Niles

  Niles woke up with a warm body practically on top of him. It was not the first time he’d woken up that way. But his eyes shot open when he remembered just what had happened last night. Was he engaged? Well, probably not, technically. They still had to hammer out the details of the contract, but once he agreed to it, would he be married? Everything had changed so fast it made his head swim. Was this really what he wanted? He had certainly thought so while he was kissing Birgit. She was an amazing kisser. They hadn’t gone any farther, of course, because they were in a room full of people, but he had certainly wanted to.

  “Good morning,” Birgit purred softly.

  Niles looked at her and smiled. “Good morning.”

  When had she become so beautiful? He was tempted to pull her into a good morning kiss, but he could hear the rest of the team beginning to move about. They’d talked after that first kiss, and Niles knew Advick had yet to find out about Birgit’s decision, so it would be better if she told him before he caught them in a lip lock. Plus, they still had four days of the field study left. He needed to keep his head in the game.

  Birgit slid slowly off him with a sultry smile and sat up, stretching in a way he was sure she meant for him to watch, and he was happy to oblige. She really was gorgeous. Fighting down his urges, Niles got up. He’d waited this long. He could wait a few more days.

  The third floor had four bathrooms. The plumbing no longer worked, but with five mages, they had more than enough fresh, hot water for everyone. That was the one thing that was better about crystal hunting here, well, that and the amazing amount of crystals. He and Birgit would certainly have a solid financial base for the start of their life together. As Niles took his turn in one of the bathrooms, he tried to get his mind off Birgit and back on the danger they were about to face, but then he heard the bathroom door open. He turned, half expecting and hoping to see Birgit. Instead, he found Sinja.

  “Sinja?” Niles asked stupidly, his mind completely caught off guard. Fortunately, he was still dressed in his sleeping pants, at least.

  “Expecting someone else?” the elf asked with a sly smile as she began stalking forward. She was only dressed in her light sleeping shift, which barely came down to her knees. “I noticed that you and Birgit started negotiating your next contract last night, and I wanted a chance to make a counteroffer.”

  Niles’ eyes narrowed. “You were watching?”

  His body language must have given Sinja pause, because she stopped and raised her hands in a pacifying gesture. “Not watching, I just happened to notice the two of you kissing. I was hoping you might let me do the same, and you can see which of us does it better.”

  “No,” Niles said firmly. “You’re a beautiful woman, but I’m with Birgit now.”

  Sinja cocked her head. “You really must care about her, then. Is there nothing I can do to change your mind?”

  “No,” Niles answered. “Is this going to be a problem for the team?”

  Sinja sighed. “No, of course not. I am disappointed, of course, and a little jealous. But we are all friends here, and our field study comes first. I just had to try. But I had better go, before someone catches us in here together.”

  The elf turned and left. Hopefully, she was serious about this not being a problem. She had accepted his no and not tried to push him, so hopefully they really were friends. Frankly, she had not seemed all that disappointed by his rejection. No doubt she had no genuine feelings for him and was simply trying to snag a good familiar, but both parties had to agree to a contract, so it wasn’t like she could force one on him or anything. Niles would still keep an eye on her and warn Birgit, too.

  The next two days passed with no sign of trouble from the elf. She acted as if nothing had happened and was just as friendly as ever. They cleared a section of the city designated for alchemy and enchanting one day, and a school of magic the next. The fighting was fierce, but they were more experienced now and more efficient at taking out the monsters they faced. After finishing the magic school and the surrounding area, Jabari announced they had now cleared all the areas he knew of that would have had a high concentration of magic. That left either searching random residential areas or investigating the crater in the very center of the city, which had most likely once been the palace of the city lord. There was nothing left of it, but the magic that destroyed it could have left some magical residue. They decided to check out the crater, so on the next-to-last day of the field study, they set out for the crater.

