by Jae Vogel
Kiley and her sisters slapped on their helms and took up their weapons. Even with little combat experience, their parents had made certain they would know what to do when the time came. Susan picked up the iron mace from the floor and leaned it on her shoulder, waiting for what would come next. Her sister Loris did a few practice swipes through the air with the axe and joined the others in formation, as they stood ready against whatever came through the entrance. They formed a reverse triangle with Susan behind her two siblings.
“Let me handle this!” Dion said to them, as he pushed his way out front. He knew there was still one elemental he could summon and it might buy them all the time they needed.
Dion closed his eyes and began to focus. In the world he’d left behind, he found the elemental he needed to bring over to this side. It would only take a few minutes and he knew it was something he could manipulate. It was also the last ability he could use.
The fire salamanders appeared at the entrance to the great hall. This time they didn’t have their human form. They appeared in their natural state as living tongues of flame, about six feet in height. Dion watched as the floor began to smoke. He didn’t have any options and the salamanders could manifest their powers with minimal damage to the tower if they worked fast enough. The pillars of fire turned around and looked at the young man who’d summoned them. Through the fire, Dion could see the shape of eyes on him and knew they were awaiting his command. He could only give these elementals one order. Once executed, they would return to their former time circle.
“Creatures from the abyss are trying to get at me,” he told them. “They are at that door. Stop them and limit the damage to the background.”
The wooden barricades fell apart and the Azuroth poured through the opening. They stopped when the flame barriers appeared in front of them. The furry creatures froze in terror as the wall of fire began to advance in their direction. They backed up and jammed into the stairwell, smoke filling the great hall.
The stones around the entrance to the stairwell, which led up to, the next level began to heat up from the salamander’s gaze. The Azuroth panicked and trampled over each other as they ran back up the stairs. Some of them fled with burning fur and pushed their way back. The salamanders chased them back upstairs in the form of a whirlwind that sent them screaming in retreat. Dion watched as the fiery cloud blew through a bust window on a level above them and vanished into the sky, a light to the sky in the storm that still raged outside.
“That was amazing,” Kiley Mahen gasped as the sounds of the Azuroth horde vanished upstairs. “You scared them good.”
“It won’t last,” Dion told her. “They’ll figure out the fire wall is gone and venture back down sooner or later. If they don’t want to come down, their leader will make them do it. They’ll be back; you can rest assured of it. I’d post sentries at the stairwell.”
While they debated what to do next, one of the guards appeared out of the stairwell, which led down to the warehouse, with someone Dion hadn’t seen yet. She was an older woman dressed in a formal tunic, similar to the ones worn by the retainers in the tower. The guard had a look of relief on his face when he walked her to the sisters. They still had their helms on and were faced-off against the door.
“She’s back!” he announced. “Do you want me to inform the older Mr. Bach? Where did he go?”
“That won’t be necessary,” Kiley Mahen stated through her helm. She pulled it off as her sisters did the same and placed them on the floor.
“Now that you’re here,” she said to the new women, “I hope this mess can be cleaned up and we can get on with what we were doing before it started.”
Kiley turned to Dion. “I want you to meet someone we’ve all been waiting for,” she said to him. “This is the fifth element grandmaster. You know, the one we were telling you about. The woman who told us you needed to be here so she could authorize your full use of the aether element and get these beasts out of our tower.”
“Not just in the tower,” the grandmaster told them, “but outside it as well. I had to run through a bunch of them on the other side of your moat. There’s a bus out there too. Does it belong to the women I passed by downstairs?”
“Yes it does,” Kiley confirmed. “They’re a travel group of some kind that showed up a few hours ago. You have no idea what a mess it’s been this evening. This young man made an appearance and Queen Lilith went crazy with her followers. Right now, they control everything above this level on the tower. I’m glad you’re back and can get rid of them. Did you find the help you were supposed to bring back to the tower?”
“There is no help out there at all,” she told her. “I didn’t even make it to the larger towns before I turned around and came back. What I saw outside told me all that I needed to understand. This place doesn’t function with the four elemental forces like my own time circle. There are elementals here, but they don’t line up the same way. And too much energy is wasted when you bring them across.”
“I’ve already found that out,” Dion told her. “But what about the fifth element, the aether? Isn’t that one the basis of the power of all other elements? Shouldn’t you be able to work it on this world?”
“Yes,” she told him,” it is one you can manipulate on this time circle. But you and I are not of this world. Our powers are still limited here. I can do one thing before I have to leave and that is to grant you full aether elemental powers. Do you accept this responsibility?”
Dion turned and looked at the doorframe around the stairwell where the Azuroth had tried to assault the great hall. Beneath him were a lot of concerned people and some who were very scared. The Mahen sisters looked frightening enough in their armor, but they lacked battle experience. If he didn’t accept the responsibility of the fifth element, everyone in this tower could end up dead. Including his parents. They might be his foster parents, but they’d done their best to care for him. He couldn’t let them down.
“I accept it,” he told her.
