'So if they are not truly Demons as you humans use the term, you will find, should you learn more of them, that they are close enough,' Jermayan said with a bitter sigh.
Kellen knew that Jermayan's unwontedly expansive mood would probably not last long, and that he should learn all he could while the Elven Knight was willing to answer his questions. Suddenly he remembered something Idalia had said to him a long time ago: '… duergar and goblins and trolls ... pushed out of the settled lands by the Great War, and even after all this time, I don't think they'd be foolish enough to come back …'
'You mentioned a war. There was a war, wasn't there? Between the humans… and the Demons?' And Armethalieh had made sure that no mention of it had survived in the City Histories. Lycaelon had said as much— something about the Black Days, when Demons had prowled the City itself.
He'd blamed that on the Wild Magic—and though Kellen now knew that the Wild Magic couldn't have been at fault—not in the way that Lycaelon had tried to get him to believe, anyway—his instincts still told him that there was some sort of connection between the Wild Magic and the Demons.
Jermayan smiled just a little, like a teacher pleased with his pupil's quickness, even though the subject itself was a terrible one.
'The Endarkened have tried twice before to conquer all the living things of the earth—once, when only we Elves were there to stop them, and the second time when Elves and Men joined in the Great Alliance with several other races to drive them back to their caves beneath the earth once more. The Great Alliance left scars in the fabric of the world that are healing still: Men only entered the conflict because there were other humans, their enemies, who had been seduced by the promises of the Demons and had allied themselves with the powers of Darkness. There were dragons in the world then, who fought on both sides of the conflict— dragons betrayed by the humans who had bonded with them into slavery at the hands of the Demons, and dragons who faithfully served the Great Alliance. The unicorns played a vital part in that war, because the Demons, being creatures of Dark Magic, cannot survive the touch of their living horns.'
Dragons'. This was the first time Kellen had ever heard that dragons existed outside of a wondertale! The thought distracted him for a moment—
—but not for long, because Jermayan was still talking.
'The Great War took a terrible toll from all the Creatures of Light. Some races were lost forever, some changed beyond recognition. Some withdrew forever from the sight of Elves and Men. Ancient partnerships that had been forged in the morning of the world were sundered forever… It would make you weep, Kellen, did I tell you the story of those days in full, of all that was true and good and fair that passed out of the world then, never to be seen again. Yet in the end we rejoiced, though the land itself was in ruins and the work of rebuilding would be a thing of centuries, for we had broken the power of Shadow Mountain for all time… or so we thought then.'
Jermayan shivered, and Kellen wondered, had he been there? Had he seen the Great War? Surely not; he was far too young—
'But you won—' he ventured. 'Surely you could have gotten rid of them forever!'
Jermayan shook his head. 'What victory we won came at a great price, one that your race is paying down to this day. When the Great War was over, the few human Mages who were left—and there were not many, for the War had taken a terrible toll of any who had the least magical Gift— banded together to found the City of Armethalieh, where they thought they could be safe. They outlawed the Wild Magic, swearing death to any who should practice its arts and driving the few surviving Wildmages who would not renounce their practice far from human lands. There began the creation of the High Magick, and the history of Armethalieh the Golden, City of a Thousand Bells—a city for humans alone, ruled only by the High Magick that the surviving Mages created to take the place of the Wild Magic they had spurned.'
'But… why?' Kellen whispered, horrified.
'The new High Mages thought that it had been the practice of the Wild Magic that had led to the seduction of their human enemies by the Demons,' Jermayan said mournfully, as if he could not believe that the Mages had been so blind. 'And so they outlawed the Wild Magic, lest new Wildmages should become the prey of Demons as well. But it was not the Wild Magic that caused those Mages to fall.'
There it was, the thing Kellen had been dreading. That Wild Magic was dangerous, that Wildmages could be drawn to the Dark—both he knew to be true, though Idalia said it was not true that a Wildmage could serve the Demons with Wildmagery. But she had not told him why Wildmages could be drawn to the Demons…
'But—if it was the Wildmages who were corrupted—' he ventured.
'Oh, no, Kellen,' Jermayan said, and not in the tone people used when they were trying to reassure him (which of course had the opposite effect) but as if this was such accepted truth that Jermayan could no more have doubted it than he could doubt that the earth would uphold him. 'It was not the Wild Magic that caused those Mages to fall, rather their attempts to escape or subvert the price of Wild Magic that led them down the dark paths. They were Wildmages who did not wish to pay the cost of their power, and so in the end, they paid a far higher price.'
He looked narrowly at Kellen. 'Do you understand me? They wished power without a cost, at least to them. And so, they lost the Wild Magic, and found—that only the Demons would promise what they wanted. And they believed that promise, only to find that there was a price, after all. It cost them their souls, all that made them truly happy, and in the end— their lives.'
Kellen blinked. Power without cost to them — but isn't that what the High Mages have now?
