“Trust me.” Cili slammed the pouch of gold Kai had lent her onto the black square. “It’s been red four times in a row, it’s gotta be black next.”

“Wait!” Kai held an open hand out to Cally, who was operating the roulette wheel. “Cili, that’s not how statistics work.”

“I asked you, what are the chances it's the same color five times in a row, and you said really low,” Cili said.

Kai sighed, lamenting his past words. “Yes, if you ignore the green squares the odds it's red five times in a row is one in thirty-two—”

“And now it's been red four times in a row, so now it's really unlikely to be red again, which means it's really likely to be black.”

“That only works if there haven’t already been four reds in a row,” Kai said. “It’s equally unlikely that it will be four reds in a row, and then a black.”

“Now that just doesn’t make any sense,” Cili said.

“Oh my fucking god.” Kai plunged his face into his hands. “Riven, you know what I’m talking about; please help me.”

“Sorry man, not my money, not my problem,” Riven said from across the empty establishment, taking a sip of her cocktail.

“How many of those are you gonna have by the way?” Kai asked.

“This is number seven, so I’ll probably tap out here.”.

“How are you not wasted?” Kai asked, to which Riven simply shrugged.

“Alright dealer, spin the wheel!” Cili shouted.

“20 gold on black,” Cally said, as she spun the wheel.

As the ball rattled around the roulette wheel, Kai clasped his hands together, brought them to his forehead, shut his eyes, and whispered under his breath. “I know I’ve never been a man of faith, but god or gods, please I need your help here.”

The frequency of the rattling slowed as the wheel began to turn slower and slower, till after what felt like an eternity, it came to a stop.

“Number 13!” Cally exclaimed. “Congratulations!” Cally pulled out her black leather coin purse and handed Cili 20 gold. “Since this isn't official, it's best I pay you out from my own personal funds.”

Kai’s sigh of relief was interrupted as the moment the gold touched Cili’s hand, she slammed it back down onto the black square. “Do it again!”

“That’s the spirit! Can’t stop when you’re on a hot streak,” Cally exclaimed, grabbing the wheel.

“No, no, no.” Kai stopped Cally before she could spin the wheel again. “You promised to pay me back later, and later is now, so I’ll be taking this.” Kai plucked his pouch of gold from the table. “Now be my guest, and spin away.”

Cili grinned at Kai as he walked. “Your loss.”

----------------------------------------

“It’s just not fair!” Cili whaled, flailing her arms in the air with exaggerated anger. “You can just lose ALL your money in one go.”

“That is generally how gambling works,” Draxl said.

“Shut up Draxl!” Cili snapped back. “No one asked you.”

“Well we learned a very valuable lesson about statistics and why we shouldn’t gamble,” Ace said.

“I guess,” Cili mumbled, burying her head into the bar.

“How much did you lose?” Draxl asked.

“240 gold.”

“You made 240 gold, from 20 gold, and made the conscious decision to keep going?” Draxl asked.

“To be fair, at a certain point I think it just became unconscious,” Kai said. “The moment you got paid out, you’d slam the gold on the table, and Cally spun the wheel before you could scrounge up all the pieces that went flying.”

“I was on a roll! But now it's all gone.”

“I mean you could earn it all back and more,” Riven said.

“I don’t have any gold left.”

“I could lend you some.” Riven jingled a small gold pouch. “All you have to do is promise to pay me back.”

Smack!

“Ow!” Riven exclaimed. “What the fuck Ace?! You can't hit a girl.”

“I’m not going to have you pushing Cili into developing a gambling addiction or let you put her in debt.”

“But Kai did it,” Riven said.

“Kai did it because he’s dumb as fuck and couldn’t foresee the consequences of his own actions,” Draxl said.

“Hey!”

“Are you saying I’m wrong?” Draxl asked.

A prolonged silence preluded Kai’s answer. “No.”

“You, on the other hand, know exactly what you’re doing,” Draxl said.

“Why would I do this, other than out of the goodness of my heart?” Riven asked.

“Because you think it’d be funny,” Ace said instantly.

“Wow Riven, were you really going to extort me like some sort of loan shark?” Cili asked, looking at Riven with innocent eyes.

“I would never—” Riven’s tone switched from sarcastic to serious. “Wait, how do you know what a loan shark is?”

