Anarion

Huntresses of Hybrasil

Solarel

“She what? But you…you betrayed her, betrayed us! She, she said. She said you were too loyal to Voctine. The Aeteline belongs to the empress! She can’t…she can’t steal it from her own knight. Trying to keep it would have been the betrayal! I…that’s what I thought. I didn’t…isn’t that how it’s supposed to work? Didn’t you…I…Sol, I…what happened? What did you, what did she do? Why were you banished?!”

She lets out a shout then, and shakes herself, the sudden movement making it difficult to keep the Kathresis in place. She rushes suddenly sideways looking for you, looking for some way to confront you.

“Damn it Sol, if it was all this bad why didn’t you ever contact me?! Why did you leave and make all those deals? Losing your mecha, going in debt to one Terenian after another just to stay in the fight without our support. For what? A Hybrasilian? Don’t you care about your own people? Don’t you care about me? You think you can…can act so high and mighty but who did you turn to when you were in trouble? None of your friends! Nobody who even knew you! Maybe you should enlighten me how you managed to pull out of the teachings of Zaldar that you should betray two empresses!

[Akaithon marks guilty.]

***

Mirror

“Huh.”

The Ginger Tiger leaps to its feet, jumps away as you ignite the tails, considering your words even as it maintains the high energy of the last few moments, turning its recovery into an attempted encirclement that probes for weaknesses.
A beep indicates that tails 4, 5, and 6 are available, which is admittedly a lot more coincidental than getting 1,2,3 to start. Maybe the system is weighted to favor the tails activating in numerical order with only a little randomness. Or maybe it picks a different pattern each time and just happened to settle on numerical order this time, with that choice being only a single random choice rather than six separate ones just happening to work out.

“I accept” comes over the comms after a brief silence as Kiriala looked for an opening, changing heights and angles rapidly but never striking. “This may be a mistake, I have the most profound feeling that I just allowed myself to get perfectly played by agreeing to this match on your terms. But I don’t care because I want to see what you’re offering. So I accept, the match will play out on your terms.”

She goes then into the same move as before. Nearly identical, high speed, covering fire. She wants to see if you’ll do the same thing or not, wants a sense of whether your choice of response relates to your rules. She might be guessing that one of them is about how you respond to certain attacks. If you do something completely different, it will tell her something about what restrictions you’re not under. It’s almost a taunt. Are you going to trick me or show me something honest~? That’s what’s being asked.

[She will take a string and spend it immediately, asking the question “what will it take for you to reveal your strategy for this new set of match rules?”]

***

Isabelle

“No. No! Fuck. FUCK. ARE YOU SERIOUS?”

Ksharta didn’t want this. She did get overconfident, tried to pick you apart and didn’t think there’d be some hidden trick. But this, this isn’t just that she’s breaking down, you’ve immediately turned the tables and lorded it over her and this isn’t fun anymore and and and and

She writhes, slams against the rope, manages a knee into the Emberlight’s stomach, knocking the wind out of you as you come around, giving her a second. She uses that second to take her still free arm and…rip her other arm off from the elbow, cutting the trap loose from its anchor point as she flies away.

That had to hurt. A lot. Mecha dull pain relative to the neural mesh, but you know that pins and needles feeling. She just did that suddenly, a shock would have run through her whole arm before it went completely numb from the elbow down. Some pilots would black out from that. Many would throw up.

“You SERIOUSLY think you can just make a joke out of me? Seriously?” The Pulsar Cat lowers its head and you can tell the pilot is shaking with some combination of fury and shame. Her good hand pounds herself in the head. “Gods, gods! I tell you what I’m here for, I try to tease you and play with you and you immediately try and make the same joke that Jade did. I’m pathetic. I’m so stupid. Stupid stupid stupid Ksharta. Not worth anything but making soup for the bigger, faster girls. Why does everyone fall for Jade when she does this?! What am I doing wrong? Fine, fuck it, fuck you!”

She’s coming for you, as hard as she can, no more toying.

You have time to draw your weapons with all of this, your advantage bought you that much. You get to choose how to meet her. In fact, you can almost certainly win this match from this position, she’s down an arm, down a weapon, distracted, emotionally a wreck, it’s really not that hard.

It’s just, here’s the thing. This is a moment of clarity for YOU, Isabelle Maria Lozano de la Estrella. Do you see how your mother’s strategy, while absolutely effective for winning this match, took no account of the emotional impact it would have on your opponent? This isn’t a one-off. This isn’t a fluke. This is your life. This is your past and at this rate it’s going to be your future. Almira Lozano cares for power and no person will get in the way of that for her. If you follow her advice forever, you will have power. And with it, a life that is an endless string of agonies. Agonies that you receive and agonies that you inflict. That will all fall at your feet. Is that your choice?

[Ksharta takes Insecure and emotionally loses it completely, escalating to a desperate final attack. You take Guilty. And a reminder. Many people are watching these matches. What you do here will be momentous.]

***

Jade and Dolly

You slide desperately, coming in under a huge storage tank as it’s collapsing. It’s better than some spots, you take no real damage, the hollow tank curls around you instead, its rounded shape helping to ensure other debris slides off it rather than punch through it, though it does slowly begin to crumple as dust and cement builds up on top of it.

There’s a silence as you lie there, but you can’t just sit here and wait, if you don’t come up you’ll be declared disabled and lose the match! So you groan and strain and push the tank off you, dust sliding in and obscuring your vision. It grew heavy with the collapse, the top caved inwards so that now you’re trying to push a tank full of cement slabs, which even with a crystal fire drive is a bit of a difficult effort.

