Final Fantasy VI: The Sands of Time

Book 2: The Goddess War

Chapter 11 - Red Tide

11.10 - The Magic Show

When Maduin awoke the next morning, there was no Ole Bull to greet him, nor Jupiter. He instructed Elphis and Kumiro to stay in their room, and went towards the training ground on his own. The mansion itself was as enormous as its owner, and Maduin found he still had no idea how to get out of the sprawling building on his own.

"Excuse me," Maduin said to a passing servant he had seen before, "where's Ole Bull?"

"Master Harcourt is in town, taking care of business."

Well, Ole Bull was the mayor of Zwill, after all. Sometimes Maduin forgot this little fact with all the time the man spent training him.

"Master Harcourt instructed us to tell you to wait for him in your room, if you would."

It would seem he was a prisoner in a gilded cage, then. He couldn't blame Ole Bull, though. For him to loiter about where a passing citizen might see his giant form could prove disastrous. The Esper returned to his room after getting lost again and needing to find another servant, and waited.

And waited.

By noon, he was becoming worried, and Elphis was getting antsy. She was not required to stay in their room, but she chose to stick by Maduin anyways. Food had been brought them, but the only thing he could get out of the servants was "Master Harcourt will be back soon, please be patient."

It was an hour later when Ole Bull finally made his appearance. He did not look happy.

"Sorry about that. We've wasted a lot of time that could have been spent training. Sometimes I hate being mayor."

"What happened?"

"Nothing you need to worry about." Ole Bull waved the problem off with one large hand. "Now then! Today we see what you really can do."

On the training ground, Maduin was surprised to see a large group of people standing outside the fencing, apparently waiting for him. There were several gasps as he lurched out of the doorway and straightened himself to his full height. Among the varied group, he could see Servais standing tall and proud, as well as Captain Delphino hunched in her vulture-feathered wolf's coat, but there was no sign of the Lady Blunt. Elphis sensed her friend the Captain nearby and ran off to meet her.

"What's this?" Maduin asked, frowning as he watched Elphis crawl through the fence to the old woman.

"Couldn't keep you a secret forever." Ole Bull sighed as he scanned the crowd. "Don't worry, there's no one here I don't trust to keep calm. Besides, old Lady Grey will stop any one who gets a little too rowdy. She's good with crowd control, heh."

"Are these all Stradivari?" Maduin looked at the hundreds of faces peering in at him. Some of them looked like warriors, some sailors, but most looked like normal, average people.

"Hell no!" Ole Bull laughed. "I don't think it'd be possible to gather this many of us in one place, even for something as special as you. No, these are just Zwill folk here to see the magic show they heard about."

"Magic show?"

"Full of questions, aren't you? Last night someone let slip that I had a secret weapon I was readying for the next time Lilith came down from the mountains. The whole town's in an uproar now because of her."

Maduin saw the pained look on Ole Bull's face as he finished, and knew he had let slip a detail he did not want the Esper to know. "Her? You mean the Lady Blunt, don't you? That's why she's not here, isn't it?"

"Enough." The tone in Ole Bull's voice brooked no argument. "The less said about last night's antics the better. We've wasted enough time as it is, and I intend to see just how powerful you are today."

From a leather pouch at his side, Ole Bull pulled out a pair of shining claws. They glimmered an icy blue in the sunlight, and Maduin knew they must be made of mythril.

"No animals today. Just me and you. And these." The fighter slid the claws over his hands and scraped the claws against each other. They looked extremely sharp, and extremely familiar.

"Are those...vomammoth claws?" Maduin studied the claws closely, following the natural curve from tip to knuckle. Save the golden-plated knuckle joints where the claws joined with leather gloves, they looked identical to the cruel talons Maduin had grappled with on the slopes of Narsille.

"Of course. Mythril claws using real vomammoth claws are the best for martial artists. Helps channel the natural flow of energy in the body. Rare as diamonds and hard to craft, not to mention dangerous to obtain, but the Blades of Zwill work with nothing less. These particular claws came from a bull vomammoth Servais brought down himself. Said it was the biggest he'd ever seen, although he might have just said that to convince me to take them."

Maduin was about to ask what the Blades of Zwill were, but Ole Bull raised a clawed hand and smiled. The claws were the largest he'd ever seen from a vomammoth, so perhaps Servais wasn't exaggerating.

