The Varas, like other families, can absorb something from the natural world and release it. In particular, they absorb rainbows and release it as panes of light that can bend anything, including their motion. While technically inaccurate, people call their power ‘refraction’ based on the phenomenon that Volkarians claim creates a rainbow.
Excerpt: Clans of Arikar – Marin Trillden
As it turned out, both Erin and Ashe had been right and the children, with an adult, had tried robbing them in the night. Not wishing to actually hurt the children, Erin got the room key back and dropped the would-be robbers off the balcony to the street below, ensuring they landed on their feet, and warned them off robbery.
Beyond a quick ‘I told you so’, Ashe had been quite silent since yesterday, and Sammath understood why. Not only was he still angry with Sammath and Erin, but he was still coming to terms with the idea that he’d just condemned two people to death; willingly and without, for the most part, extenuating circumstances forcing the decision. Now, Sammath was quietly walking alongside both Erin and Ashe as they headed for the arena, along with what seemed like half the city. Everyone had heard about the challenge between Tarik Akantha and Sammath, though it had been rebranded as a fight between Tarik and Erin, nobility against noble.
As Sammath came up to the arena, he could see how half the city was going to fit into the building. Massive, the building was circular and had to be hundreds of metres long and at least five storeys tall. Possibly more. When they reached the entrance to the arena, a huge gate where dozens of people were packed into lines streamed into the building, Erin took them around the building to a much smaller, guarded entrance. Erin’s identity, both as a noble and as a participant in the fight, got them through the gate easily enough and into the stone hallways of the building. Rather than being dim and dingy, as Sammath had expected, the halls were tall, clean, and well-lit.
Sammath and Ashe followed Erin down the hallway to a T-shaped intersection, and she turned around to face them both, “This is where we part ways for now. If you take the hall on the right, it will lead you to a number of private booths for people with the fighters, and people rich enough to pay for the booths, to watch the fight up close. You’re in booth 2. It will be marked in Shinian on the door outside the booth. Don’t, I repeat, don’t go into any other booths. It will cause more trouble than it’s worth.”
“Alright, then. Good luck. I’ll see you when the other guy’s down on the ground.” Sammath headed to the right, leading the way for Ashe and he heard Erin telling Ashe to keep him out of trouble, like that was necessary.
Quickly enough, Sammath found the booth and entered the room, finding a luxurious couch placed in front of a large, glass window that had an amazing view of the central part of the arena; a large, sandy circle. Sammath flopped into the couch, jumping over its backrest, and Ashe followed him into the room. Thankfully, neither of them were wearing the distinctly uncomfortable attire that Erin had forced on them the day prior, and Sammath was able to relax. Ashe took a seat in a chair beside Sammath’s couch, and looked into the arena, too. Across the sandy pit, people were quickly filling the benches that constituted as seating, and Sammath presumed it was the same all around the arena. When only the very top rows of the arena had waiting seats, a man walked out into the middle of the arena.
Immediately, the people quietened down enough that, by the end of his walk to the centre of the arena, Sammath could swear he could hear the man’s footsteps. “Welcome, people of Trillden!” Greeted by a roar, the man had to wait until the crowd’s noise had died down again before speaking, “Today, we have a very special match for you all! Not only do we have a representative of Tarik Akantha, Duchess Akantha’s son, fighting, but we also have Duchess Erin Dawnblaze, daughter of Grand Duke Emyr Dawnblaze, the Sun Tamer, General of Arikar fighting personally against young master Akantha’s representative.”
This time, despite knowing exactly who was fighting, the roar of the crowd’s approval was so loud that Runes flashed on the walls to the side of Ashe and Sammath and the sound was muted. Lasting for just over a minute, the clamouring would have been deafening if they’d been outside. “Not only that, but our own Count Trillden is arbitrating the match!” Count Trillden walked out of the same archway that the announcer had, and he projected his strength into the area, releasing his control over his Bloodline enough that everyone could feel he was at the peak of the fourth rank, the Duke Stage.
Sammath leant over to Ashe, frowning, “I thought he was meant to be at the Count Stage. Isn’t that the strength requirement for being a Count?”
Ashe replied without even looking away from the arena, “It’s the requirement. You can be stronger than that and still be a count, though. Remember, these were stages named when that level of strength was harder to reach, as well.”
