“You wouldn’t think a white bird would be hard to find,” Mortimer the Wizard remarked as he and Magnus strolled through the busy streets of Osteriath. “Then you remember that some fool thought breeding doves was a good idea, only to release them into the city when it didn’t make any money. Now the darned things are everywhere.”

  Magnus stared out at the flocks of white doves that perched on nearly every available surface in the plaza. The location was positioned equidistantly from seven of the closest Wizard Towers. Once, the center of the plaza had been dominated by a statue on top of a fountain. Now there was only the pedestal, which was covered by nesting birds. Dirty water glugged out of broken pipes.

  “Why don’t they get rid of the birds? The doves, I mean, not Archibald,” Magnus asked his Teacher as he leaned against his crook. Despite his excitement to explore the city, the boy was already tired. They’d only been walking for a couple of hours when he finally asked Mortimer to take a break.

  “Hmm. I suppose I’ve not taught you about the Tower of Cards?” Mortimer asked idly. His keen eyes were continuously scanning through the flocks of doves even as they spoke. “It’s fairly simple. Might as well sit down for a few moments and have a lesson.”

  Mortimer waved his staff and dispersed a small flock from a park bench with a gust of air. A second twist of his staff summoned some water to clean off the bird droppings from the seat. He noted that the elementally charged crystals on the end of his staff were getting dull. They’d need to be replaced soon. Perhaps he ought to have the boy recharge them.

  A quick glance over at Magnus made him reconsider. Magnus’s eyes had dark circles under them and he had lost some weight. He’d been running the boy ragged for around two weeks. It was true that he’d gotten a little over-excited with how much raw power the boy could summon at will. Mortimer might have gone a little overboard by asking Magnus to overpower the wards on a series of cursed containers that had been collecting dust on his shelf for years.

  If he wanted to keep exploiting the boy’s Talent for years to come, he’d need to slow down and actually teach him now and again. The Mistress would be greatly displeased if the new toy he’d brought back was broken. Continually refreshing the blocks on the boy’s mind was proving to be more difficult than expected. She’d want to see a return on her investment.

  “Right then,” Mortimer said as he sat down on the bench next to Magnus. The Wizard pulled a set of playing cards from inside of his robes and tapped them out of the box. Magnus watched curiously as the old man shuffled the cards with lightning quick fingers and then spread them in a fan toward him. The boy gently pulled out a card. By happenstance, it turned out to be the spare card, the Jester.

  “Everything in the world can, with the right mindset, be seen as a Tower,” Mortimer explained casually as he shuffled the cards again. He pulled out a card from the middle of the deck and got the three of clubs. The Wizard squinted suspiciously at the card before he continued. “That means that what sits at the top of a Tower, is supported by everything below it.”

  Mortimer’s hands shuffled the cards a third time by riffling them. He pulled the top two cards from the deck and delicately balanced them together so that they stood upright at an angle on the seat between him and Mortimer. Quick fingers rapidly pulled more cards from the deck and balanced them on top of each other. Soon a small pyramid had formed.

  “Be it a kingdom, a forest, or even a literal tower of stone, over and over again you’ll find this arrangement repeats itself. A king sits atop his kingdom. An apex predator rules over the forest. The uppermost stones of the tower rest on those beneath it. But if you pull out something from beneath them…” Mortimer plucked a card from the bottom of the stack. The pyramid of playing cards collapsed in on itself. Before they hit the ground, the Wizard’s hands snatched them up and returned them to the deck.

  “So if you removed the birds, the city would collapse?” Magnus said suspiciously. “That sounds a little… strange.”

  “No not exactly,” Mortimer tutted as he held out his hand for the card Magnus was holding. The boy returned it and Mortimer shuffled for a fourth time. He had the boy choose a card again. This time, the card was the King of Dragons.

  Mortimer blinked. The card Magnus was holding was now the Three of Clubs. He scoffed and recovered the card again before putting the deck away.

