There stood an arena within Jupiter's Gold District, which was the wealthiest area home to nobles and individuals of high society. 

The higher ups of the city used that arena for sport of a violent nature, to distract them from the day to day, usually anyway. That said, on this day however that arena was alight with the thunderous roars of the gathered crowd for a much different reason.

What was featured upon the sands now was no blood competition, no execution or beast hunt, but a Grand Tournament held annual for youths of the kingdom who had just stepped into adulthood. Young warriors from all over the Centurion Kingdom, as well as their mentors, parents and guardians, filled the stands and set their gaze upon the sand below. Some were competitors, others were mere spectators.

There upon the arena floor stood two figures in armoured dress, ready to fight the final and most decisive round. One was a young woman with a sabre in hand. Her features were attractive and her hair was tied into a long ponytail on this occasion. She focused on her foe, a young man of tall frame and wide shoulders. He had a muscular physique to match, and she knew that she should not try to compete in terms of strength with such a foe.

The young man held himself with a solid stance, he showed no intent to underestimate her, in spite of her sex and her size. She had, after all, made it this far by merit, there was no grounds to think her his lesser. The gong was struck, the girl advanced first, she knew she had to seize the momentum.

The sand behind her scattered and the wind rent with a thunderous echo, her strength and speed far exceeded human norms. Her weapon of choice thrust forward, she lunged at the man's chest. The power behind her sabre in that moment could punch a hole through a block of solid steel, it struck like lightning. Her opponent's blade, as long as her own body was tall, swept forward in an arc. The girl lowered her head, his blade slashed a few hairs from her ponytail but accomplished nothing more. Her sabre struck the young man hard in the chest, a thunderous crash of metal on metal reached every corner of the arena, the sand around them was displaced by the force of it all. The man took a step back from the impact and the woman took that chance to gain some distance. Were this a death match, she'd have pressed the momentum, but it wasn't, so she didn't.

"One point," Said the man in the judge's seat, "Master Alexander of Saturn, you have just "died" once." The young man scoffed in response and then prepared his stance anew. He waited for the girl to advance again. She realised he was ready for her this time and so she did not charge again. Instead she raised her hand and summoned forth a power from her palm. White smoke screamed into existence there, it boiled the atmosphere and twisted the air. The judge creased his brows and said, "Miss Rusalka of Venus, please remember that you are not to use any force that can kill your opponent in the real sense."

"Yes," Said the girl, "I did not forget." She then snapped her wrist downwards with all her force. The white smoke crashed forth, displacing sand and spreading across the earth. This display of power created a smokescreen of white smoke and golden sand. The young man who was her opponent lost sight of her, he raised his blade in caution and then scanned his surroundings. He grasped the world around him with an unseen force, everything within the arena space was laid bare to him by a sixth sense.

Left, right, forward and back, he did not find the girl standing around him at all. Thus a thought came to him, he opened his eyes and turned his gaze upwards. There he beheld the girl at last, her frame inverted skyward looking down, but he was too late. The girl's eyes pierced into him like a hawk peering at its prey. She thrust her saber down upon his shoulder, the force of her strike blew away the sand at his feet. The boy fell on one knee, he only staggered, he was hardly injured, but a loss by the rules of the ring was a loss valid as any.

"Two points," The judge's voice reached his ears, "Victory goes to Miss Rusalka of Venus." Alexander did not bother to rise, his thoughts stirred as they were, he only sighed. What bothered him however was not the frustration of defeat alone, though that was certainly present. Before long he stood once more, then turned his head to face the girl beside him. Her gaze was absent all emotion but her thoughts beneath that mask were just as complicated as his own.

She could tell he was uninjured, in fact he wasn't even in pain after she struck him twice. She was holding back, of course, those were the rules of the ring, but even so he shouldn't be able to just ignore the damage her strikes had the power to inflict. She began to wonder what the result of their fight would've been if they were not bound by the rules of the ring. She turned her gaze away from him fairly quickly and faced the judge who had just declared her victory. Despite her doubts she knew that she had emerged victorious here in the final round, she had won the competition and would be crowned strongest of her generation. There was not a desire in her heart greater than that, but even so...

___________________________

Within the private booths above stood a woman of regal bearing. Her boots and gloves were armoured and she wore a dress that could open in four places to allow her freedom of movement whenever she so needed it. From all this it was clear she was a warrior, a sight rare enough here in Jupiter. She was Rusalka's mentor, Melany of Venus.

"Well done, Ru." The woman said, and then her thoughts were cut off by a knocking at the door. She turned and greeted as General Avance stepped into the room. Her mood soured then, this man and her had but one thing connecting them, his lover fifteen years ago, her own mentor, Beatrix. Whatever he came for today, therefore, it was obviously not to congratulate her on her apprentice's success. "What can I do for you, Lord of Mercury?" She asked him with a civil smile. The man responded in kind, though he could sense her contempt clear as day.

"It's General of Jupiter now, Melany."

"An empty title," The woman replied, "No...would a leash sound closer to the truth?"

"Still, it is proper to get it right, don't you think? Lest you anger Jupiter's Sovereign." The woman's smile vanished then as Avance walked to her side. The man set his gaze upon the sands down below.

