They led me down a winding path that emptied into a waiting area that seemed way too large for me alone, but aside from Aldren and the guards it was empty. At the front of the room loomed a massive gate, nearly five times my height. It’s gold bars twisted into intricate, swirling patterns that partly obscured the arena beyond.

  “Ah, there’s our champion.” My stomach churned, recognizing Lord Caelan’s voice before I could turn to look at him.

  “And I see you wore the dress. Quite the look.” He tittered, stepping closer. Unlike Aldren or the guards, he didn’t seem worried in the slightest, standing less than a foot away as he looked me up and down.

  It was unnerving. I tilted my head sideways as he leaned in to gawk at my eyes. I was too uncomfortable to wonder what he was looking for until his words made me remember the glass beads.

  “Nicely done, Aldren, I can’t even tell she’s wearing them…and they’ll hide any changes?” An unsettled breath crept from my lungs as he turned his attention to the old man.

  “Yes,” Aldren hissed, shooting a nervous glance over his shoulder. “Let’s not draw attention to her eyes.”

  “Relax, old man. Not much they can do now.” The ease in his voice made my skin crawl, especially after everything I’d just endured.

  “What are you getting out of this?” I asked, letting the resentment fuel my words. I didn’t care anymore; it was obvious they needed me alive for this match. Why was still something I didn’t fully understand.

  “Silence yourself,” Aldren shouted, moving his hand toward the ring.

  “It’s quite alright; she’s owed some answers.” Caelan interrupted, lazily lifting his hand to Aldren before tilting his head back to indicate the gate rumbling open behind him. “Unfortunately, we haven’t time for them now. But I assure you, you will be treated well. Better in fact, than in your past life as an Ashand…provided of course, that you win.”

  If I win. I snorted in derision, his smile doing nothing to assure me as the guards nudged me toward the gate.

  My heart thudded in my chest as I stood at the threshold. I glanced back, surprised to see Caelan had already gone, leaving only Aldren and the guards.

  Where—

  A thunderous voice boomed from the arena, snapping my attention forward, just as I lurched over the threshold. I turned back in time to see the gate’s golden bars slam into the ground, only then realizing a guard had shoved me through. There was no way forward, only open air beyond the ledge I occupied.

  “Allow me, good lords and ladies of empire, to introduce our first competitor! Some of you may know him by his hammer, others by his fondness for crushing skulls. Hailing all the way from the desolate pits of Thassida, gladiator of house Barachus, Marakh Var!” Applause echoed from the stands, nearly overpowering the sound of blood pumping in my ears, as a massive man jogged onto the sands from the opposite gate.

  Even from this distance, he was terrifying. He didn’t look human. Jagged horns jut unevenly from his bare skull, with smaller ones curving out from his knees and elbows. An enormous hammer rested across his shoulder as he took in the crowd, screaming his bloodlust in the air.

  I felt a rumble beneath me as a narrow bridge extended toward the arena. I debated flinging myself off one side, a part of me seriously considering what it’d be like to plummet to my death. Being turned into a bloody pile of slush by an oversized hammer did not seem ideal.

  Even if Aldren was telling the truth, how do I beat that?

  I moved closer to the ledge, drawing a sharp breath as I leapt…only to curse when my legs ignored the command.

  The seed really won’t let me. The fucking jerk won’t let me.

  “Contestant. Aine. Talri. Proceed to the arena-a-a-a-a...You..re..opp-OH-nant-t-t-t…”

  I pressed my hands to my ears, wincing, as the ay eye’s voice grated inside my skull. My eyes clenched as it warbled, distorting into what sounded like a combination of shattering glass and screams, screeching through every pitch imaginable. I clamped my hands over my ears, screaming in frustration until it finally cut off, relief washing over me at the abrupt silence.

  Had I done that? Suddenly, I felt the urge to giggle, a lighthearted, mischievous flutter in my chest that took a moment to realize wasn’t coming from me.

  The seed. My mouth hung open, as an unfamiliar voice filled my ears.

  “Finally,” it said, letting out a long, exaggerated sigh. “Any more screeching and I would’ve seriously considered letting you jump to your death.”

  “Wh-what?” I managed, unsure what shocked me more, that the seed could speak, or that it somehow sounded even more pretentious than Ardlen.

