Before Rowan continued his story he looked over to his youngest daughter and noticed that she had begun nodding off a bit.

  “You okay to continue, sprout? We can finish up tomorrow if you want?”

  The tired child shook her head and smacked her face with the palms of her hands to wake herself up a bit more.

  “No I’m fine, but what’s all the fighting got to do with Ma? Not that it isn’t neat to hear about you fighting, but I didn’t even know you could fight until aunt Jieun told me about it. Oh, wait! Is the lady with the hat and pipe Ma?” Before he could quickly deny that notion his daughter continued her sleepy rambling. “No, she couldn’t be, she has a snake spirit beast not Meteoros. Plus you made it seem like the girl in the carriage was Ma. Unless you were telling me about some random pretty girl for no reason.” She looked up at him with sleepy eyes full of suspicion.

  He looked down at his daughter and chuckled. “Fine, I’ll remove the ambiguity. That was indeed the first time I saw your Ma. As for all the fighting, well…” The truth was that he wanted to reminisce about his glory days a tad. He looked down at his warped reflection in the silver mirror and couldn’t even imagine the face of the boy he once was. His first tournament was the source of many happy memories and he had subconsciously decided to linger in the joyous moments rather than move quickly on to what would inevitably cause him grief.

  He heaved a great sigh. “You’re right, I should skip ahead a bit to when I properly meet her.” Now was not the time to linger on past glories. For soon his daughter would learn of his greatest failures.

  ***

  He had made it to the semifinals, much to his friends' chagrin.

  “Can’t believe I got matched up with that lava lady.” Lucius groused while handing Rowan some food. The boy was famished, having not eaten anything since they had arrived in the city, and the simple flat bread topped with grilled meats and some sort of sauce smelled positively divine. Could use more veggies, but he wasn’t picky.

  “If you’d rushed her from the start instead of standing there like a lump you’da won.” He answered his friend in between bites of food.

  His answer didn’t improve his friend's mood.

  “Says the guy whose whole fighting style is standing there like a lump waiting for your enemy to get close so you can counter them.” The slightly older boy grumbled.

  Rowan shook his head while wiping some sauce off his face with his thumb and putting it in his mouth, sad his meal was already gone. “I know when that strategy doesn’t work though. Fighting is all about adapting to your opponent, I’ve had to mix it up a couple times already.”

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  He shuddered a bit at the memory of the blizzard spirit fight. He never did well in the cold, and Bough was the same. If he hadn’t switched things up and acted quickly by having his partner toss him towards the spirit using their roots then he would have definitely lost.

  Da, no more fight talk until we meet Ma.

  Just let me finish telling you about this conversation with your uncle Lucius, the advice could be relevant to you down the line.

  He focused back on the conversation with his friend. “Your issue was that you gambled on Stannum’s ability to take the heat of your opponent's spirit and lost. You had no way of knowing if it would work so it was a risk you shouldn’t’ve taken.”

  Lucius just threw up his hands and started stomping off, clearly not ready to hear his wisdom. Before he had fully left the large beast enclosure he turned back.

  “Betcha gonna lose your next fight. From what I’ve seen and heard, this next girl’s favored to win the whole tournament.”

  Rowan just grinned at his friend at the news. “Losing’s not part of the plan.”

  Lucius snorted, but seemed a bit less upset as he finished leaving.

  He waited patiently in silence, stroking Bough’s flank and waiting for his next match to be called. The strange woman from earlier was nowhere to be seen, either she had lost her latest match or had simply decided the event wasn’t worth her time. Regardless, the boy kind of missed her eccentric presence as it made his pre match jitters a bit more bearable with her antics.

  Just one more fight and he’d be fighting in the finals. For a nobody like him this was a fantastic first showing, and he really felt he had made his grandfather proud while making use of the techniques he had shown him. The old man had gifted him his spirit a few years ago, and with his passing this last winter it had made Rowan want to do something to honor him. He felt that was what finally let his parents agree to this whole endeavor.

  He was interrupted from his musings of the past by the arrival of the aide sent to take him back to the main stage. At this point he could’ve gotten there on his own, but not knowing the timings of things meant it was best for him to wait for the aides.

  He was back in the now familiar roar of noise as he made his way to the stage. The previous fight already finished and the announcer was already calling out to energize the crowd for the next matchup. Despite the late hour, the crowd seemed even more energetic than they had at the start of the night.

  “Coming up on my right we have the dark horse of this tournament! He’s the counter king who won’t leave the ring, give it up for Rowaaaaan!”

  The boy waved to the cheering crowd, and watched as his opponent stepped up. It was the girl he saw before in the carriage, and she was just as lovely as the first time he saw her. He tried to school his expression and focus on what the announcer had to say about her. Though what he heard snapped him out of his stupor real quick.

  “This lady to my left needs no introduction, but it’s my job so I’ll give it my best! She’s the Princess of House Petros, the unstoppable force to her opponent's immovable object, the flying star in the night sky! Give! It! Up! Fooooooooor! Alexandraaaaaa! Peeeeeetros!”

  Ma’s a princess!?

  That woke you up huh?