PM to join [Alements] Wagers

[Xira Hezmek]

20th of Summer, evening to late evening.

Xira had come to really enjoy his evenings off in the Alements. There was drink to be had, friendships to enjoy and more recently... gambling to be done. For the courier, gambling was not something he did often. He was too... frugal to bet away his hard earned cash. Besides, he knew very little of how to properly gamble. But he did admit that the game that he did know how to play was very fun.

He hadn't seen much of his friends that evening but he had heard that Kavala would be making an appearance that night as would Caelum. In the mean time the courier found himself playing with a pair of Akalak, a Svefra woman, and an Endrykas man. Dysodorodamas, a friendly fellow with a ridiculously difficult name to pronounce, started the next hand. "So now that Xira here has taught us how to play Stammer and Blush, how about we play a local game? Ever heard of Helioc?" Dyso's brother, one of those rare akalak twins, scowled at his twin and said, "Really? That's a four player game. That means one of us has to sit this one out."

"No need" Said the drykas man, named Ghul or something similar, "I should be leaving anyways. It is getting late and the wives will be wanting their husband." He said with a roguish grin. "Farewell folks, nice meeting you all." Xira found that light drykas accent fascinating. It only really altered the pronunciation of certain common vowels and he tended to speak emphatically with his hands. It reminded him of Kavala and all her hand gestures. He waved and turned to leave.

"Well then. It looks like we got ourselves a game." Dyso said amiably to his brother, Noromaeus, who shrugged. "Alright. So the name of the game is Helioc. You get into teams of two and the goal of the game is to call a Jakri, that is to avoid any winning hands."

The Svefra woman frowned, " Well that makes a whole lot of sense." She said sarcastically in her gruff way, "So you are telling me that the goal of the game is to lose?" Despite the Svefra's brusque attitude towards them the whole evening, these akalak gentlemen were deferential and respectful to the woman. Akalak were so strange. Instead he responded, "Sort of, the goal is to get the least amount of 'tricks' as they call it between the two of you and you both basically decide on a bid on how many tricks you think you will make. Those that manage to get their bid get ten times their score, buuut if you don't make your bid it is only a point apiece. Go over your bid and the extra is worth a point each. Get over ten tricks and you lose a hundred points from your score, 20, then two hundred and so on. Calling the Jakri and getting no tricks you get 100 points, calling it and fail it you lose 100 points. First to 500 points wins the game." He paused a moment in thought. "Here is the kicker, as they say, before cards are dealt we buy into the game. A chip, lets say copper rimmed mizas for now, into the pot. When we bid, each player places a chip in front of us to keep track of our bids. Betting a Jakri is a silver miza, but if you win with a Jakri, we each have to put a silver miza into the pot, otherwise it sits in the stack. The winning team with highest score at the end of the deal wins the pot and divides it evenly between the two."

Xira interrupted before he could explain any more, "Could you perhaps, just show us? All these rules... I can't really grasp it without an example." Dyso nodded and smiled, "Of course, sorry I got a bit carried away. If it's alright with you, I'll partner with my brother and you can partner with Pearl." Xira looked to the Svefra in question and smiled before nodding back to Dyso. The Svefra did not seem impressed, but she didn't seem to mind the arrangement.

Within a few moments Xira say across from Pearl and Dyso from Noro. "Alright. So we start with putting up a chip to get us started then dealing out the entire deck to everyone here. We should have 13 cards apiece." And Dyso did so. "Now we go around clockwise bidding a number and putting up that many copper mizas. It can be any number between zero and 13. Or we can bid as partners, which is harder. For now, lets bid individually."

Xira took a look at his cards incomprehensibly. He didn't understand how the game was played. He had no idea what to bid. So, he went with a number at random. "6" He said, his partner said "3" and Noro and Dyso placed bids of 4 and 2 respectively.

"Now here is the fun part. The Gems is the suit you should try to avoid, it is the highest suit and will win the trick. Which we already established is what you don't want to do. So you should do your best to use the spades as little as possible. So Xira, go ahead and play a card, then pearl, then Noro and then I will." The courier placed a 9 of Trees on the table. "What we are trying to do is follow the lead's suit. If you can't then you can play any suit. The numbers don't actually matter in this game, but in some variants you have to play a higher number than the previous card. The person who plays the highest gem or the highest card if no gem is in the trick wins the trick." So Pearl played a 2 of Trees, Noro played a 4 of Trees and Dyso played a 6 of Trees. Xira had one that trick.

