“So, how is today going to go?” Metea/Irric butted in, getting straight to the point. Sechen sat a little taller in her chair, her eyes now intently focused on Rainshear. “What do you need us to do?”

“You three are going to draw our targets out of hiding by challenging some of their apprentices to a sanctioned match.” Rainshear explained, pushing her plate away so she could rest her elbows on the table. “We know that at least three of them didn’t get registered for the games on time, thanks to being hired by Promised Tomorrows to hunt down a certain wisp manifestation, so we’ll use that as our collateral for the match.”

“You think they’ll put Revel up for a chance to get three more apprentices into the trials?” Sechen asked. “I’m sorry, but I think Revel’s worth a little more than that.”

Rainshear shook her head. “No, we won’t ask for Revel as our prize. Not only would they decline the challenge, they’d know we know they kidnapped Revel. That also means you two,” Rainshear motioned at Elach and Sechen, “won’t be there when Metea/Irric issues the challenge. They already know you two were with Revel.”

“So I’ll be on my own then.” Metea/Irric asked, and Elach noticed her body tensing as she spoke.

Rainshear nodded. “Until they accept the challenge, then Elach and Sechen will join you at the park in the hotel across the street once they bring in their overseers to certify the match. When they see who’s part of the group that issued the challenge, their spies will run back to their leaders and my associates and I will follow them and liberate Revel from the group’s clutches.”

Fading into a fantasy for a few moments, Rainshear said nothing with a blissful expression on her face. Metea/Irric gestured at Rainshear in a way that seemed to say ‘see what I meant’, sighing as she dipped a piece of rock-hard toast into the coagulated yolk of her egg and ate it with a crunch that elicited a full body shudder. She rubbed her fingers on a glowing spot under her shirt, showing that Elach could trust her at the moment.

Shaking herself out of her trance, Rainshear coughed once before continuing. “None of you should be in any real danger, since all you’ll have to do is fight another apprentice. It doesn’t matter if you win or lose, unless you really want to compete in the games, so all of your priorities should be on surviving and getting hurt as little as possible.”

Elach scraped his tongue along his teeth, feeling something slice into his flesh and warm blood trickle into his mouth. “So all this Issi infused food is to help us survive the match? Not kill us beforehand?”

“Hey, you’ll thank me when you hit just that little bit harder and can process things just a little bit faster.” Rainshear said but did not return to her own plate of food. That was not a good sign. “Once you all finish up, I’ll take Metea/Irric to the meeting point. You two can go do whatever you want, but you will be at the park a few minutes before noon. That’s when the match will start, if everything goes to plan.”

Sechen pushed away a terrifyingly clean plate. “I’ll be there. Anything to help Revel.”

“If you wait for me to finish I’ll go with you, wherever you’re going.” Elach said, his eyes locked with Sechen’s as she tried to stare him down. He felt that she was under Rainshear’s control, but that there was something in her brain that made it not fully take hold. Almost like what he’d just done. “Why’re you looking at me like that?”

“There’s something different about you. Again.” Sechen sighed. “But I guess that’s none of my business. Let’s go to the hotel’s training area. Maybe someone there today’s seen Revel.”

“Isn’t the park the training area?”

“No.”

Elach waited for Sechen to elaborate, but the only thing he heard was Metea/irric struggling to polish off her portion of Rainshear’s sorry excuse for food.

Rainshear clapped once, an extremely loud boom that made Elach jump and hiss in pain as he banged his knees on the bottom of the table. “Alright, since we all know our parts to play, let’s get this show on the road!”

“Almost time to go.” Sechen said as she glanced up at the clock, sitting on a bench with heavy glass weights off to the side. “Two minutes ‘til we leave. You better be ready.”

Elach glanced up from the floor where he was trying unsuccessfully to do some stretches an attendant had said were supposed to help with flexibility. He’d spoken out against Sechen doing the heavy lifting she’d ended up doing for most of the time, but Sechen had said it was to strengthen her manifestation so she could get better control of it. She rolled her non-manifested shoulder with a hidden grimace, and Elach had to hold back the condemning words that sat at the back of his throat.

Watching her work out with that body of hers was like watching a worm bench-press a fully grown cat. He’d never say it to her face, but it seemed like a miracle she was up and walking. So when she did anything beyond existing it was beyond bizarre.

“I’m ready whenever.” Elach grunted as he stood up, feeling far less limber than a few hours ago. Learning how bad he was at something made everything seem worse in retrospect.

“...We can leave now.” Sechen jumped up from the bench and hurried towards the door, grabbing Elach by the arm as she went. “Rainshear said she’d wait twenty minutes for us to show up, so being two minutes early shouldn’t screw anything up.”

“If you say so.”

Elach let Sechen pull him out of the training area, then fell in step beside her as they made their way to the park. He noticed a severe uptick in people wearing clothes that looked to have cast from the same mold, but he’d expected an array of blacks and greys, not the multitude of bright colours and loud patterns that clad the mostly upbeat crowd.

“This certainly wasn’t what I was expecting.” Sechen muttered.

“Would’ve been easier if they were all dark-robed freaks, right?” Elach said, and Sechen chuckled lightly.

“Yeah, like the freaks we fought last night.” Sechen said, letting the implied ‘without you’ hang in the air. “So, just as a warning, we’re definitely going to lose. They’re going to send people who are as strong as Metea/Irric, and since you haven’t seen her fight, let me tell you that we’re screwed.”

