snuck between two of the toes as it dropped.

    The octopus reached to grab at Ramses, obviously infuriated at the bug that had caused a massive foot to crash down on it. Ramses met the tentacles with womanly apparitions of body parts. The waves rocked as the titans clashed and Lillian seemed so small in comparison.

    But Lillian wasn¡¯t going to let any of this chaos go to waste. She forged a sword out of the gossamer threads; the blade was so perfectly thin that at the right angle it seemed to disappear from her hands. With this blade she could cut anything, or at least that¡¯s what Theo thought.

    Lillian flew forwards as the octopus and Ramses reached a crescendo of battle. Ramses put his hands together and said, ¡°she is perfect!¡± One giant tentacle was raised overhead, about to smite him down.

    But a beam of sunlight burst through the clouds. And right where the sunlight shone, a figure bathed in gold stood tall and proud. She had the hands and feet that the audience was so used to seeing, but even she was still formed of the shimmering light.

    As the octopus brought its mighty tentacle down, she grew until she matched the tentacle, then kept growing until she dwarfed it.

    The giant glowing woman grabbed the tentacle and threw the octopus. The beast made a terrible squelch as it flew through the air and impacted the walls of the arena. Ink oozed out of the beast, and Theo could swear that he heard someone crying, ¡°Eight¡± in a plaintive voice.

    The woman literally winked out of existence after the octopus had been thrown. She turned towards Ramses and winked before her shining body evaporated into tiny flittering motes of light.

    That was when Lillian struck.

    The sword slid through the air silently. It did not scream the way a blade made of steel did, it was a simple instrument that only existed to cut.

    Ramses turned and yelped as he ducked below her swing. His head barely got underneath the blade as it passed overhead. Lillian growled at him, the wordless cry of violence.

    But Ramses regained his feet quickly and turned to face her again. The hand started to fly away from her, starting its unique evasive maneuvers.

    ¡°Come on, Lillian. You must end this soon.¡± Theo found himself muttering under his breath. Lillian was not as overwhelming as she had been the week before, so she needed to finish this fight.

    Lillian streaked forward after the floating hand. Ramses had his brows knit in concentration, the evasion was taking a lot out of him, and Lillian capitalized on his weakness. She brought the shimmering lines of light back. They started crissing and crossing the arena, making the entire thing into a deathtrap.

    These made Ramses¡¯ retreat even more dangerous, as the hand he was standing on slid back and forth to avoid all the new obstacles.

    Finally, Lillian caught up to him and she was about to bring her beautiful sword down upon him when he said, ¡°her smile brightens my day.¡±

    All around the two combatants, perfect teeth emerged. They enclosed Ramses in a cocoon of dental defenses and Lillian tried to cut through them. But it was to no avail.

    Her sword shattered upon the enamel of the woman¡¯s shimmering teeth.

    Lillian looked down at her shattered sword, then back at Ramses who closed the distance to her and punched her across the face.

    It wasn¡¯t an especially brutal punch, but somehow it was a punch filled with finality. Lillian crumpled under the single hit.

    Theo felt tears well up in his eyes. He loved his and friend and he had never wanted her to lose. She should never have to lose anything. Even as the crowd roared in approval around him, an icy chill started to fill the tunnel Theo was in.

    He was furious, of course he knew that this was how it logically was supposed to work out. Either Lillian destroyed her opponent, or her opponent destroyed her, but there was no logic to the rage he felt. This was the rage of a man who had watched his best friend in the entire world get hurt.

    Theo wanted blood.

    In a haze, Theo walked into the preparation room and covered his head with a towel. He sat there thinking of all the things he would do to his opponent in the arena. No, he imagined that whoever his opponent was, that they were just a steppingstone towards Ramses. And then, he would have his sweet revenge on him.

    Theo¡¯s attendant fearfully tapped him on the shoulder and Theo rose to go meet his challenger. All thoughts had left his mind, all that was left was the all-consuming righteous rage.

    Theo walked into the arena. They had some new gimmick now. There were sandy dunes everywhere, and there were manufactured temples to provide extra defenses to the weak. Theo was not feeling weak at that moment, he was feeling like the fire of life. It burned in his stomach, a hate so powerful he could almost feel tears starting to form in his eyes.

    The announcer barely spoke of Theo. Then entered a massive diatribe about his enemy. Theo didn¡¯t listen to a word of it. Words were meaningless, all that mattered was getting rid of the burning pain in his stomach, in his chest, in his blood.

    He needed to comfort his best friend, but duty and this stupid game were getting in his way.

    Finally, the announcer finally said ¡°begin!¡±

    His opponent looked like a mirror image of the person that Joy had beaten earlier that day, but none of that truly registered in Theo¡¯s mind. The man started doing poses and looked to the crowd for approval. But none of that mattered as soon as Theo could see him the game was finished.

    With a roar Theo felt some of the rage and hate seep out of him. There was something cathartic in this moment that Theo couldn¡¯t put his finger on.

    Everything around him grew dark, then suddenly it was clear and bright.

    The world was now ice. The entire arena in front of Theo had been frozen into a massive block. It glistened in the sunlight and reflected the awe in thousands of faces. They had watched what felt like an act of a god.

    No one spoke in the silence that ensued, and Theo fled the stage. None of this had ever mattered. He needed to find Lillian and make sure she was okay.

 Chapter 69 - Assassins

    Assassination attempts were part of the royal game. Many kings and queens of the Hearted continent had sole heirs simply to try and keep their children from being required to destroy their siblings in the bloody rush towards the throne.

    Edward always wondered how different the world would be if the royal reign ended, and power could only be transferred through peaceful means, rather than this awful bloody game.

    The first thing he knew about such a utopia is that he would be out of a job.

    Edward had not wanted to be an assassin growing up, he had just fallen into the wrong crowd. One day he was stealing sweets from the candy shop, the next he was stealing gold from noble houses. Finally, one day his friend handed him a knife and said that there would be some good money if he stabbed some guy.

    It was a lucrative job, even if it was dangerous and a little morally reprehensible. It had gotten a lot better recently once he had come into the personal assassin force run by the princess Dahlia. He even received benefits now. Any injury he suffered on a mission short of death, would be healed at no cost. And he now had a dentist; Edward had never had a dentist before.

    It was a pretty cushy life, as long as one felt no moral reprehensions about killing important people.

    Edward had been surprised to learn that important people died just as easily as boring people. He had grown up in the slums of Vena Cava, the outer ring that wasn¡¯t even counted as a ring. He had seen poverty; he had seen people waste away. And it had blown his mind the first time he had killed a nobleman to see him waste away in such a similar way.

    There was no dignity in shitting your pants as you succumb to your wounds.

    So, Edward didn¡¯t worry about it anymore. Since life was so cheap his actions were essentially meaningless in the grand scheme of things.

    Today was going to be a big day though. With the royal feud coming to a head soon, Dahlia was hoping to take the wind out of her brother¡¯s proverbial sails. The prince did not lead by being the strongest, instead he had some sort of invisible magnetism that drew powerful figures to his cause.

    Dahlia knew she had little chance of taking out Ian or even getting to his personal politician Rose, so she settled on a more important prey. She was going to take out his personal seer and steal their prized flute.

    The meetings had been long and arduous in getting this assassination team ready to take Sam the seer out. Sam¡¯s techniques were well documented, and this team had been created with the sole purpose of taking them out.

    Their spies had concluded that Sam had a purely informational gift. They seemed to be able to read the future in the movement of snakes. This would have already made them a powerful seer, but then they acquired the flute.

    There were no records of the flute ever existing, but it seemed to have strong ties to Death. It must have been a relic of one of the earlier ages, but if it had been on the Hearted Continent there was no way such a useful relic would have lain undisturbed for thousands of years.

    Thus, the princess¡¯ personal theory had arisen. They believed that Sam had taken a journey to the Dead Continent in secret. There was no record of any travel having occurred, but she was convinced that was how Sam had acquired the flute so tied to Death.

    The flute allowed Sam to take dead things and make them turn into snakes. A terrifying power at the best of times but made even more ridiculous by the range of things that were considered dead.

    Most of the team¡¯s planning had been about finding weaknesses in what was considered dead.

    Was the leather on their boots considered to be dead since it was made from a dead animal?

    Was the food in their stomachs considered to be dead?

    Would the wool of their clothes be considered dead since the animals that had given the wool up were now dead?

    These questions and many more plagued the princess¡¯ team as they tried to come up with the perfect ambush for Sam.

    In the end, the team decided to play it safe and not eat for days before the assassination attempt. They would only wear chain mail and armor so that their clothes wouldn¡¯t turn into snakes around them. These preparations left the men and women of the team incredibly annoyed.

    Tempers were short and their genitals were cold. Metal was not a wonderful thing to wear without any padding and a few members of the squad were very vocal about their dislike of these working conditions.

    Edward just felt that it was a return to the days before he was employed by Dahlia. He felt like a foolish child embarking on a mission that he barely understood. But that was what he was paid to do, and it was idiotic to give up on such a lucrative job.

    The night was cold as the team prepared to enter the prince¡¯s domain. This only added to the discomfort felt by the assassins, but Edward felt that it was Nature¡¯s way of making them pay for such immoral acts.

    Being an assassin made Edward give up his own sense of justice, all that was left was praying that his employers were truly doing something right and just. They had explored all the other options and all that was left was this final option - his knife. He left the blame behind and just became an instrument of Death; appearing only when the coin was plentiful, and the conditions were favorable.

    But deep down there was still a smidgen of a conscious, and Edward used the cold as self-flagellation. It was the punishment for being out at this time of night, when only bad things happened.

    The team had made a startling ally within the prince¡¯s inner circle, and they were going to take advantage of this asset tonight. He would obviously be compromised this night, but these were the losses necessary to take out the big players in this game.

    Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

    Edward noticed a small patch of shadow become imperceptibly deeper for a moment. It was like he could see into some endless abyss, and from that abyss came a man with a trench coat and a bowler hat. Their contact, Benny, had arrived.

    ¡°Glad to see all you fine ladies and gentlemen could make it here tonight.¡± Benny fidgeted with the corners of his coat. His voice betrayed none of the nervousness he must be feeling, it was filled with enough false bravado to crumble empires. But his hands gave him away.

    Edward could empathize a little with the squirrely man. He was betraying his employer and a man who trusted him incredibly. How did someone come to terms with those sorts of betrayals?

    Apparently, by fiddling with his coat.

    The team did one final check of the tools. The religious among them said the prayers to their chosen gods, and they entered the shadowy realm that Benny commanded.

    Benny didn¡¯t say much as they were brought through the shadows of his world, and Edward was glad for the silence. He knew Benny wasn¡¯t a bad guy, it was just that his voice irritated Edward immensely.

    The world around them was amorphous, the ground beneath their feet flickered in and out of sight. Great beasts made of shadow roared in the distance, yet never came close to the travelling group of assassins. It was a terrifying place of deceit and falsehoods.

    The air shuddered around Benny as he declared, ¡°we¡¯re here.¡± All his false bravado had slipped away during their short journey. Edward felt bad for the kid, but he had a job to do that was more important than patting the little man on the shoulder and telling him that everything was going to be alright.

    The assassins shared one more nod between them. There was a silent understanding between them. They would do the job, and whoever survived would eat a big meal after.

    Benny commanded the shadows to engulf the team, and they appeared in a circle. Blades out, teeth bared, they looked down at the king Renoir who was eating dinner.

    Edward knew that something was wrong, and he reached deep down inside himself to grab his gift, only to find a massive wall blocking him. The king¡¯s guard, Cor, looked down at the ants that had interrupted the king¡¯s dinner.

    Cor raised her sword and beheaded the assassin closest to her. The assassins scrambled at the instant death of one of their companions. They had been betrayed, something was wrong, Chaos ruled this moment in time.

    Everything was horrible, limbs flew in an array of directions as Cor hunted the assassins down one by one. Until the king rapped the table on time.

    A terrifying force emanated from the king. The remaining assassins fell to their knees as blood trickled from their wounds and blood streamed from their eyes.

    ¡°I have far too many rats in my castle. You there, tell me how this happened?¡± The king gestured towards Edward to answer.

    In Edward¡¯s mind the king was a force beyond humanity, he was speaking to a god made flesh.

    ¡°We were going to assassinate the seer Sam, but I assume we were double crossed by the prince¡¯s attendant, Benny, who we thought had been bribed to work for us.¡±

    ¡°Well, it seems that my children are letting this war make them impertinent. Cor, will you deliver these assassins¡¯ heads to my unruly son and inform him that I will be doing no more of his dirty work. The next time he forces some of his sister¡¯s assassins upon me I will let them have another try at him with your personal help, Cor.¡±

    Cor nodded and started beheading the remaining assassins one by one. As Edward waited for the end, he was not filled with fear, only with envy for the bounty of food on king Renoir¡¯s plate and wishing that he could have died on a full stomach.

    ___

    Handel was princess Dahlia¡¯s personal assassin. He had told her that misinformation was the most important part of any war and thus his current mission had spawned from her understanding of his lesson.

    She knew that her brother had a very loyal base of supporters, so she was extremely cautious of the fact that Benny had approached her to help with her cause. Thus, she had created two missions in tandem; both of them were to assassinate Sam the seer, but Benny only knew about one of them.

    As soon as your enemy thinks they know your next move, you have won. Dahlia was playing the game of deception well and Handel could not be more impressed with his pupil.

    So, Handel and a small team of assassins were now sneaking into the prince¡¯s castle and making their way towards the seer¡¯s room.

    The air smelled of death and reptiles. A pervasive stink that let everyone know that animals shit in this section of the castle, and no one cleaned it up.

    Handel gripped his knives reverently before kicking down the door to Sam¡¯s chambers. Silently, the team burst into the room trying to find where the seer was in the dark cramped room.

    Handel slowly looked around the room and saw that the seer was not inside of it. Or if they were, they were not visible. He walked deeper into the room, noting that the smell of shit emanated from a pit on the floor of this room. Hundreds of snakes writhed ceaselessly in the pit, hissing in a chaotic melody.

    It was unfortunate, but they had planned for the fact that Sam may not have been in this chamber. Handel called one of his subordinates over. Every single assassin on his team had some useful gift, but this one was able to find things. If they knew what an object looked like they were able to find it again.

    Handel asked where the wooden flute was located, but his subordinate just shook his head and pointed to the pit of snakes.

    No way, Handel thought. Sam can¡¯t be in the pit of snakes, it¡¯s insane, it¡¯s stupid, it¡¯s disgusting. Or maybe they leave the flute in the pit of snakes at night? But then how would they be able to get the flute out of the pit?

    But Handel trusted his subordinate, so he reached into his own soul space and pulled out a shard of metal. His gift wasn¡¯t flashy or powerful, when he had received it so many years ago, he had been quite disappointed. But now, he knew the true worth of complete control.

    He had complete and utter control of this one hunk of metal. That was the entirety of his gift. Handel had the ability to move this metal with perfect precision.

    Handel envisioned the metal cutting through every single snake in the pit. And he watched in awe as the scrappy piece of metal did just that. It flew this way and that, cutting the heads from snakes as it zipped back and forth.

    Moments later, all that was left in the pit was a pile of dead snakes.

    A mournful note was played. It emanated down from the pit, beneath the snakes, beneath all the death and blood and guts, a single note of pain was played.

    ¡°Shit, they¡¯re here.¡± Handel said it calmly even though he did not feel calm at that moment. Even if he didn¡¯t see them in the pit, there was no way they could have avoided his flying piece of metal. If they were beneath all those snakes, how were they still alive?

    Handel watched as the corpses of thousands of dead snakes seemed to converge together then blur. Reality shifted as the corpses became one giant snake. Upon its head sat Sam, still playing the mournful tune.

    The entire team burst into motion. Flames spewed from hands, knives flashed in the air, and words of power were spoken. But none of it mattered. The giant snake curled itself around Same and protected them from the onslaught.

    The flute stopped playing as the snake started to succumb to the wounds that Handel¡¯s team had wrought upon it.

    ¡°Who decides what is dead?¡± Sam¡¯s voice reached through the chamber and brushed the ears of the assassins.

    One of the women on Handel¡¯s team with more bravado than good sense replied, ¡°our employers.¡±

    A quiet chuckle filled the chamber. It really was a good response to the question.

    ¡°A few thousand years ago, there was a man with the gift to see things that were beyond the human eye. He had questions for the gods themselves, he wanted to know what reality was made of. So, he peered deeper and deeper into the world and into the people in it until he saw. Our bodies are made of trillions of little, tiny cells, and we die when enough of them die.¡±

    Handel was not in the mood for megalomaniacal monologuing, so he walked slowly towards the body of the snake, hoping to find a vantage point from which to attack the seer.

    ¡°But the most interesting thing that this man found was that some of the cells within human bodies are already dead. They are part of a living organism, but they have ceased all functions that we would think of as life!¡±

    Handel heard Sam rap a knuckle against the lifeless body of the massive snake surrounding them.

    ¡°Goodbye, my lovelies.¡±

    Handel felt a rush of fear as Sam started playing a less sorrowful tune. Were they going to reanimate the corpse of the massive snake? What was next?

    Handel felt excruciating pain as all the hair on his body turned into snakes. Fangs rushed to meet him as he tried to bat them away. But they were in his clothes, on his face, and surrounding him on all sides.

    They bit and bit until the world turned black and Handel felt himself take the first step towards Death.

    Sam stopped playing the flute, but it was already too late for anyone. The assassins were dead or dying in a horrifying manner.

    ¡°All of this to say, who decides what is dead? If I didn¡¯t know that your cells were already dead, would I be able to manipulate them in this way? When does something truly die?¡±

    ¡°We can only know that something is dead if it was known to have once lived. Without the proof of life, there would be nothing.¡±

    ¡°Ah well, my audience has finally died at last, let¡¯s get this cleaned up.¡±

    With a flourish, the mesmerizing flute music started again, and the corpses disappeared as if they were never there in the first place.

 Chapter 70 - Exposition

    Joy had never seen a real-life pity party before. And it was one part sad, one part endearing. Theo had taken Lillian¡¯s loss even harder than she had. He had prepared cakes and pastries for her. Then he invited everyone who could even be considered an acquaintance of hers to a ¡°casual get together¡± where no one was allowed to talk about the tournament.

    It was almost completely silent in the room. The only exciting thing happening in the city was the tournament. And since the tournament was off limits in conversation, there was nothing to talk about.

    Joy decided that someone had to open the floodgates. He could not stand this party and so he decided to encourage his friends a little bit.

    ¡°Hey Theo. That was some crazy thing you did in the arena today. Why haven¡¯t you ever done that when we were in danger.¡±

    Joy had been gob smacked when he had seen the devastation wrought by Theo. Theo had frozen the entire arena field and then some. The entire tournament had been delayed for hours because the tournament organizers had to go find someone with the appropriate gift to take care of the inane amount of ice left by Theo.

    Theo¡¯s blue eyes bored into Joy menacingly. It seemed that this line of questioning was going to get Joy frozen into a popsicle soon, but that was just the price he was going to pay to alleviate this boredom.

    Just as Joy had accepted his fate, Lillian chimed in, ¡°yeah, I didn¡¯t see it. But that sounded like you pulled some real power out of your ass, ice-boy.¡±

    Theo¡¯s eyes immediately stopped being gateways to the realm of Pain, and he turned to Lillian, ¡°honestly, I have no idea what it was. It just happened.¡±

    That was the end of that. Theo was unwilling or unable to explain any more about the incredible power he had shown and no one else was willing to risk prying into the subject anymore.

