Mage Stone

Mage Stone

It took Sorceress Iva mere minutes to carefully lift up the stones of the entrance hall floor with her magic. They floated in the air now, while Adelia, Ivan, Miriam and Sorceress Iva inscribed the top of ten stones with the final sigil.

They had to inscribe more stones to avoid drawing too much attention and suspicion if only a single stone held marks. Adelia would have loved to avoid inscribing the stone in an obvious and easy to see way, but Alexzander had to touch the spell in some way.

The clerics had touched the page the spell had been on, after all, when they had opened the book.

Getting Alexzander to stand on this particular middle stone, the one connected to the trap, was the hardest part, in her personal opinion.

She would have loved to trap all the marked stones to increase their chances of this trap working, but they didn't have time for that. Though, it was reassuring that the stones that made up the floor were a lot larger than the bricks the walls were made of.

Getting Alexzander to step on the trapped one should be easy enough, if they worked well together.

By the time the blacksmiths were done with creating the pieces and they had been delivered to the keep, they had finished with the stones and hollowing out the space beneath the trap-stone so the clockwork creation could fit.

Adelia knelt on the stone, accepting piece after piece, as she assembled what would connect everything. With both preparing the floor, etching onto the stones and waiting for the blacksmiths to be done, to now building her trap, hours had passed and she felt stiff, her knees and back aching from her hunched position.

"You have to step on this stone to start triggering the trap," Adelia explained to Ivan once she had finished everything, pointing out the weight that needed to be pressed down for the gears to start moving.

"And once Alexzander stands on the trapped stone, it will go off, so be ready with barrier spells," she finished explaining. Getting the trap to react to two weight triggers had been important if they hadn't just wanted the spell to fire off seconds after Ivan activated the first trigger.

For if Alexzander knew what they were planning, it wouldn't work a second time. This was their best chance.

They also didn't want half the keep to be turned into crystal, so they had to contain the spell to the best of their abilities. Redirect it, perhaps, if it couldn't be stopped.

Adelia got to her feet with a bitten-back groan, the sun starting to set outside and before she could figure out how to step out of her place within the contraption, Rowan appeared before her, offering her a hand with a warm, fanged smile.

She took it and he lifted her out of the recess with no effort, an arm wrapping around her middle so she could lean against him as she stretched out her legs. When she reached up with her arms to bring relief to her back, she leaned against his arm, almost bending backwards over it, her spine giving a few satisfying pops.

But on the heels of that brief relief was a bone-deep exhaustion. She hadn't slept in far too long, but she had to see this through.

"How much time is left?" she asked and Miriam lifted her hand, a vision of the sun over the horizon appearing over her palm. "An hour, if he doesn't come early."

"Then we better get something to eat so we're ready to receive him," Ivan said who had been walking from the doors to the trapped stone, stopping before it, counting his steps. "And then we better go and hide and get ready for his arrival."

So they were out of sight. They would all wait to jump in if Alexzander didn't simply step on the stone by himself.

"I already cleared out the keep," Rowan added. "The servants and day-guards are down in Ravenburg to have a nice evening and the night guard are hiding down in their crypt. If all goes well this precaution will be for nothing, but if not, we can at least keep casualties down."

"I, of course, will guard the outside of the keep," Steward Lambrecht's calm and certain voice cut in as he walked down the stairs, his steps downright silent. "I can shapeshift into something big and startling enough to stop him in his tracks if he slips past any of you and desires to escape."

Miriam hummed a low and melodic tone. "If you are certain, Lambrecht."

He bowed his head politely and curtly to her. "I will defend my home and my master and our people and it is an honor to do so, not a sacrifice, I promise you that."

"Thank you, Lam," Rowan said softly and Steward Lambrecht inclined his head anew.

Food was swiftly fetched and they all ate on the stairs of the entrance hall, though Adelia had to admit that it was a bit difficult to muster up any appetite. Mostly she was tired and she leaned against Rowan, who wrapped an arm around her, while he sipped on a bottle of blood with his other hand.

