Conduce

[rowyn]

They sat at a round stone table incongruously planted in a green meadow, six figures illuminated by the red light of an incarnadine moon. Two of them were mortal, a stout fair-skinned woman of thirty years, and a nervous man with deep brown skin and hair just starting to grey.

The other four were monsters: a ram-headed man with furry legs and a hairy chest left bare by the cloak of feathers draping down his back; a crow with the face of a woman that perched on the table's edge with two taloned feet and used a third to lift her cards; a giant winged snake that pushed its cards to the edge of the table with its tail tip and ducked its head down when it wanted to see what they were; a sphinx with snakes instead of hair: they whispered not-quite-intelligible advice in sibilant voices.

Five of them were playing poker; the sphinx was dealing. In the middle of the table four cards were face up: the king of hearts, the five of spades, the ten of hearts, and two of clubs. The nervous man put down his cards and pushed them away. "Fold."

The crow had already folded; now the winged snake did. The ram-headed man brayed out a laugh. The stout woman spoke in a calm voice. "Call."

The sphinx dealt the river: the ace of hearts. The ram-headed man smiled and thumped his fist against the stone table in triumph. He turned his head to fix the woman with the stare of one brown eye, and stated his wager. "All my knowledge 'gainst all of yours."

The woman lifted her cards by the edge, peeked at them. She looked at the stakes already on the table, pretty glittering things that looked like coins but weren't. She set her cards flush against the table again. "Fold."

The ram-face grinned hugely as he raked in the pot. A confused look stole across the woman's face. Before the dealer could muck the cards, she glanced at her hand and the board one last time. Then she let the sphinx take them from her. "I -- I'm sorry, I forget. What had I wagered so far?"

"All your memories!" The ram laughed again, cruelly. "All of them!"

"I ... I see." She got up from the table.

"You do not have to leave," the woman with the crow body told her. "You have much left that you could wager." The sphinx's hair hissed advice at her: to go, to stay, to consider -- what? She couldn't quite tell.

"No. No, that's all right. I think I'm done. Thank you." She turned to the other mortal before she left. "I don't suppose I told you my name?"

He shook his head. "No ... sorry."

"You could win it back." The ram spun a glittering not-coin between his human-like fingers. "Or try to."

She looked at the coin, and at his face, then shook her head again. "No. I have to go now."

As she walked away across grass tinted red by the unnatural light, she looked down at her empty hands. A curious lightness spread through her. It was an unsettling thing, not to know her own name, or anything at all about the person she was. The person she had been.

But she did not want to get it back. She had seen her hole cards after she lost: the queen and the eight of hearts.

Whoever she had been, she trusted that she'd had a good reason to conduce this ending.

---

conduce: to lead to or contribute to a particular result.

Comments

[octantis.livejournal.com]

This one is very clever, I like it a lot, even if the stakes are kind of chilling to me. I wonder if the ram is as much of a winner as he thinks he is.

[rowyn]

This one is my favorite so far. I like the sphinx's whispering snakes. :)

I don't think the ram is going to enjoy his winnings as much as he expected, either.

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

Typically, when demons steal your memories, it's so they can better take advantage of you using them -- maybe trick you into repeating your old mistakes with them in a position to benefit, since they now know exactly how you react to stuff.

Fairies I think just remember them and enjoy, and I guess these did seem more fae.

[rowyn]

Originally I was going to make them demons, but I decided I didn't like the implications of calling them that.

And I admit that part of my inspiration was the thought that Candy's great mistake was not leaving a warning for herself: "I did this on purpose! Trust me, I do not want to remember who I was!" >:)

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

They're dwellers of the Half-Seen Reality, the Misty Realms where the myths went to slumber until humanity once again had need of them! This feels like a story in its shell, waiting to be hatched. };)

[koogrr.livejournal.com]

Back when I was writing with Nom de Plume I had a character who woke up in a hotel room, with no memories and a note regarding her brainwipe that said "It's better this way."

I'm not sure that the note actually works as intended. In Planescape: Torment, the Nameless One is the main character and the point of the game is rediscovering what he's lost and forgotten. I'd think leaving a note would cause curiosity, remind that something was forgotten, whereas actually forgetting means it'd never enter the thought processes.

Interesting wager. I'd have to think about it. I'd be unlikely to play poker for memories though, I tend to lose.

[rowyn]

Oh! You were the one who told me about the story. That was another inspiration but I didn't remember where I'd heard it.

I like the idea of a note. Eventually something will remind you of the gap and you'll poke at it then. And of course, with total amnesia it's obvious that something's wrong: you know that you should have more memories.

[jordangreywolf.livejournal.com]

Fascinating! Heh. This would make for a delightfully peculiar book of short stories. =)

[rowyn]

Heehee! Come to think of it, that's what haikujaguar did with the Kherishdar ones.

[minor-architect.livejournal.com]

Ooo, I like this story the best so far! (And I'm still learning new words. Bonus! :)

[rowyn]

'Conduce' sounded really familiar to me, but I think it's just because it's similar to 'induce'.