38. Hollow

Thaseus soaked in the tub, a hollowness in his soul as suspicion and doubt crept into the cracks in his heart’s foundation.

He hadn’t cheated, he knew that. He had faced each and every opponent with honor. He had crushed them, but in so doing he was honoring them and their willingness to enter the arena. He had earned his victory with sweat and blood and retrained violence, adhering to the rules of the tournament exactly.

Even when his opponents withdrew after they had faced him, he had done nothing wrong. That one would lose heart after fighting someone so far above them was only expected. It was better to have them withdraw after facing him anyway, as that way he got the points from there matches and nobody else could get the points of facing such a weak and disheartened …

He paused, thinking back.

How many had withdraw immediately after facing him? It had been a few, he knew. Some of his highest scoring fights, actually. He had thought nothing of it at the time.

But it was more than that. He had gained a reputation during the tournament, and it hadn’t been uncommon for his opponents to withdraw rather than face him. It was how Lukal Lukal had come so close to winning; the other teen with his round face and happy but serious demeanor did not have a reputation of utterly crushing his opponents, and so he had fought more duels.

Was there something there?

Sinking beneath the waters of his bath, he blew bubbles and considered the problem from another angle.

How far would his family go to ensure he won?

And then he had his answer.

~~~~~~

A knock at the door, and Yara ran out of his arms to answer it. Adan was there, beaten and weary, but whole. He winced as he was enveloped in a hug by his daughter.

Hien Ro sighed and stood. His injuries from the match were not really all that bad, but he was moving a little stiffly. Once Adan had embraced his daughter, he turned and kowtowed to Hien Ro.

“Master Ro. I thank you for saving my life,” he said.

“You’re welcome, Adan. I only did what I had to do,” Hien Ro said. “But I do want to know what happened. How did all of this play out?”

Adan shifted nervously. “I’m afraid I placed a few bets once more,” he admitted. “On you, and on the Young Master before he revealed himself. All of the bets on Lord Little Bug were canceled once he was revealed to the public, but I was set to make a tidy windfall on the bets that I had placed for you to place high in the tournament. As long as you made the top ten, I would have earned ten times my investment.”

“You aren’t supposed to be gambling, Adan. That’s how you got your family into trouble in the first place,” Hien Ro reminded him.

“Yes, My Lord,” Adan said, accepting the rebuke. “I saw this as a sure thing. However, as I was going to negotiate payment for my gamble, I was ambushed by … old friends. My former creditors, until you intervened. It seems that they did not see things as settled as we had hoped, and I was whisked away. They beat me, and then after some time I was told that someone had purchased my debt from them and that my fate rested in your hands, and that is all that I know.”

Hien Ro sighed. “Have you at least learned your lesson about gambling?”

Adan shifted nervously. “But sir … I am still owed for you earning ninth place,” he complained.

Hien Ro sighed. “Well then, let’s go collect this debt. I can be a very jealous banker, and it seems that someone has purchased a leg from me and then defaulted on the payment.”

~~~~~~

The insects chirped in the night, filling the air with their music. Another sound filled the complex where Winding Alley Gang resided, so near the place where Yara had been born. She walked beside her father, listening to the screams coming from within the warehouse where the thugs who had once terrorized her and her family.

One young man burst through the door. She made eye contact with him, and he rushed at her, a grabbing motion as he attempted to turn her into a human shield.

She broke his arm and kicked him in the butt to send him running off into the darkness.

The sounds of violence from within the warehouse quieted down, and she stepped inside to witness the chaos. Dozens of thugs were in various stages of recovering from a beating, and in one corner her boyfriend – in one corner Hien Ro held a fat old man in the air by his neck.

Hien Ro sighed in disgust and threw the man through a wall. He returned to Yara, shaking his head in disgust.

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“They say they don’t know anything about who was behind it,” he said. “They admit to kidnapping your father, but claim that he was snapped up by an intermediary. A cultivator of the bronze path, not some random thug that I can just bully. I’m sorry, Yara, but it seems that our investigation ends here.”

“Then it is a fine place for mine to begin!” a booming voice said, and a humanoid figure burst through the wall, sending bricks flying. The teenagers turned and were surprised to find one of the judges from the tournament. At least, that was all that they knew him as.

“Who are you?” Hien Ro asked.

“I am Tornolai!” he said. “And I thought that something was strange, so I sent a Dao Avatar to follow you after your match! Someone has thrown the legitimacy of my tournament into question, and I shall ensure that in the future, the precedent is set for what happens to such fools!”

