Morgana and her Elven allies are poised to assault the terrorist group. Unbeknownst to Morgana her mother has been subjected to an artifact capable of powerful compulsions. Will Morgana be able to rescue her mother? Will she recover the Mask? And will Max escape?

Author note: Magic has always existed is now openly acknowledged. 10% of the population is magically sensitive and 5% can actually be taught to cast spells. Only about 1% have the ability to earn a Magic-User 3rd Class license. In a country of 300 million that means there are potentially 3 million professional practitioners. However, it takes hard work and training to develop that raw talent. There are currently in the United States about 1 million licensed practitioners. Of that about 100,000 are rated 2nd Class, with about 10,000 1st Class Magic-Users, and about 300 Masters in the entire country.

There are also ancient private schools of magic whose traditions extend hundreds of years into the past. These schools are not registered with the Guild and specialize in unique types of magic that are considered illegal. The Guild of Magic-Users actively hunts these schools yet they persist.

The multiverse is layered with world stacked upon world the only thing separating each realm of existence is the veil. The veil separates what is, from what might have been, and from what may yet come to be. It’s as thin as silk and yet unless one has the power and skill it is impenetrable. For those with the ability it can be parted and thus, Elves, Dwarves, Fairies, Ogres, Orcs, and Trolls and all manner of legendary creatures now walk the earth.

The power of magic is rising how humanity reacts will chart the course of civilization of the next thousand years. An Age has come to an end and a new Age has arrived and as yet no one has noticed.

The Elves had reflexively cast illusion spells over themselves to prevent anyone from noticing as they thundered toward the rebel camp. For me the ride around the island was a blur. Sitting behind Sir Galohond might sound romantic but I’m not a skilled rider. I had one hand wrapped around his waist and I clutched my staff with my other hand. My breasts were crushed into the metal armor protecting Galohond’s back and as we bounced along I was glad, for the first time that I could recall, that I didn’t have a set of balls. Because they would have been black and blue from the beating my bottom was taking as I struggled to stay on. My entire world view narrowed to just hanging on. As we got closer Galohond slowed the troop to a walk and then finally stopped several hundred yards short of the outer wards.

“We’ll wait here until the other squads report in” he said glancing back at me over his shoulder.

“Fine” I said and slipped off the horse.

I couldn’t help rubbing my bottom as I looked around. It took me a few minutes to figure out where we’d stopped. Once oriented I opened my sensing ability to the fullest, the wards in front of us were just as I’d observed earlier only now I was closer so I focused on the building or buildings beneath the illusion. The vague shape of a wall swam into view. It was huge and not too far away but that was as much as I could determine.

The quite was shattered by the sound of a horn wailing from within the heart of the warded area.

“Command, this is Randgos the 1st has been compromised. Standing by for orders.”

The sound of Randgos calm voice coming from the crystal on the back of Galohond’s right gauntlet was unnaturally loud. Galohond swore once then touched the crystal.

“All squads attack now. Push onto the objective and remain in contact. Acknowledge.”

“1st Squad, roger attacking.”

“2nd Squad is in position and attacking.”

“3rd Squad 2 minutes from position, attacking.”

“This is Command and the 4th squad attacking.”

Galohond said and turned to me, “Morgana” he reached down from the saddle and extending his hand.

“So we’re done with stealth right?”

After Sir Galohond nodded I turned to face the place where these criminals were holding my mother.

“Then I think I’ll handle my own transportation from this point, thank you.”

As I said this I summoned every bit of rage, and fear I could muster and then used my emotions to help me draw in the magic. Next I focused on the ring on my hand, with a trickle of power I activated it and felt a powerful body shield distort the air slightly around me. Galohond had been watching me for the second this had taken and I looked up at him making eye contact.

“You’re Queen is Turethiel Isilidhrindal can you show her to me?”

In answer Galohond held out his hand palm up and an illusion of a red haired Elven woman in a green and silver gown appeared hovering over his palm. Instead of concentrating on the image I used the power of the tiara and drew on Galohond’s memories as he focused on the Queen. I poured as much power into the tiara as I dared and let its magic take hold. This was a type of magic I’d never been very good at, but mind magic and illusions were the reason this artifact existed. My ancestor who’d crafted the tiara had been one of the most skilled Illusionists of her time. It was said she’d learned her craft at the feet of an Elven King and lover hundreds of years ago.

