[b]Mirror[/b]

She knows that she’s lost this fight. You can read it in her body language as you lift off, in the slightest hint of lethargy of the responding shield drones before they’re blown apart by your tails.

It’s one of the easier calculations to make. She’s used a vast amount of resources. Nor is this a Solarel style battlefield, she has not snuck into the space and filled it with hidden mines or had the opportunity to seed the field with heretofore unseen drones. Marcina Villajero is not the sort of woman to partake in such tricks, but prides herself on being able to foil or endure them. You, though, you have outlasted her in every way that counts. Perhaps in another minute she would rally and understand how to fight you with simply her sword. Perhaps she could make that realization. But in this moment, she has used up or lost nearly all of her payload, attacked you in your most vulnerable and limited position with the most speed she can muster, and the blow was not decisive. It did not even slow you nor disable your next attack. And now you have freedom of motion. 

“If I am like walking the mountain, then I see that you have mounted me” she says, with a voice that sings bittersweet. “Come then, take what you have earned.”

She does not concede, but charges you again. Knowing that she cannot avoid the shot, knowing that she will not make it to you. She watched the Heim Stockar fight as well, and understands the power you can put out. But what is she to do? Dodge? Dodge and dodge and dodge in a machine that will exhaust her to do so and hope for an opening? No, she is the bulky one, the one in armor and with the sword that can end the fight in one blow all her own. She will fight and give herself completely to your hands. 

Do with her what you will. 

[She takes a string on you in offering her submission and will spend it immediately to offer an XP for you to show her everything you’ve got.]

***

[b]Isabel and Solarel[/b]

The long slow dance is coming to a close. You’ve already mapped the terrain. Pieces of the cityscape were blown apart at random and no new threats have since emerged. The clouds were ionized, released, and ionized again and no new threats have emerged. The remaining structures, such as they are, present a known set of visuals. Surprising how quickly you can start to get a feel for what’s going to be at your back without needing to stop and look. A new map only challenges its players briefly and then they solve it for its particular quirks and eccentricities. 

What remains to you is simply to avoid the distraction of the beautiful sunset, casting the sky in a vivid mixture of oranges and pinks. 

Bring the duel to its conclusion. 

***

[b]Dolly and Jade[/b]

“Alright that will do for today. See you again same time tomorrow?” Slate’s smile is all teeth. She had fun, and she knows she had fun. She knows about your connection, and well, some things can be inferred even if they aren’t directly stated. Though surely this was a coincidence, a lucky moment that she chose to capitalize on, perhaps didn’t even realize until it was already happening and she was coming out of her technical reverie. 

“I think we have all the details we need. The larger parts will come either tomorrow or the day after. We’ll need a little time to get them switched out, which I’m sure you’re familiar with, and  then there will need to be some rounds of testing and tuning. I admit that I am curious how that works with Smokeless Jade Fires. Normally the AI provides raw data and then the pilot compares their impressions. A tenth of a second faster turning isn’t useful if it makes the pilot feel sick, that sort of thing. But in this case I imagine the goddess has the final say in most of these things, at least as long as the high priestess can handle it. Any questions for me?”