As I gather my senses, I feel how just when everything had been going well, when we had started to get training and a sustainable life around us started to build, everything just came crashing down. Now, it seemed that it always happened like that, it was like something that constantly happened. I’ve heard people refer to life as a whirlwind, but even then they still had the eye of the storm, something calm to keep them intact. But our whirlwind was chaotic, it constantly destroyed its inner eye, removing the peace and tranquility from the air as it knocked over our hopes and dreams.

  Finally, I opened my eyes once more, and what I said was not as I did before. Bars stood in the way of my view to the outside, and noticeable weight was on my ankles, wrists and neck. I glanced down, shocked to find shackles on them, chains connecting me to a metal pole in this wooden cage. My weapons weren’t on my side, so my captors must have taken them.

  I looked over, seeing Shankhe and Dalyva both next to me in the same situation. Although I didn’t fully register it at first, I finally did as I looked at Shankhe’s neck. A slave collar. Slaves had been banned for centuries, but it didn’t completely stop people, especially not desert traders who are very sneaky with their goods, and that's how I recognised them, as every kid is given a warning on the dangers of those traders, such as not to approach them and scream as loud and shrill as you can if they come to close and grab you, because once those collars are on, as the desert scouts liked to say. ‘There’s nothing we can do, unless you have the money for freedom.’

  So, yeah. Right now, we were really screwed. I glanced over to our captors, who seemed to be military men, their purple armour covering their entire body as they rode their horses down the hill and into the valley, escorting us. I sat there for a while, waiting for the others to wake up, as if you haven’t already guessed, they’re very much knocked out.

  It took a while, but finally they started to stir, and immediately as they woke I clamped my hands down on their mouths. They struggled, and a muffled scream came from Dalyva before they realised it was me. However, they had made enough noise in their awakening that the guards noticed, finally stopping the horse pulling the cage to look at us. “You’re awake.” One says haughtily, looking down at us in disdain and scorn. The other one scoffs. “Shouldn’t have slept in Lady Cenon’s (s-eh-non) land you brats.” They spit awfully close to me, and I glare at them. They laugh. “Look at that one, glaring at us. I bet they won’t be glaring in the coliseum later.” The first one says, and the second agrees. “I know. Though I think Lady Cenon’s rule is quite over the top. Surely she could spare a chick for us!” They both laugh again, predatory gazes set onto Dalyva. I shuffle in front of her as they start up trotting again, the horse dragging the cage continuing as well.

  Finally as we get to the bottom of the valley, we see a giant white mansion that looks styled with fancy trimmed hedges, a water fountain, beautiful flowers and very well kept grass. Did I mention the slaves? Yes, at every corner there were people snipping away at the garden, making it as perfect as possible, all in rags and getting sunburns and dark skin as if they spent a lot of time in the sun.

  “Wh-What's going on?” Dalyva asks quietly as our captors leave to get their supposed Lady Cenon. “I suspect that this Lady Cenon owns the land we just so happened to land on, or maybe it wasn't so much of a coincidence as a planned event, and since she owns the land on which we slept, we got captured.” Shankhe shivers. “You mean the Corruption Entity may have done this on purpose?” I nod, and we wait in silence as the guards come back out, but this time with a woman. The woman is slim, and has pink hair, as well as pink eyes, but they’re not cute as you may think, no it just makes her even more cruel looking. Well, at least to me.

  She walks directly over to our cage, looking us over with an inspecting gaze. “They all look healthy, and certainly fit enough to be in the Coliseum. Send them there. Tell Sir Brendon that for their assessment I want it to be a monster. No arguments.” She says the last two words as the first guard opens their mouth to speak.

  And so, we are driven off, many of the slaves in the garden looking on at us with pity. It doesn’t take long for us to arrive at the coliseum, and as we pull up other people come, dragging us out of our cages.

  Suddenly I punch them hard, and one of them lets go of the chains connecting to my shackles, clutching their nose. I spin around, trying to fight all the people at once, and as I do Shankhe as well picks up on it, and we start conjuring our specialisations. Sand whips around us, hurting anyone stupid enough to imprison us as Dalyva powers herself up and subdues the people. Shankhe’s spesh is in his hand like a sword, and he’s using it to knock out the people trying to take us.

  A deafening presence shrouds over us, and everyone starts to kneel, even Dalyva’s knees start to weaken, but she holds herself straight. Our spesh fall to the ground, and we stare at the man that has emerged from the building. “Oh, so you are the new ones these guards were telling me about. Not so subdued as they claim, eh?” He’s a big man, and a Leonid on top of that, meaning he’s probably very strong. He walks close to me as I glare at him defiantly, trapped in his aura and unable to move. He looks me over with an assessing gaze. “You.” He simply says at first, before turning to the guards. “Give him the Orc.” The guard's eyes widened, and they started to stutter. “S-sir b-but the orc’s-” The man glares at them, and they immediately rush off to comply. “Follow me.” He says, his voice commanding. We could do nothing but obey as we obediently walked behind him, my face still glaring at him.

