"Mindscape conflicts are a battle of wit and will. If you want to win, you have to outsmart your opponent, which almost always means catching them off-guard in some way." Red explained.

It had been three days since they escaped Lady Luck's clutches. However, she still taunted Red through Carlyle at odd moments. Red, unable to confront Carlyle about it, pretended it didn't happen, even when Lady Luck spent thirty minutes laughing at them.

"The more you know about your opponent, the better. If you know what they're afraid of, if you know what makes them tick, what they fantasize about, then you can manipulate them." Red conjured a venomous spider in their palm, showing it to Carlyle.

"I always hated spiders..." Carlyle said, trying not to freak out.

"Exactly! And since I know that, I've completely directed your attention away from her." Red pointed behind her to a massive reptilian beast.

Carlyle turned around and jumped at the sight of the beast. "How do you even know what that thing is?! I've never seen it before. It's horrifying."

"It's called a dokpo, one of the war fiends created by the god Ersarus during the war. The first Jhikae warriors fought many of them, and their visage is now used in mindscape training because they're that fucking disgusting." Red walked up to the dokpo and patted it on the snout. It seemed totally harmless.

They snapped their fingers and both the spider and the dokpo disappeared. "Killing a god isn't easy, and honestly you should never expect to reach that level. However, if you continue to practice the exercises I taught you today, you won't ever focus on the venomous spider again. Remember, it's not real!"

"If it's not real, why am I so worried about it hurting me?" Carlyle asked.

"Because the person that made it wants to hurt you. If I can make you think you're receiving fifty blows, you might die, but if you hold onto your resolve and never forget that you're in control, that what you're experiencing is a fantasy, then even a possession can't hold you back. They could gut you alive on a mindscape operating table and your heart would continue to beat."

"Ewww. That sounds gross."

"But it's cool, right? And it just might save your life!" Red broke character and started laughing.

"What's so funny?" Carlyle asked.

"I just never expected to be teaching this stuff to a civilian. Certainly not one like you... No offense!" Red stopped themselves before they said something mean.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Carlyle gave them a look.

"I only know how to explain things in like, militaristic terms. The enemy wants to eat you alive! Are you gonna let her? NO! You know... that kind of thing. But instead I'm explaining it to you. You understand survival, sure, but you aren't a warrior type."

"I've never been that kind of person, even when my mom wanted me to enlist so that I didn't have to pay for an engineering certification." Carlyle laughed, suddenly understanding the kind of person she was.

"Why didn't you?"

"Soldiers are too up-tight! They're so fucking annoying. Where we used to live was on the border of the Renari Empire, so we basically lived on a military base."

"Ah, so you were basically guaranteed to see action, then."

The Renari Empire and United Human Alliance had skirmished over their border with each other for nearly twenty years until the UHA massacred civilian colonists on Yyri III, causing galactic outrage and an immediate demand for a treaty. The treaty solidified the border and tensions slowly burned out over the next few years. However, the occasional border skirmish still broke out between small groups of drunk soldiers with nothing better to do. Military officials said it was better for morale to let them fight than to try to wrangle their soldiers.

Carlyle nodded. "And I didn't want to die fixing hovercraft, or accidentally driving over a mine. Or worse, getting gassed." The Renari Empire had developed chemical weapons that were only supposed to maim targets.

Red chuckled. "But here you are, training to protect yourself against a god instead. I guess at least this way your parents have a lot of money now."

She laughed along. "I guess you're right. If only I could use it to hire an elite strike team of Jhikae warrior-monks to keep me safe while I sleep."

Red shrugged. "Instead, it's just me."

"I guess that's not so bad. You're definitely the cutest Jhikae warrior-monk I've ever seen."

Red blushed. "Hey, you're trying to catch me off-guard, huh?" they asked, entering a sparring stance.

"If you wanna fight me, then let's fight!"

Carlyle smiled and mimicked Red's stance. "What are the rules?" she asked.

"The first person to be knocked off their feet loses." Red said.

"Seems easy enough!"

"I'm ready when you are, Carlyle."

They circled around each other. Carlyle caused epic-sounding ambient fight music to play. Red nodded along to the beat.

Carlyle ran in close for a normal leg strike, which Red easily blocked. They countered with a feinted strike at Carlyle's nose and kicked up dust to make sight more difficult. Then, Red spawned two copies of themself that circled around Carlyle, searching for an opening.

"Three against one isn't really fair, you know!"

"There's no fair in battle. You know that!"

Carlyle summoned a dokpo. Red looked at her like she was crazy. "What the hell are you doing?" they yelled as one of their copies was torn in half by the dokpo.

"Now it's two against two!"

Carlyle mounted the dokpo, wrapping her arms around its neck and holding on tight. The dokpo stood at twelve feet high on its hind legs, but was shaped more like a bear than anything else. Its head had huge sharp fangs, and each foot had huge claws.

