Episode 4: Chamber of Power

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Oh, hell. Not dolls.

At least it wasn’t one of those innocent looking dolls that are so cute you just have to hug them. Love magic is always strong in those. So strong that you’re still smiling as they tear your throat out.

No, this one was an obviously evil doll. That meant there were two possibilities. Despite it’s small size it would have tremendous power or it was a distraction for something else with tremendous power. Which one is it?

Whatever magic detection blocking done on the pendulums, also seemed to apply to the doll. Normally I could feel, sometimes even see, the magic swirling around people and objects from a distance. The doll was just at the edge of the light the orbs hovering above me generated. That made it close enough I should have been able to dissect whatever magic made it move and counter it easily.

I stood up straighter and banged my staff on the ground. That’s it!

Harry had been horribly wrong. I wasn’t the exact right person for this job. I was the exact wrong one.

Someone with no magic would have to overcome the physical obstacles. Someone with user magic would be blocked from seeing the physical obstacles and face the same trial.

Someone like me, with sensory magic, would be hunted, pursued and pushed out. Or killed.

I need to get out.

The doll’s mouth closed. It sidled the wall away from me, beyond the reach of my light. There was a grinding of stone on stone, then nothing.

The darkness subsided, almost imperceptibly. At the end of the hallway a dim light cascaded down the stairwell I’d used to enter the chamber. It read my mind. That thought was frightening enough as that power was as rare as sensory magic. But as I thought it, I also read the mind behind the magic. Just a fraction of a second before it shut me down. I ran up the stairs and through the mini-labyrinth to the exit outdoors, all the while trying not to think of what I’d seen. Even outside I didn’t dare focus on it. I wasn’t sure how far its magic would reach, but the potential was it could for a very long way.

Instead I mounted Spiri and made for the nearest town, just a few miles away. There I’d catch the next ship leaving for Zespan. Normally I abhorred ocean travel, but I needed to get far away from that place. Only then would I feel safe enough to formulate a plan to come back.