Spellscribed: Ascension (4 page)

 
                    Endrance concentrated and spoke the word of power for his spell. "Silustrius." he muttered, holding up a clenched fist. Bright rays of light leaked out around the fingers of his hand and he released his clenched fist.  He watched as hundreds of tiny specks of light exploded out into the air. Some bounced off the stone of the walls, floor, or support columns, but came to a halt shortly after bouncing. Others slowed to a stop, having found a place where it could shed its light unhindered. The spell was a modification of his original light spell, and it was exceptionally good at blanketing a room with even lighting. Now that it was designed to perform in this manner, the spell worked much better than when he had first accidentally cast it; and the hundreds of specks each gleamed more brightly than when they had originally been created.

 
                    Some of the masons had come and repaired the damage that Endrance's battle had done to the floor, but there were still scorch marks and lightning scarring on the walls and ceiling. One of the eight pillars had been defaced, an outer layer of stone chipped off roughly. Four pillars on either side of the main hall and the right pillar closest to the throne looked like they had taken chisels to it.

 
                    Endrance kicked a stone chip out of the way as he approached the throne. The back had not been repaired and remained snapped off where the king had collided with it during their battle. Only a small triangle of stone remained in one corner where the stone had not broken evenly.

 
                    Nearby was the spot where Anna had died. The blood had since been cleaned away, Kalenden’s corpse burned, and the dead Draugnoa given to her family who would finally be able to bury her. The sword Kalenden left behind had been set on the ground near the throne; no one wanted to have anything to do with the weapon of someone struck from the mountain.

 
                    Anna’s family had received the body with dry-eyed gratitude, but none of them mourned for her. To them, she had died many months before, when she had been ‘sacrificed’ to him as an appeasement. Though the family had accepted she was dead long before, they were glad her body had finally made its way back to them so they could give it proper treatment.

 
                    Endrance sighed and sat upon the broken throne. He held his head in his hands, so tired of the ache in his chest. Since the day he returned Anna’s body to them, his heart had felt broken. How many more times would he feel this pain of loss? Three more times? Thirty? Three hundred?

 
                    With the lifespan that comes from having great magical energy, he would see quite a few people grow old and die, if they even lived that long. It was no small wonder his master, Kaelob, was considered a crackpot. He was over eight hundred years old and had been around since the beginning of Ironsoul. He'd mentioned a few times how much more harsh life had been before the kingdoms were united.

 
                    Sitting on the throne, Endrance felt that niggling worm of instinct in the back of his mind. He had accidentally captured the sum of the king's spellcasting experience, making Endrance almost instantaneously quite well read in demonology and summoning. He had kept the information locked away inside his head, in an imagined library inside his mind where he sorted all his memories and knowledge.

 
                    Capturing spell knowledge wasn't all that was gained from the king. He had also gotten a few surface memories, impressions, and worst of all, the man left behind an imprint of his instincts. While other imprints had faded completely with time, Kalenden's ego had been very strong and had faded very little in the month since that battle. Endrance had to keep pushing it down, or else it would influence his actions.

 
                    That instinct was urging him to take up the sword, hunt down Bridget, and finish her off. She was of no use to him broken, and if she really wanted to die why should he not grant her wish? Once that business was done, he could pin that half-demon bitch down, rip off her clothes and-

 
                    Endrance shook his head, grimacing. He pushed it back out of his mind for the moment. Kalenden's ego was strong; it had to be in order to force demons to do his bidding. It had faded a little, but being there, at the seat of the man's power, caused it to surge up in strength. A thought nagged at the wizard as he kept control of his ego.

 
                    “Is this... the seat of your power?" he asked aloud. If he was a demon summoner, he would need a circle. A large and powerful one for what he had been doing. None of the men searching the castle for the child had seen a circle, and drawing a new one every time was dangerous. Too many chances of making a mistake. He'd have crafted a permanent circle somewhere, after double and triple checking to make sure it was perfect.