"That girl is Lady Nymph's daughter, Rusalka, correct?" He asked her.

"Yes."

"She's grown into her mother's boots well. What of her opponent?"

"Alexander of Saturn," Melany replied with a cold look in her eye, "Son of Arthur of Saturn...and my disciple's fiance." Avance faced her in silence, he sensed her ill regard for the lad and his thoughts drifted somewhere far, far away because of them. There was a story here, he thought, but he also felt that it was none of his concern. "I doubt you came to speak with me solely about these matters."

"Sadly true," Said the General.

"Then what did you come here for?" She asked, "Do you perhaps wish to inquire about Mistress Beatrix' health once more? I'll tell you, if you want to know, she and your son together are enjoying a nice life...in hiding, like criminals." The man heard her tone then frowned as he turned to face her. Any normal woman, even by the standards of superhumans like herself, would flinch back from such a glare, such was the status and power of the man who stood before her, the strongest of his day, with no equal since. She did not flinch.

"I was estranged from Beatrix by necessity, not by choice. Like it or not, by law what she has in her possession does make her a criminal. We all agreed that it was best for her to go into hiding, as for me...I am under constant watch, and you know it well, I am as a lighthouse in the darkness, a darkness she wills to drape herself in." Melany fell silent, she had no counter to those words, though her look of scorn did not fade one bit. Avance took a step forward, his anger tempered and buried by a sense of urgency. "All that said, I've come to you now because she is likely in great danger, regardless of our caution."

"Pardon?" Melany asked. This was undoubtedly a matter she could not ignore, her mentor being in danger despite all they'd done to keep it from her. "What kind of danger?"

"My son, Mourn, has learned of Beatrix' existence."

"Is that all? I assume there's more to this than just that alone."

"Indeed I can guess how he learned that much but somehow he also knows about the Beacon on her person, which is something I absolutely buried, something nobody but the five of us know about on this entire continent." Melany , albeit begrudgingly, agreed with that notion. Mourn leaning of Beatrix' existence alone was not too much of a problem but the matter of her possessing a Beacon, that was another matter.

"How do you think he came to know of that?"

"I don't know but I suspect he has informed The Sovereign, if so then Jupiter's army will likely fall upon the Sanctuary where she is residing before long." The atmosphere around them turned heavy and cold. Melany paced the room for a moment, her heart full of worry. Eventually she stopped her feet and then turned to face Avance once again.

"I'll send a message to Amelia and have her inform Mistress Beatrix of the danger but with Jupiter involved Venus can't make any obvious moves, we can't save her without implicating ourselves, you understand?"

"Of course I understand," Said the general. He then shrugged and, in a moment of irritation, complained about the matter under his breath, "Would that we could've thrown that accursed Beacon away long ago."

"There was nothing to be done about that, that thing is all that is sustaining her life, if not she would have hidden it long before we discovered she had it." She thought back to that day, the day her mentor's possession of the Beacon was discovered by them, and rubbed her temple because of it. Beatrix' pregnancy had been what ultimately set in motion the events that led to it happening and she had nearly died when they took it away from her. Were her circumstances not so unique they'd have thrown that thing down a well and solved this whole mess fifteen years ago. She was at her wits end, and in frustration she said to him, "We can't step in, but what's stopping you?"

"What do you mean?" The general asked in return. Melany caught her tongue then, but did not choose to stop. She let vent the frustrations she held in her chest.

"The Sovereign is scared of you, must I spell that out? If it's today's you then you can probably openly intervene and even he won't be able to stop you." Avance pondered her words for a moment. After a bit of thought, he did recognise that there was not many men on this entire continent who dared to make an enemy of him these days, even Jupiter's Sovereign might be inclined to look the other way if he stepped in. "You aren't the same man as you were fifteen years ago, you have clout as well as power now! Enough that the Sovereign gave you an empty title just to keep you under his watch. Use it!" Silence filled the room for but a moment. Melany still had the nagging feeling she'd said too much, but those few words even so were all it took for Avance's hesitation to well and truly vanish.

Indeed who could object if he stepped in? Would Jupiter's army oppose him? As for the Beacon, he could always just flat out deny it, could he not? After all if the him of today was the one backing her then there was no way anyone would dare subject Beatrix to something as humiliating as a body search, right? His doubts were cleared away like a fog of dark clouds that had been pierced by a bolt from the heavens.

"You're right," He said.

"I know I am," Melany replied, and although her dread had long caught up with what she'd said, it was now all too late to stop herself from encouraging him. The man did not even look at her as he promptly left the chamber. Hence, she could do nothing now but cross her arms as she pondered what would come of this matter.

After a while Melany turned back to face the arena, yet a powerful sense of unease still heckled her. Only five people knew of the Beacon and none of them would speak of it, the existence of that Beacon shouldn't have gotten out, this was a fact. Naturally then she had to ask herself how Mourn still managed to learn about that despite their silence, who could've told him about it? When she asked herself this she ultimately arrived at a frightening possibility.

She regretted sending Avance away before thinking on this known but far distant enemy.