The Queen's Honor Guard
by Nyohah
VI.
Ta Lian Shi loped into the arena, precisely on time for his match, neither a minute early nor a minute late. Following regulations, he wore firm padding to protect against injury. The winner of the match would be determined based on a point system rather than ending in a knockout; the judges would track each strike and allot points according to the previously established guidelines until one player had reached the requisite number.
He laced his fingers behind his back, lifting his arms to stretch as he walked toward the center, where his opponent was engrossed in a stretching exercise, sitting on the ground and leaning over a straight leg, the other foot placed against his thigh.
Lian stopped beside the other fighter, the shadow he cast falling over the other and causing him to look toward its source.
"Hello, country boy," said Lian, smirking under the padded mask he wore as part of the armor, his accented voice slightly muffled by it.
Tieh Chen Yi bent his outstretched leg and sat up. "Your level of condescension is inappropriate. I am a year and a half older than you."
"Someone did his homework." Lian nodded smugly. "Very well," he agreed. "I will find something else to call you."
"I've got a suggestion: 'Tieh Chen Yi'."
"No, no, that'll never do." Lian swung his arms in wide circles and jumped twice. "Are you ready yet?"
Chen Yi hopped to his feet, and adopted a low powerful stance, his fists held in front of his face—a stance very much like the one into which Ta Lian Shi had crouched.
"I see we have something in common," Lian remarked. "No wonder you're good."
"Shut up and fight," replied Chen Yi, narrowing his eyes and adopting the aggressive attitude he reserved for combat alone.
Lian lunged forward with two jabs that were ducked by Chen Yi, who countered with a firm punch that was aimed for the stomach but glanced off the side as Lian sidestepped. He sent a heavy side kick toward Chen Yi's head, but Sapphire Coast's champion dropped to the ground, and swung his leg along it, knocking Lian off his feet.
Lian fell, but grabbed Chen Yi's foot as he rose, yanking him down and then rolling backward into a standing position. Chen Yi also rolled away and stood, hopping out of the way of the hastily and sloppily planned jump kick that had followed him. Lian overshot his goal and Chen Yi kicked him the back, forcing him forward.
Anchoring a leg in front of him and reversing his adverse momentum, Lian shoved his fist into Chen Yi's stomach, the punch causing a thump that was heard by most everyone in the arena. Chen Yi was frozen for a moment in pain, and Lian punched his chest with his other hand and elbowed him in the jaw.
Chen Yi stumbled back but managed to grab the next punch and drag Lian behind him before attacking with a spinning hook kick and a roundhouse kick, both of which impacted on Lian's right shoulder. Onyx Coast's champion used the force to spin himself around to face his opponent, swinging his leg in a broad arc as he did so. The crescent kick whiffed by Chen Yi's ear, though he felt the displacement of air it caused. Lian kicked his other leg nearly straight upward, catching Chen Yi under the chin and tossing him backward. He dashed in as Chen Yi rose and shoved his elbow into the other's solar plexus, pushing Chen Yi back a few inches.
But his next punch was blocked and viciously countered with a set of flashing jabs and a final hook that spun him to the ground. He swiped his foot along the ground, trying to force Chen Yi to keep his distance while he rose, but Chen Yi jumped with a beautifully executed flying side kick that knocked him backward. Chen Yi landed easily on one foot and, with the same foot that had just kicked Lian, snapped a simple roundhouse kick.
The strike impacted squarely on the padding covering Lian's left cheek, but he turned his falling motion into a spin, forming a spinning hook kick that he was far too inside to properly execute. He caught Chen Yi's neck with the inside of his knee and pushed him to the ground, kneeling down to keep him temporarily in the hold, but in that instant, a shrill whistle resounded.
One judge stood and proclaimed to the crowd and to the fighters, "Tieh Chen Yi, Champion of Sapphire Coast, is the victor of this match."
"What?" Lian lifted his foot, stepping away from Chen Yi. "Are you sure?"
"The roundhouse kick that Chen Yi threw before your last move was his final. You have received the amount of damage that we determined would render you unable to fight."
"How weak do you think I am?"
"Arguing will not change our minds," said another judge, a stern woman, rising and holding out her sheet of tally marks for him to examine.
Lian ignored it and tore off the padding he wore, tossing it to the ground in a tantrum. "This thing is rigged." He began to storm out of the arena, livid. Then, as if in an afterthought, he spun around sharply. Chen Yi flinched back, expecting an outburst of anger, but Lian bowed almost imperceptibly.
