by D G Palmer
‘Was that all you could muster, dear husband?’ Sayyidah’s voice reverberated around the cavern. Everyone looked around, trying to find where she was, but they found nothing. It was like she was speaking to them from the other side. ‘A spell such as that should have done more than just give me a tickle. Is it me that has gotten stronger, or is it you that has gotten weaker? I believe it is both.’
Gydion suddenly began to violently shake, then his blood began to literally be drawn out of his pores towards a shadow which Sayyidah slowly rose out of. The Mage had learnt to emulate the Shade.
‘This is not good,’ Tavisum said as she began to cast a spell. ‘We must strengthen ourselves! We must go again! If we are to fall this day, then let it be known that we gave all of ourselves and held nothing back!’
The Archdruid released a Tempest spell around Sayyidah. The violent swirling winds and crackling lightning, disrupted the ancient Egyptian’s Exsanguination spell, saving Gydion.
Sayyidah blindly fired off her own lightning attack from within the tempest. It struck Tristan and the electricity arced to Anjunel and jumped from person to person until they had all felt its effects. ‘Now, I am starting to get annoyed,’ she sighed heavily.
The battle remained at a stalemate which only made Sayyidah more and more frustrated. No matter how many spells she had in her repertoire, the Mage still didn’t have unlimited reserves of Essence. She had expected to have this conflict over and done with easily. But she hadn’t counted on the tenacity of Daniel, Trinity, Finn and the others. ‘All you had to do, beloved, was give me the book!’ She roared at Daniel with finality. ‘Now you force me to take it from your dead, lifeless fingers.’
Sayyidah unleashed a continuous volley of mystic bolts at Daniel. He created an ice shield to defend against the attack. Gydion, for all his bravado was not fully recovered from his ordeal on Salamida and was all but spent, as was Tavisum. Finn helped Princess Nyriel who was struggling. Tristan and Anjunel, brushed, sweaty and bloodied, as they all were, charged the crazed Mage, but to no avail. She projected an arm of magical energy which caught the warrior’s sword and shattered it as he swung it before it swatted both him and the assassin elf away.
The Harpy Queen’s ferocious attack on Daniel continued. Each shield he projected collapsed quicker and quicker, able to sustain less damage each time as he became more tired and drained.
Then came the moment when he couldn’t raise a shield at all.
A smile crept across the Sayyidah’s face as she prepared to end the conflict. She cast a lethal spell, the one final killing blow delivered to Daniel that would allow her to retrieve the book unmolested and leave to plan her move on to her next target.
The ball of mystic energy flew true and straight at Daniel. He watched it coming, knowing that there was nothing he could do to prevent the inevitable. He wondered how much it was going to hurt and he closed his eyes, waiting for it to strike him down.
He heard several screams as Daniel was splayed out on the ground in a heap by what struck him. But it was a lot softer than he had imagined or expected. He opened his eyes and saw Trinity laid out across him; her chest smouldered from where Sayyidah’s spell had hit her.
Daniel was in a state of panic. He didn’t know what to do. His vision blurred with the tears that welled up in his eyes. He didn’t need to see to know that Trinity had been fatally wounded. He could feel her warm blood flowing from her body unrestrained, her breathing had become wheezy and laboured.
‘What were you thinking?’ Daniel berated Trinity.
‘The only thing I could. Isn’t that what you’re supposed to do, to protect those that you love?’ she sighed as her last breath left her lips.
He shook her more and more vigorously as he called her name with ever more urgency.
Daniel finally relented. Finally accepted the fact that no matter how peaceful she looked; Trinity wasn’t sleeping. She was gone.
Then Daniel heard a voice, a distant whisper. He couldn’t understand the words at first but eventually they became clear. ‘...taken away from you. Embrace your loss. Someone must pay. Someone must feel your pain. Let your pain fuel your hatred. Let your hatred fuel your anger. Let your anger become chaos!’
Daniel screamed. A power was rising within him. A power like nothing he had felt before. A power that needed to be released. He could feel the malevolence raging through his body, feel the anger and fury corrupting his insides. He needed to get rid of it. He held up his hand and did just that. He unleashed it on Sayyidah. Both Gydion and Tavisum could feel something dread had been let loose.
