TO END IT...
"I will not let you win!!" She growled. "Air! Water! Fire! COMBINE!!!" This time she used the staff to aim her shot both towards the Traveler and into the current. A spray of fire filled bubbles tore around the whirlpool and released themselves into the center. Aariah could hear the scream of pain coming out of the Travelers surprised attack, even though she could not see him through the tornado of flames. "Air! Feed Fire!" she commanded and the flames grew stronger as the water's hold on her grew weaker.
Both Aariah and the Traveler emerged from their respective areas of confinement at the same time. Aariah drilled out of the water and hovered in the air as she watched the Traveler emerge. He flew haphazardly into the air and crash-landed onto the old dock in a heap. She swooped down, nearer to him, but did not say a word.
A primal growl of defeat tore from the Traveler's lungs and he glared at her in pure hatred. "How dare you! How dare you combine all three! You're not ready for that! You're not experienced enough for that! How could you control that!?" He spat at her.
"Unlike you All my magic was my own" she narrowed her eyes. "I do not thieve to gain power I can only do what I am powerful enough to do. And you can only do what your scrapings have allowed you to do!" She floated in closer.
"I can still pilfer your power! I can still turn you in to be hanged like all the rest of you illegal mages that I had killed. It's so easy that way suck the magic out of them and have them executed for their crimes that they cannot commit anymore!" he tried to get under her skin. "I even turned in my own mother! For she deserved it!"
"You cannot turn me in you are through." She told it as the truth.
He growled again. "Fire!" he held up a singe hand as a narrow beam of flames cascaded from it.
Aariah easily dodged it. "It's time to end your abuse!" she brought up her dagger staff and flew towards him "No more I say! No more will you have power! No more will you use my kind! And no more will you know of magic in your possession or in any woman's possession!!"
The tip of her staff pierced through his jacket and shirt burying its half-inch blade into his flesh before her momentum caused it to push him onto his back. His wings began to glow golden and dissolve as her staff also glowed, absorbing his power. It was like lightning all over again, ripping up her staff and burning its place in her power.
It only took seconds for her to fall to her knees in exhaustion. Though to her, those seconds were as long as minutes. The Traveler, for his part, was already knocked out and unconscious. She pulled her staff out of his flesh and saw the small trickle of blood bubble up from the wound.
**********
Aariah traveled West. She knew that with the removal of the Traveler's powers, he would not remember that she was a mage. His powers had given him the ability to sense other mages, but without that power he would not know why he pursued her. She now possessed the power to tell who was a mage and who was not. And with this power, she could avoid detection from other mages.
Aariah sighed as she reached the closest town from Fight Lake. She did not know the town, but she could tell there were no mages there, and none had passed in quite some time. She hoped she could stop and rest in this town and take a break from all that she had accomplished since that day in Potoremin. She knew that this town was a place that she could rest.
