Circle Of Power
by Michael P Calligaro
Arc of the Whole nodded brusquely. "It is decided then. We have a full
twelve and will now join in the Circle." He sat down and placed his hands
lightly upon the table, palms down. On his right, Arc of the Fire ran her
fingers through her long red hair, threw off her gaudy orange cape, and sat
down. Arc of the Water pulled her more tasteful blue cloak tightly around
her, hesitated briefly, then too sat, palming the table as had the others.
Arcs of the Earth and Air quickly followed.
Arc of the Mind watched in frenzied apprehension as they clicked off around
the table toward him. Arc of the Plants sat down. What to do? Would none
oppose this? Arc of the Animals followed. Arc of the Mind's breath came in
uneasy gasps as he realized that none would. Arc of the Body sat down.
Mind glanced to his right, to Arcs of the Past and Present, hoping to see
some spark of support in their eyes. The Circle would use Present almost as
much as Mind for this crazy scheme, he had to feel something about it. But
Arc of the Present avoided his gaze. Arc of the Spirit, the mage on his
left, moved to sit down, signaling the rapid approach of Arc of the Mind's
turn.
Time slowed to a dribble, like water seeping through limestone. Arc of the
Spirit slid down into her seat and caressed the fine oaken table with her
palms. He desperately wanted to do the same--to lay his palms atop the
table's smooth, unyielding surface as he had so many times before. The
table, the conduit of the Circle's magic, begged him to sit, to rejoin them
and feel their power rush through him.
When joined at the table, each mage's small reservoir of power became a
rapidly churning river, amplified by each and passed on. The feeling was
unmistakably invigorating and addictive. Half of Arc of the Mind's being
begged to partake of that river once again. The other half, his mind,
opposed with all its will. He stood there at an impasse, trying desperately
to decide between the familiar, easy path, and the unknown, dangerous one
that was also the right way to go.
His pause stretched into a second, then two, and Arc of the Fire sneered up
at him. That decided it. Arc of the Mind held little respect for Arc of
the Fire. Where he appreciated intelligent, peaceful solutions to problems,
she just went in and burned her way out. While effective, her methods were
crude and unimaginative, and he despised her for them. Her feelings for him
hardly differed.
He lunged back violently, knocking over his chair in the process. This
brought startled gasps from many of the mages as their heads shot up to
stare at him. Their disbelieving eyes pierced into his soul, but this
somehow gave him resolve. Arc of the Fire laughed.
"Arc of the Mind, what are you doing?" This came from a confused Arc of the
Plants.
His heart trembled, but Arc of the Mind covered his fear with anger. "I
refuse to be a part of this," he spat.
Arc of the Earth shook his head. "You can not do that. When we are decided
on something there can be no dissent."
"None the less, I dissent." He turned to Arc of the Whole, the head mage.
"What you propose is wrong." Arc of the Whole surprised Mind. Where he
expected anger or a sense of betrayal, the leader's eyes became soft, almost
understanding. The tiredness Arc of the Mind saw in those eyes belied the
mage's age even better than did his gray hair and wrinkled face.
Arc of the Body spoke angrily. "You swore an oath to the Circle. You can
not refuse to join now."
Arc of the Mind pointed an accusing finger at him. "No! I did not swear an
oath to this Circle. The Circle to which I swore my oath would never
agree to this. I feel as though I no longer know who you are." He swept
the finger across the table.
Arc of the Fire stood up. "A member of the Circle can not leave. The oath
you swore is binding, with death the only way out. But we can arrange
that." She fanned her fingers in front of her face, the start of some spell
obviously intended to end with his charred body on the floor. This
predictable move of hers did not surprise him in the least. He'd seen it
coming from the moment she laughed. He lashed out with the mind blast he'd
prepared and knocked Arc of the Fire back a step. The blast affected all
the mages, but Fire got a larger dose that the rest. With their brains
temporarily addled and their concentration ruined, Arc of the Mind had no
fear of them casting any other spells.
