Source & Soul: A Deckbuilding LitRPG

Mother hadn’t looked up at me yet; she was caught in the rapture of her card theft. There she stood over her victim, so close to naked it made no difference, and it was like I was really seeing her for the first time. My mind snapped into focus the way only immediate danger could provoke. I turned and saw Afi, who was just now peeking over my shoulder, her eyes widening as she took in the scene. Her mouth dropped open like she was about to speak.

“Go get help,” I breathed, and then I shut the door in her face. A glance back to Mother showed her slumped back against the wingback chair strewn with clothes, her eyes heavy-lidded like a man four tankards deep. She showed no sign that she’d noticed me yet. Maybe we got away with it. Afi, be smart and don’t barge in to figure it all out. Go find Edaine, quick. I was fairly sure Mother wouldn’t hurt me for finding her like this, but if she saw Afi, she’d attack in a heartbeat, and I wasn’t sure if either of us would walk away alive from that. I’d known Mother could steal cards – damn me for thinking she wouldn’t – but seeing Gale laid out on the floor looking bloodless and half-dead brought home to me just how powerful she was. With an ability like that she was Epic at the very least, and more likely Mythic.

“Caught in the act,” Mother laughed as she laid eyes on me, hauling herself upright.

“Not exactly the act I expected,” I said, striving for a casual unconcern I didn’t feel. “That card’s a good get.” She seemed entirely unconcerned by her state of undress, but it left me unnerved, so I picked up her gown and handed it to her.

“Target of opportunity,” she said, winking at me as she arranged her shift and stepped into the dress, Gale’s card still clutched in her fist. The man himself was breathing very shallowly, his skin showing a bluish pallor and his eyes rolled back in his head. Trying to make it look like disdain, I took his coat and shirt and tossed them over him. Anything I did here would do him no good if he shivered himself to death on the floor.

“I can’t imagine this will help your treaty negotiations,” I said offhandedly.

She snorted and gave me a withering look as she settled her dress into place.

“Ah,” I said, “of course. It was a good lie, I have to say.” I affected a look of hurt. “You could have told me, though, once you were sure of me.”

She gave a baffled look over her shoulder as she collected her shoes. “You tell the truth when you have to, Hull, not before.”

She might look human – she might be able to fake affection and love – but she was a demon to her core, and I would never understand her. All I could do now was try to stop her and fix this before it got worse. “Can I see it?” I gestured to the card she held.

She tossed it to me as if it were worthless.

“It doesn’t stay like this, does it?” I asked. “Or do you have a bunch of living Souls inside you?”

“It takes a day or two for the card to die once it’s taken,” she said. “Then it becomes a Summons like any other.”

Hope surged in me. If the card isn’t dead yet… “Can you use it before then?” I asked, injecting all the innocent curiosity I could into it. “Are you going to walk out as Gale?”

“Nope,” she said. “That’d be convenient, but I have to wait for the separation to be complete before the card will slot into my Mind Home.” She clapped me on the shoulder and held out her hand. “I’m glad to see you’ve got your head on straight about this, but it’s time for me to go. Captain Limp-Dick here may not be in any shape to point fingers, but you won’t be the last person to stumble into this room tonight, and fighting my way out would be such a waste of time.”

I turned back toward him, pretending not to see her outstretched hand. “You’re not going to kill him?” I asked. “That’s a whole deck of cards in there, and we both saw that he has some good ones.”

“It’s funny,” she said, sounding bored. “Kill one of these nobles and they all shit themselves and go to the ends of the earth to right the unbearable wrong of proving that they’re mortal. But you steal a soul card and they’re all so horrified that they just ignore the victim and pretend it never happened.” She shrugged. “A couple of extra Epics would be nice, but the juice isn’t worth the squeeze. This was mostly just for fun, honestly.” She waggled her hand at me impatiently. “I do want the fruits of my labor, though. You might be my son, but I’m not feeling that generous.”

“That’s right,” I said, the words rising out of me before I could stop them. “You don’t give cards, you take them.”

She looked up into my face, her eyes narrowing. “Ah. I see. You’re haven’t got your head on straight about this.” She sighed. “It’s time you came with me, Hull. You need to get back to where people make sense and see things clearly.”

“Hull?” came a weak voice at my feet. “What’s happening?”

I crouched down. Gale lifted a shaking hand, and I clasped it. “Lay still. It’s going to be okay.”

“I feel wrong,” he whispered.

Mother gusted a sigh. “You need to get away from all these soft-hearted, milkwater humans. They’re ruining you.”

“Are they?” I blurted, standing up. “They didn’t steal my soul card.”

She rolled her eyes. “Oh, let it go already. I needed it and you were hardly using it.”

“Was I even sick?”

“Who cares?” She snatched Gale’s card out of my hand and stormed away, going to the door and and putting her hand on the knob. “Twins, I thought you might be an asset.” She cracked the door. “You come with me now or I’m done with you forever.”

Her lips were twisted in an ugly snarl and her eyes were flat. I knew it wasn’t her face – it wasn’t even the face I’d grown up with – but I tried to fix it in my mind nevertheless. No matter the features, this was my mother: selfish, demanding, and unrepentant. It was all I could ever expect from her.

“Be done with me, then,” I said, pulling a Nether and putting it overhead. “But I’m not letting you leave with that card.”

She laughed, a hard, mocking sound. “Not letting me? You can’t stop me.”

I drew cards, not even looking at them yet. “I can try. I have to try.”

Suddenly there were two Nether over her head. I had no idea how she’d gotten two up that fast. “Hull, one day you and I will have a good, long fight, and then we’ll really know each other… but you don’t want to do this now. If I’m going to kill my son, I want it to mean something.”

