Hellheart

To attend the Arcane Academy of Darien was a great honour for anyone with magical talent; but to be accepted to become a Master of the Academy was an opportunity very few individuals would ever achieve. Following her research into the School of Abjuration and Protection, Maia became one of the foremost practitioners of the art. By the age of twenty she had been leading lectures on the subject and the channelling of magic as a form of defence. Her students would talk of how her classes involved bolts of fire being thrown at students, or field trips to some of the harsher environments on Aerth to practice defending against the elements.

Despite Maia’s academic achievements, many of her peers were quick to dismiss her research as well as her ability and capability in the art. Chief amongst these sceptics was Master Amarion Vela. Vela had a number of accolades to his name, including Master of Abjuration which he used, at every opportunity, to cause unnecessary arguments with Maia over trivial debates in the subject.

“Yes, Miss Haik is correct in the application of warding spells, but surely she knows that when facing arcane elements such as fire or especially lightning the effectiveness of warding is significantly decreased?”

“Perhaps Master Vela would like to begin by referring to me by my title before making claims to which he already knows the answer?” said Maia with a sharp smile, “For surely he knows that the accomplished abjurer who wishes to ward against elemental energies must attune their protective spell before it is cast to ensure that their magical power is not drained inefficiently.”

“And what of reactionary shielding against elemental attacks, eh?”

“A matter of training and practice.”

“Oh please! You think you could defend against a Master evoker’s Fireball spell or a bolt of lightning from the sky? Perhaps one who has spent more of his life upon the Sea of Storms or in the deserts of Tarimar could gain enough experience. But surely a little girl from Darro, new into her title, doesn’t believe that she could achieve such heights of power?”

Maia would spend the next five years wondering if it was pride or anger that shaped her future. She met Vela’s challenge with a demonstration, Maia as the abjurer and Amarion as the evoker. The Hall of Masters was abuzz with the promise of a dangerous magical experiment as Maia and Vela took to the stage. A referee in the form of a junior wizard announced the agreed-upon rules of the experiment.

“The challenge, set by Master Amarion Vela to Master Maia Haik of Darro, is one of pride and prowess in the School of Abjuration. The experiment will test the ability to defend against elemental magical attacks. Both Masters are aware of the danger of this experiment and potentially fatal consequences of their actions.”

Maia and Vela walked onto the stage at opposite ends in the semi-choreographed standard practiced by magical duellists. They bowed to one another and the announcing wizard commenced the experiment.

There was a pause, and the audience held their breath with the anticipation of seeing deadly magic in action. Maia stood awaiting Vela’s attack, relaxed and without any battle pose. Vela had crouched into a duellist stance with a mocking smile firmly etched into his pointed features.

“Well Miss Haik, I didn’t expect to be throwing lightning at a little girl when I woke up this morning.”

Maia refused to respond to the taunt, and in her mind, she prepared to activate a defensive shield to counter lightning attacks, until she read Vela’s lips as he started the incantation for a Fireball spell. Maia quickly adjusted the defence in time before a gout of orange fire was hurled toward her. The searing flames hit Maia’s defensive spell and for a moment, the spells were locked in the air together before they were both dismissed. As the flare died, Maia stood proud of the achievement, though her smirk quickly turned to concern as she saw Vela in the final stages of preparing a Lightning Bolt spell. Maia caught the bolt in time, though only using a simple ward. Maia felt her energy drain as the bolt of lightning consumed the ward. Before she was depleted, Maia adjusted the ward to send the beam of lightning into the floor giving her a moment to dodge the attack and restore some energy within her. As she twisted away from the lash of lightning and focused on her energy recovery, she was knocked off her feet by a wave of arcane force from Vela. Vela laughed as the air was forced from Maia’s lungs.

“My fellow Masters,” he said with arms spread wide and halfway into a bow, “this is exactly why Miss Haik’s research is flawed. Magic, especially combat magic, is chaotic! Luckily, I pulled my punches for her or I do fear that our Master Abjurer may be little more than dust. Had this been an actual battle or a fight with, let’s say a thunder dragon, you can imagine what Miss Haik’s theory could have led to.”

Had Maia had air in her lungs to retort to Vela’s gloating she would have argued against the Master’s flawed statement. Though, to her embarrassment, two healers had carried her off the stage and off into the infirmary.

2.

Maia spent the rest of the week being checked over by the clerics of the infirmary. The head cleric was an elven woman named Alysia who tutted and scoffed at every opportunity over what had happened to Maia.

