Naereni

I never thought the sun could be angry. Throughout my life, the sun was the only bright thing in my life. As a child, I’d always stuck to the shadows, avoiding the enlightening brush of sunlight. Sunlight meant you were spotted, the dark protections of alleyway corners and broken buildings stripped from you. It meant you became a target of the bigger children who would take all your food from your pockets and leave you hungry. And if you were especially unlucky, an adult who wanted an easy meal from whatever you had on you.

But even when the sunlight touched my skin, it was warm and inviting. The sun was a naive dot in the sky, spreading its light over everything in a healthy yellow smile. The sun didn’t know that my gut clenched in hunger, or that I hadn’t washed in months. It continued to blissfully believe in the light, trying to entice me into its embrace.

The sun was never angry. Never deceitful; just ignorant.

Mardeth's aura was like a constricting serpent that wrapped around your soul, squeezing tighter and tighter in a gradual, deathly embrace as it dripped venom into your ears. The poison it whispered into your mind was just as deadly as the tightening weave it held around your body; telling you you were nothing. That you were lesser. That this was your inevitable fate; to slither on the ground and eat the dirt as you groveled.

But Toren’s intent blazed like a furious star, waves of power radiating off of him in a palpable rhythm. It was like the beating of the world’s deepest drum, the reverberations seeming to travel through the very ground I lay on. The power that he cast wasn’t ignorant like the sun, but neither was it warm and inviting. It was a burning thing that barely resisted the urge to sear. Its purpose was to burn everything away, after all. Toren’s aura made me want to huddle and close my eyes for fear of blinding myself. This wasn’t a person; it was a force. You couldn’t reason with a force. You couldn’t steal from a force. You just hoped it would not burn you for daring to witness it.

I can’t tell who is stronger between them, part of me thought. Their strength is so far above mine that I can’t even gauge it anymore.

When submerged beneath the water, one couldn’t tell if it was a lake or a sea.

Karsien watched from where he lay, green lines stretching along his neck and shoulders from where the vicar had grasped his throat. He coughed weakly as Toren slowly advanced, a smirk on his scarred features. Hofal groaned next to me on the floor, his face a mask of pain. Sevren Denoir slowly pulled himself to his feet as Caera’s soulfire sputtered out, her scarlet gaze wild and uncomprehending as it roamed over Toren’s form. She moved out of the way as Toren stepped past her, watching his back.

“I heard you had a visit from Varadoth, little mage,” Mardeth said, his eyes snapping to where the remnants of his decimated spell had eaten into the floor. I heard the floor creak and groan beneath me, that decay chewing through the wooden floorboards greedily. “That tittering old fool thought you were someone worth talking to. Worth debating. But he was wrong,” the vicar said with slime, his eyes leering at all of us. ”You aren’t worth talking to. You’re worth taking from.”

I froze in fear again as Mardeth’s intent blanketed me. I felt my shattered leg shift, the agony coming once again. I cried out in pain, but just as quickly the glaring sunlight of Toren’s aura blanketed me against the constricting serpent.

I knew that Toren was strong. Frightfully so. But never had I imagined this.

Toren looked from the stream of energy sifting from the basilisk blood crystal, tracing the connection up to the horn grafted on Mardeth’s forehead. Those burning eyes, which seemed to peer too deep, widened in even further alarm. “That’s what you’ve been planning,” he breathed, drawing the saber at his side and flourishing it once. “To Integrate; to ascend past the white core.” He shifted his stance. “I won’t let you.”

“There are legends, even in the depths of the Doctrination. Of what happens when one’s core is pushed too far. Of when it feels the deepest pain,” Mardeth mocked, that sickly grin plastered on his face. “I will be of the Sovereigns themselves after tonight, little mage. And you will bear witness.”

For the barest heartbeat, the room held its breath as Mardeth’s sickly promise oozed through the air like cloying rot. I felt as the tension inched closer and closer to the event horizon, power lashing around the two in waves.

And then the battle began. Toren disappeared in a blur as he impacted Mardeth, the two disappearing further into the dilapidated estate. Bursts of plasma and buzzing sound made the entire building rattle as spells went off. Green splashed somewhere in the distance as roaring thunder cracked across the earth, making the ground shudder. Throughout it all, I could hear Mardeth’s demented laughter.

