The Duel

Two cloaked figures stare at each other across a small valley. They steel their nerves and grip their weapons knowing one of them will soon be dead.

*

“DAAAD!! MOOOM!! I DID IT! I TOUCHED THE SOURCE!!” a child ran frantically down the wooden stairs of his family’s home.

“Source? What source?” his father inquired happily, adjusting the myriad of inks, papers, and other scrivener’s paraphernalia, inside his suitcase as he readies himself to leave for the day.

“THE SOURCE! DAD! I DID IT DAD! THEEEE THE SOURCE!” the small child yelled excitedly. “MOOOM!!” he yelled into the adjacent room, the pub his family owns and his mother runs. “MANA DAD! I TOUCHED MANAAAA!!!!”

A medium set woman with golden hair in a worker’s bun and similarly functional clothes pushed her way into the room with her back while balancing a stack of mugs half her size.

“You’ve touched what now darling?” she moved in one continuous and smooth motion as she slides into the room, deposits her large stack in its storage place, and instantly, without the smallest pause, grabs a wet wine glass and a rag to dry and polish it.

“...Mana… mom…MANA! I TOUCHED MANAAA!!!” the boy seemed ready to explode as if his increasing excitement was a physical thing, a physical entity filling his body to near bursting.

His dad laughed gently, his mom smiled with humour, enjoying it as the silly fabrications of children. A smaller child silently walked down the wooden stairs, holding a stuffed toy.

“Now Talim, son, are you sure that was mana you touched?” asked the father politely. He cleaned his spectacles and replaced the rag neatly in its pocket, adjusting his shirt. 

“You don’t believe me?” the boy challenged. He knew they mean no mockery or malice with their questions. He expected it.

“Son… it’s not that we think you’re lying… it’s just…” the man scratched his thinning brown hair trying to find the right words before his wife jumped in.

“It’s just that it’s fairly rare for anyone so young. The youngest anyone our town, or any town’s around for that matter, have ever heard of was Khyl. Both of his parents were adept at magic. He started walking before he was a year old. And he was 12 the first time he touched magic.” she talked gently, caringly, but her voice also carried a factual tone. She dried and polished wine glasses so quickly and efficiently it was hard to tell she was barely paying them any mind at all.

“Son…” the father leaned down and adjusted his pants, more intended and designed for use behind a desk than to play with children “We know you’ve wanted to be a magician-”

“Mage!” his son cut him off with a theatrically annoyed sigh and eye roll “Magician is what Old Man Grey does at Mom’s pub to win coins off of you dad!” the child smiled.

“Yes yes! Mage!” his father laughed “Anyways! We know you’ve wanted to be a MAGE...” the man comically emphasized the word to everyone’s amusement. “...as far as you’ve wanted to be anything. But you’re only 8, Talim. There’s no rush boy. We all trust you’ll be a great mage some day.” his father smiled lovingly and looks at his child. He was so very proud of them. They’ve worked so hard, for so long, while so young. He had no doubt they’d be a great mage… some day.

The boy smiled and, looking at his father straight in his eyes, held his palms slightly apart between them. He closed his eyes and remembered the feeling. 

Like reaching out. Not with your hands, but with a feeling that exists right outside of your body. 

Like a ghostly, ethereal, layer of you adjacent to your own skin. Something amorphous, that can be reshaped into little tentacles or hooks of a nothing that is also you, reaching out into something that is both there and not.

Like learning to control a completely different body part you never knew you had. Slowly. Awkwardly. 

The boy was sweating in his focus… just a little more… reach out… touch it…

And then there it was. Something else. Mana. As soon as he touches it it draws into him. And he drinks it. It lasted only the briefest moment, the connection broke almost instantly, too unstable, but it was stronger than anything he’d ever felt before.

When he opened his eyes the world was silent. A glass laid shattered on the floor. His parents stared at him with wide, unblinking, eyes. It was only for a sliver of a moment. A faint spark of something barely there. The tiniest warp in the fabric of reality. But they saw it. 

They saw the boy touch the fabric of magic.

“...The night’s mercy Marcille… The boy can do it…”

Talim smiled the biggest smile he ever had. The world seemed to slow a little. He saw happy tears in his parent’s eyes. He saw his little sister smile, then look worried. 

The world started getting fuzzy. Blurry.

