I yelped, flinching in surprise and whipped around to look for the source. My eyes trained down into an old man craning his neck up at me.

"Huh? Oh...yes," I stuttered, stepping back to assess him. His bony fingers wrapped around a polished staff which he carried like how kings did in the movies back home. Gold and white robes adorned his wiry frame, composed of a long-sleeved tunic belted at the waist, a pair of loose-legged trousers, and a hoodless cloak cut at armpit level. No fur or wool could be found in him, even in his loafer-like shoes made from dried leather.

"How did you know that?" I asked, allowing myself to look at his face, finally. Instead of normal eyeballs, all he had were the whites. Oh.

The old man smiled, showing me crooked and yellowing teeth. He started walking forward, his clothes rustling against the golden grass with loud scratches. I was forced to follow, knowing I couldn't leave a conversation half-way. "It's written all over you, young traveler," the man said. "You've come to seek my key, don't you?"

I froze. Don't tell me this man was—

"You're Goran?" I asked, widening my steps to catch up to him. He didn't stop walking since I paused in shock. "Wait, how did you know I was looking for it?"

Goran ducked inside a tent which must be his. "You don't live this long without gathering insights like dust, my boy," he gestured to the cushion propped over a rug spanning the entire space of the tent. There's nothing in here saying he had been a locksmith or had worked with metal and other materials all his life.

He grunted as he set his staff against a low wooden table and tucked his feet under his folded legs. "Now, for you to be worthy of the Key," he opened the left side drawer of his desk and drew a box from it. A stark thud echoed inside the tent as he set it down in the table space between us. "You must entertain an old man. Play a few rounds with me."

Before I could react, he propped the box's lid open, showing me a deck of cards all turned face down. They seemed to be made out of polished wood. Wait a minute. This wasn't how it's supposed to go. Back in the game, a player would just drop by Goran's home, demand the Key, offer up ethrans and some MP and HP, and that's it. There was no mention of a game or having to beat an old man. I didn't even know Goran was blind.

"The rules are simple," Goran continued, taking out the cards from the box and turning it over. He searched through the deck and came up with twelve faces. "Here are the suits placed according to their rank."

I peered through them, my eyes taking in the form. I wasn't much of a board game nerd, but I could hold my ground. At least, against Hye-jin; and she wasn't the best one at these too. The pictures were painted with some sort of glossy paint, making them glint when the light hit them at certain angles. There were twelve varieties—birds, coins, horns, wands, flowers, cups, fish, fans, elements, colors, characters, and numbers.

"Each of these suits have five variations in them, each in increasing number," Goran continued. As an example, he showed me the variations of the bird cards. Just like a standard deck. "And we have five face cards for each deck. The Princess, The Crown, The Empress, The Mage Chief, and The Monarch."

"So, that makes each suit have ten?" I prompted.

Goran's lips parted into a smile. "Correct," he said. "The rankings for each of these face cards varies per Tower, as you well know. None of the territories wants to have their ruler in the bottom. Pride issues, if you ask me."

He laid out the face cards for the bird suit and tapped each one as he went along. "For this game, we'll be using this descending order: The Mage Chief, The Princess, The Empress, The Crown, and The Monarch," he shrugged. "We are in the Southern Tower, after all."

I nodded. The Mage Chief must be their famed highest title—one whose place was still empty due to the tribes' inability to bind and work together. "What must I do to win?" I asked.

Goran chuckled, rubbing palms together. "Hold on to your nethers, lad," he said. "We're getting there."

"I'll draw three cards and check them," he said. "I'll have a choice to set my three cards down or not. You do the same, and choose as well. If I set mine down and you get a stronger group, the round's yours."

"What happens if I don't set mine down and it's weaker than what you showed?" I asked.

"The round's yours," Goran answered. "Same goes for me."

So, it's a split-second decision of whether to show your hand or not. I could choose to stand back if I knew I wasn't going to win.

Goran continued. "If we both didn't set ours down, we would have a chance to guess which one's stronger. The game ends when we smooth the deck. That's the first game. We play to about a total of five for it to count as a win."

"And if I win, will you give me the Key?" I prompted.

The old man snorted. "If you win," he said. "There's hardly anyone who could beat me at this."

"What happens if you win?"

Goran hummed. "I'll take that nice-looking conjured space as yours."

I froze, my limbs turning rigid. How did he—?

"Now, we start," his hand whizzed towards the sample cards laid down and began shuffling the deck. "Oh, before I forget," he continued over the sound of wooden cards clapping against each other. "We assign strength over the groups of cards you get too. If you get all face cards of the same type across different suits, nothing could trump that. We'll play a trial round so I can point out to you each type as they come up."

And soon, my head was bursting with ranks and pointing systems based on what I picked on my hand. It's like poker hands but more complex. Goran shuffled the deck once more and placed it face down between us. "Now, the real thing begins," he flashed me a toothy grin, his eyes betraying nothing of his thoughts. "I'll start this round."

Then, we're off. Five games to win. I needed to win at least three of them.

The trick was to bet on the first rounds and try to win as many as you can. Remember the cards being discarded and try to gauge which ones were still on the deck. Run through your head which possible hands were still possible.

That's when I noticed it. Every time Goran drew a card, he was winning. And when it's my turn, that's when his forehead creases as he tries to guess what I have. When it's his turn, he has a hundred percent chance. When it's mine, he has fifty-fifty. Which gave him a huge advantage against me. How was that even possible?

