Authors: Laszlo,Jeremy
Many men and even a couple of women were already in place as Jud led Sara to the uppermost parts of this section of wall. A large canopy had been erected sometime in the night or early morning and now beneath it sat the most powerful people in the kingdom. The king was in attendance, speaking to a few of his many advisors. The heads of all the orders of mages too had seemed to have arrived, now that Jud was here as Sara checked them off her mental list. Also there were men that Sara assumed were associated with the army milling about and jesting loudly with one another, their camaraderie obvious even from afar. As these men moved to unobstruct her view Sara saw another familiar face. Sirus sat in full armor beside the king, nodding his head in agreement to some comment his ruler had made, and opposite the king sat another knight also nodding his head. Recognition struck Sara and she froze in her tracks, not believing what she was seeing.
Garret sat in full armor identical to that of Sirus, marking him as having been chosen by the Knights of Valdadore and also as a man blessed by the god Gorandor. Though Sara was both in shock and awe, she knew immediately that the man had changed enormously. Garret held the weight of his armor effortlessly, and even encased in metal as he was, Sara could tell that Garret had grown immense. His neck bulged out from the armor like the trunk of a tree, and his jaw muscles looked like those of some great hound, chiseled perfectly. Her amazement finally wearing off, Sara rushed to speak to Garret and as she approached him, he turned, recognition lighting up his eyes.
"Sara!" Garret said rising to is feet. "You look well." Garret greeted the woman and wrapped her tiny body in his immense arms for a friendly embrace. Sara just nodded, still coming to terms with the sudden surprise of seeing him in his current condition.
"I am well," Sara finally answered, stepping back to again appraise Garret. "You look more than well, I must admit." She said smiling to her friend.
"How is my brother?" Garret asked quickly, his expression turning to one of concern.
"He too is well," Sara admitted. "In fact he is here. I'm sure we will see him shortly," Sara added not wanting to ruin the surprise. With her last comment Garret’s face lost all looks of concern and his huge smile that not even weeks of strenuous training could change emerged. He beamed, looking around the crowd for his brother. His search unsuccessful, Garret turned back to the woman his brother loved and beckoned her to join him, offering her the seat at his side, opposite the king. Sara sat graciously, and the two of them chatted a few moments, trying as quickly as they were able to tell of their past weeks, their new lives, their new duties, and how happy they both felt to see a familiar face.
Several minutes had passed as a few others joined the party, and as the last of them finally settled into place, the king motioned to a guard posted atop the wall opposite them. The man relayed some sort of message to someone below, and in moments nearly a hundred archers topped the wall from staircases at either end. Taking their places, they surrounded the entire courtyard, each taking a knee and knocking an arrow. That command completed, the guard to whom the king had originally signaled strode across the wall to where Sara herself had climbed to the top of the wall. Peering over, he again gave a command to those below, and in the courtyard beneath them, all the spectators watched as an iron gate swung silently upon its hinges and a lone figure strode through it.
Seth, following the directions of the guards before him, marched to the now open gate. Almost as an afterthought, before stepping through he pulled his cowl up over his head, completely hiding his face in shadow. Taking one last deep breath, Seth entered through the hole in the giant stone wall and listened as the gate swung closed behind him and heard the click of its bolt sliding home, locking him within the courtyard. Seth attempted to peer up at those watching him without revealing his face to them, but the sunlight cresting that particular wall where all those of import sat left them all as empty silhouettes to his eyes. Upon the other walls were archers by the dozens prepared to fire into the courtyard below. Knowing his eyes would avail him nothing else, Seth reached out with his senses and could immediately determine the majority of those who watched him from above. Using the people’s auras, and knowing the gods to which each person was aligned, Seth located the heads of the orders of mages, as well as three aligned with Gorandor whom he assumed would be the king and two of his knights. Borrik was there as well, behind the rest of the gathering, and also several others who were of little importance to Seth at that time.
