Master Novice - Part 11

Hank raised his bow. He knew he had only one shot, just one chance. He aimed and fired, hoping to pierce the black heart that burned within that powerful chest.

Venger intercepted the energy bolt with his open hand. The bolt disappeared, leaving no indication that it did any damage. He laughed. "Foolish children! Though your bodies have aged, your minds are stuck in the past. Your toys can no longer harm me." He clenched his fist, and Hank was thrown to the floor by an invisible force, the sound of breaking bones very loud amidst the relative silence of the ruined tower.

"Hank!" Sheila was on her feet, her cloak about her, rendering her invisible, her throwing knives in her hand. One after another, she threw them at Venger, hoping to at least distract him from her husband, but to no avail - the blades simply bounced off Venger like he was made of stone.

Venger glanced in her direction, and then waved his hand, saying "Gnat." Sheila was thrown from the tower by an unseen force. She had just enough time to see the ground rushing up at her, and then all sensation ceased.

In another place, Aurora knew that there was no return. She had watched her physical body fade from existence, during which she had felt more solid, more real, her current situation losing its dream-like quality. Somehow her mother had traded Aurora's physical body for Venger's, though he had been forced to tear his way out of this place.

Now all she could do was watch through the unbreakable window as her grandfather slaughtered her rescuers, her friends, one-by-one, her mother next to him, laughing the whole time.

She didn't completely understand what was going on, or why, but she knew one thing: her mother and grandfather had lied to her, and used her.

Diana and Eric looked wildly about themselves. They knew that they had no chance of surviving this encounter. Venger was very much in control - even Hank's bow, arguably their most powerful weapon, had proven useless.

Diana scooped up a random jar full of something and threw it at Venger. He easily caught it out of the air, but as he did so, his hand was immediately engulfed in flames. Surprise flickered across his cold features for the briefest moment, then he smiled, and the flames were instantly doused, his hand completely unburned.

Natasha laughed and clapped her hand. "Oh, that was precious! The look on your face, Father!"

Turning to her, Venger replied, "I would much rather see some 'precious looks' on the faces of some certain middle-aged heroes." Returning his attention to Eric and Diana, he considered. He had thought of so many ways to destroy his enemies during his long incarceration, yet here he was, letting them die quickly. He decided it was time for some fun.

"So, heroes, or what is left of you, would you care to play some more? I am now so much more powerful than you or your silly toys." He gestured, and Diana's staff tore itself out of her hands, flying straight to Venger. "Such as this one. Surely, one of Dungeon Master's less inventive moments." He twisted his wrists, and the staff snapped in half, releasing its magic energy in a bright flash of light.

Looking over at Eric, he said, "Or that miserable shield that you cower behind." He raised his hand, slowly pulling it into a claw shape. As he did, Eric's shield folded itself in half.

Eric stared at it incredulously for a moment, then shrugged and tossed it aside. "So, great, you've finally won. We're helpless before you and all that. Fine. But what happened to Aurora?"

Natasha chuckled. "Why, that's simple. She replaced my father in his prison."

Diana cried, "How could you! Your own daughter!"

Natasha shrugged. "I can always have another, but I can only have one father."

Venger nodded. "Indeed." He studied Diana for a moment, then gestured in her direction. Instantly, she could not move, and was levitated up to the same level as Venger and Natasha. "So. I have won, have I? Well, yes, I have, but that's not good enough."

Diana began to age, becoming a shriveled crone in mere moments. "My gift to you is your greatest fear."

Diana found that she could move again, to some degree. She looked down at her shriveled hands, felt her deeply wrinkled face. Grim determination showed on her face, and in a weak voice said, "Old age no longer holds the terrors it once did, Venger. And I've faced this before."

"Ah, yes, you have. But this time, it's no illusion." He smiled at her, then continued. "I'm just happy that the last thing you will see is my smiling face. Goodbye, acrobat."

Diana began to age once again. Her body grew older and older, yet still she refused to die. Finally, the flesh disappeared from her bones, and within moments, all that was left was a small pile of dust, which Venger turned free on the winds.

"Monster!" Eric had his sword out and was gripping it tightly. "You and your magic! Come down here and fight like a man!"

Venger and Natasha looked at each other, and then Natasha shrugged, and they floated down to the floor, Venger alighting a few feet in front of Eric. "Here I am, cavalier. Kill me."

Eric swung his sword in a wide arc, putting all his strength behind it. If he could just cut that grinning head off...

Venger caught the sword with his hand, the blade cutting cleanly through the glove and into his hand. He grimaced slightly, then pushed the blade away. Eric caught a glimpse of the flesh knitting itself. Venger smiled and showed his palm to Eric. Through the cut in the glove it was no longer obvious that Venger had even been wounded. Then the glove mended itself, much as the hand had. "Try again."

