The Uncrucified [ALPHA] - Ch.4 - The God of Fivefold Luck

RATING: PG-13
- Slavery
- Gambling
- Drug Use

After that day in the bath with Sana, the mistress’ ire towards Kalara lost some of its sharpness.  The dynamic of the household grew tense.  Even Sana’s ability to pretend as if everything was normal couldn’t hide the fact that servants were being laid off and valuables in the household were disappearing, sold off by Rij on what Kalara guessed were Varia’s orders.  More than once, Kalara spotted the candlelight of late night business meetings between Varia and his partners.  It seemed his ventures in setting up bathhouses in the area were having a hard time staying afloat amidst local competition.  It was a problem he couldn’t just throw money and the Cynis name at.

Kalara wondered how soon they might see the smiling serpent again and what limbs he’d break this time if Varia was dawdling with paying them back. It was a pattern she had seen before, which had Kalara counting down the days she was to be resold.  Her sympathy extended only so far as it was nice for her to have a stable household to live in.  Any person who pretended to have so much wealth, enough wealth to own other people, while strange smiling men broke their fingers for debts deserved the fate that came to them.

She thought her time was finally up when Rij appeared in Kalara’s quarters one morning and ordered her to sit in the drawing room until their guest arrived.

When Balfar al Shazi arrived, tossing his books on the table with a huff and scoffing down at her with his long hooked nose and monocle, Kalara only stared up at him in confusion.  He was a thin man with a balding head, though he clung to the white hair on the sides and covered up the thinning hair up top with a fez.  He was a Southern man, though his interesting mix of clothing and books suggested he was well traveled middle class.

He sniffed, wiping his nose with a handkerchief.  “You are the slave, Kalara, yes?”

She nodded, hesitant and cautious.  Shazi scoffed again, looking her up and down.  “Did you learn your High Realm script, girl?”

“N-no. Only the few signs I needed to know for errands.”  Kalara had no idea what this could be about.  Was she being punished?

“Pgh!”  Shazi snorted in disgust.  “Your High Realm is atrociously accented!”  Much to Kalara’s bewilderment, he switched to perfect Firetongue nearly midsentence.  “We’ll have to work on that too.”

“Forgive me sir, but are you my new master?”  She ventured rudeness before the confusion made her have an aneurism.

“Great Maidens, no!”  Shazi sneezed, fretting with his handkerchief once more.  “Varia, your foolish master, has asked me to teach you to read.  Being a learned man who owes House Cynis gratitude, I chose to oblige his foolish wishes to educate you at his own expense.  You will spend afternoons here learning your letters, numbers, and basic mathematics.”

Kalara stared at him, blinking.  This was a punishment after all.  Why would Varia heap this unproductive extra duty on her?  “But…why?” She finally ventured at length.

Shazi sneezed yet again. “Oh do shut up! I fear I am allergic to your ignorance!  Why because your master wills it.” He snapped in annoyance, “Now, let’s not waste anymore time!”  With that pronouncement, Kalara’s lessons in reading and writing High Realm began every afternoon from that day onwards for the next few months.

Much to the surprise of her demanding teacher, Kalara proved herself a quick learner.  She mastered a basic alphabet in a month and more complex words in two.  In a season, she could repeat her multiplication tables almost flawlessly.

At first, she had hated lessons, finding them a pointless addition to her day of household duties.  However, the more she learned, the more she noticed in the world around her.  Her trips to the marketplace became expeditions to learn new words.  All of the cryptic signs, parchments, and unseen meanings in the world around her that she had never paid attention to before began to make sense.  With each lesson, she decoded yet another part of the cipher of the world around her.  

She became more attuned to goods passing hands and the fair value of each.  The subtle dances of merchant and customer became more than just body language and banter.  Instead of a world that she wanted to leave as soon as possible, she found a world full of fascinating connections.

Even Shazi couldn’t hide his approval at her rate of growth behind his stern exterior.  Kalara caught part of a puff of pride as she answered correctly to his quizzes, even if he hid that pride under talk of how useless and unorthodox it was that one of his prized pupils should be a slave.

            Just as she reached a new level of enlightenment, Shazi announced their final session and that he would be sure to pass on word of her satisfactory advancement to her master.  Just like that, he was gone and Kalara was left once more to the now even less fulfilling duties of the household slave.

            That is till Cynis Varia would call on her again and she would learn exactly why her foolhearty master had decided to educate a slave.

One night, Rij came to Kalara’s quarters while Sana was off at a gathering of business owners’ wives.  The head servant shushed her before she could ask any questions, wasting no words as he hurried her along and ordered her into a waiting carriage.  Inside, Varia was waiting with a stern expression on his face.  The carriage took off as soon as she stepped inside.

The few landmarks Kalara could spy through the windows hinted that they were headed towards the seedier parts of town.  She clung to her seat, terrified stiff at this unpredictable change of routine.  She nearly jumped out of her skin when Varia moved to light his pipe.  It didn’t smell like the usual tobacco he preferred.

“It helps keep the muscles relaxed.”  He took a long drag of the ornate pipe. “The most obvious tells are always in the cheeks and lips.”

Kalara blinked, confused. “Master?”

“Shazi tells me you learned well these past months.  Do you want to know why?”  Varia flashed that charming smile of his, mischief in his brown eyes.

“I…don’t know, master.”  Kalara shook her head.  Truly, she didn’t know.  There seemed no point to it.  Educating someone as low class as a slave was like teaching a cat to bark.   Even so, Kalara had eventually welcomed the reprieve from her usual duties.  She should have known they’d come with a price eventually.

"I have long been a devotee of Luraname." Cynis Varia recounted with a far off look in his eyes.  "The god of Fivefold Luck brought me my first win when I was a young man.  I used that fortune to start my first business when my own family had no faith in me.  The Fivefold god even brought me your contract."

