Brown considered himself a planner, plotting out possible challenges, making contingencies, and making more continence’s for those contingencies. He had factored in the possibility that Hillak spies had uncovered their target and sent one, or perhaps even a team to ensure the safety of the sample. He had not counted on them sending a veritable archmage, perhaps a minor great power to stop him. It was so far beyond all his expectations and plans, and now he was trying to understand what he could do. “If you turn yourself in and tell us who sent you, I can promise you at least a good death. Maybe even a probationary time in jail before being let free.” Brown replied, trying to buy time to come up with a plan. “From Hillak? Please. If I were to enlist my services to a city-state it would be to the clans or perhaps the Mudders. Not some trumped on hill-folk out in the middle of nowhere.” The gorgon just laughed at him. “I suppose everyone is entitled to your opinion. Either way I’ll-“With a sudden burst of speed he moved, the stone rising up around him and forming around his fists into massive gauntlets that hissed with stone serpents. Brown moved with incredible force, jumping straight up into the air to avoid the strike. He gestured as he did so, flinging around a storm of shards from the shattered ground. He couldn’t control them well at all, but it served well enough forcing the Gorgon to split his attention, even if just for a second. As soon as the gorgon stopped the shards he manifested a blast of force in a triangular shape, thin in the front and hic in the bac and forced it forward. The strain on his mana reservoirs was immense but it was one of his most effective attack spells. He landed, now a good 100 feet from the gorgon. His opponent, however, did not hesitate to divert the shards before raising a wall of stone from the street to block the force blade. The immaterial triangle hit with a WHOOF blowing through the first wall, the second, and the third, but barely had enough power to nick the fourth and final wall. He grimaced as he adjusted, more triangles of force manifesting around him. These were significantly smaller than his first attempt, trying to preserve as much mana for his next spell as possible. The gorgon didn’t give him long to prepare, sprinting over with a freakish speed that should be impossible for someone of that size. In the brief time they had been separated more stone adorned him, forming a partial covering of stone armor around the most central organs. Around him small stones hovered, slowly orbiting around him. Brown frowned before moving towards the gorgon, an armor of force manifesting around him, buffeting the air around him. They rapidly approached each other, neither giving any indication of backing off. Just as they started to enter striking range two things happened. Brown activated the spellform he had been assembling in the bac of his mind and simultaneously the ground in front of him erupted into spikes. He grunted as his armor broke the first spike, while in front of him the gorgon screamed as liquid lava erupted from the ground, melting, and warping even the stone of his gauntlets and armor. Brown smiled, managing to slow his run after breaking through three different spikes as he jumped trying to get away as quickly as possible. He glanced back down only to see the gorgon pushing holding the lava away with solid granite walls. He could see what looked to be bone and tendons from the skin and muscle being burned off. He landed and turned around, the gorgon staggering towards him limply. He smiled before holding up his hand. His lava reservoir had been expended but the still had enough force to get the job done. He held up his hand-and suddenly vomited as up became down, down became up, sound that should have come from his left came from his right instead. He staggered as reality seemed to twist and turn around him. Desperately he tried to run away only to fall onto the ground. He tried to crawl and ended up plopping forward instead, barely moving. The last thing he saw was a gorgon flying above him.

Vento’ stepped away from the body, impaled on one of his spies and looked around, confused. He should have been killed but something had happened to his opponent causing them to become extremely disoriented. He didn’t know who could or would do it but… he looked back to the box and picked it up. It was good no one had stolen it-that always made things more problematic. He sighed, as he sat down and leaned against the cart. His legs had started to heal, the pain being dulled by one of his enchanted items. He coated them in a layer of stone to serve as a replacement for his missing skin. It would at least keep out the worst of dust and other particles. He had heard healers complaining multiple times about how hard it was to heal those wounds. He stared vacantly out into the city, clutching the sample, as he waited for healer to arrive. He blinked in surprise at the sight of a young man hovering over the bent and disfigured body of another. He grimaced slightly-it was the driver. He was only a mortal, but it was still a sign of sloppiness. He had been taken by surprise just as much as the wagon drivers themselves. The man stood before striding over to Vento’ a chicken on his shoulder. The man stopped in front of him and took a deep breath. “Are you working for Hillak?” Vento blinked in surprise before nodding slowly. The man made a choppy nod before holding out a pendant. Vento had noticed it on the force mage’s neck earlier-it looked like some type of scaled beast encircling the whole world. “I recognize this symbol. Its from a relatively obscure power up in the mountains- some type of lich if I’m not mistaken.” Vento just stared at the young before sighing and holding out his hand. The man dropped the amulet before turning around and sitting further down the wagon. “Kid,” Vento called. The young man looked back at him. “How’d you know that about the lich I mean?” The lad just stared at him for a minute before responding, shifting to look straight at the stone wall. “Books. A lot of books.” Vento just chuckled as he leaned his head back against the wagon. At least he had company while he waited.

