Somehow, Tay had lost control of his own life.

He suspected he’d lost it back when the guards had plucked him from the waters of Stormwall’s sewers. Or maybe it had been when he’d soared over Duskborough in the talons of a four-legged eagle? Or maybe it was when he’d snatched the chest which he now knew contained a small deck of no more than twenty cards—some which as glowed white as snow and others which glowed as black as midnight.

Currently, his lack of control came in the form of Sally, Mondromo’s maybe-daughter, who had spent the day talking his ears off about her favorite cards in Runicka, and had even showed him some of them. Now that the day was winding down, she had taken him upstairs into their home and sat him down at the dining table, which was located at a crossroad between not one, not two, but four doors.

One of these clearly led to the kitchen, where Cari was currently finishing up some of their dishes. Another quite obviously led to a bedroom with a bed so large that a bear would have been comfortable there for an entire winter—Mond’s room. The third door was shut, but Tay could tell by the cloth banners and dried flowers pinned to it that it belonged to the girls.

Which left the mystery of the last door. Tay would have been a poor thief not to notice the lock just above its handle. And he would have been an even worse guest if he hadn’t noticed the dust thickly coating the copper handle. It seemed door four was not to be used.

Throughout the whole day, Tay had made it a point never to let the chest out of his grasp—let alone his sight—but seated at his hosts’ dinner table, he felt comfortable enough to slide it underneath his seat. Though, he did keep his heels against it to be sure it didn’t suddenly vanish.

“Are you thirsty?” Cari called from the kitchen.

And before he could reply, she said, “Let me grab you a glass of water.” Really, he had no control over anything anymore.

Sally had her cards splayed out before her on the table, but she was practically bouncing out of her chair. “Oh, let me go and see what’s taking Mond so long to close up shop! I’ve been waiting for this all day.”

And so, for a brief moment, as Sally scampered off down the stairs into the shop below, Tay was alone. But not for long, because Cari returned with his glass of water, though Tay did hesitate to scrutinize it before taking a small sip.

“It’s about as clean as water gets down here bottomside,” Cari said. “Sorry, if it’s not to your liking.” She took a seat to Tay’s right, opposite to where her sister had left her cards.

“No, it’s good. I’ve been quite parched all day, actually.”

What might’ve been the first hint of a smile crept over Cari’s face, before being pulled back into a scowl. She said, “I don’t like you, you know.”

Tay winced, but then replied with, “Well, what’s there not to like?”

“You think we don’t know who you are, but I know you.”

“You do?”

“I know an urchin when I see one. I can see why Mond’s swept you off the streets, but let me tell you this, Taygion: if you do anything to harm my sis—”

Rumbling from the stairs cut Cari off. She blinked, and bit back her words as Sally rushed into the room and ran all the way around the table before settling herself back in her seat. She positively radiated excitement, and her smile was not a passing fancy. So, one sister couldn’t wait to share her world with him, and the other just wanted him out.

Good news for Cari—if it was up to Tay, he would’ve been long gone by now. Again though, no control.

“You’re going to get to see me beat Cari!” Sally all but shouted as she gathered up her cards into a pile.

Cari slowly regarded her sister and said, “What’s this now?”

“I’ve asked Sally if she’d be willing to play a game of Runicka against you, so that Tay might know what he’s gotten himself into,” Mond said, as he stomped his way over to taking a seat right next to Tay. He put a hand on Tay’s shoulder and let out a deep breath. “One night isn’t a whole lot of time to learn Runicka, but we’re going to do the best we can.”

“You don’t have to do this,” Tay said. And he really meant it. If people had always been this nice to him, he would’ve made it to Stormwall years ago.

Mond smirked. “We know that. You’ve been muttering that nonsense the whole day. But I don’t mind closing the shop a bit early if it means teaching House Polamund a lesson or two.”

“Yeah, except we’re the ones who’re going to be teaching him how to play,” Cari said.

And from beneath the table, she produced her own stack of cards. Much like the ones in Tay’s chest, these glowed both white and black. Were they actually going to summon forth those creatures, like the shadow figure, to battle each other? Weren’t they sisters?

When he asked, Mond gave a bit of a chuckle. “Aye, you’d be right to doubt on both accounts, if they were engaging in a battle duel. But this is just going to be a friendly game. There’ll be no actually summoning of revenants nor attacks on each other’s lives.”

