Click's frown deepens to something sincere. A confused expression that both questions what I'm talking about and why there's a grain of truth in it. It opens its mouth to say something, then keeps its mouth open as the gears in its head slowly turn to churn out a thought.

"I… did say that." It says slowly. "Yet the facts right before our eyes contradict everything I told you. I altered your sphere before–with the information I still have in my mind–yet that information is completely incorrect. Why is this?"

That's what I want to know. "Right now, some of us are going out to follow the things you put on that sphere. I need you to follow them into the amusement park district and update the sphere with new readings."

"Yes, yes, of course. They could be in danger. No more danger than before, though…" Click trails off and raises a finger to pick its teeth with a claw. "Ah. Now I see. You recall how all my knowledge directly pertaining to the quest was removed by said quest after you freed me?"

I nod, and it hits me before my chin stops wagging. Click trails its claw over a tooth with a strangely melodic scrape, then turns towards the amusement park door.

"When I gave you that information, I thought it had nothing to do with the quest."

Neither did I. "But now that we know the uplifting trials are important to the quest, we can assume that information was actually scraped out of your mind."

"Exactlyl." Click confirms. "Though it should have been completely removed, not simply diminished. Considering that, I now have absolutely no idea what those districts I highlighted on your sphere actually contain. There is one here, though, and you've cleared all the other subquests. Were there any that stood out?"

Yes. There definitely was. "The apartment."

Click makes a strange, strangled noise, then chides itself for not realizing sooner. "Yes, of course, why didn't I think of that? The only other subquest where you encountered a construct of similar quality to myself. That must be what I marked. Though I still should be able to remember it… ah, well."

With a shake of its head, Click reaches for and opens the door. Its body switches from an almost gelatinous consistency to a crystalline structure that radiates magic like a furnace. It turns back to me, holds up one finger, then steps out.

"I'll be just a moment."

A glassy chime rings through the air, and Click disappears. Footprints in the city's material fill in almost instantly, leaving me with a few questions I just don't need the answers for. Because constructs interact with this place on a whole different level than we do. I look up to Pearl for her input, but she just offers me a shrug.

So I take out my Class Card and go about revoking all access privileges for Dani. Then, with a little reluctance, I do the same for Rina. I still can't bring myself to believe she's complicit with Dani for this–it's more likely she's a hostage as well that was forced to do the unspeakable. But Jumble thinks she is. No matter what I want, Jumble gets the last say with those four.

With that done I swipe through my Class Card to see if those few extra points of Fate are doing anything just yet. Nothing much looks like it's changed; no new threshold skills, nothing uncensored, and no quest progress to speak of. It's been a while since I've gotten a Mind from Close Your Eyes, Cold One. Guess nothing we've 'defeated' here has been that strong.

Kind of stings, now that I put that in words. I chuckle to myself to stave off those feelings I don't want interrupting me right now, take one last look over my Class Card, and send it away. There's a loud snap from off to my right, then the door flies open to reveal a frantic Ward right behind it.

My first instinct is to prickle. Even after I see the sparkle in his eyes, I can't shake the instinct that something's wrong. Maybe it's just his near manic disposition as he runs into the room, hands held over each other like he's cradling a small animal to hide it from sight.

"I forgot! Jumble asked me to do this for you, and I… well… got absorbed in other things. Then everything else happened, and… I… umm…" Ward trails off, the spark in his eyes dimming to nothing but a dead ember. He shakes his head, then looks back at me. "W-what was I saying?"

I motion at his hands. "Jumble asked you to do something for me?"

"Oh, right. Here." Ward steps close, then dumps whatever's in his hands into mine. "Jumble said you were stuck on something about a game with a one-third chance to win. So she asked me to make this for you."

Three slick somethings fill my hands. And a fourth little thing joins them as it rolls out of one of the three. I raise my top hand to get a closer look at the things; three stylized half-oyster shells and a single black pearl. My brain takes a half second to recognize what they are, but when I do, I feel damn stupid for not thinking of it before. Because what's the quintessential carnival game where someone gets cheated out of their money for a one-third chance to win?

The shell game. Mostly done with cups and a ball nowadays, but this is perfect. "Thanks, Ward. How'd you manage to make this? …Ward?"

I look up, but he's gone. My awareness must've felt him leave, but I was too focused on his gift. That Jumble asked him to make. I'll have to properly thank the both of them the next time we're all together. Honestly, it's amazing how he managed to make a near perfect match for Pearl's shell material for these half oyster shells. And he made them a little taller, with the bases sculpted to make a perfect seal with a flat surface. This is professional level stuff.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Jumble definitely asked him to make the colour match." Pearl says appreciatively. "I wonder where he got the materials to make these. Did he take it in with him?"

Good question. One that I'd care way more about if Jumble wasn't obviously aware of this already. Just another thing to ask him about once he… well… I don't want to say 'calms down' or 'gets over it'. Because that's so diminutive to both him and Euro. Once he's ready. Yeah, that feels right.

"So here we are." I flip the shells around and put the pearl under one of them. "Pearl, you mix these up and don't tell me which one the pearl is under. Let's see if I can make this work."

Pearl squishes out of her shell and scurries down my arm. She quickly rearranges the shells–not fast enough that I can't follow which one I put the pearl under–then backs away and motions for me to make the choice.

