Rhayne moves first.
The metallic silk doesn't come in a straight line. It opens space before the aggression, drawing an arc that forces Mira to adjust the spear's tip so she won't take the first contact on her forearm.
Mira gives half a step back. No alarm in it. Probably calculation. Her spear drops from the center into a low guard, the haft locked between both hands, the point angled at Rhayne's knee. The first thrust comes.
It's the correct answer. Against a flexible weapon, aiming for the torso means accepting the dance. Aiming for the base means cutting the dance before it begins.
Rhayne sees it.
She doesn't jump. She only crosses her rear foot behind the lead one and lets her body turn along a narrow line, sending the spear's point past where her leg had been an instant before. The Battle Ribbon follows the turn, comes back from the left, and the metallic silk touches Mira's shoulder with the lightness of a ribbon in a recital.
Except the weapon isn't a ribbon.
