A/N: Mage poker is something I threw together. It uses all the normal rules of poker, so if you are familiar with it there are no surprises. For those who don't know the strength of the hands, just follow Aventus' definition. Enjoy!
Middas 30 Morning Star 203 4E 3:00 PM
"Listener?" I could hear Cicero moving around in my room looking for me.
"I'm in here," I replied. I knew my voice would be muffled to Cicero, but I didn't feel like moving yet.
The doors to the wardrobe opened up and the resulting light blinded me. I shaded my eyes as I stared at the silhouette of the Keeper. "Why is the Listener sitting in a closet?" Cicero's tone was genuinely confused which made me laugh. It was hard to get one over the Fool of Hearts.
"I'm thinking," I said.
"In a closet?" Cicero repeated. He raised an eyebrow showing his skepticism.
"In or out," I said scooting forward enough for Cicero to sit behind me if he chose. "The light is bothering me." The Keeper shrugged and climbed in behind me. He had to push some of my dresses out of the way. After Cicero sat down, he had to wrap his legs around my waist since there was no space for them otherwise. I reached out and closed the doors to the wardrobe. The dresses and shirts closed around the two of us like a curtain.
I leaned back against Cicero who was twitching uncomfortably. "It's dark," he stated.
"Yes."
"Like the Void."
"I suppose so," I said. The wardrobe was good quality; with the doors closed all light was shut out. In the past, some closets would allow small lines of light in where the doors joined.
"It's quiet too," Cicero had an edge to his voice.
"Usually," I sighed. "That's why I like to think here. It's dark and quiet. It lets me shut out the rest of the world and just my thoughts. They usually run around so much I can't catch them, but here they have nowhere to go."
"Cicero doesn't care for the dark and quiet," the Keeper muttered. "Too much darkness, too much quiet back in Cheydinhal."
"You don't have to stay, you know," I answered. My serenity was quickly melting away with Cicero here.
"Cicero apologizes," the jester said not sounding apologetic at all. "Hecate may wish to quiet her thoughts, but Cicero hates the silence. Cicero would give anything for words to tumble in his head, especially sweet Mother's. Silence, silence, always the silence. No laughter since Cicero became the laughter." Cicero was becoming agitated; his speech faster and faster. His gloved hands tightened around my chest. It felt like a drowning man's grip on a piece of floating wood.
"Shush," I said as I placed my hand over his. "Maybe if you're quiet, I'll think out loud and we'll trade. My loudness for your silence. Okay?"
Cicero was shaking all over, but I could feel him nod from behind. It was odd to see him this way. I was used to Cicero always laughing and smiling that the few times I would notice him with a serious expression when he thought no one was looking felt like for a moment someone else had replaced my jester.
"Was Hecate thinking about the false Dragonborn again?" Cicero asked. His voice was a bit calmer, but worried still. I had been preoccupied for the rumors of a fake Dragonborn all month. The confirmation that someone had found my old dragon scale armor and was using it to support Ulfric Stormcloak's rebellion in my name infuriated me.
Part of me wanted to ride out of Dawnstar Sanctuary on Shadowmere and down to Whiterun to confront the imposter. I had imagined screaming at her. I had imagined stabbing her. Maybe smashing her lying face in with a mace. I had played out at least a dozen scenarios in my head. That didn't include my fantasies of what I would do to Ulfric if I caught him.
I couldn't risk it though. Ulfric's entire army was stationed at Whiterun waiting out the last little bit of winter. In two months' time, they would be on the march again to take Falkreath near our old Sanctuary.
There was no way I could possibly sneak past all of Ulfric's warriors, guards, and personal court to get to either Ulfric or the fake Dragonborn. I didn't have the patience for it. Meena or Cicero could, but I wanted to do this personally which was also why I couldn't just stake myself outside of Dragonsreach and just shoot those lying bastards down.
