Magium

by Chris Michael Wilson

  I put my notebook back in my backpack, and I prepare to go to sleep. I’ll have more time to study tomorrow.

  Before falling asleep, Leila came to knock on my door, in order to bring me back my clothes. I asked her if she came up with any ideas, but she said that the only thing that came to her mind was that we could try to crush the troll’s head, after we behead him, in the hopes that the head will no longer regenerate after it’s been cut off from the body.

  The next day, our recreation period was scheduled towards noon. As I stepped out of my cell to meet the others, I noticed, to my surprise, that everyone was gathered in the middle of the room, sitting on the floor, except for Wilhelm, who was standing up, shuffling a deck of cards.

  “You’re late!” Wilhelm says. “Have a seat. We were almost about to start without you.”

  “What’s going on, here?” I ask Wilhelm.

  “You are wondering,” says Wilhelm, “why we are all suddenly on friendly terms after we’ve been mostly ignoring each other for the past few days? The answer is simple. It’s because the owner of the arena just paid us a visit.”

  “The owner?” I ask him, surprised.

  “Yes,” Wilhelm says. “He was told by the guards in this place that we haven’t really been using these recreation periods to get to know each other. He therefore decided to come here personally, in order to graciously inform us that if we aren’t planning to act as a team, he will be sending us one by one to our deaths, instead of giving us the chance to work together. He also let us know that today’s recreation period is the last time when we can prove that we are able to cooperate with each other.”

  “So, that’s why you’re all playing cards, then?” I say.

  “Well, we had to start somewhere,” Wilhelm says. “And I just happened to have a deck of cards with me, so I said, why not?”

  “Fair enough,” I say. “So, what exactly are we playing?”

  “We’re playing a game of shut your mouth, and pick up the damn cards,” one of the two thugs tells me, in a menacing tone.

  “If the game is called ‘shut your mouth’, then why are your lips moving?” I say.

  “What did you just say to me, you piece of sh—” the thug starts to say, while he gets up, but he gets interrupted by Wilhelm.

  “Now, now,” Wilhelm says, as he puts a hand on the thug’s shoulder, in order to stop him from reaching me. “We’re all supposed to act as a team here, remember?”

  “Get your filthy hand off me, you lowborn scum,” the thug tells Wilhelm.

  I’m not sure if anyone else noticed, but for a second, there, I’m pretty sure that I could see Wilhelm’s cheerful expression turn into one of pure bloodlust, as he heard the thug’s words. I didn’t get to see any more of his reaction, because Bruce suddenly began to laugh out loud, causing us all to turn our eyes to him, instead.

  “Did you just call him a lowborn scum?” Bruce says. “And what are you supposed to be? The long lost prince of Olmnar?”

  “No,” says the mage that got locked up here, yesterday. “That makes him a disinherited noble. Take a good look at that filthy rag that he’s wearing as a scarf. It bears the mark of the Tilirius family.”

  “The Tilirius family?” Bruce says. “Hah! So, I guess that makes him a highborn scum, then. My apologies!”

  He laughs again.

  “Can we please get back to our game of cards?” Wilhelm asks. “The guards are still listening.”

  “Nobody cares about your game of cards, Wilbert,” Bruce says. “The owner said we have to talk, so we’re talking. He didn’t say anything about playing cards. Go do it by yourself, if you like playing cards so much.”

  “My name is Wilhelm, not Wilbert,” Wilhelm says, in a calm but menacing tone.

  As Wilhelm stops talking, a blue writing appears in the middle of us, with large characters, so that we can all see it clearly.

  “Please excuse me,” the text says, “but I would like to begin discussing our strategy for tomorrow, now, if you all don’t mind.”

  We all turn towards Leila, who is staring at us with an upset look on her face.

  “Oh, uh…” Bruce says. “Of course, of course… Maybe we should start doing that.”

  “I could not agree more,” Wilhelm says.

