It was one thing to know that Brendis and Haroun were the greatest warriors to ever live. To know that they had three thousand years to hone and practice their craft against each other, and anyone else who dared challenge their skill.

But to see it was something else entirely.

Brendis was a whirl of steel. His sword, as ancient as he was and powerful in itself, flashed with the light of a dozen spells as he held off the first rush of soldiers. His face was a mask of hard concentration as he forced them back one step, and then another. Raeca remembered seeing Haroun fight off the bandits who attacked her town, but those ragged men were nothing to Calliope’s bone white-armored soldiers.

Still, no one wanted to run at the Hero when he stood like that, shoulders squared, sword and shield ready to take on however many came at him. He could, and had, faced down armies. He was prepared to face this one as well to protect the woman he loved, and his oldest friend.

Spells made the air quake as Calliope and Haroun met, magic against magic, hatred against hatred. Spells wove about him, some spoken but most pulled from charms, ready to cast at any moment as he emptied his impressive arsenal at his ancient enemy.

Calliope screamed in fury, and met him, her magic different, brighter and harder like sunlight on ice, but no less effective. Already, Haroun bled from a dozen small wounds as he battled her this way and that.

Raeca looked between him and Brendis, paralyzed with fear. She was a healer of a small village. Yes, she saw blood and pain, but never like this. Never spilled out as men did their best to kill each other, and even the castle around them seemed to vibrate with angry readiness.

The need to help them broke through her fear, and she ran to Haroun first, trusting his magic to hold Calliope off long enough for her to do her work.

There was no time for finesse. Raeca planted her hands on his back, and focused, her own magic charged and ready, because what good would it have done before now? She was a healer, not a battlemage.

But she was a healer, tutored by the Dark Sorcerer, and his pride would never allow a student of his, particularly one of his bloodline, to fail in the heat of the moment.

Also, he spoke quite a number of languages, and could curse fluently in all of them even while flinging spells from both hands.

To be fair, having his injuries healed in one powerful rush hurt. Raeca was glad that all he did was curse.

As soon as he was healed, battling to keep Calliope’s magic off while Brendis handled the soldiers, Raeca ran for her hero.

Brendis fought like a man armored in his convictions. At last, he had his best friend at his back, and a woman who loved him to stand for.

With that to give him strength, he would fight until it killed him.

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Of course, Raeca wasn’t about to let him die. Not before she got at least one proper kiss out of him, and hopefully many more.

But first they needed to survive this, and it would take both him and Haroun to make it happen.

As she reached him, a wave of archers poured in the door, shouting as they took aim.

“‘Roun! Archers!” Brendis shouted, and raised his shield, even as Raeca took cover behind him. She heard the thrum of bowstrings and heard Brendis curse in pain as some made it past his shield. Out of the corner of her eye, Raeca saw a deep amber shield shimmer up around Haroun, just in time.

“Your defiance will cost you dearly,” Calliope seethed from the dais, still beautiful in her white gown, but now marked with sweat and burns from casting, and the places where Haroun’s spells found their mark. “Every time you find peace, you will remember me, and I will turn all you love to dust in your mouth!”

“The prophecy is biting at your heels, Calliope!” Haroun yelled back. He blasted the archers with a shockwave that left most of them dead, and the rest injured or dying. “Can you feel it calling for you?”

“Killing you has been my greatest joy!” The queen shrieked, and blasted them, calling up waves of white-glowing crystal shards, each blade-sharp and lethal. The shards swarmed around them. Haroun split his attention enough to throw a second shield around Raeca and Brendis, and it saved their lives. “I will make entertainment of you in our next life! What a show you will make, dying slowly in the middle of my glorious temple!”

“This will be your last life!” Brendis told her as Raeca pulled arrows out of him and closed the wounds with hands that no longer shook. Haroun’s shield trembled under Calliope’s attack, but held, his will to protect them stronger than her will to break through. “We’ve lived too long already. Raeca, get behind me. Haroun?”

“Ready,” Haroun said, and blasted Calliope’s spell apart, magic blazing around him. “Time and past to end this.”

For the first time, fear crept into Calliope’s as they advanced on her, with Raeca behind them, protected, but ready to heal them if they needed her.

“Simple Brendis,” Calliope said, and clenched her fists together, before flinging them out, and open. The floor shuddered and cracked, and they had to break formation to get away as the white marble splintered down into the tombs below. “It was so easy to turn you on him each time. You would believe anything in those early lives. It was my favorite version of you.”

“Why did you do it?” Brendis demanded as Raeca held onto the back of his tunic. He caught another spell, more fire, on his shield, and Raeca lost sight of Haroun in the blaze. “I loved you!”

“I loved immortality,” Calliope replied silkily, and then gasped in pain. The fire vanished as she lost her concentration. “Desert rat! I should have killed you years ago!”

“You tried,” Haroun told her, and then cursed as she slashed out at him with an elegant sword that fit her hand perfectly. “You failed!”

Brendis pushed forward and caught Calliope’s sword on his just as she chopped down at Haroun, stronger, and armed with a heavier blade. She spun away and pivoted, a dancer through and through and poetry with her blade despite her long gown.

But for the first time, she was outnumbered, and outmatched, and they forced her back until finally Brendis twisted her sword out of her hands, and it clattered to the floor.

“Give in,” he told her as Calliope gasped for breath, fury radiating off her in waves even as Haroun held off her magic. “The circle must be broken. Let us have our peace at last.”

“You think me defeated?” Calliope laughed dismissively, her painted lips curled in a cruel smile as she stared l them down, unbowed. “There are other ways to win this game.”

A knife flashed in her hand, and Raeca yelped as Haroun pulled her out of the mad queen’s reach. But she wasn’t Calliope’s target. Not this time.

“I learned more about our prophesy than either of you!” Calliope laughed as she drove the dagger into her own heart. She gasped with triumph even as blood spilled down her white gown and stained it red. “I will be queen again!”