Author's notes:

About the language and notation:

The Baylon language is a predecessor to Latin, which is why it looks like Latin at a glance.

Mental communication is denoted by a < and ends with a >, so a mental communication will look like this: "< Who are you? >"

Some warnings:

This is erotic action adventure, meaning that there will be both sex and violence, but I don't mix the two.

This part of the story was written some ten years ago, so any resemblance to the Covid 19 epidemic is purely coincidental.

This story is posted on the Literotica website and the author does not give permission for it to be reposted or reprinted anywhere else without consent.

P.S. I haven't gotten an editor yet, so any mistakes are mine. Interested editors are welcome :)

P.P.S. While you're here anyway, please rate the chapter and leave a comment :)

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Chapter 24 -- Flashback: Disaster strikes

Arcem Discendi in Lescare, Ca. 1221 BCE

Verina was standing in a tower, looking down into the courtyard and talking with Decimus Varro when I came up.

"Hey there."

Both gave a surprised yelp and Verina turned to send me an angry look. "For the love of the Goddesses, stop doing that!"

Varro nodded in agreement with her. "Yes, please! Stomp your feet when you walk or something. It's freaky and downright unnatural to walk that silently."

I shrugged the complaints off. "In that case you guys shouldn't have named me Spectre in the first place."

"The other way around, Emilian." Said Varro with a grin. "You got the name, because you move like a freaking Spectre and not vice versa."

"Details, details." I said with a grin. Since a Spectra is an incorporeal undead, that is almost invisible and soundless, the call name the others had chosen for me was really a compliment. "What were you looking at?"

"The new students." Said Verina. "Arriving two weeks ahead of schedule."

I took a step forward and looked over the edge. In the courtyard below, a group of young candidates was lined up, listening to the Dominus Grande's welcoming speech exactly as I did myself when I first came here.

They looked excited, fit, and older than the ten years of age that we had been when we stood there. In fact, most looked to be at least fifteen and three or four looked like they were in their mid-twenties and should have finished their education by now.

"Either these are way less talented than we were, or something have happened." Verina said thoughtfully. "Most of these candidates look too old."

I agreed, thought about the facts, and almost doubled over as it felt like I had been hit in the stomach with an Ice bolt. Varro must have come to almost the same conclusion as I did because he looked pale as well.

"What?" Said Verina.

Varro sighed, "Most organizations only start to take in less likely candidates, when they miss a lot of people and that means that something has gone really wrong somewhere and a lot of people are dead." He looked at me. "Same result?"

"Worse. " I said and leaned against the battlement for support. "Since the candidates are so much older, chances are that it's not the Ordo Praesidium that have the problem, but the people we recruit from." I sighed. "And when we're talking Baylon that is a lot of people."

Verina shook her head. "Let's go ask someone, before we speculate too much."

She started to walk towards the staircase and Varro, and I followed her.

---------

Four glasses later, I felt like vomiting as I was sitting by the window in my room, drinking a cup of tea. We haven't been wrong. If anything, it was worse than we thought.

An epidemic was spreading in the Baylon Empire and it was killing people like they were flies.

It had started about half a year ago. People had flooded the health centres, complaining about a cold, followed by headaches, stiffness in the neck and sensitivity to light and loud noises. The doctors had tried to treat it with medicine, Ars Mentalis and Ars Magica, but managed only to remove the stiffness of the muscles.

The headaches had grown worse until people lay screaming with pain or became insane and had to be subdued by medication or other means. At some point after that, their brains had died, followed by the rest of the body. The mortality rate was reported to be more than nine out of ten.

The disease only attacked a part of the brain known as the Centrum Potentia (Baylon: 'Centre of Power'), which is the source of both Ars Magica and Ars Mentalis. As it was unique to Baylons, humans were immune the Disease.

Any contagious disease is a bother in a society like ours, where people can travel instantly from place to place before they even know that they are sick, but a disease that was deadly, contagious, and immune to our healing was disastrous.

Specialists had been magically gated to the affected cities to help, but not only did it not help, but some of the specialists had also contracted the disease, which led to another disaster as a few those specialists were sent home before the symptoms broke out.

The same had happen with the high-powered Ars Magica and Ars Mentalis users as they gated and teleported to other cities to get away from the Disease or those who had travelled to other cities, unaware that they carried death with them.

Most of them died as well, but not before some of the people around them had contracted the disease and then the ball was rolling.

Both Ordo Ars Magica and Ordo Ars Mentalis had lost a lot of their best members and a whole generation of students at the various Schola had been wiped out.

Besides the deaths, other disasters had happened as high-powered mages went insane by the disease, blowing up buildings, burning libraries and starting earthquakes or storms, killing even more people.

In general, it was chaos.

All major cities, colonies, trading posts, Chapters of the Ordo's and schools were in quarantine, laws and magic forbidding teleporting and gating into cities had come into effect and in many places, it was simply illegal to leave your home, while researchers worked to find a cure.

For several of the big cities it was too late and some of them had been wiped out by the Disease and nobody had a clear view of what was going in all the smaller cities in the areas surrounding them.

The only reason that Arcem Discendi was spared, was that people rarely came here, since it was a training castle in the middle of nowhere as far as most Baylons were concerned, and nobody really came here without a good reason, a permission and a purpose.

I sighed and drank some more of the tea, wishing that the nausea would stop, while hoping that my family was okay. Luckily, the disease hasn't reached Grove yet, which meant that they were most likely alive.

I suddenly felt like hitting something, so I took Shadow Fang and went over to the training area to punish some training dolls. Something had to pay for the way Baylon was screwed by fate.

--------------

The training area was completely empty, so I walked to the middle of the room and stood still. I had intended to start the training room immediately, but in a fit of frustration, I decided to try something new.

According to Yang Zheng, all swords that are used in Vis-combat has a true form, that depend on the user of that sword. She even learned a few of us how to call it out, but also warned us not to try it before we were ready.

I felt ready as never before, so I slipped into Vis Meditation, concentrated on Shadow Fang, and said "Verum Forma." (Baylon: 'True Form')

Vis Vitae flowed from me to the sword in a silent explosion and I could feel the adamant in the sword contract, as it became thinner and sharper, while the hand guard changed from oval to two claws with a skull in the middle, mimicking a Spectre. It was truly my sword.

I had been prepared for the change in the sword's appearance, but not the incredible feeling of wellbeing that came with it. The sword and I were one and it felt... fantastic.

Whirling it into a ready position in a one-handed grip, I took a deep breath and used Ars Mentalis to enhance my strength, before I said, "Practice. High difficulty level. Engage!"

A light went on as magical targets started to move to the attack.

I went into action, flowing into Mutatur Tempus Mente as I almost danced around the targets, dodging this way and that to avoid being hit.

More targets appeared, and I slipped into Vis Meditation for a second and activated Pugna Promptu so I would know when and where an attack was coming without even being able to see it. More targets fell to the ground and disappeared as I danced on.

Slipping into Vis Meditation yet again, I activated Vigor Pugio (Baylon: 'Energy Daggers'). Immediately a shimmering throwing dagger of concentrated Vis appeared in my free hand and with a flick of the wrist, I sent it into one of the targets that was furthest away, looking like a mage. Another dagger appeared as I dodged an attack, slicing the magical target in two with the sword and then send the next knife into another target.

"Faster!" I commanded, and more magical attackers appeared. I knew that they were only illusions of a sort, but as the magic was set up, their attacks would still hurt a little when they hit.

Time stood still as I lost myself in the mock combat.

Illusionary fighters, archers, Mages and Mentats showed up and went down as I danced and dodged to avoid their attacks, while attacking them with sword, Ars Mentalis and Vis. Using every trick, I could think off, to avoid thinking about the situation back home.

Eventually, the amount of Vis in me reached a level where I couldn't use any Vis powers without damaging myself and as my mental energy likewise became exhausted, I drew my scabbard and fought on, using only my martial skills and natural abilities.

Suddenly there were no more attackers coming and the light blinked twice to signal that the session was at an end just in case I had overheard the "Training session had ended."

Breathing heavily, I stopped moving and left the secure world of Mutatur Tempus Mente, winching as I suddenly could feel every hit that I had taken during the session. Not only did my body feel like it was on fire, but my arms also felt like they were about to fall off from wielding weapons for so long.

Letting go of the true form, I sheathed the sword and placed it back in the belt, before I turned to walk back to my room, but stopped as I discovered that I wasn't alone anymore.

Just outside the safe zone stood Dominus Grande Kaeso Maximus, which was embarrassing enough all by itself, but he wasn't alone, which was even worse. Standing to both sides of him were all the new candidates and I suddenly remembered, that on the first day it was customary to give the new candidates a guided tour of the castle and by forgetting that fact, I had become part of the tour.

I became even more embarrassed, when I discovered Varro, some of my classmates and even some teachers standing behind the candidates.

Apparently, I had become the show of the evening.

The Dominus Grande bowed slightly to me and turned towards the candidates. "Now that Spectre has demonstrated just about every combat skill you need to learn here, let us go have something to eat in the mess."

The candidates nodded wide-eyed and silently started to walk off along with most of my classmates and a moment later only Varro was left.

He shook his head with a chuckle and walked over to me. "I've said it before, and I'll say it again: You are fucking insane!"

"No argument from me." I said tiredly. "But what were you all doing here?"

He lifted his eyebrows in surprise. "Well, I don't know what you did, but there was a burst of Vis Vitae that could be felt all the way to the mess."

"Ah shit." I mumbled, as I remembered the explosion of Vis when I released the true form of the sword.

He laughed. "Relax, it was awesome and remind me never, ever to pick a sword fight with you. Any duels will be conducted at a distance of a hundred paces, using elemental magic as any civilized person would do."

I shook my head a bit to clear it "Can I ask you a favour?"

"Sure... What is it?"

"Help me to my room." I said helplessly "I was hit so many times I almost can't move."

Still laughing, he bowed down and picked me up, so I was placed on his shoulder and started to walk, but not towards the tower.

"Where're you going?"

"To Verina's room." He said in an amused tone. "I might not be a healer, but you need a massage to loosen those muscles, or you'll be lame for a week."

A little while later, I was flat on my stomach, while Verina applied oil to my skin. A moment later her strong hands started to work on my cramping muscles.

"From time to time, you're an idiot." She said with a chuckle as she smacked my butt hard enough to make the sound echo in the room.