Seeking beyond what he could see with his eyes, Seth found that past the wall opposite him, on the other side of another gate, there was a mass of auras of the like Seth had not experienced within the city. This he guessed would be his test, and feeling the pull of each of those auras, he knew that he would have all the power required to perform any act he chose. Only seconds had passed since Seth first entered the courtyard, and looking skyward to those who would judge him, Seth reached up and pulled back his cowl.
Garret sat under the canopy, between his king and Sara. He watched as the robed man entered the courtyard and the gate closed behind him. He looked the hooded figure over, still unaware of what was transpiring. Then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw Sara lean forward in her seat, smiling. Looking closer at the man below, recognition once again dawned upon him. He couldn’t see Seth’s face, but the black scabbard that hung at his hip and the sword it held were unmistakable. Garret recognized his twin brother just as Seth reached up to pull back his cowl, revealing his identity.
Seth waited for a moment patiently looking up at the small crowd gathered above him, and watched as the head of the order of red-robed battle mages stood and stepped to the edge of the wall to look down upon him.
"Young mage," the elderly red robe said, pausing to be sure he had everyone's attention. "You claim to be more than a common mage, more versed in magic than any of our brethren, able to perform magical tasks that to the rest of us are unobtainable." Vladmere accused more than spoke, looking down his nose at the young man who stood below him. He smirked to himself before continuing. "Yet you stand before us a liar, cloaked in robes of an order well respected among all the orders of magi, yet you have not earned them. You have not been blessed by the goddess they represent, and I presume, as your attire is a lie and an affront to all who have worn it before you, so too are your claims." Vladmere said sneering at Seth below him.
Seth knew immediately what the mage above him intended with his accusations. Vladmere already feared him and was jealous of his claims. He knew the old mage was trying to make him lose faith in himself, but Seth wasn't the child he had been on the trek to Valdadore. With his newfound power, gone was the child who constantly second guessed himself, gone were his doubts of what he could or would become. The mage sneering down at him from above had not managed to dishearten him in the least. Instead the words angered Seth, and without thought, Seth decided to teach the sniveling man of a mage a lesson he would not forget.
Seth unleashed the power contained within him and forced his will upon it. Instantly Seth was engulfed in a massive pillar of yellow-green flames. The tower shot so high, so quickly, Vladmere had no time to escape. Only missing him by inches the heat of the ghastly flames singed the hair from his face and arms, the acrid stench soaking into his own robes. Just as quickly as Seth summoned the column of flame, he reined in the flow of power rushing to escape him, enjoying the ecstasy that overtook him, locking the remaining power away. Seth stood defiantly looking up to the man who had verbally berated him just seconds before and saw the man's jaw hanging slack, as many sounds of inhaled breaths escaped the crowd and archers above. A few “ohs” and “ahs” even rose from the crowd.
"Does this suit you better?" was Seth’s only reply.
As Seth summoned the giant pillar of unnatural fire, all Sara and Garret could do was watch and gasp in both fear and wonder. They saw as Vladmere staggered back from the heat of the blaze, small curls of smoke issuing up from his face and arms. As quickly as the magical torrent of flame had erupted skyward, engulfing Seth below them, it vanished. Seth remained in the courtyard below, still looking up to the crowd above, his arms extended to his sides, palms upward. Where his light gray robe had once been draped over his body, now hung a robe of darkest night. The mantle was so dark it appeared to be woven of shadow itself. The belt scabbard, and sword remained undamaged through the transformation. Looking up defiantly, Seth stared down the man who had attempted to belittle him, and clapping erupted from several locations atop the wall around the courtyard. Vladmere turned on his heel and retreated to his seat, where he quickly sat like a berated child.
As if by some unspoken command the iron gate across from Seth opened, and a steel cage rolled into view behind it. Within the cage stood a creature Seth recognized instantly as a goblin. A blade was tossed onto the grass in front of the goblin’s cage as the front of it slid upward, releasing Seth’s first challenge.
Seth appraised his first opponent, realizing the game that was his test. It would be easy enough to strip the power from the creature before him, but Seth wanted more than to simply accomplish his task. He wanted everyone present to recount tales about this day for the rest of their lives.
