The Red Queen of the arena — part VII
A new beginning
When Katu told her “managers” that she wanted to fight without the orc techniques they fell silent. She could see beyond their eyes all the dreadful scenarios they were evaluating. Katu reassured them that their money arrangement won’t change and, in the year she would take to prepare herself, they could manage Xahu. He was all but begging them to make him a career. They understand and all of them cheered at this new adventure.
Eos sift through codexes and law treaties to find a way to guarantee that Katu would not use magic during the match. They thought of using armor and weapons made of anti-magic ceramic, but many arena fighters told her it would not be enough.
How to be sure that a magic-user can’t do magic? Criminal wizards have their fingers or tongue cut off: it’s a brutal but definitive way to avoid them casting spells. For a less permanent solution, there were prisons with anti-magic circles and similar devices. Eos eventually found a solution: there was a special tattoo, a sigil, used as a way to inhibit magic in a semi-permanent way. It was a rare method, used for wizards with too high up connection to be maimed or put in a dungeon. This anti-magic tattoo can be removed by the same person that did it, the problem is that they must be a very high-level wizard, and therefore expensive and hard to obtain.
They did the math: considering the cost of a year off for training, the price of the ceramic weapon, and the tattoo, there was no way Katu could save the money for the removal of the anti-magic sigil. If she couldn’t make her career without Hesiak she could never use it again. She’s was fine with it.
Katu got the tattoo from a hermit in the woods of Cania. The wise man usually gave the tattoo to people who craved punishment and was baffled by the request of a girl who had nothing to atone.
Just finding him and going to visit him took Katu a lot of time and money. But it was worth it. When she returned to Paimon things changed: after Asik spread the word of what she was doing, many fencing masters showed up at Katu warehouse/school. Notorious champions of the arena came to see her, impressed by her decision to drop her advantages to “play fair”.
She spent months training with a lot of notable sparring partners. Now that she has to fight them at their level, even if in a friendly match, she saw the ability and prowess of the fighters she one time derided. She scoffed at the” the ruthless butcher” when she first saw him in the pit, but now that Katu met him and fight with him she understood the challenges of being effective and spectacular at the same time.
Two days before her first official fencing match, during the prestigious Summer Sabbath tournament, Katu’s cat died. The witness of all her victories just moved on a pillow to sleep, and never wake up. He was an old cat. Katu realized she has been in the Empire for nin years at that point. That sweet cat was her last connection with home. Katu buried him near her training grounds, she wanted his friend near him.
Katu ended third in the Summer Tournament. For her, it was a success greater than slaying the salt wurm. Many people reevaluated her previous victories: she was not a fame-hungry trickster, using magic and tricks to dazzle the masses; she was a real fencing master, able to excel in different styles. Students gather at her door, and many publishers asked for some writing, maybe a manual? The Paimon press industry was new but flourishing.
Katu told all of them to wait. First, she had to win a tournament, and then… Then who knows. “Then” doesn’t matter yet.
Part 7 of 7
Part1 — Part 2 — Part3 — Part4 — Part5 — Part6 — Part7
