A small crowd was gathered at the mouth of a narrow alleyway. Some seemed curious and excited while others were merely suspicious. At the forefront, Eustella sat, a few crates serving as  a makeshift table and chairs. Her hood was up, the only thing one could see of her face was the smug smirk she wore. In her thin, unnaturally long and jointed hands, a set of cards, across from her, a naive volunteer. Squinting at the cards she held before him, backs turned to her, he gingerly picked one.<br/><br/>"Hmm..." She paused, letting the tension fester. "O' what could it be? Perhaps... perhaps an eight of diamonds?" The man groaned, as did the watching crowds, though Eustella could have sworn she saw gold exchange hands behind him. Begrudgingly, he rolled a coin to her which she didn't hesitate to snatch up, dropping it into a bag already jingling with wealth.<br/><br/>"Good game," she remarked cheerily, waving as he pushed his way through the crowd. "I should like to play again, anyone?" Another fool shuffled forward. She couldn't help but envision a pawn on a chessboard, quick to sacrifice. She'd been here all morning and these people were idiots. No one even noticed that she'd enchanted the cards. Well, dullards and imbeciles they might be, they still served their function as income.<br/><br/>After a few more wins, the crowd seemed to grow bored and dispersed. Eustella didn't care, her pockets were jingling after all. A few more days and she'd be heading off somewhere else, anywhere really, did it matter? No. Not to her. Just keep moving, the philosophy she had adapted through the years. It worked wonders, no attachments and the practice dealing with tossed insults and crude racial remarks.<br/><br/>Gathering her cards, she was just about to depart when a particular loud voice caught her attention. The man from earlier was yelling to a trio of palace guards behind him, pointing at her. He held one of her cards in his hand. She cursed, breaking into a run, only to smack directly into the front of another guard who grabbed her roughly by the arm. Partially on instinct and partially out of frustration, she twisted and punched him squarely in the face. Instead of his grip loosening, it tightened.<br/><br/>"It was her," the man spat (literally, he spat at her feet), waving the blank playing card in her face tauntingly. Eustella resisted the sudden urge to commit a far worse crime. The guard ripped her hood back, revealing pointed ears, blood colored hair and her face in full. Her eyes had gone from normal to dilated, the pupils were eerily snake-like. It was the only sign now of her anger, her face was emotionless as stone. She remained still as the guard holding her arm grabbed a portion of her cloak, producing the bag of coins and handing it to the man. She grit her teeth. He didn't notice or care, happy to be off with all her money. Hey! Not even all of it was obtained through less than legal means. Just most of it... And now she was being carted off by them like an object. Not something she appreciated. The guardsman had yet to release her from his vice-like grip.<br/><br/>"Will it be the stocks for this one?" The guard asked the other. She bit back a groan, it wasn't the first time and probably wouldn't be the last that she had to endure the humiliation.<br/><br/>"Nah," he said, "A day or two in a cell ought to cool this elf off." Her blood froze.<span style="font-style: italic">Nope, nope, nope! Please no, i'd rather have the stocks for a week,</span>she rambled internally. If she wasn't trying to ignore the situation, she'd be screaming obscenities at them no doubt.