  No matter how much I tried to stop myself from walking behind him, I couldn’t. It was as if my body wasn't really my own, and someone else was pulling the strings, compelling and forcing me to do things even when everything inside me said not to.

  Soon we arrived at lines of cages, many other slaves trapped inside. Some had wounds, others looked like they were half dead, and others extremely defiant. I could even see one of them working out, almost as if they were determined to get stronger. The man walked us up to where there were rows of empty cells, and started to walk over to one that was on the left, opening the door. “Go inside of it, you.” He points to me, and my body obeys. Once I’m inside, he takes the chains off, but the shackles stay on, presumably to make it easier when they need to chain me again. He then goes to the opposite side and puts Shankhe and Dalyva in cells right next to each other.

  I did try to bust the bars, but they were very strong, and I knew I wouldn’t be escaping from here any time soon. The man walked back to me after putting Dalyva and Shankhe into their cells, looking at me from outside my barred prison. “Don’t fight me kid. I’m stone rank.” He says it so matter of factly that when he walks away, I believe him. Of course, I already suspected it with his aura, but this just confirmed it.

  I looked to who was beside me, and noticed the same guy from before who was working out. He had short black hair, and simple rags on him as he did several pushups. I walk up to the bars separating us, and look at him. “Hey.” I say loudly, catching his attention. He looks up. “Oh, you just arrived, didn’t you?” I nod, and look at him. “You got any advice, news, anything?” He gets up from his pushups, and walks over to me, sitting down opposite the bars and encouraging me to do the same. “Well.” He started. “As you could’ve probably guessed from the name if you caught it along the way, this is the Coliseum. You have to fight others in death matches, or if it’s your first match you’ll probably get a corrupted entity.” I nod along to what he’s saying, and he seems surprised that I’m not freaking out. But, I am totally freaking out, just on the inside. That’s fine, everything’s fine, it's not like I may or may not have to kill people soon…

  Aside from my mental freak out, the man seems to not want to say more, and starts doing push-ups. “What rank are you?” I ask him, and he replies. “Middle to late wood rank.” I stare at him. “When did you come here?” The man sighs, as if with regret as he says. “Well, when i was common, and about 2 years ago.” I feel sorry for the man, not only because of how long he’s been here, but how long its taken him to advance through wood. After all, I’m maybe a fifth through wood rank now, and I don't feel that it’ll be slowing down any time soon unless they give me impossible challenges here.

  A creaking sound comes from the wall behind me, and I look at it curiously. The man smiles in pity. “Well, good luck out there. Don’t die!” He calls out, and stands up to continue his work out. I stare at where the concrete wall used to be, now just an open doorway to an arena. I step out onto the sand as cheers roar from above.

  An announcer's voice pierces through the cheers as they say. “Here today at the Coliseum we have an adventurer. Given by the graceful Master, and Lady Cenon’s generosity we now have a new gladiator! Give a round of applause for Golden Desert!!” He stretched out the name, and I looked up in confusion at the announcer. How did they come up with that name? It’s absolutely terrible. C’mon, even Devil of the Sands is better. Golden Desert? That makes me seem like a sympathetic person for such a supposedly gruesome coliseum. Two blades are dropped from the announcer's hand, and land in the sand in front of me.

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  “Golden Desert was found on the Arana Hills, with his two friends we’ll introduce later. He wields two jambiyas, and for those who dont know what that is because they aren’t big weapons nerds, its curved daggers. He has already fought with the employees that tried to bring them into the building, and Sir Brendon himself had to get involved to stop them.” Geez, what is this? A monologue? It’s taking way too long. The announcer, as soon as I had those thoughts, paused. “Well, let's get on with the show!” A creaking of metal can be heard, before a giant green figure emerges from somewhere behind the gates. Great thoughts Taegan, really. I cant believe that if gates were lifted up and there was nothing in the arena before that the orc would have come from behind those bars. A real shocker, that thought. It could’ve come from the sky, who knows!

  Eventually dragging myself from my brain, I look at the orc in front of me. Its eyes, presumably once like Jargob’s-also known as normal eyes-are now plum coloured, and the orc is clearly enraged. It welds a huge claymore, and I fear that I will be unable to fight it, let alone defeat it as it waves its sword around haphazardly. It then spots me, and in an outrage lets out a bloody war cry, one I’ve only heard once before when Jargob was in a state of absolute rage.

