Delver Magic III: Balance of Fate, Jeff Inlo [most popular ebook readers .txt] 📗

with honesty, faith, determination, honor, integrity and courage, yes courage. Or we can choose to deal in deception, anger, bitterness, and fear. When we do we choose a path we choose between right and wrong, good and evil. These are decisions of the greatest magnitude and define who we are. If I start to make these choices for you, I stop you from becoming what you were meant to be. Don’t you understand that?”

Though Ryson and Holli became silent, Lief was not impressed and made his own understanding known. “And how many times do I have to tell you? It’s not just what we do, it’s what we don’t do. We are asking you to act. You are using excuses to avoid such action. That is not a reflection of us, it is a reflection of you. You talk to us as if we are making some kind of unholy request. That is nonsense. We are asking you to do what you are capable of doing and what should be done. When you do not act, there are consequences. Look at this carcass on the floor.” Lief paused just long enough to point to the body of Edward Consprite. “This is the human that attempted to stand in our way when we needed to destroy Ingar’s sphere. Tell me wizard, how many lives would have been saved if I killed this pathetic excuse of a human when I first met him as opposed to now? How MANY?!”

The elf would not cease to allow for an answer. His own anger flushed his face and his temple throbbed with a pulsating vein.

“Now let’s turn to this sorceress. You don’t wish to interfere in the choices of others so you will let her simply go about her business in the desert. I can not take such a position, not in good conscious. If I do nothing when I have the ability to act, then I am just as responsible for the evil she commits because it could have been avoided if only I did something to stop her. I don’t wish to live with that. That is my choice!”

Lief was not yet done and now he turned to the delver.

“And what of you, Ryson? I call you friend, but you have not yet divulged your decision. We’ve actually had this discussion before, and more than once. Only a few days ago, you would not allow me to kill the river rogue. Do you remember? You believed all life had value. Fine. I won’t argue the point, I’ll use it instead. We allowed Consprite to live back before we left for Sanctum Mountain to retrieve the sphere. We could have killed him right there, but you insist there’s a value on life, even Consprite’s. But what of the lives that have been lost since? Have they no value? How many died because of Consprite? How many from the Church of Godson suffered? How many were tortured by a mad sorceress because he condemned them.

“And let’s not forget about that sorceress. Are we not responsible for her? We are the one’s that brought her to Sanctum Mountain when we needed to destroy the sphere. As I remember it, she didn’t want to use the magic, isn’t that what she said to us at Sanctum’s peak? But we convinced her it was necessary.”

Ryson recalled the event clearly. He remembered how he implored Lauren, who had become Tabris, to use the magic to help get the sphere out of Sanctum Mountain. Still, he also remembered how important it was to get to the talisman and he said as much. “It was necessary. Everyone would have died if the sphere was not destroyed. She used the magic to save everyone.”

“And now she uses magic to kill,” Lief shot back. “The truth is we have to take responsibility for what we’ve done. Who knows what would have happened if she decided not to use the magic? Who is to say that we wouldn’t have found some other way to stop the sphere? Your friend here says we have to deal with choices. We had a choice then, and we have a choice now. Do we face up to our responsibility that in some way we created Tabris?”

Lief turned to Enin and fired off his final thought. “One other thing you should consider, wizard. Maybe actions can be right and wrong, good and evil, as you like to profess. But what about inaction? Where do you want to place the decision not to do anything, to stand back and allow things to happen that should not happen? Where is the good and evil in that?”

“What do you mean?” Enin asked.

“I mean that certain inaction can be as harmful as any action. It’s not always enough to say that I did not do anything unjust or evil, as you seem to like to put it. I’ve realized that not doing anything can lead to just as much pain and suffering. How many suffered because the elders of my camp did nothing when Petiole was in charge? And now you hold to the same attitude. You are using an excuse of not interfering, but it is the same thing. You point to what has happened here in Connel as justification for your inaction. You want to point to everything good that occurred here and use it to defend how you did nothing. In my mind, that is beyond cowardly. You wish to actually take credit for not acting.”

“I am not taking credit,” Enin responded angrily. “I only said that my decision not to interfere was the proper one.”

