On Astral Tides: From Humble Freelancer To Astral Emperor

That smug shit… I groaned internally, as I tossed my cards aside, folding again. Glancing over at the master of this casino, as he sat at the podium, I could see he was barely holding in his glee. And why not? I had just lost my third hand in a row, Emilio eating into my lead steadily. I had tried to raise wind, but whatever the owner was doing to supress it was effective. I could manage a little breeze around my hand, but projecting it towards the dealer was impossible.

As the next set of cards was dealt, I had already contributed my blind. Looking at them cautiously I saw they were again nothing special. Beside me, Buck was frowning at his cards.

“I’ll raise…” Emilio said, pushing forwards another stack of chips. Aliyah folded, as did I, but Buck, his hand trembling a little, pushed his chips in to call the bet. The dealer then showed the next three cards. Emilio raised again, and Buck… don’t do it, it’s a trap…

Unfortunately he had no way of knowing my thoughts, as he went all-in, sensing an opportunity. With a smug grin Emilio called, and Buck was committed to an all-or-nothing bet. Face up, there was a pair of sixes and a nine. Buck flipped over to reveal a six and a king, while Emilio had a queen and a nine. For a moment Buck looked pleased, sensing victory, until the next card came out another nine. The final card was a four, and with that Buck was defeated, Emilio further increasing his lead.

“And there you have it!” The owner crowed to the audience. “A crowd favourite, Buck Kelly, bows out just before the money! Better luck next time Buck. Still, now we know who will be taking home their share of the prize money. But who will be number one?”

Seriously, it should be obvious as hell that they are cheating, there is no way they can win so many hands in a row without it, but… my eyes surveyed the crowd. Some of the losers had already left, feeling weak and drained, but the remainder were pale, eyes unfocused. As he stood, Buck came over and shook my hand. “Oh well, so close, hell, just a bit more luck and I’d have been right back in it there. Still, you go ahead and clean up, Akio. I’ll be cheering for you, and I’ll see you at the bar afterwards, win or lose. Same to you, Aliyah.” He nodded at her too.

“Sure, I’ll do my best.” My plans of a 1-2-3 were ruined, and looking at Aliyah, she had almost no chips left… Ugh, think, how can I get through this?

The next hand I actually had decent cards, an ace and a king. Looking at the dealer, I also didn’t see her mess with the card order. That’s odd… Putting in a modest ten stacks to test the waters, Emilio folded, saying out loud that his cards were bad. I get it. The dealer must have signalled him this round is a dud to make it look less suspicious. As I pondered this Aliyah matched my bet, taking a chunk of her remaining chips.

As the next cards came out it was a queen, jack and ten. I now had a straight. Damn, that’s a really good hand… but how will Aliyah play it? I decided to scare her off with a thirty stack bid, but she smiled sweetly at me and went all in, pushing her chips to the middle.

Damn, do I call, or fold and let her restock? It might buy me time to think of a way to overturn the cheating but… I’ve got nothing…

“I hope you won’t regret this…” I mouthed at her, matching her bet. She had a queen and a ten, giving her two pairs. She was behind, but there were still cards in the deck that could beat me. The next card was… a three. And the final card was… another three. And with that Aliyah was beaten. Giving a shrug which set her ample assets bouncing, she waved to the crowd. “I guess third isn’t bad, now is it?” she said, and a round of weak applause came back from the losers.

“And so we have our third place decided.” The owner said, gesturing to security, who picked up one of the large holdalls. As he opened the zip, I could see it was full of rolls of bills. “Taking home, in sweet cash, ten percent of the prize pool, which amounts to one point seven million dollars!” Pausing to let that sink in, he was silent, then he gestured, and the guard brought it over to Aliyah, who took it, her muscles flexing at the weight. “Our rare flower from New York, Aliyah James, third place in her first tournament. We hope to see you again, should word reach you!”

So, just you and me, Emilio. Well, really it is you, the dealer and the owner against me… so, what now?

“If you could wait until the game is concluded, so we can get interviews and photographs with the three winners, I would greatly appreciate it.” The owner was continuing, and Aliyah agreed, heading for the bar, heavy bag in hand.

“All right then, the final battle between two unknowns, making a meteoric entrance to the Las Vegas circuit, begins! There can only be one winner! Dealer, shuffle those cards!”

The next few hands were cagey, and my eyes had become accustomed to seeing when the dealer was cheating, but that didn’t help me much, as Emilio was quick to only lose a handful of chips on those hands. Soon I was running low, completely outmatched. Wind is useless, can I do anything with fire? No, setting the table on fire won’t do anything… damn, this is SO frustrating…

The owner was watching smugly, as yet more of my chips were taken. At this rate I’d be bled out soon. I might as well go for an all-or-nothing gamble, but I’m not feeling lucky… I shivered, feeling ill-luck like clammy fingers down my spine. As cards were dealt to me on a hand that the dealer was not cheating on, I looked at them and was pleasantly surprised. Nine and ten of spades. Not awful…

I decided to go all-in, as another chance might not come again. I expected him to fold, but I was wrong.

“I’ll call.” Emilio said, and the owner was commentating, saying that this could be the end.

