‘What is someone like her doing here?’ Ember thought as she broke off eye contact with that silver woman. ‘There’s no way someone like her would get captured.’

She backed away from the glass as her mind raced to come up with conclusions. Another dragon was here in the arena with her. That already was improbable to her. The idea that another dragon could be as careless as her was impossible. 

‘So maybe she was sent here?’ Ember thought. ‘Maybe because she’s so strong, the council thought she would be able to get out by herself and gather information.’

That would be a dangerous plan. No one knew who was trapped inside the Fiddler’s Coliseum. It could range anywhere from fodder to beings whose power rivaled that of the gods, though Ember seriously doubted that such a person would get captured by the Fiddler. 

‘Well, people do come here willingly. Why would a super strong person want to come to this hell of a place though?’

But if that silver woman was part of a plan by the council, then that would mean that Ember was here without a reason. If that woman was there to collect information, Ember was there by accident. 

‘Fucking hell,’ she groaned. ‘Kilik, when I find you, I’m going to punch you. And that bird wherever it is.’

She was still going to try and find things out about this place. Even if she wasn’t sent here, getting some information wouldn’t hurt. 

‘Then I can shove it into his face. It wasn’t even supposed to be my day to patrol.’

On a brighter note, the fact that she was here unintentionally meant that she was now missing and people would be trying to find her. That meant rescue might be possible. The bad news was that no one knew where the Fiddler was and where his Coliseum currently resided. 

‘I might need to find a way to break out myself,’ Ember thought. ‘Even if they’re looking for me, they won’t be able to find me. Or maybe, if that woman is here because of a plan…”

She could tag along with that lady and help her in her mission. The faster the woman could find information about this place, the faster rescue can come for Ember. She could also help the lady with her fights within the arena with her abilities to judge people. 

‘She would be fine with that, right?’ she hoped. ‘We’re both dragons. I would do the same if I was in her position.’

With a nod, she decided to go with that course of action. All that she needed to do now was wait for the woman to appear and strike up a conversation with her. Then she’ll try to find someplace private for them to chat. 

But when the woman disappeared from the arena, Ember couldn’t find her anywhere in the area where the fighters were grouped together. She did another quick scan, doubtful that she had missed her. There was no way Ember could not notice such a person.

‘Where is she?’ 

Before Ember could ponder this development, she felt a small tingle on the back of her neck as if someone was watching her. As she turned around to see who it was, the world around her warped until she was standing in the hallway she walked through to get to the area with all of the fighters. The Fiddler was standing there as well.

“How was the show?” the Fiddler asked. “That was the last battle of the day.”

“It was something, I guess,” Ember replied. “Why did you take me here?”

“I’m here to bring you to your room,” he said. “I do it for everyone, and I don’t plan to ruin that streak. I do have to warn you though that this isn’t a private room. You will be sharing it with someone. On the plus side, it’s a lot bigger than the single rooms even if you have to share it.”

“Thanks?”

“No need. I was running out of space,” the Fiddler shrugged. “Go on. You might find your roommate a bit interesting.”

He grinned as Ember looked at him warily. She opened the door and peeked inside, but found an empty room with no one inside. Puzzled, she gave the Fiddler a questioning look.

“I never said your roommate was here right now,” he said. “Have fun.”

“Okay,” Ember said slowly before walking into the room. The door shut behind her.

When she walked in, the lights of the room slowly grew brighter and brighter until the entire room was lit with a soft glow. Ember wouldn’t have minded if the lights had stayed off. She could see just fine without them.

The room had two beds in it, both to the right of the room. They were separated by about a yard, but in return, they were pushed up right next to the front and back walls of the room. Shelves lined the left side wall. Books filled them, but Ember didn’t care all that much about them. Reading wasn’t something she did often. A single toilet was set in the top left corner of the room. A sink was next to it, but there was nothing to create privacy.

‘I hope my roommate is a girl,’ she thought. ‘It’ll make using the toilet a lot less weird.’

At the thought of her roommate, she decided to explore her roommate’s side of the room to gauge what she could about them. With only one of the beds with wrinkles on its bed sheets, finding where her roommate slept was easy. Nosing around, she noticed that the roommate seemed to be quite clean. Dirt was none existent. Dust, however, seemed to be gathering underneath the bed and the shelves in the room. 

