Anything other than total commitment would be an affront to her parents’ memory. Now that they were gone, she had to live up to their expectations. Had to. No matter what.
In that way, she shared the same tragedy with Vir, and their responses had been identical.
And tomorrow, for the first time, she would wield the full might of her magic in a duel against Vir. For the first time, they would learn which of them was more powerful. She looked forward to it.
Vir Danced past the whirling blades, and Maiya wished he’d seen Riyan’s jaw drop. She so desperately wanted to save that expression. She would have framed it.
And then, against the next obstacle, Vir did something unfathomable.
Maiya expected Vir to Dance again, sending him to the hanging ropes. Instead, he’d High Jumped…
“To the roof!” she exclaimed, her mouth agape. “Why would he do that?” Why didn’t he just Dance to the ropes—oh! Right. No shadows!
Maiya craned her neck to see what harebrained strategy her friend had cooked up this time. Armed with dual katars, Vir used High Jump’s momentum to anchor himself to the ceiling. Dangling fifty paces above, he then kicked his boots together, and Maiya saw two deadly blades extend from his toes.
Wrenching his body, Vir drove his boot blades into the ceiling. He resembled a spider, glued upside down to the clay dome.
“Is… is he crawling? Is he crawling on the ceiling?” Tanya exclaimed.
“It… would appear so,” Riyan said, stroking his beard.
Methodically, Vir crawled his way across the dome ceiling, bypassing the penultimate obstacle—the ropes—entirely.
“That was not what I intended,” Riyan muttered, speaking to himself. “But I cannot fault the result. Cunning. Very cunning.”
Her friend had just trivially cleared the course. He looked… “Invincible,” she whispered, a cold chill running down her spine. I’ll have to go all out against him tomorrow. Then, the unthinkable happened.
When Vir had finally crawled his way past the dangling ropes on the ceiling, he fell. And fell and fell.
Maiya’s eyes went wide in horror. “He’s going to die!”
Her legs were in motion well before her mind had caught up. She was running to him. To where he would fall. As if that’ll do him any good. Think, Maiya! Think! What can you do?
She hadn’t pre-charged any of her orbs. There wasn’t enough time to charge them before he fell.
Dread overcame her as the horrible truth dawned on her. There’s nothing I can do. Again. Just like Rudvik. Just like with my parents.
“Riyan!” she cried. But the man simply crossed his arms and stared at Vir as he fell. He made no motion to help her friend.
Maiya watched him fall for an eternity. As if time itself had slowed to a crawl.
“Uh, Maiya?”
“H-huh?” she replied, gawking at Vir, currently dusting off his black robe.
“What are you doing?”
“U-u-y-y-you fell.”
Vir cocked a brow at her. “I let go. Oh, right!” he said, snapping his fingers. “I learned Light Step recently. Took forever to figure out how to activate it at the last second right before I hit the ground. I, uh, might have forgotten to tell you.”
“Two minutes, twenty seconds. You pass,” Riyan said, but Maiya barely heard him.
She fell to her knees, staring blankly at the ceiling.
Oh Adinat? Oh Janak? Badrak, Vera, Yuma, and Chala? What did I ever do to deserve this?
When her gaze returned to Vir, it had warped into a scowl that clearly pierced the very depths of his soul, forcing him back in terror.
“Friend, just you wait till tomorrow. I am going to kill you.”
59TALENT VS ORB
The moment had finally arrived. The first and final full power duel that Vir and Maiya would ever have. Their first official duel, at least. The moment Maiya had gained a sliver of proficiency in magic, she’d challenged Vir to a fight. And she continued to challenge him as she got better and better, making duels between them rather commonplace.
But while the duel was exciting, it was what came after that put Vir on edge.
Tomorrow, in the dead of night, Vir and Maiya would finally make their escape. They’d both pleaded with Riyan—begged him even—to give them a hint about what he expected of them. Anything. But the man said nothing every time.
To say they owed him a debt was an understatement. He had saved their lives and developed them into the warriors they were today. They both wanted to do right by him. They wanted to help. But what if the man asked something unreasonable? What if he asked them to become criminals? To kill someone innocent?
The final straw was the man’s silence on the hunters in the Godshollow. Ever since then, neither Vir nor Maiya had slept well. Were they being monitored by some unseen force?
After many arguments and emotional turmoil, they’d decided to leave. They’d go into hiding where no one could find them. There, they could take their time to hone their skills. Once they’d grown strong enough, they’d contact Riyan and honor his favor, and only if it was a reasonable one.
Riyan might have guessed their intentions, but Vir felt it unlikely the man knew of their timing. They’d taken extra precaution to pretend like nothing was amiss.
They had contemplated leaving earlier, but Maiya found the duel too tempting to resist. She’d never managed to sneak out Tanya’s B Grade orbs for their mock duels, so this duel was of special interest for her.
Preparations had been made. Food, water, food for Bumpy, various odds and ends. All kept at their secret stash within the cave network to the south. The plan was a simple. Maiya would leave for the ‘spot’ with Neel first. Vir would then scrape up every last morsel of prana for one final Dance activation.
He’d use the shadows to sneak out to Bumpy. This way, Riyan wouldn’t suspect him of having left his room. He’d then pick up Maiya and Neel, and they’d head for Saran where they’d seek jobs to raise funds for ocean passage to the Rani Queendom.
Maiya had considered stealing Tanya’s orbs—they would each fetch a small fortune—but decided against it. Riyan would no doubt pursue them. They didn’t want to give Tanya any reason to, as well. Maiya had even written up a note for her, hoping she’d understand their plight and not pursue them. Even then, there were no guarantees, but they’d done everything they could. The rest was up to Badrak’s whims.
Vir faced off against Maiya in a valley of large dunes near the oasis—at the same spot they’d dueled each other repeatedly. Which meant the prana here was all but exhausted. Barely enough for a single invocation of Dance of the Shadow Demon.
While Vir’s prana efficiency had more than tripled, there was only so much he could do with such a limited amount of prana.
It was a concession he’d made to Maiya. She got to pick the location of the duel, and she could pre-charge her orbs. She was smart to choose this place.
In return, Vir could use the full might of all his Talents. Except the ones he didn’t want Riyan knowing about, of course. He had to have something up his sleeve if he ended up having to fight the man. Though even with Maiya’s magic, their chances of beating the Ghost of Godshollow were nearly nonexistent. They had to escape without a confrontation.