Chapter 18 [Devil’s Luck]

“Wh—wha’s ‘at?” Locke’s eyes widened and he looked like he didn’t know how to respond.

“I asked if you’d like to join our Party,” I repeated while doing my best not to show my amusement at his expression. I’d made it back to the table before our dinner was finished, so I had the time to ask the others’ opinions first.

Much to my surprise, neither Aurora nor Nathaniel questioned my decision. I expected as much from Nathaniel, but Aurora not even asking why caught me off guard. The young woman was currently tearing into her meal with a violent fervor that wouldn’t have lost out to any wild beast.

“I…” Locke looked across the table at Nathaniel—who gave him a small nod—and Aurora before looking back at the door to the kitchen, which was swinging gently… almost as if someone had been peeking their head out before promptly moving away. The boy turned back to me with a hint of sadness in his eyes. “Are we leavin’ right away?”

“We’ll be staying through tomorrow night, then leaving the following morning,” I told him. “If you’d like to join us, I’ll need to know by noon tomorrow so that we can make preparations.”

“Oh, no need to doubt. I’m goin’ with ya,” Locke answered hurriedly. “I jus’ wanted to say farewell, ya know? Ol’ Nick’s been treatin’ me well fer so long. He’s like a father to me. Ya said ya asked ‘em an’ he turned ya down?”

I nodded while pulling the inkwell we’d received from the Contract office from one jacket pocket and the Party Contract from another. “He would’ve made a great addition to the team had he tagged along. Now, be sure to read the terms before signing to make sure you agree.”

Aurora had finished eating at this point and was watching the proceedings carefully. I grinned, then pointed to the corner of my mouth and nodded my head toward her. Her cheeks flushed, and she quickly grabbed one of the hand towels on the table to wipe away the sauce that she’d missed.

It didn’t take long for Locke to read through the terms and sign the Contract. I felt the new link almost instantly. The feeling of the new thread tacking onto my soul wasn’t nearly as strong as what I’d felt when we’d first drafted the terms. If it weren’t for my years of training and meditation, I probably wouldn’t have noticed the subtle addition.

Perhaps that’s it… Ever since returning to this body, sensing and working with my soul has been more natural and much less of a chore. It’s possible that this newfound instinct is what’s made feeling my connections so trivial, rather than my years of hard work. Hmm… Could very well be both.

“What now?” the boy asked while handing back the two Relics.

“Aurora. If you wouldn’t mind—” Before I could finish my request, she’d already cast her Sphere of Silence around us. I smiled and stowed the parchment and inkwell safely in my jacket before drinking the last swallow of the Pony’s Spirit I’d ordered. Though I tried to fight it, my face still tightened from its bitterness. “Awful stuff. I don’t know how you can drink this with a straight face.”

Nathaniel shrugged and downed his second mug of the stuff. “I’ve had worse. The tinctures and drafts my family provided when I was young weren’t crafted with taste in mind.”

“I can imagine.” I chuckled. “Now, before we continue our venture, there are some matters I’d like to discuss. There are a few things the lot of you should know about me… things that could put you in danger should you all choose to stick with me.”

I rubbed my chin and gestured to Locke. “Perhaps we should bring our new member up to snuff first. Locke, we’ve already shared our Origin Cards with one another, so this is mostly for your benefit. If you’d be willing to share yours as well, and tell us all what type of Deck you’re building.”

“Right!” Locke quickly agreed and held his hand to his chest. “Can’t be goin’ ‘round all willy nilly wiffout knowin’ what the man next to yas can do. I’ll be followin’ Ol’ Nick’s build. In fact, one o’ the first things he did when we got ‘ere safe was use a Relic he stole to remove all o’ his Cards an’ give ‘em to me. I tried to stop ‘em but the old fool jus’ wouldn’t take no fer an answer!”

