Book One – Chapter 13

Parallel to observing the orks, Midnight’s focus lingered on the lizardkind’s convulsing form. She had found that her darkness could penetrate the seal encapsulating the golem, much like she had bypassed the ice cavern’s witch runes. The orichs’ magic, it seemed, could not bind her. Unfettered, she reached beyond the stone lattice and observed the beast-wizard.

Confined within the immobilised golem’s embrace, he was succumbing to the dual strain of poison and spell. His essence was almost entirely absorbed by the golem, which had claimed and exhausted this essence just as Midnight claimed and used darkness. Even as the golem remained frozen in place, its immobility offered no reprieve for the wizard. His essence fed the construct even in its inert state.

Midnight was acutely aware that he was close to collapse, and yet, a strange hesitation held her. Her mind was a tangled web of instincts and desires, each thread pulling her in a different direction, vying for dominance in the scant moments she had to act. Should she intervene? Orks were the common enemy among all Midland peoples, wizards included. Yet, this wizard was an unknown individual, possibly even a follower of the academy and thus an adversary of Yves. If she chose not to act, why had she approached in the first place? Her presence demanded justification. Two conflicting reasons emerged, one rooted in cold observation, the other in a darker impulse.

The first reason was straightforward: the death of a wizard was a rare phenomenon. Midnight had witnessed wizards perish before, during her travels with Yves, and even earlier, at Emery Thurm. Those deaths, however, had usually been lost amid the chaos of battle, leaving little time for reflection. In more subdued circumstances, respect had often dictated her withdrawal, leaving the wizard’s final moments to the his familiar.

But here, no such respect restrained her. The avian beast was unconscious, even closer to death than the beast-wizard himself. The wizard lay bare, alone in his struggle — No. Midnight realised that he was aware of her. The moment she had condensed her presence, drawing her perception closer to him, the encroaching light had begun to consume her darkness. It had been but the faintest of flickers, but within the confines of the golem, she believed the wizard had noticed.