Eternities Test

[Nyyark]

Prologue

It was a good day, ranking among the best Ked had experienced this past century. The sun, set in a piercing blue sky recently drained of smog by the pleasantly warm wind blowing through the city, was shining brightly, and Ked had just managed to acquire a Token of Significance on ebay for just 51.67$.

"Magic is the only way to bid," He thought to himself, oblivious to current of people around him. His smile deepened as his shuffle selected Bach's Toccata & Fugue in D minor. "I remember when that came out," he mused, "good year 1704. Reminds me of the old days."

Only three more blocks to go until he reached his sixth floor condo, a distance his youthful, heathy, magically-enhanced physique could easily have jogged without breaking a sweat. He was taking it slow today however, not only because of the beautiful weather, but because he liked the crowd around him to be as ambivalent to Ked as he was of them.

Ked's fingers absently sketched Runes of Greater Power in time with music as he let the crowd carry him along, each rune swiftly abolished before it could invoke. Other than the occasional faint blue flash from his right hand, he looked just like a normal college bound kid.

Despite his ever aware Mage-Sense, Ked didn't realize he was being stabbed until the knife entered his left shoulder. He jerked his Mage-Self forward as he halted his rune sketching mid-scribe. The effort to cancel the rune made him a fraction of a second too slow and the tip of the knife nicked his astral shoulder as it drove deep into his body. The sharp stab of True Pain told him that this was a Mage-Bane blade, and someone knew exactly who they were trying to kill.

As the knife pulled back for his next assault Ked reflexively repaired his body of all but a a shallow cut that corresponded to his Mage-Wound. Ked's Mage-Self tumbled backwards out of his body, leaving his Lifeline attached to his right thigh away from any major arteries. Through the Lifeline Ked puppet-spun his body about to face his assailant. The assassin stabbed him again, this time in the heart.

"This idiot's messing with wrong mage," thought Ked, as the assassin pulled the knife out for another strike.

Ked's Mage-Fingers carved a Rune of Damnation into his assailants back. As the slippery cartilage of the man's spine began to melt Ked's Mage-Sense detected the first spark of external magic in over five years. It quickly vanished as the would-be killer crumbled forward.

Ked's satisfaction froze on his Mage-Face as he noticed a second to late that the Mage-Bane knife was being guided by the falling assassin precisely where his Lifeline connected to his body. Not a second to soon Ked released the binding strand of being, killing his mundane self.

He screamed curses in the black, magic-less void that now surrounded him. For the first time in the five centuries of his Mage-Life, Ked had died. Edited May 4, 2007 by Nyyark