by Zac Atie
”From my time in Rhenium… I saw Blue Magi… They dress and live different from us, no dignity or honour. In that riot, there were many crimes… beheading was common…” Yaevinn explains. “But that was a riot, evil men within armies go about their sick deeds when chaos erupts. I find it hard to believe that a blue Magi would even attack a Rhenium official, as much as I wanted it to be true… let alone bruise, bloody and hack off his limbs… Besides, we’ve gone past the Blue Magi settlement. 3 more zones and-“ A snap in the corner of the room shook them out of their trance. The room was dim-litted, but one specific corner of the room was dark. Though, something was there. Still, but the outline of the thing in question was visible. Bastion trembled, as he hesitated to close his right eye, but Yaevinn beat him to the punch, since he could not take the terror and suspense. “Oh my…” Yaevinn began, and before either of them knew what was happening, a tremendous force of air hits Bastion in his stomach, knocking him to the ground.
Momentarily dazed from being knocked down, Bastion raises his head and tries to determine what was in the shadows through a woozy, dazed vision. Yaevinn could see perfectly though. The creature was malformed, hunch backed, sharp claws, but it was definitely human looking. But the two of them knew that this was no ordinary human, it was obviously a Magi. “Ah... Ah... My stomach... Food! Feed meee!!!” The malformed creature screams! It’s skin is wrinkly, and it has a beard dangling from it’s chin. It’s eyes are wide and filled with rage, and teeth are a horrible shade of yellow, thick with plaque. It’s clothes are barely clothes, more like rags, dirty rags, that are barely hanging from it’s body.“This thing… This thing is powerful! It’s like it’s a…” Yaevinn begins, but Bastion sees an attack coming. Before he could say anything, a strong spray of fire if shot at Yaevinn, and he is engulfed in flame. He screams from the searing heat on his skin, but luckily Bastion hauls himself up and towards Yaevinn, where he grabs his shirt and yanks him into the oasis of blood that was formerly the spring. The malformed creature makes a wide variety of odd, throat-contorting moans and cries, occasionally trying to say some sort of vile threat or insult. “My head! The noise! THE NOISE! Where, where is it coming from?! Help me!!! Die!!!” he screams. Wasting no time, Bastion shoots lightning at him, though the creature endures it as it charges at Bastion, arms outstretched, and claws ready to rip him apart. The creature swipes at him, over and over again, and Bastion dodges backwards, knowing that he’ll end up backed into the wall, at the creature’s mercy. Instead, he reinforces his knuckles, and delivers a knockout blow to the crazed man, though it merely knocked him back. The blow had done significant damage to his face, but the man acted as if he didn’t even feel it, as if he had no sense of pain at all! Yaevinn climbs out the water, hissing slightly. His skin was hardly wounded, he had healed himself while in the satanic spring. “Alright…” Yaevinn said, coming to Bastions aid. Yaevinn takes his sword and swipes at the bloodthirsty fiend, who dodges then kicks Yaevinn backwards. However, this puts the fiend off balance, and Bastion races in with his sword, swiping at the man. The sword connects, and the man obviously did not notice Bastion coming, as the sword makes a clean swipe through the man’s flesh effortlessly, like a searing hot blade through snow. Normal swords would have been damaged by such a feat, but Magi swords were not all that weak. The creature screams as it’s arm falls and hits the floor. Yaevinn gets back up, and takes his chance to get a hit in on the flailing monster. He casts Ifrit, and knocks the wretch into the deep spring, splashing water everywhere. Bastion gets up and makes his way towards the spring cautiously, not getting too close to the edge at Yaevinn’s warning, but upon looking into the spring, nothing happens. There is no movement in the water below. “What is that thing?” Bastion asks.
”Not now… he’s morphed. Freeze the water!” Yaevinn commanded, and Bastion began to obey, drawing mana from the pillar, when he was interrupted. The interruption made Yaevinn and Bastion jump out of their skins, and grab for their ears. The interruption came in the sound of a glass-shattering banshee-like scream. But it was a distraction, as the head on the pillar began to inflate… then it exploded with blood, though the blood was boiling hot! Yaevinn yelled at Bastion, warning him of the danger, but the sound was too loud for Bastion to hear him. Yaevinn constructed a shield, shielding him from the danger that came from the head. The blood hits Bastion, recoiling him backwards. He falls over, crying in pain. The creature jumps out of the water, claw outstretched. It’s sight locks on Bastion, who has his guard down, though Yaevinn anticipates this and comes in-between the two. Yaevinn fends off the crazed assailant with his sword, while Bastion numbs the pain and tries to cool the temperature of the blood. Yaevinn loses grip of his sword while defending, and ends up erecting a shield, which the man charges into with all his might.
