Magium

by Chris Michael Wilson

  “How many spells do you have that protect you against paralysis?” I say.

  “Just one,” Daren says. “And the shield does not protect against paralysis, so it’s not protection overload!”

  “Okay, okay,” I say. “Is anyone else using protection against paralysis?”

  “Yes,” Kate says. “I use the spell described in the latest ‘Advanced Theory of Magic’ book by Azarius.”

  “Alright,” I say. “And you, Daren? Which protection are you using?”

  “The golden one,” Daren says. “The one that makes a spinning effect with sparkles when you cast it.”

  “Uh…” I say. “Okay… So, you mean the advanced version from the standard white mage spellbook. And Hadrik, I assume that you are relying on your partial resistance that comes from being a giant in order to defend yourself from such spells?”

  “Yeah,” Hadrik says. “But I got paralyzed completely, just like Kate and Daren, despite my resistance.”

  “Uh-huh,” I say. “Well, do you guys know what these three defenses of yours have in common?”

  “What?” Daren says.

  “Absolutely nothing,” I say, as I close my notebook. “Which means that Eiden was not using a loophole, this time around. In fact, I don’t think he was using paralysis at all. He must have been using a completely different type of spell, which has the same effect. Remember that time when Kate’s friend left us all unconscious on the ground? She didn’t use a sleep spell to do it. She used electricity. I’m suspecting that Eiden used a similar method to temporarily paralyze you. Didn’t you all feel a shock right before you fell to the ground? I’m pretty sure you must have also felt a few other electric shocks afterwards, which were meant to keep you paralyzed for a longer period of time.”

  “Come to think of it, yeah!” Daren says. “I did feel some electric shocks. But they didn’t feel much different from the feeling you get from a normal paralysis, so I didn’t really notice the difference at the time. But does this mean that Eiden can use electricity as an element, like Kate’s friend?”

  “I doubt it,” I say. “The spell that he used seemed to have certain rules and limitations, which would not have been the case if he could have used electricity freely, as an element. The electric spell that he used to paralyze you felt extremely similar to a spell that I had access to, back when I had my stat device powered up, so it’s likely the same one. I don’t remember every single detail about it, but it was one of those spells that you could only cast once a day, and I know for sure that one major drawback of the spell was the fact that the area of effect was extremely small. I mean, you could pretty much just roll over to the side, and the following electrical currents would not target you anymore. The only reason why it worked against you was because you three happened to be standing very close together, and because you didn’t know what kind of spell you were up against. If you knew how it worked, then you could have just gotten out of the way at the exact moment before a new electrical current hit you, since the effect of the paralysis wears off a bit, right before each new shock.”

  “Yeah, I very much doubt that I could have done that,” Daren says, “since I was trying to break free of the spell’s effect the whole time, and it didn’t work.”

  “That’s because the spell shocks you at faster intervals if it sees that you’re trying to break free!” I say. “It doesn’t work that way. You need to be relaxed, and to only try to escape at the very last second. Of course, you can’t know how often it will shock you until you let yourself get shocked a few times, while counting the number of seconds for each interval. The intervals will not always be of the same length, but there will usually be a pattern that you can figure out. Once you’re sure that you got the count right, you wait for the last moment, and only then you try to escape. Obviously, the easier way around this would be to use protection against electricity, but with the amount of energy it takes to keep that protection up and running, you’d have to be insane to use it at all times, on the off-chance that you’ll get attacked by an electrical spell other than the standard ones.”

  “Uh,” Hadrik says, “not that I want to interrupt you or anything, but we should really hurry up if we want to finish the game before we leave. We’ve only got about half an hour left before the lessathi meeting, and everyone except Leila is going to need at least three more rounds to gather all the points they need.”

  Once Hadrik and the others finish their game, we leave our backpacks in the care of king Golmyck, and we all get ready to descend into the tunnels below.

