Cursed Draw

Chapter 15: Prayer

Alabaster

Alley could see his friend was desperate to ask what had happened but was holding himself back. The dark-haired boy appreciated Darius’ rare expression of tact. Though he supposed there really was nothing to say. He could relay the events, talk about the stranger that had come and destroyed everything, killed his family, and left Alley utterly impotent in a challenge. None of that could convey the depth of pain, the horror, the confusion.

That was before he got into the surreal events he could barely process in the dark castle below their feet. No, Alley needed more time to process things before he could begin to explain the new reality he found himself in.

After maybe an hour of experimentation with his new dealer the dark-haired boy had hauled himself slowly up the chasm. That had taken another two hours, a lot of skin from his fingers, and far too much concentration to truly sort his thoughts out in any meaningful way. Upon clambering back out of the earth his mind had been dominated by a single near-obsessive idea. He had to find the one piece of his family that Soren had left behind. The card made from the body of Alley’s sister; Hecatia Roe. The idea that the wind might have taken the card had filled him with panic that Alley hadn’t even waited for his limbs to stop feeling like jelly before he began a frantic search around the area where his challenge had been fought.

He had thankfully found the card eventually, trapped by the wind against a piece of wood that Alley recognized as the beam that had supported the roof above his bed.

After inspecting it in the moonlight he had pulled the card into his dealer's storage space. Only to immediately find Darius there calling out to him. It had all been such an avalanche of events that had never truly slowed down until now.

He would eventually tell his friend every gory detail but for the moment Alley needed some time in his own head before he attempted to relay anything. So instead of talking the pair of boys got to work in near silence giving the annihilated village one more thorough search for survivors. Doubtless, there would be things that they could salvage from Alley or other people’s homes, but that could wait until morning. While Darius could see perfectly in the near total darkness Alley had no such ability.

He was able to create a torch out of debris and light it with a patch of smoldering grass, but it was was fickle thing throwing inconsistent light in a small circle around the boys.

Using the torch to get back to the Knots homestead was already going to be a challenging enough prospect let alone any kind of true salvage effort.

It turned out Alley was wrong on that front, his own lifetime spent on the island combined with his friend’s similar experience and ability to see in the dark made the trip simplicity itself.

About halfway from the village to the homestead Alley began to open up, slowly relating what had happened since they parted in the woods earlier that day. Even having lived the events he was telling the dark-haired boy found himself almost incredulous at his own words. He wouldn’t be surprised if Darius thought he had simply lost his mind.

While the hunter was visibly shocked at his friend’s mention of humans being turned into cards. It was the mention of facing someone at the fifth rank and surviving that caused him to stop dead in his tracks.

“You fought a walking god?” he said using the more archaic term.

“No” Alley replied flatly. “ I definitely wouldn’t call it a fight.”

That drew a wince from Darius “Well we are talking about a near-mythical rank here. You survived at least, that's pretty good.”

Alley knew his friend was trying his best to be considerate but he wasn’t in the mood to be consoled. That wasn’t Darius’ fault and so he did his best to avoid responding in clipped tones, even if the urge to rant and rave was more than a little present inside him.

Taking a little breath to steady himself Alley tried his best to approach this with the same casual and adventurous energy the pair of boys always shared. It was of course impossible to truly hide his feelings behind a facade of normalcy. The tragedy was too recent, his pain too raw.

“I couldn’t believe it myself, but if you think that’s insane wait till you hear what happened when the challenge ended and the ground tore open.”

The two teen boys crept past the woodline into the knots' homestead. Alley had already abandoned his makeshift torch and they moved in silence so as not to wake anyone sleeping. By this late hour not only the twins but Darius’ parents would likely have retired. They wouldn’t object to Alley spending the night even without permission first so it was really an effort to be polite.

Knowing their son would be returning from a night hunt the Knots’ had left a single oil lantern burning above the doorway to the long hall that housed the various bedrooms of the family.

It cast a small circle of warm light that was large enough to at least outline the tool benches, wood piles, skinning apparatus, and the other obstacles littering the homestead's yard.

With the synergy of long association, the boys entered the house. Darius opened the door in increments to avoid it making noise, whilst Alley reached up and retrieved the lantern. Which he promptly extinguished, and hung his hook in its stead.

On the hunt or even while traveling Alley knew the Knots family had a whole system of sleeping in watches. Here in their half-year home, this was not the case. The building hummed with the quietly pregnant air of a sleeping family, occasionally broken by an occasional rumble from the dogs or grunting snore from Darius’ father elsewhere in the building.

The doorway opened to a large family hall dimly lit by a still smoldering hearth fire built into a large cast iron device in the center of the room.

The two teens shared a nod and Darius crept off to his room. For Alley's part, he made his way to a large sofa bed in front of the fire. The ludicrously massive hunting dog called Atex that the Knots family kept already lay atop the sofa, but it raised its head and obediently if begrudgingly slid off the couch as Alley approached. It drew a small smile from the teen. The old mut was better trained than the twins.

Removing his shirt and settling into the sofa Alley rapped his tattered cloak around himself and idly patted the dog that had immediately laid back down on the floor beside him. With his free and strangely recovered arm the boy summoned the single card from his collection that he had found in the ruins of his home.

No Assigned Deck

Hecatia Roe, Thaw Princess

Unique

Resonances: Human, Bloom, Charm

No Cost

Power:700

Vitality: 1

Inspecting the image he quietly swore to himself that he would evolve the Hecatia Roe card to be as powerful as it possibly could be. Even if it didn't share a single resonance with his new deck.

It was nothing, less than nothing yet Alley felt he owed his sister that much at the very least. One day someone might see the greatest version of the card and coo over it just as men and women from far and wide had fawned over her in life.

Dismissing the card he continued to stroke the dog and did his best to hold back tears as memories of his family assailed him.

Alley hadn't seen any sign of his father, and while he knew the most likely scenario was that the man was dead somewhere under the wreckage of Valeton. He still couldn't help but offer a little prayer of protection to all the ancients and every one of the gods both alive or dead he could think of. “Please let some unexpected turn have taken him away before Soren arrived. I know that it's stupid, I know but please.”

It wasn’t much of a prayer lacking the ritual words and ceremony that were said to be necessary to get heavenly attention. Alley was no priest; he didn't know those words or actions. His dealer didn’t even hold any sort of Divine resonance, the first step for most on such a journey. In fact, he thought sadly it could be argued quite the opposite.

Alley’s new deck was by any measure an unholy and profane thing, reveling in its own horrifying nature. If any gods were paying attention he doubted they would be inclined to do favors for the person wielding it.

“The Crown Of The Cursed King.” He mused aloud not adding any commands which would summon cards or allow him to view the dealer’s storage space. The words promoted the briefest of glances from Atex, before seeing it wasn’t being ordered to do anything and lowering its shaggy head once more.

“Don’t worry boy” he whispered softly to the dog. “ Nothing you need to concern yourself with.”

Before going back to his silent considerations on his deck. The thing might be profane, it might have trapped him and locked away his ability to manifest cards outside of a challenge. But the cards within its Library were of such rarity, such ancient uniqueness, such power. That maybe just maybe with a little ingenuity and a lot of luck Alley could use it to perform his own miracles. No gods required.

“That's the Spirit.” Rumbled the whiskey-soaked gravel voice he had spoken to in the hidden castle.