Hope

They left the room in silence. As soon as the door shut behind them Elizabeth immediately took off to the right, not speaking a word. Irwyn glanced at her not sure what to say. One step, two, three, five, ten… Then Elizabeth suddenly collapsed. Surprised, Irwyn’s mind was still fast enough to catch her halfway to the ground.

“Are you alright?” he immediately questioned realizing she was trembling. Her breathing turned ragged and all too fast, all the while her knees seemed to betray her as Irwyn barely managed to help her straight up straight again. For a few more seconds she remained mute before finally gathering her wits.

“Sorry… just shaken,” she sighed - slow and deep - calming down over the course of several more breaths, then shaking off Irwyn’s support. “I… it’s been a while since I spoke with my mother like that.”

“You held up well,” Irwyn encouraged looking at her sorry state. She had been full of bravado and contempt in the room, though it seemed that once the tension left the fear beneath surfaced.

“I should have still done better,” she sighed. “Also, my mother pulled a trick…”

“Freezing time,” Irwyn nodded.

“You noticed?” It was Elizabeth’s turn to be startled.

“Something went wrong with whatever the spell was,” Irwyn nodded. “I couldn’t move but I could still hear and somewhat see.”

“Really?” Elizabeth frowned. “A mistake like that is unlike my mother… Unless that was exactly her intent. She wanted you to hear our ‘private’ conversation firsthand to manipulate you in some way!”

“No, I don’t think so,” Irwyn shook his head. He remembered that moment quite well: He had been immediately overcome by the spell until it reached into the very core of his being, only there it was shattered by whatever Irwyn actually was. That had been no mistake or plot.

“You don’t know her like I do,” she shook her head. “It would be just like my mother to do that.”

“Even with your warning, I am quite certain it wasn’t her intention,” Irwyn shook his head again. Because when he focused on it he could still feel it in the distance: A Name.

“Fine, if you are sure,” Elizabeth sighed. “Just don’t forget: Everything my mother does is for a reason. And deep down all she does is for herself.”

“I will keep a clear head,” Irwyn nodded, though internally he was conflicted. How fair was Elizabeth actually being to the Duchess? Yes, Avys was beyond a shadow of a doubt a shrewd manipulator, immensely dangerous… but was she really as much of a threat to them specifically as Elizabeth seemed to think? Or as malicious and uncaring as was constantly implied? Emotions could affect judgment and this was blatantly quite close to Elizabeth’s heart with all the bias and bitterness that entailed... Irwyn did not voice his doubts.

“Perhaps a distraction is in order,” Irwyn opinioned. “You have promised me a bout, if I recall.”

“It is a bit early,” Elizabeth nodded, quite happy to change the topic. “But with the Lich war starting City Black is far less populated with competent Mages that usually occupy the various dueling grounds and training halls. We might be able to reschedule. This way.”

With that said she guided Irwyn through the infinite hall of the Voidways, never hesitating for a step. Wherever they were going it seemed actually quite ‘far’ away because they walked for several minutes. Another conversation did come up in the meantime.

“You did quite startle me back there,” Elizabeth said.

“With what?”

“Temzda,” Elizabeth said.

“Yes…” Irwyn nodded. He had nearly forgotten due to the other topics, though with the reminder his curiosity surged. “The blacker dot on the wall. Frankly, I have no idea why I said it or what it even means. It just… felt right I suppose. I might have been influenced by something.”

“Seriously?” Elizabeth stared at him incredulously for a few moments as if making sure he was not kidding. “Unbelievable,” she scoffed then.

“Please elaborate?” Irwyn suggested sheepishly.

“Temzda is a word originally from Umbra’s tongue,” Elizabeth sighed, then explained. “The mortal language lacks a direct translation. But in short, it is the Void’s equivalent of a Star. Or the opposite, depending on your point of view. Terms like Black hole or Depth sphere are sometimes used in translation, though many texts just leave the word untranslated.”

“There is such a thing?” Irwyn frowned and thought back… in fact, he had seen such in a vision. The one concerning demons. Now that he thought about it, the term ‘black hole’ had been used. Did that mean his dreams were translated to match his knowledge? Something to ponder later.

“Yes, though it is severely underused,” Elizabeth nodded. “Since they cannot be seen by anyone but the most adept Void delvers, our language lacks a one-word term, which makes translating it a mouthful. Infuriatingly, it’s not used even for elements!”

“What do you mean?”

“Why is it Star-fire but Void-flame?” she scoffed. “In fact, this is a mistranslation. More accurate than Voidflame would be Temzdaflame for equivalence... Except no one calls it that. And through general consensus across planes over the eons, it has become Voidflame in the mortal tongue. Infuriatingly so, as I said.”

