Source & Soul: A Deckbuilding LitRPG

The stairwell down was a long one, and well before I reached the bottom, the sounds I had heard earlier – the distant ting of metal striking metal – ceased to be. Far from calming me, the sudden lack only made me more concerned. There were some storerooms in the basement of our keep, mainly for meats and other perishables whose cooling Relics benefited from the lower temperatures, so it was possible that the noise had been the cooks or servers gathering more supplies for the gala. But why would that sort of work produce such a sound? More likely in my mind was that the guards who protected the vault had come to grips with someone. They were not particularly powerful cards from my father’s deck, chosen more for the length of time they could remain summoned than for their might; their mere presence was enough to dissuade overcurious workers.

“You’re quite sure you smelled Griff down here?” I asked, and the Bearkin behind me grunted in confirmation as we continued to descend.

Had the Chaos user accidentally triggered the Guards somehow? The defensive Souls would only have attacked if struck first or if someone had tried to open the vault. I knew from experience that Griff was a decidedly unpredictable fellow, but would he have blithely attempted to tug on a door with two guards stationed beside it? Surely even he wouldn’t be so reckless. And what possible reason could he have for being down here in the first place? If he had decided to pilfer some items of value – which, admittedly, I wouldn’t be entirely surprised by – there were much easier targets in our home than a guarded and locked vault situated at the end of a lengthy set of stairs!

Reaching the bottom of the stairwell, I had my Souls come to a halt before we entered the connecting hallway. I needed a moment to catch my breath, and some additional time to piece together the oddity of events wouldn’t go amiss either. While I stood there, thinking and breathing hard, I rubbed my sleeved arms, almost envious that Souls were unaffected by such labor or changes in temperature.

If Griff had indeed activated our Guards, had his minder Stephi stepped in to defend him? Was that the noise I had heard? If so, I was glad I had a stack of Healing Potions in my breast pocket in case either of them – or anyone else who might have gotten caught up in the mess – was harmed. As for how Griff might have managed to convince Stephi to let him stray so far from the gala, I couldn’t guess. Despite her reserved demeanor, she’d always seemed to do a fair job of keeping him in line before.

I gave myself a final count of ten to rest, listening for all I was worth as I did, but heard nothing new.

“All right,” I told my two Souls, “let’s go ahead. At a measured pace this time, and stay close.”

To my surprise, my Shieldbearer, standing one step down from me, did not budge. “Summoner,” it said, the voice of a woman coming from behind the helmet. “If you are concerned, would it not be wise to go and seek aid first?”

I wasn’t used to my Souls questioning me, but I had asked for their support. The least I could do was share my rationale if they were curious. “I am more mystified than worried, truth be told. I hope to the Twins that Griff hasn’t done anything too foolish, but if he has, I’d prefer to be the one to catch him in the act.” I saw my Shieldbearer stiffen at the idea of putting myself in danger and added, “Griff has no cards of his own; they’re only loaned to him for the duration of Camp exercises. He’s defenseless here and in chains. With just one of you I could handle him if need be, and I doubt it will come to that.”

The Shieldbearer bowed her head. “Very well,” she said, though she didn’t sound happy about it.

Despite her misgivings, the Soul did move into the hallway, allowing me and the Bearkin to exit the stairwell, the elf still shadowing my steps, right where I wanted him, just to be safe. Down here the ceiling was rounded, the path only going left, so that was the direction we traveled, the three of us staying bunched together. Intermittent glow lights built into the wall lit our way, the same as they had in the stairwell. However, the hallway bent and curved – to avoid denser and less workable deposits of rock, my father had once explained – so even with the light, we couldn’t see very far ahead. We passed some doors but I ignored those for now since they were just the various storerooms. It was possible that Griff had chosen to raid our larders, but I wanted to set sight on the vault at the end of the hall first. If he was not there, then I would begin checking the adjoining spaces.

Coming to the last bend before the final stretch, I considered calling another halt. I had been drawing cards and summoning source since we had started down the stairs and was currently up to 2 Order, 1 Air, and 1 Life at the ready, along with another Air in hand, as well as three Souls and a Spell.

While I believed what I had told my Shieldbearer and doubted I would need so many cards, there were other possibilities of what could be waiting for us. Perhaps a group of gala-goers had realized that Griff was a Chaos user and shoved him down here to thrash him, or worse. Or what if thieves were using the cover of the gala to try and rob from my family? I could summon the Zephyr for another body, but I doubted it could Fly in these confines and it wouldn’t help my offense much. As for the Bodyguards, with one out already, I couldn’t do anything with the other two at the moment – though having them as backup or defense was a comfort. I could wait and draw more cards, but the continued silence was bothering me. What if Stephi or Griff were bleeding out, and I dithered too long, causing their deaths?

