by Des Pensable
Aquitain changed shape to a large bear and turned to face Bellen.
‘So we have a traitor amongst us. Someone that sneaks out and sells secrets for magic. You never mentioned that you knew Asterix and the book was located in Astaria. Do you sell your information to the Mentarin as well.’ he growled.
Bellen turned white in fear.
‘I’m on yer side, My Lord Warden. I works for yer father just as they do.’
Poof, Aquitain exploded into a cloud of mist, in shock. He quickly formed a cloud of eyes, some looking at Bellen, some at the book and some at Asterix.
‘You all work for my father! Tell me more.’ he shouted angrily.
Asterix started backing towards the wall and Aquitain slammed a cylinder of hardened air around him and another around Bellen just to be on the safe side.
‘You may have to tell him some of the story, Asterix.’ said Franciscus.
‘I can’t.’ said Asterix. ‘I’m sworn to secrecy.’
‘Then I will,’ said Franciscus, ‘as I wasn’t and while I don’t know all the details, I know enough. Besides he should be here.’
‘What, my father here?’ said Aquitain.
‘Yes, here with you, that was the plan, but something has gone wrong. We haven’t heard from him since the Mentarin came here and killed Llanlorian. said Franciscus.
‘Stop keeping me in the dark! If I’m going to fix the problem here I need to know the whole story. What are you guys doing here and how am I involved!’ said Aquitain feeling increasingly frustrated.
‘Here’s what I know.’ said Franciscus quickly.
‘About a fifty Astarian years ago, Astaria was controlled by Lord Borse who was the head of the Mentarin. Your father, Lord K’wala was involved in attacks leading to the capture of Astaria and another gate world called Argenta and Lord Borse went into hiding.’
‘I was a new Mentarin and didn’t know any of the politics behind why it happened. I was here doing some research at the time. He captured me and gave me the choice of becoming a collector and historian of Astaria or death. I chose life and he turned me into this book. I was to serve 10 years then he would consider my release.’
‘Not long after he captured the place he handed both Astaria and Argenta over to the King of the Elendari to be run by them. The king placed Llanlorian in charge here and someone else in Argenta. Asterix was left here to help maintain it and keep a watch over it and her. We subsequently heard that Lord K’wala had disappeared.’
‘We never heard from him again until about two years ago. An agent of K’wala brought me a message from him apologizing for leaving me here so long and promising release as soon as he could, providing Asterix and I helped in some plan of his.’
‘Can you remember who this agent was?’ asked Aquitain.
‘Yes it was a fellow called Allen Amber’ he replied.
‘How do you know it was my father after all that time?’ asked Aquitain quite sceptical.
‘Because he knew the exact details of how and when he captured me and the terms of my servitude and he was the only one present when I was placed in this book.’
‘What did he look like when he captured you?’ asked Aquitain becoming rather curious.
‘She looked like a Newman about thirty. Her eyes were strange and the power he wielded was immense. I had just recently been promoted to Archmage and joined the Mentarin. She looked into my mind and decided to give me a second chance if I would renounce my Mentarin oath, and work for her. Can you imagine that, she saw herself as judge, jury and executioner?’
‘You mean Lord K’wala is a female?’ asked Aquitain.
‘Well she looked like one when she caught me. I guess they can be male or female or in between if they want to.’ replied Franciscus.
‘I guess it seems a bit strange having a female father.’
Curiously it did make sense to Aquitain at last. His father was Terren an avatar of Lord K’wala. In spirit form there is no gender. A gender is only needed in a permanent body if you needed to reproduce. He was created by a neutral spirit combining with the neutral spirit of his mother in the soul crystal called Alpha therefore by Newman definition the avatar was his father even if it was female. Life in the spirit world must be weird he thought. Glammer was correct if he was going to survive he needed to start shedding his adopted Newman culture and create his own.
‘What happened to Lord Borse and why didn’t the Mentarin recapture Astaria and Argenta?’
