"Has anyone seen Celine today," Freed asked as he sat down with his friends in the stands. "Her match is going to begin in a few minutes."
Everyone shrugged. No one had seen her for most of the day since she'd left to go shopping.
"I hope she's ok," Freed said, thinking where she could have been.
After the next match wrapped up, the announcer called the next match to begin, and when Celine's name was called she strode out proudly to the arena.
"There she is," Freed sighed.
"I thought she had disappeared like mine did today," Vect leaned back.
Celine had spent the past few hours wandering the streets deep in thought at what the potion shop owner had said.
She was still pondering to herself as she entered the arena.
'I haven't seen a paladin make any person's life better, unless you count killing monsters. But anyone can do that. And they act all special and superior to everyone else. Those 3 weren't very special.' She began to feel slightly guilty for killing them like she did, but it soon passed when she thought of how they weren't hesitating with what they were doing to her. The horn sounded to begin the fight, jarring her out of her thoughts. The charging centaur was of little concern to her. She gathered her mana and opened a pit in front of the centaur who was charging at full speed. She had meant to make a 15 foot deep pit, but hadn't really concentrated on it and instead a 35 foot deep pit opened up.
"I got you now little kitt- SHHHIIIIITTTTT," he screamed as he fell down suddenly, followed by a muffled thud.
"The winner is Celine I guess. Can someone go and pull Frank out of the pit," the announcer said over the audience.
Celine didn't really care right now though and left.
As they met Celine outside the arena to try to figure out what to do for the rest of the day, she surprisingly excused herself.
"I'm gonna go back to the dorm and get ready for tomorrow, I'm going against that Taegan guy after all,"she said dismissively. "You guys go have fun." And she turned to leave, but glared at Freed for just a moment before she left. 'And you should be figuring out how to fix us Freed,' she thought.
"Well, any suggestions for dinner locations," Jack asked after Celine left.
"I've always wanted to give high elf food a try," Beverly suggested.
"Eh, it's ok," Vect shrugged, "lots of rice and fish."
"Yeah but you grew up on it," Beverly countered, "show us what is best from your home."
Vect scratched his head for a bit before he agreed. "Oh alright. I think Duinir mentioned one on 57th street. Hey Vesper where have you been," Vect's smile changed to mild confusion when he saw who was following behind him.
"Hey guys, is it ok if Neisha joins us," Vesper asked.
"Sure, I don't see why not," said Sara.
"Thank you," Neisha bowed slightly.
"So where were you," Jack asked Vesper.
"Well," Vesper began, "I was busy having an oath of vengeance called on me by some very angry naga."
"What, why?"
"Apparently, Neisha here is actually some kind of hand of god back home and if i caused any permanent damage to her, how did he put it: 'I would have molten silver poured down my mouth and ears ripped off.' So yeah that's a thing...."
"But I worked it out with them," Neisha spoke up. "Again, sorry about that by the way. To keep them from violently murdering him, I had Vesper take a temporary oath of servitude. For the remainder of my stay in the city, he is my bodyguard."
"So, what, he stays with you for the next week and keeps you safe and in return he isn't murderfucked."
"Basically. This is why I wore the disguise, to avoid this situation," Neisha looked down sadly.
Vesper shrugged, "well this is why I really don't care for zealots. On the plus side, you can stay in the city and see the end of the tournament. Now let's eat."