Two weeks flew by as the magi settled into a routine— they would fight one day, then rest the next. After their matches, they’d visit the merchants around the encampment with Elsa, which almost always ended with them having dinner with Eagle House. Claudia dominated the conversations, but they spent time with everyone. Pavil and Adriana had relaxed and joined in with joking and having a good time. Their chaperone, Robert, grumbled and trailed them, still clearly displeased with his task.
They used their days off in the city, spending time with their families. Wolf House would invite them over to chat and play games for an hour after dinner. Jessica chatted a lot with Yukiko, the two of them trying to glean insights into their magic without giving too much away. Ivan tried arm-wrestling Jenn and lost almost every time when aether was used, but without, he’d win. Lukas talked forging with Jenn, as his grandmother was a smith in Buldoun’s capital.
That time together helped solidify the friendships between the mage houses and Aether’s Guard. Even when Jenn was burned in her fight against Claudia, they didn’t hold it against the blonde. That seemed to surprise her— she’d found them looking extremely worried and tried to apologize right away. Jenn instead hugged her briefly and congratulated her on the win.
The fights were mostly a mixed bag for the empire, but they still won more than Buldoun. Yukiko lost to Stallo— the physical enhancement mage was able to break all of her shadows easily with just brute aether. In the end, he just outlasted her, and Yukiko yielded the fight rather than get seriously injured. Stallo chatted with her, letting her know that he’d been hard-pressed to keep his aether going that long against her hit-and-run tactics.
Hayworth lost to Claudia, unable to stop the opening barrage, it left him burnt, but didn’t threaten his life. He conceded, knowing that she could’ve easily killed him. His only other loss was to Adriana— the two spatial magic users’ match was a dizzying display of rift and counter rift. The crowd loved every minute of it, even more so when Adriana managed to slip her spear past a rift and tag Hayworth in the neck. They spent another few minutes talking before he returned to the waiting area.
The others won and lost in equal measure, with Jason and Parks always being careful of behaving. It was clear that the tiptoeing was starting to grate on them both, but they never went too far in any win or loss.
The only person who’d gone undefeated was Gregory. The others lacked the ability to defeat his foresight. He was always in just the right place at the right time, every trap missing him. The closest fight he had, outside of Claudia, was against Brian, the Boar House earth mage. The barrage of earth spikes caused Gregory to burn his aether at a rate he was uncomfortable with, but he managed to slip, duck, or break all of them as he closed and dispatched the mage. His victory over Jessica had been one that had caused laughter throughout the crowd— he’d avoided her daggers, but then picked them up, sticking them into the pouch on his hip. With her weapons gone, she had almost no chance against him.
The group had continued to train as they had since they’d arrived, with the addition of larger sparring and magic training sessions. Spending nearly two weeks training together had Gregory’s and Hayworth’s clans getting a better feel for how they fought. Klim got a single match per sparring day from Gregory, and he never used the naginata, nor his foresight. Instead, he used the other weapons, losing most, but not all, of their fights.
~*~*~
Waking on the morning of the last singles fights, something finally struck Gregory. He hadn’t seen Lightshield at all since the elder approved of their training with the Iron Hand. Hemet had always been the one to take them to the arena, then bring them back.
Yukiko shifted, kissing his chest. “Hmm… good morning, my heart.”
“Good morning to you, too, dear one,” Gregory whispered back, kissing her head.
“Is it time?” Jenn yawned, then shifted up to kiss Yukiko and Gregory.
“Soon,” Yukiko sighed. “Last day of single fights. I’ll be fighting Jessica today.”
“I get Lukas,” Jenn sighed. “Fire mage again. If we could use any of our enchantments, I could win so easily. Instead, I’ll probably burn. I just hope he’s more like Claudia and less like Nick when it comes time.”
“He has been for his other fights, and he’s friendly toward us,” Gregory said.