    Joy enjoyed the party but found that it was lacking. He wanted to do something fun, and this party was not fun.

    But Joy wasn¡¯t willing to brave Theo¡¯s wrath alone. Fortunately, he knew Theo¡¯s weak spot.

    Joy invited Lillian to sneak out of the party with him. She immediately agreed. Her eyes had long since glazed over from the dullness of Theo¡¯s pity party and she wanted to do something, even if she was miserable during it.

    Joy loved Theo for his well-meaning nature. But he wasn¡¯t always in touch with those that he loved. So, Joy and Lillian snuck out of the pity party and took to the streets of Vena Cava.

    The air smelled like sweat and booze.  Neither were a bad thing, it smelled like many people had been enjoying themselves to excess and now the byproducts of that were left in the streets.

    It was a special time. Joy couldn¡¯t remember the last time he had seen so many smiles around the city.

    Joy brought Lillian to his favorite sweets stand. The woman who ran it always slipped him a few extra chocolates because he smiled so sweetly at her. The woman recognized Lillian as the woman who had fought Ramses earlier in the day.

    ¡°You did a great job. Ramses is no pushover, and you made him work for that victory.¡± The woman handed over a bag of chocolates and fried dough while Joy handed over the corresponding money.

    Lillian leaned over the counter and asked the woman, ¡°do you know him? We have never seen him before.¡±

    ¡°That would made sense since he¡¯s from this section of Vena Cava. He¡¯s a local hero to us; a true man who rose to fame and acclaim from poverty. But his story is not full of sunshine and flowers, he faces his own demons, and we respect him for that. We love Ramses, but you did a wonderful job fighting him, never doubt that.¡±

    The two left the woman at her counter softly humming a tune to herself.

    ¡°That was odd. I thought he was going to be some despicable man that we could beat up with reckless abandon. Instead, he turns out to be a whole complex human being, funny that.¡± Lillian knocked Joy over the head for his comment but didn¡¯t say that he was wrong.

    There was something horrible and yet beautiful about the fact that Ramses was a person. He wasn¡¯t just a nameless man who defeated Lillian for the sake of it, he was a human being, with all the intricacies and faults contained therein.

    Joy and Lillian heard a faint thumping in the distance, it was the sound of drums.

    Neither one realized it, but their feet started to follow the noise, their hips started moving to the beat, and their hands started clapping in time.

    The music grew louder and louder until the two of them entered a back alley, where a woman was playing the drums with ferocity. Left hand or right hand, they struck the drum with feverish energy.

    But the woman was not alone. The entire alleyway was filled with bodies. They were rank with sweat and stale breath, but the music bunched them together. The grooved and moved in time, regardless of anyone¡¯s personal hygiene habits.

    Joy moved through the crowd slowly, hoping to see the person beating the drums in such a fashion. Elbows jostled and knees collided, but nothing could get in the way of Joy and his mission.

    Then he saw her. Her red hair was now deep purple, but that wasn¡¯t enough to fool Joy, he could see it was Luna, the woman who had entranced a crowd with her music. She could somehow control the minds of people who listened to her play, but she rarely even needed it to get a crowd. She was talented and wanted to become a part of Music. A horrifying goal for a horrifying woman.A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

    These thoughts were lost in Joy¡¯s mind as he thought, ¡®she looks wonderful tonight.¡¯

    Joy didn¡¯t dance for a while, he just let the music wash over him in a meditative wave. Colors shined brighter and the movements seemed faster. The world was at peace for one brief moment as the music spun its way around him.

    Luna winked at Joy as he sat mesmerized, then stopped playing the drums. A collective sigh rushed through the crowd as she stopped playing. But everyone seemed brought back to life as she brought out another instrument.

    A small harp danced in her fingers as she played some minor chords to the oohs and aahs of the audience.

    She licked her lips and began a tale. One part story, one part music and Joy sat enraptured by her playing and voice.

    Love is a beautiful thing.

    It brings us together when the times get rough.

    But I am not one to let others get close.

    So, let me tell you a tale where love was too much.

    Joy let the story, and the music eat at his soul until he could see the characters in his mind. The notes corresponded to steps the characters took within the story and they danced through the lines of poetry.

    The story went as follows.

    There once was a young man who loved flowers. There was something so perfect in the cultivation of a perfect plant. He was poor and couldn¡¯t afford flowers, but you would be surprised at how beautiful some weeds can grow.

    In the cracks of the city the young man made blossoms flourish with a touch of his green thumb.

    He was besotted with his beautiful flowers, so much so that he didn¡¯t even glance at the pretty boys and girls who passed him by in his daily gardening.

    The sway of hips and a jaunty step meant nothing to this young man. He wanted to see his beautiful green world flourish.

    He was so incredibly focused on his garden kept within the paved streets that he didn¡¯t even notice the quiet girl who sat next to him.

    She had been sitting there for months. He would run home after a long day¡¯s work, and she would cry because she was so far beneath his notice.

    She wished she could understand his love for the flowers, since her love for the boy seemed so similar. She observed the boy as he observed the flowers and watched him grow happily as he watched the flowers do the same.

    They grew older, with the boy never noticing her. But the girl knew everything about the boy. She loved the way he brushed his hair behind his ears as he worked, she loved the music in his laughter, she even loved the way he picked his nose when he thought no one was watching.

    The boy loved the flowers, and she was content watching him be in love, even if it wasn¡¯t with her.

    Their worlds changed when they received their gifts from the gods. In an ironic twist, the girl received a gift from Nature, while the boy received his gift from Love themself.

    The boy could bring the things he loved to life around him. If he loved it enough, it would appear in the world. The girl was able to grow the ignored nature of the world. If no one loved it, she could make it beautiful and grow like nothing else.

    The boy continued his days of walking around the city, giving his love and care to every weed or flower he saw growing between the cobbled streets. His love for the flowers and weeds left shimmering images of them floating through the streets in his wake.

    The girl stopped following the boy. His love poisoned the parts of Nature she was able to affect, so she started finding sections of the city that had not been visited by the boy and let the grass and flowers grow with the power of her gift.

    What she grew was more beautiful than any natural thing that the boy could ever do. But he was not filled with envy the first time he saw her work, instead he thought ¡°whoever did this must be beautiful.¡±

    The two danced to an unseen tune. They wandered different parts of the city, growing different plants. They made elaborate gestures to each other, there were private gardens that littered the city during those days. But only the two of them understood their significance.

    But throughout all this time the boy never laid eyes upon the girl. She was a figure of his imagination; so much more than a mere person could ever hold.

    The girl still couldn¡¯t work up the courage to tell him her love, face to face, so she opted to make the most elaborate garden yet. Hidden beneath a bridge that was surrounded by mulch and shit, she created a garden of reds, blues, and yellows. Weeds grew as tall as the bridge, then bloomed with flowers unbecoming of their status as weeds.

    The boy stumbled across the girl working her magic. And his forgetful mind finally found her face deep within himself. She had been with him since the start. When he had first started wandering the city, caring for the unloved plants, she had been next to him, smiling timidly, watching him.

    He was aghast and filled with shame. This beautiful, wonderful person had shown him such love and he had only been able to fall in love with her when he was unaware of who she was. He was a cruel man, unable to love that which was known, only able to seek out that which he had yet to taste.

    In his haste to run away from the scene of horrifying truths, the boy didn¡¯t notice the girl seeing him. She saw the boy she loved more than anything else in this world run from her.

    Now don¡¯t you think that broke her heart?

    See, people always forget to think of how their actions will be interpreted. The most vital part of any human action is not the intention, it is the perception.

    The boy saw the girl he had ignored his whole life and knew that he had been awful to her, and thus he ran away hoping to hide from the nasty truth that he was not a kind person. The girl saw the boy running away from her and concluded that she was unloved by him.

    She grew the flowers around her until the formed a tomb for a girl with a broken heart.

    Oh, how young love destroys us.

    She had created a temporary tomb for the living, soon it would fulfill its proper task, but she would suffer first, as only she felt was proper.

    The boy hid from the world for days. The plants he nurtured and cared for so much went unattended, and the girl he desperately loved slowly died within her tomb. He hid from it all, shivering beneath a warm blanket, safe from the pain that his actions could cause.

    She died in that tomb and the boy learned about it months later.

    The boy claimed to have lost the great love of his life. His own actions had killed that which he loved, and he was destroyed from the inside. He refused to let his life be ended by this mistake though, he would live on through the memory of that girl and the love that they have.

    Yet I ask my audience this; did he ever love her or just the idea of her?

    Thus ends the story of Ramses the Lover or the Loveless.

    With a bow Luna exited the stage of her own making. Leaving only remnants of imagination in her wake.

    The story etched itself into the minds of all those present, but most of all it struck Joy discordantly. Something about the boy, Ramses, didn¡¯t sit well with Joy. Somehow what the boy had done seemed beyond forgivable; it offended a deep hidden part of Joy that even he didn¡¯t know about.

    Joy wandered through the now quiet and restless crowd to find Lillian. Once he found her, she also seemed bothered by the story. There was something in there, a nugget of truth that Joy couldn¡¯t discern quite yet, but he would.

    The two slowly wandered back to the prince¡¯s castle. Joy had a tournament to prepare for, but his mind was filled with images of young children in love, and blossoming weeds.

 Chapter 71 - New Outfit

    Joy had not found his morning to be incredibly exciting. He knew that he should treat every single day like an adventure. That everything from eating breakfast to finding clothes should bring him happiness in some small ways.

    But he felt sad.

    And that was okay.

    He moved through the motions of getting ready. He dressed himself in something that made him look devilishly good. Then he spent some time trying to pick out some accessory that brought out his eyes.

    He eventually decided on wearing glasses with empty lenses to the tournament today. It felt a little too dangerous to have easily breakable glass near his sensitive eyes.

    Joy barely even looked at the magical coin that told him about when his match was and who it was against.

    The whole thing felt formulaic to him. This tournament was banal in some way. It was the way that his victory was assured by the formula. He was the brash up and comer who took out the favorite for the tournament this year through what everyone else thought was luck. Then after a few scrapes and bruises he slowly won the crowd over by showing them that it wasn¡¯t luck but an almighty skill.

    He just felt like a trope in a bad play.

    Hopefully, today would be different.

    Joy slowly trudged towards the exit from the room, wishing for something exciting to happen to spice up his day. A firm knock stopped him in his tracks.

    Joy stared at the door. No one who came to talk to him knocked. All his friends knew to just barge in. So, who would knock?

    Joy slowly opened the door a smidge to see Rose, the prince¡¯s personal confidante standing outside. She was dressed well enough to make Joy feel like a donkey at the disco. Vibrant waves of color shimmered throughout her outfit, changing as Joy watched. Patterns flowed freely through the cloth and Joy was mesmerized by her beautiful clothes.

    Rose coughed once. Then twice as Joy kept ogling her clothes.

    ¡°Normally, people are at least staring at me, not just my clothes.¡± Rose said in a sarcastic tone.

    ¡°You must introduce me to your tailor. This is exactly what I have been missing. That is truly beautiful. Did you get Marzano to make it, or Pimento? Who could do such a thing?¡± Joy excitedly chattered at her.

    ¡°Well, since I have something you want and I need you to do something for me, how about we make a trade.¡± Rose smiled at Joy. The look reminded Joy a little too much of crocodile teeth, but he loved fashion more than anything else, so he had already made up his mind about this deal with Rose.

    ¡°Anything.¡± He bent to one knee and looked at her with his best puppy dog eyes.

    ¡°Yuck.¡± After a pause where she recollected herself, she continued, ¡°you have been winning in the knight tournament and have been developing quite a following within the common people. However, you have not been expanding your influence, thereby the prince¡¯s influence, within the upper tier circles. I want you to attend a party that is being held in the castle tonight. And I want you to be a dashing gentleman that makes people swoon and turn green from envy.¡±

    ¡°That seems amenable. Now who is your tailor?¡± Joy barely even thought about what he agreed to. He loved a party, and he was the envy of everyone everywhere he went so that wouldn¡¯t be an issue. But he would probably enjoy a party, it might even be a ball.

    Rose smiled with her crocodile teeth and said, ¡°I am doing the colors myself.¡±

    Joy was filled with awe. The only people who Joy generally respected were farmers, followed by stay-at-home parents, and then fashionistas. She was the most beautiful person he had ever seen at that moment.

    ¡°Please, I beg you. Give me an outfit that looks like yours.¡±

    Her hand came to rest on Joy¡¯s chest. Rose¡¯s smile had only grown more reptilian as the conversation continued.

    ¡°Since you have been so willing to help me out, I¡¯ll help you out. Your outfit will now be everything you wanted it to be.¡± Underneath Rose¡¯s hand, Joy¡¯s clothes blossomed into color. Red, green, and blue spun around him in circles, infecting his entire outfit with life.

    Big fat tears rolled down Joy¡¯s face as he said, ¡°thank you, this is so wonderful.¡±

    Rose almost looked a little guilty as she removed her hand from Joy¡¯s chest. As she started walking away, she said, ¡°Joy, make sure you look beyond the outfit a person is wearing next time. Someone might take offense.¡±

    Joy let that comment slide off him like water off a duck¡¯s back as he jauntily started walking towards the tournament.

    His stride was bobbing and happy as he wandered the streets. He was in such a good mood about his clothes that he stopped by his favorite shop in Vena Cava and got a candied apple for breakfast. Not the healthiest breakfast for an athletic competitor, but he needed to celebrate his new favorite outfit.

    Everyone looked at him a little oddly as he walked by. He was the beauty in the eyes of these beholders, his new clothes fit him like a kaleidoscopic glove.This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

    The arena felt wonderful today as Joy wandered the stands, munching on what remained of his candied apple. There was a charge to the air; the fact that only eight competitors remained had turned the crowd from excited to ecstatic. Popcorn flew from people¡¯s mouths as they watched some pre-fighting entertainment, and Joy laughed as he wandered between them.

    Everyone looked at him funny, but he just knew they were jealous. Anyone with half a brain could understand that his outfit was to die for.

    Joy spotted the prince¡¯s private box and started making his way towards it. Joy didn¡¯t push through the crowd, rather he slipped through it, taking advantage of small holes in the deluge of bodies.

    Joy smiled as he saw the prince¡¯s eyes meet his. He blandly kept moving his gaze until he did a double take, looking back at Joy.

    Joy knew that those eyes could only mean one thing. He had bested the prince in a battle of outfits. As could only be expected of the most beautiful man in Vena Cava.

    The prince slowly lifted one hand over his mouth, Joy thought to cover the obvious grimace that must be tearing its way across his face. But Joy spied someone else in the booth with the prince. Sam and Ian were still there, but the wonderful Rose sat there perched with immense dignity next to the prince.

    Her beautiful clothes were still flowing between colors in a beautiful display. Joy entered the private box and took a bow.

    The prince slowly removed his hand from his mouth. His hair was the color of seashells today, Joy wasn¡¯t sure how he could tell it was supposed to be seashells, but he felt it in his bones. And his eyes were the color of a river flowing through a particularly silty area. It made for an odd effect; it made the prince look like some sort of deity of water.

    ¡°Joy, what a wonderful outfit you have on. Who did you get to design it?¡± The prince looked Joy up and down.

    ¡°I got the wonderful and beautiful Rose over there to give my clothes a makeover. She really made my day when she morphed my clothes into this new and sleek look.¡± At mention of Rose the prince¡¯s head whipped over to her. A look was shared between the two, but Joy had no clue what the inaudible questions were.

    ¡°He really got on my nerves this morning, so I decided that he deserved a proper reward.¡± Joy nodded his head at this, she obviously didn¡¯t know what getting on someone¡¯s nerves meant, but that was okay, even perfect people could have some faults.

    The prince let out a very undignified chortle before he turned back to Joy. ¡°We hope to see some stellar performances from you today.¡± Then he waved Joy away.

    Joy harrumphed as he was led out of the box by Ian. He hated the little hand waving, he wasn¡¯t some lapdog who came and went as his master pleased, was he?

    Joy stalked away to go to the private competitor area, at least there he would be respected.

    __

    As Joy left the prince turned to face Rose. ¡°Did you really have to make his outfit so ugly?¡±

    "He really asked for it, it¡¯s not my fault he hasn¡¯t checked to make sure that the patterns are still rippling. It¡¯s also not my fault he doesn¡¯t understand that my gift only works through direct touch. Also, he annoyed me.¡±

    Rose put her nose in the air like she really was offended by Joy. But the prince had spent far too much time with her not to know her true intentions. Rose was a person where every interaction led to her desired outcome. She was not part of his inner circle just because she was the greatest friend he had ever made in his life; she was brutally efficient at all things political.

    There was some purpose for everything she was doing, the prince could smell that, but he was content to wait and see what she would do.

    ¡°On a separate note, please don¡¯t use your gift on anyone else anymore. Some secrets are best left until the very last moment.¡± A dark gleam shone in the prince¡¯s eyes as he stared at Rose.

    To this she just nodded her head in agreement. Maybe it hadn¡¯t been so prudent to do as she had done, but she didn¡¯t regret it.

    __

    Joy knew that his time had come. He was going to battle his opponent. He had done no research and knew nothing about his opponent. All he knew was that he looked handsome as ever today and that he felt stronger because of it.

    Joy walked into the arena with a strong stance. He didn¡¯t strut as he was prone to do at times, instead he stood proudly and defiantly as he entered an arena unlike the others he had seen before.

    The arena had been converted into a picnic area.

    There were blankets laid out, little baskets of food haphazardly placed, and beautiful trees to look upon as one dined. It was a little odd, but Joy enjoyed that the arena supervisors were trying new things out.

    Once Joy became visible to the crowd he did a curt half bow with little extra flourish, then he wandered over to smell the flowers.

    In a distant corner of the arena a wordless yell rose with a strength and ferocity unmatched by any of the other sections. Again, there was an entire section filled with the people that Joy had saved a few nights ago. They were all still red, but it was closer to being sunburnt than crimson now, and their horns had slowly receded, now they only looked like growths upon their skull.

    Joy took special care to raise a few flowers that he had picked out towards them. They needed so much love. Joy had felt all their pain, and he wanted them to know that someone cared about them and their suffering.

    Joy sat on the ground and fashioned a small crown of flowers. The announcer didn¡¯t even say anything about him this time. It was becoming a serious issue. Joy could take many things, but being ignored was not one of them.

    ¡°And in the other corner, this time we have someone new. He apparently defeated Ronald the McDonald who held a coin for this tournament in a bar brawl and he is here for a rootin¡¯ tootin¡¯ good time. We know nothing more about him except his name; please, give it up for Lambo.¡±

    The crowd roared with the delight of a five-year-old receiving a new present. Maybe it wasn¡¯t one of the fighters they had come to know and love, but he certainly was exciting.

    The man was chubby and unkempt. His hair looked smelly, his shirt was two sizes too small, and he picked his nose as he entered the arena. He even had a beer bottle shoved down his pants in what Joy hoped was supposed to be a vulgar display.

    Joy had felt this day was going to be boring, yet exciting things kept happening left and right.

    The announcer yelled ¡°begin!¡± And the noise of the crowd suddenly disappeared as a bubble of silence was thrown over the competitors.

    Joy took his customary stance of readiness. A cocky grin spreading across his face. Lambo started ambling over to Joy as he shoved one of his hairy hands down his pants to root for something.

