The Queen's Honor Guard
by Nyohah
V.
Tieh Chen Yi squinted and, in order to shade his eyes with his left hand, he switched his wooden dagger into his right, which already held his whip. All participants had been asked to arrive an hour early for instructions: a plethora of them, and excruciatingly precise. Chen Yi had thought the formality to be torture and decided to simply ignore most of the instructions as he saw Onyx Coast's champions do, rather than obey with the lifeless rigidity of the former ninjas and the renowned sniper. Even the army's commander, General Li, seemed to disregard the rules he had likely helped to create, weaving through the crowd and laughing with his fellow fighters.
What had been the subdued murmuring of a few when he arrived had grown into the incomprehensible roar of a crowd, swallowing any attempt to catch another's attention. He silently cursed the sun that shone so much more fiercely in Silver Coast than Sapphire Coast, driving away any hope for shadows, and glaring off the surface of the stands that had been constructed on the army's main training field. While the grass, painstakingly tended by brilliant gardeners to tenaciously survive all abuse, felt soft and springy, the perfect environment for sparring without suffering injury from falls, the chaos of the crowd rattled him. He wondered with great anxiety whether he would have the mental discipline to fight amidst its distractions.
The crowd had swelled considerably, swarming into the makeshift stadium and hiding the face for which he so desperately searched. She—his longtime girlfriend—was there, somewhere, and he hoped she had better luck discerning him from the others in the area than he had finding her.
A sudden hush overtook the crowd, and he snapped himself back into the position he'd been given—a random slot in the middle row. He dropped his hand and held the dagger in a reverse grip, repetitively pressing the unsharpened point into his forearm in a release of anxious energy as the new Emperor Yuen began to speak.
"I have no desire to expend frivolous words today," he said, his voice amplified to fill far beyond the stadium, "as you have no desire to hear them."
"Amen," someone said, barely loud enough for the rest of the fighters to hear, and as they chuckled, Chen Yi glanced over to the source of the familiar voice and accent, to see Zhen Feng Qui smiling in the wake of his remark.
"Sixty-four fighters you see before you," continued the emperor, oblivious to the slight disruption behind him, "representing every Coast, all the people of Mandalore, individually and as one. At the close of the tournament, thirteen will remain, to mark the beginning of what will undoubtedly be a legendary group." He swept his hand in a broad arc, indicating the area in the center of the field where all the hopefuls stood and that in one week's time would be occupied by the Queen's Honor Guard.
"The first two days will consist of armed combat, using Weapon Master Len's wooden replicas, and all precautions, I assure you. Eighteen of the losers will be eliminated, based on their performance, character, and areas of expertise. The third and fourth days will revolve around unarmed combat, and twenty will be eliminated. The final twenty-six will then display their proficiency with their individual elements on the fifth day. On the sixth, the council, the queen, and I will determine the proper thirteen to fill the ranks, and announce them on the seventh and final day."
Halfway down the row from Tieh Chen Yi, Ta Lian Shi turned to his friend, Zhen. "It's rigged."
Rah Cai Yue flicked his wrist and his slim short sword rotated slowly as it traced a graceful arc in the sky, landing in his other hand, where it immediately was spun in a quick circle. The crowd cheered and his opponent snorted.
"Worthless show-off," accused the former Lin Kuei ninja, Vendetta.
"You're just jealous." Cai Yue swung his leg in front of him, stretching and warming his muscles.
Vendetta stood ready, his left side positioned forward, the stance slimming the target of his body. He held a heavy, straight sword at a slight incline, the tip aimed for the space above Cai Yue's head. "You will not have the opportunity to warm up before a real battle."
Cai Yue shrugged, indifferent to the acerbic ninja's comments. He was familiar with mind games; he used them in almost every fight, as well as consistently in his daily life, though his fellow priests frowned upon them. "No use risking injury before the real fighting begins."
"Merely standing in the same arena as me is risking injury."
"Oh..." Cai Yue stuck out his bottom lip in a fake pout. "Is the big bad ninja going to mush the talentless little opera boy?"
"I wouldn't mock if I was the one who fought with an ineffective style like a trivial dancer."
