The two robed men stood on either side of Haron. They both eased out of forming their portion of the Shape. Shape was the most well established use of Aura for mages; it was the precise manipulation of Aura into predetermined forms that could be learned and grasped efficiently. In this case, each man was handling a portion of a complex illusory shape that would have been fairly complex for one individual to use on their own. The robed figures, Rayod and Varsham, looked to Haron inquisitively.
“Care to tell us what that was about?”
“That was… someone that I have not seen in a long time.”
Rayod squinted at her. “What?”
“We have to go. Now.” Varsham interjected.
Haron nodded in agreement. “Thank you both for humouring me.” They all turned to leave, but stopped in mid step. They all stood perfectly still as they regarded in their path a man in his mid-twenties with short black hair and golden eyes; the Duke. A black cloak rested over a set of complex-looking plate armour adorned with silver latches and curios. Various symbols of the Empire and Sol. One inlaid holy symbol that was a sign of Imperial bloodline.Then a symbol for a follower of Sol. Finally, an insignia of Castezin itself or more accurately, his Castezin family that stretched back centuries. Many symbols, as if he was presenting himself on official business.
“This was a quicker and far more robust response than I anticipated.” Haron's hood fell back over her head as she bent at the waist into a low, exaggerated bow out of respect.
“What an honour to meet his Grace, Almos Castezin in the flesh.”
“What an unfortunate circumstance to meet the Master of the Moon Tower in my domain.” He responded with a sneer. The man stood at the other end of the sloped roof and began walking forward assuredly as if he were on a leisurely stroll. Haron rose, sweat on her brow. All three of them stepped back with each step the Duke took forward.
“You have a questionable memory, Your Grace. The Moon Tower has long been a thing of the past. You were this big when it was brought down.” Haron playfully laid her hand flat at the level of her waist.
“You may not remember me, but I knew your father quite well as a Patron of our Tower. He was a great man.” She offered placatingly.
The Duke retorted sardonically. “How nice that you came to repay my Father's kindness by kidnapping my people and attacking my men with intent to kill. Is there a reason Castezin is paying for your grudge against the Empire?” He probed.
“I truly have no grudge.” Haron claimed. Her frankness, and the truthfulness with which she spoke that sentence had him taken aback. He was dumbfounded and she could tell he was calculating all of the possibilities in his mind. Among them was the idea that she was simply very good at lying.
He gave up trying to figure it out on the spot. “You doing this in my territory without any grudge just infuriates me even more. You think this land is an easy target?”
“Yes.” She stated flatly.
“Haron!” Rayod scolded.
The woman sighed, tussling her wavy raven hair from beneath her hood.
“What? He is not going to let us go without a fight, regardless. There is no point in sugar coating things. The land of Castezin is a weak and easy target, Your Grace. It has been so simple to bring people here and hide and carry out my plans.” She stopped, letting out a small sigh.
“Or so I thought. Such strange interference from one the most unexpected sources, I must say.You have my congratulations. Fortune and Fate smile upon you, for they are the only things that saved this land that you are so proud of.”
“The girl?” The Duke asked pointedly. Haron did not let on even a whiff of what she was thinking to the Duke. They all reached the end of the rooftop they were on, while Almos had crossed and was ahead of them at the centre.
“That's enough!” Varsham shouted angrily.
“We've taken too long, you’ve told him too much and the only thing we can do now is remove the evidence. Maybe even the city itself. I’m sorry. I know that this is not how it was supposed to be done.” Varsham tore off his hood and his mask. A rather posh man with short golden hair and no eyebrows stood on the edge of the roof. He had lightly tanned skin and eyes of a muted burgundy colour. As his cloak billowed, it revealed a neatly pressed suit with a gold chain attached to his belt that hung from his pocket. He was wearing a purple vest over a black sleeved dress-shirt that had the two top buttons undone. He was likely in his early thirties.
Haron was distracted, her silver eyes wide with doubt. It was the environment, the atmosphere. Everything was right, but also just slightly off.
“No no no… Something's wrong!”
“You know that we have to.” Varsham argued.
