Demiourgos

by Chris Williams

  “I feel changed, empowered.” Rose said softly all the while looking down at the wooden walkway beneath her. Rose could not meet their eyes. “The same way I did after the death eater died and Kestrel merged with me. I think I understand it now, the death eater could morph its body, Kestrel was pure arcane essence, Leonidus commanded much old magic and all of it is inside me now.”

  Liostro looked shocked for a moment. “Do you think you absorbed his power as well?”

  “I know I did. Go quickly and help them gather and prepare. Any magic will do, spiritual, mental, arcane, it doesn’t matter gather them all.” Rose focused her attention on shifting her presence to the former tower of the betrayer just as Leonidus had. To her surprise the council chambers disappeared from her vision in a blur and she set foot down on the familiar stones. She knew what she was looking for but she did not know how she knew it. The destruction she had wrought in the now-fragile structure made the upper levels tenuous but luckily the artifact in question was on his withered body. As she approached the pile of stones she had left his corpse pinned under she felt an involuntary shudder. He was still visible so she decided to make short work it. From his hand she pulled a signet ring of the royal family and placed it upon her finger gingerly. The familiar tingle of magic at work was not as welcome as she had originally thought. She could feel Nina’s presence quite some distance away and fading so she quickly gathered a pair of bracers from his arms and a carved rod from beneath his robes.

  Once she had donned the bracers and tucked the rod into her belt she sighed and knelt down next to her former tutor. It was still hard for her to believe that he had betrayed them all, that this man who had seemed so caring and kind had a black shriveled heart within his chest. He had abandoned his family and turned his granddaughter over to the enemy then he had tried to kill both Liostro and Rose. “I hope you find peace wherever you are. I will always remember you as the good man I met in the desert, the man who saved my life and taught me how to wield the power I command today.”

  With that being said she touched the ring on her finger and willed herself down to the entrance of the palace. It would be a decent walk to the mountain opening because she had to make a stop along the way. Several people started and backed up a few steps when she appeared from nowhere but she did not break stride as she headed toward the forest. Once she was clear of the elves’ home she touched the oldest looking tree she could find and closed her eyes using her mind to call out. “Al’talesh’matar I beseech your aid. Your home is in danger.”

  “I felt the disturbance.” The tree guardian replied to her mentally. “The trusted elder of the elves is dead?”

  “I will be brief. He betrayed us all and an army amasses outside the mountain as we speak and I don’t think I have the ability to hold them off alone.” There was a silence; she could almost feel the guardian pondering his next move as slowly as the trees he cared for grew. It took some time for him to come to a decision.

  When he spoke again she could feel him gathering his power through the aged bark. “I will give you what aid I can but the forest is my primary responsibility so I cannot sacrifice too much or my ability to defend the wood will be hindered.”

  “Thank you for whatever you can provide. I will defend this place with my life if need be.” She let go of the tree and continued to the mountain pass. She could feel several magic weavers trailing behind her in the distance and she knew it was all of the gathered elves coming to her call. The walk gave her time to think and formulate a strategy. She would have to focus her energy on taking out as many of the attackers as possible to buy the elves a chance to strike back. Once she had made her mark on them she would have to single out the sorcerer lord within their ranks and take him out quickly.

  Even with what she could do and the fact that she felt more energized and powerful than ever before she did not know if she could stall or defeat the army or the sorcerer that accompanied them. Her connection to the Spellrage had become stronger; she could feel it surging in the back of her mind as if it knew what she would have to do to win this battle. Before she knew it she was climbing the stone stairway toward the dark tunnel. The longing she had felt when she first had laid eyes on the passageway was there but it wasn’t as strong. It was almost as if her experiences and growth in ability was protecting her but the itch at the back of her mind was present. Once she was clear of the long passage she stepped out onto the large stone ledge and gasped at the gathered masses walking toward the mountain.

  There were thousands of marching humanoids below in the sands, all of them were quite far away but she could see them as a black writhing mass moving ever closer toward their goal. Rose sat down and crossed her legs. Her eyes closed slowly and she began to focus on gathering and replenishing her store of magic. When she had reached her limit instead of stopping she continued taking what power she could from the guardian and the raw earth around her. The chosen elves arrived one by one escorted by Barius, Noranda, Avreel and Liostro. She knew they were there because she could feel them. Out in the distance she could feel another point of magical power. He was not powerful enough to rival her but the army that was gathered around him was a potent reminder of whom she was dealing with. This man was an apprentice to the sorcerer lord of Rahkshas but he was a powerful arcanist in his own right. Once she was satisfied with her store and at the limit of her ability to ignore the burning sensation within her she opened her eyes and stood.

  The sun had reached its zenith in the sky and the army was almost to the mountain. She turned to the others to take stock of who had been summoned. Several of them were barely adults and all of them looked scared save for the three seasoned warriors and the priest that had escorted them. “I need you all to listen to me now; don’t focus on what you see walking in the sands. I am going to ask that each of you loan me your power. Grant me as much as you can without harming yourselves. I don’t have time to explain it in detail but you need to focus on me and act as if you’re casting some sort of magic on me but don’t actually formulate a spell. When you grow weary or cannot give anymore just close yourselves off, I know all of you know how to do that right?”

