Rend Hope (14 page)

             
"Trying to isolate me?" Rosalind sneered, Markus frowned at this.

             
"For your own good." He clarified, the wind began to gather around him.  "Now we shouldn't have any more distractions."

             
"Fine by me." She replied simply as she began to glow white from using her sorcery.

             
At the same time, almost as if they rehearsed it, both Rosalind and Markus brought their hands forward.  Markus firing a blast of highly pressured air while Rosalind shot a thick beam of ivory energy.  Both blasts collided right between the two magi, clashing for about three seconds before the blasts destabilized and exploded.  The resulting explosion left behind a decent-sized crater.

             
The dust hadn't even settled yet when both magi charged at each other, leaping into the air and clashing in the sky.  Markus struck out with his right fist, aiming for Rosalind's face.  The co-founder of Midas City managed to catch it with her left hand though and immediately countered with a knee from her right leg.  Markus blocked her right knee with his left, hitting two knees together was not a pleasant feeling, but he powered through it.  He reared his head back and gave Rosalind a nasty headbutt, slamming his forehead into her own.

             
The blonde-haired woman grunted and was knocked away from the mid-air melee.  As soon as she landed she was immediately forced to leap backwards as Markus somersaulted in the air and came down hard with his right foot, the impact sent sand and dust everywhere.  Rosalind conjured up her wings and used them to kill her backwards momentum.  She then quickly reversed direction, rushing towards Markus and striking out with her left elbow.

             
A thin stream of blood and saliva exited from Markus' mouth as Rosalind's elbow connected with his abdomen.  She was about to pull away, but Markus prevented that by grabbing the woman by the back of her head with both hands and planting his right knee firmly into her face.  Blood trailed from her damaged nose, but Rosalind ignored it.  Instead the hoodie-clad magi struck out with her right fist, connecting squarely with Markus' jaw.

             
The "Ordinary" Magi's head snapped back, his lips peeled back into a snarl as he twisted around clockwise and struck out with his own right fist in a spinning backhand.  He hit Rosalind on the right side of her face, causing her to stagger back.  Both magi stuck their left hands out simultaneously and fired their respective magic attacks nearly point-blank.  The force of the clashing magic energy was powerful enough to knock both of them far away from each other.

             
When the dust had settled once more, both combatants had risen to their feet.  Markus wiped his mouth and spat out some blood while Rosalind was wiping at her upper lip with her left hand, trying to clean the blood from her bleeding nose.  The two glared at each other.

             
"You won't leave this place alive Markus!  I will avenge my family's deaths!" Rosalind vowed, a white aura engulfing her.

             
"You're seeking vengeance in the wrong place, but it's your funeral!" Markus shot back, the wind gathering around him violently yet he stood perfectly still.

             
The power of the magic energy both combatants were gathering around them could almost be felt tangibly by a normal person.  While Rosalind was trying to glow as bright as the sun with her white energy, Markus' sorcery was a violent typhoon, ready to shred to pieces anything in its way.  Before either magi could unleash their attacks a green blur crashed down between them.

             
The green blur turned out to be a woman in a dark green skin-tight suit, with dark grey gloves, boots, shoulders and a dark grey helmet shaped in the form of a dragon.  The helmet covered the girl's eyes, she quickly stood up and glanced at the two fighting magi.  When she spoke, Markus recognized the voice as Marie's.

             
"Stop this Rosalind! Markus!" Marie called out, the killing intent in the air was almost palpable.

             
"I'm not stopping until he is dead.  Now step aside Marie." Rosalind replied.

             
"Please Rosalind!  There are more important matters to attend to now!" Marie pleaded, Rosalind turned her angry gaze upon her apprentice.

             
"Nothing is more important than this!  I don't expect you to understand, you weren't there.  The crimes he's committed!  The lives that were lost!" The co-founder of Midas City ranted.

             
"But...!" Marie was about to try again, but was interrupted by Markus.

             
"It's alright Marie." Markus said calmly.  "This situation is not your fault so don't blame yourself for it." he let out a long sigh.  "I always knew my past would eventually catch up to me, it's no use running from it."

