Chapter 14

"Who are you two?" asked Rory quietly as he stared at them.

"Rory we're still your friends, but we're also different people than who you know. I promise I'll answer all your questions later. I'll meet you back here in about an hour or so.

"Watch over Terrance. I don't believe he'll die, but if I'm wrong come get me. But for now I need to hurry and get Ariel to our room. I'll explain why I need to do this as fast as humanly possible when I return," said Nathan quickly.

Moving past Rory who was still starting at the pair, Nathan quickly made his way to their room while still holding Ariel close to him.

Once inside she destroyed his clothes as she completely ripped his shirt, pants, and underwear off of him as if there were made of wet paper and insistently pushed him towards the bed.

A little over an hour later Ariel was sleeping quietly and Nathan made his way to Terrance's room to have his talk with Rory.

Ariel slept because she was really exhausted from fighting to maintain some form of control in her full blown rage for as long as she did.

Knocking once, Nathan entered the room, only to find Rory sitting in a chair in front of Terrance's bed staring at him with his naked sword across his lap. Ariel's twin swords were beside him leaning against Terrance's bed.

Sighing Nathan entered and sat in the chair close by the door. It was apparent that Rory was waiting for him and setup the room to his best advantage.

"Who are you? I heard Ariel call you Aric, why was that?" asked Rory wearily.

"I'm the Battlemage Aric Griffith," stated Nathan simply.

Looking at him like he had grown a second head Rory spoke again "I find that hard to believe. I heard he was a blonde man."

"No he's not. He's pretending to be me and that's why I'm here to find out who he is and why he is abusing my name," said Nathan a little heatedly.

"What is Ariel?" asked Rory looking hard at Nathan changing the subject.

"The woman you know as Ariel is my wife Brianna Ariel Griffith," said Nathan.

"I heard that she had died," said Rory simply.

"That is a rumor that I allowed to be released to protect her," said Nathan.

"Why is that? And how did she do what she did? How is she able to resist magic?" asked Rory quickly. He wanted to know how she did what she did.

Sighing, Nathan told Rory of the final moments during his battle with the dragon, Brianna being gravely injured, and his infusing his wife with some of his power to save her life.

Then he told him about Keith.

That during that time they found out that with his magic inside her, in times of intense anger or pain, she would become an unstoppable and mindless berserker that could kill everyone in range until she reached Nathan.

And only an intimate moment shared between them could restore her back to sanity. And that it wouldn't work with anyone else because it had to be Nathan.

As he finished Rory looked back at him in shock.

"That's what really happened to Keith isn't? She killed all of those bastards, and because they were all mages there was no way they could stop her, wasn't it?" asked Rory softly.

He remembered what happened to Terrance's blade at their first meeting and Teresa reaction combined with what Ariel just did a few moments ago.

"Pretty much. We didn't even know that would happen until it did. Keith had kidnapped me, and he and his men were going to rape Ariel, and she killed almost everyone she came across to prevent that," said Nathan.

"But why trust me with all of this, any of this?" asked Rory.

"Because you saw our secret. There are people who would either try to kill me or kidnap Ariel to learn the secret of how I infused her with magic to save her life, and I can't do it again. It was a rare once in a life time thing that I don't even know how I did it.

"And as you just saw she gained a few other abilities that if we could ever control would be beneficial to others to have. And you can also appreciate my desire to keep this from getting out," said Nathan looking at him meaningfully.

"Yes I could see that. So you really are the famous Battlemage then?" asked Rory.

"That and I am still your friend. Let me have a look at Terrance for a moment," said Nathan as he rose and went over to the bed behind Rory.

His hand was glowing softly white as he ran it over Terrance's body

"She was taking his life essence since that is what Succubi do to survive. But usually they don't take it all because it can kill their target. And he's not physically harmed so there is nothing for me to fix, but he'll need rest before we can leave.

"She won't be able to come back and finish him off unless she kills him outright now because he as to be willing to have sex with her, and right now he can't consent to it as he is," stated Nathan.

"All those times I wondered why you were so good with your sword. All those times I watched you learning to use your staff, and you were so much better than everyone around you as a beginner, now it makes sense. It makes perfect sense," said Rory softly over Nathan's shoulder.

His mind was elsewhere while Nathan was working.

"Can you keep this secret?" asked Nathan wondering for the first time if it would be an issue.

"Knowing that it could get Ariel killed if I don't? Of course. And I already know from what Terrance saw once we tell him why he'll keep it as well," said Rory

Nathan turned and looked at Rory and he could see that his face was set. He knew Rory would take the secret to his grave if need be.

"The freaking Battlemage was one of my closest friends and I never knew it," said Rory softly.

"Remember I will be doing everything in my power to never use magic. If there are times you can help me with that I would appreciate it," said Nathan smiling.

"I'll do whatever I can to help," smiled back Rory as he reached out and squeezed Nathan's shoulder.

"But whatever you do please keep calling me Nathan. It makes it easier to hide," said Nathan to him.

"Since I met you as Nathan, and it's what I've been calling you all along, I believe that won't be a problem," said Rory smiling.

Nathan excused himself and headed back to his room. As he passed the foot of the bed he reached out and took Ariel's swords with him. He carried them back into their room and leaned them against the door before he headed to bed.

