x.x.xxXTimeskipx.x.xxXThere were five opponents in this match. Flicking the blood off her blade, she took a stance. They never saw her coming. Slashing and twirling, she took out all five, then looked up, as if bored, at the demon watching her.
He was another counselor, just as interested in those fighting to be king as the others, but he was fairer about it. Aella had learned after the Race, that all demon children had to partic.i.p.ate in the training in order to find a new demon king. The old king had been killed by the hero of the humans, so they needed a new one. The only problem was that they couldn"t crown a new king for six years after the death of the old one.
Each king that was crowned, was imbued with powers from the entire kingdom. So, they were training their next king to be the best fighter they could, so when he or she was crowned, they would be even stronger than the last king was, and be able to take out the hero when he or she arrived to kill the new king.
Aella had decided she was going to be this king, because everyone complained she was just a half-breed. They thought she didn"t deserve to be the king. All the other kids hated her, and looked forward to whipping her whenever she disobeyed. The odds against her were so ridiculous she knew she would take great delight in being crowned and seeing their faces of disbelief.
"Aella, what did I tell you about killing them? If you kill all of your opponents, then we have none to train to fight you later."
She grinned. There were plenty of kids for her to fight. They had moved on to mind games.
"Should I train to not kill, only to be killed when I am king against the hero?" she asked, mockingly.
"So presumptuous," complained the second counselor of the four demons watching.
"It"s perfect for her position. Why shouldn"t she be so confident?" asked the third.
"She would make a wonderful king. No one would be able to manipulate her." The fourth seemed to like her.
"Being king is more than swinging a blade and killing your opponent. She needs to have training in politics, know how to lead an army, run a kingdom, have compa.s.sion for her people. I see none of those things in her." The first counselor shook his head.
"We haven"t attempted to train her in those things. The only thing the child knows is to kill her opponent, and I believe she has more than mastered that concept," argued the third counselor, looking over at her agreeably.
"She"s only a half-breed, and young at that. Why are we even considering her?" The second seemed determined to kick her out of the running.
"The former counselor in charge of the training, seriously overstepped her bounds and made an impossible Race for the children to compete in. She was the only one to succeed in her whole cla.s.s," explained the fourth counselor.
"How was it impossible? There must be difficult obstacles to ensure they are challenged." The second counselor didn"t seem to think that this was possible.
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"The wall they were to climb, had demon gla.s.s in every handhold. Any who was cut by it was doomed to die. None but her were able to scale it." The fourth looked at the second, daring him to challenge her further.
"How did she make it over, then?" asked the first curiously.
"I heard she waited for the first child to start climbing the wall, who of course was trying to climb it as quickly as possible, and then she used that child as a jumping ramp, jumping off the wall to get over it without actually using the handholds." The fourth puffed up as if Aella was her own child.
"That"s a brilliant use of tactics," agreed the third.
Aella waited as they spoke amongst themselves. Every since they got rid of that first counselor with the Sergeant, there had always been multiple counselors watching her. She knew that if she was going to accomplish her goal of becoming king, she had to take every advantage she could. That included eavesdropping on those who controlled her future, and possibly acting on what she heard.
The arena she was in at the moment, would have been very easy to escape from, as she had grown quite a bit since she was first brought here, but her desire to escape had waned. Now it was almost nonexistent. Even had she no longer wanted to be king, she knew that life outside of these caves was incredibly difficult. The human armies were marching on the border towns, killing and raping all they came across. At least, that"s what the counselors claimed.
"We don"t have much time left to choose our next king. We have to make up our minds." The third looked around at those around him.
"Very well, then we shall gather the final contestants and have them duel to see who will be the next king. I fear this one won"t stand a chance against some of those I"ve seen, but we must have a strong king." The first turned as the others nodded in agreement.
"Yes, the human armies have encroached too far this time," grudgingly agreed the second.
"Aella, that will be all of the fighting you have to do today. Go back to your room and wait. We will have more fights planned for tomorrow. Be prepared, they will be incredibly difficult," said the fourth counselor to her, waving her to leave.
Aella waited for the gate she had come through to be raised, and made her way through the dim corridors to her room. Shutting her door securely behind her, she made sure to shove the chair under the doork.n.o.b so none could sneak in and attack her. She had learned her lesson over a year ago, when the other kids caught her asleep, and almost killed her. She had enjoyed the whips she got for killing them all. They had deserved death for the things they had planned for her.
Once the door was secure, she turned to the wall behind her bed and checked the marks carefully. When she had been a small girl, her father had taken her on his knee and taught her how to keep track of the days. He had wanted to make sure she would know when she was a grown girl, because he knew he would not be able to be with her as she grew.
Running her fingers across the marks she had painstakingly carved into the wall, she realized she was almost fifteen. They had thrown her in the pit with the small six and seven-year-old demon children when she was nine. Her size was smaller than the demons because she was only half demon. Her mother had been human.
Sighing, she made sure to clean her blades, then she began running through the forms her father had taught her that summer before he left. He had been in the army, but when the king was killed, he was called away to do battle. She had found herself having to live on the streets, just as he had thought she would. They had tried to make sure she could survive, but neither of them had foreseen her being s.n.a.t.c.hed for training to be the king.
As she always did, when doing her forms, her mind wandered to her mother. What had she been like? What had she looked like? Had she loved her father? He had only told her that her mother was a spoil of war, taken to keep her safe from the other demons. That he had fallen in love with her, which was forbidden, and gotten her pregnant. He hid her mother away so no one knew she was with child, but she died from complications during birth.
Aella had been raised in hiding. She hadn"t gotten to play outside with the other demon kids, instead her father had trained her to survive the day he wouldn"t be there to keep her safe. Every day the notion that she had to survive was drilled into her head. He taught her as best he could, before he was gone, and so now she trained on her own.
Once her muscles burned and sweat puddled under her, she allowed herself a moment to rest. She would be fed soon, and then she would sleep. The day she became king couldn"t come soon enough. She would make sure, once she was king, that this c.r.a.p they were forcing her to do, to survive, would end. Never again would a child have to raise his hand against his fellow kind in order to survive, just for the pleasure or desire of others.
If the humans were indeed causing trouble for her people, then as the king, she would kill them all, but until she knew what was really going on, she would wait. Enough rumors and trickery had reached her ears for her to understand that things were not as easy as they seemed. She was far older than they thought she was, and Aella fully intended to use that to her advantage.