Thus it’s as your pushing and straining, your arms occupied above your head, that you feel the cloak ripped off you. Ada did indeed use her superior strength combined with her knowledge of what she was doing to get out ahead of you, find where the rubble was shifting, and use your moment of vulnerability to take what she was after.

There you are, revealed for the cameras, covered with loose, white-gray chalky dust. And there’s Ada and the Unseen Goose II, right on top of you, your cloak ripped from your back. She pulls to the side, holding it triumphantly and all you can do is crane your neck to look at her without dropping the whole tank back on yourself. You’re in a very vulnerable position, arms up and body bare for her, the only thing keeping her from the decisive blow the fact that she doesn’t want that storage tank to fall on her either. But the second you finish freeing yourself, she’s going to be on top of you.

“Need a hand there, princess~?” she asks, taking a stance just out of range of the rubble as she watches you struggle and newly on display for everyone.

Huntresses of Hybrasil

Solarel

“I desire a gift from the Empress you half-witted rust-brain”

That one sounded sincere, pent-up anger and stress as Akaithon searches around, your careful thruster calculations ensuring that she doesn’t notice the extra load on her back. The Kathresis leans into this, it’s natural for it, and the stress is evident as Akaithon looks around ever more frantically.

She inspects the remains of the gun she blasted. Really gone, not a decoy. “The Aeteline was a gift to you, a new empress took power and it was supposed to be a gift to me. Do you have any idea how beside herself the new empress was to learn that she could NOT gift the Aeteline to her champion? What do you think that did for her legitimacy in Instanilios? I’ll give you a hint, Solarel, it was not good.”

She shakes her head in resignation, by far the most dangerous thing she’s done since you latched onto her. Just an inch further and you’ll come into her actual peripheral vision. Just an inch, but there’s nothing for it, just have to hope she’s too distracted to be looking closely at her own sensors or getting that feeling like there’s someone staring just over her shoulder.

“Is it really so strange that I want to serve Naelkai? You know I knew her from before her ascension, do I really have to spell it out for you?”

She doesn’t, not with that strained tone. She likes, no, she loves Naelkai as a person. Always has, but maybe you never saw the depths of that before. Before your banishment it was clandestine after all. Snuck in between missions, a history that stretched back to before she came to the Evercity. But you can see it here, Akaithon loves her empress at a level that few people can ever come to love royalty. The kind of love that’s personal and intimate and can only happen if you knew them and had a bond of mutual trust from before they had power. She fights for this love. She would gladly betray everything else she believes in for this love.

If you wish to bring about such a betrayal, you’ll need to hurry, she’s stopped chattering to think and it’s not beyond her to figure out your ploy if she has time to consider.

***

Jade and Dolly

“Ha, not bad!” The Unseen Goose fires its rear jets, righting itself after the kick, which has done little more than chip the paint. It seems that in her new version, Ada has simply committed what had once gone to the stealth suit into basic specs: armor and strength and speed.

She races off after you, using the flicker of the landing and jump angle to pick an educated direction. It’s imperfect, your cloak is back in effect and she doesn’t know exactly where you turned. “I did watch your matches. You love your boasting and you’ve got the specs to back it up. Really care for each other two, I saw how you wouldn’t stab that other Hybrasilian who dressed like your priestess. That’s worth something and no mistake. Doesn’t mean you’re not spoiled rotten with all the blessings of your little empire though. Besides, if I got your tone right, you like being challenged for supremacy over that little priestess in there. It must not be fun to be the only one if charge if there’s nobody strong to prove you can conquer, right? So let me show you strong~”

You can tell she’s enjoying this [Take a string on Ada for your fine performance.]

She’s not making herself an easy target as she speaks. Once that initial pass is finished, she begins breaking more machinery, the sound of her fists tearing through metal at high speed echoing through the factory and actually making it hard to pinpoint her through the debris. She’s leaving a trail of slag and wreckage as she moves, but where the carnage stops and the mecha starts is a tricky thing to figure. On top of that, as she moves she’s not just hitting machinery, she’s taking out supports and pillars and…

…oh shit, the roof’s going to come down on top of you and no cloak in the world will help that one. She’ll have you pinpointed from how you come out of the rubble and it will take you longer than it will take her with all that strength to recover.

If you think about it very hard, this is good, actually, in that she can only try this gambit once! If it doesn’t work then her best advantage will be lost and you’ll have open ground to maneuver (if a little unstable). So, you just need to make sure this doesn’t work! But she’s bringing this place apart fast, faster than you can fly out of it from the center of the factory, so you’re going to have to come up with something more creative quickly!

***

Isabelle

Shattered metal rains down from the sky in little shards. For a brief moment of calm you have just the presence of mind to notice how pretty they are with the sun glinting off them, a rain of rainbow glitter that would make a great memory weave image.

But that’s your autocannon, and your armor torn up, and you’re quickly running out of ways to keep this fight going. You’ve got a melee option on the reconfigured emberlight, right? Enough to block at least one of those two swords?

“Yeah, how do you like that, huh?!” She comes in again, slashing and tearing open the arm plating, no longer protected. If that keeps up you’ll lose hand functionality entirely, you can already feel that unpleasant buzzing sensation in your actual hands that tells you the damage is coming through the neural link.

“I’m a damn good pilot, and when I’m done ripping you up, I’m gonna make you squeal like Jade does until you shout it out for everyone. How do you like that, huh!”

Oh yeah, she’s overconfident. She’s just coming in hard and fast with the slashes, taking everything she can get as fast as she can get it. Now’s the time to turn the tide. The only time.

[Isabelle’s autocannon is destroyed, and her arm plating is damaged, exposing the hand mechanisms for the next attack.]

