Pure Choice dm-6

by Jeff Inlo

  "What did you do?!" Ryson demanded.

  "I placed a… think of it as a curtain… around your wife. You can't see it, but it is there. She can no longer hear or see us, which means the arasaps and Ansas can no longer see us or hear us."

  "So she thinks we're gone?!" Ryson stated with his alarm growing.

  "I understand your concern, but in her state, she does not mind. She cannot see or hear anyone of us, save Dzeb. I thought it would be best if he looked after her. The curtain does not block him out."

  "So she thinks I've left her?!" Ryson was about to demand Enin remove the spell, but Holli affirmed the wisdom of the move.

  "We need you to help us find and defeat Ansas," the elf intervened. "If you wish to help Linda, you must accept this."

  "Of course I want to help her!" the delver roared. "But not like this!"

  "It seems we have little choice. You yourself demanded Jure to remain quiet. How can we communicate?"

  Ryson was becoming frustrated at having his words and actions used against him, and they were no closer to reaching the sorcerer.

  "But if Enin just cut us all off from Linda, then Ansas knows we're aware he was listening."

  "If he is watching us, then he already did," Holli noted. "You just said as much only a moment ago. This may be difficult, but we need you to find him."

  Despite how it would affect the delver, Jure decided to expose yet another flaw in their plan.

  "We have another problem. If Ansas was listening to us-which he probably was-then he knows how we're going to try to follow him."

  Enin saw where the elder wizard was going.

  "And he now knows to mask his scent from the delver."

  "So he's going to get away?!" Ryson groaned.

  "No," Jure said with certainty.

  Holli recognized the elder wizard's tone.

  "You have an idea?"

  "I do. I believe I can find him, but you have to take me back to the elf camp."

  Chapter 26

  Without hesitation or even asking for further explanation from Jure, Enin teleported the group through a portal once more, and they emerged just outside the borders of the elf camp in Dark Spruce Forest. He did not know why Jure needed to speak to the elves, but the magic that flowed through his consciousness seemed to approve of the decision. He could never quite explain it to anyone else-as there was no one in Uton that could control the energy with the same proficiency-but the magic would often open his awareness to events of great consequence. He felt the lines of energy converging around them, almost guiding them to where they needed to go.

  The sudden appearance of uninvited guests alarmed the elf guards on patrol and they called for the new arrivals to halt. The outer perimeter of sentries did not openly confront Enin's party with threats, but they remained on high alert and were extremely cautious involving any magical portals. Each elf remained in position as the elf captain rushed to the scene.

  Birk Grund, recognizing most of them as allies, addressed them all with a level of respect, but he also insisted they reveal their purpose.

  "Why have you come here in such a manner?"

  Jure knew the answer, but he allowed Holli to speak for them all.

  "We are in search of Ansas," the elf replied.

  "Is he near?" the captain demanded.

  Holli did not sense the sorcerer, but as of yet, she was uncertain why Jure wished to return to the elf camp. She bid the elder wizard to finally explain his intentions.

  "No, he's not here," Jure explained. "He's still in the dark realm, but there are now two links to him that I can follow. One is with us." The wizard nodded to Linda. "The wife of Ryson Acumen is harboring four arasaps with a portion of Ansas' black magic. That is one point. The other is within Shantree Wispon."

  None of the others, save Enin, could understand Jure's intentions. It was Holli who pressed for further explanation.

  "But the links only create a path back to where the last spell was cast," Holli asserted. "The link to the arasaps led back to Ansas' study. The link to the elf elder will only lead us back to the area in the dark realm where the elves were taken after abduction, the ground that was under Ansas' barrier. Do you believe that is where he is hiding?"

  "I doubt it, but I won't be following the links of a spell. I will seize upon the similarities within the two points of magic-the one in Linda and the one in Shantree. Ansas left part of himself in both, and I should be able to find the commonality between the two distinct portions, separate out the differences, and draw a direct path back to his unique power. That will lead us right to him… wherever he is."

  Ryson didn't understand the magical implications, really didn't care about them. He wanted nothing more than to get to Ansas as quickly as possible, but he also considered the need to act with greater care. His impatience and carelessness had already led to one setback. He despised the thought of any delay, but he wouldn't make the same mistake twice. There was no way he would allow Ansas to escape again.

  "How are you going to block out Shantree?" the delver asked. "We can't let Ansas know what we're going to do. If he was able to use Linda's senses, he can probably use Shantree's. Is Enin going to cast another spell around her?"

  Birk immediately responded with a harsh rebuke.

  "No one is going to cast a spell on anyone in this camp without discussing it with me, the council… and especially the camp elder!"

  "But if we tell her what the plan is, then Ansas will be warned," Ryson responded with growing frustration, unsympathetic to the elf's concerns.

  "Warned of what?" Birk demanded.

  "We are going after him," Holli explained in the most diplomatic tone she could muster. "He has used arasaps to penetrate Linda Acumen. We must free her of the parasites."

  "She has my sympathy, but you do not have my authorization to cast a spell on the camp elder. Ansas has already abducted us once and any action against him must be considered by the council, or at least the camp elder herself."

