Fate’s Pawn

The higher the wall, the stronger you’ll be when you stand atop it.

- An old saying of the Daishinrin Masters

The stage shattered beneath Roland’s fist with a thunder-crack boom. Stone and tile lifted up beneath Daichi’s feet and the elf had to windmill his arms to keep his balance. Which was what Roland needed. Roland swung again and Daichi couldn’t dodge this one. Raziel found himself rising to his feet as Roland’s fist hurtled at Mori’s student.

And then stopped cold.

There was a second thunderclap and again the stage shuddered. Behind Daichi, stone and tile leapt up off the ground. The tiles fell back to the stage leaving a cone shape of shards and exposed stone emanating from Daichi’s back foot and everything was still again.

Roland’s hand hadn’t struck Daichi in the chest or face. It had met Daichi’s palm leaving the two a frozen tableau amidst the devastated ring.

“He transferred the power through his body and out of his back foot,” Raziel heard Miles murmur, awe in his voice.

Ichiro stepped close to the fighters and put a hand on both of their wrists. Roland’s head snapped to Ichiro. Daichi’s merely twitched in the older student’s direction.

“I believe the masters have made their decision. Further demonstration is unnecessary.”

Raziel’s stomach dropped. Did making Daichi block count as a hit?

Roland lowered his hand hesitantly. As Daichi came back to his neutral stance with his hands at his sides, Roland stared down at his fist like he’d never seen his own hand before. Daichi cleared his throat and tilted his head at the masters and Roland seemed to find himself once again. Ichiro had already heard the master’s decision and seemed to only be waiting for Roland to notice. A student stood beside Ichiro with a red vest.

“Master Mori has extended to you an offer to train at his school. Do you accept?”

“I- Yes. Yes, I accept,” Roland said.

“Do you think that counted?” Raziel asked Keira. Keira just shrugged. Her attention was on Daichi.

“I’ll ask,” she said. Raziel bit his lip but nodded. What was done was done. All he could do was wait and see. Fortunately for him, a distraction came quickly.

As the student who’d brought Roland the vest led him off the stage Baromah stood and extended a hand. The stone and the tiles of the stage began to move as if they’d come to life. Shattered rock shifted and slipped back into place while the tiles shivered, broken pieces recollecting and becoming whole again before returning to their former homes. From the corner of his eye Raziel saw Miles jaw drop.

“What?”

“Raz, I didn’t feel a thing. He used that much magic and I didn’t feel it at all.”

Raziel realized that he hadn’t either.

“I guess that’s impressive?”

Miles pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Yes, Raz. It’s an incredible showing of control.”

“Ah. Neat.”

Miles pinched his nose harder and let out a pained noise.

Distracted by Miles, Raziel didn’t notice Keira get up. She was heading for the stage before Ichiro even called her name. Daichi was about to start walking down the stairs to the arena when she put a hand out in front of him. He paused, his red hood turning towards her.

“You might as well just stay there,” she said. That got the crowd’s attention. Whispers erupted again as Keira stepped onto the stage and faced the masters. She gave them an abrupt bow, right on the edge of disrespect.

“Master Mori, I’ve heard you accept anyone who hits him,” she said, jerking a thumb at Daichi. “Is that why you offered Roland a spot?”

Not a single muscle in Master Mori’s face shifted. He stared at her down his long nose like she was a bug he was considering crushing. But just when Raziel was beginning to think he wouldn’t answer at all, he said.

“That is not why.”

“Good. I want to fight him.”

Again, Mori was quiet. Raziel thought wouldn’t allow it. Sweat was popping up all over his body but he felt cold. Even if Master Mori did let Keira face Daichi, would he let Daichi fight a third time in a row? And even if he did, Raziel hadn’t seen a flaw he could exploit in Daichi’s skills.

Finally, Mori snorted and waved his hand in acquiesence. The crowd went wild and Ichiro turned his glare on them once again. But Raziel’s eyes were on Mori. Raziel thought the severe elf looked pleased at the noise. That struck Raziel as odd. Was he really that vain about his student?

Either way, Daichi returned to the center of the stage to stand across from Keira. The two went through all the bowing and squared off. Standing across from Roland, Daichi had looked small, unimpressive. But standing across from Keira was different. She was close to Daichi’s height but while his hood hid his face, it couldn’t hide the toned muscle in his arms and legs. And, though there wasn’t a scar to show for it, everyone in that arena could still see the damage that had been done to the stage in their mind’s eyes.

