by T. S. Mann
John nodded, fully aware of how much absolute loathing Mother Eagle had for him that her oath forced her to suppress. She turned to Ethan next.
“Second: Ethan Kent, you are released from any and all oaths you have sworn to the Unity Blade and will no longer be considered a member of our order. No action will be taken against you for any betrayals you may have committed against us.”
Behind her, Brother Falcon curled his lip in disdain at Ethan while Brother Kestrel simply looked away.
“Um, thanks?” said Ethan.
“And the third matter?” Electra asked.
Mother Eagle turned towards the sound of Electra’s voice, and her grip tightened on her cane.
“After careful reconsideration of the oath you blackmailed me into swearing, Electra, it occurs to me that at no point did I ever agree to grant absolution to you!” Then, the old woman pointed her cane directly at her former disciple.
“Sanctumen Utimo!” she shouted in a righteous fury.
A blinding flash of light shot out of the cane and struck Electra before anyone could react. Almost instantly, Electra’s enchanted jacket and her two pistols landed in a pile at Mother Eagle’s feet.
Meanwhile Dani, now stripped of her fiction cloak and back in her true form, dropped to her knees with her hands bound by magical shackles that robbed her of her magic. She looked up at the old woman in shock.
“Daniela Torres,” Mother Eagle said imperiously, “for your actions this night, I accuse you of treason against the Church of the Unity Blade, of acting in the service of the Adversary, and of recklessly endangering Reality itself. You will be taken from this place back to the Aerie where you will be subjected to formal inquisition … followed swiftly by your execution!”
CHAPTER 19:
APOTHEOSIS PLUS ONE
Instantly, Mother Eagle’s pronouncement caused a storm surge of emotions to wash across the room. Her fellow Blade members were almost uniformly pleased with her declaration, as Electra was widely disliked among the paladins for her first defection and openly hated for her second. The Collegians were more ambivalent but were generally supportive of the woman who’d been a member of their order for years, albeit usually a disagreeable and often frightening one.
Matt, Luke, and Ethan were all completely outraged, to the point that Matt’s hands reflexively lit up with golden fire. In response, all the paladins drew their swords. Violence between the two factions seemed imminent until Doc raised his hands and spoke loudly enough to be heard over everyone else.
“Enough! We have just defeated a powerful facet of the Beyond and saved the world in the process. I will not have that victory sullied by a stupid inter-factional brawl!”
While the psychomancer held everyone’s attention, no one seemed willing back down. Annoyed, he emphasized his words with magic.
“Pax Maximus!”
A wave of blue swept out in all directions from the old man, and immediately, all the paladins sheathed their blades and then looked around at one another in confusion. Simultaneously, Matt and the few Collegians who had begun summoning up attack magic felt their spells being snuffed out.
Save for Doc himself, Mother Eagle, and possibly Lionel Bartok, violence suddenly became unthinkable for those Strangers present, much to Matt’s chagrin.
“Doc! What are you doing?!? You can’t just let these assholes take her!”
“Matt, just shut up, okay?” interrupted Dani. “Fighting is what she wants. If anyone attacks the Blade in here, she’ll be free from the oaths she’s made, and she’ll be able to kill you and your family. And probably everyone else in the room who’s not on her side.”
“The traitor speaks the truth, Matthew Sullivan,” Mother Eagle said piously. “I have granted you, your brother, and your father absolution. Spurn that gift by attacking us, and you will share her fate.”
She turned towards Doc. “You were wise to have acted so quickly to prevent conflict, Ellington. We will go now and see that the traitor receives the justice she deserves.”
“Justice, Helen? More like revenge, I think. Revenge on her because you could not obtain it against the people you really want to hurt – John Sullivan and myself! Well, I’m terribly sorry, Helen, but I just can’t let that happen. For your own sake as well as hers.”
“You plan to oppose me, Ellington?” she asked contemptuously.
“Of course,” he said easily. “Just because I don’t want a pointless and destructive battle royal to break out between our two orders doesn’t mean I’m going to allow you to murder a friend of mine out of petty spite.”
“Such arrogance!” Mother Eagle spat. “Do you truly think you have the power to interfere in our business?”
“What I think, Helen, is that in your thirst for revenge, you’ve been a bit less than mindful of your surroundings,” Doc said with a noticeably smug expression. Then, he stamped his foot twice and called out a single word.
“Agon!”
In response, the floor beneath everyone’s feet suddenly lit up with electric blue sigils, and a wave of magical force pushed everyone in the area away from Doc and Mother Eagle, leaving them alone inside a glowing circle about thirty feet in diameter.
Suddenly, Matt remembered that the area of the gym they’d all been standing in was also the dueling circle that Bryce had shown him earlier, though it was dormant then. Now, it was fully active, and Matt could sense the magical effects that would allow even the most powerful Strangers to unleash their full potential without harming those outside the circle. As Matt studied the dueling circle’s magic, Doc issued his challenge.
