Celestial Poker

Gadriel sighed, looking at the cards in his hand. It was his bet: two to call. His hand was undoubtedly shit, yet he hated the thought of letting Yarochk win.

"Five," Gadriel stated, and pushed the chips into the center of the table.

Damien tossed his cards aside, refusing to join the hand.

"Melandre?" asked the silvery, seductive tongue of Yarochk. It was clear she wanted to play.

Gadriel found himself enamored by the starlight dress Melandre had worn to the game. The black fabric twinkled as the small points of light orbited clockwise. By the time Gadriel had composed himself, Melandre had also folded her cards.

Yarochk turned to Gadriel and offered a honeyed smile laced with poisonous intent. "Five it is."

As more cards were revealed, neither Gadriel nor Yarochk placed further bets. It had reached the last round of betting when Gadriel decided to muscle Yarochk out of the hand. "Three more," he said, and pushed the chips into the center of the table.

"Three?" Yarochk repeated, picking up her cards to survey them once more. She quickly focused her emerald eyes on Gadriel, studying his emotionless face. "I will raise you to ten." Yarochk simply separated out the ten chips into a smaller pile in front of her main stack of currency.

Gadriel pressed his fingers against his bearded chin to ponder the game state. He rarely saw Yarochk raise a bet the way she did this late in a hand; it was the kind of move that stumped him. After a few moments of agonizing over the decision, brazen animosity got the best of him. Gadriel shoved seven more chips into the pot as he grunted, "Call."

The cards instantly turned face up and Gadriel's caught fire, quickly burning to ash; Yarochk had goaded him into playing a weaker hand. As Gadriel glared at his rival, the chips in the center of the table turned into silvery ribbons as they snaked through the air in Yarochk's direction, appearing to pass into her body to be absorbed. She turned to Gadriel with a large smirk on her face. "I relish the taste of your collection of souls. They're always so... filling."

Gadriel slammed the table over his frustration.

"Oh, honey," whispered Melandre to Gadriel. "Don't worry, there's billions more to play with."