"Here you go. I'm… not really sure how this is a game of chance, though. You can just follow the cup with your eyes." She tilts her head to the side, then looks up at me. "What happens with that? Does your skill still work?"

I summon a single hex and twirl it through my fingers. "That's what we're here to find out. I wager this on the pearl being in the middle."

Nothing instantly happens. Maybe because we haven't revealed the result yet, or maybe because it didn't work. Only one way to find out. I reach up with my other hand and open the shell–revealing that there's absolutely nothing underneath it. My coin flickers with magic, then disappears.

Pearl stares at the place where it was with an utterly stunned expression. "How… I… the pearl was under there when I mixed them up. Where'd it go?!"

I raise an eyebrow as I gather up the shells, then turn my hand around to reveal the pearl I slipped between my knuckles while Pearl was shuffling the shells. She stares at it like I'm some kind of magician–which is actually pretty insulting since I can actually teleport things. Just in case telling Pearl how I did it makes this unacceptable for a gamble, I decide to keep it to myself.

"Use your awareness if you want to know." I say cryptically. "But if the system accepts a loss and destroys my coin for it, then it'll have to accept a win as well. Probably not if I put the pearl under the shell, though; you'd have to do it while I'm looking away."

"And when you're not using your awareness." Pearl adds.

"That, too."

"Ooh, and we can't use it on your hand. You'd be able to feel the pearl rolling against your skin."

I plaster on a false smile and hold a finger to my mouth. "Pearl…"

Her eyes widen and she lets out a gasp of realization. "Oh! Um, I mean, it's perfectly fine for us to use the back of your hand! There's no way you can cheat with that at all!"

And there goes that option. I sigh and sit down on the floor, then put the three shells down and motion for Pearl to go to them. She offers an apologetic shrug and runs to them, grabs the pearl from my fingers, and motions for me to look away. I do exactly that, but this time, I focus on my awareness. Pearl hides the pearl in the rightmost shell, then shuffles them until it's in the leftmost position.

"Okay, done." She says. "You can turn around."

I pull out another coin and swivel around. Without any hesitation I take the leftmost shell and pull it up, revealing the pearl underneath. My coin shudders once, then disappears. So using awareness for this is definitely out of the picture. I sigh through my nose and wave for Pearl to turn around, then set the shells on my hand and put the pearl under one of them.

"I don't know if this is going to work." Pearl reluctantly admits. "Seems like the ball and cup thing would only work if it's completely random. Otherwise it's not a game of chance."

Game of chance. That's the sticking point. My coinflips only work because I know how to cheat something that's technically a pure fifty-fifty chance, and I'm doing it without my awareness. If someone watching pointed out that I was cheating, then it'd probably fail too. But I can't make the shell game completely random on my own–that's the problem. I'll always know something, and if Pearl has to help, I'm introducing someone that knows how I'm cheating.

So I'm stuck, but I think I know a little more about my skill than before. I can definitely use these shells to cheat other people out of their Worth, but my class isn't swindler. That's where the real difference lies. It has to be a legitimate game of chance that I can cheat at. Honestly, the rules–if my assumptions are actually right–seem kind of bullshit. Because flipping a coin and it actually working is already goddamn unbelievable.

There's just so many ways to cheat it. So… hrm. Maybe it's because the shell game is simply impossible to play 'on my own'. There has to be someone who shuffles the shell and someone who picks it. Same reason why I couldn't… say… play darts for this. I'd need an opponent–or two for this specific example–to get the right odds.

With that assumption instead of the other, what can I do? Assumedly, all I'd need is something with the right odds that doesn't need another person to do anything. I could deal three blackjack hands and play two of them with the dealer's rules against my one hand. I'm damn confident I could do something unrecognizable to a deck of cards to always win.

But that's not what I have right now. I have three shells and one pearl. Is there really nothing I can do with them? Will I actually have to come up with a new game every time my payout goes up? Or would my blackjack idea work, and all I'd have to do is deal one more hand per High Stakes skill upgrade?

I clink the shells together and sigh. Either this is way harder than I'm imaging, or I'm massively overthinking things. You know what? Let's just try something stupid. Something that I'm not sure even counts as a wager. I take the shells in my hand, put the pearl in there with the rest of them, and gently toss them towards the door.

In the split second they hover in the air, I quickly summon a coin and hold it in my palm. I can't tell how they're going to fall–but I can see that two of the shells are going to land in a way that stops them dead in their tracks. The third looks like it'll slide a little. Mentally, I label them one two and three. Then I make a simple wager.

"The pearl will stop closest to shell number three."

I didn't toss them in any special way. They haven't even hit the ground yet. Just like how someone hiding a coin between their hands should make it indiscernible, someone with no outside knowledge would expect this to be fair. Especially if I can reproduce this. The shells hit the ground. They scatter just like I expected.

Then the pearl hits. It rolls just a little, but it isn't perfectly round. So it wavers, turns, and makes its way towards shell number three–but in a way that doesn't look overtly cheaty. Pearl hums to herself as the thing slowly wiggles to a stop a few inches from shell number three–which is a few inches more than the next closest shell.

Once it does, my coin flickers. Magic wells up in it and bulges the way it feels in my awareness. And it stays. I can't help the grin that tugs at the corners of my lips. Because this method isn't just easy. It's easily scaleable.

I pull out another coin as Pearl claps for my success. Next step is seeing how reproducible this actually is.

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