The manticore trembles briefly, but the spell doesn't hold for long enough to make it panic.

The hired guards, meanwhile, have a decision to make. Their boss died, and now this guest is trying to shout orders at them. Who is this guy? Not their boss. If the boss is dead, though, who is paying them at the end of the month? Maybe this guy? They can negotiate that before giving him the kobolds he wants.

Most of the kobolds have fled the room instead of staying to try another spell, but a handful of guards dutifully surround and try to seize the closest one.

Oh, right. The other guards.

She tries to make for the nearest cell door, readying her [Doors to Everywhere]

Is this door thing one of the things a magic kobold can do when one person knocks it to the ground and another has thrown a net. (Why does he just carry a net?? Former gladiator, you see...) Or no?

Alecka falls, wrapped in the net, just a few inches short of the cell door. 

Mattin smooths his clothes, wipes away some blood, and takes a moment to un-dishevel himself. Can't really gloat while visibly off-balance, can he. 

"Well, what have we here. The kobold who brought us all this trouble?"

"I am innocent! Another boy didit and ranaway!"

"Oh, someone else put you up to this? Any chance this person has a name?"

Would a rival really train kobolds in spellcasting and thievery so they could infiltrate someone's headquarters and cause an accident? Probably, Mattin is a bit annoyed he never thought of the idea himself. 

What a great explanation. Alecka is glad the big man told her about it!

"Other arena man! West of River!"

“Ah, of course.” Mattin doesn’t actually know who the arena owners here are and their rivalries. He’s not in Westcrown that often. Probably should, if the convention lasts weeks he might get caught in the middle of another play like this. 

“Well, looks like you got promoted from manticore food to bargaining chip.”

"Yes! Bestfriendsforever!"

“You did get my last friend eaten by a manticore…” Mattin considers whether, to a kobold, friendship is a championship title you get by defeating the last friend. 

Well, if it thinks it’s a friend, might be useful later.

“Guards, take this kobold away. Spellcaster precautions, don’t want it escaping.”

Okay ‘boss of these specific guards’ isn’t a position you get by throwing the last boss to a manticore.

Okay, fine, Mattin explains that he’ll be living in this manor and paying salaries to servants and guards while he’s in town.

That’s… not how owning a house works? There’s probably a will somewhere?

Civil courts are still closed, too bad for whoever the legitimate heir is. 

Fair. Continuing to get paid now seems better than getting paid after the civil courts reopen and find some distant relative to inherit the place. 

The guards will drag the kobold away, the servants start cleaning up the mess.

In the meantime, twelve kobolds who were recently freed, and four kobolds that didn't want to come anyway, are living it up in the sewers, eating mushroom stew and squabbling about who should get the brass candlesticks. They don't think one bit about Alecka- it doesn't pay to be sentimental, if you're a kobold.