Stavi launched himself at Kreg, more as a way of forcing the man to take a step back than actually thinking he would grasp him. The slaver backed up, just as Stavi expected, but what surprised them both is that Kola shot forward swiftly, only to kneel down behind Kreg as the man was trying to retreat. Kreg was moving so fast that he tripped over the boy, and tumbled helplessly onto his back.

Stavi launched himself forward again, and then he was on Kreg like stink on a hog. Rather than trying to do anything fancy, or use a word of power, he just started smashing his fists into the slaver’s skull. A second later he had to move out of the way as Kola started bringing a rock down, over and over, onto Kreg’s skull until there was a sickening crunch.

It’s just that easy to kill one of the Magi, if they are prepared, if you are, if you don’t care about the risks. I need to not forget that having magic doesn’t make you a god, not for them, and definitely not for me. Not yet, anyway…

Both of the young men were breathing heavily, both from exertion and the shock of what had just occurred. Kola was looking down at the blood-stained stone in his hand as if he couldn’t believe what he had done. Stavi was familiar with the feelings going through his mind.

At least he was killing his captor, and not his teacher.

“Good job!” He pitched his voice to be loud enough to interrupt the boy’s train of thought, and when Kola looked up at him he showed the boy a big smile and a thumbsup.

He was trying to think of what to do next, after their plan succeeded beyond any possible expectations, when he noticed the absolute mass of vitality in the air around the body. It so dwarfed the amount that had come out of his teacher that it had almost blinded him to its presence. It was dissipating very fast, though, and he knew he had to act immediately!

Stavi quickly got into a meditative pose, and started performing his mudras. He noticed that the vitality seemed to be attracted to his core, disappearing less swiftly once he started his ritual. He didn’t have time to make a Hagamemnon’s Square, but it was now leaving even slower than when he had one. He could see Kola was looking at him strangely, but there was no time to explain.

The vitality once more became a serpent swimming through the air, but it was clear the young boy couldn’t see it at all. Once its shape had coalesced enough, Stavi opened his mouth and allowed it to swim down his throat and into the space around his core. There was sharp, tearing pain as he tried to stuff 20 gallons of water into a 10 gallon sack, and he could feel the ‘thickness’ increasing and increasing.

It was happening too slowly though, and he worried that something might actually burst. He had no idea what to do, he just kept chanting his mantras and performing his mudras, although he had closed his eyes to try and ignore the incredible pain he was in. Just when it seemed like it might be too much, he could feel a layer of vital energy coating his core. It was like lacquer, in that it was liquid but it hardened immediately as a new outer layer of the core, increasing its size. He felt a moment of peace as the size of the pool around his core increased, but then the pain kicked right back in.

Oh man, this guy’s vitality is way too much for to take in or hold onto, I have a feeling that if I try to advance again I will probably die. This is too much, just let it go?

His mind raced, this was once again a situation the old witch had not prepared him for. Opening his eyes, he accidentally locked gazes with the young man sitting beside him. A thought bloomed in his mind, crazy but maybe not too crazy?

“Kola, how would you like to never be weak again?” Stavi felt stupid as soon as he asked the question. What slave wanted to return to slavery, once freed?

“Is this…about what you are doing?” The boy’s voice was curious, but scared.

“Yes, exactly. We’re going to leave here and be free, but you might fall into bad hands again. I was thinking…”

“No fuckin’ way do I want that to happen…” Kola was vehement in his denial that this might be a possibility.

“Well, you have seen me doing my magic. It’s a…special magic.” Stavi had not given much thought on how to explain his powers to anyone else, yet.

“It looks different…”

“Yes, different, and…special.” Stavi was still wracking his brains to think of ways to explain how it worked, without revealing his secrets.

“Special how?”

Damn…

“Uh, special in that I can use it to make you more powerful? If you are prepared to face the pain, I mean.”

“Pain is fleeting, freedom is forever!”

“Well, I have sapped his prosperity, and now I can share some of it with you. Are you ready?”

“Prosperity? You mena like…”

“Shuttup, you ready? I have to be quick if we’re doing this.”

There was a pregnant pause, but finally the boy nodded his acquiescence.

Stavi opened his mouth, and breathed out heavily as he felt a smaller serpent wriggle up his throat and out his mouth. This was uncomfortable, but it would have been terrifying if it wasn’t his own energy, refined by him. Somehow that made it better.

He closed his eyes, relying on his senses, as he navigated the snake down the boy’s throat and into his stomach. He could feel Kola thrashing around, but it made no difference to a structure made completely from ephemeral power.

The snake curled into a smaller and smaller shape until it was a ball-shaped core in Kola’s abdomen, and Stavi could feel a small amount of energy pooling around it before starting to spread out through the boy’s body. He opened his eyes to see Kola unconscious, and a greyish film of filth rapidly forming on his skin.

Ahh that seems familiar, I wonder if…

Darkness.