(For a full account of the actual tournament, go to A great tournament by Amaken )
It had been quite a day, the day of the tournament. She'd known the main purpose for the tournament a few days prior, so when Furley had announced it, it didn't surprise her as it may have others. What had surprised her was that Furley signed her up to compete without her knowing. She hadn't intended to participate. She didn't need to be anything special, just some guard or personal assistant, or whatever. She could help the Company without rising in rank or anything like that. And she didn't want to fail. To let...everyone down.
Then, she certainly hadn't expected to win the thing. She was rooting for Anastasiar the whole time. Honestly, even during their own fight, she was kind of rooting for her friend. Not that she was going easy on her. She wouldn't disrespect her in such a way; Ana could certainly hold her own. Truly, she hadn't gone easy on any of her opponents, and they were all of them, formidable in battle. She was grateful she didn't have to actually fight them to injure or kill.
She did have the advantage of watching how they fought before fighting anyone. Strengths, weaknesses. Moves and countermoves. And of course she'd seen Kildwin's headbutt coming a mile away. She was only surprised he hadn't attempted one before their battle. Unsurprisingly, he fought well. She hadn't expected at all to win against him. But she'd allowed her mind to free itself of thought and simply went by instinct, causing all of the surprise of the tournament to hit her at once at the end. If she'd done otherwise, she'd have been too aware of the eyes which were watching and would have failed in an instant.
After she'd knocked Kildwin's shield down and people began to cheer, she snapped back into awareness of her surroundings. Her body was bruised, sweaty and tired but she didn't feel it just then. She was happy with herself. She'd actually managed to do it right somehow. As ridiculous as it was, she felt like her papa would have been proud of her performance. Even if he wasn't, and it was simply a childish fantasy, it felt nice to have others proud of her anyway. Yet it somehow also made her uncomfortable, for everyone at once to be congratulating and cheering for her victory. She was the center of attention, which began to cause her heart to beat frantically as a familiar panic slowly began to rise.
Fortunately, that was just the moment Furley called everyone's attention to his announcement, and explained the reason for the tournament. That, and a nice shiny, Elvish dagger made for lovely distraction. She was shocked Commander Altheric would give her such a fine weapon.
Yet, as Furley was speaking to them, an unfamiliar man ran up to them, bloodied and worn, and passed out dramatically just before them. Daphne feared he was dead, and his words about Deorla, though hard to make sense of, were frightening.
The Commander worked to rouse their new guest, along with Ana and Amaken, whilst Daphne held the pig that was begrudgingly hers, Harold, to keep him from trying to eat the man's face. She knew his news of Deorla's company would distress Furley, so she continued to glance at him until he'd caught her doing so. He did his best to smile at her and said something along the lines of, "Don't look at me. You're the champ." She didn't like that response. He always tried to smile things away and bear them until he couldn't anymore. But she'd turned most of her focus to the man instead.
The man took a big breath and spoke in a weak voice. "Apparently a new route has been discovered which leads to Vales, we decided to that that route, it was a mistake... a great one. I'm not sure, there were so many, so many of them... we got swarmed.." Then he began to cry, which somehow made his words hit Daph harder. Seeing men cry always seemed to do that.
The Commander looked at Furley and said in his calm voice, "Furley, it looks like we will be taking a trip to Misty Mountains instead of the Gap." The unknown man began speaking of how much blood there was, and Furley made his way over, seemingly trying to keep himself together.
"You saw her fall? They're all dead, you say? How is it you are alive when she is not?" He'd said in a dangerous tone as he reached for his sword. Daphne couldn't see, but she could imagine his face with the words. His eyes burning. She had to do something. "Furley," she'd warned, trying to get him to snap out of it. "He should rest. Look at the state he's in. He didn't see her die. She might be alright." She was glad to see Ana get ready to pull the man out of harms way, should Furley have lost control of himself. The Commander also tried to speak sense into to him as he reached for the sword.
The other man began speaking of Deorla saving him as she'd saved Furley. Pushing them off a cliff? Daph wasn't so sure about how safe that was. But she'd released Harold and stepped near Furley, getting ready to try and stop him if he lost it.
As Altheric reached for his sword, Daphne caught glimpse of the same look in his eyes as the day they'd sparred. "This is not good at all," was all she could think.
