Corvina was attempting to give off a much stronger sense of bravado then she actually felt.

The voice of her Uncle Ulrich echoed in her head. Sometimes it’s less about how good you are at fighting, and more about how good your opponent thinks you are at fighting.

In truth, Corvina had been terrified when Anne had been yanked away from her. She hadn’t even realized until that moment just how horrifying the idea of never seeing Anne again was.

But she didn’t have time to panic. Anne was in danger.

Corvina got up to run in the direction she thought the kidnapper had headed in. She quickly kicked off her high heels, which were difficult to run in, and began to remove her stockings even while she continued to stumble forward.

Finally, she took her knife out of its sheath on her thigh and half-cut, half-tore at her skirt until it was a length where it was no longer getting in her way. She couldn’t risk the long skirt getting caught on anything and slowing her down or tripping her up at a key moment.

Then she was finally able to focus her full attention on finding Anne.

They were in a hedge maze, which meant it was difficult to navigate, but Corvina had seen the shadow carrying Anne head further towards the middle of the maze, not away from it, so that at least gave her a direction to head in.

As Corvina ran, exploring dead end after dead end, she also listened carefully for any hint of where Anne and her assailant might be.

Eventually, she heard voices.

“Tell me!”

“I’m not…”

Corvina couldn’t understand much more of what was said, but she recognized Anne’s voice, and that narrowed down where she might be.

Finally Corvina found them in a dark dead end. The kidnapper was holding Anne up by her lapel and had a dagger held to her throat.

Corvina saw red.

Without thinking she was already throwing the knife.

When it only knicked the kidnapper’s ear, Corvina clicked her tongue in annoyance. She’d meant for it to land in the soft spot of the back of his skull, piercing directly into his brain. If only she hadn’t been neglecting target practice lately.

Nevertheless, she readied her sword and projected as much confidence as she could, as if the missed attack had been part of her plan all along.

“That was just a warning,” she said. “Get away from the Saintess or prepare to meet the Goddess.”

The kidnapper looked at her, an annoyed expression on his face. Or her face? Based on the slender figure, the kidnapper might be a woman, and Corvina knew quite well how dangerous women could be. Not that it mattered either way. What mattered was that this person was threatening Anne.

“You’ve interrupted our conversation,” said the kidnapper, launching into an attack.

The strike was swift, but straightforward, and Corvina was able to move on time to block it. The kidnapper jumped back again immediately.

A smart move. Technically Corvina had the advantage based on weapons range alone, but that didn’t matter as long as the kidnapper kept herself out of Corvina’s range as much as possible.

But nothing would happen as long as they remained in a stalemate. Corvina took a risk and lunged forward. The kidnapper dodged aside and leapt forward, attempting to stab Corvina in the side while she was open, but Corvina had anticipated this and she quickly brought her arm back in a sideways swipe, hoping to catch the kidnapper in their own forward momentum. But the kidnapper managed to change tactics mid-lunge and dodge back out of the way again.

“Corvina!”

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Corvina glanced to the side. Anne had evidently managed to dig Corvina’s knife out of the hedge and was holding it out to her.

Corvina kept an eye on the kidnapper, who was crouched and ready to pounce. Moving at this juncture would carry a lot of risk.

“Toss it over,” said Corvina.

“Are you sure?” asked Anne, nervously.

“Yes, toss it to me, now!” said Corvina.

Anne carefully threw the knife, tossing it up in the air underhand, and the kidnapper took that moment of distraction to lunge again.

Corvina fended off the blow with her sword and with her free hand deftly caught the knife out of the air, spinning around into a duel-wielding fighting stance, with her sabre in one hand and her dagger in the other, both pointed toward the kidnapper.

This was not the standard chivalric dueling style common among the aristocrats of the Wyernwolf Empire. But Corvina hadn’t been trained by an aristocrat. She was trained by a street thug.

It never hurts to have more knives than the other bastard, Uncle Ulrich had always said.

Another thing he always said was, You’ll never win a fight by playing it safe.

Corvina thrust forward. When the kidnapper blocked with her dagger, Corvina brought her own dagger around with her other arm and jabbed it deep into the kidnapper’s leg.