Everything grew darker, his legs started to give as strength left his body. Touching mana took a lot out of him the first time. Maybe he shouldn’t have tried to do it again so quickly. 

He could feel his father’s arms holding him, even as he stopped feeling almost anything at all.

He could hear his sister crying, his family talking. He could understand little bits and pieces.

“...it’s ok Tulli…” was that Mom?

“...-ust exhaus-…” dad?

“...to his ro-...” dad…?

His world went dark, but Talim would never forget that day.

*

The two mages walk towards each other. A man’s hand strikes out from under a cloak pointing a wooden staff with intricate carvings at his opponent. Two feminine hands, one of them holding a ceremonial dagger, throw the other mage’s cloak open and aim at her opponent.

Lightning tears through the sky. 

*

“You’re gonna be late again Tulli!” admonished the big brother.

“Sorry! It’s fine! I’m ready! Waaaaiiit!” the girl came running down the stairs, still shoving books in her bag.

“I’m not even supposed to be here… Late night again?” the brother absent mindedly grabbed Tulli’s wallet from the usual mess and tossed it towards his sister, who grabbed it mid air and shoved it in her bag with the expert precision of someone used to being under the pressure of time.

“Thanks Tal. And nobody cares that you’re in the girl’s dorm… You’re not the only one. And everyone knows you’re my brother anyways.” Tulli smiled and tied her long black hair in one smooth motion as they both crossed the dorm room’s door, leaving Talim to close the door behind them. “Besides… I think Alice likes you…” Tulli pretended to flutter her eyelashes and pucker her lips in an obviously exaggerated motion.

Talim just sighed and shook his head as they both fast walked down the school halls. 

“You can’t keep staying up all night Tul… Party?” 

“Yes! It was the best!” 

“Liar. Only party last night was Balan’s… and I was there.”

Tulli smiled sheepishly. 

“You got me?”

Both siblings leaped over a railing to cut through a corner, causing someone to shout at them for a moment. They ignored it.

“Tulli… You might be the only person I know this applies to but… You don’t need to study that much. You’re already the best in your class. The best in your year. It’s ok to relax a little.”

“I’m not as good as you though.”

No one else would have noticed it, but Talim saw her smile, her permanent, never ending, smile, falter for only the briefest moment and he stopped, causing her to halt as well, their hurries temporarily forgotten.

Talim’s biggest fear had always been to not be good enough. To not live up to the idea of the genius mage everyone had grown to see him as. Or worse. To come face to face with the limitations of his own power in an hour of need. To find out, only too late, that he was not good enough, and for his failure to cost the lives of those he cared for.

His second biggest fear was for his sister to never get out of his shadow. To never acknowledge herself and how great she was, because her brother was… “gifted”... He had grown to hate the word.

“Tulli… Don’t… Don’t compare your-”

“Why not?” she cut him off. Still smiling. But Talim could recognise the faintest hint of anger and defiance. “Everyone says the same thing. ‘Don’t compare yourself to your brother dear! You’re great too!’” she said with a mocking tone “I’ve heard it all before Tal. But why not? Has anyone ever considered that when you say that, what you’re really saying is ‘Don’t bother! You’ll never be as good as he is!’...”

“Tul, that’s not… That’s…” He looked around awkwardly, hoping not to be making a scene, and realised they were alone.

“That’s EXACTLY what it is, brother!” her smile, for once, faded. Instantly. Like a dam that finally cracked under the immeasurable pressure of one too many drops of water. Tears began forming at the corner of her eyes, the physical manifestation of her emotions leaking through. “Every time… All of you… Have you noticed that no one says I can’t compare myself to anyone else? I’m the best in my class and year, you just said? You don’t mind comparing me then uh? Just not to you. The boy genius. The virtuoso of our little side of the world. Don’t bother comparing to him! Cause I’ll never be as good as you.”

They stared at each other in silence. Tulli waiting for a retort, and Talim refusing to present the brutality of his honest reply: No Tulli. You’ll never catch up to me. No one will. No one can.

For a few moments they hung in a stasis, silent and immobile, like statues in the courtyard they found themselves traversing. Tulli brushed the tears from her eyes, replacing them with fresh ones.

