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The right of Sean McKeown to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted. All rights reserved. No part of these documents may be used, reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical including photocopying, scanning and recording, for any purpose, without the express written consent of Sean McKeown.
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Shards of steel as thick as her wrists flew as her psionic blast rent
the door asunder, and an equal impact rebounded within her skull.
Gwendolyn didn't so much as notice the sheer violence she was focusing
as she drifted into the Necromancer's inner sanctum; her rage channeled
all the hurt and frustration she had felt in her loss of Elric and her
search thereafter until her brain seemed to burn with the power it was
barely controlling. One thing concerned her and nothing else: where was
the Necromancer, so she could kill him?
Gwendolyn drifted into the chambers, floating above a floor littered
with carcasses and beasts of darkness. Mana surrounded her
with an unearthly glow, a vortex of power rarely rivaled in its sheer
size and destructive potential. The Necromancer rose from the throne of
bone and strode into a pentagram laid out upon the floor in black marble
and corrupting flesh, his every joint squeaking and creaking horribly as
he walked to the center of power of the Ebon Tower of Deep Shadow. He
beckoned to Gwendolyn, taunting her rage from his sphere of influence.
Gwendolyn released blasts of pure elemental force at her lifelong foe,
crying out at the release. "For your crimes against me and against our
kind, you shall die!" Gwendolyn screamed, her voice reaching a fevered
pitch as her blows failed to breach the power of the pentagram. She
stopped the spell in mid-casting, ending her brutish assault and
channeling the mana into spells of disenchantment and
silence to break the pentagram's power.
The Necromancer moved as if a laughing carionette, and Gwendolyn
received his thoughts through telepathy that broke through her own
defenses. Was that your best shot, Gwendolyn Windsmore? You show
weakness; I am glad I took the young one and left you behind.
Pulling the forces of Darkness to him in a massive bundle of black
mana, he forced all of the mana into a spell
of life-drain.
Gwendolyn missed the opportunity for defense until it was too late; she
scurried to create a Circle of Protection a half-second before the black
force began crushing her with its massive power. Gwendolyn was flung
like a rag doll, screaming inhumanly at the pain of having her soul
flayed from her body by the intruding spell. Barely in time to save her
own life, she cast a spell of passage that made her invisible to the
spell for just a blink of time.
Bruised and in pain, Gwendolyn's rage abandoned her as fear crept in.
She constructed a Circle of Protection against the Necromancer's black
powers, forcing it past his countering strokes until it glowed white-hot
beneath her feet. Gwendolyn stood again, the Circle a tiny, almost
pathetic defense against his spellcasting. Again Gwendolyn fired spell
after spell to break the pentagram, using the powers of Pure to break
the unholy junction and the powers of Illusion to try to posses it
herself and to protect her strikes. The Necromancer laughed within her
mind, a deep resounding laugh that chilled her to the bone. From what
she could see with her magical faculties, the Necromancer wasn't even
channeling the mana against her at the moment. Anger
flared up, but her fear choked down all other emotions, nearly locking
her fate if she did not change her tactics.
I am going to enjoy this, frail Gwendolyn... the
Necromancer said, and with a rush of power Gwendolyn was slammed hard
against the Throne of Bone, the dark force passing through her circle of
protection unhindered. The Necromancer turned to Gwendolyn and screamed
an unearthly howl from beyond the grave, a howl that shook the very
stones in the walls and that made Gwendolyn's ears bleed with its first
utterance.
Gwendolyn interrupted the spell, draining its mana away
and diverting it to heal the damage the Necromancer had already dealt to
her. With a sudden flash of brilliance, Gwendolyn pulled through the
void to summon a fragile artifact that would surely be of some effect
against the Necromancer's power... for it was certain her spells of Pure
and Illusion were failing to break the nexus of the pentagram.
The Necromancer gasped in surprise as he saw the artifact, and ducked
to protect himself from its awesome powers. With a trickle of
mana to start the destruction, Gwendolyn unleashed the pure
destructive force of Phyrexia as channeled through a Disk of Nevinyrral.
The Ebon Tower exploded, the stones that were not sucked into oblivion
being flung to the far corners of the realm enclosed by the Shroud.
Gwendolyn tried to shield herself with a ward of Illusion, trying to
place herself out of phase with the reality that was crumbling around
her, but the energy she unleashed pulled her down into the darkness as
surely as it did her enemy.
Gwendolyn awoke slowly, the pounding in her head like none other she
had ever experienced. She couldn't tell where she was or how she got
there; all she could tell was that she was yet alive, and even that was
still doubtful. Not stopping to heal herself, Gwendolyn hurried off to
attack the Necromancer once more. Gwendolyn flew over cracked and
crumbled stones, radiating outwards from some central point, until she
stumbled and found herself in a clearing being most likely the epicenter
of the Disk's destructive forces.
