The Red Queen of the arena — part V
A star is born
Katu couldn’t accept being excluded from competitions but she didn’t have a clue on how to circumvent that. She was frustrated and started to drink along with her uncle, whose hedonistic path seemed more and more inevitable.
She was rescued by some unexpected saviors, two of the sleaziest drinking buddies of her uncle: Eosian and Asik’inyi.
Eosian, Eos for his friends, is a lawyer that he used his talents to keep smugglers away from the gallows. The Holy Infernal Empire is obsessed with laws and contracts, and even more with loopholes to those laws and contracts. Eosian saw such a hole in the interdiction to use magic in a sword fight: it can be used if both parties agree. If someone challenges you they are implicitly agreeing to fight a spellcaster… The match can come to you…
Asik’inyi, Asik for his friend, is a triton, a tavern owner that had a brief career as an arena fighter as the “Mauling shark”. He knew (or at least pretended to know) the ins and outs of the arenas’ world and how one can gain some fame quickly. He says he quit fighting for an injury and swears he has still connections even if he works as a longshoreman.
Katu agreed to take her uncle and his two plump friends as her managers. what could go wrong?
The first step was to build some “street cred”. Katu was young and pretty, she walked around the docks at night, innocently, with her cat in her arms, to attract the attention of some horny and drunk sailors. When a creep made his move she would just cut all of his clothes with a selective slash leaving him naked and scared. The pig will run away unharmed but humiliated.
As planned, after a couple of these “incidents”, they met a touchy one, someone who demanded a fair duel to clean his name. He could win a girl in a fair fight! Maybe, but not Katu, who easily defeated the angry opponents with and without any “tricks” (she always conceded a rematch). This started a feud with the friends of the defeated sailor and eventually, all the tough guys of the harbor wanted to best the “orc girl with the cat”.
The fame of the Katu started to spread. Eos and Asik moved to the next step. They set up some not-technically illegal bullfighting matches in unused shipyards. They convinced some livestock merchant to give them bulls in exchange for some money and some good excuses to tell the guild. On animals, Katu could perform the most spectacular strike, severing heads and cleaving hearts with elegance and ease. Infernal citizens praise talent as much as they love to jump on the winner’s chariot and so even the disgruntled losers started to cheer for “the orc girl with the cat”.
At that point they went on tour, replicating the winning formulas in many other harbors.
Money started to pour in. The three old tavern-fly quit their job and invested all in Katu. She was their ticket to better booze, better women, maybe even a sense of purpose. The girl accepted, she was thrilled, she could fight with a sword, that’s was enough for her.
The next step was to get some official event and, with the surprisingly real Asik’s contacts and a blossoming reputation, it was not too difficult to get.
Katu land some bullfighting shows during the sabbath festivities not in the capital yet, but in smaller towns of the principality. During these matches, she defined her “gimmick”, under the guide of Asik. First the “costume”: she started wearing just red dresses. Then the entrance: she would step into the arena with her cat, give it to a member of the public to hold and after she had split in half a raging bull with a stroke, she would come back to collect her pet, as nothing special had happened.
To get to the big arena in Paimon, during a big festival, meant Katu had to pay her dues. Every show her fame grew and the stakes were raised: from a single bull to two or three at the same times, then mountains lions and then gorgons and snow manticores. That strange group, three old jolly guys and a very serious girl, toured all the empire for a couple of years, landing, at last, the high-end gig they were looking for.
On the Autumn Sabbath of 964, Katu faced a Salt Wurm from Uxali in the arena. The 40 feet long monster was dragged in, in chains by a dozen dwarf warriors while all the public gasped, yelled, fainted, clapped. Katu entered, left her beloved cat to one of the Princess Elector ladies-in-waiting, and then step calmly on the sand.
The fight was longer than usual, it was not easy to modify on the fly the techniques to fit them on such an unusual and fierce opponent. In the end, she emerged from the coils of the Wurmwith its heart, victorious.
She then calmly went back to get her cat back while her fans, all the bully and thugs she bested years prior started yelling: “Red Queen! Red Queen!”. And all the crow joined in this baptism by glory, princess included.
Part 5 of 7
Part1 — Part 2 — Part3 — Part4 — Part5 — Part6 — Part7
