Chapter 8 The Source and the Black Tower ************************************************************* Review of Chapter 7
"By the power of one I call this spell done..."
"HA!"
"By the power of two I will banish you..."
"WHAT?! WHERE DID YOU LEARN..."
"By the power of three you cease to be..."
"STOP!" Be bellowed and charged toward me.
"By the power of four I create the door!" I clapped my hands four times and a dimensional door opened before me and the daemon charged straight through it. I collapsed from the drain of the spell and darkness filled my vision.
I floated lazily through the void. I glanced at my hands and saw that the orbs were still in there, only that they had started mixing together. The orbs weren't becoming gray like when white and black are mixed, was forming a symbol although of what I couldn't say.
I began hearing music on an instrument of unknown design. It called to my soul much like the spell Borak had used to make my talisman. Oh Borak. As I remembered that night, I realized that we hadn't been together since freeing the Lady. I longed to go to him and instantly the void became uncomfortable. I stretched my mind out, searching for an exit. The music was dimming and I could tell that I had to get out of here before I ceased to exist. The spell that I had used to banish the daemon came to mind and I altered it.
"By the power of one I call this spell done, by the power of two I call out to you, by the power of three I draw myself to thee, by the power of four I summon the door."
Again I clapped four times. Each clap echoed throughout the void and turned to a deafening roar. The orbs pulsed and again the streams of rainbow light shot away from me. Where they collided a shimmering portal opened and through it I could hear the music getting louder. I ran through it and gasped as my senses realigned with the physical world.
Shawn jumped up from his meditative pose at the north end of the circle.
"Finally! Took you long enough." He paused and rubbed his legs, "In all the empowerments I've ever been to this had to be the longest."
The Lady however wasn't so crass. "Your soul is troubled. You have seen much that isn't real and fought with your inner demons. Tell me, who or what is your source?"
"Borak." It was the only word I could get out. I could again feel the darkness coming but this time it was from pain through the link. "BORAK!" I felt the black magic latching onto my anger for the one who would hurt him, and the white magic feeding my love for him. I gathered my weapons and sprinted away toward the pain, leaving Shawn and the Lady shocked and confused.
As I ran I called to my armor and vines took hold of the weapons in my hands and redistributed them over my body and rebuilt the armor. My love and anger consumed me, but I could still feel the evil of the place I was entering. The trees were twisted and had a will of their own. They reached and grabbed, attempting to stop me, but my sheer will and power burnt them on contact.
I continued to run for what seemed like forever when a wall loomed before me. Black as night, the wall radiated power and evil will. I raised my right hand and using magic I didn't understand I willed it to find the door. The rainbow colors raced around the wall but returned from the other side. In anger and frustration I raised my left hand and blasted the wall. A hole just big enough to crawl through formed and I slithered through even as it was closing.
The courtyard of this lair was still black with dead or dying trees and bushes giving hiding to fearsome creatures of this dark will. I blinked and a bow staff formed in my hands. I used the staff to channel my abilities and it's surface swirled with black and white. A black wolf chose that moment to attack from the right but dissolved into rainbow sparks that swirled around my staff and armor. After a while I realized the soul of this animal had been enslaved and was now serving me for freeing it.
The first attack lead to many more and I fought fiends until the light of day could no more be seen. A pack of wolves were first, followed by large lions, the orange of their manes stark against the black ground, then crows and a bear. The pain behind the link was my power and shield. The fact that there was pain told me that Borak was alive. The whole time I was fighting the twisted animals I moved closer to the tower in the center. By the time I had reached the door I no longer bothered attacking the animals. Their souls were instantly freed when they came into contact with the rainbow "armor" that had formed about me. I placed my left hand on the handle and pulled.
Pain was all I knew for an instant and I was rocketed back away from the door. I skidded across the path and stopped only when I hit a tree. I jumped to my feet and dissolved my staff. Placing both hands together I raised them above my head.
"PORANITH" I screamed and channeled all my anger and love through my magic. The spell was an Orcish one but had to pass through both the orbs in my hands and the rainbow field. An orb of pure white light formed in my hands and I blasted it toward the door using most of the rainbow armor to fuel it. As it blasted toward the door I commanded my armor to grow a black cloak and ran to the wall. I knew that the protector of this tower would be hurt by my spell and planned on using all the distraction I could.
