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Mira slammed the door shut and cast a [Lock] spell on it. She turned to see a pair of the Kitchen’s scullery golems at the Conjurer’s Cornucopia Coffer, struggling ineffectively to utilize the depleted device to duplicate some vegetables.
The little golems looked to her in confusion, Mira bit her lip, and hoping for one last bit of good luck to break in her favor, spoke to them.
“I need you two to lift that coffer and put it into that cart.” Mira crossed her fingers as the golems processed her words. Mira started to charge up her staff when the scullery bots hesitated, anticipating they might charge, but they finally moved…and picked up the box and put it into the cart.
“Yes! Now, lift the Staff and put it on top. I’ll help too.” Mira said, beaming at the helpful bots. Soon they had lifted and carefully positioned the heavy artifact to sit precariously across the top of the cart.
“Excellent. Now follow me, my new minions. We must take this booty to my new ship. Let’s go!” Mira said excitedly. This was what she relished; creative solutions to pull off difficult capers. She carefully opened the door leading to the warehouse. The way seemed to be clear. She beckoned the others to follow her closely and she marched out quickly and with purpose.
The massive hallway very quickly led the small troop back to the central warehouse. The Air Docks were in sight with Mira’s final prize, the sky clipper! Mira’s stomach dropped as she noticed an extra ship moored at the dock. This one was a mere fifth the size of the large Air Galleon, more of a sleek personal yacht. Worse yet, an old bald man with a magnificent white beard was gesturing at the mooring lines. His spell magically tied the ship in place using the large ropes along the dock.
"Damn it, Glaucus is already back!” Mira whispered. He was directly in line with their only path to escape and when he turned, he would certainly see them. Mira was no slouch in magic dueling, but she always preferred indirect conflict. Unfortunately, she had no way past Glaucus other than direct confrontation.
Mira could see with her sight that the mage had protective enchantments. The glowing sigils were ready to counter different types of hostile magic. The earlier reminder of seeing the Ilbarse Duelists in action gave Mira a rough tactic that might work, something a Mage might not be prepared to counter. Speed, surprise, and unconventional attacks would have to be enough.
She quickly pulled her tiny Vorpal knife and silently built the glyph form to launch it with tremendous speed and accuracy at Glaucus. Not all spells required vocalization. This was one of them. The tiny blade shot out. The magic force expended; it was now a mundane dart on a ballistic trajectory, straight toward the back of Glaucus’s head.
Mira’s prepared exclamation of victory caught in her throat as the knife passed through the man’s head and out the other side. The knife didn’t hit, it didn’t draw blood. The man didn’t even react. It hadn’t made any apparent contact, let alone harm.
“Ho! Ho! I knew you would be an opportunist, but so very ruthless as well. I hadn’t expected that!” An ancient voice seemed to crow in her ear.
Mira whirled but she didn’t see him, he was using illusions and invisibility. She closed her eyes focusing only on her mage sight. There! A tangle in the Faen threads, both his Qi and Akasic fetters were well masked, but the Fae stuck to him like glue. Mira summoned her Binding Rod and cast its most powerful spell.
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“[Basilisk’s Coil]!”
The ray of sickly green-hued light shot toward where she knew Glaucus was invisibly hiding. As the bolt approached him, he slammed his staff down and a ball of crackling void energy intercepted the ray, absorbing it. Glaucus was unharmed, but at least his invisibility was broken.
“A formidable offense, thief. Now let us see how good your defense is.” He said.
[Pandemonium]!” Glaucus’s face shone with glee as he unleashed his powerful offensive spell.
All the debris from the earlier battles, the shelves, the crates, the clay golems, and Tiamat were swept up in a maelstrom of swirling chaos. Mira hunkered down triggering a [Shield] from her Spell-shard arsenal. Mira swore.
“Tiamat!” She screamed.
Mira didn’t have a spell prepared to counter this area-of-effect storm. Her cloak and shield spell knocked away the flying debris while she quickly formed an expanding sigil ring with a [Dispel Magic] void rune inscribed within its ring. She charged the expansion and set it loose. The charm expanded like a ripple in a still pond, all the flying winds and debris dropped as its wavefront enveloped the area.
Tiamat, now free from the winds, charged at Glaucus. The Magister waved his staff contemptuously and cast a spell.
“[Prismatic Cage]!”
A crystalline geodesic cage formed around Tiamat. The cage immediately fell to the ground, dragging her down with it. Mira quickly hurled her spell shards for [Lightning] and [Fireball] in tandem, hoping the dual attack would score against the powerful mage.
The magus again slammed his staff down. The lightning hit the void sphere and was absorbed while the fireball slipped passed. The damn bolt missed. Inexplicably the spell pirouetted about the void ball like a slingshot. The fireball bolt shot back at Mira. Mira hoped to catch and absorb the bolt without exploding it, using her own staff's mana-absorbing ability. Somehow Glaucus managed to detonate her bolt, just before she could catch it.
The massive fireball burst in her face. She managed to absorb some of the magical fire with her staff. Her Shield spell and Impervious Cloak protected her from much of the flames. However, despite her overlapping protections, she was thrown into the massive shelving twenty feet behind her.
She felt at least one rib break on impact. The breath was knocked out of her as she bounced off the crates and fell to the floor. She stood up weakly, the ends of her hair still on fire. She wasn’t done, not by a long shot.
Papa Mitchell didn’t raise no quitters! She thought.
She popped the cork from her Polyphial Flask summoning the massive stores of water to jet forth. She had a spell called [Cone of Cold] that could engulf an area with tortuous cold and ice. The spell was limited greatly by the amount of humidity in the air. Using her magic flask, Mira effectively supercharged the spell, spewing massive amounts of freezing sleet and rain down in a wide area.
A huge swath of the warehouse was blasted and covered in sleet and a layer of ice. The spell’s epicenter was focused on the now immobile form of the Grand Magister. The man was glowing with power within, Mira knew he would break free soon. She activated her League Step Boots and bolted past him, grabbing Tiamat’s crystal cage. She was halfway to the docked ships when the Magister’s icy prison exploded in a rain of deadly ice shards.
Mira fell to the ground as missiles tore past. She covered Tiamat with her body, while her Impervious Cloak in turn shielded her. Mira rolled over and crabbed backward while dragging Tiamat in her cage. Glaucus’s glowing form levitated higher, bringing half of the room’s crates up with him. The weight of mountains loomed above in an impending avalanche of materials.
Mira was almost out of options. This level of power was way beyond her. Mira had another ace in her sleeve. She hated to use it, but this really was her swan song. She summoned her Grimoire, pulled the Lore Warden free, and restored the book into the Conjuror’s Talisman.
“I’m so sorry Thalorian, but I need you!” Mira whispered hoarsely, gripping the enchanted bookmark.
“Awaken, Lore Warden!” she yelled, activating the Lich’s phylactery. Shadows exploded and swirled about Mira and Tiamat.
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