197 — Book 4, Chapter 41 — The Grand Assault, Pt 4

The Grand Magus, known also as Alexius Kevonan, stood before the temple's flesh-pit, adorned with jewelry and radiating with power. The final vestige of the Source of Vitality stood before him, glaring down with contempt—but for all the power it had once held, what remained could do nothing against the chains that bound it. This was the culmination of Alexius's grand work, the result of lifetimes of study, and his reward for nursing the little soul he had ripped out of the void back to life.

He supposed that most other men in his position might feel rage at Cale Cadwell Cobbs for eliminating the Red Commander. As useful as the knowledge he brought out of the Nothing had been, though, he had started becoming more and more of a problem as the influence of his Red Hunters grew. Alexius, therefore, felt mostly a distant gratitude toward that mage for eliminating the threat before it became something he had to deal with himself. He'd never liked having to get his hands dirty.

With some minor exceptions, of course.

Now, he did have some concerns about the possibility of this Cale interfering with him again. The fact that his last visit to the Golden Sands had ended the Aspect Cascade and uncovered this temple suggested that Cale had a connection to the long-lost Monolith of Life. But that was one of the reasons he'd sent dear Eli and Mia to Brightscale Academy.

That, and there was that delightful little message Headmaster Akkau had sent him. Oh, that had been a delightful letter to receive! They wanted him to send people to Brightscale, did they? The lure was as plain as day, tailored specifically to his interests as a mage and a scholar, but Akkau had neglected to consider that he was speaking to one of the foremost minds on Utelia.

Such paltry bait would ever catch Alexius Kevonan off-guard. The idea that one of Brightscale's wild mages might possess the ability to reach into the Abyss was simply ludicrous. Alexius had looked into the possibility himself, and he was well aware that no such mana aspect existed. Really, it was borderline insulting that Akkau thought he would fall for so blatant a lie.

Still, he'd seen in that letter an opportunity. After all, he'd already been considering the problem of Cale Cadwell Cobbs. Information on that mage was still limited, but several things were clear.

First, he favored Brightscale Academy. It was too bad, really; Alexius would have tried to recruit Cale for his cause otherwise, but alas he had learned of his existence far too late. Brightscale had poisoned him thoroughly against the Red Hunters by the time Alexius had known of him.

Second, he was too powerful to confront directly. Nothing too absurd, Alexius was sure, but he was a cautious man, and he'd had his Hunters develop a new set of protocols to deal with him. Him and the possibility of other mages like him, really. Where there was one, there could always be more. Those protocols were simple enough to execute: produce a distraction of some sort that Cale couldn't just ignore.

To wit, there was the third detail. Cale had apprentices, and he was highly protective of them. This was more of an inference than anything else; that infuriating boulder-construct made scrying on them a near impossibility. But it was a safe enough conclusion, considering how frequently those apprentices were exposed to danger yet managed to emerge intact.

It was this final detail that Alexius intended to exploit. Two of his own Red Hunters had ties to one of Cale's apprentices—a delightful coincidence, as far as he was concerned—and if he sent them to Brightscale and bade them to cause enough chaos, they would almost certainly distract both Cale and the rest of Brightscale for long enough that Alexius could finish his business here.

After all, what was Cale going to do, kill his apprentice's parents? That was a recipe for eventual betrayal! Alexius had been forced to learn that the hard way himself, once upon a time.

In any case, just as a bit of additional insurance, he prepared a few more things. He gave Eli one of his prototype wyldfire relics to throw a wrench into the works—that way, not only would they be forced to deal with Eli and Mia without killing them, they would also be forced to find a way to save them from their own folly.

One of his advisors had cautioned him against using them in such a way, technically. She'd said something about how Eli and Mia knew about the temple and could tell them about his intentions. But bah, what did she know? Eli and Mia were loyal. They would never give him up. It would take... Alexius had no idea what it would take, but it would take something world-shaking to get them to give up on him. He'd practically raised them!

But one could never be too careful. This was an important project, and even if Cale and Brightscale were dealt with, Alexius had plenty of rivals who would stop at nothing to try and interfere with him if they knew what he was doing. And he hadn't lived for as long as he had without accounting for the off chance that things didn't go according to plan, so he needed defenses in place just in case Cale got around all of his maneuvering and came after him anyway.

Defenses that would work against someone that could kill the Red Commander. He could do that. Alexius ignored the trickle of sweat that dripped down the back of his neck. He wasn't afraid. The idea of that was just preposterous. This was a completely normal amount of preparation he would have made for any potential rival!

