<div class="floatright">(https://i.imgur.com/opmuajN.jpg)</div><br/>Cass listened as the group carried on with their chattering, flipping from topic to topic so quickly it was a bit hard to keep up with, "wait, did you say a Princess?" she murmured, but by the time she had asked they had already moved on to talking about fucking elks. or elcs? or both?....It was entirely too much for the antisocial elf. Things sure were a lot simpler back when the undead she raised were completely mindless, and not just metaphorically mindless.<br/><br/>Her pale cheeks flushed purple when Juro asked what she herself had been doing last night. Cass almost physically recoiled at being so abruptly put in the spotlight, "Oh...uhhhh, not much really. Just sort of did my usual thing...reading mostly...doing...paperwork..." she stammered awkwardly, fiddling papers around on her desk as if to back up her claim. Considering their rather low workload and their unofficial status, one had to wonder what kind of paperwork there even was for her to do, "It was nothing too exciting. Pretty boring actually. Especially compared to the night you guys had...heheh..."<br/><br/>"Anyways, let's just pretend I came up with a good segue and move on to the topic of today's duel!" she said, giving an awkward little clap, "Basically everything is riding on you Katra. You just have to lose the fight against Sera and make it look legitimate, and then two...two...the<em>two thousand</em>gold is ours..." she murmured, seemingly put in a daze by the prospect of making that much gold for such a simple job. Suddenly Cass was on her feet and standing in front of Katra, faster than any of them would have assumed the shut-in sorceress was capable of, hands on the other woman's shoulders, her blue eyes gazing deeply up into Katra's, "Please Katra, whatever you do, you have to get us that money. You have to win! Wait, I mean you have to lose! You have to win at losing!" she said, "I don't wanna live like this anymore! I don't want to be stuck in a shack in a dirty alley for the rest of my life! I want my own lair. My own tower-er...I mean...a proper guild hall for all of us...Between developing my resurrection spell and keeping this place running I've wasted away my entire life's savings. It can't all be for nothing...." she stammered, seemingly on the verge of crying. It was kind of cute in a pathetic way. Cass'andra dropped to her knees in front of Katra, holding onto the warrior's hands, "All of it, all of this toil, all of this suffering...it's all been building to this day, this moment. It's you Katra, it's always been you. My life's work, my greatest creation. You've always been my favorite, and it's not even close! So please...please...don't fuck this up!" she begged. It seemed that the pressure might be getting to the poor girl, ever so slightly.