“Unfortunately,” Sally said.

Mond narrowed his eyes, but his smile never faltered. “Not all of us are old enough to be taking those sorts of risks.”

So, both Sally and Cari shuffled their cards for a good minute, before exchanging decks and shuffling some more. They ended by splitting each other’s decks in half and putting the bottom over the top. Mond called this a cut and said it was a goodwill gesture that helped deter cheating, not that either sister would cheat, he added.

Then Mond explained that each player began the game of Runicka with five cards drawn from the top of their decks, called a hand. Sally kept her cards up close to her face, illuminating herself in their bright glow. Cari, however, kept her cards lower, more around the edge of the table, and constantly shuffled them around.

“So, what now?” Tay asked. “Do they just throw cards out like you did against—”

Mond interrupted him by gripping his shoulder and giving him a knowing look. He said, “Now, we decide who goes first.”

“And how do we do that?” Tay asked.

“With the easiest trick in the book,” Mond replied, fishing out a copper coin from his belt.

With the flick of a finger, he shot it up into the air, caught it in his palm, and then slapped it against the back of his other hand. Then he looked to Cari and said, “Call it.”

“What?” Sally said. “That’s no fair.”

“It’s a fifty-fifty chance either way, Sally,” Cari said.

“But I want to call it.”

Cari groaned, but then said, “Fine. She can call it.”

“Yay! Okay, I call heads!”

And Mond revealed the coin. It lay face-up, showing the somber side profile of one Aenkor Ceeke, First of His Name. Sally nearly toppled her chair in her excitement.

As Sally added a card from her deck to her hand, Mond explained that all turns began with a player drawing a card. After about five seconds of Sally glancing over her glowing cards, she plucked one from the group and slammed it down in the middle of the table.

“Alright, I’ll pay 10 Life to summon my Swiftclaw Prowler,” Sally said.

Curious enough, Tay leaned over and saw the card didn’t look too unsimilar to the Skywing Lord Mond had shown him earlier.

(10) Swiftclaw Prowler Stable Amplify 1 >

Instead of the winged creature, the card displayed a light-footed fox creeping along a forest floor. It had its head turned toward the observer and tilted slightly to the side, as if it were trying to match Tay’s curiosity.

And while he was admiring the card Sally had dropped, Cari couldn’t have looked more unimpressed. She glanced down at her cards, keeping them well below the edge of the table now, and asked her sister if she had finished.

“Not by a long shot!” Sally replied, and she slapped another card next to her first.

(20) Graceful Protector Stable This revenant gains +1 Power for each other Stable or Latent revenant you control. Provoke 2 >

This card depicted artwork of a powerful stag, keeping his head well above his shoulders and antlers at the ready. It seemed stronger than the fox, but the only reason Tay had to go off of that was the number at the bottom. Other than that, he couldn’t derive any meaning from the cards. And not for a lack of trying either.

Whenever a card was played, it took his eyes a few seconds to be able to read the writing on the card. It was like the cards were first underwater, and then, as his eyes adjusted, they were pulled up to the surface.

Tay leaned toward Mond and asked if he could explain what had happened.

“Sally’s summoned two revenants from her hand. You see those small bubbles to the left of the names? That’s the Life cost for each revenant.”

“Ten plus twenty,” Tay said. “So she’s lost thirty Life this turn.”

“So, our guest can do math. Yes, that’s right. And everyone starts with 100, so now she’s down to 70 Life.”

“She can summon revenants indefinitely?” Tay asked.

Mond furrowed his two large brows. “Not quite. She can summon revenants so long as she has the Life to give up for them. And so long as she fulfills their attunement requirements.” This last part, Mond said aloud to the whole table.

Sally lowered her head and gave a wide grin. “Oh, I forgot. Sorry, Mond. I, uh, attune to Order 1.”

“Right,” Cari said. “And since you can’t attack on the first turn, are you done, Sally?”

Sally scrutinized her hand for a whole minute, face puckered and eyes darting back and forth between those glowing cards. Finally, she nodded her head and gave a firm confirmation to the end of her turn.

And so, now the turn passed to Cari, who wasted no time in plucking a card from the top of her deck. She spent not even a moment glancing down at her cards before shaking her head. That caused some of her inky locks to spill over her shoulders. Her eyes then shot up to look at him, and she squinted. Tay forced himself to look away, forcing his eyes back toward the stag card. He hoped she couldn’t notice his blushing.