"Ineffective? We'll let the judges decide." Cai Yue nodded at them to indicate that his preparation was complete, and slid into a defensive stance. His sword, tilted back to point to the space above his left shoulder, was held only by his right hand, while his left wrist's guard was held against the underside of the blade near its tip. His weight was concentrated on his back leg—his left leg.
Vendetta smiled derisively, his lined face creasing, and stepped out of his stance to walk just outside the circumference of Cai Yue's reach. The younger man shifted his weight continuously to face the ninja, refusing to surrender in their battle of will.
Vendetta abruptly feinted, jerking forward with a slash that would never have reached the intended target. Cai Yue, with suspicions that the ninja's first move would be a lure, but also with the understanding that it could just as easily be a legitimate strike, twisted out of the way, neither falling into the ninja's trap, nor leaving himself vulnerable for the attack. He spun lightly on his foot, and struck with an upward slash.
The attack was caught by a straight sword and forced upward in a restricted range, deflecting the strike. "Impressive," acknowledged Vendetta.
"I don't need compliments from you," retorted Cai Yue.
"Testy."
Cai Yue clenched his teeth with annoyance, berating himself for having been so easily goaded. He sliced toward the ninja with a swift horizontal motion, taking the offensive. Vendetta deftly blocked the attack and countered with his own, aiming for Cai Yue's unprotected neck. The younger man leaned backward, easily avoiding the slash, and flipped his sword toward his opponent with a diagonal slash that whiffed through the air and was followed by a slight stab that grazed the side of the ninja's ribs, as Vendetta hopped out of the way. Had the blade been sharp, it would have inflicted an irritating but hardly fatal wound.
Cai Yue tossed several more attacks, testing the ninja's skills and pattern of defense, trying to find a chink in his cast-iron defense as Vendetta easily and disdainfully blocked every attack. Finally, Vendetta smacked Cai Yue's sword far to the right with a fierce block that resounded with the sharp retort of wood upon wood. Cai Yue leaped into a one-handed cartwheel past the ninja and regained his feet with just enough time to forcefully block the wild swing Vendetta had sent behind himself in hopes of catching the younger man off-guard at the end of his cartwheel.
The duel exploded as the opponents simultaneously dipped into the full range of their skill, launching blows but never connecting, scrambling to block but never failing. Vendetta lunged into the powerful attacks Cai Yue had expected from the beginning, reigning offensively. Cai Yue blocked half of the jarring attacks and gracefully evaded the others, slipping out of the range of the blows in fluid, hardly noticeable motions, and lashing with well-timed opportunistic attacks that caused Vendetta to jerk into a block, disrupted from his attacks. The ferocity with which they fought was taxing, and the careless, hardly noticeable errors they made piled atop the others, wearing down to the eventual loss.
Vendetta reached with a huge horizontal swing. Cai Yue shoved his right leg behind him, dropping into a low stance and swinging his thin sword at the ninja's knees. Vendetta jumped, easily clearing the strike and came down on one leg, shoving the other into Cai Yue's right hand. His jaw dropped in pain and the sword slipped from his stinging hand. Vendetta sneered and raised his sword to administer what would be the 'killing' blow.
But Rah Cai Yue snatched the sword in his left hand almost before it hit the grass and stabbed upward, sending Vendetta frantically backpedaling away from the blow and destroying his balance. Cai Yue immediately took the offensive, adopting the all-out approach that characterized his opponent's style. Vendetta stumbled backward, barely catching each attack, unable to regain his balance. In a final attempt to salvage it, he flipped into a backward handspring, landing out of his opponent's range and breathing just as deeply as he did.
"Ambidextrous," commented Vendetta. "Now I am impressed."
Cai Yue smiled angelically. "Why thank you, Vendetta. I never expected to hear such a nice compliment from a brutal ninja such as yourself."
"And he learns from his mistakes."
Rah Cai Yue hopped forward with a circular swing of his sword, restarting the fight. Vendetta gently pushed the blade past him, used his left foot to sweep Cai Yue off-balance and reversed the direction of his sword to slam the flat of the blade with full force against Cai Yue's sword just above its hilt. The sword thudded onto the grass, and Cai Yue thudded onto his back, looking dazed.
"Well, now," said Vendetta, standing triumphantly over the younger man. "How shall I kill you?"
