Yuki’s first order of business was to locate where the prison cells of the arena were. It was the one place that Yuki knew was a constant. Ember had confirmed to her that there were people in other cells when Ember had arrived. Yuki remembered that people were also present when she arrived as well. Because they were moved at different times, that meant the prison cells were always present within the Fiddler’s domain.

‘Makes sense too,’ she thought as she glanced around the lounge from her seat. ‘Otherwise, he would need to move the prisoners every time.’

All she needed to do was locate this prison. Since it was the one constant, it would be the best place for her to try and analyze the magic behind the arena she was trapped in. 

‘But where is it?’ 

She had walked around the lounge many times before. She memorized every part of it, though that wasn’t a difficult task. There wasn’t much within the lounge beside chairs, people, and snack bars. There were also four hallway entrances scattered about the lounge, one which led to the baths, another to the medical bay, and the other two that Yuki didn’t know. 

One of them, Yuki now knew, was fake, or at least was suspected to be fake. That left one more hallway. No one Yuki ever spoke to knew what was in it, just that no one was supposed to go to it. Much like the now fake hallway, Yuki had never observed anyone coming from or into that entrance. 

Of course, she hadn’t been observing the entire time she was in the arena. There was a distinct lack of hard memories in the period her rationale had gone awol. 

That entrance now stood directly in Yuki’s sights. She considered it and its two guards. There was nothing particularly special about the hallway to the naked eye. A simple stone arc highlighted it and the hallway within it extended to the unknown. A person could try to sneak a peek in, but the guards who blocked it made sure that never happened by standing directly in front of the entrance. 

The topic that interested Yuki more today, however, was the guards. There was something odd about them that she couldn’t quite pin down. Something that tugged at the edge of her mind. 

The guards didn’t look any special to her. They held spears much like the other guards and were in the same uniform. Their expressions were one of focus, eyes flickering about and their brows narrowed. However, they never moved. Their bodies were stock still, not a twitch to be seen. Besides the rise of their chest with every breath and their attentive eyes, not a single muscle moved.

Besides the unnatural lack of movement, there was something else. She stared at the two guards until their faces were burned into her memory. Then she moved from her seat to another one with a clearer view of another entrance: the fake one. The same guards that always stood there were present, their behavior much like the pair that Yuki was just observing. 

She looked closely at their faces, examining every detail she could find. When she compared them to the faces of the other pair of guards, she found what was bothering her. These four guards looked almost like clones.

The shape of their eyes, lips, noses, and ears were exact replicas of each other. Things like the jawline and the chin varied, but only slightly. Their body shapes were different as well, but she wasn’t concerned about that.

She went to another pair of guards, a small walk away, and found the same traits present among them. The last guard, the one who looked over the entrance to the bathhouses, wasn’t any different. 

‘Seven guards. All of them male and all of them with faces that look like someone made out of a template,’ Yuki thought. 

Several possible reasons for this appeared in her mind. One was that they were related in some way. They could have been an extended family that were all in the business of security. They also could have been a species of demons and their alternative appearances resembled each other. Both of those reasons seemed unlikely to her. 

‘If they were related, genetics would at least change one of their nose shapes or eye shapes,’ she thought. ‘It changed their jawline and body type, so why didn’t their other features change as well?’

The demon possibility didn’t sit well with her as well. Demons also differed in their appearances with one another and their alternative forms were based on their demon forms. Therefore, seven demons who have appearances that all have the same facial features didn’t seem likely.

That left a third option. Those guards weren’t real beings. They were fakes made by the same person which would explain why there was some variation in terms of the body and general shape of the head, but not for the features and sex of the guards. 

‘Just like some artists only make one face, whoever made these guards can only make one person,’ Yuki thought. ‘Since they listen to the Fiddler, maybe he made them.’

Regardless, the possibility that these guards weren’t living beings was a real one. It was a possibility that she needed to test. If they were made from magic, then that magic could be manipulated. She just needed to see if there actually was magic and what kind.

