Faction Showdown XX

Faction Showdown XX

The dawn of the following day came with it a feeling of oddity for the Wildcard team. They had little idea what to do; they were sandwiched between Jay Slatford, the Twilight, the deceiver, and Drake Irving, the ‘King’ magician, the master of a magic that nobody really knew about. Though Lance could say the same for himself, he was not the type to put himself on a pedestal, nor was he someone who considered the ancient art of light magic something he could be particularly proud of. It was his upbringing; the planet of Holy was the place he learned anything from the paralysis spell of Issi Dei and the Angelus spell of sealing. Incidentally, he was surprised he was locked down by someone from the Central team. Someone on that side had nailed down his ability to cast spells, and he could only guess that it was Drake. Still, they had a hostage in Charles Trylven. He was left in the same room as Helen, who was assigned to watch him. It was dramatic irony, in the words of Lance.
And there he was, on the morning of the following day, bound by metal cuffs on both his arms and legs, courtesy of Helen Marlowe. She didn’t keep strict watch of him, but she did keep her distance during the course of the night. Charles slept, sure enough, but he had a reputation of being able to shoot sparks from his mouth. Nevertheless, he was bound and forced to sit in a class chair for the previous eight hours. Helen woke up before he and advanced to the front of the classroom to take notice of his awakening. Unlike most guards, she allowed him to wake up on his own time.
Charles’s eyes squinted before opening; the first ray of outside sun having pierced his line of vision. Then his eyes opened and he frowned at the realization that all of his bones were stiff from having sat all night. In front of him was Helen, and though a welcome sight to him, his captor.
“Morning, miss metal. You ready to let me go, now?”
Helen smiled at his ignorance.
“I can’t let you go, Charles. Orders from Lance and all.”
Charles grinned.
“Well, then the least you could do is help me up from this position so I could stand and not pass out from being so stiff all of last ni-”
The door opened and Charles stopped short of saying whatever he was about to say to view the look of pure surprise on Kaeso’s face. Charles blinked before he smiled his widest grin; Kaeso in turn pointed down into the ground, a gesture to tell Helen to go downstairs, and proceeded to close the door, still wide-eyed at what he had heard.
“What was that face all about?” Helen wondered out loud. “Oh well.”
“Nothing.” Charles rocked his legs back and forth. “So yeah, do you mind about the whole…moving me thing? I’m really in some serious pain right now.”
“Fine.” Helen walked over to Charles’s desk and took his collar forcefully. She then proceeded to slowly pull him onto her, so he could use her for leverage as he stood up and regained feeling in his legs.
“Aaaah. There’re my legs.” Charles was practically leaning on her, still, but the blood flow was finally reaching the rest of his body.
The door into their room opened again, and in peeked Bane, the Srarmian battle magician. His eyes questioned, unlike Kaeso’s, which bulged. He silently pointed down, as Kaeso had, before giving an interrogative look to Helen.
“What’s going on, here?”
“She’s helping me up.” Charles cringed. “I can’t walk.”
“Oh.” Bane rolled his eyes and closed the door behind him.
“You’d better not be using this to touch me, Charles.” Helen looked at him in an irritated manner.
“Seriously, at any other time, I would. But it doesn’t make a bit of difference right now. I’m really, really in some serious pain.”
Helen held him up by his shoulders after he regained feeling in his legs and pointed to the door.
“Go. They want us downstairs.”
“Can’t you help me walk?” Charles’s eyes pleaded pathetically. Something he was good at.
“I’m not going to carry you, Charles.” Almost sympathetically, Helen shrugged. “Sorry.”
“Come on, just this once.” Charles leaned his head on her shoulder, the pleading look plastered over his face. “Please?”
Helen sighed. If she moved at all, he would fall on the ground due to lack of sea legs or hands to break his fall.
“If we fall, it’s because you’re really heavy.”
Charles couldn’t have grinned more. This was much better than being stuck on the side of people who took everything so seriously.

Helen cradled Charles downstairs towards the others; everybody was already assembled. Everybody from psych ward Desentaro Burns to the holy man himself, Lance. Of course, everyone’s attentions flipped over to Charles and Helen coming down the stairs and a wide plethora of facial expressions came from the mass. Lance, of course, only raised one of his eyebrows (as he usually would), while Burns’s eyes wandered, Kaeso and Bane put their hands to their foreheads, Paltho grinned, Myxt scowled, and Salas theatrically chuckled.
