Into The Abyss (Demons of Astlan)

by Langland, J.

  Within instants, lines of light traced the primary pentagram. Then the secondary pentagrams flamed brilliantly as they were lit. The primary set of pentagrams flashed briefly, achieving balance and then beams of energy shot down the specially warded and inscribed tunnels to each of the relays. As the light hit the relay stations, those pentacles flared to blinding full power, and the outer circle between relay stations flashed to life. To an individual who was not one with the power, the entire array would be almost impossible to look at, however those inside did not notice it.

  The power was theirs; it was to be commanded. Now came the forming of the sphere of force that would protect the school. "Sanctum dominae, fortuum nostros," spoke the single voice of the thirteen. "Guard and protect us walls of power, Sid velum se crostat. Scerbum si voltan. Nek sid faltos epiterum. Sig nos leum trig falthos. Shield of Might, Hand of Fate, protect and guard us, this we ask, this we command."

  As the chant continued, the walls of light that lined the outer circle began to expand both upward through the ground and downward below their feet. The words were once again lost in the roar of power being channeled through the pentagrams. Sound however did not matter. As all wizards knew: it was the formation of the words within the mind of a wizard that focused the power.

  The earth did not stop it nor impede the flow of energy in any way, since the earth was a part of the energy. Upwards through the depths it moved, until it reached the surface, it climbed up the walls of the castle. To those outside, the walls of the castle seemed to shimmer and suddenly glow white with the burgeoning power. The force walls continued upward beyond the castle walls, slowly they began to bend inward and grow together, until they eventually came together at an apex. Thus a perfect dome over the tower and courtyard was formed, perfectly mimicking the domed room directly below the apex of the force dome. Below their feet the dome was inverted forming a perfect sphere.

  Those people inside and out could still see through the force walls, in daylight, but in the predawn darkness, it appeared as if a white nearly opaque dome had been placed over the school. As the walls closed, one man among the besieging army frowned in annoyance, he had hoped to catch them before Lenamare could get those damn wards up that he was so fond of bragging about. Oh well, one way or the other, he would win, pentacles or no pentacles.

  The Five Elements

  Earth, Air, Fire, Water and Spirit

  Curriculum Vitae: College of Wizardry

  University of the Council States

  These are the five elements of creation. It is their interaction that creates Mana, the energy of magic. Perhaps the best known treatise on the interaction of the 5 elements to produce mana is that by Heward.

  Each of the five elements exists in their raw form in their own dimension, or plane of existence. It is the intersection of the five elemental planes that forms the Planes of Man. The entire physical world is nothing but a collection of objects constructed from these five elements.

  The first four are generally familiar to most individuals as they encounter reflections of these elements within their everyday life: the dirt beneath ones feet, the air one breathes, the fire one cooks dinner with and the water one must drink to live. The fifth however is less well known, and while it is omnipresent it is also elusive and ephemeral.

  The fifth element, spirit sometimes referred to as Animae or the Element of Man is the raw essence of the life force. That which we call life is matter from the combination of the first four elements, infused with spirit or Animus. Animus is the reflection of Animae on the Planes of Man.

  All of nature is dictated by the interaction of the elements, Astrology is the science that tells us how.

  The Pentagram

  The pentagram, so crucial a tool in the conjuration of creatures is the perfect ward containing all five elements. A pentagram has five "corners" if you will, each of which represents one of the five elements.

  The exact nature, positioning and the five elements within the pentagram varies upon usage and need. Below is a traditional arrangement of the five elements within the pentagram. Further, the usage of a pentagram is also influenced by astrological factors as well as the current environment. Within various religions and pantheons there are always avatars and/or angels assigned to correspond to each element and for certain invocations these beings may stand guard or lend their presence on behalf of their element.

