“You don’t want to do this Kassidy,” Zareen’s voice quietly boomed through the halls of the castle. Each step he took was silent and limber. He moved gracefully yet, menacingly. He looked sharply around every corner as he slowly made his way through each corridor.

“I wish you would leave my people be,” Kas said, her voice booming in a confident tone upfront, but she knew deep down she was scared.

“I know you’re afraid, you don’t have to be,” Zareen slithered through each hall. Kas was silent. She could hear him chuckle.

“A girl like you shouldn’t be out here trying to handle things she doesn’t even know everything about,” he said. Kas was still silent. There was a pause.

“That being said, we could use someone like you fighting for us. Fighting with us,” Zareen’s voice and words tried tirelessly to crawl their way into Kas’s mind, she wouldn’t let him sway her.

“We don’t need to fight Zareen. Just put your weapon down and I’ll do the same. Show yourself and we can handle this without anyone having to get hurt,” she said, putting on a brave face. She could hear him chuckle again.

“Who said I had a weapon?” He said. Kas stopped, he was right behind her. Kas quickly and swiftly rotated her body all the way around, her katana’s glistening as the moonlight from the window reflected off of them perfectly. Zareen jumped high into the air and grinned.

“I thought you said we should talk?” He grinned and ran at Kas, no weapon in hand. He moved frantically around her, confusing her train of thought. Before she knew it, one of her katanas was gone.

“What?” Kas said, quietly out of breath to herself. She looked up. Zareen was leaning on the opposite wall, twirling one of her swords in his hand.

“This is more of a fair fight, wouldn’t you say?” He grinned. Now, Kas made the first move. She drew her breath in deep and started to run at him. He ran at her and their swords collided. They were both masterful with this kind of weapon, Kas had more experience with katana’s than Zareen did, but Zareen knew how to handle a wider variety of weapons. He could use almost anything to his advantage. Their swords clashed and continued to do so as they made their way through the castle. Bounding of walls and furniture, breaking some things along the way. Their efforts echoing through each hall. They were close to matching each other's skillset, so the fight was hard for them both. Neither would admit that though. Their fight went on for what felt like forever until Kas ran into the garden. The garden had a maze of flowers in which she decided to hide to get a little bit of a break. She ran through each wall of flowers until she couldn’t see him anymore. She stopped for a moment, out of breath. She knew he had been tired too, she couldn’t hear him. The silence was oddly long, Kas wondered if he was maybe still in the castle. This gave her time to try and come up with a plan.

“He’s taller than I am. By a lot,” she thought to herself.

“I need to get the high ground,” she thought. Kas looked around until she saw some vines trailing up the garden wall to the top of the castle.

“That should do it,” she said quietly. She ran over to them and climbed. She got all the way to the top and looked over. She was up incredibly high. She tried to see if she could see him anywhere down below.

“We do think incredibly alike,” Zareen said. Kas could feel her face get pale, she didn’t jump or scream, she couldn’t show him she was scared.

“Either that or you’re just unbelievably predictable,” he said. Kas slowly turned around to face him. They stood there looking at each other. Kas went to go reach for her one sword and felt that both of them were there.

“I decided to put it back in the holster when you went into the garden because I was thinking about it, it’s been lots of fun going back and forth with one another, you are a really good fighter, but if you can’t join my army,” he swiftly took his gun out from his side and aimed at Kas.

“Then I might as well get rid of the problem,” he said. Kas’s stomach dropped. She knew he never missed. There was nothing left she could do.

“Zareen, I know there must be something we could work out. Please, even if you kill me just work something out with the kingdoms, I promise you if you stop killing their people they will be understanding,” Kas tried to reason with him before he cut her off.

“Kassidy. You are a young, naive girl who has no business right here where you are now. Honestly, I feel a little bad, having to kill you. But you should’ve known what you were getting yourself into,” his gun cocked. Kas had to use the last resort.

“I’m sorry your father neglected you,” she paused, she could see his face very slightly drop.

“I’m sorry your mother wasn’t there to raise you, and love you, and make you into a kind man. I’m sorry the hatred that was so deep-rooted in your father, has become so deep-rooted in you. It was never your fault Zareen. It was never your fault,” Kas said, starting to tear up, part afraid for her life, and part feeling somewhat empathetic for Zareen.

“You know nothing about me. You don’t know anything,” his hand started to shake.

“I know that somewhere inside you is a kind, caring, fair man,” she said as she inched closer to him. His eyes became glossy.

“You’re stupid,” he said, his hand shaking more now.

“This isn’t who your mother would have wanted you to be,” Kas said.

“Enough!” Zareen pulled the trigger, tears in his eyes. It was like the bullet moved in slow motion. Kas quickly pulled out her swords. She put them in an X shape in front of her face and closed her eyes. She heard a twang, and then a yell. Her bullet had ricocheted off of her katanas and back into Zareen’s arm, leaving his gun to fall all the way off the top of the castle. Kas removed her swords from in front of her face and looked at him, on the ground. Holding his arm and shielding his face. She knew he was crying, but didn’t want her to see.

“Kassidy!” Kas heard someone calling from the ground. She looked over the edge.

“We have to get out of here! Gasha is erupting!” it was Niklas and Indigo. Kas turned around and looked at Zareen. She looked at him for a moment, he was still hiding his face. She turned back around to Niklas.
“Come on!” he shouted. Kas climbed down the vines once again and ran out of the castle.

“What happened to Zareen? Are you alright?” Niklas asked. Kas jumped onto Indigo.

“Go!” Kas patted Indigo, motioning him to run. He took off.

“We can talk about it later. Right now we have to get those people out of the village.”