Delver Magic: Book 06 - Pure Choice (25 page)

Ansas revealed another fact that
disturbed Scheff.

"The girl next to you casts
in a perfect triangle, not quite a circle I grant you, but it has its own
advantages. If anything, she is much more memorable than you. Look at how she
shines."

"But she casts in yellow and
I hold the power of the storm. If I wished to shine, it would be in the form of
lightning and it would destroy this room."

"Good! Hold to that thought
because I want you to understand that taking full hold of your unique talents
can make you more than different... it can make you legendary. You can do more
than just destroy a single room. I'm talking about casting spells of pure
violet fury, storms powerful enough to tear lands apart, to send seas spinning
into the sky, leaving nothing behind but dry land. You have that capability
within you, but not while you delude yourself into believing you have remained
focused on your true inherent ability."

Suddenly, Scheff found the
discussion almost intoxicating, and he knew the growing desire he felt did not
come from the sorcerer, but from within.

"Let us say I accept your
presumption," Scheff allowed, "that I have not been as true to my
natural hue as you say. What is it that you can do for me that I can not do for
myself?"

"Two things. I can remove the
taint of other hues from within you and I can infuse within you the richness of
pure ebony power."

Scheff, however, saw an immediate
contradiction.

"If I accept your ebony
magic, that would spoil the purity of my violet energy, would it not?"

"Of course not." Ansas
shook his head, frustrated he had to explain so much. "What will an
infusion of black energy do to any natural hue of magic? It will only darken
the shade, not change its basic composition. It will remain violet, but it will
be more powerful. I watched you. The energy you cast is already a dark violet.
Deepening that shade will not diminish your strength. Can't you understand
that?"

"I think so," Scheff
revealed as he struggled to grasp the concept. "I think I see what you
mean. If I try to attain white magic, I have to gain equal control over all the
hues and give up my single inherent power. I become diluted. But if I focus on
only the violet energy, there would be no such dilution. Accepting the black
magic within me will not alter my energy, it would just darken the shade...
sharpen my focus."

"So you
can
understand," Ansas nodded. "I wondered if there might
be at least one among you intelligent enough to see."

"You must not listen to
him," Haven Wellseed intervened.

"It isn't me he's listening
to," Ansas corrected the elf. "It's himself."

"Why are you doing
this?" Haven asked.

"What is it you think I'm
doing?"

"Tempting him.. tempting all
of us."

"You think I'm some demon?
Grow up. I am doing nothing but offering you an opportunity."

"You take us against our will
to offer us an...
opportunity
?"
Haven asked, aghast by the sorcerer's presumptuous attitude.

Ansas replied with a dismissive
tone of his own.

"I took you against your will
because I can. I offer you an opportunity because I can. Anything you read into
it beyond that is your own imagination."

"Why will you not simply let
us go?" Haven implored.

"I intend to... eventually. I
still have one personal matter that needs to be addressed. I need your camp of
elves for that one last matter."

"You will not hurt us?"

"I doubt that will be
necessary, but I make no guarantees. If I must hurt you to gain what I need,
then I will, unless you decide to take me up on the same opportunity I offer to
your companion. You are powerful with yellow energy. You could become even more
powerful."

"I have not said I would join
you... yet," Scheff noted.

"I realize that, but that has
no bearing on my offer to the others." Ansas then pointed to Haven and
another elf at her side, the elf that was proficient in emerald energy.
"These two have the same potential as you. I will show them how to grow in
skill and power."

"Why?" Haven demanded.

"Because I was defeated once,
not because I was the lesser skilled caster, but because I was unwilling to
stain myself with another hue. A simple spell was cast upon me that held me in
check, a spell that could have been broken easily if I allowed myself to cast a
lesser spell, a spell that was not ebony in nature. I made the correct decision
and I held true to myself."

"But you just said you were
defeated."

"I lost a single battle. What
does that mean? Those that can't learn from defeat are as weak as those that
never attain victory. I have learned much." Ansas waved to the piles of
pages upon the shelves all around them. "I now know I could have defeated
the spell without casting another hue. I could have used the ebony power to
defeat any spell, for the black magic is not just shadow, or change, or even
death. It is the ultimate energy that passes between all things. When we look
into the blackness of a hole, we say that we see nothing, but it is beyond
that. We can see into infinity... if you know how to look. Blackness can
consume anything and everything. That is the strength of my purity."

"But
we
do not cast in black," Haven replied.

"And you never shall, but you
can augment your personal hue with its influence."

"My glow would darken."

Ansas glared at what he believed
was nothing more than short-sightedness.

"Are you a servant to the
magic, or does the magic serve you?"

Haven had never been questioned in
such a way, but still, she responded with total honesty.

"I believe it might be both."

"Then you are a fool. You
only have two directions you can take. You can either be like everyone else and
aspire for nothing more than being an unfulfilled version of your true self, or
you could be one of the most powerful spell casters of your race. Why be just
another elf, some nameless follower? Be something more."

"I do not aspire for that
kind of power."

Ansas simply shrugged.

"Then I am finished with
you." The sorcerer turned to the elf proficient with emerald magic.
"The emerald energy that burns within you is the strongest of any elf in
your camp. Four of the six elves that I brought here before you made your
doomed effort to break my barrier also cast in green, but they are weak
compared to you. When I felt your magic against the barrier, I knew you were
stronger. You could be stronger even still, more powerful than you can imagine.
Do you wish to consider growing into something more, or do you wish to be like
her, a foolish child?"

"I will not become an enemy
of my camp," the elf replied."

"You are more narrow minded
than the female. Fine."

"What have you done with the
others," Haven interrupted, "...to the six you took before us?"

