Severnaya: Background

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Chapter I - Destiny the Pickpocket

Severnaya entered the gambling hall in central Gethamane. The place was packed with denizens from all over Gethamane. While there was no work tomorrow for many, there was work to do tonight for Severnaya. She walked through the crowds of loud, drunk miners, merchants, and hunters. The place smelled of cheap ale and smoke and was dimly lit by the lighting crystals embedded in the ceiling. It was a well kept joint, with a gentle mix of lower-class workers and affluent individuals. Cheers erupted from a nearby dice table. Someone had just won big.

She glanced to her left and saw two rugged thieves watching her, as expected. There were likely more. She proceeded to the back of the hall, clutching her pouch filled with silver tightly. She couldn't let anything about tonight go wrong. This was her biggest task yet. She was finally getting some recognition among the powerful criminal network in the city, and she wanted to keep that going. Despite the large crowds tonight, one card table was idle. An aged man smoking a pipe sat across from a young female dealer waiting for a second player to join him. Severnaya sat down next to the man, and stacked her silver tokens in front of her. The man's stack was not nearly as large.

"Right on time," he said, puffing a perfect oval of smoke from his mouth. "I like that." They both tossed in their ante of 100 dinar, a very high stakes table and one that Severnaya on any normal occasion would have no business sitting at. The dealer tossed four cards to each player. Severnaya picked her cards up. She loved this game; it required incredible skill in both selection of cards and betting. Her starting hand was mediocre. "200 dinar," she bet.

"Call," the old man matched her stack of tokens and both players proceeded to discard two cards they did not want. The old man puffed another perfect oval from his pipe. Another two cards were dealt to each player. Severnaya's hand did not improve. The old man, in a whimsical tone, tossed his remaining 200 silver into the pot. "Two hundred more. That's all I got." She reluctantly matched.

The two turned up their cards. The old man had a meager hand, but it edged out Severnaya's. Neither showed emotion as he raked in his tokens. The dealer delt the next hand. Each wagered another 500 and again Severnaya got beat, this time pretty handily. This guy had some skill. His stack was up to 1500. Another hand, another loss. She didn't seem fazed. The two each had two thousand silver remaining. As the dealer tossed four cards to each of them once again, the old man spoke directly to Severnaya. "My dear, have you ever been to Amaranth Pass, in the Black Crag Mountains?"

She wasn't supposed to engage in conversation with this man, and she was surprised he was even speaking. It wasn't the proper protocol, and it was an odd question anyway. She had never even heard of Amaranth Pass. She responded flatly, "No," while looking down at her dinar and not at him. He pushed in his remaining coins. "That's a shame. It's an oasis. A place of refuge. You'll know it when you see it." Severnaya finally looked up from the wooden table to him. His grin widened, and he winked at her. Without breaking her stare, she pushed in her remaining two thousand dinar. "Turn them up," the dealer called. The old man did so. He had her beat once again. A perfect hand. She mucked her cards and stood up from the table. Her work here was done.

She turned her back to the table and began to walk away. She stopped dead in her tracks as saw the same old man walking toward her, toward the table. He began to take a seat. She looked back where the man was just sitting. He was gone. This old man did not acknowledge Severnaya as he sat down, he simply stacked his dinar neatly in front of him and waited. Severnaya backed away from the table slowly. What just happened? Who is this guy? Who did she just pass that payment off to? Something definitely wasn't right here. A wave of fear washed over her nerves as she realized a huge mistake had just been made.