The Magic, Broken

by Rick Field

  While her first spell tried to destroy the creature's enchantments, her second spell in the chain had hefted six blocks of debris from the destroyed ceiling at the incoming bolts of spell fire, causing them to explode in mid-air. Already, her voice worked a third spell, warping the floor into razor-sharp obsidian blades, attempting to skewer the creature.

  Recognizing that something had changed, it broke her first counter-enchantment, dodged out of the way of the blade-floor, and attempted to turn her own spell against her. Lucifer warned her, and it took her a mere two steps to be outside of the field of influence of the floor-warping spell; all the while she chanted her own magic. Gravity started to bend to her needs, before it was cancelled. Glad for the creature's insistence on canceling most of her magic, the opportunity allowed her to continue the offensive.

  Raising her twin mystical weapons to the heavens, she broke out a larger spell. The floor twisted upward, encasing the monster in its grasp. Immediately, the stone prison shattered before Liane had a chance to solidify the ritual, a single beam of energy lashing for her. Lucifer pushed her aside; allowing the initial barrage to miss. At the same time, her right hand holding DawnBreaker came up, somehow under Lucifer's influence. The beam of energy shifted faster than she could have hoped to continue dodging, angling for her new location, and the borrowed Masterpiece caught the incoming energy on the flat of its blade.

  Again, Liane was reminded that she would come to no harm as long as there was magic left in the sword. A scream of pain tore from Liane's throat, the sword's battle against the weapon resounding through her magic, and she closed her eyes, gritting against the shared pain. She could feel the creature drawing more energy from the environment, shaping it into the weapon it was now using to bear down her defenses.

  Energy swelled around her, and Liane's right knee hit the ground, as if trying to hide behind the flat end of the sword. Desperately, her mind reached for a solution, any solution. She was drawing a blank, and was starting to resign to the fact that she was going to die there and then, when the beam cut off suddenly, and Liane was thrown to the ground when the sudden pressure released its hold on her.

  Immediately, she threw herself aside, before clumsily coming to her feet now that she had no free hand with which to push herself up. DawnBreaker was still held aloft, and Liane barked out a botched ritual. Who needed a wand to perform rituals when they had access to Liane's Masterpiece? Using the sword as her anchor, she channeled the required ritualistic movements and incantations straight through its magic. Had her old Rituals & Ceremonies Doctore been here, he would have immediately revoked her license.

  The creature looked astonished when her broken ritual shattered its defense and started dispersing the elements in one of its legs. For the few moments that the creature was stunned into inaction, Liane brought up Lucifer while ignoring the pain caused by the backlash of a badly executed shortened ritual. A long-term misfortune curse left her legendary weapon.

  Somehow sensing the incoming curse, the creature broke its own trance and managed to dissolve it in midair. Immediately afterward, it cut off its ever-dissolving leg. The loss of the limb caused it to waver unsteadily, and Liane once again used the momentary distraction.

  Her voice tasted like dark and bitter chocolate as she brought the purest incarnation of the element of fire to bear upon her target. Ignoring the sudden bloom of white-blue fire that immolated the creature, Liane raced in, bringing DawnBreaker up. She knew no mere fire would be enough to destroy the creature, but she hoped – there!

  The creature dispelled the fireball, but by that time Liane had reached it. It tried to jump away, but its lost leg hindered it. Lucifer's precognition allowed her pin-point accuracy, and she could once again feel the law of gravity submit to her will, worked through DawnBreaker. The sword hammered down with the force of a meteor, carving a deep cut through the creature's body.

  Immediately after, gravity inverted, and Liane's following upward strike was just as fast and devastating as the original downwards slash had been. The creature moved, howling angrily, as the upwards cut created a second deep wound upon its body. A bolt of pure magic forced Lucifer to push Liane aside, saving her life but breaking her stance and concentration in the process. The creature howled and barked, and to Liane, it literally felt as if its voice was grating her skin. The synesthesia was getting uncomfortable, and Liane knew she would soon have to cancel her acceleration spell or risk permanent damage to her body.

  A second bolt of magic made her dodge once more, forcing her to divert attention to staying alive and easing up her assault upon her artificial target.

  As she danced for her life among the barrage of incoming spell fire, she was forced to watch, helplessly, as the creature healed its wounds and enchanted rubble from the destroyed ceiling into a partially functional leg, making her question how it was performing two feats of magic simultaneously?

  Then she remembered; she, too, had done feats like that. She had once anchored multiple power-raising chants within her unstable magical core, and had used the gathered magic to perform outrageous feats of magic.

  Did the creature have a core as unstable as her own, or had it, somehow, figured out the same tricks that she had?

  It barked a beam of magic at her, and Liane took two steps aside and watched it pass her by. For a moment, she was glad it didn't have the time to build up the same humongous attack that had destroyed her compounded shield wall and had taken out the ceiling. If the creature unleashed another spell like that, it would have likely destroyed the far wall – which would reveal the staircase leading down.