Bastion thought something was off about the man. Most of his attacks were powerful, but he was just lunging at them. It takes a great deal of time to get this powerful, and master attacks, so why does he have no strategy, no tactics? He lost his arm, when with his power, he should have easily killed the two of them before they even noticed him in that corner. Alas, once the pain was gone, Bastion scrambled to his feet, grabbed his sword and came to Yaevinn’s aid. Bastion’s smarter choice would have been to turn around and run away, as he knew that the man was far too powerful, but he wasn’t the sort to abandon his friend to cowardice. The two stood side by side, intimidating the man to attack further. Their magic pool was exhausted, running low on energy to convert and use to their advantage, so keeping him at bay was the best option at the moment. The man jumps backwards, landing on the pillar, then begins to summon flames into his hand, which he intensifies tenfold, to an insane level of power. The pair gawp at this power, and Yaevinn screams for to get down. Bastion throws himself at the ground, and Yaevinn slams both hands into the floor, which caused to rocks to jut upward, keeping the balance of the caverns alright due to his excellent use in earth magic and stonemasonry. They both duck behind the rocks, and just miss an incredible blazing inferno of hellfire soaring above them. The pair duck, curled up into a ball, the rock was cracking from the pressure of the magic, and Bastion knew they’d be dead if this continued. Then an idea came to mind. “LOWER THE PILLAR!” Bastion shouted, so Yaevinn would hear. Yaevinn didn’t respond, just lay there, eyes wide with terror. “NOW! HURRY!!!” Bastion screamed at him, and Yaevinn obliged, slowly, pulling himself to position. It was a struggle, but the rocks underneath the pillar gave way and sunk, as the pillar became almost fully submerged in the springs. The man stopped channelling his insane magic, since his line of sight was off, and Bastion took this moment to pop up from behind the rock and cast Odin. The man sees what’s coming, and screams in fear, but it’s too late, the electricity hits the man and the springs, electrifying him. He was caught, and with this much power in the electricity combined with its natural enemy, water, he wouldn’t be able to escape. Bastions magic pool begins to deplete, and he squeezes the last ounces of his energy into the spell, hoping it would be enough as the electricity fades from fatigue. Unfortunately, he saw that the man was still on his feet. Bastion’s heart sunk, but after a few moments, the man slowly slumped in the springs, dying face first in the water. Bastion almost collapsed from the emotions and the pressure on his body from his magic being depleted, as he stumbled onto the rock that Yaevinn uprooted as cover. The rock was hot, burning hot, so he ended up rolling onto the floor, which was cooler. “Who- What the… hell was the-that?...” Bastion gasped, as he regains his breath. Yaevinn was laying next to Bastion, still in shock from his life flashing before his eyes from the fire. It reminded him of the fire that erupted in Rhenium, though, it wasn’t very destructive, but it certainly looked like it was. As a boy, it scared him. It wasn’t really a phobia, but a fire spell of that calibre had shocked him quite a bit. However, if a fire that powerful had anything to catch fire on, and burn away at... he didn’t know if he could withstand his fear. Bastion didn’t notice Yaevinn’s fear, he was too
exhausted to notice, and he had even thought that Yaevinn had answered his question, but he didn’t hear from his magic loss. It took Bastion a good couple of minutes to get himself together, but Yaevinn had snapped out of his trauma before then, slowly looking over the rock at the body. It was still there, dead for certain. Bastion was clambering to his feet, looking at Yaevinn. Sweat dripped from his body. “So… know who, or what the hell that was?” Bastion asked.
”I… I think so…” Yaevinn replied “I think that was an Archmage… You know about the Archmage… the ones that have the blood of an Overlord?”
