This was Sana's favorite song that she used to sing with her mother when she was a child. Whenever she was sad or upset, her mom would sing it to her over and over again until Sana was prancing around the house humming a tune. After washing her off, Felichs helped her get dressed and then made them both some food. Their house didn't have a kitchen, actually, it only consisted of a living room with two windows and pillows that acted like couches, a small washroom that was basically a closet-sized bathroom, and their mom's room that had a mattress and blankets. Felichs usually slept on the roof as it allowed them to watch over the house and get the advantage if anyone tried breaking in. They made the usual breakfast: bread, diced-up potatoes, eggs, some tea for Sana, and water for themself. They both sat together and talked about the night before as they ate breakfast.

"You know, you don't have to go if you don't want to," Sana said with worry in her voice.

"Eh, if it takes me away from this city then I might as well head out," Felichs replied nonchalantly.

"While I'm glad you'll be able to leave, I'm going to miss you, sweetie. And I'm honestly worried about you too, what with traveling all around Emovere."

Felichs grinned, "Don't worry I'll only wreck the parts of it I don't like"

Sana chuckled, "You know that's not what I meant. That tournament-"

Felichs cut her off, "Don't be, I'll be fine."

This is what Felichs said out loud, but it was just to calm their mom's nerves; honestly, they were worried. They had remembered the way Tournament reacted to their question about the likelihood of death. "Death isn't something that can be avoided, in fact, it's more likely to happen the more you stress about it." But it wasn't THEIR death they were worried about. They've been in enough near-death experiences to not be scared of it. What they did wonder though, was if they would be able to kill someone who they didn't have an issue with. Could they rip away someone else's chance at happiness just for their own sake? Felichs was not only a deep thinker, but very anxious and hoped this wouldn't be the thing that caused them their life.

After eating, Felichs sat their mother close to the window so she could watch the sunrise. Ever since she became sick, watching it rise & set had become her favorite thing to do. Her new phrase was "It's odd you know, the closer we get to death, the more we appreciate the small things about life that make it so beautiful." Felichs, however, had a much darker outlook on life, so it was hard for them to fully grasp what their mother was trying to say. Still, just like with the bathing, they made sure to help her get to the window each morning, while Sana tried her hardest to lay down on her own by night. Before they left they made sure to mess with the branches in a way so they would block the house from sight as best as possible, then headed out.

Felichs opened the paper they had in their pocket. The bloody handprint stood out but it wasn't just because of the blood, it was also the shape, it appeared to be a flower but also looked like two hands. One appeared to be a smaller woman's hand and the other appeared to be a child's hand. They thought back to Tournament's hands, but they were hiding their true hand size under their gloves, that one was out of the equation. Felichs tried holding the paper at different angles to see if their eyes had just been playing tricks on them, but every angle showed two hands. Maybe someone working for Tournament is giving these to spice things up or lessen the number of participants. Well, whatever it was Felichs was not going to let this information go to waste, instead seeing if it was factual or not.

Since the tournament was still weeks away, four to be exact, Felichs decided to work on skills they felt would come in handy. Growing up in the slums made it very easy to pick up stuff like sneaking and pickpocketing, and they were already a pretty good fighter, so the only areas they felt necessary were athleticism and deception. Since there was a junkyard in Pauper, athleticism would be easy; deception was going to be an issue though. The only way to work on this would be interacting with others, which meant the possibility of running into one of the local gangs. Pauper had been flooded with them for a few years now. Every side of the city was controlled by different gangs, some sides even having multiple. The War God's Reapers controlled every aspect of East Pauper and its rivers. Nobody got in or out unless you had permission, the 26 Belials controlled the South and its factory, which they also controlled as the only source of income. The West was controlled by so many different gangs that nobody went that way unless they lived there. Lastly was the north and this area was controlled by Tertius Oculus, who believed they were descendants of Synkrousi. Pauper was a hot mess and Felichs wanted out any way possible.

They decided to hold off on the deception training and headed to the junkyard. It used to be the home to Vastum, a gang that inhabited this place and ran all of Pauper for a few years before suddenly disappearing. Nobody's heard from them since; some say they all were killed, and others say they went into hiding, but that wasn't on the mind of Felichs. The only thing they were focused on was improving and this was just the place. It was stockpiled with many things: broken-down cars they could use for climbing and box jumps, cargo containers with just enough space in between for long jumps, and excavators to hide in, in case any gangs came around. They would spend the next twelve days training here for hours upon hours, occasionally taking food to their mother and making sure she was safe. Sadly their training couldn't be super intense and they were even filled with tons of short breaks due to their not-so-healthy lifestyle. The lack of proper meals had finally caught up to them, so they decided to go do their favorite thing; steal! They needed to plan accordingly for such a big heist, so they decided to train for a few extra days.

