Sorcery and Scholarships

  As he approached the end of the room he pulled the aura within himself and came to stand next to the two women. Aki was grinning and while Keisha looked hostile, she didn't seem likely to interfere. She was too smart to let personal feelings get in the way of an advantage. He returned Aki's grin and then focused on Jaden, who gaped.

  "You! You want to stop me! You've always been trying to stop me!"

  Blake shrugged. "Something like that, yeah."

  "Not now! I have the same power you do, no, greater than yours!"

  "You think so? Looks to me like you got a weak Essence."

  That made Jaden pause, staring into the Darkness around him. The others realized what was coming and moved back. As Aki passed him she raised an eyebrow. "Was he always this crazy, or does a Dark Essence do that to a person?"

  "Right now we're probably seeing mostly the Essence, filtered through him. Presumably even Jaden will start gaining more control if he gets enough time."

  "I don't think I particularly want to see that."

  Darkness exploded around Jaden. "Stop ignoring me! You were lying, Blake, just like you always lie! This Essence is even more powerful than yours!"

  "Is that so?"

  The shadows around Jaden had crept across the floor and now stretched into the air, spikes stabbing through the space where Blake had been before he stepped out of the way. Jaden gave a scream of rage and charged forward.

  Time to succeed or fail miserably. Blake slid to the side, grabbing Jaden's arm and flipping him onto his back. While they were touching he did everything just like he practiced it. Taking possession was natural for Darkness, but he'd never attempting anything so difficult. He felt the power burning in his hands and grinned.

  Another mad rush. This time, Blake grabbed his opponent's fist, then took hold of his shoulder and hurled him against the opposite wall. 20%. He might be able to do more with a hold, but he wanted to keep Jaden oblivious as long as possible.

  "Why?" Jaden smashed his fists on the floor to propel himself to his feet. "None of this is working. Why can't I do everything as easily as you?"

  "I was wondering if anyone actually believed that." Blake put his hands in his pockets and looked around idly. "I guess people really want to believe that we can get power and skills without working for them. You couldn't see through me because you wanted to believe someone like that existed."

  Jaden leapt forward, shadows around one hand forming claws. A web of Darkness wrapped around his arm before it could hit, then Blake knocked his legs out from under him. 30% - it was much harder that way. He put his shoe on Jaden's chest but was repelled by a burst of Maleficium, as hateful as always and now backed by power.

  When Jaden attacked again in a wild charge, Blake decided the time for subtlety had passed. He ducked underneath the first punch and hit his opponent in the chest with his palm. Jaden barely stumbled, face filled with confusion that was quickly overcome by rage. Again he attacked, and again Blake tapped him off balance. After several more times, Blake put all his power behind his palm and knocked Jaden into the opposite wall.

  This time when he restored his aura of Darkness, it barely covered his body. As it flickered weakly, Jaden stared in horror. Finally his eyes widened in recognition. "You're... you're stealing my Essence somehow! You don't want to work so you just steal everyone else's power!"

  "That's not very nice. Figuring out how to take an Essence by force took a lot of work."

  "But you made a mistake! I know what you're doing now!"

  "It doesn't matter. I've taken around 60% of yours." Blake cracked his knuckles and released all of his power. "I think you can do the math."

  Shadow lances stabbed into him from all sides and were absorbed. Jaden took a step backward and then looked down in horror as he realized the Darkness beneath him was not his own. Before he could take another step it flooded upward, consuming him entirely. This time there was no need for a cell phone, and Blake felt a moment of petty satisfaction before the consequences of everything he'd done hit him.

  He had been holding the new Dark Essence at bay, but now it was mixing into his own. The pain of it took him to his knees and he clutched at his chest with one hand. It was worse than he had been expecting, twisted thoughts from some kind of sadist. On top of the core was a layer of Jaden's influence, hatred and jealousy mixed with shockingly intense lust.

  That had to go first, so Blake concentrated on consuming the emotion. This was going to take him much longer than he thought. His body was begging to collapse and so he let it, rolling onto his back to try to catch his breath.

