Joy did not love the hands flying at him. There were truly beautiful hands, but there was some quality about them that made them unlikeable. They flickered back and forth between having calluses and looking nurturing then looking delicate and beautiful. Both were important, but they couldn’t coincide with the other, so they oscillated back and forth in the mind’s eye.

  Joy did love the voice that spoke in his head as the hands started coming at him. “Sandcastle war. Do any of you need the rules explained to you?” Joy wasn’t quite sure what that entailed, but he was excited by the prospect, nonetheless.

  Joy knew the voice was sounding in Ramses’ head at the same time. If he was smart, he would ask the voice to explain the rules. If he was fun, he would just wing it like Joy always did.

  The air whistled around Joy as the army of fists started inexorably crashing towards him. In a feat of skill, Joy started dodging every single fist. He dipped, ducked, dodged, and dove around them as they hammered into the sandy ground.

  Joy laughed, a real smile splitting his face. He knew there were all sorts of politics surrounding this battle and that he shouldn’t be enjoying it so much. But he was in love with this battle. He was so close to understanding the core of Ramses, he just needed more time in this battle.

  As the fists flew at him, Joy started shaping a sandcastle with the divots he formed in the sand. As he dodged, he would fling more sand into a pile with a foot. Then after he dodged, he would make his way back to it and start molding it into a fanciful shape. The only tricky part was positioning himself so that the fists wouldn’t crash into his beautiful castle and ruin all his hard work.

  After a minute of this had passed, Joy got bored and looked at his sandcastle. Honestly, calling it a castle was giving it a bit too much. It was far closer to being a sand house.

  But as soon as he acknowledged that it was done in his head, a gong sounded in the arena and the sand house started expanding out.

  Joy quickly moved out of the way to not get smooshed by the rapidly expanding sand. Eventually it stopped expanding, and standing where a small sandcastle used to be, a complete structure now stood. It had taken the core of the idea behind Joy’s creation and formed a full-sized house out of it.

  Joy laughed. His sand house had become a sand home.

  He dove into the open archway of the house, just barely avoiding a final wave of fists coming to strike at him.

  Joy sat in the middle of his new home and felt it shake as the waves of fists, now devoid of the juicy target Joy, crashed into the unyielding sand of his new home.

  The entire situation was just ridiculous.

  So, Joy started making things out of sand. Hoping that his powerful walls wouldn’t collapse under the onslaught of Ramses’ fists.

  Joy started forming a person out of sand. The person was lying down and wasn’t very detailed, but once he had finished making the person the gong rang again, and a layer of sand fell away from the outline of the body.

  From underneath the layer that fell off, a nearly perfect copy of Joy came out. This Joy didn’t have any expression on his face, and he was a bit shorter than the real Joy, but Joy now knew what his game plan was going to be.

  ___

  Ramses did not love this charade. He was supposed to fight this man for other’s entertainment and yet there was no fulfillment in it. He did it for someone else’s memory rather than himself.

  It made the whole thing entirely boring.

  The real issue though was that his opponent had turtled up. Joy had somehow created a massive castle out of sand and was hiding within it. In a world without gifts (gods forbid) this wouldn’t be a problem. The house would collapse under its own weight. However, the sand house seemed magical in some fashion and resisted the many, many divine fists he had thrown into it.

  He figured he needed to at least try a little bit more since the match was getting boring.

  “Her legs make the ground shake with envy.” It was one of his less regular loving statements, but he meant it at that moment. So, out of his soul space a massive pair of legs started to emerge.

  They towered over the arena. Each one flickered back and forth between being milky white and having a rough tan. One version of the legs was dainty and beautiful, the legs of a woman that men would carry everywhere. The other set was the legs of a hardworking woman. The kind of woman that loved to touch the earth and be outside.

  Ramses didn’t seem to notice the discontinuity in the legs, he was more focused on the fact that they came crashing down towards Joy’s sandy home.

  A mighty crash resounded throughout the arena as the feet contacted the sandy structure and it still didn’t collapse. Beyond all expectations the structure held in the face of the mighty strikes raining down upon it.

  Ramses had listened to the knight’s order when they had given him details about Joy’s abilities and what to expect while fighting him in the arena. He knew that Joy’s entire focus was on forming these games then using the rules to his advantage to win against superior opponents.

  But Ramses was strong, and more importantly, his love was strong.

  He had fallen victim to pride and had ignored the voice in his head that had spoken of the game. He needed to understand the rules if he wanted a chance of defeating Joy and understanding the insane structure that was defying his every attempt to destroy it.

  “Explain the rules to me, mysterious voice.” Ramses said authoritatively to the air. Then he dismissed all the flying hands and the massive legs from reality. “Her embrace protects me.” A massive torso and arms enveloped Ramses in golden light, protecting him from everything. Then he hunkered down to listen to the rules.

  “Sandcastle war. Each player will make objects and structures out of sand. With enough intent those objects will be created in the field of play. Only other sand-based structures can destroy each other, otherwise they will be impervious to all other damage.”

