by D N Meinster
"He's back together, by the way," Rikki said. And she arced her staff over her head and sent three desks flying at Hatswick.
He wasn't even looking at them when he froze them in midair. "So all my resurrected are gone? Pity." The desks dropped to the floor. "If you're going to attack me with desks, there's a proper way to do it." With his arms spread wide, all the desks in the classroom took to the air.
And all at once, they collapsed inward toward Rikki.
Rikki began shifting again, so none of them hit her. She reappeared at the pinnacle of one of Castle Tornis' towers. It was the first time she'd ever been atop the castle's roof. When she'd lived within, she was always looking outward, not upward. But the height provided an unmatchable view of the city. Down below, she could make out where the stables were, and she thought of Mirabelle while Hatswick joined her on the rooftop.
"If you're just going to run, you might as well surrender the Key to me right now," Hatswick said once he had fully formed.
Rikki didn't have a comeback for that. He was right. She should've gone straight back to the Key Chamber. Why did she choose to shift here?"
"Look at me, still teaching you lessons," Hatswick goaded her. "And they're not even paying me anymore."
Rikki slammed the bottom of her staff down into the black stone, and fireballs shot out of each wing, zooming straight for Hatswick.
Hatswick cut each of them down with a horizontal swipe. "Pathetic."
The black stone began to bubble as Rikki held her staff in place. The bubbling spread until it reached Hatswick, and he suddenly dropped through the roof as if it'd been turned to quicksand.
Rikki shifted back to the Key Chamber, where Versil was attempting to get back on his feet. She thought she'd have a moment to obtain the Key, but Hatswick dropped down from the ceiling, landing just feet in front of her.
"Better," he said. With a thrust of his staff, Rikki went flying back into Versil, knocking him over again while she was splayed out on top of him.
Hatswick rushed for the Key, but as he reached for it, a bronze disk slammed into his hand. He ogled the symbol atop the shield before searching for its originator.
Doren Tunsev had entered the chamber, with Aros Asilias following him inside.
"Oh, great, the rest of Magenine's twerps." Hatswick shook his injured hand as he aimed his staff at the new arrivals.
Aros had both clawblades at the ready and he charged at Hatswick with only vengeance on his mind.
Hatswick elevated Doren's shield into the air and sent it spinning at Aros.
He crossed his blades to prevent the shield from hitting him, but Aros was left to push against the shield as it tried to continue onward.
Rikki was back on her feet, and she forced the shield to drop when she noticed what Hatswick had done to it.
Doren subsequently retrieved it, and the trio moved on Hatswick like they had done in Kytheras not too long ago.
"This seems familiar," Hatswick said. But instead of diving for the Key, he dove at Rikki, and the two of them instantly shifted away.
Rikki heard an exotic squawk as their new battleground faded into view. While she fell back into sand, it wasn't that of a desert. It was wet sand. She propped her head up and gazed at a body of water greater than any she'd ever beheld. Waves atop the warm blue waters crashed into each other as she tried to make out how far the seas went. But there was no end to them. They truly were unending.
"The Parting deprived you of so much." Hatswick sounded almost regretful as he spoke. "I suppose I could've taken you here, but the risks were too great. I couldn't have you shifting. Not because of your rebelliousness, but because I didn't want to give you the tools to track me."
Rikki got back on her feet, taking a second to rub the back of her hand against the damp sand before giving her attention over to Hatswick.
"How did you learn?" he went on. "Grace died years before even your great-grandmother."
"You might have deprived me of the tools to combat you," Rikki said. "But the Goddess did not."
Walls of sand rose around Hatswick until he was contained in a cube made from the beach's elements.
But the prison lasted for mere seconds before it burst and freed Hatswick from its midst. "My dear, there is much that you still lack." Instead of directing his staff at her, he aimed at the seas.
