Between Darkness and Light Trilogy (31 page)

“Perhaps, but now they are certain to think
Lumina was involved in their Magni Dominar’s murder!”

“Ow! Stop it Sis, my flames are out! Look,
Gwenllian needs help.”

I pause and look over at her, she lies
unconscious while her clothes burn. All others are tending to their
own flames, I continue our conversation as we move to help her,
slapping her flames out at a less frantic pace. “Don’t try to
change the subject, William – you should have left me. Someone
needed to stay behind to show them that this was not planned – not
by Lumina, at least. That stupid bastard! I knew he was a jerk, but
I never imagined he could do such a terrible thing!”

“Shi'ahn, they really would have killed
you.”

“Maybe, but my staying would have been
symbolic – now it looks like we are all guilty of his atrocity,
they will blame our entire realm.”

“You can stop now, Gwenllian’s flames are
all out.” Oh, I focus my attention on Gwenllian and see he is
right; I’m lucky she’s unconscious.

Yet, why is she unconscious? “Gwenllian?
Gwenllian!” She remains unresponsive.

Celeste addresses my concerns, “After coming
through the portal, Gwenllian was closely watching your actions
back in the throne room and when the fire burst upon us, she
tripped over a rock as she backed away. Her head hit another rock
fairly hard, but she will be fine soon. Just let her rest.”

Alma's annoyed/annoying voice cuts in over
our conversation, “Well, this is just great – thanks for your help
and concern, everyone.” We look over, she’s smoldering – literally,
this time. She continues, “What was that? My clothes should have
been indestructible”

I reply, “A fire spell, a really good one,
by the strength and speed of it. Someone must have cast it at us
just after William passed through the portal – his Spire light
shield dropped just before he pulled me through.”

Alma turns to William, “Well why did you
drop your shield – did you think we would be safe just because we
had passed into another place? Do you think portals only transport
physical objects? They pass spells just as well, idiot.”

William somehow manages to sound patient, “I
didn’t purposely drop the shield, the forces of Enlightenment
cannot be wielded here.”

“Are you sure?”

Annoyance creeps into his tone, “Yes, Alma,
I’m quite sure. Frankly I'm surprised you haven't noticed.” There
is a pause as each of those capable of it tests William’s
claim.

Alma offers, “We have all been somewhat
distracted.”

Darius adds, “The forces of Chaos are also
unavailable.”

Moving beyond the uncomfortable moment, Alma
continues in an accusing tone. “All right then, explain this – why
is it that our clothes caught fire, while your sister’s clothes are
un-singed? Only her hair was affected – how could that be when she
is unenlightened? She should be in far worse condition than
us!”

“She would have been, yes, if it weren’t for
her dragon heart-scale dress and scarf.”

“Yes, we all heard it called that, but what
does it mean?”

Don’t these people know their dragon-lore? I
explain, “It means that the material was spun from the scales that
had lain over my Dragon-friend’s heart. She willingly made herself
vulnerable to give that protection to me. A gift of love from such
an intensely magical creature is a very powerful thing. I did lose
my shoes, if you will notice – they were of Lumina make, like your
clothes.”

Alma remains skeptical, “And our 'friend'
here?” She looks pointedly at Darius, who replies with a smile.

“The people of my realm are accustomed to
our atmosphere changing rapidly – 'Adapt or die' they always say.'”
I remember then, when I first came through, he looked oddly gray –
stone like?

Celeste, also smoldering, never says a word
– she just watches us with a slightly amused expression.

After a moment of uncomfortable silence a
powerful lightening bolt strikes the ground fairly nearby, shocking
me into taking in our surroundings. It is a very strange place, a
gray geometric plane with odd-looking mountains in the distance.
Lightning bolts begin to fall fairly regularly from eerie clouds
that roam the sky. I cast my eyes skyward and see the strangest
thing – a black sun that radiates tremendous waves of mystical
energy. Almost without thought I launch a power tendril from my
ring to connect with it. It is very far away, but shouldn’t require
much concentration, it being all that lies in that direction.

I return my attention to the land and notice
what all the others already have, our erstwhile Chaosian host is a
short distance away. Dominar Ultor remains in his Chaos form, and
he looks quite angry as he heads our way. I look around him
quickly, hoping to see Nero’s body lying nearby, or at least some
blood, but I see no trace of him. The area does seem torn up,
though.