  “And just what are we supposed to talk about, exactly?” the mage says. “We still haven’t been given any information in regards to tomorrow’s events. The only thing we know so far is that we’re likely going to be battling mythical creatures of some kind, in one of the rounds.”

  Leila gives me a look. I think she’s trying to tell me that this would be the best moment for me to let everyone know about what we found out in the caverns. I nod to her shortly, as I begin to address the others.

  “Actually there is some information that I would like to share with you all,” I say. “But you’d better brace yourselves, because this is going to get long.”

  I then start telling everyone about our trip to the underground caverns, and what we discovered there.

  During our conversation, I purposely omitted to tell them how exactly we reached the tunnels, and I did not tell them about our encounter with Flower and Illuna either, but I tried to describe the rest of our adventure to them in as much detail as possible, while simultaneously avoiding to tell them any information that might lead them to know that we are lessathi, and that we are using stat devices. After I was done with the story, I also gave them a quick summary of what I know about each of the creatures we’ve met, including their behaviors and their weaknesses, and I also told them my theory about the troll’s unusual regeneration ability.

  “This is all very useful information,” Wilhelm says, after I’m done with the briefing. “I happened to overhear the guards last night saying that we’d be fighting a troll named Velgos in the second round, but I would have never imagined him to be so powerful. What I would like to add is that I’ve also heard them talk about manticores, which I don’t believe you’ve met in the underground caverns. If your notebook has as much information in it as you’ve claimed, maybe you should do some research about them as well.”

  “I actually already did some research about them,” I say. “I forgot to mention it before, but I also managed to overhear the guards talking about some of the monsters we might have to fight in the arena. In that discussion, they mentioned manticores and giant scorpions. I’ll give you the briefing on them later.”

  “So, about that trapdoor which you triggered accidentally,” Bruce says, “did you try to see if you could activate it again?”

  “I’ve tried a few times after that,” Leila writes, “but I didn’t get it to work.”

  “Any chance we could have a look inside your room?” Bruce says. “Maybe one of us can figure it out.”

  “No,” Leila writes. “I’m not letting either of you inside my room.”

  “Except for the stillwater?” the mage says.

  “Except for the stillwater,” Leila writes, simply.

  “So our greatest problem remains the troll, then…” Wilhelm says. “I don’t know what to say about that aura theory. I’m not really one to talk, because I’ve never studied magic, but it seems a little far-fetched to me.”

  “I like Leila’s idea about crushing the head better,” Bruce says. “I doubt he’ll be able to regenerate it once it’s been cut off.”

  “Either way,” Wilhelm says, “what I think we can all agree on is that there’s no way we could face these enemies alone. I know that we can’t really stand each other, but we’re going to have to call a truce until at least after the arena events. Our survival depends on it.”

  For once, everyone agreed with Wilhelm, even if some did so more begrudgingly than others, and we decided to spend the rest of the recreation period discussing various strategies that could work against the monsters that we knew about, but also against other monsters that I’ve read about in my notes. We even agreed to have a second meeting later, after we’d spend some time alone in ou
r rooms, mulling over the information that we had at our disposal.

  By the end of the day, we didn’t manage to come up with better plans against the troll than our original ones, so all we could do was hope that at least one of them would work out alright. After going back to my room in the evening and lying down on my bed, my last thoughts before going to sleep went to the vision that I had about Wilhelm stabbing me in the back, during the arena event.

  It’s going to be fine. I already know what he’s up to. As long as I never take my eyes off him, he won’t be able to surprise me.

  I decide to think no further about this, and I go to sleep. The next day, I get woken up in the morning by one of the guards, telling me to pack my bags, because we’re leaving in twenty minutes. I put all my stuff back in my backpack, and then I walk out the door and into the recreation room, where the other members of my division were slowly starting to gather up. As soon as we’re all set to go, we begin to leave our division’s area one by one, and we stop outside the door, where we are greeted by an employee of the arena, who collects all of our keys, and tells us to follow him.