Rikki was transfixed as a wave the size of one of Cortex's skyscrapers rose up from the deep. As she turned her staff to face it, it was already too late. The waters swallowed and consumed her, tossing her around in their aquatic stomach, violently whirling her and the unfortunate fish that had come along with the wave. Her limbs swung as wildly as her magenta hair, and with enough force, the current took her staff and her last meal.
She watched helplessly as the glint of silver drew further away, her arms unable to even attempt to reach for it while they bobbed and dipped uncontrollably. As she lost sight of her staff, a burning in her chest reminded her that she wasn't breathing. And she didn't know when she might be able to. The wave was not hitting shore and breaking apart, but was instead suspended in place. Hatswick was trying to drown her.
Panic set in as she feared her former teacher may have finally gained the upper hand. Droplets of water climbed up her nose as the urge to breathe nearly overwhelmed her. Without her staff, she was stuck, with no way to shift out or fight back. She'd waited a lifetime to look upon the Unending Seas, and they were going to be the last thing she ever saw.
As she thought of her staff, trying to will it back into her hands, she recalled what Aros had told her about the Bellish armor. It'd enabled him to survive underwater. But she'd have to activate it to do that, and the swirling waters wouldn't allow her to gain control of her arms.
Her lungs felt like they were on fire as they begged for air. It would be only moments before she opened her mouth and let the waters in. Hatswick was going to win unless the Goddess Herself intervened.
Whether it was by the Goddess or by her own desperate instinct to survive, Rikki remembered the camouflaged object around her neck. The violent seas had not taken it from her, as it clung tight enough and blended in so well that Hatswick may not have noticed she still had it on her.
Amelia's necklace began to glow and Rikki started to fade from the waters. Within seconds, she dropped onto the floor of the Key Chamber, bringing along some of the seas to form a puddle around her. She coughed and hacked as she cleared her lungs of any liquid, and wound up puking once again.
Doren and Aros were by her side as she continued heaving. When she was finished, she glanced up at their blurry forms, her eyes wet with ocean residue and her own tears.
"What happened?" Doren asked, kneeling down beside her.
Rikki held an arm to him, and he gently helped her back to her feet. She leaned on him, wishing it was over. But as soon as Hatswick realized she'd escaped the wave, he'd come here. They still had to protect the Key.
"Where's your staff?" Aros asked, noticing she was empty-handed.
Rikki touched the channeling crystal around her neck, which absorbed the waters and left her completely dry. "I have to get it back."
She inhaled and exhaled deeply, enjoying the freedom to do so while she caught her breath. Her eyes sighted the third Key, and she pushed herself off Doren and grabbed hold of it. "He'll come after me," she said, right as Hatswick's form began to appear in the chamber.
"I thought I had you," he said when he'd finished shifting.
"Almost," Rikki replied, tapping on her necklace.
"Damn," Hatswick responded, taking a step toward her.
Rikki held up the Key to show that it was in her possession. "I have the Key. Go bother some other kingdom."
Hatswick wagged a finger at her. "I allowed you to live last time, Rikki, as there was no reason to continue our battle. Turn the Key over now and I shall do the same. Otherwise, I'll have no choice."
Doren and Aros began raising their weapons toward Hatswick, but his focus was on Rikki
.
If she was going to succeed in what she was about to do, she wouldn't see them for a bit. Rikki would shift over and over again until Hatswick had lost track of her; until her friends had relocated so he couldn't find them, and so he would never get possession of the Key. It could be days. It could be decks. But first, she needed her staff.
Rikki began fading from the Key Chamber, but there was no delay as Hatswick started to fade as well.
She reappeared on the shore of the Twilight Islands, and stuck out her hand toward the seas, summoning her staff back to her.
"It was unwise to come back here," Hatswick said as he appeared feet away.
Rikki ignored him as she willed the staff out of the sea. She didn't know how far the current had taken it, or how long it would take for it to reach her.
But she was distracted as she felt the channeling crystal yanked from her neck. As Hatswick called to it, Rikki caught hold of it while it was still in within arm's length and tried pulling it back. But her muscles were not as powerful as Hatswick's magic, and she could feel it slipping from her grasp. If he succeeded in taking it from her, she'd be completely defenseless.
