Dmitri was stunned. Of all the people that he could have been locked up with, it was the one person that he was sent to find!

“What do I have to learn from you?” Dmitri asked.

Claudia shrugged, “I’m not sure. I don’t even know that I could teach anything with our magic muted anyhow. Unless...” she trailed off, thinking.

“Unless what?” Dmitri asked, excited at the prospect.

“There is a way that I know of that a magicker can link with another being. It is called Spirit Linking. The person initiating it links their spirit with the other person and gains some of their aspects. When they cooperate together, if they’re both magical, their powers merge and together they are even more powerful than before. So if we link together, we could overcome the barrier that’s muting us!”

“The people linking don’t have to be magical?” Dmitri asked.

“No,” replied Claudia, “That’s what I thought too, but the man that taught me would frequently link with animals to gain aspects of speed or strength. It was incredible.”

“Wait,” Dmitri held up his hand, “Animals? You can even link with animals?”

“Yes, but I’ve never done that myself,” continued Claudia. “My teacher said that you do lose a bit of yourself when linking with an animal; you have to fight to unlink because the animal aspect can become too powerful. I’ve only ever linked with non-magical people. I’ve only ever known a few magical people so I haven’t had much of a chance; my teacher of course, yourself, and Draycott and his advisor. But there is something not quite right with those last two. I’m not sure what the balance of power is up there, from time to time Draycott seems to be in control, others it will be the advisor.” she looked up at the ceiling, indicating where Draycott would be perched on his throne. “The resonance that we felt from each other can be felt from them, but it’s a dark murky sensation, it just doesn’t feel right.”

“I noticed that myself,” replied Dmitri, “Before I was brought in, I was with a woman called Judith Mercer, she is the First Merchant to Draycott, but she seems to be working from within to bring Draycott down. Although now that she’s wanted for collusion with me, her chances of success will have dropped greatly. One of the things she told me was of the deaths of all the Exarch’s and that all the people within town are in a trance-like state. Between those two points, I believe that Akahaziel has not only escaped what hold Uriel had on him, but he’s here and has some influence on the people here. Much more then Judith or I anticipated.”

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

The door opened and guardsman Wayte entered carrying some food. Dmitri decided to take this opportunity and probe him with questions. “Why did you let Judith go?” he asked tentatively.

“What?” asked Wayte sharply, not wanting a part of the conversation.

Claudia answered for Dmitri, “Why did you let Judith go, but still allow me to be captured.”

A pained expression flitted across Wayte’s face. He sighed and answered, “I’m sorry Claudia, I truly am. I’m trying to keep Birkett away; he just seems to be unnaturally aggressive.”

Dmitri and Claudia both nod, and Dmitri commented, “We noticed that. It seems that only a few guards have independent thought. The rest are all overly aggressive and single-minded.” As Dmitri was talking however, a change was overcoming Wayte, his eyes seemed to lose focus and he seemed to be in another place entirely.

“Guards do as they are told and follow orders,” he replied sharply, “People could be endangered otherwise.” Then he turned and left the room.

Claudia looked at Dmitri, startled, “I see what you mean about a trance-like state. It was like he became a different person.”

“I didn’t realised his behaviour could change so suddenly,” said Dmitri, “We really need to start work on this linking. No use just rotting here, we need to be productive.”

“Ok,” Claudia said, “First, you will need to clear your mind. Reach out and sense you magic, but also reach out to me.”

Her voice droned on as Dmitri cleared his consciousness of thought. In a serene state of mind, he started to reach out towards the magic, the magic that had failed against Akahaziel. The demon’s face flashed in his mind, he once again saw Antonio torn down before him, a great gouge across his chest. Pain seared thought his brain and he was sent reeling. Everything went black.

Dmitri awoke to find Claudia kneeling over him, concern in her eyes. Relief flooded through her once she saw that Dmitri was alright. Dmitri sat up groggily, “What happened?” he asked.

“While I’m not certain,” she replied, “I think I know what happened. When you opened your mind, a memory interrupted your thoughts, a memory that was very unpleasant for you,” she explained. “When this happens, all the emotion that you felt when you had the memory bombarded your mind and it shutdown to prevent further damage. I’m sorry; I should have stressed the importance of an empty mind before bounding in like that. In the meantime, you should rest and not think on the magic.”

“Oh. Ok,” said Dmitri, disappointed at failing so soon. “Tell me of how you came to be here,” he asked.