So yes, he stationed his best mages outside the temple and commanded his Sentinels to stand guard within. There was no chance anyone on Utelia would be able to fight their way into this central chamber, now, even if Headmaster Akkau himself caught wind of this and came to confront Alexius.

No matter how many legends there were of the old dragon's power, not even he could stand up to the Grand Magus and the forces he commanded. His research stood at the forefront of Utelia's magical knowledge, and what he lacked in personal magical power, he made up for in the powerful artifacts he had forced.

And he'd only had to commit a few war crimes to do it! It was well worth the tradeoff, he thought. Well, not as long as no one ever found out what he'd done, anyway. Especially the Leviathan. It would be best if the Leviathan's gaze never landed anywhere near him.

"You know, perhaps this is rather forward of me, but I am glad to have found you here," Alexius remarked out loud. He'd made a habit of this over the last couple of days. The ritual he was casting would take nearly a week to complete, and there was nothing for him to do other than channel his magic. As much as the Source of Vitality hated him, the remnant had no choice but to respond, so he wasn't as bored as he could have been. "I was running out of raw materials! Abyssal Ones are not so easy to come by, you know, and I suspect I was beginning to draw the Leviathan's attention. Your remains will make the perfect substrate for an artifact that blind her to my actions."

The spirit of Vitality stirred at his words. Its expression was as scornful as ever, glaring down at him with contempt and—was that a hint of pity? Alexius scowled. He hated being pitied.

"You seem nervous, mage," the Source of Vitality said. It leaned toward him, four powerful arms crossed over its armored chest. Its form had been changing constantly ever since Alexius had begun the ritual, and each one felt deliberately designed to make him feel small. He would be glad when this ritual was done. "Are you perhaps finally aware of the blasphemy you are committing? Do you begin to hold some doubt?"

"Pah! Me, doubt myself?" Alexius scoffed. "Preposterous. What reason would I have to doubt my genius? I have a Monolith trapped under my will, if you recall!"

"A dead remnant of one," Vitality said, and it sounded almost amused. "One whose power has been waning for eons. And even then, I seem to recall that you struggled to bind my essence."

"But I did bind you," Alexius said, scowling. "And now you have to do as I command. How many mages could lay claim to such a feat?"

"One," Vitality said. It seemed as though it was smirking. "And it was not my remnant that he was able to bind."

Alexius frowned. The remnant was bound to him—it could not lie, even if it wanted to. But what sort of claim was this? No mage, mortal or immortal, could have bound one of the Monoliths! The whole point of the Monoliths was that they were the pillars of the Great Realms and stood above all others. To stand amongst them would have been an extraordinary feat, and to bind one...

Not even the Monoliths could bind each other. If such a mage had existed, surely he would have heard of them! Had the spirit loosened his bindings, somehow? He checked the ritual, somewhat self-consciously, but found nothing amiss; that couldn't be it.

It was toying with him. It had to be, considering the smirk it was giving him. He didn't know how it was doing it, but it must have been bending the truth, somehow.

But what if it wasn't?

"How?" Alexius demanded, stepping closer. Almost out of his ritual circle, though he was conscious enough of where he stood that he just barely avoided breaking its bounds. "How could a mere mage possibly have bound the Source of Vitality?"

"Do you really wish to know?" Vitality seemed amused again, and for some reason it glanced past him, like it was looking for something far away. It infuriated Alexius. The spirit had been cowed before. Angered by his bindings, yes, but it did not hesitate to answer his questions like this. Why was it playing at defiance now?

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"Of course I do!" Alexius snapped. "Tell me everything. Don't you dare leave a single detail out."

"As you wish," the spirit told him, laughing. It was laughing at him! Alexius scowled again. He would have the last laugh, in the end. He should have thought about doing this before. After all, the secrets a Monolith kept was bound to be invaluable, and if this one knew how to bind a Monolith...

He could only imagine the heights of power he would soon achieve.

Alexius was so lost in this fantasy, so focused on Vitality and its words, that he barely noticed it when the temple around him began to shake.

***

They had defeated the guards standing outside the temple in record time thanks to a combination of pure brute force and trickery. Had Cale been alone, he might simply have blasted his way through the mages, but he would have had to account for a dozen different unique magics and the ways in which they might bypass his defenses. There was the consideration that some of the Hunters guarding the path might have been forced into the job, too—neither the Grand Magus nor the Red Commander were above such a thing.

Cale wasn't certain he would have had the patience to make such a distinction. Fortunately, Syphus's [Depthless Eye] and the wyldfire mages that had joined them meant he didn't have to worry about it. The few mages that had been coerced into the job were easy enough to identify and subdue, in large part thanks to Professor Tarbloom and Instructor Solsburn.

