YP – B3:QtNoWLM – Chapter 47 (Chapter 144)

155 Days Until Answers And the Uncertain End (part 4)

Zeydar cast the spell to envelop them in protection, the moment that Shawn said the words. They had taken too much time. The cars were at least ten minutes away if they ran. They would have to push, and make distractions. Could he use the explosions around the cabin to create the first? Then what? Hide them as they ran?

As Zeydar cast the protection around them, preparing himself for the fight, Kony had cast the investigation spells. The few spells that Kony knew.

“Fascinating.” Maverin looked to the magic barrirer around them, completely unperturbed.

“Where did you implant the explosives?” Kori asked the man.

“Not explosives. Weaknesses.” Maverin corrected her as if this were not life and death.

“Same thing. Where?” She snapped

“All over. Why are you…” he stopped talking when he seemed to see all the glares about them. Zeydar was counting the moments, the seconds. Sunset would disappear too quickly up here.

“Do you have a map?” Kori demanded.

“Somewhere in here.” Maverin looked around.

“I’m getting activity.” Kony yelled. Zeydar did not cast the spells himself, not yet. He needed to preserver for a bit longer.

“We don’t have time to find a map.” Shawn pulled from the window, where he had been watching the sky. “Zeydar can you do the thing again? What you did for Valaria?”

“That takes absolute concentration. I wouldn’t be able to move” Zeydar shook his head. They had to get back to the cars, and by that time…

“Then we defend you.” Kim spun her weapon around. “Move to the cars, get them cars to a defensive circle and we defend Zeydar as he searches.”

Zeydar thought to himself. If he could get the approximate locations, then he could keep that mental map as they fled. He could sue it to destroy the concentration of the Aralax. However, they would need another distraction to get them down to the cars. He’d have to set the cabin on fire with the explosions that Maverin had planted there.

“How long do you need?” Evester asked him.

“I figured out Valaria in time because it was magic. This is different. It’s structural. I don’t know what is strong to begin with.”  Zeydar answered him.

“I marked all the locations with the holoblade.” Maverin spoke up, from where he searched through his documents. Kori scooped them all up, dumped them into a bag and threw it around herself.

“Residual?” Residual magic Zeydar could work with. Giving a nod to Shawn, Shawn directed them towards the forest. There would be little time for him to fully focus once they got to the cars. The sky was turning dark too quickly and the mountain was alive. Shoes off, Zeydar felt the way that the snow felt. Yes, it chilled him, froze him, made his body shake until it agreed that this too was ice and that this too was him. Then all that remained was the original sensation. Natural. The connection to the earth sank into him and he opened himself up to magic, standing and breathing listening out, reaching. 

They ran.

“You make what ever you need to make happen.” Kony raced ahead of Zeydar, leaving his magic for Zeydar to focus on and latch to. Eyes half closed, they raced through the tree like, Kori and Kim taking down the few Aralax who were there before them, as Phil and Shawn took out others. Thinking of the explosives behind him, Zeydar detonated them all, the rumble and blast of heat, permeating through the forest, as the cool night blazed in heat and light, from the fire.

Spell in mind, Zeydar saw how the traces of those going towards them, turned away. It would not last for long, but it would last for long enough, to keep them hidden and get them to the cars. They ran and ran, as the fire took the forest and the snow began to fall from the sky, as the sun completely disappeared. Would the fire light deter the Aralax? Would it kill them all?

Huffing out, Zeydar made way to the cars, seeing them, and watching how the others quickly moved them, to get them started, loading them with what needed to be loaded. Breath in his throat choking him, Zeydar swallowed down his exhaustion and kept his head from spinning. He’d never ran like that before. He’d never been out in this sort of world before, and the magic was pouring into him with each passing moment. Hands to the ground, Zeydar was on the ground only able to recognize the sound of the car engines to a marginal degree.

“They’re coming.” Zeydar repeated over and over, seeing it with his magic. Then there was clarity as magic poured into him, familiar magic. Kony’s hand on his shoulder, telling them that he was okay. That there was support there and they would get through this as they had before. He needed to complete the plan. “Disappear. Erase. Destroy.”

“Don’t explode.” Kony warned him. Zeydar closed his eyes again. He focused on erasing them at first and then destroying everything in their path. He needed the locations.

Zeydar focused on the structure of the world, instead of the living, searching with his magic. His staff dropped from his hands as he expanded his thoughts out. Search, he told himself letting the magic guide him, focus out and look towards what the world had to offer them. He focused, and the world grew silent. The air grew still. Everything disappeared and the magic led him in the darkness. It was stinging to caress him. Loving him and hating him at once.

Begging him to destroy everything.

Eyes open, Zeydar had the mental map in his head. The sky was pitch black, the heat of the fire was filling the air with smoke that fell back down with the snow from above. Then there were the screams were sounding. In his head? Real? He was not sure. Orders were being shouted and the fight had come to them. The cars had surrounded him, and from the inner side, they were fighting the Aralax who had found them. Aralax were attacking form all directions. How long had he had his eyes closed? What could have been minutes at most, had create carnage. Kori, Kim, and Phil shot at the enemies from above, as Shawn and Evester teamed up outside the barricade to take down the Aralax that got too close. Spell in his mind, Zeydar held his hands out, casting it and sweeping past his allies to destroy the Aralax around them from the inside out.

He heard them shatter, and explode outward, creating a mess that was stopped by the barrier that he had created secondly. His heart pounded. Destroy, his magic told him. Hundreds of possibilities that he knew from the research he’d read by Maverin. He could kill them all, all of them. But would it drive him mad?

Evester jumped through the car doors, to stand before Zeydar, who looked up at him. Their eyes met and Evester turned to the others.

“Get inside!” Evester screamed. Shawn hoped into the passenger seat as Phil took the wheel. Kim pushed Maverin into her car, before she took a wheel and Kori got in with her. Kony helped Zeydar up and into the car that Heia was driving, as Evester got in the passenger seat. Heia was the first to drive off, taking the lead.

“Heard straight out of here.” Evester told her.

“I am.” Heia kicked the car into the next gear, speeding them up.

There were no words spoken to Zeydar as they knew what Zeydar was about to do.

“Draw in the magic evenly.” Zeydar told Kony, as he began to stretch out his powers. This would destroy the mountain if he wasn’t careful and if Kony wasn’t consistent.

“I will.” Kony spoke quickly. “You focus on what is at hand.” The words were enough for Zeydar to forget the world again and to let Kony magic soothe him. It was not his own magic but it was energy he could use, to destroy all the Aralx before them. It was enough to keep his own magic from destroying his body, as he pulled in more and more, sucking the world dry of its magic.

Barriers up. Disappear.

Tracing, tracking, making their sounds and trail disappear. Erase.

Mental map before him. Thoughts of what they had to do. The memory of the residual, and pulling at the detonation, feeling it shake in him. Destroy.

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