Ivy wasn't terribly upset that Sonera was a better warrior. She had admitted long ago that Martians were talented assassins. No, what Ivy really wanted to rip herself apart over was the expectations she had failed to meet. If her father were there, standing in Yrix's place, he would judge her. Perhaps he already had.
"Is this...why?" Ivy cried, tears welling up in her eyes.
Another punch rocked her on the side of her nose, causing her to nearly fall over. Her arms were dangling uselessly at that point. And her face, cut and bruised, was awash with fear and sorrow.
She felt lost, clinging to her consciousness. Slowly but surely, the void was taking over. That, she felt, was why she was an accessory. She wasn't strong enough. She wasn't perfect enough. Ivy was a failure. Perhaps the eighteenth daughter would have bested Sonera.
Back to the drawing board.
"Please..." Ivy pleaded to herself, as if she could guilt herself into being stronger.
One final jab to her forehead recoiled her neck towards the sky, as a pained expression took over her face. She almost looked guilty before it all faded to black. Ivy wandered about for another brief moment, her body lazily pretending it was still awake, before she finally crumpled to the floor in a pathetic heap.
"YES!" Rena screamed, watching the heiress fall face-first onto the sand with one arm draped over the other. "KILL HER SONERA!"
Lila burst into tears, overwhelmed by the sudden realization that Ivy was about to die. Even Lunae, who frankly had little sympathy for Ivy, felt a sense of second hand embarrassment. The heiress fought valiantly, or at least she would have if she hadn't forced herself into the fight to begin with.
It was almost too pathetic in a sense. Having a bully proudly croak about the cruelty of the world before begging herself not to be weak. Yet still, Lunae resonated with her friend's words. She didn't wish for Ivy to die.
Sonera looked down at her pitiful prey. She clenched her fist with unyielding rage. And with a flash of radiant energy, she hurled a gleaming knife towards the enemy with all her might.
The attack bounced off a purple barrier, pitifully clanking against the golden podium that Yrix stood on.
"Hmph." The Arch-Flayer mused, looking down at Sonera's blade. "Amusing."
The crowd, however small, fell silent. Sonera had just attempted to murder her captor. And she wasn't done.
"You," Sonera growled like a wild animal, looking up at Yrix with vengeful fury. "I promise you. Right here. Right now. I will kill you. Someday. You will die."
Yrix nodded. "Good. Get stronger. And try."
Sonera cursed in a foreign language before falling to her knees. Despite her victory, she felt no pride or sense of accomplishment. She was tired and injured. And she wanted Three.
Lunae was the first to move down into the arena as she used her Psionic energy to greatly amplify her movement, skipping on thin air like they were steps. Frantically rushing to Sonera's side, she was just in time to embrace the girl before she slumped over. She wasn't typically insecure about her abilities. But in that moment, she felt like cursing at herself for being unable to heal the girl she felt unusually attatched to.
All she wanted was to prove something wrong. That she was a shepherd, not just another reaper. Those feelings, unbeknownst to Sonera and the rest of the girls, had nothing to do with Yrix.
"It's okay, Sonera." Lunae's soothing voice crept into the girl's mind, dousing her rage with thoughts of sleep and restraint. "You did it. It's over."
Lila felt the urge to do something similar. It only felt fair. If Sonera had someone to comfort her, then why couldn't Ivy? The thing she said held no weight when compared to the bloodsport Yrix was promoting. Or at the very least, that's what Lila beleived. Every other girl, especially Rena, seemed perfectly content with the results. In their mind, Ivy deserved to be put in her place.
But as Ivy's body stirred, Lila felt herself hesitate. She couldn't move. All she was able to manage was a weak outstretched hand before Rena's voice sent it shriveling back to its owner.
"Ugh." Ivy moaned, opening her eyes as her entire body began to twitch.
"Stupid cunt." Rena fumed, furious at Sonera for having mercy. "I should go down there. But no. She needs to think about how pathetic she really is."
