Samuel woke up to the sound of his ceiling fan clinking softly like it had something caught in it.
He squinted at the faint morning light filtering through the curtains. Rain again.
The fan wasn't supposed to sound like that.
He rolled out of bed, still half-asleep, and dragged a chair over so he could see.
There, lodged between two blades, was a playing card.
Not just any card.
The Ace of Spades.
Samuel frowned, pulling it free.
It was damp, edges slightly curled, smelling faintly of smoke.
He couldn't remember ever owning a deck of cards. He didn't even know anyone who played.
He tossed it onto the dresser and muttered, "Lord, are you trying to tell me something?"
But the morning didn't leave him much time to think. His phone kept buzzing with messages from the diner's owner asking if he could stop by for lunch said there was someone there he "needed to meet."
The diner was half-full when Samuel arrived. The air was warm, smelling of frying bacon and old coffee. He slid into his usual booth, ordered a burger, and waited.
That's when he noticed it.
On the windowsill, just above his table, sat a battered leather glove the left-hand one, with the fingers cut short.
Exactly like the one worn by Bran the Knife, a smuggler character from Xirathul.
He picked it up. The leather was real, worn down in places where a palm might grip a dagger or a rope. He turned it over, feeling the rough stitching.
A voice cut into his thoughts.
"Nice glove. Yours?"
Samuel looked up. The man standing there was middle aged, with a salt and pepper beard and sharp blue eyes. He wore a brown coat, smelled faintly of rain and tobacco.
"Uh… no," Samuel said. "Found it here."
The man chuckled. "Funny thing, I've seen one like that before. Back west. Belonged to a dangerous man."
They chatted briefly small talk about the weather, the way the rain was making the streets flood. The man left before Samuel could even catch his name.
When the burger came, Samuel pushed the glove aside, telling himself it was just a weird coincidence.
That night, he returned home to find his apartment door unlocked.
Nothing was missing. Nothing broken.
Except… on his desk, placed neatly in the center, was the Ace of Spades.
The exact same one he'd left on the dresser.