Hi, my name is Mia, and I’m a fucking wizard.

This was not how I’d been born, or something I’d earned through anything as petty as hard work and study. It also wasn’t, I hoped, some kind of divine destiny. And I sure as hell wasn’t some prophesied hero, because if I was, we were all in a hell of a lot of trouble.

No, this was something arbitrarily bestowed upon me. No explanation, no tutorial level either. I just woke up one day with the pale spectres of cards floating around me. Those cards, each of them stood for a single unreal and arcane effect. And I found I could read some of them, and with a little effort, pull them into reality.

The game (and I did think of this as a game. As a long time nerd, it was hard not to associate a deck of cards with a different kind of Magic.) took the spillover of my emotions to fill its mana bars, and it didn’t take long for me to learn how to raise the caps on those, and start playing with the spells available to me.

Naturally, I promptly found the only real combat spell I’d been gifted, and blew a hole in the wall of my bathroom. Fortunately, the apartment management was more than willing to believe that the literal explosion came from a burst water pipe or something, so I didn’t have to pay for that. And after a few more test casts in the safer location of ‘a big open field’, I started to feel like the world was opening up before me.

The game offered me Tasks to earn more Cards, more power, more options. I was gifted a seemingly random batch of additional spells, and puzzled out how to customize my deck. And suddenly, my life was a lot less... confined. I had the potential for so much, just at my fingertips. Would I battle monsters and gods? Destroy and build companies, organizations, *nations*? Grow beyond the limits of humanity? I had magic. I had *magic*! Who knew how far I could take this?

I instantly went back inside and hid in my bed for the next three days.

Here’s the thing. Magic is amazing, and cool, and I derived great joy from some of the simple quality of life improvement spells, like just being able to make my room smell nice. Which became really important when I spent three days cowering under my covers. But me, well, I’m not a hero. I’m not a villain either, don’t get the wrong idea about me. I’m just a wiseass.

If I was pressed to describe my feelings here, it would probably be as ‘perhaps a bit suspicious’.

Magic, out of nowhere? A growing list of powers? A game system that pushed me out of my shell repeatedly over the course of the last few weeks? It reeks of the kind of thing that wants me to spend more time saving the world than relaxing and enjoying life. And you know, my life actually wasn’t so bad! I had enough of a job to pay the bills, a studio apartment that cost too much but had a minimal number of problems, and…

Okay, maybe I wasn’t really enjoying life. Maybe moving across the country for a relationship that was doomed to fail was stupid, maybe leaving all my friends behind left me a bit paranoid about people. Maybe I did just want to crawl into bed and stay there all week. Maybe my introverted nature was less nature, and more just me giving up. And yeah, maybe exploring the limits of my new power *was* good for me. It was nice to be talking to people again, even if half the humans I’d actually spoken to over the last week, I’d been pointing a gun at and threatening.

But that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to be suspicious.

Now, that said, it also didn’t mean I wasn’t going to lunge for the Tasks that I thought I could accomplish. Which was why I was driving my old shoebox of a Volvo down to the twenty four hour coffee shop in the middle of the night, and trying to justify my erratic opinions to myself in my head.

With the reset yesterday, I’d also gotten a new round of Tasks. Since I hadn’t had anything locked in, that meant that it just randomly assigned me a new batch of ten. Sometimes, for reasons I didn’t actually know, Tasks would be replaced before a reset. Usually ones I’d completed, but other times not. So far, it had never sniped one that I was about to finish away from me, so I figured the game knew what it was doing, and I wasn’t that bothered by it, but it was something I was aware of. If I planned on completing one, I usually locked it in just to make sure it would still be there.

Which was what I’d done here, with (Challenger), and (Exemplar). (Exemplar) I’d actually had before, and this time around, it had upped its requirement; if I wanted whatever reward it would dispense, I would have to ‘impress ten people’. Now, that might sound like a big deal, but the threshold for impressing someone was actually pretty low. I’d already gotten a couple earlier from, I think, tipping a waitress. Which meant the bar was pretty low. (Challenger) on the other hand, required me to emerge victorious from single conflict.

By sheer coincidence, I’d just been looking at the Meetup group for a bunch of people who got together late at night to play actual card games. The irony was not lost on me. But I was curious enough to see if hammering someone in a tabletop game was enough to fulfill the requirements, and also curious enough to bump my Curiosity up to 3. I was *also* wondering if I could use either [Adjust] to stack my deck, or [Under Cover Of Fortune] to somehow keep my opponent from fireballing me.

