Gladiators of Warsong

by Thomas K. Carpenter

  You have reached level 27!

  You have reached level 28!

  The end of the battle brought a relief so deep that Alex wanted to collapse onto the dirt, but there were hundreds of eyes upon her and she was their new battleleader, so she maintained her fierce resolve.

  As she looked to the Fallen Phoenix banner on the other side of the circle, a memory from earlier in the year returned to her. Alex marched to the other side, climbed up the wall, and used her jagged knife to cut down the banner as a trophy before shoving it into her Handysack.

  This symbolic act woke the stands as they erupted in thunderous applause. The younger members of the clans poured into the battle circle, running towards their new battleleader.

  As they came like a tide to carry her away in victory and celebration, Alex whispered to herself, "One more. One more."

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  The days after the final battle, when Alex was crowned the winner of the clan tournament, earning the right to compete in the Arena of the Gods for the title of Champion of Warsong, went by in a blur.

  The Fallen Phoenixes had been three times their size, so it took time to reorganize the clan under the Bravebear banner. She quickly realized that managing a clan of that size could overwhelm her, so she appointed Sophia Lionheart, Judith the Crusher, Mancalf, and Blaze Frostmane as her counselors, giving them considerable discretion when it came to daily activities.

  There had been some grumbling at first, mostly because the clans had never been united under one battleleader, and they'd thought that there would be no more fights in the circle, but Alex announced that there would be daily battles for rank much as she'd done when the clan was small.

  This seemed to please the gladiators for the time being. Once things had settled down, she planned on letting the majority of them return to their original camps, because there wasn't enough game in the surrounding plains to feed such a large group. She figured they could institute a regular traveling schedule based on the clan hierarchy rather than the whims of the battleleaders. That would also keep them from conspiring to maintain their leadership roles. Everyone would have to fight in the circle to earn and keep their rank.

  Alex spent a chunk of CPs on upgrading the longhouse and other buildings to more permanent structures, saving the rest to qualify for the final tournament, which she learned would occur in a month's time. This would give her a chance to return to Invictus for her meeting with Dr. Althud with plenty of time to travel to the city of Warsong at the center of the zone.

  For herself, she put all points into Cunning, then examined the new spell she'd earned from leveling up.

  Spell: Tactical Phantasm – Tier 1

  Faez: 35 ׀ Range: 50 feet

  Effect: Create an illusionary version of yourself that you can transfer your agro to. The illusion will remain until damaged.

  She learned that the champion she would face in the Arena of the Gods was called the Crimson Scourge for their dominance in the battle circle and their bright red armor.

  When she had a moment's respite in the longhouse, which had been transformed into a great hall, she asked Sophia if she knew anything about her future opponent.

  "I'm sure they're formidable, but I have no doubt that you can beat them. Yours is the most cunning mind to ever enter the battle circle," said Sophia as they sat in the council room eating roast boar and drinking honey mead.

  "But the final battle is a fight for the crowd's favor. What I'm good at doesn't look like much," said Alex, wiping her greasy fingers on her leathers.

  "You beat Tormane head to head for leadership of Bravebears," said Sophia, setting down the leg of boar she'd been gnawing on.

  "But had to rely on a trick to beat him a second time," said Alex.

  "A masterful trick it was," said Sophia, shaking her head. "How long had you two planned that?"

  "A few days," said Alex. "Once I heard about the Impossible Armor, I knew we weren't going to win in a straight-up fight. The only shame is that the armor can only be donned once per year, but I guess an artifact like that would be too powerful without some restrictions."

  "Still," said Sophia, eyes alight with possibilities, "who else would have thought of such subterfuge?"

  "You can stretch your mind to a lot of things if your life is on the line," said Alex with a heavy sigh.

  "Life is on the line? I don't understand. We battle for glory on the Warsong Plains, not life and death," said Sophia, head tilted.

  "It's complicated," said Alex, right as Nayiri burst into the room. "Anyway, I wouldn't have had a chance to pull that trick if you hadn't won the second match."

