On the railing of every level in the private arena within the prince's palace, observers from Ison's upper classes packed in. Shoulder to shoulder, they hung there overlooking the festivities they'd been promised were to come. Some were already cheering for the event set to unfold before them. Others simply murmured their enthusiasm. Still more were in awed silence.

Sweating in the growing heat of the day, beneath the sweltering suns, Kaden was in the same group as the latter. He stood at strict attention in front Prince Relastin, whose throne hauled from its customary place in his audience chamber to sit in the middle of the arena. And trying his hardest, Kaden attempted to appear the part of a seasoned warrior.

Seated on a more grandiose throne, brought all the way from the capitol city of Imeron on the backs of slaves, to the prince's left, sat High King Arban, Son of Xorvis. The prince's father.

The king was noticeably larger than the prince, both in height and mass of muscle. He was a mountain of a man and was stoic to the point of being stone. Had Kaden not witnessed him silently and purposefully parading in with a cadre of servants earlier, the Karo Shar might have thought the monarch now before him to be a statue of the man who ruled them all.

While the face of the High King was hidden partially behind a full but well-groomed beard, his steel chest plate was massive in its girth. His legs, like the trunks of trees, protruded out from under his golden spun urk, while his sandaled feet planted firmly to the ground.

Kaden couldn't tell by the prince's posture if he feared his father, respected him, despised him, or some combination of all three.

Lar, Son of Jardis, ready for battle stood to the Kaden's right, in front of the King who'd sent him. He wore his color garb, and every breath the man took spoke of how ready he was for what was to come. He stood erect, like a penis preparing to fuck a whore after returning from war.

Kaden looked up to the second balcony. There he saw the woman he was to marry. Assuming he survived this. She was surrounded by her own slaves. They formed a wall that buffered her from the crowd of Ison's citizens. Among those with her was Hernah. Her slave's face sported a dour glare.

"Is it true," the king leaned towards his son and spoke. Kaden easily heard the thunderous boom of his words above the din in the short distance that separated them. "That your Karo Shar was once nothing more than a mere alchemist?"

"The son of my Chief Alchemist, my King." Prince Relastin's answer was delivered with all the bravado he could force. But somehow he still paled in comparison to the king.

"The one you had executed for treason?"

"Yes."

"A bold move, my son. To make a traitor's son into your Karo Shar? To put someone so disreputable so close to you speaks of your confidence as a warrior and leader."

The fact the prince's left hand clenched, then relaxed was not lost on Kaden. "I trust this man with my life, my King."

"I must say, I didn't know what to expect. I figured he'd be a scrawny thing. That's why I sent Lar, rather than my own Karo Shar to challenge him. Not that this boy, who you call a man, seems to be anything special. I've seen many finer specimens."

There was an instinct inside Kaden to react to the insult. But he held it in check. Still, part of him wanted to rip the Rohs Fang from his back and challenge the king here and now. Kaden realized that such was the residual of Rage and the Courage from battles past still in trace amounts in his body making his mind act in such ways.

It made Kaden want to be careful about how much he would partake of the substances during his lifetime. He didn't want to lose himself to them. He'd already acknowledged to himself that his temper with Sahl was growing less kind. And Kaden didn't want to become that sort of person. Who knows, if he did, what he would do.

Kaden noticed the king, more than once, looked at the weapon hitched to the back of his son's Karo Shar. He didn't need to say anything for Kaden to know that he was a little unsettled by the sight of it.

"Shall we begin, my King," Prince Relastin said as the crowd continued in their own anxious state of arousal.

"By all means," the king encouraged.

The prince took the words as a sign to proceed. He rose, and the crowd calmed over the course of a minute. He waited until silence was all that was heard.

"Citizen of Ison! Honored guests." The prince motioned to his father who ignored him, his eyes focused solely on Kaden's weapon. "We are blessed this day by the presence of the greatest warrior in all of Imeron! King Arban, Son of Xorvis, and Father of your prince, and sovereign of Ison!"

Kaden could see how the prince was posturing. Just as he could see the king's eyes squint harder at his Rohs Fang. The glare made Kaden sweat more profusely.

"As is the right of all High Kings," Prince Relastin continued, "he has sent a challenge to test our might as the northern tip of the spear that guards all of Imeron. But he has not sent challenge to me. No. He has challenged my Karo Shar. My right hand."

