Tay yanked his hands out of his pockets before sweeping open the door of Mond’s candy shop and walking over the threshold. He’d been expecting the bell overhead, but he hadn’t been expecting all the friendly faces turned toward him.

All of the folks who had come with Mond and him to the duel in Whalemaw Square were still here, gathered into clusters and chatting amongst themselves. Some nodded when they saw him, and Tay noticed others whispering while shooting glares in his direction. A couple of kids even raced between the groups. But he never even got a chance to ask what they were talking about.

Because racing down the stairs and bursting through the crowd came Sally, all but forcing herself into Tay’s arms. Sally wrapped her arms around him, trembling. She was either sobbing, or she was laughing, and Tay couldn’t tell which as she pressed her face into his stomach. He allowed his hands to rest on the back of her head, and found himself letting out a deep sigh.

Having Sally hug him felt like she was squeezing all the pain of losing to Rantho away. When she finally lifted up her head to look at him with her oddly white eyes, Tay found that he had to wipe away a couple of gathered tears.

“I’ve been so worried,” Sally said. “Mond didn’t tell us anything, you left in such a hurry this morning that I—that I didn’t think you were coming back. Tay, I’m so happy to see you!”

“I had to come back, Sally,” Tay said.

Sally’s shoulders relaxed, and Tay wasn’t sure if he’d upset her or told her what she’d been wanting to hear. Regardless, Tay pressed, “Is Mond upstairs?”

Sally stepped back and then waved for him to follow her up. “Yes, yes. Quincy brought him up to his bed. He’s been out cold since he got back though. Everyone’s been talking about what happened, but no one’s given us a straight answer. Come on.”

Tay followed Sally up to the second floor of their shop and entered into Mond’s room, which he noticed was a great deal smaller than the kitchen and what he’d seen of Sally and Cari’s room too. Mond himself had been lain on a small cot in the middle of the room. No way had this bed ever been made for a man of his stature.

His chest rose and fell in short bursts, and his right arm slunk off to the side. But his left was wrapped still in a thick bundle of cloths that must’ve been changed recently because they looked spotless, and his bandages hadn’t been spotless when he’d fallen unconscious in Whalemaw Square.

And Mond, for the most part, wasn’t spotless now. His forehead had a couple scratches on it, and there was a spot of dirt on his right cheek that Cari was working on cleaning off with a warm rag.

Cari was wrapped up a flowing teal dress, and only barely looked up to acknowledge him as he entered the room. If she was either happy or surprised to see him, she didn’t show it. She only returned to cleaning up Mond as he rested there in his unconsciousness.

Quincy moved to catch Tay, swinging him around and bringing him to the opposite side of the bed as Cari, where he brought up a chair he’d gotten from the dining room.

“He’d be happy to know you look a lot better than he currently does,” Quincy said, scratching at his stubbly chin. “He’s been out cold practically since we got him back. He drifts in and out, but that Polamund did a number on him. Please tell me you kicked his teeth in?”

Tay started, and then froze up. All at once, he could feel all their eyes falling upon him, wondering what had happened after he’d left to face Rantho in a duel. After his talk with Qallaz, Tay had trained himself on his way back for this exact conversation. And he would’ve delivered it then and there perfectly too, had Mond not then suddenly shifted in his cot.

The big man let out a small groan, but then let out another larger one when Sally all but threw herself on the good side of his body.

“Mond! You’re awake again! We’ve been so worried. I don’t want you to sleep any longer.”

“Sally!” Cari yelled. “Sally, get off of him. He’s going to need his space. Get—off—of—him!”

And Cari all but ripped her sister from the side of the giant man. But by the time she succeeded, Mond was awake and giving them a half smile.

“It’s fine, Cari,” Mond said. And to Sally, he said, “I don’t bug you when you sleep in, dear, so you’re going to have to forgive me for when I do it for now.”

Mond let out a chuckle and then turned his head to gauge the rest of the room. His blue eyes rested on Tay, and his smile faltered in that moment, replaced with the most blank expression Tay had ever seen in his life.

