"You know I am going to start calling myself by my ring," Coing said. The Lady had left us ten minutes ago and we were alone again on the clifftop. The temple had literally vanished behind us leaving a steep drop. "Diamond, that has a nice ring to it, authoritative don't you think."

"You're not in charge Coing but you can go call yourself whatever you want," Biser scoffed.

"And what if I want to be in charge?" Coing asked raising a hand with a fireball.

"Coing," I warned, "you had better back down from this." It wasn't the brightest thing to say but it wasn't the best time for me. "There are more of us than you. Even if the Lady gave you fireballs"

Coing smiled, I had never liked him and now he was proving himself again. "Count again Sento. You see a few of us have been talking and we don't like what The Lady said. We won't be led by the village trickster."

I noticed it now: Cognassier, Quitte, Dunja, and Kvitten were standing behind, backing him up.

"Kvitten? How could you!" I cried. She didn't meet my eye, but she looked ashamed. Apparently nowhere near ashamed enough to back down but ashamed of what she was doing. I glanced around for help but Aya and Kotogne were backing away. I shouldn't have been surprised; Aya hated conflict and would always back down from it unless it came from a friend. As for Kotogne, I should be thankful she wasn't joining her sister. There was no way she would be fighting her sister. Biser and I stood alone against the five of them on the open stone mountaintop. We fought.

Coing struck first sending a fireball at us. We ducked and I quickly retaliated sending a rock shooting at him. It bounced right off deflected by a shield made of wind whipping around him.

I cursed looking for cover. We were too exposed on the plain. Biser saw it first and pulled me to a nearby rock outcropping; what I wouldn't give for a steel bunker like Kotogne's. Of course she did make that one herself.

A shudder stuck the stone above us. It was Quitte wielding Icebreaker.

"Too bad we both went for swords; I guess the less glorious weapons are sometimes better." I laughed; that was Biser always cracking a joke no matter the circumstances. If it hadn't been our lives on the line I might have actually found that comment entertaining.

"High Blood Biser, what kind of a joke is that?"

"The best kind, one of mine."

Biser leaped out of cover calling for his comet and leaped twenty feet through the air at Quitte and Dunja. Grinning I joined him.

We played keep away and divide and conquer trying to split Quite and Dunja off from Kvitten Coing and Cognassier. We quickly learned that telekinetics were very useful to move across the battlefield with speed. We had to avoid the fireballs and Coing quickly learned to use wind to restrict our movement but throughout the early part of the battle we were gaining the upper hand. The battle began to rage as they formed a group to charge us. It wasn't until Coing blended fire and earth magic that we got into trouble

***

The fireball with some elemental earth added in struck the stone between me and Biser. I was blown off my feet and the ground cracked. Biser fell away from me near the cliff. He stood up smiled and that was when Coing let loose all his earth powers. The ground heaved and the area near Biser broke away. The Cliffside literally collapsed.

He was plummeting down to his death and I had other problems. As horrible a thing that is to say it was true; Coing was still pelting me with fireballs and Quitte was close to breaking into my mind. We... I couldn't really attack them as Dunja would just heal away any of their wounds and Cognassier was quickly advancing on me. I didn't stand a chance against his strength. He would toss me off the cliff like a mole went through dirt.

Nine of us made immortal. What did that accomplish; in less than an hour one of us was dead with another on the way. I had only one hope left. The Lord said my power was twofold, the telekinetics and the enhanced mind. I had to channel all my power into my mind and hope I could come up with a plan to win, or at least stalemate.

A light flickered on above my head, just another fireball but this one gave me an idea. Swearing to always remember how a light above my head helped, I charged out of cover and threw Cognassier and Dunja off the cliff. Well I held them off the cliff dangling them by a leg with telekinesis so they could see the drop before their eyes.

"If you throw one more fireball at me I drop them!" I shouted above Coing's elemental wind. The wind dropped and the fireballs stopped.