I heard the Elves around me gasp and seeing the look of shock on Galohond’s face I felt satisfied that the power I was sending into this illusion was having the desired effect. In my hand instead of a staff I now carried a spear. I glanced up at Edgar and saw that he’d been caught up in the glamour as well. Instead of a crow a small dragonet roughly twice Edgar’s normal size flew in a lazy circle around my head.

“Morgana I’m not sure what spell your using but if I hadn’t seen you do it I’d swear that my Queen was standing here garbed for battle with her mighty spear Tathanir in her hand and her familiar Gwethdadaaiel flying above her.”

I looked down at myself and saw a form fitting breast plate making up the center piece of traditional Elven armor covering me. The colors were the Queen’s silver and green and the outfit itself consisted of steel, silver, leather and silk revealing and protecting at the same time.

“Then it’s time to do what we came to do.”

I noticed that even my voice had changed as I turned back to the ward and considered it for a second. Wards are my specialty. These were Elven wards and I wasn’t all that familiar with the design. Yet there are things that hold constant for every ward, ways to exploit strengths and make them weaknesses, and ways to simply untie the ward so that it collapses under its own weight. I focused all of my attention on this Elven ward and lifted my staff (even though it looked like a spear I could tell that its nature was unchanged) and sent my power and will through it using the staff to shape the spell. Light burst from what appeared to be the spear’s tip flew across the sky and hit the ward. The ward shimmered into view for the first time visible to the naked eye, a spider web lattice of intricately wrought magic. My power flowed down each line, mapping it and displaying it. After a few seconds I had what I was after I cut through a key linkage here and caused a power imbalance there and suddenly like a row of dominoes it started to collapse. Within seconds the entire ward had dissolved collapsing with a faint popping sound.

“Ride Sir Galohond the enemies of your Queen are before you.”

I said in my most commanding voice. Then without waiting to see if they would follow I active my telekinetic power and rose smoothly into the air and flew toward the now visible castle. Below and behind me I could hear the cries of the Elven warriors and the thunder of their mounts hooves, but I focused on the gate directly in front of me. I reached again drawing power into me and focusing it through my staff, I pointed at the gate.

“Frigidam!”

The spell lashed out and even at this distance I could feel the back blast of cold air. The gate of iron and oak turned white with frost and a lattice of ice spread out from the gate to the wall and ground around it.

Now I gripped my staff with both hands holding one end and spun it around my head and then snapped it down to point at the gate.

“Ruptis!”

An invisible fist of telekinetic force surged toward the frozen gate. The impact sounded like a freight train hitting a wall and the gate rang with a resounding boom. Yet it held. Again I drew on my power focusing on filling my chakra with as much energy as possible.

“Frigidam!”

My power lashed out and the slightly damaged gate was once again coated with frost. As quickly as I could I drew in power and shouted while pointing my staff at the gate.

“Ruptis!”

Again the gate rang and this time numerous cracks showed while pieces of stone and masonry fell from the wall above it. Edgar’s dragonet roar alerted me just before my body shield flared absorbing the strike of a magic missile. We were losing the element of surprise and my mother was in there! Suddenly I was terrified for his safety and then I was angry, angrier than I’d ever been in my life. I channeled every bit of rage that I could this time as I drew in my power. More and more power, I filled my chakra and then I forced more power in, finally feeling like I was about to burst with I shouted as loud as I could.

“Frigidam!” Then I spun my staff and howled, “RUPTIS!”

This time the gate shattered with a thunderous boom blowing thousands of fragments of gate and part of the wall around it into the courtyard behind the gate. While I’d been focused on the gate several Elven warriors had assembled in response to the alarm, their shields flared as they were bombarded with shrapnel and most were thrown back by the force of the blast.
I sailed toward and above the wall having no intention of landing. A guard tower over the gate had four Elven Warriors each with the traditional great bows. The arrows glowed with green, gold, purple, and red power as they shot them up at me. I responded with a wall of air sweeping them to one side and off the tower. All four had body shields which had flared but hadn’t stopped me from pushing them off the tower. I couldn’t tell if they’d been injured in the fall but I was satisfied with having cleared the top of the tower.

“The Queen, the Queen is here.”