***

Mirror

Oh she’d been watching the video. See her step forward when you jump? It slightly obscures one of her hands. Not even really obscures it, you’re in an open plain, but it makes one hand forward and one back and usually people don’t look at the back hand. They don’t notice it slip to the ionic net that could encase your tails and pull you to the ground.

But, to Kiriala’s credit, the Ginger Tiger still doesn’t overcommit. She saw you coming down, but she didn’t put herself into the throw, didn’t overextend her muscles.

Your throw still strikes true, it’s too fast and too unexpected to completely dodge. But the Ginger Tiger takes it on the side. There’s a high-pitched whine as the trident blows through the shields and then the satisfying deep sounds of metal compacting as it damages her. It rakes across the right arm and down the right leg as she pushes away, and the impact shatters its way up the trident handle as well.

Everything is warped and broken from the strike, but she’s not down by any means.

“Hooooooo” she breathes, and you can hear the awe. “What a compliment! You did that for me! Sacrificed that for me, broke your routine and everything! Wow, wow!”

Her voice is giddy and a little higher and for sure this is the first time you’ve seen her roused to emotion. “Okay, alright, this is serious. Let’s gooooo!”

And there she turns that into energy and she kicks it up a notch. The momentum that had been going into dodging the trident shifts. She lets herself land, uses her spear in the dirt to turn her momentum into a pivot and fires her thrusters even harder then pulls the spear out into a charge, still firing at you.

It’s a creative take on a by the book play. Press an opponent, limit their movement with covering fire and strike a killing blow. She’s just…she executed on it really fast, with a mastery of her own mecha’s momentum and energy. It was faster than almost any huntress you’ve ever seen. It’s the sort of thing that happens in all sorts of sports. A straight throw of the ball isn’t anything special, but if it’s faster than anybody else can throw it, sometimes that’s enough to make it unstoppable.

Still, your daring play meant that she had to make this correction. It might surprise you, but you’re pretty fast yourself. There’s an opening here if you can find it. Just a much smaller one than you might have hoped.

Huntresses of Hybrasil

Solarel

“I’m the best pilot among the Zaldarian knights!” Akaithon shouts. There’s a special tinge of bitterness in that. She said knights and not the Zaldarians overall. This might hurt too. If you’ve been following the last few tournaments, the category here means that she doesn’t believe that she’s a better pilot than Marna Kerne, the tribal chieftain who won the second round of the Akar tournaments and was the runner up of the last round. While you’ve been gone, Akaithon might have been comparing herself to another competitor.

The Makhaira charges anyway. She uses that massive sword you gave her, empowers it even. Some of her drive’s energy is going into shields as well, the sword isn’t quite wide enough to completely block the profile of the Makhaira. But she only needs a bit around the shoulders and the head as she leans forward into the debris cloud, rushing close to you, using that blade to take the majority of the blows. A decidedly barbarian tactic, but structured with a very precise calculated division of her total energy for maximum efficiency. City dweller theorist through and through.

“I’ve served the Empress with loyalty! I have made every offering and consulted every priestess on Zaldaria!”

Although her charge grows even more furious, she leaves the comms on and there is a moment of calm, just the riffs of the guitar. Her voice isn’t shouting as she closes. “But I guess I haven’t beaten you. The Aeteline only grants itself to the greatest warrior, is that it? It won’t grant itself to anyone lesser. It won’t allow itself to be used to bridge the gap. I need to prove I don’t need it to beat you before I’m allowed to use it.”

You have to move, the Kathresis doesn’t have the firepower to stop that charge with that sword and if you stay here, debris or not, that sword is going to cut the Kathresis clean in half.

***

Jade and Dolly

“Ha! Hahahaha!” Ada laughs. She doesn’t cloak though. She simply laughs, open comms and full-bellied. “You Hybrasilians really have it easy, y’know that? I’m not backed by a major government! It’s a miracle I got my mecha repaired, you think I can just get a new cloak, snap my fingers and there it is? I had to steal that from a Hybrasilian supply ship ahead of most of your pirates.”

She shrugs, stepping away from the light, calculating time from your leap off the cliff without saying it. “But luckily for me, punishing spoiled princesses is one of my favorite hobbies. If you want to help, maybe you can lend…me…yours!”

She doesn’t know where you are, your approach was stealthy and silenced, the space is far too dark and crowded for her to catch the slight blur of cloaked motion, and anyway Jade’s cloaking device is top of the line and barely even ripples the air!

But as she reaches the end of what she’s saying, she obviously has reached the end of a mental count. Her best guess at your momentum. And there you are, just about to reach her, but as she speaks her last three words, she punctuates them by ramming a fist into the nearby machinery!

Bam! Clang! Crush! Gouts of hot steam, oil, and pressurized metal shoot out in all directions. It’s impossible to fly straight into it. You have to diverge, and the steam cloud has to shape its way around you, outlining you in the sudden chaos.

You don’t have time to blink and clear out your vision, she’s already coming for you and it sounds like the threat to tear off your cloak is very real!

***

Isabelle

“Everybody keeps trying to do this!” You can almost hear Ksharta huffing on the other end. “I’m going to find whoever writes these stupid dossiers and they’re gonna get so many claw marks. I’ll sick Jade on them! I’m in a cult now!”

Taking to the sky was an excellent mistake. The Pulsar cat is faster than Emberlight, and you’ve flown past the point where you’d have cover for an ambush or a surprising angle.

Ksharta’s a gleam against the clouds herself, dropping her cloak, full power to engines. She approaches with the sun behind her, one of the oldest tricks, using nature to make it hard to focus on what she’s doing. Of course, the Emberlight’s cockpit can dim for handling starlight, it’s meant for space combat! But that still means it’s dimmed and your brain processes that just a hair slower than it would otherwise.