This time Eric swung the sword over his head, aiming for Venger's. "Maybe I can split his damn skull in half," he thought. Venger didn't try to block it, or even move. He didn't have to - the sword hit his helmet and shattered, sending metal splinters all over the floor.

Natasha clucked her tongue. "Now that's a shame. I'd been hoping that would be more entertaining."

Venger smiled again. "Oh, we're not done yet." Removing his helm and his gloves, he said, "Come at me, cavalier. I am unadorned. No weapons, just yourself."

Eric swung a sweeping roundhouse at Venger's head. Venger caught it and held fast. Eric swung his other hand, and Venger caught that too. "And now, cavalier, you will die."

Eric spat in his face. "I'll see you in hell."

Grimacing, Venger said, "That's possible, but not likely." He slowly tightened his grip on Eric's hands. Eric struggled to free himself, becoming more frantic as Venger's grip tightened. He screamed when his bones began to break. Venger released one hand, which Eric immediately cradled to his chest in a vain attempt to ease the pain.

Venger struck Eric in the face open-handed, and Eric's vision blurred. Venger struck him again, close-fisted this time, and Eric saw stars. Venger struck him again and again, until Eric's entire world was pain...

Aurora pounded on the window, screaming, "No! Stop! Please!" But it was no use, neither her mother nor her grandfather heard her. Her grandfather was intent on beating Eric to death, and her mother was watching raptly, thoroughly enjoying the show.

Unable to do anything, she closed her eyes and leaned her head against the glass. "I'm sorry, Eric, Diana, everyone. I'm sorry, so sorry..."

In the darkness, hungry eyes watched the waifish child. They crept closer, intent on an easy meal. But then, their meal began to glow, and the eyes turned and ran.

Venger threw Eric's broken body aside and picked up a scrap of cloth from the floor, wiping his hands off. "Why must they always bleed so much?"

Natasha spread her hands. "It's the way of these humans, Father."

He sneered. "They could at least keep their body fluids to themselves."

"Venger..." The voice was so weak that a human would have missed it, but Venger and Natasha both heard Hank's voice clearly.

Venger walked over to him and knelt. "So, ranger, you survived. You are stronger than I had thought."

Hank had problems keeping his eyes open - blood was running into them from numerous wounds on his head. "Venger... Na-Natasha... why...?"

Natasha crouched next to the broken man. "The 'why' is simple, poor, dying Hank. You imprisoned my father. We both owed you for that, but my father is always more... shall we say, creative... in such matters."

Venger said, "Creative, yes. But of course, if I could, I would strike at your beloved teacher, Dungeon Master. Ah, well. There's always tomorrow."

Hank tried to rise up, but discovered that he had too many broken bones to do more than lay still. "No...! Not Dun... Dungeon Master!"

Venger smiled. "Oh, yes, indeed, for Dungeon Master is the cause of all of this, and with his death ends all resistance to me. But don't worry - not everyone is going to die."

Natasha looked up at Venger, totally surprised. "You have got to be kidding me, Father. What do you mean?"

Venger waved at the still form of Preston. "Your dear ensorcelled magician. He is well on the path to joining us voluntarily."

Natasha frowned. "Ugh. I'd rather not. He's an excellent tool, but that's it."

Venger shrugged. "As I said, there is always tomorrow." He reached down and picked up Hank by the neck, eliciting a scream of pain from the broken man. "But not for you, ranger. If I could make this any worse, believe me that I would, but I grow weary of this. It's time to end it."

"NO."

The voice seemed to speak from everywhere at once, and yet there was no other person alive in the tower. Venger looked about, then said, "Who's there? Dungeon Master?" But before the voice replied, he knew it wasn't - this voice was female.

"NO."

There was an explosion above their heads, knocking Venger and Natasha to their knees. Venger unceremoniously dropped Hank to the floor and he and Natasha stood, both looking up to where they had been hovering mere minutes ago.

Above them was an angel, glowing so bright she was difficult to see, so tall she towered over even Venger. Her feathered wings contrasted sharply with Venger's bat-like wings. The glow made it nearly impossible to make out her features, and yet, there was something eerily familiar about her.

Hank landed on his back, looking up. He knew he was dead when he saw the angel, and muttered, "I thought the pain went away when you died."

He watched as the angel landed in front of Venger and Natasha. She touched Natasha, and the woman immediately fell unconscious, literally dropping into the angel's arms. The angel gently lowered Natasha to the floor, then straightened and turned to Venger.