    ¡°Ya know,¡± Lambo burped, ¡°me and my friends have a bet going. We been watchin you these past couple days and we thinks we gots a plan to beat ya.¡±

    From his pants Lambo pulled out a deck of cards.

    ¡°How would ye feel if I asked, ¡®do ye wanna play a game?¡¯¡±

    A grin spread across Joy¡¯s face as he looked at the man as if he were Joy¡¯s true love. He had never seen a man so repulsive in his manners and yet he felt irresistibly drawn towards him.

    The two competitors sat down at one of the picnic tables unaware of the riot of booing that their actions had caused. No one came to the arena to watch two people play go-fish, they wanted blood, not hearts.

    But even if Joy did know, he could¡¯ve cared less. He was excited.

 Chapter 72 - Perception

    Joy sat down at the picnic table and let his opponent, Lambo, talk.

    ¡°You see. Me and my friends know your type. We¡¯ve seen you come and go over our little parts of Vena Cava. You are what we like to call a compulsive gambler. It¡¯s a real condition and me and my friends started a support group to help those less fortunate than us with this problem.¡±

    Joy cocked his head. This wasn¡¯t quite what he was expecting, and he wasn¡¯t sure if he appreciated the deep dive into his mental state.

    Lambo started shuffling the cards. His fingers flowed like water over them; this was a man of the cards.

    ¡°Anyways, me and my buds we thought, ¡®this guy is a real piece of work.¡¯ Now, we had a thought, from the way you fought and the way that you acted we felt that you would agree to play any game because you are so sure of yourself. We were even sure that you would play the game even if you knew that your opponent was cheating.¡±

    At the mention of cheating Joy¡¯s eyes glowed with excitement, and Lambo flashed two different aces of spades.

    ¡°So, here¡¯s my bet with you. You can either take the first steps towards recovery from your problem by admitting you have lost, because you will lose my rigged game, at which point I will forfeit this lousy arena fight. Or I continue to cheat and destroy your ego until you succumb to option one.¡±

    ¡°I would say that sounds like you¡¯re giving me no options.¡± Joy smiled at the man as he wiped his nose onto his hand, then transferred the mucus onto his pant leg.

    ¡°You would be right. And that¡¯s how bad your addiction is, you know all that and you¡¯re still going to accept my offer.¡±

    ¡°Maybe you¡¯re right. Well, what¡¯s your game?¡± Joy looked melancholic, but Lambo wasn¡¯t paying attention.

    Lambo started dealing the cards out. He formed a pile of three, a pile of five, and a pile of seven. ¡°The cards in these piles do not matter, and there are only two things you can do in this game. You can either pick up a pile or pick up a single card from a pile. Your goal is to not be the last person to pick up a card. That¡¯s the game.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s it?¡±

    ¡°Yes. Now pick up the first card.¡±

    Joy considered his options and decided that he would pick up the entire pile of seven. Something about it just seemed fun.

    Lambo picked up the pile of five. Joy realized he had lost. He could either pick up the pile of three, which would make him lose. Or he could pick up a single card, to which Lambo would pick up a single card, leaving Joy forced to grab the final card from the game.

    The game continued in such fashion for a while. Joy would eventually lose after trying some new tactic out, but Lambo would unerringly counter Joy¡¯s move in the game, leading to another loss by Joy. Again, and again.

    After a while, Joy declared, ¡°I cannot win.¡± There was finality to his words, there was something powerful and weak contained within them. Joy accepted that there was no hidden well of luck he could draw upon to bring himself victory in these circumstances. He had truly lost.

    ¡°That¡¯s close. You have said you cannot win, there is a difference between being unable to win and having lost.¡± Lambo grinned, revealing many missing teeth and the remaining ones yellowed and crusty.

    ¡°Losing implies the ability to win. You cannot lose if that is your only option. I refuse to admit a loss unless we play a game that I could win.¡± Joy twiddled his fingers. He looked almost guilty, yet steadfast in his opinion.

    Lambo laid down on the ground nearby and stared up at the beautiful blue sky. ¡°I told you I was cheating, and you still thought that you had a chance to win. You are conceited and delusional.¡±

    ¡°Maybe so, and yet I refuse to lose here in this way. I have not lost. I am merely far away from winning.¡±

    ¡°Why is it so hard for you to admit that you have lost?¡± Lambo picked his nose as he said this.

    ¡°Because I will win, you just don¡¯t know it yet.¡±

    There was a brief pause, then Lambo doubled over laughing. ¡°You just said ye¡¯ weren¡¯t going to be able to win.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s because I didn¡¯t say we were going to be playing your game.¡± Joy¡¯s eyes twinkled with a plan.

    ¡°But you can¡¯t just challenge me to another game, that¡¯s not how this works.¡± Lambo sneered at Joy.

    ¡°Wrong twice, Lambo. Don¡¯t let your mouth get in front of your mind. We are going to play the game that we have always been playing. The ¡®get-to-know-you-game.¡¯¡±

    With this, Joy started picking cards up from the three piles. Lambo cautiously moved against Joy. Calmly picking the cards that allowed him the assured victory.

    After a few rounds of losing, Joy asked, ¡°what do you see in other people Lambo?¡±

    Lambo didn¡¯t answer for a few rounds as they continued picking up cards and rearranging them. ¡°I see their failures and their mistakes. Everyone else seems to be following the same set of mistakes at every turn.¡±

    ¡°Does that mean that you are beyond making mistakes?¡±

    ¡°Far from it. I mean look at me, I am dirty and disgusting, poorer than a hen without eggs, and crabbier than a lobster.¡±The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

    ¡°That¡¯s the beautiful thing about people, Lambo. Is that the only thing we can control about other people is the way that they can perceive us. So, you must have decided that this is the way you wish to be perceived.¡±

    ¡°No, this is just the way that I am. Don¡¯t misconstrue character for some elaborate scheme.¡±

    ¡°But that¡¯s the thing. Character is always a choice. If you want to be a happier and kinder person, all you have to do is act kinder and happier.¡±

    ¡°If that was true then everyone would be happier. There are some things that no one is capable of overcoming. Poverty and pain, you wouldn¡¯t tell me that someone who has been tortured their entire life could just be happy because they will it into existence.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s exactly what I am telling you, Lambo. I have met the poor, I have met the destroyed, I have met the strong, and I have met the unbowed victors of this world. Can I tell you the greatest thing I have seen about them?¡± Joy paused for a moment to revel in his words. ¡°The worse off someone is, the more willing they are to find happiness in their situations. It takes someone falling from grace to be truly unhappy. They always want and want for what they had before, for what they dream they deserve. But no one deserves anything in this world, we all simply get what we get, and we don¡¯t throw a fit.¡±

    ¡°Now that¡¯s just childish. The better off people are the happier they are, and the worse off people are the unhappier they are. That¡¯s the way of the world, or else everyone would simply throw away all their possession and money to become destitute but happy.¡± Lambo seemed unsettled by this entire conversation.

    ¡°You, Lambo, are a perfect example of this. You seem to be a truly miserable specimen.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s just plain rude.¡±

    ¡°But let me explain, it all makes sense, I swear.¡± Joy took a pause to lose another game of picking up cards. ¡°You hide behind these affectations that you are some poor, miserable, crass cretin. However, behind that thin veil is the mind of an intellectual. You were educated by private tutors but maybe never made it to the top of the noble¡¯s totem pole. Then some great catastrophes hit your life, my assumption is that it was gambling. You gambled away your family¡¯s entire fortune leaving you destitute and without any employable skills.¡±

    Joy took a moment to grin at Lambo, but all humor had left Lambo¡¯s face. ¡°You tried to act up the nobleman who was down on his luck in the sewers you were left in, but that got you nowhere. And you started to despise the way people looked at you for it. So, you decided that the nobleman you could¡¯ve been should stay an unsullied character and that Lambo of now would be born. The nobleman you were before could never be injured by the insults that Lambo must take. You have hidden yourself behind a mask of insecurities that are not your own in order to hide from the world.¡±

    ¡°Stop!¡± Lambo bellowed. His face was a beautiful mix of ashen grey and beet red, swirling to create a scene quite like the ashes of a burning town, or maybe the dying embers of a life.

    ¡°You don¡¯t get to criticize me. You haven¡¯t lived my life; you know nothing of who I am and what I have struggled through. Damn you, Joy, don¡¯t say things just to hurt.¡±

    ¡°I do get to criticize you. Everyone has lived, and you decided that you couldn¡¯t live with yourself. So, you made caricature of yourself to live for you. Wasting away your days hiding behind the guise of a disgusting man who could take the pain.¡±

    ¡°Maybe I needed that.¡± Lambo turned his face down as a single tear streamed down his grimy face.

    ¡°Your pain is one of the only things in this world that is truly yours. I met a child on the frozen continent who had lived through more pain than you could imagine, and he decided that he could love his life despite the pain it caused him, that there was some small hope in the world worth living for.¡±

    ¡°Yes, and so even some child is a stronger person than I, isn¡¯t that depressing?¡±

    ¡°You look at me and declare that I am an addict and a fool, but that¡¯s not what this is. You look at me and only see yourself. Everyone only sees themselves in the world around them. The weak see weakness and the strong see strength.¡±

    ¡°And I am so very weak?¡±

    ¡°Yes, I think you are.¡±

    There was a long pause. Lambo didn¡¯t move. The games of picking up cards had stopped mattering so long ago, yet he still moved with impeccable accuracy to constantly refute Joy¡¯s attempts to win. But now he waited silently, reflecting on the words that had been spoken.

    When was the last time he had tried to be alive instead of just existing?

    When had he last enjoyed a day?

    What did he love in this world?

    Was his life even worth living?

    Sitting in front of the two players was one pile containing three cards and a pile with five. To force Joy to lose all Lambo had to do was pick one of them up in its entirety.

    ¡°Why do you get to decide what the ideal version of my life should look like?¡± Lambo¡¯s red rimmed eyes bored into Joy, seeking an answer.

    ¡°I don¡¯t. I¡¯m just telling you what I see and reminding you that it is and always has been your choice. This sad squalor was your choice. The endless pessimism and weakness was your choice. Why make your life miserable when you could be happy, Lambo?¡±

    ¡°Well, I choose something else. I choose to prove you wrong.¡± Lambo grabbed the pile with three cards. Then he threw them into Joy¡¯s face, Joy recoiled from the flying cards then was suddenly hit in the nose by a blazing right hook.

    Joy¡¯s nose made a horrible crack as it was struck, and blood started gushing out onto the floor of the stadium. A few picnic blankets that used to be red and white checkered squares slowly were stained a deep crimson.

    Lambo stood tall and proud. His knobby nose, his wobbling knees, and the beer bottle stuck down his pants created a haunted image. He hawked a loogy down at Joy¡¯s feet as he stood up.

    ¡°You are the weak one, Joy. Brought low by your own happiness. Only by suffering can we be made stronger, and I have suffered. My suffering meant something; it wasn¡¯t a choice made to make myself miserable. It was a choice to make me strong.¡±

    Lambo had a gift to make everyone around him equal in strength. It was given by Fairness and Lambo won his entry coin to this competition with it.

    The gift wasn¡¯t flashy, it just took away everyone¡¯s powers and made them equal to Lambo. The Lambo with his weak knees. The Lambo who started gasping for breath with even the slightest bit of exercise. The Lambo whose gut stuck out beyond his nose. It made everyone as weak as Lambo had become.

    He had gotten many people off balance with it. Powerful people got used to the power within themselves and were taken by surprise when Lambo stole it all from them.

    The only thing his gift couldn¡¯t take away was a person¡¯s mentality and strength of will.

    The audience¡¯s boos had not subsided since the beginning of the match. So, no one heard the conversation between the two, however once they saw fists start flying a cheer resounded from the audience.

    Joy¡¯s and Lambo¡¯s wills clashed in the middle of the arena.

    Both men ran at each other, and their fists found each other¡¯s faces. Both collapsed to the ground after the decisive blow. Joy cried out in extreme pain as his broken nose was broken even further. Lambo¡¯s legs went out from under him, and he fell to his back.

    Both were profoundly tired from the minor amount of physical effort. Both felt their bones ache beneath their flesh, unused to having their strength tested so thoroughly.

    Despite their bodies¡¯ crying for rest, both men stood up. Joy spat blood on the ground as his heaving chest took in a great lungful of air. Lambo screamed the cry of the unbroken as he raised his fists and beat on his chest.

    The crowd had been excited about the battle. But their anger that had turned to fervor, slowly shifted to boredom as the two heaving men punched each other and fell over repeatedly. Neither would fall to the ground, yet neither had the physical capacity to seize the initiative and finish the fight. It became a silence only interrupted by fists hitting flesh occasionally and the panting of men unused to exercise.

    Flesh and blood spilled in a ritual to someone unseen god, the world watched as two men hit each other, hoping the other would give up.

    Joy couldn¡¯t breathe anymore. He had given up on putting any flash into his movements. He had lost his mind. All that was left was the conflict between him and Lambo.

    Lambo pulled the beer bottle out of his pants. He knew that pure physicality wouldn¡¯t win this battle. The only thing left to distinguish the two fighters was cruelty and cunning.

    The beer bottle slammed down into Joy¡¯s skull, and it shattered.

    Shards embedded themselves in Joy¡¯s head as he lolled to the side.

    Lambo felt it in his bones that he had won. He had shown the world, the gods, that his misery meant something.

    He turned to face his adoring audience.

    But all he saw were hands covering his face.

    As Joy fell forward, he flung himself into one final embrace with Lambo. His arms raised to hold the man in a hug. No one deserved to suffer alone.

    Joy¡¯s arms closed around him and brought both of them to the ground in a final heap.

    One particularly large piece of glass that had embedded itself into Joy¡¯s head had pierced Lambo¡¯s neck. In a cruel twist of Fate, Lambo lay on the arena floor bleeding out.

    Neither of the competitors could move, and the match was finally called a victory in Joy¡¯s favor because he had no major injuries, while Lambo would eventually bleed out from the puncture in his neck.

    It was a victory that was accompanied by no fanfare. The audience paid little attention to it as more beer and snacks were consumed. All in all, the entire battle seemed empty and meaningless.

    There was never any point to it in the first place.

 Chapter 73 - Cracking Ice

    When Theo had seen the name on his tournament coin he had felt some small cold vindication in his soul. All the poison called hate within him would find release that day in a match.

    Ramses.

    Theo didn¡¯t hate the man in truth, he just hated the way he walked, the way he talked, and most of all, the way he had hurt Lillian. That was all there was to it, nothing personal.

    Theo sat cross legged on the ground, waiting for Joy¡¯s fight to finish. He knew he should be out there supporting his friend through this moment, but he could care less right now. All that mattered was the match with Ramses.

    After some interminable amount of time a girl tapped him on the shoulder and gestured for him to walk out towards the arena. He barely registered her face, he was in a daze, waiting.

    The corridor felt cold. A bitter wind was creeping down the hall and seeping into Theo¡¯s bones. It was welcomed into his body; he needed a cold fire to bring down Ramses.

    Theo didn¡¯t listen to the stupid announcer do his stupid introductions. He just walked out into the arena. The entire arena was filled with ice. But it wasn¡¯t just knee-deep snow. There were beautiful works of art embedded into the snowbanks, people caught in moments of pain and weakness, triumphant heroes, and the average person living as normally as they could. All these images sparked something in Theo, yet he crushed it down in his anticipation for seeing his enemy.

    Theo¡¯s gaze turned red when he saw Ramses step into the arena. Ramses didn¡¯t seem to look much like anything. He didn¡¯t seem happy or sad at all, he just seemed like he was there.

    But Theo could feel the bubbling core of hate in him simmer as Ramses stepped onto the icy field.

    Theo took one final breath, uncaring for the structures of the battle and what was supposed to happen here. Theo didn¡¯t want battle; he wanted to teach Ramses a lesson.

    Without waiting for the announcer to start the match, Theo released an iceberg in the arena. Hundreds of sculptures were shattered as he looked forward with all his freezing power.

    It was much more than he was used to, but it didn¡¯t matter. None of it mattered as long as Ramses felt the cold.

    ¡°Her body shields me.¡± Theo could hear the voice carry across the stadium, though he knew that it was being spoken at a normal volume.

    Within the iceberg Theo had just made in the center of the arena, Theo saw a body of glowing light surrounding Ramses¡¯ form. The glowing body had saved Ramses from the onslaught of ice, but Theo wasn¡¯t finished yet.

    He gazed down into his hands and a brutal spear was formed out of ice. Layer by layer, a spear filled with brutal crags and edges was created. There were many sharp points that stuck out from it, and as Theo held onto the weapon drops of his blood spilled from where he gripped the spear.

    A spear of white and red that cried ¡®pain¡¯ to the world.

    Ramses was not stationary during this time. The hollow space where the woman had been, was filled by hands from the woman each with nails longer than an average man was tall. These nails pierced the ice that surrounded Ramses, then different fists rammed into the weakened walls of ice, causing more and more ice in Ramses¡¯ prison to fall away.

    As Theo approached the edge of the iceberg he had created, Ramses exploded out of the side of the icy wall. The two men faced each other, Ramses said ¡°her nails will strike my enemies down.¡± And a spear appeared in front of him, it was a spear that looked as if a massive nail had been shaved down until it was usable as a weapon. It shimmered in the snow.

    Both men squared off against the other, sizing up the opponent. Then they rushed at each other, letting their spears clash.

    Nail shattered ice in a spray of frozen chips. The spear pierced through Theo¡¯s right shoulder throwing him back and pinning him to a sculpture of a woman eating a random piece of fruit.

    Theo snarled at Ramses and a flood of ice erupted in front of him. Ramses whispered, ¡°protect me, please.¡±If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    A warrior version of the woman who always appeared when Ramses called slammed down in front of Ramses, a massive shield carried in both arms. She brought the shield up in front of them and held back the flood of ice looking to consume him.

    Theo screamed as he ripped the ethereal spear out of his shoulder, then he stared down at the wound and froze the surface layer shut so he would not keep bleeding everywhere.

    He brought the spear down level at the woman and Ramses then chucked it at them with the strength in his remaining arm.

    Ramses watched the spear close in on his and said, ¡°she would never harm me.¡± Then the spear passed harmlessly through the woman and him, like they were ghosts.

    Theo screamed at the top of his lungs. It was a throaty scream filled with wordless hate. He threw out all the weakness that held him back, he threw away what he cared about, he forgot why he was even fighting the man in front of him, all in a reckless effort to feel only the cold edge of hatred for the man in front of him.

    Theo looked beyond the air in front of Ramses. He knew there were little bits of invisible water in everything and that was what he truly froze when he used his gift; but he looked beyond it. For the first time he truly looked at Ramses.

    Theo didn¡¯t see a villain. He saw a man who struggled to get here and had fought Lillian honorably. Or about as honorably as anyone can fight. He saw there was pain in his eyes and loss. But most of all he saw a deep underlying passion to the man. He was beautiful.

    But none of that mattered as the water inside Ramses¡¯ body froze.

    A scream of terror erupted from Ramses as he was frozen. Theo knew that the pain must have been immeasurable, and he knew that he had just done something truly awful to the man in front of him.

    Theo had made a mistake.

    Theo stopped looking at Ramses and fell to his knees.

    Ramses was mostly ice; he had been turned into a living statue much like the ones in the arena around him. But that wasn¡¯t enough. Pain wasn¡¯t enough to ever make him stop loving, even death could not keep his love from the world.

    Silently, a shimmering image of the woman he loved appeared in front of him. He needed no incantation of love to summon her, because his entire being was composed of love for her.

