AJ spat blood on the ground as he climbed back to his feet. His back was to the castle, edging closer and closer to the entrance. Sweat marred his brow, and blood dripped from various wounds on his body. The hair on the right side of his head was scorched from coming a little too close to mage fire. His magical reserves were sorely depleted, and he knew that there wasn’t much more that he would be able to do in that way. But his body still moved, and his arms still held their dual swords.
He consoled himself with the fact that Roth looked just as battered as he did. A good blast of fire had burned off almost all of Roth’s hair, as well as part of his back. AJ had scored a few good cuts in here and there. But he knew that Roth’s magic wasn’t as depleted as AJ’s was. Blood magic grew with more and more blood, and plenty of AJ’s blood had been shed.
The war that raged around them was like a fly in the distance. AJ couldn’t afford to focus his attention on it right at that moment. One moment of inattention would grant Roth the opening that he needed to blast AJ out of his way. A body couldn’t survived being burned in a quick instant to ashes.
How much longer he could hold out, AJ didn’t know. He had to do something and do it fast before Roth managed to break the castle. If he got in there, he would slaughter all that were inside. There was no one with the power to challenge him but AJ.
“Give over, Alyck!” Roth called out, releasing his sword of fire and holding his hands out to the side. “If you would just accept my darkness into your heart, none of this would have to happen. Imagine what it would be like by my side!”
Maybe he could keep Roth talking long enough to let some of his energy replenish. “The death and destruction that you would wreak on the world, Roth? Do you think for one minute that I would stand aside and allow you to do this? That I would join you?” Letting out a mocking laugh, AJ braced his feet into the dirt, centering himself into the earth to try to help his center strengthen back up. “It is you who should give over. Just put this all aside and call this all off, Roth. No more need die. Twyla seeks to use you for his own ends. You know that he’ll take you over completely when he comes back.”
“We will join together and be one. Be greater than any being ever to walk the earth! We shall be one person and rule this pitiful planet!”
The madness in those words gave AJ a look into Roth’s soul, whether it was intended or not. In that instant AJ could see that Roth fully believed what he said. He believed he was right. There was almost nothing left of Rothalo. Almost all of him was becoming Twyla, even without the night of the Celebration of Life. This had to be done, and it had to be now.
Determination had AJ’s body tightening and his eyes growing hard. “This is done, Roth. I will not let you do this.”
“You think you can kill me, child?” The laughter that came bordered on the hysterical, the insane. Before AJ had a chance to react, Roth was raising his hands, and magic that AJ had never seen before was flying at him.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
With Howie by his side, Brian linked with him and created waves of death and destruction. Their grief fueled them, shared over the link so that they were blind to almost all else. Every move they made, more died around them. Nothing mattered but destroying these troops. They used magic only, the swords sheathed at their sides, and they killed without discrimination. Occasionally they stepped over bodies of their comrades, bodies that had been slain by the enemy, and it only strengthened their resolve. Nothing broke through that shield of anger and pain.
Nothing except for one thing. Almost as if an invisible string pulled him, Brian found himself turning toward the castle. Howie turned with him, linked to him and therefore bound by the magic that tugged at Brian’s heart, straight to his center.
They saw Roth and AJ standing, and saw as Roth moved his hands. Something in that gesture spoke volumes to Brian. He knew what was in those hands even before it started to form. Death. Pain. He didn’t think about what he was going to do. Didn’t hesitate to start running in that direction. He gave on thought to not making it. There was no way he would not be in time.
Iron resolve strengthened him even harder. He knew what he would do, even before he did. As did Howie. There was no second guessing this. No thought but what they had to do. The two rushed forward from the mass of bodies, toward the two who were too preoccupied to know what was happening.
At the last minute they split, Howie to Roth and Brian to AJ. Just as the magic formed between Roth’s hands and was launched through the air, the two men connected with their targets. Brian’s body slammed into AJ, knocking him toward the ground just as Howie slammed body and sword into Roth, taking him down as well. A blazing pain ripped across Brian’s back, exploding in his mind and ripping at his soul.
Blackness edged his world for just an instant before it swallowed him whole.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Even as Brian’s body slammed into him and the magic tore through the air, AJ’s mind was clear. There was no moment of disorientation. No hesitation in what he needed to do. He hit the ground and rolled right back to his feet, his swords dropping to the ground so that he could raise his hands. The weave he made was a mix of all elements, but predominately spirit. Before he was even all the way to his feet he sent it flying directly for Roth’s chest, for his center.
