No! Not now! I was going to finish this. I was winning! I’m nowhere near my five minutes limit. How did I expend all of my magical energy in just a few seconds? Was it because of the sudden power up I got just now?
Please, it can’t all end like this! I just need to deliver one more strike. One more strike is all I need. Please…
It’s too late. I can’t even maintain my flight spell anymore. I’m falling. There’s no way I’ll survive a fall from this height. Daren and Kate are too far to help me. Is this it for me? After all that’s happened, am I simply going to die pathetically like this?
Just before I reach the ground, I suddenly stop in mid-air and then I fall flat on my face, from a height of about three feet. How did I do that? Did I manage to gather my last few drops of power in order to save myself?
“How disappointing,” I hear Eiden’s voice from high above in the sky. “How very disappointing. Barry, I was expecting a lot more from you. I didn’t give you all of that magical energy just so you could waste it by activating your device’s temporary maximized mode.”
“I didn’t activate anything,” I tell him, confused.
Eiden sighs.
“Yes, you did,” he says. “You’re just not aware of it. Take a look at your stat device. You’ll understand when you see for yourself.”
I take the stat device out of my pocket and look at its screen. What… What am I looking at here, exactly?
The numbers are all over the place. Every single one of my stats is far exceeding its maximum number, but they’re dropping at a very fast rate. Now I understand what happened. I must have accidentally used all of the energy that Eiden pumped into my device in order to temporarily maximize all of the stats. That’s why I suddenly got so powerful. That’s why I didn’t recognize the spell.
“Do you understand now, Barry?” Eiden says. “The energy I gave you was never meant to be used like that. Magical energy doesn’t grow on trees, you know? You should use it with more care.”
“Eiden…” the dragon says, as he gets up and soars into the air again. “I’ve been looking for you.”
The stillwater smiles.
“Tyrath!” he says. “It feels like it’s been a century since I last saw you! Or has it really been that long? I don’t remember. Come give your old friend a hug!”
“I was going to bait you out by using the bodies of your lackeys,” Tyrath says, “but it looks like that is no longer necessary. Today we end this, once and for all.”
“Come now, Tyrath!” Eiden says. “Don’t be so melodramatic. You’re ruining our happy reunion!”
Instead of replying, the dragon blasts Eiden with his fire breath. The stillwater points his finger at the flames, and they stop in front of him. He then gestures towards the dragon with his hand, and the flames head back towards Tyrath, hitting him head on.
“I see you’re still up to your old tricks,” the dragon says. “But I’ve become a lot more powerful since you left. This won’t be like the last time.”
Tyrath rushes towards Eiden, but the stillwater teleports behind the dragon and shoots a beam of fire at him. Tyrath shrugs off the flames, and he breathes his own fire at Eiden again. Just like the last time, Eiden sends the flames back, but this time he also surrounds the dragon with four pillars of fire that explode in his face.
What is he doing? Doesn’t he know that dragons are resistant to fire? Why does he keep attacking him like this?
“Do you mock me, stillwater?” Tyrath says. “If you don’t start fighting seriously, you’re going to be sorry.”
Eiden says nothing, but he keeps smiling at the dragon with his eyes closed. He is now flooding the whole sky with flames, and he’s teleporting away every time the dragon tries to reach him. They’re teleporting after each other so fast that I can barely tell what’s happening anymore. The whole sky looks like it’s on fire, as the two combatants’ vague outlines are occasionally visible throughout the flames.
Suddenly, the whole area gets covered in a blue light, and I’m starting to feel an immense magical power coming from the air all around us.
“What is the meaning of this?” the dragon asks.
“Has it been so long you’ve forgotten, old friend?” Eiden says. “Just because they haven’t been activated in more than a millennium does not mean that these traps are out of function. This one was just a bit out of tune, that’s all. So I had to warm it up before it would start working again!”
“You can’t mean…” Tyrath says.