 
                    So it had to be hidden somewhere. That would be the seat of his power. But he didn't know where. Endrance closed his eyes and concentrated, relaxing his body and slipping into the meditative state he used to access the library.

 
                    The library in his mind was much bigger than it had been when he had first imagined it years ago while training with Kaelob. Then it had been one floor, with red curtains and wooden walls and a fireplace to read by. The rest of it had been hazy and indistinct and never had much sharpened focus. Things seemed fuzzy, indistinct unless specifically called upon, and nothing had much detail. It was almost more like a dreaming state than an imagined room. Only when he started getting better at focusing his mind did the room change, becoming white marble and vaulted ceilings. The framework of his years of training had noted results.

 
                    Ever since he came to Balator it had taken on a sharp contrast, where details flooded in around him and felt as much like reality as the world outside his meditations. The library had three floors, a central circular reflecting pool, shelves upon shelves of subjects he’d studied; and shelves empty and bare, ready to accept new knowledge in the inviting way that a newly polished wood shelf invites someone to place things upon it. Now he had additional rooms, and the back wall of the library held a large bay window with red velvet curtains. The window shed a soft white light, as did several crystal chandeliers that hung in a geometrically pleasing pattern.

 
                    There was an abundance of furniture, even couches. Some of the other rooms had beds, even though the idea of sleeping inside his head while he was meditating seemed a level too deep for his present state of mind. There was even an elaborate gold detailed pair of large redwood doors that was supposed to lead 'out' of his mind. The doors were closed and Endrance had not yet explored beyond. That was beyond his ability at this time.

 
                    He appeared at the edge of the reflecting pool, as he always did. His reflection smiled back at him. Here he appeared in some of the finest, most comfortable pants and tunic he had ever worn, with soft soled shoes he had loved wearing until they had fallen apart on him. The clothes were memories from his life, and he chose them because they were some of the things he treasured. His hair was hanging loose and not held back in a ponytail as he usually did while he was working.

 
                    Endrance turned to the shelves on a side wall and spread his hands at his side, facing the palms to the shelves on that wall. Immediately he lifted off the ground and rode up to the second floor shelves, riding on a current of imagined force. The shelves there were of blackened wood and locked away with a barbed, black iron grate that was as menacing as he could imagine. Chains locked the grate into place, the ends of which were bolted into the stone walls.

 
                    Endrance snapped his fingers, and the chains were undone. He flicked his hands apart and the grate flung open, revealing the books within. Dozens of black hide tomes clogged the shelves in contrasting disarray compared to the rest of his library. Even the single row on one of the first floor shelves holding the goblin shaman's gathered knowledge was more ordered than the information gathered from the king. Endrance carefully looked through the shelves before finding the book he wanted and pulled it off the shelf. He flicked his hand at the shelves and the grate dropped back into position. The chains slithered into place, locking it back down.

 
                    Endrance drifted over to a chair and sat down. He ran his hand over the dull gray book that couldn't hold more than fifty pages. Only slightly larger than the palm of his hand, Endrance untied the thread holding the book closed and flipped to the front page of the book. Castle Balator, by King Kalenden. Endrance started reading through it, looking for signs of the circle he needed to find.

 
                    Endrance opened his eyes, back in the throne room. In reality, very little time had passed, but in his mind he had all the time in the world. Endrance had learned a few things about the castle he didn't really care to know, but he had found what he needed. Now he knew where every secret passage, chamber pot, and prison cell there was to be found inside the castle.

 
                    He stood, walked down the small dais of steps to the floor. He stooped, hauling the bastard sword left behind upright. Point down in the rock, the sword was a one and a half-hander with a black steel blade with sharpened barbs on either side. Despite the month of inactivity and being left covered in dried blood, the sword was still of extraordinary quality, the barbs were measured in inches, in staggered form.