“Did… Did anyone ever consider that I’m not just trying to beat you…?” For the first time since he remembered, his brother saw sadness in her eyes. “You’re all soo certain you know what I’m thinking… Did anyone… Did YOU, brother, ever think that… I just love magic too? That I’m not trying to be better because… of… sibling rivalry…” she scoffed “...but because I grew up watching the incredible things you could do… How you could manipulate the world in all of these amazing ways… And I want to do it too… I want to do it too!”

Silence.

For a moment, Talim Algrant, pride of Deligrah, considered everyone might have failed his sister. He had failed his sister. And she had taken it all in stride. 

“I just want to do more Tali… I don’t care if I never beat you… Not really…” Tulli softened a little, some of her built up anger and sadness now spent. “But Tal, even if I never beat you, I need to go to my grave knowing I did everything, everything, Tali, to reach as far as I can go…” 

She stared at him, and in her eyes he saw the fierce passion of a burning sun. This wasn’t the petulant mood of a child, but the fierce determination of someone whose life goal has long since been found and set. When had his little sister, born only 14 summers before, become this wise? 

Talim walked up and hugged her.

“I’m sorry Tul.” 

“It’s ok Tal.”

“Sleep a bit more though. You’ll learn more that way. Promise. Ok?”

“Ok.”

He hugged her for moments that felt like days, until she gently poked him on the side.

“Tal, we’re going to be late. And I’m gonna blame you.”

They both smiled slightly embarrassed.

“Fine. This one’s on me. Now let’s go.”

*

As the female mage posturs for another massive strike, her opponent locks himself in a defensive shield, only for her to reveal her feint and use the small pause to heal some of her wounds with a spell. Her opponent immediately drops his shield and focuses, trying to counter her next spell, but she had done the same, expecting a retaliatory strike, leading to a standstill. Injured and tired, but far from defeated, they both wait and consider their next move.

*

“So I hear congratulations are in order then?” Tulli smiled as she prodded her brother in his study.

“Well, you know, it is hard being this amazing!” Talim replied, words dripping with sarcastic modesty “But, you know, I do my best to bear this curse of greatness!” He spun around to face her with an exaggerated flourish of high nobility.

“And humble too! The ladies must be going wild!”

“So I hear! Wildly going somewhere else at least! I mean… Like fishing in the desert here!”

“Oh? Not what Alice said happened at that last paaaartyyyy…” she mouthed the words with great emphasis on puckering her lips, like a fish out of water, and rolled her eyes in mockery.

“...Shut up! You didn’t hear that! Forget that! Memory wipe spell!” he waved his hands and fingers around nonsensically while furrowing his brow.

They laughed at each other until their stomachs hurt and their eyes watered.

“...Ah, but actually, congratulations Tali. A new spell uh?”

“ACTUALLY…” he said, pretending to push up glasses he didn’t have in obvious mimicry of a common tutor “...Not really a spell! Or kinda? But not really. But yes. Thank you Tul. It’s really not that special though.” 

She smiled and gave him her best “come on now” look. 

He answered with his finest “no, really” shrug.

“Trust The Pride of Deligrah to call inventing a completely new type of spell that had even the headmasters running around for weeks ‘not that special though’”

“Really Tulli. It really isn’t that impressive.” he shrugged again to placate her “It’s just… thinking differently really. We’ve spent hundreds or thousands of years thinking in the same way. How do we push with magic here or pull there, you know what I mean? Kinda?” She did. “So we’ve gotten really good at exploring magic and mana in those terms. We’ve explored that path really well. I just… Happened to go down a path we haven’t really explored. That’s all.” 

“Uh… But then, what is it? Everyone’s being all hush about it.”

“Here Tul, I’ll show you.” he pulled her over to his table, carefully shoved some papers out of the way. “It’s honestly almost embarrassingly simple…” He took a new sheet and a pen.

“So most spells are about using mana to push or pull on energy…” he drew some arrows in opposite directions “... or about entwining it in something, to help change it, reshape it, remake it to some degree” he drew lines twisting and coiling around each other, like a rope “...correct?”

Tulli nodded. Basic magic theory. Mana, the source of magic, was how they manipulated  the world to their will.

“Right! But… Mana is itself energy, a type of energy, yes?” 

Tulli nodded again. 

“In fact, it’s not just energy… It’s REALLY strong energy.” He drew something Tulli couldn’t quite understand, some lines aggressively drawn in a bundle, but obviously meant to convey power. “It’s strong enough to reshape the world. And a strong mage? A strong mage can siphon and contain a lot of it.”