It was a similar tactic to the one she had tried earlier, but with two blades Corvina could move quicker, making it more difficult for her opponent to dodge.

The kidnapper shouted in pain and Corvina, lost in the euphoria of landing a blow in a real fight, momentarily lost her concentration.

When the kidnapper struck out with her dagger this time, Corvina dodged backwards just a moment too late.

“Corvina!” Anne ran forward towards her.

The cut across her chest was shallow, but the pain was as sharp as the iron smell of blood that now filled Corvina’s nostrils, making her dizzy.

If the kidnapper had chosen to press her advantage, she might have finished Corvina off there and then. But she was also wounded. And more than that, she seemed annoyed and impatient.

“I wasn’t paid to kill you,” she said. She still had her dagger out, pointed towards Anne and Corvina, but she was backing away rather than pressing forward. “We’ll just have to finish this conversation later, fake Saintess.”

Fake Saintess…? But Corvina didn’t have time to think about that right now.

“Quick, we have to go after her!”

“Let them go!” said Anne. “Corvina, you’re hurt!”

Corvina shook her head, and then shook Anne off of her, running forward, trying her best to remember the way out of the maze. “If we let her go now she’ll just be back. She’ll keep trying to kill you, over and over until she succeeds. I can’t let that happen! We have to stop her now!”

----------------------------------------

Eva rushed through the hallways of the mansion and out into the garden, keeping an eye on the events unfolding in the hedge maze.

“What’s the danger?” asked the maid, who was running after her. “Is my lady okay? Can I help? What’s going on?”

If only the maid would leave her alone, Eva could teleport directly to where Anne was and save her. But she couldn’t risk teleporting in front of someone else, especially not one of Lady Corvina’s people.

Eva’s spell gave her access to both audio and visual feeds of what was going on around Anne, but the audio feed took more concentration to access, and with Helen chattering in her ear she couldn’t really make out what Anne was talking about with the assassin. She only caught bits of the conversation here and there.

“—both a man and a woman—“

“—soul was in the wrong body—“

“—aura is wrong—“

“—I’m not—“

“—original Saintess—“

Eva couldn’t make heads or tails of it. Clearly this assassin was insane, babbling some sort of nonsense at poor Anne. But as long as he was babbling, he wasn’t killing Anne.

And then Lady Corvina showed up and the duel began.

And then the assassin was running away.

If Eva could shake Helen off and meet the assassin at the entrance of the hedge maze she was confident she could end this once and for all.

But Helen was surprisingly quick and determined. Eva couldn’t manage to leave her behind.

“Just tell me what’s going on!” shouted Helen, just as they reached the entrance to the hedge maze.

“Just go back and wait in the house!” shouted Eva. “You’re just getting in the way!”

Just then the assassin jumped over the final hedge and landed on the ground in front of the two women.

The assassin and Eva made eye contact and a moment passed between them. A recognition between powerful magic users.

Then the assassin leapt forward and grabbed Helen, holding his dagger to her throat.

“Don’t move,” said the assassin. “Or the maid dies.”

Eva smirked.

You’ve made a mistake if you think I care about the life of anyone other than Anne, she thought to herself, as she gathered a powerful magical energy from within herself.

But before Eva could cast her spell, Anne and Lady Corvina came stumbling out of the hedge maze.

“Helen!” shouted Corvina, rushing forward. But the assassin pressed his knife closer to Helen’s throat and Corvina stopped in her tracks.

“Let her go!” shouted Anne. “You weren’t paid to kill her either, were you?”

“I also wasn’t paid to die,” said the assassin. “Just leave me alone. Let me leave this place and no one has to die… yet.”

Corvina, looking defeated, dropped both of her weapons, letting them fall to the ground with a soft thud.

Eva weighed her options.

Anne was here now, watching. That severely narrowed her choices.

But if things escalated enough there would eventually become a point where Eva didn’t care who saw what.

Eva made eye contact with the assassin again, and again a sort of unspoken understanding passed between them.

“Don’t follow me,” said the assassin. He pushed the maid down into the dirt and then quickly disappeared into the distance.