From his position on the ground, Victor looked up at Elya and, unlike the first time they met, he was able to see her properly. She still looked how he remembered her, despite the fact that she had different people with her and was wearing clothing instead of the armor that she had on at that time.

Seeing that she had extended her hand out to him, Victor took it and was helped back to his feet. He quickly checked his person and thought that there didn't seem anything missing. Although a mental shiver went through him as he imagined what would have happened if he still had that fang and had fallen upon it.

He knew that he would be able to extract it like he had with Drelt, but didn't really like the idea of something like that being inside of him for any period of time.

"Haven't seen you in since we parted ways in Orlayns Wave. I hope you’ve been doing alright. As for how I got here, I just kind of followed where life seemed to bring me and I found myself here. Are these some of the other people you work with? I only ask since these aren’t the same people I saw you with last time."

Looking back briefly at the two people with her, Elya shook her head, "Nope. One is my slave and the other is a friend I made several years ago when I was here. She always makes sure to be here this time of year, even if her job has her away normally."

A quick look at the pair told Victor that the young man was the slave while the woman who, likely, had some elven lineage was the friend.

"That didn't answer my question though. Did you come here to take part in the tournament?"

Drawing his attention away from the slaves' earring, Victor looked back towards Elya.

"No I know I wouldn't win any level of a combat tournament. You should know based on how well I did when I was with you. Why risk getting hurt when I have no chance of winning? I have a slave though who thinks he could do quite well in the tournament though. I might let him fight."

Elya smiled softly, one side a little higher up than the other, "Is that how it is. From lost and alone to having your own slave. You must be doing pretty good for yourself. Why not join us for a late breakfast or an early lunch and we can catch up a bit. Unless you got plans."

Running his hand through his hair, Victor had a quick mental debate on if he should accept.

"If it isn't a bother I suppose I could join you," Victor said putting the final choice on her, "I don't have anything to do until about the late day bell. I got a math test to see if they want me for a job tomorrow."

“As far as my slaves go,” Victor said, but stalled a bit to finish, “I got them from the defective product cart.”

Putting a hand on Victors' shoulder Elya looked at both of her companions.

"Then it's settled. Victor you're going to join me and Tseli'etro for a bit while I send Wynd back to the bunkhouse to drop off some things."

A quick nod from the slave was all that was needed before the young man ran off carrying the things that he had with him.

"A great purchase honestly. I only bought him because I thought he killed the people who rented him previously and planned to be reimbursed when I was able to prove it, but this is better. Sure, it’s not for life, but I’ll enjoy the time I have.”

“Anyway, Victor this is Tseli'etro like I said. She is a wonderful songstress who can use what little mana she has to make it even better. Although I think she is great even when she doesn't use her mana."

Rolling her eyes, Tseli'etro walked away from the pair, "I told you not to use my stage name when I'm not working."

Letting go of Victor, Elya chased after her friend, "Well your real name is long and hard to say. I mean honestly who picks a name like that for a kid? It has to take you twice as long to say properly as anyone else would with their own name."

A bit hesitant about butting into the conversation, Victor decided to just follow the pair for the time being.

"Tselirku'evendika'priketro is not that hard of a name. My grandfathers' name was about three times as long as mine is and nobody back home had trouble pronouncing it."

"And you," Elya snapped back, "Claim you can't remember my name because of how short it is."

"It is only two sounds,” Tesli’etro exclaimed, “A proper name needs at least four sounds so it's obvious who you are talking to. That's why I demanded that my stage name have four sounds minimum to it. tse-lee-eh-tro."

As the duo argued, Victor considered leaving since they seemed like they didn't need him around, or even notice he was there. At least until he was dragged into the conversation.

"What about Victor there? Do you think that you would have a hard time remembering his name despite it being so short?"

The woman looked at him and shrugged, "Well his name is a proper word that can be used in conversation so only have three sounds isn't too bad."

Victor thought to himself how she said his name had three sounds to it. It sounded like she was talking about syllables which meant his name had two. After a moment he realized it was probably something related to the language barrier that he was somehow able to not have to deal with since he was brought here.

"Thanks?" Victor replied unsure of what to say, "I mean I sometimes get called by just the first half of my name, but not usually."

After some more back and forth about naming conventions in different communities and what constituted odd and normal names within them, the conversation came to an end. In the end, the elven girl agreed to let herself be called Tseli'etro, but only so long as it wasn't said loudly. It turned out this was the same deal made between the duo every year since they became friends.

