by Des Pensable
‘Before I became a druid I was a sorcerer and a Storm Caller. I could create a storm that would last for days and I did it with glee. The Lady in her wisdom hid this from me using a magic tattoo that nobody was able to remove. Aquitain removed it and I have rediscovered my past. I am a Llanllean and I am now a much more powerful sorcerer. I am a Tempest. I can not only create massive storms I can be the storms.
The Lady knew this when she took away my mother’s druid powers and made me a more powerful druid. A druid is about balance and a Tempest is about chaos. Why didn’t the Lady take away my druid powers? It’s because she has a plan involving both Aquitain and me.
I see on your faces some of you find it hard to believe.’ so Miranda rose, walked away from the table closed her eyes, turned into a Llanllean with a body the size of a bull covered in thick reddish hair like an ape with six black crystal eyes, massive fangs and hairy legs that stretched the width of the room. A nightmare in most Newman eyes.
‘By all the Powers in Creation!’ said Granddad afraid for the first time in memory. The others froze in their chairs even though they had seen Aquitain in his small Llanllean form. The fear of a spider Miranda’s size and power was beyond belief.
Miranda changed back to her Newman form and sat down.
‘From this moment, I am no longer Miranda, the Newman but Miranlla, the Llanllean Tempest.’
‘What sort of a person do you think would love me?’
I am no longer ashamed of what I am but proud of it. Aquitain could see it all along but chose to say nothing. He accepts me as I am and I accept him as he is. That is the measure of our love.’
There was silence once more.
‘Good. Now all the surprises are out on the table.’ said Miranlla.
‘We might get down to working out some sort of a plan for the future. I think Chantalot was on the right track. The Lady, Lithgala and Borse are involved from the Yith empire. What do you think about the Panmagican gods Granddad?’
There was a momentary pause while Granddad gathered his thoughts.
‘I would agree with you Miranlla, Yith and Lithgala are involved and I would guess Findas, the God of Commerce and some of his flunkies who control Panmagica.’
‘So we are to fight a least four gods and their minions.’ said Quab.
‘No.’ said Miranlla. ‘We don’t fight any gods. What we do is to not give them any reasons to fight among themselves. I’ve come to the conclusion that they don’t do things themselves. They do them through us. While none of us are fighting no one will die and we will all stay alive.’
‘We must set the example. We must convince our druids who preach the love of the Lady to be more flexible. They should not set out to vilify other people’s gods. They need to calm our people rather than incite trouble. If they rebel and refuse then we will lock them up. Search for puppeteers and eliminate them. Train our people to guard their minds!’
‘You want our druid preachers to be locked up?’ asked Heteronymous. ‘That is almost heresy.’
‘Yes.’ replied Miranlla. ‘You are king now. Have a set of laws drafted stating that it is illegal to vilify another person’s beliefs in other gods. Any druid that breaks the law will be locked up.’
‘And how do you propose we get the Yith and Panmagicans agree to something like that.’ asked Quab.
‘That is for you to work out.’ replied Miranlla. ‘I have enough troubles back in Moonmist.’
‘You’re going back there?’ asked Granddad.
‘Of course! My people need me.’ replied Miranlla. ‘You are most welcome to come with me and act as a liaison between us if you wish. I can certainly use another family member there that I can trust.’
‘Good idea.’ said Featherdown.
‘Yes!’ I agree.’ said the King. ‘I hereby make you the Mudrun Ambassador to Moonmist. The Chancellor will fix up the paperwork.’
‘Are there any other matters?’ asked the King.
‘Yes. I went to Argenta with Granddad this afternoon and had a chat with the Yith there. A very powerful Yith Wizard with good connection to the Yith High Council has been made the new gatekeeper there. He wants to be friends and to show his good will, he released Aquitain’s cousin Zephira and several of Darkmantle’s troops that were prisoners there.’
‘By the Lady, two hours ago I wouldn’t have believed a word you said but now I will believe anything is possible. If this is correct why didn’t you tell me Sol?’ asked the King.
