Aiden seemed like he wanted to continue talking about the 'boyfriend' issue despite Lexie's insistence that it was a non-issue. He was worried about her getting her heart broken and was equally determined to either prevent or coach her through it.

He kept going on about Wisteria Calmpotter and Victor Valdam until Lexie was so sick of it, she just had to distract him.

Which she did promptly by asking, "Exam season is over, isn't it?"

Aiden froze. His expression changed, becoming more guarded.

"Yes." He answered with an implied question mark like he didn't really want to.

"So are you going to tell me how you made the <Out Of Sight> card now?"

He opened his mouth, made some protesting noises, and worked himself to come up with another excuse. When he couldn't, and when Lexie kept staring at him steadily, he finally sat on her bed and exhaled. "Fine. But before I start, I want to make it clear that this is not something I endorse at all, and it only worked due to a specific set of circumstances. It might not even work for you."

She nodded and waited.

"As I said, I created the card under duress, to avoid a particularly treacherous bully. While creating it, I didn't really yet understand the concept of intent, so I asked Naem for help making it. I was only half-serious. It was kind of a test, to see if he was real or not. Up till that point, he'd only appeared in my dreams, and I wanted to be sure I wasn't going crazy. He told me that he would help but I would need to give him access to my powers first. That meant signing a small soul contract, just so we could meet up. I read the terms and they seemed harmless enough and easily severed, so I signed."

"How did you know he wasn't lying?"

"Eldritch don't lie," he said. "They can't, not even in dreams."

"Naem said his brother was a liar didn't he?"

"Neqal is a different thing, a hybrid. Naem is pure Eldritch, he wouldn't lie."

Lexie nodded. "So you created the card in your dreams?"

"No. In a pocket dimension that he created, well, we created…" He bent his head. "It's kind of difficult to explain, but yes it was in a pocket dimension that was technically Eldritch territory since Naem's mana was involved in making it. And there, he gave me the tools that helped me craft the card. It used my mana, but it also used eldritch mana as well as mana drawn from the pocket dimension which acted as a permanent mana well. That's why <Out of Sight, Out Of Mind> doesn't require external mana to work. It uses Eldritch, not human mana to sustain it and Eldritch mana is far vaster, and can feel limitless."

"Wow." Lexie was amazed. Even though she'd kind of guessed some of that, it was still shocking to be proven right. "How did the system allow that?"

"The card is registered in the system as a foreign creation, not a human-created card, that's how," he said. "It was integrated as a property of a foreign Fae ambassador, and the system views it as such. The Fae have a different system that's superior to ours so our system technically cannot prevent their creation from being used on our planet unless it's marked as extremely dangerous. All our system can do is to integrate it as best as it can."

Lexie nodded and her mind suddenly flashed to something that happened at that dinner at the Azures months ago, the first night she met Naem. Theo had announced that a foreign ambassador reportedly arrived on Earth on the same day Naem did. And now Aiden was stating that he registered the card as the property of a foreign ambassador.

What an interesting coincidence.

She didn't ask about it, because she didn't want her father to balk or deviate from the topic. She would figure that one out on her own.

"Why didn't you make more cards like that then?" Lexie asked.

"Well like I said, the first one wiped me out. Though it used Eldritch mana, it still had to use a lot of my mana and my pathways as a conduit and that wasn't an easy thing at all. Also, card magic wasn't something that particularly interested me beyond that one instance." he says. "It always felt too limiting for what I wanted to do so I moved on to other things. Not to mention that Naem's method of teaching and finding intent could get pretty…violent. And it wasn't the Fae-approved way because Naem insisted that the Fae way was wrong." Aiden shrugged. "Never did figure which of them was correct."

Lexie nodded. Naem had also expressed his disdain for the Fae intent to her. "Thanks for letting me know."

"Of course," he said, rising and brushing his lips over her head. "I told you I would always be honest with you."

