“What the—?” Dreya began, unsure how to react to the flurry of rose petals fluttering around her in the breeze. Given the way druid magic worked, it was entirely conceivable that this might be some new, inventive form of attack, although Dreya couldn’t imagine what offensive use rose petals could have.
“Well, I thought our relationship was going so well,” Cat explained, “we could skip right to the wedding.” Then with a mock hurt look, she asked, “I didn’t misread the situation, did I?”
This time Dreya’s smile was fuller and lasted longer. “I think it’s a bit too soon, that’s all. I haven’t accepted your proposal yet.”
“Ah, but you’re going to. You’re almost there, I can tell!”
“You’re very sure of yourself,” Dreya said, putting on her very best frown.
“Aww, don’t be like that – at least let me blow you a kiss!”
The wind picked up, suddenly, forcing Dreya back towards her tower steps. Cat had noticed the rain had left a pool of water at the bottom, which gave her an idea of how to get Dreya to do something she’d planned from the beginning. Unfortunately, she hadn’t pushed Dreya quite far enough. Doing the same thing twice would make Dreya suspicious. She needed one more roll of the dice. It was highly dangerous, but it was the only way.
“How was that for you?” Cat quipped, trying to use their verbal sparring to manipulate Dreya.
“Well, I must admit, I was very moved, but you’re still no nearer getting inside my tower.”
“Oh, I’m closer than you realise,” Cat retorted, “and if you want to stop me, you’ll have to stop playing and fight me properly. “Come on,” she demanded, “you didn't fight Ulvarius with these tricks!”
“No, I used blood magic.”
“But that's unstable!” Cat mock gasped.
“It’s perfectly stable. It just needs control.”
“Yes, I’ve heard you like to be in control, so control me. If you can. Come on, Dreya, turn up the power all the way: show me what you can really do. Show me your famous blood magic. I’m not going to believe you can really do it unless you show me.”
“Don't try to goad me – it won't work.”
Cat knew that. Dreya’s refusal was part of the plan. “Not trying to. I know what you can do. Aren't you curious to know what I can do? Alright, forget blood magic. Best conventional spell. In fact, tell you what, you can blast me with your deadly magical energy beam.”
“You know about that?” Dreya wondered. “Oh, of course, I used it to defend Xarnas,” she realised. “You can’t really want me to do that.”
“Yes, I do,” Cat insisted, “and I'll fight you with…let’s see…” she made a show of checking what spell components she still had left, “…a handful of sand.”
“You'll die.”
“What do you care?”
“I don't. It's just a shame to end the fun so soon.”
Cat pounced on the victory. “Ha! I got you to admit you're having fun!”
Dreya actually winced, conceding the point.
“But seriously,” Cat continued, “quite a few wizards will thank you. I've become something of a thorn in their side.”
“Like old Renjaf,” Dreya said.
It was Cat’s turn to be surprised.
“You're not the only one who does their homework,” Dreya told her.
“Renjaf will probably send you flowers and have my friend Jacob deliver them,” Cat said, recovering quickly. “You can say hi to him for me. Anyway, are we doing this or not?” As she was speaking, she slowly, casually, moved towards the optimum position that she had in her mind.
“It's your funeral. Any special requests for that, by the way?”
“Just bury me here in your garden if you don’t mind. I like what you've done with the place.”
“Thanks. It’s certainly a big improvement on the Black Tower's previous owner's taste. Tell you what: I'll cut down those roses you grew around my door and put them on your grave.”
“Sounds nice.”
“Well, it’s been a whirlwind romance, Cat,” Dreya considered. “I only just met you, and yet we’ve dated, you’ve proposed, we’ve got married, and now I have to plan your funeral.”
“Ours is a tragic love,” Catriona agreed, solemnly, coming to a natural, gentle halt so that she could draw an exact straight line between herself, Dreya and the door to the Black Tower. She wanted the sorceress up those steps. Now in position, she grew the plants around her to grip her tightly in place no matter what Dreya threw at her.
“OK, then,” Dreya said. “Ready?”
“Ready,” Cat confirmed, fist closed tightly around her sand so it couldn’t trickle out.
Without further warning, Dreya built up her power and shot out her energy beam. Cat threw her handful of sand into the air and fused it, turning it instantly into Nature’s Mirror, reflecting the energy right back. Dreya shielded as Cat knew she would, but the force of the blast sent her recoiling backwards to sprawl on the steps of her Tower.
Cat silently celebrated. She’d got Dreya the Dark exactly where she wanted her.
Dreya was literally and figuratively stunned. Picking herself up, she demanded to know how Cat had done that.
Cat explained, “Druid magic is the opposite of wizard magic, in a way. I take the power you use, change it, recycle it and send it back. So, logically, if you think about it…”
“…the right kind of druid magic shield can reflect my wizard magic,” Dreya concluded. “Excellent.” Then with a dangerous gleam in her eyes, she suggested, “Shall we see if it works just as well against blood magic?”
Cat was indignant. “If you're determined to be Miss Serious Face again, I’m going to start getting all frosty, too!”
