The Vampire’s Templar

Instead of going to one of the larger tables, like Kagriss expected, Eva led her over to one of the smaller ones, seating only five people max. 

Luckily, she preferred a smaller table anyway where there weren’t as many people around. Not many people watched this particular table anyway.

When they got there, there were already three people playing—two dwarves and an elf. They looked up from their game upon Eva and Kagriss’s arrival and one of the dwarves raised an eyebrow with recognition.

“Well, if it isn’t Eva!” he said. His voice was so low that his words came out almost as a growl.

“Do I know you?” Eva asked as she sat down. She motioned to the empty seat beside her for Kagriss to sit, but Kagriss shook her head. The vampire shrugged and looked toward the dwarf who had called her out while the others looked on in interest.

The dwarf laughed. “No, no you don’t, but I know you. You’ve quite the reputation ‘round here, although I doubt you’d like it. Wait, you know about it?” he asked when Eva’s expression changed into a grimace.

Eva nodded reluctantly and did not reply, clearly not wanting to talk about it. She pulled out a drawer and grabbed a handful of something red out of it, counting out five into a small cup and depositing the rest back into the drawer.

Thunk. Eva was in a bad mood. The whole table trampled when she slammed the drawer back into the table, rattling the contents inside and on top the playing surface.

The others looked at her.

“Sorry,” she grumbled.

“Nah. My line.” The dwarf who brought up Eva’s reputation reached over toward her. “I’m Garven. You?”

“Eva.” 

They shook hands while Kagriss pulled up a chair behind the empty seat, not joining the game but merely watching.

The others introduced themselves as well, going counter clockwise from Garven the dwarf. The elf went first, nodding toward Eva, then Kagriss. “You may call me Nien,” he said. 

“Marton.”

“And I’m Kagriss. Nice to meet you, even though I’m not playing yet. I came with her.” Kagriss pointed at Eva and the players around the name nodded in understanding.

“She drag you here?”

“Yes.”

That brought a bout of laughter from them while Eva huffed in jest.

Garven seemed to be the most outgoing of the bunch, and he was the one to clap his hands together when the laughter passed, grabbing all of their attention. “We all ready? You understand the rules, right?” he asked Eva. “As I understand it, you’re usually at some other table.”

“Yeah. I know it though. How much are the stakes?” Eva asked, reaching into her pouch.

“One hundred, but if no one has any objections, we can go higher.”

“Hundred is fine. Winner takes all?”

“No. Coin split.”

“Got it.”

With a clop, Eva dropped a bar of bloodstone worth a hundred on the table and pushed it toward the center. 

Garven grinned. “Very decisive. I like it!” He followed with his own bar and the others did as well.

Soon, four blood-red bars of bloodstone sat at the center of the table. Kagriss stared at it, secretly swallowing. 

There was so much money there. Yet, she couldn’t have it. But suddenly, she knew what Eva was doing here. The Den was a den of gamblers.

Looking closer at the red objects marked with white, they were six-sided dice with one blank side and the others numbered from two to six. Standard tools of the gambler’s trade.

Kagriss had never gambled before, but in the books that she’d read, gambling had always been cast in a negative light. Gambling made debts and debts were prime blackmail material.

In her old book, the one with the tragic, ruined heir, gambling debts was how one of the vassals had been convinced to turn against his lord.

The depiction of gambling was no different in the new ones that Camilla got her. It was all bad.

“I don’t think we should be here.” Kagriss leaned over to Eva’s ear.

“Why not?”

“Isn’t gambling bad?”

“Ah, that’s a common idea, isn’t it? It’s fine if it’s just a bit for fun. I didn’t bring that much money with me, you know? Besides, the thrill of it is just unmatched! You’ll see what I’m talking about; I promise.”

Eva whispered back, but nowhere as quietly as when Kagriss whispered to her. Anyone listening in would’ve been able to guess their topic and most people not named Kagriss might’ve gotten embarrassed from being caught criticizing gambling in a gambling house.

Luckily, Kagriss didn’t really care what others thought. “Well, okay then.” Kagriss nodded after hesitating for the briefest moment.

Thinking about it logically, as long as Eva wasn’t addicted to gambling and on her way to losing everything, it was fine. However, Kagriss still couldn’t shake the bad feeling she had. 

When she’d taken so much of what she knew from books, it wasn’t like she could just ignore them.

“Alright, let’s begin!” 

Before she knew it, Eva had slammed her cup upside down onto the table after giving it a brief shake to mix up the dice inside. Her eyes were almost burning with excitement and determination, and she flashed her a confident smile. “Just you watch!”

The other three shook their cups and put down their dice as well and the game seemed to have begun. Kagriss didn’t really know the rules. As an opponent to gambling, she didn’t care either, but it would be boring to just watch like an idiot, so she might as well learn it as they play.

At the table, Eva peeked under her cup. Kagriss looked as well before Eva hid her dice again. Thankfully, Kagriss managed to get them all.

