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in the surge and could not pull free from the current. The waves of released energy pulled him apart, washed his remnants away. It erased every spiritual fiber of the wizard Ingar.

With Ingar destroyed, the chains that held both Shayed and Dzeb disappeared. The cliff behemoth struggled to his feet as the elf spirit looked to the quickly dispersing cloud of colorful energy.

The land was being reborn before their very eyes. Changes erupted in a heartbeat as magic buried for countless seasons spread with fury. Changes, both good and evil, both dark and light, encompassed the sky and the ground. Subtle alterations which would not be noticed in the life of an elf took root in the hills and in the flatlands. Obvious transformations, more striking than the sight of a cliff behemoth, took hold in the far corners of the deserts and the seas. What could not have been possible was now likely. The normal lives of every creature in Uton were now irrevocably altered.

“The magic is free,” Shayed stated just above a whisper. “Free and pure. The taint of poison has been removed.” There was no emptiness for the sorceress in this moment, and there would be none to follow. Only now, at the sphere’s final destruction, did she realize that Ingar’s talisman was not a source of purpose for her consciousness, but a shackle. It was not the sphere that etched her place in the legends, but her own deeds. In this revelation, she found everlasting fulfillment. With these words, she faded from sight.

As if her departure signaled the end of their own mysterious mission, the ten shapeless spirits which had encircled Ingar took flight. Each circled the mountain top once before taking leave to the heavens.

Dzeb watched their exit serenely.

Ryson followed suit. He sheathed his sword to let their light glisten more proudly in the fading dark. He silently counted the gleaming lights as they disappeared. Though, only ten had taken flight from Sanctum’s peak, eleven had circled overhead. He bowed his head to the last as it followed the others to the heavens.

In but scant moments, the glow from the east soon expanded. The light of day encompassed everything. The rainbow of magical energy dispersed completely as the stars were blocked from sight and the sky turned a deep blue. Ryson turned to the east, turned to welcome the sun as it rose above the horizon.

Chapter 31

“She faded away just before the other spirits took off.” Ryson made his explanation to Lief as the elf sat up on the drying ground in the sunlight. The algors sat beside him, using their healing powers to chase away the exhaustion, to repair his injured ankle. Holli stood watch over them all, never convinced that the danger had simply ceased to exist. Her eyes darted about the summit as well as down the slopes while the delver continued his retelling of Shayed’s departure.

Ryson was torn with emotions and his words betrayed the swirling confusion within him. There was joy, as much as he tried to deny it. There was also much pain. Ingar had been vanquished, the sphere destroyed, but the death of two more brought guilt to any sense of triumph. He found it difficult to retell the story to Lief, could not look in his eyes when he spoke of Mappel’s death, but the elf had urged him to continue. He could do so only with hollow words, proclaiming victory as if it were equal to defeat. He now spoke of Shayed’s last words with but a hint of comfort.

“She said the magic was pure and the taint of poison gone. I can sense she’s right. Something about the air feels different. Not the way it was before the quake, but less threatening.”

“The taint of poison has been removed, do not doubt that.” Lief stretched to test his rejuvenated muscles and to illustrate his returning strength. “I would not have lasted this day if it had remained, but the poison is gone from my body as well.” The elf paused, scanned the mountain top as if to confirm an assumption. “What about Dzeb?”

Ryson shrugged, indicating he understood so little about the cliff behemoth. His tone carried the same uncertainty. “He left just as the sun rose, started climbing down the mountain like nothing ever happened. He told me to say good-bye to everyone for him. That was it. I don’t…”

Dust kicked up from Lauren’s heels choked off his words. She looked upon the delver blankly, ignoring the elves and the algors.

The delver noticed many things in that moment. Her nervous actions disappeared as her arms hung steadily at her sides. Her eyes, though void of emotion, could focus without distraction upon her objective. The confusion, the denial of what she had become, had washed away. There remained hundreds of decisions to make, decisions only a magic caster faced and foreign to a delver, but the acceptance of her own abilities now seemed anchored in this changing reality.

When she spoke, any uncertainty focused not upon what she was, but where it would lead her. Her words carried conviction, if not true direction.

“You were wrong, Ryson Acumen,” she began bluntly but without anger. “I did make my decision within Sanctum. I can no longer turn back. I am a magic caster, a sorceress. I don’t know where that will lead me, but I know you had a hand in my decision. I am also aware you saved me from Ingar. I hope you understand it is difficult to be grateful when you can’t be sure if living will be a blessing or a curse. I can only guess that someday I will know that answer. If we meet again, I will either thank you or kill you.”