“What were you thinking, lass?” she said, “Going up against a Master twice your age and Master Vela at that! He’s not exactly known for his compassion toward his peers. I had a student of his in here just the other week with burns from one of his lessons.”

Maia sat and listened to the healer continue her seemingly endless rant about the harshness of wizards and the stupidity of their pride. Vela’s last spell had collapsed Maia’s lung, undoubtedly on purpose to stop her from arguing against him.

Instead of returning home from the infirmary, Maia walked the grounds of the academy and sat in the gardens at its centre. Beneath the leaves of a great willow tree, she sat and listened to the birds chirping in the branches and feeding from the seed baskets. She smiled at the colours of their plumage as they chittered and argued over the best seeds and the shrill cries as the local cat prowled the grounds hoping for a crunchy snack. Maia remembered this time as the last time she truly felt peace. From the gardens, Maia walked to the library and straight up the stairs to the top floor. A heavy oak door stood between her and the annex, there was no handle, no window, no knocker. The only thing adorning the dark stained wood was a metal seal and a sign that read “RESTRICTED” in bold, red lettering. Maia approached the door and presented her master’s symbol to the seal upon the door. There was a grinding sound as she placed the symbols together and the door was raised like a portcullis. As Maia passed the archway into the restricted section, she saw the masses of books that had been deemed too dangerous or provocative for the uninitiated. Each book was individually locked securely behind a sealed barrier with the same symbol as the door. She wandered the gallery of books glancing at their titles, everything from demonology to forbidden spells was locked away here, some of the titles had multiple seals. Some of the texts were purely rare and valuable and thus had single seals, others were simply advanced magical texts and kept behind an unlocked cabinet.

Maia hoped to find a title that would discuss advanced abjuration techniques, she had heard of some of the great masters of ages passed being able to shield entire cities from lightning storms or trap dangerous creatures within spheres of antimagical energy. For the restricted section being so rarely used, it was beautifully adorned. Paintings as old as the academy of the great masters, busts of the archmagi throughout the school’s long history lined the walls. The carpets were rich reds and the woodwork was all dark oak with matching floorboards that didn’t let out a single groan or squeak as Maia walked over them.

A space in the centre of the room was filled with a long table where two masters whom Maia wasn’t familiar with sat inspecting tomes of their own. They raised their eyes from their work to acknowledge her presence before continuing. Maia unlocked a case containing a tome on advanced abjuration magic and sat at the table, away from the other masters. She had read this tome multiple times, though she found herself scouring its pages for something she had missed. Time slipped away from Maia as she read, and when she raised her eyes from the book, she was alone at the table. She stretched her back and yawned, rubbed her eyes and closed the tome. As she stood to place it back into its container, Maia saw that a book had been left upon the table, three spaces down from where she was sitting. Not returning books to their proper place was a punishable offence in the regular library, but to do it in the restricted section, that was worthy of expulsion. She returned her tome to its proper place and approached the forgotten volume. As she inspected its black leather bindings, she saw that it contained no title, and as she reached to pick it up, she felt the air surrounding the tome get noticeably warmer. She retracted her hand and walked around the book to inspect its spine, but that too contained no clues as to its placement. With a sigh, Maia picked up the book, ignoring the warmth that surrounded it. As she did, the room darkened, she felt her knees grow weak beneath her and she collapsed into a chair. She tried to release the book from her grip but she could not move her hands or fingers, the tome was fixed in her grip and the temperature climbed and climbed in her hands. Short, shallow breaths caused Maia’s chest to ache as the room around her dissolved to blackness. She was conscious and aware of all around her, but the restricted section of the library felt like a hazy memory to her now.

“Who is this?” a deep voice spoke from no particular direction, “Who enters, unannounced, into my domain?”

Maia’s head darted from side to side looking for a source of the voice. Instinctually she raised a basic warding spell for protection.

“Ah, a mage is it?” the voice continued, “A curious seeker of curious secrets, no?”

“Who are you?” said Maia with a tremble barely disguising itself as bravery.

“It speaks! Questions even! Well, what can you offer me to answer such a personal question?” The voice was like velvet, alluring and curious, mocking yet sincere. It was a voice that had told many stories and lived beyond its years. Each word it spoke had been carefully selected and was dripping with the desire to know more. “A proper greeting begins with a name, perhaps?”