  “Be careful,” Golmyck says, before we leave. “The lessathi may not be mages, but their highly advanced magical devices make them into as big a threat as some of the most skilled participants that have joined this tournament. I would have given you more information about them, but unfortunately the only thing I know is that the one wielding two scythes is using electric attacks. The functions of the others’ devices are still unknown to me.”

  “Well,” I say, “at least we know who we’ll be targeting first.”

  The king opens a trapdoor which leads to the underground corridors, and an extension ladder drops down, allowing us to reach the floor of the tunnel safely. We climb down one by one, and once we all reach the lower level, Golmyck wishes us luck, and he pulls the ladder back up, closing the trapdoor with a loud thump. Looking up, I can barely tell that there had been an open trapdoor on the ceiling above us, only seconds ago. The texture of the secret door blends perfectly with the rocky surface of the ceiling and walls, making it completely hidden, unless you know exactly where to look for it.

  We travel through the corridors for a few minutes, making sure to carefully follow the directions that the king gave us, while periodically asking Arraka if she doesn’t sense any guards on our way to the lessathi headquarters.

  “Look, the lessathi are starting their meeting!” Flower says, as she points towards several green dots that are now moving inside the lessathi headquarters from Arraka’s hologram.

  “A little earlier than they were supposed to, but not by much,” Daren says, as he also looks towards the hologram in front of Flower. “We should still make it there before they finish. It won’t be long until we reach the last corridor, and then we should be able to see the entrance to their lair. I’m still feeling a little uneasy about all of these empty tunnels, though. I can’t help but feel that we’re walking into a trap of some kind.”

  “Don’t be so pessimistic, Daren,” Hadrik says. “The king said that the lessathi don’t know about his hidden trapdoor, so it’s normal that they wouldn’t have anyone in charge of guarding these areas. Maybe they’ll have some guards posted in front of their meeting hall, and that will put your worries to rest.”

  As we make our way further into the tunnel, I suddenly get a vision of our group walking straight into an explosion, not much farther from our current position.

  “Stop!” I shout, as everyone turns towards me.

  “What is it?” Kate says.

  “That part of the corridor is rigged to explode if we go any further,” I say.

  “Did you see a premonition of this happening?” Kate asks.

  “Yes,” I say. “We can’t go that way. We need to go back.”

  “But why would there be a trap on this corridor?” Hadrik asks. “Isn’t this the path that the gnome’s servant usually takes to reach their headquarters? Why would they risk it?”

  “They’re probably onto us,” Daren says. “The king already told us that the lessathi have listening devices inside the throne room, which means that they should be aware that we’ve visited Golmyck’s secret room twice so far. Even if they don’t know about the hidden trapdoor, they still have good reason to be cautious.”

  “Yeah, but to risk blowing up this whole corridor based on a simple hunch…” Hadrik says. “I don’t know, I’m finding it a bit hard to believe. Barry, are you sure that your thingamajig isn’t malfunctioning, somehow? I mean, you don’t have any guarant
ee that those premonitions will always come true, do you?”

  “Well, why don’t you throw a rock, and see for yourself if it explodes, then?” I say.

  “Don’t mind if I do!” Hadrik says, and he picks up a rock from the ground, which he then throws further down the corridor.

  As soon as the rock hits the ground, a big explosion covers the area around it, sending the whole ceiling above it crashing down, and blocking our path.

  “Okay,” Hadrik says. “You convinced me, Barry. Let’s go back.”

  “You do realize that there’s no way in hell the lessathi didn’t hear that explosion from earlier, right?” Daren says.

  “Even if they’ve heard it, they’re not reacting to it,” I say. “Look at the map. The four lessathi haven’t moved from their original spots. Either they can’t hear any noise from inside there, or they think we’re dead. What we need now is to figure out a way to get around this cave-in. Arraka, you wouldn’t happen to detect any other tunnels around here that aren’t marked on the king’s map, would you?”

  “Huh?” Arraka asks. “Oh, I do, actually… Hold on, let me add them to the hologram.”