They had just finished and cleared the leftovers away when Sorceress Iva straightened. "He's here."

Adelia took a deep breath, while Rowan pressed a quick kiss to her temple, before he was gone. Miriam and Sorceress Iva similarly slipped out of sight, while Ivan stepped up beside her with a reassuring smile.

"I'm ready," he said with steady trust and they walked into the entrance hall. Ivan remained two steps from the first trigger stone and Adelia crossed the entrance hall to open the door. Icy wind blew in, a handful of snowflakes tumbling against her skirts and there he stood.

Dressed in fine robes like the first time she had met him, a smile on his face that couldn't have been more smugly satisfied, Alexzander stood on the stoop of her home.

"I am so very glad you and I could come to an accord," he said, voice low and she hated it. She hated him. "Is he here, then?"

She stepped aside, pulling the door further open and Alexzander moved to step past her, only to stop at her side and whisper, "Terribly sorry about Rowan. I heard you could not save him in time."

So Queen Nina had truly held her word. She hadn't told him anything.

Adelia's grip on the door tightened slightly and Alexzander stepped further past her to enter the keep and he called out, "Ivan, so glad you came."

Adelia closed the door just as Ivan answered, "I have no idea why, but since you didn't simply send a letter, I suppose it's something important?"

"Oh, absolutely," Alexzander answered as he stepped further forward. Adelia had to resist the urge to stare at him and his feet and the stone on the ground, counting the steps left until he stood on his end. "World changing, in fact."

Ivan took one measured step forward. "Alright, now I'm curious, what is it?"

Alexzander smiled a little wider as Ivan took one more step, stopping on his trigger stone. A dark golden glimmer appeared in his tattoos and he pressed a hand over his heart, the glimmer vanishing a moment later. But Alexzander had noticed and he drew to a slow stop. Two steps away from the marked stone.

He glanced down then and lifted a brow, before he glanced at Adelia without fully leaving Ivan out of his sight. "I see you redecorated?"

"I didn't," Adelia answered, her voice steady and sure, something she had learned to do in order to survive her father. If he had noticed even a hint of tension or lies on her, she would have paid dearly for it.

"Rowan...," she allowed her voice to crack and she made herself swallow before she continued, "had this already paid for. After my arrival he planned to change some things to make me more comfortable."

"I see his tastes remain as strange as ever," Alexzander mused. "For this sigil is utterly useless outside of enchantments."

Adelia kept her face from giving anything away by sheer force of will. Alexzander turned away from her after a moment and looked back towards Ivan, pulling an envelope from his robes.

"I recieved some unsettling news from a shared source," he continued. "It's best if you see for yourself."

Adelia was willing to bet all her possessions that the crystal-trap activated the moment Ivan opened the envelope or pulled the letter out and unfolded it.

Alexzander remained unmoving and so did Ivan. Adelia resisted the urge to glance at him and just before she stepped forward, hoping that an invitation to talk in the dining room would make him move, he spoke up, "Is something wrong? You're usually not this... shy."

Ivan was silent for a moment, before he sighed. He took one step forward, keeping the other foot on the trigger stone beneath him. He held out a hand. "You aren't normally shy, either, Alexzander."

"No," Alexzander mused, still not moving. His eyes darted down to the sigil on the ground, then to the other sigils placed around him. "But I fear I have to insist. Why don't you come to me?"

When Ivan didn't move, a terrible little smile appeared on Alexzander's face as he turned to Adelia. "Truly, I thought you had learned your lesson by now. Are you intending to kill me again?"

He made soft tsk-ing noises, appearing mock-disappointed and he added in a condescending voice, "Must I remind you what is at stake?"

Alexzander thought he could still threaten her with war. He didn't know anything, didn't know that Rowan lived and the king was no longer his ally, so Queen Nina had kept her word. Good.

They could not get too close to Alexzander if they didn't want to get caught in the crystallizing process as well, so she had to find a way to make him move on his own.