"Yeah." She attempted to smile but it was tight at the corners even as the stone sank in her stomach. The irony of that statement, considering what she'd discovered today, did not escape her.

After Aiden left, Lexie refocused on her crafting of the card. Kill her wind. She let the intent settle in her mind as she whipped out a pad, drafting up the simple pathway that she would create to do just that.

She needed something that would cancel out the wind, both around and inside her opponent. The wind beneath her feet, the wind flowing in her pathways. Cara was made of wind. That reminded Lexie of something, and someone else.

Was Theo Firebringer made of fire too? Was that how he could swallow fire?

It was so interesting to think about and it made sense. But why did he spit out silver after he did it? She assumed the silver orb was some kind of neutralizer to cancel out the flames, but maybe it played another role. Maybe he literally swallowed the fire and absorbed it into his body.

Crazy to think about.

That was beside the point. She would consider that later if she had time. Right now, she needed to find a way to cancel out Cara's wind. What was the opposite of wind? Earth? Weight? Stillness?

No, Lexie instantly stopped herself. She was still thinking too rationally and she already knew she was going in the wrong direction. She knew because she governed by the intent that was driving her, like a mantra in her mind, and it nudged her where it wanted her to go. Kill her wind. How does one kill the wind exactly? Perhaps she should look at the Fae stories for this, to see if there was anything of anyone killing the wind. That's right. That was exactly what her father taught her, in all things she must think like the Fae.

But she had been given the clue by an Eldritch, so should she be thinking like the Eldritch instead?

Well, she didn't have any Eldritch fables to read, so it had to be the Fae. She searched through her Fae fables and Fae history, trying to think of any stories where wind played a significant factor. Thankfully she'd spent a year studying the Fae and two stories instantly popped into mind, although she had to read them again to truly understand what they were talking about.

One of them was about a storm that had raged through a minor village and it had been sent by a vengeful creature as revenge for the villagers not sharing their produce with a young boy. Lexie had initially thought the intent behind the story would be used to create a card that would make one more generous but now that she considered it, Kill the Wind worked here too. There was a glowing bright bulb in her skull that told her she was on the right path, that this story was relevant to what she wanted to create.

So that was what Aiden meant by perception. It was just knowing things without having a clear reason to know them. It was like seeing something but not with your physical eye, but with the metaphysical. She didn't know what was guiding her exactly or why it worked, but she just knew it was there.

Is this what Dewie feels when he sees the things he does? No wonder he's always so convinced by them. Maybe Dewie's higher belief is why he can see them physically too. Am I growing my belief now as well?

Okay, no time to get distracted. She read to the end of the story.

The storm had raged until another creature came and sucked all of the storm into a forcefield and either snuffed it out at once, or sent it into a different reality. Lexie probably couldn't do the different reality thing, but she should be able to suck that wind into a forcefield and hold it there for some time.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

So she began crafting a pathway that would do just that.

She placed the activation node and then began drawing out the series of nodes that would take the action. First to identify the wind inside Cara, excluding the one in her lungs. She didn't want to choke her out, after all. That was placed at the first three node branches and then she moved on to the others. She placed a buffer node to control just how much wind she was removing. A linking node, to draw the wind into a forefield. Several nodes to describe the nature of the forcefield, replicating the logic structure she found from another card that also had a forcefield involved.

Lexie was in the zone, scribbling and scratching like a madwoman, when the knock came on the door. She turned around to see Aiden standing there. "Dinner is ready."

"Huh," she said. "That was fast. I thought it would take an hour."

"It did." He sounded amused, glancing at her pad. "Does this have to do with training?"

"Uh-huh."

She'd finally told Aiden about her training at the dojo, but she'd told him it was simply to test the defensibility of her cards. He'd smiled and gave her his blessing, reminding her not to get hurt.

"I'm guessing you're working on that card to beat that girl?" Aiden said amused.

