Alden looked damn impressed by our results, as well as pretty pleased  by his obvious winnings. He let out a long whistle. "Damn, you kids did  not disappoint. You made me a mint. Especially you, little miss. Gust  is known for being nearly impossible to pin down properly. Odds are  always disproportionately in favor of him. Personally I think he's a  showoff with no substance who uses his power as a crutch, but I don't  deny he gets results."

After stopping to collect multiple  bags of what I was pretty sure where chits, he escorted us over to sit  down on the seating far enough away from everyone else that we could  talk, he passed out drinks to everyone, then, with that done, he sipped  his own bottle of what I was pretty sure was beer for a minute, reveling  in the taste, before shifting his eyes back to us. "So. I like you  kids, and you just won me a ton of money, so I'm going to go ahead and  let you explain your purpose for weaseling your way in here before I  decide to be a bit more...aggressive."

My eyes widened,  and Callie, always quick on the uptake, seamlessly put 0n a hurt  expression. "What? I don't know what you mean, we told Melissa already,  we're hoping for protection from Cicero. He was really putting the  screws to us, and we weren't sure he would leave us alone unless we had  some backing. Joining a big faction would be great, but it doesn't  necessarily happen overnight. Is this because we're new? Because we can  go, we didn't mean to cause any trouble or anything." Her voice sounded  so small at the end even I halfway believed she was hurt. I was  impressed.

Alden was not. "Lass, Mel is seven kinds of  stupid when it comes to the boss man. You say his name and every ounce  of sense in that girl's head flies right out her ears. Now, I was  willing to give you the benefit of the doubt, and I still may be. But  it's clear you aren't here just to learn fighting. You have too many  questions, you're pushing far too quickly for authority, and when I  mentioned joining a faction you were much too willing to be picky. Any  normal G rank kid would fall in with any E rank faction that would take  them. You lot were being picky, picky means options."

"That's..."  Callie started to defend herself before eventually sighing. "Damn.  That's a good point. I missed that. You were baiting us. So I take it  from the lack of violent blows to our skulls you're at least willing to  hear us out? Because we really don't have anything against you in  particular, or the Pavilion. We're here to get some information about a  third party, and we weren't planning to use anything we learned here  against anyone."

Callie liked these people as much as I  did, and it must have shown in her voice, because Alden's faux casual  demeanor softened into actual sympathy. "Well sure. Like I said. I like  you. If you have bad intentions I won't let you off, I could crush the  four of you if I needed to. But I don't. I trust my read on people, and  it tells me you lot are ok. I'm willing to be proven right."

I  exhaled in relief. Alden was a damn decent guy, and I didnt want to  have to fight him. I also did not love how absolutely confident he was  that he could beat us all after watching us fight. He clearly had some  solid insight into combat, if he thought he could take us after seeing  us battle, he might actually be right. Of course, we hadn't used all our  moves, but this seemed like a good chance to make the switch from  hostile to possible friendly as long as we played it right.

Putting  a hand on Callie's arm, I gave it a light squeeze, and when she glanced  over at me, I gave a small nod. This was ultimately her call as leader  and I trusted her, but I wanted her to know where I stood on this. She  seemed to be of the same mind because that was good enough for her to  sigh and stand up. "Alright, but even though this place is semi private,  it's not nearly secure enough. Follow me." She walked over to the edge  of the seats and gracefully stepped down, not bothering to roll or  anything given her leg strength.

None of us really needed  any fancy tricks to get down from something this low to the ground, but  it was more stylish to avoid smashing a foot into the dirt on landing.  This spot was pretty low down the seating though, so even just absorbing  the landing force only left some marks in the dirt. We followed her  down, including Alden, and I mentally congratulated myself on the choice  not to fight him. It was theoretically possible he was just massively  overconfident, but I doubted someone with that much insight would have  such a bad estimation of his own skills.

When we reached  the spot behind the seating, Callie held up a hand to stop us, then  flicked a few fingers and covered us in shadow. I could feel the Stealth  Skill blending seamlessly into the shadows, and being under a big  overhang would make the darkness totally natural looking on the off  chance someone actually bothered to look. This was pretty much a perfect  environment for Callie to keep the contents of this meeting secret.  Once she did, she turned to Alden. "Alright, we can talk freely. Ask  your questions."

Alden raised an eyebrow, but smiled all  the same. "Careful at least. That's not bad. Less likely to just half  ass an excuse, no reason to put effort into a sloppy lie. Doesn't  necessarily ensure you're honest, but it's a good start. Now. Like I  asked before, why are you here? Despite being sneaky and suspicious,  albeit badly, you lot have been pretty stand up folks, and I don't think  you're here for something nefarious, though I can't be sure. So  convince me. If I don't think you're a threat to me and mine, we may be  able to work something out."