Two twos, one four, two sixes.

“Who first?” Eva asked after she looked up and found that everyone also finished looking at their roll. “Garven?”

The dwarf shook his head. “You can, if you’d like. Any objections?”

“None here.” 

“No.”

“And there we have it. If you will,” he said.

Eva smiled. “I guess I will. Two threes.”

The dwarf scoffed. “Coward. Six threes.”

“You’re no less of a coward yourself!” 

Garven laughed at that and elbowed the elf next to him.

“Hmmm. I guess I’ll be a coward as well then. Six fours.”

“Seven twos.”

A full circle and back to Eva. “Eight sixes.” She smiled and looked around the table as if daring someone to challenge her. “Takers?”

No one answered. Garven narrowed his eyes  After a moment of hesitation that was wiped away by a swift rap on the table with his fist, Garven called out his bid. “Nine sixes!”

Almost before his voice faded from the air, Eva held up a finger. “Sorry, but I doubt that. Anyone agree with me?” She looked over at the dwarf sitting next across the table, Marton, and at Nien. They made eye contact and both the elf and dwarf placed a silver disk onto the table.

Garven reddened slightly and a mixed look of regret and hope fell over his face. However, it was too late to take anything back now.

“Ready.”

Four cups slid over toward the center of the table and lifted upward, revealing twenty dice. Eva stood up and began to separate the dice into two groups. The other players held their breath as they watched intently and even Kagriss found herself being drawn into the atmosphere, despite only half having an idea of what was going on.

She had a pretty good guess, but she needed another game to be sure.

In the end, Eva counted out five sixes and two blanks, breathing out a sigh of relief as she did so. “Seven total,” she announced.

Garven paled while the others broke out into smiles, taking away their hands to reveal their disks, both with ornate sides faced up. 

The elf laughed. “Haha, eight was kind of iffy, but nine seemed impossible for me.”

Marton nodded as he looked at Garven sympathetically. “Looks like you should’ve called her out. I saw that face. It was pretty much on the brink of calling, but…”

“Oh, stop it. I know, I know,” Garven groaned. “Damn it. You had two of those sixes. I thought…”

Eva was just about to pull those bloodstone bars at the center toward herself when she realized something. “Oh, I forgot. Coin split, wasn’t it? I can’t split four hundred into threes…”

“No, you called the bluff so you get the lion’s share. You get half and the rest of us each gets at most an even portion of the split,” the elf said, correcting her.

“Oh, sweet.”

Eva took two bars while Nien and Marton each took one.

With a quick split of money at Garven’s expense, the game began anew with everyone putting in their stakes for another round. 

But before they could start, Garven stopped them with a sly glance around the table. “Actually, how about we up the ante? Say, by a hundred?”

“You just want to try and win all your money back!”

“I’m not denying it! So how about it?”

“Fine.”

With the agreement of everyone around the table, eight hundred bloodstones were gathered in the center. Dices were rolled and cups overturned.

As the others prepared and chatted amongst themselves, Eva leaned over toward Kagriss.

“See? I can win. I told you so.”

The way that Eva looked at her so proudly reminded Kagriss a bit of Camilla. Only, Eva was nowhere as cute as Camilla was, so she pushed the vampire’s head away and said in a calm and even voice, “It’s just one game.”

“Yes, but it’s fun, isn’t it? Not as bad as you thought.”

Kagriss had to concede that. Despite how cautious she was toward gambling, it wasn’t as bad as she thought, at least for now. But she hadn’t lowered all her guard yet though. The real danger of gambling was long term in the form of addiction after all.

In the short term, as a bit of entertainment, it was fine.

Her eyes also kept getting drawn toward the bloodstone bars on the table.

Understanding a bit more about the game after watching a round, Kagriss decided to switch from watching the dice to watching the players. If her guesses were correct, then the game was essentially a matter of luck for the most part—trying to get high values toward an upper limit of numbers as much as possible before getting called out or calling someone else’s bluff.

Eva had to judge from the dice she had and try to guess how many there were in total of that number. The more dice she had of that number, the higher the count for that number was assured to be. The same was true for the other players, but the other players know that as well.

That much was simple, but the difficult part of the game was guessing when someone might be lying about what they do or do not have with their bids. 

On the other hand, even if she was correct about someone’s truthfulness, luck may still tip the scales in the other player’s favor.

But being able to tell truthfulness was all she had going for her, so Kagriss decided to watch the players. Without knowing it, she fell deeper into the gambling hole.

Eva looked at her dice. This time, it was one two, one three, one four, and two sixes.

This meant that technically, Eva should favor sixes while being skeptical of the other numbers. However, luck played a part in the game as well, as well as lying.

“Garven. You may start the bid.”

“I know, I know. I swear the only place I get rushed is here,” the dwarf grumbled. He looked again under his cup. “Two sixes.