“And I say to you it is an argument of convenience. It allows you to stand back and remove yourself from what needs to be done. If that’s what you want, very well, but there are others that do not feel the same way.”

Enin frowned, but said nothing further to the elf. He turned to the delver instead. “What about you Ryson? Do you agree with him?”

Ryson heaved a heavy breath and replied with all the honesty his heart allowed. “I don’t agree with everything Lief says. When I listen to him it sounds as if he wants to punish people for what they are capable of doing and not what they actually do. That’s not right. But the truth is that’s not what we’re dealing with here. We know what Tabris has done. I don’t know if I am responsible for it or not, but I do know we can’t just pretend it never happened and just leave her in the desert. I wish you would see it that way, Enin. I really do think you are the one best suited to handle this, but if you won’t, then I don’t see any other choice. This may be our best opportunity to stop her.” Ryson paused and looked to both Holli and Lief. “I’ll go with you and do whatever we have to do.”

Holli did not let any silence stand for long. Instead, she made one last attempt to make Enin understand. “Ryson is correct. There are times we simply must act. You taught me how to use the magic and I’m grateful, but I have to choose how to use it. Isn’t that what you also have been trying to tell us? Based on what I’ve seen and heard, I choose to help them. I will take them to Tabris, and though it will use most of my energy to get them there. I will use what I have left and all the rest of my abilities to stop her and keep her from being a threat in the future. That is my choice.”

“I see,” the wizard said. “I will not stand in your way. You all must do what you think is right.”

“I’m not sure if it will be enough,” Holli admitted, “so before I go, I want you to consider something. You once said you were blessed with an understanding of your power. I truly wonder now if that’s true. I for one can’t accept some of the things you have told me. I understand the importance of balance in many things, but you’re grasp of it escapes me. You say there is good and there is evil and in order to make sure that all choice is fair, the two must always even out. Based on this notion of balance, you want me to believe that you do not act because it means something evil will happen somewhere else. To me, that makes no sense at all. If everyone has a choice of whether to do right or wrong, good or evil, then it has to be possible that everyone could choose good. If that were the case, there would be no evil.

“I’ve never accepted your argument that we must know sadness in order to experience happiness, or that we must know pain in order to feel joy. Perhaps I am making things too simple, but I do not think seeking a balance between these things would be in anyone’s interest. It makes more sense to maximize the positive and minimize the negative, focus on what is good and enhance it, deny what is bad and try to eliminate it. This is never how you look at things. You constantly tell me that every good act can be evened out with an act of evil. If that were true, perhaps we would have been better off if we let the sphere destroy us all.

“Maybe because you are so powerful you have come up with this notion in order to maintain your own reason. I can’t say. I see how powerful you are I think you have become obsessed with the idea of balance. There are other things, however, you must consider as well. Choosing means taking risks and when you use balance as an excuse, you insulate yourself from these risks. You are right in not wanting to interfere with people’s lives, but you are not right when you avoid using the gift you have been given simply because you do not wish to take a risk.”

Holli stopped for just a moment and placed a hand on Enin’s cheek. “Thank you for all you have taught me.” She then turned to Lief and Ryson. “If we are to do this, haste is our best ally. Are you ready?”

Both nodded.

“Then prepare yourselves for we shall be on Tabris’ doorstep in a matter of moments.” She then concentrated on a point in the Lacobian Desert and brought her hands together. A green octagon of pure energy encircled her around her shoulders. She brought Lief and Ryson together with her in her mind and the emerald shape expanded to surround them as well. As she focused on a path through space and time that would bring them to the desert, the green magic shimmered and crackled and then the three were gone.

Enin looked upon the empty space where they stood only moments ago. He thought of Lief and he was sorry his last words to him were ones of anger. He considered Ryson and knew that he would survive somehow for his destiny was not done. Finally, his thoughts turned to Holli.

He did not wish to dwell on their parting for too long as her words struck something within. As much as he tried to push aside what she said, tried to convince himself she did not truly understand, he could not deny the spark of doubt that was now growing inside. Something she said nagged at him because it seemed to generate a tremor in the vast magical energy within him. For an instant, he wished to close the door on that sensation, bury it back down deep. He could not, however, bring himself to do so. There was more than a spark of truth in what