Nathaniel walked around anxiously. The demon inside rejoiced. That was it, today he was paying them back! Today he was, at last, fulfilling vows taken long ago.

�Master, Master,� the face showed up on the orb. He walked to the elaborated pedestal where the orb rested, and reached his hand to take it. It was so scarred, that hand, he could barely stand the sight of it. He picked up the orb and stroked it gently. An ugly face appeared on the face of the orb.

�Master, can you hear me?�

�I can hear you, you fool. How goes our plan?�

�Perfectly master.� The ugly face smiled. The smile was distorted and revealed yellow, crooked teeth but the demon didn�t care much. There was no more beauty in his eyes.

�Are they all there?� he asked with pleasure. He knew the answer but he wanted to hear it again. He wanted to know all his enemies were about to be destroyed together. And the best part of it was that once the destruction will have started they will know who was behind it and will be powerless to stop him. No one will be able to stop him. Not after today.

�All of them, master.�

�And Sheen? Where is that witch? Is she trying something?�

�She is in her chambers master. I don�t think she knows. She tried to talk to someone, left a message for one of the wizards to go up and see her. No one has approached her yet.�

�No matter who it is, she will not have time to speak with him� the man laughed cruelly. �She will die soon. They will all die.�

�You want to hear something funny, master?� the creature asked, happy with the demon�s mood. If he was mad� the creature saw him mad once. He didn�t care to repeat it.

�What? This better not be a waste of my time!� he didn�t have much to do now, everything was already in progress. All he had to do was sit and watch. Sit, watch and enjoy.

�It isn�t, master, it was the funniest thing. I saw one of the sorceresses goes up to her room. When she got out of the transporter, she thanked it.� The creature burst out laughing in an ugly laugh, mocking in empty shrikes. Sure that what he had said would make the demon even happier.

~

A memory wave washed over the evil man with the orb in his scarred hand. Memories of a sprained ankle, of long nights of study, of auburn hair and of green, green, eyes.

~

Suddenly he was shaking. He clasped the orb in his hand as if wishing to hurt the creature inside.

�Damn you!� he howled, his voice terrible and filled with hate.

The creature saw the sudden change in expression and it frightened him. He groveled at his master�s feet though he miles and miles away.

�But, but master�� he muttered searching desperately in his mind for the error he had made. What was it that got the demon this furious in his great moment of triumph?

�Get her out!� Nathaniel yelled. It was him, his voice, and not the demon�s. But the creature was hardly expected to be able to tell the difference.

�What?� in his misery the creature only made things considerably worst for himself.

�Did you hear me? I said get her out. Get her out of the Tower before anything happens. Get her out or so help me I�ll fry your intestines and feed them to my hell hounds!�

�But, master,� the creature was getting even more confused, he must be careful, he mustn�t seem uncooperative. The demon will kill him without blinking if he would think he was refusing his orders. �She is one of them. �She lives in the Tower and she is the one Sheen wants��

�That is none of your concern. You better make sure nothing happens to her or�� and then it dwelled on him. That was Sheen�s plan. That was what she intended to do. She didn�t plan to tell the others about him, only to one. She wanted to take from him the only thing he ever wanted and couldn�t have. She was going to tell Diana what he had become.

�That accursed woman.� He uttered with abhor and hate. �I�ll kill her. She won�t die with the others, oh no! I�ll make sure she pays.�

�What should I do, master?�

�Get Diana out. I don�t care how. Just make sure she is safe. If she so much as loses a hair, you�ll suffer. And if she dies with the Tower, the world will tremble when faced with my anger.�

�Yes, master.� The ugly image slowly faded then disappeared. Leaving nothing but the paleness white of the orb which Nathaniel was still holding tightly. He walked around nervously. Was he really about to lose her? After all this time, after all his efforts. He had to do something. He had to stop it. He had to stop Sheen.

The demon took over. But this time the part of Nathaniel that still lived inside the man's body didn�t fight him. He grabbed a sharped-ended knife and opened the door with a swing. He didn�t even notice he had left it dangling on torn hinges. As he marched down the corridor leading him up to the portal. All he could think of, all he could see, was the knife. It was a vicious looking dagger. It had a twisted end that was curved like a beast�s claw. That tool had one intention, one alone. It was meant to carve out hearts. All he saw was that knife. All he smelled was the fresh blood that he was about to spill. All he heard was the screams that his closest friend was about to scream. The knife was his essence now. To the demon it was but an excuse to kill again. To Nathaniel it was the only way to keep his true love. Sheen must die.