  As we all walk through the dimly lit tunnels, members from other divisions are slowly beginning to walk out of their division areas as well, and follow their guides through the corridors. When we finally reach the upper levels, we are told to line up in an orderly fashion, so that the guards who were sent to escort us to the arena will have an easier time keeping an eye on us. I didn’t get to see any of my friends as we advanced towards the arena, but I did see a pretty big crowd of people making its way to the arena to see the show, and a very long line at the ticket booth.

  The guards lead us through the gladiator entrance of the arena, and they show us to our locker rooms, where we get to store our belongings for the duration of the show. After we’re done putting our backpacks in the lockers, the guards tell us that we’re allowed to roam freely through the area designated for the gladiators until the events begin, but that we will need to gather up in the waiting area of our division after the sound of the first horn.

  I figured that this would be the best moment to arrange a meeting between Leila and Kate, so I told Leila about my idea, and asked her to follow me. She seemed a bit hesitant at first, but in the end, she decided to come with me.

  The area that we were given access to was the one right below the spectator seats, circling the area where the fighting is about to take place. The fighting area reserved for the gladiators looks much larger than those from the arenas that I’ve read about before, in history books. The amphitheater surrounding the arena seems big enough to host thirty thousand spectators, if not more, and yet, it does not seem that the seats are in any danger of not being filled. Even at this early hour in the morning, there are thousands of spectators pouring in through all the entrances, and then making their way through the rising tiers of seats, eager to reach their reserved spots, and to watch the event of the century.

  It seems that three days were more than enough to spread the word throughout the city about today’s event. We make our way through the lower level of the coliseum, while I look around, scanning the groups of gladiators to see if I can spot anyone I know.

  Half an hour later, we are still nowhere close to finding any trace of them. I tried reaching them through Daren’s transceiver as well, but I’ve had no luck. There must be too many people trying to use transceivers in the area to be able to lock onto the correct signals. Where could they all be? The horn that announces the start of the events could be sounding any minute now.

  “Leila?” I hear Kate’s voice behind me. “Leila, is that really you?”

  Leila turns around, at the sound of Kate’s voice, but when she sees her face, she hesitates to write anything, for a few moments.

  “Kate, I…” Leila starts to write, but she gets interrupted by Kate rushing towards her, and hugging her as tightly as she can.

  “Leila!” Kate says. “By the gods, I thought you were dead. They told us you died from the experiments. Oh gods, Leila, I’m so sorry! I shouldn’t have believed them! I should have gone looking for you like I did for all the others.”

  “You don’t need to apolo—” Leila writes, but she stops her text when she realizes that Kate is currently keeping her eyes closed, in an attempt to keep the tears from flowing out.

  “I’m sorry,” Kate says. “I shouldn’t have abandoned you like this. Please forgive me! I was so focused on Diane that I—”

  The rest of Kate’s words get drowned out by the sound of a very loud horn. It seems that the arena event is about to start.

  “Kate, we need to go,” Daren says.

  I only now notice that Daren and Hadrik were also there, standing behind Kate. They must have all met earlier, and came looking for me together.

  “I know,” Kate says, as she wipes her tears with her sleeve.

  “Please… keep her safe…” Kate tells me, simply, as she walks past me, heading towards her division’s side of the arena.

  “I will,” I tell her.

  “Kate, wait, I…” Leila writes, with her mouth open, as if she’d forgotten that she can’t talk, but Kate doesn’t get to see the blue writing, and she keeps walking away from us.

  “Hey, Kate!” I shout loudly, to make sure that she hears me.

  Kate stops in her tracks, and she turns around, confused. Seeing that Leila doesn’t do anything, I give her a nudge with my elbow. She finally understands what I was doing, and she quickly makes a message out of blue text, with very large letters, so that Kate can see them from a distance.

  “Kate, I’m sorry too,” the text says. “I’m sorry for having thought that you would never want to see me again because I was a lessathi! So, now that we’re both sorry, let’s win the arena and get out of here alive so we can continue being sorry together!”

