When will Imania next strike with an update? Will it be Tuesday? Wednesday? Nobody knows! Not even she knows! It certainly won't be this weekend because she'll be in Ballarat with her school orchestra…
And yes, it is my orchestra, thank you very much. I'm the co-leader, the other co-leader isn't coming on my trip, therefore it is my orchestra, mine!
Okay. Um… first of all, you never actually get to see Lavos, because I couldn't really be bothered writing him (or… it) into it. Secondly, yes, they get their items for free… basically because they needed something to do while Kelke and Frog escaped the Otherworld. Thirdly, no, Dracozombie, they will always need Tarreiz, I'm sorry, but they do get to beat her up in the next story. (It's complicated.) Oh, and yeah… about the fact that this is a trilogy… it isn't. I'm two thirds of the way through the fourth and starting on the fifth… by the way, Tarreiz is hardly in the fourth and if she's in the fifth then it will be only briefly. I liked your description of her, though, ranting about how wrong people are if they disagree with her! Sigh… sorry, you weren't meant to not like her!
By the way, I find this chapter boring. Basically, it's in here because it needs to be in here!
Lavos countdown – three chapters (I think)
Chapter Sixteen – The Chamber of the Mages, Altrisiac
After Jhyskar threw a temper tantrum and declared that either Jandegar had to let Kerrelei come back or he wouldn't help, everything went rather well. At first, anyway. Jhyskar got word to Kerrelei through some kind of telepathy that she was allowed to return and the Mage of Water was there in an instant. Schala made the others swear that they would not argue for the half hour maximum that it would take to construct the Barrier and the Mages got to it.
Tarreiz explained to Schala that the Mages all needed to stand in their respective places and, summoning their magic, place it in the centre of the Chamber, where it would be joined by the others and then melded together to create a strong shield of pure magic. This shield, as Schala knew, was to bounce Lavos harmlessly away from this world and onto a nearby planet devoid of life. The Mage of Vision also stated, to the surprise of the others, that the shield would then be moved to that planet to trap Lavos there and that not all Eight would be needed to do this.
Jandegar was the first to raise his gold magic and Tarkyn was pleased to note that the Mage of the Sun had decided to pull his weight this time. The others followed in order; Kerrelei's blue, Jhyskar's red, Tarkyn's green, the strange darkish colour of Tarreiz, Ciaruse's silver, Kelke's black, and finally Schala's purple. The addition of Schala's magic made everything so much more stable, even if she wasn't entirely sure of what she was doing.
It was the lead of Tarreiz that the others followed, not Jandegar, as the Mage of Vision guided the others in wrapping their magic around everyone else's in a multicoloured kind of tube thing. Schala watched curiously as the two darker colours began to meld together, quickly understanding that Tarreiz and Kelke were experimenting to see if this melding of magic could be done. The two had clearly been working together for a long time as this was done quite easily. The two Mages reached for Schala, who was probably the most magically powerful of the lot, to guide her through the process. She proved to be a swift learner and the three of them moved to teach the others in turn, beginning with Jandegar. The colours swiftly melded into a kind of rainbow. It was quite pretty, really.
It was Tarkyn who again noticed that Tarreiz was using slightly more magic than anyone else. He found to his surprise that she seemed to be using the extra power to support Kelke, who should not have needed it. Tarkyn extended his own power to Kelke in an effort to lift the burden from Tarreiz's shoulders and was violently rebuffed.
"Tarkyn, concentrate!" Jandegar snapped as the green strand faded a little. Not only was the paling of the green easily visible to all of them, if none but Kelke knew why, but Jandegar could, in a way, sense all of them.
"Sorry," Tarkyn muttered and concentrated, finding his feet again and leaving Kelke to his own devices.
They had worked their way around to Tarkyn himself before something started to go wrong. One of the darker strands broke apart from the others in several places. Tarkyn instinctively checked Tarreiz, who was using still more of her power but looked as though she could go on all day. It was Kelke, then, who had begun to falter. The Shadow Mage's magic never went well with that of the others but he was powerful enough to make this work. Well, he was meant to be.
It was Schala who spoke. "We need to stop."
"No," Jandegar said sharply. "We're so close, there's no point in stopping now."
"There's no point in killing Kelke for this, either," Schala argued. Overuse or drain of magic could be fatal. If Tarkyn was to be believed – and he wasn't in the opinion of Tarreiz, who was prejudiced anyway – then Kelke had almost died because of exactly that. It was entirely probable that he was still weak.
"Does the life of one person matter when we can save millions?" Jandegar retorted. "Nobody cares about Kelke anyway."
Kelke made an effort and the black band strengthened a little. 'Schala, control it,' Tarreiz ordered, using some kind of telepathy. 'You're more than capable of taking it from here. Kelke needs to know that there are people here who care enough to save his life.'
Schala nodded, although there wasn't much point in doing so, and even as Tarkyn's power melded with theirs the Eighth Mage was reaching for Ciaruse. She had the hang of it now and made up easily for Tarreiz as the Mage of Vision withdrew a little. Ciaruse's silver was soon joined with the others in a shimmering rainbow tube. Schala, who was improvising although she would never let anyone else know that, gently closed off the ends and turned it into a circle, which she began to expand.
"Too slow," Jandegar snarled and took over.
Schala tried to regain control of her precious magic-circle. "You can't go that fast!" she warned. "Not everyone can keep up with that."
