Random 39

After a fruitless attempt at prying the dragon off her arm, she let him cling, and bend forward to pull the card she'd stashed away out of her boot. She held it up so Sebastian couldn't see the front, but she could check if she hadn't mistaken the value. It made her grin. Still grinning slightly she looked at Sebastian and shook her head in disbelief.

Only then she put the two face up on the table.

Sebastian was surprised to see one of the cards -- and unmarked one at that? --, and when Sylvie put it on the table, he was even more surprised. "When -- oh, don't tell me?"

"Hardly subtle, if it had been intentional." Her grin went decidedly impish at seeing him surprised, after that little show he had put on.

"Pfft," he said, chuckling and crossing his arms. All right. At least she was still amused.

She took a deep breath and stretched, leading to Ayu-Asra, still clinging to her left arm, hanging upside down for a moment. He bent his heads to keep them level and mewled. Sylvie was a good deal calmer when she settled down again.

After a quick look at the still-closed door to the corridor, she asked, "So was that the act you warned me about?"

"It was," Sebastian said, tilting his head a little toward the door. What on earth was Auker up to? "How bad was it?" he asked, smiling.

"I'm very glad I knew you expected cheating there, or I might have bought the 'I have no idea what I'm doing'-part." It obviously didn't trouble her. "It did look like it should be exhausting."

"Perhaps," he conceded, "thank you for --"

Just that moment, Auker opened the door and stepped in. She looked first at Sebastian, then at Sylvie... and Ayu-Asra. "What," she began, sounding most curious, "is that?"

Sylvie answered cheerfully, "A dragon. He had a nap in your fireplace earlier and liked it, but he seems to be clingy at the moment."

Both heads watched Auker closely.

Sebastian covered his mouth, but he couldn't hide his amusement entirely.

"Er, I see," Auker said, stepping closer, hands on her waist. She leaned to get a better look at Ayu-Asra. "I hope he doesn't make a mess. He has a name?"

"He's house-trained, but he makes other messes when you don't watch him." Oh, what the...

She extended her left arm, not directly at Auker since then the priestess would have faced the tail-end of the dragon, but somewhat to the side, and gestured with the right hand. "Auker, Ayu-Asra. Ayu-Asra, Auker."

There was a confused moment of the heads looking from Auker to Sylvie and back, out of synch, then the left tilted to one side and went, "Aaaaah?"

"Aw!" said the priestess. "Niiice to meeeet youuuuu!"

Sebastian hadn't seen that coming, but in retrospect he was certain he should have. One thing was for sure -- Auker would have baby talk down to an art if she ever had children... or maybe she had some already?

He coughed. "We, ah, had a bit of fun at Smiley Jack's place..."

Auker looked up instantaneously.

Which was just as well, because the dragon was fleeing up Sylvie's arm and crawling around her back, away from this obvious lunatic.

"Yes. An excellent meal, and Sebastian did a very good impression of someone who wanted to lose money, so they sent over someone to play cards. It was very educational." With an ironic smile she added, "I had no idea the dealer was allowed to hand the other player the second card off the stack if he liked the top one."

Auker put two and two together with admirable speed. Having looked at Sylvie while she spoke, Auker's gaze slowly inched back to Sebastian.

The half-elf put on a grin he had previously used in the neighbouring building. "Oh, not to worry, sister. I only taught him a lesson. He's the great-grandchild of a friend of mine, after all."

Sylvie asked, "Did I understand correclty why he was so nervous? He was afraid you might have in mind some late revenge because his great-grandmother, who was also a crook following Smiling Jack, got that friend of yours killed, because he was a crook following a different god?"

Auker digested the information. Sebastian, true to his habit, gave her more to think about when he answered. "It wasn't entirely like that," he said a little subduedly. "He also associated with me. That was number two... on top of that, ah. He was in a Jackite organisation, near the top. There were designs he had that they found out about, and... well." He shrugged.

Sylvie nodded. She had mostly wondered if she had misunderstood those hints Sebastian had dropped. And she was entirely too curious, sometimes. She was still trying to piece together how many coincidences had accumulated there.

"Was that shuffling and dealing four jacks, and shuffling and dealing four queens and a joker" - she drew a breath, swallowing a "just" - "luck, or sleight of hand?"

As an aside she told Auker, "The fourth queen was still up the sleeve of the other player. Might still be there."

"Oh," Auker said. She felt like twitching. Twitch she did, when she happened to glance at a serious Sebastian.

"I was only trying to show him that I knew he had marked cards," he said, looking a little embarrassed. "I didn't even plan to win like that."

Just like so, Auker giggled. Oh, Fortuna. "Win like how?"

"With a pair of twos."

Sister Auker pinched her nose in an attempt to make her oncoming laughter disappear.

"Well, I know I didn't mess with either of your hands when dealing," Sylvie commented.

Then she pointed Auker at the two lying between the letters on the table. "But I think the other player did. I found that under the table afterwards, and he had a king in hand which he'd pulled out of his sleeve."

"What would have been if he hadn't, and you both had a pair of twos?"

After a few more giggles, Auker considered Sylvie's question -- but not as long as she considered that Fortuna was playing a game. She wondered how this affected Sylvie.

Sebastian on the other hand shrugged. He had made his guess when Sylvie showed him the two. "He would have won. He had higher cards otherwise."

Sylvie shook her head and calculated for a moment.

"And you are used to those chains of coincidences?"

Sebastian nodded. He said: "They're a constant in my life. I had a week of bad luck before I arrived here."

Auker chuckled. "Yeah, sorry. She still hasn't said anything." She looked at Sylvie. "This guy broke in --"

"You left the door unlocked," Sebastian interjected in a bored tone. "I locked it after me."

"-- and, uh, set up camp while I was sleeping off... well, you can guess. Then when I wake up he tells me he's had a week of bad luck," Auker grinned. "What was it? Almost hit by a giant bell, two stampeding herds of cows from two opposite directions at the same time, sleeping on an anthill --"

"Nest of bees," Sebastian put in and looked at the ceiling. "And it rained frogs and I got to run for my life from a bear who thought she was entitled to my fish... yes, these things tend to happen to me," he muttered and bit a finger nail.

"Fortuna gives and takes," Auker said in a particularly preaching tone. The look she got from Sebastian was crystal clear. "Gee, sorry."