Iorrjaer

Chapter 39

Malka could not help but laugh to himself. Beaten up by Yophiel, a sixteen-year-old brat. Unable to even conjure something to rescue himself from her attacks. He was immediately back to his youth and even teen years when he had been just as weak. Spitting up a little blood, he sat up and tried to refocus his magic, but he found that the more the ziggurat awakened, the more the magic in the air and the surrounding ley lines were siphoning all of that energy.

This was bad. If the ziggurat, which meant Kêdêmel, was bringing all of the magic in the town to itself, then that meant that he was preparing for his summoning. Preparing for some great spell that would undoubtedly change the world. And, if he was a guessing man, which he most certainly was, most educatedly, this spell would not change the world for good.

Malka changed his tactic and pushed himself up to stand. It was a laborious effort, but he did it. He even ditched his purple cloak in the process, finding it too cumbersome. Now that he was standing, he resolved to, should he survive this night, put more effort into training his body. Maybe Sorâth would take him in as a disciple or maybe Häsmæl would agree to train him.

He laughed to himself, just thinking about training with those two made him beyond fatigued. He outstretched his hands and felt around the air. He was looking for a magical current that he could use to replenish his magic. He came up empty for several minutes and was about to lose hope when his fingers started to tingle. He moved closer so that his arm was elbow deep in the current and he immediately felt his rainbow hair returning.

He outstretched his other arm and found another current that was just within reach. He stood there, arms outstretched and absorbing all of the magic that he could. He was just one person, but he hoped that it would be enough to give him a fighting chance and would also be enough to slow down the ziggurat, even if it was just for a few seconds. He was also glad that he was alone because he was extremely vulnerable.

As his rainbow aura returned, his wounds healed. He was not a vengeful or spiteful person but there was a measure of want that was crossing his mind and from it he was forming ideas of how to get back at Yophiel. There were any number of spells that he could cast to enfeeble her; nauseate, leave her in a lasting state of confusion, or blind, deafen, entangle, exhaust, or just simply wound her in a way that would leave her helpless. Those would be too easy, too merciful, for someone like Yophiel. She deserved worse, she deserved pain and suffering. She deserved a curse that left her mindless or crippled, or better yet, both.

As his thoughts turned darker, he felt the effect it was having on his aura and he yanked his arms free from the currents. His mind suddenly eased and his thoughts returned to normal. He examined his hands and came to the realization that as Kêdêmel called the magic to him, it was being infused with his vengeful will. Malka reset himself with a deep inhale and a slow exhale.

If he was quick, he could catch up to Yophiel and hopefully stop her from falling too much further into Kêdêmel's grasp. Which, despite her returned rhetoric of Chami, seemed to be the path that she was taking. It was...he realized now, what Granna had wanted.

He was not quick. By the time he got back to where he had left Sorâth and Häsmæl, neither they nor she were anywhere to be seen. He had to hurry to find them as it was getting darker and the moon was getting much closer to the ziggurat's peak. He hoped that Sorâth and Häsmæl's missing presence was because they were already at the ziggurat.

Regardless of knowing what he was venturing into, he headed towards the ziggurat with his head high and shoulders back.

⸙

Sorâth and Häsmæl, while waiting for Malka and Yophiel to return, noticed that the ziggurat was coming to life and that the remaining soldiers were gathering en masse. Even the tengu that were usually flying overhead, were now closer to the ground and hovering over the soldiers.