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Thessa stood in disbelief as Asleth shrouded Hana with his cloak and they both disappeared from the cavern. Hana had abandoned her. She scoffed at the corpse of Sarren, whose face was hidden just beneath the cloudy water. She felt a little sick because of her next thought, but she was not about to be left alone, and she was confident that Tovo would make a poor companion in his present state.
“Oh, no, you don’t.” The tears came uncontrollably, and she wiped them away angrily as if she were mad at them for flowing. She focused once again on the corpse of Sarren. “I can’t let you get away with the horrible things you have done! I can’t let you die so easily without paying for the things you have done to people and what you have done to me!” She reached out to Sarren and let some of the energy she still felt pulsing through her body enter the former Black Mage. With a jolt which also startled Thessa, Sarren abruptly sat up out of the water. The woman immediately felt around for the dagger wound, but it was no longer there. Her eyes were full of anger when her gaze met Thessa’s, “Fool! What have you done?” She pushed herself up from the pallid water and tried in vain to attack Thessa, but her legs gave way, and she stumbled. Thessa stepped out of Sarren’s way and let her fall to her hands and knees.
“You are bound to me now, Sarren. I am your master.” She didn’t know where the words came from, but she believed them as they reverberated inside her head. She knew as her energy changed within her that the words were exact.
“I... I won’t let you,” She began to search around the milky water splashing back and forth.
Thessa lifted her hand, and the ruby-handled dagger appeared. Sarren stopped splashing when she saw the dagger. She lurched toward Thessa with determination and took the dagger from Thessa’s hand before she knew what was happening and plunged the blade into her own chest. It did nothing. Shocked, she looked at Thessa and then plunged it into her repeatedly, but nothing happened. Frustrated, she threw the dagger into the water. Thessa opened her hand, and the dagger reappeared. She tucked it inside her belt.
“What... I mean, why did you bring me back?”
Thessa met her gaze. “Because it was a mistake for you to die. I made a mistake. You need to live to regret what you have done.”
Sarren laughed. “I regret nothing!”
“You think this is all a joke?” Thessa asked.
“Yes, and I think it’s funny. You have no idea the curse you have brought upon yourself. You think, no, you believe I had free will! Do you believe that I willingly flitted around at my behest? The goddess ruling the Black Mage is ruthless. If you take up the mantle, you will do as I did, possibly even worse. You can’t wipe your hands clean from it. You are the Black Mage now. You freed me from it.” She clenched her fists, “I was freed from it. I would rather be forced to serve you than to serve Cassany. Your goddess will demand you make horrible sacrifices in her name. Even while serving you, I am free from it. I am free of her at long last.”
“I feel no sympathy for you. You will serve me and help me get rid of this.”
Sarren’s face went somber, “Oh, you poor girl. You don’t understand. I may not have a choice whether to serve you, but I can take comfort in knowing that you will serve her! You will never get rid of this curse barring your death. As long as you serve her, she will make sure no one harms you.”
“I killed you!”
“I failed her once too often, or maybe she saw more power in you. I can’t know the goddess’ reasoning, but I think maybe she let you kill me.”
“I don’t want to be the Black Mage! Take it back!”
“Tsk, Tsk, too bad, isn’t it? You can try to fight it until one day you realize the futility of it, and then, slowly, you will give in to it as I once did. Do you think I began my journey as a ruthless, heartless woman?”
“We’ll see about that. I’ll find a way to get out of this.”
Sarren grinned, “Oh, what’s your plan? We travel around looking for someone to kill you and take your place? You can’t stay among the living and transfer the mantle of the Black Mage to somebody else; you know. Someone must kill you, and as I stated, the goddess must have chosen you for a reason.” She carefully righted herself onto her wobbly legs. “I can’t wait to see how you handle the sacrifices.”
“You mentioned sacrifices before. What Sacrifices?”
“You will feel the terrible pull and urge soon enough. It will happen innocently at first. Something small will set you off and then you will be on your way. Cassany will demand blood. She hates the creations of her siblings and seeks to twist and pervert them. It’s the reason you can raise dead to do your bidding. She also wants her servant, you, to kill them. Of course, not so many as to alert the other gods, but at least one per day, or two every other day.”
“I don’t believe you. You are trying to rattle me.”
