"So do you sober more quickly than ordinary people?"

"Seems that way," Gawel said, taking another drink of the rather bad beer as he ate the much better tasting food. He watched Sara carefully as she ate and drank, wondering if the food would help prevent her from getting drunk. He then dismissed the idea since she had never gotten drunk before and had already finished one glass that was meant to last the night. This was going to work out expensive for him, but he supposed that didn't matter; what she had paid him would more than cover it and if the notice about the koshchey were true. And that was something he would have to investigate tonight too.

When their meals had been finished, he pulled out a cloth mat and spread it on the table between them. On it was two styalized dragons and twelve circles, six a side. From the same pouch he took out two sets of dice, handing one to Sara. "Dice poker," he said, naming the game. "Like card poker but without the faces and the deception. Let's play a few rounds," he said.

For a while they played, Gawel talking Sara through the rules until he felt she had the hang of the game. Glancing around the room, he spotted a woman dressed much like the waitress sitting by a table watching them intently. He waved her over, knowing her for a professional gambler, though likely not a very good one to be stuck in a backwater such as here. "I'll leave you two girls to play a while. I want to find out more about this notice," he said before standing and moving over to the bar tender to do just that.