Page 110 of Rose and Shadows
“I have an idea. But I can’t leave to…” Her gaze flicked back to me.
Darethor laid his hand over hers upon him. “I will see to him. For all our sakes.”
“Go,” I told Velra. “All is well.”
She steeled herself, then gave me a nod, before striding deeper into the heart of the battle, clearing the way with her shadows and frost alike.
Darethor swept his arms up and out, his blue power arcing high and wide and forming a glimmering shield just as Velra’s shadow wall had to fall so she could do what needed to be done.
He completed the process just before the first blast from the minions hit.
I saw him grind his boots into the sand to maintain stability, while he was not in optimal condition.
I dug my fingers into the sand also, my instinct to push back to my feet leading the way, until I caught myself. I could not enter battle either way. I couldn’t unleash any magic while I was containing so much Celestial power. It would erupt from me in an uncontainable rush. My magic was not just mine at current.
I collapsed onto my side, having to just watch as more minions joined the assault now they already hadThrynedistracted with trying to counteract the awful acts of the mind-meddling.
“There comes a point where the price for amassing great power is a debt too great. The pursuit loses all meaning and all it offers in return is pain,” Darethor spoke to me over his shoulder as he held the shield steady. Regret pierced his eyes. “This is the last note in a symphony I wrote long ago.”
“You’ve seen the error in it, you’re attempting to rectify it.”
“Alas, the damage will resonate.”
“Then how fortunate it is that you are immortal.”
His lips lifted. “That is worth noting, yes.”
“Lavra and Ardent, they are the ones truly beyond saving. Today you’ve made it clear that you don’t fall into that same category. Now you just need to see it through.”
He nodded. “And I shall.”
My attention was drawn to an explosion of Velra’s shadows sparking with her purple magic and also infused with her frost.
I grinned as I watched her standing there at the heart of a violent funnel—her being the source of said funnel, and all that amalgamated power.
The minions andThrynewere equal parts shocked and enraptured by it as she stood in the center of Sanctum Sands Beach, essentially cutting through the battlefield as she invoked the full scope of her power.
She thrust both palms forward and her shadows, frost, and magic rushed forward and forged a door in the fabric of reality itself, shimmering, swirling, crackling with frost.
Her own special form of a portal.
Her voice rang out, cutting through the chaos.“Attraho… Evano.”
I watched in absolute awe as a shimmering film spread over each minion—then shattered, one by one—releasing sparks of magic that burst into the air.
Each spark, an essence of the mind-meddling power that had controlled them, shot skyward, rushing toward the portal Velra had forged.
She was extracting the mind-meddling essence from all of them at once.
The sparks passed through the portal rapidly.
The dragons and vampires were released.
And thenThrynewas free to subdue as had been the original intention.
In moments, they were swarming the minions, overpowering them, bringing them to their knees, and binding them with magical cuffs on the sand.
Velra turned, guiding the last of the sparks, and I saw her eyes flame vibrant amethyst, and moment before the portal door pulsed violently then sealed shut.
