Axium

CHAPTER 16

Half an hour later Zach or Neo as Verin insisted on calling him had managed to piggyback off of one of the twenty-three scrying's Lord Shan had spying on the perimeters of their palace.

XRenia leaned forward in her hastily crafted throne as Neo pulled his hands apart forming a scrying.

The domed throne room of the Lord Shan came into view.

"Look!" Verin exclaimed pointing at the center of the scrying.

Lord Shan sat on his throne his shoulders slouched his head drooping and in his left hand he held the glistening jewelbox he had offered to XRenia earlier that day. Every few seconds he would open the box with his thumb revealing the ring that they were after then let the lid drop closed again.

Neo very slowly zoom the scrying in.

XRenia stood up and walked to she was an arms length from the scrying. "I could easily yank the ring out of the case when he opens it but I can't possibly open a portal in there."

"His security is some of the best I've ever seen. I believe you will need to manipulate the ring to the very edge of the city before you can effectively retrieve it." Neo cautiously moved the scrying so that the entrance of the dome was in view. "You also only have one shot at this. Once I'm discovered they will no doubt install countermeasures to prevent me from doing this again."

"So I will need to wait until the door opens then fling the ring through it and guided to the edge of the city?"

Neo nodded.

They waited for what seemed like ages as Lord Shan lifelessly flipped open the case and closed it again and again.

Verin sighed and plopped himself on the arm of XRenia's throne. "Well this could take forever, especially since mopey Shan doesn't look like he's in any mood to be taking visitors."

XRenia resisted the temptation to sit down herself, but she was also already becoming very bored of this. "What if Verin just blasted the doors open?"

Neo shook his head. "That would not be wise. The magical distortion may cause my unstable scrying to collapse or trigger other security measures."

"My lord the kitchens have prepared your favorite meal." A male's voice said from off to the side of the view of the scrying.

XRenia's heart pounded in her throat, they were going to lose their chance.

"Maybe he'll go out the front door." Verin said hopefully.

"Not likely. And even if he does he'll most likely put it away before he goes."

"You may need to force it like you suggested. Or we could wait and try again later," Neo offered.

"Force it." XRenia decided bringing her right hand up and waving to Verin with other.

Verin moved up beside her. "When he stands?"

She nodded.

But Shan didn't move.

"My Lord you have barely moved for four hours, you must eat." The offscreen male voice urged.

Shan raised his head and looked in the direction of the voice his eyes forlorn. "What's the use? The love of my life has found another man. And without her all I have done is for not."

"Wow. He's actually heartbroken. Now that's just creepy," Verin exclaimed.

It was, but somehow it also was endearing, XRenia thought.

"You can't be serious. I thought girls hated stockers."

She tossed him a glare.

"Oh come on. The guys a creep."

"Your one to talk. Always invading my thoughts."

"Hey that's..."

Neo held up his hand interrupting their conversation. A female voice from somewhere inside the scrying said, "My Lord a man named Jack Overstream is requesting entrance to the city. He claims that you and him went to the same class in your senior year."

Shan's eyes lit up. "Send him here at once."

"Yes my Lord," the female voice replied.

XRenia leaned closer to the scrying, here was their chance. "As soon as this Jack fellow enters."

Neo nodded.

"Do you think you can move the scrying fast enough for me to see what I'm doing? After it's out of the doorway?"

"I will do my best."

Time crawled by as they waited but soon the female voice announced Jack's arrival.

The door opened and.. Verin grabbed her hand and pulled her away from the scrying. Jack entered and the door closed behind him.

Lord Shan rose to meet him and the glittering jewel case containing the ring vanished into the ether.

"What in the world Verin! You just ruined probably our only chance to get that ring!" XRenia exploded.

"I don't know why. But I just suddenly felt that you shouldn't do it," Verin answered.

"Well that's just great. She snapped back. "I hope your feelings can help us fix the Ley lines. Because we ain't getting that ring now."

"It is not wise to let your citizens see you argue." Neo warned softly tilting his head towards a woman bearing a tray with earthen cups on it making her way across the cathedral floor.

XRenia plastered a fake smile on her face and nodded graciously as she accepted one of the cups from the tray. Having servants and other people inside her palace was going to take a bit of getting used to. Her family's palace was run completely by magic and visitors were very rarely allowed inside beyond the throne room. If anything inside needed dealt with the servants did it remotely through the complex spells her grandfather had crafted that did not enable them to hear or see her family.

"Thank you," Verin said as he and Neo took the other two cups.

The woman smiled, curtsied, and scampered back across the throne room in the direction of the kitchen.

As the woman disappeared XRenia turned to continue yelling at Verin but something in the scrying caught her eye.

Lord Shan was leading his guest to a doorway in the side of the dome that hadn't been there before. She jabbed her finger at it. "Can you follow them?"

Neo nodded raised his hands and deftly moved the scrying, following Shan and his guest.

The doorway completely vanished just as the scrying pass through it, and XRenia heard Neo sharply sucking air at how close he had cut it.

"You had better have a good reason for calling me here!" Jack snapped, and the air around him shifted as an allusion vanished.

XRenia's eyes grew wide and she gasped as she recognized who Jack really was.

"Headmaster Alton?" Verin breathed.

"Why is he.." XRenia muttered.