Helen finally got to the bottom of the stand stairs and slowly set Charles down onto his feet. Satisfied with the carrying, Charles found his legs rather quickly and put on the best captive act he could conjure. Lance didn’t buy it, but he didn’t make a big deal out of seeing through the act. With a wave of his wrist, he sent Xavier Paltho to the front doors, always the scout for him. He then turned to his lineup of magicians and waved his wrist, a sign for them to get comfortable as they would. As usual, some took to the side bench and the others continued to stand in front of him, formally.
“Ladies and gentlemen, I will not call what occurred last night a failure. Drake Irving may have escaped, but that was almost to be expected. Their group is savvy in do-or-die situations.” Lance nodded in reassurance of what he said. “The question is what our next order of business will be. Are we considered enough of a threat to sit back and wait for the enemy, or are we in a position to wait for the enemies to attack each other? What does the group think of that question?”
The first one to speak would be difficult to find. Nobody wanted to speak up in the group; normally Harold would have, but everybody else was so unsure of themselves. Lance looked around before a rare grin came to his lips and he raised his hands.
“Nobody?”
Kaeso sighed and then grinned just as large as Lance.
“Okay, if someone’s got to start, then let it be me.” Kaeso’s right hand directed as any conductor would a band. “I think we’re in a pretty good position to just keep sitting back to relax. The one time we sent out a squad, they got hurt out there. Better to just watch the other two teams kill each other.”
“I agree.” Bane spoke from underneath his hood. “We shouldn’t fight unless forced. Makes no sense. Especially if we’re the underdogs.”
Lance nodded at the two of them, before his eyebrows rose and he looked on to others.
“Anything else?”
Desentaro Burns pointed oddly at Lance.
“I will need more materials and chances to collect research information.”
“An interesting request.” Lance’s eyebrow quirked. “What kind of research information do you want, and why?”
“Well, ahem, you can see.” Burns coughed into his right hand. “That is, it is plain and apparent, my needs. For many others, of course. Fundamentally, such expectation, you understand. Observations. Yes. Observations of many kinds.”
Most any others in the room didn’t bother trying to decipher what Burns was trying to say. However, Lance merely nodded.
“The roof of the building is relatively untouched. If you go up there, you can get a wide view of the area. Hopefully that’ll provide you with the insight you need. Unfortunately, there’s little more I can offer.”
Burns nodded once, and then gruffly coughed into his hand again. Salas Revv walked up to Lance to personally speak to him. Lance was only caught slightly off-guard by his approach and paid special attention to him.
“Yes, what is it?”
“We have a little bit of an issue. What do we do with Charles Trylven?”
Lance shrugged.
“Slatford considers him a pawn, so therefore does not function as much of a bargaining chip. If he betrays them, he gets disqualified. If we hold him, it does not serve us any purpose. In the end, we may have little alternative than to take him down, or else he may pose a threat if released.”
“And what of this plan? Are we truly going to sit here and await one of the other teams to eat the other? How plain it seems, wouldn’t you agree?”
“It’s not my decision to make.” Lance frowned. “Salas, as a captain, it is solely my duty to evaluate the decisions possible and what outcomes may stem. At this point, waiting is the best thing to do. Sure, we may be short on supplies, food, water, but I can keep most of us here relatively healthy using my own magic. Something that the others did not anticipate. What need do we have of food items until this duel is out? All of them will suffer before us. Trust me, this move is for the best.”
Revv nodded, then took a step back, bowed, and made his way back to the lineup. Lance waved an arm and bowed, in turn.
“As you were, and may the Lord be with you.”

“The other two teams stand on the edge of sanity. It is now the time for us to give a slight shove.”

Lance approached the sole room given to Charles Trylven after the small meeting. He was sealed inside by a mixture of Xavier’s light spells and Lance’s light spells, spells that bound him to a single chair, silenced the room, and reflected light to Charles’ eyes. Should he attempt to move out of the seat, light reflections would surely blind him and cripple his chances of escape.
Lance opened the door and dimmed down the light spells and curses. Charles stood, unbound, and drew his wand. Instinctively, he pointed it at Lance.
“If I were you, I’d let me go, monk boy.”
“Quick to threaten, don’t you think?” Lance showed no emotion. “I would lessen my spells and you have two options: jump out the window or go through me. That is, if you think you can do either.”
“Don’t play mind games with me, monk. I know you don’t have what it takes to throw the first or last punches in this little struggle.” Charles waved his wand for Lance to step aside. “Makes things easy and move.”
