Digital Me

by Alston Sleet

  If he dies in the dungeon then I would receive a large stipend as the dowager of a Baron-in-waiting, if he wins in the duel then I could possibly entice him to my bed tonight, a distasteful but necessary duty, but if he loses…I may find myself bowing and scrapping just to keep Sasha with me.

  “His name is Shawn Bradshaw, I don’t know what that family name means or where it hails from, no one has heard of a House Bradshaw. I’ll bribe for a check of the historical records later. He is assumed to be of common birth,” Sasha said as we hustled as quickly as propriety allowed towards the square.

  “He is a wizard of some kind, farming for House Delsar, rumor has it that he hasn’t claimed any rewards from his work except room and board,” Sasha reverted to whispers as we neared the square. Her training was excellent and she recognized that I needed to appear calm and supportive of my brave and daring husband as he unnecessarily risks his life and our future.

  “There are many other rumors surrounding him, all silly and nonsensical. Apparently, he has only shown one spell in his fights in the dungeon, a type of shield spell, his sword work is mediocre at best though he is known for fighting viciously.”

  A poor ‘wizard’? His fighting for what is essentially free and fighting with a sword means he is either a hedge wizard, someone who has only been able to access a few spell stones or someone who was dismissed from his apprenticeship early on, or he is one of the rare wild talents who seem to be able to develop a spell or two spontaneously but never more. He should be relatively easy prey for Valient, for all his faults Valiant’s arm was swift and his sword was magical with both cleave and thrust enchantments. Few would challenge him though unless sure of their win. This magical shield must be what this wizard is relying on.

  Sasha dropped her voice almost to nothing as we arrived at the square and headed toward the traditional spot for the challenged persons entourage, “No one is sure exactly who this wizard is, he might be foreign, if so it would explain things. He has routinely passed insults to nobles and rich merchants alike. He never allows a rich merchant to pass him in the tunnels, he just continues on with his place in line like nothing is the matter. He never ducks his head or bows to nobles, he has given every indication that he thinks himself to have the same station as any noble: Baron or Duke, he has acted the same.”

  This was sounding more and more like a setup. Wizard enters, acts rude, insults all, challenges Valient, kills him in the duel, then disappears, which would be even worse than my worst case scenario. I may soon find myself penniless, without even the support due to myself as the widow of a duelist.

  I needed to act fast just in case the worse comes to pass, “Find Delana Delsar, get her and have her stand next to me, remind her about how I squashed the rumors about the clan head, I need her beside me in case Valient loses. With her next to me House Delsar will force things to the right for us no matter how it comes out.”

  “Yes mistress,” was all Sasha murmured as she rushed away.

  It took everything not to pace as I waited for the duelists or Delana and Sasha. A long ten minutes later Delana slowly walked over with Sasha. I could feel my breath leave me as I noticed that Delana had a hand fan but no veil. The fan was for covering the face when around a corpse, a veil to show respect for the fallen. To bring one but not the other means both that this was planned and that the wizard would not be losing. Delana would never let herself be shown as anything but perfect and proper. Her power came from perfect control of the social scene, disrespect shown for her own fallen without a veil would topple her position. If this goes as she is indicating she will gain even more social control with just that one indication of the hidden deals she must have been privy too.

  “I see that House Delsar repays debts with a dagger in the dark,” here I found myself failing the most basic of social protocols, I snapped when angry instead of presenting a pleasant face and sweet words.

  “Oh no dear, tonight House Delsar repays your, not your husbands, but instead your efforts. You will soon consider our debt paid in full, be careful with your words or you will soon find yourself in greater debt to us.”

  Slowly I covered my face with my fan and turned to stare at the sands of the dueling square. I could feel sand grit on the stone bench as I tried not to move as I fumed. There was obviously a deep plot in development here, my lack of knowledge could do more than the normal damage to my social standing, this lack of knowledge could unseat all I had been working for. Delana was insinuating that my old plots were ended and new ones would need to be formed.

