He grabbed me and threw me backwards so he could stay in front of me. “Why would you want to go there? The entire Tower is at war with itself.”
“Then help me get to the top so I can end this,” I replied.
He laughed. “Why would I want it to end? This is a chance to rid ourselves of the old Masters and rules. We can finally form the groups that WE want.”
“And do what?” I asked.
“Whatever we want,” Greg answered to the approving chorus of his little ‘gang’. “In the new world our power will rule. No one can stand against us.”
“You are delusional,” I said trying to push past him again.
He grabbed me by the throat and lifted me off the ground. “It is you that is delusional. I don’t know why I bother wasting my breath talking to you.” His eyes started to glow white. “You’re a waste of magic.”
I covered my body in scales and focused on a new spell Cathy taught me. The power rumbled in my stomach and I opened my mouth wide as a stream of fire erupted out. It covered Greg and he dropped me. I stopped the fire, covered my hand in Ice and punched Greg in the face. He flew back and landed on the ground unmoving. I grabbed my staff and pointed it and the middle of the group.
“I suggest you get out of my way,” I said to them.
Their eyes started to glow white and I didn’t waste any time. Forcing power through the staff, a stream of lightning shot out and destroyed the closest Mage’s shield, jumping to each Mage in turn. I continued the lightning until it had visited each Mage. I stopped the spell and they all fell to the ground twitching, their eyes no longer glowing.
“What is going on here?” I asked aloud.
Something a long time in the making, no doubt, Cathy answered. Someone is trying to create a new order to rule over the land. The tensions finally exploded into a war.
“You don’t need to say ‘someone’,” I said. “This has to be the work of Master Pryce.”
Perhaps... Cathy said.
I waited for her to continue but my mind remained silent. I headed for the staircase at the opposite side of the Tower. Groups of Apprentices were fighting one another and I avoided their attention by tricking them with an Illusion spell. I had a feeling trickery was going to be the best way to get through the Tower.
I climbed the stairs as fast as I could go, passing the floor with the classrooms. The entrance to the Mages' Quarters held another barrier and I was going to have to run through to the other side. Teacher Jarvis was fighting a group of possessed Apprentices with her vines. I ducked into an empty classroom and looked for a way past her.
Make your own way, Cathy said. The Tower is at war, nobody is going to mind a little property damage.
Good point.
I crossed the classroom with my Staff pointed at the wall. I sent out a massive Pulse that blasted a hole in the wall. I climbed through it to the other classroom where an Elemental Mage was fighting an Apprentice. She turned her attention towards me and threw a Fire Ball my way. I swatted it away with my scaled hand and launched an Ice Bolt with the staff. The Ice pierced through the Mage’s defences and she dropped to the ground. I pointed the Staff at the Apprentice and he ran out of the room and into the vines of Teacher Jarvis.
I ran to the far wall of the classroom and blasted another hole in the wall. I climbed into the empty classroom and headed for the door to the hallway. The coast was clear and I bolted for the stairs, climbing them two at a time again.
At the top of the stairs was a group of five Spirit Mages. I only recognized one, and pointed my staff towards her. She raised her hands defensively.
“I’ve already dealt with Greg, Vanessa, I have no problems dealing with you too,” I said.
“Put the staff down, Keeper, we will not attack you,” a tall guy beside her said.
I lowered the staff. “I’m shocked. That hasn’t been the mentality lately. What happened?”
“We’re not sure,” Vanessa said. “After we heard about the Evenawks, the Masters went crazy.”
“The School broke up into groups,” the tall guy continued, “waiting for the Masters to settle down. Then, the possessed Mages attacked.”
“They struck quickly, from within each School,” Vanessa added trying to hold it together. “Long time friends and colleagues, all of a sudden trying to kill you. And the white eyes.”
The tall guy put his arm around her shoulder. “We’re still here.” He turned back to me. “It’s like someone had been planning this, waiting for the Tower to fall into disarray.”