Eiden’s smile widens.
“The lessathi have many flaws,” he says, “but poor craftsmanship is not one of them. Most of the artifacts they built in the old times are still fully functional, after all!”
As the two of them speak, the ground is shaking violently, and the blue light is intensifying.
“Listen to me, stillwater,” Tyrath says, furiously. “Your little tricks won’t last forever. This won’t keep me away for long. And when I get out, you’re going to wish you were never born. Do you hear me?! Wipe that smile off your face, you lowborn little—”
All of the magic in the air gets unleashed in a single moment, and the dragon gets teleported away, as the blue light disappears and the earthquake slowly stops.
Eiden turns back to me.
“I hope you won’t miss him too much,” he says. “It’ll be a while before we see him again.”
“I don’t get it,” I say. “What just happened? Who are the lessathi?”
“The lessathi are the most ancient race on this island,” Eiden says. “Although the name is a bit hard to remember so most people prefer to call them simply ‘the ancients’. Their talent at crafting magical artifacts and devices was unmatched a thousand years ago, and we still use many of those artifacts to this day. The trap I just triggered was also made by them some two thousand years ago. It was supposed to get activated at the first sign of flames, but because it’s been at least a thousand years since it was last used, its mechanism was a little rusty. That’s why I warmed it up with my fire spells.”
“What happened to the dragon, then?” I say.
“He was transported to a dragon prison on this island,” Eiden says. “Since I doubt there’s anyone actually guarding it at this point, I imagine that he won’t have much trouble escaping, but even so, he’ll still have to destroy the prison’s automatic defenses and he’ll have to travel all the way back here. So it should be at least a few days before he comes back.”
“Eiden!” Daren shouts, as he comes closer to us. “What are you doing here?”
“Wait… I don’t understand… Isn’t he your friend?” Rose asks us.
“That’s what I thought, but it seems I was mistaken,” Eiden says, feigning sadness.
He then turns to leave.
“No, wait, don’t go!” Rose calls out to him. “I’m sure Daren didn’t mean what he said!”
“I thank you for your kindness, Rose, but I can tell when I’m not wanted,” Eiden says. “I bid you farewell!”
He then starts fading away and teleports out of our sight. Or did he? After seeing how well he could mask his presence before, I’m starting to wonder. It’s a bit creepy, knowing that he could just be standing there, invisible and untraceable, listening to everything we say. We really need to find some way to detect these kinds of things.
“Daren, how could you do this to your friend?” Rose says. “That was horrible!”
“Yeah, Daren, you should be ashamed of yourself!” I say, with a grin.
“Damn it, Barry!” Daren says, “You’re not planning to make this any easier for me, are you?”
“He saved all of our lives!” Rose says. “I saw it happen before my eyes! We all would have been dead if not for him! He’s the one that gave Barry all of those powers that allowed him to fight the dragon. Why are you acting like he’s our enemy?”
“It’s because he is our enemy,” Kate tells her, bluntly. “When we first met him this morning, he tried to kill Daren outright and
ultimately decided against it, on a whim. If what you’re saying is true, and he really did save all of our lives, then I am inclined to believe that this was also a decision he made on a whim. What was the motivation he gave for saving the four of us?”
Kate’s rebuttal made Rose lose a bit of steam.
“He, uh…”
She pauses.
“He said that he couldn’t let the dragon win, after having gloated like a villain from a children’s storybook…”
“Well, there you have it,” Kate says. “But never mind Eiden’s intentions. What I am most interested in knowing is how you both got to interact with him in the middle of our fight, when neither I nor Daren saw him appear until the end of the battle.”
“He froze time,” I tell her.
“Froze time?!” Daren asks, perplexed. “How is that even possible?”
“Beats me,” I say. “He just snapped his fingers and made time stop for everyone except me and him.”
“Wait, what about Rose?” Kate asks.
“He said… that I was able to resist his spell because I’m a time weaver,” Rose answers her.
