177 – Vianora

Ring Seven had attracted an enormous amount of attention, and nearly all of it was focused on Suyin. The interest was so sorely unwanted that she almost regretted her actions, but then she remembered the way Wade Marsh’s face had turned purple and how he had fled through the crowd, scurrying off like a rat.

More importantly, Suyin recalled the look of vindication in the eyes of a young adventurer, and the grin the girl had worn as her bully had gotten his just deserts. Suyin would be lying if she said she had acted entirely on the girl’s behalf, but the reaction had made it especially worthwhile.

Fending off the many intrigued onlookers tested her patience, however. The higher she climbed the ranks, the more she understood why her master traveled the world in plain clothes, presenting himself as a vagabond wherever they stayed. There were few benefits to being the center of attention, and a parade of annoyances.

Her would-be admirers started to understand that Suyin didn’t wish to entertain them after she had politely but pointedly told half a dozen, “This disciple is interested only in the matches in front of her. Please leave her to her thoughts.”

She had found on a number of occasions that stepping in to right wrongs gave people the misperception that she was affable and sociable—since most ‘heroes’ were. But that couldn’t be further from the truth.

Eventually, they left her alone. Not that Ring Seven’s crowd dissipated. They waited with eager anticipation for her next fight, which Suyin knew wouldn’t come close to the excitement of the previous one.

Really. Did they expect her to put on a spectacle simply for the sake of showmanship? Against bronze ranks? Youths and beginners? She couldn’t imagine something more embarrassing than peacocking about against opponents so far beneath her skill level. That wasn’t arrogance speaking—simply respect for herself and her adversary.

And the Path of the Sword itself. Why did Master drag me into this, again? Then, chidingly, she corrected herself: I created this headache myself. Even he’ll manage to pass through qualifiers without drawing a crowd. He didn’t enjoy the attention of the masses any more than she did.

She sighed. Members of the audience on both her left and right glanced her way at the noise, growing excited as if waiting for her to say something profound.

An impulse hit her to spout one of Master’s nonsense sayings, just to see how they responded to it. For every proverb that made some shred of sense, he concocted a dozen ridiculous ones. She would swear he had made a game out of it.

Then again, he was also just an idiot. So she gave it even odds.

Finally, her next match arrived. The overseer called her name and another that sounded male. Indeed, the opponent that stepped inside was a nervous-looking youth. His scraggly facial hair suggested he’d recently begun sprouting it… and that he’d yet to learn he would be doing himself a favor by shaving it off.

She bowed to him. “It is an honor to share the ring with you. May the winner earn their victory with grace.”

The fight was brief, though she didn’t end it the moment it began. While she had no intention of treating each of her opponents as miniature disciples, she could at least offer pointers. She had a lot of qualifying matches to work through, so she should make something out of the ordeal.

A quiet lesson in the ring was hardly the spectacle the crowd had come to watch, but she didn’t have much respect for gawkers who sought out cheap thrills, and thus she didn’t care. Most who had flocked to Ring Seven had cheered for her humiliation of Wade Marsh without knowing why she had been making a fool of him. Hardly commendable behavior.

The following bout she treated much the same, leaving behind another appreciative combatant and bringing Suyin’s record to three and zero. The crowd had thinned by that point but was still triple the size it had been before her intervention.

The remaining spectators were probably hoping for Suyin to find someone of similar strength so that she would be forced into a ‘real match.’ The odds of that were low. Wade Marsh had already been an outlier, and he couldn’t have dreamed of challenging her. Should another, politer participant of a similar skill level be matched against her, she would treat him the same as the bronze-rankers.

Yet low odds were not no odds. In fact, sometimes it felt like the lower they were, the more likely the outcome became.

The elf drew Suyin’s sharpened gaze the moment she stepped into the arena. There was nothing so crucial to a disciple of the sword as honing one’s senses to a razor’s edge. What use was technique or strength if she couldn’t read an enemy’s stance, couldn’t read the intention before the strike came?

