It's strangely unnerving to fight someone who doesn't care about surviving.

She has fought people who knew they were going to die. Better people than her, who hoped to buy time for others, who stood knock-kneed and trembling. But always, they fought with... Well, saying they fought with hope would sound unbelievably trite. But they fought as if they wanted to live, as if they dreamed to imagine that there might be another outcome.

The two fight like dancers. Each movement is precise, exact. Every thrust and defense, calculated. But the calculations are [i]wrong,[/i] and there's no other way for Alexa to think of it. Lorventi throws herself into the fight like a berzerker, takes risks that no sane person could. It should be so incredibly easy to take advantage, get in the one good thrust needed. it's what Lorventi wants!

But time and again, Alexa flinches back and is punished for it. The Aegis accumulates molten floor, scratches--does not crack, thank Athena--but each time, that willingness to die, to push beyond what is required, unnerves Alexa.

All she has to do, she tells herself, is keep at it. Keep Lorventi facing her. Keep her thinking of stabbing and twirling and not noticing the... whatever the Redana thing is.

Any day now. Take your time.
[Keep them Busy, 9.]