“Does it have to end this way?”
The man unclasped the sword from his hip. Holding its sheath in his hand, he drew the blade in the air before him. Dropping the sheath, he used his foot to push it away, across the floor, before stooping low into his battle stance.
“Was there ever any other choice for us?” His words were heavy with emotion. His eyes wavered as his conviction faltered as she stepped closer to him.
“We can still try!” An indecipherable set of runes formed on the floor in front of her. They began to emit a blinding light before they expelled a sword, hilt first, from the ground. The woman caught it, weighing it in her hand as she flickered it in front of her experimentally.
“To my world, you’re the enemy. The one thing standing in the way of our freedom. In your world, I am… How do we get to choose when the world has decided that only one of us should live?”
She dropped her sword to her side. Stepping over the fading runes as she raised her free hand to the ceiling. “To the world, freedom is whatever they make of it! Why is it that we are the blockages to freedom? Why must we broker their so-called freedom with our lives?”
“Because, if we don’t, they’ll create another set of people to do it for them!”
“And what if they do it anyway? What if I die and they just create another one to replace me? How will this fight be justified then?” The man lowered in blade as he averted his gaze. “Look. At. Me.”
He faced the wall to his left as he closed his eyes. Taking a deep breath, he raised his sword once more. “My family is at risk… The state had grown curious about the many delays of our clash and they took my siblings as prisoners. I have no choice…”
“You’re right. Your family is at risk. Whether you win or lose.” His eyes snapped open at her words. He shifted his eyes slowly to her as she formed an image in the sky next to her. “This is our daughter.”
“Impossible…” His sword fell from his hands as he stepped closer to her. “You were never pregnant… how…”
The woman smiled warmly at him, her sword falling to the floor. “I knew that this day would be upon us, so I used magic to birth her sooner.”
He shook his head in amazement as he stared at the picture of his swaddled daughter. “She’s just as beautiful as you are…” He stopped just short of her, his hand raising towards the picture. She smiled at him, raising her hand to meet his. Just as their fingers were about to touch, he jumped back. Scattering backwards, he retrieved his sword and retook his battle stance. His face contorted into an ugly grimace as the weapon trembled in his hands.
“Why…?”
“I… I have no choice.” He grunted through shaky breaths and he darted towards her with venomous intent. The woman scrambled backwards, leaning just in time for the blade to pass dangerously close to her nose. Letting her body topple over, she planted her hands on the floor and used his chest as a springboard. He grunted as he was forced to take a few steps away from her, but caught his balance quickly and charged again.
The runes appeared on the floor once more, though the strange symbols were decisively different. A round shield sprung from the earth, catching his heavy strike. The shield was propelled towards the woman who caught it smoothly. Pressing her advantage, she ducked low. His sword battered the shield from above and sank her closer to the floor. The moment the weight from his attack lessened, she jumped upward. The sword was chased by the shield this time.
As soon as she heard the shield connect with the retreating blade, she let it go. Twisting her body along the falling shield, she grabbed his wrist with her leading hand before slamming her fight into the front of his elbow. His sword fell to the floor, milliseconds after the shield. Before she could release his wrist, she quickly followed the two. Shocked at her sudden predicament, she reclasped her hand around his wrist. He too followed her to the floor.
She grunted as his heavy, armoured frame slammed into her. She felt his recover quickly and tried to roll away. He had shifted too quickly and his knee was pressed firmly into her stomach. She groaned as she reached out to her side, her vision wavering from the impact of her skull to the floor.
The man fumbled to grab his sword as he hadn’t realized his hand was broken. He shot a glance at her pawing at the ground to either side of her and decided that he had time to use his right hand. Reaching across his body, he pried the sword from the floor, pushing the shield further and pulled himself upright. Shifting his knee to the floor at her side, he sat back to straddle her. He threw the sword into the air, letting it pivot so that the tip of the blade faced her exposed chest.
His lips were bloodied from his teeth and his eyes leaked tears freely. His hand trembled as they caught the hilt of the sword and he leaned back. “Do it!”
Instinctually, she chanted under her breath. Another amalgamation of runes formed in the air a few feet above him. From the light, a spear shot out and pierced through his armour easily. He could hear sounds coming from his mouth, but he couldn’t feel anything. He vaguely heard the clattering of his sword before the horrific sound of the woman crying beneath him.
She pulled herself from under him, crying desperately as his weight delayed her tremendously. “I can save you still!” She cried out as his heaviness grew steadily. His stubbornness forged deeply into his dying bones. She looked up at his tear-stained face, blood rare to find amongst the grim that accompanied the tears. His eyes were shifting, their light waning. She muttered a healing spell, but it failed to activate.
Her shock at the failure of her spell was momentary. She knew that he was sitting heavily on the base of where her mana was stored. That coupled with the fact that the spear she had unconsciously summoned negated any spells, she knew it was a futile endeavour. But how could she give up? She pulled his sword from under his right hand and slammed it into the floor to her left. Using the blade as leverage she pulled once again and felt her body slither from under him. Between his heavy armour and the spear pinning him to the floor, he had managed to force her into a position where she wouldn’t be able to heal him… He had planned this from the start…
“Why?” She cried as she freed herself. She forced his sword back into his hand before pulling the spear free. As he fell onto her, she threw the spear to the side. “Why?!” She forced magic into her words and his mouth moved despite the lack of life in his eyes.
“I was cursed by the head mage. I wasn’t allowed to speak the truth to you and, should we reach a certain distance from each other, my body would begin to attack you on its own.”
“Then why? Why didn’t you attack me from earlier?”
“It was easier to fight off the magic without the distraction of our daughter… Please take care of her. My kingdom has already killed my family for our relationship. Hold onto our daughter instead of anger. Raise her to be powerful but free from those who