“Fascinating,” Irwyn muttered. It had not occurred to him before but in hindsight it was kind of strange for his element to have Star in the name while Elizabeth’s was just more generic Void. He supposed he now had the answer before he had realized the question was worth asking.

“We are almost there,” at that point, Elizabeth shook her head and took a right turn, entering another hallway before quickly selecting a seemingly ordinary door to walk through. When they stepped inside they found themselves in a lobby area of some kind. With all the black esthetics as well as a receptionist whom Irwyn left for Elizabeth to talk to. Apparently, there was, in fact, a private dueling area available for them which the two quickly occupied.

“Now that I think about it, what happened to the hall we used in Abonisle?” Irwyn asked after they entered.

“Still in the city, where else?” Elizabeth sighed. “It’s a wonderful place but moving it is not easy. During a Lich war, I cannot reasonably occupy a Time mage of the caliber needed.”

“Then I assume this place has different safety measures,” Irwyn looked around the dueling ground. It was a very large but dull grey room with nothing besides a pedestal in the corner by the entrance.

“Yes, obviously,” Elizabeth nodded, approaching the pedestal. “The hall we used in Abonisle might have been superior but it was still a multi-use training room. This is a dedicated dueling ground. Catch,” she then grabbed something from the pedestal and threw it at Irwyn.

“This is?” Irwyn looked at the item: It was a black token with the heraldry of House Blackburg carved into it as well as the number ‘2’.

“A duelist’s insignia,” Elizabeth explained. “As long as you carry it on you, the arrays in this room will block any injuries and instead record them as to determine a victor.”

“How extravagant,” Irwyn nodded.

“You are still in City Black,” Elizabeth scoffed. “And this is no second-rate establishment. Dueling is a deep-rooted tradition in the Duchy of Black, it wouldn’t do for scions of nobility to cripple each other. It might not quite be a training hall that makes everyone inside borderline immortal but for dueling it is more than sufficient.”

“How much damage can this protection actually handle?” Irwyn asked.

“Far more than we can cause,” Elizabeth shrugged. “If it’s pushed to the limit, it can withstand the peak of Conception magic, though the two of us are nowhere near that.”

“Then let’s get to it,” Irwyn nodded, satisfied with the safety measures and quite eager.

“We still have one detail to figure out,” Elizabeth grinned, then moved her fingers across the pedestal. The grey room flickered and then… changed. Suddenly, they were standing on a grass field at twilight. The orange glow of the setting sun engulfing far away hills and the edges of thickets that Irwyn could see in the distance. A breeze passed his cheek and he realized he could actually smell the grass and flowers.

“Is this an illusion or were we teleported,” Irwyn tried to hold the surprise off of his face, instead analyzing. No, the pedestal was still there - not transported.

“Not exactly an illusion,” Elizabeth smiled. She was still standing by said pedestal. “The grass is real, so is the twilight, kind of. Temporarily creating magical matter and reproducing physical phenomena is not actually that expensive mana wise. Though the room is not actually any larger - you will see a black glow appearing when you are near one of the walls.”

“I have never even heard of anyone just creating grass,” Irwyn frowned. “Fair enough, I have gaps in my education but it should not be so easy.”

“Biological compounds have a big issue of being stupidly complex to replicate,” Elizabeth shrugged. “But they are not any more expensive to create than any other equivalent mass, and Finity makes them vanish just as quickly. Although the complexity makes plants and such wildly impractical for combat mages, enchantments can just record exactly what they want to create. Hence, basically real grass and flowers. Even trees and such with different settings.”

“Still seems like a lot of effort for nothing,” Irwyn shook his head, slightly flustered by the sheer luxury of creating landscapes at a whim.

“Dueling is a spectator sport Irwyn,” Elizabeth smiled. “We might have opted for privacy but there are options for recording or even life audiences. No one wants to see the settling of a generations-old grudge in a bland concrete hall. Nor the conclusions to rivalries without a scenery to underline the spectacle. Not to mention most fighters care about their surroundings, even subconsciously. In lesser establishments each room might have only one specific - and usually physical - setting but here we can choose any we want.”

“As fascinating as that may be…” Irwyn smiled, then walked towards the other end of the grass field. He wasn’t completely sure where the far wall was though he tried to estimate approximately three-quarters of the way there before he stopped. Elizabeth was already ready opposite from him when Irwyn turned. “What mark do we start on?”