             
Marie could only look helplessly between the two.  Her master, the one who was teaching her to control her sorcery, who was like her big sister and Markus, who could be annoying as hell, but seemed like a decent guy.  The "Ordinary" magi had also saved her life in a world where one usually only thought about saving themselves.  If not for Markus she would have been some cannibal's meal and that held a lot of weight for her.  She could count on one hand the people who went out of their way to help her.

             
"No please, don't do this..." Marie tried once again.  The thought of them both fighting each other so fiercely and possibly killing each other was awful.  And yet as she watched the two of them continued to glare at each other with such intensity that she knew there was no way she could stop them if they were dead set on this.

             
"As your master, I am ordering you to stand aside Marie!" Rosalind bellowed.  Marie frowned, her plea falling on deaf ears.  She reluctantly began to back away when another voice called out.

             
"That's enough." David Watkins called out.  He was still flanked by the two deputies who were nervously fingering their pistols in their holsters.  Rosalind's eyes widened in surprise.

             
"Mayor Watkins, you're here?" She asked.  Markus raised an eyebrow and looked at the middle-aged man.  So he finally got to see the mayor of the city.  The "Ordinary" magi immediately got the "Old, but tough." impression from him.

             
The mayor glanced at each one of them with a stoic gaze.  He immediately noted the heated glares from Rosalind and Markus and the determined look on their faces.  David knew those looks from experience, they really were planning to kill each other.

             
"Just what do you think you're doing?" He asked them.

Chapter 11

              "Get ready, we're coming up close on the vice-sheriff's location." Kendal announced to his team of deputies.  They all announced their acknowledgement.  The gun-slinging magi determined that they'd finally be able to get a visual once they reached the summit of the sand dune in front of them.

             
As they reached the summit and looked down, all the team saw was a large cloud of dust.  Sand particles within the cloud floated lazily in the air.

             
"That's one big dust cloud." One of the deputies said.

             
"Is the vice-sheriff really in that?" Another asked, Kendal shrugged, the binoculars Janine had given him in his right hand.

             
"That's what these binoculars indicated." He answered his subordinate.

             
"Maybe the stupid things are broken.  What a hunk of junk." A third deputy stated, Kendal's left eyebrow twitched.

             
"I'm sorry, what was that?" The sheriff asked, half-turning his head to his left and glaring at the deputy that just spoke with a suddenly bloodshot left eye.  Said deputy panicked, waving his hands furiously in front of him in a placating gesture.

             
"N-nothing sir!  I was uh just saying that my um glasses were broke yeah!  Stupid glasses!" The third deputy quickly stated, Kendal continued to glare at him, making him squirm.

             
"That's good deputy.  Because if someone was trashing my girlfriend's hard work they'd be patrolling the city sewers...for a month!" The sheriff replied ominously, the offending deputy shook his head vigorously.

             
"Nope no trashing going on here sir!  Why the thought never crossed my mind!" The third deputy responded, laughing to cover his nervousness.

             
"Glad to hear it." Kendal said, turning his attention back to the dust cloud.  The last deputy yet to speak, walked up to the third deputy, leaning in close so their conversation couldn't be heard.

             
"You don't wear glasses." The fourth deputy whispered, the other deputy glared at him.

             
"Shut up dude, are you trying to get me demoted to sewer duty?" The third deputy hissed back, the fourth deputy smiled mischievously.

             
"Maybe.  You pulling sewer duty for a month means the rest of us don't have to." The fourth deputy informed him.

             
“Screw you." Was all the third deputy said, Kendal took a few steps forward, his gold revolver gripped in his right hand.

             
"Surround that dust cloud and form a perimeter, but don't move in unless I give the signal.  Everyone brought short-range radios with them right?" The pseudo-cowboy asked, all four of his deputies told him they did.  He nodded.

             
"Go." He told them and his team split off to carry out their orders.

