Spellscribed: Resurgence (17 page)

Endrance nodded, a sharp headache forming behind his eyes. "I see. It looks like Valeria was behind this too."

He sighed. "It would also explain why everyone had been treating each other as enemies; why they assumed I was an enemy as well. I had been out of their sight for too long. There was no way Talos could risk not being on the defensive. I just don't know why both Talos and Mastadon were there."

"We can worry about that later. We should hurry up." Bridget said. "I don't like this place."

Endrance nodded. "I agree."

They continued forward, again surprised at how many dead remained untouched since his imprisonment. Perhaps it was during the time after, but they had been dead long enough that not even the stench of their rotting corpses remained. Instead, the bodies were dried and withered; many had been consumed by insects and flies. There were sections of the palace that had been nearly repainted in dried blood, burns and other signs of powerful mages battling each other.

Along the way, Endrance noted there was what looked like a trail of something smeared along the floor, but it was black and seemed to corrupt even the white stone with its dark taint. The stone itself within a few inches of the long dried spatter remained a dusky black. Endrance tried to wipe some away, but the darkening seemed to have been an actual change in the nature of the stone.

"Hmm." Endrance muttered. "This seems more like shadow magic than necromancy."

"What?" Bridget asked. She looked around, thoughtfully. "I didn't think that the Sha'hdi would be involved in Valeria's plans, after what she did."

She was referring to her betrayal of Jalyin, the assassin who had been hired to make multiple attempts on Endrance's life. The ex-Archmagus had reneged on their arrangement, and tried to have her killed instead of making payment.

"There are more users of shadow magic than just the elves." Endrance said, crouching down next to one of the trails. It looked almost smoky, but the stone was smooth to the touch, physically unmarred. "The dragon who guarded me had powers similar to this."

"Mastadon?" Bridget asked. "But Joven killed him."

Endrance glanced up at her. "Did you confirm he was dead?" he asked. "He could have just been badly injured and forced to flee. A dragon is notoriously difficult to kill. Don't you remember the hydra we fought?"

"Ah." she said. "I guess we were so busy trying to find you after, and the Archmage disappeared moments after as well. We were trying to get into the palace when he reappeared and told us you had been captured and we needed to flee."

"What happened next?" he asked.

"He cast a spell that took us out of the city." Tanya said. "There was a flash and we were miles away."

Endrance sighed. "This isn't getting me anywhere. Let's continue on."

There was a set of double doors that had been untouched by the fighting, and Endrance felt the strange sensation's source was beyond it. He tested the door, and found it was locked.

Before he could decide on the best way to open it, Bridget stepped up behind him and delivered a powerful front kick to the wood right next to the knob. Endrance flinched as the wood splintered, and he heard metal snap. The door popped open a few inches.

Endrance glanced at her. "Thanks." he said. Bridget merely shrugged.

He let the faintest trickle of power slip into his meridians. A faint light, imperceptible except in complete darkness emanated from grooves carved in his flesh. With such little power, it was barely a hundredth of the defensive power his wards could provide. It would be a good test of his improved abilities.

During his time in the prison, he had been able to fine tune every single meridian in his body. One channel at a time, he had the time to focus on every inch to make sure they perfectly channeled his spells. He had been surprised how much more room there had been to improve his scribing. He had been able to use information he gathered from Kaelob to further improve upon spells already scribed into his body.

Endrance stepped into the room, and was immediately glad he had empowered his wards. A spell that had been worked into the room as a trap, triggered the moment he stepped over the threshold. A wave of fire, burning white hot, erupted from the center of the room and blasted outwards.

Bridget and Tanya threw themselves to the sides of the hallway, screaming out as flames burst from the room in a short-lived, but searing blaze that incinerated the carpet and set the tapestries on the walls afire. The wall surrounding the door offered them protection from the fire, and the heat was so quick it didn't do too much damage.

"Endrance!" Tanya gasped as fresh air came flooding back into the hall.

Bridget propped herself up and squinted into the room. Endrance stood where he had been before, unharmed. The rest of the room was incinerated, charred and burned up by the flash fire. The only thing within the room that wasn't burned was a metal plate that had once been set upon a table. The metal was an unknown type, a strange dark gray that had a greenish tint to it.

