The Last Duel
The high priest was lowering the crown to her head when he paused, looking past her. Rosalie glared up at him awkwardly from her kneeling position.
"What are you waiting for?! Do it!" she snarled.
But then a sudden, echoing roar made her turn sharply and gaze at what the priest was looking at.
The great doors of the empty throne room were thrown wide. New Thronum Mare was sparkling in the light of the setting sun. The light streamed through the door and there they were, framed in its radiance. The giant horned tiger stood like a sentinel, glaring back at her, and sitting astride the great beast was Marie and Claire.
Claire's horns had grown since their last encounter. She stared at Rosalie with a mixture of anger and fear, but Marie…
Marie's face held a sea of sadness in it. Rosalie could feel her presence now, like a glowing blue torch in front of the blazing sun. How had she not sensed her arrival?
As the sisters stared at one another, Claire moved her hand and gave Marie's fingers the smallest of squeezes. Marie's face hardened, the sadness disappearing to be replaced by a cold determination. She slid off the beast's back.
"Sorry, but you're not going to become queen today!" she bellowed. Her voice echoed like the tiger's, bouncing across the hall and slamming into the mad woman kneeling by the throne. "I am."
Rosalie initial surprise broke and she laughed. The sound sent a chill down their backs. It was cold, unnatural, unfamiliar.
"You're hilarious," she mocked, as if Marie was a child again.
"And you're going down!" shouted Claire, dismounting too and going to stand by her wife. She didn't even stutter.
The high priest made to place the crown on Rosalie again, but she raised a hand. "Wait." she snapped imperiously, and the priest backed off. All the while she maintained eye contact with her twin. "You want to be queen? Fine. Let's settle this, just you and me, sister. The showdown that was always meant to be!"
And from its scabbard she pulled her sword. The metal sang as it left and glowed with a strange shimmering light as she pointed it down the hall at Marie.
Marie's brow furrowed in anger. "You're on!"
Claire turned and stared at her in surprise. Marie didn't look at her though, she was too busy watching the smile twist her sister's face.
"What are you doing?" Claire hissed. "She's playing you. She knows she can't take us both so she's trying to separate us!"
"I know. But I can take her this time," Marie hissed back, not breaking her gaze. Rosalie's hair was disheveled, and the two locks she loved so much had been sheared clumsily.
"But even you admitted to Oscar that you would need help facing Rosie!"
"There's something off about her… I can't explain it, but she's slipping." She finally turned and looked at Claire, who seemed panicky with worry. "And this way, no one else has to get hurt."
Claire seemed to understand. She was worried, but she trusted Marie more than anybody in the world. She nodded and moved off with Mega Kitty to the edge of the throne room. Marie let out a slow breath and turned her body to face the throne.
The sisters gazed into one another's eyes for a moment, blue to blue. The room was completely silent. The wind that had rustled Marie's hair from behind had died.
Then Rosalie stepped down from the throne and stood staring in crazed anticipation at Marie from across the hall. She pulled the royal cape from her shoulders with crooked poise, and dropped it a heap beside her.
"I'm sorry it has to end this way, sister." She raised the blade.
Marie got into her stance, the one Oscar had taught her over and over again, and raised her hands.
"No you're not."
