I awoke the next morning with a terrible hangover. There was only so much that decent stats could protect you from. They could make it easier to deal with sleeping on hard ground, pushing yourself through difficult work, or moving more fluidly than ever before. A hangover though? It must take a much higher CON than I had for that to no longer be a problem. I groaned and pushed myself up out of bed. Nothing looked familiar, but I assumed I was in a room owned by Tristus and Tib’s family. I looked around and saw a pitcher full of water with a cup next to it. I poured myself a glass and drank deeply, then had another. After that I found a basin with water and a washcloth and I took the time to clean myself up before putting on some fresh clothes and heading out.

It felt like it was late morning, and I followed the sound of voices until I found their source. My companions were all sitting along a table that was headed by Tristus, with Tib on the opposite side. Tib was holding his head in his hands, a piece of plain bread in front of him, and a cup of water beside it. He had deep circles beneath his eyes, and looked exactly as I felt. Nica was sitting next to him, insisting he try to eat a bit more and looking very concerned for him. Everyone else however, seemed to be in great spirits.

Millicent waved at me. “Cor, welcome back from the land of the dead.”

I shook my head. “I’m not sure I’ve quite left it yet. I may even return at any moment.”

That drew a chuckle across the table.

As I sat Patience gave me a light pat on the back. “I didn’t think you were so much of a drinker.”

“I’m not. Just got a little…do you have the phrase ‘lost in the sauce’ here?”

“No, but it’s not a difficult phrase to parse,” said Millicent.

I nodded up at Tristus. “Thank you for the room and everything. The water, and the basin went a long way toward making me feel better.”

Tristus smiled. “Of course. It was Patience’s suggestion though.”

I looked at Patience who was making a point of looking away, so I decided not to push it any further.

“Food? We have fruit, sweetbreads, and a bit of meat,” offered Tristus.

I was feeling better after drinking the water and cleaning up, so I loaded a small plate with a little of everything, much less than I’d eat on a typical morning, but more than I expected to be able to stomach when I'd first awoken.

Tib just looked at me and my plate and frowned. “How?”

I shrugged. “Benefits of being a half-elf I guess? You going to be alright though?”

He nodded. “I have to be, considering what we agreed to do last night.”

I paused in the middle of buttering some bread. “What…what did we agree to?”

“You don’t remember? You let that Orc woman flirt you into having us sub in for her and her two partners in the arena today?”

“I what?”

Tib gave a dramatic and heavy sigh. “Gods. You’re the one that convinced me to do it last night, and now I have to explain it to you. We spent some time drinking with a woman named Krush Bloodsong. She and her friends are in the midst of a tournament. Teams of three. They made it to the second to last round, but were all heavily injured in their last fight. You agreed to sub in for them so they didn’t have to pay the dropout fee. For only twenty gold I might add.”

I pulled up my quest log,

Triple Threat

Participate in the triples tournament as a substitute for the Smash Queens

Reward: 20 gp, XP, Renown

Well, there it was, plain as day. I frowned. “I’m sorry Tib. I uh, don’t ever really drink that much. I’m surprised I was such a pushover.”

He shook his head. “You were holding out for more for quite some time…then you started drinking liquor from her abs. It went downhill from there.”

I blushed, feeling heat spread all the way to the tips of my ears. I risked a glance at Patience, and was surprised to find that she was on the edge of laughing, and making eye contact with me broke her, sending her into a laughing fit. The fit spread from her across the rest of the table, even hitting me and Tib by the end of it.

I looked over at Tib. “Well. Thank you for putting up with me, and helping me too.”

He shook his head. “It’s the honorable thing to do. Besides…I was quite in my cups as well. I may have been encouraging you a bit more than I should have.”

I smiled. “It’s three man teams you said? So we’ll need a third?”

He nodded.

“Any volunteers?” I asked, looking across the table.

Millicent shook her head. “My spells are too lethal. A tournament fight frowns on that. Unless it’s accidental. My spells…wouldn’t be.”

