The food was better, though, Lucas would have gladly eaten moldy bread if it would have come without constant reminders to keep his elbows off the table, and instructions about how to lay his silverware across the table to let the servants know that he was finished with that particular course.
Still, the pumpkin soup and the roasted lamb was delicious, and he didn’t regret it. Not entirely, anyway.
While they ate, the three of them discussed his backstory and fleshed out some details about who Lucas Parin was. He’d already picked the faraway city of Esterbrocken in his discussions with Mr. Twill, so they went with it. It was a trade hub on the far side of the continent that was nearly as wealthy as Lordanin but with a particularly unsavory reputation. That was the only reason Lucas had heard of it before now. It was because it was sort of a promised land that thieves and cutthroats sometimes talked about at the bar. It was like Eldorado or Las Vegas as far as ne’er do wells were concerned.
They debated whether or not he should be legitimate or a bastard child through the main course, and Danaria thought that details like that were great fun. She wanted him to be a romantic figure with a star-crossed lover and a tragic destiny just like in the epic poetry she sometimes read. Adin thought it was best if he was the second son of someone important, like a fictional Duke. “That way, you’re just important enough to take seriously.”
“Maybe I should split the difference and be a gambler, I’m pretty good at dice games, and I could… what?” Lucas asked, stopping his explanation as Adin started to laugh.
“Well, for starters, dice are crass and best left at the pier side,” Adin said with a smirk. “You’d have to learn to play games with proper cards. You’ll just have to trust me. Even if you learned all the suits and the way they changed depending on the game—”
“Don’t be ridiculous, man,” Lucas shot back, annoyed that the lordling was being so high-handed with him. He’d found one thing in life he was better than Lucas at, and he was just running with it. “Of course, I know how to play cards. There’s no magic to it.”
“Oh?” Adin asked with a smirk. “So then, in a game of folly, which suit would you need your high card to beat a flush of roses?”
“The fuck?” Lucas sighed. “Listen. Im saying I know how to play cards, not your crazy ass card games. If you want to play poker or blackjack, though, I’ll kick your ass.”
“Sadly, I’ve never heard of either of those games,” Adin answered with a shake of his head, but even if I had, I can assure you that you lack the money to play at those sorts of tables.”
“What are you talking about, man? We’re swimming in dragons these days. I’m about to go make another pile of them in a day or two when I have some decent threads!” Lucas said.
“Oh, you might see some gold on the table in the early rounds, but games in the backrooms of VanDavin’s would be dominated by ivory chips marked in denominations of hundreds or thousands of coins.” the Viscount answered with a shrug. “These aren’t the sort of funds that we could afford to lose at this stage of our, hmmmm, what did you call it? Operation?”
Lord Parin’s attitude just made Lucas want to do it more. He was pretty decent at bluffing, but unfortunately, until he learned the rules of their crazy ass card games and how the trumps worked, he agreed it was a bad idea. One of Lucas’s high school teachers had been fond of saying that Gambling was a tax on those who couldn’t do math.
Lucas believed that to a point, but he’d told Mr. Harris that since he knew how to count cards, he kinda did know how to do math. The man had not liked that answer, and one day, when he had time, he showed these bumpkins a whole new kind of magic, but for now, it was probably best to stick with bragging and drug dealing, he decided.
After the dessert of sponge cake and red berry compote, which Lucas noticed could be used as an alchemy ingredient if he wanted to create beauty products, he excused himself to go hit the hay. Danaria wished him a good night, and it seemed like there was more she wanted to say, but after a quick glance at her brother, she decided against it and merely smiled as he left.
Sweet Red Berries: Beauty 2, Intelligence -1, sweet.
Adin joined Lucas, of course. The whole way back, he talked about how much they should charge and how pure the product should be to attract the ideal buyer for status reasons, but Lucas tuned him out, wishing the Viscount would stay in his own damn room again and leave the cider house to the low-born trash like him.
The only reason he didn’t stay in the main house was in case the guards came back unexpectedly again. They would eventually, of course. That was the whole reason he’d gone along with the dwarf’s idea of building an underground lab, which was basically the dream of every meth cook he’d ever known.
When they returned, Kar’gandin and Hura’gh had finished their dinner, and the dwarf had long since vialed up the Blue.
“Did you guys finish digging yet?” Lucas asked with a laugh as he opened the door.
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“Ya, fer today!” the dwarf laughed. “It's gonna take weeks to do this job right, ye know.”
“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Lucas nodded sadly.
“I heard ya know how to dance too now, all pretty like,” Hura’gh said with a chuckle.
“Guilty of that too, I’m afraid,” Lucas sighed as he watched Adin approaching the neatly arranged vials of Blue the dwarf had laid out. “But truthfully, I’d rather be digging holes with you than—”
“Do you think maybe I could have… You know, since I’ve been so helpful today with all your learning,” Adin asked as soon as he saw the neat rows of vials. Lucas hadn’t watered down this batch because he’d been planning on bringing a dozen or so vials and charging the nobles a dragon or so each for them to test the waters so he wanted it strong.
