The land around the seal was barren, completely free of any trace of vegetation. Mei Li could almost see the rings of his progress recorded in the soil, as the area nearest him was black and powdery, the section further away a lighter tone, expanding outward into red clay, barely burned. Which meant he was gaining influence over his surroundings by degrees as he got his power back.
He looked about a day away from bursting free completely. The only thing going in their favor was that he didn’t seem awake right now. Unlike Jingfei, Zaffi remained sleeping under the seal.
The only change between Mei Li’s last visit and this one was that a basin had been carved around Zaffi, a wide pool that was dry now but that would keep water around him once filled. Which she was very glad to see. That sort of prep work likely took days. As long as there was water somewhere in the area, they’d be set.
Still, that seal did not look promising.
Dolan interpreted her silence with spot-on precision. “It’s bad. I’m so glad you’re here now, words can’t describe it. I know you told us what to do, just in case, but the only person everyone will listen to is you.”
That was likely true. And she had a very mixed crew here, mages from all different nationalities and cultures. She wasn’t even sure if everyone was here yet. She did see that the extra dragons had arrived. Were all of the mages here yet?
Anxiously, she asked Dolan, “Is everyone here?”
“Not quite. I’m missing two still, but I sent a message to them and got a very quick reply, saying that they’re coming. They expect to be here this evening. Probably some kind of delay on the road.”
It happened. Mei Li nodded, blowing out a long breath. “As long as they make it.”
Shunlei shifted behind her before offering, “I’ll go and fetch them if I must.”
“It might come to that,” she acknowledged grimly, still staring hard at the failing seals. “Because the one thing we absolutely do not have right now is time. And I’m not holding my breath on luck, either. Dolan, if it’s like this now, how badly are people being influenced?”
“Even with the charms, none of us can stay in this area for long. Three days seems to be our max, then we have to retreat to the town for a while. His influence on our minds is…” Dolan broke off with a grimace. “I woke up one morning to find that one of our mages had sleep walked to the seal and was casting fire directly at it.”
Thereby weakening it further. Mei Li winced. “Dear gods and magic.”
“We tried summoning water and pouring it into the basin he’s sitting in, but it evaporates as soon as it touches the ground. We exhausted several water spirits in the attempt, and it didn’t do anything to the seal. I understand from the locals that a river used to flow through here, and it created a lake around his barrier, but that it suddenly dried up several years ago.”
“Rivers sometimes change course.” Mei Li passed a hand over her face. “We knew that was a possibility. And that as he woke up and regained his power, the river would likely be one of the first things impacted. Seals don’t stay good just because they have the right power source. The design of the spell eventually gets corrupted and fails. But I wish we’d gotten here in time to renew it before the river disappeared completely.”
Dolan gave a sour grunt. “Well, you’d need to travel back in time to do it. I think it disappeared about the same time Overlook got buried under a volcano.”
“Glory. Well, I’m not time traveling again; once was enough for me. We’ll need to find another water source and take it from there.”
Dolan nodded in agreement. “We’ve been hunting for one. Simeon has found a good possibility—we’ll show it to you in a minute. You said you knew precisely what to do, as you’d defeated Odom and Zaffi in the past. Can I get the particulars this time?”
“Sure. I’ll tell you now, but I’ll explain it again when all the mages have arrived. We should prep as much as we can while waiting for our stragglers.”
Mei Li waited until the last of the mages arrived: a mage couple, seasoned and in their mid-forties. With them, she had precisely a dozen mages on hand, including her. And that might be enough for this. She’d had eight mages the first time they’d sealed Zaffi, with massive injuries from the fight, so she hoped four more people would make a difference. Rone, Huan, Bai, and Gen were due to arrive very soon, and the additional support would be enough. She hoped.
Mei Li was very, very tired of people getting hurt on her watch.
And she wanted Zaffi down. She wasn’t sure if it was justice she was serving or revenge; she just wanted Zaffi down, and it was all she could really focus on. It helped drown out his influence in her head, an insidious whisper that tried to sneak past her charm.
Good luck with that, Zaffi, she internally jeered. Nothing in this world will convince me to help you.
The expected four arrived just as the sun started to set. Mei Li went out to greet them, relieved to see the bandages off of Bai and Gen’s hands. Finally—finally—they were fully healed. And frisky, even after the long flight, as Bai greeted her with a wicked grin.
“We’re in time to take him down, I see.”
“You are,” Mei Li agreed with a smile in return. “And in time for dinner. Really, you couldn’t have planned this better. Go ahead and grab plates, get settled. I’m about to tell everyone our plan.”
“Fine by me.” Bai was already moving.
Gen paused to ask, “We did bring our own tents, but where do we pitch them? This area seems pretty busy.”
“Wherever you can find space. Don’t be afraid to ask for help, everyone wants you settled in before night falls.”
“Alright.”
Rone gave her an awkward duck of the head, as if she didn’t quite know how to react to Mei Li and was trying to act normally. Mei Li appreciated the effort, shared the awkwardness, and mentally sighed. Rone was a problem she’d fix…eventually. She just didn’t have time to worry about it now with Zaffi literally breathing down their necks. Mei Li chose to let it go and went for dinner.
