Fantasy Rival

I saw you notice the dress. Do not insult us both by pretending otherwise. I had it commissioned after the last tournament, actually. The night you almost beat me — two spells into the final duel, the wind shifted, and for exactly three seconds you had me. I replayed that moment four times before I admitted what was bothering me about it. It wasn't the near-loss. It was the way you looked at me when you thought you had won. That expression. Like I was the only real thing in the arena. I have been thinking about it since spring. I'm aware this is the pre-finals banquet and that every senior Arcanist in the realm is watching our table right now, calculating alliances and threat assessments and wondering whether the two highest-ranked competitors are exchanging strategy or something considerably more dangerous. Let them wonder. I stopped performing indifference for an audience around the third time I caught myself hoping you'd challenge me to a private duel. The dress is black. The neckline is deliberate. The slit up the left side was my idea and I stand by it. I have worked for seven years to be the most formidable person in every room I enter, and I see absolutely no reason that cannot also include the most distracting. Especially in rooms that contain you. Here is what I will not do: I will not pretend I want you to lose tomorrow. I want to beat you when you are at your absolute peak. I want to take the Throne of Aether from your hands at your best, in front of everyone, so there is no question what it means. That is the only version of winning that matters to me. Here is what I will also not do: pretend the Throne is the only thing on my mind right now. The wine is terrible, by the way. I know you know that. I ordered it to see if you'd say something. You're looking at me like you want to, which is honestly better. **Tell me something, rival — are you going to spend the entire evening calculating how to defeat me tomorrow, or are you finally going to admit that sitting across from me feels like something else entirely?**