Chain of Bargains dm-5

by Jeff Inlo

  "Heteera?" Enin called out.

  "I thought we were done," the sorceress bemoaned, but with a near emotionless tone, not wishing to have another discussion, wanting only to return to the quiet of her isolation.

  Once more, Enin realized how far the sorceress had withdrawn. She embraced the emptiness, and he suddenly worried how she might react if she feared it would be ripped from her consciousness. Before he could even attempt to save her, he had to prepare her for what he knew was coming.

  "I'm here to warn you."

  Heteera was through with warnings. She had found her sanctuary and wished only to submerge herself into it.

  "The magic is stable. Leave me alone."

  "It's not that. I know you've kept your word, but…"

  He never got to finish. At that very moment, Jure linked to the magical energies caught behind the barrier. The surge of power was so strong that Heteera noticed it immediately, and emotion found its way back into her essence.

  "What's that? What's going on?"

  Her thoughts were frantic, overwhelmed by the feelings she thought she had safely abandoned, and the wizard knew he had to reassure her quickly.

  "Jure is in need of the power within you."

  "No!"

  "Do not worry. He has no intention of hurting you."

  "But he is hurting me. Tell him to stop!"

  "I can't. I came here to explain. There are…"

  She cut him off immediately.

  "I don't want to hear it. Don't you see? If he takes the magic, the barrier will recede. It will open me back up to…"

  She couldn't finish the sentence. The thought of being thrust back into reality, even in a limited fashion, hurt too much to endure. The pain, however, didn't matter. She focused entirely on the loss of magic. The magic exited her being as if guided by gale force winds, and she already sensed the barrier mound retreating in her consciousness. A sliver of outside light broke into her mind, and she needed to shut it out.

  "I said, tell him to stop! He can't take this much. How much can he possibly need?"

  "He needs more than you can imagine."

  "No! I need…"

  She didn't finish. She didn't wish to waste time. The light of reality was burning her consciousness. She reopened the gates of her essence to the magic of the lands. She wished to pull in everything she could to replace what she was losing. She did not know of the flow of magic that coursed through the city and when she called upon the magic, it rushed into her with almost as much fury as the energy that Jure pulled from her.

  Enin felt the swell of magic rush into Heteera's essence. It was immediately captured by the barrier, and although it only served to replace a portion of what the sorceress was losing, the wizard saw the fallacy in her actions.

  "What are you doing?" Enin demanded. "No, you have to stop this! There is too much energy around you. Someone else is pulling magic into the area. You're going to absorb too much power."

  "No, I'm losing more than I'm taking," the sorceress screamed.

  "You don't understand. You won't be able to stop. The current will become too strong… in both directions. Even as you lose energy to Jure, he is utilizing it in several spells. As you absorb it, he will cast it out even faster. The outgoing stream will create a vacuum over the city. More and more magic will get pulled in to you."

  "That's exactly what I want!"

  "And what happens when he completes his spells, will you be able to contain the magic… cease the flow? The barrier won't be able to hold it all and I will only be able to absorb so much. You will reach the limit of the barrier instantaneously."

  Heteera did not care to address the logic as Enin saw it. She only saw the light of reality burning her consciousness.

  "I need this!" she cried.

  "What is it you need? The barrier to stay filled with magic so you can hide here for all of eternity? Is that what you need?"

  "You don't understand!"

  "Actually, I understand something you don't. I've just seen a man who was trying to escape death. He was so frightened of it he doomed himself to an eternity of indescribable torture. He probably wishes he could die now, but he can't."

  "What are you talking about?"

  "I'm talking about you stuck in here for an eternity. The magic keeping you alive and you hiding in the dark."

  "But I'm happy here."

  "Are you happy? You've just withdrawn from everything. You wanted to be able to control the magic, you wanted to do something important. It's true, isn't it?"

  "What do you know?"

  "I know the magic, and every iota that enters you has been begging for purpose. You placed that desire in the magic. You want to use it."

  "It doesn't matter what I want. Even if I wanted to do something with the magic, I can't. I don't have the control."

  "But Jure does!"

  Aware of the exact location of every goblin across the valleys, Jure wasted no time in subduing them all, even as they stood dumbfounded trying to ascertain the meaning of the great light in the night sky. The energy required to cast and maintain the next spell was enormous, but such was the reservoir of magic within Heteera that Jure found no difficulty in achieving his ends.

  He focused on the light from his earlier incantation. Just as the floating ball of illumination allowed him to see across the region, it also gave him the means to seize each goblin. He placed greater power into the light, gave it direction and purpose. When it touched upon the skin of a goblin-whether directly or reflected through some window or small crack in a closed door-the beams turned into indestructible bands and wrapped themselves about the goblins arms and legs.

  The bondage was near instantaneous. Thousands upon thousands of goblins, more than any could ever imagine, fell to the ground in a massive lurch. Hordes of dark creatures that stretched across distant horizons stumbled downward, not like dominos falling in single file, but in one massive burst, as if a mighty force struck them down from the heavens in a single blast. The ground rumbled with the collective crash.

