Alice Spades

## **Basic Information**

**Full Name:** Alice Spades

**Nickname:** Spades

**Birthday:** January 28th 521

**Summoning Day:** Aug 18th 840

**Species:** Demon

**Gender:** Female she/her

**Height:** 5’ 5”

**Sexuality:** Pansexual

**Languages Spoken:** Demonic, Standard

## **Personality**

**Likes:** Games, gambling, dice, cards, cool hats

**Dislikes:** getting close to people, being alone, losing

**Fears/Phobias:** Autophobia

Spades wasn’t born to win, she was born to gamble. Yes, winning is nice too, but it’s the thrill of the chase that she likes, not the rewards that come with it. Anything that can be left to chance will be left to chance. Spades is extremely reckless; banking on her good luck to get her out of any given situation. Some would say she’s too reckless, but her gift hasn’t failed her yet. Not in a catastrophic way, anyway. Her gift of luck has made her cocky and selfish. She’ll find a way to get what she wants one way or another.

Trust is a very big issue with Spades. Friends can’t be trusted. To her, people don’t just do nice things out of the kindness of their hearts. Making deals and keeping people at a distance is far safer. She intentionally keeps people away, even going so far as to never call anybody by their first name. First names are too casual, and casual is only for friends. That being said, while she has the mindset that nobody can be trusted, she hates being alone. She can’t stand it. Her mental state will almost immediately start deteriorating if she's ever left by herself, so she makes a point of always having someone by her side; friend or foe. Better to be with someone you hate than to be all alone.

## **Abilities**

**Strengths:** Luck

**Weaknesses:** Useless alone

**Weapons/Tools:** Throwing cards

By definition, Spades is a Warlock. Her “blessing” of good luck was bestowed upon her by her familiar, Blackjack. This luck blessing can sway things in Spades favour, taking what she personally believes to be “lucky” or “unlucky” and basing the outcome on that. That being said, this blessing can only do one thing at a time, and depending on how big the event is it may have a considerable cool down period. Her luck can allow her to win every game she plays, or it can prevent her from getting kicked out of the casino, but it can’t do both.

That being said, everything has its limitations. Spades’ luck can only make the improbable probable, not the impossible possible. If there’s no way she could get out of a fight without injury, her luck won’t let her escape unscathed. It’d let her escape with the minimum amount of injuries. Her luck also only affects her and her directly. If something is outside the control of any average person her luck is useless. It can’t cause an act of god to happen, especially if other people are affected by it.

## **Health**

**Addictions:** Gambling

**Mental Illnesses:** Severe Autophobia

**Physical Illnesses:** None

**Disabilities:** None

**Allergies:** None

## **Backstory**

All demons were somebody before they were a demon, and Spades is no exception. Alice Spades was born in the country of Cassinex in the year 521ADI in a large resort city called Tenlive. The area was known for its high class luxuries. Fine dining, gambling, shopping, and entertainment, among other things. Her family had lived here pretty much their entire lives, to the point where many of them were disillusioned with how things worked outside of the country.

Being from a pretty well off family, Alice’s early life was fairly standard. Her parents did their best to instill her with good morals. They went to church, following the god Tilvet, sent her to a highly renowned school, and filled her life with all sorts of extracurricular activities. But actions tend to speak louder than words. As she grew older, she began to realise some of the more questionable things her parents did.

A staple practice in her church was fortune telling. Higher church members known as “seers” used their powers to peer into the future and use that information to help them solve the problems of the community. It was more often than not a novelty. Something for tourists to do when they’ve bored themselves with the rest of the city and an easy way for the church to bring in more income. Her parents, though, decided to use this power to their advantage. Most of her family's wealth came from their position in the church and their ability to see future events. Most of her family used this to give them a boost in the stock market or other forms of trade.

This was never seen as unusual to Alice. If anything, it was what the church wanted. If someone was able to rise through the ranks to the point they acquired these powers, why not use them to your advantage? Still, this wouldn’t come into play until she was far older. Alice didn’t even start taking an interest into the church until her late teens.

Time continued to go on, and Alice’s life was more or less the same from early childhood to late adolescence. Around the time she was fourteen both her mother and her father ended up getting arrested on several accounts, mainly tax fraud and their abuse of the church. Their actions had finally caught up to them, and Alice was the one to suffer because of it. In the blink of an eye, everything she had was ripped out from underneath her, all because her parent’s church friends ratted them out to the local guards.