  "You provided the inspiration," said Sophia, who looked to the side as if she'd thought of something important.

  Nayiri bounced her way to the head of the table, then threw herself into Alex's lap.

  "Hey, love," she said, staring into her black eyes, which reminded her of the vastness of space.

  "Hey," said Nayiri, a coy grin perched on her lips, ready to leap off with a kiss. "Thank you for last night."

  Alex closed her eyes and pressed her forehead against Nayiri's as she cupped her face in her hand, relishing in her sweet smell. With only one more step to becoming Champion of Warsong, her time in the zone was coming to an end. Alex had no idea what would happen to her friends or the clan when she moved on. Would they transform into a new zone just as the Warped Forest had reset, reforming with warped elementals rather than warped animals? Or could they be set free from the bonds of the zone?

  Dr. Althud had told her to form relationships, that they would help her with the brain tumor. But these couldn't last. Even if Sophia and Nayiri and the others continued, Alex had to move on.

  "What's wrong?" asked Nayiri, pulling away slightly with her head tilted.

  "It's been a long year," said Alex, lips squeezed tight. "I'm tired and I don't want it to end."

  "But you'll be Champion of Warsong soon," said Nayiri, eyes bright with ideas. "Then we can spend our days presiding over endless battles in the Arena of the Gods. Our glory will multiply."

  Her dreams sounded wonderful, but they only reminded Alex that none of this was real, even if it felt and smelled and tasted like it was. It was hard to fathom that last night with Nayiri wasn't real, but that was the way of things. But she didn't want to think about goodbyes, not when there was still more to do.

  "The magical items," said Sophia suddenly, slapping her hand on the table. "I'd been wondering how they figured out our teams when only a few of us knew what they were. But it was the magical items. When we gave them out, we made it obvious who was going to fight next."

  "Thankfully we were able to overcome that mistake," said Alex, tapping on Nayiri's shoulder to let her know that she needed to get up.

  "What's wrong?" asked Nayiri, out of her lap.

  "I have to go," said Alex. "But don't worry, I'll be back in a few days, a week at the most. We're not leaving for Warsong until after that, so there's plenty of time."

  "Where do you go?" asked Nayiri, hands clenched against her chest.

  "I'm...I'm from another land," said Alex. "I must return from time to time to take care of things there."

  "What's it like?" asked Nayiri.

  "Quite different in some respects," said Alex. "But also quite similar."

  Nayiri flattened her lips. "That doesn't explain a thing. Is it a good or bad place?"

  Alex laughed. "Good, mostly, except for one very unfortunate thing."

  "What's that?" she asked.

  Alex wrapped Nayiri in her arms and gave her a deep kiss. "That you're not there."

  Her eyes lit up. "Then take me with you!"

  A knot caught in Alex's chest. "I...I can't. I'm sorry."

  Nayiri didn't seem to mind the denial. Instead, she placed her finger against her breastbone. "When you come back, you have to tell me all about it. At least give me that much."

  "A fair compromise," said Alex.

  After giving her girlfrien
d one last kiss, she triggered the log out sequence, giving Nayiri a wave right before she disappeared.

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  After months of the clan tournament, returning to Gamemakers Hall felt anticlimactic. She'd gotten used to the fawning attention of her clan, or the spiteful glares of the others, but the empty hallways back in the real world felt like they were the fake place.

  But that was the nature of games—they squeezed out the boring bits between, leaving nothing but nonstop excitement and the joy of progression.

  Alex took a lap around the building, finding that she was the only one outside the game currently. Not even Professor Marzio was in his office.

  The only sign she had of recent activity was a strange drawing on a pad of paper in the kitchen. Someone had sketched a device in the shape of a triangle. At first glance, she thought it was a three-part staff, or coiling dragon staff—she'd played an anime-based game a few years ago that had them as weapon options—except the staff sections had details inside of them that were too finely drawn to understand.

