Tay had thought Peace and Quiet had been loud enough, but that was before he’d gotten to know its children.

Most didn’t have an ounce of courtesy between them. To them, he was merely a barrier they had to bust down to get the sweets they so desired. He’d rather face Rantho a thousand times over than deal with another mob of sugar-starved children. Fourteen, he’d rather face an angry Cari.

But the last thing Tay would do was complain, especially since Mond particularly loved the children who came to his shop. Even in his weakened condition, he still made it a point to climb down the stairs and set them up with multi-colored gobstoppers or sour-coated lollipops. It was after Mond handed out his fifth handful of candy that he told Tay that he could handle the shop for the rest of the day. Tay wasn’t so sure about that though.

Two weeks had elapsed, and Mond still looked about as ghastly as he had when Tay had come to his bedside for forgiveness. His face was a pale reflection of the jolly visage it has once, there were bags underneath the bags under his eyes, and even his blond mustache seemed to be greying. It was like time was getting away from Mond.

When Tay protested, Mond said, “I’ll be fine kid.You’ve been working through all your lunches, and Cari’s fixed us up some fantastic chicken sandwiches that I’ll not have you skipping out on. Go up the stairs, kid. Go!”

Mond parted the sea of children in his shop with his good arm, and practically threw Tay all the way upstairs. Behind him, Tay could hear Mond roaring with laughter as the kids all collapsed around him, ravenous in their hunger to consume more sugar. Only the Fourteen could help him now.

To Mond’s—and Cari’s—credit, the sandwich, though cold, was extraordinarily good. It had a tangy sauce on it that Tay would’ve never been able to place, and if he’d known food could taste this good even while cold, he might’ve been stealing lunches instead of cards when he’d arrived in Stormwall.

And now that he actually had some free time, he could do what he’d been meaning to put time toward all week.

He went over to the door which had formerly been coated in a thick layer of dust. Swinging it open, Tay revealed the small cot he’d been sleeping on for the past couple weeks, a couple stacks of thin wooden crates, and what was left of half of a dresser.

Mond had been nice enough to let him use their spare room as his own, though he’d moved out a fairly hefty chest before allowing Tay to move his stuff in. Not that Tay had had any stuff at that point. He did now though, as he slid open the uppermost shelf of his dresser.

Once again, he really only owed a single thing in the world.

Black swirls cascaded upward from the stack of twenty Runicka cards he kept tucked in the back corner. The misty illumination played in the air until he reached in and scooped his cards out, heading back to the dining table to lay them all out.

Before him, he placed the first card of the pile that he’d gotten to know.

(5) Apprentice of the Warlock Stable

Shout: reduce target foe revenant’s Power by half until the end of the turn (rounded down).

Uproar: add Warlock of Midnight Darkness from your deck or Oblivion to your hand.

< 2

And, from there, he slid over a card wreathed in its own coat of misty darkness, from how deeply aligned into Chaos it was. Its artwork showed a robed figure, head entirely obscured, with large spaulders. He wielded a staff taller than himself, and had power quite literally dripping off of his fingertips as he stood in the shadows.

(20) Warlock of Midnight Darkness Unstable

Shout: reduce all foe revenant’s Power by half (rounded down).

Uproar: obliterate all foe revenants with less than 3 Power.

Decay <<< 3

In the days since his defeat at the hands of Rantho, Tay had come to accept one hard truth about all Runicka cards that which were meant to be played later in the game—they needed to be impactful. One couldn’t waste throwing out a card when their foes were gearing up to sweep the game out. When Rantho had been building up his board to win, Tay had been just trying to put revenants out into the arena.

He should’ve been handling Rantho’s board.

Which was why he enjoyed this Warlock of Midnight Darkness so much. If he’d been able to play it against Rantho, maybe things would’ve turned out a little differently. It actually helped clean up the board immediately, and then he could use it to smack his opponent in the face.

Of course, the Warlock of Midnight Darkness was also a hallmark of the Will of the Warlock’s biggest weakness. The deck had no revenants with more than 4 Power.

