I sat across from Anastasia, with Nathan and Teddy watching from the corner. My eyes drifted down towards the table where the pseudo-checkers marble game was set up.

That's a lot of rules. Damn.

Anastasia remained silent as I looked to her face and saw her smile.

And I still don't understand what sort of game you're playing. It's so obvious this whole thing is a facade.

Even if for a second I believed they were simply bored and in need of entertainment, the looks Teddy gave them alluded to something deeper. His eyes scrutinized them, even as they laughed and danced around.

Anastasia clapped her hands. "So, now that the rules are explained, are you ready?"

"I guess so. Don't expect me to win; I was never good at these kinds of things," I replied.

"Don't worry, I'll go easy," she winked.

I snorted and pointed to the board. "Who's first?"

"Dear?" Anastasia asked her husband. "Care to flip a coin?"

"Yes, Your Majesty!" he shouted back. He pulled out what looked like a wooden poker chip and placed it on his thumb. "Heads for the Queen, tails for the Challenger!"

He flipped the coin.

"Tails! Cyrus is first."

"Well. Make the first move, Challenger," Anastasia teased.

In the corner, Teddy physically cringed, which was enough for me to shake off the over-exaggerated weirdness of the two.

I grabbed the white marble, and the small glass piece lit up. I rolled it two spaces forward, where it came to a stop. As I removed my hand, Anastasia made a face as if she was deciding something, then picked up one of the brown marbles and moved it two spaces forward to the left of mine.

She motioned with her hand and placed it in her lap.

Like this, we proceeded, me moving a water marble, followed by her moving a nature marble. And again, with me moving my wind marble and her moving the earth marble.

It took a second, but I stared at the board and then at her face. She hadn't stopped smiling the entire time, to the point where I was starting to feel creeped out.

"Looks like I get the first question," I declared as I tapped the board and injected mana into it.

Squares lit up, and then my wind marble lifted into the air before rocketing towards her earth marble. An explosion of dust poofed up, and I smelled cinnamon and fresh loam that quickly disappeared as Anastasia's marble turned into a lifeless gray.

"Indeed you do. Ask any question you want!"

I blinked and watched her snatch the gray marble off the board.

"I guess I'll go with something easy. How do you guys see through the blindfolds? You both move as if they're not there."

It was brief, but for a split second, the duo almost looked disappointed.

Not the question they were hoping for?

"I'm surprised you don't know. Once you reach tier three, you develop what we call an aura. I'm sure Brel must have shown you his at some point. Think of it like a sixth sense. While we don't exactly see the world around us, we get enough details to navigate the space. Is that an acceptable answer?"

"Yeah. He might have explained it, but there was a lot of information to take in back then."

Instead of replying, she responded by moving a fire marble for the first time since we started.

From there, we continued playing, and the more turns we took, the more I started to frown.

I tapped the board and injected mana, watching as three squares lit up and my wind marble crashed into another of her earth pieces, bringing back the small cloud of sweet-smelling dust.

Anastasia swooned, and her husband was at her side in an instant. "Dear, I'm... I'm losing!"

"I know, honey. I know!" Nathan looked at me. "So ruthless!"

I could feel Teddy dying of embarrassment in the corner as he released a loud groan that filled the room.

Anastasia patted her husband's arm. "Don't worry. It's not over yet."

After clearing my throat, I watched the two separate as Anastasia squirmed in her seat.

Definitely insane.

"What's your favorite skill on your status sheet?"

Anastasia stopped squirming and became rigid.

"Honestly? It's a skill called Radiant Whole. It fills you with light, making you warm and offering a buff against the cold." Her smile turned savage, and the room's ambient light brightened. "I'm personally not too fond of such boring skills, no offense to our dear son. So, I spent three years forcing it to become an attack skill. Now I use it to boil the insides of annoying monsters!"

The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

She didn't raise her voice; the excitement was conveyed purely through the delight in her tone. The room's lights returned to normal, and I looked around to see Nathan pretending to swoon at his wife while Teddy sat straighter, the stack of letters forgotten as they lay scattered on the floor.

I regarded the tier-three woman carefully.

"It's your turn," I said.

We proceeded, and my frown deepened. I moved a water marble, and she moved a dark one. I aligned my fire marbles in front of two of their kind while she shifted a light marble out of the way.

"... I'm gonna combo."

I tapped the board and injected a little more mana into it. This time, a line of squares lit up, and the three red marbles stacked in a row burned a fiery crimson. When the third piece on the end lifted into the air, it shot off sparks of fire before shifting into a meteor as it knocked off Anastasia's nature piece. The gray marble tumbled to the floor, bouncing twice and stilling as lifeless as it looked.

She didn't move, not even as her husband pretended to faint.

"Go on, ask the question," she said.

Right...

"Do you guys plan on reaching tier five?"

The pair cocked their heads, perfectly in sync.

"Huh. Most people would wonder if we could make it to tier four, but I admire the confidence!" They shared the same smile as she took in a deep breath. "Honestly? Yes! It may be a far-reaching goal, but we do plan on ascending. Brel may be bound by duty, but we have always made it clear that we intend to ascend and reach beyond this world into the next plane."