 
                    The blade will be necessary. Endrance checked through what he had learned. Walking towards the back of the throne room, he went up to the back wall. He stepped over Kalenden's corpse, careful not to touch it. The whole castle was made of black stone, the rarest of the stones quarried from the mountain. As Endrance approached, he felt his skin start to crawl again. He at first thought that it was specifically a reaction to being around Kalenden, but he had not felt the sensation when the King had visited his home, only whenever he was in the throne room. Every time before, the King had been there.  But now that he was dead, there was no doubting it was something about the castle that set his senses off.

 
                    He walked along the wall; just off center, he found some stonework that looked like two half circles of stone with a seam down the middle. Struggling to raise the blade, Endrance hefted the sword and pushed the point of it into the seam. The sword slid in easily, each barb evoking a click from the stone as it passed in. The weapon sank in to the hilt and a loud final click echoed through the otherwise silent chamber. Endrance hesitated a few seconds, then twisted the sword to his right. The stones and sword rotated together, the metal sliding along the stone just barely. One half rotation passed and the sword stopped.

 
                    A portion of the wall recessed and slowly swung open. The hinges on the door were well oiled and made almost no noise. Endrance left the sword in the wall and walked over to examine the secret passage. His skin crawled with the sensation of powerful magic coming from down the passage. Endrance took a breath, and walked in.

Chapter 03
                     The stone walls of the passage were smooth cut, evidence of its purpose as an escape for the king. Walking down the passage led him into darkness, as the lights in the throne room grew farther and farther away. Endrance knew that at a certain point the passage led into the mountain itself and used to be a sort of cave system before Kalenden had made his modifications.

 
                    Endrance stopped, having counted his paces. He traveled in the dark and was sure he'd gone the exact distance Kalenden's memories had prescribed. This way led to the important chamber. Endrance channeled some of his power, held up a clenched fist, and with a word released more specks of light. The glowing specks bounced off a much smaller room and every time they collided with each other before settling they would merge into a bigger, slightly brighter light.

 
                    The room was only barely a room, more of an expansion of the passageway. It opened up into rough-hewn rock almost twenty feet across and twenty high. On the side walls were two burnt out torches on each side. The far end had a disc of stone, set into the floor of the chamber. While composed of several blocks, the circle had been specially cut to sit seamlessly without mortar.

 
                    Across the stone floor lay a perfectly round circle that looked to be fifteen feet across as far as Endrance could guess. The circle, including all script, lines, and symbology, were carved in stone and filled in with gold. Several precious gems were set at key junctions in the circle, further channeling the power it was meant to use.

 
                    Endrance hadn't looked at the information that Kalenden had left behind, but he did know enough about circles to know that this one was a very powerful, very large circle. It was meant to be permanent and the protection spells were something to be admired for their power and elegance. It was too elegant for it to have been Kalenden's design.

 
                    "So this is what Valeria gave him." Endrance whispered reverently. The skill used to make this was definitely of wizard caliber talent and experience. Kalenden was a skilled summoner, but many of the designs in this circle were something learned from study of more than just the summoning arts. It also required skill at crafting, something Kalenden had no experience in.

 
                    Endrance looked down at his bracer, and then over at the circle. The script on both matched perfectly on several key phrases. The carving style had no variations to indicate a different caster had designed them.

 
                    "Damn it!" he exclaimed. "It was the same person."

 
                    He knew he had a problem. A huge problem. Valeria was the Archmagus of Ironsoul until she passed the title on to the Magus Talos, nearly seventeen years ago. She died almost a year later.

 
                    Kalenden had believed he had been making deals with her for the last fifteen years. The fact that Endrance knew the bracer was made by the same person who had once trained his master, the same person who had made this circle some time after her 'death', meant that either she had never died in the first place, or she had planned far more in advance than he thought.

