Delver Magic: Book 06 - Pure Choice (47 page)

"What lesson?" the
sorcerer snarled with disgust. "That he is incompetent?"

"You're amazing," Jure
noted with contempt. "I beat you once, too, remember?"

"And I was prepared to face
the consequences. The elf is clearly incapable of rising above anything beyond
an average spell caster. Do the land a favor and remove him from it."

Scheff finally turned to the
sorcerer. He did so not with a request for assistance, but with a question of
his own.

"But you admitted you lost
before and you said it was important to learn from defeat. Are you saying I
cannot learn from what has happened here?"

"I'm saying you're an
embarrassment to me."

"I lost, but as the wizard
said, you lost to him the first time you met as well."

"Entirely different matter. I
was on my own."

"And I was not?" the elf
asked in pure amazement at the sorcerer's suggestion.

"You had part of my magic
inside of you to guide you."

"And this is what you
consider guidance?"

"This is what I consider a
wasted opportunity." Ansas redirected his attention back to the elder
wizard. "I congratulate you again. I really didn't think you had it in
you. Now, are you going to finish him off?"

"No," Jure replied
simply.

"You would not eliminate a
potential future threat?"

"He's not a threat to me if
he understands what's really going on here. Despite what you say, maybe he will
learn from his mistakes... and maybe he'll start putting some trust into
something larger than himself."

Ansas grew quiet as he considered
the elder wizard. His stare eventually turned to the elf.

"No, I don't think so. He is
a disappointment. That's all."

With his verdict rendered, Ansas
extended an open arm toward Scheff and forcibly removed his dark magic from the
core of the elf. The sorcerer disregarded the elf's screams. He took it all
back and left Scheff empty and disheartened.

Scheff crumpled to the ground, but
remained alive. Unconsciousness ended his pain and his screams. The dark magic
Ansas instilled in him was gone, and the elf had emptied his own reserve of
energy with his last spell against Jure. Vacant of all magic, he was no longer
an integral part of the conflict. Ignored by Ansas, he became nothing more than
a discarded piece of rubble, just another part of the dark realm's barren
landscape.

Jure knew Scheff was still alive,
and saw no need to assist him further. The elder wizard had already
accomplished much that would help the elf. With both of them surviving the
ordeal, the outcome of the battle forced the sorcerer's hand. Ansas might have
believed it was a great punishment to remove the dark magic from the elf, but
Jure believed it was more of a blessing. If Scheff could learn from his
mistakes, then the elf had yet another opportunity to start fresh, and he might
eventually understand that the sorcerer would have led him to ruin.

Looking at his own part in the
madness, Jure hoped that would be the case. It would reinforce his belief that
there was a greater purpose to what was an otherwise meaningless conflict. He
was happy to be alive, but he found no triumphant inner joy in defeating
Scheff. As he stood at the middle of the plateau lifted high into the gray sky,
he gave one last look at the fallen elf and considered everything around him.

A nightmare.

That was what the dark realm
was... a bleak landscape covered by a gloomy sky and bereft of hope, but its
very nature saved Jure, and perhaps it would save Scheff as well. Maybe the elf
would regain consciousness as if waking from a nightmare and seek to find a
better light of understanding.

Whatever the ultimate outcome,
Jure believed he had completed his task. If the old wizard had been brought to
the dark realm to do some good, it had been done. No doubt there were still
dangers lurking upon the high plain, but he didn't believe they were for him to
face.

Despite the presence of the
arasaps and the other spell casters, Jure knew Ansas was the true threat to
them all—on both sides of the plateau. Even so, he actually turned his back to
the sorcerer as he returned to his friends. He did not seek congratulations
from those that witnessed his victory, and his expression revealed he did not
wish to hear them.

It was Ryson who spoke out, but
not to Jure. He had grown tired of the senseless exchanges, and he directed his
rage toward the sorcerer across the plateau.

"I want those arasaps out of
my wife!"

