Though Nauda told herself she was soulcrafting, she was mostly just stewing over her same problems. She'd significantly enhanced the chamber on her Archcrafter floor dedicated to her new staff, but it wasn't enough. For a while she worked on building toward Ruler, but the pressure soon got to her and she stumbled back down.

So when someone knocked on her door, she wasn't upset at the distraction. When she discovered that it was Fiyu, she was pleased... though the other woman was frowning and her hair was in a much messier version of its usual braid.

"Is everything alright, Fiyu? Shouldn't you be preparing for your tournament today?"

"My soulhome is ready, but my mind is not." Fiyu pushed her way in without making contact, and Nauda gladly stepped aside to let her be a little more comfortable. It was rare for Fiyu to express herself so openly, or at least it had been before their journey to Ichil.

"I'd help if I could, but I'm not sure I'm the person you want to talk to. I failed my tournament badly."

"Oh, do not say that, Nauda. And it is not a matter of strength, I am worried that I will not represent myself well. All the strange insults, and being in front of the crowds, and..." She touched her braid, but not as a nervous gesture, instead bringing it over her shoulder. "Do you think this would look bad to Fithans? I think it feels beautiful, but I know most people use their eyes first."

"I... would advise you do it slightly differently."

"Please assist me." Fiyu walked further into her room and sat down in front of her table, regarding her brush and the few other items she'd laid out there. "Complex hair styles on Ichil are usually focused on having various pins dividing the hair into layers. I am not good at those either."

Nauda stared at the other woman's back, unsure if it was really okay after so long staying apart. Fiyu had put distance between them ever since the moment when she had taken Nauda's hand while ill. Truthfully, Nauda had no idea if she even remembered her actions while delirious, and had assumed they were back to remaining apart. "I'll do what I can."

Careful not to touch Fiyu directly, Nauda pulled her hair out of the messy braid and brushed it out. The other woman's hair was remarkably thick, though fortunately her regular brushing didn't leave it with tangles. Having silence between them was a bit uncomfortable, but Nauda didn't think she could talk for all that long about hair.

"I'm going to braid it into several plaits, then weave those together. That should be practical but also look nice."

"Thank you, Nauda." Fiyu sat cooperatively, displaying no apparent discomfort, so Nauda decided to keep down the same path. Perhaps, after they were both immortals who had lived for a thousand years, Fiyu would voluntarily hug her.

"I wish I could do more for you than this." As she worked, Nauda spoke slowly, glad there was no mirror to make it more awkward. "Normally if a friend was going into a tournament, I'd be trying to give them sublime materials or last-second advice. But your soulhome is so finely balanced, and you have the skills you need..."

"Oh, but it will help to know that you are cheering for me!"

"Well... I'm glad it helps, Fiyu."

After that, it became slightly less awkward, as it seemed that Fiyu wanted to take her mind off the tournament. By the time she finished the plaits, Nauda wished that she could make the moment last longer. But since Fiyu no doubt knew each and every hair on her head, she would obviously notice any stalling, so Nauda simply finished her work.

Fiyu seemed quite happy and departed with another broad smile for final preparations. After that, Nauda had no chance of focusing on her soulcrafting. Fortunately, there weren't so many hours to while away before it was time, and when Theo came to collect her, he was all business.

They flew to the Yorthin Coliseum quickly, Fiyu quiet the entire way. Theo seemed to realize that she needed a distraction and kept up a conversation with Nauda about the tournament schedule. Apparently there were tournaments later in the year that awarded a Chasm Invitation, though those didn't restrict soulcrafter tier, which meant they had very little chance.

Eventually they reached the coliseum and Fiyu had to depart to join the other contestants. Intellectually, Nauda knew that Fiyu was a talented soulcrafter who had just recently survived being impaled through the stomach. She still felt anxious when she saw Fiyu walk out onto the sands among so many others.

~ ~ ~

The initial melee went heavily in Fiyu's favor, of course, Theo had never doubted that. Her ability to cloak her presence combined with her situational awareness was an overwhelming advantage, especially against first tier soulcrafters. A few with vision-based skills attempted to hunt her down, but she dealt with them in short order.

Waiting for the final few to drop was dull, since Fiyu wisely conserved her strength for the one-on-one tournament that would come afterward. He returned to soulcrafting, trying to balance all his cantae flows again. It was within his power in theory, but much trickier with so many sublime materials filling the rooms and adding their own cantae to the mix.

In the end, two of the contestants eliminated each other, leading to only fifteen remaining instead of a full sixteen. The judges discussed for a while before determining that Fiyu would be able to pass through her first round based on her performance in the melee.