Ashe’s attention turned completely back to the arena, and Sammath felt his own doing the same as the count took over from the announcer, projecting his voice similarly to the other man, “Thank you all so much for the warm welcome. Like Matten here said, we do have a special battle for you all, and that’s why everyone was given the day off of work today.” The crowd roared even louder than when the Runes had dimmed sound before, even though Sammath hadn’t thought that possible.
Chuckling personably, the count grinned at the crowd and made a show at rubbing his ears, “Wow, that was a loud thank you. I’ll be honest and say that while I’m no stranger to giving speeches, I don’t know anything to say other than ‘you’re welcome’. So, without further ado, I present to you… our combatants! Duchess Erin Dawnblaze, and Mr Gael Vara.”
Sammath completely tuned out the crowd as Erin walked in from the left. Erin’s red hair hung in loose ringlets that curled down, past her shoulders, and to the bottom of her shoulder blades. Dressed in a relatively loose martial uniform, it looked more like she was turning up for training than for a battle in an arena with an accomplished warrior.
On the other side of the arena, Gael Vara looked like he was taking the fight far more seriously. Completely dressed in leather armour, his protection was studded with metal and plated in important areas. A helmet completely covered his face, though Sammath could easily imagine the face of Akanatha’s servant as he stood opposite Erin, grim and focussed. In his hand, a large sword dug its head into the ground. Sammath would not hesitate to call it a greatsword, the massive blade easily as wide as the depth of the man’s thigh, and double-bladed.
Count Trillden spoke up again, “For those of you who don’t know, let me give you a quick rundown of their powers. Duchess Dawnblaze is, like many of you will have guessed, a member of the Dawnblaze family and have their natural proclivity for absorbing sunlight and releasing fire in its many forms. What many of you may not know, however, is that she is also a member of the Sarin clan from the House of the Crescent Blade, who absorb moonlight and release it as moonsteel in the form of weapons, armour and tools, and that she has both the Dawnblaze and Sarin Bloodlines. Mr Vara, on the other hand, is a member of the Vara clan. Prominent in the southern counties of the kingdom, the Varas absorb rainbows and release refraction. Anything that enters the light of their rainbows is immediately bent from its course.”
“Now, with that said, make sure your bets are in everyone because they’re closing now.” Trillden began striding to the edge of the arena, stepping onto a platform that raised up from the ground and hung onto the wall, something that could either be magically powered or lifted with a series of pulleys.
“Combatants!” Trillden shouted, “Are you ready?” Both Erin and Gael nodded, not taking their eyes off of each other, “3. 2.” The crowd joined in the countdown, chanting alongside the count, “1. Begin!”
Erin immediately moved. Despite appearing like she had been completely relaxed, she’d been ready to move as soon as the fight began. Spurts of flame ejected from the back of her neck and from her feet, pushing her forward from completely stationary to a full sprint in less than a second. Each time Erin’s foot touched the ground, the flame coming out of her feet and the force of the step whipped sand up in a spray. It was so fast and so sudden that there was no telegraphing in Erin’s initial movement and not even Sammath’s Motion Sight could see the sudden movement coming.
On the other side of the arena, Gael settled into a defensive stance and rainbow light bled down his blade, from his hands. Covered in shimmering rainbow light, the blade looked magical as Gael levelled it at the approaching Erin. When she was just about to reach Gael, Erin arrested her momentum with spurts of fire from her throat and hands, pushing herself to the side and beginning to circle Gael at the edge of his reach. Gael slowly turned, keeping up with Erin even as she was aided by her fire, and Erin slowly drew closer to the man. When he inevitably made the first move before Erin drew too close for him to use his greatsword, the fight began in earnest.
Erin’s face was impassive as she dodged the probing thrust with a quick twist of her shoulders. Erin’s hand reached forward to grasp at the hilt of Gael’s greatsword, but he stepped back smoothly and placed the glowing, rainbow blade in between Erin’s hand and its hilt. Unperturbed, Erin ran her hand along the greatsword’s length, just outside the rainbow light. Dipping her hand into the Bloodline power, Erin’s hand immediately began to veer away from the greatsword, and she used that to accelerate her arm and knock the greatsword away with her elbow.
His greatsword knocked away from its place between Erin and Gael, Vara used his Bloodline to create a wall of shimmering rainbow light between himself and Erin, pushing it out of his body. Erin didn’t pursue the man, instead stepping slightly to the side, as he raised his blade back up. Before he could dispel the field of rainbow light to conserve his energy, Erin flared her Bloodline and pushed fire out of her feet as she dove through the shimmering wall, hands first.
