Delver Magic: Book 05 - Chain of Bargains (26 page)

"What of the barrier?"

"It's intact. I can feel it.
It hasn't been broken or cracked. I'm pretty sure it's holding all the magic
contained within her again. It's just that when I passed through into the magic
stream behind the wall, there was so much force behind it, like a river being
held back by a dam during a strong storm. It just flushed through the moment it
had an opening."

"I see." Enin then
finally moved back closer to Heteera's bedside. "I trust your judgment,
but I have to go in there now. Something is obviously going on inside of
her."

"Be careful." Jure
offered with genuine concern, but then caught himself. He felt presumptuous for
giving Enin advice and he felt the need to apologize. "I didn't mean that
the way it sounded. I know you can handle this."

Enin smiled.

"When I stop making mistakes,
you can stop telling me to be careful. That hasn't happened yet. I appreciate
your concern. The fact is, I really don't know what I'm going to find in
there."

"What do you need me to do,
if anything?" Jure asked.

Enin took a moment and then
eventually looked up with clear concern of his own etched on his expression. It
surprised Jure, for he had never seen Enin so unsure of a situation.

"You have a great feel for
the magic," Enin eventually said. "Use it now. If you sense a great
surge within her like what you felt before, do everything in your power to
control it."

"I wasn't planning on trying
to get to the magic again," Jure admitted.

"It's not that. It's
something else. She almost knocked me over before, and I just glanced by her
mind. I'm worried I might stir up something more by going in deeper. If I do,
you'll have to try and control it. You may not be able to contain it for long,
so you'll have to channel it elsewhere."

"Another light spell?"

Enin shook his head.

"Unfortunately, a light spell
may not be enough. If you have to, blow apart the roof and send it all into the
sky any way you can."

"Do you really think that
will be necessary?"

"I hope not, but I know how
much magic is within her. If all of that explodes directly outward, I'm
guessing the city will be destroyed."

"I won't let that
happen."

Enin recalled what Jure had said
but a moment ago, about being too old... and lucky the magic didn't kill him.
Enin needed to warn his friend of the worst possibility.

"I'm not going to lie to you.
If she unleashes it all at once, it will probably rip you apart, but if you
hold together long enough, you'll save lives."

Jure heaved a heavy breath as he
looked down upon Heteera, but he steadied himself and accepted the responsibility,
along with the potential consequences.

"I understand."

Enin nodded.

"I know you do. You're a good
man." He then looked back upon the sorceress who appeared to stare at the
ceiling without a care. "Well, no sense delaying it."

Taking a firm hold of his mortal
form with the magic that coursed through him, Enin guided his own consciousness
out of his body and willed it into the recesses of Heteera's mind. The magic
maintained a connection between Enin's soul and his mortal shell, but his
essence was now free to enter the aspects of the sorceress' deeper being. His
thoughts took on the same physical shape as his body, as this allowed him to
create a reference point for his own existence, but he was nothing more than a
spiritual presence attempting to make contact with Heteera's inner
consciousness.

The moment he stepped within the
sorceress' essence, he prepared himself for another rebuke. Despite his
nonphysical form, he understood the power of will and the force of magic. He
was not sure if Heteera would allow him to enter, and although he was ready for
another surge of power, the onslaught still surprised him.

Wave after wave of seemingly
unending force propelled itself at the wizard's presence. There was no true
thought behind the surge, no attempt to block out the wizard. There was only a
rush of magic heaved toward him. It was not a conscious attempt to repulse him.
None of the energy was rushing out of the barrier. It was simply the raging
current of magic racing into the sorceress from the very land itself.

Enin immediately understood the
dilemma. Heteera was absorbing magic faster than the barrier could isolate it.
Like water rolling down to the lowest level, the energy searched for a vessel
to contain it. The wizard, with his vast ability to utilize magic, became like
a sponge, and the magic naturally sought him out. He was like a powerful magnet
and the energy like metal filings attracted to the force of his magical
talents.

Rather than fight off the incoming
force, Enin simply accepted it. As one of the most powerful wizards to ever
walk the land of Uton,
even as far back as the times recorded in elflore, his capacity far exceeded
that of both Heteera and the barrier constructed within her. He couldn't do it
indefinitely, but he could maintain the rate of absorption for a short period.
With the force under control, he moved past the initial disruption and walked
once more across Heteera's tortured mind.

Prepared—even hoping—to find some
alteration that might explain Heteera's new condition, Enin was not
disappointed. Still, the image before him both worried and horrified him.
Whereas Heteera's conscious thought and basic awareness used to be represented
by a vast wasteland, the flatlands of her mind had shrunk considerably in size.

Enin stood on ground that barely
exceeded the space of Heteera's physical bedroom. The ring of mountains that
used to stand far in the distance were almost within arms length in every
direction. The mound that represented the barrier had grown substantially. It
remained an almost nondescript sight—just a simple mass that stretched out into
the distant horizon of Heteera's awareness—but its depth overwhelmed the
sorceress' mind.

"Heteera?" Enin
whispered, but he knew she wouldn't hear him. There was barely enough space
remaining in her consciousness to keep her alive.

He stepped quickly up to the
barrier. With great care, he examined the wall. It appeared sound. He found no
cracks, no signs of deterioration. He would not try to probe deep within the
barrier out of fear that the magic might flow toward him and shatter the wall.
Still, he could sense the great flow as if it were a mighty waterfall encased
in rock. The barrier had neared its limit, and in understanding the
ramifications, Enin knew he had no choice but to reach Heteera.

He feared the attempt might be
disastrous, but there was no alternative. He willed himself up over the top of
the barrier with as much speed as he could muster. He became a flash of light,
a burst of focused will.

