“No!” yelled Priest Oxi as the skull hurtled through the air towards the red orb.

Elder Rann dove in front of the orb, barely knocking the skull off its path. I smiled, having confirmed that they would try to defend the orb, and that it was about as fragile as it looked. I grabbed a rock with magic hands and slung it at the orb.

Elder Sunki had gotten off his feet too, but he wasn’t coming any closer. Instead, he raised his hand and a red beam of light extended out of it. The red beam knocked the rock away, leaving burn marks on its surface. I ran towards the orb, preparing more magic while wielding a copper dagger. Priest Oxi furrowed his droopy, wrinkly brows, and stepped forward with a wooden staff.

I launched a fireball at the red orb, but another beam of red light stretched out from elder Sunki’s hand and extinguished the flame. I frowned, and thrust the copper dagger towards Priest Oxi. Oxi parried the dagger with his staff, avoiding the edge and aiming for the handle and my hand, instead. I retracted the dagger and held it in a reverse-grip. I then stabbed it at the elder man’s chest. Oxi hurriedly moved his staff, moving it from side to side as rapidly as he could. We were stabbing and blocking in a rhythm now; stab, block, stab, block, left, right, back, forth.

I dug my heels in, crouched down low, and leaned into a thrust aimed at the priest’s legs. The flustered old man barely managed to dodge my attack by jumping backwards. He was pretty agile, for a wrinkly old man. I caught something in the corner of my eye and jumped back, too. A red ray of magic whooshed in front of me, singing the earth.

Elder Rann stood to my left with his hands outstretched. He’d been watching carefully when I stuck close to the old priest, but seeing the priest jump back had tempted him to get involved at last. Elder Sunki was still on the other side of the red orb, and he didn’t seem to want to move to a better position either.

“How much of what you told us was true, anyway?” I asked as I caught my breath and thought of a plan.

“What do you mean, great one?” said Priest Oxi.

“Still calling me that even though we’re clearly enemies?” I said.

“We do not have to be enemies, great one,” he said.

“Yeah, well, that isn’t up to you, now is it,” I said. “I mean, okay, it sort of is up to you, but I doubt you’re going to stop working for the God of Evil just because I said so.” They didn’t respond. I took that as a yes. “See, that dummy in the red star hates me. Something about foiling his plan to sacrifice myself to him. Oh, and I killed a couple of his servants. Really, nothing worth mentioning. I think he’s just jealous of my shoes. I mean look at these. Genuine monster leather moccasins, baby!” I chuckled but nobody else was amused.

“We do not know what you are talking about, great one,” said elder Rann. “We have never heard of a God of Evil. We serve only the spirits of our ancestors.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Really? Then I suppose it’s just a coincidence that your strange secret magic is the same shade of red as the red star?”

“Our magic was passed down to us by our ancestors,” said Priest Oxi. “We are the leaders of the three original tribes of Bek Tepe. I apologize for not telling you about our ritual, or about our ritual magic, but I can assure you, there are no evil gods involved.”

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I chuckled. “Really? Then what is this ritual supposed to accomplish?”

“We are preparing the spectacle that will be called on the pit tonight,” said elder Rann. “Tendrils of magic and fire will dance around the elfin relics. We will dance, into the night, eat and drink, and make merry until the morning!”

Make merry until the morning? Who says that? I joked to myself and smiled. “And what about you, elder Sunki?”

The white bearded old man appeared startled when I addressed him. He stammered, which was unlike his boisterous personality, although he’d been shy around me before. “It is as priest Oxi and elder Rann have said. We are merely preparing the ritual.”

“Then do you mind if I inspect this floating red orb?” I said as I took a step forward.

Priest Oxi pointed his staff, elder Rann prepared a length of red magic, and elder Sunki finally ran in front of the red orb.

“Oh?” I said. “But I promise I won’t break it.”

“It is regrettable,” said priest Oxi, “but you have already attempted to destroy it. We cannot trust you.”

I looked down the length of Oxi’s staff and smirked. “You don’t trust me? Wasn’t I supposed to be your great and venerable elf? You still haven’t answered my question. Was everything you told us a lie?”

“No, great one,” said the priest, “we would never lie to you.”

I laughed. “Sure, whatever you say. Honestly, I might have believed it was all one big misunderstanding if it wasn’t for one thing.” I narrowed my eyes. “There is no way you aren’t up to something big after you kidnapped Noel!”

A sizzling sound came out of the orb. The three old men turned their heads towards the orb, just as I raced forward with my copper dagger. Priest Oxi turned around just as I swung my at him, but instead of pressing him backwards like I had before, I pressed him to the side instead. I launched fireballs at both elders Rann and Sunki, which they both quickly dodged. I ran closer to the orb, which was still emitting loud sizzling sounds.

“What are you doing?” shouted elder Rann as he tried to approach the orb. I chucked a rock towards him, which he caught with his red magic.

“Me?” I said. “I’m not doing anything.” I swung my dagger at priest Oxi again, who deflected it with his staff, again. “Oh, I guess you could call it a ritual. A ritual whooping!”

I threw my dagger at Oxi, forcing him to bring his staff up to deflect it. I then lunged forward and grabbed his wooden staff. I set the staff on fire, which made the priest let go of it, and I chucked the flaming piece of wood at elder Rann with my magic hands. Elder Rann tried to grab the flaming stick with his red magic, but I chucked another rock at the side of his head, which forced him to jump to the side. He fell to the floor, where I used a timely bit of earth elemental magic to make some rocks appear under his body, badly bruising him. He let out a loud scream as I raced towards the orb.

Elder Sunki had barely reacted to my advance. The red orb behind him was still sizzling, and I could tell the sound was unsettling the white haired old man. Sweat was pouring profusely down his bald head, and his confident eyes were almost quivering as I approached. I was almost right in front of him when he belted out a large yell.

A wave of red magic burst out of his body, rolling towards me like a tsunami. My eyes widened. I was too close. The magic was right in front of me. I remembered what happened to the rock that elder Rann had grabbed with this red energy, and realized I’d be badly scorched if I tried to block the magic with my arms. I wasn’t sure if any type of magic could help me block the wave of magic itself.

As the wave of red magic approached, I cut the magic hand I’d been using to smack the red orb, which was the source of the sizzling sound, and focused on my own body. I took a deep breath, inwardly berating myself for coming this close to elder Sunki instead of knocking him aside from a distance.

I held my breath and made the white haired, bald headed, and rambunctious elder Sunki, freeze in his awkward outstretched pose. The wave of red magic was abruptly cut off, as even the sweat on Sunki’s bald head stilled.