Her friends were capable of casting magical shielding to contain the crystal explosion once it took place, but that wouldn't help the person who had to stand in front of Alexzander to shove him where he had to go.

"Killing you is useless," Adelia answered, trying to find a way to get Alexzander to keep walking, trying to find what cog was missing to ensure their plan moved forward and worked. Alexzander just had to take two more steps. That was all. "How do you do it? How do you survive?"

His smirk was so slickly self-satisfied she had to bite down on the urge to make a face. "As if I would tell you. Be thankful that you can stay and look after these lands while I move on to bigger things."

And indeed, why would he care, if she remained in this keep when he planned to control everything? She would be under his thumb just as everyone else.

Alexzander glanced at Ivan and took a very clear step back. "Perhaps we should do this elsewhere. I trust that you don't want to loose even more, Lady Adelia? I'm certain we can arrange another meeting."

How could she get him to stay? He took another step back, moving to leave and Adelia couldn't think of a single thing to say that would make him stay, that would overpower his suspicion. She had to stall for time, had to say something to make him stop, at the very least.

"You are such a coward," Miriam's sudden voice made everyone twitch slightly in surprise and they all looked over to the side of the entrance hall. She leaned against the stone and Adelia had no idea how she had gotten here without anyone noticing, until she saw the shadows slipping off her fingertips and boots, returning to normal around her.

Alexzander looked frozen in place, staring at her with an expression that was so rigid it failed to fully hide the glimmer of fear in him.

"Sneaking, slipping, scuttling and skittering," Miriam continued, staring down Alexzander with eyes that glowed the faintest bit green. "Desperate for more and you never have enough. You are always so afraid of everything being taken from you and of loss and death and failure it makes you stupid. Tell me, what are you not afraid of?"

Miriam took a step forward and all of a sudden the air felt thick as though it had filled with something and there was a strangely muffled quality to the entire room. Ivan's tattoos shimmered golden and Alexzander took a step back, not towards the front door of the keep, but away from Miriam.

"You can't kill me," Alexzander snapped, though his voice had gained a tense quality.

"Maybe not," Miriam said. "But I sure as shit can ensure you don't want to live, either."

Alexzander's gaze darted to the front door. If he made it out, he could teleport away. His gaze then darted to Miriam and Ivan, clearly deciding that he was both outnumbered and overpowered and that he was better off running.

He released such a sudden burst of magic none of them stopped him in time, it was bright and blinding and distracting, like multiple lightning strikes had darted around the room at once and by the time Adelia had blinked the dancing lights away, Alexzander was by the front door, Miriam hot on his heels. Ivan remained standing on his pressure plate, though his tattoos were glowing a dark, shimmering gold.

"Lambrecht!" Miriam shouted just as Alexzander reached out for the door, her voice holding a strange, deep-reaching quality that seemed to fill the entire room.

Alexzander was about to throw the door open, when they were yanked apart before him and Rowan took a step forward onto the threshold and came almost nose to nose with Alexzander. He stood unharmed in the evening light.

A split second later a large copper dragon landed on the courtyard walls outside, wings spreading to the sides as it shifted its large, horned head down to see better. Its wings cast shadows that framed exactly around Rowan, the light falling through the windows growing dim while leaving her beloved standing in the light, the ring Adelia had made for him on his hand.

"Impossible," Alexzander whispered as he quickly took three quick steps back, eyes wide as he stared at Rowan.

And Rowan smiled, a smile Adelia had not seen on her love's face before, dangerous and dark, sharp fangs on display, his eyes glowing a deep, ominous bloody red.

"Do you want to know your greatest mistake, Alexzander?" Rowan asked conversationally as he stepped forward, Alexzander sharply taking another few steps back, his gaze now darting around, hunted and full of disbelief.

"You looked at my darling, brilliant Adelia and saw someone soft and defenseless. Helpless," Rowan continued, his head tipping to the side, his smile turning vicious. "And then you threatened what she loves."

