Jak knew in his gut it was Ghilda. Anders wouldn't have been so concerned unless somewhere deep down he knew there was a chance it was her. The sick room told him all he needed to know. No one knew where she was, how convenient. When he was sure he was alone, he pulled a vial from his pack and a lens. He was going to make his own truesight, and he was going to investigate for himself.

Peeking in the larger room, he saw what Harlow had described. The magic gently flowed upwards, some turned slightly different directions than others, but upwards still. He wasn't sure what to do with that knowledge. He watched some of the moving mages, and as one crossed the back of the room he saw it. The magic was moving up and drifting slightly to the north, but as the mage moved, so did the trail of power. He watched another mage walk some distance away. Same thing. He pocketed his lens and tried to think, if he were hiding the device and an ancient spirit spell where would he do it?

"Shadow pox it the roof." He smacked his forehead and dashed to the stairwell. Up and up to the top floor he went. He looked at the ceiling, walking the halls. The access had to be there somewhere. He rounded two corners before he found it. There, in the North East corner was a drop down ladder and wooden door. He reached up and pulled down the whole thing as quietly as he could and scrambled up the ladder.

The roof was actually fairly large. The wind from the sea danced around him, pulling at his clothes and making him squint. The salt licked his skin and attacked his new clothes. He stepped out of the hatch and closed the door as the first rumble of thunder shook his bones. A few scant drops of water began to chill his face as they were blown into him.

"Where the hells are you?" Jak pulled his lens out and scouted out the roof. He didn't see anything at first, then in the middle he saw the glow of power. Many colors of power, tangled together and struggling. He cautiously walked towards the light to find a dozen or so devices scattered over the middle of the roof in a large round pattern. That's why the powers drifted up and slightly different directions. Each ring of wire had slightly different crystals in it than the next. In the middle of the rings of crystals lay a pile of bones. Old ones. Human ones. The pat pat pat of the rain grew stronger.

"Where are you?" Jak yelled into the wind, it stole his voice and whisked it out to sea. He looked around the roof and couldn't see anyone at first, but there was a large rock to the side that someone smaller could hide behind possibly. Jak put a hand on his favorite dagger and slowly walked towards the stone. Blue light was spreading form behind the granite as he approached.

"Give it up, I've got more comin' and you can't resist us all." Jak bluffed. The glow of blue light swelled behind the rock and out stepped a willowy woman with a neat bun and blue robes.

"Are you Ghilda?" Jak asked, dagger drawn. Her answer was a huge wave of water. She had been gathering it behind the granite rock, the light was her collecting the rain. Magic waves slammed into Jak, he lost his truesight lens as it was pulled from his fingers and smacked into his eye, stinging and making his vision blur. He was knocked back from the force, but he managed to keep a hand on his dagger and draw the other. He struggled to raise and defend himself, but the pressure kept coming. The water that had already knocked into him and flowed away moved itself into position to do it again. Ghilda walked slowly over to him, her palms out and the blue mark on her neck glowing.

"Why?" Jak roared over the wind. "You're killing people!"

She said something, because her mouth moved. What it was Jak couldn't tell. When her head snapped to the side so did his, the rush of water was stopping him from hearing anything, but he saw with relief Anders running towards them. The water let up just enough that Jak could roll out of the pressure and he stood.

"Ghilda, what are you doing?" Anders distress cracked his voice.

"I didn't want you to find out like this. Please understand, let me tell you what I'm doing." Ghilda pleaded.

"Don't let her sweet talk you!" Jak growled and ran for Ghilda, but she was ready. Despite the struggling emotion on her face she had no trouble lifting a hand and throwing all the power she had at Jak, it knocked him back across the roof and his head slammed into one of the rings of crystals. The world around him swirled in his vision, his left eye still couldn't see from the sting of having glass pushed into it. His eyes fluttered, struggling to see, then darkness.

"Ghilda..." Anders was at a loss. That wasn't the Ghilda he knew. She had the same willowy figure, the same grace with every step, her hair was even in a bun. But the beautiful crinkles to the side of her eyes were gone. The silvery strands that shone at her temples were brown and dark. She didn't move with trouble, she looked,... maybe thirty? Her heart was clearly torn, it shone on her face, but none the less she flung Jak across the wet stone roof and he lay there motionless.

