Nissa - Discount Countermagic

She took another deep breath. This is magic. Powerful magic. She shuddered as she contemplated the eternal nightmare facing any unprepared initiate who failed this trial. But as powerful as the magic was, it was still composed of leylines. And Nissa had no small mastery of those.

For most of her life, Nissa's understanding and manipulation of leylines was instinctive. But every time she relied on instinct in here, she stayed trapped in nightmare. She needed more than instinct. She needed to understand.

She gazed intently at the magical structure around her, its shape and feel, the way the leylines wove together to produce such a horrible and absolute effect. She marveled at the strength and skill required to construct such a trap. It was beyond anything she had done. Yet.

There. In the weavings of magic surrounding her, there was a tiny gap. Small, but perceptible. Nissa tugged at the mana, continuing to keep her eyes closed, relying solely on her feel of the magic. She pushed and pulled at the opening, widening it with each tug.

The illusions intensified around her, calling her name, begging her to open her eyes, to see delight and horror, truth and fantasy, anything she wanted, only for the price of a twitch of an eyelid. She kept them tightly shut, and once the opening in her prison was wide enough, she stepped through.

She floated in an airy blue sky. No, not quite a sky. A pale blue canvas, empty, waiting for meaning. More illusion, but Nissa felt a sense of control, a wakefulness, that had eluded her during the nightmares. Below Nissa saw the remnants of the nightmare trap, dark purple swirls that had elicited such terror.

***

THE HAND THAT MOVES