¤ First Victory

Salmer winced on Aurora’s behalf as he saw her take the damage from Lakelis’ spells. ‘Why did she not duck!’ He hissed to Daedalus, frustrated.

‘She’s mad.’ Daedalus only returned in awe, as they both watched the two combatants spring back into action. Aurora and Lakelis were two blurs of white in the arena’s perimeters, now close together as they exchanged bolts, claws and spells, then far apart as each escaped and evaded the other’s attacks.

But throughout all that, neither of the mages had exchanged a single word nor made a single sound, not even as they each took more punishing attacks from each other, neither of them willing to show signs of weakness.

With a sinking heart, Salmer watched as Lakelis gained the initiative, casting twin spells again and again to drive Aurora backwards. An icespell that Aurora cast momentarily trapped her, the air crystallised instantaneously around Lakelis’ feet to immobilise her. But the fairy’s momentum was not affected; she only blasted apart the ice with a firespell from one hand while her other sent a flurry of fire arrows towards Aurora.

An ice shield kept most of that attack from hurting the mortal girl, the fiery arrows fizzling out pathetically against the cold of their opposite element even as it melted under their heat.

But the spell that saved her also left Aurora completely open for the second salvo of fire arrows that hissed their way towards her, released from Lakelis’ other free hand.

‘Oh no.’ Salmer dropped his head into his hands, unwilling to see what would happen next.

The arrows took Aurora right in the upper chest, visibly punching her backwards. Gasping in pain and stumbling out of a fall just in time, she scrambled to recover, thinking quickly.

Perhaps it was time to bring out the surprise she had prepared for this fight. Even as she kept an eye on Lakelis and prepared a teleporting spell, one of her hands slid along the shaft of her staff quickly, as if feeling for something on the smooth metal surface.

She appeared right at Lakelis’ side, and Lakelis saw her bring her peculiar staff upwards. Bracing for another magical attack, Lakelis sketched a magical shield in one hand, confident that she would not be caught by surprise this time.

However, all she was aware of next was that her shoulder had burst into a sudden explosion of pain.

Disorientated, Lakelis teleported backwards. To her shock, she now saw that Aurora’s upraised staff had suddenly morphed into a spear, the curiously empty ‘staff-knob’ now host to a lethal metal blade. But there was no time to wonder at how it had happened; that long flat blade was now snaking towards her, seeking for her blood!

To the fairy spectators’ subdued excitement, the fight had rapidly taken a turn to the physical. Some of the courtiers had heard of Aurora’s abilities with the spear, and were intrigued to be able to witness it personally. Even Kranz leant forward slightly in his chair to watch more carefully.

Meanwhile, Daedalus was cackling in his seat. ‘Damn, I am the best! That spring mechanism did so well.’

‘She used it?’ Salmer finally convinced himself to take his face out of his hands and watch.

‘Yeah, and it worked like a dream,’ Daedalus said happily, in that almost dreamy tone that engineers whose inventions worked just like they had expected used. ‘I knew that mana catch that I designed and incorporated into that Redemption would be good. It recognises the mana signature of only the owner, and no one else can operate it. And the blade came out smooth.’ He allowed himself to do a little preening. ‘I am a genius, I am.’

‘A genius that comes up with the most creative name of Retractable Redemption, sure.’ Salmer muttered wryly despite the twisting worry he had for Aurora in his guts.

‘Other than that. Admit it, I am so good.’ Daedalus continued to cackle softly to himself.

With her Redemption spear now in her hands, Aurora seemed to be a different person. Somehow, her senses were more acute than ever, seemingly able to predict which way her opponent might turn, duck or dodge split seconds before she actually did. Her movements were swifter and surer as she drove Lakelis back relentlessly with the spear, the hefty weapon seemingly feather light in her small hands.

For the first time in the entire combat, Lakelis felt frightened by her duelling opponent. She frantically threw up physical shield after physical shield, the familiar spell somehow coming too sluggishly to the casting to keep up with the flurry of attacks from Aurora. She had never seen such agility with a spear, and was not used to such swift melee combat; indeed, the countless practices with the weaponsmaster back in her family’s manor had never been as intense as this!

She barely managed to duck under a swift upward cut before blocking the rapid backswing with a shaky physical shield; the impact ground into the bones in her wrist and made her wince.

‘Damn it, mage, where did you learn this from!’ Lakelis became the first to break the silence between them with her cry of dismay and exasperation, her voice a little shaky from the workout. There was no visible expression on her opponent’s passive mask, of course, but Lakelis thought she saw those blue eyes behind the mask narrow in cool mirth before Aurora darted forward again, spear raised in both hands to strike.

In her confusion and hot-headedness, Lakelis failed to notice how the Redemption spear cackled with bright white and blue energies as it bore down upon her. Anticipating a hard physical blow, Lakelis threw up double physical shields-

– which did nothing to block the magical ice and lightning charge that ran the length of the spear’s blade.

It felt as if a giant Lucida had charged physically into her; her magical gift’s instinctive lashing back out at the death threat only amplified the jarring impact.

One moment, Lakelis saw blurred colours and sparks spinning before her sight. And in the next, panic and pain all faded away into unconsciousness.

As the resulting explosion of light and energy cleared, all spectators leant forward eagerly. Tiny shards of ice sparkled from the surface of various garments and elaborate hairstyles, but were left there to melt in the spectators’ distraction.