Haron nodded. “I know! But. Something is still wrong. I need to find out.” She reached into her robe and procured a ring, placing it on her finger. Waving that hand that had the ring in a circle, a small hole in space itself appeared. She turned around and began to move her fingers. Almos could see the background of the inside was a bookshelf, and the hole was moving over it to inspect different book spines. She pulled one out, plopped down on the edge of the roof and began flipping through pages.
Rayod, the other figure, rested a hand on her shoulder and spoke hurriedly, with definite signs of frustration.
“You can get away. You know I need you to be in motion for the Blink conditions. Move!” With his other hand he was in the process of raising it with his thumb and pointer circled like a monocle.
“I can send you to the mountainside, so stop fooling around!”
“I swear I’m not fooling around. I genuinely think that escaping will do nothing, here. We need to understand what has gone wrong and solve it before anything else can happen.” Haron warned, not removing her eyes from her book, and not moving. She abruptly slammed her current book shut and threw it back into the hole. There was a clattering on the other side. She hurriedly searched for and grabbed another.
Varsham limbered up a bit, stepping forward to get in front of Haron. “No use, Brother. You know she’s usually right.”
“I know.” Rayod admitted.
“Doesn’t make it any less annoying.”
Varsham smiled widely and said through gritted teeth with a small purple vein popping out on his forehead.
“Tell me about it. I’m fuming right now.” As his brother said that, Rayod removed his hood as well and in contrast, discarded the whole robe. His body was toned. The arms, from his broad shoulders to his hands were well developed. He wore a white dress-shirt that had the cuffs unbuttoned and the sleeves folded up past his elbows. No vest. He was buttoned up. His plain dress pants, belt and black shoes carried no adornments, unlike Varsham’s gold chain and buckles.
“Level of destruction, Haron?” Rayod asked.
“Any. We are already in a rather bad spot and something is going on that I can not explain.” She responded absent-mindedly, throwing another book away.
“Any is my favourite. Let’s go, Ray.” Varsham finished limbering up and pointed very suddenly at the Duke. It was an odd gesture with two fingers and his thumb pointing, with two fingers curled into his palm.
“Somatic.” The Duke thought out loud.
“And verbal. Flare.” Varsham hinted happily.
As soon as the words left the mage’s mouth the hairs stood up on the back of the Duke’s neck, and arm, and head, and all over. The difference between the word being said and the result being displayed was a fraction of a second. A solid, electricity-like ray of roiling white and red and gold fire emanated from Varsham’s finger. The mage held his other hand near the pointing hand, but even with additional Aura being focused around himself to prevent it, his fingers started to singe and darken. The flare shot through the place where Almos was standing, through the roof and through the homes behind. The things that touched the solid heat were vaporised instantly, but even anything around it within ten or so yards burned up and began to melt. The flare curled down towards the earth at the end of its stream, decimating an entire building at its foundation, collapsing it into molten rock. Varsham let the Shape fade and rang out his hand. He was smoking a bit.
“Dammit! Still hurts after all this time.” He turned his attention to the warehouse below.
“What about the other witnesses?”
“Targeting the warehouse is not allowed.” Haron warned without lifting her head.
“Why!? No one’s gone in or out of the warehouse. No one’s done anything!” He motioned around the town.
“Where’s the response?”
Haron’s eyes widened, her finger was on a line of text in her most recent tome. “Almos is a Castezinan name that means Dreamer.” She looked up.
“It’s not just a name! Dream is in his bloodline!”
“Dammit.” Varsham uttered.
Rayod looked around. He walked to the edge of the hole made by Flare and looked down, then made a monocle with his fingers and searched around for miles.
“There’s no people in this entire city. It’s empty.” He remarked in horror.
Haron stood up suddenly and shouted. “We are within a Shape of Dream.” Aura could be formed into many different concepts and woven around those. Fire and ice. Water and electricity. Even complex concepts such as dreams could be Shaped from Aura. Reyod tried slapping himself, then pinched himself. He then turned and slapped Varsham hard across the face.
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“Ow! Watch it!” His brother warned, turning his cheek.
Haron observed with a solemn nod. “Nothing from the usual Logic for Dreaming works. That means the conditions for waking up are going to be something specific.” Haron explained. Each Shape always had a particular logic attached to it. Establishing Logic and Laws for the Shape was integral to using it. Shaping Aura spent an incredible amount of resources, and the amount that needed to be spent was proportionally related to how complex of a concept it was.
