Shinsou Vaan Osiris stood in front of a polished granite table within the Citadel halls, and folded the note back into quarters before tossing it onto the surface.

Nosdyn…

Water glistened on walls of polished stone behind the Ai’Brone attending to him as a cohort of orange robed monks washed them with cloths. The turquoise pommel of Enpera shone in the elegant lamplight of the Citadel’s chambers. A brisk breeze stirred the hairs on his neck from the open doorway behind him, and through that entrance a low sun beat down on his back, casting its soft orange glaze over Radasanth.

There was a time when a name would mean nothing to the Telgradian, but that was before the days of the Brotherhood. Since then, there were few people of note in Corone that he hadn’t either befriended or made an enemy of. Nosdyn seemed to be the rare exception; a name that had been whispered in circles Shinsou didn’t travel in, and someone who had stayed out of his line of fire so far, but all the while an entity that he was aware of. From the little he knew, pieced together from what Felicity had told him and what the note revealed, his challenger was a demon from the Tular plains. He had fought Felicity Rhyolite, and presumably either lost or fled the battle. That bit was no surprise at all, the Telgradian mused. Rhyolite was strong, if not a little raw around the edges.

It made him wonder what Nosdyn’s agenda was with him. Clicking his tongue, and tapping his fingers, Shinsou wracked his brain for an answer but it was the obvious one that kept coming back to him. The demon knew that there was a connection between Rhyolite and Osiris, so this was either a revenge mission or a reconnaissance one. No-one comes to the Citadel to get revenge. If this beast had any true grievance, surely an ambush or some other sort of frontal assault outside of these walls would suffice?

He wants to see what I can do in here, so he can fight me out there. Shinsou finally surmised, wiping Enpera’s edge against his white greatcoat before stepping near the humming portal the Ai’Brone had set up to transport him to his arena. If he couldn’t beat Felicity, then he’s going to wish he’d never written that note.

***

The stone chamber crumbled from sight, torn apart by the machinations of the Ai'Brone portal. Before long the arena appeared and reality returned, piecemeal, over a period of fifteen seconds.

As Shinsou's foot touched terra firma, a brisk breeze gathered force into what felt like a gale wind and whipped his oaken hair across his face. Wide blue skies replaced the grimy stone interior of the Citadel's chamber. The village he had spawned in was familiar; Coronian architecture, for sure. The faces of constructs peered from windows and from behind doorways. The buildings themselves were neatly spaced between passages and dirt roads alike. Neither smell nor sound interfered with the ambience of this, and suddenly it occurred to him that his opponent was already here.

The Telgradian could see what appeared to be the masked form of the demon Nosdyn, stood waiting in the centre of the village alone. Everything the Telgradian needed to know about this former resident of Tular, he could feel in his stomach. The density of the power coming from his demonic challenger was bearable, but clearly the Tularan was a practitioner of either the arcane or incarnate arts. Something to be mindful, but not necessarily afraid, of.

Shinsou finished scanning the environment, betraying no unease. Pushing aside a partition of chestnut hair so that it didn’t obscure his eyes, those inscrutable golden irises pierced Nosdyn, penetrating his being; daring him to make a move. The Telgradian rose to his full height and snapped his right palm open as the green and silver guard of his treasured sword manifested within his grasp. The sheath on his belt, tucked in, slapped against the inside of his white greatcoat and the side of his waist. His expression was unmoved.

“So, Nosdyn I presume? Well, here we are.” Shinsou quipped, shrugging his arms and flashing a grin. “Am I what you imagined?”

No answer.

“Well, let me clue you into something before we start,” The Telgradian began pacing the path ahead of him, “You’ve met Felicity. She’s strong, really strong but she’s a little...unrefined. I'm a totally different animal. You'll see soon enough.”

Go for the throat of this fight, before he steals a march on you.

In his left hand, Shinsou called forth an intricate arcane glyph of purple and black, one that smouldered in his weathered flesh. With a snap, the glyph expanded out into one of his notorious dark lances, the purple and black electrical forks tearing at the earth, and suddenly careered towards Nosdyn.