Tournament of Kings

Chapter Twenty-Three: Prison Time

It was a cell and a secure one.

Not an absolutely terrible place. The dungeons of Benarus' were kept clean, with plenty of straw to cover the floor. There was a window that narrowed as it got closer to the aboveground and let through a thin slant of light. If Relma wanted to escape, she'd have had to scale up it and slip out.

It wouldn't be easy, but Relma thought it could be managed.

But Relma wasn't planning to escape. It wasn't that she wanted to hang. The idea of the rope going around her neck, tightening until she couldn't breathe. Would it hurt? Or would it all blur together?

She supposed that if she were lucky, she'd fall hard enough for her neck to snap. But then, if there were any last-minute reversals, she'd die for nothing. So wouldn't it be better to stay in the world as long as possible, hoping that someone would cut her down?

Would Aunt Pan cry? She hadn't come by just yet. No one had.

It didn't really matter to her in the end. This surprised Relma, though. Why did she regard the prospect of her own death as insignificant? Why had she been so dead set on sparing the life of Fayn? Someone who tried to kill her, who she didn't particularly like anyway.

"Why?" said a voice.

Relma looked up and saw Fayn standing in front of the gate. The girl was outwardly smug, but her confidence was only a mask. She was conflicted. Relma wasn't sure how she knew, though. She considered the question and realized she didn't really know what Fayn was asking. Or maybe Fayn didn't.

"Why what?" asked Relma.

"Why would you take my place?" asked Fayn. "You defeated me."

"I didn't want to see anyone hang because of me," said Relma. Though that didn't really answer the question, did it?

There was more to it than that. It wouldn't have been justice to let things stand as they were. Relma had known that before the match even began, even if she hadn't known, she'd known.

"And what if your friend, Ronald, comes back? What then?" asked Fayn.

It was a good question. A very good question, in fact.

"Then..." Relma considered how to say that she was confident it wouldn't be a problem. "I don't know."

"You don't know much, do you?" asked Fayn with a laugh. A forced laugh. "If all you care about is making sure everyone lives, you'll never save anyone."

"Is that from personal experience?" asked Relma. She had the feeling it was.

"Sort of," admitted Fayn. "Remember that fire you started? That fire that began in the woods, well, I was there, hunting. I remember that I saw the flames were shying away from me. Me and the other huntsmen. But they were consuming the animals.

"The others ran. But I didn't. I walked into the flames and spoke with them. And they shied away. I followed them, and the spirit of Cin'Dar appeared before me.

"He asked me why I did not flee, and I said that he was avoiding me. I said I wanted to watch the forest burn. He told me that he had promised the Heir of Kings he would not slay any she would deem equals."

"And you made a pact with him?" mused Relma.

"Not then. I remember he let me stay," said Fayn. "I watched as the trees were consumed around me, and I wondered what it would be like to be consumed.

"Then I saw a wolf trapped by the fire. And in the other direction, I saw a deer. Cin'Dar noticed, and asked me if I wanted to save one of them. If I had offered myself in place of both, I would have asked him to break his word to you. I could have tried to trick him into releasing both, so that would have been in bad taste to do so.