Dokeshi March: Chapter 47 (Patreon)

Chapter 47

Grant was awakened by the sound of shouting in the hallway.  He looked out the window to gauge the time, and was surprised to see the sun already well over the horizon.  Sleeping in hadn’t been a luxury he had been able to enjoy in a long time.

<I decided to let you get some extra sleep.  For some reason, your energy levels are running out faster than normal.>  That was concerning news, especially considering all of the health changes he had recently gone through.  <Don’t worry.  We will address it with more endurance training after you defeat the Mad Jester.  That is still your number one focus.>

It only took Grant a few minutes to get ready for the day, making sure to load everything in his pack in case he wouldn’t be coming back.

<It might be a good idea to split your valuables between your pouch and your pack, just in case you lose one or the other if you have to fight.  It’s an old soldier’s trick, to make sure they at least have enough to survive if they lose something.>

“Makes sense.  Thanks, Sarge.”  Grant then had to take a few extra minutes to make sure he had more of a balance for his valuables.  He split his Time evenly between the two, and then added a single food bar to his pouch.  Just in case.  He was still holding the chess piece from his Ties that Bind quest when Suki started pounding on his door.  Unsure of which place to put it, Grant decided to just tuck it between his breastplate and leather cuirass.  It wouldn’t be going anywhere, and she had told him it was probably the most valuable item he had, besides his Uchigatana.  If he lost both his pack and his pouch, he would still have something valuable to trade.

“Grant, are you ready to go yet?”  Suki was trying to open the door, and Grant was worried she might snap off the door handle like she had the one to the building they had hid in not long ago.

“I’m ready, just give me a second!  I want to make sure I’m not forgetting anything.”  He gave the room a thorough look, and finally left after grabbing a pillow off the bed.  If he had to run, he wanted to have at least one comfortable thing to sleep on.

“Finally.  Can we go now?”  Suki didn’t even wait for him to lock the door behind him, she just took off for the gambling floor.  “If we don’t hurry, we will be late.  I figured you of all people would want to be early, so you could get some breakfast at the buffet table.”

“Did you just say buffet table?”  Grant quickly passed Suki going down the stairs, taking three at a time.  “We better hurry!”  He was barely slowed down by the crowded floor, and made his way to the line in the back.

In a cruel twist of fate, the buffet table was as hard hit as the rest of the District.  The pickings were slim, making Grant think wistfully of the excess across District January.  He made due with overcooked potato hash, and some kind of gravy topping that might have had meat in the same pot sometime in the past week or two.  It made him feel sad inside.

“Debtors, Bettors, and High Rollers, can I have your attention please!”  The dull roar of the crowded room quieted instantly, and a well-dressed man with the mask of a smiling clown appeared on a balcony overlooking the gambling floor.  “Hello, and welcome!  We are about to start the official semi-finals for Dokeshi March’s Tournament of Champions!”  There was a brief round of applause, and the speaker waited for an awkward amount of time after it died off, almost as if he was expecting for there to be much more of an ovation.  “As you all know, getting caught cheating is an instant disqualifier, and only the chip leaders from each table will advance to the final round, where they will play the Dokeshi himself!”  The man waved at a wall of windows on the second story overlooking the gambling floor.

“Wait, the Dokeshi is here?”  Grant squinted at the windows to try and get a glimpse of the man he had been hunting, but the reflection of the lights didn’t allow him to see inside.  “I could have just gone up there and finished this by now!”

“No, you couldn’t.  Just take a look around.”  Suki nodded toward the single set of stairs that must be the entrance to the rooms overlooking the floors.  When Grant focused, he noticed a slight haze over the stairs, like they were putting off enough heat to cook an egg.  “You see that?  Those wards are so powerful, they are bleeding magic.  One step up those stairs without the proper pass, and they won’t be able to find your teeth.”  Grant raised an eyebrow in a silent question.  “Because it would vaporize you, Grant.”

“Oh.”

“Yes, oh.  We have to wait for the crazed spider to leave its web before we can squash it.”  Sparks shot out from her closed fists again, but there was nothing on the hardwood floors to light on fire.  “Don’t worry.  He can’t stay up there forever.”

“And without further ado, let the competition begin!”  Grant had missed the last few minutes of the speech, but he figured it wouldn’t matter.  “Players, please find your assigned seats.”  Grant’s table was in the very middle of the floor, right under the view of the Dokeshi’s balcony.

