Introduction

    The crowd cheered, but Ean simply walked away without regard for any of them. He had come here, to this city, what seemed like a lifetime ago in search of something that had been stolen from his village. Now, he was rich and famous, with all the great people who lived in this metropolis coming to see him perform. All of this was empty, however, and whenever Ean looked within himself he saw only a void where a soul should be.

    Down the corridor he strode, great columns on either side of him. The majestic white halls of the arena were where he lived now, but they held no sway over his life, they were not his home. His home was a small town on the edge of the northern desert, a place of poverty and death. This arena was a place of death as well, but not a place of happiness and contentment like the village he called home was. In this great city, there was everything to have, yet nothing that Ean wanted.

    "Ready for the battle?" a voice rang out in the empty corridor.

    From behind a pillar appeared a rather nondescript middle aged man with a receding hairline who wore the rags of a peasant. To anyone else, he was nobody. For Ean, however, this man was the one saving grace of the entire city.

    "Not quite, but when am I ever ready to kill, Hew?" Ean replied.

    "Oh, don't be modest. You're the best fighter in all of the arenas. The fact that you aren't the champion is just a minor detail to be corrected," Hew said.

    Hew's words only served to intensify Ean's already dark mood.

    "You know I hate it here. If it wasn't for the fact that I had to get the belt before I ever went home, I would have never come here."

    "Indeed, my friend," Hew said with a sigh, "I do know this. I also know that if you win today, it'll all be over."

    "So they say. The arena officials may have told me that I couldn't leave until this 'special tournament' ended, but I know that they'll keep me here afterward.  After all, if their star attraction left for good, how would they make money?" Ean ranted bitterly.

    "Ean, I promise you," the other man said with a serious face and a steady voice, "After this fight, you will leave this place, even if I have to smuggle you out myself."

     "I know, I know. It still doesn't make me feel any better about any of...of this, though," Ean said dejectedly while throwing his arms out as though to point at the entirety of the city.

     "It'll all be over soon, Ean. Just focus on this fight, win, get whatever the arena officials are trying to get, and leave."

     "I..." Ean began.

     "Here we are," Hew said as they approached a doorway, "Get ready and do your best. I'll be cheering for you from the stands."

    Ean watched wordlessly as the other man walked away. Indeed, everything would be over after this fight, but that didn't make it any easier to do what he had to do. In all the other fights and tournaments that he had participated in, he didn't have to kill, only to defeat. This time... this time it was either victory or death. Those that didn't die in battle were made to fight wild beasts the next day until they died from sheer exhaustion. It didn't sit right with him, but he had no choice. It was either die in the arena pit or die in an obscure jail cell for trying to run away. No choice but to fight and to kill. It made him feel dead inside, like he killed his own soul with every man he slew.

    He opened the door, and walked into the room. It was the ready room for the arena. There were benches in the center of the room, and racks with every kind of weapon and armor imaginable along the sides of the room. Directly opposite from the doorway he had entered through was a massive opening with an iron portcullis that prevented entry or exit until they wanted you to. Ean grabbed his favored gear, and then stared at the ceiling until the door opened. How had it come to this... why had he lived his life so that he ended up here? Why, indeed? Memories arose from the deepest recesses of his mind, and reminded the gladiator Ean how it was that he now sat in a ready room awaiting a duel to the death with the current champion of the entire arena system.