Instead of sailing through wall and missing Gael, like Erin’s facing as she jumped would have implied, Erin seemed to bend mid-air, at least as much as her joints allowed, and her momentum was conserved as she was turned to shoot straight at Gael. Sammath immediately sat up in the couch, “Holy fucking shit!” He exclaimed. Ashe looked to him, slightly startled, “She didn’t just use the rainbow light on the greatsword to make her elbow more powerful, she used it to gauge the angle it would bend her attacks by.” Ashe’s eyes widened in sudden understanding, and both boys turned back to the fight just as Gael dispelled the wall of light.
During Sammath’s outburst, Vara looked to have use his rainbow light to redirect his own motion, stabbing just to the side of Erin but having the direction of his sword and arm bent by the light while still conserving its momentum. Erin’s palms burst fire, pushing her away from the incoming sword, and she flipped over, landing on her hands and feet as she skidded through the sand.
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Straightening up, Erin pulled a hair tie from a small pocket in her combat robes and smiled at Gael, “You’re good, Vara. Very good, in fact. Most people would have been caught out by that jumping manoeuvre, despite it being their power. I see why Lady Selvina has you guarding her son. I complement her taste in guards.” Erin’s grin suddenly turned wicked, “But what I’ve seen so far isn’t enough to beat me.”
“Don’t count me out just yet, Duchess.” Despite his words, which had been amplified by the arena like Erin’s and the count’s, Sammath could hear in his tone that he’d already lost. It was a self-fulfilling prophecy; Gael Vara didn’t just think that he’d lose, he knew he’d lose, and, because of that, he already had lost.
Erin dashed in once more, fire flaring from her limbs to aid her mobility as she ran towards Gael. Jumping up, Erin pretended like she was trying to jump over Vara’s head but then flared her fire from her head and shoulders, pushing her towards the ground.
Having prepared for Erin’s jump, Gael was taken off guard and was unable to manoeuvre his sword to get in Erin’s way in time. Erin didn’t absorb the force of her landing, instead continuing to fall forward even as she twisted around. When the back of her head was only centimetres from the ground, Erin shot forward with a burst of flame and aimed for the gap between Vara’s legs, seeming to hope to fly in between them.
Despite being caught off-guard, Vara released one of his hands from his sword, sweeping it across the air and creating a rainbow barrier in front of him. If he’d managed to get the barrier up in time, perhaps he could have completely avoided the attack, but he didn’t. As it was, Vara managed to catch Erin’s lower half in the rainbow wall and sent her spinning, knocking both legs out from under himself. Erin was flying too quickly to be caught underneath her falling opponent and, instead, twisted her upper body around and punched the ground, sending her flying into the air in a spinning backflip. Erin landed in a crouch, immediately running back towards the pile of Gael and grabbing him by his chestplate with her right arm.
Twisting her body, Erin heaved with a burst of flame and sent Gael flying towards the wall without his sword. Orienting himself quickly, Gael created a series of small rainbow panes, each of which directed his flight away from the wall and upwards, until his momentum was arrested and he fell to the ground. Landing with a clattering roll, Vara avoided the small fireball that Erin had casually thrown his way.
Immediately springing to his feet, Gael was beset by a flurry of fists and kicks from Erin that changed direction, speed, and force in midair as she manipulated her Bloodline to spurt fire. Gael threw up pane after pane of rainbow light, layering them on top of each other and sometimes throwing two that refracted in opposite directions next to each other, so Erin’s hand would try to move two ways at once. Somehow, while Erin was landing glancing blows on Gael, the man wasn’t able to even touch Erin. Blows from his hands brushed against her clothing, but even as she was kicking out with one leg, she was dodging a hand or foot of Gael.
Like she was made of water, or perhaps the fire that she shot thanks to her bloodline, Erin moved around all of Vara’s strikes like they were dancing, always just a few centimetres from being hit, but never quite touching. Vara, on the other hand, was taking hit after glancing hit on his armour and it was showing. While not every strike landed solidly, it was clear that each punch was affecting Gael at least slightly, boosted by the force of fire jetting out of Erin’s elbows. Vara was slowing down, taking more hits, while Erin was maintaining the same relentless pace.