  The Pentacle

  A Pentacle is a combinations of a pentagram and other runes, symbols and logic. The runes of and symbols of a pentacle provide modifiers, or enhancements and instructions to pentagrams basic function. In essence, a pentacle is an inscribed spell based upon a pentagram. Multiple pentagrams are often combined together in a single pentacle each serving as building blocks, along with runes and other shapes and symbols of an inscribed spell.

  Further pentacles often include braziers located either in the center of a pentagram or at the node points of a pentagram depending on the nature of the spell being constructed. Braziers typically contain materials that provide fuel for the spell. Often fire is used as the mechanism for immolation; however. acids and solid catalysts can also be used to consume the material depending on the nature of the material and the requisite elements to be invoked.

  Chapter 21

  What have I done? Tom cried in his mind. He had killed a man. He had done it for no real reason at all. Yes the man had hurt the kid, maybe killed it, and so Tom had killed him. Actually, he didn't even know the kid had died, in fact it probably had only been severely wounded, so he had killed that man for even less of a reason. There was no justice in that; he had no right to do that. The man was wrong, he was probably even evil, but did he deserve the sort of death Tom had inflicted on him. First Tom had practically scared him to death, and then he popped him. In his mind the dying man's exhalations echoed again and again. The hissing and gurgling noise he made as he had bled down Tom's arm, would not go away.

  Tom tried to cry in shame and anger at himself, but found that he couldn't, apparently demons had no tear ducts. He was nothing but a cold blooded killer, if he'd had anything to throw up, he would have; but he'd never eaten anything in this form. He had ruthlessly, and thoughtlessly, killed a man in a very gory and disgusting manner. What had become of him, to get so easily provoked into such a horrible thing? What he had done was sickening, inhuman, demonic.

  Demonic, that was the word, Tom almost laughed at the sick irony of it all. It was like Tizzy said, "...demons...that's what we're called and that's what we are." He had killed the man just like a demon out of countless video games and books he'd read. He wasn't human, he was less than human, he was a creature of evil. Tom wanted to cry, but he couldn't, even that was denied him.

  He flew in random directions, continually berating himself, hearing the death gasps of the man he had killed, watching the man's life seep down and drip off his elbow. How long he kept this up he didn't know. It seemed like a small eternity that he flew around hating and loathing himself. Eventually however, he ran out of steam and hate.

  He settled into something like despair. He'd done it; he couldn't change it; he would have to live with it, with himself. He hated himself and what he'd done, but he just didn't have the energy to go on raging at himself. He also realized that it was getting late and that he needed to get back to Lenamare. Lenamare had given him three days, that time was nearly up, and he still had a long way to fly.

  He looked around to the setting sun and headed north, back to the tower. Night came and he flew on. A nervous feeling was growing inside him; he didn't think he was going to get back in time, and for some reason that gave him a sick feeling in his stomach. He didn't know why, and after all the raging at himself he'd just been through, he didn't care, it just did.

  As morning came, the uneasiness grew as he realized he was further away from the tower then he could fly by noon. The gnawing grew as the morning marched on and he knew he would not make it in time. Faster and faster he flew. To Tom it began to s
eem imperative that he reach Lenamare on time.

  A cold, rational part of his mind told him he was being silly and to let Lenamare wait; but even so he flew faster and faster, until he could fly no faster. His speed would just have to do, even though the unease was turning to almost a physical pain, a need.

  As the sun neared overhead, he began to ache all over. He knew it was irrational, and surely all in his head, but the fact that he wouldn't reach Lenamare in time hurt. It must have been something in the compulsion, the binding, that forced him to obey Lenamare's command and it was probably the possibility of failing or disobeying that command that was causing the pain.

  By the time he saw a shimmer on the horizon, which he took to be the tower, he desperately needed to get to Lenamare. He didn't know how he knew it was the tower, he did, he didn't care that it shouldn't shimmer, it did. His whole mind was focused on completing his assignment. He concentrated on it so strongly that he didn't even notice the army camped around the castle, he didn't even notice the wards. Until he hit them.

