The Oath Forge

Chapter Two

The Keeper of the Heart of Infinity and the fallen prince of Meridian were making no progress in figuring out their situation. They had fallen into an empty chamber, lit by one small red flame that floated at the center. Where the door should have been was now nothing but a smooth wall. In fact, all four walls around them were smooth and perfect.

Once sealed inside, the Prince was fast to shove the Keeper off him, scrambling to his feet, unleashing a full blast of magic at her. She tucked her wings and rolled, electricity blinding in the dim, small room, creating a disorienting strobe of lights. It dazed her, making her stumble as she pushed herself off the ground. The room glowed with a new color, yellow, as Phobos tapped into telekinetic powers, since she was proving too resistant to his more powerful lightning based attacks, and released a wall of force at her. He caught her, now trapped between the yellow force wall at her chest and the white stone at her back.

She grunted, placing her palms on the yellow magic walls and pushed, forcing it slowly off her, muscles bulging in her skintight suit. The quintessence made her inhumanly strong, and the wall cracked where her palms pushed. Phobos added more pressure, needing today to end in at least one victory, and her defeat would be a grand one.

And then his magic was gone.

Thinking it was from his sister's interference, he looked back to where the door should be, only to see it still gone. Bracing himself for an attack, he faced the Keeper.

Only her powers were gone as well.

The day was getting out of hand, Will mused, not able to connect to the Heart at her neck. On her feet, she stalked around the prince, who was watching her with a turn of his head. Tracking down the trio was so simple that Will would have never guessed things could turn south so quickly after finding them. She had volunteered to handle Phobos, knowing their powers matched in type base, and she could overpower him. While she was right, and had him pinned faster than she planned for, she was now at the disadvantage.

She knew nothing of his hand-to-hand prowess, so she needed to keep a safe distance until her friends could reach her. Which would fall on Elyon, as the connection to the Heart was severed.

"Are you going to maul me with your bare hands? You are barely more than a glamoured mogriff." Phobos taunted, eyes hard to see in the low light, making them look like two black chasms as they followed her careful movements.

Needing a plan of action, Will calmed herself. Fighting made her blood pump more than needed and now was the time for talk, for finding answers.

"What did you do?" she demanded, voice hard. This was Phobos she was dealing with. He was a master manipulator, even if he seemed to barely emote his own emotions. He knew how to blind people with their own feelings, whether they were rooted in something positive or negative.

He was calm as he answered, "You held us to the forge, you issued the request, you did this."

"Okay," she said, stopping and eyeing him. "What did I do?"

"I doubt you can grasp the power of this place and what you've awoken."

"Humor me, then."

He narrowed his eyes, not liking her tone. "This place is called an Oath Forge. It is made to repair or create bonds in a way that is natural. It presents trials until the two users have come to that mutual understanding."