There was not one, but three demons waiting for me in what I was calling the staging room for the arena. One was covered in armor, like one of the pseudo-guards I’d seen all around the city. He gred our way as I entered, and I couldn’t tell if it was meant for one of us in particur or both. Another demon wore some kind of long, flowing white and green robe. Ofnan didn’t know the words to expin what she was or represented in my nguage, but from what little he’d said on the way, I got the impression that they were someone religious in nature. Perhaps a priestess—or the demon equivalent?

  And the st was someone I’d seen before. The arachne merchant that I’d stolen my cloak from gave me a small smile as Ofnan and I entered the rge room. I couldn’t tell if it was one of smugness or something gentler, but just her presence had me freezing in pce.

  The urge to bolt away boiled inside me, even knowing that I may be unlikely to escape and that it would imply guilt. My mind spun as I cursed myself for being so careless.

  I hadn’t even realized that she’d spotted my theft, having assumed that I’d gotten away with the quick sleight of hand. Yet somehow she’d not only noticed but tracked me all the way here. The other demon I’d stolen from that had quite clearly caught me would have made far more sense, even though I’d clearly lost the tail who’d been chasing me.

  Not that I’d id particurly low afterward, given that I’d joined the arena for a fight… Perhaps it would have been better to wait a few days, no matter how much I needed the support and money.

  As I took a step back, Ofnan blocked my path with an arm and then pced a gentle hand against my shoulder. He began to say something, but I didn’t bother listening, instead vaulting past him toward the door that led outside.

  Several shouts came from my back, but I was already opening it and rushing out before anyone could reach me.

  Three rge figures stood in front of me, their arms grabbing me on the other side. As one lifted me up, I kicked out at the second, who quickly gripped my legs. The three secured my limbs with apparent ease, my tail being the only thing able to swing and smack them, for what little good it did me. Then they carried me back into the room. To my surprise, they simply pced me back down on my feet, one giving me a small pat on the head as he ughed.

  Ofnan was there in front of me before they’d even fully released me, his hands out in a pcating gesture.

  “No fear, Ruby. Do not run. With an iarya here, no harm will come to you.”

  I took a deep breath, not sure what an iarya was or why it would matter. At first I assumed he meant one of the guards, but no, I doubted so. Perhaps the arena’s healer who’d yet to enter? Or was it the likely-priestess?

  As though summoned forward by my thoughts, the priestess took slow steps toward me, her white and green robes flowing as she moved. Hesitantly, she eyed me up and down. I pulled my cloak tighter around myself.

  With a small bow a few feet away, she spoke, and Ofnan poorly transted for me, “She greets you and wishes to know if you are well.”

  “Umm, hello,” I said back, awkwardly. “Yes?”

  There was likely something else I was supposed to say or do, but it wasn’t as though I was particurly familiar with their nguage or culture.

  The two had a brief back and forth, while I looked the unfamiliar demon over. Her horns were different than most demons I’d seen, with branching antlers instead of the single-tipped horns that most demons had. Simirly, her face was far more animalistic than I was used to. Her eyes were closer to the sides of her head, and a snout poked out to form her mouth. It also looked as though most of her body was covered in short, brown fur. I found it difficult to tell, but she looked to be giving me what I hoped was a gentle smile.

  “They will wait,” Ofnan told me finally. “Another who speaks Thelsian is coming, as well as our healer.”

  More of them were coming? I froze, ready to make another run for it, though this time back through the way we’d originally come in. I knew what happened to thieves in Belnoth, and it was nothing pretty. I’d be lucky to keep my hand. Who knew what they did to them here in demon society?

  A hand touched my back again, and I jumped.

  “You worry much,” Ofnan said, in an attempt to console me. “They spoke of your theft to me. Do not fear. This one, Baelis, will… give safety.” He struggled with finding the right words before gesturing at the antlered demon in front of us.

  Not knowing what we were saying, she simply smiled back, looking far too cheerful for someone supposedly protecting me—or whatever it was that Ofnan meant.

  “I haven’t stolen anything.”

  It was an obvious lie at this point, but still better than just btantly admitting the truth.

  I wasn’t sure what sort of political nonsense this was, but he seemed confident that this was the best course of action. Not that I fully trusted him in that. In my experience when it came to the w, it was far better to not get caught at all. Running was still a tempting option, but I feared they might have the other door guarded as well. Plus I still didn’t know the streets particurly well. What I needed was more information.

  “Come, healing.” Ofnan broke me from my thoughts.

  He guided me over to a ft cot that was far too rge for me, likely meant to fit demons much bigger than I. Then he held out a hand, and with no small amount of reluctance, I allowed him to help me into the tall cot. I gave another gnce at the three demons. The arachne and priestess met my gaze with small smiles, while the armored one looked on with suspicion.

  “You’re sure none of them speak Thelsian?” I asked, leaning toward the arena guard.

  He shrugged.

  “Right,” I sighed, eyeing him.

  Did I ask him about the other door, the one we’d entered through, or would that just give me away? Would he even know?

  If I was to run, I would need to take a more convoluted route out, assuming they didn’t have both doors into the room now guarded. Ofnan had mentioned that I was meeting someone “important.” Had he meant the priestess, or someone else?

