“Hey.”

  Someone poked me on the chin.

  “Hey!”

  Someone poked me on the face.

  “Hey!”

  A cold, slender finger jabbed me in the eye.

  “Gah!” I recoiled, grabbing my head in my hands.

  Soise crossed her arms, made difficult by the unwieldy chess board in her grasp.

  “You’ve…” I let out a groan. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

  “You’re so rude!” She snapped, slamming the chessboard on a flatter portion of the rooftop. “We’re going to have a real game and that’s that!”

  “We did. I lost. Go home already!”

  “Beat me in chess, and I’ll leave you alone,” she said, smirking to herself.

  “Blackmail.”

  Soise opened up the chessboard, selecting her pieces carefully. Each one had an unusual air of mana around it, latching to the board on impact.

  “You…enchanted your chess board?” I asked.

  “I use it all the time,” she stated. “Not all equipment is pointy.”

  “It’s a piece of wood.”

  “Two pieces of wood with an inner compartment filled with pieces,” she corrected.

  I set up my side.

  She set up hers.

  “This isn't going to vaporize my arm when I make a move, will it?” I asked with hints of a grumble.

  “It’s enchanted only to visualize the complex movements of enemies via the movements of chess pieces. If we’re just playing chess, nothing’s going to happen...” Soise stated, tying her long hair into a bun. “Besides, you already played one game, didn’t you? What’s there to fear?”

  Honestly, I just wasn’t paying attention to the board.

  First, Soise moved a pawn down the left central column.

  My hand twitched.

  In this situation, it would be best to move a pawn to meet hers, or a knight to swing around and attack.

  Defense or offense.

  From here, I could change my strategy to move against hers, or force a strategy of my own, or both, if the situation presented itself.

  Soise glanced from me, then to the board.

  “Your move,” she whispered.

  “How do I know that?” I whispered back.

  Even from just a glancing glance at the board, I understood how each piece navigated. I understood the basic strategies an opponent would likely use, and I knew the counterstrategies to fight them. I understood the feel of each object.

  The way their glossy wooden curves would adjust slightly in your grip.

  She leaned forward, no longer whispering. “Your. Move.”

  “I’ve never played this game before,” I stated.

  “Oh…this is a pawn—” Soise jolted. “Hey! You knocked over your king! You know how to play this!”

  “Of course I know how to play,” I stated. “But I’ve never actually played a game. A real game, anyway. Why is that?”

  “You’re thinking too hard,” Soise sighed. “I guess the game just teaches you a baseline amount of information when you spawn in. We’re speaking English, aren’t we? I don’t remember learning any of it.”

  I clenched my jaw. “Can the game make us believe whatever we want to believe? You’ve had dreams, haven’t you? Are those even real? Am I real? Do I actually want anything, or is an assumption based on what a real person would want? If both make the same choices, is there even a difference?”

  She tapped the board. “You’re here now. Play the game.”

  I put a hand on my pawn.

  After a moment of thought, I let go, switching for the right knight.

  Soise moved another pawn, standing it left of her first. I moved a bishop across from the pawns, and she moved a knight. I moved a pawn as bait while she defended her front line with a bishop of her own.

  We moved our queens one step toward each other.

  Our pieces skirted around, moving back and forth but never capturing anything.

  Each time I’d go to take a piece, she’d have some sort of a defense, refusing to accept even the most minimal risks.

  After twenty-something turns, neither of us were getting anywhere.

  Soise rubbed her forehead. “You’re not playing like I’d expect.”

  “Why do you say that?” I asked, pulling my king out from his square.

  She raised an eyebrow, saying nothing.

  After another lengthy series of pointless moves, we started talking again.

  “For the record, you’re not playing how I’d expect either,” I stated. “You’re defending all of your pieces, taking no steps to go offensive.”

  “It’s part of a strategy,” she said back.

  We played longer.

  Finally, she got my queen trapped, and I had to move her, forcing me to give up a pawn.

  From there, things went downhill. Fast.

  I lost a bishop, two rooks, a knight, three pawns, and nearly my king, all one turn after the other.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  “You’d been setting this up, hadn’t you?” I sighed.

  “Yes.” Soise beamed. “And not a single piece lost.”

  Not even a pawn.

  “That’s your plan?” I asked. “Challenge me to a game I know virtually nothing about, then beat the snot outta me?”

  She rolled her eyes. “You’re playing fine. Besides, you never even wanted the role of leader.”

  “Sure, but I don’t appreciate getting humiliated.”

  “I don’t mind. It should help the team dynamic.”

  I scanned the board, coming to an immediate and instant conclusion.

  I was so dead.

  There’s a difference between an innate understanding of options in a game and knowing which options work best for who.

  Even if I tried to take pieces now, I’d be digging myself a deeper grave.

  Except…

  I smiled, trading my queen for a pawn.

  Soise blinked. “Are…you…serious?”

  I took my hands off the piece. “Of course."

  She moved her rook, and my queen was captured.

  “That was the stupidest play I’ve ever seen,” Soise muttered.

  Seven turns later, and our match was over.

  “Good game,” I chuckled, standing up from the rooftop.

  She gave me a funny look. “I won. You lost. Horribly, might I add.”

  “Yeah. But that was a fun game, so I don’t mind.”

  I grabbed the roof railing and hurled myself off, landing neatly in a tree.