“I’m afraid I can’t do that, Charles.” Lance outstretched his hand and a staff materialized into it. “I’m here to ask you to surrender peacefully or else I shall have to make you surrender. This is a task I find most troubling.”
“You think you can just ask and it’ll happen?” Charles shook his head. “Oh no, this is at least something I have to try and put up a fight for. Let’s go.”
“As you will.” Lance held his staff and used his other hand to beckon Charles into the first strike.
“Oh, no. You go first.” Charles held his wand at the ready, pointed at Lance’s face.
Lance’s eyebrows rose and he turned his open hand up. Inside grew a ball of light. At this, Charles rushed a wave of sparks aimed at Lance, only to find that they froze on near-contact with Lance and became sucked into the ball of light. Charles stopped and saw the orb rattle. Lance waved his raised hand and the orb shot out the sparks with force in random directions. Charles narrowly dodged one and shot more sparks at the monk as he attempted to strafe in the classroom, dodging around desks with his head low. Lance lowered his staff and a glow emitted in the shape of a semi-circle which deflected the sparks away from him. Charles reached the door as Lance cast his defensive spell, but found that the door was locked from the outside. He attempted to punch it down, but it was no use. Before he could do more, Lance knocked Charles into the door with the blunt end of the staff, and again as Charles turned with his knife drawn.
Charles reverted to melee combat. He swung his poisoned knife at Lance, but the monk jumped back and used his distance to keep Charles against the wall. Lance thrust the staff occasionally and accurately in a way as to make Charles aware of the range advantage. Charles ignored the range advantage within the tenth second and tried to lunge at Lance with a diving strike. Lance waved his free hand and Charles bounced off the same glowing shield from before, knocked through the door and into the open hallway.
Charles rose as quickly as he could to leave, but a point made of light stuck his leg and he found himself unable to use that leg. He fell flat on his face and tried to crawl away using his arms and the only other leg that worked. Lance slowly made his way into the hallway and shot points into Charles’ arms and free leg, ensuring he would go nowhere.
“You may surrender now, Charles.” Lance frowned. “If spark magic is all you know, then I’m afraid you were not cut out for this competition. Forfeit now.”
Salas Revv climbed up the staircase to witness the final moment of the duel, but he was rushed in his reaction and quickly looked up at Lance.
“Captain.”
“Yes, what is it?” Lance looked up at Salas, and then his eyebrows rose. “Oh, yes. I just sensed they’ve come. Quickly, we must prepare ourselves to do battle. Go now and prepare the others for battle.”
Lance waved his arm and Salas rushed away. He lifted Charles by the back of his collar and tossed him back into the room. As he closed the door, he hurried out a final notice.
“Should the pain of staying in that position become excruciating, remember that surrender is within your grasp. You need say the words.”

Lance rushed down the hallway towards the balcony overlooking the main arena and looked down to see the front doors smashed open by an orb of metal. Inside walked Edgar Mercosso, clothed in his noble armor and a long black cape. He appeared to be unaware where Lance was, and in fact, nobody was inside the arena at that time. Everybody had approached their rooms except for…
“Paltho.” Lance still had the staff in-hand and wondered whether or not he should cast a spell at Mercosso. He ducked behind the balcony railing and said a prayer. He still felt Paltho’s presence and it drew near. Xavier rounded the corner and ducked behind the railing, as well.
“You must know who is here, Captain.”
“Mercosso, Hydrosso, and Kenton Sergi are here to try and remove as many of us as is possible. That is what I feel. Down there is Mercosso, the others are somewhere in this area, but there are many of them. I’m unsure if I can keep them all in check.”
Xavier stood up and pointed down at Edgar. The metal mage seemed to become aware of Xavier’s presence, but then wobbled in position, turned to try and flee, but fell on his face, unconscious. Paltho dropped behind the railings once more and nodded.
“Edgar’s susceptible to some forms of shadow magic. Interesting.”
Lance rose to look at Edgar’s body, but then narrowly escaped a spear made of ice aimed at his head from a different location. Lance ducked behind the balcony once more.
“I was not aware that she was where she was!” Lance rubbed his temples and shook his head. “She will wake Edgar. We are in trouble. We must flee for the time being and hope for the survivals of the others. They have not outnumbered us just yet.”
Lance and Xavier stood to rush down the corridors to the others, and did so.
The second corridor was guarded by Helen and Salas. Lance caught up to them and held their attention.
“Thank God you two are still alive. We haven’t got much time – where is it that Kaeso and Bane have gone?”
