"You're still here," the teenager observed. It had to be apparent even if he had been distracted by the movement of the army of Southwall down below them. "I had said that there was no reason for you to stay. If all you plan to do is observe, you will be in danger here soon. If you are found out, that will put your loved ones and those hidden in your city in jeopardy also."
"We'll return home soon enough," Torva replied simply. While he wasn't trying to sound gruff or insulting, the warlock wasn't sounding invested in the short conversation either.
Nodding just once and succinctly, Kolban commented on his words with some amount of cryptic wisdom, "It might be a good idea. They'll be here soon. I'm certain now."
Wanting to ask who was coming, Torva instead said nothing trying to give even less away. This boy was surprisingly hard to read and gave him little as he watched both his face and his body. Sometimes the eyes or the tension in a face could tell a lot. Other times one's movement or posture told him more. Neither seemed to tell him much here unfortunately. Kolban affected boredom yet continued to come back each morning to this shadowed rise.
"You were just a squad leader in Ensolus, correct?"
"I was," the warlock responded simply.
Looking beyond Torva as if capable of seeing through the mountain, the boy asked something new. "Are you still just a squad leader here? If there are far fewer of your kind in your city, perhaps whoever is in charge of it will give you a promotion. I doubt that you have too many other hunters that might have followed you and you seem capable enough."
He didn't want to admit anything, but Kolban continued, "If you lead now, then you might want to think of leaving or finding a new hiding place further from these caves. I have a feeling that the owners will be coming back soon and that could lead to more danger for you and your people if you remain."
It wasn't the first time that Torva had been told that he should retreat to Sanctuary. After sleeping on the hard stone, even on thick bedrolls, the men often awoke feeling sore; so it wouldn't be hard to convince them to leave if not for a gut feeling he had that told him to wait.
"Southwall seems content to wait here. They aren't advancing to look for your unexpected little tribe of runaways so far."
"I will take it under advisement," the larger elven man stated tightly.
Making a show of sighing at him, Kolban played with the crystal vials in his hand again. He lifted them up as if examining what was being kept inside. "Do you know what is inside those caves, Torva?" he asked using the older man's name while intentionally leaving off his title.
"Dust apparently."
Shaking his head slightly, the boy continued on saying, "Calling it dust is kind of insulting. It is much more than that, I think."
Torva looked at the vials using his sense for magic. There was certainly something magical about the contents, but the warlock couldn't answer in a more accurate way. He didn't see much more than dust, though one was filled with black grains that fluttered obviously inside as Kolban played with the container. The second was filled with white dust which was harder to see with the sunny valley behind the boy as he held them up to examine. It still looked just like dust though.
"It has properties that would surprise you, I think."
Twirling the fingers of his opposite hand, it was a moment later the vial with the black grains split open enough for several black dust-like pieces to flutter free, but they weren't truly free. Kolban's fingers continued to play towards the dust from a distance. Torva thought that he saw six black marks in the air, they remained close to each other and the warlock could tell that Kolban used magic to hold the dangerous specks as the crystal topper sealed once again.
The other men jerked into wary postures. Some looked like they wanted to run to put distance between them and the insignificant looking grains.
"You should be careful with those, Kolban," he warned.
"Yes, what are you doing with them?" Narissa asked suddenly sounding nervous.
"You've never seen what they can do?" the boy asked again as if he was truly surprised.
"I've told you that I haven't."
"Then why do you look so nervous? You're warning me about dust," Kolban chuckled sounding amused, but Torva didn't think any real amusement was echoed in his face.
Flicking a finger, a pair of black specks flung away from him. They struck Narissa, who gasped in shock. One hit her upper chest. Cloth disintegrated revealing a lighter skin coloring than her lightly tanned arms. The second speck caught her dead center on her collar bone.
The woman shuddered and Torva was nearly certain that her body even changed shape slightly, yet he also thought it was a group of hundreds of subtle changes that couldn't have just been from her shaking. The slightest of wrinkles formed beside her eyes. She was still beautiful, but the warlock thought the woman looked older.
Kolban nodded slightly before two more of the black flakes were sent forward to strike her. Another gasp as she looked betrayed by the boy was almost overlooked by Torva as her vibrant auburn tresses began to show more and more gray hairs. Despite what seemed like decades being added to her in moments, Narissa still continued to have an almost regal looking beauty to her; but she was aging before their eyes with each strike.
Mercilessly the young man sent two more grains into her. Where her brown dress was struck or suffered a glancing blow, the material aged, frayed and disappeared in flecks of withered dust flakes. Kolban didn't appear to be trying to remove the material; he just didn't care where they struck so long as the woman was targeted.
Finally, the human woman's body could no longer resist the affects of time. Torva wasn't completely certain of the affects of time on humans, but if it was one of his kind he would have guessed that hundreds of years had been heaped on her in a blink. The warlock did live among humans and knew that they tended to only live eight decades or so under good conditions. If this was true, Narissa was nearing the end of her life. He wasn't certain how many more grains Kolban could risk throwing at her before she would die of old age.
