34 Stonegarden Castle / The Pit, Pt 2

Previously, on Usagi Days: Ruby and Anemone are stuck in a narrow underground stone cell.

- 34.1 - A Hidden Door -

The stone wall before Ruby began to slide open.

A tiny sliver of light seeped in through the crack. Barely enough to see—more than enough to blind her. Fresh air rushed into the tiny space. She could breathe again.

The wall opened completely. Ruby and Anemone tumbled out of the enclosure, toppling over each other onto the hard floor of the corridor beyond their cell.

When their eyes finally adjusted, they looked around.

They were still underground, in a cold, dark stone hallway. Faint light flickered from the few torches mounted on the walls.

Two guards stood over them. The ones who had opened the hidden door, she guessed.

Ruby, voice hoarse: "How … How long were we in there for?"

The two guards looked at each other, and chuckled.

Guard: "It hath been no more than three hours since ye entered."

Ruby, Anemone: "…

"…

"…

"… WHAT!?"

- 34.2 - A Long Walk -

The guards reached down and yanked Ruby and Anemone to their feet, and then shoved them forward, forcing them down the corridor.

The girls stumbled ahead, their legs still weak.

Ruby: "Where we headed, boss?"

The guards didn't answer.

As they went on the corridor sloped downward, curving gently along.

They walked for a long time. A few times the guards gave either girl a forceful shove, whenever they walked too slow for their liking.

After a while, the path began to straighten out again. At the end, two torches on either side of an open archway lit the way outside, into the cool night air.

As they neared the exit, the sound of a large crowd chanting grew louder.

"… Pit! Pit! Pit! Pit! Pit! …"

At the boundary of the exit, the guards gave them a hard shove, and Ruby and Anemone stumbled forward, out into the open. Iron gates slammed down behind them.

The girls spun around, taking in the sight of the crowd surrounding them in all directions, rising higher the further out they went, their chanting rising to a crescendo.

"… Pit! Pit! Pit! …"

Ruby knew where they were.

The coliseum. The one she had seen during her first walk with the King.

And they were on the arena floor. The fighting pit.

All around them, in pools of fresh blood, lay the corpses of various slain fighters, still clutching in their stiff hands the weapons that had failed to protect them.

- 34.3 - The King Addresses the Crowd -

"My loyal subjects!"

The King was addressing the crowd from his private balcony, high above the rest of the arena, in the upper sections. Speaking into a brass cone that amplified his voice across the coliseum.

"I trust ye have enjoyed the spectacle thus far. We have witnessed many contests this night, have we not?"

(An eruption of cheers.)

"Ye want more, ay?"

(A resounding "Ay!" from the crowd.)

"This time, we have with us thieves! Traitors!"

(Boos.)

"Lady Ruby and Lady Anemone! Who hath entered Stonegarden under the pretense of aiding us … yet instead did steal mine bride—she who would have been your queen!"

(More boos.)

"Then, without further ado, let us see against whom these new champions shall be pitted!"

(Cheers.)

Ruby and Anemone grabbed swords from bodies nearby. They tightened their grips, poised for combat. Bracing themselves for whatever the King had prepared for them.

At the far end, directly across from the archway they'd entered the pit through, was another opening. The gates began rising up, and from the darkness within emerged …

- 34.4 - Ruby and Anemone's Opponents -

"… Violet!?

"… a-and Ivy!?"

Ruby and Anemone stood still, frozen in shock.

Violet and Ivy waved, sheepishly, from all the way across the arena. Too far away to hear or talk to them.

King: "Oh, what drama! In a cruel twist of fate, friends reunite, as enemies! Will they find the strength to strike down one another? To spill blood for our amusement?"

(The crowd laughed.)

Ruby, shouting to the King: "We're not going to fight each other! You can't make us!"

King: "What is this? It seems she refuseth to fight! Well—either they face each other in combat to the death, or we shall release the man-devouring tigers!"

(Oooh's, from the crowd.)

Ruby, rolling her eyes: "Please. They don't have man-eating tigers. I'm calling their bluff on that. … Right, Annie?"

She turned to Anemone, only to see her friend, sword raised, coming right for her.

- 34.5 - It's Still Real to Me -

CLANG!

Ruby raised her sword, parrying Anemone's relentless fury of strikes.

"Annie!? What are you doing?"

The two of them locked swords. Anemone leaned in, close.

"(Just go with it, Rubes. Play along.)"

Anemone kicked Ruby away—the impact surprisingly light, as if she had pulled back at the last instant—and they broke apart again.

Anemone rushed toward Ruby once more.

CLANG! SWOOSH! TING!

Swords locked again. Anemone leaned in: "(If we give them good enough of a show, maybe they'll be satisfied with that.)"

"(That … doesn't seem likely.)"

"(You have a better idea?)"

Ruby did not have a better idea. A smile began to form on her lips as she thought of her days in Hanasaki Village, play-fighting with the other children, using random sticks they found as swords.

Anemone: "(But you have to sell it, though! It has to look real.)"