I looked around trying to spot the person shouting and then I spotted another guard tower with a single guard. His hand was on a large crystal mounted and it glowed with a soft white light as he shouted into it.

“The Queen is here fly, QUEEN TURETHIEL ISILIDHRINDAL IS UPON US WE ARE UNDONE!”

I couldn’t have asked for a better panicked response. The guard tried to jump into the courtyard but I hit him with a magic missile. One of the simplest of spells however I used my staff to focus and magnify my spell. His shield flared and then the missile smashed through his body causing him to tumble to the courtyard below.

I hovered over the ruined gate and cast a spell which blazed a beacon of light into the sky and caused me to become so intensely bright for a few moments that no one could look at me. I knew this would buy only a second or two but I needed to send a message. I pulled out my phone and pushed send on the text message I’d already typed up for Mark.

“It’s begun.”

I didn’t wait for his response instead I focused on the wall to the great hall in front of me. Again pushing energy through the staff I blew a hole through the wall and augmented my voice with power so that it echoed with concussive force around the castle.

“Arangalad Larothta and Siofra Aldalithe submit to me now or face my wraith!”

I had deliberately made a target of myself hoping to draw the Elves attention. I got my wish as spells lashed out at me from all directions. I used my shield to absorb the power and felt my ring start to grow warm indicating that it was beginning to reach its limit. As this happened I floated closer to the hole I’d blown in the great hall. I couldn’t take much more of this and hopped that Galohond would be through the gate soon.

While I’d been absorbing the attacks I used the staff to quest back along the line of each spell so that now even though I couldn’t see most of my targets, in fact several were firing on me from behind stone battlements, it didn’t matter. These Elves were in the human realm and I was one of the most powerful Magic-Users of this realm. They were about to learn that human magic was both strong and subtle. My spell reached through the ether seeking and finding each Elf slipping through their shields since a questing didn’t match the criteria required by a shield to defend. With this gossamer connection established I held each target in my mind I whispered;

“Illuminare.”

Twenty tendrils of power wafted out sliding down the bond slipping through body shields and all around the curtain wall twenty individual began glow. Then cries of pain rang out as the glow became heat and they started to burn. Unfortunately the spell wasn’t fast enough to kill them as the elves worked to counter the magic but in did distract them. And more importantly they were now unable to hide behind illusions or in the rubble they should be easy targets for Galohond.
Just then Sir Galohond and his troop clattered into the courtyard, with all of the defenses focused on me they’d had no problem getting into the fortress. As I disappeared into the Great Hall I saw Galohond look up at me. Even at this distance I could see the surprise on his face.

When the alarm went off Arangalad had been pulled from a deep sleep. Climbing to his feet he was confused at first but quickly focused on the alarm as he pull on his clothes. He looked around and realized that Siofra was missing.

“Damn that woman, she won’t be able to sit down for a week when I’m through with her.”

Just as he finished buckling on his sword he felt the wards go down. All of them and all at the same moment, “what in the nine hells is attacking us, he thought.”

The pounding on the door wasn’t unexpected and he made a gesture causing it to swing open and the Elven guard almost fell into the room.

“My Lord we are under attack. The ward was tripped along the south west section but now the whole thing is down.”

“Yes, fool, I’m linked to the ward. I know it’s down. Who is the Captain of the Guard tonight?” Arangalad snarled.

“Captain Caltidiriel Isilidirseer.”

Arangalad lifted his gauntlet clad hand to his mouth and touched the crystal. “Captain Isilidirseer, this is Arangalad, status report.”

“My lord status of enemy force unknown, the wards are down. I’m proceeding to the central tower to assess the …”

A loud explosion rocked the building and caused several cracks to appear in the wall behind Arangalad.

“By Hothyan’s balls what was that?” Arangalad said.

“My lord I just reached the tower, it looks like the main gate is down. I repeat the main gate is down and an assault force is riding hard for the gate. No, no it can’t be….”

“The Queen is here fly, QUEEN TURETHIEL ISILIDHRINDAL IS UPON US WE ARE UNDONE!”

Arangalad stood silent for a moment his mind frozen in shock. Then he lifted the gem to his mouth again.

“Captain Isilidirseer, can you confirm that report.”

“My Lord I’m looking at Queen Isilidhrindal, I say again Queen Isilidhrindal is here!”

