Delver Magic: Book 05 - Chain of Bargains (42 page)

He reminded himself, however, that
she considered the magic a curse and not a blessing. He could not misguide
himself into believing she viewed the magic as he saw it. He had been gifted
with uncanny control over the energy. She had little to none.

Still, the wizard sensed the
desire for purpose buried deep within the mound. He believed that desire came
from Heteera, but he could not be completely sure. Heteera's mind had once been
a jumbled mass of confusion, and although she appeared to have reconstructed
her consciousness into a coherent identity, she remained a tortured spirit. It
was difficult to gauge purpose or meaning under such circumstances.

Jure insisted that Heteera meant
no harm, and Enin believed that to be true. The sorceress never deliberately
caused damage or injury. Any harm she caused from her actions was purely
accidental.

Unfortunately, an accidental
miscalculation over the next critical moments could cause a terrible disaster.
Jure was taking a great risk, but as Enin considered Jure's plan, he realized
it was a risk worth taking. It was simple yet bold, but it was also benevolent.
It would require vast amounts of magic, but the magic was there, more than
enough, perhaps too much.

Determined to see both Heteera and
Jure through the endeavor, Enin willed himself over the barrier and deeper into
Heteera's essence where he knew he could communicate with the sorceress. He
crossed over the mountainous barrier in one forceful bound, and came to rest in
the darkness of Heteera's self-inflicted isolation.

One flickering light waited in a
cavernous hole of shadow, but it made no acknowledgment of the uninvited guest.
As the wizard moved across the bleak nothingness, the light even tried to back
away, but there was nowhere to go. The nothingness engulfed them both and
movement within the shadows became relative to their distinct levels of will.
As Heteera could not match the wizard's resolve, she ultimately gave up trying
to escape.

"Heteera?" Enin called
out.

"I thought we were
done," the sorceress bemoaned, but with a near emotionless tone,
 
not wishing to have another discussion,
wanting only to return to the quiet of her isolation.

Once more, Enin realized how far
the sorceress had withdrawn. She embraced the emptiness, and he suddenly
worried how she might react if she feared it would be ripped from her
consciousness. Before he could even attempt to save her, he had to prepare her
for what he knew was coming.

"I'm here to warn you."

Heteera was through with warnings.
She had found her sanctuary and wished only to submerge herself into it.

"The magic is stable. Leave
me alone."

"It's not that. I know you've
kept your word, but..."

He never got to finish. At that
very moment, Jure linked to the magical energies caught behind the barrier. The
surge of power was so strong that Heteera noticed it immediately, and emotion
found its way back into her essence.

"What's that? What's going
on?"

Her thoughts were frantic,
overwhelmed by the feelings she thought she had safely abandoned, and the
wizard knew he had to reassure her quickly.

"Jure is in need of the power
within you."

"No!"

"Do not worry. He has no
intention of hurting you."

"But he
is
hurting me. Tell him to stop!"

"I can't. I came here to
explain. There are..."

She cut him off immediately.

"I don't want to hear it.
Don't you see? If he takes the magic, the barrier will recede. It will open me
back up to..."

She couldn't finish the sentence.
The thought of being thrust back into reality, even in a limited fashion, hurt
too much to endure. The pain, however, didn't matter. She focused entirely on
the loss of magic. The magic exited her being as if guided by gale force winds,
and she already sensed the barrier mound retreating in her consciousness. A
sliver of outside light broke into her mind, and she needed to shut it out.

"I said, tell him to stop! He
can't take this much. How much can he possibly need?"

"He needs more than you can
imagine."

"No! I need..."

She didn't finish. She didn't wish
to waste time. The light of reality was burning her consciousness. She reopened
the gates of her essence to the magic of the lands. She wished to pull in
everything she could to replace what she was losing. She did not know of the
flow of magic that coursed through the city and when she called upon the magic,
it rushed into her with almost as much fury as the energy that Jure pulled from
her.

Enin felt the swell of magic rush
into Heteera's essence. It was immediately captured by the barrier, and
although it only served to replace a portion of what the sorceress was losing,
the wizard saw the fallacy in her actions.

"What are you doing?"
Enin demanded. "No, you have to stop this! There is too much energy around
you. Someone else is pulling magic into the area. You're going to absorb too
much power."

"No, I'm losing more than I'm
taking," the sorceress screamed.

"You don't understand. You
won't be able to stop. The current will become too strong... in both
directions. Even as you lose energy to Jure, he is utilizing it in several
spells. As you absorb it, he will cast it out even faster. The outgoing stream
will create a vacuum over the city. More and more magic will get pulled in to
you."

"That's exactly what I
want!"

"And what happens when he
completes his spells, will you be able to contain the magic... cease the flow?
The barrier won't be able to hold it all and I will only be able to absorb so
much. You will reach the limit of the barrier instantaneously."

Heteera did not care to address
the logic as Enin saw it. She only saw the light of reality burning her
consciousness.

"I need this!" she
cried.

"What is it you need? The
barrier to stay filled with magic so you can hide here for all of eternity? Is
that what you need?"

"You don't understand!"

"Actually, I understand
something you don't. I've just seen a man who was trying to escape death. He
was so frightened of it he doomed himself to an eternity of indescribable
torture. He probably wishes he could die now, but he can't."

"What are you talking
about?"

"I'm talking about you stuck
in here for an eternity. The magic keeping you alive and you hiding in the
dark."

"But I'm happy here."

"Are you happy? You've just
withdrawn from everything. You wanted to be able to control the magic, you
wanted to do something important. It's true, isn't it?"

"What do you know?"

"I know the magic, and every
iota that enters you has been begging for purpose. You placed that desire in
the magic. You want to use it."

"It doesn't matter what I
want. Even if I wanted to do something with the magic, I can't. I don't have
the control."

