“So, how’d it go?” Kila asked eagerly.

Len tried to glare at her friend, but it was hard to direct any real anger at someone who was being so earnest.

“About this well,” she gestured to her trio of stooges. “He straight up told me that this was because I took out his favorite: that Vrek jackass.”

“The guy whose face you broke? Eh, who places their money on a guy like that?”

“The head of the Proving, apparently. Nothing for it. So, Moe,” she asked the more muscular of the three, “what’s your deal?”

“My deal?”

“You know, the whole reason he dumped you on someone he clearly wants to see fail. How’d you end up on his shit list?”

“Desertion,” he muttered.

“Come again?”

“Not sure how to make it any clearer. I got captured trying to abandon the army. Normally it’s an instant death sentence, but he said he had more interesting plans for me and here I am.”

“So, why’d you desert?”

“Because fuck you, that’s why.”

“Huh?”

“I’m not interested in explaining it further. You lot train us up as cannon fodder and throw us at whatever problem you see fit, not giving two shits how many of us die in the process. Can always just grow more, after all. If you can’t see why I’d want to escape from that, you’re not very bright, are you?”

Taken aback, Len stared at him for a moment. One of the problems with the dual memory thing that was going on inside her head was that a lot of the time the prejudices and assumptions of her other memories bled over her human ones. Now that she had a few moments to really ponder the situation the goblins were in, it hit her like a truck.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “Look, I’m new at a lot of this, and frankly I’m playing catchup on a lot of things around here. All I can promise you right now is that I’ll never treat you like cannon fodder. We’re in this together now, and I’ll try my best not to let you down.”

He grunted at her and turned away. She supposed that was as good as she was going to get out of him that night. She turned her attention to the youngest and leanest of the three.

“All right, Larry, how’d you piss off your commander to end up here?”

“Oh, I never had a commander,” he smirked. “I hatched late and skipped that crap entirely.”

She knew it wasn’t unheard of. The growing process wasn’t a precise process and sometimes a gob or two just didn’t come out when expected. Usually they got dug up and either burned in a pile or forced out of their cocoon depending on how far along they were, but from time to time one got missed. Usually they died off pretty quickly alone in the elements, but some managed to survive and tended to make menaces of themselves, refusing to integrate into the society that had left them for dead.

“So, they caught you one day when you got too close to a town?” she surmised.

“Something like that. Look lady, this is a waste of time, so let’s just cut to the chase. I’m fast, I’m smart, and I’m good with a knife. If I see a chance to screw you over for my own benefit I’ll do it in a heartbeat. As things stand, I’m stuck with you and you’re stuck with me. Until this damn death curse is off of me, it’s not like I can go anywhere.”

“They put a death curse on you?”

“Yup, all three of us. Set to trigger the day after the Grand Proving unless it’s removed by the one who cast it. Neat little bit of bullshit, right? I could run away, but unless I get that fucker to willingly remove it, I’m dead either way. So, rejoice at the fact that this thief here is probably the most eager fighter you’ve got since those other two seem about ready to accept their fate.”

“Well, ah, thanks for the honesty, at least. You’re a bit of a dick, but I suppose I can work with that.”

He offered her a smirk and a mocking salute, then busied himself in the far corner of the tent.

“All right, Curly, what about you?”

Curly was rather old for a goblin, probably nearing his late twenties. Typically goblins only lived to around 30 years even if they managed to avoid a gruesome death on the battlefield, so the infirmity of age was already beginning to set in on him. He looked at her with world-weary eyes and considered his words.

“I suppose that they’d call it cowardice,” he said.

“Oh?”

“I’ve seen a lot in my days, watched friends die in all manner of horrible ways, taken more than my fair share of lives too. And I decided I’d had enough. Retirement isn’t an option for us, so I just started refusing to fight. Once my command caught wind of it, well, here I am.”

“So, you’re my most experienced fighter and you’re telling me that you won’t fight, even to save yourself?”

“That’s correct.”

“Fan-fucking-tastic,” she muttered. “Look, I get that it’s a shit deal, but can’t you work with me here for a bit? We get through this tournament crap and I should have enough clout to put you on the sidelines, at least. Wouldn’t that work?”

“I’m afraid that my mind’s made up on this, Miss Wraithwhisper. I’ve taken my last life, and I’m not interested in risking another death even by accident.”

She stared at him for a minute, hoping to find some crack in that resolve. She found none. Sighing, she waved a hand.

“Fine, we’ll work something out. Not sure HOW we’ll work it out but to hell with it, I’m not interested in a team of hardened killers anyway.”

Kila, who’d been silent the whole time smiled at her.

“You’re a good person, you know that, Len?”

“What brought that on?” she glanced at her friend, half annoyed, half perplexed.

“Oh nothing,” her friend grinned. “So, what’s the plan?”

“Can’t really say that I have one yet. Kinda a lot to take in. And, judging by the fact that he gave me nothing besides these three, I’ve got the sneaking suspicion that I’m on my own from here on out. So, any chance I could bum some gear off of you, oh mighty Forgemistress?”

Kila smirked at that.

“Not a chance, you still owe me 100 copper from that last scheme of yours. And yes, I am holding you accountable for things that happened before the proving, deal with it. Tell you what, though, you get me materials, and I’ll do what I can with them.”

It wasn’t an amazing offer, but it was the best Len was likely to get any time soon.