Trialbycombat Stories

What if your heart knew a truth the world forgot? She died on a rainy night-struck down by the same force that killed her husband. When she woke, time had rewound. But the future hadn't forgotten her. Revanya Aemira-Velorin was Queen of Vaeloria, a healer, a mother-to-be. Now she's a stranger in her own past-watching another girl fall into the love she once lived, while the kingdom she was meant to rule slips further away. But Revanya remembers. She remembers the child she lost. The crown in her blood. And the ticking-still faint, still calling. As fate folds in on itself, she must unravel the threads of magic, betrayal, and lost time to reclaim what was hers... ...and stop the one who echoes between seconds.

Before the Ring Wars, before the silence that followed, Jhoran stood in the heart of The Forge, where warriors are named in flame. To earn his place among the Bolarians, he must survive a trial of strength, grace, and restraint... and face the Brask, a beast second only to his people in fury. But this is more than a fight. This is legacy.

Roman Sanders had a secret he only ever shared with three other people. Patton, his literally father figure. Logan, made sense since he was logic. And his brother, Remus... obviously. His secret... He was cursed. Or more correctly stated King Creativity was cursed. It never went away with the split. No... Roman never lost his curse. What is it you might ask? It's simple really... He's cursed to an eternal sleep once he's found love. Once he falls in love he has a year to kiss them. The second he does he falls into a deep permanent sleep. The person he kisses is then forced to go through trails to wake him up. Should they die... Roman never wakes up. The worst thing about the curse is if Roman doesn't kiss them within the year the curse will take over and force him to kiss someone, it doesn't even have to be the one he loves. Basically forcing a stranger into the trails risking both theirs... and the life of their prince. Roman... He did the very thing he promised he would never do. He fell in love. He fell in love and now... now it's been a year. Let the trails begin.

In the future, guilt and innocence are determined through trial by combat. Civil cases are fought to submission, while serious criminal cases are fought to the death in a ceremony called the Ordeal. Defendants can represent themselves or hire advocates to fight on their behalf. The best of them earn glory and wealth, while keenly aware that their next case could be the last. Growing up in the impoverished Los Angeles Basin, seventeen year-old Leander Hill helps his father run a failing antique store but dreams of a better life in the Preserve, the garden paradise of the wealthy to the northwest. When he shows talent defending himself in a street fight, he receives an invitation to attend a prestigious training school for advocates. Although his father is strongly against it, Leander decides that becoming an advocate is his best chance to give his family a brighter future. Leander rises through the ranks at the school and attracts the interest of a wealthy potential patron, who offers to put him on retainer with all the wealth and privilege he could dream of. His first assignment is to fight an ordeal on behalf of the governing Authority against an insurrectionist. But when he learns more about the corruption of the Authority, and his family's own ties to the insurrectionists, he will have to decide whether the moral price of his coveted better life is too high to pay.