Onua wove her way down the crowded streets of the Tortallan city of Green Harbor. Food stalls nearby wafted tempting smells over the crowded street, mingling with woodsmoke and the inevitable reek of hundreds of unwashed humans and animals congregating. All around her merchants hawked their wares and traders argued over prices while barefooted children wove through the crowd, laughing and liberating purses. A salty breeze came off the harbor and she took a deep breath. She may prefer the company of her ponies and an open road before her, but she always found something exciting in a city like this.

Eventually she came to an inn near the center of the town, just off the main market square. She went inside and rented a room, where she put away her bags and got settled. Then she sat on the bed, wondered what on earth she was going to do with herself.

She was here on the business of the Queen's Riders, meeting with a trader who claimed to have a new type of pony, one even hardier than the mountain breed Onua normally supplied the Riders with. Onua doubted the veracity of this claim, but after consulting with Thayet it was decided that it was worth investigating. Anticipating delays on the road, Onua had set out from Corus with plenty of time to spare for her journey. But the trip had been remarkably smooth, and she now found herself in Green Harbor nearly two weeks in advance of her meeting with the trader with nothing to do until he arrived.

Deciding to go out and buy herself dinner from one of the stalls she'd seen on her way in, Onua left her room and went back outside the inn. But when she stepped out onto the street, her attention was caught by a small knot of people gathered on the other side of the road. She was about to skirt around the edge of the group when a loud groan went up from someone in the crowd, mingled with laughter from the other spectators. Onua's curiosity got the better of her. She wove through the people until she was near the front of the group and could see what everyone was looking at.

"Anyone else brave enough to try their luck? All you have to do it find the coin and you can double your money! Step right up, one coin is all you need," a young man was saying. He sat in front of a makeshift table, upon which he had placed three cups upside down. Onua recognized the game and realized that the young man must be one of the players that traveled through marketplaces, earning their living with tricks and sleight of hand.

"Anyone? How about you, sir? You look sharp eyed- no? How about you, young lady? Surely one so beautiful must be talented as well-" the young player was dark haired and bearded, with a wide grin and dark, twinkling eyes that spelled trouble. The mother of the girl he'd spoken to must have seen it too, because she pulled the girl away.

"I'll play," came an offer from the man beside Onua.

"Excellent!" The player said. "A coin, if you please?" He held out one hand, into which the volunteer placed a copper coin. The player raised an eyebrow. "A little on the cheap side, are you?" He teased, rolling the coin between his fingers.

"A copper is all I'll waste on your game," the man laughed.

"Fair enough," the player agreed. "The game's simple: just watch the coin. I'll match your bet-" he placed a second copper coin on the corner of the table- "and if you can find your coin when I'm done, you get both. If not-" he flipped the coin in the air and caught it, then slipped it beneath one of the cups- "I keep both." Then his hands began to move, sliding the cups around across the table, switching their positions in a bewildering pattern that was nearly impossible to follow. The volunteer tried admirably though, and when the player finished the man pointed with some confidence to the cup in the middle. But when the player lifted the cup, the coin was not there. The man who'd given his coin groaned.

"Remind me never to play these damned games again," he grumbled.

"Ah, but then how would I earn my bread?" The player asked with a grin. He lifted the cup on the left with a flourish, revealing the copper coin. He swept both coins off the table and they disappeared into a pouch at his waist as the losing man walked away, shaking his head.

"How about another volunteer? I don't always win, you know, all you need is half a brain and a good pair of eyes-" The player began flipping the cups across the table, fingers moving with practiced ease as he continued to talk. "Or not even a set, I was once beaten by a one eyed old crone. She didn't have a pair of eyes, and even the brain I'm not sure of-" There were some scattered chuckles, while a few people at the edge of the group wandered off, going back to their day to day tasks. Onua stayed, though. Half a brain and a good set of eyes she did have, and she was almost certain that the coin had been under the middle cup. "How about you, sir?"

Another volunteer stepped up to the table, and Onua watched as once again he selected the wrong cup and lost his coin. Then a woman replaced him, winning this time. But the player managed to cajole her into another game, this time betting a silver coin, and she lost. It was in the next game that Onua saw it.

On the last turn of the cups, Onua's sharp eyes caught an extra movement of the cup on the right. The player was tilting it up slightly and sweeping the coin out from under it, slipping it under the cup beside it. His volunteer would choose the cup the coin had been under at first, and he would win every time. Smiling to herself, Onua turned to leave.

"And how about you, lovely lady? Care to try your luck?"

Onua turned around. "What makes you think I'm a lady?"
The player smiled. "How could such radiance come from anything but nobility?"

Onua laughed. "Has that line ever worked before?"

"Not until today," the player said flirtatiously. He gestured to the game before him. "A game for you, my lady?"

"Sure," Onua decided, smirking. She knew his trick, and she knew how to beat him. "I'll try my luck."

"Wonderful," the player said. "A coin?"

Smile growing, Onua took out a gold coin from her purse. The player's eyes widened. "You must be very confident."

"You could say that," Onua replied.

"Alas, a poor player like myself can not match such a bet," he said apologetically.

"That's all right, I'll let it slide just this once," Onua said. "Go on, then."

"As my lady commands," the player said, grinning, and began his work. Onua watched closely as he moved the cups, and saw when he made the switch.

"That one," Onua said confidently, pointing to the cup the player had switched the coin to.

"Bad luck," the player said, shaking his head with mock sadness as he lifted the cup. Onua gaped disbelievingly at the empty place where her coin should be.

"But-" she started, but broke off. She thought she'd seen a faint glitter as the cup lifted, like black sparks in the air. Magic? Her eyes narrowed. Was this player using the Gift to hide her coin? She looked up from the cups and was about to accuse him of cheating, but stopped abruptly when she got her first good look at him. The bones protruded sharply from his tired face, and she could see that under his tattered clothes he was painfully thin. She remembered his joke earlier about earning his bread and realized that it hadn't been a joke. Her stomach turned, and she swallowed the accusation on her lips. He needed the gold more than she did. "Damn. I really shouldn't gamble," she said instead.

"Come back any time," the player said cheerfully. "I'm sure your luck will improve."