All this for a damn book. This better had been the best book in the world. However, as Ayden overcame the panic that’d been surging up his throat for the last ten minutes of action, he knew if the flute player was genuine, the book was arcane in nature. At least he hoped.

  What could she possibly gain from him retrieving it?

  He looked down one tunnel where the monster lay. He doubted it read books in its spare time. He couldn’t channel his way up through the hole to the surface to get help. And even if he did, they’d have to rappel back down, dodge the monster, or kill it, and return in time to save Cara.

  He looked down the other way that led deeper.

  The rogue mages likely came from there. They’d heard what had happened and would be headed this way. Or a patrol might find Cara lying defenseless like this. He had to take the fight to them. Rogue mages likely read and one of those books may be the one Ayden wanted.

  What then?

  “I hope that book teaches me how to heal,” muttered Ayden. He started walking deeper into the danger.

  ***

  The rogue mages flitted around from shack to shack, cave to cave, tunnel to tunnel, all under the commands of their cult leader. Ayden saw undead inside of a pen shambling around like docile cattle. He saw Dire monstrosities formed from corpses smashed together in an amalgamation of claws, beaks, snouts, legs, and pelts. He wanted to retch just at the sight of it, but the stench made him physically reel backward.

  This entire network of underground mages served as some kind of base of operations for the Dire Mages. He shuddered to think of what would have happened if the supports gave way and collapsed the whole city. However, he remembered in his history courses, it was tunnels like these he original settlers traveled here by.

  These were those tunnels, now being bastardized by the filth responsible for the world almost ending. Here they continued to work on their horrid ambitions. Unnatural forms of magic.

  Ayden saw the cult leader above in an alcove overlooking the large cavernous base. His hood hung low and his voice came out like a ragged old man’s, with the bite of a soldier. He ordered his Dire Mages to pack and prepare to leave.

  So they’d done it. By revealing this space, they’d exposed the operation. Cara was still dying, however, and he doubted these mages would help. He needed to find that book, or perhaps a potion. He crept his way toward one of the shacks. Inside he spotted several wounded Dire Mages. They didn’ see him or if they did, they didn’t notice he was a Silterran student.

  He paused. Why would they? In some ways he looked as ragged as they did. He looked like a Dire Mage. He walked with more confidence as if he belonged there to one of the healers. She struggled with healing the recovering patients.

  “Are you alright?” asked Ayden.

  She turned to him and frowned. “We lost our best healers, so they put me in charge. See if Carnin is willing to find someone else. Anyone else.”

  So they’re low on healers. Good. “I would try, but I’m not the best myself.” Is Carnin the leader? “Where can I find him? I’ll pass on your request.”

  “Who knows… He’s probably with his pets.”

  Pets? The Dire Monsters? “Ah, of course,” said Ayden with a laugh.

  “I swear that man looks pleased when one of these patients die. More resources for him.”

  “Mark my words, I’ll never become part of those things,” Ayden said, risking being wrong about Carnin.

  She snorted and went back to trying to help one of the wounded. Ayden’s heart skipped a beat when he saw the wounds. The same kind Cara suffered from. This Dire Mage was at the previous battle. Perhaps a lucky survivor who snuck away. That meant there was more than one way to reach here. That made sense.

  The wounded Dire Mage’s eyes fluttered open and Ayden turned away, hoping he wouldn’t see his face or attire.

  The healer likely couldn’t help Cara, nor would she ever accept helping her. They would be able to tell immediately she was a noble and further investigation would prove she was none other than Silverstone.

  Ayden went down to meet with Carnin. He stood by the pens of undead, grinning like a mad man as he loomed over a corpse. Another Dire Mage from the fighting. It spooked Ayden knowing they were so close to Cara. What if they found her?

  “Carnin,” said Ayden.

  Carnin turned and frowned at Ayden. “What do you want?”

  “We need a better healer up there,” said Ayden. “She’s struggling.”

  Carnin giggled and shrugged. “Oops.”

  Is his man purposefully letting terrible healers take charge? “No one else knows healing?” asked Ayden.

  Carnin shrugged again. “The Mortal’s End comes for us all, young mage,” he said. “You should know this” He glanced at Ayden again before returning to his surgery. He bore goggles spattered with dried blood. He was balding and several scars spliced up his scalp. His goatee looked stained red, but undeath looked snow white.

  “Yes, but we need some of us alive to make other corpses,” said Ayden.

  Carnin waved him away. “Go tell the master I’ll see what I can do.”

  “Where is he?” asked Ayden, but feared the suspicion he drew to himself.

  Carnin scowled and glared at Ayden. “Are you being cute? Get out of here.”

  Ayden rolled his eyes, and turned away, glancing at the cult leader issuing orders. Now the other problem remained: how to get up there.

