by Andrew Rowe
“You’re assuming I’m afraid of the consequences of breaking your seal.” Sterling pressed his hands together, forming a sphere of utter blackness between his hands. “You’re mistaken.”
He hurled the orb, and Wrynn’s eyes widened as she recognized it, just as Lydia did.
More void sorcery. If he keeps hitting her with that...
Wrynn leapt out of the way of the orb, but as she jumped, Sterling lifted his left hand, vanished, and appeared right below her. He redrew his golden sword in a classic execution of the Instant Striking Style, slicing upward. An aura of burning light covered the blade as he swung.
Wrynn reacted in an instant, a barrier forming around her arms as she blocked his swing. There was a flash of light from his sword on impact, cracking the barrier, but failing to break it. The force of the impact still carried her backward, and she landed in an uncharacteristic stumble. It was only after she landed that Lydia saw the real damage — that flash of light had blasted several holes in the shadeweave tunic she was wearing. He hadn’t worsened her injuries much, but now she had more clear vulnerable points for Sterling to target with future attacks.
As Sterling lunged for another swing, something caught him from behind — a solid shadow, grabbing underneath his shoulders.
Wrynn flicked her wrist. A dagger with a silvery blade flew out of her sleeve.
Sterling raised his left hand and vanished again. “Irritating.” Sterling appeared right in front of Lydia, smashing a fist into her chest. She flew backward, crashing into a nearby tree. Venora’s barrier had absorbed much of the force of the punch, but the impact still sent a jolt of pain through her body. She groaned, her vision swimming.
Then Sterling vanished again, appearing in front of Wrynn and swinging his sword at her chest.
Wrynn hopped backward to avoid the blade, bringing her hand forward as she moved. A burst of tenebrous force erupted from her palm, slamming into Sterling a moment later.
Sterling ignored her attack entirely, walking right through it. “Miss Jaden. Wrynn. Can I call you Wrynn?” He smiled. “You’re not in any condition to fight me right now. Withdraw, and I’ll allow your involvement here to be forgotten.”
Wrynn responded by snarling and blurring forward, shoving an open hand into the center of Sterling’s chest. There a web of shadows spread over his body, then anchored themselves into the ground.
Sterling was immobilized, but only a moment. When she swung her other hand, blazing with fire, he shifted his arm, vanished, and appeared behind her.
Lydia grunted, barely finding the strength to push herself off the ground.
Need...to...get...help...
She waved her hand, lifting the remaining dream dust with the wind. Then, with a gesture, she sent it deeper into the woods.
Wrynn spun around, smoothly continuing her attack, but Sterling simply vanished again and appeared a few feet further away. “Tsk. You can’t hit me like that, Wrynn. And even if you did, nothing you have here can harm me.”
Sterling flicked a finger in Wrynn’s direction. A blast of light shot out from it, piercing through her right shoulder, where her tunic had already been burned away. Wrynn gasped and reached upward, a glow forming on her hand that Lydia suspected was a healing spell.
She didn’t have time to finish it before Sterling swung again, leaving a long cut across her forearm.
Wrynn jumped back, a blast of energy at her feet carrying her a dozen feet away. Sterling jumped right after her.
Lydia’s eyes found the Sae’kes, still inches from Taelien’s hand.
Taelien was still dozens of feet from her. She couldn’t touch him to reverse the petrification...but the sword was lightweight.
Gods, forgive me for this transgression.
She whipped her hand in a cutting motion toward Sterling. And, carried on the wind, the sword followed.
Sterling’s eyes widened as he saw it flying toward him. He vanished, appearing a few feet away.
Wrynn blurred forward with breathtaking speed and hurled herself on top of Sterling. “Void.”
Her hand shifted to the same color as the sword that had cut her, and for a moment, that darkness spread into Sterling.
Lydia twisted her hand. The floating sword turned, aiming straight for Sterling.
Sterling reversed Wrynn’s grapple, spinning her around to put her in front of him and restrain her. Wrynn struggled against Sterling, but failed to free herself. “Stop,” he hissed. “You’d have to go through her.”