“Mother Eagle of the Church of the Unity Blade! I, Dr. Parker Ellington of the Invisible College, do hereby invoke the provisions of the Tyburn Proclamation, the Midnight Accords, and the Code of Merlin and do formerly challenge you to a magical duel. Should I be victorious, I claim the life and freedom of Dani Torres, who is also called Electra Dellamorte, as my prize. You and your people will depart peacefully and leave her behind, and you will hold her blameless for any prior transgressions against your order.”
After a moment of shocked surprise, Mother Eagle laughed aloud. “And what do you offer as my prize should you lose, Dr. Ellington of the Invisible College?”
He raised his chin confidently. “If I lose, I vow to depart Boston forever and to decline all contact with the Invisible College, both here and worldwide.”
She laughed again, as if amused at the thought of Boston’s Invisible College lasting even a week against her order without his backing. That seemed to be the consensus view, as all the Collegians were dismayed at Doc’s words.
“I accept your terms, Ellington. To the victors go the spoils.” Mother Eagle turned her attention towards Lionel Bartok, perhaps the only person in the room who seemed thoughtful as opposed to either delighted or dismayed.
“Bartok! As a … neutral party, will you serve as adjudicator for this duel?”
“But of course, dear lady!” He placed his hands against the barrier which lit up in a pattern of arcane sigils. “As the challenged party, you have the right to set terms, Mother Eagle.”
She turned her head towards Doc once more. “No limits. The duel will end only with a surrender … or death!”
Bartok grimaced slightly. “Um, the Code of Merlin does require a maximum time limit of one hour for all duels, after which the duel is considered a draw.”
“I hardly think it will take that long,” she answered coldly in Doc’s direction.
Bartok shrugged and repeated the terms to Doc as part of the ceremonial aspects of the magical duel. “The challenged party asks for no limits, with the duel to end only upon the surrender or death of a combatant or at the one-hour mark. Do you accept the terms, Dr. Ellington?”
Doc snorted. “I do. I suppose I should thank my opponent for even allowing surrender as an option.”
Bartok ignored the jibe. “The terms have been accepted. The combatants shall have two minutes to prepare themselves.”
Strictly speaking, Mother Eagle had never been a Catholic, but the ceremonial aspects of Catholicism allowed for strong rituals, and so it was incorporated heavily into her magical style. As she prayed, her paladins watched over her silently and reverently. While most were fully confident in her victory, a few were more cautious.
“Mother Eagle,” said Falcon softly from just a few feet away from his leader. “Please be careful. I know you’re a master of the Golden Light, but psychomancers like Ellington are full of tricks. Even now, I still can’t bring myself to draw my sword after the spell he cast…”
“A spell which had no effect on me, Brother Falcon,” she replied without looking up. “He is powerful within his field of expertise, but the light of the Paragon shines upon me and burns away falsity. You need not fear for me in this battle. Now be silent and let me pray.”
Brother Falcon said nothing more, but still he worried.
On the other side of the circle, Doc was speaking with his most trusted co-workers, neither of whom was pleased with this turn of events.
“ARE YOU NUTS!?!” Bryce erupted before Widget put her hand on his arm to calm him.
“I assure you, Bryce, I’m quite in control of my faculties,” Doc said.
The older man seemed almost amused by the younger Stranger’s reactions. Meanwhile, Widget studied him with a strange intensity. He smiled fondly at them both.
The married couple would work brilliantly together in leading the College after he was gone. Bryce with his passion and charisma, Widget with her insight and pragmatism. He closed his eyes for a moment, and both Caulfields gasped as they felt him transfer total control of the base’s wards and other magical effects to them.
“Better safe than sorry,” he said. “Now, if you don’t mind, I need to speak to Dani and young Matt for a moment.
Widget continued to stare at him. “Doc … are you sure you’re ready for this?”
“If I’m not now, Widget, I probably never will be.”
She nodded at that and wished him good luck before dragging her befuddled and angry husband away. Dani took their place at the barrier with the Sullivans behind her. After Dani, Matt was the one most upset by this turn of events, while Luke (who barely knew Doc) seemed to take the idea of a duel in stride. John was unusually quiet and pensive, as if he anticipated something unexpected to happen but didn’t know what.
“Doc … I’m sorry. I should have ….” Dani stammered.
“It’s not your fault, Dani.” He paused and smiled. “I haven’t called you that in years, have I? I’m glad to see you here and now instead of Electra. Fiction cloaks have their purpose, but in the end, we cannot help but be who we truly are.”
“Dammit, Doc!” Dani exclaimed. “Stop … philosophizing! When the duel starts, I want you to surrender immediately. You can’t beat her! You can’t save me! You can’t even avoid being banished at this point! But you can live! She wants to kill you, but she’ll have to accept a surrender if you offer one!”
“Honestly, Dani,” he chided. “You’ve given up on me already? Who knows what can happen when the spells start flying!”
She huffed angrily. “Doc, when we dueled two years ago, I kicked your ass in under two minutes. And she is much better that I am.”
Doc shook his head. “At fighting, perhaps, but you are better than her in so many other ways that you don’t recognize. And besides, that was two years ago. Surely I’ve gotten at least a little better since then.”
“Doc!” Dani exclaimed in consternation, but he just put up his hand to stop her from yelling at him.
