Chapter 64: Berserkir
Berserkir; Ezio’s Family Valhalla Remix; Samuel Kim
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This whole thing was a mess, and there was no denying that. Morgyn kept fidgeting with just about anything in range of the brunet, had been jittering off and on since they’d all met up.
Today was the day. The sun was barely up. Morgyn had probably way too many cups of coffee during preparation stage, but they were all together, the spell casters all paired off with a vampire that could use mist form, and they were invading magic realm today.
It felt very weird to be thinking that they were invading magic realm. Morgyn had lived in magic realm for most of the brunet’s life, and Morgyn was a sage now. If anyone belonged in magic realm, it was Morgyn. The brunet decided not to think about it too hard, before Morgyn started having an existential crisis.
L had given Morgyn a necklace. Simeon wasn’t coming either, and they’d enchanted something, to send Morgyn off with what protections they could. Neither could say for certain what the enchantments would do, but Morgyn had a feeling the brunet would find out.
Everything was going to be okay. Everyone kept saying that. Morgyn wasn’t sure anymore who they were trying to convince. Morgyn wasn’t.
“Nobody has any magic,” Lakshmi said. “So how are we intending to get her separated from the All without killing her?”
Lilith shrugged. “Drake and I are going to try and tag-team her,” she said. “Hopefully we can figure out a way of undoing their fusion with a combination of our psychic abilities, but we’ve never tried before.”
For obvious reasons, really. This was the first time they’d ever had someone manage to fuse with the damned thing. If it wasn’t so important, Morgyn would be considering destroying the All by now, that it was never a temptation for anyone else ever again. Magic realm was supposed to be a safe haven, not an incidental battleground.
One couldn’t call what they had right now terribly peaceful. But Morgyn supposed, that was what happened when you had a gigantic weapon just hanging around in your secret dimension somewhere.
Caleb reached down wordlessly, taking one of Morgyn’s hands. Turned out that hand had been relentlessly pulling against the brunet’s sweater. Morgyn looked down at their hands for a moment, and then up at Caleb. He smiled.
Morgyn just felt more nervous, though the sage smiled back, and then turned towards the floor. A gun rested at Morgyn’s hip, a belt of UV bullets just below it. None of them were turned on; Morgyn had made the bullets’ UV light turn on by twisting the end of the bullet and causing the wires inside to come into contact with the battery wires in the base.
It was relatively genius, if Morgyn said so. It seemed more like something Ezio would’ve come up with than Morgyn. The brunet had to wonder if he’d incidentally helped. Astral projection was Ezio’s thing.
“The way we figure,” Drake said, “the All should want loose of her as much as we want it loose.”
Unconsciously, Morgyn squeezed Caleb’s hand, one leg shaking. The nerves honestly, but then Morgyn was every bit a go-getter and had been ready for this for weeks. At least, so Morgyn thought. The downtime between there and here, it was probably kind of important.
“So we could just be committing grandiose suicide?” Lakshmi asked.
Morgyn snorted. Nobody else said anything.
“Sounds fun at least,” Lakshmi said.
“Everyone remember the plan?” Lilith asked.
Trust her to take the lead in this excursion. Trust her to take the lead, really. Morgyn shouldn’t have been surprised, and wasn’t for the most part. In a sense, it was nice that she’d done the most predictable thing for her to do, because Morgyn wasn’t interested in leading, not this one, not this time.
Morgyn just wanted Ezio back. Frankly, if magic realm went down along the way, the sage may or may not even give a damn.
Magic realm could be replaced, honestly. They could come up with something else, practise somewhere else. Things weren’t as dangerous as they used to be. But people couldn’t just be replaced the same way.
“Get in, separate her from the All, or kill her, whichever one, get Ezio, and get out,” Elle said.
Inna giggled, bouncing slightly. “I’ve never gotten to do one of these before!”
“Don’t get too excited,” Elle said, smirking at her. “It’s not all that great.”
“Beats sitting around at home waiting for you to come back,” Inna said, frowning. “Besides, I’ve always wanted to defeat an ancient vampire.”
