“I couldn’t help overhearing you,” the noble says.“You like the idea of maybe fighting in a true fight, rather than these pit brawls?”
I try to decide whether to be offended by that insult to the fights I’ve had so far, but honestly, it’s only a step away from the kind of thing I’ve been thinking.I nod.
“Well then,” the noble says.“There’s a meeting you need to come to tonight.”
***
I wait and watch in the dark as I approach the entrance to the meeting.I’m used to slinking into unseen spaces for my fights, but doing so has made me cautious.I want to make sure that I’m not just walking into a trap.I want to know that this meeting is a real thing before I walk into anywhere I don’t know.
Especially when it means walking into the crypts and tunnels beneath the city.A lot of fights are in these spaces, but usually, we access them through the cellars of taverns and inns, the backrooms of abandoned houses and small homes.
This is just a gateway leading down into the tunnels.It’s the kind of place that might contain rogue beast whisperers or the remnants of nobles plotting against the Republic, strange creatures or just kidnappers waiting to take a popular fighter to a neighboring kingdom.Slavery might have been ended in the Republic, but there are still plenty of places in the world where I might be sold on if someone captures me.
I wait until I can see others heading down there, in ones and twos at first, but then in larger numbers.I slip in with them, confident that at least I’m not being lured to my doom alone.I follow the crowd down into a large space, lit by flickering torches, with the remnants of a couple of statues holding gladiatorial weapons.One has a short sword and buckler, while the other holds a double bladed staff.
A crowd is waiting there, and I can recognize several fighters from the pits, but also others.There are gladiators there,realgladiators, who fought in the colosseum in the days before it closed.There are people I recognize from my time serving in the colosseum: trainers and armorers, beast tamers and guards.There are others I don’t know, and many others are wrapped in cloaks.
One such cloak-wrapped figure steps up in front of the others, pushing back his hood to reveal the senate member, Domitian.
"Most of you know me," he says."And maybe you can guess why we're all here.I'm pushing in the Senate for the return of the games to the colosseum."
Chatter erupts around me, with people calling out from so many directions I can’t make out all the words.
“What do you mean, the return of the games?”a former gladiator named Glacius demands.He’s in his forties, heavily muscled, with streaks of icy white in his hair that owe more to his power to create freezing cold than to his age.
“I mean what I say,” Domitian says.“The games will return to the city.We’ve already persuaded Rowan to rebuild the colosseum.”
“For civic events, triumphal marches, that kind of thing,” a noble in the crowd says.
"That was the original suggestion," Domitian replies."But we're trying to persuade the Senate to bring back fights.That will work better if all of you start to put pressure on the senators.And when it happens, we'll need the people in place to bring the games back to what they should be."
“What do you mean, what they should be?”Glacius demands, obviously unhappy.“Are you talking about exhibition bouts with blunted weapons?Unarmed pit fights?”
“All of those,” Domitian says, “and that might be where we have to start, but that isn’t where I plan to finish.The games were glorious, and that glory came from the chance of blood being spilled.If we work together, we can bring back lethal combat.We can feed the stones of the city and renew the honor of Aetheria.”
Around me, some people look shocked, while others look hungry, eager for the opportunity to return to that past.Glacius looks anything but convinced.
"This is madness," he says."Foolishness.You want to squander the lives of Aetheria's citizens for nothing more than your own advancement within the Senate."
“Well, I think it’s a good idea.”The words are out of my mouth before I even realize I’m saying them.
Glacius rounds on me, looking me up and down.“And what do you know, boy?I don’t see the brand of the gladiators on your shoulder.”
“I never got the chance to fight,” I explain.I can’t keep the excitement out of my voice.“That’swhyI want the chance to fight in the arena.I want a chance for the same glory you won.”
Glacius snorts.“You don’t even know what the arena is.”
“I saw more of it than most,” I say.“I served there, before I was freed when the Republic overthrew the emperor.”
Glacius laughs.“So now we’re meant to listen to a slave whose contribution to the arena was probably just sleeping with any noble who snapped her fingers.Or his.”
I stand up in front of the others, determined not to back down in the face of Glacius’ bullying.
“I’m a pit fighter,” I say, “and a good one.But that isn’t enough.You’re right, I never got to fight in the arena.And now you’re the one arguing that I shouldn’t even have the chance.Why should you get to have that honor, that glory, and the rest of us don’t?Why shouldn’t I get to follow in the steps of Lyra and Vex?”
Glacius snorts.“As if you could last ten seconds in there.As if any of us should listen to a pathetic little former slave boy who should be on his knees, not-”
I hit him then, putting the full weight of my magic over my fists to lend them power.I hit him with all my weight behind the blow, hit him with everything I have.