The man laughed uproariously for a moment, while the teens exchanged awkward glances.

“Yeah, okay. Well, I guess if you’re from the tournament then we’ll just tell you everything we know,” Hien Ro said. “I don’t know that we have enough to lodge a formal complaint, but—”

“Simply tell me everything you know or suspect. Hold nothing back!” the man said.

The teenagers exchanged looks once more, then shrugged and began to relay everything they could about the corruption they’d fallen victim to.

~~~~~~~

The sounds of violence woke him from a deep slumber. In the hours of pre-dawn, Thaseus threw back the sheets and reached for his stone sword, rushing out in the courtyard to face these fools who would dare face his family in the heart of their fortress. His father and his uncle would soon show them just how mistaken they were, but there were sure to be small-fry in any attack force brought to bear against his family, and dealing with them would fall on Thaseus.

He was not the only one to rush into the courtyard, as the entirety of his family’s compound’s fighters had the same thoughts. One of the guard towers was shattered and the other was in flames, with the voices of men screaming from inside.

In the center of the courtyard was a single figure, with all of the forces of Thaseus’s family arrayed against him.

“Is this all you have?” the figure asked. “I do hate hunting rats, let’s get this done all at once.”

The figure snapped his fingers, and a golden wall sprung up around the entire compound. Thaseus swallowed. He had never seen the formation which sealed off his family’s compound from the outside world before …

But he was fairly certain that it would not look like that.

“Now then, let’s figure out who knew what,” the figure said. It split in two, and then two again, then tisked. “Shown up by a little brat,” it muttered.

The Dao avatars split off and began systematically disassembling the forces against it. Thaseus swallowed as he realized that a golden path cultivator had come to face his family for some perceived slight.

If he was very lucky, he might survive. But when one of the four figures turned its attention on him, he felt hope fade from him as a wave of unimaginable power pinned him down in place.

~~~~~~~

“And that’s all I know. I swear on my soul,” Thaseus said in the wreckage of his childhood home. Around him were broken bodies and shattered men. His father and uncle among them. The compound where he had lived, and the fields where he had trained from early childhood, were in shambles and smoking with the devastation that this gold path cultivator had wrought.

The assailant questioning him had beaten all of those of the bronze path or higher, but merely swatted down those who were still building their foundations before turning to question them. When it had come to be Thaseus’s turn, the contestant had held nothing back, knowing that the advanced cultivator would see through the deceit. Even though he had nothing but suspicions, Thaseus knew the truth.

“If you had attempted to lie to me, I would have shattered your cultivation,” the golden eyed Dao avatar stated.

“I know overwhelming strength when I see it,” Thaseus admitted. “I have done nothing wrong. I did not know that my family was rigging the fights to feed me points until now. I was going to confront them myself and refuse the grand prize out of principle. What you have done, grand elder, is nothing more than justice.”

“I know that,” the figure said. It stroked its chin, then shrugged. “But your innocence presents a problem. I do not wish future competitors to try to rig the tournament, but at the same point I wish for them to give the competition their all. As you have done. Had you been complicit, I would have simply annihilated you. That would solve all problems, but it would leave others afraid in the future of score rigging behind the scenes on their behalf. I do not wish for this taint to color the legitimacy of the tournament, but now the scandal will taint the awards ceremony tomorrow. I’m uncertain how to handle the situation…”

“My lord, if I may?” Thaseus said.

“Speak.”

“You have made your point. My family lies crippled and weakened by your actions tonight. It will cause waves throughout the city as they wonder what it was that we have done to earn such retribution, but ultimately those who know will know. Knowing that the tournament has such a powerful figure ensuring its legitimacy will ensure that future attempts at rigging the outcome are curtailed to only the most petty and the most daring.”

“Hmm…” the golden figure said. “Yes. It is something of a cry for mercy, but at the same point you’re not entirely wrong. We’ll play it that way for now. For now we shall pretend that nothing has gone wrong, and you shall accept the reward as scheduled. Goodbye, little pawn.”

The figure streaked into a line of light and vanished in the distance. The wall of light cutting his family’s compound off from the rest of the world faded, and Thaseus fell to his knees.

His heart pounded as he realized how close he had come to death.

Then he forced himself up and, as one of the few uninjured men remaining in the compound, began organizing the recovery efforts.

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