He rushed to the door. When joined, nothing could hurt a circle of mages,
so they never bothered to lock the door. Arc of the Mind had never before
paid this much thought, but now sent thanks up into the great unknown (he
usually found worship distasteful and had never chosen a god). He had
escaped beyond the palace gates before any of his former comrades could find
presence of mind to raise an alarm.* * *
A tall man dressed in simple black garments carefully pushed open the door
to Calley's Tavern. Figar noted a number of the tavern locals eyeing the
stranger suspiciously and trained is superior senses on the newcomer. The
unrecognized scent seemed wrong for a commoner. It also seemed unlikely
that someone Figar had never seen before would just show up in a tavern this
deep into the dregs of the city. The man tripped over the leg of a chair and
overcorrected, making his already stilted gait more awkward. He was
obviously uncomfortable in both his clothes and the tavern. The locals went
back to their conversations, only tossing the stranger a glance every so
often. Figar, on the other hand, locked eyes on him.
The stranger ordered phrel, the weakest drink available after water. He
drank slowly and made no attempts to converse with anyone else.
Occasionally he looked over his shoulder at the door. Figar, who lounged in
the deep recesses of a dark private booth, had no need to fear the man
noticing his surveillance. But as time wore on and peculiarities about the
man racked up, Figar began to wonder. If the stranger was who he thought he
was, he may have noticed Figar even before entering the tavern.
The tender waddled up to Figar's booth and pointed at his half full glass.
"You ready for another?"
Figar shook his head and tried to shoo him away.
"What's this?" he asked a trifle too loud for Figar's liking. "Is everyone
a cheapskate tonight?"
"Bloody Hell," Figar exclaimed. He dug into a pouch and extracted a coin.
"Take this and leave me alone."
The tender made a show of biting the coin.
"What, you don't trust me, one of your oldest patrons?"
"With you, Figar, I can never tell."
"Well, as you can undoubtedly taste, it's real. Now would you go away?"
He spit. "Tastes like the inside of your pouch. I don't care 'bout that,
though. Just that it's soft. Since it is, what do you want?"
Exasperated, Figar came close to raising his voice. "Nothing. Keep it as a
tip for years of great service and for your innate sense of knowing just
when a guy wants to be left alone."
The tender smiled and wandered on to the next booth to bother another
patron. Figar hated this Tavern. If it weren't for the regulars, he'd have
moved on long ago. But while all of them disliked Calley's as well, they
couldn't agree on a usable alternative and thus stayed here. "I hate
humans," he told his drink.
The man at the bar finished his phrel and left. Figar downed his own
tarnished goblet and followed him out into the street. No one bothered to
light the area around here, but the crescent moon cast a glow bright enough
for Figar to see. Figar followed silently, ten feet behind the man, keeping
him in sight the whole time.
The man kept walking and walking and eventually Figar grew tired of
following him. He bound ahead, tapped him on the left shoulder and raced by
on his right. His quarry looked back over his left shoulder then jumped on
turning back to find Figar standing in his path. "Hey magic man, how could
you not see that coming?"
"What did you call me?"
"You're the mystic that got himself kicked out of the Circle."
He stared defiantly into Figar's eyes, then the fight drained out of him and
his shoulders slumped. "And here I thought I was doing a good job masking
my powers."
Figar laughed. "I'm sure you are. In fact, I'll bet to the Circle you look
just like one of us lowly peasants. But I'm not from the Circle."
"Then how did you--"
"Most of us can't afford a fancy mystic to find someone for us. So we rely
on archaic means like our own senses." What ever happened to these mystics
being smart? "You look uncomfortable in those clothes. Longing for the
baggy cloaks you folks usually wear?" The mystic ran a finger along his
collar, pulling it away from his throat and confirming Figar's statement.
"And maybe your drink was weak because you need a clear head to keep your
magic hidden?" The mystic nodded. "What were you doing in that tavern,
anyway?"
