Joy, Lillian, and Theo had traveled across the city. At first, they had moved at a dignified pace, but once they had seen the massive dragon appear by the prince’s castle, they put a hustle into their step.

  They had run even faster when they had watched that dragon get cut by Ian’s gift. There was something big happening at the castle and they needed to be there.

  Something was pulling them along this path, and there were no words to describe it. They were adrift in the river of Fate and being pulled to something.

  None of them had even considered what they were going to do when they got to the castle. They loved the prince; he was their employer and a generally good guy. But what he had done in the arena to all those people, what he had ordered Ian to do, seemed reprehensible.

  Would they find the prince and try to join in his plan? Or would they try to tear down their own home in hopes of stopping whatever was happening?

  The three friends arrived at a scene of chaos. They could see a dragon lying prone, twitching, on the ground. They could see Ian staring around with lifeless eyes. They could see Sam playing their flute to take care of the few corpses that littered the surrounding area. But most importantly, they could see the prince hugging his sister Dahlia.

  This is the end of the succession war, they all thought. But all three were amazed to see David step away from his sister and have Benny pull him into his shadow. Leaving his sister alive and well.

  The three friends approached Dahlia cautiously. She seemed defeated, and they were more curious than prudent.

  “What happened here?” Theo asked Dahlia. There was an unspoken agreement between the three of them to let Theo talk. He was the one that had the closest relationship with Dahlia, since his sister was her right-hand woman.

  “I have been vanquished.” Dahlia spoke sadly, but there was a hint of happiness beneath it all. She was defeated and yet she had not been destroyed by this loss. Joy felt that was a good look on her.

  “I have failed. And your sister has taken the worst of my failures for me. Come quickly, we may be able to save her.” Dahlia became suddenly animated as she spoke. A switch had flipped inside of her as she stopped thinking about her loss and started thinking about the people she had failed.

  Theo had heard his sister was injured and had already started moving. It was a touching gesture, but he had no idea where she was, so it was essentially fruitless. But Dahlia quickly took the lead and led the three of them towards the resting place of the giant dragon.

  Joy was hoping that Julia was not stuck beneath that dragon, because he could see no way of getting to her. But she was shocked to hear that Julia was the dragon that was slowly bleeding out over the ruined castle.

  Princess Dahlia pulled out a dusty book from nowhere and started sifting through the pages. She muttered to herself, “I knew I saw it in here somewhere.” After a few endless moments where Theo seemed to be oscillating between strangling her or ripping the book out of her hands, Dahlia finally found whatever she had been looking for.

  “It’s truly simple. The spell only needs some time and blood from a relative. Thank you for being here, Theo.” Dahlia was a whirlwind as she started preparing for some ritual. She started drawing things on the ground while asking Theo very kindly if he would give her a few drops of blood to accelerate the healing ritual for his sister.

  Theo obliged but seemed in shock that this was all he would do to save his sister. He did not take to inaction well.

  Joy was standing around awkwardly, watching the entire debacle continue when he heard the delicate pitter patter of footsteps.

  Joy spun wildly and saw Ian slowly approaching them. Joy had such respect for Ian, for his strength. But it was such an empty strength. There was no burning conviction behind his eyes, he seemed content to be a tool and not a man. This belief had only been hardened after Joy had watched Ian decapitate hundreds of people inside the arena earlier that day.

  He was empty, hoping that something could fill him up.

  Ian approached the group and quietly asked, “are you trying to heal that dragon?”

  Joy could think of no reason not to answer, so he replied, “yes, we hope to save Theo’s sister.”

  “I cannot let you do that. This was outside of our plans, and I must keep unexpected variables out of play until today is finished. She will be allowed to live, only you cannot heal her until the day has played out.”

  Dahlia cut in, “she won’t survive the hour at this rate. Let us heal her.”

  Joy could see the ultimatum in Ian’s eyes. Give up on saving Julia right this second, or they would have to fight Ian.

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  Joy thought to himself, ‘ah, these are the difficult decisions of life. The ones where people will say there is no right answer.’

  But there was a right answer here. Joy could feel his soul singing, there was no doubt, there was no hesitation, Joy spread his arms wide and asked, “do you want to play a game?”

  A resonant voice spoke in Lillian, Theo, Ian, Dahlia, and Joy’s head, “Blind Man’s Bluff, does anyone need the rules explained to them?”

  Joy knew this game. It was a classic of bored children playing in the fields. All the game entailed was one person who was blindfolded chasing around other people who taunted and jeered them. The only time the blindfold could change persons was when the blind man caught someone else.

  All this ran through Joy’s mind quickly as he prepared for the most difficult fight of his life.

  Joy looked around for his winning conditions. Theo seemed to be focused on offense and Joy was happy to supplement. Lillian had formed some sort of armor that protected her body yet left her face open to the elements. The armor seemed to be shaped from a dreamy material that shifted whenever Joy looked too hard at it. Joy assumed this was what her gift had provided her from her previous night’s dream.