Cassandra snorted. “It’ll be like a Final Fantasy boss battle,” she said.
“A what?” half of those present asked.
Cassandra looked amused. “Never mind,” she answered, smirking.
Morgyn smiled slightly, turning around to face Caleb. “Just so you know,” Morgyn said quietly, in a tone meant only for him, “I love you.”
Caleb released a breath, taking Morgyn’s other hand in his. “Don’t say that,” he said. “It almost sounds like goodbye, and we’re all going to be just fine. Sarnai will go down, and we’ll get Ezio home.”
“You keep saying that,” Morgyn answered, “but the reality is we may fail miserably at this. And even if we succeed, a few of us may be lost along the way. It is what it is.”
“Hey,” Caleb said, “I’m making it, and so are you. And so is Ezio. Don’t give up before the battle’s even begun. We’ve gotta make it through this, and we’re not going to do that by being pessimistic.”
Yeah, but Morgyn was better at being pessimistic. It came more naturally, too.
Instead of saying anything, Morgyn just reached up, hands resting against Caleb’s jaw, and tapped the brunet’s forehead against Caleb’s. Sometimes, just being close to him, it was enough to chase away some of Morgyn’s demons, clear the head a little, make it notably easier to think.
“But so you know,” Caleb said, moving slightly to kiss Morgyn’s forehead, “I love you, too.”
Yeah. Morgyn knew that. The brunet had never really questioned that before save for at the surface level, and maybe their bond with each other was stronger for it now. Morgyn just hoped Caleb was right, and this thing turned out okay.
* * *
It took several tries before they finally broke through and into magic realm. It turned out, the pathways that led into it were magical, too, and when the All’s magic died, those pathways closed. Through great effort, Lilith managed to forge a new pathway that led the right way, but it took a good deal of energy to do it on her part.
Unsurprising, all things considered.
Morgyn and Caleb hit the ground first, rolling across the grass for a short period before coming to a stop. Caleb shielded the brunet the entire way. Lilith hit the ground after them, stumbling slightly and then flipping herself around and regaining her balance.
Lilith was so cool. Morgyn wanted to be her when the sage grew up.
Morgyn sat up, Caleb standing up and holding a hand down to help Morgyn up. As the sage got up, Lilith went sensing around for Sarnai, and the others came in; Drake and Cassandra had a slightly cleaner landing than everyone else. Lakshmi, Elle, and Inna crashed the same way Morgyn, Lilith, and Caleb had. Drake and Cassandra stumbled just slightly, and then found their balance.
Maybe it was because there were only two of them, rather than three like the other two groups.
Cassandra pulled a sunlight potion off her hip, handing one to Morgyn, then one to Lakshmi. Of the eight of them, only three were spell casters; the others were vampires and susceptible to the potions’ effects. Strange how so many of them were vampires. Then again, Morgyn and Ezio made a lot of vampire friends.
Morgyn slid a UV bullet off the belt, replacing it with the potion. Then, Morgyn turned around, twisted the bullet on, and shoved it into the gun.
“Sarnai is that way,” Lilith said, pointing somewhere beyond headquarters.
Morgyn straightened up, looking around. It was kind of depressing, to see the state of magic realm as it was now. Meteors fell from the sky, crashing randomly into the islands. More bits and pieces of them had broken off, Morgyn could tell. The sky wasn’t alive with light anymore, and Caster’s Alley looked like it’d been burning for hours.
And somewhere, there was a loud, grating grinding noise.
“Where’s Ezio?” Morgyn asked, turning to look at Lilith.
She went quiet, sensing around. Drake did, too, Cassandra reaching over and taking his hand, looking apprehensive. Somewhere in here was Ezio, Morgyn knew it. They knew it. Truth be told, Morgyn was after Ezio, first, and Sarnai second.
“Honestly,” Lilith said, “I can’t sense him at all. Can you?” Lilith looked over at Drake.
Drake was quiet a moment, and then his icy eyes opened, and his head shook. “He’s alive,” he said. “That’s about all I can figure out. I can’t sense him very well, not enough to pinpoint him. But it feels like something stronger than him is blocking out his signature, so maybe he’s wherever Sarnai is.”