  “The theory of the Tower of Cards is… not that literal,” Mortimer continued as he gestured out across the city and leaned back on the bench. “Imagine if there were an endless series of Towers, all stacked on top of one another. Some are stronger than others. A few cards can be removed without threatening the whole structure. If we were to remove the doves, it certainly would make the City a cleaner place…”

  “... But the cats that Wizards keep as familiars need to eat something. This way, they don’t go after other familiars like Archibald. I’m told the birds help keep the weeds and other plants from getting out of hand as well. Then one has to consider how one would even get rid of them. Most of the solutions such as setting them on fire, poisoning them, or importing even more cats would all have… unforeseen Consequences.”

  Magnus was pretty sure he could ‘foresee’ exactly what would happen if a bunch of Wizards all tried to get rid of the city’s dove population. Supposedly the fight between the Towers of Saqaei and the Lahaeb had been started by a stray bird flying into an array. The Wizard and his Apprentice had walked by several damaged and scorched cobblestones on their way through the City.

  “How do you normally find Archibald, when there’s so many doves around?” Magnus asked. Something about what Mortimer had said was bothering him. The model of the world the Wizard had presented sounded distorted. Like it was true in some ways, but reflected through a warped mirror.

  “Honestly lad, normally he comes home by breakfast.” Mortimer stroked his beard thoughtfully. “He rather fancies the fruit pastries that the Tower kitchens put together.”

  “Maybe we should try searching behind the bakeries around here then?” Magnus said as he stood up. His head hurt. Hopefully some more walking would clear it up.

  “Might as well,” Mortimer agreed with a shrug. “No one in their right mind bothers a Wizard in a dark alley in this city.”

  “He’s just walking around with the Wizard, Boss,” Visk reported to me. “I don’t get it. If I’d been kidnapped, the first thing I’d do is run for a place to hide if they let me out again.”

  Visk and I were crouched in a forgotten courtyard. The dull roar of people going about their daily lives echoed through the city around us. Perhaps this courtyard had once served one of the surrounding buildings, but at some point all of the doors leading into it had been bricked up. The only exceptions were the staircase leading into the undercity and an access gate leading out to a back alley.

  “Something is… wrong,” I said as I narrowed my eyes in thought. “I can smell him from here. He’s… not healthy. I remember how he smelled when he had the Wasting Plague. This isn’t the same, but it is similar. His blood smells hollow, as I’d thought.”

  “Hmm…” Visk ran a finger through their white hair as they crouched by the exit gate. “When I’d used too much magic to sneak us through the Dusk Quarter, did I smell similar?”

  “A little bit.” My tail swished back and forth across the uneven cobblestones of the courtyard. “Do you think he’s been using too much magic? That makes even less sense. The bastard Wizard murdered T’laanga in cold blood. Edith cares deeply about Magnus, which I don’t think would be the case if he was the kind of child to go along with that kind of man willingly.”

  “It would make more sense if he was locked up in the Tower having his magic drained day after day,” Visk agreed. “But they’re walking around and chatting about birds or something like they’re friends.”

  I looked up at one of the roof tops surrounding us as a flutter of wings drew my attention. Sitting on the eave of one building was a familiar white raven. The fin along my spine snapped upright and I hissed at the creature. It had been a while, but I recognized its scent. This was the Wizard’s familiar.

  The raven stared down at me with its beady eyes, but did not squawk. There was something wrong with it. As I focused, I noticed a thin haze of black smoke floating around its white feathers. The creature wasn’t on fire or otherwise smouldering. When it shifted from one foot to the other, the smoke followed.

  Visk edged towards me as they noticed the bird as well. They hadn’t encountered Mortimer or his familiar, but Sir Kenneth and Raban had both been interrogated thoroughly by Edith before we set out on this rescue mission. She’d made sure we all remembered the relevant details that she’d been able to learn.