Helen shook her head, slowly. Salas pointed down the corridor.
“They were the guards of the stairwell. They were engaged in single combat by Kenton Sergi.”
Lance waved his arm as he usually did when giving an order.
“You two catch up to them and ensure that Sergi is taken down. Paltho will fetch Burns and I shall have to find Myxt.”
Helen shook her head more rapidly.
“Myxt won’t come out of his room. He said he would wait in there until someone attacked.”
“A likely story.” Xavier frowned and rushed down the opposite path of the corridor as Lance sighed and nodded.
“Then I shall enter the doors into the main arena and stop Edgar and Amy.”

Salas Revv and Helen Marlowe rushed down the final corridor and down the main staircase to the bottom, where Kaeso and Bane were trying to take on Kenton Sergi in simultaneous combat. Apparently the two of them had refused to engage in single combat, which forced Sergi into dueling the two of them at the same time. The small hallway left little room to dodge, and it was all Kaeso and Bane could do to keep Sergi from advancing.
Sergi was a sight to behold; he wore two green sashes around his black leather armor; sashes that held vials. He had a sword sheathed at his side and three swords which floated around him at any given time he was not wielding one. When he did decide to wield a sword, the others would thrust into the ground around him. What’s more, when his sword made contact with anything solid, it would emit some different kind of force.
Kaeso was engaged in sword combat with Sergi, with both carrying two swords. Kaeso held up two swords made of flames, which flickered each time they contacted Sergi’s weapons. When they struck blows, the sword of flames was either doused by water or blown out by wind, which forced Kaeso to re-ignite his blades. Bane would attempt to back up Sergi with light spells, but the light spell would always contact some other being that would spontaneously appear in front of Sergi, which paused the fight between Kaeso and Sergi. As Salas and Helen drew their wands, the duel stopped once again. Kaeso appeared frustrated and partially tired out due to the duel.
“It’s about time someone else showed up.” Kaeso held up his two swords as he kept a firm eye on Kenton. Sergi threw his drawn swords in the air and they levitated around him once more. “Had to be a swordsman.”
Salas straightened his jacket’s sleeves and frowned down the corridor.
“Turn back. You’re heavily outnumbered.”
Sergi crossed his arms.
“I refuse to turn until your captain is handed over or I have defeated three of you four. Which will it be?”
Bane scowled under his hood, his left hand clenched tightly around one of his throwing axes. Revv took steps until he was side-to-side with Bane, then spontaneously outstretched his hand and a shadow of a bat shot out at Sergi, only to be sliced in half by the sword he drew from his side. Sergi sheathed it just as quickly as it was pulled out, and then stood back up at attention.
“I’ll give you another minute before I return this duel to its original state.”
Bane attempted to melt the swords at Sergi’s disposal, but none of them would melt. They weren’t made completely of metal: magic was holding them together.
“I can’t melt them.”
Kaeso smiled and almost laughed.
“This should be fun, then.” Kaeso brandished his fire swords once more and rushed Sergi. The clashing of the swords continued, with the fire being doused by water once more, and the other being broken by wind. Revv tried to toss another bat-like shadow at Sergi, but found the strange entity get hit instead of Sergi. When some of the dust cleared, Bane rushed forward toward Sergi. As he did so, a radiant light shot out of him which was meant to paralyze and blind Sergi into submission.
Sergi stumbled back, then slammed his sword into the wall and blades of air shot out and nailed Bane into the side of the corridor. A bat shadow slammed into Sergi’s black leather and he fell slightly back again. Kaeso rushed in for more attacks, but Sergi began to twirl his blades and made random contact with the walls and the ceiling. Suddenly, blades of air and spears of ice shot out down the corridor at high speeds. Salas was nailed in the shoulders and chest by blades of wind while Kaeso was hit in the leg by a spear of ice. When it all stopped, a strange Kenton Sergi look-alike stood guarding the corridor. Bane stood opposite of it, but didn’t appear to be in combat with it. It was Sergi, only it was as though it were an outline of him, and made of static electricity that gave off a weird, blue-purple hue. Sergi was gone.
Kaeso, Revv, and Helen drew back to the staircase to attempt to heal their wounds. Without many forms of healing magic, they mostly had their attention on the Sergi look-alike.
“An elemental.” Kaeso said as he squinted in pain. “That’s something you don’t see every day.”
“He’s definitely hurt.” Salas smiled in content as he gripped the side of his shoulder. “I hit him with one of my bats, which means his energy is draining as we speak.”