“Wait for it,” she just grinned, then stood alert, which Irwyn mirrored.

Not ten seconds later, a large black circle appeared in the middle of the room. Then began to shrink at a visible rate. So much so that it would be gone in just a few seconds. Irwyn quickly understood the meaning and indeed, just as the circle reduced to a mere dot and vanished, a ring sounded. Both of them immediately chanted.

"Delve, seeker,

one step deeper

and in yourself find

Elvenkind"

“All I knew

coursing through

like a flood,

Empyrean blood”

The round began with self-enchantment on both sides. Irwyn shortened his long original chant - it was more important that it existed at all in his head than that he recited it in battle. No doubt, Elizabeth’s spell was similar. Once again, her eyes turned completely pitch black while her ears and nails sharpened, turning into a more elven form. Meanwhile, Irwyn felt his hair turn into a blazing golden mane while his blood ignited with Starfire, a brilliant mark burning in his heart.

“Stars scourge all”

“Void dragon’s blaze”

Irwyn followed up with a familiar spell, though stronger than before. A small swarm of hunting missiles of Starfire shot forward with the full force of 5 intentions that no longer strained Irwyn to the limit, therefore he could increase their numbers to several hundreds. Meanwhile, Elizabeth used a spell Irwyn had not seen before, literally spitting out a wave of black fire, no doubt Void Flame.

Frowning, Irwyn guided his missiles to travel around the spell, realizing the next moment that is exactly what Elizabeth had wanted as the wave did not even try to swerve towards them, instead heading straight for Irwyn. Not panicking, Irwyn immediately manifested a second five-intention barrier in front of him while simultaneously throwing a mass of Light magic towards it, similarly 5 intentioned, meant to mutually self-destruct. In anticipation of his Duel, all his barriers were changed to pure Flame: It was weaker than Starfire against most things but Void magic still countered that somewhat due to the component Light.

Irwyn realized his mistake when the wave of replica Dragonfire crushed through his wave of Light without so much as wavering or slowing down. Six intentions, he concluded quickly, surprised he had not felt it just moments before. Elizabeth had, after all, progressed rapidly after she had taken the so-called Ambrosia. In their last spars before Abonisle’s invasion she might not have used six-intention magic but clearly, she was quite capable of it, aiming to win with the opening attack.

Six-intention magic did, after all, have six times the mana a five-intention spell would, not to mention the advantage of the extra intention itself. Each step was taller than the last. Even with the advantage Light magic had over Voidflame, it was no longer enough. Elizabeth was betting Irwyn would be unable to stop her with his firepower.

Except… Irwyn smiled. Since he had consolidated after his latest vision, she was not the only one.

“Wave”

He shouted. There was no extra chant behind it. Not much weight to speak of. It still helped a decent chunk as he pushed every bit of mana that would fit into a new wave of Light magic, adding a sixth intention to the mix. The quantity was extraordinary given that he was basically overcharging the spell as far as it would go before completely saturating… for normal mages that is. Irwyn barely felt the expenditure of his Vessel. Normally, it would take him almost a second to manifest so much magic, but his Empyrean blood was created specifically to let him open the metaphorical floodgates, allowing him to cast the overcharged spell in a fraction of the time, immediately shooting it forward.

At the same time, he maintained firm control of the Stars scourge all missiles making them swerve back towards the Voidflame wave that had passed them. For all he had lost line of sight of Elizabeth, he had fought her many times… and she did favor certain tricks. There were only so many times Irwyn would be caught off guard by them. The wave of Light magic collided with the Void dragon’s blaze and shattered. Light and Void as anathema were mutually destructive… but Elizabeth’s spell had a blatantly stronger foundation than Irwyn’s wave whipped out at the last moment. It still clearly lost a good chunk of its power though, while Irwyn was already casting again the split second his mind was no longer occupied by the six-intention magic.

“Flame guard”

He manifested another barrier, covering himself from all directions, putting six intentions into it - even opted to go full defensive rather than spare one for visibility. That meant he was maintaining three layers of barriers at once, the new one appearing above the transparent shield he maintained every hour of the day. In the same move, he dismissed the emergency one he had created just earlier as he simply did not have any focus left to maintain it. With his earlier testing, he knew he could maintain about 13 five-intention spells, or just above five while he kept up a six-intention one due to his limited practice with it. The Stars scrourge all had, however, been expanded to several times the usual scales, making it take up the equivalent of more than two usual spells. That meant Irwyn was just about at his limit - he was still maintaining Unbreakable Starflesh after all.