“She will play mind games with you and torture you, especially if you fight her will.”
“I won’t do it! I hated killing when I hungered as a blood feeder, and I will not kill for the goddess.”
“You will. The urge is too strong.”
“I will create a couple of blood feeders as you made me, and I will let them kill for food.”
Sarren shook her head. “That won’t work. Your blood feeders kill separately. You will be demanded to make a sacrifice in addition to those your blood feeders kill. Besides, killing is killing whether you do it or have your minions do it, your hands will be just as stained with blood.”
“You’re lying!”
“No.”
“If it is demanded of me, I will make you do it.”
“No, it will not count. She will demand you do it by your own hand.”
“I won’t!”
“This is pointless,” Sarren said. “I have told you what you need to know. Release me!”
“I will never release you,” Thessa said in almost a whisper. “You will suffer alongside me.”
“No, I will not let you.” She raised a dagger and Thessa recognized it as the Red Mage dagger. She felt for the dagger inside her belt, but the dagger disappeared.
“How did you steal that from me?”
Sarren plunged the dagger into her own chest and then twisted horribly, much more forcibly than before. This time the dagger dug in and Sarren fell to her death once more.
Thessa took the ruby handled dagger and willed it to disappear. It popped out of her hand and was gone. She then reached down and resurrected Sarren again. The former Black Mage writhed and kicked as she came back from the realm of the dead. The woman looked around horrified, “What have you done to me? This is impossible! You can’t raise me twice. I couldn’t even do that.”
“I need your help. You used to be the Black Mage. You will now teach me.”
“How? How did you bring me back a second time?”
“Do it again and I will just bring you back a third time. You cannot escape me. I need your knowledge.”
The resurrected woman laughed and her eyes went wild, “You simple fool. Where has your mommy gone? If she were here, she might tell you never to do something as foolish as you have just done.”
“You will curb your madness! My mother and I will cross paths again.” Thessa realized the second resurrection might have done something to Sarren’s sanity. She was confused and acted out irrationally.
“What have you done to me?” Sarren repeated, and Thessa began to pity her a bit.
The resurrected woman stumbled back looking down and searching her clothing for something, “Ah, there you are.” She grinned and produced another dagger from beneath her clothing. She looked as though she might use it, so Thessa took a step back until Sarren began to laugh again, “This dagger is the onyx-handled dagger of the Black Mage, useless on you now, I suppose.” She looked around their feet, “Where is that red dagger?”
“You will instruct me. You’re dead. I control you now.”
The resurrected woman stepped closer, “Until I kill you and regain my power. You idiot, you don’t resurrect the former Black Mage.” She grabbed the Black Mage by the throat. “All I have to do is cut your throat.”
“You’ve lost your mind. You just said that dagger would not harm me.”
The Black Mage pushed Thessa away, and she fell forcibly onto the waterlogged floor, one leg slipping in the feted water. Thessa regained her composure, “I am your master now. I can stop you from your nasty intentions.”
“All I have to do is wait. You can’t watch me all the time. I will find a way to kill you.”
“I may have the solution to that,” A woman in white said as she walked in from the entrance. A startled Sarren threw the dagger she held at the woman in full force.
The woman in white screeched like a psychotic bird, and the blade deflected off the sound and fell into the dirty water. She continued to move toward them, “All you have to do is cut off her arms.”
“What did you just say?” Thessa asked.
“She can’t stab you to death or slit your throat without her arms, cut them off.”
“Who in the two hells are you?” Sarren asked.
“I am Fia, the White Mage. I would have thought that obvious because, well, I’m wearing white and I just screamed your dagger away.” She giggled curtly.
“Oh, yes, because all the mages wear clothes of their color.” Sarren sneered.
“Someone doesn’t have a sense of humor.” Fia said. “Pity.”
“There is no need to cut off her arms. I know she can’t kill me. I resurrected her. I am her master now. All this posturing is to frighten me, but I know the truth. She is having a little trouble adapting is all.”
“Cut off her head, then. She doesn’t need it and it will shut her up.” Fia said.
Sarren was appalled, “Removal of the head will permanently kill the resurrected. It’s one sure way to do it.”
“Shut up, Sarren,” Thessa commanded. “She is trying to get to you like you were trying to get to me.”
“That’s not true at all,” Fia said. “I don’t think it is, anyway.”
