11/18/1

The casino of the Excelsior makes up half of the first floor, and apparently all of the second and third floor.

This time, when they go through the lobby of the hotel, no one looks at them twice. Up to their room, dropping off their street clothing, and Rey's other sarees, and back down again, and they're blending in well enough no one is aware of them.

They're aware of the casino, though.

Casinos, at least this one, are loud.

Neither Rey nor Kylo had anticipated that, but as they're walking through the hotel lobby, closer and closer to the melee of gambling, the noise is going from a steady thrum to a wall of sound.

There are machines all over the place. Poe hadn't mentioned them to her, and Kylo doesn't know what they are, other than infernally loud, so both of them spend a moment watching. People sit in front of them, feeding them coins, and then hit the buttons, and if they hit the buttons right, pictures line up properly, and coins come spitting out.

Rey keeps watching, and lets her senses worm their way into the mechanism. It's random, she thinks to Kylo.

He nods back at her. It doesn't matter when or how you hit the buttons, the read out of the pictures is random.

Can you jigger it? Kylo thinks.

No. It's a program, not mechanical. You?

If I sit here focusing long enough. He spends a moment feeling for how it works. It pays out once every thirty tries, at random. Payout's twenty-five to one, and it only takes one credit coins. Not worth it.

She nods.

Deeper in, as they get central hub of the casino, the cages where they can buy chips, they find a bank of 'old-fashioned' machines. The pictures on these are printed, on tumblers. Pull the crank, the tumblers roll, hit the buttons, and they stop. It's entirely mechanical.

These take twenty-five credit chips, and payout twenty to one, if one line of pictures lines up, fifty to one if two lines line up, and three hundred to one if all three line up.

Rey smirks a little. While Kylo's buying them chips, she stands by his side, looking like she's watching all the games around them with wonder and wide eyes, and then makes sure the man sitting at the machine has a very good day.

He's hopping up and down, squeeing with joy as coins come tumbling out around him.

The noise of the casino gets louder, but at least this louder is happy louder.

Making someone's night? Kylo thinks to her.

Sure. Besides, if I win it for one of us, it'll look really suspicious if we then walk in and clean up on cards.

Of course.

Poe says we're supposed to lose. If we win every hand it'll look suspicious, and they'll boot us out.

Do just well enough to stay in and then bet big on a good hand? Dad believed in that.

Poe does, too.

Kylo's smirking.

What?

Luke told me Dad's good luck dice were weighted. I suppose that's about the same as sauntering on in able to read minds.

Rey laughs. Probably. So…

Let's go win some money.

Most of the first floor is machines. Lots and lots and lots and lots of those spinning picture machines. People all around them are feeding them chips, watching the pictures scroll, waiting, anticipation building, until the pictures stop, and no coins come out.

They both watch, nodding, feeling that the machines are all set to payout slightly less often than they take in. Get lucky, play the right time, and more importantly stop playing at the right time, and you can leave ahead, but if you spend the evening at it, you'll lose.

Between and through and around those machines are other ones that turn credits into chips. Women and men in matte black silks weave around and through the crowd, with trays of drinks and food. If you didn't have to sleep or relieve yourself, the casino would happily make sure you never had to leave those machines.

There's nothing for them on the first floor.

"One of these days, we'll have to see if we can get a Force slicer," Kylo says, quietly as they head to the second floor.

Rey tries to imagine how that might work. Nothing springs to mind. That said, if it could…

The second floor is more interesting to them. There are card tables all over here. Most of them seem to be 21 tables, or it's vastly more complicated, and risky cousin, Sabbac. Lots of them. But there are roulette tables, too, and a collection of dice games.

If it weren't for the fact that the table shifts, at random, the value of the cards, Kylo would be a tempted to try a hand at Sabbac, but… Any skills he can bring to bear on these games require the other players to be players, not machines.

Around the far edge of the room are private games. Most of the ones they see are already full, but eventually they find a poker table looking for a fourth and fifth.

A blonde with green eyes and two days of stubble waves them over. "Looking for a game?"

"We are," Kylo replies.

"Amidala, Rey and Ben," Rey says, extending her hand. The blonde stands, taking it, kissing the back. She feels Kylo stiffen a bit, but the man isn't being out of line. At least, not where he's from. This is friendly and warm, but not an attempt to seduce a woman who's standing next to her husband.