As if in response to that, as I pulled into the parking lot and double checked my Tasks tab, I saw that something had been replaced by the Task of (Trickster). “Use Deceit to cheat your way to a strength 3+ effect? Nice try, game, but I plan on cheating in much more creative ways.” I muttered to the ghostly words. Probably not a challenge I’d be able to complete, since I hadn’t loaded any Deceit cards into my new deck. Certainly, the challenge under it, (Killer), wasn’t going to happen either. Honestly, none of the other Tasks looked appealing either. Even (Wrecking Ball), which held a certain satisfying appeal.

Breaking out of my shell wasn’t *that* appealing either, but I could deal with it. I already felt a little energized from the prospect of trying out some new magic, and so I’d walked out of the dark sidewalk and into the pool of calm orange light around the coffee shop, pretty sure I was going to be able to at least have a little fun with the handful of cards I’d stockpiled before coming here.

Buzzing with mana or my versions thereof, trying to keep my atrophied social instincts from driving me into a panic, I stepped inside and looked around. I’d been to this place before, it was a favorite of mine, honestly. Being open all the time was a big plus for a night owl. Selling that night owl coffee was also a point in its favor. But beyond that, it just had a pleasant atmosphere. Yellowish orange lighting, polished wood tables that caught the light on dark surfaces, a pair of winding shelf-walls that divided up the floor nicely and gave individual tables some privacy, while still having a pair of large booths for groups. It was no wonder that every college student within a ten mile radius came here to study. It also smelled like coffee and fresh cookies. You can never go wrong with the smell of chocolate chips.

Now there’s a thought. Maybe I should slot [Incense] back into my decklist, and see if I can control the flavor. Then I’d want cookies, though. Then I’d probably buy, and eat, a lot of cookies. And if we’re being open about personal problems, I think the last thing I need in my life these days is even more chances to make myself fat. The thought made me smirk to myself as I got in line to order a drink.

The shop had a bit of a crowd, despite the late hour, but it wasn’t hard to spot the group I’d messaged online. Everyone else was either students, hunched over books and laptops, or loner night owls like me, sitting at the small side tables and purposefully alone. My target was the only three people who looked like they were having fun, and had something on the table that wasn’t work.

I swallowed the gnawing anxiety that had been my casual friend ever since I’d moved out here, and swallowed a gulp of mocha to go with it. I wasn’t used to *having* anxiety, honestly, and I’d much rather get back to my old, brazen self. So, armed with the knowledge that I could detonate the front of the shop and run if things got too socially awkward, I swaggared up to their table.

The three guys looked up at me, and before I could label them with snarky names in my head, the sandy-blonde kid smiled gave me a nod. “Hi!” He said, way too cheerfully. “Were you the one I talked to who wanted to join our little game night?”

“Hey there. Yeah, that’s me.” I pulled up a chair and sat, looking over their current game state.

Before I could get invested, he offered me a hand in greeting, which I took with probably more force than he was expecting. I’ve got a firm handshake, based on some faded memory of my mom telling me that it was the best way to intimidate new boys that I met. So far, she hadn’t steered me wrong. He recovered nicely, though, saying, “I’m Carlos. The guy in the goth jacket is Scott, and our tall friend is Jer. Normally there’s more of us, but tonight we’re just kind of casually hanging out.”

I nodded at the other two, giving them what I hoped was a winning smile. “Hey. I’m Mia, I’m a fucking wizard.” Wait. Fuck. God dammit, brain, why were you holding that sentence this whole time? I pinched the bridge of my nose and clamped my eyes shut. “No, hang on, that’s not what I actually meant…”

Scott (or Jer, I’d already forgotten which was which), burst out laughing. A deep, rich laugh that held no malice in it. “Alright, little wizard.” He said with a wide smile on his face, dropping the stack of cards he’d been idley shuffling onto the table. “Fight me. I’ve been sitting here watching them fail to actually accomplish anything in their game for an hour. Do you have a deck?”

I had a few. I wasn’t even sure if this would work for the Task in the first place, but I had a feeling that even if it would register a casual game, it would be way less likely if it was both casual, and also not even my own cards. Fortunately, the life of a nerd who never threw things away had some perks, and I had more than enough on hand to assemble some kind of control/murder machine out of my old collection.

Our game passed by in about three turns, and I lost. Badly. Like, embarrassingly badly. Jer was a surprisingly polite winner, though, and we got through three more of my horrifying defeats while the table warmed up to my presence. It’s always a bit awkward when a new person joins a group, so I tried to joke when I could, and be friendly, and slowly I started to get to know these three in a way that left us all more comfortable.