    She caressed his face with a glowing hand and lightly kissed his forehead.

    In a burst of light his body was restored whole and hale. Chips of ice fell off him as he stood proudly as tall as he could.

    Ramses could not lose. He refused to lose.

    Theo did not notice Ramses¡¯ epic rejuvenation; he was too busy moping about how he had just murdered someone in a horrific way. Truly, edginess never helped someone win a battle.

    ¡°Her luscious locks bind my enemies.¡± Quietly, Ramses mumbled his incantation and a net of glowing hair enveloped Theo.

    Theo looked up in surprise as the net encased him. The man he had killed was standing there unharmed with a confident look on his face. This was bad.

    Theo frantically started forming hunks of ice around the arena. He obscured Ramses¡¯ view of him and formed a small knife out of ice to hack away at his bonds.

    The hunks of ice around the arena were not forming as quickly as he hoped. They were quite small and measly in comparison to the glaciers he had formed earlier in the competition.

    Ramses floated above the cover Theo had created on a giant glowing hand. His eyes shone with no hate, not even acknowledgement, it was the eyes of a man who could not wait finish this battle.

    A wave of ghostly hands shot down at Theo as he finally ripped himself free from the net. A weak shell of ice formed around him in hopes of protecting him from the volley.

    But it wasn¡¯t enough.

    The hands pierced through the feeble shield and drove Theo to his knees. Hundreds of hands forced him to the ground where they held him down as Ramses approached.

    Ramses held a club that looked to be made of a human femur, Theo tried not to think about the ramifications of that too hard.

    Ramses approached Theo as he laid on the ground and said, ¡°I forgive you, and I hope you forgive me.¡± Then Ramses walloped Theo over the head with the bone until he fell unconscious.

    When Theo awoke, he was in the infirmary for the losers of the matches. Joy was sitting in a cot near Theo and was taking a small nap. But more importantly, next to Theo was Lillian who had a cross look on her face.

    Theo began simpering, ¡°I am so sorry I couldn¡¯t beat him. I just¡­ he was too strong.¡± He wrung his hands and looked like a truly miserable wretch.

    ¡°Why in the world would I care about that? Why in the world would I want you to come in like my hero and beat that guy up for me? Do you really think that¡¯s what I wanted?¡± Lillian¡¯s words cut into Theo, sharper than knives, they stung.

    ¡°No, I guess not.¡±

    ¡°YOU GUESS!¡± Lillian¡¯s shouting was starting to attract the attention of the healing staff in the room and there were hushed whispers with the guards outside.

    ¡°I was angry, I was just so angry for what he did to you.¡± Theo felt sobs starting to push up his throat, but he shoved them back down. Now was not the time to feel.

    ¡°You were blind to it all Theo. That wasn¡¯t a fight, it was just you trying to express your hate for him, and in your hate for him you destroyed so much of what you love.¡± Lillian held Theo¡¯s hand as she said this.

    ¡°What I love?¡± Theo asked, the sobs starting to push their way back up again.

    ¡°Did you not even notice? I bet you didn¡¯t.¡± A light scoff escaped Lillian¡¯s lips. ¡°Whose ice sculptures did you think were on the arena floor? They were playing mind games with you, the knights snuck into the prince¡¯s castle last night and stole all your artwork.¡±

    Theo stared disbelieving at Lillian. All his hard work, all his art, it was gone. And he didn¡¯t even notice as he was fighting Ramses.

    The sobs were pushed back down into his stomach, and Theo felt empty. So very empty.

 Chapter 74 - Three Friends

    Joy loved his friends. There was some bond that pulled him, Theo, and Lillian together in an ineffable way. The problem was that both of his friends were sulking right now. And they were both angry with the other in their own special ways.

    Lillian was furious that Theo had gotten so caught up in his own need for revenge that he had destroyed his own art without realizing it. Joy could understand her viewpoint; Theo had done a selfish thing. He had taken her loss and created a crusade that had nothing to do with her and everything to do with his own anger.

    Theo was sad that he had destroyed his art, but for some unknowable reason, he was mad that Lillian didn¡¯t understand that he had been angry for her, and that it was truly a show of how deep his love for her was.

    And, as always, Joy was stuck in the middle of this.

    He longed for the simple days when he would sit by the river back in his hometown and listen to the birds singing and hear his father softly humming to himself as he worked. The deep baritone resting in a reassuring way within Joy¡¯s bones.

    Instead of reassurance resting in his bones, a painful silence enveloped Joy and his two friends¡¯ bones.

    Lillian had tried to take Joy out for an evening of celebration, what with his controversial win in the arena. In Joy¡¯s opinion, the controversy about how boring it was just made it that much better. But in an effort to not leave their wallowing companion (who had lost in that very same competition) they had dragged Theo out of his self-flagellation chamber to join them for a night of revelry.

    However, it was not going well.

    The two of them refused to speak to each other. Instead, they spoke only to Joy and sent veiled insults to the other through conversations with Joy. But that had subsided after one of the wait staff had come around during one of their personal spats and given them a look.

    Joy had hoped to get blindingly drunk during this time; he had made it to the semi-finals of the competition after all. But more importantly he was hoping to mooch off the newfound fame he was riding on; he had been so confident in his plan he had left all his money behind at the prince¡¯s castle. Now he was depressingly sober because anyone who seemed likely to send Joy a celebratory drink would see Theo at the same table and would realize that this was not a party atmosphere.

    Theo was Joy¡¯s personal wet towel, so he had decided to take Lillian¡¯s side. He never voiced the fact he was on Lillian¡¯s side of course, since both his friends needed support right now, but he thought that Theo could feel it.

    ¡°How about we play a game to lighten the mood?¡± Joy tried the only opener he could think of.

    ¡°What game? What rules?¡± Theo was direct. He knew that he was being a wet towel on what was supposed to be a celebratory dinner, so he was desperate to lighten the mood.

    ¡°Blackjack.¡± Joy started the game as he pulled the deck of cards out of his soul space. Joy used his gift so infrequently that it was easy to forget that his gift was just a simple deck of cards. The great game ability was some sort of artifact, but his deck of cards was out, and the jokers were pulled out of the deck by Joy and placed down on the table for all to see.

    One joker looked just like Theo. But his eyes were red, and his head was cartoonishly large. The other joker looked just like Lillian, but she had steam coming out of her ears and massive sharp teeth.

    Neither Theo nor Lilian was amused. But Joy was, and that was what mattered - to Joy at least.

    Ever the pragmatist, Lillian asked, ¡°what are we betting? Blackjack seems stupid if there¡¯s nothing to bet.¡±

    Joy pointed to her as he shuffled the deck with one hand. ¡°Now that is a good question. How about we bet words. We bet a certain number of words and whoever wins the round gets to say as many words as were bet in that round to someone else at the table without them being able to respond.¡±

    There was a brief pause as everyone at the table took that in. It was unconventional, but the best types of games were not the expected ones.

    ¡°I¡¯m in.¡± Both Theo and Lillian spoke at the same time and glared at each other as they said it. Joy thought it was rather cute.

    ¡°I will be dealer; if you ever lose a round, I get to say something mean to you, without any repercussions, with the exact number of words that you bet.¡± Joy did one final flourish as he shot one final card out of the deck and caught it in his other hand. It was the instruction card with the rules, as everyone had agreed with them, printed on the front.Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

    ¡°What are your bets?¡±

    Theo started with a low bet, ¡°three words.¡±

    ¡°And for the raven-haired lady?¡±

    ¡°Eight.¡± Lillian as always put her best foot forward.

    Joy dealt out the cards. He had a three and a five showing, while Lillian had a king showing, which looked like a nice rendition of King Renoir, and Theo had a four.

    Lillian peeked at her hidden card, then smirked, Joy would have to let her know that she had a most horrendous poker face, but that was for later. ¡°I¡¯ll stay.¡±

    Theo said, ¡°hit me.¡± And in a flash a jack appeared next to his four. Theo also had a bad poker face, but it was all in his eyes. For all the control he showed with his face, his eyes gave away his excitement far too easily. ¡°I¡¯ll stay.¡±

    Both players looked at Joy expectantly, waiting for him to place down more cards.

    The first card was put down; it was an ace. The second card went down, and it was also an ace. The third card went down, and it was also an ace.

    ¡°Well, that¡¯s twenty-one for me. What do you all have?¡± Both Lillian and Theo¡¯s faces had suddenly turned angry. Joy knew that he was laying it on thick, but they needed this even if they didn¡¯t want it.

    Both players flipped the card that was hidden from Joy, showing that they both had scores of twenty.

    Joy smiled and said, ¡°well I guess I will use my well won words.¡±

    He turned to face Lillian, ¡°I love you Lillian, but you¡¯re a slob.¡±

    He turned to Theo, ¡°you are frozen.¡± Joy knew that his words for Theo were a little lacking in substance, but he only had three words to work with here, they should cut him some slack.

    Joy handed the deck off to Lillian who started shuffling it. The triple aces had been a little obvious, however neither of these two would ever know why Joy was so good at card games that used his gift. It wasn¡¯t that he cheated per say, it was that the cards were an extension of him by his gift. So, he knew the position of every card in the deck. The same way someone knows the order of their fingers. He could not lose any game of skill, they just had to beat his luck.

    Joy had used the first round to shape the direction of the game, now he would stop bullying the other two with his gift and let them find the path to forgiveness and consolation themselves.

    A new round started, and Theo bet a modest one word while Lillian bet twelve words.

    Joy allowed the two of them to beat him in this round. He kept drawing cards until he busted, no thought put into a game plan.

    Lillian spoke first, ¡°you don¡¯t have to fight for me. I am more than capable.¡±

    Theo looked at her and said, ¡°sorry.¡±

    There was pain being shared around the table and that was the point. Joy knew that there was no purpose in life beyond what people chose for themselves. Therefore, people would make mistakes and cause pain when they didn¡¯t know what their goal was. The aimless wandering that was so connected to life caused people to cry out with suffering and pain, but it was necessary for people to find their own personal purposes in life. Without it, no one would understand the joys in life. Joys could not matter without understanding how precious they were.

    Joy loved how that was something every child understood intrinsically, and yet every adult had to rediscover for themselves, lest they fall into the pit of cynicism and depression.

    Joy decided not to win every round after that. He allowed his two friends to have their personal squabble without the chains that ego and identity bound them to. They could say vicious and cruel things to each other without destroying each other because they were just playing a game.

    And no game could hurt; not while it provided the needed catharsis they were finding.

    People are like flowers. They wilt and die without proper care; but just like flowers it looks different for every person. Some people needed constant reassurance, while others needed a silent shoulder to cry on. Joy felt that somewhere deep inside he took after his father and his cultivation of plants, just with people instead. A little nudge here and there to get them to edge towards their own happiness.

    It was a difficult balance, guiding without directing. Showing people that they had choices about who they were and wanted to be, just without saying it out loud.

    Joy played round after round of the game. Moderating his friends and feeling the ebb and flow of the conversation. When Lillian started getting too combative, Joy would win a round and help her take a breath from her inner fire. When Theo started pulling into himself too much, Joy won a round to express his admiration for Theo.

    Eventually the cards weren¡¯t needed anymore, and the two best friends talked.

    Joy loved his friends, but he always felt a little lonely with them. There was some unnamable bond between the two of them and Joy didn¡¯t quite fit into it. He was their friend, and he knew it, but he would never be close to them the way they were close to each other.

    And maybe that was for the best. There was just too much Joy to give to the entire world. He wouldn¡¯t ever give it all to only one or two people.

    More importantly, Joy had made a promise to Rose. Maybe he regretted it now, but he was not the sort of man who backed down from his word.

    Joy left the cards on the table that he had been sharing with his friends. It seemed that neither of them needed the cards to express themselves anymore, the cards had stopped moving and the words flowed freely.

    Joy started making his exit. A casual strut towards the door, filled with the nonchalance and grace that befitted a tournament semifinalist.

    Before he reached the door, Lillian shouted. ¡°Hey, Joy!¡± A pause where Theo and Lillian both looked at Joy deeply, ¡°thank you.¡±

    Nothing in particular changed in that moment. There was no god to come down and ordain the three of them as beautiful, wonderful people. No royalty coming in and declaring that the three of them should be dukes of the realm. No bard sitting in the corner composing a ballad for the three friends they had seen become intertwined for a moment.

    It was a moment only for the three of them. The beauty of the moment was only matched by its brevity.

    Joy grinned back at his friends and said nothing as he left. They already knew. And Joy and to go see his tailor; there was no way he was going to show up to a party without looking spectacular.

 Chapter 75 - Princes Plans

    The prince enjoyed parties. There was an ephemeral feeling in the air, some great power that swayed this way and that. And every person at the party was a part of it. The power belonged to no single person in there, and so every person disappeared in a haze. There was nothing left of a person¡¯s identity, all that remained was the party.

    Sometimes.

    This party was not one of those. The atmosphere felt stuffy and there were too many massive personalities vying for control of the room. Well, there were three personalities vying for control of the room. And they made quite the family.

    King Renoir was chatting with the guests throughout the room. His beard was a burgundy color, and his eyes were a caramel that melted souls. Women and men laid themselves before him in an ineffectual show of their devotion.

    The prince hated his father¡¯s gift. It just made people love him. It didn¡¯t matter how well prepared you were for the mind-control. It didn¡¯t matter the loathing you held deep inside. It all was meaningless in the face of the ¡°love¡± that his father¡¯s gift forced upon everyone.

    On the other side of the room, the prince¡¯s sister sat with her best friend Julia. Her presence had infected that entire part of the room. Everyone was silent and holding mysterious meetings. Prince David so dearly wished his sister could see the sort of kingdom that she would create if she won this inheritance war. There was no trust and no love on that side of the room.

    But she couldn¡¯t see that. She was blind.

    David¡¯s side of the room was the most eclectic. David had a way of bringing all kinds of people to him. He wasn¡¯t sure what about him accomplished this, but he liked to believe it was his endless charisma.

    This evening, he was dressed in a militaristic black uniform with his hair being the purest white and his eyes shining gold.

    There was power in the way people presented themselves to the world. David had enjoyed some of the philosophical talks between Joy and the slovenly drunk on the arena earlier that day. They touched on something he felt was important about how people can only control the way others perceive them. However, as an employer he did not approve of how low the public opinion of Joy was right now. The match had been plain boring and so people were starting to dislike Joy. And that was unacceptable.

    The prince didn¡¯t care if Joy lost, he just cared about getting the public opinion of Joy, and by proxy the opinion of David, higher.

    The prince was surrounded by some of his most trusted advisors. Rose stood in a beautiful gown that shimmered in all different metallic shades. It was an armor to protect her from other people¡¯s perception. Ian stood wearing a decrepit military uniform, a reminder of his days of glory and how they are far in the past. And finally, there was Clyde, he had dressed nicely for the occasion, but he was far too nervous, and it showed on him.

    The prince knew that he was placing a lot of expectations upon Clyde¡¯s shoulders, he was just a random man that the prince had seen potential in and saved from his own personal prisons. A useful gift attached to an underwhelming man. But the prince needed all the power he could muster, so he would use the poor man like a tool.

    Too bad for him, sometimes that was just your lot in life.

    The prince glided around his side of the room and enjoyed the expanse of his power. There were all sorts in his sphere of influence, and they all wanted to speak to him. It made him feel important and in turn he made them feel important by speaking with each of them for a few moments.

    It was these small things that truly built power. There certainly was power in gifts and artifacts, but the true power of the kingdom was shaking hands and smiling faces. It didn¡¯t matter if someone could throw lightning if none of the farmers would work for them.

    The prince was enjoying himself so much he almost didn¡¯t notice when Joy walked in.

    The man truly had a gift for entrances. The announcer spoke of his semi-final status and other boring titles that Rose had fed to him for this very moment, but Joy walked into the room nearly naked. All he was wearing was underwear, a beautiful pair of knee-high boots, and a few scraps of cloth that contained all the colors of the rainbow.

    The prince had never seen anyone wear such an outfit before, much less to a fancy dancy royal event. This was going to be a scandal. The prince ran a hand casually through his white hair and sighed at the injustice of his life.

    The prince skillfully started making his way across the room to meet with the incessant fool of his court.

    Ian trailed behind him, a shadow through the party. Clyde didn¡¯t move, for some reason he refused to go near Joy at all, and the prince wouldn¡¯t force the issue, today. And Rose stealthily made her way through the crowds, buttering the correct folks up to lubricate her passage through the clusters.Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

    That sounded dirty, he better not mention it, ever.

    The only part of the prince¡¯s royal retinue that was missing was Sam. However, they were being nefarious and laughing sinisterly in their private snake chamber. Thus, the prince decided that he would pass on the invitation to the party for them.

    Unfortunately, the prince had made his camp on the incorrect side of the room. He had been too worried about people seeing him when they entered the room that he had forgotten to stay close enough to the door to intercept guests.

    David¡¯s father made first contact with Joy. There was handshaking, hugging, and even a kiss on the king¡¯s cheek from Joy. The two laughed boisterously, as if they were the best of friends, and strolled to the dance floor of the party.

    It was surreal watching Joy and King Renoir tango, but prince David had learned that his father attracted fools who blinded themselves to the horrors of life with a mask of laughter. His father¡¯s life had been spent forcing people to like him more, so that his reign with an iron fist seemed more nurturing than violent. But he was violent beyond words; Bloody Ian could attest to that.

    The prince slowly walked over to his sister. If those two idiots were going to be making fools of themselves, there was no reason for him not to go antagonize his sister just a little.

    Dahlia had not moved during Joy¡¯s entrance and stayed conversing with Julia this entire time.

    He sat at the table and smiled at the two women who were staring daggers at him. No one seemed open to conversation, so he decided to take the initiative.

    ¡°How have you all been enjoying the spectacle of the Knight Tournament recently?¡±

    Dahlia looked at him sharply. She was younger than him, but that did not make her stupider. She chewed on the question and spit out an answer.

    ¡°Being perfectly honest, I wish you and I were not involved in it at all. Having paid the entire guild enough gold to make most men vomit, I now see the truth behind this entire charade. The entire thing is supposed to be scripted. It is the way that the knight¡¯s birth a new legend. And we have ruined their entire plan.¡±

    Julia nodded along with this assessment of the tournament. The prince even found himself agreeing with her.

    Dahlia continued, ¡°because the scripting has failed them, now there are too many combatants with boring gifts or horrifying gifts left in the tournament; and there is no one left to vanquish them. Except Ramses.¡±

    David grinned, ¡°but is he really a hero? Or just your horse in this race?¡±

    Evil smiles were shared between the two members of the royalty. It was like they were in on a joke that no one else knew.

    David looked away first, ¡°but really, dear sister, maybe it is just a sign of the times.¡±

    ¡°Dear brother, go on.¡± The implied air quotes around ¡®dear brother¡¯ hurt the prince a little, but he pushed that aside mentally.

    ¡°The people are disillusioned with the classical tales of heroic knights saving kingdoms. They don¡¯t want heroes; they want something new.¡±

    ¡°Something like your new pet? Our father is teaching him to fetch right now.¡± The members of the table all glanced at Joy and the king on the dance floor, where Joy was twirling in place, the strips of cloth swirling around him in a wonderful rainbow. All the while, the king was throwing shrimp into Joy¡¯s mouth. It was horrifying.

    ¡°I¡¯ll admit he¡¯s not a hero, but he is showing the public something new. There is something we feel as an audience as we watch him.¡±

    ¡°All I feel is annoyed.¡± Dahlia sniffed.

