Gilded Blue Theft Part Twenty One

Chapter 20: In which Davis is almost right about something

If you were to describe the Spinning Gem Top in one word, it would be psychedelic.

Most of the buildings in Cozzlanga were fairly plain, usually with some manner of pictorial sign to indicate what the building was. The Spinning Gem Top had no sign, but then it hardly needed one. The walls of the building were studded with gems of many colours, that alone would have been enough.

However, for Gemmask Jee, that would not have sufficed, not at all, not at all.

Instead there was an angled bowl resting upon the twisted archway of the entrance of the den. Within this bowl was a massive spinning green gem top. Along with this was a pair of golems, stone encrusted with gems, impassively watching the spinning top, ready to spin it should it stop.

Now, you might wonder why in a place like Cozzlanga, is a gem encrusted building not quickly plundered of its spoils by passing thieves(most inhabitants of Cozzlanga commited at least casual thievery)?

Well, there is a couple of possibilities, as Tough Snaps would say.

It could be that the gems are cursed. It could be that Gemmask can replace the gems faster than people can steal them, it could be the two massive golems that move far quicker than things their size should move. It could have even been the case that nobody dared cross Gemmask for unspoken reasons that everyone accepted. Perhaps the gems were just glass. There was even the slim possibility that the ruffians of Cozzlanga were kind of proud of the Spinning Gem Top, and thus wanted it pristine.

Whatever the case, the disreputable denizens of Cozzlanga did not engage in pilfering the Spinning Gem Top. Neither the place nor the top itself. There did not even appear to be any obvious bouncers.

So Golbassy, Habi, Davis and Monochrome entered the Top, a little impressed, though they were all types of people that would never admit so.

There admiration rather quickly turned to mild confusion as they entered. Something was quite clearly wrong and had they not been so distracted by the front of the Top they would have noticed how quiet it was from the outside. So it was that they only noticed the wrongness when they entered into the multicoloured light from the discoball lighting that hung from the ceiling like a prismatic forest of spinning globes, which was naturally sort of what it was.

Googly eyed dizzy birds(Gebids as they are known) even watched everything from their nests in the disco trees, their mottled blue feathers gently swirling and rippling. They tended to only honk when something was trying to eat them, in which case denizens would bet on the outcome of the bird’s fate.

“Isn’t there far too few people?” Habi observed.

“Spiffing joint like this should be packed, yeah” Monochrome agreed.

“It is a bad sign, the walls are going to come crashing in and there is going to be a brutal fight to the death, most people are gone because they sensed this!” Davis jabbered.

The Spinning Top was filled with bars, wheels, tables, chairs, dice, darts, cards, balls and a veritable mess of games, it was filled with these things, but only a few denizens were at the tables. Most of the denizens were nervous and twitchy, be they gamblers or game masters. There wasn’t even any races going on. All the creatures used for such purposes were happily sleeping.

Each of these things were in their own little bowls lined with seats, the bowls varied in size with attraction and got smaller as they went away from the centre of the room. Most of these bowls had a circular bar top somewhere inside, the middle of the circle usually held a barkeep who could descend into a massive stockroom via a trapdoor.

There was however one game that drew quite a bit of attention, Behind the main bar of the grand centre bowl of games of the Top was Gemmask himself. He was of course wearing his gem encrusted mask, but he also wore a silky crimson cloak with a high collar and a large green gem clasp. Not a bit of his body could be seen, except for a white gloved hand in which he was holding a number of cards.

What was quite mysterious was that Gemmask was playing a game against a player who was not present, but the cards of this absent player moved all the same, as if by their own accord. The greatest amount of the den’s sparse number were gathered around this bartop and its puzzling game.

Golbassy thought that somehow, Gemmask’s blue hair, which swept up and curled at the ends, while a single lock swung upwards in an improbable crescent, was somewhat familiar. She hardly had time to ponder the thought however as a curiously rectangular blokkit in a crisp chequered suit of many colours stepped in front of her little party.

He bowed deeply to them.

“Good evenin’, honoured guest, ‘Am Honest Lak. Mr. Gemmask has been expecting youse” He said.

Davis would later curse himself for not fleeing at that point.

Monochrome was just a tiny bit sad that she wasn’t considered an honoured guest.

“What? How, why?” Golbassy blurted.

“I don’t know, I don’t knows anything anymores, all I knows is that Gemmask tolds me to watch for youse and bring youse to ’em” Honest Lak said flatly.

“Doesn’t that mean you know something?” Monochrome pointed out.

“I wouldn’t knows” Honest Lak explained.

“That seems a fair and reasonable answer, how about we just follow the man before he displays absurd magical skill and forces us or some nonsense like that” Davis said, not realising how much he would later hate himself for encouraging an action other than flight.