By contrast, Keira looked thin and small. She had neither the height nor the muscle. But what she did have was a ferocity that shone in her eyes like fires in the night.

Ichiro raised his hand between them and dropped it with a shout. Daichi did not move. Keira stepped out into a wide stance and drew in her power.

She wasn’t the first person to do something similar that day. It wasn’t strange to feel something when a person was gathering in magic nearby. It usually felt like a tickle at the senses to Raziel. Something that drew attention, like hearing his name spoken at the edge of hearing or a bug flying close by his ear. Keira’s power was different.

When Keira drew in power, it was like a the sun coming up over the horizon.

The air in the arena grew noticeably warmer and Raziel even saw the corners of Daichi’s vest and hood twitching in a breeze as even the air was drawn to Keira. If his eye hadn’t been on that, he probably would have missed it when Daichi moved.

One second ten feet separated them; the next Daichi had crossed the space and struck. Keira blocked his punch and returned fire, pressing Daichi back. Raziel saw a glint of teeth from her. She’d already accomplished more than Roland.

She’d made Daichi attack.

She pushed forward, driving Daichi back on his heels. Once she’d taken the momentum of the fight she held onto it. She threw attack after attack, punches that made Daichi’s hood ripple, kicks that audibly sliced through the air. She moved with the fury of a summer evening storm.

But Daichi was something else entirely. Keira, for all her power and speed did not have a lot of experience fighting. She had obvious talent for it, likely even some amount of training. But Daichi moved like no one Raziel had ever seen.

Daichi wasn’t exactly faster than Keira, though Raziel suspected that he could be. It seemed for the first moments that Keira had him on the ropes, that she was in control of the fight. It seemed this way because, after that first punch, Daichi had not attacked again. But in all of the furious movement between the two, Raziel could see why. He didn’t need to.

Daichi by attacking early, before Keira had drawn in all the power she possibly could have, had limited her resources. Even now, he was doing the same. She was burning bright, running high on all the magic she’d absorbed while he kept his movements tight, contained. Precision above all else, marked Daichi’s every move. He didn’t stop her blows, he redirected them, pushing them aside, just far enough that they went off course. He tipped her off balance, made her slip, forced her to readjust her footing with every strike. After the initial rush, he looked like he was dancing with a clumsy child rather than having a fight.

Raziel reached the edge of his seat and leaned out to try to get even a few inches closer, straining not to miss a moment of the fight.

“Come on, Keira. Notice what he’s doing,” he muttered to himself. If she didn’t pick up on how he was draining her soon, she’d run out of steam. Raziel needed her to push Daichi just a little more, get him to reveal something else, any weakness.

The pair wove circles in the ring as they moved, but Keira was slowing. Raziel could see the frustration, the near desperation in her eyes. Daichi was so close and yet, he might as well have been a mile away. This wasn’t the first time she’d fought against someone that outclassed her though.

Abruptly, Keira stopped. Daichi, perhaps remembering the way that Roland had stopped just before he’d struck the ground earlier, seemed more on edge now, readying himself rather than meekly observing. Keira meanwhile, stepped back into that wide stance she’d been in earlier.

Again she reached out and grabbed hold of all the magic in the area and began to draw it in. Daichi allowed this for only a second or two before he charged her.

Keira’s face split in a grin. The sense of her drawing in magic accelerated and then, she exploded.

Raziel caught a glimpse of a half sphere of brilliant light, bursting forth from Keira before he had to throw his arms over his face to shield his eyes. A wall of sound, a roar like the nearby waterfall had come to life and was coming to eat him, crashed over Raziel and the crowd. He forced himself to look as soon as the light began to fade. Through the spots in his vision he managed to just barely make out Keira, kneeling in the center of a blackened portion of the arena.

Daichi was nowhere to be seen. For a moment, Raziel was worried that Keira had vaporized him. He thought he must have fallen out of the ring but he wasn’t anywhere to be seen. Everyone in the crowd was looking for Daichi but Raziel saw where Ichiro was looking.

The senior student was looking up.

Raziel followed his gaze just in time to see Daichi fall out of the sky back into the ring. He dropped to the ground, his bare feet coming down with only a barely audible ‘tap’ sound, as though he’d just hopped off a couple of stairs instead of falling out of the sky like a hailstone.

