“Let’s try this again,” I said. “I want the fateweaver.”
“Travelling to some shadow realm will not change my answer.”
“But this isn’t a shadow realm,” I said. “This is Elsewhere.”
Abithriax went still.
I nodded down at the fateweaver. “See those trails? How long do you think it’ll last?”
“So this is your plan.” Abithriax studied me. “The fateweaver will last longer than you will.”
“Possibly,” I said. “I imagine it’ll depend on our relative strengths of self. You’re probably stronger as far as that goes, but then, the fateweaver isn’t your natural body. I expect that’ll work against you. As to who’ll give out first?” I shrugged. “I’m not sure. Want to find out?”
“Hm,” Abithriax said. “You surprise me.”
“First time you’ve been in Elsewhere?”
“Please,” Abithriax said. “I’ll admit your Council has made some advances, but in pure magical theory, you have a long way to go. No, my surprise is to do with you. I remember sifting through your memories quite clearly, and you were a type I’d seen many times. Trying so hard to prove that you weren’t a Dark mage. Yet now you come here willing to throw away your life and mine, just to take what you want. A Light mage would never do something so destructive.”
“I’m done pretending to be Light.”
“So I see,” Abithriax said. He looked at me a moment longer, then shrugged. “Very well.”
“Very well?”
“I concede the conflict,” Abithriax said. “As you have correctly surmised, I value my life more highly than you do yours, and I am unwilling to take the risks of a direct confrontation in Elsewhere. My powers are at your disposal.”
“I’m afraid that’s not going to work.”
Abithriax frowned at me. “What?”
“Don’t get me wrong,” I said. “I’d love to be able to take advantage of your abilities. There are a couple of problems I’m going to be dealing with quite soon that a mind mage would help with enormously. Unfortunately, I can’t trust you.”
“It appears you do not have a choice.”
“You aren’t listening,” I said. “I told you. I want the fateweaver.”
“I am the fateweaver.”
“No, you’re bonded to it. I’m going to do the same.”
“I have no interest in sharing it with you.”
I tilted my head. “Sharing?”
Abithriax’s face darkened.
“I don’t know how many people you’ve possessed and thrown away over the years,” I said. “Right now, I don’t really care. But I’m pretty sure you’ve had this coming for a long time.”
Abithriax struck. A wave of mental pressure crashed against my mind, trying to roll over my thoughts. It was similar to how it had been with Crystal, but Abithriax was better. Faster, stronger. A true master.
But this time I could fight back. I met Abithriax’s attack with a wall of pure will and threw him away. Abithriax rallied, redoubled his efforts, and I held him off. It was a strain, but I could do it. He wasn’t breaking through.
Surprise flashed across Abithriax’s face, followed by concentration. The two of us stood ten feet apart, eyes locked. Abithriax tried to worm his way through my defences, and failed. I could sense what he was doing, and I started to press him back.
Then Abithriax disengaged and struck with some attack I’d never seen before, sharp-edged like a blade. My defences shattered and Abithriax’s will poured in. Panic rang like a gong as I sensed him starting to take controclass="underline" with a surge I threw him out, rebuilding my defences higher and stronger.
My body was feeling odd, insubstantial. I glanced down and felt a chill. The trails of light coming up from my clothes and hand had multiplied, and threads of my coat were flaring and wisping away into nothingness. Whatever Abithriax had done, it had damaged my ability to hold together in Elsewhere. I hadn’t even known that was possible.
“You should not have come back,” Abithriax said.
I struck again, my will pressing in on Abithriax, and I copied what he’d done to me, bearing down on him from all directions. I saw strain flicker on his face as he fought back, but he was losing ground. I pushed against his defences, trying to seize control of his thoughts—
—it didn’t work. It was like trying to grab onto slippery ice. They slid away and Abithriax used the opportunity to push me out of his mind. We were even again.
Without looking down, I could sense my clothes disintegrating. My body would be next: already the nails on my right hand were being eaten away. It didn’t hurt—it felt as though I was becoming lighter, on the verge of flying. I’d probably keep feeling that way right until I evaporated.
This wasn’t working. I needed to do something different.
Abithriax launched another attack. I fended him off, thinking fast. Abithriax was standing close. The last time we’d fought, I’d gone for his body . . . or what had looked like his body. But it hadn’t done anything, not really. The man standing before me was only a projection. The real Abithriax was inside the fateweaver.
Abithriax tried the same trick again, withdrawing and then striking with a knife-edged blade of mental energy. This time I was ready and met it with a surge of my own, blocking it. It was painful but not lethal, and I realised that it was meant as a way to break down my defences. Abithriax was a mind mage, and that was how he was thinking. Victory by domination.
I wasn’t going to beat him at his own game. I needed to fight like a Dark mage.
I forced Abithriax back, but this time, instead of launching the same attack, I focused on him, straining to see. My senses felt impossibly sharp, and on some level that my magesight couldn’t usually reach, I became aware of another layer underpinning what my eyes were showing. Abithriax’s form was hollow, half real, but within the fateweaver there was something else. The fateweaver was a tightly woven mass of white, and wrapped around it was a spiderweb of green light, something alive that pulsed and thought.
Experimentally, I pulled at it. Green strands stretched, tearing.
Abithriax screamed. A shock wave of mental energy lashed out, shattering my attack and my shield. I felt Elsewhere flow in, engulfing me, and frantically I threw up my defences. After only a second I managed to stabilise, but this time I’d been hurt badly. Half of my clothes had been dissolved, along with all my remaining items; only the dreamstone was left, and the lethal wisps of light were starting to rise from my skin. The fingers on my right hand were gone and the palm was being eaten away.
But Abithriax was hurt too. He was staggering as if drunk, and the wisps of light rising from the fateweaver had multiplied. Glaring at me balefully, he attacked again, but I’d taken his measure now and I knew that here in Elsewhere, my will was a match for his. I met his domination attempt and forced it back.
Seconds ticked by. I could feel sweat on my brow, dissolving as soon as it beaded. Abithriax stared as if trying to bore a hole in me with his eyes. Both of us were past subtlety: it was will against will, each of us trying to overwhelm the other. I strained with everything I had, trying to break through to Abithriax’s core.
And Abithriax began to give way. It was slow, very slow, but I could sense him losing ground. Instead of attacking, he was being forced to defend. I kept pressing and felt Abithriax slipping, bit by bit. I saw a flash of fear in his eyes: he redoubled his efforts but all it did was slow me down.
My right hand dissolved into nothingness. With its connection to my body severed, it hadn’t been able to survive the corrosion. I felt its loss distantly, set it aside, kept going. Abithriax’s defence was feeling frantic now. “Wait,” his projection said.
I looked Abithriax in the eyes and kept going.
“Wait,” Abithriax said again. Again I could sense that image: a green web wrapped around the fateweaver’s white. Abithriax’s defences were an invisible barrier, but I was pressing inwards and he didn’t have much more ground to lose. In only a few more seconds I’d break through.