Gwendolyn took to the ground as she searched, seeing in her mind's eye
where the Necromancer must be. He's here, I can taste him!
she thought as she scurried to the piles of fallen stones that formed a
circle around her. With a massive shrug of telekinesis, she threw one
of the larger stones aside, another push of mana trying to
do the same from underneath.
She stood furiously over the Necromancer as he lay helpless to her
fury, and as she began channeling the mana to strike out
with psionic blasts until she could strike no more she stopped in total
shock.
The Necromancer stood as Gwendolyn twitched furiously, the tattered
black leavings of the withered, dried husk of a man peeling off in
disenchantment to reveal a beautiful raven-haired woman without the
enchantments and incantations that marked her as the Necromancer.
Patently ignoring Gwendolyn, she smiled wickedly as she dusted herself
off, her hands toying at her tunic of shimmering black as if to point
out to Gwendolyn her large, shapely breasts. Folding her arms under her
breasts and bowing her head, an aura of darkness sprung into being in
the air around her.
Gwendolyn was dumbstruck with the possible meaning of what she had just
learned. "You're a, uh, a woman...!" Gwendolyn stuttered at last as she
gaped. The mana from the forgotten spells burned her
fingers until she thought the flesh would peel from her bones, but her
mind was numb.
"As are you, Lady Gwendolyn," the Necromancer said. A
dark sheen covered her eyes as she prepared to strike out at her
stricken prey, and Gwendolyn barely noticed that the Necromancer fought
on.
Gwendolyn cast a spell of Armageddon, severing her ties and the
Necromancer's to the mana of the lands, the power that
drove their spells. For the moment at least, they were just women, not
sorceresses, necromancers, or planeswalkers. Gwendolyn glared at the
woman across from her, her foe hobbled in her ability to cast spells.
The darkness surrounding them both died off, and the Necromancer's spell
fizzled before even leaving her fingertips.
Being the more fit of the two women thanks to her recent trials,
Gwendolyn pounced upon her foe and struck with blind fury once again.
"You bitch! Strumpet! He loves me, and you took him for
your own?!?" Gwendolyn screamed as she battered the Necromancer's face.
Knuckles bleeding, Gwendolyn struck home again and again as she
straddled the smaller woman. She dug her knees into the Necromancer's
voluminous breasts, the penultimate insult to Gwendolyn's pride.
The Necromancer spat blood, and with her hands she grabbed Gwendolyn's
flailing fists. With unexpected strength, she tugged Gwendolyn down to
her and headbutted her. A solid crack! struck the air, and
Gwendolyn toppled off of her.
"He loves you, does he? He came to me freely, and has
shared my bed from the first night. Like as not, Elric never shared
your bed," the Necromancer spat out. Wiping the blood from her eyes and
pushing her dark hair out of her face, the Necromancer sneered at
Gwendolyn as she aimed a kick at the fallen woman. "He is mine, mind,
body, and soul. You are NOTHING to him! You are PITIFUL!"
Gwendolyn opened the slightest trickle of Pure mana, and cast a healing
salve upon herself to regain her strength. Mentally crushed, she
cowered out of range of the Necromancer's kicks until she was backed up
against a fallen block from the destroyed Tower. "You lie... our love
is pure. Your taint could never have taken him from me!" she said, her
voice half cracking with a soul-deep moan of agony.
The Necromancer smiled her vicious, wicked smile and began to disrobe.
Her black robes fell from pale, perfect shoulders to reveal all that was
hidden beneath. The Necromancer stepped bemusedly from the pile her
clothes made, and she stroked her hands up and down her side. Gwendolyn
saw what the Necromancer wanted her to see, that she was flawless from
head to toe, the embodiment of all men's desires. "Love is fleeting for
a cur of a woman like yourself, Gwendolyn," the Necromancer
spat out. "I give him everything you cannot," she said
with a lascivious twist to her mouth that showed her obvious bemusement.
Gwendolyn's soul emptied as she knew it to be true. She searched for
Elric through the bond she knew was there, but the mana was
not strong enough to sense him through it. Gwendolyn cried freely now,
tears burning her eyes as she wished her death to be more swift and
merciful than her life had been. Her eyes unfocused as she tried to
suck her life-energies into one last blow to smite her enemy, but she
didn't even have the power to do that. The Necromancer reared to kick
her again, and Gwendolyn searched furiously for the land-lines she would
need to touch before she could take her own life.