“What the hell is a time weaver?” Kate says.
“According to Eiden,” I say, “it’s a person that isn’t a mage, but has all sorts of time powers like stopping or rewinding time, and even seeing into the future.”
“Rose, did you start feeling any different after having withstood Eiden’s spell?” Daren asks her.
“No… I feel exactly the same as before,” Rose says. “I think he was mistaken. I can’t have time powers. His spell must have just malfunctioned, that’s all.”
“Hmm… Perhaps you’re right,” Daren says. “At any rate, we should be thankful enough that we somehow managed to make it out of this alive. I’ve heard stories about how dangerous this place was, but I never imagined it would be as bad as this. We’re all in terrible shape. Here, let me start casting some healing spells.”
Daren begins to heal us all in turn, and once he’s done, we waste no more time and resume our journey, in order to avoid meeting any mages or creatures that may have been attracted by the loud noises of our previous battle.
“I still don’t understand one thing, Barry,” Kate tells me, as we walk side by side. “How did Eiden manage to give you all of those powers? As far as I know, transferring powers between mages is impossible without some kind of tool to assist them.”
“Oh, he used my stat device,” I say. “I’m not sure exactly what he did, but he made it start glowing, and then I suddenly got all of those spells. I’ve tried playing around with the stat booster ever since, in order to see if I could unlock some secret options or something, but I couldn’t figure out how he did it.”
“Wait, you’re saying you got all of those powers through your stat device?” Kate asks. “No, that’s impossible! In order for that to work, you’d need to have even less magical power than a human, otherwise it wouldn’t match at all with the magical frequency of the device.”
She pauses.
“Actually, come to think of it,” she says, “your magical aura has always been weaker than that of a normal human. Very weak, in fact. Almost as if you were a…”
Kate suddenly stops in her tracks, and she looks straight at me. The look in her eyes slowly turns into one of both sheer terror and sudden understanding. Then, her look becomes dark. Darker than I’ve ever seen it before, as she continues to look me straight in the eyes.
“Almost as if I were a… what?” I say.
“Never mind,” Kate says. “It wasn’t important. Let’s catch up with the others. We’re lagging behind again.”
The tone in her voice was as cold as her freezing magic. She does not say another word to me, and she goes to catch up with Daren and Rose.
Great. Just what we needed. More underlying conflict in our group. I’m sure this can only end well for everyone.
Chapter 7
“Barry, I would like to have a word with you, in private,” Kate tells me, as the four of us are taking a small break near a river.
I knew this was coming. I’ve been expecting it ever since we had that discussion about my stat device two hours ago. She barely spoke a word to me after that, and the look she’s been giving me for the past hour has been sending chills down my spine. Whatever the reason for her sudden change of attitude towards me, I can’t let things go on like this. We need to clear this up, one way or the other.
“Alright,” I say. “Lead the way.”
Kate goes on ahead and I start to follow her, but before I take my first step, Daren grabs me by the shoulder.
“Remember, Barry… Three taps,” he says.
The look in his eyes is dead serious. I realize he’s talking about the magical transceiver he gave me last night, which I’m still carrying in my pocket. He told me to tap it three times in case I’m in danger. I guess he must have also noticed that something was wrong with the way Kate’s been acting for the past two hours.
I nod to him, and he lets go of me. I then go on to follow Kate, who is heading deeper into the forest. We walk in silence for about a minute.
“How far are we going, exactly?” I ask her, but she gives no answer and continues to walk forward.
After about another minute, she finally stops and turns to me, with the same cold look in her eyes that she’s been giving me ever since we fought the dragon.
“Are you planning to tell me what—”
Kate doesn’t let me finish my sentence, and she suddenly makes an ice dagger appear in her right hand, which she then almost immediately puts to my throat. I try to step back, but I realize there’s a tree right behind me. She is now pressing her blade hard against my throat, and I can feel a trickle of blood running down my neck, as my back is being pushed against the tree’s trunk.