  Making a pass over the entire crater in the air first, Niles got a good feel for the scale of it. The size of the explosion that created the crater must have been staggering. The footprint left behind was at least a hundred yards in diameter and probably fifty feet deep at its center. Littered with bits and pieces of the buildings that had once been there, the terrain inside the crater was rough and irregular. Despite the area the crater covered, Niles didn’t see any crystals. He did, however, see movement. A couple of their classmates were in the crater, fighting a horror.

  Niles recognized the pair: an arachni named Charleen, and a gnoll named Minifred. Looking closer, he saw they were more running than fighting, and there was no sign of their teammates or their familiars. The horror was a floating sphere as big around as Niles was tall, with dozens of long, ropey tentacles, and a huge mouth filled with rows of shark-like teeth. Fortunately, it was floating slowly, but the rough terrain was making it hard for the pair to escape.

  Before Niles could point it out, Birgit directed her mount to fly over them and began a spell. Feeling lightning magic pulled out of him, it didn’t surprise Niles when the mage shot a lightning bolt at the monster. Her spell was joined by others from the rest of their team, and that proved to be too much for the horror. Seeing the destruction of their pursuer, the two student mages halted their flight and all but collapsed on the ground.

  “Thank you for coming to our aid,” Minifred said, struggling to get up and greet Niles and his teammates once they landed.

  “Please rest yourselves,” Vedika instructed. “What happened to you? Where are your teammates?”

  “They are all dead,” Charleen sobbed.

  Minifred picked up the tale as her companion broke down in tears. “We entered the city two days ago and made our way here. The crater was filled with crystals, but also many horrors. We spent all of yesterday fighting them, but we prevailed. However, in our search of the crater, we came across a tunnel, and this morning, at first light, we went back to investigate it. There were still more horrors in the tunnel, but we managed to defeat them as well. When we reached the end of the tunnel, though, we discovered a vast chamber filled with horrors, and worse, there was a planar rift. We tried to fight them and close the rift, but there were just too many of them. They overwhelmed our familiars, and we tried to run, but…” The gnoll trailed off as sorrow overcame her.

  The pair had scrapes and cuts, but no serious injuries. Still, Niles’ team healed them, gave them water, and escorted them back to a campsite they’d set up in a building right on the edge of the crater. The pair decided their hunt was at an end and took to the skies on their summoned mounts once they had recovered enough.

  “We must go and seal that rift,” Prince Advick declared as they watched the pair depart.

  Jabari rubbed his chin. “An underground planar rift is a very serious and deadly thing. It may be better to just continue our hunt elsewhere. Our classmates will report this, and once the field study is over, experienced mages will be called in to deal with it.”

  “We are experienced mages,” Advick protested. “This whole expedition is our chance to prove that. What would it say about us if we were to turn our backs on this?”

  Vedika came to her brother’s support with a more practical appeal. “Our classmates no doubt killed some of the horrors before they were forced to retreat. So there will be no better time to strike than now, before more horrors can come through to replace them.”

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  Niles decided to add his support as well. “And we won’t be taken by surprise. You guys can go in spells blazing and obliterate the horrors before they even know what hit them.”

  Sinja added her voice to the discussion next. “I agree, we should at least make an attempt. But we should be prepared to retreat if it becomes too much.”

  Seeing the way the tide was turning, Jabari conceded, and they began planning their strategy. It did not take long, and soon they were back in the crater. The tunnel was easy to locate. Carved out of the bedrock, it was ten feet wide with an arching ceiling fifteen feet overhead. Arcane patterns and symbols covered the walls, floor, and ceiling. The markings were of particular interest to the elves, who studied them carefully as the tunnel led them in a downward spiral deep into the earth.

  “I believe this leads to a casting chamber,” Sinja said as they descended. “These patterns are meant to channel magic downwards. They may even still be, at least partly, active. There could be an incredibly dense concentration of magic down there after all these years, so it is no wonder a rift formed.”

  Vedika’s familiar scouted the way ahead, and as they descended, they came across the corpses of horrors, but they did not encounter any living foes or any sign of their other classmates. After nearly half an hour, Vedika’s familiar used its space-warping ability to jump back to the party, indicating it had found a threat. It conveyed the impression of a large space with many horrors to Vedika, but it was not intelligent enough to give much detail.

