Nyk stared, dumbfounded, at the blue screen next to Syn. "YOU. HAVE. A. WHITE. CARD" Nyk mumbled slowly as he processed what was in front of him. His eyes glued to the floating status screen.

"...Yes..." quietly replied Syn.

Nyk's eyes flickered between the screen and Syn, his expression a mix of confusion and wonder. "What the... How come you hadn't told me yet!?" he asked, his tone hurt.

"It was never the right time to bring it up," Syn replied quietly, looking away.

"By the Seas, Syn!" He said staring at the screen. "I'm not sure if I should be mad or congratulate you..." said Nyk hurt, "How... how long have you had this card...?"

"Almost five months. My Dad gave it to me on the anniversary of my coming-of-age ceremony," Syn said, still avoiding eye contact.

"Five months!" Nyk exclaimed, his jaw dropping and his eyes opening wide. "That's before you suggested to start collecting scraps! And in all this time you never told me?"

"I wanted to tell you, okay?" Syn said defensively. "I just didn't know how or when."

Nyk's turned as his gaze crossed the room where pile after pile of scrap surrounded them. "I don't know..." he said, scanning the room with his hands and pointing at each of the piles standing in front of them, "like... ANY time!?"

The room fell into a tense silence.

"I'm telling you, it wasn't that simple," Syn said, breaking the silence. "First, your head is always in the clouds, and you never know when to shut your mouth. And second, this was not just about a card. It's more of a private matter, so I needed to figure out what to do first before telling you. Believe me. It wasn't easy keeping you out of it."

"Believe you?" Nyk asked, looking at his friend. "First, you suddenly tell me you've been planning to become a Cardslinger for who knows how long. And now, I suddenly learn you've had a White card all along? Honestly, at this point, I wouldn't know what to believe. What's the next thing you've been keeping a secret? That you're a human-beast hybrid?"

"Stop it!" Syn said, pointing at Nyk. "I'm telling you, it's not that simple. I only bonded with it a couple of weeks ago."

"You've had it for months and bonded with it only recently?" Nyk asked, surprised. "Why?"

"This is not just a White card," Syn said, her expression serious. "It's my Mom's memento."

Nyk tilted his head, trying to understand.

"Okay, let me explain. The thing is, I'm not sure the card was meant for me," Syn replied. "When Dad gave it to me, I thought Mom had left it for me and assumed he kept it because he still thought of me as a child, so I left the room quite mad at him. But just as I was going to bond with the card, I looked at it... and something didn't click. I don't think my Mom left it for me. I think it's his."

Nyk raised an eyebrow.

"I think it was his only way of remembering her," Syn said, her voice sad. "For days, I thought about what to do with it. But when I tried giving it back, he wouldn't take it. He said he wanted me to keep it. Remember that day I didn't go to school? He stayed home with me and just sat there for hours until I bonded with the card."

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

"So he's been using the card to remember... your mom?" Nyk said confused. "And he had to push you... to bond with it?"

Syn sighed, frustration etched on her face. "I know it doesn't make sense," she said. "Look, I'll show you. Just look at the screen, and you'll understand."

Nyk squinted as his friend closed her eyes and concentrated. He looked towards the panel as it transformed before him. The letters on the screen faded away, replaced by a hexagon. The top and bottom sides of the hexagon had pointy vertices, and it was flat on the sides with two vertices aligned left and right. Five of the vertices were greyed out, but the sixth one on the right side shone with bright white light.

After a moment, the view slowly zoomed in on the white vertex, and a hexagonal card appeared on the screen. In the center of the hexagon, a white stone pulsed with a dynamic rhythm, glowing inside a runic array. Above the array, in cloud-like white letters, Nyk could see the card's name

> Wind I (White Quality)

Below the glowing stone, on the lower side of the interior of the hexagon, a brief line of text was written in the same cloud-like letters:

> This card will give its owner basic control over the wind.

Behind both pieces of text, between the hexagon's edges and the runic array, was an image.

On the left side of the Hexagon's interior, the image of a young woman vaguely resembling Syn shimmered. Separated by the stone, on the right side of the hexagon, a bulk of feathers and muscle lay on the floor, surrounded by broken pieces of a tree.

The woman wore a runic blue and white cloth embossed with golden patterns and goggled glasses. Her brown, almost copper hair was pulled back in a ponytail, and her face, although tense and tight in concentration, was beautiful. She was staring at a gadget she held in her right, lowered hand. Nyk had never seen a device like this, completely engulfed in shining blue and yellow sparks. In her left hand, she held another mechanical device that ended in some sort of antenna that she was pointing toward the massive white-feathered beast.

The stone slowly faded away, and the image came to the foreground. As it did so, shimmering gold italic letters appeared on the bottom half of the image.

> "Hold it Syl! The telemetry on that thing is going crazy! It's showing..."

With the magical stone no longer blocking the view, a new figure appeared. Standing protectively between the woman and the massive beast stood a young man who looked much like Syn's father. His face had scratches in places not covered by a short, thick beard. He held in his left hand a translucent blue shield around which a magical barrier shimmered in and out of existence. In his right hand, he gripped a heavy, black hammer adorned with glowing runic figures and patterns in bright red, orange, and white tones.

A scene of destruction surrounded them. Feathers, leaves and dust floated around them. In the distance, up in the air, similar feathered beasts could be seen moving. The surroundings of the pair were covered in smoke, with broken trees lying everywhere.

As tree branches bent and the feathers glided through the scene, Nyk could almost feel the wind pushing them. In the still yet animated scene, the woman's hands were quickly moving to operate the device, her face showing deep concentration while sparks showered her coat and her goggled face. The man's shield shimmered several times protected by a magical ethereal barrier surrounding that blocked stones from clashing against it. The man holding it had the hammer leaning towards the beast lying on the floor, almost touching it.

It was a breathtaking scene. The image was vivid, almost life-like. Far from something you'd view through a window, it felt as if he was taking part in this event. When Nyk looked inside the card's Hexagon, he could almost feel the wind against his face, his arm tingling as stones bounced away and his right arm contracted as if under the weight of the hammer the man was holding. Most surprisingly, his heart grew heavy with worry, bathed with the impulse to protect the woman in the scene from any harm.

The screen suddenly faded away and dissolved, leaving Nyk dumbfoundedly staring at the air.

"I think I heard something upstairs," Syn whispered.