Lady Oriel's breath was near visible on the cool near winter night. The light from the Hedge Maze's open doors illuminated and gave warmth to her back, and the flitting shrills and laughter of the many fairies within spilled out from the entrance, bringing a reserved smile to her lips.
Wings folded behind, she bent her knees and levered herself to sit on the steps, eyes gazing in the direction of Bartleby's dark silhouette in the distance. Her mind raced, most notably on her meeting with the Exseed months before. Conflicting schedules had dissuaded the opportunity for a second visit. To receive a second look and confirm her lingering impression of what she thought she had sensed. The danger she had thought she'd sensed.
"Lady Oriel?"
The Seraph showed no sign of surprise as Nyx called out her name. She rotated her torso to meet the orange-hued sprite, a perplexing frown etched on her mouth. "What troubles you, dear?"
The sprite angled her head to Bartleby. "Something…feels wrong. I think she may be in danger." The 'she' was no mystery to the angelic being. Fairies were very emotional beings, and Nyx had long since had a personal attachment to Aria. It didn't surprise her that she could sense certain things.
"What do you feel?"
She paused, shivering at something far beyond the cold. "…Anger. She's so…angry." Her ginger eyes glistened in the light from a streetlamp as she looked up. "W-We must go find her, Lady Oriel!"
The Seraph regarded the pixie's desperate expression, and consoled her with a warm smile of her own, caressing the small being with the unblemished skin of her hand. Then, she rose to her feet, wings flaring out to lift her a few inches from the ground before her soles touched down again. Oriel extended a hand to the pixie, a mild wind blowing at her ivory tunic and feathered wings. "Then we make haste. Come."
EXSEED
Nineteenth Pip: Night in Gale
Neither Victoria, nor Tala. Fate, nor Ty. Not a single one of them had ever witnessed such a beautiful place.
As the four slipped through the person-wide crack in the large doors, a small tunnel opened into the most breathtaking venue they'd experienced.
A bright, vast grotto. Hundreds of tree trunks—perhaps massive roots considering they were under Bartleby—rimmed the perimeter and shielded the cavern walls from view. Rushing water flowed from around their bases over the hardened rock they were rooted in, and plummeted into a deep lake that comprised the majority of the room, its surface saddled by a thin layer of mist. A canopy of green glowing leaves littered the ceiling much like in the previous room, providing illumination as bright and warm as sunlight, some dropping onto the lake's surface.
The beauty of it all had distracted the quartet for a few seconds from the piece at the lake's center. A beige cylindrical tower, topped with what seemed a glass dome observatory, rose seven stories from an island-like outcropping of rock. A number of bridge-connected platforms branched off from its main body, suspended in the air. Some close, some nearly thirty feet out, some at the top, some from the rock around its foundation. All decorated with shrubbery the likes of which rivaled Unicorn Way.
"Is…is this? What is this place? Are we really under the school right now?" Tala asked half-skeptically, half in awe.
"School?" Victoria remarked with the same flabbergasted tone. "Are we even in Wizard City?"
Ty held up his index finger to his mouth, signaling them to keep quiet, and received apologetic nods in return. They remained silent for a few seconds, hearing what they thought was a closing door some ways off. Ty performed the gesture again, then pointed towards the tower, whispering. "Let's check it out. Follow me."
A second set of nods began their trek. A wide stone bridge connected their alcove near the door to the tower's island, stretching across the lakes surface. They decided to stick towards the left most railing for guidance across. Some dozen feet below them, patches of sparkling water between the mist allowed occasional glimpses of fish swimming through the depths.
A strange figure became visible upon reaching the latter half of the bridge, much larger than they'd first assumed. It wasn't until they'd come upon it proper did its form make sense.
Rough, browned wooden bark covered its thirty foot form: a pair of four gnarled arms that ended in sharpened fingers; two thick stumps for legs that ascended into a thin torso, sprouting a tangled mass of leaved branches. A beard of moss hung down from its large head, an eerie pair of unblinking eyes lying in sockets. Fate eyed it with curiosity, gazing upon its supine body teetering on the rail of the bridge and the precipice to the lake below. One of its arms dangled low enough for its hand to be submerged.
Ty, Victoria, and Tala gasped, and glanced between each other. This was the same treant that had attacked them that night.
So many questions poured through their heads. Was it dead? What was it doing here? Why was it completely unresponsive? And more importantly, what could have caused it?
"Greetings."
All eyes flew up to the voice's source. The mist flattened out, spilling over the sides of the bridge to reveal the figure hidden within it.
