Chapter 289: Siren’s Roulette
"Siren’s Roulette." The man answered. "Originally there was a game called Russian Roulette but it was adapted and changed by the Sirens during the subjugation of their people. It was a game the humans would play with male Siren prisoners." He began explaining as he pulled out a stack of rectangular cards and set them on the center of the table.
"The purpose of executing male Siren’s was to cut down on the population so the females could be sold for profit." Salem was familiar with it and she could already hear a growl in her ear. "I am familiar with Vexical history."
The man smirked, "then you would know the game created during the time. Six Card Pull Blind." He picked up the revolver that was next to him. "First before we start we have to set up the revolvers. But before that..." He looked around the room, "let’s get two more to join us." He waved at two people while the two that were sitting at the sides stood up and moved away.
One of them was a beast person. Which was another human offshoot species. They were similar to the Woltar, Leonair, and Uris species. But they had much more animal pronounced features like snouts and antlers. While their hands were noticeably more animal-like with paw pads and claws. This first one was a deer beast person, he had a scar covering one of his eyes and one of his antlers was mangled and mostly missing.
The other was a pale looking human, his eyes were red and he was skinny. If she had to guess she would pick him out as a vampire. But she could not tell for sure.
They both took up the seats on either side of the table. She looked at the bar owner once they sat down. He was the one who was directing this whole thing. "Take your revolver and open the chamber. Remove any ammunition that is inside." Salem picked up the one that was by her and flicked it open. There were no bullets in the chamber. So she just flicked it closed again. "Oh yeah, someone get this lady a bullet!" He called out.
A moment later a child ran over and put a bullet on the table. It wobbled for a moment before falling over. She picked it up before it could roll off the table. Then she looked at the bar owner.
"Pass your revolver to your right but keep the bullet. The next person looks at the gun to make sure it is empty." Salem handed the revolver off to the vampire and accepted the one from the deer beast person. She flicked it open and saw the chamber was empty. "Then load the bullet into the gun and then hand it off to your right again." She put the bullet into a chamber and spun it closed before handing it to her right. Then once again accepting the new revolver from the deer beast person. "Then our guns are set up. Feel free to check it, just make sure you do not remove the bullet."
As Salem flicked open the revolver she felt a tug at her mind quickly realizing that some telepathic based ability was in effect. She looked around and figured out what it was. Across from her she was just supposed to see the bar owner checking his gun. But she could faintly see a silhouette of him pulling out the bullet before closing the revolver and matching his illusionary form.
"Oh?" She could hear a voice in her ear that was mechanical. "Salem-"
Salem flicked closed the revolver and used her telekinesis to spin the chamber until it was the furthest bullet from firing. If he was cheating she will as well. While mumbling under her breath so only the comm device could pick it up, "I know." She did not want them to repeat what she already knew.
She then put the gun down on the table and looked at the bar owner. Who went by the nickname, Mountain Man. He had apparently been using a trick to get what he wanted through a game of bets. Looking around the area behind him she could see a man who was holding his drink up a little too long as his brows furrowed in concentration. That must be the illusionist, that would be good to know for later.
"Now as for the game itself. Six Card Pull Blind. It is exactly how it sounds. We each get six cards. We do not look at the numbers. Then we put them in an order from one to six. Then we flip one each round. On odd turns the highest number wins, on even turns the lowest number wins. Ace is lowest and King is highest. Turns go from one to six from your left to your right." The Mountain Man explained as he signaled to a waiter who was replacing the food. "Just so you can trust the cards I will have this waiter deal them out."
Salem watched the illusionist out of the corner of her eye to see if he did anything else fishy. But she was glad she was more focused on the waiter at the moment because she spotted the waiter slip out a card to the next hand instead of dealing to her. But aside from the fast movement she could not tell how he was able to tell which card was which.
She then remembered Jace’s advice about pickpockets, ’pickpockets are just street magicians they are always trying to distract you with one thing.’ She stopped looking at his hands and looked him up and down but just had to stop at his eyes which were glowing slightly green. But they stopped when his eyes switched to her momentarily.
[Did she catch me?] Was the thought that popped up in his mind.
Salem reached out and grabbed the waiter’s wrist which caused the Mountain Man to stop mid sip. While the vampire and deer beast man both looked at her in surprise. "What the hell do you think you are trying to pull?"