“W-wha-... What did I d-do...”
Tears appeared in Cessi’s eyes, and she let go of the blade, letting it fall loudly on the ground. She was in shock, remembering everything that had just happened as if she hadn’t been in control until now. And in a way, she hadn’t. She looked at her trembling hands. The sword’s handle had left deep marks in her hands, her calluses showing along with dark scales. There was blood on all of her fingers, even under her nails. Her sobbing got more intense, her eyes looking at those hands and the sword at her feet in disgust.
“A-Ashen...” she cried, unable to utter anything else.
“It’s alright.”
He moved to hug Cessi, wrapping her in his arms as tightly as he could. She sobbed against his shoulder, her whole body shaking in distress. She wasn’t shocked by how she had harmed and injured her opponent; Ashra had begun this fight and fought back just as hard. No, Cessilia was shocked by how much she had lost control of herself. She had lost all restraint, and gotten completely immersed in the fight, to the point where she wouldn’t have thought twice about killing her opponent. It wasn’t her, though; Cessilia’s trauma caused her self-preservation instincts to take over when she could have won this fight easily without them. She thought she could control herself, but her memories had made her react in a much too extreme way.
Her shaking hand went to her throat. The cut wasn’t even that deep, it had already stopped bleeding even without her scales being able to protect that part of her body. However, the injury was much more to her mind than physical. She’d lost control, completely. If it wasn’t for Ashen, she would have killed that candidate, and she had no intention to in the beginning. She could hear Ashra breathing like an injured animal behind Ashen, making things worse. Cessilia’s tears wouldn’t stop, she was crying silently, unable to calm down. She hated herself for what had just happened. She was scared of the monster she had felt herself disappearing into just seconds ago.
“I c-can’t,” she cried. “Ashen, I c-can’t. P-please... P-please, d-don’t let me d-do this again. I... I d-don’t want to have t-to fight ever again. I c-can’t. I’m s-so sorry... I c-can’t...”
There was an intense fear in her voice, but what she feared was inside. Cessilia was terrified by what had just happened, so much so that she never wanted to touch a sword ever again. She kept shaking her head, her trembling hands grabbing the ends of Ashen’s cloak to hold on to. He sighed and hugged her closer to his heart, comforting her gently. One of his hands was patting her back, the other holding her head against him, as if to give her a safe place inside his arms. No one could see her face, and the audience could barely see a glimpse of her thin silhouette, hidden in the King’s large embrace.
“It’s alright,” he whispered against her ear, such that only Cessi could hear. “Don’t worry. I’m here.”
“Your Majesty!” shouted the Yekara Clan Leader. “This fight isn’t over!”
“It is,” groaned Ashen.
“Your candidate lost,” added Tessa. “She should be glad she didn’t lose her life too.”
“She was about to overpower your so-called Princess when His Majesty intervened! I request this fight to resume immediately!”
“No,” Ashen retorted, glaring at the Yekara Leader.
In his arms, Cessilia hadn’t moved an inch, but she was clearly still in shock. She wouldn’t pick up that sword again, that was for certain. Right now, the situation was tense. With the fight halted, perhaps temporarily, all eyes had gone to the Yekara Leader or the King to see who would have the last word on this. Most people in the audience were confused by Cessilia suddenly dropping her sword and hiding in the King’s embrace. The fight had been so intense just before, they couldn’t understand why she’d given up on an almost certain victory.
Things also didn’t make much sense for people who weren’t part of the Yekara Clan. Did they really believe their candidate had a chance against the Princess? The difference in strength had been made astonishingly obvious in the past few minutes. They couldn’t understand how Ashra had managed to slice open the Princess’ throat just before, but so far, it felt like she should have been the gladdest of all that the fight was stopped. Even now, she was covered in blood, exhausted, and barely able to stand. It felt like her demise had been postponed. Her Clan Leader looked like a madman to all, to force his own blood to finish a fight they couldn’t win. Even more shocking was that the Princess herself wasn’t ready to finish the fight either. It was clearly not mercy that had stopped her, but something more complicated that made the King act like she needed protection. Either way, most people were completely confused, and looking forward to what was going to happen next. It looked like neither the King nor Lord Yebekh would give up, which made the situation look like a dead end.