They knew one another, it turned out, and were good friends outside of their classes. Tarbloom's expertise with magical critters and Solsburn's mastery of the blade apparently combine in a strange way—if Tarbloom climbed into Solsburn's armor, they could use their joint knowledge to verbally disarm their opponents in a way that was frankly a little terrifying.

The wyldfire mages, meanwhile, took care of any Hunters that Syphus determined were irredeemable.

By the time they entered the temple, the battlefield was a wreck. One side of it was covered in massive vines grown so thick they were almost a maze, broken only by thorns large enough to envelop buildings. Scattered among those vines were the remains of delicate tables and chairs, with various Hunters bound to their seats. Somehow, not a single cup of tea had been spilt.

The other side held thick spires of ice, unmelting even in the heat of the Golden Sands. Each spire had a single feather embedded in its tip, and the base of each spire was broken and cracked. Most had a Hunter buried halfway inside the spire, with a very clear imprint of Dark Warrior Evi's fist in whatever armor they wore.

And so Cale and his companions stepped unopposed into the temple dedicated to the Source of Vitality.

Cale's brows furrowed slightly as he took it in. The temple's interior had changed. Cale remembered great murals painted upon the walls, each one telling a story of the so-called Wanderer. Those murals were still present, but several were jumbled together, overlapping strangely or simply cutting off entirely. The opening chamber itself was still the same shape, but—

"There is a spatial domain in effect," Professor Sternkessel said. "I believe this is how they were able to prevent us from teleporting directly into the heart of the temple."

"I figured as much," Cale muttered, closing his eyes and extending his senses. The shape of the opening chamber may have been the same, but he could feel that the layout of the temple had changed. There was no great pit that led down toward the Source of Vitality. Instead, a series of chambers had been conjured, each one layered with domain magic and embedded with...

"Red Relics," Flia said, straightening. "I can sense them."

Cale could hear the anger in her voice, could see the turbulence in her magic. She was aching to do something, and her mana was responding to her will. Her intent dug deeper into her own magic, saturating the palewater within her until it began to proliferate through her mana channels in glowing streams.

But there was no direction for her to channel that anger in. She was holding herself back, if only barely, on the verge of a breakthrough but not quite able to reach it. Her magic flickered erratically within her, and Damien looked at her in concern, though he hesitated to speak.

"They're here, yes," Cale acknowledged. He brushed his fingers over one of the chamber's walls and stared at the crumbling dust on his fingers, and a faint look of disgust came over his face. "They've been scattered over the walls to empower the domain."

"The Grand Magus would have had to destroy quite a number of his precious relics to do this," Akkau rumbled. "Whatever he is trying to do with your friend, he must believe it worth the exchange."

"Fool," Thorn muttered, and there was a scattered murmur of agreement.

"Can we still save them?" Flia asked. The question practically burst out of her, and Cale could sense the desperation beneath it, even if she masked it well. Each Red Relic was made out of an Abyssal One, the final remnant of a civilization given form and laid to rest in the Abyss; it had been her task to find and retrieve them. Flia could not stand the idea that she had been too late.

"Yes," Cale said. Flia's shoulders relaxed slightly at his words, and Leo put a hesitant, reassuring hand on her shoulder. "Abyssal Ones aren't that easy to kill. They can be bound and reshaped—or more accurately, convinced to take one form over another—but they can still be released. We'll have to take care of the mage keeping them in that form, though."

"The Red Mother," Yra said. Cale and the others all looked up at her.

Yra was the Red Phoenix's true name, before she had been bound into the service of the Red Commander and then the Grand Magus. She remembered nothing of when or how it had happened, only that it had and that she wanted revenge. If she could not exact it upon the Red Commander, then she would exact it upon the Grand Magus, upon whom she laid equal blame.

She was, therefore, eager to share what she knew of the internal operations of the Red Hunters and of the remaining two Red Sentinels.

"Sivi is the only one amongst us to have joined the Sentinels willingly." Yra said the words without emotion, but there was bitterness in her eyes. "The Grand Magus keeps her with him most of the time. She swallows the Abyssal Ones and makes the changes according to his instruction. When she is done, she births them again as a Red Relic."

"Oh, gods," Leo said, looking disgusted. There were various shudders of agreement in the group, though Cale himself didn't react. He'd seen worse in his time in the Realms.

"She is capable, but I doubt she will prove much of an obstacle to this group. She may be able to slow you down, however. Her magic gives her great control over the relics she has produced." Yra glanced down at her talons and flexed them contemplatively. "If you are pressed for time, I believe I can occupy her in your stead."

