Michael Manning - The Archmage unbound

I was temporarily blinded as their power slammed into me, encasing my shield in coruscating light and nearly crushing me with its force. I should have expected something like this, I thought suddenly. Why hadn’t I brought my staff? I was trapped… it took nearly all my strength to keep my shield intact. As my senses adjusted I realized only three of them held me, while the third was concentrating on something. The look in his eyes told me it would be something unpleasant and I immediately remembered the spell I had once used to cut through my opponents shields. If he used something like that I would be cut in two. Shit.

Individually none of the channelers were powerful enough to be a real threat, but together they were perhaps more than I could handle. I had one advantage though, while they were used to handling power only on rare occasions, I dealt with it on a daily basis. As the free one focused on his spell I changed my shield from a spherical to a tear drop shape, using the force of my opponents grip to send me hurtling sideways.

I wasn’t a moment too soon, a flickering beam of green light sliced into the space where I had just been a moment before and cut through the stone walls behind me. As I went flying sideways the three who had held me were disoriented and lost their grip. That was all I needed.

The moment the forces against my shield let up I diverted my strength into a new spell, “ Pyrren ni’Tragen.” Flames exploded outward to engulf the entire room. Two of the men had been using all of their power to pin me, leaving them unable to maintain a shield to protect themselves. Their fate wasn’t pretty. The other two had been better able to balance their use of power and were instead merely flung backward by the force of the explosion.

One of them lost his focus and his shield disappeared after he struck a wall. Meanwhile I was already rising from the other side of the room where my shield tactic had tossed me. I didn’t bother to waste my power, I already had a stone in my hand and as I stood back up I breathed upon it sharply, “ Tielen striltos,” I said and it streaked across the room. The unshielded man’s head flew back and bits of blood and bone stained the walls.

I walked carefully across the room to the last man who was struggling to focus his power into an effective shield. Something about the clumsy way he wielded his magic made me laugh and a sickening laugh escaped my lips as I approached him. I focused my attention and encased him in a crushing bubble of pure force, much like the one they had used to pin me a moment before. His face went white with strain as he struggled to keep it from killing him. “You’re not having a very good day,” I told him with a smile.

He grimaced, “You cannot win. The gods are united against you.”

I increased the pressure on him a bit. He obviously had too much energy left for talking. “So they have decided to support the king against me?” I glanced around the room, noting the symbols on their robes… Doron, Karenth, Millicenth… all of the shining gods were represented here. Looking back to the man before me I saw the golden flame of Celior on his chest. “Why?” I asked.

The light of madness was shining in his eyes. “You are an abomination,” he said between clenched teeth. For a second I wondered what my own face had looked like as I had killed his three companions… at a guess I’d bet it hadn’t been much prettier. I am little better than them. Threaten me for a moment and I turn effortlessly into a merciless killer, I thought. A feeling of disgust passed over me but I didn’t lessen the pressure against his shield.

“If Celior has any messages for me now is the time to pass them along, you won’t get many more chances after this,” I responded emotionlessly.

His eyes shifted then and I could see them un-focusing as his god came to the fore. Simultaneously the strength of his shield increased three-fold, Celior wasn’t pulling his punches. “You bear Illeniel’s Doom mortal. You should die now and save yourself from suffering,” he replied. His voice now held the dulcet tones of his god.

“You’ll ruin your puppet if you push too hard Celior,” I rebuked him. Sweat was standing out on my brow now as I redoubled my effort to keep him pinned down.

“His life is mine to use as I wish,” the voice of the shining god responded. Blood was running freely from the man’s nose and ears now, as he was pressed far beyond his limit.

“You’re just like that bitch Millicenth aren’t you? No concern for the people who support you. Why are you really doing this? You should be helping us against the shiggreth, aiding us against the dark gods, against Mal’goroth!” I ground the words out from between clenched teeth.

Celior’s pawn was now wrapped in golden flames as the force of his god’s power overwhelmed his body’s limits. “You broke the accord, child of Illeniel; you will get no aid from us now. You must die before Illeniel’s Doom destroys us all.”

The power being forced through the man’s poor body was simply incredible but he was dying already. I felt myself trembling with effort as I kept him trapped and just as I thought I would surely collapse from the strain the god’s power fell off sharply and disappeared. I managed to stop myself before I crushed the channeler but it was a useless gesture, the man was already dead. His deity’s power had burned him up like a candle, thrown into a furnace; he had been spent in an instant. The sight of his body filled me with anger that we should be so carelessly used and tossed aside. It could have been Marcus just as easily as this man, lying here dead.

The anger was good though, it kept me strong. My struggle with Celior had left me exhausted in a way I hadn’t felt since the end of the war with Gododdin, yet I couldn’t afford to collapse here; I still had a meeting to attend after all. What the hell is the ‘Doom of Illeniel’? I wondered. It had sounded like doom with a capital ‘D’ when he had said it. I never get any good news from deities. It’s always absolutes and ultimatums, no wonder no one invites them to fancy dress balls, I thought to myself.

Breathing heavily I got myself back on task and made sure the king was still waiting a few rooms away. He was. He must have realized that no amount of running would allow him to escape once his four aces were broken. I strode across the room and opened the door that led to his bedroom. A short hallway faced me and I continued onward till I reached the final door that separated us. I still had a shield around myself but it was becoming increasingly difficult to maintain it.

That was a bad sign; normally the strain of my shield was not something I’d even notice, even after a long day. It meant I was surely close to the end of my reserves, not a good thing when you’re surrounded by enemies. I decided to try something I had only done once before, when I had needed strength to chase the remaining soldiers of Gododdin back to the river. Focusing on the deep heartbeat of the earth below me I opened myself and drew upon it. Please share your strength with me, was my conscious thought, but it was not communicated in words. Instead my mind connected with something far greater than myself, something so much larger as to be entirely alien to my experience as a human being… for a moment I was part of it. I felt stronger and weaker simultaneously… energy was coursing through me now, yet my mortal flesh was weak, nothing like my normal stone and iron. Then I broke the contact and my mind came tumbling back to the present.

I reeled for a second as I became re-accustomed to my humanity again. That didn’t happen the last time I did that, I noted. Apparently even small uses of my new gift could be dangerous. I had accomplished my goal though; my body was filled with new energy. I felt light and fresh, as if I had slept a full night. There must be some limit to this.