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I return to the space beneath the colosseum, my heart aching with the fact that I have been forced to kill at the emperor's whim. I head to the healers, sitting on a stone slab while they work on me, healing the injuries Aya inflicted on me while I strove not to show the powers I now have access to again.

I know she would have killed me if she had the chance, but that doesn't make it better. This isn't about what she would have done; it's about the ways the system of the colosseum has changed me in the time I have been here. In my first season, I refused to kill even when the emperor commanded it. Somewhere along the line, I have become more willing to do what is required. I have hardened and become a more dangerous gladiator, but I suspect I have also lost something in the process.

I look around, seeing that Rowan is also receiving treatment.

“How bad are your wounds?”

I ask him, hoping that he is not too badly injured. A bad wound in one round of the games can mean being forced to miss the rest of them and thus the season not counting towards freedom. Or worse, we can be made to fight anyway, and the wound can slow us down enough that we are vulnerable to our opponents.

“I'm fine,”

Rowan says. He doesn't add more than that, but rather he stands, heading for the door.

“Are you going to the noble reception rooms?” I ask.

I see him wince. I've said the wrong thing because I'm sure that Lady Tyra is waiting for him there.

“Let me go with you,”

I say, but Rowan is already walking out of there. It's obvious he doesn't want to talk to me. Clearly, he doesn't want to risk being caught up in the revolt I am wrapped up in. Maybe he's still angry with me for even suggesting it to him. Rowan has made his feelings clear when it comes to revolts.

I want to follow but I need to let the healers finish their work. That means sitting there on the stone slab for long minutes while I'm forced to imagine what might be happening between Rowan and his former owner. I'm impatient to get out of here now, and not just because I don't want to sit in a room that contains the bodies of the dead.

Aya’s body is here, staring over at me with blank eyes in a way that I imagine is somehow an accusation. I want to get away from her even as I know that I must fulfill my duty and attend the nobles in their receiving room.

I head up through the colosseum, to a bright, light room hung with silken tapestries and with a mosaic floor. There are couches here on which nobles lounge, while servants stand nearby with golden platters of food and jugs of wine. There are rooms nearby where the nobles can take us for more privacy.

Being in this place brings back bad memories. It is a place where the nobles go to be seen with gladiators, to get a frisson of danger by spending time around them. Many feel that it brings them honor to spend time around successful fighters, and it allows them to build connections with the gladiators for the moment when those warriors pass through their five seasons in the games and are free. It is also a place where the nobles often seek to seduce the gladiators, where they seek to lay claim to all the young, muscular bodies they have seen fighting on the arena floor.

I can see plenty of gladiators here already, talking in groups with nobles, sitting on couches with them. I see Cesca seated between a noble couple. Even as I watch, she rises, taking both of their hands and leading them towards a side room.

Nobles start to approach me, but I keep my distance. The iron collar around my neck proclaims me a slave gladiator, but that doesn't mean they can all do as they wish. Many of them look at me with something like awe, which is surprising when they're all nobles and I am common born.

“Have you considered what you'll do once you complete this season?”

a nobleman in his twenties asks.

“Oh, leave her alone Cirrus. I'm sure she has no interest in being your lover while you write poetry about her.”

“A man can ask, can't he? It's obvious she'll end up as some great noble’s wife.”

Is it obvious to them? Is that what they think will happen to me once I complete my time in the games? I will be free. I will be technically noble. I have been told that positions open up for former gladiators within the society of Aetheria. I assumed that meant positions as an official or as something in the military. Do they really think that the only future I have to look forward to is being the wife of a nobleman?

Not that I have any such future to look forward to now. Not now that I have agreed to the emperor's offer. A life outside the games without Alaric would mean nothing, and so I will continue to compete. Continue to excite the crowds in the hope that one day, the emperor will show mercy to both of us.

I look around for any sign of Alaric. Since the emperor is keeping him in a noble box at the games for me to see, maybe there is a chance he will be able to come here to the receiving rooms. Maybe I will get to speak with him to see him.

But there is no sign of him here. It seems the emperor is keeping us apart, at least for now.

One of the servants comes to me, looking almost deferential as she approaches, bowing her head as if I am a noble and not a fellow captive of the empire.

“Lyra? Your new patron ordered me to watch for you and to bring you to a private room as soon as you came into the receiving area.”

Fear fills me again at the prospect of another patron I do not know.

“Who is this patron?” I ask.

The servant shakes her head, looking slightly frightened. “Forgive me, but I have been commanded not to say anything. It is not something they wish everyone to know just yet.”

