The Senaire Battlemage Tournament will be held at Senaire Colosseum. This early notice is for government and military officials only. Specific date unknown, but will be at the end of summer. Official announcement pending.

The various Last Stand crew members began filing into the mercenary hall throughout the late afternoon and early evening. Troy had been the first to return in the mid-to-late afternoon, just as Geren and Shaugh had started up another practice match. The youth had elected to read a book to pass the time instead of joining in, though Geren did catch him stealing a few glances, watching with interest whenever he would turn a page.

Shaugh began cooking dinner when they were done with the match, and the rest of the crew had all arrived by the time he finished. It was good timing as nobody had to eat cold food—or go without, courtesy of Cohn eating it for them. The overall mood of the place seemed to be pretty somber and even a bit prickly at times, like everyone had just finished a difficult task that had taken longer than it should have. Odd, Geren thought, given it was supposed to be a day to do whatever they wanted.

He surveyed the table while slicing a chunk of potato and dipping it in the sauce Shaugh had mixed. Maris, Cohn, and Serana were conversing amongst themselves but not really with anyone else, and they didn’t seem particularly chipper. They had gone to play in the games rooms at Shaugh’s place, where Cohn was notorious for his losing streaks. Maybe it hadn’t gone so well? Jonas was in good spirits after his meeting with Goat, but Geren could tell the urge to go to his desk and work was eating at him; he didn’t usually sit at the table, after all.

Feros was as aloof as always but seemed to be peeking at Lyght from time to time—and him specifically. He didn’t seem interested in anyone else.

There was obviously something on Troy’s mind that was distracting him, as he wasn’t as precise and calculated in his silverware movements and table etiquette as he usually was. He’d even forgotten to dab his mouth after a bite at one point, going three bites in a row before reaching for his napkin. How barbaric.

Gargarel was acting the strangest of all. He was fine, eating his food and laughing at jokes and other banter as it happened, but he wasn’t as boisterous as usual. His face would return to a thoughtful rest on occasion seemingly at random, as if some intrusive thought had penetrated his grin. This was followed by a slight shake of the head before returning to his usual fangy, always-happy-to-be-here grin.

What happened to everyone today? Seriously… seems like some of them had rough days I guess.

Swallowing the mouthful of potato, Geren downed it with some ale and then set his knife down. “Ok, guys! No more days off!” He announced without warning, cutting through what little chatter there was.

Everyone turned to his place at the head of the table, their faces donning confused looks. One face was different from the others. Was that… hopefulness on Jonas’s face? Blasted workaholic man.

It was silent for several seconds as if everyone was waiting for Geren to continue and say something else. Finally, Serana spoke up. “So… like we’re going to start working extra hard? Not wasting time and always trying to better ourselves?”

Cohn followed up when Serana was finished. “Hey, this isn’t because you’re upset I nearly got the best of you yesterday, right?”

Feros scoffed but didn’t say anything. Troy did, however. “Perhaps it’s because of the recent events? Jobs could be much harder in the future, so we have to be ready—”

“Pfft.” Maris interrupted. “You haven’t even been here long enough to talk about jobs being harder or anything. You don’t have enough experience to know what the usual even is.”

Gargarel spoke up in defense of his friend. “So? We may be the new guys, but at least we can use magic!”

“Hey! Not cool!” Serana put her hands on the table and stood up.

“Yeah, what’s the deal with going straight to personal attacks?” Cohn chimed in.

“Your hair is a personal attack.” Maris said, though Geren could tell Troy was discreetly wiping his mouth as he mimicked her voice.

Cohn’s mouth hung open for a moment.“Wait, wha—”

“Would you idiots stop?!” Feros suddenly roared. Everyone who had been squabbling returned to their seats without saying anything else. Shaugh and Jonas shared a look, smiling and shaking their heads before returning to eating. Lyght leaned back in his chair, arms behind his head. He hadn’t joined in on the clown show, instead just watching everyone else while he waited for Feros to inevitably shut them all up.

“Thank you.” Geren said with a chuckle. “Anyway, that’s exactly why. I don’t know what happened today, but some of you seem so uptight and distant. Like you all had a bad day or something. I was going to crack a joke about not letting you have any more days off if you all come back home in down moods, but you didn’t even give me the chance. Sheesh.” He put his hands up as if to surrender.

The ones who had been part of the previous back-and-forth argument looked down, contemplative. “So, anybody care to talk about their day? We’re all family here. If anyone has anything on their mind, you can speak freely.” Geren leaned back in his chair and began to wait patiently,

Cohn sighed and spoke up. “Nothing big, just another day of throwing my earnings away on games. How can one man have such bad luck?”

This drew some much-needed laughter from the table.

“I had pretty good luck, on the other hand.” Maris said. “But spending all day around someone who wouldn't stop moaning about the world being against them wasn’t the best mood-lifter. Who’d have guessed?”

