Opening credits

The messenger nodded and then left the room. It had gotten dark. I laid down to sleep. I had a dream that night which I don't remember ever having such a vivid dream before. It was like I was riding on the messenger's shoulder as he rode the lift up a couple of floors. It opened into a part of the tower I had never seen before. More people where waiting in the room. A man in a big hat looked up as the messenger entered the room. "About time, brother Hose, what was so important that you wanted this meeting tonight? We will all have a lot of work to do tomorrow."

"You should move the house of Estro fighters back to the last round."

"They are the best at group fighting. Why would we not have them in the fifth round."

"He won't fight them."

"What? I think you have gone adele spending so much time around them. He will kill what he has to, to live."

"I am telling you he won't. You had to see what he was doing in his room all day today."

"Yes, he has gotten a lot stronger. What has that to do with the fight?"

"He wasn't trying to block us out. He was trying to keep himself in, because he isn't sure his brothers won't betray him. He won't fight his brothers."

"I am guessing that you don't think the matriarch's argument will hold true with him."

"I didn't want to start him down that path, there would only be one reason for me to ask, and the fact that we agreed could be seen to make all the fighters his brother."

"If that was true then he would have died in the first match."

"The third match, dirt cannot be our brother." Another man around the table said.

"He won't fight them. Moving them to the last match is the best option, unless you want to risk a match that he won't fight in."

"It would seem like if he is so strongly opposed to it the matriarch should know that."

Another man spoke up, "I have reason to believe she might. She won't tell me who she is putting into the match. She hasn't even arrived with her fighters yet."

"Which means we cannot be sure they will even fight him."

The man in the big hat frowned and steepled his fingers over his chest leaning back. "Move them to the last fight, but leave their spots empty. We let them think they are at the end and still have two rounds left."

The messenger bowed to the man, "As you wish, I need to get back. They are more observant than I had hoped."

"You may leave brother. Just make sure they get to the arena on time."

I woke into the early morning light. The messenger had only just walked in the main door, with a tray full of breakfast. I came out into the main room. My brothers had passed out on the floor again. The beds in the side rooms were too soft, they said, and they seemed to enjoy sleeping near each other in the unfamiliar place. The messenger looked up in surprise when my door opened. "Sorry I didn't mean to wake you."

I frowned at the man. He took a step back, then smiled at me. I didn't wait for what he had come up with, "Have we been traded?"

My unit wasn't all the way awake yet. That got their attention. The messenger's smile slipped for a second before returning a little more forced, "No, why would you ask that?"

I glanced around the room, "The rules state that only five for each house may be part of this match. If Estro put in other fighters then you will have to explain how we aren't Estro."

"Unless Estro put in before the rule change, brother."

"They wouldn't have had any reason to want to before the round rule."

"What makes you think that Estro has more fighters anyway?"

I looked at the man. Why was I taking a dream as fact? "If the fifth round is short and the fight continues after it, you will get to learn if you are experienced enough to make up for our natural difference." My unit was looking from me to the messenger and back like they weren't sure who was going to blink first.

The messenger frowned and his eyes narrowed. I waited while he thought. "Our lord claimed you directly for this fight when he rescheduled your two fights. Estro pointed this out when they requested to enter six more fighters. That was the day the five man limit was added. You aren't not a part of Estro but for this fight you are under our lord's direct banner."

"Fuck" I don't curse much, it never sounds right. "You cannot tell me how many fighters are in the last round. You cannot tell me how many rounds there will be." I looked over at my unit they seemed very worried about how I would leap. "130 at least, 170 at most. That isn't total combatants, that is just opposing fighters. Kill everyone in the first and second rounds. If we aren't too tired we might find out how well the gloves work, but don't take any chances." All three said yes sir, and then dug into the food, it was going to be a long day.

We dressed, leaving off the bracers as we walked out of the tower. The messenger walked with us, he kept his eyes down. I knew where I was going. I hadn't asked to see the arena, I was pretty sure they would have said no anyway.

The iron gate that normally blocked the entrance to this very big arena was standing open today. The blackstone arena was white on the outside. It had been a stadium of some sort back before the fall of man. It had been remodeled a bit over the years. The stands were still there and almost everyone from the four cities had to be here today. There were quite a few men around but they were on the other side of the arena wall. I slid on my own bracer as the iron gate we were standing in front of was raised. I already knew what I would see on the inside. 26 men were already waiting on the blackstone. I stepped out into the muted light and looked up at the covering. It blocked enough light that our lord could sit and watch the fight. I didn't have to look at our lord to know he was in his box today. I turned and knelt on the outer ring facing the where he watched.

Everyone had been getting ready to fight, it had been generations since our lord watched a fight. My unit followed my lead but they didn't understand. The whole arena got much quieter as our lord stepped out to where the arena could just make out his outline. Clearly no one had expected him to actually come, "Raise, bleed for me." The rest of the field had been too shocked to register that they should have knelt for our lord until they were bid to raise. I stood fluidly not looking at our lord as I stepped into the arena ring. There wasn't any sand here. The floor was black but it wasn't stone hard. It actually felt similar to how it had felt walking on the grass mats. The arena slopped a bit towards the center. The other men backed as I stepped into the ring with my brothers at my back. There weren't any marks on the ground to keep the houses separated before the horn sounded.

I signaled my unit. I didn't bother to hide or mask it. Every house should already know that I use motions to communicate with my unit. In this case I had ordered center and circle. They moved with me and the others fell back. I stopped with my team in a circle around me, then I turned and looked up at our lord. All my eyes could see was a vague outline of a man and the bright red eyes. "May, I bleed someone else for you, master?"