John Forrester - Fire Mage

Rikar stretched his fingers towards a sorcerer flying above the group. A shimmering hammer formed in the sky, and he swung around to strike him, but it reflected off some invisible shield, and knocked Rikar back ten feet, slamming his head against the stone wall.

Nikulo darted towards Rikar and bent down, lifting his chin. Rikar shook his head, staring bleary-eyed around.

“Behind you!” Mara tapped Talis on the shoulder.

Whirling around, Talis noticed an invader diving at him. Cassis reacted, sending blast after blast of fireballs at the sorcerer. The sorcerer turned, palms facing her, pressing the fire back. Her body lit with a orange glow.

“Be careful, Cassis,” shouted a boy next to her.

She stopped her casting and the enemy used the pause against her. He fired off a wave of shadows and electricity, and the blast sent her tumbling across the ground. She swung her arms around, repelling the attack, igniting the air in front of her. Locked in battle, Cassis and the sorcerer pushed against each other until her face glowed red. Steam swirled above her long, black hair and her body pulsed with some tremendous internal fire.

“Stop…stop it!” yelled the apprentices. One grabbed her arm but recoiled in pain. She was burning.

When Talis saw the fire running through her, he could feel it circulating inside. Sweat flushed from his pores. Hot as an oven. Raging. He gazed at her, palms feverish. He wanted to help, so he kissed the amulet dangling from his neck and made a prayer to the Goddess Nacrea.

The sky suddenly paled to a silver gray. Cassis’s eyes were locked in terror. The cowering apprentices frozen like statues. The sorcerer’s face was fixed in a hideous scowl. The explosions and shouts and cries stopped. A crack formed in the sky and a golden light blossomed amidst the blackness. Now the fever inside Talis rose into a maddening intensity. It was too much. He stared at the sorcerer, knowing he had to release it.

With a hissing breath, he shot a powerful blast of fire from his palms. Since the invader had focused on Cassis, the attack sent the man somersaulting through the air. Smaller streams of fire had shot near Cassis and the apprentices. Talis gaped. Was that magic? Had he done magic for the first time?

“What did you do?” Rikar yelled, fury spilling from his eyes.

Cassis screamed, panting, flapping her fingers wildly, like she was trying to cool down. Her face gleamed red like embers.

“Water…water,” she gasped, glancing around. The scintillating glow of fire raged inside her body.

Talis shielded his eyes from the intensity of light pouring from her. The sorcerer flew back towards them, and scowled at Talis. He curled his fingers, ready to strike. Cassis lifted her hands as if in a grave struggle.

“No, Cassis, stop!”

Rikar ran towards her.

She released an enormous fireball at the enemy, incinerating him into a cloud of ash. But she couldn’t contain the power. It burned stronger inside. The light rose to a frenzied brilliance as many apprentices around started running away from her.

Her neck dropped. Her flaming, brilliant body exploded in a powerful wave, burning chunks of fire and flesh searing everywhere.

Those fleeing were cut down by the blast. Some were knocked against the stone walls. Some catapulted over the edge and plummeted to the ground far below. The ones refusing to leave her side were incinerated where they stood. Talis felt his stomach twist and flip around, and he vomited, coughing, choking on his own bile.

Gasping for air, for life, he tried to expel the image from his mind. A primal fear burrowed its way inside. What had just happened? Was this the terror of magic? He still felt the fire burning inside. Why would he risk his life and the lives of his friends? The power roared so strong. Could he ever learn to contain it?

Rikar balled up his fists and pounded the ground, sobbing. Nikulo came close and tried to comfort him, but Rikar just pulled away and curled up. A lightning bolt shattered a nearby tower, jolting Rikar to attention. He raised his head and stared blankly in the direction of the blast.

“She’s gone,” he whispered.

“We’ll be dead too if we don’t get out of here.” Mara pulled Talis back.

“Why of all times did you choose now to practice magic?” Rikar glowered at Talis, crawling towards him with murder in his eyes.

“It just happened-”

“Just happened? You just cast a wild spell and hit the sorcerer and your allies? Your inept, ill-targeted spell caused Cassis to lose her concentration, killing her and her friends? How does that just happen?”

“I didn’t mean to hurt her…I was trying to help.”

Mara turned Talis away from Rikar. “That spell you cast was amazing! I can’t believe you actually cast Fire Magic. Just ignore Rikar, it wasn’t your fault. Cassis went too far and lost control. Let’s get out of here.” She pointed at hundreds of black shapes charging across the sky. “Every moment more come-we’re outnumbered. Let’s go.”

“Cowards,” Rikar said, “I’d rather fight and die then run away like a dog.” He motioned to Nikulo and they jogged off towards the tower where a group of wizards were fighting a larger group of invaders.

“We can’t compete against that kind of power.” Mara sighed. “Let’s at least try to find Master Viridian or one of the other masters.”

But as they turned, a sorcerer with flame-red hair flew towards them, his long black robe fluttering behind.

“Let’s go!” Talis dashed after Mara and they raced towards the stairwell.

“Little mice, don’t run away,” the sorcerer said. “The Master has sent me to collect you.” He pointed a ruby-tipped staff at Talis and issued a flood of black tangle-vines.

Talis leapt out of the way and tumbled down the dusty stairs. He regained his footing, and Talis and Mara wound their way around to the bottom. He could hear the sorcerer’s laughter chasing after them.

“Oh good, a game of hide and seek…I always love a good game,” the sorcerer said, his shrill and booming voice echoing down the stairwell.

Instead of going through the door leading out to the streets, Mara jumped back, shrieking, trapped as a female sorcerer entered from the bottom. Talis shoved the woman’s back and she went sprawling onto a vase filled with peacock feathers.

“Down here.” Mara shot into a dimly lit corridor that led to the temple crypts. Why weren’t the sorcerers attacking them? And who was this master that was trying to capture them?

Up ahead Talis could see eerie shadows dancing from the magical blue lights mounted on the walls. The crypts. The place of burial for thousands of departed wizards of the Order of the Dawn. Mara stopped at the bottom, and a luminescent face, the Door-Guardian, hovered in the air in front of a black iron and wooden door.

“Who goes there?”

“Mara Lei, of House Lei.” Mara pointed at Talis. “And Talis Storm, of House Storm. We seek refuge and safety inside the crypts.”

“Refuge?”

“As in now!” Mara shouted. “We’re being chased.”

The guardian looked perplexed, as if trying to solve a puzzle. “How strange…trouble here inside the temple?”

Footsteps rapped on the stone steps behind them, and voices chuckled fitfully. “Where have the little mice scurried off to? A game of hide-and-seek in the dungeons? Come back, little ones, our Master only wants to talk to you.”

“I said let us in,” boomed Mara. “Our lives are in danger.”

As Mara pushed at the door, the portal bowed and blew golden dust towards the door, illuminating the black iron on the surface, revealing a complicated geometric pattern of overlapping triangles and circles. The shapes moved and finally came together, then the door went click and opened.