“Are we upper class yet?” Rave asked as they sat in the back of the golf-cart, driving them to the start of their game. The question was justified by their current environment.

Although this Sunday was considerably colder than even the last few days, the dedicated golfing barrier at the back of the White House had its own temperature regulation. Winds, caused by large enchanted pillars, that must eat a fortune in mana upkeep, blew over the field of blue-tipped, finely trimmed grass. Most of the time, they were soft and barely noticeable, providing a nice cool to the artificial warmth and the largely unblocked sunshine. Only occasionally would a strong gust roll over them. Some randomizing shenanigans must have been in play.

John was doubly thankful for the immoveable nature of his hat in conditions like this. “Pretty sure we have been upper-class for a while now. We are living on a yacht, for crying out loud,” he answered. This conversation would doubtlessly be memorized and reported by their current driver, thus the Gamer was happy that his girlfriend had enough awareness of the situation to only talk about minor things.

“Point, but it doesn’t feel quite as posh as ‘I have an entire golf course with simulated weather in my back lawn’,” Rave gestured at the barrier around them. Given that this whole thing was several hundred metres in diameter, she had a point.

The cart came to a halt and the two of them got off. The fine dirt road crunched under their feet and Rave stretched like a cat, revealing a bit more of her midriff than her already somewhat skimpy attire usually did. With a short tank-top and a pair of comfortable jeans, she was pretty casually dressed. John, by contrast, had only lost the jacket of his usual suit.

That made him the odd one out, as both Abraham and Lerylia had their own set of everyday clothes on. The former was wearing white pants and a dark green shirt, while the latter came in a blue top and had widely cut legwear of the same colour, once more outfitted with the odd slices of cloth that dangled seemingly without purpose.

This time, the ambassador was here on John’s request. Currently, they had no reason to be in a hostile relationship. As the old saying went, ‘keep your friends close and your enemies closer’, although John would have added a ‘potential’ to the enemies and also would not have kept them quite as close as he did Scarlett, for example. The basic wisdom still applied.

Abraham had suggested this golf game, a continued effort to either identify John’s true intention or build a stable relationship with him, but who participated he had left open to the Gamer. Of course, John had asked his girls; aside from Rave only one person had looked interested. Everyone who wasn’t around right now was either doing some finalizing tourism or hanging around back at the yacht.

Hands meeting in greeting, the presidents exchanged friendly smiles and some empty words that came along every such occasions. The usual ‘how are you’ and ‘good’ in all its derivations running from one person to another as the little ritual repeated once for every pair that cared to go through with it.

“I have a little something for you,” Abraham finally went into some other topics and gestured towards one of the caddies. In a fluid motion, the broad-shouldered president was handed a book of the thick, decorated and sturdy variety, a leather binding keeping between itself countless, gold-framed pages. “You expressed interest in the Little Maryland’s code of law before. This copy was only settling dust in my library.”

‘This book looks like it hasn’t even heard of the concept of dust,’ John thought as he took it with the appropriate amount of respect. He took the liberty to look inside. Tiny letters contrasted in meticulously pressed black from the white paper and every single page was filled to the brim. It was not a text to be read for enjoyment and wasn’t formatted that way either. “I assume that’s just the core laws?” the Gamer asked. Over the years, lawmakers tended to cobble together more pages than what fit in a single book.

“Correct,” Abraham confirmed as the gifted put the book into his inventory.

“I will read it with great care,” the Gamer assured, not hiding his enthusiasm. Abraham must have been assuming John was just happy to see what his forming guild could learn from the already existent code of law. In truth, John felt like he had just been handed an old game manual, the kind that came with all of the cheat codes listed at the end.

Whether or not that turned out to be true was a matter that would take an analytical read-through to discover. If there was nothing, then John was frozen in his ambitions, but he would look at that problem (and what to do in the meantime) when he faced it.

Aside from the question of possibility, there was also the one of need. John knew that his want to take over the USA was one of pride, but his justification was based on the moral necessity of doing so. The Little Maryland, for all its flaws and corruption, didn’t seem to be an actually bad place to live in. Frustrated, that seemed to be the general feeling in the air. People weren’t starving or anything, they just didn’t feel like their voices had any relevance and thus were growing more and more restless. A bad situation, for sure, but maybe not one that warranted military intervention.