”Yeah… Yeah, I do…” Bastion said. “That would explain the power, but what was it doing here? Why was he… so…”
”Archmagi usually don’t last long without their master’s blood… It’s all about mental capacity… some can survive without the overlord’s blood, but the thirst for it is always there. There’s always problems… this one seems to have lost his mind, it was quite obvious from his wild moves.” Yaevinn said. “What was it doing here?” Bastion asked “It doesn’t seem like he could survive… plus…”
”Look up there.” Yaevinn said, pointing to the ceiling. “Hollow sight.” Bastion looked at the ceiling through hollow sight, and saw weak points all over the ceiling. It was quite obvious what had happened. “Someone has disturbed the fusion… dogged down here… Could it have been that Archmage? Where are we, exactly?” Bastion asked.
”Heck… I don’t know… Wow… It got down here from up on the surface, but it’s obvious he lost his mind ages ago. Why come down here, why not run rampant in the streets of a city or something? Makes no sense…” Yaevinn said. “Unless it was the Blue Magi…”
“Enough of that bullshit.” Bastion said, tired of hearing about the Blue Magi.
Bastion walked over to the body of the messenger slumped against the wall, the smell of ash and fire overtook the smell of rotting flesh, surprisingly. He rooted through the pockets, and his bags… it was obvious that the body had not been looted for valuables. The letter that was to be delivered to Varnis was present also. “Doesn’t make sense, why kill an official for no reason? They obviously didn’t want the document, they risked it being eaten or whatever.” Bastion said.
”Maybe they would come back later?” Yaevinn asked.
”You’re exaggerating, Yaevinn. This has been down here for ages. I haven’t been in Korreal long, and I'm new to Magi life, but I'm not new to logic. I don’t know why that thing was down here, but it certainly wasn’t for the sole purpose of killing the official, or us. Plus, the official likely would have been outmatched anyway, coming from a long journey and all, three Magi or so would have been enough, not as strong as hell crazy Archmage.” Bastion said.
”Fair enough.” Yaevinn yielded… “Time to head ba- Wait, what are you doing!?” Yaevinn protested as Bastion ripped the seal off of the envelope and took out the letter. “We’re not allowed to see what we risked our life for? I mean, I DID find the portal, after all…” Bastion said.
”Varnis would punish you for this!” Yaevinn said. “Plus, that has confidential information about Veronica, you can’t just…”
”Cant what? It’s Veronica, she’s practically a mystery. You’re curious too, aren’t you? She’s my friend, I want to see why she’s so… shut out. I know it’s wrong, but… hey… Curiosity is a strong human trait.” Bastion said. “Are you going to tell on me?”
”I… I suppose I won’t…” Yaevinn said. “You did save my life, after all… But, I don’t want to hear anything about it, I'm not interested!”
”I bet you are, though!” Bastion laughed, but Yaevinn sat with his back to Bastion.
”Don’t tell me anything. Read through, destroy it, and lets go. We tell the truth, but say that the letter was destroyed along with the body. When they get here, it will be believable…” Yaevinn snorted. “Can’t say I'm happy with myself, betraying Varnis’ trust though… I’ll need to make amends…” Bastion was already too interested in the letter to care.
To Lord Varnis of Korreal,
We send this urgent letter in response to your request for a background search of Veronica Blay. We have uncovered the truth of her past whereabouts, and the accusation that your Ispii member had made against her to you. It seems that Veronica Blay was actually not at any Blue Magi settlement, but actually a complex to the north of where you found her, where she was residing. The man who had her was her father, Trigoma McAllister, brother to Dante McAllister and former second in command of Sanctum. 11 Years ago, he was assassinated, around the same time you found the girl. At the time of his death, there were two bodyguards with him. The Arcana of one such bodyguard was missing, and the wounds on all three were from Arcana, and once we had tracked down one of the attendants at the complex, he described a young blonde girl being the culprit of this assassination.
The circumstances of her discovery are not relevant. The Portal site that has been mentioned by Veronica Blay has now been ruled off of the investigation list. We request you apprehend Veronica and bring her to Rhenium, where she will be questioned and given to Sanctum as punishment.
Yours faithfully,
Marcus Flotsam of the Rhenium Council.
”Holy shit…” Bastion sighed, putting the letter in his boot, where nobody would search for it.
