By the time the group reached the archway, Arlene and Morwen could walk on their own.

Tobo, Dilgur, Bertha, Brea, Gar, the medics, the bodyworker, and several attendants stood around, eager to see how the new arrivals were doing.

"Are you quite alright?" Tobo asked upon their entry through the arch.

"Good as new," Arlene said with a hint of sarcasm.

Andy found a bench beside the food table. He sat down, deciding he was going to eat straight from the table, no plate necessary.

Watermelon, toast with butter and jelly, some kind of guacamole-adjacent dip… Andy had suddenly become starving-ass hungry, perhaps as a result of the immense stress he had been under, and he took large mouthfuls of each item, barely swallowing before picking up the next one.

"Slow down, there, ace. You don't want a stomach ache in the third round."

The voice belonged to Morwen.

"Sorry for, uh, cracking your skull back there," Andy said with a mouthful of watermelon.

"No apologies necessary," Morwen said. "You fought well, and you struck true. I would have done the same to you."

It was an odd compliment.

"Ye fought 'ard an' well."

That voice was Bertha, the fighter guild master who had given Andy the Favored Weapon, Great Sword feat and had begun training him out of his habitual freeze response. She strode up to Andy and Morwen, grabbing a weird pretzel-type baked good and stuffing her own mouth.

"I can't believe you smashed 'er face in," Bertha continued between bites. "I've been tryin' to do that fer years."

Andy nodded to Bertha, smiling. But he didn't much feel like having a conversation right now. He really wanted to go lay down and pass out for the remainder of the intermission.

He had used his Drain feat to almost completely restore his health, and this watermelon was finishing off any damage that hadn't been repaired already. But his fatigue was not primarily physical.

He had just met Arlene and Kermit a few days ago, and already they seemed like best friends… family even. And he had just watched Arlene get brutally stabbed, almost bleed out, almost die.

Andy never wanted that to happen ever again. But he knew that the third round would be the most brutal of the three. It had to be.

The Noble Court had not succeeded in snuffing them out, neither a baking competition nor engagement with a veteran fighter had brought them down, not entirely anyway. They had made it out of the arena. Barely. Round three was the Noble Court's last chance to have them publicly executed with plausible deniability, though that deniability was growing less plausible each round.

He didn't know what was waiting for them in the next round, not exactly, and his guess was that no one in this hall would know either.

But the actions of Dilgur, the bodyworker, Gar, and the medics all gave Andy some hope. It seemed that the Noble Court exercised power, but that they could not fully control the population of Cresthaven. At the very least, the fighters and berserkers would not be intimidated into compromising their principles.

But Andy was tired, mentally and spiritually.

Bertha and Morwen continued talking, carrying on, commenting on the fight.

Andy smiled absently and finally excused himself, heading down the hall to the storage room that the group had used earlier to talk with Tobo.

***

The crowd's conversations faded into a distant drone as he found some solitude in the storage room.

Andy laid on the bench and closed his eyes, listening to the buzz of indistinct conversation, allowing himself to be soothed by it like it was white noise.

He laid there for several minutes, starting to fall into the beginnings of sleep.

"You ok?"

Andy opened his eyes as Arlene walked into the room and sat on the floor beside him. Her face was close to his.

Even though it meant he wouldn't get a nap, he felt somehow comforted that she had joined him. He was just a smidge more at ease.

"I'm alright," he said. "Pretty exhausted. I bet you are too."

"I'm hanging in there," she said. "But yeah… that was a lot."

"Isn't it strange how someone can give you advice in a restaurant one day, stab you in the guts the next, and then be friendly toward you after the fight?"

"Yes," Arlene said. "I don't know if I will ever get used to the way that violence is handled here."

"I'm still trying to understand the political situation too," Andy said.

"It seems like the Noble Court wants us dead," said Arlene.

"Correct."

"But it seems like they're doing everything they can to off us without calling it an execution."

"Right," said Andy. "Why do you think that is?"

Arlene thought for a moment, looking up at the ceiling.

"Two reasons," she said. "First, like Tobo told us yesterday, they want to remain System-legal. After our initiation, you remember what Tobo said? The nobility tries to root out new arrivals and prevent them from hitting level one, but discouraging new arrivals is technically against the System's laws."

"Ah yeah," Andy said. "That's right. And because they're a spawn city, they have to help us and be hospitable and all that…"

"Exactly," said Arlene. "Unless that discouragement is part of a thoughtful, well-organized, and properly managed initiation."