Eventually, Vara decided to pull something desperate. Gael spun around and jumped up into the air, the power of his body allowing him to jump even in his armour. Layering a series of panes on top of each other, Gael forced his body to spin forwards in a flip, trying to axe kick Erin as he fell down. Erin stepped to the side as the axe kick fell towards her collarbone, and then twisted her body into a bridge as Gael placed a sheet of rainbow light between his foot and Erin. Immediately, Gael’s foot veered towards where Erin had stepped, but Vara hadn’t accounted for Erin bending backwards into a bridge and his foot scythed over her head, whipping past her martial robes. As Gael’s foot slammed into the ground with a huge clank, Erin balanced on her hands and shot fire from her feet, whipping them around in a huge, crescent shaped kick that slammed into Gael’s head and smashed it into the ground.
Groaning, Gael pushed himself to his feet as Erin circled him, light on her feet. Erin could have finished the fight, but the roar of approval from the crowd told Sammath exactly why she didn’t. Stumbling to his feet, Gael adjusted his helmet on his head, not having a dent from the massive kick but certainly unsteady on his feet. Shaking his head seemed to allow the man to clear some of the grogginess in his mind, but Sammath could see his Motion, erratic enough that it was clear he had a concussion.
Once Gael seemed to have settled into himself, Erin moved towards the man at a measured pace, a prudence that was proven as a pane of shimmering rainbow popped into being in front of Erin, then disappeared halfway through her step, forcing her to correct her motion by spinning or be knocked off balance. Erin’s step spun her around, and another pane of light intercepted that movement, forcing her to spin the other way. Panes began appearing randomly in Erin’s way, forcing her to dance and spin her way to Gael as they disappeared halfway through Erin’s movement.
Despite the impediment, which forced Vara to remain relatively close to Erin in order to project his refracting panes, Erin managed to slowly close the gap between her and the man in the armour. When Erin was close enough for Gael to reach, he manifested a plane of the light in his hands and, for the first time in the fight, one of the panes moved in his grip. Gael brought the pane down over Erin’s head mid-spin and she was forced to bend backwards, right into a fist from Gael. Reacting quickly, her eyes widening, Erin utilised something else for the first time in the fight – her Sarin Bloodline. Just before Gael’s collided with the back of her head, a swirl of moonlight rushed out of Erin’s head and manifested in a solid, bright white helmet of moonsteel.
With the crash of steel on steel, Gael’s fist collided with Erin’s head in the first true blow of the fight from Vara. Gael’s body was stronger than Erin, being a Viscount Stage to Erin’s Baron Stage, so his blow did more damage with just his raw strength. Erin was sent flying sideways out of the rainbow pane, the fragile power not able to hold up against the lateral force that Gael had applied to Erin’s body. Erin twisted in the air and landed on her feet, dragging lines in the sand as she skidded backward. It was then that Sammath got his first good look at Erin’s moonsteel helm. Made entirely of luminescent moonsteel, the helmet emitted a slight glow that made Erin’s already pale skin and white martial uniform seem even lighter. Roughly head shaped, it completely surrounded Erin’s head in smooth, unblemished moonsteel except for her eyes, which were marked by dark slits in the helmet. When Erin spoke, the arena amplifying her voice, Sammath couldn’t see her mouth move behind the helmet, “Well done, Mr Vara. I was not expecting a trick like that after I concussed you. I will not be falling for it again, though, and I think it’s time to end this fight.”
With those words, Erin manifested glowing, white armour across her entire body. Minimalistic and sleek, the moonsteel plating was broken only by lines that gave Erin full mobility across her body, the armour not needing anything to hold it together and just remaining on Erin’s body by virtue of the magic composing it. A sword extended from Erin’s hand, and she levelled it at Gael.
Flaring with jets of fire, Erin shot forward and Gael began to frantically shoot panes of refraction in her way, hoping to block her or alter her pathing as he backed towards his sword. Gael could no longer afford to hide his true abilities, and shooting the panes from his hands at Erin allowed him a lot more range than if he tried to strategically place them close to himself. It also meant that Vara could more easily randomise the facing of the planes, likely hoping to throw Erin off. Unfortunately for him, it didn’t work at all. Not even slowing down, Erin dodged and jumped around all of the glimmering projectiles that Vara was shooting at her. Sammath was using his Motion sight on every movement that Erin made, and he saw that she was reacting before Gael was even firing the panes, dodging based on the movement of Vara’s arms and fingers, not based on the shooting panes of light. At one point, she jumped and spun between three panes that were fired one after each other, using her flames to control her movement in the air.