"The craftsmen of Zwill," Ole Bull said, guessing Maduin's next question. If there was one thing Maduin was, it was predictably inquisitive. "Old Zwill was a master weaponer, and his methods have been passed down from one generation to the next. Our reputation is so well known that all great weapon and armor smiths spend time here sooner or later, learning our secrets and passing on their own. Those who stay join the Blades and hone their craft to perfection. I daresay you won't find a better-armed city anywhere. Narsille might have had more guns and missiles, but nothing beats cold, hard metal when things get ugly. Perhaps if the Narsillians had proper weapons, they might have survived." Ole Bull grimaced. "Ah, sorry. Forgot you were from there."

"It's fine." Maduin found himself associating with his hometown less and less the more he saw it from the outside. "Perhaps you're right. We were told our army was the most advanced in the world, but I honestly never even saw a single soldier. I wonder if there even was an army at all."

"Oh, there were soldiers. As Stradivari, and especially as the Axelrod of the North, it was my business to know Narsille's capabilities. The soldiers were untrained kids in it for show mostly, and there were far less than there should have been. It was all about the machines with them. Who needs men when you have mechanized weapons that can fire themselves? I daresay Zwill has a larger standing army than Narsille did." Ole Bull looked at his claws with what Maduin thought was sadness. "Make no mistake, though. Narsille could have blown this entire town into bits if it felt like it. And all the swords and armor in the world wouldn't have made a difference."

"But none of that mattered in the end." Maduin wondered just what could have made a difference in Narsille. What could he have done to save his city? Was it just another inescapable fate, another piece in the game the gods were playing?

"No, Narsille had the perfect offense and defense from the outside. A wall massive enough to stop any invading army, and long range weapons that could destroy entire cities at the push of a button. No, your Sade knew what we Stradivari have always known about Narsille. The only way to bring it down was from within, and that's exactly what he did. To his own city, no less."

"Sade was a monster long before he became Crusader." Maduin shifted his weight and looked at the people eagerly waiting while they talked. It was hard to imagine Sade had once been one of them. A person, a human being. A man named Jehad with his own fears and weaknesses, but a human being all the same. Maduin had felt the last dreg of that humanity once, for one brief moment before it vanished forever.

"He's not the only monster now." Ole Bull said. "We've got our own Espers to deal with soon, so let's get started."

Ole Bull stepped back from Maduin and paced across the field to the other side. He nodded at Delphino and raised one claw into the air to signal the start of their training. Delphino nodded back and the crowd hushed in anticipation.

"First, fire off another one of those snowballs. The biggest one you can." The claws lowered into a fighting position. "Don't hold back and don't look away this time. I want you to watch and tell me what those Esper eyes of yours see, got it?"

Maduin nodded and swallowed his anxiety. He wasn't sure what difference a pair of claws would do against his attacks, but the old man seemed unworried. Of course, the old man always seemed unworried about his own condition.

"Right, here it comes." Maduin slowed his breathing and concentrated his energies into his outstretched hands. The wind swirled around his arms and collected into ice crystals between his palms. In a few seconds a large chunk of ice began turning in front of him, growing larger by the moment. He could hear the people of Zwill murmuring, but blocked them from his mind. Whether they thought he was a freak or a weapon or their last hope was up to them.

Focus. Control. Think ice. Think of a blizzard. Think of the frozen cliffs of your home, not the stares of the people around you.

When the ball of ice was the size of a boulder larger than Maduin, the crowd's gasps were plainly growing less curious and more fearful. Something that size could easily veer off and strike them if Ole Bull wasn't able to stop it. The growing fear halted Maduin's efforts and he stopped, ready to fire. With perfect control of his body and mind, he could simply make the ice grow for as long as there was magic left in his body, but it required increasing concentration to maintain the spell the more energy he pumped into it. The palpable unease around him made it too difficult to maintain the mental control of anything larger, and he knew it.

Don't overdo it. Ole Bull said as big as I can, but he doesn't understand the unpredictability of magic the way I do. It's not a muscle to be flexed as tightly as you can and then no more. It's a thought that can be shaped as far as your mind and spirit can take it. I could create a block of ice the size of his mansion and kill myself doing it, and lose control long before that. This is big enough. Let's see what he can do.

"Now!" Maduin yelled as he pushed the ice with his mind more than his body towards its target. It shot off like a cannonball, but eerily silent. The only sound was the sudden intake of breath from the crowd as the magic show finally began in earnest. Would they see their warrior mayor flattened by this secret weapon of his, or would they be flattened by it themselves?

