Nuori stepped out the door to her place and walked through the illusionary wall just in front of it. Now in the Plaza she looked down the room to the fourth door in (there was another illusionary wall and an odd door that only appeared every fifth earth day). She closed her eyes and let out an annoyed sigh.

Her faith in Humanity’s ability to follow simple instructions had backfired.

Whelp, this is a day.

Waiting wouldn’t make it any better so she walked towards the door to the arena. She stopped at the open door and turned her head to face the star of Turva. Most hated the feelings one got when looking in the stars direction. It reminded you of how insubstantial you are in the face of such overwhelming power. What could anyone do when they’re just tiny specks in a grand uncaring universe? What could she do?.

Whatever I can.

She turned and walked through the door with a sad smile. She gave herself fifty-fifty odds, it will either work or it wouldn’t. Yes she knew that odds didn’t work that way but she prefered keeping a positive mental attitude.

As she crossed the invisible barrier into the arena the sound became deafening. If she spoke, no one would hear her. If she tried to take the stage, people would stop her. There was only one empty ‘stage’ in the room that could attract people's attention.

She pushed her way to the edge of the arena pit and placed her hand against the rail.

She stopped for a second and looked at the stage. Perhaps it was blind luck or perhaps he was looking for her but either way her eyes locked with Steve’s. He broke out into a big grin and gave her a wave, happy as could be.

You are such a stupid shit.

She vaulted over.

---------

When the two men walked up to him in the arena he had been worried. Was this the wrong place? Did they mean him harm?

He laughed at the foolishness of his past worries. They were here to usher in the start of his reign! He had been nervous when he first took the stage, especially after he had seen the fight.

They were amazing! He could honestly see the appeal of fights like that. Watching twenty fantastically skilled combatants duking it out was one of the most interesting experiences of his life. No one was even permanently hurt!

He would’ve rethought his view on the ban but he didn’t have time to come up with a new speech. It was a shame, damn shame, but sacrifices have to be made to be seen as austere and astute. Really though, he shouldn’t have even been worried, the crowd loved him. Life was great, this Emperor business…

It was more than he could have ever dreamed.

He began to understand why he was picked. He thought he had always done around average in life, nothing special. It didn’t matter if it was athletics, education or socially. When he thought about it though, he had never truly tried. Applied himself. Maybe he had a vast well of hidden potential waiting to be tapped. Maybe there are some things that can’t be measured in a regular life.

Leadership. Conviction. Integrity.

These are the things people follow. He felt now that he might have always had a good handle on these things. The life he lived just never gave him the chance to exemplify them.

It was then that he saw a great sight. Nuori, while late, had finally arrived to see his triumph. God she was cute. Her long black hair was tied back into a ponytail. And when she looked up at the stage with those bright green eyes he saw… that she was pissed? Why would she be...

Oh shit.

Just as Steve was pulling out the list of directions he saw her start to vault over the rail.

It was an attempt.

Her foot got hooked on to the rail so she ended up doing an impromptu somersault landing on her back and half rolling to her feet, she then stumbled up and immediately fell back down.

“Is she drunk?” he asked, not expecting a response.

The sound in the arena had turned from cheers into laughter as they all witnessed the comedy of errors. Slowly Nuori stood up, she looked up to the stage and appeared about to speak. Just as she opened her mouth, her body had second thoughts and she bent over and puked to the side.

Definitely drunk.

While in normal circumstances he would find this quite funny, reading through the directions had brought him to a horrible realization.

No wonder she’s pissed.

“I can’t believe I forgot her rope in the tunnel.”

--------

Okay Nuori, your alcohol tolerance is apparently shot to shit.

Who knew that four years sober could make quite a bit of difference in that department. She didn’t quite regret it though, it would numb her both to the pain of getting hit and the pain of holding a weapon again.

Kneeling down, puking her gut outs in front of five thousand people, she could see how this situation would be embarrassing to most people. She could easily handle the embarrassment if it meant keeping the one person she actually cared about safe.

She looked up to the stage, where the announcer, Voli, and Steve were standing. She steeled herself.

“I have an accusation!” She yelled over the crowd. “I claim that there are those in this room who have mistranslated the words of our Emperor! I also claim that such underhanded actions are cowardly! This accusation I level on Speaker Voli and any others who may have associated with him in these misdeeds!” She glared around the room.

The crowd quieted down,intent, this was a new drama for them to watch. A new person walked onto the stage. Dyrian. He looked down at Nuori and addressed her. “I, Councillor Dyrian put my own personal team to translating the Emperor's words.” He gravely intoned. “Any accusations you have would be a direct attack on my personal character. Do you still wish to proceed with these allegations?” The crowd waited with baited breath.