After their arrest, Alice was sent to live with her Aunt in another part of the city. Her aunt was the owner and founder of Tenlive’s most well known hotel. It was right in the heart of the city, and the hotel itself was nearly the size of a castle. It was a city inside of a city, and it’s where Alice would spend the last half of her life as a mortal. Her aunt had several homes around Cassinex to call her own, but because she was so involved with her business she saw no real reason to move Alice out there. Instead, she set her up in one of the many hotel rooms and largely left her be. The only real interactions she had with her aunt were things relating to school which needed guardian permissions. Other than that, they were estranged from each other.

While the hotel was extremely nice, Alice didn’t have much in terms of money. She used most of her money on school supplies or clothing, and everything else she stole from the hotel. All of her meals were stolen from the buffet, and her furnishings were taken from other rooms in the hotel or from the laundry room. She was essentially house poor. The room she lived in was fairly empty, and other than clothing she really didn’t have much.

Other than school, Alice had nothing interesting or stimulating to do. Before her parents were arrested she had all sorts of after school activities to keep her busy. Clubs, classes, church related gatherings. Now she had nothing. Once she returned to the hotel after school, it was hour upon hour of nothing. So, in order to not die of boredom or go completely insane, Alice found other ways to busy herself.

Gambling was a staple in Tenlive, and many of the hotel’s patrons stayed there while on holiday in order to have easy access to the nearby casinos. Given how much time she spent at the hotel, Alice picked up on a lot of things. She wasn’t old enough to be allowed inside any reputable gaming house, but she could still play with people around the hotel. All the games and their mechanics didn’t come easily. Alice had a hard time reading people, and she was too focused on winning to actually play. It wasn’t fun to lose, but losing was more fun than doing nothing. The only problem was, with every loss came less money, and she was already struggling to begin with.

Life went on this way for quite some time. Eventually summer rolled around, and now Alice had far more free time with nothing to do. Before she’d spend her days at school and her nights gambling in the hotel lobby, but now her daytime activities were put on pause. She needed to find something else to fill her time, but most people at the hotel weren’t interested in gambling during the day. Most daytime patrons were businessmen or nobles, not people on vacation.

That’s when Alice remembered her time at the church. Her parents brought her there at least once a week for as long as she could remember, but ever since she moved away she hadn’t bothered to attend. She didn’t know this part of the city very well, and she didn’t want to risk going out by herself and getting lost. Now, though, she was desperate for anything to do. So, even if it meant wandering the city aimlessly for god knows how long, Alice went out in search of the nearby Decinnium Temple.

It wasn’t long before she found it. The church itself was only a few blocks away, and while it wasn’t the same one her parents brought her to it had a sense of familiarity to it that Alice liked. It felt more like home than the hotel did. As the summer went on she began spending more and more time there. There was always something to do at the church, even if it was something simple like helping organize the archives or cleaning up. But, seeing as it was available to her, Alice began taking advantage of the church's resources. Much like her parents, she began learning the church's magic in hopes of one day getting her life back to the point it used to be.

Alice was never naturally skilled with magic. None of her family was. Her natural mana pool was fairly low, and while she could put time and effort into expanding her natural talents, she instead turned to the church's many artifacts to supplement her skills. Most lower members of the church did this, so it wasn’t seen as odd or unusual for Alice to suddenly begin training herself with these items. Only the higher members of the church used their own magic, and more often than not it was only to create more of these items. Tarot cards to read the past or gain insight on the future, crystal balls to spy on the world or gain someone’s fortune. All manner of magic items that could be abused lied within the church.

There was only one problem. The church was aware of the repercussions of abusing blue magic and it’s time related abilities. So, as a safeguard and a means of preventing people from getting killed, almost all of these items were created with a vagueness to them. Standard in terms of foresight. Any of Alice’s glimpses into the future were spotty and largely uninformative. On top of that, she didn’t know the correct way to use these items unlike her parents, so information that her parents could use to gain fortune was completely useless to her. She had information, but didn’t know how to use it. And once the church found out what she was trying to do, they stopped teaching her. She wasn’t exiled or banned from the church, but the higher ups there cut off her access to their artifacts.

