"So how's your night," Eric said as he walked up to his friend Stephanie who was sitting on the edge of a building in Old Town. Stephanie turned to face him, she would usually have a smile when looking at Eric but now she didn't. She signed and turn her head back around. Eric, not knowing what's wrong, sat down next to her and asked "what's bothering you?"
"It's just that we're finally going to kill Morganthe tomorrow... well if things do go our way," she said in a sad ton. Eric put his arm around her, hoping it may cheer her up.
"Don't worry, you know that you're strong enough to take her."
"What about you Eric," she looked at him, "what if you don't survive."
"Don't worry about me," he said as he smiled. He then looked up and said, "I think it may be time for us to get some rest." The sky was covered with stars. Stephanie nodded and soon after the two teleport away, Eric to his home but Stephanie went somewhere else.
When Stephanie was done teleporting, she was left in a house that looked like it was ripped out of Krokotopia. "Devin are you here," she said loudly. Devin, who was a balance wizard that dressed in the normal balance colors, popped his head around the corner of the end of the room.
"Oh hello Stephanie, what are you doing here at this hour?" Stephanie walked closer to him and put her hands on his shoulders.
"Devin please, you have to do this," she said staring him in the eyes. At this time he was frightened at her words, she was talking about his forbidden magic. Being a balance wizard and being able to master many schools as well as his own, he used this knowledge to craft treasure cards that aren't only one school of magic. He mixed magic, something forbidden in the spiral, he stopped soon after he started since the headmaster of Ravenwood found out.
"No way Stephanie, I'm not doing that again!"
"Devin you don't understand, me and Eric are going against the creator of Shadow magic, one of, if not the strongest magic known in the Spiral!" She shouted.
"... Alright I'll do it, but just this one time," he knew she was right but he still didn't want to listen. Even if he said no, she would've make him do it, she was the most talented Pyromancer in all of Ravenwood.
"...But really, in the face of prophecy, what choice did you have? You dabble in Shadow, but you have no idea what it truly means. Shadow bends to reality. And reality bends to my whim. Face me when I'm in my strongest form, and the both of you shall despair!" Morganthe finished her miniature speech before Stephanie and Eric start the long fight with Morganthe. It felt like hours have passed when the three were near the end of their fight. Eric and Stephanie were not in the best of health, but Morganthe was just bored for most of the fight. As Eric fell to the ground when Morganthe's wraith took some of his soul, Stephanie made the decision to use her final resort. When it became her turn, she pulled out a treasure card with a dark red edge.. She held it up and stared at it, at the time Eric was getting up from Morganthe's wraith. When he finally stood on his feet he glanced at Stephanie.
"Stephanie… what is that spell," he asked when he saw the back of the card.
"I'm sorry, but it's our only option," she said moving her head down with her eyes closed. The card was one Devin had made the night before, it was a mix of the Fire spell Immolate and the Death spells Sacrifice and Empower. On the card itself it read "kills both the user and the target, near impossible to survive." Appropriately named "Dual Flames of Fate." When Stephanie was casting the spell, Eric realised that whatever this spell was, it would harm Morganthe and her aswell. He tried to stop her but he was too late, when he was close enough she was already in flames. He could barely see her, she was standing there motionless staring at Morganthe who wasn't so calm. Morganthe was surprised at first but soon she started to scream of horror. They both stood there in the flames until the flames grow larger, to the point where Stephanie and Morganthe were no longer visible. Soon the flames dropped to the ground, what Eric saw left him in shock. Morganthe was no longer there but a pile of ashes was where she originally stood. Stephanie however was still there, but badly burned. Her blue robe now was a dark blue, with the ends still orange but soon turned black. She stood there, using her staff to hold herself up. But she soon fell backwards, dropping her staff a few feet away from her. When Eric heard her hit the floor, he got out of his shocked state and rushed over to see if she was alright. He was crying her name but with no response, he knew whatever happened was from the card she used. He glanced in the direction he thought the card fell. He quickly read what it said about the spell before it fizzled out of existence. Devin was watching the whole fight unfold from his home, he was watching through a crystal ball he sometimes used to talk with other Wizards from other parts of the Spiral. He was nervous though the whole fight, but when Stephanie pulled out the card he made, he knew it would be over. He didn't watch when Stephanie casted the spell, he was too gentle to see her and Morganthe burn, he was able to hear Morganthe scream in pain though. He finally turned around when he heard Eric crying Stephanie's name. When he saw Eric kneeling on the ground next to Stephanie's motionless body, the only thing he could think of was to teleport there and try to do anything to help. However he knew he couldn't do anything to change the outcome of the spell, however he could try to calm down Eric. When Devin teleported into the room, he was a few yards away from the two. He started walking slowly towards them, slowly because of him being in shock at what was happening. Eric's head was facing down with his eyes close, filled with defeat of trying to revive Stephanie. As soon as he heard Devin's footstep, he turned his head to see who it was. When he saw it was Devin, he got up and rushed over the Devin, grabbing him with one hand by the neck and held him off the ground. He had an evil look in his eyes when he was staring at Devin, meanwhile Devin was trying to loosen Eric's grip around his neck.
