When the excruciating pain assaulted his whole body, accompanied by the agonizing cramps in his stomach, Lee realized there might've been more to the process of absorbing the spark. There was a reason the emperor called it a ritual and clearly there had to be peculiar techniques one was supposed to perform.
Sadly, from the looks of it, the desire of taking revenge as soon as possible, clouded Lee's judgment, because normally he was never so careless … but it was too late.
It took all the willpower he had to not loose consciousness on the spot. But he did scream though. Like a tortured pig.
Fortunately the only witness to his agony was Lance, but he had already departed from this world. And no one could hear Lee's screams similar to how he couldn't hear the slightest sound from the outside.
The lack of any external noise made the pain seem surreal, but Lee didn't notice it since he couldn't think of anything except for the overwhelming urge to die on the spot. It seemed to be the only plausible way for the pain to stop, but he wasn't physically capable of committing a suicide either.
In his agony Lee fell to the floor, but luckily rolled away from Lance's body and didn't sully his clothing with blood.
"FUCK ME!" He shouted his lungs out, and for some reason cursing himself kind of helped.
"Moron! Retard! Damn … motherfucker!" Lee continued to swear for a short while, managing to spout curses in between screams of pain.
The pain didn't go away, but he slightly got used to it. Panting, he sat up and glanced at his earlier victim with jealousy. Lance's partially severed head looked hideous, but he kind of did look peaceful … at least compared to Lee's current state.
'Right!' Lee suddenly realized. There had to be a reason why the bowls of water were placed there! And maybe it wasn't water at all!
Lee couldn't see the situation get any worse. He knelt next to the closest water basin and began to greedily drink it's contents. The pain didn't go away and it did seem like a regular water … until Lee realized he was currently drinking from the basin he earlier threw the bloodied dagger in.
In an instant the mixture of turtle soup along with nicely chewed waletaur liver cutlets involuntarily sprayed out of his mouth. Under the dim light brought by the only remaining candle Lee didn't recognize he was drinking the water that was colored with Lance's blood, and now the contents of his stomach rapidly painted the floor.
The reason for vomiting was revolting, but the process brought Lee a tinge of hope. He happily showed two fingers deep in his throat to help his body get rid of the hateful foreign object, but unfortunately nothing but stomach juices came out, no matter how hard he tried. The damn spark refused to leave.
Strangely enough, the helplessness allowed Lee to calm down, although the pain didn't subside. He crawled over to another water basin and washed his face and hands. Afterwards got up, and on wobbling legs proceeded towards the exit.
The panic caused by the sudden agony was mostly over. It might have been the excruciating pain that allowed Lee to finally think clearly, or maybe the reason was pure survival instinct. Either way, within moments he figured out what his next steps had to be.
And while getting to Tess was doable as well as asking her to bring him home, the problem was he couldn't appear to be sick, not until they left. But she was one of the two imperial healers and the other, allegedly the smarter one, was sitting right next to her! And in order to trick them he first had to somehow get there! Even though he could barely stand!
After throwing a quick glance behind his shoulder at Lance's lifeless body, and one more time reconsidering the suicide option, Lee decided he will always have time to die. And the current situation clearly was a deserved punishment for his own stupidity. With this thought he stepped out the door, almost tripping in the process.
Fortunately Ian and Mark finally began to make actual moves, not only attracting attention from the guests, but also Newman family servants.
It was nice to hear people cheering and shouting words of encouragement for a change. And even though Lee wasn't absent for that long, the whole place had completely transformed compared to when he left the table.
As expected, no one payed attention to the lone child as he made his way back towards the venue, but the small crowd of servants, gathered next to the arena, suddenly gave him an idea.
If Lee plainly stood or sat somewhere, only a blind person couldn't recognize there was a problem with him. But if he went closer to the stage, there was someone who would surely pick him up without a delay.
The downside was he had to somehow find the strength to be energetic enough for Tess to spot him, but Lee's guess was that he had been absent long enough, and most likely she was already looking for him.
Drevin was wrong. At least the culmination of the duel was breathtaking and, if not for the agony that didn't even allow him to properly straighten up, Lee would've loved to closely observe it.
Continuous slashes, blocks and evasive rolls made men on the small stage seem like two ferocious beasts, trapped in a cage and fighting for their lives. As expected, they weren't using the power of sparks, but the fight was showing the pinnacle of physical skill, at least within the younger generation.
The most impressive fact was that the two were capable of showing peak performance despite having rather limited space. And not only that. Neither even touched the side of the stage that was decorated with waletaur's teeth no matter how intense the fight became.
Sadly, Lee was probably the only one who wasn't capable of appreciating the skill of the two duelists. Unable to fully grasp what was going on, he went with the flow, and after taking few steps to separate himself from the small crowd of servants, cheered along with the rest and jumped up, punching the air.
The sudden action made him actually faint from pain for a split moment, but he partially recovered already when his feet touched the ground, and somehow didn't fall.
Feeling his vision become blurry, the only thing Lee could do was to act more energetically in hopes Tess would sooner find him, so he cheered with tears in his eyes, holding back screams of pain.
He couldn't keep going for long though, but the moment he staggered and was about to loose consciousness, Tess picked him up in an iron grip, and hissed something about Lee embarrassing them.
He couldn't care less and weakly hugged her, but didn't have any strength left to utter a word. After the last shout he realized he was done, but the caring stepmother showed up in time, and he blacked out in her arms.
"First blood!" Minister Newman declared the end of the spar, and the crowd loudly cheered.
No one noticed the mother picking up her son, nor anyone noticed her rushing away. Even Alan was busy arguing with the prime minister, and didn't see his wife leave. The whole place was full of happy and cheering people, and finally resembled an actual party.
Both competitors were out of breath, and since the cut on Ian's wrist was barely visible, it was hard to tell who the winner was. As it turns out, almost every guest had placed a bet on either Mark or Ian, and now the crowd was engrossed in discussions about the result, similar to Alan and Prime Minister Bates.
It was late at night and Sunwell's streets were full of people, almost everyone drunk, of course. Despite Tess's larger size, no one payed her any heed even though she mostly went through the crowd like a large ship through ocean waves. While occasionally an innocent bystander was thrown off their feet, at most they sent a curse her way, and then immediately forgot about the incident.
After getting home Tess undressed Lee only to notice the faint blue light pulsating from his abdomen and immediately guessed the reason. Strangely enough she didn't panic.
While keeping her left palm on his belly, with the right one she quickly scribbled something on a piece of paper and left it on the table. Then she tucked Lee in a blanket and left.
Apart from her son, all she took was a large sack of coins, quarter of which she spent almost right after leaving the palace grounds, buying a carriage along with two horses.