Emily looked at the board.
Then at Grim.
Then at the board again.
"That’s not fair."
**"It’s strategy."**
Kira: "When did you build on the south corridor?"
**"An hour ago."**
"How did we not see it?"
**"You were arguing about South Port."**
Maya looked at the board with the expression of soone recalculating everything she had believed about the ga.
"You won while we fought."
**"Yes."**
"Deliberately?"
**"I observed that the group’s attention was focused on the conflicts between bearers and I used the low-observation turns to position myself."**
Three seconds of silence.
Raven analyzed with genuine surprise and fascination.
"That’s exactly what I would do."
**"I know. I learned by watching you."**
Raven looked at him.
Then she burst out laughing.
---
The laughter spread around the table.
Not all at once — first Raven, then Emily who tried not to laugh and couldn’t, then Kira with that soft sound that was her version of laughing hard, then Maya who covered her mouth for a second before giving in, then Alex.
The boy watched them laugh.
Without completely understanding why it was funny.
But sothing in his expression changed — a slight relaxation around his eyes, the corner of his mouth moving upward almost without wanting to.
"Was it fun?" he asked quietly.
Emily looked at him.
"It was very fun," she said. "Did you have a good ti?"
The boy thought about the question honestly.
"I didn’t understand all the rules."
"No one understands them completely."
"Raven invented so."
"That’s also normal."
The boy looked at the board — Grim’s properties dominating the whole circuit, everyone else’s pieces scattered, the paper Crowns stacked in front of each player.
"I would like to play again," he said.
Emily smiled.
"The next loser organizes the next ga."
"I lost first," said the boy.
"Then you organize."
The boy nodded seriously, as if accepting a real mission.
---
"Alright." Raven pushed her chair back. "Now that this is over."
She stood up.
She walked toward Alex.
She took his arm and in one fluid motion pulled him toward her. Alex’s head ended up exactly where Raven calculated it would — against her chest, Raven’s arms around him with the natural possessiveness of soone announcing what is theirs.
Alex made a sound that was half protest and half blessed.
Raven put the Crowns and Kingdoms banknotes in Grim’s hand.
"For the ga," she said.
"Is that paynt?" asked Emily.
"It’s recognition of the winner." Raven adjusted Alex more comfortably. "The logic is solid."
Emily looked at the scene.
Then at her own banknotes.
She also put them in Grim’s hand.
She stood up, went to Alex’s other side, and took his arm with both hands — her cheek against his shoulder, her eyes with that expression she had when she wasn’t trying to hide anything.
"That’s not fair either," said Raven, without letting him go.
"You started it."
"I started earlier."
"There are no turns in this."
Alex, from the middle, looking at the ceiling: "Anyone?"
Kira left her boat token on the board.
She stood up with her usual practicality.
"Alex promised that once we finished with the Fragnt 4 business, we would have our intimate mont like he does with Raven."
She joined the group with the sa naturalness with which she would join a combat formation — taking position on Alex’s left flank, her arms around his waist, her ears completely up.
"So it’s my turn."
The result was imdiate.
Raven pulling from the right.
Emily holding the left arm.
Kira from the flank with a tracker’s grip.
Three forces in three directions.
Alex in the center being literally stretched.
"Girls—"
"Silence," said Raven.
"Emily—"
"I’m fine here," said Emily without letting go.
"Kira at least—"
"You promised," said Kira.
Physics made its decision.
Alex shot forward.
Not dramatically — the combined pressure of three people pulling at different angles found the only resulting vector available: forward and slightly to the right.
Toward where Maya was sitting.
Alex landed in Maya’s arms.
Not gracefully.
More like he fell, and Maya’s arms closed around him by reflex before any conscious decision could intervene.
They looked at each other.
Maya with Alex in her arms and the expression of soone who didn’t plan this but who also isn’t going to pretend she didn’t want it to happen.
"Thanks," said Alex.
Maya didn’t respond imdiately.
Akari in her lap turned her head toward her.
She looked at her.
She gave a small, deliberate nod, with the seriousness of a nine-tailed fox.
Maya took a breath.
And instead of letting him go, she pulled him closer.
Not with Raven’s possessiveness or Kira’s naturalness or Emily’s warmth.
With the awkwardness of soone who has spent months thinking about doing sothing and is doing it for the first ti.
Raven, Emily, and Kira looked at the scene.
Raven smiled.
Emily raised her hand to cover her mouth and failed.
Kira tilted her head with the expression of soone filing away information.
Then all three moved toward Alex simultaneously.
The second war for Alex Carter’s custody began in Veltharr at two-fifteen in the afternoon of the first recovery day.
---
Grim looked at the stack of banknotes in front of him.
Colored paper Crowns.
Useless outside the board.
Enough to buy the entire Crowns and Kingdoms ga three tis.
He counted them.
Then he looked at the boy at the other end of the table, who was watching the chaos of four people and one Fragnt bearer being stretched in multiple directions with the expression of soone seeing sothing that didn’t exist in any reference he had.
Grim took half the stack of banknotes.
He extended them to the boy.
The boy looked at them.
**"Welco,"** said Grim.
The boy took the banknotes.
He looked at them.
He looked at the chaos at the table.
Alex trying to negotiate with three people simultaneously while Maya held him with determination.
Raven arguing temporal precedence.
Emily arguing emotional depth.
Kira arguing there was a binding verbal agreent.
Grim with his stack of paper Crowns and his still crimson flas.
The boy looked at his banknotes.
"What do we do with all this?"
**"Nothing."** Grim arranged his stack. **"It’s paper."**
"Then why did we play?"
Grim considered the question.
**"For this."**
He pointed toward the table.
The chaos.
The overlapping voices.
Emily laughing while arguing.
Kira with her ears completely up.
Raven with that specific smile.
Maya with slightly flushed cheeks and Alex in her arms, who had already stopped trying to escape.
The boy looked at all of that.
And sothing in his expression — the eyes that were almost no longer violet, the face that was learning which expressions belonged to it — settled.
Like when a piece finds its place in a system, and the system finally works as it was designed.
"Ah," said the boy.
**"Ah,"** confird Grim.
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