Tala slept well and woke early, the night and day passing in a blur. Though she felt some tension from the upcoming battle, she did her best to focus on what she could do, rather than what she couldn’t control.

She spent most of the day in meditation, sifting through Tali’s memories and experiences for things that she could learn. Though, she didn’t just sit quietly while she meditated.

Tala used the opportunity to familiarize herself with the Way of Flowing Death.

-Blood, Tala. It’s the Way of Flowing Blood.-

Oh, yeah. That makes more sense.

-…you already knew that. Why get it wrong on purpose?-

Way of Flowing Death sounds better.

-But Death doesn’t flow. Blood does.-

…fine. Way of Flowing Blood.

Thus, Tala spent the day refining her understanding of the fighting style, allowing Tali’s instincts and memories to guide her.

When it was time for the competition, what would most likely be a bloody battle to the death, Tala made her way to the battleground.

On the far side of the hold, a circle of short cliffs surrounded a lowland nearly two hundred yards across.

Down below the cliffs, the ground was level and covered in thick, well-established clover.

Good footing, springy. No obvious means for terrain advantage.

All the members of the House, in residence in Platoiri or visiting for this event, surrounded the arena on comfortable seating, each seat seemingly individualized to the member.

Servants swarmed around the cliff top, seeing to the needs of their masters.

Sanguis’s Eskau was greeting each guest, candidate, or potential Pillar as they arrived, and Tala gave the man a courteous nod. I can be respectful.

Pallaun, Sanguis’s Eskau, had returned around midnight. He had been delayed in his return, which is why he had missed the feast. If rumors that Tali had heard over the previous few days were correct, Pallaun had been sent to crush a minor house, which had almost succeeded in kidnapping one of Sanguis’s daughters, a girl who had just reached marriageable age.

The minor house had intended to force a marriage between her and their heir, thus gaining official entry into the House of Blood.

It had been a foolish attempt, though sound in principle.

One week earlier, mere hours after the failed kidnapping, Pallaun had entered their hold, breaking down the magical reinforced door and storming in, alone.

A minor house would not have an elite, but they would be far from helpless. Many minor houses had the ability to field an elite, but chose to spread those armaments out among their best warriors, rather than concentrating them.

It wouldn’t have mattered.

It seemed that Tali had cultivated some of the servants as sources of news, because one had approached Tala that morning to inform her that an empty minor hold had been added to the vault along with more than two dozen vestiges, though they’d used different terms for the armor and weaponry.

Pallaun had returned with spoils of conflict and no prisoners.

He’d used a vestige to lock down the door before spending nearly a week hunting down everyone who’d been in the hold: house members, servants, and even guests unlucky enough to be visiting at the time.

The hue-folk man stood just taller than Tala, his protian weapon worn as a knife on his belt. Aside from the belt, simple breaches, and sandals on his feet, he wore nothing else.

His head was clean shaven, and his obsidian eyes matched his skin so closely that he looked like nothing so much as a three-dimensional shadow. His skin was so dark that it was hard to see the contours of his leanly muscled frame.

Tala could feel power radiating off of him, even though she couldn’t see any spell-lines or aura.

No one knew what rank he held, but his protian weapon was thousands of years old. House lore held that his family had wielded the weapon for generations, though no record could easily be found of it changing hands.

A smile broke the obsidian man’s face. “Tali, you will not fail today. This I know.”

As they had lived in the same hold for at least six months, Tali and Pallaun had sparred quite often.

Tali had never beaten the man.

Pallaun usually fought with as many handicaps as he could think of.

After one particularly infuriating day, Tali had collapsed to the ground, weeping in frustration, and he had promised to never fight her blindfolded again.

It didn’t improve Tali’s chances, but it had been less humiliating.

Pallaun was a terror.

And likely the greatest threat to our ever escaping…

-Yeah… though, it is possible that he wouldn’t interfere, if he were to learn the truth.-

Or he would kill us on the spot.

-That is a possibility, yes.-

Thorn seemed to have been a bit behind Tala, and he grumbled a complaint while regarding the larger man. “What is this favoritism, Eskau Pallaun?”

Tala half turned to regard the dwarf, even as Pallaun responded.

The dark man’s grin widened. “Is it favoritism to speak of the sunrise? Besides, have you even seen her today? She looks positively marvelous. Almost like me.”