"You mean Kelke? He can give a little more," Jandegar said gaily, and Kelke cried out almost in pain as the Mage of the Sun took rough possession of a little less than half of his remaining power, putting this into the Barrier. Jandegar did it again and Kelke fell to his knees. The cry was drawn this time from Tarreiz, now so closely bound to the Shadow Mage that Jandegar was taking her magic as well as Kelke's.
There were protests from the other Mages at the rough treatment of two of their own, but Jandegar was on a roll and gave no sign of having heard. Schala began to chant under her breath, calling on the magic she had taken out of Zeal, her own unique power connected in no way to Lavos. She set all the other Mages neatly to one side and took over completely, expanding the circle in her own good time until it rested around the entire planet, whereupon she sealed the 'ends', separating the Mages from the circle.
And that was how Schala almost single-handedly saved the Alternate Universe.
The moment he was set free from the Barrier, Tarkyn went instantly to Tarreiz, who out of the two endangered Mages was in fact the least in real danger. She, at least, was on her feet. "Are you all right?" he asked her with concern, putting out a hand to steady her.
"Kelke," was all she said.
"What? What about him? What'd you say?"
"Kelke," said Tarreiz again, urgently, and, pushing Tarkyn away, went to the Shadow Mage.
"Don't touch me," Kelke rasped as Tarreiz tried to do something. "You don't need me. Made that clear."
"Don't be stupid," Tarreiz snapped and rested her hands on him as though to heal him.
Kelke took advantage of the physical and magical contact to steal enough of her own power to put him back on his feet and break both contacts, whereupon he attacked Jandegar. The Mage of the Sun fought him off and said triumphantly, "For breaking the First Rule of the Mages you are hereby exiled forever from Altrisiac!"
"I already was!" Kelke snarled at him. "And if the rule you're referring to is the 'not hurting other Mages' one, then you've already done that!"
"I acted in the good of the world," Jandegar sniffed, turning his back on his 'fellow' Mage.
"As did I," Kelke retorted, glaring. "This world would be much better off if you were dead!"
"Get out of my territory!" Jandegar ordered.
"I was never welcome here anyway!" Kelke shot back, a rather weak retort, and headed for the door.
"Stop this," said Tarreiz sharply, although she wasn't sure to whom she said this. "You're both being very silly. Kelke, you can't just leave." Kelke did not reply and Tarreiz turned to Schala. "Make him stop."
"Kelke," began Schala, not entirely sure of what to say. The black wind brushed unpleasantly against the back of her neck and she jumped. It had been away for a while and had chosen this moment to reoccur. Schala understood then that if she let Kelke leave, it would be the end of the Mages. The Barrier was created, sure, but the Mages were still responsible for keeping this world going. Kelke's complete departure would cause the fracture lines between them to widen until no bridges could be built.
Schala used the tone she took with Janus when he was being a spoiled brat, which was often. "Kelke, stop."
Kelke did stop, but it was to turn to the others and say, "If you stay here, he's going to kill you. Mark my words, he'll break or kill you all sooner or later. Schala, go back to your own universe no matter what, and don't come here again. You might be safe then." He glanced at the others and announced, "If Altrisiac is forbidden to me, then my Citadel is forbidden to you. Leave me alone to live or die in peace as I choose. You don't want me around, I don't want to be around you. I will have nothing to do with you."
"This is not wise," Tarreiz warned, despite the fact that he had stolen some of her magic, and usually anyone who dared such a thing would be facing her wrath, not her pleas.
"I am not known for my wise deeds," Kelke replied and strode out.
"Not good not good," Tarkyn muttered mostly to himself. "Are you sure you're okay?" he asked Tarreiz.
"Yes!" Tarreiz snapped, pushing him away.
"You tried to kill him," Kerrelei accused Jandegar, who instantly protested. She interrupted. "No, don't try excuses! We all know you wouldn't have cared if he'd died as a result of what you did to him. First Tarreiz and now Kelke! Who's next? Jhyskar?"
"What is wrong with Kelke?" Ciaruse asked Tarreiz, ignoring all signs of another conflict between Jandegar and Kerrelei. "He insisted he was well. Did he lie?"
"I'm not authorised to detail the problems of another Mage," Tarreiz snapped at her. "You would need to ask him that."
"But he has exiled me from his territory," protested Ciaruse, which was apparently her interpretation of the events.
"He has not," Jandegar argued, "he hasn't the right nor the sense to exile anyone from anything."
"Oh, and you do?" challenged Kerrelei, hands on hips. "What, you have some right to say what we do with our own territories?"
"As the First Mage, it is my task to keep the rest of you in line," Jandegar shot back.
"You are not doing a very good job," Ciaruse remarked, and there was silence. Jandegar looked betrayed and most of the others could not believe that Ciaruse was capable of being so rude. None of them had thought she knew anything was wrong, anyway.
"Tarreiz…" began Schala, "can we go home now?"
"Yes," Tarreiz responded. "You may."
"I'm not entirely sure how to transport us all back to our own universe by magic alone. Could you give me a hand?"
"Certainly."
"You don't have enough strength left for that," Tarkyn objected.
Tarreiz glared. "And how would you know how strong I am? What makes you care, anyway? I never asked for your opinion!"
Schala intervened. "Could you please send us back before you get into a huge argument with Tarkyn and go storming off and we never see you again?"
"Yes," said Tarreiz frostily and stormed out of the room, Schala just behind her.
Finally, they were going home.