  He roamed around for a bit, priding himself on infiltrating a literal Dire Mage base of operations. Perhaps acting was a secret talent of his. Inside, his heart continued to thunder, regardless of the success. He bounded up some steps trying to gain some elevation. He spotted several items being carted or carried away by the Dire Mages and their footmen.

  He winced as he passed a kennel of zombies, and held his breath.

  Overall, with how large the operation was, the expediency with which they prepared to abandon this place impressed Ayden. By the time he made it to the highest point where the cult leader was, half the area had been hauled off. Now they just had to finish up and start moving the undead.

  He spotted the cult leader reading something by his desk. Ayden channeled Blue, Masking his spells, and enhancing his senses. He spied on the book, seeing if it was the one. It was… empty. In fact the man hunched over it mumbled to himself, flipping page after page almost like a way to idly fidget, not read.

  Great, a mad man then. Regardless, that book looks more like a journal. He searched around and spotted an ornate tome propped up at the top of a book stand. Is that a gem? He grew excited and realized that must be it.

  This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

  Unfortunately, with how low he was running on Mind Source (his head started to throb), he didn’t want to try and Identify something with Blue that far away. He had to get close. Only a short time for this. He crept closer and closer to the shelf, trailing behind the mumbling cult leader.

  Closer and closer until finally he could channel Blue to Identify the ornate tome. Nothing. What in the world? His mind tugged at him and he turned, following the spell.

  The journal? How? The strength of magic emanating from that book overwhelmed him and he had to cut off his Identifying spell.

  How would he steal that from under the cult leader’s nose. He likely was a powerful Dire Mage and he had no support. I need that. There’s no other way. He curled his fists and asked himself the most important question of his life. Am I still willing to die for this?

  Ayden Enhanced himself, likely for the last time ever, fired a small spark to one side of the room, and bolted forward. The cult leader snapped out of his internal musings and turned his head toward the distraction sound of the spark. Ayden vaulted over the table, snatched the book, and leaped out of the cavern opening he’d spotted the cult leader from below.

  All the way below.

  He started to fall into the mass of undead bodies, along with the undead monstrosity. He saw Carnin confused, staring up at him, watching him descend.

  He crashed into the undead using a mix of their bodies, and his enhanced body to soften the blow. Alarms blared. Spells blasted his way, taking out some of the undead. Carnin summon a hook attached to a chain wreathed in flames. Black flames. Dire Magic. He started to flail it around him, and Ayden dove to the ground.

  It struck the undead, but instead of dying, the impact of the chain knocked them down, and the fire stared to seep into their decaying flesh. Ayden saw the undead start to twitch as their rotted flesh strengthened like steel cords. Their heads snapped to Ayden. Ayden squealed and scampered away, glancing behind him to see how many were after him. To his shock, the cult leader had not come down to give chase.

  The rest of the Dire Mages did that for him.

  Carnin howled and cursed as he ordered his undead and the Dire Mages to kill Ayden.

  Ayden used the snaking trenches and tunnels of the cavernous base to his advantage. Dust and rocks peppered him as spells clipped and smashed into the stone around him. He kept his Enhancements active, flitting through the maze of turns and bends, keeping ahead of the Red Magic attacks.

  However, he reached a dead end. His feet skidded to a stop and behind him, Carnin’s black-flame enchanted hook flail, his undead, and a host of footmen and Dire Mages barreled in after. Ayden held up his fists and screamed, ready to fight, ready to die.

  “I’m ready!” he roared.

  However, death did not come. Instead an inferno consumed the enemies before him. He would have thought it was Cara, somehow returned from he fringes of death. It was instead… The cult leader?

  “Xavos?” asked Ayden, seeing the cult leader standing atop one of the ridges overlooking the Dire Mages cornering Ayden. His cowl had come undone and his leathery face stared intensely at the enemies below as he turned them to ash.

  It was the first time Ayden had seen him display raw power of such a high magnitude. It was the most impressive display of Red Magic Ayden had ever seen. Eventually, all turned to dust before Ayden who grew dizzy from the stench and smog. He fell to his knees, choking, gagging, and retching.

  Xavos landed before him and slapped him across the face. No enhancing required. A plain and classic backhand. Ayden sprawled onto the cavern ground and gasped, stammering to find his words. Blood dripped from his lips where they’d split on impact.

  Xavox grabbed Ayden by his collar and yanked him up. “You stupid, nosy, boy!” His words landed on him like hammers.

  “Xavos… Why… What…”

  His old mentor threw him back down and grabbed his wisps of remaining hair and yelled. “For years I was working here. YEARS. All squandered because of you! Why?”

  “They’re Dire Mages…” said Ayden, wiping the blood from his face. “Xavos, they’re Dire Mages.” His voice cracked and tears started to form in his eyes.