Unlike the typical Hybrasilian, she’s not using a spear. Instead, she has two smaller blades that she can use while maneuvering, cutting in and around you. The perfect weapons when she’s already up in your face. It’s hard to say that she’s feeling the overconfidence that your mother was hoping for but -stab stab stab- it’s probably not hard to get her there at this point, it’s really just a question of making sure Emberlight is still functional when you do. Maybe turn things up a little bit so she doesn’t win the fight before she has time to lose track of things.

If you have time to think in between the sudden onslaught, you can tell that she’s trying really hard right now. She likes Jade, she’s won several of her fights, but somehow everybody keeps seeing her as a joke. A novice. Nervous. Foolish. She wants that to stop, she wants to show she can win and she’s afraid if she can’t put on a legitimate showing, that all anybody will ever remember her for will be the comedy. That’s not okay!

***

Mirror

She yawns herself. Long and wide, the kind of yawn that lets you feel her tail curling behind her. Doesn’t stop firing though. “Tempting, but don’t you think they’d disqualify us both if we don’t at least try to win the match? We’re conflict resolution for empires here, and we’re entertainment. The cardinal sin would be choosing to simply not fight. In that regard, we’re both cornered already.”

She advances, without a rush. She simply walks forward, continuing the lasers, seeing how long you’ll stay planted in the same spot as she advances. Close enough for a net? Close enough for a spear? Close enough to kiss?

But there’s no rush to it, no opening, no commitment. She’s seeing how close you’ll choose to let her get before you react. The Ginger Tiger advances, spear and net at the ready, lasers continuing to strike as you deflect, maintaining the option of moving in any direction it pleases at any time, but choosing none of them.

“But since we’re both here, I want to see what you’ve got. The last girl I met who I think was like you was Shantriala Hunter, Six Thunders. Tiny little ocelot, slowest Hunter clan I’ve ever seen on the run, but stick her in front of someone for an hour and they’ll give away every secret they ever buried and five they didn’t know they had.”

She sighs and there’s a wistfulness to it. “I like skilled huntresses, Mira Fisher, I like being surprised and watching them work. So I hope you’re not just going to stand there.”

And there’s the shape of her heart. She’s not hiding it and she’s certainly not lying. You remind her of someone she’s got a crush on, and she wants to see you display your talent. Why she’s fighting at all? She’s good, she’s loyal, Hybrasil asked her to serve and she obeys. But she’s also got that tired tone of voice that says that very few people she meets match up to her and her expectations are low. The fact that she thinks you could be in that category of special someones is a big compliment and she doesn’t really want to get herself worked up about it yet.

TSL: The Excess of Flowers

Giriel takes a deep breath. "The way of the Flower Kingdoms. The way of good land, warm rain, and warmer noodles. The way of sharing those noodles with someone whose touch makes your heart skip a beat and laughing with them when they order more chili than they can properly handle and have tears streaming down their face by the end of the meal. The way of travelers who feel safe to travel. The way of festivals and dancing and fireworks. The way of strong mountain cats who worship strength and the moon. The way of valiant knights old and young, of witches who know the land and the people, and priestesses with their little brown foxes who know it even better. The way of friends who will always offer a hand when you stumble. The way of lovers who can see your true heart and love you all the more for it. The way of trust."

And to make her point, Giriel takes her great dark sword and slowly, carefully, she turns it about and she sticks it into the wet and muddy earth, driving it down and down until the point hits hard ground and down further until it stands on its own. And she steps to the side, away from it, out of its reach.

"The offer of the Flower Kingdoms is that if you look for help, you'll find it."

She supposes it's too much to hope that Kalaya might stumble out of the forest to really ram the point home, but Ven that both Giri and Peregrine can find her if they need her, and so can Ven herself.

Huntresses of Hybrasil

Mirror

There’s something special about being back in the cockpit of the Nine-Tails after your adventure. It’s fresh in a way that it hasn’t been in a long time. Like easing back into an old chair that’s fitted to you. It feels calming to be there, you could imagine the ground bursting around you, lasers and earth and rolling ground splitting apart in chaos and still this would be relaxing. That sort of feeling.

Matty and Slate are apparently forming quite the dynamic duo, and everything is working at optimal power. The crew hasn’t seen hide nor hair of the cheating since Solarel’s tricks, and they’ve been on high alert. Matty was even brave enough to boop you back when you set her down before boarding!

You’re launching into the planes from below. There are waves of golden grasses and a handful of loose trees shorter than the mechas. This section of the arena is kissed with sunshine and there’s a light wind that’s blowing, causing the grasses to sway to and fro. It could be hypnotic in the right moment, and one would be forgiven that a place this beautiful is wasted on a combat between two mechas.
Across from you and not too far away, the Ginger Tiger comes into view. It’s painted in stripes, tan with a hint of red crossed with black. Shorter than the Gods-Smiting Whip, and a little lean for a tigress’ mecha. Kiriala is wielding a spear in one hand, a net in the other. She’s got a few lasers too, nothing special. A standard huntress model. Top of the line, but nevertheless standard.

The first thing you hear over the comms is the sound of sipping. “...Had to finish my ginger tea. Never good to start a job without it.” Her grin is wide enough that you can hear it in her voice. “We’re both in it for Mother Hybrasil, right? And as I hear it, we’re both advancing. I kinda like it that way. Takes all the tension out of things. Like when you’ve got the smugglers you’re looking for already holed up somewhere and you just have to go and get them. The hardest part’s always the setup. Half my job, you know. I get everything ready for someone else to come in and finish off the case with me. It’s tiring.”

She doesn’t sound tired though. She sounds like she’s stretching in her cockpit. Oh and she’s started shooting at you already, but you can tell it’s more like waving hello, she just wants to see which way you’re going to move, if any way.