“I feel like that stuff might be a little strong for you,” Lucas said as Adin picked up one of the vials and examined its shimmering blue contents. “Maybe you better let me dilute it first.”
“No… this will be more than sufficient, I think,” he said with a smile as he walked away from the bench.
Lucas shrugged. He wanted to help ween the guy off of this shit, but while you could lead a horse to water, you couldn’t make it drown. So if he wanted to…
Just as Lucas was getting ready to brush the whole thing off, he couldn’t help but notice that two vials were missing. The dwarf had lined them up in such neat, orderly rows that noticing that two were missing instead of one from the final row became not just possible but easy.
Lucas didn’t hate Adin anymore. Hell, most days, the man didn’t even get on his nerves, but this wasn’t something he could let slide for a variety of reasons. It would be the same as catching Kar’gandin stealing from him or the half-orc spying for a rival gang. Such things had to be dealt with.
He didn’t provide Adin with any warning at all. He just walked up behind him, grabbed him by the hair, and slammed his head against the nearest post, making the man cry out in pain.
The noble might be a great dancer, but he had no idea how to fight, and he was terrible at defending himself. Even as he began to struggle, and moved his hands to protect his head, Lucas had already switched tacks and was rifling through the pocket where the Viscount had stuffed the drugs.
When Lucas came up with two vials, he immediately looked at the Viscount in disgust and held them aloft for the other two members of their crew to see before he tripped the noble and pushed him to the ground.
“Well, what have we here,” Kar’Gandin said as he took in the show.
“I-I can explain,” Adin said.
“You don’t need to. You’re a junkie. This is why I keep things locked up,” Lucas shot back as he turned and walked back toward the counter while the noble scrambled to his feet.
“I just… I wasn’t going to take them both tonight, I promise,” Adin stammered. “I was going to save the other one for tomorrow and—”
“And overdose sometime in the middle of the night when everyone else was asleep,” Lucas continued, crossing his arms.
“Look, I’m sorry, okay,” the noble said, just noticing that he was starting to bleed from a wound near his hairline. “If you just give me the vial, I’ll—”
“I ain’t giving you shit. Not tonight anyway,” Lucas spat. “Maybe in the morning, I’ll give you a healing potion if you seem appropriately remorseful, but blue? Nah. You’re cut off for now.”
“Please!” Adin begged. “I need it!”
“Well, you should have thought of that before you…” Lucas’s words trailed off as soon as he pivoted. He knew what a desperate man like Adin would do, and he was giving the man just enough to hang himself.
With his back turned, Adin charged immediately. Whether that was to take a shot at Lucas or to just grab for a vial, he’d never know. As soon as the noble got behind him, he jabbed backward with his left elbow, letting Adin’s momentum do all the work as the blow struck his solar plexus and knocked all the air out of him.
As Adin lay on the dirty floor gasping like a fish on land, Kar’gandin and Hura’gh both gave him hard looks but said nothing. They knew the drill, he could see it in their eyes. Lucas was tempted to leave it here, but he knew that would be letting Adin off too light. It might make the man hate him, but more than hate, Lucas needed the noble to fear him and the other members of their group to see him as hard enough to be their leader.
So, he didn’t stop there. Instead, he kicked the noble hard in the ribs, making him curl up into a ball as he cried out in pain.
“This may be your land, but this is my fucking house, Adin!” Lucas roared. “My house, my fucking rules, you got that? If I say you can get a hit, then you can get a hit. If I say you can’t, then you go without.”
The man sobbed and babbled, but Lucas couldn’t make out what he was saying, so he kicked him hard again, this time in the kidneys, and repeated himself. “I said, do you fucking get me?” he repeated himself.
“Ye… yeah, okay. I’m sorry, I’m sorry! But if I could…” Adin squealed.
“Get the fuck out of here,” Lucas said, giving the man one final kick before pulling him up from the dirty floor by his collar and shoving him toward the door. “You’re sleeping in the barn tonight. Maybe tomorrow, too, until you learn some fucking respect.”
Adin’s face was full of incredulity for a moment, and he turned back, about to say something. However, when he looked at Lucas’s flinty eyes, he closed his mouth again and slunk out the door like a whipped dog.
When the door slammed shut behind him, Lucas turned back to the other two people in the cider house.
“Nicely done, lad,” the dwarf said after exhaling a cloud of smoke from his pipe. “I knew that he was going to be trouble. Best to close that shaft down before it gets any deeper.”
“Naw, you let him off easy,” Hura’gh growled. “I woulda’ broken his hand so that he didn’t forget this night.”
“Maybe next time I’ll have to,” Lucas said with a shrug. “For now, at least I’ve given him something to think about.”