The game was actually pretty simple once everything was set up. So the four played a couple rounds until they each ran out of cards. Xira managed to be forced to take a full 6 tricks. Pearl got 4 tricks, Noro picked up a single trick and Dyso managed 2. That deal Noro and Dyso won with the highest points only because the combined tricks of Xira and Pearl's team was 10... which meant they lost 100 points and was back to zero.

They played several games before Pearl left and they had to call the game for the evening. It was a good thing too, he was out 30 copper and 2 silver mizas. Not that it was a dent in his pocket. Dyso started to pack his cards away before Xira stopped him. "Hey, would you consider selling that deck of cards? They are beautiful and I would love to play on my own in my travels." Xira, who knew nothing of the inner workings of other men's minds, watched the blue man's face intently. The friendly man looked thoughtful for a moment. "Tell you what, 20 gold mizas and it's yours."

Now Xira was no good at haggling, but 20 gold mizas was an awful lot for a deck of cards. Handpainted as they may be. "15 mizas?" he asked hopefully, "17" Dyso replied flatly, frowning a bit. "Alright. 17 gold mizas." Xira said, fishing for the appropriate coinage. In return the blue man handed the deck of cards in a waterproofed leather case to Xira. Who had trouble controlling his excitement. "Thanks!" He said. "Treat him well," Dyso said to Xira gesturing to the cards, "He was well crafted, hate parting with the cards but maybe you'll find more enjoyment from him."

With that the two left and Xira found himself in a nearly empty tavern. Somehow he had got so caught up in his cards and his gambling that he never got to say hello to Caelum nor Kavala. He looked about for them, now excited to show off his new cards and maybe teach him one of the card games he knew.

Elise strode by picking up various cups and bottles of alcohol. "Excuse me, have you seen Caelum about? Or maybe Kavala?" He asked her. She smiled, "Oh, he should be about. I'll send him your way if I can catch him, but he might be outside or off doing something..." she trailed off. "Anyways, I'll keep an eye out for them both."

Xira nodded and took a seat, idly shuffling the deck. He was clumsy at it, his fingers not very dexterous, but it certainly helped clear his mind. The courier hoped his friends were still about and not back home at the Sanctuary... Funny that he thought of that place as his home. He was about to leave when a familiar voice stopped him.

OOCFeel free to jump in however you'd like. It was a bit long because he learned that local game, which I based on spades, and I wanted to put him in a situation where he buys a deck of cards to play with you guys.

Ledger: -17 GM 5 SM
+ 1 set of Riverfall playing cards

My words

Their words

[Caelum]

“I’ve got them packed in here pretty cozy, so you don’t have to worry about any of the bottles breaking unless you drop the box,” Caelum’s voice carried ahead of him into the tavern’s main room. The drykas-by-night appeared with a flint eyed human at his heels who walked stiffly in comparison to Caelum’s loose-hipped amble. The young man was dressed in worn canvas trousers and a sleeveless tunic that had known better days. There was a battered short sword at his hip, too, worn like it was accustomed to being so. Caelum set the small wooden crate on a table near the door and dipped his hands into the straw packed bottles to shift them a final time. Rocking back on his heels, he tugged a short list of addresses from his pocket and offered it the young man. “Alright, Mark. Here’s the list of where everything is to be delivered in case you forget. The first three need to be tonight, but the last two bottles – the blue ones with the waxed corks – don’t have be at the residence until noon tomorrow.” “Yessir. Alright,” Mark mumbled, taking the list and giving it a squint before it vanished into a pocket. He hesitated, eyebrows rising with a hopeful air, and Caelum dug into his own pocket and removed a purse. It clinked heavily as Caelum handed it to the young man with an easy smile. “Here you are. Let your associates know there’s more work to be had if they want it.” “Will do.” Mark grinned, half surprise and half full of teeth, before disappearing the purse into his tunic and stepping forward to heft the crate of Caelum’s special deliveries. The proprietor followed him to the door and held it open for him. When Mark was gone, vanished into the night, Caelum turned to look curiously at Xira and his deck of cards. One hand rose to rub back through the tangle of horselord-style braids. “What’s that there?” Ledger- 25gm for Special Deliveries performed by Mark, employee of Haev Provedan.