But he was faking about everything being alright, because Ariel had take more out of him than he could really spare tonight.

It took all he had left in him to appear normal to Rory as they had their talk, and once he reached the bed he fell into it and was dead to the world.

Kathryn was in her room with her knees drawn up to her face staring into nothing with extremely wide eyes and she was still scared.

No, she was feeling such stark raving terror that it was a completely foreign emotion to her. She was still shaking hard hours later from what she had witnessed looking deep into Ariel's eyes while in that room.

All she could do was think:

How did she do that with her eyes? How did she make her so scared? Why didn't her spell harm her? She already knew that her seduction powers didn't work on women, but why not regular magic? And just why was she so terrified of just looking at another woman? Was it magic similar to hers? What was that!!

And that woman almost killed her while she couldn't move! She would have too if she hadn't teleported herself at the last second.

One look in that woman's eyes made her so scared she almost lost control of her bowels.

But even though she felt like that, she still felt the deep need to add that man's power to her own, and she would need to think of a way to get it and prevent his wife from interfering. She had already used up almost half of her stored power just fighting with him tonight.

She thought she might have an idea, but she would need a few days to make it all happen.

Waking up late in the morning, Nathan was surprised to find that Ariel was already gone from bed.

As he dressed again in fresh clothes, he found what was left of the tattered rags that were his clothes from the previous night and put the rest in his pack. Then he went off to see if Rory was still in Terrance's room.

There he found Ariel, and she was sitting and talking to Rory.

"I heard you told him everything last night," said Ariel as she looked up at Nathan.

"Yes I figure after what we both did it only made sense," Nathan said.

"Well I was going to explain as well, but you saved me the trouble. And I trust them so I don't mind, but Galen is going to have a cow if we tell him," said Ariel as she smiled at him.

"Who is Galen?" asked Rory suddenly.

"Galen is my mentor, teacher, and one of the seven Archmage's who sit on the council of Mages for the mages guild," said Nathan.

"Archmage?! You know an Archmage? They are really rare from what I hear! And your teacher is one and he's on the mage's council? Wow you are pretty connected aren't you?" asked Rory

"I like to think I'm just friendly" said Nathan smiling.

"So what do we do about Terrance?" asked Rory

"He should be safe for now. And all he needs is sleep to recover. But we need to find out about that woman. I was sure she was a Succubus, but her use of magic says otherwise. Then there is the fact of how easily she over powered me. That has never been done before," said Nathan as he was lost in thought.

"Really, no one has really ever overpowered you before?" asked Rory in surprise.

"No as the legendary Battlemage he's very powerful, so for her to do that so easily says that she's no lightweight herself," said Ariel frowning herself.

"It must be tied to the essences she steals. She must be fueling her magic and making it even more powerful that way. But then that would suggest that she has no upper limit! But how did she get like she is? I've never heard of a mage learning to do this. I don't even know if it's possible," said Nathan

"Do you think it was someone trying to do what you did to me and getting a different result?" asked Ariel.

"No because none of her abilities are enhanced. And you can't use magic. I mean maybe they tried it and went wrong somehow, but now she could conceivably become far more powerful than I am if that is in fact the case. That's an accident that everyone would try to create if true. But right now you're our only defense against her," said Nathan flatly.

This was the first time he felt so helpless. His magic and skills were how he defined himself and in the face of this opponent both were worthless.

"Well if Terrance is in no danger, then the first thing we need to do is ask around town and see if we can find a pattern," said Rory

"But let's not split up. I'd like to say that we always go around in two's, but that is no longer possible. And if Ariel is the only way we can combat her, then she needs to be with us at all times," said Nathan as he smiled at his wife.

She just smiled back, but she was happy to be such an important key part of his plan.

Ken Pierce was passing through the fields on his way home after visiting his parents and as he retuned back to the road he saw a close friend of his Thomas Young heading towards him down the road. Ken normally worked at the stables, but he was visiting his parents and took a shortcut from their home to save time on his way home.

But as he returned to the road and waved at Thomas, Thomas didn't even acknowledge him as he walked on.

Ken thought it was weird that Thomas seemed to stare right through him with a blank look as if he was out of it as Thomas stiffly continued walking down the road once he was past Ken.

Then as Ken watched Thomas turned up the walk into a strange house and went inside without knocking.

As Ken knew this wasn't Thomas house, and as he was very curious as to why he did this, he then saw another man, also who looked out of it, walk stiffly up and do the very same thing as he too headed into the house.

Curiosity got the best of him and he headed to the side of the house to a window and looked in. There he saw Thomas and the other man start to disrobe.

As he looked around the room it was bare except for only one thing in it, a very large bed.

And on that bed was an unbelievably attractive woman with very long brown hair who was naked and who looked incredible. There seemed to be a soft glow all around her.

He continued looking and could see she was already engaged in sex with three men at the same time and there were what had to be over twenty others standing perfectly still around the bed, without moving a single muscle, and they all seemed to be waiting their turn.

The men who were waiting stood and also appeared to stare expressionlessly into nothing. They didn't even seem to acknowledge what was going on, on the bed in front of them.