Into the Abyss

As she looked down, she noticed a slight disturbance. Something was happening. At certain points individuals were moving towards the iridescent wall. What they were doing she couldn’t tell. There certainly weren’t many, she could only see about four people at regular spacing around the part of the wall within her line of sight. It would be logical to assume from their semi-symmetric arrangements that others that she couldn’t see were also lining up along the wall. Maybe eight in all were lined up around the school.

It didn’t take long for her to figure out what was happening. Although not attuned directly to the wards, she could still feel the attacks on them. The individuals down there were either wizards or demons attacking the wall. From her perspective it was too hard to tell. If she were attuned to the wall she could probably tell by the feel of the assault but she wasn’t. All she could feel was the throbbing of the pentacles below. Normally with the sort of energies that had to be flying about, she would have expected to feel a certain charge in the air, as well as a definite mental sensation indicating the type of magic being done and who was doing it. The wards, however, as designed, blocked most of the magic coming in, and so all she felt inside was the response of the wards themselves.

As she watched however, she noticed that the insides of the wards, directly in front of where each of the individuals were positioned had begun to glow. This caused her more than just a little concern. It meant that the attacks were beginning to penetrate. Lenamare had better do something quick to balance the wards to keep more magic out. She looked around quickly for him, but couldn’t see him, surely he knew?

∼

Lenamare knew. He too could only feel the throbbing of the pentacles. He was hurrying down the spiral staircase with Jehenna at his side. As they went, six of the remaining senior students joined them. The others, were on guard in the primary ward chamber itself, just in case such an event as this occurred. “Can you determine who or what is attacking the wards?” he asked Jehenna.

“I’m not positive, but I think he’s hitting with about two thirds demons, and the rest wizards. It’s definitely a mixed group.”

“Damn, how much are we going to have to shift the balance?” Lenamare asked.

“Quite a ways, I can feel it weakening in spots.”

“Which means that when we shift to defend the magical, the demons concentrate on physical attacks, instead of their energy bolts. Can you tell what type of demons is he using?”

“I don’t know for sure, at least one three, possibly two. The rest are twos, what difference does it make?”

“We can fight demons with demons,” Lenamare answered. They reached the warding room. Everyone was now there except Hortwell. Jehenna glanced around in annoyance, wondering where he could be.

“How? For us to send demons against his, we have to send them outside, that means doing some sort of oscillation trick again. We can’t risk that now, it didn’t work when we weren’t under direct attack.” Jehenna observed.

“Ah, but like I said, Exador is in for some surprises. When we set the wards to pure physical, I had Hortwell teleport outside, a safe distance away, with amulets. Now all I need to do is give the proper signal and he’ll summon demons.”

“Teleport out, during physical mode... of course, why didn’t I think of it. Teleportation’s a magical translocation, not physical. That makes what we did all the more dangerous...” she stood still and looked directly in to Lenamare’s eyes. “What if Exador had thought to send his people in?”

“Ah...” Lenamare smiled coldly, “he did.”

“He did? Where? What? Why didn’t I know?”

“You were too tired afterward, and I haven’t completely decided how to kill them yet.”

“But how did you find them all? You did get them all?” Jehenna asked nervously.

“Of course, you recall that teleportation trap I worked on a few years ago? Well, I never did get all the bugs worked out of it; however, I was able to get it at least operational, with a few slight glitches. We however, don’t have time to go over that now. I shall take Hortwell’s place and we shall balance the wards as soon as the demons are distracted.”

“How do you signal Hortwell, and can we wait that long?”

“To signal, I just change the color of the dome in the correct pattern. As far as waiting, no we can’t. We shall have to do some shoring and minor rebalancing until the demons are called off.”

Jehenna nodded, giving Lenamare the ‘we are going to talk later’ look. She then motioned the others into position. She took the secondary position since Lenamare seemed to know what he wanted done. Then they set to work.

Chapter 23

“Master, master, your signal!” the little demon yelled excitedly.