  “We shall give you all that we have Rose.” Avreel said sternly as she closed her eyes. “What little power I boast is yours to command.”

  When she got a nod from them all including a scared-looking councilman Taines she sighed and looked at Liostro for a brief moment and then turned around. The men and creatures that marched toward them were from all walks of life. Some looked to be mercenaries; others were the same creatures that had attacked them under Liostro’s control. Yet others were dwarves, elves and even the occasional sand-colored ashkanti. The army pulled up short of the mountain by at least a half mile and stood there looking up at her. At first she was confused then she saw a lone man step out of the formations. He was tall and lanky and maybe he had once been handsome but the corrupting influence of the sorcerer lord was evident in the patches of dead scales that were present in his skin. The man had long stringy black hair and wore a robe of black bearing blue and white decoration, most likely the mark of his master.

  Once the man was free of the press of soldiers he spoke and amplified his voice so it could reach them. “I demand that the elves of the lost wood surrender themselves and their lands to the sorcerer lord Rahknand. Failure to surrender to our demands will bring down the wrath of the ruler of this continent. You have five minutes.”

  Rose narrowed her eyes and stood with her feet apart and her arms pointed skyward. The coward arcanist scurried away back into the crowded ranks of the army. They began advancing so it was clear they knew she would not surrender. For Rose, the Rage came easier to her this time and the hot fires burning around her skipped the silvery sheen again and slid straight to gold. Summoning up every bit of power within her and around her she swept her arms downward then up and across the gathered army. The sands before the mass of humanoids swept upward in a wall that almost reached her feet. Taking a deep breath
she cupped her hands and held them up toward the sun then gestured as if she were casting water against it. A tendril of hot fire swept across the wall of sand burning and charring it to the point of solidifying the red sand into a wall of red-tinged glass. The process took a lot of her power but she poured more into it. Rose lifted from the ground and finished pouring the heat of the sun across the sands.

  She took a second to recover and then she sucked in a deep breath. Rose leaned forward, put her arms behind her and screamed loudly sweeping the magically charged waves across the tall glass wall causing it to shatter into large shards and fly out into the gathered ranks of the enemy. The death below her could be heard and she tried not to let it affect her. The glass missiles skewered many of the attackers wounding and killing as they flew at impossible speeds. Rose fell to her knees and gasped a few times refusing to let the Spellrage drop. There were still so many below her, too many for one person to count. With a glance back at the gathered casters she met Liostro’s eyes. She knew that her golden-flamed visage could not be beautiful to him anymore but she stood there for a moment looking from Barius, Noranda, Avreel, then again to Liostro.

  “No don’t do it!” Liostro suddenly shouted as he gathered her intent.

  Without speaking another word she used a bit of magic to propel herself out into the center of the crowded army. Her body flew free into the wind and when she was where she needed to be she used a wave of force to send herself toward the sands. The impact jarred her and the waves of fiery energy that erupted from the point of impact burned many in a large radius. On her knees she fought to recover quickly and as she did Rose drew her sword and began the dance. Liostro had taught her how to fight in her own way, the dances of her former master’s palace mixed with the rhythm of her sweeping blade. She whirled and twisted, dipped and dodged throughout the gathered masses. Her sword sliced clear through all of them and their weapons melted upon the flames of her rage. Rose could feel herself tiring so she began drawing power from the gathered casters and the earth around her. They charged her again and fed her stores of magical energy as she sent golden flames among them in scythes and whips. Men and monsters alike burned and died under her blade and fire.

  She could not keep the assault going for long so she stopped for a moment looking around for her quarry. Rose could feel him gathering his power as he drained both the men and earth around him as if they were nothing. Her eyes spied him and she crouched down. She leapt forward and used the flames to propel her toward her goal. The hot furnace within her was dwindling and she knew she was in trouble even before she slammed into the sorcerer lord’s body. She was causing no damage but his protective wards flared brightly. The force of her impact knocked them both down to their knees and she felt several of her elven allies weaken and stem the flow of power. The flames around her began to wane and in her desperation she turned to the only other plentiful source nearby.

  Breaking the rule she had decided on herself, Rose began draining and slaying the army around her. In the back of her mind her conscience was screaming and pleading for her to stop but her body just wouldn’t listen. The horror she felt in the back of her mind did nothing to stop the Rage from continuing on. Those closest combatants to her blackened and died instantly and still others further away fell to their knees. She could not feel more like a parasite at that moment. The dying flames around her shifted from golden to an inky black mass of writhing energy. The feel of the power she was gathering was intoxicating. At the heart of the dark mass she stood laughing even as the sorcerer himself, seemingly immune to her draining influence, sent a powerful bolt of lightning from his hands directly at her. Rose absorbed it into herself and spread her arms out toward him as if to embrace the scared opponent. The writhing energy snaked outward and grasped him tight then squeezed and shook him as if he were nothing.

