Chapter Eleven Kasu
Despite Kasu’s best efforts to remain attentive to the patrons that came to her exchange desk, she found her mind wandering to Arun time and time again.
She worried that he was getting himself into trouble, that someone would see through his disguise despite the aura mask, or that he would do something reckless and take off into the city by himself.
She wondered if he had learned anything about his mother.
Surely if there were a lady from the heavens running around the under-realm someone would have seen her.
Was the usual gossip mill that churned through the gambling halls of any use?
By the time the clocks in the foyer pointed their hands towards midday, Kasu could not stand still any longer.
Making sure all the items on the shelves were in order, she wiped down her counter one more time, then placed a sign on top of it that apologized for her absence.
There was a small dial in the middle to adjust the time she would be away.
She dithered over the hands, wondering if fifteen minutes would be too long.
Maybe she should reduce it to ten? No, five. Or perhaps seven?
She was not used to taking breaks. What if a patron came while she was away and had to wait?
She was allowed a breather, wasn’t she? Kasu was pretty sure Lady Camellia had told her she could step away from the exchange desk for lunch, though usually Kasu stayed where she was and drank a pitcher of spirit nectar to keep her going through the day.
How long was a lunch break supposed to be, anyway?
Maybe five minutes? If she was fast, could she find Arun in three?
After spending far too long deliberating, she set the dial at a diligent eight minutes. Leaving her counter before closing time felt frighteningly rebellious. Swallowing back her unease, she turned on her heel and marched towards the gambling halls as quickly as possible.
With each step, the urge to rush back to her post grew weaker.
She hurried through the golden hallways, barely paying any attention to the lavish arches and polished floors.
The gambling halls were swelteringly hot.
The smell of overripe flesh and sweat mixed with the sweet scents of spirit nectar and liqueur, making for a pungent cocktail.
Gamblers flocked to several long tables, upon each one of which a dice roller sat cross-legged in the middle, presiding over each round of bets like a fickle god.
Kasu scanned the hall in search of Arun, but he was nowhere to be found. She scurried past the crowds and made her way up the curling golden staircase to the higher, and hopefully calmer, floors.
Each hall in Camellia House was dedicated to a single type of game, with dog-headed demons standing watch at the edges of each room, their sharp eyes fixed upon the gamblers for any sign of trouble. Kasu searched the card tables and darts area before heading up again to the third floor.
The moment she reached the top, a chair sailed over her head and clattered down the steps.
“Damn you, brat! How are you doing this?” A ghost wearing a red ogre mask stood in front of a square table. Half-empty cups of spirit nectar lay strewn across the floor, the spilled contents pooling into sticky puddles.
“Sit down, sit down – you’re making a scene!” Two other ghosts at the table pleaded with him.
“Sit down? Look at his tiles – he’s clearly cheating!” The ghost pointed at a fourth gambler – a familiar young man in a blue tunic.
Arun sat at the table with an easy smile and a sharp gaze.
Panic and betrayal both hit Kasu at once.
She had explicitly told Arun not to gamble!
If she did not get those fifteen tiles back before closing, there would be a discrepancy in the end-of-day accounting.
Someone would figure out what she had done and then she would be tarred for the rest of her un-life.
Everyone would know her for the disgrace she was. Demon children would point and laugh.
This was punishment, wasn’t it? Kasu had thought that it was OK because she was helping a human, but the heavens had seen her dishonesty and cast their judgement.
“Look at him! He’s trying to swindle me, I can tell!
” The masked ghost gestured at Arun, who had not moved from his place at the square table.
A pile of gambling tiles lay neatly stacked at his right elbow – twice as many as Kasu had given him.
He tapped a finger against the pile in an insufferably smug manner.
Gamblers at other tables had paused their games to watch. The bouncers looked on with stony expressions. One dog-headed guard was making his way over, his hand already curled around the hilt of his sword.
“Come on, Hanyu. Let us fetch you a chair. Have a drink and calm down.” A ghost gestured to a servant to bring another cup of spirit nectar. Someone found a chair and slid it behind the masked ghost.