“It’s been surprising how much we’ve gotten along with two of the three houses,” Yukiko said as she got out of bed. “Maybe it would have been all three, but Boar House hasn’t been anywhere near us.”
“Stallo seemed decent enough, even when I beat him,” Jenn said. “He was shocked over how well I could segment my aether usage. He’d just been starting to learn how to do so.”
“True,” Gregory said as he rolled out of bed. “The other two in his house have been pleasant enough, too… Brian and Westley. Brian came close to beating me a few times.”
“That fight had everyone talking,” Yukiko smiled. “I feel like they’ll focus on you when we do the clan against house fights.”
Jenn agreed as she stretched, then stood up. “Yeah. They know he’s the biggest threat. Luckily, we’ll be able to use an enchantment for those.”
“Between Gregory’s armor and one of us using the fire-nullifying ring, Claudia and Lukas will have real problems,” Yukiko giggled.
“They’ll have their own tricks, but I agree,” Gregory said as he got dressed.
~*~*~
Breakfast and Magi Squares went by quickly, and their study was just coming to an end when Gregory closed the Resonant Mind book. “That’s all of it.”
“There’s a lot the path can do,” Mindie said.
“Agreed,” Roshana nodded. “Add in the Peaceful Fist, and it trains all three.”
“Combining them would be even better,” Ling said.
“You can,” Gregory said. “I feel it… we can do the first steps of the Resonant Mind while doing the Peaceful Fist already.”
“We’ll do our best,” Clover said.
“Oh… something occurred to me this morning,” Gregory said. “Has Lightshield been in the stands with you?”
“No,” Mindie said. “I thought he might be with the overseer.”
“Maybe?” Gregory murmured.
“Time for resonance meditation,” Jenn said.
“Go ahead,” Gregory said. “I feel the need to go speak with him.”
“We can—” Roshana began.
“Stay,” Gregory said softly. “Train. I’ll probably be back shortly.”
“We’ll be waiting for you, dear one,” Yukiko said. “Let’s center ourselves, ladies.”
~*~*~
Gregory was just reaching out to knock on the tent post when the flap of Lightshield’s tent opened. “Come in, Gregory,” Lightshield called.
Entering, Gregory realized it was aether that had opened the flap for him. He went to where Lightshield sat in a padded chair, taking the one across the table from him. “Elder… are you okay?”
Lightshield gave him a tired smile. “As well as I can be. Thank you for worrying about me. What can I do for you?”
“We haven’t seen you much, and we worried,” Gregory said honestly.
“You do care for your friends. It soothes my nerves to know I am in that number.”
“You are, sir. I can’t thank you enough for accepting us into the clan.”
“As if I could do anything else,” Lightshield chuckled. “You were working on resonance training, were you not?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Good. It will serve you well in the years to come.”
Gregory felt the need to tell Lightshield that he was Aether start to burn inside of him. He wanted to bring the older man joy before the end. “Sir, I’ve been meaning to tell you—”
“Wait,” Lightshield said softly, cutting him off. “Not yet. It is not time yet. Before the tournament ends, it will be time, but now is not it.”
Gregory felt a weight to those soft words, and he bowed his head. “As you wish, Elder.”
“Joy will still come before the tournament ends, too. I have arranged some things to help with that. But first, you have fighting to attend to. I will be in the stands for the clan fights and the last match.”
A gust of wind pushed the tent flap aside, and Laozi stood beside Lightshield’s chair. “Pettit,” Laozi said, his aether restrained the way it had been when he was merely a sweeper, “if you will excuse us, there are matters I need to discuss with your elder.”
Gregory stood, bowing to the sage. “Of course, sir.”
“Fight well today. Having one of ours undefeated in single fights is a mark of honor for the empire.”
“Yes, sir,” Gregory said, bowing again before leaving.
As he walked away, he caught a fragment of the conversation behind him, “Linus, tell me what has changed, please.”