“I’m sorry to have to do this to you, Sally,” Cari said. “But I’ll start attuning to Order 1 and then summoning my Pixie Tamer.”

She slid a white-glowing card to the middle of the table. Before even looking at the rest of the card, Tay couldn’t help but to notice the staggering Life cost of this card that Cari seemed so confident in.

(30) Pixie Tamer Stable Ignore attunement requirements for Pixie cards fusing with this one. 2 >

The artwork showed a woman with two bird cages in her hands, but Tay could clearly see that contained within them were anything but. There seemed to be small children behind those bars, with wings like dragonflies. The woman herself though seemed quite happy about having locked up these kids.

“Ah, that’s not fair,” Sally said. “You always draw her on your first turn.”

“Sally, statistically-speaking, that can’t be true.”

“But it is!”

Cari rolled her eyes, and then surveyed her hand again. She selected a card and then placed it down upon the table. But she didn’t place it upon the table itself. No, instead she rested it on top of the Pixie Tamer card, so that only the bottommost corners and the number 2 were still showing.

(15) Pixie Duskwarrior Stable This revenant gains +2 Power whenever your attunement is inverted. Flying <<< 4

Tay made sure to get a closer look at this one. It had dragonfly wings but seemed anything but a child, as it was clad in thick wooden armor and brandished a thin metal sword. Its entire head was shielded within a bulky helmet, and it couldn’t have possibly seen out of the small slits in the front.

“What just happened there?” Tay leaned over to ask Mond.

“Ah, so now we’ve come to the bread and butter of Runicka—fusion! Cari’s fused her Pixie Duskwarrior on top of her Pixie Tamer—a very powerful play for her first turn.”

Tay noticed that the card she had placed on top of Pixie Tamer, this Pixie Duskwarrior, didn’t glow white like the others. Instead, it gave off that horrible and slick black glow—the very same as the shadow figure that had attacked him.

“How has she played that one, if she attuned herself to Order 1?”

Mond leaned over, and then gave him a light slap on the back, which coming from Mond was definitely harder than Tay wanted to be hit. “Good eye, kid. There’s hope for you yet. Pixie Duskwarrior is a Chaos 3 card, but Pixie Tamer’s effect allows it to be fused on top of it, regardless of Cari’s attunement.”

“That seems powerful.”

Mond nodded his head. “It is. But Cari had to spend 45 Life to do it, and her turn’s still not over.”

And Mond was right, because without even consulting her hand again, Cari placed another card on the table. Before he even got a chance to look at it, she had placed another card atop it. She didn’t bother announcing her moves—she was going too fast.

Then she reached into the collar of her dress and pulled out an amulet with—with three glowing gemstones embedded into its face, an intricate pattern surrounding them. Bewildered, Tay placed his hand up to his chest, making sure his amulet—the only thing of value he actually owned in the world— was still there, tucked away hidden underneath his tunic. It was.

But he had to know what Cari’s was. “How did she—” No, that wasn’t right. “What is it?”

Mond frowned, and then said, “Cari, this is supposed to be a friendly game between sisters. Could we not use Talismans, please? And may go a bit slower too? That way Tay can learn and understand what you’re doing.”

Cari stowed her so-called Talisman back underneath her collar, and rolled her amber eyes until they fell upon Tay. He could feel her judgment, as if she was just slightly disappointed that he couldn’t keep up.

“Fine,” she groaned. “So, with 10 Life, I summoned my Enchanted Mirror, which brought my attunement to Chaos 1. Then I played a Devious Pixie fused on top of it, which then inverted my attunement back to Order 1 again, which is where I am now. Are you keeping up with me, Dumbdumb?”

Tay took a look at the card that she had just played, on top of the other one. It was also black in glow, with one of those dragonfly-like creatures on it, though this one lacked the armor its counterpart bore.

(10) Devious Pixie Bursting Shout: invert your alignment. Flying < 1

“Yeah, I think so,” Tay said. “So, now you have two of these revenants on the table—”

“Arena,” Cari interrupted. “The playing field is called the arena in Runicka. But you’re right.”

“I have two revenants too!” Sally said.

Cari returned her attention back to her sister, and gave a little smirk. “Yes, but not for long. With my Pixie Duskwarrior, I’m going to take out your Graceful Protector. And with my Devious Pixie, I’ll finish off your Swiftfoot Prowler.”

