Rising Shards

“Wow, you guys suck at this game,” Razmus said. “Not even a question or puzzle in and almost half your team’s gone. There’s probably like no way you’ll win.”

Razmus snorted as he laughed, and I wondered if he was right.

“Alrighty, time for the real game to begin!” Razmus said.

Four big wheels generated before us. Each had words written on their sides.

“Each of these has your category,” Razmus said. “Each of the remaining four will get ONE.”

Razmus spun the four wheels. They landed on sport, trivia, knowledge, and game.

My confidence in winning drained rapidly. This all started to feel like a massive waste of time, which meant I let down Aira, who was one of the nicest people I’d met at Rising Shards. I didn’t think we could win all four challenges, and even if we did, Razmus would probably eliminate me for sneezing or something.

“Hey, can we take a time out to pick who gets what?” Oka asked.

“Mmmm,” Razmus said. “Nnnyeeeehh. I suppose.”

“This game seems extraordinarily unfair,” Lillia said. “I’m not sure if there’s an advantage we can find even planning ahead.”

“We have to try though,” I said.

“I’ll take sport,” Oka said. “It would have been easier with Kalei, but I think I can handle it.”

“I’ll take the knowledge challenge,” Lillia said.

“This is my cat on the line, so I think I’d do best with that last game,” Aira said. “I won’t let the team down!”

“Leaving Zeta with trivia,” Lillia said. “Do you think you can handle that?”

“I hope so,” I said.

Lillia looked at me, and I couldn’t tell if she was being cold or not. It made me feel a bit more fired up to try so I wouldn’t upset her.

“Yes, I can do it.” I said.

Lillia nodded as Razmus walked over to us, his cloak billowing in the wind.

“Oof, it’s chilly today,” Razmus said. “Any of you guys want my favorite snack, warm lemonade with ketchup? It comes with a ketchup sandwich. That's a sandwich with just ketchup on it. I dip it in the lemonade.”

“Ew,” Oka said.

“I think we’re good,” I said.

“Fine, let’s play!” Razmus said. “Who is our competitor for the sporting challenge?”

Oka stepped forward.

“That’d be me!” Oka said.

“Cool,” Razmus said. “Alright uh, I don’t usually do sports, per se. Let’s see.”

Razmus cast a cart of beam chaser balls in front of us.

“We each have to throw them and whoever hits them farther wins!” Razmus said.

“Can we use our gifts?” Oka asked.

“Er, no,” Razmus said. “That’d be cheating.”

Razmus grunted as he threw his ball immediately. It went pretty far. I couldn’t think of a time in gym where we had to just chuck a ball as far as we could. When we played beam chasers with Kalei we didn’t really have to throw anything.

Oka grabbed a ball and bounced it a few times. I wished she could use her gift, but if she could, then Razmus probably could as well, and he could make a tornado to throw it probably. Oka heaved the ball. It soared through the air, landing just slightly past Rasmus’ ball.

“Impressive,” Razmus said. “Congrats, you beat me. Whatever.”

I high fived Oka as she rejoined us. That was a lot easier than I thought it would be.

“Great job Oka!” Aira said. “You’ve definitely done the best so far!”

“A very low bar to clear,” Lillia said.

“Next!” Razmus shrieked.

I did a trivia game once. I got every non-TV related question completely wrong, but maybe Razmus would only ask TV questions. Razmus tapped his foot as he gestured for me to step up.

“Uh,” I said.

“Alright, obvious hair dye,” Razmus said.

“What?!” I said. “My hair’s natural!”

“Yeah, OK,” Razmus said. “Like someone would naturally have blonde, slightly brownish hair. Suuure.”

“It is!” I said.

“Whatever,” Razmus said. “Trivia time!”

Razmus conjured a trivia board game, and the bottom dropped out of it immediately. He picked up a card from the pile at his feet.

“The main character of the play The First Ink Pen had what weird quirk?” Razmus read.

Perfect! I thought, I think Stella was in this one. Or she made me watch a recording of it.

“Well?” Razmus said.

I froze with my dopey smile in place. Not perfect. Very not perfect. I remember the name but…

“You can’t call anyone! Or ask for help!” Razmus said.

I couldn’t turn and face the others. Oka wouldn’t be upset with me if I didn’t know the play, but I had just talked to Lillia about how much I knew about plays. All I could remember about The First Ink Pen was Stella talking about how tragic the central romance in it was.

“One second!” Razmus said. “Zero seconds! Answer!”

“They uh,” I said. “Like pens. Like, a lot?”

Razmus made a buzzer sound. My heart sunk.

“Wrong!” Razmus said. “Like completely wrong! ‘The main character of The First Ink Pen keeps playing the same piano song’. That’s what the card says. Too bad you suck.”

“Oh,” I said.

I could feel Lillia’s icy stare at my back. Why couldn’t you answer that? She probably thought. And I lowered Aira’s chances of finding her cat.

“Wait, let me stay!” I said. “Because…”

“Because she’s team captain!” Aira said.

“And even if the captain’s eliminated, she has to see the end of the game!” Oka said.

