vision

[calescent]

Kiri's up early the next morning, restless with various low-level simmering concerns, and wanders out of her room.

Comments

[free_flowing]

"Yeah. It is a great moat. I love my moat."

[salt_of_the]

"I very much approve of your moat."

And here is a door with bodies behind it!

Patience takes a breath and opens this door.

[calendarofcrime]

One of the bodies behind the door - a very hunti-seeming woman who is presumably Sarelle Dochenza - looks up at her, inhales, and says, "Condolences."

[calescent]

"Oh - already?"

[salt_of_the]

"Yeah. I mean, I was expecting it. Maybe not fifteen minutes ago, but there you go. Hi, I'm Patience Frothen, you must be Sarelle Dochenza and Ekador Serlast, the Ardelays I know already. This is my dog Mud."

[calendarofcrime]

"Hello."

[pyrophyte]

"Yes. That. Hello," says Ekador.

[salt_of_the]

"Loel says you're from Malinqua and I should maybe ask you what it's like to be so not used to people having elements?"

[pyrophyte]

"I'm not sure I understand what it's like to be used to people having elements well enough to explain the opposite," he says.

[salt_of_the]

"Oh, well, so much for that idea." She flops into a chair. "How are you liking Welce?"

[pyrophyte]

"The search for a card game I can't cheat at remains engaging."

[salt_of_the]

Patience laughs. "Oh, I hadn't even thought of that - that's funny. I wonder what else you could make cards out of?"

[calescent]

"I haven't come up with any alternative card materials yet. I suppose I could cheat at cards too, but it's easier to avoid."

[calendarofcrime]

"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.)

[liakoura]

"I dunno how Patience or Loel would do it," comments Aleko. "Also me, I cannot cheat at cards."

[free_flowing]

"I know tons of ways to cheat at cards, are you kidding? I can probably even think of one that takes magic," says Loel.

[liakoura]

"Okay, well, maybe you can teach me the kinds that don't and I can compete on a level playing field? Game full of cheating."

[salt_of_the]

"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?"

[calendarofcrime]

"I have an excellent memory and an abnormal capacity to pay attention to things."

[pyrophyte]

"And I have a perfect memory, at least visually," volunteers Ekador. "I can avoid reading all the cards by magic if I don't want to read all the cards, but I can't avoid remembering the ones I've seen."

[salt_of_the]

"Huh. I think there are games where counting cards doesn't help? Or at least not very much?"

[pyrophyte]

"Apparently so," he says. "I've been taught several."

[salt_of_the]

"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."

[pyrophyte]

"Hmm. But leaves have distinctive shapes," he says. "Much more so than paper rectangles. I'm not sure I could avoid learning which were which."

[free_flowing]

"Not to mention," says Loel, "can you imagine trying to shuffle that?"