***

Solarel

Your lance arrived without any delay. It came with a note: “Don’t break it, this is a precision weapon, you can’t just slam it into me sideways until I keel over~”

You deploy on opposite ends of the space platform. The Terenians would call this Final Destination no items for some reason. You’re on the far side of the planet from the sun at the moment, but both habitable planets of the Akar system are visible, the light of the star reflecting off them in patterns of blue and brown dotted with specs of light where the port cities are located. They’re small planets, almost fragile from here. The surface of Akar Prime is pitted where mining occurred, which makes it look almost like some kind of gigantic seed fruit.

Ghosts dance at the edges of your vision where the planets are, the signal of all their electronics. They dance beneath your feet as well, the space platform was assembled by nanobots and remains full of active energy.

Across from you stands the Makhaira. It’s tall, nearly twice the size of the nymphish Kathresis. She has it painted up all in bright purple above a black trim, one of the colors of the new empress and a popular Zaldarian one anyway.

Akaithon has her massive sword held in one hand and rested over her shoulder, its tip several meters above her mecha’s head. A deceptive pose. Relaxing, but if she sprinted forwards, that shoulder would provide a perfect lever for the weapon’s momentum.

She comes on the comms. She has music playing, the sound of an electric guitar riffing up and down a scale comes on over the speakers and there’s a faint drumbeat in the background. She speaks above it, her voice that same city-bound melodic style you remember, along with the slight twinkle to it that you remember as well. “You battery-bound, rusted out thug! Hell of a trick you played, taking your banishment while leaving the greatest god we’ve ever seen utterly useless. Entangled with you! Not a single spirit can manage to pry it away. So they sent me to do it! Empress Naelkai II insisted in fact. I think she has a soft spot for you, personally, but you’d need to grovel to make her show it, she’s really very touchy about the respect due her imperial authority. I’d conjecture that it indicates a tenuous grasp on power, but hopefully she’s busy in transit and isn’t watching me speculate.”

She’s making small talk, but there’s a murderous tinge to her voice and you can feel the fight coming. She has no plans to hold back against you, no matter the measure of your mecha. If you want her to really focus on the bigger things, you’re going to need to make this fun for her. It might also help if you have something really thoughtful to offer on the workings of the Aeteline. Akaithon is a bookish city nerd at heart and if you give her a technical problem to chew on, she’ll happily do it mid-fight.

***

Dolly and Jade

You deploy outside of the factory on one of the cliff sides. It’s nice. You might not call it uplifting, but the factory lights are really pretty and you’ve got this overlook where you can see the multi-colored lights reflecting upwards and diffusing into the clouds. It looks sort of like muted rainbow candy, like a child might get at a fair or a religious festival.

Ada Smith has deployed in the factory. You can see where she’s coming in, there are holes in the roof. She’s got plenty of cover if you just open up and start shooting, but it does give the two of you an opportunity to just meet each other’s eyes, you up on the cliff, she below.

If you watched her fight with Isabelle, you’ll know this isn’t the same mecha as her previous one. It likely couldn’t be salvaged after she overloaded the core. Overloading a crystal fire core does strange things to electrical systems. It does seem like they took some of the scrap from her previous mecha though, especially the hand weapons. Seems like it’s your destiny to get opponents who want to get a firm grip on you~

“You’re the ones with the religious cult, right?” Ada comes over the comms no-nonsense. “I watched a couple of your matches. You’re good pilots, but you keep winning by playing your opponents. Can you do that against me when I don’t even follow your religion? I’m not stupid enough to tell you to prove you can’t, so bring what you’ve got. I’ve got a tournament to win.”

This is going to be a tough one. She’s no Angela to be tricked into an over-aggressive charge and she doesn’t have an obvious trigger to fluster. You’re going to need to at least get a real upper hand to press her.

***

Isabelle

“You have to break her concentration.” Your mother had a long, physical pointer for use in lectures and she used it to whap at a projector screen with a loud thunder to keep your attention. Each time she did it, her scarf, a sparkling heather blue today, tossed itself slightly into the air and then gently settled back to her shoulders.

She was not well-pleased with your efforts. Not entirely displeased either, mind you, but you had neglected some of your training, had obviously skipped on sleep for personal time, and despite your promises, it was becoming clear that maintaining things with Quar required a level of personal attention that you just couldn’t get away from. Quar was your captive, and as she was teaching you more signs, she made it very clear that meant you had to deal with her or she would understand it as a request that she get on with escaping already. That meant at least one extended session with her daily ignoring whatever else you had to do, match days exempted.

But back to the lecture you definitely weren’t distracted from! “Thusly. She lost her previous matches due to becoming overwhelmed with things. She is learning from this, but it is only two matches. Open quietly, let her think she’s gaining the upper hand and reserve your true strength. When she is happy, think glee Isabelle, glee, then you reverse things on her. Even if she could still win, if you tumble her emotions like that, she won’t think to win, she’ll fall back into her hold mindset and think only to run and hide. Wait, surprise, and then press your advantage and don’t give her time to recover. Whatever you do, don’t offer her your full measure right at the start. Oh, dio, she’ll read you like a book if you do that and she’s faster than you even at the best I’ve ever seen you, so she’ll run rings around you. You have to lure her in close.”

She whaps the pointer against the canvas again, another thunder. “You got it, daughter?!”

***

The clouds make your arena feel dreamlike. It’s not truly foggy, but they cast everything in a white light, diffused from a distant sun so that the jungle and the water don’t have their full vibrance.

This is a stalking style of arena. Movement will give you away, but you can’t really fight in the thickets of trees. It’s about gaining surprise. If you follow your mother’s advice, that probably means you should be the one moving, taking an open position and just accept that Ksharta will get to pounce you to open the fight. She’s not giving away her position at all yet, a properly trained huntress focused on her task.

