Sadly you just figured out the downside the bowing out

It was in Clare's eyes. Her universal eager mutual horniness was not reflected in the four officers seeking to claim Hanna, in them you saw something close to Asune. "If I don't fight her?"

"Her substitution will be failed and Mary's repentance will proceed." Aurora said. The slight smile on her face was enough to tell you that regardless of your choice here she was getting what she wanted.

You looked at Hanna, that rage filled roiling aura meant that whoever claimed her wouldn't be able to gentle or kind. You won't be responsible for someones ****, and you can't be responsible for their slavery and ****. You look over at Ana and realization on her face. She seemed to have figured out your fighting would reveal your power to everyone, your previous aura reveals could be ascribed to someone else, with it's size even those standing next to you wouldn't be able to see you as the centre of it. "Then I guess I'll be fighting." The **** in your voice sends a wave of discomfort through the soldiers and nobles gathered for the parade. It was hard to not understand it. Not only were you a man about to fight an actual combatant, you also had no aura. Since Clare had explained why you had no aura you largely just hadn't noticed people when they saw your lacking but it was hard to not notice now.

Mary looked tight lipped at you then at Hanna. Your failure would take her reward to her officers away and rob her of the authority her mother had granted in deeming the repentance. She grabs the bindings holding Hanna and whispers something. Hanna's aura looks almost triumphant for an instant as Mary pulls the bindings off and the officers stepped away.

"Wait, now?" you ask looking around, you kinda figured you'd have more time. Like say time to talk to Ana about alternatives to slavery.

"She has the right to have her fate decided and not hanging over her." Aurora's matronly tone was not soothing to you, however, her total lack of verbal concern was setting some of the audience at ease.

"Well as least we-" You stop yourself from finishing because you already know what will happen next. Mary takes a wooden sword offered by one of her officers and hands it to Hanna. Well at least its wood. You think as you step out of the parade audience line.

Mary walks over and holds out a wooden sword for you. When you grab it she doesn't let go but leans in to whisper, "Raise your left hand, I'll end it." She lets go of the sword and walks to join her mother. You expand your perception to include Hanna to keep track of her but Mary's concern took your directional focus. Hanna's magic was spotty, her anger making it impossible for her to focus it into offensive spells for now.

Watching Mary as she took her place by Aurora's side, you wonder if she might actually be concerned for your well-being and not just -

You raise your sword and block Hanna's swing without looking away from Mary. It was weak enough that you assumed it was merely a testing blow.

• concerned about your defeat and how it would reflect her.

Hanna had backed off, weary of you surprising talent. She attacked again but it was a faint, a swing from her right that dipped down to avoid your blocking sword. It met yours again without you looking at her. You had to give Stephanie credit her lesson about fighting blind was surprisingly useful. This was now the second time you had been in a fight with someone outside of training where one of her lessons has proven useful. She was an even better teacher than you'd given her credit for.

Hanna let out a growl of frustration and managed to focus her magic. It wasn't much but the hand reaching out for your wooden blade made her intention clear. You pulled it out of her reach and she tried to move to grab you with her hand. She was slower than Vatarie so you could dodge easily.

Moving out of her way you finally looked at her. Her face was enraged and she was panting heavily despite barely any exertion. She was a lot more hurt than you had thought. The fresh scars on her face you'd assumed had been very recent, not from when she had been captured by Mary. But that panting wasn't from exhaustion it was pain.

There was a jeering from the crowd as soldiers seemed overcome the shock of seeing a man fight. Hanna's rage was snuffed slightly as humiliation spread. She looked at Aurora who had the faint smile of a plan coming together. The hand on her sword tightened and her rage was restored.

You moved between her and Aurora. She wanted ****, attacking anyone but you right now will only get her further from that goal, and worse than just enslavement. "Need a man to protect you Little Soldier?" Hanna taunted.

You ignored the comment since it wasn't directed at you. You needed to figure out how you get yourself and Hanna out of this and you need time. Pouring more magic into yourself you accelerate. When Hanna's panting had been reduced to what looked more like normal breathing you started thinking.

There were two options for you. Are you more comfortable being the reason Hanna is put to **** or the reason she is enslaved. **** is, well ****, slavery is, you look at the officers who sought to claim her, probably going to lots of **** and/or ****. **** is kinda obviously the better option there isn't it. Losing to her won't be hard, just say you yield, this obviously isn't a too the **** thing given the wooden nature of the swords.