So, we took the turn without slowing, rounding the bend in a tight pack. Just over my Shieldbearer’s shoulder pauldron, down the hall, I could see that the vault door stood wide open, like a card market ready for business. I would have sputtered in disbelief, but too many other peculiarities were demanding my attention. My father’s Guards were gone as if they had never been, and in their place stood none other than armored Stephi. She seemed to care not at all that Griff was inside my family's vault, casually tucking cards behind his ear, 3 Chaos and Water source each floating around his head.

What in the bloody Twelve? I had been worried about the man, and here he was, stealing from me.

“Griff!” I called, my sudden outrage making it a shout. “You will cease doing that this very instant!”

The Chaos user glanced in my direction, and seeing me, looked neither concerned nor ashamed for his actions – both of which stung. Had I been completely wrong about the man?

“Ah, young Hintal,” he said, continuing to take the cards, which only boiled my blood further. “I would have thought you too busy celebrating your grand victory to bother traipsing down here. Let me guess, the Bearkin has a nose on him?”

The Elf shifter growled behind me, the three of us continuing to advance on the pair, less than two dozen feet separating us now.

“You had best start explaining yourself, or –” my words caught in my throat because the Shieldbearer whose broad back I had been following exploded into motes of light like she had struck for fatal damage. Seeing me unprotected, my Bearkin leapt in front, but no sooner had he done so than he too shattered into shards. “Fate take me!” I cursed, summoning another Bodyguard from hand, quick as I could.

The armored figure came into being, but the moment it solidified, it too collapsed upon itself. I scrambled backward. It made no sense; Griff had made no move to attack me, his source hovering unused, and Stephi stood still as death, having shifted not an inch from her position by the wall. My eyes darted side-to-side and then behind me but saw no one. Did they have an accomplice? Someone hidden?

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Griff called.

I heard him but was barely listening. I needed to create some distance between us so I could discover what was happening and regroup. Too late, I saw a card stuck to the side of the wall flash.

Even though I had been standing on solid stone a moment ago, I fell backward into the pit that had suddenly appeared beneath me. It wasn’t overly deep, but there were spikes jutting from wooden boards waiting for me at the bottom. I slammed into them with all my weight behind them, but felt only pressure, no pain, a card shedding from my body because I chose to hold onto my hand tightly.

Since Griff had no Souls I could see, I didn’t particularly mind losing the Spell. I could have gotten rid of the Zephyr instead, 1 icon for 1 damage, but I was hoping the Air Soul might persist in a way my Order and Life ones hadn’t, and if it did, perhaps it could get me out of this hole.

Though the landing hadn’t been painful, it took me a moment to stand, the whole time feeling like a weight was pushing down on me. This must have been the card’s focus-Summoner effect, slowing me.

During that time, Griff moseyed up to the edge, Stephi joining him, the pair of them peering down at me. For my life, I couldn’t understand what was going on. Griff had never used a Chaos card like this in our training – Escape? – and I had seen him cycle through his entire deck multiple times. And why was Stephi acting complacent in all of this? She was supposed to be his jailer, not his accomplice. Was he blackmailing or coercing her somehow?

“Sorry about that,” Griff said, his scratchy voice sounding affable of all things. “Can’t have someone bringing that whole party down on me. It was quite the guest list, after all. You understand.”

“I don’t understand at all,” I said, having to crane my neck to look up at him. “You hijack the cards of my kin but then apologize for using a Trap card on me? You often don’t make sense, Griff, but this is absurd, even for you.” I was angry and confused, but at the same time, Griff had been my mentor, one who had actually treated me with respect. I didn’t know how, but I wanted him to make this right, to say it was some sort of test, a new way of training me, something, anything.

“Your family cards? Phaw!” Griff snorted, looking to Stephi for a reaction as he often did and then back to me. “I don’t want those dusty Souls anymore than you lot do. ‘Sides, does this look like a Hintal to you?” He flipped a card around from the slim stack he was still slotting into his Mind Home, holding it out so that I could see.

It took me a moment to gather my voice, and in that time, the Pit Trap vanished, returning me to the hallway proper, putting me on the same level as Griff. He looked rather smug now and slipped the Taur behind his ear.

“What was that doing in my family’s vault?” I finally managed to say.

