ONE

I ran the entire length of the corridor, the men were catching up, I was about to come to a dead end and my suit was coated with sweat. I wiped sweat from my head and behind me something exploded. I fell into a forward roll and raised my staff in defence. I was backing away from the two men who had pursued me. Both of them were clearly afraid of me, they knew exactly who I was. The influence I had gained over the years was clear. They knew who they were dealing with.  Instead of pulling out their swords, they pulled out their wands of confinement.

I held my staff before me, clutching it as if it were a walking cane. My energy was low, I felt like I was about to pass out. I felt a pain in my stomach; blood began to stain the shirt of my suit. “Listen, Wizard Mana, we’ve got to detain you. You can present all evidence at the trial.” I shook my head and stepped backwards. They raised their wands with caution. I lifted my staff towards the ceiling and shouted “Disbour!”  The spell charged from the magic within my soul through the wooden staff and sent a rush of pure energy to the ceiling above the two guards.

I didn’t want any harm to come to the guards; after all, they were only doing their job. The energy spell had destroyed the ceiling and a pile of rock and plaster separated the three of us. I turned around, I couldn’t help limping ,my foot was bleeding liberally, of I didn’t seek medical attention I was going to bleed out. Wizard or not, magic can’t stop death. I rubbed the sweat out of my eyes and turned to look behind me. The dead end held hope, which isn’t exactly common for a dead end. A stained glass window which measured about ten foot loomed above my six foot self.

I span around and smashed the window with the heavy tip of my staff. The window shattered outwards and the glass vaulted to the bottom of the tower. I reached towards a symbol on my belt and pressed it. The symbol of hope resided on my belt. The symbol was a miniature sun, made from silver. This belt and symbol had become the symbol of hope for me over the years, I couldn’t even begin to explain to you how many times it had saved my worthless ass.