<blockquote><div><cite>Mindy wrote:</cite><span style="font-style: italic">~If no one else wishes to join Rihyan, I could volunteer.~</span> Mindy offered. <span style="font-style: italic">~ Rihyan could take care of melee combat while I provided psionic support. Not to mention we're both capable of flight, which should give us an edge over most enemies. However, I'm lacking the coin to participate, myself.~</span> She looked away for a moment. Her bare feet reminding her of her lack of funds.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">~ I could pay them back with whatever winnings we receive, but if that isn't acceptable, I'll stand out.~</span></div></blockquote><br/>Mindy's was the last voice Alyssa expected to hear after her call for volunteers. Her glance shifts incredulously to the telepath, running the words through her head a second time to be sure it wasn't some trick of the imagination, before she gives her hesitant response.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">~Are you sure it would be alright Miss Mindy? After all, the arena battles will be...~</span>Alyssa falters as she tries to finish her question, trying and failing to find a suitable word that might deter Mindy from her risky proposal. The area battles will be what? Brutal? Dangerous? Possibly fatal? There's hardly a place in Armel, or the entire valley for that matter, that couldn't be described as such. None of it kept Mindy from arriving here, where she's managed to survive, even thrive, in the Pactless city. The elven telepath is as good a candidate for the arena as any of them; perhaps even better than some. At least<span style="font-style: italic">she</span>hasn't spent the majority of her city visit fleeing or captured...<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">~... rather difficult, I imagine,~</span>she concludes weakly.<span style="font-style: italic">~But Rihyan and I would be glad to have your assistance. If funding is the only issue, I'm sure I can find a way to cover the entry fee.~</span><br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">... somehow,</span>she adds privately, mulling over the registrar's words as she completes her managerial paperwork. Coin collateral, or credit... Well, the option of paying in coin is unfortunately beyond her at the moment; aside from a handful of gold pieces, the last of her money went towards her share of the suite the night previous. Which means her funding will be coming from a Sogluyem loan, one way or another. Leaving some form of collateral would be the safest and most sensible option, of course, but what to leave? Her traveling gear would barely begin to cover the entry fee, and anything else would require surrendering one of her gifts from the monastery. Despite the nobility of their causes, offering a sacred gift in payment for a bloodsport seems... blasphemous. And of course, it wouldn't be fair to ask any of her friends to sponsor the plan she proposed.<br/><br/>It will have to be credit then, she decides. Wetting her pen in fresh ink, she inspects the offer of credit just above the signature line- it's a masterpiece of legal work, crafted by some Sogluyem bureaucrat to be as innocuous and inveigling as possible despite a thorough lack of real details. Of course, those same bureaucrats will be far less polite and accommodating when the time comes to collect on her debt... but, if today's plans proceed as intended, the nagas will be out of business facing a Pact tribunal long before that debt comes due. Alyssa quickly marks and signs her request for credit, then hands the sheaf of paperwork back to the registrar before her doubts have time to sink in.