    ¡°That¡¯s because you are impossible to please.¡±

    The grins came back to their faces and for a brief moment it was like they were children again. It was two siblings smiling in a secret corner, playing games no one else could ever understand. Before the gifts, before the intrigue, before all that had gone wrong between the two of them. It was a brief moment of happiness.

    But it left.

    Their small faces of exuberance were replaced with the cold masks of adulthood. They put the burdens of their lifetimes back on, refusing to be as free as children. Because children can only be free at the cost of adults.

    The prince stood up, preparing to leave the table. But as he did, he leaned over, close to his sister, and whispered, ¡°it¡¯s not too late. Please, leave the city Dahlia. Go to some backwater town and live a happy unburdened life. Don¡¯t make me destroy you.¡±

    There was anguish in his eyes, but Dahlia couldn¡¯t see that. She was blinded by the arrogance of his words; he had written her off as a threat. To him, this war meant nothing. The lives, their plots, it was all just on the path to him killing her and taking the crown.

    In one swift motion she grabbed a knife off the table and tried to stab David in the throat.

    It was a brutal reaction, too fast for anyone to react. Almost anyone.

    The prince had palmed a knife as he leaned over her and had driven the blade through her wrist as she tried to strike at him. Her arm was now nailed to the table. And she muffled her scream into her shoulder.

    David¡¯s eyes still shone with pain and anguish, but it was all hidden beneath a layer of something else. Something no one could quite put into words.

    ¡°Don¡¯t get in my way, Dahlia.¡± Blood leaked onto the floor, but the commotion hadn¡¯t been large enough for anyone to notice. Julia rushed to Dahlia¡¯s side, staunching the bleeding with the ripped off sleeve of her dress.

    The prince ran his fingers through his bone white hair and wandered back into the party. He had tried, and that was all his conscience could ask of him.

    He loved his sister, but the prince¡¯s ambition surpassed it by leagues. The only way he could stomach the thought of fighting his sister was knowing all the good he would bring to the world once she was out of his way.

    David wandered back to Rose and asked, ¡°how do you rationalize the journey we are about to embark on?¡±

    ¡°My dear prince. You are a wuss. We decided on this path years ago, now stand up straight and show your strongest face to this world. Soon our plans will come to fruition, and it will all be worth it. Until then, suffer, my love.¡±

    Now that wasn¡¯t ominous or anything. David figured she must just be in a bad mood because Joy had shown up to the party looking insane and ruined many of her political machinations with the stunt he pulled with the king, after she had expressly asked him to be on his best behavior.

    David watched Joy as he galivanted around the room. He was so full of life, he luxuriated in every moment of being alive. But for every person that could enjoy life the way Joy did there had to be seven others weighed down by duties.

    David enjoyed watching Joy for a moment, but then he picked his duty back up. He shouldered his burden and put a smile back on because his plans weren¡¯t over yet. Alas, they were only just beginning.

 Chapter 76 - An Evening of Characters

    Joy had never had so much fun. There was something magnetic about the king. He smiled, and the room shone with sunlight. He winked and Joy¡¯s heart fluttered. He sighed, and Joy wanted to catch the exhaled air and cradle it.

    But he was a king, and Joy was the insane party guest who had shown up wearing the craziest outfit he and his tailor could put together in 15 minutes. So, theirs was a story that wasn¡¯t meant to be.

    The king had danced with Joy for much of the night, but he had eventually left to fraternize with other more respectable sections of the party. Now Joy wandered the party dejectedly, feeling oddly lonely.

    In his wanderings, he found the refreshments table and was trying to get as much drink down without seeming too irreverent. It involved a touch of misdirection, a splash of charisma, and a little luck - all things that Joy had in abundance.

    The amount of drinks Joy had consumed was not a reasonable amount for anyone who wanted a functioning liver. But healers were truly the greatest things gods gave to this plane of existence. Joy could blackout and be healed to perfection the next day.

    Joy was not sober anymore and as he wandered through the party; he eventually ran into someone interesting. He literally ran into Ramses. The man was severe but looked quite handsome in a tight-fitting suit layered with shades of black and yellow. A mellow yellow that would have looked ridiculous on anyone else.

    Joy cried out, ¡°Ramses! My hero, what are you doing here?¡±

    The other man looked down severely upon Joy and said ¡°pretending to enjoy this whole affair. The clothes are right, the people are drunk, and the atmosphere is not conducive to my personal meditations.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s way more words than I thought you would say.¡± Joy was slurring his words slightly by this point and burping. All these things seemed to annoy Ramses, but he made no move to try and leave Joy.

    ¡°Yes. I guess that my showing in the knight tournament has given people a certain assumption of my character. I spend most of my days in the church of Sympathy trying to cope with my loss and try to help others as best I can. I really enjoy public service, and I am part of a barbershop quartet - the bass.¡± Ramses smiled a little as he talked about himself. Joy wasn¡¯t sure why he was sharing so much, but he enjoyed the man¡¯s smile immensely, it felt like something to be treasured.

    ¡°Why are you in the knight tournament then?¡± Joy asked, he was curious since it seemed like Ramses had his life figured out. He seemed well balanced and kind, not the type of egomaniac that would join a contest about who threw the best punches.

    ¡°My therapist recommended doing something just for myself to get through my current grief.¡± Ramses almost seemed to smile, ¡°and I remember that she used to love this thing.¡±

    ¡°But isn¡¯t doing something because your long-lost love liked it circling back around towards not doing it for yourself?¡±

    Joy twirled in placed as Ramses thought on this. He didn¡¯t seem to have an answer and politely, yet firmly, disengaged himself from their conversation. Joy wasn¡¯t particularly miffed by this, but it still hurt a little.

    Joy felt a chord in his soul get struck as a fiery haired woman took to the stage. Her high heeled boots clacked onto the wooden slats of the platform the musicians were placed at, and she struck a pose as she pulled out a pair of maracas.

    A slow pulse emanated out from her as she shook them for the first time. Joy had never realized how profound an instrument the maracas were before they were held in Luna¡¯s hands. A slow touch and noise came free in a wave. There was an ebb and flow to the instrument that could go completely unrealized if one wasn¡¯t paying attention.This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    And Luna was good.

    The air around her shimmered as her instruments started taking a life of their own. A sweet voice added to the mix until Joy could¡¯ve sworn he saw images start to appear around her.

    It was surreal as copies of the King and Joy stepped out from behind Luna as she sang. A sweet song of things that could never be reverberated around the room, yet the voice felt like it was solely for Joy.

    A copy of Joy started to dance with Luna as the copies of the king started to pair off and glide across the room. The Joy¡¯s stood in a circle passing Luna back and forth between them. Ribbons of colors sailed into the air as they moved, always switching, never staying solely in one place.

    Applause erupted from the audience; the show wasn¡¯t over yet, but they just couldn¡¯t help themselves. The noise from the applause created a unique counter rhythm to what Luna was doing and the illusion shattered around her.

    The magic in the air was gone, all that was left on the stage was a beautiful woman singing her song with a pair of maracas. No one booed; however, the audience suddenly got much quieter, realizing they had ruined her performance.

    Luna was a wonderful showman though and refused to stop, she finished her song and bowed before taking a steady exit from the stage.

    Joy wobbled slowly towards her. Maybe he wasn¡¯t in the best intellectual shape, but he could tell when a performance had bombed. With a shuffle here and a tumble there, Joy made his way towards Luna.

    She was chatting with some random guy in the corner, and she seemed unaffected by her bad performance.

    As Joy reached her, she disengaged herself from the other man, thanking him for the warm wishes and leaving him to talk with Joy.

    ¡°Why¡¯d that performance go badly?¡± Joy wasn¡¯t one to mince words in his inebriated state.

    Luna smiled at Joy¡¯s question. ¡°Does music stop being a part of Music just because it is bad?¡±

    Joy pondered this for a moment and tried to turn his drink addled mind to answer this profound question. ¡°I dunno!¡± He said cheerily with a grin.

    Luna seemed pleased with his answer. ¡°Well, I want to become a part of Music, Joy. And to do that I have to be all encompassing. I cannot just be ¡®good music¡¯ I have to touch all of it. Or else my grand ambitions wills fail.¡±

    ¡°But why does becoming a piece of a god matter to you so much. You will lose all sense of self; you will become a piece of something so much larger than you that you will become inconceivably insignificant.¡± Joy was pleased with how coherent the thought had come out.

    ¡°Why are you so worried about mattering?¡± Luna shook her head sadly at Joy, ¡°don¡¯t you think it would be beautiful to be a part of something so much more than yourself. Don¡¯t get caught up in your own personal ego, to be a part of something beautiful is rewarding in itself.¡±

    ¡°But to enjoy those rewards you would have to be aware, and losing all sense of self implies a loss of that awareness!¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re not listening, Joy. I don¡¯t care about enjoying it, I don¡¯t care about my name crossing History¡¯s lips, I have simply found a dream that is more important than my own life to me.¡±

    Joy tried listening, not to the words but to the intent behind them. He heard something stronger than steel and fiercer than all of Nature. And he knew somewhere deep inside that he didn¡¯t understand, but he could empathize.

    He left the party with thoughts of dreams and the future roiling in his mind. But most importantly, one question resounded in his skull.

    Is there anything I care about more than myself?

    He enjoyed other people¡¯s company. He even found himself spouting sermons of Love and the indomitable will of the human spirit. But did he truly care about those things more than his simple pleasures in life?

    He wanted to make other people happy. He truly believed that he could make a difference by being kind to those around him. And yet, wasn¡¯t it all self-serving in some fashion?

    He was making them happy to pretend like his decisions mattered. His only reason for making a difference was because the thought of his life being meaningless sent him into a depressive spiral.

    But did it matter?

    Maybe it was self-serving, but wasn¡¯t it worth it to be kind?

    There were enough selfless people in the world who tried to be more than themselves. And there were enough selfish people who only took. But couldn¡¯t the world use a few more people like Joy?

    Just a handsome fella who wanted to bring happiness to people, even if it may have been for him.

    Joy swayed in the street, too drunk to be graceful, yet full of life in this moment.

    There was no need to be a complicated person. Sometimes a simple person was enough.

    Joy whistled as he stumbled his way back home.

 Chapter 77 - Ready, Set...

    Joy woke up with a brutal hangover. His head pounded and it felt like one hundred little men had taken up residence in his head. He was their landlord though, and they should pay rent, not ruin his headspace.

    But maybe that was all his fault. These were the woes of the landowner. Truly, if he just gave his headspace for free to the tiny twerps maybe they wouldn¡¯t jump so loudly in his skull.

    Despite the protestations of his head, Joy stood up from his surprisingly comfy position on the ground.

    Joy looked left, then Joy looked right. He scratched his head and removed the dirt from his hair.   Something felt wrong.

    He was certainly not on his bed. He seemed to have passed out in a corn field near the inner circle of Vena Cava.

    Joy immediately took a moment to assess his situation then came up with a plan for the day. He decided that what he desperately needed was something to cure his hangover. Then he would procure some new clothes for the fight; the underwear and rags were chafing him quite badly and he would prefer to fight in something looser on the boys. And maybe somewhere along the way he could pick up some breakfast.

    Joy set out of the cornfield at a reasonable jaunt. Letting his hands pass through the field of corn, touching life as gently as he could.

    When Joy arrived at the main circle of Vena Cava there were many stares that followed him. Joy reveled in the attention lavished on him, for these people were obviously enamored with seeing a semi-finalist for the knight tournament in person.

    He kept up this illusion of grandeur until one of the guards that watched the farms and kept the peasantry from ruining them by walking through, gave Joy a stern talking to. He told Joy that there were homeless shelters that he could go to, and that if he was ever caught in the fields again, they would have to throw him into jail.

    Joy was affronted that someone could think that he was not the wonderful, amazing, perfect Joy. So, he tried to show the man his coin from the knight competition, in the hopes that he would recognize its value and show Joy some real respect.

    The man didn¡¯t even look twice at the coin, he just told Joy off again and said to tell a more believable lie the next time he tried this.

    Joy sighed, completely mortified by his treatment. But something on the back of the coin stood out to him. On one side the familiar script showed:

    Tomorrow.

    Midday.

    Round Two.

    But on the other side, a single name was embossed in bold big letters:

    Ramses.

    It was almost impressively lucky that Ramses was fighting three friends in a row. It would be impressive if the brackets weren¡¯t decided ahead of time by some committee of fools that tried to make the most interesting matches.

    Joy sighed as he thought of the dreamy Ramses. His beautifully bald head, his empty eyes, the vacant expression on his face, the way he went on and on about his previous love and how he would never be the same. He was just dreamy. Or maybe Joy was just projecting someone else onto him.

    Joy was ecstatic to be facing off against the villain of Theo and Lillian¡¯s stories, yet he was reluctant to fight the man. He was vibrant in his own depressing way and Joy didn¡¯t want to put himself in front of that.

    But a job is a job, and Joy knew that he was going to fight Ramses for the prince¡¯s ambitions, and he was going to win. He knew the greatest weakness of Ramses and he wasn¡¯t afraid to use it in his pursuit of victory.

    Joy put his wickedest grin on his face as he started walking towards the arena. Plans upon plans unfolding in his mind.

    __

    Lillian had watched the previous round of the tournament with great zeal. It had been a truly epic showing of skill between equal fighters. The two women had unique gifts; one could flatten herself to become thin while the other could make her opponent mirror her motions selectively.

    Neither ability sounded that impressive on its own, and yet they both somehow were fantastic fighters. The woman who could turn thin was named Thimble, had found that the density of her body stayed the same when flattened. She could essentially turn her body into blades. Her favored technique was to attack her opponents with flurries of blows; every time her hand struck it would flatten to a sharp point and slice deeply into whomever she was facing.The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

    The other woman, Soppressata, was inventive with the motions she forced her opponent to copy. Blade hands were forced towards crotches, hair was pulled, and embarrassing falls that were spectacular were seen by all.

    The entire match had been an exhibition of timing. Thimble needed her blade hands to strike decisive blows against Soppressata. However, Soppressata could use those hands to her own advantage with her gift.

    The entire match would have been decided on who could use those hands better.

    However, Thimble changed the script midway through when she realized she could just pummel Soppressata the normal way, sans the blade hands.

    The debacle took a lot of time and effort. Many stratagems were employed by both sides. Vicious attacks were shared, and yet one solid punch to the noggin sent Soppressata to the ground unconscious and Thimble was declared the winner of the match.

    Lillian had cheered with the crowd as Thimble the Nimble, sponsored by Luna¡¯s Productions, was crowned a victor and told that she was going to become a finalist.

    But there was a knot in her stomach that she couldn¡¯t make go away. She could feel it in her bones that something was going to happen with the match between Joy and Ramses

    She hadn¡¯t been all that pleased when the match between Thimble and Soppressata had been announced, because that could only mean that Joy and Ramses would be fighting in the second round.

    Lillian had already dealt with one man overcompensating this week and she did not need to see another try to avenge her in the field of combat. But she did admit that she and Theo had made up last night. There was something cathartic about the two of them working through their differences that made her feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

    Normally, Theo was ice cold, but he had really tried to explain the way he was feeling to her last night and that had made her feel better about the absolute nonsense he had done in the arena earlier that day.

    Today, Theo was looking rather nervous. His foot kept tip-tapping on the ground. He was nervous about this match between Joy and Ramses. Maybe it was some manly pride or maybe he was genuinely worried about Joy¡¯s safety. Either way he was not the normally cool and unflappable Theo.

    Therefore, Lillian decided to capitalize on his weakness. She bumped his shoulder and said ¡°oops¡± and she sprayed all the snacks she had been hoarding on her lap over him. Ketchup and mustard stained his pants. Liquid oozed down his shirt, and a look of absolute indignation crossed his face.

    Lillian had never been more pleased with herself. His foot had stopped tip-tapping, which was a success. Although, his eye had started twitching instead. Maybe she would have to buy some more snacks to spill on him.

    Lillian shivered a little and glared over at Theo. He would never admit it, but he was a petty man. He was freezing the air around her in minute amounts. Not enough to form any real ice, but just enough to cause the air surrounding her to get a little cold. He was giving her a literal cold shoulder.

    Maybe it was deserved, but that wasn¡¯t the point.

    ¡°On this side of the arena we have the most radiant man to have stepped out of the outer circles of Vena Cava. He is a true icon of the common man. He is the ideal that any man can become powerful no matter their background put into human form. He is handsome but his heart is taken by a woman that has escaped Life¡¯s grasp and awaits beyond our deaths. He is Ramses.¡±

    The crowd roared as the announcer finished his introduction. On the far side of the arena, Lillian watched Ramses cautiously walk into the arena.

    There had been nothing special about the arena during the previous match and it seemed to be the same for this one. There were no more tricks with terrain anymore. It was all going to be sandy boring matches from this point forwards.

    Ramses stepped into the sand and found that his footing didn¡¯t slip. Lillian noticed that he readjusted his shoe quickly, to make sure it didn¡¯t make him slide during the match.

    Ramses wore nothing flashy or fancy. He wore a simple tunic of muted colors. His bad head was the only shiny thing adorning him, otherwise he had no jewelry to speak of. He was austere and Lillian enjoyed the counterpoint he brought to all the pomp and circumstance of this event.

    ¡°In the other corner we have Joy.¡± These introductions were certainly getting shorter. What did this announcer have against poor old Joy? Lillian thought about these things but decided that they didn¡¯t really matter so she started hooting and hollering with the rest of the crowd.

    The crowd¡¯s yelling wasn¡¯t louder or quieter than Ramses¡¯ cheers. It was different though. Ramses had gotten the entire crowd up to a fevered pitch. However, Joy¡¯s entrance was met with sedate emotions from most of the crowd. All except some fervent fans who screamed to make up for the quietness of the rest of the crowd.

    In another section there was a group of men and women with faintly red tinted skin and the remains of horns growing out of their heads. Every single one of them put everything they had into their shouting, and they filled the arena.

    Lillian took a sip of her drink to quench her raw throat from all the screaming she had been doing, then promptly spit it out directly into the man sitting in front of her.

    What was Joy wearing?

    He was wearing a polka dot suit, covered in rainbows and unicorns. But most importantly he had no shoes on. She wanted to cry at his outfit, however he was tentatively stepping into the sandy arena and pulling his foot back from it. He was burning his feet on the sand of the arena.

    The scene was so ridiculous Lillian thought she might be dreaming.

    She grabbed Theo and tried to wake up. But nothing happened, so she shrugged, unbothered by his incredulous look, and went back to laughing her heart out at Joy.

    He bowed towards the audience with a smile on his face, the suit bending stiffly along with him; it looked brand new. The audience laughed, but oddly there was something regal about him. There was something majestic in the way he was totally unbothered by his own state of disarray. He was the man he was, no matter the clothes he wore.

    Lillian held her breath as the match started.

    The two men squared off against each other both indicating that they were prepared for this battle. Then the announcer raised his hands to his face and yelled, ¡°begin!¡±

    A force blew into the stadium and slammed into the sandy ground, spelling the word out on the arena floor.

    Lillian watched as Joy swept his arms out to the side and asked, ¡°do you want to play a game?¡±

    At the same time Ramses closed his eyes and said, ¡°her hands are justice.¡±

    Hundreds of ephemeral hands appeared around Ramses and Joy simply smiled as the game began. Lillian thought he looked happy.

