In the other corner of the hut a group of men, one a Sev’ryn, the other two seeming to look like Biqaj, known by the pointy ears. They chattered and bickered in the Common tongue, arguing over a game that had gone one man’s way. Intrigued by the card games they were playing, he stopped paying attention to Kodi for just a moment. Unbeknown to him, Kodi had crawled underneath the table, falling to the floor.
Equally unnoticed by Rakvald, the owner of the mead hut had approached the becomer, and crossed his arms, his brow darkening as he glowered at Rakvald.
”You owe us a tab, been here ten straight days… When you gonna pay up?”
Rakvald’s eyes drifted from the men in the other corner, back up to the bartender, and put on his best sad face, which wasn’t all that convincing.
”Ahhh come on man, you know I’m good for it! I’m loaded, just give me some time…”
”Same story as yesterday. Pay up within three breaks, or I’ll have you tossed in the drink outside the pier.” So saying, the Bartender’s arms fell to his sides, and he went back to tending the stock.
Rakvald grumbled at his failed gambit, trying to ply the man’s sense of pity. Nonetheless, the hand, Kodi, crawled up Rakvald’s leg, and began tickling him at the knee, which made the becomer giggle a little, before it jumped atop the table.
”What is it Kodi, tryin’ ta tell me something?” Rakvald sometimes thought the hand had a mind of its own, although it was probably just Rakvald’s overactive imagination anthropomorphizing its movements. The hand pointed toward the table he’d noted earlier, and the game going on. A smile crept across Rakvald’s face then, as he got an idea…
Grafting was the gateway to many interesting abilities. Not least of which was the extension of one’s senses. Rakvald had only just discovered the ability to give life to disembodied flesh. Could he do the same to a sensory organ? Namely, an eye? He only knew he couldn’t spare one of his own eyes… he’d have to create one from scratch.
He looked at Kodi at first, but then shook his head. Kodi at first struck him as a good candidate for experimentation. Rakvald could discover how much he could alter a roused piece of flesh, afterall… But then it occurred to him the ether infusing the hand was limited, and perhaps corrupting the flesh would cause it to lose some vitality.
No, if he was to form an eye, he would do it from his own flesh, which roared with etheric might. So, he stuck in his corner, slowly forming the ocular nerve, and the structure of the eye from a bulbous wart in his tentacle arm…
Within a few bits, he’d formed more or less a functional eye, that was capable of seeing as well if not better than a human one. He smiled at his handiwork, and then began removing the eye flesh from his tentacle arm. It began sliding off, slowly slowly, until it bounced off like a marble. He caught it with his blackened tentacles, and held it in front of his view, concentrating on it very hard…
A break later, he’d managed to infuse it with the vitality and life, not unlike what he’d done with Kodi. It was on a smaller scale, to be sure, but the function of an eye was quite different to the mechanics of a disembodied hand. He slid the eyeball over to Kodi, which wrapped its little finger and ring finger around the eye, and then began walking surreptitiously toward Rakvald’s shoulder baldric. There it hug, sneakily beneath his mantle as he rose from his seat.
The bartender’s eyes followed him, making sure he wasn’t making a break for the exit. When Rakvald slid over to the wall, leaning against it awkwardly with his right hand, he gave a winning smile to the men at the table. He winced as every footfall fell on the floorboards. His foot was still bothering him, from when he'd stepped in the bear trap. He was aware that it was a result of overstepping, and thus hadn't exacerbated the issue by trying to patch it up more than he had. But it still bothered him, and the more he walked, sometimes it wept blood or puss.... Very uncomfortable.
”Hey fellas… How’s about we deal ol’ Rakvald in to this hand?” He winked at them, charmingly. The men at the table stared at him, giving him a long and odd look, before shrugging to themselves and gesturing to an open chair. While Rakvald’s arm formed a bridge to the beam just over the wall, Kodi had crawled sneakily across his sleeve, and alighted to the beam. There, it held the eye open where it’d been adhered to his knuckle, ready to angle it toward the other men to spy on their hands…
Rakvald was dealt into the games. At first, he did a piss poor job. He didn’t recognise what a good hand was, whether it was his, or his opponents, having little familiarity with the game they were playing. While Suits was more or less ubiqtuious, it still took him time to figure out what hands were better than others. During which he lost a good amount of nel and drinking money.
He was almost at the point of putting down his prized belt buckle on the table. And sure enough one of the gamblers pointed toward it, signalling that Rakvald was out of coin, and ought to pony up with collateral. Sighing to himself, Rakvald reluctantly unhooked it from his belt, and placed it on the table. Then, the game was afoot…
Rakvald by now knew what hands were good, and which were lousy, having lost quite a few to better hands, and having been laughed at outright when he resigned on a hands like straight flushes and full houses.
Now, he signalled remotely for Kodi to angle the eye toward the men sitting at the table. Rakvald Saw that their hands were as lousy as some of his earlier. Yet, his own… two queens and three tens… A full house! He was sure that’d be good enough to win…
Yet, he could only make out from Kodi’s eye one hand at the table… Kodi strained and stretched, trying to get a good look at the Sev’ryn’s hand… It almost was able to make out a consecutive count of cards of the same suit… four of them, but couldn’t quite make out the fifth.
Rakvald thought he caught something out of the corner of his eye… He turned, to look, and there sure enough was his Good News Bear! Why, he hadn’t seen that since he sent it along to Zarik in Etzos. Emboldened by it’s appearance, he laid down his hand as the men called him to reveal his hand.
”Read em and weep boys!” Rakvald snickered,
”My pot!”
And sure enough, they unveiled their hands, which weren’t the least bit substantial. The Sev’ryn, who had four of the same suit, turned out to have only one of another suit, and none of them were doubles or triples. Rakvald hooted, and collected his pot. From it, he paid the bartender what he owed, and pocketed the rest. Perhaps Ildred would let him back in the Steading, if he showed her what Kodi had won. He could only hope.
