Michael Manning - The Archmage unbound

Trying to stop that much stone with just my shield would probably have been immediately fatal and even if I succeeded it would certainly render me unconscious. Instead I spoke and gestured at the floor around myself and Rose. The giant blocks that made up the floor swung up and over us to form a shallow arch. I had positioned them to brace each other and I added my shield to help hold them in place.

Thankfully the massive bulk of granite absorbed much of the impact, and my shield managed the rest. Without waiting for the dust to clear I located Elaine with my mind and tried a spell I had once used with great effect against Cyhan, “Grabol ni’targoth.” A hole opened in the stone beneath the teenage girl and suddenly bereft of support she fell losing her grasp on the shield around her at the same time.

With another word I sealed her within the stone. I was careful to avoid injuring her and I knew the tactic wouldn’t hold her for long. Crawling forward I drew Rose with me until we were free of the massive pile of stone rubble that had fallen over us. “Is she dead?” Rose asked as we emerged.

“I’m trying not to kill her.”

“Fool!” she shouted, “This is your only chance to kill the King. If you play nice that girl will kill us and then Penny and Dorian will die for nothing!”

I ignored her and focused on Elaine. An explosion of rock told me she had escaped from my stony prison but she vanished as she emerged. She had taken refuge in the Prathion’s famous invisibility, a few months prior I might have been helpless to predict her movements, but having known Walter I knew a lot more about the ability now. If she was invisible to the eyes she couldn’t see, if she was invisible to magesight she couldn’t sense anything magically, and if she was invisible to both she was effectively blind.

She wasn’t deaf however.

“Thank you Elaine!” I shouted at the air. “Now I can finish what I started with the King.” Raising my staff I sent a massive bolt of force hurtling through the air.

She reappeared instantly, dropping the invisibility and throwing a shield up in front of the defenseless king. My attack hadn’t been directed at the King however, I had aimed it at the area where she had vanished. Knowing she was blind I had figured she wouldn’t go very far so I had kept my attack broad and unfocused, and the bludgeoning force of it swept her unprotected form across the floor. She struck the wall with a resounding ‘crack’ and slid unconscious to the floor. I worried that despite my efforts I might have killed her anyway.

Straightening up I began walking toward the King. “I was already angry, but every time I think you can’t sink any lower you find new ways to surprise me,” I said as I approached him. “Using children to fight your battles is about as low as a human being can get.” Hefting my staff like a spear I gripped it in the middle and swept my hand from the tip of the iron shod heel and out into the air. “Thylen ingak ni’lyet,” I said, and a three foot blade of pure shimmering force appeared from the end.

Edward flinched back as I swung it back toward him and he cried out in fear, “Celior defend me!” He flung his hands up as if to ward the blow but I knew the blade would slice through flesh and bone until it had cleaved entirely through his rotten heart. Victory, bitter though it might be, was mine.

There was no way I could have anticipated how mistaken I was.

The cloaked man drew back his hood and the golden locks of his hair fell free as a luminescent radiance filled the air. Before then I had felt a fearful hint of an unknown presence; I now found myself overwhelmed by the stranger’s sheer blinding power. The very air had become heavy with it and though I struggled I could not move to finish my blow, so heavy was his crushing presence.

Knees buckling I fell to the floor, genuflecting despite myself. The stranger’s features were so bright I was forced to bow my head to shield my eyes from the light and I knew without doubt that I was in the physical presence of one of the shining gods. The experience was different than when I had faced the gods before. In the past they had been channeled, limited by their human vessels. Now I stood before Celior himself, and there was no limit to his power.

A voice so beautiful that it drove my heart to tears spoke, “Only now do you understand the folly of your ways Mordecai.”

I struggled to clear my mind. I still held my shield tightly about myself but Celior’s power seemed to bleed through it like contagion, seeping into me despite my best efforts. Gritting my teeth I contracted my shield and put everything I had into sealing my mind. You may take my body you bastard but you will never have me!

Celior laughed. “Look Edward! It thinks it can defy me! You are an insect mortal, your death will mean nothing to me and yet I will relish your despair.”

With my mind clear I found myself able to stand again, though it still felt as if I had a giant standing upon my shoulders. Drawing myself up I looked to Edward in desperation, “What have you done?”

The King however was lost in a fit of divine ecstasy. He was kneeling with his head raised and a look of frenzied euphoria on his face. A few feet behind him Cyhan still stood but his expression was even more fearful to me… tears streaked his cheeks and his eyes held a look of sorrow so profound I wondered if he were even the same man I had known.

At my side Rose was still on her knees and her face was drawn in an expression of pain. My eyes met hers for a moment and I could feel her terror and despair. What we faced now was beyond human comprehension.

I seemed to be the only one left in the room that retained a modicum of sanity. Celior’s presence had deprived them of their reason as well as their dignity.

The shining god spoke again, “My arrival is not by your rightful king’s doing, but rather by the hand of that sweet girl, who shall be revered above all women.” Celior’s hand swept out to point at Elaine’s unconscious form and he began to laugh. “She was so desperate. Her imprisonment led her to despair of ever finding freedom, or safety for her family. Without the guidance of her father she called to me and offered me passage here, to your world, if only I would grant her justice!”

My tongue finally found its will and I slowly ground out a reply, “You’re no better than Edward.”

Celior smiled and the beauty of his face seemed to light the room. “Is that what you think?” The god turned and addressed the King, “Rise o’ King, I would seek your counsel!”

Edward stood slowly. “What would you have of me?”

“This man will die, but he must suffer first. Tell me how you would increase his anguish.”

Edward smiled, “His wife and friend lie below the palace, in a hidden vault, bring them here and let them watch.”

Celior looked at Cyhan, “Fetch them here mortal.”

I struggled to move, to do anything, but it was all I could do to remain standing. It took everything I had just to keep my mind clear and I was barely succeeding at that. Try as I might the only freedom left to me was the power of speech. “You’ll regret this Celior,” I said slowly.

The god laughed. “Do you think that I will suffer the same fate as Balinthor? He was tired and sick by the time he was called to this plane, thanks to your ancestor. The destruction of the She’Har was his undoing long before Moira Centyr was.” Taking notice of Lady Rose the god gestured in her direction, “Come here child.”

Like a twisted imitation of a marionette Rose stood and walked haltingly to stand before the golden perfection that was Celior. “You have sinned against me child,” said the god, and tears began flowing freely down Rose’s cheeks. Leaning down Celior kissed her slowly. Rose’s body jerked as if she had been shocked for a moment and then she began to writhe sinuously in his grasp.