Author's Note : To be honest, zipis1, Lucca was only interested in the singing because I wanted to explain that the Sirens had a different language. Oh well…
Magus in chapter ten! That's next! I've already finished writing the entire story, it's just that I'm so slack that I rarely get my posts up to date. But anyway, Magus soon!
-Imania
Chapter Nine – Altrisiac
Tarreiz was not happy to be returning to Altrisiac and she let Jandegar know about it the moment she appeared in the Chamber of the Mages.
"You have some nerve, you really do!" she exclaimed, going angrily to her seat next to Tarkyn. "Calling me back here before I'm good and ready! You send me off on a task and then call me back willy-nilly as though I'm a pet… a pet… I don't know, a pet something. Well, I won't stand for it!"
"I am the First Mage," Jandegar countered calmly. "It is my right."
"Did you think of my charges? No, no you didn't!" Tarreiz shot back when he tried to say that he had. "If you had been thinking, then you would have realised that it was not wise to leave them anywhere here, particularly not on the Island of the Sirens! Hardly anyone even speaks their language there!"
"Ciaruse does."
"Ciaruse is the most empty-headed, vague and generally useless woman in this entire universe, and you know it! I wouldn't be surprised if she drowned them all by accident!"
"Ciaruse is not that inept!" Jandegar argued angrily.
"She is too!"
"Children, please," Jhyskar cautioned, holding out his hands. "We have a serious matter to discuss. Is it too much to ask that we all refrain from arguing for the better part of an hour?"
"When Tarreiz is that disrespectful, then yes, it is!" Jandegar shot back, glaring at the younger but more powerful Mage.
"When you're not being so bone-headed, which in fact I have never known to occur, then maybe I'll stop pointing out the stupidity of some of your actions," Tarreiz responded coldly. "What are we meant to be discussing, anyway?"
"We will wait until Ciaruse returns," Jandegar said promptly.
Tarkyn explained wearily, "Jandegar wants to try to build the Barrier around this world without Kelke."
"Not possible," Tarreiz responded instantly. "I understand that it is necessary to construct the force-field in order to bounce Lavos off to an uninhabited world, but it is not going to happen without Kelke. We need his power."
"I don't think we do," Jandegar argued. "We have survived perfectly well without him."
"Only because you insist on excluding him. His absence makes us work twice as hard. We need his power in this, that's all there is to it. Anyway, we do not have long to wait before he brings himself out of the Otherworld."
"We can do it without him. We are going to do it without him," Jandegar shrugged. "That's all there is to it."
"All there is to what?" queried Ciaruse, having appeared in the room.
"To constructing the Barrier without Kelke."
Ciaruse's forehead wrinkled slightly. "What barrier?"
"What barrier, she says," Kerrelei muttered, resting her forehead on her palms. "We're all going to die."
"The Barrier that will bounce Lavos away from this world," Jhyskar explained patiently. He was sometimes the only one who could keep his temper with the Sixth Mage.
"Oh, that Barrier," Ciaruse shrugged dismissively and sat down at the table next to Tarreiz. The two empty chairs were Kelke's and the unused chair belonging to the Eighth Mage.
"Ciaruse has no problems with it," Jandegar pointed out smugly.
Tarreiz snapped, "Ciaruse would not know a problem if it jumped up and messed up her hair. Kelke is a Sorcerer, a magician as well as a Mage, and we need his power. I say again, we do not have long to wait."
"Jhyskar, did you ever end up finding those two who were missing?" Jandegar queried.
"No. Tarreiz said she couldn't find them, and if she couldn't, there's no way that I could," Jhyskar responded honestly.
"Oh well. Does anyone, apart from Tarreiz, have any major objections to having a try at the Barrier without Kelke?" Jandegar asked.
Kerrelei shrugged, shook her head. Jhyskar looked uncertain but said nothing. "I'm not sure," Tarkyn admitted.
"Jhyskar? Do you have any objections?" Jandegar asked.
"I guess not," answered the Mage of Fire.
"That's three against two. Tarreiz, we are going to attempt the raising of the Barrier anyway."
"This is not wise," Tarreiz muttered, but she moved to take her place anyway. Nobody had bothered to ask Ciaruse for her opinion. They had learned that it wasn't really worth it. She could sit on the fence for years sometimes.
Six of the Eight Mages went to stand under their respective windows, Jandegar under the yellow, Kerrelei under the blue and so on. Without further ado they began to pool their collective power. When they had enough, they would work together to stretch it over the world in a shield that would, with any luck, last for long enough to bounce Lavos off to somewhere else. They had already chosen a suitable world for him. It was a stopgap solution, but Jandegar planned to kill him eventually. Or so he said.
Tarkyn could feel from the start that something was going wrong, but he figured it was just because they didn't have Kelke and his own power as a Sorcerer, let alone a Mage, to support them. All of the Mages had some ability to sense the power of the others, although most of them couldn't say what belonged to whom. Tarkyn, however, knew exactly what Tarreiz' magic felt like and he knew she was using too much. He almost told her then to back off, but he knew she was compensating for Kelke's absence and he knew she wouldn't listen to him anyway.
They were halfway through when one of the Mages simply dropped out, withdrawing all of their power. Tarreiz, unthinkingly, compensated for that too.
The Mage of Vision cried out almost in pain and went down. Tarkyn instantly withdrew to go to her, and, unable to continue with it, the other three Mages who were contributing abandoned the project.
Tarkyn moved the other Mage over onto her back and, at a loss for what to do, checked for a pulse. A few seconds later he had worked out that Tarreiz was actually breathing, which gave him great relief.
"What happened?" Kerrelei demanded, dropping to her knees beside him.
"I don't know. Overuse of magic, I think, but I've never seen it happen to any of us before." Tarkyn lowered his voice. "Did you feel…?"
Kerrelei nodded grimly. "Yes. Someone deliberately withdrew, either knowing or guessing that Tarreiz would take their share of the magical burden without thinking twice. One of us is responsible for this, and I think I know who. Unfortunately, I can't do anything about it because I have no concrete evidence…"
"Got him!" came a triumphant cry from Jhyskar. He glanced over at the others. "I've finally managed to find one of the two who were missing from the group Tarreiz was leading. Jandegar, do you want me to…?"
"Yes," Jandegar responded. "I do not think that any of us can do much for Tarreiz now. Go, and reunite him with the others."
"While Jhyskar's busy, Tarkyn, Ciaruse and I will try to do something," Kerrelei announced as her younger brother disappeared. "Come on, Tarkyn. You can carry her, right? Ciaruse, get over here. We have work to do."