I wanted to be up close and personal for this. Normally I disdained the so called intimacy of the dagger. I'm an archer and killing someone at five hundred feet is more efficient than five feet. The target is just as dead and there's not three feet of steel cutting my tender flesh. For Ulfric and his whore, I wanted to see their faces when they died. I wanted to hear their screams.
It scared me a little.
I've always had a bad temper and have several methods to help me calm down. Like sitting in a dark closet. But no matter what I did, I found myself thinking about revenge. It distracted me all the time.
I had an epiphany recently. The fake Dragonborn would not be able to produce a Shout. Without the thu'um, surely people would notice that there was something wrong with Ulfric's champion. Especially when spoken with the right whispers in the right ears. I think General Tullius would be a good listener for such rumors.
"Strangely enough, no, not this time," I said. "I've been thinking about my birthday. It's coming up soon."
"Ooooh! How old will the Listener be?" Cicero asked excitedly. I winced at the Keeper's bluntness. As far as I could tell, Cicero was always truthful and by extent very blunt with his siblings. Sometimes I worried if he was just really good at lying and I couldn't tell the difference.
"Thirty-three," I admitted.
"That's not so bad," Cicero said. What did he even mean by that? "When is it?"
"The thirteenth of Sun's Dawn."
"Oh! That's the same date Cicero and Mother came to Sanctuary," Cicero giggled. "Sweet Diana was trying to hide her face, but Cicero knew her all the same."
I hadn't even realized it, but Cicero was right. I had been so wrapped up in adjusting to my new home that I had lost track of the days. It had been my birthday when I walked into the inner sanctum of the Night Mother and saw my jester and his mother as their true selves for the first time.
"Hm, that's three days before Heart's Day," Cicero nuzzled my neck as his hold around me became an embrace. "We could make use of a free room in an inn."
Heart's Day was a holiday for lovers. The Legend of the Lovers was sung and inns throughout Tamriel offered free rooms in honor of the Lovers, Polydor and Eloisa. I could easily imagine what Cicero had in mind for such a trip.
"Okay," I whispered. I couldn't believe the word came out of my mouth. My chest tightened and I could barely breathe. I wrapped my arms around my knees and drew myself into a small ball. Maybe Cicero hadn't heard me.
"Just let Cicero know when," Cicero said gently as he rubbed my shoulders. Sometimes I think he knew me better than I knew myself. "It would be best to leave on Morndas." Cicero oiled the Night Mother on Sundas nights. Leaving on Morndas would give us more time to be alone.
"Why were you looking for me?" I asked changing the subject. Even if we did go somewhere, I hadn't exactly promised anything intimate. I wouldn't be obligated to anything.
"Oh! Foolish Cicero!" the jester laughed with an edge I hadn't heard before. "Nazir wished to speak with you. He didn't want to tell Cicero what it was about."
"I better go see what he wants," I said opening the closet and sliding out. I turned and saw Cicero sitting with his legs dangling over the side. Clothes draped about him unceremoniously. For a moment his face was worried, but then it flickered into his usual carefree smile.
I waved goodbye and left to find Nazir. I thought about Cicero as I looked for the Redguard. It felt like he had been more insistent about a physical relationship than he used to be. When I thought about it, I realized it started about the same time we came to Dawnstar Sanctuary. About the same time he stopped sharing my bed as a brother. It was about the same time when he stopped kissing me lightly and all the little touches that felt like he was confirming my existence. I had thought Cicero had tired of me, but what if it was something else?
I wanted to wish for simpler times, but there had never been simple times with the jester.
I found Nazir in the main room working on something for dinner. As usual he had piles of parchment that details possible contracts, rumors, and other points of business.
"Ah, Listener, there you are. I was wondering if Cicero had managed to find you or not," Nazir said. Then with his usual wicked humor, "And then I had to wonder if I should have sent someone else to find you."
"Cicero delivered your message fairly promptly," I said dryly. "I was just a little hard to find. What's up?"
