Chapter 22: An Ill-Advised Bet

The first hand of cards did not go well. I received no hope for a straight, and the cards were almost all different suits. And just in general, nothing good showed up at all. 

Sighing, I folded the first round, not even buying into the draw. Everyone had their straight faces on, and I couldn't even read One, and she was the most expressive of the three Numbered. But she was studying each person intently, so I didn't bother trying to bluff or anything. 

Nine sat passively, and Four had a thoughtful expression as she looked into their opponent's eyes as they each tossed their discarded cards on top of mine in the center of the table. One dealt out the replacements. Another round of betting and One folded. 

Four and Nine both showed, with Four taking a pot just barely. She had a straight two higher than Nine did. When the deck was passed to Nine to deal, I was suspicious because I got a similarly lousy hand. This time, the highest card was a ten, with nothing else happening.

I had to go first as I was under the gun. I placed a minimum bet, and both Four and One quickly raised. Something is wrong here. Nine folded, and I folded. When I dealt, they were actually okay. I had a low two pairs off the draw. 

I was pretty happy but was certain I didn't show a single twitch. Four bets, One folded, Nine folded. I called. I won. One clearly knew that I had won based on her ability, and Nine had followed her lead. So I got very minimal winnings, barely earning back my previous bets.

When the deck passed on to four sitting next to me. I also got a terrible hand. The round went on a few more times, but I never even got to the draw, as my cards were just awful. 

I was getting very suspicious that the game wasn't being played as fairly as it probably should have been. I don't know what I came to expect when these people were playing it. We, after all, were all assassins and not necessarily known for our respect of honor or fairness. But I couldn't quite figure out how everyone was cheating. Perhaps they were just really good at dealing with awful hands, but I didn't know if that could explain everything. Maybe it could. 

The cards that they all won were unusually high, but I have to admit, I didn't know the probabilities. I didn't have the mental acuity to work them out on the fly without at least a piece of paper to write down some numbers on. So, I just had the gut instinct that they were relatively high. 

I didn't pay enough attention to the next couple of hands. Trying to take advantage of my own skills, I was too busy reaching out with my shadow magic. My attempts to touch the cards were slowly bearing fruit. I was starting to see if I could manipulate them in any sort of way. 

When the deal came around to me, I was honestly half surprised. I had just been folding without even really looking at my cards very much. When I dealt them out, I felt the cards with my shadow as they left my hand and realized that I could perceive through the shadow quite clearly. I couldn't see color, but I noticed a few areas where the ink stained the paper. 

It wasn't as easy as reading, but it was like tracing numbers on my hands, and I concentrated on feeling out the cards I was giving to everyone. Four had a decent hand but needed to get a couple of lucky draws for a flush. One got a single pair of sixes. Nothing interesting. 

And is that a king? A king, a queen, and a jack. To Nine. I missed a couple of cards there, though. Still, that's a good hand. Interesting. When I dealt my own once, I picked up my own cards and looked through them. I confirmed that I should be able to tell what everyone had when I dealt. I didn't feel bad doing this because it seemed like four and one were both able to tell what everyone had anyway, and nine apparently was doing her own thing. 

We played a few more hands, and I actually managed to win a few. Still, unfortunately, everyone knowing everyone's cards made it quite hard for anyone to run up the pot. This made for a naturally plodding game. On top of that, no one made any real progress. 

Nine won a little bit less than the rest of us, but somehow, her pile never seemed to shrink too much. Honestly, if it hadn't been so much effort to exercise my magic in such a demanding way, I would have gotten bored at the game's slow pace. 

There were practically no exciting hands or heart-pounding moments. But we were all laser-focused, studying each other and our cards. With an eagle eye, we were watching every sign, tick, and tell to give ourselves an edge. 

After I had dealt and won, I kept my focus on the cards and was able to tell everyone's hand perfectly this time, rather than just a few of each of the people's cards staying in. I even managed to get every one of the cards on the draw despite not having been the one who dealt. Unfortunately, I didn't have the winning hand, and both Four and One knew it.