  A few seconds after she’s done talking, three more blue corridors appear on the hologram that is floating in front of her amulet.

  “Hey, look,” I say, “one of those corridors seems to link the tunnel we’re currently in with one of the seredium tunnels. And that tunnel also leads towards the lessathi headquarters.”

  “Yeah, but I can’t guarantee that the seredium tunnel is currently functional,” Arraka says. “Like I said before, I only put it there because it was on the gnome’s map. I can’t sense anything inside it. It may as well be filled with guards, for all I know.”

  “Well, it’s better than nothing,” I say. “Which wall leads to the secret tunnel? That one?”

  I then point towards a specific area on the wall to our right, while waiting for Arraka’s answer.

  “Uh-huh,” Arraka says.

  “Alright,” Hadrik says. “Well, in that case, I’ll go open the path for us.”

  “Yes,” Daren says, as Hadrik heads towards the wall that leads to the secret tunnel. “As long as we know which wall leads to the tunnel, finding the secret lever that opens it up shouldn’t be that—”

  Before Daren gets to finish his sentence, Hadrik reaches the wall, and he punches right through it, making it crumble into pieces.

  “Seriously…” Daren says, as he smacks his forehead with the palm of his hand. “Do you have to do this every single time?”

  “Relax!” Hadrik says. “The lessathi are too far away to hear a mere few rocks crumbling down, and if there really are guards on the other side, it’s not like we’d have any way to sneak past them. It’s a direct path to the lessathi headquarters from here. No way around.”

  “Fine, let’s keep going,” Daren says. “We’ll see what happens, when it happens.”

  We travel through the secret tunnel without encountering any form of resistance. When we reach the end of it, Hadrik takes a quick glance towards the rest of us, and then he punches through the wall, clearing our way to the seredium corridor. As we look around us, we see that this tunnel is just as empty as the other ones.

  “Arraka,” Illuna says, “do you sense any guards?”

  “Nope,” Arraka says. “It’s empty. No magical traps either. Don’t know about regular traps, though.”

  “Well, regular traps tend to get triggered by stepping on the ground,” Hadrik says, “so I’ll just make sure to throw rocks ahead of us on a regular basis, to see if anything explodes. I’m the one with the tough giant skin here, so I’ll go in front. If anything triggers, I should be able to handle it.”

  “Remember to suppress your auras as much as you can,” Daren tells us, as we advance through the corridor. “We wouldn’t want the lessathi to detect us before we reach them.”

  As we walk down the tunnel, I begin to hear a voice at the far end of the corridor. It doesn’t take me long to recognize it as being the voice of the lessathi that came to visit me while I was in my cell below the arena. I also seem to be able to hear the other lessathi from the meeting, although it takes a bit of effort to focus on their words.

  “That does indeed seem like our only alternative,” says the soft-spoken lessathi who visited my cell, in the lessathi language, which I am able to understand thanks to my stat device. “Ollendor has already been isolated from most of Varathia, so the rest of the kingdoms will most likely not care if Thilias decides to cut all diplomatic ties with Ollendor as well. The gnome is probably going to do this either way, so there should be no reason for us to intervene.”

  “Ollendor is the least of our worries, right now,” says another lessathi. “Do you have any idea how many mages have died since the beginning of this tournament? This is why I’ve insisted from the very beginning that the tournament should have had a rule to prohibit the mages from killing each other unless the rules of the tournament explicitly required them to!”

  “We’ve talked about this before,” the soft-spoken lessathi says, in a calm tone. “The kings would not agree to it, remember? They said that it was against Varathian tradition to impose such a rule in a tournament, even if the participants are all outsiders.”

  “To hell with the kings and their outdated traditions!” the other lessathi says. “Don’t you understand? They’ve ruined everything! Why did I even bother to sabotage the telepathic device meant to transmit the objectives, if the mages were going to kill each other before the first round anyway?”

