It drowns my mind.
I sink beneath the surface of this new red haze, unable to do anything but watch as everything I was, is replaced by everything I could become.
The weight pressing me into the ground falls away, and I take my first breath as something new, rising to greet the stars.
The world is different beneath this red-hued haze.
I don’t see people.
I seepower.
So much power before me, tasting of air and water and fire and earth and light and darkness.
Not on my tongue, but in my mind.
The winged demon lying at my feet draws a ragged breath, breaking the stunned silence around me.
Yes, I know him.
But I wantmore.
When I tilt my head back and close my eyes, the world doesn’t darken. Itshines.
In my mind’s eye, the world is laid bare as I reach farther, searching.
The impenetrable walls of Dreadhurst mean nothing as I scour the halls.
The four sisters, eating together.
The watchful dragon in the library.
The necromancer’s black shadow as he walks home for the night.
When I follow his path, I find the other demons: the one with black fire simmering beneath his skin. The sleeping snake. The hungry werewolf.
The Priestess leaving her temple, shrouded in an aura of white light.
The Professor in his study, brimming with so much power that it calls out to me. When I reach for it, a whisper rises from the depths of my mind.
“Not him.”
Instead, I look to the horizon, and chase the dying light.
That is, until a dome of shimmering, glassy magic stops me.
No matter. Glass is easily broken.
Following the threads of power winding through the earth to their nexus, the Foundation Stone, I can taste four centuries worth of residual magic, saturating the soil with blood and power from thousands of wielders who’ve reinforced the wards over the years.
It is nothing to call upon it.
I summon the power from the earth and release it into the sky. When the wards shatter, fragments of iridescent light rain down from the heavens, like the stars themselves are falling.
But when I look to the horizon once more, a net of energy ensnares me as it blankets the grounds.
No matter. Nets are easily cut.
This time, I pull the power from the people.
