NOVEL NEXT Book 2 Chapter 6: Caesar's Palace
1 day until the B grade fight.
What would sport be without gambling? Probably a lot more fun and a lot less profitable.Take a guess at what matters more.
Gambler's Avenue perfectly encapsulates glitz, glam, and greed. The first place on any self-disrespecting tourist's itinerary; people go to Gambler's for a good time, not a long time. They usually don't spend a long time there because they lose all their money, but nobody tells them that before they start spending.
Jay hadn't just visited Vegas, he'd fought there. He knew the value, or lack thereof, that gold paint, questionably legitimate marble, and glowing lights brought to urban design. At least the bright lights lining Gambler's Avenue did something interesting, however. Some establishments had multicoloured flames dancing atop their door, broadcasting their name for the whole street to see. Others took a more direct approach. Five red arrows appeared from thin air as if drawn by an invisible paintbrush, pointing to a casino on Jay's left.
Across the street, an elderly gentleman holding a pipe with pink, swollen fingers and wearing a tailored black tuxedo waved Jay towards him.
"Young man, you look like someone in need of a good time! Why not enter for a night of fun? You never know what could happen at the Saffron Sabre. Maybe it's your lucky night?"
Jay ignored him and walked further into the district.
After their initial meeting ended, Karis had told Jay to meet him in a casino called 'Caesar's Palace' in two days time. He said that it might remind Jay of home. The name had intrigued Jay at first, and he'd wondered whether it was just a coincidence before Karis' comment all but confirmed that it wasn't.
After a few minutes of walking, searching, and dodging the drunkards he shared the boulevard with, Jay found Caesar's Palace and slipped into its foyer. Marble that matched both the Second Chance Coliseum and the original Caesar's Palace clad every inch of the casino's impressive atrium. A gigantic pool dominated the room's centre, with jets spurting turquoise water into the air and underwater lights illuminating a stone statue standing inside the pool.
Except, it wasn't Julius Caesar staring down at Jay. The figure lording over the casino's atrium had long flowing hair that curled into luscious locks above his shoulders. His belly had a slight paunch, barely disguised by the toga he wore. His left arm flopped lazily by his side while his right rose up to fondle his chin in a thinking pose that looked realistic yet very unfitting.
Tiny gold system screens sat above every exit to the atrium, stating each room's purpose. When Jay's eyes reached the stairs in the entrance hall's back corner, he understood what Karis meant by 'reminding' him of home. He read through the list with a slight internal sigh and a repressed hint of excitement.
Floor 1: Tokyo
Floor 2: London
Floor 3: New York
Floor 4: Cairo
Floor 5: Rio de Janiero
Karis had told Jay to meet him on floor two. Whatever the hell Caesar's Palace was, it looked like it would give Jay a small taste of home after all.
"LIGHTNING! Izs it really you?"
A sweaty hand clasped Jay's right shoulder and an arm wrapped around him as he felt an unstable body knock into him from behind. He turned to look at his new friend.
A man slightly taller than Jay but far skinnier pressed his chest into Jay's left side. His head dropped downwards, flinging several strands of greasy brown hair into Jay's face. As the man pulled his head upright, a pair of bloodshot blue eyes lined with wrinkles stared at Jay. A gap-toothed smile poked out from a bushy beard soaked with liquid that dripped onto Jay's tracksuit.
The drunkard raised a half-empty glass of a pink cocktail filled with ice and forced it into Jay's hands.
"Have thiss on me!" he said, hanging onto the end of every word. "You have no idea how muchh mmoney you've made me… I won't have to fight for monthss!"
Jay tried to shrug the man off but his grip was firmer than Jay expected.
"Thanks man… happy to help," said Jay, unsure what the hell the guy was talking about.
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"What do you sayy to a fight nexst week Lightning? I'd love to be your firsst. Red Fist Ricky ain't a bad name for your debut…"
Jay shook his head and gave Ricky a polite laugh, realising that he was a D grade gladiator and not just a drunk, delusional gambler.
Well, either that or he was a very drunk and even more delusional gambler.
"Oh well," replied Ricky before digging into one of his pockets. He fished out several green and white chips before dropping them into the drink he'd handed Jay moments before.
"Havve a good time on me buddyy. Enjoy yourselfvf!"
Ricky left Jay's side and stumbled through a doorway that simply said Tower above it.
Jay, still half-stunned by the encounter, watched Ricky leave. He set the half filled glass down, leaving the chips inside for any soul brave enough to fish them out of the cup. If the drunks were anything to go by, he was about to enter a shockingly realistic recreation of home. Jay continued to floor two wondering just what kind of a place Karis had invited him to.