When everyone sat down, plates of food in their hands, she stood near the fire and spoke to them, making sure to pitch her voice a little louder.
“Alright, everyone settled? Good, let me outline the situation. We have some newcomers, and I want to make sure we’re all working with the same information. I’ll outline the plan generally for you. We’ll do one of the largest collaborative spells that many of you will ever experience. The sealing requires a ring of mages forming a circle around Zaffi, feeding power into each other and a talisman.”
People murmured, not expecting this.
“The talisman holds the design of the sealing. And it’s not a one-size-fits-all; it’s something that has been specifically designed for Zaffi. I’ll show you how to draw this out, as we’ll need many of them, but understand that I will need every mage here to pour their magic through these talismans—while staying linked up with each other—for hours in order to make this happen. It’s doable, I promise you. Just a strain.”
She paused, letting that sink in for a moment. It seemed to go over well enough, as no one was objecting. Good.
“Now, a few things you must understand while we’re working on this. First, you cannot use earth- or fire-based spells on Zaffi. They just fuel him. Second, the main reason his seal has failed is because one of the elements has dried up. We used a water- and wind-based seal on him the first time. The wind—”
Here she cut off, as the wind whistled down through the mountain canyon, tossing hair into her mouth. She dragged it out and gave the canyon a dry look. Talk about timing.
“—the wind,” she continued, smiling as people chuckled, “is brutal through here. We definitely have enough wind to power a sealing spell, and it’s not likely to run out any time soon. But we also need that water as another base. The reason why Zaffi was sealed here, originally, was because there was a massive lake in this very spot. As you can see, that’s gone now. We needed to find another water so
urce, and I think Simeon’s found one. Simeon?”
The half-elf stood, giving her a nod. He kept his dinner plate in one hand even as he gestured with the other.
“This will be the tricky part. I did find another source of water, an underground river that’s not far from here. It probably fueled the lake to begin with. It’s been diverted, through natural formations, but I think we can get it back. If I can have help—I’ll need at least four people for this—then tomorrow, we can open up a well above ground, get an inscribed set of spells to draw the water up, and direct its flow to the basin under Zaffi’s feet.”
Two hands immediately raised, belonging to mages Mei Li could barely put a name to.
“We both have good water sense,” the woman said. “My husband’s better with earth. Which do you need?”
“Both, in fact. Can I have your help too, sir?”
The man at her side nodded firmly.
“Then that’s three.” Simeon turned his head to regard her and said, “Tomes, I’d actually prefer you to be the fourth person. This needs to be a permanent spell, so it’s not something I can use Evocation on.”
“No, Wu Xing would work best for this, I think,” Mei Li agreed readily. “We’ll start in the morning? Good. Thank you, Simeon. Now, once that water is in place, that’s when things will really start rolling. We’ll need as much water as we can get. If anyone can shove all the snow in this area over there as well, that’ll also help. Any trace of water will boost our efforts.”
Dolan lifted a hand. “I’ll take charge of that.”
Bless that man. Mei Li had too many things to oversee as it was.
“Thank you. Please do. We’ll merge both water and wind into this sealing, which means we’ll need some talismans in place in order to guide the sealing. This will need precise coordination. And we’ll need a lot of talismans, as the new sealing area around Zaffi will be larger than the current one. We can’t take down the first sealing, we just have to go over top of it. Volunteers for writing out many, many talismans tomorrow?”
More than a few hands shot up.
“Excellent. Meet me here after breakfast. I’ll show you what to draw before I help Simeon.” Mei Li looked around at all of these determined faces and felt her heart seize in her chest a little. She wanted so badly to promise that they’d be fine. That everything would turn out alright.
But she’d battled Zaffi before. And there was no guarantee when dealing with these ancient evils.
“I want to impress on all of you, you must be careful. Support each other as much as you can. Zaffi’s influence over this area is something you must take seriously. We’re going to write charms on each other every few hours to mentally block him. They wear out quickly. It’ll help, but keep your guard up. I do not exaggerate when I say that in the past, he sparked whole towns into war with each other. That’s how ferocious his bloodlust is. It’ll only increase if he wakes up, so we’re battling against time. If I ask you to hold, hold. We’re all doomed if even one person falls. Zaffi isn’t easy—Odom is just as bad, only in a different way. We’re all new to working with each other, which makes this more challenging. But I hope we’ll do this and do it well. My goal is to have Zaffi resealed in three days.”
One person lifted a hand and asked, “Master Shunlei, you were there at the first sealing. What happened then?”
“We suffered multiple injuries and two deaths,” Shunlei answered with a sad grimace. “But we also had no idea what we were doing and didn’t have enough mages on hand. This time, we know precisely what to do and have more help. I believe we can do this without anyone suffering serious injury. It did take most of the day once they started sealing Zaffi the first time. But they were also trying to use only water as a base, if memory serves.”
“Correct,” Mei Li confirmed with a smile. “I’m impressed you still remember that.”
“It caused no end of trouble,” he pointed out. “And nearly got you killed. So, yes, I do remember that.”
