Let me fight (Let me lose)

“What, are you scared to let little ole me in?” The storm spirit leaned on the wall, a grin curling across their face.

Jason’s nose wrinkled as she eyed them, unimpressed. She didn’t care to hide the low trill which vocalized this either.

The hot-shot had been coming by to look at the fights more and more. Only the training-fights, not the official ones, but it still didn’t sit right with the older beastguard.

They started by slinking away into the shadows of the rafters, then, slowly, got bold enough to watch in the stands with the rest of the beastguard once they realized they weren’t going to get kicked out.

Though, they did sit alone in those stands. Like a drop of oil in water, where they walked the others peeled away.

She stared at them.

In the dim light of the hallway, their speckled, moon-blue pelt seemed unnaturally bright, almost glowing. They both had been leaving the diamond from watching the others, and Amek was blocking her path out, canopy-filtered sunlight falling onto the ground just behind them.

Jason was not one to beat around the bush.

Clicking her talons against the cobbled floors, she huffed, “Be an idiot not to be, your magic, it’s real beastly.” Amek’s smile sharpened, so Jason quickly added, “Kir. Valencia,” though the formality felt slimy on her tongue.

Like most, she couldn’t say she knew a whistleworms finger about storm spirits, but once she got a good look at them, she could tell Amek was a kitling. Despite their… intimidating size (Jason had to look up at them)… there was baby-fat pudging their face yet. And the way about them, Jason couldn’t explain it in words, that energy kitlings always had. Like a pinwheel spinning fast enough to break. Like a cup three drops from spilling over. Amek had that.

Kir. Valencia

A Kirjnhas shouldn’t be so young.

Jason’s teeth ground, her low trilling turning more in a crackle. Because she knew there were better, much better, among the beastguard for the position.

Amek raised a single brow. “Well I wouldn’t use it now would I? This is the Orderless league.”

She didn’t know whether the storm spirit was trying to butter her up, wary of her trilling, or simply being sensitive – either way – Jason’s mane fluffed in appreciation – Though she hissed reflexively to hide this. It was nice not to hear “the null-league”, as many called it, even fans.

But a 16 year old Kirjnhas shouldn’t be a Kirjnhas.

 A rock settled in her stomach as she realized this was going to be a long conversation.

Yet, 16 or not, Jason was not one to beat around the bush.

“No,” She pulled back her lip, baring her teeth. “It’s the Orderless league for a reason, and normal creatures don’t fight in the orderless league, let alone-“ Jason pointed, “You- the Kirjnhas.”

Amek opened their mouth to retort but Jason beat them.

“You’ll make us look bad, you realize. Weak.”

Jason’s words and crackling trill echoed in the cavernous, stone hallway, they had made Amek pause. The other was still smiling, but something quieter and more contemplative.

Because, even young and new to the beastguard as they were, they knew sometimes the mere insinuation of weakness was a death-sentence.

In the silence, Jason saw the cloudy bits atop their head and tufting their tail quicken in their billowing, though the storm spirits expression remained the same. Jason didn’t know what that meant, and unwittingly, her talons shuffled against the ground.

He decided it was bad when a spark returned to Amek’s gaze, and they leveled that gaze squarely and assuredly onto Jason.

“Well, you all wouldn’t look weak if I let you win, would you?”

Jason’s teeth were still loosely barred. “What in the hokk do you mean.”

Amek threw up a placating, unbothered paw, “I mean what I said! I’d let you all win – put on a good show of course, but I’d lose. And think about it –  that would make you and your boys look stronger, yes? It’s not nothing to beat a Kirjnhas, you know, even a Kirjnhas not using magic.”

Oh, now this was giving her a headache. Jason, who had been standing this whole conversation, sat down.

“You…” her trilling softened, staring at Amek who looked all too confident about their proposal. “This would make you look weak, you realize.”