‘Maybe she’s not a big reader too,’ Ember thought. ‘There’s not much to clean the dust with either, so that’s probably why the bed has so much underneath it.’

The other side of the room was untouched. The bed was immaculate with no wrinkles of any kind. Ember assumed that it was because the Fiddler fixed it up before handing it over to her. She wondered how long her roommate had been in here.

With nothing else to do, she went to the shelves, curious about what the books were about. They all were pertaining to educational topics. Some in particular were about combat which she found interesting, but didn’t bother opening them. She would much rather prefer someone teach her verbally and do the actions themselves then read them off of a page.

‘I don’t know how people do that,’ she thought. ‘Seems almost like a superpower.’

A disturbance in the magic of the room caught her attention. She whirled around in time to see her roommate appear at the door. She gasped as she recognized who it was. It was the silver woman. 

‘Oh. The Fiddler must have thought it would be fun to put me with her to try and get a reaction from me,’ Ember thought. ‘Well, jokes on him.’

She was about to say something in greeting to the woman, but she stopped as the woman looked at her. The woman’s silver eyes were stunning up close. The way they sparkled and the number of flecks of colors within them were mesmerizing. But something else was behind them that Ember couldn’t see before. The sparkles weren’t caused by the light of the room. A fire deep within the woman was being reflected. A rage that Ember only saw a few times in her life. 

‘She’s not here for a plan,’ Ember realised. 

The woman ignored Ember’s presence and went straight to bed, marching past her. Ember took a step out of her way. She couldn’t help but notice that woman’s scent. It smelled like shampoo with a slight undertone like that of the forest early in the morning.

‘She must have taken a bath.’

The silver woman sat on top of her bed and rested her back against the head of it. Then she shut her eyes. It didn’t look like she was sleeping to Ember. It looked more like meditation. 

‘Interesting. Well, I should take advantage of this free time and see if she’s really a dragon or not. Just to make sure.’

With a thought, Ember blinked and the area around her began to glow softly as the mana within the room became visible to her eyes. The room distracted her momentarily. The fact that the entirety of the area lit up told Ember a lot. It confirmed suspicions that dragons had held about this place.

The only reason a room would have every part of it doused in mana was if it was constructed out of mana. Ember guessed that if she was to look around outside of the room, the entire structure would light up similarly. 

‘So this is the Fiddler’s dimension,’ she thought. ‘Good to know. I need to figure out where he anchored it now.’

She turned her attention back to the woman who was sitting silently on her bed. The woman radiated mana that drowned out the surroundings, like a floodlight compared to a light bulb. Squinting a bit, Ember pushed passed it to take a look deep inside the silver woman. With a little searching she found what she was looking for.

At the center of the woman’s chest was a crystal orb, cut like a diamond with hundreds of facets. The gem itself was devoid of color, but within it, mana of seven different hues swirled around. Ember had seen a core like that only once before. 

‘She’s an omnidragon,’ she thought in awe. ‘How did I not know there was another? Something like this couldn’t possibly be hidden. It’s too momentous.’

Her thoughts were distracted as the woman’s eyes flashed open. Ember’s gaze must have been too intense. The woman fixed a glare on her, the anger in her eyes palpable. Ember was taken aback once more at the sheer amount of raw emotion behind them. 

“Sorry,” Ember said. The woman stared at her for a moment before shutting her eyes once more.

‘She needs help.’

Emotions that strong within a dragon were dangerous. Ember had heard stories of dragons whose rationality were dragged away by their emotions, creating rampaging machines who could not be reasoned with. The woman before her wasn’t there yet. 

‘It must be because she has a way to vent it somewhat,’ Ember reasoned. ‘Fighting within the arena helps contain it. A little.’

But from the one fight Ember watched, she knew that the people in the Coliseum wouldn’t be enough for the dragon before her. Those emotions will only continue to build and build until they reach a tipping point where all restraint is cast aside and only a demonic beast would remain.

‘I need to make sure that I can help her, though. If her emotions are too much, then I can only do so much to help.’

Helping other dragons, however, was a dragon’s duty. Ember would try all that she could to help. She just needed time to consider all courses of action. 

‘I hope she can last another day.’