"Mors, the killer for hire! Who pulled you from your hole in the swamps of Bonumbas?!"
Spesavia's second shout had a few insults tossed in.
Mors, the man with his hand firmly on Aureum's shoulder, scowled.
That name sounds familiar…
Aureum shoved the thought aside as her eyes darted around. Anything of use? Nothing she could see.
What could she grab onto that would even work against him?
"Don't talk as if your hands are clean," Mors said. "I just came through the town. The one that you burned."
Aureum twitched, but she wasn't about to think about his words too deeply.
"The things from those times are forgotten," Spesavia said, coming closer. "Or perhaps they will always be remembered. What of it! What do you think I will do to you? You with the hand on my student's shoulder?"
She was spitting with fury by the time she finished.
"Maledic wants to destroy the egg," Mors said.
His hand moved towards the back of Aureum's neck.
"Any price can be paid for it," he said. "The future will not be repeated."
"Pfft! Was that little city of yours falling the worst thing you had ever seen in your life? It wasn't even burned, but you act like they all died! Now you're back to your old tricks! Slinking about again like all the vows you made were silent!"
Aureum could feel the hand stiffen on the back of her neck.
"Sometimes even peace comes at a price," he said through gritted teeth.
Spesavia was closer and closer. Aureum could see the eyes in that old body catch hers for a moment before sliding up to Mors. A sneer was the beginning of the crone's reply to this assassin.
What is she doing?
All Aureum could focus on was the pressure on the back of her neck tightening.
"One step becomes another, and suddenly you are causing the destruction you hoped to stop," she said. "Who will stop you? Yourself? You've already proven your words to yourself mean nothing."
The baby on Aureum's hip, Gemmo, was quiet, quivering.
What can I do! What should I do? What can be done—?
Aureum was frantic. Her spear was in her hand, but against an ascended sorcerer so close, it was useless. Even if she wasn't carrying a baby in the other.
Spesavia was allowed to get closer, but her distance from Mors truly didn't matter much. She could do the same damage from a distance as she could up close.
But the moment she attacked, Aureum's neck would snap.
Which is why Mors allowed it.
Lacuna!
That was where the name was familiar. Lacuna was Mors' student.
That means the destructive power of lightning I saw is at his fingertips—
At the level of an ascended sorcerer.
Aureum twisted her head to look him in the eyes.
"Lacuna wouldn't want you to do this," she said.
There was shock in those calm brown eyes. And his grip loosened for a moment.
A moment was enough.
WHOOSH!
Water fell over Aureum and twisted her away from his hand in his surprise. Left on her feet, dry, she was behind Spesavia.
The old woman still held out a hand. One of the old rings must have kept all that water within it. Now she used that water to drag and push him away.
Lightning lit up the wave from within. It couldn't break the laws it obeyed and stayed inside the water.
Aureum felt horror at the sight of it. But that wasn't enough.
There were other ways for Mors to use his mana.
As he burst forth through the wave towards them, Spesavia ripped the glowing stone from around her neck and flung it past Aureum.
"Follow it!"
Aureum hesitated. Spesavia frowned and turned. As Mors came upon her, a bright flash of light burning around his hand, the wave came up behind him and submerged them both. The water went into Aureum and pushed her backward.
She found herself turned, with the glowing stone necklace before her. Her pushed steps turned into a run into the dark depths, following a light before her.
———————————————————
The ball of water broke apart with lightning arcing across it. Spesavia used the wave to redirect the force into the wall.
"You're going to guide her while fighting?" Mors asked. "Just lie down, old woman. I only want the egg. Not your family."
Spesavia shook her head. Explaining they weren't family was pointless. Lifting the stone and pulling it through the labyrinth of the old palace's underbelly, all this took concentration.
That didn't mean she had to listen to this nonsense.
"Shouldn't be so hard to deal with someone betting on a hidden strike when his cover's blown. I think I'll make it."
She gathered the water and rolled it into another wave coming at him. He broke through it faster this time.
But that was expected.
Spesavia had left a little puddle of water for him to skid across. Too fast to stop, Mors thrust past Spesavia and used the wall to catch himself and turn.
"Why the struggle?" Mors said. "We were allies before time shifted backwards."
"And are you going to destroy the egg?" Spesavia said.
"Of course—
Spesavia flushed with another wave. Mors dodged it, barely. He was soaking wet, compared to Spesavia, who walked across a shallow puddle, leaving closing footprints of dryness behind her.
"So, you don't want to understand it but will destroy it pointlessly. Why would we be on the same side? How are you different from Caducus? He also destroys that which is of no use!"
"You know my goals are not the same as Caducus'!"
"And? I care not for goals but observed results."
The two circled each other as they spoke. Spesavia's back and hands ached. Mors was as spry as ever.
She'd seen many people Mors' age, his real age, pass by into dust beyond her. No matter if they were the stronger or had a younger body.
"This is not about morality, witch!" He said. "You also don't have clean hands!"
"What? Clean hands, dirty hands, we all have hands we have to live with," Spesavia scoffed. "I make it a point to put my hands to use making a place I want to live in. Damned if I'll let you stop me!"
"Same with that village? The way it's told—
"People tell all sorts of things! Aren't you old enough not to believe everything you hear?"
Spesavia pulled the waves around him, but he was fast and dodged. He'd already adjusted for the puddle.
It didn't matter if it was four centuries ago and no one could remember the name of the village. As long as people knew about Spesavia and talked, it seemed like everyone forever would know. Despite how all the details were forgotten.