“Yep” She said nonchalantly.

A gasp from the audience.

“Very well.” The man gave her a genuine smile. “Would you… happen to have proof in this matter?” He politely asked.

“Nope” she kicked the sand in the arena. “Just my word against yours, such a shame.”

He chuckled. “A shame indeed. I have to ask why? You know how this will end, even if you win. Why go through the effort?”

I don’t want my son to die. I don’t want me to die.

That answer wouldn’t work for this crowd though. Cowardly they would call it. She laughed at the idea. Most of these people hadn’t seen death and they thought they were prepared for war? She’d never been alive for the wars, but she’s seen the histories. War meant death.

And she knew death was no beautiful thing.

Pride was big with these people though, she needed to make it seem like it’s an issue for her as well. “Dyrian, my friend.” she bowed. “You stand before the greatest translator of our Emperor's ancient language.” Only one sadly “Should I not take issue with the blatant mistakes of your people? Is it not my duty as a patriotic member of the Empire to see the will of its Emperor more clearly realized?”

She put a concerned look on her face. “I believe that your translators may have deceived you about their capabilities, or even worse, overestimated themselves.” These folks hate incompetence. “I found their interpretation of his words quite, interesting.” She said, stressing every syllable of the word. “It may not have been your intention to insult my capabilities but you have most certainly done so.”

The man nodded. “Of course, I have no wish to offend such an esteemed person as yourself, but as I do not know the language I cannot ascertain whether you are telling the truth. Do you have any remedies for this situation?” He raised an eyebrow.

This is where he expected the challenge of combat. When she won they’d be forced to admit the translation was faked or in this case, ‘highly inaccurate’. That was all well and good but both Nuori and Dyrian knew that the Emperor had already gone on record calling for war, hell, that declaration was even using Nuori’s voice. Dyrian could easily point to that when she won, hence him thinking her actions here pointless.

She’d agree, so Nuori needed something firmer.

“I wish for a battle of penance!” She declared, to the confused mutterings of the crowd. Dyrian was silent for a moment.

“Shit” He said, bemused by the revelation.”You didn’t come here to save face, you came here to win.” He started laughing hysterically. Most of the crowd actually seemed offended on her behalf. Sure, they probably had the same estimation of her abilities but they weren’t going to say it.

“Yeah,” He started, still chuckling. “I like you. Not many people are stupid enough to ask for a battle of penance.” He winked at her.

A battle of penance required the accused to do everything in their power to reverse the supposed wrongdoing if they lost. In this case, it would require Dyrian to actively campaign and vote for peace. The drawback was that the accuser had to go against greater odds and if she lost she would have to heal any wounds she received naturally with only family to help her. Having never fought in the arena before she figured they would send only one fighter against her to have the appearance of fairness.

If that happened, she had a chance. A good one.

Nuori looked up at him and smiled “If I remember correctly the last time such a battle happened was when an idiot boy thought he was robbed of a seat on the council.”

“Ah.” He grimaced. “Not going to describe him as heroic and good looking?” She shook her head. “Alas, my heart is broken. Ever hear what happened to the boy?”

“He lost and got thrashed pretty bad but he held up his end of the bargain. Eight months it took him to recover.” She nodded towards him. “I figure he’d keep up his end of the bargain if he lost on the other end.”

“As much as I might hate it, I think the boy might.” He looked at her, judging. “Do you really want to do this?”

She closed her eyes. “I think I have to.”

“Okay.” He appeared reluctant to say what came next. “I can give you Eve and Cala”

“Two?” She asked incredulously.

“It’s what the boy had to fight.” He said a tired voice.

“But I’m not a arena...” She trailed off as he just looked at her.

“I will not underestimate you Nuori. I wanted to send three but my sense of fairness got the better of me.”

Dyrian saw the slight despair on her face and looked at her with pity. “I’m sorry Nuori, but that boy needs to win this time. Do you accept the terms?”

How could she? She hadn’t held a sword in one hundred and eighty nine years. She was out of practice, a bit too drunk, and emotionally a mess. Hell, she had never even been in a sword ‘fight’ so to speak. She should just leave or else Spark would…

“I accept. Swords.”

How could she not? Her son deserved better than a battlefield.

“Very well.” Dyrian gave her a sad smile “Good luck to you Nuori.”

After all the dramatics it seemed a bit ridiculous to be standing in the center of the arena. Both Cala and Eve were getting ready and the usual betting of the crowd was not taking place. Most believed that she was too long of a shot to win. While she didn’t quite believe that herself, she also didn’t know how much she had forgotten. During the break Dyrian came down holding a thin wooden practice sword.

