Industry & Intrigue (21 page)

***

Reese pressed his
hand
s
against the cold, stone wall. He’d had a rough day after last night
and he had made up his mind to see if he could squeeze a favor from
the skylord mage, Zuri. He had no luck at her teaching office or
her living quarters. He had asked at every staff desk he could
find, until he was finally told she had entered the Blue Tower
twenty minutes ago.

He’d been told she went upstairs with
Paragon Yadra Torres, so he started climbing. After he had reached
the third floor the tower started shaking. Was this an earthquake?
Reese tried to keep himself steady as the tower shook for the
second time, much more violently and he covered his ears as a
terrible shout of rage and power washed down through the
tower.

What the in the hells?
Mages were running
out of the rooms in a panic, none of them knew what was going on.
They wouldn’t respond to his questions and he gave up, most of them
were trying to get out of the tower, concerned that it was going to
collapse. He wasn’t leaving until he found Zuri. He needed her
help. He ran up the stairs as fast as he could until he reached the
top floor and went through the first door he came across. When he
saw what was inside he regretted it.

A lava elemental was the last thing Reese
had expected to find. The elemental was trapped in ice and facing
down a mage in black robes. Reese assumed this was Paragon Yadra
Torres. But where was Zuri? He couldn’t see her in the
room.

Yadra shook a pouch of bones in her hand,
chanting. Reese wanted to leave but he didn’t want to attract the
attention of either the elemental or the mage. He stood still and
tried to remember what he could of lava elementals.

The ice
around the elemental’s feet was
disappearing and there was a crack as the creature tried to move
its legs. Yadra completed the last part of the ritual and released
the pouch the bones spilling onto the floor in front of
her.

As they bounced they
gre
w larger
and joined together, first forming four long, skeletal legs, then a
pelvis, ribcage and spine until finally the head appeared. Between
Yadra and the elemental stood the animated skeleton of a Vinacian
hyena; an extinct animal with the most powerful set of jaws in
history. In spite of the danger, the zoologist in Reese couldn’t
help but admire the skeleton of the long, extinct
creature.

“
Attack
,” said Yadra, right as the elemental
cracked one leg free of the ice and stepped forward. Despite its
undead state, the hyena made a high-pitched laughing noise and
sprang forward. Its jaws clamped onto the arm of the elemental and
held on tight.

The elemental slammed its other
arm against the undead hyena and the force shattered several of its
ribs. The hyena let go of the arm and fell to the ground. Despite
the powerful bite
of the hyena, there wasn’t even a scratch in the
elemental’s arm.

The hyena laughed again and
this time grabbed at the elemental’s leg and bit down as hard as it
could. This time there was a sound of grinding rock and small chips
of the elemental’s skin fell off around the hyena’s teeth.
The elemental
brought its hands down towards the undead canine. It missed as the
hyena dodged out of the way.

Yadra
moved further away from the two
battling creatures and towards the other side of the room. Then she
finally noticed Reese. She looked at him in surprise. “What are you
doing in here, you fool?” she yelled.

There was a
s
ound of
smashing bones. The elemental shattered the back legs and pelvis of
her hyena. It was still snapping its jaws at the elemental’s legs,
unable to feel pain. It was no good, the elemental had the undead
hound right where it wanted.

The elemen
tal brought both of its hands
down together at the same time and smashed the skull of the hyena.
It then continued to pummel its hands down, ensuring that the bones
were no longer active and were pulverized into pieces. It then
turned towards Yadra and Reese.

Reese
remembered what little he had read
about lava elementals. They were as ancient as colossi and dragons,
created by the raw magical energy of the primeval era.

He hadn’t studied them
extensively but he
did recall one report from a ship’s captain that encountered one,
on a small island off the coast of Araiin. He and his crew had fled
the island and the captain had used brine to slow the creature
down, it had an extreme reaction to the mixture of salt and
water.

Reese scanned the room and saw
a sink
and
taps. He ran over and grabbed a rubber container. He turned on the
tap full blast and water began to fill the container. Now all he
needed was salt.

He searched the shelves but
couldn’t find anything. He cr
ouched down and opened the cupboards, there were
plenty of bottles of powders. He spotted one that said
Bath
Salts
.

He grabbed it and poured
t
he contents
into the container, the powder dissolving upon hitting the water.
He had no idea if it would work like regular salt, but he had to
try. He picked up the container and headed towards the elemental,
water splashing on his shirt.

The elemental must have sensed
his presence as it stopped moving
towards the mage and turned. He threw the
entire container over the creature and the salty water rained over
it, covering its head and upper body. Steam hissed up as the water
hit the creature, its high body temperature instantly evaporating
the liquid.

It moved slower now, the salt reacting
with its skin and forming a black layer. It was still in mid turn
when it stopped moving, the reaction having immobilized it. Yadra
watched in amazement as the elemental stopped and she looked at
Reese.

“
How did you do that?” she
asked.

“
Salt water. It
will slow it down,
but I don’t know for how long. I’m Reese Galius, I came to see
Mastermage Abeliah when the whole tower started
shaking.”

Yadra nodded
, “I’m afraid, you’ve come at a
bad time Reese. Thank you for stopping that beast. The mastermage
is waging the real battle out there.” She pointed out towards the
sky, Reese squinted. He could make out two figures high above the
tower, flashes of light arcing between them.

***

Zuri let loose with another a
jet of flame from her hand. The fire raced through the air towards
Feyton, following him as he flew. It was speeding right
towards his head
until he pulled up his gloved hand and held it out at the
fire.