“Didn’t tell you, did he?” Griff said. He used the last card to pick at something stuck between his few teeth and then into his Mind Home it went, which nearly made me sick up. “Thought not. You woulda been more suspicious about me sniffing after an invite if he had.”

I felt my blood run cold. The Chaos user had played me. “He who?”

“Your father, of course. Leader of the City Watch of Treledyne.” Griff gave me a lopsided grin while Stephi remained oh-so-silent. “I believe he comes around here every now and again.”

“My father doesn’t keep Chaos cards here,” I said shaking my head, “or any sort of contraband for the Garrison. Those things stay at the City Watch Precinct.” The cold feeling seeped into my already roiling gut, a terrible possibility dawned on me. “Is that why he isn’t here tonight? Were you the cause of the troubles, or did you…” The cold turned into ice. Less than half an hour ago, Griff had been someone I thought it wise to keep eye on, to smooth his inevitable faux pas among high society, and yet now he had somehow managed to break into my family’s vault and extract Chaos cards from them – or so he claimed. I didn’t know what he was capable of anymore. “...do something to him? Because you didn’t want him recognizing you?”

Griff snorted again. “Your father doesn’t know me from a one-legged whore, but he does listen when a General asks a favor of him.”

“Edaine?” I guessed, and Griff nodded, the bun his shaggy hair was wrapped up in bobbing up and down. “But why –”

“Because I tried to escape a year into the damnable indenture they forced on me. Destroyed five of my cards when they caught me, the bastards – but not Stephi. If they had, I would have slit all their throats.” He delivered that pronouncement with his usual gap-toothed smile, but this time it was chilling.

“Stephi?” I asked, struggling to piece together the varied details he was giving me.

Griff turned around, heading back toward the vault it seemed, the woman in question following after. “Of course, Stephi. Don’t tell me you haven’t figured that part out yet.”

I hesitated. He wasn’t watching me, which meant I should be able to escape if I wished. The question was, did I want to? It was probably the wise thing to do. Wherever Griff had gotten the deck, it was clear that he had a set of illegal cards now, which made him extremely dangerous. He looked that way too, walking with a more purposeful air. I glanced down, and sure enough, his ankle fetters were gone. In fact, thinking back to when he showed me the Chaos card, I didn’t remember seeing chains around his wrists anymore either. That made him a freed Chaos user, loose in my home and here because of my invitation. I could try to face him, but I still didn’t know what had destroyed my Souls. Surely Edaine could find a way to best him, but if I left, it’s not as if Griff would wait patiently for me to return with the General. If I wanted answers – which I did, I desperately did – now was the time to get them; I felt that as surely in my bones as the cards I still held in my hand.

I took one step after him, and then another, gathering courage and speed as I went. Griff hadn’t made a move to harm me, after all. Perhaps he was a non-violent Chaos user, perhaps – I paused, having caught sight of another card stuck to the side of the wall. Its back was to me, so I couldn’t see what it was, but I could guess well enough: another Pit Trap. It seemed my assumption that I could depart if I wished had been erroneous. Twins willing, that was the only thing I was wrong about.

Griff had indeed returned to the vault, about halfway back, searching through the various furniture, paintings, and decorative pieces that were stored there. Was he missing some cards or looking for something else to take with him? Stephi had returned to her position beside the door, and I eyed her warily as I approached.

“Why were my Souls destroyed?” I asked. It wasn’t the thing I was most curious about, but it was the most practical if I needed to defend myself or have any chance of stopping him. I was doubtful he’d answer, considering the advantage he currently had over me, but maybe… “Some other Trap?” I said even though that didn’t seem right. If it was, I should have seen it when it triggered.

“Look behind the door,” he called from where he was rooting around.

Frowning, I turned to the door to the vault. Behind it? Why would there be anything behind it? I moved close enough to grab the edge of the thick metal door, and with a grunt, pulled it closed. As I did, a thought occurred to me: I could lock Griff inside. He was too far away to stop me, and Stephi… was now standing half in the doorway, making it impossible to fully shut. She didn’t say a word, nor was her helmet even turned my way, but she must have been watching me.

I let the door go, walking around it, trying to act as if that had been my plan all along. Who is she, and why is she so obviously siding with him? Griff had said she was a card, but that has to be impossible, doesn’t it?

Those questions and others ate at me, but quieted when I saw what was tucked between the door and the wall.