That stood to reason. Sarnai was the only something stronger than Ezio that was around, unless the All was doing it, but that implied Sarnai either hadn’t fully absorbed it to begin with, or had given some of it back. Either one of those was theoretically possible, but Morgyn was going with, it was likely to be Sarnai blocking his signature out.
Morgyn took a breath in, and then turned on one heel and headed to where Lilith said Sarnai was.
“Elle, Inna, backup,” Lilith said, “Drake, with me, Caleb, make sure Morgyn doesn’t die, Cassandra, take the rear, don’t directly engage her if you can help it, and you… I don’t know just try not to die I guess.”
Lakshmi laughed. “I’m a fairly skilled caster,” she said. “I’ll be okay.”
“Yes,” Lilith said, “I’m quite sure you are. But you’re also a sitting duck right now like every other caster.”
Lakshmi looked as if that hadn’t crossed her mind whatsoever. Caleb made an amused sound, and then scurried after Morgyn. Drake followed Lilith, Elle and Inna falling behind. Cassandra followed them too, but at a notable distance back.
As Morgyn got closer, the brunet could hear Sarnai talking to herself, and instead redirected to following the sound of her voice. It’d seem she was having some notable trouble controlling the All’s energies, but to her credit, she was containing it decently well.
Morgyn had eventually presumed she’d do decently at containing it. Given her age, and that she was a vampire and not a spell caster, which were harder to send into overload in the first place, it made sense.
She seemed to be very distracted, however, and Morgyn’s close proximity wasn’t enough to alert her to someone else being nearby. Or maybe she did know and wanted the brunet to think she didn’t. Sarnai was intelligent, Morgyn had to give her credit for that, and the answer here could be either one.
Morgyn skirted around the side, keeping behind things. No one here knew magic realm better than Morgyn did. As Morgyn went, the brunet could feel the spirits in magic realm nearby, helping shield the sage from Sarnai. Maybe they’d be willing to continue helping.
After all, some of the spirits here loved Ezio as much as Morgyn did. He was a light to everyone, and always had been.
Caleb stayed just behind Morgyn. The sage eventually stopped, peeking around one of the columns. Sarnai was just beyond it, pacing around. She’d turn around and Morgyn would almost have a perfectly clear shot at her back.
Caleb reached over and took Morgyn’s hand for a moment. Neither said anything, watching one another’s eyes for a long moment, and then Morgyn took a breath in, pulled the sunlight potion off the belt, drew one arm back, and threw it.
Sarnai immediately turned around, throwing a psychic bolt at the bottle, shattering it before it reached her. And Morgyn grabbed Caleb’s hand and pulled him the other way.
* * *
Unsurprisingly, the spirits in magic realm seemed to have figured out Cassandra was a necromancer. There were some shielding Morgyn, and some shielding Cassandra, too. Morgyn was glad for that, because Drake didn’t always have the ability to do it himself, too busy working with Lilith to try and separate Sarnai from the All.
So far, they didn’t seem to be having any luck with that whatsoever. Morgyn was almost disappointed by that reality, but figured that was to be expected. Sarnai was a difficult beast to down on her own, of course she was many times more difficult now that she’d evolved into her most powerful form.
(That was how video game bosses worked, right? Morgyn had picked this up listening to Simeon and Travis banter about Genie’s Curse.)
Caleb was doing fairly well sticking to Morgyn. That meant the spirits were incidentally shielding him, too, and Morgyn was glad for that. If Morgyn came to save Ezio and lost Caleb in the process, the brunet had no idea what that would do as far as Morgyn’s mental stability went. Probably nothing good.
“Sarnai,” Lakshmi said, scurrying around behind the rocks, “this isn’t the answer to anything.”
“It is answer enough!” Sarnai answered. “The All has given us the power to stop this. We will save us. We will save ourselves!”
Morgyn was very interested in what exactly Sarnai was talking about. Then, Morgyn remembered Ezio saying that she felt like an angry spirit. Morgyn wondered if it was possible for a spirit to possess another person.
