Estranged [Completed]

Raising the Stakes

Sitting at a poker table in the hotel lounge – aka: the rec room – Kalei and Erit faced off. The table sat in the back corner of the room, and Kalei could see the whole lounge spread out behind Erit. Two more poker tables lined the hall to the right, a couple pool tables sat in the middle of the room, and at the far end sat two couches back to back, each facing a TV. The room was full, and the sound of movies, pool cues, and general conversation filled the lounge, but Kalei ignored it all as she studied her opponent over her small mountain of poker chips.

Erit had a fair-sized pile himself. The two players each had split the chips nearly in half over the course of the game. Mar, who had been knocked out early, dealt the cards. The game was Texas Hold 'Em. House rules stated you had to play with at least one hand exposed on the table. That was what killed Mar. She might have had a poker face, but her nails sure didn't. Mar had chosen a smiley for her emblem. As they played, she had tried her best to maintain a neutral line for the mouth, but the occasional twitch at the edges gave her away every time.

Shenaia had chosen a steering wheel for her nails. It was supposed to turn different directions, but for most of the night, it had taken her entire focus to maintain the outline. Her poker chips hadn't kept her company for very long either.

Kalei still had her simple swirl with its long stem anchoring it to the base of her nail. She had developed a subtle pattern throughout the night: a slight squeeze of the swirl for bad hands, a slight loosening for good ones. Erit had picked up on the pattern, but now was time for the end game. She planned to use the pattern to her advantage.

Mar dealt the cards. As Kalei reached out to look at her own, she mentally prepared to give her swirls a slight squeeze when she lifted the cards. As she lifted the edges, she saw a pair of aces. Sweet! Belatedly, she remembered to look at her nails. Not only had she remembered to squeeze the swirls, but she had squeezed them so tight that they were now black circles on her fingers. Casually, she flexed the lines back open again and looked up to see Erit's reaction. He watched her, one eyebrow raised.

She didn't even bother to look at his nails. The damn books were useless.

Kalei tried to downplay her excitement at seeing a pair of aces in the pocket. When Mar prompted her, she casually checked. Erit, testing the waters, raised her with a couple red chips. Kalei moved quickly to give off the appearance of being anxious, and called. Mar drew the next set of cards.

A Queen of Spades, a six of Hearts, and a Jack of Spades.

Hoo, that's dangerous. 

A queen and a jack of the same suit meant it was possible for Erit to get a straight flush. If he had the King and Ace of Spades, he could get a royal flush, the best hand in the game. But that wasn't likely. Her partner Marley had once told her the odds of getting a straight flush were one in 650,000. Kalei only remembered because they had argued about it at length on one of their patrols.

Kalei checked. When Erit raised again, she feigned a slight squeeze before calling.

Then came the flop: the King of Spades.

Three cards of the same suit, all in a row. Even if Erit just got a flush or a straight, he would beat her pair of aces. Unless... was one of her aces a spade? She didn't dare look. Instead, she looked at Erit. He looked at her. Kalei checked. Erit raised again; this time, he doubled his last two bets. Kalei called.

The turn came and both players watched Mar as she reached for the next card. The old woman lifted it from the deck, took a peek for herself, showed it to Shenaia, who was now watching over Mar's shoulder, and then grinned as she set it on the table.

A ten of spades. Without even checking her cards, Kalei went all in. She'd done it. Somehow, she had hit those one in 650,000 odds and landed a royal flush. All spades! She was grinning so wide her cheeks hurt.

Erit smiled too, although his grin was more composed. "Nice try. But I shall call your bluff and take the pot." He flipped over his cards. A pair of nines, one of which was a spade. That gave him a straight flush, king high.

"Nope." Kalei smiled triumphantly and turned over her own pair. "Royal Flush!"

She began to reach for the chips when Erit said, "You may want to check again." Kalei looked down at the red and black inked aces. Hearts and clubs. She had two aces, but neither was the right one.

"I'll take these off your hands," Erit said as he cleaned her out. Luckily, they hadn't been playing for anything more than pride.

After neatly stacking his prize on the table before him, Erit addressed his defeated students. "Now, it seems that you have all come a long way in these last few weeks, and Terin has noted your progress. While I feel that some still need work," he glanced at Shenaia, "Terin feels that you are all ready for the more practical levels of training, such as fighting, combat tactics, etcetera, etcetera." Mar grunted her approval. Shenaia returned to her seat on Kalei's right and glowered openly at Erit. Kalei, formerly slouched and recovering from her defeat, now leaned forward with renewed interest.

"Does 'etcetera' mean killing Estranged?" she asked.

"That will come after  you become a Warden." Kalei sat back in her seat again, dejected. Erit continued, "Now, before you can fight an Estranged, you must first understand the mechanics of what happens the moment one Estranged touches another. In that instant, the darkness from each Estranged reaches forth and rips a piece from the other individual's darkness. Then, it returns to its original body where it devours the new piece. In Estranged, this results in a high. In Untouched, this foreign entity ripping at their dormant darkness is the trigger that releases their darkness and begins the process that can either kill them or turn them into Estranged."

Erit paused to evaluate the effect of his explanation on his students. After a moment's silence, Mar's jaw flopped open to spout, "What?"

Shenaia took it upon herself to explain, holding out her hands as she said, "I have a chocolate cookie, and you have a chocolate cookie. We hold out our hands and I take yours while you take mine. Then we eat them."

"Oh, I get it," Mar rumbled.

Shenaia turned to Kalei and said, "Y'know, cookies sound really good right now."

Kalei agreed, then asked Erit, "Can we even eat cookies?" She couldn't recall eating anything since becoming an Estranged.

Erit sighed. "Yes, you can eat. But you don't need to. And if you do, your body will process the food as normal and you will have to use the facilities. Which I strongly advise against."

"Why is that?"

Shenaia answered, "Because they don't have any fucking toilet paper in this entire Goddamn district!" She turned an accusing eye to Erit. "How could you let me eat an entire fucking plate of burritos and not tell me that we don't have any Goddamn toilet paper?"

"I told you not to eat it."

"That doesn't mean jack! Out-of-toilet-paper is need-to-know! Dammit!"

Erit turned away from Shenaia's ranting. "It seems we have drifted off topic. Let us proceed to the fitness room to commence our combat training, shall we?"