As the game went on, I managed to win a little bit by virtue of having the best cards. No one had even attempted bluffing, as far as I could tell, which was just a very odd game of playing way of playing poker. Finally, after my fourth time dealing, I was ready to make my play. 

I passed around the cards, but when I dropped my own cards, I covered them with a layer of shadow. I only covered one card because that was all I could really focus on at the moment. And I covered up my third jack with two images on it. Picking it up, I held the cards and observed Four and One. 

Would she know what I actually had? Or were they seeing my cards somehow? I couldn't tell by my own sight the difference between what the card should be and what it actually was. Knowing that I had all of my opponents beaten, I kept rising when it was my turn. Four looked at me and folded. Okay, that was not unexpected. If she was reading me, not my cards, then she wouldn't actually. No. What card she what cards I seem to hold. One also folded.

Nine, though she stayed in understandably because she should beat my two cards. She called me, and I played down, changing the card as I let them let my hand fall, displaying my cards in my winning hand. Nine didn't look so much as surprised or slightly annoyed as I raked the pot towards myself.

I felt rather proud. That was a fine deception and feat of magic, but it was inherently flawed. I forgot that they were reading me and not the cards. So, I waited for the deck to come back. Around this time, when I dealt, I changed one of One's and Four's cards. 

I managed to hold my attention across two of them, making it seem like they had better hands than they actually did. Unfortunately, my cards are awful, and I couldn't spare the attention, but One was leading by a slight mount at this point. When they eventually both displayed, they should have split the pot. 

However, that wasn't what happened. I revealed One's actual card. And let Four take the win. One looked shocked and frowned at her cards as if she couldn't believe what she was saying. Eventually, she shrugged and started to go along with it. She opened her mouth, and I thought she was going to accuse someone of cheating but just said, "That wasn't what I expected."

Okay, this method might not work as well as I would have liked. But it was interesting that I could control some of the cards around me. This should let me win pretty easily; however, I wasn't the only one cheating. And as much as we were all obviously cheating, it didn't mean that we wanted to be caught. That would at least get rid of any claims to the prize if one was proven to be cheating. 

I observed the cards as they were dealt out and only covered the best card that nine received. Her third ace. On the draw, she got rid of it and had a much weaker hand than she originally had. Okay, that was a more valid strategy, as it let the card go back to normal in the deck or in the pile. 

Because of that, I was able to trick her out of a win and rake on another pile. But that wasn't going to work forever. Carefully, I kept altering cards, making people think they had worse hands than they actually did. And slowly, the pile in front of me grew. One and Four both grew increasingly frustrated as, despite knowing what cards I had, it didn't help them. 

I always had better cards. Nine also lost, but she didn't seem to be too annoyed. And I noticed despite winning even less frequently, her pile still didn't shrink much at all. Perhaps she was just winning more, but I hadn't honestly been keeping track of the bets, knowing exactly when I would win and lose. They never really got much higher than the buy-in, as most of the table knew all the information. 

After a long time of simply minimizing her losses, One decided to take some action of her own. When it was her deal, I saw she slipped a few cards into her dress and held on to them. 

Instead of pointing out her clumsy, sleight of hand, I decided to take advantage. I changed what they were and let the couple's hands play out completely naturally until she went to use a hidden card.

She swapped out a low card she had. When she pulled the card out of her dress into her hand, I watched as her face froze in surprise. The realization dawned on her that she had palmed the wrong card. Now, she had a completely useless hand after having bet heavily to get to the draw phase. She folded gracefully but knew something was up. 

I was having a blast. After the stressful few days I had had since I woke up with no memories, this was the perfect way to relax and have some fun. The use of my power actually got significantly easier as I used it. I wasn't taxing myself so much that I was becoming tired while using these small tricks, but my fine control was improving significantly. 

It was like learning how to spin a pen on your finger. The more you did it, the easier it became. I froze. A pen? A fountain pen like the one the king had given me? How did I know that you spun those on your fingers? I shook my head, clearing my thoughts of such weird things, and refocused on the game. 

