The day began later for some. For Aureum, it began with a calm early morning. She checked on Mendax, but he wasn't in his room.
This was not unusual, and she thought no further of it.
His word might be in doubt, but his offer of allowing her to leave her room was too tempting for her to pass. The fear of the situation was too dull anyways.
She'd never seen this killer, and felt brave in her cloak, her spear, and what felt like the many layers of her pearl. At least confident enough to run away.
So when the time came and Lacuna came to get her, she left without looking back.
The streets were nearly empty. This tournament wasn't a main event, but a lead-up to it. Only family, friends, students, and those especially devoted cared about the outcome.
Still, the fresh air and walk were nice for the two young women. They grabbed a few honeycakes on the way and chatted about nothing at all important.
Aureum did have some worries in the back of her mind, but she buried them as deep as they'd go.
The ground for the preliminaries was at the university, but not a place Aureum had seen before. It had many mini arenas, with an encirclement around all of them of stone seating. It wasn't big enough to hold a tournament for the whole city.
"My dad says that most people don't watch all the preliminaries. It's a lot of fights that end really quickly, since those who signed up can't usually put up a real fight."
"Why would they sign up if they can't compete?"
Lacuna shrugged.
"The prestige? It also provides a free audience to their skills if they make even a little far. I don't really know."
"Is Sitis going to have an easy time of it then?"
"As a member of the school, it's a bit different," Lacuna said. "He'll be used to thin out the contestants, so he has a packed schedule."
"Doesn't that make it a contest of endurance then? That's not really fair."
Lacuna shrugged.
"The expectations for students are different. I'm not worried."
"Then what are you worried about?"
"Hi, Mom!"
The woman Lacuna had briefly met last time was in the seats, alongside two men: one older and a young man. The young man seemed barely an adult. She waved back at her daughter.
"Lacuna!" The young man called.
"Radix!" To Aureum, she turned and said, "That's my brother. And that's my father, Fibra Cymba."
The two went to sit down next to them.
"Why does it have to be him? Can't someone else from the tournament catch her eye?"
Aureum felt herself frowning.
"Shush, Lilium," Lacuna's father said. "Don't you know we don't know what the future holds?"
"You don't mention," Lilium snarled.
Aureum turned slowly in Lacuna's direction. Lacuna looked down at the arenas, watching for Sitis. Aureum looked forward again.
Guess we're just going to ignore that then.
"She could do better," her mother muttered.
The arenas and the seats filled up as things began to be set up.
"Ah, look!" Aureum said, pointing. "There's Sitis!"
She'd searched and found him as the best distraction tactic.
"Oh, you're right!" Lacuna said, focusing her attention.
Sitis, tall, strong, and with a quiet sense of glory, walked onto the field. Even watching him gave a sense of reassurance over his victory.
Unlike someone else.
"It might be a little difficult to find someone more handsome," Aureum murmured to Lacuna.
She giggled.
"I can't wait to see his moves!" Radix said.
The only one who seemed entirely unbothered by the tenous atmosphere Aureum had walked into.
"He's only been at the university for a few months," Fibra said. "Don't expect too much."
"There are still the other matches," Radix said, a tad awkwardly.
Aureum didn't understand their issue with him. Handsome, strong, and in love with their daughter.
Do they want a lord of a city for her?
The thought sparked pain in her mind. She looked down at Sitis again.
He was up against someone as intimidating as him, appearance-wise. Sitis was in an arena on the far end, away from them. She might have insisted on better seats if those nearest hadn't filled by the time they spotted him. While it was difficult to be certain, Aureum felt his foe was no match.
A little light from an orb next to their ring in the sand, and the match started.
"Aghhhh!"
And ended.
Sitis had punched him out of the ring in one hit. Standing straight again, he rolled his shoulders and walked off.
"You're the best, Sitis!" Lacuna cheered, standing and clapping.
Aureum smiled, enjoying but lacking her enthusiasm.
"Amazing!" Radix said.
Aureum peered around him to Lacuna's parents. Lilium had one raised eyebrow, and Fibra sat back, watching him quietly without expression.
He has their attention at least.
"Good luck, Sitis!" She yelled.
The matches, as Lacuna had predicted, were easy.
Two men went down. Three.
