“Pure earth magic has a different feel than magic we wield through our mage stones,” Ignatius replied. “Unless the shaman abandoned centuries of tradition, they couldn’t have been responsible for what the elves felt. The Conclave is sending teams of mages to investigate other sites we’ve identified.”
“Is it possible to use one or more of these to destroy the Great Ward?” Elspeth asked. “The stone circles were massive and contained a lot of magic.”
“Under normal circumstances, no,” Darius said. “Even at the height of their power, stone circles didn’t have the strength to destroy the Great Ward. Blackstone, however, has accumulated an enormous amount of dark magic. If he adds that to a medicine wheel, it would have greater strength than any stone circle.”
“Question.” Owen raised his hand but quickly pulled it down. “If the wheels were created using earth magic, how could they be used to destroy something the earth is supporting?”
“In theory, they cannot,” Eldwin said. “If, however, one could distort the magic in the wheels, something we don’t know can be done, it is possible to create an event strong enough to bring down the Great Ward. This is especially true if it doesn’t directly attack the Ward.”
Most things were possible with the right spell or tool. “Given Blackstone has prepared for this moment for centuries, I’d expect he’s found a way.”
“How?” Lysandor asked. “Earth magic will fight against corruption.”
“It’s as Eldwin suggested—creating a pool of energy isn’t itself evil,” Owen said. “It’s like building a dam to store water. If you attached a hose at the base, you’d be able to generate destructive pressure.”
“Or if you destroy the dam, the energy released would be catastrophic,” Hro added.
Except that wasn’t the purpose of a stone circle or medicine wheel. “What if that’s not his plan?” I looked at Elspeth. “What is the purpose of the circles?”
“To banish demons and guard the land,” she answered.
“Or to trap them and hold them until they could be expelled.” I countered.
“Why would you trap a demon when you could kill it or send it back?” Conall asked.
“Because if you have one inside the circle, the energy generated from its death would be massive,” Jan caught on to where I was going. “Could they summon a demon inside a medicine wheel?”
“Yes,” Darius said. “During the Demon War, some mages would use the stone circles to summon powerful demons. Once they had enslaved what they’d called, they’d send it out to kill lesser demons.”
“That sounds stupid,” Lysandor said.
“Oh, it was,” Darius said, shaking his head. “It worked a few times, but once the demons caught on to the scheme, they adapted and quickly killed whoever had summoned them the moment they arrived.”
Blackstone’s family had been infamous for summoning demons, so some of those stupid mages had been his ancestors. He’d also surely known this history when making his plans. “Blackstone’s already raised two powerful demons who died minutes after they were summoned. His targets will believe he plans to kill them and prepare for that possibility.”
“Which means he’ll plan something else,” Avie said. “The question is what?”
Different thoughts zipped around my head, each as likely as the others. Bart’s fight with the demon prince had been a close call. There was no way Blackstone would’ve based all his plans on Bart winning. The only way his actions made sense was if he won either way. “Heads I win, tails you lose,” I whispered.
“What was that?” Eldwin asked.
“I’ve been bothered since Bart’s fight on campus,” I said. “A meticulous planner such as Blackstone would’ve never left his plans to rely on an outcome so much in doubt. Yes, Bart is powerful, but this was a demon prince. The only way his actions make sense is if he didn’t care if Bart won or lost.”
“That’s logical,” Avie said. “What do we make of it?”
I had no good answer. Blackstone had a specific plan he was following, and we were flailing trying to guess his next moves. I looked at Darius and Ignatius. “If Bart had lost, could Blackstone have used that outcome to destroy the Great Ward or destroy the mage world?”
Neither responded right away, and I assumed they were discussing their answer. After about thirty seconds, Darius drew a deep breath. “That’s a complicated answer. The short answer is no, he couldn’t. Not directly at least. Even if the demon had killed Bart, he wouldn’t have been able to extinguish the Great Ward. The harder part is figuring out what glyphs Blackstone used to summon the Demon Prince.”
“We’ve studied them extensively, and they weren’t standard summoning markings,” Ignatius added. “Most likely the summoning circle was built to contain the demon so Blackstone could kill it for its power. The containment elements in the glyph were far more complex than needed for a simple summoning.”
“Only a fool would try to bend a Demon Prince to his will,” Eldwin interjected. “Surely that wasn’t his intention.”
“Correct, which rules out trying to use the demon to kill as many of us as possible,” Darius said. “The entire episode was likely designed to kill Bart, who Blackstone rightly sees as a powerful foe. As a secondary purpose, Blackstone probably intended this as a way to harvest magical power. The death of a being as powerful as a Demon Prince releases extraordinary energy.”
“Bart killing the demon prince reduced the amount of magic Blackstone collected,” Ignatius added. “He got a considerable amount, but not nearly as much as if he’d killed the demon instead of Bart.”
“He also amassed a lot more across other flashpoints,” Owen said. “He must intend to use it at one of the medicine wheels.”
