GLADIATOR | ELYSIUM RISING 1 ✔️

⍢ | 15

"Well, that went about as expected," Tenn said.

"Yeah, whatever."

"You shouldn't have talked with her."

"I see that now."

Tenn chuckled. "At least it wasn't a total waste of time. Now we know what to expect for the next challenge."

It'd been the only positive thing to come out of that jarring interview.

Iggy trailed behind the old man as they trekked through the arena's tunnels to the cafeteria. Dinner was in thirty minutes, but he wasn't very hungry. He couldn't stop thinking about his talk with Ivy.

She knew a lot about him. More than he'd anticipated. The questions she asked caught him off-guard. He couldn't tell whether they were genuine inquiries or if she had another agenda hiding beneath her big smile and that digital tablet she carried around. Why'd she ask about what he stole? Why'd she ask about his father? It didn't make sense.

With his head down, he turned the corner behind Tenn. The man opened his mouth to warn him, but his caution came a second too late.

Iggy walked straight into a woman much taller than he was. He bounced off her, landing hard on his butt. Wincing, he rubbed his tailbone and looked up at the person standing above him. He could barely see her through the glare coming from the light pouring from the ceiling. Cupping his hand over his eyes, he squinted at her.

His face went hotter than Novr's mineral mines during the summer.

The woman with the pink hair had returned to the arena.

"Iggorii, get up," Tenn said through his teeth.

Iggy jumped up to his feet, his cheeks red and his heart thumping. He waved awkwardly at the woman, who stared at him with a rather bemused look on her elegant face. Gold rings and piercings decorated her nose, lips, eyebrows, and ears. A light dusting of colorful makeup had been brushed over her high cheekbones.

"Are you alright?" she asked as she bent over to help him.

"Y-Yeah, I'm fine," he stammered. "Er, are you alright, ma'am?"

"Ma'am? I don't look that old, do I?"

Tenn shot him a look that screamed keep quiet.

"I'm only twenty-two cycles old," the woman revealed.

Iggy nearly choked. They were only five cycles apart yet she looked like a grown woman while he still got mistaken for a child. "I'm, uh, seventeen cycles." His eighteenth birthday was a few weeks away if they went by the Elysian calendar.

"Seventeen? And you still haven't learned to walk with your head up?"

His face flushed with embarrassment. "S-Sorry—"

"I'm only teasing."

"Oh. Right."

She had a point, though. Jaxon said something similar after they bumped into each other a day earlier. The blue-eyed spy might've been right about Iggy; the boy was lousy at walking.

Rubbing the back of his neck, he offered the beautiful woman a nervous smile. He immediately dropped it, realizing she'd probably gotten a good glimpse at his crooked teeth. The mining company he used to work for didn't exactly have great dental benefits.

"Apologies for getting in your way, High Priestess," Tenn said, bowing his head at the woman.

High Priestess?

Tenn bowed at the woman. A full-on courtesy as if he were a servant or a queen's lowly subject. He'd never seen him show anyone an ounce of respect. They didn't even know this woman.