Fiona stood near the back of the chamber, trying to make herself as invisible as possible. Lovvins had insisted that she come to this preliminary round ceremony to witness the process. Getting her in was not a problem, but among the majority Elementals of house Icaza she, and to a lesser extent Abigail who stood beside her, contrasted sharply with the majority of the crowd. Abigail seemed less bothered by it, which was only natural.

        "Well, there is plenty of muscle on display, that is certain." she mused nervously.

        Abigail nudged her gently. "If you are into that sort of thing I suppose. The Elementals are bred for strength and reflexes, and it is often the case that many other qualities are somehow left wanting. Star Commander Lovvins is rare in possessing such a keen mind among Elementals. I believe it will serve him well in the trials. He will shine above the normal brood of footsoldiers."

        "I hope so. It is seeming to me that my fate will be intertwined with his. If his star rises, so shall I. If it falls...well, let us hope it does not come to that. And what do you mean 'If you are into that sort of thing'?

        Abigail gave her a coy smile in return. "Surat, you have never coupled with an elemental. It can take some getting used to."

        Before she could delve any deeper into that train of thought, a massive woman in full Jade Falcon regalia began to speak. "I am Amelia Icaza, and I am the oathmaster. The events of today will be binding upon us all, until we all shall fall. What say you?"

        "Seyla!" came the ritual response. It was now that Fiona noticed Lovvins, clad in full ceremonial leathers, stood opposite another man of equal size, with a podium of sorts between them. Amelia turned first to the opponent. "You are Wyatt, and are twenty-six years old. Why are you worthy of the Bloodname Icaza?"

        The man started into a long list of accomplishments. Fiona turned to Abigail. "Is this not a bit showy?"

        The clan warrior looked taken aback. "That is the entire point. Ceremony, honor, duty. They are kept at the forefront, as they should be."

        She stopped just as Wyatt was finishing his listing of accomplishments. With that, the oathmaster turned to Lovvins. "And you are Lovvins, and have seen twenty-four years. What makes you worthy to claim the bloodname of Icaza?"

        Lovvins faced the assembled onlookers. "I was the only of my sibkin to qualify as a warrior, I am the best of my bloodline. While we awaited the great return to the Inner Sphere, I twice defended Falcon holdings against the onslaught of other, lesser clans. I cleansed the periphery of pirate vermin on the road to Revival. Then, when the glorious return came, I defeated five armored vehicles as the stregth of my point as we shattered the Inner Sphere defenders on Anywhere. When the rabble refused to accept defeat, I fought their resistance and downed a Battlemech, carving its warrior out and making her my bondsman" he gestured to where she stood, terrified, and in spite of the fact that people probably paid her little heed, she felt as if the entire room was staring at her. Thankfully, Lovvins continued on. "After that, I slew a host of bandits who dared ambush trueborn warriors."

        She missed a few parts of the speech as she was lost in thought over the entire situation. Then the Oathmaster extended her hands to the two warriors. "With your coins placed into the Well of Decision, the chaos and spontaneity of war are simulated. One will be the hunter, the other shall be the hunted. So it has been, and so shall it be."

        Fiona leaned over to Abigail and spoke softly. "What is all this 'well of decision' stuff?"

        Abigail kept her voice low. "It is ritual, but it is also the method of deciding where and how to fight. The hunter chooses the method of combat, and the hunted chooses the venue. In this way, things are balanced and made somewhat equal."

        The Oathmaster carefully removed the coins. "Lovvins, you are the hunter, chose the method of combat."

        Lovvins faced his opponent. "Warriors need nothing but themselves. I choose to fight unaugmented, each with a single bladed weapon."

        The Oathmaster turned to Wyatt. "And you, Wyatt, choose the venue"

        The other absurdly large man puffed his chest out with pride. "I choose Ironhold training area number nine."

        Fiona leaned in to Abigail. "That was...disappointing? What is training area number nine?"

        "I do not know, surat, but it holds some significance for that peice of meat with a hyper-inflated ego. Most likely he performed some daring feat on that course in his time as an eyas. Elementals are always going on about their daring feats of youth."

        She nodded as Lovvins approached them. "Will we be able to observe?"

        Lovvins bristled at her words. "It will be observable from the command post for any of the house of Icaza or their entourage. But I assure you, there will be little to observe. Wyatt is boastful and brash, but has little real experience. You could probably defeat him yourself, bondsman. I see your bruises from your welcoming are beginning to fade."

        She nodded. "Aff, Star Commander. My training has resumed, and a date for my trial has been set by the Loremaster. Abigail has pointed out to me that it will take place the day before the final contest for the Icaza bloodcontest. I will be able to welcome you to your bloodname as a warrior."

        Lovvins chuckled. "Your confidence pleases me, bondsman."

        She shrugged. "My confidence in your victory or my own?"

        He let out a hearty laugh. "Now you are beginning to sound like a Jade Falcon warrior, bondsman.  Perhaps Abigail's training has not been for nothing. Come, we will discuss the particulars of your trial over a meal, after I have defeated that peacock Wyatt."

