Interruption Eight
Present Day
The Former Lord of Grimnight’s Evil Lair
Confronting a Villain
The cloaked figure tilted his head to the side. “What is my evil plot, exactly?” He didn’t bother with the bluster and bravado of an evil mage. Instead, he spoke in a calm tone that was almost more irritating.
The Good Wizard—it was wonderful to shed the false name and use his own title again—waggled his finger disapprovingly. “Don’t play coy with me, young man! I know everything! You intend to destroy my Kingdom Defense Spell and conquer the Desolated Lands!”
“That was my master’s plot, not mine. The Desolated Lands can rot in their little bubble for all I care.”
“Perhaps I do not know the details of your plot, but I know what you have done!” The Good Wizard patted down his sleeves and pockets, hoping Cyril could not steal what he didn’t know about.
“Created an unregulated, unstable pocket dimension! Kidnapped thousands of citizens to become your unwitting puppets in this sham of a world! Altered time in two dimensions! Altered the fates of royalty when you had no right!”
“And only Good Wizards are allowed to do that?”
“Exactly! I mean, no! When we do it, it is only ever to serve the greater good!” His hand finally closed around the second imprisonment crystal he’d brought, but he didn’t reveal it yet.
Cyril didn’t know about this one and he couldn’t risk the mage’s evil instincts interfering with the plan.
“Now, will you come quietly, or will you force my hand?”
The apprentice was quiet for a long time, as if contemplating The Good Wizard’s offer, before asking, “What will happen to my dimension if I go with you?”
‘If’ he said, like he had any power to prevent it.
It was not a matter of if The Good Wizard captured him—good always triumphed over evil—only a matter of how many resources The Good Wizard would waste to succeed.
Still, the apprentice had not attacked yet, so The Good Wizard humored him.
“Your pocket dimension will be dissolved. The people inside it will be returned to their homes. The timeline will need be reset to avoid chaos—”
“How far back?”
The crystal almost slipped from the Good Wizard’s hand in his surprise. “What?”
“How far back will you reset the timeline? To before Brutus Arnulf ever sent his son to the Desolated Lands?” A note of hope sang beneath the apprentice’s calm, measured tone.
Resetting time more than a few months or a few years was tricky business. Setting it back a decade … the ripple effects alone would feed chaos for generations to come. That was the kind of mess the council wanted to avoid. “To the moment of your pocket dimension’s creation.”
“You’d allow Treasure to die.”
Francesca gasped. “What does he mean?”
The Good Wizard shot her a look, urging her to silence. They did not need her outrage added into the mix. “Unfortunately, yes. He sacrificed himself to break a great and terrible curse upon the land, an honorable death—”
“Honorable?” the apprentice’s calm shattered, and he stormed toward The Good Wizard. “You would use his death to fuel your precious defense spell, and you’d call that honorable?”
The Good Wizard scrambled backwards and fumbled the crystal out of his sleeve. “Better to die good than to live a life of evil!” He stopped and thrust the crystal out in front of him. “Enough! You will come with me and face judgment for your crimes!”
This crystal was different from the one holding Brutus Arnulf. It was so black that it absorbed all light. The magic inside of the crystal awoke slowly, unfurling into long tendrils, reaching for its prey and latching on to the most powerful evil in the room.
The apprentice fell to the ground, an invisible lasso wrapped around his ankle pulling him toward the crystal prison. The two guards nearest him lunged forward and grabbed each of his arms, struggling against the magical force.
As the magic within the crystal spread, Cyril’s feet also began to slide toward it. “What are you doing?” he shouted in outrage. “You’re not supposed to arrest me!”
Lucinda tightened her hold on her husband’s arm. “Good Wizard!” she snarled in warning. “If you try to take him from me, you will not leave this dimension alive!”
“I’ll give him back later,” the Good Wizard snapped, focusing more of his energy on the crystal, until both guards were caught in its gravitational pull. The other two guards threw themselves at the pile. No matter how much weight they added to it, they all steadily moved forward.
The prison would be quite crowded by the time he finished.
A pink whirl flashed in The Good Wizard’s peripheral vision, and suddenly the crystal was snatched right out of his hand. The moment he no longer touched it, the magic stopped pulling everyone forward.
The Good Wizard whipped his head around searching for the minion who had interfered. Once he finally spotted the thief, he gaped in shock.
Queen Francesca held the prison crystal aloft. “What did he mean? That Treasure would die?”
“Your Majesty,” The Good Wizard began, holding his hands up placatingly. “Please, put the crystal down.” It was the only one he had left.
She raised the crystal higher instead. “Tell me!”
The Good Wizard gritted his teeth. “Treasure died during the quest. It happens, sometimes. You were all warned of the danger!”
“You can reset time,” she said. “Why can’t you save him?”
“Because it is not a good enough reason to interfere!” He crooked his fingers, trying to coax the crystal to come to him.
When it started to budge, the queen grabbed it with both hands and tucked it against her side.
“The more we interfere with the timeline, the more unstable it becomes. The only way to guarantee it heals correctly is to allow things to move forward without trying to control the results!”
“He is my nephew!” she shouted, tears forming in her eyes. “My brother’s son. My daughter’s friend. You can’t let him die.”
“People die all the time! We cannot save everyone! Treasure Banes is one person; he doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things!”
“He matters to me.” Menace infused the apprentice’s simple statement.
The Good Wizard had been so focused on the crystal he’d lost sight of the real threat. He spun back around to face the apprentice.
In the scuffle, the apprentice’s hood had slipped off. White hair framed a delicate face twisted with hate. Eyes blackened with evil locked on to The Good Wizard.
“Queen Francesca, the crystal!” The Good Wizard frantically waved at her, hoping she would see reason. “Give it to me!”
The apprentice sliced his hand diagonally through the air.
A chill wind blew against The Good Wizard’s back, coming from another dimension. “Francesca!” he shouted, his voice rising an octave in his desperation.
The queen looked him in the eye, then raised the crystal for an overhand throw. The Good Wizard opened his hands to catch it.
The queen smashed the crystal against the ground, shattering it into a thousand sparkling pieces.
“No!” The Good Wizard lunged for the largest shard, but an evil wind rose around him, and it was his turn to be pulled back by an inexorable force. “Think of the timeline!” he screamed as he tried to swim against the magical current. “You can’t do this!”
The apprentice offered him a malicious smile. “I’m evil. I can do whatever I want.” Then he shoved The Good Wizard through the rip in space.
The Good Wizard tumbled across the floor, stopping just short of being impaled by a jagged root.
The scent of old blood filled the air, remnants of a battle.
He pushed himself to his feet and looked through the hole.
On the other side, he could still see the apprentice, the minions, and the people who were supposed to help him but had betrayed him in the end.
The rip slowly began to seal itself.
The Good Wizard scrabbled forward, intent on reaching it before he was shut out of the bubble again. He was less than an inch away when it closed for good, trapping him on the other side.
The Good Wizard had failed on his very first quest. His only hope now was that the royal champions could defeat the evil when he couldn’t.