What if … she only needed to get rid of one wizard?
What if Fallem was part of the syndicate … and Imbiad was not?
That would explain Yu’s twisted emotions — why he despised one and clung to the other. Fallem could have dragged Imbiad into his something else plan under false pretenses, dangling the brother’s rescue as bait. And once Imbiad’s ice magic served its purpose, the syndicate would get rid of him too.
And the rest of the party? If there were others who were not syndicate – those who would not slip away to pursue their own personal journeys, those who would not simply mind their own business, like Yu very much failed to do just now – then they could surely be eliminated as well. It was too easy to make people disappear in the Albweiss. Even a powerful wizard like Imbiad. The witch encounter had proven that.
A door creaked. Estingar stepped into the common room. The travellers remained in the walkway.
“Was she powerful? The witch, I mean?” Yu blurted. “Was it her who stopped your magic?” It was blunt. Obvious. Too fast.
Imbiad did not reply. The pause stretched.
It made Yu hurry even more. “I mean, sorry, I’m just trying to understand what happened. It was the first time that I ever saw a witch up close. It was all … very fast. A lot. For me.”
“She defended herself,” Imbiad said at last. His voice carried a bitterness so pronounced it was like tasting salt in clear water. “But the one who deflected my ice magic was the shaman.”
Yu had feared as much, but he needed to hear it. “How?”
“A deflection pulse.”
“What’s that?”
Imbiad’s gaze dropped to him. And there it was, so sudden and unexpected, but just as obvious as with Fallem; a wizard’s disdain for a wizard bastard.
“I don’t know magic.” Yu said it straight out, though his fear of the shaman did well to suppress his anger. And then, because he was acutely aware that Tirran’s hearing might be sharper than his distance suggested, Yu added, “Magic like that, I mean.”
Imbiad should know. He should know that Yu could not do any magic whatsoever.
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