When Tirren awoke, he pushed himself groggily to a seated position. He had fallen asleep in his clothing. He sat up, checking the makeshift bandages he had applied to himself the night before. He hurt everywhere. His spirit ached incredibly from his sore mana pathways. It seemed as if he had cuts from the glass mana on every inch of skin, not to mention the wounds from the glass knife, and from Ivarmarktarius’s own hand. As Tirren was thus preoccupied, his mind drifted across his mana pathway, and he remembered the events of the day before with a start.

  Tirren was Sand Seidren. His mana well sat behind his heart, the mana inside now echoing with the aspect of force, and of … gold. Tirren was a force/gold Seidren now. It was a surreal feeling after having spent so many months searching for an aspect, only to have chosen it in the heat of battle. Tirren breathed deeply. He ran his mana into the area around his leg wound. No glass mana remained in the injury. Tirren very forcefully began pushing the mana into the muscles of his leg. This time, he did not seek to permeate his spirit, but to manifest the mana inside of his body. The pain eased ever so gradually as he spent his mana to reinforce and heal his body. He did this until his mana well was spent, directing mana to the next most painful part of his body.

  Once Tirren’s mana was spent, he opened his eyes. Looking around he saw his dark room, with the iron grated door hung open, a small window letting light inside. Finally, Tirren decided he needed to address the fruits of his crime. He pulled a pearl necklace, perfectly spherical stone, and a single jet black feather, which was crumpled from its time in Tirren’s pocket.

  “Alright, Ivar, what did we break in for? What is this junk?”

  YOU ARE SAND SEIDREN NOW. THE FOUNDATION YOU SET IN YOUR EARTH ARC WILL LAY THE GROUND FOR ANY FUTURE PROGRESSION YOU TAKE. AS THE FUTURE HOST OF THIS BODY, YOU WILL NEED TO PREPARE MUCH FOR FURTHER PROGRESSION. LEAVE THE ITEMS ASIDE. I WILL SHOW YOU THEIR USE WHEN IT IS MY TURN TO FIGHT IN THE ARENA.

  Tirren was just preparing a retort, when he noticed a set of eyes watching him from the hallway. Tirren looked up sharply, and shoved the stolen items into pockets again. The pair of eyes, realizing they had been caught, resolved into a boy who stepped around the corner with his hands in his pockets.

  “Hullo.” He said, while aimlessly kicking at the ground with one foot.

  Tirren was taken aback, but responded. “Hello, what is your name?” The boy seemed to be no older than twelve. In Tirren’s manasight, he saw that the boy was Tree Seidren.

  “I’m Noe. And of course I know who you are. You’re Thirty-four, the tree seidren fighting in the red sand Circuit. Tirren! I’m a super-fan when it comes to the circuit rankings. When I’m a little older, I’m going to become the gladeus. That’s the name for the leader of Breaker’s Run Circuit.”

  Tirren was taken aback. He had only gleaned the ranking system from the fact that his last fight had been announced as a ranking fight.

  “What’s a circuit?” Tirren asked.

  “You don’t know? Well let me tell you.” The boy eagerly responded, walking a couple steps forward into Tirren’s room.

  “There are seven circuits in the blood pit arenas. The arenas host monster fights, but the real cool stuff in the coliseums are the ranked fights. The bottom two circuits are limited to Sand Seidren and below. The next two are for gravel Seidren, circuits five and six are for rock tier seidren, and the final circuit is for any earth tier Seidren. It’s called Breaker’s run.

  My family can’t afford to attend the high circuit matches, because they get really expensive, so I like to watch the red sand circuit and the Iron ring, the circuits for Sand Siedren. Rumor has it that there is a new Seidren, fighting with the frost father’s own blessing. He has his first ranking match today, and he will be fighting for entry into the Iron Ring. I was actually on my way to the ring, but I recognized you from your ranking fight with smasher, she’s the worst seidren in the whole circuit, and I wanted to come see you.”

  Tirren laughed. “Want to know a secret?” The boy nodded eagerly.

  Tirren held out his hand and forced some golden mana from his well. He was trying to make something impressive, but he only managed a small gold chip of mana no bigger than a copper piece. “I’m not a tree Seidren anymore.” The boy smiled eagerly, clapping his hands in his excitement.

  As he did, one of the passing staff of the coliseum peeked his head in, hearing the clapping sound. The newcomer was an older lady whose face lit up with recognition when she saw the boy in Tirren’s room.

  Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

  “Noe, what are you doing here? Come with me, we can’t have you sneaking into the arena. This is a place with dangerous Seidren, and you shouldn’t be here.”

  The lady entered the room, as if to grab Noe, and Tirren held up a hand. “Wait, please. Noe is with me. We were just going to watch the latest match.

  Noe’s eyes widened in excitement, and he ran over, grabbing Tirren’s hands and pulling him to his feet. “Right this way, Tirren.”