  “You’ve been complaining about this in every single meeting we’ve had since the beginning of the tournament,” another lessathi says. “Give it a rest, already. What’s done is done. Let’s just focus on the present, shall we?”

  “Barry!” Daren whispers. “Over here!”

  As I take a look towards Daren, I realize that while I was listening to the lessathi conversation, we’d already reached our destination. The corridor that we are currently in and the corridor that we left from seem to both reunite in this point, and they lead to a much narrower hallway, which has a door at the end. On the other side of the door, the lessathi are still holding their meeting, and they don’t seem to have noticed us. I join Daren and the others into the narrow hallway, and we prepare to storm the meeting room, on his signal.

  Just as we’re about to charge into their headquarters, I suddenly feel an electric shock all throughout my body, and I fall to the ground, unable to move. The same thing apparently happened to all of my friends, because they’re now also lying on the ground beside me.

  This spell… Could it be?…

  As we all lie on the ground, unable to break free from the spell’s effects, the door in front of us opens, and the four lessathi that were participating in the meeting are now slowly advancing towards us. They are all wearing their signature dark blue robes, with their hoods up, and each of them seems to be carrying a different type of weapon.

  “Welcome, friends,” says the soft-spoken lessathi, in the Common language. “I believe I’ve already had the pleasure of meeting some of you, but the others may not know who I am. It doesn’t matter, because we will be the ones asking the questions, and you will be the ones answering. Do I make myself clear?”

  “They can’t answer you, you idiot,” says another lessathi, in the lessathi language. “This spell paralyzes them completely. They are unable to talk.”

  “Where are your manners?” the soft-spoken lessathi says, in the Common language. “These are our guests! We should all speak in the Common language, so they can understand us.”

  “Is this supposed to be some sort of joke?” the lessathi from before says, still in the lessathi language. “You’ve always had a bad sense of humor.”

  “Well, it doesn’t matter if you want to speak in Common or not,” the soft-spoken lessathi says. “We don’t need more than one person to interrogate them anyway.”

  “I told you that this would happen!” says
another lessathi, also in the Common language. “That idiotic king’s servant was never the type that could tell when he was being followed.”

  “Indeed,” the soft-spoken lessathi says. “Your idea to leak the time and place of our meeting to the king’s servant was definitely worth the effort. What I don’t understand, however, is how they managed to not die in that explosion from earlier. Do you suppose that they somehow detected our trap before walking into it and used a decoy to activate it?”

  “It doesn’t really matter,” says the lessathi from before. “What matters now is that we get as much information from them as possible. There’s no use trying to interrogate the ones who can’t talk due to the paralysis. Only the two lessathi should be able to speak right now. We’ll just quickly find out what we need to know, and then we’ll get rid of them.”

  These cocky bastards. They’re using Eiden’s paralysis spell. I’m sure of it. This narrow corridor is the perfect place to set up such a trap. And the periodic shocks I’m getting are definitely electric in nature. Due to my partial resistance to electricity that I get from being half-lessathi, it should be easy enough for me to find the right time window to spring out of the spell’s area of effect, and I’m pretty sure that Leila is in a similar situation as well. The others might take a bit longer to get the timing right, though, since the windows they’ll get will be extremely short.

  As I lie there on the ground, a very small, barely noticeable, semi-transparent message appears right in front of my eyes, written in blue text.

  “Don’t free yourself yet,” Leila’s text says. “Wait for the others to get accustomed to the shocks. I’m also sending this message to everyone else. I’ll give the signal, so we can all free ourselves together, at the exact same moment.”

  “Where the hell did you hide your trap?” Arraka shouts all of a sudden. “I’ve been searching for it since you came out of that door, and I’m not sensing any device that could cast this type of spell!”

  It is unclear to me whether Arraka saw Leila’s message and is now trying to buy us some time, or if she’s just genuinely frustrated that her magical sense is not good enough to find the trap on her own. If I were to guess, then I’d say it’s probably the latter reason.