There were laugh lines across Mond’s face, from all the chuckling and smiling he did on a daily basis. In the candlelight of the room and with how straight his face currently was, Tay couldn’t make a single one of them out.

Had he made a mistake coming back here? Maybe Mond thought he’d already washed his hands of Tay and everything he’d had been involved with. That most certainly would’ve been the case had the situation been reversed, and had Tay been the one in the cot.

But Tay had prepared himself for this moment—the moment where he had to tell them all what’d happened. And, in his head, was already perfectly organized. So, it really was a shame that his lips went dry and his tongue twisted up the instant he opened his mouth.

“We dueled,” Tay said, “and I lost. I don’t know how I lost but I did. But don’t be mad, because I already have a plan on how we can make sure that you aren’t kicked out of Peace and Quiet, so you don’t have to worry. Not that you were worried before, but you shouldn’t now.

“Anyway, I was talking to this Brux woman up in the Jar—lovely lady—and it gave me the idea that maybe we could make some money through Runicka, uh, somehow, and then we could bribe the guards, or the enforcers, or maybe even pay off Rantho so that he doesn’t have to come down here anymore. There’s a lot of money to be made there and—and—and—”

Everyone was staring at him like he’d just lost his mind. He’d said it all at once, and hardly taken a single breath since beginning. After realizing it, he gulped down a couple mouthfuls of air.

Through all that, Mond’s face remained completely passive. Then, the man said, “Come here, Tay.”

And as soon as Tay leaned in, Mond reached with his good arm, groaning, and hooked it around Tay to bring him into a warm embrace. “I’m just glad you’re safe, kid. Don’t worry about all that. Folks around here aren’t just going to let a Polamund come in and kick out their favorite candy shop owner. We’ll be here for a while yet.”

Tay looked up to a nodding Quincy, who added, “If that brat wants Mond out of here, he’s going to have to bring the king’s army bottomside.” And for emphasis, he smashed his fist into his palm.

“And the same goes for you, kid,” Mond said, shaking him up and down in his arms. “The Polamund may have beaten us, but he’ll find that the people of Duskborough are a little more stubborn than his sheltered upbringing would have him believe.”

Tay found himself somewhere between shedding a tear and letting out a laugh. And he wouldn’t have even been able to tell the Fourteen the reasons for either, though the reasons were probably one and the same.

He’d been worried that they’d be mad at him. That they’d all want him out of Peace and Quiet the instant they saw him. That’s why he’d come up with his silly plan to make money off of Runicka.

And now, he felt nothing but relief, being bounced up and down in Mond’s giant embrace. He wanted to laugh because it was so silly in hindsight to think that these people would’ve expected anything more out of him than just his wellbeing. Mond had even thrown himself into harm’s way for him. He wasn’t going to expect Tay to have something to make up for it.

They talked for a while, going on about Tay’s duel against Rantho, and how he’d managed to hold his own for a while yet against the far-more-experienced Runicka player.

“You got a lot further against him than you did in our games,” Cari said, and Tay noticed she let on a hint of a smile. “Must’ve been learning more than I thought you were.”

“Hold on,” Mond said. “When did you two have time to play Runicka together?”

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Cari’s face absolutely blossomed into redness and she turned away stammering. Quincy broke out laughing and Sally just tilted her head to the side at the exchange.

Mond shrugged to it and then said, “Well, so long as Runicka is all that you practiced together.”

Oblivious to the whole exchange, Sally raced around the bed and shook Tay’s arm up and down, saying, “Quincy told us you stood up for Mond. That you weren’t afraid to meet that Polamund head on. You were like a wild boar, he said.”

Tay could practically see sparkles in her wide white eyes. And he realized that, even though he’d lost, she still held him in admiration. It was as if what he’d done for Mond as a gesture was far more important to her than the intangible nothingness he’d brought back with him. What an absurd concept.

Tay rather liked it.

“I just thought that someone needed to put him in his place,” Tay said. He scratched the back of his head. “Seems that I failed at that.”

“I find it hard to believe that he would’ve played you for the cards alone,” Mond said. “The same wager over again?”

Tay felt a sinking feeling in his stomach, and his mouth dried up again. “Well,” he started, and then felt the weight of the world returning, pushing him back down into the floor again.