Tulli could see it, like puzzle pieces slowly coming together. 

“Well… So what happens if you take that energy, all of it…” Talim drew a line from his drawing of power and gently started drawing a ball, without ever lifting his pen “... and you just put it all in one spell? A spell that isn’t really… anything? You know? It’s sort of a circular spell, just coded instructions for energy to permanently siphon into itself.” he kept drawing the ball a little harder “Just pouring all that immense power into one place? His drawing grew more and more aggressive, pouring an increasing amount of ink into the paper.

“...You’d have a lot of energy… doing nothing?” Tulli was mesmerized and perplexed. The puzzle was almost complete.

“Exactly! So… You add one more variable to your spell.” he smiled, like a magician revealing the last part of his trick. “You give it one more instruction: To endlessly compress itself. Over and over. That’s all it does. Siphon energy and compress itself." The paper, now far too castigated by wet ink and friction, finally broke and shredded where it had been assaulted.

Tulli gasped, a little too absorbed in the demonstration.

“...A mana bomb?!” 

“Of sorts.” Talim dropped his pen, raised his sheet, and smiled at her through the whole in the paper. “Or as I put it for our esteemed educators: ‘Less of an actual spell and more of a tactical misuse of magic. A skilled mage can tangle an enormous amount of mana in a pointless and increasingly unstable spell. The resulting explosive burst of energy can level cities.’” He put down the paper again and smiled at his sister. “Ok, so it is kinda cool… I call it ‘Mana Fusion’!”

“That sounds terrifying.” she was in awe. Tulli knew her brother was special, but it took someone truly unique to come up with something so simple and effective that no one had thought of it before. 

“It is. It’s strong enough to completely annihilate any shield or defensive spell, and you can’t really counter it or unravel it like a normal spell. Once it’s in motion, the spell itself, is basically just a bunch of nonsense… Like trying to untangle a ball of yarn that keeps twisting and turning into itself. Goodluck with that.”

For a second Tulli was speechless.

“But… Talim… That changes everything… doesn’t it?? How mages duel. How they fight? You can’t defend against this?” Tulli’s awe was suddenly coloured in some horror.

Not every mage learned magic to fight, and in fact many would consider themselves most successful if they never had to cast an offensive spell in their lives. Many lived peaceful lives, and Tulli intended to be one of those, far more interested in the creative aspects of magic than its combative side. However, every mage was very aware of how important it was to learn to defend themselves, regardless of their desire for peace or distaste for violence and belligerence. Peace was not always an option, and good and renowned mages tended to attract challengers.

Tulli Algrant, normally confident in her combat skill, despite her distaste, suddenly felt like someone who might have to fight a sword bearer naked and barehanded. 

“Hold on, hold on… Not quite that big.” the bigger brother reassured her. “I mean, it’s very strong, obviously, but it’s slow, both building the base spell and having it do its thing… It takes a lot of time compared to just… summoning fire or lightning. The base spell is a bit complicated, in order to do it right and not take an eternity, I mean, in a fight every moment matters, and you really don’t want to mess this up or you just waste all of your mana for nothing, so it’s not like everyone can even do it in the first place. And it requires a LOT of mana. Like, Tulli, ‘a LOT’ a lot. You know? It’ll take particularly good mages to do it in combat.”

“How much mana?” she inquired.

“Tulli… I can barely do it. And it takes me a bit too long to do it in a combat situation right now. It’ll get better with practice, of course, but still. It’s not like every mage is suddenly going to start throwing this around left and right.”

“Still, once you get it right…”

“...Yep. Can’t really stop it. Too much energy. Too strong. Like trying to stop a river.”

Tulli whistled approvingly.

“That is something alright Tal. I think I understand why the university is being all hush about it though.”

“Yeaaah… I think the last thing they want is for the ‘hot new spell every student will be trying despite being specifically advised against’ to essentially be a huge and unstoppable bomb.” Talim threw the ruined paper out. “Most wouldn’t even come close to doing it, of course, but all it takes is one particularly gifted but shortsighted student to ‘accidentally get it right’ and this whole place could be rubble…”

“Welp, good time for it too, Tal. I hear war is brewing again.” Tulli said, looking at him with concern. “Deligrah isn’t close to the border but… It’s not that far away either.” she looked at her brother with concern. “Maybe… I don’t want to join any wars, Tali, but, maybe, if things get bad enough, we can use this new spell of yours to end the war before it goes too far. I hear they’re considering drafting us too.”