As the first game progressed and the deck was cut shorter and shorter, the cards in Goran's side accumulated. Halfway through, I realized I wasn't about to catch up...unless I figured out what his trump was. He was a mage, wasn't he? Would it be possible he's using some sort of magic in every game he plays? He didn't say it was prohibited in the rules earlier. Didn't even touch a sliver of it.

What's to stop me from using one of my tricks?

I waited until he finished drawing a card when I lashed out as if to draw my own hand. Our fists knocked together, making me flinch on the impact. Flashing him a sheepish smile, I scratched the back of my head, passing my hand over my face and summoning my screen on my way to it. "Sorry, I'm in a hurry, you see," I said.

Goran didn't lose his grin, so I guessed it's fine. I drew my cards, keeping my eyes on my menu instead of my hand. He threw his card down just as I casted a Borrow spell from just my mind. I guessed my stats were high enough to start using the words of the mind. Only one skill flashed on top of the list.

Clairvoyance.

Ah, that's how.

I lost the previous draw, but I launched the skill and tried it on the next round. A series of images flashed before my eyes. It showed Goran drawing his own hand. When they faded, the old man was just reaching out and getting his cards. Was that...?

Well, duh. That's his current hand. I tried the skill with what I was getting but nothing happened. Was this one of the limits of the skill, then? One couldn't see their own actions until they're in the situation. No doubt, Goran was seeing it with his own skill.

We both set our cards down. It's my win.

For the first time.

A small pop-up edged in the corner of my vision. Clairvoyance. A low-level seeing skill that allows the caster to see a few seconds into the future. Cooldown in 10s. 9s. 8s...

Oh. That's about how long a back and forth between us took. Maybe that's how I have a chance when it's my turn. That, or most of this game was just luck and intuition.

We smoothed the first deck. Goran won.

Again.

We played over and over, using Goran's ability against each other. My MP and HP went down a fraction whenever I used Clairvoyance, but if it meant getting the Key and not losing my inventory to this old man, I'd gladly scrape it to the bottom.

We smoothed the second deck. I won.

Goran raised his eyes to me. Staring back at those pure whites instilled some sort of unease in me. Was he seeing through my soul, seeing how I was stealing his own ability?

We smoothed the third deck. Goran won.

Only two games left. I needed to win both.

"You look so tense, lad," Goran spoke as he shuffled the cards. "Is there any reason why you want the Key?"

I didn't speak until he had drawn his first card. Using Clairvoyance, I saw his hand. "I need it to help a..." I paused, calling it when we both didn't put our cards down. The round's mine. "Let's say 'friend'."

Goran watched me take my hand. He's seeing the future as well. "Do you know the limits of the Key?" he brought his hand down. I followed. The round's his. "You can only use it as long as you have the required attributes. Do you?"

Ah, he's getting me to spill my stats. Hopefully, he'd make me mention I was a valdyrsi and connect the dots from there. Wasn't getting around to that. I worked in sales for the longest time. I knew what ran through people's minds before those words flew out of their mouths or bled out from their bodies. From how Goran switched gears and started talking, he's fearing for his life now and couldn't figure out why I was winning.

"I know," I said, throwing my hand down. He didn't. The round's mine. "I know a lot about it and about you."

We smoothed the fourth deck. I won. We're tied now.

Goran exhaled through his nose. "One last game, lad," he shuffled the deck faster than before. "One last game."

Yeah, he's right. One last game.

This time, the flow was quicker, like Goran was matching my speed. Now, it fell into how well we time our Claivoyances against each other. He's going faster because he wanted to leave up more of our turns into the unknown for him to even out the odds. Sweat beaded on my hairline, the cold climate of the Southern Tower now forgotten.

Round's mine. Round's his. Mine. His. Mine. His. His.

It's faster than my mind could catch up. The deck went by faster than I'd like to. The cards from our sides were almost the same number. Shit. I couldn't lose this last one. Then, an idea slammed into my head. Of course.

I stared as Goran as he watched me draw my cards. He's probably seeing what I was going to get. Not so fast. Skill Lock, I casted in my head. A frown pulled the old man's lips down. He couldn't ask why his skill was gone because he thought it'd out him to me. What he didn't know was that I'd been using spells on him since the beginning the same as he was.

That's why he would lose.

The deck reached the bottom. I threw my cards down. He did as well. We turned both over.

Round's mine.

Goran chuckled. "Would you look at that," he said. "Someone finally beat me. How did you do it, my boy?"

I winked at him. "A master never reveals his secrets," I said. It's the same principle I held when playing video games, so much so that Hye-jin sometimes called me a miser. "The Key?"

The old man snapped his fingers and something moved in my menu. Key of Goran, it said. And it's white. Not gray. "Thanks for an interesting game," I bowed my head at him. "What's it called?"

"Katsai-da," Goran replied. "Why ask?"

I smiled. "It's a good way to pass the time," I said. "Might train myself to sharpen my instincts."

Goran waved his hand towards my face. "Get out of here before you annoy me further," he said. A smile pulled against his lips, though. "Of course, you're welcome to visit any time."

"Of course," I said on my way out.

Then, I left the tent with vague memories of how Jii-chan and I used to spend the entire afternoon like that while Mom worked at the flower shop. Sometimes, it's easier to wish to go back to that time, when things were far simpler.

But I clenched my hands and jaw as I looked ahead. No amount of wishing would bring me back to those times or any moments in my past. What mattered was what I was going to do in the present to create a future I wanted. And right now, there was something I wished to do.

"Hye-jin," I whispered into the wind, hoping the currents would sweep my words towards the one who needed to hear it. "I'm coming."