As the evil Elgarin vanished in a burst of green light, David West let out a frustrated sigh.

  But the swirling melee around him, where undead monsters called strigoi were swarming the Magisters and Battle Sisters of the temple, kept him from being too upset about this; he quickly spun around to see that Thellissandra and Dalrinjian, the ter with his body in its metal form, were engaging four of the creatures; and though they were holding their own, it looked bad. David reached into the Earth rune and then drew up the stones around the four monsters, encasing them in rock then forcing the entire mass together. When he released his hold on Earth, blood and viscera-soaked stones were all that remained of the four monsters.

  “Was that you, Baby Mage?” Dalrinjian asked. “I am almost impressed,” and then he headed off to take on another of the monsters. David and Thellissandra exchanged a quick gnce then each turned back to the swirling melee to see where their strengths would be best employed. David tried striking with rock fists or nces of fire but discovered that he was more effective if he protected warriors with Earth shields while they made their own attacks. Thellissandra simply darted in and out like living lightning, striking at monsters, seemingly at random, about half the time distracting the strigoi so another could nd a killing blow, the rest of the time wounding the monsters and then moving on.

  David tapped the Air icon and sent his perception into it to get a broader view of the fight. The first thing he noticed was that, though the defenders outnumbered the attackers nearly three to one, the battle was unnervingly even. Then he noticed that several defenders were on the ground writhing in pain, and all from very simir wounds. He was about to examine the wounds when one corner of his perception caught a monster about to strike him; his awareness returned to his body barely in time for him to roll beneath a strike from its bck cws. Then a sword strike removed the monster’s other arm just as it readied to strike at him again. He gnced over and nodded thanks at a Battle Sister that Thellissandra had introduced him to earlier but whose name escaped him at the moment. As he did so, he saw what looked like a sheet of fme come out of one of the side entrances and cut one of the strigoi in half. The sheet turned out to be the bde of a sword-like weapon held by an Aelfor who strode into the room, accompanied by a second equipped with a matching weapon and a third that David believed to be the one he had just met, Vel, but unlike the others, she carried what looked like three tubes linked by a silver chain: at least that was how looked like when she was merely carrying it. When Vel swung the weapon around in a series of fluid movements that might have made Bruce Lee jealous, they glowed a bright blue and left what seemed to be a trail of frost in the air.

  He was unable to watch the Aelfor more closely, as his momentary distraction at their arrival had allowed one of the strigoi to get close enough to take a swipe at him; he knew he could not get out of the way in time and prepared for the worst when something pushed him out of the way. He saw Thellissandra standing over him; with her left arm she blocked the cw strike that might have ended his life had she not pushed him out of the way. The cws scored three gashes on her hand, as she swung her sword with the other and neatly removed the monster’s head from its body, but then she cried out in agony and dropped to the ground. David would have rushed to her side, but he recognized the wound as the same he saw on the other downed combatants. He made some quick mental calcutions and spun icons in his head until he could view the wound in greater detail. He saw jagged edges, but also saw four auras present - Water, Spirit, Metal and Void. Examining the configuration, he realized that the wounds bore a toxin that attacked both the body and the Spirit of the target. Gncing at one of the creatures, he saw the same mix of auras in them and decided on a desperate measure - focusing all of his energy into those icons, he created what he hoped would be a supernatural electromagnet to draw that specific mix of those energies out of their victims. He fell to his knees as he powered it up and heard screams and cries of shock from all around him. He was barely conscious after a few seconds, only dimly aware that the sounds of combat had died down, only vaguely realized strong arms were wrapped around him. His vision blurry, he looked up into the worried and dangerously pale but smiling face of his Sandra.

  When he next opened his eyes, David was leaning against the wall, Sandra at his side, an arm around him. “Did we win?” He asked, weakly. Her only response was a deep, passionate kiss on his lips.

  When she finally let him come up for air, she said: “do you think you can stand?”

  “After a kiss like that I doubt I can do anything,” he replied.

  She smiled. “Seriously, are you strong enough to stand?”