The elf was several inches shorter than Suyin herself. She had long, flowing hair with the rich luster of polished gold—such vibrance was universal in elves. Her eyes were somehow even more striking, and not just for the glow that lent her a touch of the unearthly, but for the expression that Suyin saw in them.

This elf had been present in the crowd. Suyin remembered her in passing, since, again, she always took care to be aware of her surroundings. Yet she didn’t look worried, impressed, or even excited at being matched up against Suyin.

No, she looked bored. Even dismissive, like Suyin was beneath her notice.

Interesting.

She hardly expected everyone to be starstruck by her abilities. Had she not mentioned to Wade Marsh the metaphor of the sapling and the redwood? Even her master could not be considered one of those mighty giants when entities like the King of Dragons and the Sorceress walked the world. Though her mentor was a junior among those ancient trees, if nothing else.

That said, she wouldn’t expect someone to look obviously bored, moments from facing her down. Agitation sparked inside her, which she squashed. For most people, humility needed to be cultivated, and she had proved to be stubborn ground for those roots to take hold.

She studied the elf as the overseer went through his routine announcement. When he arrived at their names, she paid close attention.

“…and on my right, Vianora Enren, zero wins, zero losses.”

Vianora Enren. Suyin didn’t recognize the name, not that she should have, she supposed. It sounded traditionally elven, and Suyin wouldn’t be surprised if the woman had traveled many miles to partake in this event. Perhaps she had come all the way from her home forest. While each kingdom would be hosting its own qualifiers, there were good reasons to journey to the capital city. Meridian was where the most talented and determined would congregate—it was why her master had dragged them here.

“Do both participants understand the terms of the bout and agree?”

Affirmations came from Suyin and then Vianora, and the match began.

Suyin lowered herself into a ready stance, but she didn’t immediately push forward. Her instincts told her that something was off, and it was a soon-to-be-dead woman who made a habit of ignoring her instincts. Better to gather information first.

Indeed, the way Vianora held her sword doubled Suyin’s suspicions. There was a stark mismatch between the disregard in the elf’s gaze and her amateurish posture. Was she feigning inexperience for some reason? Why? To catch her off guard? Underhanded by some schools of thought, though her master’s training had always leaned practical more than honorable.

Then there was the weapon itself.

“Your blade is of interesting make,” Suyin commented, breaking the tense standoff. Her eyes lingered on the black material with marbled patches of dark purple, though she didn’t let herself grow distracted. It almost seemed like it had been extracted from a huge gemstone as a single solid piece. “I don’t believe I’ve seen anything like it before. What is it made of?”

Vianora kept her sword pointed at Suyin as Suyin walked sideways, closing the gap slowly but steadily in a tightening circular motion. The elf’s golden gaze didn’t change, either at Suyin’s uncharacteristic caution or the question she had asked.

“I’m afraid that’s personal. I appreciated your bout against that thug of a man earlier. I was hoping we wouldn’t get matched up.”

Suyin’s eyes narrowed. Normally, that admission would mean Vianora had wanted to avoid a difficult match. Seeing how it had been delivered after expressing approval for Suyin’s actions, though, she read the words differently. She didn’t want to be paired against me, because she thinks she’ll win?

She wouldn’t take that implication lightly, given that the elf had seen her fight blindfolded and win against a gold-rank. Not a skilled one, but nevertheless, she grew more and more certain that her instincts weren’t wrong.

…but why is her stance so off? Even if it’s bait, when it’s that sloppy, it’ll hurt more than help.

Suyin felt her fighting spirit stir. The oddities excited her as much as they made her wary. She hadn’t been expecting a real fight for days or weeks.

Since Vianora didn’t seem like she would make the first move, Suyin took the initiative and exploded forward. She feinted for the obvious gap in the elf’s guard. I won’t fall for such a transparent trap . Aborting the movement, she twisted and redirected her blade’s energy, coming from the other side instead.