"Porter Herm," he nods to the… Rey's not sure what the person to his left is. Not human. Not any species she's ever seen before. He… she… it puts her a little in mind of Maz Kanata, but mostly because of the similar coloring. In stature it's about the size of a wookie. "That's Lammath Fra Holmes."

Lammath nods to them, and says, "Greetings Ben and Rey," his voice is modulated enough that Rey wonders if he's got some sort of translator device hidden in his clothing.

"And here on the far side of the table is Alainia Neekeri." This one is certainly female, and human. Like Rey she's in a lovely silk saree, her's is emerald green and gold, and her dark skin and hair all but shimmer in the multi-colored lights of the casino. She nods to Rey and Ben.

"She's quiet. Doesn't speak, but the hand gestures are awfully straightforward."

Kylo pulls a chair out for Rey, and she sits down. He follows her, seating himself.

"Newcomers?" Lammath asks.

"Yes," Rey replies. "One of my friends said this was fun, and we've never done it before, so…"

"Honeymoon?" Herm asks, as he shuffles and deals the cards.

"How…" Kylo starts to ask.

"You're the first man who didn't ogle Laini over there. So, honeymoon," Herm replies with a smile.

He's intentionally making you slightly uncomfortable to see what you'll do. Rey thinks to Kylo.

I know. The woman can speak.

I can feel that, too.

Kylo gently strokes Rey's arm. "Yes, you're right. Out to celebrate, and maybe do something silly and foolish, but fun."

Herm grins at them. "Well, if you're looking for a folly, I think we can set you up for that. Have either of you played regularly?"

"Not regularly," Rey says. Can you read Lammath, at all?

Not yet.

"Enough to know the rules?" Herm asks.

"Enough to know the rules, and a little bit about how the wider game works," Kylo says.

"Well, we all start somewhere. Since you're new, ante's a tenspot."

Not yet? Rey thinks to Kylo.

I'll get there. We're supposed to lose, this'll just make it easier.

All five of them put a ten credit chip into the center.

"First round, I deal the cards," Herm says, flipping through the deck, his hands slick and practiced, the cards whispering between his fingers. "Each hand we swap on down the table. That way no one can claim the deal's crooked."

"Seems wise," Rey responds. Lammath's really off.

Kylo's trying not to make it clear he's focusing on Lammath, but he more he does the more he's coming to the same conclusion Rey is. Something's just off about it.

A lady in a matte black saree, with a tray of drinks and bowls of snacks comes by. "New blood for you old parasites," she says, voice light, eyes not.

They've got some sort of scam going, Rey thinks to Kylo, feeling it from the waitress.

I feel it. Don't eat or drink anything she's serving.

Good plan.

"Can I get you two anything? Gambling's thirsty work." Herm tips her a hundred chip as she serves the drinks.

"We're fine," Rey says.

"Just ate," Kylo adds.

"If you change your mind, just holler!" she says with what looks like, but isn't, a warm smile. She sets the snacks down, and heads off.

Everyone picks up their cards.

Could be worse, Rey thinks to Kylo.

You could have my hand, he thinks back to her.

Rey doesn't smirk at that.

Herm looks to Lammath, who puts thirty into the pot. Alainia nods, taps her hand against the table, and also puts thirty in. Kylo folds. He already knows that Herm, Rey, and Alainia are sitting on six of the eight cards that could get him to anything that could be considered a winning hand. Rey takes thirty out, and raises to forty. "That's how we do this, right?"

"That's how we do this. Gutsy for a first round. Must have something nice in that hand." Herm replies.

Reys got two tens, not the highest combo in anyone's hand, but she also knows that the other two aren't in Kylo, Herm, or Alainia's hands. Twenty cards accounted for. One in sixteen shot a ten shows up, so… why not?

Herm, Lammath, and Alainia all put an additional ten in.

"Max three new cards, unless you've got an Emperor, then you can get four." Herm says, and then looks to Lammath.

Lammath passes two cards back. Alainia one. Kylo doesn't raise an eyebrow at that. Her hand isn't that good, but if she's trying to bluff… Rey takes three. None of which are a ten.

Pair of tens won't win. You going to stay in?

Let's see how expensive it gets.

Herm starts the bet at fifty. Lammath doubles it.

Shouldn't he be excited or something if he's doing that? Rey thinks to Kylo.

I'd think so. Maybe he's so used to playing it's not interesting any more.

Maybe. Rey lets herself focus on Lammath further. He's not feeling anything, at all.

