by Des Pensable
‘But a few Newmans will stand out amongst the Yith.’ said Miranda thinking that Granddad must have lost his mind.
‘Not if we look like Yith.’ He replied. ‘I have used a shape change effect to look like a Yith on many occasions. I even sat in on a Yith Council meeting once. I have observed them and can usually guess what they are going to do. The Yith have many worlds in their empire and speak hundreds of dialects. They have created a common language which all the educated class learn and use. All the military officers are forced to learn it so that they can communicate with the magic users but they usually speak it poorly. I have put in a lot of effort to learn it and speak it reasonably fluently.’
‘I thought they were all nomadic barbarians.’ replied Miranda.
‘No that is the propaganda spread by the Unity of Wisdom in Panmagica. They have a militaristic empire but within it they also have an educated magic using elite, which don’t get on too well with the more brutish majority. They have wizards, mind wizards, druids and priests just like the Newmans and many pray to their goddess Lithgala, who they believe is another name for the Lady herself.’
‘Really?’ uttered Miranda thinking of the consequences of that.
‘The Yith High Council also employs a special group of elite magic users called the Watchers to visit their field units and commanders from time to time to check up on them. If we could impersonate a pair of Watchers then no one would bother us.’
‘It sounds dangerous. What if we get caught or trapped there?’ asked Miranda. Aquitain has given me a job to do then he expects me to return as soon as I can.’
‘That’s good.’ replied Granddad. ‘Since he doesn’t know how long it will take for you to do the job. He will wait if he needs you. You go and do your job then meet me in Templegate as soon as possible and I’ll do some planning.’
‘Okay, but I’m not sure that this is a good idea.’ she replied not knowing how much trust she was prepared to put in Granddad.
Darkmantle thought that a rescue attempt would be quite dangerous but he did agree that there was a good chance that Lash would be there. He decided that he would like to go back to his men camped at the portal who would be getting rather worried about him.
Miranda explained to Tigerlilly that mommy had to go and help daddy fight some bad people and that they were going to leave her and Gizel here for a little while. She then hugged and kissed Gizel and Tigerlilly and teleported Darkmantle to his men at the camp outside the gateway to Moonmist.
Gizel, Tigerlilly and Quab were escorted back to their accommodation by Xentos and Rori set off to visit the nearest little people village to spread the word about the miraculous things he had witnessed.
Chapter 31 Astaria’s Secrets
Asterix returned to the control centre not long after Aquitain had arrived back from a short visit outside of Astaria and found him fully occupied in some deep conversation with the book. Yllandril sat watching views of different places within Astaria so he joined her, pointing out places of interest.
The streets were now full of mercenaries and their rubbish. Many were drunk and arguing among themselves. The Mentarin mages had each commandeered a building for themselves and were sitting waiting. Some sat looking at the wall sipping wine while others studied scrolls.
Aquitain was interested in the problem of re-joining two separate minds in case he had to separate them again. He had asked Franciscus in the book what he might do in the theoretical situation where the two parts of his mind couldn’t be re-joined. He thought about it from several angles then suggested that it would have to be like an arranged marriage.
You didn’t have to love the person you were with but both had to survive so you would have to work out agreed duties and responsibilities and each try hard to not annoy the other. You would have to be tolerant. You would have to keep up good communication each telling the other in advance what they wished to do.
Aquitain finally seemed happy with whatever he had been doing with the book and turned his attention back to Asterix. He apologized for his anger. He told Asterix that he was here to do a job, but no one could tell him what the job was and it was getting very frustrating.
‘I’m at the portal Rob. Can you let me through?’ announced Granddad.
Aquitain teleported to the portal, opened it met with granddad, brought him inside, closed the portal and teleported him to the control room then introduced him to Asterix and Franciscus.
Granddad vaguely remembered having heard something about Franciscus but couldn’t recall the detail. He looked on the mushroom monitor at views of all the mages and troops all over Astaria and suggested that it was going to be difficult to remove them all without a bloody fight then asked Aquitain to link them up for a private discussion.
‘What in the Creator’s name have you got me into, Granddad?’
‘Well it all started when we moved to our first small magic shop in Panmagica. Your mother was about your age and one day she began to hear a voice in her mind when she slept. It told her to smash a hole in the wall of her bedroom and she would find something there. At first she was reluctant believing that it was just a dream but it persisted. Eventually one night she busted a hole in the wall and found a walnut sized emerald.’
‘Once she removed the emerald from the small magically shielded area that it occupied then the voice introduced itself to her and she began chatting with it. I suspect the removal of the gem from its alcove must have set off some type of magic alarm as a wizard appeared claiming the gem. She refused to give it to him and tried to fight him but he killed her and took it.’
‘I arrived just as he was teleporting away and managed to trace where he went. I was enraged that someone would break into my house and kill my daughter. I followed him, to the portal outside, caught him before he could come into here and killed him before he could hide or dispose of the gem. I retrieved it then laid an elaborate trail to cover up what had happened. Fortunately it seemed to work and no one managed to work out who had intercepted the gem or where it had gone.’
