Chapter 4

"Raise the lift!" ordered Neriah fiercely. The slaves cowered under her booming voice, cringing in fear. "Raise it now!"

"Begging your pardon milady," objected one brave soul, "but the Geomancer is still down there and hasn't concluded his search — he would be angry if he wished to return to the surface and found that the lift has been raised"

Neriah advanced upon the trembling slave with her staff aimed high. The slave cried out in horror and raised his arms in defense as the illusionist swung with all her might. Unexpectedly, three different staves struck him all at once in different places, making him double over and fall to the ground, spitting blood.

The other slaves gasped with surprise and horror when they saw how such a feat was possible. Horror, because not one but three Neriahs were now standing beside their fallen comrade, staring at them cruelly. Surprise, because it wasn't often that the Masters used their powers in front of slaves.

"Raise the lift now or suffer the consequences," commanded all three Neriahs in terrifying unison. The two illusions dissipated and the real Neriah strode over to them, her staff pointing at them threateningly.

"Do you dare defy the order of a Master?"

The slaves shook their heads sullenly and immediately rushed to do her bidding, the fate of their peer fresh in their minds.

"That's enough, Neriah!" said a voice firm over the whining noise of the ropes and pulleys. Despite the commotion, the slaves continued raising the lift.

Slowly looking over her shoulder, the Master Illusionist saw Zaedra standing at the entrance to the tunnel, her wild blue eyes alight and beaming with evidence of her aquamantic prowess.

She smiled tightly and said, "Zaedra, what a pleasant surprise! What brings you down here?"

Many, many things, Zaedra thought to herself. She had seen the suspicious gleam in Neriah's eye far too often for it to go unnoticed, and it had only been now that she'd fought up the courage to confront the Master Illusionist and find out what was really going on behind that veil of impossible beauty.

Zaedra could recall the very day that Neriah first arrived at the Azure Monastery a few years back. Supposedly having been transferred from Nilhaileth on short notice, she was to take up the position as the new master illusionist after her predecessor unexpectedly went missing. The common speculation was that he had gone out for an early morning walk, strayed a little too far from unguarded territory, and encountered a marauding pack of Ceruleans that took him captive and tortured him to death.

The mystery was left unsolved, yet Zaedra had always suspected that Neriah was in some way involved with the previous Master Illusionist's disappearance. Neriah had been too calm, too collected. She had adjusted to the position like she knew it was going to happen.

Within weeks Neriah had befriended key members of the council and earned herself a valuable reputation throughout the monastery. Little word had been heard from Nilhaileth about Neriah's involvement with the Indigos, and her shrouded past was never fully investigated. Cunningly, she had managed to divert their attention to something else.

Once upon a time, Zaedra had been considered to be the most beautiful woman amongst the Azures. But then Neriah showed up, and heads began turned in her direction, seeking out this new, inspiring presence. Never before had anyone seen someone so perfect.

In the shadows, Zaedra would spit at Neriah's feet. Neriah's beauty was a disguise, a veil used to hide the wickedness that lay beneath. Each time Zaedra saw the suspicious gleam in Neriah's eyes, she could see straight past the façade into the woman that she truly was. But Neriah seemed far too sane to be one of the Cerulean kindred, and that bothered her. If she wasn't out to kill, murder and torture, then what was she really after?

For weeks Zaedra had found herself asking that same question over and over again in her head. But only now, standing before her long term enemy in an uneasy standoff did she have the chance to finally be heard.

"What are you really doing down here?" She said.

"Well if I told you, then that would spoil the fun," Neriah said deviously.

Bitch, thought Zaedra. She pointed her glowing rod directly at Neriah.

"Tell me!"

"My, my, are you threatening me?" Neriah said with shock, cocking an eyebrow. "I think you overstep your bounds, young Zaedra. Little consars like you have no place amongst the likes of us."

"That's arch-consar to you," Zaedra hissed. "And if you had also forgotten: I'm acting master while Ismodai is away. I can say what I like. You should also know that I have full access to the information of all operations here at the monastery. I will report you to the Grandmaster if you don't tell me what you're up to!"

"You're still just a little sniveling consar hiding beneath that masters robe," Neriah said cruelly. "And you can hardly say that you have any mastery over aquamancy. It's pathetic."

Rage boiled up inside Zaedra and the orb on the end of her rod began to glow with a new intensity. If only you knew, she thought to herself.