As Ole Bull had instructed, Maduin did not look away from the impact as he had before. The boulder whistled through the air straight at the old man, dwarfing him as it approached. Just as it reached Ole Bull's waiting hands, Maduin saw something he was not expecting. A bright flash of white light surrounded the man and then shrunk down to a pin prick before exploding outwards from his fists. The light flowed along the claws like drops of water down a knife, then struck the center of the mass of ice just as it touched the tips of the claws. It was a perfect strike with a practiced thrust, but no mere claw could do what Maduin had seen.

A resounding crack filled the area, and the block of ice was split in two cleanly down the middle. The two pieces fell heavily to the ground with a dull thud, then broke into a thousand smaller pieces. It was impossible, but there was no doubt what he had just witnessed. This man had just used magic himself, but very different from an Esper's. It seemed like it was a combination of physical force and magical energies. The question was, did he even know what he had just done?

Ole Bull shook his claws and laughed uproariously. The crowd cheered as their leader proved himself once again. Even Elphis laughed and cheered along with the rest, even though she hadn't seen the marvel like the others had.

"That stung like a son of a gun, but it was a good strike. I couldn't have asked for a cleaner target, and the energy around here was definitely more than I've ever felt before."

"How did you do that?" Maduin stared at the man, wondering just who he really was. No human could have produced that white light without help from a magical source.

"Trade secret. But if it makes you feel better, I've split real stones larger than that with these claws. Never had to try out my technique on a moving boulder that size, though. Today was a first. Heh, thanks for the practice."

Maduin was not satisfied. "That was magic you used. Are you aware of that?"

"I am now that you just confirmed it. That's why I wanted you to watch. What did you see?"

"A white light surrounded you, then shrunk to just surround your fists. When you struck the boulder, the light exploded from your fists and through the ice like a knife. A knife made of magic."

"You need to pay attention to your own words, Esper," Ole Bull said slyly. "You said magic is everywhere, in everything, right? Even me?"

"Yes, but in far too small quantities to be used in any way. What I saw coming from you is comparable to what is always around an Esper. I saw the same kind of aura surrounding Cerberus, as well as the other Espers. I assume it surrounds me as well."

"Well, I'll take your word for it. I can't see anything around you right now, and I don't see anything when I channel chakra, but I feel it, so I know it's there. And you do always have a coldness around you, so maybe that's your chakra."

"Chakra is what you call your magic?"

"No, it's what I call life energy. It's the power of nature. It's everywhere, in small quantities, as you say. I simply gather that energy from around me and within me, and then release it."

"But how? You have no connection to the Nexus like an Esper. Without that, you can't handle magical energies, no matter how small they are."

"So you say, and yet here I am. I think you don't know everything about magic, Esper."

Obviously he didn't, and that was unsettling. As a scientist, he wanted to know everything about the properties of magic and Espers, but without another Esper, and time to study it in peaceful conditions, that was impossible. He wondered where Genju was right now, and whether his ancient wisdom could account for what he had just seen. The white light had looked similar to Genju's aura, although far dimmer.

"Can all Stradivari do that?" Maduin asked. Perhaps this was the secret of their incredible skill.

"I don't know." Ole Bull shrugged. "That's something only you and those eyes of yours could tell me. What I do is my own secret art, passed down and improved upon by martial artists before me. It's not a Stradivari talent, it's a Harcourt talent. Old Zwill could channel chakra as well. There are other chakra users out there, too, but none of them are Stradivari. I think you'll just have to accept that us mere mortals are sometimes capable of things you can't explain."

I won't accept that. Maduin thought to himself. Someday he would figure out how Ole Bull had harnessed magic, or chakra, or whatever it was he called it. There was no time now, though. He would simply have to tuck this experience away for later. There was much he did not know about this world, but he was learning more every day.

"So, what do you call that ice ball anyways?" Ole Bull asked, turning away from the subject of his own skills. "Every good technique has a name. It's an unspoken rule of combat."

"A name?" Maduin had no idea. He just did it, he didn't call it anything. "It's just magic. Ice."

"Ice? That's boring. What about Blizzard? It looks like you're conjuring a blizzard when you ready the spell, so how about that?"

