Chapter Fifty-Two (Patreon)

“Tara?!” I shouted. 

Tara landed on top of Trenton’s force dome, and her whip slashed through the spell holding the giant sword together. At the same time, pillars of her familiar brown aura struck at the construct, and it began to fall apart, some sort of mass ritual attack spell, probably not unlike the ones she’d used to kill all those people and destroy the lesser houses. 

Elide looked at her, and for a moment, I saw fear flash across his face. 

“You?!” he said, and she grinned. She punched the dome, and it exploded, but before her curse whip could land a blow on him, he was flying away, moving with a speed unmatched by anything I’d ever seen. 

I turned to study Tara. Awell Meddal’s magic flowed around her, a boon of flight that Tara must have purchased, and she grinned. 

“This is our chance,” she said. “We can cut off the rot at the head.” 

Before I could say anything, she turned and launched herself at the archmages Osheen was fighting. 

With the construct falling apart, their advantage was essentially null, and I could see that even in the few moments Tara and I had looked at one another, he’d already began to press them. 

I thrust my hand out, then realized that this body didn’t have a left hand anymore, nor a staff to hold. I cursed, but it didn’t really matter. Tara’s whip caught at the legs of the water sorcerer, then into the chest of the other. Caught off guard, Osheen’s force beam drove into the head of the water sorcerer, and the earth sorcerer’s flight spell artifact broke in half. 

The sorcerer started plummeting to the ground, and Tara dove down in hot pursuit. I glanced at Osheen. 

“You okay?” I asked. 

“Minor fracture on my ribs from when the squeezing got intense, but Bridgette’s magic is suppressing the pain and working on fixing it,” he said. “Your hand… it.”

“It’ll be fine,” I said. “I’ve gotta get my staff. Go help Eira!” 

He gave a serious nod and flew off. I dove down to find my staff, and found myself embroiled in the fight between Dormer and the Roark mage. 

Dormer was down to one last shaky thimble of aura, and mainly running around to dodge the fireballs, flame orbs, and immolation spells that the Roark was launching. I spotted my staff sticking out of the ground behind the roark, and lifted my ice claw knife, enforced with the constellation of the bear. The spell ripped out at him, and I broke his force armor as he tried to take the blow. 

The blade of ice broke through his chain mail and into his chest, and he let out a harsh gasp. I flew over his body and shoved my knife back, then picked up my staff and glanced at Dormer. 

“Get out of here,” I said. “You’re pretty banged up.” 

He was. If he didn’t get good medical attention, he might well loose his right arm, which was covered in burn blisters and blackened bits of skin. 

“I–” 

“You’re also out of aura,” I said. “You can’t do much of anything, not right now. Just get out and get your arm fixed up.” 

“Your own arm.” 

“I’ll be fine,” I snapped. “Go!” 

Dormer swallowed thickly and gave me a salute, then turned and started running away from the battlefield. I hoped one of the archmages had arranged for healers.

I shook the thought off and glanced at the two major fights left.

In the sky, the Castors and Edward Elide’s wife were locked in a fight against Eira. Judging from the fact that the now-broken construct didn’t have an arm anymore, I thought that she must have used her last siege attack to blow it apart. 

Osheen arrived there a moment later, and I glanced at Draven’s fight, only to stare. 

Tara was attacking Draven, but also attacking Travis, and the entire thing had devolved into a three-way fight. The other archmages had fled, and I wondered where exactly they’d gone, but I didn’t have time to think about it. 

I used my enhancement spells to burst over. 

“What are you doing?!” I shouted at Tara. 

“Killing vermin,” she said as she dodged under a blast of fire. 

“Hello, Evan,” Travis said, directing a series of four lightning bolts at me. I was surprised I’d rated that highly on his threat rating, but I pocketed one for myself and let Mellt’s cage block the rest. He sent a spread of force bolts at me, and I flew up to dodge them. 

“Tara, stop!” I said, but she didn’t even seem to hear me

“She’s mad,” Travis said as a diamond shaped shield flickered around him, blocking her whip from striking him. 

“I’m doing what is needed,” Tara spat, flickering under Draven, who teleported away as her whip lashed through the air where he’d been. 

Then the air filled with power, and I realized where the other mages had gone. 

Danger flashed from every direction, and I was forced to push my temporal hasting to its very limit to dive out of the way in time. 

Draven melted into shadows, Tara leapt up and curled her legs in at just the right angle, and Travis empowered seventeen of his foci at once in some sort of absurd shield that I wanted to take notes on. 

The air was filled with elemental magic of every sort, but most dominantly, force. 

On a floating platform, Trenton Elide, the remainder of the Byron mages, and the last Roark all stood, floating overhead. 

When the barrage finally faded, Draven re-appeared next to me, his suit was torn to shreds, and his body had dozens of burns and cuts along it. Travis’ defenses were down to only two layers remaining, and his normally bland and impassive face had a slight scrunch of worry to it. Tara was fine, having just barely woven between the attacks, but I could see the strain it had put on her armor spells. 