“Master Pryce,” I answered. “Is Keeper Anderson still alive?”
“I don’t know,” the tall guy answered. “No one has dared to go up there.”
“I need to,” I replied. “Keeper Anderson and I were working on some-thing to prevent this. Perhaps he has a solution. Can you get me up there?”
“Vanessa and I will take you up,” the tall guy said before turning to the three others. “Stay here and watch the stairs.” The group nodded and the guy turned back to me. “I’m Hector by the way.”
“Andy,” I said reaching out my scaled hand.
He shook it without hesitation. “The one that can cover his whole body in Harden Skin? No wonder you’re still alive.”
“This helps too,” I said motioning to the staff. “Let’s go.”
They led me across the Tower to the stairs and we climbed up a couple of floors before being stopped by another barrier.
“There is one of these every two floors,” Hector explained.
We cut into the floor and were greeted by a group of Nature Mages, led by Todd, and whole lot of vines. Hector and Vanessa immediately started to launch Pulses and minor Fire spells at the vines. Being Spirit Mages, they were out of their element in this fight but if they could keep the vines off of me, we would be okay.
I aimed the staff at Todd and dodged an incoming vine. I pushed power through the staff, aimed at Todd again and launched a lightning bolt at him. It struck him in the chest and jumped to two other Mages while the last two dove out of the way.
Vanessa screamed and I turned to see she was being pulled up by her feet as another vine grabbed her arm. I reached out with my arm and launched a Fire Ball that destroyed the vine at her feet. She cut the one holding her arm and dropped to the ground. Quickly, she stood up and threw the vine chunk at the Mage. The Mage screamed as it fell harmlessly to the ground and I took the chance to shoot an Ice Bolt at him. He dropped to the ground and I launched an Ice Bolt at the remaining Mage.
“Made the vine look like a snake?” I asked Vanessa as the last Mage dropped to the ground.
“Yup,” she smiled.
“Good to see you learnt something from all your attacks on me,” I said.
“Too bad I didn’t learn to stop messing with you,” she said sadly. “I know I’ve been a bitch to you and...”
I reached my hand to stop her. “We can do all the apologies once we’ve sorted this mess out.”
She nodded and I motioned for Hector to continue. He led us across the floor to the staircase. Some groups of Mages fought with one another and if we could stick to small fights at the staircases, we would make it to the top without worrying about fatigue.
Up two more flights of stairs, we were greeted by four Demonology Mages. They immediately covered the hands with scales and I let out a stream of fire from the staff and swept over them. Their hands weren’t enough to protect them from the full blast of the fire and they screamed and dropped to the ground trying to put the fire out. We ran past them launching Pulses at the other Mages that entered the hallway to check out the noise.
We arrived at the staircase and climbed quickly to our next challenge. To our surprise there wasn’t another barrier until just before the Master’s floors. We crossed the Tower to the other staircase carefully, looking for any sign of trouble.
A small group of three Mages stood protecting the staircase to the Masters. Their eyes glowed white and when they saw us, the leader let o
ut a shrill scream. Not wasting anytime, I launched a lightning bolt at the leader. He showed no sign of defending himself as the lightning struck him in the chest and jumped to the other two. They dropped to the ground as another shrill scream broke through the Tower behind us.
We turned around and watched Mages emerge from the rooms and from the hallways. They slowly marched on our position as we backed up to the staircase. I aimed the staff and forced a lot of power through it. A lightning bolt shot out and struck a Mage, jumping to four others, and they dropped to the ground. The others continued to march slowly towards us.
“We’ll hold them here,” Hector said. “Get up and check on the Keeper.”
“We can take them,” I replied.
“If he has a plan to fix all this then you shouldn’t be wasting time fighting them,” Hector explained. “We can hold them. The Master’s chambers are just up the stairs if we need to fall back.”
I aimed my staff at a group and launched a massive Pulse. The group of possessed Mages were thrown back and knocked over more of them.
Hector is right, Cathy said. We have a more important job to do. Leave them.