The large dark red ball crackled with negative energy. It left a trail as it flew to its target. Smaller balls of mystical energy swirled around the main one like they were its astrological satellites.
Sayyidah nonchalantly raised her hand and conjured a shield to protect herself against the incoming missile. Against an ordinary magical blast, it would have been sufficient, but this was something different, something primal; A bolt of pure chaos.
It passed right through her shield as if it wasn’t even there. When the chaos bolt struck her outstretched hand, it charred and withered it. Sayyidah screamed in agony. She clutched the blackened hand to her, then with one last look of pain mixed with fear she stared at Daniel before the Harpy Queen cast a teleport spell and vanished.
DANIEL AND THE OTHERS stepped out of Gydion’s portal and into the Druid Glade. They may have prevented Sayyidah from completing her goal and obtaining the Book of Azul, but nobody felt like they had won anything, the price had come at too great a cost.
Archdruid Tavisum called over several druids and told them to take Trinity’s body from Daniel and prepare it.
Seeing them take away Trinity’s corpse was too much for Daniel to handle. It brought the shock of her death crashing back. He needed to get away. From everything. From everyone.
So, he ran. Something he was good at, unlike being a mage.
‘Hey! Where’re you going?’ Finn yelled after Daniel. She was about to chase after him but Gydion stopped her.
‘Let him go,’ he told her.
‘But...’
‘He needs space, time. He’ll be all right.’
Finn watched her friend disappear from view.
Daniel ran out of the Druid Glade and kept on running. He didn’t stop until he could run no more and he collapsed. He lay there, panting heavily. He wanted to punish himself, seek penance for the guilt he felt.
‘It should have been me, Trinity. Why did you do it? Why did you have to die?’ Daniel despaired.
He took a deep, pained breath and closed his eyes. In his mind’s eye, Daniel replayed what had happened and wished he could go back in time and change it. He heard her last words repeating over and over in his head. ‘Isn’t that what you’re supposed to do to protect those that you love?’
‘I love you, too,’ he whispered.
Daniel sat up and took out the olive-green peridot crystal, the only cherished gift he had from their burgeoning relationship. He longed to touch her and kiss her one last time but took solace in the little memento.
It reminded him of better times. He had a smile that lit up his eyes as he remembered those first moments back in high school when they first connected and she gave him the gem. Remembered when her intervention changed the Council of Three’s decision. Remembered that kiss. In time his eyes became glassy as they welled up with the tears of losing her. But he held them back.
‘Come on, Daniel,’ he told himself. ‘You have to be strong. If not for you, for Trinity. For her memory. She won’t want you to be like this. She’d want you to be the best version of yourself. She believed in you. Don’t let her down.’
Daniel took another deep breath, a cleansing one this time, not strained with guilt like before. He let it out slowly, making peace with the universe. Willingly accepting all that had happened. A feeling of fatigue suddenly washed over him and Daniel lay down his head and instantly fell asleep.
&nbs
p; Over a day had passed when Daniel eventually returned to the Druid Glade. Finn was waiting at the entrance, pacing up and down. Seeing her made Daniel realise that he had left her without so much as a word. He knew he was in for some trouble from her, but she couldn’t hide her delight at seeing him return, unscathed. She still let him know that she was annoyed that he’d disappeared like that by punching him on the shoulder then she hugged her friend and tried her best to comfort him.
‘I’m going to miss her,’ Finn admitted. ‘I know what you’re thinking. That I hated her. Always teased her. That’s not true. I liked her. We may have been rivals, but I still respected her.’
‘If only I had been better,’ Daniel said. ‘Been more competent, known more magic. Things would have been different.’
‘Maybe, maybe not,’ shrugged Finn. ‘Who’s to say? This was Sayyidah we’re talking about, not a Shade. With all of us together, she was still doing a pretty good job of kicking our behinds.’
‘She’s right,’ agreed Tristan as he joined them. ‘We shouldn’t beat ourselves up over what’s happened.’
