Avandor's Gift

I opened my eyes and the very fact that they did open was nothing short of a miracle. I sat up slowly and I touched the spot on my chest where the lightning had struck. It was a bit tender but it was otherwise unscathed. “By Avandor, I am alive.” I huffed out. I touched the rest of my body still not believing that it was possible. “I am alive.” I said as a small smile broke out along my face, followed by a hysterical cackle. “I am alive. Tetje, you must be around here somewhere. We’re alive.” I said standing, still laughing.

“But only just.” said a voice coming from out of the mist. I stopped laughing and stood up straight.

“Who said that?” I said looking around into the white smoke.

“We did,” said a chorus of voices and a section of the smoke cleared. I made out the form of a silver-scaled dragon lying sleepily in the distance. Not too far from it was the crumpled form of Tetje laying motionless.

I touched him, but he didn’t move. I put my face close to his, but I could barely feel the rush of air coming from his nostrils. “Is he...” The word dying got stuck in my throat.

“He is alive, just sleeping as we chose not to wake him as we had woken you.” said the chorus.

“Gildarren, you brought me here?” I said staring up at the golden eye of the dragon. “Why?”

“You seek to face an enemy you do not know and if you are to succeed you need to be cleansed of your blindness Grey Mage.”

I quailed a bit at the honorific. “I don’t deserve the title, I have failed our people.” I said ashamed. “I have shamed the house of Lucorian. Call me Evander if you must Great dragon.” I bowed slightly.

“Your past transgressions cease to matter as one of our own has turned against us. His crimes are much greater than yours and only you can correct it.”

“I tried, but I cannot get a staff to replace Alphandé.”

“That was not the reason we led you here.” He blinked once, covering his onyx irises before looking down at me again.

“You showed me the vision in the pool?” He hummed in acknowledgement.

“But suppose someone else had seen it.”

“It was meant for your eyes and understanding alone. Even if it was revealed to another, not many changelings would dare step into Agden.”

“But yet you are here. You the guardians, all participants in the Great Race, all changelings.” I said.

“He created this place as a prison just for us. It took great part of our residual magic to show you the vision in the well. We are not strong enough to escape Agden.” It replied.

“He who?”

“The source, the threat, the purveyor of death. We dare not speak his name, brothers you were, in the same game.” He replied.

I repeated the riddle twice, trying to work out the answer. “That is impossible I am the only one that survived the games.” he blinked.

“He lived because you did and has convinced some of the other lost sons that had come before him to follow him back into the land of the living. That created chaos as the claimed cannot walk amongst the living.”

“The claimed?”

“Those of us who entered the race and didn’t win. It was in breach of the pact signed ages ago between Anandra and the four clan leaders.”

“Anandra, as in the goddess Anandra? What has she to do with this?”

“The same and everything. The power struggle to claim the throne was destroying our people, she created the Great Race to stop the countless wars among the clans. Her price of course was to claim those who lost. They would then form the guardians of the Alkarbrafä. It was a good pact one that had served us well for many millennia. But it is over now. The wrath of the gods can be savage, be careful what you promise and it is best not to promise anything at all.”

It is a bit too late for that. I mused. “What must I do?” I said.

“We sense that the Alkarbrafä Tetyana is being held at the highest peak in the Diadem. The returned son is siphoning the magic she holds to fuel his plans. You need to remove the magic from her and then free it.”

“If I do that, how then will the changelings cope without the magic?”

“The same way humans and Ulgana have. Our people have been long dependent on magic, it wasn’t always so. We were independent of it in the past and we can be so again.”

“But in the process won’t you be obliterated?”

“Magic was meant to be free and in its free state it is unpredictable, we may survive, but that is to be seen.”

“How do I take the magic from Tetyana and make it wild again?”

“Kill the one who was brought back and all will be undone. But you must hurry, time is not our ally.”

“I am in Agden and he is thousands of leagues away in the Diadem. How am I to get there in time to do that?”

“We have enough left in us to create a portal to the Diadem, but you will have to make the escape on your own once you’ve freed the magic.”

“That is an offer better than any other I have had to consider.”

“But have you truly considered it?” he asked. “You are Grey Mage, you were reborn from magic. If you do this, you too might perish.”

“I knew that I wasn’t meant to rule, at least not for long. That destiny has always felt wrong.”

“You underestimate yourself Evander.”

“As long as Tetyana gets to live, that ceases to matter.” I walked over to where Tetje slumbered and then lifted him over my shoulder. “Create the portal.” I said.

“May you succeed in your endeavours Evander, king of Gé Addar and Grey Mage.” He let out a steady roar and vanished.

A gilded frame appeared from the out of the swirl of clouds. Cold air blasted through the door pushing the mist away. Without looking backwards I stepped through it sealing my fate