“Go!” Hector shouted as he a trail of fire towards the Mages.
I ran up the stairs as fast as I could and hoping for a second wind. I heard a scream and a Mage flew past me and bounced off the wall hard. Upon closer inspection, I discovered it was Master Baker. His eyes were lifeless and I looked into the direction he came from. Master Gerth was fighting a group of possessed Mages and was struggling against them. I continued up the stairs hoping another Master would come and help him but after what the Mages did to Baker, it was a long shot.
Don’t doubt a Master, Cathy said. They didn’t get to where they are without earning it.
I reached the door to the Archives Room and pounded on it with my hand. “Keeper Anderson!” I called out. “It’s Andy, open up!”
The door opened quickly. A raggy looking Keeper Anderson smiled in relief. “It’s about time you showed up. Can’t you see it is a mess down there?”
I hurried through the door and he shut and locked it. “I moved as fast as I could. This wasn’t an easy task.”
“I bet,” he said motioning to a table with a plate of food. “I saw you coming and prepared some food. Eat up; there is a lot to talk about.”
“Are you sure this is the time to eat?” I asked. “I have two Mages watching the staircase and Master Gerth is being overrun.”
“Larose was just up here,” Keeper Anderson explained. “He’s on his way down and will take care of it. Did you bring the items?”
I handed him the Staff and grabbed everything else from my bag before sitting down to eat. He examined the items before putting them on a table and leaving the room quickly.
You’ve been quiet in all this.
I doubt anything I could say will help you right now, Cathy said. I’m still trying to think of a way we could stop all this.
The Keeper re-entered the room with a book and flipped through the pages. He stopped on a page and ripped the sheet out and threw the book aside. He studied the page nodding as he read.
“What happened here?” I asked breaking the silence. “How did it get to be like this?”
The Keeper looked up. “You created quite the storm while you were gone. Larose’s Mages found dead in Balendar, Pryce’s Mages found dead in Nesqa, the Evenawks retake their capital.”
“To be fair, Larose’s Mages were dead when I got there,” I said.
“It doesn’t matter,” he said. “Larose blamed Pryce, Pryce blamed Larose for the Mages in Nesqa and Pryce exploded on Larose about the Evenawks. According to Pryce, Larose purposely freed the Evenawks to remove many of Pryce’s Mages. He claimed that Larose was trying to usurp the Tower.” Keeper Anderson barked out a laugh. “The irony.”
“What happened next?” I asked.
“Pryce declared war on Larose to ‘take back the Tower’,” Keeper Anderson answered. “Larose and Pryce fought right there in the room. Old Larose almost had him until Pryce revealed he was possessed. Pryce fled the room and the Masters started hunting him through the Tower. They split up their school to keep everyone safe.”
“Then the possessed Mages struck,” I said.
Keeper Anderson nodded. “Yeah. Pryce’s minions are everywhere and they are poisoning more minds with every moment. The Tower has fallen.” He scoffed. “Not that it was doing any good to begin with.”
“Going around certainly showed a sinister side to the Tower’s influence,” I replied.
“You could say the world would be better off without it,” The Keeper said.
What’s he up to... Cathy mused.
“That would be true,” I said. “What is our plan to fix this? Do we still complete the ritual to Silence Pryce and restore order?”
“That was never the plan, my boy,” The Keeper said getting a weird look in his eye. “This is something that needs to be done. For the good of everyone. I have studied for years and this is the only way.”
“What are you talking about?” I asked confused.
“My boy,” The Keeper grinned, “We are going to destroy magic.”
Chapter 41
Shock doesn’t even begin to sum up what was happening in my head. Both Cathy and I were speechless with what we had heard. We had gone from trying to straighten out the Tower to destroying magic itself.
“You want to run that by me again?” I asked cleaning out my ears.
“We are going to destroy magic,” he repeated. “Wipe it off the face of Kalenden. Think about it, no more Mages controlling people, no more Demons trying to break into the world, no more abomination creatures that don’t belong here, it will be just Humans governing over themselves.”
