Cursed Draw

It wouldn’t very well be a curse if you could just get a new Deck now would it?

-Mysteries Of The Deck Book Six

Chapter 16: Wreckage

Alabaster

The voice didn’t speak again that night. Something Alley was more than a little grateful for, in fact after its disembodied words he had quietly demanded it leave him alone with his grief. Alley had no way to know the reason it opted to obey him and hopefully, it wasn't now biding its time to avenge the disrespect. He didn’t have the energy to care.

At some point, while he lay staring at the dying embers of the hearth fire, sleep overtook Alley. What followed could hardly be called restful as his subconscious desperately tried to process the insanity of the last twenty-four hours. His dreams were like those of a man deep in fever, a cavalcade of implausible scenarios, images, and people assaulted his mind.

When the Twins came rampaging into the hall before the sun had even risen he was almost grateful for the excuse to get up.

“Cousin Alley!”

The midair shriek was just enough warning for Alley to snap his eyes open and his arms up in time to intercept the flying Kamran; The brown-haired boy of the Knots twins. Unfortunately, Korshea was only a half step behind her brother, and she he did not intercept.

“Cousin Alley!”

The cry was repeated by the slightly more feminine of the two mops of brown hair assaulting him. Atex that crafty old hound was nowhere to be found having wisely headed outside before the twins even began to stir.

Having been slammed back into the couch by the one-two tackle of the Knots twins, Alley had no choice but to engage in the impromptu wrestling match that immediately broke out. The wins were at least four years away from having Trials Decks of their own but they were still strong for their age, cunning, and shockingly difficult to hold down. Eventually, he was able to overpower the pair but it was more difficult than it had been last time, and that had been more difficult than the time before that.

It made Alley smile to see that even apocalyptic levels of destruction a few scant miles away hadn’t changed a thing inside the Knots' long hall. His second home remained just as full of rambunctious life as it had ever been.

The dark-haired boy had just finished pinning both twins when the husky voice of Artunis; Darius’ mother drew his attention up from the struggling kids. The matron of the Knots family was a tall, lean muscular woman of brown hair in her middle years. The deeply tanned skin her children didn’t quite share revealed her heritage from the south-east.

“Morning Alley. I assume your parents know you slept here?” She asked without concern.

Alley’s mouth opened and closed a few times as his mind froze at the simple question. Eventually, he took a few stuttering breaths, tears he hadn’t let himself shed the night before welling up in his eyes.

“No. No, I don’t think they do.”

The Knots twins shared a glance and instantly switched to their best behavior as a concerned look crossed their mother’s face.

“ Maybe you should tell me what happened.” She said gently.

A little while later Alley sat at the large round dining table while all five members of the Knots family crowded around him. Directly across from the last Roe sat Leshy the red and white-haired father of the clan. He was shorter than his wife but in terms of bulk when you looked at the man it was obvious why his kids were so damn strong.

Alley relayed the story of what had happened the previous night in greater detail than he had to his friend on the trip from Valeton. Leaving nothing out and stopping only to answer questions or offer clarification. When his explanation reached his successful conquering of the puzzle match in the castle Alley took a deep steadying breath and called forth the physical form of his newly acquired deck.

“Crown Of The Cursed King: Manifest.”

The stack of ninety cards that appeared in his hand seemed normal for a few seconds. Instantly Artunis gasped realizing at the size of the deck what she was looking at. The rest of her family reacted much the same a few seconds later when Alley placed his Library on the table in front of him. As soon as the cards left his hand they changed, whereas a True or trials deck would continue to behave normally when separated from their owners. These cards turned translucent and began to glow red.

“Not just a name then,” said Darius’ father gravely. “ You have been linked to a cursed deck.”

A few questions and breakfast later the family are gearing up and getting dressed with an efficiency Alley could never match if he hadn’t slept in his clothes.

The six of them spent the day scouring Valeton. It was grim work as they dug out and stacked the bodies of the villagers. Several times throughout the process the twins were sent to get food for the group or on some made-up errand so that children could be given a break from the horror.

Ever practical the Knots did their best to salvage anything they could potentially use or sell. Alley didn’t resent it and quickly began to do the same. Keeping an eye out for any tools or items he thought might benefit him.

If Alley still had the ability to manifest creatures and spells they would probably have been done in a few quick hours. Locked as his new Cursed Deck was the time the sun was nearly setting by the time much of the village had been divided into three piles. One the Knots were keeping, a smaller one for Alley, and one made from the two dozen or so villagers who had once dwelled in the town. These included Alley’s mother and sister but still the fate of his father remained a mystery. There was no way to know he wasn’t simply buried deeper than the group had dug, but Alley still felt an ember of hope flicker torturously to life in his chest.

While Alley, Darius, and the twins secured a couple of hand wagons and worked on ferrying the piles of salvaged goods back to the Knots homestead. The adults got to work constructing individual funeral pyres. It would have been far easier to simply stack wooden debris around the pile of bodies, or start a single huge bonfire to feed the corpses into that. Leshy Knots didn’t do things that way, and never would. When a person died they deserved a grave of their own. Even one made of fire.

By the time Alley returned to the ruined village the hillside beyond was lit up like a field of stars with each of the funeral pyres. The Knots parents both possessed Trials Decks and were at the tenth Rank; Infused in the old terminology. This meant not only were they faster and stronger than anyone without a deck could ever hope to be, they also had access to cards which increased these attributes even further.

Without the pair of adults here, the salvage efforts would have taken days, and the process of setting up the pyres would be far from complete. Leshy and Artunis had left Alley’s mother and sister unlit so that he could have a chance to light the fires himself and pay one last round of respects to the women who had meant so much to him.

Bringing himself to light the stacked wood beneath the bodies of his family was harder than Alley imagined. Harder than climbing back out of the chasm had been, harder than proving to his parents that he was ready for a Deck, harder than anything he had ever done before. Still, when Darius’ father offered him a burning torch Alley took it.

One slow step at a time he forced his way to the makeshift pyres like he was wading against a river. The heat of the flaming brand in his hand was a mirror to the hot tears that ran down his otherwise neutral face.

Starting with his sister Alley murmured thoughts and promises to the lifeless form as the fire slowly consumed her. He talked about shared memories and things he wished he had said while she was alive, he repeated his promise to evolve her card as far as it could possibly go and swore new ones that he would recover their mother’s card and discover the fate of their father.

Once Hecatia’s form was fully obscured by the flames he moved onto his mother’s pyre with the same torturous slowness. Lighting this wood pile Alley repeated the process. Talking of good times the family had shared, challenges they had overcome, and making promises to the spirits he doubted that he could keep.

Alley wasn’t sure how long he spent talking to his mother and sister, but when he began his descent down the hill bearing the pyres the moon was already high above. To Alley’s surprise the Patron and Matron of the Knots family were both seated in respectful silence at the foot of the hill.

‘Had they waited there this whole time?’ Alley couldn’t quite believe it, but he supposed they were both friends of his and family processing their own grief. They were also hunters by trade, a profession that required patience on a grand scale.

Still, he felt more than a little grateful as he rejoined the pair of adults. The trip back to the Knots homestead was a somber affair in which no one spoke a word that wasn’t required for navigating the forest. What greeted Alley when they arrived was almost the exact opposite.