Nature's Servant

by Duncan Pile

  He’d quickly departed, and travelled south to Sailor’s End, hoping his second destination would turn out to be Sestin’s hideaway. He’d placed a local sailor under a compulsion, forcing the helpless old sea-dog to ferry him out to the island, but after scouring the barren rock from end to end, he’d found nothing once again.

  Squatting on the cold, hard rock, Ferast battled to overcome a rising sense of desperation. What if Sestin wasn’t in the Haunted Citadel? What if he never found him? Fear reared up from within, threatening to destroy his resolve. Furious with himself for such weak-mindedness, Ferast pushed his doubts aside, stood up and began to stride down off the peak. He would get back in the boat, sail back to the mainland, and head north to the Haunted Citadel, where he would find Shirukai Sestin. He should have gone there in the first place. It was reputed to be haunted by evil spirits, and after Sestin’s attack on the college the previous year, Ferast knew that the renegade had an interest in demons. Any lingering doubt melted away in the fierce heat of his conviction. Yes, he would find his new master in the Haunted Citadel.

  …

  Gaspi was excited. In two weeks’ time, Hephistole would arrive to pick him up and take him back to Helioport, and more importantly to Emmy. He had grown to appreciate the taciturn druid and the profound lessons he taught, but as the time to go home drew near, his waking moments were most often filled with thoughts of the girl he loved. He just couldn’t wait to be with her again. A small part of him worried that she might not have missed him as much as he missed her, but whenever that thought arose, he banished it straight away. He’d learned a painful lesson the previous year about giving in to his insecurities, and Emmy gave him no reason to distrust her.

  It seemed like his time with Heath was coming to a natural end anyway. The druid had explained that once you knew the basics, and started to use elemental magic, you could only build on that knowledge through years of practice. Druidry was, after all, more of a relationship than a science; a relationship with nature and with elemental spirits. It was all about mutual respect and the willingness to yield your power and control. Since Gaspi had bonded with the earth spirit, Heath had slowly introduced him to more complex healings. When healing trees and plants, he worked exclusively with the earth spirit he had bonded with, but when healing birds and animals, he worked with water spirits. Heath had said something about living bodies being made mostly of water, but Gaspi hadn’t really understood what he meant, and the druid couldn’t explain it beyond what his experience and instincts told him.

  Whether he understood it or not, only water spirits seemed to be able to heal living creatures, and Gaspi had worked with several of them over the previous few weeks. Even though he let their power flow through him, he never bonded with them like he did with the earth elemental, and he had come to the conclusion that, in some inexplicable way, the earth spirit was now his own. Despite Heath’s reluctance, Gaspi had decided to give it a name. After much deliberation he’d chosen to call it Loreill, and the spirit seemed to approve of his choice.

  When they’d awoken that morning, Heath had clearly been bottling up some exciting news. Despite Gaspi’s persistent enquiries, the druid wouldn’t tell him anything until they’d gone about their separate meditations. Apparently no news was important enough to interrupt their morning rituals. He was too curious to concentrate, and completely failed to enter a relaxed state, but he kept at it until the clanking of pots told him Heath was making breakfast. Springing to his feet, he abandoned any pretense of relaxation and bounded over to the fire, Loreill zipping through the air after him. He practically threw himself in his chair. Under Heath’s tutelage, he had harvested some deadwood and made himself a chair very much like Heath’s, and when he sat down to eat, he did so in a chair made with his own hands.

  “So what’s going on?” he asked.

  Heath didn’t respond, and continued to attend to their breakfast, which was sizzling nicely over the fire. “Teaching patience to the young is a fool’s errand,” he said at last, but Gaspi could tell he was only teasing him. “Just wait one more moment. I’ll finish up the cooking so we can talk without interruption.”

  “Okay,” Gaspi said, and sat in silence while Heath fried the bacon. Soon enough Heath shoved a platter in his hands, took his own, and sat back in his chair.