The doors to his second study were opened violently. He kicked chairs that were in his way and walked to the shelves. He tossed off all the books in anger. His eyes were turning more and more red as the minutes passed. He opened the right book and slammed it down of the table searching through it. He fumbled in his pocket during all that time, digging out something, an object that will enhance his ability to cast spells. He hardly needed enhancements any more but now, there was no time for arrogance or carelessness.

As he found the right page and passage he started muttering words and half syllables. The wind that came through the opened window blew out the candles but that didn�t matter. He remembered it now. He could feel the magic aura forming around him, feeding on his hatred and wrath, doubled and tripled by the figurine in his hand, a small unicorn with a broken horn. How dared she? How could she do that to him? She alone knew what the young sorceress meant to him. She knew how far he was willing to go for her love. Why did she think he would not try and stop her?

It�s her fault, Nathaniel told himself. She told me she was my friend and now she tries to take away the only thing that still connects me to reality. If Diana dies, the demon will take over Nathaniel forever.

Now colors blurred around him. The powers danced at his will. He was in total control. �To the Tower� he commanded them. �Take me to that wretched Sheen�s room.�

And they did, he soon found himself in the familiar round room and looked around with disgust.

Sheen was sitting with her back to him. His spell was silent and she has yet to sense his presence in her room. He knew she would soon enough, and the evil in his celebrated her last moment of peace.

She turned around, scared. He knew it wouldn�t take her long to feel him. �Hello, old friend� he said, the knife shining in the air.

She screamed, oh how she screamed. He took his time approaching her, slow measured steps.

�Don�t do it!� she said desperately. He knew that in her mind she is searching for a spell that will defeat him. But there was none and they both knew it. �Don�t do it. Nathaniel, don�t let him do it.�

So, she figured it out. She knew that Nathaniel was still in there. No matter, it won�t help her now. Nathaniel was angry too. He would not kill her had he been in control. But he wasn�t, and the anger she caused by trying to turn Diana on him, made it impossible for him to fight the demon.

�He can�t help you� the black voice told her. �So you thought you�ll turn Diana on us? You wanted to ruin our plans, didn�t you?�

Sheen was a proud woman. She knew now her death is near. And suddenly she wasn�t afraid.

�You can�t win!� she defied him. �You can kill me but someone will rise against you and defeat you. You know that as well as I do. All the prophecies say so. And there is nothing ycan about it.�

�The prophecies have no way of knowing who will win!� he yelled. �But you are right about one thing. I can kill you, and I will.�

�Fool,� she mocked him. �What will my death give you? Yes, you will kill me, but that won�t help you. Diana will know. Or worst even, she will die knowing. And there will be no one left to redeem you. No one left to forgive your tormented spirit. The hero will rise, whether you kill me or not. And when I die, with my final breath I will curse you and bless him. With my last breath I will cast my spell, and the heavens will not rest until I get my revenge. The more horrible my death is, the better my spell will be. The more violent my demolish is, the more power I have to pay you back. I will draw from my own pain and from my own fear. Nathaniel isn�t here anymore and so nothing stops me from wishing to your end.�

He plunged his vicious knife in her chest and she screamed, not with pain but with anger. He watched her cruelly as she twisted and turned in utter pain. But she cursed him, and she blessed the hero that will come. She did not know whom she was blessing but she knew he would come.

He enjoyed her pain, not noticing the damage of her words; he was too busy ravishing in her misery. Nathaniel knew the damage a Tower�s wizard�s dying wish could cause. But Nathaniel wasn�t there.

At last, he took the knife out with a cruel twist. Sheen dropped lifeless to the carpet. The demon watched with hungry eyes as the spotless white broadloom turn redder and redder. He raised the heart that rested now in his palm with a delighted cry of triumph. He had won. Sheen was dead. He wiped the blade on her blood soaked clothes and was about to return to his fortress when he heard a cry.

The sound was desperate, frightened. He knew that sound, Diana's.

He didn�t turn around, he couldn�t. If he would she'd see his face. But he could see the pained expression just as clearly as if he was staring right at her. He could hear the screams she�ll scream in the nights when she�ll remember what she saw.

I have to get out of here! His thoughts were desperate. He started mumbling words again, his voice growing stronger and stronger until it became a shout. It overcame the crying of the young woman. His hand clutched the figurine as the other clutched Sheen�s heart. He faded slowly and the last thing he saw as he faded away was his beloved Diana run to Sheen�s side. He saw her kneel and hold the motionless head, stroking the luscious black hair. He saw the sign Sheen drew in her final seconds, using her own blood, the sign of the heart.