  Ryson finally boiled over. He stepped up to the elf captain in a blur of motion and gazed defiantly into Birk's eyes.

  "Do you know how many times I've saved this camp? If you think I'm going to let your idiotic rules interfere with what we have to do, you're sadly mistaken."

  The elf captain's tone grew cold as he stared back at the delver with equal defiance.

  "Have a care delver. You forget where you stand."

  Ryson stepped even closer.

  "I haven't forgotten anything. I know about the guards in the trees… even the ones you think I can't see. Would you like to see how fast I can drop them to the ground like sacks of dried beans? I can be finished and back here before any of them can string an arrow, let alone get off a shot at me."

  "Ryson!" Holli admonished. "That will not help!"

  Ryson would not back down.

  "Holli, we're going to find Ansas, and this over controlling captain is not going to get in my way!"

  It was Jure who offered a solution.

  "Ryson, I don't think it's necessary to block out Shantree," the elder wizard stated with all honesty.

  The delver would not release his gaze from the elf captain, but he directed a demanding question at Jure.

  "What do you mean?"

  "What I'm planning on doing does not require stealth. Even if Ansas realizes what I'm going to do, he won't be able to hide. As long as I can sense the magic within Shantree and Linda, I will be able to build a path to Ansas. There's not a barrier he can create that will stop me."

  "Are you certain?"

  "I am."

  Ryson would not apologize to the elf captain. Instead, he simply disregarded him as if the elf no longer mattered. He turned instead to Enin.

  "If that's the case, then I want you to remove the spell surrounding Linda," the delver demanded. "If Shantree can see and hear what's going to happen, then so can she."

  Enin agreed and quickly removed the spell. Linda, however, showed no indication of recognizing an
y changes around her.

  "Linda?" Ryson asked. "Can you see me?"

  His wife looked directly at him but in a fashion that appeared as if she was looking through him.

  "I see you," she admitted.

  Her total indifference nearly shattered Ryson's heart. He was ready to kill for her, and she regarded him with no more attention than she would give a gnat buzzing around her face. Attributing everything to Ansas and the arasaps inside of his wife, Ryson twirled about to face Jure.

  "Do whatever you have to do. Find him!"

  "We need to speak to Shantree," Jure revealed and then looked to the elf captain for assistance.

  "And so you shall," Birk Grund acknowledged, more than willing to escort the group to the camp elder.

  Shantree Wispon listened intently to Jure's explanation and was eager to assist the human wizard. She hoped they would not only force the sorcerer to remove the arasaps from the delver's wife, but also make him take back the unwanted piece of ebony magic from her core as well.

  She could not touch the foreign energy in any fashion or utilize it to cast spells, but its existence within her haunted her every waking moment and caused nightmares she had not experienced in years. She almost wished Jure had never told her of the dark magic within her, but somehow she believed she would have eventually discovered the truth on her own.

  She had remained separated from the elf camp. She also realized that if some solution was not found, she would be forced to relinquish her role as elder. She could not continue to lead if she could not trust her own decisions. Being marked by the sorcerer was leading her to oblivion, but perhaps the combined strength of Enin and Jure would be sufficient in freeing both herself and Linda Acumen.

  With Shantree's approval and with Birk monitoring the procedure, Jure began the task of finding the connection between the dark energy in two different sources. He could not grab hold of the energy, as it continued to defy him, but he could feel it… analyze it with regard to its magical characteristics. He probed both Shantree and Linda at the same time, disregarding the echoes that wavered back to any past spell. Instead, he latched on to the similarities he could detect.

  Within moments, he perceived a vibration from both portions of energy that matched each other exactly, but they didn't form any link between each other. The waves traveled outward across dimensional space. He had found the trail he was looking for.

  To his amazement and dismay, the connection reacted to his probing. The moment he seized upon it, he felt it move. It jumped like a taught string that had been plucked by an opposing finger. The end of the path had changed. While he was initially able to follow it to an exact location in the dark realm, the new path's final destination eluded him. It remained fixed, but it rested within a thick haze he could not penetrate.

  "I had him," Jure disclosed. "He was in the dark realm…"

  "Take us there!" Ryson ordered.

  The delver's demand was for immediate action, but the elder wizard hesitated. With all his might, Jure attempted to see through the dark mist, but he could not make a clear distinction of Ansas' position.

  "He moved. I've lost him," the elder wizard confessed with a great tinge of guilt.

  The delver reacted almost violently. Rage was apparent throughout his stiffened body.

  "What?! Find him again!"

  "I have found him," Jure revealed, "but I don't know where he is."

  "You're not making sense!"

  "You don't understand. He's in the dark realm. I'm sure of it, but he's… he's in some kind of haze."

  Before Ryson could react, Enin intervened.

  "Jure, if you can follow a trail back to him from two different points, you should be able to locate him."

  "I have located him, but I don't understand where he is. It's like he's in some kind of cloud. If I can't determine the exact location, how can I send us there? It seems he figured out a way to hide himself after all."

  With that admission, Ryson did react, and he poured his fury toward the elf captain.