"Guilty as charged." I sighed. "But I needed to work out some frustrations."

"Well, if it's any help, I can tell you that your family is okay."

"How do you know?"

Verina laughed. "Because while you were busy killing target dummies, I contacted the Internal Security chapters and inquired about it. According to them, your father pulled a 'I'm a Prince of Kemet' trick and your whole family is currently on an extended vacation in Men-nefer, being safe from the Disease."

I felt enormously relived by that thought and sent her a mental kiss "Thanks, Verina. That's good to know. What about your own family?"

"Mostly safe. A few of my more distant relatives have died, but my parents and my sister are safe for now." She paused as her strong fingers start to dig into my lower back and work their way up to my neck and shoulders. "The Varro family was hit harder, loosing many of their best Magi, but his parents are still alive."

"Good to hear." A thought hit me. "By the way, are you even allowed to use the Security Interna telepathic network for that?"

There was a snort. "I cleared it all the way, before I started."

I chuckled. Verina was a better bureaucrat than I would ever be. "Sorry."

"You're welcome... Oh and I'm looking forward to seeing the recording of the stunt you pulled of earlier, 'coz I was too busy to watch it." She laughed softly. "According to rumours, you scared the crap out of the candidates, and I have to see that."

"I doubt it was that terrifying, but you can always check." I told her. The training area magically stored everything that went on in there, so the teachers could use it to point out errors to their students or praise good moves and tactics.

"Oh, I will do that later." She said, "Now shut up and relax."

I did as she said and enjoyed the feeling of her talented hands loosening my muscle.

It took a while before she was satisfied, but finally she poked me and said, "Are you still awake?"

"Barely."

"Good. Then turn around, so I can do the front."

I did as I was told and after applying more oil to my skin, her warm oily hands were on my chest kneading my pectoral muscles. It was painful and I had to take several deep breaths to avoid tensing up again.

Verina clearly heard my sudden intake of breath and went a little easier on me for a while. That helped and her hands moved upwards to work on my neck and shoulders.

"Please don't resist this." She whispered and I forced my natural resistance down, as a wave of Vis Energy rolled through my body, erasing soreness as it went. It wasn't a technique I had experienced before, but it was effective, and I started to feel like I might live through this after all.

Verina started massaging again and now that most of the soreness was gone, my body had its own response to her hand, and I felt my dick stiffen. Verina ignored it and continued her massage, so I closed my eyes, relaxed and eventually my body did the same.

That changed when her strong, but gentle hands worked their way down my body, stopping just above my groin area to work on the muscles there. Occasionally the tips of her fingers would lightly brush against my dick, causing it to stiffen immediately.

"Lightning reactions as always." Verina commented with a little laugh. "Even when you're clearly not in any shape to share pleasure."

"Oh, I don't know." I said without opening my eyes. "It's in exactly the same shape as last time and I didn't hear you complain then."

"Good point, but you're the one that needs the Vis energy, not me." She moved her slick hands to my cock, spreading the warm massage oil over it. "That is going to be tricky, since I'm really not in the mood for sex right now and it will take a few days for you to regenerate that amount of Vis."

The hands suddenly stopped moving and I knew she gotten an idea. "What's on your devious mind, Verina?"

"Oh nothing." She said innocently. "Please don't resist this."

Again, I forced my natural resistance down and a moment later everything went black.

------------------------

When I woke up again, I felt better for having slept, but for some reason Verina had blindfolded me while I was asleep, making me wonder what she was up to.

"Ahh. You're awake," whispered Verina from the right side of me. "Now, don't take the blindfold off the and lay still. You're going to love this."

There was a rustling sound, and a moment later, a pair of soft hands slipped up my legs, found my hardening dick and caressed it. One of the hands stopped touching me for a few heartbeats, and then I felt something being poured over my dick.

From the feel of it, it was some kind of slippery oil and the hands immediately started to spread it by carefully running the palms up and down my shaft, alternating the rhythm from time to time. Hand over hand motions, long strokes with two hands, slow and forceful, then soft.

It felt incredible, but before it became too good, the hands went back to sliding down my legs.

Suddenly the bed moved as another person crawled onto it. A hand touched my body, sliding down my chest until it closed around my hard cock.

I was wondering if it was Jia, when a soft leg was positioned on each side of my body. The hand on my cock guided it until I could feel it pressing against a damp opening. A moment later, I felt myself entering a tight warmth, as she lowered herself on me with exquisite slowness, engulfing me in a hot, tight, and lovely tunnel. Whomever it was whimpered softly as she took me in.

I wanted to caress her me, but almost as soon as I moved my arms, Verina whispered. "I said 'Lay still' for a reason!"

A few heartbeats later, a warm soft body lay down on each side of me, pinning my arms under them. Soft flesh and pillowy tits pressing against my body.

It felt wonderful, but not nearly as good as the feeling of the women on top of me, who was now riding my full length with slow deliberate motions, her wet pussy caressing me with every move.

The whimpers turned into groans while she rode and after a while, I felt to hands on my chest, as she leaned forward to change the angle. Then she picked up the speed, slamming herself up and down on me, making the bed shake slightly.

That too felt fantastic, but before I was even close to coming, the woman convulsed as she came with a soft cry, her body suddenly rigid against mine.

Enjoying the feeling of her coming, I absorbed the Vis she emitted, immediately feeling less tired.

The woman on top of me rose, letting my dick go and was gone, but one of the women on my side slid on top of me instead and before I could move my arm, it was held in place by a pair of hands. A moment later, the person sat down on my hand, positioning herself, so her wet pussy pressed against my fingers.

Accepting the invitation, I parted her lips with my fingers, playing gently at the edge of her opening with just the tip of my fingers, causing her to sigh happily.

"< Remember to relax and enjoy it <" said Verina voice in my mind.

"< Oh, I am doing both >" I sent back. "< But as you know, I enjoy pleasuring women and that makes it difficult to just lay here and take it >"

"< Patience >" Verina chuckled in my head.

A hand carefully took hold of my stiff cock and I jolted at the touch. Like before, the hand guided my cock upwards until I could feel the head resting at the entrance of an extremely wet pussy. The hand on my cock stroked me a few times as the woman wriggled her hips, making the tip go inside.

The hand disappeared and the woman pressed down. As my cock was still slick from the previous woman, she took me inside with surprising ease, sliding all the way down in one stroke. Then she seemed to stop dead for several heartbeats, perhaps longer.

She gave a long, ragged breath and her hips began to rock, moving more back and forth than up and down. At first it was a gentle movement, but soon she picked up speed, grinding her love-pearl against me, her motions making my cock dance inside her.

The bed shifted again when somebody moved on it. The legs were positioned on each side of my head and a moment later something tickled against my chin and mouth.

Inhaling deeply, the scent of an aroused woman filled my nostrils.

Smiling to myself, I opened my mouth and sent my tongue out on a probing expedition. It soon encountered a sparse patch of hair, covering a lovely wetness. A long lick parted the lips, causing a small squeak from somewhere above me. Satisfied, I licked my way to the love-pearl, circling and teasing all the way.

The woman on my dick breathed a long "Uhhhhhh!" of pleasure and changed the movements of her hips to what I can only describe as a ripple, that made her hot, tight pussy massage my cock from top to bottom.

Judging from her sounds of pleasure, it was as good for her as it was for me, and I could feel the orgasm building inside her.

Still making circles around the love-pearl with my tongue, I shifted my attention to the pussy surrounding my fingers for a moment. So far, I had only played lightly, but pushing upwards, I found the internal pleasure centre and started to massage it firmly. A moment later, she started to squirm and the muscles around my fingers started to tighten.

Her hips began to move on my fingers, so I stiffened them and left it to her to use them to pleasure herself, while I kept busy with my tongue, licking, and teasing that small nub of pleasure.

On top of me, the ripples became faster and her groans louder, before the woman suddenly cried out. I felt her pussy clenching down on my cock as she suddenly sat down completely, shivers running through her body and making her jerk on top of me, adding to my pleasure.

More Vis surged into me, but I almost didn't notice as I was lost in a cloud of sexual ecstasy, that carried me closer to my own orgasm.

As the other times, the woman on my hips dismounted when the climax was over and this time there was a shuffling as she traded places with the one laying on my arm.

I moaned into the pussy on my mouth when I was engulfed again. The sensation was different this time. She was tighter and sat more upright than the one before.

When she had taken me in completely, she paused and took a deep breath.

I used the pause to intensify my licking of the pussy over my face, encircling the love-pearl with my mouth and sucked gently, letting my firm tongue dance on the sensitive organ as I tasted her sweetness. She squealed again, louder this time, and her legs tightened around me.

My tongue never stopped. I licked her harder now, determined to bring her over the edge with my tongue.

She was close now, very close, so I quickened the pace of my licking, but the woman on top of me started to move, making me groan.

This woman knew what she was doing as her hips gave me a fantastic treatment, moving in circles and clenching around my stiffness over and over again.

The feeling sent shivers down my spine, and I could feel the pleasure building inside me.

I didn't want to come just yet, so I focused on licking instead. Trying to starve off the orgasm long enough for her to come before I did.

A few heartbeats later, the woman on top of me came in a huge orgasm.

I don't know if it was the sound, sight or a combination of both, that set the other women off as well, but the result was amazing.

The woman on my dick rocked, bucked, and writhed for what seemed like a small eternity, all the while accompanied by cries and whimpers.

The woman on my head, stiffened and cried out as her legs tightened around my head. That blocked out any sounds the one on my finger might have made, but her pussy clenched around my fingers, while her hips shook, and she squirted into my hand.

I was so close to coming that my cock hurt, but needing the Vis, I concentrated on absorbing that instead and was rewarded with surge of positive energy flowing into me, bringing the level back to normal and then some.

Then I noticed two things. The women that had been pinning my arms was gone and another had taken place on top of me.

Instead of taking me inside her as the other had done, she leaned forward and kissed me softly.

With the big, firm breasts pressing against my chest and a familiar scent in my nostrils, I knew it was Verina.

"< I thought you weren't in the mood >" I remarked with amusement, as she placed my cock at her entrance with practiced ease, while still kissing me.

She replied with a mental snort, followed by a "< Seeing you blindfolded and being gang banged by group of horny women changed that >"

I groaned with pleasure as Verina pressed back, impaling herself on me, moaning as her pussy massaged my shaft, each bit of my cock stimulated by tight, liquid, velvet.