They ended up being tossed out of the ring in slightly different directions. Other than that, it was pretty much the same show.
"It's bad if he's too strong," Fibra murmured. "That only brings trouble."
"Awesome, Sitis!" Lacuna yelled.
Four was an actual match.
Completely different from Sitis, his opponent was fast instead of firm. The man had a pearl of wind on his collarbone. The flexible sword he used actually managed to cut Sitis, which was a surprise.
In the end, Sitis outlasted him. The man had to use a lot more energy in darting around and dodging, and Sitis needed only one good hit.
The two shook hands and spoke a little after the match, though even Aureum couldn't hear what was being said.
"He can't even beat a random stranger with ease after attending university," Lilium said, shaking her head.
Aureum felt livid from the hypocrisy, but Lacuna's calm demeanor kept her from moving.
And so it continued. Sitis beat his opponents, only for Lacuna's parents to nitpick everything about him.
"Doesn't even look like he was formally trained," Lilium said.
Lacuna turned her head towards her mother, an odd smile on her face.
"He's a warrior of Bonumbas," Lacuna said.
"Warriors of Fluentum know how to fight with discipline—
"He's a warrior of Bonumbas," Lacuna repeated. "One of the most renowned things they're known for is fighting, and this is how they fight."
"Well," Lilium said.
Her daughter still hadn't broken eye contact.
"Lacuna," Aureum said. "I've run out of snacks and need the bathroom. Show me the way?"
Lacuna turned away from her mother for a moment. Aureum heard her take a quiet breath.
"Sure," she finally said, facing Aureum.
As soon as they were out of earshot near the outhouses, Aureum stopped her.
"What is their problem?!"
Lacuna rubbed her face, tired.
"They're worried."
"Why?"
"He has no bloodline."
"Neither do you," Aureum said.
"No, I meant he has no family."
"None?" Aureum said.
"Not one. He was orphaned in Bonumbas. It can be common there, sadly. It's not like here."
"Orphans still happen here," Aureum said, her words stilted. "Is that it?"
"Well. Being away from them may have also made them… overbearing? Overprotective? That's its own other thing."
"Yeah, I know that. But it wasn't like this. Was it always like this?!"
Lacuna shrugged.
"It must feel like they've regained their daughter only to lose her again," Aureum said, understanding dawning.
Lacuna nodded.
"But you're not getting married yet?" Aureum said. "Why isn't your mother willing to let this go? I'd have thought you'd have a lot more leeway, all things considered."
Lacuna's fingers fiddled.
"Lacuna?" Aureum said, her voice rising in alarm. "A few months of dating isn't what I'd suggest is enough time for marrying someone—
"Please, Aureum!" Lacuna grinned. "No, he hasn't asked yet."
"But if he did, you're planning to say yes."
Lacuna nodded, shyly and slowly.
"I might have told my parents this," Lacuna said.
Aureum let out a long sigh.
"Why? It's not time yet! Now you have to deal with all the problems before getting any rewards! Ahhhh!"
"Come on, marrying a little early shouldn't be that adventurous for you."
Aureum's smile flattened almost instantly.
"It's waaaaaay too adventurous for me. I think I'll date ten years before I marry anyone."
"Huh? What if they don't want to wait?" Lacuna said.
"Then we don't get married," Aureum said. "It's too big a deal to do half-heartedly."
"Hmmm. Waiting is one thing, but what if you wait so long you miss out on what could have been?"
"Then it happens that my life is a little bit less happy. Maybe. It's not that big a deal."
"It… feels depressing…" Lacuna murmured.
"Huh? Not as depressing as what you're doing right now! Why did you even mention marriage to them!"
"I didn't! They asked! I answered! Lightheartedly!"
"You shouldn't have trusted them!"
"They're my parents!"
"That's WHY you shouldn't have trusted them with this! Ah! I'm nobody to talk."
Aureum crossed her arms and frowned.
"What are you going to do?"
Lacuna looked at her fingers.
"Nothing?" Lacuna said.
"Agh!"
"I can't think of anything better! I thought they would behave a bit more in front of a stranger."
"Did they?"
"…a little."
The fact that it was worse when Aureum wasn't around made her more frustrated.
"This isn't going to work," Aureum said. "You need to do something."