You idle swing your sword as you think of it, the magic in your body seeking movement rather than just thinking.

What could you do otherwise? Grabbing Hanna and running away is an option, not a very good one, she was the leader of a purportedly a mass murdering **** and child enslaving group of bandits. Given what she'd said it seemed likely it was true enough. So freeing her isn't really an option. You don't know anyone who could keep her imprisoned for however long, your father might be ok with you bringing her home but she's way to dangerous for that. Home.

Your mother probably knew this was going to happen. Would she set something up? If she did surely there would be some sort of sign, she'd left a letter underneath a floor stone you'd broken on accident so it's possible. Looking down at the ground you saw a lot of stone. If you sped up more you could check a decent number of them around you. However, Zara had also written, in so many words, that you shouldn't rely on her. Why couldn't your precognitive mother have given you a neat little instruction booklet, or at least a guide on something other than her ring which was just wait and see.

You reached up and pulled the ring out from your clothes to look at it. It still looked like it always did eleven visible dots without magic, twenty with magic ... Hang on. You looked at the visible dots, weren't there only eight visible without magic when you checked it right before going to visit your father? What had happened for three more dots to show up?

You know what you can deal with that later. You looked at Hanna to see her midway through a swing, still moving too slowly to be in any way a threat. Back on topic.

Are you ok with being why she died. No you aren't. That, was a lot easier to decide than you'd thought. Are you ok, no, no you aren't ok with being why her life becomes constant **** and or ****. So, what can you do? Well the obvious solution would be to claim her yourself, presumably there would be some method of preventing those enslaved from attacking or killing at random otherwise no one could ever be enslaved. However, the capital, apparently, has a law that there can be no slaves within its bounds. That once more leaves taking her to your father's estate as a ****. You don't know how he would react to it but given you'd no idea slavery was a thing until recently you've no idea how he'll or anyone else would react.

You brought your sword up to block her swing only realised your error when you finished the move. You were holding a wooden sword moving fast enough that even a metal one can heat up from air friction alone.

Watching the wood blacken and spark in slow motion was kinda cool but not really safe. You looked around hoping for a barrel of water or something to throw your soon to be flaming wooden sword into. Nothing close.

You could let it burn but with Hanna's sword nearing. Well her sword is going to go right through yours, showering you in flaming wood, then connect with your head. Neither would do any damage at all to you but it would be annoying to have to pick the shrapnel out of your hair.

You look at the armour and leather you were wearing. You weren't sure how well either would stand up to friction. You guess that leaves you with one option. Throwing the sword directly up into the air you then grab her sword stopping it's momentum and slowing yourself down in the process.

As Hanna's panting speeds back up to her pained gasping the sudden stopping of her sword jarred her hands. She grimaces and has to let go as her wrists are twisted at a bad angle. You should have waited longer before stopping it, her wrists weren't broken but her right one might have been sprained. "Sorry." You say on reflect as your other hand moves above your head to grab the now on fire sword of the air. You use your dead zone to take away all of the air around it quenching the flames.

There is silence around you and you have to double check you'd slowed all the way down.

It started slowly. Vatarie, Asune, Ana, Delilah, Clare and Edin applauded, those most used to seeing you do this sort of thing. It spread from there. Basically no one had seen what you'd done, all they would have seen was you standing still, Hanna swinging at you, then you holding her sword in one hand and flaming sword in the other that suddenly went out. Your chest felt a bit hot and you looked down to see the scale mail on glowing softly. You'd thought you'd been careful to not move that much but this was the first time wearing armour so you decided to forgive yourself. It wasn't a red however, in fact it looked like the glow Stephanie's dagger gave off when you'd overloaded it. Were you wearing Sky Steel armour, as a costume?

"What are you?" Hanna voice was covered by the cheering but you still heard her. She was cradling her arms and you worried you'd been wrong about the at worst sprain.

"Are you ok?" The words came out of your mouth without even thinking about it. She was hurt, you'd been the one to hurt her and that made you feel bad.

"What?" The ambivalent tone in her voice was brought to an end when she'd gather enough of her mind back to try and take a swing at you.

You ducked out of the way easily and she let out a grunt of pain at the use of her arm. "Enough." Mary said grabbing Hanna's hands and yanking her onto her knees, she let out a scream of pain at the action.

