The Mage Emperor Dregin

Chapter 80

The Falshirens and Pumas of Heartrock surrounded the stone castle seemingly empty and guarded by statuesque of demon-carved creatures, the gargoyles that slept in stone. Every sill, each ledge, a crevice had one. The viscous primates with wolverine snouts and jagged teeth snarling from faces near human. Batted wings encloaked them or spanned in stretch. They were not yet due to undone sleep. Lizard tails enfolded their clawed feet. Always their arms folded. That was the way they slept. Dregin identified himself as one of these, she remembered. Oh, wicked, she groaned internally. He was poisoned to think that way. A man still, she had seen his civility, the manners of a Prince of Falshire. At the moment, he focused on the enemy and was waiting. She nudged her steed forward, looking up at the red to magenta pink sky while the golden orange fireball descended the shale mountainous to her left. It was time.

She hopped off her saddle sword ready in hand. Only when she almost jumped that ledge three years ago, did she rediscover what she was. The Element of Earth was her power. When Sundan and Jenna brought news of Dregin in the form of the gift, innocently enough, the Sapphire cave, she found source of her strength. He had written his regrets to be away, but pleaded forgiveness the same. The ledge was her flesh. It called her to stay, not to hurt with her fall. Earth, alive, powerful, and sentimental. She was the Element itself, but the physical land promised her strength. It promised she would meet destiny, the True Gem's calling. She was sought and found. So, Sapphire came in coincidence within days later.

She chained it to her body on the necklace, the meniscus blue diamond liquified when examined by the eyes' admiration. The sun's rays reflected silver-gold on her sword upraised straight toward the sky. She was warrior before mage. The metal came from Earth and had always served her well. How ironic she made choice loyalty to it when she was what created it in the first place. She flipped the blade and impaled it into the ground. The inhabitants transcended energy away from it. She felt the vibrations from the hilt that interrupted the ring of energy. A shield to ward away seekers. She guessed right. They were here, every deviant and assassin alike hiding down there or rather in there, the castle's foundation.

"Dregin," she called and he came to her side on foot. "I need your Wind. Can you take the walls?"

"No," he replied gently, and abashed when she looked. "I've tried. I'm not strong enough. Storms couldn't break the structure. They built it against Wind keeping the towers close together."

"Then, tell me their weakness."

"They suspend a section between the basement and the...surface. The dwelling is in the center. I can't penetrate through the double-backed masonry. It is sealed and warded."

"Do they know of the Elements?"

"Yes...But they are familiar with my strength. As for the others, they generalize guesses. Even I don't hold profound knowledge."

"Then, how do you get in?"

"An ordinary person enters the gate and they would reveal themselves if they so choose. But for me, I was...I entered by dream. Dementia was a skill," he reminded her.

"So that time I saw you....No wonder you seemed different. I thought," her lips pursed as she looked at the hilt. "It was real, and I felt no pain witnessing it all, but numbed in the body." She looked up. "They are cruel. Clever, but indecently inhuman." His hand lifted, but withdrew before imposing her. "Dreg, answer me. I want truth and honesty. Do you believe they are all-powerful?"

Pause, then a reluctantly hoarse "yes" came from him.

"Then, do you doubt me?"

"I don't know. I'm afraid to contemplate." He folded his arms.