The most distressing part, however, was the statues. The once-beautiful golden statues of old and great Sages and gods were mostly destroyed now. Some had suffered only minor injuries of broken-off limbs, but the majority had crumbled much like the pillars, and had become great mounds of dust.
There was no helping it now. The destruction was too severe. He held his face in his hands and cried.
It’s all my fault. If only I hadn’t been so foolish as to use the forbidden Tytin magicks. I had been warned on multiple occasions, but no! I thought somehow I was better than that! That I could use them anyway and escape unscathed. What a fool I was.
After a few minutes of despair, he resolved to do what he could to fix the damage. He searched his memory banks for some kind of reversal spell that would undo the damage he had caused. He couldn’t bring back the dead Sages, of course – nothing could do that – but maybe he could repair the damage to the Great Hall. A few minutes later he recalled the words to a negatate spell that should do the trick. Holding up his hands, he chanted a few strange words and wiggled his fingers.
Instantly, pieces of the Great Hall started to pick themselves up and piece themselves back together. Columns were mended, the ceiling patched, and the floor healed. Then as suddenly as the spell had started, it stopped. Perplexed, Gallian looked around. The hall looked better, but it was far from repaired.
He redoubled his efforts and poured everything he could into the negatate spell, but nothing further happened.
“I don’t understand,” he said at length, “all I was trying to do was undo my magic with a simple negation spell. I didn’t expect it to fix everything, not with my level of skill, but I thought it would do a little something more than this!”
“Unless . . .” he said, but he never finished the sentence. A new, darker thought had taken a hold of his mind. “What if it wasn’t my fault, after all? Or at least, not all of it. What if the same foul being that conjured that Trebor to attack me and killed Mike used the distraction to perform another attack of their own? But no one is powerful enough to do something like that other than a Wyvern-Master, and they were banished years ago. Besides, why would they attack the building structures unless they were after . . .” The blood drained from his face as one word flitted to the forefront of his mind. “Sanctuary!”
It all made sense now – the Trebor, the chase, the deception. It had been but a diversion to grab attention while the real threat went unchecked. If he was right, the whole of the Sage Order was in deep trouble. He had to reach Sanctuary as quickly as he could if there were to be any chance to stop the invasion.
Gallian shouted a few words at his legs, activating a lightquick spell to increase his movement speed. In his fear earlier, he’d forgotten about it. Which was just as well. Using such magic was fine for short bursts, but any sustained usage would have caused him to drop unconscious.
He immediately focused all his strength into reaching Sanctuary, moving much faster than ever before with the aid of his boosting spell. His speed was so great that his vision was blurred to the point where he could barely see. Fortunately, his earlier negatate spell had cleared up most of the obstructions in the hallway, so there was nothing for him to trip over anymore. He ran so fast that the remaining Death Beasts that had been lying in wait for him didn’t even see him zoom past, so he reached the finely crafted wooden doors to Sanctuary without further harm.
Panting, legs burning so fiercely he was surprised he could still stand, he turned his focus to the ornate, giant doors of Sanctuary, scanning them with an evilhiss spell. To his relief, he did not find any evidence of tampering.
Phew! He brushed sweat from his brow and started to calm down, deactivating his lightquick spell and leaning against the door for a quick second to catch his breath and refocus his efforts.
Looks like I still have time to save the relics.
He pulled open one of the doors a tiny bit and winced at the terrible creak it made. He was so excited to see the doors still standing that he didn’t even think about the fact that they shouldn’t have budged without him using magic to force them open or being beckoned inside.
He stopped then and shut the door. If there were enemies in Sanctuary, he’d need a plan of attack. It didn’t take long for one to surface.
I’m sorry, Jheriem, I know I promised not to use Tytin magic again, but there is no other way. Please forgive me and spare my life.
Gallian bowed his head and whispered a quick prayer to each of the gods, not knowing that he was still being pursued. Feeling brave and confident, he thrust the doors wide open in one swift movement and stared in shock at what he saw. Instead of seeing lots of Guardian Sages and shining relics, he saw a great and impenetrable blackness. When the shock had subsided, he tried to think about it rationally.
Maybe the light has simply gone out? He knew it had to be more complex but was unsure as to what the answer could be. He stepped inside the room and closed the doors before doing anything else. Then, fumbling in his mind for the candlepower spell, he cast it and the whole room lit up, revealing a nasty surprise.
Needless to say, not all was as he hoped it would be inside the strong Sigmonium walls of Sanctuary. Sigmonium was a new material, at least