‘When we tried to resurrect Tina we discovered that her spirit was gone and a little later when I was examining the emerald I had a message from the gem itself telling me that her spirit was safe inside the gem. I was most surprised to discover that she was not alone in the gem but there was another spirit in there as well. This went against normal magic theory, which stated that only one spirit could exist inside a soul crystal. As it turned out it was a very unusual soul crystal.’
‘My problem was how to get her out as her body had died and was no longer useful. It took me two years to find a host body and learn enough to be able to even try to get her out. Your grandmother and I communicated with her regularly to keep up her morale and as we did so we could hear from her comments that she was falling in love with the other spirit trapped in the crystal.’
‘You were born as a joining of the spirits of your mother and your father in the crystal. You had no body other than the crystal itself. I have asked many people on many worlds to see if this had ever happened before but as far as I can tell it hasn’t. So you are unique.’
‘While I worked on the problem how to get you all out of there your father created some type of illusory world inside the gem and you lived as a small family inside your own world. Your memcrystal alpha is that world.’
Memories flooded back to Aquitain of happy times as a child in that small world.
‘Wait a minute!’ said Aquitain.
‘You just said that I was born in Alpha when my father and mother were in there. You obviously got me and my mother out. What about Terren?’
‘Oh. Yes the other spirit. He…’ and granddad fell unconscious.
‘Damn!’ … thought Aquitain. ‘They’ve got a blood oath on Granddad. He was always so concerned that I was protected and he’s been got at by someone.’
‘What happened.’ asked Granddad as he regained consciousness.
‘You’ve been affected by a Blood Oath.’ repl
ied Aquitain. ‘I’ve seen it several times. Someone doesn’t want you to reveal something you know.’
Granddad was quiet for a minute or two thinking.
‘I’m sorry’ It looks like I’ve been deceived. I need peace and quiet to find out what has happened. I need to go back to Mudrun for a while.’
‘Perhaps I can help. I can unblock memories now.’ replied Aquitain.
‘Ah. So that’s how you know a lot more than you should. I’m sorry Rob I can’t allow you to look into my memories it would be too dangerous for both of us. I will take care of the problem.’
‘Damn! I’m always so close to getting answers only to have them withheld.’ said Aquitain becoming annoyed.
Granddad decided to leave and was shown out by Aquitain.
***
Sometime later Asterix spoke up.
‘There is some activity down there My Lord. It might have something to do with the specialist Mentarin arriving soon. The mages were discussing it a few hours ago. There seems to be a problem in one of the hidden pathways.’
‘That means he will come here.’ said Franciscus.
‘Why?’ asked Aquitain.
‘He will need access to the door controls.’ replied Asterix.
‘What door controls?’ queried Aquitain looking directly at Asterix.
‘Look Aquitain you’ll have to face it. I can’t tell you much until I get the approval from your father. However, in this instance it is likely that you will find out anyway and since you are the Gatekeeper, I will show you the manual gate control panel.’
He said a word and a second mushroom shaped piece of crystal appeared. Aquitain asked him to repeat the words for making the two mushroom shaped panels appear and disappear and memorized them. The new panel had small levers around its face for opening and closing the gates in pathways one to three and markings for pathways four to eight but no levers.
‘What happened to the levers for the other pathways?’ he asked.
‘I don’t know.’ said Asterix. ‘It’s always been like that. I assumed that they must run automatically and have no manual controls.’
‘Someone new has arrived.’ said Yllandril who was watching one of the viewing windows displaying a view of the main road. Aquitain and Asterix had a look and agreed. This could be the specialist. They watched the wizard ask for directions then followed him to the wizard-in-charge’s quarters and listened in on their conversation, which confirmed that he was indeed the expected person.
‘Quickly.’ said Aquitain.
‘Yllandril go back to the palace with Bellen. Asterix show me how to merge into the wall.’
Aquitain dismissed the control panels and merged his body into Astaria’s rock wall leaving one small eye in a corner to view what was happening. Moments later the room was empty except for the book. Aquitain suddenly panicked.
‘What about you Franciscus? Can you hide?’ he said using mindspeak.
‘No need, remember, I am a collector and the official historian. They expect me to be here.’ he replied.
Five minutes later the specialist teleported into the control room accompanied by the head Mentarin he had been talking to.
‘You’ll need to log your name and business with the book and it will give you access to the control panel.’ said the accompanying mage.
‘Thank you.’ said the specialist and his colleague left. He turned to the book and said.
‘I am Archmage Swather. I have special duties in pathway five. Please reveal the control panel.’
After the control panel appeared the mage took a crystal out of a pocket and placed it in a slight indentation in the centre of the panel and a whole array of levers corresponding to pathways four to eight poked out of the control panel. These levers had three positions; on, off and automatic.
‘Well, that solves one problem.’ thought Aquitain. ‘I wonder why there is so much security?’
The mage turned the two gates in pathway five from automatic to off and teleported away.
