Gregory was glad they’d arrived at the arena early. Other magi from the academy and visiting magi had already taken up a fifth of the available seats. He was able to pick out Master Chen and the Iron Hand, Magus Han and the Han clan, Magus Elkit with Nick and his group, and a few others.
“It appears we aren’t the only ones interested in who goes undefeated,” Lightshield said.
“One of those clans is hoping to see them lose,” Jenn said tightly, her eyes on the Eternal Flame.
“Of course they are. Their one real recruit already lost to your friends,” Lightshield replied. “It makes it less likely that their clan will be represented in the finals unless they snatch someone up right after the tournament.”
“Which they might have to if they wish to save face,” Dia said. “They haven’t failed to have a finalist in the last two decades.”
“Only the Han clan can boast a longer time,” Bishop added. “I wonder who they will approach when the tournament ends?”
“I was wondering why we changed from our normal seating?” Inda asked.
Lightshield just smiled as another group of magi came into view from the tunnel beside the stairs. The man leading them was wearing a cobalt blue kimono. He nodded to Lightshield before motioning those behind him to the seats that Inda and Indara normally saved.
“Elder,” the magi said, coming over to stand in front of Lightshield, “are you looking to recruit more novices this year?”
“Should not every clan look to do so?” Lightshield asked with a smile.
“Normally, yes, but it’s common knowledge that your clan doesn’t do as other clans do. I think the majority of us, if not all of us, were surprised when your clan took novices last year.” His eyes went past Lightshield to Gregory, Yukiko, and Jenn. “And some of the most sought-after ones, too.”
“Good fortune can come to those who are patient,” Lightshield chuckled lightly. “Though your clan has an apprentice who did well for himself.”
“Of course he did,” the master said. “The Hayworth family has been part of Swift Wind for generations.”
Gregory looked at the other group and caught sight of Hayworth, who gave him a nod. He also saw Magus Harrison staring at Bishop. Bishop had seen Harrison and gave him a smile, bowing her head slightly to him. Harrison looked away from her pointedly.
“I hope you enjoy the fights today,” Lightshield was saying when Gregory gave his attention back to the conversation.
“I’m sure we will. One of those we’ve approached is undefeated. How about you?”
“We have spoken to three, all of whom are also undefeated,” Lightshield said blandly. “Of course, if they do not show the dedication to the clan ideal, we will not accept them.”
“Your clan still holds to that idea?”
“Why wouldn’t we, Master Brem?”
“Eons have gone past and he hasn’t come back yet,” Brem said. “You really think it’ll happen now?”
Lightshield’s lips turned up at the corners. “I could die a happy man if it did.”
“That must be hard knowing your family line will never live to see what you’ve all yearned for.”
“While I still breathe, there is still hope,” Lightshield replied.
“Far be it from me to crush a man’s hopes,” Brem said, finishing just before the seventh bell chimed. “I’ll be taking my seat, then. Best of luck to your hopefuls.”
“And to yours,” Lightshield replied.
It wasn’t long before the novice’s parents showed up and, when they did, Inda and Indara went back over to Gin, freeing up the places for them. That left them three seats between the parents for the novices.
Minutes ticked by and the stands filled up, but the novices still hadn’t appeared. There was a brief moment of contention when a couple tried to claim the seats being saved for the novices— there had been an argument between Gufta and the man, and it might have turned into more than words if Lightshield hadn’t asked the couple to find different seats. Upon seeing the elder, they bowed and fled.
Less than a minute after that, the novices showed up, all three looking grim. They hesitated when they saw the Swift Wind clan where they’d expected to sit. When Gufta called out to them, they went over to their parents.
“What’s wrong?” Vana asked Nessa.
“We each fight each other as two of our three fights today,” Nessa said.
“That is one way to keep the number of undefeated lower,” Gin said. “What about your other fights?”
“We fight different people, but only Daciana fights Kyle, the other undefeated novice,” Victoria answered for them. “It was just us four left undefeated after yesterday.”
“Ah, so for one of you to be undefeated, you’d need to defeat both of your friends and, in her case, also beat Kyle,” Gin nodded. “Clearly, they wanted to make it as difficult as possible to be undefeated, though the fact Kyle isn’t facing two of you is questionable.”