I was vaguely aware of the sounds coming from the side of the bed, sounding like the women that had been in the bed were getting dressed, but ignored it. The blindfold told me that they didn't want me to know who they were and more importantly, the feeling of Verina's hot body against mine as she slowly fucked me, was so good that I really didn't care.

Verina kept moving her hips up and down slowly as she kissed me until the sound of a door being opened and closed told me that the other women had left.

The she broke the kiss, lifted her chest and took the blindfold off me.

Opening my eyes, I looked into her sparkling eyes and the sight alone sent a shiver down my spine.

Something passed between us. A mutual understanding of deep affection, bordering on love.

We shared a smile and went back to kissing, enjoying the feel of each other.

Since my hands were now free, I let them wander on Verina's fantastic body, caressing her back, butt, and upper legs. Her pussy rippled around my cock, keeping a steady stream of pleasure going.

She moaned as I moved my hands around to her front and palmed her round, firm breasts, catching the nipples between my fingers.

With a smile, she rose up to give me better access, which also put her body on full display. As always, I found her beautiful and extremely alluring, so I removed my hands from her to drink in the sight.

The smile on her face widened to a grin as she slowly lifted her arms into the air like she was stretching. That thrusted her chest out, and her breasts rode high and proud, the excited nipples pointed slightly upward.

"< I love when you look at me like that >" She sent into my mind. "< It makes me feel like one of the sexiest women in the world >"

"< Well, you are that >" I sent back, still semi lost in the sight.

"< Thanks, and you're rather hot yourself >" She sent back.

Before I had a chance to reply, she broke of the connection and started to move again.

This time there was nothing slow about it, as she moved up and down on my cock, making me groan as her pussy clenched around me.

My hands returned to her breasts, and she purred her encouragement, never slowing down.

I could feel my self-control crumble and it wouldn't take long before I couldn't take it anymore.

Verina must have felt the same, because she kept riding me at the same speed, but just before I was about to explode in her, she lowered her upper body and kissed me, while the fast pace turned into a sensual gyration movement, that prolonged the pleasure.

Bending my legs a little, I found leverage on the bed and started to thrust upward into her.

We moaned into each other's mouths, as our tongues danced.

For once, I reached my climax before she did and with pulses of white-hot pleasure surging through my body, I came inside her with an intensity that made the room spin.

Verina felt it and a few heartbeats later she came as well, screaming into my mouth. Her pussy spasmed around my cock, and she grunted through the contractions.

Gradually the room ceased to spin, and my vision returned to normal.

"Goddesses, that was awesome." Panted Verina when she got her voice back and let herself fall next to me.

Dragging her in for a hug, I agreed. Having sex with a group of horny women certainly had it charms, but if it hadn't been for the Vis, I would rather just share pleasure with Verina. "If it gets much better than that, I think it'll kill me."

With a laugh, she hugged me back. "Let's hope it doesn't get better than this then." Looking me over, she smiled. "You even got all the Vis you needed."

"Yes. All in all, your plan worked perfectly... as always."

"Well, right now my plan is to fall asleep right here and right now. I'm drained."

"Sounds like another good plan." I replied with a smile.

Verina snuggled into me and relaxed.

--------------------------

When I entered the mess hall for breakfast the next day, Varro and Verina was sitting alone at the end of a table, which surprised me as the whole class usually eat together.

"Have I forgotten something?" I asked as I sat down beside Varro "Where's the rest?"

"Sleeping." Said Varro, while I took a bit of the bread, "It's rest-day and most of them were up half the night talking about the Disease and their families." He drank some of his tea. "So did I for that matter."

I had my mouth full, so I gestured for him to continue.

"Verina have estimated that it will take about a year to find cure for the disease." He said tiredly. "And another half year or so to make enough of it to actually cure the infected people."

I swallowed the bread and sighed. Verina was a brilliant mathematician and if her calculations about the timeframe were right, a lot more people would die. Like the thirty thousand people in Sybaris and the twenty-five thousand people in Bielke. Basically, the whole central part of Baylon and being the area where most people lived in the whole empire, that was about a million people.

The death toll would be a bit less if they managed to keep the Disease out of Gideon and Chava, but not by much. It was going to take a long time for Baylon to recover from such a blow.

Something started to stir in my memory and for a moment, I just sat there looking into the air as pieces of the puzzle stated to fall into place. The picture wasn't complete yet, but at least it was starting to be clearer.

Varro and Verina had gone silent, looking at me expectantly, and when I blinked a few times, Verina softly said, "Share your thoughts."

"This Disease isn't natural." I started slowly. "It was made by the Pulcher family to cripple Baylon, but I think it was set in motion before the Pulcher family were ready for it."

Both Verina and Varro looked at me like I had gone crazy.

"Think about it." I said with sigh. "Varro, you said that the people raiding the Pulcher castles had found a lot of insane people, just like people affected by the Disease, and that the Pulchers had said, that it was too early, right?"

Varro nodded wordlessly.

"I think they have used magic to make the Disease and was working on a cure or vaccine, when their castles were raided." I continued. "There's little chance that we will focus on the outside world now or for the next century for that matter. We have lost too many people."

"Well, that would certainly explain why the Disease is immune to our magic." said Varro with a shiver. "And it also explains why some of them elected to kill themselves, because making such a disease is highly illegal. They were sure to get disintegrated."

I nodded at that. Disintegration was widely assumed to be one of the most painful way to die and was reserved for only the most unspeakable acts. Like making a disease that killed thousands of Baylons.

Verina was silent for a heartbeat more, before she said, "If you're right, the people from the raids would be the first to be affected."

"Yes... But the important part is, that nd we might be able to find notes about a cure or a vaccine on those castles."

With a nod, Verina stood up. "Come. We need to talk to the Dominus Grande."

"Sure," I stood up at well. "But I'm pretty sure that I'm not the first one to figure this out... if it's even correct."

Varro snorted. "Even if there is the slightest chance, that you're right and that somebody else haven't thought about this, the Old Man needs to know. If you're right, it'll cut down the time to find a cure by months... and time is critical right now."

Verina started to walk. "And no-matter what, we're stuck here in Lescare until it's resolved one way or another. Since all Baylon castles are in a state of quarantine, so is Arcem Discendi and I don't think that they care that we graduate in a month and want to get home. Not to mention the fact that the few Ordo Vectio that can gate all the way over here, are probably occupied elsewhere or dead."

"It's going be a long time to wait." Predicted Varro.

He was both right and wrong. On one hand, we were isolated in Arcem Discendi, but since the new students had arrived two weeks ahead of schedule, most of the teachers were still on vacation and couldn't get back due to the quarantine. So, we were put to work as teachers for the new students, which was both more difficult and more fun that I would have thought.

-----------------

After some months, I was called to the Dominus Grande's office in the middle of the afternoon.

As usual, he was alone and instead of saying anything, he just gestured to me to sit down.

I took place in one of the office's big chairs and a moment later, I got an incoming mental communication.

"< Hello, Inquisitor Emilian, >" said a male voice. "< This is Master Vibius of Ordo Arbites >"

For a few heartbeats, I thought that I had screwed up and done something illegal without even knowing it, as the judges of the Ordo Arbites enforced the Lex Imperialis, Imperial law, and only talked to low-ranking members of any organization, if something was wrong.

Then he continued. "< As the head of the investigation into the Pulcher family, I would like your recount of the event leading up to the raid and your reasoning behind thinking that the Pulcher family have fabricated the Disease >"

"< Yes, Sir >" I said. There really was no other answer to that request and I spent the rest of the afternoon talking just about everything that had happened on Alashiya and in Wilusa, complete with the mind reading of the captured mages and the thoughts that had led me to think that the Pulchers had fabricated the Disease.

Master Vibius was an attentive listener, asking good question and while the whole interview took hours, it went smoothly.

"< Before we finish, I would like to hear your personal opinion of this >" He finally said, indicating that the interview was nearly over.

"< Yes, Sir >" I took a few heartbeats to gather my thoughts. "< If, and that's a big if, the Pulcher family have done this, they're not working alone. Yes, it'll take a long time before Baylon recovers from this blow, but at some point, we will recover, and they must know that as well. So, building an Empire in the human world simply isn't worth it, unless ... >" a thought hit me, making me lose my train of thought.

"< Unless what, Inquisitor Emilian? >" Master Vibius asked after a moment of silence.

"< Unless our politics regarding the human world changes or the Baylon Empire isn't around to oppose it >" I finished slowly, as I weighted both possibilities in my head.

A change of policy was possible. Especially with the Disease around since the numerous deaths had taken many of the high-ranking Ars Mentalis and Ars Magica members. Most of these were from established noble families with power and influence in the Senate, but with so many of them gone, new senators had to be elected and that could mean a change of power and politics.

Removing Baylon from this dimension permanently was also a possibility. Due to the alignment of the stars, the magical anchors that kept Baylon here could, at the moment, be removed by a relatively simple ritual.

According to Varro, outright dispelling them was also a possibility, but a lesser one, as the ones doing it almost certainly would be killed by the backlash of magical power, or, if they somehow survived that, would be stranded here for the rest of their lives.

I relayed my thoughts to Master Vibius, adding. "< That is why I don't think the Pulcher family could have done this alone, Sir. I don't know much about politics, but according to Decimus Livius Varro they don't have the influence needed to change the laws regarding the human world. Likewise, they don't have the Magi to make the ritual required to remove the anchors or dispelling them. To do one of those two things, others must be involved somehow. They might work for the Pulcher family or the Pulcher family might work for them, it really doesn't matter. The point is, that without a final goal in sight, creating The Disease doesn't make any sense and the Pulcher family are quite an intelligent group of people despite their lack of Power, Sir. >"

There was silence for a few heartbeats, then Master Vibius sent. "< Thank you for your thoughts, Inquisitor Emilian >" and closed the connection.

"A good debriefing." Remarked the Dominus Grande.

"Thank you, Sir."

"You're welcome." He took something from a pocket and threw it to me.

Per reflex, I caught it in the air and looked at it. It was a small leather holster.

"Open it." He said, as I looked questioning at him.

I did and inside I saw the black bdel shield with the golden intertwined SI logo of the Securitas Interna engraved in it. It was the official seal of the Securitas Interna and was naturally only carried by members of that organization.

"Don't say anything yet." He warned. "Now turn it upside down and send some Vis into the seal."