"They're taking advantage of the… what was it? The initiatory exception," said Andy.

"Exactly."

There was a beat of silence.

"What's the second reason?"

"Well, the way I see it," said Arlene, "the Noble Court appears to be holding the guild masters together by a very tenuous thread. Remember the dinner we attended with them? Remember when Bertha shouted insults against the duke?"

"Yeah, sure," Andy said.

"Half the room cheered, and the other half seemed outraged. The guild masters are split in their loyalty to the Noble Court."

"Interesting," Andy said. "Yes I picked that up with the fighters and the berserkers, but I didn't notice anyth–"

"Think about it though," Arlene said. "The fighters and the berserkers alone could pose a huge threat to the nobility. Did you see the way the duke immediately conceded to Gar?"

"Right," Andy said.

"So the nobility wants to prevent our progression by trying to have us killed, but they want to ensure that they do it with enough of a veneer of honor that they don't face a riot from the fighters, berserkers, and anyone else unsympathetic to an unfair fight."

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"So the unfair needs to look fair to maintain the status quo, yeah that makes sense," Andy said.

"And speaking of Gar," Arlene added, "that was a surprise, huh?"

"It was a complete plot twist!" Andy said with a laugh.

"I'll need to think on it some more," Arlene said. "I still don't like the way we met him, the way he treated those people in the street, and I'm suspicious of his temper… but he's obviously not all bad."

Andy nodded.

"You've been paying close attention to things. What do you think is in store for us in round three?" Andy asked.

"Hard to say," Arlene said. "They obviously planned this before they knew what feats we had selected, since they were banking on an easy elimination with the baking contest."

"Right, but why a baking contest?" Andy said. "Why not, say, a quiz full of inscrutable trivia or something? There's a chance, however small, that a new arrival will take Discern Recipe, so as long as you have someone there who has actually cooked before and knows how to read a recipe, it's a pretty easy win. They could have challenged us with something completely outside the scope of the available level zero feats."

"That's an interesting question," said Arlene. "Maybe there are requirements for the arena that specify that the challenges can be difficult but not impossible… like maybe challenges that pertain to the level zero feats are fair game, while challenges that don't are out of bounds?"

"Yeah," Andy said. "That makes sense. Perhaps that's part of the System's requirements for initiations?"

"Could be," said Arlene.

"Well then, I think the best preparation for the next round would be to review the available feats, the ones we've used, and the ones we've taken that remain to be tested," Andy said.

"Good idea," said Arlene. "That way we may be able to anticipate the kinds of challenges they could throw at us."

"Well, we've already done cooking. Do you think they might test other crafting feats?"

"It's possible. There's Craft Simple Object, Craft Metal Object, and Detect Enchantment," said Arlene.

"Object crafting and detecting magic… well I suppose we could attempt crafting with our own natural abilities. Detect Enchantment, though… if that comes up I guess we just do the best we can."

Arlene looked at the ceiling.

"Now in terms of the feats we have between the three of us, you and I have already used all four of ours. Kermit has used three of his… the only one of our feats that remains to be tested, I think, is Kermit's Befriend Animal feat… right?"

"Right…" Arlene said. "Let's hope for that."

"Now, what are the feats that we don't have covered in our party?" Andy asked.

Arlene pulled the envelope that Tobo had given them out of her tunic and unfolded the papers, examining the list of feats.

"That would be Subversion, Turn of Phrase, Knowledgeable, Telepathy, Disguise, and Arcane Word," said Arlene.

"Ok, if I'm remembering right, Subversion is a combat feat," said Andy.

"Yep," said Arlene.

"I think we've got combat covered enough," said Andy.

"I agree," said Arlene.

"Turn of Phrase makes you more persuasive and deceptive, I think," Andy said.

"Yes," Arlene confirmed. "And Disguise just makes you really good at disguises, I guess. So we don't have any coverage in terms of deception-based skills."

"But I think if those skills are tested, we could slip by with some luck."

Arlene nodded.

"The only ones remaining are Knowledgeable, Telepathy, and Arcane Word," said Arlene.

"Well, if an entire challenge revolves around Telepathy, then we're just unlucky," Andy said.

"I would guess that Telepathy is a more popular feat," Arlene said. "At least more popular than Discern Recipe. So, they may not want to design a challenge around it. Arcane Word is a powerful spellcasting feat, it allows you to… you know, move stuff around in the air and whatnot… But Knowledgeable… that's the one I'm really concerned about."