‘You were busy. He told me.’ said Featherdown. ‘I told him to save it for this meeting.’
‘Oh. Alright.’ stated the King. ‘I will consider their request. Anything else?’
‘Yes.’ replied Miranlla
‘You may not know that there is a Great Council of the little people occurring in about two days’ time at the Wolf people’s village near the Southern Gateway entrance. I have told them I will be there representing Aquitain.’
‘By the Lady, as far as I know there has only ever been one Great Council of the little people and that occurred hundreds of years ago at the time the when the Pact was forged.’ replied the king.
‘What pact?’ asked Granddad.
‘When the first druids came to Mudrun to begin rebuilding it they discovered the little people. There were some serious clashes between them and us. They believed that the druids were invaders and that they fought against us. The High Druid at the time eventually convinced some of them that we were here to repair the world and so they called a Great Council to discuss the situation.’
‘Some of them wanted to help us rebuild the world others believed that we were alien to the world and wanted us to leave. They said the world belonged to the gods, they were only the caretakers and the spirits would decide what they should do. There were supposed to be four spirits representing the four elements. But only R’ptor the spirit of Air came to advise them.’
‘During the meeting two new spirits named Jacintra and Loopis came and drove R’ptor away. They told the meeting that the gods had new plans for them. They told them that the gods had recalled the old spirits and they were the new ones. R’ptor had defied the gods by staying. Jacintra and Loopis told them that they must help the druids rebuild the land.’
‘The Great Council agreed to have peace between us and help us rebuild the land. However, the new spirits wanted them to forget the old ways and adopt new ways and there was considerable disagreement about that. Those who followed R’ptor would not accept the new ways until R’ptor told them they should and from what I understand he never did. They caused much trouble and many were eliminated by the druids until they ceased causing trouble.’
‘The remainder accepted the new ways and have been relatively peaceful and very helpful in the rebuilding process. However, we know that many still hold belief in the older spirits although they profess to follow the new ones.’
‘The agreement between the little people and the High Druid is called the Pact of Renewal. It lays out what both sides can and can’t do. Unfortunately many of the changes that Jacintra and Loopis wanted were written into the agreement, which made us their servants if we chose to enforce those aspects of the agreement. Since I have been the High Druid I have chosen to interpret the Pact very loosely as they rarely cause any problems.’
‘Well no one’s ever tried to invade Mudrun before so I guess they have decided to re-examine the pact.’ said Granddad.
‘I suppose that you’re right.’ replied the King. ‘We must attend it.’
‘Perhaps Sol could accompany Miranlla in advance to represent us, then call us when things get interesting, Your Majesty.’ replied Featherdown.
‘Good idea! You go Sol. Now is there anything else?’
There was silence.
‘Good,’ said Heteronymous. ‘We have a meeting with the town’s people, and the military, to tell them what’s happening in an hour. I wish to discuss what we have heard here with the Chancellor and the Minister for Security. You have my leave to go.’
&nbs
p; Featherdown took down the wards and Granddad, Miranlla and Quab left to think about all the revelations they had heard. Miranlla asked Quab for a chart of the teleport markers known to be around Mudrun and after getting one left with Granddad for the southern gateway.
Chapter 37 The Dragon Den
Just inside the gateway of pathway 5 in Astaria, Ignatius stood looking thoughtfully at Aquitain for a minute or two then said.
‘The idiots on the Committee have obviously got it wrong again. I was told you wanted to destroy Mentar. The deal that you just made with the Rock elementals will probably save it. Are you still going to talk to the dragons and get them to change their magic essence to heat energy conversion rate back to 99%?’
‘Yes.’ replied Qin somewhat surprised at Ignatius’s apparent disdain for the Mentarin Council.
