Ember couldn’t believe that she could be in such a position. How she got captured was a joke in and of itself. Getting knocked out by a passing bird that accidentally dropped a stone from high. Somehow, she hadn’t noticed a rock hurtling through the air right at her head.

‘Maybe you deserve this,’ she thought, scolding herself. ‘You call yourself a warrior and a bird took you out. A bird. At least it was something cool. I swear if a sparrow did that.’

But her problems extended far beyond being defeated by a bird. When she awoke, she found herself in an unfamiliar location, in chains, and with barely any access to her mana. All together, that made for a very poor situation.

‘Curse you, Kilik,’ she grumbled. ‘Why couldn’t you have waited a bit before sending me out? Crap, now that I think about it, I missed the meeting. Not that I should be worrying about that right now.’

She had a blindfold over her eyes, but it wasn’t bothering her all that much. She didn’t need her eyes to see. The stench of whatever room she was in though was giving her the most trouble. It was distracting and overbearing. It smelled like infectious wounds whose flesh was beginning to rot mixed with drying urine and excrement. 

‘What kind of hell prison am I in?’ Ember thought.

Her mind began to flip through the catalogue of prisons that she knew about, comparing them to where she was right now. She didn’t think that much would come out of it, but there wasn’t much to do, so she did it to pass the time. When she finished with every prison, she switched to dungeons and private properties that she knew held prisoners. 

She was on item one hundred and fifty three when she heard someone enter the room. Boots clicked around the stone floor and she perked her head up as the sound approached.

“Oh, you’re alert,” a raspy voice said. “Quite strong, aren’t you. Perfect.”

“Who the hell are you?” Ember replied. 

“That’s none of your concern,” the man said. “Will you let me take your chains off?”

“Hmm. Go ahead.”

“Now, don’t go attacking me. That won’t end up well for you,” the man warned. Ember nodded, hoping the man would just get to it. She wanted to get out of this horrid place. “Good.”

The man opened a door to enter her prison cell and grabbed her wrists to remove the chains that were attached to cuffs that shackled her. Once free, Ember stretched her arms slowly, trying not to alarm the man. 

“Can I take this blindfold off, or no?” she asked. 

“Go ahead.”

She did so and waited a second or two for her eyes to adjust to the low light of the prison until everything looked as clear as day. It looked about as bad as it had smelled. There were a few prisoners with bandages wrapped around injuries that seemed to have not been treated. There were no toilets or even a bucket of any kind that she could see. 

‘What is this place?’ she thought. ‘If word gets out about this place, it would be destroyed in days.’

Ember turned to face her captor. When she saw his face, everything clicked together. What this place was and why it still existed made complete sense. 

“The Fiddler,” she growled. 

“Oh, you recognize me,” the man grinned, the scar on his cheek crinkling. “Though, I guess that’s to be expected from someone like you.”

“I’m going to fucking kill you.”

“You can certainly try, but I know you can’t do it here. Save that ferocity for the arena. Come with me.”

Ember shut her mouth and begrudgingly followed. He was right. There was nothing she could do in her current position. He probably wasn’t even in front of her in person. But an opportunity will come. They always did.

‘I can’t believe I’ve become a plaything,’ she thought. ‘This has gotten from bad to worse.’

She knew the rules of the Fiddler’s Coliseum. Fifty straight wins, and he promised to reward freedom. Somehow, though, she doubted that claim. There was nothing stopping the Fiddler from lying and just killing the person that accomplished such a feat. A feat that was probably rigged for them to fail. 

‘But this might be a twisted blessing,’ Ember pondered. ‘Maybe that bastard planned this somehow and wants me to collect as much information as I can. But if that’s true, then he should be the one here, not me.’

She decided to go with that. Finding the Fiddler’s Coliseum was always a top priority mission. Now that she was trapped in it, she should be able to find something that would help with locating where the Fiddler had set up. 

‘Then maybe I can find a way to make a flare or sorts,’ she thought. ‘Get some help to destroy this place and save me. Mainly save me.’

“Here we are,” the Fiddler said, stopping. “It’s still early in the day, so I thought it would be a perfect time for you to see what you’ll be up against. I’ll be preparing your room in the meantime.”

In front of Ember was a large room filled with people. They all looked to be fighters within the arena judging by their clothes and their demeanor. In front of them all was a glass wall that separated them from what Ember assumed was the arena. That was the only thing that could describe such a giant dirt area. There was no one in it currently.

“Enjoy the show,” the Fiddler said before disappearing into thin air.

‘Enjoy? Yeah right.’

She took this opportunity to explore this place that she had just been dropped off at. There wasn’t any fighting taking place within the arena itself, so it was the perfect time to observe the other people.

‘Let’s see who might give me the most trouble,’ she thought. 

In her mind, she began to compile a list of people and categorized them based on their physique. It wasn’t a hard list, as it was entirely possible for some to have techniques that give them momentary buffs, but Ember was confident in her skills in judging people. It’s what made her respected in the outside world.

As she wandered around, she heard the Fiddler speak once again, but this time over a speaker system. She paused to listen to him. It seemed that the start of the next match was about to begin. 

‘I should watch to see how it works.’

She shuffled past people, squeezing by and mumbling apologies until she was right at the glass with a clear view of the arena. The combatants appeared within the arena and the Fiddler began to introduce them. Ember ignored him. She wasn’t good with names to begin with. 

She first looked at the side closest to her. The man standing there was well built and seemed to be at least relatively strong. Not strong enough to give Ember problems, but it would be a fun match if she was up against him. 

There was something else about that man too. He looked skittish and apprehensive. His eyes were locked onto his opponent while his fingers fidgeted with his shirt. 

‘So scared.’

To see the cause of this, Ember glanced to the otherside to analyze the person standing there. She was met with a woman with a slender build and silver hair. Such an elegant person had no right to be in such a place like this. 

‘She’s beautiful,’ Ember thought. ‘A demon too. Her eyes.’

The woman’s eyes were a silver hue like her hair, iridescent in the light. But there was something behind them that gave Ember pause. Some unsettling like a deep hatred. They were cold and betrayed no warmth of any kind. 

‘Who is she? I didn’t catch her name.’

The weapon for the battle was determined by the Fiddler. Dual daggers were the weapon of choice for today. Ember watched as the two fighters grabbed their respective weapons. The moment they touched them, she knew who was going to win. 

‘The man is going to get destroyed.’

The silver haired woman held her daggers with such ease and practice, as if she had used them for her entire life. The man, although not unfamiliar with the weapons, didn’t seem to be comfortable with them. 

A countdown appeared in the sky and the crowd began to chant the seconds as they ticked down. Ember kept her attention on the woman. When the countdown hit zero, the woman disappeared into thin air only to reappear right in front of the man before the man even took two steps. 

Then, without any hesitation, she plunged the daggers right into the man, one into his neck and the other into his chest. She held them there, staring right at the man’s body as the life drained out from him. When the man grew limp, she let his body fall right into the ground, the daggers still in. 

‘Who is she?’ Ember thought. A chill ran over her body. 

When the woman turned, their eyes met for the briefest of moments. She stifled a gasp as she looked into the woman's silver eyes. Her pupils were slits like that of a lizard. She was a dragon. Just like Ember.