Chapter 5: Light

Okay, I know that I updated very quickly, but that's only because I wrote the two Akkarin chapters a while ago and was too cowardly to post them :P. Thank you for all the lovely reviews! Okay, not much more too say… Oh yeah! This is the penultimate chapter! And prepare yourselves, because the Epilogue I have planned is extremely weird…

Akkarin:

"Akkarin, what are you talking about? You can't!"

"I can and I will! You can't tell me what I can't do!" he whispered furiously.

"Akkarin, it's madness! You can't expect to wipe out an army, albeit a small one, of Ichani like that!"

"It doesn't matter if it doesn't work, but you are going to be far away whatever happens." Isiben smiled and shook her head sadly.

"No," she whispered firmly.

"You don't understand," he said, his voice rising slightly. "When a magician dies, their power is released, and it destroys everything nearby!"

Isiben gestured for him to lower his voice. "I thought you could shield?"

Akkarin sighed, and ran a finger through his hair. "Yes, but if I shield beforehand, Dakova will know that something's wrong. If he dies, then I die with him."

"Then let me die with you too."

"You could have a life! You don't have to do this!"

"You don't have to either!" She looked around, and then lowered her voice. "Akkarin, I don't know about you, but there is no life for me apart from this. You didn't grow up in the Sachakan slave society, so I don't expect you to understand."

Akkarin frowned.

"There's nothing you can do to stop me from staying here," she told him gently.

…

It was time. The perfect opportunity. Dakova had summoned Akkarin to the circle for some reason; most probably to let them read his mind. He couldn't afford for that to happen. If Dakova died, then the others wouldn't have time to shield before it was too late. Hopefully.

There was just one flaw to his plan. He would have to depend on the fact that Dakova would feel secure enough to not waste energy shielding.

"So, you know what we want. I'm sure that Akkarin," Dakova sneered, "Will be more than willing to help you."

Now or never. Yet for some reason, Akkarin hesitated. It's unfair. Everything is so unfair. Why me? And no one in the Guild will ever know. I won't even be remembered. I won't have a legacy. Nothing. He steeled himself, and then thought, I can't let selfishness stop me now.

Dakova was saying something else, but Akkarin barely heard him. The only thing that was important was that he wasn't shielding. Akkarin slipped his hand up his sleeve, and stabbed Dakova in the heart with the shattered glass, grateful for his human biology healing lessons.

And then there was light everywhere, and all consciousness ceased.

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