Delver Magic: Book 06 - Pure Choice (50 page)

He once believed he could rise
above all things, that there was no force in the land that could match his
understanding of the ebony energy. He was above it all, an individual who broke
the shackles of every limitation.

He didn't believe it was possible
he could be defeated, but he was. To make the failure even more bitter, he had
lost to a pathetic delver and he couldn't understand how.

Ryson did not care about the
sorcerer's confusion. Ansas didn't deserve answers, he didn't deserve anything,
save for swift retribution.

"I should kill you right
now," Ryson snarled, "You deserve to die."

The delver pulled both war blades
from the sheaths at his hips. The slightly curved blades were much shorter than
the Sword of Decree, but they were also much sharper. With a swift swing, Ryson
could remove the sorcerer's head with one strike.

Ansas cowered. Despite the pain
erupting from each movement, he covered his head with his arms and tried to
push himself away with short thrusts of his legs. He shrieked with each
movement, but the threat of the war blades kept him retreating.

It was a laughable attempt. Ryson
danced across the ground with barely an effort. He remained in constant
striking distance as he considered the best way to end the sorcerer's life. He
could slice his throat or pierce his heart. He could even slit open Ansas'
belly and watch the sorcerer's organs spill out over the barren ground.

Ryson knew the war blades could
kill. He had used them to kill before. He had once decimated an army of shags
to protect the algors in the Lacobian
Desert. He didn't want to kill
those shags, certainly not like he wanted to end Ansas' miserable existence,
but he had no real choice.

No choice.

Ryson suddenly remembered arguing
with Sy about killing the river rogues. He had said he wouldn't be a part of it
because he felt there was a choice. Was that still his line in the sand? That
one question held his hands from delivering the death strike. Did he have a
choice at that moment? Did he
ever
have a choice?

Ansas didn't believe in the
struggle between good and evil, but Ryson did. He had been placed in so many
struggles, stood before so many enemies, but he always tried to hold to decency...
and mercy. He thought of the goblins he could have killed, but never did...
river rogues and other monsters as well. Then, he thought of the shags he
didn't want to kill, but did so anyway. He thought he had to. It was an empty
excuse. That thought opened a hole in his soul, a hole he didn't want to
expand.

It seemed he had so little control
over what happened to him. He didn't ask for Ansas to enter his life, but the
sorcerer did so anyway. He didn't want to face river rogues and goblins, but
they were thrust at him regardless. Struggling for control against what fate
threw at him was futile. The only thing he could really control were the
decisions he made, such as the one he faced at that very moment.

He wanted to kill Ansas, to exact
revenge for everything the sorcerer had done to him... and to Linda. Ansas
deserved to die, but in the light of truth, Ryson knew that the sorcerer was no
longer a threat.

With that realization, the delver
understood what that moment was about. It wasn't about revenge, or even
justice. It wasn't even about what Ansas deserved. It was about what Ryson was
willing to do. The delver had his beliefs; beliefs that guided him down every
path of his life. If they meant anything, he would have to hold onto them, even
when he didn't want to. He wouldn't abandon those beliefs in the face of a
hollow sorcerer who believed in nothing more than his own superiority. Ansas'
road led to emptiness, but the delver's beliefs, if he held to them, would
guide him to much more.

The decision was no longer
difficult. Ryson would leave Ansas to his fate and the delver would continue to
choose his own path. As he sheathed the war blades and turned away, he felt the
hole in his soul being filled, the guilt removed.

As if in response to the delver's
decision, the dark oval began to swirl faster. The shadows of its inner core
began to shimmer and a ghostly presence stepped from out of the shadowed portal
and onto the dark plateau.

Enin recognized the slink ghoul
immediately.

"Baannat? What do you have to
do with this?"

"Nothing... and
everything."