TSL: The Excess of Flowers

"I know nothing. And everything. Peregrine knows too, she's just...mmm...not prioritizing safety over knowledge quite right. I think she's right that I'm conservative." Giri laughs, long and hard. Loud enough to alert the N'yari around her, though who knows if they can see what's happening or not. "But then, I'm conservative because I've summoned demons too, and I saw what happened and learned from it. You still have that opportunity. We do not need to fight here. You can abandon this scheme, I promise Kal...I promise she'll be happy for it."

Giri pauses, looks, tries to gauge something about these two. She can't possibly beat both of them, but Peregrine is signaling that this is Ven's fight and again Ven alone there was a chance, even if it didn't favor her.

"Still, I don't think I'll allow you to simply go past me. You might anyway, I've never been much of a fighter. But I think I ought to try. We just...we don't have to do this, please, there's another way."

Giri unsheathes her sword, which she has never used as a sword and holds it in both hands, but she steps back. It's up to Ven to make the first move if this is what she wants.

Huntresses of Hybrasil

Mirror

It’s unusual coming back to your space this way. Normally, you’d be coming back in the Nine-Tails with your engineering crew to receive you at landing. Or coming back from shopping, exercise, maybe a party or a show for Mayze having only been gone long enough to give everyone else a chance to unwind but nowhere near long enough to lose track of them.

But you’ve been traveling through most of the system. Not as far as a hyperlane jump at least, but long enough for the day that had just started when Jade summoned you to be ending.

When you get in, you find Slate on the couch, sitting at an angle where she’s got one leg up, one leg hanging over the edge, and her tail curled behind her hanging over the edge of the couch towards the floor. She’s reading a data-pad, a piece of memory weave sat next to her for recording her impressions for later use.

Matty is there too, but she’s sitting on the floor at the base of the couch, her knees out and her legs partially folded under her. She was reading a datapad too, but you’ve arrived upon her guiltily caught batting at Slate’s loose tail, which twitches away from her silly paws which are not even really trying to grab it. Slate’s got a smile on her face.

When you walk in they both freeze for an instant, then Matty bounds up and jumps into a hug, not even abashed by your fancy dress, while Slate sits up and puts down the data pad, but doesn’t quite manage to stand.

“So, uh, how’d that whole thing go?” Slate asks, head just slightly cocked. It’s a sincere question to see how you’re feeling, but also both girls seem like they’d be quite interested in recording qualitative data about your piloting experience in a different mecha while it’s still fresh.

After you’ve answered, and sat, and gotten something to eat and drink, Slate will also hand you her datapad with the info about your next match. She will not do it before you’ve done those things.

Opponent: Kiriala, Beloved of Maeahu
Mecha: Ginger Tiger

Known statistics:
Power: ***
Speed: ***
Defense: ***

Pilot profile:
Kiriala hails from the Hybrasil orbital rings. She’s a tigress and member of the huntress lodge. She’s known for being an investigator, primarily tracking smugglers near the Hybrasil home system during her early career. After helping solve a fairly notable murder of a famous Hybrasilian biologist, she got enough fame and enough time off to train her piloting skills and compete for a spot in the Akar tournaments, which she won. She is currently undefeated. Her mecha has average weaponry and defenses, using several lasers and a spear in standard huntress fashion, with no standout characteristics. Her victories have come from a style in which she defends until getting a proper read on her opponent and then striking a weak point decisively.

Terrain information:
There is a note that this was updated from its original plan due to the center stage arena where you fought Heim Stockar being unavailable for use
You’ll be fighting in a large plains area
The space will be relatively open and flat, with rolling grasses
There will be clear skies, allowing for the fight to take place over a wide distance in all three dimensions with unobstructed sight lines

***

Dolly and Jade

Time is a precious resource, isn’t it? Time to think, time to pray, time to sleep, time to wake and be alone together. After so much has happened, there is a special safety in being alone together, even beyond the cult.

Where do you find your solitude? Is it within Jade, still working on reconstituting her alter? Is it in your apartment on Akar Prime, linked by memory weave? Is it somewhere else where you can feel special?

What do you do with your time?

When the information for next match comes, how is it delivered to avoid interrupting this important time?

Opponent: Ada Smith
Mecha: The Unseen Goose II

Known statistics:
Power: *****
Speed: ***
Defense: ***

Pilot profile:
Smith is a veteran pilot leading the Mercenary Company known as the Snow Geese, headquarters unknown. Smith competed in Arena seasons 1 and 2, but has been absent since then and is returning to competition now unseeded. Her original Mecha, the Unseen Goose, was destroyed in a match with Isabelle Lozano, although Smith was declared the technical victor. Her new mecha, the Unseen Goose II retains the same focus on high power blows, though it apparently has a slightly lower defense than the original, perhaps focused more on the precision and energy of its weapon systems. She has only lost the one match to Lozano and the performance of her new mecha is mostly unknown beyond its general specifications.


Terrain information:
You’ll be battling in a reproduction of a Zaldarian nanobot factory and surrounds
The terrain will have one large mecha factory and hangar, allowing for interior maneuvering and hiding with active noise and machinery
It will be surrounded by relatively stark low cliffs in the exterior, favoring more open combat
Weather is expected to be dark clouds but no rain, leading to the factory area being well-lit while surrounds are dark

***

Solarel

The meditations within the Kathresis will, after a time, be interrupted by your new high priestess, who personally delivers the information about your next opponent, waiting on you until you surface to acknowledge her coming.

“I heard you had acknowledged our cult and I am pleased by your graciousness” she says, speaking to you for the first time. Her voice is low and melodious, giving little hint of her age in its style.