  With great caution, they silently crept forward, turning their lights down to the faintest level they could and still navigate the passage. A half turn of the spiraling corridor later, they entered a straight, flat section of passage that opened into an enormous cavern. Niles could clearly make it out because of the glow of magic coming from the opening.

  “I see it,” Niles whispered. “There must be a ton of crystals in there.”

  Taking the lead, Niles led the team just close enough for their light to let them see where the corridor ended and the room began. However, he could see the entire chamber, due to the light from the many powerful crystals inside. It was a massive, domed space at least fifty yards in diameter. Monstrous shapes floated through the air or slithered across the floor, ranging in size from small things no bigger than a chicken to behemoths as large as an elephant, and there had to be dozens of them.

  Niles placed his hands on Birgit and Vedika as they and the other mages all began casting. First, they created a barrier to protect them from any backwash, and then they all prepared their most deadly spells. Niles was pretty sure he’d never had so much magic pulled out of him for just two spells before, but the display of firepower that was unleashed when the signal was given to cut loose still impressed him. Fire had been their choice of element to use because of its destructive potential and its ability to cover a large area. The entire chamber filled with flames as the mages continued to pour magic into their spells for almost a minute. Only the protective barrier they’d put in place kept it from washing back over them. When the inferno finally subsided, the mages shot light spells into the room to reveal the results of their bombardment. Nothing had survived their cleansing flame.

  When they let down their barrier, a wave of heat washed over them, attesting to just how powerful their spell had been. They were forced to use ice magic to cool the room down enough for them to enter. The rift was on the far side of the room, in a section of wall that was surrounded by huge magic crystals. Looking like a jagged window into outer space. It was easily wide enough for two buses to drive through side by side and was even taller than it was wide. As they approached it a black shape the size of an eagle, with bat wings and tentacles, flew through, but Azrielle intercepted it and cut it down with her sword before it could get far.

  “We must hurry,” Advick encouraged.

  No one really needed encouragement, and as they’d planned, Birgit and Vedika began the spell to seal the rift, using Niles as their power source, while the other three mages and their familiars prepared to defend them. The sealing spell was long, complicated, and required considerable magic. From what Niles remembered, the amount of magic required depended on the size of the rift, and this was a big one.

  Perhaps horrors could sense someone trying to close the rift, or perhaps they’d been attracted by the massive inferno they’d created earlier, which had most likely flared into the void beyond the rift, but for whatever reason, horrors began surging through. At first, it was small, fast-flying horrors, but then slower but much larger beasts began to slither, lurch, skitter, or undulate through the opening. The three mages fell into a rhythm, alternating which of them would cast a spell to stop whatever creature came next, but soon the monstrosities were coming too fast for them to keep up. So the other familiars had to engage them directly, and the mages had to begin expending their arsenals of pre-cast spells.

  Birgit and Vedika completed the spell and began pouring in magic to empower it. But just then, Niles saw Advick’s familiar, which had stood in the front of their defense, disappear as it fled to its home plane. Niles wanted to run up to take its place, but he could feel the two mages drawing on as much of his magic as they could pull, so if he left, the spell would fail. As the edges of the rift slowly began pulling together, Niles began pushing his magic out so the girls could channel more. That sped the process up, but it was still going agonizingly slow.

  A huge, multi-legged insectoid horror skittered through the slowly closing rift and caught Vedika’s familiar with a scorpion-like tail that was nearly twenty feet long. The attack had been so swift that the familiar was unable to use its magic to warp space or even return to its plane. Instead, it fell limply to the ground. Advick used the last of his wands to blast the horror with a powerful lightning bolt, stunning it long enough for Azrielle to swoop in to bury her sword in its head.