“No kiddin’.” Kaeso grinned and fired a fireball at the look-alike. It incinerated the elemental. “He ran. But can he heal from that?”
“Only if Slatford knows how to heal it.” Revv smirked.
“Then he will.” Helen sighed. The two boys looked over to her. Kaeso had to maneuver to see her. “He was the one who knew it all. This means…I should go after Kenton Sergi and finish the job.”
“No, no, whoah. Ho, wait.” Kaeso felt the spear in his leg melting due to the proximity with his fiery energy. He cringed as he attempted to focus on Helen. “If you run into the others, you’ll be in trouble. You can’t go it alone, here.”
“She can’t do it alone.” Bane beckoned her with his fingers. “She’ll go with me. Hurry.” Bane lowered his body and began a sprint down the corridor, with Helen hurrying to catch up. Kaeso leaned back on the stairs and Salas imitated the gesture.
“You doing okay, Revv?”
“I’m in some serious pain.” Salas looked down at his bloodied chest and outer shoulders, ripped from the wind. “Soon, this will all be infected by the dust in the air, brought up by the wind fluctuation. I’m going to have to give up.”
“Nah, dude, don’t do that.” Kaeso frowned. “I mean, if you have to, then go and do it, but if you can wait it out, Lance might be able to fix that.”
“It’s probably too late.” Salas laughed slightly. “I’ve done my job. I may have traded with Kenton Sergi. That’s an honor I have never been able to say I’ve done. Now, before I lose consciousness. Ta-ta.”
Upon the last word, Salas’ body wrapped in white and he disappeared.

Lance had reached the entry to the second-row stands by the time Kaeso and Bane entered combat with Sergi. He softly opened one of the doors and peered through to see Edgar guarding the doors that would exit to the front corridor, which led to the main entrance and exit. Much like any other noble, Edgar stood with his sword pointed down to the ground, eyes almost straight forward. Apparently he was not the one who rushed into the main doors towards the other half of the corridors; the ones which would hopefully be guarded by Paltho, Burns, and Myxt Heliosso.
This was perfect; this left Mercosso to himself. Without a second thought, Lance flung open the doors and slowly made his way down to the arena floor. As any Lord of magic would, Edgar honorably allowed him to hit the floor before he playfully pat the hilt of his sword.
“So you’ve decided to come alone, sir monk?” Edgar frowned as his face changed from playful to serious. “You should be warned that Amy Hydrosso is still somewhere in this building.”
“I am aware.” Lance’s staff appeared behind him and he reached behind into what could have been called a battle stance. “If there are no other words to exchange, I would prefer to end this quickly.”
Edgar raised his sword in his right hand before holding it parallel to the ground, blade facing in front of him. The sword wasn’t unnecessarily long; it was a sword meant to be heavy enough to crush armor, but light enough to wield in one hand. Edgar kept his left hand clenched as he waited for Lance to make the opening spell.
“Oh no,” Lance shook his head. “The last time I went first, the duel ended too quickly.”
Edgar bowed his head.
“Very well, then.”
With a wave of his sword, four orbs of metal forged themselves out of what appeared to be thin air and began to circle around Edgar. He held his sword in the same fashion as before; waiting for Lance to respond to his harnessing of metal energy. Lance, however, didn’t make a move to do anything.
“You would plainly allow me to create?”
“If there is no threat to stop, then there is no threat to stop.” Lance had to grin at Edgar’s eagerness to start battling.
Mercosso lifted his left hand and the orb of metal levitated higher, then he thrust his hand at Lance and the orb flung itself rapidly at the monk. Lance brought his staff forward and the orb bounced off the same semi-sphere of light as was his favorite shield. When the shield disappeared, Lance shot a pin of light down the arena at Edgar, but was deflected by an orb of metal. Another orb took the place of the one Edgar shot and the metal mage began to take measured steps toward Lance, in attempt to close the gap between the two and enter melee combat.
Lance raised both of his hands and two orbs of light rose from the ground and he appeared to meld them together before firing a vicious ray at Edgar. With a wave of his sword, three orbs of metal swiftly melded into a wall which was devastated. When the debris disappeared, three orbs took the place of the three used to create the wall. Edgar was halfway toward Lance.