It must’ve been obvious, because Quincy laid a hand on his back and Sally nudged his side ever so slightly. Even Cari had stopped cleaning Mond for a moment to look up at him.

“I may have wagered something of my own, so that he’d be interested. Honestly, I wasn’t even sure that he’d go for it. It was my mother’s amulet. At least, that’s what my orphanage always told me. I never actually met her, and that was all that I had left of her.”

“I saw it when you raised it up in Whalemaw Square,” Quincy said. And then he turned to Mond. “It was a Runicka Talisman, Mond. With a perfected lattice, the likes of which I’ve never even seen. Those crystals were cut in ways that I don’t expect we’ll ever be lucky enough to see again.”

Tay shook his head as if coming out of a daze. “What? Wait, what do you mean? A Runicka Talisman. No. I mean, I know it looked like Cari’s necklace, but I’ve had that ever since the orphanage.”

Quincy shrugged. “Kid, I may not be a pro like Mond, but I play Runicka from time to time.” Quincy rolled up his sleeve and revealed a bracelet that had three colorful gemstones socketed into the back. They were arranged into a circle—one blue, another white, and the last emerald. Glowing together, they unmistakably reminded Tay of what he’d lost.

“I think I know a Talisman when I see one,” Quincy said. “And that amulet of yours was a Talisman. No doubts about it.”

Funny how now that he’d lost his mother’s amulet, Tay could feel it weighing against his neck and chest more than ever before. He even reached up to grab at it, before remembering that its warmth was long, long gone.

“But why would my mother’s—why would she have—”

He didn’t know how to finish that question. But it was a question that he needed to know the answer to. More than anything, he had to know why she had given him a Runicka Talisman in the first place.

“You’re smiling,” Cari said.

It took Tay a second to realize that she was looking at him. By the Fourteen, he was smiling. It wasn’t wide, but he felt—what was this? Joy? Relief?

“I—” Tay started. “For so long, I’ve never known anything about her. And now, even though I lost her amulet, I know she played Runicka. Or was tied to it somehow. Or thought it was important enough to pass down to me.”

He laughed. It was dumb, yes, but it was something that he could go off of. It was the equivalent of throwing a torch into a dark hole. It was still a dark hole, but now he could see something inside of it.

Which only made him all the more aware that his one and only clue into who his mother might’ve been was now topside in the hands of the scummiest rich boy Stormwall had ever produced. And Tay knew, without doubt, no matter what happened or what he decided to do, that he’d need to get his mother’s amulet back.

It wasn’t just some piece of jewelry. There was a reason he’d kept it around for this long, and it was for sentimentality. It was a clue to who his mother was—who she might still be, if he could only find her.

Tay resolved something else too. He would find her. He’d learn about this game, and through it reclaim his amulet. After that, he’d find her.

