( so that's the game that sunday wants to play, huh. then sure, of course aventurine will play along. for a man who excels at games of chance and what undergoes around the round table of poker, lying comes much like second nature, and he can tell when someone is a poor liar.

he'll give sunday a chance, here. that there's an infinitesimal chance what he says is true - that in penacony, the land of dreams, where death is not possible, he has died, permanently. that the opulent resort of golden peacock is the afterlife.

it doesn't add up - not for a lack of memories from his part, but because topaz is here, and she had been safe, in the real reverie. dan heng of the express, who hadn't even left their esteemed train. aventurine smiles, because the lie does not hold up any truth, no matter how much he almost wishes it does - and he will play along, as he's wont to do. as he has been doing, with sunday. )

My death has always been in the cards, Mr. Sunday. That comes with no surprise. ( this, he can at least admit, because it has always been part of his plans. ) But dead men, unlike those who live, don't have ears anywhere. So do tell, Mr. Dead Man. If I've died from the cut of Nihility, then what sin did you commit, to bring you to this afterlife?