Karl's creed was of discipline. Of self-control and submission to a higher duty. His mind was strong with rage but tempered with faith to his order.
Kaecillius passed by him and inclined his head. "Master Mordo."
Kaecillius walked by quickly but the brief moment of respect brought a smile to his face. Their spar earlier had reminded Kaecillius of how Karl had been a master since before Kaecillius had been an initiate.
He walked up to the Ancient One's quarters and bowed beside Master Hamir, who was doing the same.
"You may leave, Hamir, it seems Karl intends to take up this task alongside me."
Hamir spared him a brief glance. "Very well."
If Karl has to guess, he'd busy himself with a different task. Hamir, while not as powerful as he, had a spread of experiences second only to the Ancient One, with a work ethic to match.
"I'll admit, I wasn't aware there was a mission."
"No, you wouldn't have been."
Karl fell silent after that, following her lead. She exited her quarters with the hood of her robes pulled up. She moved one of her hands from behind her and twisted it lightly, a portal forming near instantly.
"You grow curious of the mysterious infection and my decision to ignore it."
He bit the inside of his cheek to stop himself from talking; he was too emotionally involved in the topic to speak soundly. They stepped through the portal and came upon a lone house, sequestered between groves of high-reaching trees.
"It was never my intention to bar the masters from interacting with it indefinitely. I wanted to better understand the function of the infection."
"And?"
"It infects through the very magic in the air." He froze but she continued on. "Sorcerers are pointedly susceptible to it. For masters, such as you and I? It will be of little consequence. For those such as Initiate Jason; we would be signing their death warrants."
He sent his wishes to the Vishanti that the boy would rest easy.
"I know it will be present for the foreseeable future. I know there will be plenty good to come from it and, as with many most magicks, there will be plenty bad."
She crossed her wrists together in front of her chest and brought them into the Mirror Dimension. With a small gesture, the walls and roofs came apart, floating upwards, fragmenting like puzzle pieces until only 3 rooms remained. Each one containing an infected draped in numerous cloths.
She brough the portion of the porch they were on, upwards, allowing Karl to properly see the victims. They were primarily human but in their eye sockets were teeth; canines dripping a murky blood and, over their hearts, were large, bloodshot, yellow eyes.
Their horizontally slanted pupils trained on Karl and the Ancient One and sparks of flames started to appear in the air around each infected.
"The Merlin Faithful have been constant opposition to our order since before even my time. Their ability to hide from my sights had been second to none, at the time. Now? They are few and a shell of their former selves, their ability to hide, lost, in their descent into madness." She looked at Karl with a grave look on her face. "This is the bad, Mordo. Witness and understand my burden."
The ancient one separated the platform that they'd been standing on, which left only a quickly erected shielding spell to protect him from the 3 prong attack of the once-sorcerers. He was launched off his now thin footing and called for the magic in his boots to be activated, calling forth a circle of magic to brace his fall.
The chest-eyes started bleeding and eye-mouths start chattering loudly. Mordo formed a portal to exit the mirror dimension outside their house, a tidal of wave of flame covering where he once was.
He used the reprieve it granted him to form a portal into his Kamar-Taj quarters, his spear dropping through it. It was then he noticed smoke from the house.
The Ancient One came up behind him as he processed something. "I'm sure you've noticed."
He nodded. "They were never in the mirror dimension. They can freely break into and out of the Mirror dimension without rings." They were immune to Kamar-Taj's most commonly used capturing method.
"Mm, nearly so."
That was all she offered before, with a glance back, he could tell she was gone. Jagged lines of red started drawing themselves in the air, splitting widely as the 3 infected sprung out.
A blonde, female infected threw itself at Karl, shrouded in thick blue flames. He swept his staff sideways, parts disjointing into a whip held together by universal energies. With a crack, she was knocked into another infected and he quickly rectified his prior mistake.
He brought them all into the mirror dimension. He'd been treating the mirror dimension like the stopgap measure it would be against another sorcerer, while it was clear that the infected didn't have the mental stability enough to control the realm.
He upturned the earth and trees to provide him cover, as minimally as he could and cast a shrouding spell to hide even more.
When they couldn't find him, they resorted to haphazardly throwing around orbs and streams of fire. The thought of that much power with mastery behind steeled him on killing these infected in particular.
He spent a few seconds catching his breath and revealed himself, harshly jabbing at one's head with his staff and sending it to the ground. On edge, the other 2 pushed blazes toward him but he moved the ground they were standing on away from him while bringing up prisms of tree-littered earth to separate them.
It was then he turned his attention back to the back to the one he hit; the visibly eldest. He moved his left hand to telekinetically force its mouth open for a moment and lodged his staff into its throat. He pushed forth a burst of the staff's magic powered by his own and the infected's head burst into viscera.
A voice cried out and the dimension started to crack. Tears of red causing long streaks of red to flow into the Mirror Dimension and he was promptly ejected back to reality. He stumbled at the slightly changed elevation beneath him, forming a small shield with his left arm to prepare for any attacks.
