Find Your Center IV

"Find Your Center IV" is a BOTGD 2 oneshot written on January 28, 2021.
==Summary==
==Full Text==
When demonic announcements rolled out across the Jaw of Fenrir, there was usually an initial burst of panic among the crowd, followed by a relatively low-alarm, but important piece of information that needed to be quickly dispersed to the Rebellion as a whole–a new location for the infirmary, the approach of a handful of determined Conclave scouts, a missing person directive. For the chaos that had drawn them into the Southeastern settlement, the quiet that followed could have easily been construed as suspicious or misleading. But as the days passed and started to turn into weeks, the atmosphere began to relax, though the tension of their new position in proximity to High Central remained. Nala’s widespread contact to the people milling about in the late afternoon winds merely caused several upturned heads and some mild interest. But, ironically, the content of the message was what struck up an eager, excited mood, motivating some of the younger members to start seeking the east side of the Jaw, where the setting sun was throwing huge shadows across the long grass.
Thus, when a half-breed and a human of equal height stood near each other on the same fields that they had been meditating, training, and exercising on for two weeks, there was a bit of a larger crowd than normal, even though the tall porcelain female figure next to them had tried to induce the opposite effect. Instead, she wearily kept everyone at bay with her mind, her arms folded and still and her weight shifted to one leg as her essence painted long streaks in the air, moving like fire in the strong breeze. Handfuls of interested rebels were peppered around the makeshift entrance underneath Fenrir’s molars, some even brave enough to perch between the massive teeth, shedding their own long, dark silhouettes across the prairie. 
Yun squinted up at them as the rays of the sunlight played around the towering teeth of the Jaw. “I thought you told them to stay clear for tonight?”
I did. The Warden lifted her chin and eyed the rebels, some of which ducked down, but didn’t want to entirely miss the events that would soon occur. It seems you draw a regular crowd, whether it is under my watch or not.
“Cool…” Yun fidgeted with the naginata’s banner, feeling it slip between his sweaty fingers. It was blade-up with the haft down in the grass at his side. The sight of another audience made him queasy, especially this time. Normally, he might have even enjoyed it a little. The Rebellion had taken an immense liking to him, though nobody had ever been available to ask why or how they did. The attention had placated the self-serving itch for affection he’d felt since arriving in the timeline. Now, it wasn’t quite as welcome. “Are you sure you can’t make them go away?”
“They will be fine.” Milae turned away from the small group of people that had permission to be closer than a hundred yards, namely Dario, Juro, Akkey–who had been on visit from Yrus on her own business and refused to pass up something of this caliber–and one of the old mind mages of the Conclave, prepared for both assistance and to contact the leadership of the Rebellion should things go awry. “If anything, we can use this to boost morale.” Milae gave him a dry smile, which Yun reciprocated, but with a considerable amount of anxiety. 
“If you say so.”
The invited onlookers moved back towards the Jaw, and as the Warden began to step out towards the darkening horizon, Milae held Yun up for a moment in the middle. “Whether you are ready or not,” Milae intoned, “we are going to be testing you to your limits. I want no holds barred, no second thoughts.” He made a nod towards the demon, waiting patiently out in the field. “She has been told not to hold back, for your own good. Is there anything you need?” 
“No, I’m okay.” Yun lifted his chin and tensed his jaw, squaring his shoulders. It was a confidence he had trouble feeling, but he tried to project it in order to force the resolve into his heart.
Milae seemed to wrestle with himself for a moment before speaking again. “Are you sure you want to do this?” he asked hesitantly.
The idea had been Yun’s. Sparring with Milae had brought most of the goat’s own strengths and strategies into Yun’s reach, and while he had fared extremely well in physical fighting, they found a ceiling to its effectiveness, compared to using magic. They both knew the breadth of his power had the potential to be enormous, based on what had happened on Haligan. But Yun put it past himself to explore this with his mentor. He could tell Milae was frustrated by being unable to push Yun further, but it just wasn’t on the table for himself. The goat could share what few incantations and expressions of energy that he had learned during his time as the Norns’ chosen, but there was only so much he could teach, and only so much Yun could practice. He needed someone definitively stronger to test his will against. 
So he had sought out Nala.
Yun squeezed Milae’s hoof. “I asked for this,” he reassured him. “If I really think I’m going to hurt myself, I’ll stop. But I need this.”
