They approached a sort of bubble-like film with a glimmering oil like sheen under the gold lights. On one side was the water, dark and foreboding, and the other side there simply wasn’t, but rather, an ornate looking room visible past the barrier. Sym stepped through, gracefully reforming legs as she reached the boundary, placing a dainty foot onto the newly formed ground with grace. Water dripped from them as they stood in what was clearly a lobby, soft red patterned carpets under their feet. A man appeared, tall and slender dressed formally with a set of fluffy white hotel towels over his arm. They took the offered cloth, bemused. He bowed, his arm opening to guide them towards the direction he wished them to take. Sym and Alene looked at one another, before stepping in the direction he had indicated.

They followed behind, his steps quick and sure as he made his way through the foyer through another set of double doors, pushing them open as if to announce their arrival to the room behind. ‘Welcome, to the Miss Fortune casino,’ he said, his voice coming from behind them as they walked through.

Music greeted them, dreamy and complex, strange looking beings milling about, playing the games available. Slots with brightly colored lights, releasing ghostly apparitions of underwater creatures, eaten by the players when won, round roulette tables with colors spinning that she didn’t have a name for, stacks of coins of all shapes and sizes being bet, coins with holes through them, coins in the shapes of hammer-flattened stars or strange dodecahedrons, tesseracting in and out like a breath as they folded over themselves in space.

And the card games. Mysterious looking gold edged decks with arcane symbols on them, glimmering with subtle power as the beings assessed them, exchanging all sorts of treasure in the center of the tables. But it wasn’t the games that held Alene’s attention, it was the players.

Massive misshapen creatures, vaguely similar to many fauna in appearance, but different, cabalistic and incomprehensible in shape. A being made of something almost too hot to look at walked past, magenta flames in their wake, a glass of what looked like tortoise shell smoking in their hand. A mushroom-like being, dragging trailings of fluorescing mycelium behind them ambled by to sit in front of the slots. A large toad with brightly colored gems emerging from warts on its back and bulging hypnotic orange and yellow streaked eyes blinked beadily at one card table, its webbed fingers deftly holding the cards close to its face. A stag with a magnificent rack of antlers, spider webbing woven between them, and a spider mandible of his own talked with a curvy woman in a beaded pearl dress, burial wrappings obscuring all but her red glistening lips and fierce flashing golden eyes.

Her eyes swept to appraise the new arrivals, her red lips spreading in a devious smile. She excused herself from her companion, approaching the newcomers. ‘Welcome to my casino, the lavish Miss Fortune!’ she spread her arms widely, gesturing to the room, the pale pearl beads on the fringe of her dress clinking as she did so, a delicate incense scent wafting with her motions. ‘Might I offer you a drink,’ she said, turning and snapping her fingers. Another formally garbed attendant materialized beside her, a tray of assorted beverages balanced on it. Alene politely took one of the presented drinks, a purple concoction that looked more gaseous than liquid as it swirled in the cut crystal glass, with a fish skeleton made of spun sugar on the rim, but Sym just narrowed her eyes. ‘Who are you?’ she asked, aggressive. The woman turned to her, head tilted and golden eyes narrowing slightly. ‘Surely you have heard of the goddess of luck?’

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Sym’s mouth went slack, lips parted in surprise. ‘You’re Ketsuri?’ She managed, after a moment, a strange expression on her face. The woman's smile went wide, stretching the bandages on her face ‘but of course! You are blessed by the lady of luck, in the flesh!’ she said in a sing-song voice, gesturing to herself with showmanship like extravagance. ‘Now! Which of my entertainments can I entice you with first?’ Sym looked at her, eyes flinty, ‘which are you playing?’ Ketsuri looked at her sharply, a crease between her eyebrows followed by dawning recognition. ‘...you’re that human girl, the one that wrote me the note, aren't you? Cute. And it looks like you found yourself a backer,’ her eyes flickered to Alene. ’It’s been a while, Una, I almost didn’t recognize you,’ her eyes sweeping up and down Alene’s new form while a cruel smile quirked her lush, blood red lips. This woman knew Una. That was a surprise. Alene wasn’t quite sure how to proceed, it didn’t sound like they had been friends, though the woman wasn’t outright hostile, she did seem a bit slippery.

‘I suppose I should apologize to you for last time. I didn’t mean to take that much luck from you, and most definitely I didn’t expect for it to have that much of an effect. I mean, you took the whole city out with you! And my poor casino. I do miss having the mortals come in,’ she looked slyly at Sym, ‘like your dear grandmother. She was such a devout worshiper at my temple.’ Sym clenched her jaw, staring Ketsuri down with malice. Alene subtly lay a steadying hand on Sym’s shoulder. Sym eyelashes fluttered as she took a slow breath through her nose while Ketsuri looked on with amusement, her lips quirked. She turned to Alene, ‘...if you haven’t come to play, what have you come for?’ Alene paused. Should she tell Ketsuri she was looking for her soul, it seemed like a dangerous thing to reveal. But she had no other leads. And the search had led her here, perhaps that meant the soul shard was close. Or perhaps the aversion ment that Ketsuri was the most dangerous. Hmm. She was in the presence of the god of luck, perhaps it was time to take a risk.

‘We’re looking for something I’ve lost,’ she started, deciding to start vaguely in order to test Ketsuri’s reaction. Ketsuri raised an eyebrow. ‘Something you’ve lost…’ she said, leadingly. ‘I, I’ve lost a sliver of soul, I’m trying to recover it.’ She said in a single breath. Ketsuri laughed, a high bell-like sound, clear and lovely. ‘Oh Una, aren’t you just the unluckiest little thing? Well, I suppose that is my fault, just a little. I suppose I ought to help you recover it.’ Alene looked at her, shocked. The woman had seemed so guileful, so underhanded, she was surprised she would be willing to help just like that. ‘Oh don’t look at me like that, I always pay my debts.’ Ketsuri said, rolling her eyes. ‘And…’ she paused, carefully trying to sound nonchalant, ‘you’ll tell your mother? That I helped you?’ She seemed to be taking a casual sip of her drink, but Alene could sense that the entirety of Ketsuri’s attention was on her response. She nodded slowly, uncertain as to her mother’s relation with this shifty trickster god. Ketsuri beamed, self-satisfied. It seemed the correct response.

Ketsuri held out her bandage wrapped hand, forefinger hooking the air, plucking a golden thread out of the nothingness, holding it delicately, dewy beads of luck sliding along the string into Alene’s chest. Another, fainter thread passed out her back, leading somewhere back past the double doors they had entered from. ‘there!’ Ketsuri said, ‘follow the string and you’ll find your shard. And I returned your luck, no need to thank me. We’re even now.’ With one last smirk at Sym, her eyes flickering to Sym’s missing finger with a raised eyebrow, Ketsuri turned, her pearl dress tinkling softly behind her. A muscle in Sym’s jaw flexed as she watched her leave with searing eyes.