Baannat's form was a mix of the
material and immaterial. The slink ghoul did not completely exist on a physical
plane. The cat-like features of his face were clear to all those that looked
upon him, but they did not take solid form. In a previous battle with Enin and
the delver, Baannat had cheated death and created a new realm. The ghoul was
the ruler of a damned existence, and he arrived to claim his prize.

Ryson found the monster's
appearance beyond troubling.

"How did he get here?"
The delver glanced toward Enin as he looked for an explanation. "I thought
he couldn't open portals to this realm."

"He can't, and he
didn't." Enin explained. "Ansas ultimately did this all to himself.
He brought Baannat's magic into this existence and that's what allowed the
portal to open."

"So you understand,"
Baannat nodded to the wizard. "I am impressed."

"It was Dzeb who saw it
first," the wizard acknowledged. "The energy inside of Ansas wasn't
ebony magic, it wasn't pure, it wasn't even energy of this existence. His
misguided quest for purity and perfection led him to the strands of energy that
actually defied existence."

"Strands from my realm,"
Baannat hissed.

"Apparently so," Enin
agreed. "Ansas believed himself superior to all things. He shut out the
truth, and you replaced his ebony magic with the energy of your shadowed
existence."

"Me? Do not place the blame
where it does not belong. I could not have done so by myself. You know that. He
put the wheels in motion. He kept reaching for more, and in doing so, he kept
opening windows to my domain. He fed himself with pride, and his conceit led
him beyond the truth. He ignored every sign, came up with an abundance of
justifications for what he disregarded. He convinced himself of his own
greatness even as I let him feed on the shadows of empty magic."

"Empty magic?" Ryson
questioned. "That's not possible. He was able to fly."

"Are you suddenly an expert
on magic, delver?" Baannat chided. "Ansas was always a powerful
sorcerer with black magic. He could pull ebony energy from the very air to
assist him in certain spells, but the magic at his core was the source of his
power. When it began to dwindle from his use, it was replaced with magic that
would not truly serve him as he wished. The spells he used to capture and fight
the elves of Dark Spruce was very near the last of his own ebony energy. The
energy within him after that was mostly from a hollow existence, my realm. In
some ways, he could use it to manipulate the dark realm, but it did not
completely bend to his will as he imagined. The magic also appeared to be
incapable of harming you in any significant way. Shame."

"The magic of emptiness can
harm no soul touched by Godson," Dzeb replied serenely.

The slink ghoul snarled at the
comment, but could not argue the contention.

"What about the magic placed
in the spell casters he tried to strengthen?" Enin wondered aloud.

"A combination of his magic
and mine; a small remnant of his original energy that allowed those fools to tap
deeper into their own cores and kept them all connected. It gave them greater
power, but it was never truly theirs to control. They thought they were
stronger, and in some ways they were, but not where it really mattered."

"So that's why I was unable
to grasp the magic," Jure added. "It was tainted by energy from your
realm. And that's why we were unable to trace it back to you... because there
was enough of Ansas' black magic to conceal its source. The spells were linked
back to the sorcerer, but the magic of your realm was always hidden
underneath."

"But how did that portal open
for him to get here?" Ryson demanded. "I thought he was trapped in
his own realm."

"Is it so difficult for you
to understand, delver? The sorcerer brought my magic into this realm. That
allows for a door to be opened... only temporarily, but I can enter this realm
to take what is rightfully mine. The sorcerer belongs to me now. It was his
actions that led to this. He tried to kill you with magic that could not touch
you," Baannat scornfully but reluctantly admitted. "When the spell
failed to kill you, the game was over."

Ryson had nothing but disdain for
the sorcerer, but he also did not trust the slink ghoul.

"Is that what this all was?
Some kind of game to you?"

"Everything is a game to me
now."

"What in Godson does that
mean?"

The slink ghoul sneered at the
delver.

"It means I can only do so
much," Baannat growled. "There was a time I could have plucked Ansas
from his own sanctuary and used him as I wished, but that is no longer possible.
My participation is limited, so why should it be anything more than a game? The
sorcerer placed himself above all things. He believed he was evolving into a
god, he will discover he has not."