From the time Alice was fourteen to the time she was nineteen her life was fairly routine. During the school year her mornings were spent at school and her nights were spent either at the church or gambling. During the summer her mornings were spent at the church learning magic to the best of her ability, and her nights were spent abusing this magic to cheat at the casino. Around the year 541, though, the church got a new addition which would change Alice’s luck for the better.

The church of Tilvet has always been about good luck and reading the future. One summer the higher ups caught wind of an upcoming storm. This was a tropical storm blowing in off the coast, coming in from the Sea of Misa. Many of the church members were preparing to help locals near the coastlines clean up the aftermath, but a few of the church members began talking about something a bit more interesting to Alice.

Many magical beasts exist within Mirror Domain, but the ones that were about to be blown into the country as a result of this storm were particularly interesting to church officials. Their foresight showed them images of Tanuki washing up on the shoreline; getting blown off of their homeland of Eon Isle. Being creatures of luck and good fortune, the church wanted to rescue the few stragglers and begin breeding their own. They made excellent familiars, as they had naturally massive mana pools which could easily be tapped into by a skilled mage. The church wanted them to sell, but Alice wanted one for other reasons.

Seeing as her access to the church's artifacts was heavily limited, and even with access to them she didn’t quite know how to use them to their full potential, having a creature who had the natural gift of luck would be a huge asset. An animal couldn’t be as easily restricted as an item could in terms of what it can do with its magic, so long as she could get her hands on one she’d basically have all the luck she’d ever need. With that, she could rebuild her life and get to the same point her parents were at, and then some. With luck on her side she’d be able to do essentially anything she wanted.

Using the information she overheard from other church members, Alice set off to the coast in order to find one of the Tanuki before anyone else. It’d be risky, especially seeing as most of the higher ups could peer into the future, but reading the future and reading minds were two completely different things. If they accused her of anything sinister, she could always lie and claim to have gone out in order to help with cleanup. If she could keep up the lie forever, the future would never reveal it. An unrealistic thought, but that never crossed her mind.

Not surprisingly, finding these elusive animals was extremely difficult. Alice had never seen one before, and from what she’d gathered they were masters of illusion. Even if she did see one, she may not even realise it. She spent several weeks wandering around the coastline of Cassinex, bumming around at nearby hotels and trying to use her limited magic to gain a bit of extra cash. During her search she encountered a fair bit of people down on their luck. Infrastructure in Mirror Domain is not built to withstand heavy water damage, even if they are near the coastline. For the most part she turned them out; only involving herself with them if they had any insight on what the church was up to. There was one person in particular, though, who ended up catching her attention.

During her search Alice encountered a particularly scrawny looking kid. He had fuzzy black hair that stuck out in every direction. He caught wind of one of Alice’s conversations about the church and he seemed to take a particular interest in it. The second he heard Alice talking about the church he butted in, asking what they were up to and where they were. She didn’t really care all that much, but he was insistent. Frantic. He caught on pretty quickly that Alice wasn’t on the same side as the other church members, even if she was technically with them on this expedition. Eventually it came out that Alice was there in search of the Tanuki supposedly in the area, and the second those words came out of her mouth this kid was almost permanently latched to her side.

Alice was not a fan of this child. He almost never spoke, and in the off chance he did he’d say things extremely simple or confusing. His movements were very unnatural, and the whole time they were together he kept at least a three foot distance between them. It was strange, but Alice put up with it. As the days went on he began to take a particular interest in her card games. He didn’t understand how to play the games, but at least he seemed willing to try. Not only that, but whenever he was around Alice’s win to loss ratio began leaning heavily in her favour. There was an odd ambiance to this kid that she couldn’t quite put her finger on, but he seemed to bring good fortune with him wherever he went.

Near the tail end of this expedition something unexpected would happen. Alice and her nameless new friend were trailing along the shoreline, looking for any signs of the Tanuki. She was starting to lose hope by this point. It’d been about two weeks since she’d gotten there, and she’d yet to see hide or hair of these things. But, while walking on the beach with this child she began to notice something. Her footprints looked normal, but his were off. They were far smaller and more condensed; nothing a child of his size could make on his own.

