Joy loved his friends. There was some bond that pulled him, Theo, and Lillian together in an ineffable way. The problem was that both of his friends were sulking right now. And they were both angry with the other in their own special ways.

  Lillian was furious that Theo had gotten so caught up in his own need for revenge that he had destroyed his own art without realizing it. Joy could understand her viewpoint; Theo had done a selfish thing. He had taken her loss and created a crusade that had nothing to do with her and everything to do with his own anger.

  Theo was sad that he had destroyed his art, but for some unknowable reason, he was mad that Lillian didn’t understand that he had been angry for her, and that it was truly a show of how deep his love for her was.

  And, as always, Joy was stuck in the middle of this.

  He longed for the simple days when he would sit by the river back in his hometown and listen to the birds singing and hear his father softly humming to himself as he worked. The deep baritone resting in a reassuring way within Joy’s bones.

  Instead of reassurance resting in his bones, a painful silence enveloped Joy and his two friends’ bones.

  Lillian had tried to take Joy out for an evening of celebration, what with his controversial win in the arena. In Joy’s opinion, the controversy about how boring it was just made it that much better. But in an effort to not leave their wallowing companion (who had lost in that very same competition) they had dragged Theo out of his self-flagellation chamber to join them for a night of revelry.

  However, it was not going well.

  The two of them refused to speak to each other. Instead, they spoke only to Joy and sent veiled insults to the other through conversations with Joy. But that had subsided after one of the wait staff had come around during one of their personal spats and given them a look.

  Joy had hoped to get blindingly drunk during this time; he had made it to the semi-finals of the competition after all. But more importantly he was hoping to mooch off the newfound fame he was riding on; he had been so confident in his plan he had left all his money behind at the prince’s castle. Now he was depressingly sober because anyone who seemed likely to send Joy a celebratory drink would see Theo at the same table and would realize that this was not a party atmosphere.

  Theo was Joy’s personal wet towel, so he had decided to take Lillian’s side. He never voiced the fact he was on Lillian’s side of course, since both his friends needed support right now, but he thought that Theo could feel it.

  “How about we play a game to lighten the mood?” Joy tried the only opener he could think of.

  “What game? What rules?” Theo was direct. He knew that he was being a wet towel on what was supposed to be a celebratory dinner, so he was desperate to lighten the mood.

  “Blackjack.” Joy started the game as he pulled the deck of cards out of his soul space. Joy used his gift so infrequently that it was easy to forget that his gift was just a simple deck of cards. The great game ability was some sort of artifact, but his deck of cards was out, and the jokers were pulled out of the deck by Joy and placed down on the table for all to see.

  One joker looked just like Theo. But his eyes were red, and his head was cartoonishly large. The other joker looked just like Lillian, but she had steam coming out of her ears and massive sharp teeth.

  Neither Theo nor Lilian was amused. But Joy was, and that was what mattered - to Joy at least.

  Ever the pragmatist, Lillian asked, “what are we betting? Blackjack seems stupid if there’s nothing to bet.”

  Joy pointed to her as he shuffled the deck with one hand. “Now that is a good question. How about we bet words. We bet a certain number of words and whoever wins the round gets to say as many words as were bet in that round to someone else at the table without them being able to respond.”

  There was a brief pause as everyone at the table took that in. It was unconventional, but the best types of games were not the expected ones.

  “I’m in.” Both Theo and Lillian spoke at the same time and glared at each other as they said it. Joy thought it was rather cute.

  “I will be dealer; if you ever lose a round, I get to say something mean to you, without any repercussions, with the exact number of words that you bet.” Joy did one final flourish as he shot one final card out of the deck and caught it in his other hand. It was the instruction card with the rules, as everyone had agreed with them, printed on the front.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  “What are your bets?”

  Theo started with a low bet, “three words.”

  “And for the raven-haired lady?”

  “Eight.” Lillian as always put her best foot forward.

  Joy dealt out the cards. He had a three and a five showing, while Lillian had a king showing, which looked like a nice rendition of King Renoir, and Theo had a four.

  Lillian peeked at her hidden card, then smirked, Joy would have to let her know that she had a most horrendous poker face, but that was for later. “I’ll stay.”

  Theo said, “hit me.” And in a flash a jack appeared next to his four. Theo also had a bad poker face, but it was all in his eyes. For all the control he showed with his face, his eyes gave away his excitement far too easily. “I’ll stay.”

