Shaya looked into the princess’ quicksilver eyes and searched them for duplicity and deceit. The woman’s sharp, angular features betrayed none, and her thin lips even quirked into a smile as she watched Shaya scrutinize her.

I thought my time in The Blight made me a good judge of character, but... I might be out of my depth here. She seems serious though...

Maybe she really is the same stupid girl I saved years ago.

Shaya broke into laughter.

It rolled from her like thunder, her exhausted, stressed mind breaking like a dam. The madness of the situation drowned out the usual self-concious whispers that told her to be ashamed of how deep her voice was. She did her best to leverage everything she had learned about controlling her blood rage – but the surge of emotion was too much to keep in check in her state.

The princess’ expression shifted from amusement to curiosity, then to petulance. That only made Shaya laugh harder, snorting for breath, tears streaming from her eyes, and fresh pain lancing through her ribs.

The latter is what let her gain control of the fits.

“I’m sorry,” she said, dabbing at her eyes with a napkin, “but thank you, I didn’t realize just how much I needed to laugh.”

“Did I say something funny?” Theame asked, failing to keep the annoyance from her voice.

“Oh, no, I just have bad news for you,” Shaya said, taking a deep breath to rein in the last of her amusement, “the odds are against me. Even those closest to me don’t have faith that I’ll be able to beat him, let alone go so far as to humiliate him.”

The princess re-evaluated Shaya for a moment before continuing, “I have a small gift that I hope turns the tide, at least somewhat.”

She gestured and a long, wooden box appeared. Shaya didn’t sense any workings of aether, so she assumed Izual had been carrying it by the strap on both ends. The princess nodded to her and Shaya pried the box open.

“Unfortunately, I can’t offer much aid, lest people think you’ve only won due to my influence.”

Within the box was a longsword forged of mithrite.

Shaya gaped.

“This is a small gift!?”

“It’s nothing special, just something off-the-shelf,” Theame explained, “had I forged something fit for you, it would have been too obvious.”

Shaya gripped the sword’s hilt and frowned. It was sized for a normal human, her giant hand wrapped too far around it.

She’d need to change that.

If she took it.

“Relax,” Shaya said to the tense air, “I’m not going to use it against her.”

The tension didn’t leave.

“I can't accept this,” Shaya said, returning the sword and looking back to the princess, “I’m not going to be your cat’s-paw, Theame. I have enough enemies as it is, and joining with you sounds like that’ll get worse, not better.”

“It’s a gift, take it,” Theame waved, spearing into her salad, “And what makes you think you’re better off without me?”

“For starters, meeting with me suggests you don’t know as much as you think you do,” Shaya said, leaving the sword alone and turning her attention back to the feast before her.

“You mean I’m not the first to approach you about this, don’t you?”

“You’re the political mastermind,” Shaya said, slicing another hunk of tender, juicy beef, “you tell me who I’ve met with, I’m sure you have spies keeping tabs on all the minor players like me.”

“Shaya.” Theame’s eyes narrowed at her. “I’m not accustomed to being teased, especially by dear friends. Tell me who approached you about this. Now.”

Ah, there it is.

Shaya popped the meat into her mouth and leaned back in her chair, slowly chewing and watching Theame’s expression. She was impressed that it remained stony, despite the deliberate provocation.

She swallowed, reached for the chalice of wine, and sipped it. Swirled the tart, disgusting beverage in her mouth. Swallowed again, keeping a straight face all the while.

Theame’s expression didn’t change.

Fine. No need to agitate everyone, I suppose.

Titans take this viper’s nest anyway.

“The inquisition bribed me to throw the match,” Shaya set her chalice down.

“And you accepted?” Theame asked, surprised by the admission.

“Yes, and I’m still not convinced to reneg on the bargain. You’re connected, but you’re what? A year or two younger than me?” Shaya shook her head with a sigh. “You can’t even rival their offer – and I don’t think you could protect me if I went against them.”

“What did they offer you?”

“Saint Phaedra’s sword.”

“I see,” Theame stroked her chin and nodded, “you’re right about one thing, I can’t rival that offer. I have no jurisdiction over religious artefacts, especially given my... heretical flippancy.”

“I figured,” Shaya said, spearing the last of her beef, “but I do have a counter-proposal for you.”

“Oh?”

“I suspect Azreon is planning to murder me during the duel,” Shaya said and ate another forkful of food to let her words sink in, “given the bribery to throw the fight, I suspect whoever the referee is will be biased against me – especially if word reached them that I had been approached to reneg on my deal. I need you to swap the referee on the day of the duel by surprise, almost anyone else will do.”

“I can have the referee replaced by someone biased in your favour,” Theame tapped her chin, “that way you could humiliate him and we’d have a defense as to why you couldn’t throw the fight.”

“No, Theame,” Shaya sighed, realizing she’d come to a decision, “I’m throwing this fight. You’re spit out of luck, and that’s that. I’m not aggravating the inquisition, as much as my pride might demand it. I appreciate that we both want the same things, but we’re two young women against an empire run by people who have lived for centuries – even millennia in some cases.”

“So, you’re just going to give up?”

“No, I’m going to bide my time. Wait for a better opportunity, one I can achieve at my level,” Shaya snorted. “Hells, you’re actually immortal, maybe you should try it as well.”

“I didn’t think you of all people would advise caution and patience...”

“That’s because you don’t actually know me, Prince-”

“Thea-”

“Princess,” Shaya interrupted, “We’re not friends, not yet anyway. Maybe try approaching me for a basic conversation before pulling me into your schemes next time.”

“So be it,” Theame bowed her head in mock surrender, “I knew we should have been pen pals to cement this friendship in advance.”