**********

              Rosalind was currently in a waiting room at the Mayor's office all by herself.  She was sitting indian-style on the floor, attempting to get in some meditation to calm her nerves.  She had come dangerously close to losing control of herself while fighting Markus and she had to make sure that incident didn't repeat itself.

             
After Mayor Watkins had broken up their fight.  The deputies had taken Markus back to the sheriff's department, the blonde-haired aeromancer had cooperated peacefully with them.  Meanwhile David had summoned her to his office and here she was in the waiting room, trying to meditate before he called her in.

             
The hoodie-clad magi slowed her breathing and allowed her mind to relax, not focusing on any specific thought and just letting her brain wander.  Surprisingly, it wandered to a certain incident eight years ago, when she was a lot younger and more naive.

**********

2227 A.D.

Near Havenway
, located in what was once Michigan.

             
Rosalind was lying on a stone slab, her arms raised above her head in a Y-shape and held down by restraints.  Her legs were slightly spread and held down by similar restraints as well.  She was dressed in denim jeans and brown hiking boots with a plain white shirt.  Dust and dirt clung to her skin and clothes and she was sweating profusely, though not because it was hot.  It was actually quite cold.

             
She was in some sort of underground dungeon made of stone.  The ceiling was high above her where the room's only source of light currently was.  It was a lantern kept lit up by sorcery.  The lantern cast an eerie light bluish glow about the room, a light which played tricks on the eyes and made shadows seemingly dance.

             
The stone slab she was currently lying on was at the top of a large altar.  The slab was positioned to be perpendicular to the stairs leading up to it.  She was restrained so that if she looked to her right she would see the stairs and that if she looked to her left she would see a small archway twenty meters away which lead to some place she had no clue of.  The stairs themselves were wide and went down a good distance, easily over sixty meters.  After which there was a wide archway that looked like it was the entrance, or for her hopefully, the exit.

             
Rosalind struggled in her bonds, she tried to use her sorcery, but it was no use.  Her captor had somehow prevented her from casting spells.  The bonds holding her down were strong and tight as well, there was no way she could slip her wrists through them.

             
"It's useless to struggle my love." A familiar voice said to her left, she looked in that direction to discover Frederick, her husband and her captor, walking towards her.  Rosalind was unable to suppress the cold shiver of dread that went down her spine at the sight of the man she had so recently loved.

             
Frederick had shaved himself bald, including his eyebrows.  His eyes were still their sparkling blue, but now they sparkled with madness.  He was dressed only in black pants and shoes, exposing his well-built torso.  He had adorned his skin with strange blue magic glyphs of sorcery she hadn't seen before.  Frederick also had in his right hand a six-inch curved dagger, much to Rosalind's growing alarm.

             
"Why Frederick?  Why are you doing this now?" Rosalind asked, confused by what was happening.  Her husband stopped, the grin on his face turning into a frown.

             
"Why you ask?  Isn't it obvious?" He questioned, she fixed him with a glare.

             
"Apparently it isn't, which is why I'm asking you." She replied.

             
"You've seen what we've faced here in Havenway.  We are constantly being targeted for our resources and not by weak bandits or cannibals, but feral magi and necromancers.  Every day it gets harder and harder to survive." Frederick said, his grip on the dagger tightening.  "And then one day I realized something.  I want to live Rosalind, I want to live more than anything.  However, to keep living I need more power.  Power to defeat any magi or necromancer who threatens me!  That's where you come in my love." He finished, his grin returning.

             
"What do you mean?" Rosalind asked, not liking where this was going.  How did she miss her husband going off the deep end?  She saw no hints, no signs in his behavior that he was heading down this path of insanity.

             
"I have discovered a necromantic spell that will bestow your power unto me via your lifeblood.  With my power and yours combined nothing will ever threaten my life again!" He declared, a crazed grin on his face.  Rosalind felt the first pangs of panic and fear, but she ruthlessly suppressed them.

             
"Frederick are you listening to yourself!?  You're talking about killing your own wife!" Rosalind shouted, trying to get him to see reason.  It was in vain however, Frederick merely looked down at her, his grin transitioning into a smirk which did nothing to lessen the creepy vibe he was now giving off.