“If you make any kind of noise, I will slit your throat here and now,” Kate says. “Do you understand?”
“Listen,” I tell her, “If you wanted to borrow some money from me, you could have just asked nicely.”
“Shut up!” Kate shouts at me, her eyes burning with rage. “I’ve had it with your jokes and with the way you always like to tread on thin ice, even when your life is on the line! Are you incapable of comprehending the situation you are in right now?!”
“Well, it’s kind of hard, since you never actually told me what—”
“Where is Diane?” Kate shouts. “What have you done with her? Tell me!”
Her question caught me completely by surprise.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I say. “Who is Diane?”
“Damn you!” Kate shouts furiously at me, while tears are starting to form in her eyes. “Damn you to hell! I trusted you! Both you and Rose! Was this all part of your plan to recapture me? Were you trying to get close to me so that you could catch me off-guard? Is Rose working with you too?”
“What?…” I say. “No, listen to me—”
“Where are the other lessathi?!” Kate says. “Are they waiting to ambush me as we speak? Are they all just waiting for your signal?”
She thinks I’m a lessathi? The race that built the dragon trap? What’s wrong with her? She isn’t making any sense. Either way, this doesn’t seem to be going very well. I’d better call Daren before things get worse.
“Damn it, Kate,” I say, as I lightly tap my transceiver three times through my pocket. “I don’t know what’s gotten into you, but I’m not a lessathi. Do you think I’d be wasting my time here trying to become a mage if I had the ability to build powerful magical traps and devices?”
“You’re lying!” Kate yells at me. “You are lying through your teeth! Humans could not survive with such a weak magical aura, and there is no other race that looks exactly like humans and possesses so little magical energy.”
“Even if I am somehow a lessathi,” I say, “that doesn’t deny the fact that I’ve been raised by humans and have never met these guys who captured you. Does this have something to do with th
e Beacon of Hope? I’m not working with any of them. Please, trust me on this!”
“Why?” she screams while a tear slides down her face. “Why should I trust you? What makes you any different from the rest of them? Why should I believe that you won’t simply betray me, like everyone else I’ve ever met in my life?”
“Kate, I would never do anything to hurt you…” I say.
“You liar!” she shouts. “Did you think I wouldn’t notice? Do you take me for a fool? Daren began to move towards us shortly after the moment when I put my knife to your throat. He’s moving quietly, and trying to suppress his magical aura, but I can still sense him. You called him here, somehow, didn’t you? You were planning to have him kill me!”
“No, wait!” I say. “I didn’t call him here to kill you!”
“Shut up!” Kate says. “I don’t believe a word you’re saying!”
“Please,” I say, “if you could just let me explain—”
“No!” Kate shouts. “Enough talking!”
Suddenly, a layer of ice forms itself around me and it binds me to the tree behind me.
“This ends now,” Kate says, as she pulls her dagger back from my throat and prepares to give me the finishing blow.
I desperately try to free myself from the block of ice, but the only part of my body that I can still move is my head. Daren, where are you?
“This is for Diane, you bastard!” Kate shouts at me as she swings her ice dagger towards my face.
Her arm stops a few inches from reaching me, and her hand holding the dagger starts to tremble. She looks me straight in the eye and tries to move her arm forward, but she can’t bring herself to do it. Her rage is slowly fading away while she looks at me, and her eyes are beginning to water up again. As she stands there with the knife in her hand, the grip she has on her weapon starts to weaken, and eventually it drops to the ground, along with a stream of tears flowing down from her face.
“I’m sorry…” she says to me, crying. “I’m so sorry… For everything…”
“That’s enough, Kate,” I hear Daren’s voice, as he reveals himself from behind a tree. “Surrender now, and I won’t have to hurt you.”
Magium: The Mage Tournament: Book 1 Page 11