Iandore gasps for air upon waking up. He slowly pulls himself up from the shag carpet, dizzy and sweaty. His hands were tied behind his back, making him unable to scratch the itches he was getting throughout his body.
He was certain he died for a moment when Frildar knocked him out and that he later came back to life.
Once he was asleep, he had a dream like never before...he saw his father.
Ian remembers talking to him about how he died from the same sickness he had, and how he was devastated he didn't have the chance to expand his legacy.
Then the two practiced magic together and bonded...
...and the dream was over. He was still alive.
He was awakened from faint noises, and he wondered if his brother was on his way to save him.
There is light in the office from a small window behind him. Next to him is a desk with an old computer on top of it, and nothing else.
Behind him is a metal file cabinet, which had a chipped drawer, probably sharp enough to cut these ropes. Ian scoots over to it, rubbing the ropes against it, and he's able to get them caught. After a while of pulling, he finally rips off the ropes, setting him free.
He slowly gets up to open the drawers in the desk, curious to see if anything interesting had been left behind, but nothing was in any of them. He wondered why they would take everything from the drawers, but not the computer.
He rubs the dust off the computer monitor and looks at his reflection. He looked worse and sicker than ever, bumps on his face and his hair matted. Blood was on his face from a scuffle with Frildar.
The wizard grunts and slumps back on the ground from a rush of pain. "Barley, please get here soon..."
Suddenly, Ian hears the door bust open, and a smile entered his face when he saw his big brother rushing towards him.
"Ian! Oh, my gods, you're here!" "Barley!"
Barley picks Ian up and gives him a quick hug before slinging him over his shoulder and running out of the office with him. Ian catches a glimpse of the nametag on the door...this was his father's old workplace.
The two continue to flee out of the building. Barley finds a flight of stairs and he starts running down them with Ian on his shoulder. It seemed they were pretty high up...this would be a long run. Frildar kept sending different spells down their way to trip them up.
"Where are you going? Do you even know where my staff and your sword are?" Ian asks. "I don't, I really don't, and I'm trying to get us out of here," Barley answers.
"But the gem! What about the gem?"
"He might have the gem, but-"
"But what? Why aren't we going against him?"
"Because we don't have our stuff!"
"So what? You say we can do anything and that nothing could stop the both of us!"
"Ian, you're on your last leg and I've gotta get you safe."
"I have an emergency splinter in my pocket, I can use what power I have left to help fight him off."
"I was just about to get into that-"
"Get into what?"
"Ian, you're not the wizard anymore."
The younger Lightfoot lets the information sink in his head for a moment.
"...WHAT?"
"It's a very very long story, we don't have time," Barley answers.
"Well, can you give me a condensed version? I kinda need to know."
Barley sighs as he keeps making his way down the stairs, holding his brother close.
"Look, the guy who took us in and who you tried to fight off? That's our Uncle Frildar who went crazy and disappeared 16 years ago because he gave our dad the sickness so he could get his power because his own power was weak and he wanted more. He disappeared into thin air when Dad died because the spell was faulty and when we brought him back, he came back as well and stole his staff when it was thrown into the ocean, and he ended up staying when Dad died again. So he trained with his extra powers and he shapeshifted into the guy who stabbed me and the guy who dueled with you, and he was able to give you the sickness that way."
Ian processes this information the best he could, as Barley had to say all that through his fast running and dodging of spells.
"So that's why I felt lightheaded when Chardyr tapped his staff on my shoulder..." "That's not all...your power wasn't going to him, it was going to me. I have your powers now," the older elf says. "So if I find the gem, I have to perform the spell on you."
Barley approaches the next floor when a spell finally trips them up and they tumble down the flight.
The brothers catch their breath when they recover from the fall. Barley helps Ian on his feet, just as Frildar catches up to them.
His nephews try to escape, but he'd created an invisible barrier so they couldn't leave his sight.
"Finally, you two give up," he says.
"Who said we gave up?" Barley says, clenching his fists and guarding his brother.
"You are quite the runner there," Frildar then says. "I'm surprised you only now tripped."
"I'm never going to let you hurt Ian," the older Lightfoot says. "I'm going to get that gem and heal him, no matter what you do, even if we have to fight."
"Fight, hmm? Then it's settled."
Frildar opens a portal with his staff and pulls out Ian's staff and Barley's sword. He throws them on the floor in front of the two.
"Let's see how you two manage...this will be fun to watch."
Barley holds his brother's staff and slips his sword back in its scabbard on his back.
"Ian, you stay back, I'll handle this."
Frildar pulls something out of his pocket, and it turns out to be the Malachite.
"It'll take a lot of work from you in order to get this," he says. "And if you make it out of this alive...there's a good chance I wouldn't."
He puts the gem back in his pocket and gets ready to cast his first spell.
Ian sits and shivers in the corner as he watches. It feels just like the duel between him and Chardyr, except both participants in this duel have spent years and years studying all types of magic.
