Chapter 3: Power, Struggles, and a fast escape.

"Get out of my house." Gerald stated grumpily.

Those were the first words out of his mouth as he entered his house, and Gerald hadn't said those words in many a year. Not since...

"I didn't say you could get away, Warlock." The way she said 'Warlock' was so sarcastic and her tone so dismissal that it was then that, upon looking back, Gerald decided that this wasn't going to end without magic on his side.

"I'm not a-"

"Shut up." The feel of magic boiled around Lydia, who lay on the hay that made up Gerald's bed. Her anger was on full display in her eyes and face.

"You couldn't make me even if you tried, weakling." Gerald countered. His mind latched onto the feel of magic. The warmth and light always feeling amazing.

A magic spell was already forming around her. A Druid's teleportation spell. It was large too as it covered the entire hut. Gerald just waited. 'Surely, she isn't this stupid.' He thought. He countered the spell, just as she cast it. Her smile, smug as she pushed herself from the hay, told him that she felt it had gone off without a hitch. "Well, we'll see who's so smart now." Her tone spoke of triumph, and carried an attitude so full of herself, that Gerald almost laughed at how foolish she looked. "Welcome to the Green!" She then pushed passed him, lay her hand on the door, and pulled it open.

She was so full of herself that she didn't even notice that they were in the same place until she had taken two steps into the rain.

"Goodbye." Gerald said, and closed the door behind her. He barred the door with some old magic, and he immediately began to pack up his things. 'If they can find me here, then I'll have to keep on the run.' He thought. After a few moments, mostly because of the disbelief that swirled around Lydia's mind, there came a loud pounding on the door. "Just a minute!" He called in a sickly sweet tone and he slid item after item into his coat pocket. It was an old Gin spell, and one that might make the Everseekers aware of his existence, but it was definitely one of the more useful magics that he knew of. There was the sound of cursing, shouting, screeching, and even a word of power at the door, but none of them opened it. It took less than 15 minutes for Gerald to finish pulling items into his coat pocket for transportation, and it was then that he looked around.

The place may not have been big, or near tall enough for him, but it had become a second home to him in the few years he had been hiding here. "Maybe I'll return." He told himself, but in his heart he felt that he would, most likely, never be returning. "Maybe when the world is renewed."

When he was finally ready, he pulled open the door and pushed past Lydia (without any hesitation or holding back, and it literally pushed her to the ground), and began walking into the row of trees in front of him. He knew where he was going, even in the rain. He had planned for this possibility. He felt magic pull at him, but he simply countered the Druidess' magics and kept moving forward at a brisk pace. The woman followed, still calling his name and shouting at him to stop.

After reaching the trees, he quickly walked to the most magic rich area of the nearby woods. Footsteps on the fallen leaves told him that she was following more than her voice saying broken fragments of spells, her magic wild and passionate, but becoming more and more uncontrolled. 'That won't do.' He thought. 'I think it's time to force her away.' As he thought and she screamed and lashed out at him with both her magic and her hands on his back, he entered a wide meadow. The place was Gerald's favorite spot on this corner of the world. Even Lydia's shrieking went silent.

Everything in the meadow lay dead.

Grey needles of what were once long blades of grass filled the meadow, and even the trailing rain was not going to renew it. The stream bed lay empty though one could almost hear the forgotten music of the spring that should have fed it. And three large trunks of trees, white with age but holding no rot, stood tall and treeless.

"This place is evil..." Lydia muttered, her eyes wide as she glanced at the meadow. Gerald just smiled widely and walked into it. Death magic had no hold on him, after all.

"Ashgur dorium, hilspA, ren." He said as he entered. Lydia did not follow. The words he spoke were of an old poem his mother had taught him in his youth millennia ago. Not that his mother was in this world anymore. The war had seen to that.

"What in the hells IS this place?" Lydia shouted.

"My home away from home." Gerald said, turning back to her. He gathered the magic of the place into himself. He filled his hidden reservoirs and filled himself almost to the brim. Even to someone without magic, he would have felt different. To Lydia, he looked as though he were brimming with light. In that moment, Gerald was the most powerful man in the world (had he known it).

Lydia, however, remained defiant. "GO FILL YOURSELF WITH MAGIC, WARLOCK! IT MAKES NO DIFFERENCE!"

"Doesn't it?" He responded. He stepped closer to her. "Want to put your life where your mouth is?"

"My-"

"A duel." He interrupted, magically showing the sign of the duel on his hand. "All you need to do is take my hand. The loser will be the winner's slave for a year. A single year. I hardly need remind you of how short of a time that is for your, long lived, race."

The magical glow was beginning to fade from Gerald, thought it wasn't because he wasn't brimming with power. Merely that he had begun to suppress it. A duel was one thing, but if he came with everything he had... well... she'd be dead before she could take a breath. Her pride, and perhaps the suppression of the glow, made her feel more confident and once he was finally in reach of her arm, she quickly grabbed hold.

