by Jesse Wilson
“Albert killed himself at work, I took his body. It's on that island. It's going to take the power of the God the only difference is I won't be there to bind it to my will so it'll be free to do what it wants, and all it wants is to scrub the world clean of everything that isn't part of its race,” she said and laughed about it some more, clearly all of dark work had eroded her sanity in some crucial places.
“And what was your plan, what did you plan to do with all that power?” Rex asked her, he was pretty sure he knew the answer to this. “Me, no, the mind of the god would have been bound to me suppressed, but the power would be inside Albert. We were going to use it to destroy the Necromancer Delrax cult once and for all. They killed our families years ago in a raid in the out waters and we couldn't do anything. Nothing at all. Now we can, but you ruined it. Now the God will destroy us all. I guess in a roundabout way I'll get what I want. I just won't get to enjoy it as much,” she said and put her face into her hands.
“Revenge, you didn't go to the Emerald Watch or anything?” Rex asked and she shot a glare of hate at him that made him jump back slightly in surprise. “Of course we did, we went to everyone we thought could help but the Delrax sect is very hard to find. Nothing was done. Nothing was ever done. After we were old enough, we took matters into our own hands and did the only thing that would promise us to get what we deserved,” she replied to him and Rex shook his head.
“We can't do anything about any of that now. That had to be twenty-five years ago or more. Most of those people are likely dead by now anyway. Listen, we need a way to shut this madness down. Is there any way to banish the energy back to its own world,” Rex tried to appeal to common sense. “Yes, but I'm not telling you what that method is. We've worked too hard for this sacrificed so much,” she said and Rex shot her a glare.
“You mean you wiped out a whole village of innocent people for your revenge, is that the sacrifice you talked about?” Rex was angry but doing his best not to show it.
“We needed the souls, the souls are powerful you know. Strong enough to call the energy of the god to where we needed it to be, it was part of the prophecy for a reason, a cryptic message to tell people how to control the power,” she replied to him and looked down. “Well alright, if you won't tell me I'll just have to get what I need another way. But I'll make sure you live to pay for what you did. Don't you even worry about that,” Rex said and stood up to leave the room.
“Could I have some water?” she asked him.
“No,” he replied before leaving the room and closing the door behind him.
“The energy over the island is only getting bigger,” Evie said the obvious, everyone could see it and its bright yellow electric discharges that didn't quite look like lightning. “Yeah but is there an off switch? Is there anything we can do about it, the crazy in the room down the hall seems to think she's the only one who can do anything about any of this, she might be right,” Rex replied and looked into the heart of the magical storm.
Something about it, besides being a supernatural event, seemed wrong. He'd seen mage storms before and weathered more than his fair share of them. This was not like any of those.
“Regardless of what we do I've already sent a warning back to the kingdom and told them what was going on, or at least what we think is going on,” Tayne said to them. “Aw, look at you, you do have a heart after all. I didn't even have to tell you to do it,” Rex replied and Tayne rolled his eyes. “Why don't we just let the crazy mage finish the ritual, at least then we can have some kind of control of the situation,” Drask said to them and Rex considered it for a few seconds.
“Yeah, but she's going to kill a lot of people anyway and I don't see that working out very well for us either because, well, revenge never stops, there is always someone to blame,” Rex replied and Drask shrugged. “Well can we contain this energy, shield the whole island maybe?” Nymie asked and that was a good idea, Rex smiled.
“We can try to do that, what do you think Evie?” he asked her and the mage looked at the growing storm. “We can try but it's going to take all the magic that I have in me to try to make this a thing,” she said and tightened the grip on her staff.
“Well, we don't have much of a choice because, wait, I think we can have some help. The Delrax necromancer said to call them if we needed some help, I think this qualifies as needing some help,” Rex said and picked up the communicator.
“You think, you actually want to trust some necromancers with this. There is enough magical energy building up here to power any group of mages for hundreds of years if they can tap it. Necromancers aren't exactly known for their trustworthiness,” Boz said, all of this was making him uncomfortable as it was but calling them was just getting to be too much.
“We don't have a choice,” Rex replied to him and began to dial. “Okay, but I still don't like it,” Boz said and Nymie smiled. “Don't worry little guy, I'll protect you from the bad necromancers” she said and Boz smiled. “Thanks, I hope I won't need it,” he replied in a much more serious tone.
Rex pushed the button on the communicator.
“Hi, remember me, Rex, we met the other day and we have a situation over Calex Island. Someone did something very bad and we are going to try and contain it but we need some more magical power than we have so can you send like, three or four of your people to my location so we can take care of this,” Rex said and waited.
“We will send what you need, please stand by,” a raspy voice replied.
“Yeah, cool. No one else is out here, you won't miss us. Just don't teleport into the water, that wouldn't look good and we'd make fun of you forever for it,” Rex replied and cut off the communication. “See, I knew they'd help. They aren't all bad just mostly bad,” he finished and now all he could do is wait for them to show up and hope for the best.
“I still don't like this idea,” Tayne said what they were all thinking.