“I know you do.” Milae’s eyes moved over Yun’s shoulder, to Nala, and Yun glanced at her as well, already knowing what the half-breed’s qualms were. 
“Hey, it’ll be okay. Demon versus valkyrie, right? Should be fine.” He gave Milae a crooked grin, and the goat softened at the sight. 
“It should.” 
“Then go hang out with them.” Yun elbowed Milae in the direction of the Jaw, and he reluctantly followed through, leaving Yun by himself on the prairie. 
A heated presence seemed to press up against Yun’s back, but instead of feeling comforted, he had to suppress a shiver. He turned slowly in place to look at the Warden, waiting for him. Across the lengthy makeshift stadium behind him, he heard a couple whistles and cheers, and an unintelligible encouraging shout. Yun paced to be across from her with the sun to their left and right, respectively, the sunlight winking in the corner of their eyes. The grip of the naginata was comforting, but there was only so much it could do for his thundering heart. On the sidelines, Milae’s hoof tapped into the peaty ground several times, but that was the only show of his anxiety. 
Seiðkonur. Nala’s mind touched his in an alien way; it was strange to be able to feel a being’s presence when she was standing so far away. He swallowed and nodded in acknowledgment. She didn’t feel particularly dangerous, but she was quite serious. He could tell. We will waste little time, as we will be testing you from a complete standstill, as requested. Our goals are simple. For the sake of a secure future, we will not be attempting to destroy one another, but we will be stopping each other in any way possible. She raised her hands, crossing her forearms across her ribcage, which towered above Yun’s head even from this distance. Two narrow amber slits flared by her sides, and from hilt to point, both of Nala’s blades emerged, making the air ripple with heat as she lowered them by her knees. Her blank face, with those scarlet, glowing cuts for eyes, fixed on him. His legs suddenly felt like jelly.
Never mind. Dangerous. Super dangerous.
Trembling slightly, Yun pulled the naginata into a ready position, feeling it balance perfectly aligned to his right arm as he placed one foot back, and raised his free arm in front of himself, his bracer glinting in the fading sunlight. 
In response, the demon rolled her blades in two porcelain pinwheels as she readied them in her hands, both parallel to the ground, framing the top and bottom of her face. Do not hold back, she said, and from the scope of it, he could feel it was said silently, only to him. 
“I’ll try not to,” Yun said, with a dry mouth. His fingers glowed in preparation for the brutal blows that he knew were about to be delivered.
Back on the sidelines, Akkey had her legs crossed in an icy seat, eyes shining at the sparring match that was about to begin. Milae hovered close by Dario’s side, almost wishing that he could avert his eyes, but knowing that he didn’t have the strength to do so. The deer tried to be a reassuring presence to him. Juro hung behind them all, pen already moving faster than anything out in the field.
The start of the match was soundless and seamless. Nala stepped forward, throwing a line of force at Yun, and he shook his head as a brief static blast of visions scattered through his mind’s eye. A shadow passed overhead, and just in time, he saw the Warden kick high into the air to bring both swords down on top of him. Yun panicked but managed to block straight over his head, energy sliding from either end of the naginata to meet Nala’s blades. A circular wave of force shook the grass around them. Yun slid the block down to her hands in a shower of sparks and continued to shove her blades back over his head and reached up a leg to kick her in the abs, with another huge blow, it sends her back completely, forcing her into a somersault, while he finished his backflip, twisting his torso to land with fingers gripped into the ground. Nala landed with a flash of blades and faced him again, swords reverse gripped, and this time, sprinted straight at him, insanely fast for her size. A jet of energy surrounded the naginata’s blade as he readied for her. She came in to slash down once and follow it up, and their weapons collided in a flash, and Yun used the second swing to strike her sword hard enough to send him back. He slid across the ground, leaving two trails of steaming energy across the soil as he reinforced his feet with magic to slow him down. Nala snapped one of her swords down like a whip, extending a much longer blade, giving herself two mismatched swords, and came at him again. This time, before she reached him, she struck the ground with a huge lope, and a huge rolling slash of fire energy crossed the grass towards him. Yun breathed, and rolled the staff around him and over his head, which formed a loose rounded column around him. The fire swirled around it in a curtain and was redirected above his head, causing a flash like a firework across the scene. Nala had already created two more pulses, writhing streaks that shot towards him like vicious dragons. Yun pulled each of them aside with the heavy aura of the energy around his naginata and drove them into the ground behind him. Embers and sparks scattered around him.
