Katya noted Nyus' brown hair, brown beard, brown eyes and his matching wizard clothing. He was plain to look at, going bald on top and, though she wouldn't call him ugly, the man was a sight that seemed likely to disappear into the background. His looks weren't even mousy, because that would have implied his looks had more character.
"Nyus, what are you doing?" Ylena asked as she moved to a position close enough that her voice would carry to those gathered ahead of them.
Brown eyes looked at her quizzically followed by those of the captain and falconi. Anon's expression appeared to be forcibly not reacting, while Martina had ridden with the transformed girl long enough to have grown slightly used to it.
"Wizard Ylena, you look like I recall you as a child coming to White Hall. You were a vision even then as you are now. Perhaps, when you have the chance, you can relate to me how you feel and what it was like when the dust changed you. For now, if you all wouldn't mind, I would like to test my theory with Chalman's assistance," the brown wizard said already starting to ignore the dark haired girl, even if she was admittedly quite beautiful.
"No, I will not just let you ignore me or the others, Nyus," the diplomacy wizard stated wagging her finger at him like some mother scolding her child.
His face screwed up slightly and Katya could read the expression. He was looking at this girl in front of him wondering why he should listen to her and apparently forgetting that it was still Ylena.
"Dear, Ylena, while I can sympathize with your current plight, I..."
"I am neither sick nor on my deathbed, Nyus. Don't talk down to me like I am a child either. My mind is completely intact. Only the outer shell is changed, not who I am."
"Ylena..." he began once more and it certainly sounded like he said her name slower than before and that the man was indeed talking down to her.
She interrupted him immediately. "I remember a boy that carried a stuffed bear under his arm as he walked into White Hall. He took it with him and kept it in his room for many years though some people told him it was a childish thing. Do I need to recant any other stories that I might have of that certain boy to prove myself, Nyus?" the dark haired girl asked with a lift of her eyebrows signifying that she wasn't above shaming the older looking man. Katya guessed the two wizards must have been roughly the same age, though her mentor had looked nearly a decade younger in comparison even before her change.
Pulling back slightly in shock, the man began in a lower tone, "What kind of stories do you have?"
"I have known you a long time, Nyus. Just test me if you wish," Ylena said raising that admonishing finger once more towards the wizard in warning.
Sighing, Nyus must have felt the truth of the changes to the wizard. If she wasn't bluffing, Ylena was the same intellectually and had her years of wisdom to go with it. "Still, as I was explaining to the captain and falconi, we were sent on a mission. Part of that was to find and explain why these aliens to our world have returned. This is a kind of magic like we have never seen before. It should be studied and shown to other wizards to try to discern its properties if possible.
"I am certain that I can contain the dust. If we open a small hole in the seal, I can hold the bottle to the stone to capture a little of the black magic inside. Chalman can reseal the chamber and a stone cork will keep the contents from escaping to do any harm. You see? It is quite simple and safe."
"In theory," Ylena added with a frown. Pausing in thought, the wizard must have weighed what she knew of the research wizard and what she had experienced. Her eyes glanced to the captain and battle mage who looked worried over the man's zeal to test his theories. "I am willing to let you test your idea, Nyus, but only you and Chalman will be close by the opening. Perhaps I should remain as well. I can control stone well enough to erect a barrier if something should happen to you two."
"Your magic..." Katya whispered leaning in closer to the girl.
"Will work fine. We have the necklace properly attuned, but if you are worried you can stand with me," Ylena replied quietly to her apprentice.
Her eyes brooked no argument and though Katya was nervous having seen the devastation the black dust could do even to a young body, the apprentice swallowed and nodded. "I think that would be safest. I can make a stone barrier quickly like a mage anyway, so nothing should escape if there's an accident, I suppose."
The dark hair fluttered as the other wizard nodded before turning back to the others. "Captain, Falconi, have everyone stay down in the valley until we are finished with the dust. We can't have distractions and don't want to risk anyone else with this."
Again the other two leaders looked reluctant. "Are you certain about this, Wizard Ylena?" the captain asked again as his attention flicked between the research wizard and the pretty girl in front of him.
"As certain as I can be. I can also afford to age a little if any of the dust escapes, though I would prefer sacrificing myself over my apprentice," she finished nodding at the petite apprentice next to her. "Of course, that is only if there is a need."
Reluctantly the others agreed and waved the guards that had been left near the former cave to come with them. Moments later, only the four wizards stood on the ground near the seal. Chalman had sweat on his forehead, even though the air was cool. It was also chilly enough that Katya felt it through her apprentice dress and wished that she still had her jacket. Looking at Ylena, she also wondered how the other woman could look so comfortable without her shoes or a coat.
Nyus and the two full wizards moved close to discuss the exact procedure pertaining to the removal of the magic dust. Though Katya listened nearby, her eyes remained on the fresh stone barrier. Releasing any of the black dust seemed unwise, but she did have to admit that learning why the strange creatures had left the two chests here was compelling. They knew little of the alien races that had fought them without provocation. They only knew that they had used portal magic that was similar to that discovered by the Dark One and that the creatures in their army were quite powerful.