Thorn glanced towards Tala, and then did a double-take.

Had he really not noticed?

-From the back, the difference is pretty hard to see. Now that you’re turned to be able to see him, though?-

Pallaun continued. “Though, in her case, she’s offset her perfection with…” he waved dismissively in her direction, "...gaudy manifestations of power.”

Thorn just stared. “How… what? You can’t possibly think that magical armor of any kind, let alone that blatant, will be permitted.”

Tala shrugged and smiled. “This magic is all mine. Even so, Revered Sanguis will be final arbiter of what is allowed.”

The full Eskau beamed, his too-white teeth flashing in the afternoon light, fake though it was. “You see? She is magnificent, more than a match for those set against her.”

Thorn glared, while seeming a bit more hesitant. “Some of us are unknown to you, great Pallaun.”

Pallaun’s smile quirked. “I would not be so sure of that, acerbic Thron.”

Did…did he just get Thorn’s name wrong? Was that on purpose?

-I have no idea.-

Tala was at a loss. It was kind of funny, but she didn’t understand what was going on, and she certainly wasn’t going to do anything that might be perceived as laughing at Pallaun.

The dwarf stiffened, his green skin becoming slightly translucent.

Is that like a human paling? Or reddening?

-Or both?-

Not helpful.

Thorn didn’t say another word as he hurried past, but Pallaun called after him. “Fight well, candidate to be my companion. Choose your path wisely. Today will be filled with weighty decisions.”

Thorn hesitated at that, glancing back. Then, he gave a slow nod, his gaze flicking to Tala for a brief moment.

Pallaun regarded Tala once more. “Go. You are delaying, young human. Do not shame me, or I will take a leg, and force you to hop about for your first year of official duty.”

Something deep within Tala, likely from Tali, screamed that it was neither idle threat nor joke.

Tala swallowed convulsively and bowed, lower this time. She pulled the proper wording for her response from Tali. “I will endeavor to bring honor to the House.”

Pallaun grunted, before turning to greet the next guest, a minor member of the House.

Tala did her best to not flee from the man, even as she hurried on her way.

She walked down the meandering path, which wove among the elevated seats, each positioned to get a good view of most of the arena below.

There would also be magical viewing devices that would allow closer viewing of the active engagements.

Not all arcane magical items were vestiges, and in many ways they seemed to be ahead of humanity in that field.

We should try to get our hands on schematics, if at all possible.

-Let’s call that our…third? Yes, our third priority.-

After escaping alive and taking as much as we can with us?

-Precisely.-

I knew I liked you. She considered for a moment longer. You know, as many vestiges as we’ve seen, I feel like there should be more.

-You know that not every Mage or fount can be made into a vestige. And not every vestige can be used for any given item. Indeed, only a few can have their capacity grown at all, which limits the number for high powered items even further.-

I know all that. Even so, they’ve been doing this for thousands of years. I’d have thought there’d be more. She couldn’t explain it beyond that.

-Maybe they degrade, or break?-

Could be, yeah. I suppose we’ll see.

Be-thric would not be speaking to her before the battle. Instead, he’d sent simple information her way, earlier that day.

Rel, Alop, and Girro were all diametrically opposed to her, either because of their masters, or their own prejudices. They may even surrender to her, in the hopes of being let into her service to undermine or kill her later.

Blu-dine, Ogi, and Thorn seemed to have no ill will specifically directed at her or Be-thric, and their masters shared that ambivalence. They weren’t friends or allies in any sense, but they wouldn’t be targeting her specifically.

Be-thric had also warned that the information might be incomplete or inaccurate. Apparently, the even split made him feel like things were not as they seemed.

Following what she knew from Tali, Tala finally came out from among the structured seating, and walked to the edge of the cliff.

Without hesitating, she stepped over the edge and dropped.

She fell for just more than a second, crouching upon impact to help absorb the landing.

The motion wasn’t necessary for Tala, not in the least, but it would have been required without her enhancements, and she didn’t want to give anything away.

Two others, the human-sized bearman, Ogi, and the Foxman, Alop, were already down in the pit, well-spaced from each other.

When she landed, they regarded her, then shifted, spacing themselves out once more, so that they were not too near one another or Tala.

Even as they moved, they were staring at her, shock evident on their animalistic features.

