by Ben Marble
A small stone in the ceiling flashed with golden light. Xander folded his spell book up and reverently slid it under his pillow. It was time.
After taking a moment to make sure his robes were straight, Xander stood under the flashing gold stone clenching and unclenching his hands in impatience. He waited. As soon as all five apprentices were in place it would begin.
A flash and a quick shot of disorienting pain told him he was being transported to the battle ground. Normally this would be in Ember's Roost in the mouth of the cave where the dragon could watch everything from her sleeping pad, a large shelf of stone overlooking the entire area. There had been times she had transported them to surprise areas to make them adjust. Mountain tops, tropical jungles, and once even to the bottom of a lake. You never knew for sure where you were going to end up.
This time it was the cave. Xander looked up to see Ember in her dragon form perched and watching as the apprentices appeared in random spots away from each other. She was a massive thirty feet of golden muscle. Large wings fanned out to either side of her body, which moved with serpentine grace despite her size. A great horned head swayed back and forth as Ember tried to watch everything happening below.
There was no advantage to the fight being in the cave. As the cave had been carved by Ember's magic, it changed shape to suit her desires. There had been times the cave had been an empty room that was about six hundred yards across in any direction. Other times it had been a literal Maze with the stone wall going a good thirty feet up and still not nearing the ceiling. The room itself had to be massive to accommodate Ember's need to be able to fly in and out, so there was plenty of room for her to play with. The apprentices referred to their entire home as the cave, but the rest of the complex had been carved to resemble stone walls and rooms like you might find in a castle or even more modern buildings. This room if any was truly the cave.
Once again it seemed that Ember had decided to keep things simple. Stalactites and stalagmites jutted up from the floor and down from the ceiling in a filling the room almost touching each other. They were randomly arranged around so the area felt filled with halls, dead ends, and blind spots. There would be plenty of hide and seek today. With a grin, Xander summoned the shadows so they clung to him making him harder to see. It was time to hunt.
Moving around carefully, Xander sought out Sierra. He could not care less about fighting any of the other students, today he would take his competition down a peg. He continued to use some energy to pull the shadows around him and stayed to the edges of the light provided by ever burning torches placed around the practice area. He would be patient, the last thing he wanted to do was give away his position. The second he started throwing spells, he might as well wear a neon sign showing where he was.
Moments later his patience was tested when Chandler came around the corner in front of him and started moving across his path. Xander could have easily gotten the jump on his fellow apprentice but Chandler was not his target. Instead, he crouched deeper in the shadows and watched the larger apprentice move in front of him.
As soon as there was enough distance Chandler would not sense him, Xander started pulling and arranging small amounts of energy. Dirt and dust made up a body and air gave breath, creating a small moth the size of a small fingernail. Xander released the small creature and it flew silently forward until it landed on the back of Chandler's robes and burrowed into the fabric. Now Xander would be able to feel where Chandler was, and that would keep Chandler from getting the jump on him. As an extra precaution, Xander took a moment to summon another similar moth and let it perch on his shoulder. If needed, he would have a second one ready to use. He doubted he would need a third, but if it came down to it, he could summon another one.
Xander had just started inching forward again when a loud boom filled the cave far off to his right. Light flared, followed by the crackle of lightening. He crouched down again and waited. He could feel the magical energy surging in that direction. Bangs and booms kept echoing through the cave as two of the apprentices fought it out. He could have gone and taken advantage of the situation, but once again Xander chose caution. If it was a straight-out fight involving Sierra he was hearing, his money would be on her walking away. His target was likely to be around after the exchange.
Sure enough, a screeching sound made him cover his ears as it filled the cave, followed by another boom. A flash of light appeared as one of the apprentices was summoned by Ember. Brianne sat, looking singed and bruised next to their master. Her shield had been destroyed taking her out of the fight. Injuries did occur during training, but generally, Ember managed to pull the apprentices out before any serious damage was done. Brianne being the first out was not a surprise. She was much more interested in healing and growing things with her magic than fighting. The quiet apprentice could sling spells when needed but she did not have the determination of the other students when it came to fighting.
A small feeling in his head told Xander that Chandler was moving back towards him. This could cause a problem. If Chandler was moving towards him again there was a chance that he would be seen. There was a smaller chance that Chandler had detected the bug he had put on his robe and was following the energy back to Xander. Xander was not in the mood for a long drawn out fight so he had to prepare.
First, he created a shadow of his energy and sent it careening off through the cave. That would make it hard for Chandler to tell where Xander was if he was tracing his way back to him. He would still get the direction somewhat, but at moments it would seem Xander was far and at others, he would seem right next to him. This would make Chandler move more slowly and carefully and would give Xander the time he needed for his trap.
Slowly he focused his energy into two stalagmites that were right across from each other. He could feel Chandler moving closer but did not dare hurry. If he hurried, it would be easy to detect his moving energy around and shaping the stalagmites to his will.
