Random 38

Sylvie changed position a litte, ending up further from Sebastian, reasoning that kibitzing was rude and distracting to the players. While Ayu-Asra moved to perch on the back of her chair for a while, she rested her elbows on the table, hands steepled loosely.

She thought it a bit odd that the ones were high, and made some calculations involving among other things her own curiosity and how rare magic seemed to be here.

Sebastian inspected the cards only when he had them in his hand. Inspecting in this case was figuring out if they were marked or felt different from the others. He did so covertly, keeping up appearances: as far as Robare was concerned, the strange man he was playing against looked like he didn't have the faintest idea of strategy in the game.

"Two pairs," Sebastian said at first when it was his turn to show what he had. He lost, spectacularly, to a collection of four sevens, but laughed it off.

The next few rounds revealed certain things. It took a bit of adjusting and perception -- or other tricks. But of course, it wasn't so surprising. Robare was shuffling and dealing, and Sebastian could tell he was dealing cards in a particular way. On top of this, some of the cards had been marked during the game with a nail.

There were other things, too.

Sylvie did not know as exactly as Sebastian what one would have to look for, but she had decided to watch some cards a bit more closely in her own way. As soon as the first "ace" showed up, she stuck a small tendril of her magic to it, just to keep track. What little twitch of the finger that took was unnoticable in the normal slight shifting. After a few rounds she had three aces and two kings tagged like that, and wondered if she should include queens as well. She could tell apart the values, but had paid no attention to differentiate the suits.

Between occasionally asking a question about the ranking of combinations after a round, keeping watch of the dragon and keeping him quiet, and not getting obviously absentminded, she certainly wouldn't manage more than twelve cards.

At one point she was tempted to play innocent while asking if it was usual to deal the second card instead of the top one, but decided against it.

The snacks, water and bowl appeared and were paid for.

Sebastian, was finding more and more markings and thought he had developed an intuitive eye as to how and when Robare dealt that second card... or that bottom one. It was quite interesting from a purely academic point of view -- and cheating, stealing and such, well, they had their academics.

Robare wasn't aware that his talkative, really quite pleasant opponent had noticed anything. The man was losing money like so! And he didn't even seem to care, which to him suggested that either the man was a very good actor or he had a lot more money.

Sebastian didn't really care about the money. He was both educating and amusing himself, and perhaps (he supposed) confusing Sylvie.

"Three of a kind," he said at one stage after a lengthy bluffing session and put down a set of fives, an ace and a two, paying special attention to the backs of the cards Robare was holding.

Interesting indeed.

"Three aces," Robare said and put down his set. There were, indeed, three aces, a six and a seven.

At the sight of those three aces -- one of which he hadn't seen -- Sebastian's smile grew for a moment, even as he glanced at his purse, which was growing empty now. He had won a few hands, but not as often or as much as Robare. The man was a good bluffer and a decent cheater, but he didn't even know how lucky he had been.

Sylvie had marked three kings, queens and aces each and not seen the fourth of either for a while. Was that all chance? After marking the last ace, too, she took a sip of water and, ostensibly playing with the stem of the glass with her left hand, sent out a few feelers. Telling cardboard from the cloth of Robare's sleeve was quite simple, telling it were two pieces not difficult, either.

After feeding Ayu-Asra, who had moved to sitting on the edge of the table, two nuts, she slowly turned to Sebastian and asked, apparently amused, "Are you sure you know what you're doing?"

Sebastian raised both eyebrows at Sylvie, then beamed. "Does it look like it?"

The bubbling, carefree honesty (or so it sounded) caused Robare to fumble with the dealing. He could barely contain his amusement and had to, actually, take a moment to calm down. Just then he thought about the other stakes here. Hmm.

"You seem to be having a bit of trouble there," Sebastian said cheerfully and looked at the deck. "Perhaps you should let Sylvie deal for a moment?"

