Neither moved; neither spoke. They stared unflinchingly into each other’s eyes.
Surrounding her, hidden by shadows, Tahiri could sense an alien landscape. She could tell from its pull that it was big, yet at the same time not large enough to contain the two of them. She wanted to look down and see it, to understand this strange and disturbing ambiguity, but she couldn’t afford to do so, not even for a second—for a second was all it would take to lose her purchase on this precarious balance of power. One blink of an eye and she could be dispelled into the darkness altogether, never to return—and she had no intention of ever allowing that to happen. This world was hers, and she would remain like this for as long as it took to ensure that it stayed hers. It was just a matter of time. All she had to do was be patient, be strong.
Soon, she told herself. It will all be over soon. Just another moment …
But that moment seemed as long as the blackness around her was deep. It was a moment that stretched back to the explosion that had first given birth to the universe, and forward to the time when eternity would turn all the suns cold. It didn’t matter, though. She would endure a thousand such moments to ensure that the world below did not fall to Riina.
Yes, that was it. Riina: the other girl’s name. She wanted to destroy Tahiri and take the world from her. Tahiri could feel the girl’s intentions as though they were her own.
I will not succumb, she thought determinedly. I am Tahiri Veila; I am a Jedi Knight!
And I am Riina of Domain Kwaad, the girl said in response. I shall not succumb, either.
With that, Tahiri’s mirror image finally moved: her hand went to her side and removed the lightsaber from her belt.
A lightsaber, Tahiri thought, not an amphistaff. Riina wanted everything she had, and she fought with everything Tahiri had, too.
The light from the blade revealed something of their surroundings. To one side there was a dry and rocky ground that stretched out forever, and to the other there was a chasm of terrible blackness, an emptiness that pulled at Tahiri, drew her to the edge of the precipice upon which she stood. She could tell from Riina’s fearful gaze that this same emptiness was tugging at her, also. One wrong move and either of them could fall into an embrace of eternal nothingness, leaving the darkened world to the other.
The notion renewed her resolve, and with a snap and a hiss that echoed throughout the landscape she activated her own lightsaber.
The two advanced slowly toward one another until the two bubbles of light from their lightsabers touched and they were standing face to face. Then, in unison, the two blades rose into the air and came down sharply at the other’s head. They connected in midair with a deadly crackle, sending sparks arcing into the darkness …