“Arha knew you would win! She just knew it!”

“Well…that makes one of us.”

XJ-V sat on the concrete bed of the tournament entrants’ quarters, thinking for the first time that if his body were capable of producing sweat, Arha would be addressing a puddle right now.

“Your man has no bravado,” another voice broke in from beside him. “Perhaps we should amplify our cheering, little Huli?”

Before XJ-V could toss a piece of loose stone at Feng-Lung’s laughing head, Arha had already taken up her chanting:

“XJ-XJ, he’s our man! If he can’t win this, no mortal can!”

“That’ll catch on!” Feng chuckled, fighting off his Cog Brother’s flimsy attempts to silence him. “Keep it up, dear Arha, and the whole Wasteland will sing this metal man’s name!”

While Arha beamed at having been praised so, XJ-V slumped back onto his mattress and stared hopelessly at his friend.

Around them, the dull glow-globes that had been summoned with the walls, passages, and chambers of the colosseum sparked and flickered, the Qi energy that was bound to them nudged by the force of the combat above.

“Not interested in watching the most recent bout?” XJ-V asked Feng as Arha came to nuzzle in his lap.

His Brother gave him a good-natured pat on his shoulder, which still ached in the wake of his brutal combat with Fai. He really needed to oil his joints…

“Ah, what’s a bout out there that doesn’t involve you, Brother?” Feng grinned, his youthful exuberance well and truly back in action these days. “Why, have you heard that the Cianjie are practically throwing a tantrum over how dull the other duels are up there? I think Ori’un’s going to start setting up tag teams just to liven things up for the old goats.”

“Why they’re humoring them, I’ll never understand,” XJ-V said. “Do they really see those three-eyed creatures as more than just nuisances?”

Arha gave him a painless bite on his finger. “Those are Arha’s Brothers you’re talking about, you know!”

“Hardly!” Feng-Lung replied. “Don’t tell me you really see those old men out there as cut from the same cloth as you, little one? They smell far worse and are far more useless.”

“And just what is that supposed to mean?” Arha squeaked, about ready to pounce on the already apologetic Disciple. “Arha will have you know that all spirits share a bond! And Arha is perfectly well grown for her age! Tell him, XJ-V! Tell this boy that he is talking to your Lady!”

The Huli was to be disappointed. Instead of obeying her mandate, the Cog and his Brother merely doubled over in laughter again while she pouted, pawing at their faces and once again decrying how useless her spectral claws were.

“I – oh - we haven’t laughed like that in ages,” Feng said as he managed to control himself, almost forgetting the Huli’s presence altogether. “I confess I’ve been far too stuffy these last few months, XJ-V. Luckily, I’ve had you here to teach me to stop moping in the mud.”

XJ-V lowered his head, wiping his skeletal, dirt-caked hands across his hairless skull.

“You managed quite fine without me, Fe-“

“I’ll stop you right there, Brother,” his friend said, finger raised in a gesture of utmost intellectual superiority. “Once again, your humbleness does you no credit. By now you should understand just how much we’ve all learned from you. And how much we’re, well, all going to miss you when you’re gone.”

XJ-V heard the sorrow in his friend’s voice.

“Feng, I have not yet won this tournament,” he replied. “And you seem to be rising through the ranks yourself. Perhaps there may yet be another who can carry the soul of a dead God for me.”

Feng shook his head. “But then we wouldn’t have you, would we, Brother?”

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

At that moment, another Disciple entered the solitude of the Dragon entrant’s quarters, throwing his bulky shadow across the two bunks closest to the door. XJ-V was too engrossed by the strange smile that had come over Feng-Lung’s face to even notice the new arrival.

“You still haven’t quite seen what this tournament is all about, have you?” he asked. “You really think Longhua doubts you? You really think he won’t let you leave? The Master has no choice but to comply with Aun’El’s mandate if you are victorious, Brother. And in a way, you’ve already achieved the victory he and Ori’un are looking for.”

Before he could offer any further interjections, Feng-Lung quickly rose, stretched, and cast a sidelong but knowing glance at the Disciple who had just walked up to meet them.

“Well, I think I shall take in the next match before bed,” he said with a yawn. “Hopefully this one shall be more entertaining than the last.”

