The Attack of Ganhai Mountain

The Truth

Maelin stood defiantly against Hurvun.  It seemed as if two cyclopses were staring each other down with their one eye each, but of course Maelin only looked like one.  Hurvun went from surprised to angry.  Very, very angry.

"How did you escape my prison?" Hurvun demanded.

"Well," said Maelin. "I saw someone else try to escape and get burned to a crisp by lightning from the bars of the cell, and I noticed that the prisoner wasn't the only thing the lighting struck.  Apart from him the lightning jumped from the bars to a nail on the wall.  It was too specific and too accurate to be chance.

"For some reason or another the lightning was attracted to metal, which gave me an idea.  I had a knife with me concealed with magic in an undetectable pocket, and since that magic was already in place removing the knife didn't activate the lightning.

"Apart from that I used the knife to remove the nails from the wooden frame of by bed and placed them in a circle around me.  I used a spell to open the bars, and the electricity followed the nails, only striking around me.  I will admit, it was a shot in the dark, but as I'm standing here you can be assured it worked."

Hurvun had an amused expression. "Well, I'll admit that was clever."

Leevan, still invisible, had to admit it too.

"But," said Hurvun. "That doesn't mean I'll let you live."

Leevan saw a glow in Hurvun's eyes!  He acted fast, pulling off his invisibility spell and standing before Hurvun.

"You've already lost!" he cried, halting Hurvun's attack. "The spell is broken.  The cyclopses will know you've been lying to them."

"Quite the contrary," said the cyclops sorcerer with chuckle.  "I'll just deny it for real.  The cyclopses will never believe any of you.  So long as I don't tell them my real plans they'll continue to believe your people want our metal craft."

Leevan saw a sneer on Hurvun's face.  Perfect.

"You enjoy deceiving your own people don't you?"

"Well, it is a bit too easy, but yes.  I do.  I can make them do anything I want just by making them believe something that isn't true.  I can even get them to work with ogres and slefah, knowing full well what those flesh eaters are really capable of.

"Did you know?  Some of those dark creatures have actually made meals of our cyclops brothers?  All I had to do was put these disappearances down as work of the Ciniceros Empire, and you people get blamed.  I can do whatever malicious thing I want, and just blame you for it.  It's wonderful.

"And when I get my spell back I'll be able to speak openly about my plans to conquer the world, and the cyclopses will continue believing that I'm protecting our craft.  What do you think of that?"

Leevan grinned. "Do you know what a scrying spell is?"

Hurvun was confused. "It exchanges the reflections two mirrors.  You look in one and you see what should be reflected in the other.  It's largely useless though."

"Really?  What if you could also hear what was the other mirror should be reflecting?"

"Hear what's being reflected in a mirror?  Well, if you ever figured out how to do it I suppose two people could talk to each other from a long distance"

"Or you can tell the truth to an armory full of cyclopses without knowing it."

"What?!" cried Hurvun, alarmed.  Leevan just grinned.

Kemra took off her invisibility, revealing a small mirror.  She was also grinning as she showed it to Hurvun, who looked at it horrified!  The reflection was not his own face, but an armory full of cyclopses.  Cyclopses who were quite angry.  He could hear them shouting through the reflection.

"Dark magic has dulled your senses Hurvun," said Leevan as Hurvun looked at him. "It doesn't make you powerful.  It just makes you feel more powerful.  And you feel so good about that power that you can't help but boast.  You just told the truth, and now the cyclopses won't follow you."

"You sneaky little man," said Maelin, grinning.

"Well done," said Kemra, putting her invisibility back on.  Maelin followed her example.  Normir, still chained to the wall, grinned as well.

Hurvun didn't.  He looked at Leevan angrily, and said. "You'll regret this.  You really will." And with that he turned towards Normir, who suddenly became afraid.  Leevan understood, as he saw a glow rising in Hurvun's eye.  He ran forward, shouting a name.

"Normir!"