Tala grinned back at them but didn’t comment. She knew how she looked.

She was a black canvas, a perfect backdrop behind the spell-forms carved into reality itself by her magics.

She thrummed with power. Her aura would be hidden as well, increasing the eeriness to anyone who looked at her with mage-sight or the equivalent.

If the whispers Tala was picking up from the crowd looking down at them were any indication, many of the House members had just that.

That’s right, look upon the soon to be victor.

-Ah, yes. Pride is always the best way to ensure victory.-

Hey, in this case, pride came after the fall.

Alat groaned.

Get it? Because I just dropped off that short cliff?

-Of course I get it, Tala. I saw the pun form in your mind, then I had to hear you project it at me, and now I have the memory forever ingrained within us.-

Tala chuckled to herself and shook her head.

The other candidates gave her odd looks and continued to keep their distance.

That’s right. The human girl is crazy. Let someone else deal with her.

Over the next few minutes, the other candidates arrived, one by one.

As each dropped into the pit, the others shifted to stay as far away from each other as possible.

Tala decided to not be stubborn unnecessarily, moving when appropriate. I mean, we’re about to kill each other, so there’s no call to be rude.

-You’re all sorts of fun today.-

You know it.

As things shook out, Tala had Blu-dine and Ogi flanking her. The blue skinned woman and lanky bearman regarded her warily but maintained even spacing.

Without fanfare or obvious magics, Sanguis was suddenly floating above the center of the arena. “Greetings, House of Blood.”

There was a great sound of shuffling and rustling of cloth as everyone turned to regard the Pillar.

“We know why we are here. Potential Pillars, take your places behind your candidates, up on the cliff.”

Tala saw all the potential Pillars take their places.

“No outside interference will be acceptable, from the potential Pillars or other watchers.” Sanguis spun in a slow circle, sweeping his hard-eyed gaze over the crowd.

That done, he looked down at those in the pit.

“The cliff walls are impervious to anything you are capable of but keep your magics contained. I’d hate for one of the bystanders to be killed.”

He could just keep magics from passing in or out of the pit, right? Why the threats and warnings?

“I will now inspect each of you for external magics.”

Tala had left Kit back in her room for this exact reason. Instead, she had a simple leather pouch with a dozen small river rocks.

Sanguis floated down in front of Thorn. The shorter candidate was just off to the left of being most directly in front of Tala. If Tala was at the ‘6’ position of a clock, Thorn would have been at the ‘10’ location, or near enough.

Sanguis took only a moment, inspecting the dwarf with his magics, before nodding and moving on.

When he stopped in front of Tala, she felt magic forced around her iron paint with seeming ease, and her entire being was scanned by power nearly three whole tiers more dense and powerful than her own half-step Refined magic.

-That’s not a real ranking.-

Until you give me a better option, I’m using it.

Sanguis nodded once, then moved on.

Once he’d inspected each candidate, he returned to his position, hovering in the center of the arena.

“I have found no breach of the rules.”

Tala swept her competition with her mage-sight one last time and noticed something interesting. Each and every one of them seemed to be building up power within their protian weapons spell-forms.

They’re getting ready to transform as soon as possible.

Derag, standing just behind the opponent who was almost directly opposite Tala, raised his voice. “I have an objection.”

What now?

Girro, Derag’s candidate, just smirked, his eyes fixed on Tala.

Sanguis shook his head slightly before turning to address Derag. “What is your objection?”

The slender, red-skinned man gestured towards Tala. “The human is clearly coated in magics. Her clothing is magical, and her weapon is magical and not a protian weapon. More over, she doesn’t even look human. She’s coated in something.”

“Those are observations, not objections.” Sanguis’s tone was clipped and precise. His voice came out even more harshly than his characteristic growl.

Derag blinked back at the Pillar. “How is any of that allowed?”

“Those are her own magics, as was prescribed by the rules set forth. She is soul bound to the weapon and her garments, the coating on her skin is not magical, nor a weapon, so is not forbidden, and the magic you see around her is also from herself.”

Derag paled slightly, his skin tone moving slightly towards pink.

Girro, down in the pit, glared even more fiercely at Tala.

Well, that bit of intel was correct, at least.

Sanguis pivoted in the air once more. “Unless there are any other objections?”

There was silence from the crowd.