He’d checked the deck from front to back. Most of his cards were either 1 or 2 Power. Only his most powerful ones had 3, and only two had the audacity to bear 4 Power.

He picked up one his cards with 4 Power, only to have it plucked straight out of his hands. Tay found himself staring across the table at a grinning Cari. She seemed something akin to a cat at the moment, trying to play off what she had done as nothing more than natural mischief. When she peered at what she had snatched, she nodded her head and opened her mouth in what could’ve been mock surprise.

“Oh, wow, this is a strong card, Tay,” Cari said.

“Give it back, Cari,” Tay said.

Cari shrugged and then slid the card back over across the table to him, but not before taking another with her other hand. Tay ignored her and returned his attention to the 4 Power powerhouse.

(10) Hellfire Annihilator Unstable

Oblivion: all foe revenant’s lose their auras and -1 Power.

Ignore this revenant’s Volatile triggers so long as you control a Warlock revenant.

Flurry, Volatile <<< 4

It was a massive, hulking creature, with spikes protruding from its skin all across its body. Even though it lingered in a thick cluster of shadows, it wasn’t too hard to tell that the natural color of its skin was a fiery red. Its eyes were like any other Chaos revenant though—blacker than the darkest midnight. The only peculiar feature of this revenant, was that it had chains bound around its wrists, pinning it down to the floor like some sort of inmate.

“So,” Tay said. “Auras are carried over between revenant fusions, right?” Cari lowered the card she’d been admiring to give him a slow nod.

“That and their Power are the only things that do,” Cari said.

“And I remember you talking about Flurry,” Tay said. “One of your cards had it.”

“Flurry revenants can attack twice.”

“So, what does Volatile mean then? I haven’t seen that Aura on any other card.”

Cari sat forward and reached across the table, but Tay pulled the Hellfire Annihilator away before she could get her hands on it. “Answer the question first,” Tay said.

Cari grimaced, but then said, “I actually hadn’t seen that it had Volatile on it. Volatile would make it slightly worse. Revenants with Volatile must be sacrificed at the end of your turn.”

“Interesting. So, then, I really do need this card’s effect so it can stay alive then. Guess I won’t be fusing anything on top of it.”

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It was at this point that Cari scooted her chair back and then marched across to his side of the table, her brow furrowed. “Hold on,” she said. “I thought I saw that this card was an Unstable revenant. Yeah, it is. See? Unstable. It’s right there underneath the art.”

Tay blinked. “Is that supposed to mean something? We never went over what Unstable revenants did. I just assumed they were like the Stable ones, but maybe stronger?”

This time, Cari did manage to snag Hellfire Annihilator out of his hands, and then pulled the Apprentice of the Warlock over to her as well. She placed both side by side, and then grabbed a few of her own cards from her belt.

“Okay,” Cari said. “We went over Latent revenants? I remember that deck you stole had a ton of them. It had those and those rainbow cards we couldn’t figure out. You remember what Latent does, right? I don’t think your current deck has them, but it’ll be good to make sure you have this down.”

“Yeah, I remember,” Tay said. “You taught me about Stable revenants, and how you can play them either alone or as any part of a fusion. Latent revenants are just like them, except they can’t be played on top of other cards. What’d you call that? Fusing Adding?”

“Fusion Addition,” Cari corrected. “Yeah, Latent revenants can be played all alone, or they can have other revenants fused on top of them. That makes them the ideal Fusion Bases. Unstable revenants are on the opposite side from Latent ones.”

“They can only be played as Additions?” Tay ventured.

Cari moved her head from left to right. “Well, sorta. They can either be played on their own, like Stables, but can also be played only as Additions.”

“So, they’re always going to be on top then, regardless of what’s beneath them,” Tay said.

Cari perked up at that and smiled, and Tay felt his heart leap.