I did as I was told and a moment later the SI logo transformed into the Inquisitorial Seal of the Ordo Gladius, complete with the motto Stare contra malum (Baylon: "To stop an evil" or "Someone have to take a stand against evil") written in golden letters.

"Cur non mihi?" I mumbled to myself, fulfilling a quote from Appius Vettius Flaccus, the founder of Ordo Gladius. According to the story, he was once asked why he would risk his life for his ideals and his answer was "Stare contra malum. Cur non mihi?" (Baylon: "Someone have to take a stand against evil. Why should it not be me?")

Since we had already graduated, it wasn't really a surprise, but he could have given me the seal at any time, so they needed an Inquisitor somewhere, which had to be the reason why I got this now.

"Where am I needed, Sir?" I asked as I slipped the leather holster into a small belt pouch.

"Just about everywhere." He said with a sigh. "But for now, we're teleporting you to Northern Baylon. There are way too many insane mages loose there, so you'll go mage hunting. Don't get killed."

"Yes Sir."

The Dominus Grande took a red scarf from the desk and gave it to me. "These are given to all people that go on missions. According to the doctors, the disease spread through the air, but mages have developed these magical scarfs to prevent contamination. Put it over your nose and mouth when you go out and you're safe." He smiled grimly. "It also works as a Colorare Mortis (Baylon: "Mask of death") in case you need it."

I took the scarf. "Thank you, Sir. When do I leave?"

"Tomorrow morning." He smiled. "Now go say goodbye to your friends, Spectre."

I saluted and walked out, but instead of going to see Varro and Verina, I walked to my room. I needed some time to get my thoughts in order.

A glass later, I had finished packing and was sitting by the window, drinking tea and looking at the red scarf, while thinking about why the Dominus thought I might need a Colorare Mortis.

The Mask of Death is part of an Ars Mentalis trick, used by assassins for hundreds of years. If you have to kill someone and lie convincingly about it, you make a mask and as you don that mask, you become another person. Then the person that you have become, do the killing and not you, so when you take of the mask and become yourself again, you haven't actually killed anybody.

It sounds weird, but it's a great mental trick to help you lie if asked about it. Any interrogator worth anything knows about the trick, so it's useless in court, but if superficially asked, it's a great help.

I drank some more tea, thinking it over. The chances for anybody really interrogating an Inquisitor were on the other hand rather slim, so perhaps it would be a greater help than I thought. As long as I didn't do anything stupid that is, because when delivering a report after any job, there are always questions that are designed to reveal the use of a Colorare Mortis, so Inquisitors didn't abuse it.

Placing the cup on the table next to me, I stood up and placed the red scarf in the backpack, before I walked to the door. It was time to say goodbye, or at least "see you later" to a lot of people.

-----------------------------

The city of Sybaris, Baylon. Ca. 1220 BC.

The stench of rotting flesh lay as a thick pillow over the city of Sybaris and the sound of carrion eaters echoed between the empty streets. Not that they were really empty, as there were plenty of rats that feed of the corpses, sometimes making the streets look like they were covered in a moving brown furry carpet.

To make the experience even worse, there was so much negative energy in the city that it hung in the air like an invisible vapor, drenching us with the stench of death with every move we made.

"This assignment sucks!" stated Varro as we walked up the main street. "Or rather... it stinks!"

I nodded in silent agreement. We had been assigned to both clean up the place a bit and to bring in a mage to find some magical books and artifacts that the Ordo Ars Magica simply couldn't live without, since most of the libraries were gone.

Unfortunately, those artifacts were in the main building of Ordo Ars Magica in Sybaris, which meant going through a dead, stinking, rat and Disease infested city to get there and after that, Varro had to do some Ars Magica to bring in the mage.

The bright spot in all this was that since they were sending us into potential Diseased cities, we had both received some of the first vaccines that had been made, making us immune to the Disease.

As it turned out, my theory about the Pulcher family had been correct. A careful search of their castles in the human world, had revealed that they had used a mix of Alchemy and magic to create the Disease and their notes had been instrumental in creating a vaccine against it.

The worst part was that it didn't seem like anybody knew why the Pulchers had done it. According to Dominus Grande Maximus, the leaders of the family on Baylon had killed themselves to avoid getting captured and interrogated, exactly like the ones in the castles.

While I could understand their efforts from saving the whole family from being destroyed, it was also frustrating, because I was still certain that the Pulchers wasn't working alone. Unfortunately, with the leadership dead and gone, it had become almost impossible to find out who they had been working with.

The only hope was that the Securitas had found something more than the notes about the Disease when they searched the castles, but even if they had found something, it was highly unlikely that they would inform a lowly Inquisitor like me about it.

I looked around and saw a pile of gnawed bones. Even with the speed they had made the vaccine, it had come too late for the thirty thousand citizens of Sybaris. Not that all of them had been infected by the Disease, but the pain in the head had also driven infected Mages or Mentats insane and those who hadn't killed themselves, tended to direct their rage against others, which in many cases were either their family or simply the nearest target. Half the inner city was burned down or blown up along with whichever people was in there at the time, which had added to the death toll.

The few that had survived that, were caught in a magically sealed city where the Disease, or those infected by it, had killed them as it spread. It was a harsh way to defend Baylon, but until recently, it was also the only way to stop the Disease from spreading further. Now that we had the vaccine, that would change, but it didn't bring back the dead.

"Are you even listening to me?" asked Varro irritated, interrupting my thoughts.

"Yes, and I agree." I said as I warped the Colorare Mortis around head, covering the mouth and nose in the hope that it lessened the stench. At least it would keep the flies out. "It stinks even worse than Gesso."

"Well, Gesso had been wiped out half a year before we had to go there." Grumbled Varro. "No rotting flesh there."

"Good point." I answered as we closed the city gate and started to walk towards the city centre, stopping from time to time to take an Ignis Lapis (Baylon: 'Fire stone') and throw it into a building before we moved on. An Ignis Lapis was a magical stone that held a huge fire spell that would go off after two day or so, causing a large area to be covered in magical flames. It would last for almost a day, which was time enough to set even Baylon buildings on fire and with the number of buildings we were hitting, most of the city would be burning the day after tomorrow.

It was the only way to ensure that the Disease, plagues, and sickness in the city was gone and it would kill off many of the rats and dogs, which had the potential to become bearers of the diseases.

A low howling that sounded like it came from the other side of a building caught my attention and I lifted a hand to signal a stop, but it was unnecessary: Varro had heard it too and looked at me, as he pointed upwards towards a low rooftop.

With a nod, I slipped into Vis meditation of a moment to activate a trick that allowed me to jump the six meters up there, landing in a crouch, so I couldn't be seen from the streets on the other side.

Varro followed a moment later and we sneaked to the edge of the roof.

The grisly sight that met us was one we had seen too many times before.

In the square below thin, greyish humanoids sat near some corpses, tearing the half-rotten flesh from the corpses with clawed hands and eating it, as if it were the greatest delicacy in the world.

Their mouths were filled with long teeth that wasn't quite fangs, but longer than normal, and what had once been clothes hang as rags on their bodies.

"Ghouls." Whispered Varro and I nodded in agreement.

Ghouls were strange creatures. They were the sad remains of people who had been hungry, desperate, or insane enough to start feeding on the uncooked meat of corpses. That by itself was a diet that killed most people, but sometimes the Negative energy in the corpses infested them and instead of dying, they became transformed into an animal-like creature not quite living, not quite dead, but mostly quite stupid.

Many of them had completely forgotten their former lives, but a few had the unpleasant ability to use the some of the Ars Magica as they could before.

While most ghouls were no match for us in combat, the few that could use Ars Magica were a danger we needed to deal with before moving on.

There were twelve ghouls in the square below us, but five of them looked human and thus unable to use Ars Magica. That left seven possible spell casters, which was bad news. On the bright side, even those ghouls were stupid, and their spell casting was usually rather basic, almost instinctive.

I looked at Varro and whispered. "Plan?"

"Fire in a back alley?" He whispered back, referring to a tactic we had used before. Lure the ghouls into a back alley and fill in with a wall of fire, killing the ghouls.

I nodded in agreement and looked down at the square again. Extending my mind, I took hold of a corpse and moved it slowly a few meters. The ghouls looked at the moving corpse and nine of them mindlessly walked towards it.

"Nice. I'll go now." Varro whispered and sneaked off to the right.

I moved the corpse a few more meters as the ghouls started to come closer to it.

They stopped to look at the moving corpse, but then followed it.

I continued to do that, until the nine ghouls had followed the corpse to the entrance of a back alley, where I flung the corpse into the alley.

They didn't even hesitate, but followed the corpse into the alley, so I turned my attention towards the last three. One was still eating, but the two others were watching the pack disappearing into the back alley.

The problem was that I needed to take all three out as fast as possible to avoid giving them a chance to use any magic and neither throwing knives nor bows were effective against ghouls.

Slipping into Vis Meditation I activated Pugna Promptu to alert me of attacks and silently drew my sword, as the end of the back alley suddenly erupted as a Wall of Fire rose from the ground, sealing it off from the square.

Using an Ars Mentalis trick called Relictis (Baylon: "Leaving"), I transported myself to a spot behind the two watching Ghouls, entering the slow world of Mutatur Tempus Mente at the same time.

The first one went down, as I nearly cut it in half and the other turned towards me so slowly, that when it finally saw me, it was too late as I beheaded it.

Pugna Promptu warned me of an incoming attack and whirling around I narrowly avoided a bolt of magical fire from the last Ghoul.

With a snarl, it sent another bolt my way.

Reacting with the instinct driven by Pugna Promptu, I hit the bolt in the air, deflecting it away from me and moved to cross the distance between us with a speed powered by Ars Mentalis.

It looked surprised as Shadow Fang flashed and took of its right arm, but I didn't give it time to recover and the next attack hit it in the head, killing it.

Looking around to see if more attacks were coming, I saw Varro as he jumped down from the building and walked towards me.

"Any problems?" I asked when he came closer.

He shrugged. "No, they're ghoul barbeque by now."

"Not exactly one of my favourite dishes." I said with a chuckle. "Let's move on."

"One moment." Said Varro as he studied me. "I saw you use a power to move behind the ghoul and then hit him almost at the same time. How did you do that?"

"Well, that's how Relictis is supposed to work." I said, not understanding what the problem was.

