“Then, of course. If I win, you can come with me to the empire,” Shae said, “Just promise me, you will put everything back and forget about running away.”

“If I promise that, there’s no ‘if’ to you winning. You have to win,” she told them. 

“Deal.” Shae put out their hand surprising her yet again with their confidence.

“Deal.” she replied, shaking it firmly.

For some reason, she believed them. It felt almost impossible for an unknown, amateur fighter to become the Champion of Sumanar, but if Shae could do that, Ceilsea could certainly wait a little longer. She had never met someone who understood her, but Shae shared her ability to feel magic and  understood her pain as a stifled artist. For the first time in a long time, she felt inspiration well up inside herself. She knew who she was going to carve to commemorate the tournament. 

To placate Shae, Ceilsea took all her traveling supplies back up to her room that night. She couldn’t think of a way to explain the reappearance of the sculpting tools, so she stashed them under her bed.

Ceilsea struggled to sleep that night. Images of the sculpture of Shae played in her head. She pictured their small, delicate frame lunging at an opponent. Legends didn’t describe heroes like them, but to Ceilsea, it was the only image that could truly represent this event. There was an intensity behind their dark eyes that captured the stakes of the tournament, and more importantly, their prowess with music represented a side of an ancient struggle that had not triumphed for hundreds of years. Music kept the dangers of silent song at bay, but most people had forgotten its importance. Shae could be the catalyst to remind them of the importance of music. Ceilsea delighted at the challenge—translating melody to stone. When she had thought she alone felt magic, she’d ignored her discomfort, but now she knew another person who felt what she did, she had to try to include a representation of it in the sculpture of Shae. As she pondered how to hint at all these hidden depths—in a stance, in a symbol, in an expression—she finally fell asleep. 

The next morning, Ceilsea spent a few hours sketching her new ideas. She couldn’t believe she had agreed to stay until the end of the tournament. She didn’t plan to stay any longer than she had to, and she didn’t want to get comfortable. However, she had promised Shae she wouldn’t do anything drastic. Finally, Ceilsea dragged herself out of bed, and headed down to her courtyard. She half expected Shae to already be gone, but she was pleasantly surprised when she found them on the far side of her griffin. They immediately straightened from whatever they had been crouched over.

“Shouldn’t you leave before someone else catches you here?” Ceilsea half teased.

“I just wanted to make sure you weren’t having any second thoughts on our deal, so I waited,” they replied, already picking up their pack. They left something behind on the foot of the griffin. “I know it’s easy for your thoughts to spiral when you feel trapped.”

Ceilsea thought it was interesting how concerned they were for her. She never had someone other than Vonae care so much about her, without being interested in her art. She understood it was self-serving, feeling like they were saving her from their mistakes, but this seemed like more effort than most people would put in to help a person they’d only known for a few days.  

Lucky for them, Ceilsea’s mind had been circling a different problem since last night. “After years here, another week to see if you win isn’t going to kill me.” 

“Alright, then I’ll go,” Shae said. “I…um… had some leftover food if you needed breakfast.”

Now that they stepped away, Ceilsea could see the crumbling chunks of bread and cheese they’d left on sculpture. She realized they might have been trying to share a meal with her, but she’d slept in too long.

She furrowed her brow. “Do you really think the pseudo-princess can’t get better than stale bread to eat?”

She tried to hide her smile when they looked flustered. “I don’t know. I was just trying to…I thought it would be strange to wait for you empty handed.”

They were trying to show they cared, but they didn’t have much to give. This was more than about making sure she didn’t run away. They wanted to spend time with her and share what little they had. Apparently Ceilsea wasn’t the only one thinking all night about they’re conversation—connection—from last night.

She walked over and picked up the food. Nibbling on a few crumbs of the cheese, she handed it back to Shae. “I mean, I do tend to forget eating, but I can get whatever I want from the kitchens if I need to. I don’t need to take from you.” 

Shae stared at the food but then took it back shoving it in one of the pockets of their bag. “This is probably from the same kitchens anyway. I took as much as I could from the banquet tables they had in the city before the tournament began.”

