Cranny led him around the rest of the center ring of cells. Each affinity’s version of himself was different and seemed to display a distinct personality. Cranny was unable to elaborate on what this could mean. The degree at which each version of himself was altered depended on his affinity level. While earth, water, and nature affinities matched Fire Affinity’s level of change, storm, lava, and cold affinities only showed changes to the hands and lower legs. Air Affinity was now level eight, and his entire semitransparent body seemed to be surrounded by a layer of swirling air.
Nature Affinity’s cell was the oddity by containing two versions of himself. One was covered in the bark of a tree while the other version looked almost like Phantom.
Once they finished with the center, Cranny gestured upwards. Above them, the uppermost pentagons were a bright white with a crystal pattern inlaid. The topmost pentagon was a pure white cell. As they neared, Danny could see a version of himself whose skin barely looked different than his current self, except for a crystal pattern faintly glowing across his flesh. The only other differences were that his eyes glowed white, as an aura of pure light emitted from his body. The cell was labeled “Harmony Affinity (7)”. Danny looked to Cranny in confusion.
“I sort of changed the name myself. This used to be Life Affinity until we received access to its opposite, the newest affinity. Thinking about what the two truly meant resulted in the change,” Cranny explained.
Danny looked around and, not seeing what he was looking for, asked, “What are you talking about? There are not any other affinities.”
Cranny pointed at the crystal in the center. “I spent some time in here before you woke up. I realized that any affinities that are polar opposites are separated by line of sight here.”
Drifting toward the bottom, they rounded the center crystal to see a swirling mass of darkness. Danny recognized different sized pieces of the pentagon walls swirling and breaking apart. Danny paused before gliding toward the cell at the bottom. This was his sanctuary; it couldn’t hurt him, could it? He started to panic when he realized that the cell in the middle of the dark whirlpool was hard to discern, and he feared he would be swallowed into the nothingness. His body bounced lightly off a wall of pure blackness. Nothing could be seen in front of him.
Danny was about to turn around to question Cranny when a pale ghost of a face quickly emerged from the void and stopped abruptly before him. The face had a grin that caused Danny's skin to crawl and pure black eyes that proclaimed the insanity that was barely kept inside. Danny unconsciously pushed away and drifted back toward the center crystal. As he drifted, Danny noticed dark veins running jaggedly through the face’s sickly pale flesh, appearing like dark cracks in an ancient porcelain vase.
Danny didn't breathe again until he had touched the crystal, and shakingly, he whispered, “Wha... what the hell is that?”
Cranny seemed to look everywhere but down at what Danny was referring to. Cranny shrugged uncomfortably, “When we disrupted the goblin shaman circle from casting the massive dark spell that would have assuredly destroyed the caravan, I think we took in a bit of that mana into ourselves and gained an affinity for it.”
Danny shook his head, “Can we get rid of it? What is it exactly?”
Cranny looked increasing uncomfortable, “I do not think we can rid ourselves of it. When I saw how it changed you into… Danny Freako… and then how the goblins used it, a name appeared in bright letters before fading into nothingness... ‘Entropy.’”
Gesturing to the top and bottom of the room, Cranny continued, “While one fortifies and brings things back as they should be, the other corrupts and tears them apart into nothingness.”
Danny looked confused for a second. “Was there a number next to the name?”
Cranny shook his head, “No, there wasn't. I can only come up with two theories on why. Either the sorcerers who created these sanctuaries didn't know about this affinity, or they purposely avoided rewarding anyone for gaining skill and understanding in its use… Based on his appearance compared to the others, our affinity is pretty high.”
Danny shuddered but had nothing to say to this and stared blankly at a far wall.
“Come on Danny, let’s go look in the entrance room.”
The entrance room had once looked like a large study, long bookshelves held all his accumulated knowledge and skills not associated with magic. A desk once set to one side with a triangle within a triangle above it. Now, the room was another white sphere of hexagons, except that this one was traversable by a metal walkway that stretched across the room. On the other side of the room, the walkway ended in a large circular metal ring. What could only be described as a wormhole funneled away from the metal circle far into the distance.
Cranny took Danny to the center of the room where the walkway bulged around a circular workstation. Out of the top of the workstation, three clear tubes rose toward the ceiling. The first tube was was labelled “Strength,” and a copper looking liquid could barely be seen bubbling up from the bottom. The second tube was labeled “Agility,” and the copper liquid almost reached halfway up it. The last tube, “Intelligence,” was more than twice as tall as the others. The bottom half of this tube was filled with copper, and it glowed brightly as energy raced through it. The top half of this tube was filled over half way with an iron colored liquid. The glowing effect of the bottom half did not extend to that of the top half.
Danny nodded at the tubes but then looked around in confusion. “Where did all the skill books go?”
Cranny typed into the console, and video images of his different skills displayed on the hexagon sections of the surrounding room’s walls. Skill names and their levels displayed below them. Each hexagon cycled through different skills. “Nothing really new, just presented in a different way.”