“Maia, my name is Maia.”

“Maia…”

“Maia Haik of Darro,” the words left her mouth seemingly out of her control, she never referred to herself by her full title unless she was back in her homeland.

“Ah, yes, I see now. Master Maia Haik of Darro, twenty-two mortal years old and an extremely talented abjurer. First in your classes and achieved the rank of master, long before your years. Female, untouched, and, oh… what’s this? I see, desire is deep within your heart isn’t it, my love? It hides itself as ambition, but you want things to be easy, effortless, you want to be the best, but to come by it naturally. My, my, my. Well, if it is unbridled and effortless power you wish to achieve, I’m certain I can assist you.”

“Who are you?” Maia found herself saying, this probing into her very being had left her feeling dirty, it felt like a violation of her soul.

“Ah! Quick to use its bargaining chips, isn’t it? I have gone by many names through the aeons, Strife, Ambition, Pestilence, but I prefer Izel.” Maia could feel the creature smile, though it was yet to present itself.

“Well, Izel, where am I?”

“Where and when and why are all curious questions, and questions have value in this place. I wonder what you can give me Maia, my love. Tell me, the festering new desire in your heart I sense, I can taste shame, I can taste contempt, I can taste, oh, revenge! Now revenge is something I can work with. Spurned by a lover who promised you everything perhaps? Did he promise to give you the world, you stupid, little girl? No, you’re far too clever for that, much too focused. A rival perhaps, I sense a wounded ambition?”

“Vela,” snarled Maia, his name leaking from her lips like a pierced waterskin.

“Ah yes, my love, I see it. Pulled a dirty trick on you, did he? Made you look a fool. If only you had the power to make him look the fool. Your theory is, of course, correct. But that snivelling man is too proud to have a little girl from Darro have authority over him.”

“My theory is correct?” Maia said to herself, “Tell me then, what can you do to help me? I came to the library to find information, to find a way to become more powerful. I want to be the best; I want to prove that I am worthy of my position.”

“I cannot give you what you already have,” said the voice, “You are worthy of your position, they wouldn’t have given you that shiny token if you weren’t. But the rest, yes, I see great potential in you, my love. I see a future for you among the great mortal mages of Aerth. I can give you the knowledge, the power, the truth. You have my word, my bond, my promise. A promise with me is one kept for life, and I do have such a long life. Do you want this deal? Should we shake on it? Bind blood on it? What are the customs these days? Here, a contract!” before Maia’s eyes a stained parchment lay on her lap in a language that Maia could not understand. At the bottom of the page was a space clearly left blank for a signature.

“And what do you get out of this, Izel?” she asked before she reached toward the page.

“Me? I’ll give you that one for free, I get knowledge, I get to see the world, I get entertainment. It’s so bleak in this place, so boring.”

“I want this, I need this. I have to do this.” Maia raised her finger to the page and a sharp pain cut into the end of her finger. Blood began to seep from a pinprick and she used the steady flow as ink to sign her name.

“Excellent,” said Izel as the contract disappeared. “The knowledge, the power, is yours.”

Maia felt a shake on her shoulder and she awoke to the library with the tome on abjuration magic in front of her.

“Master Haik are you well?” said a young male voice, “you were asleep. I know you had that bout with old Vela last week. Don’t push yourself so hard.”

Maia looked up to see the face of a young apprentice named Darrel who worked in the library to fund his studies. He was a young man not out of his teenage years, with the foundations of what might have been a beard sprouting from his chin.

“Darrel, I’m sorry, I must have nodded off,” said Maia as she tried to decide whether she dreamt the encounter with the voice or whether something had happened. She certainly didn’t feel any more powerful and certainly didn’t seem to know anything more than before. She laughed to herself, stood up from her chair and put the abjuration tome back in its place. A sense of déjà vu chilled Maia as she locked away the book and left to return to her quarters.

3.

Life returned to normal for Maia, she continued to study hard, kept her own company and spent her free time reading non-magical texts for fun. News of her recovery had reached the ears of the other masters and each of them wished her well. Many of them described Vela as a fiend for launching a second and third attack at her when the rules of the contest were clearly meant to be for one attack. Maia agreed with a smile and thanked each one for their concern, though it was Master Evalyn Williams who made a real impression on her.

