Chapter 6

Kaligmar gripped the sides of his desk as his chamber shook like the epicenter of an earthquake. Everything that wasn't held down rattled into a state of fury. The chandelier above him rocked an tinkled, books fell from their shelves, and his inkwell toppled, smearing ink across his parchment like a black blood-splatter. Within seconds the shockwave had passed.

Kicking back his chair, Kaligmar stood suddenly and looked at Neriah who was sitting on the edge of his desk like she normally did whenever she paid him a visit.

"What was that?" he demanded.

Neriah sat stone cold before him, her gaze passing right through him: it seemed that the strange phenomenon had thrown the Illusionist into a trance. Kaligmar saw Neriah's hands grip the table more tightly and he persisted.

"Neriah!"

He faltered when she unexpectedly threw herself from the desk and stormed for the door without a backwards glance.

"Stop, Neriah! I demand that you tell me what that was!"

She was nearly at the door when Kaligmar, seeing no other option, flung a conjuration shard at the entrance to his sanctum. The tiny stone flew over Neriah's head and struck the door, exploding in puff of purple clouds. In an instant, the entire door had become bound in heavy chains.

Only this didn't stop Neriah. Her body became overwhelmed by a black glow and she altered her course, passing straight through a wall of ten inches of solid stone.

Kaligmar was shocked: such a feat could only have been performed by using the arts of Necromancy! There was no other element that was capable of turning one's body ethereal. She must have been holding a necromantic stone! And in his chamber as well!

Kaligmar now had to question Neriah's alliance with the Azures and Indigos. With evidence of Neriah having and using illicit spellstones combined with this strange behavior, he could only assume that she had been exposed to the corrupted elements for too long. Was she one of them now? Or had she always been?

Then Kaligmar's brain clicked. The Deep-Strike project! What if those miners had uncovered something immensely powerful down there? Was that where Neriah was heading now?

Kaligmar moved for the door and made a slashing gesture with his hand. The iron links tore free and the door swung open.

Neriah had to be stopped!

Zaedra jumped with fright as the shockwave came in contact with her, a fountain of water bursting into the air as she sat bolt upright. She stayed there for a moment, her hands gripping the sides of the bath as she tried work out with what had happened. Then it hit her. Mountains of memories suddenly exploded into her mind.

Neriah's conversation with Claust, tracking Neriah down, their duel at the lift before she had passed out from a blow to the head. Everything fell into place.

"Traitor!" snarled Zaedra. She had been correct all along: the illusionist was as she seemed and her investigations had revealed it. Zaedra leapt from the bath and dried herself down with a towel before dressing as quickly as possible. Knowing it would be too risky to hunt down Neriah alone again, she needed to find Kaligmar without delay, and hopefully it wouldn't be too late.

But a worrying thought struck her as she reached for her rod and tiara. Too late for what?

Mezro looked up from his preparations and gave his assistant a wicked smile. "Pigeons! An excellent choice, Valius." He reached into the cage of fluttering birds and pulled one out by the neck. "These will work perfectly!"

Valius closed the cage, bowed and stepped away from the Master of Alteration. He was very aware that a dazzling show was about to commence and he didn't want to get in the way. Mezro placed the pigeon down on the damp floor of his morphing chamber and moved towards a large alteration stone that sat on a pedestal in the centre of the room. The stone was an absolute giant, almost the size of Mezro's head, and was being held in place by a large brass claw. The alterationist's snake-like fingers caressed the orb of alteration and he began to focus on the pigeon.

Valius licked his lips as he watched his master's face contort with concentration. He couldn't possibly comprehend the complexity of what was going on inside Mezro's mind. Before him was the mind of a genius at work, and Valius, still a lowly apprentice, was not even a fully fledged battle sorcerer yet. Valius was only able to muster the power to turn a pigeon into something roughly its own size — a small dog perhaps, or maybe a vicious rat. But Mezro was a different story altogether. He was capable of things far greater, things so extraordinary that he was widely believed to be invincible. There were only two people that outranked him: The Lord and Lady of Bashalaran, two frightening figures whom commanded untold amounts of necromantic power and prowess.

Valius watched his master's work intently, hoping to learn from the demonstration. Mezro's fingers delicately caressed the alteration stone, and within mere moments, five glowing blue tendrils had sprouted from the orb and were snaking their way towards the innocent pigeon.

The bird made no attempt to fly away. It had previously been sucked of all intelligence through the use of a mysticism stone and now knew nothing of escape. The helpless creature chirped loudly as the tendrils wrapped themselves around its body like boa constrictors and began to alter its biological makeup. The next phase was what Valius loved best.

There were a series of painful popping sounds as the pigeon's midsection elongated and blood spilled from the roots of the feathers. Its feet widened and thickened considerably, its small claws shaping into giant razor-sharp talons. Then the wings expanded, shedding all their feathers and growing a thick leathery layer of flesh in its place.

Its head began to grow and the pigeon screeched wildly. Its beak dropped off in a bloody mess before a long scaly snout stretched out to compensate for its loss. Following that was a long thick tail that extended from its rear with thick spikes protruding from its tip. Diamond hard scales now covered its entire body, replacing the feathers, and they seemed to slide out from beneath the flesh, drawing blood as they went.

The creature continued to expand its dimensions until Mezro was completely satisfied, the sharp squawks now nothing more than deafening reptilian screeches. The alterist finally released his hands from the orb and stood back to admire his completed work.

Flames burst from the creature's snout as it gave its final cry and collapsed in exhaustion, unable to do anything after the torment its body had gone through.

"What do you think, Valius?" asked Mezro, dusting his hands and moved towards his creation.

"A masterpiece!" Valius answered. "What are you going to call them?"

"The name dragon seems fitting," Mezro said confidently as he sized up the beast which was now at least five times the size of his own body. "It has a certain ring to it."

Valius nodded and said, "Dragon it is then."

"These creatures should easily be able to take the weight of a man," Mezro observed.

"But are they obedient?" queried his assistant.

"Of course. I have made it so. They will respond no differently to any well trained steed."

"Then we shall be flying them to the Monastery, Master?"

Mezro eyed the cage of terrified pigeons and said, "Only once I have finished altering the rest of them, Valius. See to it that our best battlemancers are ready for departure once I have completed this task."

Talloran groaned and forced himself into a seated position. Nearby, Nampag lay motionless against the rock wall. His tattered robes were singed and smoking but his chest was rising and falling with each breath.

Talloran breathed a sigh of relief and his eyes fell upon the white stone which lay next to him - the innocent white spellstone that had just gone completely haywire only moments ago. What had happened to it? And what state was it in now? He looked back at Nampag who possibly had all the answers. The geomancer stirred a little and let loose a soft moan.

"Ah, that hurt!" He opened one eye and chuckled. "Looks like you didn't get burned to a crisp after all."