Arangalad’s mind seemed to whirl in a frenzy. How could she be here? The last report he’d seen placed her in her Palace in Summer. Even though his little group was officially in rebellion against her reign his spies in the palace had indicated that she wasn’t taking his threat all that seriously. Then there were the serious legal and diplomatic implications for the ruler of an Elven nation invading and taking military action on United States soil.

Arangalad also realized this was an ideal time to attack. He had just under 200 warriors here, he’d led half of them on the raid last night on the Donegal estate. The raid hadn’t gone well and he’d lost more than a quarter of his force, either captured or killed. Another ten had been injured and although they had been healed with magic they were all exhausted. He had ordered minimum manning in order to give his warriors time to rest. Arangalad felt like his mind was moving in slow motion. A second explosion shook the room this time louder and with more violence. Arangalad lost his footing and fell in an uncharacteristic way to the floor.

“Arangalad Larothta and Siofra Aldalithe submit to me now or face my wraith!”

The sound of the Queen’s voice echoed through the room sending a shiver of fear along Arangalad’s spine. With the spike of adrenaline that accompanied the fear Arangalad’s mind started functioning again. He decided that he couldn’t risk a confrontation with the Queen and her forces. Much as he hated to admit it this was a fight he was going to lose.

“My lord I’m not sure how but the Queen breached the gate and his killed or injured most of the soldiers on the curtain wall. Her forces are entering the castle resisted. What are your orders?”

Arangalad lifted the gem again and directed a trickle of power into it changing its color slightly. “This is Arangalad to all-hands, full retreat. I say again full retreat, rally at pre-designated rally points.”

Angrily Arangalad strode into the hallway. A small PSD (personal security detail) consisting of four guards formed up around him in a diamond formation as they headed down the hall. There were two artifacts that Arangalad intended to secure before he parted the veil and fled into Summer. A soft cold and scary feminine voice whispered in the back of his mind, if he failed in this task whatever remained of his life would be spent in agony.

Mark had been sitting impatiently waiting for some kind of signal that the operation was underway. After a couple of hours of trying to listen to music or read from his Kindle he felt a stirring in the ether. Knowing this might be the first sign of the assault he opened his sensing ability. Yes, there was the Mask to the north right where he’d felt it all day. Mark climbed out of Morgana’s car stood up and stretched. He could feel the ward and even almost catch a glimpse of it with his third eye but it was at the far end of his ability. Abruptly it just vanished.

“What the hell?”

Mark had never heard of a ward of that magnitude just going down.

“Morgana and Galohond must have started.”

He said out loud to himself. Mark got into the Charger and turned on the motor he wanted to be ready as soon as Morgana called him in. Mark wasn’t surprised when all at once his magical senses registered a huge explosion of magical force followed by the casting of dozens of spells to the north. Suddenly his cell phone buzzed. The message was simple; “It’s begun.”

It felt like a major magical battle had started as Mark felt magic flicker back and forth as spells were cast. He put the car in gear and pulled out of the truck-stop and headed north. As Mark drove closer to the battle the intensity escalated to the point where he had to start shutting down his magical senses and focus on the road.

“Crap what am I doing? Even in Afghanistan I never saw anything like that.”

The lights from the magical fight lit up the horizon as twilight settled in. Mark drove on.

Galohond led his troop through a maze of rooms on the lower level of the citadel. The assault was going better than he’d hoped. Especially once he’d seen the size of the rebel stronghold. So far most of the enemy warriors he’d faced were in a state of shock and only had time to grab a weapon before his War Band engaged them. In fact most of the fighters were only interested in fleeing. Not that he blamed them, with the show of power and skill that Morgana had put on most of the rebel Elves were convinced that Queen Isilidhrindal was here in person. If Galohond hadn’t seen Morgana change into the Queen he’d have been certain it was her as well. Then there was the way she’d breached the fortress, Galohond figured that even if Isilidhrindal were here she couldn’t have put on a better show. As Galohond rounded a corner he caught a glimpse of a familiar female figure down a long corridor and then she was gone. His heart started to race unless he was mistaken that was Siofra!

