Banking

One of the pups threw up but none of the priests seemed bothered so I stayed and listened to the matriarch who was now not being nice to the old priest. He finally lost his temper and the whole stadium got to hear how much on thin ice the house of Estro was. Luckily it was already mostly empty and none of the other women felt like it would be a good idea to be known to be listening in.

After the last body entered the iron gate the trainer started getting nervous. The gate hadn't closed, there were quite a few priests still in the arena. I didn't have to look around to know that there were 11 priests in total. I felt the trainer's surprise even though I couldn't read it in his face, as I stood up and brushed my knees off. I had stiffened while waiting and I took some time to stretch since my brother didn't seem in a hurry.

The younger priest that I had met before walked over to the edge of the ring. He crossed his arms and frowned at me. I walked up to him at my own pace, my brothers who had been in the sand seemed unsure what to do. I looked over at the trainer, "Don't look so worried, you have a bad habit of confusing tradition, and law." I stepped up onto the stone next to the priest.

The priest snorted, "You seem to know too much."

I shrugged, "Death hasn't seemed impressed, yet."

"You keep flirting as hard as you do and sooner or later she will take you up on the offer."

The brothers of my unit had followed when I stepped out of the ring. One of the pups still looked green but the other two were helping him. "The man is a plague on woman, I think death is holding a grudge for them." I smirked inside at the trainer's words.

The priest frowned and then looked back at me, "You know the law."

"Unless it has changed."

"Then why?" The priest clearly wanted to ask a clearer question but couldn't bring himself to do so in front of the other watching men.

"Because I know the law. If you want a clearer answer go reread the laws."

"You are walking a dangerous line."

"Makes it easier to flirt every couple of weeks, and anger the other women."

"I would think 95.5 give or take after today would make flirting harder."

"That is almost 3 years at the rate I go through it."

"Almost 5 years if you slowed down and traded with your brothers and sisters. Some of your brothers have clearly already benefited from your time."

"Death might grow to miss me, and then not let me go next time she finds me. Since I think mother is going to be busy for a while let me ask you."

The priest didn't hide his surprise. "What would you like to ask me?"

"Can you see that I have a match in about two weeks?"

"I will of course see what I can do."

"Good, Travis?" The trainer had been listening to the loud conversation going on between the priests and the matriarch. His eyes focused on me. "Can you spare three more unbloodied? I think it might be useful to start training up two more units for this style of fighting."

"You think this type will continue?"

"Oh yes, it has the biggest potential payout with the least overhead. It also simplifies scheduling. Once the women get over the fact that they can only count on the minimum still which is the same as if they had lost that many fights anyway, they will continue to want to use the format."

"You do know that it is unlikely for you to succeed in having a hundred percent pass rate this time right?"

"I am not taking them from your care."

"With you I am not worried about it, Mir."

They had started towards the iron gate that led back to their house. "I meant to ask how you learned that name anyway?"

"I didn't think you remembered, you almost killed me when you first got here when I called you wilder."

"I must not have been lusid at the time."

"No, you were not, which might be why we both survived the experience."