He sighed. "Trying to fit in."
With a laugh, Figar responded, "You did a particularly horrendous job."
"Yes, yes, thank you for the critique. Now get out of my way." Figar
stayed put and the mystic continued. "I'd rather not give away my location
by dropping my mindshield, but I'll do it if I have to." He frowned
ominously. "You wouldn't like that."
Figar held up hair-covered but empty hands. "Calm down, mystic. I
appreciate your ability to kill me at will. Since you have nothing to fear
from me, why don't you walk alongside and hear me out? If I worked for the
Circle they would have given me a talisman to signal and you'd already be
caught."
The mystic considered for a moment, then nodded and stepped closer. "Who do
you work for?" he asked suspiciously.
Figar let slip a large, toothy grin, spun lightly on one foot and meandered
off down the street. The mystic kept pace with him. "You would fit in well
with my group. The Circle doesn't like us either."
The mystic jerked to a stop and his eyes went wide. "You're with the Quar
Na? You expect me to walk with you after all the terrible things you've
done?"
Figar looked at him in bemusement. "Strange words coming from a man who has
been reading the minds of private citizens without their knowledge or
consent."
"What?!"
Figar noticed a member of the palace guard coming up the street toward them.
He grabbed the mystic by the shoulder and pulled him into an alley. "Guard
coming, follow me." He stalked on ahead through the dark alley, avoiding
some obstructions and lithely leaping over others.
"I didn't see a guard," the mystic called up to him.
"You don't have cats eyes." That silenced him. Figar liked the thought of
this powerful mystic wondering what he could possibly have meant by that.
He came out on a different street, turned left, and ducked into the next
alley. "Back to our original discussion. The word on the street is that
you've been invading our mental privacy."
"No! I left the Circle because that was what they wanted me to do. I
refused."
"According to the palace, when they discovered you swallowing the minds of
innocent citizens they kicked you out."
"The palace is lying!" the mystic yelled.
Figar ducked into a wide doorway, where he could not see the road on either
side. When the mystic joined him, he smiled. "My friend, you have just
joined the Quar Na. You might want to keep it down though, or your stay
with us will be very short."
Confusion spread across his face. "What do you mean I have joined you?"
"The only 'terrible thing' we've ever done was tell citizens that the palace
was lying about a few key events."
"I've heard otherwise."
"From the same people who say you've been probing into people's deepest
secrets for your own personal benefit."
The mystic slumped back against the wall and slid down to the ground. He
leaned forward, supporting his head with his hands. "Not my personal
benefit," he muttered. "We were supposed to do it to protect the prince.
He even tried to convince us we would be doing it for the good of the
people. By catching plots to kill him before they were attempted, he would
continue his benevolent rule and the people would be better off." He shook
his head.
"The Quar Na could show you a few places where the prince's rule has been
less than benevolent, but doing so would make us traitors and baby
killers."
His face long, the mystic looked up at him. "Why have you been following
me?"
"We've got a common enemy in the prince and the Circle which serves him.
We're bound to become strong allies."
He turned up a lip in sneer. "I would not be so sure about that."
"At least come talk to some of my people."
He tried to loosen the collar again. "No. Falsely accused or innocent, I
will not join the Quar Na."
Well, if convincing him to join was going to be easy, they would have sent
someone else to do it. He crouched down to the mystic's level. "At least
try to get to know us a bit. I'm Figar Galen," he held out a hand, "what's
your name anyway?"
His companion ignored the proffered hand and his face fell further.
"Outside of the Circle, I have no name. My life hardly has meaning
either."
"Come on, you have to have a name. I can't keep calling you 'magic
man.'"
Angrily, he shouted, "I told you, I have no name. You can call me "X" for
all I care!"
"X the Mystic. It has a certain ring to it. From henceforth, that will be
your name."
If "X the Mystic" hand any opinions on the matter, he kept them to himself.
