by P R Glazier
Chapter 52. Battle with the Rift
The Gatekeeper had raised a hand, a bolt of yellow power had shot from it and was headed towards Amndo, he winced as Deanola also loosed a bolt of power at the Gatekeeper. But the dark mage managed to place a shielding in front of her and Deanola’s icy bolt struck it harmlessly. Amndo balked at the skill and the seemingly limitless energy the dark mage had at her disposal. But he had no chance of dodging the bolt of power as he was held fast by the energy of the Rift, but to his surprise he felt that energy change subtly at the same time as the Gatekeeper’s energy bolt hit him square in the chest. He thought, well that’s it; I will die and not see the end of this affair. But the bolt did not hurt as he expected, it tingled mildly. He looked down at where it had struck him, a blue glow shone around his body, the glow spread across his chest and down the arm that was being held fast by the rift. It mingled with the glow around his hand and dissipated harmlessly. He thought, “by the Maker, the Rift, it saved me.”
Then in his mind he saw a face within the Rift, it was not the face of the evil one he had seen before, to his absolute astonishment this was the face of a T’Iea female, she looked at him concern upon her features. He thought he may be dreaming, or perhaps the energy bolt had killed him and he was somewhere else entirely. Before he could say anything, he was sure the figure bowed and said, “Keeper, give me the power, quickly,”
He was thinking, a T’Iea? Asking him for power? The face looked down towards his trapped hand, her features had all the beauty of her race and more. Amndo was transfixed. He smiled like a love-struck schoolboy.
The woman gave him a sidelong glance and smiled. Such a beautiful smile he thought. “Keeper, I need the power, her power. The Rift, it will respond to her arcane signature and hers alone, please, let me have it.”
Amndo shuddered. He snapped his mind into some semblance of organisation, he felt embarrassed.
“Keeper?”
Finally he was back, he said, “willingly, my lady but how?”
The T’Iea woman reached out with a hand, to his surprise he felt her touch his fingertips, he found himself thinking, “how is this happening?” Then he looked at the woman and asked, “where are you? Do I know you?”
“Not exactly, you may know of me perhaps, but introductions will have to wait, likewise an explanation as to where I am. There is very little time. If I am to save you and this situation in which we find ourselves, I need to act fast.” She then looked to one side as if she expected discovery at some point in the near future.
But Amndo knew exactly who this person was, he laughed, “Your Serinae, Minervar’s friend.”
The woman smiled and nodded, she grasped his hand, her features took on a scowl. Impatience flared in her voice. “Master Keeper! The power please, her power release it to me.” Her eyes shone a bright green, she stared deep into his eyes, she nodded encouragingly. “Master Keeper! Right now would be good!”
He looked at their clasped hands and the arcane energy that surrounded them. He looked back into Serinae’s eyes, she nodded once again encouragingly. Suddenly he was overcome with a sense of urgency. He closed his eyes and felt for the energy around his hand and lower arm, at first it was a confusing mass of conflicting power. He dug deeper trying to understand the individual strains. It began to work. He picked at the various threads, started to find the individual sources and trace them back to their origins. This was what he was trained to do, he could do this. He found his own life energy, he found the power of the earth the natural state of things. He shrugged and moved on. Then he found it, the power of the Rift, it was tightly entangled, it was trying to absorb the other energies present, like a voracious creature it tried desperately to overcome the other energies. He fought for his own life source, that part was easy. The natural worldly power fought its own corner to, the Rift was actually part of this energy in that it shared some components with the worldly power, but that made sense.
Then he found another power, it was T’Iea-like, yet it had additional facets he had not felt. Actually yes he had felt, or had he? Something within him had known it, something he didn’t know was there. But this something had not felt it in a long, long time. This energy had to be the T’Iea Serinae, her and yet with her something else. She worked her own arcane signature but a further signature was with her somehow. He wondered at it. He did know it, from the far distant past. It was a power he had never felt himself first hand, yet it was in his very psyche. Suddenly he knew where Serinae was, he knew it, she was with the ancient fathers. Not only that but she wielded immense power, unlimited power. But it was not power that originated from the Rift. He was shocked, this was far, far greater. How? What? This power was greater than all the arcane energy available in the world. By the Maker, this was the sort of arcane energy that originated form only one place! From a star! He wanted to know where she had gotten this long lost limitless power. He felt her power surge as if in confirmation. He saw the power of the Rift shrink back from the surge. There was no way it could match so much energy even if it destroyed the world by draining every last bit of arcane energy from within it.
He now knew what he had to do. This was it, this was what Serinae had meant, this was his chance. He gently coaxed his own energies first away from the Rifts; he took his time unravelling the tenuous links, until he was free. The last grasp that the Rift had on him was unfurled and he felt like he was pulled backwards suddenly. No, he could not release that link yet, he had not finished, he quickly remade the last link with the Rift. He moved to the worldly power. A bit more difficult this. In fact the links were strong; he would not be able to break some of them. But a thought came to his mind, he may not need to break them, just re-align them carefully so that they remained in contact but separated into individual lines. This was surprisingly easy to do. That done he concentrated on the combined energy belonging to Serinae and the link she provided to the wondrous ancient energy that once had belonged to the ancient fathers, but as soon as he tried to disengage the Rift from this old energy he felt a massive resistance.
He heard Serinae say, “no keeper not that one. Leave that one to me if you please.”
He was puzzled for a moment, then he realised Serinae had asked him for HER power, Serinae wanted it. He looked again at the energies, he realised that the only link now holding the Rift to him was the final chain, this was the power that the dark elf mage, the Gatekeeper, had aimed at him. He looked into Serinae’s jade green eyes.
Serinae smiled encouragingly, “let me have it Master Keeper, I need to know her signature, I need to learn what it is that resides within the Rift. I cannot hold it at bay forever, not without some understanding of what it is.”
Amndo nodded, he took a deep breath and cut the link. The Rift energies separated like a rope under great tension and he was free, the sensation was that of falling backwards. At the same time he saw the combined energies of Serinae and the old energy of the ancient fathers flare and expand rapidly. It enclosed the energy of the Rift along with the natural order energies in less than a millisecond. But he lost sight of everything. When he opened his eyes he was sitting on the rock platform above the Rift. The portal stone was several metres away, he was free. Then he noticed there on the top of the portal stone stood a figure, that which the T’Iea would call a R’Alacry Fer’Def, clothed in white light she held her hands above her head. He knew it was Serinae. A white beam of energy shot upwards from her hands and disappeared into the broiling, swirling mass of the shroud. For a moment nothing happened, but then slowly a circular hole appeared in the shroud around the beam of energy which seemed to be levelling off and forming a widening umbrella shape. As this expanded the shroud retreated, slowly but surely the shroud moved away from the white energy. Amndo gasped, he realised that this was sucking at the shroud which was being drawn back, drawn back down into the Rift. His heart leapt for through the widening hole he could see, clouds, sky. He thought ‘very clever’ and ‘very theatrical’ he smiled at the figure on the stone,
at Serinae. She shot him a broad grin. He was sure he heard a melodious giggle as she winked at him and disappeared. But his attention was drawn away, something darker and cylindrical flew across the widening space high above. It was a leviathan machine, hanging there high above them visible through the ever-widening hole in the shroud.