*Boom*

The lightning strike is so loud, even I, who saw it coming, am shaken. This close to the sky, the Sisyphean Cliffs are just a giant echo chamber and it reverberates everywhere, over and over.

*Boom*

Somehow, I think the red rock in this place has begun to melt. Grit and dust, loose bits of the past, the storm revitalizes them and drags them out from the river of time. A layer of wet muddy slime begins to ooze up, swallowing the rain, making every step slick. I can see Janus on the other side. Already in position, his superior speed has brought him to the start before me. But I knew that. I see you. Can you shake my eyes? Who will win, your speed or my Foresight? I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous. All my planning, all this training, it should work out. This world though...it’s not like Earth. Things don’t always go according to plan here. Believe in yourself. It will work. It has to work!

*Boom*

I take my place, there’s a little spot in the rocks. Directly across from Janus. It’s new, smooth and clearly crafted by magic. In the past, after all, the Third Trial was not meant to be a competition between two people. The victor would have already been decided in the Second Trial and the Third Trial would have just been a challenge to show they can master the final technique. Janus’s spot across from me is older, grander. Well-worn in the rock, he stands on a perch which looks as if it will lead him to heaven. A place for someone to take off and spread their wings. A place from which one might stop a storm. It makes my little perch look like a stepping stone. The discrepancy between our starting positions is probably meant to be demeaning. Intimidating, a joke the Elders play to show me my place. However, I rather like my spot. It’s different, just as I am. I am not like the others.

“Both Candidates have entered,” Jarshan announces from the side. He stands in front of Elina, a reminder that no interference will be allowed. I can tell she wants to look away. The horror she experienced still haunts her. But she can’t escape the past without abandoning me. Her mask remains pointed in my direction, watching the Trial no matter how she hates it. The wolf-masked Supervisor’s voice echoes everywhere just as loud as the storm as he proclaims, “Upon my mark...you will begin. Let nothing stop you except surrender or cold death. Are you both prepared?”

“Naturally!” Janus answers first. Only because I let him though. All eyes turn to me.

“I’m ready!” My reply is met by Jarshan’s deep breath. His indifference towards the other Candidates, towards the Trials in general, is gone. You can tell he’s invested in this. Upon my words, he closes his eyes and then crosses his arms. Readying himself. Now!

“BEGIN!”

[Cold Wall At The End of The Divide]

Janus is fast. My Foresight is faster. His feet blur into motion, leaving behind the platform of his predecessors just a split second after I begin chanting. It’s a long spell. But I am faster than ever before. Before meeting Perideen, before training with Elina, before being given a reason, I was never this fast. However, these Trials really have changed me. Perideen did not lie. I have become strong. My omissions are perfect, it’s a chant from my first teacher, her words will always be my barrier against harm.

[You Who Guard Against Failing Light]

*Tap*

Each step from Janus eats up a huge distance-

[Sunder This Dark Night!]

*Tap*

He lands and surges forwards-

[Bring Me Refuge From All Plights!]

*Tap*

One step, one sentence, mud splashes about his boots-

*Tap*

[Come Forth-Frozen Seal]

My spell completes as he arrives in front of me. His short swords blurring into crescent arcs, I can hardly follow them with my eyes. But my mind knows they’re coming. Ice crystals grow from thin air, the falling raindrops freeze over and explode into little snowflakes. A swirling snow-globe, my icy igloo forms and locks out Janus. He smashes into my Frozen Seal with the force of a titanic creature. Those wild beasts I fought with Mephis as a child, they had nothing on this freak of nature. Cracks run through my absolute defense at the first blow, ear piercing shrieks howl into the night, but the rain landing on the ice, freezes instantly, and reforms my walls even as he hacks away. As I expected, my spells have gotten stronger. The Frozen Seal holds...for now.

Crap.

I thought I’d have time to lay some Earthen Icebombs to hold him off.

But goddammit, he’s already here!

The future is a fickle mistress. As Janus pulls back for another strike outside the dome, I pull deeply on time and space, trying to rip out their secrets. My world ripples, double-sight showing me what will happen if I abandon my icy home and attack him. What if I-

[Frozen Wind of My Soul, Come Forth-Chill]

[Stormy Breeze of My Loneliness, Gather Forth-Gust]

An ice and wind projectile flies forwards in my simulated future-sight. The great circular igloo around me parts ways as I shoot backwards and try to gain space while attacking. Janus will step forwards. It’s all happening so fast. Just two seconds of prediction, yet so much is happening. My ice bullets barely give him pause, he contemptuously blocks them and then sweeps towards me. I can’t gain enough space. His blade flashes, and my future shatters into a thousand torn ribbons-

Too slow. I knew it.

These freaking Rainstopper monsters.