I remained silent and moved another water piece. She responded in kind, and only three turns later did I sigh.

My finger tapped the board thrice, each tap injecting more mana into the metal device. All of my marbles moved forward, trapping Anastasia's pieces.

Checkmate.

The pair reacted dramatically, holding each other.

I ignored their antics and stared at Teddy, who gave me a sheepish smile.

"I thought I made it clear," I said coolly.

They paused and turned.

"What do you mean?" they spoke in unison.

"I said I don't want your charity. Being handed a win is just that."

"Well, to be fair, I did assume we'd play the best out of three," Anastasia said.

"Oh." My eyes narrowed. "I still don't want to be handed a victory."

Nathan stepped forward, taking Anastasia's place. I raised an eyebrow, but he flashed his pearly-white teeth.

"I promise to give it my all. Sound good?"

"Fine."

He placed his thumb on the board, and all the marbles lifted into the air, even the one on the floor, and reset their positions. After removing his thumb, he tossed the wooden coin to his wife.

"If you would."

She returned his dazzling smile and flipped the coin; it hit the ceiling and then flopped to the floor, where she bent down and stared.

"Heads."

Nathan blurred his arms, and I looked at the board to see one of his water marbles move two spaces.

I responded by moving an earth piece.

More pieces switched around, and I was ready to capture one of his pieces, but then he tapped the board, and one of his water marbles switched with a wind one.

It forced me to shuffle around a dark piece, completely forgetting about the water marble's ability to switch places.

Nathan smiled. "And with that, I think I won us our first piece!"

His wind marble smashed mine into the adjacent square, and I watched the lights dim from inside the glass.

"Ask away."

He paused, just as exaggerated as his wife did, before chuckling. "What's your favorite skill?"

I chuckled back and snorted at the thought of Zharia, Áine, and Sturmrorex arguing over my answer.

"I think, for the sake of my familiars, there is only one real answer," I started. "Probably my Spirit Lord's Invocation. Connecting with my summons and using their magic directly is an amazing feeling."

He nodded. We continued.

Again, I aimed to take another piece, but he used a combo move to take mine instead, leaving me stranded for options.

His smile dropped, and I felt the air become heavy. "Ready for the second question?"

"Shoot."

His lips twitched. "Teddy explained to us how you ended up with them. But how did you meet Brelten?"

His words were cheery, but the room's vibe felt heavy and cold. Teddy gripped his desk but remained tight-lipped.

"Honestly? We walked into the village, went to register as adventurers, and somehow ended up meeting the guildmaster."

"We?"

"Me and my best friend."

"Very well! Your move!"

I tapped the board and switched one of my water marbles for another. "Your turn."

Within two moves, he captured one of my fire pieces.

This time, he did pause. And he glanced back toward Anastasia, who nodded slowly. She shifted a step to the right while Nathan leaned back in his chair.

"So. I have to ask, Cyrus..." he began. I waited, staying completely still. "Why would a god's scion need to register at a random village on the outskirts?"

The two didn't breathe. They never moved nor twitched. Teddy had cracked the desk he had been gripping, a splinter poking between his fingers.

So that's what this is about.

"Is this something you really need an answer to?"

"Yes."

"How did you know? You shouldn't have been able to tell."

"Because we received a perk early in our careers as adventurers. We get a certain feeling whenever a god's chosen is around."

I turned to Teddy. "Did you know about this?"

He shook his head while gritting his teeth. "No. No, I didn't. Mother, Father, you showed me your status sheet; you don't have a perk like that."

Anastasia didn't turn around, but her words were obviously addressed to her son. "It's a hidden perk; even our status keeps hidden unless we will it too."

"And you hid it from me, why?" he demanded.

"Because..." Anastasia started.

"We..." Nathan continued.

And together: "Forgot."

They laughed, but Teddy crossed his arms, his eyes lit up with bright golden rings.

He turned to face me. "Cyrus, I'm sorry. I should have stopped this when I realized what they were doing."

I held up a hand. "No, it's alright. I don't blame them for taking a few precautionary steps. They don't know me, and I don't know them. They still invited me into their home and shared their food. I'm not angry."

His mother opened her mouth, but Teddy cut in before she could speak. "But I am."

"Son."

"Sweetie."

"What?" he asked.

"What's one of the first rules we taught you growing up?" his mother asked.

His eyes narrowed, but then he sighed and sat back down. "Fine. Cyrus, you can stop."

I shrugged and tapped the board, sending one of my wind marbles into a diagonal space. "It's not like you guys didn't view me with the same suspicion."

He winced but remained silent.

At least I know my next question.

"I'll answer. It's pretty simple, really. It's where I was dumped and pretty much left to fend for myself. No nefarious plans or anything like that. All I was given was some basic clothing and a firm 'good luck.'"

Silence hung in the air as I stared them both down. I had nothing to hide. I only told the truth without going into details; if they still had a problem with it, they could piss off.

"Are you sure you want to continue?" Nathan asked after a minute.

Instead of replying, I gestured to the board. He responded by tapping thrice, and every piece on his side moved forward, completely trapping me in.

"Game."

I sighed and laughed. "Should have paid more attention."

My smile dropped.

"So. What do you want to ask?"