by Inlo, Jeff
Upon receiving the command, the entity did not hesitate. The form that had initially retained Rivira's shape broke apart into a cascade of raindrops. They did not, however, fall to the floor and form a simple puddle. Instead, they defied the natural laws and rose higher in the air. Once they began to move, they rushed with great speed out of the mansion, across the surrounding grounds, and over the high cliffs. With one downward dash, the essence of Rivira splashed into the surf just beyond the rocks and became one with the sea.
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Jure felt it immediately. His connection to the sea was so very strong. The water added to his power and it augmented his sensitivity to the magic. When the energy to the west began to pulsate with a strange new vibration, he attempted to follow the anomaly.
Strangely, it resisted him. He looked out over the cliffs and toward the vast ocean. He saw the surf begin to churn with great aggression. The sea had become more than just violent, it had become obsessed, stirred by an energy beyond a vast and raging storm. He could sense some alien desire shaping the foam of the waves.
"This is not good," he whispered, but all around him heard the warning.
Haven felt it next. She could not have missed it, for just as the churning disturbance wrought the seas, it bent the light with the same growing menace.
"Something is in the ocean," she warned.
"What is it?" Birk Grund demanded. "What are we facing?"
Neither Haven nor Jure could respond before the sea gave its own answer. The waves rolled together near the shore but did not crash upon the beach. Instead, they rose upward, reaching high above the cliff ledge. A wall of water towered above them all. It took no specific shape. Its form swelled and heaved as ripples of waves continued to roll up and down the massive crest, but the shifting mountain of water refused to subside back into the sea or spill out over the land. Its raging fury was evident even to those not attuned to the magical energies.
"What is that?" Ryson asked, amazed at the sight before him.
"It's a pure water elemental... a water mammoth," Jure answered, "but it's more than that. It's Rivira. I can feel her in the magic. She didn't just conjure an entity, she merged herself with the water."
"Can you communicate with her? Reason with her?"
Jure made the attempt. He tried to ride the waves of azure magic that linked his inner core with the sea, but the moment he tried to reach Rivira's essence, he was almost immediately repelled. He was, however, able to glean the intentions of the serps and the desires they placed into what remained of Rivira's consciousness.
"No, I can't get through. The serps have total control over her, or rather what's left of her. They want her to destroy us."
"We cannot just stand here," Birk advised. "It continues to grow. Once it reaches full strength. It will most likely attack. We have to scatter, give it several targets and force it to expand further to reach us."
Ryson, however, countermanded the order.
"Jure, you have to take control. Tell us what to do."
The directive startled the wizard. He had no desire to give orders. He even saw wisdom in the elf captain's strategy.
"Birk's right. We should get out of here!"
"No, we can't just leave this thing here to destroy Portsans, and that's what it will do."
"Ryson, it's here mostly to kill you," Jure revealed as he sensed that one clear order rising above all other desires within the mammoth.
"Let it try, but this thing is magic. You can figure out a way to destroy it."
"I don't have time."
"I'll give you time. Fall back but stay together and come up with a plan."
"What are you going to do?"
"Move."
And with that, Ryson raced toward the edge of the cliff and leapt down to the rocks below. Despite the deep drop, he managed to reduce his speed and cushion his landing by working his legs against the cliff wall. He never stopped moving, even when he reached the bottom. He let his momentum carry him up and over several large boulders and away from the base of the water giant.
At the shore line, he inspected the terrain both to the north and south. It would have been a death trap for a human or an elf, but it was perfect for a delver. Waves rushed into the many coves and crashed heavily against the rocks, making the stone ledges treacherous. The force of the water would have knocked over even the stoutest dwarf or the most sure-footed elf, but a delver could avoid the waves by moving with the water.
Boulders and rock ledges stretched both up and down the coast for untold lengths. Ryson would have far more room than he ever needed to maneuver. He danced over the rocks and stone ledges as he kept a careful watch on the colossal wall of water that appeared to lurch slightly down over his position.
What was left of Rivira's consciousness took refuge in the massive form. Her spirit no longer resided in the mortal shell of a human, but rather the near endless breath of the sea. Most of her memory was wiped clean, just as her level of awareness both grew and collapsed at the same time.
She could feel the life of the sea surging through her new reality and it brought with it an understanding of existence foreign to most every other being of the land. As an entity of pure sea water, she was both separated from life and an integral part of it at the same time. As an elemental, she became an important component of reality but a being of absolute solitude.
What was once the identity of the sorceress Rivira no longer existed. The human portion of her being was gone. Her previous cares and desires were washed away by the rolling waves of the sea. Her consciousness became limited to her new form and her purpose was shaped by the serps.
Directed by the manipulators to ignore the elves and the wizard, the water mammoth concentrated her attack on the escaping delver. She could no longer cast spells, but she pulled magic from the sea to strengthen the movements of the water entity she had become. With unrelenting force, she began to pound away at Ryson's position with wave after wave.
