The knight falls.

[Harbor]

Rella had found little reason to worry after coming to the elven city. They were all so placid and peaceful here. She found it unnatural, or at the very least extremely unfamiliar. Even if she took away the faces and ears and bodies she would still be able to look at these people as moving grains of sand on a map and tell any onlooker that here was a city entirely foreign to her. As unsettling as it was, she supposed there was a certain tranquility to it. She felt no brush of tranquility as she raced through the forest at dusk, hands outspread as she ran them over stems and leaves, crouching often to brush them through the undergrowth as though trying to comb it. The hidden guard she always suspected was of no help; how could she beg assistance from someone she couldn't see, and probably couldn't speak to anyway?

But at last she found it, a particular woody plant that grew in disorganized spikes and tufts. In human lands it grew primarily on trees or as undergrowth--here it was a bush of its own. Interesting, but not something she had the time to consider right now. Rella drew her pocket knife and dug up an entire bundle of roots, dragging them out of the ground they clung so tenaciously to. At last they were hers, and she wrapped them in cloth and bore them hurriedly away.

She went to the kitchens she had made a point to find in Brenton's home as soon as she had moved her things here. Nobody was visibly there to see her scrubbing at the roots and stems and stripping away the leaves. She would have to clean up her mess later. Rella chopped the roots and stems as finely as she could, threw them in a shallow pan, and gave them just enough water to simmer. She started a fire by hand, with her own flint since the elves all used magic, covered the pan and slid it onto the grate standing in the fireplace.

Well, the majority of the work was done. She dropped into a chair, put her booted feet up on a stool, and her head in her hand to wait.

It was morning by the time it was done. She scraped as much of the grainy mash as she could out of the pan, found the appropriate tool and began to squash and best the goop until it turned into a fine, translucent goo. She had brought her dagger with her and took a moment to coat its edges with a healthy layer, before spooning the rest of it into a repurposed winesac. At last she was truly finished--Rella sheathed her dagger as soon as it was relatively dry and sprinted off to William's house, hoping to beat his death to the door.

Rella saw the four of them in the clearing near the house where she'd visited William a small number of times, and ran up behind the convicted man, putting her hands out and using her momentum to shove him as hard as she could. "What the hell do the two of you think you're doing?" she demanded, furious with the both of them for doing the manly thing and thinking about themselves in the present as opposed to how one of them might feel in the future. "As detestable and honorable as all this may be does either one of you really consider it a smart idea to force one friend to kill another even if he's supposed to die anyway? Hello Isrydia, Arlyn," she added at the end, with a nod to each of them. Returning her attention to the men, and then focusing it on William, she said firmly, "Fight me. We barely know each other and I'm better at compartmentalizing things than he is." She tilted her head in Brenton's direction. "I'm not the one who will start thinking about this a week later and manage to convince myself it could have gone any other way and then start to destroy myself for it."

[Nandon]

William blinked and staggered back through the door he had just exited, He glanced at Rella in a slightly apologetic manner and sighed, He figured she wouldn't understand.

"I would rather die in a fight, Than in any other way, I don't care if it is Honorable, Or if it even makes sense because to me it does...I would prefer to simply go out of this world in a way that I sent so many others."

He then blinked when she demanded he fight her, Why? Why would she want that.

"Why?" He asked, Voicing his thoughts aloud, It truly did puzzle him.

[Quetzal]

The tears finally spilled over when Wipliam hugged Isrydia. She hated to part in any way, but had hoped their last moments in each other's company could have been happy ones. At least she had the rare blessing of knowing this would be the last time they saw one another. She was grateful for that much. "Thank you, William. You taught and showed me so much. I'd probably still be some traavelling storyteller if it weren't for you."

Their last hug was over, and they were heading outside to allow more space to fight. Arlyn whined in a way she hadn't heard since he was a hatchling, before he could even roar and when his internal voice had sounded like a child. If dragons could cry, he would have done. He nuzzled Isrydia's face. She needed his comfort to face this fight, so wrrapped her arms around his neck and held him close.

