The circular arena is filled with jeers and shouts as the combatants' enemies scream from the stands. In boxes stand Fianna's brother and Enzeru's Empress, glowing and radiant. Their caryatids-- Garnet healer and Sapphire revolutionary--hang high above their heads. Their fragile stones are in their own possessions.

---

Anna knelt, somewhat dazed by what was happening. Seamus was there, and Devim, and the children, she remembered, trying to make sense of it. What place did they speak of? This...no this mustn't be it. This is a battle ring. And that's-- She looked up into the dusty light, squinting momentarily at the mob that drifted around them like waves of barley, and saw Enzeru far across from her, alone. "Kill him?" she breathed. Kill him to stay alive, to go back, they said. Or suffer. Destroy the stone. The stones! Her hand shot to the pouch at her waist where it reverberated tenfold and glowed dimly through the leather. She felt...full with the touch, feeding off it, letting it clear her mind of everything but the task at hand, like a golden poison in her head. Kill him, it seemed to say. He is nothing but a stranger to you. Kill him and come home. Taking in a deep breath as she stood she swung the rifle from his holster, cocking the flint back in readiness. "Angel," she called out to him, sighting down the barrel aimed for his head. "Seems we've found ourselves in a predicament. If'n ye've wings beneath those robes, you'd best fly."

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group 6.0