The air was empty of the deadly black dust, but none of the men watching had noticed. When Kolban suddenly spoke, they all looked to him aghast at what he had done.
"Hmm, I would guess each complete flake is equal to roughly seven years. I guess some might be larger or smaller varying the exact amount given though," the boy murmured observing the damage done.
"Kolban?" a frail, crackling voice called to him sounding injured and frightened.
Hair white and thinning, her shoulders were slightly hunched bowing with the weight of time. Formerly vibrant blue eyes looked hazy with age, but she could still see the boy that she had trusted only moments ago.
His fingers were already flailing in the air releasing the seal on the flask with the white grains. Torva also noticed that this container was slightly larger than that holding the black dust.
Five grains struck her simultaneously causing Narissa to not only shudder, but drop to her knees. Aging only two grains at a time, the woman had kept her feet; but this time Torva guessed that she was changed closer to half of her approximately seventy odd years though still older than she had started if the boy's supposition about each grain had been correct.
Narissa was breathing hard and her eyes lifted to Kolban angrily. The sight of two more white flakes of dust still in the air made her anger falter with worry before the boy sent them at her as well.
The elves continued watching the woman's body changing as time warped most of Narissa's lifetime in moments unable to look away. It was hard to watch. Torva could nearly feel the pain of decades being added and even her life being returned seemed to be exhausting.
He did the math and could also see that the woman appeared much younger than she had been when this had first begun.
Narissa stood up on weak, trembling legs. She was trim and youthful looking once more, but she also appeared to be nearly exhausted as if having run a great race. The race of time was longer than any other
, Torva supposed.
The boy moved closer. Narissa's dress was tattered and missing in places. A couple of the white flakes had returned to the places struck by the black, but nothing of the cloth removed by age reappeared. Two of the flakes restoring life had also hit the dress. Among the last few, they had caused pieces of the cloth to devolve into plant like pieces that continued to regress until they disappeared into time as if never created at all.
"Kolban, why would you do that?" Narissa complained sounding genuinely confused by his acts. She looked like she wanted to strike him, but was too exhausted.
Closing the distance to about a foot, a last white flake struck the young woman. She gasped and Kolban pulled her closer to him placing his lips on hers. Kissing Narissa, Torva had a feeling this had little to do with love for her. The boy was tasting the magic as it removed another seven years.
Narissa's hands rose and pushed him back angrily. "How many times to do I have to ask why?" she demanded looking furious.
Now a girl looking about the same age as the boy she struck, Narissa's form was slender and still developing towards what she had been minutes earlier. Auburn hair lightened to a lighter blonde though it trended slightly towards red as well. Her blue eyes were furious with him.
Kolban looked at her a moment longer as if to evaluate what he had done. Satisfied with the results, the boy stated for the warlock, "They have created time. Condensed by magic, it is itself become magic."
"Time magic?" Torva queried both understanding the boy's logic while being confused as to how anyone could have harnessed it creating such a thing.
Looking back at the valley below them, Kolban's hand gestured as he noted a large circular pattern. A couple of broken stones stood as a third of a circle rounded towards the depression in the valley floor near the center of the stripped earth. Grass and a little scrub remained closer to the mountain where the little group hid. There was even more growth left untouched beyond the circle on the rises around the depression leading him to guess where the center of an explosion had been.
"The bigger question is what happens when you combine them together? What happens when time's end meets the beginning?"
Torva searched the valley noting the circle as well and frowned. "Destruction? Could putting some of each together have created an explosion of power that we sensed in Sanctuary?"
Nodding as if both answering his question and considering others as he appeared caught up in thought, Kolban added another, "What do you do with that kind of power? How do you harness it without killing yourself or destroying everything?"
The former emperor's questions made the warlock feel a shiver of cold down his spine.
Turning away from the valley, Kolban felt a new power entering this world from the other side of the mountain behind the caves. "They're here. I wonder if they would be willing to answer those questions for me?"
A golden doorway formed near the base of the northern mountains. Elzen led the way followed by Serrena. Katya and Ylena moved through it next and lastly Ashleen took Sebastian's hand before the couple passed through a silver world to reach another place in their own.
As the blindness caused by traveling so far in an instant faded from them, Sebastian looked up for only a moment before searching the land behind him. The doorway had faded and the hill they stood on afforded a good view of the smaller hills leading towards the softer rolling land called the Plains.
Men moved at the sight of the glowing portal and the half dozen people from Southwall deposited slightly up the rise.
"Well, we've been seen," Elzen noted looking rather unaffected by the fact. Both mages had dealt with most of the gathered nomads of five tribes the previous year. They had met the leaders of those tribes as well.
"We should talk to them a moment to let them know why we are here," Ylena said in answer to the younger man who now looked older than her girlish form.
Sebastian answered with a nod and began to walk towards the warriors approaching with drawn weapons. His team didn't bother to reach for their swords. They were all weapons enough without a piece of steel in their hands anyway, so no one felt particularly vulnerable and knew that these people should know them soon enough.