Patience shook her head as well. “I don’t like fair fights.”

Zevrack raised his claw. “I would very much like to go.” He tapped on his modified muzzle he was very delicately eating around. “I can finally test this out!”

I tilted my head at him. “Is…is fire considered nonlethal?”

Everyone at the table just kind of shrugged.

“There are life-priests at the Arena. Burns shouldn’t be a problem for them,” offered Tib.

I nodded, “Works for me. What time?”

“Late afternoon. Hopefully that’ll be enough for me to feel up for some fighting.”

“So strategy. I guess Tib up front, Zevrack on harassing them, and I’ll fill in wherever?”

Tib nodded. “It’s as sound a plan as I’ll be able to come up with any time soon.” He stood from the table. “I think I’ll go lie down for a while.”

Nica stood with him, shooting me a smile as they walked away. I got the impression she liked that I got him to have a fun time, even if she was stuck with the cleanup.

After he was gone, the rest of us spent our time eating and chatting until late morning became early afternoon. “I suppose, since Tib isn’t here, I should be the one to say that everyone not fighting should probably stick with Tristus at all times.”

Tristus laughed. ‘That shouldn’t be a problem. I’ll be in the stands during your fight. No way am I missing you and my cousin fighting in the pit after an epic night of drinking.”

Patience let out a breath. “Thank Death. I thought for a moment you’d take us shopping again instead.”

Tristus raised his eyebrow at her.

“Not that I had a bad time. I just didn’t realize how many damned types of fabric there were. Wool is really the only one anyone needs.”

He shook his head. “Croftons.”

Zevrack straightened up a moment. “Be right back.” He went out of the room, and returned with two boxes. One small and the other medium, that he placed in front of me.

I raised my eyebrow at him.

“You said you trusted my taste? I picked these up for you.”

“Oh, thank you.” I had completely forgotten that conversation, and I was fairly certain I meant it as a joke to begin with. Nevertheless I decided not to make a fuss about it and opened up the large box first. It was an outfit. I lifted it it out to take a closer look and found it to be a match for what patience was wearing, just larger. I looked at Zevrack, “Why’d you pick this one?”

Before he could answer Millicent spoke up. “Because he noted how often you stared at Patience’s clothes and assumed you wanted some for yourself.”

I felt the heat rise up to my ears for the second time. Patience was openly grinning, enjoying my discomfort. Luckily, I had the impression that was a good thing rather than a bad one. “Well, thank you Zevrack.” I held up the clothes to have a closer look. Another set of all black clothes wasn’t the worst thing to have. “These look like they’ll fit well too.”

He nodded. “I gave them your measurements.”

“How…how did you have them?”

“From looking at you?” he said, with a tilt of his head.

“Ah, of course.” As usual, Zevrack continued to impress me in new ways every time we spoke.

I moved to the smaller box and opened it. Inside I found a small mirror, and my own reflection. Yep, still part elf. No scruff, which meant that the elf half canceled out the need to shave from the human half. The non-circular pupils were still a little strange, looking a bit more octagonal than circular. I turned them up to look at Zevrack.

“Do I really seem that full of myself?”

Zevrack cocked his head. “How could one be full of themselves? Do you mean like the snake river?”

I sighed. “Don’t worry about it. Why did you pick this one?”

“It’s shiny!”

“And that applies to my tastes…how?”

He blinked. “All sapient creatures like things that are shiny.”

Patience nodded. “True.”

I flipped the mirror around in my hands. “Well thank you Zevrack. I appreciate you keeping an eye out for me.”

He nodded and gave a sharp tooth grin.

“You get anything for yourself?”

“Tools. Metal. Borrowed a blacksmith’s shop.”

“Yes, he spent the entire time working,” said Tristus enjoying a grape in a way that somehow seemed indecent.

“Do what you love and you never work a day in your life,” I said, and immediately felt ashamed of trotting out that cliche.

Everyone nodded. “Wise words,” said Millicent.

Maybe I’d say ‘live, laugh, love’ next.