‘I have no idea. They have seemed content to let Llanlorian run this place and it’s been very boring. Nothing ever happened here until a few weeks ago.’
‘What happened then?’ asked Aquitain getting more interested.
‘Well a few weeks ago Allen Amber showed up and told Asterix that a person called Aquitain was on the way. We should help him as much as possible without revealing our identity or getting in his way. We were also not to tell Llanlorian about you.’ replied Franciscus.
‘What was supposed to happen after I arrived?’ asked Aquitain.
‘We weren’t told what was going to happen. We assumed that your father would join you here.’
‘Hmm. Thought Aquitain. ‘It’s all starting to make sense, Terren was right. Her job was to get me here and help me free K’wala from whatever the trap was. However, things changed when Miranda got involved. Terren must have convinced K’wala to allow me to find Miranda and return with her so that I would be more willing to help
Franciscus continued, ‘When you did turn up, Asterix was a nervous wreck as Lord K’wala didn’t come. He wasn’t sure whether Llanlorian would try to kill you or not. He was ready to intervene on several occasions. He even had the two brass constructs ready to attack her if she turned nasty. I suspect that she knew something that we didn’t. I think that she must have had some type of plan of her own involving you and that is why she made you a gatekeeper. She may have even told you for all I know.’
‘Ah At last!’ he thought. ‘K’wala didn’t trust Llanlorian probably because she was an agent of Lord Borse. It was more than likely Lord Borse asked Llanlorian to make him a gatekeeper so that he could get back into Astaria to release K’wala. That suggests that it’s the Dark Lord’s faction of Mentarin that have invaded Astaria as they fear me releasing both K’wala and Lord Borse.’
‘But why is Lord Borse so confident that after I released K’wala that he can get out as well? There’s bits of the puzzle I don’t know.’
‘So what are you going to do now that you’re our gatekeeper my Lord?’ asked Franciscus.
‘That is an interesting question isn’t it?’ replied Aquitain but said no more. He had to consider his next steps very carefully.
Aquitain changed to a stone statue. He wanted peace and quiet for a few of minutes while his mind came to terms with this new information. If Franciscus was correct then his father must have planned whatever he or Terren had to do for years. There was also likely to be alternative plans if he failed.
His family must have known something about it. Granddad had specifically trained him to survive more than anything else. Maybe Granddad was being manipulated as well? Why would they send him on such a dangerous mission without telling him what he was supposed to do? Maybe Terren was supposed to do it?
Presumably Alpha was originally supposed to help him and when he lost Alpha the plan went wrong. They fell back to some contingency plan to help get him here but weren’t quite sure how to proceed from then.
What if Alpha and perhaps even Zephira were decoys? Separating them from him would give any interested parties the impression that the plan had been disrupted when it hadn’t been. He would appear to be alone and helpless but he wasn’t as Miranda stepped in to help. That suggested that Miranda was a part of the plan whether she knew it or not. Consequently, the Lady was likely to be involved in the plan.
Somanller had said that Ansidian was a Warden of a god called Lithgala. He was also known as Alin Amber. If he was also one of K’wala’s agents as
suggested by Franciscus then the goddess Lithgala was also involved.
‘Miranda what do you know about the goddess Lithgala?’
‘I think that she’s one of the Yith powers or gods and supposed to be friendly with the Lady.’
‘Do you think she’s involved somehow?’ asked Miranda.
‘Perhaps. If the Mentarin had a deity who do you think it would be?’ replied Aquitain
‘Hmm. The Mentarin disregard for people and creatures would rule out the Lady. Their actions in possessing and controlling people and events are both chaotic. They have a well establish trade with Panmagica suggesting they are linked with the Unity of Wisdom, which is largely controlled by a God called Findus the god of commerce and lesser powers allied to him. I would say that if they had a god which I doubt, it would be Findus or one of his allies.’ she replied.
‘Is the Lady a friend and ally of Findus?’ asked Aquitain.