  "This is your fault!" Ryson accused as he pointed angrily to Birk. "Ansas figured out what we were doing because of your idiocy!"

  The elf captain glared with equal anger at the delver, but before he could defend his decision, Jure took full responsibility.

  "No, Ryson, it was my mistake. I was overconfident. I'm sorry."

  "Sorry doesn't help my wife!"

  "But he can still help Linda," Enin professed. "He just needs some assistance. Calm yourself for a moment, Ryson. What's done is done. Let us see what we can do to solve this dilemma."

  Enin turned back to the elder wizard.

  "Tell me what you sense."

  "The truth is, I'm not sure," Jure revealed. "I can't take hold of the energy in either one of them, but I can follow both strands back to their source. The magic doesn't want me to, but it can't stop me."

  "So you can follow it. Where does it lead?"

  "He's still in the dark realm, but it's not quite the same. I don't think he's really hiding, but he's somewhere I can't define."

  "Then maybe you just need to expand your understanding of that realm," Enin advised. "The dark realm is a lazy term, but there is an absence of celestial light, so it is somewhat befitting. Some think of it as the spawn of nightmares, the level of consciousness created by our deepest fears and a repository for our heaviest burdens. They are partially correct, but they oversimplify. It is not some illusionary expression of our darker imagination. It is a very real place, and it remains connected to our land. That's what you must concentrate on."

  "I don't have a problem following the trail to the dark realm. It's this particular area that Ansas seems to have found that I can't really distinguish."

  "That's what I'm trying to help you with," Enin advised. "Existences are layered upon each other. Some are obvious and others are very subtle. Even here in this forest, there are layers of existence. In the ground beneath our feet and in the air, there are tiny creatures waging their own battles, their own struggles. Layered all around us, there are presences of another sort. They are no less here than we are, even though we can't see them. For the most part, they disregard us and we disregard them."

  "You mean like insects?"

  "Yes, but other entities as well-some so small we can't even see them, others totally invisible because they lack physical properties-but their existence is no less real. The dark realm is just one more layer, but it is placed out of normal reach, connected only by magic. It may be a land of monsters, but it is also a realm of imagination, and there are layers there as well."

  Jure began to grasp the concept.

  "So you're saying Ansas is still in the dark realm, but he has separated himself from the rest of the dark creatures. In essence, he is in his own layer."

  "In simplest form, yes, but I need you to be careful in how you perceive all of this. There is a great deal of overlap and if you attempt to isolate particular sections, you will lose him. You have to allow the magical trail to be your guide and open your consciousness to wider possibilities. I don't believe it's Ansas that's clouding your mind. I believe you are just having difficulty allowing your thoughts to take hold of alternate realities."

  "I'm not sure that helps me find him," Jure revealed. "I can't just wipe my mind clean and let some new reality take shape."

  "You don't have to," Enin allowed. "You just have to let the magic take you where you need to go. You know Ansas better than I do. Where would he place himself in the dark realm?"

  That was a question Jure could answer easily.

  "Far above it all. Even the largest of monstrosities would still be nothing more than a mosquito to him."

  "He is that arrogant?" Enin questioned.

  "Absolutely."

  "Then if the dark realm is a physical reflection of the darkest corners of our imagination, use Ansas arrogance to help define the space around him. Don't try to create it yourself. Instead, let the magic and your understanding of Ansas guide you t
o his exact location."

  With a new direction, the elder wizard concentrated once more on the magical strands of ebony magic. Though he could not grasp the dark energy that flowed back into the nightmare dimension, he could follow it and he knew it led directly to Ansas.

  Jure ignored his previous experiences in the dark realm, forced out the images that his memory recreated in his mind. He allowed his consciousness to travel across existences without preconceived notions of what to expect.

  Near the very end of the magical line, he reached a murky haze. Initially, it kept him from discovering his surroundings, but he patiently remained just outside the fog. He didn't attempt to burst through or shape the mist based on his own expectations. Instead, he waited for his surroundings to take on characteristics of their own.

  He considered everything he knew of Ansas. The sorcerer was beyond arrogant. He was totally self-indulgent. He was also brash and self-assured, perhaps a bit too confident in his ability. Jure decided to use that to his advantage.

  The elder wizard remained patient as well as persistent. He simply allowed his consciousness to take hold just outside the haze. He would use Ansas' brashness against the sorcerer. In essence, he offered a challenge, one he believed the sorcerer could not refuse.

  The haze began to take a more detailed form. It first took the shape of a dark cloud, like a large puff of smoke, but it quickly took solid structure. He could see a wide plateau, a stretch of ground upheld high in the air by a single column, but one with a firm foundation. He knew they could walk upon the lonely ground, even the massive cliff behemoth would be well supported.

  As Ansas' location came into greater focus, Jure realized he was not alone in issuing a challenge. The sorcerer had issued one of his own, one the elder wizard had met and overcome.

  "I have him," Jure announced.

  Chapter 27

  "I'll give you credit; you continue to surprise me," Ansas conceded. "I wasn't sure if you could reach me here on your own, but you did. You may not have Enin's vast energy or his control, but you are relentless. Is that how you achieved your white circle of magic?"