"I thought you wanted revenge on the Grand Magus," Syphus said, cocking its head.

"My revenge will be complete, as long as he does not achieve what he wants," Yra said with a shrug. "The man's greatest flaw is his pride. To fail at what should be his greatest triumph will scar him far more than my claws ever could. I request only that you produce the memory for me to revisit."

"Fair enough," Cale said. He was already striding deeper into the temple—he could feel the ritual being cast deep within, and he had very little patience left. The changes to the temple would slow them down enough. They would be forced to move through each chamber one by one, confronting whatever traps the Grand Magus had laid in their way.

Cale moved through the first two chambers without stopping, ignoring both the physical and magical traps that tried to trigger and stop him. Several spikes snapped against his barrier, and the wards that tripped failed against his [Auric Dominion]. He still hated the feeling of that spell, but it made things faster, here.

The third chamber held the third Red Sentinel, and Yra cautioned them to stop. "Be careful," she warned. "The Red Beast is a creature that few can stand against. Fortify your minds, or—"

Cale did not stop. He stepped into the chamber, then frowned slightly at what he found within. "That's just a puppy."

The puppy looked startled, at first, then barked with annoyance. "I am not just a puppy," he said. "I am the great archmage Ixizonivek, resurrected by the Grand Magus with ancient magic! No mortal body can contain my spirit, so the Grand Magus has temporarily placed me into this vessel, such that I may—hey, what are you doing? Stop! Stop, I say! I will enact terrible violence against you if you do not put me down this instant!"

"Satchel," Cale said, turning to Flia with the so-called Red Beast held up by the scruff of his neck. It yipped and growled at him, struggling against his grip, but for all its claims about its magical might, it seemed entirely unable to escape. He sensed no attempt to cast an active spell, even.

"Here," Flia said. She reached into a satchel, pulled a second satchel out from within, then opened in so that Cale could put the Red Beast inside.

"Woe upon you!" the puppy said. "Woe upon your—oh. This is nice, actually. I think I'm going to take a nap."

Yra was staring at them. "What... how are you..."

"This thing uses fear magic, doesn't it?" Cale said. "I can see how he'd be devastating if you sent him to deal with most mages. A lot of people clawing their own eyes out, that kind of thing?"

"That is the usual response, yes," Yra said cautiously. The other mages were now looking at the puppy in Flia's satchel with a great deal more concern, though Flia herself simply adjusted the position of the satchel across her waist.

"Right," Cale said. "Well, everyone here is immune. It's a known weakness of fear magic. Doesn't work on people if they've been in more danger than the fear magic can manifest at its peak. It preys on your helplessness, basically, so if it can't create a danger that'll make you feel helpless, it can't really do anything."

AND PUTTING A CRITTER IN A COMFORTABLE BAG IS A KNOWN WEAKNESS OF CRITTERS, Tarbloom added helpfully, scrawling the words quickly across their chalkboard.

"Ah. That makes sense, now," Leo said, relaxing. The other mages in the group all nodded in agreement. All except for Yra, anyway, who still looked baffled.

No one felt the need to elaborate, though. They kept moving.

***

The Red Mother was a grotesque creature. Sivi, as Yra called her, was a pulsing lump of flesh attached to the corner of her chamber by a sprawling set of tendrils that seemed to have melded together with the walls of the chamber. A single, wet-looking eye opened in the middle of the lump with a distinct squelch to greet them, and then a mouth opened somewhere beneath, though it was hidden by the flesh.

"Ah..." Sivi gurgled. "You have freed our Phoenix, I see. Does she come for revenge? Or do you seek favor from the Ones of Flesh? I retain my mind, unlike the others. I could deal with you. Would you care for immortality? For perfect beauty, perhaps? For a body that will make others fawn over you? All I ask is that you step into my maw, and you will be reborn..."

"Yra," Cale said, and the former Red Phoenix stepped forward, claws brandished.

The Red Mother quivered for a moment as she understood what was happening. Then she launched herself forward with a speed that was entirely unexpected; her tendrils flexed all at once, and she leapt through the air, intent on clamping down around Yra, who forced her back with a sword of blazing flame. The whole temple shook with the force of the clash.

At the same time, the moment the Red Mother's tendrils left the walls, the chambers began to dissolve around them. The weight of spatial magic around them vanished.

"Sternkessel," Cale said, expressionless. Professor Sternkessel nodded, and the group vanished away from the fight to reappear before the Grand Magus.