I moved through the upper galleries of the Great Hall looking for my mother. Normally I’d be able to use a spell linked to the blood relationship between a parent and child. However Morgana’s body wasn’t actually a blood relation to my former body. Before I’d left the Donegal estate I’d taken a dozen or so of mother’s hairs from the hairbrush in his bathroom. Using these I cast a spell that gave me the general direction of where he was being held. Along the way I encountered several more Elves, two surrendered as soon as they saw me. I figured I couldn’t trust them so I stunned and bound them, the others I killed. They’d kidnapped my mother and I wasn’t going to try to be chivalrous. I just wanted to get to him as fast as I could and they were in the way. When I came to my third dead end I began to feel like I was stuck in a maze. In frustration I blasted a hole in the wall and stepped through it into a storage room.

“I’m done walking in circles” I muttered. So I faced the direction I needed to go and blew a hole in the next wall.

Max was frustrated the entire castle was in confusion. It had been easy for Max after leaving Evaline to veil herself with magic and move through the passageways undetected. However she’d been forced to detour twice to avoid pockets of fighting that blocked the passageway and only now was able to approach her room. Arangalad had made her store the Mask in her room and had told her not to touch it or use its power without his permission. Max decided that she would take the Mask and escape. She had two reasons for this. First Arangalad wanted it so she didn’t want him to have it. Second and more important the only way that Max could practice magic in the human realm was by drawing power through the Mask. So as much as she loathed the thing unless she wanted to live in Summer where she was a wanted criminal she needed the Mask. Max slipped into her room and went to the chest where the Mask was stored. When she heard a key in the lock she froze for a second. Max quickly veiled herself and cast a levitation spell once she was flat against the ceiling she used another spell she’d learned as an apprentice to hide all traces of the spells she’d just cast making it almost impossible to detect her spells.

Arangalad entered the room and his four guards spread out looking ready for anything. The rage Max felt upon seeing Arangalad was almost enough for her to drop the veil and attack him right there. Max saw red! This was the man who’d enslaved her, both body and mind and had figuratively and physically fucked her. Suddenly all she could think about was settling the score with him. But Max had never been strong at offensive magic. She’d been trained as a thief not a fighter or Magic-User. After his attempt to subdue Siofra he’d gained a small portion of her memories and skills. This foundation had been built upon by Arangalad with his command for Max to do his best to impersonate Siofra. Under Arangalad’s ungentle hand Max had learned over the past few days a great deal about Elven magic and several powerful offensive spells. She still wasn’t a fighter but she was a far cry from helpless. Additionally Max had at her command several of Siofra’s favorite spells. As Max thought about this and tried to summon the courage to attack Arangalad pulled the Mask from the chest and dropped it into a pouch which he tied to his belt. He then spun about and headed out the door.

Once the five Elves were gone Max drifted to the floor. Suddenly she was shaking uncontrollable. Max had never felt so helpless she wrapped her arms around herself as she sank to her knees. For several long minutes Max tried to tame a rollercoaster of emotions, fear, rage, pain, humiliation and even lust as she’d been forced to learn a woman’s passion and crave her master’s touch. Slowly Max gained control of herself and the emotions settled into a cold anger. Max decided then and there that nothing else mattered she would have revenge on Arangalad for what he had done to her. Using her connection to the Mask she followed Arangalad hanging back and trying to remain undetected, but waiting for an opportunity to attack. As Max walked she focused on the Siofra memories of dueling and her favorite spells.

Mark pulled the Charger to a stop in front of the shattered gates of the castle.

“No way, a fucking castle” Mark said out loud in awe.

She got out of the car and went around to the trunk. Mark had convinced Morgana to stop by her apartment before driving out. Mark may have been out of the Army but she still enjoyed shooting and had several guns at her place. In fact through some of her Army buddies she had a couple of items that were not necessarily 100% legal. Now she started arming up. She pulled a Beretta semi-automatic 9mm from its case pushed a 15 round mag into the stock and racked it flipping the safety off putting the weapon in condition ‘red’. Mark already had a tactical Blackhawk belt holster clipped on so she slotted the weapon into it and pulled out her primary weapon system. The M4, she adjusted the shoulder harness and slung the weapon in front of her and pushed in a 30 round mag. Next she put into the cargo pockets of her pants several magazines. The right pocket held four mags of 5.56mm ammo and the left pocket held four mags of 9mm ammo. Feeling better prepared to handle anything that might come this way Mark settled to one side of the Charger and waited for Morgana’s phone call.

