"You're next!"
The double doors flung open to reveal the huge arena. The guards dragged out the losers, but not all of them survived. I shook inside my boots and squeezed the spear, so hard that my fingers lost their color.
"Come on, head in!" The slaver shoved me inside as the crowd was cheering. I barely managed to stop and took a deep breath, before venturing further. I visited one of these places near my home in Sanctuary, but Papa decided to close them long ago.
The matches seemed brutal but I enjoyed them, though participating was a different matter. At least I knew the rules. Beginners bored the audience, so ten or twenty fought a free-for-all. They usually came as slaves, criminals, or volunteers and the winners became proper gladiators.
Those fought proper duels, or maybe team matches, the rest got thrown back into another newbie match if they survived. I assumed the Sea People played by the same rules, because all the doors that led into the arena remained open, and a person stood at every one of them.
"Calm down, Child. Let them kill each other first." I heard the voice in my head. I freaked out the first time she talked to me, but it offered working bits of advice. My seer ability worked similarly, except I saw images in my dreams, and it was up to me to find their meaning.
If I heard a voice instead, then what? I spent the last few days in solitary confinement and prayed more than ever. I trained as much as possible to please Cath, even if they separated us... But alone in a cell, with nobody to talk to, I nearly lost my mind. So I prayed to all the gods that came to mind, and thanks to the single voice who answered, I managed to keep my sanity.
"Okay, keep focused though, don't lose yourself in your thoughts, or someone might sneak up on you." I heard it again, the calm and collected voice of a woman. She often argued with me about how to continue my training, or what to expect in the future.
"Fine, I'm not that stupid, okay?" I mumbled to myself. I held my spear in front of me and looked around with caution. I never trained with the thing, let alone fight. I used the paladin's very hefty falchion for practice, and she also introduced me to hand-to-hand combat. But spears fell far outside of my expertise.
"Don’t worry, they gave you a decent weapon." The voice tried to comfort me. My weapon reached far at least, while I pointed it forward, it made me hard to approach. "Correct, now keep your head up."
"You read my mind, or something?" I complained, walking towards the center of the arena. The question felt dumb if I considered that the voice came from inside my mind, but the scale of this place quickly made me forget about her. A huge crowd gathered to fill the elevated grandstand and cheered loudly for the participants.
They sat too far away to see clearly, but I recognized a few newbies' faces from the vast palace garden, the guys that remained until the end like the paladin and me. They weren't the only ones forced to fight for the audience, the arena was full of fighters.
"See, your paladin friend came too, she stands right at the other end." The voice claimed before I spotted her on my own. I concluded that she didn’t use my senses even though she lived inside my head. "I'm not inside your head, you stupid girl. And I told you to focus, right?"
"I need to reach her…" I mumbled, unsure if I talked to the voice or myself. I observed the huge, round fighting compartment. Everyone stood near the walls so if I sprinted straight across, reaching the paladin before the others caught me seemed possible. For now, nobody moved. I noticed the bloodthirsty, scared, or bored glances in every direction, then saw a pompous figure rise in one of the balconies and open their arms wide.
"Let the second match of the evening start!" He shouted out into the crowd, and they celebrated. "May we discover a real gem hidden among the beginners this evening!”
The people clapped as he sat back down, and someone hit a huge gong. Its sound overshadowed every other voice in the arena and echoed for a long time. This signaled the start of the fight and the participants ran towards each other or for cover. About half of us carried spears, the rest got a short sword and a shield.
"Look around later, now run." The voice warned me, and I dashed. My solitary cell didn’t allow me to practice that, and I assumed Cath was in a similar situation. She never looked this way though and I became nervous.
My two closest neighbors picked me as their first opponent. Even if they wanted to beat the easiest prey I refused to wait for them. I had a good hundred yards straight across the arena and hoped to reach the other end before they caught up with me.
"No, you won't, you are too slow. Dodge!" The woman ordered me around, and no matter how much I disliked that tone, it seemed better to listen. I ducked, and a sword flew right over my head. I turned on instinct, my spear still pointed far forward, and I gave it plenty of momentum before it connected with the shield of my opponent. A small female like me probably surprised him, as I sent his shield flying before it landed a dozen yards away. "Now poke him."