Before the crystal could slip out of her hand, she started to shift away. The beaches were gone, and replaced by a familiar Faun locale, built from white marble and decorated with golden chandeliers. The channeling crystal flew out of her control and nearly hit Empress Simma on her throne.
"Rikki?" she called out as the soldiers standing watch in the corners of the room aimed their pikes.
"Simma!" Rikki called to the Empress while Hatswick shifted into the room. "Help!"
Amelia's necklace flew into Hatswick's outstretched hand as he examined the current occupant of Faunli's throne. "A woman? Since when has Faunli had an empress?"
Simma already had on her spherical mesh gloves. She didn't bother answering as she dove from the throne and smacked into Hatswick's face.
With a vertical thrash, he sent Simma crashing into one of the chandeliers with his staff. As she hung from the golden fixtures, her soldiers let loose their pikes at Hatswick. He easily deflected each of them. While he considered retaliating, he spotted the crystal statues that lined the walls of the room. His channeling crystal flickered and brought the full-scale sculptures to life. They waddled over to the soldiers and wrapped their translucent limbs around them, keeping them in place while they squeezed and suffocated them.
As Hatswick dealt with the Fauns, Rikki dashed to the back of the Imperial Throne Room. Exactly where she'd last seen it was a golden staff embedded in the wall, channeling crystals resting at the ends of its many limbs. This was the only place in Ghumai that she knew she'd be able to get a staff.
Rikki grabbed onto the body of the rod and willed it out from its resting place. But instead of coming out all at once, the limbs themselves came alive and grew out of the wall. Accompanied by the crystals, they wound around Rikki's arms and torso, entwining themselves with the armor so that the silver appeared to be striped with gold. When it had finished departing the wall, Rikki wasn't only dressed in two shades of precious metal, but she was bedecked with spherical crystals that had embedded themselves in her outfit. She didn't so much have a staff, but she was the staff.
Simma dropped from the ceiling, pummeling Hatswick's head with her gloves and sending his trilby fluttering across the room. When he swung his staff back to retaliate, Rikki willed it out of his grip and summoned it into her own.
Hatswick's stink eye was short-lived, as Simma's fist rammed into his cheek. He dropped to the ground, beads of blood flying from his fresh wound. But he did not stay there long. Two crystal men helped him back on his feet while another two took hold of Simma's arms and pulled them so far apart it was as if they were attempting an amputation.
Hatswick held Amelia's necklace out in front of him while he concentrated on Rikki. "The staff of Armun Chara. I doubt you know the history of such an object."
"Return my necklace and you can have this back," Rikki stated, wiggling his staff.
"Give me my staff and my Key and I won't kill the new Empress," Hatswick replied, indicating the highly-distressed Simma.
The third Key was presently magnetized to her back, with only a bit of the stem poking up from her shoulder. There was no way she would turn it over, but the staff she would bargain with. "The staff for Simma."
Hatswick glanced at the Empress. "No deal."
Simma did not like the sound of that. With one swift motion, she forced her arms inward and tore off the limbs of the crystalline statues, screaming as their remnants fell to the floor.
Hatswick looked at the Empress with astonishment as Rikki knocked into him and began shifting them back to the Key Chamber.
They were both on the ground when they finished shifting. Hatswick pushed Rikki off him and made for his staff, but she still had it locked in her own grasp. While he tried to tug it out from her clutches, a whisked clawblade sliced across the top of both his arms.
Hatswick stumbled back and appraised the situation. Aros still had a sword in his possession, while Doren appeared ready to use his weapon. Versil was standing but lingered on the fringes of the chamber.
"I'm getting tired of coming back here." Hatswick raised Amelia's necklace above his head, and cracks began to form in the ceiling above. "Better run," he said as the first piece of ceiling came tumbling down.
Rikki was back on her feet, and when she made to fix the fractured ceiling, Hatswick's staff came alive and bound her arms together.
