Day 2

As they made their way Noah noticed that the place seemed much deader than when he had shown up just a few hours earlier.

"Does it feel like there's a significant lack of people to you right now?"

Julie took a second to look around her, seemingly unfocused on the world before her until now.

"I guess now that you point it out, yes, yes it does", the revelation caused her to perk up in attitude and made her energy levels go back to a similar point to how she had been in the room earlier.

`What a grade A introvert` he thought inwardly, although he had barely known her a day he was starting to get some grasp on how her brain works.

Despite the social flaws, she seemed to be a genuinely fun person to be around, someone that Noah had been lacking for a very long time.

"Hm hm hmhm hm hmhm" she started humming a cheery tune in time with her walking movements, yet for some reason the hum was triggering something in Noah's brain, but he had no idea what.

Even so, he wasn't going to voice his complaint, for there wasn't really one that he could voice to begin with, just a feeling that he was getting in the back of his head telling him to stop the music.

While he was fighting with his own head they walked out of the hallways of the hotel area and stepped foot in the noticeably cooler reception area.

Noah had never noticed it but the reception area was incredibly well regulated temperature wise, it felt neither too warm nor too cold, although it did lean on the colder side.

"Oh its you, you've yet to apologise for earlier" it was the receptionist whom he had stood up by asking for a map and then not paying.

"And I never will, you'll get no apology for me not doing anything wrong" he hurried a very confused Julie into the gambling hall, while not looking back.

`The receptionist is going to hate me soon`

"What did you do to make her that angry" Julie asked with an almost childish look of innocence on her face.

Noah had to shield his eyes from the rays that this gave out as he responded "I merely stood her up by not buying a map I asked her to get, nothing too big".

"Come on now, you should apologise to her, it was your fault that she got that map for nothing" the aura was getting bright enough that he was starting to lose sight in his eyes even when closing them.

"Fine, fine, I'll do it, so please stop it with the brightness" he was on the verge of begging on his knees, anything to save his eyes from the torture in front.

The light subsided as he made his way back into the reception area, the air feeling practically freezing compared to the gambling floor, which always felt quite warm due to the amount of people inside.

And for whatever reason the casino didn't have any form of temperature control in there either, no air conditioning or whatever else they could use.

"I'm being forced to apologise, so sorry about the map" he slightly lowered his head, he wasn't going to bow for something so trivial.

"If you were sorry, ya'd buy the map" she was in business mode, selling merchandise made up a bonus in her salary after all.

"Not happening, have a good day" Noah then sped out of the reception area towards where Julie was waiting for his return.

"Have you made up now?"

"Yep, all's good between us now" his finger started tapping, a tell of his about lying, it came about through his nervousness of getting caught, to be fair to him he had developed it as a kid where lying could mean not being able to walk for a day or two.

Judie seemed to catch onto his finger movements as soon as they started, watching his finger out of the corner of her eye to not seem like she was staring, the last thing she wanted was Noah getting angry again.

`Should I ask him about it?, but I don't want to see him angry again`

`Do it, you deserve to know since you're on a team with him`

`Don't, its most likely nothing and he may take offence to being asked`

Her internal debate continued as they made their way past the blackjack tables.

"Eh, why are you walking past-"

"Because I've thought of a way to make more money in a shorter amount of time"

"Yo-you have?"

`Not this again, her stuttering practically gives me motion sickness`

"Why are you stuttering this time?" his words were harsh in how they were stressed.

"I-I was just surprised is all"

"Alright, at least there's a reason for it" he didn't want to seem to be too harsh on her, but the stutter was one thing that he would have to try and slowly ease her out of.

"Anyway, where are we going?" she asked him after a minute of silent walking, her curiosity had increased every second that they hadn't stopped.

"It just so happens that I read a book earlier this morning that gave me an idea, it suggests that elves without their spirits are pushovers when it comes to gambling" his near shouting had attracted interest from all around the hall.

"Oh yeah, why don't you test it old guy, wait you're only human, sorry little child" what seemed to be a teen had stood up and shouted back at him, his pointed ears a dead giveaway as to what he was.

"Okay girly, you don't need to be mad at me, be mad at the book" he was deliberately riling the youth up, anger clouded an elves mind more than a humans after all.

"YOU TAKE THAT BACK"

"Sorry lass but what I've said, I've said, no taking it back now"

The elf was visibly twitching with anger, along with the other players that were with him, all of whom were elves themselves.

"You know what though" he walked over casually as if nothing had just been said "I think I'll take you up on the offer to play with you lot" he gave a smile as he sat down in the chair.