"You can't kill me!" Alexzander threw the words out like a shield, like a warning and protection all at once. "Just try! I'll just come back and then there will be war! Do you think I don't have backup plans? I'll crush you all!"

"You sound scared," Rowan mused as he stepped forward again, the large dragon climbing down the walls to follow in his wake, the shadows of its wings shifting with it. "Why don't you let us test your mortality a bit more, you little fool?"

Alexzander just needed to step onto the other pressure plate. That was all. And then he would be done for.

Miriam shifted, drawing Adelia's attention and she saw her friend gestured subtly for her to step back. Keeping her steps as quiet as she had learned to be in her father's house, Adelia took a wary and careful step to the side – just as a spell whizzed past her, slamming into the wall and leaving a cracked hole that revealed the next room.

Eyes wide, her gaze darted to Alexzander. She saw his hand stretched out towards her, his fingertips glowing a strong fire-red and in his palm a bead of glowing light gathered.

Before she could try to run, she felt a magical force grab her around the waist and yank her back, just as the bead zipped towards her and she felt its heat pass by her face, so searing hot she had to squint her eyes shut and she heard the impact of the spell where she had just stood, an explosion of stone as heat rolled through the room like a wave.

She fell onto the hard stone floor the next moment, her breath getting knocked out of her lungs and she heard a distant, "Apologies!" from Ivan as she gasped for air. Dragging a ragged inhale into her lungs, she rolled to her side to get up, when the room was filled with powerful spells being cast by three powerful magic wielders.

The darkness of the deep ocean containing untold danger, the searing rage of a brightly burning sun, the deadly, acidic roar of something vile and powerful that slammed through the other spells like a boulder carving through a storm.

Rowan appeared beside her between one moment and the next and reached down to help her up, his eyes still glowing a deep, bloody red and he unceremoniously lifted her entirely off her feet, his lower arm beneath her thighs and her hands landing on his shoulder as she found her balance and clung to his clothes.

"Apologies for being brazen," Rowan said and she felt the tension in his body, the shift along his shoulders as though he wished to grow big and sprout wings. "But I am faster and when mages battle, anyone else better runs. Though for now we are offered protection."

Adelia looked to the side to see a shield of shimmering gold before them, dancing with light within itself, as though rays of sunshine were weaving together, only to break apart and weave with another beam of light over and over.

"Ivan's shielding us," Rowan said, "but it also means he can't fully fight Alexzander." He shifted his stance and held her a little closer. "That Alexzander can hold his own is worrying, though, Miriam bested him before, she should do so again."

"Unless he's better prepared," Adelia said and now that she had caught her breath, her mind was starting to race.

What could she do? Without magic, without powers, she could be killed by a stray spell and she couldn't get too close either, for once Alexzander stepped onto his pressure plate, she'd get caught in the blast.

The only safe place in the entire entrance hall at this moment was behind Ivan and she heard stone shatter and crack around them and – and if the trap broke, that was it. She had no idea how to trap Alexzander again if that happened and he got away.

Her gaze darted to the floor and she saw the push and pull of half- real waves, guarding the ground, and now she knew why Alexzander managed to hold his own against Miriam while also having to content with Ivan. Both her friends were guarding something, both had their attention split between protecting and fighting.

All he had to focus on, was destroying and if he had enchantments and sunstones with him, he had the upper hand.

What could she do? There had to be something she could do. Some way to distract Alexzander or make him careless or get him to move closer –

"Where is Sorceress Iva?" she asked and Rowan gestured behind them to the stairs.

"Keeping the keep from getting completely destroyed," he said. "Why?"

"We need something that keeps Alexzander rooted in place," she answered, flinching when a spell howling like a screeching, brutal death tore through the room, only to suddenly get swallowed by a yawning portal-maw of something so ancient and terrifying no words to describe it with existed.

"Then let's hurry, our friends can't keep Alexzander from fleeing for too much longer," Rowan said and his other hand came up to better brace her. Adelia closed her eyes just in time, air rushing past her fast and sharp and it stopped as soon as it had started.