[Kavala]

Larik laughed at her. She knew her nephew laughed as she painfully shifted her shape, bones contorting and djed fueling her bones. The stretching and reforming was painful and took a great deal of concentration. She bowed her head, cried out, and the voice Larik heard went from the painful cry of a woman to the fierce cry of an eagle. Kavala traded her hair for feathers, arms for wings, and grew talons instead of toenails. It wasn’t a perfect or quick change and once she was done Larik had adjustments to make to her proportions and feathering, being critical of her transformation.

She made adjustments, elongating her wings, making her feathers wider, bigger, and stretching out to double the surface area of her arms. She doubled the thickness of the ones at her breast upon his request. Then she settled in to listen to Larik as he talked her through her first lesson in flight.

“Kavala, there are things you are going to need to know. Listen carefully. Flight is a know what to do situation or die. You can get seriously hurt.” Larik said studying Kavala thoroughly to make sure she was listening. The white eagle shifted restlessly, and then nodded her feathered head that she understood what her nephew was saying. He continued, giving her more detail that Kavala might have thought he knew. Larik was, after all, much like her brother his father. The boy was quiet, but when it came to making sure someone was safe or doing something correctly, he tended to open up and speak.

“There are several types of flight you need to know and things about that flight. Let me give you some pointers before you go very far. I’ve seen you out flying, Kavala, and I know you can do it. But truthfully watching you are painful. Hopefully this will help you figure some of this flight ability out.” Larik said, looking for the entire world like he was trying to organize his thoughts and failing miserably. Kelvics could formally learn schooling, but often it was difficult for them or had to be something they were passionate about. However, teaching? That remained to be seen.

“Let’s start with gliding, Aunt. First, when you are gliding, you are moving forward through the air with your wings held in a fixed position. You hold your wings at a slight angle so they deflect the air around them gently downward. You push the air down and it causes a reaction in an opposite way. This reaction is called lift. And its lift that carries you through the air. The force of this lift is roughly perpendicular to the wing surface and keeps you from falling out of the sky.” Larik instructed to Kavala’s shocked expression. She was slightly surprised that he knew the world perpendicular and could actually use it properly. Kavala listened, in her new eagle form, and paced slightly across the ground in front of him, nodding her understanding. Lift was what caused flight. She’d already experienced this force resistance, so she knew he was spot on correct.

Larik continued.


“That is not the only resistance, Kavala. There is also air resistance or drag on your body and wings. If you don’t counter this force, it will eventually cause you to slow down so much so that you don’t have enough speed to keep the lift going and you’ll fall from the sky. To make up for this, you can lean forward a little and go into a shallow dive. See?” Larik demonstrated as a human, lifting his arms up and pretending to dive down. "This causes the lift force produced by the wings to forward slightly and speed up which keeps the lift going. You basically give up height in exchange for increased speed. You will always lose altitude, relative to the surrounding air, if it is to try to maintain the glide indefinitely. You’ll get a feel for it, Aunt, but you need to flap your wings and produce acceleration to not eventually fall out of the sky too much and loose your lift.” Larik instructed.

Kavala nodded. She was truthfully following him well in his lecture. And it gave her something to think of and compare and contrast when she was actually remembering how awkward it was to fly. But despite the difficulty, Kavala really wanted to know because to her it seemed flight was always a viable escape route. And she liked that, having a way to get from point A to point B easily. Magic, if nothing else, was incredibly useful.

But Larik wasn’t done. “Okay, we also need to talk about The Angle of Attack.” He said, stroking his chin so much like Vanator normally did and thinking about how to put the next thought out there. “Remember, your wings are not flat like a board. But they are rounded on the leading edge and then curve to a point on the trailing edge. They are also angled slightly which allows your feather to deflect the air downward and produce lift. We talked about that. I think you understand. But the slight angle of the wing is called the angle of attack. So… you need to learn what a perfect angle of attack is. Because if your angle of attack is too great, your wings will produce a lot of drag and that will slow you down tremendously. That’s great for banking, coming in for a landing, or avoiding collision. But for regular flight? No, its not something you want because you’ll again loose lift and fall out of the sky.” Her nephew continued, looking thoughtful and starting to nibble on a stray lock of his hair which was getting too long. It was fascinating watching him fidget, as if he didn’t know how to hold still as a bird.