"And where does this all
ultimately lead?" Enin asked.

"I intend to reclaim what is
mine. The energy he fed upon belongs to my realm, and now so does he. I was
hoping the delver would kill him. That would have made things easier. Another
shame. What happens now is not his destiny... or the result of my intervention.
It was his
choice
. You can not argue
with me, can you Enin? You above all understand. You know why my realm was
created. There was a higher purpose."

"Yes, that purpose was to
hold abominations like yourself. It was never meant to feed the ignorant
desires of misguided individuals."

"How it is used is not up to
you... or me. The sorcerer became obsessed with proving his own superiority. He
ignored the truth, blinded himself to it and then tried to influence others to
accept his narrow views on ascension and superiority. He willingly reached into
my realm and took what he should have never touched. Now he will pay the price.
This is no surprise."

"The only surprise is that
you're not calling me brother."
"We are no longer brothers."

"We never were," Enin
stated flatly.

Baannat, unwilling to argue his
connection to the wizard, dismissed the conversation. The slink ghoul pointed
to the spell casters that remained unconscious. They did not wake, but the
three previous allies to Ansas rose to their feet. Moving not by their own will
but by the influence of the ghoul, they took hold of the sorcerer.

Ansas screamed when they picked
him up. He struggled against them, but each thrash of resistance reminded him
of his broken bones. He could not break free, and as he saw he was brought to
the very maw of the portal, his eyes widened in absolute terror.

"Why was it all taken from
me?!" Ansas shrieked..

"Why? You think it was
yours?! You were wrong."

The three spell casters tossed
Ansas into the portal and then immediately collapsed, their assistance no
longer needed by the slink ghoul. Neltus, Rivira, and Gnafil crumpled back into
unconscious heaps.

Ansas shrieked once more as he
entered the portal. His body, however, went limp as it passed through the
shadowy mass and ended up back on the barren plateau. There was no movement,
barely a sign of life.

Ryson moved carefully to the prone
form. He checked Ansas over quickly.

"He's still alive."

"That's why I would have
preferred it if you killed him," Baannat snarled. "This makes it so
much more complicated. His body can't exist in my realm, but I am unable to
kill him. But in the end, it is irrelevant. He is still mine and I will not
wait."

"So he's just going to stay
here... alive... forever?" the delver asked.

"His true being is already in
my realm. That is nothing but his shell. Nothing can reach it here and the
small amount of magic still in his body will probably keep him alive for
eons."

"What about the others?"

"They were his lackeys not
mine. What do I care what happens to them? Do with them what you wish. There is
no reason for me to stay. The sorcerer's spirit is waiting for me and I have so
many things to show him."

Baannat released a cackle
unsettling for them all to hear and then disappeared through the portal. The
dark gray mass, however, lingered in its place.

Unwilling to allow the portal to
remain—to allow Baannat an open invitation to enter the dark realm in the
future—Ryson knew he had to destroy it. He could not cast a spell to disperse
the magic, but he also knew the energy that created the rift belonged in
Baannat's realm. It was an echo of emptiness and the delver intended to fill it
with his own purpose.

Stepping within arm's reach of the
swirling, pulsating oval, Ryson pulled the Sword of Decree from the sheath
across his back. Though exposed, the blade did not radiate with great
brilliance, for it only reflected the natural light of the delver's home, not
the hostile glow from the dark realm's fire pits. While a portion of the
blade's enchantment might have been somewhat muted, the weapon still revealed a
clear direction to the delver, one he already intended on following.

With one great swing, he sliced
the dark mass open. The portal dissolved in a flash of bitter darkness as all
of the hollow magic trapped within the oval collapsed back into Baannat's
realm.

In that same instant, the gray
that enveloped the skies of the dark realm dissipated, and for the first time,
the light of stars filled the heavens. Ryson's blade blazed with new brilliance
and the radiance filled the shadows of the plateau.