The floor around the basilisk blood crystal groaned as the titans fought, then cracked. And it gave way to the floors far beneath, the massive crystal tumbling into the depths below.

We… we need to destroy that crystal, some part of me that was still awake through the pain thought. Can’t let it go.

Hofal groaned as he pulled himself to his feet, his body shaking even more than mine. He was bruised all over, and from how he held his left arm, I was sure it was broken.

I moaned in pain as he wrapped an arm under mine, forcing me to balance on my good leg. I looked down blearily, noting that I didn’t have any bone protruding from my calf where I felt the break, though there was a horrible bruise peeking through the torn fabric.

I called on my magic one more time, my core lurching as I squeezed it for the last drops I had left. A long rod of ice coalesced around my foot, bracing itself against the edge like a splint.

Hofal pulled me toward the hole where the red crystal had tumbled down, mumbling slightly to himself. “Need to destroy it,” I heard him say through bloodied lips. “Bring down this horrible place.”

The floor rattled again as spellfire sounded throughout the estate. Hofal tumbled forward, landing with a grunt and bringing me with him. I managed to cushion my face with my forearms, the barest trace of my instincts remaining. The hole wasn’t far away, and I could see the others trying to inch their way closer to it as well.

Toren smashed through a nearby wall back-first, rolling over his shoulder once before adjusting his balance with supernatural precision. The fingers of his left hand–the one that wasn’t clutching his red saber–dug furrows into the wood as he slid backward, burning tracks left behind on the wood from the soles of his feet. He was bleeding from a wound on his chest where his protective spell had shattered, but I watched in real-time as it healed in washes of purple and orange light.

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His saber flashed, sending arcs of red plasma at oncoming tendrils of green mana. I could swear we made eye contact as his mana flared, his burning orange pupils seeing to my depths.

Then he blurred forward again in a burst of fire and splintering wood, darting back into the dark abyss which he’d been thrown from.

They’ll bring this entire building down on our heads, I realized, my thoughts coming more quickly as I wrenched myself to my feet. When I put weight on my splinted leg, I nearly buckled, but Hofal was there to steady me.

“We… we need to destroy that crystal,” I said as I finally loped to the gap in the floor. A splash of moonlight streamed through the broken ceiling, casting the hole in light. Yet darkness nearly as deep as Mardeth’s aura opened before me as I looked down. I couldn’t see the dot of the crystal so far below, but there was a snaking line of mana that threaded from it to Mardeth that I could follow.

Caera was holding Sevren underneath the arm, the black fire having diminished from her sword. She swallowed as the Joan estate rumbled again, dust falling from the ceiling. “I… I might be able to break it,” she said, holding her sword out. “It’s made of the same material. It will work.”

Sevren opened his mouth to say something, but his sister simply pushed him forward. Karsien slowly limped his way to the edge, peering down. His mask and bandana were long gone, and the green splotches where Mardeth had gripped his throat…

They’d spread further along his body. In fact, I could see as more and more of his body was being overcome by the green venom.

In that instant, thoughts of the battle raging around us and the imminent burning of all I knew faded away. If Karsien didn’t get treatment–

I blinked, opening my mouth to speak.

And Mardeth was suddenly there, hovering in front of us. We all froze as his aura hit us again, the jerk in our heartbeats making us tremble. He grinned wickedly, raising a palm and congregating energy. “I’ll wipe you off the–”

Toren’s fist crashed against Mardeth’s face with a thunderous crack, blowing the vicar back toward the gate of the estate. The burning mage settled down, looking back at us. His clothes were already in tatters, and I spotted several wounds of his streak over with that orange-purple light. A wash of emotions flashed in those eyes of his. His bitter anger; the fury that drove him. The resolve that made him take each next step. And the pain at seeing us all in such broken states.

He nodded solemnly, and then he was off again, zipping toward the exit of the estate.

I watched him go, knowing the part I needed to play in this battle. The crystal down below was still feeding Mardeth energy. Making him stronger.