 
                    Endrance needed to destroy the circle without causing any damage to the castle. With it, he could then tell the people outside that he'd cleansed the place of Kalenden's evil. Then he needed to find out what happened with the past Archmagus. The first person he would seek out to ask was Kaelob.

 
                    Endrance drew up some of his power and prepared to unleash it when he heard a ripping growl cut through the air behind him. Whirling, he saw the black shape of a horned woman with wings rushing down the hallway at him. For an instant, he thought he recognized her.

 
                    "Selene?" he asked, backing away. His hesitation was foolish, as what came at him was not the woman he was expecting.

 
                    It was too late to react when she burst into the light and the wizard recognized the succubus that had accompanied Kalenden. Despite her supernatural beauty, the succubus looked starved and tattered as she flew through the air at him. Whatever remained of her clothes were in shreds that barely covered her.

 
                    "Finally!" She hissed, slamming into the mage in a full-on tackle. Endrance cried out in pain and surprise as he crashed into the stone floor, but his cry was cut short as she kissed him full on the mouth, her tongue snaking into his mouth and twining with his. Almost instantly Endrance felt a wash of power cut into him and take away his pain. His thinking grew fuzzy and his vision swam as the succubus finally disengaged the kiss. Inhaling deeply as she did so.

 
                    The wizard felt a drain on his aura and a thin stream of luminous golden wind slipped from his mouth into hers. She swallowed it down, and the change was immediate. Her body became healthy and no longer looked starved, her breasts filled out, and her hair regained its sleek black shine. Instead of moving off of him or killing him, she instead lay across his body and rubbed her chest against his, gyrating her hips.

 
                    Endrance blinked repeatedly, confused and knocked off his center. It must be a succubus thing, because Selene had done much the same thing a month ago. Endrance knew succubi drew their sustenance from magic gained by acts of physical intimacy, but he didn't think that she'd recover that much.

 
                    "Oh so delicious." the demon purred, nuzzling his neck, the mage acutely aware of how pointed her fangs were. "So much food, and in such a small package." she caressed the side of his face with a talon as she did so. "I guess they might be right. I shouldn’t judge a mage by his… cover. I could just keep you"

 
                    Endrance struggled to get his focus back. "Keep me?" he managed to stammer out. The motions of her body were making him twitchy and his masculinity uncomfortable. He felt a tickle along his side and her pressed flesh felt hotter against his.

 
                    She licked the side of his neck as she pulled herself up to whisper in his ear, all the while rubbing against his body with hers. The contact of her tongue to his neck put the hairs on his body on end, and more wisps of power seeped off his neck and into her mouth. "I mean," she whispered, nibbling on the lobe of his ear. "If I didn't need you to get home, I would keep you in a room and suck every last drop of power out of you before I grant you a death men only dream of, you beautiful, powerful man." her voice was breathy and hot, and again he had to struggle to concentrate.

 
                    This was a very dangerous situation, Endrance realized somewhere in the back of his muddled thoughts. If he didn't stop her from proceeding, she'd probably molest him to death and he wouldn't even have the will to stop her. Joven would probably laugh if he saw him now.

 
                   
I have to get her off...of me. Off of me! Get her away!
Endrance thought desperately.

Endrance closed his eyes and tried to concentrate. His attempt faltered as he realized he felt something soft, smooth, and pliant in his palms. She had placed his hands... somewhere.

                     "You have enough power you could feed me for an hour and still have enough left to open the portal..." She purred, her talons slicing easily down the side of his shirt. "Maybe I'll play with you for a while after all."

 
                    The part of Endrance that was terrified was being swiftly overwhelmed by the part of him that wanted her to... play with him. He was young, and surely he could still take care of the problem after he sent her home happy, right? All he had to do was cooperate and take control of the situation as it progressed. He could feel his body ceasing its resistance.

 
                    The wizard shook his head violently, drawing on what little was left of his will. Instead of saying anything in resistance, he slid his right palm under her to her stomach. She took his clumsy pawing as giving in to her power and brought their lips together for another kiss. His vision swam once again and his mind felt wrapped in fluffed cotton. He had to act.