Moreover, Yrix wouldn't allow Ivy to be attacked. That fact was plastered all over her Psionic trace, which the girls could never ignore. As the victor, Sonera had the right to choose who would be spared. And so Ivy would live. Or at the very least, she wouldn't be killed by her peers. The jury was always up on whether or not Yrix would terminate a lost cause.
It was all terribly overwhelming for the heiress, having to ruminate over her pain and failure. Her body could do nothing more than scrape her face off the floor and roll her onto her back. And her eyes, now a tame shade of blue, were engulfed in tears. She cried loudly.
No one came to help.
Slamming her fists into the sand, Ivy did her best to contain her feelings, assuming a fetal position as she tried to hide. It didn't work, and frankly, she didn't want it to. Everyone else could assume she was upset over losing a fight as the prim and proper heiress with an ego. But the reality was far more depressing. She wished she could tell them all and explain her actions. But that would require humiliation she could never be prepared for.
No one could know. And so isolation was the only path. Or at least, it would have been, if she hadn't been so stupid the day before.
She hugged that stupid girl.
Ivy could feel Lila's pity burning its way into her skull. And so, with one last feeble effort, she began to claw her way back towards the dark tunnel from whence she came. She was tired, injured, humiliated, and frankly done with her own existence. And yet, some pitiful shard of her mind, the one she wished Sonera had gouged out with her fiery blade, yearned for Lila to pick her off the floor.
She remembered the way that primitive girl struck her in the face. The way she folded pathetically against her attack. But more importantly, she remembered when Lila stopped. She saw something in Ivy for the briefest of moments.
She saw the truth.
__________________________
Once the dust had settled, Ivy was firmly nestled in the underbelly of the Consortium's holy chalice, ignoring Yrix's commands to return to their living quarters. Using her senses, she knew for certain that Lila and her friends were gone. But something else was still in there with her. And it was rather upset.
"Ivy," Yrix called out to the heiress, the sound of her crushing footsteps drawing closer and closer.
Ivy whinced, still unable to pick herself up. She was terrified of what Yrix could do to her. At that point, it wasn't even worth begging. She would die like all the pathetic failures that had come before her.
"You..." Yrix reached down, clasping her large, spindly hands around Ivy's head, covering her face completely.
Ivy squealed in fright.
"Fought well." Yrix finished.
The Arch-Flayer rubbed the heiress's head like she were a pet, before lifting her up into her arms with ease.
"I'm proud."
"What?" Ivy grimaced. "B-but."
"Sonera is my best student. You challenged her. You made her hatred towards me stronger. That is the kind of preformance I expect."
How painfully ironic that Yrix gave Ivy more praise than her own father. That fact was not lost on her at all. It still felt strange, however, having the cruel, murderous alien care for her.
Yrix carried the heiress out of the arena and back towards the big house, all the while using her powers to remotely tend to Ivy's wounds. It felt like she had bugs crawling all over her skin. She would have even puked if not for the fact that it was an immensely soothing sensation. Her cuts, bruises, and even dislocated bones were all being repaired at once.
"How?" Ivy's eyes lit up with amazement.
She still felt miserable. But it was hard not to wonder.
Yrix chuckled. "Almost a century of training. The art is...not exactly a popular one among my people."
"Why not?" Ivy fidgeted with her dangling legs.
"Because it comes from the Infestare. Only they can excel in the healing arts, at least when it comes to Psionic-adjescent power. Many of them strive, and few succeed. But if you were to do the math, only a handful of people alive who don't belong to their hive can even come close to performing a Psionic repair."
Ivy gasped, "That means you-."
"Ssshh." Yrix placed a finger on her lips. "I wouldn't talk about that with anyone."
"My father knows about them. He warned me." Ivy argued as she pushed Yrix away with a weak hand. "Yrix..."
"You know nothing of how dangerous they are. But let's just say...they don't call me Arch-Flayer for nothing."