Delver Magic Book III: Balance of Fate

by Jeff Inlo

  #

  Tabris took long moments of consideration before casting her two spells. A violet colored diamond appeared around her wrists as she mouthed words in a whisper. The diamond spun about her as it shifted to her hands. With a thrust of her arms the purple diamond flew into the air. It maintained its shape, but it grew ever larger, its boundaries expanding in all directions. As its edges rolled out of sight toward each point of the compass, it left behind a faint shadow of itself. Eventually, this too disappeared.

  Tabris looked upon Sazar and again mouthed words the serp could not understand, words he could barely hear. Another diamond appeared near her hands, a smaller one. This one held its tight size as she flung it at Sazar.

  The serp’s first instinct was to recoil at the motion, but he held his ground and the diamond caused him no pain when it entered his chest.

  “It is done,” Tabris said. “Your will is now connected to the drifting breeze that can no longer be seen or felt, but still exists. It will carry your power to bend the will of others for greater distances than you would have hoped. Your will is also now enhanced with the constant pressure of breath. Those that fall under your control will be reminded of your orders with every breath they take. Both spells are continuous in their own nature. The drifting breeze has no end and only death would stop the continuity of breath. They are fed with my own energy, thus I can cancel them at will. Give me no reason to and you will find that the creatures you place under your control will remain there no matter how far you send them from you or how long they are away from your presence.”

  “There will be no need to cancel them,” the serp insisted as he stood unmoving while trying to sense a difference within himself. At first he felt nothing. “You are certain the magical energy is linked to my thoughts?”

  “As certain as I am standing here. Test your new powers now. I assume you have other creatures under your domain other than the large shag that stands far out in the desert.”

  “Yes, a few.”

  “Establish a link with them now. Follow the shadows of your last contact with them in your mind.”

  Sazar focused on the rock beetle. He sifted through the lingering thoughts of his last contact. As it became clearer in his mind, he seized it and attempted to recreate it. Instantly, he connected to the rock beetle that was burrowing right where he left it in Dark Spruce Forest. The beetle became still as it waited for a command. Sazar felt the presence of the rock beetle as if it stood at his side.

  With this connection still strong and vital, he reached out his thoughts to the hook hawk. Immediately, he linked his mind to that of the beastly bird. The hawk perched quietly in the trees and Sazar could see what the bird saw. Only a dozen or so goblins remained in the area, and even a few of these were beginning to shy away from the area.

  “You are now linked with a few of your minions?” Tabris asked.

  “Yes. It is extraordinary that the link is so strong at this distance.”

  “You realize that you can use these links to acquire contact with other creatures?”

  “No, I did not,” Sazar admitted.

  “The drifting breeze is now your vessel. Where it goes, your thoughts can go. You simply need to focus on the target and your will can reach it. If the minions in your control allow you to establish the location of a new target, you can flow your will through them to that exact point. You no longer need to be in the exact presence of a creature to bend its will to yours.”

  That consideration went beyond Sazar’s furthest hopes. Without delay, he tested this new found power. Rather than attempting to re-establish a link with the goblins using a past thought from his memory, he concentrated on their location using the images given to him by the hook hawk. His mind sent out a command to the goblins trying to sneak away.

  Return to your positions and await my instructions.

  He watched with glee as the goblins stiffened with fear and quickly returned to the fold of the other creatures. He then bade the hook hawk to take flight, which it did without hesitation. The beast circled about at higher and higher elevations. All the time Sazar focused upon the images of the forest that came back to him through the mind of the bird. When he saw the second shag meandering west through sparse trees, he commanded it to return as well. The shag obeyed.

  Gleefully, Sazar announced his success. “It is working!”

  The sorceress appeared less impressed. “Of course.”

  With swift calculation of his new found powers, Sazar considered one last effort to test. He had been able to reestablish his will on minions he previously controlled, but what of creatures with which he had no previous contact? He returned his focus to the hook hawk. Images of the forest returned to the forefront of his mind and he noticed two gremplings stalking together through the trees. Gremplings, small but agile creatures covered in fur with long tails, were mischievous in nature and lacked any true power to be an asset to him, but for now they would serve as an excellent test. Beyond their nimbleness, they were also fairly intelligent, much more so than the common goblin. They also had stronger wills and lower levels of fear. With such characteristics, gremplings were often difficult for serps to control, and because they lacked the horde traits of the goblin or the sheer natural power of a shag, they were usually not worth the effort.

  It was not, however, Sazar’s desire to add these two to his army for their prowess. It was his wish to determine just how strong he had become. It would normally take a fair amount of concentration to bend the will of just one grempling when it was right in front of him. How would he succeed with two and at this far distance?

  He focused his will upon the image of the gremplings in his mind. He reached out to them and ordered them to hold their position. In his mind, he could see them freeze. He then sent them an order to circle twenty paces about their current position and scout for any other creatures in the area. Again, he watched them in his mind as they followed out his orders.

  The sensation was intoxicating to the serp. Not only could he now regain control of his previous minions with very little effort, he could add to his army without ever having to venture out in the wild. The links he could create were far more powerful, the images in his mind forcibly more vibrant. He could fix his concentration on a group of minions in one area while still reaping the benefits of incoming sensations of creatures under his control far off in the distance.

  As he expanded his mind to incorporate the links with all his creatures, his own perspective of the land around him grew with leaps and bounds. In essence, his awareness of sights, sounds, and scents expanded beyond his own normal capabilities a hundredfold.

  For one brief moment, the enormous flow of stimulus from outside forces into his mind nearly overwhelmed him to the brink of unconsciousness or perhaps even insanity. If he drank in too much of the inflowing information, he might lose his own place in reality. He quickly seized on his own surroundings, anchored his physical being to the actual point of his own existence. Then, he allowed the sensations from his minions to take their place in his consciousness where he could utilize them but where they would not overwhelm his own awareness.

  “You have done me a great service, sorceress,” Sazar admitted. “And in the process you have opened great opportunities for us both. I will utilize what you have given me to its greatest extent, and in return, I will send you whatever it is you need.”

  “I expect you shall,” Tabris replied.