‘Damn. Where has he gone?’ asked Aquitain using mindspeak to both Asterix and Franciscus but neither knew.
‘How do you move around in this rock, Asterix?’ asked Aquitain.
‘I imagine I’m a fish and the rock is water.’
‘How do you see where you’re going?’
‘I can’t. I’ve memorized some of the place by trial and error.’ said Asterix but I don’t know where pathway five is.’
‘Great.’ thought Aquitain. ‘I wonder if my crystal sight will work?’
He pulled his eye into the wall and activated their crystal sight and was amazed at what he saw. The whole of Astaria was laid out before him. It appeared something like a jellyfish they had seen on the shore of the beach at Twin Towers except that this was perfectly spherical in shape rather than hemispherical. The rocky parts of Astaria were a translucent milky white with the various air filled compartments a smoky grey. The people appeared as purple auras dotted here and there.
Below the village street level he could see pipes and tanks holding water. He knew this had to be Astaria’s waste treatment system where the water and air was purified. It had the uncanny resemblance to the stomach cavity of an animal.
Around the outside he could see vein like areas, which must be the pathways. Four of the pathways were quite different to the other four. One he recognized as probably being pathway one and the other was obviously pathway two. He had heard that it had a maze like structure and unsurprisingly, it had six small purple auras dispersed through it, the six rats.
The other six pathways were very dark grey probably due to being lined with tiles impervious to magic. The curious thing was that four of the six were relatively short and in pairs running parallel to each other, separated by a few paces of dense rock.
Then he noticed another thing, it was faint but it was there. Astaria had a spirit, it seems to be alive!
He tried to activate his aura sight but it didn’t seem to work in conjunction with his crystal sight.
‘Hello Astaria.’ He said but there was no answer.
‘I can see you, Astaria. Please talk.’ He replied using mindspeak.
‘What do you want, Gatekeeper?’ asked a voice hesitantly.
‘I would like to talk to you.’ he replied.
‘Why? No one has ever wanted to talk to us before.’
He was surprised at this.
‘Are you a collective of minds like that on Moonmist?’ he asked.
There was silence for a few moments.
‘You mean there is another like us?’ asked the voice.
‘Perhaps.’ he replied. ‘On Moonmist the spirits of the dead have collected together to form a sort of council called the Moonmist Collective. They watch what happens on Moonmist and sometimes alert people of potential dangers.’
‘Do they talk to you?’ asked the voice.
‘Yes. They have appointed me to act on their behalf. They have asked me to help with some of their problems.’ he replied.
‘This most interesting.’ said the voice. ‘We must discuss this.’
‘Why have you stayed hidden?’
‘I don’t know. I suppose we’ve been afraid that the living would find us stupid and boring.’ said the Astarian collective mind. ‘We have forgotten much of the little we knew and we can’t really do anything, so we have just waited and watched.’
Tain felt sorry for them. He was protected and kept away from others for most of his life. He knew what it was like to be lonely and have no friends other than his cousin Melanie.
‘I know what it is like to be lonely and have no friends. So I promise you that while I am gatekeeper here, you and I will be good friends. I wish to make Astaria a happy place where we can all live and enjoy ourselves in peace and prosperity. Unfortunately, there are a few problems that I have to fix before that can happen. If you and I work together perhaps we can make it happen more quickly.’
Astaria thought for a little while then said. ‘I have never had
a friend before. What do friends do?’
‘Friends talk about all sorts of things. They do things together. They trust and feel comfortable with each other and they try to help and protect each other.’
‘That is acceptable gatekeeper if you wish we shall work together and be friends.’ and he felt a strange but strong mind link appear.
‘Why has the Mentarin gone to pathway five, is there a problem there?’ asked Aquitain.
‘There is no functional problem anywhere within Astaria.’ replied the collective..
‘Then I will have to find out what they are up to.’ said Aquitain. Can you help me get to pathway five, please.’
Instantly he was moved to one end of pathway five. There was a small room off the end of the pathway and the specialist mage was in it. He protruded a small part of his misty body into the room and formed an eye.
The mage was undoing several levers that opened a small circular hatchway into pathway five.
‘Ah. So that’s how they get in.’ he thought. ‘Now’s my chance!’.
He soundlessly flowed into the room as a black mist, formed an arm with a club and clouted the mage on the back of the head. The mage slumped onto the ground unconscious. He grabbed him by the wrist and teleported them both to the maze in pathway two.
‘Asterix come here.’ he commanded and Asterix appeared beside a little surprised.
‘How did I get here?’ he asked.
‘Rats come here.’ He Commanded.
Six rats appeared briefly then teleported away. He concentrated and the six rats returned but this time their legs were embedded into the stone floor and they were unable to teleport. Asterix was very surprised this time, how was Aquitain doing this?
‘There are new rules in Astaria.’ he announced.
‘I am The Gatekeeper, you will do everything that I say to the best of your abilities. You will no longer work for anyone but Astaria and me. If you don’t accept this condition you will immediately be thrown out of Astaria. Do you understand?’