Rella's appearance was unexpected. She hadn't seen the fellow human in a while. The dragon and Rider nodded to her in greeting when addressed. Other than that, they remained silent. This was William's choice to make. They did, however, think it odd that Rellla should offer herself as a contestant in this fight. She was a surprisingly strong fighter, the pair knew, but against William things might well go more in favour of the trained and experienced knight. Brenton was a more certain victor, so he must be the sensible choice. Unless Rella had a trick up her sleeve. Isrydia dared to hope she might have thought up a way to let William go free, but Arlyn gently pressed his mind to hers and showed her that she needed to be more realistic or face more disappointment. He shared with herhis feeling of belief in Rella's claims, showing her a few memories of Brenton going off on one of his frequent emotional miserable mopey rants. Doing this would make them even worse and more frequent, and make Brenton feel bad when rhey got rid of that cruxis crystal.

[Brenton]

Brenton's eyes blazed from a light shade of gold to dark gold that reflected the anger that was building inside him as the half elf stood there. He had never been challenged or insulted in such a manner by anyone, especially a female human who had already caused enough grief in his life. As she continued her little rant about how Brenton would only dwell upon it, Brenton's grip tightened upon Undbitr and a snarl ripped past his throat.

The king didn't utter a word in any language, only thought of what he wanted, and suddenly a large chunk of earth a few feet from Rella was simply vaporized on the spot. His eyes had yet to return to normal and at that moment they were actually slowly turning blue in the light as Vaentr fought for control.

Do not assume that you can run in here and interrupt what I am doing, Rella, even if you are queen now. I will not stand by and allow you to shove someone who has requested to die with honor by single combat and then try to take my place even though he asked me to fight him. I am the better fighter of all of us in this area and so by all rights should be the one to face off with William. Besides, he is a prisoner and I get to choose whether or not he fights you. Now stand aside or I will be forced to have the guards restrain you while this fight commences.

Brenton, normally so calm around his wife, was fighting to keep from changing as his voice dripped venomous hatred at her actions. He loved her but this was something he could not condone. Anyone else he would've already thrown into a guarded cell to let them think about what they had done but not Rella. She still had a chance to move of her own free will.

[Nandon]

William just kind of seemed uncomfortable as he stood there, Shield hanging off his arm limply and sword miroring it as he watched the man and wife argue.

[Harbor]

Rella flinched at the visible magic and glowered furiously at him. "Keep your magic to yourself, Brenton," she snapped, feeling her awareness of his present instability warring with her natural disrespect of anyone who couldn't keep themselves in check. "The only reason I shoved this handsome fellow instead of you handsome fellow is because you use magic and I don't think he does. You might have incinerated me on the spot. And pay attention, would you? I don't use any queenly authority, I just exercise my right as a person to firmly request that you consider the fact that you like to guilt yourself over things and as inevitable as this is does it not stand to reason that you find a solution that won't leave you any more miserable at the end of it?"

Rella felt herself settling back into her steely, sharp self when Brenton finished. She allowed the silence to stand a moment before breaking it. "Brenton. I have my own resources and neither did I presume to challenge your own considerable skill. I'm too afraid of you and your magic to fight you directly, but if you insist on moving me I'd ask that you have the respect to do it yourself instead of handing me off to your thugs. Besides, this isn't only your decision." Although leery of turning her back in Brenton with him in such a riled state, Rella turned calmly to face William. "William, will you please consider my argument? I fight with my own secrets and can at least assure you that no one would let you kill or seriously harm me if I've misjudged my advantages."

Asking Brenton to consider himself went against Rella's instinct, and were she in his position she would have reacted much the same way he had. But she was the one, out of this group, who would be most charged with tolerating whatever moods he fell into after this. She was stuck with him by the poor decisions they had both made, and was still trying to find the ways that would turn their past decisions hasty as opposed to terrible. She would do, as she always had, whatever she had to to survive, and that included trying to steer Brenton away from further or future implosions. She couldn't, after all, promise herself that he wouldn't take her down with them.

Suddenly she wondered what Isrydia and Arlyn's opinions were in all this. She knew they would see the sanity in her arguments, but expected them, like everyone else, to doubt her ability to best an experienced swordsman. And they had their rights to such doubts--but they didn't know about the numbing solution she had place on her blades, or how sure she was of William's hesitation in fighting her, which she knew well how to exploit.