I have suffered enough, Gwendolyn thought as she channeled
the mana for one last spell. The kick connected with her
jaw, and Gwendolyn miscast a spell of disenchantment as her brain was
rattled. She tasted blood trickling down her throat as the world
shattered around her.
Gwendolyn woke to darkness, consciousness struggling fitfully to return
after the many blows she had already taken. Managing but the smallest
trickle of the Pure mana, Gwendolyn threw light onto her
surroundings. The toppled stones of the Ebon Tower remained, strewn
about their field of battle like the forgotten playthings of giant
children. Gwendolyn drew more of the mana into herself,
trying to heal her injuries; fighting the nausea, Gwendolyn was able to
heal herself to new health.
Some wounds, however, couldn't be healed with mana and
spells.
"I'm coming for you, you overgrown strumpet!" Gwendolyn shouted as she
scanned the land. Her certainty wavered for a second as she thought,
what if she was telling the truth? An
uncertain calm settled upon Gwendolyn's mind as she thought of revenge,
despite her long years of training and practicing the Ways of the Pure
as an Adept at the Keep of the Illusionists and afterwards.
Her Quest would be completed; their love would be rejoined. Gwendolyn
was Elric's true love, and he hers; the Quest had kept on throughout the
nearly dozen years fueled solely by the passions that lay within her
breast. No Necromancer's lies and tricks would keep them apart, now.
Gwendolyn drew upon the land-lines, building her strength up to massive
levels once again. With a flurry of spellcasting, she took to the air
to find the Necromancer. The wind whipped at her painfully, twisting
her hair and pulling at her until at last she stopped and lighted down
inside the clearing of stones once again. There, the Necromancer stood
prepared, the withered husk of a woman brandishing an arcane
quarterstaff of darkness and the mana of Corruption.
Gwendolyn landed like a cat a hundred spans away from the woman, an in
an eye's blink she was ready for the duel of her life.
Gwendolyn choked down fear and worry as she stared proudly at the
Necromancer. With the shimmering haze of Pure mana nearly
blinding her vision, she unleashed her powers of telekinesis to mark a
boundary around them; from nowhere, a duelist's battle-circle inscribed
the pair with marks of white fire.
The Necromancer attacked immediately, radiating waves of pestilence to
harry her enemy. Gwendolyn deflected the attack and summoned White
Knights to counterattack, barely seeing them wink into existence with a
pale glow upon their armor before she had moved on to casting the next
spell. Gwendolyn's vortex of power called forth a whole legion of
armored men to fight her battle, and just as rapidly the Necromancer
called forth her own forces of fell beasts and dark Knights in armor
that hid them perfectly in the dead of the night.
Gwendolyn rose into the air, taking flight above the Necromancer's
attacking foes, which slipped by her own forces under the cover of
darkness. Her fury unabated, she shook with rage as she shot psionic
blasts across the field, rocking with each impact as surely as her foe
did. Gwendolyn pressed onwards, despite the numerous blows she was
taking from her own spells.
The Necromancer thrust a hammer's-blow of life-draining at Gwendolyn,
which she nearly deflected. The spells and counterspells blowing
between the two made the air sparkle with heated lightning, and both
women felt the drain upon their resources as the vied for control over
that dark flurry of energy, but finally Gwendolyn let it strike her with
its force greatly depleted. Gwendolyn's soul burned with self-pity as
she felt the spell flaying her essence from her very bones, but her
madness overcame self-pity in its desire for revenge. As for the spell
flaying her soul from her body... it was too late, or so Gwendolyn
believed deep within her heart. The spell ended, and Gwendolyn pressed
her advantage once again.
Flying nearer now, Gwendolyn invoked the Wrath of God through the
planar junction to His realm. Again the two women battled in a classic
match of spell and counterspell, but as before Gwendolyn cast spells of
mana drain to negate the Necromancer's counterspells,
followed with sinks upon her power to doubly sap the Necromancer's
strength. The junction opened, and a boiling white fury erupted all
around Gwendolyn.
Gwendolyn's very spirit sang along with the sad dirge, her pain and
fury mixing ecstatically in contact with the being on the other side of
the junction. The air around Gwendolyn seared all it touched within the
duelist's circle before abating, and Gwendolyn found the power had
transformed her, shaping her body to match the vengeful spirit that lay
within. On alabaster wings, Gwendolyn swooped to strike again at her
nemesis. Her hate grew to a furious rage, and like an avenging angel
she swung a killing blow with a sword of solid Purity.
