Tournament of Wars

MIXIE

A loud banging sound, which nearly made me jump out of my skin, awoke me. My eyes shot open, and I yelped in surprise as I sat straight up in bed. It had been raining all night, and I could hear my heart pounding loudly in my ears and thumping roughly against my ribcage. I felt Sin sit up in bed beside me, and he wrapped his protective arms around my waist, drawing me tightly against his warm body.

“The thunder startled you... didn’t it?” he asked in a gentle voice.

“Yeah,” I said, exhaling softly. “I keep having a nightmare about the Council of Chronos kidnapping you and turning you against me.”

“That will never happen, Mixie,” he replied as he kissed me softly on my left shoulder. “Veda said as long as I am in love with you, I am exiled from the COC and my inheritance.”

I leaned over and clicked on the lamp that was beside me on the nightstand and I looked at him. Sin’s real name is Chassin Lightborn, but the Council of Chronos nicknamed him Sin. He is seventeen, with dark brown hair and baby blue eyes. He was the son of Veda Lightborn and Broderick Cade Lightborn, who are the owners of Aggrivao Silverlace Industries and COC Members themselves.

Sin is wealthy beyond my comprehension, and he oversees my Card Master’s Trading Card Game, which was about to launch soon. But the thing I still found to be bizarre was that Sin turned out to be Frederick Lightborn, Priestess Cressida’s lover. I am the reincarnation of Priestess Cressida, and I can transfer her soul into one of the playing cards in my deck to free myself from her.

“Sin,” I said as I handed him his dark-rimmed glasses. I watched him put them on as I continued to talk to him. My name is Mixie Avalon. I’m sixteen years old and I have orange hair with a blonde streak down the middle of it. “You really don’t need to defend me if it means you lose your inheritance to Aggrivao Silverlace Industries. The Council of Chronos has fought for centuries to keep us apart, and they will not stop hunting us both down in any lifetime.”

He smiled as he gazed down at me. At least I hoped he was looking at me. I could never quite tell when he was wearing his glasses. He wore them because artificial light gave him terrible migraines.

“You are the first person in history to give a damn about my wellbeing,” he said, growing serious. “You forget you are my investment, and I will make my fortune with you standing by my side, Mixie,” he paused. “Besides, before all of this happened, I bought out Galaxy Corporation. So, I have a starting point for us.”

Nervously biting my lower lip. “I thought you were going to stop calling me your investment... remember?” I reminded him. “It makes me feel like I am a piece of property when you call me that.”

“Well, you are my property, remember?” he said. “I purchased you from the Council of Chronos before anything happened. Did you forget you are an alien and not a human being, Mixie?”

“No,” I said, playing with a strand of my long orange hair with my index finger. “Of course, I remember. I’m an alien from Outer Earth... wherever that is?”

“I will do whatever it takes to help you get back home, okay?” Sin said to me with sincerity in his voice. “But for right now, we gotta get some sleep, or it will exhaust us tomorrow.”

“I’m not tired,” I said as I reached over and clicked the lamp off. I saw him remove his dark-rimmed glasses and place them back onto the nightstand. He whispered something into my ear, and I felt myself passing out as I fell onto his chest.

I awoke the next morning and found Sin staring back at me as he was sitting on the edge of my bed. He must have gotten up early because he had already dressed himself in his jeans, a black T-shirt, and had his dark-rimmed glasses covering his eyes. I looked over at the clock and saw that it was six o’clock in the morning.

“Stop doing that to me,” I said as I sat up and stretched my muscles out.

“Stop doing what?” He asked me with a confused look on his face.

“That thing where you say something to me, and I pass out from it,” I said as I fought with the blankets to untangle my legs from them. “I don’t like it when you do that to me... it makes me feel like I’m a caged animal or something.”

“I’m sorry,” Sin said. “I don’t intend to make you feel vulnerable.”

I laughed as I climbed out of bed, and I walked over to where Sin was standing. I looked up at him and I smiled.

“Are we seriously fighting right now?” I asked.

“Are we fighting?” He asked me, still confused. His cell phone rang, and we both glanced down at it. Pulled it out of his pocket and looked at the screen with a slight frown on his face. “It’s Veda calling,” he said. Before I could tell him to hang up on her, he pressed the talk button and answered her call on speakerphone. “Hello Mother,” he said. “To what do I owe the pleasure of this wonderful phone call at six in the morning?”

The other end of the line was silent for a moment, and I wasn’t sure if Veda was going to speak or not. “I was just calling to see if you were ready to come home, Sin?” she asked. “Both your father and I miss you, son.”

He scoffed. “I’m sure you do,” he said coldly. “I’m done with the MK Ultra sessions, Veda—”

“The MK Ultra program was all your father’s doing, Sin,” Veda said. “I had nothing to do with that, son.”