Still annoyingly lax, Amek’s ears pinned back and then forward. Jason was confused, until she realized that that was the spinecat equivalent of shrugging. It looked a bit strange on Amek, they had much taller ears than most spinecat.

“Not an issue for me. As long as I remain unchallenged in the ordered league… no one can truly argue I’m weak. And if they do, well, I’ll just challenge them to a duel and make them bleed, of course.” Their smile was sunny as they said this. “It will be good training for fighting without magic as well, which is an invaluable skill, one that I’ve seen even trained mages neglect, for whatever silly reason.”

Once again, Jason didn’t no what else to do but stare at Amek. She sighed, and raised a paw to massage her temples, closing her eyes for a moment.

(Though it was true, what they said. Many mages only knew how to fight with magic and were embarrassingly easy to take down by those trained in physical combat –  granted, the mage couldn’t use magic for some reason. Yet, somehow, magical combat was always preferred over physical. She was glad this this Kirjnhas appeared to have some respect for it.)

Before she could open her eyes again, Amek added, with couldn’t be described as anything but a pout, “If you’re still not convinced I could give you some compensation. Being Kirjnhas gives me access to many things.”

You know what, Jason didn’t care anymore.

“No, no,” she held up a paw weakly. “I could get in trouble for that. Just- fine.” Jason couldn’t fathom the storm spirits reasons for wanting this, wanting this enough to have this long of a conversation about it, cornering her, bribing her. There were easier ways, especially one of her position, to get training in physical combat – but again, Jason didn’t care anymore “You can fight.”

Jason opened her eyes now, and made sure she met Amek’s gaze so they fully understood the conditions of this agreement. “But you tell me when you want to fight, and I get to choose who you do. Get that? And you don’t tell anyone else about this agreement we have, yes?”

The clear, smug victory in their eyes made Jason’s lip curl.

Amek gave an affirmative click – another mimicked spinecat sound. “Can do.”

“Okay,” she sighed, just thinking about the arrangements needed for all of this was making her headache worse. “Also, since you’re a special case, I want you on magic-suppressants or null-shackles or something, your choice.”

The way Amek’s expression suddenly shuttered, going utterly blank, made Jason freeze. He’d never seen the storm spirit look that way.

Briefly, so briefly Jason would have missed it if she blinked, the look in their eyes seemed haunted.

Then the smile returned, though it was strained.

“That- I had thought the diamonds- they’re set up to detect any foul-use of magic during orderless fights, yes?”

“They are, but you’re strong enough – “ and young enough, unpredictable enough “– that if you hokk up, you could seriously injure, or kill, your opponent.”

Injuries during fights were normally not a concern, they were expected, it added excitement and drama to the fight, after all. But a contender during an orderless fight being injured, not by tooth or claw, but by magic –  was not only a foul, but a serious offense. It was dishonorable, it was unsportsmanlike. Jason would not stand for it.

After a moment, they said softly, “I… can’t do that.”

Jason scowled. “Then you can’t fight.”

Before Amek could flap their mouth again, she added, “And you can’t bribe me about that.”

Jason pushed passed Amek to the exit, glad that that conversation was finally over. As she stepped out of the shadowed gateway, however, the filtered sunlight only further aggravated her headache.

“Choke me out then.”

Jason stopped.

Turned, looked back to Amek. In the shade of the archway, the storm spirit’s clouds were quick, and Jason could have swore their eyes glowed a faint red. She did not think that was good.

“Excuse me?” her hackles raised, unsure if the storm spirit was threatening her.

“You’re worried I’ll panic and lose control once I get bled. I assure you I won’t, I’m Kirjnhas for a reason, I have control over my magic. But you don’t trust me, I understand that. Choking me out and me not fighting back with magic would give you proof, yes?”

Jason just blinked at them. Gods help him, help clan Valencia, something was deeply wrong with this Kirjnhas.

This Kirjnhas, this kitling.

“I’m not hokking doing that.”

And as Jason turned back around, that was where the conversation ended. 

Or so she had thought.