Layt couldn’t believe his eyes. He must be dreaming. No, he was certain of it. He was dreaming. Either that, or he was hallucinating. For there was no other explanation for what he was seeing.

  Talia was there, in dragon form, playing house with the human candidate.

  He wasn’t jealous. No, he wasn’t. There was nothing to be jealous about. She was a barbarian who only cared about one thing and one thing alone, kicking his butt.

  How dare she play house with him when she refused all his tea invitations?

  Alright, he was a bit jealous. But only because it had taken him hundreds of years to have her talk to him. Well, it might have been his fault. He didn’t know that his words would kill all chance of friendship. He was young, alright? And kids tended to make mistakes. He didn’t know she was a stranger to Idir, and some stupid words would send her into a spiral.

  But she didn’t help matters either. Always trying to one him up. Always showing him that no matter how much he tried, he would only be second to her. Never the best, always the spare.

  Letting him win once in a while wouldn’t hurt her, would it?

  He glanced at Lamin, who was collecting bets on whether the candidate would awaken from the illusion or it would be his end.

  Good thing she didn't notice the small anomaly.

  Good thing Layt was Talia’s only sparring partner. Though calling being plummeted to the ground a sparring session was a bit stretching it thin. But it was a relief that no one knew Talia’s other form. A dragon. Even if this dragon was quite small and compact compared to her normal form.

  It was a bit strange seeing her so small and weak. Not that there was anything weak about her now. He was sure she could raze the whole illusion to the ground. But the human must be the one to break away from it. Any direct intervention would be detected by the overseer.

  Layt glanced at the trembling soul in the chair next to his. Pitiful, really. Every time he thought humans could be somewhat decent creatures, they ended up disappointing him. And from the scent emanating from this soul, it seemed to hail from the same world as Talia’s candidate. He would know. The countless years he had spent frequenting Talia’s domain taught him to tell the difference between those wretched beings. And the abject fear wafting from the soul next to him didn’t bode well for his wealth. If the candidate was the same, then he was bound to kiss his money goodbye.

  “Tell me, how strong is this human?” he asked, gesturing to the small screen in front of them. “You think he can advance to the trials?”

  The soul stilled. He turned frightened eyes to him. Layt paused. What did Talia do to assuage this soul’s frantic energy? At this point, the others would be able to taste his fear and figure out Talia had long escaped the tower. Layt plastered a smile on his face. Strangely, it only intensified the soul’s trembling. He put his elbow on the armrest and rested his cheek on the palm of his hand, watching the nervous twitching of the poor human. If things weren’t so dire, he would have found the whole thing amusing.

  “I’m sorry! I don’t know!” the soul yelped. “I apologize for being useless!”

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  Layt hummed. He wasn’t wrong. The soul was indeed useless if not for the small plant exuding Talia’s energy. But any other creature would have done the job just fine, really.

  He turned his gaze to the screen, his eyes twitching as he saw Talia leisurely watching the small family converse around the table. The small child offered her a portion of her food, which she turned down with a paw. She didn’t need sustenance, and neither did the candidate. It was but an illusion, regardless of how real it seemed.

  “Next year’s shipments all ride on these trials. For everyone’s sake, I hope he wins.”

  The soul yelped.

  Bored with the mundane scenes shown on the screen, he turned his attention to his companion.

  “So, how is the world you hail from? Anything interesting to share?”

  The soul didn’t answer, he merely stared at him, silent. Just when Layt thought he wouldn’t answer, he spoke tentatively, “N–normal?”

  Layt hummed, waiting for him to elaborate. He doubted things were normal in their world. If it was, then why did Talia choose that human as a candidate? Why did she obsess over him? Not that obsessing over things was that strange to Dragonkind. They were quite known for their hoarding nature.

  But why would such a soul pick her interest? Talia was known for her intuition. If she thought the human was interesting, then he was. Despite recent failures, the trials had run for thousands of years. At that time, all candidates reached the end, regardless of whether they passed the final game or not. It was still a feat.

  “You think he’s strong?” He gestured to the screen.

  The soul gave jerky nods. “Oh, he is. He was the strongest. Some even say his strength rivaled our deity.”

  Layt leaned further, interest picked. A deity? He didn’t hear much about those. He only knew it was Talia’s job to monitor them and get rid of them if their actions went out of control. Everyone knew those deities were fakes and imposters at best. They could have their fun but not harm the worlds they played in.

  Talia was furious when some worlds referred to her as a sky serpent. She had fumed for years and refused to shift to her other form for centuries. It was worse when others started worshiping her after seeing her obliterate their god. It was hilarious seeing her frantic attempt to drive them away.

  Ah, good old days.

  “How strong is your deity?’

  “Very strong,” the soul said, at ease now. A true follower, then. Layt didn’t like those. They refused to see the true nature of the being they worshipped, even if it stared them in the eye.

  “He’s the sun bringer,” the soul continued, oblivious to Layt’s distaste. “His holy vessel shines brighter than the sun. He illuminates our world and the ones beyond… or so I was told,” he finished with a little bit of uncertainty. He sounded a bit awkward, his shoulders hunching over themselves at Layt’s intense stare.

  Hmm, he wasn’t a lost cause then.

  A sudden arrival tore Layt’s eyes away from the twitching soul. It seemed there were still some absentees. Certainly, the hassle of coming all the way here just to witness another failure wasn’t that appealing to them. Not with Lamin here to magnify the whole ordeal. But he was sure they’d be here as soon as the real trials started.

  Another glance at the screen showed Talia following the candidate outside. She laid leisurely atop the battered house’s roof and watched him gather all the wooden logs into piles.

  The human seemed so lost in the illusion that he doubted her subtle attempts would be enough to snap him out of it.

  Well, Layt was glad that the small disturbance Talia had caused when she tried to clue the candidate on everything being not real wasn’t noticed by the new overseer.

  Still, it wasn’t enough. Layt only hoped Talia had another trick up her sleeve—or paw.

  He turned back to the soul, intent on getting even more information on this deity he was worshiping. It seemed more interesting than whatever was happening in the illusion. His grin widened at the panicked look the soul threw him.

  This was going to be interesting.