Rosalynde hadn't expected the place to be this much crowded, the cries of winners and the laments of losers changing with every hand had already made her lose focus.
There was no reason to silence her footsteps here, the noise would have covered for her - but she still hesitated in accepting a chalice that'd been offered her from one of the many attendants tending to every small whim of the people filling these halls.
Mingling wasn't as easy as it seemed, especially when your mind wasn't intoxicated by the sweet scent that the glasses gave off.
The sound of dice rolling and that of cards shuffling were the only things she could hear as she started moving through the various stations. Dealers inviting the crowd in taking their chance at luck and betters betting all their chips on a call could sum up what went on in this place as nightfall came.
The place looked way better than Rosalynde had initially thought, if upstairs looked like a normal inn with a decent influx of customers, then the lower floors could have been compared to the rooms of the most influential nobles.
She seemed so out of place, and she was fully conscious of that. She didn't converse, didn't bet, didn't seduce someone to play for her - so why exactly had she ventured inside the Black Tide?
Taking a small sip from her glass, her pale eyes settled on a little door at the side of the last room, where two men had just come out.
Cigars in hand, tailcoats covering the horrendous amount of meat they could afford to eat - without a doubt a pair of nobles escaping from their monotonous lives made up of parties and dances.
She got closer to them, micking the walk of a drunk woman as she stumbled their way, knocking a waiter over to make it seem more believable.
Back against the wall, and a few steps away from the two conversing nobles, Rosalynde thought of the best plan to adapt.
Watching them closely, they seemed to know the place quite well, their masks the color of gold standing out from her silver one meant something - she was sure of that.
As the noise around started to subdue without her knowing why, she finally started hearing their voices.
"Lady Luck seems to have blessed someone tonight, I wonder when I'll be able to get out of here with a good swag," she heard someone say beside her, slightly tending her ear to the right to hear better.
"What did you tell Lucy this time when you went out?" The other man asked.
"What do you think I told her? I said I was going to take part in a debate in the House of Hastles, where no women can enter," Lucy's husband replied with a shrug.
"Again, you'll have to tell her one day - scratch that. She'll learn it by herself when the Bank of Lun sends its best agents to mortgage all of her assets," the other man replied.
"And this, my friend, is why I'm here tonight. If I hit the jackpot even once I can repay the loan I borrowed from the Gilded Phantom without Lucy finding out," but the other wasn't convinced by his words.
Rosalynde meanwhile had started pulling up glass after glass to try keeping a low profile, the chalice's contents quickly seeping down her throat as she kept on eavesdropping on the men's conversation.
"One day you'll completely fall from grace Gregor, you can't keep on fouling her forever," Gregor's friend admonished him.
"Oh would you keep your mouth shut for once old friend? Can't you see I'm trying here?" Gregor took a long time finishing his cigar, hitting its ends against the wall before throwing it in the chalice he'd finished.
"Lucy's gonna leave you, and if she takes Hans and Sylvia with her I wouldn't be judging her," but all that Gregor did once more was laugh at the mere thought of his wife leaving him.
"You don't understand Heliot, I found them, you heard me? I'm one of them"! He'd tried keeping his voice low, but the emotion in his voice failed him.
That was the perfect moment to step in.
Rosalynde pushed her back off the wall, stumbling towards the duo as her hands went to grab Heliot's sleeves, balancing herself as she prepared her best smile.
"Goodness Gentlemen, you seem to have saved me from falling to the ground in front of a judging crowd," Rosalynde smiled sweetly at the duo, trying to balance herself without apparently needing help.
"Don't even say that lady, the dignity of a noble to help the people in need, in every moment," Heliot said, helping her balance herself.
"A true gentleman to my ears," her eyes then shifted to Gregor's, who still had to start a conversation with her.
Rosalynde, however, didn't have time to lose.
"Now that we're past presentations, lend me your ears." She mentioned Heliot to come closer with her index finger, waiting till he's ear were two fingers away from her lips.
"Would you be so kind in telling me about the best place for an... outstanding investment?" Heliot looked at her up and down, getting a good look on what she'd decided to wear to go to meet Hector Grey.
A silvery gown, a corset thinning her figure and a thin veil of lace to cover her shoulders. An attire that only high society of that time could afford without subsequently having financial problems.
She had to thank Pharah for insisting on having this gown realized for her twenty-fourth birthday. Who would have thought that it would have proven itself so useful?
"That depends, my lady, how much did you bring today?" Heliot asked her as she took out two chips the young attendant on the higher floors had given her.
The man's eyes widened in surprise after seeing the chips in her possession, his stare from amused morphing into one tending more towards the words people would call interested, tilting his head to a side as a new smile graced his clean beardless face.
"Waiter, here," Heliot said as a waiter ran past them, spinning around with a plate full of chalices.
As Heliot offered her a new glass, he turned to his friend Gregor, who finally had conceded and had opened up a little, a charming smile fit for a young scalpel in search of a bride in high society.
"How much are you willing to bet?" This time it'd been Gregor that had spoken, making Rosalynde smile at his efforts in trying to keep a straight face on.
