The Summoned

The Light Plane:  LePaige's Castle

 
    Paul stood up rapidly, backing away and pushing his arms forward blindly before he even realized that he had acted reflexively.  His eyes opening, he forced himself to calm down.  It was hard, getting his mind back into some semblance of order after what had just happened, but he slowly managed it.  He focused on the concrete wall in an effort to re-assert reality.
    The young wizard was in a sparsely decorated room in one of the parapets of LePaige's castle.  The room would normally be host to two archers in peacetime, five or more if they were on high alert, and as many as could fit if they were under attack.  Only Paul was there now, having requested a place where he could meditate and perform magic.  LePaige himself had authorized the room to be empty of archers, his rationale being that Paul would be just as effective in case of sudden attack.
    What Paul had encountered was worse, at least to him personally.  He had been experimenting with magic, just as he had been ever since he had become an apprentice, and something had changed.  Suddenly, paths he had not seen had opened, and magic he had never conceived was available to him.  Suddenly, everything had resolved itself, and the patterns of light and sound and feeling had coalesced into one source of raw power.  It had rushed toward him....
    He had forced himself away, shocking himself out of his trance.  He mentally reviewed his meditations quickly, trying to find out what he had done so differently to create such a different result.  It was almost as though he had tapped some source of power previously unknown to him.
    The lines of force and power swirled about him once more as he retraced his mental steps.  The magic came together again with alarming speed, faster than it had ever done in the past.  A fraction of a second, and it was there again.  Raw power, but ordered in such a manner as he had never seen.  He stood outside it, seeing it extend onto infinity - pure energy, the energy to work miracles, the energy to create, and the energy to destroy.  Hundreds of thousands of times powerful than the most intricate and well-laid of conventional spells, the least bit of this power could transform worlds.  Paul saw it all, and suddenly he realized what he was seeing, and again he fled, standing with a start and nearly crying out, falling over again in hysteria.
    It required two hours for him to calm himself sufficiently.  It was only after that time that he managed to pick himself up and admit to himself what he had seen, and what he had almost embraced.  For the first time, Paul had come into contact with the Higher Path.


Interim

    There were three figures standing above him, speaking to each other.  He did not understand their language; in fact it seemed that they were not speaking the same language at all, even to each other.  He understood them, though.  Beyond them, there were perhaps a half dozen others, none of which he recognized, and none of whom spoke.  He couldn't see anything more than vague outlines, but he knew instinctively that the three nearest him were the most powerful of all present.  He felt a chill run through him as a realization came:  He had been here before.  He felt his breath choke within him, only he hadn't been breathing before either.  Panic began to set in.  He was in the Interim again, and those he had encountered before and escaped from had found him again.
    "The Upstart has been testing his bounds once more." one of the three figures said to the two others.  Asa tried to move, but found that he was completely paralyzed.  He wanted to scream, but his voice would not come.
    "He was to be disabled over seven hundred years ago!" another retorted angrily.  "Your Executor failed us.  This one will not."
    Every nerve in Asa's mind was on fire.  He had to flee!  He had to get out of this place before he died....  The Interim was very much like what he imagined death to be, and the longer he was here the more he feared he might never leave.
    "Agreed." The third, in contrast to the other two, spoke quietly and evenly.  "This one has borrowed of my power, and so the final decision is mine, of course.  However, I believe that he will make a worthy Executor.  He is already arrayed against the Upstart.  It shall be him."
    Everything was black then, and the Interim surrounded him.  It pressed against him on all sides, stifling him and crushing him.  He opened his mouth and screamed, but no sound came out.