“One more?” Jer asked me with raised eyebrows, as the two of us glanced over at Scott and Carlos still on the same game they’d been in when I arrived.

“Yeah, I think we’ve got some time.”

On game two of our third set was when I started cheating. Or, trying to, anyway. I still hadn’t been able to actually eliminate the need to use hand gestures on the pale blue and white images of Cards when I wanted to cast a spell. But I had found out that I could get away with very minimal, or casual gestures, if the intent was there. So, I mixed in the casting of [Fact Finder] with the gesture I’d been using to tell Jer that I was passing my turn to him.

I was excited enough to see if this worked that I instantly made back the point of curiosity spent, and constantly disappointed. Turns out, “what’s in my opponent’s hand” *isn’t* a valid target for a social topic. So, no insider information. Time for a different test.

Two turns of the non-magical card game later, I was kinda screwed. Jer’s deck vomited enemies onto the field faster than I did *anything*, much less actually progressed the game state. I had one out, though, because of course I’m the kind of person to put hyper-specific cards into a deck. The problem was that I needed to draw it.

So, while he was busy finishing his turn, I burned all five points of Pride that I had on [Adjust]. And that was Pride I wasn’t going to get back anytime soon if this shameful display of gameplay continued.

That mental nudge in the back of my head prompted me to pick a target, pick a mode, chart a course through turning an arcane abstraction into real change. My deck, obviously, for the first one; the deck on the table, not the Deck in my head. Reorder, for the second. Find that one card that saved my ass in this game, stick it on top. Easy, right?

The mana drained, the spell did something. Not even a twitch from my deck. But when Jer passed his turn back to me, I found myself drawing exactly the right answer to keep myself from losing outright.

From next to me, one of the other boys barked out laughter as they watched Jer’s careful plan fall to pieces. “Ha!” Carlos threw a mocking gesture over toward Jer. “Finally, your stupid horde mode deck falls apart at the seams! She is a wizard.”

“I told you.” I leaned into my earlier comment.

“Well, Ms. Mia…” Jer started to say

I cut him off. “Ms. Wizard.” I corrected, with a sip of my rapidly cooling coffee. I frowned down at the cup, and wondered if I could get away with using [Cauldron’s Toil] here without anyone noticing that my coffee was boiling, and that the cup kept refilling itself. I decided against it, though I was totally leaving at least a finger of mocha in my cup so I could do that when I got back to my car. Of all my spells, that one had probably saved me the most actual money over the last couple weeks, and it was the incentive that kept me going out and doing tasks. More rewards like that, please, Game.

Jer smiled warmly, leaning back in his chair and trying to stretch his legs under the table without kicking anyone with the ten foot poles he called limbs. “I’ll call you Ms. Wizard for the rest of the night if you win this set, how about that?”

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

Oh, poor Jer. Little did the tall kid sitting across from me realize that I was absolutely going to hold him to that.

Well, okay, a slight correction. [Oathkeeper] was going to hold him to that.

[Oathkeeper] was a hell of a weird card. And also one I hadn’t had a ton of opportunities to really experiment with and try to break. From what I understood of it so far, though, mostly through using it on myself, it made someone keep a promise. It wouldn’t magically enforce the oath or anything; this wasn’t an Ella Enchanted scenario where I could solemnly swear that I was going to leap thirty feet up or something and then be able to do it because of the magic. Instead, it just seemed to entirely remove the capacity to think about not doing what had been promised.

When I’d been low on cash two weeks ago, I’d used it to swear off coffee for a week. It was kind of a low level geas; I didn’t forget that Starbucks existed, I didn’t not want a latte. I just didn’t go in and buy one, and the thought that I could never crossed my mind.

That had been *with* forewarning and my own intention. “You’re on.” I said, my social anxiety banished in the face of caffeine and an hour of casual conversation with people who were generally being pretty cool. The look on his face said that maybe he was rethinking that plan, but the Card I flicked into reality at the cost of three Determination said that he was going to keep that promise fairly well.

Unfortunately, my first test on another human subject did nothing to clear up the |---| on [Oathkeeper]. I knew it could do more, I could *feel* that it could do more. I just had no idea what, and I didn’t want to try to press it over something as lighthearted as a friendly game with a friendly guy.