She had to distract them, and fast.
"All." She placed a chip in both men's palms, slowly folding their fingers around it, their fingertips hitting the cold layer of the chips.
"So, thought of a place already?" Rosalynde asked as she finished her new glass before asking for a second one. Heliot went to exchange gazes with Gregor, who nodded just once before turning around, entering the room they'd exit before Rosalynde had gotten to them.
"I believe we have just the place for someone as eager as you."
Extending his arm towards her, Rosalynde gladly went to circle her arms around it, her lace veil covering her shoulders doing its job as Heliot's other hand went around her shoulders, grazing the curves of her back with a blossoming intimacy they'd never had before now.
"Now then, lead the way," Rosalynde said with a tenderness that had never been present in her bones.
꧁꧂
The fancy air that The Black Tide seemed to possess were quick in being replaced with a newfound somber sensation of cold and smoke. Heliot and Gregor had taken Rosalynde to a place that wasn't present in the planimetry her informants had given her, a hidden corridor that surely led to a place even more secluded that most of the usual patrons of the Black Tide weren't aware of.
The extra trinkets filling the halls slowly began diminishing as the two men led her down the corridors, bare of both ornaments and light, which came from a couple of electric lamps positioned pretty far from each other.
A door stood at the end of the corridor, a single block of wood that looked like it'd been directly carved from the original tree itself.
Rosalynde tugged her gloves higher, making sure they wouldn't accidentally come off while gambling. The bag full of chips she had on her seemed to weigh more than all the guns she'd ever used in her life.
Turning up her nose, she remembered the exact height she's strapped her gun and dagger, one the left thing while the other on the right.
When they crossed the door, Rosalynde started applying more force around Heliot's arm, tugging its ends to make him turn around and look at her. She never liked smiling at people in general, but that was one the the few things she always been extremely good at. It'd taken years for her to master the art of smiling and subsequently seducing both men and women of different ages - and the same thing happened to Heliot, as he was quick in falling into her cobweb of falseness and lies.
The room they stepped into was bigger than all of the other rooms inside the underground casino, the ceiling made of crystals and golden ropes was enough to make Rosalynde realize that she'd chosen the right men to use.
Unlike the rest of the casino however, the people inside there could maybe not fill the spots in her fingers.
In the middle of the room was a single table filled with an uncountable number of chips and cards nearly falling from the table's edges. Even the dealer and the personal attendants there had a different color in their uniform, everyone inside the room wore a golden mask.
Rosalynde was in the right place, without a doubt.
"Hexford, Krinston, fancy having you back with us, who's the poor victim this time?" One of the women playing said without turning her gaze.
Heliot opened his mouth to speak, but Rosalynde was faster in cutting him off.
"That would be me, Madame...?" Rosalynde asked with a charming smile, dropping down in an effortless reverence.
"Hellenia, Madame Hellenia for you," the woman replied with a hint of distaste pending from her lips, all of this happening without her getting up from her seat.
"Pleased to meet you Madame Hellenia, I hope you don't mind having me joining you tonight for some rounds," Rosalynde looked around the room, hoping to spot the man she'd come to seek out.
But all the masks were identical, and the bodies of men the same, she still didn't know if he was even there in all honestly - with the clenching feeling inside her guts had been keeping the spark of hope burning in her mind.
Madame Hellenia snapped her fingers, a personal valet to her side as she instructed him to add a new chair.
"May I ask what we're going to play?" Rosalynde questioned Madame Hellenia, who simply smacked her lips in reply, not answering her question.
"Last time they were playing-" Heliot started, but once again promptly interrupted, this time by a thundering applause coming from the other side of the room.
A man wearing a golden mask had been the one starting the avalanche of applause, leisurely sitting in his seat without bothering at all with presentations. A set of cards in one hand, and a chalice filled till the brim with what looked like wine imported from the Atrean Kingdom in the other.
"You should go, Hexford, Krinston too. You know the game, no money, no seat," the man said to the men standing behind Rosalynde.
As Madame Hellenia gestured to Rosalynde to accommodate herself in the prepared seat beside her, the two men she'd left behind had started raising their voices at the man who in a voice that admitted no denial, had asked them to leave the room.
And when the two men had been forced to see themselves out, the man turned to look at Rosalynde, meeting her inquisitive eyes before bursting out laughing.
"I believe we've never met before, " the man said after clearing his voice.
When Rosalynde simply smiled at his words, the man stood up, leaving both cards and glass of wine on the table as he made his way towards her, hands crossed behind his broad back.
The composure she'd been able to keep as he advanced towards her was something she couldn't explain herself.
In reality she couldn't even call it composure, what she was feeling as the man took deliberate small steps was something she knew very well. For it was the same tactic she used when stalking a prey to bring down.
It was only when he stopped right beside her that he spoke again, two small dimples appearing on the sides of his lips.
"What's your name Silver?" He asked in a playful tone.
It was then that Rosalynde noticed the color of his eyes.
Maybe it was thanks to the suggestive lighting of the room, or maybe thanks to the proximity of the two. A set of gray marbles looking at her with a newfound curiosity was what she saw behind that golden mask.