The blood rushed back to his head as he materialized in the racked room, the room he destroyed in his wrath. He didn't have time to worry about the sign sheen drew; he had to make sure Diana leaves of the Tower before it's destroyed. He ran back to his study.

This study wasn�t the mess the other one was; though its door rested crookedly on its hinges. The room was silent and cool and that calmed him down a bit. He had to think rationally, but he had to act hastily. The process will commence shortly and then even he can�t stop it.

He picked up the orb again. He touched it, caressed it. Then with a burst of power he called back the creature.

�You summoned me, master?� the voice was properly humbled. The eyes were properly lowered. The demon was in a bad enough mood already and the creature knew he wasn�t indispensable. No one was.

�Fool,� the voice boomed, roared in the silence of the black study. �What have you done to get her out?� he grabbed the orb forcefully as if he could crush the creature inside it just by pressing on the globe.

�I� I� I�m working on that.� He knew that wouldn�t be good enough. �But��

�NO! You will make sure she is safe or you�ll live to regret it! I don�t care what you do and I don�t care how you do it but that girl will be out of the Tower before it explodes or windows will be shattered by your screams.� He threw the orb at the wall. The transparent ball hit the wall with a strong thud but not so much as a scratch marked the smooth surface. Not so much as a dent.

~

Diana never trembled so hard in her life. She still stood at the doorway as the dark figure vanished, leaving behind Sheen�s bloody body. She couldn�t see the man�s face. But that didn�t matter any. She knew who it was.

Desperately she fought that knowledge. Still not able to move from where she was standing and perhaps that was well enough. If she came any closer, he could kill her too.

All the time she was standing there she fought the recognition that ahs donned on her. Nathaniel was good, he was he friend, and he was Sheen's friend.

Now that he had vanished she could find it in herself to move. She ran to Sheen, clutched the twisted body. A huge gaping hole stared at her from the woman�s chest. She saw him cutting out her heart. Lifting it in a triumphant gesture, the black sleeve slipping a bit, reviling the scarred hand she knew so well. The hand that gave her books, that taught her how to use wands. I must be wrong. It can�t be him, it just can�t be. The hand that held her near.

She touched the woman, nestling the head in her lap as if by that comforting gesture she could somehow ease her friend�s pain. But Sheen was dead before she hit the floor and Diana knew it. She knew it as she passed her fingers through the thick hair. She knew it when she gently stroked the now pale, but once so lively, face. She pulled her closer and saw the way her body dragged at her will. She saw blood everywhere. The carpet and Sheen�s clothes were all soaked.

And there was another mark; one that stood out somehow though the blood was spilled all over. As Diana pulled Sheen's body to her, she saw that the sorceress�s hand dragged a bit on the floor and her finger drew a small trail of blood. Diana�s eyes, flooded with tears followed the trail to its origin. And there, painted by Sheen, in her final moment of consciences, was the sign of the heart. Heart, Nathaniel�s sign in the Tower of wizards. Sheen was lightning, she was halo, and Nathaniel was heart.

The Tower shook. It made prefect sense for it to shake. Sheen was dead. Nathaniel was the one he killed her. It took her minutes to understand the Tower really was shaking. The Tower, not just her world. All she could think of was how she needed her friends here. They could make it better, somehow they could. But none of them was here, and the Tower kept shaking. It shook so hard that books came flying out of shelves. Closet doors were flung open and priceless bottles and potions dropped to the marble floor and broke. The fluid that leaked out of them hissed in a sickening sound. A strong noise behind her told her what the trembling was. Cries from downstairs, crumbling stones, the Tower was falling apart.

She hurried to her feet. Her first thought was to lift Sheen, by magic or by force, and drag her out of there. But that thought made no sense. Sheen was dead. And there might be other people who needed her help. It didn�t accrued to her how strange and impossible it was that the Tower was falling apart. It was not supposed to, nothing was supposed to be able to destroy its magic and yet the ceiling was crumbling. And yet cracks were opened in the eternal walls, large enough to pass through and growing by the minute. It didn�t strike her as odd.

She touched her friend again with a gentle shivering hand, a parting gesture. Then hurried out of the room. What she saw scared her almost as much as what was in that room. The Tower really was shattering. Half of it was ruined already. Rubbles of stones and screams of those caught underneath it. The most powerful magicians in the world, people who held more power in their open palm that some kings had in their entire kingdom, where trapped helplessly under gray stone. Simple gray stone, the kind used to build simple houses.

