Source & Soul: A Deckbuilding LitRPG

At any time now they would call her name, and Esmi felt the anticipation of that moment in her bones. She stood by Basil while she waited, a place that had been her sanctuary since she had returned to Treledyne. It still was in many ways: the feel of his body next to hers, the familiar shape of his profile, how his eyes fixed on hers so completely. Even the way Basil was now, he still looked at her like that. However, sometimes, it felt like he was looking past her into some future he walked alone, and that chilled her more than she cared to admit, even to herself.

If only he could be like he was… she began and then quickly cut off that line of thought. Stop that. If he expected you to be the same timid girl you were before you left for Charbond, that would be equally unfair. Everything could change, even cards when elevated. To hold onto who someone had been was to hold onto a lie, and she refused to be that naive.

"You have your opening in mind?" he asked.

"Of course," she replied. It irked her that planning was what he wished to speak of, but she did her best not to let it show. Surely there were more meaningful things they could discuss at a time like this.

While trying to figure out what exactly that might be, Esmi realized her fingers were playing with the extra fabric of her blouse. She wasn't the type to fidget before a duel. If her peers from Drakeheart could see her now, they wouldn't recognize her, and not because her soul was split in half with Death. She rolled her shoulders back, centering herself. "You haven't apologized to me."

Basil's face shifted a hair, only that. "About the topic of your conversation with Alexi? I thought we had come to an understanding on that score."

"Not that," she said, shaking her head. "You knew I didn't want to fight Stafford, and yet, all you could think of was your eagerness to face Titus. You gave no thought to me. It –" was unkind and unlike you. "I had hoped you would speak to me," she said, starting again. "To share my disappointment, yet you haven't said a word on it since."

He stared back at her, and Esmi tried to read him as she once could. It had been so easy before, after years of correspondence, but now she only saw flickers of what might have been regret or frustration, or maybe those were her own emotions she was casting onto him. She wanted to put her hand on his cheek, as if the warmth of her body would thaw his features.

"I didn't stop you from mentioning it," he answered slowly. "You choosing not to bring it up could easily have been interpreted as a sign that it was a conversation you did not wish to have."

"You sound like you're arguing in reverse talking about what 'could'," she said, feeling her heat rise. "You just didn't think to, and that hurts, Basil. We are to be a team, are we not?"

"Of course," he said, but Esmi could see he wanted to say more – that she could tell, the same way she could tell it was probably something she didn't want to hear.

"But…?" she prompted, despite knowing she wouldn't like it – perhaps because of it.

"Would it have made a difference?"

Her nostrils flared, the same way a bull kobold's did before it charged. "To me, yes, very much so."

He didn't answer that, standing there so very still.

"Competitor Esmi," the old centaur called, and when she turned, she saw he was gesturing to her. "If you please."

"I am about to leave," she said, facing Basil for what she hoped wasn't the last time. "Do you have anything to say to me?"

"Win," he answered simply.

"Anything else?"

He hesitated. "I feel like I am not currently in possession of the words you desire."

She fought back tears. That was it? After everything they had been through, that's all he could say?

"I wish…" he continued. She saw his hands bunch, but his tone and face barely changed. "I wish that I was."

Esmi nodded tightly and then left. She could tell that saying that much had been difficult for him, but still, she found it hard to find satisfaction in it, as much as she wished she could. A man is his actions, her grandmother had told her once. Look to those, and you will know him. Basil had brought her back to life, a nigh impossible feat and at great personal risk to himself. Surely, there could be no greater sign of love, of commitment. Or so she had thought at the time. He had seemed so relieved when she had awoken, so present, but in the days that had followed their connection had faded. What they should be doing together, he struck out on his own, only letting her in when asked and barely so then.

On her way out, she saw Afi refusing to speak to Hull, and she didn't begrudge her in the slightest. What had he been thinking, kissing that demon girl where all could see?

Boys could be so foolishly callous.