That’s when Alice remembered the illusions. Tanuki were masters at illusion. They were tricksters, and many of them hid in plain sight. She called him out, and much to her surprise the second she did he abruptly changed form. Instead of a scrawny human child, he was now a small fluffy black and white four legged creature. A Tanuki! Just as the church had described! It seemed this creature had been watching the church up close and personal. It’d been using it’s gift of luck and its powers of illusion to stay in close proximity, supposedly to keep an eye on things and find a safe place to hide out.

It’d taken a liking to Alice, and as a result it’d begun lending its powers to her. That’s why she’d started winning more of her games despite not doing anything different.  It seemed this creature liked Alice. It had some level of trust in her, and it seemed to be following her willingly. So, seeing as this was her plan since the beginning, she just ran with it. She decided to name this creature Blackjack, considering it was one of the few card games he was able to pick up on. Sure, he wasn’t good at it, but it was cute nonetheless.

With Blackjack now under her wing, and access to the church's wide array of resources, Alice rapidly began abusing her newfound powers. By this time she was old enough to actually enter the casinos, rather than just playing with whoever was bumming around the hotel. Her and Blackjack were let loose inside, and immediately her winning streak began. The overall goal was to follow in her parents footsteps, using Blackjack’s abilities to ensure their winnings and rebuild her old life. The payout was massive, and Alice started to get cocky.

About three years would go by, with Alice’s scheme going largely unnoticed. During this time she’d won enough to move out of the hotel and into her own place. Her games had turned into something to do in her spare time to an all out addiction, but because her winning streak was so profitable she never saw any issue with it. Gambling became her identity, and she wanted to go bigger and bigger. Her whole appearance changed to reflect this as well. It started with a small tattoo on her cheek, which eventually turned into two. Life was great, but it was all about to go downhill.

Something Alice had been overlooking was the limitations of Blackjack’s luck. He could make her win, easily, but if he was focusing his power on that he’d have to omit anything else going on. If she was winning, there was nothing preventing her from getting caught by the bouncers and kicked out, or worse. Not only that, but Blackjack was also just an animal. A magical one, but an animal nonetheless; so he couldn’t use his powers in the right context. If something made Alice happy, he’d use his powers to continue doing so. But he couldn’t see the bigger picture. An animal has no concept of law and the consequences that come along with breaking them on such a massive scale, so when the guards finally caught wind of Alice’s ploy he had no way of protecting her from what was to come.

By this point she’d more or less been outcast from the church. Once they figured out she was using their artifacts for her own selfish goals they ostracized her, but by that point she didn’t need the church anymore. She had Blackjack’s luck. Of course, being so tied to the church, there were quite a few people that knew of her ulterior motives, and many of them were passively keeping an eye on her. When she started going big, they ratted her out to the guards; much the same way her parents had been years prior.

Alice didn’t intend on going quietly. As far as she was concerned, so long as she had Blackjack with her the two were untouchable. At first she attempted to lie her way out, saying that the church gave her all her artifacts and she’d just been doing what any other seer does, but they weren’t buying it. After that she attempted to make a deal with the guards, but it seemed no matter what she offered they fully intended on bringing her in. Several days of talking and negotiating went by, but to no avail. So, after everything else had failed, she packed her things and ran.

The plan was simple enough on paper. She’d take whatever money she could carry and her and Blackjack would leave the country. They could move somewhere new. Somewhere where no one knew who they were and no one knew their scams. Of course, things wouldn't pan out that way. The church had foreseen her escape plan and they’d already taken preventative measures. Red magic is the magic of reality, generally speaking. The easiest way to combat luck like this was to change Alice’s perception of reality. All they had to do was cast a few spells to alter her and Blackjack’s perspective on the world and their luck would be too focused on making irrelevant things happen to be of any real use.

With everything in motion, the mages of the church met up with the guards to finally put an end to things. Alice would be arrested and one more magic abuser would be brought down. But things didn’t go to plan on either side. Followers of Tilvet are generally blue aligned in terms of magic, so using red magic like this was almost alien to them. They cast the spell, and it hit both Alice and Blackjack, but it did not have the intended effects. Blackjack’s luck managed to get them both out of there, and soon enough the two were on their way to the neighboring country of Cacot.

While on the way to Cacot some very strange things began to happen. Not only was Blackjack’s magic beginning to cause seemingly random things to happen, but both he and Alice started becoming ill. There was a constant heightened sense of danger between them. Alice’s vision was becoming blurred and distorted, and she found herself attacking things seemingly at random. It was almost as if she was no longer in control of her own body.