"Hit me with your best spells." He warned. "Don't hold back."

And so she did. Even with the amount of magic she had been unleashing on him as she had followed him and the teleportation spell, she still had much magic to throw at him. 'If only she knew...' He thought. Immediately after taking his hand, the trees bent down and attempted to grab him. The first tree to touch him immediately fell to the ground, its roots shriveled and dead, while the second burst into high flames and shattered into ash near its living counterparts. Still more followed. He countered all of her spells with ease, his own magic far more powerful than she could possibly have, then, known. In true druid form, most of her spells involved the land and plants around him. But death comes for all. Root, twig, and tree.

He didn't attack her back, but simply countered her spells with his own. Warlock magic being far older, far stronger, and much more catalogued and prepared than she had ever thought possible in her short lifespan. Had you been there to watch this duel, you would have see amazing feats from the trees, roots, grasses, and even the earth beneath Gerald's feet. But, you would have seen a very bored Gerald.

After several minutes of this beating, Lydia leaned against a tree, her breathing become more ragged and gasping. Magic may make you feel like you have the world on a string, but it still takes energy (especially mental energy) to direct it or stop it from overwhelming you.

Gerald smiled and stepped towards her. "Would you like a respite?" He kindly offered.

"Go worship Geez." She cursed back at him, her harsh breathing renewing. (Geez was the god of destruction, and worshipping him would be similar to worshipping chaos)

"I suggest surrendering then, my little Druidess. I may even give you mercy."

"Save it, Warlock!" She shouted. "I don't know what trick or illusion your using-"

"BERG." He stated, and his eyes burned with power. As for Lydia, she had begun screaming in agony and she fell on the ground, writhing in it. The pain was, technically, not real, but to her mind it certainly felt real. It was a Warlock spell, and Gerald intended to teach her a lesson with it. "Sha" He said after a minute, allowing her to lay among the fallen leaves and shudder. "Feel strong yet, Druidess?" Her eyes flashed angrily at him. "Didn't think so. Would you care to surrender?"

"Suck Geez."

At this, Gerald began to lose his temper. "I've tried to be nice." He muttered, mostly to himself. "I even used nothing more than Warlock magics to prove a point, but it appears that I need to show you who you are REALLY MESSING WITH." With the last three words, his eyes flashed and a darkness seeped over the meadow and everything around it. Small skeletons flitted through the trees, their squirrel bodies long since disintegrated with the rotting of time. The tall skeleton of a man carrying a large axe then seemed to appear out of nowhere from behind a tall tree.

"What the-" Her magic went wild, the trees attacking the squirrels, but the axe wielding skeletal man kept marching forward and towards her. "You... you can't..." She backed away in horror at the skeleton and literally backed into Gerald's legs. "You... You're not a Warlock!"

"So I said." He replied, keeping his concentration on what he was doing. If he messed up, then surely someone in town would die from an uncontrolled skeleton. The skeletal man lumbered nearer to her, walking much as it had in life, save the flesh of the living. "But please don't say what I am. It'll attract... unwanted attention."

"Necro..."

"I asked you not to." Gerald interrupted, looking down at her, his eyes dark and his frown deep. "Now I'll ask you again, will you surrender?"

"YES!" She shouted, her eyes fearful beyond measure. "YES, OH GODS YES, JUST PLEASE DON'T TURN ME INTO ONE OF THEM!"

"You are hereby my slave for a full year then." He reminded her.

"I don't care... just... call them off." Her fear had crumpled her onto his feet.

"Fin!" He called, and just like that the skeletons and darkness were gone as they turned back into piles of ashes. The trees were back to their normal places. And the rain lessened on its usual pace.

Lydia stood. Her eyes wide, her breathing shallow, and her rage obvious. "One year." She muttered. "Then you're coming with me."

"More like you're coming with me." He said smiling, offering her a hand.

"I'm not going anywhere with a Necromancer." The word was out before Gerald could do anything to stop it. Immediately, there was the sounding of a loud gong, and the rain ended around them. Magic filled the air and the obvious signs of teleportation were surrounding them. "Come." He stated, grabbing her by the arm, and pulling her away quickly and deeper into the trees. She tried to scream for help, but her voice wouldn't work, or at least it didn't seem to. Gerald had already seen to that eventuality. Due to the power of the duel mark, Lydia could not physically disobey a direct order, but that didn't mean that she made it easy.

Shouts were behind them. "Condemn those Everseekers." He muttered, as he pulled Lydia behind him. "I'm just glad that they're stupid."

His magic was running low. Especially since he hadn't used much in the way of magic since moving to Woodstand, but this was no time to stand on ceremony. "In my arms, now." He insisted. The power of the contract pulled Lydia into Gerald's arms and he held her in a tight embrace. "Go." He muttered, and they were far, far, away from Woodstand. From the Green. From most of the world that Lydia had ever seen or wished to see...