Jayna hurried forward, slipping along the street, staying as prepared as she could. She kept power wrapped within her, holding on to the energy within the Toral ring and trying to ignore the pain that came from holding on to that power as long as she did.
She glanced to Eva and found her holding her hands clenched at her sides. There wasn’t as much blood dripping from her palms as before, nor as much smoke swirling around her. She didn’t know Eva’s limits but suspected she had some.
“Around the corner,” Jayna said, motioning.
There was a small, old square here. She started to wonder how much of this was a remnant of El’aras life, especially given when Telluminder had said about the city and how all of this had been a celebration of the El’aras god king. Maybe this was where the twelve followers of Sarenoth had come, thinking that if they were to find some residual power here, they might be able to master it and use it against the city itself.
Smoke drifted like a layer of fog that hung over the remains of a ruined building. Jayna approached carefully, then motioned to Eva.
“We just want to talk,” Jayna shouted.
She could feel the man nearby. He was just on the other side of a low wall that had crumbled and fallen. Moss covered it, thick and carrying the typical stench that reminded her of rotting fish—a stench that some of the nicer parts of the city didn’t have. The dular who owned and ran those nicer sections would scrub the buildings free of moss, keeping them from looking and smelling like this. “We just want to know more about you and your magic—”
Jayna didn’t have a chance to finish. There came another burst of smoke. This one was thick, a cloud meant to obscure his escape.
Jayna quickly traced a pattern, then poured energy through it again.
The wind gusted. It wasn’t nearly as powerful as the last time she had performed the spell, but when it passed, the pale-skinned man stood in front of her, holding his hands clenched at his sides. He did have enchantments.
So maybe he wasn’t like Eva.
“Sorcerer,” he snarled.
Jayna frowned. Could this be the person responsible for the attack on the dark sorcerer in the market that had left him dead?
“We just want to talk,” Jayna said. She was pulling power through the Toral ring, trying to draw as much as she could without tapping into that dark periphery of energy. It was still there, an edge of power; all she had to do was reach for it and she could access it. She could almost feel it begging her to grasp it. Having the bloodstone augmentation made that power even more prominent, as if the ring now tapped into the dark energy more rapidly.
“Sorcerer,” he said again, in a harsh, thick accent.
Smoke drifted out from him, swirling around his feet and working upward.
Jayna resisted the urge to look over to Eva, worried about how she was taking all of this. She needed Eva’s help, but at the same time, she also recognized that Eva needed answers. If this man might have answers for her—if he might be able to help her understand who she was and what happened to her and her memories—then far be it from Jayna to be the reason he could not do that.
“Where are you from?” Jayna asked.
The man glared at her, and the smoke continued to circle.
Jayna was ready, prepared for the possibility that he might attack.
She didn’t know if her own power would contain another blast of magic from him, but she had to think the Toral ring had enough power to withstand anything he might throw at her. She had never tested herself against Eva, and while Eva had always been helpful, what if others like her were not?
I’m about to find out.
“We just need to know who you are. Where you are from.”
The man sent out a snake of power, the smoke circling around Jayna’s barrier, then it started to squeeze, constricting quickly. As it did, it pushed inward, fighting against the Toral ring and the power Jayna held on to. She wasn’t going to be able to hold it for too much longer. She had to draw even more power out of the Toral ring.
Eva strode forward. “Enough.” Smoke circled around her, then she sent it snaking out, much like the man had.
The man watched, but he still didn’t release his power, continuing to constrict it around Jayna, saying nothing else. It was almost as if he had turned the smoke into some sort of knife or blade that was sawing through the barrier she had placed around herself. If she didn’t do anything, he would carve through it.
She looked over to Eva. “I can’t hold out for much longer.”
Eva nodded.
She squeezed her hands and blood poured out.
The man frowned, watching her.
As the blood pooled around Eva, it immediately turned to smoke, then she wrapped it around him. Somehow, he shifted it, drawing it away, sending it streaking off to either side.
Eva was thrown back.
And Jayna reacted.
Ignoring the overwhelming pain she knew would come, she called on more of the Toral ring’s energy, letting its power fill her. The darkness she sensed when she drew on this much power served as a taunt to her. It was a temptation, a periphery of energy that was just there for her taking.
She wrapped herself with the band of magic, then sent an explosion out from her. It struck the man.
Jayna didn’t wait to storm forward.
He had gone flying backward, stumbling over a section of fallen and collapsed stone, and she found him lying there, motionless.
She approached carefully, ready for another attack. She started creating a blade of light spell with sorcery that she’d augment with the Toral power, preparing to blast him, but she didn’t want to. This wasn’t some dark magician, somebody with power that shouldn’t be theirs. This was somebody like Eva—somebody who might have answers for her.
Jayna glanced over to Eva.
She remained behind her, yet said nothing.
Jayna sent a controlled blast to incapacitate the man.
When she did, he looked up, squeezed his hands into a fist, and a cloud of smoke enveloped him. When it cleared, he was gone.
Jayna focused on the linking spell, but found nothing.
She sank to the ground, trying to let go of the power within her, but could still feel that darkness lingering on the outskirts of her awareness. As she attempted to push it away, she could feel it trying to intrude, as if that dark energy wanted her to claim it.
“What was that?” she whispered.
She looked up to Eva, who approached slowly, holding her hands in a more relaxed manner, though smoke still swirled around her. It quested outward, as if tentatively reaching toward the space where the man had been, before retreating again.
Eva shook her head. “I don’t know.”
“Was he like you?”
“I don’t know. Maybe.”
If he was like Eva, maybe they could learn something. “Did he trigger any memories?”
“Only one.” Jayna looked up again, holding Eve’s gaze for a moment. “Fear.”
9
They stumbled out into the street together as weakness washed through Jayna—a result of the pain she experienced from drawing upon that much power from the Toral ring, especially now that it had the bloodstone augmentation. But it was more than that too. When she tapped into that dark energy—always there at the edge of her awareness—she felt even more pain. In this case, it was also a bit of guilt. She hated tapping into that power, hated the way it made her feel. It was almost oily, a slick sort of feeling that left her ashamed of drawing upon it. Ceran would definitely have felt that.