“Uh-huh,” Cy didn’t sound impressed. If anything, the soup was getting more attention from him.

  “You’ve got a bit of experience with runes now.” Max tried to contain his frustration, but it made him break out into more coughs. “Sometimes it takes me a few lifetimes just to get the rune name for one thing. You should feel honoured.”

  Cy spoke in the most sarcastic way that he could muster. “Oh gee, aren’t you so clever? Figuring out my name must’ve taken you such a long time-”

  “Alright! I get it.” Max reached for his water in a desperate attempt to control the coughs. “But now you could write it too, if you practiced-”

  “I’m just oh so glad you figured it out now that we’re buddy-buddy again after you threw an axe at me.” Max choked on a mouthful of water. “I’m thrilled to bits this has been resolved before the system can list my death as one of your sub-goals-”

  “You can see the redacted sub-goals?”

  “No! At least not from the parts of a person’s fate that I can read.” Cy pouted, finally no longer interested in his soup. Max wasn’t too sure how to continue the conversation. Usually, he never had to make up with people he wronged on behalf of the system. “But maybe you can help me understand the parts I can’t read.” He pulled out a piece of regular paper and began drawing, taking extreme care in the line work as taught. Max’s coughs caused his concentration to wither, and a line to come out wonky. “Ever considered using a piece of parchment to heal yourself too?” Cy tutted as he reached for a new piece of paper.

  “Nah, I want to test how bad this strain is in case I need to do something similar again.” Max patiently stared at the lines being created in front of him. Despite the effort, they were a little contorted making them hard to identify at first. “Hold on.”

  “I’m not finished yet.”

  “Yeah, but I think I know what it is, and I can draw it better.” Max motioned for Cy to hand over his quill pen. “Is it this one? It’s the symbol of ‘us.’ As in, ‘us’ under the system. Nnita. Darius’s during squad.”

  “No. It’s not that one.” Cy snatched it back to continue his own drawing. “All of the vibrant souls have it. I’m guessing it’s connected to the system since you asked me to look out for them. This shape is the one I see in Aldwin’s, Edric’s, BB’s, and now your fate.”

  “… Hold the phone, did you say Aldwin?”

  “What’s a fone?” Cy looked at him puzzled.

  Max ignored Cy’s repeated questions about what a ‘fone,’ while his mind tried to comprehend what he was saying. Aldwin was one of them? The village idiot could be fucking one of them? How could he be one of them? He had been in the village for ages though. People swore they grew up with the guy. It wasn’t impossible if he woke up to a kid’s body…

  Could he be one of them?

  Aldwin never questioned Max’s actions.

  Aldwin left the village immediately after he did.

  Maybe.

  “Well, aren’t you going to take a look?”

  This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

  Pushing the Aldwin idea aside, Max was completely focused on the unfamiliar shape. It was similar to the rune he drew, but Cy was right about it not being the same. There were too many inaccuracies for the rune to have any hope of working. Trying to break down the shape didn’t help either. He couldn’t decipher it. “Should we test it?”

  “… Okay,” Cy’s voice showed his apprehension.

  “We’ll write a silly command,” Max reassured him. “Think of the small risk to my life as me saying sorry for trying to take yours.”

  “I wasn’t worried about you.” Cy managed to shake off any hesitancy. “What should the command be?”

  Max thought for a moment. “Let’s keep it simple – a command to stand.” He quickly replicated the rune with a few others onto a piece of parchment.

  Cy waited eagerly for a moment before getting crabby. “Did it work?”

  “Obviously not,” Max continued to look down at the runes. The one Cy drew didn’t work. Was it because it simply wasn’t a rune or because Cy wasn’t accurate in his recreation? “Either way, I believe you if you see it in our fates.” Even if it meant Max’s whole relationship with Aldwin was a lie. “It’s close enough to the rune for ‘us’ that I wouldn’t call it a coincidence.”

  “If it’s not runes, then what is it?” Cy was mystified.

  “I don’t know.” Max admitted. “Right now, it’s an extreme advantage since you can identify other during people from a glance.”

  “Wait a minute, you don’t know?”

  “I can check with runes. And, we have some ways to hint to each other. Otherwise, no.”

  “That reminds me.” Cy went digging in his backpack for something before throwing a bone at Max’s direction. It landed with a plop in his uneaten soup. “Elder Darius wanted to return this. He said it’ll be useful for you.”

  Max fished out the carved magic bone he had used to identify Navy. “I still can’t believe he wants to help me,” he murmured, while cleaning the bone.

  “He doesn’t want to help you,” Cy corrected, his tone of voice was suddenly harsher. Almost as harsh as when he hit him on the back of his head. “Elder Darius has got his own selfish reasons for doing this. Right now, you’re just a horse he’s betting on.”

  There it was again, the coldness towards Darius. “I’m alright with being a horse,” Max admitted. “Although, when it’s time, I would like to know what kind of race I’m running in.” There was no reply. Cy pouted at his food. Was he avoiding eye contact now? Max decided to change the subject. “Should I pour out this soup? It’s kind of a waste, but I can’t eat it… And that innkeeper was quite insistent…”

  Cy ignored him. He looked down at the two runes they drew for a couple of minutes as Max began to silently clear up his side of the table. “I think it’s about time I finally tell you what I can see.”

  Max dropped his bowl of soup causing it to shatter on the floor and coat the floor, walls, and ceiling in a rich broth. “What? Why?”

  “Whaddyamean why?” Cy snapped back irritated, as he tried to wipe the soup off him. It was time for another trip to the hot spring. “You’ve got to know what things are accessible to you if you want to beat this six-stars of yours.”

  “Nope,” Max immediately covered his ears like a child. His voice started going hoarse as he spoke louder and stubbornly through coughs. “I remember bits and pieces about your magic from previous lives but not much.” He immediately admitted. “If you’re right about your death being a potential sub-goal then I don’t want to know what small advantages you could have-”

  “Small?” Cy’s voice would’ve sounded offended if Max could hear him clearly.

  Max spoke louder to drown him out, but it was beginning to break his voice. “You’re three for three. Don’t let me go breaking your streak if we’re in that scenario again. If you’re worried about your name, I was going to suggest learning my name and countering spells to make it fairer. And I’ll fix your penalty.”

  “Your name?”

  “Let’s do it after I’m feeling a bit better. The hot spring is over there, right? I should get washed up before bed-”

  “Wait! What about the mess?”

  “I’ll clean it when I get back!” Max slammed the door behind him to end the conversation. It was a close one. Based on their previous assumed encounters, Cy’s ability was a wild range. This life was great. Some were even better. Some lives Cy couldn’t understand anything, and he could just see a chaotic mess of colours, numbers, letters, and shapes. From what Cy told him in his previous life, he could get a feel for general passions in life, name and date all of the life changing events the person will go through in life and was scarily good at knowing someone’s alcohol tolerance. But there was more. Assuming they were the same person, Max wasn’t ready to face the exact number of times he had died while under the control of the system.