  The voice sounded enthused, like the game was exciting. But there was an undercurrent that felt like the voice was making fun of Ramses. He didn’t enjoy that.

  At least the voice had explained the reason why Joy’s sand house was impervious to all attacks that Ramses had thrown at it.

  Ramses went to his knees and started forming an intricate sandcastle with his hands. It had been a long time since he had formed something with his hands, he had taken up a sort of ascetic lifestyle after his love had died. He had given up on the plants he so cherished and there was something deeply nostalgic about getting down on his knees and getting his hands dirty.

  Once he had finished making his new house he finally looked up. Outside of the protective arms he had summoned stood Joy. He looked a bit weird, but Ramses just chalked it up to some distortion through the arms protecting him.

  Ramses focused on the sandcastle he had made and envisioned it coming to life. And suddenly the house started expanding outwards. After a moment Ramses realized his mistake, the house needed to expand outwards, but he had just locked himself inside of an enclosed space using the protective arms.

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  He quickly dismissed the arms and torso then said, “her hands lift me up.” And a cupped pair of hands appeared beneath his feet and lifted him up into the sky.

  Beneath him now lay a decent sized home. Something that someone could be proud of. That was Joy’s sandcastle. However, on the other side of the arena now sat a sprawling castle that rose nearly to the highest level of seating within the grand arena.

  Nearby the castle stood Joy. He laughed at it then made a rude gesture with his hands. No words were exchanged yet Ramses could hear the condescending “compensating for something” ringing in his ears.

  Ramses pointed at Joy, who stood in front of his castle. “Her eyes tear into my enemies.” It was a tash on the morbid side, but there was time for beauty and time for effectiveness.

  A massive eye opened behind Ramses. It looked down on Joy, then a massive laser beam erupted from the eye, shooting down at Joy. The beam was a deep blue, the same shade as the eye behind Ramses.

  Joy made no attempt to run, hide, or block the beam. He simply stood there smiling.

  The beam contacted Joy and after a few moments of continuous exposure Ramses called the beam off.

  Standing in the center of a crater of glass was Joy. He casually brushed some imaginary dust off his shoulders and glanced up at Ramses. He gestured as if asking, “is that all you got?”

  His clothes weren’t even singed. The superheated beam had done absolutely nothing to Joy and Ramses was starting to feel a little bit flustered by the whole thing.

  Then Ramses saw something from the corner of his eye. Standing there in the center of the arena was Theo. The man he had fought the week previously. His icy blue eyes stared up at Ramses, declaring an unspoken challenge.

  Ramses whispered, “she is always around me,” then an image of a woman superimposed itself around Ramses. She was like a second layer of skin around him.

  He let the hands holding him in the sky dissipate along with the eye behind him. Ramses started to fall back down towards the arena floor.

  He gained speed at a frightening rate, and he aimed directly for Theo. He wasn’t sure how this man had gotten into the arena, or why the tournament organizers had allowed this fight to continue despite the interference, but he would remove Theo and the dangers posed by him. Last time they had fought, Ramses had almost died, and he was not thrilled at the prospect of having to do that again.

  With a boom, Ramses hit the floor of the arena in front of Theo. Ramses stood tall, the armor protecting him from any damage he would have taken from the fall. Theo looked unimpressed; he yawned into his hand, completely unphased by the display.

  With a roar, Ramses flew at Theo in a series of attacks. Punches and kicks flew at Theo, yet he deftly blocked and dodged them all. The extra strength given to Ramses through his current love was not enough. He was being toyed with. Theo hadn’t even used his gift yet.

  Finally, after an eternity of blocking and dodging, Theo made a counterattack. A punch slowly approached Ramses, and he hunkered down to block it. Ramses placed both of his arms crossed in the path of the punch.

  The punch wasn’t fast, it inexorably slammed into Ramses’ arms. The impact caused Ramses to go flying across the arena. The ghostly armor he had been wearing shattered at the impact.

  His arms stung, but he was far from out of the fight.

  “Her hands shape the world.” Ramses muttered to himself as he dismissed the armor he was wearing. A few hands appeared around him, but not the hundred he had summoned earlier. They immediately set to the task of making weapons out of sand.

  It had all made sense earlier. When “Theo’s” fist had impacted Ramses, it had finally dawned upon him. This wasn’t actually Theo; it was just a sand copy that Joy had somehow made.

  Any normal person’s fist would have shattered from striking Ramses’ love armor, yet the armor had shattered instead. It was unstoppable force meets immovable object. Except, by Joy’s stupid game rules the sand structures could only be destroyed by other sand objects. Thus, the armor was forced to shatter in the interaction.

  Ramses bent to his knees and started making a shape in the sand that was close to a person. Once he finished sculpting, he focused his intent on the sand and imagined an elaborate set of armor. The sand morphed to match his vision and Ramses donned the sand armor.