Lexie nodded frantically. "And I think I just figured out the whole intent thing you've been telling me about for a year now. I got one for this card I'm making and it's perfect." She smiled evilly. "I'm going to kill her wind, Dad."

Humor glinted in his eyes. "Glad to hear it. But I'll remind you that you need to eat my little wind-killing mad scientist." And with that, he picked her out of her seat carrying her out the door. Lexie wiggled and swung her legs.

"Aiden, you can't keep carrying me. I'm too old for this."

"Never too old in my opinion," he said, giving her a look. "And it's 'Dad', not Aiden."

"Right." Damn, she'd slipped up again.

As Aiden carried her down, Lexie explained to him how she figured out the intent and how she'd crafted the pathway. When he put her down at the dining table, she finally concluded. "Oh, and it's all thanks to your Eldritch friend, Naem."

Aiden paused and frowned in the process of plating the spaghetti. "Really?"

"Yeah. When he came over last time we talked about 'intent'. He said I should just listen to my instinct and be honest with myself." Lexie frowned. "At least that's what I think he said. Oh, and he also told me to focus on the story and start there."

"Right." Aiden looked apprehensive. "What else did Litchie tell you?"

"Not much. We just talked about that and he left."

"Right…" Aiden still seemed bothered by it as brought his plate of pasta and Lexie's to the table. "Do me a favor. If he ever reaches out to talk to you again, can you tell me?"

Lexie took a bite of her food slowly. "Did I do something wrong?"

"No, no, no, you did nothing wrong, honeybee. And that was good advice he gave you, as long as that's all it was. I'm just trying to figure out what Naem was doing here in the first place."

"He said he was looking for cookies."

"Yes, but why would he show up unannounced, instead of just letting me know he wanted cookies?"

Lexie shrugged. "Maybe he didn't think you would share them with him."

Aiden didn't smile at Lexie's joke. He continued to chew while staring into space.

"I thought you said he was a good guy," Lexie asked quietly and Aiden gave her a stricken look.

"I never said that. I said he was playful for an Eldritch and he's not a threat to you. But he is still an Eldritch, and we can't use our morality to judge them."

"You think he might be scheming something?"

"Maybe."

Lexie stared at her father and told him, "I asked him if he wanted my soul and he basically scoffed at me. I think the suggestion icked him out."

Aiden smiled. "Don't take offense at that. Eldritch Lords are very particular with souls."

"Meaning they only want S-Rank Mage souls?"

"Not just that. They have to find you specifically useful to them in some way to risk it. Remember a soul contract binds them to you too." He pursed his lip. "Naem already told me he's not interested in your soul and doesn't intend any harm to come to you. Eldritch don't lie. So I assume there's something else he might want. I just don't know what."

Lexie chewed and wondered the same thing.

After dinner, she helped her father clean up, then basically raced back up to her desk so she could continue the planning of the card.

She got done with the logic pathway sometime around midnight and made sure it was sound before, before moving on to the actual crafting. Then she hooked up the card generator that Elvira had given her and began to generate mana into the card, mixing it with her mana and using her internal pathways as a conduit.

Immediately it was done, she got a message:

ERROR. CARD POWER TOO HIGH. REDUCE POWER OF CARD NOW.

Lexie sighed. Of course, it wouldn't be that easy. She thought about ways to tweak it, then reduced the active time, and the amount of wind that got siphoned into the forcefield. She tried to run it again, and received the same error message.

ERROR. CARD POWER TOO HIGH. REDUCE POWER OF CARD NOW.

Well, this was irritating.

They essentially wanted her to make a card that was so low-powered, it was practically useless before she could use it. Her brilliant idea to kill Cara's wind was sound and she didn't receive any errors concerning the intent and the invalidity of the skill, like she usually did. Now she was just getting errors because the card was too good at what it did. Great.