[Nandon]

William listened attentively to Rella's argument and he got that far away look on his face as he thought, Looking at Rella, But any person who knew william in the slightest would know his mind was far far away from here.

William had several problems that he had to work over in his mind with fighting against Rella.

Foremost amongst them was that she was a woman, And while William would acknowledge to any that a woman could kill just as easily as a man, That didn't mean he liked facing against one, Oh but then the side of his mind that was for it argued back that he had spared with Isrydia numerous times when he was training her, And that caused that mental battle to end in a draw.


He frowned softly in his thoughts as he suddenly had to acknowledge to himself that there was a certain....Allure, To fighting another human, While he would consider Brenton a friend, It didn't mean he liked several of his traits, Several of which he had demonstrated very recently, And perhaps the one that irked him the most was throwing around his royal weight. He then had to also acknowledge to himself that hearing Rella throw off such weight, Despite the fact that she didn't have to, Combined with the fact that she could fight, Made her considerably more attractive in his eyes.

And then with that last acknowledgement he suddenly realized he didn't want to die, There had been so much in life he had yet to accomplish, So many of the things he had wanted to accomplish in life had not occured, While many things he didn't want to accomplish had anyways. This caused a small smile to touch his face, Though he still maintained the faraway look in his eyes.

Finally the look went away and William looked at Rella seriously. "Alright...I will fight you." William said simply.

[Quetzal]

Isrydia and Arlyn were taken aback at Brenton's sudden burst of anger. They knew he got ridiculously angry at the slightest and most pointless thing, but this was pretty extreme even for him. Rella was being perfectly reasonable, in their eyes. She was right in that Brenton had a poor time compartmentalising things, and that it would be best if she were the one to kill William. Brenton was always going on about one way or another in which his life was terrible despite being a king, a trusted and important high ranking member of the Varden, one of the most powerful people in Alagaesia both physically and politically, having a very good wife and home, being respected and well known, being the Rider of two dragons... he had pretty much everything he'd ever wanted. Perhaps the reason why he got so depressed about things and went on about them for so long was because he was so used to having everything he didn't know how to cope with not getting what he wanted. That would explain how he moped around about Isrydia despite being married to a perfectly great woman whom he loved, rather than just accepting it and moving on like a normal person. Yet that didn't seem like the whole story, since she knew he had had to deal with some genuinely hard times in the past.

Anyway, it was certainly true that anyone who knew William would feel terrible after killing him regardless of what the knight said or did. Isrydia herself would adamantly refuse to face him in real combat if she was asked. She was too upset by the situation to trust herself to say anything to Brenton without crying or getting angrier than she liked to be, so instead Arlyn spoke. "Wow, Brenton, you really need to be less controlling. That's an appalling way to treat your wife. Show more respect, you need to listen to her opinions. Rella is a very sensible and clever person, so if I were you I would pay attention to what she has to say, even if you don't like it. At least consider it rather than getting so angry all the time. Anyway, surely this is William's choice? He's the one who's life we're talking about here, not yours," he said sternly, letting everyone present hear what he was saying but obviously directing it at Brenton. That one was always trying to control other people, but he could never control himself. He was so angry all the time, and he seemed to think it was the end of the world to be proven wrong or not to be picked for something. This was about William, not Brenton.

Isrydia's face was blank, not showing her thoughts on the matter. She was having trouble trying to concentrate. There were too many thoughts running around her mind. This was all quite overwhelming for her.

[Brenton]

((Yes this post is totally based off of DBZ but who cares. I just spent the past week doing nothing but going to work and watching DBZ. So I have watched three hundred and twenty some episodes and now it will affect my Brenton writing skills drastically.))

Brenton glared at the woman in front of him who was speaking as if she had any authority to demand he back down or not use magic. What was she but a human while he was a half elf who had grown up learning every way that magic could control the body and mind. And now she thought that just because she was his wife and the queen of the elves she could tell him who and what he could be? Thoughts swarmed rapidly through his head, causing pain to lance past his eyes and into his brain for a split second.

