Deli Surefoot could feel the eyes of the Ancestors on her today. The cold did not bother her, nor the wind cut into her bones. The tunnels flew by, the torch on her back spilling light to guide her ever closer to her crucible. She barely paid attention to Frank as they went on, only holding herself back enough not to leave him behind.

Health = 39/41

Deli was ready. Her Health near full, her heartbeat was steady. The weight of the axestaff in her hands felt reassuring, like a promise fulfilled.

“Today. Today I am a warrior in truth. Challenging the dead as in the songs.”

When the descent was before them, she slipped down, burying her axe spike into the frozen floor. Looking down into the depths, trying to find the bottom of the slide. She turned back to find Frank frozen, with his ironsoles in his hands at the top.

“Well, what are you waiting for? Put them on already, and let’s go!”

He looked to her as she waited for him, feet steady against the slippery ice, hanging from her axestaff spike, then to the ironsoles in his hands. Blinked several times.

“Frank… did you buy the ironsoles for me?”

He looked at her like he wasn’t sure what the right answer was.

“No?” He said, sounding uncertain.

“Good. Because that would be silly. I’m a Surefoot. You’re the one who’ll need them down on the ice.”

Frank looked at her without a single clue what she was talking about.

“What?”

His eyes looked at something behind him, before he slipped one glove off, licked a finger and held it up. “Oh. The cold is coming from down there, not from above, isn’t it?”

“Obviously.” Deli frowned at him. Was something wrong?

“Wasn’t the stone warm?” He asked, sounding confused.

“It is.” She confirmed for him. “But this side is into the mountain. We’re probably near one of the glacial roots. Those are frozen year round.”

“Right…”

Sometimes Frank was a bit slow. He did start putting on the shoes. He looked silly descending ass first on all fours, but if that’s what he needed to feel safe.

***

At the bottom they found a small ice hill, flat enough on top to hold three or four people. Then it curved away to the floor of the room, which was mostly covered in a mix of ice and stone peeking out of it.

They wouldn’t be needing their torches. The hall was wide, ten, fifteen marks, and almost thirty tall, the top shrouded in darkness. There were maybe forty marks to the wall raised on the other side. Many of the stone teeth had been broken here, and piled on into the wall. It stretched between two of the bigger teeth, three, four marks tall. It wasn’t a full block of the other side, only a stopper between the two teeth. They could go around it to either side, but not see beyond it, even with their small hill at the entrance.

While most of the stone teeth were broken, a few remained. Deli glimpsed bone white forms shifting behind them while Frank was muttering to himself about the size of the room.

“HELLO!” She shouted, to show they were not afraid, and perhaps provoke them into the open. The whole room rang with the call.

“Deli, what the hell was that?”

Skulls peered around edges, but her eyes were drawn to the top of the wall. A large square shield of sturdy wood, reinforced by steel at the edges and center, landed on the top of the wall. They were followed by a sizable club of bone and ice, glowing with pale, chilling inner light. And the hands that wielded them.

Gloved fingers came up, and lifted the figure onto the wall. It was clad in heavy furs, with a rusted steel breastplate, and a metal cap to shield its head.

The Bones were one thing. Each one of them was but animal or monster bones puppeted by one of the dead.

A Skeleton wasn’t. Sickly green smoke poured off it, like mist from a hot body in the cold winds. The fur Armour hid its body, but Deli knew the description from a hundred stories.

“Dark shadows clung to the human bones that made up its body, forming tendrils that connected them. A dark perversion of muscles that powered its Strength. Three or four Strength, for each one of the Skeletons facing the brave warriors. And all the speed of Bones, with the Skill to match at least a novice.”

“Nor were they ever alone.”

It even had boots on its feet, aping a real warrior.

But it was the eyes that held Deli. They hated her, pale, cold white stars swimming in the dark shadows inside its skull. Bones didn’t speak. They hardly made noise, but for moving.

The Skeleton pointed its club at them, and laughed. It was an unnatural sound, like the crackling of dozens of frozen branches being broken over a knee.

It was almost enough for her not to notice the pale, cold, but natural blue light coming from behind the wall and filling the room. Filling it, because all along the floor was ice, and it shined with it. The glacial glow flowed through it like water. Going through their own footing as well, just unable to reach the tunnel slide. Even in her new boots, she could feel the cold coming off it.

But ice wasn’t the only thing covering the floor of the room. It was also covered in thin green mist, the same mist coming off the Skeleton.

“This will not be an easy fight.”

Who knew how many Bones it was hiding behind that?

“Right.” Frank said next to her. “Well, he’s ugly, I’ll give him that.”

