She squeezed him tightly. “Vir, I love youuuuu. Thank you so, so, soooo much! You can’t know what this means to me! I’m not supposed to charge orbs for like… a year! More even! This is insane! Just wait till Tanya sees!”
Vir laughed, awkwardly patting her back as he sat back up, though she refused to let him go. “Haha, t-thanks. I’m gonna have to take some time to process all this, but I think we just confirmed that Talents and magic work in exactly the same way. Oh, but keep the details of how this works to yourself, yeah? I, uh… I don’t think a lot of people know about this. Not even Tanya.”
“You’re incredible, Vir,” Maiya said, finally breaking her embrace so she could wipe the tears from her eyes. “How did you possibly figure all this out?”
“Hey, you were the one who had the realization about Talents working the same as orbs,” he replied with a wink. And he meant it. It wasn’t Maiya’s fault that her instructor didn’t know how to teach her. “From now on, try training near places with a lot of wind and water. And especially at night. I think you’ll have a much easier time of it.”
“Got it. Anything else?” she asked, looking at him with eyes full of wonder.
He ruffled her head. “Start with that for now. And be careful about how much you restrict your blood flow. Too much and it can be dangerous… Ask me how I know.”
While Maiya might have been excited, Vir was honestly relieved at her breakthrough. If they did end up separating in the future, he’d feel a lot better if Maiya knew how to hurl powerful spells in addition to her Kalari training.
Maiya suddenly frowned and looked away, her previous energy dissipating into thin air.
“I wish Mom and Dad could see this,” she said. “They’d be so proud. I miss them so much, Vir.”
“Well, why don’t we show them? In person.”
She turned to him, the faintest hint of hope in her eyes. “You think he’ll let us go back?”
“I’ve got a duel coming up with him,” Vir replied. “If I… perform well enough, I can’t think of a reason why he’d refuse. I wield Talents. You’ve made a breakthrough. That has to be enough to satisfy him.”
“Can you imagine how they’ll react when they see everything we can do?”
Vir only hoped things turned out as well as she hoped. A small whisper at the back of his mind said otherwise. A voice he did his best to ignore.
54DUEL ON THE DUNES
“If you want me at my best, we need to fight outside,” Vir said, staring down Riyan in the training dome.
The moment of their duel had finally arrived, and Vir fought to keep the jitters under control. He flicked a glance at Maiya, who nodded supportively. Neel and Tanya stood beside her. He had a lot riding on this one.
“Why?” his instructor asked.
“I have my reasons. I’d like to request you to fight me somewhere open. You pick the site.”
He hoped that in doing so, Riyan wouldn’t suspect him of foul play.
The big man stroked his beard, eyeing Vir up and down. “Very well. We ride for the oasis. Is this acceptable?”
“Very,” Vir replied, breathing a little easier.
Vir and Maiya mounted up on Bumpy, while Riyan and Tanya each rode their own Ash’vas. Neel nuzzled up against Vir before he left, as if wishing him good luck.
“Do you really think you’ll pass his test?” Maiya asked as they rode through the sand dunes. The morning sun was still low in the sky, leaving the temperature warm, but not yet oppressive.
“I have to.”
The upcoming duel was going to be a headache for Vir. He still couldn’t use Dance of the Shadow Demon. Neither Riyan nor Tanya had said a peep about it, which could only mean one thing—Tanya hadn’t seen him use that ability in the Godshollow. If she had, she’d have blabbed to Riyan, and he’d have jumped off the ceiling with joy. It wasn’t like he possessed that ability yet.
He hadn’t even told Maiya about it, though for different reasons. He didn’t even know if he could use the ability again. Bragging about a new ability would just kill the wind in her sails. She’d only just made a breakthrough in her mejai training. He didn’t want to sour her joy for an ability he hadn’t yet learned.
Which meant he really only had one secret weapon. To this day, Riyan still didn’t know about his explosive stamina growth. Vir had taken every precaution to hide that. He’d have to capitalize on the deception if he was going to win this.
“But why did you want to fight out in the desert? It’s only gonna get hotter, yeah? What’s wrong with the dome?” Maiya asked.
“I told you my Talents use prana, right? But Ash Affinity is incredibly rare. All the Ash prana’s almost depleted around Riyan’s place. Whatever’s left, I’m trying to keep for emergencies.”
He’d taken a gamble by letting Riyan pick the location. Luckily, the oasis was as good as any. He had scouted several locations to determine how many Talents he could use before the Ash prana in that area dried up, and the average was about a dozen combined Leaps and High Jumps.
“You don’t have to do this for me, Vir. You don’t have to win against him if it means messing up our chances for later. I’m not that selfish,” Maiya added.
“No, he won’t accept it unless I go all out. I fully intend to pass.”
Of course, it was easier said than done.
Riyan stopped at the bottom of a saddle between several sand dunes. Vir couldn’t even see the oasis from here, but they must have been close.
“Will this do?” his instructor asked as Vir pulled up alongside.
“It’ll do just fine,” Vir said, hopping off. “But there’s one condition I’d like to request.”
Riyan looked amused. He gestured with his chin for Vir to proceed.
“If I pass your test, I’d like you to grant us permission to visit Brij. In disguise, of course.”
“Acceptable,” Riyan said without hesitation. The reply came so quickly that Vir felt the man had already decided and was just waiting for Vir to ask.
The duel was now official. All of Vir’s worries about hiding his abilities melted away. He knew what he had to do. He just had to execute on it now.
Because failing meant Maiya would cry… and that was just simply not acceptable.
The two faced off in the valley of dunes, forty paces apart. Too far apart for a conventional duel… but warranted for a duel among Talent wielders.
For this fight, he had his usual katar, three chakrams looped around his neck, and a dozen smaller chakris worn as bracelets—six on each arm. Riyan wielded only his talwar, as usual. His steel talwar. Both had equipped actual weapons this time around.
Tanya stood in the middle. She looked at Riyan, who nodded. Then she turned to Vir, who nodded back.
The mejai walked several dozen paces off to the side to where Maiya stood and held up an orb, activating the spell within, causing an Icicle to shoot into the sky. The match was on.
Riyan was upon Vir in an instant, swinging with his talwar. Vir had to Leap away to avoid the blow, but the man pursued. He Leaped forward, closing the distance and striking again.
From the outset, Vir was forced onto the defensive, Leaping away when he could, dodging when he couldn’t, and desperately deflecting the ones he was unable to dodge. High Jump would send him high up in the air and momentarily out of Riyan’s reach. Though he didn’t dare use that Talent—his experience in the forest had shown him just how dangerous jumping into the air in the middle of a battle could be.
Again and again, Riyan forced him to Leap to safety, slowly depleting his most precious resource—Ash Affinity prana.
Vir focused on fending off Riyan’s strikes, but he’d lose at this rate, and soon. With nine Talent activations already wasted, he had two, possibly three usages left before the well ran dry.