All eyes went toward the arena where Nick stalked forward, his jaw set as anger burned in his eyes. All he saw before him was something he hated: a eurtik shadow magic user. While she was vastly different from Yukiko, she would let him vent his anger.
Jessica walked proudly, waving to the crowd as her tail lashed behind her. She’d tried to fight with her favorite daggers before, but that hadn’t worked well. Against a fire user, she was sure it would be worse. It was possible to win, but she’d need to keep moving, meaning she had to win quickly. Gregory’s match with Claudia had given her an idea that she considered trying.
The announcer spoke to them for a moment and Nick snapped at him before turning his anger back on Jessica. Jessica’s lips pursed and she waited a long moment, then nodded. The announcer shook his head as he backed up. Jessica bowed formally at the waist to Nick. Nick didn’t bow back— he just stared at his opponent, waiting.
Rafiq made his notes as he watched. He didn’t embellish or slant what he wrote; they were only factual. Every insult to the others and every action of less-than-proper decorum was being recorded. His task had been given to him by the academy overseer, and he would do it to the best of his ability.
The instant the announcer called the fight to begin, Nick did as Claudia had done— launching a barrage of fireballs. He rushed toward the thickest patch of shadow at the same time. That movement let him get away from the single dagger Jessica had thrown, but it also took him away from where she’d leapt.
She knew he was likely to go for the best shadows, so she went to the other side of the arena where the shadows weren’t as good. It was too far for her to throw her other dagger, so she reclaimed the one she’d thrown, then shifted bit by bit along the wall.
Gregory had pulled up aether sight, curious as to what Jessica would do. He knew that how she used the shadows might let him give Yukiko ideas later. Nick blasted the shadows away from the wall as he got close. The fire made the people in the front row of stands jerk back.
Hissing, Nick backed away, looking over his shoulder. He was smart enough not to turn his back right away, but since his gaze wasn’t on the shadows, Jessica took a gamble. It was hard to do from so far away, but she did it anyway.
Gregory’s eyes shot open when he saw a patch of darkness form, then shoot forward. Nick turned back in time to react— his sword slid the shadow blade mostly away, but it gashed his left arm right before a burst of fire erupted around him, dispersing the shadows.
“Shadow blade?” Yukiko murmured.
“From across the arena,” he whispered to her.
Yukiko’s lips pursed and she considered what that would take from her. Her evaluation of the Buldoun shadow mage climbed a little higher.
Nick growled as he rushed away from the shadows and into the middle of the arena. The sun gave him a reprieve, with his shadow cast directly in front of him. “Come out, you damned cat!” he shouted, but it was lost in the noise of the crowd.
The game of cat and mouse continued for many long minutes— Jessica would throw a dagger, then jump shadows as Nick spun and threw fire at where she’d been. The two referees had to dodge his fire at times, making both of them frown at him. Nick sported a few small cuts, and the wound on his arm from the shadow blade was still bleeding steadily.
Nick’s visage was one of rage as he spun time and again, tossing fireballs into random patches of darkness, hoping to catch Jessica. He was being toyed with and humiliated by another eurtik, and he would kill her if it was the last thing he did for the tournament.
Gregory dropped his aether sight, as it had started to tax him. “She can’t have much left.”
“No… she’s jumped a lot,” Yukiko said. “I wonder what she’ll do? He still has plenty left.”
The answer came a moment later, when Jessica appeared behind Willof. Willof stiffened, then shouted loudly, “Buldoun surrenders!”
“No!” Nick screamed, spinning and throwing fire right at the pair.
Jessica gasped as she grabbed Willof, the shadows leaping to engulf them. The fire hit the area and clung to the sand, burning bright and hot. Two screams of pain and small burning patches illuminated another shadow well away from Nick.
“Are they alright?!” Jenn asked worriedly.
Gregory pushed aether sight back up and inhaled sharply when he saw the aether fire stuck to them, burning them. His breath caught when he saw the wind magic that snuffed the fires, then engulfed Nick, lifting him into the air a few feet.
Laozi drifted down from the boxes, his face stern. “Apprentice, that was a severe breach of etiquette. Are you done now?”
Nick glared at the sage, even though he was white-faced at the pressure Laozi exuded. He could barely move, but his head managed a nod. The wind cut off and Nick fell the ten feet back to the arena floor.
Laozi continued to float in the air as he turned toward the boxes over the Buldoun waiting area. “Archmage, what will you ask for?”
The archmage stood up in his box, looking down at Nick with disdain. “This one has shamed your empire. He has tried to kill one of ours after the fight was over. Since he is the leader of his group, that speaks ill for his clan. I ban the entire clan from the tournament. Let another of the clans present take up their disgrace.”
Laozi hung in the air. The crowd was dead silent, not wanting to disturb the two powerful men. “Hmm… Problematic. Would you consider just banning him and letting his two remaining clan members continue? If they act out in any way, we will acquiesce and ban them all, then forfeit their fights as we already will for his.”
