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.

Maya bounced back to her feet, breathing hard, bolts of flame lashing toward him. Tanax blocked and kept running, and Maya pounded after. Space boiled in his wake, ripples and twists of impossible geometry floating around her like dandelion seeds, then falling inward. Intercepting them took more and more of her attention, and Tanax got farther and farther ahead, darting through the maze of pillars.

He knows I can take him blade to blade. She wanted to scream with frustration. This isn’t going to work. Her legs already felt leaden, and she wasn’t going to be able to run him down, not with his power lashing at her from every direction. Sooner or later, he’ll get through, and—

She cut off that thought, abruptly, and came to a halt in the shadow of a pillar. Tanax paused as well, keeping a safe distance and concentrating on the threads of deiat that boiled all around him. Maya’s defenses retreated closer and closer, a shell of flame that contracted by the moment.

She raised her free hand and drew hard on her connection to deiat. Diverting power meant her defense weakened even faster, but she persisted, gathering energy for a single, colossal blow. She saw Tanax frown, and his attack slowed as he gathered power to counter. She imagined his confusion—an attack like this was wasteful, easy to see coming, trivial to deflect. She raised her hand, and a shield already shimmered in front of him.

Grinning savagely, Maya turned, shifting her aim. The energy she’d gathered lanced out as a single coherent beam of light, the backwash strong enough to kick the sand at her feet into a raging cyclone. It blasted across the arena, missed Tanax by a meter, and impacted on the stone pillar behind him. As the light faded, a thunderclap rolled out in its wake.

Tanax raised his haken, hesitated. Looked up.