¤ First Blood

I hate that blue-haired wench, the fairy girl thought furiously as she tugged on her magical gauntlets, feeling the spelled leather and steel of the gloves stretch and tighten familiarly over her hands and wrists before she flexed her fingers experimentally within them.

For this fairy girl, her opponent stood for everything that was wrong and completely unnatural. This girl was only a mortal! You could feed them, cloth them, treat them nicely (and of course, not as much as you would treat your fellow fairies), all that was just fine. Lakelis had no problems with being nice to inferiors.

But to allow them to even think about getting a position in the divine fairy court of Orbis? To let them think that having equal chances as fairies to sit on an Advisor chair is completely acceptable? Lakelis’ lips curled under the white porcelain mask that covered her face.

No wonder her father always said that Orbis was going to the Bains.

And for this girl to be so bold as to dare take up on this bogus offer?

Through the eye slits of her mask, Lakelis watched the mortal girl stand there at the opposite side of the arena, a slender figure against the dark red lengths of cloth that draped the walls of the circular open-aired arena at the top of the Academy tower. Ranged all along the circumference of the arena and to either side of a sheltered central box was a glittering backdrop of fairy courtiers; jewelled ladies with gently waving fans seated next to unearthly beautiful lords with stern expressions.

In the box itself sat the Royal Family and their attendants, the King an imposing figure sitting at the centre of the box, flanked by Verchiel and Hedwig, who were in turn discretely surrounded by royal guards with seemingly casual grips on their ornate weapons.

In a small area of the Arena, just a little to the left of Lakelis’ immediate view, was a section that somehow, in the fairy girl’s opinion, lacked the glitter and glamour of the rest of the arena. The mortal witnesses of this event sat there, either family and friends of that Aurora girl, or merely curious students of the Academy that wanted to personally catch glimpses the legendary fairies.

Lakelis particularly noticed a tall lanky youth with brown hair in the front row that kept standing up, then sitting down, then standing up again, looking between herself and Aurora and talking animatedly with a shorter boy next to him. How fidgety these mortals are. She rolled her eyes and looked away, shifting a fold of her plain white robes idly with a finger. No doubt that agitated bumpkin had never seen this many fairies at one go.

In fact, those mortals would never have the chance to do so, if the combat rounds for the Advisor selections were not being held today. In the past week, candidates had already been screened based on several criteria: for knowledge of the kingdom, for speaking ability, for talent in combat, and countless of other unwritten requirements: breeding, blood, family… hell, even looks counted. The judging was as rigorous as they came.

But somehow, somehow, that upstart of a mortal had managed to get past all that! Perhaps, like her father said, it had something to do with the fact that this Aurora was the first mortal to ever try for an Advisor position and none of the Selections committee knew what to judge of her.

It was also odd how the usual mechanisms of the Orbis court politics never kicked in to react to this upsetting phenomena; by rights, even if no fairy courtier would admit to it, the conservative factions of the fairy court would have acted to halt the mortal’s progress towards the Advisor’s chair a long time ago. Lakelis doubted that this Aurora girl had the gold or the favours that her own father had spent to pave her own way, but what other explanations can there be for this?

Lakelis adjusted her mask while she mused, trying to get as large a field of vision as she could from the rather too small eye slits. The blank expressionless set of the white porcelain face was supposed to render the combatants of the trials anonymous for impartiality, as was the rule that no names were to be mentioned until the end of the trials.

But in this case… Lakelis flexed her snow-white wings smugly. Even the oldest mortal with the poorest eyesight could tell apart a fairy and a mortal. And I am not about to let a mortal get the better of me! Lakelis allowed herself to grin, knowing well that the ceremonial mask on her face would hide her contempt for the mortal as fully as it hid her face.

Besides, in what was nearly a fight to the death, how could a mortal ever hope to best an immortal?

Coming out of the temporarily pavilion erected to the left of the central box, the master of ceremonies emerged into the mild morning sun, carrying a length of dark red silk draped over both of his outstretched arms.

‘Combatants, come forth to answer the King’s summons.’ His clear voice carried over the mild murmur that was the loudest hubbub that would ever occur in a fairy gathering, and immediately, even that dropped into utter silence.