Sally opened her mouth in such wide shock that Tay thought she’d never close it again, but she didn’t say anything. Instead, she flicked up a strand of her white hair so it got tucked behind her ears and moved her cards off of the arena until they were beside her deck.

“I don’t understand,” Tay said. “These cards attack?”

“Yes,” Mond said. “A revenant can attack another one your opponent controls. You declare your attacks on your turn, and when you do, you compare the revenants’ Powers—the number in the diamond at the bottom of the cards.”

Pixie Duskwarrior had a Power of 4, written in that small diamond next to where three arrows pointed to the left. Graceful Protector only had a 2 Power, so it made sense that the Duskwarrior came out on top. But both Devious Pixie and Swiftfoot Prowler had 1 Power, so how did that work?

Tay mentioned this, and it was Sally that answered. “Well, if the Powers are equal, they’d both die.”

“But they’re not equal,” Cari said. “My Devious Pixie is stronger because it’s fused. The Enchanted Mirror that I played underneath it gives it +1 Power, so it had 2 Power instead of 1.”

“Okay then,” and Tay looked over at the Duskwarrior. “That means this has a Power of 6—4 from the Duskwarrior, and then 2 more from the Tamer underneath.”

“It actually had 10 Power because of its own effects, but you now see my sister’s situation. Alright, Sally, that’s going to be the end of my turn.”

But instead of Sally drawing a card, it was Cari that drew. She now held three cards at the edge of the table, glancing over them, before meeting his eye and giving him a brief smile before raising an eyebrow.

“When you end the turn with less than three cards in your hand,” Mond explained, “you then draw until you have three. It’s the minimum hand size to the game.”

“Oh, well, that seems convenient.”

Sally’s Life: 70 Cari’s Life: 35

Sally drew her lone card, and the game began to pick up speed after that. Tay tried keeping up as best as he could, but it all seemed a little too much for him to keep all the minutiae.

Sally summoned a boar and a turtle on her next turn, but then Cari, taking a dive with her Life, took those out with a pot of living vines. From there, she summoned a whole swarm of pixies and their leader—the Pixie Queen.

(20) Pixie Queen Unstable Chaos revenants you control gain Flying. Pixie revenants you control gain +1 Power. Amplify, Flying 2 >>>

When the queen hit the board, Sally visibly deflated, and Mond stopped trying to explain the game for a second to suck and hold a breath.

It was over not long after that, when Sally’s Life became 0. It was Cari’s Duskwarrior who struck the final blow, having gained even more Power from all the times Cari had inverted her attunement in the duel. Cari laughed while Sally sulked, but eventually they were both chuckling.

Shaking his head and looking at what was left of the arena was all Tay could do to wrap his head around what had happened. He knew Sally had gone to 0 Life because Mond had told him, but he had no idea how Cari had won. How was he supposed to play this? And with what deck—the cards that he’d stolen?

Mond must’ve noticed the look on his face, or maybe how he leaned forward to fondle the top of the chest underneath him, because the large man said, “Is something a matter, Tay?”

“I can’t do this,” Tay said.

Sally and Cari still shared smiles between them, but Mond’s face had gone somber. All his joviality was gone. He knew what they were trying to get Tay to understand, and surely he realized how impossible this was. There was no way he could learn Runicka in only one night.

Mond rose from the table without another word, his chair groaning against the wooden floor. He lumbered over to the unused door—the one that still had a thick layer of dust coating its handle. He slowly turned the handle and disappeared into the room beyond. Cari and Sally both looked at him, and Tay tried his best to fight both of his cheeks going red again. He hadn’t meant to upset the great man. This game, everything about it, was all just so much to learn.

Besides, it wasn’t like he had asked to be taught. If Mond was upset, it was his own fault.

If it were up to him, he’d be topside by now and probably halfway to the city’s front gates. The Polamund’s would’ve never had to see him again.

Right when he was about to ask if Mond was coming back, the big man lumbered back into the room and shut the door behind him. But it was what was in his hands that shocked Tay. It was a small chest, not ornate, but still engraved with small carvings—just like the one he held under his fingers.

“Alright,” Mond said. “Well, if we can’t teach Tay how to play Runicka tonight, then tomorrow I’ll have to teach House Polamund what happens when they disturb Peace and Quiet.”