It was taking a long time for the stalagmites to find the shape he needed. Even though he knew Chandler was moving slowly it felt like the other apprentice was moving towards him at a speed just short of a run. He was sure Chandler had found his bug, his path was too direct for it to be a coincidence at this point. The distance between him and Chandler became foggy in his head, and he could not tell how close the other apprentice was anymore. Chandler had copied Xander's trick and let off a shadow self to make it hard to gauge his distance.
Xander fought the desire to pour a lot of energy at once into his trap and forced himself to work slowly and calmly. Rushing this would do nothing but make his trap useless and all the energy he had put into it would be wasted. He did split off a little extra energy to draw even more shadows around himself and to help him blend into the rock behind him.
The Stalagmites reached their final shape seconds before he needed them. Xander almost did not get to use his trap but something made him look up at just the right second. Chandler was gliding in the air slowly moving just above the light from the torches. It was smart because most of them avoided flying because of the energy it took to maintain. Chandler had managed to figure out how to pull energy from the shadows at a small but constant rate to maintain his distance above the ground without creating a big enough pull to bring attention to himself.
Xander saw a major flaw to Chandler's system. Waiting Xander watched Chandler move forward. Then with a snap of his fingers, he dispelled the shadows from around Chandler with a quick burst of light. This took away the source of Chandler's energy and he fell twenty feet to land right between Xander's Stalagmites. The fall was not enough to destroy Chandler's energy field. When the two stalagmites that weighed a few tons each snapped shut over him like a pair of giant Crocodile jaws, that did the trick. With a flash, Chandler was summoned up by Ember, bruised but fine.
Of course, he was fine, Xander had been careful to leave enough room in those jaws that they would break the energy field, but not smash his fellow apprentice, and if they had
not broken the field, he would have slowly increased the pressure until it had.
Xander started moving as quickly as he could away from that spot. Even though most of his work should have been undetectable, snapping his trap had used a large burst of energy and everyone who was left would have felt it. He would rather have a fresh place to fight, than have people know where he was. Instead of a new hiding spot, he found Sierra.
Sierra was moving the opposite direction and she saw Xander at the exact moment he saw her. A wicked grin split Xander's face. This would be a straight out one on one fight and that suited him just fine. If he managed to beat her there would be no excuses. Whoever won would win on the strength and skill of their magic. While his status as the head apprentice was on the line Xander was more worried about maintaining his reputation as the strongest fighter. At the end of the day, he felt head apprentice was a glorified title anyway. Ember ran everything on a tight schedule and the head apprentice rarely if ever had to make a call.
Xander started by pulling rocks down on Sierra's head making her move quickly rather than allowing her a solid position to cast from, and she, in turn, was ripping the ground apart under his feet making Xander jump to the side or risk falling into the growing crack beneath him. He managed to harness the energy in the air to throw a bolt of lightning at Sierra, and she blocked it by ripping a large piece of stone out of the ground and into the lightning's path. She answered with a fireball that Xander countered by quickly pulling the heat from the air and cooling it off.
To anyone watching it would appear both had insanely quick reflexes with the speed in which they countered each other's spells. The truth was that they sensed what the other was doing and had the counter attacks working before the other apprentice finished their cast. One of them would win the moment that someone miscast a spell or defense.
That happened when Xander threw an ice spike through the air at Sierra. Sierra pulled up a burst of heat to stop the ice. Sierra's defense was a little slow and a few shards weren't destroyed and hit her hard. It did not destroy her shield, but it threw her off balance. With no chance to block his next spell Xander was going to win.
Summoning a fireball Xander thought he would finish it off with a classic. However, just as he was about to release his spell and claim victory over Sierra, he felt energy gathering off to his right. Redirecting that fireball, he managed to fire it towards the unidentified energy at the last second. Lightning and Fireball met in midair causing a blast that knocked Xander back on his butt. There was a flash in front of him, and he looked up to see Sierra had been taken out of the battle.
Michael had snuck up on them and thrown a forked bolt of lightning that had been intended to finish both his opponents. He had managed to deflect the fork that had gone for him, but Sierra had not been so lucky and was out of the fight. The only reason that Xander still stood was that the blast that had knocked him back had knocked Michael back as well.
"No!" Xander raged creating a flurry of fireballs that Michael quickly started deflecting. "She was supposed to be mine!" Xander split his energy ripping the ground out from under Michael and he unleashed several more fireballs. Michael continued to pull large rocks up into the paths of the fireballs to block them and jumped out of the way of the disappearing ground.
"I just saved you humiliation idiot." Michael was now throwing stones and fireballs at Xander. Xander fought to move air and rock to protect himself. "She had a stone blade growing behind you and you were too focused on her to see. I kept you from losing to her."
Xander looked to the spot where he had been fighting, and sure enough, a long-serrated blade had been formed from the rock behind him and would have launched and taken him out in short order. Sierra had not been down, she had played him. The only reason Michael had taken beaten her is she had not see Michael's attack coming.
