Agent of Time Maria Dar, 2021 Waiting on standby, she checked and rechecked the shimmering Binding Bands clamped to her wrists. It would be just her luck if they had Despelled before the Match, when the Handlers were most vulnerable. Bouncing on her toes and rolling her shoulders aided in stifling any lingering emotion. Mercifully, her opponent was a minor Lord’s son, nearly drowning in the tiny, atomic green Verd-sprite swarm— she guessed he’d been newly Appointed. She felt slightly bad for turning her centuries-honed Einrin on him, but not enough to call Match Down. As if that would have prevented his Sprite Culling. Better it come from her. The Caller announced Match Up and she sighed, slid the delicate Blacksatin mask over her pale face, pulled the hood over her dark hair and unlocked the Silversatin-blessed steel Bands at her wrists. She let the braided cuffs float to the grimy ground and hover just slightly in place, waiting for her return from Battle. She stepped into the screaming light, closing her sensitive Royal eyes to the Lin-fueled brightness as Power yawned awake within. She breathed in the scent of magic, Verd-sprite, and fear, taking it deep into her soul, fueling the building behemoth rising. Match Up in Four. She opened her eyes. Match Up in Three. She raised her fists.
Match Up in Two and she splayed her fingers, the Einrin in her blood manifesting and building in vibrant waves, curling up her arms like violent Serpents, readying to do Battle. Match Up in One precious second, the Verd-infested boy cowering at her unholy display, at her dead eyes in the shadow of her hood and mask. She nearly expected him to call Match Down. But surprisingly, he held ground, even as the scent of his fear spiked violently; her Einrin writhed along the line of her body, begging to be unleashed. She obliged her wicked friend.
She wasn’t standing in the Arena, where the shivering corpse of a Lord’s son heaped in a bloody mess on the packed earth should have been. She, unfortunately, knew where she was. Somewhere deep in her memory, she had been standing exactly like this, probably millenia ago. Her Einrin had taken her back to that time. Not her body, of course. That was still standing frozen in the Arena, drinking in the screams and cheers for her victory, arms splayed, hood off, and masked face tilted up in vicious glory. But her mind had been taken to one
