6.20
Austin finds himself squeezed in between humans and demons, Otter and Walker to one side of him and Naberius and Morse to the other. Abyss has wandered off, chatting with a group of demons a few rows down who don’t look particularly like nobles. Austin glances around the crowd to distract himself, trying to pick out faces he recognizes from Naberius’s party, but is startled out of people-watching as the bell rings to signal the start of the fight. Reluctantly, he turns his eyes towards the center of the arena, where neither Landis nor Gen has moved an inch.
“What are you doing?” he asks under his breath, well aware that Landis can’t hear him. “Don’t just stand around waiting for her to do something.”
“He’s playing it safe,” Morse says. “None of you know what kind of magic she can do, right? He’s trying to force her to make the first move.”
“Yeah, but what if he gets -” Otter starts, but is cut off by exclamations from the crowd as Gen does something Austin can’t quite make out. Even Naberius lets out a low, impressed whistle.
“What?” Austin asks. He starts to crane his neck to see, but what Gen is up to becomes more immediately obvious as she opens her hand and he can see her palm stained red. As the blood begins to slide off of her skin and collect in the air, Austin looks away, bile rising in his throat.
“You didn’t tell me she could do blood magic,” Morse hisses. Austin shrugs.
“I didn’t know.”
A sharp gasp from Otter makes Austin look up again, more sharply than before, and he’s met with the sight of Gen launching a solid projectile of blood at Landis, who doesn’t even try to dodge - or doesn’t have time to. It strikes him solidly in the side, and Austin winces. That has to hurt. If he gets hit again…
“Move, dummy,” Austin growls under his breath. Landis wobbles on his feet for a second, but seems to come to the same conclusion, and takes off running in a lap around the arena, giving Gen a wide berth.
“What the hell is he doing?” Walker asks loudly. “He’s gonna tire himself out before he can even attack her. He’s gotta get her on the defensive.”
He’s right, Austin thinks grimly, even as several demons turn around to shush Walker. Landis probably doesn’t have that much stamina, especially now that he’s already hurt. If he doesn’t make an offensive play soon, he’s going to be on the run until Gen can get him tired out and cornered.
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” Morse says, leaning across Austin to talk. “Blood magic like that takes a lot of energy to keep up. At this rate, she might tire out before he does.”
“Then why bother starting off so big and flashy?” Walker asks. “What’s she so scared of Landis for?”
“She did watch him basically shout down a demon that, uh, ate her friend,” Otter says, shifting a little in his seat. The incident with the witches in the woods isn’t something he or Landis tend to talk much about, if they can help it, given the way it ended.
This gives Morse pause. “Crocell ate a human?”
“Well, they were all, uh, fucked up and muddy at the time.” Otter shrugs, looking even more uncomfortable than before. “And they didn’t really eat her so much as they…absorbed her? I dunno.”
“Weird,” Morse says matter-of-factly. He settles back into his seat, giving Austin a little more room to breathe - and to actually watch the duel, where Landis is still running around the arena as Gen hurls another projectile his way. This one, Landis manages to outrun, sending it hurtling straight for a group of spectators. A scream goes up from the stands, but it looks like everyone got out of the way in time.
It is weird that Gen is bringing out the big guns right away, Austin thinks, furrowing his eyebrows and leaning forwards slightly for a better look at the arena. Especially if what Morse said is right, and she’s really exerting herself to do it. Either she has something even more powerful that she’s saving for later, or she’s trying to end the match before it even begins properly. Even so, with the way Landis got the better of her in the woods, you’d think she would be a little more reluctant to actually -
Something Gen said before the duel, in his bedroom, floats to the forefront of his mind. Huh. maybe she’s more motivated than I thought, even if she is scared of Landis.
“Maybe she’s desperate because Kesi’s going to renege on their contract if she loses,” he says, thinking aloud.
He’s met with silence - which he expected from Otter and Walker, but didn’t from Naberius and Morse. Austin glances at the demons to find them staring back at him. Morse’s milky white eyes are wide and stunned, and Nab’s mouth hangs slightly agape.
“What did you say?” Naberius asks, his voice so hushed that Austin barely hears it over the din of the crowd, including a roar from Walker that he can’t read any sort of emotion - positive or negative - into.
Austin steals a quick glance at the arena before answering, just to ensure Landis is still alive. Surprisingly, Landis is still alive, and tackling Gen to the ground, to boot. Satisfied with the fact that Landis has apparently started holding his own, Austin turns back to Naberius and Morse.
“Gen came to talk to me before the duel,” he says slowly, “and I suggested that we try and come to a stalemate so that nobody had to die. She told me that Kesi would take away whatever he did in the contract if she didn’t actually fight, and I assume he’ll still do that if she loses. I guess that’s how he’s motivating her to end the fight as fast as she can.”
“That’s…” Morse begins, and trails off, frowning. “That’s incredibly illegal, isn’t it?”
“It’s…morally reprehensible, to say the least,” Naberius says slowly. “But only worthy of punishment if you can prove that Kesi means to make good on the threats.”
“Wait,” Austin says, his attention now entirely removed from the duel. Otter and Walker are discussing something heatedly on his other side, but he tunes them out, shifting to face Naberius and Morse. “Explain. What’s illegal about it?”
“Once a contractual favor is done, you can’t renege,” Naberius says. “A demon can’t knowingly undo a favor they did for a human. If they give their human powers, or healed them, or brought someone back to life for them, they can’t threaten to take that away as leverage to make their human do something.”
“It’s to prevent an imbalance of power in the contractual relationship,” Morse adds. “Otherwise, a demon could use that leverage to make their human do just about anything, and the favor-for-favor balance would go right out the window.”
“And it’s the same for humans?” Austin asks.
“Yeah.” Morse nods. “Humans get tried and executed if they renege one of their favors.”
“What happens to demons?”
“Well, demons can’t really be executed, for obvious reasons.” Morse shoots a careful glance over at Naberius. “It hasn’t happened since I was made, but I imagine there’d be an investigation, and a trial before the Council to find a fitting punishment.”
“It’s a fairly serious accusation,” Naberius says. “Even just to prove that a demon intended to renege…”
“An investigation could shut down the duel indefinitely,” Morse says pointedly.
“Okay,” Austin says, a little breathless at the implications. “So how do we kickstart an investigation?”
“We’ll have to get word to Samael, somehow,” Naberius says. “And convince Gen to testify against Kesi.”
That part might not be hard, depending on what he’s holding against her. Austin thinks. He opens his mouth to put the idea forward, but a cry from the audience cuts him off. Otter and Walker stand up abruptly next to him, and Morse gives a little, startled jump.
“We might want to get moving on that whole thing,” Morse says, weakly, “or else the duel’s going to end before we can stop it.”