He would.

~~~~~~~~~~

They all talked for a while yet, and though Mond had to take breaks every now and again, he always seemed happy when he woke back up. Tay didn’t fail to notice that each time he came into the room, Cari had replaced the bandages and cloths around his left arm. Once, he even caught a glimpse of the cloth as she took them from the room—there were blood stains on them.

As night claimed the people of Peace and Quiet and sent to them to their beds, Quincy decided he’d be staying the night, and that Mond shouldn’t be left alone—just in case. Even though Mond and the rest of them had dispelled all of his guilt, Tay still felt obligated to stay at the big man’s bedside first. It was the least he could do.

He wasn’t sat at Mond’s side long before the man shifted, and groaned. Tay leaned in and nudged Mond. Mond turned and regarded him with a furrowed brow.

“You probably need as much rest as I do, kid,” Mond said. “Don’t have to stay up for old me, now.”

“You know, they said you’d say that,” Tay said. “That you’d try and worry about me over yourself. Cari made it a point to make sure that I didn’t listen to a word you said. ‘Don’t even waste a second if there’s any trouble,’ she said. ‘I want to be the first to know.’”

That made Mond smirk. “Ah, those girls know me too well. They all do.”

“It’s because you watch out for them,” Tay said. “They were all concerned for you—the whole neighborhood. They had your back. I can’t even imagine what that’s like.”

“What that’s like?” Now Mond was chuckling to himself. “You were the one who had my back the most, I’m told. I barely remember what happened after this.” He nodded to his bandaged arm. “And don’t you worry, because like I said, the Polamunds aren’t going to flush either you or me out of Peace and Quiet so easily.”

“Right,” Tay said. But something didn’t feel quite right about that. Like he didn’t really feel he’d earned the right to their protection. He was putting them all at risk from his sole mistake. How was that fair?

“Before,” Mond said, and Tay noticed the man’s signature grin had faded. His face once again went passive. “You said you thought you could make money off of Runicka—that you had ideas about it.”

Tay almost had to think twice before remembering just what he’d said when he’d first come back. It seemed so long ago, and yet couldn’t have been more than a couple of hours.

“Yeah, I met this woman who sells figurines made of clockwork. They’re revenants, and people were actually buying them. Afterward, I checked around the Jar, and almost every stall, shop, and seller had some amount of Runicka stuff. There’s serious coin to be made around the game, if not, playing the game.”

Mond groaned. “You’re tell me, kid. Why do you think I became a champion in the first place? The coin seems good, until you realize where it comes from.”

“What do you mean?”

“Who do you think buys all the merchandise? Who do you think buys cards?”

Tay thought back to the man who’d been in Qallaz’s shop. His robes had been pristine, but his shoes had been worn down. And then there was the crack he’d had in his spectacles. Tay hadn’t put much thought into it at the time, but it was like the man was trying to act wealthier than he actually was.

“The rich don’t have to buy the cards, and the poor spend all they got and get nothing. That’s the name of the game, and once I learned that—how they were using my name to sell packs of cards to nobodies that didn’t have more than a copper to their name—I was out. Didn’t matter if the boss had asked me to throw the final game to make him a mansion full of gold. I needed to stop then and there.”

Mond shook his head. “But I’m not the champion anymore. I think that’s pretty obvious. And you’re right, there is some serious coin to be made in it, but you shouldn’t chase it, Tay.”

Tay almost scowled at the big man—the big man who’d put his life on the line to keep Tay safe. Thankfully, he forced his emotions down and instead asked, “Why not?”

“There are better ways to earn your way in this world than through chasing the thrills that come with Runicka tournaments and the practices that surround it. Especially here in Stormwall, on both accounts.

“I’m not going to be much use of anyone in this state. As far as I’m concerned, you’ve a place in the shop downstairs if you’re looking to make some steady coin.”

Tay fiddled with his hands, and said, “Thanks. But I—”

“Don’t give me any of that,” Mond said. “You were desperate enough to steal a chest you didn’t know the contents of. Take the job and move on with your life. For me. Please.”

“Okay,” Tay said. Then he smiled. “Yeah, I can work here. That’d be nice actually. I think I’m warming up to the lot of you.”

“Oh, you’re just warming up to us now, are you? Glad I took the blow just so you could warm up to us.”

They shared a laugh, before it died back down into the silence of the night. And it was in the silence that Tay couldn’t forget the promise he’d made to himself just earlier—about his mother’s amulet.

“I do need to get better at Runicka though,” Tay said.

Mond regarded him, but said nothing.

“I need to challenge Rantho to get my mother’s amulet back. I’m going to do it, but I have to be able to win next time. I can’t lose.”

“You’re going to need a deck then,” Mond said. “Tell you what—if you watch the shop for the next couple of days, as soon as I’m ready to get out of the bed again, I’ll take you to the local card shop and we can get you a deck with your first pay cut. From there, you can begin honing your skills. As much as I hate that Polamund boy, his skills at Runicka are no joke. You’re going to have your work cut out for you if you’re going to win.”

Tay smiled, and said he’d do his absolute best while Mond was indisposed. Mond said that he knew he would, and not long after, passed out from exhaustion again. So, for a while longer and before getting Cari to relieve him of his shift, Tay sat there.

But he didn’t sit there in complete darkness. For in his fingers, held right in front of his face, Tay stared directly into a card covered in rainbow swirls.

Soon… it said. Soon…