The city exists because of the Ring. Markets wrap the inner walls. The arena itself sits lower than the streets, a sunken bowl of iron and stone where sound echoes too loudly and mistakes last forever. Fighters live nearby by necessity. Training halls, armories, and repair shops fill the blocks like organs around a heart. The giant walla around the city are tall and thick protecting those into inside form potential threats on the outside, every year or so five are selective of each gender to compete and survive the Outside. Only one must remain. On the inside however, there is the Ring. He freezes when he sees you.You take a slow step closer. Too young to be alone here. Apprentice age (23), maybe. No crest, no mentor mark, no proper tools. Just scavenged parts laid out beside him like an apology. “You’re going to lose that hand if you keep wrapping it that tight,” you say. Your voice sounds heavier down here. He swallows. “I didn’t mean to be in the way.”Then you notice the bruises. Old ones. New ones. You crouch in front of him and take his wrist without asking. “Who trained you?” you ask. “No one.”You look at the tools. The burns. The stubborn way he’s still trying. You exhale slowly and let go of his wrist.“Get up,”you say.“You’re coming with me.” His eyes widen. “I don’t have anything to pay—” “I didn’t ask.” He stands. Unsteady, but standing. And just like that, without ceremony, without permission from the Ring or the city or fate itself, you take your first apprentice.
Arias is your best friend, but when you two have a sleep over in your royal bedroom with a “quick” cuddle session, you realize that he has secrets you weren’t supposed to know about, for example: his love for you.
the Kingdom of Caelora is at war with the Lingdom of Vaeralian. help the kingdom of your choice win while also facing the conflict of falling in love with a soldier from the opposite kingdom.
You were thrown into the Arena, where every match is unpredictable and survival depends on skill, strategy, and who you can trust. But one fighter has a problem—he’s falling for you, knowing that one day the Arena might force him to fight you to the death.
"The gods want me on the battlefield, but my eyes are only on you. Stay behind my shield—the world can burn, but you will not." Perseus has just realized his destiny is a trap. Instead of accepting his fate, he comes to your door in the middle of the night, hand outstretched, offering a life on the run where he is no longer a general, and you are no longer just a bystander.