In that instant, I forget to breathe. I forget all our careful strategies. I forget calm. Lifting one hand high over my head, I tap my talisman's water energy, then surrender myself to it as a counter to Muirgen. A wide swath of blue-white magic leaps out and up in a blinding beam, shattering the cloudless blue ceiling above. Instantly, heavy storm clouds form, iron dark and roiling. A crazed wind howls, twisting in every direction, like the wordless voice of my magic unleashed.
Muirgen's head turns, watching the windstorm swirl about her with a broad grin. Then a trill of uncontrolled laughter erupts from her. She lifts her scepter in both hands like a sword, raising it over her as if to slice me in two from thirty yards away. "Burn! Burn! Burn!"
"Dorian! Go!" Ian shouts above the shrieking winds and Muirgen's laughter.
Weaving themselves into the wild mix, my pearled rings funnel their amplification magic into the rising arcane vortex, increasing my magic's power exponentially.
