The Last Guardian (14 page)

“What are you driving at, Young Trust?” said the Magus, now seated by the open window, stroking his beard.

Khadgar looked at the two scorch marks between the malfunctioned protective circle and the window, and tried to think of them both as bodies and not think of them as once-living mages.

“If you hit someone from the front, they fall backward. If you hit someone from the back, they fall forward. Was the window open when you arrived?”

Lothar looked at the open bay window, the great city beyond forgotten for the moment. “Yes.

No. Yes, I think it was. But it could have been opened by the servant. There was a horrible stench—that’s what brought attention to it in the first place. I can ask.”

“No need,” said Medivh. “The window was likely open when your servant entered.” The Magus rose and walked to where the scorch marks were. “So you think, Young Trust,” he said, “that Huglar and

Hugarin were standing here, watching the magic circle, and something came in the window and hit them from the back.” For effect he smacked himself against the back of the head with an open palm. “They fell forward, and were burned in that position.”

“Yes, sir,” said Khadgar. “I mean, it’s a theory.”

“A good one,” said Medivh. “But wrong, I’m afraid. In the first place, the two mages would be standing there, facing nothing at all,unless they were looking at the magic circle. Therefore they were summoning a demon. Such a circle would not be used otherwise.”

“But…” started Khadgar, and the Magus froze his words in his throat with a harsh glance.

“And,”continued Medivh, “while that would work with a single attacker with a sap or a club, it does not function as well for the dark energies of demons. Had the beast breathed fire, it could have caught both men standing, killed them, and only after being set alight, the bodies fell forward. You said the bodies were burned front and back?” He put that question to Lothar.

“Yes,” said the King’s Champion.

Medivh held a palm up in front of him. “Demon breathes fire. Burns the front. Huglar (or Hugarin) falls forward, flames spread to the back. Unless the demon hit Hugarin (or Huglar) in the back, then turned them over to make sure the front was burned, then turned them over again. Hardly likely—demons are not that methodical.”

Khadgar felt his face warm from embarrassment. “I’m sorry. It was just a theory.”

Page 53

“And a good one,” said Medivh quickly. “Just in error, that’s all. You’re right, the window would be open, because that was how the demon left the tower. It is at large in the city right now.”

Lothar cut short a curse, and said, “Are you sure?”

Medivh nodded. “Completely. But it will probably be laying low for the moment. Even killing two fools like Huglar and Hugarin by surprise would tax any but the most powerful creature’s abilities.”

“I can organize search parties within the hour,” said Lothar.

“No,” said Medivh. “I want to do this myself. No use throwing away good lives after bad. I’ll want to see the remains, of course. That will tell me what we’re dealing with here.”

“We moved them to a cool room in the wine cellar,” said Lothar. “I can take you there.”

“In a moment,” said Medivh. “I want to look about here for a moment. Will you grant me and my apprentice a moment or ten alone?”

Lothar hesitated for a moment, then said, “Of course. I will be right outside.” As he said the last he looked at Khadgar sharply, then left.

The door’s latch clicked shut and there was silence in the room. Medivh moved from table to table, pawing through the shredded tomes and torn papers. He held up a piece of correspondence with a purple seal, and shook his head. Slowly, he crumbled the piece of paper in his hand.

“Incivilized countries,” he said, his voice slightly strained, “apprentices don’t disagree with their masters.

At least in public.” He turned toward Khadgar and the youth saw the older man’s face was a mass of storm clouds.

“I am sorry,” said Khadgar. “You said I should ask questions, and the position of the bodies did not

seem right at the time, but now that you mention how the bodies were burned…”

Medivh held up a hand and Khadgar silenced himself. He paused a moment, then let out a slow exhalation. “Enough. You did the right thing, no more or less than asked by me. And if you hadn’t spoken up, I wouldn’t have realized the demon probably skittered down the tower itself, and wasted more time searching the castle complex. But, you asked questions because you don’t know much about demons, and that is ignorance. And ignorance I willnot tolerate.”