  Tirren stashed the items in his pockets under the mattress, and was led out of the dark corridor in which his room was located and around to the front of the arena. From there, Noe and Tirren entered the throng of people who were milling to the entrance of the arena. They moved along, and when they got to the entrance of the arena, Tirren paid four silver to the waiting doorkeeper, paying for both himself and Noe.

  They were jostled until they made their way into the stands, high enough in the stands that Tirren had a good look at the arena. Seeing it from this angle, he saw how his fights might have looked from an observer's perspective. He sat down, and Noe was standing next to him, excitedly. Tirren noticed that the stands were packing tightly, and there was a veiled Seidren sitting next to him on the stands. Tirren drew a veil around himself as well.

  The fights began.

  Tirren watched as there was a monster fight. It was a stone snake, similar to the one that had ambushed him on the road into the country of Ice Spires. The Seidren fighting the snake was a growth Seidren, fighting with vines. The fight was fun, but Tirren knew that he along with everyone else were waiting for the main event. Noe was a constant narrator, whenever the actual master of ceremonies was quiet, Noe was filling him in on names and aspects of the various Seidren.

  Finally the awaited match came. The lights across the entire arena went out. At first, Tirren was surprised, and his veil slipped as he prepared for the surprise, but he embarrassedly pulled it back up. The Seidren next to him snickered.

  One of the lights came on, illuminating a patch of sand. Then to Tirren’s astonished eyes, a man stepped from nowhere into the light, wearing sandy colored clothing, and he smiled then threw his hands into the air to a roar from the crowd. Tirren stopped listening to Noe as the loudspeaker announced.

  “Our beloved champion of the Red Sand Circuit, The Shadowblade, the invisible death, the man who knows not defeat, has accepted a challenge from the newcomer. Shadowblade has ruled the Red sand circuit for six months now, and the winner of this match will be fighting next week in the Iron ring, the next circuit!”

  Tirren watched the Seidren on the sands below him from a distance. The man strutted around in his spotlight, occasionally summoning what looked like blades of a shadowy black material, and would artistically flip the mana blades around. Noe informed Tirren that Shadowblade used shadow and gateway aspect mana. Tirren had never even heard of gateway aspect mana.

  Then the lights came on. While they were out, a figure had appeared on the sand, opposite the shadowblade. He was wearing elaborate armor, with a faceplate that came to several spires. It looked like armor befitting an evil king. He had armor that came wicked spiked at every intersection of the plate. There was a cape thrown out behind the new Seidren. Both the cape and the armor were a dark blue color, almost dark enough to be thought of as black.

  It was pretty impressive, Tirren admitted to himself.

  “The newcomer of the Blood pits. A future contender for the title of Gladeus of the lowest Blood pit circuits, surely. This mysterious Seidren is rumored to carry with him the blessing of the frost father himself, the patron and master of our land.

  The shadowblade has heard these bold claims, and he won’t take defeat lightly. Prepare for the duel of your lifetime, I give you Shadowblade versus the Seidren of Frozen Storms!!!!”

  Tirren sat forward in his seat, as both Seidren jumped into action. The blue-armored Seidren began condensing mana right away, and Tirren thought he recognized a mana bomb. However, this mana bomb didn’t look like the meager attack Ivarmarktarius had used when Tirren had been possessed. It was formed in a few seconds, and then it was lobbed towards where the shadowblade had been rapidly approaching. The shadowblade seemed to cut a hole in reality, and he dodged into, appearing near the wall behind the storm seidren, clear from any exposure to the mana attack.

  In the moments as he was taking his portal to the other side of the arena, the storm seidren drew a line with his left hand through the air, which began over his own shoulder, and was drawn down in front of him. As he drew, a line of liquid lightning appeared in his hand. After he had finished his line, a javelin of lightning, tinged golden, white, and blue, was in his hands. He made an effort of suffusing the attack with mana, and Tirren felt the pressure in his stands from the amount of mana which seemed to be loaded into the attack. He turned and threw the bolt towards the gateway which had appeared behind him.

  Both attacks hit around the same time, the floating mana bomb, and the lighting bolt. The shadowblade had come from his portal with a smug face, but as he watched the attack come towards him. He began to dodge back into the portal, but aborted that as well. He began running. The bolt struck the sand behind him, at the same time as the bomb went off, and electric mana seemed to fill the arena. Tirren watched the lightning explosion abut the edge of the arena, against an invisible barrier protecting the crowd.

  The shadowblade had not been so lucky. He was laying in the sand, smoking slightly. The armored Seidren clanked back to his spot, and was lowered into the ground. The crowd was shocked at the powerful display, and the quickness of the fight.

  “We…. have a winner. It seems that our mysterious storm seidren will be advancing to fight in the Iron Ring!” Spectators began throwing coins down onto the sand, in the customary manner of the blood pits. Tirren watched it all with rapt attention. Seeing the money, and realizing how much more this fight had elicited, Tirren thought that it was about time he fought in the Iron Ring as well.