The photo she'd looked at with Lord Regulus flashed inside her mind, the striking handsome appearance of Hector Grey was impossible to not take into account, and she too in some way has already fallen prey to his ways.
This was Hector Grey.
"Lillian," Rosalynde lied.
Grey smiled at the name given, mumbling it a few times before turning around, instructing the dealer to start dealing the first round of cards.
"A pleasure," Grey told her, bowing his head as he raised his gaze to meet her eyes, palm of the hand raised, waiting for her to reciprocate the greeting.
She made her gloved hand slip between his fingers, a gentle touch divided by a thin layer of white lace.
His lips then went to graze her laced hand, a feeling of mistrusted hatred feeling Rosalynde's chest as she abruptly pulled her hand back, making Grey purse his lips in plain sight of entertainment before straightening his back, dropping his hand while doing so.
"You don't strike me as Lillian thought, is there perhaps another name you could give?" He asked politely after sitting down, taking a sip from his chalice of wine.
He wasn't easy to fool, and thankfully she'd realised that in due time.
"Lily, but that name is only for close friends, a title you don't have sir," she went on, smiling through her lies.
"Yet, title I don't have yet," she narrowed her eyes infinitesimally, not bothering correcting his words.
The game of poker started after that exchange of presentations. The bets in stake had been higher than Rosalynde had expected, none of the men and women playing had come there to spend a night with friends.
The bets were too high for regular nobles to gamble with that fortune throughout the night, and seldom someone decided to not take a chance in winning against the cards.
Rosalynde had realized that after the third call she'd been forced to make the others not judge her ways. Forced because to the eyes of the other player she was the newest piece of meat the other players had just bought at the market to gut in the middle of the room - the perfect chest piece to break in two, a sacrificial pawn to throw away after the first use.
After three rounds of poker, each round lasting the unholy beauty of an hour, and all throwing in an innumerable amount of wine bottles drained till the last drop, Rosalynde had already lost half of the fortune.
All of that half had gone into the hands of Hector Grey.
He seemed to know, he seemed to know it all.
If she'd been able to fool all others, especially Hellenia, then all those efforts seemed to nullify themselves as soon as Grey involved himself.
Biting her tongue, Rosalynde asked for a new glass - thanking her lucky star that the others unanimously asked for a break from the game.
Some didn't move from their seat, counting the remaining chips in their hand as they calculated the remaining fortune in their hands, while their private attendants with them to catch a breath of fresh air - Madame Hellenia being one of them.
Something then flashed inside Rosalynde's mind, something wasn't adding up, another thing was starting to not add up.
Rosalynde was the last one that remained seated after waiting five minutes, looking straight at the clock hanging on as she let the seconds pass slowly, eyes hard and unwavering.
When Madame Hellenia came back with her attendant, nine whole turns of the small hand had passed.
Nine minutes, that's how much it'd taken them to get out, take a breath of air and then come back.
Taking into account the fact that the tunnel where she'd come from didn't have any secondary doors except the two main one of entry and that the rooms they were in now did not appear on the planimetry, could only mean that there was a secondary exit that only the exclusive members in this room could use to their leisure.
If Madame Hellenia had taken nine minutes, then hypothetically speaking Rosalynde would have at least cut the time in half if running as soon as things would have started turning for the worst, but the problem still was that even if she now knew about the exit, she didn't know the path she should have used to get out of there.
"Enjoying yourself Lily?" Clutching the glass close to her chest, she dragged her gaze away from the hanged clock, her eyes cutting into those the very soul of the man she'd been sent to find.
Or had it been him that had started drawing lines in her mind before she'd even realized?
"Oh, absolutely, was I showing it too much?" She lied, asking for the waiter to refill her glass.
"Just a little, I on the other hand will start enjoying this game more when you'll finally give me your real name," He gave her a small, contained smile. A smile that was hiding something Rosalynde had no idea of.
"Are you doubting my name?" She then asked him.
"I believe we both know what I'm trying to hint here, but alas, it's a game of cards. And because I'm in a good mood tonight, how about gambling something that I consider more valuable than money?" He stepped closer, taking the newly refilled glass in her hand before placing it back on the waiter's plate.
"Does something like that even exist in the first place?" She inquired with amusement.
How ironic for a banker to say that money isn't what really counts in this word, she should have let Katherine hear that before throwing him in the darkest of cells the Imperial Citadel had, feeding him to the rats.
"Of course, money is a very powerful weapon, but frankly speaking," he extended his hand, fingertips gently tapping her mask before reassuming whatever he'd started saying.
"I believe our names are something that not even money usually can buy," he didn't see her narrowing her eyes, but he could have guessed without difficulties her expression after telling her those words.
"A name for a game, that's all I want. If you win I'll answer all your questions, but if you don't, you'll take your mask off and let me see your face," a name for a game, a way to put an end to this facade she'd so accurately built in less than a night.
A golden opportunity for both of them, too sweet to pass on. And that's why Rosalynde didn't think twice before accepting with a small curtsey, a growing smile pending on her lips.