My head was spinning like a top. “So, not only destroy magic but kill off two races as well.”
I pushed the plate of food away and buried my head in my hands. This was pure insanity. “What brought you to this conclusion?” I asked.
“I have had a lifetime to study the Archives and see how the Tower works. Just like the Keeper before me,” he said. “Magic has been the stain on this land that prevented Balendar and Nesqa from achieving peace. Every time they get close, the Mages intervene. That’s how the keep control. By keeping them in turmoil so they can play the heroes. Balendar and Nesqa will finally settle their problems for good.”
“And the Evenawks and Nao?” I asked starting to get angry. “What justification is there for killing off two races?”
“The Evenawks are forever tainted by the Mages intervention,” The Keeper explained. “Do you really think they can form a society and live peacefully with everyone? No. They know nothing but vengeance and anger. Once they rid themselves of the remaining Mages they will strike out for a new enemy.”
“Chieftain Harik is a good leader,” I countered. “He will prove that the Evenawks can live in today’s world.”
“Ah, yes the Last of the Bloodline,” Keeper Anderson smiled smugly. “So they don’t attack this generation. What’s stopping them after he is gone? We are talking an entire era of oppression here. Can you predict they will stay passive for ever?”
“No, but who can predict the future?” I asked. “We won’t know what they will become but we can’t deny them the right to choose.”
“Yes, we can,” The Keeper replied. “That’s why the Order of Magic intervened to begin with. The Chieftains were too aggressive and needed to be put down. Look into your history, The Evenawk War was a collection of Balendar, Nesqa troops led by the Mages to defeat the Chieftains and pacify the tribes.”
I sat silently, absorbing the new information. “How do I know you’re not lying?”
The Keeper picked up a book on the desk and threw it onto the table I sat at. The title, ‘The Evenawk War’, decorated the front. I opened the book and started flipping through the pages. It was a collection of old war diaries from the Mage leaders.
“I know this is a lot to drop on someon
e,” The Keeper said calmly. “That was why I sent you on this quest. To see for yourself what the world really is. We don’t have the time to go through every book in history to show you what I have seen so I need you to trust me and know that this is for the greater good.”
“You are asking for a lot,” I said.
“No more then when I asked you to collect the items,” he said as he gathered up the items and brought them to the desk.
He removed the Demon’s Bane from its box and placed it into a mortar and pestle. He started to pound the Demon’s Bane into a dust while he added the Vial of water.
“What about the Nao?” I asked.
He sighed sadly. “A necessary sacrifice. They are already outside of the world so nobody will notice they are gone and Balendar could use the resources from the Szwen Forest.”
“Destroyed for their resources,” I repeated disgusted.
“Hey!” he snapped. “Like I said, it is a necessary sacrifice. I happen to be good friends with Mistress Velias and she would agree with me if I explained everything to her.”
Keeper Anderson added the Tail Feather to the mortar and pestle and lit it on fire with some magic. It burnt down as he hammered it into his mixture.
“So then what are we doing?” I asked standing up from the table. “How do we ever do something like this?”
“We need to charge the Staff and you will have to perform the ritual on this paper,” he said as he picked up the page he tore from the book. “It will encase the Tower in a shell that freezes time within it. You then have to banish the Tower to the Spirit Plain and sent a Pulse to cover all of Kalenden. Anyone with magic will be rendered Silenced.”
“So, we will become simpleminded?” I asked taking the page.
He paused. “A necessary sacrifice.”
I ran my hand through my hair. Can you believe this?
I didn’t know such a thing was possible, Cathy said.
What do we do?
I...don’t know, she answered.
“It’s ready,” Keeper Anderson said as he poured the contents into a cup.
He held the cup in his palm and the liquid changed from red to light blue as he pushed powerful magic through his hand.
The Tower Of The Watchful Eye: The Legend Of Kairu Book 1 Page 33