  At first, Kate had a bit of a shock when she saw the writing, but then she realized who it was coming from, and she managed to smile.

  “It’s a promise!” she shouts at Leila, and then she turns around, to hurry back towards her division.

  “Knock ‘em dead, Barry!” Hadrik says, with his usual grin, as he also heads towards his own designated area.

  “Or better yet, don’t get killed,” Daren tells me. “We only need to survive the arena, not win it. I’ll see you again after the end of the event. Remember, no need to do anything crazy. Just stay alive. Got it?”

  “Got it,” I say.

  Once Daren is also gone, Leila and I decide to head towards our division as well.

  “So…” I say, as the two of us walk side by side. “Now are you glad that you decided to follow me to meet Kate after all?” I say.

  Leila smiles, faintly.

  “Yes…” she writes. “Yes, I am glad. Thank you…”

  We make our way to our division area, where all of our other teammates were already gathered. We then take our places next to the iron gratings blocking our access to the fighting area, in order to have a better view of what’s happening in the arena. Apparently, there are still some people who are making their way towards their seats, but most of the spectators seem to have found their places, and are now restlessly waiting for the show to begin. I take a look to see if I can spot Flower, but the seats are too far away from me to be able to make out any details. The announcer is now verifying his magical voice magnifier, in preparation for the event. He is situated on an elevated platform, above the spectator seats.

  As we all wait for the events to begin, I suddenly hear a familiar beeping noise, coming from my pocket. At the same time, a similar beeping noise comes from the direction of Leila as well.

  Finally. I’ve been waiting for this for a while. I quickly take the stat device out of my pocket, and I see that I have three extra points to spend on my stats.

  Given that I’m about to fight in a deadly arena, my survival should take first priority. These three points are just what I need to raise my reflexes and toughness stat to their maximum level of four. I also sti
ll have my three points in speed and the four points I put into premonition, so hopefully, this will be enough to allow me to hold my own against the creatures that the arena owner is planning to throw at us.

  Once I’m done with my stat device, I put it back in my pocket, and I see that Leila is just about done with hers as well. Knowing her, she must have placed all her points in toughness. I would ask her directly, but I wouldn’t want to give away to the others the fact that we are lessathi.

  “Found a way to send messages in private, have you?” Bruce asks us, after seeing us both use the same type of devices at the same time. “Well, I hope you’ve said what you needed, because the show’s almost about to start.”

  Shortly after Bruce is done talking, we hear the sound of a second horn, now signaling the actual beginning of the event. The few spectators who came in late are now hurrying as fast as they can towards their seats, as the announcer is doing a few tests, to make sure that his voice magnifier is working properly. Soon, the constant murmur that could be heard throughout the arena slowly dies out, and the announcer takes a deep breath, preparing to officially announce the beginning of the arena event.

  “Welcome,” the announcer says. “Welcome to all! I don’t think that there is any reason for me to make a lengthy introduction this time around. You all know why you’re here. You came here because you were promised the event of the century, and we plan to deliver on that promise. Now, if it’s alright with everyone, I would like to begin by announcing the rules.”

  The announcer waits for a few moments, in order to make sure that there are no objections, and then he continues to read from his notepad.

  “By the request of the arena’s owner himself, mister Venard,” the announcer says, “today’s event will follow the traditional rules, which had been used by his father before him and by the lessathi of old, before the still winter. As most of you may already know, this also means that if a gladiator breaks one of the rules, they will not be disqualified from participating any further, but they will become an undesirable. By becoming an undesirable, a gladiator will be forced to participate in an additional round after the official event ends, where they will need to fight all of the other remaining gladiators at once, in one final battle. Any gladiator who manages to give the finishing blow to an undesirable will get rewarded either with his freedom, or with a large sum of money, depending on their status in this arena. Other gladiators can of course refuse to participate in this final round, and undesirables can also choose to no longer participate in the regular rounds, once they have been pegged as rule breakers.”