Evoker

Once again I was running.  It felt like I had been running for eternity.  At times it felt like I might have to.  I had to keep moving from town to town, city to city, all while keeping a low profile.  They still always found me.

I was wanted for crimes I didn’t commit, yet somehow I had no clue how they managed to frame me down to the last detail.  All I knew is that the crimes seemed to follow me, and every time I managed to escape I lost a little more of my magic.  This last escape had to be just that.  I was finally out.  All my spirits had been ripped away and banished to somewhere in the infinite expanse of the multiverse.  Well, almost all of them.

I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going.  All I knew was that I needed to get away and find a way to prove my innocence.  Except that was all but impossible now.

When I finally decided to start paying attention to my surroundings, I realized that I had fled to the dense woods outside of town in my panic.  It seems I had some sense after all.  I started to carefully travel the dense woods, but I had very little experience in the forest.  I was a mage after all.  When would I ever need to sneak around a forest?  I silently cursed my past self, wishing I had at least thought to learn some basic survival skills.

As I traveled I happened upon a small clearing.  The scene was still, and a noticeable silence hung in the air.  A small voice in the back of my head tried to tell me that this could be a well placed trap, but I was confident that I had escaped before they had even found where I lived.

I entered the clearing and decided to take a breather when I once again cursed my overconfidence.  A clear, shimmering dome of pure energy had sprung up around me.  I knew only one of my pursuers could wield that much power.

“Aria,” I said softly as she entered the clearing with a platoon of at least a dozen guards, each wearing the symbol of the Order of the Sentinel.

“Don’t you dare use my name, Evoker.  You no longer have the right after everything you have done,” she said in a quiet yet firm voice.  However, only I noticed the small undertones of sadness in her voice.

“Fine, Sentinel Commander, I will refrain from using your name, but don’t you dare say I have committed crimes against the people I am sworn to protect.  You know I would never harm innocents.  You know I would never kill them,” my voice rose with each word, until I was yelling my innocence, but my words fell on deaf ears.

“At one point I would have still believed you, but we have moved far past that point.  For your crimes, in accordance with the laws and the decrees of the Council of the High Mages, you have been stripped of your magic spirits, and they have been banished into the multiverse.  And you are to follow them.  May the great spirits have mercy on you.”

And with that, the magic in the air grew to several times what it was.  I realized that she must have passed the shield spell to her subordinates because the magic I sensed was definitely hers.  Each mage has a unique magic signature that is almost impossible to copy.  We knew each other’s magic very well.

I knew this spell would be the one that would send me away.  After its completion there would be no hope of me ever getting back.  At least that is what she thought.

Now my host?  A voice in my head asked softly.  ‘Yes,’ I responded silently, ‘Now is the time to act.’

Before the Sentinel Commander knew what was happening I was able to seize control of the spell.

The Sentinel Commander looked at me in disbelief, “How are you able to do that?  Your specialty was always elemental spirits; you were never able to manipulate energy spirits.  Only the High Mages have trained enough to do both.”

“It has been a long time since we were young, Sentinel Commander.  I know there is no escape, but I can at least try to influence where the spell sends me.  This is not the end of me,” I said, a serious expression on my face.  My expression softened and I quietly and confidently said, “Aria, I will find a way back, I will find my spirits, and I will prove to you I am innocent.  I can’t bring anyone back, but I can at least catch whoever was really responsible.  I swear this on my life.  In the meantime, look farther into this.  You have to know there is more going on, whatever the High Mages say.”

She looked at me with a hard expression, yet I could almost see the gears turning in her head.  She strode closer to the barrier and said in a voice loud enough for only me to hear, “I will look into it, but only because I don’t want to believe you could have killed all those people.  I hope you are right, but we both know you aren’t coming back.  And if you are lying then that is all the better for the people of this land.”

I looked at her for a moment, and gave a slight nod.  I whispered, “Goodbye, Aria.”  The magical energy in the air became almost palpable, as the magic the Sentinel Commander had first put into the spell blended with the magic I had been pumping into it during our conversation.  I had only one criterion for the destination: Somewhere with intelligent, magical life.  I released the spell and I started being swept away by the magical energies that had built up for the spell.  As I faded slowly out of my home world, I could have sworn I saw a small shimmer in the Sentinel Commander’s eye, but it was gone as quickly as it appeared.  And then I was gone.

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Aria stood in the clearing, stunned for a moment that so much energy had been put into a spell.  Swiftly regaining her composure, she addressed her men, “Return to the village and reassure the population that the criminal has been dealt with.  I will remain here and make sure there are no other surprises in store from him.  When I return to the village, we will return to the capital to give our report.  Until then, you are all relieved from duty after the village has been reassured.  Dismissed.”

As her troops left the clearing she turned to the spot where her old friend had stood and made his promise.  She reached out with her magical senses, but she was fairly sure that he had been unable to use any other sort of magic.  He had poured too much into the transportation spell.  When she was sure that all her men had left, she leaned against a tree at the edge of the clearing and wept for her lost friend, knowing that she wouldn’t see him again.

After she regained her composure she began to walk out of the clearing.  She stopped and faced the clearing and said, “Goodbye old friend.  As much as I hope you are innocent, I know we will not meet again.  And if you are right, I fear the being that is able to fool the High Mages.”  With that she left the clearing and returned to her command, intent on investigating her friend’s last words.

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I had ended up in a forest clearing much like the one I had left.  The foliage around it was thick and plentiful, but you could still see small nocturnal creatures moving about the edges of the clearing and through the treetops.  The only major difference was this forest was alive with sounds, most of which I had no intention of finding out what had made them.

Unfortunately, fate decided I needed to get a little exercise.  Upon setting out in the forest to hopefully find my way to civilization I came across a strange creature.  It looked like a wolf, except its entire body seemed to be made up of wood.  Instead of wondering how a creature could be made of wood, I instead did the smart thing and ran for my life.  I didn’t really have any specific direction in mind, other than away, so I ended up leading the wolf on quite the chase.  I made sharp turns, ducked through tight spaces, and made it all around difficult for the creature to follow me.  However, I managed to take a few falls that allowed it to keep close despite my best efforts, one of which resulted in a particularly bad gash on my shoulder.  In a last ditch effort I put the rest of my magic energy into one spell, a simple trick to create a large flash of light accompanied by a loud bang, like a magic firecracker.  I hoped it would disorient the beast enough for me to get away.

Luckily for me, it worked better than expected.  The light blinded the creature and the loud bang scared it off.  Or maybe it just decided this dinner was too annoying for its taste.  Regardless, I had managed to escape the beast.

As I looked at my surroundings to get my bearings, I noticed I had found my way to a path.  By some stroke of luck, or maybe a cosmic apology, I had actually managed to get to the edge of the forest.  I could only follow the path a short way before I collapsed from exhaustion.  As I lay on the ground, my vision swimming, I could make out a nearby cottage and a yellow creature with a pink mane quickly coming towards me from its general direction.  If I had to name what kind of creature it was, I would say it most closely resembled a horse or a pony from my world.  I had no energy left to defend myself, but the pony didn’t seem like it was aggressive.  As I faded out of consciousness, my last sight was a pair of bluish eyes staring into my own that seemed to possess far more intelligence than I would have believed such a creature would have.  And then everything went black.