Vincent Trigili - The Enemy of an Enemy

“Vydor, do we have the power to face themyet?” asked Andreya.

“The army of darkness we can handle. Thelower-ranked sorcerers, regardless of their numbers, we can handle.But any one of the Seven is more than a match for us,” Isaid.

“Then how can we fight them?” askedLuke.

“Well, we have two major advantages in thiswar that offer us a chance, if we exploit them to their fullest.The first is the battlefield itself. This is interstellar space;this is where the Imperial Navy is at its most powerful, and it isa completely alien terrain to the sorcerers. As far as I can tell,they have only fought wars on planetary surfaces before. What wewill see when we come out of the jump is a large army surrounding alone space station. All the sorcerers will be on that station.”

“Destroy the summoner, and you remove thesummoned,” commented Darnath.

“Exactly. The key to this fight will bethat station. And you can be sure they know that. I fully expectthe Seven to be on that station,” I said.

“But how do we beat them?” askedGafar. “If they are greater than us, then that station is safe,and we lose.”

“No, they are not greater than us, but anyone of them can defeat any one of us. You see, our second advantageis our ability to combine our powers. To do that you need atremendous level of trust and loyalty,” I said.

“Something sorcerers are not knownfor,” said Kellyn.

“Yes, and when we combine our powers theresult is far greater than the sum of the parts. No single one ofthem can match our combined power, just as the dark specter couldnot.”

“What of the weapon?” asked Gafar.

“I have found the weapon, and the funnything is, I have known where it was all along,” I said.

“You are the weapon they were lookingfor,” stated Kellyn.

“Not just me, but all of us. They weretrying to destroy me and prevent the creation of this Councilbefore we discovered our powers. They foresaw our coming and theyknew they could not match two Councils of Wizards, so they aremoving pre-emptively to secure a victory,” I said.

I looked around the room, meeting each oftheir eyes and said, “This fight we are about to face seemsdaunting now, but each of you must remember that we are their worstfear. They are assembling all this power because they know theirtime is short, and that we come in great power to fight them. Theyare far more afraid of us than we are of them.”

“Vydor, did that other spirit tell you allthis?” asked Kellyn.

“Some of it, and some I finally figuredout. I also know who he is now; he is the same man from the historythat Mantis told us, the one who raised up the twelve wizards tofight the sorcerers the first time,” I said.

“What else do we know about him?” asked Luke.

“Nothing, but that book back in my room isconnected to him. I do not know how yet. Later, when we have peaceagain, I will take the time to read it, but now our main task is toprepare for this war. I plan to summon Mantis and see if they canspare any wizards to help us here.”

“Brilliant! Since they are amassing herein great numbers, they must be pulling forces from Mantis’ realm touse here,” said Kellyn.

“That is the hope,” I said. I thenturned to the ball and summoned Mantis, for the first time using myfull authority as grandmaster to command his appearance instead ofmerely requesting a chat.

He answered the call fairly quickly andappeared in a purple puff of smoke. When he saw me, he stopped andbowed and said, “Greetings, Grandmaster Vydor, what can I do foryou?”

“Mantis, war is upon us. I have foreseen thearmy we are about to face and it is a great gathering of darkness,greater than has ever amassed before. The sorcerers are makingtheir move now on this realm, and using all their might.”

He looked surprised at my statement and said,“Then they have found the weapon?”

“No, Mantis, you did. But it was not aweapon; it was this Council. They knew that if we were created theycould not face both of us. They wished to strike us down before weever got up,” I replied.

“Vydor, you have grown tremendously sincelast we met, but how can you know this?” he asked.

“I have met with the same man of light thatyou told of in your history lesson, and he revealed much to me, andopened my eyes to what I already knew,” I said.

The look of surprise that passed over hisface was priceless; I had never had the edge on him before, andwould have enjoyed it if not for the desperate times we faced.“Mantis, I have summoned you here to formally request anyassistance your realm can provide. Even if it is just a handful ofapprentices to scatter through our armies, anything would be ofgreat help. We fully expect to fight the Seven in this battle andwill not be able to lend our power to help the Imperial Navy.”

He slumped his shoulders and said, “I amsorry, but we cannot help at this time. In fact, I was instructedto ask you for help; it seems they are making a move in both of ourrealms. Our forces are already committed to battle. I do not knowwhere they suddenly got the numbers from to achieve this, but itseems they are calling our bluff on the two-front war.”

“And they only need to win one to take itall,” I said.

“That is why you must not lose. You mustbring everything you can to this fight. Both our realms depend onit.” He paused and looked around the room before continuing. “Youare by far the best students I have ever seen. I have faith in yourability to win this. No matter how big their armies are, there arestill only seven master-level sorcerers, and we have fourteen now.They will have to choose a place to make their stand, and it islikely to be here because they will underestimate the power youhave acquired. When that happens, their power in our realm will dipconsiderably and we should be able to win on our front and thensend reinforcements here, if you have not won already.”

“So we really just need to keep them busyonce they arrive,” said Kellyn.

“I fear help will not be able to reach us intime. If we see the enemy, we must engage them to the fullest,” Isaid.

“Yes, Vydor is right. If they know you arestalling they will exploit that to their own advantage. Now,Grandmaster, with your permission I need to bring this news back tomy realm and rejoin the fight,” said Mantis.

“Go forth, Mantis, and I expect to see you atthe victory party,” I said. He smiled, winked and disappeared.

“So we are on our own,” said Luke.

“No, we are not. Not only do we have theseven most powerful wizards in the realm here, but we are alsobacked by the might of the most powerful military in history. Wewill win this so long as we continue to stand together and notwaver,” said Kellyn.

“Well said, Kellyn. Do not forget they areused to fighting against men on horseback wielding swords, notmassive battleships, destroyers and particle weapons. The onlyadvantage they have is in numbers; the rest favors us. We will bevictorious!” I said.

“Now, we are running out of time before wewill be jumping into the battle and I must meet with the captainand discuss our fight plan, so unless there are any questions I amgoing to adjourn this meeting.” No one spoke, so I closed themeeting and we returned to the observation lounge.

“Commander, please come to the observationlounge for pre-battle briefing,” I said over the comm.

When he arrived I said, “Commander, when wecome out of the jump we need to be in full stealth mode. We willnot be joining the opening moves of the battle. Once the two armiesare locked in battle we will move to hit their primary center ofcommand. It is a space station that will be in the center of theirforces. I want you to lead three groups of Dark Knights topenetrate and conquer the station. Once your men are on the stationand actively fighting, I will send in the Council of Wizards andthen follow to open a fourth front inside the station. Control ofthat station is key to this battle. Each sorcerer killed there willweaken the forces outside the station, and if we kill their leaderstheir whole army falls apart,” I ordered.