The duel was fast and brutal.
She fought with fluid savagery, blades of bone moving like liquid. Kael parried, barely keeping up. Ashenfang leapt in, fangs meeting steel.
Eira tried to cast a binding glyph, but the woman countered with a scream that shattered glass.
"You think you can hold Vaelion?" she shouted. "He burned gods! He broke empires!"
Kael's blade flared. "I'm not Vaelion."
"No," she said, "but he is in you."
Their weapons clashed, sparks flying. The battle ended when Kael channeled the flame—not from rage, but resolve.
A burst of white-hot fire consumed her shadow.
And Kael stood alone.