When they all got to what turned out to be a cafe, the trio sat at an outdoor table at the edge of the shade and sunlight.

“Anyway,” the woman said as she turned her attention away from Elya, “Victor, are you one of Elya's suitors?”

At the same time that Victor found himself unable to speak, Elya let out an irritated sigh, “Not every guy I talk to is a suitor. You’re sounding just like Lady Perte. I swear what is it with everyone wanting to see me get married off?”

“Maybe,” Tseli’etro rebutted, “it has to do with how amazing you are, how amazing you look, and how you’ve already risked your life enough to retire if you wanted to.”

Elya rolled her eyes a bit and flagged down a waiter to the table, hoping to move the flow of the conversation by ordering for everyone the second that he got to the table.

“We will all have the tea of the day, except don’t put the fruit in hers unless it’s seedless. Then we will have a sweets sampler unless that is fully sold out in which case just some dipping bread and sauces.”

“Sounds like you’ve been here before,” the waiter noted, “I will let you know that our sampler isn’t as big as usual because our honey supplier is late. Should I put some bread on to make up the difference or would you like some of the more sweet fruit instead?”

“Whatever provides the most treats without adding to the cost will be best.”

Victor felt a bit glad that he didn’t need to worry about ordering, but was suddenly unsure about how the bill would be handled. While he was the one invited he didn’t want to assume that he wasn’t paying his fair share. That said he also thought that since he didn’t order anything for himself it made it a bit more uncertain what his financial contribution should be. Before he was really given the time to get too far down the path for that thought process, Tseli’etro spoke up once again.

“Now you find Elya appealing right? She is fit, healthy, has good connections. Would you be interested in courting her? If so I can give you some pointers on her likes and dislikes.”

Unable to help it, thanks to the priming, Victor looked Elya up and down. She did indeed look fit, more so than him, and certainly had an appeal to her, but there was something he couldn’t quite put his fingers on that seemed to be missing. He did this for a bit until Elya coughed, making him realize she knew what he was doing.

Feeling more than a little bit flustered Victor suddenly looked away from Elya and turned his attention to the table, wondering when the tea would be brought.

“I mean she isn’t…. I wouldn’t exactly be opposed, but….. I kind of got things I want to try to figure out before I even think of dating.”

While one of his plans did involve getting himself a stable life in this world, it wasn’t the plan he wanted to work on quite yet. If he found someone now and was able to go home, he didn’t want to deal with that emotional grenade.

Tseli’etro wrapped an arm around Elya, “Give the poor guy a chance. How long has it been since you had a proper date? And I mean a proper date, not one of those I’m only doing this so people will shut up about how I never date dates?”

“Isn’t that all this would be?” Elya inquired as she shoved her friend off her.

Raising her right hand over her head, Tseli’etro smiled, “Fine I won’t bring it up again until the tournament's over. That said, however.”

The slightly taller and more slender woman leaned across the table to get closer to Victor, making him move back barely enough to be noticeable.

“Have you seen my performances before? If not I’ll make sure you get some backstage perks. Maybe after you and I could watch the sunset and have a meal just for the two of us.”

Victor couldn’t help it as his face went bright red as the woman softly touched his cheek and smiled at him. The way she slowed her words as the last sentence ended also did something to him and he found himself unable to speak for a moment before he snapped back to reality. His shift back to reality was thanks to the waiter bringing tea to the table.

Picking up his tea, which looked to have a slice of green fruit in it, Victor took a sip and was finally able to speak again. The slight bitterness that the drink had seemed to prompt him even more.

“I’ll see your show,” Victor said loudly, reigning in his voice before he continued, “Well I mean I’ll probably see your show. I just need to know when and where and that sort of thing. I just have to keep my plans into consideration is all.”

In reality, he meant his budget. He didn’t want to leave Dorun, Drelt, or Alena behind. The problem was that if she was as popular as some of the idols back home, Victor couldn’t imagine the tickets being cheap, even in the cheap seats.

Feeling her hand being drawn away, Victor didn’t notice as Tseli’etro peeked at Elya briefly.

“So my show is two days before the general tournament starts. We let people in about halfway between the midday and the late day bell. The show will start when the late day bell rings until I finish singing. As long as stagehands can keep up the vocal support I plan to sing until the moment that the sun touches the horizon.”

Thinking about the few concerts Victor had gone to, one at an open park and two in an auditorium, he started to wonder what sort of tools or magic they would use to make up for the lack of a microphone and speakers.

