Jeff Inlo - Pure Choice

Jure searched for the purpose of that moment. He remained uncertain as to what was happening on the plateau. He had defeated the elf, but nothing had really changed. Then again, maybe it had. He wondered if he could reach the elf.

"You made a lot of mistakes there, son."

"Spare me the lecture," Scheff finally responded.

"I don't have one for you, just a question. Do you still believe in this nonsense of purity?"

"I believe in the power of the storm, my storm."

"If that's the case, then you have to admit it wasn't enough."

"I admit to nothing. I simply have not had enough time to grow stronger. The purity in me is still new."

"Sounds like an excuse to me, a bad one."

"I only needed more time and I would have defeated you."

"More time for what? That always seems to be the reason when things don't work out. You think you would have grown stronger? Maybe, but that's not why you lost. You lost because you looked only to yourself. You think it all revolves around what you can do. It doesn't. You want too believe that you're in complete control. You're not."

"Control comes with experience. That is what I lack."

"I don't care how much experience you have. You're going to have to realize that there are some things you just can't control. You think I'm here because I want to be? You think I controlled this? When are you going to give up this notion that everything revolves around you?"

"I thought you were not going to lecture me," Scheff grumbled.

"It's not a lecture. It's the answer to the question. Your belief in purity is nothing more than conceit. That's why it's nonsense and that's why you lost. All the time in the land wouldn't have changed that."

With that said, Ansas became annoyed at the conversation and wanted it ended.

"Just kill him and be done with it. It wasn't his purity that failed him. He failed himself."

"I have no intention of killing him," Jure revealed. "I don't think he was being malicious, but I do think he was acting terribly stupid. He listened to the wrong voice in his head. Maybe he'll learn to listen to a different one and find a new lesson."

"What lesson?" the sorcerer snarled with disgust. "That he is incompetent?"

"You're amazing," Jure noted with contempt. "I beat you once, too, remember?"

"And I was prepared to face the consequences. The elf is clearly incapable of rising above anything beyond an average spell caster. Do the land a favor and remove him from it."

Scheff finally turned to the sorcerer. He did so not with a request for assistance, but with a question of his own.

"But you admitted you lost before and you said it was important to learn from defeat. Are you saying I cannot learn from what has happened here?"

"I'm saying you're an embarrassment to me."

"I lost, but as the wizard said, you lost to him the first time you met as well."

"Entirely different matter. I was on my own."

"And I was not?" the elf asked in pure amazement at the sorcerer's suggestion.

"You had part of my magic inside of you to guide you."

"And this is what you consider guidance?"

"This is what I consider a wasted opportunity." Ansas redirected his attention back to the elder wizard. "I congratulate you again. I really didn't think you had it in you. Now, are you going to finish him off?"

"No," Jure replied simply.

"You would not eliminate a potential future threat?"

"He's not a threat to me if he understands what's really going on here. Despite what you say, maybe he will learn from his mistakes… and maybe he'll start putting some trust into something larger than himself."

Ansas grew quiet as he considered the elder wizard. His stare eventually turned to the elf.

"No, I don't think so. He is a disappointment. That's all."

With his verdict rendered, Ansas extended an open arm toward Scheff and forcibly removed his dark magic from the core of the elf. The sorcerer disregarded the elf's screams. He took it all back and left Scheff empty and disheartened.

Scheff crumpled to the ground, but remained alive. Unconsciousness ended his pain and his screams. The dark magic Ansas instilled in him was gone, and the elf had emptied his own reserve of energy with his last spell against Jure. Vacant of all magic, he was no longer an integral part of the conflict. Ignored by Ansas, he became nothing more than a discarded piece of rubble, just another part of the dark realm's barren landscape.

Jure knew Scheff was still alive, and saw no need to assist him further. The elder wizard had already accomplished much that would help the elf. With both of them surviving the ordeal, the outcome of the battle forced the sorcerer's hand. Ansas might have believed it was a great punishment to remove the dark magic from the elf, but Jure believed it was more of a blessing. If Scheff could learn from his mistakes, then the elf had yet another opportunity to start fresh, and he might eventually understand that the sorcerer would have led him to ruin.

Looking at his own part in the madness, Jure hoped that would be the case. It would reinforce his belief that there was a greater purpose to what was an otherwise meaningless conflict. He was happy to be alive, but he found no triumphant inner joy in defeating Scheff. As he stood at the middle of the plateau lifted high into the gray sky, he gave one last look at the fallen elf and considered everything around him.

A nightmare.

That was what the dark realm was… a bleak landscape covered by a gloomy sky and bereft of hope, but its very nature saved Jure, and perhaps it would save Scheff as well. Maybe the elf would regain consciousness as if waking from a nightmare and seek to find a better light of understanding.

Whatever the ultimate outcome, Jure believed he had completed his task. If the old wizard had been brought to the dark realm to do some good, it had been done. No doubt there were still dangers lurking upon the high plain, but he didn't believe they were for him to face.

Despite the presence of the arasaps and the other spell casters, Jure knew Ansas was the true threat to them all-on both sides of the plateau. Even so, he actually turned his back to the sorcerer as he returned to his friends. He did not seek congratulations from those that witnessed his victory, and his expression revealed he did not wish to hear them.

It was Ryson who spoke out, but not to Jure. He had grown tired of the senseless exchanges, and he directed his rage toward the sorcerer across the plateau.

"I want those arasaps out of my wife!"

"You don't listen very well," Ansas responded. "A characteristic I find common… and annoying. I have no intention of removing the arasaps."

Stepping in the path between Ryson and the sorcerer, Enin decided to make his own declaration.

"Your intentions are irrelevant. Regardless of what happens here today, I will see that you remove them."

"A rather bold determination. You would have to force me to do so, and I don't think you have it in you. Oh, I realize you are the formidable wizard with two circles and white magic, but I still think you are the personification of dilution."

"Dilution?"

"Absolutely. Despite your great control and enormous energy, you stretch yourself thin. The pale whiteness of your magic is a reflection of that characteristic. That is why I am ultimately superior. I might lack your control, but the ebony energy that flows through me is the concentration of strength."

"You are quite wrong," Enin declared. "Casting white doesn't lead to diluting all the other hues, it means embracing them as one. You are trying to break apart that which was meant to be looked upon as a whole. You don't even understand the power of your own magic. Casting black doesn't darken the other colors, it means accepting them. Ebony magic is the energy that allows for transformation. That is why it's so powerful."