It hit with a light that was bright and blinding, chasing away any shadows. In the air, the sha’darth shrieked as it too was consumed by the light. It grew and grew until suddenly it seemed to explode. When the light faded, the sha’darth was gone, and so was Roth.
But something in AJ cried out a warning, telling him that it wasn’t done yet. Though his heart screamed to look to his lover, to check on him and make sure he was alive, AJ knew he couldn’t afford to. But that knot in the back of his mind that was Brian was silent. Nothing came from it. No sound, no feeling. Nothing. No sound came from behind him to reassure that his lover was alive.
He put a stranglehold on the grief that tried to overwhelm him. Something was wrong. Horribly wrong. AJ found his eyes glued to Howie as his friend rose to all fours. There was something emanating from Howie that wasn’t normal. AJ almost lost control of himself when he recognized it. A spirit was trying to control Howie. There was only one spirit that was strong enough to attempt to force possession.
With a small cough, Howie turned his head to look at AJ. He pushed himself to his feet, swaying unsteadily. In his eyes AJ could see the truth of what had happened. Could see as Howie’s beautiful eyes, eyes that had always looked at him with love and trust, flashing back and forth between their natural color, and a black that was darker than dark. “Howi…” Pain filled AJ like nothing else.
“Alyck.” Howie gasped out in a voice that was weak and full of pain. But there was iron under it. “You know what you have to do.”
“No…” Tears filled AJ’s eyes, but he refused to let them fall. He met the gaze of the one who had been his best friend through his entire existence. The one who had made him, and who had stood by him through all of time. Who had been his friend, his confidant, and at one time even his lover. “I can’t.” In his grief AJ spoke in his native tongue.
Greek came as easily to Howie as it did to AJ. “You have to! I’m holding him here. I’ve bound him to me. It’s the only way, Alyck. He’ll kill us all. You know that. I don’t know how much longer I can hold him.”
In that moment he was not AJ. He was not the trulion. He was Alyck, looking into the eyes of the best friend he had ever known, aching to reach for him. “Howi, don’t ask this of me. Please.” He begged him quietly. The battle around them raged on, but it was nothing to compare to the pain in his heart.
Howi shuddered, his hands rising to hold against his chest as pain flashed on his face. “I can’t hold much longer. Alyck, I have nothing left. They took Isleen from me, just when I got her back. She sacrificed her life for this cause. How can I do any less? This is my tribute to her, to you, to everyone. This is my part. I feel it. This is what I was meant to do. You said we had to be willing to sacrifice anyone to this cause if we came here for this day. I’m willing to sacrifice myself. Are you? Are you willing to do anything to save the lives of all?”
Tears made tracks down Alyck’s cheeks. “You’re the best friend a person could ever have.” He whispered to him. “Our time together will be something I will always cherish.”
Even through the pain, even with the darkness trying to rise in his eyes again, Howi smiled. It was the same smile that Alyck had seen for so many years, and had come to cherish. In that smile was all the love and friendship that Howi had ever felt for him. “I love you, Alyck, friend, brother. Brother of my heart, if not my flesh.” The pain came again, making his face clench. He held himself proud, though Alyck could see that his body begged to fall to the ground. “Do it, Alyck. While I have the strength to die proudly on my feet, not on my knees by this force. Do it. Kill me.”
Sobbing openly, Alyck raised his hands, pulling the weaves of spirit he would need. He would not kill him as he had killed Roth. He would not dishonor Howi’s body that way. Holding the weaves of spirit, Alyck looked one last time at his friend. “May the song of your heart sing in the winds of time, and carry you to the world of the spirits so that you may join with the other half of the song, brother.” He whispered those last words as he sent the weave straight to Howi’s center, attacking it to that core that made them immortal and severing it even as his next weave blasted through that center.
The light seemed to flash behind Howi’s eyes and he dropped to the ground. This time there was no feeling of wrong. No sense that Twyla was still there. All that he could see was the body lying so still in the grass. Before he could even think he was stumbling to him, dropping to his knees. Alyck Tuian scooped up Howi’s head, cradling it to his chest as the tears poured from his eyes. His grief was overwhelming.