That thought process only lasted about ten seconds when his mind drifted back to Doliy and the fact that she was able to cancel and muffle sounds at will. Thinking himself a bit clever for remembering that, Victor instantly realized that there must be magic, tools or spells, that could amplify someone's voice as well.

"So," Victor began to inquire, "Do you use magical tools or do you have casters of some sort that help you out so everyone can hear you?"

Sipping her tea, Tseli'etro watched a tray of treats that were being brought outside but realized that what she was hoping was theirs was being brought to another table.

"Slow service," She complained, "Well the food's good at least. As for how, sorry you don't get to know that until you meet me backstage after the show."

"Speaking of which I should know where you're staying so they can deliver your ticket."

Victor quickly told her that he was staying at the Ivory Shore Inn with his slaves. Just as he was about to ask about some extra tickets he heard her say something that froze him to his core as everything was said.

"I stayed there before," Tseli'etro said as she watched another tray of sweets, this time finding its way to their table, "Great place honestly. I remember the first time I stayed there my manager forgot that he had a slave in their little slots. I remember he complained so much that the workers never bothered to ask him about it or even mention that he forgot to pay for food and water services."

“The slave nearly died and was coated in its own waste after being locked up in there for days. I can understand why the Inn made him pay for cleanup, but they should have reminded him about things when the prepay ran out.”

While he didn’t have claustrophobia exactly, Victor couldn't help but imagine himself in that situation. He imagined it was like a coffin, which was how he got a vivid image that started to overpower him. Logically he knew that this sort of thing was likely to happen, but hearing her speaking about the cruelty so casually he couldn't help but freeze and put down his tea as his mind raced elsewhere.

He didn't like to talk about it, but he found himself thinking about something that happened when he was eight years old. It was the reason that he was able to vividly imagine what it was like being inside of the holes in the wall.

Once during the summer some of Victors' cousins came over for two weeks, while their parents took a business trip to Las Vegas. It wasn't terrible as they mostly stuck to themselves, being teenagers already, but one night when they were babysitting him was different.

Likely because of how big of an impact the most vivid parts of that day left on Victor, he didn't quite remember how it all began. His parents were going out for dinner and a movie, trusting the cousins to babysit for the night so they could get a night out.

Despite the fact he was sure there was pizza and that they played some games, those were only minor fragments that he knew could just be him mentally filling in some gaps. The only reason that Victor was even sure about that was because of the mocking that happened just before he was locked in the coffin, or champions pedestal as his cousins called it. Unless that was something his mind added to try to make sense of it as well.

He had won some game so many times and the cousins decided to teach him a lesson to not get too high and mighty about winning at something that didn’t matter.

He was certain that there was a lot of struggling and squirming. At one point, if Victor remembered right, he even bit one of his cousins hard enough to taste blood. None of it mattered in the end as he was crammed into a coffin and despite all of his best efforts, he was unable to get out.

The memories were causing Victor to lose all sense of himself and his surroundings as he started to noticeably hyperventilate. He didn't even realize that the two people at his table were trying to get his attention as his mind was locked on his time in the coffin, and mixing it with what he imagined a time in the wall holes would be like.

He didn't learn until he was let out of the coffin, but his cousins went out of their way to make it extra dark by putting blankets on the coffin before putting the weights on and turning off the lights in the room. Since it was in a storage area, to begin with, since there was a funeral the day prior, there was only one window that had heavy curtains.

Claustrophobia didn’t exactly describe Victor since small spaces didn't bother him much. If he knew he could just leave them if he wanted to it didn’t matter how small the place he was was.

Being confined to a single area didn't worry Victor too much either, so long as he had plenty of room to walk around and do things.

It was when you put the two together that Victors' heart began to race, his breath got short, and he started to lose all sense of who he was and any form of logic that he had about him.

For several years after his time in the coffin, he even feared the dark, something Victor never remembered being afraid of until that moment. It was something he overcame, but in his memory, he saw nothingness. Even now, while he was able to see, it was as if there was nothing being noticed. A darkness that overpowered him despite the bright light of day.

All at once, Victor began to twitch and squirm while he screamed out a string of expletives, but it was short-lived as the scream was replaced with one of pure pain. It was so overpowering that he went limp in his chair and Elya took her hand off his shoulder.

"I think we should take him to see a medic or something."

Nodding at her friend, Tseli'etro put out the coin for what they had bought, apologized to the waiter who was dealing with them, and took one of Victors' sides to help carry him away.

The duo didn’t think too much about it beyond he needed some help, but the people who had been following him to see what sort of person he was and what he did all made note of it, ready to report their findings to their individual employers.