Threat of the Shadow Mage

THE MUSIC GREW LOUD AS THEY ENTERED THE FESTIVE GROUND and Auron looked around, seeing what a good job they had done. “So…what do you think? Is it okay?” Aspen asked. “Okay? This is great sweetheart. You did well.” Aspen smiled, and as they passed through the gate almost everything slowed and came to a stop as others gazed upon Aspen’s luminous beauty. She glittered and sparkled and almost looked to be walking in slow motion.

Jaws dropped, and heads shook, but they continued nonetheless. “Tex!”

“Hello my brother. What brings you to the social center? I thought you weren’t one to socialize.” His friends laughed. “Ha, ha, ha, funny. Listen, you’ve got incoming on your five.” Tex looked over, and sure enough, there was a beauty beyond imagination. Tex’s eyes beamed and filled with her light, and his hand that held his beverage lowered. “Well don’t just stand there you dope.” His brother said as he grabbed the drink from his hand. “Go on.” A gentle push came from another friend, and Tex stumbled but caught himself enough so that he was able to stand again, turned to them, shook his head, and went back to meet Aspen and Auron.

As Tex approached them, Aspen lowered her head in modesty at a slight turn, and Auron greeted him. “Good evening, Tex.”

“Evening,” Tex replied with a slight bow.

“Quite a party you have here.”

“Yes, but it wouldn’t be what it is if this,” he turned his head to look at Aspen, “wonderful lady didn’t come to help.”

Aspen looked up and met his glance.

“My lady,” Tex said softly as he bowed and motioned for her hand. She gave it to him, and he gently kissed it as he brought himself back up. “My lord?”

Auron looked down upon him.

“With your permission, I’d like to take this fair one off your hands.”

Auron glared a quick moment, but the stepped forward and offered him her other hand. Tex took a bow in gratitude, and took her proudly.

After they were out of ear-shot, Tex lowered his head just enough for his mouth to be next to her ear, and said, “You look lovely tonight, Aspen.” “Then you are the first to say so. I thank you.” She replied as she glanced at him. “Come, we have to get to the corral.” Tex started to go ahead, but still had her in hand, and the two shuffled off to the Challenge Arena. “What, already?” Aspen asked, stopping; her hand slipping from his grasp. Tex turned feeling her hand was lost. He smiled, and then said, “Well, we are the main event.” Aspen giggled, and Tex took her hand again.

Everyone had gathered around the corral that had a tent pitched up around it, and waited for their arrival. As they reached the door of the tent, the two of them slowed as all the others whooped and cheered as they made a small path for them to make their way through. Aspen grinned and bore it as she gave an occasional nod while Tex just kept smiling and looking back at her every now and again. They reached the gate, and Tex told Aspen that he was going to go around to enter, and for her to go on in from there with his hands. She nodded and entered the pen that had been matted and decorated. Just to her right, there were five troughs, each containing one of the elements. Tex entered and took his position 20 yards in front of her with his own troughs. She smiled with a plan in mind, and Tex angled himself so his right shoulder was almost pointed at her, and Aspen did the same.

Auron entered, having seen the festivities centered there and looked over. His eyes widened a bit as he grew concerned, but then a fellow neighbor eased his burden, and he sighed as he watched the challenge commence. The crowd fell silent, and Tex went to make the first move. He looked to the trough of flames, and held out his hand, drawing a ball of fire from it, and had it hover over to him. Once it reached the center of his palm, he brought it to the center of his body and waved his other hand over the top of it.

Without Tex, or anyone else for that matter, noticing, Aspen put up a vortex that worked as a shield. She shaped it like a cone, the larger end facing him, and waited for him to throw it. Tex looked at her, though his head was down, and smirked. He hurtled the sphere of incendia towards her, but it stopped a foot before it reached her. “Huh?” he thought, confused, but what happened next told him what she had done. The vortex became visible as the rim turned purple and enclosed the sphere as the cone became a circle. As it did so, it suffocated the flames, and it diminished and then Aspen made the vortex turn to mist. “Hmm,” Tex stood, and nodded as a notion of a job well done to Aspen, and then Aspen took her turn.