As he started breathing in, fire gathered in his hands, the staff leaned against his chest, while he rolled the flames into a ball.

“He’s all yours. I’ll deal with the Bones.” He took a step forward to throw, and nearly fell. His feet slid, but she managed to catch him before he dropped the fire at their feet.

With a nod in thanks, and holding on to her for stability, he took a long wind up, and threw.

The Skeleton raised its shield, but it flew over it, to land behind the wall. Well, not land.

It blew up behind it, hopefully frying those taking shelter in the cover of the wall. It also blew it from the top, though it blocked most of the blast by hiding behind his shield.

By the time it regained its feet from the fall, she was halfway to it.

She did not try to strike it before it got up. With Agility four, that was never happening. Instead, she took the chance to issue her challenge.

“By ancient law, through Godly Oath, I offer you the Duel of Life, Wayward Soul! Vanquish me and be free! Or fall to my axe, and feed my growth. I am a daughter of the Tree of Life, and I answer the Call! Come forth, servant of Restless Death!”

“Let us play your favourite song.”

With the final word, she struck the butt of her axestaff against the ice. The blow rang as voiceless whispers filled the air.

“Deli? What?” she heard behind her, but her attention was on the Skeleton. She tuned him out, tuned everything but the circle and her opponent out.

The sign of the Eternal Tree, its trunk and branches spread into a half-circle from the point of the butt of her axestaff. In response, the Skeleton leered at her, and bashed the club against its shield, raising its voice in a guttural howl. The Miasma pouring out of it formed grasping skeletal hands all along the floor on its half of the Proving Grounds.

Grounds called up by the Duel beneath the eyes of the Gods.

Several Bones that were headed for her went right past her. Nor did she strike at them. She had but one enemy to focus on now, as the circle around them cleared of the Skeleton’s servants. The walls of the Proving Grounds came up, made from the same holy runes hovering in the air at the edges. Or so it was on her half of the circle.

Deli preferred not to look directly at the sick green, twisted purple, and dark shadow things that occupied the other side.

She flourished with the tip of her axestaff, and it raised its shield and club in equal greeting.

There was a pulse of light, a cheer from her back pushing her onward, like she’d cheered listening to tales of heroes vanquishing the dark.

From the Skeleton’s back came wails and screams of Wayward Souls, refusing to accept what they’d lost.

The two waves slammed into each other in a burst of light and sound between them, their clash announcing their duel.

Deli didn’t hesitate. The moment the salute was over Deli skated forward. Her new boots may not have been cheap, but she finally had ones worthy of her name. With parts made to grip, and parts to slide and skate, she came at the Skeleton right away.

It watched her approach, and took a stance that reminded her of a rock. Solid, with the shield thrust out, and club raised behind it, his feet placed in a line to better take her charge.

In the ticks before impact, she considered changing her attack, but she needed to find out quick: three or four?

Her axe slammed into the shield with a sharp crack, but didn’t break it. More, while the Skeleton slid back, it neither lost its footing, nor slid far. The damn shield didn’t even shake, when she knew she’d hit it hard enough to shatter Bones.

“Strength four, just my luck.” was about all Deli had time to think. Then the club came down, trying to take her head.

Deli pushed back on the point of contact, unhooking her axe as she slid away legs swept wide in a whirl. Using her staff to spin away and duck, her breath quick already. But its blow tracked her as she swung to its side, turning with her and she had but a moment’s warning to brace for the pain.

The club struck her on the back of her shoulder, nearly driving her from her feet. She managed to stay standing, moving, taking the pain and the force of it and making it her own.

“Minimal motion, precision, grace.”

Using it to put more power into her spin as she sprung up with her feet as well, rolling the axestaff mid turn to lash out with its full length at the Skeleton's back.

It moved to block with the shield, but the very weight of the blow that blew out a large chunk of her Health and made her back and arm ache gave her the speed to outrace it.

As she came up, it was as if the Ancestors were with her, her aim true. The edge of her axe dug into the back of its skull, cleaving through the cap.

It finished its turn to face her, striking her weapon with its shield and throwing it clear, hissing in pain. Shadows bled out of the cut in the skull, drawing her eye.

Or at least she thought it was hissing in pain, before the Skeleton spat a dark green cloud in her face.

Deli knew the herbs in the mask were helping, but they didn’t help enough. Cursing herself within for the moment’s distraction, she started coughing, eyes watering, half blind from the damned poison in the air.

It burned, burned her eyes, burned inside her chest, burned with every breath. She tried to retreat out of it but never saw the blow that threw her from the cloud and flat on her back. She did feel the large wall of wood strike her flat on.