Larik’s nibbling looked a lot like a bird of prey preening its frustration and uncertainty. The whole thing caused Kavala to smile… only she couldn’t. Her wicked beak was fixed and all she could do was hiss birdlike. Larik glanced up, chuckled, and nodded. “Body language… I like being a human because I have more expressions. It’s far better to be able to say you are pissed and look pissed, Aunt, than it is to say be a Kelvic with no facial features.” He said with a laugh then reached out and ruffled the feathers on the top of her head. She hissed at him, scampered back and glared.

“Back to work. I promised I’d help you fly better, Kavala. I’m here to do that…” The youth said which made Kavala wonder where he got the leadership from. He sounded so firm, like he wouldn’t take her ignoring him and not listening. The Konti turned snow white eagle nodded.

“Now, if the angle of attack is too small, your wings won’t produce enough lift to keep you airborne. It’s an art form knowing what angle to be at and maintain, but after a few flights conscious of this, your brain will start to automatically calculate your own angles. Hopefully you won’t even have to think of it… like walking as a Konti or swimming.” He added, smiling and then resuming his pacing again. “The best angle depends largely on your wing shapes. Every bird is different and the differences between species also play a role. And I suspect Aunt, unless you get good at shape shifting just exactly the same sized wing each time, you’ll have issues there too. The good angles and bad angles will vary by a few degrees only.” Larik said, reaching down to stroke her huge wings and nod his approval.

“Oh, and one more thing. What matters is the angle relative to the direction of travel, not to the horizon. Birds get easily confused when they are flying and often try to keep the horizon as a marker, but that will not help you. You can fly upside down, straight up, sideways, all kinds of ways and that changes what your angles will be. You need to learn these intimately Kavala. It will help you with keeping yourself in the air. Nothing is easy in the bird world or straight forward. It is complex, even when it seems like it’s a straight line flight.” Larik said, and then paused to make sure Kavala understood. The white eagle fluffed and nodded, pacing again while periodically unfurling her wings to eye them.

Eyesight as an eagle was so very different. Everything was sharp, defined, even miles I the distance. It was something that Kavala was thinking would be harder to get used to than the flight. And while Larik made a big deal of flight, Kavala was more worried about running into something in the air than she was falling out of it. The incredible eyes birds had, especially raptors, were distracting. You couldn’t see something right in front of you when you were busy spotting a delicious mouse in a field of grass two miles distant.

“Okay, let’s talk about flapping your wings and taking off. When your wings flap they move up and down obviously, but less obvious are the fact that they move forward through the air along with the rest of your body. Think of it as reaching forward like you are swimming. So very close to your body, there is very little up and down movement. But further out along towards the wingtips, there is a whole lot more vertical motion. This creates a sort of twist, Kavala. This twist has to happen so that each part of the wing can maintain just the right angle of attack, which of course changes all down the wing. Your wings are flexible so they twist automatically. But that twist must happen in the down stroke, or you will fall out of the sky. Why? As the wing moves down and twists, the lift force at the outer part of the wing is angled forward. This is what would happen if your whole body went into a steep dive. However if only the wing is moving downward and not your whole body, you can generate a ton of forward propulsive force or thrust, without any loss of altitude.” Larik concluded with a smile.

Which of course made Kavala laugh in a very eagleesque guffaw. People said Kelvics weren’t smart and yet here was her nephew talking like a seasoned wizard professing their love of complicated…. What was it they were talking about anyhow? Motion, weight, propulsion? These were some kind of forces… Kavala was at a loss. It all felt so… pre-Valterrian, like a conversation she’d be having as Crescent or A’Kelas, not Kavala.

Larik wasn’t finished though. “The air is not only deflected downward by your wings and this twist, but it’s also forced to the rear of your body. This is called thrust. So thrust is produced on the down stroke by the twist and changing angles of attack along the wing. That same wing generates lift and forward motion. It’s very simple Aunt… the lift and thrust forces are different and generated differently by different parts of the wing. The outer part of the wing provides thrust. The inner part of the wing produces lift. That’s because the inner part barely moves and the outer part does all the big motions. That’s why the wing generates different forces.” Her nephew finished off, feeling proud of him. Kavala nodded again, understanding that part but not wanting to interrupt Larik’s teaching moments.