Cai Yue didn't answer. A shadow appeared between his right hand and the fallen sword, distorting the grass around it. With the aid of the force of gravity, the blade returned to his hand as he rolled into a forward somersault, then leapt upward, well inside the ninja's reach. He smacked the flat of the blade against Vendetta's throat with lightly moderate force, hard enough to cause the ninja to involuntarily cough, but not hard enough to cause permanent damage.
Rah Cai Yue dropped his sword to his side. "Quickly, or not at all."
Five minutes later, Vendetta had recovered his voice, and was barely able to control its volume in his rage as he stood before the judges.
"What do you mean, I lost? This boy cheated!" The ninja slammed the side of his hand against a palm for emphasis. "The rules specifically state that we are not to use our element."
"No," Cai Yue corrected, looking bored. "The rules specifically state that we are not to use our element against our opponent. It said nothing about using it against our weapon."
"You can't be listening to this nonsense."
The judge looked unaffected by Vendetta's tirade. "We are searching for those who are adaptive and clever." Vendetta seethed. The judge slowly reiterated. "Rah Cai Yue wins."
Vendetta stalked away, and Cai Yue grinned, then shook his right hand. "Ow."
In the middle of the arena, Captain Lan Yiao Nih banged his daggers together, tapping a militaristic cadence as he waited. His two daggers were the length and width of his forearm, the single sharpened edge curving to the unsharpened edge to round the blade into a barely defined point where they met, diminishing the weapons' effect in a stab and restricting them to slashes. He smiled maliciously as he watched his opponent, a young and obviously nervous army foot soldier, who, by his looks, had yet to see a real battle.
Sitting under the shade of the stands, Yuen Jer Rod grimaced at the expression on the captain's face and the obvious outcome of the fight. His countenance did not improve as he watched his prediction proved accurate, the ruthless fighter downing the young man in record time. Lan Yiao Nih sheathed the wooden models of his favored weapons and crossed his arms as he left the arena, not looking back at the young man who wobbled to his feet, crushed.
"At least he doesn't toy with them," the emperor muttered, then jumped as his twin sister sat beside him, looking worried.
"You do realize that you shouldn't judge Lan Yiao Nih based upon Wei Yong's attitude against him. They've never liked each other. I will admit that Captain Lan can be obnoxious and I don't particularly like him either, but he cannot be judged by our personal prejudices."
Jer Rod nodded. "I assure you that I have been doing my best to remain impartial. Though I do not particularly like the way he fights, no one will be counted against for being ruthless. It can be a necessary trait at times."
"I trust you, Jer Rod. I should get ready to fight."
"Luck be with you."
Ming smiled as she left. "Thank you."
Rah Cai Yue spied a patch of shadowed ground just outside the arena and sat cross-legged, pulling out his worn, leather-bound book. He opened it to the middle, and licking his thumb, flicked several pages forward. He set the book on the grass and leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees and his chin on his clasped hands, preparing to read.
The unsharpened tip of a wooden blade thumped onto the ground in front of the book, burying itself in a slight furrow. He traced the curve of the edge up its modest length until it joined a rounded staff, held by a manicured, feminine hand, and on up to the second blade, upon which a head draped in damp ebony locks rested.
"Hello, Ming. Congratulations on your match."
"Show me how to do that," she panted, brushing away a tiny droplet of sweat that had run down her nose.
He sat up and glanced around him, seeing nothing but his book, which he closed and tucked away. "What? Read?"
She shook her head weakly, fatigued. "Element."
Cai Yue raised his eyebrows, incredulous, and stood in a single motion. "Am I understanding this correctly? You intend to be a member of your honor guard, you even fight to prove that you're qualified regardless of the fact that your spot is guaranteed, you're specifically testing us on this skill, but you can't do it?"
Her face flushed more than it already had been. "Cai Yue, not so loud." She turned toward the palace, motioning for him to come. "I have tried..." she whispered defensively. "Nearly the entire year I was with the Oracle, actually."
"Didn't you get something? Even a little speck?" He took her weapon, spinning it around his left forearm to the dismay of those trying to pass by him on their way to the arena.
Ming shook her head and brushed the stray hairs off of her face with both arms, leaving her hands on the top of her head to expand her rib cage and allow her to breathe more easily.
"Is it possible that you also have no element, like Kei Sa?"
"No. Absolutely not." She dropped her hands to her side, then caught her double-bladed staff in the middle of Cai Yue's spin, returning it to her side.