"But Jure does!"

#

Aware of the exact location of
every goblin across the valleys, Jure wasted no time in subduing them all, even
as they stood dumbfounded trying to ascertain the meaning of the great light in
the night sky. The energy required to cast and maintain the next spell was
enormous, but such was the reservoir of magic within Heteera that Jure found no
difficulty in achieving his ends.

He focused on the light from his
earlier incantation. Just as the floating ball of illumination allowed him to
see across the region, it also gave him the means to seize each goblin. He
placed greater power into the light, gave it direction and purpose. When it
touched upon the skin of a goblin—whether directly or reflected through some
window or small crack in a closed door—the beams turned into indestructible
bands and wrapped themselves about the goblins arms and legs.

The bondage was near instantaneous.
Thousands upon thousands of goblins, more than any could ever imagine, fell to
the ground in a massive lurch. Hordes of dark creatures that stretched across
distant horizons stumbled downward, not like dominos falling in single file,
but in one massive burst, as if a mighty force struck them down from the
heavens in a single blast. The ground rumbled with the collective crash.

The goblins screeched against
their sudden capture, their tiny minds unable to comprehend the magnitude of
the spell that conquered them in an instant. They struggled against their
bonds, but they could not even stretch the bands of magical cord. Every goblin
was incapacitated, every horde was brought low. Their screams of frustration
echoed out over the valleys.

The humans that survived the
initial onslaught—those that goblins allowed to escape and forced westward—met
the scene with equal astonishment. They had seen the minor sun rise up into the
sky and chase away the coming darkness, but they had believed it was only
another inexplicable part of the doom they faced. As they witnessed the goblins
chained by bonds of magical light, they finally began to sense an opposing
force, a possibility of deliverance

Many wondered if it was a blessing
from some benevolent force above, some even fell to their knees thanking the
heavens. Most ceased their flight, uncertain of what might come next. Confusion
and uncertainty filled their ranks. While optimism held that the inexplicable
miracle meant their salvation, a few remained skeptical at such monumental
fortune and continued to search frantically for some safe haven away from the
stricken dark creatures.

Long moments passed and still the
goblins remained subdued, unable to break free from the coils of solidified
light. The people driven from their homes began to realize it was not simply a
momentary reprieve, but somehow a powerful rebuke of the goblin attack. Sobs of
relief swept across the land. They could not fathom how, but they knew they
were saved.

While most humans looked on in
wonder, others found the desire for revenge. Many fell upon the bound creatures
with violence of their own. Just as the goblins had released their frustrations
in a massive assault, humans allowed their own anger to rise. They attacked
with knives, tools, rocks, anything within reach. Their savagery nearly matched
that of the dark creatures that once pursued them.

Jure could see the turn in the
battle. The violent reaction did not surprise him. He understood the emotional
outburst. The goblin attack had been beyond fierce. It was meant to stir a
frenzy of fear and panic. Such feelings did not simply fade away at the
 
forced cessation of the assault. Though every
goblin lay in bondage, almost every victim trembled with raw distress, every
heart raced with emotion. It was no wonder that it could be so easily turned to
rage.

As the magic continued to reflect
the images of the valley back into Jure's mind and raise his perception to a
unimaginable scale, the fury of retaliation filled his awareness. It hurt to
watch... burned images of hateful retribution into his soul. The response hit
him in full—one wave of bitter anguish—and nearly sickened him. Though he was
not about to judge those that sought vengeance with a deep rage, he meant to
end the hostilities as soon as possible.

#

"You have to stop this now,
before it's too late," Enin pleaded.

"Tell Jure to stop it!"

"I can't. You don't
understand. He is trying to save people. That's what I came here to tell
you."

"How can he possibly need
this much magic?!" Heteera screamed. "Even a war wouldn't require
this much!"

"It's more than a war. He is
stopping a massacre, the obliteration of humans across the Great
Valleys... misery all the way to
the Colad Mountains."

"That's not possible! What
could be so powerful?"

It was an important question, one
that Enin saw in its entirety, and one that pointed back to Heteera.

"You are," the wizard
offered.

"I am nothing. I just want to
be left alone."

Enin finally began to understand
far more. He saw everything come together. He realized Heteera's place in the
course of events. She was not some tortured fluke given great power and no
control. She was never meant to control the magic. She was only meant to store
it for when it was needed. That need had come and it was being met. If not for
Heteera, the suffering would be beyond belief. The wizard only had to make the
sorceress understand what he saw as an indisputable truth.

"Is that all you've wanted...
to be left alone? That's not what you told me. You talked about the insanity of
having power and no control. You viewed it as torture, a twisted trick of fate.
It wasn't a trick. It was meant to be."

"I was meant to be
tortured?"

"No, you were meant to hold
great power. It was to be used when the need arose. That need is here. That's
why Jure is taking the magic."

"He's stealing what isn't
his!"

"Stealing? Is that how you
see it? I don't believe that. I
won't
believe
it. Jure himself said you never meant harm. That is what I believe. You wanted
to control the magic so you wouldn't be a danger. And you wouldn't stand by and
allow others to suffer just so you could hide in the shadows."

The sorceress did not answer. She
did not wish to think of others suffering, suffering like she had faced. She
didn't wish to be part of a world with that kind of torment. She had found calm
in the darkness of her isolation, a serenity that made her forget about
suffering.

"You're starting to
understand now, aren't you?" Enin pressed.

"All I see is that I'm being
pulled back to a place I don't want to go."

"No! It's more than that. You
couldn't understand how you could hold so much magic and yet not have control.
You thought it was some colossal trick, some torture, but look at it now.
Because of everything that's happened, you allowed for a solution to stop something
horrible. Don't you see? You were meant to do this."