The hooded man stood just before the tower, hands nestled firmly in coat pockets. "Seems you've found that guardian. He gave you quite the run of trouble last time, didn't he?" His hood cast its ever pervading shadow, and it seemed to accentuate the darkness in his voice. "Consider it a favor that I took care of him for you."
"We didn't ask for your favors." Ty spat coldly.
"And I didn't request for your interference." He countered evenly. "It seems neither of us can have what we want, Mr. Stormwhisper."
While Ty gritted his teeth, Tala observed that the tower's primary door, a smaller version of the one they'd just entered, had been cracked inward. His confusion at the man's presence here dispersed as he noticed the disappearance of the two other figures. "Where are your minions?"
One of the man's hands, gloved in black, gestured behind him towards the door, confirming the new Conjuror's suspicions. "They're accomplishing my objective. Doing what we came here to do."
"And what is that?" Fate demanded.
A raspy chuckle accompanied what they imagined was a grin. "You'll learn soon enough."
His other hand emerged from the opposite pocket, both moving towards the space before his chest, beginning to glow with the faintest of dark purple energies. Ty was more than sure that was witch magic, and he grimaced all the more at the thought. He inclined his head to the three young wizards behind him. Tala and Victoria stood with the wands they'd taken, both their eyes filled with a suppressed anxiety. Fate was behind them, and the Diviner could clearly see the strain on his face. Nervousness? It seemed more physical pain than anything.
Either way, he knew his choice wasn't going to turn out well, but he didn't have another option. "Tala, Victoria. I want you to go after the two minions."
"Just them?" Fate argued in a whisper, breathing heavily. "What about me, I should be going with them."
"Fate, just do what he says." Victoria soothed, readying her wand and immediately catching on to her brother's ploy. He'd tried his best to hide it, but all three had figured it out over their journey inwards. He was in no condition to be fighting.
The tanned adolescent scrunched his face and fists in defiance, but after seeing how serious they were, he knew it was futile. He gave a begrudging nod to Ty, who returned the favor before facing back to the hooded man.
His whisper was still just loud enough for their group to hear over the rushing water. "Focusing magic into the wand is only a little bit harder than making pips. I know you haven't had much training yet, but it's up to you guys. I know you'll come up with something." The Diviner could hear them assuming stances behind him, and calmed himself before ordering. "Let's move!"
—o—o—o—o—o—o—
Aria Nightingale's fingers slid across the fret board of her sitar, its strap resting across her shoulder and anchoring the instrument's wooden body in front of her, just above the belts that crossed her waist. The red-haired girl stood still otherwise, eyes shut tight, head angled down. Another glowing pip joined the two hovering to her right.
This set Sasha Gryphonbane on edge, considering what she knew of the girl's magical education. She was in Artur's class, so she could expect three-pip spells. The girl parted her feet, gathering a bit of dark-purple energy around her. Even with the pips, she wasn't quite sure what she could expect. The whimsical tune Aria plucked was a greater mystery than her skillset. Was it just to distract her, or something more?
Half a minute passed of waiting and watching, Aria keeping her place while tuning sitar keys and Sasha keeping alert. At some length, the Storm Witch proved impatient, and took a careful step forwards.
Aria's green eyes shot open, and a single pluck of her lowest string signaled it.
Sasha's legs bunched up for a leap as gnarled, winding roots exploded from the ground like a spike trap, shooting straight for her lower legs. But her reaction time was too slow. The wooden tendrils snaked around her extended legs and killed momentum, forcing her back down. Once grounded, the other roots layered over her feet one by one.
"You're not going anywhere." Aria said without an ounce of her usual warmth. "You play by my rules, here."
Sasha grimaced. She was right. This was more than just knowing the terrain or having home field advantage. Bartleby's roots and branches were more concentrated here than anywhere else in Wizard City. And this girl was a Theurgist; a good one, if Artur's past praise held any credibility.
Aria's string of notes claimed next three seconds. At the same time, a transparent ball of air built up before her. No, air wasn't the right word. It was much too light and ethereal—Sasha's storm education could account for that.
One last powerful strum tipped her off. The bubble of sound burst out in a wave much like her own wind, bending Sasha's body backwards so much that her wooden constraints snapped off. The force flung her across the grassy floor, like a rock skipping across water, before slamming her into the mesh of vines and roots on the wall behind.
The moment she made impact, Aria's fingers were moving and plucking again. The sound waves closed the distance easily, exciting the roots and vines on the wall and bringing them to life. By the time the Witch realized what was happening, they had already claimed her legs and arms.
