Far to the southwest of Suld, far beyond Wikuna, a sudden bar of shining light suddenly erupted beyond the horizon. It was only visible to the fish and whales in the sea, shining with a radiance that made the sun seem dim, sending great light out over the trackless ocean. It flared thus for a long moment, and then faded from sight. But the sudden release of magical power exhibited by that display rushed away from its source like ripples over a pond, ripples through the air, ripples through the Weave. Travelling away from it.
Tarrin sighed, feeling alot of his strength wane as the light of the amulet and the icon both waned away. He understood what had happened. He had called upon the Goddess for help, and she had directly provided it by banishing the three Demons back to the Abyss. He had used the spell of Banishment.
Finally, the Goddess said to him radiantly. You have finally accepted what you are, my kitten. I'm glad I didn't have to hit you over the head with it.
"I, I never really considered it," he admitted contritely, blushing and abashed. "Are there any Demons left?"
No. Those were the last three you need worry about. The Wizards and the Cambisi are currently dispatching a rather troublesome Nalfeshnee, that's why they couldn't aid you here.
"What's happening out there?"
It is house to house fighting, she replied. The Wizards managed to break the Ward, and the Goblinoids have rejoined the battle. But they paid for it in blood, for Jenna allowed them to break the Ward and struck them down while they were busy undoing her work. The Goblinoids are part of the battle, but the Sorcerers can now fight them without countering the enemy Wizards.
Tarrin considered that. That put the advantage firmly with them. The Goblinoids wouldn't last long without Wizards there to force the Sorcerers to concentrate their attention on them. Sorcerers couldn't weave spells and actively disrupt Wizard magic at the same time, it was one or the other. Jenna could do it, as could he, but she had been facing a vastly greater number of Wizards, it probably took all her attention to counter them all, and consumed all the resources of her Circle to do it.
The Centaurs and Selani have the invasion contained in a fifty-block section around the east gate, she added.
"What about Kravon, and that Mary-lith?"
Marilith, she corrected. They survive. The Marilith is commanding the assault. Kravon is one of the few magicians left alive on their side. Kitten, you aren't needed here any longer. Now that you have accepted my power, I can use you to protect my icon myself. All I needed was a true Priest, and now I have you.
Tarrin flushed slightly. He was still a little embarassed that it had taken him so long to realize that. He was about to say something else, but something of tremendous power flowed through the Weave, an echo of some immense use of magical power. It chilled his blood, froze his soul, to feel something so powerful. And it was but an echo of the true power that had spawned it! He stopped dead in his tracks, and turned impulsively in the direction from which it came.
Wherever the wave of magical power passed, any who had the aptitude to use magic, be him Priest, Wizard, Sorcerer, or Druid, felt its passing, felt it in the marrow of his or her bones. And as one, they all turned in the direction from which it came, unsure what it was, but knowing it was something of great power. Even the Sorcerers and Wizards locked in combat at Suld stopped what they were doing and turned southwest, turned towards the origin of that power. Some of those that knew what it was rejoiced. Others that knew it for what it was were consumed with fear or dread, knowing what it meant.
It was the end. Or, possibly, the beginning.
"What was that?" the four awake beings in the courtyard asked simultaneously, Jasana to her mother, Jesmind to Miranda, Miranda to herself, and Tarrin to the Goddess. As one, all four of them had turned in the direction from which it had come.
That, my kitten, is what I hoped would not come so soon, the Goddess sighed. Tarrin, that was the Firestaff.
Tarrin paled, his ears rising up to point towards the statue.
It has revealed itself to the world. Now, my kitten, now things get very serious.
Tarrin was stunned. No wonder it could make someone a god! That power had been incredible! And it had revealed itself! He realized that from that wave, he could tell the general direction in which it rested. That meant that any magician with a ship was going to be sailing off into the western seas, searching for the location of the Firestaff. But where they would flounder around, Tarrin and his friends knew the way there. It meant that they were going to be running into quite a few challengers for the Firestaff out on the open ocean.
"Papa, what was that?" Jasana asked as she and Jesmind approached him warily, ready to sprint back to the corner if another Demon appeared.
"It's safe now," he told them, wearily. "Miranda, could you help us carry Jula back to the Tower?"
"Is it safe?" Miranda asked.
"I was told it was," he replied.
"Then come over here. I'm not carrying her over to you, you know."
"What just happened, my mate?" Jesmind asked. "I felt… something. Just on the edge of my senses."
Tarrin remembered that Jesmind had minor Druidic ability. It was enough for her to sense that. He padded over to Jula with them following him. "The Goddess showed me how to banish the Demons," he explained. "That's why they disappeared, and the Goddess told me they were the last ones. That magic you felt was the Firestaff," he said grimly. "It's revealed itself, just like the Goddess said it would."
"What does that mean?" she asked fearfully.
"It means, love, that now we'll have to race everyone to get there first." He reached down and picked up Jula, his bond-daughter, and looked down at her. She really was a pretty young thing, her wary expression softened by her slumber. His mind was racing, but he kept enough about himself to assign priorities. If he didn't have to stay in the courtyard anymore, he could go help. But he couldn't leave the Tower grounds, so if he saw any more fighting, it would have to come to him. Before he worried about that, though, he wanted to get Jula into a warm bed, and make sense out of the two major events that had just happened.
Why couldn't these things ever come at him one at a time, when he had time to digest them before the next big shock came along?
"You realize that there was a direction in that," Miranda told him. "We're going to have company."
"You felt it too?" he asked, then he remembered what Miranda was.
"Who wouldn't have felt that?" she asked. "I thought my blood was going to freeze."
He didn't answer that. If he told her that it came through the Weave, and she shouldn't have felt it, it would leave open all sorts of questions he wasn't quite sure for which she was prepared to accept the answers. "I know," he answered her original question. "But they won't know exactly where they're going, only a general sense of it."
"That's still enough to make it a crowded journey."
"It's a big ocean, Miranda."
"Not that big."
"I can't argue with that. I'm sure they'll find some way to get in our way."
Things weren't quite so peaceful for Allia, Keritanima, Jenna, and their group of Sorcerers. They had paused at that strange event, but were again locked in battle. The ki'zadun had established quite a foothold in the city, and had pushed most of the defenders off the walls around the east gate. Savage fighting was taking place on the walls, accented by the spells of the minor Wizards not important enough to join in the main battle of magic that had been won by the Sorcerers earlier. These were war mages, assigned to the front lines to use magic to support their troops directly. It was against these that the Sorcerers now battled, breaking the large Circle and forming a large number of smaller Circles among the katzh-dashi that were defending the walls, to spread their magic around for best effect. The Wizards could help their Goblinoid troops to overwhelm the Sulasians, but they found themselves vulnerable when a company of Wikuni musketeers opened fire on them, or the Were-kin hidden among the Wikuni soldiers made its presence known by tearing through the Goblinoids struggling to take the walls and rob the defenders of the high positions to kill the invaders with missle weapons.