Maduin did not really care what he called it. "Whatever you want to call it I suppose. Although I don't think it really deserves a name. It's just magic."

Ole Bull laughed. "Just magic, eh? As if magic is 'just' anything. Blizzard fits. In fact, I think I'll call my own counter to it 'Blizzard Fist'. How 'bout that?"

"As you say."

"Alright, let's see what else you can do." Ole Bull straightened up again and got into his fighting stance. "That's a nice trick, but I think it won't do much good against Lilith's hell horse. What that thing did would have sliced right through your Blizzard and kept on going straight through you. I tried stopping it with my claws and my chakra just like your attack, but it struck me down all the same. I've been hit by lightning before, and that didn't feel like a regular lightning strike."

"Magic, right?" Maduin wondered what kind of Esper this horse was. Lightning seemed to be the typical type of magic Leviathan and the other Espers of Astarte utilized, just like Maduin and his ice magic. How would he stand against the power of lightning, though?

"Powerful magic," Ole Bull said. "It just hit me and I felt like I was drowning in light. But it was a cold light. Real lightning is white hot and it doesn't fill you with dread like this did. It was the worst thing I have ever felt, no doubt about it."

"So what do you want me to do about it? I can make ice in different shapes and sizes, but it's still ice. It's all I know how to do."

Ole Bull nodded. "I thought as much. You're all about ice. Seems to be your element. Well, show me everything you know how to do with it, then, and I'll decide how useful you are."

So Maduin spent the rest of the day and the next two days creating every kind of ice he knew about. He made ice balls, ice spears, ice daggers, walls of ice, pillars of ice, even ice arrows that he rained from the sky like hailstorm. He conjured icy winds and freezing cold auras that sent the crowd shivering, as well as snowflakes and frosts that covered the ground and killed the plant life around him. After he had exhausted every shape and form of ice he could think of, Ole Bull stepped in and offered his own suggestions. With Ole Bull's experience in warfare, he managed to do things with his ice he had never thought about before.

Surrounding his fist in a thick gauntlet of ice, he was able to used it to augment his hand-to-hand strength. He carefully extended the ice in the shape of claws that mimicked Ole Bull's mythril claws, and actually sparred with the master martial artist for a bit. The crowd had only grown as the days went on, and there was applause whenever Maduin managed to land a hit on the seasoned warrior, which was not often. Maduin suspected Ole Bull let him connect every once in a while just to give the crowd something to watch.

Another technique that Maduin found interesting was the crafting of weapons and armor from his ice. Swords, shields, helmets, even an ice hammer. It was by far the most difficult thing he had been asked to do, and it used up far more energy controlling the shape to such an artistic degree than it seemed it was worth, but Ole Bull was pleased. He gave flashy names to everything Maduin managed to conjure, and soon the Esper stopped trying to remember them all.

"I'm afraid I don't see the use of these ice weapons," Maduin huffed after finally managing to create an exact replica of Servais's multi-pronged crossblade out of solid ice on the third day of the magic show. The weapon was passed from one hand to the next throughout the crowd, with appreciative ooh's and ah's as they admired the symbol of their city carved in magical ice. By the time the blade had made it back to Maduin, it was melted down to the hilt. It wouldn't fare much better in battle.

"That's fine," Ole Bull said. "I don't intend to fight with them. I'm just seeing how well you can channel your chakra. You're doing much better now than when we started. It looks like you never really thought about what you were doing. You just sent your energy flying out in bursts of raw power. Am I right?"

"It's not really chakra, it's just my own magic. I didn't know there was any more to be done with it."

Ole Bull snorted. "Of course it's chakra. Different from mine, but it's your own life energy, isn't it? If you used it all up, you'd die, right?"

"Yes," Maduin admitted.

"Then it's your chakra. Anyways, the more control you have over it, the better off you'll be in battle. Remember, control is everything."

"It won't help me against this Lilith and her horse, though. All the control in the world won't do any good if she can just cut through my ice with her own magic."

"You're right, of course," Ole Bull said as he scratched his thumb along an ice sword. It was razor sharp, but still ice. He felt he could make some kind of weapon out of it that would last in battle, but it would take time, and that was something he did not have. No, there was not nearly enough time for such things anymore. "I want to see something else. Something you haven't shown me yet."

Maduin sighed. "I've shown you everything I know how do."

"No, not yet. Fey told me about something else she saw you do that I think might be the key to victory. It wasn't just an ice attack, it was an explosion of pure life energy in all directions."

