Garo had attacked Evera. His initiative had permitted him to choose the time, location, and parameters of their duel. He had won the right to define the first few moments of the battle. The same strategy would allow Aria a chance to survive the coming duel.

While Garo began to explain his twisted logic, she teleported herself to one of Alogun’s attendants and, having no weapons, hit him with a closed fist and every ounce of her strength. As expected, her strength proved higher than it had been as a mortal. Her hand remained unbruised, but the man crumpled to the ground with a dent in his head.

Her first move had been executed. She did not know if she had chosen wisely, but she put the matter out of her mind. Regrets should be saved for after the battle.

She teleported away from the man. At that point, Garo was beginning to grasp the situation. He was slower than she expected; half a second had already passed. It was a better reaction time than everyone else she had fought, but it was woefully inadequate for a god.

For her second move, she teleported behind Garo and snatched his spear out of his hands, laughing to herself at how easy it was.

She clicked her tongue at him.

Too slow.

As before, he suffered a few milliseconds of confusion. By the time he recovered enough to show rage, she was on her third move. She threw the spear at Alogun’s remaining attendant but did not pause to watch it collide with him. She was already moving, teleporting to the third floor of the building.

She could have kept the spear to use as her own weapon, but she did not trust it. There was magic in it powerful enough to sense from a distance. Perhaps it would be useful, or perhaps it was bound to its master and would betray her at the wrong moment.

Teleporting several times a second, she was able to avoid Garo’s response and consider what she had learned. Garo was slower than her. As in his fight with Evera, she could teleport to him, complete an action, and teleport away before he understood what had happened. His success with Evera had relied on proper planning, but he had not expected Aria’s own abilities.

The spear collided with Alogun’s last attendant a moment before Garo noticed its movement. As the man began to drop, the barrier around the palace disintegrated. The air suddenly seemed clearer, and Aria knew that she could teleport out if she wanted to.

She did not want to. She would kill Garo here, or he would kill her. The only alternative was to live as a slave until he or Tivelo saw fit to kill her. And that would not do.

The other deities did not share her reservations. Some teleported away the moment the barrier broke. Others were still running for the doors at various speeds. Garo spun in circles, following her teleportations but unable to catch her.

She caught the moment he gave up. He stopped moving and her intuition told her that something would come next. The thought was barely gone when a wave of force shot away from him in all directions.

The palace shook. Chunks of stone fell from the ceiling, crushing one god, and forcing others to flee. The force hit Aria with the strength of a mountain. Her body ceased to obey her. Her vision blurred.

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Knowing that her life depended on it, she teleported again. She had no destination in mind. She simply kept moving while the ache of the blow wore off. When she could see again, she realized that she was in the meadow outside Evera’s palace. A quick check revealed Garo sprinting out of the palace in her direction. She kept teleporting, moving further away from him, making only short jumps at a time, luring him away from the palace.

Like a fool, he followed. It seemed that you could always count on gods to have more pride than good sense. The smart thing, faced with an enemy he had no information about, was to escape.

Aria analyzed his techniques as he approached. So far, he had shown no skills to be worried about. He had telekinesis, the ability to make walls, and good running ability. Outdoors, his walls were less of a danger, and she could keep teleporting away from him.

Until she ran out of power.

She needed to hurt a way to hurt him.

She mentally reached for one of the weapons still in the house - a dagger - pulling it from the body of a guard, and teleported it to herself. A thrill shot through her when she felt the wooden handle in her hands. She hadn’t even expected it to work.

She retrieved one more dagger so that she had one in each hand, revelled in the comfort of finally being armed, and then, regretfully, let them go. She threw both knives at Garo in quick succession, using all the strength her magic could imbue.

They shot away so quickly, that they were almost invisible. Garo was a full field’s length away, but the knives reached him in a blink. They collided with him and ricocheted in two different directions, like rubber balls colliding with a wall.

She cursed silently and teleported further away. Rather than follow her, he stopped. Aria cursed again, knowing what would happen next. A wall of dirt sprang up from the ground behind her, running east and west as far as the eye could see and so high that she could not imagine getting over it. She almost stopped to gape, amazed that one person could build such a wall in an instant, but she caught herself and attempted to teleport to its other side. The teleportation failed. She moved, but only until she was pressed against the wall. During that wasted moment, Garo built a wall in another direction.

Her advantage was gone. She had won three free beats at the start of the battle, but without a way to harm him, she could not maintain that momentum. Her sense of self-preservation returned, begging her to flee. She suppressed it and teleported west, toward the end of the wall that Garo had built. She appeared on its edge and teleported again, further away from it. She could no longer see Garo, but she could still sense him.

For a moment, she worried that Garo would retreat, but he did not. Instead, he took off toward her at an astonishing speed. She resumed her strategy of teleporting in quick succession, knowing that he would attempt to trap her again and at the same time, contemplating a way to harm him.

Seconds later, four-walled traps began to spring up in all directions - never where she was, but always in places she could have teleported toward. If he continued it long enough, the chances were good that she would teleport into a trap or that one would form around her.

She teleported further and further away, hoping to escape his range. It did little good. He remained far behind her, but his walls did not. She was forced to pick her destinations carefully, knowing that one unlucky move could leave her trapped.

She survived another minute, and then there was a wall in front of her. She backtracked and found another wall. Before she could make another attempt, the walls were all around her, far enough apart that she could spread out her arms, but far too close.

She looked up in desperation. The prison was open to the sky, but she was not a bird. Perhaps it was possible to teleport high enough and fall over the wall, but that was also a good way to injure herself.

Garo slowed to a walk when he was within a thousand feet of her. His expression made her want to laugh. He seemed tired and irritated, not majestic as a god of war should be.

Remembering herself, Aria pounded on a wall with her fists. It remained stubbornly solid.