PreCursive

  Most of us were shuffled off bato the tent after that. Two of the other sves I didn’t know were held behind by the guards, though. The st thing I saw before the tent closed behind me were knives being given to the disturbingly eager sves.

  Onside, we self-segregated again. Me, Bleddyn, and Walter settled into a er, while the other three sves spread out and began giving each other distrustful looks.

  Bleddyn was the first to speak. “That sick fucker,” He growled. “How does he think he’s goin’ ta get away with this?”

  I sighed. “Easily, I’m guessing,” I said resentfully. “He gets away with all kinds of shit. Who’s going to stop him?”

  Bleddyn just glowered at the tent wall, roughly in the direagnus might be. He didn’t say anything, though. He knew I was right.

  My attention was stolen by motion out of the er of my eye. Turning my head to face it, I found Walter shaking in fear. The poor kid seemed like he was about to start g. He looked up at me from where he was sitting on the floor. “hat am I supposed to do, Mr. Hart?” He mao stutter out. “I-I’ve never fought anyone in my l-life. I’ve o-only killed a few monsters before.”

  Bleddyn’s head snapped around to fix on Walter. He spoke before I could. “Survive, boy. That’s all you do. Those others,” He said, jerking his head at one of the other sves. “They actually want this. They’ve been broken by their brand, and now they’ll kill whoever they o for an easier life.”

  I took a deep breath before croug down to meet Walter’s eyes. “He’s right, Walter,” I said, gehan Bleddyn. “None of us would o do this in a perfect world. None of us-”

  I was interrupted by a surprising number of cheers erupting from the spectators outside the tent. I glowered off into thin air at the sure didn’t take them long to get over their disfort with Magnus’s test scheme. “None of us,” I tinued when the noise died down. “Deserve this. It’s nht, but when you get called out there, make sure you defend yourself.”

  Walter stared at me with a bloodless visage before jerkily nodding his head. “I-I’ll try.” He whispered.

  I didn’t get the ce to speak again, as the tent fp was raised by one of the guards. Stepping bato the tent was one of the sves that must have been fighting, covered in blood.

  He wasn’t followed by the other one.

  The blood-spttered sve didn’t meet anyone’s eyes as he slunk into the tent. Bleddyn spat off to the side as the sve passed us, shuffling off to an isoted se of the tent to be alone.

  One of the guards stepped into the tent with a satisfied smirk. “Made five gold off of that one,” he said jovially, letting his eyes rove across the sves of the tent. I tensed as his eyes fell on roup. With a smirk, he poi one of us. Dread pooling in my stomach, I followed it to Walter.

  “You, boy.” The guard said smugly. “You’re .”

  Walter looked up at me with terrified eyes. He started trembling harder from his position on the floor. Meanwhile, I heard the guard piother person out of the other sves. I didn’t turn to see who though, I just id a f hand on Walter’s shoulder. Slowly, I felt a deep well of furious rese rise up from deep within me. Over the top of Walter, I met Bleddyn’s eyes. I could tell how much he hated this as well, from the full-oh-bared snarl on his face. I took a deep breath and tried to put a f look on my face. With Bleddyn’s help, we both kneeled down and got Walter onto his feet, from a hand under each of his arms. Once he , I cpped both of my hands down on his shoulders a his eyes with an inteare.

  “You do this, Walter,” I said lowly. “Magnus never said anything about killing, for once. I think you just have to fight to submission. You do this. I believe in you.”

  Bleddyn nodded oher side of Walter. “Give ‘em hell, boy.” He said gruffly.

  Walter tried to smile at us but only ended up grimag. He didn’t get the ce to speak.

  “Now, boy,” The guard said, annoyed. He hadn’t moved from his position at the terance, even as the other sve slunk by him. I shot him a dirty look. Perhaps fortuitously, I didn’t get the ce to say anything to him before Walter started to tremblingly ast him and approach the guard. Once he’d passed the guard, he turned around and mouthed something at us before the fp closed.

  ‘Thank you.’

  Walter disappeared from view.

  ………………………………………

  Shortly after, I heard Magnus smugly give the order for the fight to start. Now that I was listening for it, I could hear the sound of shuffling sound of feet and the grunts of the fighters. Only barely though, as it was nearly drowned out by the boos and jeers of the watg dwarveors.

  I couldn’t stop myself from pag ient after Walter left. I was listening as hard as I was able to, but I wasn’t able to keep track of the fight very well purely through sound. I could tell that Bleddyn was trying to as well, and strangely, I think he was able to follow it more closely than I was. I thought it was odd, sidering how I was the oh a secretly active Status, and thus a more active Perception Virtue, but I didn’t get the ce to think on it more deeply.

  The crowd suddeed into an explosion of cheers and boos as they had earlier. The fight must be over…

  Both Bleddyn and I turo stare at the entrance of the tent in tense silence. I k was wrong of me to hope that Walter had won, and possibly killed another man, but I couldn’t help it. He was just a teenager, dammit.

