Elara frowned in confusion as she looked at the crown.
It was not at all what she had been expecting. She had not thought the crown would be particularly ornate, but she had been expecting a crown that was a bit sturdier and more durable, something worthy of all of this effort. This “crown” on the other hand looked more like a craft that she and Morgan would have made when they were younger.
“Jabari?!” Morgan asked, her tone laced with the same skepticism Elara felt, “Exactly what kind of farming crown is this?”
Jabari smiled, “It’s the most amazing quest reward. It’s the Cornstalk Crow Crown,” he replied excitedly and took it out of her hands, staring at it, his eyes wide with awe.
Morgan pressed further. “And what exactly does it do?”
“Who’s to say,” Jabari answered and then started wrapping it up again. He put the crown into his bag and then looked up at Elara with a smile. “Besides, does it really matter? We found it which means, that we can go now.”
Elara had known Jabari since he transferred into Greystone Hall a few years back and she knew when he smiled like that, he was hiding something.
“Jabari, you wanted it so badly, and we helped you find it. The least you could do is tell us what it does,” Elara said.
Jabari looked from Elara to Morgan, then back to Elara, “Well, it doesn’t too much,” he answered, “It really is for farming. It basically gets rid of birds trying to eat the crops,”
Elara frowned. His answer came a little too slowly. She looked over at Morgan who just rolled her eyes.
“And how does it do that?” Morgan persisted, her patience clearly thinning.
“Um, with Magic,” Jabari offered with a friendly smile, then added quickly, “Why are we still talking about this, I thought you wanted to go, Morgan.”
“Jabari, what is that crown for?” Morgan pressed.
Jabari took a deep breath then let out a huff, “Fine…” he said, “I was going to hoping to save this for when we got to the Academy but if you insist on ruining the surprise….”
He paused but both girls just continued staring at him.
“Okay, it’s an enchanted crown that animates golems so that they insult birds.”
“Jabari!” both girls exclaimed in unison.
Morgan threw up her hands, “You risked our lives sneaking into Old Town for a snarky scarecrow!” she said, her voice rising.
“It’s not just a scarecrow,” he said, his excitement coming through, “it’s actually better than a scarecrow, because…”
“Jabari!” Morgan said, cutting him off, “I don’t even want to know. You’re going to get yourself expelled and we aren’t even at Lyndon yet!”
Just then another sprite headed into the room and Morgan turned and with a few quick words, sent it crashing into the wall. Elara thought that that particular sprite may have been hit with more force than was strictly necessary.
“Look, we can talk about this later, for right now let’s just get out of here,” Elara said.
Morgan huffed, then turned and headed into the hall.
As Elara turned the corner to follow, she gasped. Before them swarmed an unexpected multitude of sprites, flickering and darting in the dim light.
"We're going to be here all night at this rate," Elara muttered.
“Well, there’s nothing else to do,” Morgan said, “This is the only way out.”
“We better get started then,” Jabari answered as he started in on the sprites.
Together, they made quick work of each of the sprites, but for each one they dispatched, it seemed another took its place. The corridor which hadn’t seemed exceptionally long when they arrived, now seemed to be an endless gauntlet of tiny angry creatures.
Finally, they made their way to the end of the hallway and reached the top of the stairs. Elara paused, to catch her breath and then peered down to the first floor, her eyes widening at the sight. "There are just so many,” she murmured.
The entire first floor was nearly covered with sprites, and there was so little room between them they could barely walk. Occasionally one would get pushed up the stairs, and then start up to the top floor, but the number upstairs was nothing to number in the rooms below. They were milling about, their high-pitched laughter and cackling an eerie sound that echoed through the stone corridors.
“Where are they all coming from?” Morgan asked.
“And why didn’t anyone mention that the place was actually infested with Fire Sprites,” Jabari said irritated.
“Technically, we were told the area was off limits,” Elara answered Jabari tartly.
Jabari shook her head. “You know what I mean. Sure, this area is ‘off limits’, but what exactly does that really mean? Why not just actually say ‘overrun with vermin’.”
“Well, maybe that’s why it’s off limits,” Morgan’s voice was hard and firm.
“It’s going to take forever to get out of here,” Elara said wearily. Of course, she wasn’t the only person who was getting tired. Even Morgan was beginning to show signs of fatigue. Her movements had lost some of their earlier swiftness; the Small Tack Hammer she had been using as a makeshift weapon no longer moved with the same fluid grace.
“Well, at least we don’t have to worry about dying in here,” Jabari said, with a smile.
"Why? Because we haven’t seen a creature above a level 2?” Morgan asked, her voice strained as she cast a Dousing Thread at a Sprite starting up the stairs and extinguished its fiery form with a hiss.