‘No. I don’t think so. Their whole philosophies are different. The Lady is a champion of love, life and freedom. Findus is a champion of wealth, greed and exploitation.’ she replied.
‘Okay let’s start putting this together. Lord Borse was the Head of the Mentarin and they had a nice trade with Panmagica. Findus would have been happy about that.’
‘Lord Borse also controlled Astaria and for some reason K’wala attacked and captured it. Since K’wala was on Lady’s side we can assume the Lady was unhappy with something that Borse was doing here in Astaria.’
‘Lord Borse disappeared. K’wala handed it over to Llanlorian then K’wala disappeared. So we might assume that he went looking for Borse, found him but got stuck where Borse is. So releasing K’wala will also release Borse. We might also assume that they are both stuck here on Astaria somewhere.’
‘So why haven’t either Findus or the Lady or their followers come here to release K’wala and Borse?’
‘It suggests that K’wala and Borse have realized that Findus and the Lady have left them stranded. So they might even be cooperating with each other to get out. That could explain why Borse is helping me.’
‘Katrina the Mentarin said Borse sent a warning that the gods may not be happy about them being released.’
‘It seems to me that there is a secret here that Findus, the Lady and the Mentarin all know about that they don’t want anyone else to know about. That means they don’t want other powers or gods finding out. In making me a gatekeeper Llanlorian has deliberately given me the key to find out. It may have cost her, her life. It could also be a death warrant if I find out.’
‘So we can presume the Mentarin are here to stop me the new gatekeeper from discovering their secret.’
‘You’re suggesting that the Lady may not want you to find out the secret here and that means I am here to stop you if you do.’ said Miranda.
‘That’s possible,’ replied Aquitain.
‘However, when I released Granite it has changed everything. Was he trapped because he knew about Borse and K’wala being lost and was trying to find them. Or was he trapped because he already knew the secret of Astaria and might have revealed it?’
‘Either way, it suggests that Granite and perhaps others with a vested interest might also turn up soon and it could get messy. We’re going to have to kick everyone out and secure the place. I need to find out the secret so that we have some bargaining power.’
‘What about the prophesy of the Time of Troubles and all that stuff on Mudrun? Do you think that has something to do with Astaria.’ asked Miranda.
‘It’s possible I guess.‘ he replied.
‘Miranda can you please tell me every detail you can remember about your stay with Darkmantle especially anything about Lash and Alpha.’
‘Of course!’ she replied then spent the next few minutes telling everything she could remember about her stay at Darkmantle’s estate, Lash and of course the silver coated pendant around Lash’s neck that she was positive was Alpha.
‘Timestop.’ said Aquitain.
‘They’ve coated Alpha with Timestop.’
‘What’s that?’ asked Miranda.
‘It’s an unusual magical liquid that looks a lot like quicksilver. If you coat it on objects, it has preservative properties that give the definite impression that they don’t age. If Alpha were coated in the stuff it would be like time had stopped. The world would continue on, but Alpha wouldn’t be aware of it.’
‘The curious thing is that it doesn’t stick too well to crystals, as they tend to repel it. Lash must be re-applying the stuff each few days without realizing what she is doing. How ironic, they must have got a good laugh out of that but why leave it with Lash out in the open? Why wipe her mind but not change her appearance?’
‘I don’t know.’ replied Miranda.
‘Neither do I but I suspect it’s meaningful.’ replied Aquitain.
‘Miranda on another matter, you’ve seen my real body in the dream world. What sort of creature am I?’ he asked.
‘I’m not sure.’ replied Miranda carefully.
‘I’m half elemental dragon. I’m a monster, an abomination. My father was an avatar of K’wala. He said it was accidental. I don’t think it was. It was planned.’
‘How do you know that?’ she asked.
‘Glammer told me. She was created for the same purpose as I was. But her job wasn’t to release K’wala. It was something else. Maybe what I’ve been told is all a lie.’ he replied.