"Iva, we need your help," Rowan said and Adelia opened her eyes to see Sorceress Iva kneeling on the floor, her golden dress, embroidered with red thread creating blooming poppies and red butterflies along the hem and bodice, pooled around her. Her hands were pressed to the ground and the feeling of magic was heavy in the air.

"It takes me everything I have just to keep these lunatics from destroying our home," she said. "I can't leave and I can't spare an ounce of magic for anything else."

"Do you have an enchantment that will root Alexzander in place?" Adelia rushed to ask and Sorceress Iva looked up for a brief second, strain visible on her face.

"Look into my study," she said. "I labeled everything. But you better hurry! Alexzander came well prepared, I felt him use a number of sunstones already to power his spells, his personal reserves are untouched, but our friends are using theirs."

"Understood." Adelia tightened her grip and closed her eyes as Rowan started darting through their home again. She only noticed him turning around corners for the barest of moments and then he rushed up the stairs to the tower.

It felt like it took two breaths at most, before he stopped inside Sorceress Iva's workroom, gently setting her down on her feet.

They broke apart to look through the various shelves and drawers, finding ingredients and items prepared for future enchantments and finally enchanted items themselves. They were, indeed, all neatly labeled.

Protection charms, heating charms, cooling charms, light charms and at last palm-sized clay plates that would cast a spell if broken apart. Sorting through them, Adelia finally found something that might work. A spell that conjured roots which reached for anything around them, dragging them in and entangling whatever that was.

Sorceress Iva had noted it as a potential spell to catch thieves or to try and catch someone running away. It would work. It had to.

But all the enchanted plates lacked a power source, Adelia realized as she grabbed the clay plate and closed the drawer. They were meant to be charged by magic, after all, so they could carry the fully-formed magic until it was released, but Sorceress Iva couldn't do it, she was all that kept their keep standing at the moment.

But then what – oh. She turned to Rowan. "I need the sunstone." It was magic, it could take the place of a mage, otherwise they never would have been able to make her trap.

Rowan stepped into the shadowed part of the room by the door, the sun still sinking outside, and took the ring off without hesitation, holding it out to her. "I can't join you in the fight again," he said with a regretful, grim note to his voice. "Ivan fights with sunlight and I could barely stand to be there with the ring on and once he uses all the power he has, even the ring won't protect me."

"Can you still take me down to the entrance hall?" she asked and found herself swept off her feet. She closed her eyes just in time, her hands curled tightly around the ring and clay plate.

The next breath she was set down onto her feet gently again, Rowan's hands gentle and strong at her sides. "Take him down," he whispered and leaned forward to press their foreheads together for a moment. "And then we can finally rest."

Adelia nodded and Rowan vanished. She hurriedly pried the sunstone out of the ring, the silver moonlight glow of it changing back to golden sunshine and she pressed the stone against the clay plate, on top of the runes and sigils etched finely into the burned clay.

The enchantment lit up like a beacon, making her wince with the sudden flare of light and then she felt fine cracks going through the clay. She hurriedly removed the sunstone and pocketed it.

She rushed down the stairs towards the entrance hall when a heavy rumble shook the entire keep and nearly made her trip, bright light flaring ahead.

She caught herself, hiked her dress a little higher with her free hand and ran the last bit of distance between the stairs and the entrance hall entryway as fast as she could.

Heavy blows of magic were traded inside the hall when she arrived, but she could tell that the howling death of Alexzander's spell had grown more noticeable, that the searing, burning sunfire and deep, drowning ocean was slowly getting beat back. He must have had his pockets full of sunstones to hold his own this well.

Adelia forced herself to stop at the entrance for a moment, to look and observe and find an opening to act. Ivan no longer had a shied up behind him, which had guarded her before, the gold of his goddess now mixing with the dark, sea-green of Miriam's patron across the floor.