It was cushioned unlike many, the cushion was a bright and vibrant green which seemed to be the colour palette of the elves, Noah had yet to see one wear anything other than green unless it was barely visible below the oversized shirts and cardigans that they wore.

He also noticed the size difference that it gave him, he was sitting a good foot above the next tallest player, making the man visibly anxious.

He gave the man a small and polite wave to try and ease those nerves, didn't want him playing stupid, a golden rule Noah had made was that stupid always won.

This was rule he had made since he was young, betting against a stupid person could be extremely lucrative, but if a stupid person had money, they had luck.

When he sat down, he could feel the tension between the elves and himself.

"Sorry, but if you want to play you need 4 players with you" his cocky grin reminding Noah of Mengley which almost made him punch his lights out, almost.

"Well I have one player here", he gestured towards Julie, "and I'm willing to wait for more people to show up"

The elf shot him a dirty look of hostility but didn't do anything else, merely buried his head into his cards and continued playing, giving a look every once in a while to make sure Noah knew that he was disliked.

An hour or so of waiting later and the elf looked to be at the end of his fuse, his face was practically a tomato in its colouration and if you looked really close you could see steam leaving his ears and nose.

His foot kept tapping the floor, the tapping had only gotten louder and longer as time drew on, being another way that Noah was able to track the Elf's temper.

`Good, good get angry, the more angry you get, the stronger my hand` reflecting back on what he just said he realised just how much of a villain he had just sounded like.

Actually he had said that line in the voice of a famous sci fi lord who loved to throw lightning around.

`I can't be the villain though, for everyone is the hero of their own story` this logic lasted for a little bit in his head before he abandoned the thought process entirely, he had to do something he was getting bored.

Despite how he looked on the outside he was actually getting incredibly restless, he came here to gamble not sit on his arse, and yet here he was, doing the latter with too much free time and nothing to do.

He was waiting for someone to leave the table which seemed like it was the most plausible scenario to allow him to play, but there could always be 2 others who want to join as well.

This turned out to be what happened as 2 elves made their way towards the table where Noah was sat down.

Both were females in nigh-on see through green dresses which would give men in Noah's hometown the wrong idea, for you couldn't actually see through them, it just seemed like you could.

If you looked all you would see would be a black void that had been cast to protect the maidenhood of all the elves who wore them, he had learned that in the book he read.

"May we join in as well"

This was met with many a grumbling from the elves since it meant that Noah would also be able to play, but there was little that they could about it and so the elf that had berated Noah nodded his head and the 2 girls sat down.

They had to wait for the current game to end, but it didn't take long with one of the Elves being lucky and getting most of the cards he needed at the start.

Contrary to what you would believe though, having too many of your own cards at the start was generally a bad thing, as it would cause the entire deck to be reshuffled and redistributed until no one player had too large an advantage over the others.

How was this checked? Usually with honesty, but the more competitive games usually had a neutral party check all the decks to make sure.

This game was one of those competitive games that had an elf go around to check all the decks after they had been given out.

Another thing that Noah had to watch out for was the Elves elementals who would peek at his cards and relay them back allowing the others to win with a breeze.

There was no perfect way to check if there was an elemental around, you just had to go off of small little changes in the environment, meaning Noah couldn't focus 100% on the game, if he did he would get swiped and would lose all the time he had wasted plus however many chips he bet.

Betting was done after your deck was handed to you, but before you got the suit you were collecting, this allowed for some reactive bets that could make or break someone very quickly.

The elf held the cards in a mechanic's grip, this made Noah lean forward and pay extra close attention to the cards being dealt, putting the dealer off a bit in the process.

He didn't notice anything while the cards were being dealt, so he leant back to look at his cards in private.

Looking to his left beforehand he saw Julie clearly confused `oh that's right, I forgot to tell her how to play`.

"Julie, the game's really simple, just try to get the full suite of the card that you pull from that deck" he pointed towards the suit cards deck.

"Okay, I'll do my best" she beat her chest thinking that it would help clear her nerves, and it seemed to work surprisingly.

Noah decided to bet 500 chips as his warm up bet, others bet below it meaning that if he lost he would only lose 500 minus whatever they had bet, inefficient but it served its purposed.

Noah's hand turned out to be quite diverse with 3 spades, 4 clubs, 2 diamonds and a single heart, `please don't let it be a heart that shows up`.

One by one each player publicly pulled cards from the suit pile until it was Noah's turn to pull, `please not a heart, please not a heart`, as if his prayers were answered he pulled a spade and displayed it directly in front of him face up.

`Now then, lets bag us some easy money`