Heart and Soul

The evidence of the previous night’s battle stained her skin, a cruel reminder of the weakness that had been forced upon her by her oppressor. She would be rotated back into the arena one week from her previous fight, giving her six more days to get her strength back up. The task felt more and more impossible as the years went on.

The actions of Cabrena’s royalty against her people were demeaning and barbaric- forcing them and their soul ties to fight against each other for their entertainment. To them, their pain was the greatest pastime- their grief a special treat. None of them lasted long after their soul tie was taken, but they always had another to cycle in.

“How’s the arm?” Her neighbor asked, his head leaning against the bars of his cell.

“It’ll heal.”

He nodded, shifting so his head was leaned against the stone wall that surrounded the rest of his cell. She mirrored him, her ears tuning out the sounds of the rest of the prisoners that surrounded them. Over time, it all became white noise. She allowed her eyes to close, falling into as restful a sleep as possible in this place.

What felt like seconds later, a loud explosion shook the walls of her cell. She shot up from her sitting position, at first wondering if she had only imagined the explosion that seemed to shake her insides, but one right after the first confirmed that it was real.

“What’s going on?” She asked her neighbor, but he only shook his head, his skin a shade of gray that contrasted greatly against his scars. “You don’t think…?”

Still, he only shook his head. She knew that everyone in the prison was thinking the same thing- only a few things could cause an explosion that big, and the arena happened to have an arsenal of them trapped deep in its passages.

Just as the sounds of the explosion seemed to cease, the door to the prison swung open with a loud bang. Her name was shouted in a panicked voice, his voice stumbling slightly over the foreign letters.

“Fynn!” She called back, lifting herself onto shaky limbs and trying to peak through the bars. His familiar figure came to a stop in front of her cell, his feet sliding slightly against the stone floors as he tried to stop himself. “What’s going on?”

“No time, have to get you out,” he said, fumbling slightly with a ring of keys. His right arm had a giant burn across it.

“Is it our beasts?”

“I- I’m not sure,” he said, finally sticking the right key into her cell door and twisting it. She stepped out, reaching for the key ring but he had already grabbed her hand was running back to the exit.

“Wait! Aren’t you going to help them?” She asked, motioning toward the thin hands and gaunt faces that were sticking out between the bars.

He glanced around, wincing as another explosion sounded out.

“There’s no time. We have to go, now.”

“But- but, Fynn-”

“Now. I’m sorry.”

She glanced back as he tugged on her hand, getting one last look at the faces of her people before the door shut behind her. The hallway outside of the prison was deserted, but he still pulled out one of the worker’s cloaks and covered her with it.

“Just in case,” he said, running a reassuring hand down her arm before leading them in the opposite direction she was usually lead- away from the arena. She was glad for the cloak as they exited the corridor into another, as this one was crawling with people running off to the left. To the right, she heard the familiar sound of their beasts, though her heart did not pick up its pace as it did when her own soul tie was near.

Gods, please have let him escape, she begged, tugging the hood further down as Fynn expertly led her through the chaos. These halls were unfamiliar to her, but Fynn had been working in the arena for years before their arrival, meaning he knew the passageways like the back of his hand- so when he led her away from the rest of the crowd and into a secret passage, she was not surprised.

Their walk through the dark passage was silent save for their panicked breaths. Her arm and hip started to ache the longer they walked, but she couldn’t bring herself to complain when Fynn has risked so much to get her to safety. She reminded herself that her people were stuck in the arena, left to die by the hands of their own creatures. At the very least, they would be at peace.

When they reached the end of the passage, it took her eyes a minute to adjust to the bright sunlight streaming down on them. When they finally did, she had to hold back her jaw from dropping. The entire city around the arena was lit up in flames, with smoke already starting to cover the sky from her vision. Multiple creatures had already taken to the sky, yet they did not seek freedom- no, they sought revenge.

“Here,” Fynn said, nudging her arm. Shaking her head, she turned away from the destruction to see him holding a container of water and a handful of bread. “It’s all I could manage to grab before I found you.”

“Thank you,” she said, quickly taking the water and draining half of it before starting to eat the bread. It was stale and slightly tough, but it was the tastiest thing she’d eaten in months- since he’d last been able to sneak food into the lower levels of the arena.

“Come, we shouldn’t linger,” he said, already leading her through alleys and around crumbling buildings. She followed, the question of why they were still running on the tip of her tongue, but her need for food won out. Her hip protested at every step, but she bit her tongue and kept moving, eating the rest of the bread and sipping the water. At times, she caught Fynn glancing back and slowing his pace, but he would inevitably speed up again. As they reached the edge of town where the chaos hadn’t quite reached, she couldn’t stand the crying of her muscles anymore.

“Fynn,” she called, stopping and leaning against the wall of an empty home. “Can we take a break?”

