Shark was bent to the ground while an enemy stood calmly before them, a blade of ice emerging from her left palm. Blood dripped from its sparkling length.

“Petunia,” Ariana breathed. So the day she’d always anticipated had finally come. Petunia was more grown up than she remembered, and it came as a shock despite how natural it was. It had been such a long time, she realized suddenly. Such a long time. A shock of tightly wound sky-blue curls formed a wispy bubble atop her head. She wore deep blue earrings shaped like tears with red swirls on them, small golden circles hanging from the bottom. They shook wildly when she turned her head in a sharp movement to look at Ariana as she approached.

Her younger sister gazed at her with mournful eyes. “Ariana.” She looked down to smooth her long purple dress and kick at the dirt with elegant, tall boots. “Um, you look well.”

Again, battle wasn’t time for idle chatter. “Stand back, Shark,” Ariana ordered coldly. “She’s mine.” If her sister had to die, it wasn’t going to be by anyone else’s hand. She’d take that responsibility for her choices.

Petunia’s eyes widened. “Why are you doing this?” she cried. “We were supposed to be bridges, you and I! We were living proof that mixed-bloods can have a strong sense of loyalty to their homeland! Did you really forget everything our parents taught us about what was right and wrong? About honor, defending Ghuria and our loved ones?”

Fat lot of good those ideals had done for anyone. “If you really believe that bullshit means anything, you’ve only got yourself to blame!” Ariana retorted as she flew forward.

Petunia seemed frozen but countered Ariana’s strike at the last second. “Please, we can talk this through!” She struggled not to buckle down against Ariana’s strength.

Ariana leaned into the attack with her shoulder to press with more weight so that Petunia wouldn’t be able to move quickly enough to strike her while she drove her fist into her jaw. The girl was sent sprawling to the ground, where Ariana bent to have the tip of her blade pricking her neck. “Don’t move.”

“Why…? Why did you betray us?! Why do you want to kill me so badly?” Petunia shuddered as tears overtook her. Strangely enough, she didn’t look afraid in the face of death. All that lingered was a deep sadness.

“I think you’ll be fine with dying while not knowing.” Since the deed had to be done and Petunia would die regardless given the Sacerians she would face as the war came to its close, the choice had been made. Better to have her die by familiar, comparatively merciful hands. The moment was here and now. All she had to do was flick her wrist, and it would be over. Even so, stillness overtook her.

The hesitation was enough of an opening. Petunia parted a slit on the right side of her dress, revealing a knife strapped to her thigh atop black stockings. While her magical blade met Ariana’s once more to bat it away, she drove the knife into Ariana’s foot, pinning her in place while she scrambled backwards and to her feet.

“You misunderstand me,” she said quietly, levelling her sword at Ariana’s chest. “I’m just as determined as you are. You’re coming back home, Ariana, even if I have to drag you kicking and screaming!”

Ariana laughed, a hollow sound. “Tell me, Petunia. Do you know why I left Ghuria?” She had to stall, think of how to turn the battle back around. Since the girl was so eager to talk, she’d take advantage of that.

“It doesn’t matter.”

“It’s because winners decide the history. Ghuria’s going to lose this war, and I’m going to be on the winning side. It’s a simple matter of self-preservation. If you had any sense, you’d walk away with me right now and follow my lead.” Ariana was holding her breath. Despite herself, there was a spark of hope within that Petunia would smile and go with her now.

“I’m a Ghurian through and through. I can’t change that, and I don’t want to.”

“Then there’s nothing more to say.” Her foot was useless. She’d have to win the battle while standing still.

“I understand.” Petunia moved in a flash, her sword aiming to sever Ariana’s right arm at the elbow. Just as Ariana moved to dive out of the way, ripping out the knife that pinned her foot from the ground in the process, a pillar of earth slammed into the side of Petunia’s head. As she stumbled from the impact, a second pillar emerged from her left side. Her head was trapped between them, and they advanced until her skull was crushed in a great gushing of pulp.

Ariana stared at the corpse as it crumpled down. So, just like that, her sister was dead. A great tide of emotion reared up in her chest, and an odd, strangled gasp sounded from somewhere. From her. It came from her.

As Shark approached and hoisted her onto their back, her knees hooked over their arms, she growled, “Why the fuck did you do that?”

They laughed. “Oh, come on. You didn’t honestly think I’d just sit there and watch you get maimed, did you?”

“She was mine. Did I or did I not tell you that clearly?”

“Yeah, yeah, so you’ve got some family issues. Don’t we all. The only thing that matters is that you’re okay.”

“That’s not true,” Ariana muttered. It was supposed to be her. That had been the only way to close the chapter on her past, to end any sort of regret she might have had. “It was supposed to…” She hit Shark’s back. “Let me down!”

In retaliation, they jumped up and down, flailing her about until she yelled at them to stop. “Just suck it up and let me help you.” Reluctant, she put her arms over their shoulders. “Besides, it’s not as if you really wanted to kill her.”

“What exactly about me brandishing a sword at her suggested that?” Ariana snapped.

“‘Cuz she'd have been dead and you wouldn’t have needed my help in the first place.”

“That’s…” Were they right? She’d let go of chances to kill Petunia and gotten herself hurt for it. She’d spoken, egging things on when she could have just kept her mouth shut. All of the resolve she’d believed herself to have in regards to cutting ties with her former life had vanished upon seeing her sister’s face. But staying in Ghuria had been a death sentence. There hadn’t been any choice. She had no other options.