Sara lounged with her injured ankle up on the couch of the common room. A few days of inactivity had let it heal enough to finally stop feeling like an overripe melon about to explode. Sara still needed to wrap the ankle in order to stand for longer than a few moments, but with the heat wave passing through the city she left it unwrapped as much as possible.

Sara now gripped two receipts in her pocket, one for Reza's boat and the other for her departure. Both gave her dissonance when Reza was around since she had not told her about either. Reza was in her room with Kri getting ready to go see her sister at the temple, and Sara was anxious for her to leave.

"You should come with me some time. It beats laying around here waiting for Lady Voreli to show up again." Reza said, and Sara silently agreed. I do not want to get stuck working for Voreli again. "I'm sure Loana would enjoy your company, she was always excited to meet new people."

"Did you say...her name is Loana?" Something clicked inside Sara's mind. The only stable thing in the sea of ever-changing darkness. Everyone ignoring her. Except someone who can see the shadows.

"Yes. Just like her grandmother, why?" Sara could feel her blood run cold.

"And you are sure she has been in a coma for half a year?" Sara asked nervously.

"Yes. You can't exactly fake having no soul. Why?" Reza asked again, giving her a suspicious glance.

Sara opened her mouth to explain, but before she could respond there was a knock on the door. The small common room was enveloped in a heavy silence as Kri sprang up to answer the door.

"May I help you?" Kri asked as she opened the door.

"Yes, I am here for Sara." Sara's view of the door was block, but she recognized the voice immediately, jumping up quickly onto her feet, and then wincing from the jarring pain in her ankle.

"Rax! What are you doing here?" Kri moved away from the door to make room for Sara.

"Deres says he got your note." He said tersely. Sara could tell he was not happy about something.

"Yeah, and...?"

"And he wants you down there today. You're on the program for this afternoon, but we will need to leave now to get you prepared ahead of time." He said.

Sara had sent a note to Deres asking for another fight with Ixer as soon as she got back from the docks a few days ago. She was not sure when she would be payed by the guild for her work with Lady Voreli, and she did not think she would get a refund for the boat reservation. There was also no guarantee the guild could get her another scribing job before she had to leave. "Sure, I was hoping to have a few more days before he fit me in, but just let me get ready and-"

"He wants you there as Kuli." He added, sounding more upset.

"Yeah that's fine." Sara said, suddenly feeling Reza and Kri's attention on them. Instead of moving back into the room to wrap her ankle like she had planned, Sara grabbed Rax's arm and moved them both out into the hallway. It felt odd deliberately touching someone after so many years of avoiding physical contact links, but they made it far enough into the hallway for her to close the door before she allowed herself to let go. "Is there a problem with that?" She spoke quietly.

"Yeah! You were almost gored by Ixer last time you tried to fight him, remember? He literally knocked you out of your boots! I mean maybe as a cleaner you could-"

"Its alright, I know what I am getting into this time. I can handle it." Sara said, motioning for Rax to lower his voice.

Rax did not look convinced. "Are you sure, I mean-"

"I asked to be Kuli." Sara said quickly.

"What?" Rax exclaimed, already forgetting to keep his voice down. "Why would you do that? Why so soon?"

Sara suddenly realized that Rax had no idea she would be gone in a matter of days, but she did not have the heart to tell him. "I don't know. Because I need to, I guess."

Rax sighed and gave her a long stare. "Alright. But just so you know, you can wave off at any time. You don't need to stay in until he knocks you out or anything."

"Good to know." Sara said, remembering the last time she had been knocked into the sand. "And that reminds me, how do you think Deres would feel about face paint?"

* * * * *

Sara couldn't stop herself from grinning as she tucked her horned black helmet under her arm as she stood on the edge of the Arena sands, admiring the full crowd. Parts of the crowd chanted her name. Or at least the name of my Arena alias. "Ku-li! Ku-li! Ku-li!" She waved to the stands and the crowd burst into cheers. Another wave of cheering swept through the stands a moment later when Ixer made his entrance on the other side of the Arena, led by Faza.