The long jet of flame
disappeared instantly and Zuri
cursed. No matter what she used, Feyton
always managed to counter her spells. He had powerful anti-magic at
his disposal.

Feyton flung another
blast
of
lightning at her. It thundered as it smashed into her defensive
shadow barrier, the barrier turning black for a moment, absorbing
the blow. A few more blasts would reduce her barrier to nothing and
then Feyton would be able to disintegrate her with ease.

She nee
ded to even up the odds somehow. If
she could get whatever he was using to counter her spells, she
would stand a chance. She looked below and saw the many towers of
Warded Spirals. That was the answer, she needed to bring the fight
out of the open air, and among the towers. Feyton was a powerful
mage, but he didn’t have her natural ability at flying.

Feyton yelled at her across the
air
, “You’re
far more powerful than you ever let on Mastermage Abeliah. What a
shame I have to kill you. You’re too mature for my physical tastes,
but your mind will be as delectable as any of my
students.”

“
I would rather die a
thousand
times than submit to you,” shouted Zuri. “You’ll never get
your degenerate will inside my head.” She flapped her wings, turned
around and went into a dive. She aimed at the grouping of five
towers on the western side of the Center called the Wands. Her
wings opened out all the way and she sped down at the
spires.

“
If that’s how you want
it,
” shouted
Feyton and he flew after her. He continued to throw spells at her.
Zuri moved faster than she ever had, moving from side to side to
avoid the lightning blasts.

As she neared the first of the
towers a blast sh
ot through the air she had occupied only a few seconds ago
and hit the top of the tower. She had to bank left to avoid being
showered in pieces of wood and stone from the shattered tower top.
She banked around the tower and thrust towards the next
one.

If she could briefly lose the archmage
among the towers here, then she could try and take him by surprise.
She banked again, this time twisting around one of the inner towers
as another blast thundered through the air behind her. She moved
upwards and flew though the open window of the middle tower. She
went all the way through and exited through the window on the
opposite side. Then she stopped sharply, turned around and lifted
herself up and over the tower top.

Feyton
approached the window she had flown
into and wasn’t paying attention to the air above him. Her wings
flapped, keeping her in a stationary position for a few seconds
until she had re-positioned herself.

She
went into a dive, this time straight
at Feyton with her hands stretched out in front of her. Feyton was
about to enter the tower when she reached him and with one hand
grabbed his left wrist, while the other grabbed his throat and
clamped down hard.

Feyton croaked in surprise, but
couldn’t say anything with her hand wr
apped tightly around his neck. She
tightened her grip as hard as she could and he gurgled and croaked
again. Feyton tried to hit her with his free arm but the blows
didn’t have much effect.

“
Ugh…ugh,
” Feyton sounded as if he was
trying to say something.

Zuri angrily
replied
,
“How does it feel to be helpless? Like all the helpless children
you took advantage of!”

S
he pulled him up higher into the sky by
his throat. She flew as fast as she could, higher and higher,
Feyton still trying to get out of her grip, but she refused to let
go.

S
he reached the air near the clouds and
Feyton started to lose consciousness. Unlike her, he wasn’t used to
the change in temperature and pressure. Zuri continued climbing,
hitting the grey, night-time clouds.

Droplets of moisture pelted both of them
and she felt Feyton start to go limp. His eyes were closed. She
moved her other hand to his throat, fully strangling him now. Her
anger and grief were overpowering and she continued to tighten her
grip. Feyton’s lips were turning blue and his mouth was making
ragged sounds.

Zuri held on
sti
ll, tears
rolling down her face. Her rage was still powering her actions, the
blue from Feyton’s lips started spread to the rest of his face.
Zuri gasped as she realized what she was doing and loosened her
hands. Her grief-fueled rage and adrenaline rush subsided. She put
one hand on his neck to check his pulse. He was still alive, it was
better than he deserved, but she was no killer. Even as angry as
she was she couldn’t commit murder like this.

She sensed powerful magic
emanating
from the white glove on his left hand. She held him by the
back of his collar and she reached over to remove it. It had a
symbol on the palm, a blue circle with its line briefly broken in
four places. This was his source of protection from her spells. The
symbol was ancient Cartralan, it represented anti-magic.

She slipped it over her own
hand and she
felt the strong energy. She would need it if the archmage
regained consciousness. She made sure she had a tight grip on him
and descended back to the ruined top of the Blue Tower.

***

Reese
and Yadra had retreated towards the
door of the tower room, in case the elemental broke
free.

“
I don’t think we can kill it,
but maybe I can contain it,” said Yadra. “We can’t let it get loose
in the tower and harm someone else.” She conjured up a thick wall
of bones to encircle it and they waited.

Yadra fell to her
knees
. Reese
lowered the staff he had picked up and placed it back down on the
table near the door. “Are you alright?” he asked.

Yadra nodded
, “That last spell took
everything I had. I’ll be fine after a hearty meal and a good
night’s rest.”

Reese walked over to the opening in the
wall to look out, then quickly stepped back as Zuri landed in front
of him, holding the limp form of the archmage. She glanced at Reese
for a moment, before placing the archmage on the floor.

She walked over to
Yad
ra. “It’s
done paragon,” she said.

Yadra looked her in the
eyes.
“You
managed to defeat him? I wouldn’t believe it if I hadn’t seen you
bring him in yourself. How did you manage it?”