"...no thanks."

The old woman seems to find this answer amusing.

"Suit yourself." 

"I will, thanks. Ivan, what did you even want to enter the tournament for, it sounds like a kind of stupid thing to do."

"...to help people?" Ivan guesses.

".......how admirable."

"His family has been trying to get the Spring for centuries."

"Why?"

"Often it's to beat the other mage families and increase your influence, though sometimes it's something more interesting."

"Ugh." Sigh. "Okay, so I can't get home, I will get the Spring or die trying, I have a magical champion who is at least ostensibly content to remain that way, I am stuck at this level of backlash for the foreseeable future and should not make it worse - when does the tournament start and is there any obvious way to handle the, like, food and shelter type things?"

"I'm not sure how long it's been since I was last here or what locations we are in - both prior times I've been a champion have been in places I was unfamiliar with."

Would Murder Lady like to volunteer an opinion.

"I suspect it's been centuries since Lianelle was last summoned. You two are welcome to stay at my place."

"Thanks."

"Can I leave now?" asks Ivan.

"I fucking guess. Make better choices."

A gesture from the woman releases his feet and he books it.

"I wonder if we'll be seeing him again."

"I shall wait with bated breath. If you wanted him dead why didn't you kill him?"

"Oh, I didn't want to see him dead."

"You tried to hire me to kill him mere moments ago."

"Well yes, but that was about you, not him. And a little bit about Lianelle."

"Do you know what she's talking about?" May asks Lianelle.

"No I just find it very unnerving."

"Oh dears, I'm not trying to be particularly mysterious about this. I just thought I would enjoy watching you two kill someone."

"Maybe I can sell something for hotel money," May suggests to Lianelle.