Even at a distance, his anger is palpable, I
look again at the torn up stone and fear the worst. I call out,
“Are you alright? Did you see where the traitor went?” Dominar
Ultor begins to change form, becoming once again humanoid by the
time he reaches us, but he remains terribly angry. I look more
closely at him and feel a rush of concern. He no longer looks like
a handsome elderly gentleman, he has become an old man. I suddenly
realize that those of Uisnach may well be held accountable for
Nero’s act, it makes me feel horrible. We must make Nero pay, and
prove to all that he acted alone, that no one else under the
protection of House Uisnach had anything to do with his act.

But before we can make Nero pay, we have to
find him. I ask, “I assume you didn’t catch him; I don’t see a
body…” I allow hopefulness to show in my voice, “Unless you utterly
destroyed him?”

He answers, “No, he was gone before I
arrived. What happened back there after I left?”

“Everything happened so quickly. As soon as
I realized my danger, I ran to Darius. We tried to get away by
other means…”

Alma jumps in, “We were trapped – our
transport crystals did not work, and then we were attacked! Is that
all your kind do, attack people?”

Ultor explodes, “How dare you accuse us of
attacking after you killed our Magni Dominar!”

He looks as though he is about to tear Alma
apart, but Celeste steps between them and… changes. Not like a
shape changer per say, but she becomes… deeper, greater, as though
what we see every day is really only a small part of her true
being. Her voice rings out, shaking us to our cores, “Enough!” A
lightening bolt strikes very nearby. Celeste looks up in annoyance
and waves her hand as though to whisk away the pesky cloud, and it
moves away. They all do! She seemingly diminishes then, and
continues in a normal voice, “There isn't much else to tell, we
each tried to escape by other means, and we each failed. It
couldn't have been more than a minute after you left that we
followed you.”

Cas Ultor glances toward Darius, who nods
almost imperceptibly.

“I had been here for about four hours before
Darius stepped through, and the rest of you were rather slow in
following.”

Alma, somewhat calmed, replies, “Damn, this
place is fast. Nero must have had plenty of time to get away before
you followed him. Damn. Well, It looks like we have some time to
figure things out before our absence becomes conspicuous. Does
anyone have a clue how this happened?”

Dominar Ultor almost explodes, “I’ll tell
you what happened – your Nero stabbed the Magni Dominar! I can’t
believe we brought such filth among us… that we swore to keep you
safe in our realm!”

Celeste shoots him a warning look, then
passes it over the rest of us as well.

Casanova tries to redirect the conversation,
“Though he has never seemed particularly wise, I have never known
him to act against the best interests of Lumina; he is too
interested in his position as the son of the heir apparent to do
anything to jeopardize his standing. This came out of nowhere, I
had no idea he would even dream of doing such a thing.”

Alma speaks up, this time in a contemplative
voice, “I find myself even more surprised that he could create a
transport portal, and so quickly! He isn’t particularly skilled
with crystals, you know.”

William offers, “Maybe it was a spell?”

I can’t help the air that forcibly escapes
my lips. “Have you ever witnessed one of his spells work correctly
on the first try? I haven’t, and he always speaks his spells in
that odd language of his. He did not speak to create that
portal.”

Celeste offers, returning to her light,
lilting manner, “Perhaps it was stored on a ring or other item of
power?”

William answers, “I didn’t sense any such
thing on him earlier.”

Alma disparagingly adds, “Of course, you
missed the dagger as well…”

William almost explodes, “He didn’t have any
items of power earlier - not until the moment he lunged at the
Magni Dominar!”

“Maybe you’ve overestimated your
understanding of true power, you are, after all, quite new at
this.”

“You are far more experienced than I, did
you detect any means for him to create that transport portal?”

Her voice loses its mocking tone, becoming
as ice, “No.”

I speak up before their argument can
escalate, “This isn’t doing us any good. Let’s quit accusing each
other for what we didn’t do or notice, and focus on what we did do
and observe.”

William mentions, “As soon as I realized
what had happened, I cast a Life Force spell on the Magni Dominar,
and I know he wasn’t dead by the time we left…”

“William, how did you come to have a Life
Force spell?”

