Sonder's sustained pulse pressed into the knight, but he still moved slowly, sword inching closer to her hand.
She didn't think it should have been able to move.
Her magic was not failing. She could see it, digging into the ground, tearing it apart slowly.
The longer she cast it, the clearer it became, flowing cleanly outward from her hand, turning bluer each second.
The knight shook and trembled, but there didn't seem to be effort behind his helmet. He simply advanced, pressing upon the force.
Then the second knight finally burst free from the barrier prison, with shards of blue light collapsing. In an instant, it was heading for Sonder.
She had been careful, but it seemed that she was too compassionate; some may have called her too weak with the knights.
She had fought them, and they were dangerous, yes, but still something she should not kill outright. She had measured her strength and thought she would be able to resolve this without any cost.
But if she continued on this path, even just for the next few seconds, the cost would be her own life.
Her eyes flicked, just once, to the man by the throne.
He had not moved, but his finger was still raised.
Sonder released the pulse entirely and leapt back, letting the sword cut through empty air.
She skidded across the stone.
"I don't want to do this," she said aloud, her voice steady and resolute. "I'm giving you a last chance to set down your weapons and surrender."
The knights didn't stop, not even for a second. Even while she told them to give up, they were attacking her.
She pushed them away with another barrier wall, and then she let go of the restraint she had wrapped so tightly around herself.
She drew her sword of light; it had an intense glow, but little light spilled from it.
It condensed in on itself rather than flaring out, drawing inward until it shaped itself into a long, narrow sword, bright at the edges but dim at the core.
While it grew, so did she, just a little, standing about half a head taller, but little else changed.
She focused on just one knight.
She was fast and strong, and while she did have to dodge and block strikes from both of the knights, the one she focused on had difficulties defending himself from her retaliation.
The knight was strong, stronger than his size suggested he could be, and was relentless in his fighting; he was predictable.
His movements were precise, repeated, and perfect, almost like a windup toy, with no feints and no hesitation.
There was a fire in Sonder's blood the more she moved, unpleasant, and she could feel her heart throb in her ears.
In a moment when she kicked back one knight and parried the sword of the other in an upward arc, she used that moment to dash forward with immense speed, like she was propelled, and rammed the sword through the knight's chest.
She pulled back the sword, but no blood followed from the knight's chest.
He did not even stagger.
But that confirmed a suspicion that she had.
She lifted her staff and did something Vell had warned her about long ago.
She created a barrier directly where the knight stood, one taller than him, going from left to right.
The knight was cut in half in an instant. She dispelled the barrier, and the knight fell into two pieces.
The front half fell forward and the back half backward, revealing that there was no person inside the armor.
What was inside was dark stone, like what the mountain and the castle were made of, in the shape of a person.
They were golems.