"Uh, is this place open?"

"Blackjack it is then," Herman Mercer quickly dealt out a hole card to both Miranda and himself and then another one to each player, face up.

Mercer was showing a king and Miranda was showing a nine. What neither of them knew, since their magical shields were up against possible clairvoyant spying, was their opponent's hole card. Mercer had a two. Miranda had a literal ace in the hole, but she did not betray anything with even the slightest flicker of an eyelash. On the other hand, Herman's insipid grin consituted a bizarre kind of pokerface by its very permanence.

The jingling of the bell on the shop door distracted them both from the game. Herman peered over Miranda's shoulder to see who his next potential customer might be and Miranda, perhaps foolishly - - though she never said she was infallible, turned to look over her shoulder. If she had resisted this impulse she might have seen Mercer's left ear twitch as if some invisible person or perhaps ghost had whispered into it. The person in the door was Gabriel Masters, a thin young man with huge glasses a scraggly ponytail that could never quite capture every loose strand of hair. He was a fantasy RPG enthusiast and one of the collectible card game geeks Cassie had mentioned earlier, "Uh, is this place open?"

Warned by whatever extra senses went with those pointed ears, Herman had only a second to act. Somehow he just knew Miranda would steal his win. Miranda was always doing that, he snarled inwardly, stealing from the master thief. She was already turning back to face him. With a deft motion too swift for the eye to follow Herman switched the next two cards coming off the deck. It was a purely physical trick and, though it occurred so fast as to seem superhuman, no magic was employed for his sparring partner to detect. It was done.

"But of course it is, young man! Come in, come in - - my friend and I were just finishing our game!" Herman called out merrily. Miranda arched an eyebrow at the cards before her, "Well?"

Herman flicked the next card at her face up to land beside the nine. It was a queen. Miranda briefly closed her eyes and turned her hole card face up, an ace. Nine, ace, and queen. She had no choice. To count the ace as eleven would put her over, "I stand at 20."

Mercer turned up his next card, a nine, and then his hole card in quick succession. King, two, and nine, "I win at 21. They can't all be a natural blackjack, but it will do."

Herman Mercer's little cheat had won him the day - - all without the aid of magic. Miranda took her defeat well, showing no emotion besides one of stern caution. "Be careful with that doll, Herman. She will turn on you and I won't be there to clean up your mess this time."

"Perhaps I'll sell her to some timid young girl that needs someone to give her some confidence," Herman smirked as he dropped the doll into an empty glass case on a shelf behind the counter, "Goodbye, Miranda."

Not bothering to dispute the implied dismissal, Miranda turned and left the shop full of cases upon cases of cards. The loss of the doll was of secondary importance now. Herman probably had no real need of Natasha Dahlet other than as a means to taunt her. What was important now was warning her apprentice, and her bumbling friends, to steer clear of the man and his tricks.

As the door shut behind her, the former Wotch could hear Herman Mercer's oily voice direct itself at a new target, Gabriel Masters. "Yes, I also think cards are - - "cool." Care to play a game?"