"It's a good thing Vifctif stopped you I doubt you would have been able to maneuver the ring past such a powerful person."

Lord Shan displayed the same forlorn look he had plastered on his face before. "XRenia has bonded with another man."

Headmaster Alton froze. "Are you certain of this?" The headmaster asked his voice icy.

"I witnessed it for myself. They both stood before me just a few hours ago and there is no doubt. She is bound to some stupid shepherd boy!" Lord Shan exclaimed poutingly.

"They were here?"

Shan nodded.

The wizened old man raised his hand and blue magic sparkled across it.

"I already check that. She left no spells."

"I will check that myself, thank you!" The headmaster said his voice hard.

Neo sprung into action like a whip shrinking the scrying to the size of a pin and pushing her and Verin back. "He is searching for your energy!"

Understanding hit her and she quickly stepped back a few paces.

She unconsciously found herself holding her breath when the headmaster's voice crackled from the pin hole sized scrying. "It appears that you are correct."

There was a pause then he added, "Apparently Mathis and his son not only raised a spoiled rotten brat but a fool as well."

Fire and anger rose in XRenia's veins. "How dare he call her a fool?"

"Don't give me that look." Alton's voice snapped. "Anyone who doesn't have enough brains to attempt to spy on potential enemies’ headquarters is an utter fool."

The headmaster's words slapped across her like a horse whip vanquishing her anger. He was right she hadn't even thought of leaving a spell behind.

Verin put his hand on her shoulder trying to comfort her as Neo once again slowly increase the size of the scrying. "You were tired. And you were thinking more about getting us both out of there alive. Which in my book is far better than leaving some stupid spell behind," Verin said in her mind.

"You recorded your meeting?"

"Of course I did, I record everything," Lord Shan replied.

"Yes that is one of your best traits. May I see the recordings?"

Lord Shan nodded, raised his hand and a plethora of scrying's filled the room.

The headmaster stepped into the mist of them and for some time he thoroughly examined each scrying. Focusing mainly on Verin. Then without warning he stiffened.

"Out!" The headmaster barked.

"What?" Shan asked in confusion.

"I said get out!"

"Wha.."

"Now!"

To XRenia surprise Lord Shan quickly fled the room, the hidden door opening and closing seamlessly.

Alton waved his hand and the scrying's disappeared, then a bright flash erupted from his fingertips on his right hand. A seconds later a new scrying appeared displaying a man XRenia did not recognize. It was a clean-shaven man with slicked back hair that appeared to be in his mid-fifties or sixties.

"What is so important that you would use such a method to contact me?" The man asked angrily.

"You have failed at your task!" Headmaster Alton growled.

The man's face contorted in confusion, "What?"

"One of the Tsar's offspring is still alive."

"That's not possible I seen to their eradication myself."

XRenia felt Verin's heart leap in shock at the man's proclamation.

"Well you weren't very thorough. I need the spell we used on the Tsar before things get out of hand."

The man nodded and disappeared from the scrying.

Both Neo and XRenia looked at Verin and he stared at the scrying. "My family was murdered by that man?"

"It would seem so," Neo said.

"Do you know who he is?" XRenia asked.

Neo shook his head.

"Are you recording this?" Verin asked.

"I am, though I don't suggest you showing this to anyone else until we know more. Headmaster Alton is a very influential men. Neither of you want him as an enemy."

"I don't know if we have a choice. It sounds like he has it out for Verin," XRenia countered worriedly.

"Let's hope that is not the case."

A minute later the mysterious man reappeared with a crystal in his hand. Headmaster Alton created a portal reached his hand through it and took the crystal from him. As he withdrew his hand he stated, "Better hope I am successful at fixing your plunder or the world will likely suffer the consequences."

Alton cut the scrying before the man could reply. As the bubble of light and water dissipated he brought the crystal up and gazed into it. A muscle in his wrinkled jaw twitched. "Shan," he said his voice causing the room to flash with light.

The hidden door opened and Lord Shan walked back in.

"I need access to your poisons," the headmaster said curtly.

A sickening feeling hit XRenia in the gut.

Confusion spread across Lord Shan's face. "I thought you said you didn't condone killing people."

"The situation is far more complicated than you could possibly understand boy!" Headmaster Alton exclaimed turning on Shan.

Under the wrath of the imposing headmaster the man who was the perfect description of an aspiring ruler coward looking like nothing but a disciplined schoolboy.

"I need hygendra, sulfate, a potato, and hydrochloride. I will also need your assistance in forming this spell."

Lord Shan scurried to the other side of the room and opened another hidden door leading to an odd looking botanical garden. He didn't bother to enter he just swooshed his hand around, as he asked, "What does the spell do?"

Headmaster Alton took his hands off the crystal and it floated in midair. "Open a portal too directly inside the boy's body."

"That's possible?" Lord Shan squeaked.

"Normally no. But if you're as foolish as the previous Tsar yes."

Neo swooshed his hand through his scrying dispelling it. "Those ingredients he mentioned, they are used to make Hydrixa, and with enough induced magic it can fake Dryixa. Get Vifctif to your family now or they're going to kill him."

XRenia didn't need to be told twice. Dryixa was what happened when someone who didn't know what they were doing forcefully opened your magic and it was nearly always fatal. She grabbed Verin's hand pushed open a portal and pulled him through with her.