The walk down the tunnel took no time at all, not with how her head and heart were spinning. Esmi hated feeling like this. There was so much in the world to be grateful for, but it became so much harder to see after everything that had happened – everything that was still happening.

Stafford was waiting for her, and he smiled at her in greeting, revealing his fangs.

"And so we meet on the field of battle yet again. Rather poetic, no?"

"Badly written poetry, perhaps," Esmi said. She felt no joy in being here, not like she normally did for the duel, the place that had been her sanctuary before even Basil. If they had been facing off in the halls of Drakeheart before the headmaster, perhaps. From her periphery, she caught sight of the countless people stacked on top of each other watching them – they were prisoners, all of them, competitors and audience alike in this.

Stafford pointed a lazy finger skyward. "That is the gods you speak of. They pen it as we speak."

Esmi didn't look up; she had stared at the Twins frequently enough since arriving. Perhaps there was some greater purpose in having her face this challenge she could not yet see. If so, she would only find it by walking the path they had set for her, and as much as she cared for him, she had no time for Basil in her thoughts any more.

She drew as soon as she was able, and got her favored opening – one that was only possible because Stafford had returned her old deck to her. Part of her felt badly for using them against the vampire, but the cards had been hers to begin with, and he had known what he was doing when he gifted the deck back partway through the apotheosis.

With her single Fire Source, she summoned her usual pair of turn one kobolds.

"Ah," he exclaimed, "I thought you might go back to those scaled critters of yours if given the chance."

She inclined her head toward him in acknowledgement. "And I have not yet thanked you for providing me that opportunity. I appreciated the gesture more than you know."

He quirked a smile. "Does that mean you'll hold off on attacking with them. As a show of thanks?"

"Of course not," she replied, sending the kobolds at him.

He laughed as the Souls charged. "There's that bloodthirsty duelist I remember from the battlefield. I did so enjoy that fight of ours."

Esmi's chest tightened. She had died in that fight. But not again! she told herself fiercely. Basil thought he could do things alone, and so could she, damn him.

Stafford destroyed both kobolds with a casual, backhanded strike, but not before they did 6 damage to him, thanks to her Aura. He blocked half of it with an Epic Spell she was glad to avoid and took the rest from deck.

Esmi hissed a breath out in relief. The block meant he didn't have his Mask yet. Otherwise, he could have simply taken all the damage from deck and then gotten every card back on his return attack.

It had been a risk for her to charge in like this, but that's what rush decks were and what she loved in equal measure about them: either you won big or lost, and you didn't have to wait to find out.

Then Stafford was charging toward her, striking her for 5. Unlike him, she took the damage entirely from deck and watched the pieces of her kobolds drift away. Most of her key cards were already in hand, but it was always hard to see future combinations vanish from her grasp. Blocking, however, would have been a mistake in a slugfest like this, leaving her dependent on the turn draw – always a poor position to be in, especially so when she no longer had Order Source to replenish her hand.

Her Fire Skin ability flared, flames pluming from her flesh, and Stafford shed another card from hand.

All told, she had lost more cards, but still, she had taken a quarter of his deck, and importantly, she went before him. If she could keep this up, she could edge out a win.

Before his turn ended, Stafford played the same combo he had used against her and Gerard: a Graveyard into Zombie, no doubt setting up for his Mythic Mekhi, which she unfortunately hadn't seen in the damage he had taken.

Their next turns were practically identical to the ones before: Esmi scoring 6 more damage and Stafford blocking with a different Epic before he then struck her for another 5.

He used his Death Source power to return the Soul she had burned off of him with her skin, before asking, "What do you say, finished by turn three?"

She had certainly lost a pile of cards – too many for comfort – but she had some options left. Drawing her Albino meant the world to her, and she sent a word of thanks up to the Twins.

"I think we'll go a fair bit past that," she replied. And then did nothing at all, passing the turn to him.

"Hmm," he said, eyeing her. Mekhi came out and some Zombies were destroyed, Stafford's body thickening as a result before he attacked her anew.

