Ssserakis saved us all then. All sound stopped save for the rushing of my own heartbeat as Ssserakis formed shadowy plugs over my ears.
I cannot help the others. We must end this, Eskara. How?
The Iron Legion's wounds were almost completely healed, but I could see fresh blood leaking from his nose and ears, and panic on his face. He was overtaxed. Holding too many Sources, using too much magic, mixing Chronomancy with Biomancy had only sped the process. He was in mid stage Source rejection. The Iron Legion's abilities were legendary, even back at the academy, his strength to hold off rejection something even the most powerful of Sourcerers could only wish for, but even he had limits. Even he was subject to the laws of our world. And he was nearing his limit now.
Ssserakis didn't need to hear my words to understand. My horror already knew my plan. I reached out with my right hand and unleashed the Arcstorm upon the Iron Legion. Lightning burst from my fingers and wreathed the Iron Legion. His constructs leapt into the way, piling stone on top of stone to block the attack, but Ssserakis reached out with my shadow and swept them aside. Caught in my storm, the Iron Legion could no longer keep his Vibromancy going and the sound of his amplified scream died away to leave only the new screams echoing around the laboratory.
Coby had changed again, assumed the form a young terran woman with flame red hair, but she struggled to find balance, the effects of the Vibromancy persisting even once the noise was gone. Josef, finally free of the constructs, struggled to my side. We both knew he couldn't help now, only watch.
"Run!" I hissed the word. Lightning still arced between my outstretched hand and the Iron Legion, spasming in pain as his magic mixed inside to heal the damage I was doing him.
Josef shook his head. "I'm not leaving you."
I managed to glance his way. "He's suffering from rejection. Get away while you can." We both knew what final stage Source rejection did to a person. It was bad enough with only one Source inside, but the Iron Legion could apparently carry ten and the mixture of such magics breaking down within the body was likely to be… explosive.
I felt frustration. It wasn't mine. That's enough, Eskara. Get us out of here.
I shook my head. Lightning still arced from my fingers, striking the Iron Legion and causing him to spasm in pain. "I can't give him the opportunity to find Spiceweed."
You'll die this close.
I had no reply to that.
Fire, sound, rock, metal, lightning, kinetic force, portals, constructs, emotion, the Other World, life, time. Rumour had it the Iron Legion could carry ten Sources inside. For once, the rumours were not equal to the truth. Twelve types of magic, the Iron Legion carried, and when final stage Source rejection took him, they all broke down at once. It was an explosion of magic unlike anything the world had seen since the War Eternal. Forces that had no business mixing. Wild energies that could not be contained. Magic in its rawest form, that even the Rand and Djinn do not fully understand. And at the last moment, before the Iron Legion died and took me with him, Josef threw himself in front of the blast.
Chapter 37
How to explain that detonation of magic? It was chaos. It was light and noise, heat and cold, joy and sadness. It fragmented time and happened across all realms at once. Both the roof and the floor caved in, and there is seemingly no end to that hole. Perhaps it goes all the way through, a bottomless pit ten of me across leading to the other side of the world. The storm that rages in that hole is as much mine as the Iron Legion's, I think. I put everything I had into it, the full force of the Arcstorm inside of me. I all but emptied myself of that fury, but I couldn't help but keep the smallest part back. My eyes no longer flashed like a raging storm, but like distant lightning caught behind a blanket of clouds. The detonation was madness in its rawest form. It should have killed everything within that ruined city. It would have, if not for Josef.
Like me, Josef had been changed by the Iron Legion's experiment. On some level I could never understand, and by a process that will always be a mystery to me, we could absorb magic. By throwing himself in front of me, Josef took the brunt of that magical discharge and absorbed it into himself. The forces must have been terrible, tearing him apart inside, but his innate Biomancy sustained him through it, kept him alive. Sometimes I think it would have been kinder if he had died. Some fates are worse than death.
Is he dead?
I was staring at Josef, slumped over and not moving, but I knew who Ssserakis meant. "Yes." The hole in front of us, sparking with a storm was proof enough of that. Never before had any Sourcerer broken down so violently. It left a strangeness to the place. The walls between realms were thinner there, and I could feel things pressing in on our world. I turned from that feeling and knelt over my friend.
Josef was slumped over on hands and knees, his face hidden and pressed to the ground. The clothing on his back and been burnt away and his skin seemed wrong. It was like something in a constant state of flux, unable to decide what form it should take. One moment it appeared flesh, and the next it was rough stone, then translucent so I could see blood pumping beneath the surface and bones and organs. I will admit, I was afraid to touch him, of what it might do to him and to me. I took solace in the fact that he was alive. I could see that when his skin went clear, his heart was pumping. He was alive. Yet he did not respond to his name. When I finally gathered the courage to touch him, I shook him a little and his skin was like ice, then a few moments later like fire. He was struggling for control of himself, locked in a battle with his own flesh. An eternal war he is ever on both the winning and losing side of.
Where is the Aspect?
I found Coby in a similar state to Josef, though she was conscious. I could tell by the anger. A section of the roof had collapsed nearby, and she was pressed up against it, knees drawn up and arms hugging them. A young woman, willowy with skin as dark as any I had ever seen. She was entirely hairless and her face… It is difficult to describe, but she was featureless. It was not that she had no eyes or mouth, but that there was nothing to distinguish her at all. Just a moment after seeing her, I had already forgotten what she looked like. Fair to say it was disconcerting, perhaps more for her, than I. Silva once told me that Coby's curse was that she could be anyone she wished, but nobody could see her true face. Well, the Iron Legion's explosion of magic took that from her. With Silva dead, I think I was the only one who could claim to have seen the real Coby.
"Don't look at me!" Coby hissed. Even her voice seemed oddly indistinct. A monotone drawl, instantly forgettable. "I can't change with someone looking at me."
I looked away. Yet when I looked back, she still had not changed. Coby hugged her knees and rocked back and forth, and I'm certain I heard her sob. I can understand that. All her defences had been stripped away and for the first time in her life she was forced to be herself. It was, perhaps, made worse that she suffered that way in front of someone she hated.
Now would be a good time to rid yourself of another enemy.
I shook my head. "There's no sense in hating the dead."
I don't understand.
I crouched down near Coby, making certain not to look at her. "Will you be alright? Will it wear off?"
Coby drew a sharp intake of breath. "I don't know."