Talim hugged his sister and smiled with a confidence he did not fully feel.

“Don’t worry sis. Talim Algrant, Pride of Deligrah, and ‘The Youngest Mage Ever to Fully Graduate Gulworth University’, will stop any army! I’ll protect you all, remember? No matter what.”

*

They stare at each other. 

They use every moment that passes in their stasis to regain strength, aware that their opponent is doing the same. Neither really wants to resume the fight. Unfortunately neither can surrender.

Suddenly the woman’s dagger flashes into motion again, lightning flashing instantly towards the man who blocked it with a shield. 

The dagger flashed again, and more lightning batters down on her opponent who holds up their barrier. 

Again.

She changes her motion, and ice spikes shoot forward, meant to crush the man’s barrier and explode into the user behind it, but he drops it at the last second. 

The spikes pierce and slice his skin, freezing patches around the damaged areas. 

The man feigns an attack, forcing his opponent to block, and instead uses the moment to syphon some mana from the aether. He’d only have time for a small amount, but that would do.

*

“Talim…” the woman hugged her brother.

Talim Algrant said nothing. He did not notice her. He simply stared towards his parents' bodies. Blind, deaf and mute, cold anger held him in the tightest of grips, and he in turn gripped his father’s coffin hard enough for his fingers to bite into the wood. The wood bit back as splinters pierced his skin. He felt no pain. He felt nothing but anger and hatred. His soul burned with the coldest anger, consuming everything within him.

“Talim… I know you. Don’t. Don’t blame yourself. You couldn’t save them. Nobody could.” she held tighter, tears rolling down her cheeks, hoping to break him out of his stupor.

They were alone in the Town Hall. As one of the few buildings that had survived the raid, it had been repurposed as a temporary funeral home for the many bodies after the attack had been repealed.

When he suddenly spoke again Talim’s voice almost scared his sister.

“No. I should have saved them.”

“Tali… Nobody could predict this… We rode out the moment we learned about anything… It was too late… Tali…We did everything…” Tulli was fighting to keep her voice from breaking. To keep her silent crying from becoming so loud she could no longer speak. The little part of her that wasn’t screaming inside her head told her that, somehow, her brother was falling deeper than she was.

“Our scouts should have seen it. I should have expected it. I should have been here. I-” 

“STOP!” his sister yelled, unable to keep her voice low anymore. “Don’t do this to yourself or to me Talim. Please. Please…”

Slowly he pulled himself free of his parent’s corpses and faced his sister as if seeing her for the first time. She took an involuntary step backwards. His face scared her. This was a different person. 

He had been since they got word the enemy, desperate as they and on the verge of defeat after years of slowly losing a war they had miscalculated, had sent a medium sized force of a few hundred soldiers, as big as they could make it while still being small enough to travel undercover, under the guise of a trade caravan. They seemed to be traveling towards the capital, hoping to make it to the heart of their unsuspecting enemy to deliver a blow before they were found out. Instead they were discovered close to Deligrah by complete luck, as they met an opposing trade caravan camping during the night. One of the merchants overhead something they shouldn’t have, and their attempt to silence the man caused too much of a commotion and was spotted by Deligrah’s town lookouts who immediately sent for help. In desperation, too deep into enemy territory to simply turn and run, they attempted to take over the town as a hold out. Deligrah’s meager defense had held out astonishingly well, with the fighting turning fierce, but they were not ready for a force so large.

Talim started moving the moment he heard the news. Tulli managed to leave notice to her superiors and collect their fighting unit, barely catching up with her brother. 

She thought his face was scary when their unit arrived to find the town in ruins and trying to fight the invaders. 

She thought him a demon when he charged head first into the enemy’s army with reckless abandon, without even bothering to summon his staff, and unleashed a massacre so brutal and cruel it had earned him a new nickname: Talim Algrant, the Death of Deligrah. 

Within moments swathes of the enemy’s armies had been wiped out, with dozens instantly killed or maimed beyond salvation. Upon seeing the destruction they were facing the enemy broke into a rout, but Talim gave them no mercy. He butchered any enemy soldiers he came across, whether they fought, or threw down their arms and begged for mercy. Tulli had seen a boy, far from a man, obviously pressed into the enemy force, with a clean sword and armor kneel down and beg a demon for his life. She remembered turning away from the flash, and how the boy’s charred remains still stood in the same position after Talim’s flames had finished drowning the whole block.