"They are here. In one of the
other rooms. I questioned them, but found their powers and their will
lacking."

"You haven't hurt them?"

"Why would I waste the
energy?"

"Why didn't you return
them?" Haven demanded.

"Again, why would I waste the
energy?"

It was Scheff who started to view
the whole situation in a new light.

"So we actually did help you.
You were looking for the most gifted casters in each hue. We separated
ourselves for you."

Ansas nodded with slight
appreciation for the observation.

"You do have it within you to
see more than the others. It would be a shame if you wasted that."

Haven stepped toward Scheff.

"You must not listen to him.
He only wants to corrupt you."

"Does he?" Scheff
wondered. "He talks about making me stronger, making me something I did
not consider before this."

"He just wants to use
you."

Scheff looked toward Ansas, but
the sorcerer said nothing.

"You have nothing to
say?" the elf asked. "No response?"

"None," the sorcerer
replied.

"You see?" Haven
pressed. "He will not argue because he knows it is the truth."

"And yet," Scheff added,
"there is something to this. We can be more powerful than we are. We can
reach heights we never considered."

"At what cost?" Haven
demanded.

Again, Scheff looked toward Ansas.

"Is there a cost?"

Ansas sighed.

"Why must this all be so...
wearisome? I have explained it once, but your limitations always require me to
repeat myself. Cost? If you wish to reach the level I envision for you, you
must remain true to your inherent hue. You must never cast in another color.
You will also have to cast out all of the energy within you to purify yourself.
I will show you how. Finally, you must also receive a small amount of my
energy... my ebony magic. I'm not looking to corrupt you. There will be no
hidden spell. The magic will be pure ebony power. It is meant to solidify the
base of your color. That's it. Nothing more and nothing less. I won't explain
it again."

"He is trying to change
you!" Haven implored.

"Yes, but maybe for the
better." Scheff answered.

"You can't be this
foolish."

Before Scheff could respond, Ansas
ended the conversation. The sorcerer held up his hands to demand quiet as he
appeared to peer off into the distance, even though he only stared at a blank
wall.

"The argument is over. You
will have your chance to decide, but not now. We will all return to the other
elves. Three visitors have entered the dark realm in search of your camp. Two
of which I hoped would come."

Jure created a portal which
closely mimicked the one used to abduct the elves. He allowed for a slight
variation. Matching the dimensional passage precisely would have brought them
to the exact spot where the elves had been sent and that was not the most
prudent approach. It would be safer to track them from a slight distance as
opposed to stumbling into some unknown struggle. The rift formed quickly,
becoming a stable gateway into the dark realm.

Before allowing anyone to pass
through the gateway, Holli examined the portal and the lands beyond to ensure
their passage would be a safe one. As she continued her own inspections, she
asked Jure to check the integrity of the magic that bound the two dimensions.
She also requested that the delver use his superior senses to probe the dark
lands through the portal. She had no intention of stepping into an ambush.

Ryson stared into the dimensional
opening. He could see no immediate danger, no colossal monsters waiting to
devour them, but a growing uneasiness dominated his thoughts. He hated the dark
realm. Everything about it assaulted his senses. Even before stepping through
the rift, he knew he would find anguish rushing at him from every dank corner.
There would be pain, not actual physical trauma, but enough mental torment to
cause enormous distress in the pit of his stomach. For him, entering the dark
realm was like entering a shag's den after rolling in salt. He was asking for
agony.

Despite the unwelcoming landscape
that waited on the other side, the three willingly stepped into the heart of
the rift. Once through and standing on the dreary ground of an entirely
different existence, Jure asked Holli for guidance.

"What do you want me to do
with the portal?"

"I do not wish to offer an
open passage for any nearby creatures," Holli insisted, but she also hoped
they would be able to return quickly to Dark Spruce. Keeping the portal active
offered an avenue for safe retreat. "Can you leave it open, but place a
block on the path?"

"I can, but how strong do you
want me to make the barrier? The larger creatures might be able to break
through a minor spell. A stronger barricade would guarantee protection, but it
would eventually become a drain on my energy."

"Not an enviable
option," Holli admitted. She did not wish to languish with indecision, and
despite the advantage of retaining the portal, she settled upon the safest
choice. "We are facing a spell caster capable of abducting an entire camp
of elves at once. We may need your power. Close the portal completely. If we
need to, either you or I can create a new one back to Uton."

Jure accepted the decision and
quickly cast a spell to close the rift. He then looked about the bleak lands.

"We should be very close to
the point where the elves were taken. If they were not forced to move a great
distance, Ryson should be able..."

The wizard stopped in mid-sentence
and gazed over his left shoulder.

"What do you sense?"
Holli demanded, as she, too, felt something of enormous magical strength in the
distance.

"A strong source of energy, a
powerful spell." He nodded in the direction he looked. "Over there.
Not far."

There was little the elf could see
as a tall bluff blocked their line of sight. Holli turned to Ryson.

"Can you hear or smell
anything in that direction?"

Ryson steadied himself. He had
tried to constrain his senses once he stepped through the portal. The sounds of
the dark realm consisted of groans and whines of pure misery. The scent was of
suffocating anguish. Opening himself up to such sensations was a measure of
self-torture. Unfortunately, his abilities were needed.

Facing the direction Jure
indicated, the delver took an even breath through his nostrils. Instantly, he
caught the scent of many elves in the distance. He turned his head slightly and
held an ear to the oppressive wind. He could hear them as well.

"He's right. They're close
and in that direction. Probably below those razor crows."

Ryson pointed to the gray sky
where over a dozen small birds circled in the air.