“I have heard it said that the beast is an outsider! A real live demon, like the superstitious rabble discuss in the street during the Dying Season!’ ‘No, no, it is not so. Certainly not an outsider, the cursed things are plainly imaginary! The beast is just some misfortunate barbarian gone mad from years of isolation,’ ‘Well I’ve heard it said that it tore through fifteen Auxiliary before they finally caged the monster. I do not exaggerate, they put it in a real cage. The very same as the kind they use for kenneling cave lions! Solid steel bars, the things cost more than you or me are worth combined! The beast chewed through the bonds it was first placed in and caught another six of their troop by surprise! And I mean what I say, it chewed through leather and bronze restraints with its teeth! Half the platoon were sent to their graves, much of them in never making it on account of being caught up in the monster’s gullet!’ ‘Is Kull not available? I simply cannot fathom the reason they are sending some woman out to fight a monster like that. What poor spectacle, and in even worse taste,’ 

‘This Some Woman of whom you speak is the Lady in Blue. With mine own two eyes I chance happened to witness her bring death to Astara’s Dawn on the killing field of Arles’Ton. Rare and rarer still a dance the caliber of their performance, and to think it was held outside of the capital on the pretext of her being a woman and poor sport. Astara’s Dawn had her pinned to the sand with his knees upon her shoulders after several minutes of bloody spectacle and display of skill with blade and polearm, and hadn’t yet had firm grasp of victory enough to chance to peer toward the dais for the signal before she in a stroke of wit and beauty at arms managed to put a dagger through his, erhm… Well, through his groin. This all being while she was held upon the sand to be sure, the spectators were certain that the fight would be finished within moments, and no doubt would see her the loser likely to lose her head upon the sands. None had realized the stroke until it was too late for Astara’s Dawn. Pressing her advantage she slipped from his mount and beat him to death with naught but her own two hands,’ 

‘That was five years ago. She’s all but certain to have aged to white hair by now, this entire spectacle is farce. It would have been best for her to send one of her students to accept the Emperor’s summons, poor form indeed to watch an old woman with a crutch face the most terrible monster to ever blaspheme with its presence the Arena of his Imperial Majesty,’ ‘Were I you I would not have it become known in polite company that you named an outsider in a box a more fearsome contestant than Kull. He may be otherwise preoccupied for the duration of this monster’s tenure upon the sands, but I don’t doubt a challenge proffered your way the moment he returns to form should he overhear those words. If your feelings towards the matter of the Lady in Blue have not changed however, I would be deligheted to direct you to the stables of the Master at Arms. I am absolutely assured that he would accept your petition to proffer thine own blade upon the sand. What say you, five shards to one in favor of the monster? I myself will venture a thousand upon the laurels of the Lady,’ ‘I will see that venture, and raise you five thousand shards upon the beast in the cage,” 

Not in living memory had something so demonstrably detestable entered the arena of the Empire of the Crimson Throne to encourage the Emperor to send a demand to the operating fight camps to send their most decorated combatants to once more do battle in His name. The entirety of the camp had assumed it was a joke until the Emperor’s Legion delivered the message personally. She’d never fought in the capital, never intended on doing as such either. She had long since written this off as something the Empire and her misguided notions toward appearance and sex would deny her regardless of her laurels. Sixteen pairs of ears had been her trophies from blood spilt upon the sand in the name of the Emperor she had never seen. She would see him today, on his towering dais some thirty feet above the viewing stands. None but the fanciest of Imperials complete with their gaudy, wealth strewn figures would be in attendance for this event. The ten thousand wealthiest, most powerful people in the world were here to watch her die. It wasn’t the first time she had been expected to die for the amusement of those above her station. She had no plans towards allowing this to be the day she gave them what they were after. 

No, today would end with her on her way back toward Australos. She had students she needed to return to, future champions to place in the staging ground she currently occupied. None at Australos had half the victories she had, and so the law demanded she attend to this beast at the command of her Emperor despite her having retired and accepted a paid position as Doctora of the camp. She had stuck to the law of blood and sand this far in her adult life, and though she had considered simply declining the invitation and sending another in her stead, an act the crowd and emperor would have preferred, she had known from the moment the Emperor’s Legion arrived that it would be her standing here this day. It wasn’t lost on her that she was standing where Hektor’s killer had stood before losing his life to an ally’s blade in the back. It was a good omen. This was the place where an enemy had met his untimely end all those years ago. Today would be the day that this foreign monster was freed from the shackles of its bondage at the hands of the Crimson Throne, and she would see it to as good a death as any a monster can expect to receive upon the sand. The gate was opening, and with a last glance at the bloodstain she had decided had belonged to Hektor’s killer she strode forth into the arena.