”Don’t want to know.” Yaevinn said, still having his back to Bastion.
”Who’s Trigoma?” Bastion asked, regardless.
”Horizon’s spit, Bastion!” Yaevinn snapped, turning around, then he sighed and gave in. “He’s an Archmage, blooded by the Overlord of Kirall at that time. He’s the brother to Dante McAllister, Blue Magi leader, but they never spoke to each other. He left Britain a while ago, visiting rarely. When Sanctum came to Earth, he was the one that introduced them to the meeting in Korreal, and was appointed second in command, which threw the meeting into chaos.” Yaevinn said. “You know, it’s odd... He was the complete opposite of his brother. He was apparently one of the most nicest people among the Magi as a whole, once... Not sure why he turned to be such an asshole. Why? Might as well tell me now.”
”It’s probably better that you don’t know…” Bastion said slightly worried. “Keep all this secret, will you? I need to talk to Veronica… She may be in trouble.”
”If she’s got anything to do with Trigoma, then you bet she is.” Yaevinn said.
”Let’s just go, it’s not what you think… just… Promise you’ll keep quiet? As a friend?” Bastion asked, and Yaevinn complied. “They’ve also crossed her claim of finding the portal off the list... I have a strong feeling that something is seriously wrong here. That makes no sense. Surely they must at least investigate it first!”
”Let’s just get back and see what Varnis has to say about this.” Yaevinn said.
”An Archmage!? Are you sure?!” Varnis exclaimed, walking back and forth. “Why would there be an Archmage, an insane Archmage, of all manner of beasts there?!”
”I don’t know, we told you already.” Bastion said. “We nearly died down there…”
”I know… I know, I'm sorry children, I…” Varnis said. “I didn’t know you’d be in such danger. But it makes no sense. The area you were below was in the middle of the woods, though.”
”Any reason that the Blue Magi might have set it up?” Yaevinn asked, making Bastion sigh quietly.
”Not that I can think of… If they wanted the letter, they’d have just taken it themselves, instead of unleashing a monster… The fact that a crazed Archmage was there… we need to examine the body, perhaps find a trace but… I have to be alone for a while, I need to think this through. Yaevinn, come back tomorrow. I need your help with something, rest up in the meantime.” Varnis says, dismissing the two. Bastion and Yaevinn leave the room, and Bastion didn’t make it three steps without Yaevinn bringing up Veronica. “What are you going to do? You know for a fact what he wants me for, I'm going to be going to retrieve that letter myself!” Yaevinn said. “She’s no
t got long…”
”I don’t know… I… Can I prove her innocence? Talk to her?” Bastion said.
”How are you going to prove anything? This happened ages ago! I told you she had an Arcana, man, I TOLD you!” Yaevinn screeched.
”Alright, Alright… I… I'm going to have to talk to her about this. I’ll… speak to you later.” Bastion said, and Yaevinn stopped following Bastion, leaving him to his hard decisions. Was he right in getting involved in this? Did he know Veronica as well as he thought he did? She could very well be an evil person, deep inside, and she’s kept many secrets. Theories such as these kept swirling in his head, as he went up the elevator. The smart thing to do would be to turn his back on the mysterious girl, but there were problems he couldn’t overlook. Nobody looked out for the girl, the council’s decision to overlook her claim for the portal, and of course, her father being the leader of Sanctum. If her father was the leader of Sanctum, what was with the rags and the assassination? Bastion couldn’t help but think that there was some ulterior motive for everything, and that he was only actually focusing on the small issues. That there was something obvious he was overlooking, too many elements out of place. He intended to find out if he was right.
Chapter Eight – A plot of his own
Sebastian Slater
”So, you went on a mission with Yaevinn, but didn’t even think of inviting me?” Veronica huffed, after Bastion had returned to the bungalow “Hmph. You have some nerve. To think you call me your friend.”
”It was for a very good reason, Veronica.” Bastion said. “It was directly to do with you and your discovery of the portal.”
”The portal?” Veronica asked, eyes lighting up. “You mean… has it been approved?”
”No… No… Actually…” Bastion said, watching as Veronica’s features turned into a scowl. “Actually… It was a mission to find a messenger who was going to deliver an official message. Some crazy guy killed him, but we dealt with him.”
