Blood Oath (Book 2 of Alfireán age)

Peace, Be Still

"My magic... works almost like a mirror," Zaphaniea began. "With it, I can make the frequencies coming through this stone... go anywhere I want." She pulled in a shuddering breath and her voice gained strength as her face regained color. The potions must be kicking in, Alf thought. "I'm redirecting this one," she said twirling her fingers in an odd dance, "to the crater the meteor just created so anyone coming through will appear there. Since the anchor to the absolute coordinates will be changed, the same goes for any scrying or messaging."

Alf frowned. "But if that meteor had hit here, wouldn't the teleportation stone have been destroyed?"

"Nah, these things are nigh indestructible."

Drake, who had quietly followed along, knelt down and touched the dull gray stone. "I have never heard of one being destroyed, but I had assumed that was because no one has ever tried. In fact, I had discussed with Alf and the others about having the ones throughout this Empire destroyed."

"Yeah, that wouldn't have worked," Zaphaniea said swishing her hand. Then her face twisted in concentration as she maneuvered some invisible object into place. The magic within the stone briefly flared to life and dimmed again. "All done," the champion proclaimed and rolled onto her back and laid out flat on the stone "We're all good now."

Alf wasn't entirely convinced. He glanced towards the sky then back at the stone. "How do we know Vackzilian didn't scry this place before you were done?"

Drake stood up and brushed the dirt off his hands. "He couldn't have. A spell like his meteor causes a tremendous amount of magical distortion. Such distortion renders scrying and other related spells inoperable. In all actuality, that is likely why his hologram dispersed like it did earlier. Otherwise, he probably would have stayed and watched to the very end."

"Okay, but how do we know what Zaphaniea did works?"

"You don't," the champion teased. She smiled blithely up at him and said, "But I do."

Rex sauntered up to the stone. "We good?"

"Yes, Zaphaniea just finished," Olivia answered him. "How do your legs feel?"

"Like two earth users rolled them over with a steam press as they repaved the city."

"Ha, I bet," Alf laughed, his worries forgotten. "I'll tell you what, if you carry Zaphaniea, I'll walk us back," he said as he tapped the Stone of Kay on his sword hilt.

"Deal."

As Rex picked up Zaphaniea, Alf's eyes fell on the decapitated blood oath. A mixture of terror, joy, and revulsion pressed its way into his throat. He had killed the dark mage in one clean slice, and... he swallowed, his blood wasn't the first he had spilt today. The faces of the inmates of Victiles loomed in his mind as his fireball careened down towards them. Guilt threatened to overwhelm him, but he pushed it away; his actions had saved the lives of thousands, if not tens of thousands. As he stared at the dead, deformed creature that was once Dy'Ixion, he embraced the swirl of emotions flooding over him, and like a hammer smashing against an anvil, he realized with shocking clarity... they had won.

No one else was going to die.

With a heavy sigh of relief, he said, "It's still hard to believe we actually fought and beat a blood oath."

Rex's eyes followed his. "Yeah. That guy was insane." He shifted Zaphaniea's weight and grunted. "You know grand champion, I think it's time you lay off those sticky buns."

"Oomph!" Rex gasped as Zaphaniea elbowed him hard in the chest.

"Make a comment about my weight again, and you're going to be the one coughing up your sticky buns."