17: The After-Meeting
1368 Words
“We couldn’t spot any signs of the Leonata anywhere in the forest, confirming that Trichloris was indeed involved in the recent attack,” said Gale as he concluded the report on the investigation the Knights Order had carried out on our recent attackers.
“Oliver, any idea?” asked Francesca.
Oliver seemed to think about it for a while. The meeting had to be moved to the early hours of the morning because it didn’t take a genius to know that Trichloris was gaining more on us than we were on him. I definitely wasn’t happy to be sitting behind a round table on a cold foggy morning though, especially after having a less than acceptable hours of sleep.
Oliver finally finished his inside analysis and replied, “It’s no secret that he’s more powerful and vast in ancient magic than any of us. But he also has next to no idea in contemporary magic.”
“Meaning?” asked Stan. It was actually a surprise that he talked; he rarely said a word to anybody during meetings- guess Daddy finally found a way to get through to Sonny.
“It means that we have to find a way to bring this battle to the present and fast,” he explained. “That’s the only way we’ll have a real shot at winning.”
A man entered at that moment and handed Francesca a note. As she read it, her face turned a mixture of fear and worry- an expression I only saw once before since I knew her and, believe me, what followed was more than bad.
“Anything the matter?“, asked Victoria as she stood up and walked towards her. She was still recovering so, her steps weren’t all that steady.
“We might need to think of a new plan,” she said. “This is the result of the investigation carried out on Trichloris’ Alcamax and it’s saying that it got destroyed from the outside, not inside.”
“In plainer English?”
“Trichloris has an accomplice.”
“So, you guys have been coming down here since last year? Cool,” said Kendra as we descended down the stairs leading to Laila’s Pass. Kendra had been droning on and on about how much she was happy to be in the pass and the stories she’d heard about it but I only caught a few words, my mind was already back to the last time I was here.
Jake and Elaine had just been killed and I had hurt Victoria, thinking she had something to do with it. If not for the fact that Abigail was suffering a Soul Strain and that she wasn’t at all subtle about her plans, I might not have figured it out. We battled, I gave into my rage and finished her with the dark magic that had now become my curse.
“So, what happened to her?” asked Kendra.
“Who?” I asked, really confused, I know a lot of ‘hers’ and I wasn’t paying attention to Kendra enough to know which one she was referring to.
“Abigail,” she replied with a pout that would have been kinda cute if it wasn’t portraying anger and directed at me. “What happened to her?”
“I don’t know,” I replied, “Francesca never told me.” It was the truth but it still hurt to tell. I quickly moved forward in order to avoid more questions from her- only God knows how much I can take.
“I hate dark places,” said Victoria as we got the entrance of the Pass, it was supposed to be an inside joke but there was no denying the ominous air surrounding it.
“Me too,” I replied just to complete it.
“Me three,” someone suddenly added and we nearly jumped out of our skin. I turned to see Stan stepping out of a corner, God knows how long he’d been standing there just to pull that ridiculous prank.
“Stan, don’t you know that it’s rude, if not somewhat creepy, to scare people like that?” I said, giving him a cold hard glare; that guy could really have given me a heart attack.
“I’m so sorry, brother,” he said with an impish smile on his face. “Miss Firewalt told me to come keep you guys company.”
“Or you begged to come just to piss me off,” I returned.
“And whatever would I do that for, Troy?” He made an obviously mocking innocent face as he moved past me- seriously, that kid was just seconds away from me punching him in the face, believe me. How annoying can a person get?
Anyway, we all walked quietly through the pass although Stan kept making it a point to get on my nerves every now and then.
“Did you hear that?” asked Victoria all of a sudden as we got to the main part of the cave.
“What?”
“That low rumbling,” she replied.
Out of nowhere, the roof came crashing down and would have crushed us if not that Kendra reacted very fast and held it up with her magic.
“It’s definitely Trichloris,” she said, “He’s trying to bury us, that imp!” What was with that damn man and never fighting fairly?
“Go,” I told them, “I’ll hold this up.”
“No!” protested Vic, “There’s no way you’ll make it out if you do that.”
“Neither will Kendra too if she remains here,” I pointed out in return. “Stan will protect you. Get out of here and inform Oliver and Francesca of what’s happening.”
There was a lot of protesting but eventually, Victoria and Stan started running; leaving Kendra and I still holding the roof- a very energy-consuming task, trust me.
“Ladies first,” I said, surprisingly able to manage a smile even though I was feeling pains down to my bones.
“After men,” she replied.
“You know I can’t,” I told her.
She squeezed my hands affectionately and said, “You do know that you don’t have to be the valorwizard every time, right?”
“I know,” I replied. “But I want to.” I had made a vow and I’ll keep it, no matter what it cost.
Knowing that she couldn’t change my mind, she gave me a good luck peck and ran as fast as she could. I counted to ten before casting a hold up spell that would buy me some seconds and took off like my life depended on it after Kendra. I had almost made it when a pile of rocks suddenly crashed between me and my escape and blocked everything.
“Now, how’s that for a valorwizard special?” said someone from behind me and I turned to see the man that had haunted my dreams for a long time; Trichloris.
He was wearing his usual nightmare black cloak but unlike the last time, his hood wasn’t covering his face- if it was his face. It was so black and metal-like and I realized that it was a mask. Some strange runic markings were designed on it to match the ones on his hands; at least the portion I could see.
I pulled out my sword and its emerald glow filled the cave. “What do you want, Trichloris?” I asked as I took my stand.
“You really need to ask?” he replied with the most evil smile I’d ever seen on a human. “Well, it’s you that I want, my halfwizard.”
- Writer