He was very nervous for Barley, as Frildar has extra power, and while Barley knows all there is to know about magic, he had never been able to pick up a staff and try it for himself.
Frildar casts a large beam, causing Barley to fly back through the open door and into another hallway.
The elf quickly gets back on his feet, casing Wynda Zephyria in an attempt to get the gem to fly out of his pockets.
The large wind gusts make it hard for his uncle to enter the room, causing him to grab onto the doorframe so he wouldn't fly down the stairs. Ian held onto the railing, squinting his eyes as this was hard for him to watch.
They continue battling each other, throwing spells, and knocking each other over until Barley could get that gem.
Barley doesn't know what to feel. He knows he's finally living out his dream of being able to wield magic, even though he knew he didn't have the gift. He's fighting off a foe using the knowledge he'd been retaining his entire life. But this wasn't the fun kind of magic. This depended on his life and most importantly to him, his brother's life. This was a family member who has betrayed them twice and is beyond irredeemable at this point. He killed his father, and his brother is slowly dying from the same sickness. He has every reason to cast each spell with passion, and with the intention of hurting him back as much as possible.
He looks at his brother, who has now moved into the hallway.
"Ian, get back in the stairwell!" "But I can't see you from there!" "You'll be safer in there!"
Ian still doesn't budge. He stands there in shock with fearful eyes, sniffling.
The burly elf manages to get Frildar on the ground by casting Boombastia, and he steps on his chest once again.
"I'm going to get that gem out of your pocket, and we're getting out of this alive, whether you like it or not," he says.
Frildar snickers, then quickly pulls up his staff again just before Barley can reach down and get the gem. Barley realizes what he's about to do and then casts a shield spell before an explosion flings him far down the hallway.
The tall elf runs down to Barley just as he gets up, and casts a fatal beam, which the older brother dodges with his shield.
"Why won't you just GIVE UP?" Frildar grunts.
Barley keeps holding back the beam, but the gradually rising power of the spell starts to weaken it.
"Ian...I...can barely hold this anymore..."
The younger Lightfoot scans around for something to throw at Frildar but sees Barley's sword on the ground where it had fallen out of its scabbard.
He takes a deep breath and picks it up. As fast as he could, he sprints down the hallway towards his uncle and jabs the sword in his back, blood splattering on the younger elf.
Ian gets yet another rush of pain, and he falls onto the ground.
As expected, Frildar stumbles onto the floor along with Ian, and his spell stops. He drops his staff on the ground, and the Malachite rolls out of his pockets.
"Barley, NOW!"
The burly elf quickly grabs the gem and places it in the tip of Ian's staff. He picks up Ian and runs to the end of the hallway with him in his arms.
He places his younger brother on the ground, looking back to watch for Frildar.
"Broken and bent, his body and soul," Barley recites, pointing the staff towards Ian.
"To be fixed and mended, in this gem's control!"
The malachite glows and jumps out of the staff and into the air, spinning around as it disintegrates. The shards flow near Ian and fade into sparkles, disappearing into him. Barley watches as the spell completes itself. His brother slowly has his former glory restored; his skin less pale, the bumps gone, and even his scars gone as well.
The older Lightfoot then slumps onto the ground and breaths hard, feeling his magic being sucked out of him.
He tries to get back up, but he figures he'll be better once the spell finishes.
But Frildar, deep in his pain, still gets back on his feet and approaches the brothers, staff in hand, ready to perform one last spell before he dies...
"This is for you, Ian...I love you so much..." the burly elf whispers.
Barley is then flung into the air and launched across the hallway, hitting the wall and making a hole in it.
He wipes blood from his nose, and he feels a gap in his teeth with his tongue.
The elf struggles to get back up, his limbs shaking. Before he could stand up, he sees a desk flying towards him.
"BARLEY!" he hears his brother scream just before he was knocked out.
Just as soon as the desk hits his older brother, Ian immediately stands up, now the healthy wizard he once was.
Frildar was now close to him, holding his father's staff, getting ready to perform a final spell on him as well.
"You...have no right...TO MESS WITH MY FAMILY!" the scrawny elf screams.
With all his might and all his heart's fire, he points the staff towards his uncle, and shouts "VOLTAR THUNDASIR!"
The powerful electric beam shoots out of his staff, and Frildar is sent flying to the end of the hallway. He breaks the window and falls outside the abandoned building, making his descent into the river that was many feet below him.
Ian sprints back down to the window, and Frildar isn't anywhere to be seen. He was now deep in the river, hopefully gone for good.
The young elf drops onto his knees to catch his breath, due to the spell using a lot of his energy. He sees that Frildar dropped Wilden's staff on his way out, making Ian relieved to know that the old Lightfoot staff was now back with them.
He looks back out the window at the buildings and setting sun, realizing that it was over.
It was over.
His breaths slowly turn to chuckles, and tears of joy roll down his cheeks.
But his attention quickly diverts back to his brother, who still hasn't budged.