He needn't have done so. The Ancient One appeared behind him through a portal, the heads of the 2 remaining infected in hand.
"It is our job, as sorcerers of Kamar-Taj, to take care of other sorcerers gone wrong."
He acknowledged that but that worked as a poor explanation. "Why bring me instead of Master Hamir? I'm aware of my comparative inexperience."
Her lips quirked. "Against another sorcerer, Hamir would certainly be more capable but Hamir is loyal to me before he is loyal to anything else. You are loyal to your morals."
She telekinetically lifted the body of the youngest, a child, through a portal and placed it before him. "Hamir would look upon such a sight and would see his duty to be done; there would be little emotion to it. He's desensitized himself to it. You? You will retch."
He stared down at the eye over the heart of the boy and, even in death, it screamed to him. The blood flowing from its chest were its tears.
"Why tell me this now? If there is anything good about this infection, I doubt I'll be seeing it now." He snarled those last words out. He worried that his tone had been too biting when there was a long pause.
"I've been told by a student, multiple now, that we sorcerers should put the warnings before the spells; consider yourself warned. Once I feel you may reconcile with it, I shall show you the 'spell,' for lack of a better word."
She twisted her hand, they were back in Kamar-Taj, and Mordo felt like an initiate once again.
Of a Dream Past
The relief Wong felt when all sorcerers were called off cases regarding the spreading magical infection was palpable.
He turned his sight towards an initiate going through their forms, a shield struggling to form in front of him. The thought of that student going mad; killing their brother and sister initiates, horrified him. He'd never let it show, though. He was a master who prided himself in being a stone wall. Reliable.
"You're overworking yourself, initiate." They were in the darker hours of the night when most initiates were encouraged to sleep.
The boy, early 20s, turned to him. "Ah, Master Wong. I simply wanted to-"
"There is work and there is overwork." He put a hand on his shoulder sleep and gripped firmly. "Retire for the night."
He shook his head and walked off to the Library, almost dreading what he'd find. As he expected, he came upon a new addition to his life. The pale boy that almost no one sees.
He still remembers the Ancient One telling him to be respectful and welcoming, only a few days prior. Previously, he had taken it as tacit permission to not interact with the boy but he could no longer stomach doing so.
"You're supposed to return the books when you're done reading them."
"Oh?" The boy sprung up in his chair, standing so he could better meet Wong's eyes. "So you finally worked out some time in your busy schedule to talk to me? You're going to make me blush."
Wong will admit to feeling a measure of relief at hearing the boy's friendly tone. Regardless, he acted unphased. "It is important to respect the Library no matter who or what we are."
"What we are?" Wong stilled. "Pray tell, what do you know of me?"
"I can tell that you're not a human child, as our children don't have eyes like yours, they don't have hairs like you, and they most certainly can not speak like you."
Wong was nearly sure of his assessment after seeing his few interactions with the Ancient One in the past month. It was either that or he was victim to a serious magical ailment but even that wouldn't explain away the boy's vocabulary. That's why the laughter caught him off guard.
"Ah, so close yet so far. I'm part human; at least, according to the Ancient One. We're still trying to work out what my father was. If you want to know my guess, it's that he's a god. It would be fitting wouldn't it? See, my mother was a queen but I've always felt like I'm more than royalty so it only stands to reason that I'm- I'm rambling aren't I?"
Wong snorted lightly, he'd need tor reassess the boy. While clearly inhuman, he was still plenty childish; not to mention vain.
"You were rambling."
His face flushed slightly, all too evident on his pale complexion.
"That is beside the point. As a prospective librarian of Kamar-Taj, it is my duty to ensure that our knowledge is respected as it should be."
He regained his composure. "As a kindness to the Ancient One, I shall listen to your rules but, in exchange, I'd have you tell me about blood magics."
"That's dangerous knowledge for a child to seek."
"Yet here I am, endorsed by the Ancient One herself."
Something about the boy's voice spoke to Wong; resonated with every part of his body. The tone shift forced him to look at the boy with respect–not of his character but of his potential to harm.
He relented. "If you truly want my assistance, then I expect to know exactly who I'm assisting."
The boy scowled. "Mine is Mergo; it seems in my excitement I forgot my manners. I also accept Your Highness as an address. Next time I forget my manners I expect you to tell me as such."
"Hm." Wong wasn't going to acknowledge Mergo moving the fault for the lapse of manners onto him.
Instead, he returned the courtesy. "My name is Wong."
"Just Wong?"
"Yes."
"Nice and simple. I like it."
Wong allowed himself to smile then. "Yours is a unique name. You should be proud of it."
If Mergo's smile was anything to go by, he had chosen the right compliment. "My mother chose mine for me."
It was a pleasant coincidence; his mother had chosen his name too. Annoyingly, the child was growing on him.
A/N: Out of all my chapters, I'm least sure about this one so I'd appreciate any and all feedback.