I need to dissect that later, but I was busy. 

The game went late. All through the night, we played. We kept playing as the carriage moved again in the morning. The table gently swayed with the movement of the horses, making everyone have to keep a hand ready to catch money or cards falling off the table, but we persisted. 

We barely talked; everyone was so intently focused. Sometime later, though, Four and One had found a way to counter my illusions. Whatever they did, I didn't think they saw through them. They were able to force certain cards on me that I would have to hold too many illusions at once. At this point, I could hold four, but that could only change the game so much. 

No matter how carefully I watched them, I couldn't figure out how they were doing it. Perhaps they had formed some alliance and were now working together. Slowly, my pile stopped growing and started shrinking. The game continued until we stopped for an afternoon meal. 

We all pocketed our stuff and put them away to eat. The group didn't talk as we were all still thinking about the game, watching each other tensely. And it was when we got back to the carriage that I realized something was weird with Nine. It just didn't make sense. 

She didn't win nearly enough to make as much money as she did. And so I watched her closely like a hawk. When? I noticed her pile shift slightly without her touching it. I started to watch the coins as well. I lost more hands this way because I wasn't focusing on the game. I noticed a few pieces vanish from Four's pile and move over to the Nine's. She wasn't cheating in the game! She was just straight-up stealing people's money!

That was so dirty. I was proud of my assassin. Did she have some sort of metal affinity like the way I did with shadows? That would explain a lot, like why she always felt cold to the touch. 

Her should be easy enough to counter. All I had to do was let her know that I could prove that she was cheating and she would be on my side. She would want me to win. 

Well, no, I realized she wouldn't. 

Even if I could make her lose, she would rather one of the other two wins than me. That was frustrating. How could I counter her? The only way I could think was to stop her from stealing. 

I reached out to her directly and felt the faint tingling of a substance similar to my shadow magic as she stole one of Four's copper pieces. As the piece was dematerializing and rematerializing near her. I poked her energy, and it stopped the piece from moving. 

Nine looked like someone had stabbed her with a needle as she jumped and glanced around. "What the–!"

We all looked at her outburst like she was crazy. It was the first time anyone had spoken in hours, so the sound of her voice was jarring.

Interesting. I didn't know that it would work that way. She didn't either, apparently, and she made several more attempts to take coins from each of us. I stopped her each time, and she got more and more frustrated. She slowly bled coins as she just couldn't win as much to keep up with us. 

Before long, she was out. Having tossed in her last hand, laying down her cards and losing to Four. She muttered something about it being a stupid game anyway as she curled up in the corner and pretended to fall asleep. The three of us played on. 

It was a more interesting game. Now that I could pay full attention, I realized I was a bit behind. I worked hard and targeted One, as I figured she was the most likely person to actually be able to read everything I was doing rather than Four.

With 25 percent fewer cards to focus on, their method of giving me bad cards was more manageable. Now, I could change almost five cards. Together, Four and I whittled down One until she, too, was sulking with Nine.

That left just Four and I sitting next to each other as we played. At this point, I could control fully half of the cards in play, and I quickly made up all the lost ground. 

For the great finale, I convinced Four that she had a much better hand than she actually did. I could only play this trick once. But it should be undeniable when she lays down the hand and loses. I gave her a straight flush, and I received a full house. We both bet up high, eventually going all in my pile slightly less than hers, but whoever won this would easily be able to bully the other into eventually winning. 

"Let's see what you have." She said as she called me.

When it came to laying down, though, she laid down what she thought was a straight flush, but I let it return to a regular straight. Triumphantly, I laid down my cards.

But as I looked at my full house, I saw that it was nothing but a pile of junk. I looked at my jack-high hand and frowned. I poked at it with my magic and felt nothing there. No shadows were covering it. Nothing. Four smiled at me innocently. 

"Looks like I win." She said in a sweetly innocent voice.

What the fuck?

MrBliss

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