Talynn and Mavence scrambled away on their hands and feet as Zaphkos walked up the stairs and onto the castle landing. Imps were not known for their height, the tallest among them reaching a little over five feet, but it was not physical stature that made Zaphkos intimidating. It was his eyes. Pale red irises, like blood diluted with water. Gray sclera, as if his species were never meant to see the full brightness of day. And in this moment, a thirst for vengeance that only one thing could satisfy.
“Prosephius. I’ve waited a long time for this moment,” Zaphkos breathed, his pupils dilated as he finally locked eyes with the emperor. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a pulsing blue crystal.
“Talynn, what’s that thing in his hand?” Mavence whispered.
“I think it’s a runestone. They’re made of luxite ore with a complex spell etched into them. Basically he’s holding a super strong one-time-use spell. Which means we should stand far away.”
“Selvus is down! Move!” One of the Emperor’s Guardsmen said to the other as they battled the assassins. They attempted to beeline up the stairs to the emperor, but Zaphkos’ men made it difficult for them.
“Behold, oh emperor, one of the jewels of my people. The people whose blood you spilled to attain your ‘peace’. A spell inscribed just for you,” Zaphkos took the runestone in his hand and raised it high above him, the stone beginning to levitate and glow brightly as he infused it with lumi. “Glacial prison!”
The runestone shattered into pieces and the fragments began to swirl about in a growing circle with the sound of a tempestuous wind. Talynn could feel the intense concentration of lumi as the shards formed a wide ring around them. Suddenly, the fragments veered towards the ground and rapidly formed giant sheets of ice which grew until Talynn, Mavence, the emperor, his daughters, and Zaphkos were all surrounded by a thick wall of ice thirty feet high. The Emperor’s Guards and Zaphkos’ assassins were locked out.
“Well I guess you could say that was cool,” Talynn through chattering teeth as the air quickly became as cold as an arctic breeze.
“There’s nowhere to run now, Prosephius. No one can save you. Your judgement has arrived. The time has come for you to pay!” Zaphkos brandished a dagger and started to run at the emperor. His daughters screamed and held their eyes shut.
“Ice snare!” Talynn slapped his hand against the ground. A yellow light began racing down a line of lux chalk from where Talynn was standing off to the side and into an inscription circle Talynn had drawn directly where Zaphkos’ feet now stood. In an instant, his feet were encased in ice up to his upper shins, rooting him to the ground.
“Looks like it’s time for you to pay... attention!” Talynn said with a cheeky smirk.
Zaphkos was about to utter a threat when Mavence raced in and sliced the back of Zaphkos’ thighs with his shortsword, attempting to disable him. As he came around for another pass, Zaphkos scooped up him, wrapping his hand around the boy’s throat and holding him in the air with an iron grip.
“Let go of my friend!” Talynn flipped to a random page in his spellbook and quickly drew the inscription circle with his lux chalk. Focusing lumi into his finger and touching the outermost ring of the inscription circle, the spell activated and fired a thin bolt of lightning that shocked Zaphkos just enough to release his grip on Mavence.
Rather than turn and run, Mavence immediately pushed forward in an attempt to tackle Zaphkos to the ground, shattering the ice around the imp’s feet. Though he weighed much less than his opponent, through balance and footing Zaphkos was able to throw Mavence to the ground. He charged at the emperor once more, but quickly found himself backpedaling to avoid the shards of ice hurtling towards him from Talynn’s latest lux chalk spell.
“Get out of my way. My quarrel is not with you,” said Zaphkos, firing a blast of superficial flames at Talynn in an attempt to scare him off. He took another step forward but found Mavence’s hand wrapped around his ankle.
“Lumenaeva, stand here,” Prosephius maneuvered his eldest daughter so that she stood in front of him and her sister.
“W-what? Why?!” Lumenava resisted.
“Trust me, my daughter.”
“Placing your own daughter in the line of fire? You really are despicable. These two brats have more heart than you do,” Zaphkos spat as he continued kicking at Mavence. Despite a bruised and bleeding hand and a broken wrist, he refused to let go, knowing his weight was the only thing keeping Zaphkos immobilized.
“I wanted to finish you off with my bare hands, but this will have to do,” Zaphkos held out his hand and infused his lumi into a devastating attack. “Now burn!”
Talynn’s heart sank as the emperor and his daughters were engulfed in a massive torrent of flames cascading from Zaphkos gauntlet. He held his arm up to shield his eyes from the blazing heat, afraid to see the aftermath of the attack. As the stream of flames began to subside, something caught his eye.
Prosephius and his daughters were alive, surrounded by a translucent turquoise sphere. In the center of the sphere, Lumenaeva levitated several feet above the ground, her eyes glowing an intense magenta while the Lucidaros stone on her necklace shined like a small star. Talynn stood completely still, entranced by the stone. The sheer concentration of lumi in the air was even more overwhelming than the heat, like standing at the bottom of a massive waterfall. Incensed at their resistance, Zaphkos channeled all of his remaining lumi into the stream of fire, turning the frigid air around them into a furnace.