Energy filled the air and crackled as bolts of lightning shot from his arms with the bluish gold tint that was his magic. Filling his body with more and more energy, Brenton could feel his power rising to levels it had never reached before, or would probably ever reach again. His muscles twitched several times and then they suddenly expanded until he was twice as large as he had been a moment earlier.

At the same time, a strange light entered his eyes and rapidly they turned from gold to blue, yet he didn't turn into Vaentr. More power filled him and Brenton felt like he was going to explode from all of the energy coursing through his veins. His hair, once being messy but laying in his eyes, was now golden in color from the energy and was standing straight up in spikes.

As Brenton continued to feel the energy build and the power grow within him, he looked over at William and stopped short. Something wasn't right about that knight for his eyes were gazing at Rella with a faraway look and suddenly the man smiled to himself. Brenton suspected that William had suddenly felt an urge to live again but why was that and what could be causing the change. As the power stopped rising, the aura around Brenton died out and left his new form in front of the group.

With quick strides, he walked over to Rella and pulled her aside looking at her with a concerned but joyful gaze. The look in William's eyes means he either wants to live again or he wants to do something else. I can't be sure but it would probably be best if we left and let him talk to Isrydia for a minute. Maybe he'll confess to her what that is. Truthfully, the two were already out of earshot of the rider and knight so they could be talking for all the king knew.

On an instinct, Brenton kissed Rella and immediately jumped back from her, feeling a small static shock go between the two of them at the touch. So much energy was within him that he could pass it on just through a kiss like that. With a sigh, Brenton looked at Rella sheepishly and smiled apologetically. As he backed further away, the king raised his right hand into the sky and released all of the energy, a beam as thick as a tree trunk, straight up. Unknowingly, the energy blast also cracked the cruxis crystal and suddenly Brenton doubled up in pain, falling to the ground. Well now he wouldn't be able to fight William anyhow.

[Harbor]

At his permission, Rella sighed, relieved. "Thank you, William." Maybe those who deserved to survive might, if she had any hand in it.

Rella recoiled as though snakebit when Brenton began to emit crackles and beams of lightning. The naturally occurring lightning she loved and always made a point to watch, but this unnatural sort made her stomach roll with fear. She would never admit that she hated magic so much because she feared it. Rella hated to confess to fear. She would bullshit and deny her own fear until the trees curled up like dead spiders before she told someone she was frightened.

She backed away further, glowering, her hands solid fists at her sides, as Brenton began to grow. Why, [i[why[/i] did she have to be roped into marrying a sorcerer? The one person she could never feel fully comfortable around, no matter how long they were together she would always treat him a little differently than she would have treated an ordinary man. She would tolerate more, since she felt she couldn't retaliate out of fear for repercussions.

Brenton returned to normal, more or less, and stepped swiftly toward her. Rella put her arms up, leery of him throwing lightning again, but he only grabbed her by the arm and pulled her away. But he seemed happy about it. Not the angry she'd expected. "What the hell are you off about now?" She yanked back and that gesture was just as ineffective as she'd thought it would be. He stopped.

Brenton kissed her, and she planted her hands on his chest and shoved him back. "Now is NOT the time, Brenton!" Her lips stung.

Brenton seemed to explode, sending a glimmering beam into the sky. He halved, grimacing, and Rella backed away again, scowling. As usual she didn't know what he was doing to himself, but as usual when the focus was on someone else, something happened to make Brenton the focal point of attention. That thought alone was enough to tempt her to simply walk away, but that action was likely to come back to her later.

although she hated to do it, Rella came back to his side and worked her hands underneath his arm and hauled him to his feet. "Let's go, moonbeam," she sighed. "Arlyn can sit on you if you try to scare the rest of us off again."

[Nandon]

William recoiled slightly, A unmasked look of complete disgust at brenton on his face, He also despised magic, Mostly because it put those who couldn't use it at a complete disadvantage in everything. As he pulled Rella away William perked a single brow and watched the curiously, Then the beam of magic came and William sighed and turned his back completely to Brenton, He didn’t want to watch that kind of stuff, And thus he missed Brenton collapse.