The magical elevator was ruined; its pad was now down in the debris. The east and north wings were already broken. Her room.

Diana touched her ring. The ring she got when she reached the Tower, the ring given to her by secession rights, by the magical blood in her veins. The light it was g. That was no real surprise, it was supposed to last as long as the Tower stood, and the Tower no longer stood.

She intended to fly down to safety. A simple spell, one of the simplest.

But nothing happened. She tried to concentrate. This spell never required concentration before! But it failed again. She couldn�t cast it. Desperately she tried something else. Nothing.

She was trapped up there. No way to get down and the Tower crumbling around her. So many things danced in her mind. So many baffling thoughts, she couldn�t separate them from one the other. If I die, Eleanor will be all alone. I can�t die. I can�t. Dorland will never forgive me if I die. She looked for a way to get down.

The Tower�s high floor, where the sorcerers stayed was raised high above the ground floor. Too high to make it alive in one jump. But if she could find a someway to jump not all the way down, just to the next floor. She jumped.

That was stupid, she thought as her body hit the erupting floor with great force, causing great pain. That was very stupid. Her whole body hurt. And the floor she landed on trembled. It was about to break. She could feel the cracks in the unbreakable floor. Yet it was breakable. And it broke.

Diana felt herself falling. She wondered how far it was to the next floor. She wondered if she was to scream would someone hear her in all that noise. It was all happening so fast and so slow. Sheen died so fast but the moments she held the bloody body in her hands past so slowly. Her fall was so slow, like she was drifting in one of her spells that no longer worked. She knew why they didn�t work. Whoever did this to the Tower had to neutralize its magic first. The means it took to do that will surely neutralize her own magic, as well as that of the other sorcerers, without difficulty. But was it Nathaniel? He killed Sheen; maybe he wants to destroy the Tower too.

She didn�t have much time to keep wondering. She picked up the hems of her dress, raising them above her knees so that she would be able to move more quickly, and started running. She was on the ground floor; she had just now noticed it. Screams from everywhere called her. She had to help but she didn�t know to who or how.

�Diana,� she heard a hundred different voices. Half of them were begging for her help, half were urging her to run. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Hydro, the oldest in the Tower, he could perform spells she couldn�t even dream of, his powers were unimaginable, which was why he was elected to head the legendary Tower of wizards. Now he was trapped helplessly under a falling column. His legs staggered, half broken. For all his powers, he could do nothing now to help himself.

She rushed over to him and tried to push away the column. She couldn�t, of course, it was a futile attempt to begin with, but she tried with all her might. Her fair face reddened with effort and sweat beads formed on her forehead, but the column would not even budge.

�Diana, get out of here!� Hydro shouted. �Get out, child. Do as you are told!� even now he was head of the wizard's Tower, and he expected her to obey him.

�I have to help you,� she shouted back, partly from anger and fear and frustration, partly to overcome the roaring of the crumbling building.

�What can you do?� there was almost mockery in was voice. �Can you push it away? Can you make the Tower whole again? Run, I say. Save yourself. Most of the wizards are dead already, buried or crushed. At least if you were saved there will be someone remember us.�

A boulder fell near her and she cringed. Tears were rolling on her cheeks, mixing with the pouring sweat as she instead to keep pushing the column.

�Get out of here, Diana. And take as many as you can with you!� but she would not move.

�Who is dead?� she asked. �Who can be alive yet?�

�The entire east and north wings have collapsed." He told her what she already knew. "The south wing is now falling as well. Maybe those on the west wings are still alive. Morgan and Sheen live there, Calintra and�� he stopped. Calintra and Nathaniel. That was what he was going to say. Calintra and Nathaniel.

�Sheen is dead.� She screamed at him. She is dead, oh gods, she�s dead. �And I think Morgan is too.� if he was in his room there was no way he would have survived. She saw it collapse as she jumped. Why was it that she survived the jump? That thought picked in her mind but she pushed it aside. �And Nathaniel��

�Did Sheen talk to you before she died?� Hydro asked urgently. �Stop pushing that damned column and listen to me! Did Sheen talk to you?�

�No.�

�I haven�t much time.� Hydro said and suddenly he seemed so calm. She saw he stopped kicking with the one leg he was still able to move. Perhaps he was no longer able to move it. She refused to think so. She refused to think but kept pulling at him. Tugging his shirtsleeve, almost begging him to fight with her. �Sheen wanted to tell you about Nathaniel. I fear it must be him behind all of this. You must�� something grabbed her from behind. She saw Hydro�s eyes widened with surprise and heard him trying to shout to her but she could hardly hear him. �Don�t�. Fool you�. Dangerous more than can�. Kill you�. Love�. Dangerous�. You are our last�. Kill all of�. Try�� she fought to free herself as something with black hands pulled her. Kicking and shouting but she couldn�t even loosen the grip. Black hands, black claws at the end of one and darkened with dirt, broken fingernails at the end of another.

