Weather Control

Chapter 12

I woke to Sunshine shaking my shoulder. 

For a brief moment, all of my worries and fears were gone. Then they all came crashing back. i cursed.

"What happened?" I asked him. My own memories were clouded.

"Well, we were at that carpenter shop, and the owner wasn't very nice. After that, you ran away from the shop and you didn't even let me keep up. Then you were telling me something, but it wasn't really clear. Oh, and your eyes became multicolored: purple, green, red, and blue." 

Sunshine spoke his lat few sentences with such clarity that I winced. I had hoped he hadn't figured out so much. I guessed the color of my eyes were very hard hide from anybody, including an observant partner. But I had to know how much damage he could cause. Changing eye colors could be brushed off as a gift from a long since dead ancestor back when magic was alive and well. 

"What did my brothers tell you?" I asked.

He shrugged as if my question had no importance. "Andrew said when you get tired your emotions become muddled and you can't think right. Nobody else would tell me anything."

If only he knew anything important. He only knew the general idea of what had happen and I had to be glad that was all Drew told him.

When I got tired, as Spike and Drew theorized, the normal weight of emotions around me became too much and it caused My emotions to give into the other emotions around me. It was only made worse when the emotions are of fear and anger and sadness. Drew thinks that the tired emotion, or "green" as he calls it, is weak and lets other emotions are its place, but Spike disagreed. I had already forgotten what he thought on the matter.

What ever happened to be the truth, I was glad I was rested.

I stood up from the bed. "Shall we go eat?" I asked him.

He grinned. "I was hoping you would say that."

I gave him an answering scowl as he bounced down the stairs.

When we were at the table, Sunshine wanted to know what he should order.

"Soup," I suggested. "It tastes excellent." I wasn't really paying attention though. My eyes were drifting of to look at the steadily increasing crowd. Sizing them up.

"Do you know how to play tricks?" I asked Sunshine.

He glanced at me as if I had grown fangs.

I elaborated. "Cards. You know. A money-making game."

"Ah," he said as he realized what I was talking about. "No. I have no idea how to play." 

I sighed. "I'll have to teach you sometime. Order some soup for me, will you? Any kind is fine. I'll be back."

He watched curiously as I made my way to a table of card players. They were an different sort of bunch. Two of them had graying hair and the other one was a woman that looked like she was only 30. A fourth was sitting off to the side, but he clearly wasn't playing. He was just watching, maybe learning.

The oldest man looked up from the table to meet my interested gaze. 

"Care to join?" He asked innocently enough, but a game of cards was nowhere to start trusting people. So I smiled at him as I sat down across from him.

Money was placed on the table. I put down enough to play, but not enough to catch the attention of a pickpocket. For once, I was trying to be safe. 

Cards were flicked across the table. Rings were called. My face remained neutral. All the while, I felt Sunshine's eyes boring into my back. More cards were thrown, face up this time. I counted the cards carefully. The old man to my right was going to win. I wondered how many of them came here to cheat as a group. Jace and Kim pulled this tick constantly. With different people wining, it was hard to tell who the cheater, or even if there was a cheater at all. 

The man on the right won, and the money was distributed properly. The young woman dealt. More cards. Spades this time, which was good. I had no spades. That was the way to win the game. 

As I expected, I won. I gathered money. I dealt this time. I didn't bother to count up the cards and cheat. I didn't need to. When rings were called again, I organized accordingly. I had more than four rings, which was a horrible hand. Or at least, it would be. There were many ways to win a card game. 

The game continued and my bad luck wore on. They were definitely all cheating me at cards while I cheated them at something much more valuable. 

A loud bang on a table caused me to look up. My dinner had arrived.

"Ladies, Gentlemen," I said, "It appears my meal is ready and my luck isn't as good as I would have hoped tonight. It seems that I will have to be done."

The old man had the gall to look sad. At the moment, it would seem that I lost much money tonight, but I was smarter than that. 

Sunshine had the same assumption as the players. 

"How much money did you lose," he hissed at me when I sat down.

I shrugged off his question and started to dig into my soup.

"Throne." There was a dangerous tone to his voice. Not that I was afraid, but a small, horrible part of me wanted him to be my friend. 

"I didn't lose any money." I told him. At his skeptical expression, I explained a bit better. "I'm a pickpocket, Sunshine. Trust me, I made money." I kept my voice low. We were not that far away for the card game. Another person had already filled my spot. He was a much more extravagant cheater than his opponents and he reaped in cash. 

There was anger radiating out from the card table behind me. Lots of unhealthy anger. It made me grimace. 

When Sunshine was done eating, I was not. It didn't matter. This new cheater had won too many games. Suspicion was starting to rise. 

"Let's go," I told him. As polite as I was, I was still giving a command and Sunshine knew it.

On our way out, I stopped at the counter to pretend to pay. The gold coin paid enough for both meals. I had better means to go up to the counter. 

"Fourth card table is going to cause problems if the short your man stays for anytime longer," I said to Matt. 

"Any others?" he inquired. I shook my head. The other card games were among friends. Only joy was at their tables.

"What was the sudden leave about?" Sunshine asked once we were out. 

"A new cheater came to take my place."

"Was he that bad?"

I laughed. "You could say that. He was winning all of the games. He doesn't know how to avoid suspicion. I'm surprised a fight hadn't broken out by the time we left."

Sunshine grimaced. "Probably good we left then." He gave a short pause. "The commander is probably expecting us by now."

I nodded in agreement. 

Together we headed back to the horrible building where the commander surely waited.