File type: Text File (.txt) [Download]
-----------------------------------------
     Every mage has their specialty, but there's one kind of magic that we can all access. It's forbidden, but not by law or morals... just by common sense. I was past common sense.

     I drew the circle, then the pentagram, then the pentagram inside that, then one more. A single drop of my blood at the center and a trickle of my raw power was enough. My nostrils were assaulted with rotten food and unwashed masses but I stood fast and looked down.

     "Hey, chum," the pipsqueak of a demon chirped up at me. "Whatcha want?" It looked like a miniature naked man, barely a foot tall, except with flaming horns and barb-tipped wings. Its skin was an ugly greenish-orange and it was using a bone as a cane, leaning forward on it. I'm sure the cane was a human bone.

     If there were ritual words for what I planned I had no idea, so I just came out and said it. "I trade my life for magical power." I expected a rush of... something. Anything.

     He--it--just smirked. "You'd get more if you sacrifice your soul, too, pal."

     "I'm desperate, not stupid!" I blurted, hands in fists. I was about to give up my life and the damn thing was toying with me, stretching out the moment!

     "Hey, hey, take it easy big guy. I'm just letting you in on the options, y'know?" It licked its lips. "So, I get your life force, and... what? How much power are we talking, here?"

     "I need the power of fast flight, and the strength to stop a score of men from..." I trailed off. Perhaps it was better not to let it know everything.

     It had me figured, though. "Going to go out in a blaze of glory protecting someone, right? Eh, heroes, what're you gonna do? Fine, fine." It leaned down and licked the dirt where my blood had dried, then smacked its lips. "Mmm. Virgin! Nice. Twenty seven years, eighteen days, four hours, give or take thirty minutes."

     I just blinked, mouth open. Finally, "What?"

     It scoffed. "Amateurs. That's how much of your lifespan I want in exchange for the power to let you fly real fast and stop around two dozen armed guys. I'll eat those years up. Yum yum yum." He looked up at me, squinting. "You do know that the power will disappear at sunset, right?"

     I blinked several times. I wasn't going to die? I might still have some time left? But, I had to finish by sunset...

     "All right," I said, taking a deep breath. "I'm ready."

     "No you aren't," it said, eyes hard and cold, but then it pointed the cane at me and I burst into flames. That's what it felt like, at least, every nerve in my body surging with pain. I couldn't breathe, couldn't see, couldn't scream, couldn't think...

     I must have fallen because I came to my senses on my side, the taste of vomit in my mouth. There was no pain, though, no stiffness. My body was surging with power. There was no sign of the demon, even the summoning circle gone.

     It was time to go.

---

     I could have just found them in the forest and used raw power in a sneak attack, but I really didn't want to kill anyone. Instead I flew to the cave mouth that was their destination. I arrived at least an hour before them; I don't know how many years of my life the flight had cost me, but without it I would not have arrived soon enough to make a difference.

     I burst into the cave and stopped, gaping. In just the two days since my last visit they had carved a life-size statue of me, halfway between human and one of them, with butterfly wings, a spiral horn, and spindly horse-like legs. I gritted my teeth, tears pricking at my eyes.

     I announced my presence with my thought magic, normally the only kind of magic I had. It was much more powerful than I expected because of the demon's influence and the Endalu came flying in droves, eyes wide at first. Soon they had relaxed and were smiling as they crowded on the floor around me. There they were, an odd mixture of faerie and unicorn that stood on two hooved legs and had eyelids over beautiful compound eyes. They were beautiful.

     Their leader came forward, holding his hand out to me, and I was already kneeling to touch palms. I didn't know what I could say differently that time, but I had to try again, just in case.

     I spoke out loud even as I thought the words to them. "Greetings, Endalu," I started, using the name the Winged Ponies used for their own kind. "I come with bad news."

     Your arrival is always good news, Friend-and-One-of-Us Thomas! Their thoughts were always so velvety in my mind, like stroking a beloved pet.

     "The villagers will not stop the men from coming, and they have left earlier than expected. They will be here soon." I had to control my imagination, so I wouldn't send images of what I expected they would do on arrival.

     The elder just smiled at me, stroking my hand between both of his. She-Who-Was-Endalu watches over us as always, Friend Thomas.

     I pulled my hand back, eyes stinging again. Why wouldn't they understand?! "But, you could leave! Live somewhere else! Carve out a new nest and a new hive and..." I stopped, because he was shaking his head, his smile sad.

     This is The Hive, Young Thomas, he thought-replied to me. There is no other home for us. She-Who-Was-Endalu will provide for the Endalu. If we must join her then we shall do so.

     I couldn't hold back. I stood up, turning to look over the crowd of smiling creatures. I knew they only smiled at me because they had seen me do it when happy. They wanted me to know they were happy to have me there. I swallowed, and my throat burned. "Listen, please. The townsfolk... they don't understand how smart you are, how you are real people too even if you don't live in houses or farms. They are sad to know that you'll be gone, but they won't stop the king's men. And those men... they are coming to kill you all, and use your horns for magic wands for his army."

     I closed my eyes and let the images of what would happen flow from me out into their minds, even using my magic to reinforce them. Whole familes of Endalu pinned to the cave walls by knives, their heads mangled as just their horns were harvested, leaving their bodies to rot... Baby Endalu flying around the caves, looking for their parents, and getting swatted to the ground by a mace, before--

     I felt them touching me and opened my eyes. They were hugging me, around the legs, some flying up to hold my arms, the elder hovering in front of my face and touching his nose to mine. They were all purring, the noise they used to coddle their young.

     Do not worry about us, Truest-Friend-of-the-Endalu Thomas, the eldest thought to me, a hand on my forehead. We love you as well, and do not want to see you hurt.