The armor around my hands and feet grew short, strong claws formed and the remaining rainbow armor coalesced itself into a small orb that settled on the back of my right hand. My armor sensed the need to hide and changed from green to black.
I jumped and started climbing the rough stone wall. I used the claws to slowly make my way up the wall. A lone window was on the tower and I intended to reach it. At long last I reached about five feet from the window when the rock became smooth polished, not a handhold at all. I began sliding down the wall and panicked. My armor got a life of it's own and began growing up the turret faster then I was falling. It reached up to the window and found a crack to grow into. With a jerk my fall stopped and I praised the Lady for the Coi'Dagnir armor. I climbed up the vine and looked in the window.
Black, everything was black. "When I get out of here I'm never wearing black again" I thought. I pulled myself in the window and watched, amazed, as the vines grew back into the armor. The room was small with little noticeable traits except for the lack of doors and the trap door in the floor.
I walked over and slowly pulled on the handle. It began to creak so I summoned ice magic on the hinges and broke them off. Then I placed my hand on the trapdoor and closed my eyes. When I lifted my hand a small vine grew from the door to the roof and thickened over the door. With very little noise it lifted the whole door from its place and allowed me to slip through then settled back into place.
I landed in a corridor and barely had time to hide before a huge goblin stalked down the hall. It stopped at a door about twenty feet from me and knocked.
"What is it!? Can't you hear I'm busy!?" With a blast of mental pain, a scream echoed through the corridor. I grit my teeth and a tear trailed down my cheek. I knew now that I could indeed torture someone and that Belroth was going to rue this day.
"M'lord. I'm sorry to interrupt your fun. It's just that the tower is under attack!" The goblin, although huge, was shaking, and I could smell that he had urinated from the fear.
"I told you to send the wolf pack after him!" Another scream, this time without the anguish and quite a bit higher pitched came from the room. The strong smell of an elfish woman wafted by and I felt even higher levels of anger.
"M'lord! He slaughtered them sir, and the lions, and the birds and bear! He tried to open the door and our kiblah attacked him, but the intruder lived and sent a counter attack. It almost killed the kiblah sir!"
"WHAT! No one is that strong. Do you know the type of magic?" I could hear slapping together of flesh and the grunts of an Orcish male. I hoped to the god and goddess that it wasn't Borak that Belroth was having his way with.
"M'lord. Um. Sir it was yours!"
"Grrrruuuhhh...WHAT!" The door blew out barely missing the goblin and a man stormed out. He was clothed but I could see that the clothes were magical and just formed. He grabbed the goblin by the throat. "NO ONE IS THAT STRONG." He dropped the goblin only to grab his hair. He started dragging him down the hall and shouting various insults and occasionally telling him to shut up.
I got up and slipped into the room. The stench was almost unbearable. Many people of different races and ethnic backgrounds were lying around and some were even dead. Borak was strapped against the wall with magical burns all over his body. Another Orc or possibly a Korlorc was strapped to a table and blood poured from his open hole.
I ran to Borak and focused most of the rainbow like energy into an Orcish healing spell. I knew now that Belroth couldn't detect me using magic if I used his energy. I slipped out my dagger and cut the bonds and caught Borak as he fell.
"You OK?" I asked, all the while scanning his body for one scratch I could blame on Belroth.
"Yes, I think so. I can't see that well." Borak's voice sounded muddled, like he was speaking through a haze.
"Borak, we can't use magic in here. He might be able to detect it. You're in no condition to fight. I'm going to use the rest of his magic I stole into a portal and send you to the camp. Tell them I'm fighting Belroth. Get them here quickly!" He tried to protest but I was already working through the portal spell that "Borak" had taught me. When the bluish portal opened I pushed him through and closed it quickly.
The last of the energy I had absorbed from the animal souls was gone. I drew my cloak about me and faded into the dark corner. Either Belroth would detect the portal I had cast or come back to finish with Borak. I was going to be here when he came. Using all my mental strength I created a magical cloak or cover around me and then began gathering magical energy.
There was so much magic in this building and I had as much as I could conceal before long. I waited patiently for Belroth to come. I didn't know how I knew he would come, but I was here and my anger was building with each passing moment.
