Ends of Magic

“We haven’t levelled yet,” Aarl noted as the Heirs made their way back to the starting location at a much more sedate pace than how they’d left it. “The battle must not be over.”

“I think Davrar will tell us when the war’s over,” Stella said. "It announced the start, it'll announce the end. We're not done yet."

“My assassin class hasn’t levelled, and it should have,” Nathan added, though he wasn’t giving the conversation his full attention. He panned his magical senses around, catching the edge of various conflicts. Most of them seemed to be winding down, with the Ashen Accord Questors coming out victorious due to massively outnumbering their enemies. Nobody was coming their way.

He was also gathering information on how the various Questors fought, especially the powerful ones. From this distance, he didn’t have precise information, but he could tell that Mirus used a strange type of basic mana that seemed tailor-made to pick apart and counter enemy magic. That was backed up by a solid core of efficient offensive magic, including disintegration and massive swarms of force blades. He also caught the edges of a localized time spell at one point, but from outside of the area of effect, he couldn’t tell if it had reversed time, frozen it, or done something stranger. Phyrne was interweaving divine mana from a few different gods together into attacks, blessings, and curses that usually had multiple effects. Her repertoire was broad, with the power of at least a dozen dead gods on tap.

Soon enough, the Heirs left the battle zone behind, though they were still a few minutes from reaching the starting position.

“Now we move to the next step of our Path,” Khachi rumbled. “We have completed the deeds, and now we must hope the conclave can fulfill our Oaths.”

“My eyes can’t see how,” Stella responded morosely. “The changes we want aren’t in favor of most Questors. Having met more of them, I don’t expect the conclave to yield a dragon’s hoard.”

“What changes do we even want?” Aarl asked, scratching the back of his head awkwardly.

“Changes to the Endings. I’d also like changes to mind magic,” Nathan answered. “I don’t know if we’ll be able to ban them fully, but it’s a starting point. I’d also love to make Davrar a kinder place, where Questors don’t send nations to war to resolve a spat. But we don’t know exactly what’s on the table, and Sarya’s been evasive on the topic.”

“Now is the time for those questions to be answered,” Khachi said resolutely.

Aarl’s face twisted up in distaste. “We’ve struggled to achieve this conclave, and now it’s become a dungeon for fools.”

“We’ve learned a lot,” Nathan disagreed. “We know a lot more about the Questors than we did when we started all of this. We have contacts, and if we need to…”

“Full viewing,” Sarah interrupted sternly. “Questors from across Davrar may be listening to us right now.”

“Ah,” Nathan said, mouth suddenly dry. He hadn’t been about to talk about properly killing Questors, but discussing plans while an unknown number of people with unknown motives watched them was a bad idea. “Good point. Let’s try our best to make sure this conclave achieves what we need.”

The Heirs were silent for the rest of their flight back to the starting area, which wasn’t long. It was surrounded by an invisible, intangible dome of magic made of innumerable threads of mana. Nathan slowed down to investigate, noting that it had almost certainly been cast by Mirus. It would automatically counter any damaging spell that came from the outside. He made sure to slip through without disturbing the magic.

The hilltop looked much the same as before. The only difference was a carpet of stones, the remnants of massive boulders thrown at the Heirs. A few Questors were standing around, some vigilantly watching the sky and others slouching and chatting without a care in the world.

Colborn stood at the very peak of the hill and gave the heirs a jaunty wave as they flew towards him, calling out in a friendly voice loud enough for everybody to hear. “It is good to be wary of spilling secrets during this war. Every word and move is already watched. You in particular will be examined to the angstrom." Then he broke out into a wide grin and threw his arms wide. “All because of your truly dominant presence on this battlefield! Achieving a dominant victory.” He brought his hands together in a rapid burst of applause, and the rest of the Questors turned to join in. Some of them looked grumpy, but they still clapped as the Heirs landed next to the short Questor.

He didn’t even wait for the applause to die down before continuing, aiming his words as much towards an invisible camera as towards the Heirs. “Half of the enemy cleared by a single spell, and then slaying their champions in massed combat! Kamus of the Gold, killed in the middle of his proclamation of victory. Such deeds blind the mind’s eye and would not be believed without verification. Not since the Ending of Wrath and the Undying has a single group been responsible for so much carnage. You have won this war, and now you shall get your conclave. If mortals can achieve such success on the battlefield, they deserve to have their voices heard on the stage where true change can happen.”

A new notification popped up, perfectly timed to coincide with the end of Colborn’s speech.