Nala refused to let up. Trails of energy followed her limbs as she got right on top of him and went to kick down; what would normally be a solid kick to the head turned into a piledrive to the ground. Yun barely missed it, but he used the close contact as an opportunity. He pushed her leg the rest of the way into the ground by leaping up and stepping off it, giving himself height, and hooked the edge of the naginata on her shoulderblade. As her balance was pulled forward by both moves, he pushed the pole to spin back across one outstretched arm to his back to the other arm, and with the force of the naginata spinning to landing back into his hand, he powerfully swung it around to collide into the side of her neck, throwing her to the ground. She rolled on her back and curled up to her feet, swords reversed again, and Yun knew he had to follow up, charging forward without waiting. Even though she was ready from the front, Yun felt himself sliding into more familiar territory, getting back into play. Both swords came around full body in a diagonal chop, and Yun stuttered through the attack and was suddenly behind her, his driving blade jabbing into her back. It bit, but didn’t stick. Nala retaliated by reaching back to grab it just below the blade, arching her back, tossing her sword in the air and throwing her free hand back cartwheel backwards and she made a full rotation before ending up back on her hands again. The world spun sickeningly, and the force of her stunt made Yun yelp as he was thrown straight back into the prairie in almost the same position that Nala was in at point of contact. His spine lit up in brief agony and his lungs were paralyzed. The audible impact caused a wave of winces and heckles to rise from the crowd. Milae stepped forward involuntarily, even though he was holding a protective arm out in front of Dario. The group’s eyes were wide.
Yun needed to duck out as fast as he could, but she had a hold of his weapon. Both her swords vanished as she pushed them into her pocket dimensions. Two thin triangular vectors of fire blew up around the two of them as she pulled him back in, and he was forced to plant both feet on either one of her thighs. His face was wide, open, and panicked; hers was expressionless as always. The fire grew, but Yun refused to concede. Energy encased his feet as he rapelled up to her hips and quickly yanked back on the handle, and one of her legs slipped with the intense force emanating under his feet. He replaced it on her sternum, two quick kicks while still holding the naginata, and the blow caused another shockwave. In the tumble, he separated and kicked off her shoulders to roll down his own hill of energy, as though he were rolling on an invisible forcefield that only appeared on contact. She landed in a streak, gouging the ground, but got up again, as expected. He was sore from the hard smack against the ground earlier, stumbling slightly, but still standing. He had to amp it up. His grip hardened around the strange weapon at his side and the energy built, climbing higher up to his wrists. A slight shine rolled down the bullet-shaped energy around him, a shield wrapping him up from the naginata up his arm across his chest and the rest of his body.. 
Nala drew her swords in a shower of sparks, crossing them and sliding them against each other, and when she released, they were both red hot. Yun’s throat went dry. There were huge banners trailing from each sword; she dragged them across the ground with her next sprint, lifting them with two quick spirals, and the noise of her swords whistling through the air increased in pitch, creating whirlwinds of light and heat. Yun threw up a semi-circle to diffuse the fire again, but it wasn’t just an arc of energy. It was a slice, a tear. Nala’s fire was sucked away, and pulled into nothing. Milae sat up in shock. Yun could see the strings, and how the sparring pair’s movements slid across them and plucked them and stretched them. He spun his naginata to rest behind him at a ready position, strings humming, while he stretched out a free hand, fingers rigid and straight, and slid them between two threads, pulling upwards with a vibration. A sound rang out like a wire coil being stretched, an atmospheric tension, and then Nala’s energy was suddenly back in front of her, but redirected early, a string of several pops and explosions in her face. She was thrown back, barely managing to catch herself, and Yun twirled a wrist to tangle the threads in his fingers, and pulled. Everyone heard the sound of threads plinking and stretching to the point of warping, and Yun seemed to flicker between several places before he had full momentum up on top of her and finished a full-body swing, shoulder to hip, charring her porcelain ribs. She tried to follow up with her swords in the gap of his attack, but he parried thrice. Crack–crack–crack. Everyone gasped at the flares of energy being released upwards into the starry dusk, like feathers, like splashing magma turning to smoke midair. The force separated them again. Yun spun the naginata in one hand and cracked it against the ground, in reminiscence of a well-known bodyguard. The crowd couldn’t contain themselves for several seconds. When the blade hit the ground, dust and gravel floated upwards, suspended. A reflective glint passed briefly through Yun’s eyes.
