The air between them still vibrated with the tension from the previous scare. Ash, after catching his breath, began to untie the cloth bundle while telling Nephis what he had seen beyond the castle walls.
"It's not just a place to gamble, Nephis," Ash explained, lowering his voice. "It's a well-oiled business. The hall operates under Gunlaug's protection. Those who run it pay the Bright Lord a weekly tribute of ten soul fragments just for permission to exist. It's a sweet deal for him: he lets the Sleepers bleed each other dry and he takes a cut without lifting a finger."
Nephis listened in silence, with that look that seemed to process a thousand variables per second.
"I got in through a hidden passage at the base of the castle hill," he continued. "A Sleeper named Henry took me; there's an engraved stone that activates the mechanism. Inside, the golden serpent hunters mix with the outsiders. It's the only place where they don't kill each other on sight, though cheating is the order of the day. The hunters use the place to indebt Sleepers and keep them under their thumb."
Nephis remained thoughtful for a moment, looking at the pile of fragments Ash had just shown.
"I need you to go back," she said suddenly, her voice firm as steel. "Gather as much information as you can. Who comes in, who goes out, what the hunters talk about when they think no one's listening. And while you're at it... gather as many fragments as you can."
Ash blinked, surprised by the request.
"Why?" he asked. "I thought we had more important things to do than play cards."
"Since you'll be gambling anyway, it wouldn't hurt to earn fragments without having to risk your life in a fight against nightmare creatures," Nephis replied with crushing logic. "It's a necessary resource."
Ash let out a dry laugh, shaking his head.
"That's basically taking advantage of others' desperation, Nephis. It's almost the same thing they do."
Nephis shrugged with an indifference that Ash found strange, almost unsettling.
"That doesn't matter right now," she stated. "We need those fragments for what's coming. The end justifies the means."
Ash let out a long sigh, looking at his companion as if trying to recognize her beneath that armor of pragmatism.
"How did you change so much?" he asked with a mix of weariness and curiosity. "You used to be... different."
Nephis glanced at him sideways, and for a brief moment, the coldness of her face cracked with a flash of something resembling amusement. A small human spark in the midst of the city's darkness.
"I learned by observing interactions," she replied simply. "Especially yours."
Ash was speechless for a second, processing the response, while Nephis turned to return to the shadows, leaving him alone with his fragments and the task of becoming the best player — or the best spy — in the Dark City.
In the end, Ash sighed and followed Nephis. He wanted to sleep and eat before going back to playing cards.
...
Ash waited until nightfall in the Dark City. After the talk with Nephis, the weight of the fragments in his rough cloth bag felt more like a tool than loot. He retraced his steps, crossing the passage of the engraved stone again. The stale air of the Gaming Hall greeted him like an old enemy.
As soon as the wooden door creaked open, the murmur of conversations died for an instant. The stares of Sleepers and hunters fixed on him like arrows.
Near the main table, Ash spotted the guy from the previous night. He had a bulky bandage across his face, stained with dried blood, and was sitting next to a more refined-looking man, with studded leather armor that gleamed under the oil lamps.
"Is that the brat who took everything from you?" asked the man in armor, with a voice that dragged the words, full of contempt.
The one with the broken nose nodded reluctantly, clenching his fists on his thighs.
"My name is Andel," said the man, standing up with an elegance that was insulting in that hole. "And it seems we have some unfinished business..."
"I don't care what your name is," Ash interrupted, cutting the air with his monotonous voice. "If you have a problem with me, solve it at the table. I'll bet ten fragments to start. Are you interested, or are you just going to keep talking?"
Andel raised an eyebrow, surprised by the boy's lack of tact. An amused, almost predatory smile spread across his face.
"Well, you don't like beating around the bush. I like that in a victim. I accept the game."
"I'm in too," a voice loaded with bile spat from the side.
A gaunt-looking Sleeper with fierce eyes, named Jubei, approached the table. He ignored Ash completely and jabbed his finger into Andel's chest.
"You still owe me from last week, Andel," Jubei spat. "You tricked that kid, used him as bait against a nightmare creature just to save your own skin and steal his fragments. You're scum, even by Gunlaug's standards."
Andel tilted his head, feigning exaggerated confusion.
"Who the hell are you talking about, Jubei? I've killed so many monsters and seen so many useless people die that I can't keep track of every corpse we leave behind."
