Round One - Red

斌

The sword hits the sand and Bin wonders if she knows.

He’s never swung a real weapon. He’s only played make-believe at war and generals and princesses with knives in their sleeves. He has been Xiaoqing, snake-woman of the True Fire, and he has been Mu Guiying, widowed bandit-general of the Yang. He has defeated monks and demons and has betrayed an Emperor, but none of it has been real.

Now he's just Bin. Haobin of the Baishe. And his strike meets air.

Bin holds himself tight as a bowstring when Ines steps closer. Because surely this is it. She's seen the underbelly of his character and now it lays there between them, already flayed open. Sweat falls into his eyes and pulls red film over his vision.

But he's not embarrassed, and he's not ashamed. His nature is his own. He tried to cheat and he failed and now it's Ines' turn to try.

( Except - )

Except honour died seven years ago.

Ines echoes the words he crooned to Little Mouse and Bin feels something wind tight around his spine. She drags her own arm along his sword and he inhales sharply.

"A candle." He repeats. He can hear himself say it but he stares at her wrist and the way the blood beads up like rhinestones.

"That's a stupid answer."

She leaves a trail of numbers this time, instead of the words from before, but it makes no difference. Her mind works different. She sees calculations and permutations and Bin knows nothing but the drape of heavy curtains, red and velvet and dust-covered.

The air has the same quality as before a thunderstorm.

Bin looks flatly at the numbers. He doesn't waver because he is made of silver and oak and incense. He is not swayed by the dying message of a dying girl because he cannot afford to be.

"Usually the villain lasts longer than the first act." And there is no disappointment in his voice, he would hardly even recognize the feeling if there was. "You weren't very impressive, were you?"

His foot brushes the numbers in the sand when he turns to face her, he barely touches them, but he imagines what it would be like to step fully, to wipe them out, just to see what she would do.

The toe of his shoe nudges the first 1, just enough that half of it gets re-buried.

Strange, that a legacy could disappear just like that.

Bin's hand flashes. The sword lifts. He feels like Mu Guiying, alone on the battlefield facing the Heavenly Gate. But he's not that. And he's not there. There is just Bin and Ines and the way that they watch each other.

The sun reaches apex and Bin leans forward. He moves fast enough that he can't second guess the action, nothing but a thought and a gleam and a sound.

His sword hits home.