Still coughing, Deli lifted her legs and ass, and spun her feet to the floor with a sold lurch of her stomach and a push against the floor. She’d fallen so many times practicing that getting back up was reflex.

Getting her feet under her, springing to a crouch, she was trying to recover her guard quickly. She was not fast enough. It came out of the smoke quick as Bones could be, the leading hand striking out like a snake for her head. Deli didn’t have time to twist away before it grabbed her by the throat with its shield hand, lifting her into the air by her neck.

It was too close, too close for the axe or spike, stronger than her, and she couldn’t breathe.

Its eyes laughed as it choked her.

“Too close! Not the axe!”

The axestaff fell from her hands as she wrapped one hand around the arm choking her, trying to pry herself loose. It was fruitless, pointless, a waste of what little breath she still had. But it was only a distraction.

Her other hand ripped her fell tooth dagger out of her hip holster, and slammed it into its eye while it was busy enjoying her pain and watching her struggle. It screamed, throwing her away and retreating.

Deli scrambled on the ice, doing her best to grab her weapon and get back on her feet. She had a moment for it, while it took the time to rip her dagger from its empty eye socket, and throw it away. The pale star in it was gone. Satisfaction burst in her stomach. “Try and choke me, will you?” she rasped.

It was blind in one eye, at least for a little while.

As it took a step forward, Deli found herself with her back against the wall. It noticed. Dark shadows pooled out of the green smoke along the floor, and it breathed them in, its lone eye shining with baleful power. It swelled in size, the coils of shadow building more muscle outside the fur armour.

Then it came for her, shield leading like a ram, to slam her into the wall and no doubt break her spine. And it was tracking her. She knew that now. Of the two of them, it was a better warrior, more familiar with weapons.

“If I try to dodge to the side it will catch me. Even if I get out of a full blow, being clipped by that boulder of bone and shadow would hurt like hell.” flashed through her mind.

Instead she braced her axestaff against the wall, ready to receive its charge like a spearwoman, forcing herself not to glance at the floor. But her axestaff didn’t have a sharp tip, only a spike on the back.

She didn’t know if it thought her a fool, or what. But it came on, right for her, speeding up.

Deli watched it come. Judged the distance. And as it was committed and watching which way she would dodge?

She drove the spike of her axestaff into the floor, and pushed on it. Her feet ran up the wall, as the wood bent and flexed. Deli went up.

The Skeleton ran by under her, slamming into the wall as she ripped her axe out of the floor just before it passed as she jumped off the wall. It lashed out with its club, to catch her axe and rip it from her hands, unable to quite reach her. While it hit her weapons, it was only a glancing blow. It jarred her mid flight, cost her some balance. But she kept her rotation as she pulled it close to her chest and did a backflip in the air. All while still spinning from her wall climb, her body knowing how to land, correct for it.

For a moment, the room spun all around her, and Deli lost track of everything but the floor.

She managed to land on her feet, facing the Skeletons back. Not fully unaffected by the glancing blow, as it still took a moment for her to catch her bearing, and swing. By then it had managed to rip itself from the wall, shield and club too, but it was not fast enough to avoid the blow to the back. It did manage to catch it on its breastplate.

That didn't stop it fully as Deli buried her blade in its spine, cracking the armour.

Its deadly eye spun to face her and the Skeleton spat smoke again. Deli knew that trick now, and was already retreating when the skull turned to her. While it chased, she’d started in time to stay out of the Miasma. It still left her on the back foot when the shield and club came for her. It led with the shield again, and Deli had an idea.

Just as it came in reach she threw the butt of her axestaff out into the shield. Not as a blow, but to push. Leaning back on her heels, losing all grip. The clash of the impact threw her back, out of reach of the swinging club that whistled as it passed in front of her.

Deli was glad it had missed her staff. Her back hit something solid, and she realised she’d struck the edge of the Proving Grounds, the holy runes all around her. She dared not try to walk on those walls, and didn’t like her odds trying to dodge.

It was still coming, even if it had lost some speed. Her heart beating like a drum, Deli bounced of the wall muttering an apology to the Ancestors and charged right back at it, meeting it halfway.

Axestaff and club rose.

While she fainted to the skull, its shield was waiting for the real blow that came for its leading foot, her weapon giving her reach and first strike.

Deli felt it connect, felt the impact, and was happy with it. With how its leg bent, it had felt that. But she’d been focused on making her blow count. When then the club came down right on her chest it was so fast. Deli just about managed to keep her axestaff, as it drove her to the floor. Her feet flying out ahead of her, and tangling with the Skeleton’s boots.

