A Red Mystery

The referee waved his hand to signal the start of the fight and the two men went at each other, both swinging their swords, taking turns to parry the other's blow and return strikes back. "A boring match, isn't it?" a female voice said from behind Kies.

Kies turned around and saw Nyana walking up to his seat. Her presence garnered a lot of attention and everyone in theIR proximity was looking at her. They were also just as interested in Kies, who somehow knew the elf.

"..."

Kies got up from his seat and waved for her to follow him "Oh?" The elf followed Kies to a less crowded area which was at the very back of the colosseum, away from all the action. It was difficult to see here, and therefore, it was very unpopular, making it the perfect spot for private conversations that no one else can hear.

Nyana looked around, noticing all the empty seats. Even though the place was practically packed with spectators, barely anyone was sitting here. "I guess we can speak our minds in peace here," she commented, figuring Kies' intentions for bringing her all the way here where there were so few people.

"Yeah... you aren't exactly- Uh-"

"I stick out a lot, is that what you're trying to say?"

"Yes."

"Well, that's expected..." Nyana sighed. She gestured around them. Kies looked around and saw that there were people watching them even back here. "That's when one of those masks comes in handy, I suppose," she said, pointing at Kies' cat mask.

"Speaking of which, why didn't you choose to hide your identity?" Kies asked her. Nyana came into the colosseum the first day not even bothering to conceal her face or identity even a little.

"Well, in order to accomplish my mission, I needed to show my face," she told Kies the reason. "I mean, I caught your eye the moment you saw that I am an elf, didn't I?"

"Yes?" Nyana caught everyone's attention, not just his.

"I need to find people that can handle the mess back in the capital, and this is the fastest way to get help," she continued, explaining to Kies her thinking behind her decision to not hide her face.

"Oh, that makes sense... But what now? You found someone didn't you?" Kies pointed out, referring to himself.

"That's true." Nyana crossed her arms and thought about the question for a second before answering. "I guess, for now, I can try to find another person or two that can help?"

"That isn't a bad idea," Kies agreed, but it wasn't going to be easy to do. The only reason why she got him to agree to help her is that it would net him one of the fragments in the process. As for the other people here, Kies doubted that any of them would want to leave Otane and follow her to the Elven capital. Not only was it extremely far away, but they would also have to leave their home for a long time.

"Hm... Looks like the fight is over," Nyana said, shaking her head disappointedly at the outcome. The crowd's cheering had stopped and was replaced by murmurs of confusion.

Kies looked back at the arena and saw that both of the contestants were lying on the sand unconscious. He hadn't been paying attention to the fight and had no idea what happened and so he asked Nyana about it. "Why are both of them lying on the ground?"

"They both hit each other in the head at the same time and knocked each other unconscious."

"Really? Wow..." That sounded pretty absurd. Something like that was a one in million chance of happening. Actually... It might not be that rare. Very unexpected things occur in the heat of battle and it wasn't that uncommon for two people two deliver fatal blows to each other at the same time and die like that.

"So, who wins?" Kies asked the difficult question to answer. Since both contestants were technically out, who was considered the winner? They both got knocked out at the same time so they couldn't choose Knowing the people in charge, they weren't going to allow a tie or let both continue with how many people they had competing. They were probably to disqualify them both if anything.

The referees met up in the middle and started discussing among themselves. After a minute, they nodded their heads and waved for the next two contestants to come in. The other two in the meanwhile were dragged out of the arena by the employees. Although they didn't announce their decision, Kies was pretty sure that they decided to eliminate both contestants. After a brief delay, the next two contestants walked into the arena and greeted each other.

"This is going to take all day..." Kies noted. Actually, it might take more than just today. At the rate at which the fights were happening, it was going to take forever. With an arena that big, you would expect for them to host multiple fights at once, but for whatever reason, they didn't want to and only held one fight at a time. Maybe it was because they didn't want anyone to interfere with each other and for the fights to get mixed up.