Danny watched this a while before he turned and walked up to the wormhole and asked, “Why even have an exit when I can come in and leave from wherever I want?”
Cranny walked over next to him. “Danny, before you go back I have one last thing to tell you. Something I figured out during your upgrade.”
Danny glanced over at him, “Hmmm?”
“Your sanctuary isn't in your mind; it's with me in the source.”
Danny looked over at him in shock, right before Cranny pushed him through the wormhole.
CHAPTER 3
Light from the early morning sun had barely begun to illuminate the forest floor where a group of vultures had gathered for a feast. Ripping and tearing into the flesh, they fought over the choicest pieces. Not having been able to get to the crowded corpse, the smallest vulture turned as it smelled fresh drying blood nearby. Hopping over to the other body, the scrawny bird could tell it was still alive, but with all the blood, it was sure to be dead soon. Pecking at the area with the most dried blood the bird was surprised when it was abruptly knocked away.
“I'm not dead! Get off of me! I'm not food!”
Danny shot up waving his arms and legs around without aim. Birds flew into the air and a few feathers fell, drifting to the ground. He took a minute to look around and gain his bearings.
Cupping his hands to his mouth he yelled, “Phantom!”
Danny waited a few moments for the cat before he noticed the smell coming from the half eaten and rotten goblin.
“Gross…Cranny, was kicking me out really necessary?”
*No, but morning was coming and we need to check on the caravan. Plus that one vulture was about to kick you out anyway, so I did you a favor before he really went to town.*
“…so, you’re not really part of me?”
*Nope, I am apparently a construct of the source. Two personalities can’t occupy one mind without serious psychological ramifications. Think of your sanctuary and, by extension, me as part of a remote magical server enhancing you.*
“So if I lose my connection to the source…”
*You will lose me. But don't worry, as you will be dead anyway, since you now run off of
mana.*
“Cranny, you really missed your calling as a motivational speaker.”
Cranny chuckled, and then there was a brief moment of silence.
Small birds flew above the canopy, calling out to the early day as clouds slowly crossed the sky.
Danny, scratched his arm and asked, “Do you think I have enough power now?”
There was no immediate response, and Danny was starting to wonder if Cranny had heard him or not.
*I think we are almost there? Let's see how strong these elves are. They are all born with their mana unlocked already. Maybe they have knowledge that will give us the edge we need,* Cranny said with a heavy sigh.
Danny nodded, “Let's go find the girls. I hope they survived.”
Cranny didn't have to ask him who “they” were.
*Stop worrying, and don’t tell them about your upgrade! At least not yet. I don't know if that Arya will let us go to the elves if they find out. If you want to try anything, I would suggest experimenting a bit now before you go back.*
Danny really wanted to head back and check on his friends, but he needed to figure out what changes occurred before doing that. Who know what trouble he could run into… or cause?
“What's first, Cranny?”
*Try and use your magic like you have been. I will monitor what's happening on this end.*
Danny nodded and cast a fireball, stone spike, air blade, and grew a small tree from a sapling.
Putting his hands on his hips, Danny pondered this as the mana used seemed to go a bit further but he couldn't tell how much of his mana he had used. He still wasn't used to the changes to his body.
*That’s interesting, try writing your name with flames in the air about two meters away.*
“Whaaaa… Ok, I will try, but you know that I have never managed to make anything more complex than simple shapes…”
Danny gathered mana and started to manipulate it into a “D” and then tried to make an “A.” Danny was shocked how easy it was.
*Danny, stop what you’re doing. I want you to try something else. Draw a dotted line with mana, and continuously cast light on each dot outwards as far as you can.*
Danny didn't question him and did as he was told. The dots of light started popping briefly into existence in a long chain that appeared randomly around the imaginary line as they traveled out into the distance.
“I couldn't see through the trees any further to cast, but I can tell that I can cast farther away, can't I?”
*It's better than that. You now have an area of around five meters where you can cast with little to no focus. After that, the distance increases to somewhere around 500 meters, but at that range, your spells would require massive amounts of mana to be effective. You would also have to be able to see that far, so it would not be very accurate. It is perfect for our scanning magic, though.*
“Wow, that’s crazy! Can you sense the caravan? I can sense what the scanning spells pick up, but there is too much for me to focus on.”
*Yes, I see them but there doesn't seem to be much movement. They appear to be staying put.*
”Alright, I want to test things out further, but we need to get back. Where is Phantom? Are you picking her up anywhere?”
*Nope, maybe she got tired of the stinking corpse... and that dead goblin over there.*
Danny ignored him and started calling out, but the cat must have wandered off too far to hear.
“Cranny, can you point me in the right direction for the caravan?”
*Here let me try something. Keeping you alive during the upgrade gave me the idea for being able to communicate with you by hacking into your ear's sensory cells. I am going to try the same to your eyes.*
“What are you going... Ahhhhh!” Danny covered his eyes with his hands.
*Sorry! Sorry… I had that turned up too high. Try it now.*
Danny cautiously blinked and finally opened his eyes to look around. “What am I supposed to be seeing?”