To my surprise, Varro shook his head. "No, it's not. Everybody else have a few heartbeats of disorientation when they use Relictis or a similar power to change position, which is why it's rarely used offensively in battle. Don't you have that?"

Surprised, I just shook my head. "No, not really. I use it to change location and then I go on as before."

He looked at me for a moment, but then shook his head. "Well, just be happy that it works that way for you."

I grinned at him. "Oh, I am. Now, lead the way. We're not out of this yet."

With another nod, he turned, and we started walking again.

-----------------------

"Ahh here we are." Remarked Varro some four glass later, as we passed through the arch that marked the entrance to the Ordo Ars Magica quarter. "So now we only need to find the headmasters villa."

"And avoid whatever is in here." I added as I looked around "Some of these insane mages isn't exactly fun to meet."

"Well, most of them would be dead or severely limited in spell casting by now, but you're still right." Varro said as we slowly walked towards the main building, while looking around for enemies.

Because the Disease ate into the Centrum Potentia (Baylon: 'The Centre of Power'), those that had been driven insane by the pain, weren't that strong in power and as time went by, that power diminished, until they died.

Unfortunately, some of those attacked by the Disease had been extraordinarily strong to begin with, meaning that they could easily be stronger than both of us even with their limited power.

The door to the main building was locked, so after checking that there wasn't a trap on it, I found a lock pick set from a pouch and got to work.

"When did you have time to learn that?" Asked Varro as he watched me.

"Do you remember when I told you, that I was studying or training, while you and your gang played around?"

"Yes, but ...Oh... "

I nodded. "Yeah... Deception and subterfuge skills were taught in non-mandatory classes..." There was a 'click' as the lock opened. "...and I took most of them."

"Hmm, I feel lazy now."

"No need for that. As far I remember you took the extra classes in Ars Magica, which I didn't take."

"Good point." He grinned and stepped aside as I took my sword and used it to open the door. It's not that I'm paranoid, but if I had been living in the inner city during the Disease, with insane Ordo Ars Magica members running around, I would have put some traps on the door to my house. It might not kill them, but a few broken fingers make it a lot harder to cast spells, giving you a better chance to survive.

I had forgotten it once in Gesso and nearly lost my hand when a ward went off and gave me the shock of a lifetime. Needless to say, I don't forget that anymore.

Seeing that there weren't any traps, we walked silently into the building.

Once the building must have been a beautiful sight, with painted frescos on the walls, mosaics on the floors and fine vases and statues all over.

Now it looked like a decorated cross between a slaughterhouse and a cemetery. Decaying corpses of servants lay everywhere. Some had faces contorted in pain, frozen in the moment of death due to the disease, while others had been killed in various fashions. Once that sight would have bothered me, but that was years and thousands of corpses ago.

"Fuck!" Mumbled Varro disgusted. "The spells that keep the villa clean, must slow the decay of the corpses."

"Yeah, dry air, no flies or maggots and so on." I answered as I looked for the entrance to the Gating room, where Varro was supposed to bring in the mage. "They're being mummified."

Varro must have seen it because he pointed towards a closed door. "It's that way. I was here on visit a while ago."

Besides being an Ars Magica user, where I was a Mentat, Varro came from a family of mages, so he had visited most of the Ordo Ars Magica's quarters in the various cities and knew his way around.

Nodding I walked towards the door, being careful not to step on the corpses. Slow decay or not, touching those corpses would cause them to break and spread stink everywhere.

Again, I searched the door for traps, but it seemed clear, so I opened it slowly with the scabbard, holding the sword in the other hand.

The Gating room looked like all other gating rooms I've seen: Octagonal and with a mosaic in the floor that held the city signet as well as the Ordo Ars Magica logo.

The corpses of the four guards were not part of the usual interior design, but Varro ignored them as he walked to the middle of the room.

"Are you ready?" He asked as he stopped.

"Not much to be ready for." I remarked, as I looked around in the room outside. There was nothing but dead people and they weren't moving. "Go ahead."

He started to cast an Ars Magica spell and I could hear the power hum in the air and almost felt it on my skin, wishing he could have used Ars Mentalis instead. Ars Magica tended to give a lot of magical noise when used for long distance communication.

However, it was impossible to use Ars Mentalis to gate or teleport people into the Ordo Ars Magica compound and after the Disease, the magi had changed the wards, so it was impossible to gate out of a city by any means, meaning that we had to escort the mage to the city gates afterwards.

Varro extended a hand in front of him and a moment later a hand appeared out of the thin air and clasped it. Varro did a dragging motion, causing a tall, bald mage to appear out of nowhere.

The magical noise disappeared as Varro let go of the hand and bowed slightly. "Hello, Scolaris Narses."

Glancing at the Ordo sign on the man's clothing, I sighed to myself. It was an Ordo Ars Magica Sage: A Researcher and from the look of him, one of those that had spent most of his life in the sheltered surroundings of his books. Granted, sages are clever, but they are rarely smart, as in quick thinkers, and we had to get him out of the city when we were done here.

"Hello, Inquisitor Varro." Said the bald mage with a nod, but then saw the bodies and gagged.

We waited until he had composed himself again.

"Why haven't these people been given a proper burial?" he demanded to know after a little while. "They shouldn't just lay here."

"Feel free to arrange it." I said quietly, which caused him to look at me for the first time. "There are twenty thousand more out there you can bury while you're at it."

"And this is Spectre." Said Varro calmly. "Ignore the scarf, it stops flies from getting into your mouth and nose."

The sage bowed slightly. "Scolaris Narses. Pleased to meet you."

"Likewise." I said, returning the bow. "Now let's get moving."

Narses nodded and walked out of the room but stopped so suddenly that I almost walked into him.

"Ignore the corpses." I said as I saw him look around with a horrified expression on his face. "We need to find the books and artifacts as soon as possible."

"And try not to touch them." Added Varro. "They stink to high heaven when they break."

Looking a little green by the ears, Narses nodded silently and started to walk again, turning right.

We walked for almost a glass, following the sage as he walked down long empty corridors, ignoring corpses and other unpleasant sights on the way.

Then he stopped by a large door and took a key from a pouch. "It's in here."

"One moment." I whispered and started to check the door for traps.

Behind me, I could hear him asking Varro in a whisper. "Why are we whispering?"

"Because we don't know if anybody is in here and we want to avoid trouble." Varro answered back, his voice a touch irritated.

"Oh."

Satisfied that there were no traps on the door, I motioned for Narses to unlock the door, which he did. That he also opened it wasn't according to plan, at least not mine, so I pulled him away as the door swung up.

The sound of somebody whistling reached my ears.

Apparently, the others had heard it too because they were suddenly silent.

Placing myself against the wall, I took a small metal mirror from a belt pouch and used it to look inside the room.

As the rest of the house, the study had been a nice place once, but now the walls were covered in writing, that looked like it had been done in blood, while the floor was covered in sickly green goo.

A man dressed in a blue mage robe walked around in the room, looking at the walls with a happy smile on his face, as he whistled a little tune.

I reached out and touched Varro's arm, before sending the images of what I've seen to him.

"< Shit. That's Magus Dominus Lartius >" Varro sent to both of us, causing Narses to nod. "< And he looks pretty insane >"

"< Agreed >" I sent back. "< We need to... >"

The whistling suddenly stopped, and we heard the Magus Dominus say. "Ahh Young Narses. Stop hiding behind the door, young man, and come out. I won't tell your dad."

I resisted an urge to hit the scholar. To go into an infested city without any magical anti-detection item or spells, was stupid and now, that thoughtless behaviour had put all our lives in danger.

Varro looked at me "< Shit. Fuck. Think of something, Spectre. We can't take a Magus Dominus, Disease or no Disease >"

Narses must have thought the same because his face had become completely white.

My mind started to speed up and I sent to Narses. "< Go in there and play a confused student. That should soothe him, while we think of a plan >"

He shook his head in near panic and said out loud. "No way!"

"Ill-mannered brat!" said the Magus Dominus in an insulted voice from within the room. "Very well, I shall teach you manners!"

The scholar looked at me wide eyed as we heard Ars Magical spells being cast.

I was puzzled. During my time of pacifying insane mages, I had learned to recognize the most common attack spells, and this wasn't one of them. However, coming from a Magus Dominus, it was most likely more dangerous than a simple elemental spell.

I dragged Narses close to me, as I reached out with my mind and ruthlessly entered his memory in search for mental images of the things we were looking for. Unless I missed my guess, Narses would be dead shortly, since insulting an insane Magus Dominus is just another way of committing suicide. If you were lucky, it would even be over quickly.

Finding the pictures, I let go of my grip and made a sign to Varro, who nodded and almost disappeared as the camouflage made him blend into the fresco on the wall.

"< Say something! >" I sent to Narses. "< Say you're sorry! >"

"Sorry, Magus Dominus Lartius!" shouted Narses. "I was talking to a slave and not you!"

"Come inside." Said the Magus Dominus loudly.

Since slaves weren't allowed to carry swords, I quickly handed Shadow Fang to Varro, before I pushed the scarf up, so it covered my hair instead of my mouth. Very few slaves had white hair and it might be enough to fool the insane mage for a little while.

Narses composed himself and walked inside, with me following three steps behind.

At least that was what I tried to do, but Narses stopped just inside the door, almost causing me to walk into him.

The Magus Dominus wasn't alone anymore. By his side, a creature was being formed from a pool of goo that had been lying on the floor.

Superficially, it looked like a mix between a man and a wolf, but the huge claws and ditto teeth were clearly not from a wolf and its body seemed to be covered in some sort of armor.

"Ah Young Narses." Said Magus Dominus Lartius with a slight smile. "So nice of you to join me."

"A-a-always a pleasure." Stammered Narses nervously. "Have you been well?"

Keeping my eyes down I took a closer look at the Magus Dominus or rather the equipment he was wearing. Under the robe, he had some kind of armor, but considering it was one of the artifacts that we were looking for, it was probably some form of magical item.

To make matters even worse, he was wearing another item we were looking for as well: A magical belt that made the wearer immune to just about any of the normal elements, such as fire, heat, ice, cold and lightning.

I sent that information to Varro and kept silent as Narses and the Magus Dominus kept talking.

"Of course, I haven't been well, you idiot!" sneered the Magus Dominus in the sudden change of mood that most victims of the Disease had. "Do you think that I would be here if I was well? Would I?"

N-n-no." stammered Narses, sounding completely baffled by the change in mood.