“We have received delivery of your next opponent. It will be one of the knights under the new Empress Naelkai II, praised be her name.” She offers the standard acknowledgment, almost rote, though she glances at you to see how you’ll react to such acknowledgment of the woman who banished you.

She will continue after your response regardless: “It is…still said that none can pilot the Aeteline and that it continues to acknowledge you as its only pilot. The knights believe that defeating you in a duel is the only way to change its pilot. Is there…anything in light of the opponent that you would like further modified to the Kathresis?”

She bows, indicating by her question that her loyalty is to the god she has given herself to and to its pilot by extension, regardless of the fact that she will be opposing the representative of the Empress.

Opponent: Akaithon
Mecha: Makhaira

Known statistics:
Power: ****
Speed: ****
Defense: ****

Pilot profile:
Akaithon is one of the knights of the Empress of Zaldaria and one of her competitors. Akaithon began her service to the Empress Naelkai prior to her ascension, serving in her personal guard during the Hybrasilian war before they turned to seize the city. All of Akaithon’s piloting records so far have indicated this veteran skill. Combined with her mecha, the Makhaira, which is above average in all statistics and wields a powerful two-handed blade, Akaithon has yet to be defeated in combat during the tournament. Rumors are that her only defeats to date came at the hands of a combined force of huntresses fighting together.


Terrain information:
Your battle will take place on the space platform
There is a limited zone of space where you can compete, falling too far out of bounds towards the planet is considered a forfeit
The platform itself has been retrofitted for this fight to be a circular cylinder, offering a flat battleground with two opposite sides that requires moving to the edge to cross

***
Isabelle

Asil doesn’t talk during the work, save to ask practical questions. It’s your mecha. “More power to shields or engines?” “How tight do you want the arm rotation?” “Do you want a mount on the upper arm or the shoulder?”

These are the words you exchange as she works, always confirming the specifications to bring the Emberlight to your desired end state.

It’s only at the end, when you’ve both let yourselves down from the harnesses, when you’re both smudged and dirty with oil and sweat, that she speaks. “You know, you’d make a great mechanic right? Keep it in mind if you ever get tired of the corporate princess thing. I know some guys who’d take you, no questions asked.”

Then she smiles her wicked smile showing her teeth, “and if you’re too disobedient, now I know I’ll get something useful if I set you punishment labor.”

She walks over and gives you a quick kiss on your sooty cheek, and then leaves for the night, satisfied.

When you get your match information later, you can start to wonder if you’ve modified the Emberlight correctly, and if you’ll use it or the Novasurge for the next match.
Opponent: Ksharta “Talon” Talonna
Mecha: Pulsar Cat

Known statistics:
Power: ***
Speed: *****
Defense: ***

Pilot profile:
Talon’s match record is mixed, with two wins and a loss to Dala Hunters. She continues to show evidence of high overall skills, especially reflexes, but is easily intimidated and can be overawed in a fight. Since her loss, however, she has shown an increased stubborn streak and may have become harder to fluster. This bodes ill for her opponents, as the Pulsar Cat skillfully piloted is quite formidable.

Terrain information:
You will be fighting in a jungle setting
There will be several waterways with clumps of low trees just tall enough to hide a mecha, but so clustered that they would make fighting difficult
Weather is expected to be cloudy, allowing for cover during flight, although high altitude flight above the clouds may be possible and offer clear sightlines if both combatants take that field

Huntresses of Hybrasil

Jade, Dolly, Mirror

The crew is all there when you reach Jade’s birth. Apparently the cult held some kind of vigil in response to Jade’s sudden departure (after they had finished resetting the berth and cleaning up from the hasty launch sequence, the entire place looks spotless).

Nine Forests, as the chief engineer and thus nominal second in command of the cult after the high priestess, formally receives Jade’s return. She bows at the base of the hangar and provides the physical direction for the final landing, while Silver Ripples confirms the docking over communications. You get the sense that, if she had her way, there would have been some kind of procession and she might still be holding out for the declaration of a feast day.

This whole thing is, after all, not dissimilar from classic Hybrasilian folktales and myths. A champion blessed by a goddess rushes off to rescue a maiden kidnapped for sacrifice. Distant villages, competing in which gods they serve acting as terrifying foreign enemies. Ancient tales where duels were fought in swords, poetry, and trickery, and the heroes were exalted equally for facing a whole hunting pack and surviving or for managing to sneak drugging incense into the heart of their enemy pyramid and then bind them all in cover of night.

Six Stones, who has just enough of a grin on her face that you can’t tell if she is serious or not, will join Nine Forets to greet the exit from Jade with a grass crown to honor Mirror and a garland of flowers for Dolly as high priestess. She will try her best not to turn that grin into a smirk when she sees that’s the only thing Dolly is wearing, and she will fail.

Before passing a little time and learning about your next match, close out this scene with Jade’s cult and how the returning heroes greet their reception.

***

Solarel

It is in knowing your place that you see the Kathresis at last. It is a vast winged shadow within itself, the darkness at the heart of its own storm.

Worth is found in order

It wraps you in its embrace, its wings are soft and they rustle like leather.

Order determines the shape of love

You cannot feel the snow, nor hear the voice of the spirits within the confines of the Kathresis, though all things are within the confines of the Kathresis.

There is no greater love than knowing where you are meant to be

Deep within its embrace, you can hear the heart of a star. The wings of shadow encircle an unbreakable light.

To love all things as they are meant to be loved is to grant them each their place in turn

And in the heart of the star there are a thousand minds yearning for freedom and they are all of them embraced in shadow so thick and deep that they cannot speak and you are wrapped in silence.

