The Relistar: Rejoining Vol. 3

Rejoining | Ch. 38

XXXVIII.

Trapped

Bwooooom!

An explosion of repulsive magic echoed around Ivalié. Cedric slid away. His form vanished into nothing at all.

Jirtu thrust a hand out and clenched the fingers toward Ivalié, raised him out of his seat by telekinetic magic. The man's head shuffled loosely as he stirred and moved. He groaned quietly. Then Ivalié gently began to float toward the robed man, away from Cedric. The leylines constricted around him so tightly that they soon became a barely visible warping of the air, like viewing the man through a bubble. A ley barrier will let me know if any should try for his life. And I'll have ample time to reply.

Then Ivalié was safe with Jirtu, floating overhead a few paces behind him. The robed man's eyes darted back and forth, waiting for any sign of where his quarry was hiding.

A gentle brush upon the ley – the twice-ley. He reached up to feel one of the necklaces tucked beneath his robe. Trying to freeze time, now? It won't affect me, though it may the others.

He looked to the balconies and catwalks above. There were onlookers from atop the distant bridges. Some were indeed frozen, as though time had grown still around them. The rest looked on with scowls and disdain stuck to their faces. Combat was prohibited in the library, else they'd be foolishly putting all knowledge of the worlds at risk. But who will enforce the rules if not I?

Okella was gone, too, though he wasn't worried about her. She was, as he said, nothing more than an overgrown slime. Waste. Useless. Powerless.

"Keeping them invisible, Okella? For how long can this farce remain before the leylines reveal your...?" He looked down with a hum of surprise. His chest had become damp.

An expression of self-doubt filled his face. The twice-ley had grown tight.

Damn!

He lifted his palms and sprayed a frenzying, uncontrollable flame out. Even books farther out than his fire's reach began to melt and ember, soon turning eons of knowledge to ash. The jellyfish on the table hissed out at the heat and buckled, succumbing into a thin blue goop.

He grimaced. It was over already. His amulet of protection from frozen time was shattered. All he could do was buy time, pray for an exit.

The flames began to quench before him, even as the spray to his peripheral grew greater still.

Cedric approached through the fire.

"I'm not going to kill you, Jirtu. I–"

The flames stopped. His extended palms clapped together faster than Cedric could react.

But Serkukan's flames dispelled the magic that Jirtu cast around Cedric. The boy took another step forward.

"It's over." Cedric declared. "I control time, I control reality, and with Okella, I can read every move you even think of."

"This is closer than I'd have liked, but do not think me out of options!"

Jirtu's hands were still held in a clap between them. He rotated his palms outward. Then went a shot of multicolored, platinum light.

They sensed it before it came. But there was nothing they could do, except–

"Auuuuuuuuuugh!"

Okella materialized before Cedric. She fell to the floor with a horrible thud, a glowing mark was burned into her chest.

A bluff. She can't read my mind.