I want to hear. This is just high risk, high reward for you, isn’t it? You don’t care if you die, as long as you have a chance of striking gold?”
“I do care if I die…” I say.
Why do I care? Is it because of her? Or is it because of this job? Do I want to make it out so that I can be with her, or because I want to feel the glory of pulling this all off? The biggest heist in swarm history?
I could tell her I don’t want to die because of her. Because I love her. I can’t get myself to say those words, though, not when I’m not sure if I even mean them.
The moment passes, and she shuts down again. Everything I try to say after that just pushes her further away, and it’s already time to go to the town square. The duel will be starting soon, and even though the duel will be the easy part, I still need to focus at least a little bit.
We reach the square. It’s packed. There are bleacher-style seats set-up all along the square, and everyone is wearing their finest outfits. Poofy robes, all kinds of gold shit in everyone’s hair, women with their tits hanging out. Human men with cocks flopping around, it’s like the ball at the Mi Kioras’ estate, but on steroids. The last duel on this habitat happened over twenty years ago. Summer’s Breeze is a pretty peaceful place, at least it was until I got here.
I have to mingle with everyone before the duel. It’s part of the tradition. Mi Treton does, too. This way everyone can say they “talked to him just minutes before he died!” Everyone wants a piece of both of us, and we’re expected to toast each other, too, as a sign of aristocratic manners.
Catherine hangs almost limply by my side the whole time, but as the clock reaches noon, she slumps down on her designated seat. She’s visibly trembling. Why can’t she just believe me that I’m going to win? Her worrying is making this harder for me, not easier.
Once I kill Mi Treton, she’ll have nothing to fear. I’ll just have to show her. There’s no use talking to her now. Besides, I can’t spend the last few minutes before the duel talking to “my human.” I have to do the damn toast with Mi Treton, and--
THESIUS approaches me.
“I’m on the job,” he says in the lowest of whispers.
“What?”
“Thraxa,” he says. “Recruited me. I have Maya’s fingerprints.”
Fuck. Is this good or bad? Probably good. We’ll get less of the split...but our chances of pulling this off go way up, too.
“He’s going to poison your drink,” THESIUS says. “It’s the only way he can win.”
“How do you know that…?”
“The Kioras are in on it,” he says. “The wine sells better if there was a duel over it. Now stop talking to me, it looks too suspicious.”
I fake a friendly smile and walk off, toward the poisoned chalice.
Before I can get there, Catherine stops me. I didn’t see her get up, but she blocks me from reaching the chalice. We’re maybe fifteen feet away from the drinks and from Gethros and Mi Treton.
I burn red from embarrassment. What would a real aristocrat do in this situation? Dathros Mi Eukarion would probably shove her aside.
I’m not Dathros, and I can’t bring myself to do that, even if I think it’s keeping both of us safe to stay truly in character. There’s whispering as I stop in front of her, as she meets my face with tears in her eyes.
“Sit back down,” I hiss.
“No,” she says defiantly.
“Cat,” I say. “This isn’t the time--”
“It’s the only time,” she says. “I’ve decided. I don’t need the…” her voice sinks to a whisper. “I don’t need the money. I wanted to say I just need you. But honestly, I don’t even know who ‘you’ are anymore. The man I thought I knew wouldn’t do this. He wouldn’t fight. He’d leave with me. If you enter that ring, then you’re not the Krakon I thought I knew. You’re just...you’re not the right man for me.”
All the doubt I’ve had has culminated in this moment. I can truly give up, in front of all these people. I can let Thraxa down and become the shame of the swarm if I just walk away with Catherine right now. I don’t even know if I could get off safely if I walked away. Probably I