Defying Destiny

by Andrew Rowe

  He continued walking down the path, watching Kyestri closely.

  “You know, I really don’t think that’s the wisest course of action you can make right now, young paladin.” Kyestri lifted the hammer again, propping it against his shoulder. Whether or not it was Koranir’s actual hammer, it looked tremendously heavy, and Kyestri was holding it in one hand with seemingly no effort.

  With the hammer in hand, Kyestri stepped right into the middle of the road.

  Taelien sighed. “Look, even on my best day, I’m no good at political talk. I’m tired, injured, and carrying two friends. Either take a swing at me or get out of my way.”

  Wrynn whispered something in Taelien’s ear. He stiffened, gave a slight nod of affirmation, but didn’t otherwise react.

  “Very well.” Kyestri shook his head. “I was truly hoping we could find an amicable arrangement, but alas.” Kyestri snapped his fingers.

  Taelien was ready for Kyestri to attack. He wasn’t quite ready for the barbed spear that flew out of the still-open portal, straight for the center of his chest.

  Both his hands were occupied, and jumping to the side risked crushing one of the people he was carrying.

  Instead, he concentrated.

  Magnetic repulse.

  A burst of metal sorcery deflected the hurled projectile, sending it to crash into a nearby tree.

  Kyestri’s mask-covered-face turned toward the tree. “Hm. Your metal sorcery skills are perhaps a bit better than advertised.”

  “I’d like to think I’m getting better all the time.” Taelien smirked. “You’ll be an interesting challenge. Metal against stone.”

  “Is that what you’re expecting?” Kyestri shook his head. “Foolish. I am no ordinary sorcerer. You’ll soon see that your powers are feeble compared to my own.”

  “Spooky. I’ll look forward to letting my sword prove how wrong you are in a moment. Before we get this dance started, though, I have to ask, though — what’s your goal here? The Sae’kes?”

  “The Sae’kes?” Kyestri snorted. “You think overmuch of yourself, child. Not everything is about you. No, you’ve simply stumbled upon something I’ve been looking for, and I could not allow you to hold onto it.”

  “I was hoping for a more descriptive monologue, but I guess that’s a good enough starting point. Okay. I guess if you’re going to be vague, I suppose I can be the one who tells you something.”

  “Oh?” Kyestri sounded amused. “And what would that be?”

  “Spears are great throwing weapons. But you know what’s better?”

  Kyestri was silent for a moment, then replied in a confused tone, “If you’re going to say swords, you’re definitely—”

  Taelien threw Wrynn Jaden at Kyestri.

  She spun around in mid-air, her right leg already glowing with inner light. Her boot slammed into Kyestri’s mask, snapping his head back and leaving deep cracks in the surface of the stone. He staggered back a step, but he was already swinging his hammer before Wrynn even landed.

  The hammer didn’t connect, but it didn’t have to.

  There was a crack of thunder the moment Kyestri brought the weapon down. The ground beneath him shattered, leaving a massive crater, and a spherical burst of force surged outward and blasted Wrynn from the air. She flew backward, slamming into a nearby tree, which cracked at the force of the impact.

  Even Taelien, standing several feet away, was knocked backward by the sheer force of swing. And, as he quickly realized, that was a mere casual flick of the hammer, not a direct attack.

  Ooh. I like that thing. Definitely don’t want to get hit by it, though.

  He spared a single glance toward Wrynn, who was already groaning and picking herself up from the ground, before rushing for cover. He ducked just in time to avoid what happened next — Kyestri swung the hammer again, this time horizontally, and a compressed wave of pressure rippled through the air toward him. As it went above him without making contact, he still felt the crushing force pressing down on him, threatening to push him against the ground. When the pressure wave hit a nearby tree, the portion of it that the wave struck collapsed inward, like it was being crushed by a gigantic fist.

  Hm. Tree cover isn’t going to do much, I guess.

  He ran behind a tree regardless. Protection wasn’t his goal, he simply needed a moment of cover.

  Wrynn was up again, rushing at Kyestri and flicking her wrists. A pair of glittering knives flew from her sleeves, smacking against Kyestri’s mask and leaving gouges in the side.