  “Good luck, team leader!” I called, waving goodbye before I slipped inside my apartment complex.

  She crossed her arms. “I’ll need to keep an eye on that one.”

  …

  “So you’re not dating?” Sharon asked.

  “No, I’m not dating anyone,” I groaned, pulling the blanket over my head.

  He peeked underneath.

  “Funny mortal man. Why not?”

  “It’s complicated, okay?!” I cried. “I don’t even want a girlfriend. Well, I mean, I do, sorta, but now it’s the time, you know?”

  “Not really,” Sharon whistled. “In human words she’s ‘not bad,’ if you get what I mean.” he smiled. “In fairy words—”

  “Go away…”

  “I was talking about the first girl, mind you,” he continued, plopping down on the dresser beside my bed. “I suppose healers aren’t much of my type. But to find the first female human possessed that kind of spark—”

  “Stop talking.”

  “That first girl is something else you know?”

  “Sharon it’s three in the morning.”

  He rubbed his chin. “The second girl was…fine. Acceptable. But not the kind to kill three generations of enemies with the bare hands to avenge your capture. Or skin fifty boars .”

  I looked him in the eyes. “Excuse me?”

  He blinked. “The wife makes the coats for her children and mile-wide boars have this natural thickness to their hide which is truly excellent for overall insulation—how have you not used this common expression?”

  “We live in a desert, Sharon.”

  “I like to think big picture,” he snapped. “And so do you. Really, I have no preference whom you choose to wed, so long as you get some control over your life.”

  “My life is fine.”

  He pointed to all of me. “You are not.”

  “I’m tired Sharon.”

  “The ancient wisdom of fairy culture is sitting in front of you, silly human.”

  “It’s three in the morning Sharon.”

  Sharon checked the clock. “Four in the morning, actually.”

  I stuffed my face into a pillow and started screaming.

  …

  “Welcome!” Master Xoiae laughed, clapping her hands, standing on a pavilion at the stone field.

  The student body muttered amongst themselves, focused on the massive screen behind her, covered in bright black, red, green and orange markings, each with different levels of threat.

  “You look awful,” Ardenidi whispered, nudging me in the side. “What happened?”

  “Sharon was giving me relationship advice,” I said, rubbing my bleary eyes. “You…uh…haven’t met him yet, have you?”

  “I don’t think so.”

  She blinked.

  “You’re in a relationship?”

  “Nope.”

  “So why give advice?”

  “He thinks I should get a girlfriend. Apparently.”

  Toya surfaced from the crowd, grabbed me by the elbow. “Grind! Get over to your team!”

  “Hmhmgjddjfkgfjkfkhoeriorrtrreu,” I whispered.

  He paused. “You look awful.”

  “Hmhmhpmhphmhpemeroooaaaaagggghhhhhh.”

  “Wow, that’s rough.”

  Toya brushed dirt from his white robes, glancing at Ardenidi. “We’re going to take him for just a little bit. If you don’t mind.”

  “I don’t care,” she grunted, waving me away.

  The rest of my team stood in a circle watching the map.

  Headmaster Xoiae was currently going through each area, the common monster types in that area, and the effects those monsters tend to have. Dunebeasts live on dunes, Rockwarts live on rock, Skyvixen live in the clouds, etc.

  “Hey, how are we supposed to get up there?”

  “The union has a blimp,” Soise stated.

  “Of course they do.”

  “Now! I’m sure you’re all disappointed by your performance yesterday, aren’t you?” Headmaster Xoiae asked. “Almost all of you utterly failed to meet your master’s requirements.”

  Immediately, whispers fluttered through the dense crowd.

  Xoiae winked at our team.

  Sip paled. “What is that supposed to mean?”

  “We technically passed, thanks to Grind,” Catania said. “Hey. We might get extra supplies.” She was smiling.

  Sip had fallen onto the floor, grabbing mats of his black hair.

  “He’s not okay, is he?” Toya asked.

  I scratched the back of my head. “This is actually pretty normal,”

  “Fools!” Sip cried. “Now that we’ve been singled out as the most competent team, who do you think they’ll send on—”

  “Now, there’s the matter of first assignments,” Xoiae cheered. “Most of you will be given a routine job in one of our neighboring cities. If you can’t complete that, you’ll be dropped, and must take the exam again. But those jobs are usually pretty easy. ”

  She looked back at us again.

  Sip shrank back, crossing his fingers and squeezing his eyes shut. “Please no.”

  “Now, Soise’s team, since you passed the exam with such flying colors, Master Jujud will lead you on a real mission.”

  Headmaster Xoiae tapped the enormous smiling mass of red and orange in the ‘sky zone.’’

  “We’re so dead,” Sip whimpered. “We’re all so, so dead.”

  “You’ll be fine, accountant,” Catania grunted, kicking him in the side.

  Soise kept staring at the screen. “We’re going to board a sky ship. I can’t believe it. We’re really—” she clasped her hands together, smiling wide. “We’re going to board a sky ship!”

  “Guys?” Toya asked. “We…can’t fly. You know that. Right?”

  “The union will provide jetpacks,” Master Jujud sighed, appearing beside us. While my attack had hurt her, a night’s sleep had patched the wound. Even so, she held a hand to her side, giving me a complicated look—

  Hang on.

  Did she say—

  // {Notice} //

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