Interlude IV (Part I)

  Leaving It All Behind

  (Leah “the Destroyer” Badiaz)

  Trembling hands.

  Even now, nearly an hour or two after her match. A match that should have just been a simple fight against some unnamed female, Leah felt betrayed.

  Betrayed by Sal, betrayed by Gale her former student who had left her at such a state and made it so she almost left the game entirely and went back to her post as a frontline fighter where she would remain until the end of time.

  The moment she walked up, she knew that the cards had been swapped. Her battle with some unknown flame fighter had been scrubbed and replaced for ratings with Gale. In her mind she could tell why the swap was made. Heck, had they known how good the healer was from the beginning the entire card would have been swapped to be the most effective blood matches possible.

  But they didn’t know, well they did, as they had yesterday. But today would have been the real proof.

  You don’t mess with the fight cards on the first day. Everyone knew that. To do otherwise was a lot for a healer. Especially for an unsanctioned healer at that. Even if everyone could tell that that Healer was clearly meant for greater things. The way they were able to pump out healing energy at a prodigious rate that even the master veterans had a hard time keeping up.

  Also, Leah had seen some healers in her day. The fact that this one treated not only the glaring injuries, but underlying issues, that spoke volumes to her power and insight.

  Looking back, Leah can’t even remember what Gale said to set her off so badly. All she remembered was that the healer was there, and that was her last mental limit she needed. The last failsafe in her mind had been set free, knowing that this healer was there. Not even in her fight against Jade did she relax enough to give it her all. For there, she had been worried about holding back.

  Which was likely why Sal felt confident with switching the cards. Speeding up the matches and giving everyone matches that they wanted to see right from the start.

  Tingling.

  Even now looking at her hand, she could feel the way her fist connected to Gale’s temple. The solid crisp impact, then the way her beautiful face crashed into her knee. While she had been aiming for the nose, Leah did manage to get a bit of tooth in her attack, a sign that her knee had gone through Gale’s pretty nose and didn’t stop until it reached her mouth. Yet, rather than stopping at that, rage still fired off in her. As she felt rage from being bitten.

  Logic dictated that the bite was not malicious and entirely caused by her own wild movements. But at the time, such an event enraged her to no end, causing her to raise her foot up and try to stomp the life out of that ungrateful bitch.

  Then like a blur of sanity, a dark shadow snaked its way quickly along the arena flooring and into the ring. Leah found her mind and attention being drawn to the dark serpent quickly slithering its way into the ring.

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  Leah was more surprised by the sudden jolt and strike than anything. All she remembered was watching the shadow movement sneak across the ring like a Death Eater flowing in the shadow of its prey. Up on the stage there were many shadows, and the Death Eater having chosen a target, had seemingly come to target her, the tallest individual, and therefore the one most likely to create a shadow that the Death Eater could attack through.

  By the time the world stopped moving, Leah half expected her leg to be sawed off by the Death Eater.

  Yet, she was fine. No, she was better than fine, as the Death Eater that had somehow gotten loose in the arena was not real. Just a figment of her active imagination. For there in the spot where she had just been was not a darkly flowing apparition, but a the healer. A healer who tensed up with scrunched up shoulders, ducked down head. Leah just stared at her for a moment, trying to understand what it was she was looking at, then finally she realized it was her ducking down and anticipating a retaliatory strike.

  Despite expecting a strike, she never faltered, never waivered in her conviction for her duty.

  “Call it!” she declared.

  Then Kam, the referee on duty just shook his head a look of fear in his eyes as well. No doubt he too had thought the blur was a Death Eater, especially with her arms out wide in protection, but could also be seen as her trying to reach for a body. Had she been a Death Eater, ironically the safest person would have been Gale, as they would have saved her unconscious form for last.

  After that, Leah got to witness firsthand the remarkable healing that this healer possessed. While Leah had been told what happened to her, that of being knocked out and then forced back to consciousness. It was an entirely different thing to see the process unfold before her eyes.

  The miracle healer fixed everything. She fixed the puncture point on the side of the skull, the broken nose, getting it to form into its nearly perfect point before the blood was even done pumping. She fixed everything, then she just waved her hand and got rid of the blood and viscera, so that even a minor blood magic practitioner like her could not feel the remnants of catalysts nearby.

  Turning around, the healer got up and locked gazes with Leah before gingerly walking over and trying to heal her. For a moment her hesitant actions seemed off, it wasn’t until she saw and felt the hesitant way that her silk covered fingers delicately touched her that Leah realized she had done something truly stupid. Somehow, Leah had gone against the first lesson she was ever taught, and the one lesson she tried to instill upon all of her Apprentices, never frighten a worthy healer.

  You can do everything for glam, fashion, and fame. Easily earning more than enough money to buy your way out of serving out your officer contracts. But you wouldn’t last long here, or on the front lines without a competent healer on your side. While the healers here were but a stepping stone, a flash in the pan at most, they should all be respected. Especially the ones that stand out before their first campaign.

  Seeing the complete look of fear on her face as she got close, that was the turning point. Seeing her was the final straw that truly pushed Leah to make the hard decision she had ben putting off for so long. Jade was clearly more than capable on her own, Gale despite being overly arrogant was well known enough to survive out here if she wanted to. Meaning, it was time for Leah to pick up her commission again and fill out her final years as an officer on the front lines. A true warriors send off.

  Going back, Leah had no doubts as to what her future held. Those lands are death, unconsecrated grounds that are slowly being pushed back year over year, until finally all signs of life will be gone.

  When she was younger, she fooled herself into thinking that this career could last forever that she could defy the fates and eventually retire on top. There was only one problem with that fate, she would never be able to look herself in the eye again and say she did her best. Part of why she had hidden away for these past few years, while she trained Jade was that she was trying to numb her heart to the fact that one day she would ultimately be a failure. That she would be the person that the old guard hates the most. She has seen that look on their faces, the soldiers that all deployed so she wouldn’t have to, they all come back broken and haunted.

  From her spot in the rafters she noticed how it was only the young who were drawn to these events, the old knew better. That or they never made it back, making sure to steer clear of the subject of their downfall.

  “There you are,” Jade called out, her voice just as sweet and innocent as the day she first met her future Apprentice. In her hand she almost felt her hand shifting lightly, as if swishing around a glass of wine, finding the perfect rhythm to let the alcohol breathe.

  “Yes,” was all Leah could say, suddenly feeling odd by mimicking the movement of sloshing around a non-existent wine glass.

  “Come on, they are about to crest the healer,” Jade commented while trying to hurry Leah into coming.

  “It’s just a common seal of accomplishment,” Leah noted.

  “No, this is the real one, the Royal Seals person is here, he’s going to give the official Healer’s Seal of Excellence.” Jade commented.

  “The Royal Seals Master?” Leah asked, then wondering if it was one of his Apprentices, “the young guy with dark hair?”

  “No, this guy is super old, looks like he belongs in a train museum,” Jade replied.

  At that, Leah’s eyes went wide, “this might be something I truly need to see.”

  Finally, Leah still thinking of retirement, felt she would get to see a sight that had only been spoken about in legends.

  “I know, Sal told me to get you, that you had wanted to see a real one forever.”

  “He’s right,” Leah replied and soon followed Jade to see what would be history in the making.

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