It stepped on her stomach, a heavy weight with all that armour and Strength pressing down, pinning her in place. Taking the club with both hands, dropping the shield on her face. It landed awkwardly, glancing off her cheek and left her with the sight of the Skeleton raising the club high above its skull.

Her heart beating like a hare’s, and finding it hard to breathe, Deli’s hand slipped into her side pocket and came out with her reserve hammer. Meant for breaking Bones, before she had the axestaff.

As the Skeleton took its swing from high above her, she immediately slammed the hammer into its knee. The club came down like an avalanche but her blow had less need to travel. There was a spark, a crack. The Skeleton’s knee broke, breaking its footing and Deli was deafened by the club.

It had cracked the ice by the side of her head, spraying her with painful shards.

It was almost dead, but she was in trouble. With it splayed over her, and her on the ground, she was in the Miasma. It was clouding her eyes, burning her lungs again and her Health was running low.

“But I don’t need to see to hit it.”

It struggled, fought her, and Deli could feel its unnatural Strength was already weakening. She’d broken its Deathly aura, and with it, given it a mortal wound. Now she just needed to push it off her, hit it one more time!

It clawed at her hand, her face, and it was still too strong!

In that moment, it was as if she could feel them, hear them. Her vision, already blind from the poison, flashed with her room at home and her mother’s voice singing of the Warrior Maidens, telling her of their adventures and sharing her own battles.

More than anything else in the world, Deli wanted to live up to her example.

Somewhere, not in Body or flesh, Deli found more Strength. Out of the sick green the colour of warm pine needles burst from her skin, the Song of Life on her lips as she managed to roll the damn thing, rising from the floor and out of the Miasma to mount it. And even as its armored hands clawed at her and tried to stop it, she raised the hammer high, and brought it down. Again, and again, she brought it down.

The first blow broke an arm. The second another. The third shattered its skull to pieces.

In a scream, a wail that filled the whole chamber, the dark binds snapped. The Miasma all over the floor formed the same skeletal hands again, hands that reached for her. The choir of her ancestors answered, swelling in response. The equal circles tilting, light pressing on the dim shadows, until they formed the three points of an arrow, with the Skeleton’s broken body as the tip. The skeletal Miasma hands dipped, driving into the Skeleton and ripped from it a shadow, a soul.

Like ropes, they pulled the champion that had failed them back, back to a gate the opened at the center of their domain and swallowed it whole. Retreating before the light taking over the Proving Grounds.

The Miasma all around her faded to nothing in the instant the gate closed and Deli found herself sitting astride a dead and empty skeleton, still clad in heavy furs, just missing a head.

As the dark retreated, the bright walls of her ancestors advanced along the edge of the circle, until all was light. The last bit of darkness disappearing being the gate that had swallowed the dead soul.

The circle flashed, the full symbol of the Eternal Tree spreading to encompass the full floor of the Proving Grounds. Painted in pine green light all around her, its glow was blinding.

Deli found herself back in the fight. Reliving parts of it again, through her own eyes. It was like she was a puppet, playing out the fight once more, trapped in her own mind. Except…

She felt the warm and reassuring touch of the Ancestors and all her worries and fears melted away. Felt their wisdom flow into her, carried on warm whispers and filled with praise and pride. A nudge here, and a touch there. Warm light filled her world whole, as somewhere below speech and thought, the ancestors guided her through the battle. Sharing their wisdom, correcting her stances, attacks, dances.

Teaching her how to be what she'd always wished for.

***

When it was done, there was a loud whistle of wind in her ears, as threads of light scattered away from her shining form and Deli came back to herself. Blinking, she did as she’d been trained since she was little:

She checked her Health and winced.

Health = 6/41

It had felt low, but not that low. She was almost out.

Raising her voice she called out to her leader: “Hey Frank?”

Looking about herself, she noticed the other torch, the other source of warm light was missing. All that was there, was the cold coming from the floor and the fading threads of light from her Duel.

In that light, Deli saw a room covered in burned and broken bones. She also saw four Bones turn her way. They were standing before a mound. One crawling with Bones, if not made from them. There had to be at least five, if not six tens of them on it.

Suddenly chilled and afraid for Frank, Deli jumped to her feet, axestaff at the ready, hammer abandoned. Ready to charge in, only to start hearing laughter.

Villainous, ringing laughter worthy of some foul demon!

Terrible, hellish light came from the pile of writhing bones, and Deli had a split second to decide if she should flee or charge.

In that moment, her Oath tugged at her, and Deli knew Frank was still alive.

That made things easy. She’d already made that choice.