  He sighed. “Only one way to find out, I guess,” and tried. On his second attempt, with her assistance, he rose unsteadily to his feet, took one step, and felt exhausted but able to move, and told her as much. She gave him another, albeit quick and light, kiss. “I need to go tend to our wounded, but the Healers over there want to talk to you as soon as possible. Are you up to it?”

  “Yeah, I think so. See you soon, maybe lunch?”

  “Hope so!”

  David walked across the room, his stride stronger with every step. As he passed a group of people his mind barely registered one called out: “Hey, Puppy Mage, a word.”

  He sighed and turned to Dalrinjian. “Okay, but make it quick.”

  “You did good. Renounce any cims on my woman and I will formally recognize you as at least a full Mage, probably a Grand Mage and maybe, despite your age, ready for The Trials.”

  “Uh-huh. And the other shoe?”

  “I heard Elgarin call you by another name. Persist in your baseless cims to be her lover, and I will inform everyone that you are not Thengarian, but an imposter named David West, and possibly an ally of The Betrayer.”

  David stopped and blinked at him. “Really?”

  “Yes,” Dalrinjian replied, triumphantly.

  “You mistook my tone. I spent most of my life under the name of David Michael West, but I AM Grand Mage Thengarian. Deal with it.”

  “You are making a mistake, one you will know all too well when, in three days, we verify that Thellissandra is pregnant with my child. Then you will be out and have nothing. I had hoped to give you some dignity, Baby Mage, but you chose the path of the fool. Have a good life. A good, short, lonely life,” and he turned his attention back to his wounded friends.

  David shook his head and continued on to the group of people Sandra had pointed out to him. One of them, a woman barely in her twenties, saw him first, and said: “you should not be walking after that much stress; have a seat. I will see if someone can get you a wheeled chair.”

  “Thank you, no I am fine. I heard you wanted to talk to me?”

  A much older woman, with faded auburn hair and a heavily lined face turned away from the rest of the group. “You are Thengarian? I am Tajee, lead Healer for the Temple. Xijara has a point, you probably should take it easy. Do you know what you did?”

  “Other than pass out and save Thellissandra, not really.”

  “Honestly? You cured them!”

  “The people who had been poisoned?”

  “You are not hearing me - you cured all of them, well, all but the oldest who were just torn apart!”

  David’s brain took several seconds to make sense of what she had said: “Strigoi can be cured?” He finally managed, and did sit down at this.

  “Nobody knew, most of us would never have believed it if we had not seen it right here, an hour ago when you made that giant horseshoe shaped thing in the air. A few of them died from the strain but at least a score survived and will recover, at least physically, thanks to you. And I was hoping you could try to show us how to make that thing, since it seemed to only access three types of magic. It could have uses for other types of healing as well.”

  “But if that condition could be cured, we could have saved Kim,” he replied numbly.

  “Kim?”

  “The first one of these things we met, back … before I came here, to this world,” he replied.

  “Oh, you probably would not have survived then. It almost killed you here, and you seem to have more experience using the power - and more raw energy avaible to tap - here than there. Also, nobody ever even thought of trying. Can you show me roughly what you did, maybe via illusion since that will not be as taxing?” The older woman replied.

  David considered this for a moment, then realized he was hungry and very tired: “I think I need to go get something to eat first. If you are still here after that, I will try to show you then, if not, send someone to bring me to you, Okay?”

  “Sure, and, on behalf of everyone who survived, thank you, Grand Mage. Even if you cannot teach us that, thank you.”

  He just bowed slightly and left.

  He was almost out of the room when he realized Thellissandra was pacing him silently. He stopped and turned to her.

  Quietly, she asked: “David, are you okay?”

  “I, well, I think so,” he began, “just tired and very hungry “

  She nodded. “I have to help my Sisters a bit longer, then I will come find you, okay?”

  He gave her a weak smile: “sounds perfect. See you soon “

  As soon as she moved away from him, a Battle Sister he that vaguely remembered was called Kaylondea grasped her arm and said something in an excited tone that he subconsciously tapped Air to listen in on: “T., we have found your surname!”

