As they tried to leave the village, Ylre spotted a group of guards standing by the road they had taken to get here during the day. He found it strange that he hadn't seen any so far, but since he didn't feel like dealing with them and Rue didn't look like he was in the mood to fight...plus Ylre wasn't going to let him do anything like that again, they returned to the village.
Fortunately, it had a smaller bathhouse where they could wash and eat something for dinner. Ylre knew that Rue wouldn't go into public bath areas, so he automatically bought entry to the private bath and waited in the changing room in front of it. Just like a guard.
A few guys walked by as it was unusual for anyone other than women to rent out private spaces, but one hostile look from Ylre quickly made them disappear. Ylre was sure that if he hadn't been sitting there, at least one or two would have peeked inside, the thought of which was enough to fill him with aggression.
When Rue was done, Ylre took turns with him, and after dinner they went back to the teahouse´s room, where they could sleep.
Despite the late hour, the shop was still open, even without customers. The owner was just sitting at the counter drinking tea as if he was waiting for them.
"Where have you been?" he asked when he caught sight of them.
"It´s not your problem," Ylre said and went upstairs to the room.
"In the bath and at dinner," Rue smiled at the salesman and followed Ylre.
As soon as the door slammed shut behind them, Ylre nodded to the bed, "You can take it for the night...I'll sleep on the floor," he said.
"No need," he objected, "yesterday you gave the bed to me, I'm grateful to you...today, you can sleep in the bed." he smiled.
"I don't have a problem sleeping on the floor," said Ylre.
"I'll sleep anywhere too... for a long time I slept on more uncomfortable place than the ground in a nice village," he laughed.
Ylre looked at him for a while: "In that case, it's just one more reason to sleep on the bed. Go enjoy it."
Since Ylre didn't give in to persuasion, Rue sighed softly, "In that case, we will decide according to the will of Luck," he said.
Ylre blinked softly, as he never got used to that the highest Infeys associate everything with Luck, "No," he disagreed.
Rue blinked, "Why not?"
Ylre knew that Rue would lose, but he didn't mean to say so. It was clear to him that Rue was aware of this fact and was proposing it on purpose.
"Because... you deserve it more, you arranged a ride for us," Ylre said, as Rue approached the seller with the car first.
"Without you, we wouldn't even know where we're going," Rue smiled and said, "So let's play some games... we'll decide by its result. What do you say?" he said.
Ylre stared at him for a moment without saying a word. He didn't say anything out loud, but one sentence flashed through his mind:
"Do you still like games so much?" he wondered, "Even if you don't win them anymore?" Ylre wanted to ask but knew he couldn't.
"Do you really want to a game?" he asked again and seeing Rue nod enthusiastically, he tried, "Why? Didn't you say you were unlucky?"
"It doesn't matter what the result is," he smiled, "the game isn´t just to find out your luck...games are fun. We enjoyed it last time with the card, didn´t we?"
Ylre stared at him for a while before reaching into the inner pocket of his robes and thinking for a moment. In a world where luck was everything, games of luck weren't primarily a source of entertainment...they were primarily a competition to compare the luck of two people. They were able to decide on smaller or more serious matters…sometimes the game could decide the life of the players, and there was even a case in the past when it was decided by a dice roll which prince from the triplets would ascend the throne after the king. Games of chance weren't fun...not in their world.
Still, Rue was the only one who didn't really play them with ulterior motives. Never...whether at the time he knew he would win or currently knowing that he wouldn´t.
Ylre slowly took out two dice from his pocket. He held out his hand to Rue and asked, "Do you recognize them?"
Rue stared at his hand for a moment, thinking. The dices were beautiful...one black with gold dots, the other gold with black dots. He felt like he had seen them before, he felt like he should answer with nod…but he didn´t lie and since he wasn't sure, he said, "I know the game." He nodded.
Ylre smiled softly with a wave of disappointment in his eyes and sat down at the table opposite the bed, "How many rounds?" he asked.
"As long as it's fun," Rue said contentedly and sat down.
Ylre placed the dice on the table: "You go first?"
"May I?" Rue gently took the dices. They were quite heavy, unusually, and Rue felt again as if he had held them before.
But he didn't want to delay, so he just happily threw them. The dice rolled for a while before stopping at the numbers 4 and 4.
"Nice," Ylre praised.
Rue nodded slightly, "Strange," he said.
"Why?" Ylre asked.
"I think my current numbers are less than 1 and 1," he laughed.
"Maybe you're luckier than you think," Ylre suggested.
"I don't think so," Rue smiled softly and added, "but my injury is healing better today...it's almost healed...I don´t know what's going on but I feel really nice and comfortable. Is it weird? I didn´t have this felling for a while now." he clarified and gently touched his chest, where he could feel a pleasant warmth.
"What´s weird about it? It's normal for your luck to fluctuate…sometimes it'll increase just because you're in the right part of the country." he explained. Ylre wasn't lying though, it was true that the Lacrisan's state of luck depended on where they were…and though that wasn't Rue's case, he couldn't tell him why he was temporarily luckier than before.
"Really?" he didn't know and when Ylre nodded, he smiled, "Thank you...I was scared that something happened at home," he laughed, "You can go now."
Ylre wasn't surprised that Rue was worried that something had happened in Infey. If Supreme Infey's luck status changed, it always meant some trouble with the resource...and since Rue was an escaped prisoner, it would clearly be more complicated for him.
Ylre took the dice and gently rolled them. The two sixes lit up exactly as he knew and he looked at Rue.
"You're really lucky," Rue cheered excitedly.
"I know," he said not quite contentedly and handed the dices to Rue, who tossed them.
Two more fours were shown on the table and after Ylre took the dices again and rolled two sixes again, the same process was repeated several more times before their state changed. After about twenty rounds, which Rue was enjoying even though the result was unchanging, he suddenly rolled the numbers 4 and 3.
"They went down," Rue looked at them, "is it going back to normal?" he thought.
"I think that's enough for today," Ylre said after a while, looking at the dice, "you won, so you sleep in bed."
"I didn't win," he pointed out.
"We didn't agree whether the winnings are in higher numbers... you had them lower, you need to recharge more... you're sleeping in bed," Ylre clarified.
Hearing the explanation, Rue was filled with a familiar subconscious feeling that he couldn't identify. That's why after a while he just smiled gently, "Thank you."
"Good night," Ylre said, pleased to hear him. He took a couple of blankets from the closet and spread them out on the floor, while Rue sat on the bed. With everything ready for night, Rue blew out the candles.
"Good night." he smiled and lay down in bed. He felt comfortable, but even though he had been out of his cell for several days, he was still slightly afraid that he was only dreaming.
But in the end, he had no choice but to hope that he was wrong and enjoy another day. It's just a shame he didn't know that the guard sleeping next to him on the ground was the same one who stood by his cell for two centuries... that in the end not much has changed and true freedom is still quite far away.
However, he was soon to find out for himself.