The Magus Dominus sighed. "It's 'No, Sir' to the likes of you."

He glanced at the creature and as I looked, it suddenly seemed finished in the same way that a statue is finished. Narses sensed it as well and panicked.

Normally when people panic, they run, but in my experience, most mages threw the first spell that pops up in their mind.

Narses wasn't different since a bolt of concentrated sound howled through the air and into the Magus Dominus. At least it wasn't one of the usual magical elements, which was clever since the magical belt would have stopped that.

Unfortunately, the bolt was badly aimed and hit the Magus Dominus in the shoulder.

Narses might as well have spat on him and magical energy started to form in the air as the Magus Dominus started to cast a spell with a look of fury on his face.

I threw myself away from Narses and landed behind a marble table as the world exploded behind me in the form of a ball of lightning.

The electrical energy made the hair stand on my head as I looked over the edge of the marble table.

Amazingly, the sage was still standing, encased in a protective magical field of some kind, but the door and the wall behind him had been turned into rubble.

Narses send another sonic bolt into the Magus, hitting the same spot as before and while it looked pitiful compared to the massive attack from the other, it made the Magus stagger as his right shoulder was shattered.

I suddenly realized that I had been mistaken. Narses sonic bolts weren't badly aimed. Quite the opposite. It's almost impossible to cast spells if you can't use the arms and Narses was clearly trying to handicap the Magus Dominus. That he aimed for the shoulder and not the head, which I would have done, had to mean, that the Magus Dominus was wearing a magical item that protected the head.

"You little whelp!" screamed the Magus and cast another spell that caused the roof over the sage to collapse and forced Narses to use a short-range teleport to get out of the way.

He reappeared at the other side of the room, staggering slightly for a moment, before both mages started to cast spells again as they looked intensely at each other.

Since the Magus ignored me, I pondered what to do.

Using anything directly on the Magus Dominus was almost certain to fail. Not only was he a lot more experienced than I was, but after having been driven insane by the pain of the Disease, he would be almost immune to most mind affecting Ars Mentalis. Physical Ars Mentalis was also out of the question as the Dominus Grande would most likely resist them, insanity or not.

That left Vis Vitae and physical combat. In that order of priority, since the thought of going into close combat against a Magus Dominus gave me the chills. I don't mind dancing with the Goddess of Death, but I do like to have a fair chance of surviving the dance.

Looking at the top of the marble table gave me an idea.

First, I used my natural ability to levitate the top off the marble table, making it hoover in the air just above the rest. Then I slipped into Vis Meditation, gathered the energy, and released it in a mighty push that sent the heavy slap of stone flying towards the Magus Dominus, who were exchanging more attack spells with Narses. The Sage with the sonic bolts and the Magus with some huge form of lightning that I had never seen before.

The heavy slate of marble hit the Magus Dominus in the side and slammed him to the ground.

For a heartbeat, I thought that the battle was over, but then the Magus lifted his head, pointed at me, and shouted, "Kill him!"

The wolf-man creature suddenly moved towards me, and it moved fast, clearing the rest of the marble table in one mighty jump.

Dodging left, I avoided an attack as Ars Mentalis ran through my body, making me stronger, before I drew my daggers and cut it across the chest.

That only made it angry and only a desperate parry saved my head from being ripped off by a huge, clawed hand.

Clearly, the dagger wasn't going to be enough to harm the creature and they were too short to effectively parry any attack from it.

Slipping into Vis Meditation again, I used a Vis-push to get the creature away from me and then activated a power called Vigor Gladius (Baylon: 'Energy Sword'). A heartbeat later a sword made from concentrated Vis appeared in my left hand, just in time to parry a new attack, as the creature came charging.

Dropping the knives, I took the energy sword in two hands and flowed into Mutatur Tempus Mente as the creature came at me again. The energy sword was a nice backup, but it really wasn't as good as my adamantine sword and I vastly preferred the heft and cutting power of a real sword, to the lightness of the Vigor Gladius.

Easily avoiding a seemingly slow claw attack, I hit it in the shoulder, slashing tendons and cutting bone. It howled in pain, but still moved fast enough to avoid losing a leg, as the next strike only gave it a superficial wound on the thigh.

Dodging right, I avoided a bite and cut its stomach open, only to be hit in the side by it claws. Luckily, the jacket took the most and it didn't bleed.

Adrenalin hit my nerve system and the energy sword made a glowing arc in the air as I hit the creature in the leg and as it turned to bite me, I hit it under the jaw with an upward slash, cleaving the head. That made it go down in a heap and a moment later it turned back into the goo it had been made from.

I quickly looked around. The Magus Dominus was back on his feet with his back to me as he used his non-wounded arm to send another huge lightning into Narses, who lay wounded on the ground.

However, the sage's shield was still holding, and he was struggling to get on his feet again, while the Magus Dominus stance told me, that the marble tabletop had hurt the mage more than he was letting on.

Something reflected in the light from the elemental spells, and I discovered Shadow Fang laying on the floor by the destroyed wall.

The Magus Dominus started on a new spell and even with my limited knowledge of Ars Magica, this one sounded like a complicated one, meaning that the Magus attention was focused on Narses for more than a few heartbeats.

Taking the Vigor Gladius in my left hand, I reached out with my mind and called Shadow Fang to my right hand. The Magus Dominus was still chanting his spell, when the adamantine sword flew past him and seeing my chance, I attacked.

The Magus must have noticed the flash of Shadow Fang flying to my hand because he was turning towards me as I swung the Vigor Gladius and instead of hitting him in the back, I hit his arm and the Vis sword just bounced of the arm as he instinctively raised it to protect himself.

Unfortunately for him, Shadow Fang hit the arm a moment later and cut halfway through both arm and armor. As the other arm was already useless from Narses sonic bolts, that left him with no useable hands to cast spells with, not to mention aiming the lightning he used.

It also had the effect of interrupting whatever Ars Magica he had been casting and the backlash from the unused energy made him twitch.

Visible shaken and confused, he tried to back away, but I followed him step by step, swords weaving a deadly pattern in the air, as I hit him time and again, aiming at the parts of his body that wasn't covered by the magical items. He was already bleeding from numerous cuts, when Shadow Fang severed an artery in his leg, causing him to scream as blood started to spray out.

I could feel the magic thunder around me as the scream turned into a word: "Sanguinis!" (Baylon: Bleed)

It was a Word of Power: A magical word that didn't need any gestures and this one normally caused blood to violently erupt from the openings in body of the target, swiftly bleeding the target to death. I was sure I would die when a wave of magical energy hit me.

Fortunately, the energy washed over me without taking effect and I could see the surprise painted on his face a short moment before Shadow Fang hit his neck and took his head off. Both head and body hit the floor a moment later.

Still shaking from adrenalin, I looked around. The Word of Power might have washed over me, but it had hit Narses with full force and the sage was laying in a big pool of blood on the floor. From the twisting of his limps, he was barely alive but at least he wasn't dead.

Something by the door caught my eye. It was Varro's right arm, but there was no sign of the body.

"Fuck!" I mumbled sadly. "Why didn't you stay out of the room?"

Trying to sneak into a room where a magical combat was taking place and doing so behind a target of huge balls of lightning, was being overconfident to the point of being stupid.

"Because I'm stupid!" sounded Varro's voice from the hallway outside and a moment later he walked into the room, filling me with a feeling of relief of him being alive. The huge ball of lightning that had caused the wall to fall, had somehow sliced his arm off, but his healing magic must have kicked in, because it didn't bleed. His clothes looked like he had walked through a fire and most of his hair was gone, but at least he was alive.

Varro staggered to the severed arm and bend down, using his left hand to pick up the arm from the floor. The sight was so grotesque, that it made me laugh, causing Varro to look at me with a crooked grin on his face. "If I ever complain about having to learn Magical Healing again, just kick me."

"Will do." I nodded and walked over to examine Narses, releasing the Vigor Gladius before I kneeled beside him.

He was in a bad shape: Besides the serious blood loss, broken ribs, and a multitude of electrical burns, one hand was completely gone and the fingers on the other one was broken in so many places, that I doubted that there was a complete bone left in the hand.

That was bad news, since that meant he couldn't cast any spells. At least not without the risk of blowing himself up since most Ars Magica is dependent on forming or directing the magical energies with the hands. I didn't even know how the sage could have cast the last sonic bolt without frying himself.

Fortunately, Ars Magica healing is one of the few types of spells that don't need motions of the hands to work and as I looked, some of the wounds were already healing.

Judging that he could heal most of the wounds himself, I looked up at Varro. "He'll live, but we will have to carry him out." I sighed as I stood up and sheathed Shadow Fang. "That was way too close for comfort."

He nodded and despite his seemingly good mood, he was leaning against the wall. Stopping the blood from the arm and the pain from the wound, must have taken more out of him than he let on. Reattaching the arm would be a job for the healers later.

Leaving Varro to conserve his strength, I walked over to the headless Magus and took the items we had come for, putting them in a bag. After a quick search of the study, I found the books on a shelf. They were a bit scorched from the magical combat, but otherwise looked to be in perfectly good shape, so I put them in the bag as well. Varro's dagger went the same way, since he had sat down to meditate, and I didn't want to disturb him.

Then I quickly checked the adjacent rooms for enemies, but as there were nobody there, I sat down and waited for Narses to finish healing and Varro to stop meditating, while I drank tea and ate two slices of bread to get energy back.

Eight glass later, we were ready to leave, after Varro had left the meditation trance and we had double-checked that we had everything that we came for.

The sage wasn't completely healed as the wounds of his hands were beyond his healing skills and while I could have healed them using Vis Healing, it would have taken at least four days, which was time that we simply didn't have. Instead, I levitated his body into the air, so it would float behind us, as we walked out.

"You know, he was a good man once." Varro said sadly, as we stopped by the remains of the Magus Dominus on the way out. "He was married to my cousin."

Slightly surprised I looked at him. I hadn't known that those two were family.

Seeing the look, he sighed tiredly. "He was a friendly man back then. You never met him, did you?"

I shook my head. "No, I never had the chance."

"Too bad." He sighed. "I shall inform the rest of the family of our loss." He looked at the remains and his voice were thick with emotions as he quietly said, "Have a good trip to the afterlife, Magus Dominus Lartius." He touched the holy symbol on his neck. "Greet the Angel of Death when you see her, Lartius. Pax et bonnum (Baylon. 'Peace and Salvation.')"

