Mightstone vs. Weakstone

Then there was a new glow visible through the windows. The golden radiance of the lamp was joined, then overwhelmed, by beacons of red and green.

Ahmahl lowered his arm. He had never seen such colors before from a lamp. He wondered if the brawl had started a fire. Suddenly the idea of letting the two young men pummel each other into understanding did not seem as wise as it had a moment before.

"The stones," said Tocasia, her voice dry with fear.

"They are using the stones against each other."

***

The brothers were at opposite ends of the room. Each clutched his stone. Urza's flickered with red bolts of flame, while Mishra's radiated lances of greenish light. The bolts met in the center, almost as if physical arms grappled with one another, each color trying to overwhelm the other.

The display of power was taking its toll on the brothers.

Mishra was sweating like a winded horse; blood streamed from his nostrils. Urza's face was a rictus of concentration and pain, and he too was bleeding from the nose. Mishra was slightly crouched, while his brother stood haughty and erect. Each clung to his power stone with both hands.

The room itself had been affected by the bolts of might and weakness—it was hot in the cabin. The air shimmered with a song of power, a rising, throbbing noise that grew louder each moment. Neither young man would yield, and the space between them glowed brighter by the moment.

***

Tocasia broke one of the ruby-green, jade-red beams. As one, both brothers stared up at her. Their concentrations slipped, their lancing beams suddenly sprayed in all directions… .

And the room exploded.

Ahmahl felt himself physically lifted by the blast and thrown backward, out where the door should have been.

The blast blew away all four of the walls and most of the roof and showered the observers outside with splinters and flaming chunks of wood.

***

The Brother's War, Chapter 5