Accidental Magic
Chapter 25 - Dark Clouds

"I never would have believed it..."

"Uhmm, who is she?"

Augustine sneered as she glared daggers at the little girl who was staring her down, with no hint of fear. "How dare you just waltz in here and make such a claim!"

Lexi made no motion to reply, instead the very air about her began to hum as she gently lifted off the ground. An invisible bubble, its surface marked by glowing sigils that were all but impossible to make out, sprang to life around her.

She was now staring eye to eye with Augustine and her glare was just as imposing at the older woman held only moments before.

"Who said I was making a claim?" Lexi snarled back. "I was stating a fact. I am the Custodian."

After a few tense moments, Augustine finally sighed. "I should have known better than to think Agatha could pull this off without help."

"I would say that she did it without me before," Lexi began, "but that would be speaking only in half-truths."

"You little evil witch!" Augustine snapped. "What do you know about the future?"

"I know more than you," Lexi said with indignation. "You have me to thank for the advantage you now have. Where do you Think you'd be if you didn't have any warning of all this? I did you a favor!"

"You insolent little shit!"

"Insulting me gets you nowhere," Lexi retorted.

"Bangarang!" Cindy exclaimed, possibly in a gesture, futilely, to defuse tension between them.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Allyssa asked Kristi quietly.

"If I would have to guess," Kristi replied, "Robin Williams movie, Hook. But the little girl's comment interests me more. Is she a precognitive and why does she bare a striking resemblance to Terri?"

Allyssa nodded. "When I first saw her, I thought they were sisters. I've never met her mother and neither have any of the users staying at Terri's house."

"Who is her mother if it isn't also Terri's?"

"I don't know," was Allyssa's reply

But while Kristi and Allyssa mumbled to each other, Augustine was still facing down a very enigmatic little girl.

"Don't you think you've done enough damage?" accused Augustine. "Terri is under his control which is Not how I wanted this to end."

"You don't understand the full scope of things!" Lexi snapped back, quickly getting irritated. "This battle wasn't an 'If' it was only a question of When."

"Why?" was all Augustine could ask.

"Its what I was told to do," answered Lexi. "Its not like I was given a choice in this."

"What is your relationship to Terri?" Augustine asked. "How is Agatha able to force you into service?"

"I do it out of love," Lexi answered solemnly. "Terri needs my help. Yours too, which is part of the reason I manipulated things to the point we are now."

"So what is your plan?" Augustine said.

"Why should I come up with something?" Lexi answered again. "Agatha knew you had done your homework. I can be just another cog in your grand scheme."

"Fine," Augustine snapped. "Then here's how this is going down..."
 

 
Terri sat cross-legged on the floor of her little room, facing out into the creature's prison. Scratched into the floor in front of her were two sets of lines, bisecting each other. An 'X' was in the middle square and she was trying, quite unsuccessfully, to get the monstrous thing to play tic-tac-toe.
 

 
Nethizar was shocked awake as something exploded and shook the floor.

He leapt from his bed and was into his loafers in seconds, dashing for the door to his makeshift office.

The main floor was clouded in dust and people were gathering at the bottom of the iron stairs when a bright light burst in from outside, illuminating a large hole in the opposing wall, which explained the dust, and the silhouette of a woman striding in.

Nethizar could barely see her, yet he knew exactly who he faced.

"Nice to see the years have been kind to you Augustine," he said with sarcasm. "How have you been?"

"Have you noticed that you all gravitate towards that side of the building?" Augustine asked, the predatory grin already creeping across her face.

Before anyone could answer, she raised one hand to the roof in a wide, sweeping gesture.

Runes and sigels lit up across the floor radiating outward from her, only for a moment as the floor began exploding in the same outward pattern .

As the markings reached the other side, they started climbing the walls as well.

The support beams holding up Nethizar's loft office began groaning as Augustine's machinations were disassembling the material atom by atom.

Nethizar and his son stood, unmoving, as shards of concrete and steel flew about them, slamming against their shield bubbles.

His followers were not as fortunate, running around while frantically trying to avoid be shredded by flying debris.

One man was disorientated from concrete particles stinging his eyes. He took a wrong turn and was crushed as the second floor suddenly collapsed on top of him.

"Idiots!" Nethizar swore. "Stop running around and use your shields!"