    So, she joined her voice with the crowd and screamed with joy as the match started in earnest.

 Chapter 78 - Battle in the Sand

    Joy did not love the hands flying at him. There were truly beautiful hands, but there was some quality about them that made them unlikeable. They flickered back and forth between having calluses and looking nurturing then looking delicate and beautiful. Both were important, but they couldn¡¯t coincide with the other, so they oscillated back and forth in the mind¡¯s eye.

    Joy did love the voice that spoke in his head as the hands started coming at him. ¡°Sandcastle war. Do any of you need the rules explained to you?¡± Joy wasn¡¯t quite sure what that entailed, but he was excited by the prospect, nonetheless.

    Joy knew the voice was sounding in Ramses¡¯ head at the same time. If he was smart, he would ask the voice to explain the rules. If he was fun, he would just wing it like Joy always did.

    The air whistled around Joy as the army of fists started inexorably crashing towards him. In a feat of skill, Joy started dodging every single fist. He dipped, ducked, dodged, and dove around them as they hammered into the sandy ground.

    Joy laughed, a real smile splitting his face. He knew there were all sorts of politics surrounding this battle and that he shouldn¡¯t be enjoying it so much. But he was in love with this battle. He was so close to understanding the core of Ramses, he just needed more time in this battle.

    As the fists flew at him, Joy started shaping a sandcastle with the divots he formed in the sand. As he dodged, he would fling more sand into a pile with a foot. Then after he dodged, he would make his way back to it and start molding it into a fanciful shape. The only tricky part was positioning himself so that the fists wouldn¡¯t crash into his beautiful castle and ruin all his hard work.

    After a minute of this had passed, Joy got bored and looked at his sandcastle. Honestly, calling it a castle was giving it a bit too much. It was far closer to being a sand house.

    But as soon as he acknowledged that it was done in his head, a gong sounded in the arena and the sand house started expanding out.

    Joy quickly moved out of the way to not get smooshed by the rapidly expanding sand. Eventually it stopped expanding, and standing where a small sandcastle used to be, a complete structure now stood. It had taken the core of the idea behind Joy¡¯s creation and formed a full-sized house out of it.

    Joy laughed. His sand house had become a sand home.

    He dove into the open archway of the house, just barely avoiding a final wave of fists coming to strike at him.

    Joy sat in the middle of his new home and felt it shake as the waves of fists, now devoid of the juicy target Joy, crashed into the unyielding sand of his new home.

    The entire situation was just ridiculous.

    So, Joy started making things out of sand. Hoping that his powerful walls wouldn¡¯t collapse under the onslaught of Ramses¡¯ fists.

    Joy started forming a person out of sand. The person was lying down and wasn¡¯t very detailed, but once he had finished making the person the gong rang again, and a layer of sand fell away from the outline of the body.

    From underneath the layer that fell off, a nearly perfect copy of Joy came out. This Joy didn¡¯t have any expression on his face, and he was a bit shorter than the real Joy, but Joy now knew what his game plan was going to be.

    ___

    Ramses did not love this charade. He was supposed to fight this man for other¡¯s entertainment and yet there was no fulfillment in it. He did it for someone else¡¯s memory rather than himself.

    It made the whole thing entirely boring.

    The real issue though was that his opponent had turtled up. Joy had somehow created a massive castle out of sand and was hiding within it. In a world without gifts (gods forbid) this wouldn¡¯t be a problem. The house would collapse under its own weight. However, the sand house seemed magical in some fashion and resisted the many, many divine fists he had thrown into it.

    He figured he needed to at least try a little bit more since the match was getting boring.

    ¡°Her legs make the ground shake with envy.¡± It was one of his less regular loving statements, but he meant it at that moment. So, out of his soul space a massive pair of legs started to emerge.

    They towered over the arena. Each one flickered back and forth between being milky white and having a rough tan. One version of the legs was dainty and beautiful, the legs of a woman that men would carry everywhere. The other set was the legs of a hardworking woman. The kind of woman that loved to touch the earth and be outside.

    Ramses didn¡¯t seem to notice the discontinuity in the legs, he was more focused on the fact that they came crashing down towards Joy¡¯s sandy home.

    A mighty crash resounded throughout the arena as the feet contacted the sandy structure and it still didn¡¯t collapse. Beyond all expectations the structure held in the face of the mighty strikes raining down upon it.

    Ramses had listened to the knight¡¯s order when they had given him details about Joy¡¯s abilities and what to expect while fighting him in the arena. He knew that Joy¡¯s entire focus was on forming these games then using the rules to his advantage to win against superior opponents.

    But Ramses was strong, and more importantly, his love was strong.

    He had fallen victim to pride and had ignored the voice in his head that had spoken of the game. He needed to understand the rules if he wanted a chance of defeating Joy and understanding the insane structure that was defying his every attempt to destroy it.

    ¡°Explain the rules to me, mysterious voice.¡± Ramses said authoritatively to the air. Then he dismissed all the flying hands and the massive legs from reality. ¡°Her embrace protects me.¡± A massive torso and arms enveloped Ramses in golden light, protecting him from everything. Then he hunkered down to listen to the rules.

    ¡°Sandcastle war. Each player will make objects and structures out of sand. With enough intent those objects will be created in the field of play. Only other sand-based structures can destroy each other, otherwise they will be impervious to all other damage.¡±

    The voice sounded enthused, like the game was exciting. But there was an undercurrent that felt like the voice was making fun of Ramses. He didn¡¯t enjoy that.

    At least the voice had explained the reason why Joy¡¯s sand house was impervious to all attacks that Ramses had thrown at it.

    Ramses went to his knees and started forming an intricate sandcastle with his hands. It had been a long time since he had formed something with his hands, he had taken up a sort of ascetic lifestyle after his love had died. He had given up on the plants he so cherished and there was something deeply nostalgic about getting down on his knees and getting his hands dirty.

    Once he had finished making his new house he finally looked up. Outside of the protective arms he had summoned stood Joy. He looked a bit weird, but Ramses just chalked it up to some distortion through the arms protecting him.

    Ramses focused on the sandcastle he had made and envisioned it coming to life. And suddenly the house started expanding outwards. After a moment Ramses realized his mistake, the house needed to expand outwards, but he had just locked himself inside of an enclosed space using the protective arms.Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    He quickly dismissed the arms and torso then said, ¡°her hands lift me up.¡± And a cupped pair of hands appeared beneath his feet and lifted him up into the sky.

    Beneath him now lay a decent sized home. Something that someone could be proud of. That was Joy¡¯s sandcastle. However, on the other side of the arena now sat a sprawling castle that rose nearly to the highest level of seating within the grand arena.

    Nearby the castle stood Joy. He laughed at it then made a rude gesture with his hands. No words were exchanged yet Ramses could hear the condescending ¡°compensating for something¡± ringing in his ears.

    Ramses pointed at Joy, who stood in front of his castle. ¡°Her eyes tear into my enemies.¡± It was a tash on the morbid side, but there was time for beauty and time for effectiveness.

    A massive eye opened behind Ramses. It looked down on Joy, then a massive laser beam erupted from the eye, shooting down at Joy. The beam was a deep blue, the same shade as the eye behind Ramses.

    Joy made no attempt to run, hide, or block the beam. He simply stood there smiling.

    The beam contacted Joy and after a few moments of continuous exposure Ramses called the beam off.

    Standing in the center of a crater of glass was Joy. He casually brushed some imaginary dust off his shoulders and glanced up at Ramses. He gestured as if asking, ¡°is that all you got?¡±

    His clothes weren¡¯t even singed. The superheated beam had done absolutely nothing to Joy and Ramses was starting to feel a little bit flustered by the whole thing.

    Then Ramses saw something from the corner of his eye. Standing there in the center of the arena was Theo. The man he had fought the week previously. His icy blue eyes stared up at Ramses, declaring an unspoken challenge.

    Ramses whispered, ¡°she is always around me,¡± then an image of a woman superimposed itself around Ramses. She was like a second layer of skin around him.

    He let the hands holding him in the sky dissipate along with the eye behind him. Ramses started to fall back down towards the arena floor.

    He gained speed at a frightening rate, and he aimed directly for Theo. He wasn¡¯t sure how this man had gotten into the arena, or why the tournament organizers had allowed this fight to continue despite the interference, but he would remove Theo and the dangers posed by him. Last time they had fought, Ramses had almost died, and he was not thrilled at the prospect of having to do that again.

    With a boom, Ramses hit the floor of the arena in front of Theo. Ramses stood tall, the armor protecting him from any damage he would have taken from the fall. Theo looked unimpressed; he yawned into his hand, completely unphased by the display.

    With a roar, Ramses flew at Theo in a series of attacks. Punches and kicks flew at Theo, yet he deftly blocked and dodged them all. The extra strength given to Ramses through his current love was not enough. He was being toyed with. Theo hadn¡¯t even used his gift yet.

    Finally, after an eternity of blocking and dodging, Theo made a counterattack. A punch slowly approached Ramses, and he hunkered down to block it. Ramses placed both of his arms crossed in the path of the punch.

    The punch wasn¡¯t fast, it inexorably slammed into Ramses¡¯ arms. The impact caused Ramses to go flying across the arena. The ghostly armor he had been wearing shattered at the impact.

    His arms stung, but he was far from out of the fight.

    ¡°Her hands shape the world.¡± Ramses muttered to himself as he dismissed the armor he was wearing. A few hands appeared around him, but not the hundred he had summoned earlier. They immediately set to the task of making weapons out of sand.

    It had all made sense earlier. When ¡°Theo¡¯s¡± fist had impacted Ramses, it had finally dawned upon him. This wasn¡¯t actually Theo; it was just a sand copy that Joy had somehow made.

    Any normal person¡¯s fist would have shattered from striking Ramses¡¯ love armor, yet the armor had shattered instead. It was unstoppable force meets immovable object. Except, by Joy¡¯s stupid game rules the sand structures could only be destroyed by other sand objects. Thus, the armor was forced to shatter in the interaction.

    Ramses bent to his knees and started making a shape in the sand that was close to a person. Once he finished sculpting, he focused his intent on the sand and imagined an elaborate set of armor. The sand morphed to match his vision and Ramses donned the sand armor.

    It was stylized and looked to be engraved with images of a woman dancing through fields with birds surrounding her. The armor itself told a story that would never be spoken out loud. But it was a declaration, nonetheless.

    Ramses had two of his hands fly towards him and give him a sandy sword and shield respectively. Neither were as elaborate as Ramses¡¯ personal armor, but they would suffice.

    After his preparations Ramses was finally prepared to truly do battle with this sandy Theo.

    As Ramses turned to face his opponent, he noticed that there were far more sand people than he had anticipated. Sandy Theo was now joined by sandy Joy as well as another fifteen more random people made of sand.

    He wasn¡¯t sure why they were patiently waiting for him to don his armor and prepare for the fight. Quite honestly, they could¡¯ve taken him out of the competition right then and there, but Ramses wasn¡¯t going to look a gift horse in the mouth.

    Around Ramses the hands he had summoned earlier brandished an assortment of weapons. Everything from morning stars to rapiers were in their hands, all made from sand and ready to fight these sand clones.

    Ramses pointed his sword at the clones and yelled, ¡°charge!¡± There was a real irony to the fact that there was no one else truly fighting in this skirmish. It was one man and his many hands versus the many sandy clones created by a mad man.

    Ramses rushed into the clone of Theo, ramming into him with his shield. Layers of sand sloughed off Theo as he was pushed backwards by the blow. The rest of the clones tried to engage in the fight, yet Ramses¡¯ horde of hands held them off.

    A lucky strike from the pair of hands using a bow and arrow (singular) took out the sandy clone of Joy, allowing Ramses to keep his full attention on Theo.

    The clone stood up and smiled in a very un-Theo-like way, brushing the loose sand off his chest before gesturing Ramses to come closer.

    Carefully, Ramses approached testing the space between them with the sword. Like a snake¡¯s tongue testing the air in front of him at every step.

    At just the right moment, the sword flicked out and Theo thrust his hand into the way. Ramses grinned as he was about to taste the first blood, first sand, of his enemy.

    A wicked grin spread across Theo¡¯s face as the sand that made up his fingers was cut away and blew directly into Ramses¡¯ eyes. With a mighty kick he knocked the shield out of Ramses¡¯ grip.

    His fists were a blur as he started striking at the joints in Ramses¡¯ armor.

    Ramses felt pain blossoming over his entire body, yet he forced it down to focus on what truly mattered. Love.

    ¡°She will save me.¡± He said through punches that rocked his world.

    A single hand appeared behind Ramses and wandered away instantly. Ramses focused intently on the hand, curling into a ball in the fetal position to keep Theo from attacking any of his vitals.

    With a whir, the shield that had been kicked away by Theo flew through the air and neatly cut the clone in half. The top half looked at the lower half incredulously before melting back into sand.

    The hand that had been summoned by Ramses gave a cute little wave before disappearing in a poof of light. These were the moments that his therapist warned him about. He was using his gift as an extension of the woman he missed, and it was toxic, but that was beside the point.

    Ramses straightened himself as he watched his hands finishing off the last of the remaining sand clones. None of them stood a chance.

    Ramses picked up his sword and shield one last time and started his slow march towards Joy¡¯s castle. He readied himself to fight more of the sandy clones, assuming that Joy¡¯s strategy was to wear him down through constant battle.

    Nothing happened. There were no more clones throughout his approach to the castle, nor were there any through the halls. It was eerily quiet, and Ramses wasn¡¯t quite sure what to make of the situation.

    The hands swarmed Ramses, using their weapons to ward off the nonexistent attackers that should be there.

    Why was Joy doing nothing?

    Then Ramses felt the air vibrate as raw power emanated from one of the rooms deeper in the castle.

    In a blue Ramses ran towards the source of power. He had to stop whatever Joy was doing, there was enough power there to destroy him.

    He entered the room where Joy was and saw him sitting in front of a house of cards. Joy was bathed in golden light, concentrated around his mouth and eyes.

    Joy pointed one finger at Ramses and said, ¡°him.¡±

    The golden light exploded out of Joy and Ramses took a step away in horror. ¡°Her arms shield me.¡± He whispered to himself, and glowing arms enveloped Ramses in their embrace.

    He ran.

    But the light was so much faster than he was. Before he had taken a few steps the light easily broke through the arms protecting him and touched Ramses.

    The lights¡¯ touch didn¡¯t hurt, it did nothing other than make him glow in the same light that Joy was.

    Then all of a sudden, the world went black.

    ___

    Lillian laughed and laughed once she saw what Joy was doing. She loved the clones of her and Theo battling Ramses in the arena, it made for a wonderful touch. She was only a little pissed that Ramses hadn¡¯t even bothered fighting her clone, she was relegated to hand duty.

    But once she saw that Joy was constructing that little house of cards it took everything in her power not to start booing.

    Once the golden light had taken Joy and Ramses away, she leaned over to Theo. ¡°How long do you think until the crowd starts to riot?¡±

    Theo stifled a giggle before regaining his composure, ¡°a few minutes?¡±

    Lillian shook her head slowly. ¡°You¡¯d think that as our friend Joy would try to make this more interesting for us. It¡¯s so anticlimactic for us every time.¡±

 Chapter 79 - An Unfair Test

    Joy was in the clouds again. He had used the gift given to him so long ago and now he stood in this world that existed beyond human perception.

    Directly to his left was a gibbering fool who was trying to attack Joy with every dirty trick in the book, and some that even the malicious authors of said book weren¡¯t willing to put in.

    Ramses had not been pleased to find himself brought into the penthouse of a god and was even less pleased to find out that violence was not allowed in this realm. Certain controlled acts of violence were, but nothing like the wanton rampage that seemed to be going on.

    Invisible barriers kept being put in the way between Ramses¡¯ fists and Joy¡¯s body. The barrier wouldn¡¯t harm the person attacking, so Ramses had not stopped fighting since he had arrived. He used every body part of this mysterious woman and every part of his own body to get at Joy, yet nothing was able to get through the penthouse¡¯s defense protocols.

    Joy sighed as he willed an armchair into existence. The room itself was vaguely different every time he used it, and he enjoyed seeing the minute differences every time.

    The walls were covered in elaborate tapestries in varying shades of red and gold. They depicted scenes from Joy¡¯s own life. Much of it would be boring to the random viewer, yet Joy relished looking back on the simpler times in his life. When he felt at peace.

    There were many scenes of Joy as a child just spending time with his parents. His mother was baking cookies for him in one. In another there was the first and only time he had tried to help his father in the fields. It was truly nostalgic.

    Joy couldn¡¯t will a cup of tea into existence at this moment. The main stipulation of this penthouse was that anything could be created, but it needed to be in service towards some sort of game or competition. The chair had just been a freebie. Tea apparently was asking for too much though. He would have to challenge Ramses to some sort of game to get a nice cup of tea.

    Ramses was starting to run out of steam. He had used every possible physical attack, and he had started moving on towards emotional damage. He had peed directly towards Joy, but the room magically whisked the stream away. He was now shouting insults about Joy¡¯s manhood and general propriety towards unattractive members of each sex.

    Honestly, Joy was excited to see where this tirade would go next.

    But Ramses¡¯ voice was getting hoarse, and he was starting to sway in place. He struggled to move or speak as he crashed to the floor, resigned to his fate.

    ¡°Would you like to hear the rules of this place?¡± Joy asked tentatively, hoping that his question wouldn¡¯t set the other man off again.

    Ramses didn¡¯t speak, just lightly shifted his head. Joy took that as an implicit yes. He was making progress.

    Joy then explained the basic rules of this space. The two of them would be moving at an increased flow of time while competing for everything. The room could provide anything the two of them desired it just had to be in service of some sort of game. And to leave the room Ramses had to challenge Joy to some sort of game where they both bet equal things of value.

    Ramses was silent for a long time as he digested the information. He thought and thought about everything he had heard and every possible way he could beat Joy. Ramses had not lived a life of leisure; he was not familiar with all these games, so he felt at a slight disadvantage. Was there a game he could beat Joy at?

    A grimace flashed upon his face as he faced Joy.

    ¡°I challenge you to a game of ¡®who knows the life of Clara better.¡¯ I want you to wager my freedom. What can I offer of equal value.¡±

    Joy was not quite sure what to make of this offer. The game seemed incredibly weighed in Ramses¡¯ direction. Joy assumed that this Clara was the girl that Ramses had fallen in love with as a child and that led to the great tragedy that Joy had heard from Luna.

    Normally people at least tried to pretend that the games they would play against Joy were fair.

    ¡°My terms are that in exchange for your freedom I want you to wager letting me win our match in the tournament. And I have one stipulation.¡± Joy paused as he knew what he had to do. ¡°I want the room to come up with the questions, not you.¡±

    Ramses nodded vehemently; the pact was sealed. Ramses was beyond confident that he knew more about Clara. So, he had a cocky grin on his face as the room started shifting around the two of them, preparing them for the battle that was to come.

    Two desks grew out of the ground. They started as little sprouts then slowly grew until they were full sized desks that the two men could use.

    From behind Ramses and Joy, a man in a suit and tie appeared dragging two chairs. They made an awful racket against the ground as he walked, but he had an imposing presence.

    His suit and tie were charcoal grey. His eyes were charcoal grey. His hair was charcoal grey. His skin was charcoal grey. The man was completely one tone, and he oozed efficiency.

    This was not the sort of man who you played games against.

    The man placed the two chairs next to the matching desks that had grown out of the ground and walked to a podium that had not been there before this very moment. He made a sharp turn and faced both Ramses and Joy while pulling out a sheaf of paper from his jacket pocket.