“So we’ve talked a lot about the down stroke and the propulsion and lift that are generated. But what can we do to make the upstroke more efficient? The outer part of your wing points straight along its line of travel normally so you can pass through the air with the least possible resistance. In other words, the angle of attack is reduced. So to change this you can partially fold your wings. This reduces the wingspan and eliminates the drag on the outer part of the wing. Small movements count and can have drastic effects. I know you’ve already been flying, Kavala, but I think with this new information it will help you a great deal.” Larik said looking slightly satisfied with him that his mother and her shape shifting abilities were something he could help with.

Kavala nodded, padded forward on her talons, and rubbed her head against his leg where he was standing. Then she backed up, still watching his face, pride shining in her eyes. Then she turned, and with all the knowledge of the body shape she now wore, Kavala found the wind – faced it – and took a few running steps. Her wings unfurled and she beat them furiously, fighting to get skyward. It took tremendous power and determination to get her huge body from the ground into the sky. Larik had showed her how to take off from cliffs and the tops of trees once. But now this was all the way she practiced so she wouldn’t rely on height to be a crutch to her flight.

She gained propulsion – a term she now used and understood – and lift as her body picked up height and speed. Then suddenly, she caught a thermal off the cliff of The Sanctuary and was out soaring along the coastline. And it was there that Kavala began to pay attention to her wings, her angle of attack, and even the rate of speed her wings were moving. With the coastal winds, flight was almost effortless. She shot along the coast heading south; bisecting what was either strong offshore flow or weak onshore flow. And when she came upon the city, Kavala banked into the plunge pool bay area, circled a few times, and realized she was tired. She spotted Alement’s front door and dove through it glad it was both open and a double wide elegant featured thing. She then narrowly avoided a client - or was that Xira? - back winged at the copper backed bar, and began shifting back to her Konti form. That was a slow and painful process, moving her form from a large snow white eagle the size of a person to the compact Konti she usually was.

Then, standing there naked, she smiled at all who was present, and gestured towards the storage. “Mind if I go change into some of the spare clothes I keep in the storage room we haven’t yet turned into retail space? Larik is driving me to drink with all his flight instruction. The boy sounds like a pre-Valterrian Wizard with all this talk of math.” Kavala said sincerely, though there was laughter in her eyes.

Count: 2,447

[Xira Hezmek]

The young courier shuffled his cards slowly. There was an art to it, he was sure, but with no one to teach him and only those memories of watching others shuffle decks such as these he could only fumble about. However he knew the key was to not let the plaques bend. The deck was beautiful, hand crafted in the Riverfall style. Something like that you wanted to treat with care. So he pulled a stack of cards from the center with his thumb and his forefinger and slid it to the top. Over and over again he completed this ritual, each time a different number of random cards moving to the top.

He frowned and looked up to Caelum, who had been discussing something with someone Xira didn't recognize. He blinked owlishly a moment then looked down, registering the question. "Oh! These? They'r-" When suddenly a feathered missile nearly slammed into the poor courier. He yelped and fell back in his chair, slamming his head against the floor painfully. Xira looked up at where the thing must have hit back bar. Instead he saw Kavala mid transformation stand up slowly. "Ow.." He groaned, touching the growing lump as he got from the ground. "Kavala..." She stood before him, beautiful in all her naked glory. If his head hadn't been throbbing he would have done what all men do when presented a clothless woman and oogled her. Instead he squeezed his eyes shut and grimaced in pain.

Luckily his cards hadn't exploded in a cloud of tedious misery. Instead the courier clamped his newly acquired set of cards to his chest. When Kavala left for the storage room he shook his head, suddenly amused then looked at Caelum. "That woman is going to kill me someday." He said with wry smile. "Would you mind Cael?" He asked, pointing to his head.

He then finished the answer he had been interrupted just moments before, "These are a deck of cards, just one of the many ways to gamble away your life's savings through games of chance and skill." He said with a grin to the man garbed with the face of a drykas. "Would you like to try? Oh, maybe Kavala could play with us. More fun to play in a group you know." Xira looked about for the pale konti beauty to ask her just that. Hopefully she wouldn't take too much time getting dress.