“Shame,” Elide said. “Travis, you could have used your power to kill one of them. I was buying you an opportunity.” 

For a moment, Travis looked at the head of the house that controlled his own. His eyes swept to the battle in the sky, then to me. 

Travis locked eyes with me for a moment that felt like forever, then his eyes flicked to the pinkish blood around my stump. 

Then they turned back to Trenton Elide. 

“Evan,” Travis said. “Do you remember what we talked about?” 

“I do,” I said. 

“And do you remember the first lesson I ever gave you about abjuration?” he asked. 

“Enough of this!” Trenton snarled, raising his hand. The other archmages raised their own hands a moment later, all far slower than Elide. 

“I do,” I said again. “A proper abjurer should never lose a fight against an enemy they know.” 

“Not my phrasing, but correct enough in essence,” Travis said. 

The archmages unleashed another salvo of power, Trenton using his massive blade spell that had severed my hand, and even with how confident Traivs was, I was sure that he was going to die. 

Instead, his aura wove through his band of necklaces, and every single attack vanished, torn apart like dust in the wind. 

“Traitor!” snarled Trenton Elide, and Travis casually leapt onto his platform. The other archmages started attacking, but Travis waved his hand as if to dismiss a servant, and a pulse of force shot them off the platform. Tara leapt onto them then, and I flicked my eyes between her taking on four sorcerers at once, and Travis batting aside the attacks from Trenton Elide that had nearly killed me. 

Travis took a step forward, and Elide released the sphere of knives, which launched in onto Travis, but Travis’ necklaces lit up and they fell apart. 

Travis took a step forward, and Elide released a beam of force that should have torn Travis in two, but Travis tilted his head, and the beam redirected into the aerial battle. 

Travis took a step forward, and Elide smashed his hands down, conjuring a massive fist that should have squished him like a bug, but Travis snapped, and the fist exploded to shards of force that dissolved a moment later. 

Then Travis was standing in front of his old head of house, and he calmly pressed a crystal against Elide’s forehead. I saw swirls and eddies of life magic, and then Elide slumped to the side as Travis held up a spark of power. He studied it emotionlessly, then pressed it into a storage container on his belt. 

“He would make an excellent vampire,” Draven commented from where he stood next tto me, and I shook my head. 

“Don’t even think about it,” I told him. 

I glanced at Tara. She’d already killed two of the archmages, leaving only one Byron and the Roark. The wind and fire mage were able to keep Tara at a distance, leaving them at something of an impasse as Tara’s whip built power slowly but surely.

I leveled my staff at the Byron wind sorcerer, and released the last dregs of power at her. As her body spasamed and was torn into by water bullets, Tara closed the distance on the Roark, and slammed her hand into his chest. He collapsed a moment later, and Travis shook his head. 

“What a waste.” 

Tara turned back to us then, and her eyes flicked from Travis, to Draven, then finally to me. 

“Evan,” she said. “Are you really going to work with them? They’re monsters. Both of them.” 

“I am,” I said. “We can’t tear everything down. If we do that, the only people who are going to suffer for it are the common people. They’re already suffering from this. But if you kill Draven and Travis… What will it achieve? Their bank accounts won’t magically vanish.” 

“We can burn down the banks,” Tara said. “I liked what you said about having the Senate be the ones to set up a new system. But we can ensure that–” 

“You’re thinking just like a noble,” I said, and Tara’s eyes widened. 

“You are,” I said. “You think that just because you’re an archmage, you should have the right to tell them how to run the government? The people need that power. Not us. I might have imposed myself, but I wanted to step back after. I want the senate to figure out the new structure, as the representatives of the people.” 

“That won’t work, don’t be a child!” Tara snapped. “They’re just going to take half measures, and tiny steps. The whole thing needs to go.” 

“Tiny steps are good, as long as you don’t stop stepping,” I said. “You think you’re better? Can you run a government? Handle the distribution of steel, fish, bread, fruit, metals, precious stones, movement of people, city infrastructure, making sure the people have a voice, and ten thousand other things? Thinking you deserve to rule is exactly what the nobility does.”

As I spoke, Eira and Osheen landed on either side of me. 

“He’s right,” Eira said. “I can’t run the government alone. I already struggle to balance my personal duties to the Elemental Fields with my duties as a senator.” 

Tara dropped into a fighting stance and magic began to crackle in her hands. 

“I’m sorry it had to come to this,” she said, the curse magic building stronger and stronger with every second. It had already built high enough to kill at least two of us, and if it kept building, she might actually stand a chance of killing us all. 

“I am too,” I said, then burnt every last bit of power in my cloak. 

I’d fought alongside Tara a few times now. My cloak had many chances to analyze her archmage killing spell. 

It was too well built for me to just break it entirely without backlashing everyone in the group, so I did the only thing I could. 

I diverted all of the power of Tara’s curse magic into my body. 

And Evander Tailor died.