  The next question was risky, implying guilt far more than the first, but I needed to know.

  “Why are you telling me not to run? What is it that makes you so insistent on me being safe here?” I whispered, hoping he could understand me.

  Ofnan stared back, looking somehow more confused than I was. “You are vyxa,” he stated, as though it somehow expined everything.

  “Okaaay?”

  I jumped in my seat, ready to bolt, as the door flung open. Luckily, I recognized the figure striding quickly in as the healer that Ofnan had briefly pointed out to me in passing before my fight in the arena.

  With barely a word toward Ofnan or I, the rge, gray skinned demon stopped in front of me and leaned down to my exposed leg. He began smearing something around it before wrapping it with a bandage. With a transtion from Ofnan and no small amount of embarrassment, I agreed to open the cloak wrapped around me to let him look over the rest of my body. Only Ofnan bothered to look away, with the other demons apparently not at all bothered by my essentially-nude form. In fact, the priestess moved closer, eyeing every move the healer made with no small amount of suspicion. She made a few barbed comments, for which the healer responded with seeming indifference, never pausing or even looking her way.

  After treating the few other scrapes and cuts that I had, he handed me a small corked bottle full of some kind of liquid, spoke a few words to Ofnan, and then paced back out of the room as quickly as he came.

  Ofnan reached for the small bottle, pulling out the cork with surprising ease and then handed it back to me. “He said you should drink it all, and have blood this day.”

  I looked down at the light blue-ish liquid that was most certainly not blood, but presumably some kind of potion. “Right. It’s safe?”

  “Yes.”

  Bringing it up to my nose, I took a sniff. While not as bad as I feared, whatever the concoction was, it certainly didn’t smell good. I wrinkled my nose.

  When I looked back up, I found the priestess hovering forward, her own nose just a few inches from my face and the bottle. I leaned away, giving her an unimpressed look. Then she smiled and nodded, saying a few words before backing away again.

  “What is this?” I eyed it skeptically, deciding to ignore her.

  Ofnan hummed. “It is… for fast health.”

  Probably something that boosted the body’s ability to heal itself, then? I supposed given my rather minor wounds, it made sense that the healer would give me something a little more mundane like this rather than anything better. He’d been swift and seemingly in a rush, which made me wonder just how many patients he had to take care of here. Given how many fights happened daily at this arena, even with the apparent protections set up, there had to be a lot of injuries to handle, minor or otherwise. The healers—if there even were more than one—were likely the busiest demons in the pce.

  As much as it galled me to drink unknown potions with unknown effects, I also wanted to be as healthy as I could for whenever I next found myself needing to make a run for it. I didn’t know Ofnan well, but he had been genuine enough thus far.

  I sniffed it again. “It’s not going to put me to sleep or anything, is it?”

  Ofnan shrugged. “No?”

  I huffed at the non-answer. Shouldn’t he know? I took a sip of the bitter, watered down concoction, managing not to gag, and then gulping down the rest as quickly as I could. Then I looked back up to the demons, all of them staring at me.

  My lips curled into a frown as I held still to see if anything happened. When nothing immediately did, I let out a sigh.

  After that was little more than a test of patience as the wait for their transtor properly began. With Ofnan being of little help on expining things and insisting that I not run off, I made the dubious choice of waiting to see what would come of this. Whether it was my curiosity getting the better of me or my doubts at being able to escape the guards, I wasn’t sure. Though I was quite sure that things quickly became awkward.

  The priestess figure managed some small talk with Ofnan and the others, but it was surrounded by extended periods of silence. Meanwhile, the arachne stayed mostly silent, occasionally gncing my way. She didn’t demand I hand her cloak back over, despite it very obviously being the one I’d stolen from her. Which was good, since it wasn’t exactly in the best condition since I’d swiped it.

  Rather than the arachne merchant, it was surprisingly the priestess who made me the most uncomfortable, though. Her eyes barely ever left me. Even while speaking with the others, she often stared. Occasionally she would even lean forward, as though itching to come closer. I could tell that she wanted to speak with me, though she seemed unwilling to actually do so. Whether it was because she’d been told not to, didn’t trust Ofnan to transte, or some other reason, I didn’t know.

  On top of all that, she sounded exceedingly chipper in her short conversations with the others. Combined with everything else, I wasn’t sure what to make of her. It only put me more on edge, and so I spent the next few minutes eyeing the room as much as I had my first time in it, just before my fight.

  Besides the two cots there for patients, it was a messy mix of other odds and ends for the stadium. Stands for weapons and armor, most of which looked far too big for me. A whetting stone stuck in the corner. Benches, where one demon had been doing some kind of stretches during my first visit. And even a training golem that looked as much like a humanoid-shaped pnt growing up out of the floor as it did a small tree. If it worked the way I suspected it did, regrowing its “armor” of bark with mana, I had to admit it was rather ingenious.

  The minutes stretched on far too long. It was with no small relief when I heard the sound of rge wings and the thud of someone nding just outside.

  I gulped, fearing that I’d very much made the wrong decision.

  FlitterPuff