As I finished the chant, the white light which illuminated my symbol flared, up, only to quickly die down again. Now, however, the demon Vanar crouched in the middle of the circle. With a roar it ran to the edge of the circle. The light that illuminated the circle again flared up, this time a red, causing Vanar to shriek in pain.
At the noise, the militia accompanying me turned around, only to run away screaming. “I told them they should keep their backs turned.” I confided in Vanar. Vanar only growled.
We stood like this for a while, before I hit the ground with my staff, a completely useless gesture, to be sure, but one that made me feel vaguely heroic. Throwing out one arm, I pointed to the north. “Go! Your mater commands it!” Vanar sprinted away, with a face that could almost be said to be smiling, if a skull could smile.
Now I strode through the wreckage of the battle. I was always uncomfortable around a battle site as they tended to be the places where I was forced to work my craft the most. Fortunately, from my perspective at least, the dragon wasn’t killed. Magi were the worst when it came to dying, they always seemed to leave behind a surprise, a demon coming to collect their soul, or some kind of grudge which allowed their spirit to remain, or their death would trigger a necromantic experiment which they had previously performed on themselves. Truth be told, if the dragon caused one of those things to happen, I would have just left. I had gotten a little carried away with allowing Vanar to pursue his prey (in truth I was merely using him to scout to make sure the dragon truly was gone). The distance he roamed was closer to my limit of control than I would have been wise to allow, a fact which, combined with the battle of course, left me drained. Even at my best I doubt I could have handled a mess a dragon would have left behind, as I was now, all I could do is hope I could outrun whatever was left behind.
So his remaining alive was fortunate for me, though of course not fortunate for the poor souls who would feel his wrath when he recovered. Hopefully by that point I would be far away and the fate of those future hypotheticals who would meet the dragon were no concern of mine. After all, I am not a hero.