Minutes later there was a column of smoke on the bridge of their ship. One necromancer in a traditional black cloak. “Wait, your people only sent one, don't you think you'll need more than just one to help,” Evie said, shocked they would be so arrogant.
“Sister, one is all we are going to need. I know some tricks they don't teach in that moldy school you went to,” she said and removed her hood. She looked like any normal person, no dead skin or obvious contamination most of them had. The necromancer turned to look at the energy in the sky and smiled. “Wow, that could be entirely useful for all the experiments I want to do,” she said and smiled.
“No, we need to contain the mess and make sure it can't ever get out,” Evie said and the others were tense, weapons were close. “Yeah, I suppose you're right,” the necromancer replied and walked toward the viewing screen. “We're going to need a cell phone for this. The old timers used crystals to bind and banish nasty things. I'll show you something you're never going to forget but I am assuming you're at least above the fourth rank in whatever you call your mage system these days?” she asked Evie, who scowled in returned.
“I'm qualified to do whatever it is you need help with, don't worry about it. Let's just get it done,” she replied, the necromancer smirked and began to walkout of the bridge and Evie followed. “Well that was fun,” Nymie said as they left.
“Yeah, let's hope we don't die in the process of whatever happens next,” Boz said and Rex kept his eyes on the viewing screen to watch what was going to come next.
Evie and the Necromancer stood side by side on the deck.
“Now, as I said the old ones used crystals, lots of crystals. Now days all we need is a cell phone, give me yours,” she said to Evie and she pulled her thin white rectangle phone and handed it to her.
“Okay, this might not work and it will take all of our energy to contain something this big,” she said and began to mystically carve a rune Evie didn't know on the back of the phone with her finger with blue lines of energy.
“Stop looking so confused, I got this,” she said and finished.
“Okay, what happens next is unpredictable but I think we can handle it,” she said and Evie shook her head.
“What's your name?” Evie asked her. “I am Calibri, what difference does it make to you, let's get this over with so I can get home,” she replied to her and held the phone up into the direction of the swirling mass. “Hold on to this thing so we can get this done. Focus all your energy into the phone, I will do the same and guide the sealing spell. If you hold anything back it won't work so now isn't the time to be worried about silly misgivings that make you paranoid about working with me,” Calibri said and to her and Evie put her hand on the phone and together they held it up.
“Nou mare nou antre nan anile a p'ap janm fini an pou tout tan. Se pou tan kenbe ou e pa gen je janm jwenn ou,” Calibri said with a surprising amount of authority that Evie thought she had and the phone began to glow.
“Say it with me, I know you don't understand the words but say it with me and we'll be okay,” Calibri shouted to Evie and the mage nodded. Together they screamed the spell and the winds around them picked up, violently and the waves began to rock the ship as the intense power gathered around them.
Evie had never had to do a binding spell on this scale before, she didn't know what to expect and the waves were breaking her concentration.
“Last warning, fish girl, if you break concentration we will all die here, focus everything you have, now,” Calibri screamed at her over the howling winds and waves. Evie narrowed her eyes and retained her focus on the work at hand.
“Nou mare nou antre nan anile a p'ap janm fini an pou tout tan. Se pou tan kenbe ou e pa gen je janm jwenn ou,” they said together as loud as they could and the phone turned energy conduit glowed bright purple and fired a beam of light towards the energy in the sky and the island.
Everyone watched as half way to the target spread out in all directions to cover everything they could see. There was the sound of thunder and the shockwave of an invisible explosion that knocked the both of them to the deck of the ship. The vessel itself threatened to capsize with the shockwave.
“Are we still alive?” Evie asked as she struggled to get the ringing out of her head. “Yeah, but you're going to need a new phone,” Calibri replied to her and handed her the burned, broken remains of her phone. “Well, I suppose it was worth it, I think we won,” Evie said and struggled to stand up. Calibri had no trouble standing. The two of them looked out and all they saw was empty ocean before them. There was no sign of any island, or that one had ever been there.
“That's how the big binding circles work, if they work it and everything in the target zone is not only sealed, but hidden, as long as the magic remains intact anyway. No one but us knows it's here. We are in no danger of anyone breaking it open,” she said and Evie immediately knew this was going to be leverage for the necromancers someday but didn't bother to mention it.
“Thank you for your help,” Evie said and Calibri smiled. “No problem, it's always fun to work with a mainstreamer once and awhile. We're not all bad you know. We all have our issues but most of us are not too much different than you, we just took a different path. I hope you remember that,” she said and looked away from the sea.
“Before you go, do you want to tell our crazy prisoner we just ruined all of her plans?” Evie asked and Calibri shrugged. “Alright, why not?” she said and the two of them walked off the deck.
The two of them walked through the ship and into the holding room. She was still there, the second Calibri walked in she tried to stand up and lunge forward in anger.
“You brought a Necromancer in my sight to what, torment me a little more,” she said as the chains pulled her back down. “No. I came to show you that not all of them are bad and we just banished your energy and the rest of plan along with it, locked it up so no one will ever find it again,” Evie said to her and crossed her arms. The chained mage just started to laugh.
