The Alpha ignored the actions of the Elven Prince. Baiting the Host was not done in Hindel society, and the person who was so lacking in manners to offer that insult would be swamped with challenges. Why Jai allowed it was a mystery. An Alpha that was so disrespected within her own Pod would encourage the challenges, and if the offender were not killed, she would exile him from the Pod.

Something Alpha decided she would have Atid mention to Jai.

For now, she was too busy altering the Pod, changing the mental network that joined each member together to make room for the new consort. The changes required were more than just slotting an additional Hindel into the matrix. The consort would be critical to the Pod’s survival, and her presence had to be added as an overlay. A mirror image of the matrix that originated with the Alpha herself.

The matrix was the neural network that served as a faux hive mind. It served as the psychic focus between every member and created the sub-spatial dimension that held a safe environment for the community’s children. Each child was shunted into a matrix of reality as soon as they were weaned.

Like a Qi signature or fingerprint, each reality matrix was exclusive to each Pod and inviolable from any other pod, person, or artifact. There were redundancies built into the matrix because these sub-spaces were the life’s blood for every community. If the Alpha died, the consort could hold the matrix in his or her mind until a new Alpha could be anointed.

If both died, a council of Hindel, women training to become an Alpha, could hold the matrix. If there were no one left, the matrix would shatter, and all the children that had been shunted into a spatial anomaly would be ejected, the process shedding their bodies in the process.

Usually, that meant they would die, but there were the rare instances when war between pods occurred, and the conquering side was able to annex and claim the children before the matrix shattered.

By the time the consort had arrived, guards allowing her to pass, the Alpha was finished. The matrix was reformed. And the Pod was made strong again.

This was the third time the Alpha had been forced to rebuild a matrix. Her two previous consorts were killed. One when a Leviathan had attacked the Pod soon after it had first formed, and the latest just recently.

His departure was one of policy and personality. He hadn’t agreed with the Alpha’s decision to establish an embassy to deal with Baroness Jai. His fury when he’d discovered how the Elves were insulting the Hindel clouding his judgment, leaving him unbalanced and unable to support the Alpha.

She had had no choice but to dismiss him from his position. A rejection that would stain him and his honor. A decision that forced him to perform ritual suicide to regain his lost honor.

After receiving an invitation to this tournament, the Alpha had decided to use the opportunity to make it clear to her Pod that whatever relationship the Hindel might decide on with other Elves, this Elf, this Baroness, would be supported.

Jai Myche had been the only Elf to offer genuine respect to the Hindel in memory. And the Hindel’s memory was long. Each mental matrix served as a depository of shared memories, a link to the past, and a tie to every Alpha that had held the position.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

The Alpha refused to lump Jai in the same category, and the first Hindel Embassy would make a statement to both people. That Jai held a place of distinction among the Hindel, importance that would be remembered. As the first Embassy, every Alpha would remember this, as would the politically perceptive among the Elves.

Jai and what she had shown and done for the Hindel would be remembered as long as even one mental matrix existed among the Alpha’s people.

****

“You have no plan to compete yourself?” Wu Chen asked, his disbelief feigned. I knew he was trying to provoke me, although I wasn’t sure why. Part of his suggestion that I demonstrate my martial abilities for the Alpha may have been for a chance to embarrass me; whatever else motivated him escaped me.

“It would be inappropriate,” I replied.

He knew that, but the Alpha wouldn’t, so I would make a point of explaining as if he was uneducated and ill-informed. “As Host of this event, if I were to compete and win, it would taint the event.

“People would believe that either I fixed the event so that I would not have to pay out the grand prize, or I was so lost to hubris that I couldn’t accept how my House and people placed.

“In either event, the damage to my House and reputation would suffer. But if you would like to participate, I will make arrangements, Your Highness,” I offered politely.

My provocation was just as blatant an insult as his feigned disbelief. It would be an insult for him to compete in this tournament, and it would send the same type of message as if I did. Some cultivators would risk his anger, those not worried about ramifications if he fought and lost, but I doubted those people competing here.

“I would have to beg off for the same reason,” Wu Chen lamented. “It would be unfair and unseemly for me to compete.”

“Why do you not simply compete with each other,” the Alpha suggested. “A dual outside the bounds of the competition?

“If the point is to showcase your abilities and demonstrate your martial prowess, a dual should serve. And as it is personal, there should be no hint of impropriety. No one could suggest otherwise, and you would both be free to ignore those problems you mentioned.”

I wasn’t sure if the Alpha was trying to help me count coup, didn’t realize that what she was suggesting might embarrass the person who lost, or hoped to poke the beast that was the Empire.

It didn’t matter now.

Wu Chen couldn’t ignore or deflect her suggestion, not after she had allowed him and, by proxy, the Empire to watch a consort competition. His refusal would be an insult, one the Empire or his father could not allow. To slight the Hindel now, with the already strained relationship between the two people, would be a breach too far.

“Are you willing?” Wu Chen asked, his voice taunting; confident I would decline. “Do you dare?”

I knew he would challenge me; he had no choice after the Alpha’s suggestion. And I had no choice but to accept. Unlike most of his sycophants, I would not pretend. I would not feign a loss and allow him to win. I would make sure he wished he’d kept his mouth shut and not try to provoke me into risking the tournaments and my impartiality with my participation.

“I would be honored for a friendly bout,” I replied, a smile of anticipation gracing my face and causing his brow to wrinkle in worry.

I am sure he had detailed information about me. He certainly knew about my Realm, Spirit Root tier, Crystal Matrix, and wind and water affinities. I doubted he knew what cultivation technique I practiced, and although he might have an expectation of what martial techniques I used considering my known weapons, the exact details should be a guess at best.

I had expanded my affinities to include lightning, but I had not shared that information with the Sect. Elder Cix of the Flowing Water Sect was the only person to know the details of my cultivation technique, and I trusted him to keep my secrets. I doubted even the Emperor himself could have forced that man to break a confidence.

I would find out if my trust was misplaced.