“Yeah, that’s exactly right. Fourteen Above, I can’t believe I thought you could challenge a Polamund and I hadn’t even gone over all the revenant-types. I’m sorry, Tay. You shouldn’t have felt obligated to fight for Mond.”

“I couldn’t just let Rantho get away with badmouthing him,” Tay said, grinning.

Cari smirked. “Rantho?”

“Oh, that’s the nickname I gave him. He hated it. So, you know, I like it.”

They shared a laugh before Cari pulled out a single card from her deck, its corners cresting with snowy illumination. The depiction was of a small dragonfly-like creature, with the smallest sword Tay had ever seen, held aloft and at the ready.

(20) Pixie Swordsmaster Bursting This revenant gains Barrier whenever a Chaos card is played. Flying 3 >>

Cari held her finger to the word Bursting and said, “Bursting revenants are like Unstable revenants, except they cannot be played on their own. They have to be played as part of a fusion.”

“That seems a bit restrictive.”

Cari put her card back down and tapped her chin. “I mean, there are ways for decks to circumvent the requirements for summoning certain revenants.”

Tay thought of the Dark Obelisk card that Rantho had played. That seemed like one such card, except it had allowed Rantho to summon Surging revenants, not Bursting.

“So, how are Surging revenants played? They have to be part of fusions too, right?”

“Yes,” Cari said, obviously happy that Tay was catching on. “I wish I had one to show you, but I don’t think any of us really play with Surging revenants. They’re more on the Chaos side of cards, and while your deck is Chaos, your cards are a bit on the slow side.”

“What’s that mean? Slow side?”

“Slower decks mean to draw out games, and allow you to attune yourself to Chaos 3 more than once to maximize your Life throughout a game. They don’t typically use Surging and Bursting revenants, because those are usually played all in one go—just emptying out one’s hand until you’re left with nothing until you refill at the end of your turn.

“That’s more of the aggro style of play.”

“Aggro and control then,” Tay said. “Those are opposites?”

Cari nodded. “Basically, with many different types of decks in between. But, back to Surging revenants—they’re like Bursting revenants and Stable revenants mixed together. They have to be played as part of a fusion—”

“But can either be the Base or the Addition?” Tay ventured.

And Cari’s smile set off sparks in his chest again. He was also happy to finally have gotten a grasp on these reveant-types. Knowing the restrictions behind Surging revenants made Rantho’s deck slightly less terrifying, since he knew there were drawbacks to the cards Rantho had used.

“So, would another reason why you’d want to play Bursting and Surging revenants is that their effects could be more powerful?” Tay asked.

Because all of Rantho’s Gargoyle revenants had been Surging, and all had been incredibly strong. Rantho had fused them into his Latent Statue revenants, and together, they had become absolute monsters. Even with his new cards, if he drew the wrong hand, Tay wasn’t sure he’d stand a chance against Rantho. And he needed to be able to do that consistently, like Rantho had said.

“I mean,” Cari said. “I’d say, they probably have more specific effects. But it’s not like we really get to decide on what cards have what effects.”

“What do you mean?”

Cari opened her mouth to answer, but never got around to it, because the stairs shook as someone stomped their way up. They both knew what was coming, and Tay set himself to scooping up all his cards off of the table. Sally burst into the dining room and raced to the table not even half of a second later.

Tay hadn’t been quick enough, and Sally managed to snag a card from the far end of the table, where Cari pulled one to the side.

“Oh, look at this one!” Sally said. “When are you going to duel me with them, Tay? You have all these fancy new cards, and you haven’t dueled anybody with them yet?”

Sally brushed some of her white hair back up and over her eyes, revealing those snowy orbs. She was trying to make them as big as possible as she pouted at him. She didn’t have to do that though, because he wouldn’t mind being able to play against someone as practice. He hadn’t tried out the cards yet because he’d been busy all week with the children downstairs.

But then Cari said, “He can’t play you yet because his deck’s not complete.”

Sally tilted her head. Tay did the same.

Cari then asked him, “Have you forgotten what you already lost? You’re going to need a Talisman if you’re going to get any good.”