The chest-high totem was made from a stone darker than the hallway and had the face of an orc carved into its upper half. Its eyes and mouth glowed with an eerie, inner red light, and a similarly colored miasma drifted up from its base. A quick check revealed that this emanation stayed within a few feet of the Relic, but judging at how far away I had from it when my Souls were destroyed, it clearly didn’t denote the range of the totem’s Aura.

It was a powerful card and completely invalidated my deck, which I found very, very irksome. I nearly kicked it, but instead marched back around the door to find that Griff had stacked some brocade chairs to the side so he could get farther back in the vault.

“That totem isn’t strong enough to destroy the Guards that were here,” I said. “You put that up in case I came looking for you.”

“You or someone with a deck like yours,” Griff confirmed. He considered a three foot by three foot painting for a moment, but then shook his head, putting it aside. “But I put it behind the door because you rely on your Soul sight too much. That’s a lesson for free,” he gave me a wink before going back to his work.

“Is that…” my mind began examining our previous interactions in a new way, “is that why you insisted I use so many Shieldbearers? And the same with those Zephyrs you ‘gifted’ me?”

“Aye,” Griff chuckled. “You had me worried when you bought those Life cards, but then they all started with 1 Attack! Couldn’t have picked ‘em better myself.” He was laughing full on by this point, but I found the truth to be decidedly less humorous.

“You didn’t care at all about me besting Gale.” I wasn’t entirely sure why that hurt me so much but it did. “It was all for your own ends.”

“Oh, don’t sell me short, lad. I can build a deck to beat an ass while covering my own as well. It was a nice diversion for a few weeks.” So saying, Griff tossed a glass-work lampshade aside. Normally I would have cringed or leapt to try and save it, but I could hardly find it in me to care.

Was my deck even viable, built as it was with ulterior motives in mind? It certainly wasn’t at the moment, all the cards in my hand useless. I drew two more, the summons snapping into being, as if they were eager to appear after the long wait.

Another Zephyr, like Fortune was mocking me, and a Spiderkin. Griff, damn the man, was absolutely right about the elf: it would only have 1 Attack when first summoned, making it just as ineffective against the Totem. If only I had changed the Bearkin into a Bear before engaging, I might have actually done something.

Wrapped up in these self-pitying thoughts, I wasn’t prepared when a purple figure slid out from inside the vault and attacked me.

“Fortune’s balls!” I cried. I went to use one of my Shieldbearers to block the 2 damage the octopus-like creature was going to inflict, but instead of striking me with its sword, it wrapped a tentacle around the hand I had raised to ward it off. The suckers on the appendage latched onto my skin and then the whole thing constricted, the Octopod’s milky eyes rolling up in its head while it made an unpleasant burbling sound. A pressure suddenly built in my hand, a sensation I only recognized because in training Griff had sometimes used his Chaos Source Power on us. I needed to Discard, and if I didn’t choose quickly, the Twins would choose for me. Wanting the Octopod off of me as soon as possible and feeling like it barely mattered what I picked, I released the two cards I had just drawn, which shattered as soon as they were out of my hand. The creature instantly released me, its other tentacles whipping around, grabbing at the falling motes of light, letting out a fluting squeal of satisfaction.

Griff’s head popped up behind an old settee, all the way at the back of the vault. “Drew some cards, did you? Won’t want to be doing that either, I’m afraid. You know how Uncommons are. Can only handle a few commands at most. Stephi being the exception, of course.” He smiled at her warmly and then ducked back down.

I cradled my arm that had been sucked on, though the only damage it had taken was a series of round impressions on the jacket sleeve. And yet I felt wounded, once again made powerless, and with a head full of questions that had no good answers.

“Stephi can’t be a Summons,” I snapped. “I’ve seen you with her countless times with no source summoned. And if she was a Summons, I would have seen her with my…” I trailed off, eyes glancing to the door with the hidden Relic behind it. I looked then to Stephi, still as silent as ever. Could all that armor she wore be stopping me from viewing the Soul within?

“Starting to use that mind instead of your mouth,” Griff called from the vault. “That’s a nice change.”

“But the source,” I said, hanging on to my argument but no longer as sure of myself. “You can’t summon a card without source. You simply can’t.”

Griff gave a huff, and I stopped examining Stephi long enough to see that he had his hands on his hips, surveying the items around him in distaste. “There’s supposed to be coin in a vault, useful cards, shards, gems, something.” He held up a small stool with tasseled ends and a beautifully stitched top. “What am I supposed to do with this? I can’t just carry it around.” I stared at him. He stared back and then shook the stool, the tassels swinging. “Well?”