“I… I can find a way to stop that energy,” Sevren said. “Without setting it off to explode. We just need to–”

Sevren’s head turned to the side as he sensed something. A few seconds later, I felt it too.

My blood went cold. The vicars, I thought with horror. The vicars that were dancing around the city. They’re coming here!

“Go down there, Highlord Denoir,” Karsien said, his voice raw and altered by the damage to his throat. “Find a way to destroy that crystal. We’ll hold them off for you.”

Sevren visibly hesitated, his eyes darting between the hole and the upcoming battle. He appeared to recognize where his talents were truly needed. What this fight required of him.

“I’m not Highlord yet,” Sevren said, his voice choked as he prepared to step off the ledge and into the abyss.

“You should be,” Karsien said, turning to face the incoming mana signatures. Mist slowly, painfully, began to seep from his clothes. I could tell the action pained him deeply. “If more highbloods were like you, Alacrya would be a paradise.”

Hofal released my arm, shuffling forward to stand beside Karsien. He held his axe loosely in his hand. “I ran from the Doctrination for too long,” he said shakily, pulling out a cigar. “Not anymore.”

They’re going to die if they try to hold off all those mages, I thought, swallowing. We… we’re all going to die.

I took a step forward, standing aside my mentors and protectors. I faced the exit of the estate, watching as vicars slowly loped forward like rabid dogs sensing blood.

“You know, if I knew I was going to die today,” I said, going for one last quip, “I would have replaced all of Wade’s personal library with picture books filled with me,” I said, my voice choking slightly as I painfully prepared to fight. I couldn’t even summon any mana to strengthen my body anymore.

Sevren gave the Rat an acknowledging nod before he jumped down the hole. Caera bowed slightly to the three of us, a clench in her jaw before she followed suit.

We only needed to mask this entrance. Block anyone else from getting past us.

What would Wade think when this was all over, I wondered? As I prepared to settle myself down, I realized I did have one true regret.

I remembered when I’d first met Wade. He’d lived in East Fiachra when he was young, just like me. When my father had died, I’d been cast out onto the streets, trying to blend into the local gangs of orphaned children, and further avoid the adults who actually ran those gangs from the shadows. Every day had been a fight for survival. A battle to see if I could feed myself the next morning.

But there was one day. One day when I tried to grab the purse from a young woman, a boy stopped me. I’d tried to run, but considering how little food I’d had that day, I’d simply tripped, faceplanting in the dirt.

The boy separated from his mom–whom I’d failed to rob–and instead of whipping me as the other kids always did, he gave me the apples he’d just bought. They were the brightest apples I’d ever seen, and I hadn’t even needed to steal them.

And I hadn’t even managed to get the boy’s name. All I remembered was his curly brown hair and lopsided spectacles.

I wish I’d told him, I thought. He probably doesn’t remember it, though, I thought a bit sadly. It likely wasn’t a big deal for him. But for me…

“You aren’t going to die,” a gruff voice said from beside me. Hofal revved his mana, what bare reserves he had remaining gravitating to the surface. He lit the cigar in his hand with a lighter, taking a long pull. He exhaled; a weight that had always been on his shoulders releasing in tune.

“Now, I don’t know about you,” I said, forcing a smirk as tears streaked down my dirty face. “But those vicars have a lot of knives, maces, spells, and things that generally don’t agree with our health. And they look more pissed than Wade was that one time I turned all his books upside down.”

Hofal offered Karsien the cigar, chuckling slightly at my joke as he did so. My mentor took it, taking a long, deep drag. When he exhaled, it almost looked like the mist I was so familiar with.

Then he turned to look at me. “That’s not what he meant, Naereni,” he said, almost softly.

I had barely a second to think before Hofal pushed me backward. I shouted in surprise as I toppled into the gaping hole, my balance unsteady due to my broken leg. In vain, I tried to grab onto his hand as I tumbled down, the dark swallowing me. High overhead, I saw a clear vision of the moon as it mocked me.

“Break this castle, Naereni,” I heard Hofal say as his earth spell closed the hole above me. “Break it to its uttermost stones.”