“What about outside? Are we already dead?” Rayod observed astutely.
“It’s been a couple minutes already.”
Varsham shook his head. “Dreams have time dilation. It’s an almost unassailable law. Just like fire being hot.”
Haron, nodded, standing up. She closed her little portal and dusted herself off. “Standard for Dream is roughly .1 seconds outside per minute inside. Typically, the user must be dreaming as well to enter this space, however… we have to operate under the assumption that I am wrong on both fronts. That we have both less time and that our friend the Duke or one of his Knights is moving towards our defenceless sleeping bodies on the outside.”
“Less than a second.” The Duke advised, landing on the roof behind them. They were roughly ten yards apart. Haron did not move. She observed carefully. The other two were preparing as Almos continued to explain.
“Outside of this dream I am in the process of lunging at one of you. I only need one. The rest can die.”
“What can we still try?” Varsham questioned.
“Pretty sure I killed him. Killing him won't work.”
“Maybe I dodged?” The Duke suggested with an amused smirk. He shook his head and looked at them sympathetically while shrugging.
“How does one wake up from a dream? Maybe you can't.” He suggested gravely.
“You are not that powerful.” Haron interjected.
“Creating a dream with no Laws and uncommon Logic is not possible for someone like you.”
“Specific Logic, however…” Rayod thought out loud.
“There must be a specific solution.” He outstretched his arms. The Duke was actually trying to prepare himself, so he was not wholly disconnected from the realm, or the condition, as he seemed to suggest. In Rayod’s mind he thought that it was possible the Duke dodged amidst the light and sound, so they needed a more certain demise. He clapped his hands together, hard. It made a loud sound, but the sound coincided with an even louder thunder-crack that sent a shockwave out from the Duke’s position on the other rooftop. For good measure he lifted one hand high while placing another in front of him sideways. For the mages, they could see a large, nearly invisible hand forming a wall in front of them. As Rayod brought his other hand down the building was crushed like a child kicking a sandcastle apart. The rubble bounced harmlessly off of the stationary hand.
Varsham paced around the ring, searching with both his eyes and his Aura sense. “Where are you!” He whipped his hand towards another building. A ball of fire launched from it like a catapult and when it landed the whole thing erupted and exploded. He found another spot and called out, sending another flare whipping through a whole block which became a flaming, molten mess as it passed through. It was a preview of what the mages could have done to the real city. It made the Duke wonder why they were bothering with all the cloak and dagger.
“Dangerous, dangerous individuals. Each of you. Somehow-” Almos levelled his gaze upon Haron. As he appeared behind them on the same roof. They all turned except Haron, who was already staring in that direction. She was half paying attention. Mostly thinking.
“-I find the one without any Aura to be the most threatening. “
“Wrong.” Ray did a quick flick with his hand, taking the legs out from under the duke.
“It’s him.” Varsham smiled, pointing as Rayod lifted his hand up, kicking the unbalanced duke and a whole lot of stone and dust up into the air. Rayod brought his hand back and jumped, bringing it forward like he was spiking a ball. Varsham whistled as Rayod’s Hand Shape made contact with the duke in air, reducing him to a red mist and sending the remains down crashing into the warehouse, collapsing it.
“Killing him doesn’t work.” Rayod nodded.
“Told you. Don’t care how fast he is, No one can escape Flare from that distance without some severe burns.” For good measure he casually held a sustained flare on the warehouse where the remains landed. The ground boiled and became molten while the building sunk into it.
“It’s a dream, so I’m not even reducing my Aura’s potency a bit by doing this over and over.”
“Safe to say the Duke doesn’t matter. He’s a non-factor. He isn’t even moving to kill us. With any effort.” Rayod reasoned.
Haron stood up. “That’s it.”
“What is?” Varsham looked at her.
“He isn’t trying to kill us, is he?”
“Now I know why you’re more dangerous.” The Duke sneered. He tried to grab Haron before she did what he thought she was going to do, but he growled in frustration as he felt another giant, invisible hand bat him away into another poor structure like a ping-pong ball. Without a second thought She let herself fall off the roof, making sure to land head first.