The sword floated in front of them both.
Wrynn snarled, then turned to Lydia...and nodded.
Lydia lifted her hand, bringing it backward and preparing to sweep it forward in one final, definitive strike.
Then stone burst from the ground, moving upward and wrapping around the hilt of the Sae’kes, locking it in place.
Lydia’s heart sank, and she understood — her time had run out.
Kyestri was free.
He stood in his monstrous form, shaking off the last pieces of ice that had entombed him. With a crack of his neck, he turned toward Sterling. “You should have come immediately.”
“I like to wait and make my entrance at the most dramatic moment possible. Excellent work on your part, by the way. You’re just in time for the finale.” Sterling pulled Wrynn closer, speaking directly into her ear. “Now, I’ve always wondered...just how powerful is a rethri prime lord? I suppose I’ll find out.”
Lydia commanded the wind to push the Sae’kes, but it accomplished nothing. Her spell wasn’t strong enough to break it free from the stone.
“No, stop. The seal.” Wrynn managed to wriggle a single arm free, waving it frantically, but to no noticeable effect.
“I think I’ve already made it quite clear I don’t care about that little issue. Now, let’s begin.”
Wrynn screamed.
Lydia shuddered. She couldn’t see what was happening, but she remembered how it felt.
I need to stop this.
The sword is trapped. Taelien is still down. I need...
Her eyes searched, and she found it.
Her hand whipped upward, and once again, the winds answered her command.
A moment later, the massive head of En-Vamir, the Hammer that Broke the Spine of the World, slammed straight into Sterling’s back.
There was a loud crack as the runes on the hammerhead flashed, and then a blast wave shook the forest.
Sterling stumbled forward, and Wrynn slipped free from his grasp, crumpling on the ground.
“That...” Sterling coughed, spinning toward Lydia and gritting his teeth, “...actually hurt.”
“Good.” Lydia twitched her hand. The hammerhead flew at him a second time, straight for his head.
Sterling caught it in a single hand, shaking his head. There was a crack on impact, but as the pressure built, it seemed to soak backward — straight into Sterling’s hand. “No.” He narrowed his eyes. “I don’t think you understand who you’re dealing with.”
There was another flash from the hammerhead.
Then a different sort of crack as the runes on the hammerhead began to flicker, and Sterling’s hand began to grow brighter.
No.
Lydia shifted the winds, but they couldn’t tear the hammerhead from his grip. With every passing moment, the artifact’s power weakened, and Sterling’s grew.
I’m not strong enough to tear it from him, and I can barely move. I need to move it faster, but how? I don’t have motion sorcery like Velas, and—
And then she remembered. A spell used on her before, that she understood, but had never used.
Casting spell based purely on what she’d interpreted from Comprehensive Barrier was difficult, but not impossible.
Casting a spell from a dominion she wasn’t familiar with was always a risk.
And casting a powerful spell without trying a weaker one first was, as a general rule, a terrible idea.
But while Lydia was usually averse to risks, she was even more aver
se to Sterling stealing the last remaining threads of power from a legendary Tae’os artifact.
So, she concentrated and whispered, using the winds as a medium.
“Superior Teleportation.”
It was Erik Tarren’s spell, the one he’d tried to use to move her from his home. An extreme manifestation of travel sorcery, one far too advanced to use properly without practice.
But she understood it intuitively. She’d been reading Tarren’s books on theory since childhood, watched Garrick practice his spells, and experienced teleportation directly. She understood the function, and the exchange.
En-Vamir’s flickering hammerhead vanished from Sterling’s grasp.
Lydia felt a surge of pain in her muscles and bones as the spell extracted its cost. She sagged, even as the hammerhead reappeared, falling to crash into the ground in front of her. It formed a small crater as it landed.
She was exhausted. Her body burned. But she couldn’t rest, not yet.
Venlyra, I need a little help. Anything.
[I will do what I can.]
