Oath of Steel

6 |The Gilded Phantom|

Rosalynde hadn't expected the place to be this much crowded, the cries of winners and the laments of losers changing with every hand had already made her lose focus.

There was no reason to silence her footsteps here, the noise would have covered for her - but she still hesitated in accepting a chalice that'd been offered her from one of the many attendants tending to every small whim of the people filling these halls.

Mingling wasn't as easy as it seemed, especially when your mind wasn't intoxicated by the sweet scent that the glasses gave off.

The sound of dice rolling and that of cards shuffling were the only things she could hear as she started moving through the various stations. Dealers inviting the crowd in taking their chance at luck and betters betting all their chips on a call could sum up what went on in this place as nightfall came.

The place looked way better than Rosalynde had initially thought, if upstairs looked like a normal inn with a decent influx of customers, then the lower floors could have been compared to the rooms of the most influential nobles.

She seemed so out of place, and she was fully conscious of that. She didn't converse, didn't bet, didn't seduce someone to play for her - so why exactly had she ventured inside the Black Tide?

Taking a small sip from her glass, her pale eyes settled on a little door at the side of the last room, where two men had just come out.

Cigars in hand, tailcoats covering the horrendous amount of meat they could afford to eat - without a doubt a pair of nobles escaping from their monotonous lives made up of parties and dances.

She got closer to them, micking the walk of a drunk woman as she stumbled their way, knocking a waiter over to make it seem more believable.

Back against the wall, and a few steps away from the two conversing nobles, Rosalynde thought of the best plan to adapt.

Watching them closely, they seemed to know the place quite well, their masks the color of gold standing out from her silver one meant something - she was sure of that.

As the noise around started to subdue without her knowing why, she finally started hearing their voices.

"Lady Luck seems to have blessed someone tonight, I wonder when I'll be able to get out of here with a good swag," she heard someone say beside her, slightly tending her ear to the right to hear better.

"What did you tell Lucy this time when you went out?" The other man asked.

"What do you think I told her? I said I was going to take part in a debate in the House of Hastles, where no women can enter," Lucy's husband replied with a shrug.

"Again, you'll have to tell her one day - scratch that. She'll learn it by herself when the Bank of Lun sends its best agents to mortgage all of her assets," the other man replied.

"And this, my friend, is why I'm here tonight. If I hit the jackpot even once I can repay the loan I borrowed from the Gilded Phantom without Lucy finding out," but the other wasn't convinced by his words.

Rosalynde meanwhile had started pulling up glass after glass to try keeping a low profile, the chalice's contents quickly seeping down her throat as she kept on eavesdropping on the men's conversation.

"One day you'll completely fall from grace Gregor, you can't keep on fouling her forever," Gregor's friend admonished him.

"Oh would you keep your mouth shut for once old friend? Can't you see I'm trying here?" Gregor took a long time finishing his cigar, hitting its ends against the wall before throwing it in the chalice he'd finished.