Four open carriages, each tethered to a pair of fine white horses and attended by a coachman, were waiting by the bridge next morning. Cedric, alongside the other eleven entrants, couldn't resist admiring the elegant animals and the graceful forms of the gold-trimmed transports. Surrounding them were also a fair number of onlookers, curious and not a little envious of the champions' imminent admittance into the capital.
Adrian held Cedric's hand in a firm, almost possessive grip. Several times he opened his mouth to say something, but then appeared to change his mind.
"Not watercrafts after all," Cedric said, mostly to break the tense silence.
Adrian gave a distracted nod.
A noble stepped forward from the procession: a short, slender woman with waist-length black hair and a low-cut scarlet dress.
"Well met, champions," she greeted the gathered group. "I am Lady Luminarum of the Second Caste. I've come to escort you to your quarters within the capital, where you'll stay for the duration of the tournament. Kindly board the carriages in threes. The people of Crystallinus greatly anticipate your arrival."
"What of our visitor's marks?" one of the entrants demanded. He was a wiry man with shoulder-length dark blond hair. A pair of thin swords swung from his hips. "We enter the capital, we get marks of entry. Isn't that how you folk do things?"
Lady Luminarum raised an eyebrow. "Tournament entrants don't receive one, and never have. To avoid potential misunderstandings with the city guard, you are to remain in your quarters."
"Clever, to keep you all contained," Adrian muttered. "No dangerous outsiders wandering about the city."
"I'd thought as much," Cedric said grimly. With a visitor's mark, he could have slipped away and eschewed the tournament altogether, cloaking himself as needed while not risking arrest when he didn't. But such a fanciful prospect was not to be.
A hand abruptly clamped over his shoulder, and Cedric jumped. Candra stood behind him, her dour face inches from his.
"Have you come to see me off?" he said warily. Or call me a nitwit again?
"We need to talk. Alone." Dark circles shadowed her eyes, and her skin had taken on an almost sickly pallor.
Cedric glanced at the other entrants, who were already beginning to board the carriages. "Make it quick," he said.
*
Adrian couldn't discern the nature of their conversation from thirty paces away, but he could see that Cedric's face had been frozen by whatever Candra was telling him. Fresh worry gnawed at his stomach, compounded by the substantial amount already churning there.
"Adrian," greeted Grace's voice from surprisingly close by, and Adrian reluctantly tore his eyes away. "Morning," he said shortly. Finn was with her again, and he gave Adrian a hesitant wave.
"Thank Eris we haven't missed him," Grace said. She, too, was watching Cedric and Candra with curiosity. "We came to wish him good luck."
"Both of you?" Adrian raised his eyebrows. "Including the Speechless Wonder?"
"I speak for both of us," Grace said lightly. "Finn has long accepted that."
Finn rolled his eyes. "Oh aye, I'm the ridiculous one for not chin-wagging with the Heir of Darkness like any old bloke--"
Adrian and Grace shushed him.
"I've always known him as Cedric," Adrian said in quieter tones. "Not Rava, not the Heir of Darkness, not a Blessed One. Just Cedric."
"Why don't you give him our well-wishes, Finn?" Grace said. "It'd mean more coming from you."
Cedric and Candra promptly returned. The former's gaze was distant, distracted, while the latter appeared--to Adrian's disquiet--on the verge of tears.
He took Cedric's hand, which hung limp and unresponsive. The unease in Adrian's belly flared and sharpened into something approaching panic. "What's wrong?"
Cedric blinked from his reverie. "It's nothing." He dropped Adrian's hand, then finally appeared to register Grace and Finn's presence. "An entire farewell party. How fortunate I am!"
Grace nudged Finn.
"Um… Cedric," Finn said haltingly. "We've come to wish you luck. By all accounts, you'll need it."
Cedric smiled, though it was a strangely sad, tired one. He offered him his hand, and they shook. "I will. I'm glad to have known you. All of you."
He didn't look at Adrian as he said it, nor when he wordlessly turned to depart for the carriages.
