Authors Note: Sorry this was so long! Don't forget to read part three! ;)

Part Four: The Wizard.

Bayes sat alone in his room, meditating. Ysabella had set the apple to charge, he could feel it, slowly draining the power from around him. He lost himself in the tranquil motion of it, like leaves floating on top of a cracked birdbath. Now that he knew what he was looking for, it was easy to see, to sense.

Time passes slowly when you’re waiting, but for Bayes it almost did not pass at all. The flow of magic was endless, only Ysabella’s spells shutting down one-by-one left anything for him to measure against. But either way, he did not care. Meditating as he was, it was meaningless. All of it. The apple, Ysabella, himself.

He was secluded within his own mind, but that did not mean he was at peace. It was all meaningless, yet somehow it ate at him. He knew it was wrong. He knew he was wrong. In the abyss of his meditation he kept seeing his father, not as he remembered him, but as he was now. As he would have looked before he died. He looked old. Like he’d lead a long hard life but had gotten through it.

He could bring him back, be at his side. Make it easier. Change everything.

It was wrong, Bayes knew it, but what happened to him was just as wrong. He was ripped out of his world and thrown in another, given power he didn’t want. His very mind was stolen from him. Two wrong don’t make a right. But it would for him. It would make it right. He was prepared.

But there was one thing he needed to do first.

Bayes opened his eyes. The curtains were drawn across the window but it seemed like it was growing dark. He was sitting cross-legged on the bed, and as soon as he was aware of himself again the aching in his head came back. He ignored it and stood up.

He didn’t know where Ysabella was, he could not sense her, which likely meant she was in her mother’s study. She would come for him soon. He didn’t have much time. But he didn’t need much, only enough to be sure of something.

He walked downstairs and found the hag as a cat lounging on the couch, claws poking holes in the plastic covering.

“I need to speak to you,” he said. The cat looked at him, eyes as sharp as her claws. Other than an idle flick of her tail, she did not react.

“Now,” Bayes snapped. The cat looked away. “I need to talk about Ysabella,. Please, it is important.”

Their eyes met again. “I want to stop her,” he said, and instantly the hag transformed. One moment she was a cat, and the next, a woman. As if she was a song with a skip, the time in between was just missing.

“You will betray her? How could you?! Die!” the hag screeched, extending a finger toward Bayes. Bayes made a shield of magic before she could speak another word, but she did not strike him. Her hand trembled in the air, and then she coughed and collapsed back against the couch. Bayes knelt beside her and took her hand in his. She stared hate at him from under her eyelids, but was too weak to lift her head. So long being a thrall, a tool, she could do nothing for herself anymore. Not even think, and before the night was done any shred of the person left inside her would be destroyed.

“I need to know how to fizzle the spell,” Bayes said. “I need to know how to stop her without hurting her. I need to know how to save you.”

“Save me? I am honored to do Ysabella’s bidding! To carry out her will!”

“No! You are her thrall, but you do not have to be! The spell is not complete, I know there is some of you left!”

“Get away from me! I will tell you nothing!”

“Just tell me if you want to be saved.” Bayes caught by the shoulders and held her still. Their eyes met and hers seemed every bit as animal as they had when she’d been a cat.

“No,” she whispered, but she did not look away or struggle against his grip. “No,” she repeated, tears slowly making tracks down her haggard face. “No.”

Bayes released her and stepped away. The hag transformed as soon as his hands were off her and scurried around him and down the hall.

He hadn’t meant what he said. He didn’t want to stop Ysabella, but he had needed to speak with the old lady, the hag. He’d needed to know who he was willing to destroy. He was perfectly willing to erase the world that was to find the world he wanted, but somehow the old witch’s tears held more sadness. He never knew her before, Bayes had no way of knowing what she was like. If she deserved it.

“Bayes!” Ysabella said, startling him. He turned to look at her. She was standing in the doorway that lead to the kitchen. She wore a white robe that was too long for her, it bunched up on the ground. She looked nervous.

“It’s okay,” Bayes said, smiling at her. “I’d be nervous too if I were going to become a god.”

“The moon is in the sky. It’s time.”

“Lead the way.”

Bayes follower her to the portal and waited in silence as the water closed over them. He calmly swam with her beside him, and they stepped onto the balcony in the study. The hag was there, standing next to the bowl and the apple, leaning on her cane. There was a wide circle of lit candles around the old woman that gave off a slightly pungent smell as the burned. The whole room was eerily cast in shadows and silent. The things that had bubbled on the tables were missing, the only sound in the room was that of their feet on the uneven stones.

They reached the candles and Ysabella said, “Sit on the far side. Do not let any part of you breach the ring once we start. Even if something goes wrong.”

“I know what to do, Ysabella,” Bayes said, looking at the hag.