At first I think her fear is of this new patron but I realize that she's at least partly afraid of how I will react. Does she really think I'm the cruel, deadly beast whisperer they paint me as? That I will react with violence because she has not answered me? But then, why wouldn't she? If she has seen anything of these games, she will have seen me drive a spear into Aya’s heart.

But I fear at least as much fear as she does. Because I do not know what my new patron will want from me, what I will be forced to do next.

“Will you come?”

she asks. “Please?”

“Yes, of course,”

I reply, even though I feel anything but happy about it. My mind is racing as I say it because I'm trying to work out who this mysterious new patron is. I didn't know I had a new patron yet. Has the emperor arranged this one the way he did with the last? If so he will have picked someone who will make my life harder. He has never shown me kindness.

The servant leads me to one of the side rooms and my heart is beating faster with every moment as I close in on the private room. I fear what will happen to me next, what this patron will want from me.

My new patron is in there, sitting on a couch in noble robes, reclining in splendor there. The young man there is blonde haired and blue eyed, with a look of arrogance that almost matches Alaric’s, but which lacks his humor. A thin web of silvery scars crosses his face.

“Vex?”

My new patron is Vex, the former gladiator who completed his five seasons in the last set of games. Vex, who has been my enemy for much of my time in Ironhold. Whose scars are the work of a shadow cat I summoned.

“That will be all,”

he says in a commanding tone to the servant.

I can only stand there and stare at him. “You? You're my patron?”

“The emperor prevented others from bidding on you,”

Vex says. “He wanted me to be here. I imagine he believes that this will hurt you.”

Giving me into the hands of my enemies does more than hurt me. As my patron, Vex can command my presence. Can command more than that given that I'm a slave gladiator. The last time I got a new patron, they beat me to within an inch of my life. My whole body thrums with tension, wondering what Vex has planned.

“Whatever you're planning, get it over with,”

I say. I won't give Vex the satisfaction of seeing me frightened. And whatever he tries, I will fight him.

“It is natural you would react like this,”

Vex says. “Everyone knows there is bad blood between us. It's why the emperor allowed me to be your patron when Lady Elara was willing to bid so much. Where he has gone wrong is assuming that I am his friend.”

Those words catch me by surprise, making me stare at Vex in shock.

“What do you mean?” I ask.

“I mean that he's made a mockery of these games,”

Vex says. “I have completed my time in them. I have my place in noble society back, but now I must watch as he continues to take something that should be holy and use it merely as a tool of politics and entertainment.”

I had forgotten how strongly Vex feels about the games. He yearns for the days of the past where they existed as something that the noble citizens of Aetheria entered freely, seeking to prove themselves before the gods in what was seen as a sacred rite of combat.

“Why tell me that?”

I ask. “You know we're not friends.”

“I hated what you represent,”

Vex says. “A system filled with slave gladiators, where the poorest wretches from the fringes of the empire are brought to fight. Where even a beast whisperer is given a place.”

Venom drips from those two words. “But I also know you are part of something that seeks to bring it all down.”

“I… don't know what you're talking about,”

I say. There is no way I'm admitting my part in the spectral covenant to Vex. He says that he is dissatisfied with the games the way they're run, but isn't it just as likely that he has agreed to serve the emperor by finding out what I know?

“You don't trust me,”

Vex says. “That is understandable, but consider your position, Lyra.”

“Is this where you tell me how bad you make things for me if I don't cooperate with you?”

I ask. If Vex tries to hurt me, I will fight him with all the powers at my disposal. It doesn't matter that doing so will expose that I still have access to those powers. Not with Vex.

“I believe bad things are already happening to you,”

Vex says. “You are being forced to keep fighting in the games past your five seasons, correct?”

He knows about the emperor’s deal? I nod.

“And Alaric is being kept alive to ensure your compliance,”

Vex continues. “Neither of these things is acceptable. The games should not be tampered with in such a way, and Alaric… for all that he is a fool who has he let himself fall in love with the likes of you, he is still one of the finest nobles of the empire. It is not right for the emperor to treat him in such a way. A… certain group of fellow nobles agrees with me.”

I agree with him but I don't want to do it out loud. This might still all be a way of entrapping me, getting me to condemn myself and the others around me.

“I am just a gladiator,”

I say. “I fight now when I am commanded to fight.”

Vex smiles tightly. “You still don't trust me. As I say, that is understandable, but I hope you will change your mind soon. The very fate of the empire, and of these games, depends upon it.”