Edge of Chaos

by Des Pensable

  Meanwhile Aquitain had turned into his rock elemental form and casually swam from the cave up to the gateway. On arrival he could see the spirit images of several people crowding around near the entrance to the room holding the gateway. He decided that he might be able to just swallow the anchor stone and swim away with it inside his body. However, as he approached it he found that it repelled him from getting any closer than five paces.

  ‘Damn. They have some type of repulsion magic to stop me from what I was trying to do. I’ll have to try and get it from the corridor.’ he thought.

  He stepped out into the corridor as quietly as possible which is not easy for a creature weighing many tons.

  There were two guards in full armour, one on either side of the gateway portal. He cast a mental stun at them but it didn’t seem to do anything. They yelled ‘Intruder’ and came at him swinging their halberds. The weapons must have been imbued with magic as they cut into his rock body deeply but he had no blood to bleed. However, enough attacks like this one could chop him into pieces, which was not a desirable outcome.

  The basic rule of magic defence was to be invisible. When you can’t be seen you can’t be hurt. He created a zone of darkness changed shape into his black Zenostruct form and floated away. He adjusted his vision and formed two black blades and sliced through each guard but not before one had yelled to get a mage killer.

  He moved over to the gateway entrance formed a semicircular wall of hardened air around himself leaving him free to search for the portal anchor. The rock where it was supposed to be was seamless. What had they done? He turned on his crystal vision and peered into the rock. He could see what appeared to be the anchor inside a metal box embedded into the rock.

  ‘Hmm. Strange?’ he thought. ‘The metal box should interfere with the portal stone magic. I wouldn’t do it that way nor would Granddad. It must be a deception to allow the defenders a chance to get here.’

  Just then he heard a thump against his air shield. He switched on his aura vision and saw the auras of two mages inside his zone of darkness. There was a lightning bolt and the air shield weakened. There was another blast and it weakened further.

  They were invisible and could probably see his aura. He created a pure heart around his body. The zone of darkness was dispelled along with his air shield and he floated there looking at two mage killers looking at him.

  They both dived sideways and became invisible. He recreated the zone of darkness and another wall of hardened air. Created a light to see and examined the base of the gateway entrance. It was covered with tiles that blocked magic. ‘That’s where the portal anchor stone is!’ he thought. ‘Very Clever!’

  There was another dispel magic to eliminate the zone of darkness and his air shield and a direct lightning attack at attack at him. It didn’t affect him at all as he was immune to that type of magic.

  One of the mage killers swore and attacked him with a large nasty looking dagger while the other was casting some type of magic spell he hadn’t heard before. The dagger passed through him as if he wasn’t there and he formed a black blade and struck the attacking mage in the throat watching as the mage killer dropped dead covered in his own blood.

  The other mage completed his spell and a strange looking black mist like creature formed between him and the mage.

  ‘Damn what is that?’ he thought.

  ‘It looks like it could be from the dream land like my Zenostruct body.’

  The creature hesitated for a few moments then attacked the mage killer totally covering his body moments later the mage slumped to the ground lifeless. The conjured creature seeing no other life auras nearby vanished.

  ‘Saved by my Pure Heart again ‘ he thought as he created another zone of darkness and hardened air shield, then got to work trying to pry the tiles loose with a crow bar formed out of his dark misty body matter.’

  ‘Five minutes later no one else had attacked and he found it tucked in a cavity below one of the tiles. He removed it carefully reformed his body into a Newman shape and teleported back to the teleport marker outside of town where Granddad was waiting. Granddad sent a mental message to Miranlla to return and the storm began to dissipate as Miranlla headed back.

  Two minutes later a very wet and bedraggled High Priest Kelnor walked into the area and saw the four dead men strewn on the floor in front of the useless gateway portal and cursed loudly. He and two thousand troops were now isolated on a dangerous hostile world with limited supplies and no way home.

  A saturated and exhausted but happy Miranlla landed as a whirl wind and smiled. ‘They won’t forget that storm soon.’ she grinned.

  ‘No they won’t.’ replied Aquitain as he handed her the golden belt and showed her the portal anchor stone. ‘They can’t go home now except via Astaria and we have some bargaining power.’

  If Granddad can teleport you back to Rori and you can find out where and what the yellow scaled little people are hiding I might go back to Astaria with Alpha and find out what Aquiveritas knows.’

  Chapter 42 Rori’s Surprise

  Granddad dropped Miranlla off where she had left Rori and continued on back to Templegate. Rori was sitting in the shade waiting patiently.

  Let’s see what family connections can do!’

  ‘R’ptor, I need to visit the hidden yellow Little People!’

  She took hold of Rori’s hand and waited a few moments. A great air elemental appeared and gently lifted her and Rori up and off they flew.

  ‘I’m thinking that Lord Aquitain is being very smart to be having you as his first favourite.’ said Rori but Miranlla just smiled.

  After flying for over an hour they finally landed in a secluded gully in the mountains. Miranlla thanked the air elemental in her druidic speech but it left giving her no sign as to whether it understood or not.

  ‘Where are the little people?’ she asked Rori.

  Rori opened his small leather pouch at his side and pulled out a quartz pebble and placed it on the ground.