Going through Oblitus must have reminded him of the rumors. He was shooting blind into a thicket and hit. That's all it was.
"Was it oil?" Mors said. "It's the only thing that makes sense."
This slowed Spesavia down. Mors was correct.
It had been a trick from the beginning. How did a water sorcerer burn down a village? It's the only thing that kept her from being killed for it on the spot, once the nearest elders discovered it.
But oil was a liquid. And even if Spesavia couldn't control fire, she could learn to control oil. It had taken her months to be able to enact it. Enough oil alongside enough patience meant the only thing she needed was a spark. It was easy enough to do. Not so much to carry for a life.
The elders of the local villages didn't know her crime. They didn't know if she was cursed or blessed either, so they gave her some money to send her to a city.
The rumors of the event had followed her. As her achievements slowly accumulated, so did the rumors surrounding her. Knowing her studies, wild theories grew about how she had made the village catch aflame.
So much speculation into how, but very little into why.
Yes, the simple answer of oil was lost on the many rumors at the time. Or at least it was buried under the piles of nonsense.
"Centuries later," she said, "and I get accused accurately for once."
Mors eyes may have contracted a little.
She chose that moment to slam the swirling water into the stone ground, along with his head.
Then she lifted him and slammed into it again.
So Mors was more clever than those from the past. What of it?
"Do you know why?" Spesavia said. "Of course not. You don't even understand the context of why that story was told and retold. I wasn't the horror you think. Not at first. That was a time of violence. It was an honor to call me the cause, instead of just a survivor."
She kept him disoriented by keeping the water rising and falling, but he had found something to grab onto. A crack in the old stones? She kept speaking, even as she saw something glint in his hands.
"I did it because I had been sold by my mother into that village," she said. "A tale that's old and common. Too many mouths to feed, no family to send me off to, and nothing but death waiting for all of us."
Spesavia sneered.
"You know I volunteered for it? I didn't understand the consequences of my actions back then."
And she hadn't understood the consequences of the flames.
Mors fought his way out of the water. A small, twisted knife in his hand.
This was the problem with fighting an assassin. His quickest solution was going for the kill. An irreversible solution, too hasty by far.
Spesavia used the wave to push herself back. Mors took the chance to push lightning into it.
As long as the water was connected and close to her, she would die. She understood that much.
She stepped behind the wave as it pushed forward, drying off instantly as she pulled the wave past her to again encircle the lightning.
A far ways off, the glowing stone necklace dipped. Spesavia grimaced. It straightened and picked up the speed.
Only a little more now.
"And what do you expect to learn from a monster?" Mors said.
The distraction tactic changed. Of course, it came along with a physical jab as well.
"I've always found there's a lot to learn from monsters," she said.
Spesavia backed off with a leap. Using her physical strength for the first time caught him by surprise. He should know better.
She was old, not dead.
"I think your curiosity will kill you," Mors said.
"That simplistic way of not thinking is what made you an easy tool," Spesavia replied.
"Where is it?" Mors said. "Spesavia, stop your tricks and your grandstanding. We both want to protect those we care about, and we'll both kill to accomplish it. You wouldn't even still be here unless you had a purpose to it. I would have seen it if it had hatched, so tell me where you put it, and I won't hurt anyone you care for."
Spesavia was so tired.
She was always tired, but this weariness made her soul ache. Every twitch was another movement of pain, and having to ignore it all to hold onto the many things that taxed her concentration was exhausting.
Months of searching for what the forebears of these legendary people had left behind, and I have nothing.
Perhaps whatever weapon they had left here has been destroyed long ago by the curse they made. Perhaps that was the curse's purpose all along.
It was too much to hope for a fairy tale. Something that might offer a clean solution to everything.
Even after all these years she still fell prey to looking for the quickest option.
"Does it look like I'm doing this out of greed to you?" Spesavia said. "I'm doing it for the best interests of everyone! Why does no one ever believe it?"
Mors didn't have to answer that. Not with words.
A flash of lightning passed her by. Spesavia ignored it because it went by her harmlessly. But the light blinded and dazed her.
Mors took advantage. In a moment, he was before her.
He stabbed her with the knife.
The ground shook as Spesavia twisted away and pushed forth another wave.
———————————————————
Aureum saw the exit as a circle of light on the floor, a yard away.
The stone pendant floating before her shook before it fell. Aureum snatched it out of the air before it hit the ground.
It was damp to the touch.
Only a sorcerer like Spesavia could have used such little water to carry such a larger object.
Done, it was still. She shook it, but nothing happened. It glowed as always.
Is Spesavia all right?
But its task was complete. Maybe that was all. She hurried to the light.
Underneath the hole, she looked up to a beautiful clear sky. The cold air hit her.
It had been months. What had been the height of summer was now fall.
"Wawooo," Gemmo said.
"Yeah," Aureum said.
She was less impressed by the view and more concerned about how she would get up there. She might have to jump.
Or, looking at Gemmo in her arms, she could only jump.
She did it before she thought about it, and it worked.
Maybe the beast's pearl protected it too?
Though it lacked the full strength of sunlight and wasn't the cloak's most impressive showing, it worked.
She and Gemmo were out of the hole. The field rustled like a welcome to her.
She looked back.
There's no point waiting, is there?
Spesavia could look after herself. She had for centuries.
The ground shook. Aureum looked at the surrounding trees, but it was localized from underground, where she had run from.
That was enough for her.
If Spesavia didn't want that man to get Gemmo, he's not getting him.
Aureum fled.