Charisma is Shiro's dump stat. She's going to go and watch people play cards instead. What sort of cards are these people playing, hmm?

They're playing heads-up stud poker! Each table has exactly two players, or only one if they're between games. The cards are recognizably 52-card decks, although the symbols on them are foreign to Shiro, and each player has a stack of metallic poker chips on the felt next to them.

Some of the players have smaller stacks than others.

Stephanie's face-up cards are an nine and a ten of the same suit, and her face-down cards are seven and five offsuit. This is a terrible hand, all things considered, but she checked it to the fourth card to fish for a straight draw. The five was not what she was hoping for. Her opponent has a pair of face cards showing and a reputation for skill – she'll keep checking or calling small raises just in case she hits her draw, but she's running desperately low on chips.

"Check."

"Raise." Zell adds three gray chips to the pot in the middle of the table.

Stephanie glances at her stack. If she calls, she's getting a terrible price for a hand that needs to hit an eight and either a six or a jack to be worth anything. A flush is theoretically possible but with the way her luck's going she's not going to risk it. Doubles won't win, and if Zell is raising then neither will triples.

"Fold."

Chloe Zell sweeps the pot into her corner, then picks up the cards and begins shuffling. Her face is expressionless. Not because she expects Stephanie to make a read off her – she just doesn't do facial expressions on most days. It's a habit she picked up years ago that's served her well at the poker table, where leaking information is disastrous.

If she were to have an expression, though, it would be a smile.

There are four reporters and a barefoot teenage girl trying to make eye contact with Stephanie. She gives them all reassuring nods but says nothing, because interacting with the public takes more than zero attention and right now she's putting all of it towards that cards that Chloe is dealing her.

Ace of spades and king of diamonds face down, and seven of diamonds face up. Across the table, Chloe Zell's visible card is the two of clubs, which forces her to start with the bring-in before Stephanie leads the action.

Ace king hands are tricky, but third street is her weakest card and betrays nothing to Zell. This is as good as it gets without a high pocket pair. Time to bet. The minimum bet is twenty, but Stephanie is going to go with thirty.

"Call." She tosses in an additional thirty, then deals herself the six of hearts and her opponent the ace of diamonds.

Score! A pair of aces with top kicker and a decent chance to hit a flush! This game might not be over after all.

The ideal strategy in this situation is to bet carefully, extracting as much as she can from Zell without tipping her over the line and making her fold before the river. Unfortunately, Stephanie only has fifteen chips left, which isn't enough to do anything clever with. There's only one option: shove.

"I'm all in."

"Call."

Chloe Zell adds another fifteen chips to the pot. Since one player has gone all in and the other wants to make it a showdown they have the option to 'run it twice', which is to play out the rest of the hand two (or more) times and split the pot accordingly. It's a decision that reduces variance, smoothing the statistical impact of luck on the outcome of the hand. Both of them need to agree to do it, and she hasn't really thought about whether she would assent if Stephanie asked. She doesn't think it's going to happen.

Yeah, nah, she's feeling good about this one. Let 'er rip.

Stephanie's final hand is the ace of spades; king, seven, and ace of diamonds, the queen and three of hearts, and the king of clubs. Across the table, the four visible cards are the two of clubs, six of hearts, two of diamonds, and jack of clubs.

"Two pair, aces and kings!" Stephanie announces triumphantly. Pairs aren't great in seven-card stud, even pairs of aces, but the highest possible two pair is reasonably good.

Zell flips over her remaining cards. The first two are the six and three of spades, and the final card is the six of clubs.

"Full house, sixes full of twos. Good game."

Sora finishes giving the hapless concierge the third degree and wanders over to his sister. She's standing by a table where two young women have just finished a game of cards. A handful of people with spiral-bound notepads are clamoring to speak to the red-headed woman with no chips left, and the woman answering their questions sounds defeated and tired. Understandably so – Sora wasn't paying attention but even he can tell that this game wasn't an even match.

He's learned quite a bit about Elkia in the last few minutes, but the most important parts that he needs to share are: "They don't have any room here tonight, and if we eat anything that wasn't prepared in this city we need to ensure it was cooked thoroughly."

"Per my wager on the outcome of this game of poker, I will not be playing in the upcoming tournament. I wish all contestants good fortune, and I eagerly await the results."

    "Will you be backing Chloe Zell's candidacy for the throne?"

"I will be honoring my late grandfather's dying wishes regarding his method of choosing a successor."

    "Is it true that the tournament was a condition of the king's last wager against the Eastern Union?"

"It has been shown to my satisfaction that the tournament was devised in its entirety by my grandfather alone, acting of sound mind and under no duress."

    "What will you do now?"

"Order room service, I think."

Chloe Zell leaves the building without fanfare, and the reporters flock after her.

"That was underhanded. How did no one notice?"

"They weren't looking."

Stephanie knows she should have rehearsed the words more than once. Her victory here was a longshot. She could've spent more time preparing for defeat and less time wishing for better cards. After this she'll have one more hour in the limelight, when she hands her grandfather's crown to the winner of the tournament – Chloe Zell, in all likelihood – and after that she'll serve at the new monarch's pleasure.

Maybe she can convince them of her usefulness. Probably not.

"I'll see you all at tomorrow," she says to the remaining audience, and leaves for her room. There might be a way for her to salvage this mess, but it was never with herself at the card table. She needs to plan for an uncertain future, and she needs to do it soon.

There are two people on the third floor, waiting outside the door to her room. One is the barefoot teenage girl, and the other is a boy her age. They're not any ethnicity she recognizes. The boy's shirt is adorned with four characters, the second of which is the suit of hearts, but the other three are in an unfamiliar script. They're both fairly grubby, and now that they're no longer masked by the fragrance of the kitchens and the dining area it's obvious that neither of them have bathed recently.

Stephanie is really not in the mood for dealing with more citizen complaints, but dealing with citizen complaints is part and parcel of public service. Last thing on the agenda before she screams into her pillow sits down to plan out the next few days.

She straightens up and gives her best smile. "What can I help you with?"

"You are a terrible poker player, Princess Stephanie."

A lesser princess would lose her temper over such an insult. Stephanie merely seethes internally. It's not as though the barefoot girl is wrong.

"However did you come to that conclusion?" she asks, injecting slightly more sarcasm than strictly necessary.