  He grunted, then started to swing his hammer again. Wrynn jumped, surged forward in a blur, and landed atop the hammer. Then she kicked him in the face, hopped off, and kicked him again from behind.

  Kyestri swung around, letting out a growl of annoyance, but showing little real harm. “You’re more spry than I would have expected, Prime Lady Jaden, given your injuries.”

  “I’d like to think I keep in good shape for my age.” She grinned.

  Taelien finished finding a satisfactory spot and laid Lydia down against the ground. Then, he pulled Sculptor from his hip and concentrated on the earth.

  Reshape.

  The stone shaping knife assisted his focus, allowing him to quickly raise a section of the ground into a curved wall that sheltered Lydia’s unconscious body. With an additional moment of focus, he concentrated on hardening the earth he’d raised as much as possible. Then, he returned Sculptor to the sheath on his belt.

  Hopefully that’ll protect her from collateral damage, at least. I doubt it would take a direct hit from that hammer, but if it gets a direct hit, that means something has gone very wrong.

  With Lydia being at least somewhat secure, he stood just in time to see a barrage of stone projectiles flying in his direction.

  His hand shot downward and drew the Sae’kes, bringing the blade upward and into the first of the projectiles. The sword’s destructive aura ripped through the stone before it touched the metal, and he quickly repeated the process, swinging the blade in a flurry of cuts.

  Kyestri wasn’t even looking at him — he’d commanded the stone with a simple gesture in Taelien’s direction. His focus was on Wrynn, who was hounding him with a series of rapid punches, her fists now enshrouded in an inky black aura.

  “You’re quite talented, Prime Lady Jaden. I would feel much more threatened if you were actually capable of using your true strength. With that seal of yours, you can’t hope to harm me.” Kyestri gestured to the ground. The dirt beneath Wrynn liquefied, then flowed upward and solidified around her legs.

  Wrynn put her hands together and shoved them outward. “Oh, you might be surprised.” A dozen ribbons of darkness emitted from her palms, slicing through the air. When they hit Kyestri’s armor, they left deep furrows in the metal and blood streaming from the wounds inflicted on the person beneath.

  Taelien rushed forward, closer to the fight, his sword raised. For the moment, the Sae’kes aura was largely under control, with five runes lit. He could have controlled it better by passing it between his hands, but he didn’t have the time.

  Kyestri swung his hammer at Wrynn, and with her legs bound by stone, she was in no position to dodge.

  Instead, she simply raised her arms in an x-shape in front of her body, a thick veil of shadow flowing over them.

  The hammer connected. There was a tremendous crack on the impact as an explosion of conflicting forms of power ripped the air around Kyestri and Wrynn asunder. The resulting blast of cutting shadows and pressure spread rapidly across the forest glen, leaving meter-wide cracks in the ground and shearing through entire trees and rocks.

  Wrynn took the worst of it. The shadows around her arms might have diminished the impact, but they couldn’t possibly stop a direct hit from a weapon of that level of power. Her impact bent her backward and splintered her forearms, leaving them bleeding and very likely broken. She collapsed to the ground after that, unmoving, a pile of rubble around her from where the stone surrounding her legs had s
hattered apart. From her position, dodging or blocking another attack looked nearly impossible, and Taelien couldn’t tell if she was still conscious.

  Kyestri was clearly staggered by the explosion as well, reeling backward, with a small crack visible in the shaft of his hammer. He was recovering quickly, though, and preparing to take another swing.

  Taelien instinctively side-stepped a cutting wave of darkness that emitted from the impact and rushed forward to close the distance. By the time Kyestri was swinging around, Taelien was in the way.

  He didn’t raise the Sae’kes to block. Blocking was never really Taelien’s style.

  In Taelien’s mind, the best way to stop a devastating attack was to hit it with even greater force.

  Body of Iron.

  He brought the Sae’kes down in a two-handed swing, focusing the destructive aura into the point of impact where he slammed it into the shaft of Kyestri’s hammer.