  “Boss, something’s up with that raven,” Visk hissed at me as they got close enough for me to grab them. We’d agreed that in an emergency, the elf should remain close enough to me that I could immediately grab them and fly away. “I don’t have magic sight, but even I am getting a creepy feeling from it.”

  As if responding to Visk’s words, the Raven opened its beak.

  “KRAAH!”

  The sound slammed into both of us, making Visk flinch backwards. I protectively shielded them with my body by placing myself between them and the raven. Its call had hit both of us with an undirected wave of deathly energy. It reminded me of Third and the Rotting Bear. But instead of raw fury or unliving hunger, this bird’s magic was stale like a forgotten grave.

  I breathed outwards and washed both Visk and myself with a subtle wave of energy. The breath of life was a decent mental image to ward off this raven’s ire. While a fair amount of power was contained within those feathers, it seemed directionless. Third had roared out his proclamation of Death to the sky loud enough to shatter the air. This was not much of a threat in comparison.

  “Did you hear that my lad?” an old man’s voice called out from the alleyway beyond the gate. “That sounds like Archibald! What an excellent intuition you’ve got. Hold on to me. We’ll hop up to a better vantage point.”

  The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  Another familiar form appeared as two humans sailed up from the nearby alley and landed on another roof. Mortimer had one hand on Magnus’s shoulder, while the other held his staff. The boy held a well crafted shepherd’s crook in his own hand and was holding onto Mortimer’s robes in turn. They looked down at me and Visk in confusion, as well as the black cloud surrounding the white raven.

  Everyone held still for just a moment, then all hell broke loose.

  “Taet’heim!”

  “STOP!”

  “KRAAH!”

  Mortimer flicked his staff in an arc down at the courtyard. One of the crystals on the end of his staff shattered. A wave of murky brown-orange energy shot from the crystalline shards and slammed downwards.

  My claws were already sweeping Visk off their feet. I yanked the elf out of the way as the cobblestones beneath us exploded. Stone shards pelted the soft scales of my underbelly as I shoved myself out of the way with my three remaining limbs.

  Half a moment after Mortimer’s spell smashed the stones, my command slammed into him. I saw him lock up for a second, but a series of inked runes on his wide brimmed hat lit up. As the ink burned away, Mortimer’s wiry muscles relaxed.

  The raven’s caw of Death washed over everyone else present. My earlier breath lingered around me and Visk, absorbing most of the effect. Mortimer and Magnus were not as fortunate. As I slammed against the side of a building, both humans staggered like they’d been struck with a physical blow.

  I wasn’t going to sit down on the ground and let someone else dictate the flow of the fight. My limbs propelled me up the side of the building I’d bumped up against. Razor sharp claws bit into ancient stonework like it was wet clay. Visk remained safe in my grasp for now, but I needed to create some distance so that they could get to a safer position, preferably on my back.

  My wings stretched out and gave a beat as my head cleared the top eave of the structure. At the same time, I kept my snout facing towards the Wizard and raven. A short burst of force erupted from between my teeth. It wasn’t even a proper spell, just a concentration of sound and energy to keep them busy while I got into the open.

  Mortimer dragged Magnus out of the way by the collar of his robes. He was surprisingly agile for an old man. Both he and the Raven dodged out of the way as my magic sent the roof tiles beneath them flying into the air.

  The fin along the back of my neck prickled as I felt further danger from my surroundings. All around me, the Wizard Towers that dominated Osteriath’s sky line were lighting up. Arcane runes flared into life along hundreds of ancient crenellations. Normally invisible wards congregated in such profusion that they flickered into sight in hazy walls of heat and energy.

  I dove forward as the nearest Tower lit up and loosed its defenses in my direction. The roof I’d just been standing on collapsed in on itself as a massive block of pure ice formed out of thin air. My course carried me towards the raven, which gave a panicked squawk and took to the air to get out of the way.

  Mortimer took the opportunity to create some distance of his own.