Razmus turned into his cloak, rolled into a ball on the ground, and went “HMMM” and “Nnnyeeeehh" really loudly for a few minutes.

“Fine, you can stay, but you are super eliminated,” Razmus said. “And because of me being really nice and letting you stay, there’s a new rule. You last two both have to win, or you all lose.”

“What?!” I said.

“That’s right!” Razmus said. “That’s not even that unfair really, so calm down.”

Lillia gave me her usual cold look as she passed me to face Razmus. This time I could read her eyes, and I could feel the disappointment as she brushed her hair with her hand.

“I’m getting really bored of this,” Razmus said. “I’m gonna ask you a really hard question and just wrap this up!”

“Woo! Go, Lillia!” Aira said. “We can win this!”

I couldn’t see Lillia’s reaction to that, but I assumed it annoyed her.

“Aren’t you like, a little freaked out, maybe?” Razmus asked.

“Just ask the question.” Lillia said.

“Fine,” Razmus said. “What two people mastered the Calestian technique called Reverse Kinethesis?”

“Nikolik Dokril and Tab Horpki,” Lillia answered immediately. “And it’d be more accurate to say, ‘which two people’.”

“Oh,” Razmus said. “That was really quick.”

“Yay, Lillia!” Aira said.

“Alright, last up!” Razmus said. “Now I’m bored and mad so you’re definitely gonna lose.”

Aira gulped as she realized it was her turn. She looked to me nervously, and I tried to give her a reassuring nod. It was all up to her now. Oka cheered her on, and I joined in.

“Yes yes, step on up, let’s go,” Razmus said.

“H-hi Mr. Razmus,” Aira said. “I read about you before.”

“Cool,” Razmus said. “You ready for the game challenge?”

I could tell Razmus wanted to wrap this up quickly, so I expected lots of dirty tricks in the last challenge.

“The name of the game is rock paper scissors,” Razmus said. “No one has ever beaten me in a game of rock paper scissors. Much less actually survived a game of rock paper scissors against me.”

“Wait, hold on!” I said. “You never said anything about killing anyone!”

“You never said anything about being awful at trivia, so nyeh,” Razmus said.

Razmus stood face to face with Aira.

“First, face me,” Razmus said. “I will now read your mind.”

The wizard put a hand on Aira’s forehead and hummed.

“Mmmmm,” Razmus said. “You’re going to choose rock. Typical. I will choose paper in response. The rock paper scissors forces may not allow you to live, are you ready?”

I looked at Oka and Lillia, who shared my confusion.

“Place your palm with a rock inside of it.” Razmus said.

Aira obliged.

“Do you go ‘one, two, go,’ or ‘one, two, three, go’?” Razmus asked.

“I do ‘one, two, three, go’,” Aira said.

Razmus chuckled.

“Now that I know your rules, I can even further read your understanding of this game. Therefore, prepare to lose, and die.” Razmus said. “Place yourself in the ready position.”

Aira readied her hand. I was impressed with how well she kept herself together.

“One...two...” Razmus said. “Three!”

Razmus chose paper, just as he said, and Aira chose scissors. The wizard let out an awful, piercing scream as he fell to his knees. After our ears stopped ringing, we realized we won.

“Way to go, Aira!” I said.

Oka and I ran to her, and even Lillia looked impressed. Razmus dusted himself off and got back up. He pulled a sparkling cube with a red-orange hue to it out.

“Fine,” Razmus said. “Congrats. You win. Since there are three of you that survived the game, each of the winners gets a secret.”

Razmus held the cube out.

“You better ask quick, though,” Razmus said. “The Perils of Subwestern Farming is on soon and I never miss an episode.”

I told Aira to go first.

“Do I just talk into it?” Aira asked.

“Yup,” Razmus said. “This is the Barlok Cube of All-Answers, and it has all the answers. But I won it from the Secret Order of Barlok, so I get to decide how it’s used. And it runs out of energy quick, so it can answer like five questions tops in a day. Luckily only four of you won, huh?”

“Where is my kitty, Eio?” Aira asked the cube.

The sparkles in the cube changed points, as though it searched for the answer. It dinged similarly to Diast’s microwave. An image of the art room appeared in the cube, and it showed Aira’s cat hiding in a ceiling.

“I so looked there!” Aira said. “But I’m glad he’s OK.”

Lillia went next and asked if she could ask something private to the cube. Razmus grudgingly said she could, and Lillia whispered something to the cube, and made no reaction when she saw her answer, which made me even more curious what she asked.

Oka gave me her turn, and I didn’t know how to thank her properly. I also didn’t have the time with an impatient Razmus. I thought about so many things I could ask, but there was only one I needed an immediate answer to.

“Is Ovie really with Jeans?” I whispered.

After an agonizing wait for the cube to load its answer, it projected a single sentence.

“Yes, exactly the way you think.”

While I tried to not freak out about that in front of the others, the gateway opened, and Razmus’ mom stepped out again.

“Honey, your show’s starting,” She said. “Do you want to bring your friends inside to watch?”

“No, mom!” Razmus said. “Make them leave already!”