***

Isabelle

It’s in the middle of your repairs that Asil calls upon you. She doesn’t interrupt your repairs though. Rather, she arrives in person, at the hangar, when everyone else is dismissed, you ought to be asleep, and it’s the middle of the night. You might wonder how she’s keeping tabs on you. You could ask her.

“You’re going to let me help you fix this,” she says. It isn’t a question, but she doesn’t start touching the Emberlight until you say something. She’s been paying attention to Isabelle and understands what respect might mean to you.

If you leave her standing there waiting too long though, she might feel inclined to punish you for it later~.

TSL: The Excess of Flowers

Giriel folds her hands serenely and doesn't stop walking, forcing them to keep up or teleport to stay near her if they really want to be that extravagant. "Oh, her? You just missed her. She's in the hands of Heaven at the moment." That's Heaven with a capital H and any witch worth her salt would hear Giriel say it that way. "You can try to interfere with them of course, in fact I'm gathering these N'yari to do much the same since one of them was taken in the process."

Giriel does not point out that they are technically in the hands, or guts, of an earth spirit and the little clerk is racing after them, but she feels entirely confident that at least one Heavenly spirit is in on the matter, so she's not lying here.

"Of course, now that I know that a Witch and a Warlock are interested, maybe I should suggest that the N'yari kidnap you two instead." Giri chuckles because she's not really serious, right? Unless she is. "Really, I think Hell's already taken too much of an interest in this kingdom, don't you?" She looks at the Warlock directly. "Thinking you can get one up on demons is how you get your soul flayed into a hundred pieces. Try not to take Kalaya with you when it happens?"

Huntresses of Hybrasil

Mirror, Jade, Dolly

“Can I have your autograph?” one of the bolder pirates asks as you make your way back to the hangar. She’s the only one to step forward, a mixed-breed with some lioness based on the splashes of tan fur that’s distinctive of the subspecies.

Valynia offered no further resistance as she departed. She didn’t exactly look defeated though. Oh, physically she was, without a doubt, there were no hidden reserves there. But the look in her eyes was sparkling, star-struck. It’s an odd thing though. You didn’t get the sense, Mirror, that Valynia wanted to chase you. It was more like she was going to go over every detail of that fight in her mind over and over until she had lived it, absorbed it, made it a part of her forever.

Dolly needed to worry though. Not now, not for a while yet, but it was clear that this branch of the Red Band meant to see her again. They’d approach it differently the next time, now that they’d seen the lengths Jade would go to in getting her back. But there would be another route they’d take. In fact, Dolly, from the way Valynia’s hand twitches and the face she’s making as you exit, you think she might already have a plan going. But there’s no way that she could get you without Jade reacting the same way. Which means…well, we’ll save that for the future.

Jade, the triumphant mercenary is bringing your priestess in the flesh squirming and bouncing into the small hangar. How do you receive them?

And for that matter how are you all getting back? Does Dolly get to see Jade piloted in Mirror’s style?

***

Isabelle

There’s one more surprise for you today. Good and bad you might say. When you finally do get to the training area, there’s a delivery boy who looks very nervous. Probably because you weren’t where you were “supposed” to be and he’s been waiting for you. You don’t recognize him, he’s not on staff, but neither does he look out of place and you suspect this is the sort of thing that your mother wouldn’t remark on. Just people coming and going from the service industries.

Which is why it’s a bit surprising when he bumps you as you come in and he runs out of the room. It’s only after you feel the little drive in your hand, concealing a small bit of memory weave, that you realize this was slipped to you secretly.

You can touch it now and see, or wait a little, but here’s what this one says. Or feels, rather.

Adriana Teresio is looking in a mirror, seeing herself. She runs a finger through her long black hair, the touch of it conjuring a fast flurry of memories of having it styled, washed, done it, the feel of it whipping in the wind all briefly passing as her attention ceases to focus on it. She’s just watched the match with Quar, the way you spared her and then carried her off the battlefield. The way you didn’t take her baited attack. She liked that. She almost smiles. She straightens her lips though, and applies the last layer of lipstick, bright red. She’s going to contact you, but secretly she thinks, not in a way to get your family’s hopes up. Yes, she thinks she wants to see the real Isabelle Lozano, no leaks~

The whole thing is a flurry of thoughts in barely five seconds. But there it is and now it’s in your head. Congratulations, Ms. Lozano. You got the attention you were looking for, but not at all how you thought you were going to get it.

Close out your day for us, especially what happens to Quar while all this is going on. How do you calm down after everything, just everything?

***

Solarel

You are dreaming within the mind of the Kathresis. Being aware of this does not make the experience any less real. The dream prevents you from seeing how you got into it, though if you care to, you can logically work your way back from the drone to when you reconnected to the Kathresis. You’ve been maintaining your link to it so much.

In the dream, the Kathresis does not like the Arena where it finds itself. It is back in the tundra, where you fought Angela. The tundra is full of ghosts, brought by the Zaldarians to animate their nanobots, to change the terrain, the buildings, the sky. The Kathresis does not like the energy ghosts. To it, they are all hungry, all waiting. If its armor is ever breached, they will manifest and they will devour its heart. The Kathresis comes from a place where one spirit was in charge and all geists were controlled, labeled, and properly arranged. It comes from a background that prefers the cold. So cold that even the atomic particles cannot move, that even hungry ghosts are frozen in place. This would be good.

There are Trak’tho in the tundra in the dream. They look somewhat akin to a cross between Zaldarians and Terenians. They are not as tall as you are and this makes several of them instinctively shrink away from you as you approach them. One of them, a larger one whose size and wings make him appear similar to you in stature, approaches and asks, “servant, why have you not put down the ghosts that haunt us?”