That was a good advantage, and it also led to Fiyu suddenly emerging in the stands beside them. "I am not required to join the others yet," she explained, then moved between their shoulders and waited for them to create a space for her. He realized that she'd done something special with her hair, a somewhat more elaborate braid that he presumed was aesthetically beautiful to her senses.

Theo expected her to carefully watch her opponents as the matches began, but instead she withdrew into herself. It didn't seem to be the combat on display, which was unquestionably competent but nothing that should shock someone with her experience. He realized that it got worse at the beginning of the matches, when the contestants ritually insulted one another.

The next round was a Fithan man and an Ichili woman, who walked onto the combat floor and nodded to one another.

"I heard you weren't born blind," the Fithan man said, "but the first time you saw yourself in the mirror, you tore out your own eyes. Now that I get a look at you, I believe it."

The Ichili woman twirled a pair of long knives around her fingers. "You shouldn't believe everything you hear. I heard a rumor that you were so clumsy you tended to fall down and stab yourself in the back repeatedly."

Their taunts complete, the two of them began circling. They were better than average, but Theo didn't think they were astonishingly skilled soulcrafters, which was why it seemed odd that Fiyu was fidgeting with her braid while watching them. He considered asking, but decided to let her deal with her own issues.

The match ended with the Fithan man victorious and they were replaced with two more Fithans, who issued their taunts and began fighting. Again, they had solid finished soulhomes, just nothing that would have challenged Fiyu's skills... yet her lips pressed together tighter and tighter until Nauda finally spoke up.

"Are you okay, Fiyu?"

"I am worried about the beginning of the match," she said.

"Why?" Theo asked. "I haven't seen anyone who you don't have a good chance of taking."

"Not about the fight. I... do not understand these insults. They are supposedly jokes, but they are only insults or threats."

Theo paused and exchanged a glance with Nauda. She shrugged nearly imperceptibly and bent a little closer to Fiyu. "You don't need to say anything if you don't want to."

"But I wish to participate to respect Fithan culture." Fiyu pressed her lips together again as another set of contestants exchanged their insults, then shook her head. "I do not understand."

"You... do realize they aren't real insults or threats?"

"I am not foolish, Nauda. But I do not understand why some insults are good and some are bad. They all seem simply unkind to me. Are there established rules for insults?"

Nauda paused and cast a glance back to Theo, so he tried to take a different approach. "Unfortunately, it's based on intuition and it's all very subjective."

"This is frustrating. I will copy what the Ichili woman said."

"Fiyu, that doesn't... you're not carrying any knives, so it wouldn't make sense, and she was playing off his rumor line. Do you see patterns in what they're saying? They imply the other person is ugly or incompetent, but in a memorable way. The insults are never too serious, more playful."

"But she threatened to murder him..."

"Sometimes they go the other way." Nauda tried to catch her eyes, but Fiyu remained fixed on the arena. "If the insults or threats are incredibly over the top, then they can't be taken seriously. Do you understand?"

Based on her expression, Fiyu did not understand, but there was no more time. The first round of matches had concluded, so she needed to leave them to go sit with the other remaining contestants. Nauda glanced over at Theo nervously, but he could only shrug. He thought Fiyu's mental discipline was too good for her to make an error while flustered, he just wasn't sure what would happen.

Soon after Fiyu was called into the arena opposite a Fithan woman. She flinched at the roar of the crowds, but headed forward with determination. Her opponent grinned, no doubt thinking that Fiyu was scared of her, and hefted a large halberd to her shoulder. Soon enough Fiyu stopped across from her, still fidgeting with her braid.

"You look nervous," the Fithan said with a sneer. "Did you enter the tournament for adults by mistake?"

"Um... your head is bad. It is the wrong shape."

The Fithan woman stared at her for several long seconds, then let out a roar of laughter. She stepped forward, still grinning as she swung her halberd off her back-

Fiyu flooded the arena with a storm of light.

Taken off guard, her opponent was battered backward and nearly fell. She swung her halberd to deflect the bolts, but Fiyu was no longer easily exhausted and the onslaught continued. Though the woman tried to push through, Fiyu slipped into her stealth technique and reappeared behind her opponent, sending another hail of light directly into her back.

As she dropped, the arena was silent for once. When they began to cheer, Fiyu flinched, then instinctively bowed to the crowd and scurried back to her seat. Nauda had a fond smile on her lips, while Theo simply wished that he had time to offer Fiyu a little feedback on her insults.

The second round of matches passed in a boring fashion, so Theo spent his time soulcrafting and just watching with one eye. Some of the contestants had potential, but others he thought had tried to design blueprints specifically for a first tier competition. Nothing was worth his time until Fiyu returned to the arena.