“I’m sure you didn’t, Mother,” Chassin said to her. “What’s the real reason you are calling me?”

“I have a proposition for you and your investment, Sin,” she said. I rolled my eyes when she called me his “investment.”

“We’re listening,” he said as he looked up at me while we waited to hear what Veda had to say to us.

“The Council of Chronos would like your investment to partake in the very first Card Master’s tournament.”

“And why would I do that?” I said I could not keep myself in check. Veda couldn’t hurt me through the phone. “You guys kidnapped my mother and I want her back.”

“Oh, child, we don’t have your mother with us,” Veda said. “If she disappeared, it was because of you.”

The Council of Chronos doesn’t have my mother?... Where on Earth can she be?...

Veda paused briefly before continuing. “The stipulation is for Miss. Avalon to take part in the Card Master’s Tournament, and if she wins, I will grant her her freedom. But if she loses, she will remain a prisoner to the Council of Chronos forever because she is an alien.”

Before Chassin could interject, I spoke. “Okay, I’ll do it,” I said without hesitation in my voice. “You’re not planning on killing me during the tournament, are you?”

Veda scoffed. “If we were planning on killing you, Miss. Avalon, we would have done so already,” she said. “You are still a target on our radar, and we will deal with you when the time comes.” She paused. “Chassin had better be monitoring you just to be on the safe side. We are only holding off on our attack on you because during the tournament there are going to be many people around and we do not need to have witnesses to see the Council of Chronos.”

“You’re too kind,” I replied flatly.

“By the way, Sin, how are you planning on having the Feuders feuding without using our technology back at Aggrivao Silverlace Industries?”

“I have already created a feuding item that each Feuder will use during the tournament, Mother.” he spoke. “My investment will triple my money by the end of the tournament.”

“You had better hope so, Sin,” Veda said coldly. “You soon realize that being in a relationship with Priestess Cressida will be a mistake and your career will be on the line due to it.”

He ended the call as he looked at me as he placed his cell back into the pocket of his jeans. “We can’t be together, Mixie,” he said in a quiet voice.

“Why not?” I asked him, not understanding why he suddenly reconsidered. “Did I do something wrong?”

“No,” he said as he nervously raked his fingers through his thick, brown hair. “The only way for me to protect you... is for us to not be together. Do you understand what I am telling you?”

“I guess so,” I said as I felt my heart breaking from being dumped by him so soon. “I think you should go. My aunt should come into town any time now.”

Chassin nodded curtly at me. “We will still be business partners as the launch of Card Master’s quickly approaches... so we will have to be professionals around each other, Mixie.”

“Whatever,” I said as I turned my back towards him. I walked towards the window, and I could hear him leaving my room, walking down the hallway, down the steps and out the door as it closed behind him.

Chassin walked up the sidewalk towards his car and stopped and looked up at me. I Felt the tears stinging behind my eyes as they rolled down my cheeks. I used the back of my hand to wipe them away as he turned and unlocked his car door. He opened it and climbed inside. He closed it and a moment later; I heard his engine roar to life.

Chassin pulled away from my house and I sighed as I turned and looked at my bed and stopped dead in my tracks as I looked at what he left behind. It was a small black box with a note attached to it. I hesitated as I walked over and picked up the note. I unfolded it and read it:

Dear Mixie,

I know you are most likely upset with me by how things ended up this morning. Just know that I love you and I will always love you. I have also left you a present because you mean the world to me. I know it doesn’t seem that way now, but I hope in time you understand that what I am doing for us will make our love grow stronger. We are bound by fate, you and me. So, I am leaving you the very first Feuding Ring which you will need to take part in the Card Master’s Tournament.

Love always,

Sin

I placed the note on the bed, and I picked up the small black box. I lifted the lid and inside of the box was a silver ring with two small blue circular gems in the center and the other on the side. I took it out of the box and carefully placed the ring on the index finger of my right hand. Pressing the blue gem, and, to my surprise, it sank into the ring and a row of metal slid up and out of the ring until it was long enough to hold my card deck. I pressed the middle square, and the row folded back into itself and slid back and down onto the ring.

“This is craziness!” I said aloud.

Just then, my phone chimed, letting me know I had just received a text message. The phone was on when I turned it on. The message came from Chassin when I clicked on the button. I sighed heavily and clicked on the message.

Do you like the Feuding ring I left you?

Yeah.

I typed back and hit send.

He messaged me back. And I clicked on it.

I’m glad. Did you see the other present I left for you?

No?

I typed back.

See what it is.

Rolling my eyes, but walked back to my bed and checked the box again. There was another ring inside of the box. It was also silver, but this ring had a diamond shaped in a heart in the center. I pulled it out and placed it onto my ring finger of my right hand.

What’s this ring for?

I asked.

That ring... I will explain in person. Get dressed and meet me at Galaxy Corporations.