Tre Lloyd Adventures Ch. 09

Again I heard that voice, quiet and definitely feminine, whispering into my mind, giving me an idea and telling me how to beat the spirit once and for all. I did my best to focus, drawing on my power as I let the chaos and confusion spells drop. I focused my mind on the spell the voice suggested, drawing on more and more power, heedless of the blood now running from my nose as the mana's drain on my body took more from me. I needed power for this spell. I needed lots and lots of power to end this struggle, regardless of the cost.

As I released the drawn up power, shaping the altered spell to form a fiery blast of acid that would envelope the spirit and finish it off, the spirit disappeared with a loud wailing sound. The symbols that I had identified earlier as preventing magic flared brightly, quickly going through red to painfully bright in appearance. My spell fizzled to nothing and, with the loss of the mana I had drawn, so did my ability to stand. I remember hitting the floor, the brightness of the symbols the last thing I saw before the darkness overtook me.

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Telemon watched through the infirmary's glass as a couple of the Order's mages applied spells to Tre's unconscious form. A troubled look sat on his face and his mind was awhirl with what he had seen. His summoning for the testing had grown beyond his intentions. Everything he had done for the testing had been more powerful than he wanted. From the opening spells to the final entity he had summoned for Tre to battle.

He knew what had guided his actions. He had felt -Her- hand guiding him, her power augmenting his own. Arianna had been frantic. He closed his eyes and sighed as he remembered her reaction to the testing.

"Telemon! What are you doing?" Arianna had yelled as the spirit began to manifest itself. "A spirit of that force is too strong for him right now. He is drained. You're going to kill him!"

"Be quiet, Arianna!" He had snapped. He watched in amazement as the spirit had taken its shape and attacked Tre. He felt Arianna beginning to draw in her will and with a gesture of his hand had taken control of her body. He felt her struggle against his spell, a prisoner now in her own body as he forced her to sit and watch what was transpiring. "This has to happen. The testing has begun and he has to finish it"

She couldn't reply because of his control over her body but her eyes glared daggers at him. He had turned back to watch the events in the testing room. He had stared on in amazement watching the spell battle between the spirit and Tre. Several times he had started to end the battle to protect Tre and keep him from being harmed further. Each time he had begun to cast the spell to return the spirit to its home plane and end the spells in the room he had heard the voice of his goddess in his mind saying but one word, 'No'.

He had obeyed his goddess, of course, and watched on in growing horror as Tre's fatigue and injuries took their toll. He had watched as Tre began his elemental assault and followed it up with a pair of distracting illusions to buy himself time. As he had seen the blood begin to drip from Tre's nose as the drain took its toll he started to end the testing. Again he heard his goddess' voice. This time she had merely whispered 'wait' into his mind.

Again he had obeyed his goddess, his hands jerking with impatience to end the testing. As he had watched he had picked up the telephone and called for a medical team to come to the training room and be ready to apply first aid and extensive emergency healing. He had watched in horror as Tre's aura had flared brilliantly as he began to cast his spell. He had heard Hecate's command 'now', and with a wave of his hand and a surge of his power, had banished the weakened spirit from this plane and activated the anti-magic wards he had strengthened last night.

His spell holding Arianna had shattered as a bolt of pain had surged through him from his nearly overloaded wardings. It had taken everything he had to remain standing as his vision blurred and his body tightened with pain. As his vision had cleared he saw Arianna rushing to Tre's side along with the medical team. He had waved off the mage who stopped to check on him, sending him in to help with Tre.

He reached up to rub his temple with one hand, still feeling the residue of the pain that had shot through him when Tre's spell had nearly overloaded his protections. Suddenly the world around him blurred and he found himself standing in a small grove of trees surrounding a cave entrance.

As he looked around, disoriented from the shift in his location he heard a voice. "You disapprove, my Acolyte?" He looked over as he saw a woman in a pure white dress and gray stola walking out of the cave. Her dark eyes fairly glowed with power and her long dark hair was braided and hanging down over her shoulder.

He dropped to his knees in the presence of his goddess, the force radiating from her awing him even after over two millennia in her service. "No, my Lady. It is not my place to approve or disapprove of your actions. I merely do not understand them. I thought Tre was important to your plans. If that is so, why allow him to be injured as severely as he is?"

