"Agnis and Mike are back today," Joe noted as he checked over his gear another time before the spars started.

"You think she's here in good faith, or you think she's still snooping?" Levi asked.

Joe shrugged. "Probably a little of both. Both her and Mike have gained some levels. And I'm not going to lie, she takes healing duty very seriously, even if she sometimes gets overzealous and calls a fatal blow too early. But, she's still not going to miss the opportunity to note down everyone's abilities and skills.

Grace says she is still pushing the full discloser stuff, but she's lost most support. It's been well over a month, and no one has caused trouble. People aren't buying into her fear based reasoning anymore.

But...it will be what it is. At this point, I'm pretty sure she's only at it to stay under Grace's skin." Joe stood and began stretching and loosening up muscles. "Supposed to start war games tomorrow. And everyone wants to throw a party tonight. Not only to celebrate the start of war games, but because Maddy's team finally found something out there. Plus, Hank says he's finally made enough moonshine to spare some for drinking."

Hank had been brewing shine for weeks but refused to part with it unless it was for medical supplies or a profession that needed it, like alchemy. Not that it had stopped some people from drinking a bit here and there.

Joe didn't show any interest in it, but Grace had offered both him and Levi some interesting intoxicants she'd made from it. Levi was certain she'd used some of them herself. She'd been a little less grumpy lately.

Levi suddenly jerked upright, tearing his attention away from tightening his shin bracers. "What did Maddy's party find?"

"No one is quite sure yet. She said it looks like a portal. She described it as a floating bubble big enough to step into. She said you can see into it, and it shows open plains. Depending on what angle you look at it, you can see the different parts of the landscape inside. But you know Maddy's group. They played it safe. Came back and reported it instead of going in."

"That's kind of huge." Levi was grinning, excited. "I want to check it out."

"I'm with you, but we need to get a party together. All the healers are pretty much grouped up. We don't have any real ranged damage unless David decides to step in and help, but he's always hunting. And we have no ability to scout," Joe said.

Levi chuckled, "How did it end up with just you and me as our permanent group, when everyone else has at least teams of four already?"

"Because neither of us socialize. You're always running off at the end of the day to meditate or whatever, and I just go back and hang out with Grace. And to be fair, Maddy would probably group up with us if she hadn't been with her team from the beginning, and David does group spars with us sometimes. But he also feels like he has to bring in food for everyone."

"So is the party happening, or is it just talk for now?" Levi asked.

"Probably happening. The core group in the pits is pretty excited about it. And Agnis and Mike have thrown their support behind the party. She's probably trying to buy back some goodwill she's lost recently, but still. From what I hear, she's promised to push a vote to have some of the livestock slaughtered. Probably a couple of pigs."

Levi had to admit that would be nice. David had brought in a few deer, but it was stretched thin, and it had been a long while since Levi had eaten anything that wasn't slightly gamey.

"Too bad Paige is going to miss that," Levi thought outloud.

"She shouldn't," Joe said. "Unless she's already ran off again. She came by last night, crying her eyes out about some bobcat or something and ranting about needing Grace to make her dewormer."

Completely missing everything except the fact that Paige was back, Levi smacked Joe in his arm lightly. "And you didn't think to tell me?'

"Just now came up," Joe answered with his signature shrug. "What? Have you been obsessing over her the entire month?"

"No, I just still haven't apologized," Levi said defensively.

"You worry too much," was all Joe said in response. He stood. "Well, this is my spar. Hoping to get a win on Iara, today. Wish me luck."

"You got this, man." Levi didn't really think Joe did. Iara was just brutal with her katana. But, Joe had a chance. He'd gotten close to winning a couple times. The trick with Iara was just not losing an arm or leg before you landed a devastating blow yourself, and that was something only Craig seemed to do with any consistency.

Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

-----

Paige had listened to their conversation from a nearby treetop. It was far enough away that no one would notice her, but with her enhanced hearing, she had no trouble following Levi and Joe's conversation.

Her heart skipped a beat when Levi had gotten excited about her return, but a lot of that subsided when he mentioned apologizing.

Still, that was something. She wanted to apologize, too, and it was just nice that he still thought of her in a good way. This time, she'd just try to be his friend, nothing else. She was certain. And, if something else were to develop...well, she wouldn't be opposed to that, but wouldn't push.

Climbing out of her tree top, she thought about how to approach him. Maybe she should start with the apology. Maybe just a simple hello. She thought about scaring him again, which would be easy enough with her Sneaking skill, but decided that would be a bad way to start, considering their history.

And as her mind went over what to say exactly, it was already too late. As she approached him from his side, he noticed her walking up. Turning his head toward her, it seemed to take him a moment to recognize who she was, but when he did, he stood smiling.

"Paige?" He asked with a smile.

