Chapter 11

Unfair Odds

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When a correllium blade is matched against a normal steel sword or sabre, black against silver, there usually isn’t much of a fight. The wielder of the steel sword must outwit their opponent, or they will surely perish. A correllium blade, swung true, hard and proper, will dice thru the steel blade as easily as a razor through a carrot, continuing on its deadly path, and thru the wielder of the steel blade as well.

A duel between two warriors, both swinging correllium blades, is truly a wonder to behold. The swords are light and thin, cutting through the air at a blinding pace, and when those two blades connect, sending a singing noise slicing through the air, and blue sparks to follow, seemingly electrifying the air surrounding the clash.

No sooner had Jo-Laina caught her second blade, Jo-Viel began her assault, swiftly swinging her blade, aimed for Jo-Laina’s thin neck, but missing the mark, for Jo-Laina was as swift as any sword swinger could be, she ducked, rolled between her assailants long, slender legs, and delivered a blow of her own, and Jo-Viel was quick enough, barely, to counter it.

“I’m happy to see that this will not be easy. I’ve not been challenged in a fight for as long as I can remember, but the challenge will make watching your last breath more rewarding,” Jo-Viel said as she regrouped and considered her opponent’s small size.

“I’m sorry to disappoint you, sister, but neither of us will die today,” Jo-Laina returned. “I’m going to need your skills and killing you would be a waste.”

“Do not call me sister, child,” Jo-Viel demanded, lifting her sword in an elegant arc above her head, swinging it loosely in her wrists, but not making an aggressive move with it. “You are Prim, but you are not a true blooded Prim, your blood is twice tainted by your human ascendants.”

Both Prim paced back and forth, forming half circles in their trails, sizing each other up, each imagining a perfect way to strike their opponent, and a perfect time, but continuing their conversation as they did. Neither of them had to worry about interference from anyone else in the group, because this was a challenge of authority, and interference during this type of conflict was considered, by all, unthinkable.

“There is no such thing as a ‘true blooded’ Prim,” Jo-Laina responded. “You should know this, or should do we need to go over turtles and their shells.”

Again, it was Jo-Viel to make the next aggressive move. She unleashed a flurry of attacks against Jo-Laina, arcing her sabre with speed, precision and grace, against her smaller foe. Jo-Laina was able to use her dual short sabres, to block the attacks, but Jo-Viel was much bigger, much stronger, and almost as quick. Every time Jo-Viel’s sabre, met hers, she was barely able to maintain hold on her weapon. Jo-Viel finished her flurry by swinging her sword with a quick flip, just enough to cut the air and cause Jo-Laina to defend. Dodging wasn’t possible, because Jo-Viel cut the air with a lightning speed so fast that Jo-Laina only had time to block.

“But my blood...”

“IT IS NOT BLOOD THAT MAKES A PRIM, A PRIM. YOU KNOW THIS!” Jo-Laina screamed impatiently, chasing her words with her swords. She delivered a series of exactly eleven strikes, five with one sword, six with the other, alternating her blows from left to right, spinning and cutting the air with a series of swooshing, and filling their miniature, black arena with blue flashes of light as Jo-Viel easily, but with intensity, blocked Jo-Laina’s advances.

“It is the grey. Yes, I’m aware of that,” Jo-Viel said after they squared back off and continued their pacing.

“And did you know that the true meaning of Baran-Dak Toi is not ‘carrier of tainted blood’?”

Jo-Viel’s lips began to move, but stopped.

Jo-Laina saw this through Picket. Fighting through a bolainin was much more difficult than it was to fight using only her own, natural born senses, which were centered and designed around fighting, but they had things to talk about while they fought and Jo-Laina was glad that her opponent did not disconnect from her own bolainin. Picket’s eyes had caught the sight of Jo-Viel’s slight lip movement. A thought had crossed the other Prim’s mind and Jo-Laina wanted to know that that thought was.

“You did know?”

“What is she talking about, Jo-Viel?” Jo-Karna questioned. They were the first words that Jo-Karna had spoken since the two of them arrived. She had honored her sister’s higher rank up until that point, but she tossed her inferior position aside then, wanting to know what this new development was all about.

“It’s nothing. She’s making it up,” Jo-Viel responded and she added two more fierce strikes against Jo-Laina, putting everything she had into them. There was almost nothing Jo-Laina could do, for as each of her strikes met her blocks, each one of her sabres was torn from her hands. Jo-Viel finished by lunging forward, forcing Jo-Laina to fall onto her back, and thrusting her sword forward. Only the shield that Argimos put up at the last second stopped the kill and everyone that watched released a collective breath.

“I think you have a little explaining to do, Prim,” Argimos said.

Jo-Karna took a step forward, stretching Belimos’s tie to its limit and Belimos knew enough to let that tie go. “You cannot fool me, my sister, for I can see your thoughts, even as you speak them, and I saw the words that flashed before your mind’s eye, written in the ancient language, which I do happen to be able to both speak, and to read.”

Jo-Viel hung her head, but said nothing.

“What are they talking about?” Greegus muttered under his breath but speaking so that others couldn’t hear him was not his specialty.

“My sister has been keeping secrets, even from me, up until this point, but her mind now betrays her secret to me, now that it has come up. She has found a handwritten book, very old, very fragile, and very much written by the hand of an ancient. It was hidden behind a very small and very secret door in her room and in that book; it seems to tell of a conspiracy to hide the true meaning of the Baran-Dak Toi. It seems that my sister, and my mentor, has continued in this conspiracy for they have also agreed that you should be put to death, not because you carry tainted blood, but because you carry blood directly from the grey. A fact that they seem to feel threatened by instead of honored by.”