“Does this work for you Nuori?” He said as he held up the sword.

She eyed it. It was a bit larger than the rapier she used when younger but not by much. “Thank you, how did you know it would work for me?” This was probably the smallest one they had on hand.

“Nuori, I know who you are, all the council does.”

oh

He was annoyed by the look of surprise on her face. “I know your parents kept the fact that they were drawn for a child a secret, but the council draws those lots.” He shook his head. “You went through the same process, it’s willful ignorance thinking we didn’t know.”

She felt a bit silly. “Of course, I just… hoped no one would remember.”

He chuckled lightly.

She glared at him. “It’s nothing to laugh about.”

“No, no it's not. I was just thinking how foolish we must seem to you. These fights.” He spat on the ground.

She had to ask. “Why are you doing this Dyrian? I can’t imagine you don’t know the odds.”

“Three thousand six hundred and eighty one years. I don’t know if we can win a war but I’m sick of this fucking rock. Some days, when it was looking like we’d never leave I found myself wishing for only one thing.

She had heard something similar before

“A beautiful death”

He looked at her with those tired old eyes. “For me? A glorious one.”

She asked a question she wanted to ask many years ago to different people. “And why do the people who never had a chance to live a long life have to die for your dream?”

He placed a hand on her arm. “If it comes to it I’ll try and have Spark placed in Isokivi as a defense operative. Did you need any other gear?”

Will I ever get an answer.

"No, my sweats are fine. Comfortable.”

“Good luck again Nuori. Part of me hopes you win.” He said, leaving her to wait for the fight.

The sword felt light in her grasp, she did some quick stretches and a few practice lunges to try and loosen up for the fight.

Eventually Eve and and Cala made their way to the pit. Both of them were wearing light leatherlike armour and had the standard wooden practice swords.

They all readied themselves when suddenly they heard a loud noise coming from the stage.

“ARE YOU PREPARED FOR THE ULTIM-” Voli the announcer belted out before being punched in the gut by Dyrian.

Nuori looked up towards him on the stage and received a nod.

So for the first time in many years, she headed into the fray.

--------

Spark was confident his mom would win. She had rarely spoken about her past and how she had trained but that wasn’t what gave him confidence. There was an event she had never mentioned, that he found in the archives. He hadn’t expected to find much when he searched ‘dance of swords’. He had just wanted to see why his mom hated his long dead grandparents. What they had spent her childhood teaching her. At most he expected to see a video of some interesting dance choreography and he expected it to take quite a bit of searching.

Two hundred and thirty nine dead did not end up being a hard thing to find.

He had never told her that he had seen the video.

In all the fights the arena did, he’d never seen anyone come close to the horrifyingly skillful movements of his mom when she had danced the dance of swords.

And his mom charged he saw her as she used to be, she slid under the blades of Cala and Eve, slipped to the side when they tried to corner her. She used their movements against them, putting them in situations where they could not swing their weapons else they would hit each other.

It was a master against amateurs, and she hadn’t even used her blade.

The only sound of wood against wood was the accidental crossing of Eve and Carla's swords.

When he saw his mom kick Cala’s leg out from under her and turn to face Eve. The battle temporarily being single combat, he knew that his mom had won.

-------

As Cala went to the dirt Nuori turned to Eve. Eve’s sword was already moving towards her so she rolled under it.

Nuori then stepped to the right as she stood up, and felt the wind pass her face.

Closer

Eve was trying to retreat, buy time for Cala to recover. So Nuori charged, Eve panicked, and threw all her weight behind a horizontal blow.

Nuori slid, pivoted, then stabbed.

Right to the heart.

As Nuori turned away from the defeated Eve to face Cala she had a realization.

Her sword did not go through. These were not weapons made to kill.

Eve’s sword smashed into Nuori’s forehead.

Nuori’s father looked at her “Why do you cry girl.”

She held her arm he had just hit with his practice sword “Because it hurts!” she yelled angrily.

He chuckled. “Don’t be angry at me child. Be angry with yourself for getting hit.” He raised his weapon “If you don’t wish to get hurt, dodge.” He swung quickly at her, hitting her leg. She fell to the ground.

“To achieve a truly beautiful thing you must sacrifice, girl.” He harshly said. “Now stand up and try again.”

Nuori slowly got to her feet. Both Eve and Cala let her. She looked around for her weapon but found they had thrown it away from her. Her eyes locked on its position across the arena.

“Don’t” Eve started. “You fought well, but we won’t let you grab it. Just give up, no one will think any less of you for it.”

