Void System: Every Heroine Makes Me Stronger

"Yes. State the terms."

The Rank B Hunter pushed away from the corridor wall. His gaze stayed on Severin’s empty hands.

"Private Guild yard tomorrow morning. 10 Gold each. Bare hands. We start and stop on the witness’s call."

"Victory?"

"Yield. Can’t continue. Or both feet outside the chalk." The Hunter’s mouth tilted. "Winner takes the full 20 Gold."

"And what does the Guild gain?"

The tilt faded.

A registry clerk at the nearby counter looked up from her papers. "A witnessed result. Nothing more unless the paper says so."

"No membership," Severin said. "No Rank assessment. No claim on my weapon, work, or winnings."

The Hunter laughed under his breath. "You want every damned word in ink?"

"The stake. The call. What the Guild gets. Write those."

The clerk pulled a short wager slip from beneath her counter. She wrote 11 October 873 C.R., the private yard, the stake, and the 3 ways the fight could end. Below that, she added that neither man could strike before the start call or after a surrender or the stop call.

"I don’t pay the yard fee," Severin said.

"You don’t. No witness fee either. The Guild keeps the original." She tapped the bottom of the slip with her pen. "Your 30-day registry service keeps it available here."

The Hunter signed first. Severin signed beneath him as an independent claimant.

"Stake goes into the yard box tomorrow," the clerk said. "Not before."

"Good."

The Hunter left through the main hall. Severin turned toward the outer doors. Alicia and Saelith followed him.

They went straight to the lodging compound.

Alicia placed the wooden stable tally on the keeper’s counter, then crossed the courtyard before he finished reading it. She checked all 3 horses herself. Her fingers passed beneath the girths, over the bridle straps, and down each front leg.

"All 3 are sound, Master."

Saelith crouched beside the last horse and pressed a thumb against the edge of its hoof. "No heat. No new limp."

The keeper lifted the stall bars. Alicia led a horse through the courtyard gate, then brought the next after it. Severin led the remaining horse out while Saelith checked the last latch behind them.

The keeper slid the tally beneath the counter and asked for nothing more.

They left Greycross by the north gate and stopped in the travelers’ field beside the road. Packed earth stretched between a public trough and a long hitch rail. Other carts stood farther down the field, but the western side remained open.

Alicia watered the horses while Saelith chose a place with a clear view of the road and the rail.

Severin retrieved the captured bedding from the Void. They laid 3 bedrolls west of the horses, heads away from the road. Alicia pulled each knot at the rail, then checked where the loose ends hung before she sat.

"I’ll take first watch," Saelith said.

"Then I’ll take second, Master." Alicia curved her tail beside her calves, clear of the blanket.

"I’ll take the last."

The night stayed dry. Horse breath drifted pale above the rail. After waking Alicia, Saelith set her bow beside her bedroll within reach and lay down without removing her field clothes. Alicia kept watch from the north-west edge of the bedding.

Before dawn, Alicia woke Severin without stirring the nearest travelers. He took the last watch between the sleeping places and the horse rail.

At first light, Alicia rolled the dry bedding while Saelith checked the road and the far edge of the field. Severin Stored the rolled bedding. They watered the horses, then led all 3 through the north gate with the early carts.

The private Guild yard lay behind a south-facing gate. Only the Hunter, a witness, and the stake clerk were inside.

A chalk circle 12 paces across marked the center of the packed sand. The north wall stood well beyond it. A low spectator rail ran along the west side. The witness table and a locked wooden box stood to the east, a few paces inside the south gate.

Alicia tied 2 horses at the south-east rail. Severin passed her the remaining line. She fixed it beside the others and pulled every hanging end away from the horses’ hooves.

Saelith entered last with her bow low in her left hand. She looked from the chalk to the north wall, then took the west side beyond the rail where she could watch both men’s feet.

The Hunter placed 10 Gold in the box.

The stake clerk counted it and looked at Severin.

Severin retrieved 10 Gold into his right palm and set it beside the Hunter’s stake. That left 172 Stellar Gold 7 Gold 3 Silver 5 Copper in the Void until the wager ended.

"20 Gold held," the clerk said.

The witness shut the box. "Bare hands. No strike before my start call or after my stop call. Yield, unable to continue, or both feet outside the chalk. My call settles the wager. Agreed?"

"Agreed," the Hunter said.

"Yes."

Severin removed his coat.

Saelith’s right hand began to lift. Alicia stepped closer and took the folded coat with both arms before Saelith could reach it. Her tail gave a brief flick. Saelith looked at the coat, then returned her attention to the ring.

Severin entered from the south in his dark shirt, fitted trousers, and reinforced black boots. His belt was bare. Wisdom’s Edge stayed in the Void.

The Hunter crossed the north chalk barehanded. He settled with his left foot forward, left hand leading, and right hand close to his jaw.

Severin stopped 6 paces away. His left foot rested slightly ahead of his right. His hands stayed loose below his chest.

The Hunter glanced at them. "That’s your guard?"

Severin watched his feet instead of answering.

The witness raised a hand.

The Hunter shifted onto his rear foot, brushed the sand once with his lead boot, and settled again. The amusement had left his face. Severin kept the north chalk at the edge of his vision.

"Start."

The Hunter drove forward.

His left foot crossed the center. His left hand rose to find Severin’s guard while his right shoulder began to turn.

Severin pushed from his right foot.

His left boot landed just inside the Hunter’s lead line. The turn of the Hunter’s right shoulder opened his upper chest for less than a breath. The north chalk lay directly behind him.

Severin’s right palm drove forward. His left hand stayed open and made no contact.

The heel of his palm met the Hunter’s upper chest, slightly left of center. The Hunter’s forward drive met it for an instant.

Severin’s elbow stayed bent. His shoulder didn’t follow the palm through.

The Hunter’s right hand cut through empty air. His boots carved 2 broken tracks through the sand as he went backward. His first step failed to stop him. His next step crossed the north chalk, and his trailing boot followed before he could recover.

His right hand slapped the sand outside the ring.

"Stop!"

Severin had already lowered his hand. He remained inside the chalk and didn’t follow.

"Both feet outside," the witness said. "Severin Morcant wins."

The Hunter stayed on 1 knee. His first breath stopped halfway; the next broke into a cough. He pressed his left hand over the impact and dragged in a shorter breath.

"Damn."

He tried to laugh and coughed again.

"Master!" Alicia’s ears stood high above the coat in her arms. Her tail lifted behind her.

Saelith’s gaze followed the tracks to the north chalk, then moved past the Hunter to the wall. A horse shifted at the rail and settled again. No blood marked the Hunter’s mouth or shirt.

"No crack," she said. "The horses didn’t even pull their lines."

The Hunter rose without help. He checked the chalk behind his boots, rubbed the center of his chest, and faced Severin.

"Both feet. Fair."

At the east table, the witness wrote the result: bare hands, both feet outside the line, no Guild property damage. The Hunter signed beneath the call.

The stake clerk opened the box, counted all 20 Gold, and pushed the coins across the table.

"20 Gold to Severin Morcant."

Severin took the coins in his right hand and Stored them. His personal coin now stood at 174 Stellar Gold 7 Gold 3 Silver 5 Copper.

He held out his empty hand. Alicia returned his coat. He put it on while the Hunter left through the south gate, still rubbing the place where the palm had landed.

The clerk set a cull notice on the table.

"Independent cull," she said. "Guild pays confirmed kills. Salvage stays with the claimant."

Severin looked at the notice.

"Where?"

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