"Anders." She started walking forward slowly. "I couldn't leave Oulan here, and I can't make the journey to Linmead with creaking bones."

"Oulan? Your late husband? Ghilda he's been dead since before I met you!" Anders chest was tight, he stumbled backwards a step. "You have to stop what you're doing, it's hurting people! Mages have died!"

"No, I know." She winced. "It was never supposed to be that strong. Your design is so efficient, and with the spell, it just happened that way. But I have nearly enough, just help me bring my Oulan back and we can put this all behind us."

"How are we going to put this behind us? You stole my invention and put me through weeks of struggle getting it back, just to have you throw it in my face when you were done with it! You've killed people!" Anders yelled. Thunder rolled overhead and the rain still came down.

"I told you, I didn't mean to!" She pleaded. "And the medics think this is a sickness. I've been healing the really bad ones as best I can. I'm so close, I can stop this today and no one has to die."

"And you think no one is going to question your sudden youth?" He yelled over the brewing storm. "That we were going to just walk out of here after my tests and travel together? How were you going to explain Oulan to me? Or was it going to be more lies?"

"Anders, please understand." Tears mixed with the rain on her face, dripping freely off her chin. "I did this for you too, your family isn't going to forgive you. You have nowhere to go, I care for you as a child! I've helped you these past many years, now I'm asking for a little forgiveness and a little help. My love and I will be there for you, be the family you never got to have!"

"Ghilda can't you hear how crazy you sound?" Anders shook. "You have to stop this, I've read that spell Ghilda, you are going to kill dozens more people and still not have the power you need."

"That's why I need you Anders!" She cried. "You have no idea how much power you really contain. You just can't control it, you're afraid to use it. Help me, add your device to mine and end the spell."

Anders stared at her. He took in her brown eyes, her strong blue mages mark. The strength of her hands, the grace in her movement. To watch her walk was to watch a river sprout legs and dance across the room. He took in every good thing he could remember about Ghilda, and he raised his hands to the sky.

The clouds opened an end of days overhead. White rivers of lightning cascaded over Anders's body, licking his arms and devouring his robes. His eyes glowed; he was nearly blind from the light of his own power. He turned to the center of the roof and burst forth a stream of burning power the size of a tree trunk.

Ghilda watched with anticipation as Anders streamed power over the devices. If they took in even a portion of it she could raise Oulan tonight.

"Yes! That's it!" Ghilda dried her eyes and watched in wonder at Anders 's power.

He could feel his flesh heating up. He hadn't had so much unbridled magic surge through his bones since the day he got his powers. His sleeves were gone and who knows what state the rest of him was in. He could feel the rings of other powers as though the lightning was an extension of him. Touching them, hearing them sing. The other rings tasted of earth, of water, of light. They tasted of foreign powers, strange but familiar in that they too were magic. After feeling them, Anders gave them a little push.

The lightning didn't want to go into the crystals and gems of the other kinds of magic. The stones weren't receptive to his power; he knew they wouldn't be from years of testing different stones. He put steadily more pressure on the other rings until they had to take in at least some of it.

"Yes, it's working!" Ghilda said delighted.

Anders fed them more power. His shoulders were starting to burn with the heat. He could feel the

rings filling with magic. The stones were at a straining point. Sweat evaporated off his brow the second it formed. One more push and he felt the first crack. An amethyst shattered a good amount of wind magic rained down into the air around the middle of the roof.

"Stop!" Ghilda looked on in horror as the other crystals began to crack with too much power. She rushed as close as she dared to Anders, who was still consumed by the storm overhead.

Magic rained down over the Keep. Anders could feel it seep below. Good, he thought. Walls and ceilings of man meant nothing to the powers of nature. The magic was about to rain down over the sick; the draining of power should already be stopping too. With the newfound rush of magic no more should be on the brink of death.

"Stop!" Ghilda pleaded. "Anders you've ruined it!"

Anders let the last trickle of power he could summon burst the last gemstone. Empty wires holding scant traces of power were all that remained on the roof of Whitethorn. When he let his power subside he registered three thoughts. One, he had not one stitch of clothing left. Two, there were definitely armored soldiers behind him. Three Ghilda had a huge tidal wave of rain hovering ferociously over him. Those were the last three thoughts he could form before blacking out.