Closing the gap rapidly, Erin spun around and, with her sword, cut through one of the planes as it left Gael’s fist, smacking his gauntleted hand with her sword. Erin didn’t stop, lunging forward to rest the tip of her sword at the base of Gael’s throat.
Gael raised his hands in surrender, and Count Trillden jumped into the arena with a loud boom, to the screamed excitement of the crowd, “According to the rules of the honour duel, Sammath and his champion, Erin, are the winners!” When the screaming died down somewhat, Count Trillden spoke again, “According to the rules of honour duels, Tarik Akantha must come down and apologise to Sammath.”
Emerging from one of the dark tunnels of the arena, Tarik Akantha prowled out onto the floor of the arena. Sammath started then, realising that he’d need to get down to the arena to receive the apology. “Stay here.” Sammath called over his shoulder to Ashe as he left the room, running down the hall to where Erin had left Sammath and Ashe. Not stopping, Sammath darted across the T-intersection and into the hallway Erin had taken, quickly finding himself at some stairs that went down to the level of the arena floor. Taking the steps four at a time, Sammath raced down the stairs and bounced off the wall as the stairs took a corner. In less than a minute, Sammath was racing down a hall with a light at the end of it that he figured meant the arena was at the end of the hallway.
Bracing himself for the sudden light, Sammath slowed down and walked out into the arena as Count Trillden called his name. Sammath internally sighed in relief, but realised that the count had been calling his name for a while when he took in how red Tarik’s face was. “Oops.” Sammath muttered to himself.
Sammath strode across the sand while the other four waited and stopped in front of Akantha. Glaring at Sammath from underneath his brows, Tarik bowed and muttered his apologies for infringing on Sammath’s honour. Sammath just grinned, “Don’t worry, buddy. I forgive you.” He nearly clapped the younger man on the shoulder, but a quick shake from Erin told him he shouldn’t push his luck. As it was, Akantha’s eye twitched and his fists shook. Stiffly, Tarik marched away from the arena and into the tunnel. Erin shook hands with Gael, who followed the younger Akantha, and grabbed Sammath to do the same. As Sammath turned to leave, though, a huge bell began clanging in the distance. Erin and Count Trillden locked eyes as people began to panic, “Go.” Erin told the count, who jumped and emitted a huge blast of sound. Thankfully, the arena wasn’t equipped to magnify a sound that loud, and the enchantments lining the walls of the arena broke from the force of the blast, their Runes falling dark.
A huge wave of sand and force smashed into Sammath and Erin, who were sent flying into the wall of the arena. Erin, in her armour, seemed to push all of her remaining fire into trying to keep herself away from the wall, but smashed into it anyway. Sammath instinctively managed to push against the Motion of the wave, and alter his own Motion to lessen the force and land on his feet, but still felt his bones strain as he caught himself on the wall. In panic from the whipping sand and the huge sound, people were screaming, and Erin shouted as loudly as she could, which was an admittedly impressive volume, over the panic.
“Everyone remain calm. The count is going to take care of the Cored. Please do not go to the edges of the city, especially the ocean, and you will be fine. Remember, you will be notified when it is safe to return to the edges of the city when the bell rings again.”
People slowly stopped rioting and Erin grabbed Sammath, “We’re leaving.” She muttered to him. Nodding, Sammath followed Erin back to the private booth, where Ashe was waiting for the two of them. On the way to the booth, Erin had dismissed her armour and quickly changed out of her martial arts robes, forcing Sammath and Ashe out of the room, when they got there. Within minutes, they were on their way back to the Blue Sail Inn. A streak of red light flashed across the sky, heading to the ocean, and Erin sighed, “I was hoping I could avoid that.”
“Avoid what?” Sammath frowned in confusion but Erin just said that he’d see. Making good time back to the inn, the three of them used their recovered key to access the room, but Erin told Sammath and Ashe to wait outside. Glancing into the room quickly, Sammath caught a glimpse of a man standing in the room. Tall, he had bright, red hair like Erin’s and he stood rigidly straight, hands clasped behind his back. Before Sammath could see any more, Erin shut the door in his face.
Sammath looked at Ashe, “Well that was rude.”