Robare looked bemused for a moment. Then he looked at the purse next to Sebastian and thought about the way the game had been going. Even without dealing, this man was a terrible player. "If the lady is all right with that?"

"Of course. I had something more helpful in mind..." She took the deck and turned from Robare to Sebastian, adding jokingly, "Like finding a rulebook and hitting you over the head with it."

She shuffled the deck thoroughly and dealt, now that she had the cards in her hands noticing the marks on some of them, and not trying to cheat.

"Rulebook?" Robare asked. He didn't get it.

Sebastian on the other hand narrowed his eyes amusedly. His speech was the almost same. Overblown. Not flirtatious, though. "Oh, I am sure that can wait until we leave, dear."

Then the half-elf took a look at his cards and, without further ado, dropped his entire purse on the table. "That is as much as I have lost," he informed the others, losing much of the playfulness in his tone. He was suddenly deadly serious but still far from worried.

Sylvie was jerked out of considering if she should glue the cards in Robare's sleeve to his arm. She noted that all the cards she had marked were in the deck, so it wouldn't be a presumably spectacular four ones.

Robare looked firstly at the purse -- he hadn't even had time to look at his own cards properly -- and realised that he was being watched very closely by his opponent. Sebastian on the other hand didn't seem to have any marked cards.

Robare looked puzzled and then even more puzzled when he looked at his own cards. He managed to keep that expression on even when he reached behind his head and scratched.

He had to be bluffing. But if he wasn't... a king materialised from Robare's sleeve while his hand was still behind his head. It was quietly going to replace a two. "That's a bit hasty, sir," he said and put two cards face down on the table, thus asking for free cards. While he leaned to do that, the two he had been holding slipped unseen under the table.

Sylvie kept it from showing, but she was, now, suspicious of Robare moving his hand where you couldn't see it. However, she didn't notice the dropped two, and didn't dare start a scene she wasn't sure she could handle. Not on his own turf, surely.

"Oh?" Sebastian asked. He didn't change any of the cards.

Robare stared at the man... creature. He was a bad bluffer. Nobody looked that serious when they had a winning hand. There wasn't even a speck of excitement anywhere, but on the other hand, Sebastian didn't seem nervous either. Not until he ran a hand over his hair.

Robare was still a little uncertain as he looked at his own hand. There was at least a forty per cent chance that the man had a pair, and a smaller chance of something else occuring. It couldn't be any of the high cards -- he had marked anything from ten to up, not counting the ones he had hidden earlier.

"And if that is not enough, I have certain items with me that might be to your liking," Sebastian suggested, cracking a smile.

"Perhaps we'll be sat here for some more time, then," Robare said pleasantly.

"Oh, most definitely," Sebastian replied.

What an idiot, Robare thought and paid up the winnings so far and a few coins extra, all with a smile. He could make the game longer. After all, it was all about keeping the victim entertained so that they paid up. "Let's see what you have, sir."

Sebastian smiled and put down a hand that held a pair of twos, a seven, a five and a four. Then he leaned his chin against his palm, elbow firmly planted on the table.

This turn of events caused Robare's heart to miss a beat. "You... what?"

The half-elf smiled. "All legit, governor," he said, echoing Smiling Jack's words.

"Oh." Robare looked at his hand again and put it down. He only had a high card, the king, an eight, seven, five and a two. And the two had been one of the free cards. His throat felt dry.

While Sylvie stared at the cards - oh, yes, she remembered the story - Ayu-Asra was feeling neglected. He leaned back both heads, aiming to tug Sylvie's sleeve, overbalanced, and fell off the table. In confusion he went for the next dark corner, which was under the table.

"Sorry," Sylvie said, pushing back her chair, and squatted to get the dragon out, lest he bit someone or got kicked on accident. "Come here, you stupid -" Well. She scooped up the dropped card and stuffed it into her boot, and coaxed the dragon back to her in sweeter tones, which worked after just a moment.