“My mother keeps the change of furniture in the vault.” When he kept looking at me, I added with exasperation, “for the different seasons, or her different moods. There’s not enough space in the keep for all of her furniture to be displayed appropriately at once.”

Griff’s eyebrow twitched, and he tossed the stool over his shoulder. “This is the worst place I’ve ever robbed,” he said, angling his body so he could make his way out of the mess he had made. I noticed that on both walls the tiny frames holding my ancestors all remained untouched, just as he claimed. “Be sure to tell your parents I said so.”

I crossed my arms. “I could have told you what the vault contained if you’d asked instead of siccing your Traps and Souls on me.” I checked the Octopod, but besides its twitching tentacles, it stood almost as still as Stephi.

“Huh,” Griff said, scratching at his scraggly beard, “suppose I could have at that. You’ve been decent company, keeping a man entertained as he worked. Not that he got much for his time...” The Chaos user snatched up a small mirror and tucked it into his jacket. “You’ll have to do. And you,” he said, taking a pair of thick, silver candlesticks.

The pilfered items made his jacket bulge ridiculously.

“You’ll never get out of the keep looking like that,” I told him. And once we’re beyond the range of your Totem, I’ll be able to summon again, I thought but refrained from saying.

Griff chuckled, putting a hand on my shoulder, which I didn’t know how to feel about. “Food for a laugh right to the end. Edaine’s up there, lad, hunting for me no doubt, and she’d be breathing down my neck if I hadn’t gotten those nobles’ knickers in a twist about the Church.”

“You were the cause of that Flinch Test?” I said. Exactly how much planning had the man put into this evening? A great deal no doubt, considering there were still a number of things I didn’t understand how he had managed.

“They barely needed a spark,” he said, “but it will have died out by now. I had hoped to leave with more, but I got what really mattered.” He glanced Stephi’s way and then released his hold on me, only to smack the sides of my shoulders with both his hands. “And I owe it to you, lad. Near five years they’ve made me live like a diseased dog, and now I’m free.” He cocked his head, as if hearing something, but I caught nothing at all. “You’re right, Stephi, some thanks are in order.” His expression changed, like he was sobering up, seeing the world with all its hard edges. “You disappointed me tonight, Basil.”

I coughed, I was so surprised by the words. This was how he thanked me? “I disappointed you?” I choked out, flabbergasted. “How can you say such a thing to me with a straight…” The seriousness of the way he was looking at me dried the words up, and I suddenly became very aware of how close he, Stephi, and his octopus creature were to me.

“We all have choices to make, lad, and every soul has the right to their own – your King would do well to learn that lesson. But tonight you chose pride, and it could have cost you more than you’d want to pay. It makes a man wonder what you really value. It makes a man wonder if you know what you really value.”

There was a cloudiness to his brown eyes, but still, they were penetrating; it was like he could see right into me, the same as when I had shared my Soul card with Esmi. He clapped me on the shoulders again, breaking me from the trance.

“Think on it, lad,” he said and gave me his lopsided, gap-toothed smile. “And when the orcs come, be better prepared.” He pulled a card from his pocket and cast it using a single Water source – was that where he had been keeping his Hand the whole time?

The card resolved in the air, and I recognized it as a Spell Afi had used during our training, but of a higher rarity.

“Go on, Stephi. Debts should be paid,” Grif said as he slipped into the ground, vanishing, though I swore he winked at me again one last time before he went. I stared at the floor in shock. When he had said he was going to leave, I hadn’t believed he truly had a way out.

The Octopod jerked, and my eyes flew toward it, but the Soul was merely breaking into shards, its summoner too far away now for an Uncommon to remain whole. I realized that Stephi had her arm out, holding something toward me, but then she too collapsed, the various pieces of armor she wore falling to the floor in a clatter.

Nothing was within.

My mind started to lock up, too many unexpected things having happened in rapid sequence, but with a force of will, I pushed through it. I wasn’t a frightened boy anymore, and I was fairly certain there had been something in Stephi’s hand. Rooting though the armor, I found one gauntlet clasped around a gold-bordered card.

I let out a mirthless chuckle. “You really believe I’ll use something like this?” All the energy flowed out of me, and I dismissed my source and hand, plopping down onto the ground – something I would have never done under different circumstances. I stayed there for a time, how long I couldn’t say, pondering the card and his last words to me. Eventually, Edaine and her summons found me, and it was time for me to explain something I myself only half understood.

The key though… that I kept to myself.