  “Focus, little vessel. Now isn’t the time to marvel at my brilliance.” The voice boasted.

  “Vessel?” I scowled, feeling my cheeks flush, the surge of irritation melting through my awe. Before it could answer, the announcer’s voice roared again.

  “Andddd hissssss challengerrrrr, hailing from the naturalist colony of Mambanus…” He paused, a tinge of doubt in his voice, “Naturalist? Huh. Well, hopefully she has some tricks up her sleeve…gladiator of house Caelan, it’s Aine Talri!”

  I never asked to be in your stupid tournament, I thought, wrinkling my nose at the noticeably thinner response, which was more of a smattering of jeers than actual applause.

  “Wow, they really don’t like naturalists,” The seed remarked, lazily, drawing a snort from me as I stepped onto the sands.

  This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  “I don’t care what they like,” I said through clenched teeth, “and since you won’t let me kill myself painlessly, you’d better have a way to beat that fucking monster.”

  “Well, I did,” it said, resentfully. “But now I don’t want to.”

  “WHAT?” I shouted, balling my fists and drawing a strange look from the announcer hovering on a platform overhead.

  “This one’s talking to herself folks! Seems we’ve got a real crazy on our hands,” the announcer mocked, much to the crowd’s amusement.

  My opponent didn’t laugh. Instead, my body tightened as he looked me up and down, measuring me like a butcher might appraise a cut of meat. He was even more terrifying at this distance. Blackened veins marked his entire body, some of them protruding from his skin, only to connect in other places. He wore no armor aside from the dark, hardened leather faulds draped over his hips. I gagged, noticing the human faces embossing each panel, all of their mouths stretched open in eternal agony.

  “Are you going to help me or not?” I hissed, head down and to the side, steadying my breath as I wiped sweaty palms against my dress.

  “I don’t know, I think you’ve got this,” it answered, with infuriating calm. “By the way don’t move, you’re supposed to be frozen.”

  Supposed to be frozen? What does he mean?

  “Alright Gladiators! Time to spill or be spilled. Your systems will unlock on my command…” The announcer bellowed, his platform descending to hover several feet off the ground as he looked each of us over.

  “Please—" I whispered, voice cracking with desperation, as my eyes darted around, looking for some way out.

  “Commence!” The announcer roared, soaring upward, away from the fight.

  Marakh vaulted toward me, covering the distance in what felt like an instant.

  Panic, then a sudden heat surged through my chest as I sprung backward, his hammer sending up a cloud as it crashed down where I’d stood an instant before. A hand shot out from the dust, grazing the neck he’d meant to wring as I skirted to the side.

  I can’t let him get close, I thought, imagining how easily that massive hand could crush my skull as I broke into a sprint, desperate to put distance between us. I glanced over my shoulder, surprised to see he wasn’t sprinting after me. Instead he only turned to face me as I met the platform’s edge, pacing toward me with slow deliberate steps. Panic caught in my throat as I continued to run along the edge, realizing he was content to let me exhaust myself.

  “Looks like our naturalist is trying to outrun fate!” The announcer heckled, drawing a fresh round of jeers as the audience echoed his disapproval.

  “What say you, citizens of empire, shall we make this a match worthy of your attention?” The announcer cried, his words giving me pause as the audience thundered their agreement. What does that even mea—

  A deep, groaning, rumble shook the arena. I ran, panic fueling each stride as the ground began to sink. I kicked off, trying to launch myself at the nearest ledge, cursing when my foot found air instead of stone.

  My stomach lurched, momentum driving me forward as I hurled into the side of a newly formed cliff, hands grasping at the stone for purchase. I hung there, debating letting go before a surge of adrenaline coursed through me. Elbows scraping stone, I clawed my way up, muscles screaming as I rounded the ledge, rolling my body over the lip safety. I sprawled out my back, too winded to move as my lungs screamed in air.

  My eyes snapped open at the sound of crunching boots, just in time to see a hammer bearing down on my head.

  I rolled sideways, eyes bulging as the impact reverberated through my bones despite landing nearly three feet to my left. Coughing, I wrenched myself up, feeling my heart spasm as I narrowly ducked his arm. His knuckles skimmed over my back, turning my blood to ice as I realized how close he’d come to catching me. I darted past him, eyebrows knitting together in confusion as all over the arena, walls began springing up from the dirt.

