The Crown's Entrapment

The crowd went deathly silent at the sight of Princess Xenia's entrance into the fight. Most of them didn't expect the Princess to be that reckless, but to see that she had only gone down there to save a contender's life?

It was both exciting and made for great entertainment.

A few beats later, the crowd finally exploded in both cheers and jeers. Opinions flew out about the Princess's reckless move.

"Did... Did she really save Lady Clara's life?!"

"Why did she do that?! She was already guaranteed a spot at the final five!"

Confusion... Awe... Outrage... Mixed feelings were the most prominent of all these opinions. While the Princess had garnered many admirers due to her success with surviving the Element Forest, that didn't mean that all of her detractors had vanished.

And even then, some of her admirers still had some skepticism about her actions.

"And here I thought she was smart... That's so dumb of her!"

"Did she really just throw away her chances at being with the King? How arrogant is she?!"

There will never be satisfaction coming from these people. All they wanted were results, and right now, it wasn't looking great for all of the supposed losers on the battlefield. Still, not all of them were negative.

After all, the Princess had friends and loved ones in very high places.

***

Still poised perfectly on her seat, Jayra didn't care if her dear friend had just supposedly thrown away her chances. She had full faith that her princess would be able to reclaim her spot easily if she had to. Either way, seeing her stick to her principles was more than enough for her to cheer. That, and the way Xenia took that dark lightning attack without even flinching almost made her envious.

'Still, that was literally dark magic,' Jayra inwardly thought to herself. 'There's no way that isn't illegal...'

And of course, she was right. Unfortunately, dark magic was called that way for a reason. Without the proper experience and know-how for all things magic, the common populace would simply chalk it up as nothing more than normal lightning magic. Unless it was clearly more sinister than elemental outbursts or enchantments, nothing short of an experienced mage would be able to tell the difference between normal and dark.

'That Pinra's smart, at least. I'll give her that,' she grumbled to herself. 'Nobody would even care if her lightning doesn't have the usual blue color. Lightning is lightning, after all...'

Looking around, Jayra could see the crowd slowly turning against her friend. What she saw as the right move understandably looked stupid for the common masses.

Well, she better try and rectified their misconceptions.

"That's what I wanted to see, Princess!" Jayra cheered, her words being a consciously stark contrast to the crowd just a few meters away from her. "You're making me so proud right now!"

The crowd around her stilled, their gazes all landing on her as their confusion clearly made itself known through their silence. Inwardly, Jayra smirked. She had them right where she wanted them.

"What?! Is it wrong for me to cheer for my friend?!" she shrugged at the crowd. "Besides, she's standing up to her principles! Isn't that exactly what anybody would want in their future Queen?!"

Jayra let her words soak into the masses as she kept her pose. Counting down five more seconds of silence, she then turned her gaze back down to the arena as she continued cheering.

"That's the spirit, Princess! Woo!"

And with that, the mage promptly kept herself silent. Slowly but surely, her words inevitably took hold, her immediate audience warming up to the Princess's decision as they began cheering for her once more.

'You owe me one, Princess,' Jayra giggled to herself. 'I'm being your own personal cheering squad right now.'

***

A few seats away from Jayra, Darius was thinking of the exact same thing that her wife's friend just shouted out. Sure, he was more worried than proud, but he at least knew that his wife was a force to be reckoned with if push came to shove.

Then again, it wouldn't have hurt if Xen just stayed put in her seat and let things fall as they lay.

[You're being reckless, my love,] he chastised her.

[What do you want me to do then? Watch this crazy lady kill everyone in cold blood?] Xenia scoffed. [You know I can't do that.]

Darius sighed. Truly, his mate was just as stubborn as she was beautiful.

[Be careful then. From where I can see, Pinra's minions are starting close in on your location to back her up,] he helpfully pointed out. [Also, don't rule out any poisons. I don't want you getting nicked by any sort of blade she might have.]

[You don't have to tell me that twice,] his mate mentally rolled her eyes at him. [Now if you'll excuse me, you're distracting me from the very fight that you're worried about.]

Shaking his head, Darius could only sigh as she let out a nervous chuckle. He promptly cut the connection at Xen's behest, trusting that she fully knew what she was doing.

[She'll be fine,] Zeus cackled. [We wouldn't have a mate that'll just up and die on us this stupidly. There's no way that she'll lose to any of those pretenders.]

Darius chuckled at his wolf's words. He agreed wholeheartedly to such an assessment. After all, he personally trained her to survive even the harshest of conditions.

'You're making my hairs go white faster than they should right now, Xen,' he inwardly chuckled, hoping that they would force away the tension and fear that had currently gripped his heart. 'We've done all that we could to make sure you're well prepared for the task at hand. This is just yet another trial for you to pass...'

Darius nodded to himself, his own reassurances working on himself.

'I just hope that you know what you're doing,' he thought to himself, the bond now currently disabled to give his mate the silence that she needed. 'Do your best down there, my love...'