"What? I've already tried reassuring them."
"Set boundaries! You might be okay, but I'm gonna go insane if they keep talking about Sitis that way! And they should respect your choice!"
"It's not that easy. It'll hurt them."
"Tch."
Lacuna stood there, looking flustered and guilty. Aureum took her hand. Lacuna glanced up, surprised.
"I'm just frustrated for you, Lacuna. I'm not mad at you. I wish you would stand up for yourself. For any reason."
Lacuna smiled gently, but Aureum got the similar feeling of meeting a stone wall.
"Ladies!" A man said as he squeezed into the outhouse. Aureum and Lacuna moved to the side.
We're the same in how stubborn we are.
"If you can't do it for yourself, at least do it for him? I understand things are complicated, but he doesn't deserve it."
Now she just looked guilty again. Aureum shook her head.
"Let's get those snacks."
They returned with skewers. Per Lacuna's suggestion, it was enough for Radix and her parents as well. They passed them around.
"Any changes?" Aureum asked.
"He beat three more opponents," Radix said. "The last one was pretty cool! Heheheh!"
"The last one had an ice pearl," Lilium said.
"Are you competing?" Aureum asked.
Mostly to stop listening to anything from Lacuna's parents. Radix's ever-present grin flattened.
"Hmmmm," he said. "Not this year. Maybe next year. I'd love to fight against a student of the university."
"I guess it must be an honor in itself," Aureum said.
"Not only is it good experience, the clashing of mana can be assimilated into the pearl. Maybe."
"What?" Aureum said.
"Don't you see the row of contestants layering?"
"Well, I saw them sitting down in a line. I didn't think about why, though."
"You wouldn't see that except for on a day like this, but when two sorcerers of similar levels fight, the stray mana does weird things."
"And this is good?"
In Aureum's mind, mana doing strange things usually was bad.
"The mana," Radix clicked his fingers, as he looked for the right answer, "it, it dissipates, yeah? So it becomes a bit formless. And also! It tries to convert the stray mana from the opponent as well."
"So you can layer with the mana from your opponent?!"
"Not a lot of it, and NOT the mana of your opponent, but the dissipated mana, yeah."
"Is that why duels are so common?"
"Not really," Radix said. "It's a nice lil' thing to know, but it's not enough to be of serious use. And the sorcerers have to be of equal layers, or it doesn't work. Friends sometimes make dueling buddies to try and use it, but the fights have to be pretty intense for it to really matter."
"There have been scholars wondering if sorcerers ascend more in war because of this," Lacuna chimed in. "I read a bit in a book I found waiting for Sitis, but I can't remember the author now. It was mostly speculations over legends. Many of the major wars have died down these days, so there's less chance to give modern comparisons."
"These days?" Aureum said.
"Ah, since the formation of the Council of Aeternitus."
The Council was filled with the seats of the leaders of the city-states of Aeternitus. It met annually at most, and was most known for its use of declaring war. Any war had to be declared, alongside its reason, and if the other city-states heavily disagreed, they could all turn on that one as a united force. The same thing would happen if the city-state went to war without declaring it.
"You mean that historic event from a couple of centuries ago?" Aureum asked, jokingly.
"Yeah," Lacuna said.
Aureum chuckled.
"Oh, look, is Sitis struggling?" Lilium said.
Everyone's head turned back to his fight. Aureum swallowed a bit of bile over the barely hidden joy in her words.
Sitis was in a difficult spot. His opponent had pushed him back a few steps, which hadn't happened, even against the wind sorcerer.
A tall but lean man fought him with whips of water. It seemed he chipped at Sitis' defense while maintaining his distance easily by muddying the ground.
It was a bad matchup, and forming such whips wasn't the feat of the unskilled.
Aureum, Lacuna, and Lacuna's family watched with bated breath.
The field got muddier and muddier. Soon Sitis was sliding more than running. This was his opponent's goal.
No…
Once the field was covered, the sorcerer simply controlled the ground beneath Sitis and shoved him outside the ring. Sitis dug his feet in resistance, but it was no use.
"Sitis!" Lacuna said.
"Heheh," Lilium chuckled.
"What is WRONG with you?!" Lacuna turned and snapped at her.