They spent the next hour hammering out some details about the trade-off. James had serious concerns about being captured and having everything taken without getting anything from it. They arranged for James to drop off the arcane slates and, finally, the card to summon the Illusionist Trainee.

Having thought about it, James decided not to hand over the Puppeteer card with the '???' card. That further lowered the chances that anything untoward would happen to them. She would just bury it somewhere or something. She considered tearing it in half but shook her head at the idea. Screwing around with a powerful magic item didn't seem like a good idea.

"You okay?" Isabella asked as she noticed James shake their head.

"Yeah, just thinking about the agreement," James replied as they left the park, finally finishing her musing about the trade. "It'll be nice to be done with all this."

"I guess," Isabella said with a shrug. "I wonder if they're hiring."

"What?" James said as she turned to look at Isabella. "Bel, they're the bad guys."

"Ah, right," Isabella said as she glanced away from James. "I guess... Elias didn't seem that bad."

"So chasing me and trying to murder me don't count as bad?" James countered.

"Ah... okay. Sorry. It's just the idea of using magic is kind of romantic," Isabella admitted as she shook her head.

"Is that why you came along?" James asked.

"Kind of. It's not often something exciting happens around here," Isabella admitted. "All this almost seemed like it was out of a movie. I almost thought an explosion would happen, and we would run off to investigate."

"Bel, you're supposed to run away from exploding things," James lamented. "Not towards them."

"I guess that kind of thing doesn't really happen, huh," Isabella sighed.

They walked in silence for a few minutes before Isabella spoke up again.

"You're pretty quiet," Isabella observed. "No second thoughts?"

James shook her head. "No, not exactly. I'm glad I can get out of this mess, but..." James said, trailing off, and shrugged.

"But?" Isabella prompted.

"You're right," James admitted. "It is kind of romantic. It's just that the reality sucks, and it's really stressful."

"Well, that's only because you were being chased," Isabella pointed out. "Right?"

"I don't know," James shook her head. "But it's probably better just to get out while the getting's good rather than risk it."

They continued to discuss the entire situation until they arrived back at Paul's apartment after circling around the city for a while. They likely had little chance of actually shaking off anyone following them, but James figured it was worth the attempt.

"How'd it go?" Paul asked distractedly as he worked on a new set of cards. But he still managed to gesture to a stack of cards on the corner of the table. "There's a power set over there if you need attack power."

"No need," Isabella said. "James is bailing on the whole magic thing."

This got Paul's attention. He stopped working on the card stacks and blinked a few times. "Bailing? What do you mean?"

"We worked out a deal to exchange the slates and the Illusionist Trainee card for clearing my name," James said as she moved into the room and flopped down on the couch.

"You're giving them that card? Is that safe?" Paul asked.

"Well, it's worthless without Puppeteer, right?" James said as she shrugged.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

"That's what your tests showed, but we don't know their resources," Paul sighed.

"Well, what's that have to do with me?" James said. "Even if they manage to summon the modified card, it won't be me."

"Right," Paul said as she looked over the piles of cards he'd made. "So I guess all of this was pointless."

"Hopefully," James said as she bent over to pick up a slate and Pyx's Rewind. "Now, if you excuse me, I need to change into something more comfortable."

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The next few days moved along at a breakneck pace. James and Isabella had spent some time working out the details of the exchange of the Arcane Slates and the '???' card. This time was well spent as the exchange occurred at a prearranged location. It was public, but not too public.

James winced a bit as Elias glared at him. Elias was leaning on a concrete pillar next to his motorcycle as James arrived at the third floor of the parking garage. In his opinion, it was a bit cliche, but the movies weren't wrong. Parking garages made good places for exchanges. Pyramid apparently owned this one despite being attached to the hospital next door.

"So you're here," Elias said simply as he examined James walk towards him.

"Yeah," James said as he proffered the original tote bag, complete with the three Arcane Slates he had.

Elias walked confidently forward and grabbed it before checking its contents. He placed a card on one and nodded despite the lack of apparent effect. "Good, and the monster card?"

"What about what you promised," James asked, only for Elias to reach into his pocket. He pulled two pieces of paper from it, which he presented to James. The first was a signed and dated contract from some big wig firm for legal representation. The second was somewhat more terrifying. It was a letter of intent of Pyramid's intention to resolve James of any media attention through their own. Pyramid would foot the bill for both.

"I recommend you sort out your legal representation before we go any further," Elias suggested, but James shook his head.

"No, it's fine," James said. He wanted out of here sooner rather than later. Elias nodded in agreement and held out his hand to James. "So, the card?"

James pulled out the '???' card and looked at it. He thought the card might have changed after his most recent experiences with Elias, but it was still the same as when he first examined it. He was worried they would refuse the card after they found they could not summon 'Jade' but needed to try anyway.

"I haven't been able to summon her since that day you made the deal," James lied through his teeth and offered the card to Elias. "What did you do?"

"We didn't do anything," Elias said as he took the card and examined it. He retrieved a small device from his pocket and placed the card on it. "Interesting."

"It's not going to be a problem, is it?" James asked, feeling a bit worried. He didn't want to lose the contracts because he couldn't be simultaneously in two places.

"No, it has the same signature," Elias said simply before tucking the card away.

"What's a signature?" James couldn't help but ask.

"You don't need to know," Elias said plainly as he grabbed his helmet off his motorcycle before mounting it and turning to James. "I hope we never meet again, for your sake."

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After the meeting, James' legal troubles were far from over. The following two days would have been some of the hardest James had experienced in years if it hadn't been for the events of the previous few days.

Despite Pyramid keeping its word, he couldn't get out without some questioning. Luckily, a legal representative from the contract provided by Elias' organization was present.

To James' surprise, the representative sorted out most of the problems with the police. Despite the media coverage, which had since backed off or promptly moved on to other news, James was not formally arrested or charged with a crime. This was despite the investigator and a few officers giving him the side eye the entire time he was there.

The representative warned him that he may still face civil suits from those who still thought he was to blame for the commotion, but they were handling the criminal case.

He stood in the hidden part of the small park he had changed back in originally. With a sigh, he tossed the Puppeteer into the small hole he had dug out with a hand trowel before replacing the dirt on top.

He put the entire situation behind him as he turned and left, even ditching the trowel in a nearby bush.

The time for his vacation was basically over, and he was more stressed than ever. The Summon Monster's card game had lost most of its interest to him. He didn't want to pick up some rare card from a pull only to be mugged for it.

He was spending the last few hours before his flight back at Paul's place. Isabella had since left for work, and he was left alone with his old friend.

"So, that's it?" Paul asked as he looked over the cards James had given him. "Are you giving up the game entirely now?"

"Do you blame me?" James asked as he sipped on a beer. He didn't drink much but felt he had earned it.

"Not really, but it's going to be hard to play now that I know the truth," Paul said as he put down the cards. "I'll always be thinking what the monster could really do."

"I know the feeling," James said.

They discussed other topics for a few hours before James stood and collected his suitcase. His robotaxi was waiting for him outside, ready to take him to the airport for a late flight home.

However, as he reached out for the doorknob, James noticed his fingers glowing oddly. He looked at it momentarily before waving in Paul's direction.

"Hey, Paul, do you see-" James started but then felt the world shift. "This," a much shorter fox-eared woman finished, a look of bafflement on her face.

END OF ACT ONE