She struggled to force herself free, tugging and tugging, but to no visible avail. Aria walked forwards, pulling another tune from the sitar. It was then that the Witch noticed something. She still had all three pips. "You…You're telling me none of that cost you a pip?"
Another, thicker root sprouted beside Aria's body, climbing and twisting in the air. It was noticeably more flexible than all the others, more like a vine. "My sitar is my wand." The Theurgist decided to answer. "Magic Knights aren't the only ones that can match a Witch's casting speed."
The root tendril continued to climb high into the air. Then, with her change in tempo, it reared itself back before lashing out at the captured Diviner. The blow rattled her body, produced a strained cry, and left a bloody scrape on the girl's abdomen. It reared back once more with Aria's tune, then lanced forward again and again. Sasha kept her stern façade amidst the escalating power of the blows.
Aria's tune dropped even deeper, and the root bent back so far that it touched the ground. Before it could move, though, Sasha forced her mouth open as wide as she could, throat aimed directly at Aria. She sucked in as much air as she could, an inverted storm sigil tracing itself in the air before. A great, focused gust of wind rushed from her open maw, its strength as immense as the one that had suppressed them in the general studies building.
This time Aria found herself forced back, flipping and rolling before her hands and feet found semblance of balance. Her head came up in time to see an electrical current stem from Sasha's bound hands, burning away her root shackles and allowing her feet to touch down on the floor. "Then let's see how well you can keep up."
Sasha conjured another blast of wind, this time from palms extended side by side. Aria, still in a kneeling position, threw herself in a tight roll to the right. As she came up, her sitar and hands came together, and another build up of sound converged before her. The result came out as a shockwave, fazing towards her opponent.
The Witch maintained her position, sending another stream of wind at the mass of incoming sound. When they collided, it wasn't the spectacle of an explosion Aria was expecting. Rather, the wind easily tore apart the concentrated sound with little hindrance, with enough leftover force to blow the Theurgist reeling back into the air.
She landed with a small thud, gritting her teeth at her error. Air conducted sound; of course sound couldn't overcome it. But the revelation put her in a far worse spot than she could have imagined.
It also seemed to invoke a confidence in Sasha. The girl gained the smallest of smirks as she pressed her palms together and an inverted storm symbol traced again. Aria instinctively dropped down, but this time the wind was different.
Her first clue was the feeling on her skin. The small draft that preceded each blast was now inverted, coming towards the Diviner's position. The sigil dispersed in a faint light moments later, and a huge gale of wind tugged at Aria's body, pulling her forwards.
The Life Wizard's hands went into motion as the vacuum forced her forwards and gobbled up the loose blades of grass. Her hands began tracing the Life symbol pattern in the air—knowing the sound of her sitar would not reach her target in this gale—and tried to regain her solid stance upon completing it. The emblem fading produced a flash of roots that grabbed hold of her feet and secured her in place.
Sasha's voice could barely be heard over the vacuum's winds. "And now roots hold you down. How ironic."
She focused, then a second sigil appeared to the left of the vacuum. Aria gazed in disbelief, watching a large electric cobra manifest from the flash of light that followed. White-purple scales crackled with forking volts, its hiss filled with a surging buzz. Its body coiled, then sprung, arcing through the air towards the Theurgist.
Aria's fingers managed a snap, and immediately the roots securing her feet dislodged, freeing her. The vacuum's force took over from there, pulling her body the moment she lost her fastener, just in time to avoid the Thunder Snake's strike at her previous position.
Sasha immediately cut the vacuum's feed, but the spell's momentum had been enough to carry Aria across the distance. The Life Wizard's body rammed into her torso, knocking her over and sending them both careening backwards into a roll. In the confusion, Sasha managed to throw her opponent off, and the girls leapt back to create a healthy distance between them.
Aria swung her sitar back around and began to play after tossing a small seed kernel to the ground. The life symbol materialized ahead of her instrument, cresting and falling with her notes before vanishing on the last pluck. This time, Sasha noticed, all three pips were consumed. The seed blossomed quickly under their magical supply, streaming through its stages of growth within seconds. Bark climbed and snapped to eventually produce a treant whose waist was as tall as the girl's head.
The animated oak stood still, before the leaves on its back's climbing branches began to shake and sway with a strange wind. Miniscule drops of water sprinkled onto Aria's face from above, and both the rain and wind picked up into a storm.
Aria didn't have to see to be able to recognize the Darkwind spell. This level of turbulent wind would no doubt interfere with her music.
In the Life Wizard's vision, the silhouette of Sasha's sound spread her stance and gathered another mass of energy. The fact that her fingers were tracing the sigil this time meant two things to Aria. Either, she was running low on mana, or worse, she was preparing a larger spell.