"Who are...?" the leader of a dozen men started before the realization of familiarity shown in his face. His posture didn't change from strength or threat, however, since they had arrived using magic. Nomads knew little of magic beyond the derashti. The derashti weren't feared the way wizards were often viewed by regular men and women in Southwall. It was rarely a dangerous form of fear, but Sebastian had seen it even from members of his own family.
Magic and those who used it were often distrusted.
"I am Owl Sebastian. We helped your tribe after the arkhein was attacked last year," he said smiling slightly without baring his teeth. They weren't animals, but it didn't feel appropriate to the moment either.
"Ah, yes, the healer warrior who helped save many of our injured," the man noted and glanced at the others with him. "Why are you here?"
"We were with the remaining elders of the arkhein when your messenger arrived. Using magic we moved ahead of them to assess the situation."
The nomad frowned. "It would take two days, maybe one and a half with fresh horses to carry you further, if you left the arkhein where it was. Our messenger left within that time, yet you are already here?"
"We stole one of the Dark One's spells recently to do so," he confessed. While Sebastian knew that he couldn't teach such magic to the derashti just yet, he doubted telling a warrior who didn't understand magic would matter. Even if they spread the news, the moment required them to focus on other more immediate things. "Tell me what is going on here now. It has been two days since the messenger left after all."
"Our scouts have watched the pass to Ponfies for awhile. Since the snow lessened, we were able to move deep enough to watch the city also. When a large swirl of smoke and light formed southeast of the city, our men were there to see it." He frowned and recalled the golden doorway that Sebastian had created, adding, "Perhaps it is like this bit of magic you have used to get here?"
"Probably their version, yes," he acknowledged and gestured with his head in the direction of the pass. "How many creatures came through this gate?"
"Hundreds," the nomad noted returning to his information. "Our men said that it remained opened for quite awhile before the clouds disappeared again. There were many kinds of creatures including several large beasts that could fly. At first the men thought that it might be the emperor's warlocks moving more soldiers here to attack the plains again, but they looked too dissimilar.
"When Ponfies sent out a small army to meet them, it only became more obvious that this was an invasion when the two sides came to blows. The Dark One's creatures were slightly outnumbered, but it was the magic of the invaders that suddenly pushed them back."
"What kind of magic?" When the nomad looked confused, the owl tried to be more specific in the qualifications for his question. "Did they use fire, wind, elements of any kind, or something new?"
Again the nomad looked uncertain, but he replied, "I don't know of things that are new, but at one point a dark dust cloud struck one side of Ponfies' army tearing them apart. Many creatures were shredded and reduced to bones.
"They fell back to Ponfies and behind its walls shortly afterwards, though not in complete retreat. They had been pretty evenly matched and those fighting further away might not have seen the dust hit."
Sebastian glanced to the girls who had fought these foreign creatures before and gave askance. It was a spell that he knew nothing of though it could be some form of wind spell, the mage supposed.
Katya and Ylena shook their heads looking disconcerted by the description. Not wanting to question such a thing in front of the man, Sebastian nodded and said, "Go on."
"There isn't much more left to be said, I guess," the nomad replied. "Once they fell back to the city walls, the invaders followed destroying some of the city before t
he defenders rallied forcing them out once more. Since then the intruders seem to have decided to wait them out. We have no idea if they plan to capture the fortress or if they are waiting for reinforcements to come finish Ponfies off."
Looking at those with him, he said, "We can scout it further, unless we need to go to your camp?"
Again the nomad didn't seem sure of his answer, but he responded with, "Arkon Anax might wish to know that you are here, but our scouts haven't returned since yesterday with any more news. Perhaps it would be good if you could find them and bring us something. The Zelesh and Erta have kept back fearing being drawn into their fight, but we are also worried about what will happen if the invaders take Ponfies also."
"Give us a moment to confer," Sebastian said raising a hand before drawing the others to him.
With the other five pulled a few steps away from the nomads, he said, "We could use magic to sneak up the pass, but it will be slow."
"We can fly," Elzen said with a shrug. "If we get spotted before we get too close, we can probably knock out whatever can fly after us. After that we could sneak and have less of a walk to do it."
"Not everyone can fly," Ashleen stated glancing at Ylena and Serrena. She had only flown a couple times recently as well, Sebastian noted to himself. Her wild magic had once kept her from leaving the ground by too much. After using a rune to remove the issue, they just hadn't had a lot of time to practice it more.
Serrena had yet to try at all. He wasn't sure if that was because of not understanding the magic or from some fear of heights that hadn't been mentioned by the wizard. He had also heard from Katya that Ylena had yet to try dragon magic also, but his sister had dared her to try.
While Katya was fairly new to flying as well, she was confident enough that she could teach her mentor quite easily having watched the trainer last summer, as long as they didn't discover a fear of flying in her as well. It was something weeded out by a mar'goyn'lya during last summer's training, but Ylena and Serrena had never gone through that trial.
Battle Mage, The Caves of Time Page 36