  After a moment Aki appeared in his field of vision. "Are you alright?"

  "Yeah, but I'm going to be completely worthless for a few days." He winced at the pain of speaking and massaged his throat."I'm disappointed in myself. I wanted to help you guys and I was just good for one opponent."

  "You've done enough." Aki clapped him on the shoulder and smiled before her gaze drifted to the end of the chamber. "We didn't have to waste any of our strength and it looks like Keisha is figuring out how to get in, so we'll be alright. How the heck did you get here through the battle?"

  "Managed to convince Gastion it was a good idea to let me watch the fighting."

  He was too tired to say anything else. Best to focus on absorbing the new Darkness, purifying it of all the foreign emotions. Though it would be nice to leave that for a time when he wasn't half-dead, he had a feeling they didn't have the luxury of several days to rest and recover.

  When Aki used his leg to drag him closer to the wall he didn't even have the strength to complain. There was indeed some kind of tunnel deeper into the realm, but even looking at it hurt his eyes. Keisha glanced down at him and frowned.

  "Did you tell him to come?"

  "He came on his own." Aki sighed. "You said you didn't want him involved; I wouldn't go behind your back like that. I hope you're not complaining."

  "I'll admit stopping Jaden helped."

  "Well, we can't leave him out here. You're not going to argue that, are you?"

  "Now wouldn't be the time. If anyone from the battle catches up to us..."

  When the portal opened and Aki dragged him through it, Blake was relieved. On the other side was some kind of spherical ceiling that glowed with soft white light. More importantly, the magic from the battle that had been banging against his skull was muted. It was almost gone after they triggered a spell that barred the way behind them.

  Only because of the sudden change did he feel the strange presence. There was something else in the chamber with them, a power he didn't know. Blake tried to say something to warn them, but the darkness around him now was unconsciousness.

  Chapter 18

  So far Aki had avoided realm magic, so she was off balance when they arrived. While it was impressive that Keisha had gotten them in at all, the trip left her stomach upside down. She slowly regained her orientation and examined the room around them.

  Overhead was a white dome, exuding light that wiped away all shadows. The structure itself was probably a sphere, judging from the Omphalos diagrams in books, but they stood on a floor in the center. It didn't seem to be made of any substance she knew, like it was the color grey made incarnate. For all she knew, it might have been.

  Finally her eyes reached the center of the chamber, the reason they had gone to so much effort. "Is that thing really the Omphalos?"

  It looked like a hunk of granite with the top rounded. When she got closer, she saw there were grooves in the surface, but they didn't form any mystical symbols, just lines. There were a few parallel to the floor, but most headed up the sides to the top, giving it a globe-like look. At the top the lines didn't meet, stopping before an unmarked circle.

  Keisha turned away from the locked tunnel. The key card had lost its glow and slowly crumbled. Ignoring it, Keisha went to look at the Omphalos. "I can't feel any kind of magic, but this sort of thing is usually subtle."

  "Well, I really hope someone didn't
switch out the real one for some rock and leave us here guarding nothing."

  "Oh, it's real." The voice wasn't one she recognized, yet when she turned to look she saw Reylin. Part of his body was only ripples in the air, though that part was receding as he became fully visible. She could feel the strange power that had been inside Jaden, but this was many times more concentrated. Her body was trembling, not like a shiver but every fiber of her being vibrating wildly.

  Somehow she was still able to move, drawing up next to Keisha as they watched him. Reylin clasped his arms behind his back and gave a fanged grin. "I really should thank you. I thought I couldn't possibly move the Omphalos before someone caught up with me, but now you've locked us inside. We'll be long gone by the time anyone gets through."

  As much as Aki wanted to punch the smugness out of him, their goal was to stall for time. Hopefully the people to get through would be faculty... and if it wasn't they didn't have much of a chance, so there was no point thinking about that.

  Meanwhile, that presence was bothering her. "First Jaden and now you. Who is giving you guys this weird power?"