“You know, there’s talk of Vela being stripped of his title for that little stunt he played on you, and rightly so.” She said to Maia. “Many of us think he’s been pushing his weight around too much, he’s a bully and a braggart. You know, for all his titles, I hear he really isn’t that impressive. Maisie… Master Rizal, says that he made the pass mark for his abjuration test by the breadth of a hair.”

She was blonde-haired and blue-eyed with a distinct accent that Maia hadn’t come across before. Everything she said was quick and snappy but she maintained polite eye contact throughout her ramble. Maia had only met her briefly in the past and knew her as a master of conjuration and for being a natural at mysticism.

“But really, I think he’s been sore ever since they started allowing us women into the ranks of master. You should have seen his face when High Counsellor Geraldine Defoe was elected, who, by the way, is the one leading the campaign to get Vela stripped of his rank.”

“The High Counsellor?”

“Of course! She saw the whole thing and agreed that Vela abused the rules of engagement. Instead of an experiment, she says, Vela turned the event into a duel. He could have killed you, Maia!”

“I don’t think I’d have given him the chance,” Maia chuckled, “He caught me off guard, that was for sure, but once I was off my feet, he did stop his assault.”

“Oh Maia, you didn’t see the look in his eyes when you deflected that fireball and his surprise when you managed to rout his lightning. He was furious. The last spell was out of petty frustration and added nothing to the experiment. From what I hear, you were touch-and-go for the first few days in the infirmary.”

“He collapsed my lung apparently, luckily we have some excellent healers here. So, you think I should take this further? You think I should support the High Counsellor in her efforts to demote Vela?”

“Oh, of course! Maia, the man is a brute! You’d be doing this academy a service by ridding us of him.”

Maia pondered to herself for a moment before nodding to Master Williams. The two spoke for hours, talking about their research and their lives. Maia learned that Evalyn was from the shores of Marromire originally, but she moved to Darien for a better life once she started showing signs of magical ability. Maia was awed by her tales of Marromire and its seedy port towns surrounded by dense jungle. Evalyn told her about her journey on the sea and seeing one of the peaceful sea dragons breach the waves and soar into the sky with a small whale in its talons. The more she heard, the more Maia wished to travel the world, to see the beauty that existed in far off places. The two became fast friends and soon began to plan trips from The Shattered Coast to the bays of Tarimar.

“You really should see the seas in Frostheim; they’re violent and dangerous, but when they’re calm, they are just the most beautiful shade of blue, I think it’s the ice that does it.”

Maia dreamed of seeing the frozen oceans, and in each of her dreams, Evalyn was with her. She was the first true friend that Maia had made at the academy, but she was acutely aware that something more than friendship lay beneath their dreams. In the years to come, Maia would think back to this time with a hopeless longing to return to these memories. Whenever she remembered them now, they were tainted by the stench of death.

4.

Months passed without issue for Maia. Her friendship with Evalyn had blossomed into a relationship and the two were hardly ever apart. Master Vela had been dismissed from the academy and stripped of his titles, the trial almost came to bloodshed as Vela unleashed spells at The High Counsellor who promptly had the disgraced mage shackled and arrested. In the meantime, Maia had been furthering her research into magical power storage in warding magic. In her heart, she wanted to be able to conjure wards that could cover cities like in the old legends of the great mages. More concerning to Maia was the familiar voices she was starting to hear during her contemplations.

“You know, my love, I could simply grant you such power,” the voice of the demon Izel said, “all you need do is ask.”

“No!” shouted Maia out loud in front of a room of scholars, who all turned to look at her. This had been happening more often in the weeks that Maia had been focusing on her work. People had begun to get concerned for the mage, none more so than Evalyn.

“Maia, maybe you should take a step back from your studies, just for a bit.”

“Why would I do such a thing? Because I vocalise my frustration?”

“Maia, people have been saying you’re speaking to voices in your head, you barely eat, you barely sleep, and when you do sleep, it’s so restless, I can’t imagine it’s doing you much good.”

“I’m fine. Honest. I get like this when I feel like I’m on the brink of something.”

Evalyn simply feigned a smile and watched as Maia continued to write and plot.

Months of trials, sleepless nights and taunts of the demon Izel ensued. Evalyn and Maia’s relationship came to an end, plunging Maia deeper into her work. Maia’s clothes became baggy upon her and the mutterings to an unknown source had gone from being a known oddity to a known concern. Evalyn had tried to consult the counsel to force Maia to take a break from her work but to no avail. The counsel was used to mages showing odd behaviours and being generally thought to be flamboyant. That was until the fire broke out.

