Emily gripped the silver-inlaid wood of her staff, her fingers working the intricate clasp at its crest. With a sharp twist, she detached the large, teardrop-shaped focus crystal and slipped it into her pocket.
It felt inherently wrong to step into a duel without it. The crystal was a Frost family standard, designed to amplify and sustain large-scale barrier constructs. Every member of the main family was trained to rely on it from an early age. But Alex had bluntly told her during their courtyard training that the heavy crystal created a half-second delay in her initial mana flow, slowing her first cast. She had argued with him at the time, insisting that the crystal gave her more control. Alex had simply told her that control meant nothing if her opponent reached her before she could use it. Today, half a second meant the difference between standing her ground and getting crushed into the sand.
