"Thasmudyan... no..." Sanria begged, and Velentham checked the bile that rose.
"You'll come out here and fight me?"
"He will kill you... he won't stop... please... don't offer this," Sanria begged. Velentham hated the way she clutched the beggar, but he had his goal. He would attain it.
"Answer the question, Velentham."
"I'll see to it that she won't touch Sanria."
"Thasmudyan! No!" Sanria raced to the front of the beggar, pleading with him.
"He is a Celestial, he is a wizard... he will kill you. Please..."
"Don't you see, Sanria? This is my chance to free you from all of this.. to atone for my mistakes," the beggar said.
Everything was falling into place, the stars aligning, the sounds of his own kind, singing to him in his mind. "I've answered my half, now make haste, beggar." He watched his woman hold Thasmudyan's hands up, showing him the bangles that held him captive. But the beggar had on his bravado, something Velentham had counted on. The beggar would do his best to show Sanria he was worthy. No sooner than the beggar stepped forward, did Velentham know he had what he wanted.
"Would be an awful lot more fun if you got rid of these first, you know," the beggar said, holding up his shackled wrists.
"Oh no, my friend. This must be quick, and who am I to make things harder by slowing them down with a magic flinging contest that I would win anyway?"
"Please!" Sanria said, pacing behind the ward.
"I never knew the Celestials to be cowards."
"Did you want to play, then?"
"Do you want the satisfaction of knowing you defeated me as I really am, or do you just want to kill a helpless human?"
"The lamb has teeth," Velentham said with a grin. "Very well."
The ancient spell Velentham used was one learned long ago, one his people had held in antiquity, one they used on their travels to slay evil of all kinds. It also had the ability to overpower many other types of magic. He summoned the spell, only partial strength, and in a flash of light, the shackles that held the beggar's magic in check were reduced to fragments and the beggar knocked onto his knees.