"No. Because we aren’t lucky enough to die by Fire Sprite,” he said with a grin. “We are way more likely to be killed by Wizza Hardling if we don’t get back to town by sun fall, and she decides to come looking for us,” Jabari replied.
Morgan sighed, “Well, you are right. That would certainly make this worse.”
Another Sprite reached Morgan so she created a small piece of Flamesnuff Fabric. Tossing it over the Sprites, she snuffed out a few of the sprites before the cloth became damaged and disappeared.
“I don’t get it,” Elara said frustrated, as she hit one of the sprites with Icy Annealing, cooling it off and killing it outright. “We are able to kill each of these things, and yet somehow I’m exhausted and when these things get to close, it feels like it actually hurts.”
Jabari flicked his hand at a nearby sprit, “Dewdrop Deluge!” Two of the nearby sprites that were midway up the stairs were killed instantly. “I didn’t want to say anything, but yeah, I don’t like how run down I feel when they get too close,” Jabari admitted.
Elara frowned and thought for a minute. The sprites were worse than she expected. Sure, there were a lot of them, but even a lot of fire sprites shouldn’t have made them this tired.
There had to be a reason, some sort of explanation. These creatures acted unlike anything she had seen before in the forest. They were aggressive and angry. They didn’t care if they were hit and then never were injured, they just almost deflated and melted into nothingness before they disappeared. They were more like living animations or inventions. Who would leave things like this around, and why so many?
Then she had an awful thought. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly.
“I think we have a problem,” Elara began, “I don’t think that this place is forbidden because of Fire Sprites,” She paused once they were both looking at her and then explained, “I think it’s forbidden because these aren’t really Fire Sprites.”
“Of course, they are Fire Sprites,” Jabari said with a frown, “What else could they be?”
“Something worse,” she said, then hesitated and looked over at Morgan and gave her a meaningful glance.
“It can’t be,” Morgan said.
“I think it is,” Elara answered.
“You think it’s what?” Jabari asked.
Elara looked at him “Rift Shadows,” she said simply. Elara realize how crazy it sounded, but it was the most likely explanation.
“Rift Shadows?” Jabari answered, “Rift Shadows are just children’s stories parents tell their kids to get them to go to sleep,”
“We could test it,” Elara volunteered, “Just let one get close, and watch your Quantix.”
One of the sprites started up the stairs and as it got closer to them, Elara watched her Quantix bar drop. It wasn’t much, barely noticeable if she wasn’t paying attention, but it was there.
Jabari kicked it into a wall, and it slumped down and disappeared.
Elara watched her bar climb back up again and started feeling a bit better.
“So,” Morgan said, like it was the most natural thing in the world, “Rift Shadows are real, and we are apparently surrounded by Rift Shadows.”
Jabari was silent for a moment and then, when he spoke, all of the humor was gone from his tone. “Well, this is not good.
“It gets worse,” Elara said. She didn’t wait for anyone to answer and just continued, “It means that the rumors are true. It means there really is a Rift. And for this place to be off limits, we aren’t the first one to find out. They know. Someone knows.”
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The words hung there between them and for a moment no one said anything. Then another sprite headed up the stairs.
Morgan blasted it and then turned back to Elara. “Well, we have to deal with that later, right now, we have an even bigger problem.”
“What could be bigger than interdimensional creatures destroying our world?” Elara asked.
“That these ridiculously low, Level 2 Fire Sprites, might not be able to kill us, but with so many of them downstairs, if we try to leave, they could drain us for good.”
Morgan said the words and they hung in the air.
Draining.
The mere thought of being drained caused a knot of anxiety to form deep in Elara’s stomach. Being without magic was had been little more than a scary story, a fate that was described as worse than even death. It was painful to be without magic, but the pain hurt even more when you were near someone else who was doing magic. People who were drained, often went crazy trying to live in their normal lives and left even those they loved the most rather than being around magic.
There had been rumors that creatures from another world, Rift Shadows, were the cause of the mysterious Drainings. They drained not just your magic, but your ability to do magic. And once they had taken the last of what was inside you, it was gone forever.
It never seemed possible until the first time she had seen it happen to someone in her village. A young woman had been found disoriented and confused, unable to remember who she was and what had happened. Before that day, she had been a Jewelcrafter like her parents and her silver bracelets were sought after for their unique charms and wards, but after she was Drained she was unable to touch Quantix again. She wasn’t able to even be around the jewelry she used to make. Her family tried to help, but nothing worked, then, one day, she disappeared. No one knew where she went and no one tried to look for her.
To be drained meant losing your ability to cast spells for good.
Elara gripped the Ring Mandrel in her hand, a bit tighter, as if clinging to the long spikey tool could somehow protect her from such a terrible fate, "There has to be a way out of this.”
Morgan prevented another sprite's attack, "There is,” she said, “We just have to kill them faster.”