His earlier outburst did not go unnoticed, however. A sound at the far
entrance to the alley caused Figar to prick up his ears and hold a finger to
his lips. Quietly he said, "someone's coming." He stayed crouched down,
facing outward, ready to jump whoever came by. He only heard one set of
footsteps, so he wasn't worried about handling whoever it turned out to
be.
It turned out to be a palace guard. He strolled into view and noticed them
immediately. Figar let out a roar he liked to think would scare a lion and
sprang at the guard. He caught him by surprise and easily got in a shot to
the head, knocking him out. He dragged the unconscious guard into the
doorway, pulled out a flask and dribbled some whisky over him.
"If anyone finds him before he wakes up, they'll think he got drunk and
passed out. Let's get moving." He left the alley in the direction the
guard had been traveling.* * *
Arc of the Whole entered the prince's chamber bent over at the waist. He
hated meeting with the paranoid little brat who was his sovereign ruler, but
when summoned he could do nothing but obey. Though the prince attended no
one else at the moment, he let Arc of the Whole wait doubled over for an
intolerable amount of time. Undoubtedly, he only waited to instill a strong
understanding of who ruled who.
"You may stand, my servant."
His back creaked painfully as he straightened up. "Thank you Sire, your
benevolence is unbounded."
"I ordered you to bring me the head of that belligerent mage. Where is
it?"
Arc of the Whole bowed his head. "Sire, we have been unable to locate him.
A broken Circle is little more than eleven individual mages. Without a full
Circle, we will have extreme difficulty breaking past his mental defenses to
find him."
"Excuses? You bring me excuses? I told you I want his head and I want it
now! Why don't you just get another mage for your silly circle?"
How many times would he have to explain this before his ignorant ruler
understood? "Sire, people with magical power are extremely rare. We have
one apprentice and we have told him to start specializing in mental magic,
but he is weak and will not be a fitting Arc for some time."
"So you are telling me that not only will you be unable to bring in this
vagrant mage, but that you will also not be able to do anything else for
me?"
Arc of the Whole wanted to remind the prince that he had begged him not to
order the stupid mind reading plan--that he had suspected some of the Arcs
might revolt over such a wanton abuse of citizens' privacy. But since he
valued his head more than his pride, he kept these reminders to himself.
"Sire, I will try my best to speed up the process with the apprentice."
"You had better do more than that. Get out."
"And what of Arc of the Mind? We could train the apprentice faster if we
were to just let Mind go." Besides, he thought, he doesn't deserve to be
hunted, just because he stood up for what is right.
"No, you will train the apprentice and find the mage. I don't care
if your mages have to work through the night to do it."
With a stiff bow, Arc of the Whole backed out of the audience chamber. He
eyed the small army of armed guards then spun and strode out of the palace.
So long as the prince had those guards and the Circle had something the
prince wanted, namely their magic, his people would languish under his
command. In a way, Arc of the Whole envied Arc of the Mind. Perhaps it
would be better to be a free man on the run than a slave, albeit a
comfortable one.* * *
Figar assured X the Mystic they were in a safe area and lit a lamp, giving X
his first good look at the Quar Na sympathizer. Figar looked mostly human,
but he had too much hair and slitted eyes like those of a cat. "What are
you?" he asked."You tell me, magic man, you probably understand it better than I."
X fixed him with a confused stare.
"My grandmother was raped by a mountain lion. Since I don't think that's
naturally possible, I figure it was hopped up on magic from one of your
Circles."
A mountain lion mating with a human? That would take a significant amount
of magic. "Yes, it would have to be heavily influenced. You are right to
assume it was a Circle. No single mage that I know of could cause
that."
"Well, she had a pretty hideous baby and some guy in gaudy clothes came and
offered to help raise it. From what I understand, he kept trying to teach
it magic, but it was too dumb to understand."
"Ah, they were trying to make a mage, an Arc of the Animals from how it
sounds. Mages are too rare for our liking, and we do not understand where
we come from or why we have power where other humans do not."
