Rise of the Archmages (1x1 Private)

[Quiet One]

Seeing her advantage Natalia quickly stepped forward. She took Aegil's right hand - the one wearing the horrible glove - and began draining the mana in his arm.

"This isn't yours," she said coldly, and with a jerk of her wrist she ripped his hand off. He howled in pain, not even noticing as Natalia sealed the wound. She then raised her hand in front of his face. "These aren't yours either."

With that Aegil's eyes flew out of his head and into her hand. He screamed again, but looked up at her, confused, as his old eyes regrew in their place.

"I don't understand," he said.

"You wouldn't," she replied. She turned to Raven. "Go down and be with Sam. Hold on tight."

"But..." One look from the sorceress silenced her protest.

Aegil desperately reached for the sword, but it slid away from him and entered Natalia's grasp.

"Jill! Attack!"

The girl ignored her current opponents and charged towards her. Natalia simply touched the antimagic blade to her head and the fog lifted.

"How dare you?" she asked, fuming as she stood in front of him. "I've thought about killing you over what you've done. But I've thought of something worse. Something you actually deserve."

She raised her arms, focusing more of her power than she ever had before. The building beneath her creaked, cracked, and crumbled. It groaned as it was slowly transformed. Golden rods suddenly shot out of the ceiling. The floors separated from each other and started turning, becoming circular. They also started rising.

"What are you doing?!" Aegil shouted. It was the only way he could be heard as the noise built around them.

Natalia ignored him, instead shooting her hands skyward. The building followed suit. It jumped upwards with a sudden rush of air. All the metal turned to gold, the concrete turned to granite bricks, and glass mortar held them together. Dirt was swept up and filled boxes and basins were fruit and vegetables sprouted into life with transparent crystal leaves. The gold bars made prison cells. Channels were built that allowed a steady flow of water to enter all the cells and leave just as easily - waterfalls.

Suddenly Aegil was ascending up higher than anything else. He was going in the top of the tower, where a circular cell of gold and granite built itself around him. A bizarre crackling covered the massive structure, the sound of an Empiric Field being erected over every inch of the tower.

Then the tower began to move.

As it dragged itself down the street Natalia stepped up from a winding staircase she'd built into the structure. It was just the two of them.

"Would you call this a miracle?" she asked. "You don't even know what the word means. When I was saved from losing myself by my aunt, who has no powers, that was a miracle. When Jeanne was selfishly resurrected for a greedy man's desires, and she found love instead, that was a miracle.

"Miracles are that rare form of magic that requires no power at all. In your attempt to do something wonderful, you committed atrocities," she told him. She actually looked sad. "How can you not understand something so simple?"

The tower reached the sea. Instead of sinking, the massive construction floated easily, bobbing slightly as a counterweight built itself beneath the waves.

"Perhaps in your next life you will understand."

With that, she teleported down to where her friends were secure in another cell.

 

[Razilin]

He seemed so still. With the whitened hair and lined features, he seemed more like a withered skeleton at death's door. His breathing, while even, was shallow and his skin had paled and grown cool. Sam's head was cradled in Jeanne's lap as she absently ran her fingers through the silky strands of hair. All around her, the building screamed and groaned as Natalia's will turned it into something new and different.

"Do you remember when we first met?" she murmured, not really expecting - and not receiving - a reply. "You were fifteen and terrified. Raven and I just killed the monster that took your family. You were so different back then." She chuckled. "When you saw me and Raven, you had this wide-eyed look in your eye. Now, I wonder if you were already smitten the instant you laid eyes on us."

She looked down at his still form. "Don't die on me, Sam."

Raven's footsteps echoed as she approached at a jog. "Natalia's got Aegil. How is he?"

"Not waking up."

Raven knelt beside them. "Once Natalia's done up there, she'll be coming for Sam, I'm sure of it. My magic isn't enough." She was babbling, trying to reassure herself as much as Jeanne, who reached over and squeezed her hand.

The swordswoman nodded. "He's been courting death as long as he's been with us. He'll survive this, too."

 

[Quiet One]

Natalia appeared beside them, still carrying the Empiric Sword. Now that she understood the magic, it was easy to move it with her. She set it down and knelt beside them. The women scooted over a little, but refused to fully leave his side. Cody, Derek and Jill came down the stairs as well.

She touched Sam's face. So cold. She checked his chest. His breathing had stopped.

"Sam! SAM!" Raven cried. Tears ran down her cheeks and she leaned into Jeanne for support.

Natalia stood.

Raven looked up at her. "W-What are you doing?"

She raised her hand.

"Natalia?"

"Animus...TRES." Her hand grabbed air, but suddenly it wasn't air. An incorporeal mist appeared, forming the outline of a person. It became more detailed, until it resembled Sam. Sam's spirit.

"Natalia?" the ghost asked.

"Are you ready to move on?" she asked him.

"...No..."

Natalia pulled the spirit of her dear friend down and pushed him back into his body. As she did she sealed the wound that had killed him, as well as all the other ones that he'd collected over the years. He was made completely new, and she stepped back as he gasped for air.

"Sam!" the girls shouted, embracing him together. While they welcomed him back to life, she modified the antimagic blade and walked up with it. Without any warning, she stuck it into him.

"Natalia!" Jeanne shouted, but she needn't have worried. The blade was simply absorbed into his body.

"I gave you back the Empiric Field," she explained. She handed him the sword handle. "I altered it a bit. Now you can pull it out at will and use it to disarm others."

As a perplexed Sam took the hilt, Natalia looked at her own hand. The fingers had a bluish glow about them. She watched as she willed it to fade away.