It wasn’t like the semantics of this situation were going to help by this point. It was a bit late to be wondering about them.
Lakshmi hadn’t thrown her potion, and neither had Cassandra. There were still two more, and given they knew for sure those worked, Morgyn was waiting for them to be used up before falling back on the UV bullets that might not do anything.
Lilith and Drake were taking most of the heat at the moment, but it made sense given they were their current two strongest fighters. Morgyn hated feeling useless, but there wasn’t anything for it. However, Sarnai was a little… questionable. Morgyn had to wonder if she’d actually absorbed the All properly, because Morgyn’s bond to it wasn’t reacting with the same level of strength that the brunet would’ve expected it to.
Either she didn’t get it all, or she’d absorbed something else, though offhand, Morgyn couldn’t say what that might be.
They needed a plan here. Lilith and Drake weren’t doing too badly, but they couldn’t necessarily keep this up forever. There had to be a way to keep her from moving around, and with the All in her, or whatever it was she’d gotten, she could use magic and was transportalating all over the place. (It was almost annoying. She had magic, and vampire powers. And they had nothing! How was that fair!)
Morgyn was thinking. They had to come up with something, and at the moment, maybe it was Morgyn’s job to come up with something. And the brunet should also probably remember to leave some gifts for the spirits after this, because they were being kind enough to help.
Well, magic realm was their home, too. It was probably nothing really personal.
“The All will save us,” Sarnai mumbled. “The All will save us yes…”
“The All isn’t the answer to your problems,” Lakshmi said. “We can come up with something else Sarnai, it doesn’t have to be this way.”
Sarnai straightened up, her nostrils flaring in apparent rage. “No one helps us,” Sarnai said. “When we asked for help, the spell casters said we were on our own. They left us to burn, Laky! The All happens to be useful to us, and taking it away makes spell casters burn too. Turn about is fair play.”
“It doesn’t mean all spell casters are bad!” Lakshmi said. “Sarnai I’m a spell caster.”
“Yes,” Sarnai said, snorting softly. “And you’ve been the biggest thorn in our side since we started on this. Neither did you ever ask if we need help either. You can burn with them.”
Lakshmi fell silent. Morgyn had to admit the brunet felt a little bad for her. That was almost cruel to say.
“You don’t need Ezio,” Morgyn said. “Give him back to me. You can have magic realm if you want it so bad.”
Sarnai laughed. “How bold of you to assume he’s even alive,” she answered. “He broke the All’s barrier. Didn’t look so hot. We left him with the All’s shell. Wherever that is.”
Then where was that? “Where?” Morgyn asked.
“Don’t think we’re stupid,” Sarnai replied. “The youngest sage is the most impetuous, and the twin is one of the strongest spell casters alive. As if we’d let you save him. You may say, you can have magic realm, but later, your mind will change, and you’ll do just as humans always do.”
Morgyn frowned, glancing up at Caleb. The brunet needed to figure out where Ezio was. The All’s shell… that must’ve been the something stronger that was blocking Drake from sensing him. But that made no sense, because if Sarnai had control of the All, then what was blocking his signature?
Morgyn almost had a headache from all of this. Then, the brunet sensed one of the spirits nearby. Morgyn leaned over towards it. “Find him,” Morgyn whispered. “Please.”
Saving Ezio was the only thing Morgyn cared about in this situation. The sage had already accepted that magic realm may well burn for it, but it could be replaced, and, destroying magic realm around her may be a decent way of defeating Sarnai, as well.
But first, before they did anything of the sort, Morgyn wanted to find Ezio. And maybe figure out how the hell magic realm was still standing with the All incapacitated. But that just likely meant, didn’t it, that the All wasn’t incapacitated at all.
So then, the question remained of, why was magic down?
* * *
His head still hurt, but it was becoming easier to breathe, a little at a time. Ezio stayed where he was, lying on the stone at the base of the All, listening to the grinding sound that magic realm was unleashing around them. The star creature had yet to detach from him again, but it was just as well. Ezio didn’t think he could make it without it.
