A rolling boulder hit a stuck rabbit, yet somehow Garin got straight back up before his head was stomped, and drove a super fast kick at the other boy's calf. The stands gasped, realising that even as he flew the small boy hadn't lost his concentration.

They all knew he'd been in the advanced group less than a week, so his fortitude was more than a little impressive. Fedrahn only winced as the big boy yelped in pain and stepped back.

The two opponents studied each other, the big boy now looking wary. Then they stepped forward alarmingly fast again. Somehow Fedrahn was able to follow the movements this time.

He watched as all of Garin's right leg vanished, and as Odo used a standard six arm technique. Somehow, Fedrahn knew that Garin using such a rare skill right off the bat wouldn't be good.

He could see a few arch masters standing up with raised brows as the boy somehow weaved through the rain of punches. He'd only been training for about a week and he was already showing two techniques at once.

Even if Garin was only using hand mirages instead of creating images like Odo, it was impressive. Odo looked slow and ponderous, and Fedrahn could see that even with Garin holding back the other boy was struggling. Garin was quite strong for his size, even the hits Odo landed didn't phase him until he remembered he was supposed to be acting weak.

Somehow Fedrahn had forgotten too. He'd forgotten that Garin was supposed to lose. He only knew that there was something wrong. That even if Garin lost he wouldn't entirely be safe from that calculating smile. Garin landed a kick right at the same time Odo finally landed a solid hit on his chest. The combatants flew apart.

Odo landed on his back, Garin landed on his feet, even though he had to thrust his chest forward and downwards for support. His eyes came back to the stands, but this time not at Fedrahn. When he looked sideways, he saw the arch master next to him staring grimly down at the boy. His eyes expressed nothing more than confusion and hopelessness. Then his eyes met the friar's eyes.

The old man, though he was surprisingly younger than Daye, had also been looking at the arch master but now his eyes trapped Fedrahn's, looking for something there as well. He looked away, but an ominous feeling started to creep up Fedrahn's spine.

He didn't stop staring at the man, and so he noticed when he shook his head. He followed the gesture to one of the masters standing beside the mat, who bent over and whispered something to Odo.

It was so transparent that arch master Daye stood up and cried out in outrage, but Odo had already swallowed whatever it was, and the fight was starting again. Garin lost ground fast, even though he didn't stop trying to hold back.

Trying because, Fedrahn suspected, even were he the one there his survival instincts would be crying that he ought to give it all. That he ought to try to survive. The stands were more alive than they'd been all day.

Garin finally won the internal struggle, letting a vicious kick take him on the ribs. He went flying, and Fedrahn stood with relief as he realised the boy might have cleared the circle and gotten outright eliminated.

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But the circle wasn't where it was supposed to be. It was just an inch from Garin's back. The boy was on the ground, gasping in pain amid pants. He was already trying to disconnect from his dance state, thinking things already over.

When the big boy looked over at the bleachers, Fedrahn's stomach sank. He knew well what was going to happen next. Somehow Garin was a soldier on enemy grounds during a war. A soldier they wanted to ask questions of. The friar nodded at the boy.

First the big boy pulled him back into the circle. The cheers died down.

The quiet became oppressive when the first kick happened. Then the next and the next. The first had been aimed at his left foot, and with a sickening crunch the ankle had dislocated. The next crunch from one of his knees, this time stomped, covered by the scream of pain.

Then he kicked him in the ribs a few times, and the boy almost chocked on his own blood. When he looked back at the stands, everyone looked at the friar with him. And they understood. This was a public execution.

Somehow the boy had angered the friar. And everyone knew only a little about the walking disability. They did know though, that he was the only apprentice who didn't stay with the others in the dorms. A few stares went Fedrahn's way, but he didn't even notice.

He couldn't take his eyes away for so much as a heart beat. He remembered a friend, a little brother really, returned only a cusk of his old self. Being a military man had been breaking in many ways, and he'd thought Alaric had saved him from his trauma.

Not so. He'd just distracted him. He'd used him, taken advantage of his weakness to turn him into a pawn, like he'd done to the boy whose legs were now being spread.

Would Alaric care if Fedrahn never made it from this island?

Odo's foot went for the tiny boy's groin, and everyone below master level winced.

Alaric had been the one to send him on this dangerous mission after all, just like he was the one to send Garin down there too.

The boy screamed, as Odo timed the next hit only after the first screams had started to die down. If nothing changed, even if by some luck Garin survived he'd be like the rest of the masters and above, a eunuch.

But if he did survive, Fedrahn knew it was only a matter of time now before something like this happened again. He was just a tool, but Fedrahn couldn't quite bring himself to believe that anymore.

He might have been a monster, an enemy even at first, but he was just a boy. Just a child.

"So you now know the consequences of what you've done," Daye said from beside him.

It wasn't like the reminder made any difference, but now Fedrahn felt like he might puke.

"How are you not affected by this?" he asked in equal amounts of horror and revulsion.

"To become a master, there is the need for some outward dedication to the cause. I can empathise with the fact that he is in pain, but pain is a constant for a warrior. This is a good opportunity though, for me to see if my assumptions were right."

Odo kicked once more, then stepped back to wait for the pain receptors to be free again. Some people might have thought he was being merciful, but Fedrahn only saw a well trained torturer strategically dismantling their opponent. He knew how they were. Alaric had had him attend a few sessions.

He was starting to wonder at himself, at the decisions he'd made because of love. Because of love, or perhaps dependence. He couldn't help it though, he'd dearly wanted something to hold onto back then.

When Odo went for a third kick, Garin pushed himself back and to the left, and suddenly he was scrambling to get to his feet. The pain was still there from the injured joints, but he somehow managed to get into a half standing position before Odo reached him.

He feinted with a right hook, Odo blocked it, or seemed to, but reeled back. He charged in once the stun wore off, and that was his mistake.

With Garin's bones still broken, the boy was less than mobile. What he was though, was a wounded beast.

He jumped on him, held onto him, scratching and biting in a frenzy. Odo was confused for a second, then he went to respond by pummeling into his back.

The boy didn't let go of him though, tanking the hits while he inflicted him with bites and tears. Garin growled, Odo screamed in hysterics, and blood poured on the sand.

It was the older boy who fell first, and then Garin was standing over him, looking confused and exhausted. When the master announced his win, he fell to the sand, unconscious as well.

The stands remained quiet, confused beyond reason.

They didn't allow Fedrahn to see Garin when he asked.