It forced her to pause.
"Kira, your arms," Jin said softly.
She looked down hesitantly, blinking in blank surprise at the translucent lines and symbols etched on every inch of exposed skin.
How? What?
Fear grabbed hold of her throat. She panted in near panic at the first marker of her shift, fearing she'd somehow lost control of the monster inside.
This wasn't the first time she'd seen such marks, but it was the first time they'd displayed themselves when not called.
She suddenly understood Raider's fear. "It's not me. I'm not doing this."
He shook his head but didn't drop the weapon.
Blue pressed herself against the wall behind him, trying to get as far from Kira as she could.
Hopelessness choked Kira. This, this right here was why she left. It didn't matter how many people she saved or how many times she risked her life. Most humans would only see the monster.
His finger tightened on the trigger, and Kira steeled herself to act. Before she could move, Finn was there, his hand on the gun. He shoved it away, before grabbing Raider and tossing him back as if he was no heavier than a bag of feathers.
Raider landed with a thud, rolling and regaining his feet seconds later. He didn't take his eyes off Kira. He knew who the real threat was in this situation. His legs remained flexed, his posture defensive as he waited.
Kira touched the lines on her skin. It hadn't escaped her Finn lacked similar lines, his skin as smooth and unblemished as Raider's. It seemed even among her people she was a freak.
She turned from them and made her way to the other end of the hall.
"Kira," Jin called.
"Make sure Finn doesn't kill Raider," she told Jin, her voice flat.
Then she was gone, running as fast as she could for outside. The walls seemed to close in on her as she flew past startled faces. No one bothered her as she raced by.
Soon she found herself outside, the sun shining on her as her breathing slowed and calm gradually replaced the frantic need to escape.
She touched her arms, relieved to see no trace of the symbols. They were a part of her, but it was a part she feared.
For a brief moment in the hall of ancestors, she'd remembered what it meant to be the Phoenix, to be the person feared, even as people worshiped her as a hero. She'd spent the past several years burying that person, only to have her resurrected by a green light and a few lines.
She sighed. Sometimes it felt like no matter how hard she tried, the past kept dragging her back.
Her arm dropped to her side and she lifted her head to the sun. It didn't have to. She'd proven that. She was more than a weapon of war.
Her life might be small and meager to some, but it was hers.
Whatever the humans thought, whatever the Tuann believed, she knew who she was, and she wasn't going to let anyone take that away from her.
With that decision, it felt like a weight released from her and Kira began moving again, paying more attention to her surroundings.
The gradual sounds of laser fire coupled with laughter drew her notice and she walked toward the noise, the need for a distraction riding her.
The shouting got louder even as the high-pitched buzzing sound grew. Kira moved through the trees into a clearing as she followed a narrow dirt path to a fence that reached several handspans above her head and stretched on either side as far as she could see until it disappeared into the trees.
It was made from a material she’d never seen. Translucent and see-through, but impenetrable, as Kira found when she tried to stick her hand through it. Pillars were embedded deep in the ground at a set distance all along the fence, supporting it.
Beyond it, she saw the endless stretch of a shallow lake, with trees and rocks sticking out of the water, creating uncertain footholds for those brave enough to attempt crossing it.
Kira joined the crowd watching the event as she tried to make sense of what she was seeing. All around her the crowd cheered and jeered, black synth armor mixing with green, Graydon's soldiers mingling among the Luatha.
Kira pushed her way to the front for a better view.
Inside the fenced-off arena, two people raced along the most extreme version of an obstacle course Kira had ever seen. Some of it looked natural—rocks and stumps showing just above the surface of the water the participants could use to cross—other parts were Luathan-made. Raised platforms dotted the arena, joined together by perilous bridges—the kind where the wood planks were attached to each other by rope but lacked handholds. You’d have to be both fast and precise as you ran across its surface or risk a dunking in the water.
Vertical walls and mud pits designed to slow a competitor’s speed further complicated the dangerous course. And if that wasn’t enough, they’d also created drones capable of shooting laser fire to make competitors’ lives as difficult as possible.
As Kira watched, the course suddenly shifted, the water beginning to thrash and grow turbulent as foot paths rose from its depths. The entire course’s difficulty and obstacles could be controlled, Kira realized. It was basically a physical simulation, using the natural world as its base.
Graydon’s lithe form appeared, springing from rock to rock as he dodged beams of laser fire. He made the difficult task look ridiculously easy as he twisted and flipped, never pausing or missing a step. Several drones similar in shape to Jin but bulkier and slower chased him from foothold to foothold, trying to pin him down as he leaped and ducked, deftly avoiding their fire.
On the other side of the course, another crowd cheered the combatants on as they raced across the watery obstacle course toward the finish line, avoiding the streams of laser fire.
"What's going on?" she asked a woman in green standing next to her.
The woman was tall, her hair short. She had a dusting of freckles on her cheeks and nose, and pretty amber-colored eyes.
"The Emperor's Face accepted a challenge from the overlord's marshal," she said excitedly.
"What does that mean?" Kira asked over the crowd's roar as Graydon leaped, catching hold of one of the ropes dangling from an overhanging branch, before using its momentum to swing his body in an arc before releasing it. He landed on top of a drone. He hammered a vicious punch into its metal body, puncturing it. He withdrew his fist, wires clasped in it. He leapt from the crashing drone, landing on one of the bridges before racing across it and swinging down.
The woman finally shifted her attention from the arena, and glanced up. Her eyes widened at the sight of Kira. "You're the person everyone's been talking about. The lost child raised by the humans."
Kira frowned, not exactly surprised the woman knew of her, but wishing her circumstances weren't known by quite so many strangers.
"I'm Eta," she said happily. "I'm so glad I'm getting to meet you. The rest of my squad will be so jealous."
"Why?" Kira asked.
"Because you're a mystery, and your survival gives hope for others who lost their children during the Sorrowing," the woman stuttered.
Kira fell silent, fiddling with the cuffs of her sleeves.
Eta visibly shook off her awe, returning to the previous topic. "They'll compete to see who reaches the other side the fastest while doing the most destruction to the drones."
Kira turned to see Graydon make an impossible leap, snatching one of the drones out of the air and hurling it at another. The two crashed with a harsh crunch and dropped into the water.