  The fp suddenly opened, revealing the winner of the bout. I felt dread pool in my stomach at the sight of who it was.

  It wasn’t Walter.

  Instead, it was one of the older sves, covered in a spray of blood. I lurched forward, unsure of what I was even intending to do before a guard walked into the tent dragging something.

  This time, it was Walter.

  The guard was dragging him by an arm, leaving a trail of blood behind him. I didn’t get a better look at Walter before the guard bodily threw the teen at Bleddyn and me. We just barely mao get our arms up in time in order to cushion his fall. I think the only reason I didn’t stagger from the weight was because of Bleddyn. Hurriedly, we set him on the ground to look him over. I took in a sharp breath of air at what we found, while Bleddyn cursed under his breath.

  There was a kit knife buried up to the hilt in Walter’s stomach.

  Fuck.

  Walter was still alive, if barely. He was gazing bnkly at the tent ceiling above while he bled out on the dirt beh us. I don’t even know if he was aware of us h over him. Short, sharp breaths marked by a wheezing old me that this wasn’t a minor injury at all.

  I don’t think he had long.

  Panig slightly, I looked around the tent aime to see if there was anything that we could use as a field dressing. I wasn’t expeg these bastards to have left a ve potion ying around, but no. There was nothing ient but a bunch of unfortunate sves. There wasn’t even any water to wash the wound with.

  Bleddyn caught my attention with a hard puny shoulder, knog me out of my paniate,” He hissed at me under his breath. “Do what I trained you for.” He made a cupping motion with his hands.

  I gazed at him unprehendingly for a moment before realization struck me. When it did, I gaped at him. “Are you serious,” I hissed back, aware of the guard seleg the other two sves that hadn’t fought yet. “I’ve never done anything like this before. It’s not the same a small cut on your arm.”

  “You have to try,” Bleddyn furiously whispered at me. “You’re the only ce the boy has.”

  Goddamnit, he was right. Aetherial Melding was the only ce Walter had of living through this. Surgery using it was hard, but it was theoretically possible. The most first aid I’d ever doh a meld was stitch together small cuts. I made a sound of intense frustration, aware of the eyes of the other sve on us.

  “Fine,” I whispered to Bleddyn. “Make sure nobody see what I’m doing. I’ll give it a shot.” Exging nods, Bleddyn stood up halfway to hunch over our position, hiding the view of Walter and me as much as he could with his body.

  Taking a deep breath, I thought of what I o do first. I’d need something to stick the wound closed, first. I didn’t have the luxury of nice, suture thread, so I’d have to make my own. Reag up, I ripped the right sleeve off of my shirt. It wasn’t hard, as the material wasremely strong. But that would work for my purposes. trating with the sleeve cupped between my palms, I entered into the trance I o manipute Aether for a meld.

  Once I had a grasp oher, I got to work. What I o do wasn’t hard. I was going to break down the cloth of the sleeve into individual strings that I could use to bind the wound, and whatever internal damage there was, back together. This time of suture wasn’t ideal for internals and would likely stick around inside him, but hopefully, I’d be able to just dissolve it inside him ter on if he healed with another meld. I’d just have to hope Walter hadn’t lost too much blood yet to die from that.

  It didn’t take me long, and when I was dohere was a rge pile of white liring ying in my p. I opened my eyes and took a deep breath, aware of a small amount of strain. I’d rushed that part, as I wao save the rgest amount of my tration for what was i.

  I o remove the knife.

  I was going to have to work the fastest I’d ever had with a meld. If I didn’t, Walter would likely die from blood loss while I was trying to save his life. “All right,” I whispered to myself, aware of Bleddyn watg my every move. “Let’s do this.”

  Reag down, I yahe k of Walter’s gut as swiftly and as ly as I could, in order to minimize any more damage. Walter cried out weakly at the movement, being more aware from the spike of pain. He looked down at me with dazed eyes, as I cupped my hands around the rge stab wound and trated fiercely to re-enter my trance. Feebly, he reached down to swipe at my hands, too weak from blood loss to uand what was going on. “No…” He trailed off.

  Not opening my eyes, I spoke. “Hold him down, Bleddyn,” I said lowly. I heard Bleddyn shift above me, but I couldn’t see what he was doing. I was too busy feeling out the wound with my Aetherial sense.

  It wasn’t great.

  The knife had entered him just below his stomach. And as I feared, it had caused more than just muscur damage inside. From what I could tell, it had missed his small iine and instead peed right into his rge iihankfully, from what I could tell, it was mostly empty at the moment, so nothing was leaking out of it that would cause sepsis other than blood. For ohe trend of not feeding sves much had worked in our favor. Still, I’d o stitch together both Walter’s rge iine, as well as the wound on his abdomen.

  Carefully reag down and making sure not to lose my tration, I grabbed my makeshift suture with blood-soaked hands. Bringing the thread to the wound and trating harder than I ever had in my life, I got to work.