  Alex was surprised to find it was springtime outside the hall. The birds were active and the cracks in the sidewalks were filled with new grass. The air smelled fresh and she kept expanding her chest to fill herself. Months of battle with the clans had conditioned her to think that body odor was the natural scent of the land, so it was nice to breathe fresh air.

  On the way out, she swung by the warehouse where Andre and his friends had been watching the Hall from. The huge space had been cleared out except for a few old rusted machines on the other side. They had a living space set up right inside the door consisting of a couple of card tables, a ratty couch covered in duct tape, and a bright orange milk crate filled with gaming supplies.

  Alex shook a bag of dice and riffled through the materials, finding a folder of character sheets. When she lifted it, a picture fell out that she rescued from the dust on the cracked concrete floor. It was a picture of the five of them. She assumed it was Freeport Games by the room full of tables with kids playing board games in the background. Alex recognized Andre, Doug, and Miranda from her previous encounter with them and assumed the other two—a chubby guy with a cleft chin wearing a Wizard's Wax Museum T-shirt and a cute girl with an aqua Mohawk—were Hayden and Isla respectively. The girl, Isla, wore a mathlete shirt over a plaid skirt. Alex felt weird snooping through their gear, so she put them back without looking at any more of them.

  The whole train ride to Dr. Althud's left Alex a little bewildered, especially as she was so keenly aware how no one made eye contact, or interacted. Spending so long in the game, living in a hut and surrounded by rolling plains, made the real world feel harsh in comparison, even though she spent much of that time being stabbed in the battle circle. But it was that comradery around the regular combat that had bonded them.

  "Yeah, ritualized combat will bring the world together," she muttered to herself with a little laugh at the end.

  Dr. Althud answered the door soon after she knocked, wearing black-and-white robes with a fencing mask covering his face.

  "Alexandria," he said, inclining his head in greeting. "I was wondering if you ever planned to come back."

  "Is it still okay? Is this a bad time?" she asked.

  "No, it is fine. And my apologies, you wanted to be called Alex, right?" he asked as he stepped aside to let her into his apartment.

  "Yes, thank you," she said.

  He led her into the examination room. Along the way, she was able to notice more details than last time. Suitcases had been piled in the corner next to a backpack. He had a painting of a Menger sponge—a mathematical construct with infinite surface area—on one wall. Other art objects displayed similar ideas: impossible architectures that were allowed mathematically, but were difficult to comprehend. Alex had always enjoyed them because they stretched her mind like a Buddhist kaon.

  "So...what's the plan, doc?" she asked after she climbed onto the crinkling paper of the examination table.

  "I've been doing some research, looking for other examples of a tumor in this location, but I've found few precedents," said Dr. Althud with his hands clasped before him.

  "Great, I'm a cancer pioneer. Does that mean I'll have it named after me?" she asked.

  "Actually, it might," he said.

  "Not exactly how I wanted to become famous," said Alex.

  He nodded. "Agreed. I think the problem with your tumor is how it got there. There have been no other instances of a tumor growing around the faez conduit because it usually cannot."

  "Is that good or bad?" she asked.

  He tilted his head. "I think good, but I don't know for certain, mostly because the raw stuff of magic is poorly understood. Where does it come from? Is it matter from another universe? Maybe another realm? But for the context of your tumor, it might be that we can use the magic to help shrink it."

  "I thought you said not to use magic," she said.

  "I'm working on a theory, but we're going to have to test it. Are you up for that?" he asked.

  "Of course," she said.

  He held his gloved hands up. "I'm going to place my hands on your head. Once I do, I want you to think about a difficult relationship, something that causes you some heartache, while performing a small bit of magic, nothing that requires a lot of faez, but that you can do easily."

  She knew exactly what moment she would think of, because it was a memory that never really went away for her.

  "I'll make a flame," she said, holding her hand out, palm up.

  "Great," he said. "I'm placing my hands on your head now."