However, she stopped it all with a single Spell, one she had specifically sideboarded in for this match.

Stafford coughed a bit as he came out the other side of the cloud. "You know," he said, "it stings a bit to be stopped by a mere Common."

"Enhance decks are usual fare at Drakeheart. One quickly learns what cards can be used to counter them."

Then it was her turn, and she used most of her Source to bring out her new Legendary.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

While she was quite pleased with the sidegrade that the Twins had granted her for the card, against Stafford the Legendary had but one purpose initially: to act as a deterrent. Stafford could destroy the Lich sure enough, but to take 5 damage in return would be a hefty blow after all she'd already dealt to him. Better yet, Emerus wasn't vulnerable to the wicked shades she'd seen in Stafford's card shards, which he no doubt used to pull pesky defenders aside so he could attack summoners directly.

But Emerus was immune to such things, making him the perfect obstacle.

Stafford watched the Legendary appear, the bones of the Lich limned in a ghostly flame now. "And what do we have here?" the vampire said, looking somewhat bemused. "Why Emerus, I never thought you'd go and change."

"Hrmm," the Lich said, opening his book and promptly ignoring them both.

"You know," Stafford said, as it became his turn. "it's only a matter of time until I remove him."

By 'remove', he meant using a Death Source Explosion, something Emerus had no protection against. However, she had purposefully left one Fire Source at the ready, threatening a second Smoke Screen, which she did indeed have. If Stafford went all in destroying the rest of his undrawn Source now and didn't defeat her, he'd be in a vulnerable position for the rest of the game. After all, with Emerus, she'd shown that she didn't just have the cards Stafford had gifted her back. Was he privy to every card Felstrife possessed? She didn't think so; Basil had told her that the pair hardly spoke. Overcommit now, and her opponent could lose it all.

Stafford paced back and forth like a cage beast, his large shoulders growing larger as he sacrificed some more Zombies to Mekhi, but that was all.

Esmi finally had the breathing space she needed, and she used it to bring a kobold back from her discard with Death Source Power. This was another reason she'd been willing to take big hits at the start. Death Power didn't let her draw like Order, but it did provide her cards in another way. Even better, with Emerus's passive ability, it destroyed a card from Stafford's deck.

When it was the vampire's turn again, he smiled wide when taking his draws. "There you are, my beloved," he said, actually caressing one of his cards before casting it.

The moment he fitted the Relic over his face, Esmi knew that he wouldn't mind trading blows with Emerus, not when he'd get all the life back he lost. Sure enough, the oversized vampire charged forward, and Esmi commanded the Legendary to intercept. However, before the two combatants met, she used her other Smoke Screen.

Like before, Stafford's fists connected only with air, but unlike when he had attacked her, Emerus swatted the vampire with his massive book, doing another 5 damage to Stafford and forcing him to shed more cards. He reeled away, bringing a hand up to his Mask covered face, the Relic tilted slightly arie.

"With so few cards, you certainly have some choice answers."

"I saved the ones that matter," she replied. "Speaking of…" A Kobold coalesced from her hand, darting across the field so fast, not even the Epic vampire could react when his mask was stolen away.

When the Treasure Hunter returned, he presented the Relic to her with a little chirp. She gave an answer in his own tongue, along with a scritch behind the ears before donning the item. The edges of her vision turned black, but she could still see well enough. What's more, a trickling power suffused her, all in a rush, and she felt… thirsty.

For the first time in their match, Stafford looked rather put out. "I don't think that's your color," he said, casting a Spell she had seen him use on Gerard.

Esmi was sad to see the Relic go as it crumbled into nothing around her cheeks, but the important thing was that it wasn't on Stafford anymore. She had Source to spare, so she pinged Stafford with a fireball made of Fire Source and then the same with Death Source Power through Emerus, forcing the vampire to take two separate hits.

"Did you think I wouldn't notice?" he tsked at her, his attention going pointedly to her hand.