“Point. At any rate, we know what to do. I think we can prepare well enough to take Zaffi back down without getting anyone killed in the process.” Mei Li gave everyone a stern look. “Heed my warnings. I’m very tired of people getting hurt while we’re working on these problems. I want everyone to walk away from this one.”
Dolan, sitting nearby, snorted. “It’s not like we want to be injured, either.”
“Yes, I know.” And yet the injuries kept happening.
Mei Li didn’t know if it was possible to plan something to the point that all dangers were null and void. But she was certainly going to try.
She let people go back to their dinners at that point, snuggling into Shunlei’s side so she could eat her own before it got any colder. As she ate, Chen approached, coming to sit on his haunches right in front of her.
“Tomes,” he started, then paused, his red brows furrowed together. “I know there’s not much the dragons can do with this one. Our fire won’t have any effect on Zaffi. But still, it sits ill with me to just stand around and watch all of you work.”
He really was a sweetheart, this one.
“I’ll show you what to do,” Shunlei offered with an understanding nod. “It’s hard for us, when the mages start working, because there isn’t much we can do. But there are some things. We can prep the materials they need. The talismans often need to be a particular shape and tied around stones or bricks to keep them from shifting during the battle. We can cut that cloth and rope, and tie the talismans. With direction, we can even place them. When the fight starts, we can guard the mages with our wings. We’re far more fire retardant than they are.”
All good points, and precisely what Mei Li was about to suggest.
Chen regarded him for a moment, his expression slowly clearing. “That’s what you’ve done, isn’t it? Over the centuries of helping them.”
“Yes. It’s what I learned to do. What they taught me to do. Because I couldn’t just sit and watch, either. I was too antsy for it.”
Mei Li rolled her eyes to the heavens. That was the understatement of the year, right there. Shunlei the Red had very little patience to speak of when he got antsy.
“Also, help keep watch over everyone. Zaffi has already influenced one mage while they were asleep.” Mei Li gestured toward the camp at large. “We want to prevent sabotage if at all possible.”
This seemed to settle Chen. He looked far more content. “I’ll spread the word so everyone knows to help with the talismans tomorrow. And we’ll definitely keep watch over everyone.”
That wouldn’t be enough to keep them occupied, so Mei Li threw in, “And can you work out a cooking schedule between you? We’re not going to have enough time to cook for everyone and clean up afterward. Also, put someone on fire duty, keep the fires in the various work spots going. We’ll all freeze, otherwise.”
Chen looked even more pleased with these additional tasks and gave her a firm nod. “Consider it done. Anything else?”
“That’s all I can think of at the moment. I’ll call for one of you if something else occurs to me.”
“Alright. I’ll organize that now.” He popped up and headed for the group of dragons hugging one of the other fires.
“Those were all good tasks to give them,” Shunlei noted. “It gives everyone purpose tomorrow, so they won’t just be staring at Zaffi, waiting for the seal to break.”
Mei Li shuddered, the motion only slightly exaggerated. “I hate looking in that direction. But my paranoia keeps drawing my attention that way. I don’t think I’d be able to sleep tonight if we didn’t have a mage on watch.”
“I know I certainly wouldn’t.” He paused before adding ruefully, “Not that I’m convinced I’ll be able to sleep at all.”
She stared glumly down at her plate. “I don’t give it good odds, no.”
Mei Li was fairly certain no one slept that night. They were all fused to cups of hot tea and coffee the next morning, which spoke volumes. People shuffled around, bleary
eyed, but still kept an eye on Zaffi.
Who was, in fact, worse this morning.
At least, the demon’s eyes were open, and Mei Li considered that to be very much worse. She did NOT want him awake.
Zaffi glared at them all, but when she stepped into his line of sight, he fumed—visibly. Steam rose into the air around him, and his glare turned hot enough to melt steel. She glared right back, her anger more than a match for his. Proving that he was—unfairly—more awake than she was, he raised up on his back haunches. The demon resembled a misshapen patchwork of boulders held together by fire and lava, with oddly shaped limbs jutting out. He had once had a more humanoid shape that moved easily. Being sealed for five thousand years had not been kind to him, not in any sense. He spoke with deliberate, curt tones, like a rock biting off each syllable.
“Dragon’s bride comes to cage me once again, I see.”
The words spewed forth heat in the brutal morning air, and it alarmed Mei Li that she could feel that heat even through the seal.
She didn’t let that fear show, and she lifted her chin in defiance. “I have.”
“You failed once already. I have not slept long. You look the same as you did, which tells me little time has passed.”
“Five thousand years, in fact,” Shunlei refuted, coming up to stand at her side.
Zaffi stared at him with absolutely no recognition.
This amused Shunlei in a dark way, and he pointed toward himself. “Come now, you recognize my wife, but not me?”
“Your skin has changed,” the monster inside the seal said slowly, the cogs and wheels spinning behind his eyes. “Why has your skin turned so dark?”
“Because I’ve aged. Five thousand years.” Shunlei shook his head. “I’d forgotten that back then, no one knew a dragon’s skin would change through so many colors as they grew older. We were all too young then to know. Well, except my wife. She knew. And thankfully warned the rest of us; otherwise, we would have been quite alarmed by the development.”
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