image [https://i.imgur.com/cjnvTMQ.png]

True to form Randel decided to race me, and it was a boon from Fortune that he chose to; I wished to reach Esmi with all possible haste and I didn’t have a clue which drawing room or courtyard my other brother Gale had chosen to receive her in. It turned out to be the Blue Flower Room in the Southern Wing, which meant I arrived covered in a coat of sweat that looked particularly terrible when paired with the sparring whites I was wearing. Of course, the stories Gale would be telling Esmi about me were surely much worse, so I didn’t hesitate to follow Randel – who had managed to beat me despite his oversized load – through the two cherrywood doors.

The room within was round, with sections of the walls bumped out to represent the petals of a flower. A pastel blue oval rug covered the floor, a few gold leafed chairs and a swoosh-backed settee positioned upon it. The rear of the chamber had glass doors, which led out to the largest garden on our grounds, but my attention snapped straight to Gale. He was with Esmi on the settee, leaning in with a smile on his lips, saying something too low for me to hear.

“Look what I found on the way!” Randel declared

Bless you, I mouthed, this time to Fate for giving my middle brother such a boisterous way about him, interrupting whatever it was Gale was saying.

Gale turned to face us and so did Esmi, smiling pleasantly at our arrival, which picked up the pace of my already quickened heartbeat. She was much too good for me: beautiful, from a better house, and her inner soul already a Rare. I would have begun tallying my many inadequacies in comparison as I usually did when thinking of her, but I was caught off guard by a number of wide-nosed faces poking out from various locations around the room. Some were beside vases or candle stands, others leaning out from where the wall curved, and one popped its head up over the back of the settee, right beside Esmi. They were all kobolds, the two- to three-foot-tall creatures unmistakable with their pointed ears, blunted noses, and sharp teeth. They were also all cards, their tan or ruddy brown skin, sometimes scaled, just as vibrant as any Soul I possessed.

image [https://i.imgur.com/MTkW2xF.png]

image [https://i.imgur.com/RAbzedO.png]

image [https://i.imgur.com/drZvuy1.png]

Since I had not previously seen the kobolds as cards, my Soul ability did not activate, and the mystery of the details hidden from me itched at my curiosity. I would have loved to ask Esmi to view them in their natural state but such a request would be much too forward at this stage of our relationship.

After spotting me and apparently deciding I was of little consequence, the kobolds became much more relaxed, some drinking tea in small, clawed hands, others gabbing to one another in low squeaks and growls. Watching them behave so, they didn’t seem like the threatening volcano dwellers I had always heard them to be.

“You went all the way to your room?” Gale asked Randel, throwing an arm over the back of the settee – an arm I couldn’t help but wonder if he’d try to put around my fiancee.

“His room?” Esmi asked, her attention shifting to my twin brothers as Randel placed the large gargoyle he was carrying onto the edge of the rug. “That looks like a piece that would be out in a garden or guarding your rooftops.”

“I dabble in sculpture,” Randel said with only the barest coat of humility. He lay his hand on the misshapen work of stone possessively, but also angled his body in such a way that Esmi and Gale could appreciate his creation unobstructed.

I was a few steps behind, trying to surreptitiously make sure that my arms stayed close to my sides to not show the pit stains I had right now. At the same time, my thoughts lingered on the rug that the ridiculously-sized sculpture was crushing – our mother who cultivated only Order would have a fit when she saw it if the servants didn’t find a way to re-fluff it first.

“And you felt the need to show us this now?” Gale said to Randel, sounding more amused than annoyed.

“Her kobolds are so wonderfully grotesque. I had to capture some of that in this piece.”

“Gwerp?” the small one on the settee said, cocking its head at my middle brother like a lizard.

Esmi touched the creature reassuringly, no longer looking pleasant but instead quite serious. “My kobolds, just like all kobolds, are adorable, good sir. And if you don’t take back that slanderous comment, I will no longer think you a gentleman.”

“Never was one to start,” Randel said, winking at her while backing out of the room. “I need to get my tools. Don’t go anywhere.” He was out the doors in no time, leaving the three of us and a half dozen kobolds in a rather awkward silence.

“One man’s grotesquerie is another’s inspiration,” Gale commented, to which he earned a sharp look from Esmi.

“I’m pretty sure that’s not how the saying goes,” I said, happy for any chance to needle my oldest brother no matter how miniscule the cut may be.

“No reason to be so tart,” Gale said with a laugh. He stood, bowing to Esmi and kissing her hand. “My lady.” He then gave me a smile that was pure manufactured innocence. “We spoke of you the entire time.”

He was out the door nearly as swiftly as Randel had been, and I suddenly realized that I was now alone for the first time with my fiancee – or as alone as one could be when also hosting a gaggle of kobolds. Were they perhaps her idea of a chaperone?

I waited to see if Esmi would speak first, hoping I would appear gentlemanly by doing so, and after a short pause, she accepted my silent offer.