William twirled the sword around in his grasp a couple times, Still believing he would be fighting Brenton or Rella so he decided he may as well get used to these new weapons presented to him, Which where much lighter than his old sword and the rune sword.

He sighed softly as he looked briefly up into the pines of the forest. “I am a man of Old skill in a world controlled by new skills.” He remarked aloud.

[Quetzal]

i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn250/BirdyBot1000/avatarisrydia.png

((I only have about 5 mins to write this in, sorry! My aunt just got here))

Isrydia and Arlyn watched as Brenton... well, they didn't really know what. They weren't too surprised, in all honesty; he did this sort of thing from time to time. Every month or so he would do something like this, powering up yet again. "Where does all that energy come from?" Isrydia called out loudly to the half-elf so he would hear her question. It did seem pretty random. Most of his power ups made no sense to her.

He seemed to want to talk with Rella some more, so while he was having his little show the Rider and dragon looked to William. Was this display going to change anything? Sometimes Brenton got all angrier when this happened. "Again, huh?" She said to her dragon and old teacher.

"Brenton looks... kind of... silly, now, actually. His hair is dumb. His muscles look wrong, too, unnatural. All this magic will probably have a big toll on him as well, will he still be able to fight William?" Arlyn said to the other two.

"You can't judge people on their hair. And Rella's gonna fight William now, remember?" Isrydia nodded at William's remark. "I know what you mean. Brenton keeps becoming more and more powerful, and I'm only growing as a normal person does, with training and knowledge. Aside from the cruxis crystal, nothing he's done is anything untoward, though. I don't really know where it all comes from, or why he was stronger than anyone else before the crystal. For the rest of us, non-verbal magic remains impossible and powering up as he does would kill us with the energy taken. Maybe he found a way to bypass the laws of magic without telling us or something. I doubt it. I'd like to know what the cause is. The crystal turns him into Vaentr, it doesn't do this. In all honesty, he should probably be stopped before he gets strong enough to destroy the kingdom, that's pretty much how Galbatorix began - with a hunt for power leading him to be the strongest in the world. I'll have to have a good long chat with him soon," she vented her thoughts on the matter to her close friend.

[Brenton]

((mobile post mixed with pain killers so it may not be as good as usual.))

Brenton groaned as he was helped up by Rella, wondering what caused so much pain in the first place. I'm sorry, Rella. You are obviously very determined and strong so who am I to stop your duel. Please fight Sir William but don't make me have to step in. Go, my strong and beautiful wife, make us all see your skill.

Brenton stumbled over to Isrydia and winced as he placed his hand against the tree. You can do this too but it takes years of intense training in magic. Every living being has a store of energy, or ki, which they can build in concentration. Taking it and harnessing the ki as well as energy from nature can make you stronger and faster for a time.

Brenton left out the fact that it was dangerous if the body had too much energy. No sense in worrying Isrydia so much.

[Harbor]

Rella wasn’t familiar with the feeling that William described, but it sounded like a terrible sad thing. To be left behind by the world, or at least to feel as though you had been. To look out over the gazes of others and feel as though not one of them saw anything like what you did when you blinked, and that you would never be well understood because others had evolved past you and now you could no longer relate. ”You won’t have to,” she promised absently, assisting him until she felt he had enough propping him up to keep him from sprawling on the ground. Leaving his side, she brushed off her hands and touched the handles of her daggers, thinking.

The ointment she had brewed had been intended to numb only, spreading from any cut taken until the entire limb was immobilized. She had considered using it only as a pain retardant, so William wouldn’t have to leave the world in the physical pain as well as mental. But she had three batches of it kept in the same pouch, separated by walls of oiled leather. She had applied the second strongest to her daggers already, to give herself the advantage she knew she’d need to win. The third and strongest, which she hadn’t expected to be able to pull off, she had used only once before, and successfully. It too was a numbing agent, but it also slowed the bodily functions until the body through which it coursed lay in some gray place between death and life. To anyone who didn’t know what details they were looking for, the person she was trying to save would be considered dead. Only she would know the difference.