"Well, when the grand experiment proved a failure, the mystic packed up and
left without so much as a final word of advice. Grandma tried to raise the
dumb beast of a child, but didn't do a particularly good job. He grew up
scorned by people, and this didn't help his mental state. He raped my
mother and my father killed him for it. Grandmother then found them and
told what had happened. I was born and looked mostly human, so I didn't
have as much trouble fitting in as my true father had. Still, I was the
result of a rape and my father hated me for it. I ran away when I was six
and have been on my own since."
"I would apologize for my fellow mages--"
"No, don't bother. I'm not that bad off. I'm stronger and faster than most
people and had to pay little for it. I'm who I am and that's that. There
is no need for apologies."
X the Mystic nodded to him. "You are quite wise for a young man who's part
animal." A plan started to form in his head. "Are you wise enough to see
that helping me might help your Quar Na cause, even though I will not join
you?"
"I may be. What do you have in mind?"
"A Circle that regularly reads the minds of its citizens is the Quar Na's
biggest threat. But they need an Arc of the Mind to do it. If I stay
ostracized, they'll train another, or bring one in from a remote city. But
when I left, our leader seemed to agree with me that what we were going to
do was wrong. If I can talk to him alone, maybe I can convince him to
abandon the plan."
Figar nodded. "I'd rather you join us, but I see potential in having you, a
man of integrity, in the Circle. What can I do?"
"Arc of the Whole will be guarded. I may need you to help me get in."
"Let's go then!"* * *
Two palace guards flanked the front door of Arc of the Whole's house. Figar
circled around and reported no more in sight. He then moved on to remove
one of the guards. It would be up to X the Mystic, who crouched nervously
in the nearby bushes, to handle the other. He was going to have to drop his
shields to cast the mind fuzz spell and Arc of the Whole would surely notice
him. This was actually what he wanted, but the prospect still worried him
greatly.
A shadow moved and the far guard went down. The near guard spun to face the
assailant. Pushing the consequences from his mind, X cast the spell and
knocked out the other guard. He stood and raced across the lawn to the
door.
"Good job, mystic. Now get in there and make your case. I'll watch for any
others. Be ready to get out of there if I yell."
X nodded and entered the house. A row of candles burst into flame,
illuminating the room in a comfortable glow. Arc of the Whole stepped down
from a staircase. "Hello, Arc of the Mind. It's nice to see you
again."
"And you. That was a good trick with the candles."
"Yes, I did not specialize, but recently I have been studying fire spells.
You, however, did not come here to admire my skill in minor specialized
spells. Did you?"
"No, I came to ask you to reconsider the order to pry into people's
minds."
Arc of the Whole shook his head. "You know I can not go back on that. The
plan is too important."
X began to pace. "And you know I respect you. But have you truly thought
this through? We hardly know what we can do with our magic much less the
effects it can have on a person. The results of Arc of the Fire burning
someone are obvious, but do we know what will happen when we start picking
into people's minds?"
"I understand your concerns, and share them, but my personal feelings on the
matter are not of consequence. I acted on a direct order from the
prince."
"The prince is an unimaginative, brainless little man with too much control
over us. I'm sure he did not come up with the idea on his own. Who
did?"
A new voice drifted down from the top of the stairs. "Why, me, of course."
Arc of the Fire pulled a robe around herself and descended the stairs. "And
if your head was not already on the block, I'd be sure to relay your
treasonous words to him." X seethed as he watched her descend. Arc of the
Whole looked to her in surprise. He had obviously not known that Fire had
gone to the prince. She laughed. "Are you surprised, Arc of the
Mind?"
"At you, no. But you," he pointed at Arc of the Whole and shook his head
sadly. He then turned back to the woman. "So did you propose the plan to
garner favor with the Price, or were your intentions more nefarious?"
