Binh waved his hand dismissively, “Nah, probably not. The rumor is that it’s one of the eight grand rituals of the old ones, but that would be ridiculous. Shimmer mountain would have to be hollowed out and replaced with enormous machinery. It’s just ridiculous.”

“Well then, what is the heartbeat all about?” one of the other players said, “A mysterious force that sucks up all the mana in the area can’t be natural.”

“Sure it is. It's some sort of magic beast. It has shimmer flowing through veins, not metal conduits, that proves that it is natural. Besides all Acomarian rituals are have straight lines, not squiggly veins,” Binh said.

Hugo interrupted, “What are the eight grand rituals supposed to do anyway?”

All of them shrugged. Binh said, “We only know of six of them for sure. The writings on them talk about enacting phase two of the Acomarian plan. No one knows what that means. All I know is that the government doesn’t want it to happen.”

“Why... Why do you say that?” Hugo said. His drunk mind tried to focus on the game again. He forgot what tiles he had and just grabbed a random tile from the center. The betting had gotten high before this round and it would probably be his last round. There was fifty gold in the pot right now, and only one gold left by his side.

“All three governments have blocked the pistons on all of the six great works we know about. They have to know something we don’t. Plus, they have discouraged Acomarian ritualists. They can’t ban the practice altogether, but no one pacted to the Acomarians is allowed to serve in the government,” Binh said.

“Is that why books on Acomarian rituals are hard to find?” Hugo said. He tried to straighten up. He had slurred his words at the end there.

“I take it you are pacted to them? That must be rough. Schools don’t even teach their rituals anymore. You can only find rituals like that in collector libraries,” Binh said and discarded a tile.

Hugo idly rearranged his tiles as he thought about it. He would have to try and pact with a different god next go around. Acomarians were real gods, but he wanted to be able to do more than two rituals.

Then he sat up suddenly and said, “Mahjong!” he tipped his hand over to show everyone his fourteen tiles.

There was a lot of good natured cursing. Hugo assured them that he would give them a chance to earn their money back. The next round he pushed his full winnings into the pot. The other four players had to match it, but they were all excited to see who would win the two hundred and fifty gold pot.

Hugo didn’t really care who was going to win this hand, he was just having fun. To everyone’s shock and dismay, he won again.

The table erupted in angry swears. One of the food buyers left the table, muttering about cheaters.

“I’m not cheating!” Hugo yelled. Then with a calmer voice he said, “Anyone that wants to win their money back, just stay in.” He pushed another fifty gold into the pot.

He lost that round and happily pushed the remaining two hundred gold into the pot. It was late, and he was tired. A little voice was telling him to just cash out instead of losing it all, but he wanted someone else to win big. He wasn’t in the mood to worry about what to do if everyone saw him leaving the casino with platinums. He would make his fun money tomorrow by selling his crossbow design.

The deputy mayor matched him, using house credit. As the number two in town, he didn’t need to bring his money with him. The other two players hesitated though.

“Come on. You guys know I am new to this game. Just play, come on. We can’t play without at least three people.

“Sorry, I’m not going to lose any more to your freakish luck,” the remaining buyer said and stepped back from the table. He stayed to watch the game though.

Hugo looked over to Binh with pleading eyes. Binh took out a piece of paper and slapped it onto the table saying, “That’s one month of grain deliveries right there, worth more than three platinum. You two fine with that?”

The deputy mayor nodded. The contract was with him so he knew it was worth it. Hugo quickly agreed.

That round took much longer than normal, the other two agonizing about each choice. The dealer had to prompt them to keep playing. Hugo didn’t care. He was happily sipping his third gargleblaster and randomly picking tiles.

...

Hugo woke up to the sound of someone knocking on his door. He jolted awake and garbled out an answer. His head hurt enough that he couldn’t speak clearly yet. He looked down. He was still wearing the fancy dress from last night. He must have passed out after he lost last night. Whoever won last night probably bought him enough drinks to pass out. He didn’t actually remember who won.

There was knocking at the door again. Hugo walked to the door and unlocked it. Apparently he was feeling extra paranoid last night, he had to move a chair out of the way as well.

“Lina, thank the gods you are finally up,” Binh said. He was looking disheveled and kept glancing around. “Can I come in?”

“What’s this about?” Hugo said and blocked the doorway with his body. Binh was asking to go into a young woman’s hotel room. Hugo didn’t feel like rebuffing his advances this early in the morning. Or afternoon. He had no idea what time it was.

“It’s about the grain purchase contract. Can I come in and talk?” Bihn said.

His earnestness convinced Hugo to open up the door the rest of the way, “Yeah, alright. What do you want to say about the contract?” A buried memory prompted Hugo to look at the bed. The wrinkled contract was right there. He had slept on it. Next to it were a pile of poker chips. He must have won last night. Even with the realization, he still didn’t remember it though.

“I need that contract. It isn’t just about the money. I can’t let my supervisors know I gambled it away. I might not survive them finding out. I will pay you back in my trip next month. Please, please, please can I have it back?” Binh pleaded with a mix of earnestness and desperation.

“You want me to give you the three platinum contract back with only your word that you will pay me back?”

“I give you my word as an officer in the Durban army. May the Acomarians seal my soul if I am lying,” Binh said with his hand just above his stomach.