Endrance blinked, looking back at his companions. "Are you two okay?" he asked.

"I'm a little cooked." Tanya admitted, rising. "How about you?"

Endrance shrugged. "Seem to be fine." he said. He turned to face them and walked forward. He set his hand on her shoulder as she stood and spoke a word of power. The pain and burns swiftly diminished as his healing spell worked through her. Endrance did the same for Bridget, then turned back to the plate on the floor.

"This is it." he said, sizing it up. The thing seemed to be a disk four feet across and a quarter of an inch thick. He knelt, hauling the plate up. His strength was barely enough to get it to stand on one side. Grunting, he spun the plate, revealing the engraving on the other side.

There was a spell circle on it, detailing something Endrance was intimately familiar with, yet had only ever seen a few times. It was almost identical to the circle that Endrance bore on his back. The familiar bond he had with the Fjallar, Gullin.

The circle was more embellished. And like his, it had three smaller circles within it. Unlike his, all three circles were filled in.

Endrance looked at the plate, puzzled. "What is this?" he asked. "And what is it doing here?"

"Endrance." Tanya said, pointing to the surface under the plate.

The only part of the table that had not been destroyed by the intense flame had been shielded by the plate itself. A letter, written in a hand he didn't recognize, was addressed to him.

"I guess this was left for me after all." Endrance observed.

They ended up retreating to a room he had passed earlier. This chamber appeared to be a preparation room for newly arrived guests to clean up before meeting the High King. Bridget had carried the plate and jammed it down onto the vanity table hard enough for the strange metal to bite into the wood and to crack the mirrored glass set into the back of it.

Endrance carefully peeled the letter open, surprised that there was a faint tingle of magic he felt under his fingertips. Whoever had written it, had put protective magic on it so the fire trap wouldn't destroy the letter. Endrance started reading the tight, sharp-angled scrawl.

Endrance,

I know that you will eventually find a way out of the prison. I can only hope that it will be in time to make a difference.

Endrance recognized the handwriting of the Archmagus, though it seemed to have been written in a hurry.

I have considered all other possibilities, and without your unique insight I fear that while I may be capable of handling Valeria in the condition she is in now, your father carries the memory and skills of a mage potentially hundreds of thousands of years old. He is a being belonging to a race that lived long enough to watch the face of our world change to what it is now. The Mercanians had no natural predator or threat, save for themselves.

I was able to find this plate amidst the archives in my tower, which you may have noticed has disappeared. Don't worry, I just took it with me. The plate was in the archives dealing with information about the Mercanians that survived the shatter, and I suspect that Valeria had used the plate as a template for planning your scribing.

This is possibly the last chance I'll get to tell you what I know, so here's everything I know that can help.

Can you believe that we mages haven't been together all that long, as far as time is concerned? The shatter was only a little over 820 years ago, and we only barely formed our society, our very Circle of Magi, in the time since then.

I wasn't old enough to know, but Valeria had been born in the time before the shatter. She, like all humans who survived the event, had been part of the human slaves that the Mercanians used as labor and as a source of power. Blood sacrifice from humans was always more rewarding than other living beings, so it makes sense that we were also used for that purpose. I believe some of the slaves, particularly Rothel, Valeria's elder brother, rebelled and fought against the Mercanians. They fought well, and actually managed to escape to a frozen wasteland where the Mercanians found little value in pursuit.

I think that, like all mages, they fell to their own hubris. They thought that in all their godly omnipotence, they could just squash the rebellion with raw power. They built some kind of weapon that could rain pure power down from the sky, and they used it to nearly wipe the rebellion out. Yet somehow, the mountain they live on today protected them. I suspect you know more about that than I do, though.

It appeared that the Mercanians called in their members from all over the world to discuss the next step of the plan. However, something happened, and their capital city exploded, destroying over half the landmass we live on today, and creating what we've called the shatter. In the absence of our Mercanian masters and the freedom of an almost completed city, we started to build a new life for ourselves.