Alainia puts her hundred in, and adds another fifty, with a grin.

Kylo grins wide back at her. She's got two eights and an Emperor.

Bluffing.

Rey puts her one fifty in, too. Her tens beat Alainia's hand, but not Herm's pair of Emperors. She's trying to flush Herm out.

I think so. But he knows her bluff.

Herm folds. "More than I want to lose this early in the game. Lammath, you going to make it more interesting?"

Lammath is quiet for a moment, and then adds an additional fifty. "Call."

Kylo catches it while Lammath is quiet, and Rey's a second behind him. Cyborg, he thinks to her.

I've never seen one before, she thinks back. Heard of them, but…

He's not letting the shock show on his face. Cyborgs, biological bodies, at least to some degree, and computer minds, are illegal on pretty much every system. Even the Empire outlawed their manufacture. He's ancient or so fucking illegal it's almost impossible.

I know!

Alainia taps the table, her version of call. Both of them look to Rey, seeing if she'll up the pot. "I'm good where we are. We show our cards now, right?"

"Correct," Lammath says, and Alainia nods, flipping her cards over.

Rey shows hers, too. "Not bad for a first time," Herm says as she does it. "Lammath?"

Lammath wins the hands with two pair, emperors over eights.

Herm smiles, looking smug, and takes a sip of his drink. "Corpse hand."

"Corpse hand?" Rey asks, as Lammath grabs his chips, and they hand their cards to him.

"Emperors over eights. You ever hear of Wandad The Hutt?"

Kylo and Rey shake their heads, and neither of them have heard of Wandad, so they're genuinely listening to the story as Lammath shuffles.

"Wandad was a famous gambler back in the day."

"When was back in the day?" Kylo asks.

"About a hundred years ago. Back before the Old Republic fell. And he had one of the finest casinos on Coruscant. Known throughout the galaxy as the place for a high stakes game. He ran clean tables," he takes a sip of his drink, making an exaggerated sound of pleasure, hoping it'll get Rey or Kylo drinking, "and tight games. In his house, there was no funny business with the cards. But, because he ran such a tight house he tended to annoy some of the 'less tight' establishments. So, several of his competitors got together and suggested a massive, winner takes all, impossibly high stake tournament, knowing there was no way he could stay away if the price was right."

"What was right?" Rey asks.

"Ante," Lammath says, breaking the story. "Fifty buy in." All five of them slide a chip into the center, and as Herm continues telling the story, Lammath deals.

"Two hundred and fifty million to get into the game. One hundred of the best players, and you'd have to be to have the credits to get into that game. Wandad was sure he was the best of the best, so he put his house into hock to buy into the game.

"And he was good. So good. And lucky. It's not enough to be good, you've got to be lucky, too. All the skills in the universe don't matter if you draw a duce on an Emperor's Flush. He made it to the last hand, and when it was just him and Cerren D'Rhys, and twenty five billion credits were on the line, and he flipped that last hand over, looked at his emperors over eights, and saw Cerren had three fives, he just flat out died." Herm makes a "pbbth" sound. "Since then, that's been the corpse hand."

Rey and Kylo chuckle at that, and check their cards.

"So… why'd they put together the competition if he was that good," Rey asks.

"Oh, they were going to kill him if he won, they just didn't have to," Herm replies, nonchalant. "So, you in Laini?"

Alainia pushes another fifty into the middle. This time she's already got two sixes, and both Kylo and Rey know no one else, except maybe Lammath, has one. Kylo's also got the aforementioned three twos, and both he and Rey are rapidly coming to the conclusion that it's likely a good idea to go hunting for a table where a cyborg isn't playing.

Any idea how he's cheating? Rey thinks.

Nope. I didn't see him mess with the cards, but he had to have. The odds of this being natural are more or less nonexistent.

Kylo's also, for the moment, got the winning hand (again, besides whatever Lammath is holding) at the table.

Kylo pushes his fifty in, and Rey does, too. Herm rounds out the first set of bets, and they move to the cards.

Alainia takes two. That puts her up to two sixes and two queens. Not bad, but not great. Kylo takes two, and gets a pair of tens. Rey takes three and goes from a nothing hand to a nothing hand. Herm takes one, and ends up with a busted straight.

Alainia starts off by upping the bid to two hundred, with a smile. Kylo sees her and ups it another hundred. I'm supposed to win this one. Make us want to keep playing.