When the rest of his unit broke off to defend the town and tend to the wounded, he chased the enemy alone out of town and into the hills. He returned days later, covered in filth, and blood, and remains even the veteran soldiers did not want to guess at. Scouts later reported they had no trouble finding the remains of the enemy unit.

“Tali… brother… Please.” she whispered to him. 

“I failed them, Tulli. The great Talim Algrant, their prodigal son…” He spitted the words like a poison. “Their gifted, blessed, amazing son… Useless. I failed them.”

“Tali…”

“Dead Tulli. They’re dead. Because I didn’t see it.” There was no emotion in his voice. As if all the anger, sadness, and hatred had become too much, so excessive his body could no longer contain, let alone parse them, in their enormity, and simply shut off.

They both looked away from each other and stood staring into nothing, trying to organize their thoughts and feelings into a state close to functional. They stood for a long time.

It was Talim that first broke the silence.

“I’m leaving Tulli.” he said, facing away from her.

“Leaving?” 

“As soon as I can gather some supplies.”

“I… Tali, the war? Our duty? We’re soldiers. We can’t just leave. Leave where? Why?” Her confusion was so great it almost made her forget her sadness for a second.

“Tell me Tulli, have you heard of ‘The Tournaments’...?” 

“Supposedly a story of a rumour of a legend.” she replied with suspicion.

“Before… this…” Talim waved around, still facing away. “I was looking into it. Another potential tool to stop this war, you see, or any other wars.” He turned to face her.

“And what did you find?”

“They’re real, sister. A lot is unknown. Who, why, or even when. But they are real. A secret tournament of mages. Everyone fights until only one is left. Winner is allowed entry into… a library? A repository? Or something. It’s unclear. But some kind of source of knowledge, and power. Knowledge beyond belief…” He let the words hang for a moment, seemingly lost in thought.

“Tali… Why? Win the war? We don’t need to leave to chase a story. You know how the war is going. They can’t win.” Her confusion turned to sadness. She had heard of grief breaking people, and knew Talim’s grief ran deep.

“Curse the war!” he spat back with a sudden intensity that frightened her. “I couldn’t care less who wins! No Tulli! Our parents! Use that endless knowledge to help our parents!” 

“H-...help them?” she turned her head back and forth in turns to stare at the bodies and her brother in incredulity, as if she could not accept what she heard and was looking for a flaw in reality instead. “Brother they’re dead. You can’t help the d-... Oh. Oh no.” Tulli Algrant stood with wide open eyes as shock, horror, and disgust flooded after understanding. “Talim. No. No! Necromancy?? You know what that is. You know why it’s forbidden. You know you’re not getting our parents back.”

“Not necromancy! True life!” he shouted with renewed vigor, as if he had just double checked his own logic and found it faultless. “If such a repository of knowledge exists, I can use it to grant them true life again Tulli. I’ll make it so.”

Tulli looked at her brother, his sunken and haunted eyes that had not known sleep in days, and felt a mix of disgust and pity. He was more broken than she feared. 

“Tali..” she spoke carefully and clearly. “...some of the greatest mages in history have tried it. Spent their lives trying it. You know the horrifying cost it came with, and that they all failed. No one even came close to true life.” 

“They were not me. I’m better. I HAVE to be better Tulli! I have to save them…”

It was too much for her. It was all too much. Her parents were dead and her brother was falling into madness. Fresh tears were starting to roll down her cheeks.

“Tal, you haven’t slept in days, please… Let’s go to sleep. We’ll talk about it tomorrow.”

“You think I’m crazy? I may be tired, but my mind is clear sister. It is the only way to save them.”

“They’re dead Tali. You can’t… You can’t save them anymore. You can only curse their remains, and commit who knows how many atrocities in the process.” she pleaded, hoping beyond hope.

“I’m leaving tomorrow Tul. Come with me.”

“Tal… I can’t… I can’t let you do this. Please.”

He looked at her blankly. She could almost read disappointment and hurt in his pause, but his face was too buried in his trauma to show any of it.