    ¡°Pick up your papers at your own leisure, gentlemen.¡± He barely pronounced the word gentlemen, it just slipped off his tongue like water off a duck¡¯s back.This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

    ¡°This test will be administered orally. I will pose a question for you both, then the two of you will write out your answer to said question on the paper. Please number the questions as they come along, it is poor form to be anything other than organized.¡±

    Joy slowly walked to the front podium and picked up a single sheet of paper as well as a pencil. He licked the tip of his pencil because he had seen one of those scholarly folks do it once and he wanted to seem intelligent.

    The charcoal man and gestured for Joy to sit with one hand while gesturing for Ramses to get his papers with the other.

    Although he had said, ¡®at your leisure,¡¯ he obviously didn¡¯t mean it.

    Joy and Ramses both made themselves comfortable at their tables and prepared for the test. Joy scratched his head with his pencil while Ramses had a smug grin on his face.

    The charcoal man cleared his throat and said, ¡°we begin.¡±

    ¡°Question one. What was Clara¡¯s favorite color?¡± A sudden scratching of a pencil filled the room as Ramses immediately wrote down his answer. Joy looked around the room and settled his eyes on a beautiful shade of red on one of the tapestries on the wall. Who wouldn¡¯t love that color?

    ¡°Question two. What was Clara¡¯s greatest regret in life?¡± Another quick scribbling from Ramses¡¯ side and Joy wrote down the answer he would expect after hearing Luna¡¯s tale of the tragedy of two lovers.

    ¡°Question three. What was Clara¡¯s favorite flower?¡± A slight pause from Ramses. He eventually wrote down his answer with confidence, but it wasn¡¯t an immediate answer. Joy simply picked the first flower that came to mind: a sunflower.

    The questions continued in this way for a while. A question would be posed by the grey man, then Ramses would take a moment to answer. On the other hand, Joy would simply pick a random answer. He didn¡¯t know this lady at all, how could anyone expect him to know these things about her?

    ¡°Question forty-seven. If Clara had not died, what would her life have looked like?¡± Ramses didn¡¯t move. The customary pauses before scratching down an answer were broken. He sat and stared at the paper, trying to come up with an answer.

    Joy simply wrote, ¡®she would have eventually moved on past the boy she was obsessed with. Then she would have lived a happy and enjoyable life in her own way.¡¯

    The grey man coughed at Ramses, trying to get him to speed up. So, Ramses rushed an answer out, without worrying too much about it.

    ¡°Question forty-eight. If Clara saw a small man getting beaten down by several other men, would she help?¡±

    Again, Ramses didn¡¯t have the answer. He was floundering, and something inside of him was screaming.

    The test continued in this fashion for quite a while. Ramses¡¯ pauses got longer and longer as he stopped knowing the answers. Joy¡¯s style never changed. He continued to put random things down in hopes that maybe a few of them would be correct.

    Finally, the end was there, and the misery of the test was ending.

    ¡°Question one hundred. This one isn¡¯t a question, more of a demand from your teacher. Describe the way Clara looked in exacting detail.¡± The grey man smirked a little at this one. He obviously found the fact that the final question was not even a question very entertaining. Joy was inclined to agree and muffled a giggle. Ramses didn¡¯t even notice he was trying to focus so hard.

    Joy started to doodle on the paper. He figured that with the open-ended nature of the question, that the grey man couldn¡¯t dock him points for drawing the person he imagined. Also, he didn¡¯t know this lady, so there was no way for him to describe the way she looked accurately.

    Ramses stared at the blank page. Then he started writing everything he could remember about Clara. The way that her fingernails were always dirty, as if she had freshly come from planting something new. The way that her nails were always perfectly manicured and cleaned to perfection. The way her skin was tanned from the long hours she spent in the sun. The way that her skin was the color of the moon glowing on a perfect night.

    His head was splitting in two.

    He couldn¡¯t see her.

    The images of Clara that Ramses had built in his head started to collide and patchwork monsters flashed beneath his eyelids. But still, he could not remember what Clara truly looked like.

    The test was over, and Ramses was sitting at his desk. He was pensive. Maybe he should talk to his therapist about these feelings that he was having. Why could he not remember Clara in detail anymore?

    The grey man picked up their tests and started grading them. He had a red pen that he viciously slashed through the answers that were incorrect with no small amount of glee on his face.

    Joy lounged while Ramses contemplated.

    Finally, the papers were graded, and the grey man smiled at the two men, both lost in their respective worlds.

    ¡°I have the results. With a poor score of fifty-two out of one hundred, Joy comes in second place.¡± Joy nodded to himself and was quite pleased. Maybe it wasn¡¯t a passing grade, but he didn¡¯t even know this lady.

    ¡°And the winner, by a single point, is Ramses. With a whopping fifty-three out of one hundred.¡± The sarcasm oozed off the grey man¡¯s tongue as he grinned evilly at Ramses.

    The world started folding in on itself. The game had been played, and thus Ramses was released from his imprisonment above the clouds.

    But he didn¡¯t even notice.

    Joy watched as the two of them reappeared on the arena floor in a puff of golden light. The crowd was booing as they appeared, but it quickly changed to cheers as they saw the two men reappear. The time dilation meant that they had only been gone a few moments from the crowd¡¯s perspective.

    But Ramses was just sitting on the sandy floor of the arena, unwilling to lift his gaze from the floor in front of him.

    ¡°How could I barely know more about her than¡­ than you.¡± Ramses¡¯ voice was filled with pain. He was suffering from the knowledge that he had not trounced Joy in this competition of his own devising.

    Joy paused for a moment before sitting down next to Ramses. ¡°It¡¯s because you never knew her in life. You never loved her in life. You have fallen in love with the image of Clara, not Clara herself.¡±

    There was a tight silence in the air and Joy was worried. It felt wrong to state to Ramses what he was feeling. But it was so clear to Joy. This was a man that was self-flagellating himself with a love that never was and never could be. He badly wanted to be in love with Clara to bring justice to her memory; but justice was not love.

    ¡°I love Clara.¡± A few small tears dripped down off Ramses¡¯ nose. He was shaking next to Joy, unable to contain the overwhelming emotions that slipped out of him.

    Joy could feel the air shimmering around the two of them. Ramses was trying to use his gift to bring a version of Clara into the world. To use his love to bring a piece of her to life. But it wasn¡¯t enough.

    ¡°No, you worship her. That is not love, my friend.¡± Joy slipped an arm around Ramses¡¯ shoulder, trying to console someone who had just had their world rocked. Joy didn¡¯t know that this would happen because of the games they had played in the world above the clouds, but he deeply regretted it. This was a broken man now.

    ¡°I love her. I love her. I love her. I love her. I love her. I love her.¡± Ramses started muttering to himself and rocking back and forth in full view of the audience who so dearly wanted to watch this.

    People with certain gifts made their livings by going to far off towns and projecting the events of the knight tournament to the townsfolk. And all those people from the little towns crowded around these people with projecting gifts. And everyone in the arena leaned forward. It was as if the entire world took a breath in to watch Ramses break.

    Joy slowly turned to the crowd and simply stated, ¡°I think I have won.¡± Then he turned and started to leave the arena.

    There were no cheers for Joy.

    No one celebrated his victory.

 Chapter 80 - Apotheosis

    Joy wandered the arena until he found his two companions, Theo and Lillian, sitting in a sparsely populated section of the arena. To be fair, the arena was absolutely packed and ¡°sparsely¡± meant that there were merely no more open seats left. Not that people were sitting on top of each other.

    He waved sadly at his two friends. Theo looked a little vindicated and a little guilty. The man never hid his emotions well, but it was clear to see from his face that he enjoyed the fact that Ramses had been ¡°put in his place.¡± But Theo was a good man, underneath all the layers of coldness he cared about people. So, he felt guilty that he felt so excited by the way Ramses was broken.

    Lillian looked despondent. Even though she was the first one of the trio to fall to Ramses in this battle, she remembered that it was all a show. There was nothing at stake here and he had been a beautiful combatant to fight against. He was now a bird with clipped wings, unable to even conjure an image of the woman he loved.

    There was an awkward air in the arena as some official looking people went onto the arena floor and ushered Ramses out. They tried to preserve his dignity but were unable to save something that had been so utterly squashed.

    The announcer looked awkward as he stepped out in front of the audience. He had a few cue cards in his hands, and he was shuffling them to be in the correct order. He looked as if he dreaded this moment more than anything he had ever done before.

    But he eventually shook off the aura that exuded out of the arena and spoke.

    ¡°I know that today has been¡­ an interesting day of competition.¡± There was a meaningful pause in there that everyone seemed to pick up on. ¡°However, these powerful knights would never have been able to make it so far in this competition without their wonderful sponsors. So, we have invited the sponsors of today¡¯s winners to spread their messages.¡±

    A halfhearted applause went through the audience. There were too many rampant emotions floating through the audience to be particularly excited about advertisements. Joy himself felt off. Something was up, but he wasn¡¯t entirely sure what it was.

    ¡°First, we invite Luna¡¯s Productions to the stage.¡±

    Immediately, a few workers came out onto the field and used their gifts to fashion a stage out of stone and lights. The stage looked a mix between an ancient burial ground for the first humans created by the gods and an epileptic seizure. Joy was very excited by the sight of it.

    She stepped out onto the stage.

    Luna¡¯s red hair flowed in an invisible breeze as she brought a flute up to her lips. A soft and clear tone emanated throughout the audience, and everyone fell silent. Not the awkward silence that had been heard before after Ramses¡¯ fall, but a new one, filled with something invisible and meaningful.

    The clear tone of the flute slowly and inexorably drifted towards discordance. A deep buzzing rang out through the audience as her air speed slowed and the angle of her breath hit the plate wrong.

    Finally, she spit towards the ground. She made sure not to spit into her own flute, but it was a near thing.

    Then she let silence fill the arena once more. The odd start to this music filled everyone with the image of suffering and they knew that the music they were about to listen to was not going to be happy.

    Luna brought the flute to her lips one last time and started playing something horrifying. The notes didn¡¯t drift into the air as she played them; she ripped them down from the heavens themselves to destroy what was left of the happy atmosphere.

    The piece was percussive in style, her tongue making heavy strikes and forcing the music into an off kilter and terrifying place.

    No one moved as she played. She played and played until she couldn¡¯t eek out another note if she tried, then she collapsed to the ground in a coughing fit. She wheezed and coughed to get her breath back in a vain attempt to keep playing.

    But her breath was gone.

    She could play the flute no more. Somehow everyone in the audience knew that she would never play the flute again. The haunting piece would be the final piece of Music that Luna would ever play with the flute again.

    But she was not done with Music yet.

    From somewhere on the stage Luna pulled a fiddle out. She drew the bow across the strings, and it made an evil hiss. The air screamed back from what she had brought to life in that pull.

    Then she madly started to fiddle on that stage.

    Her fingers slammed down onto the strings, suffocating the notes prematurely in a supreme effort to bring more music even faster. She could not play enough, there wasn¡¯t enough time to bring all that she envisioned into the world.

    And so, she compromised by showing the world that she would play with this fanatical fervor until everyone understood how much more music she had to give.

    She screamed in time with her fiddle, causing everyone to cover their ears as the horrendous noise filled the arena. How could this anguish ever be music? How could it ever be anything else?

    The strings on the instrument snapped one by one and Luna¡¯s fingers were ripped apart by the flying strings. They hung limply from her hands as she was unable to move them anymore. Her blood, her fingers had gone into the fiddle and created something more meaningful than anyone in that audience could ever do in their lives.

    Next, she pulled out a drum and beat on it until her hands broke. Blood splattered all over the drum as Luna played directionless music. Her beat was unwavering in its ferocity as she beat and beat the drum. In one final effort her hands and the drum broke with one final crack.

    No one dared to interrupt her. No one dared speak as she looked down at herself. She was covered in blood and broken bits of herself. Luna was in shambles and couldn¡¯t keep herself from giggling as she fell to the ground.

    There was some deep understanding in the arena that no one should save her. Luna was walking on this path of her own free will, and all this pain and suffering would be made for nothing if someone stepped in at this moment.The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

    Yet, Joy felt a pull at himself. He knew this woman; he loved some piece of her. She was beautiful and interesting, and he would never get to know her. All he would have of her were a few pieces of music and a story. Would that ever be enough to replace her life if she kept going?

    Joy took a step forward. To maybe try to save her. She didn¡¯t know what she was doing. How could she do this, give up every chance to make a difference on this plane of existence for a piece of music.

    His movement somehow caught her eye, and her eyes blazed at Joy. Beneath her gaze was something harder than steel and more ferocious than fire. This was her will. This was her moment, and no one could take it from her.

    Finally, she stood. Wheezing and broken, but nonetheless, she started to dance. Her wounds made her shout out in pain as she moved, but there was something musical in them. Her pain was somehow becoming a song.

    As she drifted around the arena. The crowd would gasp when they saw her state. And their inhalations, their screams, their annoyance, their movement, everything of them became part of the song. For one moment, everyone in the audience was in this song with Luna.

    Luna had danced until Death looked her way.

    With a final breath Luna bent over at the waist and bowed. Then she collapsed into the sands of the arena.

    A true performer is never ungrateful to their audience.

    Joy knew in his heart then that Luna had just died in that moment. Maybe he could¡¯ve saved her, but that look in her eyes was burned into his mind. She did not want to be saved. To save her was to make this performance less, and what a performance it had been.

    Joy looked up towards the heavens so that his tears could flow freely down his cheeks. In the sky he saw a spiral start to form. In the air an endless staircase started to form. All the way down from the heavens a sound started walking down those steps.

    It was a piercing note that slowly resolved into a beautiful harmonic chord. The noise harmonized with the grief in the arena and started shifting it into something new. It was a song of renewal.

    Down from the heavens a being made of sound emerged. They were as beautiful as they were abstract. There was no physical form to lay eyes upon, instead the being was made purely of noises put together.

    Joy knew that he looked upon a god, Music. Some would call it blasphemous, but he did not avert his eyes from this higher being. Instead, he stared deeper into the layers of sound, the endless waves of anguish and joy that music could create. He stared deeper down until he saw a child kept tender in the embrace of all the music in the world.

    The child had red hair and was singing a song all alone on a riverbed. But she was in there. Luna¡¯s music had meant something, her presence in the world would persist.

    Her last song had placed her in the hearts of everyone in the world for a brief moment. She and Music had become inseparable in the minds of all who watched, and so the two of them had been linked for all eternity. Hopefully she enjoyed the experience of being a part of a god.

    Joy knew that had been her end goal, but still it felt wrong to him. But that was okay, not everyone needed to have the same goals in life as him. That was the beautiful part about being human.

    The little girl noticed Joy¡¯s intense stare and did a shy little wave to him as the god dispersed into millions of particles. The pieces of Music broke into songs that travelled across the land, singing to all who dared look upon them for a moment before leaving.

    Joy listened with all his might and heard Luna singing somewhere within those songs. He could hear her wailing, he could hear her happiness, and he could hear her music as a part of the whole. It was something spectacular.

    The entire audience was on their feet whooping and clapping for the amazing woman. She had done something remarkable, something that no one here had ever seen before.

    She had just become part of a god.

    The ground shook with the volume of the cheers erupting from the audience, and the announcer had to use his gift to scream his words over the din of the audience.

    ¡°Our next sponsor is the prince David, who has a demonstration more than a performance for you all.¡±

    The air was electric in the arena, and no one could quite shut up. There was nervous chatter and exclamations, the birth of two different stories had started here. They had watched the destruction of a man in his entirety and watched a woman become part of a god all in one day. They figured that the prince¡¯s exhibition would be a little boring, but everyone was willing to sit and watch it.

    Joy paused as he watched hundreds of men and women in chains walk into the arena. Their arms and legs were bound in tight heavy chains that created a clanking sound as they all moved in unison.

    No one knew what to make of the od spectacle and they knew even less of what to think when Ian the Bloody walked into the arena.

    The wall of prisoners as well as the entire audience sat and watched Ian as he went to his knees and placed his sword¡¯s pommel on his forehead while allowing the scabbard to go into the sand of the arena.

    He sat there in silence for a few moments.

    Joy knew that he was praying. Joy didn¡¯t know who the prayer was for or why, but Ian was praying for something.

    Ian finally opened his eyes, and he seemed old for a moment. He looked as if he was the one in chains, not the hundreds of prisoners standing before him. He rose to his feet dusting off the loose sand that had gotten on him during his brief prayer.

    In one fluid motion, Ian pulled his sword out and made a cut in the air. The air screamed and a line of destruction flew out in front of him and impacted the line of prisoners.

    Cries erupted from the line of prisoners as Death walked among them. The line of Blade cut through any of the people standing in its way. The prisoners ran from it, hid from it, or accepted it; but it came for them, nonetheless. A fountain of blood exploded from their corpses as body parts fell away and their life drained away into the sands.

    Ian walked through the blood; he became drenched in it. He was a fine tea bag being steeped in death. His face never changed from a passivity that caused Joy to shiver; no matter the pain and suffering around him, he never even seemed to care.

    The crowd in the arena had been holding its breath for this entire execution. But finally, someone shouted, ¡°no!¡± It was not a shout filled with words and nuance; it was a simple declaration that was shared by the entire arena.

    No, this would not do.

    The entire audience was on their feet shouting hatefully down onto Ian, and yet he still stood in the center of the arena impassively. He let the audience¡¯s words slide off him the same way he let the blood of those he slaughtered slide off his face.

    In the middle of the arena, where the pool of blood was thickest, a crack reverberated out of reality. A single hand pushed itself out of the deep pool of blood. The hand was not attached to an arm and began rising in the arena.

    The dismembered hand went up and up, until it reached the peak of the arena. A waterfall of blood erupted out from the severed wrist of the hand. And within that flow of blood Joy could see civilizations fall. He could see wars waged, and prices paid. Pain and suffering were contained within that waterfall, and if Joy looked deep enough, he could see Ian looking out impassively from the center of the red flood. His cold eyes filled with no malice or sympathy for the endless pain that surrounded him.

    The god was not even close to anthropomorphic, but Joy felt no doubts that he was looking upon the god Blood.

    Joy eyes shifted away from the imposing and impassive god. He looked back down on the man that had brought the god down to this mortal plane. Ian had become a part of Blood by being bathed in so much of it that the god couldn¡¯t exist without acknowledging Ian as a part of it.

    Ian was holding his own sword to his neck. The blade touched the bare flesh of his throat. A small cut welled up with blood and a single droplet started sliding down the edge of the blade. But Ian didn¡¯t cut himself anymore.

    One of Ian¡¯s hands held the sword to his throat, and simultaneously, his other hand held the blade back. He was warring with himself, to keep from killing himself.

    The standoff ended abruptly as the god and the man were covered in a silver light. The light surrounded the two of them and suddenly the two of them disappeared from the arena. Leaving only blood as their witness.

    Two people had reached for godhood today, and yet neither filled Joy with hope. He just felt endless dread as his eyes met Lillian¡¯s and Theo¡¯s.

    They all stood up together and left the arena.

    There was an unspoken agreement that they had to find out why this had to be done. They all loved the prince, and it seemed unfathomable that this was a part of the prince¡¯s plan.

    They wanted answers and they knew that the prince¡¯s keep would have them.