“We have to make this quick,” she said to him. “Get on your knees and take my hand.” As she spoke, they could hear noises of something coming down the stairwell.
Dion went down before her and took her thin hand. He couldn’t remember what job she had in the other world, but it wasn’t glamorous. None of the elemental grandmasters had careers outside their elemental work that would impress anyone. These were the hands of someone who had pushed keys and held phones for years. Yet, they possessed a strength that few people could understand.
“Do you promise to use the power of the aether for justice?” she asked him.
“I do,” Dion responded.
“It’s done,” she said. “Now get up off the floor, I said we didn’t have much time.”
Dion stood up and looked down at the wooden floor. He could see the scorch marks where the fire salamander elementals had stood. There was still smoke left in the hall from their appearance. He was able to get them out before they set the entire tower on fire, which was always a problem when fire elementals were used.
He saw the small rolling balls, which indicated the presence of aether elementals. These were the basic form they took, he knew. If he activated them, they would take another. They’d been attracted to him from the beginning, now they were streaming into the room, iron filings to his magnetism. Jane Phologostron, the grandmaster, was right; this place was full of the aether elementals. Too full for him to effectively use them.
“You need to know one more thing,” the grandmaster told him. “I have a set of words you will need to activate her.”
“Activate what?” Dion asked. This was too cryptic, why couldn’t she get to the point?
“Decemius,” she explained.
“I can remember those words.”
“Those aren’t words, it's who you need to summon.”
“Could you please explain to me what this is all about?” Dion demanded.
“I wish I had the time,” the grandmaster apologized. “But
I have to go. Now remember what I’m going to tell you.” She grabbed him by the shoulder and whispered something in his ear.
“I can remember the phrase,” he said. “What’s it for?”
“You’ll know. It only works once and you’ll need to summon her to get rid of Queen Lilith. The Azuroth aren’t the problem, she is.”
“Wait a minute,” Dion yelled as she started to leave, “I thought the fifth elemental powers would take care of her. Isn’t that why my uncle claimed he needed me here?”
“Guess he lied about that too,” She told him while vanishing down the stairwell to the lower level. “Sorry, gotta run. See you back in our own time. Hey! Watch the other door!”
Chapter 19
Dion turned his attention from the grandmaster to the other stairwell. It was filled with the furry Azuroth creatures again. This time the Mahen sisters were caught without their helms in place. As the things began to mass for a charge, they strapped the helms on and grabbed their weapons. Everyone else was downstairs.
Dion turned back to the other stairwell, but the grandmaster was gone. It was simply him and the sisters versus whatever was about to come through the stairwell entrance.
Once again, the Azuroth hordes poured through the door, with no fire salamanders to send them into retreat this time. Dion looked at the floor with all the small black spheres rolling around, invisible to everyone in the room except him. He closed his eyes and felt the energy from the aether flow through him and to the elementals. They were excited over their opportunity to be of service.
His order was simple. “Prevent the furry ones from taking control of the tower.”
Seconds before the Azuroth made contact with the sisters, the room filled with an equally large horde of winged sphinxes. As Dion suspected, they took the next basic form for their elemental class. Once again, the Azuroth halted their advance as they faced an equal number of large creatures with human faces, bodies of lions and wings of birds. This was not the lethal version of the sphinx, but they still could inflict a lot of damage on the Azuroth.
There had to be at least twenty black sphinxes in the great hall and twice the number of Azuroth. For a few brief seconds both sides were frozen as they faced off at each other. The furry creatures that came with Queen Lilith had some idea of what they confronted. The sphinxes knew exactly what they were up against.
The Mahen sisters, still encased in their body armor, stepped back from the spear point of the attack and moved to one side of the room. It wasn’t too hard for them to realize they would be in the way. Dion had stayed in his original position and watched the little black spheres on the ground metamorph into large sphinxes. Each one of the winged creatures where the size of an attack dog, but it was hard to tell them apart. Dion could hear the steady crackling of the fire in the fireplace as a silence descended over the great hall. He doubted a battle of this nature had ever been fought in the tower. It was only a thought because he knew so little about the history of this world. Right now, he would’ve been satisfied with one of Bernice’s dragons for support.
He couldn’t see Queen Lilith behind the Azuroth creatures. Dion suspected she would wait until the battle died down before she made her appearance. He had no understanding of how she fitted into what was inside the abyss or why she wanted out so desperately. He did know she had absolute control over the Azuroth and it was all he cared about at the present.
Both sides faced off and didn’t move until a clap of thunder broke the stalemate.
Four of the furry demons rushed the initial line of the sphinxes and collided with their opposite numbers on the other side. Two of the winged elementals were sent sprawling across the floor, while two more smacked the Azuroth hard after they ripped through the front lines. One sphinx grabbed an Azuroth and flew up the roof of the great hall, hurling the furry creature down at the front lines of its brethren.
The next thing Dion knew, the entire great hall turned into a massive rumble between furry demoniods and aether elementals. Tables flew through the air and the floor shook from the repeated slams of each side against it. The Azuroth made a roar when they fought, but the sphinxes unleashed a high pitch wail, similar to a cat on the prowl.