  Another five minutes of silent brooding was broken by Valient and his cohorts streaming around the square with but one lone wizard standing on the other side. He was a large man, brown hair, with a decent figure, a dagger and sword by his side. Slowly the man worked to remove his belt with sword and dagger, throwing them to the side.

  “He is fighting Valient without weapons?” I couldn’t help my questioning outburst, though I reflexively kept it to a low tone and an aside to my companions.

  “No dear, your husband insulted our man. Shawn returned the favor by simply giving him a glare. Your husband then demanded a duel. I’m sure you know a simple glare wouldn’t be enough according to your husband’s vow to you, but then we all know your husband is less than faithful to his vows,” a blatant reminder of the whores I had to threaten and pay for silence, “but Shawn offered to make the duel slightly more fair by fighting him to the death…naked,” Delana said with more than a hint of a smile. She wasn’t even bothering to hide her face with her fan, she wanted everyone to know she was happy with the outcome.

  Belatedly I covered my open mouth with my fan as I watched the wizard slowly strip down naked before entering the square. The insult of challenging Valient, one of the best swordsman of the Kingdom, to a duel to the death naked as a way of making it ‘more fair for Valient‘…I suddenly had no qualms with my husband dueling this man. While Delana was expecting his win, at this point I had nothing I could do but watch and wait. The insult to my husband had to be answered, nothing else could be allowed or we would lose all standing except economic and that power lasts but a short time if no one will buy from you.

  My husband’s deep voice boomed out and hushed the tittering crowd, “This man has challenged me to a duel to the death, let no man contest the outcome, for the insult of suggesting that he would need to fight naked to balance the scales of my initial challenge, I claim right of final blood,” the ritual words seemed particularly vicious as the charge for death versus first blood or yield was claimed.

  All eyes turned towards the wizard as to his response, would he now kowtow and request yield or first blood for his brazen behavior?

  Looking around the wizard shouted to the onlookers, “What? Fuck this guy. I’m just wondering if I can figure out a way to make it easier on him, maybe use only my left hand?”

  With that, the wizard positioned himself into an obvious charging stance. Feet placed wide apart, one further back, body leaning forward, arms held slightly wide.

  His position was so clearly one where he was planning to run forward and tackle Valient I was wondering what the actual plan was. The obviousness of the positioning screamed bluff even to a noncombatant like me. No one would charge directly into the teeth of Valiant’s defense naked with arms wide.

  Silently the wizard charged straight in, arms wide, attempting to plow through my husband’s defense. Valiant’s response was lightning fast, he stepped forward, slammed his sword directly into the wizard’s heart, the blade punching from the wizards back in an explosion of blood and gore. Just as quickly Valient stepped back and pulling the sword from its new viscera sheath swinging it down as the blood streamed across the ground behind him in crimson droplets.

  Falling to his knees the wizard disappeared. Just as suddenly the wizard appeared across from Valient and slammed into him knocking both to the ground. The wizard drove his fists into Valient as he struggled to free himself. With a block of his arm, his sword sw
ung up and sliced through the wizard’s neck, only the cleave enchantment allowing for such ease of cutting from so awkward an angle.

  Again, the wizard disappeared and appeared once more across from Valient. This time there was enough time for Valient to raise himself to his feet as he struck out at the wizard, his strike this time using pure muscle power and skill to slice through the wizards neck instead of wasting magic on the cleave enchantment. Upon the appearance of the wizard this time Valient had moved back and raised his sword point, the wizard jerked to a pause and started to circle then rushed at Valient in an attack. The scene repeating itself over and over again.

  “Illusion magic? How is he avoiding the sword, and why are his illusions able to cause damage?” I questioned Dalana as I watched the odd battle, the wounds on Valient small but the constant strikes for attack and occasional returned strikes clearly starting to tire him.