Laozi is asking Lightshield to track things in the future… Gregory thought. That makes me wonder what might happen before the tournament ends…
~*~*~
Entering the waiting area, Gregory gave Egil a nod. “Armsmaster.”
“Pettits,” Egil replied back. “I wish all three of you luck in your fights today. None of you have easy matches. I wonder if one of your fights will even be seen.”
Yukiko smiled. “Shadows hide a lot.”
“All of you have done well,” Rafiq said from his desk. “Between the three of you, there are only two losses to this point. The best of any of the three clans, even if we discount Shun’s losses. It will certainly bring more attention to your clan.”
“And Greg even more,” Jenn chuckled. “Undefeated again, if he wins this fight. He makes a habit of that.”
“People will begin to wonder just how much foresight can do,” Rafiq nodded. “Gregory, might I ask you to prepare notes for me on what your magic helped you with during the fights? It’ll be easier for me to get them directly from you as Master Damon did, rather than having me take your time away by asking you repeated questions.”
“I’ll start getting them in order, Rafiq.”
“Thank you.”
The door opened, letting Jason and Parks into the room. “Pettit,” Jason nearly hissed. “Maybe today is the day for you to lose.”
“Perhaps,” Gregory said. He knew that Rafiq already had his book open to take notes, so he didn’t make a retort.
“You get to fight their best fire mage today,” Yukiko said. “I hope she’s more restrained than some others.”
Jason’s nostrils flared, but he just glared at Yukiko.
“At least Parks will win,” Jenn added. “Probably, at least.”
“I’ll win. They should be glad that we’ve been curtailed. Things might have been very different if we hadn’t been!” Parks snapped at her.
Before any more words could be exchanged, Hayworth led his clan into the room. “Ah, all here already? Today, they’ll have a chance to win more fights than we do. I doubt they will, but the match-ups look fairly even today.”
“Of course, you would think that,” Jason snorted. “None of the rest of us have voiced doubt the empire will fail to win today.”
Hayworth’s eyebrow went up. “Battles can change in an instant. No victory is assured. Not even Pettit’s, though he undoubtedly has the best chance to win.”
“You have the wind mage, Pavil,” Jenn said to Hayworth. “He would’ve fallen easily if you hadn’t already used your best attack against the earth mage.”
“Spatial magi have trouble with many small attacks,” Hayworth shrugged. “I expect him to be prepared for me to appear behind him. The real question becomes will he count on it, or expect me to not use the same tactic?”
“He knows that you know, but you know that he knows that you know,” Yukiko laughed. “That kind of circular logic can make anyone hesitate.”
“Exactly,” Hayworth nodded.
Binder grimaced— he’d lost most of his fights and felt terrible about it. It was worse for him, as he’d be facing Adriana, the spatial mage. He’d been working on trying to split his magic into more small wind blades, but he hadn’t gotten it there yet.
“How do you feel about your fight, Kang?” Jenn asked.
Kang looked out of the viewing area. “He has me on aether. I don’t like my chances. I can’t use my aether as sparingly as you did. I’ll just have to try overpowering him at the start. If it drags out, he wins.”
“Pathetic,” Jason snorted.
“You lost to him, too,” Jenn laughed. “Or did the hit to your head cause you to forget that?”
Jason’s jaw clenched and he turned his back on them. Parks followed his lead in ignoring the others.
“Ladies, gentlemen, and children,” the announcer’s voice filled the arena, “we’ve come to the last day of solo fights. We’ve had some great matches over the last two weeks. We’ve seen near tragedy and overwhelming victory. Some unique fights are lined up for you today. Without further ado, let us call forth the first fight of the day, and one of the most anticipated: undefeated through eight fights, Gregory Pettit of Aether’s Guard. He’s the user of foresight magic, and we’ve seen what it can do. His opponent today will be the last chance to give him a loss in this segment of the tournament: Ivan Armstrong, a physical enhancement mage from Wolf House. Fighters, come forth.”