"Oh, they were nefarious in the extreme. I don't care what the prince thinks
of me, but I do care what he thinks of you. And you're so disgustingly
moral I knew you'd never agree to the mind scan order. Now I get to kill
you at the prince's request." She turned to Arc of the Whole, who had gone
white. "And you, lover, will help me, or I'll tell him you tried to defend
Arc of the Mind." Arc of the Whole took a step back. She smiled evilly and
waved at X the Mystic. "Good-bye Arc of the Mind. I can't say it's been
nice knowing you."
Though he hid it externally, X's mind raced in fear. "You sound
confident."
"Oh I am. You got lucky last time with that mind addling spell, but I'm
ready for it now. We're about to go two against one and my magic is far
more deadly than yours. I can't see how you could possibly prevail."
Neither could X the Mystic. Arc of the Fire knew of most of his spells and
would be ready for them. She was also right about having the better
offensive spells. It would be far easier to neutralize a sleep spell than a
fireball. He watched her begin to cast a spell and noticed Arc of the Whole
begrudgingly providing her with power. Lacking in finesse, she'd probably
hit him with a wall of fire that would destroy the entire room. But even
having guessed her plan, his mind could not think of a way to stop it.
Suddenly, from somewhere deep inside him, a place he understood not at all,
a thought sprang forth. The simple thought came from his storehouse of
power. "Don't try to stop it." The workings of a spell followed the errant
thought.
A massive wall of fire, so thick X could not see through it, burst from Arc
of the Fire's hands. It spread out engulf the width of the room and slid
forward, annihilating everything in it's path and shattering windows as it
passed. X the Mystic took a deep breath, waited until the heat from the
fire singed his eyebrows, then cast the spell desperation had dredged up
from his unconscious. The fire snuffed out instantly, leaving a charred
room and a screaming female mage. His face transfixed in terror, Arc of the
Whole tried to launch a mind addling spell at X the Mystic. X just shifted
the focus of his own spell to his former leader and squashed his feeble
attempt before it became whole.
Power surged through X like he had never felt before. When joined in the
Circle, they amplified each other's power to great heights, but that power
just channeled through them to be shared. The power he now felt was his
alone. He sorted through what had used to be Arc of the Whole's power and
found a wonderful array of varied spells. Though his depth in each
discipline was low, the non-specialized mage had succeeded in learning at
least a few of the spells known by each of the disciplines. Then he looked
through Arc of the Fire's spells. There were three spells for providing
light, and an obscene number of offensive ones. The sick minded woman must
have spent most of her life coming up with new ways to burn something to
death. He stopped at a particularly tortuous spell and shuddered. This one
would set a human's blood afire and he would burn to death from the inside
out.
He pointed at her. "You, who used to be Arc of the Fire. We have never
seen eye to eye. But was all this really necessary? What did I ever do to
warrant this much hatred from you?"
She looked up with fire in her eyes, all she'd ever be able to cast again,
and spat. "You've always been so sanctimonious. You dare sit on your
mental mountain and pass judgment on me." She vaulted to her feet. "I
don't need that."
X the Mystic held up a hand. "Stay there. I have just learned a new spell
that will literally make your blood boil."
Figar burst in through the front door, looked over the half-destroyed room
and whistled. "What happened here?"
"They backed me into corner and I lashed back by sucking away their power.
Your people will not have any trouble from these two again."
"That's nice, but there's nine more right behind me!"
X looked out a window, but a scream interrupted him. The ex-Arc of the Fire
charged at him with a ruby encrusted dagger aimed at his throat. He quickly
began casting the bloodfire spell but immediately realized she'd reach him
before he'd get it finished. Dexterity being one of his weakest points, he
doubted he would be able to dive aside effectively. As the realization of
his impending death settled upon him a blur flashed across his vision. The
woman ground to a halt, stared down at the blood splurting gash across her
belly, and fell over.
Figar wiped off his sword and resheathed it. "Is that one okay?" He
pointed at the man who had once been Arc of the Whole. He sat in a corner,
holding his knees to his chest and rocking.
"Yes, he will not be a problem."
