by Aaron Oster
She was surprised by his answer, not expecting that sort of response.
“Because,” Sarah said, placing her hands on her hips. “I want to know!”
Sarah didn’t really know what had prompted her to come to speak with the boy. Maybe it was because of how he fought, or because of the way he looked while doing so; or maybe, because he was all alone, and she could relate to that feeling. Regardless of why, she decided that he was going to become her friend, no matter what she had to do to convince him.
The boy blinked in surprise, then let out a snort and turned to walk away.
“Hey!” Sarah yelled, “don’t walk away from me!” But the boy ignored her.
Sarah was about to give chase, when she felt Hint’s hand land on her shoulder. She looked up to him, and he just shook his head.
“Let him be, Sarah.”
Sarah watched him disappear into the crowd and felt tears pricking at the corners of her eyes. She was sure the boy would want to be her friend if she just talked to him. She felt a sharp pain in her chest as he disappeared, and she wrapped her arms around Hint’s waist, burying her face in his shirt.
Hint patted the top on her head consolingly as she began to cry. It seemed an odd thing; to cry over something so small, but he could see the answer clear as day.
Sarah had just her first crush, and her first heartbreak.
8
Arnold dodged to the side as one of the assassins launched their signature poisoned needles at him.
He was confident that his skin could block them, but it never hurt to be careful, especially when dealing with trained killers.
He heard a small whisper of cloth from behind him and ducked, watching the needles, reflected by the moonlight, fly overhead. He lunged forward but was forced to roll to the side as another assassin attacked.
Arnold clenched his teeth in annoyance as he was continually thwarted by the assassins.
Every time he tried to attack one of them, another one would attack from his blind spot. He didn’t even have the time to use any skills, as he needed at least a few seconds of concentration to activate one.
He jumped back to avoid another set of needles, when something slammed into his back, hard enough to stagger him. Whirling on the spot, he saw one of the assassins flipping back away from him. He took a step toward that one, when he felt another impact on his back, this one much stronger than the last.
This wasn’t good. If they kept up like this, they would slowly pick him apart. He could, of course, try to drag this fight out until his men arrived, but that could take another hour and he didn’t think he’d be able to hold out that long. As it was right now, his only option would be a headlong charge against one of them, regardless of any attack that came his way. It was a horribly risky move, but it was either do this or die.
Arnold danced back from another attack and prepared himself for an all-out charge. Then the inn wall behind him exploded outward, sending a shower of debris down on them. One of the assassins flinched and Arnold saw his opening.
He moved forward in a blur and caught the man by his neck. He spun on the spot, crushing the assassin's throat and hurling him at the next closest man. The flying body took the assassin completely off guard, leaving him unable to react in time. The two bodies collided with a loud crunch and they both went down in a sprawling heap.
As soon as he sent the man flying, Arnold let his eyes flash momentarily up to the gap in the inn wall. He felt a grin touch his lips as he saw both Morgan and Sarah standing there, looking completely unhurt.
Now all he had to do was finish off the assassins.
By now, the others had gathered their wits and moved to try and surround him as they had before, but Arnold was having none of that. He stomped down hard on the ground, using his eruption skill. The ground trembled and shook, then a fountain of molten lava exploded upward, catching two of the assassins and cooking them to a crisp. The other four managed to avoid his attack and Arnold grinned as he turned to face them.
***
“What do we do?” Sarah asked, watching the fight unfolding below.
Morgan was torn.
On the one hand, he knew that Arnold was an enemy. He’d clearly been following them, likely intending to capture them both and have him killed. On the other hand, he was being attacked by the same men who’d come after them.
His mind worked furiously at the problem until a solution presented itself to him. He turned to Sarah, flashing her a wide grin and motioning her back from the opening.
“I now have access to my new extra skill. Let’s see what it can do.”
“Do you really think it’ll work?” she asked, fear still tingling her voice.
“Only one way to find out,” Morgan replied, then turned back to the fight below.
He still wasn’t entirely sure what the skill would do, but it did say that it would target a thirty-foot radius. That would catch everyone below in the area of effect and hopefully put an end to them all.
Concentrating for a moment, Morgan activated his gravity storm, visualizing where he wanted the attack to land. Both of his arms rose before him and he felt his RP drop to nearly zero. His body then floated out of the opening in the wall, but Morgan knew that it had nothing to do with his flight skill. This was all the doing of his extra skill.
Purple lightning began to crackle over his body as his arms spread out to the sides, palms facing up toward the sky above. Then, with a howling sound so loud it nearly deafened him, a massive funnel of spinning air came crashing down. His arms snapped out at the same time and sent a streak of purple lighting into the howling tornado.
He saw Arnold’s eyes widen for just a second, then the massive gravity storm crashed down onto him, hiding both him and the assassins from view. Morgan slowly floated down to the ground, where his skill released its hold on him. He looked on, watching the spinning vortex of wind and purple lighting in awe. He could feel the intense wave of gravity, emanating from the storm from where he was standing; and was shocked that he could unleash this sort of power.