Two more of the fire feys started up the stairs and Morgan’s fingers rapidly spun another Shielding Thread around them both, making them drop and then soon disappear.
“If there’s ever a place to take a stand, this would be it,” Morgan said, determination in her voice. “If we make it from here the farmhouse door, then hopefully we’ll make a run for it once we get outside. They aren’t very fast, so if we can get past them, maybe we can outrun them.”
“It sounds like a plan,” Jabari said.
“I don’t have any better ideas,” Elara agreed.
“We can do this,” Morgan said.
Together, they began trying to carve a path in the stairs below. Morgan conjured Patchwork Protection against one creature while Jabari called Blossom Barrier and destroyed another. Elara cast Icy Annealing and then Morgan eliminated another one with her hammer.
The spells and strikes landed on the sprites in front of them, making each one disappear. However, as quickly as they were gone, others appeared to take their place, the incandescent forms flickering up the stairs like restless embers escaping a roaring bonfire.
"We can't keep this up," Morgan admitted, her gaze darting between the endless stream of enemies. "We need to... to..."
"To what, Morgan?" Elara prompted an edge of desperation creeping into her usually calm voice.
"We have to do something," Morgan said, as she turned and hit another. "If we can’t kill enough of them to make it to the door, they’ll drain us."
Elara paused and thought for a moment, “What about calling a golem?"
Jabari shook his head. "Sure, that would work if I had a real golem spell,” he answered. “I don’t know about you, but all I have is a Farmland Golem Conjuring which if I’m being truly honest, doesn’t even work against level 2 crows, so I don’t think it’s going to be strong enough to hold off this horde."
"How about a potion?” Morgan suggested, “I still have the Silent Step Tonic potion we made last week. We never tried it so it’s still in my bags. If we drink it, maybe we can get past them without them noticing?"
Elara's eyes widened, "You kept that potion? In your bags? It was supposed to crystallize and instead it started smoking! That thing is dangerous!” She shook her head vigorously. "No, Morgan. I’m not drinking that; it could kill us."
Jabari said softly, “It may be either that or Drained.”
Elara watched her Quantix tick down as she looked at the hordes of creatures in front of her. Her mana was decreasing so slowly, but this close, it was a steady decline. There had to be a way to get out.
Finally, she brightened, “Okay, so what if we don’t try to kill them and just try to distract them long enough so that we can get away from them.” Taking a deep breath, she made what she knew was a truly bad suggestion, “What about the Call for the Champion?”
"The Call for the Champion? How would that help?” Morgan asked, “We aren’t even at the age of wisdom. Why would that work?”
“No one even knows what it does, because it never works,” Jabari answered.
“And it's a forbidden spell, so if we get caught, we’d never even be allowed into the Academy,” Morgan added.
“But don’t you see, we won’t get caught because it won’t work!” Elara said, excitement in her words.
“Did one of these spirits hit you in the head?" Jabari said, swatting down another sprite.
“Okay, so hear me out,” Elara said in between hits. "The Call for the Champion is such a high-level spell that I can’t even see the spell level. Since the spell appeared in the World Spell Book a year ago, Masters from all over have been trying to figure out what it does. So far, no one has been able to make it work. Any time someone tries, the spell just starts gathering magic like it’s going to cast, but then it fails.”
“Yeah. So?” Jabari asked.
"That's just what we need," Elara said.
"What? Why do we need a spell to fail?" Jabari asked.
Elara was more urgent now, her voice getting excited as she spoke. "Well, spells take magic, right?”
“Well, yeah,” Morgan answered a bit absentmindedly as she swatted another sprite.
“So, large spells take a large amount of magic, and not always from the caster’s magic.”
“Of course, everyone knows that,” Morgan answered with annoyance creeping into her tone.
"So, the spell doesn’t have to work, it just has to start. If we can get it to start, it may pull enough nearby magic. And, if these creatures are able to drain us, that means that they may be able to be drained by us as well. Which means that spell could buy us the time we need to get away!"
Silence fell between them as Morgan and Jabari considered what Elara was saying.
"But it’s a huge risk, Elara. What if it pulls the magic from us instead? We don’t have enough magic to use a spell like that. We could end up drained."
"I don’t think it will. Every time it failed, no one was harmed. The flow for the spell starts and it pulls Quantix to the castor to start the spell. And if it pulls Quantix and these Rift Shadows steal Quantix, then maybe it’s a way to get some Quantix back or at least slow them down…" Elara made a face at the closest creature. "Look, we don’t need it to work, we just need to get it started, begin to pull the Quantix, then when it fails, we run and hopefully, they will be too weak to follow. If it doesn’t work, nothing changes and we have to think of something else."
Morgan frowned and Elara could tell she was thinking it through.