'Well fuck me,' Paige thought as her heart fluttered at his smile. "Yep, it's me," was all she managed to say.

Still grinning, he approached her. Levi thought she looked like she'd lost weight. She looked a little too thin, or maybe weathered. She looked like she'd been through some hard days. As he approached, he noticed the slitted eyes. They were even a different color than her former brown, a wild amber color.

"Whoa, what's up with your eyes? That's badass," Levi asked.

As he watched, the slitted pupils widened, opening until almost her entire eye was black, with just a thin ring of gold surrounding them. Her smile was even wider.

"You like them? I think they're so cool. It's my first permanent physical manifestation. I got them a few weeks ago. I haven't gotten to see them in an actual mirror yet." Paige's heart was pounding, and looking at Levi's smiling face had made her stomach flutter. 'Damn these urges.'

She tried to push the feeling down.

"Yeah, they're cool. They're like...like REAL cat eyes."

"Yeah," Paige said simply.

Levi heard a crow cawing from above, and watched as Paige looked up and shook her head in a vigorous no.

"I see you still have the crows around," he said.

"Ah, yeah. Well, I've actually just been back around them more. They stayed away a lot while I was with the bobcat." She neglected to tell Levi she had to actively discourage them from poop bombing him. She thought they may be a little jealous, even if they wouldn't admit it. They had barely spent any time with Paige over the course of the month.

Levi was still smiling. "Okay. Well, what brings you out here?" Levi thought about apologizing. He wanted to, but it just didn't feel right in that moment.

"Well, I was hoping to spar." Paige gestured at the pit where Joe was getting thoroughly beaten. "Joe said you guys have been out here and gave me an invite." That was a half-truth. Joe had invited her, but that wasn't why she'd came.

"Well, these are what we call the 'hard pits.' The spars here are pretty brutal. So we have this rule. You can't fight in the hard pits unless you've been recommended from the normal training area in the safe zone or if you are at least level 10," Levi answered.

"Oh, that's fine. I'm level 11, so that isn't a problem."

'Holy shit, level 11. Whatever she's been doing out there wasn't a vacation,' Levi thought. Then, with a small laugh, he decided to repeat the words he'd once heard himself, "Perfect. I know just who to start you with."

Joe had actually squeezed out a win against Iara, though neither Paige nor Levi had seen it.

Apparently, he'd baited her into taking off his sword arm so he could bash her in the nose with the edge of his shield. And he hadn't let up. Iara had been blind with half of her face caved in by the time the win was called.

It was a good thing their bodies had been able to take more and more damage over time because Iara's face was ruined, and she'd have definitely been dead if it had been a month before.

Joe was beaming as Iara walked over after fully recovering.

"Joe. You are a savage fighter. Thank you for showing me that I still have much to learn. Perhaps you could teach me more in a private spar sometime." Her accent was thick, but her implication was even thicker.

Joe barely choked out a "Thank you," before she was out of earshot.

The way she walked away reminded Paige of Mama-cat's saunter, if maybe a bit more suggestive.

Levi punched Joe's arm. "What was that? Dude, you better get that tonight after the party." After a moment of thought, Levi added, "I really thought her and Craig were a thing, though."

Joe coughed out a laugh, face still flushed red from Iara's very direct advances. "Craig? You really are oblivious. He...uh...prefers playing with swords. Him and Tony are a thing."

"Ohhh. That suddenly makes so much sense." Levi felt like an idiot.

"Really? I've only been here this morning, and that's obvious." Paige pointed. "Craig and Tony, right?"

Levi looked to where Paige was indicating to see Tony tightening Craig's armor and giving him a very thorough check before Craig's next spar.

"Yep. Guess I'm pretty oblivious." It was funny how after it was pointed out, it all made perfect sense. It was like he'd kind of known, but never actually saw it.

After that, they sat and watched a few more spars.

Craig easily dismantled a younger man with dual shortswords and leather armor. A bigger boy than you'd expect as a dual wielder, standing a full head over Craig and carrying an impressive amount of muscle. He was new to the hard spar pit, but he had talent. He was fast, especially for someone his size. Unfortunately for him, Craig was faster.

Craig just avoided getting hit and kept poking. Between blood loss and exertion, the much larger youth was barely able to swing a sword when Craig delivered a finishing blow through the kid's left lung.

He was quickly healed and praised by Craig and Iara. Both gave him pointers and discussed his dual weilding style. It was unorthodox and considered suboptimal in their sports, but they only had praise for him regarding how well he was making it work.

Another spar between Tony and Mike ended quickly, with Tony delivering a devastating combo of strikes with katars that left Mike unable to stand and bleeding out quickly. Mike had forfeited by raising a hand.

And then--way too soon, they both thought--it was time for Levi and Paige to step into the pit.