The Ways of Magic

A/N: Well, chapter two is done. As I've said before, please, please, PLEASE review my story. I want to become a better writer and the best way to do that is through constructive criticism. An a different note, I would like to team up with someone and start another story. If you would like to team up with me, email me (my email is in my profile).

Chapter 2

Rorek was alone in a dark oblivion. He knew that he wasn't supposed to be alone, but it seemed as though he was. As despair began to set in, a terrible earthquake began to cause his terrible prison to tremble as if in fear. For the first time in centuries, he saw a light cast its radiant glow on his surroundings. A hellish landscape of shattered stone and pools of burning sulfur was revealed the Rorek. As Rorek looked at the light he realized he could see a person within it. It was a girl of about his age, clad in a purple cloak. More surprising still, he could see that she was in the grip of a huge dragon. Memories flooded back into Rorek's mind. "Malchiar," he said, remembering his terrible, final battle from so long ago. He watched the young girl vainly attempt to escape the dragons grip. "In ages past, I couldn't stop you from killing innocent people. But this time is different." Malchiar shuddered as he remembered the burning villages where Malchiar had let loose the full extent of his wrath.

"Never again," Rorek said. He saw the girl summon the ancient tome where, until a little while ago, he had been imprisoned with Malchiar. "Use the curse," Rorek said, "You must use the curse." Suddenly, he could hear what was going on beyond the glowing ball of light. He heard the girls voice, "You may have taught me spells, but I just learned a curse." Rorek sighed, "Malchiar will be weakened from his binding into this book. I should be able to finish this once and for all, instead of falling into another centuries long stalemate." Suddenly, the form of the great dragon appeared before Rorek. Before the dragon could fully absorb his surroundings, Rorek raised his staff and yelled, "Concasta librit infernus!" A column of white hot fire descended from the black sky, and enveloped Malchiar.

Thus it passed that Malchiar, who had caused so many people to burn, died in a pillar of white hot fire.

Rorek watched the dragons corpse turn into a pile a ash before he said, "I have managed to kill the king of the dragons. Let's see if I can manage to escape this prison of my own design." Rorek began to cast his most powerful spells of teleportation, using that strange girl's energies as a beacon. She was a powerful magic user, but he still wanted to know what would cause her to summon an ancient dragon. Rorek smiled and said, "That was about the most reckless thing I have ever seen," and continued casting his spells. Suddenly, Rorek suddenly felt as if his soul was being torn from his body. Rorek had time to say, "I wonder where I will arrive?" before he lost consciousness.

Rorek sat up in bed. "Only a dream," Rorek said through deep breaths. He looked out the window and saw the sun climbing a clear blue sky. He could barely detect the scent of ham drying in a skillet. "Cyborg must really like breakfast." Rorek got out of bed and pulled on his green cloak. As he was leaving the room, he noticed something propped up against the door.

It was his staff.

Rorek arrived in the dining room just in time to see Cyborg place four huge plates of eggs, ham, and bacon on the table. Beast Boy halfway through a plate of tofu when he looked at Rorek, "Hey, Raven tells us your some sort of wizard" The other three Titans in the room turned around and stared at Rorek expectantly. Beast Boy said, "Well come on, do something. Use some of your magic that Raven told us so much about."

Rorek looked slightly annoyed and said, "I know how I got to Jump City." Robin suddenly had an expression of interest on his face and said, "Ok, how did you get here?" Rorek sat down and started eating. After a minute, Beast Boy loudly said, "Come on man, don't keep us in suspense. We've been trying to guess how you got here since we got up."

Starfire looked up from where she was eating a plate full of eggs, pickles, and mayonnaise, "Yes, we have been pondering that all morning. Beast Boy said he thought 'aliens' had left you here." Beast Boy gave an embarrassed laugh.

Rorek looked up and said, "It's pretty simple. Whenever Raven banished the dragon back into the book, it was weak. It took me no effort at all to finish it off. After it was dead, I used Raven's energies as a beacon and manage to pull myself out of the book."

As Rorek finished his explanation, Raven entered the room. She walked over to the table and sat down. Rorek looked at her and asked, "What could cause you to want to summon the king of the dragons back into this world?"

Raven gave Rorek an evil look and quickly left the room. Robin and Cyborg looked at each other. After a few seconds, Robin said, "She never told you, did she?"