As massive thrusts of water came crashing down upon him from all angles, Ryson ran and leapt with unerring precision. He used the rocks and boulders to his every advantage, allowing them to shield him when necessary or bouncing off them to reach open ledges of stone. Within moments, he was drenched by the spray of failed assaults but he refused to be slowed. His feet carried him over stone as slippery as an eel's skin and across rocks as rugged as a dwarf's unkempt beard.
He allowed all his senses to reach out for warnings of incoming assaults. He heard the roar of the curling waves, felt the sting of the spraying mist, and watched for the shadows of rolling currents. His speed outmatched the ever growing flows that poured down with malice, and the rocky coast afforded him the terrain to survive every attack.
Hoping to avoid a stray wave but wishing to form a sound strategy to fight the entity, Jure, Haven and Birk came together at the corner of the mansion. With elf guards still securing the perimeter, the elf sorceress and captain looked to Jure for direction, but the wizard admitted he was at a loss.
"I really don't know what to do," Jure confessed. "I don't think there's a spell that can counter her power. The serps have her totally focused on Ryson right now. They want him dead."
"I can try to block off the serp mind control the way I did with the dieruhne," Haven offered.
"It won't work. The dieruhne was a demon, a clear and distinct creature. Rivira isn't what she was. She's not human anymore. Her essence is spread across the entire entity as well as into the surrounding sea. The serps can reach her by simply connecting to the water. Do you really think you could block all of the possible paths for any sustained period of time?"
"No, I can't do that, but maybe I can disrupt the serps by focusing on them instead."
"Maybe we should all concentrate on the serps," Birk advised. "They are the ones behind this. If we eliminate them..."
"We'd still have to deal with the water mammoth," Jure interrupted, "and if the serps lose control of it, Rivira's consciousness might pull back to th
e sea, or worse. She might just destroy Portsans. Ryson was right before. We have to end the threat of the elemental now, while we have the chance. I just don't know how."
"What are its weaknesses?" Birk questioned.
"Weaknesses? Look at it! Swords and arrows won't do anything. Any physical force would be useless."
"There must be some way to stop it!"
"An immense magical attack could break it apart, that's all I can think of."
"What if the two of you combined your powers? Would that be enough?"
"No. She's drawing strength directly from the sea. Maybe if Enin were here we would have enough magic to break her apart, but he can't get involved."
Birk did not bother questioning the decisions of the powerful wizard from Connel, but he made his opinion clear.
"If you are saying it is hopeless, perhaps retreat is our only option. I understand the water mammoth is a danger, but maybe that is exactly why we need to get Enin involved. If the entity goes on a rampage, either the serps will have to stop it or Enin will see the need to intervene. Standing around debating the issue will only get the delver killed. We have to make a decision, and if we cannot attack it successfully, then we have no choice but to retreat."
Jure didn't like it, but he found it difficult to argue. He saw no way to offset Rivira's power, even if she basically no longer existed.
"Maybe that's all we can do," Jure conceded. "I can teleport Ryson to safety and we can all..."
Jure didn't finish. As he looked toward the sea, he saw the sun setting in the west. It was a grand spectacle. It appeared as if the sea was burning with a newfound brilliance even as the fiery ball began to sink below the horizon. Just above the sea line, the sky burned with a dark orange radiance, but slightly higher, it glowed gold and bright yellow. A long stretch of clouds appeared to cut off the light. Back toward the east, the sky turned a dark blue. In that striking scene, in that vision of natural wonder, Jure found his answer.
The light of day still ruled, but night would come soon. Darker shades of blue were already creeping across the eastern sky. When the sun finally disappeared, the light would grow dim, and the land would be covered in the heavy shade of evening.
He looked to Haven. Her power was rooted in the golden energy of light, but that power had its peaks and valleys. Every element faced the same certainty. The moon waxed and waned, storms brewed and dissipated, and flowers blossomed and wilted.
It was the same with the sea. The tide rolled in, but it always rolled out. It was pure fury one day, and peacefully calm the next. The waves crashed heavily against the shore, but then retreated.
Rivira was growing in power, feeding off the energy of the sea, but eventually she would begin to decline. It was the natural order of all elementals. Jure simply needed to speed up the process, and to accomplish that, he had Haven and one of the inherent powers of light.
"We can do this," Jure exclaimed. "We don't have to stop the serp control, we just have to alter their message. They're directing what's left of Rivira's consciousness to attack Ryson. Right now, she's pulling strength from the sea. I need to cast an alteration spell on the serps' influence and direct Rivira to dilute her own form. It's a natural process, and she won't fight it."
Birk found the solution much too easy. Simply tricking a water mammoth to diminish itself seemed like convincing a river rogue to pull out its own sharp teeth.
"That is all that is necessary?"
"No. I have to utilize the serps' influence. Without it, the elemental would refuse the directive. But the serps' will quickly sense what I am doing. They'll reroute their influence and attempt to reshape the message. Normally, I wouldn't be able to keep up with them. They can think faster than I can alter a spell, but with Haven's help, the adjustments will move faster than they can manipulate. The spell won't destroy the entity completely, but it will cut its power."
Jure looked to Haven.
"Do you understand?"
"I believe so," the elf sorceress nodded. "You need me to augment your spell with the speed to counteract serp manipulations."