Then by all means, win it. Rey sees his three hundred and takes it to five.

"Competitive little thing, aren't you?" Herm says.

She smiles. "With him, I am."

"I've got card salad," Herm says, dropping out of the game.

Lammath stares at them, and then pushes four hundred credits into the center. Lainia smirks, and tosses in another hundred. Kylo follows, and ups it another hundred. Rey's realizing that if she keeps this up, she's going to have to show off she's got a hand of nothing, and folds.

Kylo eyes Lammath, who appears to be thinking, and then folds.

Kylo raises an eyebrow to Lainia, and adds in her hundred before knocking on the table, and flipping over her cards, with a smile. He smiles back, flipping over his.

Herm whistles. "Sweet hand, lad, sweet hand."

"Thank you." Kylo pulls the chips near, and hands them to Rey. He stands up, and Rey does her best to look a little startled.

"Love?"

"Dad always said, quit while you're ahead. This has been fun." He nods to the rest of the table, as Rey stands up.

"You sure you don't want to stay?" Herm adds.

"So many games to play. Try a few more and maybe we'll swing back again," Kylo says.

"Please do," Lammath replies.

Rey nods, smiling prettily at them.

We were going to get great cards the next hand, bet big, and then lose, right? she thinks to Kylo, feeling what the other players were planning.

That's what I was feeling. No matter what showed up in our hands, Lammath would have something better.

Rey keeps feeling it out. Lainia deals, we show our cards, and then he does. He changes his cards to whatever he needs.

Cards didn't feel electronic, but I'm sure they were. That last hand was too perfect if they weren't. Did your pilot mention anything about that?

No. I don't remember anything about how to cheat at poker. I mean, other than how we do it.

"Dice?" Kylo asks, out loud, offering Rey his arm.

"Sure." She wraps her arm around his. "Let's see if you've got any natural talent for it."

The answer to that would be no. At least, not any natural talent beyond the same 'natural talent' that let him be good at a lot of other games involving small metal bits moving about.

He wins one for Rey, and she wins one for the guy two spaces down from them, both of them finding it easier to control the dice if they aren't the one rolling. But even with that, nudging the die just enough to get it to flip to the right shape is tricky. They bounce when they hit, and making it look natural when they land is tricky.

Doable, but tricky. If they're going to stick with this… or something like it… Might as well play for bigger stakes.

They're ahead for the night, not massively, but better than average. Their outfits and the rest of the vacation is paid for by this point.

Crossing by the card tables again, Herm waves at them, and Rey waves back, heading for a different side of the casino.

Kylo's still watching the table, watching them play.

I know you can fix things more or less just by thinking about it. How about breaking them?

I don't know. I've never tried. Why?

Want to take another swing at poker? She can feel his mental smirk.

What are you thinking of doing?

I know I can cause an electrical disruption. Anything from shut the whole place down to make the lights flicker. How about you put some attention to those cards, see if you can figure how Lammath controls them, and then I'll muck with the lights and you kill the cards.

Rey doesn't let the grin show on her face. Out some cheaters?

Something like that. Unfortunate power surge kills their deck or something.

What'll that do to Lammath?

I don't intend to use that much power. He should be fine. Other than whatever it is they do to cheaters here.

Sounds good. Let's get some drinks of our own, and snacks. Settle in for a few hands, win some, make sure we're not dealing, and then do it.

Kylo likes that idea just fine.

The signature drink of this place is a mix of rum, coconut milk, lime juice, and cane sugar juice. They get one, without rum, watching the bartender, and both of them take very tentative sips of it, letting their Force both get a sense for what's in there (coconut milk, lime, and cane sugar juice, it's yummy) and the motives of the bartender. (Good tip. Rey gives him a hundred chip; he seems pleased.)

The snacks are a little basket of assorted berries, and small, spherical pastries covered in powdered sugar, filled with custard or jam. Again, getting it directly from the bar that offers snacks seems to have made sure they got clean food.

The scam is probably just that one waitress working with that one table. But on the off chance it's not, they're being wary.

Fortified with a drink and snacks, they wander back to the poker table.

Herm compliments their drink and snack choice, suggest they try the pickle mix next, and tells some amusing stories while they play four hands of poker. It's fun. They're winning… between the two of them… enough.

They're up by five hundred credits when the 'big hand' comes through. Kylo's sitting on a nine high straight, Rey's got three queens, they're betting against each other, pushing the money up, and catching Herm and Lammath into their web.