Reluctantly but I followed her commands. The men who faced me didn’t look as confident or tough as most. Maybe an ordinary peasant or a towns guard from the southern Shibalan territories, he attempted to deflect my spear, but I stabbed him right in the arm. The other man, who aimed for me suddenly stopped. They realized that the title of the easiest prey belonged to someone else.
"Now you run, idiot." The voice urged me and I burst into a sprint. I didn't have time to look but heard swords clash against each other. "Pick up the shield, and don’t stop."
I almost rushed past the thing, but she warned me in time to reach out for it. I strapped it onto my left arm without slowing down, and while it felt heavy, I became much less vulnerable. I had seventy yards remaining.
The paladin still looked the other way and refused to notice me. Or at the very least, she stayed in one place, too busy fighting in a three-on-one situation. She found some scary-looking enemies on the other side and their struggle looked intense. She fought with a sword and shield, but the latter quickly broke apart from the heavy blows of the other swordsman.
One of her attackers used a spear and managed his distance surprisingly well. She moved faster than the other three though, and I decided to speed up as much as possible. I hoped she would save me but maybe she needed my help instead.
"Veer to the right, someone tries to catch up to you." The woman in my head warned. Indeed, a skinny spearman ran fast in my tracks. His weapon dripped blood, and I saw two bodies on the ground behind him. "Yes, you better not fight him."
"Easy for you to say... I only ran long distances, not sprints... And just a few times..." I claimed but failed to increase my tempo and barely passed the halfway point. The man gained on me fast but at least my shield blocked his initial attacks.
"Well, try to pray for faster speed then." The voice suggested as if she mocked me. I remembered how Cath invoked her miracles, she usually mumbled something under her nose, but she never showed me how exactly. I saw her blue hair fly around while she danced with her sword, but so far ahead still. "I'm already here, and I feel generous today."
"The paladin never taught me, I don’t know how that works..." I argued. Sure, I wanted her to teach me, but she said it needed to come naturally, not something people learned on a whim. "I don't bear any blessings, I'm a seer of royal blood but unable to use those miracles..."
"So am I a joke to you?!" The voice sounded upset. The man readied his second strike and bashed against my shield, knocking me out of balance. "You think I just came here to talk because I got nothing better to do, or all royals born this dumb?"
"What do you mean?!" I cried out loud and tried to regain my footing. I refused to get involved in a melee with that guy and fight a mysterious voice in my head at once. "You mean to tell me, you're a god? But the Goddess of Luck sounds nothing like you and I know of no other female deities..."
"I'll let this slide but just because you're in a tight spot... But you better learn your history next time!" The voice sounded offended. I wrecked my brain trying to find out who she was but found no answers. "I mean, sure, I wore a man's armor because at that time only they fought the battles, but I'm sure you know me, you even praised me before."
"Praised you? When?!" I asked and desperately fought back. My mind felt foggy. The last time I talked about gods must have happened before we ran into the Twelve Champions. I said some mean things about Remmol, the Tactician deity who blessed Cath with his miracles, and I asked her why not Gadurien. Yes, the Iron Fist matched better with a paladin, but what about that counted as praise?
"Yes? So?" The voice tried to urge me. But Gadurien was a man! Or... No, I recalled something about Remmol and Gadurien having an affair. I believed the legends talked about a gay couple or something and never paid attention to it. Gods behave like gods, I thought but this angered the woman. "No, you idiot! That's how they teach it nowadays?! Our pure love, as some affair? Ugh, you don't even deserve my blessing..."
"Y-your blessing?! Are you Gadurien?!" I asked so loud even my opponent recoiled for a second and probably thought I lost my mind. "You blessed me? Since when? Why didn’t you tell me before? Then why would I run? Just allow me to use your Iron Fist to blow this guy away!"
"Fine, help yourself then..." The voice answered, and I felt my arm swell with power. It was the wrong one though. "You need to punch him. You can't do that with the spear."
I didn't want to waste this miracle if I already requested it, and holding my shield in front of me, I charged the unsuspecting fighter. His spear bounced off my defense before the shield connected with his body, and he flew across the arena like a bird.