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It took about another 10 minutes before any help arrived, a depressingly long time and something that Vento would strive to fix. If he could that was. He worked in the logistics division as the 2nd highest ranked-while normally a job such as this would be given to a specialized team Vento had taken a personal interested in seeing it through. Well, that and the fact that he had wanted to do some field work again. He had not expected to meet someone who could match him-let alone likely could have killed him if things had played out a little differently. Teams of healers had arrived and immediately began assessing and healing him-along with young Alden who hadn’t moved much from his sitting position. After they were declared stable enough to move, they were both immediately moved to the large central governmental building for debrief. It was here that he received the scolding he had been expecting. “What were you thinking Vento’? Do you know the chaos your death would have caused? It was only one sample as soon as you realized your opponent posed a genuine threat you should have disengaged.” Vento just stared stone faced at his superior as they ranted and raved. Gracklen Rivochi the Mist Warden was the head of the logistics division- and one of the five great powers that governed the functioning of Hillak itself. While Hillak had relatively few Great Powers compared to the other major cities, the ones they did have were much more powerful usually. In fact the Mist Warden himself was renowned for his control over the mists of Hillak-he was one of the main reasons any invasion attempt was considered foolhardy in the extreme. “I’m sorry sir. I wanted to do some field work-ground myself before these next few revisions we were thinking about.” Gracklen just shook his head and sighed before sitting down in a chair next to Vento. “I am not unsympathetic to your plight old friend. But there are ways to do that so that you are not at risk-we are lucky that an assassin didn’t make an attempt on your life.” Vento just nodded before Gracklen leaned back. “Now what happened? I trained you myself for quite a while, there is no way any mere archmage should have been able to push you that far.” Vento shook his head. “I think he was an archmage in name only. I’ve seen great powers weaker than him. I believe he was only barely able to be consider one-just like me- but he was still easily able to match me. He caught me off guard with his lava affinity- lava and force is a highly unusual combination, and I think he used his force affinity to generate some additional pressure. I don’t know what happened at the end, but he somehow got disoriented enough that I could land the final blow.” Gracklen listened patiently before looking away, a thoughtful frown crossing his face. “That is concerning. Someone who both has the ability and audaciousness to interfere in a power with great powers-however weak they may be- is certainly someone to consider carefully. What about the boy? Alden, I believe he was.” Vento just shrugged. “He was one of the supply clerks I believe. He seemed to have a very sturdy body- or maybe he just got lucky and hit something soft.” Vento shifted in his bed, trying to get more comfortable. “He did however identify who our mastery mage was working for.” Gracklen turned to stare at him with unblinking intensity. “He said it was a lich in the mountain, said he found it by reading books. Lots and lots of books.” Glackren leaned back and hummed thoughtfully. “That could be useful. Also dangerous for the boy. If this lich decides to make an issue with him identifying its interference that could lead to some unfortunate consequences. We’ll place him somewhere he can be of use- he must have been the young man with a chicken on his shoulder. Might be a chicken mage then. We’ve got some research going on about animal mages, I’ll stick him with them. Give him some protection and give us some information.” He leaned back before his gaze softened. “Look, I can understand what you’re going through Vento. Every Great Power, Archmage, heck even a battlemage goes through it. You have to realize that ultimately you are not like other people anymore. You have access and abilities which the normal citizen does not- that comes with both responsibilities and privileges. Take this time while on leave to come to peace with yourself. We’ll say you needed the time for some mind healing as well- which is true enough.” He stood up before striding over to the exit. He looked back once more and said, “The worlds changing Vento. The King and other division heads all tell us the same thing. Somethings coming. We’ll have to be ready in case it comes for us.” With that he turned and strode out the door, Vento staring out after him. He stayed like that for a long time, just letting his mind run wild as he considered what had happened. He sighed before picking up a book on his side table. It wasn’t looking like he was going to get some sleep any time soon.