Only one combatant was left standing, her stance tense, long spear still held at the ready in a warrior’s guard. All in the spectator’s stand gasped as the sprawled figure on the floor finally came into view, pure white wings now brushed with dust at places and crumpled over a suddenly very small and vulnerable Lakelis.

It was clear who had won.

But who will be declared the winner? A murmur passed through the ranks. While the mortal girl had indeed put up a good fight, her methods were a little too unorthodox for some fairies’ tastes. Whoever heard of a warrior mage?

It was simply impossible, they decided, even with the evidence breathing heavily from exertion right before their eyes.

Moving as if in a daze, Aurora slowly went up to Lakelis, Redemption spear still loosely held in one hand. The entire room held their breath: what would this mortal want to do with a fallen fairy?

They all watched as Aurora dropped to her knees to set her spear carefully aside, before bending to help Lakelis sit up, gently cradling the fairy girl and expertly handling her around her great collapsed wings. Raising her hand so that her gesture was clearly visible by all present, Aurora twisted her fingers in a gesture for a healing spell, and a cool blue light briefly settled onto Lakelis’ unconscious form before it rapidly faded away.

A rush of whispers broke out. Now the spectators turned to watch Kranz, the king being the sole judge of this contest. They watched Kranz sit back in his seat, stroking his beard in deep satisfaction, before turning to exchange a few words with Verchiel, the fairy lord answering with a slight subservient incline of his head. Verchiel in turn leant to speak to Hedwig before drawing back upright in his chair, his face as impassive as ever.

Some of the more observant fairies, however, noted the slight furrowing of the fairy lady’s white brow as she glanced askance at Lord Verchiel, and thus drew their own conclusions.

Aurora only truly awoke from her trance-like state when Edel, the Healer on shift for this event, came to take Lakelis from her. ‘Combatant, step forward.’ The quiet voice of the master of ceremonies faded in over the strange silence that had been in her ears, as she returned to the world.

She moved automatically, numbly taking the steps towards the King’s box, limbs trembling slightly from exhaustion and eyes cast respectfully down towards the ground. She was aware of the sweat that trickled down the sides of her face under her mask, making the smooth material of the mask stick uncomfortably.

‘Combatant,’ It was Kranz who spoke now, standing up to receive the last combatant standing in the contest. ‘It was well fought.’

‘Thank you, your Majesty. Your humble servant does not deserve the compliment.’ Aurora heard herself say as she sketched a curtsy, the familiar gestures and words coming without her bidding.

‘Why do you not remove your mask, Aurora of El Nath?’ Verchiel’s inflectionless voice cut in. ‘I am sure his Majesty would be anxious to see who it is that fought so well.’

A clamour started in her head; while it was ceremonial for the winner to unmask herself or himself before the king, she had not properly prepared herself for this moment. Surely the King would recognise her, surely it would be followed by a quick arrest, surely Verchiel was counting on this moment- oh why did she not plan this better?

But there was no room for protest.

Aurora clearly saw the shock on Kranz’s face as she drew away her mask with shaking hands, and it almost made her drop her second mask of indifference on her own face. There was no trace of anger in her King’s expression as she had expected, just pure and honest surprise. She had forgotten how much she had loved and respected Kranz as her sovereign, and to think that he had not forgotten her…!

Suddenly, Aurora found a renewed will to see through her plans, along with a renewed determination to master her emotions. Verchiel was still watching, his hard emerald eyes carefully observing his Royal uncle’s reaction.

By then, Kranz had also recovered his composure with the discipline of a century and more of the fairy court, and his voice was calm as he addressed Aurora again. ‘Aurora of El Nath. You show great talent.’

‘It is all the credit of the good teachers at the Academy, your Majesty.’

‘Do not be so humble, Aurora of El Nath.’ Hedwig said now, a beatific smile on her face. ‘There must be some innate gift in you.’

‘Perhaps, Lady, but it would be too proud of me to claim all credit: I could not have been without the teachings of the Academy. A diamond does not shine without the skilful crafting of a master cutter.’

At that, Kranz gave a deep loud chuckle. ‘Well spoken, Aurora. You and I must meet someday for a personal discourse under less stressful circumstances. No doubt I may gain some insight from your young mortal eyes.’

‘Thank you for your praise, your Majesty. I will gladly accept the invitation.’ As exhilarated as she was at the invitation, Aurora still did not trust herself to smile. She dropped into a second curtsy as she was dismissed, and let herself be led away to the Healer’s tent for her wounds to be seen to.

All around, the arena was being prepared for the second combat of the day, pages busying themselves with clearing up the area while the spectators whispered and discussed amongst themselves the significance of Kranz’s exchange with the mortal. Even the most stubborn fairy admitted to himself that there was an unhappy chance that a mortal would triumph this time, against all apparent odds.

Oh, where was this kingdom heading to?

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Next chapter: link

Links to previous chapters:
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Ack. One down, two to go. Perhaps it is good news that I already have the second one half figured out. I will be so glad to get this over and done with, grr.

(*shakes Rice* How can you plan a fight scene almost every other chapter! Don’t your brain cells all expire from it?)

You know the drill: Sucky chapter, crappy writing, took eternity to post, abundant apologies.>

Cookies~ Rocky Road cookies, with interesting bits of marshmallow and loads of chocolate.

[edit] Hey. I just realised. This blog has the 20002nd URL tag!
Happy 20000th blog, MMOtales!