Vianora’s sword responded to neither the faked blow nor the true one. Suyin locked her arms and froze her blade before the length of metal sliced through her opponent’s torso. Only after a gale of wind engulfed them did the elf’s sword jerk upward in defense—she then took a hasty step away, equally delayed.

Suyin didn’t quite gawk, but she came close. She pulled back and stared.

“What was that?”

“What was what?”

“Why didn’t you defend yourself?”

The elf regarded her with indifference. “I did.”

“In time, I meant.” Obviously , she almost bit off.

“Was I supposed to?”

For a moment, Suyin was at a loss for words. Then her expression hardened. She gripped her sword with both hands and charged at Vianora. This time, she moderated her speed, calibrated herself for a silver-rank.

No longer outmatched—supposedly—Vianora responded in turn. The resulting back-and-forth was so baffling that after no more than four clashes of their swords, Suyin stepped out of her opponent’s reach and stared again.

Hard.

“What are you doing? And what is that sword made out of?” The collisions of her weapon against it felt strange. Softened, dulled in a bizarre way, like the material was eating part of the impact. Was it a skill, or an aspect of the blade itself?

“Dueling you.”

Suyin scoffed before she could help herself.

“And my weapon’s origin is personal, as I said,” the elf finished.

Doubt began to creep in, but Suyin shook it off. No. I know what I saw. And there is nothing so crippling as doubt.

Gritting her teeth, she burst forward a third time. Silver blurred as she danced around Vianora Enren, the peculiar elf with the strange sword. Even slowed down, Suyin had to pull more than three-quarters of her blows lest she maim her opponent and disqualify herself.

But she was gathering data. Analyzing the woman’s stance, the way she gripped her sword, the way her eyes, hands, and hips moved in response to Suyin’s actions. The tells that would prove Vianora was feigning her ineptitude, since no swordmaster could stuff down such ingrained instincts. She questioned whether even her own master could. Who would train such a thing?

When the experiment concluded, Suyin came to a horrible realization.

This… this woman isn’t an expert swordswoman at all.

She’s barely a novice!

One last time, she pulled away from her opponent, bewildered. No matter what her instincts had said, her observations were even more definitive.

“Have you ever even held a sword before?” Suyin demanded.

A short silence. “Yes. But I know I don’t compare to you.”

The question had slipped out before Suyin could think better of it, born from shock and confusion. Her instincts were very rarely wrong. But slowly, she realized how condescending her words had been.

And she’d delivered them to an innocent and well-meaning silver-ranker. Not some thug whose attitude had needed correcting.

She’d misinterpreted the confidence and casual disregard she’d seen in golden eyes. That gaze had never shown excitement or annoyance, not even in the middle of Suyin’s frenzied assault. The woman simply carried a placid, unbreakable demeanor as part of her nature, and Suyin had invented some ridiculous fantasy to explain it.

“M-my apologies,” Suyin stammered. “That was disrespectful.” Her shame was twofold, seeing how easily the woman had accepted the insult and returned a calm response. Suyin bowed. “Truly. This one shamed herself.”

A head tilt. Long elven ears twitched imperceptibly. “Please, don’t. It’s fine.” Brushing past Suyin’s rudeness, she said, “You were giving pointers to the others you fought. I would appreciate some myself. As you said, I have a lot to learn.”

Suyin’s suspicion flared, since her instincts still screamed that something was off. She pushed the feeling down. A fool makes the same mistake twice. What would that make me, to do so in the very same fight?

She wouldn’t lower her guard, but she would cut her losses. She’d embarrassed herself enough.

“Of course.” She bowed yet again, as deep as she could. “This disciple will share her knowledge with another earnest student of the blade.”

And to the best of her effort, considering she had all but slapped the woman in the face. ‘ Have you ever even held a sword before?’ Suyin would have drawn blood for those words, even back when she had been a novice.

She raised her weapon. “Let us dance, then, honored sister.”

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