For all the speed of his thoughts and planning, the physical distance was not that long anymore and the wave of Voidflame magic was quite fast. Less than a second after his new barrier appeared they collided. He was immediately engulfed by the black tide sweeping past him, surrounding every direction and trying to burn away his defenses… but finding them unyielding. From every side cracks appeared in the six-intention barrier - yet not fast enough the break it. Irwyn mended it before anything was allowed to slip through.

It became immediately apparent that they were at a stalemate. One that favored Irwyn greatly. Indeed, barriers consumed significantly more mana than equivalent offensive spells would but Irwyn’s Vessel was by every account monstrous. He had several times more mana at his disposal than Elizabeth did and she knew it. Therefore, she had no choice but to dismiss the replica Dragonfire. It was, after all, a six-intention spell. For all its power it must have consumed the vast majority of her focus, making her unable to cast many, if any, other significant spells. The moment Irwyn felt the tide loosening, he changed one of the intentions of his barrier to make it see-through and immediately physically dodged to the side - just in case.

“Pierce”

And as it turned out, Elizabeth was already standing right next to his barrier. In a moment like this, she did not have the time to spare for a fancy spell with a full chant, rather she chose to improvise a spell much like Irwyn had before, creating a simple lance of six-intention Void magic, immediately ramming it into the barrier. It was questionable whether Irwyn would have been able to dodge in time with his body, though he did not have to find out.

Although Elizabeth’s Elvenkind spell was powerful and enhanced her casting, it did not allow her to instantly overcharge even her most powerful spells. The lance of Void magic managed to just barely pass into Irwyn’s six-intention Flame barrier, getting jammed halfway through as Irwyn repaired it. When she then attempted to explode it the attack was easily blocked by the five-intention one Irwyn had layered beneath.

It was meant to Pierce after all, not explode. Chants were powerful but double-edged to an extent. If a spell tried to do something that was distinctly contrary to its incantation or name, it would be weakened instead. Elizabeth tried to gather her magic for another spell… but it was too late.

Irwyn had fought Elizabeth many times in their spars. She was infuriatingly good at using line of sight, hiding within her own spells to strike from unexpected angles. But after so many bouts Irwyn did realize that she also always used those opportunities when she could. Therefore, when he had seen that wave of Void dragon’s blaze surging towards him, he had made a prediction:

That Elizabeth would be running right behind it. And therefore, he had made arrangements for that. His Stars scourge all missiles had been manipulated to counter exactly that, following right behind. This meant that before Elizabeth could muster another spell, they already converged on her. From the surprise he could see on her face from this up close, far sooner than she had expected.

At that point, it was a foregone conclusion. Elizabeth’s barriers were not the strongest and the missiles were in the hundreds. There was not physically enough space for her to dodge, not nearly. Her defenses shattered instantly, pummeling her before she had any chance to react. Irwyn was preparing to attack with a quick six-intention spell but it turned out to be unnecessary.

A bright flash passed through the field, ripping Irwyn’s magic apart. Not just the missiles but even his barriers. They were not destroyed, for that implied the application of force. They were just… unmade.

For a split second Irwyn thought it had been some kind of last-ditch ace Elizabeth pulled from her sleeve… but then he realized that was not it as he noticed the Duelist insignia attached to her dress glowing with a black hue. A quick glance revealed that his was the same. In the middle of the room, a black number ‘2’ had appeared at some point, declaring the winner.

“Wow, you actually destroyed me,” Elizabeth seemed quite baffled. “Since when could you do six intentions?”

“Since yesterday,” Irwyn admitted. “Well, since the vision a few days ago, technically, but I needed privacy to figure that out before I dared try.”

“And you also completely read me,” she narrowed her eyes. “No way you would have surrounded me so fast otherwise.”

“You always try to trick me like that,” Irwyn grinned. “And when you do something every time it becomes much easier to predict.”

“Predictable…” Elizabeth muttered. Then grinned. “I will have to do better than that then.”

“Ready for another round then?” Irwyn was still smiling.

“A moment,” Elizabeth raised her hand, then grasped with it - a bottle of something appearing in it. She immediately chugged the liquid in one gulp, shuddering for a moment before taking a deep breath. “I need a few minutes to recover. How are you with your Vessel?”

“Just fine,” Irwyn nodded, glancing at the bottle before it disappeared. Some kind of liquid mana consumable. It would let Elizabeth recover her Vessel considerably faster. Such things were quite expensive, generally reserved for emergencies… for his budgeting sense. So probably a rounding error with whatever wealth Elizabeth operated on.

“The day is young, plenty of time to make up for the loss,” a smirk returned to her lips.