Chapter 56

Zea and Zammin sat at one of the tables with the adjustable height chairs with a pair of mugs in front of them. She didn’t drink very often, both because she couldn’t afford it and because she needed to keep her wits about her. Today had her frazzled though, too many emotions churning inside her and rebelling against what she knew were the smart, rational choices.

“There is no way he’s ready to fight again,” Zammin said. “Him and Kalishka beat the hell out of each other. I don’t care how high his stamina is.”

Zea shrugged. “He said he didn’t want to fight against you, but he wouldn’t mind some ‘light exercise.’”

The other dwifkin smirked and wiggled his eyebrows. “Going to give him some ‘light exercise’ then?”

She coughed and took a drink from her mug. “Ah, no. I don’t think so.”

Zammin stared at her for a second, then started snickering. “I was just joking, but now… Well, Aldrick’s a handsome enough guy, I guess. Bit tall for my tastes, but don’t let that stop you.” The fighter sobered and said, “I don’t judge anyone for that, but I won’t tell anyone if you don’t want. I know not everyone is accepting of crossing the species line, but fuck them. If he makes you happy, that’s good enough.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Zea said. “He’s not going to be around for much longer anyway. Saving up some money and then he’s back on the road. Even if he was interested, it wouldn’t work out. And why would he want to be with a woman he couldn’t even sleep with?”

Zammin looked down at his beer while he thought about what he wanted to say. “I don’t really know how to say this delicately Zea, but… why do you even want to stay in Valtira? You’ve been struggling and scraping by for years. Once every few months, you come around and it seems like every time, you look worse and you’re more bitter. I know you’ve got some coin in your pocket now, and that Aldrick’s the reason.

“You’ve been a lot happier these last few days than I’ve seen you in the last decade. Maybe if he thinks he’s going, you should talk to him about staying. Or maybe you should go with him. Whatever makes the two of you happy.”

Zea had good reasons for not wanting to stay too close to Aldrick, but she couldn’t explain those to Zammin. Even mentioning that he was leaving town soon was probably saying too much. But, well, the contract she’d negotiated with Sideon had been on a per-fight basis, with no obligation to continue from either party. She’d made sure to include that so he didn’t come after her for money if Aldrick had flaked on her.

“And besides,” Zammin said, interrupting her musing, “That whole size thing is mostly overblown anyway. My sister dated a human guy for a while, said they just had to do a lot of foreplay and then ease in slowly.”

Zea’s head snapped up and she stared at the fighter in open-mouthed horror. “Your whole family is way too open about stuff. I don’t want to talk about this. Just drink your damn beer.”

Zammin cackled while she glared at him, drawing a few glances from other tables. Fortunately, the bar portion was mostly empty this time of day. The Harbor itself didn’t have many customers, and the few that were there were almost all sitting around one of the pits eating off plates balanced on their laps while a pair of day laborers duked it out for a few silver and a free tankard to the winner.

“Speaking of tall-boys, yours just walked in,” Zammin said, nodding towards the door. “And damn, you weren’t kidding. That does not look like a man who got the shit beat out of him yesterday.”

Aldrick was walking easy, with no hint of a limp or pain in his breathing. He nodded towards a few of the regulars who recognized him and made his way over to where Zea was sitting. “Hey there, boss. Am I late?”

“No,” she said. “Still got half an hour before the lunch rush starts. Just some amateurs filling the pit right now. How’d the errand go?”

“Good. I got the guy to put a rush order on it, so the new weapon will be ready tomorrow. I’m looking forward to having it again.”

“Oh, new weapon?” Zammin cut in. “What’d you get?”

“Heavy mace with a blood silver core braided to living steel.”

The dwifkin fighter let out a low whistle. “That’s an expensive piece. Must have set you back at least 15 gold.”

“About that, yeah.”

“If you need something like that…” Zammin eyed him up. “Hmm. 50 strength?”

“Not quite,” Aldrick said with a smile. “Maybe in a level or two.”

“You’re still gaining levels? Are you insane?” Zea said.

“I’m not strong enough to do what needs done yet, so… yeah, I guess maybe I’m a little crazy.”

“You must have lofty ambitions,” Zammin said. “You’re going to put yourself into an early grave if you keep it up, though. I doubt you’re going to live much past sixty with all the XP you’ve got now. And it gets worse faster when you get more.”

Sideon walked over, interrupting any further discussion, and said, “I didn’t believe your manager when she said you were ready to fight, but look at you.” He slapped Aldrick on the shoulder and laughed. “Sturdy as a rock. Alright, let me walk you through what I’m thinking for the lunch fights. I don’t have anyone for you to fight except Zammin here, but Zea said you wanted to take it easy for a day before getting back into the heavy stuff. So here’s the idea.”

He held up a set of manacles with about a foot of chain connecting them. “We’re going to give you some handicaps like this, maybe do your hands if we need to, and I’ll offer a prize if anyone manages to knock you down. You’ll be facing a bunch of dock workers today, which means they spent their AP on strength and stamina and not much else. I think you should be able to take ‘em no problem.”