‘Good. If you can get that problem fixed, I’ll go and use it as evidence to clear your name. Lately they’ve been naming all sorts of people, even other Mentarin as enemies. It’s all become too political. One time everyone just got on with his or her research. Wonderful things were discovered. These days it’s all about political power and wealth. I normally mind my own business but this time they’ve gone too far.’
Qin and Ignatius chatted together for nearly an hour until it was time for the dragon’s procession but he couldn’t work out whether Ignatius was telling the truth or not. While he was idly talking to Ignatius Qan was also busy working on another problem.
Glammer had told him that she knew what his mission was. She had been made by K’wala to do the same job as him but Borse had stopped it. Borse had used Glammer as a template for an army of mothra that would be used to invade the netherworld.
Why then had Borse not continued with his plan? Why was Borse keen for Aquitain to release K’wala? There was something wrong about the whole lot of it. There was a hidden agenda or two. He would have to proceed very cautiously. Qan cautiously shared his thoughts with Qin.
‘Let’s go up to the dragon end of the gateway.’ said Ignatius. ‘We can look through the gate into their den once they come out.’
‘You’ll need some protection against fire as they’re pretty hot. The best protection against fire is changing to a fire elemental of course. With your dragon abilities you can change into one can’t you?’
‘Err ... no.’ said Qin a little embarrassed.
‘I discovered centuries ago that shape shifting to elementals was a great way to manipulate and control the elements. All the dragons I know can do it so you should be able to it as well.’
‘You’ve obviously never thought of a job as a field engineer, have you?’ said Ignatius as he created a skill crystal with the knowledge of how to shape shift to a fire elemental form.
Aquitain swallowed the crystal and used the knowledge to change form to a fire elemental. It was actually quite interesting. Fire elementals lived in and around large sources of permanent fire such as larva pools in volcanoes. They sucked in magic essence as food much like the Rock elementals.
He had no real weight and sort of floated across the ground, more by will power than by any obvious motion. He could even walk up walls and across the ceiling if he wanted to. He could see in a strange sort of way in shades of black and white from all over his body. It reminded him of when he was a slime mould. It was difficult to hear as the fire all over his body hissed and crackled and he didn’t appear to have a sense of smell, which wasn’t all that surprising as their wouldn’t be much to smell other than rotten egg gas smells around a volcano.
‘Do fire elementals communicate with each other.’ asked Qin using mindspeak.
‘Never had one trying to chat with me.’ replied Ignatius. ‘Then again I wouldn’t recognize their language if I heard it I suppose.’
‘You said that about the Rock elementals.
‘You’re right. We capture them and steal their spirits to make magic items. Maybe they’re not happy about it. Perhaps we should try and work out whether they can communicate.’
They stood around thinking about fire elemental speech until the gateway opened. Aquitain tried to see through the gateway but his new type of vision was poor and blurry at the best, which meant that he couldn’t make out any detail in the dragon’s den on the other side of the gate. He could see many balls of fire waiting to come through the gate so moved back so as to be out of the way.
It was just as Ignatius had described. About two dozen orbs of flame trooped through the gate waited, proceeded half way down the corridor, waited again then moved to the Moonmist gate, waited then went down to Moonmist and discharged their magic essence load. This time something occurred to him.
‘They’re following those purple cairns which you said were used to guide the spirits of the dead.’
‘But that’s impossible.’ said Ignatius. ‘That would mean that someone on the other side would have had to place them here for that purpose. I’ve never heard of any of the Mentarin able to manipulate the spirits of the dead. It’s supposed to be a one-way trip. The gods have decreed that no mortal can return from the dead.’
‘What about resurrection and reincarnation?’ asked Qin.
‘From what I’ve heard, that can occur only for a few days after death and only then with a god’s permission.’ said Ignatius. ‘When a person dies their spirit separates from their body. The spirit is then attracted to a light from one of those purple cairns. Periodically the light goes off, and another deeper down goes on, and the spirit progresses down to the next one. It takes a few days before it reaches some sort of processing station where it is sent to its final destination.’