Instead of reaching for his staff, though, he reached for the Key. As soon as it was nestled between his fingers, he touched his staff and began to fade away.
But Rikki held onto his staff as well, and both of them shifted to a mountainous locale.
Hatswick pulled away from her, all the objects of importance now in his possession. "Armun Chara was a weak, jealous Faun. He was born without magic but always thought it possible he could acquire it. So he'd attend the funeral of many mages to steal the channeling crystals from their staffs. He believed that the crystals held the magic of their former owners, and by taking them, he assumed they'd enable him to become a mage. Though the first one he stole did not give him what he desired, he refused to accept that he'd been wrong. So he kept taking that which did not belong to him, over and over. That staff he had made to house each of the crystals he'd taken. But not once did he ever yield the magic he so desired.
"Think about it, Rikki. Nothing you and your friends have taken belongs to you. The Keys are rightfully mine. I helped create them and the Door they open. Amelia's staff and necklace? I gave them to you. Even the armor you wear isn't yours. It's fitting that you shall die wielding the staff of a thief. Because that's all you are."
Rikki's fists shook as Hatswick's words struck her. She was not a thief. She was Amelia's heir. And she was no phony mage.
The mountains surrounding them began to tremble along with her, and all the crystals on her body lit up simultaneously.
A shard of ice formed between the crystals in Hatswick's staff and Amelia's necklace, and with a tap, Hatswick pointed the jagged spike in her direction and sent it on its way.
A falling rock crushed it before it could hit its target. More rocks followed as the peaks of the mountains started to fall in on them.
Hatswick ogled the destruction before he waved goodbye at Rikki and faded away.
But she was not done with him. Rikki drifted across the narrow stone path they'd been situated on and followed Hatswick to the same place he was shifting.
They were in the Absentia Desert again.
Hatswick was taken aback when both Amelia's necklace and the Key shot out of his hands and fell back into Rikki's possession. The necklace locked itself back around her collar, but Hatswick snatched the Key before it could drop into her hand.
A sandstorm swirled into existence between them and Rikki lost sight of her opponent.
She could not let him get away with the Key. Rikki closed her eyes
and walked forth, letting her intuition guide her. When she felt she was in the same space that Hatswick had just departed, she willed herself to be in the same place as him as she shifted away.
"What?" Hatswick barked as Rikki appeared on the same grassy knoll as he did.
Rikki latched onto the Key while it was still in his hand. "I had a first-rate teacher when it came to shifting." She pulled the Key from his grip and shifted away.
Hatswick followed her to the streets of Kytheras. It was the same empty street that she'd battled Uterak on decks ago. And the damage they'd left had yet to be repaired.
With a chop into her elbow, Hatswick caused her to fling the Key. It froze in midair as he hurried to take control of it.
Rikki surrounded the Key in a ball of ice before he could grab it, and his fingers slipped right off the barrier.
As he raised his staff to break the ice ball, Rikki slammed a palm into the sandy street. Thin columns of sand rose into the air and transformed to glass. She targeted Hatswick with the glass barbs and they soared at him.
Hatswick wrapped both arms around the ice and shifted away before he was struck.
Rikki stretched a hand to him before he had completely disappeared and faded away with him.
They were both in a forest now, packed in by trees that had grown too close together.
The ice melted in Hatswick's grasp and left the Key in his possession.
Rikki recalled the exact strategy she'd need to use. A tree limb bent down at her urging and plucked the Key from Hatswick and raised it high above his reach.
With a smack of his staff, Hatswick turned the tree to dirt, and the Key fell through the dust cloud back into his hand.
Rikki surged through the trunks like they weren't there and tried to rip it away from him, but Hatswick's electrified the tip of his staff and sent a shock through Rikki as he conked her in the forehead.
Rikki held onto a tree to prevent herself from hitting the ground. With the strength of her magic, she ripped the timber from its roots and swung at her former mentor. It broke apart as it hit him along with nearby trees.