The monk resolved to raise his hands and create more orbs of light, only in this instance, he lifted them to the sky, where they came together and rained light down in random directions. Edgar was grazed by one before the metal spheres rose and created a shield above him. It was at this time that Lance shot a pin at the metal mage; Edgar blocked with his left arm, the arm going limp. Edgar sprinted forward to close the gap and swung in a measured manner with his sword. Lance didn’t block, but dodged back. Lance raised his hand to shoot another pin, but narrowly missed as Edgar took a half-step to the side and attempted another horizontal strike. Lance was forced to dodge once more, and back to the staircase which he had walked down on.
Aware of his surroundings, Lance brought his staff forward in an attempt to knock Edgar off-balance, but the metal mage took a counter-offensive by raising his sword and knocking Lance onto the stairs. Edgar was about to bring his sword down when Lance raised his fist and a blinding light pierced into his eyes, which caused him to fall backwards down some of the stairs, brutally. Lance seemed to levitate up onto his feet and began to shoot pins down, disabling random spots on Edgar’s body; the other arm, the legs, the torso, but stopped short of the chest and higher.
“This looks like it’s the end for you. Surrender or lose control of…” Lance’s attention was taken away when the east-wing corridor into the arena was suddenly burst open by Kenton Sergi, who appeared to be running away from something. Sergi turned to give an odd stare at Lance before he continued to run. Lance shot a pin at Sergi, but one of the swords enveloped the pin in an orb of shadow. Quick on his heels was Bane, Helen trailing behind. Instinctively, Bane stopped short of the chase and tackled Helen to the ground, all in attempt to avoid the spear of ice flung at them from the stands on the west-wing, towards the front of the building. Amy Hydrosso turned to take a shot at Lance, but the light mage shot a pin at her which disabled her arm. In both surprise and fear, she called out and fell to her knees. Edgar subsequently surrendered.
From the center staircase, the same one Lance had previously walked down from, came Kaeso, who stood in a half-way expression between fear and anger. Lance lowered his head and sighed.
“We are going to make sure we get no more attacks on us, Kaeso.”
In pursuit of Amy on the west-wing was Paltho, who forcibly took the casting wand from her hands and tossed it down to the arena floor below. He then pointed a wand at her, nearly menacingly from his height.
“What did you do to her? It’s enough if you’ve scared the living Hell out of someone.” Kaeso was looking down at Lance from the top of the stairs. Bane and Helen resolved to sit on the side benches, alert but unwilling to do much more for the time being.
“We have to make sure she’s not able to cast any more spells. Then we have to scare her enough to surrender.” Lance shrugged. “It is too late to do this any other way; Paltho appears to have gotten it under control. Only way to avenge Myxt’s surrender.”
“Myxt…surrendered?” Kaeso was half-proud of Amy and half-disappointed in Myxt.
“In the face of extreme circumstances.” Lance raised his head to Amy on the stands. He gestured for Xavier to help her up. “Is that right, Miss Hydrosso?”
Xavier told her in a low voice to stand, and stand she did.
“…I knew how to take care of Myxt…Hest’s little brother likes wind element, but he just doesn’t know how to take care of freezing cold air. They mingle, and the field becomes mine.”
Lance smiled. “Thank you, Miss Heliosso.” He turned to Kaeso. “I am afraid I will have to ask you to leave the room unless you want to see us disable each of her limbs before she surrenders. You see, these mages of elements are rather difficult to get to surrender until they know they can no longer do anything.”
Kaeso frowned. “I know that.” He looked up at Amy. “But I was thinking you could hold her as a bargaining chip.”
“No,” Lance waved a finger. “You were thinking you could find a way to save her, and the best way you can think of doing that is by considering her a bargaining chip. A good idea, and we will consider it.”
“Consider it?” Kaeso palmed his face. “Oh boy. Lance, this is a better bargaining chip than you’ll ever get. She’s a Lord magician. You could probably trade her for Leo, if they’re willing to get rid of him.”
“The thought is crossing my mind.” Lance nodded. “But you have to remember that if Jay Slatford is sending three, he is doing it with the intention of weaning off our own people. He cares little for them, if he sends them to take care of us. And he has done a good job. He has traded two of his for two of ours.” The monk waved a hand for Xavier to cast a spell. Paltho methodically raised and then dropped his hand in front of Amy’s vision and she appeared to fall unconscious into his arms. Kaeso once again turned his attention to Lance.
“You’re…taking her hostage?”
“You have made a good point, Kaeso. There is no reason to get rid of her if doing so would put one of us into a state of distress. They say true love conquers all and I have had my fair share of believing so.” He had to grin. “If someone were to get in my way in the same circumstances, I would want the other person to understand.”
With a wave of his hand, Lance ordered everyone back to their rooms.