AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You are nothing without me.”
Lio shook his head. “You have survived his tyranny all this time. You are one of the strongest people I have ever met.”
“Not strong enough.” Eudias looked at the water again.
It did no good for Lio to berate Eudias with his truth. Eudias had to discover his own answers for himself. “What is the final meditation?”
Eudias hesitated. “‘Carry the one who stumbles today, for you will stumble tomorrow.’”
“Every single one of us needs help from others at times. There is no shame in it. In fact, it is a sign of strength.” Lio offered his hand.
“What will he demand of you tomorrow?” the Collector asked.
“You carried me yesterday,” Lio told Eudias. “Now it’s my turn.”
“The help I gave the Summit was atonement,” Eudias protested.
“Wasn’t it Kheimerios who wrote about what makes a great mage?” Lio asked.
“‘A great mage is seldom wrong.’” Eudias hesitated again. “‘The greatest mage knows he is wrong all the time.’”
“Rise beyond the foibles of mortal mages,” the Collector invited. “Endure with me through the ages.”
“Who is the mage and the manyouwant to be, Eudias?” Lio asked.
Eudias uncurled his hand. He held a rough-hewn wooden charm in the shape of a lightning bolt. Lio sensed the Collector’s retort, but the words were indistinguishable.
“That’s a storm charm,” Lio said. “Farmers carry them to petition the gods for fertile fields and rain, is that right?”
Eudias nodded. “I don’t know where Kassandra found one just like we used to carve in my village, but it was kind of her to replace the one I lost when I came to Corona. It was a gift from…from a grateful family, the day I discovered my affinity for lightning. I thought I was just a rain mage, you see. Their farm was barren, and I was trying to tempt a storm to drop some water on their fields. It was a most incredible moment. I still have difficulty describing it. I rode a lightning bolt down from the sky and into the soil. Oh, that probably sounds foolish.”
“Not at all. It is a challenge to describe the indescribable, to put words to magic, but it is a time-honored tradition to try.”
Eudias turned the charm over in his hands. “Their fields produced more that year than they had in a generation. I got to celebrate harvest with them before I had to leave.”
“What happened to your original storm charm?”
“Tychon burned it.”
“Leave behind the boy you were,” the Collector commanded. “Only then can you become the man you are meant to be.”
“I don’t want anything from you,” Lio said. “I only want to help you achieve what you want for yourself.”
Eudias looked at Lio. “Why bother with me?”
“Your magic must be allowed to benefit the general populace. Your example has to teach them not to harm themselves and each other. I entertain notions of trust and camaraderie. You have already shown how they backfire on those who care only about themselves. I know you are ambitious enough to bring a storm down upon your order—the kind that cleanses and leaves the fields prosperous. Someone who is good at asking questions, even the difficult ones, can find real answers.”
When Eudias reached out to Lio, the distance between them shrank. “I’ll try to find the answers. If you’ll help me.”
Lio put an arm around the young mage’s shoulders, another under his knees, and lifted him from the pool. Water dripped from Eudias’s swollen, blistered feet. Tears fell from his eyes. He did not apologize for them.
Lightning danced across the water where Eudias had sat only a moment before. The Collector’s voice crashed down upon them.“Thief!”
“You are the thief!” Eudias shouted. “I will not let you take from me any longer. You will not have my magic. You will not use my power for the atrocities you commit.”
Lio channeled the strength of Eudias’s conviction into a mental defense around them. Water and lightning lashed around them, but did not reach them through their combined Will.
“I can hear my own thoughts.” Eudias slumped in Lio’s arms. “How did you do that?”