By the time she figured out what was going on it was already too late. Red magic infection. It’d happened as a result of the churches misuse of the magic they’d used in their attempts to apprehend Alice. It never occurred to her that this may be the case, as Blackjack’s luck would surely have kept her safe. This was wrong, of course. Blackjack couldn’t understand the implications of red magic, and as a result couldn’t protect himself or spades from it. The infection had taken over, and soon enough it became too much. Both of them succumbed to it.

Alice woke up hours later in a strange and unknown place. While she had wound up pretty deep in the wilderness she knew for a fact she was nowhere near the mountains, yet the area she found herself in was nothing but rocky terrain and sharp cliff sides. Not only that, but she didn’t seem to have any of her belongings with her either. Not even her clothes, which were nowhere to be seen. The only sense of familiarity in this new strange landscape was Blackjack, who was curled up beside her waiting for her to finally wake up.

The landscape wasn’t the only strange thing here, though. While Alice could clearly recognize Blackjack because of their link, he didn’t look the same. His face was flattened, and his paws had turned into claw-like hands. Alice had changed as well. There was a heavy weight on her back, and when she looked behind her she found a set of large feathery wings and a pair of hooved feet replacing what she had prior. The colours of said new extremities all matched the tattoos on her cheeks. While she didn’t have any sort of mirror to look at herself in, she knew she looked horrifying.

But that could be put aside for the time being. She had to figure out where she was so she could, hopefully, find her way back home. Or rather, find a way to a new home. So she and blackjack began wandering around the area in search of anybody who may be able to help. First things first, she had to find her way off of this mountain.

Of course, there was no mountain. Not only was alice not in either of Mirror Domain’s mountain ranges, she wasn’t even in Mirror Domain at all. The red magic infection had killed her, and both she and Blackjack were currently wandering around in the infinite expanse of the Void. She’d eventually come to know this, but for the time being she was convinced she’d be able to find civilization if she could just get to the base of the mountain.

It wasn’t clear how long it’d taken, but eventually Alice did find civilization, albeit a strange and archaic one. From faraway it looked like an average yet old fashioned city, but getting closer that couldn't be further from the truth. All of the buildings had been carved straight out of the stone which made up the surrounding area. Those that weren’t were constructed with an odd mixture of bones and leather from god knows what. Not only that, but the people wandering around the city were horrifying. They weren’t people at all! They were demons!

Oddly enough, none of the demons in this city really paid her any mind. Demons in the past were known to attack mortals on sight, but the ones here were strangely just like any other person. At most they wanted to be left alone more than a mortal would, but that was more or less it. Upon realizing this Alice began asking around; looking for any semblance of an explanation as to what happened to her. This is how she came to learn she’d been sent to the Void, and that both her and Blackjack were demons.

The Void was a very odd place. Nothing existed here other than demons and the rocky terrain that made up the place. Technically speaking there was a heavy green magic ambiance as well, but that couldn’t really do much. Not only did Alice not know any magic that’d make it useful, but any spell that may be able to help required material components that simply didn’t exist here. The days here dragged on for an eternity, as there was no sun or moon to indicate time, and the complete lack of things to do made her stay there unbearable.

But that wasn’t all. Many of the demons in the city were less than trustworthy. While most wanted to be left alone, every now and then someone would snap and go completely mad; often attacking or, at worst, killing the demons around them. The few social demons of the bunch all had ulterior motives. Currency down here was essentially anything that could either be eaten, used as a spell component, or used to make items. Of course, because the only things to build with here were rocks and demon parts that meant most demons that got friendly’s motivated involved either killing or maiming someone for body parts or the few belongings they had on hand. Alice very quickly learned that the demons here were not to be trusted. The only trustworthy person down here was Blackjack. He was all she had.

Years went by, and the maddening influence of the Void got to Alice the same way it did to just about everyone. Sure, Blackjack’s luck kept her safe for the most part, but luck can’t make the impossible happen.  While it kept her more or less safe, it didn’t keep her sane. As the years dragged on her mental status only got worse. No one was trustworthy. Everyone was the enemy. Her only real goal was her own self preservation, and being constantly on high alert like that wasn’t good for anybody. Demons who died in the void were gone permanently. There was nothing else after this. This was the lowest someone could go before ceasing to exist forever.

