Heartless

Chaptet 65 - Part 84

'Sharinzah, you're going to stop with this nonsense at once.'

'This isn't nonsense, Karthorn! This is war!' I argued.

'I don't care! You're going to step up and start ruling. I'm going to give you Bruma for a start. No more thievery either.'

'I distinctly heard you request for your guts to be ripped out and then for me to strangle you with them, because that can easily be arranged.' I spat.

Karthorn rolled his eyes and sent me on my way.

—

Three months of ruling in Bruma, and things have been going wonderfully. With the change in leadership, I could begin to influence the other cities. Lucky for me I had new and trusted members of court to aid my campaigns. The advisor I favoured the most was Jupiter Umbranox, the current Grey Fox. With each careful decision I made, I left a small loophole for Jupiter to exploit. Among my trusted advisors were Sirius and Jespar, though he insisted upon remaining as my housecarl.

My steward was Rija Aldwyn, a very antisocial Redguard who had the biggest heart and a brilliant mind. My handmaiden was quite possibly my best friend during my first few weeks of leadership, always there to listen to my doubts and always made me feel better. Her name was Jayden. Lucky for me, Rija was ready to step in as Countess while I visited the Imperial City and my brother.

—

The Arena was always quite the marvellous structure to me. It wasn't very popular anymore, it hadn't been popular since Hazelark Septim I became Champion and left. That was 200 years ago. If anything, I might as well make money and a name for myself. Entering the magnificent Arena, a lovely Argonian at the entrance directed me to my left where a wooden door stood. Down a couple of short flights of stairs was a spacious room filled with training gear.

'Here to join are you? I'm the blademaster down here, the name's Rufus Orthello.' A dark elf male greeted me.

'Uh... Yeah I'd like to join, I'm Shadow by the way. Sister of Karthorn Septim.'

The blademaster grinned.

'Well, here's your armour. I take it you're a light armoured warrior?'

'Indeed I am, sir.'

'Well, Novice. Get up there and kill someone. You have to wear the armour I gave to you, but you can use your own weapons. Welcome to the Arena!'

A large iron grate slid into the floor, allowing me to enter a reeking room. There were several vital intestines rotting here and there while blood was smeared all over the walls and floor. Wrinkling my nose, I hurried up the gentle sloping hallway and entered the Arena a voice boomed throughout the whole building, announcing that there would be a slight wait before the actual fighting started.

Twenty minutes later there was a roaring crowd filling the stands, causing me to spill forth colourful curses when I realised why.

I'd been used as propaganda for the Arena.

Before I could go and throttle the Blademaster, the iron gate that was blocking me was lowered in sync with my opponent's gate. The profanities I was spitting rapidly were drowned out by the cheering crowd as they watched me intently, my every move something highly entertaining for their twisted minds.

I took a deep breath and charged at the huge, axe-wielding orc who just happened to be my opponent.