The two combatants withdrew from each other. Then, with one hand on her hip, Ruby raised her sword, and pointed it at Anemone.

"Very well! Enough talk! Have at you, Grayscale!"

- 34.6 - Ruby and Anemone Fight -

Ruby parried Anemone's blows, telegraphing each riposte and counter-attack in subtle ways that only Anemone would understand.

Anemone replied in kind, telegraphing her leg sweeps, her kicks, her elbows, her overhead swings, just precisely enough that Ruby had enough time to react, but such that the crowd was mesmerized—if not by the fight itself, than by the circumstances behind it. After all: lifelong friends, pitted against each other—what could be more thrilling?

… Were they not entertained!?

They were, as it turned out. The crowd signaled their approval of the fight—popping off when Anemone deflected Ruby's strikes just in time, or gasping when Ruby barely managed to roll away from Anemone's downward swing.

And then, finally—the fatal blow. Anemone whittled down Ruby's defenses, enough for her to ram her sword deep into Ruby's gut.

Ruby, dramatically: "Ah. You … got me."

(Okay, fine—not really: the sword was actually just caught between Ruby's arm and stomach. But from certain angles in the crowd, it looked very much real. From others … not so much.)

Anemone, smiling wickedly: "For Stonegarden, Ruby?"

Ruby, defiantly: "No, Annie … For me."

She placed her hands over Anemone's grip on the sword, and impaled herself further onto the blade.

Ruby, nobly: "So … this is what it means … to die with honor."

Then her eyes rolled back into her head, and she crumpled to the ground.

- 34.7 - Ruby Plays Dead, Listens In -

Ruby lay still on the ground, eyes closed, and listened on as Anemone "battled" Ivy and Violet, taking on both at the same time, their conversation scored by the CLANGs and TINGs of their swords and spears.

Anemone: "How did you guys hear about me and Ruby so quickly?"

Ivy: "… We didn't. The Knights found us."

Anemone: "In the motel!? You were out in the middle of nowhere! How could they have possibly"—CLANG!—"found you!?"

Violet: "It was the die, Annie. The motel room … You know the telephones they all have?"

"… Yeah?"

"The numbers on the dial. Lucy saw them."

"… Oh."

Ivy: "They were too much for her. She started going wild, thrashing around. It's never been this bad before."

Violet: "And when she started rolling the die, it was—… I can't explain it. The air around us, it felt … weird. Tingly, almost."

Ivy: "And that's when the guards rushed in! They were right outside the motel! And get this, Annie—They were the same Knights that first time we met them in the foundry!"

CLANG! TING!

Violet: "A thousand motels in the Wastes … And Knights happen to stumble upon the one we're in. Isn't a luck module supposed to be … lucky?"

Anemone: "… The Professor never claimed Lucy was lucky. Just that the die … well, the fear of the number, in conjunction with the die … could manifest unlikely outcomes. I mean, luck is luck. It's only good or bad by our subjective distinction. (… Violet, it's about time to go down now.)"

Then, a swing of the sword, followed by the sharp stomp of Anemone’s foot on the ground to sell the blow—and Violet was down, falling to the ground dramatically beside Ruby.

Ruby: "('Sup.)"

Violet: "(Hey.)"

"(… Where's Lucy?)"

Violet gestured with her eyes, to the King's balcony. "(Up there. Next to the King.)"

"(What!?)" Ruby tried to peek, as best she could, while staying still.

Several sword clashes later, Anemone "finished off" Ivy.

Anemone had emerged victorious. The audience erupted in applause. They began celebrating their new champion, chanting, "A-NE-MO-NE! A-NE-MO-NE!"

The King watched on dispassionately from his balcony. He stood, raised a hand, and the chanting fell away.

- 34.8 - The King Commands It -

The King's voice boomed over the audience.

"'Twas well-fought, brave champion.

"… But I still see your friends breathing, Lady Anemone.

"Enough play! Thou must finish them off. The crowd has come for blood. Wouldst thou deny them!?"

Then he reached over by his side, and picked up something—or rather, someone—and held her up, above the crowd, and the arena.

Lucy.

She was squirming, and wriggling, and trying to break free, but the King held her in place.

Anemone glared at the King. Her grip on her sword tightening. Frozen. Helpless.

"… AND THE LITTLE ONE SHALL BEAR WITNESS TO THY DEEDS!

"… And if thou shall refuse …

"THEN I SHALL WRING THE LITTLE ONE'S NECK INSTEAD!"

The King laughed.

A hushed, uncertain murmur rose up from the stands. The audience didn't seem to like this strange turn of events. This was too cruel and unusual, even for them.

"FINISH THEM OFF! NOW!

"… OR I SHALL TAKE HER LIFE INSTEAD!

"DO NOT TEST ME, LADY ANEMONE!"

Anemone stood in front of her friends lying on the ground. They eyed each other nervously, unsure what to do.

But before they could decide on their next action, something happened somewhere below the castle.

The ground started to shake.

A terrible, screeching noise rose up through the ground, and rang through the entire castle.

Unbearable. Inhuman. Monstrous.

The crowd screamed in terror.