"Good," I said, "now that we are all talking nice-like lets discuss a ceasefire. And a ceasewind, and a cease-mind-attack." I was pleased that the illusions, wind, fireballs, and mental assault had abated, but I was scared it could start up at any time and nothing would save me then. "Aya get over here and mediate, please." Aya who had hidden behind a solid steel outcropping with Kotogne slowly made her way over to me.

"Aya please," I whispered, "They said you were the divine voice. Please convince them to leave me alive."

Aya hesitated. "If they hear it from me they will ignore it because they know I have power over them. But here, Kotogne and I figured out that we can give each other power. Take it Sento." I felt a warm sensation running through my body and resting on my tongue as Aya ran back to her steel bunker.

I called out to my five opponents, "You have what you wanted, Biser is dead. There is no one I can still fight for and if I continue I will lose. However, I can still throw a few of you off this cliff." I paused for a moment before continuing, "I want Quitte to remove this entire fight from everyone's mind and have us instead remember how Biser gave his life defending us from some evil. He may be dead but I want his memory respected. Second I want to live and be free of your rule Coing."

"It's Diamond," he called, but didn't raise an objection.

I looked at Quitte and she nodded her assent. Kvitten wouldn't even look at me anymore. I hoped she felt a deep seething shame. Why had she betrayed me so? Never mind what's done is done I commanded myself to think. A very tiny part of myself continued. You don't really believe that do you. I refused to yield to that part even if it was right.

I pulled Cognassier and Dunja back from the drop and left them on the stone ground. They were screaming their compliance.

We all moved closer to the centre, Kvitten and Aya came out of their bunker to join us.

"Are you sure this is what you want?" Aya asked me.

"It's what Biser would have wanted."

"No it's not."

"Biser is dead Aya! Dead on a field when a friend abandoned him."

"You're abandoning him now," her voice came quiet this time. There were tears in her eyes; Lord and Lady had I caused those?

I knew I had gone too far, that I was talking out of rage but the words just kept streaming out of me, "I'm not going to follow his fate for a memory! I know I'm abandoning him Aya, I watched him fall. I could have done something earlier but I watched him fall." Sweet Lady there were tears in my eyes to, I was crying.

It was Kotogne that spoke next, "You both made your decisions, change is inevitable and there is no sense looking back. My own brother is dead! We have all lost friends and family Sento! We can't just." She sobbed, "we... can- can't keep ... loo...looking... back on our past mistakes. I will just make us sad." Those last six words really struck true. I made my decision I would join the others in the memory wipe. I would forget this battle, only they could I forgive all my friends.

"You're right Kotogne." Those words seemed to dispel some of our gloom. "We can't just keep looking back we need to look forward." I glanced at Kvitten. She looked away as soon as she saw I had caught her staring at me. I would never feel that way about her again. For I had seen her broken heart.

"Don't judge my sister too harshly Sento." I looked at her, "Remember that she lost her brother too. And her mother and... Daddy." Kotogne started crying. I wanted to comfort her but I didn't know how to. I looked at Aya for support, and I found that she was crying too. What could I do, I joined them. I cried for Biser, I cried for Rasha, I cried for the entire town. I praised the Lord and Lady High that at least one of my old friends had made it through this, lastly I cried because I could not make my savior stop being sad.

And then Quitte let her power loose destroying all our memories of the argument and fight. She left everything that came after but removed anything that was important to the fight or argument that preceded it. It came as a complete shock. I wasn't sure if it was because I had left my mental shields up after the fight or if it was that my ring threw the barriers up at the last moment; but her power washed over and around my barriers but didn't scratch my mind. They all forgot everything about the fight and mind wipe, all but me.

"I think I will go by my gemstone name now," Kvitten said. "Sapphire is such a pretty name don't you think." I liked her name but felt too betrayed to make any comment on how her name was pretty. The others quickly chimed in about how it was and how they were changing their names now too.

They all looked at me and I realized what they were expecting. "Well, I guess Topaz isn't such a bad name after all." I smiled at them and forced myself to relax, they had all forgotten so I would have to forgive. For the Topaz was the essence of memory.