"Son of a...!" Jubei stepped forward, but Ash's arm interposed between them.
"If you want to fight, do it outside," Ash said with a coldness that stopped Jubei's arm in mid-air. "We came here to play. Play first, then solve your moral problems."
Jubei looked at Ash with rage, then at Andel, and finally sat down in one of the empty chairs, breathing heavily.
"Fine," Jubei growled. "Let's play."
The three looked at each other in a triangle of pure tension. At that moment, a small figure slipped through the shadows and positioned herself at the head of the table. It was Aiko. The hall manager took the deck of cards with professional skill, her brown eyes evaluating the three players with a mix of curiosity and calculation.
"I'll deal this time," Aiko said, her voice soft but authoritative. "The rules here are simple: whoever wins takes the pot, and whoever tries to cheat under my watch... will wish they'd died in the Labyrinth."
Aiko began to deal. The sound of cards hitting the wood was the only thing heard in that corner of the hall, while Ash felt Nephis's gaze burned into the back of his neck, even though she wasn't there.
...
The tension at the table could be cut with a knife, but Ash seemed to be in another world, oblivious to all the tension in the room.
During the first few hands, his play was erratic, almost clumsy. He lost ten fragments, then another ten. Andel, with a smile that distorted his bandaged face, accumulated a considerable pile, mocking under his breath every time he dragged the pot toward his side. Jubei also gained ground, while Ash remained impassive, spinning a single soul fragment between his fingers as if it were all he had left.
"Looks like there's no 'heart of the cards' today, huh, brat?" Andel said with superiority.
Ash didn't respond. He simply pushed fifteen fragments to the center. Jubei and Andel matched instantly, confident. When it came time to show, Ash laid down his cards with irritating slowness. He won. He recovered his losses in one blow.
The game entered a frenetic rhythm. Ash bet twenty-five fragments. Jubei, seeing the opportunity to sink Andel, threw his last ten fragments into the center with desperation. Andel, stung in his pride, matched the bet. This time, luck favored Jubei, who let out a sigh of relief upon seeing he was still alive in the game.
But the cycle didn't stop. In the next hand, Ash struck again with fifteen fragments. Andel and Jubei matched out of inertia, but the result was the same: the fragments returned to Ash's pile.
The game became an emotional rollercoaster for everyone except Ash. One hand Andel would win, recovering breath; the next would go to Jubei. But little by little, the tide began to sweep everything toward one side. After an hour of tense play, the piles spoke for themselves:
Ash: 50 fragments.
Jubei: 30 fragments.
Andel: 5 miserable fragments.
Andel was sweating cold. On the last hand, Jubei went all in with the hunter's remaining five fragments. When the cards were revealed, Andel stared into the void. Not only had he lost everything, but he now owed a humiliating amount to Jubei.
"Get away from my table, trash," Jubei muttered, claiming his moral revenge.
Finally, only Ash and Jubei remained. It was a long duel, of fixed stares and held breaths. But Ash's "luck" was relentless. Hand after hand, Jubei's fragments migrated to the yellow-eyed boy's pile until, with one final move, Ash took it all.
By the end of the night, Ash had before him a mountain of one hundred and twenty soul fragments. He had started with forty; he was leaving with a net gain of eighty.
A silence of astonishment swept through the hall. The Sleepers who had gathered around the table couldn't believe what they were seeing. Even Aiko, who had dealt with mechanical precision, stared at Ash with a raised eyebrow, as if trying to decipher the trick.
Jubei, sunk in his chair but strangely at peace for having ruined Andel, looked at Ash with genuine curiosity.
"Hey... I have to ask," Jubei said, running a hand over his tired face. "How the hell are you so good at playing poker? Who taught you?"
Ash began to put the one hundred and twenty fragments into his cloth bag, making the jingling resonate throughout the hall. He shrugged with complete naturalness and looked at Jubei with an empty expression.
"Good? I have no idea," Ash responded with astonishing sincerity. "Actually, I don't even know how to play poker. I just threw the cards I thought looked prettiest and waited to see what happened. Seems I'm lucky."
The silence that followed was absolute. Jubei's mouth hung open, Andel let out a groan of pure agony from the floor, and Aiko almost dropped the deck of cards.
Ash, without waiting for them to process the news, slung the bag over his shoulder and left the hall, leaving behind a group of professional players defeated by someone who didn't know the difference between a flush and a straight.