  It was stylized and looked to be engraved with images of a woman dancing through fields with birds surrounding her. The armor itself told a story that would never be spoken out loud. But it was a declaration, nonetheless.

  Ramses had two of his hands fly towards him and give him a sandy sword and shield respectively. Neither were as elaborate as Ramses’ personal armor, but they would suffice.

  After his preparations Ramses was finally prepared to truly do battle with this sandy Theo.

  As Ramses turned to face his opponent, he noticed that there were far more sand people than he had anticipated. Sandy Theo was now joined by sandy Joy as well as another fifteen more random people made of sand.

  He wasn’t sure why they were patiently waiting for him to don his armor and prepare for the fight. Quite honestly, they could’ve taken him out of the competition right then and there, but Ramses wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth.

  Around Ramses the hands he had summoned earlier brandished an assortment of weapons. Everything from morning stars to rapiers were in their hands, all made from sand and ready to fight these sand clones.

  Ramses pointed his sword at the clones and yelled, “charge!” There was a real irony to the fact that there was no one else truly fighting in this skirmish. It was one man and his many hands versus the many sandy clones created by a mad man.

  Ramses rushed into the clone of Theo, ramming into him with his shield. Layers of sand sloughed off Theo as he was pushed backwards by the blow. The rest of the clones tried to engage in the fight, yet Ramses’ horde of hands held them off.

  A lucky strike from the pair of hands using a bow and arrow (singular) took out the sandy clone of Joy, allowing Ramses to keep his full attention on Theo.

  The clone stood up and smiled in a very un-Theo-like way, brushing the loose sand off his chest before gesturing Ramses to come closer.

  Carefully, Ramses approached testing the space between them with the sword. Like a snake’s tongue testing the air in front of him at every step.

  At just the right moment, the sword flicked out and Theo thrust his hand into the way. Ramses grinned as he was about to taste the first blood, first sand, of his enemy.

  A wicked grin spread across Theo’s face as the sand that made up his fingers was cut away and blew directly into Ramses’ eyes. With a mighty kick he knocked the shield out of Ramses’ grip.

  His fists were a blur as he started striking at the joints in Ramses’ armor.

  Ramses felt pain blossoming over his entire body, yet he forced it down to focus on what truly mattered. Love.

  “She will save me.” He said through punches that rocked his world.

  A single hand appeared behind Ramses and wandered away instantly. Ramses focused intently on the hand, curling into a ball in the fetal position to keep Theo from attacking any of his vitals.

  With a whir, the shield that had been kicked away by Theo flew through the air and neatly cut the clone in half. The top half looked at the lower half incredulously before melting back into sand.

  The hand that had been summoned by Ramses gave a cute little wave before disappearing in a poof of light. These were the moments that his therapist warned him about. He was using his gift as an extension of the woman he missed, and it was toxic, but that was beside the point.

  Ramses straightened himself as he watched his hands finishing off the last of the remaining sand clones. None of them stood a chance.

  Ramses picked up his sword and shield one last time and started his slow march towards Joy’s castle. He readied himself to fight more of the sandy clones, assuming that Joy’s strategy was to wear him down through constant battle.

  Nothing happened. There were no more clones throughout his approach to the castle, nor were there any through the halls. It was eerily quiet, and Ramses wasn’t quite sure what to make of the situation.

  The hands swarmed Ramses, using their weapons to ward off the nonexistent attackers that should be there.

  Why was Joy doing nothing?

  Then Ramses felt the air vibrate as raw power emanated from one of the rooms deeper in the castle.

  In a blue Ramses ran towards the source of power. He had to stop whatever Joy was doing, there was enough power there to destroy him.

  He entered the room where Joy was and saw him sitting in front of a house of cards. Joy was bathed in golden light, concentrated around his mouth and eyes.

  Joy pointed one finger at Ramses and said, “him.”

  The golden light exploded out of Joy and Ramses took a step away in horror. “Her arms shield me.” He whispered to himself, and glowing arms enveloped Ramses in their embrace.

  He ran.

  But the light was so much faster than he was. Before he had taken a few steps the light easily broke through the arms protecting him and touched Ramses.

  The lights’ touch didn’t hurt, it did nothing other than make him glow in the same light that Joy was.

  Then all of a sudden, the world went black.

  ___

  Lillian laughed and laughed once she saw what Joy was doing. She loved the clones of her and Theo battling Ramses in the arena, it made for a wonderful touch. She was only a little pissed that Ramses hadn’t even bothered fighting her clone, she was relegated to hand duty.

  But once she saw that Joy was constructing that little house of cards it took everything in her power not to start booing.

  Once the golden light had taken Joy and Ramses away, she leaned over to Theo. “How long do you think until the crowd starts to riot?”

  Theo stifled a giggle before regaining his composure, “a few minutes?”

  Lillian shook her head slowly. “You’d think that as our friend Joy would try to make this more interesting for us. It’s so anticlimactic for us every time.”