The goblin stepped warily from the steel enclosure that had held him like an animal since being removed from his cell many hours ago. He reached down to retrieve the sword that was customary to the men of his kind, and glanced around the high walls towering above him. The archers above did not draw down on him, and other men sat comfortably watching from the relative safety above. Realizing his predicament, the goblin knew he was meant to slay the boy who stood across the courtyard from him. Dozens of yards separated them, but the goblin decided to make quick work of the lad before he could even draw his sword.
Seth watched the goblin step out of its shadowed cage and emerge into the light. Seth recognized the green flesh striped with criss-crossing patterns of muted blacks and dark muddy browns. The creature’s leathery skin rippled over the muscles below it as it craned its neck to see all those watching from above. Then it turned its gaze upon Seth, its lips parting to show rows of razor sharp teeth as it smiled wickedly. Seth decided upon a plan of action that would leave the crowd in awe, the goblin dead, and his body infused with the goblin’s own life force. As it raced across the courtyard, Seth raised his hands to the approaching creature as if signaling for it to stop. Pointing his fingers towards the creature, palms outward, Seth again unleashed the power remaining to him and bent it to his will.
Lightning exploded from Seth’s fingertips lancing across the ever narrowing distance to his intended target. Before striking the creature, Seth reached across the distance with his mind and stripped the goblin of nearly all of its life force, and gathered the power into himself locking it away for later use. The wicked green lightning lanced through the goblin, utterly destroying the creature much like an explosion. Gore and blood rained down in the courtyard in steaming piles and the goblin was no more. Seth stood elated upon the miniature battlefield, the ecstasy of using the magic caused a shiver to run down his spine as those above watched with a mixture of horror and wonder. Seth was surprised to feel how much energy a single goblin contained, and assured himself he was prepared for whatever challenge was up next.
Seth did not wait long for that next challenge to come. Another cage rolled up behind the open gate across from him. As the door was raised from above, four more goblins raced out into the sunlight. Weapons were tossed in behind the goblins, which quickly turned and armed themselves. These goblins too assessed the situation, and speaking in a swift guttural language, they formulated a plan. Two of the goblins rushed ahead of their peers brandishing their small wicked blades. Before acting, Seth paused to watch as the two remaining goblins hurtled out to the sides and along the walls in an effort to flank him. Deciding upon a course of action, Seth chose to first prove that which he had stated the night before.
One of the goblins charging headlong at him had fallen a few paces behind the other, unable to keep up, playing perfectly into Seth’s plan. Seth reached out with his mind and with a small tug instantly ended the nearest goblin who, mid-stride, appeared to crumple in upon itself, turning to nothing more than ash. This slowed the goblin behind who was forced to plow through the ashy remains of its comrade, choking on the ash of the deceased. Seth did not bother to contain the energy he had stripped away from the latest goblin. Instead he immediately bent it to his will and, raising his hand, the same yellow-green fire as earlier erupted from his fingertips forming a ball in his hand. Seth extended his arm, pointing his palm outward, aiming the unnatural fireball towards his next opponent. He released the fireball and watched as it sped to its intended target before the goblin had time to change course or dodge the blow. Reveling in the feeling of the power coursing through him, Seth held onto the fireball with his power even as it reached the goblin. He twisted the flame, willing it to conform to his needs, and as the fiery mass hit the goblin it lanced up the creature’s clothing, climbing into its open mouth and nose, completely suffocating its screams of anguish as the goblin burned from the inside out.
Seth had spent too much time on that opponent, and it nearly cost him. The goblin who was attempting to flank him from the right had moved faster than Seth had anticipated and was nearly upon him. Having no time to formulate a spectacular show of his prowess, Seth threw up his arm as if to block the goblin's blow with his bare hand and sent a torrent of invisible energy rushing out of his palm. There was a loud whooshing sound as the goblin was lifted up off its feet, panicking, and surged backwards, somersaulting through the air and smashing into the giant stone wall with a bone-shattering thud. The greasy creature crumpled to the ground and remained unmoving.