“What’s the fee look like?” Aldrick asked, glancing over at Zea. It might have been her imagination, but she thought his eyes lingered on her a bit too long and his cheeks were a bit red.

“Standard for this kind of fight,” she answered. “The guys taking shots at you will pay half a silver to enter. Any of them win, they get five silver. Each one you take out without losing past ten gets you half a silver. If you’re still standing at the end, you get another two silver.”

“So if I go through let’s say twenty of these without losing, that’s seven total. That’s not bad for what sounds like a pretty easy afternoon,” Aldrick said.

“Not bad at all,” Sideon agreed.

“Just remember that you’re going to be handicapped,” Zea said. “And if not enough people try, they’ll add more handicaps until someone gets tempted. You’ll be fighting at a disadvantage.”

Aldrick reached out to pick up the manacles. “I’m assuming you don’t want me to break these,” he said.

Sideon started laughing. “Like you could!”

Zammin grinned over his mug, but didn’t say anything. Zea knew what he was thinking though. If Aldrick was custom ordering alchemically bonded weapons to keep up with his strength, there was no way those plain steel manacles were going to stand up to him. “If you damage them, it’ll come out of your fee to replace them.”

Aldrick winced, but nodded. “If you’ve got something stronger, that might be better. These are kind of… flimsy.”

“Try,” Sideon said smugly.

“Are you sure?”

The fight promoter just nodded. With a shrug, Aldrick took the manacles in both hands and pulled until one of the links snapped. “Holy crap,” Sideon yelped. “I… I’ll see if we have anything stronger. Just try not to accidentally jerk your leg when you’re in the pit, okay?”

Sideon led Aldrick towards the fighters’ waiting room, leaving Zea alone again with Zammin. “Hmm… that one’s got something strange going on. Could be fun though. Just think about what I said, okay? What’s going to make you happy?” He frowned down at his mug. “Damn. Empty.”

* * *

Luke felt like he was wearing construction paper cuffs. Every time he took a shuffling step, he was afraid a link was going to snap, but Fatty didn’t have anything better. Sideon. Sideon didn’t have anything better. He really needed to stop calling the man that.

They’d set it up just like Sideon had said they would, and a few of the guys who’d seen last night’s fight had been keen to take a swing at him. Luke wasn’t sure if they thought it’d be an easy payday because of how bad last night’s fight was, or if they just wanted to say they’d gotten into the pit to fight him.

Either way, the hardest part was not breaking the damn manacles. [Twitch Reflexes] was doing its level best to trip him up there, but they’d managed to get a decent run of contenders without having to shackle his hands together, so Luke was mostly dodging around the issue by blocking attacks with his hands.

That got harder when Sideon started letting them into the pit two at a time to fight, but it just meant more money for Luke when he swatted them down. Even when they upped it to three, he had to hold back and not blast people away with one shot. Sideon had made it very clear that if he did that, nobody else would want to try. They’d know they didn’t have a shot in hell at winning.

His final match was one he had to agree to first, a five-on-one rumble that he’d only went with on the condition that his leg manacles be switched for a pair with an extra foot of chain. He doubted he’d be able to make it look good while standing still, and he wasn’t interested in paying the repair costs.

The fights weren’t challenging, but the pay was decent. He ended up with a gold coin at the end, which ironically beat out his fee from his fight with Kalishka. Apparently, there were a lot of people who would pay good silver to take a swing at him if they thought he couldn’t really fight back.

“You want a big fight this evening?” Sideon said, after unlocking the manacles so Luke could climb back out of the pit. He turned around and gave the fat man a hand up, then shook his head.

“Not unless Zea scheduled me for one.”

“She didn’t. I asked, but she said you wanted to recover some more. You look fine to me though. If you think you’re up for it, I’ll go talk to her about setting one up.”

“Not tonight,” Luke said. “I’m still a bit sore. It wouldn’t be a good fight. If I actually had to try against the top ranked guys, you’d see me hitting a wall pretty quick. These guys today… you know, not fighters, plus I had plenty of time between each round.”

“No problem at all. When you’re ready, send the shortie around and I’ll get something set up for you.”

“Thanks,” Luke said. “I think I’m going to grab lunch now. See you around.”

He found Zea still seated at the same table, though Zammin had disappeared sometime in the middle of the lunch event. “I’m going to get something to eat. Want to come?”

“Actually, I was thinking… I’ve almost got enough to cover my half of the rent now, but I kind of want to get out of these rags and get a proper bath. Feels like I haven’t had one in years. And, uh… you kind of need a bath too. Why don’t you grab something to eat on the way? I’m going to pick up some clothes and we can go to a bathhouse?”

“What?” Luke asked, his eyebrows shooting up. “Like, together?”

“Not in the same tub! Not even in the same room,” she said. “But yes, we’re both… fragrant.”

“Okay, it’s a date.”

“It’s not a date.”

“If you say so.”

“I’m already regretting inviting you along. Maybe you should just go find a bath house on your own.”

“Sure. Give me the key so I can get into the room?”

“Stupid room,” Zea muttered. “Why couldn’t they have two keys for it? Okay, fine, let’s go together.”