Warlock's Favorite

The term 'Wishsong' is borrowed from Terry Brooks and his amazing Shannarra series.

/Warlock's Favorite/

“I hate you…”

The soft whisper fluttered through the air as if carried by the currents of oxygen. Simple words of course, but the voice which spoke them had a power to it, something that made the words dangerous in an intangible way. The eyes looked straight ahead at the object of his hatred and quiet, pint-up fury; they were blue, glassy, and lifeless. They roiled with nothingness, something odd and frightening that few could understand save the creature that had engendered such a thing, such desolation.

“You say the words,”

The creature’s voice was a hiss in the same air, no power to it, but it still held cutting edges.

“But I see you doing little to remedy them.”

The words were mocking and they burned the boy like he had been branded every time he heard them. He just wanted the creature’s silence, only a few moments of it. They would be such good moments, like a shower of cold water to calm the burn of his branding. A way to calm his mind and gain a moment to consider his next… The blue eyes narrowed at the sudden insight. Silence…

“Well child, whatever shall I do with-“

The eyes calmed considerably as a loud hum emanated from the young man. It quickly filled the room while still somehow focusing on silencing the creature, which it did. The other spluttered and coughed and strained against the sudden loss of his powers second favorite medium. His reptilian eyes bugged out of his head in irritation, anger, and burgeoning respect.

The creature moved to through his hands up to unleash a withering blast of power, but the tune in the hum shifted ever so slightly something heavier, leeching. His hands barely lifted before they simply fell back to his sides. And then the hum shifted again, this time it centered more on his head… no, his mind. He suddenly sensed his young pupil rummaging around in his thoughts, his memories. That could never be allowed to go unpunished.

Without warning, he suddenly lunged for the boy, his mouth opened wide, fangs flashing in the light. He simultaneously brought the considerable force of his mind to bear against the intruder while attempting to shriek and flail his arms. All of these things performed at once served to knock the boy off balance; he was incapable of dividing his attention evenly amongst so many threats and so, had to move quickly to at least stifle the most threatening.

The tune shifted less than expected but gained what could only be considered a new vibration, something that seemed to move the air around it. The creature rammed into a solid wall of invisible energy and so was halted. His voice remained stifled and the presence remained in his head, but his arms were freed. Wasting no time, he lashed out against the still unbalanced boy. Guessing correctly that the wall was merely a physical defense, he sent a punishing blast of raw, green energy at his pupil, but instead of the satisfying screams he had been expecting the energy met a second barrier just as the first was effectively collapsed. The second barrier not only absorbed the attack, but it transformed the energy into a sudden wave of frost projected from the young one’s outstretched hands. The creature would have been a statue of ice had he not caught the sudden shift in the hum and brought his own magical defenses to bare, holding the ice back from his flesh.

The creature soon realized with belated shock that he needed to step back and reevaluate his methods. Obviously his student had managed to awaken his true power in his black fury. He most likely discovered it in his own personal nothingness, a form of epiphany brought on by momentary madness. It had been his intention to bring about such a thing, but he had sorely underestimated the results. The boy was still learning the basics of the forbidden magic the creature had to teach him, but compared to this that would be wasted effort; it would be far better to focus on his obvious strength, everything else could come when and if his pupil desired it.

Then his musings ceased as a sudden shock overtook him. The rummaging that the boy had been doing suddenly stopped as an unprecedented thing occurred. The creature had never heard of anything like this in the many centuries he had lived. The boy had actually suppressed his power, cut him off from his inborn magic. He was suddenly frighteningly vulnerable, a position he had never found himself in, never. He only had a moment to contemplate this sudden turn of events before he caught the gratified, malicious intent in his enemy’s eyes. Before the monster could even screech, for his enemy had released him from his other restraints, the man unleashed a blood-curdling howl. The monster’s blood responded to the magic in the sound, forcing the creature to the ground as he writhed in pain, agony. His blood was literally boiling in his veins and he could do nothing to stem the flow of his enemy’s power due to the utter loss of his own. Before he could manage an effective string of curses, the boiling began to take its toll on his body. He watched in muted horror as his own flesh began to blacken and peel away revealing a charred mess beneath where more flesh should have been. Pieces of his body began to smoke and some patches had actually burst into flame already.

He was more surprised than any when the pain within began to subside and the burning sensation receded. Without thinking, he began patting out the small flames with his scaled hands before he rose to find the little fiend passed out. He was slumped in the same spot he had been standing in, the spot from which he had almost managed to kill one of the most powerful Warlocks to ever live. He was presumably exhausted; the creature had no idea how much power was required to wield the Wishsong, but for such a young human to have been able to overpower him so quickly was a feat few could even hope to come close to, much less accomplish. Greater men had tried and failed, but this boy… was still doing it!

The Kov, the only name the creature had acknowledged for three centuries, was so shell-shocked by his sudden realization, but he knew immediately that he was correct. The boy had done something to him to permanently separate him from his magic, his source of power and pride, in an effort to assure his own survival. The Kov already knew that he would be unable to correct whatever had been done to him. Even if he could discover a method to achieve such an end, he would still lack the power. There might be a chance, even a very likely one, that over time the boy’s power over him would weaken until his own magic was freed, but such was not a risk he was willing to take. He knew the boy would recover in time and awaken, freeing himself from this oh-so-vulnerable state just as he knew that the little fool would use this new found power over the Warlock to remain safe, completely reversing their relationship, save one thing.

“You will need training still, my little warlock-to-be. Besides which, I always have a trump card…”

He thought of the young girl, the same age as the boy before him, the same chestnut brown hair and clear blue eyes, which he had sent to the city of Dinal to stay with some of his… acquaintances. His first thought was to simply slay her and have done with it, but then he had thought of the future, of a situation in which he might have found her useful; she worked very well as leverage. Until this day, the boy had stayed in line.

“Until this day…”

Cold, reptilian eyes scraped over the young body, calculating and appraising. The Warlock needed to regain control of this situation and he needed to do so quickly. He could not afford to lose this apprentice, this body with its delicious inborn power. He also needed to train the body properly, ensure that it would be worth his while to… Well, perhaps he was getting a bit ahead of himself. First things first, regain control.

“But how do I do that…? How do I do that…?”

Reviews

[Ravyn]

Are you going to finish it? Or is that it???

Anyways, I loved it! ^.^