“Yeah, sure, whatever,” Hugo said and handed over the contract, “I don’t want a lot of grain anyway.”

“Thanks, thank you so much,” Binh said as he carefully smoothed out the contract, “I will pay you back as soon as I can. I might not have everything when I visit next month, but I will keep paying you back until you have your full two platinum back. Are you going to be here next month?”

Hugo looked down at the pile of poker chips. “Probably. If I leave, I’ll have them give you a message where I am staying. But I don’t actually want money. Bring me something harder to find. Bring me some Acomarian rituals. A man like you has got to have enough connections to make that happen, right?”

“Maybe? I have a few people I can ask,” Binh said hesitantly.

Hugo shrugged, “It will probably cost you less than three platinum. Just get me a bunch of good rituals and I will consider the debt fulfilled.”

“I will repay my debt to you, on my soul,” Binh bowed and left.

Hugo walked over to the wall near his bed and fed a bit of mana into the construct there. He knew that would light up a special panel in the receptionist office. A few minutes later, Aria showed up at the door.

“I have a few things I need you to do,” Hugo said and pointed to his pile of casino chips and said, “First off, please exchange those chips into coin. Go ahead and give yourself a gold tip. Then book me an appointment at that spa you told me about. Finally, find me someone who can help me with some research into rituals.” He realized that he needed information about Acomarian rituals, and he might as well use his money to get it. Hopefully Binh would return with different rituals than the ones he bought from the researcher.

“Yes, my lady,” Aria bowed and walked over to the bed. Aria’s eyes got wider and wider as she counted the dragonbone chips she was picking up. Hugo guessed that he had about four platinum worth of chips on the bed. Aria ended up having to use her shirt to gather everything.

“One more thing. I also want a bandolier of potions, health and mana potions. Something comfortable I can wear under my clothes or on top of armor,” Hugo said. He honestly didn’t know why he hadn’t bought one before.

Aria bowed again and said, “Yes my lady.” Hugo knew that the list of requests wasn’t quite within her job description, but he figured the gold tip was more than enough to cover it.

A few hours later, he was relaxing after a fantastic massage and facial treatment. It was nice, but he didn’t plan on staying at the spa for the rest of the week. He was looking forward to the hunting trip with the sentinels. He just had to figure out what he wanted to do in the meantime.

With the winnings from last night, he didn’t have to spend any time selling things. He could do whatever he wanted. He just didn’t know what he wanted to do. He had fallen into his money making mindset. He had been focused on how to make more money, not what he would do.

He remembered something from when he was a kid. Tembesa had a zoo. It was a place where they kept all kinds of mundane animals. He had always wanted to go. A few hours later, he happily paid the exorbitant entry fee and walked inside. There were some cages and some open fields. Hugo took his time to explore them all. The fractal deer were interesting, but their horns looked a little scary. The hexapod cats were adorable, a docent told him they were part of a new litter. The German shepherd was interesting, but he thought the worgs looked like a better pet. He had always heard that arthropod elk were big, but these ones were only a little taller than he was.

Later in the day he went window shopping. He intended on buying trinkets and magical dodads, but he got distracted by a bookstore. It was slightly different than the bookstores he had gone to before. This one was cozy and high end. As he wandered the stacks, he realized the books were all fiction. Thousands of stories, all under one roof. He immediately commandeered the young shopkeep as his packmule. Hugo made sure to give the boy a gold ahead of time so he knew he wasn’t wasting his time.

An hour later, he headed back to the hotel with more than a hundred pounds of books. He had the shopkeep close up and carry most of them back to the hotel with him. Hugo was glad for his suggestion of carrying everything in bags. He was slightly embarrassed that more than half of the books were racy romances.

Once back at the hotel, he ordered the most expensive things on their menu as he started into the books. Some of them were fantastic, others got tossed into the garbage after a few pages. Hugo lost himself in the pages. It was twenty four hours later that he realized he couldn't spend all of his time reading. It was a bit tempting, but a little variety would be good.

In an effort to be productive he drew up plans for the armor he would wear while he was out hunting with the sentinels. Munching on truffle potato pie, Hugo started making the best suit of armor he could conceive of. In addition to the natural strength of the titanium/mithril alloy, he added durability runes to every piece. He added a few more runes to the gauntlets and chestplate. It took him two days to fabricate and inscribe everything. Mana potions were totally wasted so he could get everything done quickly. More than one full mana pool was used to make a variety of crossbow bolts. He had retrieved his special crossbow and fitted the telescope on top with crystal lenses. Of course, he also gave himself one of the reflecting shields. It still wasn’t half as good as the one at the store, but it was better than any other shield he had ever owned.

While he was working, Aria came by with some deliveries. A potion belt with mana and health potions. A backpack of the nicest supplies money can buy. And finally, an Acomarian ritual. He eagerly read the instructions for the ritual.

He stopped his work on his armor and immediately started fabricating the rectangle for the ritual. As he was inscribing the runes around the edge, he wondered how many days of work it would take if he didn’t have these handy skills. Maybe a full week to get everything perfectly carved.

He was done with the base plate and Aria was out getting him mana stones when he realized he hadn’t chosen a target for the ritual yet. He thought about it for a second.