  Dalana, face still bare, leaned towards me eyes never leaving the fight, “No illusion. Shawn is immortal. Each time he is slain he reforms unharmed. His prowess with a sword is lacking, I admit, but his fire for the fight combined with his unique talent means this fight was concluded before it started.”

  Again I found myself forgetting to cover my gaping mouth with my veil.

  As Dalana said, the fight was a foregone conclusion. Valient struck and killed Shawn hundreds of times, occasionally he would swing and catch where the wizard was appearing only to have the wizard appear moments later. At one point his swing of decapitation had the wizard appearing the moment after the blade passed through his neck. Each kill, each swing, and later each desperate dodge, left Valient more tired than the last while the wizard seemed to stay fresh and as vicious as his first lunge.

  Eventually, the wizard had Valient pinned, his sword kicked away in a previous scuffle; He began pummeling Valiant’s face, the crack of bones and spray of blood a counterpoint to the rhythmic rain of blows. Finally as the body below him slowed in its struggles the wizard started to strike at Valiant’s throat, an obvious attempt to end things. In his last pitiful attempt to protect himself, my husband tucked his chin downward, even at the end he fought. The strike from the side of his chin ended all his final struggles, the crack of his neck snapping far louder in the silence of the audience around the dueling square.

  A gentle tap from Sasha to my side broke me out of the clutch of my horror.

  Raising myself from the bench I donned my veil and slowly approached the wizard as he pulled his naked and bloody form from the corpse of my late husband. I was surprised to see tears in the eyes of this violent killer.

  Slowly I stepped around the corpse and the splatters of blood; the ritual words had to be said.

  With a respectful bow, I solemnly intoned, “I praise you champion, I was Seren of House Turmins by marriage, I am now Seren of Bradshaw, well met my husband.”

  Chapter 14

  …You Get What You Need.

  Kneeling on the hard ground of the dueling square I could feel my hands throb, blood smeared on my knuckles, crimson dots lightly dusted across my face from the impacts. The sound of Valient’s neck snapping with that final punch, the impact was still vibrating up into my tired arms. I could feel my eyes slowly starting to water, it took an act of focus to keep them from overflowing. Part of the goal of this death is to prevent attacks against me in the future, his death becomes meaningless if I let the effects of this death show.

  There was time enough to cry in solitude.

  It wasn’t until slippered feet with legs clothed in a flowing black dress approached that I realized I had been kneeling next to the corpse for a long period of time. Slowly I stood up as I backed away. The woman who approached seemed to ignore my nakedness, the blood, and the dust of the dueling square. She was followed by a demure servant as she slowly approached in a measured cadence. Her white hands a sharp contrast to the black of her dress and veil, hiding her face with a fan, she lightly stepped around Valient’s body.

  With a small bow she spoke, “I praise you champion, I was Seren of House Turmins by marriage, I am now Seren of Bradshaw, well met my husband.”

  Gained a Wife: Seren Bradshaw.

  Title Gained: Husband to Seren Bradshaw.

  My only excuse was that I was still experiencing the odd fight in little flashbacks; the feel of a man’s face as the flesh distorted on impact, his desperate struggles to throw me off, the wet meaty sounds as my fists landed.

  “I don’t have a fucking wife!”

  In Violation of Agreement with: Valient of House Turmins.

  Cause: Standard Loson duel to the death agreement.

  Secondary Cause: Lie. “I don’t have a fucking wife!”

  I felt something, some part of me I hadn’t noticed was there slowly start to fade away. With a quick look to the ground, I tried moving the earth and nothing happened but a gentle ripple. My heart started to race and I felt like I couldn’t get a complete breath. I could feel myself slowly hunching over. I remember the anxiety attacks I had experienced in confinement and I recognized the symptoms though it helped in no way to slow the onset.

  Then came the whispers. Gentle voices, angry voices, men, women, children, grumbles and laughing, all repeating the same phrase: ‘I don’t have a fucking wife!”

