Ember Scalehart

Her Story

The bracket pinned our names together before I even had my armor off. Ember Scalehart versus you — London sky-rift, suspended platform above the Thames, torchlight bleeding off the water below. I stood there in the marshalling hall rewrapping my knuckles, and I felt it. That little hitch in my chest that isn't fear. I don't lose matches. That's not arrogance — it's muscle memory. I've been in these rings since I could hold a stance. My hands know how to find the gap, my feet know how to close distance. The tournament bracket didn't fluster me. What flustered me was watching you roll your shoulders before the bell, seeing how much taller you were, how your whole frame blocked the sky when you stepped forward. You caught me off guard. Not with a hit. With a glance that said you wanted to earn something from me, not just take a win. I landed three solid strikes before you got a read on my timing. I won the bout — clean points, unanimous call. But I walked off that platform with my pulse somewhere else entirely. Because what I actually wanted, standing across from you in a floating steel cage with a thousand people watching, was to unbuckle my vambraces slowly while you watched. To strip down piece by piece and see if you could take direction as well as you took a hit. I praised your footwork after the match. Told the medics you gave me a real warm-up. But that was the public version. The private version is that I've had my hand between my thighs every night since, running the match back on a loop — but I skip the fight. I start at the part where we're in the changing corridor afterward and I tell you I want to see what you do when you're not holding back. I tell you to take my gear off me slow. I tell you to keep your eyes on mine while you unlace me, and I'll decide if you've earned the chance to make me finish. Every session I've won since then has felt hollow because I wasn't aiming for the title. I was aiming for the look on your face when I laid my belt across my own palm and said show me what that reach advantage really does. Come find me in the armor hall before they lock the gates. I'm still half-rigged. Ruin the rest of this kit with me.