She tried shifting away from the look, but the damage was already done: at the end of each of the vampire's turns, she had been using Emerus to feed her more Smoke Screen Spells. She'd been doing it at nearly the exact same moment that the Legendary would naturally refresh, to hide the movement, and she'd been holding her body slightly sideways in the hopes of also hiding the number of cards she held in hand, but it seemed the ruse hadn't worked.

Stafford snapped his fingers, his eyes going entirely black and a pulse of pure night blasted out from him, rocking her back on her heels. Emerus cackled and sputtered, melting down to nothing. Because he had waited on his Source explosion, Stafford had plenty of Death Source hovering over his head, enough to bring an Epic Soul into play.

No sooner had it appeared than it vanished. Esmi looked side-to-side and saw nothing, but then she felt breath misting against her ear and something cold along her back. The Elf Vampire's special attack wasn't combat, so she couldn't use one of her two Smoke Screens against it. Instead, she had to block from hand and deck using the kobolds she'd recovered with Death Source Power.

Stafford attacked himself after that, forcing her to use a Smoke Screen. "We're getting down to the scraps, you and I," he chuckled. "I wonder which one of us will find the out we need."

On her turn, she answered back with a Source Explosion of her own: she felt the familiar burn of Fire rage up in her throat, paired with a gradually slowing pulse that she associated with Death. She let the Fire win out, a wave of flame rolling out from her. The 2 damage was enough to destroy the few remaining Zombies that Stafford hadn't already fed to Mekhi, as well as damage the other Souls – 1 more damage and she would have wiped the field clean! She didn't have that, but she did have Fire Source Power, which she used to finish off the Graveyard, the structure crumbling. She also summoned a Kobold to bring down the Devoted Elf Vampire.

When Stafford attacked again, she used her last Smoke Screen for defense, and on her next turn, the same Kobold that had taken out the Elf Vampire was stopped by Mekhi, the Stealthed Mythic stepping out of the shadows long enough to grapple with the Kobold before being Destroyed.

Esmi flushed in excitement. I have you! Mekhi had been the one Soul she couldn't target with Fire Source Power, making it the one Soul she couldn't remove to clear a path for her Giant Albino Kobold to charge in. But not anymore.

When the great creature coalesced, it let out a soft hoot that belied its size. Whether Stafford attacked and she defended with the Albino, or she attacked with the Albino on her next turn, she had all the damage she needed to end this. Stafford had been using Death Source to cycle old cards on top of his deck as much as she had, but she had worn him down, turn after turn, to his last card, which was why he had been forced to block with Mekhi.

As long as that last card wasn't –

"Sometimes the Twins can be cruel and other times they can be kind," Stafford said as a single card appeared in his hand. He gave her a wicked grin. "Sometimes it can be both." The card shattered, and a second Mask appeared.

Esmi was caught flat-footed. It had always been a possibility he'd run a second; she certainly would have. But for it to be his last card.

He was steps away from reaching her Souls, and her calculations were only half formed. She had to make a choice.

Win, she heard Basil say.

The Albino Kobold let out a low moan when she held it back with her will, and Stafford sailed happily past it. Before she could blink, the vampire was on her, his fist lancing through her gut.

This was not how she had wanted to win, but it was the best way she could think of in the circumstance, the best way to preserve as much return damage. Blood sluiced from her mouth and then she heard something popping above her head.

"Ah," Stafford said, as he held her upright by his forearm, "relying on your new ability, I see. The question is how the Twins will interpret 'ignore', yes? Will that just be for you, or both of us? I'm sure that Albino will happily…"

Stafford's words slipped away as Esmi's world was consumed by pain. Her time as a card had done something odd to the memory of her death, making it fuzzy, incomplete when she tried to recall it. And yet, as she dangled on the vampire's arm, it all came flooding back to her: the searing pain in her gut, so much more than a body should be able to feel, as if someone were repeatedly striking the most raw and sensitive part of herself, her entire being wanting to curl around that hurt, to make it stop. She had prayed that it would stop, but it had only grown worse, lancing pain jutting out from her center to stab her lungs and heart and bowels, her organs clenching in shuddering agony. And it was all happening again, every last part of it. She wanted to scream. She was screaming. Why would the Twins gift her an ability with such a cost? Why must she go through something like this again, reliving the very worst of her moments?