“Oh, ah, it's something Cailliach gave me
before we left. I sort of expected to have to use it on you at some
point, given your, you know, condition.”

Celeste adds, “I attempted a psychic attack
on Nero as soon as he opened his escape portal, but I was struck
back by something I did not understand.”

“It was Nero who attacked you?” Alma sounds
scandalized.

“Yes. It is odd, though, that he would be
able to attack so swiftly… something isn’t right. He is rather
young after all, and not particularly skilled. I suppose he could
have had a protective ward of some kind, but I never noticed him
with such a thing in the past.” Celeste’s next words rock us all,
“Perhaps the attacker wasn’t Nero at all.” William and I voice the
same thought,

“Lucian?”

Celeste shakes her head, but says nothing.
Casanova interjects, “I dislike that man just as much if not more
than most of you, but I must be the voice of reason here. It is
true Lucian hates those of Chaos, and he certainly doesn’t care
about the welfare of any of us; but I can’t see him betraying
Lumina so visibly. If he wanted to kill the Magni Dominar, he would
do it stealthily, and make certain another of Chaos was blamed, not
anyone of Lumina.”

I reply, “This person certainly meant to
implicate Lumina, and he purposely tried to get me killed! No,
don’t think I’m jumping to conclusions, I saw his cruel smile just
before he stepped through his portal, he wanted me dead. If he
hadn’t he would have gone to the back of our line instead of going
ahead of me. He purposely separated me from the rest of you and his
escape route.”

Celeste asks, “What was he doing back there
anyway – he belonged just behind me.”

“He said that he had to… relieve himself,
and that Alma was being… wouldn’t let him back in line ahead of
her.”

Alma bursts out, “That isn’t true - he never
returned. Of course I would have let him back in. He is Vespasian’s
son, after all.”

Cas adds, “She’s right, he never came back.
Why would he lie about that?”

“As an excuse to set me up as an easy target
for retribution, that’s why!”

“But that would surely anger the Emperor,
killing family members has never been acceptable. That is, by
anyone but the Emperor himself.” Cas and Alma share a quick look of
repressed anger, but offer no more.

“Even unproven family members that neither
he nor the Emperor likes? And that wouldn’t have been direct
murder, just placing me in harms way. Lucian has already proven
himself willing to do that – perhaps it was really him in
disguise.”

Cas speaks slowly and thoughtfully. “No, I’m
certain Lucian wouldn’t do that, he… he and I share something in
common – we are both drawn to beauty. He may be far more
disillusioned with women, even bitter at times, but still he would
not throw your life away. Beyond that, he is truly loyal to the
Emperor; he doesn’t have a choice. He would not betray you unless
it was a direct order from the Emperor… and Emperor Augustus would
not have ordered the killing of the Magni Dominar; for this could
endanger his reign.”

Alma jumps in, “It would, however, make
sense for whoever it was to reposition himself so that he would
have less scrutiny, and you and William are so new to Lumina that
you have not caught on to the leeway we give Nero – no one else
would have believed that I would not let him return to his rightful
place in line.”

I just have to ask, “What did you mean, Cas,
about Lucian not having a choice in his loyalties?”

Cas flicks his eyes covertly over to our
Uisnach hosts before answering, “The Emperor has placed an
unusually strong oath on him. He is rather a dangerous man, after
all.”

His answer seems far from sufficient, but
I’m pretty sure it is all I will get at this time. “All right, what
about the others?”

At first no one responds, then Celeste
speaks thoughtfully, “No, I just don’t see any others of Lumina
doing such a shortsighted thing. I have observed each of them since
their childhood, I know them fairly well. This act was inexcusable,
and quite unfortunate. We will almost certainly be plunged into war
over this, and if Shi'ahn had also been killed then it would have
been even more difficult to avoid. I personally can’t think of any
reason why one of us would try to start such a war. I’d say it was
either someone from Chaos who has something against Uisnach and can
withstand the presence of a Spire artifact, or it was someone
really clueless, which would seemingly lead us right back to Nero.
It can’t be him, though – he isn’t particularly capable, and he
certainly was not responsible for whatever it was that struck back
at me. Did anyone else do or notice anything significant?”