  Thellissandra stopped and looked at her quizzically, and she continued: “Thellissandra Magetamer!”

  A mix of amusement and frustration in her tone, Thellissandra let out a light chuckle and then replied “by the gods, no…”

  “Think of it - your mage is like a cute little puppy with a big, nasty set of jaws. The fact that he has not used it to remove Dalrinjian’s head from his shoulders shows that someone tamed him!”

  “You are just being silly,” Sandra replied, but was drowned out by several of her Battle Sisters, almost in perfect unison, saying “Hail Thellissandra Magetamer!”

  David shut off the Air Ear at this point, and went off to find food, not sure if he should be fttered, insulted or just amused by what he heard.

  David had just begun to eat when he felt a hand pced gently on his shoulder. Turning and looking up, he found Magister Parkidden smiling down at him. The man sported several bandages, one on his left shoulder. “Good day, Mage Thengarian,” he said.

  “I have had better, sir, but a good day to you. There is room if you would like to sit?”

  “No thanks, I just wanted to see how you were doing and to thank you for what you did today,” the older man replied.

  “What I did was too little too te. Only cured about twenty victims, and…”

  The Magister stopped him right there: “you cured far more than that. All of those who were poisoned by their cws would have become creatures like them. You saved hundreds.”

  This stunned David: “What? Really? But Thellissandra was cwed!”

  “Yes. You saved her, myself, and many others. You performed a near miracle today, and one that I hear the Healers think they can use to fight other diseases, infections and toxins, possibly even magical infections. The only way this could be more of a win would be if we had captured or killed Elgarin,”

  David considered this, then sadly said: “but all those dead bodies…”

  “Are on the Betrayer, not you, not me, not the Battle Sisters. It is his fault alone. It would have been far worse without you. Think on that; I would stay and chat, but I have pressing business elsewhere. Thank you again,” he concluded before moving off.

  David was deep in thought when Thellissandra and two of her Battle Sisters slid into seats at his table. “Oh, hi dies,” he said after a few seconds. “It has been a strange st few days.”

  “That it has,” Kaylondea replied. “It is good that Thellissandra brought us her tame mage to ease us through these troubled days.”

  The other Battle Sisters ughed, and Sandra gred daggers at her.

  “Oh, she also has a tame mage? I would like to meet this person, maybe we can share notes?” David quipped, a half-smile on his face. All three women ughed at this.

  “You see why I love him?” Sandra said to the others, as if he was not at the table.

  “Those eyes of his are enough for me,” Jaeya, “so kind and so blue, with that dark hair, yum.” She sighed, then turned to David: “Thengarian, if things do not work out between you and my best trainee, I come of age and can choose my own partners in two months…”

  David smiled at her. As with most of the Battle Sisters, she was a truly lovely woman, “I thank you for your offer, dear dy, and am greatly fttered. I hope to never take you up on it, but the offer is very much appreciated.”

  She let out a snort of ughter, then turned to Sandra: “I had best get out of here before I, too, fall in love with this man. I hope he never has to take me up on the offer, as you truly deserve someone like him, but” she added, fshing a very inviting smile at David as she did so, “the offer is very real.”

  So saying, she rose and quickly left the table, patting Thellissandra on the shoulder in passing.

  Kaylondea shook her head in amusement. “Young mage, you gather as many admirers as foes to your side. Note that all of the Battle Sisters I have spoken with support you and your cim on the Daughter of the Gryphonsyer.”

  David looked at Sandra and then back at her. “I thank you for that, my friend.”

  “I am honored to be your friend,” she replied with a slight nod.

  As they ate and chatted, a few other people walked up and thanked him for what he did in the meeting hall. After a while he said: “I think I need to go rest. I feel much better than I did before, but I am still exhausted. If any of you see Tajee, tell her I pn to be in my chambers for the rest of the day.”

  And with that, and a quick kiss on Thellissandra's forehead, he was gone.