Mark had only been in position for a few minutes when he noticed four Elves racing out of the ruined gate. They were in various states of dress and had the look of rats fleeing a sinking ship. Mark stood up and sighted them down the barrel of the M4.

“Halt!” He shouted opening his senses up at the same time.

The nearest Elf made a gesture and a bolt of magical energy sizzled toward Mark. Mark’s body shield flared up just as he’d practiced with Morgana taking the blast. Mark didn’t hesitated firing a three round burst into the lead Elf. The Elf’s shield flared absorbing the rounds so Mark went full auto had hosed down all four Elves. Each of their shields absorbed several rounds and then flickered out. The first two went down under Marks barrage of fire and then ran out of ammo.
Mark dropped the M4 letting its sling catch it, drew his Beretta, and smoothly continued firing. With their shields down the Elves tried to dive for cover but this was a game Mark had played many times while in the Army. In a matter seconds all four Elves were down. Mark ejected the mag and racked a new one. He then holstered his 9mm and repeated the process with the M4 and returned to his position by the car. As far as he was concerned he would maintain this position until called forward.

Arangalad was in a rage, he had left his room knowing he had to collect both artifacts and try to salvage something from this disaster. To top it off Siofra had somehow managed to escape him. She should have been by his side fighting with him and serving as his loyal slave. Arangalad had hoped that she had slipped out of his bedroom and simply returned to her bedroom but when he’d retrieved the Mask there had been no sign of her. Arangalad headed toward the room with the chair. He knew that he needed to collet it and then escape into Summer. For a moment Arangalad considered a detour to fetch Evaline but with all of the chaos and fighting he decided it would be too much of a risk. Along the way he had run into some of the attacking forces and had killed two Elves and retreated from the others. Now at last he was approaching the room with the chair.

Suddenly the wall across from the room exploded and Queen Isilidhrindal stepped through the hole. Arangalad was surprised, then his reflexes kicked in, and he raised both hands sending twin blasts of green and gold energy into her. The Queen’s shield flared with a brilliant emerald energy deflecting his blast. She turned to look at Arangalad and her eyes blazed with silver light. She raised a hand and a wall of force slammed forward knocking Arangalad and his guards off their feet and sending them tumbling down the hall. From the floor Arangalad saw her raise a hand and blast down the door to the room with the chair.

Arangalad was confused if the Queen was here to take him and Siofra for their crimes why was she ignoring him. Something was not right and Arangalad’s suspicious mind wondered if this was really the Queen. Could it all have been a trick? If it was then he was too late to stop the evacuation and coordinate the defense of the citadel. It wasn’t too late to take this imposter prisoner and escape with her and the Chair into Summer. A female voice sounded in Arangalad’s mind causing him to shiver.

“Bring her to me, my servant and I will reward you.”

Feeling determined Arangalad stalked down the hall and into the room with the Chair.

I blasted through one wall after another. Sometimes walking down a hallway others stepping through rooms, I didn’t care about the carnage I left behind I was focused on one thing only finding my mother. By the time I’d knocked down my fifth wall I stepped into a corridor with a door directly opposite me. My shield flared as I was hit from my left by a blast of energy stronger than most. I glanced to my left and saw five Elves so I hit them with a wall of telekinetic energy sending them tumbling down the hall and then focused on the door. It was child’s play to knock it down and I stepped into a room with no furnishings except a fancy oak chair sitting in the center of the room. My spell told me that my mother was to my left. So I opened my third eye and examined the room. I instantly saw the veil hid him. I cast a counter spell which nullified the veil and gave me my first clear view of my mother curled up on one side sleeping. I felt a sense of relief wash over me just as pain seared into my back and I was thrown forward. I hit the opposite wall several feet above the floor and felt my shield flare cushioning the blow before I landed on my ass.

I looked back and saw the five Elves I’d knocked down now standing in the door way looking pissed off and ready for a fight. I’d lost my grip on my staff but as I slowly climbed to my feet I caused it to fly into my hand. These guys looked calm, confident and ready for a fight! They were obviously different from the Elves I’d encountered earlier.

“Surrender now and I may be merciful,” I said playing on my glamour.

“I don’t know who you are but Turethiel Isilidhrindal you are not!”