The Light Plane:  LePaige's Castle

    Rachel burst into the ward, drawing glares from most of the healers arrayed there. She didn't care.  Instantly, she located the form of Elayna, who was across the room and waving for her to follow.  Rachel tried not to run through the ward but couldn't help herself.  She drew more glares from the healers but ignored them completely, instead following Elayna into one of the private patient rooms at the end of the ward.
    Inside, Asa lied on the bed, his hands twitching.  Occasionally he would frantically utter some fragment of a word.  Rachel turned to Elayna for an explanation.  The young healer looked back worriedly.
    "I don't know what's happening to him." she admitted.  "I already sent a guard off to find Paul or Seeker, but I knew you were on your way, so I ran to find you.  He just started doing this a few minutes ago."
    Rachel looked at her friend and could tell he was in some sort of pain.  She had been visiting him ever since they had arrived at LePaige's castle, at the same time every day.  It was good that she was so consistent in her visits, otherwise Elayna would have had to go much further to find someone.  "Is there anything you can do?" she inquired of Elayna.
    Elayna shook her head.  "No, there isn't!" she said, obviously frustrated.  All along, she had been by Asa's side, trying and re-trying every bit of magic she knew  to revive her friend.  She had left only to visit the libraries, in the hopes that there was magic there she could use.  However, most of the healing available there was either at too elementary a level to be of service, or completely over her head.  She had even attempted crafting her own revival magic, but she had been none too successful.  Still, she had continued trying to wake her friend.  She had lost too many people already.  Jamie was gone.  Her father was gone.  Only this traveler and his friends remained with her.  She closed her eyes as a wave of hatred overcame her suddenly - hatred for the man that had caused all of this.  Norax.  Norax had her father killed.  Norax had sent Asa to the Nexus, and in so doing had ensured Jamie's fall on the trip.  Now Norax had put Asa into his current state.  She stood quietly still and let the wave pass, as they always did.  This one didn't last long, but some did.  Some lasted very long indeed.
    Rachel hadn't noticed, as she was distracted by the entrance of the Seeker.  The aged wizard glanced at them both very seriously and then sat down next to the bed where Asa was thrashing around.  He closed his eyes for a moment, and Asa seemed to calm down.
    Opening his eyes, Seeker turned to the other two in the room.  "He's asleep now.  He's finally back from wherever it is he went, and he's having a normal, healthy sleep.  He should awaken sometime later today."
    Elayna looked at the man disbelievingly.  "He's really all right?"  She put a hand on Asa's chest, as though to verify through her own abilities.
    Seeker nodded.  "Yes, he's come back to us."
    A week ago, when the party had first entered the castle, Seeker had been one of the first people to greet them.  The very first thing they did was to try to see if he could resuscitate Asa.  He only learned of the second Nexus while he was trying to do so.
    The news of the second Nexus had disturbed him greatly, though he hadn't let it show to the rest of the group.  When asked his opinion of why Norax had done something so reckless, Seeker answered truthfully.
    "That force that drives him aided his creation of the Nexus." he had explained.  The power from the Dark Plane's Gatekeeping Rod had made the Nexus connect to the Dark Plane, while forcing the contest of wills in the Light Plane rather than across the planes had made sure that neither Asa nor Norax would be the epicenter of a new Nexus.  Norax obviously had no intention of repeating the mistake that brought down the most powerful creatures of all time.  The tradeoff was easy for Norax to make - if Asa gave up or didn't win the contest of wills, then Norax would have a successor.  Asa couldn't win, as Norax was using the power of the rod to its fullest, so the most that the young summoner could hope for was for a second Nexus to open.  This benefited Norax as well, as Norax could bring his full army to bear, and capture Asa later.
    Asa was unconscious, Seeker had later discovered, because he was no longer within his body.  The rest of the group didn't quite grasp the concept, but Seeker attempted to explain anyway.  Something, most likely the backlash of the Nexus opening, forced Asa's mind from his body.  Seeker knew full well where the spirit most likely was - the interim between the planes - but he didn't tell the group this.  Seeker hadn't realistically seen very much of a chance for Asa's soul to return from the Interim, as there was very little that could travel freely to and from the interim without first launching from one of the planes.  He hadn't shared that with the group either.
    It didn't matter any longer, however.  Seeker could tell now that Asa had returned to his body.  The summoner's twitchings were probably caused by prolonged exposure to the Interim, which is extremely detrimental to anyone dwelling within for more than the shortest amount of time.  But Asa was back, and so far as Seeker could tell, his young friend was as well as could be expected.  Why Asa had been returned to his body, however, or the method that it had happened by, were questions Seeker chose not to think about.

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