The Mahen sisters used their shields to block flying debris as it was hurled across the room. This time Kiley Mahen was ready when part of a table was thrown at her. Susan and Loris used their small shields to check chunks of wood, stone and even Azuroth, as they were sent airborne across the great hall.
Dion tried to back out of the way while two sphinxes grabbed an Azuroth and pulled it through the air. However, he was close to them when they swung their furred adversary in a loop. The Azuroth connected with him and Dion was thrown against the wall. His head connected with one of the blocks and all he could see was a curtain of light.
Susan Mahen saw Dion strike the wall and pushed her way through the massive fight between the sphinxes and Azuroth. She managed to dodge a chair leg as it was propelled through the hall. She reached Dion seconds after he hit the floor. With her shield in one hand, she repelled every interference attempt as she drug Dion across the floor back to the protective cover of her sisters.
“Is he okay?” Loris asked Susan as she brought him over to her side of the great hall. Over them, a wall hanging swung in the air after an Azuroth collided with it.
“He’s moving,” Susan said as she shoved a sphinx back into the middle of the room with her shield. An Azuroth had knocked it in their direction.
“We need to get him downstairs,” Kylie ordered. “He may have hurt his head against the wall. I’ll have Rudy take a look at him. Watch my back as I make for the stairwell.” It was located ten feet from where they stood.
The three women, while pulling Dion on the ground, made for the stairwell as the fight raged in the great hall. The furnishings were smashed to kindling as the sphinxes would fly down to the floor, grab something and use it as an aerial bomb against the Azuroth ranks. Because of the chaos, neither side paid the sisters and Dion the least bit of attention.
When they reached the stairs, the three women were confronted by the form of Dion’s mother, who put her hand to her mouth when she saw the blood flowing from his head.
“Get him downstairs,” Kiley ordered her youngest sister. “Help his mother take him down the stairwell. “Well keep the madness from going any lower.”
Dion saw it all through a sick haze of pain. His head still vibrated from the collision with the stone blocks on the wall. He felt something sticky flow from his head. All he could see as they took him down the stairs was figures of elementals bashing it out with their furry opponents. He prayed Queen Lilith stayed out of the fray for now, because any violence directed against her would only help the creature from the abyss.
Once down in the warehouse, Rudy quickly checked his vital signs over and bandaged Dion’s head. He sat Dion in a chair and waved a hand to check his response. Rudy seemed satisfied for the time being and gave Dion something to drink.
In the far end of the warehouse ground level, Dion could see the ten women with the writing club stand near the lion’s gate and comment on the big cat. Draco seemed to like the attention and let them pet his head through the bars. Dion wanted to warn them away, but his own head hurt too much.
He knew the sphinx elementals wouldn’t stop fighting the Azuroth until he either gave them the order or the Azuroth quit their attempt to take control of the great hall. He needed to get up there and check on the progress of the fight. If Queen Lilith decided to intervene, the entire tower could collapse. All it would take would be for the sphinxes to concentrate their assault on her; she would absorb the energy from it and begin to grow again. Unless she had some way to regulate the growth, she would eventually cause part of the tower wall to rupture when it could no longer contain her size.
Dion stood up and heard the sound of objects flying across the floor above him. He could hear the sound of glass breaking and both sides howling at each other. He needed to get b
ack up there.
“Dion!” his mother, who stood next to him, yelled. “You need to stay put. We don’t know what kind of injury you sustained up there.”
“I’m fine, mother,” he told her. “My head hurts but I need to get up there and prevent the tower from being destroyed. The entire place could collapse if they keep it up and…do you hear something?”
“I hear that commotion upstairs,” she told him.
“No,” he replied. “I hear the fight, but I don’t hear the storm. Is it over?”
Dion wobbled over to the set of double doors, which protected the entrance to the tower, and opened the peephole. He looked out and saw the stars and, best of all, no rain, thunder, or lighting arcing across the sky. For the first time in months, the storm ceased its assault on the landscape. There had to be a reason for this to happen.
He needed to get everyone outside the tower while they still had the opportunity. Outside the tower, with the moat still between them, they might have a chance to escape the chaos on the inside. He looked at the ground on the other side of the moat and saw the bus the women took to get here. It was huge, big enough to get everyone in it and head for the time circle gate in the rock walls. He turned and looked at the small room where his uncle was locked up. Seth Bach still had the sigil that would unlock the gate and let them all through. It wasn’t the best plan he could come up with at the moment, but it was the only one he had.
Dion saw Miles who stood by the stairwell and went up to him. “You have to come with me,” he told him. “We need to open up the doors to the tower.”
“Why would you want to do that?” Miles asked him. “Aren’t we much safer inside here with the storm and all?”
“The storm is over,” Dion explained. “This tower could collapse if Queen Lilith tries to attack the sphinxes. She'll become so vast it won’t be able to contain her.”
Dion saw Susan Mahen, still in her body armor, began to climb the stairs back to help her sisters.