“Oh?” I raised an eye. I somewhat suspected it with what Appraising Eye showed of Nick, but it’s still something to hear. It’s a smart move. Without the Church’s Cards, he’ll be harder to track, and according to what the man told me after I’d accepted the mission, neither he nor Locke look the same as when they fled from the Church.

“Yeah! So, I’ll be buffin’ an’ healin’ if it’s all the same to you.” Locke looked to Aurora and Nathaniel as he said this, making sure to include them in the conversation. His palm lit up briefly, then he placed a Card on the table. “As fer my Origin Card, it’s nothin’ special. I’ve always had a shit time with my luck, an’ I reckon the Tower sought to make a stab at me fer it.”

“Is that so?” I asked, then looked at the Card on the table. The design was simple—just a single four-leaf clover floating in the center. One half was bright and healthy, while the other half was dark and shriveled.

[Card Name: Devil’s Luck]

[Class: Origin]

[Rank: Origin]

[Level: N/A]

[Essence: N/A]

[Description: The Wielder has an uncanny tendency to end up in bad situations, only for them to end in the Wielder’s favor.]

[Effect 1: When casting any Spell, the Card’s Effects are doubled.]
[Effect 2: There is a 50% chance that any Spell cast will have the opposite Effect of what is intended.]

“This is…” I looked at the boy, open mouthed.

“It’s shit, innit?” Locke banged his head against the table. “Almost got us killed on the Third Floor. Then it did like it oughtta on the Fourth Floor an’ we crossed it in record time. There ain’t no cuttin’ it off, ya know? Every time I cast one o’ Nick’s buff Spells it either makes ya really strong, or it takes away whatever it was s’posed to give ya in the first place. Can’t even Level the damned thing, so there ain’t no way to make it better.”

Aurora looked at the Card thoughtfully. “You know, if you had a way to tell what the outcome would be, you could cast the negative buffs on our opponents… Rowan… Do you think…”

“Precognition?” I asked, and she nodded. “There are other, similar Cards, but I don’t know of one that exactly like yours… I do have a few people I can ask.”

“That’d be somethin’!” Locke shouted. “If I knew what was comin’, I could be lots o’ help!”

“We’ll see what we can do.” I patted the boy on the shoulder, then placed my own Origin Card on the table. Aurora and Nathaniel did the same. We watched him read through each of the Cards, his face showing a complicated mixture of emotion that kept changing as he read all of the descriptions. After a few minutes, he turned and looked at me.

“Some guys got all the luck,” he griped. “Ya really have a better chance at getting’ a Summon than anyone else. How’d ya even go about gettin’ that? What’d ya have to be awarded somethin’ like that.”

“Well, that’s part of what I wanted to talk about this evening,” I replied, then looked across the table at Aurora and Nathaniel. “After the first few Floors, you know a bit more of what to expect from me, and what I’ll expect from you…Which is why I wanted to give you all this chance to leave if our experiences up to now have been more than you bargained for.”

“Was it all that bad?” Locke asked, confused.

Aurora shuddered and bobbed her head. “Rowan put us through hell just to make sure we worked well together. Not that I regret any of it. I can already tell I’m better for it. No, I don’t plan on leaving.”

I took a deep breath and gestured to my Deck Box. “Even if there’s a high probability of our Party being targeted in the future? I don’t think it’s a mistake that I received that specific Origin Card.”

“Targeted?” Aurora asked, then glanced between my Origin Card and Deck Box. Her eyes widened. “Are you saying that you think you got that Card because you already had a Summon in your Deck? No… that can’t be right. I know two people who had Pure Summons and they didn’t get anything like… this. Even with my Ivy, no one will target us for a couple of Pure Summons.”

I scratched the back of my head and grinned. “Well… What you said is right. But what if it wasn’t a Pure Summon… but a Holy?”

Aurora’s jaw dropped. Locke’s eyes shot open wide. As for Nathaniel, who knew about the Beetle, he just gave one of his rare smiles. I figured I’d toyed with them enough and decided to let the bigger cat out of the bag.

“And what if there isn’t one… but four?”