Josh threw back his head and laughed out loud. This feisty young Fallieni reminded him of another woman he’d met from the desert nation, an apprentice shaman named Sall’Ema. They had the same midnight hair and the same sun-burnished skin. And both of them had fire in their eyes and acid on their tongues.

“I will admit I used magic,” he said after a deep breath, “and I agree that no mortal man could have passed Suravani’s Trial on foot, or conquered one of the great griffins who guard the Oasis. But I am no mere mortal. In this land, they call me a demigod. Am’aleh of the Sea is my patron Thayne, and from her the bulk of my magic stems. But I did meet your goddess Suravani while I was there. I still remember the smell of her as she lay in my arms, telling me of her deepest desires.”

“You lie!” The dancer chattered, her teeth knocking together beneath blue lips. “Suravani would never grace an outlander such as you with her presence!” Her feet were bleeding from contact with bare ice, and her steps seemed shaky, but still she twirled and leaped, swaying from side to side.

Why is she… wait… As he looked closer, Breaker noticed a buildup of mana within the slight woman’s body. It seemed that her dance fuelled it. He could not tell what the arcane energy was building towards yet, but in all likelihood it would not be good for him. He decided to interrupt the dancer’s flow, and test her at the same time.

“How can I prove myself, if you close your eyes to the truth?” He asked. He held his hands out, palms upward, and in a flash of mist two balls of ice appeared on them. “You’ve seen my command of the elements. It was I who froze the waters of the Oasis. It was I who outstripped one of Suravani’s steeds on foot. And it is I who will defeat you here today - Joshua Breaker Cronen!”

As he spoke the last word he stepped down off his ice floe, onto the bridge he’d built between it and the next. In the same motion he threw one of the ice balls, and then the other, aiming both at the Fallieni woman’s center mass. Between her slight frame and the way she was moving, it would be difficult to hit any other part of her. The balls whizzed toward her with wicked speed and accuracy, as if aimed by the very wind that swooped and swayed around them.

“One way or another,” Josh called over the wind, “I will prove my identity to you. My goddess has demanded it. You and I will become allies… it is only a matter of time.”