Varia let another ring of smoke float from his lips as he explained.  “Sometimes, the gods are busy and we lowly mortals must make our own luck.”

Understanding began to dawn on her.  He was gambling again, despite the arguments Kalara had caught in secret where Sana had made him swear to quit.

Varia continued. “You will attend tonight’s game of Paazo with me as my hand servant.  You are…familiar with card games?”  Kalara nodded in affirmation.  She had at least a basic gist from her previous masters. Just what was he scheming?

“It’s very simple.”  He spoke casually, as if this weren’t a serious situation at all.  “When my opponents’ cards contain the suits of Fire and Water, you will offer me a glass of water.  When they’re in the suits of Wood and Air, you’ll scratch your nose.”

They were going to cheat.  An expression caught between horror and laughter twisted Kalara’s mouth into a funny silent grimace.  They were going to cheat, then they were going to be caught and chopped into a million pieces and tossed into the bay, but what choice did she have but to obey?

To her surprise, Varia tapped her chin again, much as he had done before to make her look up the first day she had met him.  “Don’t worry!  You came to me for a reason. I am sure of that.  You’re going to do fine!” 

Kalara could only stare, caught somewhere between blushing at his sudden closeness, terror at his naiveté, and disbelief that they were really going through with this. 

“A..alright!”  His smile was infectious and she found herself smiling a stiff, uncomfortable smile back.  With that, a chipper Varia, sure of his schemes, hopped out of the carriage and bid her follow with a quick command.  Kalara swiftly fell in line a few steps behind him.

Well if they were going to die, at least it was on a Marsday and that meant she could avoid laundry day tomorrow.

Hidden at the end of a lane with laundry strung across the balconies above their heads sat the location of the game, a shack, really, or a place that was made to look like one.  Once Varia flashed the right playing chip, the symbol of Luraname on a jade piece, the doorman let Varia and Kalara pass with a silent nod. 

Inside, the tavern opened up into a much grander interior than its shabby façade.  Rich carpets lined the floors while red lanterns shined in every corner over tables packed with people.   Kalara had never seen so many different people from different walks of life in one place.  She spotted another finely groomed Realm man like Varia sitting at a table with a giant of a tattooed barbarian woman from the North.  In another nook, the dark eyes of Delzhan nomads glared at any newcomers from within their veils.  Denizens crammed every table, cards strewn about in every corner.  The tournament had only just begun!

            Kalara stuck close to Varia as he confidently made his way through the crowd to sign himself in.  The woman at the front desk smiled at him as if she knew him.  “How are those fingers healing, Lord Cynis?”  The clerk didn’t hide the mockery in her voice as she asked such a question.

Varia merely returned her smile, pleasant as ever. “A full stack, if you will, Chalis.”  It was obvious to Kalara he came here often with as comfortable as he seemed with the characters in attendance.  Kalara watched in a dreamy haze as they were led to their starting table, Kalara stationed nearby against an adjacent wall with a pitcher of water alongside several other servants who had been allowed to take up the same positions.  Nobles after a certain station were allowed such luxuries, for no one would ever consider such a thing in these parts as an educated slave, nor a Lord who would dare impugn his honor by cheating.  If Varia were caught, there would be consequences throughout every level of his reputation.

Kalara took a deep breath and calmed herself.  She was just like the others standing here, too lowly and too ignorant to ever be noticed by anyone.  She was invisible.  It was her birthright as a slave.  Maybe Varia was smarter than she thought to realize this for his scheme…or maybe he was just desperate?

Either way, she felt the smallest rush at being able to participate in a charade where she was more than she appeared, and valued for that fact, for once in her life.

Focused, Kalara let her keen eyes take in the crowd at the table and what hands she could see.  She secretly delighted that the symbols on the pieces made sense where they might not have before.  Two woods, two fires, their hands were shit.  A fire, a water, and a wood.  Now that was a hand! 

“You seem parched, master?” Kalara offered the water, signaling towards the lucky player with her eyes as she quizzed Varia.  Keeping up the act, he barely acknowledged her, his focus intent on his opponents’ equally intense gazes.  He bet his whole stack of chips in a bold bluff in a bid to pressure his opponents into folding.

…and it worked!  The first round win came to Varia, Kalara suppressing the strangest urge to cheer him. 

The rest of the night went smoothly, Kalara avoiding suspicion as planned, while a suave Varia worked his way from table to table like a professional player.  He even made sure to lose every now and again so as to avoid suspicion.

When they were finally on their way home, Varia congratulated her on her performance and presented her with a small plate of fruit and sweets from the event.  For Kalara, it was like a gift from the gods!  Her diet usually consisted of scraps from their table, with the occasional leftover grape or date.  Her eyes lit up with joy and for a few moments, she forgot where she was and who she was with and indulged in the treats like any other young girl might have.

“Now, Kalara, you must say nothing to Sana of these…trips.”  Varia warned with a sigh as he removed his jacket.  He finally let out all of the nervous tension he’d been suppressing during the games by tapping of his hands on his thighs and belly as if they were drums.  “She would be very cross to know where I’ve been and neither of us wants that.”

Kalara nodded her head vigorously, her mouth still stuffed with dates.  He didn’t have to tell her twice! 

When they arrived home, Rij was quick to help Varia hide his earnings for deposit and shuffle Kalara away to her quarters.  Luckily, Sana arrived an hour later, as expected.  She was too concerned with gossiping about the wives of other dignitaries that she didn’t ask anything at all about Varia’s activities.

Kalara’s common sense told her they were playing a dangerous game, but she didn’t care.  She would go to bed still feeling the rush of the excitement from their successful scheme and the satisfying feeling of a belly full of sweets.