This time, she faced an Arbaian Mundhin, several limbs fashioned into fearsome claws. He loomed over Fiyu, deep voice grating. "I haven't heard such ill-formed insults since my master went senile. I'm impressed you were able to clothe yourself, or did your mother dress you?"

Fiyu blinked in surprise and then shook her head. "You are mistaken. You are the one who was dressed by their relative. You are not wearing clothes. This is because your relative was inept at this task."

What followed was dead silence, and even though Mundhin were hard to read, Theo was pretty sure he knew exactly why its central sphere was motionlessly fixed on her. Fiyu shifted her stance and her fingers twitched, clearly wanting to play with her braid.

"Your... your head is also bad. It is the wr-"

The Mundhin let out a bellow and launched himself at her. This match was much more intense, since he could resist the majority of her bursts, but Fiyu outmatched him in speed. He nearly caught her while pretending not to be able to see past her stealth, but she anticipated his trap. In the end her dark blade proved able to cut through his limbs and she was victorious, though it was a close thing.

If tournaments followed laws of drama, Theo might have been worried about Fiyu's chances, but he knew the odds. In a single-elimination unseeded tournament, there was no guarantee that the two strongest fighters would end up against one another in the final round. As more unremarkable contestants fought, Theo strongly suspected that Fiyu had just defeated her closest competition.

By the time of the final match, Fiyu's cantae seemed to have recovered, but she looked more nervous than before. Her opponent was a Fithan man covered in scars who immediately raised his hands to either side of his face before she could speak.

"It's okay, you don't need to try to insult me. You're a talented soulcrafter, and you can simply show us your work."

After peering at him for a time, trying to discern an insult in his words, Fiyu smiled and nodded. "Thank you, I will do this."

Though the Fithan man might have been kind, he wasn't good enough to be competition for Fiyu. He had absolutely no counter to her stealth except instinct predicting her movements, and Fiyu was too smart to fall into simple patterns. When she defeated him, she seemed surprised by the loud cheering, then beamed as she realized that she had won the tournament.

It wasn't really a surprise, but Theo still found himself smiling.

~ ~ ~

The cheering would have been horrifying if not for the curtain within her soulhome, which Fiyu closed tightly even as she maintained her smile. It was important to behave normally, because she was representing herself, Ichil, and House Blacksilver. She knew that her insults had not been effective, though she wasn't certain why they were bad, but hoped her victory would be more important.

In the end, a Fithan stranger in elaborate clothing presented her with a sword, which baffled her. She had no idea how to use a sword, and if they had demanded that she do something with it, she might have been apprehensive. Yet it seemed to be sufficient to simply hold the weapon, based on the cheering, so she managed until she could retreat from the coliseum floor.

Though she only wanted to rejoin her companions, the way appeared to be blocked. Walking toward the group, Fiyu resisted the urge to touch the hair Companion Nauda had done for her, instead merely running her senses through the strands. She would be okay. Her companions were with her.

A number of people closed on her, apparently with offers, but a representative from House Blacksilver cut them off. Fiyu had hoped that it would be Ally Antha, mostly because she knew the other woman best. Still, the other officials were not bad, surrounding her at a reasonable distance while also keeping others away and escorting her through the press.

"You've done our House proud," an older man said. "We don't focus on such tournaments, so they're almost always won by soulcrafters from House Crimson or the House of Waves that are forced to stay at the first tier. But having one of ours win will remind them that they can't forget about us."

"I attempted to do well in every aspect." Fiyu had been holding the sword in both hands and now thrust it at him. "I do not know how to use this."

"It's still your reward, or at least the start of it. House Blacksilver is going to add something on top of it: five hundred merits. We hope you'll use them to continue your career to Archcrafter and beyond."

"Thank you." Fiyu did her best to smile at the Stranger Allies, but then she saw Friend Nauda and Friend Theo standing in the corridor ahead. She hurried to greet them, glad to see the smiles on their faces. "I have a sword now," she said. "I am not sure what to do with it."

"Didn't you used to fight with one of those?" Friend Nauda asked, glancing toward Friend Theo. Several muscles in his jaw clenched for a moment, then he shook his head.

"That was the old me, and this isn't about me at all. Congratulations, Fiyu."

She nodded her thanks. "I did not truly expect to win."

"That's humble of you, but you could have. You're remarkable for a soulcrafter anywhere, not just in this city. They think Stronghold is the limit here, but if you keep moving upward, you'll be able to go further."

Fiyu agreed, hoping that it could be alongside her companions. Not so long ago, she had been nearly dead, and now she was the winner of a competition and quite happy. She would hope that the next turn of fate was equally positive.