"How are feeling?" Iatus asked.
"Surprisingly, okay, I think," Max replied and sat up.
"Are you sure you should be doing that?" Iatus said, concerned.
Max frowned and looked at his stomach, there wasn't even a scratch.
"I'm fine. Just a little stiff. Who's the girl?"
"Oh, she's the spirit I summoned to heal you..."
"Is she... a cat?"
"Sort of."
"She's pretty..."
"Pretty nuts."
"Yay! Birdy! Flappy flappy!" Illiria shouted as Aelith dodged another swipe. No matter how high he flew she always managed to jump just as high, it was freakish to watch.
"Iatus! Help me! Banish her!" Aelith screeched.
"Wait... that was Aelith..."
Iatus sighed, "Yeah..."
"Your owl... can talk."
"Yeah."
"You lied to me!"
"Sorry."
"What is it?"
"It's a demon."
"What type of demon?"
"It's a greater shedu. It's what I summoned at the Mage's trial.
"No way."
"And Illiria is a mara."
"Shut up."
Iatus bit his lip and Max stared at him, mouth open.
"How? Claudius said you were really weak... He said that all your mana sort of cancelled out."
Iatus just shrugged.
"If you can summon a shedu and a mara at the same time, that gives you a mana level of nearly 200."
Iatus did a quick bit of finger counting, "I make it about 230 ish, one greater mara, one greater shedu, a couple of jinni and about 20 imps. I'm an ether mage."
Max gaped at him, "That makes you more powerful than any of the instructors at the academy for sure... maybe even the most powerful mage alive, and your only 14!"
"Well, that will be some consolation when the Gauls come and kill us."
"But, you've got a mara and a shedu, let's just kill them all and end this war now!"
"I don't think it's quite that simple."
As he said that Jalec appeared from inside the hall, looking slightly dazed but apparently Illiria had healed him too
"Iatus, dismiss your demons!" he shouted across the square.
Iatus stood up and held up his wrist. Jalec took a step back in shock.
"So, you managed to remove the rune, impressive. However, now you can have no possible use to Urien. I promise your death will be quick."
"I'm warning you, that's a mara over there," Iatus pointed at Illiria, just as she made another jump at Aelith.
"Play fair Aelith! Stop flapping away!"
Jalec frowned at the pawed girl.
"Are you sure?"
Iatus rolled his eyes, "Illiria! Stop chasing Aelith, we're in trouble here!"
Iliria and Aelith both stopped, Illiria in mid jump, and looked at Iatus, then at Jalec.
"But... I want to play with Aelith!" Illiria whimpered, she looked like she might cry.
Jalec burst into laughter, deep and cruel, "Even if that is a mara, magical power isn't everything, didn't they teach you that at your academy, boy, I bet she'd break down into tears and run away if faced with a real fight!"
Illiria pouted and frowned at the same time, causing her face to scrunch up.
"That's not true," she sniffed.
"Oh is it now? Go home princess, you don't belong here!"
Now she really did start to cry.
"That may be true, but I'm a different matter altogether," Aelith said in his very high pitched voice.
"Oh! Now you're going to be defended by a baby owl! I don't know what Urien sees in you Iatus, clearly we're better off without you."
"Never underestimate an owl," Aelith said, his voice suddenly becoming the same as when Iatus first met him, echoing around the square.
Jalec took a step back, "Come on then, bird, do your worst."
"Poor choice of words," Aelith said and cold wind whipped around the square.
The baby owl started to glow with a dark light and began to swell. It reached the same size as Jalec and its talons touched the floor with clicking sounds. Aelith extended his wings out to their full reach of about 20 feet. His birdman form was really quite impressive when he tried.
So that's why I was so scared the first time I saw him.
A clawed fist shot out from Aelith, striking Jalec full in the face, sending him tumbling back until he collided with a building, slumping to the ground with a sickening crack.
"All talk," Aelith said disdainfully and turned away.
"Not... quite..."
Aelith turned back to see Jalec slowly getting to his feet, his neck righting itself and his back cracking into alignment.
"You're not human, are you?" Aelith said, a twinge of doubt in his voice.
