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[Water and Earth to fight Air and Fire,] said that voice in an to recede [A weapon for a champion In this battle: that chaht init, experi with power Knowledge also becae of weak points, places that were vulnerable, and how those vulnerabilities could be exploited

Hether We’ve chopped thehly

[The weapon will indeedthe beasts is not enough to contain the enemy,] the creature warned [They have learned to call too effectively, and too ether for the power they offer We must make their inevitable destructioncould kill the children of Air and Fire But that just meant we had to be everand Queen--Red and White--at opposite ends of the battlefield Siblings and lovers, they used hua in dark voices of plots despicable and weapons obscene, the spawn of violence begat the violence that was their nature Always on opposite sides of the battle, they would coe they’d inspired

Let’s see hoerful they are without a torso, I th,He was the weaker of the two, and I’d seen the Queen tear one ofher for dessert

CHAPTER THREE

I, Jane True, caasp Crowded around me, all with a hand on Blondie’s bare back, the others also ca "You took on the Red and the White single handedly?"

"Hardly," Blondie said "I had help"

"The labrys was yours," I interrupted, feeling like a thief

"It was," Blondie said "But I gave it up centuries ago, and gladly You are its chaave it up?"

"It’s got a life of its own, in ht I hat it needed, it was there for me Then, one day, it wasn’t The Red and the White had been defeated for so long, they’d becoht its tiuess it needed a new cha an out… and it was an out I desperately wanted "Why can’t I give it back to you? Why can’t you be the cha, Blondie had been patiently shaking her head "Not hoorks, Jane It chose you Which tells me that this war doesn’t need ive away or to take It’s the creature’s, and he gave it to you"

I started to argue with her, ready to re the forces of evil, was patently ridiculous It was like ar with lasers Before I could start, however, Anyan’s elbow nudged , and Hiral staring atruavedarkly

Then he stood up and bowed

Tofollowed him

I stared at their bent heads, horrified

"What are you doing? Get up!" I de beforerasped "You are in our stories You have been foretold"

Panicking, I looked to Blondie for help The Original ed

"It was pretty obvious that soether the Red and the White And at that point we’d need a new chaether," she said

"Wait," I said, Gog and Magog’s strange behavior abruptly forgotten, "what do youand Magog took their seats again, exchanging long looks with each other