“Take you place.” she said, and sat down across from him. Bayes crossed his legs. The stone floor was cold, but he ignored it. He focused his gaze on Ysabella now, and she returned it. They watched each other over the light of the candles.

“Ysabella,” he said. “Don’t do this.” Looking at her, the words were heavy and he trailed off.

“You said it yourself, Bayes. It will be alright. Together, it will be easy.”

“I’m not having doubts, Ysabella. For the first time since I met you, things are clear. You have been inside my head, controlling me.”

“I have used no magic on you, Bayes. I wouldn’t do that to you.”

“I know it isn’t magic, it’s something else. You’re in my head, and maybe you always will be, but I’m done being blinded by it.”

“It was not for me that you agreed to help!”

“I know. It was for myself. But I’m done being blinded by that too.” Bayes reached forward and very carefully put out the nearest candle with two fingers.

“to feel isn’t to be blind. You are hurting, Bayes. We can fix it. You couldn’t deal with it before, how will you now? Knowing that you could have changed it. If you miss this chance you will never get another.”

“I’ll deal with it. My father did. After losing me, he kept going. He survived. I will too. Maybe I’ll take up smoking.” Bayes smiled at her.

“I’m going to change the world, Bayes. If you won’t help, then get out. I was prepared to do this by myself before, and I am now. I don’t need you.”

“You have no idea how badly I want to just walk away, but change isn’t always good,” Bayes said, standing. “I won’t let you do this.”

“You’re a coward, Bayes.”

“And you’re a witch,” Bayes said, and took a step towards the apple.

There wasn’t a flash or a bang. The power that Ysabella unleashed didn’t travel through the air, but along it. It was invisible, but to Bayes it shone like the sun. It was raw magic, it didn’t come from her. She pulled it from around them, the energy that had been traveling into the apple was now directed at Bayes. And it was heavy.

Bayes reacted without thinking, a lifetime of training suddenly challenged. He made a shield, not to block the energy, but catch it.And then he made another. And another and another and another. Each one a fractal of the same working, splitting and branching again and again. He knew he could not hold against the energy, so he simply made somewhere else for it to go.

Bayes held infinity in his mind and a world of magic with his hands. He was driven to his knees by the power of it, but even an ocean can be swallowed a drop at a time. Bayes stood and took a step toward the apple. Ysabella lashed out with her own power, but it did not stop him.Bayes took one more step and kicked over the bowl with the apple.

Ysabella wasn’t nearly strong enough to pull that much energy herself, it was years of magical infrastructure that allowed her to channel it, and Bayes just threw a wrench in the gears. The flow of magic stopped, and Bayes let his shield drop. Ordinarily, so much energy released so quickly would be explosive, but this was raw magic without direction, and now that Ysabella’s spell was broken the magic snapped back to whatever in-between that it existed in.

Bayes and Ysabella starred at one another. And the hag took the opportunity to lunge for the apple. Mindless in her thrall and the need to please Ysabella. Bayes sent a bolt of his own magic and the apple exploded before the hag could reach it. She collapsed, sobbing.

“It’s over,” Bayes said. He took a step toward where Ysabella was still sitting on the ground. There were tears on her face.

“No it isn’t,” she said, wiping at her face. “You have stopped me. For now. But I can try again. It will take me a very long time, but I have the time.” She smiled at Bayes and very slowly got to her feet. “You don’t. You don’t have any time at all.”

“Don’t do this, Ysabella. We don’t have to fight.”

“It won’t be a fight. There is a reason witches were burned, Bayes. People have forgotten.”

“Do I need to burn you, Ysabella?”

Ysabellaanswered with fire. Bayes felt her magic, and then the air inside the cavern coalesced into flame in one searing flash. But heat and cold are both sides of the same coin, two extremes. All Bayes had to is push with his power, and the flames did nothing but blind him, chilly as the air from which they came.

Seeing spots from the flash, Bayes tried to ready himself for the next attack, but none came. Instead he heard someone running up the stone stairs toward the portal. He ran after her. By the time he ascended the stairs, she was gone, but he could feel the thrum of power from the portal. He reached it, touched the wall, and went through.

The living room was dark. Even the dangling Christmas lights were dead.

“The apple is destroyed, Bayes. My spells are powered again,” Ysabella said, her voice coming from everywhere at once. “You’re standing in the source of my power. Everything Obeys me here.”

“Not me,” Bayes said, and then the he felt a rush of magic behind him. He half turned, and saw the couch flying at him as if fired from a gun. Fast and slow are one and the same and easy to shift with a thought. The couch dropped from the air, momentum lost.

