--- Gareth --- 1 Hour Earlier

Gareth stared out at the void, or maybe it wasn’t the void and just some elaborate illusion to stop people from going insane. What he was in truth, was melancholy. Once you were eliminated from the tournament Thyme shoved you into this rather nice hotel in the middle of nowhere. Far more literally than normal. As far as Gareth could tell the entire building was just floating in a pocket dimension and the windows showed either the void, or an illusion pretending to be such. It was mostly black but it sort of rippled and shone as if the entire thing was a giant soap bubble.

Gareth sighed again as he sipped on one of his free drinks. Sure this place was nice to relax in and there were rooms to watch the action... but that didn’t mean he was having a good time. It just... felt weird. The place was huge. Gareth wasn’t entirely sure he’d seen all of it... but he hadn’t really tried either. Despite that, this felt like a cage. Sure it was part of the rules but the tournament was dragging a bit and he’d been eliminated. After so much effort. So much time... and he was still one of the first people to get kicked out.

Gareth slowly turned his head when he heard the chair next to him creak. He was on one of the many balconies the place had. It was decked out with a bunch of chairs that let you stare into the distance and the fake sun the sky didn’t hurt your eyes much so you could do it at any time. There was plenty of space... so the fact whoever had sat nearby meant they probably wanted to talk. Which was fine really, Gareth didn’t mind that either. "So, here for a chat then?"

"Bah," grumbled the voice of Clive. "I’m still upset at that damned crazy healer of yours."

"Considering you married YOUR crazy healer I don’t know why you’d think ours was normal. It’s basically an open secret," Gareth shot back as he sipped on his drink before frowning at the taste. *What even is this?* Gareth glanced at the weird pinkish drink in his hand. It tasted like... well that was the issue he didn’t know. It had a bit of a tang to it even though it was overly sweet and there was this almost like... gristle in the liquid that made the drinking experience distinctly unpleasant. *Why did I grab this again? Oh right I just swiped the first drink on offer.*

"I suppose that’s true. She’s still looking around for those hidden secrets she’s sure are here," Clive mused.

"Do we have any confirmation they’re real?" asked Gareth.

"Not to the best of my knowledge, but I wouldn’t be surprised if you aren’t allowed to talk about them after finding them. Skye has some grand idea that Thyme is keeping us here and giving us so much space to wander around in because there’s some secret way back into the tournament," announced Clive.

"Should you really be sharing that with me then?" asked Gareth.

"Ah, the big ’if it’s real’ issue is still very much true. I don’t... hmmm... I don’t know what to think honestly. I suppose what I want is to spend time with my wife relaxing a bit. It’s not like our whole team has been eliminated. The game is still going... and yeah I’m not sure I believe it’s real. So... I’d rather use the time we have here for sure just... spending it together," explained Clive.

"I suppose I can somewhat relate. Even when nothing all that interesting is going on I like to make sure Green is ok... but well... I’m here aren’t I?" Gareth said as he waved at the sky. "Still... you don’t think it’s real then?"

Clive sighed. "I think it’s very much something Thyme would do... but I’m also not sure it would be allowed by the wider committee. We don’t really know who was on it, but Thyme made it pretty clear other people were involved. I’m not sure they’d want any last minute shenanigans." 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

Gareth nodded along with that. "Alright... but couldn’t Thyme have snuck something in?"

"Then it might be declared invalid," countered Clive.

"Not if they snuck it in amongst some other bit of paperwork. I’m certain someone as smart a Thyme could slip in a line. Say he had a big list of items that were being added to chests, with one of them being ’if found returns you to the game’ and you can find it here somewhere," offered Gareth.

Clive nodded. "I can see it. Belgh, now that I can though I feel like I should go help Skye..."

"Maybe only one person can get back in?" Gareth countered.

But Clive just shook his head. "That’s not going to stop me helping my wife. Truthfully... now that I’m open to the idea that it’s real I probably should be getting up to go help her."

"I notice that you’re not doing that," Gareth said.

"I also haven’t seen her in two days," admitted Clive. "I don’t actually know HOW to find her to help out now that I want to."

Gareth tried to think of when he last saw the woman... and was pretty sure it had been more than two days. She’d ’died’ at the same time he had after all but... hmm... did he see her after that. "I haven’t seen her either so I can’t help you with that one."

The pair fell into silence after that. Gareth took a few more sips from his drink before deciding he didn’t need to torture himself with whatever was in the cup. Standing up he moved over to the little cupboard and tapped it twice. When he opened it a collection of fresh drinks were visible. Gareth scanned them for a while before deciding to just grab the water from the back and shutting the cupboard... before glancing over at Clive. He already had a drink and it was mostly full.

Nodding to himself Gareth sat back down and the pair continued to exist in the silence, staring out at the shifting edge of the world. Eventually though, Gareth did have to ask. "So... I can’t really tell. Are you actually annoyed about... you know?"

Clive turned to Gareth with a raised eyebrow and a slightly smug look on his face. "No? What ever could you be talking about."

"I guess you’re going to be making me say it then? I meant about the Nixilei thing. I’m getting some mixed signals... and thought it’d be best to get it out in the open," offered Gareth.

Clive sucked in a deep breath, then remained silent for a few seconds. Gareth waited patiently for the words that did eventually come. "Have you ever been chased? For days on end? Basically no sleep... and then be told ’well it’s just a game’ at the end? After being stabbed. Brutally?"

"Yes actually," Gareth admitted.

"Wait what?" Clive seemed to visibly deflate at the answer. All of the wind just... ripped from his sails.

"Oh yeah. Guess who it was?" asked Gareth.

"Wait... you’re not telling me it was Nixilei was it?" Clive asked with narrowed eyes.

Gareth barked out a laugh. "No, but not too far off. It was one of her primary teachers that did it actually. It was her ’going away’ present to us. A week of endless chases. I was told, no we were all told that we just had to make it a week. I think Nixilei was the only one who knew it was a lie. Or at least, misleading. I had a hand cut off, if you’re wondering, and this was back when I was Rank 1."

"Oh," breathed Clive. "I guess you do know... but so does Nixilei... why?"

Gareth shrugged. "It was one of the most brutal things I’d ever experienced. It gave me a new understanding of what it meant to be pushed. It ensured I never slacked off on endurance training, same for pain tolerance... for Nixilei? Pretty sure it was just her regular weekly schedule." Clive barked out a laugh. "I exaggerate a bit of course... but she was not surprised. Didn’t warn us either the bitch... but she wasn’t surprised."

"Gods... that... it makes it so much harder to be angry at her knowing that. Not that I was particularly wroth with her before but... it’s different when you know the person inflicting that sort of pain knows what they’re doing, and it was never personal. She didn’t torture me or anything. The fact I was fighting back was the only reason it didn’t end instantly. Well, it might have the first time," muttered Clive.

"The first time?" asked Gareth.

"Well I’ve got no proof obviously. Didn’t even see who attacked me but someone took me out before I could even react somewhat early on in the tournament. I had the orbs to get back in and... well... it didn’t matter much in the end," shrugged Clive.

"Huh... definitely could’ve been her. Definitely could have been," admitted Gareth.