"Oh, I assure you I am," Jalec replied, "Urien is quite the scholar, you know, in his youth he travelled the world and, he found some things, ancient knowledge of rare demons and their magic, and he shared it with me. Would you like to see?"
Iatus didn't like his smile.
"No, I'd like you to run home to mummy, like any sensible person," Aelith quipped.
"Well, bad luck for you! Hazan! Come to me!"
Aelith grimaced and took a step back.
It was then Jalec's turn to start glowing with dark light. It swirled around him like a fluid suit of armour, his features exaggerated as dark outlines on his new face.
He shot forward without seeming to move his feet and punched Aelith in the chest, sending him cartwheeling back, colliding with a building so hard that the wooden wall splintered into tiny shards that flew everywhere, lashing at Max and Iatus.
"Ow..." moaned Aelith.
"No! Aelith!" Iatus shouted.
"I'm okay, just, slightly broken," he replied casually, his giant wings bent at unnerving angles.
Illiria was still sat crying in the middle of the square, when she heard Aelith collide with the house she went into a full bawl.
"What is he?" Max asked in Iatus' ear.
"No idea."
Aelith plucked himself from the beams and got to his feet. He took up a fighting stance and his hands began to glow with green light. The light got brighter and brighter until it shot forward in a beam that went straight through Jalec, through the building behind him and out of sight.
When the light stopped there was a neat circular hole in the building, however Jalec simply laughed, safe in his swirling cocoon.
"SO! Is that the best you've got, Aelith?"
Aelith grimaced but didn't respond.
Jalec raised his hand and out of it grew a sword made of swirling green light. He marched calmly over to Aelith and swung so fast that all you could see was a streak.
The blade connected with Aelith and he disintegrated into smoke.
Jalec staggered over, the momentum of the swing carrying him down. The smoke gathered behind him and Aelith reformed. He thrust into Jalec's back with his talons and Jalec screamed in pain.
He swivelled round to faith Aelith, swinging wildly with his fist and catching Aelith on the side of the head, knocking him into the floor. Jalec jumped down on him, pinning him with a knee and started to punch him in a frenzy, the forgotten sword dissipating as it left his hand.
Each punch shook the square and Aelith was slowly being pummelled into the floor.
Aelith disintegrated once again into smoke but Jalec grabbed at him, somehow managing to grip the intangible and threw Aelith against a wall, where he solidified and flopped to the ground, unconscious.
"Aelith!" Iatus shouted.
"NO! AELY!" Illiria sobbed, using her tail to wipe her eyes.
Jalec let out a guttural roar that must have been heard by the whole city. Other people were arriving at the square now, most looked to be soldiers but there were a few people who wore simple clothes and carried gnarled wooden staves who Iatus guessed were magi.
Jalec composed himself and began to march over to Iatus. He and Max scrambled to their feet and were backing away. Iatus threw up a shield but he was weakened from the summons and he could hardly put any power into it. Jalec calmly swiped it away with a flick of his wrist.
"Now you die, little boy!"
"Don't you dare!" Illiria screamed and got to her feat.
Jalec turned around, eyeing her critically, "And what are you going to do about it? Little kitty."
"Stop you," she pouted and began to glow with intense white light.
The second sun appeared in the sky again and this time it was right above Jalec. The light was like a liquid, filling up the entire square until you couldn't see through it. It burned Iatus' eyes even when he closed them and put his arm across them. He heard a scream from somewhere in front of him that sounded like Jalec. The air was getting hotter as well and Iatus was finding it hard to breath. Just as he thought he couldn't bare the heat any more it started to fade away. The light dimmed and went out and Iatus opened his eyes.
It took a few minutes for his sight to return but when it did he saw Illiria panting heavily, her tail lying limp at her feet and Jalec was nowhere to be seen. Iatus looked around but he was gone.
"What... happened?" Max asked as his eyes recovered.
"I don't..." Iatus began but then he saw that there was a small pile of smoking ash where he had heard the scream from.
Max followed his gaze to the pile and his mouth fell open in shock, "Gods preserve us..."
"I think we should leave now..." Iatus whispered.