The entire building was ablaze by the time Lex had finished gathering his gear.
Despite the spreading flames, most of it was relatively undamaged, but several small items that were necessary foci for particular spells had already caught fire and were almost totally destroyed. Nevertheless, Lex collected them as well, knowing that the repair spell he had – one of the smattering of divine spells that the Night Mare had bestowed upon him – would be able to restore them. But, practically speaking, that would take some time; due to the extremely small amount of divine magic that he could use per day, and the more pressing issues that required its application, such as creating food or healing the injured, repairing his gear would be a slow process.
Which means that, for now, we’re completely cut off from the rest of Equestria, realized Lex as he picked up the twisted ruins of what had once been an ornate mirror. Although he’d prepared a scrying spell – allowing him to spy on someone from afar, presuming that the magic was able to focus in on them – it required the mirror to function. He had prepared it so that, once a connection had been established, he could try and project his voice through the conduit via the same spell that he used to transfer his whispering to Sonata. In that way, it would have been possible to have an entire conversation with someone in a remote location. The only decision left had been whether or not to swallow his pride and contact the princesses for help once he’d gotten back to the shelter. But that was a moot point now.
He had other long-range communication spells, of course – specifically one that allowed for reciprocal messages of twenty-five words or less to be exchanged with an individual, regardless of their location – but the scrying spell was the only one that he’d actively prepared. Now he’d need to rest and replenish his magic if he wanted to send a long-range message either way. It was another setback in what had been a seemingly endless series of them ever since he’d arrived in Vanhoover…though at least it meant that he had some more time before having to figure out whether or not to call on the princesses.
Giving a sigh as he gathered the last of his things, Lex had just finished shoving them into his extradimensional pack when a burning rafter crashed down a few feet to his left, causing him to start in surprise. Just that small motion was enough to make his head swim, and he felt another bout of nausea start to come on. Fighting it down, he started towards the exit. He might still be protected from fire, but if the building collapsed on him, he’d be in trouble…and the fact that such a thing hadn’t occurred to him before now, to say nothing of not having thought to return to shadow-form before he’d entered, was enough to make him realize just how bad off he was.
Lurching out of the building, Lex had barely stepped out of it when Sonata ran towards him. “Finally! I was getting worried!”
“I’m f-”
“Don’t even try to say you’re fine! You’re, like, totes beaten up!” Despite Sonata’s words, there was no heat in her voice. Quite the opposite, she was still kicking herself for having been so taken with Aria’s unexpected reappearance that she’d forgotten how awful Lex looked. “Come on, we’re going back right now so those doctors we brought can patch you up.”
“No.” Lex started to shake his head, but immediately stopped when just that motion made him sway dangerously. Sonata was by his side in an instant, letting him lean against her, and he didn’t protest her help. She was the one person whose assistance wasn’t an indictment of his strength. “We have to put that fire out first.”
Frowning, Sonata knew better than to protest; that would just make him get all snippy. Instead, she shot a look over at Aria, who had been sullenly watching their exchange. "You do it!” she snapped. It was finally starting to get through to her that Aria was part of the reason that her boyfriend was hurt so bad. “If you’ve got different magic now, you have a spell for that, right?”
“I don't,” snorted Aria, making sure to give her sister a bored look to show just how unconcerned she was with whatshisname. “And even if I did, I used up most of my magic earlier, so nothing doing.”
Sonata scowled. “So you’re, like, no help at all then.”
“I don’t want to hear that from you.”
“Hey! What’s that supposed to mean?!”
“Exactly what you think it means,” sneered Aria. “Oh, wait, thinking’s not your strong point, right? Fine, I’ll explain it: it means that you’re still the same useless idiot you always were, needing to be led around by someone else just t-”
“Shut up,” interrupted Lex, glaring at Aria harshly. His voice was soft, but it carried an absolute command that caused her jaw to close with an audible snap.
“Hah! Serves you right!” jeered Sonata. She turned to give Lex a big grin, only to be reminded of why she’d started fighting with Aria in the first place as she again saw how ragged he looked. “I mean, um…let’s, like, totes put that fire out.”
“I’ll do it myself,” retorted Lex, the harsh edge in his voice causing Sonata to wince slightly. Not noticing her discomfort, he moved slightly away from her, standing on his own four hooves as he turned around and faced the burning structure. Taking a deep breath to steady himself, he held a hoof out towards the flames and concentrated. Slowly, black crystals began to spread over the structure…
Lex knew that he didn’t have sufficient dark magic remaining to completely cover the place. He wouldn’t have had enough even if he’d been completely replenished. But that was only taking his normal capabilities into account. If he pushed himself the way he had when he’d fought the dragon, when he’d utilized his ability to enhance magic via bodily strain in conjunction with his dark magic, then he felt sure that he should be able to cover the entire building. It had worked then, which meant that there was no reason why it shouldn’t work now.
