Devotia Ch. 19: Conviction

Hamada is panting, and looks as though she's wincing. Some of her clothes have scorch marks, and some of her hair has been singed. She adjusts her posture, giving herself a moment to catch her breath while Velena paces at a distance, unhurried, studying her to plan her next attack.

The older Magister collapses the ward and Velena attacks immediately, shooting forth a flat disk of energy that Hamada dodges. Hamada races forward, sprinting at Velena - seemingly deciding she'd have more success at close range. And as Hamada approaches, a ward shielding her charge, Velena does something Callie did not believe was possible.

She unravels the threadstones underfoot.

The magic of threadstone was not dissimilar to the magic that had let Callie be remade into a woman. With the weaving of beams of light into her, she was able to take on a new form, new features, and be completely remade the way she'd always wanted. It's a nearly impossible process to reverse, as Mykah had explained to her - it becomes so intricately connected to the body that it would be like skinning a person alive to remove it. Threadstone was the same, using that process and a high-temperature kiln to give the stones a durability and flexibility far beyond most materials. Only the mage who'd cast it could hope to accurately unwind it, if needed.

Only the mage who'd made it, or an extraordinarily powerful Magister.

The ground under Hamada's charge crumbles, bursting the stones apart and giving Velena an armada of golden tendrils to pull against Hamada's legs, tripping her. It takes a quick response from Hamada not to be swallowed whole, but the time it takes for her to respond gives Velena the upper hand.

She whips forth a barrage of powerful blasts at Hamada, who only narrowly blocks them, letting one after another explode against her shield in one hand, while her other hand frees her from the sinking terrain underneath her. She stumbles forward, continuing her charge valiantly, only for her ward to shatter at Velena's next blast.

So Hamada plays her wildcard. She sinks her fingers into her forearms, ripping the golden tattoos out of her skin.

"Did she just... what?" Callie exclaims.

Junivere can't believe it either. "Her tattoos... are threaded?"

"That's insane! That would be... wow."

Hamada wields the former tattoo vines like whips, cracking them into the air and sending Velena on the defensive for the first time. One of them catches the younger Magister's arm, causing her to cry out in pain, and if not for her expert footwork Velena would surely be brought down to the ground.

Hamada presses the attack, spinning the whips in a constant wheel of blows, one after another after another, each one crackling and sizzling loudly like a firework, dripping fountains of sparks like a waterfall. She lashes them at Velena's feet, forcing her to maintain a bottom-heavy ward which keeps her off balance. Hamada sends the occasional strike upwards, bashing against the upper shield to prevent Velena from focusing her efforts, and for a moment, it seems like Hamada might win.

But Velena wasn't on her backfoot, she was carefully biding her time, repositioning the two of them for her next move. She waits for a brief gap between strikes, then suddenly drops her ward entirely, dodging the next slash of a whip and throwing her hands out in front of her.

She encases Hamada in a ward.

Wards are difficult to maintain at a distance - they become fundamentally weaker. But all Velena needs is a moment of reprieve, forcing Hamada to spend effort bursting the ward open - and by the time she succeeds, Velena sends a blast of force shooting her back into the fountain.

Hamada crashes into the plinth of the sculpture and collapses into the water. She stumbles back up to her feet, suddenly having to deflect a cascading series of blasts from Velena. She looks exhausted, and trapped in water up to her waist, her movements become sluggish and weary. If Velena is tired at all, it doesn't show.

"She's not going to make it," Callie breathes out gravely.

"She's clever," Calvin attempts. "She can pull it off."

"No, she's cornered. She's out of options."

Callie watches frightfully as Velena presses the attack, blasting her over and over again. She'd continue until Hamada's exhaustion finally tore through her, and then she'd finish her off. It was over.

Panicking, Callie gazes around, trying to think of something, find some way to turn the tide. Her knuckles turn white gripping Calvin's and Junivere's hands. She was not willing to give this life up. She was not willing to be cast out, to send running away once more.

All of her life is here. Her loves are here, her needs are here. Everything about who she is has become intricately tied to Solva. It's a home she desperately needed, a destiny she never believed she could be possible of.

She can't lose.

I can't run again.

Not again.

Her eyes flick up to the sky.

The full moon.

And she takes a breath.

Knows that the idea in her mind is impossible.

Yala. Please.

Please.

And shutting her eyes, grabbing hold of Calvin and Junivere like everything could be brought into her will by sheer desperation, Callie feels the cool tug of the goddess' magic within her.

The water around Hamada shatters into mirror drops as she bursts into a glorious spectacle of light. A cascading beam of silver joins the golden blasts of Velena's power, and she halts suddenly, struggling to comprehend the scene around her.

