Kate sat across Apollyon’s p, being fed colourful berries.

  “Kate?” Apollyon nodded towards Andrew who had just entered what was ostensibly a throne room.

  “Oh, Andy, finally.” Kate got up from her comfortable position.

  Before Andrew could answer, Apollyon interrupted in a stern voice. “Where are you going?”

  “Right.” Kate gave her demonic lover, who showed her proper form, a quick but passionate kiss before bouncing down the few steps from the throne to the table in the centre of the room.

  Apollyon merely smiled contently.

  The human raised an eyebrow. “Haven’t seen you in like forever and the first thing I get to know about what happened during that time is you getting a girlfriend.”

  “Which is by far the least impressive thing that happened in the st six years. You have heard about my beloved, the mistress Apollyon?”

  “Master of this library, yes.”

  Kate chuckled. “Not quite, I may be hers, but this pce is not. The library is my domain, I am its master. I am the head librarian.”

  “Wait really?” He gnced up at Apollyon, who gave a small affirmative nod.

  “Yes, really. I am in charge of the oldest library on this pnet.”

  “Crazy shit.”

  “You don’t even know the half of it. First of all, happy birthday.”

  “Right, thank you. Almost forgot that that’s why we’re even here.”

  “That fun, eh?”

  “Oh yes, I lost so often and it was amazing.”

  “Time for you to lose two more times then. Shall we?”

  “Please, let’s go!”

  Several turns had passed into this rather normal game. This wasn’t the same type of sughter Andrew had experienced against most of the other demons here. Until Kate decided to forgo her usual pattern of attacking with her hero Ayali and activating her ability to re-use any spells she had cast before to deal additional damage or refill her hand.

  There was something that had bothered Andrew this entire game. Spellbde Ayali required two gem colours to py: blue and red. Kate did not just py those two colours but had been putting bck gems into py as well, which, by the rules of the game, could not be used to pay for any coloured costs as long as Kate’s hero did not contain any bck in their own cost to py.

  Kate put a card on the table. “I cast Shadow Pact using its alternate cost of sacrificing Ayali, allowing me to repce her as my hero with Shadowbde Ayali from my side deck.”

  “No way, I totally forgot she was a thing. Never seen a Shadowbde deck in the wild.”

  “I took me a while to get used to her, but… look at me, Andy. You see it, don’t you?”

  “What do you- oh. Yes, I see.” He put his cards down. “There isn’t as much theatre here as you made me believe, is there? Every single person I faced, I don’t know if they just pyed characters or not, but they all had their mirrors as their decks. Famine starving me, Sariel, that fallen angel, slowly torturing me and pricking me to death while denying me any sort of relief, even just Adelina and her rather blunt choice of a vampire themed life drain deck. Olli said things about the librarians being a strange bunch, the others here being some sort of support staff, and all of you feel like there is far more to you. I don’t want to dig too much into your secrets, but I can tell there are many and that you have dug deep. Even if you picked this deck just for today, I am seeing what you’re doing, Spellbde Kate. Or should I call you Shadowbde now?”

  Kate let out satisfied sigh. “I love smart people. This would have been awkward if I had to spell it out for you. Speaking of spell, I have some more to throw at you.”

  “Alright, let’s see what you have.”

  “I have cast seven spells from my discard pile with Ayali, among them a few fireballs. Now, Ayali’s new form allows me to cast everything I already re-used with Ayali by paying an increasing amount of life for every time I want to cast them. Now here is the best bit, since I didn’t use any gems yet this turn, I have enough to py this lovely little artifact: The Tome of the first Vampire. It gives all my spells life leech, so I get to heal for three whenever my fireballs deal three damage to you. The best part is that their life cost begins at one. I will use my two remaining red gems to re-cast my Pyrogenesis Ritual from earlier, giving me four temporary red gems which I can use to re-cast my ritual two more times, taking a total of six damage from it, bringing me down to eight life points. With my now eight temporary gems, I cast my fireballs eight times to deal a total of twenty-four damage to you and kill you.”

  “Holy shit. That’s nasty, I love it! Can I take a look at the deck ter?”

  “Sure. But first you need to beat Apollyon.”