The wall responded in kind.
Initially, its rounded peak billowed upward, but the inherent protective nature
of the spell to block intruders could not match the furious effort of the great
wizard. As if realizing failure was inevitable, the mound quickly returned to
its previous size and refocused on its primary purpose to contain the magic. It
was forced to let Enin pass.

As the wizard crossed the barrier,
he found yet another astounding change. The depths of Heteera's mind which were
once a twisted maze of turmoil, had turned into a hollow cavern with but one
light at the center. The chaotic strands of the sorceress' thoughts,
personality and identity had come together into one bright mass—like the flame
of a large torch burning in an otherwise empty room.

While others might take delight in
the apparent new order of Heteera's mind, the powerful wizard knew all too well
the desolation of a lost soul surrounded by an abyss of emptiness. Enin
shuddered at the icy wind of despair that cut through the enveloping darkness.
Heteera might have escaped madness, but she did so by forging a path into utter
hopelessness. When the choice is set between madness and despair with no other
alternative, there is no victory.

With all of the sorceress'
conscious and unconscious thoughts bound together in a heap of anguish, there
was no maze for Enin to conquer. The labyrinth had become a chasm and all he
could do was sink to its center. Upon closing in on the single light of
Heteera's focus, Enin reached out with sincere compassion.

"Heteera? Can you hear
me?"

"Yes."

There was no joy of recognition in
her tone, nor was there anger or disgust. She spoke with the hollow voice of a
crushed soul—no pain, no desperate plea for help—just an acceptance of the
nothingness that surrounded her.

"Can I speak to you?"
the wizard asked gently.

He didn't wish to force himself
upon her. He needed her to accept his presence, to willingly engage in a
connection of hope.

Heteera allowed an exchange, but
she had abandoned hope.

"If you like," she
responded in a half-hearted whisper.

Enin began with total, if not
abrupt, honesty.

"I wish I could say I was
happy. In a way, what you've done is impressive. You've coalesced your
thoughts, you've brought a sense of order back to your essence. I tried to
accomplish that on several occasions."

"Did you? I don't
remember."

"No, I doubt you would. Your
mind was a tortured wreck."

Enin recalled the chaos that had
once been Heteera's essence. He looked about at the enveloping haze of inky
nothingness. She had sunk from one extreme to another. Still, he tried to find
some spark of optimism in the gloom.

"Perhaps I'm not happy with
what I see now, but maybe it is a large step forward. You have brought back
your identity, your personality. We can communicate."

"I think maybe I do remember
you being here before," Heteera admitted with no true pride in any spark
of recollection. "I tried to communicate with you. I'm not sure, but I
don't think you listened."

"I was trying to help you and
your fears pressed me away. I didn't want to give up on you. I'm sorry to see
that you're giving up now."

"Giving up, giving in... it's
all the same. It's better this way."

"I don't agree."

"Oh well."

They were simple words—
Oh well
—
but they placed Heteera's entire state of being into context for
the wizard. Enin perceived more than despair in these words. He found something
deeper. It wasn't about
giving up
or
giving in
. He pinpointed the truth as he
stood before the withdrawn entirety of Heteera's essence surrounded by
obscurity. Without even the smallest hint of lingering uncertainty, Enin came
to see the overwhelming attitude that had brought the sorceress' mind back
together.

An understanding of Heteera's
plight became so clear in Enin's mind, he read it as if she painted her
thoughts on canvas. She had taken hold of a concept with such intensity that it
enabled her to return from the depths of insanity. Somehow she gained strength
from the belief that life was nothing more than a twisted path of pointless
responses to circumstances far beyond her control.

She no longer attempted to make
sense of life, no longer wished to find meaning in her existence. Instead, she
pulled all of her thoughts, hopes, and dreams together into a tight bunch and
cloaked them all in oblivion.

What made it even more troubling
was that the vast magic within her allowed Heteera to see beyond the curtains
of physical existence. She didn't reject the truth of spiritual reality and a
place of hope beyond her current existence. The problem for the sorceress was
she refused to separate the two. She focused entirely on what she saw as the
futility of life in a world caught within the struggle. She saw a continuation
of insignificance and a circle of existence that lacked hope or even optimism.

She viewed herself not as a puppet
being directed by some unseen hand, but as a small cork bobbing atop a boiling
sea during a wild tempest. Despite all of her desire to escape any tragedy, her
most brazen actions fell on the deaf ears of irrelevance. She was not a pawn,
and she was not a bystander. She was a helpless victim and there was no hope
for escape... in life or in death. There was only futility, and so, she
withdrew into herself.

"Giving up is one
thing," the wizard offered, "but throwing yourself into the void when
you can see beyond this life is something else. I must admit it confuses
me."

"That's because you're not
me."

"Are we that different?"

Heteera simply pointed out what
she saw as the truth, the absolute difference that validated her beliefs.

"We both have power—the
amount is immaterial—but you were given the ability to control it. I was
not."

"I could help you control
it."

"Did you need someone to help
you?"

"No, but we don't all have to
be the same."

Heteera did not wish to argue the
value of individuality. She saw it as a much simpler issue.

"It's not right. I have all
this power inside of me and no way to control it. It's beyond not being right.
It's insane. I'm dangerous just existing. "

"I know things don't always
make sense..."

Heteera would not let him
continue.

"It's more than that. It's
torture. I'm being tortured and I want it to stop." Despite her words,
there was no tone of torment in her voice. She might have reestablished her
thoughts and her identity, but her emotions had been totally discarded. "I
found a way. All I have to do is let the magic wash me away. I'm safe now. I
can't cause any more harm."

Enin did not wish to burden the
sorceress, but he could not allow her to hold to such false hope.

"But you
can
cause harm. Maybe not intentionally, but there is a danger you
don't realize."

"What are you talking about?
I'm safe here. There's nothing that can happen to me now. What kind of damage
can I cause?"