I hadn’t played this game in a while, honestly, which was probably why I kept losing. It’s hard, when you don’t have friends and have convinced yourself that leaving the house is a sucker’s bet, to find people to play card games with. But now, I was brimming with enthusiasm; I was full of coffee, about to complete a nice looking Task, and for bonus points, Jer was gonna call me Ms. Wizard for the rest of the night.

The feeling was enough to tick my Determination steadily back up, and as the game progressed through the turns, I felt like I should have a Smugness stat to go along with it while I prepared to deploy my secret weapon.

Turn eight. I was not doing well.

Turn nine. I was screwed.

Turn ten. Let’s find out if [Under Cover Of Fortune] worked on hostile game actions.

All four Spite I had poured out as I passed the turn over and cast with the same hand gesture. I never bothered to flex Spite any higher than four, anymore. The only other thing I had that used it was a Card called [Headache], and I knew everything it did. Which was, literally, to give someone a headache. No secret use, no double meaning, just… pretty straightforward, really. It was one of my starter Cards, and it was probably never going back in my deck. So all the Spite I ever needed was enough to cast my favorite spell ever, and see exactly how it messed up Jer’s game plan here.

He moved through his turn quickly, frowned at his cards, thought for a moment, and then passed back to me. I quirked an eyebrow in suspicion, but then noticed my fresh new protective effect expiring, the little floating ghost card icon in my vision poofing away in a spiral of blue flame. So, it had clearly done *something*. I shrugged, started my turn, drew the one card that killed everything he cared about, and promptly used it.

By this point, the other two had finished their game and were watching ours play out. And as Jer watched his board state go up in flames, and the game end in a loss for him, Carlos leaned over and poked one of the cards in his hand. “Why didn’t you just use this?” He asked.

“I… hm. I forgot.” Jer said. “Must be getting tired. Well, Ms. Wizard! Fine games, fine games. Thank you for playing with me.” He gave me a smile that painted his face with cheer, and I suddenly felt pretty bad about using him as an unknowing test subject.

“You too. Um, you don’t actually need to call me that.” I told him.

But Jer was having none of that, and now I couldn’t tell if it was [Oathbreaker] in action, or just his boisterous personality. “No no! I made a promise. But, I seem to be a bit exhausted, so the night for me is going to end here.”

“Same here.” Scott said, toying with the silver studs on the jacket that I’d bet the young man had owned since high school.

“Well, you’re my ride, so that’s it for me, too.” Carlos said, starting to pack up, and just like that, my little night out was done.

We said our goodbyes, I promised to come out again sometime, and I tried to keep my guilt at my own blatant ethics violations to a minimum. Carlos and Scott took off, and Jer offered to walk me out to my car. Charming, if a bit awkward. I got the feeling he was developing a crush on me, though maybe I was being egotistical. It’s not like I’m the best judge of personality. Still, I said okay, and while I waited for him to use the bathroom before we left, I took the chance to draw a Card. That gesture was really dramatic, so I’d missed a few draw chances. But I wasn’t that put out. Half an hour actually went by fairly quickly, and I spent a lot of time with a full hand if I wasn’t actively experimenting. [Archive Moment] popped into my hand, and I started wondering if there was any way I could earn back enough Pride to test this before the night was over. Probably not, but it was something to keep in mind.

“It was good to meet you.” Jer said as we walked out into the cool 2 AM air and started heading the two blocks away to the public parking lot we’d both stashed our cars in. “Carlos has a very spotty track record of inviting new people to join us, so I’m glad…”

He trailed off as we both heard a screech of tires, and curiously peered down the street to see what the hell was going on.

On the other side of the paved lot was a public park; a bunch of trees on one half with a little play structure in it, and a fountain and lawn on the other side. All of it up against the small road that led through this part of town. And right now, down that road, some neon yellow muscle car with a spoiler the size of some aircraft wings was swerving itself back and forth across both lanes.

Jer frowned. “Must be drunk. The bars did just close. Ms. Wizard, do you have a phone? Someone should call the police…”

I wasn’t really paying attention. My mind instantly snapped to two different things. One; did Jer not have a cell phone? That was weird. And two; this wasn’t normal. This was a Thing. A Situation, an Event, whatever you wanted to call it.

Ever since getting my Cards, reality seemed pissed off at me. Stuff kept happening around me. Usually it was little things; an argument, someone being rude in line at the grocery store, someone dropping their wallet, that sorta thing. Other times, it escalated, and I saw people starting fights, car accidents, and petty crimes. And sometimes, a couple times now, it’d gotten dangerous.