"I don't..."

But he did. When he had been at his lowest, and completely overcome with emotion, he had summoned a powerful aura of magic that was not just ice, but the cold energies given to him by Doom mixed with the deeper spark of life that had always been his own, even when he was human. Only in his deepest despair or highest anger could he even attempt to grasp this core of pure magic, and he did it without thinking. The pain of being rejected by Mae had triggered the magical burst back in Antissa, and the loss of his world had triggered it in Narsille. Genju had tapped into it as well to create the magical barrier that allowed them to withstand the onslaught of Sade's power on Crescent Island and the maelstrom of Adamastor's magical storm above Narsille. It was the most potent manifestation he was capable of, but it was not something he could do on command.

"I can't," he muttered.

"You can't or you won't?" Ole Bull said, his voice as icy as the melting sword in his hands. "Fey saw what you did after the battle, even if no one else did. She said it lit up the whole sky and would have flattened Antissa if you hadn't been so high up. It nearly knocked her flat on her back, along with the other people of Antissa. They didn't know what it was, but she saw it all."

"Where is she? I haven't seen her since the first day." Maduin did not want to talk about what he had done back in Antissa.

"She is where she belongs, and that's all you need to know." Ole Bull glanced back over the crowd to make sure of his statement, then looked right back at Maduin. "Don't change the subject on me. You need to figure out how to do that attack or we're all doomed, understand? Now think."

"I don't know!" Maduin said, his voice rising. "It was just pure emotion, pure chaos. I just let my feelings explode, without trying to control anything. You don't want me to do that here, do you? I thought control was everything?"

"I do. No games anymore. It's time I saw the full measure of your abilities. No matter the cost."

"Even if it kills me? Kills you? Kills everyone?"

Ole Bull stepped away from Maduin and looked at the crowd, then glanced at Servais and Delphino, and looked long and hard at Elphis, tucked away at Delphino's feet and listening quietly to everything that was happening.

"We do what we must."

Ole Bull nodded and Delphino nodded back. She let out a shrill whistle and the crowd grew silent and still, and then began to thin out. In a few minutes the entire crowd had dispersed quietly and calmly, as if the magic show had ended. They didn't seem hypnotized or under Delphino's control to Maduin. They left with low murmurs of conversation and happy, contented looks on their faces, a perfectly normal exit one would expect at the end of a perfectly normal magic show that had ended perfectly normally. Had she somehow tricked them into thinking the show was over and it was time to go home?

What are you doing?" Maduin asked, unnerved by the suggestive powers Delphino seemed to possess.

"The show's over for them." Ole Bull said in an oddly toneless voice. "Delphino is good at making people believe what they already want to believe. Magic is difficult to believe in, so she simply played on their preconceptions. She made them think we were just putting on a show, since that's what most of them thought already. The show's over, and so, they left."

Maduin still didn't like it. What Delphino was doing sounded too much like mind control for his comfort. "So, what now?"

Ole Bull was still looking at Delphino, now alone with Elphis still standing at her feet. Servais was still standing at another corner of the field, also looking at Delphino silently. Nobody was smiling.

"Now we see what you can do, Esper."

The metal wire flashed from Delphino's long fingers with lightning speed and deadly accuracy. In less than a second the wire was stretched taut against Elphis's neck, ready to strangle her if she resisted. But she did not resist, or even react to the sudden assault from her trusted friend. It seemed as if she did even know what was happening around her.

"What are you doing?" Maduin roared again in shock. He leaped forward to try and grab Elphis, but Delphino tightened her grasp on the girl's neck and shook her head in warning. He skidded to a halt, trembling with barely controlled anger.

"We are doing what we must. Surely you haven't forgotten who we are?" Ole Bull said, not moving from his position. "We won't hurt her, and she won't even remember this happening."

Maduin turned around and faced Servais, still standing silently on the other side of the field. "And you? You'll stand there and let this happen?"

Servais said nothing.

"Show us your power, Maduin." Ole Bull said. "Show us your anger right here, right now, or none of us will survive the coming battle."

"Damn you Stradivari!" Maduin fumed, turning from one merciless face to the next. Kumiro was nowhere to be seen, and he wondered what they had done to conveniently remove him from this show as well. "You're all the same. Killers." Maduin spat.

