Departures - Part 2

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Tragius was alone in his room, his cloak of runes hanging from a coathook beside the door. He was bent over a centuries old copy of 'De Profus Incandanticus", hoping that the writings of the insane wizard would contain some insight he could use against the Shadowarmies, when Raptor Rendaven kicked open the door and stormed furiously in. Tragius leapt to his feet, sending the book flying and bringing the words of defensive spells to his mind, but he wasn't as young as he used to be. Age had slowed him considerably, and before he could cast a single spell Raptor had cast one of his own, an amnesia spell that wiped all the magic words from Tragius's mind, turning him into just another ordinary, frail old man, as weak and helpless as any other.

The old wizard babbled in fear as Raptor tore the magical garnet ring from his finger, the ring that, the younger wizard knew, could hurl bolts of fire and physically crush him like a beetle under a soldier's boot. Then he tore off all the older wizard's clothes, any item of which might contain offensive or defensive magic, not resting until he'd stripped him completely naked, whereupon he tossed him a blanket to cover himself.

"Now, Bastard!" he swore, grabbing him by the neck and shouting into his face. "Before I kill you, I want you to tell me why you didn't tell me who you were sending us up against!"

"You mean Malefactos?" asked the older wizard, fighting to regain his dignity. He disengaged himself from Raptor and stood proudly in the corner, holding the blanket around himself with one hand while smoothing down his hair with the other.

"Right, Malefactos," replied Raptor, his black eyes blazing with fury. "A young, inexperienced rak, you said. Only just transformed, not yet fully accustomed to his new condition. Easy prey for a powerful bunch like us."

"I told you the truth, he is only newly transformed..."

"But he's Malefactos! He was bad enough when he was alive, now he's..." The younger wizard shivered, the fury momentarily eclipsed by the terrible memories.

"But he wasn't there!" protested Tragius. "I told you I'd lure him away while you were in his fortress, and I did, at great personal risk, I might add. If you think you had a hard time dealing with the traps and guardians he'd had time to install, just think what it must have been like for me, who had to face him personally."

"We did face him personally! I don't know who you were talking to, but Malefactos was waiting for us in his fortress. He was waiting for us!" He drew a wand and pointed it menacingly at Tragius. "It only took him five minutes to separate us and scatter us throughout his castle, and then he came after us one at a time. I came across Gwainos's body. He'd been..." His voice broke off, and for a moment he was unable to go on until he'd once again forced the terrible memory to the back of his mind.

"A programmed clone," muttered Tragius to himself. "He must have cloned himself, programmed it to act as he would, and sent it to deceive me. He must have known what we were planning. I should have suspected. He used a clone once before, to fake his own death."

"You should have known!" sneered Raptor, stepping closer. "You should have lots of things. You should have seen Gwainos's body. You should have heard poor Franklos screaming when Malefactos caught him. He screamed for hours, you know, and you never heard such screams!"

"I'm sorry," said Tragius. "What can I say? Look, Raptor, I know it was wrong of me not to tell you whose fortress you'd be breaking into, and I feel genuinely bad about it, but I knew you wouldn't go if you knew the truth, and you simply have no idea how important your mission was. I genuinely thought I'd lured him away, that he had no idea you were coming. Okay, I made a mistake. A mistake that cost them all their lives and nearly yours as well, but since you're going to kill me anyway I may as well tell you that I would have killed you all in your sleep to get that ark. I wouldn't have enjoyed it. I would have hated myself for it, but I would have done it anyway. It's that important."

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