Nala’s eyes, in turn, glanced over at the others on standby. Milae looked upset, queasy even, but he gave a single nod. 
The Warden didn’t give Yun a second longer to breathe. She blasted forward, strides like a gazelle fleeing a predator, and the force of it set the grass on fire in huge, bannered trails behind her. Blinded with sudden adrenaline, Yun kicked off unnaturally far backwards, but there was little else he could do before she finished her sprint and crashed the butt of her sword into his gut, and even though a web of thrashing energy stopped her from breaking skin, bone, or worse, it slammed him back into the ground, making him tumble to a stop amidst the raging fire. The air rippled with intense heat above the crater that had formed in the ground from his impact, and the dome of energy that had softened his landing flickered away. Yun quickly climbed to his feet and spun the naginata once, creating a pulse of blue-green through the cracked ground and snuffing out the fire in his immediate vicinity. But the flames roared high and greedy around him, and he backed up nervously, wagging the naginata at his side as he frantically tried to figure out his next move.
You hesitate.
Heaving lungs stinging with smoke, Yun quickly shook his head. “I’m just–”
–waiting for an opportunity that does not exist. In the roiling darkness around them, he saw her eyes before he saw her, yards away, prowling closer to him, with the glowing tips of her swords trailing steam. She was so impossibly tall. The time is now, and you stand still.
There was still far too much fire for him to feel like he could safely get in and land a hit. It billowed far above his head, as though emphasizing his own stature. He was shaking uncontrollably. His seal was shimmering up his forearms, halfway, then two-thirds. The demon had broken the fire line and was stepping even closer. 
Your fear, Nala pronounced, pointing a sword at the center of his chest, will be their death. The blade swung to her left, gesturing straight at the Jaw, and more specifically, at the small group of onlookers that stood between it and the fight. Yun’s throat arrested the beat of his heart for a split second, and as he craned his neck to try and catch a glimpse of Milae or Juro or Dario through the waves of flame, the Warden struck. A blinding uppercut that he barely managed to glance off his own blade, sending scarlet and teal sparks flashing and scattering around them. It forced Yun off-balance, as he continued to stumble back in terror, and she mercilessly swung again, the hilt of her sword sliding up to the head of the naginata and locking it in order to toss him backwards, his arms sent too far up over his head to be able to break his fall. He cried out as the fire swarmed around him, and then the heat died, as he had fallen outside of the range of the burn. Yun scrambled back on his hands and feet as Nala pursued him. He yanked the staff of his weapon in front of him to point it at her, and in the edges of his vision, he saw that the glowing lines of his tattoo had stagnated just a few inches below his elbows. 
Tearfully furious, he yanked his gaze up to look Nala in the face, who looked like a giant looming over him. “I can’t do it!” he yelled at her. “It’s not working!”
In response, her swords flashed, and he gasped as they both ground into the naginata in an X-shape, pushing him nearly flat on his back as the pressure built between them with a low buzz. Her huge porcelain mask was inches away from his; he could feel the heat radiating from it, as well as see several thin cracks spiderwebbing across its surface. Like tiny suns, her eyes seared into him, and his chest heaved rapidly in panic at the sight. 
Then I will kill one of them, she rumbled, and he thought he might go deaf at her voice even though there was no sound. Some kind of expression must have formed on his numb face, because she tilted her head to the side, the sharp angles of her face catching the light swirling around her shoulders. You think I lack the will to do so?
“No–” He choked on his words as his white-knuckled hands slipped, and the swords dropped closer to his chest. His arms were shaking like trees in a hurricane. Maybe he was about to pass out.
You think I won’t go to such lengths to prove my point? To garner some show of force out of your wretched being? Their weapons suddenly twisted violently as Yun nearly folded, but he managed to get the blade vertical in front of him and drive the points of her swords into the ground on either side of his head with a twin chime. One of his feet was planted up against her calf, but it was like trying to move concrete. He grew faintly aware of a roar at the edge of his awareness, perhaps the crowd who had come to watch him fight. To watch him fail.
“You can’t!” he gasped. The too-warm iron of his own naginata pressed down against his temple and he gritted his teeth, breath rasping in his closing throat.