Bayes felt magic again, only this time it was all around him. Everything in the room was floating, chairs, lamps, tables, everything. It all flew at Bayes at once, streaking through the air, all seeking to be the first to crush him. Bayes pushed some out of the way with magic, and stopped others all together like he had the couch, but every time he threw one aside, it only lifted and came again.

And it was not only the furniture from the living room, knives from the kitchen drove at him and pans and stools. The carpet tore itself off the ground and began trying to wrap itself around him like a snake. Bayes held all of it off, but only barely, and he was losing ground.

He made a chair drop, then sidestepped a pair of knives, but the carpet bunched and he tripped, hitting the wall. As soon as he was down the carpet shifted again, rolling over him like water. At the same time the drywall behind him burst and filled the room with a white cloud of dust, making him cough and the flying knives nearly impossible to see before it was too late.

Bayes unleashed magic at the carpet that was binding him, tearing it to shreds and freeing his ankles. It came again, but not before he could lunge out of the way of the plastic couch. It hit the wall, kicking up more dust. Coughing, Bayes sent another burst of power toward the wall before the couch could come at him again. He blew it through the wall and into the snow outside, where it dropped to the ground, lifeless.

Ysabella’s spell did not extend outside.

Bayes batted the knives out of the air again, and chairs and lights and stools and tore at the carpet before it could hold him again. It all came again, and occasionally nails from the walls would work themselves out and add to the chaos. But now Bayes threw things out of the house and into the night whenever he could spare his attention.

He blew a hole in the wall on the opposite side. Several knives went spiraling out of the hole and didn’t return. Bayes sent a wave that carried a cloud of nails and books out the window. He defended himself, and slowly it got easier.

More nails came from the walls and springs ripped themselves out of furniture and came at him, but Bayes knew how to deal with it. It was a waiting game, and he had the time. The air from outside was clearing the dust, he burned wood splinters to ash before they could touch him and one-by-one he threw the contents of the house outside where they dropped to the ground, free of magic.

He dealt with another cloud of nails, and then he felt a new rush of magic from the doorway. Ysabella was there, he could see her mouth moving as if she was speaking a spell. Bayes sent a burst of power at her, but she blocked it as easily as he had the nails. He attacked again, and found the edges of her shield. He hammered at it with blow after blow, and felt it begin to break, all while she frantically spoke her spell. More furniture flew at him and he cast them all aside.

He put a crack along the middle of her shield, and felt his magic seep in past hers. It wasn’t that Bayes was any stronger, they were equals, but he’d had a lifetime to practice. He could hold off the remaining missiles and still break through her shield.

He sent one more bolt and her shield overloaded, before she could try for another he picked her up with magic and threw her outside in the darkness. He followed her out, jumping down andpicking his way carefully through the minefield of nails and knives in the snow.

She was sprawled in the snow a few feet from him. Her lips still moved, she still chanted. She threw a fireball at him. He pushed at it with his own power and it missed him, exploding somewhere in the house.

“Stop fighting, Ysabella,” Bayes said, standing at her side. Bayes reached down to stop her chanting. She kicked at him and twisted away, desperate to finish her spell. Bayes grabbed her arm and held tight, clapping his other over her mouth. He was too late.

She spoke the last word and there was a tremendous outpouring of power. Bayes felt his whole body tingle. He turned to look at the house, and saw it fading. It was fading from sight, and his magic sense. In another second it was gone. The entire building was just missing.

“Where did you send it?” He shouted. Ysabella was standing, snow drifting around her.

“Far away.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m not done. I have given my life to changing the world, Bayes. I won’t let you stop me.”

“I just did.”

“I’m still breathing.” And with her words she attacked, shooting three bolts at Bayes. He brought up a shield and blocked them, pitting his strength against hers. She struck again and Bayes knocked them aside, melting snow and sending up clods of frozen earth wherever they landed.

Bayes blocked another strike and then sent one of his own. Ysabella blocked it, bringing up a shield of her own.

The shield would protect her from energy, but not heat. Bayes sent a wave of fire that flowed around her and blocked her from view. He didn’t stop. He pumped more and more fire at Ysabella until they were like a beacon in the night, a spinning conflagration.

When Bayes finally stopped Ysabella was gone, burnt away, nothing left but dust on the wind.

Bayes stood there a long time, resting, and mourning. The snow fell around him as he sat in the snow. He waited until he could hear distant sirens, and then he moved to inspect the house to see if there were any sign of the old woman. Among the wreckage, he found nothing, but the front stairs were still there and on them he found a piece of paper with only the word “thank” written on it in scrawled letters. He picked up the paper and something was underneath it.

An apple stem, slightly burned at one end. Bayes tucked it in his coat pocket and looked around at the snow. The sirens were close now. Bayes didn’t know where he was going to go, but he figured he might as well try somewhere warm.