"Yeah, this will definitely take some time. Unless you have something to ask me about, why don't you take a nap? I'll wake you up when it's your turn," Nyana suggested to him.

"I guess that's fine," he accepted her offer. Although Kies wanted to ask Nyana to explain to him everything that was going on in the Elven capital, this wasn't exactly the best place and time to discuss it. Kies still saw people looking at them despite being all the way back here and it was best if they didn't talk about anything too important as they were likely eavesdropping on them. "Wake me up when something happens then..." Kies closed his eyes and dozed off.

And before that... he needed to know why the person he fought against had a red scarf. The same thing went for that archer from the Black Fang. How exactly were the two of them connected to the Otanian commander...

***

Sunlight peeked through the thick leaves of the forest, signaling the start of a new day. The birds were chirping and all around the forest floor, small animals and critters were scurrying about. Nina rubbed her eyes and yawned, looking around for her teacher. She didn't sleep well last night since her cabin got invaded by a family of gumps, a small animal that usually lived underneath the dirt, in the dark underground where they were safe from predators. They were harmless herbivores with poor vision that fled the second they spot danger.

They normally never leave the safety of their homes unless they were looking for food, and that usually happened during the night when most other animals were asleep. Three of them dug through her floorboard last night, giving her a heart attack. When they saw Nina, they screeched in surprise, causing Nina to scream as well. They quickly retreated back into the hole they came from, leaving Nina in shock for a couple of seconds, trying to figure out what had happened since everything was dark and she couldn't see well.

After realizing what it was that came up through her floor, she calmed down and went back to bed... Or at least, she tried to. That little fright got her blood pumping and she was wide awake. She ended up spending the rest of the night trying to fall back asleep but couldn't. Now here she was, sitting around half-asleep and waiting for her magic instructor to come.

Elder Gildor informed her this morning that one of the elves agreed to teach her ice magic, but didn't tell her who it was. She didn't know if it was Eldor Aragon or Sylvs Idril and was waiting for one of them to come. Both of them disliked her and she was very surprised when she heard that one of them actually agreed to become her teacher. She really wanted to know which one of the two it was and was curious to find out.

She excitedly waited for her teacher to arrive, but dozed off after a few minutes. She woke up to the sound of someone out to her. "Not the best first impression, Selphie."

"Huh!?" Nina opened her eyes and saw a person standing in front of her. It took her eyes a second to readjust to the bright light. "Have you woken up?"

"Yes... Sorry..." Her vision was still a little foggy but judging from the voice, which was female, she guessed that the person who is her magic teacher is Idril.

"By the way, your name is Selphie, right?" Idril asked Nina, unsure if she was getting her name right or wrong.

"Yes, it is," Nina told her. Selphie is the Elvish name that Elder Gildor gave her. Most people called her by that name and only her close friends knew and called her by her real name.

"Selphie... Did Elder Gildor give you that name?" Idril wondered.

"Yes."

"Very interesting..." she chuckled.

"How so?" Nina asked, confused by why her name was funny to her. No one told her the meaning behind her name and never really took the time to learn so she didn't know what it meant at all.

"Oh, don't worry. I'm not making fun of your name. It's just that-" Idril stopped herself and scratched her chin. "Did Eldor Gildor really not tell you?"

"Tell me what?" Nina had no clue what the elf was hinting at. Gildor didn't tell her anything about her name. She just bestowed it to her in front of the entire council. But thinking back to it now, she remembered that some of the other Elders there made some very surprised faces when they heard the name that he chose for her. She didn't think anything about it, but now she was really interested in knowing. Was her name that special? Or was there just something about it that she didn't know?

"Hm..." Idril crossed her arms, taking a moment to think about whether or not she should tell Nina. She thought hard about it and in the end, she decided that it was best if she did just tell her. "Well, I mean, you will eventually find out anyway, so I guess it won't matter if I tell you about it now."

"Tell me what?" Nina asked, yawning, still sleepy from not having enough sleep.

"Your name, Selphie, that was the name of his daughter."

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