Seth turned to the last goblin approaching from his opposite side. Grasping at the power sustaining the goblin, Seth siphoned nearly its entire life force away, causing it to stagger against the stone wall. Using the goblin’s own life, Seth reached out with his hands and summoned another column of fire. The blaze roared across the open expanse driving the goblin into the wall behind it, superheating the very stone itself. Molten bits began cascading down towards the ground, encompassing the remains of the goblin. When Seth relented, bones of the goblin protruded from the wall. Gone was the smooth surface of the stone. Where it once was flawless, now in a perfect circle it oozed down to the ground like a candle’s wax leaving lines of hardening stone mixed with bones and teeth. Seth drew into himself once more. Feeling the pleasure course through him, he gathered the excess of power remaining to him and stowed it away, waiting for whatever challenge would come next.
Again the wait was not long. A larger cage soon replaced the last, and three large, hulking, black forms emerged, ducking their heads to issue forth into the courtyard. This race of being was unknown to Seth and he scrutinized their every detail. Their flesh was black and leathery and glistened as if wet with perspiration. Their large heads held wide jaws filled with pointed teeth and their lower canines were overly large, protruding up from their mouths even when closed. These creatures nearly completely lacked any sign of a nose and instead had two teardrop shaped holes above their mouths. Their eyes were large and milky yellow in color with metallic hues to their pupils. Their body was much like a human's despite their overly long limbs and fingers ending in claws. Muscles bulged beneath the seemingly stretched glossy black flesh, revealing every detail of the muscle and sinew beneath.
As the three creatures took stock of their surroundings, large heavy blades were tossed at the their feet, and each in turn picked up two. Even the weapons were foreign to Seth. Shaped like crescent moons, the blades ended at a point at each end and the handle was in the middle, allowing the bearer to slide his fingers through the blade itself to grasp the weapon on the backside. Everything about these creatures seemed dangerous. They appeared to be evil incarnate, but Seth knew that they stood little chance against him. And as he reached out with his senses he was again astonished to find that the power within this race of man was unlike any other he had touched. These creatures must be long-lived indeed for theirs was a powerful aura of dark metallic greens and silvers, and as if to astonish Seth further each of the creatures paused before attacking to close their eyes and whisper a prayer.
Realization dawned on Seth instantaneously. These weren't mere foes he faced, they were likely trained warriors, possibly blessed by whatever dark god they worshipped. Unaware of their abilities Seth didn't dare give them time to close in on him. He watched with his godlike vision as the aura inside each of the creatures swelled with the power of the god they worshipped. Then the beasts attacked. They lunged across the ground, falling to all fours, their gangly limbs propelling them at unnatural speeds. Seth had little time to react. The creatures already nearly upon him, he unleashed his power, throwing up a wall of yellow-green flame between himself and the creatures beyond hoping to keep them at bay. The onlookers above gasped as the wall of flame licked the top of the walls where they were seated. Seth dared not drop the wall immediately for fear that, when he did, the creatures would be upon him.
Unleashing more power Seth threw an invisible torrent of energy at his foes. The creatures dug their clawed fingers and toes into the soil, unable to attack, but remaining fixed despite the surge whipping around them. Seth reached out mentally and tugged at the power sustaining one of the beasts, but the power did not relent to him. Realizing he had never tried to strip away a god's blessing before Seth redoubled his focus and tore at the energy sustaining the closest nightmarish creature, ripping it away piece by piece, shred by shred. Suddenly the power within the creature diminished, his blessing from the god he served torn from him. Seemingly weakened, the creature lost its hold on the earth. Caught in the torrent around, it went rolling back across the courtyard away from Seth. Seth dared not let the beast pray again, and again he reached out with a tendril of his consciousness. This time grasping the power sustaining the creature’s life, he plucked it away and felt the power rush into him with exhilaration. As the goblin had done earlier, the beast dissipated into a cloud of ash, whirling through the air as Seth’s magical torrent continued.
Sustaining his defense was draining Seth’s power, and he was forced to pour the power he had just gained into keeping his guard up. The two remaining creatures clung to the ground clawing and scraping, trying to edge nearer to their foe, and slowly they were making progress. Seth raised his fingers and again lanced wicked lightning at one of the monsters. It erupted into a hail of gore caught up in the torrent of Seth’s defense. The entire courtyard was now covered in a pink haze from the blood carried aloft by the rushing power Seth issued from himself.