Sarah walked up next to him and Morgan started in surprise.
How had she gotten down?
Turning away from the storm for a second, he saw a long ramp made of ice sloping down from the opening he’d created in the inn wall. He flashed her a grin as she turned to look at him. Her eyes widened when they met his and she tried to say something, but the howling of the storm drowned out any attempt at verbal communication.
Finally giving up, she tapped at her eyes then pointed to him. Morgan shrugged, having no idea what she wanted to tell him. A look of annoyance crossed her face, then she gestured and a sheet of ice formed in the air over her hand. The sheet floated up and Morgan could see himself reflected in its surface.
Did Sarah want him to admire her haircut now of all times?
Then the sheet of ice floated up to eye level and Morgan froze. Staring back at him were his usual features; all except for one very noticeable change.
What the hell had happened to his eyes?!
Instead of the usual bright silver, his eyes were a bright violet with only streaks of silver showing through. The whites of his eyes had now gone completely black, making his eyes seem to glow. No; he realized, they were glowing, it wasn’t just a trick of the light. The purple in his eyes also seemed to be shifting and swirling in a mesmerizing pattern, letting flashes of silver through from underneath.
Then a sudden and deafening silence overtook the area as his storm died. The moment it did, Morgan’s eyes returned to their previous color, the purple and black bleeding away until only silver remained.
“You can move the mirror now,” Morgan said, his voice sounding oddly muffled in the sudden stillness.
The ice mirror dropped to the ground and shattered with a loud tinkling noise. Sarah looked into his eyes once again and sagged in relief.
“Good, they’ve returned to normal. I was afraid that they’d stay like that forever.”
Morg
an nodded his agreement.
While he did look far more intimidating with his eyes glowing the way they had, it would be far too conspicuous for him to go unnoticed. He was pretty sure that his gravity storm had triggered it, as Sarah had never noticed his eyes changing color before; but he wondered at the odd color shift.
“Do you think that finished them all off?”
Morgan’s train of thought came to a halt as Sarah began moving toward the ten-foot crater he’d left in the ground.
One hell of a skill indeed, even if he could only use it once every eight hours.
Morgan jogged up next to her, and together, they approached the lip of the crater. Staring down, he could make out a few bodies, but couldn’t be sure if any of them were Arnold. The bodies had a slew of nasty looking injuries, from crushed bones to massive rents in their flesh. One of them was even charred to a crisp, with small streams of smoke wafting up from the corpse.
“That is one nasty skill. Glad I got out of there in time. I’m not sure that even I would have survived that.”
They both whirled on the spot to see Arnold standing in the center of the road with his arms folded over his chest.
Morgan felt his heart sink even as he took up a fighting stance and prepared to go down fighting. His supermage shield flared to life around him, but he didn’t yet have enough RP to summon a wind blade.
Arnold clocked an eyebrow when the purple glow surrounded him.
“Looks like the Princess was right. You are a supermage.”
“What the hell do you want, Arnold?” Sarah stepped forward, her mage shield flaring a bright blue as she did.
“From you? Nothing,” Arnold said, pulling a small glowing pendant from under his armor.
Sarah stumbled in surprise as he said this.
“Wait, what? Aren’t you here on my father’s orders?”
Arnold ignored her, fiddling with the pendant for a moment before he seemed satisfied with it. Then he raised it to his lips.
“I found him,” he said, then tucked the pendant back into his shirt.
Sarah gave Morgan a confused look, but he just shrugged in reply.
He was every bit as confused as she was. It was clear, though, that they were in no immediate danger. Otherwise, he would already have attacked.
“If you’re not here for Sarah, then why are you here? And who were those men dressed in black?” Morgan asked, allowing his shield to die down and relaxing his posture.
“Those men were from the assassin’s guild, likely sent for the little princess over there. Simon probably got tired of waiting, so he sent them after us. As for why I’m here, well, that would be for you,” he answered.
“Why me?” Morgan asked. “What possible interest could you have?”
“Oh, it’s not me who’s interested,” Arnold said with a snort.
“If not you, then who?” Sarah asked.
As if in answer to her question, a spatial tear opened up in the air not five feet away.
Morgan blinked in surprise.
Was that a portal?
“Well, after you,” Arnold said, motioning to the open portal.
“No way!” Sarah said, folding her arms over her chest. “There is no way the two of us are walking through some unknown portal.”
Morgan had to agree with her.
Who knew where this portal would transport them, let alone who was waiting on the other side.
“You can either step through on your own, or I’ll drag you through,” Arnold said with a shrug. “Your choice.”
Sarah looked as though she were about to object, but Morgan placed a hand on her shoulder. She gave him a questioning look, but he just shook his head.
There was no point in trying to fight. Arnold was much stronger than them and with his gravity storm on an eight-hour cooldown, there wasn’t much that could be done.
“Fine,” Morgan said, stepping in front of Sarah and walking up to the portal.
He stopped just a few inches from it, staring into the inky blackness beyond.