Hecate, goddess of magic from ancient times, smiled at her favorite acolyte, reaching out to caress his jaw lightly. "He must undergo the trials ahead if he is to reach his full potential. His mind, his body and his spirit will be tested in the time to come. And when he has come out of the cauldron he will be the perfect weapon."

Telemon looked up at his goddess. "You saw what happened at the end of his testing? You wanted that to happen?"

Shaking her head, Hecate smiled. "No, my friend, I did not -want- it to happen. I didn't want it to happen but I knew that it -had- to happen. For Tre to unleash the Power that resides within him his life had to be in danger. He had to be seriously threatened for him to tap into that which lies inside of him. The first part of the testing prepared him for what was coming. The spirit threatened him sufficiently that he was able to make the connection."

Confusion showed on Telemon's face. "Connection, Lady?"

"Yes, Telemon. Tre is now connected to the Power within him. Now that he has tapped into the Power within him once, it has been awakened and will grow. As it grows so will he." Hecate smiled to her acolyte. "When he has fully mastered the Power inside of him he will be enormously powerful."

"I worry at the cost to him though, Lady. Will he be able to withstand the trials that are sure to come at the same time as he tries to master what's inside of him?" Telemon looked at his goddess, as in awe of her now as he was when he first knelt at her feet.

"Do not worry about Tre, Telemon." Hecate smiled at him. "He will face the trials that this will bring on him and come through them exactly as I need him to. Strong and skilled and with knowledge the likes of which he has never dreamed of before."

Hecate's head tilted as Telemon looked up at her, almost as if she was listening to or watching something. "Return now to our charge, Telemon. Watch his recovery carefully and you will see that I am right." Before Telemon could say a word Hecate had waved her hand and, with another disorienting blurring of reality, he was back outside of the Chapter house infirmary.

He stood up and brushed his knees off, looking into the room. The last of the mages cast her spell on Tre and checked his vital signs before saying something quietly to Arianna. She then left the room and Telemon walked in.

Arianna looked up and her green eyes flared with anger. "You bastard! You nearly let him be killed in that damn testing of yours!"

Telemon took her ire stoically. "I know Arianna. I wish it had not happened, but it was necessary. I had to know. Unfortunately now I do."

"You had to know? What did you have to know? That you can summon a spirit after he is already weak that can kill him? Or summon one that is strong enough that he will kill himself to defeat? What did you have to know?" Arianna's voice was quiet, but her anger sizzled with every word. "The Telemon that I knew, that Diotimus knew would never have allowed that. I'm sad to say that I don't know you after all."

Telemon sighed and accepted her words. "That may be true. The Telemon that you and your summoner, my master, knew over two thousand years ago would not have done what I did. But you do know me, Arianna. And as for what I had to know... I had to know if Tre had the power inside of him that he will need. Now I know that he does. I know he does and I know to keep my eyes on him from now on. His progress with magic will go even greater now that he has been pushed like this. Trust me, Arianna; I heard it from the goddess herself."

Arianna's jaw dropped. "You spoke with the Lady of the Crossroads? When? What did she say?"

Telemon shook his head and raised a hand tiredly. "I spoke with Hecate just recently. As for what she said, I cannot go into it." He hated to tell this connection to his past anything less than the whole truth but he knew that she was not ready to hear what he had to say. "Believe me, Arianna. Tre will be fine. Hecate is watching him and I have been ordered to see to it that he gets constant healing. He will pull through this with no ill effects."

Arianna looked from Tre's unconscious self to Telemon looking skeptical. "I will take your word for it, Telemon. But you had better pray to your goddess that you're right. If he doesn't pull through you will need her to save you." She looked directly into his eyes. "You may have friends here, but so do I. And if he is harmed because of your actions I will be bringing them looking for you. And your Order will have one hell of a fight on its hands. That's a promise, Telemon. Now if you would excuse me, I would like some time with Tre alone."

As she turned away from him and sat back down in her seat, holding his bruised hand. Telemon turned away from the bed with a last look at Tre, walking quietly out of the room and made his way up to his office on the top floor of the Chapter house, his mind even more troubled by his talk with Hecate and then Arianna's uncharacteristic threats.