"Good, now what are we going to do about the army of mystics?"
"I will take care of them."* * *
Arc of the Water neared the house in trepidation. Like all the other Arcs,
she had watched for Arc of the Mind to cast a spell and rushed to Arc of the
Whole's house when he surfaced. All but Arc of the Fire arrived at the same
time and they entered en masse. She quickly took in the scene. The entire
middle section of the room was charred, presumably by intense fire. Arc of
the Whole sat rocking in the far left corner, holding his legs and mumbling
to himself. Strangely, she could not feel his power. Arc of the Fire lay
in a pool of blood in the middle of the charred section of the floor. An
unknown man leaned against the far wall, trying to look unconcerned, and Arc
of the Mind stood to the right of Arc of the Fire's body, facing them with
hands hanging loosely at his sides. Arc of the Water couldn't help but
think that he looked more confident than she had ever seen him before.
Arc of the Body spoke. "Arc of the Mind, what have you done?"
He shrugged. "They attacked me and I defended myself."
"You killed Arc of the Fire?"
"No, she brought about her own demise."
Arc of the Body looked to his flanks. "Give me your power, fellow members
of the Circle. There are nine of us and one of him. He can not
prevail."
Arc of the Water's heart began to pound. Wasn't this too hasty? Shouldn't
they figure out what had really happened before attacking? She looked to
the other Arcs but their power all registered anger. She took a step
back.
Arc of the Mind shook his head. "It is not nine against one, it is nine
individual mages against three joined ones. What power used to be
controlled by Arc's of the Fire and Whole is now mine. I will take all of
yours as well if you do not leave now."
Arc of the Water felt the other Arcs' power turn from anger to disbelief.
They scanned out to Arc of the Whole and found what she already knew. His
power was gone. Then they scanned Arc of the Mind and found him to be three
times more powerful than he should have been. Arc of the Body yelled
angrily, "So, you can steal power now. We need to kill you while we still
can. Attack now!"
"No!" Arc of the Water cried. Everyone stopped and looked at her. "I may
not have had the nerve to oppose the Circle over the mind reading orders,
but here I will stand up for myself. We were wrong then and we are wrong
now. I will not attack Arc of the Mind." She hoped her plea would appeal
to the others' intellect and they would reconsider, but this did not happen.
Instead, they scowled at her.
"Then be gone from our side, you traitor!" cried Arc of the Present.
Arc of the Mind smiled. "Yes, you should probably get out of the way."
She retreated to the corner of the room opposite Arc of the Whole. The
remaining Arcs formed into a circle and held hands. They closed their eyes
and began chanting. A mist formed between them and launched itself at Arc
of the Mind. He held his arms open and accepted the mist into him. Where
it should have thrown him back and turned his flesh to dust, it had no
apparent effect. An unbroken stream of mist traveled from the Circle to Arc
of the Mind, speeding up as Arc of the Water watched it. Looks of terror
overcame the members of the Circle and they tried to break off the attack.
However, the mist kept rushing out of them, faster and faster until it
became a blur of light. Screaming, they fell to the ground and the mist
stopped. Arc of the Mind unsettled Arc of the Water greatly when he looked over to her. His eyes shined with a power-induced mania like none she had ever seen. Sometimes a mage, on reaching a high level of proficiency, would go power crazy. To her knowledge, no mage had ever received that much power that quickly. Arc of the Mind clapped his hands together and, with a thunderclap, disappeared. She stood in shocked silence for a moment, then rushed over to Arc of the Whole. "Are you okay?" She asked.
He sat there rocking, mumbling, "It's gone. I never should have let her do
this to me. It's gone." She shook him and he just looked up at her without
recollection. "It's gone," he said in a pitiful voice. She ran to the
other Arcs who lay near the entrance.
"What happened?"