[Caelum]

Immortal warrior priest of a mystery shrouded order of dreamwalkers that he was, Caelum nonetheless startled like a cat when the massive, white eagle took a nose dive through his tavern door. He literally jumped, bumping backwards into a chair that skittered a few feet, and staggered the final step back to grasp the edge of right side door. It swung lazily to a close beneath his momentum. He proceeded to gape at the bird as it underwent rapid transformation into Kavala Denusk. “What. The. Petch.” Blinking rapidly, Caelum swiveled around to close the left side door and draw the latch over both, hastily closing out any other strange creatures that might plummet in. He turned back to face them, glancing at the grimacing Xira, and a grin winged over his face with a rush of delight. “What was that? Holy shit, Kav. That’s cool. I didn’t know you could turn all the way into a bird. Is that with the same magic that you made my horns disappear that one time? What kind of a bird was that? Some sort of eagle? Larik must be having fits. This is great.” He strode toward them and gestured Kavala toward the empty retail space. His eyes soaked in the sight of her, bare skinned in the warm copper lights and green shadows of his tavern, and his grin softened appreciably. “Go ahead. Change. Of course you can. What do you want to drink? I’ll pour you something and you can explain all of this to me when you come back.” As Kavala disappeared to change, Caelum dropped into a crouch beside where Xira was sprawled on his floor. “Of course you’d pick the one place where there’s not a rug to hit your head,” he muttered amicably at the courier. One hand grasped his shoulder, easily helping him sit upright, while the fingers of his other hand slid gently into the dark hair at the back of Xira’s head. He exhaled, feeling the sharp bruise, and with a careful nudge Rak’keli’s gnosis was activated and breathed from him and into Xira. It was like drinking wind, filling the courier up and eradicating the pain calming garbled nerve ends. Completed, Caelum blinked against Xira’s desire to play card game and tucked a smirk into the corner of his mouth. “Sure, let’s ask her. C’mon –“ Grasping Xira’s elbow, he helped him up to his feet. “What do you want to drink?”

[Kavala]

Kavala reappeared a few minutes later with her hair up in a leather wrap and a simple blouse and a long colorful flowing skirt on. Simple leather sandals that matched the belt and wrap in her hair completed the outfit. She was grinning and still seemingly sheepish about the whole eagle incident.

“Larik is teaching me how to be a bird. That was supposed to be a Larik sort of eagle. I don’t think I got his seeming just right, but I still, we flew and everything. I’ll do better next time. But the whole force, velocity, angle of ascent, draft… gods that boy loves to talk about flying. I never knew he had so many words.” The Konti laughed and then answered Caelum’s questions which she heard quite clearly from the storage room that would one day be retail space for the school she would open.

“Yes, it’s the same kind. It takes a bit of study to shapeshift, but the principle follows all the rules of magic just the same. The only problem is if you manage to take on the form of a bird, or fish, or even something like a climbing animal, there’s nothing translating in your mind about how to fly or swim or climb. You have to learn to do that in the form. Crazy. Flying is a lot harder than I thought it would be. The views, however, are well worth it!” She said excitedly, and began to ramble on about her adventure with Larik and where he took her and what they saw.

“Did you know he’s got his own nest? It’s a giant sea cave inaccessible from the ground on foot. You have to fly to get to it. I guess that’s where he goes when he wants alone time. It makes me happy he has his own space, but it also speaks volumes to me that hes growing up so fast.” Kavala said, feeling mixed emotions about the situation. She shrugged and then smiled at Xira, frowning when she saw he’d been hurt.

“I’m sooooo sorry. I’m glad the door was open though. That would have been an awful landing against that wood and stone. Are you okay now?” She asked the courier, wondering if there was any way to make it up to him. Then she saw he wanted to play cards… at least that’s what she thought he was doing.

“What’s the game?” She asked, settling down at the table after detouring by the bar where she tapped a whiskey bottle and wiggled her eyebrow at Caelum before she departed with said bottle and a shot glass in hand. Kavala normally had wine, but in this instance, she really needed something stronger after her time with her nephew. She pulled up a chair, stretched out her long legs, and looked interestingly at Xira.