  Both players looked at Joy expectantly, waiting for him to place down more cards.

  The first card was put down; it was an ace. The second card went down, and it was also an ace. The third card went down, and it was also an ace.

  “Well, that’s twenty-one for me. What do you all have?” Both Lillian and Theo’s faces had suddenly turned angry. Joy knew that he was laying it on thick, but they needed this even if they didn’t want it.

  Both players flipped the card that was hidden from Joy, showing that they both had scores of twenty.

  Joy smiled and said, “well I guess I will use my well won words.”

  He turned to face Lillian, “I love you Lillian, but you’re a slob.”

  He turned to Theo, “you are frozen.” Joy knew that his words for Theo were a little lacking in substance, but he only had three words to work with here, they should cut him some slack.

  Joy handed the deck off to Lillian who started shuffling it. The triple aces had been a little obvious, however neither of these two would ever know why Joy was so good at card games that used his gift. It wasn’t that he cheated per say, it was that the cards were an extension of him by his gift. So, he knew the position of every card in the deck. The same way someone knows the order of their fingers. He could not lose any game of skill, they just had to beat his luck.

  Joy had used the first round to shape the direction of the game, now he would stop bullying the other two with his gift and let them find the path to forgiveness and consolation themselves.

  A new round started, and Theo bet a modest one word while Lillian bet twelve words.

  Joy allowed the two of them to beat him in this round. He kept drawing cards until he busted, no thought put into a game plan.

  Lillian spoke first, “you don’t have to fight for me. I am more than capable.”

  Theo looked at her and said, “sorry.”

  There was pain being shared around the table and that was the point. Joy knew that there was no purpose in life beyond what people chose for themselves. Therefore, people would make mistakes and cause pain when they didn’t know what their goal was. The aimless wandering that was so connected to life caused people to cry out with suffering and pain, but it was necessary for people to find their own personal purposes in life. Without it, no one would understand the joys in life. Joys could not matter without understanding how precious they were.

  Joy loved how that was something every child understood intrinsically, and yet every adult had to rediscover for themselves, lest they fall into the pit of cynicism and depression.

  Joy decided not to win every round after that. He allowed his two friends to have their personal squabble without the chains that ego and identity bound them to. They could say vicious and cruel things to each other without destroying each other because they were just playing a game.

  And no game could hurt; not while it provided the needed catharsis they were finding.

  People are like flowers. They wilt and die without proper care; but just like flowers it looks different for every person. Some people needed constant reassurance, while others needed a silent shoulder to cry on. Joy felt that somewhere deep inside he took after his father and his cultivation of plants, just with people instead. A little nudge here and there to get them to edge towards their own happiness.

  It was a difficult balance, guiding without directing. Showing people that they had choices about who they were and wanted to be, just without saying it out loud.

  Joy played round after round of the game. Moderating his friends and feeling the ebb and flow of the conversation. When Lillian started getting too combative, Joy would win a round and help her take a breath from her inner fire. When Theo started pulling into himself too much, Joy won a round to express his admiration for Theo.

  Eventually the cards weren’t needed anymore, and the two best friends talked.

  Joy loved his friends, but he always felt a little lonely with them. There was some unnamable bond between the two of them and Joy didn’t quite fit into it. He was their friend, and he knew it, but he would never be close to them the way they were close to each other.

  And maybe that was for the best. There was just too much Joy to give to the entire world. He wouldn’t ever give it all to only one or two people.

  More importantly, Joy had made a promise to Rose. Maybe he regretted it now, but he was not the sort of man who backed down from his word.

  Joy left the cards on the table that he had been sharing with his friends. It seemed that neither of them needed the cards to express themselves anymore, the cards had stopped moving and the words flowed freely.

  Joy started making his exit. A casual strut towards the door, filled with the nonchalance and grace that befitted a tournament semifinalist.

  Before he reached the door, Lillian shouted. “Hey, Joy!” A pause where Theo and Lillian both looked at Joy deeply, “thank you.”

  Nothing in particular changed in that moment. There was no god to come down and ordain the three of them as beautiful, wonderful people. No royalty coming in and declaring that the three of them should be dukes of the realm. No bard sitting in the corner composing a ballad for the three friends they had seen become intertwined for a moment.

  It was a moment only for the three of them. The beauty of the moment was only matched by its brevity.

  Joy grinned back at his friends and said nothing as he left. They already knew. And Joy and to go see his tailor; there was no way he was going to show up to a party without looking spectacular.