"That's it exactly. Can you do it?"
"I am sure of it."
"Let's not waste anymore time. Let's do this."
Rushing over to the edge of the cliff, Jure took aim at the stream of energy that the serps used to control Rivira's remaining consciousness. A ring of white magic formed at his fists, but it turned to a dark shadow of ebony energy. The black magic would alter the message, substantially change the instructions Rivira would receive.
Just before Jure cast out the spell, he looked down toward the delver who was leaping across the rocks in a blur of motion. The wizard could not believe any individual could run and jump so fast. It appeared as if Ryson moved more fluidly than the water that tried to destroy him. It was no wonder the delver was able to accomplish so much. Without the aid of any spell, Ryson proved he could outmaneuver the serps, move faster than they could think. He was doing it again to survive.
Within the delver's daring display of agility, Jure finally sensed meaning in the surrounding madness. The delver had wanted to take control away from the serps by acting before they could influence him. Ryson had worked his way through Bol Folarok, the algors, Queen Therese and finally the elves. He implored everyone to make their decisions free of serp control, but Jure began to see something more.
The wizard grasped a larger scope of influence, and he understood that it didn't always matter who was making the decisions. Sometimes control is nothing more than an illusion. The delver had asked Birk to capture Petiole and then Jure to defeat Rivira. The wizard had come up with a plan, but not on his own. He believed the answer was rooted in something deeper than magical spells or battle strategy. Ryson may have turned control over to Jure, but Jure also believed in the hand of providence.
On faith alone, Jure trusted they had been guided to that particular spot to engage the serps at that specific moment. With all his heart, the wizard believed that a greater good mattered, that they were not alone to navigate some random road of pure chaos. He would always do what he could to save lives, but deep in his soul, he knew the ultimate outcome was not just in his hands, but in the hands of a much greater power, a power that could create a sunset and inspire a wizard.
That same power also clearly inspired a delver, but perhaps in a different way. It was difficult to imagine, but Ryson had placed his very life in the hands of others. The delver faced a foe he could not possibly defeat. He had to understand that time was against him. The sea would never tire. And yet, Ryson dashed about the rocks with absolute confidence. It was so apparent it defied reason until Jure took a closer look.
Jure saw Ryson's expression, saw something beyond hope. He saw acceptance. There was faith—not just in an aging wizard—but also in the very grace that Jure believed would ultimately save them all. It was something that Jure was seeing more clearly with each passing day.
He wondered if Ryson even understood what was happening. In truth, Jure didn't think so. He would have bet it was still a mystery to the delver, a puzzle to be solved, but it didn't matter. He knew the delver was on the right path, and eventually, Ryson would find the answers to the questions that mattered the most.
In that same instant, Jure knew they would succeed. They didn't need Enin's power to overcome the serps. They had been given everything that was required. Any doubts withered away, and he let his spell fly.
The moment the dark ring was thrown toward the churning entity, Haven cast her own spell of light. She attached her magical influence to Jure's cascading spell. The golden magic melded with the expanding ebony ring. Yellow brilliance sparkled over the inky darkness and the waves of golden light spread outward when Jure's spell broke over the colossal tower of water. It appeared as if yet another sunset was occurring over the sea.
The magical will of alteration coursed over the serps' influence and used the connection to Rivira's consciousness to send a new directive. Jure's message was simple. I
t was time for the water to recede, and like the outgoing tide, the elemental accepted the natural course toward diminishment.
Still at the table within the mansion, the serps immediately recognized the alteration to their flow of influence. At first, they scoffed at the feeble attempt. All they needed to do was reshape their will to overcome the wizard's spell. They did so with ease, but before the new directive could reach Rivira's consciousness, the spell of alteration adjusted to retake control.
Growing more concerned, the serps tried to alter their path of influence as well as its message. They changed the direction and content of their desires, reached out both into the sea and to all the edges of the water mammoth. At every turn, they were rebuffed. They quickened the pace in which they reached for control, but with each attempt, Haven's spell of light refocused Jure's spell with far greater speed. The serps could never seize Rivira's consciousness and eventually, they lost all control.
With Jure's directive imbedded within the essence of the entity, the great tower of water subsided. It dropped lower and lower into the sea until it returned to the height of Rivira's previous mortal size. The entity even took the rough shape of the sorceress as the elemental stood upon the rocks gazing forlornly out into the open waters.
Ryson raced up the cliff wall and quickly approached Jure. After hearing the wizard's explanation, he wondered what they should do next.
"Do we just leave her like that?"
"No, we don't." Jure responded. "The serps forced this fate on her, and she should not be imprisoned like this forever. I was hoping Haven would give her the opportunity to escape."
"I will open the door," Haven responded, "but the choice will be hers."
Just as she once used the magic of light to open a passage for the dieruhne in Dark Spruce, Haven cast a spell to split the veil between life and death. The golden magic cut the opening directly next to the watery form of Rivira, and the misty presence cast a quick glance into the break. The essence of the sorceress needed no further encouragement. The watery spirit leapt into the rift without hesitation.