Augustine watched as dust began rebounding off shield bubbles as they were hastily put up.

This was followed by silent but swift sword-wielding men charging past her into the building.

As the dust settled, Augustine stood facing the cultists with nearly forty people standing with her and against them.

Terri was still standing, mummified within her symbiote on Nethizar's side of the building, the second floor having broken around her and was now laying about her feet.

Cindy and Allyssa were standing amongst the ranks of people, as were the boarders at Terri's home.

An eerie glow filled the space as every inch of floor, walls and ceiling were now covered in symbols ablaze with energy.

"I'm impressed," Nethizar said. "When did you find the time to steal in here and trap the place so we wouldn't be able to teleport out?"

"About ten years ago," Augustine smiled again. "The walls, the floor. Everything. They even had to pour the concrete floor twice!"

"How did you know I would be here?" Nethizar asked, coldly.

"I didn't," Augustine replied. "I have not spent these thirty years naively waiting. I have planned for this."

"And what is your plan now?" He asked, curious but unafraid.

"To cut you down," Augustine began, just as two large spheres, each easily three foot in diameter, materialized on either side of her.

"One..." She continued, as the sphere began arcing current across their surface.

"By..." she said as she reached out and the energy appeared to jump into her hands and disolve into her skin.

"ONE!" She screamed as she let loose an impressive beam of magic force that superheated the air around it causing rings of colored distortion along its length and a thunder clap as it tore into the shield of the woman on Nethizar's right.

The concussion of the woman literally exploding into atoms shook up the group behind Nethizar.

"I'm impressed with your toys," he exclaimed. "But they are spent now and need to be put... Away?" He stopped as the glow returned as he spoke.

"You'll find..." Augustine began as she motioned toward the group, whose rear ranks then materialized their own spheres, "that we've all been preparing for this day, including tapping Your vortex for ourselves."

A flurry of activity as the two groups of knights each stepped up to get their weapons enhanced.

Cindy blushed from all the kisses to her hand she received from the very gentlemanly knights just before they entered the battle.

Just as the last knight stepped back, he suddenly angled his blade and deflected a fireball from striking Cindy.

"My lady, they have finally started retribution," he said to her as brillantly-colored balls of light were exchanged at high speed across the gap between the two groups. "You might want to put up your shield."

Cindy blushed and nodded, a bubble appearing around her.

"LEFT FLANK!" Screamed Augustine and Fifteen sets of glowing spheres were called to action.

The members of the Doomed all struck the same target simultaneously, the deafening shock wave created by the multiple effects only served to make the obliteration that much more surreal.

Terri's boarders, plus Cindy and Allyssa, quickly took their places between sets of spheres, placing hands on them and quickly recharging them.

Nethizar turned to his son, "They have the upper hand!" he yelled. "Order your vortex to attack them."
 

 
Terri was holding on to the creature's enormous digit as the room she had been banished to had begun to crumble and shattered just as she reached the relative safety of its outstretched hand.

"Thanks, big fella!" Terri said as she watched the pieces dissolve into the ether. "Those digs were getting a bit cramped anyway."

The only sense she had left, her sight, now had an unobstructed view of the goings on outside her body. It was like watching some kind of strange science fiction battlefield.

Strange colored flares shot back and forth across the room, some even striking near her, but she didn't care.

"So the fight for me has finally begun," she mused outloud. "Am I really worth all this trouble?"
 

 
Augustine watched Nethizar roaring outward in frustration, only to see four swordman having to brace themselves against a force wall that struck them all simutaniously.

"CINDY!" she screamed. "DID YOU SEE THAT?"

Her answer came in the form of harpy-like screech as a concussion wave blasted forth from Cindy's open mouth. It struck another of Nethizar's henches and the shield flittered for a moment, just in time for another blast from the combined order of the Twice Doomed.

Nethizar was too busy witnessing the death of another of his followers to notice his son phasing through his shield and stepping up behind him.

"The battle goes badly!" Nethizar called to his son, not realizing his proximity.

"Yes," His son nearly whispered back into his father's ear. "Yes it does."

As the steel of the ornate dagger slipped between his ribs, piercing his lung, Nethizar smiled before turned to his son.

"I knew you had it in you boy!" Nethizar managed to weeze out before collapsing.
 

 
 
End of Chapter 25
 
 
To Be Continued...