             
"Don't worry love, even if I kill you here we'll still be together.  With your power fused to mine we'll never be apart again." He told her.  He raised his right hand, the dagger in a reverse grip, ready to be plunged into her heart.

             
"Frederick! Please! NO!  Think carefully about what you're doing!"  Rosalind begged.  Frederick paused, the smirk faded from his face.  Hope began to fill her heart as she thought she may have gotten through to him.

             
"I have thought carefully about this Rosalind.  More than you'll ever know, this must be done." He answered ominously, and with that he plunged the dagger towards her heart.

             
Time seemed to slow down as Rosalind watched the dagger lazily head towards her chest.  She couldn't believe Frederick's sudden bout of selfishness.  She didn't want to die either, she wanted to live as well.  She wanted to swim in the cool refreshing waters of Havenway Lake again.  She wanted to get into another argument with Markus over which tasted better, chicken or fish.  She wanted to hear Master Nobellus' booming laughter and maybe someday she would like to raise a child to experience these same joys as well.

             
Rosalind didn't want to die, she closed her eyes and mentally begged someone, anyone to save her.

             
She felt something wet splash across her face and neck, it must be her blood.  It was strange how warm it felt, but where was the pain?  Surely being stabbed was more painful than this, but she didn't feel anything.

             
Curiosity got the better of her and she opened her eyes to quite a sight.  Instead of one person standing over her there were now two.  One was her husband Frederick, the other...

             
"Markus!?" She exclaimed not quite believing what she was seeing.

             
It was indeed him however, his short blonde hair and bright green eyes were unmistakable.  Dressed in a short-sleeve black shirt, green cargo pants and white shoes, all of which were worn and torn.  He had numerous cuts and bruises and was covered in sweat.  The dagger that was meant to impale her instead was impaled in the back of his left hand.  The blade of the dagger went straight through his palm and was less than a foot from her chest.  The glare he was lowering on Frederick was murderous.

             
"What the hell do you think you're doing Frederick!?" Markus shouted at her husband. 

             
"How...!?" Was all Frederick managed to say before Markus extended his right palm, placing it right in front of Frederick's torso and releasing a strong pulse of air pressure.  Frederick gasped and was sent sailing back, crashing into the wall behind him.  The blonde-haired man then gripped the dagger still stuck in his left hand with his right and ripped it out, splattering more blood on Rosalind, but she didn't care at that point.

             
"You...You really came for me?" Rosalind asked incredulously, tears starting to form on the rim of her eyes.  They hadn't really spoken since her wedding a whole year ago, both having a few choice words for the other.  Feelings were hurt and hearts were broken and they drifted apart.  Though she never admitted it to anyone, she had missed him.  Markus gave a grunt in response.

             
"Of course I did.  No matter how far apart we drift, I'll always consider you a friend Rose." He stated, kneeling down and attempting to break her restraints.

             
His words touched her heart.  For him to consider her a friend, even after what she said to him just prior to getting married?  Rosalind had never seen such a thing, she had thought they would never be friends again after that argument and they had known each other since they were kids.

             
"But I told you I hated you." She told him, he just gave a small smile.

             
"You did." He answered simply.

             
"So then why?" She demanded, he sighed.

             
"Don't make me repeat myself.  And what's with that tearful look?  That's totally not you at all." He chided.

             
"Idiot!  You saved my life!  Of course I'm a little shaken right now!" She hissed at him, glaring.  He grinned.

             
"There's the Rose I know!" He exclaimed, He had managed to free her from the restraints binding her arms and she sat upright, rubbing her sore wrists.  Markus immediately began working on the restraints on her legs.  "Hang on, just a little more and we can...."

             
He never got to finish as a large blast of blue magic energy was heading towards them at that moment.  Rosalind closed her eyes and prepared for impact.  A loud explosion filled her ears, she heard Markus grunt in pain and she felt herself moving fast through the air.  The blonde-haired woman thought it strange that she didn't feel any pain from being hit from the blast.