  The goblins screeched against their sudden capture, their tiny minds unable to comprehend the magnitude of the spell that conquered them in an instant. They struggled against their bonds, but they could not even stretch the bands of magical cord. Every goblin was incapacitated, every horde was brought low. Their screams of frustration echoed out over the valleys.

  The humans that survived the initial onslaught-those that goblins allowed to escape and forced westward-met the scene with equal astonishment. They had seen the minor sun rise up into the sky and chase away the coming darkness, but they had believed it was only another inexplicable part of the doom they faced. As they witnessed the goblins chained by bonds of magical light, they finally began to sense an opposing force, a possibility of deliverance

  Many wondered if it was a blessing from some benevolent force above, some even fell to their knees thanking the heavens. Most ceased their flight, uncertain of what might come next. Confusion and uncertainty filled their ranks. While optimism held that the inexplicable miracle meant their salvation, a few remained skeptical at such monumental fortune and continued to search frantically for some safe haven away from the stricken dark creatures.

  Long moments passed and still the goblins remained subdued, unable to break free from the coils of solidified light. The people driven from their homes began to realize it was not simply a momentary reprieve, but somehow a powerful rebuke of the goblin attack. Sobs of relief swept across the land. They could not fathom how, but they knew they were saved.

  While most humans looked on in wonder, others found the desire for revenge. Many fell upon the bound creatures with violence of their own. Just as the goblins had released their frustrations in a massive assault, humans allowed their own anger to rise. They attacked with knives, tools, rocks, anything within reach. Their savagery nearly matched that of the dark creatures that once pursued them.

  Jure could see the turn in the battle. The violent reaction did not s
urprise him. He understood the emotional outburst. The goblin attack had been beyond fierce. It was meant to stir a frenzy of fear and panic. Such feelings did not simply fade away at the forced cessation of the assault. Though every goblin lay in bondage, almost every victim trembled with raw distress, every heart raced with emotion. It was no wonder that it could be so easily turned to rage.

  As the magic continued to reflect the images of the valley back into Jure's mind and raise his perception to a unimaginable scale, the fury of retaliation filled his awareness. It hurt to watch… burned images of hateful retribution into his soul. The response hit him in full-one wave of bitter anguish-and nearly sickened him. Though he was not about to judge those that sought vengeance with a deep rage, he meant to end the hostilities as soon as possible.

  #

  "You have to stop this now, before it's too late," Enin pleaded.

  "Tell Jure to stop it!"

  "I can't. You don't understand. He is trying to save people. That's what I came here to tell you."

  "How can he possibly need this much magic?!" Heteera screamed. "Even a war wouldn't require this much!"

  "It's more than a war. He is stopping a massacre, the obliteration of humans across the Great Valleys… misery all the way to the Colad Mountains."

  "That's not possible! What could be so powerful?"

  It was an important question, one that Enin saw in its entirety, and one that pointed back to Heteera.

  "You are," the wizard offered.

  "I am nothing. I just want to be left alone."

  Enin finally began to understand far more. He saw everything come together. He realized Heteera's place in the course of events. She was not some tortured fluke given great power and no control. She was never meant to control the magic. She was only meant to store it for when it was needed. That need had come and it was being met. If not for Heteera, the suffering would be beyond belief. The wizard only had to make the sorceress understand what he saw as an indisputable truth.

  "Is that all you've wanted… to be left alone? That's not what you told me. You talked about the insanity of having power and no control. You viewed it as torture, a twisted trick of fate. It wasn't a trick. It was meant to be."

  "I was meant to be tortured?"

  "No, you were meant to hold great power. It was to be used when the need arose. That need is here. That's why Jure is taking the magic."

  "He's stealing what isn't his!"

  "Stealing? Is that how you see it? I don't believe that. I won't believe it. Jure himself said you never meant harm. That is what I believe. You wanted to control the magic so you wouldn't be a danger. And you wouldn't stand by and allow others to suffer just so you could hide in the shadows."

  The sorceress did not answer. She did not wish to think of others suffering, suffering like she had faced. She didn't wish to be part of a world with that kind of torment. She had found calm in the darkness of her isolation, a serenity that made her forget about suffering.

  "You're starting to understand now, aren't you?" Enin pressed.

  "All I see is that I'm being pulled back to a place I don't want to go."

  "No! It's more than that. You couldn't understand how you could hold so much magic and yet not have control. You thought it was some colossal trick, some torture, but look at it now. Because of everything that's happened, you allowed for a solution to stop something horrible. Don't you see? You were meant to do this."

  "I'm doing nothing! It's being taken from me."

  "That's the whole point. You had to collect it first. You had to become this immense reservoir of energy. You had to seal it inside you, but deep down, you knew. You wanted to give the magic purpose, you wanted to have purpose. You wanted to believe there was a point to your existence, an existence that made no sense to you, but it makes perfect sense to me. You are as much responsible for stopping a massacre as Jure. Don't you understand? The very conditions of your being-factors you considered torture-are the components necessary for saving Uton. That is your purpose!"

  She almost did understand, but at that same moment, Jure took hold of even more magic to seize the goblins with his spell of binding light. The amount of energy pulled from her essence doubled and the mound in her mind retreated significantly. More of her consciousness was exposed to the outside world.