They were still protecting the trap. They still believed in her and her plan. Ivan still stood on his pressure plate, too, not having moved an inch away from it.

Swallowing, she took a deep breath and watched the fast trading of spells, the deadly destruction of magic and then she noticed the way her friends tried to herd Alexzander onto his pressure plate, but he was moving too much, always making sure not to step onto the stone they wanted him on, dancing back and forth instead.

He knew it was a trap by now, of that there was no doubt.

Adelia eyed the floor, gripping the clay plate tightly. She couldn't toss the spell right onto the pressure plate itself, she'd risk the conjured plants blocking the stone from moving. But if she tossed it at the stone beside it, the plant would drag Alexzander onto the pressure plate instead.

If all went well. If she did it right.

She watched the flow of battle a moment longer, the dodging and attacking and just as Alexzander was driven towards the plate again, she shouted, "Reveal the ground!" And she threw the clay plate with as much strength and precision as she could.

There couldn't be a second of hesitation, a second for Alexzander to orient himself and react. For him to realize she had done something.

Her friends heard her, her brilliant, clever friends, who dropped their protective warding across her trap a split second before the clay plate hit its mark and shattered apart.

Plants burst forth with such power and such ferocity they made the floor shake and she feared for her trap, realizing that the enchantment had soaked up too much magic from the sunstone. The plant pressed against the ceiling and spread across the floor and Ivan threw up a shield just in time to avoid getting grabbed and yanked off of his stone.

But the plant also wrapped itself around Alexzander and yanked him close, but onto the wrong stone, it was so big the placement was all wrong. It was covering the pressure plate entirely. She had messed it all up.

Alexzander flung a spell to burn half of the plant as he was thrown against it, but there was so much magic, so much power in the spell that had been set free it regenerated immediately, wrapping around him anew and he threw out a massive burst of magic, incinerating the plant on the spot.

It crumbled away and he darted a quick glance down to the floor, seeing he stood right before the trap-stone and he turned to Miriam. Death gnashed its teeth between his hands as he conjured a spell that howled with the afterlife and just before he could take a step away from the trap, a last pulse went through the fading magic on the ground.

A single vine burst forth, wrapped around his calf and yanked.

Alexzander stumbled a step aside, his death-spell going wide and tearing almost the entire wall behind Miriam to shreds. He moved to catch himself and his foot landed right on top of the pressure plate.

Adelia heard the click of it activating a split second before the entire room erupted with such destructive power, it meant to unmade everything within reach and leave only its pure essence behind.

"No!" she heard Alexzander scream as he threw his magic against the very spell he had invented to murder clerics and get his hands on the sun. A spell that swallowed his magic like the sea swallowing rain. "No! Don't you dare! You stupid fucking wench!"

Heart pounding her chest, Adelia ducked against the side of the hallway, peeking into the room to see Ivan straining against a shield he had thrown up in front of him. It flickered then strengthened, only to flicker again, the devouring spell Alexzander had made reaching for everything around it, hungry for anything and everything within reach, just like his other spells had eaten all the people within the temples.

Alexzander screamed as his body began to turn into swirls of color as he dissolved around the edges, the spell unmaking him to re-make him into something else.

"No! No!" His voice grew high-pitched when no more spells could be formed in his hands, all his power getting sucked away from him, true terror turning his face into a grimace of a fear so deep and terrible looking at him made Adelia nauseous. "Please! Stop! Whatever you want I give it all!"

Alexzander's legs and arms vanished, turning into swirls of muddled gold and gray-orange.

His lower body turned to swirls of color next and he screamed as the spell started to eat around his head, new bursts of color adding, dull brown and flat black and burned red and now the spell ate holes through his middle, piercing his chest where his heart would be, adding swirls or lackluster purple and faded pink and washed out green.

Adelia watched as Alexzander gave one more, agonized scream, a scream of someone aware of his undoing in every detail, understanding what was happening to him because he had made this and then his voice was gone as the spell devoured what was left of him.