*Turn your head until you see a faint flashing light. That will be in the direction you need to go.*
Danny turned his head in the direction he thought he had flown from and noticed what Cranny was talking about.
“Thanks!” Danny took off in a jog toward the faint light that appeared in the distance.
Allowing his worries about the girls to surface, he took off at a fast pace. He had used a lot of his reserves to heal himself and was worried about how far he could make it in his current state. He was surprised after five minutes of jogging that he wasn't getting tired. His muscles had a slight ache, but there wasn’t the burn he was used to feeling when he pushed himself. He wasn't even breathing hard.
Speaking without strain, Danny asked, “How far did I exactly fly?”
*You flew pretty far, but you had travelled a ways down the road to stop the group spell the goblin shamans were casting. I am taking you right back to the caravan’s current location. Looks like they moved further back down the road.*
Danny moved through the forest, effortlessly jumping roots and dodging trees. He realized something was off.
“Why am I not tired, or needing to breathe hard? This is kind of freaking me out,” Danny asked.
*Remember, you are not getting tired because you are using mana instead of chemical energy. On top of that you don't really need oxygen anymore. There might be a few processes that require it, but your lungs are not very useful now except for when you want to talk or smell.*
Being distracted by what he had just been told, Danny almost tripped over something.
“Wait, so how much of my mana am I using right now?”
*Right now, you are only cutting into the amount of mana you regenerate, and not taking out of your reserves. When resting, your body eats about a quarter of the regeneration; right now, it’s getting near half.*
“So, I now have super speed!”
*No, you have super endurance. Stop trying to run and think. While you are puttering along for the marathon, your enemies are going to catch you before the 200 meter dash is even finished.*
Danny shrugged and mumbled defensively, “It’s still super.”
Danny took off at a faster speed and burst from the forest onto the road. On the other side of the road was a vast clearing, filled with burned trees and underbrush. Dead bodies were littered everywhere.
This now wide open area wasn't the merchant clearing that the caravan had started in the day before. Looking back to the south, Danny spotted that merchant clearing, itself filled with corpses and the remains of the earthen fortifications the wizards had hastily put up. Past that, Danny thought he saw a massive crater in the ground. Large forest trees had been blown backwards away from the center of a large explosion of force.
Further south, Danny could guess the remnants of the caravan were huddled behind the new earthen fortification sitting in the middle of the clearing. Looking like a small square fort, the wizards had obviously had more time to work on this one. Figures could be seen watching from stone towers erected at each corner.
As he approached, he was hailed to by a soldier watching from the northwest tower. Word was passed or shouted down, and part of the western wall opened to eject the Basalt trio, followed by Ivy and Brooke.
The large wizard opened his arms wide. “Danny! We thought you escaped back to Diadem. It got crazy there for a bit, but it wasn't anything me and my little ladies couldn’t handle.”
Arya stopped a distance away, eyes boring into Danny's, “Yes, why are you back and why are you covered in dried blood and scorch marks?”
“Oh, these? Crazy story, you see I was…”
Arya interrupted him, “Danny, not long after the beginning of the battle, there was a large explosion near the rear of the enemy formation. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that would you?”
Danny sighed. He’d had enough of this farce. He didn’t know if it was the almost dying that was pushing him over the edge, but he was tired of playing the complacent fool he had g
rown accustomed to being. He always figured back on Earth that it would be fun to play the senile old man to the fullest when he got older, but you eventually get tired of everyone looking down on you.
Cranny tried to interject and prevent what was about to happen, *Danny, don't forget what we talked about...*
Danny wasn't listening, “Fine! I was going to lie, and make this easy, but apparently you want to get me in trouble for saving your asses. Yes, I stopped the goblin shamans from releasing some dark ritual spell they were cooking up to kill you all. Then, I was ejected into the forest and hit my head on a tree and woke up only a few minutes ago. Scream at me all you want, but all I care about is where they keep the food around here? I had to heal quite a bit, and I am starving!”
As he stomped away, he glanced out of the corner of his eye. They were all staring at him in different states of shock.
Arya seemed to be recovering the fastest, her eyes narrowing dangerously.
Danny, quickly walked back up to the woman. Jabbing his finger repeatedly into her chest, he fiercely whispered, “Oh, and before you begin. Go ahead, threaten me or my family again, like the Umbra did, and I am out of here. I am sure after I show the elves what I am capable of, they will be able to help me get my family safely out of Diadem.”
Wizard Basalt looked angry when Danny started jabbing his wife with his finger but then looked over at his wife in confusion at Danny's accusation.
Arya also looked genuinely confused, “Threaten your family? Who threatened your family?”
Danny crossed his arm and glared, “The Umbra... through instructor Meadows…”
Arya looked at her husband, who just subtly shook his head, before she told Danny, “We never heard about this. We were just told to keep you safe at all costs and to do our best to not let the elven queen lure you away. What did Meadows say to you exactly?”
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