Vayal Academy

It happened like this:

Ever since the Temple Ceremony, Brilla's been nursing a slight crush on Ivandi. Nothing crazy -- certainly not the obsessive sort of love typically seen at Vayal -- she's just drawn to her the way the way people are drawn to the fluffy, soft, and cute.

Ivandi doesn't exactly reciprocate these feelings, but does enjoy the half-boar's company, even if they have nothing in common. Well, nothing in common until today.

Lazing about the common room, Brilla lamented to the pretty lynx that she's never found anybody to play Gamage with, and has more or less resigned herself to having a collection of expensive cards that look nice in their binder but never see any actual use. See, Brilla's from Northrock, which is as isolated and boring as it sounds, and while she picked up cards from stationed soldiers or passing merchants, nobody else in the village really cared to play, and the soldiers were only allowed to do it on their rare rec-days.

Ivandi, from the cosmopolitan city of Valai, managed to prevent her ears going straight up in the air. Because of course, Valai's enormous, and if a woman wants to curate a deck of eye-poppingly synergistic cards in Valai City, the only thing stopping her is cash. Luckily, her family's rich as sin off the fur trade, so nothing stood in Ivandi's way at all.

"Well," she said, trying her best to act coy, "I do have a deck. We might try a game. You'll probably win, though."

"Losing's no issue, so long as it's done with honour," Brilla replied. She's always saying this sort of shit, which is part of why Ivandi's never reciprocated her feelings.

So they threw their cards down on the table (Gamage is popular with soldiers because you can play it anywhere; you don't need an arena because the cards themselves are enchanted), and here we are, in the final stages of the game.

Feline, emerald eyes consider an overflowing hand. Ivandi is winning; she has amassed a frankly ridiculous board of low stat goblins, kobolds, and imps, all of which compensate for their weak attack with card-draw effects, all rendered three dimensional and leering by the cards enchantments -- that, plus Ivandi's Hazarkaraz, End of Wisdom, which grants her an unlimited handsize, mean she usually has an answer in hand for anything Brilla can throw at her.

So the bristly boar hasn't been able to get anything sticking to the board since like, turn three, is the thing, and she's starting to win points with Ivandi because despite the disgustingly frustrating counter-plays the lynx has been making, Brilla hasn't whined, whinged, or complained even once. Every time her creatures are vaporised the moment they hit the board, she simply nods, black curls bouncing, and says something along the lines of, "A nice play, but I'll get you next time."

Although now it's more like a haggard "well done," or "not bad," because while it isn't required that you play with Real World Damage on, Brilla insisted that it was the only honourable way to play, and trying to think through your plays while beaten to shit by tiny holographic monsters was half the game.

Ivandi, by contrast, is entirely uninjured, grinning across the table as she plays The Lovely Imp, a pitiful 1 health 1 attack monster that can't be directly targeted by an opponent with attacks or spells. The purple-skinned demon appears standing on its card, swaying its hips and humming an utterly delightful showtune. "Well," Ivandi says, with a shrug, "unless you'd like to concede, I believe it is time to attack."

The one thing Brilla has that Ivandi hasn't countered is Bastion of Faith, which means the headstrong boar can only lose ten life per turn. That, and a handful of other high-defence cards, are the only reason she's still in the game. "Go on," she says, panting, her body covered in cuts and scratches from the army of 1/1s across the table.

"I'll attack your Orcish Shield Master with my SquallingSporeling and my second Squalling Sporeling." The two fat mushroom men race across the simulated battlefield, screaming and beating their chests. Brilla's tiny flickering orc bares her teeth, digs her feet in, and cleaves both in two with a mighty swing of her axe -- but dies in the skirmish. The Sporelings explode into five 1/1 Spores each, for a total of ten new creatures. "Then I'll attack you directly with everything else. You sure about this?"

"I am a warrior. I'll live."

It's frankly bad manners to declare an attack with everything: it means thirty-eight little motes rush at Brilla, stabbing her arms, chest, and stomach with tiny pitchforks and rusty iron swords. Only ten of them do damage, but every blow hurts, bringing a procession of oofs and ouches from the boar.

"It is my turn," she says, on her last three lifepoints.

"And your last, I'd wager," Ivandi answers with a grin.

"Time will show."

With all the faith of a small-town girl, Brilla hovers her muscled hand over her deck, breathes in deep, and says a prayer to the God of Luck, whose name she doesn't know (Aletoric, by the by). She's rewarded with precisely the draw she needs. "I play The Unassailable Wall, in defence mode." It's a boring card, aesthetically, given it does just look like a really tall fucking wall -- but it has ten health, and can only be attacked by one creature at a time. Suddenly Ivandi's army of ankle-slashers seems like nothing but thirty-eight pieces of dead weight.

Brilla reinforces the wall with two facedown cards -- useless on their own, but maybe, if it all goes right, game-winning with the Wall -- and ends her turn with a polite, "Now you."

Ivandi just smiles. She has most of her deck in hand; did Brilla really expect she wouldn't have an answer? "It has been a wonderful game, my friend. But it is time to finish this."

"Oh, I agree."

"I activate the spell Turn to Knowledge, which lets me destroy any creature and draw one card. And I think you know precisely what I shall destroy, yes?" She taps a claw on the Wall, which begins to crumble to dust.

"Not so fast, Ivandi." Brilla reveals her first facedown card -- Edict of Austerity. "My Edict forbids you from playing any further cards from your hand this turn."

"Ah, my friend, you have erred -- it is too late to prevent my Turn to Knowledge. And I already have the creatures to win the game. Had you played it when my turn began-"

"No, Ivandi, I played it right when I needed to. Or did you forget I have another face-down card?"

"What? What good could it possibly do you when your Wall is destroyed!?"

Brilla reveals Cascade Reaction, a card whose art depicts an apothecary bursting in a fiery green explosion.

"No!" Ivandi shouts, claws digging into the table. She has five counters in hand, but the Edict prevents her answering; and if she can't answer, she's already lost.

"I see you know what it does," Brilla says, with a nod of her head. "And so, I'm sure you know precisely what I shall modify, yes?" She taps a finger on Turn to Knowledge. Cascade Reaction forces it to target all eligible targets. "Turn to Knowledge doesn't specify an opponent's creatures, does it, Ivandi?"

A rain of spectral hands descends on Ivandi's thirty-eight monsters, sapping their energy. "No! My deck!" Ivandi draws twenty-five cards before her elegant hand hits the bare wood where her deck once was.

Brilla smiles. "No cards to draw means an instant loss, if I remember my Gamage correctly."

The lynx stares, dumbfounded, and then begins to chuckle. Brilla laughs, too, launching to her feet, the injuries healed now that the game is over. "Such a game!" she declares.

"Such a game indeed, my friend. We must play again."

Ivandi, for the first time truly impressed with the half-boar, starts to imagine she could, if pressed, return her attentions.