A sharp burst of pain. A crack, loud as a gunshot, simultaneously in and all around his skull. 

[i]And Matteo dreamed.
...[/i]

With a sound like draining water, light and color flooded back to his darkened senses. Vaguely he remembered sitting up, the world tilting, head spinning like a night after too much liquor. Oddly, the feeling was not unlike much of the training they’d put him through at the Thieves Guild. Pain. Poisons. Matteo’s lips moved, shaping a vague mumble, his hands reaching up to clutch the sides of his head.

[i]In his dream, his hands were full of cards. His eyes, glasses intact,  scanned their values. It was a good hand. A winning hand. Kings and aces stood out in sharp relief as he shifted his gaze beyond the piles of chips to the other player, masked by shadow--[/i]

What was happening? Knowing that seconds could be crucial, life-or-death, he forced his thoughts to process everything around him. [i]Think through the pain, think through the pain... right...[/i] A goblin scrambled past him as Matteo sat up, turning to look after the beast. The world warped again as he oriented himself towards the stream, struggling through the throbbing and confusion. [i]He’s got Ash.[/i] Was there anything he could do to make the goblin drop its weapon?

[i]...The other player was faceless, hidden, unreadable. Rising panic choked Matteo as he glanced back at his hand and saw his cards had changed. There was no time to make a recovery, not this far in the game. His mouth went dry as he realized the chips on the line were worth sixteen years of textbooks...[/i]

It was strange, how a person could move on just momentum. How even staggering, unsteady steps in the right direction could build up force and speed. [i]I feel like we’ve talked about this before.[/i] Was it at that first meeting-- that one meeting-- when they'd gone on and on how you didn’t need any experience or athletic ability, all you needed in the beginning was technique? Why was it so hard to remember?

[i]The dealer’s fingers turned over the last card--[/i]

As he lunged, arms outstretched to tackle the goblin straddling Ash from the side, Matteo wondered [i]why it felt so familiar.[/i] He turned his face aside instinctively and felt his aching head and chest collide with the creature-- he had to hope the momentum would be enough to knock the creature off Ash. Matteo was no heavyweight, but he weighed enough that maybe, [i]maybe[/i], he could pin it down in the water...