ARCADIA, CLAN HOMEWORLDS
SEPTEMBER 17, 3048
Laurie Tseng was a tall, battered-looking woman whose heavy bones and honed muscles were a strong contrast with the two younger women who faced each other across the coinwell, one her own height but slender and almost delicate, the other short and richly curved. "I am the Oathmaster, and accept responsibility for representing House Tseng here. Do you concur in this?"
"Seyla," both of the applicants answered.
"Then what transpires here shall bind us all until we all shall fall. In this, your fifth and final battle, you sanctify, with your blood, Nicholas Kerensky's determination to forge the Clans into the pinnacle of human development. Know that being chosen to participate marks you as having the seed of potential to rightly place you among the few who have existed at the zenith of all that our people hold sacred.
"You, Vera Ghost Bear, have seen sixteen years. Why are you worthy?"
"I was chosen by Malcom Tseng to be heir to this Bloodname. I claimed seven victories in my Blooding and tested into command of a full Galaxy. In that post, I led the capture of Clan Ice Hellion's Warship Coterie, now in Ghost Bear service as the Iditarod. Prior to the battle today, I defeated four mechwarriors for the right to be here today."
"You, Kirsten Ghost Bear, have seen twenty years. Why are you worthy?"
"In my Blooding, I claimed one victory, earning my place as a Warrior of the Clan. I have fought Clan Blood Spirit on York, Clan Burrock on Albion, Clan Cloud Cobra and Clan Star Adder on Homer, Clan Coyote, Clan Hell's Horses, Clan Fire Mandrill, and Clan Wolf on Hoard, Clan Diamond Shark and Clan Snow Raven on Lum, Clan Goliath Scorpion, Clan Jade Falcon, and Clan Smoke Jaguar on Huntress, Clan Ice Hellion on Hector, and Clan Steel Viper on New Kent - and claimed victories against them all. Five times I have saved the life of my commanders in battle, and in the trials preceding the initiation of Operation Revival, I three times provided the location of enemy strike groups and forward resupply points to my superiors for destruction. Prior to the battle today, I defeated four mechwarriors for the right to be here today, killing two."
Lauri Tseng nodded, and held out her hands to both of them. "The heroism and courage you both have displayed has been established and verified, proving that your claims are not without substance. No matter what ensues and what fate you meet this battle, the brightness of your light shall not be diminished. Present the tokens of your proven right to participate in this contest."
As she had four times before, Vera rubbed her thumb along the face of the snarling Ghost Bear that formed the obverse of her coin, for luck, before dropping it into the Oathmaster's hand.
"When one token has successfully stalked the other and they complete their transit through this cone, the hunting token will be superior. That Warrior may choose the style for the battle. The hunted token will be inferior; that Warrior may choose the venue for the battle. In this way each will fight on a battlefield not wholly of her choosing."
The Loremaster of Clan Ghost Bear turned and slotted both coins into the ramps that topped the curved cone of the well. She walked around its perimeter so that she could see both Kirsten and Vera's faces. "Let the tokens choose among equals."
"Seyla," the young warriors breathed in perfect and unconscious unison.
Loremaster Tseng pressed the release, and the platinum coins began spiralling downward, rumbling around and around, deeper and deeper.
Vera couldn't tell which was ahead when they passed out of sight, and instinctively held her breath as the capture bin that had been below the well came into sight. The Loremaster's hand vanished inside, came out with a glittering coin. She held it up - sigil side towards the two warriors - then flipped it around so that they could see.
Their genetically engineered eyes had no trouble reading the name written across the coin's reverse, and tension gusted out of their breaths in a sigh.
"Kirsten, you are the hunter."
Kirsten smiled, characteristically finding humor even in so solemn a circumstance. "It might be better for the Clan if I were as overconfident as some have been, but alas, I am neither a fool nor so self-sacrificing. I will hunt unaugmented."
Vera shrugged, and, without meaning to, smiled back. At least Kirsten wasn't going to kill her; she'd have another chance.
"Vera, the style has been decided. Where will you be hunted?"
She shrugged, still smiling. "There is no sense in delaying it. Here, as soon as the mechanism of decision has been cleared away."
Two Elementals came to carry away the well. When they had gone, the Loremaster gestured Vera and Kirsten into position. "You have your battlefield. Skill, Warriors. Let the battle begin!"
As friends, they'd sparred many times before, especially given Vera's efforts to polish her own skills in hand-to-hand fighting. Kirsten knew Vera's tendency to try and rely on knee and elbow shots inside taller opponents' reach, and to rely on her reflexes to skate around harm. Vera knew Kirsten's habit of switching between punishing full-reach strikes and outright grapples that could use her greater size and strength to the full.
Both of them also knew that their spars usually ended with Vera either tapping out or lying breathless on the floor, trying to piece her wits back together.
Kirsten punched, Vera blocked and fell back a step out of range of the follow up. A kick was outright dodged, again backwards, the shorter, younger Vera looking desperately for a way through Kirsten's guard. She might be unlikely to win, but she at least wanted to get a shot in...
Kirsten didn't intend to let her evade a third time; she tried a rush, boring in to grapple. Vera threw herself back and down, under the grab and onto her back, and reached up, grabbing herself for Kirsten's wrists.
The tactic wasn't like her, and surprise delayed the taller warrior's response just long enough for her to get a grip and yank, dragging Kirsten down - onto the feet she'd brought up by tucking her thighs against her stomach.
She rolled with the momentum, bearing both of their weights up onto her shoulders, then pushed off with all the strength in her back and both legs, launching Kirsten's heavier body hurtling through the air.
As soon as she let go, Vera twisted around, kipping back up onto her feet and turning to follow before the other could recover, but the sound of impact that she heard halfway through the motion was sharper and harder than expected - she'd forgotten the way her earlier evasions had brought her back towards the room's wall, and pitched Kirsten into it headfirst.
Her friend lay crumpled against the wall, and for a moment Vera thought she was dead; the clumsy attempt to roll over, and the way the motion provoked her to be sick all over the floor, were actually a singing relief. She dropped to her knees next to Kirsten and looked up at the Loremaster, the Oathkeeper. "I do not believe she can continue," she said.
Laurie Tseng inclined her head. "Yours is the victory... Vera Tseng."