“Hey!” Cohn objected, but everyone else laughed and he relented, reading the room.

“I didn’t participate in any of the games—was just hanging out. But maybe I regret not playing a couple of times at least?” Serana said with a shrug. “Feeling a little regretful. Nothing huge, but man, seeing Maris win game after game kind of made me want to join in. Maybe best I didn’t though since Cohn is living proof of the other side of the coin.”

“Way to rub it in!” Cohn objected again, to more laughter.

Troy cleared his throat as if to indicate in a polite yet expectant manner to the others that he intended to speak next. “I’m not comfortable divulging the details of my day, but I will admit that I have a lot on my mind. There was… much that I left back home when I departed. Much that is still on my mind. However, it is no great concern, rest assured it will not have an impact on accomplishing my duties.”

“Fair enough.” Geren said, leaning forward on his elbows. “Not surprising given your age. I won’t lie and say that I’m not curious, but I won’t pry any further.”

Troy nodded, seeming pleased with Geren’s respect for his privacy while also relieved to have imparted some—if even just a vague bit—of his personal struggles into the open.

“Your turn, Garg.” Troy prompted him with an elbow nudge and a wry smile as he rested his chin on his clasped hands.

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“Hey no fair!” Gargarel grumbled for a bit and scratched his head. “Well I don’t really know what to say. I had a good day, actually! Explored the town some, played some music, got up to some trouble, did some shopping… can’t really complain! I did have some big brainthinks though in between the cool stuff. The kind of brainthinks that you don’t want to have, you know. Nothing major though, just… still trying to figure out who Gargarel is, I guess. Well it’s me, obviously, but you know the old saying.”

“You’re buttering my biscuits?” Shaugh asked with a chuckle.

“No, not that one—although that one’s really good! I really don’t know actually; something about knowing who you truly are or some such.”

“Huh, I can say with full truthfulness that you actually caught me off guard with that one.” Geren said with a chuckle.

“Well, you’re definitely unique, kid.” Geren continued, his face softening. “Take pride in that. You’re one of the most unique individuals I’ve ever met. You don’t have to know exactly who you are at this stage of your life. Like you said—Gargarel is you. There doesn’t have to be anything more to it than that. For now, just be proud of being Gargarel. You can figure out the details on what exactly makes Gargarel Gargarel in the future.”

Gargarel stared at him with an open mouth, all of his teeth and tusks on display. Then he gave one of his signature grins. “Yeah! I’m pretty awesome!”

“Well he didn’t say that...” Cohn said, though Gargarel continued and ignored him.

“I don’t guess what makes me awesome really matters. Not right now at least, like you said. What matters is that I’m awesome! You’ve gone and flapped my jacks, Chief!”

“I’ll pretend that makes sense.” Geren responded with a laugh. “Alright, which one of you is going next? Lyght, Feros?”

The two looked at each other. Feros gave a nod towards Lyght as if encouraging him. Lyght sighed and looked at the ceiling before turning his gaze towards Geren and meeting his eyes.

“Well…” He started before trailing off. “I was having a pretty good day. Went to Almond’s and got those runes identified. Tracked down that kid from the streets I’d told you about who always kicks the ball at me. I was gonna give him a gift I’d, uh, found while on the painting job. Then… he didn’t really like it. Didn’t seem to appreciate it. Ran off back home.”

He shrugged. “Just made me feel kind of like an idiot. Who knows though, maybe he was just in a hurry to get home and didn’t have time to say thank you. I’m probably overthinking it.”

“Found… Yeah right.” Cohn said while smirking to himself. “Be glad Togan likes you.”

It was impossible for Geren to miss Feros looking at Lyght with a glare that would paralyze a common citizen with fear. Even for the typically foul-mooded Feroxi, that was a special kind of fury in those eyes.

“So, uh…” Geren said somewhat nervously. He couldn’t guess as to what had him so worked up. “Your turn, Feros.”

Feros abruptly cut his gaze from Lyght to Geren, losing the glare as he did so. He gave his signature shrug and closed his eyes as if trying to relax. “Nothing really, I just ran into this damned idiot on the way back to the hall. Ruined what was an otherwise good day.”

Geren frowned. Feros and Lyght were best friends, so why would running into Lyght ruin his day? Maybe the kid wouldn’t stop pestering him with sarcasm or philosophical questions. They got home at the same time, so Geren guessed the walk home after running into each other must have been full of those. Feros did tend to lose his patience with that.

“What’d you do today, anyway?” Cohn asked. “You’re not exactly the type to go out and have a good time.”

“None of your business. Just know that it was a good use of my time, unlike how you spent your day.” Feros retorted, opening one eye towards Cohn with a bit of a twinkle in it.

