“What do you mean? We’re taking a carriage.” Clyde was confused by the question. As someone who took a carriage all the time it was only a natural thought.

‘That was a stupid question.’ Syllis berated herself internally. She used to always take carriage rides. To and from school she would ride with her mother. They would sing songs and play games on the way back. That was long ago though and Syllis had completely forgotten of their existence until now.

The next hour passed on almost silently as the two of them made their way out of outer Asanoch. Eventually they arrived at a carriage station. It was mostly empty, safe for a few obviously high class couples.

‘How in lord's name am I going to get back to my…’ Syllis sighed defeatedly. ‘I guess it doesn’t matter when I get back. Not like I have anything to do. Maybe It’ll even be nice, surfing the outer ring for interesting encounters.’

“Is something wrong?” Clyde turned after handing the driver a few quartz shards. He looked at Syllis with curiosity.

“What?”

“You sighed. Is everything alright?” The understanding boy cocked his head slightly.

“Oh right, it’s fine. All’s good I was just thinking about something that happened a long time ago.” Syllis lied, blatantly. She fiddled with her thumb as though trying to pop it off.

“I understand, there’s been something bothering me recently…” The boy seemed to move somewhere else entirely. Suddenly he was pulled away from their conversation into his own thoughts. He shook his head a couple times. “Never mind that though. We should make it to my house in an hour at the most.”

As the both of them stepped into the grandiose carriage, Syllis was overcome with a familiar sensation. The feeling of not needing to strain herself to get from one place to the other is one she’d missed from her childhood.

Wanting to get rid of the awkward silence in the carriage, Syllis desperately surveyed her surroundings. ‘Nothing, actually…’ “Wanna play cards?” She asked plainly.

Clyde seemed taken aback. This girl had seemed cold and distant the entire time he’d spoken to her. She even had a somewhat threatening air around her. And now she was suddenly asking to play cards. “S-sure… What game would you like to play?” The boy spoke, rattled.

“We don’t have to play?” Syllis said almost like a question. ‘What’s the deal. People my age like to play games. At least they did while I was in school. They don’t grow out of that do they?’

“I want to play cards!” Clyde chirped, not wanting to offend the girl. “Are you alright with call to arms?” He eagerly picked up the deck and began shuffling profusely.

“If you’re alright with teaching me how to play…”

The next half hour was spent purely teaching the nymph just how to play the game. It was a complicated game, every face card was a ‘general’ of a specific suit. A general could attack with a suit of their control and the goal was to completely deplete the opponent’s fifty health.

The real strategy of the game was choosing whether or not to skip an ‘attack’ to instead draw cards. If you held a card that was incrementally adjacent to your attacking card then that one would be triggered as well. So the tradeoff of attacking early was not setting off chain reactions, and the tradeoff for waiting was that you would most likely be screwed over if you took too long.

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‘I regret asking to play cards…’ Syllis threw her hand against the seat of the carriage. “How in lord's name could I fail at something so miserably.”

Clyde laughed heartily. “Don’t beat yourself up over it. You’re doing… Well enough for just picking the game up a while ago. I’m sure you’ll get better before we arrive.”

‘If I can make it to then without tearing the deck apart…’ Syllis began shuffling the cards, they were over halfway done their carriage ride now and she had a goal. ‘I will win a game.’

“Again.” She handed a few cards to the boy to her right.

Throughout the next while, Syllis began winning games. First it was a one off, then a couple in a row. And then by the end she was winning every single match they played.

‘I’m not holy enough to rise above the urge to cheat…’ Syllis didn’t regret her actions. She had marked a majority of the cards she held with a faint scratch on the back. A small horizontal streak was a diamond card, a long horizontal streak was a heart. A small vertical was a club and a long vertical, a spade.

“See, what did I tell you? Look at the improvement! But I’ll be honest I never expected you to improve that much… You’re pretty damn sharp.” Clyde took the cards, setting them off to the side as they were nearly at their destination.

“It was all due to my accumulation of cards. My impatience was my downfall at the start.” Syllis spewed out these blatant lies as easily as she breathed. “It was fun.” She smiled, this wasn’t a lie.

“I’m glad you enjoyed it.”

Three loud knocks rang against Syllis’s cold steel door. Letting the both of them know that they had arrived. ‘Because we can’t see through the window…’

As soon as both of them stepped out, Syllis was overwhelmed by what was in front of them. A grandiose white house with freshly trimmed hedges and equally trimmed, silk leaf trees. Even the path that led them up to the house seemed expensive, ornate. It consisted of several shades of grey rocks. Patches of black and white sand swirled with each other in patches between the rocks.

‘So this is as humble as the upper class gets.’ Syllis only grumbled, slightly jealous as she followed the boy up the straight and narrow path.

A woman blocked the path to the door and addressed the boy in front of her simply. “Please don’t run off so suddenly, Clyde. At least let us know where you’re going.” She turned to a man and woman behind her. They were all in working outfits.

‘They have maids too…’ Syllis couldn’t help but feel envious of the boy in front of her. She had to work tirelessly to survive nowadays. Whereas this boy probably only needed to study well and attend social gatherings.

“I know, sorry Anne. I just needed a little time out. You understand, right? No need to report this to my parents when they get back, right?” Clyde pleaded with the short maid.

Anne merely blew the boy off and stepped down a couple of stone steps. She strutted over to a tall, secare nymph. “Who are you?” The maid leaned closer, examining her neck before looking down to her stained, white dress.

“Syllis, could you wait outside for a couple minutes?” Clyde pulled the aggressive maid away towards the house before entering. “I’ll be right back!” The door slammed shut.

Syllis leaned against the wall, just next to the door. She wondered what they were talking about. ‘This is getting complicated… But I’ve come too far to give up this meal!’ She steeled her resolve. Bread wasn’t exactly the worst, but alone it was plain. It was fine for a while but

She then tried to peer in through an outer window, slight murmurs could be heard through the panes of glass. Each made in a different color, the window was like a myriad of shapes and colors that formed a lively picture. Unfortunately it was difficult to make out anything through this ‘picture.’

After realizing that she would not be able to hear the conversation, she simply returned to waiting by the door. A few minutes later, Clyde had returned.

“Come on in!” Clyde spoke enthusiastically as he gestured invitingly.