Maia’s study space was one of many in a great hall where students, masters, and other visiting mages could study in relative peace. Maia liked the pace of the experiments happening all around her, the smells and the sights of magic shaped by an individual mage. Maia, deep into another day of study was frantically taking down notes from an old tome she had stumbled across when a shrill cry of panic filled the hall. Maia barely acknowledged the interruption, despite the clamour of voices that began to rise from the other study spaces. The air around Maia became sulphurous and the temperature soared enough for her to break out of the intense concentration. As she left the cubby to find the source of her disturbance, Maia saw a towering inferno in the centre of the hall. A vortex of living flame, a fire elemental. A student lay charred beneath the gigantic inferno. Most of the mages ran away from the creature, out of the great hall, but some remained to battle the thing. Maia joined the mages tackling the elemental and casting fire-resistant wards around her companions. The creature writhed with anger as it blasted flames around the great hall, burning up books, parchment and the wooden study spaces, the air was becoming toxic and Maia’s wards were starting to fail under the continuous lashings of living flame. Realising her situation, Maia began to back out of the hall keeping the creature at bay with a warding spell. Other mages had begun to lose consciousness, either by the extreme heat of the inferno or the smoke inhalation, but there was nothing Maia could do to save them. As she reached the doors of the hall and breathed fresh air again, it dawned upon Maia that her months of work and experience were still inside the hall. Irreplaceable research and one-of-a-kind tomes were becoming nothing but kindling for the great elemental within. Maia shrieked, despair consuming her being. She got to her feet and started to move back toward the raging inferno, but she was held back by Evalyn, who had rushed to the scene.

“Maia, you need to stay calm, you can’t go back in there,” she pleaded with her. She was holding Maia back in an embrace despite the heat from the building growing painful behind her. Maia did not care. She reached out toward the elemental and screamed once more. Time stopped around Maia, she was trapped in the solid embrace of Evalyn as she looked at the flames, like frozen orange flags pouring out of the shattering windows. The shards of glass hung in the air like ice and all Maia could hear was the low, thrumming laughter of the demon.

“We don’t have much time, my love,” said the demon in her head, “Your work may be gone, but I can grant you the power you seek. Tell me Maia Haik, Maia of Darro, Maia the Master of Warding, what do you desire?”

“Give me the power demon, give me the power to become as powerful as the legendary mages. Give me the power to become the greatest mage who ever lived! I will save them all!” Izel laughed an inhuman laugh that cut Maia to the core.

“Done. Your power is granted.”

Maia expected a change, a swell of energy or a moment of greatness from a storybook in which a heavenly light shone upon her. Instead, time returned to normal and Maia heard Evalyn pleading with her. Maia relaxed but shook off Evalyn’s embrace calmly.

“There is something I must try,” she said.

Maia, began to cast a spell, a disruption spell aimed to sever the ties between the Elemental Plane of Fire and the Mortal Plane. She built up the energy in her hands to cast the spell as a beam of energy right at the growing inferno. The energy came easily to her, it was an ecstasy of pleasure to wield such incredible power and, as she released it, she felt the flow of magic running through her hands. The fire elemental screeched as its tether began to be destroyed by the beam of magical energy. The onlookers gaped in amazement at the power of the mage, destroying the elemental by herself.

Time once again seemed to slow around Maia as the voice of Izel returned.

“I have granted you the powers of the great mages, my love, they are yours. However, I did not suggest that you would be able to control such power.” The demon laughed triumphantly as the world came back into focus for Maia. The spell had worked and the fire elemental had dispersed into nothingness, but the beam of energy continued to flow from her hands. Cries for Maia to stop the spell enveloped her mind but she could not end the flow of energy. She looked in fear toward Evalyn, whose look of horror and sadness would forever be scratched into her memory as she forced her hands together, a technique known as The Magician’s Gambit, to force the spell to consume itself. The technique was often disastrous for the casting mage, but Maia had no choice. The spell consumed itself and exploded in a flash of white light.

Maia awoke to a world of ash. Everything and everybody was exactly where they had been before the flash, only now they were grey husks of ash. All was silent. A breeze caught the air and before her eyes the great hall cracked and collapsed into a heap of ash, causing a chain reaction of other buildings, trees, walls, and people to crumble into a fine powder. Maia looked down toward Evalyn, she was closest to the blast and instead of crumbling to ash had turned to black glass, that same look of horror forever captured on her face.