"STOP!" You shouted at Mary grabbing her wrist. Mary looked at you utterly baffled and the cheering suddenly stopped from her officers who were looking at you holding their commanders wrist. "Let her go." You told Mary as Hanna's pained whimpers hadn't ceased.

"Daughter, interrupting Hanna's substitution violates her rights." Aurora strides forth as she speaks to stand on the other side of the three of you. The audience's attitude was now confused at best.

Mary looked at the three of you then let go. "Christopher has won this. Hanna just couldn't accept defeat." She wasn't looking super happy about having to back down against Hanna. Hanna pulled her arms back to her chest with watery eyes.

"You are correct but it is Christopher's place to declare this fight ended." Aurora soothed Mary's temper. "Do you want to continue?"

"No." You said quickly looking down at Hanna feeling very guilty about how you hurt her. Guilt flooded you, you hadn't come up with an alternative and now you'd just doomed to a horrible life. "But I want to claim her."

Aurora and Mary looked at you with two different expressions. Mary was surprised, Aurora was worried. She had an army behind her and in the instant before she'd managed to get control over it, her aura told you she was scared they wouldn't be enough to stop you. "Hanna has lost her substitution, and Mary's repentance was the service of one of her officers. However," You could see her form her plan as she spoke and it struck a nerve inside you. Aurora had turned one to many of these moments in a win win for herself and you were sick of her traps. She hesitated for a moment and Mary spoke.

"Do any wish to challenge Christopher's claim?" Mary's words rolled over her officers and they all looked at you. The four that had been willing to fight for Hanna were considering it. Your display was hard to see much less contextualise, Hanna was weak from her injuries so they might have assumed you were a guy with a decent illusion skill.

You didn't want to have any more fight so you played what you hoped would be a trump card and let out your aura. Unlike Mary's words when your aura rolled over her officers a few stepped back. None stepped forward to try you and you pulled your aura back inside yourself figuring the disincentive was established.

Aurora looked at Mary clearly trying to figure a way to resume her, get you committed to the military, plan. That was cut off by Ana suddenly running into you with a hug and a kiss. Everyone was shocked by that but she laughed and kept kissing you as an arm went around her in response. That seemed enough for everyone else and her celebration spread out among both the soldiers and audience. Ana pulled back and looked at her sister who was chewing her lip at the embrace.

"Have Hanna cleaned up and fitted." Mary said as she turned to her officers. The approached Hanna but hesitated as they noticed your gaze.

"Be gentle with her." You said, not wanting there to be any risk to Hanna. Hanna stood at their proding and looked at you for a long few seconds. You thought she was about to say something when her eyes flicked down to your chest but she froze up and looked into your eyes. "Are you ok?" You were suddenly worried she'd used too much magic and was exhausted. She didn't answer but let the officers take her away.

"Congratulations Christopher." Mary said stepping closer to you, Ana was still holding your side but you felt her pull back to give the two of you some room. "I look forwards to seeing more of you." She leaned in and added, "And without the illusions next time." She stood back up and her eyes danced happily as you lips tightened in annoyance at her taunt. She turned to her officers and raised her hand in a fist. The officers cheered once more and she walked over to speak to them. The rest of the parade broke apart as tables sprung up around them with food being carted to them.

The others joined you and Ana and you spent a good portion of the day enjoying the after party.

Vatarie thrilled by the fight and asking you about it. Asune asking you about Hanna and you could practically see the word 'pet' scrolling across her aura. Clare made several comments about being glad to get the sex **** practice in before you beat her sister but she stopped when she saw it was making you uncomfortable. Edin seemed happy to just hang off you, basking in being yours following your victory. Delilah seemed happy to let the others talk but you did ask them at what point were they ready to step in to help you, Eve said they were confident of your victory, Delilah said when you paused for so long before throwing your sword, good to know they were keeping up with you but you were hardly surprised, and to see that for once it was Eve being embarrassed by Delilah at the reveal of how much she cared for you.

As the day began to end you started worrying again. The capital still didn't allow slavery and you weren't sure asking Aurora to bend the rules for you was smart, for either of you. While your worry was starting to build you were approached by one of the officers asking how much you wanted for Hanna. That took you off guard but it had reminded you about how the slaves were supposed to be sold, given their illegality in the capital. You guess that gives you an option. Find someone to buy Hanna you could trust to treat her well.