calm down, Phaedra,” I said, once she’d spent herself and had to recharge. Like me, she could pull water from the air, cocooned as we were by water in this ocean cave. Water that also kept out most air-elementals. What there had been, she’d probably already hoovered up. “Being human’s not that bad.”
She snarled again, her face a mask of inhuman rage.
“And besides,” I said, before she could answer back with either mage balls or words, “you’re going to burn yourself out.”
“I am Alfar, you stupid bitch. I will burn you out!” she yelled back at me, eyes manic with hate.
“No,” I replied, calmly. “You won’t. You can’t burn anything, not down here. You’re surrounded by water, dampening out your fire. And you’re cut off from air, as we’ve not had a fresh gust of anything but your own gaseous bellowing since we came down here.”
“I still have earth, and I still have water,” she said, but more quietly. She’d gone on the defensive, not that it mattered.
“No, you have only earth,” I said, and then I struck.
Using the same trick I’d learned from Trill and the kappa, I pulled the ocean over to my side. It was like playing string with a kitten: Every time Phaedra reached—expending power—I drew the water’s power back to me, out of her grasp.
Ever the Alfar, meanwhile, Phaedra wasn’t able to accept that I could best her with my own element. And instead of backing down and using her remaining element, like a sensible person, she just kept reaching.
And I kept shutting her down, till she was panting, her shields severely weakened. Only then did she back away and pull from the earth at her feet.
“There you go,” I said, smiling sweetly at her. “That’s a good girl. Now you know what it’s like to be one of us, with only one element.”
She growled something incomprehensible but almost certainly obscene as she pulled and pulled and pulled…
“You’re so slow,” I said, elegantly pulling my own water mojo around me like a cloak. “Not used to just having the one, are you?”
She snarled, lobbing a rather ineffectual green mage ball at me. It reminded me of Anyan, and I felt my own flare of temper.
“And so weak,” I jibed, trying to keep her off balance. But I was also telling the truth. I knew she wasn’t the strongest Alfar, but being able to pull from and combine all four elementals made her far more powerful than the majority of us single-elementals. Now she had only earth, and it didn’t appear as if she could hold too much of the element’s power at one time.
She’s got small earth pockets, I mused. While my own dear water pockets are generous.
“Are you going to talk at me all night, or are we going to fight?” the little woman asked finally, pulling herself upright.
She called that one, I thought, having fully intended to talk at her for as long as possible. But she didn’t need to know that.
“Oh, we’re going to fight, all right,” I said, baring my teeth in what I hoped was a predatory smile but I feared might look like I was requesting a spot spinach-check. And then I started pummeling her.
[Good, Jane, nice form,] the creature’s voice spoke in my mind, nearly causing me to lose my concentration. I’d almost forgotten about it, lurking behind me.
Thanks, I thought, as I kept pulling water-elementals away from Phaedra whenever she tried to reach, using them to recharge even as I launched barrage after barrage of mage balls. Phaedra’s shields were absorbing them, but she was weakening.
[What you need is a weapon,] the creature stated, and I thought of Blondie’s killer (literally) sword. The creature chuckled.
[No, you’ll not be able to create that sword. That’s a real weapon, forged by my surviving child. That’s part of her magic as much as it is the physical world. You need something different. Something made for you.]
Like what? I thought, as I kept Phaedra busy with a fresh volley of zinging mage balls.
[How about… this,] the creature said, as in front of me appeared a two-headed ax.
“An ax?” I said aloud, my voice unable to hide my scorn. Me with an ax? That’ll be like an episode of outtakes from the ill-fated Jane the Barbarian.
[Actually a labrys,] the creature informed me.
“See, I don’t even know my axes. That’s exactly why you need a different champion,” I said, nearly nicking Phaedra with a mage ball. She’d been distracted by an ax appearing