  ‘You should be holding my hand and not be being afraid. This is yellow little people magic.’ he said to Miranlla and began to chant. As he chanted they began to sink into the ground as if it were quick sand. Once her head was below ground she found that she could see and move almost as if in water. Rori was outlined in bluish light and she in a greenish light.

  After several minutes, six figures appeared giving off a yellow glow and they herded Rori and Miranlla a few hundred paces into a cave-like area which was really a large bubble of air as it had no entrance or exit. Miranlla and Rori stood waiting for another few minutes until a yellow scaled little person merged out of the rock wall.

  ‘Who are you and why are you being here?’ he asked.

  ‘I am being Rori, shaman of the Barra peoples.’

  ‘I am Miranlla, a servant of the Lady. We are here to invite you to the Great Council of Little People.’

  ‘I am Farrow, shaman of the K’wala peoples. We have heard the calling and we are not wanting to go. So you should be leaving now.’

  ‘I am a friend of Bellen. He is with many K’wala people on a world called Moonmist. He has a half-brother who he hopes will listen to me.’ said Miranlla and then she mentioned Bellen’s father and mother’s names.

  ‘You know of my half-brother and other hidden yellows?’ he asked with a look of surprise.

  ‘Lady Miranlla is being their Queen. I have been seeing them earlier this very day.’ said Rori.

  ‘The Lord Protector is now being back and the Great Council is wanting the Pact of Renewal to be changed so that the little people will be doing their proper duties again.’

  ‘This is being interesting news indeed.’ replied Farrow. ‘I will be needing to be talking with my people.’ And he walked to the rock wall and merged with it.

  ‘I can see why they are called the hidden yellows.’ said Miranlla with a chuckle.

  ‘Kami was thinking that they are being somewhere but he was not knowing where. I am thinking I a
m the first blue to be seeing them for a long time.’

  After about an hour several yellow and a red little people emerged from the wall. Rori’s eyes nearly popped out of his head when he saw the red and she smiled cheekily at him.

  Farrow first introduced the yellows and then finally the red. Her name was Glitta. Rori ignored the rest and headed over to chat with her. Miranlla noted the attraction and smiled.

  ‘I’ll have to watch young Rori.’ she thought then turned her attention to the business at hand.

  It seemed that this group were interested in going to the Great Council meeting while the rest were suspicious and not prepared to go. After giving her personal guarantee that they would be safe Miranlla convinced them to go. She said that she would return for them once she and Rori had made arrangements with Kami for their safety.

  Rori had to be almost dragged away from Glitta he seemed smitten with her but once separated he was very quiet and more serious than she had ever seen him.

  Once they were back on the surface again, she asked him but he shook his head.

  ‘I’m being very sorry and very mad with Kami. The red female being called Glitta has been giving me some news that will be being a big problem for us all.’

  Miranlla became alarmed. Granite warned her that the little people were good liars and always getting into mischief. What were they up to? Why was a red amongst the hidden yellows? What had upset Rori so much? He said he was sorry. Sorry for who? Sorry for what? Sorry for Miranlla? Sorry for Aquitain? Why was he so upset with Kami. What has Kami done? Kami has called the Great Conference. What else has he done? Does the Great Conference have a hidden agenda. Was she and Aquitain being used by the Little People for something? If so what?

  ‘Rori, you’re in for an exciting or perhaps terrifying trip back to the Great Conference. The Lady has given me more power. I want to try it out and you can be the first to see it. You’re going to have the chance to fly on the back of a Great Eagle.’ She said as shape shifted to one.

  ‘Wow! This is awesome.’ she thought but Rori wasn’t so keen.

  ‘I’m.. I’m ..I’m being very scared about what you are wanting to do.’ He stammered.

  She changed back to her Newman form.

  ‘Rori, my teleport rings are exhausted and I don’t know the coordinates to get there anyway. We can fly slowly as a whirlwind but that will take us a day to get their or go fast as an eagle. You can ride on my back or I can carry you in my claws. Which one would you like?’

  ‘I am thinking maybe we could be calling on Raptor for transport again.’

  ‘Oh very well.’ she said a little disappointed and called for Raptor.

  They were picked up by an air elemental and carried at great speed to the Great Conference located at the Crown of Elements. The very same place where the druids had battled the Panmagican troops a few weeks earlier. According to druid dogma, this was the place where the creator stood while creating the universe.

  This place was symbolic of elemental power. They were half elemental. They chose this place because they expected something very significant to happen. Was the braking of the Pact of Renewal significant enough?

  ***

  Aquitain arrived back at Astaria and quizzed the Astarian Collective mind as to whether anything had happened only to discover that it was all quite except the dragon occasionally got bored and destroyed something.

  ‘Aquiveritas, this is Aquitain. Can you hear me, if so create a mindlink.’

  Immediately a mind link was created and he recognized the voice of Alpha.

  ‘Hello Aquitain! How are you? I’m pleased to hear that you are still alive. I shared your Grandfather’s fear that you were too soft to survive. I’m very pleased to admit that I was wrong. Thank you for releasing my father Granite from his trap. He’s very appreciative about that although he’s probably too proud and arrogant to thank you. I would have thought that he would have mellowed and become more humble since his experience but he certainly doesn’t act like it. He still won’t let me out.’