  It was strange, you know, facing the orc? Many times I had fought beside one, thought of them as my ally, my friend, and a bar mate to drink with. Although it wasn’t him, and I knew from how it stood at high wood, there was something… holding me back. But now, even when told that I have potential, that I’m strong, that I can do it, I’m still held back. Not by anyone, not by anything, but by myself. There was no one to blame, but me.

  I still thought of what had happened when I got confident, cocky, and just overall a bragger that overestimated their power. I still held those events close to my chest, even when I shared it with Shankhe and Dalyva. I didn’t dare do anything on my own unless it was forced, and even then I had never truly pushed myself. And maybe, just maybe, that was what held me back. I should try everything at my disposal. Everything at once.

  The orc rushed in and instantly sand swirled up around its feet, disrupting its feet’s placement. The orc managed to keep its feet though, and chopped sideways into me. I tried to dodge, but then realised it was way too fast. That realisation came just as the claymore closed in, and sliced into my shoulder, but I managed to pull it away before it hit any vital organs. My mind goes blank, and all I can feel is the excruciatingly painful wound on my shoulder limiting my left arms movement, and I feel incredibly lucky that I am ambidextrous but also my left is a little worse than my right.

  I rushed in, knowing that he has the advantage with his claymore's long reach, but I was fast, and I could use the sand to my advantage. I grin as a sandstorm starts to swirl around us, blocking our views. However, I could sense the parts of the arena where my sand doesn’t land, and started to run towards it, ending up seeing the orc’s back. I sneak slowly and quietly as the storm rages on, depleting my mana pool faster than I would like as I sneak in as close as I can without getting detected.

  I know I’m playing with time, and with this knowledge, I grab my daggers tight-well, as much as i can on my left-before jumping onto the orcs back after a few quick steps. I hold on tight as it stumbles around, at one point feeling like I’m going to be sick as it twirls around, but as it does, I realise something crucial as I start to stab at its neck.

  It’s going to fall on me.

  Everything almost becomes slow-mo as my hand keeps driving into the orcs neck, prolonging my suffering and worsening my regret as I see every microsecond of my mistake.

  I feel the air bend around us as we fall, and a second later- pain. My chest feels like it's been crushed by a hundred ton weight, and I cough as something gets in my lungs. As I see red liquid on the orcs shoulder, I know that I definitely broke something. I black out soon after people come in black suits to haul the orcs dead body away.

  When I wake up, I’m in a white room, with a familiar face looking over me. “Hey Taegan.” Dalyva waves, as she seems very happy with herself. “Guess what!” She excitedly exclaims. “I’m learning to heal!” I nod and smile. She’s overly excited for something like this, but I totally get it. She knows she can heal, it’s something her spesh allows and makes her something of an overpowered person due to, but she’s never truly learnt how to do it. I start to get up, but wince at the pain in my ribs. Dalyva immediately pushes me back down with a concerned look. “Oh, no you’re supposed to stay there until one of the more experienced healers comes to fix you up.” She looks sheepish. “I was supposed to tell you that before you sat up, but I got a bit excited.”

  I shrug. “It’s fine. So, I thought you were in the cell?” She shrugs. “Well, I did too, but then they conducted a questioning of our spesh’s, and when they discovered what mine was, they put me on healer duty for some reason.” An old woman’s voice echoed in the room as the door opened. “That’s because fighters are good, but healed and healthy fighters are even better.” She walks over to me. She has grey hair, and could have been possibly the same age as Byrn. She puts her hands on my chest, and a warm feeling flows through me, the pain I felt in my chest alleviating as I smiled thankfully.

  “What do you mean Madam Teresa?” Asked Dalyva as she looked at the old woman confused. “I thought this was a coliseum for entertainment?” The old woman chuckled. “Deary, trust me. A fighter beaten and bloody going in for another round is just going to lose, and while some people like the intensity, the Mistress is truly against such barbaric things. Especially since the healing of her fighters improves not just entertainment but also an improvement in her healers. This means if she went to war she’d have not only an army of strong fighters at her command but a legion of healers ready to practically resurrect her troops from the brink of death.” After the old woman’s speech, it made a lot more sense, and actually, I was convinced that the old lady knew that too. “Also, call me Teresa. No need for the formalities. Besides, I'm just one rank higher than you.”

  I noticed she speaks the truth. Around her neck was nothing, and I realised she must be a servant. “Were you a slave when you came here?” I asked as I looked at her. The old woman looked up at me. “No, no, I was actually the Mistress’s nanny, but after she grew up her father-who made this coliseum just for Lady Cenon-sent me here to practice my healing.” I nodded, but after a few seconds of silence, a guard came in, taking me back to my cell.