“Your brothers…”

I immediately disliked where this was going. Are so handsome, I was sure she was going to say, like so many people often did, what with their well defined jaws, coiffed hair, and Rare souls.

“...are not nearly as nice as they first seem to be.”

I coughed out a laugh, and then looking at her sweet face in combination with the memory of what she had just said, another, less constrained one burst out of my body, feeling simply marvelous as it did.

She smiled at my reaction and the kobolds hissed some laughs as well, looking pleased to see her – and maybe even me – happy.

With effort, I composed myself. While getting to snigger at my brothers was a wonderful treat, it wouldn’t do to keep going on like that, not when I had something important to ask her. “Would the lady care to join me on a walk through the garden?”

“Hmm,” she said, considering me in a way I found incredibly alluring. “But your other brother told us to wait.”

I purposely stepped past the gargoyle so I was closer to her than Randel’s ridiculous art project. “He’ll just have to find his inspiration elsewhere, mayhaps by looking in a mirror."

She giggled, telling me I had said just the right thing, which sent a trill up my spine. “Seeing the garden sounds delightful.”

We exited through the back door, the kobolds joining us, continuing to gabble in their unfamiliar language. I knew a bit of kestrel, as those were much more common here in Treledyne, many roosting in the floating Grand Library chained to the Palace. But of kobold I knew next to nothing. They could be solving mathematical equations or insulting me, and I would be none the wiser. The truly impressive bit though was that any of them could speak at all, as that meant they were Rare Soul cards or even higher.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“You didn’t have them summoned last time I saw you,” I said, unsure where else to start our conversation. “Your kobolds, I mean.”

She looked at me instead of the blue, purple, and cream flowers spread out before us, their colors tinged with red due to the setting sun. “We were at one of the finest restaurants in the city last time,” she said. “It hardly would have been appropriate. Even now, I know it’s rather silly to have them out like this, but I prefer it this way whenever I go traveling,” she confessed.

I had a flash of us old and married together, the kobold Souls having not aged a day and still keeping us company. It was an unexpected yet strangely pleasant daydream.

I motioned for her to travel on the left path, and she and her entourage dutifully did so. I explained that my mother’s personal Soul card gave her a way with plants, which is why we had many that weren’t quite in season. I wasn’t aware of what types of flowers should or shouldn’t be available right now, but Esmi nodded appreciatively as if she could see what I described within the menagerie of various types, some potted, others hanging, all in very neat and orderly sections.

While I made little comments like this, my attention often dropped to the package that she carried. It was wrapped in red paper and so certainly could be a gift, like Randel had told me. If that was its nature in truth, I was falling short on guesses as to what it might be. The wrapping couldn’t disguise that it was a rectangular box, which could be filled with many different things, but out of all the myriad possibilities, what would someone like Esmi actually get me? We didn’t know each other very well, and she wasn’t holding it tight to her chest like it was of great value. In fact, she carried it almost like she had forgotten it was there.

We passed a collection of chrysanthemums, one of the few flowers I could recognize and remember the name of, and I decided it was time to broach the topic.

“You haven’t told me yet why you chose to visit me today. I’m grateful to see you of course, but also curious.”

Esmi stopped in her tracks and spun to face me so fast I abandoned my plan to subtly point at the package she carried. “Yes, you’re right, and I should, shouldn’t I?” She looked so torn, the golden flecks of her Rare soul sparkling in her eyes. “And I would, or would have already, but you see…it’s rather awful, unfortunately.” She sounded profoundly apologetic, which only made me more confused. If something bad had happened to her family, surely news of it would have traveled faster than she could have, and Esmi herself looked unharmed.

“Are you or one of your parents unwell?”

“Master Basil,” I heard someone call, the words stiff with formality. I turned to see one of our butlers, Ossun, standing in a different entryway from our home into the garden.

“Your Headsman is wandering the halls.”

I cringed. A Common card would have dissipated as soon as I was more than fifty feet away from it, returning to my Mind Home, just as I imagined some of Esmi’s kobolds would do if she left them behind. An Uncommon, however, possessed a modicum of autonomy, which was how my father and those under him were able to guard the city with a force of summoned Souls. However, neither he nor my mother would be pleased to happen upon a Soul like the Headsman in their home. Not again, at any rate.

“I’ll take care of it soon, Ossun, I promise.”

“Headsman?” Esmi asked me when I turned back to her.

We hadn’t gone so far to share details about the decks we preferred to use or would use in the tournament tomorrow, though after seeing her today, it was obvious to me that she possessed a number of kobolds.

“Let’s not worry about that right now,” I assured her. “What you were saying sounded much more important.”

“Very well, but only because my news probably is worse. I’ll just say it then: my parents are reconsidering our engagement.”

I felt like I was experiencing Fate’s Grace, time suddenly freezing around me, but seeing Esmi’s eyes shift slightly as she watched me closely for a reaction told me that it wasn’t the same.

“They…are?” was what I managed to get out. Was she here to end it in person?