  She risked a glance over her shoulder; the wall was damaged and had multiple holes in it, but the secrecy magic was obviously still hiding the door from the creature. Liane herself could see the door quite well, but the creature obviously couldn't, judging from its searching actions while she had hidden herself.

  It wouldn't take it long to figure out that something was hidden, and start tearing down the walls. She had no choice. She had to keep it busy.

  Somehow, there was a lull in the battle. She was panting deeply, physically, mentally, emotionally, and magically exhausted. The creature, too, seemed affected. They stood quiet, studying one another, each waiting for the other to make a move.

  Liane panted, trying to recover stamina and magic. The Blood Construct stared back, trying to gather itself as well, supporting itself on three fully functional limbs and one in-situ enchanted piece of rubble that acted as a support mechanism. It had obviously decided that she was more dangerous than she had first appeared, and was now weary of her next trick.

  For a moment, she thought about dropping the acceleration spell and giving her overtaxed brain a rest, then she decided against it. When the creature started moving again, she would need every edge she could get. The Blood Construct was faster than her, seemed to have an inexhaustible reserve of magic, and possessed a high intelligence that was capable of unravelling her spells and copying them if required.

  Feeling her breath ease rather quickly, the Pillar was grateful for her insistence on walking everywhere rather than taking a horse of a carriage. Her body was well-used to exertion and recovery.

  Her magic, though, was another thing. She drew a breath, and the creature grew still, eyeing her. Deciding that she would just have to take the risk, Liane focused herself and her awareness into her next action. She would have to be ready for when her enemy attacked her.

  She opened her mouth and slowly started to chant her favorite power raising spell. The creature startled, and for a moment, Liane was sure it would attack her. Then it stilled, studying her as her spell started to take hold and the surrounding area's magic was funneled into her core. Immediately, she started to feel better and felt relieved that her opponent had decided not to act as she had expected.

  If the Blood Construct would continue to study her, she was determined to give it something to study. Just as she had once before, she fell out of step with herself, her voice
dropping into a canon rhythm with itself, following half a verse behind. A double-tap of magic hit her core, and Liane could feel her core starting to fill rapidly. When she had done this last time, she had brought all her control over the elements to bear, forcing them to subjugate the very forces of nature into a single spell against her target.

  Deep within her mind, behind her split consciousness, she started to build her spell. If it was powerful enough to break through a fully-implemented runic bunker shield, it should be able to do serious damage to a Blood Construct. Her mind started slipping the elements together, building up the spell before she invoked it. Liane knew she had to hurry, her magic wouldn't be able to continue this pace forever and the synesthesia of the acceleration spell was getting worse, a tell-tale indication that she was nearing its maximum limit.

  Somehow, the creature realized something had shifted within her, from simply gathering power to actually gathering action, and attacked her instead. For just a moment, her attention had been diverted, and the creature took use of her lapse of attention, charging her at full speed.

  Lucifer actually made her move before the creature reached her, causing its pure physical attack to miss and skid across the floor on its three-and-a-half legs. The forceful nature and the sudden appearance of the attack made her lose hold over her building spell, but somehow allowed her to keep hold over the double power-raising chant. Without a spell to funnel the magic into, her core hit its maximum capacity. Immediately, Liane could feel the excess power flowing into Lucifer and DawnBreaker, her Legendary staff starting to work in the background.

  She was forced to ignore her weapon's intelligence, as the creature was ignoring its skidding motion across the debris-stricken floor and was now aiming a point-blank barrage of magical bolts at her. Lucifer was able to make her dodge the first two strikes, but the last three hit DawnBreaker. All of a sudden, the blade's ability to protect her was no longer limited to its own reserves.

  Before the Pillar was able to make use of her new discovery, she felt something give deep within her chest.

  Her core was straining under the flow of magic, the damage that was being done was substantial. Synesthesia hit in full force, all her senses jumbling together. Colors denoting sounds and sensations, touch and taste and smell and sight and sound turning into a cacophony that overwhelmed her. Her power-raising chants broke as her awareness and concentration vanished, and she was forced to release the Warlock enhancement spell.

  The headache felt like someone had taken an axe to her head, and the sudden spike of pain was so unexpected that her weapons slipped from her hands.

  Through the white-hot haze of pain, she saw the creature exploit her sudden weakness, and magic detonated around her. Pain exploded through her body, her right arm coming up uselessly as if trying to block the attack. Her magic ripped and tore, pain upon pain upon pain...

  The spell broke early.

  Liane stared at the blue sky through the destroyed ceiling, completely spent. Once again, her magic had saved her, just as it had once turned a Death Strike in her first-ever duel. Again, it had suffered enormous damage doing so. She could barely feel it over the sheer physical agony, and yet she was aware of the fact that most of her clothes had been ripped away, and that smoke was curling lazily away from her.

  The sky wavered. Something within her gave further. Was this what it felt like to die?

  The creature's vague outline filled her vision as it stared down at her. She stared back, its presence having blocked her view of the no-longer-there ceiling.