Candra had told Cedric something terrible, that much was clear. But there was no time to demand the truth of him, no time for anything. Except perhaps for--
Adrian grabbed Cedric's wrist, spun him around, and kissed him. Cedric briefly tensed in surprise before, thankfully, reciprocating. Adrian was vaguely aware of more than a few mutterings around them, but they could have been hurling rocks for all he cared.
"I'll see you soon," he said with a conviction so strong that it would surely render this assertion true. And whatever awful truth Candra had dropped on Cedric's head, Adrian would wring it out of her himself.
Cedric still couldn't meet his eyes as he swallowed and nodded. "Good luck. With your part," he said. He then boarded the only remaining transport with two occupants, ignoring Lady Luminarum's pointed look of disapproval at either his tardiness, his and Adrian's display, or both.
The coachmen flicked the reins and clicked their tongues. One by one, the carriages began their path across the river. Adrian steadily watched Cedric fade into the distance, right up until the imposing gates of Crystallinus--opened partway to allow passage for the champions' procession--closed heavily behind him.
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*
Cedric knew that he'd entered the most beautiful city in the kingdom. He knew that crowds of nobles--men, women, and children--on both sides of the spacious street were cheering and throwing flowers. He even caught one on reflex, a snapdragon that he then tucked behind his ear, echoing a distant memory.
But most of him was numb, which was at least preferable to showing weakness to his tournament opposition. When he had a moment to himself, he'd no doubt bear the full force of that inexorably brewing anguish; but now, under the scrutiny of hundreds or thousands, he had to force Candra's terrible revelation to the back of his mind.
His carriage companions, a short older man with a shaven head and the blond man who'd asked about visitor's marks, were visibly enjoying the crowd's attention. The latter bowed, inviting the adoration into his open arms. Then something small crunched against his chest, followed by a ripple of laughter, and he recoiled with a curse.
"What the bloody--" he muttered as he swept slimy strings of raw egg and shell fragments from his front.
Lady Luminarum, who sat at the head of their carriage beside the coachmen, looked back and smiled lightly. "Some support the nobility's chances instead. Don't take it to heart, good sir."
He scowled and spat into the street. "They try me again, and you'll be treated to a much better show than the one we're headed to."
Cedric ducked an apple, though one champion in the carriage ahead was not so fortunate. The short man chuckled beside him.
"Praise Eris they're not stones," he said, shooting a shrewd glance at Cedric. "You look like you're about to topple over, lad. Never weathered a passionate audience before, eh?"
Cedric stood ramrod-straight and said nothing.
The procession's path turned left, revealing the largest structure that Cedric had ever seen. It was an arena thrice the size of Destrius' mansion, its rounded outer wall four stories high. A carved staircase bordering its side led upward, past the edge, into the seating within. Long red canopies shaded these seating areas, though the center of the structure, where Cedric presumed the spectacle took place, was left open.
The carriages stopped before a pair of bronze double doors set in the arena wall. Guards stood on either side of it, keeping the path clear for entry as crowds continued to gather.
The coachmen disembarked, Lady Luminarum took one of their offered hands to do the same, and Cedric and the others followed suit. The guards then pulled the double doors open to reveal a dark entryway into the bowels of the arena. Cedric could see steps that led underground, illuminated by a weak flickering of torchlight, but nothing more.
Lady Luminarum led the way as the twelve champions filed in behind her. Cedric, who was near the back of the line, had almost crossed the threshold when a nearby voice cried "Golden Heart!", followed by a hand that ensnared itself greedily in his hair.
He jerked away in revulsion, tearing several strands painfully from his scalp, but he forced himself to only look ahead. A few seconds later, the guards entered and swung the double doors closed behind them, cutting off both the daylight and the cheers and hoots with an authoritative, reverberating boom.
Cedric could feel his numb composure rapidly disintegrating; he would not maintain it for very much longer. He gritted his teeth and clenched his fists, for all the good that would do.
Ten feet down, the narrow hallway opened out into a circular atrium. Mounted torches adorned the walls in neat intervals, illuminating the intricate battle scenes carved across every inch of the pale stone. Cedric and the others gathered in a rough circle around Lady Luminarum, who stood in the atrium's center. The two guards who'd joined them stood at either side of the stairs.