  “Daen-naetir!” A gust of wind burst from beneath the Wizard’s and Magnus’s feet. They flew across the open air between the buildings surrounding the courtyard and the next patch. Mortimer kept a firm grip on Magnus’ collar the entire time.

  Magnus himself seemed to be in shock. As soon as he laid eyes on me, he froze up. It had only been a few seconds since the fight started, but he hadn’t recovered yet. Only the Wizard dragging him around by his clothing was keeping him out of the line of fire.

  “Kah-KRAAH!” As another Tower lit up, the Raven turned its beady black eyes on the distant spire. This time, rather than a wave of Death, the black smoke hovering around its feathers flooded outwards. The rooftops were smothered in a dark cloud that obscured my sight.

  I kept on the move. My claws tore up the roof tiles beneath me as I scrambled through the dark cloud. Another attack from the Towers slammed into the building where I’d been just a moment before. This time it was a detonation of pure noise, akin to the shout I’d given just earlier. The wave of displaced air caught my outstretched wings and lifted me across the gap between these buildings and the next set.

  In the intervening moments, I managed to reach up behind my back and deposit Visk. The elf eagerly latched onto the joints where my wings sprouted from my body and held on tight. Getting themself properly seated would take time we didn’t have right now.

  My short flight carried me out of the cloud of smoke and into the open. I could see Mortimer in the distance. He was fleeing across the roof tops with magically assisted leaps and bounds, Magnus in tow.

  A split second memory of chasing rabbits through the snow laden forest flew through my mind as I started my pursuit.

  “BOOOSS!” Visk called loud enough to be heard over the ‘Crack-Boom!’ of spells smashing into the buildings around us. “Do we have a plan?!”

  “Working on it!” I called back as my wings pumped and twisted me through the air. A bell tower loomed in front of me. I folded my wings and dove through the opening where the bell hung. At the same time, a spear of light and a blade made of pure wind smashed into my position.

  The top of the bell tower was decapitated, its centuries old stones sliced through like it was made of paper. A deafening ‘GONG’ echoed around me as my body slid under the hanging bell. It had been struck by the spear of light, which burned a hole through one side of the giant bronze instrument and exploded inside its inner cavity.

  My vision swam as I clawed my way out through the other opening in the side of the tower. The whole structure started to slump and slide sideways as I pulled free. I only had time to take a quick glance back to check on Visk as I launched myself back into the air. Both hands were clapped over their ears and their expression was pained.

  To my surprise, a pillar of earth shot up from the street beneath the collapsing bell tower. I caught a glimpse of panicked people running for their lives as bricks and timbers rained down on the street below. The pillar of earth caught the tower and prevented its total collapse.

  There was no more time to watch. Another stone pillar erupted from the street twisted and struck like a snake. It molded itself into stone shackles as it launched itself towards me. One managed to latch onto my hind leg as I swooped beneath the roofline of the surroundings. I was restrained only for a moment before I shattered it with a kick.

  That was enough time for several more spells to smite my general location. A ball of fire dropped right next to one of my outstretched wings. It didn’t even singe me. Instead, it flowed over my scales and wing membrane like a light fog. Visk recoiled from the heat, however.

  Shards of glass from shattered windows filled the air in a gale of blades. Two living lightning bolts struck the cobblestones both in front of and behind me. They twisted and coiled through the air and reached out to try and entangle my body. With no other options, I forced my way through one of the broken windows.

  People inside the building screamed in terror as my scaled body broke through the wall. My claws snapped floorboards like kindling as I dragged myself through the building and out the other side. As I pulled myself back into the open air, I saw a wall of water rushing down the alley I’d exited onto.

  Curiously, it opened up holes in its form to not smash into fleeing bystanders, but a mass of collected trash and debris was swept up in its wake. I doubted that it would make an opening for me and Visk. Once again I took to the air to avoid being swept away.

  As I cleared the top of the buildings again, I was nearly swept away by a wave of concussive force. In the distance, one of the Wizard Towers was burning with an eerie blue flame. There was no way to tell whether it had been struck on accident by one of the other towers, or whether its own defenses had malfunctioned. No matter the case, what defenses it had remaining were spastically striking its surroundings.