And she wasn't about to allow that. The treant saw its summoner pointing towards the Diviner, and gangly legs began stalking towards her. With hands, however, the girl's sigil drew twice as fast, and it blinked away in completion as the treant arrived. The tree's arms, wet from the rain, swiped out and threw her backwards, hitting the ground with a thud.
When the treant came up, its eyes noticed the growing mass of grounded cloud around its feet. A guttural roar accompanied an increase in the wind's velocity, and a strange form emerged from the center of the clouds.
A dragon's head, eyes an undisturbed shade of white-purple, came first, its head rimmed with a golden mane of bristled fur. Two clawed arms reached out and pushed its dark-purple, serpentine body out.
Sasha scrambled to her feet and watched her Squall Wyvern lift its scaled maw into a second roar, one that shook the ground around it. A full sheen of sweat and rainwater covered her skin, and with a labored breath, she called out for it to charge.
Aria's hands were already tracing another sigil. Upon completion, this one didn't steal one of her new pips. Instead, a circular floating plate materialized before her. It looked carved from wood, bearing a coffee brown sword against a forest green backdrop.
The Squall Wyvern reared up, then thrust forward at the treant, the creature barely holding the scaled beast back. Its claws crunched into the bark, and its jaws flared open. Pressurized wind poured out, more vicious than any Sasha had used. The force was so great that it began to peel the bark right off the creature. The treant couldn't feel pain, but Aria was sure the attack was taking its toll, and it would soon succumb to the beast's weight.
So she glanced down at the lifeblade before her, and closed her fist.
The green plate shattered into countless shards. Those same shards flashed into nothingness, and once they'd fully dispersed, it happened. A warm, green aura blazed around the treant.
Sasha watched the treant not only begin to endure the Wyvern's gusting breath, but inch by inch compete with the beast for dominance. Each struggled; gripping, slashing, crushing. Sinking teeth into bark and blasting more winds from its throat. Using the sharpened fingers of its free arms to stab into its opponent's scaly hide.
Aria and Sasha looked on in awe as the beast's effort culminated. The Squall Wyvern let out a last roar of defiance as its duration extinguished, and its body erupted in blasting light and wind that sent the girls reeling backwards.
Each combatant struggled to her feet over the next half minute, having slammed the ground harder than they expected. They looked up to see the Wyvern gone and the treant's wooden body torn, splintered, and mangled beyond recognition.
Their eyes flew to each other, sizing the other up. Both wheezed in and out, the Darkwind's rain intermingling with the sweat layering their skin. The churning winds lapped lightly at their clothing and hair. Each had their fair share of bruises. Adrenaline was distracting Sasha from her shallow abdomen wound, but she wondered how long the pain could be ignored.
Still, she was more concerned with the coldness of Aria's eyes, and managed a bit of humor as she rose to her feet. "Well aren't we vindictive?"
"You kidnapped members of my family." The Theurgist replied evenly. "I'm not exactly in the forgiving mood."
"Oh, is that right? You can't forgive me?" Sasha couldn't contain her bitter laugh. "You Wizards are quick to point out the speck in our eyes and ignore the branch in yours." She hunched forward a little, gritting her teeth. It took Aria only a moment to deduce where this was going. "How many of my sisters in Wizard City alone have your kind hunted down? Tell me how many?" Her voice escalated, like a dam breaking. "No Wizard has the right to judge me!"
"And so you take it out on the fairies!" Aria's calm voice silenced Sasha, and the rain filled the silence before she picked back up. "They did absolutely nothing to you. Nothing at all!" Her voice began to rise as well. "I wouldn't care if you were a Wizard right now. I'm fighting you because you involved the innocent lives of my family."
"Shut up!" Sasha screamed right back, and her hands met in front of her to drawn another inverted Storm sigil. "That wasn't my fault! He forced me! It was all him!"
Aria, knowing nothing she could say would calm the girl now, decided to act. Her left hand reached in a pouch at her side while her right hand began to draw a sigil of her own. She retrieved a single seed. Her Life symbol finished just as her third pip formed.
All three imploded at once, leaving behind a brief flash of light and floating, metal shield the size of her earlier lifeblade. An elaborate design of a winged golden helmet stood rampant on its verdant green face, seemingly projecting defiance at whatever would harm its creator.
The moment it finished, Aria charged forward, keeping her body low. Sasha's own symbol yielded a swirl of clouds, and three purple bats wreathed in electricity. With shrill cries, they flapped their leathery wings into motion, screaming through the air. To the Witch's surprise and chagrin, the Theurgist ignored them. The Lightning Bats bounced harmlessly off the force field created by her Spirit Armor charm.