"Well, there's only one way to find yours."
"What would that be?"
"Try." Cai Yue flashed a droll smile.
"Why thank you for your brilliant insight, Cai Yue, but I'm afraid your astounding intellect has failed to help me in this single instance."
"Oh, but my astounding intellect has not yet depleted itself."
"I find that hard to believe."
Cai Yue stopped and crossed his arms. "If you are going to be mean, I will find someone else to help, someone who deserves my unmatched reservoir of knowledge."
"Forgive me, Master Rah," she replied, bowing.
"That's more like it." He thought for a few seconds. "Do you have plenty of time?"
"I don't like the sound of that, Cai Yue."
"The best method is to find a place where you are comfortable, where you can be yourself and are not distracted from your true nature, where nothing is pushing you in another direction than the one your soul longs to take."
"Cai Yue, you do realize that you're talking to the most molded person on this planet."
He nodded. "Hence the question about time."
"I hate this." Ming slammed her staff on the ground as she pushed herself up, the wooden blades smacking the worn surface of the stage and providing resounding emphasis to her failure.
"I'm running out of ideas," Cai Yue said flatly as he blinked his eyes and fought a yawn.
"Forgive me for wasting your night, friend," she replied, incensed at his tired apathy.
It was well after midnight, and Cai Yue was nearly as frustrated as Ming. He closed his eyes, both in an attempt to contemplate their next destination and as a surrender to the burning that plagued them.
They had gone everywhere he could think of, but success eluded them. The natural first choice had been Ming's chambers, but she felt oppressed by the sight of her dresses hanging in the wardrobe. Also she could sense the residue of her husband though they had politely asked the general, who was as shocked at and skeptical of Ming's dilemma as Cai Yue had been, to leave. Then her nursery, "Too many memories of my father's mandates." The beach she had coveted to train upon as a child, "A hope for escape, but always a chimera." The stables that at times served as a haven, "A tranquil place, but horses have never been my interest." Lastly the stage, but "the opera has always been as much about a chance for physical exercise and mock-fighting as it was music, and I don't need an excuse to fight anymore."
Rah Cai Yue stood and rubbed his eyes. "I'm sorry, Ming, but I'm exhausted and we do have to fight tomorrow. We still have one more day. Let's call it a night, shall we?"
"You're giving up on me? You think I'm hopeless?" Ming's eyes flashed.
"No, no... Those are irrational, premature conclusions."
"Well how about something logical? Don't you think I'll need practice?" She placed her hands on her hips like a defiant child, her lips tightly pressed in indignation.
Cai Yue sighed. "One last try." He thought intensely, then dropped his hands in resignation at his lack of inspiration. "Where are you going to be tomorrow?"
"In the arena, much of the day."
Cai Yue's lips quirked as he gained sudden insight. "Where do you want to be tomorrow?"
Ming exhaled slowly, pushing her stray hairs back with one hand. "In all truth, the arena."
"Then to the arena we shall go." Cai Yue jumped off the stage and beckoned for Ming to follow, with haste.
The half-moon shone high above in a clear sky, lighting the way enough to obviate the need of an additional light, but allowing the deep shadows of the night to swell around them, diminishing visibility drastically. The arena seemed derelict and lonely in its vacancy, longing to be occupied and fulfill its purpose.
They sat on the grass in the middle of the arena, the moon washing their skin with its ivory glow. Ming closed her eyes and leaned down, rubbing a hand across the tips of the grass, then placing it over the other where it was pushed against the ground, supporting the weight of her upper body.
Cai Yue watched her, enchanted by her serene rapture, understanding that she had, finally yet instantly, found her place and her connection. In the minutes that followed she became only more intent in her concentration with the earth beneath her, oblivious to the passing of time as she communicated without words, opening the link to her power.
Raising her head and opening her eyes, Ming removed her hands from the earth, and Cai Yue watched in wonder as the green sprout of a plant budded from beneath the grass and grew with unfathomable speed. Its leaves unfolded as it matured, with only the spirit of a woman to fuel its life.
Ming turned her head and smiled at Cai Yue, tears brimming in her eyes.
He bit his tongue, knowing that an exclamation of awe would only ruin her moment, which paralleled one that he had once experienced and would never easily forget.