"If you were smart, you'd turn around right now," Neriah said. "I can see that tremble in your hands, the drop of sweat forming on your brow, the fear behind those childish eyes. You're afraid, Zaedra. And you should be." Her wicked smile grew even wider. "You have no idea what you've gotten yourself into. Do you really think you're ready?"

Zaedra held her rod steady and said through clenched teeth, "You bet your life on it, Neriah."

The Illusionist laughed, making her bountiful white hair bounce against her shoulders. She gave Zaedra a smug look and said, "The little aquamancer actually thinks she's pointing her rod at me! You silly, silly girl."

Zaedra swallowed hard as she realized the precariousness of her situation; illusionists were fantastic at deceiving people. The Neriah standing before her could, for all she knew, be an illusion with the real Neriah hiding off in the shadows or perhaps among the slaves. She should have waited for Kaligmar.

Cursing her folly, she shook her rod at the slaves who had just finished raising the lift and said, "Get out of here, you stupid fools!"

"I don't think so," Neriah said, decisively. With just a flick of her wrist, the slaves were instantly encased inside a giant orange bubble. "I still have use for them." She turned back to Zaedra and posed a battle stance. "Make your move, aquamancer. You've been a thorn in my side ever since I arrived at this monastery and now its time to get rid of you!"

Zaedra gave Neriah no time to think. She spun quickly and unleashed a burst of freezing energy to her immediate left. The energy struck something only meters away, exploding in a dazzling spray of blue colors like an ocean wave crashing against a cliff-face.

With a half drowned out scream, the image of Neriah suddenly flickered into view and she flew backwards from the force of the strike, impacting against the wall and sagging down into a heap.

A smile slowly spread across Zaedra's face.

"Your perfume," she said. "It's a dead giveaway."

Neriah flinched, clearly disappointed at this oversight. "Clever girl..."

Seconds later, Zaedra felt something smash into the back of her head and she went down, rolling over to see yet another illusion standing over her with a staff at the ready.

Zaedra struck the ground with her rod, causing layers of ice to rise up the fake illusionist's legs and freeze it into place. This gave the Zaedra enough time to find her feet and eliminate the illusion with a powerful spray of scalding steam.

Neriah pushed herself up and pulled a firestone from her pocket. The tip of her staff flashed orange and five identical bodies sprouted from her sides and quickly circled Zaedra. Each illusion was holding a firestone that glowed bright red, alluding to the nature of their next deadly attack.

Zaedra desperately summoned all the remaining energy in her rod and expelled it outwards as a powerful shield of water, just as the six Neriahs let loose their burning salvo. Half a dozen fireballs ripped into Zaedra's shield causing incredible amounts of steam to billow into the air.

Zaedra cried out. The force of the assault had almost knocked her off her feet. Summoning more energy from the spellstone in her tiara, she threw her arms at the steam in the air, liquefying it, then freezing it, and finally smashing it all into hundreds of little shards. With another cry of rage, she hurled the shards at the illusions like a hailstorm of tiny darts, dispelling the false illusions almost instantly.

But the real illusionist had been too fast, managing to erect a small force field that easily deflected the attack.

Neriah leaned against her staff, breathing heavily. "Maybe I underestimated you little aquamancer," she said. Her robes were now covered in a layer of dust and her lustrous hair had turned soot grey.

Zaedra dropped her arm, barely managing to stay on her feet; the effort of her spellcasting had exhausted her mental resources.

"Give up," she panted.

Neriah laughed, her lips curled into an evil grin. "I still have a few tricks up my sleeve," she said and lowered her staff so that the crystal tip was resting at Zaedra's eye level. "Prepare yourself."

"Go on then," Zaedra said. "Give it your best shot." She had been using this banter to secretly channel her remaining power into her golden rod concealed in the folds of her robe.

Neriah's eyes narrowed and she said, "Night night, sweetie."

The large crystal at the end of Neriah's staff suddenly flashed a brilliant orange, making Zaedra's mind explode with a wash of light. Zaedra tried raising her rod only to find that her arm wouldn't respond. She tried her other arm but that wouldn't respond either. She tried to scream but nothing come out. Every part of her was completely paralyzed.

Her heart begin to race as the illusionist slowly approached. Neriah's wild green eyes were the last thing Zaedra saw before she felt the staff connect with the back of her head.

Everything faded to black.