A Dagger of the Mind (The Imperial Metals) by Daniel Antoniazzi

me to Anuen.”
     
     
     
     

Chapter 7: The Silent Gods
     
    Helios climbed the final steps to the peak of the hill. From atop the glorified mound of dirt, he was able to see the entirety of Losmourne Island. It wasn’t very large, after all. And it wasn’t very exciting. If it disappeared, the only people who would miss it were the ones who lived on it.
    “Are you sure you can manage?” Selene asked as she joined him at the meager summit.
    Helios realized he was rubbing the stump where his other hand used to be. Usually, growing back a limb would be a simple matter for such powerful mages. But he and Selene were tossing around a lot of death magic back at Hartstone, and so far, neither of them could regenerate his missing appendage.
    “I’ll be fine,” he said to Selene. He didn’t need his hand to conjure his magic. It was just frustrating to not have it.
    “We can wait, if you want time to recover,” Selene offered. The coldness in her voice matched the coldness of her pale, gray skin.
    “No, we cannot wait. We have come too far and fought for too long. We are here now, and we will break the seal now.”
    Helios wasn’t in charge. Neither was Selene. They were two lost lieutenants of a long-absent leader. They were so dedicated in purpose that they rarely feuded. But the subject of waiting was certain to make both of them irritable.
    “Patience, Brother Sun,” Selene said. “We don’t want to lose our way at the very end.”
    “I see it a differently, Sister Moon,” Helios retorted. “I say we have waited too long, and we don’t want to miss our chance.”
    “Very well, we will proceed,” Selene relented. “But don’t slow me down.”
    “I won’t if you won’t.”
    “Have you been speaking to the natives?”
    “I did,” Helios said. “I appeared to them a s their God of Fortunes, Benevolt. I warned them that disaster was coming.”
    “A nice touch,” Selene said. “Did they pay heed?”
    “Some of them did. But, of course, some were stubborn.”
    “That is always the way with people. The very concept of home is more important to them than their own survival. And it’s never a hut, or a castle, or a fence that they fight over. It’s always just the abstract concept.”
    “The same abstract concept cost us Argos,” Helios mused.
    “I suppose you’re right. Though he did serve his purpose in the end.”
    “It’s time. Let’s begin, shall we?”
    “Yes, let’s,” Selene responded. Far too few words for what was about to happen.
    In theory, the power of any given spell was determined by the strength of the caster or casters. The upper limit was the limit of their combined will. Even the most powerful mages couldn’t just do anything they wanted. They could only spend a certain amount of energy at a time.
    But there was another element in play beyond just willpower. There was time. Rather than cast a spell all at once, a mage could begin to cast a spell, allow it to build up over time, and then finish it weeks later. Or months. Or years.
    Or centuries...
    The spell always had to be anchored to something. In this case, the Island of Losmourne. But it could be anything. It could be a hat, if that was your style. And once the initial casting was done, the spell just grew and grew. The latent energy swelled. Waiting to be released on the final casting, to accomplish whatever the caster wanted.
    In this case, the sinking of the Island of Losmourne.
    It wasn’t a particularly important island. It hosted a tribe of people who lived off the fruit trees. It wasn’t in a geographically interesting location, and was inconvenient for merchant ships to stop at, even if they had a reason to. It was only important because it was an island.
    Helios and Selene began casting the spell. It would take them the better part of the afternoon, and they would be tired by the experience. They were channeling vast and terrible energies through their bodies, bringing to a full cadence a song that had