The remaining creature still clung just yards from Seth, head back, maw snapping into the magical wind and Seth felt his power reserve failing. Reaching out to sever the blessing pouring into the creature, Seth suddenly changed his mind to quickly experiment with his foe. Instead of tearing away the blessing, Seth siphoned off a small portion of the beast's life force and waited a moment to see it replenished. Seth siphoned more and, as before, the god blessing the creature replaced the energy that Seth had drained away. Seth continued to siphon gradually, stealing away more and more power till he could feel it roiling for escape inside him. Knowing he couldn’t break the blessing in a single blow, Seth then, as before, began to tear at bits and pieces of the creature’s swollen life force until eventually the blessing vanished, but the creature remained. Refocusing the torrent and reining in its power, Seth pinned the creature to the ground. In each of the beast’s clawed hands it still held its weapons. Keeping the hideous creature immobilized, Seth focused his energy upon the weapons. Like the coin he had once altered, Seth forced his will upon the metal of the blades causing them to twist and reform, and as each blade elongated it snaked around the wrists and arms of its bearer, binding itself to his body. Seth then drew the metal of the two blades together, melding them. Seth released the creature from the ground, sealing off the power within himself once again. The monstrous black creature rolled on the ground attempting to break the bonds rendering his arms and hands useless, but was unable. It struggled to its feet and ran back to the cage from whence it had come. Watching the creature go, Seth drew off more than half of its life to replenish his reserves. As the beast retreated, cheering erupted from the wall above as many shouted encouragement to Seth and mocked the creature’s retreat.
Seth reveled in his own glory, but the celebration was short lived. As his previous opponent was wheeled away, another cage appeared. Seth couldn’t imagine what new horror awaited within the cage, wondering how long they would continue this test, and what further they hoped to learn of his abilities.
The latest cage opened and Seth was momentarily relieved to see a small, humanlike creature issue forth from the cage. The small man was quite old, Seth imagined, as he hobbled more than walked and lean heavily upon a staff. He wore a russet brown robe with a deep cowl hiding his face, but issuing out from the cowl was a long white beard that tumbled nearly to the ground. All the form’s features remained hidden apart from his small gnarled hands with swollen, arthritic knuckles and age spots. Even the flesh upon the hands had an aged, sickly yellow hue to them. Seth was wondering what threat this old man could possibly be when, straightening his back as best he could, the figure lifted his staff to the sky. Shouting something, he brought the staff back down, slamming the butt of it into the ground. Seth felt a slight tremble, and then the earth beneath him began to buck and fold, splitting in two under his feet. Seth dove to the side just in time to recover and watch a huge chasm open up that was large enough to have swallowed him whole. As quickly as the chasm had opened, the soil seemed to roil forth from the edges and spread to again fill it in, and more impressive still, the grass itself mended back together revealing no trace that such a hole had ever existed. Seth knew now that he faced a mage of some sort.
Peering into his opponent’s life force, Seth witnessed another aura of a like he had never seen before. It was not a single color nor a single shade, yet it was not multicolored either. It appeared to change color from one to another with steady rhythm to the man's beating heart. Seth found it intriguing and wondered what god it was that the man-like creature worshipped. Knowing he wasn't likely to find out, however, Seth watched as the small withered man again raised his staff, and this time pointed the tip of it at the stone wall. Wiggling the fingers on his remaining hand, the small wizard gave some command and Seth stared as creatures, like some type of giant insect, took form upon the wall's surface. Growing in definition they eventually separated themselves from the confines of the stone. Each of the huge stone insects scurried down the wall carried by thousands of little legs, great pincers snapping at their heads. The insects pooled around the old, age-worn mage who pointed to Seth. Immediately the small beasts surged towards him in a mass of undulating stone bodies. Seth could end life, but it appeared this mage could create it. Seth thought that indeed this could be a prolonged battle if he wished it so.