  For the first time since arriving in this plane, Niles felt his magic beginning to run out. He could tell he was almost empty, even so, he continued pushing his magic out. The rift was now only ten feet wide, but as Niles watched, a pair of massive, clawed hands somehow gripped the sides of the opening and tried to wrench it wider. He felt something push back against his magic, and both Birgit and Vedika staggered. Niles moved up to support them with his body, careful not to break contact with them. Pushing back against whatever force was trying to stop him, he could sense the girls doing the same.

  Whatever belonged to the hands must have been blocking any new horrors from coming through, but the rest of Niles’ team was still fighting desperately against the horrors that were already there. Niles, Birgit, and Vedika focused all their willpower on closing the rift, and suddenly, with a great thud that they felt more than heard, the rift closed. Leaving behind a collection of clawed fingers, each as thick around as a telephone pole.

  Both Birgit and Vedika collapsed to their knees, and Niles felt completely drained. It was an odd feeling, like he was suddenly hollow inside. The others finished the existing horrors before Niles could muster enough energy to help. He felt magic beginning to fill the void inside him, but he could tell it would be quite some time before he was full again.

  “We did it!” Prince Advick proclaimed. “I knew we could. Truly, this proves that we are all mages of note. In all our studies, I have never heard of a rift this large before. Well done, every…”

  A loud bang drowned out the prince as a massive slab of stone behind them flipped open like a trapdoor, and an enormous spider leapt out of the hole it revealed. Its body was the size of an SUV, and its legs were as thick as fence posts. Landing with a surprising lack of noise, it spat out a thick net of webs that caught the prince, Sinja, and Jabari. Sinja’s spider familiar shot webs of its own back at the beast, but the much larger arachnid ignored them like they were cobwebs, rushing up to catch the smaller spider in its mandibles. Sinja’s familiar vanished a fraction of a second before the mandibles closed on it. Swooping down at the distracted monster, Azrielle tried to strike with her sword, but the multi-eyed terror was not taken by surprise. One of its long legs batted her to the ground, and another lifted up to strike a finishing blow. Niles surged forward with his spear, knowing he would not arrive in time, but refusing to give up. He felt a surge of relief as the seraph disappeared just before the second leg struck. But he was too close to stop now, and his other friends were still in danger. None of them could just flee to another plane.

  Niles tried to call on time magic to speed up his attack, but his tank was empty, and this time the magic did not respond. Still, he managed to dodge one leg and thrust his spear at the creature’s head. A second leg caught him in the side just as the tip of his spear hit the monster’s tough hide. The blow hit like a club swung by a giant, and Niles was picked up off his feet and thrown to the side. A second surge of pain hit him as he crashed to the ground, bounced, and rolled to a stop several yards away. Every part of Niles ached, but looking up, he saw the spider advancing on Birgit and Vedika. Ignoring the pain, Niles forced himself to his feet and charged forward. He was afraid he wouldn’t make it in time, but the two girls activated pre-cast spells. One blasted the monster with lightning, while the other threw a dome of ice over them.

  The lightning bolt only slowed the creature for a second, and a blow from one of its legs caused cracks to spiderweb across the frozen dome. But then, Nile was there. Leaping into the air, he landed on the creature’s back, spear first. The blade sank in all the way to its crosspiece, but the monster was not finished. It leapt into the air and twisted, throwing Niles from its back. Niles hit the ground hard again and was just starting to rise when he saw another leg descending on him. Having lost his spear, Niles tried to block the strike with his arm. He heard something snap, and pain explode in his forearm. Knocked off his feet again, Niles wasn’t able to get up in time to avoid the spider's mandibles. They bit into his sides with crushing force. Unable to reach his dagger, Niles had no recourse left but to punch the thing with his one remaining good arm. It felt like liquid fire was being pumped into his side, and Niles’ head began swimming, but he continued to punch the thing. Aiming for an eye, Niles was rewarded when he felt his fist sink into something soft and gooey. He continued to pummel the beast, sometimes hitting something soft and sometimes just tough, hairy exoskeleton. He kept up his attack even though his sight became blurry and his arm felt like lead. Flame seemed to engulf the back half of the spider, but Niles was too groggy to be sure. He refused to give up until consciousness left him.