“The shield won’t hold forever, lad!” Prosephius yelled to Talynn from within the sphere, breaking his trance. He looked around, frantically trying to think of a solution when his eyes settled on the blue mutostone in Zaphkos other gauntlet. Then it came to him.
Talynn began crawling on his hands and knees, trying to get as close to Zaphkos as he could while the blazing heat scorched his skin. He focused his lumi, the familiar yellow aura beginning to move around his hands. He then forced his lumi through the air and channeled it directly into the blue stone, pouring in every bit he had in order to make it go the distance. The mutostone began to glow, emitting a high-pitched ringing that grew louder as the stones began to resonate. Talynn closed his eyes and tried his best to cover his ears, certain that they were about to bleed at any moment.
Finally, the stones ruptured. Talynn slid across the ground as the initial shockwave carried him backwards. Zaphkos looked down at his gauntlets in bewilderment as the fire and ice lumi began to violently spiral out of the shattered crystals, the extreme heat and extreme cold forming a vortex as they chased each other in search of equilibrium.
Mavence rushed over to Talynn to drag him out of harm’s way, but they were too close to the destructing crystals. In desperation, he used his body to shield Talynn from the impending blast. A few seconds passed, but no searing flame nor chilling ice struck him.
“Mavence, look!”
Lumenaeva’s hand was outstretched towards them, directing the immense power of the Lucidaros into a shield of light magic. A translucent turquoise sphere now surrounded them just as it did the emperor and his daughters.
“No, this won’t be the end,” Zaphkos shouted as the growing vortex of orange and blue overtook his body. “Mark my words, this won’t be the end!”
Talynn and Mavence looked out from their protective bubble with morbid fascination as the cyclone of fire and ice consumed Zaphkos, spinning wildly and reaching almost fifty feet in height before dispersing. All that remained of the Furvusian afterwards was a pile of ash. Cut off from its source of lumi, the wall of ice surrounding them quickly began to crumble and melt.
The protective turquoise spheres began to disappear. Talynn rolled onto his back and looked at Mavence, both of them panting in exhaustion. Prosephius gently held Lumenaeva as she returned to the ground, her eyes and the Lucidaros stone gently losing their glow. She turned her head to look over at Talynn and Mavence with sleepy eyes.
“Thank you. Both of you.”
“Yes, thank you,” Prosephius bowed his head in gratitude. As he looked up, he saw the the crowds slowly start to return. The people were frightened, but curious, some trying to see over the perimeter that the imperial guard had formed around the scene. The emperor helped Lumenaeva to her feet and tilted his head for her sister, Talynn, and Mavence to follow. “Come, my children.”
“Fear not, my people. The threat has been averted. Please, give the imperial guard a wide berth, it something children ought not to see,” Prosephius beckoned for the crowds to leave the guards be and approach the castle landing.
“We have yet to verify their identity, but as you can see, a group of dissidents had plotted to attack the royal family. But, the princess is in good health. Due, in part, to the determination of the imperial guard, but also to the courage of these two young men,” the emperor stepped aside to reveal Talynn and Mavence.
“What? Those boys?” the crowd murmured.
“In all my years as a warrior and as a king, I have never met two young men as brave as these. They risked their lives of their own volition to protect their future empress. Lads, we are forever in your debt. Tell us, what are your names?”
“I’m Mavence.”
“And I’m Talynn.”
“You know, I think you two would make excellent knights. I surmise from your garb that you are not from Albustone. Tell me, what would your parents say if I offered to move your families to the capitol and have you trained as imperial knights?”
“We’re orphans, so we don’t really have families,” Mavence replied.
The emperor had the slightest of grins as the crowd let out a sympathetic coo.
“Well, I shall extend the invitation directly to you then. Will you stay as guests in my castle and be trained as knights of the empire?”
“Let me discuss this with my friend,” Talynn said, and then turned to whisper in Mavence’s ear. “What do you think, should we do it? I could finally learn to be a mage, and you could become a knight!”
“And, we’d get to see the princess more. We should do it. This is the chance we’ve been waiting for,” Mavence nodded.
“We have decided, sir king! We shall accept your offer!”
“Very well young lads. Shall we show our appreciation one more time for these young heroes?” The emperor shouted, raising applause once more before addressing the boys directly.
“Now go, and prepare to train and study hard! Who knows, maybe one day you’ll make it into the Empress’s guard,” he said with a wink. Talynn and Mavence were all smiles as the emperor’s attendants led them away into the castle grounds.
“Well, I guess old man Kerrick was right,” said Talynn. “Today our adventure begins.”591Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTXEYH8JUHd
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