“Gathering,” she repeated with a smile. “If you don’t teach me, I’ll ask Wilson to do it.”
“Fine.”
“Fine?”
“But it’s not something you can learn in an hour or two.”
Rae winked. “Maybe. But I’m much smarter than you think.”
“Okay, okay, slow down.”Rae held her hands up, index finger and thumb held together in the air. “Why do we have this commander again?”
December started talking before I could. “The commander?—”
“Not you.” Rae waved her cousin away. “Just Octavia, please. You guys keep saying things that are wrong.”
“I had a slight misunderstanding about how tapping lands worked,” Nico defended under his breath as he flipped through the cards in his deck. “Sue me.”
Yesterday, a very discreet Jonah, who’d told the others he’dbeen going into town to pick up some doughnuts, had saved us. Today, as a reward for his silence, Rae offered him a spot in my Magic lessons. What started as two pupils were now four.
We’d laid fraying quilts on the floor, layering enough of them to provide enough cushion. I’d dug through my closet, retrieving deck boxes coated in dust and moving grime. With each one, I opened unlocked memories of late-night research and playing against the wall until I could barely keep my eyes open. Sometimes memories of doing solo activities carried an inevitable sadness. But this time, I’d allowed myself to soak in the memory’s pool. Those years of loneliness hadn’t all been bad.
“Your commander’s what the deck’s built around. You can only use cards the color of your commander.” I picked up Rae’s sparkling card. All my commanders sported unique sleeves, making them stand out from the rest of the plainer green sleeves. “Like in the standard game?—”
“The one with sixty cards,” December chimed in.
“Exactly.” I nodded, and she beamed, wiggling back and forth. “Your commander’s like creatures in that they can attack. But only if you have enough mana.”
“Which comes from tapping land.” Nico turned his lands horizontal.
“See, you’re getting it. Repetition is key,” I encouraged with a bright smile.
“So why couldn’t I use this?” Jonah’s gaze burned down on the battlefield between us. “I tapped my land.”
“You don’t have enough mana.” I pointed to the number on his card. “You need four lands?—”
“I have four lands.” He rested his fingers on the lined-up cards.
“Twoof them have to be blue.”
His mouth formed an O as he studied the commander more closely. I pushed myself up onto my knees and leaned over to point at the tiny blue circle on his card with the number two.
“And since you don’t have enough manna to cast…” I prompted.
“It’s my turn.” December did a little dance in her seat as she started her upkeep.
A cool breeze from the open window skated across the room, smelling of sun. The house was brighter since the wards remained stable. Nico and December had done two sweeps this morning; Rae walked Jonah through two more after lunch. But even before they confirmed the hold, I knew it was true. Something in me had settled in a way I thought would only come after I’d opened Elmwood.
“Where does she come from?” Rae waved a creature card in my direction.
I held onto her wrist, trying to keep it still as I read the card. Rae’s skin burned my fingers. An echo of our kisses buzzed through my chest. I almost yanked away, stopping in time to understand if I did, everyone would know something was up.
I cleared my throat. “She’s a legendary creature.”
“Yeah, why’s she in my deck? What’s her story?”
I laughed a little. “What do you mean? She’s in your deck because I put her in the deck.”
“But there’s no backstory?” Rae flipped the card back to herself again, frowning down at it.
