Two of the three nights I had escaped to Erosette, there had been some manner of celebration or festival.

On Dreamtongue’s night, crowds had gathered around uncountable campfires to swap stories in honor of the celebration’s namesake. Then, during Embpyre, they had all gathered again. Instead of small fires serving as the focus, it had been the single pyre in the heart of Erosette that had been set aflame. Built by the freely given burdens of the crowd, they had allowed The Mother in Red to rid them of what had darkened their heart.

I stepped onto the newly built wooden platform and stood opposite my opponent, just the same as I did before every game of points.

Long lines of thick wire had been hung from seven columns and stretched across the street to the buildings on the other side. Hanging from them, far above the top of my glamoured black hair, was a square hall of burning torches.

The crowd that seemed to form in the city at the slightest suggestion were painted in warm light that kept the oncoming dark of night at arms length. They were packed shoulder to shoulder from as far back as I could see all the way up to the edges of the platform.

By half at least, I was their focus.

My opponent and I were the fire they had gathered around.

The hair on the back of my neck stood up against the golden choker around my neck, the first sign of an all too familiar feeling.

I was being watched.

Of course you are being watched. You are on a stage in front of a crowd, dummy. I thought, hearing Anna’s voice in my head.

When Arthur had told me he had put my false name in for another tournament, no part of me had imagined it would be any different than the first.

My heart pounded in my chest and my breaths came short and shallow.

Too much.

That internal admission cut through me with a freezing edge of panic and nearly sent me running from the platform. I closed my eyes and tried to pretend that I was standing in the garden with Arthur or in front of the manor with one of the guards.

A small roar of excited chatter rose from the crowd and filled my ears. Unable to keep my eyes closed, I saw that my opponent had taken up his stance.

Like the hundreds of matches I had played had formed a new instinct within me, I dropped into my own stance at the sight of it.

Colin. He was one of the men who built the stage. That was what Arthur had told me. He had been wrong in part. My opponent was more of a boy than a man.

With light brown hair and bright blue eyes, there was a softness to his face that made me think he was younger than me.

“You’re a lot prettier than the people I usually play with,” He said with a smile. “Can I buy you a drink before my next match?”

“You’re not even old enough to drink!” I heard someone shout.

I looked past my opponent and lost myself in the faces of those that stood behind him. From man to woman to child to man, there were so many people and all of them were looking at me.

Something struck me in the middle of my forehead and the maze of people that I was lost in began to cheer.

“Three points, Colin! First kill, Colin! Reset for the next match.” The captain shouted over the applause.

“I lost?” I said aloud, shaking my head as I realized what had happened.

My opponent had already reset and was waiting for me to do the same.

“Maybe I’ll buy you dinner?” Colin asked me.

“You don’t have any money, boy. You couldn’t buy her a breath of fresh air.” The captain shouted and sent the crowd into a fit of laughter.

Colin stopped smiling.

Before I could summon the presence of mind to reset for the next match, a moving darkness appeared in my peripheral.

Looking like two animate shadows, Anna and Arthur had pushed their way to the front of the crowd on my right. Following the slight nod of her head, I looked over the crowd and saw a familiar shape perched atop the place Arthur had bought me dinner the first time I had come to seven columns.

Sam, sitting just outside the range of the torchlight, stared at me with his deep blue eyes.

All that my familiar had taught me just a few nights ago came back to me in an instant.

You are a hunter. I thought, glancing back at the frustrated looking Colin. He is your prey.

Sam would not be dissuaded from killing a bird just because its flock was watching him. Knowing the big blue cat, an audience would only offer him encouragement. Nothing good would come of me allowing myself to lose again because I was overwhelmed by what was around me. Sam had taken time out of his unimaginably busy life to teach me something. I doubted letting him see me waist that knowledge would do anything to improve his demeanor towards me.

Just as the captain called for me to reset again, I dropped back into my stance and stared into my opponents eyes. I had learned nothing from our first match considering that I had not participated in it, but for that same reason, he looked all too confident.

Like he did not think I was the least bit threatening, Colin took a halfhearted step forward and brought his pointed fingers back towards my head.

My own pressed into his chest before he ever made contact.

“Point, Trea! Reset!” The captain shouted over the crowd’s applause.