  "Trying to distract me with nonsense? Nice try." Reylin chuckled. "I have more than enough time to take the Omphalos and go, though I think I'll wait until my brethren have gotten themselves killed. This is much better than trying to rely on them. Just when the vampire lords think it was an utter failure, I will arrive having single-handedly accomplished our goal."

  "What good will this Omphalos do you?" As she spoke, Keisha made brief eye contact with Aki. Apparently she had the same idea: if he liked to hear himself talk, let him talk as much as he wanted. Still, Aki made herself as ready to fight as she could without creating actual links.

  "Oh, our goals are rather modest. With an Omphalos of this strength, we could create new Night Realms, even more glorious than those lost."

  After all the worrying she had done, Aki found those motives rather boring. Then again, she supposed most of the time the truth was simple greed instead of something grander. She could almost find that reassuring, but there were still the Sinistrals out there, not to mention the alien power. Now she was sure it was just using those it could manipulate, though she had no idea why.

  Reylin's tongue licked around his fangs. "If you don't resist, I promise I won't drink everything. You'll enjoy it, even. The servants of a vampire of my stature would rank highly in our new world."

  "Is that so?" Aki tried and failed to keep the grimace off her face. It didn't matter, because Reylin was grinning wider now and shifting his weight between his feet.

  "We're done talking. I'll take what I want one way or another." His hooks lashed out at them, but in midair they evaporated. Keisha was glowing with Light inside her, like burnished bronze except for an outline of white around her body. Though a little surprised, Aki didn't let that stop her from forming links and preparing her defenses.

  When Reylin rushed forward, he was unbelievably fast, but not faster than light. Aki held her link to the solar realm and released the sunlight just over him. He shrieked and contorted, though unfortunately it didn't turn him to ash like she was hoping. It was slowing him down more than hurting him.

  The blow to his spine definitely hurt. Reylin dropped to the floor and Keisha immediately kicked him in the side. Her movement left a line of white seared across Aki's vision and launched him into the side of the sphere.

  Unfortunately, instead of collapsing on the ground Reylin caught himself on his hands and knees and got back to his feet. It would have been too much to hope they could easily defeat an advanced student. Since the solar link was giving her a headache, Aki abandoned it and focused on fire.

  This time he came in low with his cloak over his face. He got close to Keisha too quickly for Aki to attack and then they were trading blows. She desperately tried to refine her control, or she would have no choice but to watch as Keisha gave up ground. Her movements seemed to be charged with Light, which meant she would eventually run out of power.

  Eventually Aki released the fire, which staggered him in mid-attack. It gave Keisha an opening for another blow. Reylin fell back, roaring in pain, and struck more savagely than before. His strike took Keisha into the air and he slammed her against the side of the room.

  Somehow he remained attached there, his mouth opening to bare fangs. Aki released several thin streams of fire toward his back and he tried to use Keisha as a shield. Just as planned.

  Aki warped her link at the last second, sending the lines of fire arcing around Keisha and converging on Reylin. As he began to fall, Keisha recovered and grabbed his cloak over her shoulder. By the time they hit the ground, Keisha's knee was on the back of his head. She had to turn away at the moment of impact, but when Aki made herself look it seemed the floor had given way instead of smashing his skull. His body was motionless.

  Wearily, Keisha got to her feet. Aki walked up to her, feeling like they should high five or something. "So, apparently we're awesome."

  "Normally I wouldn't want to say that, but I guess it isn't hyperbole." Keisha stared at her hands for a moment. "Still, I'm not pleased with myself. It was more flashy than effective and I've already used up almost all my reserves. Plus, compared to what we saw out there..."

  "Now is not the time to be a perfectionist!" Her good mood evaporated under the realization of what they had done. "Is he... did we kill him? I'm not sure if I could live with myself... even if he's alive, we assaulted a fellow student."

  "This is self-defense, at least it would be classified that way normally. Though I doubt normal law applies here. But I let up at the last second so he's definitely still alive."

