Of Loestru

The mage Loestru laughed as they shut the castle gates to him.

A smile lighted his face as he slowly rose in the air, caught up by an unfelt wind. His smile widened as he shot threw the air, a trail of smooth purple mist left streaking the space behind him. A groove was left in the ground as he flew over it, a lasting impression of his sheer force. He flew straight at the castle gates, his eyes ablaze with a dark fire. The smile disappeared, his face a stone, emotionless.

The wooden gates of the rich castle shattered as he flew through them, the iron hinges torn from the walls and sent spinning through the air. Loestru slowed and halted, coming to a stop floating high above a large courtyard filled with awestruck peasants.

"I told you I was sent here!" His enraged voice echo'ed into every crack of the castle, not one there missed it, "I come as a messenger!"

With that he unleashed a great ball of blue flame streaking toward a nearby tower. The side of the tower imploded as the flame sunk into it and the tower itself began to fall in on the courtyard. People screamed as they ran, trying to escape the falling stones. The crowd trampled itself into the ground, providing an easy target for the massive structure. A ground-shaking crash sounded as the tower collapsed on the them, crushing hundreds.

Loestru watched, emotion returned in full to his flaming eyes, and smiled as the tower struck. Archers had been assembled on the walls around the tower and began launching volleys at the wizard under the command of their captains. Every one of the many arrows snapped in half before reaching their mark.

The wizards eyes turned to the walls while he lifted his hand in the air. A whole wall of archers rose into the air, horrified looks dawning on thier faces. They were suddenly flung back and tossed outside the castle walls. The other archers saw this and began to run; panic spread through their ranks and they joined the remainder of the crowd in the courtyard.

"I come for the king and his wench!"

"The Lord have mercy!" King Aethos knelt before the statue of a crucified Christ as he prayed, his eyes running with tears of fear. "Spare us this!"

The chamber where he knelt contained not only the king, but his wife and several chief advisors. All knelt.

The immense stone wall of the chamber, the one closest to the inner part of the castle, began to shake and tremble. All heads rose and turned to the direction of the wall, staring with wide, wet eyes.

Almost calmly, the wall slowly removed itself from the room, floating through the air wholly intact. The people in the room could now see the destruction that now was the castle. The king's wife let out a scream at the sight of bodies crushed under the fallen tower.

The wall suddenly fell to the ground, landing on the fleeing crowd, and Loestru appeared in its stead. "Hello, king, how pleasant of you to see me."

"Please, Eneri, don't do this!"

"Silence, whore! Your words fall short of what I would call 'sincere'. Meet your fate as you deserve."

Pleas started to rise from the king and his advisory, but all fell on deaf ears. Loestru smiled a new smile, a open-mouthed smile that showed all his pearl-white teeth, and his eyes grew wide. Not with fear, but excitement.

"Love yourself.