She read his mind before he could respond. “The reason for your actions doesn’t matter. I know you didn’t mean to curse me, if that is what you’ve done. Again, it doesn’t matter. Do you really think I will care about your intentions if the magic corrupts me? I only give this to you as a warning. I now take the name of Tabris. If in the future that name becomes infamous, I suggest you sleep lightly. Do not bother to escort me down the mountain. I will find my own way.”

She turned about, leaving him with the same blank face. Ryson could only stare into her back as she slowly walked off to a path down Sanctum’s slope. He put a hand to his head and rubbed his eyes. As his fingers rode up his forehead and brushed his hair back, he looked toward Lief with his own growing fatigue.

“Do not fret,” Lief said almost cheerily. “She has a long path to travel. Even the greatest wizards do not become powerful within a few seasons. She has much to learn, and without other magic casters to teach her, she will indeed have to find her own way. It will be a very long time before she becomes a true threat, and she may never become a threat at all. She may use her powers for the service of the land. If not, she might cause her own undoing while researching a spell. It is not that I wish that, it is only that we can not say what direction she will take. It is not worth your worry.”

“Easy to say,” Ryson sighed. “With all that’s happened I don’t need something else to worry about.” He looked down at the ground and kicked at the dusty rock with the toe of his boot. “You have to remember, this is not going to be an easy time for me as it is. The magic is going to turn Uton upside down. The people I know, the place I call home, neither are going to adjust well to what’s going to happen now. I really don’t need to hear her tell me that someday she might want to kill me.”

“You speak as if the magic will bring nothing but harm to the land. That is not the case.” Lief spoke with more authority now. The algors had completed their work and now stepped aside to let the elf stand. “Look at me. I was near dead, the algors have used the magic to heal me.”

“It was the magic that almost killed you,” Ryson reminded.

“True, but it was not the magic which injured my ankle, yet that is healed as well.”

“What about Tun, and Stephen?” Ryson looked over toward the two fallen forms where Matthew and Jon prepared them for burial. He then looked to the clump of ash which was all that remained of Mappel. He spoke of the elder elf in a pained whisper. “What about Mappel?”

The cheer left Lief’s lips, but not his resolve. “Mappel died to save the elves, to save the land of Uton. He will be missed, but his memory will not be lost on useless sorrow. I can not change the things that have happened here. I do not wish to. The sphere is destroyed. The threat to us all is ended. Mappel is now as much a part of the legends as Shayed herself. I can not, will not deny him that.”

“I wish I could see it that easily,” Ryson confessed. “But right now, I see friends that have died and a great deal of uncertainty.”

It was Holli who seized upon this statement. “Uncertainty leads to questions, and questions need answers. Is that not what a delver lives for?”

Lief nodded. “Those are words you should cling to. True enough, the land is changing. You will live a life to see things you might never have dreamed of. What you have grown to expect is vanishing even faster than before. Pure magic is a powerful thing. It can be used in so many ways. No one truly knows what the magic will bring, but I would think it is a wonderful time to be a delver.”

Ryson was not given a chance to respond as Lief turned his attention to the approaching Jon and Matthew.

The reader spoke in quiet somber tones. “Jon and I have decided to let Sanctum serve as the final resting place for Stephen and Tun. We will carry them inside through the breach and into the delver tier. Jon has told me there is no danger for us there. Upon our exit, Jon will see to the destruction of the tiers, collapsing the entire internal structure. He will then seal all points of entry. Sanctum will no longer hold secrets of danger, but serve as a monument for those who gave their lives to overcome it. We hope that you will consider joining us and allowing it to be Mappel’s monument as well.”

Lief turned to Holli who nodded her head. He bowed his own head in deep consideration before giving his answer. “It seems only fitting. Let human, dwarf, and elf rest together in a place which once symbolized their mistrust for one another.”

Saying nothing else, Lief walked somberly to Mappel’s remains. He emptied his arrows to the ground and used his quiver as an urn for the ashes.

Matthew watched silently as Holli stepped respectfully to Lief’s side. Jon returned to the still form of his brother, and the reader was left beside the delver with only the algors looking on.

“And what about you, Ryson? What will you do now?”

The delver choked back his growing anguish. “I’d like to stay to see the mountain sealed for good,” the delver expressed. “I remember when Lief told me how representatives from all the races gathered up here during the first seal, when the sphere was first entombed. I’ve thought about that image a lot since then. It looks like we’re about to seal the mountain again, but for

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