Venger sneered at her and said, "No, creature. You will find that I am not so easily dealt with." He extended a hand toward the angel, and a beam of pure energy leapt from his palm. With uncanny speed, the angel batted the energy beam aside like an annoying insect, then she pointed at Venger, and he too fell unconscious and was lowered to the floor.

Hank watched the angel look around at the broken bodies surrounding her. Spying Hank, she approached him. She knelt, and her glow, though hard to see through, was reassuring to him. Her glow dimmed the slightest bit, and a familiar voice said, "I'm so sorry, Hank."

Hank looked at the face, and recognized it, though it was vastly altered. "Au... Aurora...?"

He could faintly make out a smile. "Yes, Hank." She placed a hand on his head and instantly the pain was gone. He tried to sit up and he held him down. "No, don't get up yet. The pain may be gone but the bones are still broken. Just lie still for a moment."

She quickly straightened out his limbs and his body, then placed her hands over his chest. Her glow intensified, and Hank felt waves of energy radiating through his body. He realized that he could actually feel his bones mending, which was decidedly more pleasant than feeling them breaking.

Within seconds, Aurora was lifting him to his feet. He stood and looked around. Seeing his friends' bodies all around him nearly broke him. He turned to Aurora and said, "Can you... do something... for everyone else?"

Instead of answering, she walked over to Eric. She knelt next to his battered body and, placing his head on her lap, began to work his face like clay, quickly remolding his face to its natural appearance. Holding his head in her hands, she closed her eyes, and Hank watched Eric's entire body glow as bright as Aurora's new form.

Eric opened his eyes. Seeing the glowing face above him he said, "If I'm in heaven, then why is the floor still stone?"

Hank reached down and pulled Eric to his feet. Eric looked around at the destruction on top of the tower and asked, "Are we dead? Is that really an angel?"

Hank shook his head. "No, Eric, we're not dead. And that is Aurora."

Eric's jaw dropped open. For once he was speechless.

Aurora walked over to Robert and repeated what she had done to Eric. In seconds, Eric and Hank were pulling him to his feet.

Robert looked around suddenly, remembering. "Preston! And Natasha! Aurora...!" Seeing the glowing winged giantess for the first time, he did a double take, then looked closer. "My god! Aurora...?"

She smiled. "Yes, Robert." Before he could reply, she turned away, walking over to where Preston lay, followed by the three men. She placed a hand on his hand and her glow brightened for a moment. She removed her hand and said, "The sorcery on him is undone. My mother laid a strong charm on him - strong enough to make him kill his friends. But the healing will take a long time." Robert nodded, absently rubbing his head.

Hank placed his hand on her arm, feeling her power run up his own arm. "Aurora... what about Sheila? And Diana? And where's that sorceress, Senna?"

Rather than answer, she spread her wings and lifted off, coming to hover where her mother had returned her grandfather to this world. Raising her arms, her glow once more intensified until she rivaled the sun itself. Though it hurt their eyes, all of the men watched as Diana's body reformed, apparently from thin air. As soon as her body was whole again, Aurora grabbed her tightly and lowered her until her feet were on the floor.

Diana looked rather confused. "I... I died. Venger... Who...?"

Without answering the not-quite-spoken question, Aurora released the shaken woman and held out her arm to Hank. Hank stepped into her embrace, and she flew the two of them down to the street, where a crowd had gathered to gawk at the fireworks on top of the tower.

A collective gasp arose when the townspeople saw the form of a large angel swoop down from the tower. They scattered when it became apparent that she meant to land in their midst.

Aurora alighted near Sheila's mangled body, scattering the doctors that had come to try and help. Hank turned away, unable to stop the tears from flowing. "Please... Aurora, please. Heal her."

Aurora knelt next to Sheila. Amazingly, she was still alive, holding on by the slimmest of threads. Aurora quickly healed the broken bones and other injuries, then fueled the spark of life until it was once again a roaring flame.

"Hank." He turned around, seeing his wife's body healed. "Hank, I think it might be best for her to see you when she awakens."

He nodded, and knelt next to Aurora, taking Sheila's head in his lap. "Sheila. Sheila, baby, wake up. You're okay, but you need to wake up."

Sheila stirred and moaned, then her eyes snapped open. "I... dreamed... Venger threw me from a tower." Seeing the tears in Hank's eyes, she said, "It was real, wasn't it? Natasha, Aurora, Venger, everything."

Unable to speak, Hank nodded, and wiped his eyes. He helped his wife to her feet, the hugged her fiercely.

They were interrupted by Aurora. "Hank. There's still one more, and I don't have much time left."