The blonde Elf who seemed to be in charge said. Suddenly it clicked and I knew who he was. “Arangalad Larothta you miscreant I am your Queen submit to my will!”

At this he laughed dispelling the scene I’d tried to create. Obviously he didn’t believe my illusion. But at this point it didn’t really matter because I was here and there was nothing he could do to stop me from rescuing my mother.

“You are not the Queen, dispel your glamour that I may know the face of my enemy.”

I’d had enough of hiding anyway so I dropped the glamour and gave my enemies their first look at me.

“I’m Morgana Aoife Livingstone, Goddaughter to Evaline Mor Donegal, Magic-User Master Class and if you’ve done anything to my Godmother I’ll make you beg before I kill you.”

The look of surprise on Arangalad’s face was replaced with recognition which pleased me for a moment and then I attacked. Because the space was relatively confined I sent five magic missiles burning toward them as a distraction. At the same instant I used my tiara to create five identical images of me for them to deal with while veiling. Next I sent light shaped into several daggers spinning at them along with a blast of lightning.

I was surprised when all five elves survived my initial offensive. They countered by sending walls of force, a gale of icy wind, shuriken made of mystical energy, while two of them pulled out their swords which glowed with green energy and rushed forward.

I sent my illusionary doppelgangers forward to deal with the first two. Since they believed they were fighting me they actually engaged in a physical battle. I knew that I had to get more creative so I focused on the two guards that remained by Arangalad’s side and using a power of the staff transformed the air in one of the guard’s lungs to water.

He went down coughing and clutching his throat concentration broken. Arangalad hit one of my doppelgangers with beam of pure darkness and swept it sideways through two more. The anti-magic cut through the illusions with a feedback that caused my tiara to heat up and breaking the illusion entirely.

I lifted my hand to cast my next spell when noticed the other guard with Arangalad was down and then the air distorted directly behind Arangalad. A hand reached out of thin air to wrap around his neck. A second hand with its fingers transformed so that they ended in a set of wicked looking claws reached with a familiar precision into Arangalad’s groin sliding under his armored cod piece. With a quick raking movement the claws ripped up and out holding a piece of bloody meat. Arangalad’s shriek of raw agony echoed around the room. He collapsed forward curling into a ball around his pain. The woman behind Arangalad tossed her bloody prize to one side and drove her transformed hand into the side of his neck and shoulder as she glared down at him.

“You always seemed so eager to give me your cock when I was your slave. I thought I’d take permanently now that I’m free of you. Die in agony!”

The two Elves who’d been fighting my illusions leapt toward her swords extended but she opened her mouth and spate a glowing green fire. The fire hit the Elf to her left and blasted through his shield and chest knocking him back several feet searing a hole through the spot where his heart had been.

Before the Elf to her right reached her I hit him with a series of magic missiles knocking him into the far wall and then punching through his shield and riddling his body. In less than a second his body slid to the floor leaving a wet streak behind. The Elf I’d cast my spell turning the air in his lungs to water stopped moving since the spell continuously changed any air he managed to suck in into water while he tried to coughed up as much water as they could. Evidently he had neither the training nor self-discipline to dispel the magic while distracted and choking.

I looked across the room at the blonde female Elf, “Siofra I presume?”

“No, I’m not Siofra. My name is Max and I’ll be going now.”

“I’m afraid not Max. I appreciate your help but I’d like to ask you a few questions like. Is your real name Maximilian Alexander Dionissis?”

The look of shock on the woman’s face was all that I needed to confirm my suspension.

“Look I’m not a murder and I was not helping these guys. They had me under a compulsion just like they’ve got Evaline under one now.”

“Why don’t you start at the beginning and explain to me what’s going on?” I said glancing at my sleeping mother and not hearing anything from the hallway I figured that I had time to understand this mystery before I acted.

However my mother opened her eyes and turned her head spotting Siofra. “Momma?”

I glanced at Siofra and then back at my mother confused. Now he sat up and looked around apparently frightened. But when he saw me his posture suddenly changed. He lunged to his feet.

“Die!”

Evaline screamed extending both hands and blasting me with my former signature purple fire. I raised my hand blocking the flames and directing them to one side. I was startled that blast had been considerably more powerful than I’d been capable of.

“Mother stop, it’s Morgana!” I said trying to figure out what was going on.