Hamada reacts faster, accepting the blessing without question. She brings the mirror drops into the air around her, draining the water of the pool and sending a spiraling mandala of glowing glass into a wave in front of her. Its silver light is nearly blinding as it reflects the morning sun.

Velena increases the force of her attacks, sending sizzling balls of fire to smash through the ward taking shape in front of Hamada. Unlike the wards of Suul's magic, which are hard and solid, the ward in front of Hamada has give to it, allowing each fireball to stretch its boundaries before it swallows them whole and extinguishes them.

The mirror drops bend and evaporate against each attack, and Velena screams in fury as she steps up her barrage. Hamada finds her footing but can't escape the fountain, devoting all of her strength to absorbing each blast to keep herself standing, keep herself thinking.

And Callie realizes that despite the blessing, Velena is still stronger. Each fireball burns hotter and destroys more and more of the ward. Hamada is going to lose.

Velena presses the attack as Callie succumbs to the defeat, her hands growing limp in her lovers' palms. She steps forward with each attack, vaporizing more and more of the mirror drops with each moment.

One of the fireballs breaks through the ward.

It misses Hamada.

It soars past the fountain and instead of striking high on the ward, it goes clean through.

Velena tosses a threadbeam to recover it, prepared to once again wield the blast like a flail as she had done before, but Hamada's ward rises to block the beam. She abandons protecting herself for long enough to stop the attack, forcing the fireball to soar helplessly beyond her control. She hardly flinches as Velena stabs a spear of light through her abdomen, hoping to kill her.

But she's too late, the fireball explodes against the side of the cathedral, shattering one of the archways nearby Callie's balcony and sending stones plummeting down towards the crowd below. Quick action from the mages at the gates lift enough wards to save them from any harm.

With a glowing spear impaling Hamada through her abdomen, Velena pauses.

Hamada is laughing and coughing up blood as Knight-Captain Wellt marches out to meet them, and Velena punches her across the face.

Wellt leaps forward and grabs Velena's hand, restraining her from another attack. Their voices amplify mid-argument.

"-outside the boundaries of the arena constitutes a forfeiture," Wellt is exclaiming. "The duel goes to-,"

"She received a blessing!" Velena screams back, ripping her hand from the Knight-Captain as Hamada carefully extricates the spear from her stomach, holding a glowing palm to her wound to stabilize the bleeding. "That is outside intervention, which is also a violation!"

Hamada spits a bloody wad out of her mouth. "Blessings cannot be performed at this range, Magister Velena. And both of our Devotia are tucked far enough away that your misfire nearly killed them." She takes a rattling breath, sucking air into her lungs greedily. "It seems the goddess saw fit to favor me."

Junivere's grip on Callie's palm hardens. In a quiet voice, she pleads, "Tell me that wasn't you."

Callie swallows. "As she said... blessings cannot be performed from range."

I guess I've also done the impossible today.

Knight-Captain Wellt separates Velena and Hamada, then paces between them, considering. The Magisters deamplify their voices, and Callie can see them shouting at them as Wellt tries to make sense of it all. Her form is rigid, soldierly, and she seems torn.

She gazes up at the balcony, directly towards Callie, and Callie realizes something. Wellt might not have known blessings were a proximity affair if she'd not stepped in for Calvin to accept the blessings for the knighthood. Sure, she might have known about it, but she wouldn't have personally experienced it if she hadn't spent multiple afternoons with her hands upon Callie, tucked away in the villa.

Callie smiles. Can hardly contain herself.

It's over.

Wellt turns back, once again sending the three of their voices booming out to the assembled crowd. Before the amassed city, at the steps of the cathedral, in sight of two Devotia, Wellt proclaims, "Based upon the understanding that a Devotia's blessing cannot be performed at such a distance, I rule the intervention to be the actions of a goddess." She pauses, pursing her lips. "I shall not dictate what a goddesses' will might be, nor shall I impede the wife of Holy Suul from interventions as she sees fit - it is within their divine wisdom."

A pause.

"I rule Magister Hamada as the victor."

Callie has never heard a scream of frustration as the sound Velena makes as she storms off. The crowd parts for her, not daring to be caught within her path as she marches away, the air crackling with energy as she goes.

"Magister Hamada, who do you nominate to her seat?"

Hamada closes her eyes and sighs. Callie had expected her to be excited, relieved, but she only looks worried. With a heavy voice, exhausted and distraught, Hamada mutters, "My other apprentice. Jassien."

- - -

Baris succeeds in the challenges to acquire Markin's seat, much to Callie's delight. She'd now have two supporters in the Imperium.

It isn't until Jassien is facing duels that Callie understands Hamada's sorrow. She'd condemned him to die. It hadn't occurred to Callie that someone could re-challenge for their seat.

Velena kills Jassien in five seconds.