There was hope, however. One thing all demons knew for certain was the fact they could be summoned. It was a well known fact to damn near everyone in Mirror Domain to begin with. The only thing Demons, at least the ones in the Void, knew that mortals didn’t was where they were being summoned from. Every now and then while wandering aimlessly in the Void Alice would stumble upon the other end of a summoning circle. More often than not she didn’t meet the specific requirements outlined on said circle, but it was only a matter of time. Unlike most demons, finding the circle that’d lead to her escape was largely uneventful. Like she had hundreds of times in the past, she just got lucky. That luck led her to her eventual escape.

With a blindingly bright flash of red light, Alice found herself laying in the warm desert sand of a vastly unfamiliar area. Of course, like all demons her memory of the void was immediately wiped upon being summoned. As far as she was aware this was the beginning of her existence. All she had left of her memory was her name. Well, that, and the odd feeling that a part of her was missing. What that part was wasn’t clear, but it was extremely alarming. This “thing” being missing threw her mind into a panic. She was alone, and whatever the “thing” was that could keep her safe was gone. Her mind began racing. Without her missing piece she was vulnerable! But what the hell was it?!

After a brief panic Alice was snapped back to reality by a shrill voice calling out to her in demonic. This person was a small, stout, insectoid looking demon which was standing beneath her. He was so short that even while she was sitting on the ground next to him he was barely eye level with her. If there was one thing Alice knew, it was that other demons couldn’t be trusted.

She immediately hopped up and staggered backwards away from him. Surprisingly, the other demon didn’t give chase as she ran. The reason why, however, was almost immediately obvious. Not only was she in a desert, but there was absolutely nothing around for miles. She couldn’t run anywhere. There wasn’t anywhere to go. Not only that, but the second this demon was out of sight her panic increased tenfold. As much as she didn’t want to be around whoever this was, she also didn’t want to be alone. Something told her being alone was bad. Without her missing piece, being alone was dangerous. So, she cautiously walked back.

This demon introduced himself as Klaus Wicker, although he informed Alice she was to call him Wicker. Last names were far more formal, and he hadn’t summoned her to make friends. Following suit, she introduced herself as Spades. Wicker went on to explain that he was in charge of Mirror Domain’s most long standing and successful illegal trade ring, and that he was looking to expand his empire. Given the fact Spades was able to be summoned by the circle he’d laid out meant she was the perfect demon for the job. He wanted Spades to act both as an extra layer of protection to his other employees, as well as a financial advisor of sorts. While he and his cohort were perfectly capable of crunching numbers themselves, both of them had other more important duties to attend to, and things would go smoother if a third party took care of it.

This offer really didn’t sound all that enticing, but something told Spades it was a bad idea to decline. Wicker was a powerful figure in Mirror Domain, and at the very least being associated with him would give her at least some semblance of protection as she looked for whatever this missing piece was. That, and it didn’t seem like she had much of a choice. They were in the middle of goddamn nowhere, and if she didn’t accept Klaus would have just left her to bake to death in the desert heat.

It didn’t take long for Spades to get adjusted to her new life. As far as she was concerned this was the very beginning of her life, so getting in the swing of things was easy. Everything Klaus had her do just seemed normal to her. This was just how demon life worked. You were summoned into whatever circumstances you ended up in. She was going to play the card she was handed at the very least. It was better than being dead.

While getting a hang of her new job was easy, getting used to her coworkers was not. There were three demons in Wicker’s Crew other than her. Klaus himself was tolerable, but he was narcissistic and self absorbed. The only reason she even bothered playing nice with him was so she could reap the rewards that came with being part of the crew.

Then there was Fennel. Fennel was an odd one, to say the least. She was paranoid; constantly rambling on and on about the most minor or insignificant things as if they were the key to the secrets of the universe or something. Spades was never too fond of her tyrades, but unlike the others she actually wanted to be around her outside of working hours. Fennel was cursed, and Spades’ gift of luck seemingly nullified said curse. Unfortunately for Spades it also nullified her luck, which made Fennel hard to be around. Still, it was better than being alone. Not only that, but Fennel was seemingly the lowest on the hierarchy. Having someone under her made her feel a little bit better. At least there was someone here under her control.

