The sword felt light in Tara's hand when she removed it from its sheath. She didn't break eye contact with Dia while she brought the cold steel to rest horizontally in the air before her. Dia smiled with no hint of uneasiness at the three furies glaring in her general direction.

     "Really, Tara?" Dia began pacing in front of them, twiddling a large pendant hanging from her neck, "Do you honestly think you can win against me? The one who trained you in sword fighting?" She asked with a large grin.

     "You're forgetting something, Dia," Gwen added, "there's three of us and only one of you."

     The girls remained standing tall with their backs to the doorway. Tara tightened her grip on the sword.

     "Oh, I didn't forget, Gwen. As far as I'm concerned there's only two here that can even be considered fighters," Dia walked over to her arm chair, straightened out the back of her silk dress and sat down gently, "I should have just killed you that night I found you," she sneered.

     Erin placed a hand on Gwen's arm, who had began trembling with both anger and insecurity. Tara remained stern and poised with a sweating palm wrapped around the end of her sword.

     "And you," Dia looked towards Erin, "your desire to comfort makes you a weak little girl."

     Erin remained quiet and looked towards Tara for direction, but received nothing more than her profile: ready to pounce.

     "Shut it!" Tara yelled to Dia, "enough talking." Tara positioned her sword near her midsection and ran at the venomous woman sitting comfortably, reaching for her wine glass. Dia didn't falter in her movements. Instead, she gracefully rose up with wine in hand and moved right before impact. Tara's sword stuck in the armchair, tearing apart the embroidery and stitching. She wiggled it back and forth trying to pry it out. Dia laughed.

     "I told you, Tara, you don't have a chance," Dia said into her wine, her other hand on her narrow hip. Tara screamed as the sword finally fell lose of the chair's grasp. She brought it around aiming for a downward slash of Dia's long neck. Yet again Dia moved to the side, waiting until the last possible moment before impact with a smirk.

"You need to pay for your greed," Erin added. She pulled out her sword with an unsure hand. Gwen stood beside her and did the same.

"Really girls?" Dia's gaze mocked them, and their original plan began to feel more like an uncertainty rather than reality. Erin rushed at Dia with Gwen in tow. They surrounded her, her calm demeanor toying with their confidence.

     "I feel like the odds are a bit better for us now," Tara stated. She looked at both Gwen and Erin ready to attack, their attention entirely drawn to the languid figure before them.

Dia bent down carefully, appearing to be fixing the bottom of her dress, but pulled out two small daggers that were attached to her calves. She raised them up quickly and slashed them back and forth at Tara's neck, just missing her.

"Apparently I need to warm up a bit," Dia said cracking her knuckles followed by her neck. Erin attempted to bring her sword down while she was distracted, but was quickly dodged with a laugh.

Tara tried to hit her thigh with the sharp tip but only succeeded in a small graze whilst Dia fought to keep dodging the blows from Erin and Gwen. The silk of her dress soaked up the fresh seeping of blood near her outer thigh. She looked down and sighed at the sight.

     "You just ruined my favorite dress," Dia went for Tara's face with her daggers, but Tara blocked them against her sturdy steel, "do you know how hard it is to get blood out of silk?" Dia ran out of the small surrounding circle towards the balcony gripping her two clean daggers tightly.

     Erin and Gwen ran after her throwing thrust after thrust with nothing to show for it except the still fresh wound from Tara's sword. Gwen grew tired, the sweat dripping down her jaw bones. Noticing the exhaustion, Dia went for Gwen's shoulder, but Erin realized it and immediately swung her foot along Dia's shins, causing her to drop to the ground.

     "That's the first time I've seen you do something without any poise," Tara said, bringing her sword up and looking at the perfection of its craftsmanship. Dia, still on the ground, lifted her body up against her elbows and looked up at the three of them surrounding her. Erin could have swore she'd seen a bit of fear flash through her eyes but dissipate almost instantaneously. Tara brought her blade to rest beneath Dia's chin, feeling her swallow against it  roughly.

The door to Dia's bedroom opened with a loud creak. All four of them turned their attention to the fury walking through the door.

     "Ma'am," the fury noticed the company she had surrounding her with weapons drawn. They stood in silence for a moment staring at one another. Dia noticed the lightened grasp on Tara's sword and took the opportunity to swat it far from her neck and slide away from beneath them to the balcony. The fury, frightened with a slowly paling face backed out of the room and shut the door fast.

"There's no where for you to go Dia," Gwen said. The three of them held out their weapons and slowly walked side by side, blocking any possible escape for Dia. Dia, shocked at the prospect of losing brought up her daggers and began an attempt at finally finishing the three of them off until Tara knocked one of the daggers out of her hand. The three of them crowded in tighter.

"You really wouldn't want to hurt me now, would you girls?" Dia smiled. She instantly went to plant her remaining dagger in Gwen's throat but only slashed her slightly. Gwen winced and placed a hand on the stinging wound near her neck.

Dia held the dagger up to the moonlight, admiring the gleam of blood on steel, "I would love to stay and finish you off, but I'm afraid I have more important matters to tend to."

Tara, Gwen and Erin gave Dia confused looks before watching her hop over the balcony and jump to the spiraling staircase below. The silk gave her away, even in the darkness. It hugged at the small curves, molding to her with every movement. They watched as her bright dress moved violently against the wind and made its way down the mountain, eventually vanishing.