Tay’s heart pulsed in his chest, and he groaned. “I can’t get that back yet, Cari.”

Cari inhaled, and then leaned in to place a hand over his wrist. “That’s not what I meant, Tay.” She sat back again. “I just mean, even if you haven’t been using it, you’ve been playing with a Talisman up to this point. You’re going to need another one if you want to play in tournaments and such.”

Cari pulled out her necklace, the aforementioned Talisman, and revealed its violet, emerald, and ruby-colored gemstones, all socketed into its flower-shaped amulet. Tay inhaled, as it really did look remarkably similar to his mother’s, save for that his mother’s amulet had been mostly-plain and Cari’s was a bit more on the luxurious side.

Its other key difference was its gemstones all glowed their respective colors without mixing at all. His mother’s amulet had possessed a glow from its collective gemstone where their light faded into pure white before diffusing out into the nothingness of the world.

But, that wasn’t to say Cari’s amulet wasn’t beautiful in its own right.

Cari pointed to the violet gemstone. “That’s a Shadowstone,” she said. She moved her finger to the red one and said, “This is a Robonicle.” And finally, pointing at the green, she then said, “And this is an Emeronyx. They’re known as ley-crystals, and they’re essential if you’re going to master Runicka, Tay.”

The glowing from all the gemstones seemed to lessen the more Cari left them exposed to the open air, like they were gathering whatever power they possessed back into their forms. Though Tay was less than convinced.

“How can these be essential when I haven’t needed them yet to play the game?” he asked.

“How many times have you won so far?”

“But no one’s used Talismans against me either.”

Cari shrugged. “They probably didn’t have to.” Then she added, “No offense. But when we played together, beating you wasn’t necessarily the hardest thing in the world, Tay. Normally, a deck like mine completely relies on Talismans and nearly becomes unplayable without them.”

Sally perked up at that. “Hey! You beat me the other day and you weren’t using your Talisman.”

Cari rolled her eyes. “I don’t need a Talisman to beat you either, Sally.”

Tay stared into the gemstones and curled his hand into a fist. He didn’t know whether or not to feel silly or angry.

Cari and Rantho had both faced him in a duel, and he’d proven such a trivial opponent to them that they hadn’t actually thought him worthy of unleashing their full powers? How was he ever going to win his mother’s amulet back if he couldn’t even measure up to their knowledge and expertise at Runicka.

“What can it do?” Tay asked, matter-of-factly.

“Tay, you don’t have to worry about all that stuff,” Sally said. “I just focus on the cards, and leave all that other stuff to Cari and Mond.”

“No,” Tay said. Then, catching himself, he said to Sally, “Sorry, Sally. But I need to know.” And to Cari, he said, “Show me what it can do.”

Cari regarded her sister’s shocked expression, but without saying anything, reached over and retrieved one of his Chaos cards. It sank into her palm and not even a moment later, darkness consumed Cari, bleeding out from her form as it grew to encompass her entirely.

Her hair became thrice as black as it usually was, and even her amber eyes dulled by a few shades. Shadows stretched out under her eyes as she attuned herself to Chaos 2. Tendrils of shifting shadows reached out from her body, struggling against the candlelight of the dining room.

Cari held up her hand, in which her Talisman still radiated its triple-colored glow. But no sooner had she raised it, than the ruby and emerald glows softened. The gem she had called a Shadowstone radiated a violent purple flame. It shot out from the crystal and arced up into the air.

Then Cari flashed brilliant white light. Then quicker than Tay could blink, she was…

Beautiful.

White light wreathed Cari’s shining form as she took on the aspect of Order 2. Its snowy aura cascaded off of her curves and gave new depth to her black hair. As her eyes beheld him, they were glowing with the intensity of a sun of a cloudless day.

“My Reflecting Shadowstone allows me to invert my attunement from Chaos 2 to Order 2 at will,” Cari said.

Tay gazed upon Cari in her shining brilliance and said, “I need one.”