Fuck. Maya was suddenly aware of her heart racing, the sweat pouring down her cheeks, soaking her shirt, trickling past the Thing between her breasts. Fuck fuck plaguing fuck.

Tanax’s voice was still inaudible over the roar of her own flames, but she caught the word he mouthed at her. “Yield.”

If my panoply isn’t working, it’s not an accident. Call off the duel now, and there was no guarantee she’d get another chance. Not when they’re willing to go this far. If she’d been less careful stopping Tanax’s attacks, she could easily have died already.

She fixed Tanax’s gaze and shook her head. Then, as his eyes widened, she charged.

He met her with a flurry of parries, blocking every strike, backing away.

“Maya, please,” he said over the crackle and buzz of their weapons. “You’ll get yourself killed. Yield.”

“You yield,” Maya snarled, slamming her haken down. Tanax retreated another step, found his back to a pillar, and hastily parried. Maya pressed down with all her weight, forcing the paired weapons toward his face.

“I can’t,” Tanax gasped. “Master Nicomidi … he told me …”

“I can guess.” Maya thrust her free hand toward his stomach, fire gathering around it to form a blazing gauntlet. Tanax spun a shield of twisting force just in time, and her blow slammed against it. They stayed there for a long moment, locked together, two streams of deiat thrashing against each other like roaring beasts.

“I can’t … go easy,” Tanax gasped. “If you don’t … yield … I have to …”

“Do what you fucking like,” Maya grunted.

Tanax swallowed. He reached out to the ground below them, and sand exploded upward in a gritty geyser that drove Maya back, letting him spin away. Half-blind, she wiped at her eyes even as she charged after him, relying on her sense of deiat to feel his assault. Tanax ran, darting between the pillars, launching attacks over his shoulder as she pounded doggedly after him.

Stay close. She forced herself to move, though all she wanted to do was turn away and find somewhere to hide. Keep on him. She’d never been so aware of her body, in all its horrible fragility, soft skin and brittle bones, a bag of guts and muscles that stood about as much chance against the raw power of creation as—

As that girl. Behind her eyes, the rebel charred once again into a lifeless skeleton, and Yora fell in two pieces. Plague plague plaguing fuck what in the name of the Chosen am I doing—

She missed a block and threw herself to the ground just in time. A wave of rippling space slashed over her head, impacting a pillar behind her, blasting a crater in solid rock. Tanax skidded to a halt in a spray of sand.

“Maya, please—” His voice was hoarse.