Nuori put a hand to her forehead and it came back covered in blood, she took a step forward and stumbled slightly. Likely a concussion.

She just shook her head.

“I will.”

What worth was all the suffering in her childhood if she couldn’t even use it for good at least once in her life.

She ran for the sword.

Eve swore and Cala moved to cut Nuori off. Just as she was about to reach the weapon she dug her right foot into the ground and charged Cala instead.

Cala quickly swung her weapon in surprised panic.

Instead of dodging Nuori turned her body and shouldered the blow, moments later smashing into Cala bringing her to the ground with Nuori on top.

She tried to grab Cala’s head with both her hands but found that her left shoulder must have gotten dislocated so instead she grabbed Cala’s hair with her right hand and smashed her forehead into Cala’s face.

Eve’s weapon slammed into Nuiro’s back. Her vision went dark for a second.

“Again!” Her father’s voice moved her.

She slammed her forehead into Cala’s face again just as Eve’s weapon smashed into her for a second time. Closer to her neck.

“Again!”

Nuori moved like she was going to slam her head into Cala but at the last second pulled back.

Eve’s sword impacted Cala's chin.

Cala was unmoving. Her face was a bloody mess, nose and jaw broken and missing more teeth than she had left. The adjudicator voiced his judgement. She was done.

Nuori rolled off of Cala and punched the sword that was again coming down. Some fingers broke.

“Again”

She quickly got her feet underneath her and was crouched when Eve’s weapon slammed into her left shoulder for a second time. Nuori smiled.

That side was already fucked anyways

“Again” she said and wrapped her right arm around Eve’s thigh. She pushed up with her legs trying to topple her over.

Eve hopped backwards though, using her free leg to stay upright until she ended up pushed against the wall. Nuori lodged her right shoulder against Eve’s stomach, pinning her to the wall.

They stood there for a couple seconds, both breathing heavy. Resting. Taking stock.

Eve attempted to use her sword to swing at Nuori’s legs but found she couldn’t get any power behind the swings.

Realizing the futility, Eve dropped her sword and started elbowing Nouri’s right shoulder. Nuori moved her legs closer to Eve and widened her stance, which let her raise her shoulder higher onto Eve’s chest, taking power away from the blows.

Eve saw Nuori’s right foot off to the side and stamped down on her ankle with as much power as she could muster.

To the surprise of both of them, the bone snapped.

After a moment of shock Eve pushed against the wall with her free leg and toppled overtop of Nuori, Eve then rolled off of her and sprinted towards Cala’s dropped sword.

“Fucking again Nuori” she said to herself as she reached for Eve’s weapon.

Nuori couldn’t hold on to it properly with her pinky and ring fingers broken but she held onto it as best she could. She hobbled to her feet to find Eve facing her, ready, with weapon in hand.

Nuori took a wobbly step forward.

Her ankle gave out.

On the ground, she heard the adjudicator begin to call the fight.

“I’M NOT FUCKING DONE!” She screamed while pushing to her feet and trying to ignore the pain.

“Nuori…” Eve looked at her with nothing but concern in her eyes. “You’re in no shape to fight.”

That concern will be why you lose.

She charged Eve. Eve swung her sword and it crashed into Nuori’s left knee. She fell to the ground again.

Nuori began trying to get to her knees but found her left leg wasn’t working properly. She looked back at it. She could see bone.

Still she tried to stand in front of the silent crowd. She only stopped when Eve came over and put a hand on her back.

“I’m sorry Nuori, I know how it feels.” she said sadly. “Sometimes we just lose.”

Nouri didn’t know when in the fight she had started crying. “But I had to win.”

Eve chuckled “You did win something Nuori, you said this was about pride right?” She reached her hand under Nuori’s chin and made her look her in the eye. “I know you were the best fighter in the pit today, and I think most others here do too. You won respect, when you heal I’d like to fight you again, one on one.” Eve smiled. “I know you probably don’t care right now,but people will be talking about this fight for awhile... now what should we call you?”

“What?” Nuori croaked out.

“All the best fighters have titles, Nuori, I think I have one that fits you.” Eve let go of her head and then spread her arms to address the still silent crowd.

“The fight you have witnessed today was one that will go down in the arena’s history! Or would any of you care to disagree.”

“No!” The crowd enthusiastically said as one.

“Now I must confess that this fighter I faced proved to be quite the challenger!” She gave them a big grin. “Would you not at least say she deserves a name?”

The crowd cheered their assent.

“Then I am proud to present you with Nuori. The Red Wind!” The crowd roared and the arena seemed to shake with the chanting of her new title.

The sobbing Nuori didn’t give a shit.

She had lost.