The Necromancer parried the blow with her staff of Corruption, and
where the two weapons met the forces intermingled and cancelled each
other, throwing off sparks of energy and bolts of lightning to discharge
the fury each woman threw into her attacks. On her newfound wings,
Gwendolyn gained advantage over her opponent by striking from angles
high above, making the Necromancer's defenses weaker. Gwendolyn stared
into her dead eyes as she struck out, ever concentrating her hatred into
a weapon. The Necromancer focused with equal strength, and though the
magics invoked by a sorceress' hatred was her natural forte she found
herself losing the battle with Gwendolyn.
The Necromancer parried an overhead thrust with her dark staff, and
retaliated with a powerful spell of soul-burning that focused her rage
into a white-hot pinprick of energy that struck out at Gwendolyn like a
spark of death. At such close quarters, she couldn't respond in time
when Gwendolyn deflected the spell back at her.
The Necromancer burned with her own rage, and felt her anger deaden at
the assault. Whatever soul was left to her was being torn away, and the
sheer impact of the spell pinned her to the ground at Gwendolyn's feet.
Gwendolyn cast spells of blasting at the Necromancer as she writhed
beneath her, flinching at the pain she caused herself but grinning madly
as she struck the woman at her feet again, and again, and again...
The Necromancer felt herself dying, the veil of blackness and the
Keeper's embrace pulling her down into the darkness. The impacts of
psionic energy bored into her very guts, burning what little remained of
her withered body with intense pain. Pain summoned anger and hatred
once again, and the Necromancer drew upon the Keeper's own hatred for
all things yet living to cast the Keeper's spite at Gwendolyn. The
Necromancer embraced the darkness freely, and her spirit sung with joy
as she felt Gwendolyn spiraling down into the depths below alongside
her.
Gwendolyn felt the pull into the deep claim her, and she only vaguely
sensed that she had fallen to her knees as the chain pulling her
downward, ever downward tugged her from consciousness completely.
When next Gwendolyn awoke, she found herself sitting in a darkened
room. Her enemy, the Necromancer, was there as well; she could see her
skeletal frame despite the darkness. Gwendolyn made to rise to her feet
only to feel herself chained in place. Gwendolyn furiously reached for
the mana to strike out again at her foe, and felt only
hollowness within the pit of her stomach. The Necromancer stared at her
with dead eyes from across the darkened chamber, and she rose to stand
before Gwendolyn.
This realm is promised to me, sorceress, the Necromancer
said within her brain. I have powers here, while you are stripped
of all that you once were.
"Death can have me, necromancer, so long as she has you as well,"
Gwendolyn answered, spitting at the Necromancer's feet as she stood
before her. Gwendolyn's serene smile returned, as she accepted the
righteousness of her loss. "He is free of you, then."
The Necromancer, servant of the Keeper of the Dead, laughed heartily.
The air seemed to erupt as the darkness around Gwendolyn laughed along
with her, deep vibrations that Gwendolyn felt pounding into her flesh as
the Necromancer's laugh. You never knew, did you, "my
love", the Necromancer said. Her laughter rose in volume, and
the underworld shook with her secret joke. Gwendolyn tried to cover her
ears, to shield herself from that penetrating mocking, but she was as
helpless as a mouse staring down a cat that had it cornered.
The flesh of the Necromancer's body began to dissolve and unravel, and
beneath the spells of necromancy and necropotence the Necromancer's
flesh was plump and pink, unravaged by the spells of death that animated
the flesh. Elric glared down at Gwendolyn, a wicked smile of contempt
and bemusement twisting his fair Elvish features into something uglier
than Gwendolyn ever feared possible.
Gwendolyn moaned and passed out, destroyed at last by the forces of
love that drove her onward... a love betrayed.
Unknown to Gwendolyn, her spirit reached out to embrace the Pure
mana, and its essence filled her. Washing away her pain
and suffering for the moment, the mana filled her and broke
the shackles that bound her in her torment. Like a ray of light,
Gwendolyn's spirit escaped the murky darkness of the nether realms to
rejoin her body. One thought crossed her mind, a half-remembered snatch
of poetry or song that, until now, she had not understood...
Trent shivered in the murky shadows between the fallen stones,
desperately clinging to the little that remained of his bedroll and
fur-lined cape. He held Gwendolyn close to him, keeping his stricken
mistress warm and protected from the storm's worst. How many days had
passed since he awoke from the battle, finding a transformed Gwendolyn
bruised and beaten amidst the rubble of the Ebon Tower.
Like before, Gwendolyn seemed to have taken up his shivering, for
where her skin met his he could feel her trembling. Trent simply
sheltered her from the wind and rain as best he could, waiting for his
mistress to awaken once again.
Sean McKeown
[email protected]