“I may have liked that,” Shaya acknowledged, “given who you’ve become.”

“Delightful! Then, do we at least part as allies, if not friends?”

“No, Princess,” Shaya said, rising from her chair and slinging the long box over her shoulder, “I depart as your thankful pawn, and only hope I survive until we next dine.”

Shaya paused before she reached the door. “Hypothetically speaking, what would you have given me if I could actually humiliate Azreon?”

“Ah, there's the thief’s greed I was expecting.” Theame smiled. “Hypothetically speaking, I’d have offered you some protections against politics here. You may think me childish, but I’m quite the scholar... which has allowed me to forge connections within the Academy despite the fact that I will not be in attendance until next year.

“And I reckon I’m only a year younger than you, so don’t patronize me again.”

“As you wish, Princess.” Shaya said with a forced smile, but gears spun in her mind at Theame’s words.

+++++

The next day, Shaya found herself back at the artificial city block the professors had raised. It somehow managed to look worse than last time: several of the structures were on fire, others looked near to toppling, and plenty had already collapsed. Smoke blocked the sun and stung her eyes, even standing outside the perimeter, and the smell of burnt flesh assaulted her sensitive nose. The screaming and moaning of victims reverberated through the air.

Very few of them sounded human.

Rea really has something against demons... Shaya wondered ...and damn she can summon a lot of creatures.

“For today’s exam,” Bari said, gesturing behind her with a large, dark-clawed hand, “you will need to maneuver through the city and save what lives you can using what you’ve learned in class: battlefield triage and surgery supplemented by magic, physical enhancements to help you rescue people from rubble, and your wits and charisma.

“This is an open exam that encourages cooperation, but you must independently prove your skills sufficiently for the exam. Unlike other exams, you are not limited to the spells you learned in this class. Everyone brings something unique to the table – don’t squander it. Now go.”

Shaya’s eyes passed over Ren, shooting him a quick glare, then locked onto Una’s. The scrappy woman nodded and the two moved off into the city together while their peers hesitated or discussed the best approach to the situation. Yllaneth sounded like she was taking charge of a portion of the class to create a triage area, but before too long others had broken off in other small groups.

Only Ren was left to work alone.

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes buddy.

“Still haven’t forgiven him, huh?” Una said, watching Shaya’s expression.

Shaya finished her spell, feeling strength rush up through the earth and into her muscles. With it, she braced herself and carefully lifted part of a collapsed wall off a squawking demon that appeared mostly human – aside from their vulture-shaped head and the talons at the end of their broken legs.

“No, why would I?” Shaya grunted while holding up the wall.

“Oh, stop bitching,” Una said, anger flaring through Shaya until she realized the other woman was talking to the demon, “you’ll be fine, it’s just a pair of broken legs.”

Shaya felt a surge of Jade move through Una and into the wounded demon, the creature’s bright blue flesh re-knitting where bones jutted from it. Neither of them were skilled enough to heal actual broken bones, however, so Una’s spell only closed the flesh around the mangled parts to staunch the bleeding.

“I’m dyyyyiiiiiiiiiiiing!” The demon screeched.

“Shut up,” Una snapped, gently lifting the demon in her arms. “All clear.”

Shaya dropped the wall with a thunderous WHUMPH, drawing the attention of several students that were struggling to save their victims from rubble. It was going to be a long day and Shaya made a mental note to make sure she showed off her healing skills as well as her raw strength.

Rolling her shoulders, however, she moved to support others with that raw strength regardless.

“I think you should be nicer to them,” Shaya frowned at Una, “there were bonus marks for that in my Abjuration exam.”

“I’ll be nice to the ones that aren’t trying to waste my time,” Una snarled at the bird-demon in her arms, who flinched at her glare.

“So, have you forgiven Ren?”

“I don’t give a spit about his ‘infidelity’,” Una explained when they got to the next group of panicked students, “I was only in it for some fun. But I do hate that I was part of the reason someone else got hurt – that makes me feel like spit. And I hate it when I feel like spit.”

“That must not come up often – you always seem so confident,” Shaya joked, then pointed to part of a shaky wall threatening to crumble, “Can you scaffold that with extended wood? You're still better at the spell than me, at least for now.”

Una found some scrap wood and extended it until the building was braced and stable once again. “Done. And screw you, I bet you’re not half as confident as you seem.”

“Not even close,” Shaya said, crawling into the opening and pulling rubble out delicately; the whimpering growing louder as she cleared more of it out, “especially not with my duel coming up.”

“Shh, best not talk about our Lord and Master with his personal healer on standby.”

Panic surged through her at the thought of one of Azreon’s goons watching her crawl into a building about to collapse. She tried to focus on clearing additional rubble out of the way, but kept imagining the goon kicking the scaffold and collapsing the building on her.

A girl’s crying snapped her out of it. After moving one more block, Shaya could see a small girl pinned beneath the rubble. Her big eyes turned to her, full of tears, and her lips tried to form words, but only a whimper came out.

“You’re going to be okay,” Shaya said, heart hammering with a different panic at the sight of the child.

That doesn’t look like a demon! She thought, stressed mind racing. How did a kid get in here?!

“I found a kid! She doesn’t look demonic!” Shaya shouted back, then turned back to the girl, “I’m going to reach for you, can you try to reach for me too?”

The girl nodded and Shaya stretched her arm out. She couldn’t reach the child, still too far apart. But there was no mere rubble between them, just the weight of the house collapsing down, held up by some hefty blocks of stone. Shaya tried to inch along the tunnel to reach the girl, but her broad shoulders got stuck as she tried to move deeper.

I’m going to get trapped down here with her if I don’t be careful, there must be some other way to-

“Please, help me,” the girl whimpered.