Checking that the card didn't show, she bumped her head on the edge of the table, and returned to her place flushed, dragon cradled in her left arm, and quite successfully making her grin more embarrassed than gleeful.

Robare paid no heed to that besides a cursory glance. What was going on in his opponent's direction gave him even more to think about.

"By the by, young man, you look remarkably like a man I once knew. I visited his grave a few days ago with a bottle of wine," Sebastian continued as he collected his winnings. "He taught me a lot about cards. It was too bad for his health that he was a servant of the Gentling and happened to be my friend." He took the deck of cards and shuffled it a few times, dealing out four cards that he then checked. One jack, two jacks, three jacks, four jacks.

Sylvie had missed most of what Sebastian had said, but was recovering while he flipped over the cards, and listened to the rest in fascination.

"Of course," Sebastian continued, shuffling the deck some more, "your great-grandmother finally... 'understood' that he was not of an acceptable faith for the rest of your organisation -- and we all know how your lot feels about the Lady Luck... and thus my friendship with him." He laid four cards on the table again.

All but one of them was a queen -- the last was the joker card. Sebastian placed each one on top of the jacks. The joker was on top of the jack of hearts. "I do not think I have yet forgiven your great-grandmother for that. You appear to be a smart young man, Robare," Sebastian said, voice even and calm. "If you have by now guessed who I am, you must also know why it is that I left Canyet in the first place when I last was here."

Robare nodded. His throat was even drier. His forehead wasn't: a few drops of sweat had appeared. "I know. Why are you here?"

"Not because of your ancestor. I am certainly not here to frighten you to death," Sebastian said and beamed, knowing fully well that this was probably no consolation. "Nor am I here to empty your coffers. Far from it! My charming companion and I are here to relax. Oh... well, perhaps we are looking for information, too. I would not be surprised if you could provide us with it... or if you were to know of a person capable of providing us with that information."

Robare looked from Sebastian to Sylvie, then back to Sebastian.

The story, and Sebastian's tone, chilled Sylvie's mood, but it the satisfaction and glee of seeing the little cheat sweat was warm enough to meet his look with a smile. She did, however, shoot a covert glance around the room now and then, wondering what would happen if one of his colleagues, or even one or some of the other guests, smelled trouble.

Ayu-Asra rested in the crook of her elbow, was clung to her worse than ever.

Robare nodded finally, nervously adjusting his collar. "Okay," he said. "Do you promise to leave after that?"

"Do you promise to be quiet about this? I would be most unhappy if it turned out Sister Auker, for example, would find herself barred from enjoying herself here," Sebastian said in turn, pouring himself some wine.

"I... all right. Fine, as long as you leave," Robare frowned. He sounded upset -- like he had been cheated. "What do you want?" he asked, wiping his forehead although he still wasn't sure if he was done for or if the two really were harmless. Or that... dragon. Oh gods.

"Do try to calm down," Sylvie cut in. "Looking unprofessional in front of the other customers like this, people will get on your nerves with questions." She did look and sound concerned.

The dragon alternated between cooing and hissing under his breath.

Sebastian swallowed a bit of wine and glanced at Sylvie, smiling. "First of all, someone broke into my room on two different occasions after my arrival here," he said and put the glass down. He crossed his fingers and laid his hands on the table. "Her name is Kirrya."

Robare, who had in fact calmed down a little, nodded but didn't have a chance to say anything yet. Sebastian continued: "Secondly, I see business has not suffered with the rains. But I wonder if it has suffered otherwise?"

"Of course it has," Robare said with a sigh. "People are staying inside. Food is becoming expensive... smuggling isn't getting any easier or harder, of course." The man took a coin and inspected it. "Kirrya?"

Sebastian made a confirming sound.

"She works in the kitchen," Robare said.

The half-elf adopted a bemused expression.

"As kitchen help. She isn't really much of a thief, or a Jackite," the man continued, looking at them both. "I guess you want to see her?"

"Yes," Sebastian said and smiled.