The more he paid attention to what the star creature was doing, though, the more he thought it was doing magic. And given magic was currently shut off, it was very strange that the star creature would be able to do it. Even ghosts should be beholden to the rules of magic; without the All, there was no casting.
Or at least, the varying stories led Ezio to believe that would be true. What he was seeing right in front of him seemed to indicate otherwise. Now why was that?
Ezio watched the sky, trying to think up what to do, in case Morgyn and the others never made it. But some part of him refused to think about what would happen if he was on his own. He didn’t think he could manage by himself. There was a ghost keeping him alive right now for fuck’s sake, how the hell was he supposed to fight like this?
Then again, maybe he was supposed to die.
As he lay there bemoaning life and debating in his head, he felt something shift. Vampire mist form… slowly, Ezio rolled over, scooting across the island until he reached the edge of it, and looked down at the main island.
Morgyn, Caleb, Lilith, Drake… they’d made it. Ezio breathed out a sigh of relief. That was a good thing, but now he needed to figure out how to help without getting in the way. It looked like they had some kind of a plan, and Ezio wasn’t privy to it of course. He didn’t want to mess it up, or turn out to just be in the way.
Ezio started to stand up, but found that it was still a little too difficult. After a moment or two, the star creature frantically mentally nudging him to stop that, he settled back down onto the stone. “How are you doing magic?” he asked.
The answer he got was unexpected. He saw flashes of images, natural things, waterfalls, the leaves swaying in the wind, the sunlight. Ezio wasn’t sure what to make of that. No one drew their power from that, though he and Morgyn had translated a number of things that suggested once, they did.
But it wasn’t like Ezio knew how to draw magic from natural things, even if it was possible. So that still left him at square one. He was probably on the edge of dying, and he had no magic to speak of.
He still wondered if being dead would be more helpful about now.
“I can’t draw magic from those,” he said. “I feel about useless right now.”
The star creature let go of him, scooting across the stone and mentally nudging that he should follow. Ezio raised an eyebrow, but he sat up, crawling across the stone. The star creature led him back to the foot of the All.
Ezio looked up at it. Despite knowing it was dead now, Ezio could almost swear he sensed something in there. The star creature reached over, touching his hand, and then touched the side of the crystal.
Ezio looked over at it in confusion. “The All’s gone,” Ezio said. “There’s nothing left in there, there’s no point in that. It’s just a rock now.”
The star creature gave him another mental nudge. That was what it thought he should do, apparently. Ezio wasn’t sure how to take that. But he had thought that he was sensing something in it, even if he didn’t know what that was. Maybe Sarnai hadn’t gotten all of whatever there was in it. Maybe he was supposed to bear the rest of it.
But then, he feared he couldn’t. Breaking the damned thing’s barrier was hard enough. If he was meant to fuse with even a small little piece of it, it could prove to be too much.
On the other hand, if it was either bear some of the All’s weight and die, or just die, maybe the right choice here was obvious.
Ezio took a deep breath in, sitting up the rest of the way, pushing up onto his knees. The star creature moved slightly, hovering behind him, keeping him steady and stable even without binding to him like it had before. One hand raised, and Ezio gently laid it on the stone.
Words came into his head, words he knew came from the star creature. He breathed in again. “Help me protect magic realm,” he said softly.
For a long moment, it seemed nothing had happened at all. Ezio almost dropped his hand from the stone, but then a sparkle of light shone in the crystal. Ezio tilted his head, watching it. Then, it grew brighter, and he felt something go into his hand, absorbing into his skin and shooting through his arm.
Frost began to spread across his skin, but it didn’t feel threatening. Ezio watched the patterns it made, as it became even easier to breathe and move. Ezio stood up, onto his feet, much easier than he’d anticipated.
And then, a sudden surge of power shot through him, crackles of magic and light igniting around him as he went into charge state.
* * *
Sarnai had quickly gotten the upper hand. Morgyn may not like that fact, but that fact was still indeed a fact. Lilith and Drake were barely holding it together, rapidly exchanging psychic bolts with her. The rest of them had to make sure not to get hit by stray ones.