  There was no concussive shockwave as one legendary artifact met another. No mutually-destructive wave of power as one or another powerful item shattered on impact.

  Taelien had aimed for the crack in the hammer’s shaft. And when he struck, he cleaved straight through without resistance.

  Legendary artifacts, it seemed, were not all built to identical specifications.

  As their momentum continued, the still-glimmering head of Kyestri’s hammer flew off harmlessly into the distance, crashing into a boulder that crumpled inward like a ball of paper on impact.

  Taelien’s swing, conversely, continued through the shaft of the weapon and cut a gouge straight through the armor on Kyestri’s right arm and into his bicep. He deliberately pulled the swing to avoid cutting all the way through Kyestri’s arm, then swung the point upward to rest it at Kyestri’s neck. “You’ve lost. Surrender.”

  Kyestri’s other hand shot out, grabbing Taelien around the neck. “I think not. Petrify.”

  Taelien’s eyes widened as his throat suddenly felt constricted. He understood what was happening in an instant, bringing his sword down and severing Kyestri’s left arm at the wrist.

  Then he fell backward, pulling Kyestri’s severed hand off his neck.

  ...But it was too late. The spell had already taken effect, and his body was beginning to turn to stone.

  Taelien released his left hand from the grip of the Sae’kes, gripping at his throat as he began to choke.

  Stop, he commanded the spread of stone. It was stone sorcery, after all — he could feel the stone essence spreading throughout his body, and he could resist it.

  But he wasn’t strong enough. He was no Prime Lord of Stone, and the potency of the spell was beyond his current strength. He was able to slow the progression, but failed to stop it.

  As he watched in horror, Kyestri sighed, discarded the useless shaft of his hammer, and began to change.

  His body seemed to liquefy, turning into something resembling flowing mud. The armor he was wearing fell into a pile, his broken mask falling alongside it and finally shattering apart.

  The mud-form moved to the side of the pile, then re-solidified into a taller and more bestial shape.

  He stood nine feet tall, still vaguely humanoid, but with vicious fangs and four glowing red eyes. His skin had turned to dark blue, with bits of armor-like carapace forming over it. His right arm now ended in a six-fingered claw, spikes protruded from his back and forehead, and a spined tail sprouted from his back.

  His left wrist still ended at a stump, and as he glanced down at it, he let out a hiss. “Destroyed. Your weapon is potent.” Kyestri — or whatever had been pretending to be Kyestri — turned toward him. “I will enjoy using it.”

  Taelien fell to his knees, his vision briefly going black. In desperation, his free hand fumbled across his belt until he found a hilt.

  He grabbed Sculptor, drawing it and pressing the blade against his neck. The knife bit into the bare portion that remained flesh, drawing blood. And with that, he could feel the power of the knife flowing into his body.

  Stop. Reverse.

  With Sculptor’s aid, he began to push the petrification spell back.

  That did, however, take all of his effort. He had no way of raising his sword to block or counter when Kyestri surged forward far faster than he’d moved before, then took a claw and raked it across Taelien’s face.

  Blood flowed across Taelien’s face. Blood flowed from open wounds where claws gouged him, but none of them went particularly deep.

  The impact jarred Taelien’s hand, moving Sculptor out of position and leaving a red trail across Taelien’s neck. Fortunately, his Body of Iron was still in effect and prevented it from cutting deeply.

  Instinctively, he jabbed upward with the knife in response to the attack, but Kyestri merely gripped his wrist. “Petrify.”

  And with that, Taelien’s left arm began to turn to stone.

  Taelien swept the Sae’kes upward, swinging for Kyestri’s other arm. Kyestri was faster, releasing Taelien’s grip and avoiding the swing, then jumping backward as a boulder smashed the ground where he’d been standing a moment before.

  Wrynn?

  But Wrynn was still on the ground nearby, unmoving.

  Then who—

  Taelien coughed, his vision blurring. The petrification spells were both spreading again now, and he needed to concentrate to try to stop them.

  Through his distorted vision and the haze of pain, he barely understood what happened next.