  “Of course, the game this has all been building up to. Her real name isn’t Apollyon, is it?”

  “It is.” Apollyon stepped down from her throne. “And my nickname the Destroyer is real as well.” She gently caressed Kate’s cheek, eventually going in for a kiss before taking a seat once Kate had stood up. “How many coins did you win so far?”

  “Uh, three.”

  “Hm. Not very promising, but I have not seen how many coins the others got. I suggest you do not hold back.”

  “I haven’t held back at all today. This entire thing has been pushing me to my limits in terms of gamepy and I must admit that I am getting a little exhausted.”

  “You only have to keep your mind together for one st game. Begin as you please.”

  “Alright. I py a gem and a Greenfields Conjurer.”

  “An Elf deck.”

  “A cssic that hasn’t let me down so far.”

  “A solid strategy, but futile. I begin by drawing my card for the turn and pying a gem as well. Next, I will cast Quick Surveilnce to take a look at your hand and discard a card with a gem cost of less than three.”

  Andrew put his cards on the table silently.

  Apollyon tilted her head slightly. “The Farbough Elder, please.”

  He put the card into the discard pile.

  “And I end my turn.”

  “I draw and py another gem. Using my Conjurer to create a temporary gem and my two gem cards, I py my hero Lafaighn of the Deep Wilds. Right now, she does nothing but will grow stronger with each elf I py. With that, it’s your turn.”

  “Draw, gem, I py Master Interrogator’s Tools, an artifact that deals damage to you whenever one of us ends their turn and you have less than three cards in hand. Your turn.”

  “Alright, the usual: draw, gem…” He hesitated. “Alright. Farbough Shaman, giving Lafaighn a plus one attack counter. Then I py two more Greenfields Conjurer, creating more counters. I end my turn with one card in hand and take two damage from your Tools.”

  “My turn, I draw, py a gem and my hero. Dark Interrogator Hazabel cannot attack but she will deal one damage to you every time a card you own moves into your discard pile except spells that you have cast and allows me to py cards from your discard pile if they moved there from your hand. Just for an additional cost of life, of course. With my st gem I py Reckless Espionage, forcing us both to discard a card. At the end of my turn you take two more damage, forcing you to sixteen life points.”

  Andrew grimaced as he drew his card for the turn. “I py Elven Song, using my gems and one of the Conjurers, adding the next two elves from the top of my deck to my hand. I py the Greenfields Warmaster I got with that, increasing the attack power of all elves by one. I move to attack you for ten damage.”

  “I do not defend. I am ten life.”

  “Okay. I pass my turn and take another two, going to fourteen.”

  “I draw and py Shadowed Bridge, now only creatures with less attack than I have cards in hand can attack me. Then I py another gem and Raven’s Eyes, forcing either a pyer of my choice to discard one card or discard as many as necessary to reach the hand size of an opponent of my choice. I choose myself, discarding all but one card. You are at twelve life as I end my turn.”

  “I draw, py a gem, py my Deep Wilds Caller and pass, I can’t attack after all.”

  Apollyon drew a card and let a quick smile fsh across her lips. “I py Delirious Inquiry. It does nothing since you have no cards in hand.”

  “Why would you do that? Can I read that for a second?”

  “Of course.”

  The text of the card was simple. It forced a pyer to discard a card of their choice, but there was a little keyword underneath. Reoccurring Nightmare was an ability that allowed spells to be re-cast as many times as the owner wanted by discarding a gem from their hand in addition to any other costs.

  Andrew looked up at Apollyon. “There is a special gem with Unlife on it, so you can get it back from the discard pile instead of drawing a card. You have that in hand, don’t you?”

  “I do. As Delirious Inquiry is a rapid cast spell, I can use it on your turn. Unless your draw spells are rapid cast as well, you are now locked out of pying.”

  “I concede. There is not much I can do.”

  “You pyed well enough. I have been entertained by our game, so you earned yourself a coin.”

  “Wait, really?”

  “Yes. Winning would have gotten you two, but I doubt any human, pardon, challenger today will achieve that. It has been a while since anyone outside our circles has beaten me.”

  “Doesn’t that get boring after a while?”

  “It does. But I can teach and that does not.”