Giving me an evasive look she said, "I will do whatever needs done to get those children a better chance at life."
Going to a cord hanging on the wall to her right she pulled it, which would summon the guards. Coming once more to stand before me she reached a hand up to touch my cheek and said, "Your mother and father would be very proud of you! I'm sorrier than you can ever know for taking them from you!"
The doors opened and as the guards entered I witnessed a transformation occur before my eyes as she spit out. "Get this arena rat back to his hole in the dungeons! I've had my fill of him tonight!"
Chuckling the guards pulled me roughly from the room and back down the hall that we had come across earlier. The party was still going strong, but all I could think of was the cold cell waiting for me, and what awaited me tomorrow in the arena.
Later in my cell, which oddly felt like home to me, I stood holding the bars of the window, reflecting on everything that had happened. If one thing had become clear, it was that I was not in control of anything in my life like I thought I had been, but there was an unmistakable order to the events happening in my life all the same.
Was the Creator really orchestrating my life, or had everything been merely chance and circumstance? Giving up as I already knew the answer; I sank to my knees onto the cool dirt of the cell and did something I hadn't done since I was a boy. Something my mother had insisted that I do every night, and even throughout the daytime. I didn't know where to start as the prayers of my boyhood past seemed inadequate to say what I felt needed to be communicated. I decided to talk to my Creator normal like, as if He were a friend standing beside me.
"Creator I'm not sure about where to begin here. I've done a lot bad things, which I'm very sorry for! Things I had to do to survive. At least that's what I tell myself. Well, anyway here I am with a chance to do something noble with my life. As You know I've been trying to turn my life around and the journey I've felt led to go down by You has led me to here. I have a chance to do something meaningful; in concern to these children the priestess has saved. Something I know my father would have done if he were alive and able to do so. I guess what I'm saying is that even though I don't deserve Your consideration, I'd really appreciate your help in staying alive in the arena tomorrow so that I can help those children get to a safe place. I guess that pretty much says it all. Oh one more thing, be with Larc tonight and help him stay strong and help me get him to safety too."