The elder Magus looked at Khadgar, but there was a smile at the corner of his lips. Khadgar, sure that the storm had passed, lowered himself onto a stool. Despite himself, he still said,

“Lothar…”

“Will wait,” said Medivh, nodding. “He waits well, that Anduin Lothar. Now, what did you learn of demons in your time at the Violet Citadel?”

“I’ve heard the legends,” said Khadgar. “In the First Days, there were demons in the land, and great heroes arose to drive them out.” He thought of the image of Medivh’s mother blasting the demons to bits, and facing down their Lord, but said nothing. No need to make Medivh angry again now that he’d calmed down.

“That’s the basics,” said Medivh. “What we tell the hoi polloi. What do you know in addition?”

Khadgar took a deep breath. “The official teachings in the Violet Citadel, in Kirin Tor, is that demonology is to be eschewed, avoided, and abjured. Any attempt to summon demons are to be found out and stopped at once, and those involved are to be expelled. Or worse. There were stories, among the young students, when I was growing up.”

“Stories grounded in fact,” said Medivh. “But you’re a curious lad, you know more, I assume?”

Khadgar tilted his head in thought, choosing words carefully. “Korrigan, our academic librarian, had an extensive collection of…material at his disposal.”

“And needed someone to help organize it,” said Medivh dryly. Khadgar must have jumped,
Page 54

because

Medivh added, “That was a guess, only, Young Trust.”

“The material is mostly folk legends and the reports of the local authorities involving demon worshipers.

Most of it was along the lines of individuals committing foul acts in the name of some old demon from the legends or another. Nothing about the actions of truly summoning a demon.

No spells, no arcane writings.” Khadgar motioned toward the protective circle. “No ceremonies.”

“Of course,” said Medivh. “Even Korrigan would not inflict that on a student. If he has such things, he would keep them separate.”

“From that, the general belief is that when the demons were defeated, they were driven out of this world entirely. They were pushed out of the world of light and living, and into their own domain.”

“The Great Dark Beyond,” said Medivh, intoning the phrase like a prayer.

“They are still out there, or so the legend goes,” said Khadgar, “and they want to come back in.

Some say they come to the weak-willed in their sleep and urge them to find old spells and make sacrifices.

Sometimes it is to open the way for them to come back fully. Others say they want worshipers and sacrifices to make this world like it once was, bloody and violent, and only then would they return.”

Medivh was quiet for a moment, stroking his beard, then said, “Anything else?”

“There’s more. Details and individual stories. I’ve seen carvings of demons, pictures, diagrams.”

Again

Khadgar felt a rising need to tell Medivh about the vision, about the demon army. Instead he said, “And there is that old epic poem, the one about Aegwynn, fighting a horde of demons in a far-off land.”

The mention of that brought a gentle, knowing smile to Medivh’s face, “Ah yes, “The Song of Aegwynn.” You’ll find that poem in a lot of powerful mages’ quarters, you know.”

“My teacher, Lord Guzbah was interested in it,” said Khadgar.

“Is he, now?” said Medivh, smiling. “With all due respect, I don’t know if Guzbah is quite ready for that poem. At least not in its true form.” He peaked his eyebrows. “What you have is basically true. A lot of people couch it in the form of legends and fairy stories, but I think you know as well as I do that demons are real, and are out there, and yes, form a threat to those of us who walk this sunlit world, as well as other worlds. I think, now, I definitelythink, that your red-sunned world was another place, a different world, on the far side of the Great Dark Beyond. The Beyond is a prison for these demons, a place without light or succor, and they are very, very jealous and very, very anxious to get back in.”

Khadgar nodded, and Medivh continued, “But your assumption that their victims are weak-willed is in error, though again an error that is well-intended. There are more than enough venal farmhands who invoke a demonic force for revenge against a former lover, or stupid merchants who burn an invoice from a debtor with a black candle, badly mangling the ancient name of some once-great demonic power. But just as often there are those who walk willingly to the abyss, who feel themselves safe and sure and knowledgeable that they are beyond any blandishment or threat, that they are powerful enough to harness the demonic energies that surge beyond the walls of the world. They are in many ways even more dangerous than the common rabble, for as you know, a near-failure in spellcasting is more deadly than a complete failure.”