Geren smiled as Cohn began sputtering retorts back in response. He knew Feros frequently spent his off days in western Davied, in one of the poorer residential districts. Most of Davied’s Feroxi population lived there, and Feros would assist them with hunting and the like. They were largely elderly, due in large part to much of the middle generations of Feroxi having been slaughtered fifteen years ago during the Feroxi killings… he still hated to even think about it. Most Feroxi were either very young or very old as a result. Of course, Feros didn’t want most of the crew members knowing he had a soft side, so only Geren, Lyght, and Jonas knew about his forays.

“Okay, everybody, we’re not done!” Geren clapped and got their attention. “Thank you all for speaking up. It means a lot—truly. In all seriousness, I was a little concerned with whatever was hanging over everyone’s heads. Glad to get all that out in the open. Especially because I’ve got some very cool news I was planning on sharing, and I wanted you all to be in a better headspace for it.”

That seemed to get everyone to perk up and pay attention a little more.

“Good, that’s what I like to see. Now! Shaugh and I had a meeting with Gabe—uh, General Gabriel—of the Frelerian army today. He looped me in on a big event that’s going down in the future.”

He let the words hover for a bit, teasing everyone’s ears with the suspense of what the event was. Despite the uncertainty of recent events hanging over their heads, Geren felt like the bravado of a tournament was a good idea. The event was great timing, actually. It would give everybody a short-term goal to work towards and strive for, hopefully helping to take their mind off of other things for a while. The experience would be good for them.

“There’s going to be a tournament down in Senaire. No details yet on the rules or the prize money, but we’re going to be attending.” He paused again as everyone murmured to each other, save for Shaugh who was just shrugging at Troy prodding him for details.

“Who all are we sending?” Jonas asked. Geren knew he wasn’t even asking out of excitement. He was just coming at it from a pure logistical standpoint.

“Anyone who wants to go has permission to do so! Consider it a job of some kind. The job is to do your best, and try to win!”

Cheers resounded, most notably from Gargarel and—surprisingly—Maris. Only Troy seemed to not be excited, looking around at all the others with a look of shock on his face as though he couldn’t believe they were cheering.

“You’re raising my banner!” Gargarel bellowed. “This’ll be great! I’ll get to show off how strong and awesome I am!”

“Oh yeah? I’ll show you just how strong I am even without magic!” Maris shouted back, remembering the comment Gargarel had made earlier.

When the chatter and cheers died down, Serana asked the question nobody else had thought to ask yet. “So… when is it?”

Geren smiled. “Not sure yet, but Gabe said it’s set for the end of the summer. They’ve just gotta figure out the behind-the-scenes stuff first before finalizing it. Security, lodging for the influx of citizens—stuff like that. Either way, it gives us plenty of time to get ready.”

More cheers. “Now, you may have thought that I was joking about no more days off!” Geren yelled. “But I meant it—just not for the reasons you thought at first! We’re going to train hard and long to get ready for this thing. I’ll do my absolute damndest to make sure I do whatever I can to help you get ready. Anybody who doesn’t wish to attend doesn’t have to, but I encourage you to train with us as hard as though you were attending nonetheless. This could be a big chance for some of you newer members to better hone your abilities.”

Nods of agreement and fist pumps surrounded the table. Shaugh punched one fist into his palm. Cohn had summoned a pair of daggers and was excitedly twirling them. Serana and Maris high-fived. Gargarel whipped his axe out and played a few heavy-but-smooth sounds.

Jonas was—wait where was he? Geren glanced behind him and saw the bespectacled man at the administration desk. Of course he was.

Troy sat contemplatively, but gave a half-hearted fist pump as if to say go team nonetheless. Feros was digging his claws into his biceps as he sat there, arms crossed. A ferocious snarl was on his face, but not a hostile one. It… was a very eager grin. Of some kind, at least.

Lyght stood up and walked over to Geren, tendrils of electricity snaking along his limbs. Geren looked the youth in the eyes and saw something. Flashes of blue lightning seemed to be faintly visible behind those yellow-gold eyes. He was smiling, clearly excited.

Geren smirked. “You ready, kid?”

Lyght nodded eagerly. “Yeah… let’s do this. Throw everything you’ve got at me. I’ll make you proud.”

Kid, you have no idea how proud I am of you every day…

Geren patted Lyght on the shoulder. “You will. You always do.”

He turned to the rest of the table. “We’ll show everyone what the Last Stand Mercenaries are made of!”

Thunderous cheers, roars, clinks of glasses, and heavy music notes echoed around the room, answering with an unspoken but resounding yes we will.

Geren had an ill, instinctive feeling that there was a storm brewing on Venterias’s horizon. It was just a matter of when the storm would roll in and begin showering over Venterias’s people. If nothing else, this tournament would give his crew a chance to let loose and enjoy themselves before his fears came to fruition.

He lay in bed that night hoping that he was wrong, but dreadfully afraid that he was right.

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The End of Part One