He snarled with an inarticulate rage dove forward into a roll and came up a few feet from me his fists pumping with a quick one two motion. In response to mother’s attack, two bursts of telekinetic energy slammed into my shield, blowing me completely through the wall and into the air outside the room.

I activated my own telekinesis and caught myself in the air at least thirty feet above the ground. When I looked back my mother was standing in the whole in the wall eyes blazing with madness. Then he leapt into the air and flew up toward me! I had never been strong enough to have cast any of those spells. What the hell was going on? How had he got so strong and why was he attacking me?

“Mother its Alastar! Stop!”

He made a slashing motion and a crescent shaped blade of pure magical energy blazed toward me. I poured energy into my ring and then used my tiara to veil myself and dropped several feet while causing a doppelganger to appear in the space I’d just been occupying. Mother clapped both of his hands together and a sword of purple energy came into being. He then flew strait at my illusion.

Back in the room with the chair Max watched the battle between mother and daughter for a few heart beats and then turned away. She moved over to where Arangalad was unconscious and bleeding to death and pulled the bag with the Mask from his belt and turned to look outside again. As Max watched Evaline drove a sword through Morgana and Morgana’s body dissolved. Grinning at Morgana’s clever use of illusion Max turned to leave and then spotted the chair.

Suddenly she felt a surge of hate for that chair! How many people were under its influence? If Evaline where free from the compulsion there was no way he’d be fighting his daughter, …. Max drew all the power she could through the Mask and then hit the chair with the most powerful fire spell she could summon.

“BURN!”

The intensity of the heat surprised Max and she backed away from the chair into the hallway. It was blazing with red, gold, purple, green, and blue flames and for a moment Max thought she could hear voices screaming in the flames. Max figured she’d done all she could and turned to head down the hallway when she felt a binding spell slip around her.

“Cousin, I have you!”

Galohond said striding forward holding a bloody sword in one hand. Max started to cast a spell that would dissolve the magical bonds but before she could Galohond’s second spell took hold and Max passed out.

I watched my mother slice through my illusion dispelling it and cast a binding spell. I felt my spell settle around mother’s shield and I was surprised when the shield held. Mother spun around searching for me, so I focused on the binding powering energy into it. Suddenly his shield collapsed and the binding took hold. For a moment he was helpless but I knew better than to relax.

Then I spotted a dark foul smoke pour from the hole where my mother had smashed me through the wall and I felt a wave of energy pass by me. When I glanced back at mother he was no longer struggling, instead he was looking around confused. I decided to take a chance and dropped my veil and flew up in front of him.

“Mother?” I asked.

“Alastar?”

“It’s Morgana mother, do you remember?”

Suddenly tears were pouring down his cheeks.

“Alastar … I’m … sorry, I was … trying to … stop but … couldn’t. The chair … it made m…me.”

The words came out between sobs. I felt my heart break and flew up to wrap him in a hug. We floated there for several minutes before looking around. I knew that I needed to find Siofra and Galohond and figure out what was going on. I looked around trying to take stock of the situation. The fighting appeared to be over so I carried us back to the hole, the room appeared to be filled with smoke so I caused a wind to come up and pulled out the remaining smoke. Once we landed inside the room I released my mother and took a look around.

Where the chair had been only a pile of ash remained. The bodies of the five Elves lay on the floor but what surprised me was that Arangalad moved his head weakly to look over at us.

“I’m free” he whispered in wonder.

I looked at my mother but he was staring at the pile of ashes that had been a chair. So I moved over to Arangalad and knelt next to him. As I did this Galohond walked into the room he saw Arangalad and with a choking noise hurried over and knelt on Arangalad’s other side.

“Brother” Galohond whispered.

Arangalad looked over at Galohond and his eyes seemed to focus. A faint smile crossed his face.

“Be happy brother I’m free.”

“Free of what?”

“The woman the one who chained our minds and made us her slaves, Siofra and I, we never had a choice.” Arangalad’s eyes fell on the ashes and he smiled.

“I go to my death happy brother, I am no longer a slave and that cursed chair is gone. Forgive me and tell mother and father I’m sorry. I will wait for you in the afterlife and we can hunt together like we did when we were boys.”

With that the life seemed to fade from his eyes and when I touched his neck I couldn’t feel a pulse. I looked up to see tears streaming down Galohond’s face as he began to mourn his brother.