“It’s Cessilia’s victory,” said the King. “There’s no more reason to fight.”
“Except that she threw her weapon! Our candidate is still standing and able to fight! There’s no victory yet, Your Majesty! She has to finish what she started, or that means she gives up!”
“You’re the one who started this!” Tessandra shouted back, furious. “You should be begging mercy for your candidate, you crazy piece of shit!”
“Watch your mouth! I am Lord Yebekh of the Yekara Clan! And our candidate knows her duty! Unlike your Princess, we don’t give up on a fight, no matter what! This fight needs a clear winner!”
“...I won’t f-fight again,” muttered Cessilia.
Ashen sighed. Truthfully, he didn’t want her to have to. Although he was incredibly proud of her at the beginning of the fight, he also couldn’t recognize the Cessilia of the past few minutes. Seeing her in such distress once she had come back to her senses had been quite shocking for him as well. Whatever she was going through, he wouldn’t push her to risk it again. It was one of the rare times she did really need him.
Tessandra was just as frustrated. She knew Cessilia had almost killed her opponent already, and she couldn’t understand what was going on. What were the Yekara after? They couldn’t possibly think their candidate had a real chance? Or was it that they were looking for a flaw in the Princess?
“Oh, my gods!”
All eyes went to Ashra’s body which had just collapsed. The young woman that was still standing seconds before had now collapsed to the ground, her eyes wide open, blood leaking out of her half-open mouth. As Ashen had stepped back to see what had just happened, the body was right in Cessilia’s line of sight.
The Princess gasped, covering her mouth with her hand, shocked. She didn’t even need to check the body; Ashra was definitely dead. Her body had fallen back in a strange position, in her own blood. Her fall had been so strange and slow, everyone was still stunned.
“Murder!” shouted a voice.
Tessandra reacted first. She ran down the stairs to the body, furious. She knew Ashra wouldn’t have died like this. There was no way. Her injuries weren’t such that she could have simply died so easily. She had lost blood, and received multiple cuts, but none should have been life-threatening, or able to simply kill her in a second. Tessandra had watched the whole fight without losing a second of it; she was knowledgeable enough both in combat and medicine that she could tell when someone would die from their injuries or not. Ashra’s sudden death made absolutely no sense.
She reached the body and turned her around, quickly trying to find a clue. Something had definitely happened that was not Cessilia’s fault. Her cousin was standing there, shocked, probably too stunned to realize. This was probably the worst outcome for Cessilia, who had already been filled with immense guilt.
“Your Majesty!” shouted the Yekara Clan Leader. “The Princess killed our candidate! This is against the rules! Don’t allow her relative to touch our candidate!”
“Tessa, back off,” said Sabael.
He had run after her the second he had understood her objective. Tessandra might have had the heart to relieve her cousin’s guilt first, but the situation was still much more complex than that. He gently grabbed her arm to pull her away from the body, Nana arriving behind them, equally worried.
In the cave, the voices were getting louder. People who had already recovered from Ashra’s sudden death were now loudly arguing with the Yekara Clan’s people.
“The Princess broke the rule, she murdered her opponent! She has to be eliminated from the competition!”
“Are you insane? Your candidate just dropped dead, who said anything about the Princess killing her? She didn’t even touch her and she suddenly dropped dead like this! It makes no sense!”
“She’s clearly innocent!”
“You’re the one who wanted a death match to begin with! You forced this fight to get to a proper end! So your candidate’s dead, it’s the Princess’ victory!”
“There’s no need for disqualification! It was a fair fight!”
“Your stubbornness killed your candidate!”
The cave’s benches were turning into a complete chaos of shouting. There were three clear sides: those who believed Cessilia had won fairly, those who wanted to free her from Ashra’s death foremost, and the Yekara Clan who were sure this was worth her disqualification. Their plan was now clear: since Ashra hadn’t been able to beat the Princess in combat, they were entirely relying on her death to kick Cessilia out of the competition. Tessandra clenched her fists, furious. Now, if she touched the body again, they’d say she tampered with it to make her cousin appear innocent. Sabael was right; they were stuck in a trap laid by the Yekara Clan.