Daniel watched the closeness between Anjunel and Tessera. He envied them. ‘It’s easy for you say that, Tristan, it wasn’t Eveline that was taken from you! My relationship with Trinity was just beginning. Now it’s been taken away. At least Gydion is here now. My training can begin properly so that the next time I see Sayyidah things will be very different.’
‘Speaking of Sayyidah,’ Finn interjected, ‘What is it between you two?’
‘It wasn’t just me that noticed that then?’ Tristan said. ‘I have a little experience with women and there was definitely something there.’
‘She called you “beloved” for vekt sake.’
‘I honestly don’t know what that was about. I’ve never seen her before. It did creep me out a bit though,’ replied Daniel.
‘Well, she definitely knows, because she’s definitely seen you before,’ Finn concluded.
‘Just something else I need to talk to Gydion about, I guess.’
The Archmage, at that moment, was with the Archdruid, deep in discussion but in hushed tones, as they walked towards the Sacred Grove. What they talked about was not for everyone’s ears.
‘The princess agrees. Given that the Book of Azul was Sayyidah’s target all along it would be best if I kept it at my sanctum. I’ll be taking her back to Murias City after she’s recovered a bit, and after the proceedings.’
Tavisum nodded. ‘It’s for the best.’ The elf never one to shy away from speaking her mind to Gydion continued that trait as she brought up the tragic loss. ‘I told you it was too early for her. Let her come to the druids at the appropriate time.’
‘I disagree. She needed to learn important lessons. Lessons you and your druids would not have been able to teach.’
‘Such as?’
‘Love. Humanity. Things you know little about.’
True or not the words still stung the Archdruid. ‘And what is your point, exactly?’
‘I will tell you my point...exactly. The prophecy from Queen Rhiannon? All of you took it as verbatim. But prophecies can be all over the place. We all knew that her champion was Eric, so everyone assumed that the progeny was his child, and that he will bring death and destruction. But it says “bring”. What if it meant, “bring into the world”? What if it is not Daniel?’
‘But... his child?’ It was a possibility, and as she thought more about it, reasons behind some of Gydion’s actions began to reveal themselves. ‘So, you were looking to the future. With him under your roof as your student you could keep a close eye on things. But what of his love life? How could you... by the goddess! You intended to manipulate that too? With Trinity? That’s why you used her to find him in the first place. What did you do to her?’
‘Nothing,’ he replied but she pushed him further with a stern look. ‘I did nothing to her, I assure you. I had planned to, but thought against it. I let love run its course.’
‘You took a big risk. He is very close to Finn also. It could just as easily have been her that he chose.’
‘It was a risk, I’ll admit that, but a calculated one.’
‘You cannot continue to use people’s lives like chess pieces.’
‘Sayyidah does and she’s always several moves ahead.’
‘So, you plan to match her to beat her? You and her are like two sides of the same coin don’t lose yourself and end up on the same side.’
‘If it saves Ariest, so be it. I have seen what is coming and we are far from prepared for it.’
‘The dragon god, Baelthorn. He still lives; on the home world of the Shade and he intends to undo all of his brothers work.’
‘You must be mistaken,’ Tavisum couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
‘I wish I was,’ Gydion replied disheartened. He knew the faerie world was ill-prepared for what was to come.
Just then, Tristan came up to the pair, seeing a lull in their conversation. ‘Have you got a minute, Gydion?’
‘No, I do not,’ the Archmage replied sharply.
‘Come on, it won’t take long. I’ve wanted to speak to you for a long time.’
‘Time is something I have very little of and cannot waste on trivialities.’
‘I just wanted to ask you for the location of someone.’
‘Begone, you imbecile! Matters of far more importance than your petty vendetta with Eric Mondragon are a foot!’ Gydion let the stress of recent events get the better of him and he instantly regretted it as he glanced at Daniel.
‘What’s going on, Gydion?’ Daniel asked in a panic. ‘Has something happened to my dad? Did the Shade go back to Earth?’
‘Your dad?’ Tristan was incredulous. ‘Eric Mondragon is your dad? All this time and I didn’t know.’