"I'd like to discuss Aventus' training with you."
"Is the boy ready for his first field contract?" I asked. Astrid had sent me out little more than two days after my arrival to Sanctuary. Maybe I was being too cautious with Aventus compared to other initiates, but the boy had no previous combat training while I had been an adventurer. The boy was probably the Brotherhood's first actual child member since Babette didn't count. He deserved some additional adjustment period.
"Almost," Nazir hedged. "I think it would be very beneficial to refurbish the torture room."
"No," I said simply. I didn't like the thought of that place. Strapping up people for the sole purpose of hurting them for information made me feel sick in my stomach. It's not like you can let someone go once you were done, even if we wore our cowls; they would know where Sanctuary was. If someone was promised they could go once they told what we needed to know, then that person had just been lied to.
"Let me explain why before you completely refuse," Nazir said. "Aventus is doing very well on training, but a practice dummy can only go so far. The boy needs a live target so he can get used to his foe screaming in pain or yelling curses at him. If you wait until he's on assignment, he could flinch at the wrong moment and die. I've seen that happen to initiates."
"The boy did fine with Rolff," I said with my hands on my hips.
"The boy also cried uncontrollably afterwards," Nazir responded. "It's no different than the other training we've given him. It gives him endurance and experience in a controlled environment. We spar so he can get used to taking punches and not reel from the pain. Learning how to torture a victim will do the same thing for him emotionally."
"I'm not sure I find that a good quality," I said.
"Listener, we're assassins," Nazir said simply.
Sometimes I wondered why the Night Mother had chosen me as the leader of her children. Where the others were satisfied with just knowing who their target was and what bonus was available, I needed to know who they were and why they needed to die. Contracts were identifiers like "a reckless mage" or "a visiting noble." My siblings always spoke fondly of their jobs, but none of them ever used their kills' names.
Maybe it was because I had been a bounty hunter before joining the Brotherhood. I liked knowing that I was killing a specific bandit chief and what he and his band's crimes had been. If I was to be the final chapter of someone's story, I wanted to know what it had been before closing the book.
Maybe I'm too much of a damn romantic.
"Let me think on it, Nazir," I said. The Redguard nodded his thanks and I took my leave. I went to the torture room to think.
The room had been sealed off since I had refused to refit it. I opened the wooden door and walked in to the cold, dirty room. Four wall manacles, two on each side of the room, hung empty. On the far end next to the fire pit was a stretching machine. Small work tables with ancient, rusty torture tools littered the room. I stood in the middle of the room with my arms crossed and shivered. I could too easily imagine screams of pain and cries for mercy.
Suddenly I felt Cicero's presence behind me. "Nazir wishes to refit this room? Cicero approves," the jester laughed madly. Gloved hands rested on my shoulders and traveled down my sides. "There is nothing quite like getting to know your victim before they die. The hours I spent with the jester are forever imprinted in my mind. How he laughed and cried and begged! Mostly he laughed… until he didn't. I was honored to know him."
"What was his name?" I asked.
Cicero paused then laughed. "What does it matter?"
I turned to face the jester. "You took his identity. That was the true trophy of your last contract, not the clothes."
Cicero's laughing face fell into a half-lidded glare. His expression was dark, dangerous. Then the laughter was back and he danced about me, twirling and spinning. "Cicero is Cicero. Mother gave him the laughter, a friend from the Void, when she would not speak with him. Someone to take away the loneliness of the years for poor, loyal Cicero." He tumbled and rolled about the room trying to make me laugh.
"Years?" I asked. Cicero had mentioned being alone with the Night Mother in Cheydinhal Sanctuary before but I had assumed it had been only for a few months.
"Oh, yes! Garnag went to get food and didn't come back. Left Cicero and Mother all alone. Alone with the silence. But there was the laughter and Cicero became the Laughter. Only it left Cicero with the silence again." The resulting laughter had only madness. "Cicero waited for the Listener because Cicero wasn't the Listener no matter how hard he tried."