  A glowing figure flew in front of him, shimmering with green and white energy. She was wreathed in a halo of leaves, and when she raised her hand, a tiny sphere of light appeared above her palm. “Ancient servant of the Sun Eater, you have no place in this world. Begone.”

  The speaker was Lydia, but the voice was not her own.

  Still, Taelien recognized it. He had heard the faintest whispers of it in his mind when he’d first carried a green gemstone out of the Paths of Ascension in Orlyn.

  Lydia closed her hand into a fist, then reopened it. A spiraling nimbus of green-white energy shot forward. Kyestri’s eyes widened and he stomped the ground, raising a stone wall between them. The blast tore straight through the wall and struck him in the chest, leaving a gaping hole.

  Taelien continued concentrating on the stone mana in his body. With Sculptor still in his grip, he was barely holding the two spells at bay, and his breathing was labored by the portion of his neck that remained in a stone form.

  Release Body of Iron.

  Body of Stone.

  It was a risky move. By flooding more stone essence into his body, he risked worsening the spell if he lost control.

  But this stone essence was his, invoked by his own sorcery. He sent the conjured essence toward the petrification spell, then forced the energies into contact and willed the petrification spell to change.

  His body and spirit trembled with effort.

  Kyestri stumbled back from his broken wall, clutching his chest. He spat blood, growled, and then bent double with pain. He shivered for a moment, then rose again.

  The hole in his chest had closed, as if it had never been there.

  “Shapeshifting to heal your injuries? An advanced technique.” The voice was Lydia’s this time, at least at the start. “I will not allow it to continue,” she continued in the other voice.

  Kyestri spoke her name, confirming Taelien’s suspicions. “Vendria. Or, Venora, I should say. It seems you have found a host body.” He snarled, turning his head to the side. “No matter. With only two pieces, you are still out of balance. Your power and control will be weak.”

  Lydia floated to the ground. “You’ve missed a key detail.” She pointed at herself. “This mortal body is not a mere ‘host’. She has shared her strength with me, and I with her. And together—” She pointed her finger at Kyestri, “We have made a new whole.”

  Another blast of light flashed from her finger. This time, Kyestri dove aside, swinging his own hand. His shattered stone wall separated into spikes, flying at Lyd
ia.

  They crashed into her and splintered on contact without any effect.

  Lydia snapped her fingers.

  The ground beneath Kyestri transformed into crystalline chains, which shot upward and entangled his body. He struggled against them, but more chains fell into place with each moment.

  “I will learn why you are here.” Lydia floated forward, still glowing with bright light. “And you will be punished for harming my friends.”

  Then she whispered to herself, “Your turn.”

  The aura around her changed in a moment. Instead of a vital aura of glimmering green, it was blue and white. The temperature in the forest dropped precipitously, with the ground beneath her freezing solid. The tips of her hair turned frosted white.

  As Kyestri struggled to swing at her, she effortlessly grabbed his hand.

  “Freeze.”

  Kyestri froze solid in an instant, his body a statue of ice.

  Lydia turned away from him, shivering for an instant, then the glowing aura around her faded as she settled down against the ground. She blinked, scanning the area and seeming to see it with new eyes. “Taelien!” Her eyes settled on him and she began to walk forward. Her leg very nearly buckled as she stepped forward. “Ah. Easy to forget about that. Hold on, I’ll help you.” A stone staff formed in her right hand, and she began to use to it walk forward toward where Taelien was still focusing on the ground.

  Change.

  He continued to will the petrification spells to shift at his command, and they continued to resist him. Perhaps if Lydia could reinforce his efforts with her newly-gained stone sorcery, together they could...

  “Look...out...” Taelien barely managed to choke out the warning, his vision flashing red from the effort of speech.

  Lydia spun just in time to see what he’d seen — a second figure emerging from the still-open portal that Kyestri had opened.

  “Well, well. It seems you’ve started the party without me, haven’t you?”

  Jonathan Sterling smirked as he stepped out of the portal, a gleaming white-bladed sword rested against his shoulder. “Can’t have that. I’ve been waiting for this for entirely too long.”