Rorek looked confused, "Never told me what?" Robin sighed and said, "That dragon had told Raven that it was a wizard who had killed the king of the dragons. She wasn't trying to summon a dragon." Robin paused and then said, "She was trying to save you."

Rorek sat up straight and said, "What? She was trying to save me? I had no idea." He placed his plate on the large stack of dishes that rose about two feet out of the sink. "Hey guys," Rorek said, "I have some things that I have to do."

Five minutes later, Rorek was standing outside Raven's room. For a second, he thought he could hear sobbing coming from inside. He knocked on the door, and it slowly opened, revealing a very distraught looking Raven. A look of surprise crossed her face. Rorek said, "I need to talk to you about some stuff."

Raven said, "You need to talk to me about what?" To Rorek, it was obvious that she was having trouble controlling her emotions, and he didn't want to be on the receiving end of one of her energy blasts.

Rorek looked Raven in the eyes and said, "I want to thank you for trying to save me from that book."

Raven was shocked, "You were in that book too?"

Rorek said, "Yeah, for the past few centuries, we have been locked in that book. As I fought Malchiar in this world, I realized that I could never kill it. I came to the conclusion that I could at least bind both of us into this tome, where I could keep fighting Malchiar forever. That would have kept him weak enough so that he would never escaped. I would have contacted you, but Malchiar's mental powers were far beyond mine. He had no trouble blocking my attempts at communicating with you."

Raven looked at him, with a sad expression on her face, "Whenever I still believed Malchiar was...you...it seemed like he was the only one who didn't find me creepy."

Rorek said, "I don't find you creepy." Raven looked at him in disbelief, so Rorek added, "If you'd seen half of what I have, you'd know I'm telling the truth." Raven blushed furiously.

As Rorek walked away, Raven felt weird at being complimented by a vastly superior spellcaster. Suddenly Rorek stopped, and almost as if he had picked up on that thought, turned around and said, "Hey Raven, don't sell yourself short. Aside from me, you're probably the only living person who could successfully use my curse to imprison the king of the dragons. Never sell yourself short like that." Rorek disappeared down the hall.

Rorek went into his room and meditated in the way that Raven showed him for an hour or two. As he came out of his trance, he grabbed his staff. "It's time to see if I've still got it." He pointed his staff in the direction of his bed. He raised his staff, and watched in fascination as the bed rose off the floor as if connected to the staff. Rorek laughed, "Oh yeah, I've still got it."

Later, Rorek was sitting on the couch in the living room watching one of Beast Boy's movies when Raven sat down beside him. Trying to be nice, Rorek said, "Do you want to watch something else?" Rorek was watching a comedy, and he felt pretty sure that Raven wasn't a fan of comedies.

Raven said, "No, this is ok," and went to make herself a glass of herbal tea. When she returned, Starfire was handing Rorek a bowl of one of her many Tamaranian puddings. Raven sat down and said, "You should try that pudding, its not bad." Rorek fell for it. He shoved some pudding in his mouth and began to swallow it. He never got it down his throat. He ran, gagging, to the bathroom. A few minutes later, Rorek emerged from the bathroom. He sat down beside Raven and said, "That wasn't funny."

Raven laughed, which had the side effect of shattering the TV screen. They sat there in silence for a minute before Raven looked at Rorek and said, "You really don't think I'm creepy?"

Rorek looked back at her and said, "No, I don't"

That evening, at dinner the Titans were surprised that Raven decided to show up and talk to them during dinner. Robin had a worried look on his face. Starfire noticed and said, "There is something wrong?"

Robin looked around the table and said, "Maybe. I was thinking about how Rorek said he got here. If he destroyed that dragon and then immediately pulled himself out of the book, that would mean he got out right after our fight with the dragon."

Rorek seemed to know where Robin was going with this, so he said, "Raven imprisoned the dragon a week ago, and I can't remember anything before you guys found me two days ago. I think for those five days, I had some control over my powers, because I managed to capture those thieves."

Beast Boy cut in, "But you were unconscious when we found you, so that means-"

It was Raven's turn to interrupt Beast Boy. She said, "Someone didn't want you to know who you are."

The five Titans and one wizard got very nervous as they began to realize the implications of what Raven had said.