I is for It All Ends Here

I finally finished my Fifteen serial!  This is part six.  You can find the first five here, here, here, here, and here.

            Amelia brandished her staff, facing the looming darkness in the valley below.  Her heart leapt.  The moisture in her throat evaporated.  “It all ends here,” she said.
            A gust of wind soared up the mountainside, ruffling Amelia’s woven hair.  She fought against it, stalking down the slope, her staff a walking stick.
            “The Strength runs deep in this one,” came a voice below.  It could have been a knife scratching stone.  “But not deep enough.”
            “Weakener, you shan’t be wakeful a day longer.  It all ends here.”
            The ground rumbled.  Tendrils of cast-up dirt lashed at Amelia, fueled by the phantom breeze.  Her expression remained hard.  “Come, if you are so wrought with determination,” the voice stated.
            “Fly,” Amelia said, and her feet picked up from the earth.  She wafted there for a moment, almost smiling.  Then she kicked her legs and jettisoned down toward her foe.
            “Clever too,” mocked the voice.  “A pity you must be killed.  I would have liked you as my new apprentice.”
            “You say that as if you shall live this day,” Amelia cried, her speech amplified by the vortex of air propelling her.  She pointed her staff out like a spear.
            “Likewise, little mage.”
            Amelia spotted the dark form of Tovorchica, standing at the lowest point in the valley.  Her face was pale as snow, yet her hair was the darkest of black.  She grinned far too wide.
            “The end?” Tovorchica said, shrugging back her shoulders.  She took a step back.
            Amelia slammed into the grass.  It lie dull and broken where the Weakener had last stood.  “Unleashing,” she said, faint, yet determined.  Her body quivered as she struck out with her staff, hitting Tovorchica in the chest.
            The world turned to color: black, white, red, yellow, blue.  All was nothing.  Nothing flashed to gold.  Gold flashed to clear, blinding light.  The valley settled, lush and green as if it had never changed.  Not a soul stirred.