Kavala hadn’t gotten to spend much time with the human lately. They were always so busy. He was getting his business off the ground and gone taking packages while Caelum was doing the same with Alements. Kavala always knew where to usually find Caelum, but Xira was near impossible to track down because he was always on the move.

“I’ve got a few hours. All the children have their nanny and Cadra watching out for them. Everything's peaceful at home, and I saw my last client for the day two hours ago. Nothing needs attention until the morning. I don’t even have to help with afternoon and evening feedings. All the staff is actually there tonight and can handle things just fine.” The Konti said, super pleased with the free chunk of time.

“Can you explain the rules?” The Konti asked, not much of a card game enthusiast and not sure how whatever card game Xira wanted to be played would be played.

While she was awaiting Xira’s response, she poured herself a shot of whiskey and sipped at it a moment savoring the taste. When she got used to the tang, she tipped back the rest of the shot and signed as the alcohol burned down the back of her throat and into her stomach. She could already feel her system get the jumpstart boost from the fire in her belly as she leaned back and prepared to have a good time with her two friends.

Then she looked around and raised an eyebrow. “Where’s Elise? It seems odd to be here without that young woman around.” Kavala said, raising an eyebrow and wondering if Caelum gave her the night off. The Konti knew enough about cards to know that sometimes four was better than three.

[Xira Hezmek]

Xira smiled cheerfully, none the worse for having a head injury not moments ago. Rak'keli's gift seemed to have an invigorating quality. He straightened and with the dinural lord's help he made it to his feet. The hearty hale feeling was far more heady than a stiff drink and the offduty courier felt as if he could dance in the moonlight and spring from table to table as a fleet hart. He did none of these things of course, but instead righted himself and reclaimed his elbow with a touch to the drykas' hand and a warm smile. "Thank you my friend. Ah, there she is."

The human turned his smile on Kavala. It was not her fault that she lost control, magic had that effect. The magic of taking the shape of others. The world never ceased to have such wonders. In fact, few magical feats phased the courier now; he merely expected beautiful and amazing magical abilities that when they did, it was further proof that he had more to learn. He righted his chair and took a seat, setting down his new set of cards as she sauntered over to them, talking excitedly about her latest exploits.

"That makes a certain amount of sense, poetic even. Born into the skin and bone of another you learn as a babe would" He gave the last bit a sort of mock rite sound to it as he nodded to the Kavala's words. "Perish the thought, M'lady, I'll be alright. I am just glad you are. Caelum already managed to fix the ol' noggin." He tapped the spot where he fell with a knuckle and grinned.

He then tilted his head thoughtfully at his friend and blinked slowly. "It is good to see you. We need to get together more. Good to hear you have some free time though, I know full well how busy it gets at... home." He scratched his head with the heel of his hand as he considered, interested in his own hesitation and the realization that the Sanctuary was every bit his home, perhaps more so than Syliras. "Ah, the game is probably going to be Stammer and BlushPlays like Texas hold-em. Pretty fun game from back home, picked the game up from a bunch of veteran gamblers in a much less reputable tavern then this." As he spoke the courier started his awkward shuffle back up and looked about. "Yeah, the Alements is very posh."

"Anyways. Rules aren't too hard, but its easier to show you how to play then tell you." He looked from Cael to Kavala and did some mental configuring. "Though... we will need to figure out what we are going to wager. The game is no fun without some sort of wagering, even if its just a friendly game." He started by dealing cards to Kavala and Caelum before he explained how to play. "Something to think about. Alright, so to play the game you start with your first sort of 'wager' by buying into the game. So what I would do is give up some mizas.. or... umm.... my hat!" He tossed the hat into the center. "I'll buy into the game with my hat and I get two cards. Well, everyone in the game will get two, and the dealer gets his cards last... but you get the picture." He paused a moment, distracting himself by accidentally dropping his cards.

"So, once you get your cards we start a round of betting. You can check, that is not make a bet, Make a bet and raise the wager, or call someone else's bet -match their bet . Or you can fold, and not make a bet. That means you are out of the game though. For argument's sake lets just say that we all checked." Without currency on the table and the courier's impatience to get to teaching he had to rely on his friend's patience. "So you can go ahead and look at your cards if you'd like, its alright if it doesn't mean much. I felt the same way myself." He neglected to mention that sometimes he still was quite the novice at gambling thus he occasionally blanked on what the cards meant. "So after the first round of betting the dealer lays out three cards. From those cards our goal is to make all sorts of combinations with the cards on the table and the cards in your hand. Person with the best combo wins!"