“I figured, but it still sucks to hear it.” Elach rubbed his neck. It felt like he’d pulled something. “So we’re losing out on our chance at the trials to get Revel back, right?”

“Yeah?”

“Well, wasn’t it really important to you and Revel to get more apprentices bonded to her?”

“You can’t bond a corpse.” Sechen sniffed, then wrinkled her nose. “Or maybe you could. Death Issi isn’t really my forte. Oh, we’re here already.”

Elach looked around, catching some stares thrown his way. If they were because of his fairly disheveled appearance, Sechen’s arm and emaciated form, or the fact that they recognized them as Revel’s apprentices, he couldn’t tell. He didn’t see anyone bolt off or whisper into their shirt collar, which he took as a positive, but there was one thing that was in the forefront of his mind; Rainshear’s possible betrayal. Would they walk in there, and never walk back out?

Bile forced its way into Elach’s throat, and he fought against the burning feeling as he walked with Sechen towards the circle of people that had formed in the middle of the park. They all wore the same style of shirts as the people outside, but these ones all had an orange stripe running through the middle of the collar. That was either a symbol of strength, or a symbol of being lower in the organization that they needed a mark to identify them. Elach hoped it was the second, but the Issi coming off the group made him think it was the first.

“Ah, and these must be your additional competitors.” A woman whose shirt was black with purple splatters and a long, purple skirt said, pushing aside some of the other people to make an opening for Elach and Sechen. “Come, come. The rules have already been written, and all there is left to do is sign the contracts and begin the match.”

That was when Elach realized that he couldn’t place anything about these people beyond their clothes. He couldn’t make out their faces, their Issi, or even their voices. He’d assumed the person in the skirt was a woman, but it could have easily been a man or a manifestation who preferred the garment to shorts or pants. An amazing way to hide their identities, but a terrible way to hide their allegiances. He looked over at Sechen to see if these might have been the people who attacked her and Revel, but she just seemed to be a little annoyed at her inability to see these people, not the concealed anger he’d expected if they were the attackers.

Metea/Irric’s face, however, terrified him to the core. It was a mixture of hurt and hatred, hurt when she looked over Elach and Sechen and hatred as she looked over Rainshear and the shirts.

“So things went wrong?” Elach whispered as he got close.

Metea/Irric laughed humorlessly. “No, things went perfectly right. But it turns out the prize was never the trial tickets; it was me. And before you ask, it’s only me. Not you, not Sechen, only me.”

Sechen turned to look at Rainshear, as if hoping she would say something to the contrary, but Rainshear was stone-faced. “Rainshear wouldn’t do that.”

“Well, she did.” Metea/Irric snarled. “Must have gotten wind of me wanting to leave, so she figured she’d get one last use out of me.”

“... Let’s back out.” Sechen said through gritted teeth after a long deliberation. “Revel wouldn’t want this.”

“Too late. Rainshear already worked this out yesterday; signed on our behalf and everything. Only thing I could haggle for was our prize if we win.”

“Did you try and make them back out by asking for something absurd?” Elach asked.

Metea/Irric nodded with an appreciative glance at Elach. “One thing for each of us from the prize hall from them or any of their sub-organizations. And we get to pick them.”

Elach frowned and said nothing. If they gave them a carte-blanche on any of the prizes, they expected to win. Handily. Metea/Irric nodded solemnly, and Sechen looked like she was going to vomit.

“We’re doomed, aren’t we?” Sechen gulped, the colour draining from her face.

“It’s worse than you’d think.” Metea/Irric said. “We aren’t fighting here. They’re taking us somewhere else that we can, and I quote, ‘fight without interruptions from any pesky interlopers’.”

“That’s enough time to deliberate with your fellows.” Shirt and skirt said, tucking something into a bag that Elach hadn’t noticed. “Once the competition has begun, there will be no pauses until one side has been completely and utterly destroyed. Killing is frowned upon, and will result in the disqualification of the party that deals the killing blow, but any debilitating or permanent injuries are allowed. Rounds last for five minutes, during which no outside aid may be provided or added to, and participants are not required to switch out between rounds.”

“What about support applied between rounds?” Sechen asked.

“It is allowed, but if it is determined that the support raises a combatants strength above the maximum level determined by both parties they will not be allowed to fight until the power has worn off. No more questions, now, as we do wish for this to be completed before dinnertime. Mason, begin the transportation ritual.”

Elach blinked as the person’s name the representative had called out slid against and out of his mind without taking hold, but he grasped at it just before it fully left. Mason. He fell to his knees as the Issi washed over him, and it felt frustratingly familiar to something he’d felt before. The existential bleed, he realized, had initially felt like this when he’d taken it.

That was it. That was how he was going to get out of this alive. How Metea/Irric could stay free. And all it would cost him was another two weeks of his life, and an all expenses-paid trip to who knows where. It might create more questions about him, but he wouldn’t be there to answer them. But… what if it wasn’t enough?

Elach shook his head. He couldn’t think like that. Sechen wasn’t the… kindest… person, but she seemed to be carrying some baggage she wasn’t willing to show. And Metea/Irric had been so utterly controlled by Rainshear that she had barely lived her own life for quite a few years. It couldn’t be a coincidence that everything had come together right at the moment the existential bleed had sent him here.