Brian Pratt - Warrior priest of Dmon-Li

“Kill him!” Councilman Rillian shouts.

The guards begin rushing forward. A lit candle sitting upon a table before them suddenly flares up and a roar can be heard as fire shoots in their direction, halting their advance.

“It’s the mage on the couch!” he cries out, indicating James with a nod of his head.

The guards see James sitting there on the side of the couch and start to move toward him. The flame from the candle becomes greater as it forms a fiery barricade between them.

“Milord!” cries the lead guard, the heat from the fire too hot for him to come any further into the room.

Attempting to ignore the throbbing pain in his shoulder, Jiron gets back up as he sees the flame from the candle shoot out to block the guards. Leaving the councilman where he is, he moves over to James.

“Can you walk?” Jiron asks him.

Nodding his head, he continues concentrating on the flame as he moves it to force the guards back out of the room. His head is still fuzzy, but is able to maintain the spell as the antidote continues to remove the effects of the drug.

The temperature in the room is rising from the heat of the flames. Everyone begins sweating and a nearby candle begins to droop as the heat softens the wax.

Jiron checks Fifer who’s barely conscious. With his shoulder the way it is, there’s no way he’ll be able to carry him.

By directing the flame, James is able to push the soldiers back out the door. A couple brave souls bear burns from when they didn’t move back fast enough to avoid the flame’s touch.

When the guards are all once more outside the door, James erects a wall of force within the doorway which prevents them from regaining the room. He extinguishes the flame and then realizes he’s quite light headed and short of breath. Thinking it’s the use of magic in his current state, he sits back down.

Looking around, he realizes everyone in the room is having a hard time breathing. Oxygen! I used up most of the oxygen in the room in sustaining the flame. He gasps over to Jiron, “Open the window, we’ve got to get some fresh air in here.”

With the bolt still sticking out of his shoulder, he makes his way over to the window and throws it open wide. A breeze from outside begins circulating within the room bringing much needed oxygen to its occupants.

The men behind the invisible wall pick up the bench they used previously as a battering ram and begin smashing it against the invisible wall. Each time the bench hits, James feels a brief increase in the amount of power being used to sustain it.

“Even with your magic, you’ll never make it out of here,” Councilman Rillian warns.

“We’ll see,” James says to him. Turning to Jiron he asks, “How’s the shoulder?”

Jiron gives him a look that says, ‘That’s a dumb question’, and replies, “Hurts. But I’m not going to pull this thing out until we’re out of here.”

“Good idea,” says James. “I suppose the entire area is up in arms over this?”

Shaking his head, Jiron says, “Actually, other than the men in the hallway, it looks like no one else even knows what’s going on.”

“Really?” James asks as he turns his attention over to Councilman Rillian.

“My men can handle the likes of you,” he says confidently to James.

“I wonder,” he says as he moves over to the window.

“What do you plan to do?” asks Jiron.

From his position on the couch, he replies, “Maybe I’ll just let everyone know that we’re here.” Pausing a moment, he says, “What do you say to that, milord?”

“What do I care what a bunch of thugs do?” he states. “When they learn how you came in here and tried to force me to help you open the gates for the Empire, you’ll get what’s coming to you.”

“Oh, by the way,” Jiron says, “Miko said to tell you that ‘One Eye’ is in the city. Said you’d understand.”

“He’s here?” he asks incredulously. Turning on the councilman, he asks, “Is that why that army is sitting out there waiting? For Korgan to open the gates like he did back at the City of Light?”

“I’m sure I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he replies nonchalantly.

“If he’s here, we’ve got to get to Lord Pytherian now,” James states matter-of-factly.

“And how are you to do that when you can’t even get out of this room?” asks Councilman Rillian smugly.

“Like this,” replies James. Moving to the window, he creates his orb and tosses it out, causing it to increase in size as it slowly descends to the ground.

As soon as the orb passes through the window, the soldiers below become aware of it. They back up as a murmur begins to grow as more and more of the waiting escorts come over to see what’s going on.

Once the orb is on the ground, he has it flare to intense brilliance before disappearing abruptly. Framed in the window, James looks out over the faces gazing up to him. “Please inform Lord Pytherian that James is here and would like to meet with him. And ask him to hurry!”

His words produce another round of muttering and then one of the faces breaks off and runs for the castle.

“What are you doing up there?” demands one of the faces.

“I’ll tell that to Lord Pytherian and Lord Pytherian only,” James announces to the crowd.

James continues looking out over the crowd and finally sees a group of people coming out of the castle’s gates. Striding in front of them is Lord Pytherian himself. The crowd of onlookers parts as they allow him to come before James.

When he’s at last close enough to hear him well, James says, “Greeting milord.”

“This is a strange way to come for a visit,” Lord Pytherian says.

“Unavoidable, milord,” James replies from the window. “If you would come up here with some of your own guards, I’ll tell you all about it.”

“Very well,” he says. “I’m coming up.”

James watches as Lord Pytherian begins moving toward the entrance of the building. He calls out to guards in the area who fall into line behind him. The men he’d come from the castle with begin to follow him as well, but he pauses a moment to talk with them. When he again moves toward the building, they remain in the courtyard. Once he’s moved out of view, James goes over to a chair near Councilman Rillian and sags into it.

Jiron moves over to Fifer and attempts to bring him back to consciousness with little success. The throbbing from the bolt in his shoulder flares up periodically as he moves around.

From where he sits in his chair, James glances over to the councilman and is amazed at how calm he appears. “Aren’t you worried?” he asks him.

“Not especially,” he says. “You are the trespassers. You’re the ones who’ve spilled blood this night, not I.”

“But you lured us here and drugged us,” James accuses.

“It’s your word against mine,” he tells him. “And who are the people here going to believe?”

Just then, the beating upon the invisible wall blocking the doorway stops. James turns his attention to the doorway and watches as the men there put the bench down and begin backing away.

Lord Pytherian appears in front of the doorway and James removes the invisible barrier. “It’s clear now, milord,” James tells him.

Nodding, Lord Pytherian glances to his right and says, “Let no one in.”

A muffled reply could be heard. As he steps into the room, two guards take position in front of the shattered doorway. James can see Councilman Rillian’s guards standing in the hallway looking anxiously within the room.

“I want these men arrested!” demands the councilman. He indicates his dead underling lying in a pool of blood as he continues, “They killed my servant and tied me here. They were just about to begin torturing me when my men arrived.”