“I… was hoping you’d join me. Very well.” he turned to leave but stopped, voicing his goodbye in a near whisper. “Don’t try to stop me, Tuli. Please. I won’t stop. For anyone. And even if I can bring you back after, I would rather not hurt you myself.”

“...Then don’t go brother… I need you here. Now.”

The man walked out silently, leaving his sister sobbing on the floor.

*

The man is clearly on the defensive now. He focuses on shielding blows, and occasionally fish for a counterspell, using the pause when successful to draw up mana or heal their wounds.

The woman keeps attacking. Lightning, fire and ice, all taking turns assaulting the opposing mage, trying to alternate her tempo to avoid his counters. She pauses only long enough to regain enough mana to redouble her assault. 

Suddenly, after countering a spell, the man launches an ice volley of his own which sinks its frozen bite into the woman’s body, draining what little strength she has left.

She is feeling drained and light headed. The constant attacking had done more damage to her opponent, but was taking a toll on her mana and stamina. 

When he feigns an attack she summons a shield to defend herself, but instead he takes another big drain from the aether.

They both stare at each other again, and time seems to stand still as she understands what her opponent is doing. 

As he begins summoning his attack, Tulli Algrant truly understands that her brother is ready to kill her.

*

They met on an abandoned field, two cloaked figures, stopping a few feet away from each other. 

“I got your letter. I’m here.” she said bluntly. Despite her cold facade her heart trembled, but she steeled her nerves. 

Talim dropped his hood, and his face shocked her.

He looked older. And not just the normal aging of the three years that had passed since they had last met. He looked at least a decade older. His eyes were focused, but empty. Completely devoid of any emotion or interest. And while he had always been somewhat unkempt, his had been the dishevelled look of someone who had spent more time worrying about functionality than appearance. Like the chaotic energy of a work or study place. This was neglect. Abandonment. Like a dilapidated building left to withstand the erosion of time and weather on its own. He looked hollow.

The man seemed to start on a sentence, then stop and reconsider for a second before voicing something else entirely. 

“You heard the voice.”  he said instead. 

“Yes.” she showed him her forearm, bearing the mark, the brand of all who wished to join the tournament. “You and me. One of us has to die for the other to advance.”

“You can quit.”

“No. I can’t Talim. Because you won’t.”

They stood in stubborn silence for a second. Tulli spoke first. 

“Why did you call me here?” she said. 

“I… Haven’t seen you for three years. I wanted to see you one last time. I never got a chance to say goodbye to mom and dad.”

Tulli was surprised to find she couldn't even feel angry at her brother anymore. He was too far gone. One does not get mad at the demented for their insanity. Instead, she said the words she had dreamed of saying for years, knowing they would be of no use.

“You don’t have to say goodbye to me. We could both quit. Right now. We could both walk away Tal…”

He flashed his best approximation of a smile. 

“No. I couldn’t. I can’t stop. I have to save them. No one else will. But then again…” he scoffed. “...You still think I’ve lost my mind.”

“You have.” she said it softly, gently, but with all the violence of facts seasoned in pity. “You’re drowning in a guilt you don’t deserve, and grief you can’t let go of. It’s poisoning you. Warping you. So much you don’t even realize you’re walking yourself into an abyss because you want the impossible.”

“All my life, Tul… All my life has been about doing the impossible. What no one else can. This power behind the tournaments? The knowledge and power they grant? It’s beyond anything we’ve ever heard of. I’ll save our parents Tul. Grant them true reincarnation. I’ve done miracles with nothing Tul. You could join me. If I win, we could do anything. Save everyone. Even fix this world.”

She shook her head, unable to cry anymore Tulli could only see her brother through sadness and pity. 

“Tal… Winning this would be the worst thing that could happen to you. Because you wouldn’t stop if you failed. You said it yourself: you can’t stop. You would try, horrific costs and all, and fail. And try again. And again. No cost too big. No price too high. You would make a funeral pyre of this world Tal. Consume everything in your wake. And with each failure a little bit more guilt. More grief. But with that much power, who could stop you? You would spend eternity consuming yourself and everything around you.” 

They faced each other in silence for a moment until she spoke again.

“No Tal. This time, I have to save you. And the world. I’m sorry brother, I’m not strong enough to fix everything… But I can at least try to stop you before you hurt yourself further. Before you go somewhere you can never return from.”

 He nodded back. 