"Shush, shush, it's okay!" I knelt by the jester and held him in my arms. No wonder he hated the dark and quiet. Cicero pressed his face against me like a child to his mother. I couldn't tell if he was still laughing or sobbing. "I'm here now. You're not alone any more."
Middas 13 Sun's Dawn 203 4E 9:00 PM
"Thirty-three? By Sithis, you're old," Aventus said with wide eyes.
"Kid, I'll respect your opinion once you've gone through puberty," I retorted as the others laughed.
All the family members were in Sanctuary to help celebrate my birthday. Aventus had napped during the day so he could stay up late. We were going to play mage poker tonight. Bonuses that had been stashed away were pulled out and everyone had large piles of septims before them. Aventus had the smallest pile, but the money was his since I had given him the pay for Rolff's death.
"How does this work exactly?" Aventus asked quickly changing subjects.
"Do you know the basics of poker?" Nazir asked as he shuffled the deck.
"Match colors, shapes, and numbers?" Aventus replied.
"It doesn't get any more basic than that," Meena said. Her green eyes were a bit brighter than usual; she had been using her catnip again. "Mage poker is that plus some environmental changes."
All of us were wearing shrouded robes, the Brotherhood version of mage robes. The large hoods would help conceal our features to make it harder to make accurate reads and long sleeves to make changing cards easier. Cicero had drawn the short straw labeling him as the mark, so he would be wearing his normal jester's clothes giving him a disadvantage. Technically everyone wearing robes was supposed to work together to push the mark out of the game. We had a set of gestures to help determine hand strengths to let teammates know when to hold or fold.
However, in practice, we usually broke up into smaller teams since pushing the mark out ended the game for the night. The more we could earn before then was the real goal. Aventus was my ace in the hole. We had practiced our own set of sign language. No one would think it strange if the boy lost early and would have to spectate. Aventus would check hands and let me know exactly what my opponent was holding. In exchange, he was going to get a generous portion of my winnings.
Of course, there was always the chance he had made a fake alliance with me and was going to feed information to one of the others. Babette would be my guess. Figuring out if your partner was honest or not was part of the fun too. Mage poker added several layers of complexity to a game already largely about bluffing and reading your opponent. It was a lot of fun and I enjoyed it whenever we had a chance to sit down and play.
Cicero came strolling in with his own large bag of septims. The Fool was whistling casually as he eyed each of us. I wondered if he had tried to set up an alliance with one of the others because he had not talked to me regarding one. Cicero smirked as he sat down and deftly stacked his coins into towering piles. I raised an eyebrow at the number of coins; it easily doubled those of Meena's pile who had brought the most of the rest of us.
"Okay, folks, you all know the rules," Nazir declared as he dealt a hand out as we all anted up. Dealer would rotate between hands to give everyone a chance with the cards. It was not uncommon for the dealer to either sleight of hand favorable cards or switch out the deck to a marked one.
Chatter was allowed and encouraged so we all quickly lapsed into talking about nothing. We talked about how our kills were going; bonuses achieved and botched what we wanted to eat for dinner the next couple of days and so forth. The only thing we didn't talk about was the Civil War. The others knew I had reached some sort of epiphany, but it was a still tender subject.
As I had expected Aventus quickly lost his coins. I had encouraged him to play as long as possible to learn as much of the game as possible. Learning how to read others was invaluable for an assassin and the game was going to last long into the night so there was no point in not at least trying to win even if we planned on him losing.
"Cicero, do you mind if I sit here and watch?" Aventus asked politely. He gestured to his chair that he had pulled up next to the Keeper. It was positioned so he could easily see Cicero's hand and gesture without being seen.
"Of course not, brother," Cicero waved casually. "In fact, if you wish, Cicero will show his hand to you so you can learn the game better for next time." The Fool smiled happily. As Cicero turned away, Aventus looked guilt stricken, but I nodded encouragement to him.