He really hoped this wasn’t an elaborate ruse by Arnold to get them back to Simon without a struggle. Oh well. It was too late to back out now.
Taking a deep breath, Morgan stepped forward, into the open portal.
9
The slight sense of vertigo that often accompanied portal travel, hit Morgan just as he was stepping out of it. It took him a moment to get his bearings and when he finally did, he stared at his new surroundings, mouth going slightly agape.
He was standing in what looked like a bedroom, but he had a hard time believing that anyone’s room could be this lavish. The floor under his feet was a blue and gray marble, flecked through with black and gold. The walls were richly decorated with an assortment of paintings, tapestries, and etchings, all depicting scenes of nature. A massive four poster bed was set against one wall and a large, furry carpet lay under it. There was a bookshelf against one wall, with a small mahogany desk and a plush looking chair sitting next to it.
The room was also dotted with several sofas and chairs, one of which contained a woman, who was lounging on her side and staring at him with a piercing gaze. Long, flowing golden hair hung in waves down her back, framing a perfect heart-shaped face with flawless, lightly tanned skin, and pouting red lips.
She was wearing a long, sleeveless blue gown that showed off her toned arms and clung to her every curve. She shifted slightly, sitting up from her lounging position, revealing a plunging neckline that showed more than a bit of her impressive cleavage.
Morgan noticed none of this, his eyes latching onto the only thing that really stood out to him.
Her eyes. They were a bright violet, just like his had been when he’d used his gravity storm. Could this be another supermage?
The woman rose gracefully from her sitting position and Morgan noticed for the first time that she was quite tall.
Nearly six feet if he wasn’t mistaken.
She approached him slowly, her hips swaying from side to side and when she eventually smiled at him; revealed a perfect set of gleaming white teeth. She continued walking forward until she was standing uncomfortably close to Morgan.
He was about to take a step back when her hand shot out, latching onto his shoulder and preventing him from moving back.
The strength of her grip alone convinced him that this woman could crush him like an insect if she so wished.
“It’s nice to finally meet you, Morgan.”
Her voice was rich and sultry, with a slightly playful undertone.
“Who are you, and why would you want to meet me?” he asked, trying to play for time.
Why wasn’t Sarah here yet? She should have come out right after him.
“My name is Katherine, Crown Princess of the North Kingdom. As to why I’ve wanted to meet you…” She trailed off here and flashed her perfect smile once more. “I’m sure you already know why.”
Morgan went stiff as a board.
He was standing before the Princess of the North Kingdom? If that were true and she already knew what he was, he was about to die. Sarah had told him of what she’d done and how powerful she was. He really didn’t stand a chance. Why did he have to keep running into people this strong?
“Are you going to kill me?” he asked, looking up into her eyes.
He now knew that she wasn’t a supermage. Sarah had said she was just a super. Albeit, one of the most powerful ones in all of the five kingdoms.
Katherine’s smile wavered a bit as he asked this.
This wasn’t going at all as she’d imagined. Most men would have been reduced to nervous, red-faced stammering by now. Either that or openly staring at her chest and drooling. Morgan wasn’t doing either, and he even seemed to be perfectly calm and composed. Even when he was asking if she was about to end his life, he appeared completely unbothered by the situation.
“There’s no need to worry,” she said, releasing his shoulder and allowing him to take a few steps back. “I didn’t h
ave Arnold bring you to me just so I could kill you.” She placed a hand on her hip and leaned it to one side.
This was a move she’d used many times in the past. It usually both distracted and enticed at the same time. It should give her a pretty good idea of what she was dealing with. She didn’t know much about him, other than what Arnold had told her, and that wasn’t much.
Morgan folded his arms, keeping his eyes locked on hers.
Now that he knew she wasn’t going to kill him, he needed to get some answers out of her.
“Why hasn’t Sarah come through the portal yet?”
Katherine pouted a bit when he mentioned Sarah’s name, but her perfect smile was back in place after just a moment.
“I set that portal on a bit of delay. Your friend and my subordinate should be arriving sometime in the next hour or so. I wanted some time alone with you before they did.”
Morgan frowned when he heard this.
She was much more powerful than he’d thought. If she could not only control distance, but also the time in which it took to arrive; then he had a feeling that the power she’d shown at the academy was only a hint of what she could really do.
“So, if you’re not going to kill me, then why did you want to meet me?”
Katherine moved her hand from her hip and moved it up to a small gold pendant around her neck in the pretext of fixing it.
Morgan’s eyes had flickered, if only for a fraction of a second, down to her hips, but that wasn’t enough to tell her if he was interested, or if his eyes only followed the movement out of reflex.
“There are many reasons why I wanted to meet you, but foremost among them is that you are a supermage. Believe it or not, this is my first time meeting one of your kind.”
“How did you find out?” he asked.
He was feeling at a distinct disadvantage dealing with someone so powerful and of such a high station without Sarah here. She was a noble after all, and much better with people than he was.
Katherine slid her hand down to rest at her side, her smile slipping just a bit as she did so.