“It’s this bothersome boy,” she explained. “He was sweet when we were in school together oversea in Charbond, but somewhere along the way he got it into his head that we should be married. Apparently he and his family have been making overtures to my parents for months now and they just told me today.”

It turned out that getting more details about the situation did not improve it. In fact, it just made me feel more uncomfortable, but I felt obligated to say something in return. “And is he a…suitable match?”

She nodded reluctantly. “His family is noble and one of the wealthiest in Charbond, yes. And he is quite the duelist, with a number of tournament wins to his name.”

I swallowed, knowing what was coming next if her parents were considering marrying their only daughter to him.

“And his soul is Rare.”

I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath. I was behind, simple as that, but I had a plan: placing in the top of the Rising Stars tournament would surely give my soul the added boost it needed. However, when I told this to Esmi she didn’t seem particularly convinced.

“That’s just the thing,” she said. “He’s entering the tournament, too.”

Instead of panicking, I immediately started information gathering. “What sort of deck does he use?”

Esmi, blessedly, obliged. “Order and Fire,” she said, “but more on the Fire side.”

“Soul heavy?” I asked, half dreading the answer. My deck was designed to eliminate big threats, but besides my Equality Spell, I didn’t have much of a way to level the playing field if my opponent swarmed me with multiple, low quality Souls.

She shook her head, and I was halfway through breathing a sigh of relief when she said, “The opposite, actually. He runs all Spells, not a single Soul.”

My stomach dropped into my feet. “Lots of removal?”

She nodded. “And board clears.”

My deck was designed to go toe-to-toe with other Souls, building up my Condor for a final big swing. However, if my opponent didn’t give my Souls anything to fight, most of their abilities wouldn’t be useful, and their stats were comparatively lackluster. Worse, if this duelist could target my main threats and deny me the use of my own Equality because they never had any Souls out, it could be an unwinnable match for me…

I gave her my best smile, even though I knew it would be as weak as watered down tea. “I appreciate you telling me, but there will be many skilled duelists participating. I may not even face him, particularly if we start on opposite sides… ” I trailed off because Esmi was already shaking her head.

“He’s going to pay to be in your quarter and one of your first matches, to prove to my parents that he can thrash you.”

“Oh,” I said, trying my best to not look already beaten but obviously doing a terrible job of it because she felt the need to give me a sympathetic pout.

“I told you it was dismally bad, but that’s why I brought you this,” she said, shoving the package she held into my arms. Seeing the exchange happen, some of the kobolds hissed happily.

Mechanically, I opened the gift, a small part of me daring to hope that it was a powerful card, or maybe even cards – her lamplighter family was richer than mine, after all. The paper wrapping did cover a metal box, and opening the hinged lid, I discovered a silver blue armband studded with a line of sapphires resting inside on a bed of silk.

“It’s a two-Source fabricator for Water,” she said, clapping her hands in excitement, which a few of the kobolds mimicked. “Water Source has some useful counters to Fire, and I checked with our record keeper. They assured me that your family is known to have a collection of Water cards.”

“We do…” I said, unsure how else to respond. I hadn’t looked at that particular family grimoire since I had been quite little. At the time I had been interested in the Ice Relics and the Water Elementals, but when I had learned that the way Water Source was cultivated in Teledyne was by meditating under a waterfall that ran off of Pirtash Peak, I promptly never looked through those cards again. This was because the stream from Pirtash that fed into the waterfall was one where people bathed, and did other unsanitary things too I was sure. While my Order sensibilities weren’t as pronounced as some other members of my family, there were some things I simply could not tolerate.

“But if you beat him,” Esmi said, sounding hopeful of all things, “you’ll prove to my parents that their first decision was the right one.”

“You want me to play tomorrow with an untested deck,” I said, barely comprehending the words even though I was the one saying them.

“I’m sure you can figure out something effective. Your parents told mine that you love putting together unique combinations of cards. The more obscure and obtuse the better, they said. That’s true, isn’t it?”

My deck was different than the norm of most Order decks, but I had spent years building it that way. I wasn’t the type of person to randomly pair things or use a tournament – especially one as important as this one – to try anything other than what I’d previously practiced. She had the entirely wrong impression of me, but I didn’t have the heart to do anything other than nod.

“Good,” she said, leaning in to give me a light peck on the cheek. Her skin on mine was warmer than anyone else I had ever met, like a soft furnace, and I had a sudden, sneaking suspicion that her personal Soul card must be the cause. The heat was gone as soon as she leaned back, replaced by the cold feeling of the unwanted fabricator box in my hands.

Esmi smiled at me and waved, her kobolds following in tow behind her.

I returned the farewell gesture with what little will I could muster, knowing without a doubt that after talking to her I wouldn’t be getting an ounce of sleep before my first match tomorrow. Worst of all, as Esmi rounded the bend, I realized that I never thought to ask her if she wanted me to win or not. If questions about the composition of my deck didn’t keep me awake tonight, that certainly would.