Carlyle woke up in a hospital bed. Still groggy, she turned onto her side and saw Red standing next to her. "What happened?"

"Lady Luck fucked you up when she left. You're stable now, but you were asleep for a few days. I've been here with you, waiting for you to wake up," Red explained.

"It's only been a few days? That's not so bad. She could've killed me. I had this moment, right before she left, where she acted as if she was reaching for a plug, and she could have pulled it and killed me. But she chose not to for some reason."

"She's a fickle god." Red shrugged their shoulders.

"Did you get her, at least?" Carlyle asked as a nurse offered her a bag of juice.

"No. She got away. I was more concerned with getting you here, making sure you were okay."

"That's stupid. You should have gotten rid of her! It's the least you could do to make it up to me, you know?"

"I did manage to stab her, but it didn't seem to do much. For all I know though, she bled out someplace."

"So we have to go on an adventure to find her?" Carlyle's face lit up.

"That's not really how it works. Just wandering around the wilderness will likely end up with one of us dead, especially if we went now. You haven't even regained your strength. Instead, I've been monitoring the news around town and in the few other settlements on the planet. If something comes up, I'll know."

"And if she's gone for good?"

"Then I have to chase her across the galaxy... unless she never shows up again."

"Can't you just perform a summoning ritual or something like that?" Carlyle asked.

"No. When you perform a ritual like that, unless you're working with a spell you received directly from the god, it's still up to the god's whims whether or not they show up. So, even if we had a spell, there's no guarantee it would work. And anyway, I don't have a spell."

"Well can't we just make a spell?"

"Did you wake up in the year 2000 or something? We don't have to resort to primitive magic anymore. God, I would be excommunicated if I ever did something like that. We're not kids anymore!"

Carlyle laughed. "Did you ever play with that stuff as a kid?"

"No. But I had laymen friends who did. Of course, they ended up summoning a horrible monster and dying..."

"For real? That must have been very scary!"

"Well, it was on Sirius Prime. The Jhikae Order immediately dispatched the threat. I was never in any danger, but it did teach me about the risks of playing around with magic."

The nurse interrupted them. "We need to run a few tests now that Carlyle is awake. Can you leave the room for a bit?"

"Sure, yeah. I'll be back later, Carlyle. Just message me." Red left the hospital.

Red walked quickly back to the inn, grateful that Carlyle was okay and ready to get back to work. They pulled up local news on their qComm as they arrived, hoping to find any sign of Lady Luck's appearance elsewhere on the planet. There were only two other towns, and together they drew a triangle around a mountain range which was the most likely place for rare metals to be unearthed. Prospectors were still only halfway through their survey, with mining set to begin in another month.

Red found no sign of Lady Luck, instead discovering a message from Master Gris' assistant requesting information on their assignment. They opened a channel to the temple on Moon III and waited for a response.

After a few minutes, a young monk answered the call. "Hello, Wanderer Red. Master Gris requests an update about your assignment. We haven't heard from you for more than a month now,"

"It's been touch and go. Did you receive the news articles I sent?"

"No... They seem to have been lost... Oh! Nevermind, here they are..." the monk started to read.

"Don't bother reading, I can just tell summarize. I encountered a god identified only as Lady Luck, who possessed a local and used her to reveal multiple liquid green deposits that should not have existed. Upon further investigation, she became aware of my presence, and threatened us. The local is currently in the hospital from complications of the possession experience, but the god has been routed for now." Red explained.

"Do you know where this god is?" the monk asked.

"No. I'm currently monitoring the situation on Caseeveem. If she appears, I'll know about it."

"How do you know she hasn't moved on?"

"I don't. As it stands, I have no reason to believe she has. In the meantime, if the Order could monitor other colonies in this sector, we would certainly be able to discover her movements."

"Does this mean she manifested a physical form?"

"Yes."

The young monk was quiet while she typed up her report. Finally, she looked up from her tablet. "If you haven't discovered anything by the end of the week, you'll have to return here. You may have missed your chance to stop her. This task sounds more suited to a strike team than one wanderer."

"I have it under control." Red lied.

"Nevertheless, the Shining Thunder will return to extract you in five days. This was on order of the master, I'm just relaying her message," the monk said, intuiting that Red planned to protest.

"So be it. Thank you. Red out."

The call closed before the monk could say anything. Red threw their qComm across the room in frustration. They knew Lady Luck was still on the planet. They just had to figure out how to draw her out.

Red spent the next four hours meditating. While in the mindscape, they tried to make contact with Lady Luck, but never received a response. No matter how hard they called, she did not appear. They supposed they should not have been surprised, but they just wanted their work to be over.

They finally received a message from Carlyle asking them to come back to the hospital. Red gathered a few things and left as fast as possible to see their friend. It was late afternoon and the sky was beginning to darken across the horizon. The air had changed quality: it smelled like rain, despite there being no clouds in the sky.