I don't know what was done to cause the shatter, but I do know that whatever happened, there was a reason that your father hadn't been brought in to talk with the others of his kind.

As is obvious from the nature of his imprisonment, it would appear that he was a criminal of their society. But to a society of all powerful magic beings, what would be a crime to them? I realized after having talked with you about your abilities, that it would have to be the murder of their own kind. Effectively immortal, the Mercanians only needed to pass on their knowledge to another when it became evident that their current body was not going to last. From what scraps of text I was able to recover, it seems that they select a successor to be there when they pass, and that successor 'inherits' their memories, and even their soul.

Perhaps your father was imprisoned because he had killed another of his kind, stealing the inheritance of another. Perhaps he killed them in a way that their memories were lost, their soul destroyed. It would be the only reason I could fathom for such an elaborate imprisonment for him. After all, if they had killed him, they would lose every memory he had stolen. Or if they had someone inherit his memories, who's to know there wouldn't be a chance that his 'soul' could infect the new Mercanian with the idea of stealing lives.

I believe that Valeria had intended on making you into a key of sorts, something to crack the Bastille and get your father out. I knew that when she was younger, and the system designing the Circle of Magi was still being worked out, she expressed some sympathy for our past masters. Nothing that would have sparked alarm to me. She would often use the efficiency of Mercanian cities as examples of how we should do things.

I believe that she thinks that the Mercanian has a way of bringing the world back to the way it was. I believe that you are sane enough to realize that being used as the Mercanian's slaves and blood sacrifices is not a fate you'd wish on our world.

I have taken my tower, and the few remaining mages who haven't been turned against me to the shatter. I am going to the ruins of the Mercanian's capitol city. If I can get there before Valeria, I might be able to find something that can help us stop them.

Catch up to me when you can. If I find anything that would grant you freedom sooner, I will come to you. Otherwise, I will remain at the Mercanian city, on the far side of the shatter.

Talos

Endrance blinked, reading it over a second time. The letter seemed to be written in his hand just before departing. He glanced at the plate again and sighed, putting the letter face down on the table before the plate. Under his hand were a few more lines of text.

I am confident that this will reach you as the spells I have placed on the plate and letter will make them undetectable to anyone other than you. I suspect that the plate will draw your attention to it of its own accord, so I imbued a little power into it so that it would catch your eye. Oh, and I know that a few traps won't be a problem for you to find and disarm.

Endrance flipped the letter over again, lest one of the Draugnoa read it. "Yeah…"

Endrance muttered, looking over the plate again. "No trouble, it was just some kind of inferno spell. I mean, my wards handled it all right, but…"

"Are you talking to yourself?" Bridget asked, her tone skeptical.

Endrance shook his head, focusing on his companions. "Yeah, still not used to having other people around, you know?" he said, sighing. "Could you two see about getting us prepared to leave? I need a few minutes to concentrate on this plate."

The two Draugnoa exchanged a glance and sat down. "Ready." Tanya said.

"What?"

Tanya shrugged, while Bridget rolled her eyes. "We didn't exactly have much before we lost our supplies to your sand hornets, Endrance." Tanya said. "So we're ready to go when you are."

"You could help, you know." Bridget huffed. "Like, find your own clothes so I can stop seeing you wearing a dress."

Endrance glared at her. "You were the one who stuffed me into this dress." he said.

"I know." Bridget replied with a grimace. "It was a better option than staring at your naked boney ass for the rest of the day."

Endrance looked at her quizzically. "You were staring at my ass?"

Bridget touched her human left hand to her forehead. "Gods." she muttered. "That's not the point."

Tanya laughed. "Well, we can try to salvage some clothing on our way out." she said. "I doubt that there aren't any intact clothes in the entirety of this city."

"Settled." Endrance said, turning back to the plate. "Now please let me concentrate."

He looked over the plate, scrutinizing every minute detail of the carvings. He ran his fingertips over the lines, feeling their depth and width. He considered the flow of the meridians across the surface of his back, and found that they were nearly identical, but not precisely the same. The channels weren't as thick in some areas or had as much depth.

