Flynn stood outside the local branch of the Magical Card Emporium clutching five card fragments in his hands. The shop was part of the largest card brokerage in the kingdom and the best place within a hundred miles to buy cards and turn fragments into new cards. Not to mention the fact that it was the only sanctioned card shop in Aramath.

  He had dreamed of this day for a long time, and now that it had finally arrived, he was a little bit nervous. And excited. His body shook with anticipation.

  Flynn took a deep breath and pushed the door open. He’d been in the card shop a hundred times before, browsing and dreaming. Today, for the very first time, he entered the shop as a customer.

  “Hey there, Finny,” a man with a short gray beard greeted him. “I just got a new Epic card in if you want to have a look.”

  Flynn held back the scowl that wanted to form on his face. He hated it when people called him Finny. It wasn’t even his name, and it made him feel like a little kid. He knew the old man didn’t mean anything by it, though. In fact, Walter was one of the very few people that treated him with kindness.

  There weren’t very many shops that would let an orphan browse valuable goods, knowing he didn’t have money to purchase anything. Walter not only let him browse, but he shared new treasures with him. Flynn would never forget the day that the shopkeeper had let him look at a Legendary card that the shop had brokered the sale of.

  The card had been locked inside a small glass case. The edges had glowed a bright white, and an image of five swords covered the back of the card—one long sword in the middle with two others fanned out on each side. The front of the card appeared blank. The full description of the card’s powers could only be read by someone physically holding the card. Walter had told him he hadn’t even read the description of the card. Only the shop owner and the shop’s head Card Master had physically handled the card to verify its authenticity.

  Flynn had felt so much excitement at the prospect of one day possessing a card like that but had also felt incredibly small and insignificant. The amount of wealth that card represented was beyond his comprehension.

  It took four fragments to make a Basic card, four Basic cards to make an Advanced card, four Advanced to make an Elite, and so on. He had never been to school and barely knew any math at all, but he knew that it would take over a thousand Basic card fragments to make a Legendary card. It had taken Flynn over a year and more than fifty battles with small monsters to claim just five fragments.

  None of that mattered now. After today, he would officially be a card-wielding man, and people would treat him differently.

  Flynn approached the counter, unable to contain a smile as he placed the five card fragments on the counter. He assembled four of them into a basic card shape, then slid the fifth over to the side with one finger.

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  Four fragments to make the card plus a fifth fragment to pay the Card Master.

  He looked up at the shopkeeper. “I’m ready to have my first card made.”

  Walter frowned slightly and rubbed his bearded chin with one hand. “Are you sure you want to do that? There’s no telling what card you will get. If you collect a couple more card fragments, you can buy the exact one you want.”

  The shopkeeper pulled a bin off the shelf behind him and put it down on the counter. “Some of these only cost six Basic card fragments.”

  Flynn shook his head. He had looked through the cards in that bin before. Many times. Six fragments would only get him a truly basic card. The kind of card that was used by porters, merchants, and other craftsmen. Even the cheapest of Combat cards cost at least seven or eight fragments.

  Considering how hard it was to find monsters that could be easily defeated by someone without card powers and the fact that most of those didn’t even produce card fragments, it could take Flynn months to get even two more fragments.

  “Some people say that the magic that creates cards matches them to a person’s true destiny,” he said then added to himself, And I am a warrior!

  Walter shook his head. “There’s no proof of that.”

  “I don’t need proof. I am confident in my destiny.”

  “Okay, I will get the Card Master for you.”

  The shopkeeper turned and went through a door behind the counter. He returned a moment later with a dark-haired man wearing a long-sleeved black robe.

  The man approached Flynn and his card fragments. He put both hands on the counter and looked at the young man. “So, you want to create a Basic card?”

  Flynn glanced down at the man’s hands and saw the tattoo on the back of the Card Master’s right hand. It showed a pair of cards with magical symbols on them—one with a gray border, the other with a copper-colored border. That meant the man had absorbed an Advanced level card crafting card and could work with anything up to Advanced cards. That included everything from turning four card fragments into a Basic card up to turning four Advanced cards of the same kind into an Elite card of similar power.

  He looked up at the Advanced Level Card Master and said, “Yes, I am ready to create a card, and I have the extra fragment to pay the fee.”

  The man looked at him with a sour expression on his face. “You know that I cannot guarantee any specific result. In fact, I can almost guarantee you will not get the result you expect.”

  Flynn refused to be dissuaded. “I was told that the magic gives you the card that you truly need.”

  “Hmph. That hypothesis has never been proven, and even if it is true, the magic will give you the card that you need, which is rarely the card that you want.”

  Walter gave Flynn a look that said, “I told you so,” and put his hand on the box of cards he’d placed on the counter before summoning the Card Master.

  Flynn shook his head at the shopkeeper then spoke aloud to both men. “I have faith that the magic system will give me the card that I need.”

  The Card Master shrugged and placed his tattooed hand over the four fragments. His card tattoo began to glow, and the light coalesced in his palm before flowing down to the card pieces. A swirling gray mist formed between his hand and the card fragments, followed a moment later by a flash of light pulsed out from under his hand.

  The man swiped the fifth fragment with his off hand and put the payment for his services in a pocket. He then lifted his card-tattooed hand, revealing Flynn’s card, before swiftly turning and disappearing into the back room from where he’d come.