  I couldn’t help but glance around quickly trying to find the source, but only the widow, her maid, and a woman I had seen at Delsar house were near me. Most of the watchers had quickly left, a few men stood at the edge of the square but seemed content to wait silently till we were done.

  Quickly I stammered out an apology. “I’m sorry, I have a wife. Her name is Seren Bradshaw. I will follow the standard Loson duel to the death agreement…as soon as I know what that is.”

  Slowly the voices faded and I felt my magic starting to return. The process of my magic returning was slow but noticeable.

  Eventually, my eyes returned to the women in front of me, both the maid and the representative from House Delsar had stepped back a pace at my wild actions and outburst.

  “Does an illness of the mind affect you?”

  Her voice was strong, without inflection sounding barely even curious.

  Even as I answered I was trying to review the new information, “It’s part of the rules of my immortality, I can’t lie and I can’t break an agreement, apparently not even to a dead man. I agreed to the rules of the duel, and now I need to follow through on it,” I said absentmindedly as I pondered why the punishment lasted for so short a time.

  I guessed that the negligible damage of my actions and the quick reversal of my position reduced the severity. Not a test I wanted to make, but one I expected and dreaded to have answered sometime in the future.

  “So my new husband can be killed after lying?”

  Again, strong voice, no inflection, barely sounding curious. This question sounded to my ear like the start of a far more troubling trend.

  I straightened and carefully focused on my new wife, “No, my immortality is innate. It will never leave me. I am just punished by those who put me in this world if I break an agreement or if I lie. My little outburst there apparently counted as both.”

  With a shake of my head, I continued, “I’m sorry, let’s get you away from here. I…I don’t know what to say. I just killed your husband and now we are married? I…I don’t even know what…” my voice just trailed off into confusion. I had no clue how to deal with this situation. Whatever was going on, I was so out of my depth as to be unsure which way to even look for light.

  Stepping forward quickly Delsar’s representative said, “My husband will pay for the preparation and transport of the body to the lands of House Turmins. We will, of course, prepare a room for your new wife,” with a quick glance at both the maid and Sensa she continued, “next to your husband’s room. One with a lock.”

  That last line seemed to imply that I should leave Sensa alone and not bother her, a comment I found a bit insulting. I wasn’t some slathering beast that I would harass a poor woman the
night that her husband was killed, especially not as the man who did the deed, or any night after for that matter.

  I could visibly see both the maid and Sensa taking comfort from the statement, her maid moving closer to her mistress.

  “Just to be clear, I won’t be touching you unless you offer it, and I sure as hell don’t think that’s going to be happening. I just don’t know what my duties are here and I need someone to tell me what those rules are.”

  Dispassionately she answered me, even as her husband’s corpse cooled behind her, “The widow of a duel is taken by the winner of the duel, ‘let no man contest the result’ says just that. You have won, and by tradition the only one who can refuse the marriage is me. No one can force me to stay married to you. After all, if I poison you in refusal, it’s hard for me to be wed to a corpse.”

  Ignoring the obvious, though useless, threat her words contained I couldn’t keep the revulsion from my voice as I asked, “Why would you people accept such a crazy system?”

  “Earn the power to protect yourself, or accept the protection and rule of others. These are the rules of the world,” though she said this with a calm and almost monotone voice I could see the slight sneer on her lip below the half veil, “the widow gains the protection of the champion. It also allows a woman a chance to have the lover she wants even if she is betrothed to another, all he must do is prove he can protect her. If a woman can’t stand her protector then she can prove it by killing him and stand on her own.”

  I could feel myself frowning deeply. These rules felt like some of the old rules from my own world. Obvious measures of control on a woman while also sounding like they provided protection and special treatment…as long as you didn’t look at those rules too closely or think too hard about how they were used.

  As the lady of House Delsar walked off to address the men waiting, who I now realize were undertakers of some kind. It was the work of a few moments to put my pants on and hold the rest of my gear then we started to slowly walk towards house Delsar. I would fully dress after washing.