Arc of the Spirit reached up and grabbed her arm. "He took our power! We
have no more power! We need it back!" Others started to claw at her and
she screamed, trying to back away. A boot kicked one of them in the face
and then wrenched another's grip from her arm. The unknown man removed the
last clutching grasp from her leg, grabbed her by the arm and led her
through the mages, pushing them aside as he went.
They reached the dark outside and kept going. He led them away from the
house and into the street, somehow seeing by the faint light of the stars
and moon. At one point she tripped, but he did not let her fall. Finally,
they turned a corner and he released her. "It appears that there are now
only two mystics left. What will you do?"
"I do not know. I never thought the Circle would collapse like this."
"Have you ever considered joining the Quar Na? We can use all the help we
can get and having the second most powerful force in the city on our side
would be an enormous boon."
"What about Arc of the Mind?"
Though it was dark, she could see him shrug. "I can not yet tell whether he
is on my side or his own."* * *
That night the palace burned down and rumors sprang up that the prince had
died. Rumor also had it he had been found without a mark on him but with
bright red skin that was warm to the touch. Many of his guards escaped, but
when some tried to declare a new prince, they died. More strange events
transpired, most of which damaged the ability of a single palace or circle
of mages to rule.
In a booth in Calley's Tavern, a man appeared out of nowhere. Figar turned
from the woman at his side and nodded. "You've been busy."
He frowned. "Yes, too busy."
"How's that?"
X the Mystic sighed. "I never expected to have so much power. You have
heard that power corrupts?" Figar nodded. "Well, I have committed some
acts that would make reading people's minds seem inconsequential."
"I've heard about some of the things you've done."
"You only heard about the things I did to atone for my initial
transgressions." He shuddered. "I masked my other actions."
"So, what will you do now?"
"I'm leaving."
"Can't trust yourself around people?"
He nodded sadly.
Arc of the Water spoke up. "Then take me with you."
X look at her for the first time since he'd arrived. "Are you sure? I do
not know that I have brought myself under control yet, I am not sure where I
am going, and I plan to live in isolation."
"Yes, well, wherever you end up, you'll need water, and you barely know
anything about that. Besides, there is nothing for me here."
He studied her for a moment then nodded. He then turned back to Figar. "I
don't know what the long term goals of your Quar Na were, but I doubt they
were ready for this. Still, if there are any other wise ones amongst you,
you might take this opportunity to try some form of rule other than a
corrupt monarchy. Move quickly though, before chaos takes over."
Figar nodded. "We are taking steps to do just that. We've only held back
because we didn't know how you would react."
"You have nothing to fear from me, so long as you treat your people better
than their last ruler did."
"We intend to."
"Good. Now I have something for you." He drew a long flat stone out of a
pouch and handed it to Figar. "This all started when I decided that mages
should not be reading other people's minds. Recent events have shown me
that people need active protection for their privacy," he squirmed
uncomfortably, "so I set my newfound power and knowledge to making this.
Give it to as many people as you can."
Figar accepted the stone and turned it over in his hand. "How can I give
this to more than one person?"
"Break it in half."
He did and found two stones in his hands, each identical to the original.
His eyes shot up. "How many times can I do that?"
"As many as you want. But you must give the charms away. If I learn that
you are charging for them I will come back and make your blood burn.
Understand?"
Figar nodded. "So these charms will give us full security of thought?"
X shook his head. "No. All magic can be countered by greater magic. But
as far as I can tell, I am eleven times more powerful than every other mage
in Pheyre, and I can not circumvent the charms. So the privacy afforded by
them should be pretty good."
"Is there anything else I should know?"
"They only work if you use them. You need to keep one in your possession to
shield your mind." X turned to Arc of the Water and reached out his hand.
"Shall we go?" She paused for a moment, then slid her little hand into his.
He turned back to Figar and said, "Make sure he who you elect rules you
well. If he does not, get rid of him and find one that will." Then they
disappeared.
Figar sat in reflection for a moment then slid out of the booth and
sauntered over to one of the tavern locals. "You know how the mystics can
read your mind?" He tossed one of the charms to him. "Not any more."