She had wanted to save William in this way. It had been her first intention from the off. But she knew she wasn’t strong enough to lift and transport him on her own while he was unconscious. The trouble was that she hadn’t known anyone of whom she was certain their help would come without a line attached, or that they would even assist her to begin with, as opposed to bringing her before some elven council for remedial actions. She would risk the sanctions of humans and their law enforcers, but elves were another beast entirely. She wouldn’t admit to being terrified of magic, theirs in particular, but she couldn’t hide from herself that she was, and she still valued her own safety more than William’s right, in her mind, to live.

But Brenton had calmed, Isrydia was miserable, and Arlyn and William were just as unhappy as she was, even if she showed only a determined face. If she could attain even just Isrydia’s help—and surely Arlyn would assist as well—she might be able to save him. And Brenton’s kind words, some of the first she considered genuine as opposed to infatuated, brought her a modicum of confidence. He would back her if he could.

Rella dipped thumb and forefinger into the third section of the pouch, and as she wiped the clear solution over each side of her two blades she calmly explained to William, ”This is made to help numb the injuries it brings.” She hated that she would have to harm him at all—but in the likelihood of an inspection by other elves she had to give him some injury just grievous enough to have plausibly caused the death that they were supposed to believe had befallen him.

Rella strode to stand before the condemned soldier, transferred the knife from her right hand to her left so one hand was free, and grabbed him by the back of the head to pull him down just enough that she could whisper in his ear the only thing she could to encourage him not to hurt her instinctively while still putting on a good fight for any unseen spectators. ”Please trust me.” She released him, stepping back, hoping the brief interaction had looked like a cursory apology and farewell, and prayed to any listening gods that he wouldn’t cut her by accident. Once Rella started to bleed, she tended not to stop.

Rella’s heart began to ricochet, preparing her for the careful fight ahead, and returned the dagger to her right hand. Her waist-length hair was tied back in a careless but efficient braid, and her tunic gave her plenty of space to move. There was still the chance that she could kill him and keep him alive. The question was who would step forward to begin the fight first. He deserved the right to initiate the attack, so she gave him the opportunity.

[Nandon]

William grunted as she pulled his head down with surprising strength, That strange attraction returned before he immediately pushed it aside with the single thought that she was another mans wife, And thus Forbidden.

He listened extremely carefully as she whispered to him and then sighed, Screw it. “I trust you.” He muttered, He had placed his trust in people he had known for only a few moment before he placed his trust in them, So placing his trust in Rella, Who he had spoken with several times over the past several days was no problem.

He slowly tried to circle around to one of her sides as they stood ready for battle, With the intention of circling her around to a spot which the sun would glare at, Forcing her into a disadvantage, As he circled though he Absent mindedly brought a single finger down across the blade of the sword, And whispered the only piece of magic that he knew, That which would dull the blade of his sword. In fact? It wasn’t even a whisper, it was more of a mumble, None would most likely be able to hear what he had said, Even with Elvish hearing.

He would not harm this woman, That much he would make sure of, At least to the point where she would bleed out.

William himself was clad in very little, Certainly not the chain mail and plate he was used to. No, He was glad in the exact same garments he had worn when he had left all those months before, Now washed and patched of course, The elves had tried to offer him some of there own clothes, But he had declined. If he was to die, He would do it as a human through and through.

[Quetzal]

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Isrydia was surprised by how weakened Brenton was. It wasn't often she saw him in this state, though she had seen it far more than others. His words to Rella were genuine, she could tell. What he told her wasn't something she understood. Tapping into an internal store of energy as he described was precisely what magic did normally. Admittedly her education in magic had been a short one, since before she had been a Rider she had, like most humans, been completely incapable of using magic. Nonetheless she had learned an awful lot, and a good portion of her months spent in Ellesmera had been used for studying magic. That was where she had started learning the Ancient Language, something she still could do with improving on. "Magic does that normally, it's why you feel weak after using it. So what, did you use all of it at the same time in a big surge? That would explain why you're so tired. But why did you do it now?" she asked. Unless it had been out of Brenton's control, she failed to see why he would choose to waste so much energy being stronger when he really did not need to be.

