Saer’s brow knit, but he nodded.
“We couldn’t have directed you to replicate her response better.It’s like she was here.”
‘Pieces of her live in you.’Saer remembered Alus’s reflection from earlier in the evening.‘They’re easy to see for those of us who knew her.’
Caught between wanting to laugh and swallow back tears, Saer opted for distraction instead.He cleared his throat and lifted his chin to the dance floor.“Before this wears off entirely, show me how to do that feet thing.”
30
OnceSaer’denduredhisfill of revelry, Arek returned the surplus of his Hellsfire vitality.The Twins took advantage of the newly sobered Pride and dragged him to nearby tables where small game pieces shook around in clay cups, then spilled onto a small rectangular playing field.Discordant cries of victory and defeat punctuated each toss, and coins exchanged hands.
Arek procured some playing tokens and declared their own space with practiced ease.“By my reckoning, it’s probably been decades, if not centuries, since you played an honest-to-goodness game for fun.”Greed emphasized the last word pointedly, his wry tone unrelenting.He inspected each of the playing pieces between his thumb and forefinger.“Humans love to win and take currency or precious objects from one another.The greater the risk, the better.”With an elusive smirk, Arek placed the game bits back in their cup and gave it an experimental shake.The tokens clanked within.“Neyu played many games with us, Hellsbent on outwitting Alus or I.”An eyebrow cocked.“She even managed to do it a time or two.”
There was no mistaking the challenge in Greed’s voice.
The familiar nudge of pride swirled in Saer’s chest as he eyed the Twins.And yet...“Coin is meaningless to me.What do we play for?”
Arek looked like the wicked cat who ate the canary.“Truths, Brother.”
“Truths.”
Arek gave a single, no-nonsense nod.
Saer knew he shouldn’t.Gambling with the primordial Greed and Gluttony?A fool’s errand.
Yet, it might be the only chance he had to obtain meaningful information about Errshek without the true-name power of the hierarchy—a tactic he still refused to use lest he give Errshek more ammunition against him.
He could outplay them.
He had to.
Pride.
Saer set his jaw.“Show me.”
“With pleasure.”
Each cubed game piece had been procured from the knucklebone of a hoofed animal, and every face was carved with a different pattern on the six sides.One depicted a star, another blank.The remaining four edges showed a number of divots, anywhere between two and five.
Arek tossed a pair of dice towards his twin, who caught and fiddled with them.“We’re going to play Dragons and Demons,” Arek said.
“‘Demons?’”Saer arched a brow.
Alus rolled the dice between his fingers.“Have you ever tried to teach a human how to properly pronounceDaemoenica?” He let the rhetorical question hang, then shook his head with an off-kilter smile.
“So ‘demon’ was the best you could come up with?”
“And you would suggest what in its place, Captain Eloquence?”
Saer shot Gluttony a cynical look, but otherwise let it go.Instead, he made a ‘go on’ gesture to Arek.
“The object is to read your opponent accurately.There are two players: the Roller” —Arek held up the cup of dice and shook it gently to emphasize—“and the Guesser.The Roller rolls.”To demonstrate, Arek swirled the cup once more, then turned it upside down and peeked under the edge of the mug, not allowing anyone else to see the results before he covered the dice again.“Then, the Roller makes a statement as to what the dice reveal.For example, in this instance, I will say the result is less than three …”
“To which, as your Guesser, I say you are full of shit,” Alus interjected.“There’s no way you have less than three points on five dice.You’re a demon.”
Arek smiled and lifted the cup to reveal the game pieces.
Only three of the five showed, because Alus held a pair between his fingers.Those remaining, indeed, showed fewer than three points as Arek declared.