"You don't listen very
well," Ansas responded. "A characteristic I find common... and
annoying. I have no intention of removing the arasaps."

Stepping in the path between Ryson
and the sorcerer, Enin decided to make his own declaration.

"Your intentions are
irrelevant. Regardless of what happens here today, I will see that you remove
them."

"A rather bold determination.
You would have to force me to do so, and I don't think you have it in you. Oh,
I realize you are the formidable wizard with two circles and white magic, but I
still think you are the personification of dilution."

"Dilution?"

"Absolutely. Despite your
great control and enormous energy, you stretch yourself thin. The pale
whiteness of your magic is a reflection of that characteristic. That is why I
am ultimately superior. I might lack your control, but the ebony energy that
flows through me is the concentration of strength."

"You are quite wrong,"
Enin declared. "Casting white doesn't lead to diluting all the other hues,
it means embracing them as one. You are trying to break apart that which was
meant to be looked upon as a whole. You don't even understand the power of your
own magic. Casting black doesn't darken the other colors, it means accepting
them. Ebony magic is the energy that allows for transformation. That is why
it's so powerful."

"You're the one that is
wrong, and that's why you are unable to cast in
pure
black magic!" Ansas shot back. "You may believe you
can cast in ebony power, but it is only a darkened shade of gray. The magic I
cast is not touched by the other hues. It is totally pure, and in that form, it
is beyond transformation. It is the path to infinity. While there is a limit to
what you can cast, I face no such limits. That's because I removed them. I
understand the absolute truth of what casting magic is all about. It is the
process by which I will reach absolute perfection."

"How sad for you."

The voice was not of the wizard,
and the tone was not of sarcasm. It contained sincere sorrow. The response was
brief, but those few words echoed the true sentiment of the mighty cliff
behemoth.

Unwilling to back down from
anyone, Ansas defied the giant's sympathy.

"You have something to say to
me, cliff dweller?"

"You have placed yourself in
a dark place," Dzeb continued. "You have isolated yourself from the
truth."

"The behemoth wishes to talk
about truth?" Ansas scoffed. "That's almost funny. What could you
possibly understand about the magic?"

"More than you might
guess."

"Then enlighten me," the
sorcerer challenged, believing there was little the cliff behemoth could comprehend
about a practice that allowed humans to reach beyond the limits with which they
were born.

"I understand that you no
longer cast ebony energy," Dzeb revealed. "If you know anything about
cliff behemoths, you would know I do not lie. I have no need to deceive you. It
is actually very plain. If you look, you can see it."

The revelation was a surprise, one
that struck at many upon the plateau.

"What are you saying, cliff
behemoth?" the sorcerer demanded before anyone else could speak.

"You have lost your
way."

"Oh, please. Don't tell me
you're going to give me some sermon. That's worse than a lecture."

"Not a sermon, just an
observation. Your magic is that of emptiness, of the abyss, of a soul turned to
its own appreciation. That is not ebony magic. It is the energy of a lie. It is
in direct opposition of Godson. That means your power is useless on me. If you
do not believe me, then try it."

It was a bold declaration, even
from a cliff behemoth, and Enin wondered what would make Dzeb issue such a challenge.
The wizard knew cliff behemoths did not boastfully pit their immense physical
attributes against others for the sake of pointless bravado. Though they were
graced with vast might and near invulnerability to physical attack, the giants
steered away from any such tests of strength. Their focus had always been on
their faith, and their humility was a blessed example to other inhabitants of
the land.

The wizard realized that Dzeb was
not trying to provoke Ansas. The titan was attempting to reach the sorcerer, to
point out what the cliff behemoth saw as an obvious truth... a truth that
started to crystallize before Enin as well.

Enin considered everything that
was happening around him and he saw an unmistakable sequence of extraordinary
events. While he blinded himself from seeing an individual's destiny, he never
lost sight of the larger forces at work, and he always acknowledged the
presence of divine influence. It seemed inevitable that the events at the near
zenith of the dark realm would direct the fate of many on that day.