‘She might have been lying to you, Aquitain. Everyone lies to everyone about everything here. Nobody knows what is true or false. It’s layer upon layer of deception.’ she replied.
‘Yes I know. That’s what Granddad told me many times. I didn’t believe it before but I do now. But we all have to trust some people some of the time.’
‘You trust me don’t you’ said Miranda suddenly worried.
‘Yes of course but I don’t trust your goddess. I hope that she doesn’t force you to choose between her and me.’
‘So do I my love.’ she agreed.
‘I don’t care if you are half dragon. I still love you! Do you know why? You know that I’m a Llanllean and you’d hardly call that ordinary. Most Newmans would already call me a monster. My creature friend Slivver is a psychic parasite, another monster and our child is a monster as well. We’re all monsters.’
‘The Lady taught me to love all creatures great and small and I never realized how important that was until a wise bear taught me that it’s not what we are but what we do that counts in this world. I don’t know why this has happened to us but I do know that while we love and trust each other then we will have a chance to survive.’
‘You’re quite right my love.’ replied Aquitain. ‘We have already done the most extraordinary things and I’m afraid there’s no stopping now. Unfortunately, I think that we’re going to have to split up again for a little while.’
‘No! No! I won’t go! Every time I leave you we get into trouble.’ she cried. ‘I want to be with you. I don’t want to lose you again.’
‘Miranda, it’s not just you and me anymore. We have to consider Tigerlilly. She’s a part of us and very vulnerable. I want you to take her to somewhere where she will be truly safe. I want you to find your nanny and ask her to hide, protect and raise Tigerlilly in our absence. We need to also tell our friends what is happening so that they are prepared and can help us. Then you and I will face our enemies together.’
Miranda considered what Aquitain had said for a while.
‘I suppose you’re right. I’m already worried about Tigerlilly. I’ll do it as long as you promise not to go doing anything foolish while I’m away.’ she replied. ‘I’ll be really annoyed if you die again!’
‘I can assure you I have plenty of planning to do before I do anything else and I will not try to get killed again or do anything which you might consider foolish.’ he replied.
Miranda smiled and said. ‘I’ve got a feeling that what you and I think is foolish is quite different, however, I’ll
give you the benefit of the doubt. Is there anything else you would like me to do?’
Aquitain explained to her what he wanted her to do and while she wasn’t happy about parting, she had to agree that it was a logical course of action. While she was absent Aquitain would remain and try to work out what was wrong at Astaria and work out a plan to recapture it. He also suggested to Bellen that he return as the Trixies were worried about him.
Once Miranda and Bellen had left Aquitain had to decide what to do first. There seemed to be so many competing priorities he wasn’t quite sure where to start. He decided to meditate at least that would calm his mind a little and allow him to consider the problems and possible solutions in a logical fashion. After half an hour a plan began to form.
‘I want to learn how to create arenas in people’s minds.’ he said to Franciscus. ‘It could be useful.’
‘Ah. The gatekeeper wants something from me,’ he said. ‘I cannot just give valuable knowledge like this away for nothing but I might be willing to trade with you for it.’
‘Okay. What do want?’ asked Aquitain patiently.
‘I want out of here. I want a body so that I can leave this place far behind. I want my life back again. What else would a sentient book want?’
Aquitain thought about this for a minute and then said.
‘Okay. I agree, however, I obviously can’t get you a body here and now but as soon as I can recapture Astaria I will either get you a new body or build you one and free you from the book.’
‘Really.’ said the book a little surprised. ‘Okay when you free me I’ll teach you the power.’
‘Not so fast.’ said Aquitain. ‘I’m likely to need the power as a part of a plan to capture Astaria. So I’ll need you to teach me the power first.’
Franciscus thought about this for a minute then said.
‘I’ll agree if you’ll swear a wizard’s oath that you will free me at the first opportunity after you capture Astaria.’
Aquitain agreed, swore the oath and Franciscus explained how the power worked and the theory behind it.