Varro looked at me with a nod and I finished the ritual by using an Ars Mentalis trick to turn Magus Dominus Latius's body into dust.

With that, we walked away, trailed by the floating sage. It was time to leave the city before it went up in flames.

---------------------------

We didn't even make it out of the Ordo Ars Magica quarter, before we heard somebody talking. I signalled to Varro to stay where he was and used the Chameleon Vis-Power to make me harder to see, as I silently sneaked closer.

This part of the Ordo Ars Magica quarter had been reserved for the higher-ranking mages and had been beautifully decorated, with colourful frescoes on the wall and mosaics on the floors, while the hallway had statues of past mages to go with the wall and floor decorations.

Now most of that beauty was shattered, the frescoes and mosaics smashed by elemental spells, the few statues that was left standing, were missing bits and pieces, and most of the doors had been torn of their hinges, with one prominent exception: The open door leading into the Magus Dominus' room looked to be in pristine condition and it was from that direction the voices were coming.

Sneaking closer, I took the small metal mirror from the belt pouch and used it to look inside the room.

Unlike the rest of the villa, the room looked to be in perfect condition and much to my surprise, there was two women in there, looking relaxed, as they sat in chairs opposite each other, chatting quietly.

One of them looked to be middle aged and so much like Varro, that she almost had to be a member of that clan. The other was younger and quite a sight, with pitch-black skin and gleaming white hair. Baylons comes in many colours, but normally black wasn't one of them and that marked her as a Tenebris (Baylon: Dark or black).

Also known as a 'Blessed one', Tenebris was always the result of natural occurring magical forces interfering with the development of an unborn child. It was rare, only occurring once or twice in each generation, and happened seemingly at random. One Tenebris could be the child of a low status couple in the capitol, while the next could be born by a noble in the south.

Tenebris were always highly talented in both Artes Potentia (Baylon: Skills of Power, meaning Magica and Mentalis), and they were some of the few that could reach a high level in both arts. Since the status of a family in Baylon greatly depended on their ability in the Artes Potentia, having a Tenebris in the family was a source of great pride and status. So much that it was called a blessing and was believed to come from the Goddesses themselves.

That haven't stopped various noble families from trying to find a way to ensure that some of their children were Tenebris, but as far as I knew, they had failed every time. The randomness of the blessing was a plot device in numerous plays and stories, and in general the Tenebris were well-known by the public.

That also meant, that the Tenebris sitting in the room almost had to be Sabia Quintus Lartius, the younger sister of Magus Dominus Lartius. She had been reported missing about the same time as the city had been closed and while thousands had suffered the same fate, the disappearance of a Tenebris was noticed.

It took me a moment to compose myself and retract the mirror again before I reached out with my mind and carefully examined the area. In the room on the other side of the living room where the two women was sitting, another pair of mind-patterns emerged. Smaller and brighter, they were most likely Baylon children. A discreet scan confirmed not only that, but also that they had somehow escaped the Disease, so I returned my attention to the two women.

Their mind patterns told me they both had the diminished Centrum Potentia typical of someone that had survived the Disease. That was actually good news, as those who survived wasn't contagious once the Disease had run its course and were immune after that.

Using an Ars Mentalis trick, I gently probed them with my mind, doing a quick scan of their brains to see how much damage they had taken from the disease.

With the damage the Disease had done, they wouldn't be able to cast anything but the lowest of spells, but at least they haven't been driven insane by the pain as so many others, and with just a little luck, we might be able to get them out of here.

Reaching out with my mind, I found Varro. "< Didn't you say that Magus Dominus Lartius was married to a cousin of yours? >"

"< Yes, I did >" He replied, curiosity and hope filling the link. "< Have you found her? >"

"< I think so >" I sent him a mind image of the middle-aged woman. "< And while she have had the Disease, it's gone now >"

"< Yes! That's Laura! >" Exclaimed Varro over the link, reminding me that the Varro clan had been hit hard by the Disease, losing many of their best mages, and finding one alive after so long was a minor miracle. "< Did you scan her? >"

"< Yes. She appears to be sane and there's more >" I sent with a mental chuckle.

There was silence for a few heartbeats, but then he sent. "< You found her kids as well? >"

"< Well, I can't confirm that it's her kids, but there're two Baylon children there as well and a Tenebris, that I guess is Sabia Quintus Lartius >"

This time, he didn't even answer, but with the enormous sense of relief that flooded through the link, it wasn't necessary.

"< Just get over here >" I sent.

"< On my way >" He answered.

"< Good. I'll scout a little ahead to see if there are more people hiding in here and then I'll come back >"

"< Good idea. I'll see you later >"

Closing the link, I quietly walked further down the hall. While I haven't told Varro a lie, it wasn't the truth either. We did need to make sure, that the area was safe, but the main reason was to give Varro some alone time with his lost cousin. If she had been here since the city went into quarantine, she would need a serious update on events.

Considering how many of the Varro clan that had fallen to the Disease, that was best done in private, so she could any question she wanted, without an outsider like me being present.

The smell of food suddenly reached my nostrils, causing me to stop and scan the area around me. Much to my surprise, the rooms to the left of me was filled with people. Forty of them to be precise. All of them were human of various ages and genders, and from the way the patterns were distributed in the room, I guessed that they were sitting at two large tables. Considering the smell of food in the air, I guessed they were having dinner.

There was no doubt in my mind that I had found the Servants Quarters and out of the about one hundred and fifty servants that had been in the Ordo Ars Magica quarter, I guessed that only the humans, being immune to the Disease, had survived.

With the wards surrounding most of the compound, they couldn't get out, but ghouls and insane mages couldn't get in either, making this quarter a safe place. As most Baylon compounds, there were magical items that created food and drink, enabling them to survive, though they had to be bored to tears in there.

It also complicated the situation a lot, since we were always supposed to rescue people, as long as it didn't interfere with the goals of the missions. In other words, we needed to find a way to get both four Baylons and forty humans out of the city, before it went up in flames.

"< Are you coming back? >" Asked Varro, happy feelings flowing along with the mental communication.

"< Yeah, but I found forty humans further up the hallway. I guess they're the former servants in here. >"

"< The more, the merrier >" he sent back. "< But good feelings aside, we have a problem and I think it's a big one >"

"< Do tell >" I sent as I started to walk back.

"< The reason that they're still here, is that they can't get out. >" Sent Varro. "< Yes, I know it's flaming obvious, but the point is that when Magus Dominus Lartius became sick, he recognized it and placed barriers to seal his wife and their two children in along with his sister. In theory keeping them out of danger >"

"< And we can't remove the barriers >" I guessed with a grimace.

"< Exactly. They're so powerful that the Magus Dominus couldn't get through them and we're working with a deadline here. The city will go up in flames in two days... or rather one-and-a-half day by now >"

"< Yeah, I know >" I replied.

The problem with having the city go up in flames was not the conflagration itself, but air. Creating a fire the size of the city, consumed all the breathable air in the area and anybody inside the city would choke to death, even if the building they were in was secure against fire and heat.

It wasn't a problem for Varro and me, since we had spells and tricks to get away, but the people in here couldn't get away and without magic or mentalis neither his family members nor the forty humans had any safeguards against lack of air.

"< Any secret passages we can use? >"

"< Good thinking, but no. Those were warded off as well >"

"< Then we really have a challenge ahead of us >" I concluded.

"< Yes we do >"

I turned a corner and saw Varro standing outside the door to the Magus Dominus' quarters, quietly talking with those inside, with Sage Narses body floating in the air behind him.

Varro introduced me, causing his cousin to look at me with a wide smile. "We have heard a lot about you over the years, Inquisitor Emilian... or should I call you Spectre, as Decimus usually does?"

Not only did the smile make her look younger than I thought she was, but it also lit up a face that was rather good looking to begin with.

Removing the scarf from my face, I bowed slightly, as I returned the smile. "Since you already know who I am, just call me Ivah... Oh, and don't trust everything you've heard about me. Decimus Varro here have been known to tell stories with only a loose relation to reality."

Despite the situation, that made her laugh. "Oh, I don't know about that. I've always found him to be a truthful young man."

Before I could come up with a witty come-back to that, Sabia Quintus Lartius asked, "You're a Mentat, as far as I remember. Is that correct?"

I looked over at her. She was standing by the wall, leaning against it as she studied me. The first I noticed, was that her eyes were sparkling blue, which was a huge contrast to the black skin and white hair. She was also better looking than I had expected, with a finely chiselled face framed by the white hair.

"That is correct." I answered. "Varro here is the magic specialist, so if he says that the barriers around this place can't be breached by magic, he's right. I'll see what I can do with Ars Mentalis."

She nodded slightly. "I hope you're very good, because the barriers Magus Dominus Lartius have set, are some of the strongest, I have ever seen."

Unlike dark-skinned humans, Tenebris was not the result of a reaction to the environment and thus all their skin was black, including their tongues and the insides of their mouths, which made it an odd sight to see them talk.

"I doubt, I'm good enough to dispel anything a Magus Dominus have set up." I admitted. "Do you know what kind of barriers we're talking about?"

She nodded. "It's an anti-teleport barrier, combined with an anti-life barrier, made with a ritual that increased the duration to at least two years."

That made Varro whistle softly. "That's a lot of power."

I nodded in agreement. The anti-teleport barrier would stop any attempts to use powers to get through the Life-barrier, which in turn prevented any living thing from go through the barrier. It was a powerful combination and at the moment, I didn't see a way around it.

On the bright side, it was a barrier and not a ward. Barriers just stopped whatever they were designed to stop, while wards usually fried anyone trying to break them. That made testing them a lot less dangerous than testing a ward.

"Varro, can you get hold of the boss and tell him about the problem here?" I asked. "The building prevents me from doing it myself."

"Sure." He said with a nod and cast a spell before his eyes glazed over.

As he was doing that, I looked at the two women. "Boredom aside, are you in good health and mood?"

Laura Varro smiled again. "Yes, and thank you for asking. It took some time getting used to not having any significant powers, but we're getting used to it."

"As far as one can get used to being worthless." Mumbled Sabia Quintus Lartius, tears forming in her sparkling blue eyes.

"Good thing, you're not useless, then." I said mildly.

"You don't get it!" She almost shouted. "I. have. no. powers. The only spells and tricks I can do are petty magic!"

It wasn't the first time I had heard that claim from a survivor of the Disease and the better Mages or Mentats the survivor had been before, the harder it had hit them.

