Chapter 1 - Card Game Interrupted

The Otherworldly Spymaster Just Wants to Go Home

By Gyges359d

Temporary cover art courtesy of perchance.org AI image generation tool

Synopsis:

For centuries the forces of the great Demon King fought time and again to bring chaos to the world of Ailurus. And time and again a hero would be summoned to hold him back.

Two years ago the Demon King again attacked…and no hero came.

Human, elven, and dwarven kingdoms alike fell against the unstoppable forces.

The Demon King now rules all.

But for those left behind life is eerily…normal. The nobility was decimated and replaced by the demons but every day life continues. Only those who stand against their new lords seem to be treated harshly and the peoples of Ailurus are left to wonder why.

Amidst this confusion three different stories converge:

The local master of an adventuring guild with an easy smile, Witt, who seems all too happy to collaborate with his new demon overlords as long as he has something to gain.

The mysterious yet charismatic leader of an insurgent group willing to do anything to end the Demon King’s reign known only as Warlock.

And the man who now goes by Orpheus. Along with his daughter he was summoned to this world but seemingly without the expected power of the so called mythical “hero”. The two of them hide in plain sight, spying to learn everything they can in their quest to find a way back home to Earth.

Each group is now finally ready to make the moves needed to realize their goals. But how will each of their moves affect one another? And do each of them have far more in common than anyone realizes?

Chapter 1

“I believe this hand is mine.”

With an overly dramatic flourish the smirking man laid his cards on the round table in front of him and paused to see if anyone would correct his assumption.

“Bah!” The tall, muscular man sitting across from him slammed his cards on the table face down signalling his defeat. His hair already the colour of flames seemed to move like a burning fire around his head as he glared at the winner.

“Oh, do behave Xorn. Witt didn’t even win that much of our money this time.”

The beautiful woman with pale amethyst skin raked her slender fingers through her long white hair as she spoke. Curling a portion behind her extended, pointed ears she gave the man on her right she called Witt a quick, seductive wink as she threw her own cards face down on the table too.  She then scrunched up her face in an overly dramatic pout to protest her loss.

Ignoring the seething man with ash coloured skin on her left, she looked across the table at the final participant.

“And you Euryale? Can you beat those queens?”

Slow to answer, the woman stared at her cards clearly trying to figure out if there was any point in continuing. She eventually laid her cards face down on the table and placed her almost peridot coloured hands over them.

“N…no…I…I don’t have anything better either.”

It wasn’t clear if she was embarrassed or just put off by Xorn’s excessive reaction to the loss.

Spreading his hands wide Witt leaned in to take the pot. “Well then. Xorn, Euryale, Taia. A pleasure as always.” He looked at each player as he said their name and gave Taia a quick wink of his own as he addressed her. “Though I do wish the hands I won had bigger pots today.” He brought the modest winnings to the pile of coins in front of him.

Taia glanced at the table.

As usual Xorn’s remaining holdings were paltry at best. The combination of being terribly easy to read and equally terrible at calculating probabilities meant he was almost always the weakest player on these afternoons.

After this latest hand Witt’s coin pile was back to being about what he had when they started the game. She wasn’t sure if it was bad luck but Witt never seemed to be able to turn winning hands into anything significant.

Euryale’s coin pile on the other hand was obviously where some of Xorn’s money had ended up. She always seemed incapable of reading others but her own expressionlessness at times made it just as difficult to read hers. And she was a wizard with numbers so any game of probability naturally favoured her.

Stretching her arms behind her head in a way she knew would draw Witt’s eyes to her chest Taia looked down at her own coin pile. As usual, she was the clear winner so far. She may not be able to read Euryale very easily, but the men? Men were easy for Taia.  Always were.  All she had to do was make sure her shirt was just a little bit too low cut for her ample chest. That the slit on her skirt just a little too high so that her garters were peeking through.

Her body had always been something easy for her to weaponize.

Xorn never claimed to be interested, but his eyes told a different story. And Witt? Well he never hid how he felt looking at her in the slightest.

“Shall we play one more hand before I have to get started overseeing dinner service?”

Witt glanced around the tavern like hall. More people were pouring in as it approached the dinner hour. Quite a few stopped by the quest board next to the bar to ponder the job they might try tomorrow.

Xorn began to pick up the cards being tossed his way. “Why did you turn your guild hall into a tavern anyway?”

“Why, money my dear demon friend.” He continued to deal out the cards. “Have you not noticed that in the two years your lot have been in charge there haven’t exactly been that many opportunities for adventuring work? Most of my adventurers have to make do with gathering ingredients or monster materials. If they’re lucky they may get a quest to cull monsters along a trade route if an important caravan is coming.”

Witt picked up his own cards after finishing dealing and pointed a finger across the table.

“The fact that you demons can’t die easily makes protection work pretty much useless. And with the Demon King in charge everywhere there aren’t even any wars needing mercenaries. So you’ll have to forgive me for making do by selling a few stews and beers to make up the difference.” He gave an easy smile as he spoke.

“Besides,” he turned to Taia who was finishing off her snack as they played. “Taia here seems to really like my pickles.”

She giggled at his thinly veiled double entendre and made a show of crunching down harshly on her last bite of the dill in her mouth. Witt made a show of closing his legs protectively and feigned a fearful expression.

“Honestly, I like the place now. So lively.” Taia threw some coins into the centre of table as she spoke, raising the stakes.

“Not to mention it’s the only place that doesn’t grumble and stare at us Xorn. I mean, we are the baddies who killed all their leaders and have been ruling over them for the last two years. Finding a welcoming place is nice, if not easy.” She spoke of killing people as easily as she might describe crossing the street but she gave Xorn a wry grin as she highlighted their limited options for entertainment and he called her bet.

“I…I did always want to ask why you welcome us Mr. Witt.”

Euryale added her own coins to the pile as she asked her question. Her wavy, chin length tangle of purple hair obscured her left eye as she spoke.

Witt looked at her unobscured right eye and was once again reminded that it looked just like a purple stone called Tanzanite he had once seen.

“I think the real question is why not? The people of this city may grumble about what happened a couple years ago but I defy you to find anyone who thought fondly of their former lords. Heck, you demons charge even less in taxes because you don’t need standing armies. So why shouldn’t I make the best of the situation? And if that means making myself useful to some of you…and making myself a tidy profit along the way…can you really blame me?”

Xorn grunted and shook his head, clearly disgusted as always by Witt’s unscrupulous attitude.

Euryale nodded slightly. “Yes. That does seem like the right calculation given your circumstances. Thank you for explaining Mr. Witt.”

Witt finally looked at the cards in his hand. Three aces. Grimacing like he didn’t enjoy what he saw he tosses the cards onto the table face down. “I fold.”

Taia raised an eyebrow, surprised. She had initially suspected from Witt’s face that he had drawn a good hand so his behaviour wasn’t what she expected. Shrugging as she realized she shouldn’t fret over something that worked in her favour she prepared to continue with her hand. She felt confident in her three kings.

As she aimed to make her next play a cry echoed from the street outside.

“FIRE! FIRE!”

All four at the table snapped their heads towards the window. A bright orange glow assailed their eyes in a flash of light as more screams could be heard.

Witt narrowed his eyes and pointed at a man near the front door, nodding his head in the door’s direction as he silently and efficiently ordered the man to go check on things.

Just as the man’s hand gripped the door’s handle an explosion rang out blowing the door off its hinges and sending the man, and the door, into the middle of the tavern.

Fire instantly spread across the doorway and nearby walls trapping them all inside.

In that moment Witt quickly had a realization that his guild hall was almost entirely made of wood.