Everyone Accepts the Same Rules
Severin sits down to cards with the dead.
Severin occupies the right side of the room in a red robe and green head covering, cards held close to his chest. Across from him, skeletons crowd around a small table.
More gather behind them. Their eyes glow red; their fixed grins give every expression the same cheerfulness. Candles burn, tea waits in cups, and the chairs are upholstered in emphatic green.
It is a banquet without visible food and a card game whose rules remain unavailable. Skeletons do not require dinner, while the damned, the liberated and the repentant have other appetites. The tea service, furnishings and candlelight maintain the protocols.
A card game converts uncertainty into procedure. Chance is classified into suits and values; risk is reduced to a sequence of permitted moves. Everyone accepts the same rules.