“If they break any rules. Ours or yours.”
“Agreed.”
“Accorded,” the archmage nodded. “I will give him one more chance if he will speak with me on the matter of Lynette Firetongue.”
“Shun?” Laozi asked, staring down at Nick.
Nick glared at the two men. He was sure they knew he’d never say anything about his mother— his grandfather had made that point abundantly clear to him as a child. But being driven out of the tournament would blackmark his clan to a point that even his grandfather would be livid with him. Between those two terrible choices, he made a decision.
Drawing himself up to his full height, blood still oozing from his wounds, Nick let fire flare over his skin, searing his wounds shut. It would make healing them harder, but it was also a display of who he was. When the wounds closed, he turned away from the two men, heading for the waiting area door.
“It seems he has chosen,” the archmage shrugged.
“He has,” Laozi agreed. “If I might request your service in this matter?”
The archmage’s lips ticked up and he motioned toward Nick. Nick vanished from the arena floor in that instant, and the archmage smiled darkly. “He has been sent to his grandfather.”
“Acceptable. I do not doubt he arrived safely.”
“I am not the one who almost started a war today.”
Laozi bowed his head a fraction. “Shall we continue?”
“Yes.”
Rafiq was writing furiously as he tried to capture the moment and words. Stunned silence filled the empire’s waiting area, with the only sound being breathing and Rafiq’s pen.
“Dammit…” Jason said simply. He lowered his head for a moment, then turned to Parks sharply. “Not a single thing more. Do not go for kills. Do not step out of line in any way.”
Parks saw the writing on the wall— Nick had become more and more erratic since their novice year. Jason had been slowly gaining control of their group, and had even been praised by Elkit and Grandmaster Shun for mitigating the worst of what Nick had done. “I see the smoke,” Parks said, using an old clan saying.
Jason grunted. “Good.”
“Well, this just became the brightest point of my whole year,” Hayworth chuckled. “I could lose every fight for the rest of the tournament and still wear a smile on my face the entire time.”
Jason’s teeth ground together, but he didn’t speak against Hayworth. Instead, he kept talking to Parks, “Ignore everyone else. Do not rise to any provocation. You heard them. Any rule broken means we’ll be sent to Grandmaster Shun to explain. We need to redeem Nick’s folly.”
“I see the smoke, Jason,” Parks said firmly. He would say more, but he wasn’t going to give any information away to their enemies.
Yukiko whispered to Gregory, making sure her voice was too soft to be overheard, “Jason is taking over, which is honestly worse for us.”
Gregory nodded; he had to agree with her. He would never be able to push foresight far enough to see if a crazy idea would work, but he wanted to gamble for it anyway. “Jason?”
Jason’s shoulders stiffened and he turned to face Gregory. “What, Pettit?” The anger and hatred were clear in his voice.
“We never wanted the rift… Nick was the one who wanted conflict. We did our best to win. That was all. Jenn even checked her attack on you when we last fought. Truce?”
Jason blinked, clearly taken completely off-guard. The majority of those in the room looked just as flabbergasted by Gregory’s offer.
“We never started any of the incidents,” Yukiko added. “With the problems you now face, might it not be time to put aside the troubles started by another?”
Jason’s teeth ground together again before he exhaled slowly. “You and your clan have taken delight in embarrassing and defeating us at every turn.”
“We never started any of it,” Jenn said firmly. “We take delight in proving our clan strong, but what clan doesn’t? We never celebrated beating your clan more than we did any other clan.”
“No! You strung the clan along, then went to a broken, forgotten clan!” Jason snarled. “That insult to the Eternal Flame will not be forgotten!”
“To be fair, they turned down all of the great clans,” Hayworth snorted. “Just because you chased them and they declined doesn’t make that their fault. The rest of us backed away upon seeing that they had no intention of joining us. But the Eternal Flame has always been good at making martyrs of themselves.”
“What a moment we’ve just witnessed. A sage of the empire and our own archmage coming to an accord!” the announcer boomed. “But the fights must go on, even if we’ll be having one less a day going forward. Next up, we have Wallace Hayworth of the Swift Wind clan, user of spatial magic. His opponent is Stallo Gympian, a physical enhancement mage from Boar House. Come out, fighters. And maybe follow the rules this time?”
Laughter filled the arena, and Jason’s jaw clenched tighter. “Those who mock the Eternal Flame learn their folly in time.”
Gregory shook his head. He’d hoped that, with Nick gone, Jason would extend a hand. He should’ve known better. Well, from now on, no more holding back. We’ve tried time and again, and not only do they not accept, they try to hurt us more. Gregory sighed to himself at the thought of what that might mean in the future. I’ll make sure everyone knows… I just wish it’d been different. What does it say when two mage houses of Buldoun are friendlier to us than one of our own clans?
Hayworth went to collect his weapons, his mind shifting from Nick’s folly to what was before him. “Now, to win without giving the entire empire a black eye.”
Jason’s teeth were clamped tightly shut as he glared at Hayworth.