“When we fought before, you came at me from a place of justified anger and indignation at what I did to you, while I was fighting to defend what I thought was my prerogative to force people to do what I felt was in their best interest. Now, I’m the one fighting for what’s right. Hopefully, that will give me the same advantage against my opponent that you had against me.”
His attention wandered over to Matt. “And since you’re both here, let me now officially and whole-heartedly apologize for using my powers to influence your minds. Two years ago with you, Dani, and more recently with you, Matthew. It was wrong of me to take advantage of you by such means, and I should have been both more direct and honest in my attempts to persuade you.”
“That’s, um, okay, Doc,” said Matt who suddenly blushed as he wondered if the RA from Fisher College was still pining for him after his own use of a mind control spell. “You were only doing what you thought was best.”
“True, but I’ve come to realize something: It’s not my place to decide what’s best for everyone else. That’s nothing but ego talking, and I apologize for letting mine trump your rights to make your own decisions.”
Dani shook her head. “Oh, get off it, Doc! You already apologized to me once today, just to fulfill Sullivan’s Fate-working. You don’t need to keep doing it.”
“That’s where you’re wrong, Dani. Some apologies are offered to earn forgiveness from the people you’ve wronged.”
He turned around to face Mother Eagle who had stood up after completing her prayers. The clock floating above them said there were less than ten seconds before the duel’s commencement.
“Other apologies,” he said thoughtfully, “are offered because it’s important for the one apologizing to understand how he wronged someone in the first place. And finally, I understand.”
As the clock ticked down to zero, Doc moved away from Dani and the others to face Mother Eagle, and he interlaced his fingers together in front of him in a mudra of contemplation. Simultaneously, Mother Eagle rose and then held her cane aloft. At her command, it transformed into a short sword, and she shifted into one of the Unity Blade’s traditional magical katas.
00:03
00:02
00:01
The clock struck zero, and the duel commenced.
Instantly, Mother Eagle spun her short sword around her in an intricate, yet blindingly fast kata designed to maximize her defenses against psychic attacks. It was a wise move, for barely a second later, Doc thrust his arms out towards her with a spell designed to trigger crippling vertigo.
Even with her shields at maximum, she still felt a brief wave of dizziness. Her forehead furrowed in anger, and she waved the sword again to dispel the vertigo before its effects could grow worse. She combined the defensive move with an attack kata that caused a jet of holy fire to shoot from the end of her sword towards her enemy.
Doc leaped out of the way with more grace and dexterity than Mother Eagle anticipated. He landed on his side but quickly rolled up onto one knee, shouting out a Latin incantation as he did.
A wave of blue energy shot from his hands to strike Mother Eagle despite her best efforts to block the spell. She cursed under her breath. The spell neither inflicted damage nor sought to influence her thoughts or actions, and so none of the specific defenses she’d prepared could stop it completely.
Instead, it attacked those parts of her brain that governed the senses, imposing a disorienting synesthesia upon her. She froze in confusion under the sudden sensory barrage. Her sword felt like birdsong in her hand. The musty gym suddenly smelled purple. And the sound of Doc’s voice as he cast his next spell could only be perceived as an intense itching sensation. Luckily, paladins had other, more tamper-resistant senses upon which they could rely.
“Ajna Chakra!”
With that, Mother Eagle's Third Eye opened, and she could perceive the area purely in terms of magic. Fueled by the golden light of the Paragon, this sight was beyond Doc’s power to deceive. She coul
d now see not only her surroundings as incandescent patterns of magic, she could also see and understand Doc’s spells as fast as he could cast them.
Which was good, because she could also now perceive the small flock of hummingbird-shaped shadows now winging their way towards her. Each bird was fashioned out of pure thought and designed to trigger intense phobias. She willed the Paragon to speed her sword hand and grant her perfection of movement, and with a blur of motion, she began to slice through the shadows before they could touch her.
She only missed one, but that was enough. Her Third Eye warned that she was still in the dueling circle with Doc. But all her other senses screamed that she was back in the burning shirt factory, a terrified 14-year-old girl begging for someone to unlock the door so she and the other girls could escape before they were burned alive. That was the day she went strange. It was also the last day she could see anything with mundane vision. And after nearly a century, the smell of smoke and burning flesh was still a trigger for unimaginable terror.
But Mother Eagle was a master-paladin of the Church of the Unity Blade. She had been inducted not long after going strange; learning to face and overcome her fears was the second lesson covered during her training. (The first was how to “see” despite being blind.)
She blocked out the heat and the stench and the sound of young girls screaming to focus all her attention on what could be seen through her Third Eye. And her Third Eye clearly showed the outline of Doc standing on the far side of the circle as he shaped the spell that was now forcing her to relive her worst nightmare.
With a furious battle-cry that served as both an incantation and as a channel for her rage, Mother Eagle leaped into the air higher than any mundane ever could, her short sword held in both hands over her head. Doc cursed loudly and used dimensional magic to teleport to the other side of the circle at the last second, but even then, the magical shockwave caused by the enchanted sword striking the floor staggered him from across the room.
