Outside the chaos of the arena, Elytra was able to get a better look at the person who'd saved her. Around her height, with navy blue skin speckled with gold. They had a pair of short horns jutting out from their forehead, partially hidden by the waves of filaments - hair, she believed they called them - that some species naturally grew. Their horns were as blue as their skin, while their hair was as gold as their speckles. Well, mostly. From what little skin was peeking out from the one piece attire they wore, this alien had multiple white scars across the left side of their body, a prominent one from their cheek, through their eye, and part of their horn before vanishing into their hairline. Whatever had left the scar had clearly damaged the horn, because it was smaller than the one on the right, with a mottled band of white in the middle of it. They had a streak of white in their hair, worn loose and wavy, in the same general area, so clearly the damage went further than the horn.
They gave a nod of their head as Elytra approached, their eyes - black sclera and gold irises - giving her a once over before they said, "Killzar Pryseia, daughter of Killzar Lioht and Mirari. Glad to see you still in one piece."
"And why would that be?" Elytra asked, curiosity overriding manners, "Why did you save me back there at all?"
Pryseia hummed in amusement, closing her eyes and tipping her head back for a moment before answering, "I had a good feeling about you, that's all."
"That's all? That's nothing!" Elytra snapped, and Pryseia made a warning sound in her throat, her eyes glancing up at the ceiling. Elytra followed her gaze and saw a few guards trying to inconspicuously make their way in their direction. It was a little hard, when their red and teal armour stood out so prominently against the white of the rest of the room.
"In places like this," Pryseia said, dropping her voice so that only Elytra could hear her, "Assume you're being watched at all times. Information you don't want shared? Don't share it."
Elytra watched as the guards, seeing that they'd lowered their voices, tried to casually move away so it didn't look like they were hovering. Once they'd gotten out of what she hoped was hearing range, she asked, "And how do you know that?"
"This isn't my first rodeo."
"What?!" Elytra hissed.
Pryseia laughed through her nose. "Sorry, something a friend of mine says. It means that this isn't the first time I've been imprisoned by a race that doesn't consider me a person. So far, the baithaizans have been more benevolent than my last captors, but that isn't saying much."
"Baithaizans? So what do they want?"
Pryseia laughed again. "You heard the grand proclamation before the fight. The Baithaiz Republic is conscripting us into their armed forces. Why send your own people to war when you can send slaves? But that's not the whole picture, now is it?"
Elytra frowned, trying to recall everything that had been said in all that chaos. Eventually she said, "They're looking for a champion?"
Pryseia nodded, closing her eyes and humming once more. "That mech of theirs? They can't get it to work."
"But it's an Odazaen, isn't it? Aren't they supposed to last forever and respond to the commands of anyone who pilots them?"
"An Odazaen does, but this isn't an Odazaen. I don't think the baithaizans of this world realize that they have something else entirely."
"But you do?"
Pryseia just smiled knowingly at that, her eyes once again glancing up at the guards patrolling in the walkways above them.
If you don't want something shared, don't share it. Right.
"It's why you're here, isn't it?" Elytra asked.
"It's a reason I'm here. Unless you have the means for us to communicate without being heard from outside forces, I can't say more."
"I have some psychic ability, BUT," Elytra cut in when Pryseia shot her a look, "They don't work like that. At most, I can sense a person's emotions. If I'm lucky, I can tell if they're lying or not. My race cannot read thoughts."
"Too bad."
"But speaking of communication, how can I understand you? Because I can, despite the fact that I can clearly hear you speaking a language I do not know." Elytra said, realizing the same could be said of every baithaizan she'd seen as well.
"Never been off your home world, have you?" Pryseia asked, and when Elytra shook her head, she continued "They've given you the full abduction special, then. Headache when you awoke? That's because they psychically crammed every known language into your mind. Fighting abilities you never possessed before? They gave you the instincts the same way, but not the physical training. Such procedures are commonplace for those who make their living among the stars, but it's usually a drawn out process to prevent mental trauma. No doubt there were many others who died before they could even get to the arena."
Elytra stifled a horrified noise in her throat, propping herself up against the wall next to Pryseia. "All for the sake of bolstering their forces?"
"You catch on quick."
Elytra let out a breath at that. She couldn't say her own people were perfect - her direct ancestors had fled the koleopteran home world of Hurni for a reason, after all - but they certainly weren't going around kidnapping people and throwing them into death matches.
"Listen," Pryseia cut in quietly, her eyes on the guards above them, "I know it's a lot to ask, but I ask you to trust me. I'm getting out of here, and I'm taking you with me."
Elytra turned sharply towards her, but Pryseia continued before she could ask any questions.
"It's not going to be immediate, unfortunately, so we're going to have to play the part of their willing participants, for a time. I've seen how these tournaments operate. They start with the elimination, to weed out those who can't or won't fight to survive at any cost. Next, they are to train us in armoured combat. Odazaen are rare, so we'll be in baithaizan mechs. Then more fighting, smaller rounds this time. They need soldiers, so it won't be to the death. Just to the defeat. Losers are added to their ranks as cannon fodder, and the further along you make it, the higher your rank will be in the army you'll be forced into. Eventually one will emerge as the victor of this tournament, and the winner will be given the chance to pilot their prized machine."
"So then what's your plan? Fight your way to the top and then pilot that mech out of here?" Elytra asked, not seeing how that would free either of them.
Pryseia just hummed out a laugh, closing her eyes for a moment before she turned to her and said, "I won't be piloting that mech when we leave. You will."