  He was flying very fast, twice as fast as normal, about seventy miles an hour. He hit the wards like hitting a brick wall. Unlike a car or person however, all Tom did was bounce. The shock of the blow brought him slightly back to reality. It didn't hurt badly, but it did stun him slightly. He realized that there was an obstacle in his way to getting to Lenamare. He knew that he had to get around it, or through it, there was no other choice.

  Single-mindedly Tom flew to a point on the dome and began pounding on it with his fists. When the dome didn't give or break, Tom realized, almost insanely that he needed more force. Whatever the cost, he had to get through that dome. Grasping for ideas, he began to pound rhythmically back and forth on it with karate punches from each fist. He did it just like he was instructed, kiyaing with each blow, but with a fanatical devotion he had never used before. Because of the compulsion, he put all his will power in it. With each blow and yell Tom also struck with his will.

  ~

  Out on the field, Exador noticed the large demon strike the wall and rebound, and then begin to pound. His eyes narrowed in calculation. He knew it wasn't his demon, so it must be Lenamare's, trying to fulfill a return compulsion. Knowing Lenamare, and guessing the strength of the pentacles, Exador did some quick calculations in his head. Quickly he began giving orders to his generals and subordinate wizards.

  ~

  Inside the dome, every wizard felt the blow to the pentacles as Tom rebounded. "What the hell ... what is Exador doing?" shouted Lenamare as he glanced up from his surveillance of the surrounding army, atop the gatehouse.

  "Not Exador, I think. One of ours." Jehenna remarked beside him as she pointed up in the air to where Tom was pounding on the dome.

  "Damn. I forgot about him coming back."

  "Not good."

  Up in the air Tom was so single mindedly determined to get in that he paid no attention to anything. Thus, he didn't even notice the red glow surrounding himself, and the bolts of magical energy that struck the wall in time to his fists.

  On the ground near the cots, Jenn looked up in fear at the demon trying to get in. She had known that summoning that thing would be the end of them all. Now it was helping the enemy invade the castle. Like all the older students and masters, she knew that even though the pentacles could keep out Exador or a fourth order demon; given how hastily they'd been set up the wards without a full priming, they couldn't withstand both for long.

  The children were becoming frightened by the energies they could feel reverberating through the dome. To calm them, Rex, who was standing nearby, gathered them together and led them to get some wood for the fires that heated the hospital's water.

  On the gatehouse roof, Lenamare turned to Jehenna. "Well, you set them up; you know the strength of your support in building them. Will they hold without the priming?"

  "You know as well as I, if Exador's got the kind of force we think he does, and decides to use it in concert with that demon, the shield can't hold for more than a few hours. If we could have gotten them set up properly..."

  "I know. No problem, I designed them myself. Damn Exador and his sped up time scale. We're gonna have to shift the shield to let the demon in."

  Jehenna thought for a moment then said, "But how? Demons are both magical and material. Thus, he's blocked no matter how we balance the shield. That's why pentagrams work so well on demons...remember."

  "Yes, I realize that," Lenamare said testily. "We can however, play a few tricks with the oscillation frequency of the balance and sneak him in." Lenamare motioned to one of his students standing nearby acting as a page. "Tell Hortwell and Elrose to meet Jehenna and myself in the primary ward chamber in five minutes." The child ran off immediately to follow his orders. "Follow me," Lenamare told Jehenna, and they set off to the catacombs.

  ~

  The children were gathered around the woodpile getting their third loads of wood. They couldn't take much at one time, actually Rex was doing most of the carrying. Rex didn't mind however, the primary point of having the children carry the wood was to keep their minds off the situation. Besides the hard physical work also kept his mind off the situation.

  As he bent to pick up another chopped log of wood, he felt a change in the air. Reaching out with his mind he could feel that the pentacles were oscillating. He could only guess that Lenamare must be trying something to let the demon in. The shields couldn't be shut down temporarily without having to start from scratch to put them back up, but they had to do something to get the demon in, before it seriously weakened the force field. Rex's quick mind saw what Lenamare was trying to do.

