Chapter 56: Into the Underworld
It was midnight at the Prime Zone estate.
Maeve sat at the kitchen table with her Ashen Bestiary open in front of her, but she wasn’t reading. She was watching Holden pull on a plain black shirt and dark cargo pants. There were no academy symbols on anything he wore.
He strapped a simple belt around his waist. No visible weapons.
"You’re really doing this," Maeve said.
"I really am."
She pushed her glasses up. "The criminal districts at night. That’s where the underground fighting rings operate. I’ve read about them. They’re dangerous, unregulated, and illegal. The academy could expel you if they found out."
"The academy won’t find out."
"And if you get hurt?"
"I won’t."
Maeve closed her book. She looked at him with that sharp, knowing expression she’d mastered over thirteen years of being his sister.
"You’re going because of what Vespera said. About the Valcrest family sending professionals."
"Partly."
"And the other part?"
"I need points. A lot of them. More than I can get hunting beasts in the forest."
"How many?"
"Close to a hundred thousand."
Maeve’s eyebrows rose slightly. That was the closest she ever came to looking shocked.
"That’s... quite a lot."
"Which means I need to fight every night. High-level opponents. As many as I can find."
He pulled on a pair of worn black boots and laced them tight.
"The Aegis Ward stays locked at maximum," he said. "Nobody gets in or out while I’m gone. If anyone comes to the door, you don’t answer. Not for anyone except Lyra, Emric, or Renna."
"What do I tell them if they ask where you are?"
"Tell them I’m training."
"At midnight?"
"Yes, tell them I’m training."
Maeve sighed. "Be back by six in the morning. That way I don’t have to lie to Lyra when she inevitably shows up for breakfast."
"Deal."
He headed for the door.
"Holden."
He stopped.
"Come back safe. Please."
He glanced over his shoulder. "Always do."
The back-alley market operated in a narrow corridor between two condemned buildings in the outer merchant district. The market was made up of simple tents, where anonymous sellers offered items they didn’t want the authorities to find out about.
Holden found the third tent on the left.
The merchant inside was a hunched woman with too many rings on her fingers and a perpetual scowl. She didn’t ask questions. She just pointed at her wares and waited.
Cloaks. Hoods. Masks. Body wraps. Everything a person needed to become nobody.
Holden went through the options quickly. He passed over the leather masks, the cloth wraps, and the painted ceramic faces. None of them offered enough coverage.
Then he found it.
A gold-plated mask. It was totally smooth with no decorations on it. Instead of normal eye holes, it had thin slits. He could see out of them, but no one could see his face. The metal was heavy, forged from some cheap alloy that wouldn’t chip or scratch easily.
He also grabbed a dark cloak with a deep hood that would cover his hair and the lower half of his face when the mask was on.
"How much?" he asked.
"Four hundred for both."
He paid and left without another word.
The entrance to the Obsidian Pit was hidden behind a maintenance door in an abandoned subway station. The door was locked with a heavy chain, but the chain was old and the lock was cheap. Holden broke it with a casual twist of his wrist.
Clank.
The chain fell to the ground.
Behind the door, a staircase descended into darkness. The air changed as he went down. It got warmer.
At the bottom of the stairs, he reached another door. This one was new and made of extra-strong steel with a small observation window.
Through the window, Holden saw the Pit.
It was an underground arena carved out of the old subway tunnels. A massive circular cage made of thick steel bars dominated the center, its floor stained dark with years of accumulated blood and grime.
Rough stone seats rose in rows around the fighting cage, crowded with all kinds of people. Criminals in leather stood next to scarred mercenaries. There were even a few well-dressed people who clearly didn’t belong there, but they stayed because they loved the violence. These were corrupt nobles visiting the underworld just to see the show.
The noise was enormous.
Holden pulled on the mask.
The world became a narrow strip of visibility through the thin slits.
He pulled the cloak’s hood up over his head.
He opened the door and stepped inside.
The noise hit him like a wall. He moved through the crowd without stopping, ignoring the glances his mask attracted. New faces showed up at the Pit all the time. Most of them didn’t last the night.
He found the registration desk at the far end of the arena, hidden in a small corner behind thick glass. The man sitting behind it was built like a wall, with a scar that ran from his left ear to the corner of his mouth and a cigar clamped between his teeth.
He looked at Holden’s plain cloak and mask and scoffed.
"Another rookie. You lost or stupid?"
"Neither."
"Everybody says that right up until they lose their teeth." The man leaned back in his chair and blew a cloud of smoke at the glass. "What division you thinking? Rank 1 scrub fights pay garbage. Rank 2 is where the real money is, but the boys in that bracket will actually hurt you."
"Rank 2."
The bookmaker laughed.
"Rank 2. Fresh face. No weapon. Wearing a discount mask from the alley market. You got a death wish, kid, or are you just that clueless?"
Holden placed a stack of credits on the counter through the deposit slot. The bookmaker looked down at the money, then back up at the mask.
"Alright. You got cash. That’s a start." He pulled out a worn ledger and a pen. "Name?"
"Just put me in the cage."
"Everybody needs a name, rookie. Can’t bet on nobody. What do the gamblers call you when they’re screaming for blood?"
Holden was quiet for a moment.
"Asura."
The bookmaker paused with his pen over the paper. He looked at the mask again. Something in the name seemed to register, though he couldn’t have known why.
"Asura," he repeated slowly. "Fine. Asura it is. No crying when you lose your teeth."
He scribbled the name in the ledger and slid a numbered badge through the slot.
"Cage three. You’re up after the current fight ends. Go wait by the fighter gate."
Holden took the badge and turned away from the desk.
The crowd roared as something heavy hit the cage floor behind him.
He walked toward the fighter gate without looking back.