"People who thought themselves genius masterminds were almost always far, far less intelligent than they thought themselves to be. Egoism and a culture of toxic reinforcement can do amazing things to a person's self-esteem… and foolishness." - Saying attributed to the Silver Maiden.

Aideen curled an eyebrow in some surprise when she saw Ginnie's weapon slam into the arena floor a hair's breadth away from the human woman's helmeted head. The blow was strong enough to form a small crater on the arena floor as it was. It was definitely a fatal blow, had it landed on the woman's head.

The woman went limp anyway, probably from fright, and as Ginnie dragged her unmoving body by her uninjured arm, Aideen noticed a trail of wetness on the sand, originating from the woman's nether regions.

Before too long, Ginnie met them in the private booth, with the human woman in tow. Someone had changed her out of her armor, and some first aid had been done on her severed hand. They had also changed her into fresh clothes and cleaned her, considering that she had not smelled of urine by then.

"What do you plan to do with her?" Aideen asked, since she figured that Ginnie had not spared the woman out of mercy or a whim. The old dwarf had removed her armor herself, and was simply clad in a fine tunic and pants.

"Thought she might not be completely in on the whole thing," explained the old dwarf as she pointed to the injured woman. "Definitely looked like someone who got way more than what they bargained for when I faced her. Can you fix her up a bit and wake her?"

"Easy enough," replied Aideen as she laid a hand on the woman and healed her just enough to keep either of her injury from worsening and jolt her awake at the same time. The woman was definitely in no shape to escape the room, not with a leg still crippled so.

The crippled woman woke up with a surprised gasp, though Aideen's firm grasp on her shoulder prevented her from moving too much. Both she and Ginnie took a good, proper look at her then.

There was not much to immediately identify the woman - more a girl just past her teenage years, really - from just a look. Her deep brown skin was common in the region, as was her dark hair which was fashioned into many small braids. If anything the only giveaway was how the girl used small rings of gold to keep the braids in place, as well as the expensive-looking earrings she wore on her earlobes.

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"All right lass, you're still breathing so don't start rambling," said Ginnie sternly as she stared the girl right in the eyes, a gesture which made the girl flinch in fright. Normally the girl would be screaming from the pain of her injuries but Aideen had taken the liberty of cutting off her nerves in the affected area temporarily to spare her the pain. "Now, you're going to speak if you want to keep breathing. Name? And where are you from and what are you doing… here of all places?"

"So-Solenia Uthgwes," said the girl with a stammer, which elicited some groans from both Ginnie and her husband, though Aideen had no idea why. "I was just told that the arena fight was supposed to be for fun! I swear! Please believe me!"

The girl was almost in tears as she said her words, then she finally glanced at her still-crippled leg, and realized that the right arm she was using to gesture was missing the hand. Then the girl broke down crying for real.

"Gods… why!?" Aideen heard between her incoherent sobs.

"First things first. Calm down. That friend of mine next to you can heal you up good as new, which we will do if you answer the questions to our satisfaction," explained the old dwarf with a shake of her head. "And are you telling me that you went to a dwarven trial by combat thinking it'd be some exhibition match for fun!?"

"T-that's what they told me! I swear to god! I wasn't told anything about it being a real fight, much less one to the death!" the girl - Solenia - almost screamed. "And I was so excited I could fight the Hammer of the East in person too!"

"Well, you did do that, at least," said Ginnie with a bit of a smirk peeking out from under her beard. "At first I was going to ask what possessed them to send in a girl way out of her depths to a trial by combat, but your name answered that for me already."

"How so?" asked Aideen from behind the confused girl. "Remember that some of us aren't locals, will you? Do spell it out for me what her name means… if you please," she added while pretending to be offended.

"Hebor Utghwes is the Duke of Dvergarder. That's Posuin's border city to our north-west," replied the old dwarf as she explained, before she turned to the girl once more. "Never met him myself, since my lands are to the east and all, but my nephew says he's a decent bloke for a posh."

"So you think the guild is trying to escalate things then?" asked Aideen with curiosity. If Ginnie had not noticed the girl's oddity during the duel then the girl would have ended up very dead by now, which might well spark a bigger incident if she was who Aideen thought she was.

"Aye, likely the case. Get a posh noble who knows no better - no offense - killed in a dwarven formal duel? That'd make a bit of a mess of things all right," replied Ginnie, once again using the sort-of slur the dwarves usually used for people from the Posuin Kingdom next door. "And to make things worse… I presume this lass here is related to the duke. Probably directly. Are you, lass?"

"T-the duke is my dad, yes," replied the girl in a small, stuttering voice. "P-please don't kill me! I'm sure dad will pay a ransom to have me back, whatever you ask for!"