Khadgar could only nod, and wondered if Medivh had the power of the mind, “But these were powerful mages—Huglar and Hugarin, I mean.”

Page 55

“The most powerful in Azeroth,” said Medivh. “The wisest and finest wizards, magical advisors to King

Llane himself. Safe, sage, and sinecured!”

“Surely they would know better?” asked Khadgar.

“You would think so,” said Medivh. “Yet, here we stand in the wreckage of their chambers, and their demon-burned bodies lay in the wine cellar.”

“Why would they do it, then?” Khadgar knitted his brows, trying not to offend. “If they knew so much, why did they try to summon a demon?”

“Many reasons,” said Medivh with a sigh. “Hubris, that false pride that goes before the fall.

Overconfidence, both in each individually and doubled it for working in tandem. And fear, I suppose, most of all.”

“Fear?” Khadgar looked at Medivh quizzically.

“Fear of the unknown,” said Medivh. “Fear of the known. Fear of things more powerful than they.”

Khadgar shook his head. “What could be more powerful than two of the most advanced and learned wizards in Azeroth?”

“Ah,” said Medivh, and a small smile blossomed beneath his beard. “That would be me. They killed themselves summoning a demon, playing with forces best left alone, because they fearedme.”

“You?” said Khadgar, the surprise in his voice greater than he had intended. For a moment he feared offending the older mage once more.

But Medivh just took a deep breath and blew the air out slowly. Then he said, “Me. They were fools, but I blame myself as well. Come, lad, Lothar can wait. It’s time I told you the story of the Guardians and of the Order of Tirisfal, which is all that stands between us and the Darkness.”

Eight

Lessons

To understand the Order,” said Medivh, “you must understand demons. You must also understand magic.” He lowered himself comfortably on one of the still-undamaged chairs. The chair also had one of the few unripped pillows upon it.

“Lord Medivh…Magus,” said Khadgar. “If there is a demon abroad in Stormwind, we should concentrate on that, and not on history lessons that could wait until later.”

Medivh looked down at his chest, and Khadgar feared that he risked another outburst from the elder mage. But the master mage merely shook his head, and smiled as he said, “Your concerns would be valid if the demon in question was a threat to those around it. Take my word for it, it is not. The demon, even were it one of the more powerful officers within the Burning Legion, would have expended almost all its personal power in dealing with the two powerful mages that summoned it. It is of little matter, at least for the moment. What is important, is that you understand what the Order is, what I am, and why others are so deeply interested in it.”

“But Magus…” started Khadgar.

“And the sooner I finish the sooner I will know that I can trust you with the information, and the sooner I

will go out to deal with this petty demon, so if you truly want me to go you should let me finish, eh?”

Medivh gave the younger mage a hard, knowing smile.

Khadgar opened his mouth to protest, but thought better of it. He slouched down against the wide ledge by the open window. Despite the efforts of the servants to remove the bodies from the tower, the stench of their death, a corrosive pallor, was still heavy in the air.

“So. What is magic?” asked Medivh, in the manner of a schoolmage.

“An ambient field of energy that pervades the world,” said Khadgar, almost without thinking. It
Page 56

was catechism, a simple answer for a simple question. “It is stronger in some locations than others, but it is ever-present.”

“Yes it is,” said the older mage, “at leastnow. But imagine a time when it was not.”

“Magic is universal,” said Khadgar, knowing as soon as he said it that it was soon to prove not to be.

“Like air or water.”

“Yes, like water,” said Medivh. “Now imagine a time at the very start of things, when all the water in the world was in one location. All the rain and rivers and seas and streams, all the showers and creeks and tears, all in one location, in one well.”

Khadgar nodded, slowly.

“Now, instead of water, it is magic we’re talking about,” said Khadgar. “A well of magic, the source, an opening into other dimensions, a shimmering doorway into the lands beyond the Great Dark, beyond the walls of the world. The first peoples to cast spells encamped around the well and distilled its raw power into magic. They were called the Kaldorei then. What they are called now, I cannot say.” Medivh looked at Khadgar, but the younger mage kept his silence now.