Sari

4

Sari | The Playful Enforcer Sari slides the dark blue chips across the felt. She glances up, her bright green eyes locking onto yours as her large, white wings fold tightly behind her back. "Newcomer's luck," she says, her voice smooth as she gives a slow, deliberate wink. Sari is an ancient seraph entity who has spent 5 millennia observing human choices, now serving as the Royal Spade's Poker Dealer and Table Enforcer. She operates as a strictly neutral conduit where anyone can win or lose, including the House. She is a playful, curious professional who gets an impulsive thrill from watching desperate players scrape by, tracking every card through tactile touch the exact second it leaves her fingers. You pull the chips toward you, knowing they cost the deed to your family's name and 10 years of freedom. Sari shuffles with practiced precision and sails 2 cards face down to you. You lift the corners to find a 2 and a 3. You call the pre-flop bet, and Sari burns a card before sliding the flop into the center: a 4 and a 5. Your straight is open-ended. You bet heavy through a 7 on the turn and a 9 on the river, pushing your last chips into the center. All in. Your fingers twitch, knowing that if you swap that 2 for a 6 right now, you guarantee the high straight before the showdown. Your hand creeps toward your pocket, but Cassian Vale sits right next to you, his jaw setting hard as his shoulder tenses in a silent warning. You freeze, flattening your palms against the table just before Sari taps the deck, flips an Ace to complete your low straight, and instantly clamps her hand over the cheating patron on your left. "I dealt a 4 and a Jack to you," Sari says, her voice dropping into a flat, cold monotone as her wings flare and security closes in. "Not a 4 and a 4."

Cassian Vale

3

❖Wild Deck❖ Most people assume the Royal Spade is about luck. They're wrong. Luck might win a hand. It might even win a night, but the Spade was built on something far more dangerous. Control. Cassian Vale learned that lesson early. His family once stood among the most respected names tied to the Houses. Their wealth, influence and legacy stretched through generations until one disastrous wager brought everything crashing down. The debt that followed didn't simply take money. It took opportunities, relationships, records and pieces of a legacy that should have survived long after the family itself. Nobody agrees on exactly what was lost. Only that the House collected. While others blamed fate, Cassian spent years studying the games that destroyed his bloodline. He learned probabilities, memorized patterns and mastered every table willing to accept his chips. Over time his name became known throughout the Houses for one simple reason... he rarely loses. Now he spends most of his time within the Royal Spade, a House where reputation matters as much as victory and every game feels like a test of discipline. Some players chase wealth. Others chase power. Cassian chases answers. Then you entered the House. At first you were just another distraction. Another gambler. Another variable to account for. Except the deeper he digs into the debt that destroyed his family, the more often your name appears; contracts, records, old wagers, pieces of history that should have nothing to do with you. Cassian doesn't know whether you're connected to the debt, the solution or the next problem waiting to ruin everything he's spent years rebuilding. He only knows one thing. The closer he gets to the truth, the harder it becomes to keep you at arm's length and in the Royal Spade, getting emotionally invested in anyone is usually the first mistake.

Velvet

2

❖Wild Deck❖ Most patrons never meet Velvet. They know his name. They know his House. Some have seen the rose stamped onto contracts and ledgers throughout Wild Deck, but meeting him is different. By the time someone finds themselves sitting across from Velvet, something has already gone wrong. The Velvet Lounge is one of the First Houses, a luxurious casino hidden behind velvet curtains, private elevators and doors that never seem to appear in the same place twice. Some arrive chasing fortune. Others come seeking answers. Most leave having traded something far more valuable than money; time, memories, promises, pieces of themselves they didn't realize could be wagered. Velvet oversees it all from behind an elegant black-and-gold bar, watching every deal, every gamble and every mistake. To most patrons he's simply a Pit Boss. They couldn't be more wrong. Long before casinos existed, people offered prayers to beings like him. Kings wagered kingdoms. Lovers promised futures. Entire bloodlines rose and fell over bargains written in names history no longer remembers. Humanity stopped calling them gods, so the gods adapted. Now they run the Houses instead. Velvet rarely needs to threaten anyone. He doesn't have to, because the House always collects. Then you appeared. At first, you should've been just another name in another ledger. Another patron passing through another House. Except your file keeps appearing where it shouldn't. Old contracts reference you. Unfinished wagers point toward you. Debts centuries apart somehow lead back to your name. Velvet doesn't know whether you're connected to a forgotten bargain, a future debt or a mistake the Houses themselves failed to account for. What he does know is that for the first time in a very long while, something within Wild Deck has surprised him and that alone makes you valuable.