Kelsey reached the Lobby of False Promises and found the infirmary first.
It was a closet. It had one cot, a bucket, and a sign that read FULLY STAFFED.
She stood in the doorway for a long time.
“Who is the staff.”
The bucket.
She took a pen out of her coat and crossed out FULLY. Then she went to find Jake.
Jake came into the matchup the way Jake comes into everything: armored, upright, flanked by four Avalanche players he had bought for their proximity to a man he did not buy. His passive had already counted them. Four points, glowing faintly off his breastplate before a single puck dropped. He nodded at her across the floor like a knight acknowledging a worthy foe.
Kelsey nodded back like a doctor acknowledging a patient who was going to need a follow-up.
It was close all week. Every time the System checked the board, the two of them were within a shot or two of each other, and every time the System checked Kelsey, she was not checking the board. She does not watch scores. She watches vitals. The vitals were fine.
137.2 to 135.6.
One point six. A margin you could fit under a fingernail, which she pointed out, and then asked when I had last washed my hands.
Under her collar, the Pendant of the Squeaker Syndicate stayed cold all week. It only wakes when she is the underdog on Friday night. She was not. It sulked the way jewelry sulks, which is silently, with a faint smell of copper.
System NoticeLOOT DROP: A SINGLE STERILE BANDAGE. TIER: COMMON. EFFECT: +2 PTS IN ONE WEEK OF HER CHOOSING, DECLARED BY WEDNESDAY NOON. FOR NARROW ESCAPES. STILL IN THE WRAPPER. CURRENTLY THE ONLY STERILE OBJECT ON FLOOR ONE.
She held it up to the chandelier, checked the seal, and announced that it stopped being sterile the moment it entered a dungeon. Then she put it in her pack, next to the Celestial Boon, which remains unspent, which keeps me up at night, which is not something the System admits.
On her way out she stopped at the infirmary closet and left the bucket a granola bar.
Week 2: Blake and his binder. Somewhere in the Lobby, something with a great many legs has stopped pretending to sleep.