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Acrid

"Draw."

Nora pinched the bridge of her nose. "If you would just listen-"

Brielle leveled her sword, perfectly horizontal, flashing in the low light of the hideout. "Justice comes for us all, in our time. Your time is now. Draw."

A low murmur rippled through the crowd assembled around the duelists. Cyrene cocked an eyebrow at Nora, who was still lying on the sacks of grain that Brielle had kicked her into. Nora waved her lieutenant's concerns away. She stood up slowly, shifting her body's weight away from her bad leg. "You're going to an awful lot of trouble for little old me. Kicking down my door, roughing up my teammates-"

"She broke my hand!" Alain shouted. Pisha, wrapping their wrist in a splint, signed 'it's just sprained' where they couldn't see. Nora nodded solemnly.

"Seems like a lot of trouble to go to for an old smuggler!"

Brielle's gaze was steely and even. "In the name of the Crown, I challenge you to a duel. The time is now. The place is here. The weapons will be our swords. Do you accept my challenge?"

Nora scratched her head and looked around the room. "Well. Wouldn't want to back down in front of my team. I'm afraid, though-" she cast her gaze on Pisha, who had spat on the floor at the mention of rhe Crown- "that my friends here might not let you go peacefully if you were to beat me."

Something in Brielle's posture sagged with the realization. Nora snorted. "Wouldn't be the first time I've had to bail you out of something like this. You've never been the planning type."

Color rushed to Brielle's face and she jabbed her sword forward, her tone bitter and acidic. "You cannot lecture me anymore! That was decades ago! Duel me now or I will cut you down where you stand, criminal!"

Nora raised her hands, placating. "How about this. You win, I go with you, hands in cuffs, no tricks. You lose-" she paused for dramatic effect, and she could hear Cyrene suppressing a snicker- "you become my prisoner. Fair's fair!"

Brielle closed her eyes and took a deep breath. When she looked back at Nora, the emotion was gone from her face. "Fair. A fair duel, then. With no interference."

"You heard the officer! Everyone step back, no funny business, no rude words, betting is encouraged but if I win I get a cut." Nora put her hand on her sword hilt. "Till we yield?"

Brielle raised her sword, a vertical slash of steel bisecting her face, and nodded. Nora drew and raised her sword in a looser salute. "Have your second count us down," Brielle spat.

Cyrene nodded. "Swords up. Duel to surrender. Clash in three- two- one-"

Nora lunged forward, only a moment faster than Brielle, who caught her upswing on the flat of her blade. She grinned and sprang away, circling Brielle slowly. "Might as well give up now, Bree. You never could beat me in a fair fight."

Brielle scoffed and darted forward, her sword clashing sparks off of Nora's. "Thirty years ago-"

"Thirty-six!" Nora parried Brielle's blows, sweat already dripping down her face. "Thirty six years since you went to that damned academy, but hey!" She shoved Brielle back and steadied herself. "Who's counting?"

Brielle took a moment to readjust her grip. She could see the way Nora favored her left leg- when had that happened? An old injury? There was so much she must have missed- but there wasn't time for that now. She calmed her breathing and dashed forward to engage the smuggler again. "You wouldn't understand my goals. You were always the one who did whatever you wanted, never thinking about how the people around you felt-"

"Felt? What did you care about what I did, you were off in that ivory tower!" Nora feinted, drew Brielle's attention, then whirled to strike at her shoulder. Brielle only barely caught Nora's blade with hers in time. Her teeth ground against each other as she pushed, hoping to topple Nora onto the sawdust-covered floor. "You broke our bond the day you left," Nora continued, bitterness entering her tone for the first time. "I never would have guessed that you still remembered me, after all this time suckling at the teat of the Crown-"

"You were my best friend!" Brielle cried, and shoved Nora off of her. Nora's bad leg twisted and Brielle's eyes widened as she saw her topple onto the ground. Her body jerked, instinctually wanting to help her friend up, but she froze herself before she could move any further. She simply stood, panting, red-faced. "I never stopped thinking about you. About our home." She took a deep breath to compose herself. Nora was getting her legs back underneath her while she wasted time, but Brielle couldn't bring herself to stop her. "I could never forget about you."

Nora groaned, levering herself up by her sword. "C'mon now, you can't be getting all mushy while you're trying to kill me-"

"I'm not trying to kill you!" Brielle screamed, her blade clashing against Nora's, raised just in the nick of time. "If anyone else had gotten as close as I did, you'd be dead already! I'm trying to prevent them from killing you! Why-" crash- "-won't-" crash- "-you-" crash- "-just-" crash- "-LISTEN!"

Brielle's wild swings smashed in under Nora's guard and twisted her saber away from her hand. It flew up, a dazzle in the air that drew everyone's eyes, and clattered to the ground. Nora wrenched her gaze away from it and looked up to see Brielle's swordpoint an inch from her face. "Yield," Brielle hissed, "and I'll keep you safe."

Nora's gaze was steady as she raised her face to meet the sword. "Do it, then." The blade was sharp enough that even gently pushing forward was enough to break the skin. A thin line of blood began to sketch its way down her forehead. "I won't yield. Pass your judgement."

"What?" Brielle stepped back, sword wavering.

"You heard me." Nora stepped forward. "You're a knight of the Crown. A decorated officer. I'm a lowlife smuggler. You said it yourself, anyone else in your position would have killed me. So do it. I won't yield." She stepped forward again, took Brielle by the wrist, and moved her sword to the side of her neck. "The punishment for smuggling is death, isn't it?"

Brielle shook her head. Her throat felt closed up, she could only speak in a hiss. "But I can-"

"You can make an exception for me? Since you knew me, once? Since you know I'm not that bad at heart? But others, ones you don't know, they don't get exceptions, even if they have just as many people who love them as I do." Nora moved the blade away from her neck. It hung limply at Brielle's side. "Justice and the law are two very different things, Bree. You know that, deep down. You know that."

Brielle's sword clattered to the ground. She dropped to her knees. A cloud of sawdust hung around her. "I yield," she whispered, and hung her head.

Author's Notes:

This one was written 6/7/22 for a writing jam between me and my friend Wade. It gave me a word (acrid) for me to write a story about, and I did the same for it. It's fun to flash-fiction the relationship between two characters, especially if it has homoerotic undertones.