“If you take fair and reasonable to mean completely unexplanatory then, yes, it was very fair and resonable” Habi ranted.

Golbassy murmured into Habi.

“Look, we’ll go with you Mr. Lackless, but what has happened here, why is the place mostly deserted”

Honest Lak stiffened.

“I’ll have you knows I have plenty of Lak. I’m a whole person of Lak”

“Oh dear, we are terribly sorry, aren’t we?” Monochrome gave Golbassy a disapproving look.

“Just lead us to your master will you, I’m sure he’ll be happy to tell us about it”

Honest Lak shivered.

“I’m Honest, so I’ll tells youse, I think hes enjoying it” Lak whispered, a horrified look on his face.

“Great, Gemmask is enjoying some non-specific strangeness in the business of his own gambling den, tell me again why we are going anywhere near this guy?” Davis asked.

“Oh shush” Habi said as they were led over to Gemmask Jee.

Gemmask instantly noticed them and waved.

“Ah Golbassy, so wonderful to see you again, after all these years” Gemmask said.

Golbassy frowned.

“I’m sorry, but do I know you?” Habi asked.

“Well, you don’t, but you, you likely never did either” Gemmask said, laughing.

“Well, he has gone insane, very nice, can we go now” Davis whispered.

“Now now my little turnip, I assure you, I am quite sane, I just happen to be delighted by the visit the Niard is giving me” Gemmask Jee said.

“Ok, now I’m sure he’s thinking the air is hot” Davis muttered, quietly to himself so that Gemmask wouldn’t hear.

But Gemmask, heard and laughed.

“The Niard is here? How do you figure that, Mistah Jee?” Monochrome questioned.

Gemmask Jee knowingly tapped the snout of his mask.

“Well now, I issue a challenge and not long after that someone begins to win at all the game driving the gamblers away and making the game masters panic, then I come down and start playing games, and a player I cannot catch a sight of competes against me, and cheats such that I know he is cheating but I do not know how, I cannot follow the movements.”

Gemmask Jee spread his hands out and shrugged.

“What else am I to think but that the cloaked stranger that has been gutting the gambling dens of Cozzlanga is the real Niard rather than a blowhard impostor!”

“But the Niard is just a myth! No more real than the Crystal Swan!” Davis objected.

Gemmask Jee shook his head in disappointment.

“Golbassy dear, where did you pick up such a joyless vegetable?”

“He was part of an eight-pack of minions” Golbassy replied automatically.

“Well that explains it, never collect minions in bulk dearest, it is always too good to be true, you want to get singles, it is the only way to build a quality collection.” Gemmask Jee advised.

“Why do you seem so… chipper about being ruined Mistah Jee?” Monochrome queried.

Gemmask Jee laughed once again, like the clink of filthy lucre.

“Why, this is the most fun I’ve had in years, I was growing tired of this place and business and for someone like me, gaining or losing wealth is nothing, I believe I might move on to some other place and thing once the Niard has finished playing games with me, I’ll have had my fill of gambling dens.”

The unseen player stopped moving his cards.

“Oh no, I do hope you’ll stay a while longer, O Niard, peerless rogue” Gemmask said worriedly.

The cards moved again, revealing another defeat for Gemmask.

“I do suspect that he’ll steal the Gem Top, the golems and the gems in the edifice too on his way out, I suspect he has already emptied my personal vault of favourites.”

“So… where is he? I need him to prove my innocence!” Golbassy panicked.

“My dear, I suspect if he and I were the only ones here, I would still not be able to find him”

It was around then that several things happened at once.

The first was that Gemmask actually won a hand, causing the unseen player to uproot and flip the whole bartop, it seemed the Niard was a bit of a sore loser.

The second was a bedraggled and furious Gordon thundering through the entrance screaming.

“I’LL BRING YOU BACK GOLBASSY IF IT IS THE LAST THING I DOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!”

The Third was Ramaros jumping out from among the spectators of Gemmask’s game and thrusting his spears at Golbassy. He was stopped by Gemmask, who’s method of stopping it was deflecting the spears with his mask, while it was still on his face. The mask broke of course, prompting Golbassy to blurt something out.

“Gilgamush?!?”

The last thing was maniacal laughter and one of the walls blasting inwards as Hammer the explodahead and his pilldog Madog closed in on their bounty.

“Hello Dudes and Dudettes, hand over the Baghead with the funky spears and nobody gets hurt!” Hammer said.

This prompted a “What?” from mostly everyone, also dread from most of the bagheads present, Ramaros was hardly one of a kind after all.

Author: SnowyMystic