  "He is dead." A ghastly voice echoed in Aki's mind and she shuddered, first due to magic and then because of raw horror.

  They turned to find Reylin rising. His limbs dangled like a puppet's until his back arched, flinging himself straight. His head lolled to the side, the dull eyes focused on them. The rippling power was flowing from his body in waves, just like when it had came at her during the party.

  "This one would have been discarded soon under any circumstances." All trace of Reylin was gone from the voice, leaving a monotone rasp. Aki embraced her growing anger and took a deep breath. She had been in danger from nebulous threats for so long, now that she finally had someone to blame, she wasn't letting him get away.

  "You! Why the hell are you guys trying to kill me?"

  "You are a piece in that man's plans." The body walked toward the Omphalos, if the jerking motion could be called walking, and they backed away. "He spoke with you before all this, implanted something in you, set you in the way of our plans. It cannot be allowed."

  "Who, Laxir?" Surely she would have sensed it if something about her had been changed. Not at first, perhaps, but by now she would have noticed. "He just showed up and spouted a bunch of mysterious bullshit."

  The eyes remained fixed on her as the head flopped to the other side. "It does seem there is nothing within you. But you are lying."

  "You mean... you were trying to kill me based on a misunderstanding?"

  "He spoke to you and therefore you are lying."

  It took another unsettling step forward and Aki snapped. She tried to incinerate the body, yet before she could draw any fire her link was cut. When she reached again her power was blocked. In a few seconds she was rendered powerless, just an ignorant student fumbling with curses. What was she doing here?

  "You are lying!"

  She barely saw the ripple come out of the floor and then she was thrown into the air by waves of agony. It closed on her from all sides, more intense than any of the other attacks. At first her mind was aflame, unable to form thoughts, but she forced herself onward. Her first thought was that she needed to escape the sphere. When she failed, she realized that it was going to unmake her, take her apart piece by piece. Then there was only room for one thought.

  No.

  ~ ~ ~

  The rational thing to do would have been to surrender, but
she didn't think the entity before her cared about reason. Keisha desperately tried to come up with a plan to use their few remaining resources to defeat the thing facing them. For once, she came up with nothing. Not against this.

  Aki's scream was her first realization there had been an attack. She was suspended in a sphere of crackling energy, and though her scream ended quickly she was obviously still in agony. The option of running had been taken from her. Though she refused to let herself give up, she couldn't see what other choices she had.

  Reylin's body was pulled over to the sphere. Though she knew it was still being controlled, the movements had become more natural and the head was upright. After a moment, the being stroked its chin and Keisha's mind seized on the movement. That was a human gesture; whatever they were up against wasn't some force of nature. It wasn't all powerful.

  "This shouldn't be possible." Confusion was obvious even in the mental voice. "She isn't keeping it away, she isn't fighting it, she simply isn't dying."

  There might be a chance. If Aki could hold out and the sphere was really so dangerous, maybe there was a way. Keisha bit into her finger hard enough to draw blood and began working a Propitiation ritual without other resources. The results were crude, but as powerful as she could manage.

  "Troubling. This will lead to worse paths, unquestionably. Was this his intent? No, no, this is an anomaly even he could not have predicted." Without warning the head whirled to stare at her, the body spinning around after it. "You think a mere ritual can threaten me? The magic will decay before it even touches this body."

  Too late. The ritual's effect reached past Reylin's body, forming a field around the sphere and then pulling that field directly into the vampire.

  Two screams echoed, one from the throat and one in her mind. Somehow the body braced itself, still screaming but trying to push back against the energy ripping into its body.

  Her fist hit his face with everything she had left behind it. One moment she was driving his head into the field and the next all the magic was gone.

  Keisha fell forward, unable even to catch herself. The pain was sharp as she hit the floor and she lay there, unmoving. But the strange presence was gone and the vampire's body was just a body. She thought Aki had dropped to the ground as well, no longer supported by the sphere. Unless it had a way to return, they were alone in the Omphalos chamber. Nothing moved for a few minutes and she was grateful.