For a while, I ignored it. Kept my head down, didn’t make trouble. But it keeps happening around me, it’s not backing off. And I’ve started to develop this paranoia-slash-theory that my power is causing some kind of ripple in reality that’s attracting every problem in the area.

Like drunk drivers.

So when the car hits the curb and jumps onto the sidewalk, I’m not super surprised. When it comes barreling across two hundred feet of lawn like it’s making a beeline for the two of us standing there in the parking lot, I’m already reacting.

When Jer reacts too, and rushes forward to throw me out of the way, that sort of impacts my concentration a bit. I land on my ass on the pavement, and barely have time to be glad I wore jeans and not a skirt.

The car’s tires scream as it hits the parking lot, engine roaring as the drive doesn’t see us in the dark, or just doesn’t care, or maybe they’re already asleep at the wheel. Doesn’t matter, because Jer isn’t moving fast enough, and this stupid green nightmare of a vehicle is closing the gap fast.

Two Determination gets spent by reflex, and I fling my arm out by way of target selection. And as the car is passing in front of me, bearing down on where Jer is still trying to turn to run out of the way, my [Blast] catches it under the front tire.

There’s a sound effect that I’ve only ever read, and not heard. It’s the word “krakoom”, and it shows up several times in Calvin and Hobbes. I always associated it with some kind of golden age sci-fi ray gun, but now, I think I know exactly what it sounds like out loud. The detonation isn’t spiked forward into the car, it’s a ball of force that slams a hole into the asphalt as effectively as it shreds the front wheel and flings the vehicle at a forty five degree angle, metal and stone being eviscerated with a cacophony of chest-shaking noise that I can only describe in one way.

Krakoom.

The car, now tilted, away from Jer, slams into the ground where it’s now missing a tire, shedding speed rapidly as it skids off to the side. Still weaving out of control, it jerks to the left, skidding around my new friend, before the driver tries to regain some measure of steering, and whips it back around again.

He promptly crashes into a parked vehicle, though hopefully at a low enough speed that no one’s dead.

I stand up, wincing at the pain in my ass as I brush off my pants. Walking over, I pat Jer on the shoulder. He’s standing there breathing heavy, eyes wide. “Damn, that was close. You okay?”

“I.. you… what just..?” He trails off, alternating between looking at the hole in the parking lot, and the wrecked vehicle behind him. “My car…” He moans. “And that explosion… what was that?” He’s actually kinda cute when he’s confused, like a puppy. A puppy with enough upper body strength to fling someone like me when he wants to.

I shrug. I’ve already got my phone out, dialing emergency services. My hands are shaking now as the adrenaline wears off, and my voice is unsteady as I relay the address and incident. I was going to go check on the guy in the car, but I find my legs unsteady, and I sit instead, half-collapsing onto a curb and spitting a glob of coffee-infused saliva onto the dirt behind me. Jer joins me a second later, and I see him also trying to keep his hands steady.

That was where the EMTs found us when they showed up to get the guy out of the wrecked car. It wasn’t that hard, and he wasn’t bleeding to death, which was nice. I wasn’t planning to ever finish off the (Killer) task, after all.

Sadly, Jer’s car wasn’t as lucky. Maybe that was my fault. I didn’t know, but it seemed like a fair trade for his life. He informed me that it was okay, and he had insurance, but he still looked like a puppy someone had kicked as he pulled his coat out of the back of the crushed vehicle. I offered him a ride home, figuring it was the least I could do. The other casualty of the night had been the remainder of my mocha, the proud drink having sacrificed itself when Jer tossed me. That didn’t make me feel guilty, but it did suck.

Jer was the kind of person like me, who processed events like this in silence until he had something to say. No rambling from him, as I very, *very* carefully drove us down dark and mostly empty streets. Just quiet contemplation. It wasn’t until we got to the apartment building that he lived in that he spoke up.

“I don’t know if I know what happened there.” He said. “I feel like I should thank you, though?”

“Don’t thank me.” I said, phrasing it as an order rather than humility. “We just got lucky. Car’s tire must have popped or something.” I lied through my teeth, wishing him out of my car before he pressed the matter.

He didn’t leave, though. “No it didn’t.” Jer said, confidently. “And you know that.” He shook his head at me, like I was a naughty child for trying to deliver such an obvious lie. “What actually happened?”

I was going to consider my options, then kick him out of my car, but my tired brain was already operating on a sort of autopilot, and had decided that I’d screwed with this poor guy enough that he deserved some kind of answer. “Hi.” I said with a tired voice. “My name is Mia. I’m a fucking wizard.”