"We never pretended to be anything else. It is you who keeps fooling himself into thinking we're all soft-hearted cowards like yourself. We are killers, and you are too. You just don't want to admit it. Will the girl die for your foolish pride?" Delphino's cracked voice rolled over the field with surprising volume, and cut through him like the garrote wire in her hands.

"Don't try to play mind games with me!" Maduin yelled, suspecting she was trying to control him with her mysterious hypnotic powers.

"I'm not doing anything," Delphino shot back. "You're quite adept at making yourself believe whatever it is that you must to sleep at night. You were made for one reason, to fight. You can deny that existence all you want in times of peace, but this is war, Esper. And in war the people need warriors. You are our only hope, and we will survive, no matter what. Let go of your pride and fight back."

The wire stretched even tighter against Elphis's neck, and Maduin could see the girl was beginning to have trouble breathing. Amazingly, she still seemed oblivious to her own suffering. Would they really let her die like this, without even being aware of her own death?

Maduin could feel his anger rising, but he could not give in to their demands. He shook violently with the effort of remaining in control while Elphis's life was in danger only a few yards away. Tears were streaming down his face and his claws were digging into his hard flesh, but he just could not let go. This was worse than when Doom had tried to control him. Much worse.

"Captain, this isn't going to work, and the girl..." Servais started, but Delphino shot him a look that withered him back into his silent stand.

"Either he fights or we all die. We don't have time for games anymore." Delphino's voice was hard and her hands were steady. The hands of a practiced assassin.

"Just stop, please," Maduin pleaded, breaking down. "He's right, this isn't going to work. I can't do what you want me to do on command. I'm useless, so just stop trying. Let her go and we'll find some other way. I'll fight, and I'll die for you if I need to, but Elphis is innocent. Please."

The three Stradivari looked at each other, saying nothing. Ole Bull shook his head. "No, it has to be done this way."

Maduin fell to his knees and yelled out in despair, but the Stradivari would not be swayed. He had never felt so helpless.

"Do it, then."

The voice came from behind Maduin, soft and cruel. Maduin jerked his head back to see the Lady Blunt standing behind him, the only one of the group smiling.

"If you won't kill her, I will." Her voice rippled through Maduin like Delphino's never could. The tears stopped, but his claws bit even deeper into his palms.

"Fey, what are you doing out here?" Ole Bull said with a savage note in his voice Maduin had not heard before. It was the voice of the Axelrod of the North. "You are forbidden from interfering in this. Leave us!"

"I go where I please, Lord Ham," the Lady said with equal savagery. "He won't attack because he doesn't truly believe in his heart that the three of you are capable of killing the girl. But he knows me. He knows I will."

She stepped past Maduin's prostrate form and walked casually towards Delphino and Elphis. Elphis's face was beginning to turn grey, and he eyes were drooping, but she still stood and calmly stared out at nothing, lost in some happy dream.

"Stop!" Ole Bull shouted, starting towards his subordinate. "You've done enough murder in this town already. If the girl must die to save us, then it will be on my command and my soul, not yours. Step back. Now."

But the Lady did not stop. She took another step towards Delphino and Elphis. A dagger was now in her hand, twirling lustily.

"I won't allow it!" Ole Bull bellowed, and charged at the Lady Blunt, fully intent on killing her if she did not heed his command.

But the Lady did not stop. She broke into a silent, cat-like run and rushed at the girl with her dagger extended like single talon, ready to pierce the girl's heart. Her red hair flashed brilliantly in the sun, flying loose like streamers of fire as the berserker frenzy took her.

"No!" Maduin watched in stunned horror, frozen in place, as the red-haired demon lunged at Elphis's heart before Ole Bull or Delphino could react.

The Lady howled in delight, a maniacal grin splitting her face as her dagger reached its target with deadly speed and accuracy. Delphino dropped her garrote wire in shock, and the spell was broken. Elphis's eyes opened wide, but the blind girl did not see the terrible face only inches from hers. The Lady was so close she could feel the hot breath smothering her. The woman's breath smelled like blood, and Elphis screamed.

Maduin never saw the attack connect. A blue haze had covered his vision as the true impact of the situation overwhelmed him. The Lady had kept her promise when it appeared her brethren would not. She had killed Elphis.

The blue haze grew and covered him, filled every particle of his being. The chaotic power surged through him as it had on that night of fire in Antissa, and he knew no more.

The magic show was over.