Rising Shards

To start the game, the mysterious energy bindings on us were released. The devils' first instinct was to attack, with Anastasia, Sai, Myles, Ash, and Charmaine all simultaneously unleashing their powers, mixes of shadows and each devil's particular elemental ability. It of course was futile, as a bubble revealed itself, blocking the attacks just before they could reach Thadley.

"Yeah, like you still gotta play," Thadley said.

"Hey, if you're the Cani safety guy, why would you put us through this?" Michi asked.

Thadley pulled at his hair a bit, twirling a bit around in his fingers. "I don't think it's that big a deal. It's just a game, you know?"

"It's likely he's some kind of retention sprite or void monster, it's possible he won't be able to converse much outside of his 'programming,'" I said.

"Are you a retention sprite?" Michi asked. "I'm sure you won't tell us, but I have to ask."

"Uh....hm," Thadley looked genuinely confused by the question.

"After all those hours and hours of training videos they made us watch in the labs starring him, I honestly can't tell if this is how the real thing would act too," Charmaine said.

"So stupid he's indistinguishable from a mindless retention sprite," Sai said.

"Excuse me," Rain said. "But I am Novu royalty, and I do not approve of being utilized in a game like this. If this is some scheme by Chomper, please come forward and admit it so you can be adequately punished."

Thadley looked even more confused.

"What did you think was going to happen there?" Anastasia asked.

"I wanted to appeal to his sense of respect for royal authority," Rain said.

"It was a terrific idea, Rain, but it looks like it didn't quite land this time," Amara said.

"You know though, being on a TV set isn't the worst void situation we could've ended up in," KJ said. "If that barrier wasn't around I'd definitely be checking out that camera equipment."

"It probably doesn't even work," Anastasia said. "Void recreation and all."

Anastasia's abrasive personality mixed with the eccentric love trio would probably be like mixing fire and oil, but I wasn't really in the mood to play peace maker between them.

"We've only just gotten here, what exactly is the stupid void thing this time?" Rain asked.

"Some kind of dating game show," Michi said. "Based on a reality show from forever ago."

"Huh," Rain said.

"Hmmm," KJ stroked her chin.

"This could be..." Amara said.

"Kind of..." Rain said.

"Perfect?" The three said in unison.

The love trio cheered and hugged and jumped up and down.

"You see, Rain, KJ, and I have begun attempting a more open relationship, trying to gain more experience romantically to aid us, as we all collectively are a bit...amateur," Amara said.

"We don't care," Anastasia said.

"How's it going, you ask?" Amara said.

"Nobody asked," Anastasia said.

"It's pretty freaking tough!" Amara said.

"We throw lines out, in a fishing sense, you know? No biters," KJ said.

"So while this does take away from the day's tea party, perhaps getting interrupted to be whisked away to some sort of matchmaking game could be beneficial!" Rain said.

"Please do not let me get paired up with you," Anastasia said.

"Is it just me, or has Zeta gotten taller and meaner?" Rain asked.

Sai muttered something under their breath. Anastasia looked like she wanted to respond, but was already red in the face getting compared to Zeta in any way.

"That's her sister," Ash said.

"The librarian?" Rain asked.

"No," Ash said. "Other sister."

"Huh..." Rain looked like she wasn't listening at this point.

For some kind of void monster enemy, Thadley was oddly welcoming for us to go on a tangent like that. At least for a little bit.

"OK, so anyways,” Thadley said, pressing a button on a remote that seemed to appear in his hands out of thin air. A moment later, squares of curtains dropped down over each of us. The obnoxious voice that introduced the show called out once more.

“Welcome to the preliminary round of love of Thadley’s Love: Matchmaker Edition! To get this love train rolling, we have just a few questions to ensure we match you up with your best potential mate.”

“Mate,” I scoffed, not liking how that sounded.

Glowing words floated in front of me, each a descriptor like “kind,” “sexy,” “smart,” “organized,” “luminescent skin,” “wears big hats.”

“Of the words in front of you, pick the three that most describe what you are looking for in a partner,”

I didn’t ruminate on it too long. I reached out to “kind,” and “smart,” then accidentally grabbed “clown enthusiast” as I reached for “witty,” but I supposed smart and witty probably covered the same field well enough. After a few moments of waiting, the words vanished, and the curtains lifted.

“Cool, picking magic floating words, that’s romantic,” Thadley said. "Next...uh...it's a lot harder when I'm hosting instead of being the most, you know? Like when I was the object of affection I just let everyone else do the hard stuff. Narrator guy, you want to tell them what to do now or whatever?"

"Sure thing, Thadley!" The narrator practically screamed. "Next will be a stupendous and terrific lightning round where you and your potential mates will get to chatter and yap and stammer and fall in love! Each word spoken gets you closer to your true love, perhaps? Perhaps so! Let's find out!"

Arrows appeared before us, floating and glowing like the words, guiding us to the next phase of the game.

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