He then found Arha’s still pouting form at the corner of XJ-V’s bed.

“Would you care to join me, Lady?” he asked. “XJ-V will need your analysis of these next opponents. I think he’ll be due to face them soon.”

The Cog watched as the Huli opened one eye sheepishly before pouting again and jumping into Feng-Lung’s open hand.

“O-only because it will help XJ-V,” she said. “You may take Arha to the stadium, young man.”

Feng did so with a gracious bow to his Cog Brother and an affirmative greeting to the new arrival before disappearing back into the den of the spectators. Only then did XJ-V see who he had just left him alone with.

The still smoking form of Fai-Deng stood before him.

Instantly, the Cog jumped to attention, but Fai eased his body back to a sitting position in silence, sticking out his black arm to shake the Cog’s hand.

“A good fight,” he told XJ-V. “I did not lie. And I did not throw the battle.”

The Cog blinked up at him, the neon blues of his eyes reflecting the almost alien appearance of a smile on his Brother’s face.

He shook his hand back. “I did not think you did, Brother.”

“Mhm,” Fai grunted. “Know also that I fought with all the strength in my body and spirit.”

XJ-V nodded slowly. “That…is what it means to not throw the battle…”

“Yes,” Fai grunted, standing back after his handshake as though he were waiting for something.

The waiting continued. XJ-V began to feel an acute sense of what humans called ‘awkwardness.’

“Brother…” the Cog finally said. “Is there something wro-“

“Tell me what you thought of the battle,” Fai broke in, hands clasped firmly behind his back.

XJ-V blinked again.

Is he…looking for a performance review?

“I…I thought our battle was well fought on both sides,” he said, the words stumbling out like a child’s. “It was certainly a good deal more intense than our first ‘bout’ and with a good deal more pain equally distributed on both sides.”

Fai seemed pleased with that. “Exactly!” he said, almost filling the Cog’s face with spittle. “We began as enemies, XJ-V. And we shall part as comrades. Comrades that have both given the other a most valuable gift.”

XJ-V smiled up at the Tiger Brother, feeling the faint traces of his new Tiger Claw technique travel up his fingers.

“Did you know, Fai?” he asked. “Was that your purpose during the fight? To teach me a lesson?”

“One I hope you shall carry with you,” the Tiger smirked, punctuating his glee with a hearty laugh. “I have resolved to remain a teacher to the novices, Brother. It seems that I have a knack for it. Master Yoma agrees, though he informs me my curt and harsh attitude still requires some checking now and again with students who do not respond to such discipline – supposedly he feels female Cultivators would not manage under such duress. Hah! I told him right back: if the Cog can learn through my teachings, then any boy or girl can learn the ways of the Tiger. And this afternoon I proved my theory right.”

He threw back his head and pumped the air with his fist as he had done earlier. “It is a new day for me, my metal Brother – and a new day for the monastery, too. I hope one day we can admit more Cogs, and if they are anything like you, we will be lucky to have them.”

XJ-V could only shake his head in disbelief at what he was hearing. How long had Fai been harboring such notions? Behind the solid, rock-hard exterior of this tiger, did the heart of a kitten truly beat?

“What?” he then roared. “You don’t approve?”

Ah, XJ-V thought. There he is again…

“Brother,” he said aloud, placing his hands firmly on the Tiger’s still tender shoulders. “It has been an honor and a privilege to be your pupil. You may think that the monastery would be lucky to have Cogs like me. But if they have you as a Master it shall be they who are the lucky ones…at least, in the end.”

Fai gave another grunt of suppressed pleasure and turned his face from his Brother, even though XJ-V could plainly see the genuine smile had never left his features.

“Well…yes, then,” he said. “I…just so we’re understood. What I did, I did not do for you. I did it for the good of Ramor-Tai, for my Sect, and for the tutelage of my—hey!”

XJ-V had decided now was as good a time as any to stroll away.

“Cog!” Fai screamed after him. “Just where do you think you’re—”

“I’m going to join my Brothers and watch the next fight,” XJ-V replied with a smile his Brother could not see. “Care to join me, Master Fai?”

***

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