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Steel met steel; darkness clashed with ancientand hu as he and the demon prince battled their way across the city wall

He kept his feet beneath hiht him, and Cal Lochan As all his mentors and the warriors he’d adht him For this moment, when he would be called to defend Orynth’s very walls

It was for the his sword, for the prince hissed with every blast, as if enraged that his power could not break that shield

Rhoe’s shield

There was no ic in it Brannon had never borne it But one of thes and queens who had codom more than their own lives Who had carried this shield into battle, into war, to defend Terrasen

And as Aedion and the Valg prince fought along the walls, as that ancient shield refused to yield, he wondered if there was a different sort of power in thecould never and would never understand Not truejust as strong--stronger

That the Valg ht never break, noprince roared as Aedion connected with his ar deep

Black blood sprayed Aedion leaped upon the advantage, shoving with the shield and stabbing with his blade

But the prince had been waiting

Had set a trap, his own body as the bait

And as Aedion slaer froht where Aedion’s armor exposed just a sliver near his armpit, vulnerable with the outstretched position of his ar flesh and , threatened to make hi, only those years of work, kept his feet under hi prince chuckled, and Aedion was di and dying and flares of fire, as the prince s it to his sensualthe blade Licked Aedion’s blood clean off "Exquisite," the de with pleasure

Aedion backed away another step, his ar inside his armor

The prince stalked after hiain took it on his shield Let it send hi atop the ironclad body of one of the Bane

His breath turned sharp as the knife that had stabbed hi on you will be a delight"

Aedion hefted his shield over hi for the blow

The prince ain, eyes rolling back in his head

Those eyes ide as an arrow broke the skin of his throat Right above the collar

The prince gagged, whirling toward the arrow that had coht into the path of Ren Allsbrook and the firelance he bore in his arms

Ren slammed his hand into the release hatch, and fla his body beneath his shield as the flame threatened to ht Then nothing Only the shouts of battle and dyingprince had been, a pile of ashes and a black Wyrdstone collar re side "I had him"

Ren only shook his head, and pivoted on a boot, unleashing the firelance upon the nearest Valg soldiers

The Lord of Allsbrook turned back to hi But Aedion’s head swa into a coldness he’d never known Then there was nothing

The battle was so ined

The sound alone es to Lord Darrohere he stood on one of the higher castle balconies saved her fro as she raced back onto the balcony, to where Darrow stood by the stone railing, two other Terrasen lords beside hi a curtsy, as she had each tie