  The light in her mind took shape. She saw the figures of Ryson Acumen and Holli Brances. She saw Jure standing before a gaping hole in a room she did not recognize. Magic was pouring out of him and into the skies.

  Placing herself in the current of energy, she could see the bright ball of fire high over their heads, and she could follow the energy of his spells across the valleys. She saw the goblins scattered across the lands near the systematic damage they had caused, but that destruction had ceased. The dark creatures had been seized by strands of light and the lives of a multitude had been spared.

  Hopefulness filled her spirit. She could not deny the vast numbers of goblins bent on annihilating the human race. Even Enin with his vast power would not have been able to stop them in one effort. Only the massive outpouring of magic trapped within her could have altered the outcome of the goblin assault. She realized that, though it was Jure who cast the spell, he needed to use her magic. She had a part to play in the events unfolding around her.

  Purpose.

  Unfortunately, the suffering did not end with the binding of the goblins. She felt the rage of the humans that struck back at the helpless creatures. She saw them turn and attack the monsters that chased them from their homes. She felt their anger. Their thirst for vengeance swelled back upon her. Just as it sickened the elder wizard, the sensation of violence chewed at the sorceress' optimism.

  Though she could not cut off the magic to Jure, she found the strength to pull her awareness back into her own body. She viewed the broken walls of the strange room once more and she tried to identify her surroundings.

  In doing so, she noticed another figure… a man-or what was left of one-riddled with disease and barely able to move. It was more than a spell that left him debilitated. She sensed the remnants of an agreement born of evil. His selfish desires opened his soul to the plague that consumed him. Worse, he allowed others to suffer for his own benefit. She held no sympathy for the diseased wreck of a man, but it left her cold and empty inside. Any pride in stemming the goblin assault evaporated, and her optimism died.

  In a fit of sorrow, she drew in even more magic, tried to erase what she had lost. She wished to wipe the memory of destruction from her memory, she wanted to erase the knowledge of a man so despicable he would thrust others into misery for his own pitiful gain. Her desire was so great that the influx of magic began to match what Jure was taking from her.

  Enin didn't know what to say. The situation was obvious to him. The flood of magic going both in and out of Heteera was beyond staggering. He knew there would be no way for her to control it.

  He pressed his awareness into the current of the magic, and he saw Jure's success. He knew the goblins had been neutralized. It was a brilliant tactic, using the light to bind the goblins. All that was left was to open several portals to the dark realm and sweep the goblins through.

  Unfortunately, he also knew it would not end there. Despite Jure's control over the magic, he would not be able to simply disconnect himself from the flow of energy. The current had become too vast, too strong. It would be like trying to plug a crumbling dam with a pebble. It wouldn't hold and the magic would continue to wash through him.

  He knew what would ultimately happen. Once the goblins had been removed from the land and the portals closed, Jure would have no further spells to cast. The elder wizard would try to break his link from Heteera, but the magic itself would rebuff all attempts. Without an outlet, the energy would swell up in both of them until it swept them both away.

  Enin did not worry about an explosion of power, as the reservoir within Heteera was already greatly depleted. It was the unbreakable current that was now the problem,
not the total mass of energy.

  With every goblin in the Great Valleys completely subdued, Jure turned his focus on eliminating them as a threat. It was not sufficient to simply bind them. They had to be removed from the land and placed where they could cause no further harm.

  Across the countryside, Jure began to open one portal after another. The gateways led into the dark realm, the breeding grounds and homeland of the goblins. The dimensional doorways sprung up in cornfields, on dusty dirt roads, in empty town squares, and on lonely hilltops. He constructed them tall and wide, for he knew that once he began to push the goblins through, he would need considerable space for the masses that he would heave across dimensions.

  At first, he worried he might be sending an invitation for a mass invasion of other dark creatures. That was something no one needed, but the dark realms were filled with horrifying monsters searching for ways to escape. A host of open portals would surely gain their attention, and such large gateways would offer potentially disastrous consequences. The return of magic to Uton meant portals could be opened between realms, and they often were, but some of the largest walking nightmares of the dark realm were unable to utilize the smaller gates. Opening the valleys to titans of misery would counteract Jure's desire to end the conflict.

  He originally hoped the massive tide of goblins forced back through the portal would discourage any other fiends from trying to pass through. He would do his best to generate a constant flow of goblins through the dimensional rifts. Hopefully, he would create a massive torrent that would serve as a shield, but he knew there would be ample breaks. Dark creatures were nothing if not opportunists, and it was their inherent nature to capitalize on the misfortune of others.

  He would have liked a more reassuring solution, and in the flow of magic, he believed he found one. The surge of magical energy was actually growing. He imagined it was Heteera's doing, but he brushed aside his concerns over the sorceress' intentions. He would let Enin focus on that problem. Instead, he opened himself up to even more of the energy.

  As he opened the portals, he directed waves of ample magic through each one. He placed a directive into the flow that ensured it would move in but one direction. Even as the gateways waited for the goblin masses, no creature could enter into Uton from the dark realm. The pressing magic would force retreat from even the largest monster trying to force its way across.