“Good. Oh. One final thing, candidates. No power will be allowed to filter in during the battle. You have only what is in there with you.”

All the candidate’s eyes widened, except Tala’s; she grinned.

“Begin.”

Four things happened at once.

First, six protian weapons transformed, almost in unison, though they took radically different forms, and Flow whipped sideways into Tala’s right hand, transforming into a sword.

Second, two of the candidates dropped to one knee, speaking clearly for all to hear: “I surrender to…” Blu-dine surrendered to Alop and Girro. Alop surrendered to Girro.

So, those three have no cause to fight, and the hierarchy is established, regardless of if any of them are slain…Great.

Third, all the other candidates, even those who were moving to kneel and surrender, threw their aura’s outward, trying to scoop up and draw in as much power as possible. As a result, the area was suddenly utterly bereft of power, each candidate sucking up as much as they could in an instant.

Fourth, and finally, Tala attempted a lock on every other candidate. Five failed. One stuck.

CRUSH. Tala threw five cycles of crush at the target, slamming Blu-dine down into the clover with more than a thousand times regular gravity, even as she finished surrendering.

The blue woman didn’t have breath left to scream as she popped like a dropped melon.

One. She immediately began dumping power into a target-less gravity augmentation for three of the stones in her pouch. She connected as many, large void-channels as she could to each increase, letting her gaze sweep the already chaotic arena.

Her bloodstars moved into position, two drops orbited her head to provide Alat with a 360° perspective, another drop moved to hover near the back of her skull, while the bar lifted to float behind her neck, the ball coming to its place in front of her sternum.

Tala watched Thorn bring a flanged, pole-mace down towards Girro, even as the dwarf lunged for the red man.

But she didn’t have attention to spare. She spun to the side, barely moving out of the way of a spear thrust from Ogi. It was an insanely long spear, at nearly four times the man’s height, but it was still a spear.

-The discs.-

Right! Tala wasn’t used to those being in her arsenal.

Tala put her back towards her downed opponent, trusting in her mirrored perspective to warn her if anyone came at her from behind.

She pulled the three discs of unknown material—unknown even to Tali—from their holster at the back of her belt to spin around her in staggered orbits.

Even as Tala was still moving through her dodge and the discs were rising into their places, Ogi’s spear morphed into a bladed chain, jerking sideways to try to wrap around her.

Tala dropped below the sweeping strike, even while her rod and ball moved to deflect and trap the chain.

Right, that was my guard position, not Tali’s.

She flung one of the discs forward, not as an attack, but as a distraction.

While the tungsten was engaging the bear-man’s protian weapon, Tala threw Flow forward, flicking her wrist at the last moment to send the blade whirling across the short distance.

Ogi easily struck aside the disc as he gestured upward, and vines shot up with precise timing, catching Flow’s handle and keeping it from hitting him.

Oh… So, there is some terrain advantage after all.

-MOVE!-

Tala jumped upward from her ducking crouch, just as a scythe on the end of a long chain whipped through the space she’d just been in.

She jerked two discs into alignment as an attack lanced across the arena. She mirrored her weight into the six bloodstars in those two discs. The effort of maintaining so many aspect mirrors was impossible to maintain, but she was able to hold it for an instant as the attack landed.

She was lucky that she had, too. The first disc was slammed back against the second, and together they were driven nearly all the way to her.

Tala dropped the aspect mirrors for those stars, her whole focus back on Ogi. Do I have another opponent incoming?

-They aren’t focused on you, they just took a shot at your back.-

Ogi’s weapon changed again, and he jerked it backwards. The blade at the end of the chain sliced against her back as it passed.

Power blossomed from the weapon, clashing with her magical defenses.

It didn’t get through, but it did knock her back downward, just as another pulse of magic from the bear-man caused vines to shoot up and snag her ankles.

Well, that’s irritating.

Tala expanded her aura and broke Ogi’s hold on the vines. That didn’t cause them to release, but it did weaken them enough that she pulled out of them with ease.

She pulled Flow back to her hand and continued to dump power into the targetless gravity augmentation on three of the stones in her pouch.

Her other bloodstar-imbedded tools returned to their positions around her as she took a moment to assess her opponent, now that she’d clashed with him a couple of times.

This is going to be a bit of a slog.

-Did you expect to win, instantly?-

No, but it would have been nice.

Tala narrowed her eyes and charged.