  “I know,” he said, holding back rage. He was trying to simmer down. “I know, but why are you involved with this?’

  “Why are you?” roared Ayden.

  Xavos sighed. “They were a means to an end…”

  Ayden stood up and faced Xavos. “They are Dire Mages. It’s one line no mage should EVER cross. You know that!”

  “It’s a tool Ayden,” said Xavos. “Remember I said before to never let them dictate what you can and can’t do?”

  “It’s Dire Mage, Xavos. It nearly ended the world. It’s outlawed for a reason.”

  “So you’re a lawman now,” mused Xavos, kicking the dust of his own comrades. “Great… Carnin survived. Of course that rat did. Look, his collar’s not here. It would have survived the blast unlike him.”

  “Xavos!” cried Ayden. “You’re a Dire Mage! Everything I know, everything I believed-”

  “Still stands,” snapped Xavos. “Forget about me right now. Graduate. Get reputation for yourself, then meet me where we trained.”

  “Everything has changed,” sobbed Ayden, not being able to control himself. He hated how he gushed out like this. “You crossed a line.”

  “Boy, don’t be an idiot. I’ll explain later.”

  “There’s no explanation for this. If you were some cult leader of a rogue mage guild I’d understand it better than Dire Magic.”

  “Look how they’ve indoctrinated you,” scoffed Xavos. “I thought I chose a student that can think for himself.”

  Ayden balled his fists and snarled. “You bastard! They kill people, steal people, experiment on them, and pervert them. All for what? So we can live forever? So we can bastardize this world?”

  Xavos grabbed Ayden by the throat and started to squeeze. “I’m not killing people indiscriminately, boy. I need leverage on things you can’t even imagine.”

  Ayden’s vision started to blur.

  “I saved you because I need a powerful mage. If you can’t be that mage, I should kill you right here, right now.”

  Ayden started to blackout, but Xavos threw him back onto the floor. The book Ayden had stolen ripped free from his coat and went into his hand.

  “I’m leaving, and you should leave too before they find you here.”

  “Wait,” rasped Ayden. “What is that?”

  “Graduate, boy,” snapped Xavos walking away over the dust of his enemies. “Then we’ll talk. This never happened.”

  Ayden willed himself to his feet and stumbled. He scanned around him for a way to get that book back. He held it under his arms. If he could free his arms… Ayden formed a whip made of a thin beam of light. Something he saw Vellis do once. It would work here like a charm. He lashed it out at a wooden beam that propped up the walls of the cavernous trench they were in.

  With every bit of remaining strength, he yanked and watched as the rocks started to tumble down. Xavos cursed and held his hands up to levitate them away. In that brief moment the book hovered by his side with no hands holding them.

  Ayden lashed his whip out again and latched onto the book. He pulled and… It didn’t budge.

  Xavos threw the rocks away and watched with an amused smirk on his face as Ayden tried to pull a floating book toward him with a conjured whip. Ayden yanked one more time and it gave way, launching him backward suddenly. The book soared back toward Xavos who was laughing at Ayden’s final attempt.

  Before the book reached Xavos’s hand, Carnin’s voice bellowed out of nowhere.

  “YOU KILLED MY CHILDREN, XAVOS!” he rode in on an undead war rhino with eyes pouring liquid, black, flame. Its skin shone with black and violet veins that splintered from its natural armor. The horn looked longer than it should on a normal war rhino, and gleamed in the torchlight of the cavern like onyx.

  “YOU BASTARD!” Carnin roared, charging at him, hook-flail arcing around. Xavos dropped the book and focused on the real threat. The two battled against one another. Dark flame poured around Xavos who repelled it with a stiff Barrier. It cracked under pressure, but he swerved away from the descending undead mount. The mount carved a gash into Xavos’s back with a horn. Xavos did not scream. He spun around with a battle axe forged of flame. It arced through the air, leaving behind a trail of fire in its wake.

  The undead mount took the blow and skidded sideways. Xavos searched for the book, but Ayden was already dashing away. Out of his Sources, he needed to rely on his own body to propel him forward.

  “Carnin I will explain,” argued Xavos as the continued to battle. “We need that book!”

  “NO MORE LIES, TRAITOR!”

  Their fight faded away as Ayden continued to barrel down the tunnel he came from. Eventually, he ran out of breath and stood with hands on his knees. He heaved for air and panic finally surged through him. His heart raced, his skin flushed, and he felt dizzy and nauseous. There were no more tears left, no more bile to retch, and no more strength.

  Ayden fell to his knees with the book held to his chest. “What the hell are you?” he asked the book. “I sensed what you had. You’re overloaded with power. WHAT ARE YOU?”

  I’m Silk, said a voice, heavily accented like the flute player. Who are you?

  Ayden paused to see if he was going mad.

  Hello?

  “I’m Ayden,” he said. “Can you help me?”