"I am always saving you, standing in your corner and you can't give me the benefit of the doubt,” Michael kept up his barrage of spells keeping Xander from being able to execute a counter attack. "Next time you can save yourself!"
Xander wasn't sure what Michael did next. His friend ripped the energy in the air around him, that was the only way he could explain it. Suddenly his magic was gone. It was like all the energy had been pulled from the world around him. Xander took the full force of several rocks and a fireball and he felt his shield shatter. Ember was shrieking something, but he couldn't hear what. Michael with rage in his eyes kept moving forward.
"My shields are down!" Xander still could not pull energy to cast magic or re-establish his defenses. He did not know why Ember had not summoned him off the floor yet, but Michael was not stopping. It was like he was possessed by a demon of rage. Xander stood back up and waved his hands "Mike, please my shields are down!"
Michael ripped the finished stone blade Sierra had made from the rock and launched it at his best friend. Xander watched it fly towards himself and prepared to die. At the last moment, the blade exploded, and rock pelted into Xander at a high speed knocking him down and causing his head to hit the cave floor sharply. He felt the flash as he was summoned away, and everything went black.
Captive Dreams
Ember sat in the Chamber watching Michael. Xander was still unconscious and it looked like he would not be waking for a while. Michael himself was ranting nonsense and pacing back and forth. The apprentice she was used to cracking jokes and smiling seemed to be gone, and she had to do what she could to fix him.
He couldn't see her. Ember's job right now was to observe what the chaos had done to Michael before she could heal him. The thought made her shudder. Since she had awakened there was one student she had healed, and that was Xander. After that mishap, she was content to never heal a human again. Somehow what she had done to him was not considered chaos as she had used order to repair and fix him, but no one knew how she had done it. A lot of the other dragons referred to Xander as dragon blood in a disparaging manner and she knew they considered his condition so close to chaos magic that she had almost been removed from teaching her five. If she had not been so freshly hatched when they had gone to sleep they may have moved against her. Ember had learned from the collective dream dragons shared when they slept, but her lack of experience had saved her.
She was lucky that she was able to save Xander at all. When Michael had accidentally touched chaos magic, he had created a void in which all the energy they focused was absorbed. This had created a dead zone that made it impossible to cast any sort of order magic without it being dispersed or destroyed. Sierra's quick thinking to detonate the stone blade that still held her energy in it had not only saved Xander but had created a ripple of order enabling Ember to summon her apprentice to safety.
The healing for Michael would be different than normal. When one cast chaos you never knew what the backlash was. His spell had affected his mind in a way that had driven him mad. It should be temporary, but she could not risk the effects lasting any longer than they absolutely had to. They would leave a mark as it was Michael might never overcome, and the longer it took for the madness to fade the worse it would be.
"Michael," Ember stepped from the shadows causing her apprentice to turn to her. "It's time, are you ready?" Ember had explained this process to him earlier, but in his madness, he had just spit and clawed at her. He tried casting but since his attempt to kill Xander he had not been able to create enough order to get off a spell properly. She had shielded him from using magic anyway. His accidental touch with chaos magic was something he would not be able to figure out without some guidance. Right now it was safe enough to approach him.
Her student launched himself at her with a snarl. She easily stepped forward, grabbed him by the front of his robes, used his momentum to pull him off balance and spin him over to his bed where he fell backward onto the mattress. A human her size would be hard put to do something similar, but even with Michael being almost a foot and a half taller than her, she was easily the stronger being in this situation. Just because a d
ragon looked human, and in this new world they tended to spend more time in a human form than their natural one, did not mean that they had the same limitations.
"I wish I didn't have to do this, but I really have no choice." It was a statement on her part, not an apology. She liked these humans who studied with her. It was not prudent to as they were meant to be tools and little more, but she did not see a downside to caring a little for the creatures. She was not as bad as Fuego who literally loved all things human. That is what happens though, she supposed, when one is left for thousands of years to wander amongst them while your brethren slept. There were periods where he joined the collective dream with the rest, but for the most part, he had spent most of his existence as a human. Some of the others thought him mad for caring, but she thought it was to be expected.
Michael tried to get up, but Ember gently grabbed him by the shoulders and held him down into place. He struggled against her grip for a few moments but soon resigned himself to glaring at her when it was apparent he was not able to break loose.
Putting her hands on either side Michael's head, Ember leaned down with her elbows to make sure he stayed pinned. He tried to knock her away, but Ember shifted her weight and kept him down. Michael went as far as to hit her and tried to buck her off and Ember just took the hits and kept him in place. The likely hood of Michael being able to hit hard enough to cause damage was a non-issue.
Slowly, Ember started letting her energy mix with Michael’s. This would be like a more personal version of the collective dream where the dragons let their minds co-exist while their bodies slept. This is what bonded dragons together. Even now when a dragon slept they tended to give their mind to the collective unlike mortal creatures. It wasn't a loss of identity to join, but rather a sharing of thoughts and experiences. A shadow world where the dragons could communicate freely without limitations of the physical.