They sat in silence for a moment.

"You know what," she continued, "I think Kermit may have actually chosen the best strategy."

"Why's that?" Andy asked.

"He has coverage in a lot of different areas… he may not be much for combat, but he's got cooking, healing, a bit of magic, and he can work with animals."

Andy chuckled.

"Maybe that's what Tobo had in mind when he encouraged Kermit's choices," he said.

He inhaled and exhaled deeply.

"So if we are tested in deception, we just need to be smart about it," Andy said. "If we need to detect an enchantment or use telepathy, we're probably screwed… And there very well could be a knowledge-based test coming up, which we may or may not be able to handle."

"Knowledgeable covers the Occulture, History, and Deities skills," said Arlene, "so it's not just, like, any knowledge."

Andy nodded.

"Wait," Arlene said.

Andy propped himself up.

"Yeah?"

"I think… I think we need to study," Arlene said.

"Wait, really? What do you call what we're doing right now?"

"This is preparation," Arlene said. "As part of that preparation, we need to study. Even if it's just the bare basics, we need to learn something about the history of religion and magic. That would cover at least the basics of anything they might expect from a participant with the Knowledgeable feat."

"I don't think we have a lot of time," Andy said.

Arlene paused.

"Yeah," she said. "Yeah actually, you're right. We only have a few minutes."

"I have an idea," Andy said.

He got up and poked his head out into the hallway. Brea stood toward the edge of the crowded hall.

Andy slipped out and approached her quietly, not wanting to draw too much attention to himself.

"Brea," Andy said.

"Ah, Andy, yes what can I do for you?" she replied, turning around to face him.

"I thought of something that would make me very, very comfortable," Andy said.

"Yes?" she replied. "I would be happy to take care of it for you. What do you need?"

"I need a small primer on history, religion, and magic here on the Infinite Plane."

Brea looked puzzled.

"Like, reading material?" she asked.

The crowd behind her burst into laughter as Kermit told a joke.

He is always the life of the party, somehow, Andy thought.

"Yes, but specifically about history, religion, and magic."

"Interesting," said Brea. "Let me see what I can do."

"When you find it, can you bring it down the hall? I'm just in the, uh, storage room," he said.

"Sure thing," she replied.

"Andy!" Tobo said, approaching him.

Damn, I've been spotted, Andy thought.

"Andy will you be ready? The next round starts in less than five minutes," Tobo said.

"Yes," Andy said, not knowing if it was true.

"Excellent," Tobo said.

"I'm just going to head back down the hall," Andy said. "I need some quiet."

"Understood," Tobo said with a slight bow.

Andy returned down the hall and back to the storage room where Arlene sat on the bench with her feats cheat sheet open, reading through the information over and over again.

"I've got something on the way, hopefully," Andy said.

"Oh good," Arlene said. "What is it?"

"Some literature on religion," Andy said. "It may or may not be here in time, though."

"Eh, that's ok, it's not like we have time to memorize it."

"Yeah but, maybe we can smuggle it in, you know?"

"Is that legal?" Arlene asked.

Andy shrugged.

"If you read it while you're in the shadows, I don't see how anyone would notice."

"Good point," Arlene said. "Yeah, actually, that's a really good point. Let's just hope it's a good resource that we can carry discreetly."

"Andy?" Brea's voice came from the hall.

Andy stood up and met her at the doorway.

"This is what I was able to find," she said.

"Wow, that was so fast," Andy said.

Brea smiled and handed him a small, thin paper rolled up and bound with a leather string.

"Excellent, thank you Brea!" Andy said with excitement.

It was perfect. They could fold it up and smuggle it in their tunics, and as long as Arlene was out of view, they could use it to make up for their lack of the Knowledgeable feat… hopefully…

"Anything else?" Brea asked. "The arena will open again in a moment, so we don't have much time."

"No, no, that's perfect," Andy said. "We'll be down in just a moment."

Brea nodded and departed.

"What'd you get?" Arlene asked.

Andy held up the scroll.

"Oh nice," she said. "Glad it isn't a fifty-pound tome."

"Yeah it's perfect," Andy said, unrolling the scroll. His face fell a bit.

"What?" Arlene asked.

Andy held up the scroll and showed her the title: How to Talk to Your Kids About Religion: A Parent's Guide.

"Well… we might be fucked."