Then stop me. Her words were fashioned like serrated knives, grinding against his consciousness like saws. You have one chance to do so. 
The warmth of fear-born adrenaline drained out of his face. A slight release of pressure let him partially roll sideways, because Nala had slid her sword out of the ground and pointed it back towards the Jaw, and the fire swirled up around it and locked into place as a jagged, hooked blade as tall as the demon herself. It continued to build, and build, and as it was pulled away, and Yun tore aside and scrambled to his feet, it was like a razor-sharp piece of glass passed over his vision, seeing Nala’s sight align with the group of his closest friends. Everything went black, like an eclipse blocking out the sun, and the vibrancy of millions of multicolored strings snapped and pulled at the fibers of their very beings. He saw them began to stretch thin, fraying and snapping with the most beautiful sound. A hand moved forward–his own?–fingers splayed, reaching, begging, adjuring, demanding, instructing…commanding. The final dark ink markings embedded in his skin filled with psychedelic light.
The threads stilled, and then every single one of them straightened, strengthened, and turned a brilliant, dazzling teal.
The Rebellion wasn’t sure exactly what they saw. Nala’s sword almost hurt to look at, as she stood against the backdrop of fire and smoke, and then suddenly, everything didn’t seem as bright anymore–except for a single mote of ovaline aquamarine light, drowning out everything around it. There was a blur, and a sonorous impact where the Warden stood. Then, with a blisteringly fast movement, it shot into a long line that extended past the demon, and then, Nala was no longer where she was. She was at the end of the line, tossed like she’d been shot from one of Dixie’s cannons, and there was a roiling cloud of dust back at the center of the field, and a single figure tumbled out of it and landed lightly on his feet, balancing with a hand against the ground. The blast finished its echoes, which rolled across the plains in several repeated thumps. Yun lifted his head with a low reverberation, gripping his flashing naginata fiercely at his side. He was luminous even from hundreds of yards away. The crowd started to go ballistic at the sight. 
The Warden rose, all gloves off. Energy lashed from her as she raced forward, everything about her points of contact making her seem bigger than she actually was. Long, trailing lines of scarlet fire snapped towards the young man, but it was like she had started fighting a completely different opponent. He rolled the naginata in two fast circles, left, then right, deflecting her battery. Milae could hardly breathe through his hoof pressed up against his muzzle. His cheeks were wet. Yun crouched, waiting for her approach, grass and fire and stone and dust encircling him like a halo, and then the amorphous circle twisted into a vicious ring with another thud of air as he threw himself forward, instantly on top of her and hooking the blade around her leg to trip her, and he twisted to be above her and slapped the blade down into her back, throwing her into the ground with a shower of earth. The Warden crossed her forearms and attempted to form a bubble of crimson to protect from his next move, but his slice sucked it away once more, and he blew it out safely behind him in a horizontal column, throwing shadows across the darkening battlefield. Yun went to pin her neck down with the naginata, but a porcelain hand shot up and grabbed it right in the center, and the two fighters heard a slight splitting noise as she did so. They stared at each other wildly, and the muscle around Nala’s eyes widened slightly, seeing Yun’s change in stance and expression, an otherworldly light illuminating his eyes. His mouth screwed up in determination and he pushed harder, bending her elbow degree by degree. 
Nala found her footing while on her back, and kicked a knee up and into the small of Yun’s back, knocking the wind out of him and shoving him closer to her. But his grip on the staff was unwavering, and as his sternum hit her fist, there was a tearing explosion of both splinters and darting spears of sea-colored energy, forcing both of them to squint and duck to protect their faces. The two separated halves of the weapon clattered to the side, instantly engulfed in fire and dust. The crowd hollered, many torn on who they wanted to win. It seemed a low blow, and while some were wholeheartedly rallying behind Nala, they cried out for the sudden imposed disadvantage.
In merely a few seconds, Yun slowly looked back up, the light in his eyes increasing, and as he leaped back up into the air, energy enveloping him, he pulled both arms back behind him, palms facing the earth, and curled them into fists. A beam of light bridged both hands in a flash, extending into a familiar shining blade. The gleaming banner of fabric returned, much longer than before, swirling around them in a few rippling arcs, and it immediately snaked forward as it followed the motion of the reformed naginata.
Impact.
