taken up. They remained behind buildings out of his direct line of sight, but their complex spells made their locations as clear to him as if he were standing next to them. As all of them maintained at least a hundred armlengths interval, he left them unmolested.
As he ran, for the first time he began to feel uncertainty. It was clear enough that these were not posers like the Phaelle'n, but true magicians. The sophistication and consistency of their spells showed that they did not use a hodgepodge of salvaged ancient magic. Whenever he was, it had to be somewhen in the age that Waleck had spoken of, that fantastic time when magic ruled the entire world. That meant that he had to have plunged deep into the past, millennia before the Empire had come into existence.
His instinctive preemptive attack had probably been an error. These magicians might simply be the local constabulary and while perhaps only suspicious before, they now definitely had cause to bring him to heel.
Regardless, he needed freedom of action to accomplish his task and would do whatever necessary to make sure that he was not caught.
Still pursued but not yet confronted, he reached a pigeon spike-topped parapet. Below it lay a broader back alley that sliced off to the left and might allow him to double back against his pursuit. To sight and to magic, the alley was clear, but directly across from him on the facing rooftop were more of the monstrosities and something else that was hidden behind a glamour that he could not penetrate.
A ball of ethereal flame snapped into existence and blasted towards Mar. Almost immediately, he read the modulation of the highly energetic mass of sound-color and dissipated it. Before the hidden magician could cast another, Mar leapt down into the alley, easing his fall with a reinforced enchantment.
Monstrosities flooded the alley from his right, covering ground with wide, sailing strides. He bowled them over as a mass, then pivoted to drive another clutch before him with magic driven wind, opening a hole in their line that he instantly charged through.
All about him, the monstrosities opened fire, casting blazing bolts of multi-colored light whose cores possessed charges of grunting-persimmon. Deflecting these with a complementary howling-puce, he slowed as his magic required greater concentration, but continued forward, knowing that escape required that he break out of the cordon that the monstrosities were trying to close.
Before he had gone more than half a dozen steps, shockwaves crashed through the background ether as incredibly dense masses of flux plummeted from above, dropping directly on top of him.
Hastily cast layers of contrary flux, the spell an amalgam of an air shell and an adapted glamour, shielded him from the effects, both ethereal and physical, of the ensuing blasts, but the fire and light that flared outside his defenses dazzled his eyes and for a moment or two he was blind to his surroundings. Unaffected, his ethereal sense warned him of the sudden charge of the monstrosities. Blinking in an attempt to clear his vision and feeling his head begin to spin, he nevertheless managed to enchant all that approached and hurl them back.
With a sense of impending panic, he realized that if he did not leave quickly, his attackers would soon be able to concentrate sufficient numbers to trap him with physical bulk alone. He needed to get back to the open rooftops. Striving for a near overload that would catapult him into the air, he had started to infuse his brigandine when he sensed a sudden, shocking stir in the ether behind him.
He made to spin about, but did not complete the motion.
TWO
2170 by the Common Reckoning
(3211 Before the Founding of the Empire)
Dhiloeckmyur Province
Beltr studied the unconscious man.
On his orders, the enforcement team soldiers had restrained the perpetrator with ethereally neutral steel manacles, binding his hands and feet behind his back and cinching the bindings
As he ran, for the first time he began to feel uncertainty. It was clear enough that these were not posers like the Phaelle'n, but true magicians. The sophistication and consistency of their spells showed that they did not use a hodgepodge of salvaged ancient magic. Whenever he was, it had to be somewhen in the age that Waleck had spoken of, that fantastic time when magic ruled the entire world. That meant that he had to have plunged deep into the past, millennia before the Empire had come into existence.
His instinctive preemptive attack had probably been an error. These magicians might simply be the local constabulary and while perhaps only suspicious before, they now definitely had cause to bring him to heel.
Regardless, he needed freedom of action to accomplish his task and would do whatever necessary to make sure that he was not caught.
Still pursued but not yet confronted, he reached a pigeon spike-topped parapet. Below it lay a broader back alley that sliced off to the left and might allow him to double back against his pursuit. To sight and to magic, the alley was clear, but directly across from him on the facing rooftop were more of the monstrosities and something else that was hidden behind a glamour that he could not penetrate.
A ball of ethereal flame snapped into existence and blasted towards Mar. Almost immediately, he read the modulation of the highly energetic mass of sound-color and dissipated it. Before the hidden magician could cast another, Mar leapt down into the alley, easing his fall with a reinforced enchantment.
Monstrosities flooded the alley from his right, covering ground with wide, sailing strides. He bowled them over as a mass, then pivoted to drive another clutch before him with magic driven wind, opening a hole in their line that he instantly charged through.
All about him, the monstrosities opened fire, casting blazing bolts of multi-colored light whose cores possessed charges of grunting-persimmon. Deflecting these with a complementary howling-puce, he slowed as his magic required greater concentration, but continued forward, knowing that escape required that he break out of the cordon that the monstrosities were trying to close.
Before he had gone more than half a dozen steps, shockwaves crashed through the background ether as incredibly dense masses of flux plummeted from above, dropping directly on top of him.
Hastily cast layers of contrary flux, the spell an amalgam of an air shell and an adapted glamour, shielded him from the effects, both ethereal and physical, of the ensuing blasts, but the fire and light that flared outside his defenses dazzled his eyes and for a moment or two he was blind to his surroundings. Unaffected, his ethereal sense warned him of the sudden charge of the monstrosities. Blinking in an attempt to clear his vision and feeling his head begin to spin, he nevertheless managed to enchant all that approached and hurl them back.
With a sense of impending panic, he realized that if he did not leave quickly, his attackers would soon be able to concentrate sufficient numbers to trap him with physical bulk alone. He needed to get back to the open rooftops. Striving for a near overload that would catapult him into the air, he had started to infuse his brigandine when he sensed a sudden, shocking stir in the ether behind him.
He made to spin about, but did not complete the motion.
TWO
2170 by the Common Reckoning
(3211 Before the Founding of the Empire)
Dhiloeckmyur Province
Beltr studied the unconscious man.
On his orders, the enforcement team soldiers had restrained the perpetrator with ethereally neutral steel manacles, binding his hands and feet behind his back and cinching the bindings
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