A mage versus a Xaj

We came in from the west part of the building, everywhere rowdy by cause of the multitude looking for places to settle on.

"Let's go up there," Aaron suggested pulling me up a flight of stairs before settling atop the stadium-looking hall with a few mages who were playing with conjured fire and water.

"This place is huge," I observed. "From the outside it would look like a normal room but from the inside, even giants could walk around with enough spaces to brawl."

He chuckled lightly, "Spell of deception, made by our most powerful mages. Very useful if you want to hide something."

"Excuse me... Sir Aaron," one of the boys stuttered taking his attention from me.

The hall was filled with hundreds of creatures seated and murmuring around a clearing in the middle of the room. Looking around I could make out over two hundred humans, however, with the mythical world becoming more and more common to me, it would be insane to think those humans were ordinary.

A clink from a table far away from where I was seated brought the entire hall to silence as I observed it to be thrones for the leaders of the Castle. There were eight chairs positioned there, six people sat on it facing the multitude, their table cut away from the rest of the crowd.

A man sat up from amongst the six with a smile on his face, just like the others on the table he wore a black cloak with a gold ring around its high collar.

"Who is that?" I asked Aaron who sat by me, scowling at the man.

"Lord Dreyfus," he hissed. "A Xaj."

"Okay," I replied not knowing why his reply had so much venom in it.

"Now that we're all seated I'd like to welcome everyone who came back to the castle and those who are just joining us for the first time," Dreyfus began. "Introductions would be done at the halls tomorrow, for now we have more pressing issues which threaten the very existence of our reality. I urge Lord Enzo to take up the floor."

Enzo who sat in the middle of the six stood to his feet taking up the crowds attention.

"I'll move on from the introductions and get right into business," he paused, the tension in the room rising with each minute. "The Williams are making a move against us. We've been on the peaceful side of this fight for years, now it's time we stood out of the shadows and put them back in their place."

The crowds murmurs grew to a noisy stream needing several clinks from the high table to put them to rest.

"We should have taken them out when we had the chance Lord Enzo," a man from the crowd recounts.

"Yes we should have," he agrees. "But that would have made us men without rules and we are not without rules. We live by them, they live in us, we are not monsters, we are creatures of honor..."

"And where has that honor taken us, huh?" a woman hissed. "I lost my sister to one of those bloodsuckers while we did nothing but fold our arms and watch them take us out one by one. Where were those rules when she begged for her life...?"

"Miss Fey I understand your anger and it is justified, that I can spare," Dreyfus addressed the woman. "But it doesn't give us the right to act the way they act for if we do such we would only incite more violence. We've lost enough people in wars over the years, families displaced, children made orphans, husbands and wives made widows, we don't need to bring back the problems of the past to the present for it would only affect the future in a negative way."

"We have been under your wings for a very long time, say what, five hundred years and we have enjoyed peace, but not without sacrifices," another woman counters, struggling to her feet. "All we ask for is a permanent end, not a temporary one."

The crowd cheers in unison causing her to continue, "Kill the Williams vampires and take out their position in the world, that is all we ask. I know they are like a family to the Angus vampires but they should understand that we cannot continue to live in fear for another thousand years. If you cannot do this for us then our alliance is over."

Umbra who was seated beside her brother stands to her feet with a start, "What do you mean Joan?"

The old woman smiles in victory, "It means that as the leader of the mages and Xaj I would pull back my troops from the field and destroy the agreement we have."

"Co-leader," Dreyfus corrects.

"Not anymore."

"You're not even a Xaj, you're a dark mage..."

"Who has used her powers to keep herself alive for thousands of years and boy to be honest I have protected the human race more times than anyone in history. I have been beside the gods during the great war and I fought with my people defending the humans from falling mountains and strong winds. I was the one who stopped the outbreak of war between the vampires and the mages. I made sure the Vladians saw the Primordials as allies and not threats making them vow to not use the enchantments against them..."

"It still gives you no right to think yourself powerful enough to lead the magicians and make such ridiculous claims as being a top official. If you are capable of leading the entire magical coven, why sit amongst your subjects when your seat is on this table?"

The woman encases herself in a shadow floating to the clearing in the middle of the room, the Xaj following suit.

"How about we settle this, right here, right now," Joan's voice threatened in a low rumble.

"Be careful mage," cautioned Dreyfus. "I am a Xaj who wields the power of three enchantments. I won't hold back."

"Don't you worry about me child, I've got thousands of years in experience. Your enchantments would need to be powerful enough to stop a demigod before they'll harm me."

The tension in the room increased to unbelievable heights owing to the fact that a mage was about to fight a Xaj. I knew who would win within me and I knew everyone in the hall knew it too but no one was bold enough to stop them. The fight made me remember the incident which had happened between Aurora and a Xaj. At the end a Xaj would always win because of their versatility and raw power, it was not up for a debate. Xaj's were the gods of magic and only a mad person would try to go up against one such creature without a plan in mind.

"Joan, you better make a statement," I heard Aaron whisper under his breath, his legs tapping nervously on the ground.

Putting a hand on his lap, I gave a reassuring smile to the mage which calmed his nerves, "She'll be fine," I said. "Have a little faith."

He laid back into his seat with shaky breath before jumping to his feet with the crowd as the battle between the mage and Xaj started off, both of them showing overwhelming power.