Soraya and Dashna circled each other in the low sand pit, their stances ready and their muscles tense. This lesson was a private one in a small training yard inside of the inner palace complex.

Soraya still tried to participate as much as she could with the others who had acquired the gods' powers, but this way often proved to serve her better. Her duties as empress consumed too much of her time to give her much room to attend the training, and while it helped to show citizens that she was fighting amongst them in this war, keeping a certain distance between herself and the common people was preferable.

Besides, Soraya much more enjoyed her private lessons with Dashna. The former thief was now by far the most adept of all the gifted ones at using her powers, and was a good teacher as well. Soraya had got an explanation for this out of the girl- in Turan her father had been a bhajanh, a master of the art of hand-to-hand combat. Dashna had learned all that he knew before she'd fled from the sands altogether.

Soraya enjoyed hearing about Dashna's life in the desert as they fought and trained. It was like hearing a story out of the books in the royal library that Soraya had so adored as a child. Strange- it had only been a year since those days, yet she firmly felt that she had been a child then, and was a woman now. And yet the shadow of the daevas still hung over them both as they talked. Soraya firmly shut down any discussion of the topic, changing the subject if Dashna attempted to bring it up. Soraya had made up her mind: if the daevas were real, there was nothing she could do about them until she sat upon Sazia's throne.

"Move your arms closer together," Dashna instructed, demonstrating the movement herself. She twisted her body around, keeping her arms close to her chest, and then extended them outwards as she stepped into a fighting stance. A large spout of flames roared into the empty space of the sandpit.

Soraya furrowed her brow, concentrating on memorizing the movement. She twisted her body, keeping her arms as close to her chest as she could and did as Dashna had done. Flames extended from her hands, three times the size of what Dashna's had been despite the fact that Soraya's movement had been shakier.

"Exactly," Dashna said approvingly. "Your form is perfect. You only have to practice enough so that you can execute it faster and, eventually, so that the move becomes second nature to you."

Learning that much had taken hours of practice and sore muscles. Soraya cringed to think about the huge amount of time and effort it would take until she reached that point, but she wiped the sweat from her forehead and nodded.

Dashna laughed at Soraya's pained expression.

"Is the training going along well, then?"

Soraya and Dashna both paused and turned at the voice. Massoud approached them with a crooked smile, jumping into the sand pit and sending up a dust of sand with his landing.

"It is," Soraya replied. Dashna scowled in his direction, clearly bothered by the interruption to their training. Soraya held back a sigh. Though cocky and arrogant, Massoud's help was invaluable to her armies, and her soldiers were slowly but surely improving. She surmised that he wasn't a bad person beneath all his bravado. "What brings you here?"

He shrugged. "I've been curious to see these powers of yours in action," he replied, eyes alight with curiosity. "I wonder if they're quite as strong as I've heard, or if it's a bit exaggerated. And so I came to observe your training."

"To observe our training?" Dashna spoke, arching a brow. "Or to see how you'd fare in a fight against such powers?"

Massoud turned his gaze to her, as if taking note of her for the first time. The easy smile never left his face. "Worried you might lose?" he replied with a wink. "Don't worry, lotus blossom- I wouldn't really hurt you."

Dashna narrowed her eyes.

"Let's see for ourselves," she challenged. Massoud's smirk turned into a grin. Soraya paled, moving to step between them. The last thing she needed right now were two of her most important soldiers fighting each other.

"Dashna, he's just taunting you," Soraya tried to calm her down. "You don't need to rise to it."

"I want to," Dashna said firmly. She met Soraya's gaze. "Where I'm from, words mean something. Clearly he still needs to learn that lesson."

Soraya glanced between Dashna and Massoud, who waited eagerly a few paces away, and sighed in exasperation. It seemed she couldn't stop them.

"Fine," Soraya said. Then she leaned down to Dashna's ear, adding in a whisper. "Don't even thinking about killing him. And no third degree burns either."

Dashna's lips quirked up into a small smile. "Of course, your grace." Giving her one last apprehensive glance, Soraya backed away from the center of the sandpit to observe the match.

Massoud and Dashna faced each other in the middle of the pit. He lazily stretched his shoulders, the ever-present cocky grin on his face. He withdrew his sword from its sheath at his side. Dashna regarded him with disdain, reaching for her own sword.

"Begin!" Soraya called, officially starting the bout.

Massoud lunged forward with a natural ease, not hesitating for a moment. His movements were smooth and seamless, but quick and sharp, an intimidating combination in a swordsman. In a normal fight, he almost certainly would have won without a second thought. However, this was not a normal fight.

Dashna saw her disadvantage in the situation as clearly as Soraya did, and she wasted no time in bringing her strengths into play. She jerked her sword quickly to block Massoud's first strike, barely reaching in time.

Massoud smiled, moving in for a second strike, but in the second before he could attack Dashna thrust her hand out towards him, directly in front of his face.

Massoud's eyes went wide as a slow light materialized around Dashna's palm before a blast of blazing fire shot forth. The blast was powerful and huge, the flames obscuring the two of them completely in the smoke and fire.

Soraya jerked forward, as if to go to stop the battle, but it was already over. The smoke cleared and the flame dissipated. She squinted into the haze, her mind anxious once again. That had looked like a direct hit to Moussad's face. She'd warned Dashna not to kill him, but such a hit would certainly have been enough. Even if he was still alive, the burn damage to his face would be astronomical.

Soraya clenched her jaw in frustration. She couldn't have just lost such a valuable asset in her war. Dashna would have to be ready to face the consequences for her action.

The haze cleared once and for all and the scene emerged for all the onlookers to see. The two of them stood frozen in place, in the same positions they had been in before. Massoud's sword was raised in the moment just before he brought it down to attack. Dashna's hand was still outstretched towards Massoud's face.

Looking at them from the side, Soraya had misjudged the angle of Dashna's attack. She had aimed a hair's width to the side of his face. The hair on the left side of his head had burned off completely, but his face remained uninjured and unmarred by the fire.

Both were breathing hard, even though the fight had lasted perhaps thirty seconds. They stood frozen, staring across at their opponent, for a moment longer before they both dropped their stances and stepped back.

Soraya moved forward towards the fighters. She couldn't help the smile that spread across her face as she took in Dashna's self-satisfied grin and Massoud's total bewilderment.

"You emerge the victor," she announced, patting her friend on the back. "Seems like our training hasn't been for nothing, after all. It was a good effort."

Massoud laughed lightly and both of them turned to look at him.

"There was no effort required," he said with a shake of his head. When he looked back at Dashna his eyes were bright, and contained a new sort of respect. He bowed forward to her as well. "You won this battle. It seems even I haven't seen everything in this world."

Dashna gave a curt nod to acknowledge him. She appraised his respectful posture and seemed to treat him with less severity than she'd initially thought he deserved.

"I had a significant advantage," she said with a shrug. Massoud only grinned even wider.

Soraya shook her head, but a smile still stuck to her face.

"That's enough distraction for one day," she announced, drawing both of their attention once more. "Let's get back to training, shall we?"