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Chapter 11: Wraiths part 2

"Okay, let's get straight into it." The Librarian said, and the screen lit up. Everybody paid close attention to it, eager to see what happened next.
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The scene around me seemed frozen in time.

Richmal's face was slack, his focus on the magic coming undone as he watched with awe. At his side, Ulrike blazed with internal light, more and more mana pouring out of her, the web of electricity growing brighter in coordination with her efforts. Her crimson eyes avoided me as she focused on her spell, the muscles of her jaw working as she ground her teeth.

Behind them, Ifiok sagged, sweat pouring down his face, the ruins of his arm hanging limply at his side, his channeled mana trickling away to nothing.

Blaise and Valeska had retreated down the tunnel toward Vildorial, and Blaise was fumbling with a tempus warp. The familiar anvil-shaped device hummed as it collected and condensed mana.

I was still reeling from my discovery of the interplay between aether and mana. Even though I still didn't fully understand yet what ********** was capable of, I had no time to question what I was doing. It took a tremendous effort just to lift one foot and place it in front of the other. There were still five half-Vritra Wraiths to deal with, and I could feel Regis's life force weaken by the moment.

The orbiting field of spikes and blue-black lightning shifted as I moved, rotating away as I passed, my aether containing and redirecting the mana making up the various spells. The force of my will was matched against that of the three opposing mages. I had to maintain a more forceful hold over the aether than they could enforce on their mana, but there was also something else, some resistance from the aether I didn't yet understand.

Moving the short distance to Regis sapped even my ****** ******* of its inhuman stamina and strength, and by the time I reached the cage of lightning, my legs were trembling. I released the pool of acidic sludge, which splashed back together and then sank between the cracks in the granite tiles and vanished.

Richmal gasped and sucked in a deep, desperate breath, as if he'd been holding it the entire time. "Valeska! Go, now!" he barked, his voice raw.

Releasing aether from my core, I manipulated it around Ulrike's spell, looking once again for the metaphorical curtain separating the two powers. It was just like in the keystone, when I'd practiced with Ellie. I had to let my mind refocus, shift my perspective. Three Steps had once told me something very similar as well, and even Kordri's lessons had required that I experience the motion and interplay of our bodies differently.

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"So you've trained with Eleanor?" Reynolds asked, slightly concerned for why he would need his daughter of all people.

"She was the most capable person for the task I needed done." Grey waved it off, but Reynold's concern didn't go away.

"And you trained with me? I have no recollection of such things." Kordri spoke, his top two eyes furrowed and narrowed in thought. His bottom two were slightly wide as he tried to remember when he did such a thing.

And then it clicked for him, and instead of the confused expression a proud one replaced it as he gazed at Grey, looking him up and down.

"You did well. I must say, I am impressed." He had a slight smile on his face as he examined Grey.

"Thanks to your training, no doubt." Grey said, nodding.

Regis snorted, a smirk on his face. "Look at that, snake, the Wraiths tried to run away!" He barked out, laughing slightly at the sight of their dire attempt to escape.