‘If you want to be resurrected or reincarnated it has to happen before your spirit reaches the processing station and you’re sent to that final destination.’
‘That suggests that the deities must have helpers down there who can be contacted to find a spirit on the way down and send it back for resurrection or reincarnation.’ suggested Qan.
‘That makes sense I suppose. Do you think that the designer of these gate worlds somehow contracted one or more of these spirit helpers to build the cairns in this corridor? That suggests that either a deity employed his or her helpers to do the job or someone offered one or more of the helpers something they really wanted.’ said Ignatius.
‘And the consequences of either of those two possibilities are bad. We either have a god as a silent partner involved in this project to pump magic essence from one world to another or we have some spirit creature that wants something from this side and the obvious thing that they might want is to come back here without a god’s permission.’ said Qin.
They were both pondering on the possibilities when the fiery orbs returned from Moonmist and started on their return trip to the Dragon’s den. Once they had passed by, Qan moved their body back twenty paces and changed shape to his Newman form and activated his ability to see spirit auras.
‘They’re not complete dragon spirits.’ Qin said to Ignatius.
‘They are parts of dragon spirits turned into fiery constructs. They have no memories. I’ll bet they follow a set of instructions to carry the magic essence to Moonmist, dump it and then return. The other part of their spirit must be back in the den. I’ll follow them back and see if I can find out more.’
Qan turned them into a fire elemental again, modified their shape to a fiery orb like the dragon constructs and then mingled with the other orbs.
‘It’s working.’ said Ignatius. ’I’ve got no idea which one you are. Remember the gateway closes five Astaria minutes after you enter. If you need longer than that I can always go to the control room and open it for you.’
‘Thanks, I should be able to open it.’ replied Qin.
‘However, if I don’t come out within ten minutes after it closes I would appreciate you opening it.’
The dragon constructs began filing through the gate way Qin guiding them in the middle of the group, followed, after advising Astaria that he wouldn’t be long.
The drag
on den was a large, roughly oval shaped dark rock chamber about 400 paces long and perhaps 200 wide bathed in a purple light. In the chamber were the bodies of eighteen rock dragons similar to Granite distributed in two rows curving around the walls on the far side from the gateway. In the centre of the chamber on the floor was a circular tiled area with an image depicting the sun.
Qin and Qan immediately recognized it as the same as one he had seen outside the temple in the jungle on Mudrun. However, this tiled area had a glowing purple crystal pyramid standing as high as a Newman on top of the sun image.
As he stood watching, he noticed that in sequence, each dragon became a fiery mass; a single fiery orb moved from the group, joined with the fiery mass and the resultant combined fiery mass died out. The whole process took only about 2 minutes leaving Aquitain as the single fiery orb left in the room. Nothing happened for a further minute and then the gateway suddenly closed earlier than expected.
Qin and Qan found themselves in a mind arena in their large green crystal bodies standing opposite an orb of light. Qan quickly ducked out.
‘Who are you that invades the sanctity of this haven.’ demanded the orb.
‘I am Aquitain, Warden of Moonmist, Lord of Astaria. I came here not as an invader but as a seeker to find answers to problems which affect both Moonmist and Astaria.’
‘You have a most unusual body. One that is yet to be recorded. To verify your claim I must examine your spirit aura. Do you object?’ said the orb.
‘Identify yourself first then I might accede to your request.’ replied Qin.
‘I am Obphiscon, Collector and Historian to the Dragons of Crystalhaven.’
‘How do you survive in here by yourself?’ he asked.
‘That is irrelevant. I will ask the questions. Are you going to show me your spirit aura or do we fight?’ said the orb angrily.
‘Okay have it your way. I will reveal my spirit aura but only for a short time.’ said Qin.
Qin quickly contacted Qan, to get ready for possible trouble. He asked Qan to relax control on their fiery orb body allowing it to revert to their Zenostruct form, then create some eyes and see if he could spot Obphiscon’s physical body.