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Before they started, a boy asked the trainer, "Trainer Fisk, sir? Why do we have to fight with the spotlights instead of giving us spectacles?"

The trainer said, "You ask now? Why not ask when you started?"

"I, uh--everything was new," the boy said Kip could tell the truth The boy had been too intiuess?" the trainer asked

"Spectacles could break in training, and they’re worth a fortune," Teia said

"And the glass could blind us if it broke," someone else chimed in

"True, but those aren’t the most important reasons," Trainer Fisk said "Let me tell a little story Far as I know, it’s true Back in the days of Prism Karris Shadowblinder, just after Lucidonius himself had introduced colored lenses to the world, there was a young h the same could have happened to anyone Blue drafter named Gilliam He had his blue lenses, and he never took them off It was a time of wars to make ours look paltry, so none blamed him The lenses were a syy to create colored lenses was known to only a few, so having the lenses showed that you ealthy as well He was inside, but that’s neither here nor there A number of years later, he tried to assassinate Prisuards handily, and then he faced the Pris the spectacles her own husband had given hi the, and he tried to kill her again She snatched the spectacles from his face It was an overcast day; there was no blue for hi She asked him then if he understood He didn’t She picked up a simple iron spear and told him to stop her Of course it was impossible He looked everywhere for blue There was none And then, as she ca into his eyes He was a full-spectru never used the colors, he couldn’t control them, couldn’t bind them to his will in the time he had And she slew him as he screamed He who has ears, let him hear"

Kip looked around So, like this all made perfect sense Others looked like he felt

"He who looks through only one lens lives in darkness," Teia murmured He could tell she hadn’t just h questions, we’ve got work here Places!" Trainer Fisk said And that was it No explanation Fantastic

Forty-nine, a slight, aard boy with crooked teeth, challenged forty-six as everyone expected he would Forty-six was a beefy girl, nearly twice his size, but slow If she lost, she would lose her fight token and her chance to challenge those above her, so it was do or die for both of they?" Teia asked Kip

Forty-nine and forty-six approached the great wheels, each spinning one Depending on where the whizzing counters landed, they would have different rules for their fight It was another aspect of the Blackguard ethos: you never knew under what circuht, or eapons You could get lucky or unlucky, and you had to deal with it

The boy’s roll landed at yellow and green The girl’s at staves

"What do youin front of theround was bathed in yellow and green light The boy and girl walked to Trainer Fisk, who stood by a sers onto two points of black rock and then were given staves They saluted each other and began fighting They were aard, so bad that even Kip irl attacked, her first shot rattling hard against the boy’s block, and her very next swing going through and catching him on the side of the head He fell heavily, not unconscious, but jellied

The boy got up to his knees, then fell over again

The girl was declared the winner, and forty-nine burst into tears There was no way he could stay in the Blackguard He was done

"Don’t feel sorry for hi killed, either next uard can only be the best"

"Soo home today for me," Kip said

She looked at hiy?"