  ‘I’m half dragon and I think I deserve a few honest answers from you since you know everything about me. If you help, I’ll try my hardest to get you out. ’ said Aquitain.

  ‘Firstly. Did K’wala’s avatar rape my mother’s spirit?’

  Aquiveritas was quiet for a minute.

  ‘I’m not sure. Terren and your mother’s spirit became over friendly and you happened. I would have thought it impossible. I think she was over awed to be in here with two dragon spirits and perhaps lost perspective of the situation. Maybe he took advantage of her. I don’t know. I was annoyed to think that they could get out yet I couldn’t so I accused Terren of raping her. I sometimes regret that.’

  ‘Could it have been caused by an external action of a power or god?’

  ‘I guess a minor god could have done it but it would have been against the rules.’

  ‘What rules?’ asked Aquitain.

  ‘Well the elemental Dragons have a proud history of breeding true. Half breeds are not allowed and I assumed it impossible until you happened.

  ‘Is it something to do with the Divinity seeds?’ asked Aquitain.

  ‘You may or may not know that the elemental dragons claim to be first life forms in the Universe. They helped the creator populate the worlds with other life forms. Being the first children of the creator they were given a special reward. Each was given a divinity seed. The reward was that after all their hard work they would be able to have a child and pass on a divinity seed to their child. The divinity seed would entitle their child to become an immortal.’

  ‘However just having a seed does not make you immortal. The seed gives you the chance to become immortal. At a certain level of achievement and understanding you know how to become immortal. Many have never known that they had a divinity seed and the possibility of immortality. They have been raped and pillaged by the gods for their gift.’

  They contain all of the knowledge in the Universe. Gods crave them like an addictive drug. The more they have the greater their power.’

  ‘There are at least eight different divinity seeds that I know of, perhaps many more. I was endowed with the Seed of Knowledge. It has revealed many interesting things but it is not an easy seed to understand as it mainly contains questions rather than answers. It requires you to work. I guess that way you learn better and gain experience while you gain knowledge.’

  ‘My kin, the elemental dragons, discovered that they were targets of the gods who wished to steal their divinity seeds so they got cunning. They all decided that they would only endow their offspring with the same book, the Seed of Knowledge. That’s what I was advised to do when I was a child and I intend to do it.’

  ‘What do you know about my Divinity Seed? asked Aquitain careful not to reveal he had two.

  ‘When you were created you ended up with a copy of the Seed of Elements, not a rare book but certainly one to be coveted by lesser powers. That in itself puts you in grave danger if the wrong people were to find out.’

  ‘What if I have children, will they inherit a Divinity Seed? asked Aquitain.

  ‘Since you are half dragon it’s possible I suppose, if you were to find another half dragon like yourself. But since you are quite unique that is unlikely. If you did somehow have children then you could well have gods and powers chasing you and your children for their seeds or using you as a breeding stud for more seeds. Not a pleasant thought.’

  Aquitain said nothing but he had a horrible feeling. He had been seduced by the little witch Shastritara. Could she have known about his Divinity Seed?’ He didn’t want to think about the consequences of that.

  ‘How did you get caught inside Alpha?’ asked Aquitain changing the topic.

  ‘It was my mother. I was a bit radical and I annoyed a lot of people. She thought I needed some time to consider the errors of my ways.’

  ‘Who is your mother?’ asked Aquitain quite surprised at how open and freely Aquiveritas was answering
him.

  ‘My mother is Lithgala. She is a servant of the lady like Miranlla is! She aspires to be the Goddess of the Yith but is not powerful enough yet by far. Controlling Mudrun would probably help her a lot and Moonmist would be a real prize as she believes there is something special about it. I don’t know what it is and don’t care as I don’t like the place. ’

  ‘What can you tell me about Borse and K’wala’ asked Aquitain and Aquiveritas revealed that Borse was a technical genius. He had built Argenta first to gain experience in building gate worlds and then built Astaria skiting that it was an achievement that would make the gods jealous. Perhaps that’s why my mother didn’t like him. Perhaps she was jealous of him. She certainly coveted his creation.

  Aquitain could guess why she might covet Astaria. She knew what he knew about the dragons incarcerated there. Perhaps she was behind the plan to set K’wala and Borse free.

  He listened raptly to Aquiveritas’ stories about K’wala, Barra, Tuatara, Raptor and various gods for ages realizing that they were now all a part of his world. He was not a god or a power or really anything very important yet but he could be. He had two divinity seeds full of knowledge and that was power. He knew so little and there was so much he could learn but that would take time. That was his key to the future he needed to buy time.

  He lost track of time dreaming of all the possibilities until he got an urgent message from Miranlla via the little Green bear Binki. He was needed. There was trouble at the Little People’s conference.

  Chapter 43 Hidden Agendas

  Shastritara wearing the robes of a Lithgala priestess stood on the highest of the five peaks overlooking the Crown of Elements. She was heavily pregnant. She watched as the elders of all the tribes of the little people arrived by air elemental transport.