     They were all about to die painful deaths, and their body parts used to kill other people, and they were more worried about my feelings than their lives.

     "Please let go," I whispered, shaking, and they did as I asked. I turned around and walked out of the cave without another word, past the statue of the half-me/half-Endalu, closing my mind as a thought from the elder called out to me like a raised, pleading hand.

     I didn't want him to feel it as I burst out sobbing.

---

     I stepped out from in front of a tree, less than a minute hike from the cave, a few dozen paces in front of the soldiers. They drew to a halt, several crossbows aimed at my chest.

     "Hold," a voice spoke from their midst, and Talbot stepped to the front. He was some lesser lordling, out on the king's bidding to garner favor, but if the situation had been different I think we would have gotten along rather well. "Lower your weapons," he ordered, then stepped half the distance to me.

     I didn't wait for him to speak again. "I'm here to ask you one last time to not kill the Endalu." I heard several snickers and some muttering from the soldiers.

     "Thomas, I understand you have an attachment to them, but the king has decreed we need their horns."

     I let the power rise up inside of me. It let my mind work faster, my heartbeat throbbing in my chest. "That's not good enough. They are a thinking race, just like you or I. Just because I am the only thought mage to ever be able to speak with them doesn't make my words any less true."

     "They are clever beasts, but no thinking creature would allow themselves to be caught and killed so easily." He was speaking slow and clear, and every few words he stepped closer. I paid careful attention to the distance.

     "You don't understand. They believe in their Goddess so deeply that they just let everything happen as it does and carry on. They say it's all part of her plan."

     "Thomas, listen." Talbot had lowered his voice, so that his men couldn't hear. "The king isn't just doing this out of spite or greed. The Taltans have some sort of new sorcery that is trouncing us in every battle. We need all the resources we can get, and Winged Pony horns make the best anti-magic wands known. If we don't get those, this entire nation may fall, and many of us will die, and the Taltans will surely kill the Winged Ponies for their horns as soon as they control this land."

     The power inside me waned. Talbot's point was painfully realistic. My mind rushed, and Talbot didn't step any closer, giving me time to think. Maybe if he had called them the Endalu instead, or perhaps had mentioned my mother and father dying, just the tiniest bit of extra convincing...

     I let my magic invisibly flow back up to full preparation again. "Would you let someone kill your friends and cousins to maybe stop a possible invasion that could kill them?"

     Talbot sighed. "I am sorry, Thomas." He looked to the right and nodded, and when I turned my head I spotted Latta, a magic-user for hire from town who usually made her living helping crops grow. I could see the power around her focused into the wand she held, transforming her natural magery of weather into something else. She looked sad, but that didn't stop her.

     The anti-magic force from the wand struck me before I could do anything, and I could just barely feel that veltety touch of an Endalu in the wand's influence. I gritted my teeth and growled like an animal.

     If I had only my own strength I would have been helpless, perhaps kept a prisoner for several hours and released with no harm done to my person. But I had more than my own strength.

     I reached out one hand toward Latta and released a concentrated pellet of power at the wand, the horn-shaped implement exploding and taking her hands at the same time, fine red mist hitting the air. I could have sworn I heard the demon chuckle in the back of my mind at that. Latta stared at the stumps, mouth agape.

     My stomach turned, but that became a sudden, sharp pain. "Oh," I mumbled. A crossbow bolt had struck me in the abdomen. Without thinking I drew it out, feeling my skin knotting and healing around the wound. Another struck my arm, but I just left it there, looking at the men.

     Talbot backed away, eyes wide. "You..." Then he turned to leap behind a rock, shouting, "Open fire!"

     I raised my arm and a wall of dirt rose just in time for bolts and arrows to thump into it, tips jutting through to my side. Then I leaned forward with my mind and shoved, launching soil and rocks at the soldiers. I could see that several of the men were already running but I suddenly saw the others for what they were: young men, all within years of my own age, faces white as they tried to fire another salvo at me to save their lives and go home.

     But then I remembered what they were all about to do to the Endalu, just in time to hold up a shield of force in front of me. It was terribly inefficient magic, but I wasn't on a budget. I extended that zone forward, swiftly enough to punch the front row of men. I heard crunching noises as they flew through the air, into trees or directly to the forest floor. They didn't rise.

     More fled, but the others spread out, trying to find holes in my defenses. Every time I killed a couple, with brute force or turning their arrows back on them or dropping a tree branch on their heads, another one or two ran away.

     Stop killing my men! I heard in my head, purely due to the ferocity of the thought, just as Talbot leaped onto my back, drawing a knife across my neck. I gurgled and spun, trying to dislodge him, my throat healing. He sliced it again, not letting go. I spun as I was struck with several more arrows, blindly lashing out to destroy tree trunks and soldiers alike. My throat was cut a third time, and then Talbot started stabbing me between my ribs. I couldn't heal fast enough.

     Finally I had killed all the soldiers left, but I was on my knees, sight blurry. My throat had re-sealed but my chest was bleeding in a dozen places. Talbot came around in front of me, panting, a stray arrow in his thigh causing a limp. "It didn't have to be this way," he said, shaking his head. He raised the dagger and said, "Close your eyes."

     Instead I looked up into his and sent the last of my power through my specialty, my thought magic, and slipped into his mind. He was really a kind person, helpful to strangers, willing to go out of his way to aid those in need. He really was convinced he was doing the right thing, to harvest the Endalu, to save our people.

     I erased his mind.

     He stood there, blinking, mouth agape, as I collapsed.

---

     Thomas. Velvet.

     Thomas... All the velvet in the world.

     Thank you, Thomas, for what you've done for Those-I-Once-Was-Amongst. I didn't know if I had really joined Her or if the Endalu were trying to make me happy one last time as I died.

     I smiled as the sun set.