Caleb was quite good at making sure those stray psychic bolts didn’t hit Morgyn, moving into the way of them and blocking them with a barrier. At some point, Lakshmi had thrown her sunlight potion, but it’d hit one of the rocks instead of Sarnai.
Morgyn wasn’t sure if they needed another plan or what, but it seemed to have turned out they were woefully unprepared for all of this. And truth be told, Morgyn had never felt so much resentment for the fact the brunet was not a vampire hybrid, but it wasn’t like Morgyn wanted to be one until magic had died.
Potions still worked, though, so it suggested there were other kinds of magic that still worked, the kinds that drew their power from the natural world, and not the All. The problem was, Morgyn knew very little of that kind of magic, and what Morgyn did know of it, generally wasn’t offensively leaned.
Inna loosed a loud screech of surprise, as she threw a psychic bolt, and then almost immediately had it thrown back at her, followed by a tendril of shadow. It threw her right off the island they were fighting on.
“Inna!” Elle squeaked, and she turned and jumped off the island after Inna. It was probably for the best, Morgyn didn’t think magic realm would send her back up, and Elle was the one that could teleport.
Lilith’s onslaught of attacks had sped up not long after Lakshmi’s sunlight potion broke, and Drake was right behind her. Morgyn was more worried about finding Ezio but finding Ezio during this particular mess was unlikely to be easy.
The brunet breathed out, scurrying around the battlefield to Cassandra. Morgyn knelt down beside her. “You still have yours?” Morgyn asked.
Cassandra nodded.
“If yours fails, I’ll fall back on the UV bullets,” Morgyn said. “And good choice, stay back here.”
“Do you know where the All’s shell might be?” Cassandra asked.
“I asked the spirits to find out,” Morgyn said. “Hopefully they have an answer soon, but I can’t sense the damned thing anymore.”
A loud crashing sound was heard, and Lilith squealed Caleb’s name. Morgyn looked up, right at the tail end of Caleb going through a couple walls. He stayed down, and Morgyn cursed. They were losing fighters left and right and Morgyn was fresh out of genius ideas.
“We may need to run,” Cassandra said. “She’s too strong like this.”
Morgyn drew a breath in. Cassandra was probably right. “No one’s too strong,” the sage said instead, and then scurried around the side towards Caleb.
Sarnai seemed to have noticed, throwing a burst of psychic energy at the brunet. Drake interrupted, blocking it and snarling in annoyance. Lilith went around behind her, intending for a sneak attack, but Sarnai’s hand caught her around the throat.
“We thought you more honourable than that,” Sarnai said.
“If it gets you downed, I’ll do a few unsavoury things,” Lilith answered.
Sarnai looked annoyed, a slight flash of light going off against Lilith’s throat, and then Sarnai threw her over there by Caleb. That left just Drake. They were quickly being overpowered. Retreat seemed inevitable, but with their transportation means mostly knocked out, they may not be able to do so with any kind of ease.
“Why are you still fighting?” Sarnai asked. “There’s nothing left to fight for. We have your All, your magic realm, even killed your Ezio, probably.”
Morgyn frowned.
“You wouldn’t understand,” Drake said, throwing a string of psychic attacks.
Sarnai smirked, unleashing something Morgyn didn’t quite see, and Drake flew backward into the tree Cassandra was hiding behind and fell unconscious. And then there were none.
Morgyn moved around, pulling the gun back off the brunet’s hip, but before Morgyn could even start aiming, ice suddenly shot across the ground, snaking up the rocks and the trees, consuming the columns. The ice moved together into a wave, then formed into spikes. Sarnai barely moved out of the way in time, the spikes catching the side of her arm and mixing with her blood.
Sarnai looked annoyed, turning towards where it all seemed to be coming from. Ezio stood there, emitting the light and colours of charge state. Morgyn had no idea how he’d managed to go into charge state in the first place and do magic, but whatever, the brunet wasn’t going to complain.