  Finally, Joy noticed Ian’s sudden flinch when the game started and his defensive posture. He gripped his sword tightly and swung his head around violently. He had obviously been chosen to start as the blind man.

  With Joy’s resources laid out for him, he then looked for his losing conditions. Joy somehow needed to pull Ian’s blind attention away from the massive body of the dragon and give her enough time to heal, then maybe with the addition of Dahlia and Julia to the fight they could make short work of Ian.

  Ian could make his blade cut anything, but only after he unsheathed it, and then it could only cut one thing until it was resheathed. He could use it to cut the air in some unfathomable way and cause his cut to scream through the air and into his targets.

  This entire game hinged on their ability to keep Ian’s sword in his sheath. If they failed even once they would all probably die.

  Joy couldn’t remember the last time his life was on the line this way. Truly thinking about it, he didn’t think his life had ever been on the line like this before.

  But the fight had started, and they had to win.

  Theo stared deeply at Ian’s sword. He froze the hilt of Ian’s blade to the sheath, keeping it from being able to be drawn easily. Ian reacted quickly if a little brutally. He started slamming his sword against the ground to try and chip away at the large amount of ice that now encased the entire blade.

  Joy and Lillian moved towards Ian quickly, hoping to take advantage of his momentary weakness. The two of them moved in concert, Joy kicked Ian’s legs out from under him while Lillian brought one of her dream encased fists directly into Ian’s mouth.

  With a resounding knock, Ian skidded away from his attackers. His head wobbled, but he doggedly tried to remove more ice from the sword.

  Unfortunately, for all the good intentions of Joy and Lillian they had interrupted Theo’s view of Ian. Thus, the ice was not being reapplied to the sword and Ian was able to shatter it and bring his sword into the sunlight.

  Lillian shivered back from the terror of the blade being unsheathed. The problem with knowing someone’s capabilities is that you know that they could kill you in an instant if they tried.

  Joy had different plans from Lillian. The only way to keep that blade from striking out randomly was to give Ian a target to bring his focus onto.

  He closed the distance separating them in an instant, and Joy put his whole body in the way of Ian’s arm.

  Ian brought his blade around and with a wordless cry the air began to scream as he cut it. But no matter how well the blade could cut, Ian’s arm still needed to move. Therefore, when Joy interposed himself in front of Ian’s arm the blade was stopped prematurely, causing Ian’s cut to merely cut a furrow in the ground.

  But they were playing Blind Man’s Bluff. Joy had forgotten that he was playing his own game. He was so focused on the life or death of the moment, that he didn’t truly fathom the game that was underlying it all.

  Joy was suddenly blind as Ian’s arm contacted him. And if Joy was blind, that meant Ian could see again.

  Joy could feel his opponent start to disengage from him. Now that Ian was able to see, his movements were snakelike and filled with danger. Joy couldn’t see the man bring his blade to face him, but he could smell the intent in the air.

  Somehow, deep inside of himself Joy knew that Ian was going to try and cut his head off. The blade would travel in a horizontal curve and break the everlasting friendship between his spine and his head.

  Joy had a vision of his death. But he felt that he could avoid it if he was clever enough. And he was clever.

  Ian’s blade had not been enhanced by being sheathed; it was just a normal short sword being brought towards Joy’s head. Joy moved with more confidence than he had any right doing and he caught the blade between his hands.

  Ian looked on in shock at his blade being held by this fool. He was blind and stupid, how in the world had he accomplished it?

  The brief moment of pure unadulterated shock was all Joy needed though. He slammed the heel of his foot into Ian’s stomach causing him to double over and become the new Blind Man. Then he ripped Ian’s scabbard out of his belt and took off running.

  Joy waved his prize above his head like he was a child who had just won some competition and was showing off to his parents. Ian fumbled around, realizing that he was now missing his belt and his most important tool along with it. Theo waved Joy to run faster as he started freezing patches of ground around Ian’s feet hoping to trip him up. Lillian traded places with Joy, passing him as she went to engage the now weakened Ian.

  Joy threw the scabbard at Theo and then Theo proceeded to freeze the scabbard in a massive block of ice. Hopefully that would keep Ian from being able to recall the scabbard back into his soul space.

  Joy smiled; this fight which had seemed so bleak when it started seemed to be turning out alright for him. The sun seemed warmer, the air seemed fresher, and Ian’s sword glinted in the rays of sunshine.

  With a roar, Ian raised his blade above his head. Lillian took a step back, anticipating the blow to come down on her head. But it went nowhere near her.

  Instead, the sword came down in a flash and Ian stabbed himself through his stomach. His red blood ran down the length of the sword as his eyes bulged and he ground his teeth.

  Ian screamed, “it was never the scabbard, it was the act of sheathing! And I am just as good of a sheath as any hollow wooden shit.” Blood streamed down Ian’s lips as he bared a red smile at his three opponents.

  Joy shivered and thought, ‘why did I have to jinx it.’

  The real battle had begun.