I was startled out of my seething when Belroth threw himself into the room and bellowed, "WHERE IS HE!" He stopped short when he saw that Borak was gone. "WHAT! HOW?" He started to turn but I dropped my shield and stood.
"BELROTH!" I felt very powerful at that moment and summoned my staff back, but formed a wizard's orb on one end. "YOUR ACTIONS HAVE ANGERED ME. PREPAIR TO MEET MY RETRIBUTION!" With that I let loose with a blast that under normal circumstances would have scared even me. I could feel the power flowing from both my hands, even and balanced yet powerful.
It turned out that my summoning my staff was the best thing I could have done. It focused the energy I was pouring out into a lightning bolt, which struck toward Belroth. I watched as he overcame the initial shock and raised his hands, deflecting the blast toward the Orc on the table. I felt panic as time slowed and the magic lanced its way toward the Orc. My right hand left the staff and I converted the energy into a portal. The shear power behind it caused it to continue traveling and swallowed both the Orc and another man that was beside the table.
"HOW IN THE..." I didn't give him time to finish and grabbed my staff again. I forced the sorcery magic through an Orcish fireball on the head of the staff. Repeating this, another fireball formed on the other end. I began twirling the staff and launched both at him.
Once again he raised his hands to deflect them. His eyes went wide with shock when they wouldn't change course. He quickly raised a shield, but was catapulted out the door. I ran forward before he even hit the wall.
When I looked through the door a HUGE ice blast shot past my head. I brought my staff up and absorbed the second and third blasts then shot them right back. I could see his surprise that I could absorb his magic but he pressed on. The initial rush was wearing thin and I was tiring quickly. I allowed my conscious mind to trade blows with Belroth while I prepared a similar spell to the one I had taken the raider out with. Except this time, instead of an arrow, it was a time spell. Designed to do one thing, speed the timeline of the thing it hit.
I let it loose just as my conscious mind aimed three of his gathered attacks back at him. With all his shields in front of him my time spell slammed into his head, instantly turning his hair gray. His skin began to sag and wrinkle.
"What have you done to me?" He screamed as he looked at his hands. He began to hunch over then fell to the floor. He began to melt like a snail with salt on it. I could feel his pain flowing through me. It began to overwhelm me and I fried him with the remaining power in my staff.
As soon as he died the tower began to crumble. The roof began caving in and the floor was shaking. I ran through the door and up the corridor. I jumped up through the trap door and then rolled out the window, barely dodging a stone falling out of the roof. As I fell my mind was wild with different ideas for when I hit the ground. I knew that I couldn't fall this far and not be hurt but I had to get out of the tower grounds. The whole place had been held together by Belroth's shear will power, and now that he was dead it was collapsing in on itself.
The raw magic that was being released by the destruction of the tower was blinding my magical senses. There were no symbols in this magic. It was just raw energy doing whatever it wanted. Because of this it was easily manipulated. I drew in as much energy as I could hold and commanded the ground inside the walls to become water. Below me a lake formed and I knew my landing would be safe.
Then as I dropped toward the water an idea came to me. I began storing as much energy as I could into all my items. My sword, because of its magical endowments, could hold the most and was barely filled by the time I hit the water. The rest, my arrows, bow, knifes, talisman, and vine armor, held a little magic but only enough for a few minor spells.
The left over tower magic would take years to dissipate back to the manna continuum because it had been held in the tower for many years. The power I had gathered in my various items would be returned when I used it. I didn't know how I knew this but I knew that the magic wouldn't mind.
That was one of the major differences between Orcish magic and Sorcery magic. Sorcery magic was human and had a personality. It was rumored that all sources enter the manna continuum when they die and become its watchers and guardians. If magic were used for evil, retribution would be taken on the soul of the one who did after they died. Sorcery magic was more personal and could be more powerful then other magic.
Most of this went through my head while I was swimming toward the shore of the new lake. I could see Borak and the Lady's people on the bank eagerly awaiting my return. Shawn was in a meditative pose and I could feel the leftover power pooling around him.
I could feel the tiredness before I reached the shore but held it off until Borak grabbed my hand. I allowed my vision to fade but promised myself I would stop feinting like this.
END OF CHAPTER
Thanks for feedback from the other chapters. Look forward to more. There will be sex in the next chapter. I promise.