She felt a pulse of strength filling her as she reached for the hammerhead. The winds carried it toward her, and she drew from the strength Venlyra had given her to form another stone object. Not a staff, this time.
Instead, she formed the haft of a hammer. It connected with the hammerhead securely, locking it in place. Then she pulled the hammer back to swing.
Sterling’s head turned toward her, and he raised his right hand. She knew what was coming next — he telegraphed the same way each time.
When Sterling reappeared right behind her, she was already swinging.
En-Vamir cracked straight into the center of his chest.
There was a burst of pressure on impact. Sterling flew backward, but landed on the ground in a slide, growling.
The hammer had hit him hard, but not hard enough. He’d already stolen too much of its strength for it to do him much harm.
Still, there was nothing saying she couldn’t hit him more than once.
When Sterling teleported again, she knew simply spinning wouldn’t catch him a second time. So, when she spun, she whispered as well.
“Superior Teleport.”
She reappeared behind him, still swinging. The hammer cracked into his back, knocking him down to his knees.
“Agh!”
She lifted the hammer again, but Sterling turned and grabbed the shaft. He snarled. “You...you hurt me. Me!”
In a moment, the stone handle was crushed to powder. Then with a gesture, he sent her flying backward. She crashed into the ground only a couple feet from Wrynn, who was still writhing on the ground in agony, presumably due to the damage to her seal.
She impacted hard, but her shield and Venora’s strength spell kept her from losing consciousness.
Sadly, she only held a half-piece of the stone shaft of the hammer in her hand. The hammerhead had fallen on the ground where she’d stood before.
I don’t have enough strength left for another teleport, she realized. It might kill me. I’ll need to go another route.
Lydia flicked her hand upward again.
Her ring began to fly toward her, only for another burst of stone to erupt from the ground and encase it.
“None of that.” Kyestri said, striding toward her. “You’re done.”
Sterling appeared right in front of her, smiling and raising a fist. Compressed power flowed around it, growing by the moment. “I’d stop to steal your sorcery, but we’ve already danced that dance, haven’t we? I think it’s enough to just kill you here. Goodbye, Lydia Hastings.”
When he pulled back his leg to swing, he frowned and looked down.
Wrynn had grabbed him around the leg. “Void. Stop.”
Black energy shot through his leg, then ice spread across his body.
He swung his fist downward, but stopped mid-way as the ice encased him.
Wrynn collapsed again, her eyes closed.
Kyestri glanced at them, made a dismissive “tsk”, and then turned toward Lydia. “That won’t last long, but I suppose this leaves me with a brief window to pursue some revenge of my own.”
There was a flash of steel as a knife flew through the air.
Not one of Wrynn’s.
Sculptor flew from Taelien’s outstretched hand, cutting straight through the stone that had trapped Lydia’s ring.
She shot him a glance. He was still on the ground, breathing heavily, but the stone around his neck and arm were gone. He’d broken the spells himself.
His hand moved, then the trajectory of the knife changed, whipping through the air to cut through the stone below the Sae’kes.
Both ring and sword fell toward the ground.
“Lydia!” He yelled.
She understood. With a gesture, the winds answered her call again, though she knew they would not much longer. Her breathing was rapidly weakening.
Her ring, still partially encased in stone, flew to her hand.
Taelien’s sword flew toward his — only to stop-part way, as more stone erupted around it.
Kyestri strode forward, shaking his head. “I don’t believe I’ll allow that.”
Taelien stood up, glaring at Kyestri, then a smirk crossed his face. “Then I suppose we’re doing this the old fashioned way.”
“This time, I will break you to pieces, fool.” Kyestri surged forward, grabbing Taelien around the neck. “Petrify.”
Stone spread across Taelien’s neck briefly...then stopped. Then reversed.
Taelien stared at his opponent silently.
Kyestri squeezed down on Taelien’s neck to no apparent effect.
Taelien reached upward, casually grabbing Kyestri’s wrist and bending it downward.
“Ah...ah...” Kyestri grunted. “...How...?”
