Tirr’s voice brought a mixture of shock and shame to Iesa, “My Lord, no!” She yelled, pleading towards where Tirr stood and a few of maria’s followers were already working their way down. “Please sir, I can still…” Tirr’s steely eyes silenced her without a word and she allowed her fellow disciples to retrieve her as Fari called the end of the fight.

  Koti watched with an expression of relief and fear as she slowly settled her breath. Her body ached and a deep exhaustion was already setting in from overuse of her shard… She started dragging herself back up towards the basin’s slope, glancing back only once to look at where her opponent had been standing just before…

  The ground where Iesa had risen was still glowing a molten red, smoke and steam drifting lazily away from it. If she had started off using that kind of power, Koti thought… Would her plan still have worked?

  In the end, she decided it was meaningless to think over what-ifs for the moment and proceeded up the slope of the basin towards where her mother stood with a gentle smile.

  “You did well, a true hunter…” Fari praised…

  “Thank you, Mother…” Koti responded politely, she paused, the words stuck on the tip of her tongue no doubt matching the thoughts stirring behind her mother’s concerned eyes. After a while, she simply nodded once before moving back to have someone examine her injuries from the fight.

  On the other side of the basin a dejected Iesa was half carried in front of Tirr, her eyes glued to the ground as she felt too ashamed to even look the young god in the face. Maria had moved over next to her, spreading her faith through Iesa’s body as the flame disciple’s injuries were too much for any of the other life branch followers to handle in an efficient amount of time.

  Iesa didn’t even dare to hiss in pain as her wounds slowly closed and healed themselves, her entire focus was waiting with bated breath for Tirr to speak. He kept her waiting, watching as Maria quickly handled her wounds before finally speaking

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  “You fought well…” He said seriously, frowning as he noticed Iesa’s head whip up in shock. “It's true… If you went up against anyone else, you probably would have won with no issues… Even against her, You only lost because you were disadvantaged from the start…”

  Seeing his follower’s confused look he explained, “Fire is a force that can be dangerously destructive. While there is more to it than that. You’re not at a level where you can fully understand that… Using the most destructive of my blessings while not being able to kill is a handicap… The same situation but against one of the most defensive of my blessings is crippling… I’m sure you understand that more than anyone now, right?”

  She nodded, it was only in the middle of the match that she felt just how restrictive that one rule was… If it had been an open fight it might not have been so bad, and maybe that was why Iesa hadn’t felt any reservations beforehand. But faced with Koti’s defensive style… Breaking through said defenses was hard enough, and breaking through without killing the person behind them was probably impossible for her.

  “This time was my fault,” Tirr continued, “I put you in the fight knowing the restrictions were bad for you because I assumed the worst that could happen is someone overpowered you guys with a more further developed shard, I didn’t imagine they’d have someone `like that and put you in knowing you weren’t suited for it.”

  “That’s not your….”

  Tirr waved her words away, “The point is you fought well, and it was obvious you were listening to what I was teaching you. You might have lost this time, but it was only because of the rules. For now, go rest…”

  Iesa nodded solemnly and saluted once more before moving towards the back of the group. On her way she found Lin, moving up toward the front in preparation for the next match… Seeing her rival she smiled bitterly, putting up a false bravado as she spoke. “Go on the laugh at me then, tell me how I’m a failure and don’t deserve to be here!”

  “Why?” Lin spoke calmly as she continued past, “So you can feel better? If you have time for that then work harder…”

  Iesa watched dumbstruck as the water disciple started down into the basin. She frowned, realizing that Lin had been right… She had been hoping for someone to reprimand her, to tell her it was her fault, especially after how understanding Tirr had been.

  Iesa found a quiet spot to sit as Lin prepared for her battle, pulling her head in her hands to hide the tears that silently streaked down her face.