"'Ello Guv'na?"
Oh for fuck's sake…
Jay barged past the Oliver Twist caricature greeting him to floor two before flaring Eye of the storm to find Karis as fast as humanly possible. The Frontiersman was across the room, sat with a porcelain teacup in hand and studying the red telephone box he sat beside.
Jay paced towards him, creatively using Eye of the storm to drown out the colourfully worded complaints from the poor child he'd almost knocked to the ground.
"Do you really have this technology?" asked Karis as soon as Jay reached his table. He was still marvelling at the phone box and could barely keep his eyes off it. "It says here that you can contact people thousands of miles away using one of these. I can't believe people did this without Harmony on your planet."
"To be honest I don't know how it works either," said Jay. He sat opposite Karis and stole a cream-filled scone off his plate before taking a large bite. It was far too dry, but Jay didn't complain.
"What even is this place?" he asked. "It's like a caricature of my home country by someone who's clearly never visited before."
Karis hid a wry smile behind the lip of his teacup.
"What a shame, although I've doubted its accuracy since I visited the museum section of this floor and saw an assortment of relics that were clearly found elsewhere."
That's… not too far off actually.
"Caesar's Palace was supposedly founded by someone from your planet fifty years a go who wanted to bring 'a drop of Earth' to Eterna. Perhaps his successors weren't as fussed about accuracy."
"Anyway," began Jay, shaking his head as he wondered what stereotypes the other floors were filled with. "Did you find out anything about Ferrios or Flash?"
Jay was initially cautious about reaching out to Karis for research advice. Even though Julian was alive, it still felt weird talking about him outside of his cagey, business-like interactions with Samira. However based on what she'd said to Jay, the information would be out soon so there wasn't much point hiding it. He didn't explicitly tell Karis, but Jay trusted the Frontiersman to connect the dots.
Karis gently placed his teacup down and nodded.
"Your story's correct. That's exactly how their careers played out. Ferrios is still in charge of the Flaming Tomb and Flash is allegedly searching for old era technology—although I haven't been able to confirm when his last visit to Arenara Fortunis was."
So she was telling the truth… and her information network is pretty extensive.
"I did get some more information on his split with Mercurial however. After finishing his final contracted defence, Flash went to the Daily Fight and released a statement denouncing the alliance and their methods. Mercurial denied everything he said but they also made a large effort to squash out any evidence of the report and scrub it from any archives after Flash left the island. I haven't found the original quote or evidence of it anywhere, just people claiming to have heard it. Ask Samira for specifics. I'm sure she knows and would tell you, although she'd probably censor most of Flash's more general complaints about alliances."
"Thanks."
"I'll look into Mercurial further while you're away. Given how renowned they are, there's surprisingly little information about their internal workings."
Karis paused, almost like he was considering saying more.
"Did you find out anything else about the Smothering Grasp Alliance?" asked Jay after a slightly awkward silence.
Karis shook his head.
"Not much other than numbers. As Samira said, they're already within the coliseum. People are hesitant to give up any information on them right before their opponents join the fight. Lopsided fights aren't too common, but they happen often enough that there's a gentleman's agreement not to leak secrets after the first team enters the fight."
"What do their numbers look like?"
"Slightly larger than Limitless Ascent, although still a relatively small alliance. They have sixty-six members and two C graders to Limitless Ascent's fifty and one, the average ranking of their D graders is slightly lower however."
"Could you look into Limitless Ascent too? It might be easier to pry while both alliances are away fighting."
"Sounds like a good idea."
The two gladiators sat in semi-awkward silence until Jay broke the quiet.
"So what do you want in return?" he said.
"Well, I have a big ask and a small ask," Karis replied. He held up a marble-sized emerald and turned his diamond eyes towards Jay.
"Let's start with the small one. Lyra mentioned that you're good at analysing fights. I've recorded some of my journey here as well as several of my fights inside the coliseum within this emerald. Would you mind taking a look?"
"Sure," replied Jay, laughing as he reached to touch the crystal in Karis' hand. "You find the telephone impressive but these things are far more remarkable. The storm sage gave me one before my second fight. You just touch them and they send you-"
Nothing happened when Jay touched the crystal.
"You probably used more advanced crystals before," Karis said earnestly. Jay cringed internally but kept listening. "For the simpler memory crystals you need to try and link your Harmony to the contents of the crystal.
"Try thinking of me frantically running through a jungle with a Three Legger chasing behind. It's quite a vivid image and should help you attu-"