“You don’t need to worry about that,” Cili said.

“My goodness, we leave for two seconds, and you’re already at each other's throats.” Galina approached the group with a bright smile. As she made her way behind the bar, she rested her staff on the counter and poured herself a glass of water.

“Closer to six hours than two seconds,” Ace said. “I counted.”

“Would’ve been less if you’d helped,” Halvor said, as he sat down at the end of the bar. “Would you mind getting me a glass of water while you’re back there?”

“Compared to a literal hunk of stone, and a telekinetic, I’m not sure any of us would’ve helped much with clearing rubble and debris,” Riven said.

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“Every little bit helps,” Ace said.

“Says the person who didn’t help,” Draxl said.

“We’ve still got chains on our necks,” Ace reminded Draxl. “You gotta help yourself before you help others.”

“Couldn’t have said it better myself,” Cally said, as she placed both her hands on his shoulders. “But do you know what’s even better? Helping yourself and others at the same time.

“I’m guessing you're the other in this case?” Ace asked.

“That’s right!” Cally answered with a smile. Galina walked out from behind the bar, grabbed her staff, and sat down next to the rest of the group. Cally quickly took her place behind the bar.

“Shouldn’t we be doing this someplace private, like an office?” Draxl asked.

“Eh, something tells me it's going to be a slow day,” Cally said. “Folks typically don’t gamble after their homes have been destroyed. We might get some visitors later in the day looking for a place to stay, but for now, nobody should bother us. Besides, you might wanna drink after you hear what I have to say.”

“Can’t wait,” Riven said.

“Good news, you won’t have to! First, let’s talk about how exactly you’re going to get those chains off your neck. Tell me, have any of you heard of the philosopher’s stone?”

“The ultimate goal of alchemy, right?” Riven said.

“Yes!”

“What’s alchemy?” Cili asked.

“It’s a type of magic, a subcategory of transmutation. Like all transmutation magic, it's focused on taking one thing and turning it into another.” Riven explained.

Cili leaned toward Riven, putting her face inches away from Riven’s. “So you can just turn anything into anything?!” Cili exclaimed excitedly with a twinkle in her eyes.

“Not really,” Riven said. “There’s a whole bunch of laws of alchemy that dictate what you can and can’t do.”

Cili slumped back into her chair. “And you’ve lost me.”

“Can’t you just ignore the laws if you have a philosopher’s stone?” Ace asked.

“Very good!” Cally said.

“Since when did you understand alchemy?” Riven asked

“I read,” Ace said. “But isn’t the philosopher’s stone just a myth?”

“On the contrary.” Cally reached into her pocket and pulled out a brilliant blood-red gemstone. She carefully set it on the counter; the way the light reflected off the gem made it seem as if it was floating atop a pool of blood. Everyone leaned in closer and looked over each other’s shoulders to get a better view of the gem.

“You know that’s just a ruby,” Halvor said. He and Draxl were the only two who didn’t display any interest in the gem.

Cally swiped the gem off the counter. “Guess you can't fool a golem when it comes to minerals. Don’t worry I wasn’t trying to trick any of you. Just trying to have a little fun. However, philosopher’s stones do exist.”

“Your proof?” Draxl asked.

“Oh I don’t have any. If that’s a problem then please, feel free to leave.”

Draxl remained silent.

“That’s what I thought.”

“Okay, let’s say philosopher’s stones do exist. How are they gonna help us?” Ace asked.

“I think I get where she's going,” Riven said. “Normally you can’t perform alchemy on living things. But with a philosopher’s stone, you can ignore that rule.”

“Are you suggesting using alchemy to turn the chains on our necks into normal skin?” Ace asked.

“That … can’t possibly work that way. Can it?” Kai said.

“If you’re lucky, you might just find out,” Cally said. “Now, I’m assuming you’ve all been outside Chapter 6 before.”

Everyone nodded in affirmation.

“Good. You’ll be heading for Chapter 7. Do any of you know where Wishmoore is?” Cally asked.

Draxl raised his hand. “I do.”

“Perfect! Your target—”

“Our target?” Galina asked. “You make it sound like we’re hunting a person.”