  Several of the Towers close to the burning one were forced to redirect their attention to this new ‘threat’. Some of the pressure on me was removed as wards and spell constructs slid into focus to counter the blue flame. It almost seemed alive, writhing in the air towards whatever came close.

  The white Raven shot past me, flapping its wings to try and keep ahead of a small cyclone that was chasing it. I had little other choice but to fly with it. The stone shackles from earlier had returned and were swarming through the streets towards me. Despite my expectations, the bird was able to keep pace with me as we fled.

  I noted that the black cloud surrounding the Raven had lessened in intensity. It was barely visible, fluttering beneath the bird’s white feathers. That didn’t make the Raven’s beady eyes any less baleful as they gazed towards me. A non-magical ‘Kraah!’ passed its beak. While I didn’t speak ‘Raven’, I knew an insult when I heard one and slapped the detestable creature with one of my front limbs.

  One of the Wizard Towers was looming in front of us. I caught sight of Mortimer and Magnus racing ahead toward it. If we continued at our current pace, we’d never be able to catch them. That was unacceptable.

  Vitae surged through my wings and coursed through my veins. The flood of raw power was so intense that my bones immediately screamed in agony. I ignored it and swept my wings downward.

  For just a moment, the world around me became a blur. The space around me elongated and stretched to its limit. When it snapped back into place, I felt the delicate bones in my wings crack. But Mortimer was right in front of me, just as I’d desired.

  The old man twisted in the air, trying to bring his staff between us. My teeth were just a fraction quicker and latched around his wrist. I saw a glimpse of fear and panic in his purple eyes as the world around us seemed to slow down. Bit by bit, the bones in his wrinkled flesh started to give way. Trickles of his blood welled in my mouth.

  Magnus’s crook smashed into the side of my head and sent me flying. At the same time, a sonic boom from my burst of speed rocked the city. The sheer amount of power behind the blow knocked the sense right out of my mind. One moment I was looming over the Wizard, the next my body was crashing into a house.

  Masonry and wood collapsed down on me from above as the demolished structure caved in on itself. Weight pressed down on me from all sides. My head was ringing from the hit and my vision swam in and out of focus.

  Visk groaned from my back. Somehow, the elf had held onto me through everything, but being thrown into a building was where their luck had run out. Purple hued blood welled from a cut on their head, marring their white hair. One of their arms hung limply at their side. They said something to me, but I couldn’t understand what they were saying.

  The sounds of human panic and anger came from all sides. We were out of time. Maybe I could recover and attack the Wizard Tower, but Visk was injured and needed immediate healing. Though my own head was full of painful clouds, I could still remember Edith’s cursory lessons on injuries. Head wounds were some of the most deadly.

  I could feel that there was a basement beneath us. My body had partially collapsed the floor when I fell into this house from above. Despite my strength, I’d not easily be able to escape from the weight of the rubble pressing down on me from above. That meant the best way was Down.

  My claws ripped up the floor beneath me. It only took a few swipes for the entire floor to give way. Visk gave a pained yelp as we both dropped into the darkness beneath us.

  Through my Vitae sight, I could see that the basement was relatively small. I was barely able to fit if I ducked my head. The room itself wasn’t my goal however. Currents of Vitae flowed deeper into the earth from beyond the stone walls surrounding us.

  The voices surrounding the ruined house above us were growing louder. One of my clawed feet reached back and plucked Visk from my back. There wouldn’t be any room for them to ride where we were going. They protested loudly as I disturbed their injured arm, but I still couldn’t quite understand them. I’d have to apologize later.

  For now, I opened my maw and sent a sharp blade of force out in front of me to break through the stone wall of the basement. As my pursuers began to climb through the rubble of the destroyed dwelling, the last sight they’d catch of me was my ruby scaled tail vanishing into the darkness.