Arlyn nudged Brenton, looking at him curiously. He looked like he was all right, but the dragon was concerned for him all the same. Finally as the fight looked like it was about to begin, he looked away again. He had only seen William training with Isrydia a couple of times, but in her mind the sight was immensely familiar. She recognised all those movements and tricks. The young dragon thought it did seem a bit similar to how Isrydia moved. There was definitely something he recognised there. That was only to be expected, he supposed, since William was the first person to properly train Isrydia in sword fighting. She'd had some instruction from her younger brother, but he hadn't been trained himself so it was all a bit sketchy before the knight had taught her. Those had been the foundations she'd built her own fighting style on, so of course there would be similarities.

"I can't believe this is happening. It doesn't seem real. Knights don't have a long life expectancy, but William was a good one. He could live to be an old veteran hero if he hadn't gone up north," she said to Brenton and Arlyn.

[Harbor]

Rella rolled the daggers around each of her wrists, experimentally, as if she hadn’t done it a thousand times before. It was her means of checking the weight and balance of smaller weapons, but these were her own and she could lay the tooth of a pin against each dagger’s center of gravity without hesitation.

She could feel her heart as though it was beginning to swell inside her chest. Her stomach felt like an empty wine cask, but her limbs were full of the energy the best spiced wine could give. Watching William closely, she pretended she didn’t know what he was doing and let him creep around her side, putting her shadow behind her. She tilted one of her blades in her hand, finding its reflection on his tunic, and bringing it up toward his eyes, hoping it would at least put spots in his vision if he wasn’t fool enough to look at it directly. Chances were he was smarter than that, but how well did she know him really? A few scattered conversations between two lonely humans surrounded by a race of higher beings, better equipped for seemingly every aspect of the world that humans wanted to believe belonged to them too.

William, ever the gentleman, was allowing her to advance, first, so having already done what she could to temporarily blind him, she dove forward and began.

Rella knew she’d have to finish this fight as fast as possible—William had more stamina than she did, but she likely had more speed in small quarters like this. Besides the shorter fight keeping her in her best form for as long as it did last, it was simply kinder to him not to extend what he thought was the cusp of the end of his life. In a way it still was, but she wouldn’t be the one to end a morally—if not physically—innocent man in front of his friends. At a young age she’d promised not to be one of the people who took good men out of the world while allowing bad men to stay in it. Now was a bad time to forget that promise.

So Rella plunged forward, slashing toward his abdomen in the hopes of leaving a shallow scratch, just enough to numb the important, wide muscles there, and ducked so she could roll underneath the arm she expected him to raise and swing, and uncurling to her feet behind him, unless he’d managed to turn that swiftly. She struck again, aiming this time for the muscles over his shoulder blades.

[Nandon]

William brought up a shield as she slashed at his Abdomen, But instead of staying in a single position he plunged forward right as she rolled, Which caused her to miss the swing at his shoulder blades/Back, Once he realized he had missed his goal, Which was to smack her in the face with the shield, He quickly turned to face her once again, Though he didnt Initiate the attack, He was learning her fighting style first.

[Harbor]

Rella nearly cursed. He was faster than she’d expected him to be. Bulk and strength she could exploit and avoid, but flexibility and speed were more wily. They required more skill than she may have to offer. But hopefully William was still averse to killing her, so all else failed Brenton would have to step in, but then how would she save the knight? So used to other people fouling her plans, Rella hadn’t bothered to include anyone but herself in this one.

She spun again, striking far to his right in the hopes of forcing him to extend either his shield arm or sword arm in such a way that she could at least shallowly gash one of them. Within the second she also lashed out with a foot toward his knee, fully intending to kick again immediately after if the first strike was shoved aside. She kept as close to him as she felt she could without inviting him to batter at her with the shield—swords got uncomfortable in the wielder’s hand when they tried to fight off someone who stood too close for them to be able to maneuver effectively.

[Nandon]

William knew well not to use a sword for fighting in close combat, But thats why he always loved his shield, One time he had been disarmed of his sword, And in that moment he turned what had been a purely defensive piece into a offensive hammer.

William then stumbled as he caught the kick to the knee, And then a strange thing happened, His shield slipped for a moment, Not enough to leave open a gap but enough that if she chose to roll past him he may be to preoccupied with his shield.

I cannot hurt her.