Kember medic, Nymue, frowned in worry. “You aren’t seriously going to join the Cut, are you, Kida? The mongrels who fight in the Cut are little better than rabid animals. I know that your grandfather, Miro, taught you magical defense and offense and I know that you are a talented lyrical fighter in as much as any excess dares to be, but you are not qualified for the Cut, My Heart. There has to be another way.”
“There’s not,” Kida said. “I was lied to my whole life by Papa Miro and Soleil. They thought they were protecting me, but now Papa is missing and Soleil is already dead and someone wants me to join her. With her last breaths, Soleil told me the truth of who I am. Who Papa was. I am the last daughter of House Halo, raised in secret for reasons I don’t understand and are probably why people want me dead I need to go to Valestra and I need to make myself valuable as Solstice Halo, or perhaps just novel enough to make the people who want to kill me think twice about murdering the nobility’s newest darling. I can do it. I know I can. I have to.” Kida said, determination in her voice.
“Since I can’t talk you out of it, come. I will help you dress. We will make you memorable, unforgettable. Perhaps even dazzle your opponents with your fierce beauty long enough for you to stab them or whatever it is you do.” Putting an arm around Kida’s shoulders, Nymue led her to her personal quarters and there the medic turned Kida from a beautiful dream star into a beautiful warrior.
Kida wore face paint across her eyes and in an intricate pattern like the Kember warrioress wore when going to battle. The dark black of the paint against her pale skin was striking and called her pale purple eyes to vivid attention. The only other makeup she wore was a ruby red lip stain. The hearth witch that lived next to Nymue was a kindly old woman and she created a gorgeous outfit for Kida to wear, Black leather pants with a toughened leather bodice that hugged her figure and would protect her vital organs, and jacket with deep hood to cover her silver hair and a veil to keep her lower face hidden till such a time when Kida wished to reveal herself.
Once she was fully dressed and the other two women had given their admiring approval. Kida tightened her boot laces and gave both the medic and the hearth witch big hugs. “Thank you, both of you. I am truly humbled by your kindness.”
The hearth witch just smiled and patted her on the arm before shuffling back to her own apartment. Nymue took another look at Kida and frowned. “There's still one thing you are missing… wait here a moment.”
Kida did as she was asked, trying to think of what they could have possibly forgotten. When Nymue returned, she handed a Kember dagger to her. Kida took it, her mouth dropping in shock. Kember metallurgy was some of the strongest and best in all of Kimberia. They didn’t even sell their weaponry, it had to be gifted or inherited. “Oh Nym, I can’t possibly take this. It’s too much.”
Nymue huffed in disapproval and placed the dagger into a sheath on Kida’s thigh and gave the other woman a stern and serious look. “I helped raise you, child. If this is your destiny then you will take this and I will swell with pride to see you wield it.”
Kida just nodded and hugged her again. “Thank you,” she managed to whisper, afraid that if she said more, she would end up in tears and ruin the paint Nymue had worked so hard on.
The medic returned the hug and then gently pulled up the hood of Kida’s coat, settling it so as to perfectly conceal her silver locks. “Go now, the hour grows late.”
Kida glanced at the clock and swore. She was cutting it close. Bidding Nymue one last goodbye, she was out the door and running towards the arena, alternating shadow stepping with her own natural speed in hopes of getting there quicker. She could hear the roar of the crowds as she neared the arena and she realized that they must have started early. Swearing with every curse she knew, Kida spurred herself forward even faster, managing to arrive as the last contestants battled it out.
“Shit!” she screamed in frustration. Her shout attracted the attention of one of the program coordinators. The Cut was such a popular event that it was crystal-captured to be shared publicly so that everyone could see the carnage, and that required the same crew that worked in the dream business. As luck would have it, the man who heard her shout was Tod, a skilled set and dream effects designer, and someone she had worked with many times before.
“Kida?! What are you doing here? I heard you were dead!” Tod exclaimed, setting his bundle of cords down to give her a hug.
Kida returned the hug for a moment before she turned away. “I need your help, Tod. I need to be in this batch of Cut contestants, and it’s a matter of literal life and death. My life and death, to be specific. I don’t know why, but they….” She bit her lip as tears filled her lavender eyes, “they already killed my sister, they killed Soleil. If I don’t make it to Valestra, they’ll kill me next.”
“Fuck the gods and the divine, Kida!” He hugged her again and then huffed in frustration. “The Cut’s over, there’s nothing I can do.”
“Over?! Already?!” Kida’s mind desperately tried to think of a solution. If this was a dream flick, what would the character do? Something big, something bold and something that would mesmerize a crowd. An idea formed and it was all she had so she held onto it, “Just let me into the arena. I have a crazy idea but it might work.” She cast a pleading look at him, “Please? It’s my only chance.”
“Fuck, Kida.” Tod rubbed the back of his neck with his hand. “Alright. If it’s your only chance, follow me.” He led her to a door and unlocked it. “This will bring you out right by where the winners will be gathered. I hope you know what you are doing.”
Kida gave him a shaky smile. “I am not at all sure if I know what I am doing, but it will definitely be a spectacle. One last favor…” She paused to settle the veil over the lower half of her face before she headed out into the arena.
“What is it?” Tod asked, eyeing her slightly suspiciously.
“When they remove my hood and my veil and I stand in plain sight for all to see, can you please play that song I just recorded for the dream Triumph, over the arena sound crystals?”