"For the first time in many years, King Asha is personally overseeing the capital's annual tournament of champions," she said. "As you've seen for yourselves, the festivities and collective fervor are especially vigorous this year. The Heir of Fire will witness every move you make in the arena; please conduct yourselves accordingly."
"There are thirty-two champions competing in this tournament, twelve commoners and twenty nobles. Today, the champions will be paired together in sixteen contests. The victors will then proceed to the second day in eight contests, and so on. Unlike the preliminaries, you must win all five of your bouts to claim victory in this tournament. Your opponents are assigned at random, though by nature you're more likely to face a noble than a fellow commoner."
She indicated the hallway on her left. "Your accommodations are this way. Kindly follow me."
Reinforced wooden doors lined both walls of the corridor in an alternating pattern. Cedric suppressed a sudden shiver at the horribly familiar sight, and his breathing quickened.
"For everyone's safety, these doors will be bolted from the outside and only unlocked upon your turn in the arena. Food and wine will be delivered twice a day." She opened the first door, revealing a small cell with a stone slab and thin mattress adhered to the right wall, a sitting privy in the far-left corner, and a high horizontal slit across the opposite wall that allowed a thin strip of sunlight inside.
"Don't be shy, now. They're all the same."
The group stood in uncertain silence for several moments. Then, the midnight-skinned woman with the braided hair stepped forward, chin high and shoulders back. She entered the room and turned to face them all with a steady eye as the door was closed and bolted.
One by one, the twelve champions were secured inside identical cells. Cedric lingered until he was the last one left, as if delaying his imprisonment by a few seconds would somehow make a difference. He'd wanted to be alone, but not in a place like this. Never again in a place like this…
He took a deep breath and entered through the final door that Lady Luminarum held open. The cramped quarters were damp and musty, but at least appeared clean. Beneath the corner privy, he could even hear the gentle rush of flowing water.
On this side of the corridor, the horizontal slit that served as a window faced directly into the arena, level with the ground outside. But it was set far too high for Cedric to look through and glean information on potential opponents.
Cedric's cell door had still not shut. He turned to see Lady Luminarum watching him and wearing a strangely indulgent smirk.
"The nobles who attended the preliminaries have already spread word of you here," she said. "The young idealist, the fierce, unarmed Golden Heart. You've captured this city's imagination."
Cedric made no reply, only waiting for her to leave him to his solitude, but she was unfazed by his cold silence.
"Either you'll break your noble vow, or it will spell your tragic end. I've rarely seen such a frenzy of bets laid upon one champion's fate. Not to mention the gossip, the fervor."
When Cedric still refused to respond, Lady Luminarum finally shrugged and stepped back. "If you survive past the second day without taking a life, I'll arrange for an additional meal to be brought to you." She winked as she closed the door.
Upon the heavy clunk of the bolt outside, Cedric finally sank to his knees and bowed the back that'd been held upright by sheer will. Hot, stinging tears poured heavily down his cheeks, though he bit into his fist to not sob too loudly. Even here, he risked being overheard.
On the cold, unyielding stone, Cedric mourned.
*
"I've struggled with this plight for weeks. Do I tell you the truth and risk you calling it all off, or send you blindly to your fate, knowing what awaits you?"
"Why? What have you not told me?"
A pause. "That not even a Blessed One's flesh can withstand the force of so many gemstones. The Vault holds many thousands, and depleting them all at once will inevitably overwhelm you. Even half their number would far exceed your limits."
"That--that makes no sense. Blessed Ones have channeled enough energy to reshape the world! Rava the Mad, Rhea the Magnificent, he--"
"Every such feat that the Heirs have performed took place in an Awakening. The Axes permeated the very air, free for them to use and shape as they wished. But the power of gemstones must first enter your body. It'll build and build until every seam between every particle of your flesh splits apart."
Another pause, a heavier one. "You've vowed to stop Ayo and to topple the rule of the Divine Heirs. But will you pay for such an outcome with your life?"