"Alright." Callie said again.  "We're here because Melissa is working with someone. I don't know  exactly how familiar you are with the day to day here, but Melissa has  joined up with a faction that will help her oust Cicero. Normally, we  wouldn't care, he's kind of a dick, but the faction she's allied with is  doing all this at the behest of someone whose goals run counter to ours  and we believe it's part of a larger plan that will eventually make  trouble for us, so we're doing our best to put a stop to it. We're here  to try to figure out who she's working with so we know who our enemy is  supporting."

I blinked. She really had taken my opinion to  heart. That was more honest than I'd expected, or at least more  detailed, but I thought it was the right call. Alden seemed like someone  who respected honesty. When she finished talking, I turned to look at  Alden, and was surprised to see him looking sad. "Damn fool girl. She's  been obsessed with getting some imaginary vengeance for so many years.  Can't admit the boy left of his own accord. She doesn't want to face the  fact that he loved his brother more than her. That whelp left a mess in  his wake, no doubt, but to collude with external forces against the  whole circus? She's more desperate than I thought."

"Whoa."  I held up my hands to interrupt. "Wait, you make it sound like you knew  them when they were kids. Were you one of their friends growing up?  Were you here before the founded the cavalcade?" We'd only gotten brief  snippets of what had happened between all of them, and while it was  enough to puzzle some things out, being in front of someone who was  there for the whole thing.

Alden snorted. "Knew them? Boy I  trained those brats. All three of them, though Abel was the one who  took it most to heart. That boy surpassed my wildest expectations. He  asked me to stay on and help Mel train up the youngsters when he left,  and I  couldn't deny a request like that. I knew he was going to sever  all contact, and that girl was hopelessly in love with him. She never  got over it though, not like we hoped. Just let it fester and rot under  the surface. I hadn't realized quite how bad it had gotten for her to be  willing to risk the livelihoods of everyone in this place just to stick  it to Cicero."

His voice was tired, and his face looked  worn and aged, despite having not actually changed since we started the  conversation. Like the weight of years was slowly crushing him the  longer we talked. I reached out to clap him on the shoulder. "I'm sorry.  But the people she's working with are enemies of ours. Do you know what  faction she might have allied with?" Even as I asked I knew there was  little to no chance. Alden hadn't been aware she was even doing anything  involving outsiders. It occurred to me that he might have been one of  the reasons Melissa seemed so adamant on keeping things quiet.

I  wasn't sure what Alden's position in the pavilion was, but based on  what he said it was obviously high. It seemed odd that he was stuck at G  rank if he was old and strong enough to train someone like Abel, but  then again, Abel's whole deal was strengthening his foundation at the  price of growing fast. Maybe Alden had reached his current level  specifically by spending decades or centuries in the G ranks.

"Sorry,  lass. I haven't a clue." Alden's voice was as sorrowful as his face as  he answered her. "I wish I did. But it's clear she doesn't take my  council as she once did. I knew she'd drawn away, but I never expected  her to leave me out of something like this. I suppose she knew I  wouldn't approve." He let out a heavy sigh. "I'll look into it. I won't  mention your reasons for being here...for now. I'll be keeping an eye on  you, and on Mel." His eyes narrowed, and a sense of palpable danger  radiated off him as his voice dropped to a growl. "If I see even a hint  of treachery I'll out you, and we'll show you what the Starchaser  Pavilion does to traitors."

Callie  raised both hands placatingly. "No need. Like we said, we don't mean  anyone here harm. We just need to know the source of this mess so we can  track down the instigator." I wasn't sure how much I wanted that, but  we'd need to face the other candidate eventually. If we could crush her  attempts to overtake the branch then so be it, if not, a direct  confrontation was probably the only chance we had. She hesitated a  second. "Will you tell us who it is? If you find out? It would really  help us."

He  fixed her with a glare for a moment, but it softened, and he let out a  tired sigh. "I'll look into this myself. If I see evidence that the  faction she's cooperating with has nefarious intentions, then I'll let  you in on it. If not, I'll keep an eye on the situation until a path  forward becomes clear. In either case, you can keep poking around if you  want, but don't go too far. If Mel finds out what you're doing she'll  crush you. You're tough kids, but those fighters you were playing with  earlier are babies compared to the real monsters here. Don't push your  luck." With that last warning he turned and strode out of the stealth  field. I guessed we had to tread more carefully from now on.