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Daniel was fighting off a pair of light-wielding Kithreiri when he sensed that Andrew was in danger. Neither of his opponents were particularly strong but the two of them together were already giving him trouble and the shock off the sudden impression made him stumble, allowing one of his opponents to kick his legs out from under him and stab down at him with a glowing sword. He desperately rolled out of the way before it hit, causing the sword to bury itself in the ground instead of his head, and found himself in the line of his other opponent’s claws. He closed his eyes as he realised there was no way to get out of the way this time – but the attack never hit. He opened them cautiously in time to see his attacker sliding off a blue ice blade.

The dark skinned, blue eyed kithreia holding the sword winked at him and offered him her hand to help him up. He accepted it gratefully, climbed to his feet and looked around for his other opponent to find nothing but an egg and two more blue Kithreiri, watching his back and giving him time to recover.

“Thanks,” he said. “You’re Alsia-ida, right?”

“I am.” She gave a half bow and smiled at him. “My honour to meet you, Daniel-idan.”

“We didn’t think you’d come.” He eyed her curiously. He knew they’d never met before, yet she seemed familiar in some way that slipped away from him when he tried to chase it down.

“Because I hate Darylyan?” She gave a bitter smile. “I do, but what he’s doing here is more important than my personal feelings – and I hate Xantaria more anyway. I couldn’t not help. Now what did you sense that made you stumble like that, kid?”

“My brother is in danger,” he said. “And we can’t go and help because we need to finish this first. It doesn’t feel too intense at the moment; I think Lydia’s got it. It just shocked me.”

“Well we’d better finish this quickly and go help them, then.” She looked toward where Darylyan was standing calmly at the eye of the storm of the battle, holding the staff over his head and pumping energy into the tear before looking up at the sky. Daniel followed her gaze and saw that the tear had reduced in size by about quarter.

“Ah, thank goodness!” he exclaimed. “It’s working!”

“It is.” She shifted her weight slightly and readied her blade. “Are you recovered enough to get back to the fight?”

“I think so,” he said.

“Good.” She turned to the other two Kithreiri. “Falasian, watch his back so that doesn’t happen again. Ilyitia, you’re with me.” She turned and dived towards where half a dozen of the Kithreiri attackers were mobbing Sonia. Daniel looked around to see if there were any gaps he needed to plug and seeing nothing obvious, hurried after her to help his mother.

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