After the discussion had ended, the two women stepped back to where the ground began to bend downward to become the slope to the cave. It placed them about fifteen feet away, a distance that they hoped would be more than enough to protect them if something should happen to the other wizards. Chalman still looked quite nervous to be so close. The man hadn't questioned Nyus' plan, but he didn't look completely convinced that what he had proposed was very safe either. Other than Katya, no other apprentice was in sight of the cave entrance, something that the young girl noted with some apprehension.
She watched as Nyus approached the fresh stone with Chalman beside him. The earth wizard placed his hand on the smooth block listening to the last instructions given to him by the other man. He nodded before Nyus crouched and placed his glass container's mouth up to the solid looking stone. Held tight to the surface, they watched as Chalman started to chant a spell. His right hand was flat against the rock while the fingers on his left hand wriggled in a specific pattern.
Katya had seen the movements before and had even practiced them. It was a basic spell of stone manipulation, but as a building block of other spells, it wasn't unusual to see it as the basis of greater spells. Her vision was blocked, but the surface of the rock rippled slightly centered around the place where the glass touched it. Moving around the mouth of the jar, the stone formed a cap around the upper part of the stem. Once the stone was wrapped tightly around the container' top, Chalman changed the focus of his spell.
New gestures of his fingers implied a circular motion and it wasn't long before a hole no wider than the jar's opening formed. Made into a straight line delving deeper into the stone, it didn't take the wizard long to reach the inside of the hastily formed barrier. They waited.
It took a few more seconds before the first flake of black entered the glass jar. The clear container had enough light from a steadily rising sun to see the ebony mote as it fluttered inside. A second piece of dust joined it moments later. It was a slow
process since there was no current of air to force the shift, but soon five individual grains floated inside looking like they were caught in a slow current.
Nyus nodded and Chalman closed the hole. Next he capped the jar before separating it from the barrier stone. Held inside by the rock, the research wizard turned towards the women with his prize, but away from the earth wizard who moved to the side. His part was done, so Chalman gave Nyus more space as he moved to stand beside the young women.
"Now the real test," the wizard stated and his eyes met Chalman's holding a shared moment. "Ready a spell to bury me and the dust mites if the glass fails."
Power rose in the earth wizard and Katya readied her magic to call a gust of wind to keep the five miniscule grains at bay.
The apprentice's eyes widened as the research wizard suddenly shook the jar. Appearing to bounce against the glass and stone cork, Nyus made sure to test his theory that glass would be proof against the aging properties of the magic dust. Several minutes passed and the wizard shook it several more times checking to see if anything would happen.
"Well, unless it is dropped or broken, it appears that the dust is contained," the plain looking wizard stated. "We'll go to the other site and gather some of the white grains also. I have a couple ideas that I would like to test before we leave the mountains, but they will have to wait until we have the second type in hand."
Ylena frowned and asked guardedly, "What do you plan to do, Nyus?"
"I wonder a few things about them to say the least," the man answered without truly answering her properly.
"Specifically? Don't be all research wizardy with me, Nyus. You don't get to just experiment here when you risk our lives," the diplomat wizard said demandingly. Her eyes narrowed as well letting the older looking wizard know that, even though Ylena appeared to be a young teenager, the often dangerous nature of research wizards wouldn't be allowed here.
"Well, as I said, there are several things, but I question the idea that these chests were placed here to destroy Southwall or our world as a whole depending on how grandiose you might believe their ill will to be."
"Both kill indiscriminately and quickly, Nyus.
"True and they can certainly be used as a weapon in this way, but then again we often harness dangerous magic to do beneficial things also, don't we?" The man's tone turned a bit too smug making Ylena frown again. She didn't appreciate being talked down to and debated on breaking his thoughts with another rebuke but refrained hoping that Nyus would get to the point. "What if these two magical... artifacts (for lack of a better description) are in fact two components meant to work together in some way to make something else, something that has different properties perhaps? Maybe they work together to make something better?"
"And you plan to do what, put them together without knowing what can happen?" the dark haired wizard asked incredulously. Her voice held warning as well. The other two wizards listening didn't look too certain of such a proposition either, but Ylena voiced their worries well enough to hold their tongues.
"That is why I propose to do it out here where no one will be harmed," Nyus said gesturing with one hand while the other held tightly to the bottle of black dust.
Hearing his proposal, Ylena shook her head. "Then we will need to separate you from the main command and do our best to minimize whatever danger you could unleash... if we even allow this research to take place."
"Maybe he should limit the connection to one mite of each type," Chalman proposed in the process of hypothetical conjecturing.
"You two are serious?" Katya asked having seen the devastation of both releases. "It's too dangerous."
The wizards glanced at the truly youngest of them all. Even though some held a similar opinion, the full wizards knew that some dangerous experiments had been practiced in the past which had led to the breakthroughs which were the basis of all their kinds of magic.
Nyus frowned this time, though he ignored the little blonde's words. He replied to Chalman's plan and said, "But the idea that one piece of dust so small will connect with the other... it might take forever to get that to happen."