  With his hands against her temples, a tingling sensation went through her. She closed her eyes, which emphasized the closeness of the doctor. He smelled like something old and wet, as if he'd been dragged out of the ocean.

  "Think about that difficult relationship and make your flame," he said.

  Alex pictured the last day she'd seen her father, right before the accident. She remembered it vividly...

  ...the door had squeaked open, but she'd ignored it, focused on the eighteen ogre champions she was kiting through the Bloated Swamp, dodging past fetid pools and dangerous viper vines.

  She was almost to level 75, which she needed to reach to be able to join a guild for raiding. It'd been hard fitting in grinding to max level with school, but it'd be worth it when she killed the Dread Archmage in the Citadel of the Arcane Dream.

  "Hey, Alexandria."

  It was her dad.

  "Hey," she said as she recast Cloud of Insects on the ogre champions.

  "I was thinking we could go hiking today. It's blue skies forever," he said. "I thought we could go to the Devil's Icebox. I know you're always asking. I have a lunch packed."

  "Uhm," she said as she narrowly kept a viper vine from tangling around her legs. "Got this thing...almost...to level 75."

  "Oh," he said. "Can't take a break?"

  "No," she said, recasting Mass Slow to keep the ogre champions at bay. It'd taken weeks of camping the Last Aerie to get the ultra-rare Belt of Time Distortion that allowed her to kite mass groups of enemies without them catching her. "The raid is tomorrow. I have to be level 75 if I want to be included."

  "Oh," said her dad. "Okay. Maybe I'll just go into work today, since you're busy. That way we can have time later when you're free."

  "Uhm, yeah. Sure, Dad," she said.

  When Dr. Althud's hands pulled away from her head, she let the flame on her palm dissipate into a thin wisp of smoke. The memory left her cold. She pulled her arms around her chest, squeezing herself.

  "Was that the day he died?" asked Dr. Althud.

  Alex nodded absently as she stared at the corner of the room. She wished she'd taken the time to go on a hike with her dad. A few years before that she was always begging to go to Devil's Icebox. If they'd taken that trip, he wouldn't have gone to work and fallen off the roof when the scaffolding collapsed. She knew it wasn't her fault. She didn't cause the accident, but she'd
never be able to erase the regrets of that day.

  "I'm sorry, Alex. I'm sure that's very difficult for you," he said.

  She lifted her head, looking at Dr. Althud's featureless mask.

  "I know I didn't cause it. It was just bad, shitty luck. Just like the stupid tumor with my mom. But it doesn't make me feel any better about how he died," said Alex, staring at the clock on the wall.

  "Even if he'd died a different day, under different circumstances, you'd still blame yourself. Survivor's guilt is an illogical, but unfortunate truth that you must deal with," said Dr. Althud.

  Alex rubbed her palm with the thumb of her other hand. "What did my magic tell you?"

  Dr. Althud took a deep breath before he answered. "This isn't an ordinary tumor, nor are you an ordinary girl."

  "Am I Supergirl?" she joked.

  "That might make this easier," he said, and she sensed a smile behind his mask. "When you were thinking about your father, things were happening in the tumor and in the area around it. It appears these things are now linked. Your Transference spell did more than move the tumor, it changed your brain, connected things that were never meant to be connected."

  "What does that mean for me?" she asked.

  "That is what we're going to have to find out," he said.

  "When do we start?"

  "Unfortunately, I am leaving on a journey for a few months. It was good you came when you did, or you would have missed me," he said.

  "The suitcases," she said, understanding.

  "Yes. But no worries. My absence will not be an issue for your treatment. In fact, I think it's best that you work on some things first before we meet again. Based on my analysis, I think your emotional state, the tumor, and your magic are all linked now," he said.

  "Do I get more power when I have my period or something?" she asked sardonically.

  When he tilted his head in confusion, she added, "A joke, Doc."

  "Ahh...well my homework for you is to work on your personal relationships both in your games and outside of them. The stronger your links with others, the better you're going to be able to withstand the effects of the tumor," said Dr. Althud.