He didn’t smile or laugh, and I saw something in his eyes that made me feel like he didn’t believe me. But then he nodded, and popped the door open to get out, and said one last thing before leaving me to drive home alone. “Well, it was good to meet you. Thank you, Ms. Wizard.”

I didn’t know what to make of that.

When I did finally make it home, and threw myself with aplomb into my bed, I had one last thing to do before I passed out. Well, two things, but one of those was taking a shower, and that could wait for the first thing. Unfolding my hands to open up my menu, I flipped my imaginary spellbook over to the Tasks page. I’d held off on doing this in public, since I’d realized how weird it looked when I read things that weren’t there for other people, but now I finally got to see if my plan had worked. And there, to my delight, were multiple Tasks glittering with completed status.

(Challenger) was done. I wasn’t actually sure if it was my eventually victory at cards, or if it was nuking the drunk driver out of his kill-trajectory that did it, but either way, it was done. (Exemplar) was also finished, which confused me, and led to me trying to count off people I could have impressed. The three guys, plus two I already had. Maybe the EMTs? They hadn’t really talked to us. The police officers that showed up had talked to Jer, but I’d stayed back and not given a statement, worried that one of them might recognize me, *especially* if it was the guy whose life I’d saved last week. The math didn’t add up, so it must have been people in the coffee shop, which meant the bar for impressing someone was super low. Finally, to my surprise, I actually *had* gotten (Wrecking Ball). I’d done at least $5k worth of property damage. Five thousand dollars? How bloody much did that asshole spend on his rims?! All I did was blow up one tire! I didn’t even do structural damage! Or at least, I didn’t think so. Maybe [Blast] was *yet another* Card I didn’t fully understand the impact of. Finally, I’d gotten (Quick Thinking) for solving a problem within ten seconds. That one had shown up sometime when I wasn’t looking, and it was a low-risk color, which made me snort derisively.

Regardless, I accepted them all and checked out the rewards. (Quick Thinking) gave me two points of resource pool increases, which was actually great this early in the week, and I welcomed it. (Wrecking Ball) handed out a card called [Forge In Flames], which shockingly, told me outright what it did. Mostly. Trade away some Determination in exchange for being able to create a physical object that would last for one hour, with the timer ticking slower and the object size and complexity going up, depending on how much danger I was in.

Danger was such a fluid term. Did the Game consider the looming economic crisis to be danger? Did I get to use this to summon two months of Ferrari because of my student loans?

(Exemplar) offered me an instant choice when I selected it, which was new, but also kind of cool. Two images appeared before me; a book wrapped in silver wire, and a crown that was rusting around the edges. I reached out and poked the book, and nodded in acceptance as three copies of [Journey And Destination] added themselves to my inventory. I would have nodded more energetically if they’d told me anything beyond that they increased Curiosity, but I suppose one card without a |---| was enough for today.

The last one was (Challenger). I may have cheesed my way to victory, but the Cards didn’t seem to care. And for this one, my prize was twofold. First off, I felt, more than saw, thirty cardbucks - still needed a better name for those - add themselves to my inventory. At some point, hopefully, I’d get access to something to spend those on. The other thing was two copies of [Smiling Lunge], and it caught my eye because it was the first time I’d ever seen something that did what it did.

[Smiling Lunge] was my second Card that used Grace, and it was the first Card that drew other Cards. Or, more specifically, drew three, and then I picked one to use right that instant. And I already saw how that could get me out of a dangerous situation where it looked like I had no options; just as easily as I could see how there was, without *any* doubt, going to be a point in my life where I drew three copies of [Blast] off this, and blew up someone’s porch or something.

Bah. I shouldn’t complain. It’s something new, it’s something cool, and it’s more toys and tools to play around with. Everything that I was rewarded with just made me feel even more like I’d made the right call to go out tonight and try to make some new friends. I sighed and smiled as I lay back and started to doze off, confident that the challenges of tomorrow were something I could handle, as I casually looked over my card pool while my eyes grew heavy. I was sure now that it wasn’t an accident. Things were getting weird for me, and that danger wasn’t going to slow down. I’d need every dumb trick I could get if I wanted to rise to the occasion. Which meant I'd probably need to touch up my deck, and force a Reset.

But that was fine. I’d been hiding inside long enough. I’d been worshiping my bed like it was the only safe place on Earth, and avoiding other people like the plague. But that wasn’t what I wanted to be, or what I wanted to do. And it especially wasn’t fitting with the grand image of what I wanted to grow into.

After all, I was a fucking wizard.