John would brood over this problem and if his takeover was the correct solution later today when he’d read the laws. “I am afraid I don’t have a gift in return,” he admitted with a hint of shame in his voice. Their future affairs aside, that would have been a sign of courtesy.

“I am your host, for all intents and purposes, a gift is not required,” Abraham benevolently let him go and then looked around. “But I thought you wanted to bring a second person.”

“Ah… well, she is a bit elusive, so she might come later,” John looked over the artificial hills of the golf course, the areas filled with sand and the ponds. “Or she is already here,” he added when he spied platinum blond between the lilyponds. Everyone turned towards the direction the Gamer was walking in.

In the clear pond, amongst the blooming pink flowers atop the pads, sat an expressionless girl. Her white dress was not a tad darker, neither close to nor underneath the surface of the water, as it soaked up not a drop of it. Hair of a flawless, light golden colour disobeyed the artificial winds that blew but rather swayed to another world’s rules. The incredibly long ponytail, just like her dress, wasn’t getting wet despite curling over the smooth surface, her movements not disturbing the calm of the water.

Around her a school of small fish gathered. Where humans felt a natural urge to stay away from the blank, animals just saw her for the gentle creature she was. An urge John shoved aside like it was his second nature, his attraction to her far overtaking such an (admittedly based) instinct. “Nia,” he called out to her, and she turned around with a turtle in her arms.

“Yes?” she asked, her tone as devoid of emotion as always. To someone who knew her less well, the scene, as she stared directly at his eyes for far longer than was comfortable, must have looked like she was going to scold him for interrupting her in whatever she was doing. A motion at her side indicated that she was trying to grab her stack of emotion cards, but both it and the bag they were inside of were resting outside the pond, as was logical.

“We want to start soon, so stop your aquatic cuddling session,” he informed her. “Also, I hope you didn’t bring that turtle from elsewhere!” He didn’t want the pariah to introduce new animals to this finely balanced, man-made ecosystem.

“No,” she answered and slowly lowered the shelled creature into the water before stepping out. It followed her all the way onto the shore of the pond and kept looking even for a bit after that. Only after Nia gave it a last and somewhat robotic wave did the turtle turn around and submerge itself.

Both Lerylia and Abraham kept a distance away, even instinctively stepping away as the blank approached. Clearly, they weren’t psyched at the prospect of the pariah being around them. John understood why. “She is not here to disable any of your safety precautions and allow me to Observe you,” he told them, “you have my word on that.” There was no way he could pull that off sneakily enough to make it worth the risk of soured relations anyway.

The two politicians relaxed slightly by that but still had to visibly force themselves to stand still and raise their hands to shake hers in greeting. “The Maiden of Null, a great honour,” Lerylia managed to force out a bit of niceness.

“Maiden of Null?” John asked, surprised. He knew that title already, it was the one that his Observe showed him every time, but it was the first time he heard it out loud.

“A title given to the strongest known blank,” Abraham explained to him willingly.

“Oh?” John raised an eyebrow. He had no idea when Nia had slipped into that position. Given that there were so few of them, it couldn’t have been a particular broad field of competition. Still, did that mean every other blank was weaker than Nia when he had first met her or was this a case of Gaia handing out the title in advance due to her absurd potential? “What is the title for men?”

“That is a good question,” Lerylia shrugged, as she subtly put some distance between herself and Nia. “Female blanks tend to be stronger, so the strongest known blank never was a man.”

Another ‘huh’ came from John, simultaneously with his girlfriend who had also known nothing about any of this. This time, he wasn’t going to jokingly scold her for that, this was pretty specialized knowledge.

Nia took all of that information with her usual visual uncaring, instead making way towards Abraham. The president straightened his back and raised his hand in greeting, only to be passed by as the blank fetched her bag instead. This went by without comment, as Abraham was strictly relieved at being spared touching the pariah. Once the white piece of equipment hung over her shoulder, Nia returned.

‘Now what is up with that?’ John thought. The pariah’s eyes had clearly landed on the raised hand for a moment, so she had made the conscious decision to ignore the offer where she had taken it with the ambassador. Odd and convoluted as they often where, the blank usually did have reasons for her actions. “Well then,” he clapped his hands together, “now that everyone is here, shall we?”

They went back to the caddies and then to the starting position. “Ever played golf?” Abraham asked John, who had the honour of the first swing.

“Can’t say I have,” John answered, extending the question to Rave and Nia with a glance.