‘Yeah, he is. What do you want him for?’ Daniel asked.
‘Because I have vowed to kill him,’ said Tristan matter-of-factly. ‘He left me for dead in Cuthala. Left me with no honour. Because of him I can’t return home. When I have his head, however...’
‘He told me what happened. He regretted it deeply. That incident was what forced him to leave Ariest in the first place. If he had known you were his son—'
‘What are you talking about?’
‘That ring,’ Daniel pointed at Tristan’s left hand remembering the token of love that his dad had gifted. ‘You got that ring from your mother, Aloena, and she was given it by our father, when they were together. You’re my older brother.’
‘Shut up!’ Tristan lashed out almost hitting Daniel. ‘He is not my father and I have no brother! If you get in my way and try to stop me, I’ll kill you too!’
‘It doesn’t have to be like this,’ Daniel pleaded. ‘We could both go and see him together, as brothers.’
‘Take your hand off of me,’ said Tristan angrily. ‘Tell you dad that I’m coming for him and know that I won’t let you stop me.’ Without so much as a backward glance, Tristan, headed to the entrance of the Druid Glade.
‘Why didn’t I see the ring before? I could have told him we were brothers the moment we met.’
‘You really need to listen to some bards,’ Finn admonished. ‘If you had, then you’d know that he only wears it in battle. For luck apparently.’
‘Forget about him, Daniel,’ said Gydion.
‘How can I? He’s my brother,’ Daniel replied.
‘Yes, he is,’ Tavisum said, looking at Gydion. ‘Another son of Mondragon.’
The Archmage ignored Tavisum’s comment and continued to try and get Daniel’s mind away from estranged family members. ‘Because we have bigger things to consider. The Book of Azul, we need to look more closely at it. If Sayyidah was willing to reveal herself it must be more important than we think.’
‘More adventure? Sign me up,’ Finn said as she excitedly rubbed her hands.
‘That won’t be necessary, young lady. In fact, I think you should go home. Daniel has no time anymore. After tonight’s events are
over, things are going to get serious.’
‘What could be more serious than this?’ Daniel asked.
‘Mage Academy,’ Gydion responded and strode off with Tavisum. ‘Come on, Daniel!’
Daniel looked at Finn, then Gydion, then back to Finn. ‘I need to go.’
‘Yeah. you do.’
‘Don’t be like that, Finn.’
‘How should I be? I feel like that’s it. Like I’m never going to see you again.’
They were both silent for a moment.
‘Here, take this.’ Daniel pulled out the Horn of Fog, then the Goggles of Seeing and handed them to Finn.
‘I don’t want any gifts,’ she said petulantly.
‘You’re going to want these ones,’ Daniel insisted and pushed them into his friend’s hands. Then he gave her a big hug and kissed her cheek before he ran off after Gydion.
Finn was left there with nothing but her memories to hold onto. The once happy group was fractured and all but disbanded. Daniel was being dragged off to the Mage Academy in Imperial City. Trinity had tragically passed away. Tristan had left under a cloud, intent on vengeance.
‘It seems as if we are the ostracised,’ Anjunel commented. ‘The unwanted. The cast aside. Perhaps you would like to accompany us back to Darkenville, as you have been abandoned by your friends.’
Tessera was stunned. ‘I don’t think that’s a good idea, Anju.’
‘Why not? I am already in for a reprimand.’
‘But there is no need to compound it.’
‘Darkenville? What’s that?’ Finn asked.
‘The home of the Krez,’ replied Anjunel.
‘Vekt yeah! Of course I want to go!’
‘They won’t be happy,’ Anjunel added.
‘And they will probably want to kill you,’ said Tessera.
Finn listened to both elves then shrugged and said, ‘meh! It wouldn’t be the first time.’ She started to adjust the goggles Daniel had given her so that the strap was hooked on her arm, and she heard something tinkle inside the horn. As she gave it a shake, a familiar looking key popped out. It was the key to the Mondragon estate. ‘Seems like I haven’t been abandoned at all! I knew you wouldn’t back out on me, Daniel. I’ll meet you there, buddy. Just don’t take too long.’