"Good fight, kid." He then continued his stomp out of the arena.
Chen Yi, from his sitting position on the ground, raised his hands slightly in exasperation. "Kid?"
As Hua Quy Ling stumbled backward and hit the ground, hard, a short whistle blew and the judge proclaimed Kei Sa to be the winner of the match. Undoubtedly. Unsurprisingly.
He hopped to his feet, the water-filled padding making him feel more sluggish than he should have been; he did not resent it, however, as he would consequently have hardly a bruise from the extensive trouncing he had just received.
Had he hit her? He thought so...maybe. No matter. He harbored no more enmity toward her than he had when he started; the great mass of the opposite had increased, in all actuality.
"Marvelous fight, Kei Sa. I've always been impressed," he said cordially. She glanced back, and wearily smiled, pulling off the padding and revealing her characteristic white dress. The lack of motion in her gait made it appear to be a full skirt. For the moment at least, the older women weren't horrified at the amount of leg she showed when it opened to allow movement, every bit of their shock countered by the approval of the younger. Mid-thigh down was a lot of bare skin, really, and the shorts above were far tighter than they were loose.
He trailed her as she climbed the stands—ninja skills were good for something, after all—heading for the dignitary box at the top. No one seemed to notice or care that the young sweating man was neither noble nor ambassador, and not at all important to their lives, not at all worthy of the privilege that awaited in the box.
Kei Sa folded her hands as she took a place in front of the glass-paned window, the others—obviously rich, some of which had probably used the slaves—for the most part, ignored her. Some cast contemptuous glances in her direction, as though her very presence in the tournament was a shallow trick to pretend that the slaves were equal and were being treated so.
He saw only one other fighter in the box, for Her Righteousness and General Li had not yet fought and returned. The priest friend of the queen's sat talking to a large overbearing woman and a harried-looking man. He guessed from their age and nagging behavior toward him that they were his parents, and he felt a flash of pain. Parents, as annoying as they could be, were at least someone who would always promise love. Ever since the day they were killed and he was thrown into subjugation he had felt regret that he had never appreciated his.
He shook himself out of his remembrance and returned his attention to his reason for trespassing. "Kei Sa, where did you learn to fight?"
She seemed to sigh. "The opera, and then the Oracle taught me. I suppose I have a bit of natural talent, as well."
"A bit?" Quy forced a laugh. "You have an entire planet's worth."
She smiled her polite, artificial little smile and returned her attention to the arena.
He kicked his foot on the floor. Maybe he needed to stop such ambiguity and be forthright in order to accomplish anything with this girl. Summoning a monster breath, he said, "Kei Sa, do—"
"Shh," she said. "The general is fighting."
Indeed he was, and Hua Quy Ling had to admit that he had style. He effortlessly darted around his opponent, a poor kid who never had a chance. The crowd cheered with every point he gained. The spectators were nearly as fond of the general as they were of the queen's priest friend, Rah Cai Yue...
...Who had risen to stand by Kei Sa and discuss the details of the fight, chuckling, with her.
He could have screamed.
Instead, he bit his cheek with excessive force and feigned serenity as he left the box.
A massive blob of water flew through the air, hurtling toward Rah Cai Yue. He thrust out his hands and a faint shadow of anti-gravity threw it back toward its originator, Ta Lian Shi, who soaked it back into his body and prepared a second attack.
"Stop it!" yelled the stern female judge, rising from her seat and slamming her notebook on the table. "You are not to cause a ruckus and you are not to summon your element before the event begins!"
They stopped, dropping their arms and staring at the judge who had chastised them. Then Lian turned toward Cai Yue and waved a finger. "You will get it, later."
"We'll see about that." The priest smiled self-confidently.
The lady glared at them until they took their place in line.
Yuen Jer Rod stepped out as the judge sat, and raised his hands to dim the clamor of the crowd. "Today, ladies and gentlemen, you will see the finest display of elemental talent in years. Some of you may have never seen the power that each and every one of you is capable of using. For some of you, this will be a fond reminder of better times."
The crowd cheered, their sense of romanticism awakened by the promise of legendary power.
Jer Rod smiled and faced the twenty-six remaining participants in the tournament. "Exactly half of you will return home disappointed," he said frankly. "At the sound of the whistle, you are to demonstrate your element to the best of your ability without harming or affecting any of your fellow participants. If your control or element is questionable, the judges will interfere in order to determine if you are capable."