“I was wondering if you were gonna play.” Colin said as he withdrew from me.

His words could not hide the surprise I saw in his eyes when I had struck him.

As I stepped back and assumed my stance once again, I caught sight of Anna and Arthur clapping along with the rest of the crowd. I had to bite my lip to keep from smiling.

I would give them a much better reason to cheer for me.

The moment my opponent settled into his stance, I struck his hand with my two fingers without giving him the chance to breathe.

“Two points, Trea! Second kill, Trea! Reset for the next match!” The captain shouted again.

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More applause, more cheers, more uncertainty in my prey’s eyes.

“You won’t get me like that again.” Colin warned me, the warm light of the torches glinting in his bright blue eyes.

The crowd dampened into a quiet anticipation that was so dense I could almost feel it thickening the air.

“I could get you anyway I want to.” I whispered at a volume that only he could hear and winked.

His eyes went wide and I took my opportunity.

“Three points, Trea! Third Kill, Trea! Trea advances to the next round!” The captain shouted.

“I don’t think I want to go anywhere with you.” Colin muttered as he stepped out of his stance and back from my fingers. I had won so quickly that he hadn’t had the time to move before I had struck him in his forehead.

He turned from me, my prey no more, and stepped off the platform next to where the captain stood.

“That alright, boy. Remember, confidence, not arrogance.” The older man said to Colin as he passed.

I found Anna and Arthur in the crowd and let the joy of my victory carry me towards them. They helped me off the platform and we made our way through the crowd until we found a pocket of space that was big enough for me to breathe.

“If that little bastard flirted with you one more time, I was going to come up there and hit him myself.” Anna said with a furious scowl.

“He’s like that with every girl. He doesn’t mean anything by it,” Arthur said, waving off his sister and giving me a high five. “You weren’t paying attention when he won the first match were you?”

“He was. . .” I asked, having to take a deep breath before I could speak again.

Fireworks came to life in my belly. I willed myself to take a slow breath to keep them from bursting out of me like they had in the kitchen the night before.

I bent over and put my hands on my knees, unable to catch my breath or slow down my pounding heart.

“Hey, are you okay?” Anna asked, rubbing her hand on my back.

“I’m just,” I started and interrupted myself with a sudden burst of giggles. “I’m just so happy.”

I had won.

I had spent the day with Anna and Arthur

I was the fire the crowd had gathered around, and they had cheered for me.

“Hold my hands.” I stood and demanded, extending one to each sibling. Anna grabbed my right immediately, but Arthur hesitated.

“Why?” The tall man asked. His usual smile had been joined with color in his cheeks.

“Because,” I leaned over and took his hand since he could not summon the courage to do as I had asked. “I’m scared I’m going to float off the ground if I’m not held down.”

I’m our little pocket within the crowd, all of us shared the bubbling laughter that leaked out of me. The crowd had begun to refocus on the platform and the pocket got bigger with their growing absence.

“Why don’t we walk down there and let you calm down?” Anna suggested. She nodded toward the street behind us that had been filled with tents and tables. Like a larger version of the market I had walked through that morning, a louder and more dramatic song found my ears.

“No, Kip is about to play, she needs to watch him.” Arthur disagreed.

Both of them waited for me to answer.

“I want to see Kip,” I nodded at Arthur excitedly. “But neither of you can let me go.”

Without another word, the tall man led our chain of hands through the crowd without much resistance. It seemed that there were benefits to his height beyond having a greater reach than me in points.

We reached a place that all of us could see the stage just in time to see one of the players taking up their stance.

The masked fighter, still very much masked, waited for their opponent to mirror their readiness.

“That’s not Patience.” I whispered to Arthur. It was obvious once I got a full view of three concealed person. They were too short and their shoulders were too narrow. Even the way they stood told me that the person in the white clothes and red robe was not the man I had struck in the stomach.

“That’s Kip.” Arthur said.

The old man that had been sound asleep inside seven columns made his way onto the wooden platform. With every shuffling step, it seemed he would fall, but somehow he managed to stay upright. To the sound of every bone in his body popping and cracking, he leaned himself into some small suggestion of a ready position.