By the end of their fourth training session seeing as it was nightfall, this excited Felichs because it meant one thing: Mediocris. Mediocris was a middle-class city north of Pauper. It was the biggest city in all of Perdita and also its second most protected city. It had everything: schools, churches, grocery stores, thrift shops, a mall, and even a hotel. There were many other things that typical cities had, but only one of them was the reason why Felichs loved visiting it. No, it wasn't because it was a nicer city or because they were meeting up with anyone, but, they did plan on visiting their friend Bellus. No, this was because they were able to do their favorite thing which was stealing! Mediocris, as the name suggests, had mediocre police who just drank throughout the day & spent the night at brothels with cheap, yet desirable hookers. This allowed Felichs to steal food or medicines from the local grocery stores and pharmacies without having to worry about being arrested.

They had their favorite spots to hit up like the grocery outlet Chase's Fruit Store and the pharmacy Law's Heart & Mind because they were in the backstreets, which meant fewer eyes to see them. However, today they wanted to put their training to the test, so they decided to go to Mediocris' Hospital. A five-story building, with its fourth and fifth floors still under construction and its windows barred. The hospital sat in the center of the city with only one security guard & not many workers. As they approached the building Felichs decided they would scale from the outside and sneak in through the fifth floor. They had really good eyes, better than most actually, so they hid in a bush & scouted out the building. They would analyze people's patterns to see when the best time would be to get in and how long they would have to get out. With 6 total workers in the hospital, two on each floor, and the security taking roughly ten minutes on floors one through five, Felichs knew they should start from the top and work their way down. While five stories would've been impossible to scale before, they had a sudden rush of adrenaline and ran toward the wall. They grabbed the barred window, pulled themselves up, then kicked as hard as they could up to the next story's window. They had gotten up to the third floor with this tactic when they ran into an issue; there were no more barred windows. There was a balcony above them, but they noticed earlier that it was frequently visited by the nurses.

"Tch, why does my luck always run out," Felichs thought to themselves smacking their lips

As they were about to give up and go through an open window on the third story, they heard what appeared to be two people on the balcony.

"Come on Derek stop, what if somebody catches us?" Asked a woman in an excited but nervous tone.

"Then we'll charge 'em to keep the show going. Now get over here." said a man in a groggy voice as he kissed the lady and groped her breast.

She suddenly pulled away upon hearing the bushes moving. Unbeknownst to her it was Felichs who had thrown their shoe at the bush. The lady suggested they go to another room to continue. A moment later they both left the balcony. Felichs waited a minute to make sure no one else would come out, then proceeded to leap over to the balcony that was about a foot away. Thanks to the preoccupied couple leaving the sliding door open, Felichs broke the handle so it couldn't be locked.

"That should give me some extra time." Felichs thought to themself.

After a few more pulls and pushes they were able to make it up to the fifth-floor window and hop in. Upon entering they headed over to the room their mom once occupied for a few days, hoping to find some medications. They shuffled through drawers & cabinets only to find needles, gloves, cups, and other typical things one would find in a hospital room.

"Well at least I can take this pillow and blanket with me for mom. But damn there's gotta be something in here." Felichs said aloud while rummaging through the drawers. "Maybe the others rooms will have something."

Sadly, every room on the fifth and fourth floors was the same. The third floor, however, was different. They found a doctor's office with the nameplate missing. They reached for the handle expecting it to be locked, but by a stroke of pure luck, it wasn't. They proceeded inside the small room that had clear cabinets on both sides that were filled with numerous types of different medications and a desk stacked with paper.

"Strange, you would think a room without a nameplate on it wouldn't have a bunch of paperwork," said Felichs in a low whisper.

"I would think so too." A woman chimed in as she grabbed their shoulder

"A woman?! That can't be there was only three and they were on the bottom floors...then why is there one right behind me? And why do I know this voice???" 

"Well hello there Felichs. Wow, you've changed since the last time I saw you...you disgusting creature!" She said as she spat in their direction.

"No, no, NO! Why the hell did it have to be her of people??? There's no way she's still a doctor here! She was said to have been fired so why? Why am I face to face with the lady who's been haunting me for years...damn it my heart pounding out of my chest and this stupid sweat...I can feel it running down my face...why, why, WHY!" 

Not even the fires of hell couldn't warm their frozen body up as it grew harder and harder to breathe. The sweat slowly poured out from their hands. As each drop hit the ground they could slowly feel death approaching them. This person that was now in front of them was one who would put fear in the devil Synkrousi herself. Dr. Benignus. The same doctor who left a scar on Felichs that not even the gods and goddesses could heal.