Ceilsea remembered the Champion’s ball had included providing food and entertainment throughout the city, provided by the King. She had even taken a little when she went out exploring with Vonae. She suddenly felt guilty for taking it away from people who probably needed it more than her.

At least they would get paid when they performed the evening song tomorrow. Living on the run was harder than Ceilsea had thought. She would have to be more conscious of Shae’s situation. 

“Next time, I’ll treat you to breakfast and you can take as much as you want,” she told them and then started following them to the exit. “Can I walk you partway to the campgrounds?” Ceilsea wanted to make sure they knew she appreciated their offer of food, even if she couldn’t accept it.

“If you want,” they said with a shrug.

“I’m headed in that direction anyway. My parents will want to make sure I didn’t ruin anything at the reception last night,” she told them. She hadn’t planned to do that first thing, but at some point today, she’d have to do it. Her mother and father would probably be working near the amphitheater on the tournament most of the day. One of them should be free to talk to her briefly. 

As soon as she stepped out of the palace, she was met with stares and whispers from passersby. Word of her identity as the pseudo-princess must have spread to the festival goers after she sat in the royal box yesterday. Most people went about their business after a quick glance, but there was always a group or two openly discussing her. Vonae and her father would have told her she needed a guard to go into the city right now, but she was sure she’d be safe with Shae. Shae noticed the extra attention but tried to ignore it.

Ceilsea took them close to the amphitheater, which negated some of the attention. Before the tournament began for the day, the area was restricted to tournament workers and participants. Nobody would stop the pseudo-princess, even if she technically wasn’t part of the tournament. Festival officiants popped in and out of the tents lining the top edge. Passing guards acknowledged her and noted Shae. 

“Do they always watch you this closely?” Shae whispered to her.

“Not usually this much, I suppose. Even if I wasn’t the pseudo-princess, I’m still the daughter of the High Wizard. All the wizards here report to him,” Ceilsea explained. She was pretty accustomed to being watched anywhere that wasn’t her courtyard.

She walked closer to the edge with Shae. Compared to the ruckus yesterday, the amphitheater was eerily quiet and empty now. Bits of food and discarded belongings littered the area, but servants were picking up the debris. Ceilsea wondered why her mother was not present, until she felt the large spell discharge as the structures that separated the arenas below shifted. Shae flinched beside her.

Ceilsea’s mother specialized in urban magics. She helped build, fix, and shift buildings as well as clean streets and control crowds and traffic flow. Usually, the cleaning of the amphitheater would be left to her, but it seemed the arenas needed more tweaking after their first official use. Perhaps too much music or magic had bled in-between the fights or maybe people had complained the partitions blocked the view of the sparring. 

Ceilsea had seen her mother do amazing feats of magic, including shifting the capital’s walls to envelope a new neighborhood and move an entire building. On a daily basis, she mainly just fixed cracks in the local stonework or cleaned busy streets. She also did a lot of cleaning and small fixes at home in the palace. Ceilsea had forgotten her mother must have contributed to most of the tournament’s facilities. It was no wonder, Ceilsea thought as she watched the edges of the arenas move, that she had originally been a disappointment to her parents. She couldn’t do a fraction of what her parents could. Her mother could cut and shape stone quicker than Ceilsea, but with none of the eye for detail and artistic touch.

“The walls don’t help limit the interference much when they're covered in magic themselves,” Shae commented, watching the scene below just like her. “Though I suppose you know that.”

“Does that magic get in the way?” she asked. She hadn’t really noticed anything yesterday.

“Other than an annoying distraction for me? Some of the dispelling songs from the other wayzards end up hitting the walls, and then they wonder why they take longer to work to dismantle the active spells,” Shaelis told her. “I know there’s no point in complaining since they don’t know. I just try to dispel it before we start.”

Ceilsea recalled Vonae’s comments yesterday about Shae’s swordwork. He had not been impressed. She understood it must be hard to focus on swinging a sword with magic pressing around you constantly, but maybe, Ceilsea should learn what Vonae thought Shaelis’ weaknesses were. Then they could address them early in the competition. As the closest thing Ceilsea had to an expert, Vonae’s thoughts were important. She wanted Shae to win after all.