She checked for his pulse, but he was already gone.
Jayna got up and focused on pulling more smoke off from around her. There was a muted sort of quality to the air, a silence that was almost chilling. She struggled to move forward, worried about what she might encounter, but as she headed through the smoke, calling it into the ring, she continued looking everywhere around her, watching for the Ashara dular.
He was still attacking sorcerers.
Why had one died, but the other two had not?
Three.
She couldn’t ignore Char.
Maybe she’d gotten to them in time, or maybe there was something else to it. Could it be that the Ashara dular had targeted specific sorcerers?
She didn’t know. She couldn’t know.
Not without capturing the Ashara dular, trying to understand what he was after and what he intended.
She slipped along the hallway a little farther then stopped.
The hall widened here.
She had never been in this part of the outpost before, and though she could feel the power around her, an energy that suggested significant sorcery had been used, something else was strange about it. There were enchantments here, but it was more than that.
She pushed out with the Toral ring, using a bit of power from it to try to detect what else was here.
Surprisingly, there came a soft reverberation of energy.
Dark power.
Could it be that the Order of Norej had changed the outpost more than she had realized? Jayna had known something had happened, that there was more taking place than she knew about, but now she had to wonder if perhaps they had left some sort of permanent, persistent residual energy.
Why would they have done that? There had to be something to it that mattered to them, some aspect of it that would grant them more power.
Jayna didn’t have time to figure it out now. She heard a shout, an angry tone, and felt a buildup of magic coming from the end of the hall, near enough that she could practically follow it. She traced it forward, tracking through the hallway, when a double door seemed to appear out of nowhere.
Jayna had been continuing to draw smoke off from around her, even though more and more smoke formed in its place, drifting near her. How much force did this Ashara dular need to use in their attempt to do whatever it was they were intending?
Jayna drew upon the dragon stone augmented by the bloodstone and pushed power out from her, using a bit of wind along the hallway to try to clear it out. She continued pushing, drawing power away, and feeling that energy flowing around her.
She stopped at the double door. This had to be where she would find Master Agnew, though why would the Ashara dular have come here?
She stormed forward.
Power surrounded her. She used her power and created a barrier, holding it as solidly as she could, then called the smoke into the ring.
It came slowly, but it gradually began to dissipate, revealing the room around her.
It was a massive chamber with a tall ceiling and a large, circular table situated in the center. A crackling hearth near one end put off a glowing heat, and it seemed to build. The Ashara dular stood near the fire, seemingly growing stronger.
He used the heat.
She’d been thinking this was nothing more than a dular. After the attack on Raollet’s shop, that was what she’d believed, but after seeing him standing in front of the fire—and seemingly growing more potent—she was left with only one real possibility.
This wasn’t a dular.
It was one of the Ashara.
Like Eva.
It made a certain sort of sense. Eva had always sat by the fire after she had used considerable power. Jayna had thought it was only to push back the humidity, but she realized now that Eva had used that heat and energy to restore herself, filling herself back up with the fire of the Ashara.
Master Agnew had put the table in between him and the Ashara. He had on a long, flowing, maroon robe, and he held his hands out, twisting many complicated patterns to form power that he pushed toward the Ashara, keeping the smoke at bay.
“You don’t need to do this,” Jayna said, keeping her attention on the Ashara.
Master Agnew swept a quick flick of the wrist toward her, but wrapped as she was in the energy of the dragon stone ring, it bounced harmlessly off the barrier.
Well, not quite harmlessly.
Jayna was forced back a step, and she gritted her teeth, glaring at Master Agnew. Didn’t he know she was helping?
It wasn’t as if Master Agnew didn’t know her. He had seen her in the city working with Char, and he knew she was only trying to help. Gods, she had helped save the city, even.
“Sorcerer,” the Ashara snapped.
“Yes. He is a sorcerer. I am not.”
The Ashara didn’t turn toward her.
Jayna needed to do something different, but she had no idea if she had enough strength to stop the Ashara. Seeing him standing in front of the fire, pulling the energy off of it as the smoke billowed behind her, she began to worry that she might not be able to pull enough smoke out of the air.
She had to call Ceran.
Maybe he would answer, maybe not, but she needed to try. She focused on the dragon stone and pushed through it, trying to create a pulsing of energy.
Master Agnew looked in her direction, frowning.
Another whipcrack of power streaked toward her from Agnew.
Jayna braced, holding on to the energy within her, and prevented his power from striking, solidifying the barrier just in time to keep him from harming her.
“I’m trying to help you,” she snapped at him. Turning back to the Ashara, she focused on the smoke, trying to draw some of that into her ring. “You don’t need to do this. I don’t know what you think you’re doing, and I don’t know why you’re attacking, but he’s not your enemy.”
“Sorcerer,” the Ashara repeated.
Jayna took a deep breath, and using the dragon stone augmented by the bloodstone, she called power to her. She summoned as much as she could, siphoning off the smoke, and squeezed it down into the ring.
It cleared the room just a moment, but long enough for her to turn her attention to the Ashara and ignore Master Agnew. He was there, she could feel his power, but she needed to avoid him focusing on her. She had to solidify the barrier, and there might be one way for her to do it.
She pushed outward, expanding the energy she held, squeezing it out between her and Master Agnew, and settling it in between them and the Ashara.
The Ashara turned and sent smoke streaking toward her. Jayna absorbed it, pulling it into her.
“No,” she said. “Whatever you’re doing isn’t going to work. I’m not trying to harm you. I just need to know. My name is Jayna Aguelon. Who are you?”
She needed to work with him.
Especially if he was like Eva.
He could provide answers she didn’t have.
The Ashara turned to her, looking at her for the first time, and there was a moment of uncertainty in his eyes. She recognized that uncertainty, as she had seen the same look in Eva’s eyes.
“Asaran Rasolth.”
She nodded to him. “We can work together.”
Power began to build again, and it came from Master Agnew.
Asaran turned his attention to him now, his dark brow furrowing, and smoke streaked outward. The smoke continued to build, swirling toward her with the same sort of violence he had used on her before. Each time he attempted to assault her with that smoke, Jayna reached for it, using the bloodstone to pull it off and tamp it down. He continued to call upon more and more power as he stood at the fire, using its heat and energy to his advantage. She had to find something to overwhelm the Ashara, though she didn’t know if there was anything more she could pull upon to do so.