She sighed and finally cut the amount of wind removed by at least three-quarters, reducing the forcefield size also. Only then did the card start to swirl about and fizzing words blinked in her vision:

CONGRATULATIONS! YOU HAVE CREATED A VALID CARD

ENTER CARD NAME NOW

Shoot, she hadn't thought of a name yet. Aiden had said that the names of the cards had to be whimsical for two reasons: whimsy supposedly gave the card a boost in effectiveness, and it also made them easier to sell.

Lexie didn't think she wanted to mass produce or sell the Lexie defense deck but she did want extra credit for whimsy.

She searched for catchy phrases that had to do with killing wind. Lexie was bad at names so she gave up and finally texted in the group chat, which had not been as active as usual as her friends got adjusted to school life.

Lexie: What's a good name for a card that kills wind? I have Wind Killer, Gone with the Wind, Master of Storms, Bite the wind? Windfall?

Xena was the first to answer, about five minutes later.

Xena: How about Windbreaker?

"Windbreaker?" Lexie smiled. "I like it."

Dewie gave his support for the name too.

Dewie: Windbreaker sounds good.

And with that, it was settled.

Lexie entered the name and it got approved giving a +2 boost to the effectiveness of the card.

The system alerted her again:

GIVE DESCRIPTION OF CARD

Lexie did so, as briefly and excitedly as she could.

Then came the final prompt:

WOULD YOU LIKE TO ADD TO THE STARTER DECK? [Yes] [No]

IF NOT, CREATE A NEW DECK?

Lexie thought about it and created a nameless deck, whose details she only had to fill out when adding a second card. For now, the system AI would use attributes about the first card to suggest potential deck names and purposes. For example, for Wind Breaker, it guessed that this was going to be part of a FARMER'S DECK or WEATHERMAN'S DECK. It was neither so Lexie simply turned down the suggestions and left the deck nameless.

Glowing holograms swirled in the air once she was done. They gradually formed the activation symbols of the card. It looked like a whirlpool and a dagger combined and made into a Tetris form. So cool.

The symbol suddenly shattered in the air, and disappeared, flashing into the card she now held in her hand.

Despite the struggles, or maybe because of them, Lexie was elated.

She had just made her first-ever card from scratch.

But on the other hand, she felt a little hollow and unsatisfied with the result.

***

Lexie decided to test the card as soon as possible. At the next meeting, after her aerobic session, she walked up to Cara and said, "Hey. You up for a spar?"

The other girl grinned. "Of course. I'm dying to see what else you have up your sleeve today."

"Great." Lexie grinned and they both went out to the middle of the mat.

They took their position and waited for the timer to countdown as Lexie activated the new card. She tried to get around the power limitation by skipping the debuff node that she'd had to install at the end.

Of course, doing so wouldn't boost the card's power to where she had it in the beginning before the first debuff, but it would get it maybe seventy percent there if she was lucky.

She completed activation and pointed at Cara right as she charged.

The effect was instant and noticeable. A transparent forcefield swirled next to Cara, seemingly attached to her legs, moving as she moved. As it grew, Cara slowed down significantly and frowned at her feet.

She stopped.

"What the heck? Why do I feel heavier, Lexie?"

"Because I killed your wind," Lexie said, with a triumphant smile. She felt the mana drain on herself s well. The card power was a 7 and skipping the debuff node made it even more so.

Nevertheless, she was happy to see that she could get around the limitations, so much so that she didn't resist as the effect ran out and Cara sent her on her ass once more.

Cara was smiling too as her face appeared above Lexie's.

"That was amazing," she exclaimed. And she truly looked like she meant it.

Lexie gave her a wry look. "Not amazing enough."

"No, it really was." Cara helped her up. "Like, how did you do that? I felt like lead for a few seconds there."

Before Lexie could respond they were interrupted by clapping and a foreign voice, "Did my baby cousin just kick a little girl's ass?"

Cara stiffened and called out, "She's not a little girl, Kai. We're almost the same age."

She glared over at the doorway where two boys sauntered in, only one of whom Lexie recognized. Torin Firebringer.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.