Keira was left kneeling before Daichi and from the look on her face, she wasn’t happy about it. She rose to her feet but couldn’t fully hide a tremble in her legs as she did it. Using so much magic was an enormous strain and Raziel knew she had to be feeling utterly exhausted to show even that much of what it had cost her. Meanwhile, Daichi looked exactly as he had from the first moment any of them had seen him. No one would have ever known he’d been in two fights back to back.

Keira was gathering herself to try something else when Ichiro stepped between them.

“The masters have made their decision.”

Keira clenched her teeth, obviously biting off something she wanted to say. As Ichiro walked over to talk to the masters, Keira turned a glare on Daichi that would have peeled paint from a wall.

Raziel got to his feet. His name would be called next and he didn’t want to let Daichi get off the stage. But in standing, a silvery weakness that was nearly outright pain poured through his legs. His stomach was doing backflips and he tasted a hint of bile in the back of his throat. He had to steady himself against the stone seat as a wave of dizziness hit his head.

“You okay?” Miles asked. Raziel glanced at him but didn’t want to meet his eyes. He put on a smile that he hoped looked genuine.

“Yeah, fine. Just stood up too quickly is all.”

Raziel knew Miles didn’t believe the lie. But he knew Miles wouldn’t challenge him on it either. Hoeru was another story. He could feel the changeling’s gold and blue eyes on him and knew he needed to move before Hoeru stopped him. Hoeru would mean well, but he couldn’t afford to hear anything Hoeru had to say. Raziel had enough doubts to carry as it was.

So while students brought Keira a choice of green and red vests, Raziel made his way down the stairs towards the arena, terrified that he would fall. By the time that Keira had picked a red vest and was being led from the stage, it was taking all of Raziel’s concentration to keep his acidic burps from bringing up his breakfast with them. As Keira stepped off of the stairs, their eyes met.

Something passed between them in that moment. She was clearly frustrated but all the same, she gave him a small nod and the hint of a smile.

“I almost had him,” she said as she passed. “Give him one for me.”

Raziel smiled and nodded back, trying to answer her confidence with his own. And he found he had it. She wouldn’t give him an empty platitude. She believed he could do it. And if Keira believed in him, it must be true.

Raziel heard his name called, took a deep breath and put his foot on the first step leading to the top of the stage.

Daichi stood at the top of the stairs looking down at him.

The sun shown behind him, dropping his face into shadow but even so, Raziel was able to get his first clear look at Daichi beneath the hood.

Daichi looked like pretty much anyone else. His dark hair very short, like nearly all of the students Raziel had seen and it let his pointed ears show. He had a plain, ordinary face, a little on the thin side for a human but standard for an elf. Raziel didn’t think he’d have been able to pick him out from a crowd except for one thing. His eyes. Raziel had expected to see that same fire that he’d seen in the girl who’d first been accepted as a student earlier that day. He expected ferocity. Intensity.

But that wasn’t what was in Daichi’s eyes.

Daichi looked bored. Keira had nearly blown him up and Roland had technically hit him hard enough to shatter stone and yet Daichi looked like he was running a particularly dull errand. He hadn’t even seemed to take notice of Raziel standing at the bottom of the stairs.

Raziel found his feet carrying him up the stairs. The knot in his guts came undone and something was boiling inside him. He rose up the stairs before Daichi could start down, standing directly between him and the way off the stage.

For the first time Daichi seemed to realize that Raziel was there. Their eyes met.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

A moment of confusion slid across Daichi’s face, replaced quickly by understanding. The elf closed his eyes and let out a noise that was somewhere between a sigh and a snort. But he stepped graciously aside to let Raziel pass. Ichiro seemed to have heard what Raziel had said to Daichi.

“I presume you also wish to challenge Daichi?”

“Yeah. All I gotta do is hit him once right?” Raziel said, directing his words to the masters as much as to Ichiro. He surprised himself with the steady tone of his words. Now that he was here, standing on the stage, the fear he’d felt had changed. It was still there, coiled around his heart like a snake but the energy of the fear felt different. A part of him was excited, wanted to go up against Daichi. Wanted to see how far he could push the elf where Keira and Roland had failed to budge him.

“Whether you win or lose in a challenge does not determine your placement in a school,”

“Right. I know. But I just have to hit him, right?”

Ichiro’s lips pressed together as his eyes closed and he gave a little shake of his head but he turned to the masters all the same.

“Raziel Re’del also wishes to challenge Daichi,” he said.

Master Mori gave Raziel a single glance and said,

“No.”