There was more to it than just that, though. There was something about Fennel that Spades just couldn’t brush aside, although what that was wasn’t exactly clear. Something about the way she looked reminded her of, well, something. Something familiar, but something she couldn’t quite put her finger on. Whatever it was, it drew her towards Fennel. Bear minimum it made listening to her insane ramblings and being stuck with average luck tolerable.

While she’s only been in Mirror Domain for about ten years now that hasn’t stopped Spades from getting into a considerable amount of trouble. It comes with the territory when you’re working with one of the most prolific demons in the world’s known history, after all. When Spades isn’t stuck doing Klaus’ work for him she often ends up back at the casino. And with the power of Mirrors at her disposal, the entirety of Mirror Domain is fair game when it comes to gambling. It’s only natural she’d wind up in the gambling capital of the world time and time again. Back to her original home country: Cassinex.

Seeing how much money and power she got upon joining Klaus, it only made sense that her bets would scale to match. Her luck caused her to win time and time again, and soon enough she’d earned a massive reputation for being damn near impossible to beat. This led to some of the more cocky individuals to place some pretty risky bets. Bets they’d ultimately end up losing. Among these people were several of Cassinex’ nobles. Given the reputation she’d made for herself both by her achievements in gambling and by being associated with Wickers Crew naturally brought her into social circles she wouldn’t normally have access to. This would inevitably lead to some sketchy situations, however.

One evening while she, as well as a decently large group of nobles, were in the midst of a game one of them got a bit too overzealous with his gambling. One of the group had managed to beat Spades, which had caused the others to get increasingly rowdy. Their winning streak continued and with each win the lot of them only upped the ante of their bets. At a certain point one of them bet something that hit Spades out of left field.

In what she could only assume to be an attempt to rid the world of one of it’s more dangerous demons, the mage of the group decided to wager his soul. By this point they were all confident one of them would win, so the rest of the group followed suit. Spades knew for a fact these kinds of people had the resources to do such a thing, too. Not wanting to be one upped by the group, Spades accepted and placed her own soul on the table. And, as luck would have it, Spades ended up winning not only the mages soul, but the souls of everyone at the table. By the time the group realized what’d happened it was too late. Spades wasn’t leaving empty handed, either. She’d won their souls fair and square and she was hellbent on taking them.

Of course, taking someone’s soul usually involves killing them, and given these people’s status in the country their deaths would have a myriad of side effects. Her luck had allowed her to win, but it couldn’t prevent the guards from almost immediately catching wind of what happened. In an instant they were hot on her tail with every intent to exterminate her just as they would with any other demon. This event would result in her permanent ban from the country itself. The loss of the country’s nobles was far too much for them to handle, and the resulting aftermath made her one of their top most wanted criminals. Klaus was less than pleased with this, but at least this put Spades on the map for something. Before this she didn’t really have a reputation, and now just about everyone in that region knew her name.

Nowadays Spades continues her work with Wicker’s Crew. She’s still on the hunt for whatever this “missing piece” of hers is, but that’s largely been pushed to the side. Her duties with the crew take precedence over it. Still, she can’t help but think about it every now and then. Perhaps one day she’ll delve into the mystery, but for the time being she’s content causing trouble across Mirror Domain with the help of Klaus’ safetynet.

## **Relationships**

**Fennel Salix:** Spades’ only real “friend” and current partner. The start of their relationship was rocky, but things have smoothed out over the years. It’s less of an active romantic relationship and more of a “we’re stuck together, so we might as well” type of deal. That being said, their relationship is by no means perfect. Far from it, actually. Fennel’s constant self harm and paranoid ramblings tend to annoy Spades, and she’s gotten fed up with it to the point she’ll snap at her whenever she starts doing either. Still, on the off chance Fennel’s having a good day she enjoys being around someone who isn’t either a complete idiot or evil and self centered.

**Klaus Wicker:** Klaus and Spades relationship is more or less strictly professional. She can’t stand his personality, and she finds his use of drugs to be a major irritation. For someone in a position of power like he is, he should really be more responsible. You can’t get anything done in the midst of a hallucinogenic high, and she’s damn near positive one day it’ll end up getting him killed.

That being said, she does find Klaus at least somewhat entertaining. When he’s on a high she can get away with messing with him without getting in trouble for it. She also uses it as an excuse to “borrow” things from the crew’s storage he wouldn’t normally give her access to.