“I can’t cut off any of her body parts,” Thessa said. “The truth of the matter is that Sarren is dead and I know I have complete control over her. She has to obey me. She can’t kill me.”
“Uh, no, she will try to find a way to kill you and turn back into the Black Mage herself.”
“She can’t. You know nothing of how the Black Mage’s powers work.” Thessa realized she instinctively knew how the powers worked. Cassany must have made it so the new mage would have an advantage, or all the mages have a collective memory.
“Maybe not. But I would love to try it and find out.”
“Try what, cutting off her arms or try out the Black Mage powers?”
“Yes to both.”
“You are evil.” The Black Mage said. “Look at you with your beauty and blonde hair, you even wear white, and you are called the White Mage, but you are a bad person.”
“I don’t see what my color, beauty, or manner of dress has to do with my demeanor. Does your black hair and gaunt appearance make you evil? If you want to keep this woman, Sarren is it? And you want her to train you then you have to do some pretty unspeakable things because she will definitely not hesitate to do whatever she has to do to take your life.”
“I never wanted to be the Black Mage. I should let her kill me.”
“You know, this gives me a great idea. I need your help.” She turned to Sarren, “But first, let me help you. I’ll cut her arms off.”
“Wait, leave her arms intact. what do you need my help with?”
“The Blue Mage is our ally, yours and mine. I need you to help me with rescuing him. I need your magic to do it.” She looked at the man standing next to the throne. ‘I’m sorry, I have to know. Who is that man, and what in the two hells is he supposed to be doing? “He’s just standing there staring.”
“He’s my father, Tovo. Sarren used him and killed him when she was the Black Mage.”
“How did she use him?” Fia asked.
“She used him to trick my mother, and then she killed him.”
“Your mother did?”
“No, Sarren did. It was part of her plan, her strategy, against the Red Mage.” Thessa knew the White Mage was just asking questions to ask them. She already knew who killed Tovo. She just wanted Thessa to say it for some reason.
Fia’s jaw dropped, “And you don’t want to cut off her arms?” She walked over to Sarren and stood behind her. She began to hum a beautiful melodic tune into her ear.
“What are you doing?” Thessa asked.
“Hold her still,” Fia instructed.
“She isn’t going anywhere,” Thessa said.
Fia’s tune became a song. As she sang, bands of light surrounded Sarren, binding her, and then they disappeared. “There, she can’t move except for her legs. She can come along with us, but she is paralyzed from the waist up.”
“You wench!” Sarren said.
“Careful, I will paralyze your ugly face too!” Fia said, pointing a perfectly manicured finger at her. “This will give you time to decide what to do with her.”
“Thank you,” Thessa said. “But it’s not necessary. She is not a threat to me at all.” She looked down at the ground where she had rescued her mother.
“What is it?” Fia asked.
“What did you do with my mother, Sarren?” Thessa asked. “Why did she have to leave like that?”
“Nothing, I was too busy dying, remember.”
Fia put her hand on Thessa’s shoulder, “I’m sure there is a good explanation for her leaving. Why didn’t you resurrect your father?”
Thessa shrugged, “Why don’t you mind your own business?” She was deciding whether she even liked this White Mage.
“Don’t get testy, I was just wondering.”
“You’ll know when I get testy.” Thessa said. “You seem to wonder a lot.”
Fia eyed her for a moment, “Well, Thessa, If you don’t mind. I’m not certain about how much time we have. We had better get going. I will explain what happened, where the Blue Mage is, and what I need you to do while we travel. I have a boat we can use to go back upriver.”
“We don’t need a boat,” Sarren said. “The Black Mage has another way to travel over distances.”
“Now, see,” Fia summoned the dagger that Sarren tried to throw at her from the dirty water with a whistle. She held it up, looking to the mud-tarnished blade, “That wasn’t so difficult, was it. You are already proving your worth.”
Thessa summoned the power from the dead around them and channeled it into the travel spell Sarren explained to her. Just before the spell went off in a spectacular whoosh of air, Thessa made eye contact with Sarren, who was smiling devilishly. A terrible feeling washed over her, but it was too late. The two women before her faded out into the rushing air before her eyes. Fia, Sarren, and Thessa left the chamber and all the fires burned out immediately. Tovo collapsed headfirst into the feted water.