“Firstly, it is great to see you, sibling. Secondly… what the actual fuck?”
Relkir was well known to not swear much, so that statement caught pretty much everyone off guard. Relkir and Gath had come to the Great Arenas for a private tour, given by none other than the Lightbearer himself.
“What?” Retvik replied innocently.
“You saw… our egg layer!” Relkir exclaimed. “You publicly outed them!”
“Actually, I only caught a glimpse of the bastard. Was hoping they would at least step out to greet me or something. What I really wanted was for them to actually face me, so I could talk to them properly. And maybe challenge them to combat if they got aggressive with me.”
“Wait…” Nyssi suddenly butted in. She and Tenuk had been following Retvik around and had agreed to help with the tour. “You wanted to fight your own mother?”
Relkir immediately quietened down. “Well, to be fair, if I had a chance to punch my egg layer in the face, and do so legally without any repercussions, I totally would. And, well, everything you said was absolutely right… Still, I am surprised you actually accepted their request to talk to you. Rethais and I have been as no-contact as possible the entire time.”
Retvik snorted. “Well, they wanted to talk in private. I wanted to talk in private. They backed down. I did not speak to them, I shouted at them while they cowered in a corridor.”
“Yeah, well, fuck them!” Tenuk giggled. “Bastard got what they deserved. Anyway, shall we start the tour? We got a lot to cover!”
“I have a question before we start,” Gath grunted. “Where is your little yellow Skyavok friend?”
“Kayel has a singles match right now. My favourite armour-gal is building his own win streak! He’s at 10 already!” Nyssi explained. “Kayel will probably join us a bit later, when we meet the house fighters.”
“Ah… I have a… second question. What pronoun do I use for Kayel?” Gath asked. “You called Kayel an ‘armour-gal’ but also said ‘he’.”
Nyssi snorted. “Kayel normally uses ‘he’, so do most of the Skyavok gladiators here apart from that Kayess-Ksi girl but, like, most Skyavok don’t mind if you get it wrong. I’m surprised you’re actually asking.”
“Well, we are in a very, uh, multi-race area. I do not want to seem rude, especially since I am not very good at working out genders…” Gath admitted.
“Most folks here know Rethans suck at that, it’s fine!” Nyssi continued to smirk. “Alright, first off, we’re going to see the main arena via the fancy suites, maybe the Gold Suite if it’s empty, that’s where the Holy Four watch matches. Then we’ll pop by the Contract Chamber where they sign important shit, then we’ll go through the Hall of Fame, then visit the armoury so we can show you all the cool armour sets and maybe visit the forges if they are quiet, then after that we’ll head down to the Dessaron Training Areas, see who’s in, then we’ll go and visit the House Fighter areas, which are normally out of bounds, but Phovos said we can show you.”
“And then we well go chat with our fellow House Fighters!” Retvik added.
“Yep yep!” Nyssi concluded. “Once we’ve all done that, we’ll go to the House Fighter’s Canteen and get you two some lunch and we’ll have a nice chat with everyone who’s there. Could take you to one of the rich suites which have a buffet but, General Gath, you don’t seem the sort who likes overly closed off, fancy things. You’re one of the people!”
Gath smiled. “I appreciate that.”
Nyssi grinned. She then rather unexpectedly grabbed Relkir by the hand and led everyone off.
The tour went rather smoothly. The main arena was rather busy, with large crowds all watching a fight between Retha Squad One and the Claws of the Chronowyrm, and everywhere they went, Nyssi was filled with facts. She also seemed to know the place better than Retvik did, and Relkir was listening with great intent. Gath was mostly just glad that they weren’t the tallest person around, especially as they visited the Panicked Wardens and met the Banikan house fighters.
As the group left the Dessaron training areas and made their way to the House Fighter sections, they were rejoined by Kayel, who seemed quite tired, after fighting three separate matches. His first match had been against a Temthan, which was pretty common, but his second match had been against Elefksi of Skya Squad Two, which had required a LOT of shadowjumping, and both he and his opponent had fought for over half an hour until Kayel emerged victorious. Despite the exhaustion from the battle, Kayel had requested a beast-slaying match against to get rid of his shadowborn bloodlust.