“Pin her in one place, Ezio!” Morgyn called.
Morgyn wondered if he’d heard it, but the ice shifted under her and started to root her against the stone. She loosed an annoyed screech and fired a bolt of psychic energy at Morgyn, yanking her ankles loose of the ice and disappearing. A wall of ice raised between it and Morgyn, blocking the attack, and then went back down, and Ezio disappeared too.
Morgyn could barely keep up with their exchanges. Ezio was a lot stronger in charge state, and the two traded blows quite consistently. Sarnai would get a hit, then Ezio, then Sarnai… Morgyn was worried he couldn’t stay fighting in charge state for very long, but he was strong enough for now, seemingly stronger than she’d expected, that she was having a very hard time fighting him off.
One of her arms and a leg ended up coated in Ezio’s ice, and more than once he’d fired magic off right in her face, and it was only by sheer luck that she moved fast enough to dodge it.
And just when Morgyn thought he’d win, Sarnai began to charge an electrical attack. Ezio couldn’t stand being hit by those, “Ezio move!” Morgyn shrieked, in a panic.
But she didn’t aim at Ezio. The lightning bolt went for Morgyn. Morgyn immediately fell to the ground, bracing for it, but instead of it hitting Morgyn, Ezio dove in between the bolt and Morgyn.
The screaming was unbelievably loud. Morgyn wasn’t surprised. It felt like it lasted forever, Ezio standing there screaming uncontrollably as the electricity went everywhere, why did he take the bolt? There was no way he could handle being hit by an electric current in the state he was in.
Sarnai, distracted by the light and Ezio’s screaming, held still long enough. Cassandra threw her own potion at her. Sarnai looked up, and tried to mist port one second too late; the potion hit her arm, and she loosed a loud screech and burst into ashes.
Morgyn was crying before Ezio was even down, and when he fell, reached out to catch him. They both hit the stone.
The magic charge faded. “No, you idiot,” Morgyn spluttered, “why’d you do that, you idiot, idiot.”
Morgyn knew why Ezio had done that.
Ezio smiled, closing his eyes. Cassandra scurried over to them, took one look at Ezio, and then scurried back across the space, over to Drake.
Morgyn pulled Ezio into the brunet’s lap. As they sat there together, Morgyn could feel it come back. Magic came back. Without thinking about it too hard, Morgyn immediately got a better grip on Ezio and activated transportalate. Maybe only Troi could help him right now.
But the barrier refused to let them out of magic realm, and the two fell right back down. Morgyn unleashed a frustrated sound.
“It’s okay,” Ezio said. “Morgyn, this is just fine.”
“No it’s not,” Morgyn answered. “Why is it fighting me!”
Ezio’s breathing spluttered, and he reached over and took one of Morgyn’s hands. “It’s okay,” he repeated. “I’m okay with this. Sometimes things change.”
Morgyn went still for a moment, and then the brunet’s head shook. “No,” Morgyn said. “No, not this, not you, you have to stay, I can’t deal with this, I can’t save you just to lose you.”
The sage half leaned over Ezio, and tried to transportalate again. The barrier still threw them back down. “STOP FIGHTING ME!” Morgyn shrieked.
“Morgyn, listen to me,” Ezio said, his voice fainter as the seconds went by. “You’re a stronger person than you think, and you can make it past this moment. I love you-“
“No,” Morgyn interrupted. “Don’t you dare, don’t give up on me, not like this-“
“Hey,” Ezio whispered, reaching up and resting his forehead against Morgyn’s, “everything’s gonna be okay. Even when I am gone, I will never really leave you, Morgyn.”
“Damn you,” Morgyn said, “you can’t do this to me. Ezio please, don’t leave me.”
Ezio smiled, and then went limp, and Morgyn loosed a strangled cry, pulling him closer, and trying in an endless string to teleport. The barrier still stopped it. Nothing goes in, nothing goes out. Morgyn curled over him, the tears flowing freely, so much so it felt like the brunet couldn’t breathe.
Then Drake came up behind them, wrapped his arms around them both, and wordlessly mist ported right around the barrier.
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