Red was outmatched even with several copies at their side. They would have to play dirtier.

Way off in the distance, they summoned a hunter who had his eyes set on the dokpo. A gunshot rang out and the dokpo fell over. It almost put Carlyle on her back, but she had artfully levitated to the ground.

Frustrated, Carlyle rushed Red. She tried to put them in a headlock, but Red just turned their body to mist and escaped the hold. "How come you can do that? There's no way that's fair!"

"It took me years of training to be able to do that," Red explained, smirking.

Carlyle sat down in the dirt. "I give up!" she said, throwing up her hands.

Red sat down next to her. They sat together silently for a moment. There weren't any sounds of animals or nature and Red suddenly grew uncomfortable with the silence. "So, what do you wanna do?"

Carlyle laid back on the grass and closed her eyes. "I wish I had your training. I just don't really have the stamina to keep up with this. I guess that means I'm basically fucked, huh?"

Red gave her a confused look that she couldn't see. "What are you talking about?"

"I mean, even if I can hold Lady Luck off for a bit, eventually I'll get too tired and then that'll be it. I've been seeing her in my dreams. And I know it's really her. I can just tell. All she does is taunt me, though. I just wish she would get it over with, I hate being toyed with like this."

"You mean you want her to kill you?"

"Either that, or you'll probably have to."

Red laughed. "Don't be ridiculous! I could never kill you, even if you deserved it."

Carlyle turned on her side to face Red. "Why not?" she smirked.

"Because... Well you know why," Red leaned back on their arms.

"No, I really don't." Carlyle pressed them.

Trying to find a safe response, Red said the first thing that came to mind. "Because it's not your fault, obviously. You're just being pulled around by immaterial forces."

Carlyle scoffed and rolled her eyes. "I see how it is. So you just think I'm too weak to be dangerous, then?"

"That's not what I said... though I guess that's kind of true..." Red looked away from Carlyle.

Carlyle slapped Red's arm, causing them to lose balance and fall over. They both burst into laughter. Red stretched out and stared up at the clear blue sky. "Hey, watch this," Red said, concentrating hard at a spot far off above them.

A flaming red meteor came hurdling towards them. Carlyle flinched.

They both opened their eyes outside of the mindscape. "Did you forcibly end our session?" Carlyle asked.

"Yeah. It's a useful technique if you end up in a fight you can't win. Short of possessing someone, a god can't do much on the material plane, so if you're at a supreme disadvantage it's usually better to just run away."

"I always figured that warrior-monks were trained to throw away their lives against odds like that."

Red laughed. "Nope! We're useless dead, you know? And there are plenty of situations where we get caught off-guard. If Lady Luck had been more dangerous, I probably would have gotten us out of there that way sooner."

"So you were playing with her then? I had a feeling..." Carlyle smiled.

"She revealed quite a bit of herself throughout that process. She's still too powerful right now to do anything about, but once we find her weakness, it'll be easy."

"How powerful do you think she really is?"

Red hesitated, remembering that they weren't alone. "Powerful enough, I guess. That we can't let our guards down."

"Easy for you to say! You've got a guard built into your skull. I have to actually try to fight her." Carlyle frowned.

"Don't worry about it too much, Carlyle. I'll protect you!" Red beamed at her.

Carlyle reached for Red's hand, pulling them close and locking them into a bearhug. "I'm glad you came, Red. I would probably be dead by now if not for you..."

Red patted Carlyle's back awkwardly. "Of course, glad I could help." Their tone was flat, almost bored.

Carlyle exited the hug and looked Red in the eyes. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," at any second, they suspected Carlyle's eyes to change color.

Carlyle embraced them again, holding on too long. Red became passive. They wanted to return the affection, to show Carlyle that they cared, but they knew that it would almost certainly tease out Lady Luck, and they weren't ready to have that conversation with Carlyle.

Instead of letting go, Carlyle kissed Red on the cheek.

"What was that for?" Red asked.

"Just showing you how much I care," Carlyle said.

Now it was serious. Red had to find a way out, and fast.

"Look, Carlyle, I like you, but now's not the time to let our personal feelings get in the way of the task ahead."

"Afraid I'm going to become a love goddess instead?" Carlyle's voice was the same but it was not Carlyle.

"Can you just leave us alone?" Red pleaded.

Carlyle's body pulled away from Red and looked at them. "Of course not, it's too fun! Watching you two pour your hearts out to each other, reveal your deepest feelings, and then wield those as weapons. It's hard to get better entertainment than that!"

"I will destroy you!" Red hissed.

Lady Luck laughed so hard that she almost choked. "You poor thing. You can't even make Carlyle feel better. You can't even help your friend! Carlyle's wrong about you, the only reason you haven't killed her is because you really are useless!"

Red punched Carlyle in the face.

"What the fuck was that for?" Carlyle asked.

Her eyes had gone back to normal.