<My guess is that Lord March wants to get a better look at the person coming after him.>  Grant didn’t answer, but Sarge could tell that he agreed.  Suki was only one table over, and she was bracketed by guards.  They weren’t making it obvious, but it was clear to anyone who was paying attention.  Grant realized he was probably in the same situation, and used the polished metal leg of the table he was sitting at to look for the guards standing behind him.  <There is one by the door to the kitchens behind you, and one to either side of your table in the spectators.  And I am pretty sure your dealer is one too.>

“Well, I don’t know about you lot, but I like Lady Luck to decide my fortune.  I’m all in!”  The weasley-looking man sitting at Grant’s right elbow shoved his pile of chips into the middle of the table.  Each person had one hundred chips, so it made quite a mess.  “Anyone here brave enough to match me?”

“The cards haven’t even been dealt yet!  How can you go all in without even knowing what you will get?”  A man who looked like he had been plucked straight from behind a food cart seemed genuinely shocked at the man’s move.  He was in seat seven, so Grant had to lean forward a bit to see him.  “I’m here to win enough to buy a vendor ticket so I can open up my stall here in the inner zone, not lose my shirt to some half-baked loon!”

“I could totally eat a half-baked loon right now.  With some pie for dessert.”  Everyone looked at Grant like the crazy person next to him was perfectly sane.  “What?  Am I really the only person who isn’t hungry right now?”

“Opening bid is one hundred chips.  Big blind is seat four, and little blind is seat three.”  The dealer brought everyone’s attention back to the card game.  “Blinds start at four chips for big, and two for small.  Blinds will double every complete rotation of the remaining players.”  The guard masquerading as a dealer did a poor job shuffling the deck, but it was passable enough that no one complained.  Grant was in seat three, so he put out two chips.  “The game will continue until the timer expires, or there is only one player remaining.  If the timer expires and there is more than one player at the table, the chip leader will be the winner.”  He dealt two cards to each of the eight players sitting at the table, but only two people picked their cards up.  The man who had gone all in, and the woman sitting at seat one.

“I’ll match your stunt.  All in.”  The old, white-haired lady was clearly comfortable in the suede and velvet dress she was wearing, meaning it was likely she came from a wealthy house in the District.  “Let’s see if Lady Luck is truly on your side, shall we?”

The man sitting next to Grant visibly gulped, and carefully picked up his cards.  If the color draining from his face was any indicator, the man was definitely regretting his decision.  Since there were no more players or possible bets to be had, the dealer just laid out the next five cards face up, and motioned for the two to show their hands.

“It looks like the Lady wasn’t on your side today.”  The woman had two pair, which badly beat his hand of King high.  “Better luck next time, my dear.”

A pair of very burly men came out of the crowd and plucked the gambler out of his chair before he even had a chance to say anything.

“Seven players remain.  Blinds, please.”  The woman had already collected her chips, as if by magic.  The neat stacks lined up in front of her spoke to years of experience.  It was Grant’s turn to gulp.

The next few hands passed by in a blur, with Grant folding every time.  He still had ninety-four chips after losing both his big and small blinds, but it was already his turn to chip in the small blind again.

<If you don’t start betting, these people are going to clean you out in no time.  Especially that old woman.  She is incredibly lucky at this game.>

“I know, Sarge.  I’m just waiting for something that feels right.”  Grant was mumbling under his breath so no one could hear him, but the person sitting in seat seven still noticed him talking to himself.

“Hey!  He is talking to someone!  That guy must be cheating!”  The normal reaction of an entire group taking up arms against the accuser wasn’t what happened this time.  Instead, two guards approached their table.  One held up some kind of stone tablet, and ran it over Grant.  The other placed a heavy hand on the food vendor’s shoulder.  He seemed to curl in on himself when the man scanning Grant looked up and shook his head.  “I swear I saw him talking to someone!  He’s a cheater!  A cheater!”  The man was escorted away from the table, and his remaining chips were evenly distributed between the six remaining players.  Now Grant was up to one hundred and twelve chips.

“A false accusation of cheating is a disqualifying offense, as stated earlier during the briefing.  There are now six players remaining.”  The dealer collected the cards again, since they had lost a person from their table.  While he was reshuffling to deal the hand for the second time, Grant turned his head just enough to be able to see how Suki was doing.

<It looks like she is already the chip leader at her table.>  Sarge must have been able to make out what was in Grant’s peripheral vision better than he could, because Grant had barely turned his head.  <Focus on your game.  Everything is down to this.>

“Right.  It’s all down to this.”  Grant picked up the two cards in front of him and noticed that the old woman was looking sharply at Grant.  Maybe he wasn’t as quiet as he thought.

