Chapter Forty-Six

And that was how Loysa ended up standing in front of a table looking down at a deck of cards. “You’re serious? You want me to play for Tes’alay’s freedom?”

“It’s the best I could do. Look,” I said and put my hand on her wrist, leaning in close, I whispered, “Kuduru decided we should bring her. If we hadn’t, those golems might have killed us. We owe it to her to try to get her out of here, and you’re the only way we can do that.”

Her lips tightened across her face and she looked at the cluster of dwarves deciding who would play.

“Come on, ace.” I whispered, “I know this is my test and all, but part of that is using my party members right, or am I wrong?” I asked the question sharply, and that seemed to settle it in her mind.

She closed her eyes, and though I couldn’t hear it, I could tell she was conversing with her goddess.

“Slave driver.” She grumbled to, I thought, not me. Then she yanked the chair out and sat down and began to shuffle.

Not only did she ‘shuffle’ she made a show out of it, with one hand slapping cards in such rapid succession that even my kitsune senses couldn’t keep up. She passed the cards from one hand to the other across a gap as wide as her shoulders and got a smirk on her face. “No need to decide, my undead gents, just have a seat at Loysa’s table and set the stakes. Who holds all the chips, holds Tess’s freedom in their hand. C’mon, just because you died, doesn’t mean your courage did, all of you have a seat!”

I claimed a seat and watched the game unfold and did my damndest not to smirk. I’d spent the previous hours explaining everything I knew about casinos to Loysa so that she could pump them up further while she talked, as if she’d seen them before.

She could have played Vegas, and I mean that both ways.

The cards flew from her hands while she filled in the gaps in my pitch, talking about the ways the colored wheel slots kept the eye busy and attracted, explaining how we could easily build simple machines and tokens people could use their creds to buy at windows in the city.

And she cheated outrageously. “Full house.” She said and slapped her cards on the table and ‘bankrupted’ two dwarves.

“Now think about being on the other side of that.” She said, “You’ll feel great winning, and the house always wins in the end. A few big payouts keep people hopeful, and they’ll flock to Undercity. Steelven is very close, I’ll bet you could even set up free shuttles between here and there, and draw in even more people.”

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She was adding details I hadn’t thought of, but by the time she’d ‘bankrupted’ two more, they were hanging on every word.

“Yer not cheat’n with magic are ye?” Dwarvan asked after she pushed another dwarf out of the game.

“I’m a priestess.” Loysa said in a huff and put her hand on her chest, “Check me for magic items if you want.”

It took every ounce of strength not to let my tail bristle or my face display panic.

“I’m just an old adventurer with a lot of practice.” She said with a smirk.

It didn’t occur to me until then that I’d never asked her age, and now… now it just felt awkward to do.

The game was put on hold while horror crawled up my skin and a dwarf priest held his hand out inches away from Loysa’s body, his rotted flesh still moist, the blue pulse that should have been coming off of his hand was vaguely black as if his death changed his magic use somewhat.

She smiled sweetly and winked at the walking corpse as he stepped back. “She is not cheating.” He promised. “There’s no magic on her.”

The game resumed with gusto, cards flying back and forth in the seat of government for the dwarves of Undercity. And Loysa’s smug face never wavered as she won hand after hand, losing only once, and I’m convinced she threw that game because as she shoved the chips across the table she said, “Now imagine feeling like that… but with lots of people losing. Victory isn’t alcohol… but it’s pretty close.” She promised.

She wasn’t wrong.

But I had to wonder… ‘This world hasn’t ever had to deal with gambling or likely mass gambling addictions… there’s a good chance this could pose some problems. I’ll just have to bring it up at the guild. They’ll probably listen, maybe warn adventurers not to go too crazy with all this.’ I felt a little bit better making the decision to provide at least something in the way of a warning.

By the end of the game, Loysa finished taking my bare bones practical pitch and turning it into almost religious devotion to entertainment, and Dwarvan flung down his cards already knowing he’d lost.

“Tess is ours.” She said with finality and laid her four aces down.

“Aye. But we still get the masks, an ye still owe us for the golems, an ye still have ta write that letter fer us ta get some tools our way!” Dwarvan snapped, and Loysa whirled on me, looking up from her seat.

“You didn’t put up anything else?!” She almost shouted, and my jaw dropped.

“I… ah… well…” My cheeks turned red and I rubbed the back of my head, “I didn’t really think about it… I just wanted to get Tess and the rest of us out of here alright…”

“Rule one of negotiating with dwarves. Bargain hard.” Loysa groaned, and for a moment I thought she’d offended the dwarves until I saw that all of them had their arms crossed and those who still could, had closed their eyes. The undead nodded as if she’d uttered a great piece of ancient folk wisdom.

“A bargain we have, get to it lass, an ye can take what ye need an go. We’ll be in touch when it’s times fer the open’n of our casino. An we expect at least a few magic masks a month. We’d like ta get back to heaven, even if’n we’re goin to enjoy things ‘ere again.” Dwarvan quipped, and what could I say? What could I do?

“Bring me paper and quill, and I’ll write them both right now.” I promised, and once again, I did not have to wait long.