"I know." I said calmly. "I scanned you both earlier. However, unless you're going to claim that the Disease also took your knowledge and skills, that's simply not true. You're more than your ability to wield the Ars Potentia. You're a person with hopes and dreams, likes and dislikes, skills and knowledge. That you have lost your ability to use the higher arts, doesn't change that at all."

Both women were looking at me with wide eyes, causing me to continue. "You're not the first to survive the Disease without going insane and you're not the first to lose the ability to use powers. I've seen some of the others and I know that it feels like the end of the world, but trust me when I say, that it is not."

With perfect timing, Varro returned from his magical communication. Unfortunately, it wasn't good news. "Sorry, but there's on-one available, that are skilled enough to dispel a barrier put in place by a Magus Dominus."

Mentally, he added, "< Which means that they don't want to risk one of the few powerful mages on a rescue mission >"

"< Have you told them about the fire and the kids? >"

"< Yes to both, but the kids are not a problem. I scanned them and Magus Dominus Lartius placed them in a magical coma so strong that they're not even breathing, thus preventing them from getting the Disease. Lack of air will not bother them, and the compound here will protect them against the heat and fire. >"

"< Clever. If he hadn't gone insane and tried to kill us, I think I might have liked him >" I commented with a mental sigh. "< But right now, I wish that he hadn't been so skilled >"

"< Likewise >"

"So, what do we do now." Asked Laure Varro softly.

"We test and try the barriers." I answered. "With the limitations on them, there's usually some way around them that the creator didn't think of."

Activating an Ars Mentalis trick, I used telekinesis to lift one of the chairs inside the room and then carefully placed it back on ground. The barrier didn't stop Ars Mentalis. Not that I had expected it, but it was still good to be sure about it.

"< You have a plan? >" asked Varro, seeing the chair move.

"< Not one you're going to like >" I sent back. "< So let's try some other options first >"

"< Good idea >"

"I'll need to go check something." I said out loud and walked away from the door, while Varro asked a question.

Finding a few rats didn't take long and instead of trying to catch them, I used an Ars Mentalis trick to place them into a coma, allowing me to handle them without having to take special precautions. Then I walked back to Varro.

He lifted his eyebrows, when he saw the rats, but got the idea. "Going to test the barrier?"

"Yes." I looked at the two women. "Please move aside."

Holding it by the tail, I tried to teleport it inside the room, but as expected, nothing happened. Then I tried every other Ars Mentalis trick I knew of that could move something from one place to another, but no matter what I did, the rat stayed in my hand.

There was one simple test we haven't tried and with a flick of the wrist, I threw it at the barrier.

It went right through, landing inside the room halfway towards the chair.

"What!" Exclaimed Varro in total surprise. "That can't be right!"

"No, it can't." Agreed Sabia Lartius. "That shouldn't happen."

"But it did." Said Laura Varro drily.

"Throw it back." I suggested. "It might be a one-way limitation."

With a nod, she walked over to the rat, picked it up and threw it towards me.

Like the first time, it passed the barrier unhindered.

"Varro." I said slowly. "Do you have any spells, that can analyse that barrier."

He shook his head with a sigh. "No. Barriers are not part of my learnings."

Holding the rat by the neck, I cancelled the trick that had placed it into a coma and as soon as it woke up, I threw it towards the barrier again.

This time, it hit the barrier with a squeak before it hurriedly got to its feet and ran away.

"So," said Varro, still looking in the direction the rat had ran. "The barrier stops living creatures, but only if they're capable of thinking or moving."

"Well, that's one way of defining 'life'." Commented Sabia.

I nodded as I considered it for a moment and then asked the two women. "May I use an Ars Mentalis trick on you?"

"Sure!" Laura said, followed by a nod from Sabia Lartius.

"Good. If this works, you're get out, but you can't go back. Anything you want to take with you out of here?"

"I can think of a few things." Sabia said with a little smile.

"Good. Go pack a light bag. Then come back and sit in front of the barrier."

They nodded and walked into one of the other rooms.

"Are you going to place them in a coma?" asked Varro quietly.

"Yes. I don't know if it works on higher life-forms, but let's give it a try."

He nodded and we waited in silence, until the two women returned, each carrying a small bag.

"Can we sit here?" asked Laura and pointed at a place in front of the barrier, without being too close to it.

"That's fine." I answered and a moment later, they were sitting next to each other on the floor. "Please don't resist this."

They nodded and a heartbeat later, I used an Ars Mentalis attack, that sent both women into a coma, causing them to tilt over on the floor.

With a satisfied nod, I simply used telekinesis to take hold of the two women and tried to pull them out of the rom and into the hallway. Unfortunately, the barrier stopped them at the doorway.

"Well, that didn't work." I said with a sigh.

"Shit!" Said Varro. "What about the option you said I wouldn't like?"

"We kill them and drag them out. Then we revive them."

"Are you out of your flaming mind?" He almost shouted. "That's my family you're talking about."

"The barrier detects life." I answered calmly. "And after a person dies, there's some time where they can be revived without any damage to them."

As always, a calm voice of reason calmed him down somewhat. "And you can do that?"

"Yes. I've even done it before. Someone tried to poison Yang Jia some years ago and she died while I was busy removing the poison, but I restarted her heart and it worked out fine."

He was silent for a while, but then sighed. "I can't believe I'm saying this but do it. I can't think of any other way to get them out."

I nodded and went to work.

It wasn't a pleasant job, and I was immensely grateful that the two women were in a coma, since that would make it easier for me and painless for them.

Using the same Ars Mentalis trick, I had used in Alashiya to stop Paula Flavia Pulcher from casting spells, I simply choked them to death. Mostly because lack of air was the least damaging way of killing them and the less damage they had taken, the easier I could revive them.

Varro was monitoring them with a spell and when he said that they were dead, I pulled them through the barrier. This time there was no resistance, and I went to work immediately, using the same Vis power I had used to revive Jia, when she was dead from the poison attack.

Laura Varro's heart started beating on the first try and a moment later, she was breathing again, so I moved over to Sabia and gave her the same treatment.

First time there was no reaction, so just to be on the safe side, I used some of the few Ars Magica Healing spells I knew. The first to stop the body from deteriorating in any way, while I was working and the next to prevent her soul from leaving the body. Both spells would grant me some much-needed time.

Then I used the Vis Power to shock her again, but while the heart started to beat a few times, it stopped again.

"What's wrong?" Asked Varro, his voice thick with emotions.

"For some odd reason, the heart won't start." I said, as I did a quick examination of her body to see if there was any damage I had overlooked. There wasn't.

Think about her outburst from before, I connected with her mind and instead of just doing a superficial scan, I read her emotions, finding a soul-crushing despair of having lost her ability to use powers. It was so bad, that she didn't want to live, preferring death to living without power.

"Tits of the Goddesses." I cursed. "She doesn't want to live!"

"Suicidal?" asked Varro. It wasn't the first time we had encountered this and rescuing people who just killed themselves later really sucked.

"Fortunately, not." I said slowly. "But at some level, she knows she's dead and she will prefer to stay dead." I took a deep breath. "Now, please be quiet. I need to fix this."

He nodded and I reconnected with Sabia's dormant mind.

Messing with a person's mind is always dangerous. At least if you care enough about the person not to change anything important, like their personality. Carefully, tenderly even, I eased some of the despair away and built a desire to use skills instead of spells, where it was possible.

Next, I looked through her memory to find something she was willing to live for. Fortunately, that wasn't hard to find, as she loved her parents. However, before I used that, I needed to know if her parents were still alive, so I broke the contact and asked Varro about it.

"Only the mother." Said Varro with a grimace. "Her father was a healer and died at the start of the epidemic."

"That'll have to do." I said and went to work again, implanting the thought, that she had to live so she could see her mother again.

Then I waited a bit for the changes to take effect and tried the Vis-power again.

Same result. The heart beat a few times, but then stopped.

I clenched my jaw. "Stubborn woman!" Thinking it over, I cancelled the spell that kept her in coma. Now it would no longer be painless, but I needed a few seconds where she could hear me.

The next shock started her heart again and then I used my natural ability to project emotion and filled her mind with positive feelings before I poured all my frustration and mental power into a single command. "Breathe, Sabia"

Her chest moved a few times, but then stopped, almost as if she had willed it to stop.

An idea struck me and before it was too late, I reached into her mind and poured mental energy into her pleasure centre, giving her an orgasm.

That worked, as her body reacted without consulting the brain. She gasped as waves of pleasure ran through her body, causing her to breathe again.

With a feeling of satisfaction in my body, I added more power, watching her scream out an orgasm, as I absorbed the surprisingly large amount of Vis her orgasm had generated.

Still caught in the orgasmic feeling, she opened her eyes and looked at us with confusion and disbelief in her dark face. I sent her a smile. With her being completely awake, she could no longer overrule her body's instinct to live. Sabia closed her eyes again, still shaking all over, but a moment later she started to snore.

"What did you do?" asked Varro curious, as he looked at the sleeping woman.

Taking a deep breath of relief, I looked at him. "Well, she wouldn't wake up, so I gave her an orgasm." He looked at me open-mouthed, so I continued. "In hindsight, pain would have worked just as well, but most people prefer pleasure to pain. What does your spell say?"

He shook his head in confusion, but then answered. "She's alive and have no damage."

"There you go." I said satisfied. "A few hours and they'll both be fine again."

Varro shook his head again. "I don't even want to know how you thought of that." He paused and I could almost see him getting ready to take on the next problem. "Anyway, when they're ready, we need to get out of here."

"Don't forget the forty servants." I nodded in the direction of their quarters. "Not to mention, that we'll need to check out the entire compound to see if there's more people here. We'll need a gate from here to the city wall." I thought about it for a moment. "Do you think there're other places in the city where people can hide?"

"No." He said with certainty in his voice. "The Magi have scanned the city for survivors and there was none. The Mage Quarter here was the only place their spells couldn't get through the wards." He paused, but the continued. "So, will you wait here, while I go find a space to place the gate?"

I snorted. "Varro. I know you can't feel it right now, but you're still missing an arm. I'll go and then I'll contact you."

His eyes widen a bit and then he shook his head as he looked down at where his arm used to be. "Oh yeah. Sorry about that."

With a chuckle, I warped the scarf around me head again and left the building.

The dream blurred, flickered and disappeared as the darkness came back.