"You said you gave up that forbidden magic," Eric said in a serious tone, more serious then Devin have ever heard him.
"Eric… she made me… I-I didn't have a choice," Devin was barely able to speak. Eric only strengthened his grip, but without him noticing a tear started to form under his eye.
"That enough!" A voice shouted from Eric's left side. It was Merle Ambrose and the rest of the Council of Light members standing behind him. Eric set Devin down and stared at them as they approached. Devin was taking deep breaths as most of the Council walked past them but Merle Ambrose stood in front of them. "So it's finally over."
"Yes it's over," Eric responded with his head down. Merle Ambrose and Devin could tell that he was thinking about Stephanie. Merle Ambrose looked in the direction of the battle field and sighed.
"Well Eric, you should get some rest. You have been through a lot today," he said as he looked back at him. Eric looked back towards Stephanie to see Diego, Emperor Yoshihito, and the Lady of the Lake were standing over Stephanie's body and talking softly. Meanwhile Inyanga Whitestripes and Zenzen Seven Star were over by Morganthe's ash pile. Lydia Greyrose picked up Stephanie's staff which was about two times her size. She brought it over to Eric and the others. She held it close since she felt sad and sorry for Eric and Devin mainly. She was holding her head down when she flew over, when she got over to the group she moved her head up to face them all. The three looked at her and without the other two seeing, Merle Ambrose moved his staff a little in Eric's direction, telling her to give Devin the staff.
"Here," Lydia said as she slightly held out the staff to Eric. "...I think she would've wanted you to kept it." Eric grabbed it right away and looked at it, the flame-like force inside the pointed end was gone. Before the flame would go down if Stephanie was not feeling well or sick, but now it was completely gone. Eric continued to stare with his sad eyes where the flame would be. A tear was going to drop from his eye when he spotting something he never thought he'll see, a very, very small flame. It left him in shock but he didn't show it besides a small raise in his eyes. He seemed to be the only one the noticed the small flame. He looked over at Stephanie and quickly teleported away, and unexpectedly Stephanie teleported away. Everyone in the room look towards Merle Ambrose, Devin, and Lydia when they heard the two teleport away, but they all had a look on their face that showed that they didn't know what happened either.
"I bet it was Eric," Merle Ambrose said a moment later. Devin nodded as he looked to where stephanie was. Merle Ambrose then looked at Devin, "now what did I tell you about combining two different kinds of magic." Devin then looked back at him with a worried feeling, he knew he was going to be legured by the headmaster and probably the other teachers as well. "We'll talk about this more after we tell the rest of Ravenwood," he said as he looked at the rest of the Council of Light. A moment later they all teleported away to Ravenwood.
Eric arrived at his home with Stephanie in his arms. She was cold however Eric still had faith that she was still live but he knew that he had to work fast. He bought her back to another room in his house that had a ton of bookshelves and a lot of magical items. He set her on a table and put her staff against a wall to his right. He then ran to a bookshelf and frantically looked for a book. The book he was looking for had a spell in it that Malistaire tried to use to revive his beloved Sylvia. After a while of looking through a many books he started to panic, but not long after he found the right book. It was a large, black book and which he slammed it another another table. He quickly flipped through the book to find the spell he wanted. It didn't take him long to find it, he then read it over and over again very quickly. He took a deep breath and then turned around to Stephanie. He was nervous but he casted the spell knowing that this was his last chance for Stephanie to live. The spell was powerful since it took a lot out of Eric after he casted the spell. He expected that something was going to happen or at least a light hold hover above her, but nothing happened. Eric stood there a little stunned as he thought over the spell, in the book it said that it should work right after it's casted but Stephanie still wasn't moving. Eric rushed over to the other table and set his left ear on her chest, nothing. He set his hands on the edge of the table and lifted his head with his eyes closed. He stood there for a moment before slamming his right fist on the table, cursing at himself on the inside. He started to tear up until he heard a voice, "Eric…." Eric shot his eyes open and looked towards Stephanie how had her head up slightly, looking at him with tired eyes. To she her eyes open again overwhelmed him with emotions. It turns out that Stephanie was never dead, just very weak. Weak enough to where the flame was small enough to not be noticed and her heart rate to be slower then Eric's panshinest to listen for it. But Eric didn't know nor care, he just quickly hugged her. He squeezed but her lightly since he could tell she was very weak. Stephanie was shocked at first but smiled soon after, then she slowly raised her arms to hug Eric. All the while, the flame in her staff behind them began to raise.