 
                    Drawing on some of the energy she was draining from him, he channeled it through to the spell scribed in his right palm. The spell he had tattooed on the palm of his hand was designed to propel whatever rested in it with great force, turning small objects into lethal arrows; or flinging larger targets a short distance. In his confusion, he wasn’t sure how much power he had put into the spell.

 
                    Gold spell light radiated out from his hand and across her skin and the succubus was launched off of him by her midsection. Her fangs sliced his lower lips open as her mouth and tongue whipped away from him, drawing up splashes of fresh blood. The demoness crashed into the ceiling with a loud crack. Endrance immediately felt his mind clear some, and  he was able to roll out of the way as she fell back down towards him. By the twisted angle of her wings, he could guess they were broken by the impact.

 
                    The succubus curled into a ball, cradling her stomach and gasping for air. It seemed that even some demons needed to breathe. She looked at him from where she curled; her square-pupil eyes were wide in pain and fear.

 
                    "You... you hurt me?" she whispered. "You weren't supposed to hurt me."

 
                    Endrance, his head rapidly clearing with no small help from the practical buzz of power in the air coming from the circle, shrugged. "You weren't supposed to rape me or eat me, but you were trying to." He said, with a wince at his bloody lips. He formed the quick hand symbols as he channeled power, murmured the words and wiped his left hand over his lower lip. White light crackled at the edges of the cuts and his lips healed.

 
                    "I can't help it!" the succubus groaned, her head rocking back. Endrance saw one of her horns had an inch of the tip broken off. "It's my nature!"

 
                    A shudder ran through him and he realized at last that he was shirtless; nothing of his shirt remained and the front of his pants had been undone. When had she done that? Endrance felt a twinge of sympathy for the creature, but knew to ignore it. Succubi were known for being manipulative and crafty. He backed to the wall farthest from the demon and crossed his arms.

 
                    "It may be your nature, but you shouldn't be here in the first place, demon." he said. "That is not your nature."

 
                    She managed to pull herself up to an upright sitting position. A trickle of black blood dripped from the corner of her mouth. Endrance could see that part of her stomach was caved in from the spell, shaped like his handprint. Any normal creature would have died from the spell, but a demon was something tougher and stronger. She would eventually recover from the injury, given enough time. In her starved state, it could be days.

 
                    "I can't leave on my own." The demoness responded. "The circle is designed to bind for a year and a day. You killed the man only a few days after the binding." She raised and dropped her hands uselessly, a very human seeming gesture. "I'm here until the binding ends, or someone banishes me back."

 
                    If she tried to leave the castle, she'd have to fight past a dozen armed men and several more crossbowmen outside if she tried to fly off. Returning to her plane of hell sounded like a better option. Endrance knew in his head lay the method to banish her back to the hell she came from, but he was loath to try accessing such knowledge without absolute need.

 
                    Demonology and summoning was treacherous but powerful work. He had to try to get something out of this exchange. He could also just destroy the thing. It was a demon, and would try to do the same if the odds were any different. It might even be the safer option; demons had long memories, from what he had been taught.

 
                    "I know how to banish you." Endrance offered, tying up his pants again.

 
                    The demoness looked at him evenly. "You do?" she asked, curious. "Kalenden never said anything about you knowing any of his magic."

 
                    Endrance shrugged. "I do now," he said, "and I won't even have to destroy you to do it, if you don't try to molest me any further."

 
                    The succubus looked regretful. "I can try not to." she promised.

 
                    Endrance watched her for a moment before he realized that trying to discern a lie from a demon was a harder feat than killing one. "Fair enough." he responded, his eyes unfocused. He didn't want to present so weak a target as to completely go slack and close his eyes in meditation. He didn't even think meditating would be possible to him in that environment with so much power around, it felt like his skin was buzzing.