Sasha continued to power bats through the portal, her cry growing inversely to the bats'. Exhaustion was creeping upon her, but she couldn't stop now. Aria dodged what she could, but the bats proved too quick.
With one last burst of speed, she ate up the distance in a single bound, just as her Spirit Armor withered from the abuse. Sasha's Lightning Bat portal dissipated, finding it useless for the hand to hand that was sure to come. Both girls howled like Banshees. The Witch's right hand flew out for Aria's shoulder and neck, but not before the redhead's left hand straightened like a spearhead and plunged into the shallow abdomen wound.
Blood spurted forth as Sasha's body tensed upon the impact, and everything went dead silent save for the wind and rain. They stood transfixed for what seemed an eternity.
Eventually, Sasha's lips moved, and she brought her free left arm above her head. Electrical sparks danced on her palm. "You shouldn't have gotten so close. Even you can't survive an electrical current unprotected.
"Neither can you." The Theurgist smirked. Sasha angled her eyes down, confused, but as the moments passed, everything began to make sense.
Aria's fingers were buried inside her abdomen wound. Both of them were soaked in rainwater from the Darkwind. Any electricity she used right now would conduct through the waterlogged Aria and right into her.
Suddenly, another surge of pain jolted through Sasha's spine, and when she took notice, the strangest, most horrifying sight she'd ever seen came to her eyes.
A twig jutted from her abdomen wound, poking out from beside Aria's embedded fingers. What's more, it grew by the second, slowly, forking small offshoots and branches as time ticked by. Every inch of growth brought only a strain of anguish and agony, so much that her voice came out as a broken cry.
The Theurgist saw the fear and confusion register on her face. "Did you think that was an empty punch?" The girl continued, voice as cold and detached as before. "Unlike my family, who you kidnapped without any consent, I'll be generous and give you two choices. Have my seed grow and consume you, or use your electricity and probably kill us both." She leaned her head in a little more, lowering to a menacing whisper. "You and your hooded friend like to play games with other people's lives, but now it's your turn."
—o—o—o—o—o—o—
Ty Stormwhisper's staff twirled in his hands above his head. As it did, a Storm sigil traced itself in front of him. When the staff came down, the symbol shimmered briefly, and the two pips beside him popped into nothingness.
A dark portal of clouds and sparkling electricity formed above their heads. Victoria jumped a little at the trill shrieking within, and gazed up as three Lightning Bats emerged from the mass to swarm around them. Ty directed his index finger forward at their shrouded opponent, and the moment the bats began to slice through the air at him, Victoria and Tala were in motion, pouring on speed.
The electric mammals reached their target in half the time, clearing the distance with ease. They soon encircled his form—one flying clockwise, the two others choosing counter—electricity building up in the trails they left. Soon a web-like spiral of lightning surrounded the hooded man, and at the very last moment when the sparks had enveloped his position, he bunched his legs and leapt upwards. The electricity's buildup culminated and imploded in on itself before blasting the concrete beneath in a single explosion, forks of lightning shooting every which way.
While his momentum continued to carry his body up, the man angled his hood down below. Tala and
Victoria went faster than they had before, not daring to waste a moment looking back. He supposed he should lament that their plan succeed, but he figured it was a trivial matter. Nothing those two did would hinder anything.
He lingered for half a second in the air before gravity turned the tides, bringing him back down into an easy crouch on the earth, just as the new Conjuror and Pyromancer passed through the tower's door. His return was met only with the menacing gaze of the Diviner ahead, and the weak defiant stance of the green eyed, black haired boy beside.
He couldn't hide his mirth. "Here we are again, Exseed, Mr. Stormwhisper. And just like last time, you'll learn how helpless you are."
"Not this time." Ty remarked, spreading his stance. One of his hands rose to the scar on his chest, underneath his clothes. "You won't beat me this time."
"Are you sure?" He pressed. "I mean, I've always beaten you in the past. I've always beaten you at everything, actually, ever since we were children. Ever since we first met. I doubt this time will be any different."
Ty didn't let the more youthful quality of the man's voice go unnoticed. "W-What? What are you talking about? Who are you?"
Another chuckle escaped his mouth, that deep raspy voice all but gone from him now. His hand rose slowly up to his head, grabbing the rims of his black hood. Then, with one measured draw backwards, it came free. The shadow dispersed from his head, and Ty and Fate both stared.
Breath caught in throats as they gazed into the blackened sclera of Malorn Ashthorn's eyes.