Ming broke the eye contact she'd had with her brother, lowering her head and planting her feet at shoulder-width. The whistle screeched its high note, and she breathed deeply, hunting for her newly forged connection with the earth. It came to her easily, as though it was an old friend rather than a new acquaintance, and she felt rather than watched a tendril of a vine sprout from the ground before her, waving and cracking like a whip.
A gust of wind blew across her left side, throwing her vine to the ground. She caused it to lift itself back off the ground and opened her eyes to see Tempest bow low to her, as she had passed his test, her concentration unbroken. She glared half-heartedly at him, and he stirred the air into a vicious miniature cyclone.
Nai Do Xian, even with his sniper-trained eyes, could barely see the effects of the cyclone, and he knew that hardly anyone else would be able to detect its presence. He ceased his tiny earthquake and caused some of the dirt to fly into the whirlwind, instantly coloring it. Tempest nodded his thanks.
Ta Lian Shi raised his eyebrows and created tiny droplets of water to fall from the space just above the cyclone. Li Wei Yong grinned and focused energy into a diminished bolt of lightning, completing the pseudo-storm.
The female judge stopped in front of the display, glaring in turn at each of those responsible.
Yen Sa, the youngest participant remaining at barely seventeen years of age, laughed at the playfulness of those who obviously had complete control over their element. His fist glowed, a visible indication of his power, but the judges obviously didn't think it enough.
He saw them gather and hold a brief discussion, then head in his direction. In order to ward them off and avoid embarrassment, he opened for a split-second the dam through which his power had only been trickling.
A vivid flash of light was emitted from his fist. The others in the stadium were temporarily blinded and he smiled inwardly as they blinked and rubbed their eyes, trying to clear away the spots. After a few seconds the judges looked inquisitively toward him and he smiled, condensing the light and forcing it into a tiny, powerful beam that danced between his palms.
They turned from Yen Sa and instead directed their questioning toward Zhen Feng Qui, who stood with his arms crossed, slouching lazily and looking as though he awaited them.
"Have you control over your element?" they asked.
"But of course," he said. "Problem is, my element is poison—rare and extremely unorthodox."
"Is there a way you can demonstrate and prove this?" they asked skeptically.
The tall man held up one finger, then bent to pluck a blade of grass from the turf.
The vine in front of Ming fell limply to the ground as she hunched, clutching her stomach and her head.
"Sorry, my queen," he said, slightly alarmed and feeling chagrined for his lack of sensitivity regarding her element. But she waved her hand, indicating for him to continue.
He held the grass high on display. It instantly withered, its color draining away as its every cell died.
"That is impressive, Mr...Zhen?" said the head judge.
"You can drop the 'Mr.'"
"But how will this aid our queen? Can you poison enemies from afar?"
"Of course not. However, I am immune to and can easily detect the presence of any toxin. Besides which, I can create it and use it to cover my weapon and make a simple dart deadly or incapacitating, in any degree."
"Very good," said the judge smiling.
Zhen turned his head to the side, providing his profile as he placed his fists on his hips and puffed out his chest, adopting a ludicrously heroic stance. "But more importantly, I can be the official royal food tester."
Chuckling rippled through the participants who were close enough to hear. The stern woman frowned, then turned with renewed vigor to another who was not conjuring. He fidgeted and his discomfort increased as the judge descended upon him like an enraged falcon.
"Young man, why are you not displaying your talent?"
He avoided her accusing stare. "I-I can't," he admitted.
Lian burst into inconsiderate laughter, the water he'd been sculpting splashing onto the ground. "Who would come today if he couldn't use his element?" he asked scornfully.
"Who would enter if he couldn't use his element?" countered Zhen.
Ming blushed slightly, folding her hands and studying the base of her vine, her head still throbbing from the echoes of the grass's scream.
The participant who had been singled out, having turned a remarkable shade of crimson, fled the arena, trailed by boos and heckling.
The judges converged upon the final unproven person. Kei Sa's head was lowered, her white hood veiling her face.
"Well, young lady?" demanded the female judge.
Kei Sa lifted her head, raising her right hand and holding it, palm forward and fingers spread, just in front of her face. In a decisive instant, she clenched it into a fist.
Throughout the arena, all summoning ceased, the effects and manifestations of the elements abruptly vanishing.
Silence reigned.
Vendetta whirled to face her, anger coloring his face.
Rah Cai Yue laughed, shattering the chilly silence and freeing everyone's breath.
Zhen Feng Qui punched his friend's shoulder. "If she doesn't make it, we'll know it was rigged."
"Indeed," Lian said.