Act 2: Upheaval V - The Red Sword

7:32 PM, 6th of April 422

The Arena, Odwaz, Myr

Mihai and Konrad

"Wake up."

It's Zenobiusz's voice, and he's shaking the party members' shoulders one after the other. Mihai and Konrad can hear someone pace back and forth near the foot of their beds; Nadzieja, most likely.

Steve

May wakes up without the slightest hint of a hangover. In fact, someone is in her cabin, shaking her shoulder. Maybe one of the sailors?

"Argh..." A fading headache recedes, and Konrad staggers up. He looks at Zeno, then at Nadzieja. He looks away. "How much time do we have?"

"Ugh..." - Mihai groans, and is able to put together what happened quick enough to manage - "Yeah... yeah, give me a second."

He struggles to shake off the drowsiness and onto his feet.

May stuffs her head under her pillow and says, "Geh weg, ich schlafe. Go bother Sam. May sleep."

"Around half an hour," Zenobiusz answers, before turning to Steve. "Sorry Steve, time to wake up and go entertain the audience."

He shakes the black mage's shoulder some more before the other champions can say anything. Nadzieja doesn't even pay attention to them, being too nervous about the upcoming battle.

May suddenly sits up and stretches, digging into her eyes with both fists. "Vat? May try to sleep! Is problem vith ship?"

"Shit..." - Mihai goes over to Steve, puts a hand on his shoulder - "Steve." - he snaps his fingers in front of him - "Are you ok?"

"...Uh?"

He fails to understand Steve's joke, and he can only look at him with a confused expression. Nadzieja keeps pacing back and forth.

"C'mon, Steve, we're not in a joking mood right now. Preparations for the final tournament round await." Konrad coughs into his hand and gives Mihai a side look.

May finally has a look at the others and then the room. She springs to her feet, already in a fighting stance. "Vere is this? Who are you? Vere you take May?"

"Steve, knock it off please," the young monk says.

She turns her back to him and resumes walking while biting her nails.

Mihai looks at Nadia - "I don't think he's joking."

"He's *insufferable*. Let's just try to ignore it. Come on, Steve, or May, or whoever you're pretending to be right now, just stick to the program, alright?"

He winks at "Steve" to just play along.

Zenobiusz scratches the back of his head.

May looks at the door and the others. The wheels are turning in her head. Mihai sees that she's going to run.

Mihai takes a step back, puts his arms to his sides in a non-threatening posture - "May." - he calls for emphasis - "May, calm down. We didn't take you anywhere."

"You lie! This not ship! Vere Sam und Nick und others? If you hurt them, May make you sorry!" She wiggles her cocked fist a little to show she means it.

Nadzieja suddenly stops and gazes at her champions, perplexed by the exchange. Zenobiusz looks even more confused than before.

Mihai struggles to put it into as few words as possible - "This is Edward's doing. We were all on the ship just a minute ago, but... only you came back."

"Oh boy... Listen, it's me, Punchdrunk! And that's Nick!" he says, pointing at Mihai.

Mihai hears Konrad. Sighs - "That's... more or less true." - he scratches his head.

The white mage carefully steps away from Steve and makes sure not to make any threatening move. He exchanges a glance with Nadzieja, who's as clueless as him as to what they should do.

Punchdrunk gets her attention. She doesn't lower her fist. "Vait, vat do you mean it's you? May pretty sure Sam not man with burned face und Nick no talk vithout Smirk. So please tell May vy she not run right now?"

Nadzieja examines Steve's combat stance, which she appears to recognize.

"Ok... ok, just try not to freak out right now. Remember Jacob said the Orbs did something the Enemy doesn't like? Well, this is it. It's... been a lot longer than you think, since that time on the Ship."