Wanting to know where this speech was going, Kaden tried to listen as he was mesmerized by the King's eyes.

"Perhaps he heard rumors that my Karo Shar was weak!" The crowd remained hushed. "And therefore we were all week? Well I stand here, as does my Karo Shar, ready to defend gloriously Ison's honor!" At that, the crowd erupted. "Our King has not seen my Karo Shar slaughter Koronai in the Abyss! He has not seen him bring all due honor to the prestige and the position he holds!"

Kaden felt his chest swell at the compliments. Even if he knew the prince was purposefully putting some deceitful bluster behind the words. The problem was, and Kaden knew this, that Prince Relastin had to stand up for him. If he didn't, it would be like the prince admitting he failed. And that was something Prince Relastin would not do before his father.

"King Arban, Son of Xorvis, should have sent an entire army if he wished to take on my Karo Shar. A warrior I have personally trained to be the finest warrior in all of Ison, behind myself. Now, are there any here who disagree?" The prince turned to look at Kaden over his shoulder with a look that spoke silently, 'Do not make me regret these words.' Then he turned back to the crowd. "Any who would call me a liar? Any who would say that my Karo Shar is not warrior I say he is?"

The crowd fell silent again. No one wanted to be mistaken for speaking ill of the Prince or Kaden. The prince nodded at the crowd's obedience.

"Then let this contest begin," he announced, and retook his throne with the demeanor of a confident ruler.

Sahl approached the two warriors prepared to battle to the death with a small silver chest that fit in his one hand. He put it on the sandy ground between Lar and Kaden, pulled back the lid, and stepped away. Inside were two fragile wooden tubes with their tips painted red.

"I have prepared these myself," Kaden said, when Prince Relastin waved a hand at him. "As the challenged, I select Rage for our battle. And, as challenger, you, Lar, Son of Jardis, may select the one you desire."

Lar said nothing, only waited for his sovereign to wordlessly release him with a nod to approach and make his selection. Which he did.

Lar picked up each tube , twice, and pondered one against each other. Kaden could not tell what the messenger was thinking, but it probably had something to do with assuring that both were of equal weight. Finally, Lars made his selection and stepped back to his previous place.

Kaden then went forward to collect the other. If his measurements were right, the subtle difference in the color of the vapors from the mixture within would be indistinguishable from the normal red of pure Rage. He'd had to cut back some of the Courage to make that possible, but hadn't had time to test it. So he was forced to trust his instincts on the matter.

Kaden then returned to his place and faced Lar.

Lar, in turn, faced him.

"Be my guest, and sample what I have produced," Kaden said to his opponent.

The offer of hospitality made, Lar dared not refuse. He crushed the tube with a firm hand and drew the forming vapors to his nose while he inhaled.

From Kaden's point of view, everything seemed normal. The vapors were red, if only slightly less so than pure Rage.

Lar's muscles flinched as his body drank the power in. And he smiled a confident smile at the prince's Karo Shar. And the man he intended to kill.

Kaden, his turn now to do the same with the tube he held, stunned everyone by casting it to the ground. There was too much for him to dare take, but he used the show to send a murmur through the crowd. He cracked it under his sandaled foot and allowed the vapor to dissipate. That caused the crowd to roil like boiling water.

He used the distraction, and everyone looking at the shattered tube under his foot, to hit his breast plate right where his own properly measured dose was hidden and trigger its release into him. Just after he'd done so, Lar took his gaze from the display Ison's Karo Shar had put on and focused on Kaden's eyes.

Kaden's muscles lurched as his dose, the one no one knew he'd taken sucked into him. He held as steady as he could to hide the effects. "I do not need that, to defeat you," the Karo Shar said in a gruff, and forcibly deepened voice.

Technically, he wasn't lying. He didn't need the dose he'd discarded, so Kaden was not in violation of the Decrees. Kaden whipped the Rohs Fang off his back and braced for battle. The forked end forward, the bladed end behind him and ready to slash, what Kaden presented could be seen to visibly stun his opponent.

But that only lasted a moment.

Lar rang his curved sword forth, entered a battle stance of his own, and then charged with one clear intent on his mind—to kill Kaden without mercy.