I knew we had arrived when I realised that we were entirely lost. We’d been following one especially prominent crag, keeping it to our left, until suddenly it had been on our right for the past minute. The Hunter didn’t notice, and kept following it till she saw me.

“Shit.”, she looked back to try and find her bearings, but only managed to lose them further. “We’re lost.”

I shook my head. “It feels like that, but that’s just what they do.”

“What’s they?” she asked, right before a pixie landed on her nose.

“You’re very big,” it squeaked, and flipped off her and onto the ground, “and very tall.” The Hunter’s not-so-hidden knife was in her hands, on reflex. I stopped her, sending a flash of pain through my left shoulder. I used it too much of reflex, despite being right handed. “Saghir-among-the jinn sent me, she says you have something of mine.” The pixie, the size of a thumb and bright green, looked up at me quizically.

“Saghir sent you, daugher? She’d just as likely have you killed.”

“Extenuating circumstances. She’s not happy about it.” This pixie was named Fi, some extra information I’d gathered from Saghir.

“I’d imagine not.” the pixie said.

“You have something I need to get home. Propose a deal and I’ll consider it.” that was dangerous, the last time I’d entered a deal someone had died, but I didn’t have any other options. This was the longest I’d ever spent in this world.

“Hmmmmm.” the pixie made an exaggerated thinking expression, “No.” it said, and disappeared.

“Where did it go?” The Hunter said, still gripping her knife

“I don’t know,” I said, “What is your alignment?” I called out to the air.

“Go away!” the pixie called back, invisible. I took a step towards the voice and fell on my face. It had tied my shoelaces together. The Hunter brought the knife up, in reflex, and the blade slapped against her face like a wet noodle. Chittering erupted, all around me, as if from the stones themselves. The rest of the pixies made themselves visible, howling like pack animals. Fi, the smallest among them, was standing closest to us. I picked myself up and untied my laces. Pixies were the essence of mischief, I shouldn’t have expected anything else.

“Give me back my knife you bastards!” The Hunter said to the pixies, and their laughter got louder. It took two very awkward minutes before they calmed down.

Fi, tears streaking down its face, spoke then. “You big people are so easy to fool, Saghir told me you’d come and talk to us.”

“Good. then you know what we want.“

“Of course we do, loudbrain! You’re very oblivious. I am King of the pixies, I know all!”

Smaller pixies were more powerful, pixie hierarchy was based on how much mischief one could cause, the smaller the pixie, the easier it could sneak about. Saghir’s information. “We will help you with what you want, on one condition!” Fi squeaked, holding out a finger, “I am Fi, king of the fairies! And I demand tribute!”

Two hours later, The Hunter and I sat, finally alone for a moment, discussing exactly how we were going to fight each other. Fi had initially demanded a fight to the death, but we’d talked it down to a sparring bout, first to three hits.

“We should throw the fight.” The Hunter said, I’ll take one point then you go for three.” She was clever. We’d never fought properly before, in losing intentionally she wouldn’t give me the chance to read her.

“They’d know.” It wasn’t a lie, thankfully. The Hunter had an uncanny nack for knowing when I was lying. “It has to be legitimate.” She frowned, and went back to cutting strips out of her black coat for handwraps. She’d long since shed her body armour and hat, and looked more like a person every passing second. In just a shirt and trousers she looked almost human. She tossed me two strips. “Don’t hold back then.”

The pixies had picked out an platform that was heavily slanted, but otherwise flat, and surrounding it, jeering and chittering. Fi appeared in the middle, between us.

“The bout will, unfortunately, be to three strikes! After which, if you both remain alive, you shall be granted your information. Choose your weapons!” Two of the larger pixies, about a foot tall, lugged out a tray of weapons. They were metal, and looked like they’d been collected without regards to time period. We glanced at each other, trying to gauge what the other would pick. I chose something as non lethal as I could, a spear made out of solid jade, and broke the tip off on the edge of the platform. The Hunter pulled out a set of tonfa. Jodie had trained me on weapons once, tonfa were brutally painful, but unless you were specifically aiming to do damage, relatively safe. She held them in a defensive stance, the length of it covering her forearms.