The spell swirled the colors together into a messy gathering, like a whirlwind pulling leaves and debris and grass and branches into itself. The next moment the colors started to purify and strengthen, the muddled and grayed, the tarnished and dulled and warped turning into clearly shining, strong color that started to turn over and around each other.

Faster and faster they moved, pressing down on each other, on top of each other more and more until the colors joined together at the edges and with a last, powerful eruption of the spell, blinding light filled the room.

For just a moment, sight and hearing and taste and sense of being were gone and then the spell Alexzander had made to, in the end, kill himself, fizzled away.

Adelia blinked when she saw a rough crystal creature standing in his place, vaguely reminding her of Alexzander, crystals jutting out of the ground around him and growing from the walls and down from the ceiling like teeth trying to close in around him and keep him in place.

And in the middle of the creature's chest, enclosed by clear crystal, rested a fist-sized stone, shining bright with all the colors of the world.

Ivan released the shield and fell down to his knees, breathing hard, sweat coating his back and dripping off his face and beyond him Adelia saw Miriam collapsed back against the wall, legs shaking as she gasped for air as well.

Feeling a little unsteady herself, Adelia pushed away from the wall and hurried to her friends, stepping over sharp little crystals jutting out of the ground.

"Are you alright?" she asked as she reached Ivan first, looking between him and Miriam. "Shall I go fetch aid?"

"No," Miriam rasped and her legs gave out, making her sump onto the ground heavily. "Magic exhaustion."

"That was brutal," Ivan wheezed. "Wouldn't have made it without my goddess. I, I think I need to lay down."

Adelia managed to grab his arm in time to keep him from face-planting into the ground. She helped him roll onto his back and he laid there, eyes closed and sweat dripping down his brow. Adelia hurried to Miriam to check on her too.

Miriam's eyes glowed a bright green, the heartbeat-pulse of green in her chest so strong she could see her ribs in detail even through her clothes. She even saw the green heart now, faintly outlined, otherworldly and strange.

"My patron gave me more magic than ever in my life," Miriam murmured when Adelia knelt beside her, unsure how she might help. "Without them, I'd be gone."

A shaky laugh escaped Miriam as she looked down at her trembling hands. "Alexzander was such a coward, he made something that normal mortals would never be able to survive."

Miriam let her head fall back against the wall and she closed her eyes, murmuring, "I think I'll go sleep now."

Miriam fell asleep the next second, her breathing slowing down and the glow in her chest and beneath her eyelids dimming and Adelia hesitated, before she got to her feet, checking on Ivan again, who was deeply asleep himself now.

"Rowan?" she called out and he appeared at the bottom of the stairs a moment later, his gaze glowing a dark red as it quickly darted over her, the glow vanishing and relief noticeable on his face when he saw her unharmed.

His attention snagged on Alexzander's crystal remnants next and his expression shifted to one of dark satisfaction.

Between one blink and the next he suddenly stood before her and reached out, gentle hands taking hold of her and she clung to his arms in return. It was only then that she realized she was shaking and his expression was filled with relief and awe.

"You are alright?" he asked and she nodded.

"Sorceress Iva?" she wanted to know and he quickly nodded reassuringly.

"Iva had to stop protecting the keep to avoid the spell noticing her, I brought her back to her rooms so she can rest," he said and cast a quick glance between Ivan and Miriam. "Looks like we better get them comfortable, too."

He squinted towards the entrance doors to see them half blown off their hinges and partially encrusted in crystal, the windows shattered entirely. "It looks like they managed to contain the damage to this hall." He raised his voice, calling out, "Lam?"

"All is well, Master Rowan," Steward Lambrecht's calm voice answered. "I shall meet you once I am presentable."

Rowan's shoulders relaxed and he turned back to Adelia. "You did it," he whispered and she shook her head.

"Not alone, I could not have done it alone. This was all us." They moved at the same time, clinging to each other tightly and a trembling laugh escaped her, followed by tears.

They had done it.

The monster was gone.