The grass of the Scrublands bowed in a massive wave, a cone of pure force jetting out from where Yun’s blade bit into earth, barely an inch beside Nala’s face, and the plains rippled for several hundred yards out, creating a banner of dust almost as long as the Jaw itself floating out towards the dark horizon. All other sound was drowned out as the boom of the attack made the Rebellion duck and cover their ears. A mist of aquamarine motes was left behind like a haze, mixing with black smoke and webbed red energy.
The final echo reverberated across the entire settlement. The lengthy stream of fabric floated down to the ground in loose circles, extinguishing fire with gentle hisses, and the Warden fixed her attention on the small human standing with a foot planted in the center of her chest, both hands clenched around the naginata buried in the ground beside her. His shoulders rose and fell with his heavy breathing, and the light of the fire glinted in the lenses of his glasses, obscuring his eyes with flickers of amber and gold. 
“You will not touch them,” he said with heat and venom. “Yield.”
She laid completely still, for around his long blade, she could feel another razor-sharp edge over the top of it–a thin, whirling plane of astral energy, and it was biting into her shoulder, threatening to take off part of her very being. For a moment, there was relative silence, as night fully settled across the area. Nala slowly lifted her chin.
I yield. Despite their meaning, the demon’s words still sounded noble.
Yun’s brow loosened from its tense knot, and the naginata slipped a bit from his fingers, warping in shape as it dissolved back into teal light, forming a bright circle around them as the shimmering fabric did the same. He blearily tried to focus on the Warden. The shining tattoos under his sleeves blinked and faded out. His shoe slipped off the porcelain plate under him with the loss of support, his limbs went slack, and he nearly fell face-first on top of her. She quickly caught him with both hands and sat up in one smooth motion, hugging his limp form to herself like a mother would hold a child. The flames around her bent like a smeared painting and channeled into her essence, making it flare bright before gently dying back down, leaving their surroundings in cool, dark ash. This allowed Milae to finish his panicked charge up to the pair of them. “Is he alright?” he demanded, among some scattered applause and concerned cheers from across the makeshift stadium behind them.
He is shielded as you once were. It is hard to say, Nala answered, lowering her cradling arms to allow Milae to inspect him. But he seems to be stable. 
Indeed, Yun stirred semiconsciously, his breath catching a bit. Milae tucked his hoof into his hand, which weakly squeezed. Eyelids flickered in recognition. “Bókari…” he murmured, “og dádýr…hvar…?”
“Þeir eru hér. Þeir eru í lagi. Hvíld.” Yun fully relaxed at hearing this, and the goat gently pressed his forehead to the boy’s, hesitating before backing away. “We should take him back to recover,” he told Nala. “You did not hurt him?”
The demon sent him a negative acknowledgment, along with a scathing disapproval of his distrust in her. She had no intention of following through with any of the threats she had made towards him. Milae did not flinch. I pressured him, per our agreement, she replied coolly, letting Dario see him to seal up several small burns and scrapes across Yun’s face and arms. She used her mind to distance the deer half-breed upon standing, kindly refusing his insistence to take Yun himself. I will return him to the healers, for them to watch over him. 
Milae nodded in agreement, and even though it was dark, Nala’s essence was highlighting an unusual fervor in his eyes. “Do so.”
The tall white female figure turned gracefully on her heel and began pacing across the field, leaving the onlookers to stand in deepening dusk as she took the light of her essence with her. The Rebellion was a mix of people both ducking out of her way and moving closer to see her, chattering excitedly as she returned with the seidkonur. Milae’s focus on them was intense, barely broken by the touch of Dario’s arm across his shoulder and down his arm. 
“I know that look. What are you thinking?”
The goat’s ears twitched, and he managed to tear away his gaze from the Warden, meeting first Dario’s eyes, then Juro’s. “That he has a chance.”
“Quite a conclusion,” the mage admitted quietly from under the veil that covered most of her face. It was clear that this was her first experience with anything on this level of raw power. “He couldn’t even stand by the end of it…”
Milae puffed up dangerously, his crest standing on end. She winced. “I am proud of him. The progress he has made in barely any time at all…”
“He can handle it,” Akkey said, very matter-of-fact. 
“Please don’t overestimate him. He’s just a boy.” There was genuine concern in the mage’s voice, a motherly worry, but the half-breed scoffed shortly.
“You don’t know him like I do.”
“Just be reasonable.”
“Milae–”
He stiffly pulled away from Dario, and then the half-breed began stalking back to the Jaw, alone.