“Begin!”

The Hunter came at me swinging, trying to get around my staff. I blocked two hits and struck, but my left shoulder caught on itself, and all I hit was air. She had gone down on one knee and I barely reacted before she hit me with and elbow strike, right to the fleshy part under my hip.

“One point!” shrieked Fi in glee, “Begin!”

I went first, this time, holding the stick like a blunted greatsword, keeping her at length. She had no trouble blocking each hit, but she couldn’t get in close either. We circled, till she had the high ground. I tried for her leg and she whipped a tonfa out and blocked it, stepping on the spear and jumping to bring the other down on me. I dodged to her weak side, the one she wasn’t hitting with, and punched her. It wasn’t a hard punch, or an emotional one, but I saw fire in her eyes.

“One point!” Fi materialised on my shoulder for a moment before disappearing once again. The Hunter glowered, and wasted no time coming for me in the next round. She favoured her left side, but did a good job at hiding it. She also followed a consistent pattern, keeping me at bay until I made a mistake and then closing the gap. If I was better with a spear I’d have significant advantage, but its size and requirement of both hands weighed me down. Without any magic, I was even worse off. I kept forgetting to account for my clavicle. I needed a different weapon. When she came at me, I let her. She drove me up to the edge before I started hitting back, putting some distance between the two of us. When I got my opening, after feinting a wide hit, I dropped down off the ledge, and cracked my staff in two. We were on the same level now. Metaphorically. Literally, she was five feet above me and I had no way of getting back up without exposing myself. Even the lower end was two feet over rocky ground, too much to jump. I would have help myself up and that was as good as giving her the point.

I circled the platform, followed by her, slowly, confidently. She dropped one tonfa and held it to match me, a blunt shortsword. I swiped at her legs to get her to move but she batted it away and hooked the other round my neck, pulling me in.

“Point.” she said, and backed away. I hopped up to the platform and set up again. She had the high ground, and weapons more suited to the style of fighting we’d devolved into. I needed to work on her right side, her weaker side. Unfortunately it was also my weaker side, and my arm was aching with pain now. We launched ourselves at each other at the same time, dancing around each other to the beat of stone on wood. When I fought Jodie she was always expressionless, her face was, at least. Her body language betrayed her, but even that was miniscule. It was a relief to see how much trouble I was causing this woman. I played it safe, careful not to give her an opening, working to bait her into a mistake, and it was working. I felt her strikes grow more powerful, but sloppier. I stopped blocking and started deflecting, forcing her to follow through, spinning her and me around her till one hit went wide and I had the height advantage. I turned, instantly onto the offensive, pushing her back, further and further towards the ledge. It was happening, I was beating her, down, i just had to-

No. I realised the moment I went for the last strike that she’d been faking it, and felt the jab of her tonfa in my gut before she even landed the hit.

“Three points!!” yelled Fi, barely able to keep itself together. The rest of the pixies erupted in cheers, all louder than they had any right to be for their size. They crowded her, reaching out to touch the woman like she was a priest, only quieting down on Fi’s orders.

“Kneel, warrior, and grant me a token of victory.” The Hunter glanced at me, and I shrugged. She got down to one knee and unwrapped one hand, handing it to Fi. It was as wide as Fi was tall, and at least twenty times as long, but Fi latched it around itself like a cape regardless.

“The thing you are searching for is beyond The Blight, into the ruins of the Mirror Kingdom.” It said to her, “Though it is upper controlled, and your guide once carried the lower taint. Be wary, warrior.”

I ignored the burning in my shoulder as to not give anything away to her, but she was as drawn as I was, breathing heavily despite the lack of air. We looked at each other and nodded. Both of us had the opportunity to kill the other during the fight, neither had taken it. When we set off, she felt less like a kidnapper and more like something that, if I ignored everything about our contexts, could be called an ally.