With that in mind, she went back to the hallway of interest. She glanced at the arena as she walked. Two fighters were starting their match. That meant the Fiddler was distracted right now with introducing the participants. He might not notice her actions as long as she kept them as covert as possible. 

Yuki tested her magic, sending out a few sparks from her fingers. She wanted to make sure that she had enough for what she wanted to do. Satisfied, she zeroed in on the guards. 

Normally, she would utilize her eyes, but their appearance attracted attention that she didn’t want at this time. Besides, she could detect magic better through her fingers than she could with her eyes. 

She walked up to the guards who turned their attention to her. Rather, turned their eyes as that was the only thing that seemed to move. Ignoring them, she made a show of trying to see around them into the hallway. She had enough time to noticed that it led to a pair of doors before the guards blocked her view.

“Can we help you?” one guard asked. 

“I was just looking around,” Yuki smiled. 

“There isn’t anything here for you to look at, ma’am,” the other guard said, his tone much politer than the first. “Please return and enjoy the fight.”

Yuki glanced over at him and clapped him on the shoulder, giving him a nod of her head. As she did, she channeled magic to her hands and thought a small spell. It was a simple spell, one that acted like a metal detector but for other spells. When it touched another spell, the circle would glow. 

Just like it was doing now. 

‘Gotcha,’ Yuki thought with a small smile. She shut the spell off. It took only a brief second.

“I understand. Sorry to bother you,” she said. 

She turned away and went back to her seat. Looking away from the guards, she stared out at the arena without registering a thing that was happening in it. Her thoughts were racing as ideas began to float about.

‘Magic is at play here,’ she thought. ‘That isn’t enough though. It could just be a spell to protect them from magic. It could be any random spell. But now it’s something worth looking further into.’

Glancing about, Yuki took a survey of the people that could see her. There were a number of them, but many were looking at the fight or conversing with one another. The ones whose eyes were wandering were the ones that she worried about.

‘Is the risk worth the reward now?’ she wondered. 

Her eyes could solve the mystery right then and there. Dragon eyes, she discovered, were powerful. They see spells for what they are and can see the very essence of a being. If the guards were fake, they would look nothing more than mist in the shape of a person. 

Using these eyes was something that Yuki was well versed in. She used it discreetly during battles to gather information on her opponents. How she came to be so practiced, she wasn’t quite sure. Something told her that it had to do with the period of time that her mind couldn’t quite recall clearly. 

Those eyes could solve this problem. However, using them in such a setting like this would only draw suspicion from others and potentially draw attention to what she was doing. That wasn’t something she wanted to risk. 

‘On the other hand, if I don’t use them, then I’m going to have a very hard time trying to solve this,’ she thought. ‘It would require me to do a lot more than just pat people’s shoulders.’

A few more moments of deliberation later and she came to her decision. It was worth the risk. She just needed to time it right.

She turned her eyes once more to the fight in the arena, but this time, she was focused. Analyzing the battle, she determined the probable outcome and estimated how long the match would last. If she remembered correctly, there were still a few more matches after this one.

When the match ended, she prepared herself for the small window she would have. Yuki glanced over at the guards once again to note the people that would have a clear sight of her eyes. Flickering back to the arena, the two combatants were replaced with two new ones for another match. She waited for the countdown for the start of the bout to appear.

The seconds ticked down in her mind as she focused on the guards. When that countdown hit zero, the people in her path turned their attention to the arena to catch the beginning of the battle. Not all of them, however, but none were looking in her direction.

With a thought, her eyes changed and the world around her looked as if a filter had been placed in front of her. The people around her began to glow various colors that indicated their affinities. Their souls floated about within them in the center of their chests. 

The guards changed as well. They became mana, swirling in the air. Their bodies weren’t real. But something else was in them. A shining ball within each of their chests stood out within the mist of their bodies. 

Yuki reverted her eyes and turned away from the guards, troubled. Those balls could only be one thing. There were souls within those guards. Those souls must be what gave them their personality and their ability to speak and think. 

‘I can control the bodies, but I can’t control a soul,’ Yuki thought. ‘Most importantly though. Who made them?’