The next thing Esmi was aware of, she was beating at Stafford with her fists. "You… killed… me… again!" she screamed between her strikes.

He said something, but Esmi didn't hear it.

"Do you have any idea what it's like?" she railed at him. "How much it hurts?"

"I very much do," he said. There was an odd quality to his voice that caught her attention: it was crackling like burning paper behind the Mask.

It was then Esmi realized that her body was covered in flame, and not just any fire, but a rolling black blaze that flickered like shadows. In her hands, she saw that Stafford was becoming an equally blackened husk

"I've only experienced it once before," he whispered, "but I believe that is about to change."

She let go of him and quickly peered within, trying to figure out what was going on. What she found shocked her.

A new ability? She couldn't believe she had elevated in the midst of all of that pain.

Dredging herself back up to the here and now, she stepped away from Stafford, shaking her hands like she might dry them of water. "Hush now," she told the dancing black flames. "You have done your work." But did I kill him? Esmi wondered. She had told Alexi that she would if the time came and it most certainly had. But was that what she wanted to do?

She considered the blackened corpse a moment more and then began returning Souls to her deck and drawing them. She stopped when she got to the Den Mother, the only Soul she had with more Health than Attack.

When the female kobold was summoned, Esmi dismissed the rest and then knelt down to speak to the waist high creature. "I'm sorry to ask this of you, but I must," she told it.

The kobold shuffled past her, patting her on the knee as she passed. When she got to the charred body, she thumped him on the back. If there was any life left in the vampire, his Fated damage should force him to strike back. An uncarded human could withstand, 3, sometimes 4 damage. Who was to say how much an ancient vampire could survive?

His hand shot out so quickly Esmi gasped, but the look the Den Mother gave her as she vanished into shards was a gentle one.

Stafford started to rise, wheezing as he did; it seemed he was in a great deal of pain. She quickly got under him, and he flinched away, before steadying himself.

"You…," he said, before taking off the Mask and casting it aside. Underneath, his flesh wasn't quite as badly burnt, but it was still unsightly, cracks of flesh flaking off and bleeding when he spoke. "You granted me mercy. That is a kindness."

The arena was quiet all around, but it seemed especially so as she helped him limp over to his tunnel's entrance. They didn't make it far before a pair of centaurs came trotting out to help them. It seemed now that the fight was over, the custodians were willing to lend their aid.

Stafford turned to her before the newcomers carried him off. "Why did you spare me? An untoward word would have killed me from where I lay."

Esmi hesitated. She had acted more on instinct than thought at the end. "... Love is a battle just for the two people trying to share it. It would seem such a shame for something outside of that to put an end to it, especially one as long lasting as yours."

His eyes crinkled, which she knew must pain him, but he didn't seem to mind. "I see why Alexi likes you," he said. Then he leaned down, motioning her over. She stepped nearer, even though it felt odd with the centaurs and everyone watching. Strangely, he reached behind her, tugging something from her waist. She was going to ask him what exactly he thought he was doing, when he surprised her by bringing a card back into view.

"This must be Basil's…" she said, taking it from the vampire, hardly knowing what to think.

"Such was my thought," Stafford agreed. "I noticed it when we fought and that you didn't seem aware of its presence."

Her eyes kept going over the Soul from top to bottom. It couldn't do anything tucked into her belt like that, it was just a card. But the fact that it was with her, that Basil had thought to place it there, that meant everything.

She looked up, eyes wet, and Stafford nodded to her, as if he knew exactly what she was thinking. Then he turned and limped away with the aid of the centaurs.

"Thank you," Esmi whispered to the gods above. "I wouldn't have wanted this to end any other way."