Not moving a single cell of her body, she selected her rather wet element, and made it spiral around her twice before she made it stop and hover beside her. Tex readied himself, but it was a moment too late. Aspen had shot her hand forward, causing half of the stream to shoot at him. Tex had been splashed, and this delayed him enough for Aspen to pull the rest of her move. She stood quickly and brought the stream to float between her hands that looked to form an invisible circle. Aspen closed her eyes to concentrate, and then she pushed her hands forward just a little as she shot balls of water at him.

Tex was splashed left and right, top and bottom, but he finally managed to create a wall with the air around him. Aspen drew back, and retook her previous position. His hair fell in front of his face as it being wet now and he seemed to glare as he caught his breath. This, to Aspen, almost made him look dashing, but that soon changed as he forced up the wind, and tossed it at her. She allowed it to swivel around her, but she threw it into the audience, still not moving. A couple elves were thrown back a bit, and they all turned to see if they were alright. As they began to laugh, so did the others, and Aspen shrugged, feeling better. Tex looked at her again, and felt that she was cheating, but how? She had the same instructor as he, so…what was it that made she, a younger elf, more talented than he? He didn’t know.

Aspen then had an idea, and it being her turn, she decided to execute it. Extending her hands outward, she turned her palms upward, and slowly raised them a few inches. Tex looked around to see what she was doing, but saw nothing. Then, out of nowhere, or so it seemed, a wall of dirt quickly rose around them as Aspen shot her hands into the air. The wall surrounded the entire coral, so no one was able to see them. Auron stepped forward in wonder and concern. “What are you doing?” he asked himself.

Tex spun around looking all around, and faced her again as she was forming something. He went to prepare himself, and boy was he glad he did. Rocks spat out from every which way, and didn’t stop coming. Thankfully he had created an oval shaped deflector shield that enclosed him entirely. With every hit, a bright, white light flashed; this allowed the audience to somewhat see what was happening, but only to a certain extent.

After all the rocks that were in the walls had been shot, the walls disintegrated and fell to the ground. The audience awed as they still saw Tex in his defensive position. He opened his eyes, hearing it was over, and looked to the space through. He could do pretty much anything and say he used that to get away with it.

His shield seemed to get denser, and filled with fog. Soon it looked like he had trapped himself in what looked to be a giant egg. Just as they thought it was all over, Tex burst out of the shell, causing the pieces to crystallize and shoot every which way. He was dry and wearing different apparel. Auron knew only dark magic elves could do that and began to make his way to the corral, but had a hard time due to the crowd that had no idea what was going on.

Aspen defended herself, also using space, but Tex then brought out both fire and earth. He began to create a meteorite, and Auron stopped. “No. No!” he said, his voice growing with concern as he continued through. Aspen’s eyes widened as she saw this, and Tex spun once to throw it at her. As it left his hand, Aspen quickly did something she’d never done before. Just before it hit her, she had created a vortex that was 6 feet tall and 7 feet across - which was as wide as the corral. The meteorite slowed and almost came to a stop as it reached her vortex, and then the vortex spun around the meteorite and spun faster and faster. As it did, it began to glow, and Auron stopped in amazement. Its light grew brighter and brighter, and a high pitched whirling sound began.

As it reached its high point in spinning, glowing, and shrieking, it disappeared, leaving purple, white and blue glitter falling as gently as snow. Everyone was flabbergasted. They watched in silence as the last of the glitter disappeared. Then, as the last speck of white vanished, they began simultaneously cheering. Aspen looked around, out of breath, and began to laugh. Tex settled down, and quickly allowed himself to change back to his normal self. He laughed under his breath, and made his way to the center with Aspen, and they each took their bows. Then Tex turned to Aspen and hugged her with one arm. She hugged him back in the same way, but felt that it was a little odd. As Tex waved to his friends, Aspen looked to her father who was not cheering, and with their eyes, they had a conversation that said not to trust Tex, and they wouldn’t be doing that kind of thing again.