“Let me guess, you bound the power and the island too, everything and you never got rid of the vessel,” she said and kept laughing. “Vessel, what is she talking about, no one ever mentioned any vessel,” Calibri said and looked at her. “I don't know, you got me. No one told me about it either,” Evie said but wasn't too concerned about it.
“It doesn't matter if you bound it, you can't bind the power of a god. The process will complete in this world or any other. It cannot be stopped. You idiots didn't remove the vessel and it might take a little longer but you're still all going to die with me,” she said and couldn't help herself but smile.
“That information would have been useful about ten minutes ago,” Calibri said and was disappointed in this turn of events. “Well we need to break the spell and go in and get the body, we need to do this and-” Calibri cut her off. “Neither of us have any energy to do that right now, also, this lady is obviously a renegade mage, likely insane, we can safely assume that we won. Let's get out of here,” she said and Evie wasn't really convinced of that but it was either believe the necromancer or the revenge consumed renegade.
She decided to go with the necromancer, turned towards the door and walked out. Calibri looked at the mage one last time before she followed Evie out of the room and closed the door behind her.
“So, you're sure that she's just crazy,” Evie said as they walked towards the bridge.
“I don't know but if you would have shown fear in there that would have put her in control of the situation. I couldn't allow that. The only one I want controlling you in any situation is me,” Calibri said to her and smiled, continuing, “everything I've magically bound, none of it has ever been found let alone escaped on their own, you need to trust me on this one. We can go back to killing one another tomorrow, but tonight we should celebrate on a victory,” she said as they made it to the bridge Evie opened the door.
“We can go home,” Evie said and a wave of exhaustion came over her, she was dehydrated and drained. “But for now I need to go to my room. I need to recover,” Evie said and almost fell over. Tayne rushed to her side in a second and caught her.
“I got you,” he said and picked her up, walking right back out from the bridge. “I'm tired too. If I rest here, do you promise you won't kill me?” Calibri asked them and Rex nodded.
“We won't kill you,” he replied to her and she smiled, turned and walked out. “Nymie, set a course for home, we are out of here,” Rex said to her and she smiled.
“I can't wait to get the hell home, not that I don't like you or anything, but I'm tired of this crap,” she said and started to set the course for home.
Chapter 20
“All in all, it wasn't that bad of a trip. We all almost died twice but hey, that was worth it right. No horrible unicorn experiences, not a single serious necromancer attack. No ghouls. Nothing. I've had worse trips,” Boz said to himself and turned on the television in the rec room. No one was transmitting anything, there wasn't an even a stand by message.
“Power must still be out back home,” he said and shut the television off and sighed. There wasn't much to do for a medical officer on the trip home. The door behind him opened and he turned around. Nymie walked in. “We still have a date to finish, don't we?” she asked him and sat down beside him after moving the table out on the slide it was on.
“I didn't think it was a date but sure if that's what you want to call it,” he said to her and laughed a little bit. “Did you know that Geo horn back on the island was the first one outside of training I've ever seen?” she asked him. “No way, that doesn't even seem possible,” he responded and she smiled. “It's always an Electro horn or if I'm really unlucky a Blood horn,” she said and Boz shook his head.
“Neither one sound very fun to me, how do you handle it,” Boz was curious, he hated dealing with those things. “I beat them up until they die, that is my always, never fail plan,” she said and laughed and Boz rolled his eyes. “Sure it is, sure, anyway. We don't get together much so I was wondering what you plan to do after you get back home,” Boz said and Nymie could only
smile.
The ship traveled through the rest of the day, the sun was beginning to set when it reached the Yalo wall. “Home sweet home,” Rex said with a smile.
“This is the, um…Voltarice two, I guess, is there anyone there?” Rex asked after he turned the communication panel from his chair on. There was no response. “Weird, the generators should still keep the official channels open. What's going on?” he asked to himself and tried again, but once again there was no answer.
They were still too far away to see their home for right now but be was beginning to get worried that something horrible had actually happened here at home while they were away.
“Drask, how's our communication, is anything wrong with our systems?” Rex asked into the intercom. “No, nothing that I can tell on this end but it's funny. I'm not detecting any signals from the surface dwellers either. It's like everything has disappeared,” she replied to him and Rex sighed.
“Thanks, keep trying to find someone and let me know when you do,” Rex said and sighed keeping his eyes on the viewing screen. He trusted all the sensors on the ship but he always liked to see things for himself, he would make his way to the deck once they got closer.
Evie was sleeping in her water chamber, and she was in the grip of a terrible nightmare. She stood in the streets of the surface capital, everything was on fire. “This is going on now, it's no dream,” Elrox said, standing behind her. “What caused this, why, what happened?” Evie had many questions but the God stood next to her. “It's your fault, but really you can't do anything about that now,” he replied to her, but smiled.
“Listen, you need to hurry up, it's not going to last much longer. Actually, it's not going to last more than three hours, you can make it. I have faith in you.” Elrox said to her. Evie could feel his warmth. She turned around to look at him, but was greeted with the decaying face of a Flesh unicorn's gnashing teeth. Evie woke up with a start and swam towards the intercom. “Rex, are you there?” she said out of breath. “Yeah I'm here what's up,” he replied.