As gently as possible, he laid that head down and used the magic he could to join Howi with the earth. The body before him slid into the soil until there was nothing left, not even a puddle on the ground. Nothing, save the blood that soaked Alyck’s skin.
Only then did he seek to move, to turn to see to his lover. But bodies were already there. Flreu stood by him, pressing a hand to his shoulder as he rose, turning him away from where Brian was. “Do not look, grandson. Do not look on this sight.” He whispered to him, his voice full of sorrow.
Something happened to Alyck in that moment. He felt his heart turn to stone. Brian was lost, then. He had lost his lover, and his best friend. No words would come. He wished coldly that Roth was there so he might kill him yet again. Anything, to ease this grief that flooded him with ice.
A cry from the battlefield caught his attention. Magic flared in him, bright and strong. Eyes that were full of anger and ice turned to look at the King. Under that gaze Flreu quavered. It was the gaze of the trulion as the magic gripped him. Reflexively Flreu stepped away, dropping his hand.
The trulion held out his hands and called. His swords flew into them. Without so much as pausing he strode toward the battlefield, never hearing the voice cry out his name. He was not Alyck. There was no AJ. The words called behind him had no meaning in his world. The magic was so strong in him that all around sensed it. Allies fell back, watching him with awe and a small tinge of fear. Enemies screamed at the mere sight of him.
None of that mattered to the trulion. He had nothing left to live for but to destroy these beings that had come to his home. He waded straight in the thick of things, his swords flashing in the sunlight. He used all that was with him; magic and steel. Wherever he moved, bodies hit the ground. It was a bloodbath. None got past his swords or his magic to even touch him. He felt no fear, no pain. His mind was intent on one thing. To cut down each enemy.
He never noticed as his allies backed away, or as the numbers around him thinned. He didn’t notice that some tried to run away. But he reached the center of the dark army, whirling in a circle to clear the area around him. In that moment of calm he thrust his swords down into the ground and flung his hands straight into the air.
Power filled him, surrounded him, as never before. It lit his skin until all shielded their eyes as if looking at the sun. It burst from his eyes, terrible in its beauty. Then, with a clap like thunder, it whooshed out from him in a circle. Those that fought on his side felt it pass through them, felt the power of it, and cried out at the sheer feel, but were left unharmed.
All troops that Roth had brought with him fell dead to the ground when it touched them. When it had spread far and wide, there was not a single enemy left alive. At the center of death stood the trulion, his skin still glowing, his eyes flashing their three colors, seeming to swirl around one another.
Only one voice rose in the sudden silence. Only one voice, saying the only words that would break through that hard armor. “Trulion!” Tripha trumped to the sky. “A’anish! Your partner lives! There is a pulse, but it is fading.”
Those eyes, at once beautiful and terrible, turned to where Tripha stood overtop Brian’s body. For a moment nothing seemed to process. Then his skin seemed to pulse again, still shining, but more subdued. Like the sun reflected off the warmth of the forest.
“Come, a’anish. You are his only hope.”
That broke through the paralysis on the trulion. He came, almost seeming to glide across the battlefield, his feet never touching the bodies underneath him. Just shy of Brian’s body he stopped. Everyone had gathered around them, silent, yet watching. Tripha backed away, revealing Brian’s body underneath him.
The skin of Brian’s back was gone. Through it, the bones were visible. Blood had created a pool around him on the ground, spreading out into the grass. Heedless of this, the trulion knelt, his hands hovering over top the wound. There was no room for AJ’s pain, or his grief, or the loss that had been created by killing a friend. But the love he felt for Brian filled him, making his lights grow brighter and brighter.
That light seemed to coalesce in his hands, until Brian was hidden from sight by the brightness of it. Suddenly it flared, a brightness that had even the dragons hiding their eyes. When they all looked again, AJ was removing his hands, revealing the smooth skin of Brian’s back.
Tadhg hurried forward, dropping down beside his nephew. He felt for a pulse, and magically quested inside of him .With wide eyes he looked up at AJ. “He is whole. Sorely depleted of energy, but the sleep he is in will cure that. You saved him, trulion. Your magic is great.”
In that moment the magic faded from AJ. The glow left his skin and his eyes. He looked around him as the world grew dark. With one last sigh it took him under.