“This does mean something,” I said. “I made this problem, and I have to fix it.”

Gale clutched my boot. “Don’t. I should have listened. Let her go.”

“Listen to your playmate,” Mother warned me. “I’m going. Either follow or stand aside.”

I peeked at my hand. No time for mulligans. Afi, where did you go? I can’t stall any longer! Reinforcements or not, it was time to make a stand. “Fuck you, lady. You don’t tell me what to do.” With that, I put up another Nether and summoned.

I’d have preferred to have led with my Hateful Hammer, but I didn’t have it in hand, and I had a feeling that I was going to be taking some serious damage any second. With my free hand I dug my dueling eyepatch out of my trousers and slipped it onto my face.

Mother rolled her shoulders grimly. “All right, then.” Her sources dimmed.

An incredible roar like an angry giant shattered the quiet as a wave of purple force caught me like a wood chip in a storm drain and flung me across the room. I was able to use the two Ravening Hatchlings in my hand to block a little of the damage, but the rest of it stripped my hand bare and cost me 2 more cards from the Mind Home besides. My Amulet buzzed with a full charge even as I soared through the air. I tangled in the heavy velvet curtains – my back thudding hard enough against the stone wall behind to take another 2 cards – and then I tumbled roughly to the ground. The window next to me was now a gaping, jagged hole in the wall. By the time I was on my feet I’d managed to get 2 more Nether into play, and I played the first card I pulled.

Its Arrival effect went to waste, but it was all I had. When it misted into being, its eyes went round and its face slack with horror. “No! Great Mistress, do not look at me. I am hideous.”

I had no idea how the little bastard had recognized its former owner, and from the bemused look on Mother’s face, neither did she. “Shut up and attack her,” I yelled.

Another Spell shot from Mother’s hands as the Night Terror reluctantly reached for her.

This one sent a purple dart arrowing straight through my Summons – I heard him whispering abject thanks to her as he shattered – and another straight at my head. Once again the Ravening Hatchlings did their job, protecting me out of hand, and another card shed itself from my Mind Home. The bolt to the face knocked my eyepatch askew, and rather than let it obscure my vision I pulled it down around my neck so I could see. I was shedding cards fast. I knew I should be keeping track of what I was losing out of my deck, but all my attention was on Mother. She’d kill me soon if no one came to help.

The door still under Mother’s hand jerked, and she pulled it shut with terrible strength. Pounding and shouting sounded dimly from beyond.

“You little devil,” she said, sounding almost admiring. “Did you send your lover bitch for reinforcements?”

“She’s not my lover,” I panted. “And yes. Edaine and a dozen of her Summons will be through that door any second.” I slipped a hand into my pocket and snugged the brass knuckles Artifact onto my fist. I didn’t know if it would do me any good, but if I went down, I’d go down swinging.

“Well,” said Mother with a cocky grin, “you may be a waste of a son, but at least you keep it interesting.” She abandoned the door and ran toward me, throwing out one final Spell.

It didn’t hurt me at all, and with my eyepatch off I wasn’t even sure exactly what it had done, but it pulled my feet out from under me, sending me to my knees as she approached. She picked up speed as the door slammed open, one of Edaine’s Spirit Souls bursting through. She wasn’t going to attack me as I’d first thought – she was headed out the window.

I might be Focused, but I had an Artifact in my fist that didn’t give a shit about that. I lashed out at her wildly, putting all the Nether I had left into the blow, and it raked Gale’s card out of her hand, sending it bouncing into the folds of the curtains. She hissed and turned after it. I clamped my hands around her ankle, holding her fast.

“Stick around,” I croaked. “Some folks want to meet you.”

Her eyes darted to the door, and she grimaced. “You asked for this,” she hissed. Then she changed, her skin bulging and resizing all in an instant. It happened far faster than when she’d transformed for me before, and she acted like it didn’t hurt at all. I’d never know what was really true with her. Suddenly I was holding onto the foot of a little boy. His eyes were angry, but his mouth was sad. I knew him.

My fingers went slack. My heart clenched. “No,” I whispered. “Don’t.”

It was me. Me as a kid. The very age I’d been when she’d stolen my card. She’d had it in her Mind Home this entire time.

“You should have let me go,” he said in a little boy voice, and then he was gone, leaping out the window. All I could do was stare as the entering forces yelled after him.

Edaine was in my face, shaking me hard. “What happened? Who was that?”

I couldn’t make myself say the words. I couldn’t even think them. I was a blank. She had my card. She still has it.

“What’s wrong with Gale?” Edaine demanded, jolting me again.

That snapped me out of it. “His card,” I said, crawling over to the curtains and fishing it out. “She pulled out his card.”

Her face went pale as she looked at the living Soul card I handed her and then over at the man who should have still had it inside himself.

“Twins save us all,” Afi said from where she was standing at the shattered window. “General, look. There, to the northeast.”

Putting her confusion away with a soldier’s practiced focus, Edaine stood and went to stand by Afi and the Souls clustered around her. A hiss leaked out of her as she looked where Afi pointed.

“What?” I said, climbing painfully to my feet. “What did she do?”

“Not her, whoever it was,” Edaine said, sounding grim. “Look to the hills beyond the forest.”

I did, my eyes slowly adjusting to peer far through the darkness of the woods that hid our War Camp fortification. There in the distant rolling lands was a broad, shining snake of torchlight glimmering against the hills. It stretched on for miles.

“This Gala is over,” she said. “It’s months early and I haven’t the first clue why… but the Orcs have come to make war.”