The pool of water froze at the base of the steps and grew into an ice wall, keeping Dreya trapped on her steps, unable to set foot in her garden, cut off from her black roses.
“Oh, I see what you’re doing,” Dreya said. “Nice move. Thing is, though, I don’t need my black roses for blood magic – not when you’ve provided roses of your own.”
She reached out to prick a finger on the roses around the door, but the rosebush reached out to grab her instead, immobilising her without breaking the skin so as not to give her access to the kind of magic she was trying to unleash. Dreya was in obvious pain.
“My arrows were fashioned from the same wood as those roses,” Catriona explained, “and I had them blessed by a White cleric friend of mine who has a particular affinity for nature. Quite painful for a Dark wizard, I imagine.”
She grabbed her Crystal Mage Staff out of her pocket dimension – the better to make an imposing impression as she walked close, just behind her ice wall.
“You see, there’s a drawback to wizard magic. You need to use your hands to inscribe the language of magic in the air. You can't do magic if you can't move. Now, I’m not sure about blood magic, but I figure if you’re immobilised, you can’t prick yourself, so you can’t access that power!”
Dreya’s smile was chilling, and suddenly Cat wasn’t quite so smug. Her mind raced, frantically, trying to see if there was something she’d overlooked. If there was, she couldn’t see it.
“If you were dealing with any other wizard, you'd be right,” Dreya conceded. “But this is me. Do you really think I'd let this stop me? Here’s a little thing I’ve been working on…”
She focussed her gaze on Cat through the clear ice and spoke but one word.
“STUN.”
Cat found herself completely unable to move. A new anti-magic field formed around her, skin-tight and completely encasing her from the top of her head to the soles of her feet. Dreya wasn’t one to make the same mistake twice.
Dreya moved her penetrating gaze to the roses trapping her.
“BREAK.”
The wood and green stems snapped, allowing Dreya to step clear.
“SHATTER,” she told the ice wall, and it blew apart into a million fragments.
Cat was grateful that Dreya’s stun magic allowed her to close her eyes against any incoming ice shards. She still had her eyes shut tight as she felt Dreya’s breath on her face.
“SQUEEZE,” came Dreya's voice, and at her command, a force of magic took hold of Cat in a vice-like grip.
Her eyes flew open in genuine fear and panic.
“Shapeshift into something smaller, and I squeeze tighter,” Dreya warned her. “Finally out of tricks, druid? Feel free to nod your head.”
Cat thought hard but had to admit defeat. She nodded.
Still not releasing her, Dreya turned her attention to Catriona’s Crystal Mage Staff. “Interesting staff you've got there. It seems to be giving off higher planar energy as well as a very mixed-up magic signature, like druid, wizard and cleric magic all squeezed together like, well, like you are at the moment,” she taunted, like a spider savouring her power and control over the annoying insect snared in her web. “Mind if I take a closer look?” Dreya asked. “Oh, that’s right, you don’t have a choice, do you?”
Higher planar energy was the power of the shadow warriors. The power Daelen StormTiger wielded. If ever she was going to take him on as she planned, she would need that power. She had begun experimenting with the residual traces left behind after their devastating battles. Scraps off the shadow warriors’ table. But the power within the staff this druid girl possessed was a feast by comparison. It was irresistible.
Dreya reached out, but as soon as her hand touched the staff, a brilliant flash of energy broke all magical bindings and sent both mages flying. Cat landed in the soft garden. Dreya was not so lucky. Her head collided with her door, throwing it wide open and knocking her unconscious.
This was Catriona’s first peek inside the Black Tower. She could see that the front door led to a large porch or portico area, and eventually to an interior door made of frosted glass. Through that glass, Cat could just make out figures rushing closer: Dreya’s personal staff, she realised. Presumably, while Dreya was conscious, she had kept them out of it, preventing them from interfering while she ‘dealt with’ Cat, personally. But with Dreya unconscious, there was nothing holding them back anymore. They were going to come rushing out, believing their Mistress to be under attack.
Catriona had never intended to seriously harm Dreya – throughout their fight, she had carefully avoided that – but her elite guards were not likely to take intentions into account. They would kill Catriona without a moment’s hesitation.
Cat still had a couple of small vials of the water Mandalee had blessed, in her pocket dimension, in case of emergency. This definitely qualified. With a prayer to Blessed Alycia, Mother of Nature, she used one to create a new ice wall to keep them trapped in the porch. Mandalee’s blessing meant it was effectively frozen Holy Water, which would make it difficult and painful for the undead guards to break through, but it wouldn’t stop them for long.
She knew how powerful Dreya’s elite guards were. They weren’t like the lumbering, unthinking ones in the grounds, still unable to work out how to break free of the ties that bound them. No magic Catriona possessed would stop them, and if they touched her…well, she didn’t want to think about what would happen then. Suffice to say, when dealing with powerful undead, simply dying is often seen as a positive result.
My mother could have shifted to falcon form and flown away, but if she did that, there was no way Dreya would ever let her into her tower. Moreover, ‘Get the Greatest Mage Who Ever Lived really annoyed and out for your blood’ was not on Cat’s to-do list for the day. If Dreya interpreted this as an actual attack, their next fight would be for real, not the fun playtime of this afternoon. Cat had to pray she could make her see reason and healing her would be a pretty good first gesture.