The hospital had released Carlyle, but she needed help carrying her stuff back home. Red picked up the bag they had packed for her off the floor next to her hospital bed and grinned at their friend. "Glad you're okay," they said.

"Me too! I'm grateful for your help, you know. But we still have some shit to sort out, Red!"

"You can hit me if it'll make you feel better."

Carlyle thought about it for a second. "Hmmm, maybe."

They both laughed and left the hospital. Night had come, but the streetlights drowned out the stars in the sky. Carlyle took a huge whiff of fresh air. "I can't believe I was comatose for three days. I don't even remember my dreams from it. It's like it's only been a few hours."

"I've never been comatose before, so I don't know what that's like," Red admitted.

"I figured with your work, you'd be in and out of the hospital all the time."

"Not really. I mean, I've been my fair share. But it's usually like, food poisoning or something like that. Some weird bug I'm not used to. Nobody talks about it, but constant space travel can fuck you up!"

Carlyle nodded. "I'm surprised you didn't explode after eating food here. The water made us all sick for a week, even though we purified it."

"Guess I was just lucky."

A bright streak of green light flew by overhead. Red traced its path to just over the horizon. They rushed Carlyle home. "Make yourself comfy, I'll be back later. I have to make sure that's not Lady Luck."

"I'm going with you!" Carlyle said, putting down her stuff in the middle of the store.

"Hell no you aren't. You're barely recovered from our last altercation with her. I'll be fine. Just stay here and wait for me to get back." Red patted her on the head and turned to leave.

"Fine. You better survive though! I'm not collecting your dead body from the woods!" Carlyle sat down grumpily.

Red stopped at the treeline and stared into the darkness. They allowed their eyes to get used to the low-light while they centered themselves. Red hoped that this confrontation would be the last time they had to deal with Lady Luck.

They walked two miles through the forest until they came to a clearing. A large meteorite sat in the middle of the open space. A figure stood next to it with her arms crossed. She motioned with her arm and the meteorite split into two.

A flood of liquid green came out of the meteorite. The figure turned around and smiled at Red. "Did you ever wish on a shooting star as a child?"

"No." Red readied their spear.

"No wonder you're so unlikable. You have the imagination of an ant. Actually, your imagination is probably less-evolved than an ant's. Do you have any fun?" Lady Luck asked.

"Sure I do. It just doesn't involve getting lost in those kinds of fantasies. A fair game could be fun, or even a fair fight. But I know you've never managed to do anything fairly."

"Then why bother showing up? You know I'll beat you, just like I did last time. Are your feelings hurt because I got the best of you before?"

"I want revenge for what you did to Carlyle."

"How noble!" Lady Luck laughed from the bottom of her stomach.

"Why didn't you leave the planet?" Red changed the subject, inching closer.

"I wanted to finish our little game first, of course! I couldn't just leave you without a true goodbye."

Red rushed her. Lady Luck evaporated into smoke and appeared behind them. She raised her hand above her head, causing the ground below Red to shake and give way. They escaped the pitfall but failed to dodge a large chunk of meteorite thrown at them. They had dropped their spear, but managed to pick themselves up.

Lady Luck pulled a tree out of the ground with a motion of her arm and flung it at Red. They dodged this time, and sprinted across the clearing to Lady Luck, tackling her to the ground.

Red punched Lady Luck in the face over and over again. Despite each blow connecting with solid mass, she acted as if she felt no pain. Red figured she probably didn't. She tried to break free, but Red put her in a headlock.

Lady Luck struggled to break free. She wasn't used to fighting in the material realm, and suddenly found herself at a major disadvantage.

Until she remembered that she could control the environment. Lady Luck rolled over onto her stomach, which Red calculated as a horrible choice, tightening their grip. Lady Luck lifted her hand and caused the nearest tree to split in half. Red heard the crack of the wood but didn't realize that it was falling onto them until the trunk slammed into their back.

Lady Luck squirmed out from under them, wiped herself off, and kicked Red in the face. She spat on them. "Fuck you, monky!"

Red tried to wriggle themselves free. They couldn't even flip themselves over. However, they could probably dig out enough ground underneath them that they could get free. They began digging, ignoring Lady Luck entirely.

"You're just gonna let me go, just like that? Come on, Red! Is that the best you can do?"

Without warning, Red's spear pierced through Lady Luck's heart. Carlyle stood behind her. She pulled the spear out of Lady Luck's body and watched her writhe on the ground in pain. "That's for hurting me!"

Carlyle kicked Lady Luck over and over. "And this is for fucking up my friend!"

Red dug themselves free. Lady Luck had stopped writhing, her body bleeding out. "I'm not letting you kill me, Red! Not here!"

A flash of green light blinded Red and Carlyle. The body in front of them turned to ash. A beam of green light arced across the sky.

She had gotten away again.