The thing, whatever it was, carried her to the doorway that stood there. Mostly destroyed now but once of great beauty, the arch now was dangling dangerously. Diana could not hear screams anymore. Only the roar and thunder of the breaking. But the people all seemed to have quieted down. They were all dead now. And the thing kept carrying her. He threw her through the arch, throw her outside. She was hurled in the air so far, further than it seemed possible.

As her body crashed on the ground, this time nothing softened the fall, as her head hit the dirt she could hear final explosions. She could see for a few more seconds the wizard's Tower before it crumbled completely. As her eyes closed she could feel tingling in her blood. The tingling sensation quickly turned to something else, like needles were being driven through every inch of her body. She could feel immense pain, unimaginable and unbearable inside her blood. The magic in her blood will be destroyed with the magic of the Tower. But could she survive its lost? The pain. Such pain. Everything darkened though she struggled to keep her eyes opened. Darkness mixed with pain.

Now all that was left was ruins. All that remained of the legendary home of the wizards was shambles, no more than to make a simple house. The Tower that was build with a blast was destroyed in a blast.

All that was left was blacked stones and half a dragon head, broken. It�s one eye defiant against the clear blue sky. Its broken smile twisting sinuously.

And a lone woman, lying a few feet from the stones. Her red gold hair lay in a pool of blood staining her fair face that were buried in the fine soil of the enchanted grove. The expression of her face said pain. Pain and fear.

A group of thirty men and women ran out of the forest from the east. Most started crying openly. Terrified beyond belief. All that was left now was those gray stones, and third level apprentices out to practice balls of fire. And a woman with tormented face lying face down and closed eyes. The Tower was gone.

~

The demon no longer rejoiced, it was almost scared. His eyes searched around the room frantically. He had ruined it minutes ago. All lay broken at his feet. Torn books, spilled acids and potions. Broken staffs and dead men. But he didn�t care. His eyes kept scanning until he found the orb once more, resting unharmed between broken glasses. As he reached to pick it up his hand was cut. Red blood oozefrom the wound. Ared too dark to be of human blood, but still not the demon's black acid.

He held the orb in his outstretched hand and summoned the creature. An ugly face appeared on the orb�s smooth surface. Ugly and fearful beyond belief.

�Tell me she�s out!� the demon screamed. His voice echoed off the now empty walls. All the shelves lay broken on the floor. Wood shattered, contents spilled. It was over, he knew that. He could feel the moment of destruction on his bones. For centuries the demon has waited for this moment. For years Nathaniel had slaved to help him fulfill it. But now none of it mattered.

�We tried, master.� The creature�s voice trembled. No one would have though that creatures of such evil were able to feel fear. But now the creature trembled. �We tried. But she refused to get out. We got her down but she ran to help one of the wounded. Another one grabbed her, but the explosion� we could see no more. Almost all of us died in there.� He said as if that will assure the man holding the orb that they were not to blame for the woman�s stubbornness. As if that will get him to spare them, perhaps not destroy all of them. �See for yourself.� The image changed from a distorted face to wreckage. Between turned stones and blackened ground he looked but he could not see a thing. He saw men weeping, the apprentices. They will spread word of his greatness if they will dare to open their mouths at all. They were no threat. The creature�s face reappeared on the milky surface of the orb. For a moment his expression seemed hopeful, maybe the sight of the ruins will settle his master�s wrath. Maybe. But he could see that it didn�t and he knew what that meant.

�Master�� he mumbled.

�NO!� the demon and the man, Nathaniel, screamed together.

�NO!� and a thunder started rolling in the dark sky of Valencia, rumbling, rumbling.

�NO!� pitch-black clouds started gathering, flocking together. Sooty blackness veiled all.

�NO!� vicious rain poured heartlessly on the ground for miles and miles. Hammering at the land. Whole cities and villages. Destructive rain. Angry.

�NO!� and a storm broke out. Stronger than any storm before it. And one that will last longer than any before it. And make mankind regret it had caused him to shed the tears of his hell on their heads.

�NO!� and the creature knew it will not die alone.