Lightshield cleared his throat. “It is not up to us to question the council. They have their reasons, I am sure.”
“Who fights first?” Gufta asked.
“I do, against Kyle,” Daciana said, “at ninth bell.”
“What’s his family name?” Yukiko asked.
“Walun,” Daciana said.
“Oh, he uses fire,” Jenn said, remembering him. “I’m surprised he isn’t with them.” Her chin jerked toward where the Eternal Flame was sitting.
“He’s with the Swift Wind clan, if the master of the clan was correct,” Gregory explained to the confused novices.
“Not all fire magi end up with them, though they do try to recruit a lot of them,” Bishop added.
Gregory looked at the rings on his fingers and considered loaning his fire ring to Daciana for her fight. Yukiko took his hand in hers and leaned into him for a second.
“It’ll be obvious if she can shrug off the flames. These rings aren’t common enough for it to be passable,” Yukiko whispered.
“I thought the same thing,” Gregory sighed. “It was just an idea.”
“She has to show she can overcome her own trials,” Yukiko murmured before she sat up straight again.
Gregory sighed in agreement, missing Daciana’s ears twitch and Nessa’s one ear turned in their direction.
~*~*~
Daciana’s face was grim as she walked out onto the sands of the arena. She marched toward her foe, who had taken the entrance she’d been using for the last few days. One of the few match-ups between undefeated novices had the crowd in an excited state, but it was all background noise to Daciana.
Walun stood a few feet away from Magus Igorson, watching her. Unlike many of the other novices, Walun hadn’t made any comments about her heritage over the last few months. He hadn’t done more than give her an occasional, brief nod, but he did that to nearly everyone in the class outside of three others who’d been grouped with him nearly constantly. He’d been vocal and animated with them, but only with them. Walun gave her the same brief nod now before looking at Igorson, who had started explaining the rules to them.
Daciana exhaled, thinking about Walun’s other fights— his fire hadn’t been like the one that had burned Nessa. He kept his fire closer to him, nearly coating his hands when he used it. Everyone he faced ended up burned and submitting before he could do more to them. Daciana knew that was what she had to exploit— his lack of range.
Bowing to Walun, she felt her breathing slow. I have to win if I want to be their equal… Even if he burns my face off, I can’t let him win.
Walun felt uneasy as he waited for Igorson to start the match. Daciana’s lips were pulled back in a snarl and he heard a low growl coming from her. His breathing picked up a little faster and he quickly put himself into a defensive posture. She’s charged everyone and she looks like she wants my throat… I just need to hold her off long enough to burn her. If I do that, she’ll stop… I hope.
“Fight!” The word hung in the air, cutting over the cheering crowd with ease.
Walun flinched back slightly, expecting Daciana to be closing the distance. He was unprepared for her to be running away from him. His jaw dropped as he watched her. “What in Aether’s name?!”
When Daciana was almost to the tunnel off the arena floor, she turned back toward him and set herself into a defensive stance. Her aether surged as she used her magic, readying it for when he came for her. Her earrings drained as she made her preparations and stared at Walun.
The crowd had been as surprised as Walun, with Gufta being the one who was the most surprised at what his daughter had done. That had gotten the crowd’s noise to drop off.
A loud voice echoed in the near stillness, “What are you waiting for?! Go tame the mutt!”
All eyes turned toward the speaker, but Nick Shun ignored them, as he was glaring at Walun. Not many knew that Walun’s great-grandmother was from Shun’s family, but Nick did, and he burned in anger at the novice for rejecting the Eternal Flame’s offer. Walun’s stillness when the eurtik cur had run away from him only made Nick despise the novice more.
Those words jerked Walun back to his senses. His eyes flickered briefly to the Eternal Flame clan and his lips thinned. He was tempted to walk backward just to needle the arrogant ass for his glare, but instead, Walun took a deep breath and started forward.
