If I'm talking, she thinks, I'm remembering that we're not really trying to kill each other.

But okay. Fine.

"Liranan," she snaps, quick and sharp. "Stay."

And then she's moving, keeping herself set toward his blade-hand, because there's a chance for going over a sword, or under, or deflecting it away to give an opening, but with a shield and their height and mass difference --

No chance. She's quick, at least, even if she is not particularly strong. And there is some degree of staying power. It helps that she's done this before, both at great need and because a surprise was required. And because a battlemage is usually in the very thick of things.

Shockingly.