Into the Abyss

Trying to regain her equilibrium, Jehenna continued, “know oh demon, Tomasedwardperkinje, that you are mine to command... you must do as I say.” Jehenna’s brow was sweating mighty heavily. Something wasn’t right, it just didn’t feel right, she thought. “We have been ambushed by our enemies, I command you go out and destroy those who attack us!” The demon leered at her, its evil grin, giving even her a slight pause. Slowly it looked at the horses on the ground, apparently hoping, in its lust for destruction that they were dead. It then looked at her; and then around at the rest of what was left of the wagon train, as if sizing up the situation. It didn’t move to follow her orders.

∼

As the wagons spread out into the valley, Trisfelt too felt the surge of magic. Although many laughed at the pudgy wizard, and considered him to be perhaps the least of Masters of Lenamare’s school, mainly because of his paunch, he was no slackard when it came to magic. As quickly as Jehenna, he flung up a fire shield about his wagon., He only wished it could go farther, but the spell had its limits, especially when cast ad hoc. He could only grimace as most of the other wagons went up in flames in the initial assault. As soon as the flames died enough to release the shield, he tracked down his enemies and located them.

Calling upon his vast supplies of energy, one reason he ate so much was to get the physical energy that magic required of his body, he flung mighty bolts of lightning at the wizards. They fought back, trying to resist his bolts, but he rained them down incessantly, and they did crack. He managed to kill two of them, before he noticed the tower of flames from before Jehenna’s wagon.

“What is she doing?” he asked rhetorically. He knew; he could feel the conjuration spell. As the demon stepped from the flames, the wagon rocked, and he turned to see Rupert diving from the wagon. He yelled to Rupert to get back in, but the boy ignored him He couldn’t leave the wagon, that would risk the other children, damn that boy. As he frantically thought of what to do he suddenly heard what the demon was saying.

“Own free will?” puzzled Trisfelt, that wasn’t good, demons didn’t usually say that sort of thing unless it was true, and that tower of flame wasn’t right either. At this point he noticed enemy soldiers on horseback charging down the hill, and they had bows. “Fuck,” said Master Trisfelt.

He jumped into the back of the wagon with the rest of the kids. This wasn’t good., Only one thing left, he thought as he gathered the kids to him. He raised his hands and shouted, “Exodilium transportatum, cyrilius seat flux, Universum Solum, globum teraturam Astlan sig faltum. Translatus por crealum, nos patrium siyenta.” He focused his mind on his charges and their current surroundings while superimposing their destination in his mind. He created the juxtaposition of temporal coordinates necessary for nontranslational motion. As he brought his palms together above his head, bluish light flared from his chest, engulfing the four of them, and then they were gone.

∼

The demon glared at Jehenna for a few moments more, it then slowly turned and began to move towards the oncoming soldiers. Temporarily relieved, Jehenna breathed a sigh of relief. Then she noticed the oncoming bowmen on horses, as they started to rain arrows upon her and the few remaining guards, who were charging them. “Shit, this is not my day.” Jehenna swore as she quickly tore off the demon’s ring, she dropped it on the floor of the wagon, there wasn’t time to put it away, as she quickly put on her Porisiun’s Proven Personal Protection Ring, cursing the limitations of conflicting elemental affiliations in the rings.

She hated to give up the demon ring, in case it changed its mind before she was ready, but she couldn’t ditch the Lenamare’s Locator Ring, and even though it might be useful in the future., That will be then; this is now, she thought. Just as she slipped the new ring on, an arrow went by her throat, narrowly missing her. “Damn good thing I switched,” she muttered as she tossed stuff off the wagon trying to get under the seat. Finally, the path was clear, and she reached under and grabbed her book. “Wouldn’t want to lose this. Now bastards,” she said as she turned, “Freehold here I come.” She raised her arms above her head, and repeated words similar to Trisfelt’s and left in a flash of blue light. Jenn, simply sat limply on the foot rail.