Holding his breath with the effort, Lex couldn’t suppress a low groan at the level of exertion it required, but he could feel it working. Even as he watched, the black crystals spread further, and where they moved the fire was instantly quenched, being unable to burn the solidified darkness. It was still using up a lot of his dark magic, but the results were far beyond what he’d ever have been able to achieve ordinarily.
Finally, the entire building was encompassed, and Lex lowered his hoof, panting with effort. Next to him, Sonata gave a cheer. “Wow! You, like, made the whole place into a big ugly snow globe! Can I try shaking it?”
Lex opened his mouth to reply, but didn’t have a chance before the world suddenly began to spin. He tried to keep his balance, but the sudden pain in his side let him know that he’d failed, and he heard Sonata call his name in alarm. A moment later he felt her grip him and try to get him back on his hooves, and that made things even worse. Reflexively, he pushed her away, managing to turn his head to the side just before he was violently ill, emptying the contents of his stomach onto the ground.
Sonata recoiled, and it was only after Lex had finished throwing up that she tentatively approached him again. When he didn’t push her back this time, she moved to let him lean on her again, just listening to him pant for breath for a moment before speaking. “Okay, for realsies. Doctor. Now. We don’t have Fireflower’s brother here if you get any worse.”
Aria watched quietly as the two of them began to stagger towards the warehouse, Sonata half-carrying that stallion. Silently, she bit her lip, hoping against hope that he was too hurt to remember her. She felt sure that if she just had a little more time, she’d be able to slip out of whatever it was he’d done to her, and then she’d be able to get away! But they hadn’t even gone a half-dozen steps when he managed to half-glance back at her and softly mutter “follow.” Even as she heard the command, she started to move, floating slowly behind the pair.
As they reached their destination, Lex mentally lowered the illusion covering the door, only to blink in surprise as he saw that said door now had a hole large enough for two ponies to pass through in the middle of it. Sonata chuckled weakly. “Oh yeah, I forgot. So, um, it turned out that the door wouldn’t open, so I kinda had to get a teensy bit medieval on it.”
Lex tried to glare at her, but in his current condition it was little more than a sidelong glance. “This is a major breach in our defenses,” he muttered darkly. But there was little he could do about it in his current state, and the two of them stumbled inside, Aria following a moment later.
Once inside, the pace was slow, but Lex was able to easily guide them through the misty passages back to the shelter, causing Sonata to have to fight the urge to roll her eyes. She’d gotten lost several times while trying to leave, only finding the way out through sheer dumb luck. A moment later they passed through the black mist, and it was Lex’s turn to look disgusted when he saw that the door to the interior office was in the same condition as the exterior door.
Putting the matter out of his thoughts for now, he instead focused on the next thing that needed to be taken care of. Although he could already see several ponies looking at them through the open doorway, he was more concerned about the floating scythe in the air behind them. “Severance,” he called softly, and it floated closer obediently. Turning his head just barely to try and fight down the dizziness that threatened to send him sprawling again, he spoke to Aria. “Go lie down against the outer wall of this office and stay there.” When she moved to obey, he turned back to Severance, gripping it in his telekinesis to establish a two-way line of communication. “That…Siren, is my prisoner. Do not let her leave or cast any spells. If she tries to do either, incapacitate her.”
“Lex...” Sonata’s voice was thick with worry, glancing between him and Severance. “It won’t, I mean,” she turned to regard the scythe directly, “you won’t, like…seriously hurt her, right?”
Lex was silent for a moment, then repeated what the living weapon had told him. “Severance can cut without wounding, apparently.”
Sonata’s head cocked to the side in incomprehension. “What does that mean?”
“It means that she won’t be in any serious danger.” He paused then, and turned to regard Aria directly, knowing that she’d heard what they’d said. Nevertheless, he could feel that his control over her was getting ready to expire, and he wasn’t going to be in a position to renew it this time. So it would be best to make it clear to her what he expected of her for now. “You’re to stay there until I’m ready to deal with you. I strongly advise you not to try anything in the meantime.” His statement was punctuated by Severance moving to hover over the pouting Siren.
“And who exactly made you the boss of me?” Aria shot back sourly.
“The Night Mare,” answered Lex, managing a smirk as he turned away from her and headed inside.