The City Of Mages Arc : Hands Held in the dark

"Alex." A voice calls to the lad, he opens his eyes to an all-encompassing black screen,

"Sir Gavin?" he answers, the last thing he remembers before the darkness is entering the ancient temple, other than his sword's handle the lad feels disconnected to his own body, suspended in the empty void. He channels his essence into his blade, lighting it in a green spiralling flame, in the light of his blade he sees Gavin standing right next to him, his body is wrapped in thorn vines, that begin to bloom black roses that emit a thin blue vapour, his eyes are watery, his face distant and emotionless.

"The air is poison; my flowers are releasing the anti-toxins. Stay calm and assess the situation." Gavin whispers, suddenly an emerald fire conjures itself in the darkness and towers over the teenager and his mentor, its ice cold light illuminates the small area around the two.

"You're probably wondering why I let you live. I haven't, I need to use you both to test the spell." Maria's voice echoes from within the flames, the sound of her voice floods the lad with mixed emotions.

"I don't know what you think you'll accomplish, but even if your spell works the Highest Order won't allow such dark magic to exist" says Gavin.

"If that's the case the highest order is a worse monster then the Behemoth" Alex gnashes his teeth as he summons all the strength he could into his powerless legs, dragging him a single step forward. "It will be a while till the gas wears off." Her voice says. "While we wait for the spell to finish simmering let me tell to you a story." Maria's flame rapidly expands and swallows the two knights in its blaze. "I lived completely once" The fire dissipates and the cold darkness is replaced by blinding sunlight, Alex feels a familiar breeze blow through his hair, the vision that greets the lad's eyes is that of a red bricked street and white cottages, bustling with lively villagers, they smile as they interact with one another as the sun is setting in the horizon.

Alex looks to his right and sees his mentor standing next to him with tears running down his face, he turns to his left and sees a little girl no older than seven crouched against a wall, with a spiralling ball of green plasma floating on the surface of her palm, Maria thinks of the lad as he observes the child experiment with the ball of essence. Whistling and cheers brake his observation, he turns to see his own likeness on horseback, as a crowd cheers and claps, a vision of the future? He thinks. "A memory of the past." Answers Maria's voice. Alex carefully examines the knight on horseback and recognizes him as non-other than his own father just younger, he has barely had any memories of his old man smiling so seeing Broin with a grin on his face as he triumphantly marches down the street is an odd feeling for the lad.  Broin rides up to lad and the little girl, disembarks and walks past Alex to stand in front of the young Maria, watching her mould the orb into different shapes as the crowd gathers around them. After a while the orb disperses she looks up finally sees all the onlookers looking down at her, so she gives a sweet innocent smile at them.  Visibly impressed Broin kneels down and pats her head, he mouths as Maria's voice speaks "Keep at it, the world is full of endless possibilities." A man steps out of the crowd, causing the little girl to energetically spring towards him and hugs his leg, as the young Maria grips his leg the two men shake hands as the sun sets in the distance shedding darkness on the village. "But something else burned my world"

An explosion shakes the black void Alex and Gavin stand in. Green flames rain in the darkness illuminating a destroyed village as an otherworldly humanoid creature stands where the sun had set. It throws its head back and spew green fire setting the sky a light in an emerald hue,

"No, not again," whispers his mentor as they behold the cataclysm that befell Redwood. Alex turns and sees the young Maria walk up to the rubble of a collapsed cottage set a light by the emerald flames raining from the sky, she cries uncontrollably as she picks a dismembered arm from the carnage embracing it tight, she turns to face the monster that roars in the distance. "I remember every sensation of the Emerald Night; I still feel it to this day. And as I watched my world burn, I began to imagine the horror of countless worlds burning before the king, my once complete life ended that day along with its endless possibilities" The world slowly fades to black with the last thing to go is the Behemoth howling in the distance.

A grey light breaks the darkness, instead of the hellish Emerald night, the lad and his mentor tower over a crowd of distraught children in a courtyard decorated with statues of old men and women facing a giant tower reaching the heavens. A hooded man wielding a staff steps out of the tower and stands before the children, he stretches out his staff in the direction of Alex, to which a young Maria walks past Alex and the crowd to stand in the presence of the mage, "Many where called to be tutored by the Sage Mace, I was the only one chosen" The children all around her disperse into mist as Mace and Maria, are swallowed whole by the great emerald flame, burning in front of the two knights in the dark void "Even after years of magic training I never left that burning world, and always sort a way to kill the king and in time many like-minded individuals joined me with the sole purpose of killing the Behemoth" The voice in the flame speaks, as cultic chanting echo in the dark void , The members of Maria's coven all manifest an emerald ball of light, Alex and his mentor are surrounded. "In my pursuit of magic strong enough to kill the king we discovered the last spell left by the first sage of Dyrarsir." a dark silhouette takes shape in the flames in the form of a giant tablet as the cries of an infant becomes increasingly audible, Maria emerges from the inferno dressed in flowing white garments with the child cradled in her arms.

"The song of corruption" mutters Gavin.

"Yes, the old mage Graham must have filled you in,"  

"What's that?" asks Alex as the lad begins to feel his strength return to him.

"You remember the first lecture I gave you, humans have the ability rearrange life force particles to create magic. When a creature dies these particles are absorbed by the land or recycled to create new life, this is the nature of life and magic and it's also the nature of The king of the forest Behemoth a monster that exists on the astral plane as well as the physical plane. Even if by some chance you kill it on the physical plane there is no guarantee it won't reform itself in a hundred years using the life particles in the forest" Alex feels his stomach tie into a knot as the weight of Maria's words dawn on him.

"So the Song of Corruption is a spell that destroys life essence on a fundamental level, so it doesn't flow back into nature" says Alex.

"Indeed, nothing can survive having its spirit obliterated not even the king of the land" Alex taken aback by her words, stumbles backwards, a crunching sound snaps from beneath his feet, he looks all around him and sees small bones scattered on the ground partially hidden by the green mist. "But creating it requires sacrifices." Adds Maria as she gently strokes the baby's head. "Before Grace could give birth to the final sacrifice my former teacher sent you and Gavin, from the moment I looked in your eyes, I saw the pure spark of latent magic." Maria raises her head looks into Alex's eyes with a warm smile, a smile that haunted the lad since the night she betrayed him "and with it the ghost of endless possibilities looking back at me. I liked that feeling, so now you know the real reason I taught you magic, do you hate me Alex?"

"What do you think? I hate you for killing all those kids, I hate you for killing Grace, I hate you from the bottom of my heart." He responds with a hostile light in his eyes.

"I don't blame you." retorts Maria, her eyes downcast as she slowly rocks the crying infant.

"But as much as I hate you, as pathetic as it sounds I loved the time we spent together," the lad speaks calmly as his hardened expression softens for the first time in days. "I loved you because I finally saw myself as something other than a piece of shit living in his father's shadow when I was with you, I loved you because you held my hand and walked me through the darkness that weighed me down."

"Alex." says Gavin as the vines that are wrapped around his body wither and fall to the floor.

"There is no going back to that now, I am not strong enough to walk you through your darkness, but before I resume my journey as a knight I will end your nightmare."

"No, it's too late for that" says Maria as burning chain constructs burst from the mist, restraining both Alex and Gavin.

"No don't!" screams Alex.

"I will fucking kill you witch!" yells Gavin, but their cries fall on deaf ears, Maria draws a symbol on the baby's, forehead, green mist escapes its cries and travel to the tablet, Its emerald flames morphing into a blood red.