  “You just had an encounter with the healers?” Asked the guy next to me-also known as the workout guy-as he continued to do sit ups. “Yep.” I nod. “Saw your fight. Pretty good with your spesh.” I wave it off tiredly. “Yeah.” I mutter, before yawning. “Well, I’m going to sleep.” The guy nods, and I head over to the mattress on the floor. It’s quite a drastic change from what I had back with Khaliff and Fora, and even with my sleeping bag, as having something like that is way better than the mouldy, slightly bloodied and certainly not warm mattress that greeted me. I don't even know how I could sleep without a pillow or something to use for a pillow. I improvised though, and used my arm as I drifted off to sleep with the most hole-ridden blanket in the multiverse.

  ————————————————

  I stare off to where Taegan’s cell is right across from me, trying desperately to compel him to wake up telepathically even though I am 99% sure I am not telepathic. You can never be too certain though…. Eventually, he does wake up, and manages, thankfully, to read my mind and look at me. A shocked expression fills his gaze, him checking himself desperately to make sure he himself had not transformed overnight. Before he could do anything to help, a woman pushing a cart, assumingly with our breakfast, sees me, and rushes off. I look at Taegan with fear, and he sends a little sand over to me, all he can do right now.

  He can’t really do anything though, and as I try really hard to transform back, the person pushing the cart returns with the man that stopped our escape. “Sir Brendon, look!” The person says, pointing at me. Sir Brendon looks at me the way one would look at a pile of gold as he smiles. “This is a find. A Fae. And if i have a look over here…” He walks over to where Taegan’s just sitting helplessly in his cell. “It seems I’ve found an eerily similar copy to that Fae. Even if they are human. Twins, perhaps?” His smirk widens as Taegan gives away nothing, because he already knows the answer.

  The cart woman looks astonished. “A-are you sure, Sir Brendon?” Sir Brendon looks back over his shoulder. “Do you see any indication that someone is helping them with their magic control?” The cart woman shook her head. Sir Brendon walks closer to the bars of Taegan’s cage. “Transform, boy.” He says in a commanding tone, and I can tell that Taegan is struggling against the command. I send a tiny blob of water to help him, but we’re no match, and Taegan transforms.

  Sir Brendon lets out a whistle. “I did not expect for them both to be so similar. If I hadn’t put them in different cells, I would’ve thought they were the same person.” The cart woman nodded in agreement. “Sir Brendon, should I start giving out breakfast?” She asks, and he gives her the go ahead.

  She comes up to my cell, giving me a small bowl of soup and a wooden spoon. I eat up quickly, even if it’s a bit small and I’m very hungry. I assumed that this was the normal amount, as everyone else was getting it, so I knew that no special treatment was being made. Sir Brendon walked over to me, gave me a look, and his aura washed over me. He commanded me to stand up, even as I was eating, and move into Tae’s cell, which I did gladly.

  Now together in our Fae forms, Sir Brendon seemed to struggle to tell us apart. Of course, since Taegan’s desert mask doesn’t appear in his Fae form, which both of us had no clue worked, meant that there were no identifying features. Especially since scars didn’t travel onto our Fae body, as we had seen that night when I looked at my leg. Normally, my leg had a shark bite on it from the Monster Trial, but now it doesn’t, which to me is kind of cool. Because it means, no matter what happens to us as a human, we will always be the same in our Fae forms. It's a sort of comfort for me now, and I think I'll use it when we continue to get more scarred.

  We eat our breakfast, and put them near the cell door for people to pick up. We then confront each other.

  “Tae, I can't transform back.” I whisper concerned as he easily turns back. He looks at me, and then says. “Just imagine your Fae form folding into yourself, and your human form emerging after it.” He advises, and I try it. Thinking of it like a layer of liquid helped, and I imagined the layer to slowly reverse, like a reverse of when someone pours water over someone’s head, you drag the liquid up the body, collecting all of it along the way until you get to the head, where it disappears in a poof.

  A quiet “Alright!” Arises from Taegan, and I smile as I open my eyes. It was clear i had transformed back from that word alone. There was something different about Taegan though, and as I checked his shoulder,-since they had provided us with the rags of the rest of the fighters-it was a sleeveless top and I could see a scar. Right on his shoulder, a deep scar showed. “Was this from the orc?” I asked him, and he nodded. “Yeah.” Soon our doorway opened, and i look out, starting to walk out. But as Taegan started to exit, an employee who had unknowingly entered our cage stopped him.

  “This fight is your twin’s, not yours.” They say.