His eyes flicked between her and the cities gate’s, only a few blocks away, his lips curling in on themselves. “The horses are just outside the gates.”

“Please? Just a moment, my hip is killing me.”

He sighed, settling against the wall opposite her and pulling a sword out from under his cloak. “Only a moment.”

“Swear it.”

As she rested her leg and glanced over her arm, she noticed Fynn checking their surroundings constantly.

“You can relax,” she said, making him jump. “They won’t attack this far out.”

“Right. Right, just… can’t be too careful.”

She nodded slowly, her gaze dropping to the sword clenched in his hand. The blade was flawlessly sharp, the hilt perfectly fitted to his fingers. “Where’d you get that?”

He glanced down, as if he had forgotten he was holding it. “I… I stole it. Before I rescued you, I stole it from a guard.”

“Were you going to fight the beasts?” She asked, an amused smile pulling at her lips, though it fell as his face didn’t budge.

“If I had to.”

Silence fell over them. She felt a sick feeling starting to form in her stomach as she eyed the boy she called friend who seemed so totally unrecognizable. The boy she knew would never harm such innocent creatures, especially ones tied to her people’s very soul. Their death meant the death of their rider… would he destroy her soul if he had to?

Frantic yells sounded from down the street and Fynn shot up from his spot against the wall, his sword held aloft. A guardsman turned the corner, but not any guardsman- no, this one was adorned in the gold of the royal guard. She stood, ignoring the pain in her hip, but Fynn pushed her back with his arm that wasn’t holding the sword. She expected the guard to yell at them, or raise his sword, but instead his face fell in relief.

“Your highness,” he sighed, “finally, I found you! All we knew was that you were in the arena when the creatures escaped, we feared they’d gotten to you. Who is… why are you with one of them?”

“Fynn?” She whispered. His head twitched toward her, but his eyes stayed on the guard, who now rested a hand on the hilt of his sword.

“Come with me, your highness.”

“Why is he calling you that?”

“How did you find her?”

“Fynn, what’s going on?”

“Enough!” Fynn shouted, the end of his sword shaking slightly. “Enough.”

“Your highness-”

“Stop calling me that!”

The guard’s features hardened.

“I think you should come with me.”

Fynn shook his head. “No, no I won’t be doing that.”

“Fynn, what-”

Before she or the guard could react, Fynn surged forward and shoved his sword into the guard’s chest, tearing it out moments later. Her breath stuttered as the guard fell to his knees, then to the ground, blood leaking from the spot in his chest. In moments, he was gone.

“Fynn-” she gasped, backing away as he reached for her hand, but her leg gave way beneath her and she stumbled.

“Listen, I can explain-”

“You- you killed him! And he- he called you-”

“Don’t! Let me explain, I swear it makes sense-!”

“None of this makes sense! You’re a servant, you- you work in the arena!”

He rolled his lips in frustration, looking toward the black cloud that had formed over the city.

“I never agreed with what my dad did to your people.” Her heart started to race. “When I saw your first fight, I had to get to know you. I- I never wanted it to end like this. I just wanted you safe!”

“Safe,” she echoed, feeling her heartbeat in her teeth.

“Just come with me, I’ll explain more when we get out of here,” he pleaded, holding his hand out for her to take. She glanced between his hand and the growing pile of blood on the floor, beginning to feel lightheaded. Could he do it? Would he stab her if she disagreed, just to get rid of any witnesses to his crime?

She took his hand. Her heart rate increased as they exited the city’s walls, to the point where she thought she might collapse. As they crossed the threshold into the wild, she took one last glance back at the city. Where the arena had once towered high into the sky, the jewel of the city that mocked her upon her first arrival, now resided only a pile of burning rubble barely visible from the entrance. Her people’s prison, now their final resting place. A shining grave.

She glanced down at the hand still clenched in Fynn’s. Just above his wrist was the burn she first noticed, and beyond that were the keys still attached to his belt loop.

“Fynn.”

“Yes?” He asked, glancing at her over his shoulder, his eyes wide.

“The beasts. How did they escape?”

He stopped. Her heart rate calmed. A gust of wind blew just behind her.

“What do you mean?”

“The keys. I know they can only be taken out of the arena with keys that are only accessible to a select few. A prince, perhaps.”

He dropped her hand. “What are you insinuating?”

“I think you let them escape. You created a distraction to get me out. But you miscalculated.”

A thud rocked the ground, but she did not stumble. Fynn’s eyes widened at the creature behind her, a growl reverberating through the air as her soul tie stepped closer behind her.

“You created the distraction. You started the clock.”

“No- no- there was no time! I did it for you, I did it to save you! If I saved you all, we never would have gotten out!” He yelled, but she continued her approach, her beast’s mouth warming as she went, a burst of flames readying to fire out.

“I’ll never be able to hurt the king for his crimes against my people. But I can hurt his son.”