“So you believe. And I can’t let you throw this opportunity away. At least… at least I can save you too after our parents, sister.”

They stared at each other, both looking for anything to say, for something to prolong the moment and avoid the inevitable. Yet, they both knew there was nothing left to be said.

“Tomorrow then.” Talim finally said. 

“Yes.”

“In the valley to our west.”

“Yes. When?”

“Show up whenever. I’ll be waiting.”

“Goodbye brother.”

“Goodbye sister.”

*

Mana fusion, she remembered him calling it. Tulli knew it was coming before she even saw the first signs of it. A spell so powerful she could not block or dispel it, much less survive it. 

Time seems to stretch and slow down as moments became infinities. Tuli remembers people who survived near death talking about similar experiences. She heard physicians theorize that it was your brain’s last ditch attempt to find a solution to a lethal problem. 

Her brother meant to finally finish her off, and there wasn’t much she could do about it. She had done well, she thought, all things considered, but Talim was too strong. And she was so very tired. Her physical and magical energy both depleted. He was going to win, and seal his own fate. Like trying to stop a river, she remembers. 

…

But why try to stop a river in the first place…

It is a desperate gamble. 

But she is desperate. 

She has no idea if it will work, if it can work, and it will take everything she has and then some. Burn her out completely. 

She gets to work, gripping her magical focus and weaving her own spell.

If mana was energy, and her brother’s spell a river rushing her way… Why not try to divert that river? Not try to contain or block that power, but redirect it, back to its source?

Her brother either does not notice or does not care. His spell is almost complete. Would hers be ready in time? 

It all happens in a moment.

The super compressed ball of energy shoots towards Tulli at an incredible speed…

…And doubles back on itself. Like a wave hitting a concave shell. Tulli had provided a conduit for the energy to follow, and follow it did.

Her brother barely has time to register something had gone wrong, when the immense power of his own spell hits him.

The world explodes.

Suddenly, it is over. It is done. Tulli falls on her knees. Exhausted. Empty.

Tulli Algrant. You have won. Stand by. The ethereal voice in her head says.

She barely registers the words as she races on legs and arms she doesn’t feel and can barely move, falling and crawling over the wreckage to where her brother would have stood.

She finds what little was left of him and has to turn away and be sick. As a veteran soldier from a war, Tulli had seen her fair share of butchery and gore, but this was her brother… by her hands… No, there would be no last words, no goodbyes, from that. 

She finishes being sick and stands up on shaken legs, barely able to stand at all. Dizzy, fatigued beyond words, and in shock, she closes her eyes and tries to just stand still and breathe. Slowly. One breath after the other. Avoid passing out. 

It takes her a moment to register the words that were echoing in her head again.

-lgrant, as winner of the tournament you have been granted entry. Congratulations. Take what you will.

When she finally opens her eyes she sees a portal standing a few paces away. So this was her reward? The reason so many had died. She resists the temptation of looking towards her brother’s remains one last time. 

Well brother… Might as well find out what I won uh? Maybe… Maybe something here can help someone.

She takes a deep breath and slowly walks through.

*

“Talim, what are you going to do with your magic when you grow up??” asked the little sister with excitement.

“I’m going to be THE GREATEST MAAAAGE!!” replied the bigger brother waving a stick around. “Watch me Tul! I’ll be a great hero! A warrior! Fight evil! And save the world! Mom and dad say I could do it!”

“Yeah!” his sister giggled and hugged her stuffed toy.

“What about you Tul? You wanna come with me?” He smiled a big open grin back at her. 

“Mhhh…” she considered this for a moment. “I dunno Tal. I don’t like fighting much.” 

“Are you scared? Don’t worry sis! I’ll protect you. And Mom! And Dad! And our town! I’ll protect everyone!” He posed like a hero to her. She giggled. 

“No. I’m not scared.” She smiled. She always smiled. “I just don’t like hurting people. It’s mean. I like helping mom and dad. And making things.” She nodded to herself, approving her own logic. “I think… I think when I get my magic I’ll make things.”

“What kind??” her brother asked.

“Awesome things! Like… I dunno, awesome!” She answered.

“Yeah! Awesome!” 

They both laughed and giggled.

“Hey Tul?”

“Yeah Tal?”

“Whatever we do…” he held out his hand for her “Let’s do it together?” 

“Of course!”

She held his hand.

“Together.”

“Together!”

*

*

*