Unable to shake a sense of
interlocked fortunes and fates, Enin looked deep into the sorcerer. Just as
Dzeb had claimed, he could see the magic within the sorcerer, but it was no
longer ebony energy. The black magic Ansas once yielded with both instinct and
skill had been replaced by a true colorless power. It was not the vast magic of
alteration or the ultimate bond that connected the layers of existence. It was
the absence of hope and the emptiness of nonexistence.

While Enin began to see a pattern
of necessity take shape within the conflict, Ansas reacted to the challenge of
the cliff behemoth. The sorcerer eyed the giant suspiciously. He believed his
dark magic could easily overcome Dzeb, for the sorcerer considered his abilities
a testament to true advancement. The behemoth was nothing more than a clumsy
mistake of nature, a powerful entity, but one with limited potential and even
less insight. Still, the sorcerer had no intention of casting out his energy
unless it advanced his own cause, and Ansas refused to directly assault the
giant.

"I have no desire to waste my
time. I plan to use my ebony energy against the great Enin, but that is for
later. There are others that must be tested. Your side might have won the first
battle, but that was an obvious mismatch. The elder wizard is second in power
only to Enin, and the elf was a waste. I have three much more capable spell
casters waiting their turn."

"That's what you hope to do
here?" Jure called out. "To have some kind of contest? Absurd."

"And what of the elf witch?
Does she think it is absurd as well? She is a warrior, she understands the
challenges of battle. She has grown more powerful in emerald magic. Wouldn't
she be slightly interested in knowing if she has grown enough to defeat someone
like Neltus?"

Neltus grinned widely.

"Oh, yes," the pudgy
spell caster delighted at the offering. He had always wanted to face the elf
guard and apprentice of Enin.

Neltus wielded crimson magic and
he did so with skill even before he met Ansas. The sorcerer added to his power,
and Neltus believed Holli would be no match for his advanced talents.

He knew she cast in emerald magic,
but his red power was grounded in the small slice of ebony magic that Ansas
placed in his core. He had become even closer to the land and he believed the
green energy of the elf witch was vulnerable to his greatest attributes. The
land was the foundation for nature's strength. Without crimson energy, emerald
magic was anchorless.

"Let's have a real test of
wills," Neltus exclaimed. "No more amateurs squandering their
energy."

"What do you say, Holli
Brances,
ex
-elf guard?" Ansas
questioned. "You are now more a sorceress than a soldier. Care to test how
far you have really come?"

Holli disregarded both the
sorcerer and his lackey.

"I have nothing to prove...
to you or anyone else. I have defeated a draevol, accepted banishment from my
camp, helped win a war against a dwarf army, and I am an apprentice to the most
powerful wizard I have ever seen, present company included. And yes, I am no
longer an official guard to my camp, but I have never forgotten my training. I
will always be an elf guard. I direct my service where it is needed. If my
memory serves me, it was in that service that I helped to defeat you and an
army of dark creatures at Pinesway. You speak often of not wasting time or
energy. Why should I waste either on you or your pompous companion?"

"Very well spoken, and with
that in mind, it is time I put an end to this," Enin declared. "I
don't know what you intended here, Ansas, but unless you're totally blind, you
have to realize this is beyond some ridiculous wizard battle."

"And what do you think it
is?" Ansas scoffed. "Some struggle between the forces of light and
darkness? Don't make me laugh about your concepts of evil."

"No," Enin remarked.
"This is not at all what it appears to be on the surface. Jure was right
about Scheff and it applies to you as well. He has been misguided, but it
wasn't his desire to commit malicious acts. He was just filled with a sense of
self importance. I doubt that evil is your intention, either, but your path of
self-serving manipulations is no less dangerous to yourself and those that
might fall prey to your ambitions."

"Spare me the lecture about
good and evil. I understand evil. I always have, but I have no use for some
mythical conflict that was created only to limit true potential. Good versus
evil... it is nothing more than a game created by those desiring to manipulate
one group or another. I serve neither. I serve myself."