Sighing, Ylena's eyes could be seen to think the matter through quickly. "You probably have smaller jars... perhaps test tubes. Knowing you, Nyus, you would be more prepared than to make me think that you only have two of these jars in your gear. In small containers, you can risk your life and get that connection to happen with just one piece of each."
Echoing her sigh, the research wizard relented in disappointment. His eyes suddenly lifted and a small smile crossed his lips. "Then Chalman will have to help me gather another mite of the black dust before we go to the second site."
Katya stood on the rise which would climb the side of the mountain east of the dust sites. She wasn't alone. Most of the wizards remaining in the company were there as well as a number of battle mages and officers including Captain Anon.
Stone embankments had been built in front of them. At least a foot thick near the top and wider as they neared the ground, Katya still wasn't sure what the stone would do if the dust came sweeping up over the rise. Perhaps she could quickly pull a cocoon of stone over her or use the barrier that way, if that should happen. It was also exercising a lot of caution considering that they stood about half a mile away from the single man down in the middle of the valley below them to the west.
Nyus was alone. Chalman had willingly used his magic to build a basic stone table to place a pair of test tubes next to each other. They had been joined with their stone caps becoming one until the final moment when the experiment would be tested. A thick stone barrier had been created ten feet from the table as well. That would be where the research wizard could hide as he waited for the two opposing pieces of dust to meet inside the two tubes.
No one knew how swiftly they would find one another. Based off the previous movements that had been monitored since the wizards had contained them, it could take awhile. There was only one of each and as Nyus had complained, that might mean they wouldn't collide very soon.
Calling on a vision spell, Katya's eyes were able to see Nyus where he stood waiting to remove the separating piece of stone from the mites. They were too small for even her enhanced vision to see from this distance, but the apprentice knew they were there and still worried that this was a bad idea. While they knew what the two kinds of magical dust could do individually, no one had any idea what might happen if they were combined. Would they cancel each other out or would there be a great reaction?
She honestly hoped that they would cancel each other out. That would be the safest thing Katya could think of that might happen.
Sunlight was on their backs. They had waited until the following morning. With only the gathering of dust to do the previous day and no other options save to do a little scouting around to look for the possible invaders if they had left anyone behind to watch, the company was more than willing to return to White Hall again. They had come looking for a possible fight. Now their gate wizards were nearly all dead and only Beyrieth had known the portal spell to send them home without a long ride.
Her eyes went to Falcon Mercer with the thought of the dead wizard. His face revealed the hurt of mourning. While the man tried to be strong and contain his emotions, she was pretty sure that there had been a stronger relationship between the two than just teammates. They had been teamed together for a couple years and even in reforming the squad the mage had stayed when the rest of the falcons had moved on to their next positions.
"He's about to do it," Pheon stated sounding more excited than afraid. The fire wizard had been one of those to hypothesis about what he believed would happen around the campfire the night before and was more optimistic than many.
Turning to look at Nyus again, the girl could feel the brief rise in the wizard's power. He ran away from the stone table and practically dove behind the barrier down below. Nothing happened for almost a minute and finally the man decided to peek over the stone. She felt another brief cast of
magic and guessed that it was a vision spell.
Then there was a brilliant flash of light.
Katya wasn't sure if Nyus was able to duck again, but as the light rushed towards them up the hill, the girl noticed dust sweeping along before it. The initial flash nearly blinded her as the girl dropped down behind the stone barriers above the valley. A rumble like a hundred peals of thunder rolled over her as the ground shook. Wind rushed over the barrier driving dust along with it as well as other debris scrubbed from the mountain valley.
It lasted for several seconds. Covered in the grit of finely ground dirt and plants, Katya stood once more noting cracks in the stone barrier in front of her. The others who had been watching stood up to look into the valley as well. A few of the observers had been too slow to duck and had been thrown back by the force of the energy given off by the single connection of dust. With such a distance to still have so much power behind it, the girl wondered if Nyus had been able to survive so close to the source of the blast.
Her vision spell remained in place, but dust now obscured the land between her and the experiment site. Nyus, if he lived, was somewhere inside that massive cloud.
Those who controlled the winds did their best to drive away the dust. Wrapping a swirling protective field of wind around her, Katya removed the dust from the air closest to her even as her eyes teared up to clear them of the grit which made them run. She wiped her left eye with a hand clearing it enough to see the grime covering her form. The back of her hand couldn't have cleared the dirt without putting more in that eye. With that knowledge, Katya did her best to rub her right eye free of the dirt similarly.
There were spells that could remove dirt properly, but she couldn't activate that while maintaining her current shield. Since the dust remained so thick in the air, the apprentice chose to maintain the swirling wind. She could clean up later when the dust had settled, Katya thought absently looking into the masking fog of debris.
Ylena and several other wizards had similar shields up identified by the swirling breaks in the dust moving around them and began to carefully pick their way down into the valley. Like Katya, they wondered what they would find of the research wizard. If he was dead, it was a stupid death, the girl thought. He had been warned and cautioned numerous times, but Nyus just had to have his way. Maybe being an apprentice just didn't give her the grasp of why the other wizards had allowed the man to try this folly, but that was what she believed it was.
Battle Mage, The Caves of Time Page 16