Play progressed and Meena was the next to fall. The Khajiit had been enjoying her catnip a bit too much and went from relaxed to zonked. Her unfocused state made it impossible for her to keep track of signals and too easy a mark to pass up. Nazir and I rooked her ruthlessly.
"Meena wants to sit in Cicero's lap and learn the game better too," she slurred suggestively. Her tabby-patterned tail wrapped around Cicero's neck and the tip tickled his face.
"You're thinking of a different game, cat," I said trying to not grind my teeth. Even since Cicero had been sick and Meena had helped keep him warm, the Khajiit had been making subtle and less than subtle suggestions to the Keeper. Cicero might not encourage them, but he didn't dissuade her either. I think he liked the attention.
Meena flipped a rude gesture and stuck her tongue out at me to show that she meant no offense. As the Khajiit stumbled off to her room, I could hear her mumble, "The music has the taste of the color blue upon my tongue." Gods, she was strange on that herb.
Two down, three more to go. Babette was my biggest concern. I could barely see the girl at all under her huge robes. In the past, she liked to flash her fangs to her opponents, but tonight they were sheathed. Babette still had not revealed her vampire nature to Aventus and was being discreet. Regardless, she had the most experience at the game, was very patient, and was well rested from sleeping all day. Playing all night would not be a tax on her endurance at all.
The smart thing to do would be to focus on pushing Cicero out. Once he was gone, we would call the game for the night. It was already midnight and I usually retired about this time of night. But I love a challenge and the thought of being the last person standing was too tempting.
Babette was to my left, Nazir to my right, and Cicero directly across the round wooden table from me. I flicked my eyes for Aventus to shift closer to Babette and feed me her hands. The boy caught my gesture and stood up from his seat. "Does anyone want anything to eat or drink while I'm up?" he offered. He was refused, but it didn't matter. The only thing that mattered was when Aventus returned, it wasn't strange that he had to adjust his chair for his snacks.
Cicero still intentionally showed Aventus his cards, usually with a smile and wink, while Aventus stole peeks at Babette's hands. I was getting reads on two hands so I could focus on watching Nazir for tells. Just because I wanted to push Babette out didn't mean I could ignore the Redguard.
After another hour, Babette was out. "Augh, I don't understand," she grumbled as she slapped her cards onto the table. Babette pulled her seat back away from the playing table until she was sitting next to Aventus. "I loooost," she whined and buried her face in Aventus' shoulder. The boy patted her head sympathetically.
I smiled with amusement. Didn't look like Babette was losing from where I was sitting.
By now my pile was pretty large, Cicero's was still close to where he started, and Nazir was short stack. Minimum bids had increased hourly and soon Nazir wouldn't be able to cover the ante. The Redguard had to win a big hand soon or bow out.
I had a junk hand so I bowed out leaving a show down between Nazir and Cicero. Nazir was trying to out talk Cicero to get some advantage over the Keeper. "I don't think you're playing with a full deck," he taunted as he pushed in a large raise.
"How can poor Cicero be playing with a full deck?" Cicero replied with apparent unconcern. The jester flipped over a card that had been set aside to reveal a red joker. "There is only one Cicero and everyone knows a proper deck comes with two jokers." He flipped over the other card, the black joker, so it crisscrossed the red joker. Amber irises pointedly looked at me. "Maybe someday Cicero will find his match."
I pulled my hood forward to hide my blush. I was very glad I was not in this round.
Cicero hesitated on responding to Nazir's raise. One gloved hand spun a coin as the other tapped the table in thought. "Raise," he said finally pushing in enough coins to put Nazir all in.
Nazir looked at Aventus. I resisted a chuckle. The Redguard knew Aventus could see Cicero's hand; the Keeper had made it very clear all night long. The boy could let him know to call or fold. However, to Nazir's surprise Aventus gave no help at all. Nazir glanced at me and frowned. He must have figured out that the deck was also stacked against him.