Hanyu begrudgingly sat down. His mask only covered the top half of his face, revealing a scowl that never left his lips even as he grabbed a cup of spirit nectar from the servant’s tray and downed its contents in one long gulp.
“If you get this angry over losing a mere fifteen tiles, perhaps you should just quit before I take everything from you,” Arun said as the rest of the ghosts sat down again and a new game began.
Coloured pieces were arranged on the board, the rhythmic clack of stone against wood calming Hanyu down to a resentful simmer.
“I’m not losing anything. I’ll win my fortune today and be reborn tomorrow,” Hanyu grumbled as he arranged his stones.
“Reborn?” Kasu spoke before she could stop herself.
The ghosts noticed her for the first time. Arun gave her a sly wink, and Kasu did not entertain the thought of violence.
“Haven’t you heard?” Hanyu growled. “If you’re rich enough, you can pay to walk through the reincarnation wheel. No waiting for your demon contract to expire, no need for the heavens’ judgement. Just pay enough and your next life will be a good one.”
Kasu wished she had her cleaning rag with her so that she had something to do with her hands. She pulled at the sleeves of her dress instead and fiddled with the hems.
She hated that the ridiculous rumour about the reincarnation wheel was still going strong.
In the under-realm, wild stories often circulated through the city quickly and fizzled out just as fast. It was strange that this one had lasted so long.
Perhaps it was testament to how badly most ghosts – and perhaps a few demons too – dreamed of returning to a mortal life.
Or perhaps there was something behind the rumour after all. Kasu didn’t want to contemplate the possibility, but there was no smoke without a fire. And this particular rumour had been burning through the city for a while.
“Where is the wheel? Who do you pay?”
Hanyu looked Kasu up and down, his gaze unimpressed. Kasu tried to remember what he had traded with her for his tiles. Gold, she thought. She never remembered the ones who bought their tiles with plain old money.
“In the theatre district. There’s a lady who will let you walk through the wheel for a price.”
“What? Where?” Kasu asked. The other gamblers had completely given up their own games now and were watching them with interest.
“I told ya! The theatre district.” Hanyu made a shooing motion at her, as if she was some annoying fly distracting him from his game.
“Where in the theatre district?” Arun moved his stones across the board. “You don’t really know, do you?”
The ghosts spectating the match sneered and shouted.
“Don’t tell me you actually believe that trash!”
“Old Hanyu’s just making stuff up! Or maybe he’s had so much spirit nectar he’s hallucinating!”
Their sniggers turned to ugly, cackling hoots that only made Hanyu even more furious. He gripped his cup so tight, Kasu feared it might crack.
“It’s true!” He slammed his fist against the table so hard the stones jumped. “A bunch of actors saw a woman from the heavens at the Grand Pavilion Theatre!”
“A woman from the heavens?” Arun jerked back as if struck.
There was a riot in Kasu’s heart. A woman from the heavens with a reincarnation wheel. Could it be…
When she glanced at Arun again, his shoulders were stiff. Perhaps he had come to the same conclusion.
Kasu felt something soft nudge her elbow.
The dog demon that had approached the table leaned against her shoulder, so close she could smell the stench of raw intestines on his breath as he whispered.
“I wouldn’t get your hopes up. Other ghosts have told me that Hanyu is …
well, he’s got hooked on Rem, recently.”
Hanyu’s expression tightened. No doubt he had overheard.
Rem was made from the same flower that produced spirit nectar, though instead of the flower’s pollen the petals were collected, dried and turned into a kind of tobacco.
Smoking it had the same refreshing qualities as drinking spirit nectar, and in large amounts it could make one hallucinate, remember long-buried memories of past lives, or speak with strange, unknown forces.
Kasu had also heard that it was highly addictive.
The bottom half of Hanyu’s face was as red as his mask. The table shook beneath his trembling hands.
“Come on, uncle, it’s your turn.” Arun’s expression was as untroubled as still water, but there were ripples in his gaze.
The sound of clacking stones was almost drowned out by the laughter from the peanut gallery.
“Shut up, shut up, shut up!” Hanyu snapped at them. “Can’t you see we’re in the middle of a game? Shut up and let me play! I’m going to win big, and pay my way into the next life!”