Lakelis and Aurora both strode forward at the same time, two figures with impassive masks and robes of white meeting before the central box, identical in every way except for the pair of pure white wings that were displayed proudly by Lakelis. The King nodded in acknowledgement as they both bowed to pay their respects.

‘Combatants, please rise.’ Kranz himself stood to approach the balcony of the box. As he came nearer, Lakelis could see his face clearer, and it struck her to realise how benevolent her King truly looked. No doubt, she would feel honoured to serve this King. But someone really must point out his misguided ideas to him before all of Orbis headed towards disaster!

‘Combatants, I am honoured and pleased to see your eagerness to join your King’s court and to serve your King and Orbis as Advisor,’ Kranz began the ceremonial speech. ‘Do you pledge to fight with honour and to treat your opponent with fairness?’

‘We pledge to do so, Your Majesty.’ Both girls answered solemnly in unison.

‘I look forward to seeing your skills, then. May the best be victorious.’ With that, the King returned to his seat and motioned for the master of ceremonies to continue.

‘Combatants, resume your positions and prepare yourselves.’ They did so, each of them taking the opposite sides of the circular arena. Aurora took her weapon from the squire that was aiding her now, a curious staff of metal blue that had a flat top instead of the usual knob set with an enchanted gem. Watching this, Lakelis thought little of it; she assumed that it was nothing but a mortal curiosity.

Her own magical gauntlets, on the other hand, were unique: whilst a normal mage could only manage one spell at a time, her gauntlets gave Lakelis the advantage of being able to cast two spells simultaneously. The closest any other mage could come to accomplishing that would be to achieve only split second delays between their spells.

But sometimes, split seconds could be too long.

‘Combatants, approach the centre.’

Aurora strode forward first, her staff held steady in her hands. Lakelis met her halfway in the centre of the arena, her hands clenching inside her spelled gauntlets. Remember, you cannot let this mortal best you. Even if she could forgive herself, her father definitely would not.

Tthe master of ceremonies proceeded to list out the rules of the contest. ‘Your actions will be observed carefully by His Majesty, the King, who will be judge in this contest of combat. For fairness, at no time are stunning or transfiguration spells allowed in the contest. Combatants can make their first move only after the start of the contest is indicated, and all combat is to cease immediately and without question once the indication is given. Failure to do so or to obey any other rules of this contest will result in an immediate disqualification and severe punishment will be dealt to the rulebreaker.’

‘Do you give your oath to obey these rules and to fight with honour and fairness?’

‘We do give our oath, and will fight with honour in the name of the King.’

The master of ceremonies held the length of red silk high in one hand now, letting it twist out gently in the slight breeze. The entire court stilled, fairy courtiers and mortal spectators alike falling silent. Even the fans that the ladies held froze, some half-raised to their owners’ faces ready to shield their delicate sensibilities if required.

Then he let go of the cloth. The slip of red twined sinuously through the air, down the height of the wall of the central box, down, down…

The moment red kissed dusty ground, it all began.

Aurora swiftly raised her peculiar staff and made a spell gesture for a lightning spell; the resulting explosion of blinding light made all the spectators present shield their eyes hurriedly, with what sounded like the ceiling crashing down on their heads filling their ears!

But Lakelis forced herself to focus, staring down the glare with watering eyes as Aurora’s lightning strike splashed harmlessly against the swift shield she had sketched around herself with one hand. The fingers on her other gauntleted hand were already crooked to summon a cackling magic bolt, and once the mana levels around her died down sufficiently, she flung the bolt unerringly at Aurora. Aurora responded with a shield spell of her own, and deflected the bolt easily.

When the light died away at last, all the spectators could see were the two girls feet away from each other, each cocooned in their own shield spell. There was an audible gasp throughout the entire ranks of spectators; ladies snapped their fans shut in agitation and excitement, while the men clapped politely in appreciation. Almost every one of the spectators leant forward in eagerness of the good fight to come, for they knew that this flashy exchange of spells was but a test run between the two combatants.