"Call," he sighed. I've heard players say that you're never pot committed; that you should always fold if your instincts say to regardless how much of your coins you've already bid. Clearly, Nazir felt he had to win this pot or he was out regardless.
Hands were shown and Cicero's three of a kind beat Nazir's two pair.
It was down to me and the Keeper. I felt like cheering. With Aventus clearly backing me, there was no way I could lose. I glanced at our piles and saw we were pretty close in coin count. One good hand was all I needed and I would win.
"Listener and Keeper on the hunt," Cicero said sarcastically as he dealt. "Maybe the Listener would like to leave with her winnings now?"
"I think I'll test my skills a little longer, Keeper," I grinned. I checked my hand and saw two pair, kings and queens. "Besides, the game doesn't end until the mark is out."
"Don't say I didn't offer," Cicero shrugged.
Cicero had to be feeling confident by now. By all accounts we were on even ground now instead of the ridiculously stacked deck he had been given at the beginning of the night. The Keeper was used to longer hours than I and it was almost three in the morning now.
I glanced at Aventus and he signaled two low pair. That was good. Technically two pair isn't a great hand, but it's strong enough to play with especially on heads up. I began bidding and Cicero raised back. I hesitated and raised again. I couldn't afford to look too eager or Cicero would back out regardless of how good his hand may be.
Eventually I called so I could discard and see what my final hand would be. On the off chance Cicero pulled a full house, I didn't want to be too much in the hole. I almost screamed with joy when I got a third king putting me at a full house. I had the superior hand regardless so I could bid with abandon.
Cicero laughed loudly and showed his hand to Aventus. The boy's eyes widened and he signaled that Cicero had also hit the full house. Oh ho! The Keeper was going to go down.
Cicero put his hand on the table so he could push in his entire pile of coins for his bid. Before committing them to the pot, Cicero stalled. "Coins seem so pointless. What if we added a side bet to this, Listener?" His laughing eyes challenged me.
"What kind of bet, Keeper?" I challenged back trying to not sound too eager.
"Let's say an undefined favor," Cicero said as he placed his gloved finger against his lips.
"That's a very dangerous wager for anyone much less an assassin," I responded. It was basically agreeing to the free reign and good will of the other person. I could ask Cicero about his past and expect a straight answer for probably the only time ever.
Cicero leaned forward with his arms folded on the table. His cards were hidden as he challenged me. "Are you afraid? You should be."
"Make your bet and see if I call," I said.
"So you're accepting?"
"Try it and see," I grinned a predator's smile.
"All in plus an undefined favor," Cicero said pushing his coins forward. The bet was official, he couldn't back out now.
"Call!" I said immediately. I pushed my own coins in to make it absolutely clear. I flipped my hand over to reveal my cards. "Kings over queens, my dear Fool."
I started to reach for my winnings, but Cicero stopped me. "Not so fast, my sweet Listener," he laughed. The Fool of Hearts picked up his hand and showed a royal straight flush. The ace through ten of hearts grinned up at me. "Behold the final trick of the Fool of Hearts!"
"What?" I gasped. I looked at Aventus and saw he was just as surprised. I doubted the boy would fake astonishment at this point. If he had sided with Cicero and they had won, then now would be the time to brag. "You cheated!"
"No, Cicero won," the jester winked. Deft hands quickly swept close to twenty thousand septims into his pouch. "Cicero cheated no more than the Listener with her assistant." Gods, he knew Aventus was helping me and had encouraged the boy's trust.
Cicero left with his winnings and singing merrily, I slumped to the ground. The money meant nothing to me. There was always more coin out there to be collected one way or another. It wasn't anywhere close to my total savings. Even not losing the prestige of being the last player standing didn't mean anything compared to the real bet that the Fool of Hearts won.
Cicero had a favor of his choice from me and I had promised to spend Heart's Day with him.
Oh, gods.