        A few hours later, they found themselves in the small apartment that had been set aside for Lovvins. They sat around a small table, on which Abigail poured a stack of datafiles and maps.

        "The Loremaster has released a few of the details of your trial. We know the location where it will take place, and that you will be piloting a prime configuration Summoner for the trial. Beyond that, all is speculation. You will face three opponents. They will be in omnimechs, and they will engage you in single combat, starting with the lightest of them, and progressing on. No combatant may engage you in any way until you have first defeated the previous opponent, unless you fire upon them, in which case, the battle becomes a free for all and you will have three omnimechs trying to kill you. Suffice it to say, surat, do not initiate a melee. You will be quickly outgunned, and all rounds are real."

        Fiona rubbed her palms together. "So I have to defeat three enemies, each of increasing weight class to win? Am I fighting against lights or something?"

        "Neg, surat, you must only defeat one enemy to qualify as a warrior. In the Trial of Position, defeat of each further opponent denotes entering the warrior caste at a higher rank."

        She shook her head in confusion. "Wait, so I earn higher rank by defeating more opponents? So I could come out of this outranking both of you?

        Lovvins held his hands up. "In theory, yes. But in reality you are a freebirth. Should the unlikely happen and you test out at Star Commander rank, there would likely be no open position for you, or you would have to fight a further series of trials to secure an actual combat command. Do not lose sight of the objective, bondsman. Many a warrior has fallen to failure for trying to reach too high. Focus on earning your status as a warrior."

        "Understood."

        The rest of the evening was spent in tactical discussions, re-fighting of old battles, and more than the occasional word of caution. Eventually the meeting had ended, and she found herself walking the streets towards the freeborn sector of housing. Suddenly she became aware of someone behind her. She slipped off down an alley and waited for her pursuer to make themselves known.

        Around the corner casually strode Star Commander Abner, his hands up in a show of friendship. "Relax kid. If I wanted to jump you, this wouldn't be the place to do it. Too neat and clean around here. Wait for the decadence and breakdown of the filthy freebith quarter, more like it."

        She flashed him a small smile. "You are a filthy freebirth too, Star Commander."

        He shrugged. "I'm reminded of that constantly, so there's no chance I'll forget it, but thanks anyway."

        She wiped some stray hairs out of her face. "I would ask you why you were following me, but I do not think I ever thanked you properly for coming to my aid the other night. And Abigail's thanks was not much to be spoken of, though I see the bruise is mostly gone."

        "Yeah, kid, you seem to have gotten yourself a decent set of patrons. Well, once the bruises wear off. They'll be rare among the trueborns, mind you, so stick as close to them as you can. As for why I was following you, I just wanted to talk to you before your trial."

        She smiled coyly. "If that is your lackluster attempt to get me to couple with you, my apologies, but I have to be up quite early in the morning."

        He grinned. "Kids these days, always sex on the brain. Neg, what I have to tell you is serious. Since your little outing the other night, you have become something of the minor gossip story among the freeborns here. There are two camps, the ones who want to see you succeed, and the ones that think Inner Sphere bondsmen as warriors is likely to stir Nicholas Kerensky from his grave. I don't much understand the attitudes of the second camp, seems to me that arguing about keeping something pure is kind of a funny way of thinking when you're a freeborn to start with, but most of the people here are either too young to know anything, or so old that they forgot everything."

        She shrugged. "I get it. Some people are behind me, others want to see me fail. There's nothing I can do about it. I never thought it would be this big of a deal."

        He patted her on the back. "Well, see, the big deal of it is that, the second camp, the mush-for-brains ones, that's like a lot of people. And the first camp....well, I haven't met anyone from that camp yet besides me."

        Her shoulders slumped. "Great, so what you are saying is that they all hate me?"

        He scratched his stubbly beard for a moment. "It's not that they hate you, it's just that they all want to see you fail. There's a difference. You win, and they'll be all buddy-buddy with you, bygones be bygones and all that, they'll forget they ever wanted you to fail. But it's a lot easier to to work yourself up to see someone else fail than focus on your own problems. See, we're all freeborns, so we're pretty much low man on the totem pole as far as warriors go. But show them something worse than a freeborn, and they'll forget all about their troubles and watch for the bad guy to lose. That's you, by the way, the bad guy."

        "Yeah, I get it. So What am I supposed to do?"

        He shrugged. "I don't know to be honest with you, but you sure as hell should be aware of it. Know your battlefield, know your support, know your weakness and all of that stuff they taught us back in training. Look, I want to see you succeed, kid. I don't know why, maybe it just comes with being on the trash heap.But just you be carefull out there princess, ok?"

        She wanted to stomp her feet like a child, but stopped herself. "If I were a warrior now, I could challenge you to a circle of equals for calling me that."

        He nodded. "And I would kick your ass as delicately as possible while still getting the point across."