"Oh, well, so much for that idea." She flops into a chair. "How are you liking Welce?"
Patience laughs. "Oh, I hadn't even thought of that - that's funny. I wonder what else you could make cards out of?"
"There are few among us who couldn't," Sarelle says dryly. (She has previously observed - and subsequently proved - that while her advantage of memory is not quite as automatic as Ekador's, it is equally powerful when she chooses to exercise it.)
"I know tons of ways to cheat at cards, are you kidding? I can probably even think of one that takes magic," says Loel.
"That actually sounds kind of fun, but I wonder if it'd balance, me and you and Loel cheating by not-magic and Kiri only knowing half the other players' hands plus how we're cheating while Ekador knows everything and - what is it you're doing, Sarelle?"
"I have an excellent memory and an abnormal capacity to pay attention to things."
"Huh. I think there are games where counting cards doesn't help? Or at least not very much?"
"Cool. Hey, does your magic work on - leaves? Like, they grow out of trees but they aren't wood. I don't think they'd last long but if it really mattered you could probably write card names on them and have them last long enough for one or two games."
"Not to mention," says Loel, "can you imagine trying to shuffle that?"
"I can tell different metals apart by smell but I do not think that is the sort of thing you meant."
"I don't know for sure that I don't work on metal, but I probably don't. I mean I could tell where ore is but that might be more because it'd have earth around it."
"Yeah, this house has a chapel. So do we go there or do we bring the coins here? Here seems comfier."
Page 11 of 22