  Sand erupted around her and blinded her causing her to stagger backward. Her hold loosed and she flung her arms out wide and a burst of air pushed the sand away. Snarling openly Rose crossed her arms in front of her head and body just in time to catch a ball of sand, fire and rock square in her face. The large projectile buffeted and bruised her. When she finally recovered her sight she gasped. Two large elementals were forming from the ground, both made of earth and sand. The first was close enough to strike at her even though it was half-formed. She flung her arms above her head and a small shell of rock shaped around her.

  The elemental grabbed the shell and crushed it in its fingers, looking confused when Rose was nowhere to be seen. She burst from below it putting a hand on its chest while she was still half-buried in the sand. Her draining touch weakened it and it began to crumble even as the other pitched a ball of earth at her outstretched arm. Rose dove back down beneath the waves of sand and moved a few feet before bursting forth to face her opponents. A wave of force knocked her to her face in the hot dunes. She knew it had originated from the sorcerer lord. Rolling with the coming hit she knew was flying toward her she avoided the heavy hand of the elemental five times before recovering. Once she was on her knees she put her hands above her head and caught its fist with a spray of fire.

  The creature screamed a rocky grating noise and put the smoldering stump of its arm into the earth to recover. When it did she blasted it with another wave of fire, pinning the creature to the sand by its knees and half-formed arm. Rose turned around to the wizard and stretched out a hand toward another of the mixed elemental balls of earth, sand and fire. Using a blast of air she propelled it back toward him and followed the attack by raising her hands and bringing them both down in a cross before her. Two waves of sand flew impossibly fast toward him so that all three hit him at the same time. She watched in satisfaction as the wizard fell backward and willed herself down into the sand just before the half-melted elemental flung its body down as if to squash her against the earth.

  Traveling through the shifting stinging grains she exited barely a few strides from the struggling man. Her power was almost ended so she grabbed him tight; an embrace that was followed by a swift drain of his life force. The scream that came from his half-scaled lips echoed against the rock of the mountain and his eyes and mouth lit up with a burning flame even as his body crumbled into dust leaving nothing but a pile of ash that was taken up by the desert wind. The elemental fell to the ground in a heap and Rose did the same. Tears escaped her eyes when she realized that once again she had broken a rule that she held sacred. Leonidus had been right, in the end she was turning out to be just like them all. In the distance she could hear the sound of battle erupting from the ranks of the gathered army but the rage was spent and her body gave in to the sputtering black flames.

  Chapter 18: Vengeance

  It was like she was falling endlessly in some dream-like landscape akin to the astral fade. Her vision blurred a little as she tumbled head over heels and fought to keep from blacking out. Every now and again she would hear a metallic clanging as if some sort of battle was raging. She couldn’t remember anything, her name, her face or even why she was here. The feeling of anonymity felt wrong to her but there was nothing in her mind or on her mind save the feeling of floating away into the light and dark. Something was itching at the back of her mind but she couldn’t figure it out no matter how hard she tried.

  “Rose.”

  “That is my name.” She said in reply and nearly jumped at the sound of her own voice. Her eyes gazed around again and again and all she saw was the rocks tumbling by her or was she tumbling by them. Honestly Rose couldn’t tell which it was. A sensation of burning hit her, heat and discomfort but again there was no way to pin it down. Her senses were failing her but she did not know how she knew that.

  “Rose!”

  The voice was desperate, she knew it. There was recognition there but Rose couldn’t put her finger on it. Someone she knew, something she had to do. The reason she was where she was, the truth behind her journey. “What journey?”

  “The one that will end you, Alethia Rose Nalfys.”


  This voice was different from the others. Power was behind it, an earth-shattering might that couldn’t be anything less than a god. Suddenly she realized who she was and that her magic was supposed to change the world. It was supposed to make a difference but the one who had planted that seed of knowledge had lied to her.

  “It’s not too late; you can still make a difference.” The powerful voice said down to her. “I have followed you since your birth but never have we met. My entire existence has been to watch and learn but a tear in the fabric of time has put you on the wrong path. I tell you now that you can return and you do not have to stray this far and let the rage consume you.”

  Her eyes opened wide and she jumped as everything came back to her. She was expecting the mercenaries to be upon her but to her surprise she found her elven allies bunched around her fighting desperately to keep the endless mass of enemies at bay. Liostro stood in front of her and to either side Barius and Noranda were fighting several enemies at once. To her surprise Councilman Taines was behind her and Avreel was standing over her shouting her name. “Everyone form up on me!”

  Shakily she stood up and tried to right her senses. The mercenaries that had been advancing on them took a step back when she stood and for that she was thankful because it took a moment for her to find the source of magic at her core. It was stronger again; she had drained another of the ancient beings from the time of old magic and added its power to her collection. Deep inside of her she felt a strong sense of regret but now wasn’t the time to grieve over broken morals. Now that her primary focus was taken care of she noticed that she had come down initially in the midst of the archers that had come with the army, so many of those who were left carried melee weapons alone. Using the same trick the sorcerer lord had used she amplified her voice for all those around her. “You have all seen what I am capable of, retreat and you will be spared. Continue your foolish march and I will kill each and every one of you.”