I showed my cards, and Emilio… Ugh, he has two jacks. My fortune isn’t favouring me here…

The flop was laid out, and it was ace of spades, jack of spades and a five of hearts. Well, really that doesn’t change much for me… I’m still losing, but now, if I get one more spade…

The next card was… a three of clubs, and it all hinged on the river… holding my breath, I watched as it was flipped, to reveal… king of diamonds. I lost…? Damn…

“And there we have it. In second place, his early luck deserting him, is our traveller from distant Japan, Akio Moonstone Oshiro! He may be defeated, but he shouldn’t be sad, as he claims the second prize of… a bit over five point one million dollars!” with that security brought over two heavy bags, and hoisting them onto my shoulders I was impressed by the weight. Shit, there must be fifty kilograms here… thinking about it, sure, I wanted to win, but even this money is more than plenty… still, it doesn’t sit right that this bastard rigged the game so badly. It may seem hypocritical coming from me… Of course, if his greed is as rapacious as I expect, the chance of him letting me leave with the money is low…

I let his annoying voice wash over me as I headed to the bar, where Buck and David were drinking with Aliyah, who was now draining a glass of whiskey, licking her lips.

“Bad luck there, you almost had him.” Buck commiserated, slapping me on the back again. “Still, second place isn’t so bad, is it?”

“Yeah, I guess I can’t complain. Still, I really wanted to win.”

“You and me both man, you and me both!” Buck agreed. “Anyway, that’s a lot of cash you have there. Not only will it be a pain getting it back to Japan, but you’ll also get taxed to hell on it, right? Why don’t you leave it to your pal Buck? I can have an acquaintance of mine from a major bank visit you and set up an account for you. You can deposit the cash then, and they can also take measures to minimise your taxes back home. No point paying more than you have to, right?”

“Well that would be helpful, yes, but I’m not sure why you are helping me out?” I asked. We had only met briefly at the tables before this.

“You wound me Akio. I’m a man who trusts my instincts, and you are a man with great luck. I definitely think we should be good friends.”

“You say that, but I didn’t win here, did I?”

“Well, how much was your buy-in? Because I’m damn sure it was less than five million, right? I’d say that’s pretty damn lucky, no?” Buck winked, raising his glass to me.

Uh, yeah it’s hard to deny that…

“So what do you say? Let a friend help you out, it’d be rude to refuse. I know you Japanese are annoyingly polite at times and hate owing people favours, but we are in America right now. In fact, to celebrate you should bring your cute girly to Kelly’s bar tomorrow. I’ll show you a good time!”

“Well, I’m also here with my sister and another girl, but they aren’t old enough to drink, so I don’t know if that…”

Buck cut me off. “Don’t worry about it. As long as they aren’t drinking alcohol I can cover for any trouble. Don’t be letting me down, you’ll hurt my feelings. You can come too if you want Aliyah, I’ll get you some fine whiskey to celebrate your third place.”

“I’ll think about it.” Aliyah replied, rubbing at her ear absentmindedly.

“All right, I’ll take you up on your kind offer.” I told Buck, who grinned. Well it would solve an issue, as I was NOT expecting to have this much money… I told Buck I was staying at the MGM Grand, and agreed he would contact his acquaintance and have them visit in the morning.

After that we enjoyed a few drinks and made small-talk, the crowd of defeated players thinning out. It was then that the owner came over, smiling greasily. “If I could have a little time, Akio, Aliyah. I’d like to get the formalities over. If the rest of you could head out to the main casino, I’d appreciate it. There is still plenty of fun to be had, I assure you.”

As Buck, David and the others said their goodbyes and filed out of the VIP area, I watched as a burly security guard shut the door. So, here we go then…

“You are really very interesting, aren’t you, Akio?” the owner leaned in much too close, so I took a step back. “I definitely feel you are someone with… special… skills. You do seem awfully lucky, don’t you?”

“Oh, you think so? Well, I’d say that I’d need to be. There is definitely a real aura of misfortune here in this Territory… oh sorry, your casino.” I probed him, trying to gauge his response.

“Well who knows, there are a lot of tall tales regarding ancient Indian burial grounds, maybe this casino was built on one.” The overweight man giggled. “Anyway, I wanted to congratulate you both on your winnings.”

“So, where is Emilio, the true winner?” Aliyah asked suddenly. “I don’t see him.”

“Oh, since his bags of money were too heavy to transport easily he’s taken them to the back. I’ll have someone courier them to his hotel.” He said. “I am more than willing to do you two the same favour. After all, it’s been a profitable tournament for me.”

“I think I’ll pass.” I declined. “It’s a bit heavy sure, but my Material body is strong, I can handle it. My hotel isn’t too far away anyway.”

This guy just oozes sleaze. I’ve seen more trustworthy con-artists trying to sell paintings and vases to gullible Tokyo tourists. Glancing around I assessed the situation. There were a dozen security guards around, and all the dealers had left. In addition, several of them were carrying pistols.

Does he know Buck is going to send someone to my hotel tomorrow? Does he even care if he knows? That was the problem with gaining supernatural powers, it did tend to skew one’s perspective, something I often had to reflect on, mostly unsuccessfully, alas. Behind me Aliyah was watching intently, tapping at her ear, perhaps a nervous tick of some sort.

If something happens to both of us, that would surely be too suspicious…

“So, Akio, Aliyah. How about a drink, one for the road, to celebrate?” he went behind the bar, and now I noticed even the barman was absent. Pulling out a sealed bottle of a golden-brown whiskey, he put out three glasses. Opening the bottle he poured us some generous measures over ice. Lifting his glass, he gestured to us. “To victory, and all the spoils it brings.”

Aliyah and I lifted our glasses, and we clinked them together. “Yeah, to a good game.” I said, sarcasm seeping into my voice. The owner wasn’t drinking, so I took a small sip of the whiskey. It was a good one, to be sure, but it was also… Yeah, there’s something in this drink. It’s spiked…