Taelien pulled Kyestri downward, bringing them face to face. “As it turns out, your spell is actually pretty similar to something I use. Took me a while to figure out the best way to handle it, but to summarize, you just made me stronger.” His smirk broadened. “Oops?”
Then he slammed his fist into Kyestri’s gut. The huge monster bent over double, coughing.
Crack.
Another of Taelien’s punches carried Kyestri off his feet, sending him to sprawl, insensate, out on the ground.
“Now, to deal with—”
Sterling appeared next to Lydia, his sword flashing toward her neck.
Lydia wasn’t anywhere near fast enough to stop it. Her barriers were gone, and there was nowhere to dodge.
His sword paused mid-swing. Sterling made a confused expression, seeming to struggle against some invisible force. Then he snarled and turned toward Taelien. “When did you...?”
Taelien stepped closer, the Sae’kes in one hand, the other empty and outstretched. “That’s one of Kyestri’s weapons, the Descent of Twilight. I suspected he was going to betray us. I lightly magnetized all the weapons he let me pick up in his gallery.”
“And since you altered the metal, it doesn’t feel like a spell.” Sterling growled. “Fine. Take a few more moments to die.”
Sterling swung a fist in Taelien’s direction. A blast of compressed force surged outward, knocking Taelien backward.
Then he spun toward Lydia, only to find a hand wearing a silvery ring in his face.
“Eru volar shen taris.”
A blast of blue-white flame flashed forward, right into Sterling’s face.
He stumbled backward, raising a hand to his face and screaming.
When the flames cleared, his hair was burned away...but there was no obvious sign of harm.
Sterling snarled, blinking reddened eyes. “You...nearly blinded me...”
Lydia took the moment she had to act. “Sorcerous shield. Comprehensive barrier.”
Barriers flickered into place around her. She didn’t have to hurt Sterling — she just had to survive what came next.
Sterling charged at her, sword raised. She ducked. His first swing was sloppy, likel
y on account of his still-recovering vision. He missed her entirely.
“You...probably hoped to kill me with that.” Sterling laughed. “I’m surprised. I didn’t think you had it in you, paladin. Perhaps a year ago, you could have. But I saw you use the ring before. I prepared.”
“You talk too much.” Taelien put a hand on Sterling’s shoulder, spun him around, and slammed a fist straight into his face.
And, when Sterling reached upward, there was blood flowing freely from his nose.
Sterling staggered backward, raising a hand. “You...”
“Yep, me.” Taelien threw another punch, but this time Sterling swung his glimmering sword between the two of them. Taelien tried to side-step it, but Sterling was faster. He left a shallow wound across Taelien’s left side.
Taelien grimaced, then took a cautious step backward, raising his left hand.
The Sae’kes, still encased in stone, shook but failed to break free.
Venora, Venlyra, can you help with that?
There was no reply. The stones had run out of power, at least for now.
Sterling raised his left hand, seemingly trying to teleport again, but Taelien stepped forward. He took a cut in the process, but managed to get his hands around both of Sterling’s wrists.
Then Taelien bashed his forehead into Sterling’s already-bleeding nose.
Sterling snarled, slipped his empty hand free, and raised it. He didn’t teleport, though. He collected another wave of concussive force and slammed it straight into Taelien’s shoulder.
Taelien flew backward, hitting the ground hard. When he cracked against the ground, it looked like his left shoulder might have been dislocated from the punch.
Sterling groaned, raised a hand to wipe the blood off his face, and then turned toward Lydia. He flicked his sword upward and a cutting wave of light shot forward.
Lydia raised her arms in front of her face, concentrating on her barriers. The attack diminished as it went through them, but cut through all the same, leaving bloody gashes across both her forearms.
When Sterling strode forward, she discarded her usual strategies for a different one.
With a blast of wind, she slammed straight into him, carrying the two in a tumble to the ground.
“Sleep.” She pressed her bleeding hands against him, focusing her power. “Sleep. Sleep. Sleep!”