  The best bet would be to set the field on magic mode and set it to oscillate at a resonance frequency with the demon's spirit's energy frequency. The demon's physical body would pose no problem, since the field would be keeping out only magical energy. They'd have to risk only a short time of physical attack; unless Exador got clever and sent energy into the field at the same frequency as the resonance. That would be a forcing of the system, and if he sent enough energy in, it could overbalance the system and lead to a stochastic field, meaning the field would disintegrate into a bunch of isolated stability points and collapse.

  Of course, Rex rationalized the possibility of Exador timing things that well was almost insignificant. However, it was just what Lenamare would figure Exador to be able to do. Sometimes that man's reasoning was positively twisted. So Lenamare would probably set the field to physical mode and try to achieve a multilevel resonance with the demons very simple material resonance frequencies. This would be about five times harder and a lot more impressive of a feat; which, of course, meant Lenamare would definitely do it. The only good part of this was the fact that Exador wouldn't think Lenamare crazy enough to try it, it was simply too difficult of a feat in the middle of battle.

  Rex shook his head, and smiled at Lenamare's twisted genius. As he bent to get a piece of wood, his ears detected a roaring sound, like a large blaze in a fire pit. He turned in the direction of the walls, where the sound was coming from, in time to see several great globes of fire hurling over the walls. Almost without thinking he traced its trajectory and saw that one would land among the children gathering wood with him.

  Reflexively he stood and began a neutralizing chant. "Urbido proveteum, sig falthos nors verboten. Sig Dispateum, vog El Mer serioul." He spread his arms wide, mind reaching out to the rapidly approaching fireball.

  The onrushing ball of flames seemed oblivious to the chanting figure, except perhaps to focus on him even more specifically than before. Quickly it came down, directly at Rex's torso. Roaring filled his ears, and his eyes were blinded by the light, Rex ignored it all, keeping his mind on his spell.

  The ball struck Rex directly in the heart. It quickly began to expand and engulf him. Normally, the ball would have expanded to about a forty foot diameter, devouring all nearby, this ball however, only expanded to his arms-length. His entire body was hidden in the roaring conf
lagration. Momentarily his body was outlined within the flames in bright orange light, and then it was over. The fire died, dissipated within his body.

  However, the casting of such a last minute spell had its price. The charred and cindered body of the young wizard fell lifeless to the ground. A voice screamed in agony, "Rex!" and Alvea came running. The counter spell and its effect had only taken seconds, there had only been a few moments before the fireball reached him; Alvea never saw what had happened, she just knew Rex was dead. She ran mildly across the courtyard from the doorway in which she had stood.

  The yard around her was in flames; four other fireballs had gotten in and were not countered. They had ignited flames in several of the temporary wooden structures, and killed several soldiers. Another score were severely burned. Alvea had eyes for none of this; her eyes were fixed on the body of her love. Weeping she threw herself upon his body. She knew nothing of the outside world, only her loss mattered.

  Jenn saw the whole thing and was almost in shock. She would have run to Rex also, but men were screaming around her in pain. Quickly she shook her head, and put the agony of her friend’s loss to the back of her mind. She turned and began to help soldiers make their way to prepared cots so that she and the doctors could tend them. A score of soldiers and another six or seven women had been severely burned. About fifteen had died in the fireballs.

  The shield had only been in oscillation for about twenty seconds while the demon plunged in, but that had been enough for Exador. The stable was blazing, and grooms were running around trying to get the horses out. A water bin had had its support legs burned out. The water from the bin had doused some of the nearby fire, but a lot of steam had formed, and this added to the burns. Two makeshift barracks were burning as well as a nearby latrine. One of the animal pens had also been hit. Dead and dying animals lay where they'd been roasted alive.