“Don’t,” he said, glaring at Eva who had her mouth open about to say something.

Eva laughed. “How’d you know?”

“Instincts.”

Nien drummed the table. “Three twos.”

According to Kagriss’s theory, Nien should have a lot of twos, which meant less of the other numbers. However, Nien could also be bluffing, though Kagriss couldn’t tell. Yet. However, she memorized Nien’s bid to compare with during the reveal and watched his expression, hands, and body, looking for anything that might be out of the ordinary.

She didn’t know Nien well enough, but he looked genuinely nonchalant enough that he might not be lying. However, that could also be because the bid was safe.

Did that drumming mean anything?

Next was Marton. “Four fours.”

Again, nothing that Kagriss could tell.

“Five fives.”

“Six sixes.”

Six…by Kagriss’s instincts, that was when things were starting to get dicey. However, Garven seemed to be playing along with the theme and he looked comfortable doing it, so she had no idea if he was good at faking it or he really did have a lot of sixes.

“Seven twos.”

Twos again. That elf said twos last time and he looked comfortable then, but now… Kagriss narrowed her eyes and saw that the drumming had stopped. If she was right, then he was a lot more nervous than before.

The bidding was still maintaining the pattern so if it was a lie, then it should be easy, and yet, Nien still looked worried about being called for bluffing, which probably meant that two wasn’t a common number in his roll.

“Eight fours.”

“You know eight of the dice are fours?” Eva asked, her tone incredulous, breaking the pseudo-silence that had been nothing but bids. 

Marton looked up and nodded. “Is there a problem?” 

Eva hesitated. In her place, Kagriss would have as well. Eight was well in the territory of unlikelihood, but Marton had called out fours last time as well . “No…” Eva finally said. “Wait, yes. Calling your bluff.”

Kagriss had begun watching Garven when she heard Eva say no and was a little caught off guard when the vampire changed her mind. Camilla was never this wishy washy!

But soon she remembered what was at stake. Eight hundred bloodstones! Kagriss swallowed, trying not to let her excitement for the reckoning show. If Eva guessed right, then that was a lot of money potentially going to her, at least four hundred.

On the other hand, if she was wrong, then last round’s victory would be a complete waste of time…

As she watched with outwardly calm eyes, Eva stood up again. Both Garven and Nien hid their disks.

They lifted their cups and Eva began to count out the dice.

As Kagriss expected, Marton had multiple fours, which was a bit worrying. Nien had two twos, which was a bit surprising, considering he looked like he had been bluffing. 

However, the biggest surprise was that Garven had four blanks.

Blanks were wildcards so he could’ve bet anything and had a decent shot at winning. He had a two, so if he wanted to, he had five twos all by himself. Nien had two twos and Marton had two twos. Eva herself had a single two, which meant a total of ten twos.

Anyone who called or agreed to a call on a bluff on twos would’ve lost… 

Considering that Kagriss had been suspecting Nien of not having twos, it could be considered a disaster narrowly averted.

When Eva finished counting, there were three fours and five blanks, for a total of eight fours. Eva paled and Marton began to laugh. Nien’s face soured as well as his hand shifted to reveal a face up disk.

“Damn.”

“Damn is right. My buddy Garven! If you had a single less blank, I would’ve lost, ahahaha!” Since Garven won as well, he gladly accepted the thanks as he grinned.

Lion’s share went the way of Marton, six hundred total. Four hundred from half and the remaining four hundred was split in two, half again for Marton and the other for Garven.

Garven won his money back, but Eva didn’t look happy. 

“Hmph.”

“Heheh, better luck next time, Eva. And you too, friend,” Garven said, grinning and patting Nien on the back. The elf made a gagging expression and shook him off, although Garven didn’t look offended at all as he kissed the bloodstone bars.

Eva slumped back in her seat and Kagriss scooted up close to her. “Are you done yet?”

“Hmph. Not even close.”

That was about what Kagriss expected, but it was worth a try. She was afraid that if she stayed longer, she’d be tempted to play.

Even as that thought flew through her head, Kagriss stood up and before she realized it, she was seated at the table, surprise at her own actions shown clearly on her face.

“Oh? You playing, lassy? Kagriss, was it?” Garven asked. “Not bad, you’ve got a bright future ahead of you.”

“No, I didn’t…”

Kagriss tried to protest and stand up, but Eva grabbed her shoulder and pulled her back down with a toothy grin that showed her canines. “Hehe. Don’t be shy! I gave you fifty, right?”

“Ah, that’s right…”

“It’s not for free, you know? It’s so you can play with me; just one round is fine!”

“Just one round! Just one round!”

“Just one round!”

All of a sudden, the others at the table began to chant Eva’s last words and even Kagriss began to feel a bit overwhelmed. 

After a few seconds of enduring the chants, she nodded, slow and barely noticeable. “Fine…just one round.”

The table burst out into cheers.

Thankfully, the noise didn’t seem that out of place in the Den.