Chapter 2465: Not all that Tough

Cassarae had reached the point where eating had become more annoying than enjoyable, which was something she had never expected to complain about.

She was stretched across one of the cushioned chairs in the Grimblade courtyard with a bowl balanced against her stomach, shoveling another handful of roasted nuts into her mouth while Xarvenya worked through a platter that should have fed an entire family.

Their bodies burned through so much energy now that meals had become another chore to keep up with, and judging by the food spread across the tables behind them, the rest of Sylas’ family had already accepted the same reality.

Cassarae chewed while staring toward the sky, enjoying what little peace remained after Sylas disappeared with Nosphaleen to deal with whatever new mess had found him.

Isolde and Cedric were farther across the courtyard, while several other Grimblades had taken over the shaded tables near the house, leaving Cassarae with no particular reason to move from her chair.

She had been considering stealing something from Xarvenya’s plate when a thin line suddenly opened across the sky.

Cassarae stopped chewing as a woman stepped through the cut and landed beyond the courtyard, carrying a sword across one shoulder as though crossing between worlds to visit strangers was a perfectly reasonable thing to do.

Blood-red eyes swept over the estate, then settled on Cassarae and Xarvenya with enough focus that Cassarae immediately knew this wasn’t some random traveler.

Considering the direction the woman had come from and the sort of people Sylas kept meeting lately, there was one explanation Cassarae found much more likely than the others.

"For fuck’s sake." Cassarae swallowed and dropped another nut into her mouth. "Are you another one?"

Tomoe’s gaze shifted slightly. "Another what?"

"Another woman looking for my husband." Cassarae gestured toward her with the bowl, taking a good look at Tomoe. All things considered, despite the cold radiance coming from her, Tomoe was an exceptional beauty. Top tier, really.

"I’m starting to think I need to put up a sign..." Cassarae mumbled.

Xarvenya glanced toward Cassarae, then toward Tomoe, but didn’t comment as she reached for another piece of fruit. There was something serious in her gaze that made Cassarae pause. Xarvenya was usually quite stand-offish, but this had a little extra something that made Cassarae sit up straight. She was about to ask what the problem was when something moved inside her.

The Executioner’s Blade answered before Cassarae understood what she was feeling, a vibration passing through her Will and down her arm despite the weapon not being in her hand.

Her earlier irritation disappeared as a violent impulse surfaced beneath it, old enough and deep enough that it didn’t feel like a normal desire to fight. Something about the woman in front of her made her Sword Will tighten as though it had finally recognized something it had been waiting for.

Tomoe felt it instantly.

Her attention hadn’t been very focused until that moment, still scanning for tidbits of Sylas’ aura. Cassarae little more than another person standing between her and him, but the response of the Executioner’s Blade changed that.

She had swept across far too much of the universe hunting traces like this to mistake what she was sensing now. Most of the people who carried them had already died beneath her sword.

There had always been one gap in that count, however, one presence that should have appeared on her list long ago but somehow escaped her senses until after Sylas entered her path.

"So it was you." Tomoe lowered the sword from her shoulder, and the interest in her eyes rose by a small degree. "I wondered where the last one went."

Cassarae set the bowl aside and sat straighter. "You’re going to have to be a little more specific, sweetheart, because I’ve pissed off a lot of people."

Tomoe’s gaze moved across her without much concern, assessing Cassarae’s strength and dismissing most of it before she finished.

Whatever had allowed this woman to escape her original scan, it clearly hadn’t been enough to make her powerful, though the coincidence amused her now that she understood the connection.

If Cassarae was Sylas’ wife, killing her would solve the annoying problem of having to keep chasing him around.

"He’ll probably come if you die, right?" Tomoe shifted her grip on the Executioner’s Blade while the air around its edge began to distort.

Cassarae stared at her for a moment before her eyebrows rose. "Oh, so you’re not trying to fuck him."

She pushed herself up from the chair, brushing crumbs from her shirt as the pressure rolling off Tomoe finally made the family behind them react.

Tomoe attacked without answering, the Executioner’s Blade sweeping once as a grey-black edge expanded from it and crossed the courtyard faster than Cassarae could properly track.

The moment it appeared, Cassarae understood why her Sword Will had reacted so violently. The attack carried something familiar beneath Tomoe’s own overwhelming Will.

She barely had enough time to tighten her grip on the air before Xarvenya frowned beside her.

Xarvenya raised one hand and extended a finger.

The tip of that finger touched the incoming blade of Sword Will, and the entire thing shattered before it reached the courtyard.

Grey-black fragments broke apart across the air and vanished without disturbing so much as a plate on the nearest table, while Xarvenya lowered her hand with a look of clear displeasure.

The laws surrounding her stirred for a moment afterward, faint pressure gathering high above the galaxy before fading once more.

Tomoe’s eyes brightened as she looked at Xarvenya. She had expected someone stronger to be present after sensing the woman’s existence, but the ease with which her attack disappeared forced her to reconsider just how large that gap might be.

Her sword shifted in her hand as interest replaced the casual dismissal she had shown Cassarae.

Xarvenya shifted her hand again, waiting for a chance to be more aggressive. But then a voice interrupted her.

"Don’t."

Cassarae reached out instead, fingers closing on empty air until space rippled and the Executioner’s Blade appeared in her grasp. The weapon settled into her palm with enough force to make the courtyard hum, and the pressure running through Cassarae’s Sword Will eased the instant steel touched her hand.

Xarvenya’s frown deepened. "What are you doing?"

"What does it look like?"

"She is far stronger than you." Xarvenya finally set her food aside and studied Tomoe more carefully, following the strange way her Will seemed to spread without accepting the boundaries that should have contained it. "Her path is completely unorthodox, and I can’t see where her limits lie from here, but I can see enough to know that if you insist on fighting her, you will die."

Cassarae rolled one shoulder and felt the Executioner’s Blade pull against her grip, the weapon eager in a way she had never experienced before. She understood the warning and didn’t doubt Xarvenya’s assessment for a second, especially after seeing how easily Tomoe’s casual attack had crossed a distance Cassarae could barely process.

Unfortunately, understanding that didn’t make the pressure building inside her Sword Will disappear.

"I don’t really have much of a choice." Cassarae looked down at her blade as another pulse ran through it, and she could already feel what would happen if she stepped away from this. "If I back down now, my Sword Will is going to collapse."

Xarvenya’s expression changed, but Cassarae had already stepped away from the chair and into the open courtyard, and Tomoe watched her approach with renewed curiosity.

Cassarae stopped several dozen meters away and rolled the sword once through her wrist.

Then she looked Tomoe directly in the eyes.

"Besides, I don’t think this bitch is all that tough anyway."

Cassarae raised the Executioner’s Blade and pointed its edge straight at Tomoe’s head, and the sword energies gathering around the two women began to wail through the air.