Catriona ran to Dreya's side and focussed all of her energy on restoring her. She told Blessed Alycia to take what she needed directly out of her own body. It would weaken her but, given the way her ice prison was breaking up, if Dreya did not recover quickly and in a favourable mood, Cat’s strength would make no difference.
After an eternity, Dreya came around. The ice was beginning to splinter. The guards would be through any second.
Cat panicked. “Not an attack!” she exclaimed desperately. “Promise! Not an attack! Please call off your guards so I can get you inside!”
Dreya’s head was fuzzy from the concussion, but she still managed to quip, “You’re determined to get in my tower one way or another, aren’t you?”
“Dreya, please!”
“You could just fly away.”
Cat shook her head. “I won’t leave you.”
“Why not?” Dreya asked, just as the ice finally broke apart. “Be honest,” she warned. “Tell the truth like your life depends on it.”
“Because…” Cat began. Dreya’s death knights stepped through the broken ice wall, the ghouls at their side. “Because it’s my fault you got injured…”
“The truth, remember?” Dreya insisted.
“That is the truth!” she insisted. “Well,” she amended, “that and I won’t get what I want from you if I do.”
She cringed at the admission, but Dreya just smiled.
“Now, that is the truth.” To her guards, she commanded, “Stand down, all of you, and return to your duties! Catriona here is not to be harmed unless I specifically order it.”
Her guards complied.
“I’ll have to train them to recognise the difference between an attack and an accident. It’s never come up before.”
“You know it was an accident, then? Not an attack?”
“Of course,” Dreya reassured her, choosing to remain seated on the ground for the moment. Catriona sat beside her, drained from the healing on top of all her other exertion. “You’re not stupid. Reckless, yes. Stupid, no.”
Cat apologised. She hadn’t expected that to happen when Dreya touched her staff.
“Only happened once before,” she said. “Actually, I don’t even know why I got it out of my pocket dimension. It’s like it wanted to come out. Needed, even. It’s very odd.”
“Well, as a further gesture of peace,” Dreya said, “would you mind allowing my gardening staff to get on with their work? You've left them tied up.”
Cat looked over and realised Dreya was right. “Sorry. I forgot.”
She asked nature to release the undead gardeners, who simply returned to their ceaseless duties. Cat further promised to tidy up the mess she’d made with her various magics, once she had her strength back, and take the roses away from around her door.
“Leave them,” Dreya told her. “In fact, why don’t you move the black ones and put all three colours together? It would be a good symbol for the co-operation of the three orders of magic, which is something I’m trying to achieve with the Council. As for you, Catriona Redfletching: you beat me.”
“Technically, my staff beat you,” she refuted.
“Semantics,” Dreya insisted. “You beat me.”
“Please don't kill me!” Cat cringed.
“Kill you? That's the best contest I've had for years. I'm in your debt, and I always pay my debts. Besides, why would I kill my betrothed?”
“Your what?” Cat laughed.
“You proposed, remember? I accept.”
“So, we’re getting married, after all?” Cat wondered.
Dreya grinned, and replied, “Well, like you said, why don’t we take it slow and start with a study date? I grant you full access to my tower's library and facilities whenever you like. How’s that for a romantic gesture?”
“Really? That's amazing!” Cat cried out in joy.
Dreya tried to stand, but even with Cat’s help, the world was still spinning too fast, and she promptly sat down again.
“Well then, in a romantic gesture of your own, you can carry me across the threshold.”
With help from some low-level levitation from Dreya, Cat was able to get them both into her main sitting room, where they collapsed together on a sofa.
“I underestimated you,” Dreya admitted. “It won't happen next time.”
“Next time?”
“Well, I was hoping for a rematch…but not right now, please, dear. I've got a headache.”
“I blame the door,” Cat quipped. “Your door dared to attack Dreya the Dark and must be destroyed.”
Dreya laughed, “I’ll have it burnt, immediately.” Cat gave her a meaningful look and Dreya got the message. “OK, I admit it: you are pretty funny.”
“Ooh!” Cat grinned, delighted. “You think I'm pretty, too?”
“I think your magic is beautiful,” Dreya replied.
Cat choked on a laugh and then blushed when she realised Dreya was serious. “Wow, thank you! No-one's ever said anything like that to me before.”
“That's because other people don't see magic as I do. Magic isn't just a tool or a weapon, it's…”
“It's an art,” Cat finished.
“Precisely,” Dreya agreed. “Your creativity is part of what I'm trying to achieve in magic.”
Dreya called one of her death knights to make some tea.
“Now, let’s talk about what you need from me, Cat, and how we might advance magic, together because, thanks to you, I'm more convinced than ever that magic can do so much more.”
*****
Sitting there, beside someone she dared to think of as a new friend, my mother slowly started to relax, and that, gentle reader, is the story of how Catriona Redfletching impressed Dreya the Dark.
If Catriona and Mandalee was a friendship for the ages, this was something altogether more complicated.