“Hey guys…” Kayel paused as he realized who was with them. His first thought was to comment about how huge Gath was, but his attention was drawn to Relkir. “Oh hey, you’re soooo obviously Retvik’s sibling. And you’re nowhere near as short as everyone makes you out to be.”
“Uh… I… appreciate that?” Relkir wasn’t sure how to accept that statement. “I am very small though.”
“Yeah, for a Rethan, maybe. You’re still taller than most folks! And, like, Nyssi was saying yesterday that the average Rethan is 2.5m tall, same height as Retvik? Scale-wise, you’re not that short at all.” Kayel smiled as he held his hand out. “Nice to meet you, mister High Advisor! And nice to meet you too, General Gath!”
Relkir hesitantly shook Kayel’s hand. “Uh, nice to meet you too… Your mannerisms remind me of All-Ksa Elkay.”
“Yep, I’ve been told that before, he’s a cool dude, so am I. Even if he’s old. Met him a few times myself. So did Retvik and Nyssi give you the tour? Also, I’d LOVE to know what you thought of Retvik’s match last night.”
“Hah. It was well-deserved!” Relkir smiled properly. “We were just about to meet with your fellow house fighters.”
“Well, I won’t get in the way!” Kayel beamed, glancing at Retvik. “Lead the way, boss!”
Retvik smiled back, then trotted off, leading everyone onwards. He had spoken to the other house fighters in advance, telling them to meet in the House Fighters Observation Deck, where they were going now.
Waiting for them were The Big Guys, the super popular house fighters, as well as a few more folks, including the three other Rethan house fighters. Not having met them in person before (nor really watching much arena stuff in general), Gath and Relkir were surprised that both Sehon and Kalis were shorter than Retvik, but Abius was utterly gigantic, nearly as tall as the Keeper themselves.
“So!” Retvik continued to smile as he introduced everyone. “Relkir, General Gath, these are my fellow house fighters. The Big Guys here are Timik, Ct’Era, Valorier, Tanok, Saahrahtaar, Adelfaniosis and Psiksi, these three are my fellow Rethan house fighters Abius, Sehon and Kalis. The little Skyan here is Kayess-Ksi, our white-plated Lanex friend here is Ora and this fine, furry, heavily-armed green fellow is Tromos, the head house fighter who keeps us all on our toes! Friends, these are my blessed little sibling Relkir, and my boss, General Gath, the Keeper.”
Relkir and Gath both bowed slightly. All the house fighters bowed back, then waved.
“You all seem friendly!” Relkir waved. “Nice to meet you all!”
“Pleasure to meet you both!” Tromos shook Relkir’s hand, briefly hesitated as he realized Gath was more than a metre taller than him, then shook Gath’s hand too. Considering that Tromos was massive for a Ksithan, he was pretty shocked.
Admittedly, most of the house fighters present were massive, muscular specimens, but that was why they were house fighters. And that made Gath feel a lot more comfortable. Gath inspected everyone, then stepped forward to greet Abius, who was only a couple of centimetres shorter than Gath.
“Hello!” Gath grinned as they patted Abius on the shoulder. “I have seen your arena work with the colossal beasts. You do a fine job, and I can see why you would have liked a 1v1 with me.”
Abius lowered their head. “Meeting you in person is an honour on its own. I am sorry about your ill health.”
“It is fine! Just a shame. However, I… I have an alternative.”
“You… do?”
“Mhm. I cannot wrestle you completely, but… we could arm-wrestle?”
A very sudden laugh filled the room. Psiksi disappeared through a nearby shadow, then abruptly reappeared through another shadow, this time holding a large, folded table.
“Funnily enough, we actually already have an arm-wrestling table!” Psiksi giggled. “I knew we’d get more than one use out of this thing! Dudes and dudettes, get your asses ready, we’re having an arm-wrestling contest!”