  Apparently dismissing her as a threat, the creature turned and started to hunt for Milor. Liane tried to turn. She failed. The blue skies darkened. Was night falling? Then she realized that the center was still clear, and the darkness was encroaching from the sides of her vision. What was happening to her?

  Her vision was dulling further. Where had the colors gone? She tried to draw a breath and failed. Was she dying? She tried to focus, tried to meditate, but there was no heartbeat for her to focus on. Liane tried to close her eyes. It made no difference. Were they already closed, perhaps? Or was her vision completely black now?

  Suddenly, she was standing in front of her magic. It was pulsing strangely – there and yet not, the containment grid she had built around it either keeping it there, or keeping it not there, she didn't know, and in her confused state of mind, she couldn't focus clearly to figure it out.

  The grid was broken and shattered. Tattered remnants held to the clear blue and red anchor lines that she had built, her magic straining against itself.

  Her body was dying. It may already be dead, for all she knew. She probably was, Liane reasoned. That must have been the reason why the creature didn't attack her further. She was dead.

  And yet, her magic was still very much alive. How long would she be able to remain, even if her body was no longer present? How much time...

  Time was out, she realized. Her body had passed away. If the lack of hostilities from the creature hadn't clued her in, then the lack of heartbeat and respiration would have. Liane drew a metaphysical breath in this strange half-present world where magic existed and her body was of no consequence. She felt better being able to breathe, even if the motion was simulated and her actual body could no longer benefit from it.

  This was it. She was gone. Her consciousness was still here, with her magic, bound by her restraining spells. How long would she have to stay here? Until her spell failed completely? Or until her magic somehow ran out?

  She was so very tired all of a sudden. The last week had placed a heavy toll on her, fight after fight, injury and healing and more injury.

  Did she even want to go on? The Pillar didn't know the answer to her self-posed question, and that, in itself, was an answer. No. No, it had been enough.

  She reached out, and her metaphysical hands reached for the anchor lines. Her body was dead. Her magic was halfway there, anchored only by the remnants of her failing spell. How much longer it would stay that way, she didn't know. Didn't care to know. It was time to end this. She'd given it her all, and she hoped she had done enough for her friend and for her country. Now it was time to rest.

  It was strange, she thought as she grabbed firm hold of her anchors, how little she cared about dying. Maybe it was her metaphysical surroundings, or maybe it was because she knew her body was already dead, and she was just confirming it to herself? Liane didn't know, and didn't care. She yanked the anchor lines she was holding, a fleeting thought hoping that her efforts had been sufficient and that Milor would remember her fondly. Her magic would dissipate, and she would get to sleep. She was tired of the pain. The anchor lines gave, then broke.

  Her freed magic pulsed through the metaphysical place, and threw Liane's mind from it. Somewhere, deep within her consciousness, a metallic voice started counting as her containment spell unraveled. One. Two. Three. Mechanically, her spell counted up as is released, one count per second, releasing one percent of her power. She would have an exact one-hundred count before she reached her full potential, right before it would start slipping away from her. She had mutilated it, pushed it too far, and now it would be leaving her.

  But not before it would serve her one last time. She drew a breath. A real breath. She had a heartbeat; she heard it. The Pillar blinked at the clearness of the blue skies visible through the shattered ceiling. The voice of her spell continued counting, and magic exploded through her body.

  Liane drew a breath. And another. Eleven. Twelve. Thirteen. Magic had brought her back, she realized. Her magic had brought her back. Unbidden, the voice of the Druid Elder came to her. The energy of nature can be used to stave off death and injury. Magic was energy. In essence, magic was life. All energy could be directed by Magic, the Arch Druid had as much as said so.

  The voice in her mind kept counting, and she felt herself grow stronger as her containment field unraveled, releasing the pent-up power it had kept locked. Magic was life. Her life had been damaged when she was attack
ed at an early age, and she had kept it bound – a huge mistake, one she had made in youthful overconfidence, and one that was irreversible. She knew that now. Despite what she had thought and believed after her last interaction with the Spirit of Water, the damage to her core, to her life itself, was not something she would have been able to overcome.

  Because that was all it was, at its very center. Magic was nothing but energy, and the ability to influence that energy. Energy could not be removed or created, only modified, from one state to another, from one shape to another. Even matter was, in essence, energy. Her mind hadn't been able to grasp the concept – no mind could, really. Even now, she knew that she wasn't able to really understand what it meant; there was a reason why the Deep Secrets allowed one to interact with 'Spirits'. There were no such spirits, of course, she now knew. There was only the energy of the universe, given shape by her subconscious in an effort to make sense of the chaos of nature.

  All was energy, and energy was all. The ability to do magic relied on a talent of influencing the energy present in reality, of having enough energy stored within one's self to influence that outside energy. That was the reason why the Deep Secrets relied on blood and life; the requirements of working magic on that scale superseded any reserves a Mage or Warlock may have readily available. Blood opened the conduit through which one could pay the required energy... the non-renewable amount of energy a person had. A person's life-force, the amount of life given to a person at birth. It was condensed, that energy; powerful. It was the reason why it was capable of performing feats of magic beyond the norm.