The pair of nines in his hand felt right, so Grant raised the bid to five.  Which was quickly raised into the fifties before it made it back around to him.  Grant had to take a moment to think, because these people all acted like they were wolves that just smelled fresh blood.  He folded, and watched as two more people went all in before the fifth card was even turned over.  The winning hand was a pair of fives.  What was wrong with these people?

<They are playing the player, and not the game.  Some are better at it than others.>

“Only five players remain.  There are four hours remaining.  Blinds are raised to ten and twenty.”  The dealer had gotten steadily better as they had continued to play, and the shuffling was much smoother.

That was the first thing Grant noticed, before it sunk in that they had already been playing for two hours.  Was there some kind of time warp when you sat down at a poker table?

“Hey, she’s cheating!”

Grant whipped his head around at the declaration, and was shocked to see Suki’s arm being held out by one of the guards.  He plucked a card from inside her sleeve, and she was escorted over to the spectators to the jeers of the crowd.  Grant tensed, ready to come to her defense.

“What will happen to her?”  Grant didn’t ask anyone specifically, but the old woman was the one to answer him.

“Nothing.”  She waved her hand, as if swatting away an irritating fly.  “It isn’t against the rules to cheat, you just get disqualified if you get caught.”  Grant thought back to the exact wording of the announcer earlier, and realized the woman was right.

“Thank you.”  Grant made sure to sound sincere, considering he was genuinely pleased at her answer.  She gave him a sharp nod, and then immediately pushed in a stack of twenty chips.

“No problem, young man.  Now, I raise.  Anyone willing to pay to see if I am lying?”  Grant most certainly wasn’t, and the woman took the hand before the fourth card was even dealt.

The next hand was dealt, and Grant finally got a hand he liked.  A Jack and ten, both with the red diamond symbol.  He silently pushed in two stacks of ten, carefully not looking at anyone else as he did so.

“Ah, the shcaredy-cat finally deshides to bid, huh?”  The man sitting next to the old lady had been sipping on a glass of wine while they played, but it never seemed to go empty.  The servers here really were top shelf.  “I shay hesh bluffing.  I’ll raish, by… that many.”  He added another thirty to the pot, making the total bet half of Grant’s chip total.  Remembering what happened before, he silently matched the man.  The old woman carefully looked at Grant before folding, which prompted the other remaining players to toss in their cards.

“The flop is a Jack, six and three.”  The dealer pointed at the drunk man, who had spilled wine down the front of his brown doublet.  It looked like it wasn’t the first time the shirt had seen such abuse.

“Ah, thatsh exshactly what I wanted!”  He shoved in the rest of his chips, which was more than what Grant had remaining.

“The bet is for ninety chips.”  The dealer eyed Grant’s smaller pile.  “Do you have collateral to make up the difference?”

“Fine.”  Grant pushed his remaining chips into the pot.  “And this should make up for what I am missing.”  He tossed in his coin pouch, which looked artificially inflated by the food bar stored inside.  The dealer nodded in agreement, and turned over the next two cards.  It was another three, and a ten.

“Ha!  I got two pair!”  The man tossed down two fours.  “Threesh and foursh!”  The dealer looked at Grant, who turned over his cards.

“The young man also has two pair, Jacks over tens.  He wins the pot.”  The familiar faces of the two hulking guards removed the drunk before he could even try to argue.  “There are now four players remaining, with three hours until the timer runs out.”  The dealer backed away from the table, after placing a small box over everyone’s pile of chips.  “We will be taking a ten minute break before resuming.”

Grant stood with the others, happy to stretch his back muscles.  As he was headed to the bathrooms, a strong grip grabbed him by the shoulder.  Turning sharply, Grant was surprised to see Suki standing there.

“After all that grand-standing last night, here you are, shamelessly cheating to stay in the game.”  Suki crossed her arms, with an eyebrow raised in accusation.  “Tell me, how are you doing it?  I didn’t see you slip out a card at all!  I mean, I know practice makes perfect, but wow!  How much training did you do last night?”

“Suki, I’m not cheating.  I’m just playing the game, the way you showed me.”  She squinted at him, but all he could do was shrug.  “Seriously, I have just been playing the hands that I have been dealt.  Nothing more, nothing less.”

“Fine then, don’t tell me.”  She turned in a huff and headed back to the stands.  “But don’t think I won’t figure it out!”

“Is it normal for a woman to constantly accuse you of cheating, even when you haven’t done anything wrong?”  Grant meant the question for his sword, but a man passing by just started laughing in reply.  “What?  What did I say that’s so funny?”