My regular spells are too slow!

I abandon that possible future and simulate another. The icy Frozen Seal in the present reappears in front of me, Janus is still outside hammering to get in. This time, I don’t even leave the Frozen Seal. I simply think about leaving the dome, and find his position outside in the future. With that knowledge, I break the simulation and restart another projection. Now that I know where he is, I could fire upon him without leaving my defenses. It’s a deep prediction, I’m almost at the end of the two seconds I can simulate but lets see what happens if I...

[Frozen Wind of My Soul, Come Forth-Chill]

[Stormy Breeze of My Loneliness, Gather Forth-Gust]

My spell explodes through the walls of the Frozen Seal and targets Janus on the other side even though we can’t see each other. A dozen of my strongest ice shards-

*Toc*

*Toc*

*Poof*

My ice shards do find him, since he couldn’t see them coming behind the Frozen Seal. But they do zero damage. He easily blocks most of them, and the ones that do get through...explode on his cheeks. It’s like there’s an invisible barrier over his skin, an iron wall that I can’t breach. I’m cut down a second later.

Goddamit.

It’s pointless, just like I expected. Any spell big enough to penetrate his defenses, he’ll just dodge. And any spell I can cast quickly enough to hit him before he can react, won’t do damage.

Just in case, I try one more thing. Simulating, I attempt the spell I used on Meera. However, that future ends even more abruptly than the first two. He knows it’s coming when I raise my hands and open the Frozen Seal. His blade is faster than my clap. It slides into my eyes and I blink in the present as a stinging pain erupts in my head. Alright! He’s too damn strong! It’s time to gamble. Risky plan, an all-in if I ever saw one. But what other choice do I have?

My lips start moving again-

[Frozen Wind of My Soul, Come Forth-Chill]

[Stormy Breeze of My Loneliness, Gather Forth-Gust]

[Stormy Breeze of My Loneliness, Gather Forth-Gust]

[Frozen Wind of My Soul, Come Forth-Chill]

...

[Frozen Wind of My Soul, Come Forth-Chill]

I chant over and over again, the same two basic lines. No more simulations, this is happening in the present. It takes longer than two seconds to cast so I have no idea whether I’ll succeed or not. There is no incantation that I know of for the spell I seek. It is something only I can make. I alternate between Silent Casting two spells, first Gust, and then Chill. Any spell I cast in my mind is always a little weaker so I have to switch which one is silent every other line. Otherwise, this spell is so delicate it could very well fizzle or worse...explode.

[Frozen Wind of My Soul, Come Forth-Chill]

[Stormy Breeze of My Loneliness, Gather Forth-Gust]

Pulling mana through Mephis’s glove, I use the Bloodstone to draw more mana than I’ve ever summoned before. It all builds inside my palms, between my hands. I shape it into a sphere, always tightening, compressing, squeezing the cold air inwards. Fancy pattern, in the end, everything weaves together into a vortex. Moisture from the air is instantly sucked out and turned solid. An icy orb forms within my hands filled with the coldest cold, so much frost inside that as it freezes and is compacted into the rest of the ball, it gets heavy. If my mind wasn’t linked to this thing, I wouldn’t be able to lift it.

[Stormy Breeze of My Loneliness, Gather Forth-Gust]

[Frozen Wind of My Soul, Come Forth-Chill]

*Crack*

Janus’s sword makes it through my Frozen Seal’s walls. The long, sharp tip pokes in towards my face but stops short.

How long has it been in real time?

Seconds?

[Frozen Wind of My Soul, Come Forth-Chill]

[Stormy Breeze of My Loneliness, Gather Forth-Gust]

It’s so hard to remember with all these possibilities!

Just have to finish this spell or it’s over!

*Crack*

His second sword breaks through my frozen dome, in another spot, a bit lower. The two sword-tips saw towards each other, and rip a ragged tear in the wall. The outside air feels warm as it rushes in and Janus’s face comes into view. I’m late. He’s faster than I expected. Much faster. His swords pull back, and the future swirls. I see what happens. Then I let out a little smile.

[Stormy Breeze of My Loneliness, Gather Forth-Gust]

[Frozen Wind of My Soul, Come Forth-Chill]

Made it!

“It’s not too late to forfeit!” Janus gives me a chance to surrender. Arrogance, it is his undoing. That extra second lets me finish the last chant in my mind. Air swirls, and he blinks as the temperature drops. His eyes catch sight of the ice orb I raise above my head. “What is that?!!”