The party soon began to wear down, but Tex had two more things in store for Aspen. A dance was in order first. Tex motioned for the musicians to start a bouncy folk dance, and those who were left joined in. They clapped and danced, and had loads of fun. As Tex came to the outside of the circle, he motioned for Aspen, but she hesitated. A push came from behind, but it wasn’t Auron. He was actually on the other side speaking with one of the elders. She looked to see who it was, but no one was there. No choice was optional except to dance with Tex. At first she was a bit resistant, but as the music continued, she eased up and began to have fun again. Tex smiled, seeing his plan was working, but acted neutral.

Auron finished speaking with the elder, and went to get Aspen to leave, but stopped, seeing that she was dancing. He sighed, and started in to grab her but he was stopped by some of Tex’s friends. “My lord, Sir Auron. May I speak to you for a moment?” one asked. “Not now. I must take my leave.” “Oh, but it is but a simple question of technique.” Seeing that he was going to be persistent, he sighed. “And what technique is it that you speak of?” As they had Auron distracted, Tex led Aspen away from the festival and beyond some trees. “Where are we going?” Aspen laughed.

As they came to a small clearing, Tex stopped, pulled Aspen close, and kissed her. Stunned, and not knowing what to do, she just closed her eyes, and was consumed by the moment. She did like him, but this was unexpected. Tex pulled himself back, but rested his forehead on hers for a moment before he took a step back. Aspen stood for a moment, her eyes still closed. As she opened them, her eyes told Tex to come back. He did so, but did not kiss her; he wrapped his hand around the back of her neck and rested his head on hers again. “Tex?” she asked softly.

“Hmm?”

“What are you doing?”

Tex opened his eyes, and pulled his head back to look at her in question. “What do you mean?” “What are you doing?”

“I don’t understand.” He said removing his hand from her neck.

“What was that you did back there in the arena, and what was that kiss for?” Tex was silent a moment. “Am I not allowed to embrace the girl of my dreams?”

“Don’t do that.”

“Don’t do what?”

“That.”

“What?”

“Don’t try to fill my head with lies. I know what you’re trying to do.” Tex shifted his weight and crossed his arms. “You do. Then what is it I’m trying to do?” “You’re trying to get me to come to your side so that I can become one of them.”

“Them?”

“Yes, them. And don’t act like you don’t know what I’m talking about.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about!” Tex said as he flailed his arms out, and Aspen jolted. “When are you going to get it in your thick head that everyone is not a bad guy?” he asked poking his head with his fingers. “Your father has done nothing but feed you lies about the world. Yes, there are some mishaps and people who make mistakes, but everyone is not an evil doer who is trying to get your father.” “Don’t call my father a liar.”

“Oh he’s a truth teller then, is he? Well, has he told you what really happened to your mother? Has he told you what it is about you that makes him go off in another room and cry? Has he?”

“What do you know of it? You weren’t there. You aren’t living in my house.”

“You mother died because she sacrificed herself to save you!” Aspen fell silent. “She was killed by her own father who failed to check if it was really your father because he was so furious at Auron for lying to him about his rank and stealing his only daughter for his own!” Aspen heaved, about to cry, but was silent. “Your mother was rightfully my fathers’, and yours had the audacity to go forth and host a false courting party so that King Akoff’s daughter could come forth and be tricked into a thieving marriage.” “Stop it.” “Face the truth, Aspen! Your father is a lying thief, and a coward!” That was the last straw, and Aspen exploded. “Enough!” Tex fell to the floor, for he had gotten in her face, but the force of her yell forced him back. “What do you know of what my father’s past was? Nothing! You are yet twenty, not two hundred twenty! If you think you are capable of winning my heart, consider yourself a failure! All that small talk and showing off, please. You are nothing but a speck of dust in my family’s eye! You think my father’s a liar? Look to your own! I know the truth of what happened that day, and your father has twisted it to make my father look like a criminal! And you know what else? Your father works for the Shadow Mages!” Tex stopped scooting back and held still in disbelief. “He’s conspired against the king, and they both are of Shadow! So if you’re looking for truth…go to the elders. Not your father. Or your mother for that matter. She’s sworn to secrecy, and will lie to you just the same.” Tex just stared as Aspen stormed off with tears in her eyes.