She then sunk into Cody's arms, dying for rest.

 

[Razilin]

OCTOBER 21, 2016
CHICAGO, IL

It was an unusually warm day for a fall morning in the Midwest. The group had gathered around the grave quietly. Travel had not been an issue given Natalia's ability to teleport. The sun was refreshing and gave the cemetery a wholesome, welcoming feel.

The gravestone was small, humble, and utilitarian. Age and the elements had weathered it down over the years. LEO AND MARIE EBAYAN, LOVING PARENTS was etched into the rock.

Sam buried his parents seventeen years ago, or so he thought. There had been no bodies; the stone was merely a memorial. Norman Bayane's body had been destroyed during Natalia's restructuring of the battlefield yesterday. Coming here after all that had changed Sam's feelings about that night considerably.

He looked good and felt better than he had in years. Gone were the various scars and injuries and he moved more freely than he had in a decade. The lines were gone from his face, the handsome features of his youth fully restored. The only remaining marks of the various trials he had endured were the darkened coloring of his skin and the bone white hue of his hair and beard.

"Should we remove it?" Raven asked quietly, referring to the gravestone. "He wasn't the man you thought he was."

Sam was silent for a long while. Then, "He said he was proud of me, of what I grew up to be. For some reason, I think that in his own way, my father really did care for me. That all those years he was Leo Ebayan were real."

"He said you two were men of ideals and that you would sacrifice anything to see them fulfilled," Jeanne said.

"Maybe he was right," Sam replied. "Maybe that's why I don't bear him any malice for what he did. He acted according to his ideals, twisted as they were, and achieved something no one else ever could."

He rested a hand on the gravestone. "Goodbye, Mother. Goodbye, Father."

The group began the walk back to the car and spotted Natalia and Cherie near it. The young woman's magic pulsed inside his veins. He could feel the new channels inside him. They formed a new circuit and as with any circuit, it had a switch. For the first time ever, he could control the Empiric Field. With a healthy body and a controllable Field, the possibilities for what he could do suddenly became limitless.

"I will catch up," Sam said to his lovers. "Just need to talk to Natalia real quick."

He walked alone toward the young woman, who caught his body language and joined him in the middle. Once alone, the two strolled off a ways.

"How are you feeling?" she asked.

"You already know. You're the one who patched me up, after all."

She reached out and brushed a white strand of hair away. "I can finish the job, if you want."

He shook his head. "Raven thinks it looks distinguished. Thank you for saving my life, Natalia. I said before that I was proud of the woman you've become. That is truer now than it ever was before."

He handed her a thumb drive.

"I compiled all of our research on Aegil and his projects. Its everything about his investigations into miracles, sorcery, and the Massachusetts spellbooks. It also has everything I found out about the three sorcerers Aegil captured. If Aegil has proven one thing, its that not even sorcerers are unbeatable. What you do with the information is up to you. But it is the only copy in existence. Not even I have another copy."

He could tell Natalia was touched by what he did. The Skullman basically ensured that the remaining Veiko Magi would never be subjected to the same cruel experiments ever again.

They stood together in silence for a while, just enjoying the sunny morning.

Suddenly, Sam said, "You've grown stronger than ever. Soon, you'll Ascend, But before that, you'll become an even bigger player in the world. Already the news is going crazy over that tower you built. You're going to need to consider your role in the grand scheme of things."

He smiled. "I will too, as well. I can't keep doing this forever."

"But I healed you...."

He nodded. "Fighting in the trenches was all I could do before. I could keep doing it, but things have changed. I was going to tell you and Cherie earlier, but then we got attacked by a Hound. You see, Jeanne's pregnant."

Natalia's eyes lit up and her expression beamed happily. "Congratulations!" she exclaimed, throwing a hug around his neck. He obviously had his Field down, as she didn't feel any drain on her magic.

"Thanks." Sam let out a sigh and looked up into the blue sky.

"You know, a few years ago, I left Raven over the issue of children. At the time, I thought I had to keep fighting myself, to protect anyone I met with my own two hands. I left because I couldn't give her the family she wanted. Because if I were to become a father and keep fighting, there would always be the chance that I could die and let them experience the same awful night I did.

"But there are more people out there with powers and the will to use them for good. It sounds corny, but I think people like you, Cody, and Derek are the next step to seeing my ideal become a reality. There are other extranormals out there, more every day, and they need guidance. Now that I am going to be a father, I can't be just a fighter. Maybe it's time for me to become something else. Maybe a teacher."

"Your first class is going to piss it's pants when it realizes who's training them," Natalia giggled. She glanced at up at him from the corner of her eye. "Thought up any names? 'Natalia' has a nice ring to it."

"Duly noted. I'm not in any rush. For once, I think I can just relax for a little while and enjoy the day."

 

[Quiet One]

"And relax you should," Natalia said with a smile. She looked up and around her. Such a beautiful day. And Sam almost wasn't here to enjoy it. "Hearing that you're going to be a father, I'm even happier than I was before that you're still here."

Sam arched his eyebrow and looked at her. "Are you saying you know where I was going?"

She furrowed her brow and shrugged. "Sort of."

"I can't resist asking."

"...It's a warrior's reward that was waiting for you. A hero's reward. I'm glad because, after thinking about it, I realize you don't deserve that."

She turned and smiled at him. "You deserve a father's reward. To see your child grow up strong, independent, and like you, ready to take on the world."

They hugged again, Natalia taking the opportunity to kiss his cheek. He would be a great father, she knew, because in a lot of ways he was like a father to her.

"I'll see you soon, Sam." She walked back to her aunt, took her hand, and they were gone.