 Chapter 81 - Plans Within Plans

    Deep within the walls of the prince¡¯s keep, Sam and David sat on the cold stone floor of the darkest part of David¡¯s personal prison. In one corner of the room Ryan the Slayer, with his freshly cut hair, was curled into a ball sleeping.

    ¡°It still smells rancid in here.¡± David commented on the wonderful aroma that hundreds of unwashed bodies create in confined spaces.

    ¡°Do you feel bad for them?¡± Sam refused to let David skirt around the subject.

    ¡°Yes. How could I not?¡± David took a shaly breath as he looked down at his hands, around one of his fingers was Cecil the Thief¡¯s ring. ¡°They were all criminals, but very few of them truly deserve to die. I don¡¯t think anyone deserves to die. But it was necessary. Let¡¯s make their sacrifice mean something.¡±

    Sam touched the prince¡¯s face gingerly, then they closed their eyes. With a great strain evident upon their face, a deep silver glow filled the chamber and all at once a creature and a man appeared.

    Ian¡¯s face was pale as a ghost as he strained to keep his sword from biting deeper into his neck. Sam quickly ran over to Ian and helped pull his arm away from his throat. With another person¡¯s help he seemed able to resist the pull of Death.

    They had all talked about this and known that it could be possible. Every account of someone reaching godhood involved the person dying or killing themselves. There was some force that could not allow a person to exist within the conceptual realm of the gods and in true reality at the same time. So, the Ian that was part of Blood was trying to kill him, while the Ian who was still loyal to the prince refused that call.

    The refusal of the call was what was necessary. It forced the god to stay on the mortal realm. Blood could not leave without Ian undergoing his apotheosis.

    Blood had appeared in a form resembling a bleeding severed hand before, but soon it started forming an ocean.

    Sam rushed to protect Ryan the Slayer. They needed him for the plan, and they absolutely could not let him die. The prince and Ian stared at the oncoming waves of blood and knew that the god was planning on drowning them inside of its domain.

    The prince refused to budge as the first wave of blood hit him. Ian was washed away in the torrent of red, but prince David Hearth refused to move. There was no physical reason why the waves of blood shouldn¡¯t have knocked the prince down to his knees and pulled him down into the depths of the god. But it didn¡¯t.

    David strode step by step towards the flailing god. They tried everything in their power. The souls of those who died violently reached out of from the deep pools of blood and grasped at David¡¯s clothes. Their hands left red prints on his shirt, yet they always slid off. He was somehow untouched by this god.

    David took step after step through the deluge of blood until he stood before the core of the god.

    A god is the manifestation of a concept. They are sporadic and impossible to define, they shift between visualizations and forms faster than a person can blink. And yet somewhere deep inside every god, there is one nugget of truth that forms the god.

    Deep within the writhing ocean of blood. There was a cry and weakness. The sound was of a deer crying out, and within that sound carried the weight that the deer was losing pieces of its life every second. The kernel of truth was laid bare before prince David.

    He steeled himself. Everything could go wrong at this one moment, but he refused that notion. This was not allowed to end in failure, his story was not allowed to end here.

    The prince twisted the ring of Cecil the Thief and stole Ryan the Slayer¡¯s gift. The prince felt something inside of himself. He felt something occupy his soul space. He knew he was just borrowing this power, yet it filled him with some hope.

    Prince David grabbed the kernel of truth that was the god Blood and ate it.

    With a shriek, the ocean of blood that had been coursing through the lower levels of the prince¡¯s prison evaporated. Ian looked around blearily as he was finally able to stand. Sam had somehow shielded both Ryan and Ian from the onslaught of blood. And they all looked upon the prince with trepidation.

    This was the most dangerous part of the plan. Everything they had done up until now had a historical backing. These things were possible, yet now everything hung in the balance. Prince David had to consume a god.

    An emptiness within David had been filled by the presence of a god. It burned him.

    David¡¯s blood started to boil and tried to escape him. The god was worried about the situation, but it was a concept, it could not fathom a world where David could consume it.

    Yet the god was unable to escape the bindings of David¡¯s body. Within him and his soul, Blood was confined. The cry of the deer grew weaker and weaker, the god screamed in outrage yet was unheard since it could not escape the prison that was David¡¯s being.

    Stolen novel; please report.

    The god battered at the edges of its prison. Bringing rot, pain, and death to David¡¯s body.

    He crumpled to the floor, where his life blood slowly oozed out of him. His blood on the floor started to rot in front of his eyes.

    Yet he would not be defeated by something so pitiful as a concept. David was greater than all men, than even the gods, no matter what his karma was.

    He dipped his fingers into the pool of fetid blood and swallowed down the droplets that dripped off his fingertips. That was not enough, he needed more blood. He cupped his hands within the pool of his own blood and drank deeply from the rotting substance.

    The taste coated his mouth as he grabbed for more and more and more. He would not break, there was no line he wasn¡¯t willing to cross to see his vision completed.

    He was a human. And humanity can do one thing better than any other creature, and that is take.

    David took back all the lifeblood that had escaped him then stepped into his own soul where he faced the god of Blood. He looked down on them and bared his teeth.

    He was the wolf, and Blood was the wounded deer separated from the pack.

    Sam walked over and lightly touched David on the shoulder. With that one moment, it was over. David¡¯s teeth went into the soft flesh of the concept of Blood. Then he tore it to shreds

    The inside of David¡¯s soul was caked with blood. The bones of a god were strewn throughout the inner part of his soul space like trash.

    David looked down at them and began to fashion an object. This was not part of the plan, this was something new, something that no one could have expected during this process.

    David created a piece of art from the bones of the dead god. A great mouth of bloody bones stood as a testament to his horrible act of violence against a god. It was a gaping maw dripping with fresh blood and stood alone in his soul space.

    The prince David opened his eyes and spoke to Ian and Sam, ¡°we begin.¡±

    ___

    Within the king¡¯s personal castle Dahlia paced back and forth. She was in her personal and opulent room. The entire space was filled to the brim with Dahlia¡¯s paintings. Every wall had a theme, everything from ocean scenes to battles.

    Her best friend and closest confidante, Julia, sat on the princess¡¯ bed and waited for this moment of stress to pass.

    Finally, Dahlia spoke, ¡°what is he doing? He has spent an immense amount of time building up good will with the common folk and then he ruins it all with a bloody and needless public execution. It makes no sense.¡± She had nearly worn a line in her favorite carpet from all her pacing.

    ¡°You know as well as I do that whatever your brother was doing involved the god coming down from the sky. Everything else was meaningless. It was all for that moment.¡±

    ¡°But none of us know what happened once they disappeared.¡±

    Dahlia had been in the castle all day and had her best personal spies informing her of the day¡¯s events as they happened. But nothing had prepared her for this. She knew her brother was conniving and resourceful, but this was insanity. Calling a god down, what would that accomplish?

    Dahlia let loose a small scream. There was just no avoiding it, she had tried to divert this path that Fate had shown her, but it was far too late for that.

    ¡°Bring me the Scepter of Calamity.¡± Dahlia¡¯s eyes were hard as she commanded her best friend to bring her the instrument of her brother¡¯s death.

    Julia had tried to convince Dahlia that this was not something that they needed to do when they had first got the scepter, but now the paradigm of the entire succession war would change is they didn¡¯t do something and quickly.

    Julia left to get the scepter while Julia pulled her grimoire out of her soul space.

    Dahlia¡¯s gift was from Magic and came in the form of a magical grimoire which created new spells for her at random times. Each spell was unique and had interesting components necessary for using each one as well as special incantations and rituals to enact them.

    This spell had appeared in her grimoire nearly a year ago and had caused her to start preparing for her voyage to the Shattered Continent. The page read:

    Spell: The Hounds of Hate and Love

    Description: This spell will take all the hatred for a person as well as all of the adoration and use these emotions to form hounds. The more total love and hate a person has the more hounds will be created as well as more powerful hounds.

    Ingredients:

    -Something that has caused tens of thousands of deaths

    -The caster¡¯s most cherished memory of the target

    -The finger bones of five different thieves

    -An eye that has seen more than its fair share of pain and suffering

    Casting:

    Take the object that has caused death and break the finger bones of thieves on it. Continue breaking them until they are dust that coat the object. Finally squeeze the juice of the eyes over the dust. Bring the object to the caster¡¯s head and think of the caster¡¯s most cherished memory of the target. The spell will be complete, and the hounds will rise.

    Dahlia had hoped not to use this power. She knew that it was specially tailored to destroy her father and her brother. Their notoriety led to people having strong opinions about them. All those strong opinions would force more and more hounds to appear. The hounds would be nearly unstoppable from a kingdom¡¯s worth of love and hate.

    Julia arrived with the scepter and Dahlia began to crush fingers bones on it. She was dedicated to her task and moved with slow efficiency. The bones became dust and then she squeezed out the juices of the eye.

    Dahlia brought the disgusting and gaudy scepter to her forehead and thought back to when she and David were children. Before they understood that they would have to kill each other to further their goals.

    In her memory they were both so young and full of life. They laughed as they ran through the corridors of their father¡¯s empty castle. It wasn¡¯t a profound memory, but the most cherished things are rarely profound. They simply are.

    A weight left Dahlia, and she felt the love and hate in her start to slowly ebb away. She was left nothing but apathy for her brother, but she knew that the hounds would soon be upon him.

    A single tear ran down Dahlia¡¯s face as she turned to meet her friend.

    ¡°Ready the men. We will storm his castle and make sure we have demolished his remaining forces.¡±

    Julia and Dahlia left the room, preparing for war.

    A while after they left, the door slowly opened, and someone walked into the room. They picked up the scepter and left the room just as quickly as they had entered.

    A deep emptiness and foreboding filled the air as the final battle of the succession war began.

 Chapter 82 - Feints Within Feints

    Clyde had met the prince not too long ago. He had been caught trying to steal a chest worth of gold from Joy and the prince had offered him a choice. Either join the prisoners that he kept in the bottom of his dungeon or use his gift for the prince.

    Clyde had never thought that his gift was worth anything to anyone. He had been given a gift by Shoes, and it allowed him to control all the shoes that he could see as if they were extensions of his own body.

    There were many physical limitations on this and thus it turned a reasonable sounding gift into a parlor trick, or something to catch someone by surprise with. But the seer, Sam, had said that ¡°his gift would be most useful in the future.¡± So, Clyde had been spared from the prison and allowed into the inner coterie of the prince.

    From there he had been a mediocre addition to the prince¡¯s personal team on his voyage into the Frozen Continent.

    He had fought like everyone else, and he had been fine at it, but now he had a purpose.

    Clyde was going to defend the prince¡¯s castle from attackers. In his hands Clyde held the Kingmaker, a plain wooden stick that greatly increased a person¡¯s natural powers from their gift.

    Clyde sat on the front steps of the prince¡¯s castle and felt the well of power that existed within him. What was normally a stream had now become an ocean of spiritual weight.

    An army slowly crested the rise leading towards the prince¡¯s castle. It was late afternoon, so they were perfectly visible to Clyde from where he sat. Row after row of gleaming armor came up the rise.

    There were standards and banners proclaiming the to be the princess¡¯ troops. But none of it mattered to Clyde. He was going to defend the prince¡¯s castle, and his first victims were here.

    Clyde raised the wooden staff and pointed it at the army of soldiers. Their ranks exploded in blossoms of blood and screams of anguish.

    The best thing about Clyde¡¯s gift was that everyone wore shoes. No one in their right mind would ever walk without shoes on, especially to go to war.

    Wherever Clyde pointed that staff, the poor men and women in the general vicinity would have their shoes push them away. Without the kingmaker, Clyde couldn¡¯t overpower a person¡¯s natural strength; and he certainly couldn¡¯t lift someone off the ground with his gift. Now, his gift sent people flying like raindrops in a storm.

    The army disintegrated beneath his power. Scores of men and women died as he flung them into each other. He moved their shoes with such ferocity that feet were separated from bodies, only to continue flying and bury themselves in a person¡¯s head.

    Clyde laughed and laughed as he continued his slaughter. He didn¡¯t ever remember being a cruel man, but there was something about all the power that he was holding that just made him want to play at being a god.

    After an unknowable amount of time, Dahlia¡¯s army called a retreat and fled back over the rise.

    Clyde let them escape, but he pulled on all the shoes left in his personal area. They all came to him, some still attached to unmoving bodies. They surrounded him like some perverse planets orbiting a star.

    Clyde smiled at his new collection.

    ___

    Julia had not expected the downfall of her army to be their shoes. She had been shaping up this particular force for nearly a year now. She had honed them into tip top shape. They had complementary gifts to create the ultimate unstoppable army.

    The goal was to make this succession war as bloodless as possible. Julia and Dahlia had decided that the only way to do that was through a powerful army.

    Thus, this militia had been formed with the express purpose of destroying David¡¯s castle and making sure he was dead.

    The war had not ended with a show of brutal force, instead Julia¡¯s army had been nearly wiped out. One of David¡¯s lackeys had been standing in front of his castle holding the Kingmaker.

    His power had leveled the playing field. Actually, his power had taken the playing field and bulldozed her side down until it was ashes and dirt.

    She knew what she had to do to answer his attack, but she was wary of using her gift to its fullest potential.

    Julia was moderately powerful. Her gift allowed her to turn into any animal she had ever touched. Normally that would restrict her to things like birds and maybe a fierce bear.

    But on Dahlia¡¯s voyage to the Shattered Continent, she had met a wholly unique creature. She and Dahlia had met a dragon. It was an artificial creature that had been created by a gift ages ago, but Julia¡¯s gift had still allowed her to store a copy of it in her soul space.

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    She was terrified of using it though. There was always a piece of her inside the animal, but the animal¡¯s instincts always came to the top. As kind as the old dragon had been on their visit, Julia didn¡¯t want to release the beast in the middle of the most populated city in the world.

    But she had to answer the shoes. Her army had been wiped away like bugs, and so her hand had been forced. There was no other choice for her.

    Julia reached inside herself and touched her image of the dragon.

    Instantly, she felt her body start to swell and get rougher. Her skin turned to a thick layer of scales. Her back broke open into a beautiful pair of red wings. Horns grew out of her forehead. Her body grew and grew and grew.

    Julia flapped her wings one time and let herself fly above the city.

    The wind from her wings sent her own soldiers flying. But they were so small, how could she bother worrying about every single one of them. She gnashed her new fangs and stared down at the man that had killed all that was hers.

    The man sat on the steps of the prince¡¯s castle with an ever-rotating collection of shoes surrounding him.

    Julia laughed a little to herself and a small plume of smoke left her mouth. It was almost comical how small and weak the man was. He had destroyed her army and yet he was so small from up her. Why, she could just crush him like a bug.

    Julia tucked her wings in and plummeted down towards the puny man. She let her talons reach out in front of her and prepare to crush him where he stood.

    The part of Julia that had not been consumed by the dragon knew what was going to happen. Logically speaking, the man would just funnel shoes into her body through the weakest areas. He would send shoes through her eyes and mouth to destroy her body from the outside. This conscious thought was the only thing that saved Julia¡¯s life.

    In her dragon form, Julia closed her reptilian eyes and mode sure her mouth was tightly shut as she began to plummet.

    Thousands of shoes collided with her body. They bounced off her scales ineffectually but with such a drastic change in body Julia had neglected a newer part of her anatomy.

    Julia¡¯s wings were torn to shreds in her fall. Everything from soldiers¡¯ boots to high heels went directly through her wings, causing her controlled plummet to turn into a terrifying dive.

    The pain was intense. A part of Julia¡¯s body that she had never had before was now in tatters. She had gained and lost a new limb in mere moments.

    Julia crashed into the ground with an earth-shattering impact. The prince¡¯s castle trembled and there were small areas that collapsed from the shaking. The shoes were relentless, but Julia¡¯s hardened body stood the test, refusing to yield under the weight of thousands of shoes.

    The pain was all consuming where her wings had been, but remarkable manageable everywhere else. Julia risked opening her eyes a little bit, to try and gauge the situation.

    The onslaught of shoes was relentless, telling her that her dive had not worked out in her favor. She shielded her eyes from the storm of shoes but caught sight of a man flying through the clouds above her.

    The two combatants had switched positions, now she was the one on the ground staring up at a merciless predator.

    Julia knew that she would be outmatched if she continued to play this game. She needed to change the rules of this engagement now.

    Julia shut her eyes again and prayed to every god that she could think of. Mostly she prayed to Luck; she prayed that she wouldn¡¯t burn the city down with this attack.

    The dragon took a deep shuddering breath in. Trees suddenly swayed in a new breeze as an immense amount of air started filling her draconic lungs. Julia filled herself until bursting, then pointed her maw up towards the sky.

    Her prey was nimble and could fly using his feet. But it didn¡¯t matter how fast you were if the entire sky was on fire.

    Julia released a gout of flames that rivaled the sun for brightness. The shoes coming down towards her turned to ashes and sludge in the wake of her destructive breath.

    The air screamed away from her mouth, causing a miniature explosion of force that ripped into the prince¡¯s castle. The upper floors collapsed under the pressure, leaving only the foundation behind.

    The heat was enormous and unstoppable. Nothing was spared in the sky - birds, bugs, and clouds were ripped to shreds from the impact. And most importantly, Clyde was turned to ashes before he even registered what Julia was doing.

    The kingmaker was only a piece of wood, and it too burnt to a crisp in the conflagration.

    Smoke erupted around Julia as she sat in a crater of destruction. There were cries and screams surrounding her, but she hoped the city itself would be fine after her attack.

    The great breath of fire would go down in History, Julia was sure of it.

    Julia didn¡¯t release her form because she knew that the battle was only beginning. Her side had already taken massive casualties, but she had taken out one of the prince¡¯s strongest pieces on this board. She was content to look imposing but took a small breather.

    Julia was confident that Dahlia could handle the rest of the battle without her direct action.

    The air screamed for a second time. When Julia had breathed fire, it was a scream of exultation; the stagnant air finally free to move again. The air screamed from the joy of being freer than it had ever been before.

    Now the air screamed because someone had hurt it.

    An invisible blade of air erupted towards Julia and cut through her impenetrable scales. A deep slash started gushing blood like a waterfall and Julia felt her consciousness start to fade.

    It was a game of feints within feints. The prince had given up the kingmaker for one opportunity to see Dahlia¡¯s hidden weapons, and Ian had pounced on them, crushing them like bugs underfoot.

    Even as Julia fell deeply into unconsciousness she smiled. She could see that Dahlia was creating a storm to smite down Bloody Ian. Maybe she could be avenged or even saved. Dahlia was just incredible the way she made the impossible a reality.

    ___

    Jeremy had never planned on becoming a thief, he was just in the right place at the right time. He had watched Julia and Dahlia leave the princess¡¯s chambers in a rush. He knew deep inside his heart that the entire charade of the succession war was coming to an end.

    His luck had made him enter the room. His luck had made him grab the gaudy scepter from the center of the room. His luck had made him take a long trek out of the city and stare down at Vena Cava.

    He had seen a storm of shoes erupt out of the center of the city only to be disintegrated by a storm of fire. Jeremy had even seen a dragon today. He had also watched that dragon struck down by a man¡¯s blow.

    The end was nigh, and Jeremy felt a tugging inside of himself. He pulled his coin out of his soul space and stared down at it.

    A decision was made, and Jeremy flipped the coin. The result didn¡¯t matter, Jeremy knew subconsciously what his luck was bending him to do.

    Jeremy raised the scepter and thrust it out a single time.

    Then he started making a grave for the Scepter of Calamity. Hopefully, no one would ever find it again.