  “Huh. That’s different,” the seed remarked, casually, his tone gnawing through my patience like a starving rat.

  “You can take over anytime,” I shouted, jumping to land on a nearby wall that had just burst up from the ground. Glancing over its side, I found more barriers of stone. Far too many to count. Each of them cut perfectly, carving narrow paths that turned and twisted without any clear pattern.

  “Almost like a maze,” the seed said, mocking me for not having a word to describe it. Scowling, I jumped from one wall to another, my feet springing off the ledge just as a hammer barreled through the one I’d leapt from: demolishing it completely. It dissolved like sugar in rain, kicking up dust behind me as I continued vaulting from wall to wall, desperate to put space between us.

  I stopped to catch my breath, crouching and shooting a glance over the side. Relief filled my chest, stretching my ribs as I sucked in air. I crouched low atop the wall; confident I had time to rest with distance I’d put between us. Marakh was nowhere in sight.

  Dread steeped over me, turning to ice as my footing gave out. I reeled, grasping at air as the wall I stood on turned to sand beneath my feet.

  Before the wall came down completely, I bounded off the stone, locking eyes with Marakh as I soared over him. I landed in a roll, thudding against the wall behind him as a cloud of debris gushed outward from where he’d struck. Dust choked the air, making it impossible to see. I rolled onto my stomach, muscles tightening in determination as I crawled blindly along the wall, taking full advantage of the murky air.

  Marakh roared, sounding more like an animal than a person as he thrashed about. The sound pushed me faster, picking up speed as I slithered on hands and knees, only to curse when my face slammed into a wall. Shit. I swallowed a mound that felt more like a boulder than spit as I traced my hands over the wall. A dead end.

  “I seem to remember you complaining about me taking con—” The seed started, inexplicably choosing now to answer me as I pulled myself to my feet. “Duck!” he warned, interrupting himself.

  I fell flat on my stomach just as a streak of metal missiled into the wall behind me. Anxiously, I lifted my head, expecting to see Marakh hovering over me. I blinked, bewildered when I saw him more than a dozen paces away, without his hammer.

  Hoping the projectile might’ve opened a path to flee, I glanced at the wall behind me. My heart sank at the sight of it, still looming over me. It was nearly intact save for the hammer sticking out of it.

  Marakh charged with his head down, threatening to run me through with his horns. Fear shuddered through me as my fingers latched around the haft of his hammer. A head of jagged spikes bearing down on me, I fought to wrench it free, only to howl, screaming in pain as spikes burst from the handle, piercing my hands. I screamed wildly, defying the urge to let go, blood running down my arms as I pulled with everything I had.

  The wall surrendered just as a shadow filled my vision. I swung, the impact ringing through me as the hammer’s face met his, sending him sideways into a wall.

  I collapsed to one knee, blood trickling where my hands still clutched the hammer, a wash of cheers erupting from the stands.

  “Nice hit! I think they really enjoyed that. Anyways, as I was saying…I seem to remember you complaining about me taking control whenever I wanted.”

  “Are. You. Fucking. Serious?” I sputtered between breaths, using the hammer to prop myself up as the dust cleared from where Marakh hit the wall. My knees buckled with relief as I saw he was unconscious. I judged his neck must be broken by the lump bulging from one side.

  “Guess I don’t need you after all,” I mumbled, laughing shakily just as Marekh’s eyes flitted open. I jumped, a jolt of fear sending my heart into my throat, before calming again when, seeing he couldn’t move.

  There was no trace of hatred in his eyes, instead they seemed to smile, causing my breath to catch as he stared. They glossed over for a moment, darting back and forth as if he were doing something deliberate in his mind. My nerves started to rise until, with a yelp, the spines retracted from the hilt and a mass of symbols swirled into view. It took a moment to realize Marakh had sent them, right before his eyes went still.

  A knot formed in my throat. It felt like swallowing glass, the knowledge slicing its way down. I’d just taken another life. How many was that now?

  “He said ‘it’s yours’, along with something about slaking it with an ocean of blood…I think he called it a ‘Torden?’ Honestly, I’m half guessing here. He was kind of hard to follow.”