“Do your siren skills work over a recording?”
“No, not really, but will you play it nonetheless?” Kida pleaded.
“Yeah, ok. Sure. Good luck out there, kiddo. That’s real life, not a dream. Remember that.”
Kida nodded and squeezed his arm. ‘Thank you, Tod. I won’t forget this.”
Tod nodded in response and Kida slipped through the door, pulling the strongest shadow veil she knew how to create around her. The fifty finalists from the Cut stood in five rows of ten, all beaming with pride and satisfaction. It was easy for her to pick out the leader of the lot. He was from one of the gang clans, one that was notorious for cruelty and trading in slaves. She slipped carefully through the guards who were around the perimeter, all of them were focused on what the All Commander was saying and not really paying attention, something that worked in Kida’s favor right then.
She paused a moment and took in the sight of the nobles on the raised balcony that overlooked the field. The Commander of All, Domitrian Dan Luminos was at the center, giving a speech congratulating those who had survived the Cut, but though his words were of praise, he sounded painfully bored and completely disinterested. Next to him were the two children of the emperor – the Crown Prince Arvin, and the little Princess Desiree. Both looked like they were having the time of their lives. On the other side of the All Commander was a man she didn’t know on sight. He was shorter, with red hair, a ruddy complexion, and was dressed in the uniform of the shadow walkers. There was something disconcerting about him. He was intense.
As if he could feel her eyes upon him, the shadow walker lifted his gaze and looked right at her. She saw the realization that she was cloaked dawned on him and knew that she would have to move quickly before he raised the alarm. Kida got a running start and gracefully flipped over the line of guards and hooked one leg around the neck of the top performing gangbanger in this Cut. He went down easily, caught completely off guard by Kida’s lyrical attack. And in just a few quick lyrical moves, the gangbanger slaver was dead. Kida had slipped one of the Kember blades in between his ribs and severed his aorta.
Quickly, she removed the blade and wiped it off on the dead man’s shirt before returning it to its proper sheath and standing up, her hands held high in the air in sign of her surrender. The guards grabbed her roughly and dragged her forward, to face the All Commander and the shadow walker. She saw the shadow walker’s gaze flit to the All Commander, who gave the smallest gesture in response before he turned his icy blue gaze back to where Kida stood in the guard's rough embrace.
“Quite the entrance you made. Who are you and why shouldn’t we kill you?” the shadow walker questioned her.
“I got delayed in my arrival and was unable to make the Cut proper, but I wish to claim a place in Valestra and thrive there, and I’d rather not wait another year to do so. Besides, that man was a brute, a slaver and an asshole. I did everyone who would have had to put up with him during this process a favor.” Kida replied, her voice confident yet slightly reverent and subservient since she didn’t know who this man was, but she sensed that he deserved respect and honor.
What might have been a smile flitted across the shadow walker’s face for but a moment. “Well it appears we now have an opening for the fiftieth Cut recruit. Perhaps the All Commander will allow you to fill it. You failed to answer my first question, however. Who are you, and why do you feel the need to hide behind hoods and veils, girl?”
With a quick twist, Kida managed to free one of her arms and quickly pushed back her hood, her long silver tresses tumbling free, and with another tug, her veil fell away revealing her face, a visage many would recognize from their favorite dreams. True to his word, Tod played the capture of the song that accompanied her newest and hottest selling dream, Triumph. The music and the sound of her siren’s song was soft and subtle, almost just background noise but somehow it was also perfectly clear at the same time. The crowd had fallen to stunned silence and then erupted in applause and shouts of approval.
Kida looked up and smiled knowing that the mages who were operating the capture crystals would zoom in on her face. She had wanted spectacle and she had gotten it.
“It’s a pleasure and an honor to stand before such esteemed and illustrious persons,” She bowed as gracefully as possible to the crown prince and princess, noting with surprise that Princess Desiree seemed to be the most excited person in the arena since she had revealed herself, “most know me as Kida Straza, dream actress. But I discovered only just last night through great personal loss and pain, that I actually am Solstice Halo, last daughter of House Halo and I wish to join the Cut and serve my emperor.”
One of the guards tightened his grip on her arm, roughly wrenching her forward, “Lying bitch! Guttersnipe dream whores might occasionally play nobility, but you are not no Grandee.”
“Yes, I am,” she responded, using the hand she had freed a moment ago to tug down the collar of her shirt and reveal the mark that had been magically hidden from her and the rest of the world her whole life up until last night when the girl she’d thought was her sister had been murdered and the illusion spell had broken. It was the unmistakable genetic Halo birthmark that all Halo blooded women had.
“That’s makeup, just like from the dream,” the guard sneered, roughly swiping at it and then pushing down harder when it didn’t come off.
Kida grunted in pain. The All Commander ordered the guard to stop. She waited as the murmur of disbelief and awe traveled through the crowd and then she tossed her final trump card up to the shadow walker, the ring her ‘sister’ had always worn on a chain around her neck. The signet ring of House Halo. The signets of the great houses were magic, they were impossible to fake or to steal. It was ironclad proof that couldn’t be refuted.
From their elevated position, Tyrus turned slightly to Domitrian and handed him the ring, his facial expression hadn’t changed but the humor was thick in his words. “I think I’ll let you take it from here, brother. This Cut just became a great deal more interesting.”