The spell circle on his back was the only part of his scribing that he hadn't been able to refine. Even his impression of Valeria claimed to not have enough knowledge of the circle to be able to improve it, since one of her apprentices had scribed him when he was born and the apprentice had studied the circle more comprehensively.

The circle had channels that were meant to divert surges in power, as well as a series of curls on the outer edge that would help his power spread through the circle simultaneously, instead of starting at one point and spreading along the body. It was a simple adjustment, but it would make a huge difference in the speed it took any part of the circle to activate, as well as enable his familiar fusion to be efficient enough that he could maintain it indefinitely.

The thing that most intrigued him was the third sub-circle. His was still blank, but this one had lines that looked almost like a trio of birds with spread wings radiating out from the center point of the circle. If he had improved at all, he should be able to trigger the scribing of his third circle. But then again, why should he wait when he had the source right in front of him?

Endrance laid his hands around the circle, concentrating on it as he let a trickle of his power flow into the plate. He hadn't come anywhere close to recovering the entirety of what his aura and body was capable of holding, but he had recovered enough in the few hours he had been sleeping that he could do a little. In truth, he had recovered about as much power as he had been entirely capable of storing when he had first set out on his journey years before, but it was merely a small fraction of what his total capacity was now.

The lines of power channeled into the plate, siphoning into the lines etched into the metal. As it did so, he closed his eyes, feeling the distribution of power. He was able to map the lines mentally, and began tasking it towards the soon to be painful process. Endrance stood, glancing over at the two women who perked up when they saw him move.

He peeled the dress off with both hands and tossed it back to Tanya. "Here." he said. "I don't want it to get bloody."

Bridget sighed and averted her eyes, while Tanya held the dress and raised an eyebrow. "Are you going to start bleeding again?"

"Bridget?" Endrance asked before sitting in the chair again. Bridget turned to look at him a moment, then looked away, her cheeks reddening.

"He's going to change the tattoos on his body." Bridget said. "He did a lot of it when we were going to face Kalenden, and the lines trickled with blood. I wasn't that bad the last time, but your dress is white…"

"Ah." Tanya said, nodding. Endrance was in his own mental world as he began changing his meridians. "Should we look for some more food?" she asked suddenly.

"What? Why?" Bridget asked.

Tanya gestured to Endrance. "I just saw it." she said, like that explained everything. "You were right, he is all bones. If we don't feed him he's going to always look like this."

Bridget grunted. "You… You bother me sometimes." she admitted. "But yeah, I think I passed a kitchen here somewhere. Maybe it hadn't been entirely looted bare."

"And we can look for clothes." Tanya stated.

"Good idea." Bridget replied, rising. She paused as an idea hit her. "Wait!" she said, helping Tanya to her feet. "I wonder where the king's room was?"

* * * *

Endrance opened his eyes an hour and a half later, his body aching from the near full-body muscle clench that came with the pain of scribing. A thin red sheen dripped down his back, coming from the edges of his spell circle. He had to adjust a few of his wards scribing to make sure it fit properly, so it had taken longer to ensure success.

He looked around and found there were several piles of clothing dumped all around him, so much so that he couldn't move the chair without disturbing a pile. It appeared that Bridget really didn't like seeing him naked after all. Endrance sighed, slipping from the chair and standing. A towel hung off the back. All of this was done while he was concentrating, and he hadn't noticed a thing.

As he cleaned up, he thought about how vulnerable he was while he was doing things that required his concentration. Mages had an almost supernatural willpower and concentration, being able to ignore pain and discomfort. But with that came the chance that one could ignore the senses that tell when there is danger nearby. Endrance absentmindedly rubbed at his throat where he had barely survived his first encounter with Jalyin.

That was why mages had bodyguards, spells that triggered when they slept, and familiars. Endrance was fortunate enough to have survived the number of times someone had tried to kill him. And as the threat grew larger, he could only wonder what Talos was doing to stay alive when another Archmagus was trying to have him killed.

"Hey," Endrance called out once he had dressed. "I'm done in here."

Tanya opened the door and poked her head in, looking Endrance over from head to toe. She withdrew for a moment.