Twist of Fate

Chapter 20: Round One

A/N: Deth? Though he's not in this chapter and the eyes are wrong now that I look at it...Whoops.

The Barren Field was a wide stretch of hard ground where no life could be be sustained. It was similar to a desert, including the scorching sun during the day and below freezing temperatures at night. Unlike a desert, there was no sand, no plants, no animals, or even an oasis. It stretched on about the size of the Kalahari desert in Africa, if I had to estimate, across the west of Palej before it met with the other terrains. So, there was nothing but hard rock for miles.

  This harsh setting was the location of the first round, eight matches would occur and eight teams would be eliminated. The sixteen teams of five, ninety participants in total, would compete in one-on-one matches. Each team was designated a number from one to sixteen. So matches would occur as Team One against Team Two, Team Three against Team Four, and so on. My team was Team Five and would participate in match three against TeamSix.

  After the Headmaster announced the field for the first round, I expected everyone to move to move out to the area to watch, but nobody moved. Well, nobody besides the teams in the first match who rushed back to their tents to get ready. I could tell that everyone there was expecging an amazing show, and they'd do anything to see it, but why were they just sitting there? The Barren Field was miles from the stage, so how were they supposed to see the matches?

  "Kei." I caught Kei's gaze and frowned. "Am I missing something? No one's moving."

  Kei looked at me with eyebrows raised. "You don't know? Well, you are just a first year, so you haven't seen how we view the tourney."

  "View?" I repeated. "How do--"

  "Come on, you two!" Rolen called, standing in the opening of the tent, waving us over. "Everyone else is already in here. You can explain all you want, Kei, just do it inside."

  "Fine, inside," Kei sighed, and headed in.

  I followed after glancing at the stage, or more specifically, the Select. Some of them were laughing at something, a joke maybe, and others, Zulén for example, was sitting with his arms crossed and looked annoyed or impatient. I almost laughed but I caught sight of something surprising. One of the Select was missing. Ranked fifth in the Academy, Tenran Muoh was nowhere to be seen. Where could he be, the tournament was about to start...

  I shook my head, deciding to dwell on that later. I went back into the tent and paused as I saw everyone gathered around the one-eyed man. He was holding five of the locator stones in his hand and mumbling something so quietly I couldn't catch it.

  Kei caught sight of me and waved me forward to stand in an empty space to the right of him. I walked to the spot slowly, unable to increase my speed as I felt something in the air change. I slid into the space beside Kei and felt my eyes widen in surprise.

  The one-eyed man clenched his hand with the stones in it into a fist. The locator stones began to shine a bright blue that filled the tent briefly. The light dimmed and e man opened his hand. They were no longer shining, but the stones cast off a subtle blue glow. I'd never seen a locator stone activation, but I was sure that was what was happening.

  "Take one," the man said. "These will help me know where hú are at all times." Everyone took one out of his hand. "For me to tell you apart, you'all need to put a single drop of blood on the stone."

  I watched as my teammates pulled out knives and nicked their fingers. They casually dropped blood on their stones and stared as they glowed purple. Kei saw me watching and smiled encouragingly. He offered his knife but I shook my head. I knelt down and reached into my left boot, pulling out a knife with a six-inch blade.