As she took care of her fifth opponent, Godan entered the arena and shouted as he looked up, “Getting bored? Let me spoil you! Navia’s next fight! Tomorrow you’ll see her fighting the champion of the arena! She will be fighting ME!” Godan pointed his long sword at Navia with one hand, a vicious smile as he tried to read Navia’s expression. “If you’re worried about dying, don’t be. I can’t exactly kill you. Yet, at least.”
“How generous.” Navia snickered before she left the arena.
Entering the cell, she sat on her straw bed, preparing mentally for the fight tomorrow. She crossed her legs and closed her eyes, beginning to meditate, but her calm breaths were interrupted.
“Scared?” A voice surprised Navia, and as she looked forward, she saw the man in the cell, the same man that died a month ago like Godan had said.
“Who are you?” Sharply asked Navia, fearing that the man in front of her might be stronger than anyone she had seen or even be evil like Sive.
The man approached the door to his cell and left. “I am a philosopher, a teacher, a wise one… An observer.” As the man left the cell, his voice slowly turned feminine. His dark blond hair getting lighter in color and waiver. His body slowly melted into a dark dress with see-through arms wrapped almost like gloves around hands. The figure of a man changed into a grown woman. Before her face could change completely, a veil grew out of her head, hiding it from Navia.
“Who are you! Don’t avoid the question!” Shouted Navia, quickly standing back up, two black daggers appearing in her hands and pointed toward the woman in front of her once she entered the cell. Both of them stood still in the same cell.
“Who am I? I can’t exactly say my name or who I truly am.” The woman answered, not reacting to Navia’s movement. She wasn’t scared of Navia, nor did she have to be.
After a moment, it hit Navia like an arrow. “That voice… You’re The Voice.” Navia stated, lowering one of her daggers.
One side of the woman’s mouth rose, showing a light smile. “Indeed I am. I am also the reason why Godan can’t kill you.” The woman answered before Navia could ask any more questions.
“Is she the reason? Godan said something about me not meeting ‘her’ yet. Was she the one?” Navia thought, and one question she wanted an answer to came to her mind. “Are you the one who resurrected me?”
“I do not possess such power.” The woman answered and continued without losing her breath, “Your fight against Godan will be a test. If you show good results, I’ll continue to support you and help you grow, as I see great potential in you. But if you don’t show much, I’ll leave you.”
“Why would you help me grow? No. Why should I even side with you?” Navia pressed for the answer, but the woman didn’t seem concerned with her talk, while Navia was constantly on edge from blowing out in anger.
“If you want answers, you have to prove your worth. If you don’t show promise, you’ll lose my protection. So Godan will be free to do what he wants.” As the woman spoke, her body slowly turned into dust, and as she disappeared, she left no space for Navia to talk back, leaving her to her own thoughts.
“I want answers. I want to survive, and I want to get out of here… So I have to defeat Godan to get those… Physical training for one day won’t help me. I don’t know if dirting my hands for hours to remove an inch of earth to strengthen the power of the gate is a wise course of action… That leaves me with one option.” Navia sat on the hay bed and closed her eyes like she had tried to before being interrupted. Steding her breath and heart, listening to them, she entered the sea of fog inside her soul.
Like last time, she was standing in front of the doors buried in the ground. Her gaze quickly moved away from them and onto her surroundings. Not seeing anything in particular, she moved to the left of the door where she could see a hill.
“If she is The Voice, she helped me a lot… Fighting Sive and Grizzly. She even helped me with my training. Guiding me to most efficiency in it… She is one big enigma.” Navia recalled all the times when the mysterious voice did help her, looking for a hidden motive behind her assistance.
Once she was on top of the hill, Navia looked around for any signs of gates, but as she expected, it was futile as the fog covered the visibility of the whole ground. Looking up into the grey, stormy sky, she saw something worrying. There was a crack that she hadn’t noticed previously as she was busy digging out the gate. It looked like she was trapped in a porcelain ball that was cracked on one side.
“No point in looking at something I can’t repair… I have to continue looking…” That thought already made Navia tired. In front of her were hours of walking that could prove pointless. Her whole plan of fighting Godan was betting on her finding a new gate that could change the tide of the fight.
Hour after hour had passed as Navia traversed through the sea of fog. The empty, hazy space was repetitive to her eyes, making the travel feel much longer than it actually was.
“At least four hours must have passed since I started walking… Still nothing… Maybe I should get back to the buried gate and try a different way of opening it…” Navia dragged her feet forward as doubt appeared in her head. Not sure if she can find new gates when it took her around fifteen years to unlock four gates before losing them all after the resurrection or, more likely, her death.
“If she valued me, she could give me some advice… Different from body training. Unless she doesn’t know much about Gates…” Navia’s river of thoughts flooded her head as she didn’t have much to do except for walking forward.
As her focus was down on the ground, Navia’s eyes widened, and she let out a gasp. Right under her feet was the shadow of a hand. Instinctively, she lifted her arms and clenched her hands into fists. The shadow was cast by a gate two times the size of Navia. The doors were made of dark grey wood without any knob to open it. The frame was oval and made out of dark stone. From the bottom to the top of it, there were hand statues attached to it. Each hand had a different gesture from the rest. Some simply pointed their fingers, some were fully open with slightly bent fingers, and some had fingers wrapped around other fingers.
“Found you…” Whispered Navia, relieved and glad that she had finally found what she was looking for.