“We have to die or fall to end it. Time to kill two birds with one stone.” she waved at them. “You two need to follow promptly.”
Haron awoke. She was staring straight ahead. Her eyes caught a glimpse of Almos Castezin, then she blinked and he was already out of her line of sight. Rayod woke up right after her and raised his arms and opened his palms, ready to clap. He slammed his hands together where Castezin was, but the Duke had already moved; The shockwave from the giant hands colliding followed the Duke as he got ahead of it and exceeded it. Rayod’s hands were together in front of him. The Duke was in front of him as well an instant later. Before he could even separate his hands, like meat on a butcher's table his arms began to be sliced with clean cuts that he could not see nor felt. starting with his fingers at the joints, then the knuckles. His wrists separated, then his forearm, then his elbows and his bicep until all was decorated with thin red surgical lines right up to his shoulder. He fell backwards in stunned silence. Strangely, his arms barely showed the effects until he moved, at which point all of the red lines simply widened and the parts from his fingers to his shoulder unravelled and fell to the sloped roof before rolling off and onto the street below with a sickening splat. Castezin stood behind him and was in the process of preparing another swing that could have likely finished the whole group off easily once the fastest and most threatening fighter was effectively declawed.
Varsham acted quickly and pointed with two fingers. The Duke looked genuinely panicked, letting out a sharp gasp of air, and backed off to an exceptional distance in a zig-zag pattern to avoid being targeted dead centre. His golden eyes followed the positioning of the fingers so as to not be near where the fire mage was pointing; therefore he was able to see with great detail Varsham curl his fingers into a circle with his thumb and forefinger. He lifted it to his eyes. Almos screamed out in annoyance and rushed back, but he had made too much distance in order to be careful. The point of the dream was two-fold; occupy the enemy and gather information on their abilities. It was a case where knowing too much was a curse. There was not enough time for any words to be exchanged, but he saw the mage's lips curl up smugly at the corners as he touched Rayod in mid fall. It was momentum. Varsham centred his gaze through the Shapes lens between his fingers onto the hillside towards the nearest friendly Aura signature. Rayod disappeared before he could fall. Haron did not have time to wave, even though she wanted to. She went to fall forward as she was slapped on the back and sent into the same spot as Rayod. Varsham could no longer see the Duke. All he could do was try to lean forward and blink. As he did he felt a cold sharpness graze his neck enough to scar, but the mage moved a fraction of a second too soon for it to be a kill.
Rast landed beside his Lord, as if he was in mid jump as the dream, and subsequently the short exchange, took place. Almos pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. Before he could say anything, his Captain spoke.
“A hunting party with Chantelle, Jasmine and Eldrich is already moving to catch any stragglers, your Grace.”
“What tier of Shape is Flare, Rast?” The Duke asked.
By the way the question was posed, the Knight knew his lord already had the answer. But he responded anyway.
“Close to the highest. It requires at least the tenth Ring of Aura, to my knowledge.”
The Duke threw his head back and stared up at the moon. “The Moon Tower is coming back to haunt me, it seems. The disgraced and silenced Tower Master and a girl with silver eyes. Could they be related?”
Rast nodded, but it was another question that needed no answer.
“No.” The Duke decided. He moved to walk off the edge of the roof, stopping just before the edge.
“Too much fear and anger and sadness from her. It's not a guess to say that the girl was trying to stop the Master's plan. But why? And how?” He wondered.
Rast finally found a question his master did not yet have an answer to. “There's too much precise info in play for all matters involved to just be coincidences. I’d call it impossible, in fact. They’re related somehow. I stake my title.”
Castezin waved his hand before leaving. “We will find out. Tell our good doctor to Feed all those who were involved with sleeping medicine. When he declines, make sure he understands it is important to the safety of all within these walls. Including his daughter.””
“Yes, your Grace.” Rast Saluted and watched Almos disappear into the night. He turned to look towards the mountainside, squinting. There was a light to the south.
“Daybreak? In the south?” It made no sense, so it must have been another Shape. He felt as much when he released his senses. When he felt the familiar enough Aura and what class of person it likely belonged to, Rast spat on the roof.