A flash of blue light and Lakelis had teleported right next to Aurora, a fireball already charged up in her other hand to slam it at her opponent. But her move failed, a hasty shield absorbing her spell just before it burnt her mortal opponent.

Twisting away, Aurora flicked her fingers again, and allowed the swirl of teleportal energies to carry her back away from Lakelis. Yet hardly before she had regained her footing then did a flick of bright blue and white appeared in her field of vision, and there was Lakelis, twin swirls of fiery red in both her hands.

SHIELD! Aurora’s mind screamed, but her spell gesture came too late. A scorching wall of fire engulfed her and for a moment, she was lost from all sight.

Excited murmurs ran through the spectators as all instinctively craned their necks to see what would happen next.

The mini-inferno died out, spluttering into nothingness to reveal scorched, empty space. Lakelis’ eyes darted around behind her mask, every nerve in her tense as she backed away from the spot. Where was that mor-

A barely perceivable pop of displaced air warned Lakelis just in time; she spun around, a shield sketched in one gauntleted hand. Deadly ice shards that would have crushed her slammed jarringly into the shield, a slightly scorched Aurora appearing close behind that assault. Thinking fast, Lakelis’ right hand was halfway through a spell gesture for a sizzling magic bolt, but to her annoyance, Aurora recognised the gesture and swiftly knocked it away with a sharp blow from her staff.

Damn it! Lakelis gritted her teeth at the burst of pain in her left wrist, but there was no time to nurse her injuries. She flung out a magic bolt with her other hand, hoping to catch Aurora by surprise.

But it was Lakelis herself who would be surprised instead. Aurora did not duck, but instead took the cackling bolt straight on, exchanging injury for the chance to stay close to Lakelis.

A painful magic claw tore open Lakelis’ side, clawing a spray of red on the white material of her gown.

‘First blood is drawn.’ The master of ceremonies’ voice carried clearly over the soft hubbub of the gathered spectators.

Stifling a cry of dismay at the pain, the fairy instinctively charged up two fireballs in both hands and flung it at Aurora. But again, Lakelis’ spells did not stop Aurora’s attacks! She only took on both fireballs, risking the scorching heat to deal Lakelis with a shock of lightning that knocked the fairy off-balanced to crash to the floor, landing awkwardly on her mantled wings.

Feathers ruffled and feeling humiliated, Lakelis slowly got to her feet, knowing that Aurora would be waiting for her opponent to do so. It would have been easier for Aurora to simply carry on the attack, but the twin fireballs had hurt her enough to make her hesitate; also, to attack a downed opponent would do nothing to aid her bid as Advisor candidate in the King’s eyes.

Yet, as she watched Aurora carefully, there was a thought that lurked at the back of her mind: Why did this mortal fight so recklessly? From her observations of mortals, few did not flinch from attacks. It made sense, because with such fragile lives, mortals would need to preserve themselves as far as possible from all injuries.

This mortal fought like an immortal who could afford to be less concerned about taking damage. Either that, or she was utterly determined to get that Advisor position… even if it meant death.

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Ew, fight scene. If you have talked to me about this chapter, you’d have heard enough of my whining about it. 😛

I think this chapter is kind of raw. I had so many things to include, in trying to make this a ritualistic kind of contest, with weird rules and protocols. It’s sort of stuffed full to the brim with all the details; I couldn’t stuff more in without making it even draggier. To think I have to do this two more times. D:

I wish I have Rice’s or Axiom’s or Des’ or Munky’s one of the other brilliant MMOtales writers’ talent in fight scenes. CAN’T FRITE WIGHT SCENES COR FOCONUTS! *rawr*

[edit] this chapter is 2,333 words long. 😀

[editedit] And another Flashdrive catastrophe has happened to teh Silvar again: I went and bent the adaptor connector thingo of my MP4 player (that doubles up as a portable drive), thus trapping the latest draft of Redemption inside. >.>; And not one month since I bought it too! -_-; Now I can’t charge the player, nor can I retrieve or download files. Phail.

This chapter was drawn from the slightly older backup copy on my laptop (Thank goodness for random backups and a sporadically good memory. XD) Here’s needing to work from handwritten drafts again. :/