Deres had been very supportive of her wearing face paint, and Sara had tried to mimic what she could remember of the Thurgian mercenaries that had fought with her another world away. She had never seen them up close, but the patterns she had seen had been relatively basic. She had decided on a lighter shade for most of her face, with three diagonal slashes of red from forehead to chin. Combined with the mismatched set of armor Deres had supplied she felt like the Thurgian barbarian everyone assumed her to be. The Barbarian Kuli.

Although the armor was an eclectic mix of styles, most was colored red or black. Even the spike that emerged from her over-sized left shoulder plate was a dull ebony. Her shield matched as well, the field a checkerboard pattern of black and red squares.

Sara could barely hear Deres' introduction over the noise from the crowd, but she caught his signal to start. She slammed her helmet onto her head, cheek-guards flapping from the force, and marched out to dance with Ixer again.

[INSERT DRAMATIC USKUSK FIGHT]

* * * * *

Sara woke, disoriented. Her limbs felt heavy, but she still floated. A flag was in front of her, streaming slowly towards her, waving undulations making its length twitch with an energy Sara envied. It took Sara a moment to realize flag was not actually floating towards her, despite its waving and weaving. She wanted to reach out and touch the brightly covered fabric but her arms still proved unresponsive. It took a few attempts to understand that she was laying on her back, mostly. She was looking up at one of the flags hanging off the upper decks of the arena. The Arena. The Uskusk! Detail began flooding back, and with them her hearing, as a dull roar of the crowd slowly grew in her ears.

She struggled a bit, still not used to some movements in the new armor, but was able to sit herself up. She panted from the effort, wiping sweat from her face using the inside of her arm. She was able to lean herself against the nearby inner wall of the arena, keeping herself propped while she waited for her strength to return. Her legs felt heavier than normal getting up. There was also a funny smell in her nose, and Sara started worrying about how hard she had been hit.

She searched the arena for the Ixer, but did not see him. Eventually she spotted Rax trotting towards her from cages. She struggled more and managed to get herself standing before he got to her.

"I thought I said that you didn't have wait for him to knock you out." Rax said. Sara could see his humor turn to concern as he approached. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine." Sara said a little too lightly. "Where's Ixer?"

"Are you sure?" He said pointing to the arm she had wiped her face with. "Ixer is back in his cage. He got you pretty good."

"He did?" Sara looked down and saw the arm was streaked with blood. That's odd. I don't remember feeling anything wrong with it a moment ago. Sara clumsily undid the buckles keeping the arm brace on, but did not see any injury. She was still sweating and wiped her head again, only to find more blood instead of sweat. "When did that happen?" She asked herself, searching her face for where the blood was coming from.

"Alright, lets get that cut looked at in the locker room, before we have to cart off half the sand in here." Rax said and took her blood-free arm to guide her to the lockers.

"Wait, my helmet!" She pulled weakly against his grip but he did not let go. What else am I forgetting? Betrayal! She looked up at him while she waited for a link to form, but nothing happened. That is right. He's a non-magiker. She slowly relaxed and tried to figure out if he would betray her anyway as he held up her helmet.

"Already picked that up." They skirted the edge of the arena towards the lockers. Sara wondered if the crowd was still cheering, or if she was just hearing the blood rushing through her skull.

They reached the lockers quickly and Sara sat heavily on a bench. "Alright, you sit right there for a moment, I will just go fetch the doc."

"No!" They all betray. Sara felt her grip tighten on the arm guard that she still held in her hand. She forced herself to stay calm, to stay in the locker room with Rax. "No. No doctor. I don't...not needed...really."

Rax gave her a disbelieving look. "I think I will get him anyway. Better safe than sorry, right?"

"Right." Sara finally said. The roaring in her ears had not stopped, so Sara assumed it was probably not the crowd after all. As soon as she saw that Rax had left, she stood up to leave as well. Sorry Rax, better safe than sorry.

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Author's Note:

I have decided to leave out the Uskusk fight for now, since the only real plot-important element is that Sara learns that Uskusk horns have a magikal affinity, but that can be easily covered in their rematch, if I can get there before the end of November!

There is another part of this chapter I have left out as well, where Sara picks her armor, but I decided to cut that so I could focus on more important scenes in later chapters.

Also, thanks to all those still following along! The views mean a lot!

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