The One Knight Stand

.: For What :.

30 | For What

They were evenly matched. But it was obvious who had the upper hand.

Rowan just couldn't keep up, even with a weapon designed for agility.

Blue could switch hands on a dime, so fast she looked like a gargoyle with two swords, ducking and slashing, boxing Rowan in like a beetle.

His strikes belied his calm. The Prince was unnerved. Hadwisa was guaranteed her throne no matter how poorly she performed as a squire. For him there was more at stake than a brother chord and bragging rights.

This was reputation.

This was birthright

This was Honor.

And when he swung the force traveled through Blue's Dha and grounded in her shoulders like the worst anxiety ever conceived to man. Their metal kissed with sparks.

Blue kicked Rowan away, giving each of them a chance to recover in their corners.

The squire puffed under her helmet, bouncing on her toes.

It's time to end this.

Blue was seconds away from sprinting over and doing just that when something strange caught her eye.

...Something gold.

Something she thought she'd never ever see.

A large man standing at the bleacher's edge, hidden behind the crowd. He, too, was waving a small Anachakar flag. A hand clutched his throat as if he'd cheered himself hoarse.

Dear Lord.

He came.

And he was... smiling?

Bo's amber eyes trained on her like he'd turn to stone if he looked away.

Blue's chill evaporated with the morning dew. She grew warm. Suddenly the Indigo Hornet fit too tight.

No one else knew the Prince was there supporting her but her.

They locked eyes, even across that great distance.

Bo silently lifted his hands above his head.

Time slowed, and the crowd's roar dulled into a low drone, and the colorful confetti falling from the sky trickled down in centimeters, suspended in the air.

The Prince made a single sign for her eyes only.

Crush him.

In a crack of lightning, Blue's entire demeanor shifted. Time resumed its regularly scheduled programming. The audience reanimated. The wind blew fierce.

Rowan noticed the change too late.

Blue didn't run at him, she flew.

Clang! Clang! Shink!

The squire grew twice her size, towering over Rowan and his intrinsic potential.

None of it mattered.

They were just two people brawling in a ring. Titles weighed naught, and for the first time in his life Rowan understood the wretched absence of privilege.

The Mornami Prince raised a hand tempted to beg surrender, but Blue forced him to block her swings double clutching his hilt.

This is what you wanted, right?

A challenge?

A final well timed blow would've flung Rowan into an entirely differently solar system.