"You've gotten faster," Elowen said.
"You've gotten heavier," Lilith answered, and there was no tease in it now, only clean approval.
They stood close enough that the light running through Elowen's veins touched the edge of Lilith's veil and made a small patch clear.
Through that clear window, each woman saw the other with nothing in the way—no tricks, no cover. The small smiles were still there.
"Enough warm-ups," Lilith said.
"Agreed," Elowen replied.
Together, without counting, they drew deep.
Lilith called every mirror in the sky, the ground, and the undersides of things and made them align into a single blade shaped like a horizon.
It spanned edge to edge and slid sideways with no sound at all.
Elowen called every root from the trunk, platform, river knots, and bones of the arena, twisting them into a single spear shaped like a question asked of the world.
It rose from the floor with the crack of spring ice breaking.
