next hour as plans were made to abandon the town. It was decided that scouts would be sent ahead to find another suitable location for the town, somewhere in the desert.
Not more than an hour after all was decided and the scouts sent, a dark-haired woman, one of the scouts, burst into the room and reported her news.
'There is a wall… an invisible wall,' the woman said, her face twisted in confusion.
'A wall? ' Umbeso asked.
'Yes. We were headed east, farther into the desert. We were no more than a mile outside of town and we hit a wall. It appears as if nothing is there, but you simply can no longer walk forward. One of my men has the knot on his head to prove it,' she said.
'Then try east, south, or north!' Aniolon said, standing up so quickly that his chair tumbled to the floor.
'We have, sir,' the woman said, shaking her head.
'We're trapped then,' Sohj said quietly as the other gathered scholars fell silent. 'The Evise Jhontil has us, it would seem. Its barrier holds us, yet if we attempt to disarm it, we will get trapped by its power,' he said, motioning again to the dead boy in the corner.
'Wands!' Aniolon blurted out.
The others in attendance turned quizzical looks toward him.
'We have not tried a wand or other magical tool on the artifact,' Aniolon said.
The gathered scholars talked amongst themselves. Aniolon watched nodding and shaking heads, theorems and postula-tions discussed with wild gestures, and Umbeso. His rival stood alone, discussing the option with no one.
'I will attempt it,' Umbeso said over the raucous debaters.
A hush fell over the room.
Sohj hushed the chatter in the room. 'Are you certain, Umbeso?' Umbeso affirmed his intentions.
A few minutes later, the group of academics reconvened in the town's center, beneath the light of the Evise Jhontil. One of the men provided Umbeso with an enchanted trinket he had once picked up from a Calashite magic dealer many years before. It was a brooch of fine silver laid over a polished onyx stone. He said it contained very powerful dispelling magic. The man imparted the magical command word unto Umbeso and joined the rest of his fellows several feet away.
Many of the townspeople gathered to watch as well and Aniolon could hear whispers among them, wondering why he was not the one risking his life for their benefit. He was their leader, after all. Aniolon did his best to block out their voices, but fotwd he could hear nothing else.
Umbeso looked into the orange light dancing around the Evise Jhontil and took a deep breath. He held the brooch aloft and spoke the command word. After a few moments, he turned to face the other scholars and shrugged.
'You feel nothing?' one of them asked.
'Nothing,' Umbeso said.
As the others gathered in closer to congratulate Umbeso on his courage, the brooch began to vibrate in the man's hand. As quick as thought, he hurled the brooch away from the crowd. As it spun through the air, it released a flash of bright light and landed softly on the desert sand. An inspection of the item revealed that it was spent, unusable.
Other items were brought to him and Umbeso tried them all. They attempted to dispel, disrupt, destroy and even push by force, the Evise Jhontil. Each attempt only resulted in a defunct item and Umbeso's arm growing increasingly sore. The Evise Jhontil seemed undisturbed.
A dust-covered man interrupted to report that attempts to dig under the mysterious wall were yielding no results as of yet.
Sohj stood before the gathered people and said, 'I am, of course, open to other ideas. Short of any, I see only one other option. I have not mentioned it because I have my doubts about its success.'
No further ideas came from the crowd. Aniolon felt as though every last eye was a boulder upon him, crushing him slowly.
'Very well,' Sohj said. 'I will attempt to teleport out of the city. If successful, I will return and escort others out the same way.'
Cries of protest whirled around, but the old teacher ceased them with a pat of his hands in the air and said, 'I have made my decision.'
Sohj cast a look to Aniolon and rolled his eyes when the younger man shrank away. He glanced to Umbeso ami gave a smiling nod.
He spoke the words to his spell. It was a simple one that would take immediate effect. His form disappeared from sight. After a few heartbeats the crowd began to cheer. His form reappeared but did not move. The noise from the gathered people ceased immediately. The wizard vanished again. Confusion took hold of the crowd and the shouting began. Sohj returned yet again, his form still frozen, and just as quickly left again.
Umbeso hung his head as he quieted the people. 'He is trapped. His spell may not reach its fruition, so he is neither here nor at his destination, but constantly moving between the two.'
No one spoke. Aniolon quietly weaved his way through the crowd and returned to his hut. He sat in his home with his head in his hands and laughed. He thought of Gerinvioch and what the dragon had said to him: 'Enjoy the power, Gruanthe. I certainly shall.' The words raced through Aniolon's mind again and again. His dream was lost to him. His people would never again look upon him as anything but the source of their doom.
Later that evening Umbeso entered Aniolon's home to find the man staring, sobbing and heaving, into a large bowl of water.
Umbeso gasped at the sight. He knelt next to Aniolon, tears welling in his eyes.
'I had to know, Umbeso. I had to. He took everything…' Aniolon said, his eyes never leaving the bowl.
Umbeso nodded, blinking away more tears. 'I know, Aniolon. What do you see in your scrying?'
'He's laughing at me,' Aniolon answered through his sobs as his mind's eye showed him the great blue wyrm chuckling to himself as he lay down to sleep another long sleep.
'He died shortly after, the scrying sapping the last of his life,' Moriandro said, finally lifting her eyes to meet Bronihim's once again.
Bronihim ran from the small hut in disbelief, his head shaking violently. He stared a moment at the Evise Jhontil hanging in the sky a short distance away and raced toward the large rock he had used as a landmark. He ran past a pair of the homes and finally spotted it off in the distance. Suddenly he found himself on the ground, a dull ache in his head. He had collided with something. He rolled onto his side and saw Moriandro running toward him just as the light of consciousness flittered away.
When he awoke the next day he found himself on a couch in Moriandro's home. She was bringing him fresh water. The light fabric of her dress swayed in the slight breeze.
'How do you get water?' Bronihim asked.
Seeming startled, Moriandro struggled to keep from spilling the bowl, setting it down on a table in the corner of the room.
She asked, 'How are you feeling?'
'My head is sore.'
'I would imagine so,' she said with a soft smile. 'The water?' Bronihim asked again. Moriandro sighed and sat down opposite him. 'The Evise perpetuates any spell that is cast, Kinase.' 'Yes, but…'
The woman raised an eyebrow and leaned in slightly.
'Oh, you mean…' Bronihim said, genuinely shocked.
'Yes, Kinase. Whenever the need arises, one of us volunteers to sacrifice his own life by casting a spell to provide the rest of us with food, water, or whatever else we might need. We gather and store everything that is produced.' She let out a long breath, stood, and walked back to the bowl.
'Occasionally desert animals wander in and we have food for a while that does not require such a sacrifice.'
Bronihim nodded and moved to stand next to the woman.
'Has anyone else ever joined you the way that 1 did?' he asked, moving even closer to her.
'You mean has anyone else just… stumbled in?' she said, turning to face him, obviously surprised by how close he stood.