“That is the best fighter in the tournament?” I asked Arthur, feeling like Kip could be beaten with a strongly worded suggestion.

“Just watch. I couldn’t believe it the first time I saw him.” Arthur said through a laugh.

A long moment of tense anticipation settled over the crowd. I was no longer the fire, I was a part of the audience, which came with its own collective happiness. All the people of Erosette that had gathered to watch the tournament shared a focus for what was happening before their eyes. There was comfort in that, a feeling of belonging to something outside of myself.

The moment before the match went for so long, that Kip fell asleep.

“Wake up, old man!” The captain yelled from the other side of the platform, but it fell on deaf ears.

The masked fighter stepped forward and reached their pointed fingers towards their opponents unguarded forehead.

The moment before they made contact, Kip’s eyes shot open.

“I forfeit,” The old man yelled towards the captain. “Every year you tell me that there will be players good enough to challenge me and every year you’re wrong.”

“Kip forfeits! Unnamed fighter advances to the next round!” The captain shouted and waved for the two players to clear the platform.

A reverberating chorus of cheers sounded from the crowd in one big. “Kip!”

“What the fuck was that?” I asked, not understanding what had just happened.

“He’s so good, he won’t fight anyone that isn’t as good as him.” Arthur laughed.

“I still don’t understand.” I shook my head.

“It’s a bluff. He probably can’t even play anymore by the looks of him.” Anna said.

“Every time I’ve seen him, he gets up and does the same thing. It’s kind of a joke.” Arthur continued to laugh.

Why? I asked myself and found that I was short of any useful answers.

Just as the captain announced the next match, a lift of audible excitement drowned him out. Almost in unison, the crowd turned to the right of the platform and began to part near the stall that sold the bread wrapped meat sticks.

Galahad came into my sight first. With his long golden hair flowing behind him and wearing a billowing white shirt patterned with roses, there was no one else he could have been. Both through story and the memories I had seen that were not my own, I recognized him immediately.

Then, like a mother duck leading her ducklings, Nocti came next under the shadows of his wide brimmed black hat. The red cloaked roses followed closely behind him, their sandals concealed from me by the mass of the crowd.

A vision of his teeth sunk into the soft flesh of The Mother in Red’s thigh ran through my mind. In the same moment, small excitement sparked to life within me.

Even if she could never know who I was, I hoped for the chance to see the underwitch Pyreme again. Something about her had made me feel like she and I could be friends. Not like Anna and I were friends because Anna and I had become much more than friends a long time ago, but there was something there. I had no reason to feel that way, but my feelings rarely came with reason to begin with.

Before I could find her freckled face or blonde hair amongst the sea of scarlet cloaks, something dark and violent twisted to life in my heart.

Patience, the man I had no reason to hate or live came through the crowd next.

Tears filled my eyes, my teeth clenched, I dug my nails into my palms, and was moving before I knew what was happening.

“Oh shit. Hold on.” I heard Arthur say as he grabbed the back of my clothes and held me in place.

“What’s happening, what’s wrong?” Anna asked, worry evident in her voice.

I didnt care. I had to get to him. I had to put my hands on the man I loved. I had to hurt him the way he had hurt me. I had to make him feel the love I held for him that he had once held for me. If I could just make him understand, he would come back. I knew he would come back.

“That’s him, Patience. The captain said he couldn’t be in the tournament. Why is he here?” Arthur said. The tall man went from holding me in place to pulling me back.

“I don’t understand how you can be this fucking dumb,” Anna said, wrapping her arms around one of mind and speaking to me softly. “Hey, let’s take that walk. I think I need some fresh air.”

“No!” I shouted. My outburst drew the attention of the people in the crowd closest to me, but I didn’t care.

All I cared about was Patience.

“Come on.” Arthur grunted. He picked me up like I was a child throwing a tantrum and turned me away from the platform.

“Let me go!” I shouted again.

I had to make him come back. The longing that felt like an iron spike had been driven through my stomach, I couldn’t take it.

Someone appeared in my sight just before Arthur carried me away.

Her back was turned to me and I could not see her face, but as she greeted the crowd that had worked itself into a froth at the sight of her, I knew who I had seen.

The Mother in Red.

Rhiannon.

I would kill her dead in her own city, and Patience would come back to me.