The bets are called, Alainia dealt, so the first one to show is Kylo. He's staring at his cards, grinning at them, starting to say something like "And this is how the game is played," when the lights in the casino, the electronic machines, and the music all die.

It's not long enough for anyone to panic. Maybe three seconds, and it's all back on again. But once they're on again, Rey says, "My cards are blank!"

She yells it, loud, and in the quiet of the casino just going dead, her voice carries. Security is over to them in a moment, and a moment after that Herm, Lammath, and Alainia are being 'escorted' out of the casino.

And Kylo and Rey have been comped their room, meals, and given two ten thousand credit chips, by an extremely 'apologetic' general manager who looks just about ready to disembowel himself over the shame of this. (Apparently, the game is run by whomever sits at the table, but the cards are 'guaranteed clean' by the casino.)

Rey takes one of the two chips, presses it to her lips, smiles at the manager, and says, "I can feel it. This is our luck turning around."

Herm was right about one thing. Those little baskets of pickles are addictive. Bright fruits and veggies all crisp and cool. Some are sweet, some salty, some sour, some a combination of the three, and they've been through three baskets of them, and two more poker games, when they decide to head to the roulette table.

This is what Poe considers our best bet for a big run. At least, until we're willing to buy into a high stakes table.

Kylo nods, eyeing it.

For a moment they just watch. It's simple enough. Little ball, spinning wheel. Ball goes one direction, wheel goes the other, eventually the ball stops in one of the little slots, and whoever has money on that slot wins.

You can bet odds, evens, black, white, or a combination thereof, (black odd), you can bet number ranges (13-15), or you can go for one specific number. With the payout getting higher and higher the lower the chance of the ball landing on your bet.

Get the right number, and the pay out is sixty-four to one.

And they've got twenty-thousand credits just sitting in Rey's hand.

Practice. Kylo thinks. When they worked with the dice, they both found that making something come up with a specific number is not easy, and this… Two sets of near frictionless surfaces moving against each other in opposite directions. It's not that they can't jigger it. It's mechanical, so it can be jiggered, but it's going to take some time to figure out how to make it work and look right. Just like with the die, if the ball suddenly leaps out of the cup it lands in and hops into another one, that's not going to work.

Rey wishes she could close her eyes to do this. There's so much stuff in here. Noise and lights and people and shutting that out to just the ball and the wheel is difficult.

Kylo gently strokes her back, having similar issues. This is no different that stopping a bolt mid-flight. Easier probably. Except, of course, generally, if he's stopping bolts, he's in a whirl of the kind of emotions he's good at swimming through, anger, rage, fear, pain. But, most of the people around him are in a pretty good mood, or drunk, or both, and that's not exactly helping his focus.

So, they practice. And some of the people around them have a really good day. And some of them don't. They bet each time, and usually, lose.

Rey's been putting chips on white eighteen, yesterday's date, supposedly their wedding, the whole time. She's been talking about how this is their lucky day, and it's going to pay out. They just have to have patience.

Kylo's been playing the table. He's been up and down, mostly down.

Between the two of them, they've got the twenty thousand in the two chips, and a hundred and fifty left of their seed money.

Kylo bets his ten thousand chip, on black odd, and on that one, Rey makes sure it lands on a white. Can't afford to win two in a row, and 4 to 1 is lower than she wants for their big hit.

"Last chip," Rey says, smiling at Kylo, putting her ten thousand chip on their 'wedding' date.

"You sure?"

"It's our lucky day, and this is my lucky chip." She's smiling big. The roulette croupier doesn't actually roll her eyes but they can both feel it behind her 'encouraging' words. After all, getting people to do things like this is why the casino was willing to comp them the chips.

The croupier spins the wheel, and drops the ball, and both of them spend the next minute gently, easily, just nudging it along until it drops right into that cup with a sweet little click.

When it lands, Rey jumps up, shrieking with joy. Part of that's so it looks right, part of it's just feeling really, really pleased at the two of them having pulled it off perfectly.

"You weren't kidding about lucky," the manager says when he returns to the roulette table.

Rey's grinning all over the place, looking like everything in the galaxy is sunshine and roses.

"Can we get a picture of you two for our winner's board?"

They both feel Kylo's alarm spike at that. The do-not-recognize spell works on people, because he's near them, using his Force. They've got no reason to think it would work on a photograph. Let alone a photograph viewed months after they've left.

