"What, do you want me to kill you? Are you doing this in a bid to force my hand?" His voice was loud, strong almost, but tears clung stubbornly to the corners of his eyes. He could feel the edges of his world slipping away from him by the inch.

"It is not a matter of want or even need, Summoner. You should know that. Our fate was sealed long before you were even born." Her grin was wide in defiance, and blue blood dribbled down her chin. Her eyes, however, were slightly less confidant. If at all possible, she was just as scared yet stubborn as he was.

He cringed and bared his teeth at her pithy words and faltering ego. She never called him by name, only title. He liked to imagine it was the last remnants of proper highblood behavior in her, though he knew it was more likely her way of keeping detached. "Fuck that! Fuck you and your premonitions! You rely too heavily on the wisdom gained from some toy ball. As if we were predestined for every tiny move! I am not a practiced dancer Aranea! I am no actor. I am not prepared for this, but I will kill you if you continue on with this foolishness!"

Her smile softened, but her eyes hardened. "You will have to kill me then. I've lost an arm, an eye, a potential matesprit and a kismesis thanks to these games, before you were ever even sloshed into a bucket. I will not stop. I cannot!"

The vulgarity she used was nothing new and hardly fazed him. It was her complete disregard for their relationship, as confusing as it was that jarred him. He had a decision to make; did he let her live and derail all that they had worked for? Or did he cull her now, and lose the dearest thing that he had to him to further their goal?

"I am sorry, Mindfang."

With a quick movement, his lance had pierced her chest. She looked down, a smile on her passive face.

"Good boy, Summoner. I knew… You had it in you." As she collapsed, he grabbed her and eased her down. Thick blue blood spread across the dirt and soaked into the earth below, as though it had been waiting to quench its thirst for millennia. She coughed and laughed a little; blue splatter striking him across the face. "Now… Listen here boy. Listen close—I don't have much time left now, thank you."

"Wipe those tears from your face. You're stronger than that, and I have no patience for your silly emotion. You made a decision, and had you not, I would have destroyed any chance you had, because I would have found it funny." She coughed again and clutched onto his hand. "I spent my entire life wandering with no direction and no real goal. For a long time, I thought that I would die unaccomplished and bored. But then I saw you.

"I was gifted that strange white ball and through it I found my purpose and my demise: You. Everything I have done up to this point was to prepare you for the challenges that you would face. Distractions, murder, chaos. However, for every bit of strife I laid at the hands of the empress, I found it also laying on my doorstep.

"I found a kismesis that hated my conquests more than he hated me. I found a Matesprit who pitied me out of obligation, not out of love. I lost a limb and an eye out of my self-assurance that it wasn't my time to die. I did this all, knowing that one day I would have you. You were to be my ultimate prize; something worthwhile to strive for." Her breathing was shallow and blood bubbled out of her lips grotesquely. He wasn't sure how she was still alive, but assumed it mostly had to do with sheer determination. "Don't look at me like that, like you question what you've done. It's too late now boy." She laughed again, but it quickly decayed into hoarse coughing.

"These are your choices Summoner. I do not know if you will survive these coming months. I abandoned the ball before I could look. I do know that you will live on in legend. The entire world will know of your conquest, and your actions here today will both be lauded as godlike and blasphemous. They will fear you for killing the famed bloody marquise when no one else could." Once again she laughed, and once again it ended in coughing. She resigned herself instead to a smile, her eyes pinpricked with watery blue. "But only you and I will know that you cried while doing it. I'll take the secret to the grave with me."

He choked on his own emotion, knowing both that what he did was necessary and that it would haunt him for the rest of his days. "Aranea…"

"Don't. I know." She was looking straight at him, but her eyes were unfocused; fading. "I won my prize. Go win yours." With a last smile, her breath escaped her and she went still and quiet.

His breath caught in his throat and he could feel his heart beating against his chest like an angry bird trying to escape its cage. He wanted to vomit, to scream, to shred the ones that caused this. And, in that moment, he understood.

With a little effort, he pulled the lance out of her chest and lifted her into his arms, cradling her close to his chest and imagining briefly that the angry fluttering behind his ribs in fact belonged to her. Tears streamed down his face, but his breath no longer hitched. He was the only one left, and he had no more time for crying. No more time for pain, or foolish actions.

He gave her one last small kiss before he sealed his heart away, and flew her near to the ocean. Without a second thought, he dropped her down into its salty depths. She always wanted to be buried at sea. He never knew if it was because she had its water in her veins or because it would be a slap in the face to the Imperial who lived there, but he supposed it did not matter now.

She won her prize, and that was all that mattered to her in her last minutes. Now, he had to make sure that he won his, so he would have something for her to be proud of once he finally saw her again on the other side.

Maybe then, she would use his name.