Kairyn charges at me, swinging his hammer with wild abandon. I dance away from his strikes. I do not draw my blade. I don’t give in to the storm, nor do I fight it. With each frantic swing of my brother’s hammer, I flow as the river flows, drift as the breeze drifts. I am the wings of the birds and the leap of the deer.
Kairyn roars, his grip too tight around the hammer. Each missed swing slams against the ancient stone, creating divots and cracks.
“Draw your blade!” Kairyn screams. “Fight me!”
I roll under another one of his rage-fueled swings. My mother’s sword remains sheathed in its scabbard. I will not draw steel against Kairyn again.
“You’re a coward.” Great clouds of dust erupt from each of his heavy steps. “Why do you run but not flee? Take up steel, as a son of Spring should!”
But I am more than a son of Spring. I flick along the edges of the bridge, fast as one of Farron’s flames. I dance backward to avoid a swing, my footwork honed from darting away from twin blades wielded by Dayton. I dash toward Kairyn, billowing past him and out of striking distance, as Kel always erupted upon a battlefield.
When Kairyn turns to face me, shoulders shaking with rage, fists clenched so tight around his hammer that the hilt seems close to snapping, I stand and face him as the Golden Rose stands and faces all the hurt of the world.
“What is this? A game?” Kairyn roars. “Either you or I die on this bridge. There is no other path for us!”
“Then I shall forge one,” I say.
“Impossible!” Kairyn thrusts out his hand, and the hammer shimmers, disappearing into a ball of light that twinkles back into his necklace. With a roar, he lifts his hands to the sky. The desert grass that grows in the cracks of the bridge bursts forward, morphing into massive vines. They thump down on the bridge between us. The weight of one causes a chunk of bridge to fall away near my feet. I look down at the canyon yawning below.
“Free me of this torment and DIE!” The vines whip up like great cobras, snapping toward me. I keep my breath steady and my movements fluid, slipping through their grasp like water through a sieve. Every moment I spend here with Kairyn isanother moment Delphia and Eleanor have to escape. That thought above all else keeps me centered here in this moment.
I do not need to kill my brother to protect them.
Peace fills me with the thought, even as the vines grasp for my limbs, desperately trying to entangle me. Kairyn screams as he whips his arms around, each movement making the vines more chaotic, more tangled.
Cracks spiderweb across the bridge’s surface, and part of the railing crumbles away as a vine crashes into it. My feet barely touch the ground as I leap from the railing to the top of the vine to the railing on the other side.
Kairyn unleashes a roar of primal fury. With each passing second, his attacks grow more frenzied, more desperate. He hasn’t hit me once, but once is all it would take to send me tumbling over the side and into the pit below. My heart beats strong and steady in my chest, but I don’t know much longer I can avoid him.
His movements are frantic, erratic. He’ll do anything to get me in his grasp. But I know how these plants move. This was once my power; it lived inside of me for years.
I will not be caught in its turmoil again.
I dash behind Kairyn and take a single moment to catch my breath.
Don’t be afraid to make a big move. But do it logically.
Jumping away just as a vine smashes down where I was, I sprint toward my brother. The bridge crumbles below my feet, stones falling away and revealing the abyss below.
Kairyn balks as I run straight toward him, but I slide to his left just before I reach him. His vine whips around to grab me. I dart up and circle him, the vine following me.
“Get out!” Kairyn screams. “Leave me alone!”
The vine tails right behind me as I roll to Kairyn’s other side, then I’m up, jumping on the rail and propelling myself over my brother’s head.
“Stop it! Stop running!” Kairyn screams.
“I’m not running,” I say. “And I’m not fighting.”
With a huge leap, I jump over Kairyn’s head once more, then pull to a stop before him.
Kairyn gives a maniacal laugh. “So, that’s it? You’re giving up? You admit it finally. I am the strongest! I deserved Spring’s Blessing all this time!”
The breath is ragged in my throat, my muscles ache. I hold steady.
“Then this is it,” he laughs. “I’m not afraid. I’ll be free. I’ll be free when you’re dead!”
But nothing happens. No vine comes to strike me down, no hammer emerges. My brother jerks his arms, but they don’t move. His vines are twisted so tightly around him, his arms are pinned to his sides, his feet locked together.