Sylvie was a bit surprised Robare led then through a storage area to the back door of the kitchen. He bade them wait there, in an roofed but at two sides open area, while he went in and asked, but he kept in view of the door. She would... well, she hoped in his situation she would have enough spine to try to get a warning to the other person the one she was afraid of, rather than delivering them.

But, well, the small and skinny woman who came to the backdoor to talk to them moved with too much authority to be a mere kitchen help. She looked the pair - or trio, or quartet, depending how you counted - over with a bored expression and drawled, "So, you want to se Kirrya? Small, skinny, dark-haired... tried to sneak off early for a week, and was too tired and absent-minded to do proper work when she was there, and didn't show up at all yesterday and today? She doesn't work here anymore."

The swashbuckler sighed. Typical. Nothing was ever so easy, or at least not after such a series of coincidences. "I do not suppose you know where she might live?" Sebastian asked. "Or if anyone else there does?"

"I do not suppose you might give me a reason why I should tell you?"

Sebastian smiled at that. He lifted a hand; two coins were being held between his index and middle finger.

She smiled back for a moment and accepted. "I remember her mentioning she's living in the Newt."

Sebastian raised the brim of his hat with a thumb and pondered. "Has she mentioned doing some other work as well?"

"No, but I can't imagine was else kept her that busy. But either way you shouldn't wait to long; chances are either she gets thrown out, or she moves to a better place."

That did not seem entirely unlikely. "Thank you for your time," he said, tipping his hat and bowing a little. Then his eyes sought out Robare. He didn't say anything yet.

The woman nodded back and went back into the kitchen, knocking on Robare's shoulder in passing. "You still owe me a favour."

Robare rolled his eyes and then met Sebastian's look. "Well? Are we done?" he asked, staring openly. He still wasn't sure what to think or do.

"Almost," the half-elf said, one index finger extended as if to reserve a speaking turn. He put the hat back on and stuck a hand inside his messenger bag. "Your great-grandfather is buried in the Gentling's church graveyard. Please show him respect," Sebastian said, pulled out his hand and handed Robare a broken compass. "Goodbye. Remain quiet and we will not see each other again."

Robare stared at the compass. What the hell was this, now?

The smiling half-elf on the other hand, turned toward Sylvie. "Shall we?"

Sylvie nodded. She gave Robare another "Goodbye". It was just as well Sebastian had ended on a more solemn note as well as put something in Robare's hand; she'd been sorely tempted to shake it and pull the queen out of his sleeve, even though she suspected that wasn't a good idea.

Since they were already in the alley, the way back to Fortuna's Shrine's kitchen was even shorter than the way thaey'd come. Sylvie carried Ayu-Asra on her arm, under her cloak, and saved talking for inside, but shot Sebastian a few disbelieving, amused looks.

He only grinned at one of the looks he noticed, relaxed and at ease.

Once inside and the behind shut doors, he took off his hat and wiped his forehead. "I hope that was to your liking, madam," he said, imitating the blond man's voice eerily well.

Sylvie for a moment pulled a face at the tone, and talkes while hanging up her cloak and dropping to a seat, visibly relaxing.

"It may have been educational. I'd like to know if I understood those coincidences correctly, but, well. If you wouldn't mind, I'm sure Auker would like to listen in on that, and, more importantly, if Kirrya might be gone soon, trifles have to wait."

A bit inconsistently she continued, "I couldn't tell, was he afraid for his job, or that you might rip his head off?"

Sebastian nodded and tossed the hat on the table. It skidded to a halt at the very edge while he was already walking toward the doorway. Auker hadn't eaten or been drinking, which to him seemed a little odd. "I think the latter," he said, not sounding all that amused. "He had no reason to fear that, but I wasn't about to tell him."

He poked his head into the corridor. "Auker!"

"In a bloody minute!" came the muffled reply.

The Fox chuckled and turned back to watching Sylvie. He rubbed his five o'clock shadow, looking... relaxed in a different way than he had in the gambling establishment.