“Because you are,” Cally responded bluntly. “His name is Elric Feu. He’s an elven hybrid, but more importantly, he’s also an avatar. I’ve no clue who his patron is, but it's because of them that Elric is the only living person capable of creating a philosopher’s stone.”

“How are we supposed to kidnap an avatar? Aren’t they like super powerful?” Cili asked.

“Just to be clear, your issue isn’t that we might need to kidnap a, as far as we know, innocent person, but rather the difficulty in doing so?” Galina asked.

“Yeah!”

“Worrying.”

“Nobody is kidnapping anybody,” Cally said. “In fact, you’re doing the opposite. That idiot Elric got himself captured. To your earlier point, being an avatar gives you unique skills, but that’s all. They aren’t cheating, they were just dealt a good hand; which means they can still lose.

“In Elric’s case, he lost big. It’s not surprising. His skills weren’t suited for combat. By the time I found out, any trace of where he had been taken was long gone. Maybe there wasn’t any trace, to begin with.”

“Any idea who captured him?” Ace asked.

“Ended up calling in a favor last night from a diviner friend over in Chapter 3 to find him. Because it was short notice Zion charged me extra, but yes, I do. They’re a band of thieves based in Journey, though they have hideouts all over Fable. They call themselves The Free Few.”

The briefest flicker of recognition flashed across Draxl's face as his eyes widened. “Not possible.”

“Oh, and why is that?” Cally asked

“The Free Few disbanded,” Draxl said. “Besides, they don’t kidnap people against their will.”

“Against their will?” Riven asked. “Is it kidnapping if the one being kidnapped is willing?”

“Could be a different leader,” Ace said, completely ignoring Riven. “It’s like what Cili said about the raevens. What if they disbanded then someone else brought them back together?”

“Maybe,” Draxl said.

“Well whoever took Elric, what I’m sure of is that last night, he was in Wishmoore, but there’s no guarantee he’s going to stay there,” Cally said.

“So when are we leaving?” Galina asked.

“Today. I took the liberty of stockpiling your wagon with supplies for the trip.”

“Hang on a second, do we know where in Wishmoore this guy is, or just that he’s somewhere there?” Halvor asked.

“Unfortunately, due to the sudden nature of my request I was only able to get his approximate location.”

“Do you have a map of the city?” Ace asked.

Cally pulled the rolled-up map she placed underneath the bar last night and handed it to Ace. “There you are.”

Ace rolled the map out on the bar counter; everyone leaned in to get a better look. “Okay, before we go, let’s figure out where in Wishmoore we’re going. We’re going to need as much information as possible. Does anyone have any idea where to start?”

“Wishful Wanderers is a guild hall,” Riven said. “Anything supernatural in the area probably finds its way there eventually.”

“I think that Siren’s Song place might be a pirate bar,” Kai said. “Pirates have seen a lot, and love telling stories.”

“We’ve got Siren’s Song and Wishful Wanderers. There’s an odd number of us, so how are we gonna split this?” Ace asked.

“Don’t worry about me,” Draxl said. “I’m going to do my own thing. Just pick a place to meet up at the end of the day.”

“I’ll go to the guild hall. They’ll probably have rooms we can use, so we can stay there too,” Riven said.

“I’d prefer to go to Siren’s Song,” Kai said.

“Okay, if Draxl’s just going to do whatever, then what if we split up into boys and girls?” Halvor suggested. “So Riven, Galina, and Cili go to the guild hall, and Kai, Ace, and I go to Siren’s Song.”

“One thing before you go,” Cally interjected. “The Armistice Order doesn’t have a presence in Wishmoore, but rumors are they’re looking to establish one. Be on the lookout for a representative. Even if they aren’t part of the Chained Maiden’s sect they’ll know what those chains mean. Not all sects support the marking idea, but better safe than sorry.”

“Stay covered up, got it,” Ace said.

“Now then, is there anything else you need?” Cally asked.

“Any chance you got any other artifacts? Like that cool sword Ace used yesterday?” Cili asked.

“Of course, I’m quite the collector in fact.”

“Can we have them?!” Cili asked.

“No.”

Halvor put a hand on Cili’s back. “It was worth a shot.”

“Alright, then Hangmen, I wish you the best of luck,” Cally said.

“We all met hanging from a tree,” Ace said. “Doubt our luck could get any worse.”