But the manager is already pushing them together, moving them around for better light, and has his camera out. "Here, let's just… This one is going to be great! Both of you are so striking together… Uh… just a few steps over… Don't want you in a shadow…"

Kylo ducks his head against Rey's a millisecond before the camera clicks. He's in half profile, left to the camera, and a good amount of his hair has fallen over his face. With the exception of Jon, he's certain no one has spent enough time studying his face to identify him from that photo.

"Oh… your face isn't in the shot," the manager says.

"I know," Kylo responds, and that's the end of that.

As the manager is setting them up with their winnings (he alone has the keys to the 100,000 and higher chips), he says, "Want to try double or nothing?"

Rey raises an eyebrow at Kylo. Both of them feel a bit of temptation at that.

"You mean put all 640,000 on the roulette table?" Kylo asks.

"It's your lucky day, right?" the manager says with a huge grin. "It'll make headlines if you win twice."

Rey stares at him. "Can you cover us if we win?" Off the top of her head she doesn't know what sixty-four times six hundred and forty thousand is, but she knows it's over thirty-five million credits.

The manager smirks. "Of course. A casino this size, we're required to keep half a billion credits in our accounts at all times."

They can both feel that he knows he's had the table checked from top to bottom, making sure they won legitimately, while he was getting the photo, and if he can get them to put that money down, it's not going to walk out of the casino with them.

"How about this," Rey says, taking the ten thousand credit chip again, and giving it another little kiss. "This is the good luck one." She puts it back on their 'wedding day' and looks to the croupier.

She spins the wheel, and rolls the ball, and the manager doesn't actually wet his pants when their day comes up again, but he does look like he wants to.

They can feel him thinking that that was a brand new ball, and that machine is working perfectly, and no one is that lucky, but the game is clean so…

"Congratulations," goes limping out from between his teeth.

In the cosmic scale of things, not quite 1.4 million credits in five hours isn't that big of a deal. Even at that casino, they aren't the 'big winner' of the night. Upstairs, on a floor they never visit, there's a jinny game going where the buy in alone is ten million credits.

So, it's not like they're breaking any records in terms of credits won. And they're in no danger of breaking the bank here.

They are, however, the only people in the 78 year history of that casino to hit on the same number, two tosses in a row, on roulette.

And they are two of the only people to go in there, win, and then stop while they still have their winnings.

Exactly six weeks later, Almer Hymm, the manager of the Excelsior who was on duty the night the Amidalas played, will come across a bit of news on his usual holo feed. Since the Order placed half a dozen recruiting stations in the Gidi system, there's been a lot more news about it. Some good, some angry (Wage rates aren't going up, yet, but the talking heads think they will be, especially since the Order pays in standard credits). This one's fluff. It's about three minutes long, and gives a brief piece on the first year celebrations the Order held earlier in the month.

He won't really be paying attention. It's not exactly important to him, but… There's a woman standing next to the Master. He catches the view of her out of the corner of his eye.

Then he backs the video up and really watches.

A moment later, he's tingling all over, burning with electricity, biting his lip. He knows he has a picture, so he goes to his winners' wall to check.

It's hard to tell if it's the same woman. It's absolutely a very similar woman. But there's no possible way it's not the same man. The only reason a man wouldn't allow his face to be photographed is because he knows anyone seeing the picture will identify him.

Looking at the picture, he doesn't know if he should sag with relief, because when someone in his casino cheated the Master of the Order, he took it in stride. Or if he should burn with anger, because the Master of the Order, a fucking Jedi or whatever he is, the rumor mill isn't sure, other than it's abundantly clear he uses the Force, walked into his casino and played roulette, and won.

Then another wash of hot tingly emotion flows through him. He all but dared them to go lay all their winnings down and try their luck again.

He looks at the woman in the picture. She could have cost him 40.9 million credits. A loss like that, especially on his recommendation, would have cost him his job.

But she chose not to.

He doesn't know what to think about that. Did they, honestly, genuinely win twice in a row? Jedi control the Force, it doesn't just smile on them, right? But… why only the 1.4 million they took? Why would the Master be gambling anyway? The man runs the largest space navy in the galaxy. He has money if he needs or wants it, let alone in such small quantities.

He rubs his hand through his hair, utterly puzzled by this, and unsure what, if anything, he should do about it. Other than, of course, set a little note in their system. If the Amidalas come back, they're to be immediately treated to the highest of high rollers standards.