Today was the second to last day Rhonda would be on earth. Whether the transition would happen some time in the morning or some time in the night was anyone's guess, the average speed of deaths had risen slightly over the past weeks as people got better at magic. Most people still went through the fraxions' special strap and decap technique, but almost a fifth of humans entering the arena were able to put up almost as much of a fight as Jake had. Not quite as much of a fight as almost killing a fraxion single-handedly, but enough that fraxions were being cautious and slowing the average death speed even further.
Surprisingly to Luke, there was a small going away party hosted in Rhonda's shop. Most people were giving him enough space to work out, so it didn't really affect him to any real degree, but it did mean he couldn't work on memorizing more spells or potion cauldrons. There were too many distractions around for that.
It seemed it was also a surprise for Rhonda. Apparently, she'd offhandedly told one of her clients roughly when she'd be taken to the arena and they'd gone around to their friends and family alongside her other known clients to organize a going away party for the day she entered the 15th page - the acceleration of death times had already been declining before the recent deceleration. It was an unexpected disturbance to their routine, but not a significant one. Rhonda had planned to spend the last roughly 24 hours resting to allow her magic capacity to fully recuperate; this just extended that rest period by a few hours.
There were around 30 people packed into the front of the shop, with a few tables and folding chairs put down. Most of these people were simply friends and family of those she had helped, rather than the people she'd actually helped. A few of the people she'd given medical potions to were here, fully recovered. Others she'd helped in that way were still in the hospital, only their families attending on their behalf. There were no gifts exchanged; everyone understood they would be meaningless at this point, but there were many thanks given, many people whose lives were better because of the woman behind the counter. Food given freely, more games than could be played waiting to be opened and played.
Around an hour into the festivities, the hooligans walked in, ready to go to their fortnightly sparring session, but paused when they saw the party going on. They circled around it and went over to Luke.
"What's going on?" Brandon asked.
"A sort of going away party for our local potioneer," Luke said. "You can join in, if you want; they all brought a little too much food and I won't leave my primary source of potions alone with a bunch of people I don't know."
"Primary?" Rhonda asked, having heard him over whatever conversation she'd had going on.
Luke called over, "Yeah, I make myself around 30% of the potions you do, at this point. If my efforts were just a few potions, I'd have said 'only,' but it's enough to be considered its own flow of potions."
"Oh, good, thought you were cheating on me," she said before returning to her conversation.
"I knew you were secretly dating!" Jessy said.
"We've never left this building together," Luke deadpanned. "And when we're here, we're working on our own time in the arena."
"So we have a free day?" Brandon tried to confirm.
"Yeah," Luke confirmed. "Honestly, with you having picked up your own magical combat sports and how far I've progressed on healing myself mid-combat, we could stop the spars altogether."
"And not get to try out all the strategies we've thought of to finally beat you?" Dalton asked. "Heck no."
Luke shook his head and said, "Go, enjoy the food and games. Never know when a party will be your last."
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"Dark," Jessy said.
"And leave you alone over here? No, you're joining in the fun with us," Brandon said, forcing the weights out of Luke's hands with telekinesis.
Dalton picked him out of the chair he was in and shoved him over to the group of people, where he reluctantly joined the party. He didn't eat anything, as his diet was pretty strict for optimal endurance gains, but he met the many people Rhonda's potioneering had affected, directly or indirectly. There was someone who was here alone, no friends or family, who he recognized as a regular consumer of her exercise potions. Many people he didn't recognize, but were people or families of people she'd helped make it through extreme sicknesses. Nothing on the degree of cancer, but people who had been hospitalized and ordered one of her potions.
Over a few hours, people got to know each other before they began playing various games. There was a group of six who took a table to play Monopoly together, a large group of people who split off into two teams to play Trivial Pursuit. The remaining 13 people, including the hooligans, Luke, and Rhonda, sat around a large table playing a customized version of Mafia that someone brought.
Not one for that kind of politics, Luke ended up being the one running the game after a brief explanation of the rules. Standard Mafia rules, where there's a day and night cycle and the mafia choose someone to kill, but including the Godfather, Serial Killer, Vigilante, Doctor, Investigator, Bodyguard, Survivor, Jester, and Mayor from Town of Salem and a Coroner.
The Godfather appointed a mafia player to be the one to do the killing the mafia does. That player would be the one to take on the Bodyguard, should the mafia's target be protected by them. While other mafia members were alive, they would be protected from death at night. They needed to have more votes than the town and serial killer combined to win.
The Serial Killer was a solo version of the mafia. They didn't need to vote on who to kill, but also were at risk of dying themselves if the Bodyguard protected their target. They had to kill all of the mafia and all of the town to win, while the mafia had to kill the serial killer and all the town to win.
The Bodyguard chose a person to protect each night. If someone attacked their target, the attacker and Bodyguard both died. They won with the town, meaning both the mafia and serial killer must have died for them to win.
The Vigilante was a town role that could attack one person each night, like the Serial Killer, but would kill themselves the night after killing a non-mafia, non-serial killer player.
The Doctor was a town role that some games of normal mafia included, which could prevent one player's death each night.
The Investigator was a town role that could learn the role of a single player each night.
The Survivor was a role that was irrelevant to the victory of any other faction. They would win as long as another faction met their victory condition, alongside that faction. They were fully immune to night deaths, unlike their Town of Salem counterpart.
The Jester was a role that lost if any group got their victory condition before they won, but did not prevent the game from continuing when they won. The Jester won when they were hanged during the day, then could kill any player that voted to hang them the night after.
The Mayor was a town role that did nothing during the night, but was the only role that could reveal their card. For the rest of the game after they revealed their card, their vote counted as three votes.
The Coroner was a town role that could learn the role of any dead player. Unlike in Town of Salem, there were no reveals of roles on-death, so this was the way to confirm what people claimed in life.
Overall, everyone had a good time. Even Luke enjoyed his time, despite his initial reluctance to join in the festivities.
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As people began to leave, the tone of the party shifted. The gravity of Rhonda's disappearance the next day really began to set in. The friends and family of people, as well as those people themselves, who were saved from potentially terminal illnesses and injuries shared teary goodbyes with Rhonda, while the others that simply bought exercise or rest potions or simply had their hospital visits reduced in duration - rather than having their lives saved - were more reserved.
The hooligans were the last to leave. They'd not known Rhonda much or ever bought one of her potions, despite coming here fortnightly and Luke's occasional insistence on their power and role in his growth; but, they also didn't have anywhere important to be. Today was not a holiday, it wasn't anyone's birthday, it wasn't even a school night. It was saying goodbye to one of the most important people to the largest influence on their magical growth.
When it was just Luke and Rhonda, they looked at each other for a few seconds before silently returning to their normal activities. While Rhonda would be mostly taking a break, she still had a couple potions to do the final processing on. Simultaneously, Luke had more exercising and studying to do. And unlike Jessy's insistence, there was no romantic feelings between the two.
They simply had trust in each other.