Xira grinned at the two of his friends, clearly excited to share this game. He almost seemed to bounce in his seat and his gestures seemed almost exaggerated as he spoke. "So, you are looking for combinations but then we go through another round of betting based on the combinations. The better the combination, the higher you might bid. Orrrr you could bluff and pretend you have a good hand hoping that the others fold instead. After that round we put down another card, do a round of betting then set down the final card. Once all five cards are down we do a last round of betting and we show each other our cards." He demonstrated by setting out cards on the table until there was five.

The riverfall deck of hand painted cards in front of them read as: the Father of Gems, Laken of Trees, 9 of Spears, 2 of Spears and 7 of Shields. Not much for combinations on its own, not that Xira had a chance to explain those yet. "So yeah! That is how you play the Stammer and Blush. Apparently its pretty close to Blush if you know how the scoring works with that. What do you guys think? Sound fun? We could also try and play Helioc. That game I learned to play just this evening but I don't think I have it down yet." The excited courier simply could not stop talking. At last he realized that he probably didn't give a chance for Kavala or Cael a moment to get a word in edgewise. He clamped his mouth shut and politely waited for his friends to give him their thoughts.

[Caelum]

"Perhaps I could build you a landing strip," Caelum teased Kavala. Once the pair of them were seated, he pulled out fat, velvet backed armchair at their table and dropped into it. He flopped back, slumping with indolent grace and propping an ankle on the opposing heel. For all of the plain cut and style of his tunic and riding leathers, he nonetheless had a noble and otherwordly air. He couldn't help it. It clung on him like sex and sunlight, absorbed by his very skin. One eye squinted at the bottle of whiskey and he delivered a grin of approval. "Is this posh? Are we posh? Is that a thing now?" A chuckle rumbled up and out of his chest and he shook his head at Xira. "Gods, it's about time. To think, I didn't have a second shirt to wear for ages. Do you know how down at the heels I was when I rolled into the Sanctuary last? I stopped to bathe, but I still was afraid Kavala might turn me away for being a filthy vagrant." A hand rose to rub back through his hair, disrupting the dark collection of braids and showing a hint of the glimmering gnosis mark of Nysel hidden against his scalp by the fall of his hair. His eyes came to rest, heavy lidded, on the cards. He looked a bit weary, but then it had been a long day and he was no longer being sustained by the grace of Syna's bright day. Besides, he was beginning to get excited about spending an evening with his friends doing something as useless and fun as playing cards. Typically the only time any of them had a chance to really get together was when some job or another required a group effort. Of course, he was always willing to help out, but it was nice to have a chance to just hang out. Without looking away from the cards, he responded to Kavala asking after Elise by bellowing the young woman's name. "Elise!" It was obviously a bit of a joke between them as in short order Elise strode out of the kitchen's swinging door with a laden tray in her hands and a cheeky smile on her mouth. "Mind your manners," she chastised her boss and friend, hip-bumping his chair before sliding the tray onto a corner of the table not occupied with whiskey, cards, or Xira's hat. "Just because I shout for you doesn't mean you get to shout for me. Hi, Kavala. Xira." Her smile was turned on the other two, not nearly the reserved curve that it was for most everyone else. These two got the real smile, the one that bit down deep into the core of Elise's burgeoning happiness. It almost wasn't possible to recognize her from the frail, broken creature of the previous winter. "What's this? Cards? Can I play?" Caelum, in response, reached over to pull out a chair for her. He stole a fresh baked cookie from Elise's tray (which also included a decanter of rich, blood red wine for those who might prefer it to whiskey) and nibbled on it. "I've played stammer and blush before," he admitted to the courier. "Though, ah, not very well..." He cleared his throat and gave a charming, sideways sort of smile. He flicked his fingers lightly at the brim of Xira's discarded hat. "So clothes, is it? Or mizas. Or favors." Caelum already knew he was doomed. Any way you looked at it, he was going to lsoe. He figured he might as well enjoy the fall.