Sheila studied the glowing figure. "Hank, are you sure we aren't dead?"

Hank smiled. "Meet Aurora."

Sheila's eyes fairly bugged out of her head. She looked at Hank, who smiled and said, "I don't understand it either."

Aurora held out her arms, and Hank and Sheila stepped into her embrace. Holding them tightly, she took off again, heading back to the top of the tower.

At the ruined home of the sorceress, Eric and Robert had found Senna's body, completely covered in rubble. Aurora gently pulled her out, and once again repeated her life-giving performance.

Senna stood, a bit woozily. She looked up at Aurora. "I see you have found your true self, child, and I thank you for what you have done this day. Are you well?"

Aurora looked back at her mother's still form, lying next to her grandfather. Turning back to the sorceress, she replied, "As well as can be expected."

Senna nodded. Turning to the rest of the group, she asked, "You are all well?" to which she received a chorus of yesses. She turned back to Aurora and said, "What of your mother, and Venger?"

Aurora's glow dimmed so much that Senna worried that she would return to her human seeming. "They cannot be allowed to live, yet the alternative is too terrible to bear. I love them both, yet I know that should they remain, the Realms will come to an unpleasant end."

She walked over to the still forms. For a while she studied her only family as they lay unconscious. Finally, she reached into them and pulled out of each what appeared to be a glowing jewel. These she held in her hands and studied for a while. Then she placed something on her mother's neck.

Finally, she looked up at the others, and they could see tears in her eyes. "Senna, please see that no harm comes to them." The sorceress solemnly nodded.

Aurora stood and hugged each person, one-by-one, and then she said, "Thank you for all your help, my friends. I hope we can meet again under more pleasant circumstances."

Sheila asked, "Where do you go from here?"

Aurora looked up and said, "I no longer belong here. I go to find my place in life." She looked back down and smiled, then spread her wings once more and lifted off. As she leaped into the air, a portal opened above her head. Through it came pouring a light so bright that Aurora was dim by comparison. She flew through it, and it closed after her.

"I don't get it. How did she go from being a ten-year-old girl to being some kind of angel?"

Senna paused before answering. "Well, Eric, that takes a bit of family history." They were in the magic guild's vault, where a special room had been prepared, and Venger and Natasha were now stored in suspended animation, each locked in a crystal sarcophagus. "Natasha's mother was a tiefling - one of the plane-touched, part demon, part elf, part human, part something else. Her father is, obviously, Venger, and to be honest, I have no idea what he is.

"At some point in the past, Venger managed to capture a deva, which is a type of angel. When you imprisoned Venger, Natasha kept possession of this deva, whom she was apparently infatuated with. She somehow forced him to father her child, Aurora.

"Aurora's dual natures somehow prevented each other from manifesting, though there was more good than evil in her. When she was captured by the bugbear tribe, the conflict between her natures erupted, which is what caused her to lose the ability to speak."

Preston interrupted. "But that makes no sense! I cast a know alignment spell, and used her as a test, and she had absolutely no evil in her at all!"

Senna nodded. "Yes, that's right. Her natures were divided, but her heart was all good." She paused for a moment before continuing. "As I was saying, her conflicting natures caused her to lose the ability to speak, and would have been undetectable by any Realms magic. Her mother surely knew, and possibly Venger did, too.

"I suspect that when she was trapped in Venger's prison, she was able to observe the Realms somehow, and she watched Venger slaughter all of you, and that traumatic experience brought her deva nature screaming to the surface. And since devas are able to plane-walk, it was no trouble for her to return to the realms."

Sheila asked, "What was it that she left on Natasha's neck?"

Robert answered, "It's a charm from the bishop of the temple I took her to. It's a minor protection charm. I suppose it's her way of showing that she really does care for her mother."

They walked out of the vault, and a guard swung the large door shut behind them and started setting the magical locks.

As they walked out the main entrance of the guild, Hank said, "Senna, I have one more question. What was it that Aurora took from Venger and Natasha, just before she left?"

Senna looked away, clearly uncomfortable with the question. "That... that was Aurora's way of ensuring that Venger and Natasha never trouble the Realms... ever again. It was probably also her only memento of her mother and grandfather." She turned and looked at them all. "She took their souls."

Back inside the vault, unseen by all, a small figure approached the two crystal sarcophagi. The figure stepped into the light, revealing a short man, bald except for a long white fringe around the sides of his head, clothed in robes that swept the floor. He was stooped with age, and leaned heavily on a thick staff.

He looked up to the sarcophagus holding Venger, and tears began to form in his eyes. Resting his head against the cool crystal, he said, "I'm so sorry... my son..."