“N-o-p-e, nope,” the Lightbearer spelled out and then repeated the full word for clarity. “Unless mini golf counts.”

Nia just nodded; apparently, she had some experience in the game.

“I’d rather not count it,” Abraham commented on the mini golf with sarcastic disdain. “Either way, the first swing of every player on each hole is called the drive,” the president commented with an obvious enthusiasm for the game. One of the caddies placed down one of those tiny plastic things that were used to hold the ball on the first swing. “That is called a tee. Anyway, the reason why we call that first shot a drive is because this…” John’s caddie suddenly presented him with one of the many different irons used for this sport, it had a chunky end, “…is called a driver.”

John took it and weighed it in his hands. As expected, it was pretty end heavy, giving the swing a boost in intensity at the cost of accuracy. Ideal, considering the target area, marked by thinner cut grass (giving it a lighter colour), was easily two-hundred metres away. “Alrighty,” the Gamer took his position, raised the club up high with both hands, a stance of certainty, and then swung with all his might. And missed gloriously. “Well, that’s embarrassing,” he cleared his throat.

Abraham was laughing with all his might, together with Lerylia. Even Rave openly giggled and Nia held up the Amused card. “My apologies,” the president was the first one to recover. “Even though we usually play a harsh game around here, we won’t count that, if that is alright with you, John?”

“I would be thankful if you could look over my amateurishness,” the Gamer nodded and attempted a second time. He was a bit embarrassed, but he already knew that physical activities weren’t his strong suit. Rather than keep his eye on the goal, John fixated what he was supposed to hit this time around. The clapping sound of metal meeting plastic at high speed confirmed the hit and the ball flew across the landscape. “That’s better,” John stated as he watched after the tiny dot. His vision coming with a zoom feature certainly helped there. It landed quite a bit away from the goal, but he was happy with just having hit it.

The game continued from there as John engaged in some semi-serious talk with Abraham. “I got a question about your government, if you don’t mind,” the Gamer began.

“Fire away,” Abraham nonchalantly agreed while making sure his shoulders were in the correct position.

“I have realized over the days I have been here that your other two estates aren’t exactly happy,” John stated outright. “I don’t know what exactly the military’s problem is, although I have some rough ideas, but the people seem to be mostly disgruntled about your massive licensing apparatus.”

“Ah, yes, that is a problem for them,” Abraham answered, softly testing his driver with a couple of swings at the air. “But it is a necessary evil. Without those licensing fees, the government can’t sustain its current size and own counter-military.” He swung for real and the ball flew far. His muscular body wasn’t just for show, as the ball actually landed within the goal zone.

“Impressive,” John commented on that, before continuing his questions on their ways from one ball to the next as the game moved on. “Why don’t you downsize the government and let go of the counter-military if that eats up all this money?”

“Because that would give them more power,” the president answered. “Less power centralized on me means we have to bicker about everything for longer. Before I took office, the Little Maryland was in a steady decline. The military refused to deal with the government, so I made sure the government had its own military. The third estate generally doesn’t care about anything and has so many heads that negotiations are basically impossible. They didn’t want to give money to the common cause by their own volition, so I had to introduce a set of systems aiming at gathering that money otherwise. It is to everyone’s benefit if I hold the reigns.”

‘Red flag,’ John thought but couldn’t say anything out loud. As it was right now, his guild wasn’t much different. Basically, all power rested with himself. In almost all ways it was even more concentrated. “To what end then?” he asked.

“People need to follow the rules we set,” Abraham stated. “An equal playing field for everyone. As unpopular as the many laws and licenses are, they keep the playing field even and free from the lucky few just absorbing everything.”

Nia’s second hit made her ball fall close to the distant goal. Which was good, since they had to head over there. It would be the presidents turn next. A last question burned on John’s lips, “Aren’t you undermining what your predecessors built in the process?”

“Some laws need to be undermined, not everything is created equal.” It was Abraham’s time for his second hit, so they made their way over to where his ball had landed. A mere couple of centimetres away from the hole. Any hit that was just the slightest bit too strong or badly angled would put the ball further away from the hole than it had been originally.

The president readied his iron, but before he could hit the ball, a particularly strong and long lasting gust of wind hit the fields from behind him. Taking a step to the side to let the wind roll over, Abraham watched as the unshielded ball rolled into the hole, propelled not by the rules of the game but by the environment. “Guess I win with only one hit,” Abraham turned with a smile.