Elara knew it was a crazy plan, but in their current predicament, it seemed like the only option.
After a moment, Morgan nodded, determination set in her features. "Alright. It’s worth a try."
“I’ll do it,” Morgan volunteered.
“You are much better at beating these things than I am,” Elara answered. “You need to guard me while I try it,” she said with a soft pleading look.
“We will,” Morgan answered, determination stealing her features.
“We will,” Jabari said seriously.
Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes, grounding herself, and began the Call for the Champion spell.
She felt the Quantix begin to flow through her and gathered around her like a storm cloud on the verge of a downpour.
The spell gathered itself slowly. It hung in the air and gathered together, the magic potential making Elara’s skin prickle.
Elara’s heart hammered in her chest, “It’s starting,” she said, as she felt the energy all around.
“Something is happening,” Jabari said, “I think it’s working.”
“They are slowing down, Elara!”
Elara concentrated, a frown etching lines across her forehead as she felt a shift in the magic around them. It was subtle, like the soft pulse of a heartbeat, but unmistakably there. The spell was alive, siphoning magic from the surrounding area, becoming stronger, denser. Slowly, the spell took form, a shimmering, pulsating shield of raw power.
Suddenly Morgan grabbed Elara’s hand pulling her out of her concentration, “That’s enough, stop the spell, we have to go!"
Elara opened her eyes just as Morgan pulled her hand and led her down the stairs. The sprites were no longer moving quickly and some of them were not moving at all. The flames that had been on the tips of their fingers were gone and their once red skin was now dark, nearly black. The once formidable creatures were reduced to mere shadows of their former selves.
“Come on, Elara, faster,” Morgan said as she wrapped her arm around Elara’s waist and helped her toward the door.
"I still feel it," Elara gasped, as she tried to keep up with Morgan, “it’s still growing, Morgan. It hasn’t stopped.”
The spell was alive, its energy humming in the air, a vibrato of energy amid the darkness.
“Let the spell go, Elara, we don’t need it. We need to get out of here. Run, Elara,” Morgan said.
Jabari opened the door for them and Elara and Morgan left the farmhouse. Elara heard the door close hard behind them and then Jabari was there, helping her as they put more distance between themselves and the infested farmhouse.
By the time they stopped, there were only a few sprites dotting the countryside, but the creatures were no longer interested in them.
"You did it, you got us out of there." Morgan gasped as she turned to look toward Elara.
But Jabari’s dark eyes looked past Elara and back at the farmhouse, “What did you do, Elara?”
Elara turned her gaze back to the weathered building, and her eyes widened in awe. A luminous aura seemed to surround its ancient stone walls. The glow was not constant; it pulsed rhythmically like a heartbeat, but she could see that it came from the back of the farmhouse where the spell had been cast. With each pulse, the spell seemed to be growing. The spell pulled in and then when it pulsed out again, it was as if the aura had grown.
"I... I don't know," Elara admitted. Her eyes were glued to the spectacle.
"We need to stop it?" Morgan suddenly asked, a tinge of fear in her voice. "How do we stop it?"
"I... I don't know…. I don’t know if we can," Elara admitted, her voice shaking.
The reality of what she had done began to hit her, the enormity of it. She had cast a spell from the World Spell Book.
They watched as the spell's energy swelled to an impossible magnitude and Elara could feel it pulse and grow.
Then, in an instant, it vanished.
Elara let out a breath she didn’t know she had been holding. It was gone, it vanished and nothing had happened.
“Morgan, that was close. For a moment I thought it was going to complete,” she said and then laughed with relief.
But when she turned around, Jabari and Morgan were staring at her, with a look of confusion and concern on their faces.
"Elara," Morgan said, her voice barely a whisper. "It did finish. You cast the Call for the Champion."
Elara looked at Jabari who nodded his ascent.
"That doesn’t make any sense," Elara said, her voice unsteady. “I’m not a Master, I’m not even at the age of wisdom. It’s simply can’t be possible.”
Morgan interrupted, her reply gentle, but firm, "Elara... the spell is gone from my World Spell Book."
Swallowing hard, Elara turned on her alerts again and opened her spell book. She flicked through it, her eyes scanning the familiar listings until she reached the spot where the Call for the Champion used to be. It was gone. Not incomplete, not failed, gone.
She turned back on her announcements and saw the message she had hoped wasn't there.
Learned Spell “Call for the Champion”
Before Elara could even consider dismissing it as some peculiar glitch, a quest appeared.
Her heart hammered in her chest as she read the quest:
Do you want to accept the new quest?
“Warn the Champion”
YES NO
She stared for a moment. She could hardly pick no, could she? Nervously, she selected “Yes”.
New Quest Accepted “Warn the Champion”
Time to Arrival of the Champion 22:00
And the countdown began.