Nick’s shout and Walun coming toward her made Daciana growl again. She briefly thought that maybe Walun was different, but now, she felt anger flare in her. Her aether was low, but her preparations were complete. She’d listened to the advice her friends had given her months ago and had read about famous earth magi and what they’d done, giving her this plan. She’d planned to wait to use it until the finals, but right now, she wanted to stay undefeated with her friends even more.
As Walun came forward with measured steps, the hairs on his neck stood up again. She hasn’t moved from that spot and she’s growling again… Just get a little closer, then rush her… but why hasn’t she used her aether at all? She’s an earth magi. She may be a weak one, but still… where are the dirt balls?
The crowd was getting excited as the distance closed and Daciana hadn’t run away again. The smarter ones in the crowd were thinking similarly to Walun. What trick did she have up her sleeve, and when would she spring it?
“What is she doing?” Yukiko murmured.
Gregory wondered the same thing, so he triggered his aether sight. His breath caught when he saw the sand in a half-circle around Daciana. Yukiko and Jenn glanced at him, and he dropped his sight. “She’s trapped him.”
Fifteen feet away, Walun took a deep breath. Daciana hadn’t twitched, wavered, or shown whether she was going to attack or run. Resolving himself, he tried to spook her by covering his hands in flame, real flames not made of aether. Daciana’s eyes narrowed and she shifted back slightly, making no other movements. With nothing left but to do as he’d planned, Walun rushed forward.
Daciana felt a spike of fear when Walun covered his hands in flame, and she rocked backward in instinctual fear of fire, but that was it. When Walun sprang forward, her snarl turned into a smile. Walun’s eyes went wide in fear, as he knew he’d just done what she wanted.
The hard-packed balls of earth shot out of the ground all around Walun— from behind, both sides, and even under his feet. They were everywhere but directly in front of him. The earth had been compressed as hard as Daciana could make them, so they hit like fists, making Walun flinch with each hit. He stopped rushing in and hunched over to protect himself.
Daciana drove forward the moment he stopped moving. A barrier of aether sprang up in front of her just before she slammed into Walun. Off-balance, hunched, and not paying attention to Daciana, Walun was flattened when the wall hit him. Stars swam in his eyes and his breath was driven out by a hard fist to his core. Wheezing, he tried to cover up as her barrage of blows bloodied him.
“Yield!” Walun shouted.
“Break!” Igorson called out.
Daciana stopped pounding Walun and got to her feet. She looked down at Walun, who was blinking at her, clearly unsteady. “You shouldn’t listen to Shun,” she said simply before bowing to him.
Walun heard the words, but his brain was too muddled to understand them. He blinked again when Mindie leaned over him. Her hands were warm on him, and he exhaled as the pain and confusion in his head cleared. “Thank you,” he told Mindie.
“You’ll be fine,” she told him.
Taking her offered hand up, Walun looked for Daciana, but only caught a glimpse of her tail going into the tunnel across the arena from him. “How in Aether’s name did she do that?”
“Good question,” Igorson grunted. “Now clear off the floor.”
~*~*~
When Daciana got back to the stands, her friends hugged her, and her father was beaming like he’d personally won the match.
“How did you do that? Where did you even learn it?” Nessa questioned her as they took their seats.
Daciana’s eyes went to the apprentices for a moment before she looked back at Nessa. “A senior magi suggested that I look into stories of historical magi. There was a story about Sage Stonefoot using a similar trick during the Second Eurtik War. He used spears of stone instead of dirt balls, but the concept was there. I didn’t know if it would work, but I had to try.”
“How does that work?” Victoria asked. “I thought you formed and threw them at the same time.”
“Normally,” Daciana explained, “but there’s nothing to stop me from forming them and leaving them to wait. I formed them under the top layer of the sand and left them there until he came to attack me. I drained my earring dry doing it.”
“So different from my magic…” Nessa said. “I can’t form the wind and leave it there. It’ll dissipate without my magic holding it together.”
“That’s the same as mine,” Yukiko said. “If I don’t keep my magic wrapped around the shadows, they won’t stay shaped. Earth has an advantage in that, it seems. To think an earth magi I know once lamented her magic.”
Daciana flushed red. “I deserve that.”
“Just you three left undefeated,” Gregory said. “Maybe one of you will be by the end of today.”