Romy...I wish you could see this-

[Come forth-Rain’s End]

An explosion of polar air. Ice, ice, and more ice, that’s what comes first. I shaped everything. Compressed the air currents. Pressurized every freezing draft and frozen water droplet. Up above my head, this orb contains an unfathomable amount of mana. There is only one safe place from my spell. Directly below the orb, where I am. The air currents are designed to go everywhere else. Outwards, around, and most especially up-

*Snap*

Janus disappears, panic appearing for the first time on his face. It’s the only possible reaction to this spell. He can sense it. This much mana, you don’t need to be a mage! It makes the hairs on my arms stand up. My opponent flees away from my ice igloo as it explodes, frozen shards blasting every which way. A cold snap, a frozen nova like no other, blossoms above my head as I throw my hands down to my sides. There is a pillar of white frost shooting into the sky. On all sides, an expanding cloud of silvery sub-zero air instantly freezes the rain and sends it flying. Up above, the pillar of frost, my icy spear, that frozen lance, it crackles like lightning as it extends up and up, freezing, spreading, growing wider, and the storm rumbles as it strikes the belly of the clouds. The clouds part before me. A perfect hole forms, and for a brief second, you can see the moon, blurry, through the white wind.

My hair flutters about my stinging cheeks, my ears are ringing, but I know the sound of the rain has stopped. Why? Because I can’t feel it on my skin anymore. Frozen hail rattles to the ground and then it all stops. No wind. The storm seems to just...falter. It’s silence all around, dead air. Just nothing, a blanket around my pained ears. It hurts. Even with my best design, this spell is just too powerful and frost falls off my eyelashes as I blink. I’m cold, oh so very cold. Lissandrei would be proud. I took my inspiration from her Ice Lance after all.

*Krrrr*

It starts then. Like there’s a giant beast rampaging about the heavens. A deep growling rumble which seems to come from everywhere at once. A noise which perhaps only Elina and I will understand. Here it comes! I blink and the tears forming in my eyes freeze instantly when they come out. Far away, through my foggy sight, I see Janus. His arrogance is gone, his shock the only thing left. His mouth is open. One of his swords is missing. Confusion spreads on his face as he reaches for a dark line on his cheek. Red seeps through the cut as he traces it.

[Stormy Breeze of My Loneliness, Gather Forth-Gust]

I yell out. My fists open, pointed down to the ground, and twin jets of air stream out. I soar up, towards the heavens, following the trail of white frost in the sky. Janus just watches me go, his hand instinctively clenching on his one remaining sword. It’s so unbelievably cold. Up above, the clouds rumble again. As I approach, I can see it. The fruit of my labour. I couldn’t stop the storm. No matter how I tried. Not forever. But I could make it mine. They come down like a million-pointed darts. A rain of cold, sharp arrow tips waiting for direction. Frozen raindrops, blown into the atmosphere by my spell. As they fly back down beneath the clouds, I close my eyes. Tinged with my mana, I can feel them. I made them. They’re linked to me. Like the very first ice crystal I ever formed, I can control them. And they are many.

[Frozen Wind of My Soul, Come Forth-Chill]

I shape their tips, transmute their edges into my chosen image. Ice bends to my will. The tears of heaven enter my service and become sharp, arrow tips. The future winks out, I can’t hold onto it while focusing on so many things. It helps to work many raindrops at once, to think of them as a single stream rather than separate crystals. The link is the key. By freezing them myself, I’ve connected us. This is my world. The deadliest blades in nature begin to whistle as they pierce the night horizon. My body hangs in the sky, its momentum running out. Then I too begin to fall. The ground grows big as it nears. Janus is waiting for me. He’s jumped up to the arena atop the highest pillar in the middle of the pit. His eyes lock onto mine as I arrive, wondering what madness I have brought down from heaven. Just before I crash into the platform, I call out-

[Stormy Breeze of My Loneliness, Gather Forth-Gust]

A jet of air blasts out, cracking the frozen, muddy ground and arrests my fall. I land on the ice and almost slip. Slowly, I straighten atop the slippery platform, and find Janus. One of his swords is still missing, and the other one vibrates as he swishes it. He’s hesitant. After running into that explosion earlier it’s no surprise. My mana is low. Freezing an entire storm has drained me so much more than you can imagine. I have just enough left to cast a few more spells. But I don’t need to create anything now. My weapons...they’re coming. Chilled fingers tremble as I curl them. Mephis’s Bloodstone is blazing like the sun, the only warmth in my body. His dagger remains undrawn at my hip. This is a contest of mage against assassin. And I need both my hands. Calmly, I raise my gloved hand and point it at Janus. The other, I hold up to the sky, almost as if welcoming down the stars.

“Y-You...what was that?” He whispers, coughing as the frozen air taints his lungs. When I don’t answer, he realizes that I mean to attack. I look up to the sky. They’re not here yet. Any time now. A few seconds more pass. Then he hears them. Their whistling cry is dangerously loud, an attack on your psyche. Janus can’t resist looking up-

It’s here!