  “Are we talking now?” Gaspi asked cheekily. He speared a rasher of bacon, forgetting in his excited curiosity to give thanks for the food. Heath’s withering look quickly reminded him, and Gaspi put the rasher down and said a word of thanks.

  “Better,” Heath said. Gaspi looked at him expectantly, itching to hear what the druid had to say.

  “Today you’re going to meet spirits of air and fire,” Heath said.

  “That’s brilliant!” Gaspi said, filled with excitement. “But where have they come from? And why? Won’t they be uncomfortable?” They had talked about the other two types of elemental in the last few weeks, and Heath had explained that though the forest was a natural place for earth and water elementals, it was not so for spirits of fire and air. The trees and rivers that made a natural playground for spirits of water and earth were too contained for air spirits and distinctly uncomfortable for fire spirits. He had gone on to explain that air elementals tended to live in the highest mountains, where they could soar on the thermals, and fire elementals sought out volcanic regions, where they bathed in the scolding magma. Being out of their natural environment caused them great distress.

  “Well I’m glad to see that you’re thinking of their wellbeing,” Heath said approvingly. “But you shouldn’t worry. They have ways of managing away from their environment for short periods, and as for where they’ve come from, I don’t know exactly. The forest spirits let me know they would be arriving today, and now they’re here.”

  Gaspi craned his neck around, looking for them. “I don’t see them,” he said. The earth and water spirits were playing in the clearing as usual, but unless fire and air spirits looked very similar to earth and water spirits, the visiting elementals were not among them.

  “They’re keeping themselves comfortable,” Heath answered. “The air elemental is way above us, riding the winds, and the fire elemental is right there,” Heath said, pointing at the fire he’d cooked breakfast over.

  Gaspi stared intently into the fire, his heart racing with excitement. He caught his breath when he saw two red eyes examining him in return from within the flames. They looked like glowing coals, smouldering with an inner light.

  “Wow,” he said breathlessly. There was something about the fire elemental’s gaze that made him nervous. “Heath,” he asked quietly. “What is it that fire and air elementals…do?”

  Heath looked at him thoughtfully. “Good question,” he responded. “Earth and water elementals look after the land and those that live within it, as that is their nature. Air elementals have the power to control the weather, and fire elementals are exactly what you might expect - they have the power of fire, and are capable of great destruction.”

  Gaspi was taken aback. The healing nature of earth and water spirits had led him to assume that all elementals would have a similarly benign essence, but it sounded as if fire elementals at least were very different indeed.

  “Destruction? But doesn’t that make them evil?” he asked, eyeing the creature in the fire with apprehension.

  “Destruction is part of nature Gaspi,” Heath explained. “Volcanoes spew forth ash and molten rock, and burn everything around them, but the very act of destruction leaves room for new growth. Some of the most beautiful and fertile parts of Antropel are created by the eruption of undersea volcanoes. You cannot have life without death, and the fire elementals do not act on a whim. Like all elementals, they work to maintain nature’s balance.”

  Gaspi stared at the unblinking eyes of the fire spirit, pondering what Heath was saying. “I think I understand what you mean,” he said, trying to throw off his discomfort at the nature of the creature that was scrutinising him. He w
rested his gaze away from it and looked back at Heath. “But why are they here?”

  “Ah yes, and that is the crux of the matter,” Heath responded gravely. “I’m going to tell you things today that will change your life forever, Gaspi. I have chosen not to speak of them previously, as I wanted you to enjoy learning the mysteries of druidry, but today I will have to burden you with knowledge.”

  Gaspi was not prepared for Heath’s serious tone, and put his platter on the ground, his appetite suddenly gone.

  “I think you’d better tell me,” he said, full of sudden trepidation. What could Heath have to tell him? What was he being so grave about?

  The druid cleared his throat. “It was of crucial importance that you learned the basics of druidry without bearing the weight of what I’m about to tell you,” he began, the seriousness of his tone doing nothing to lessen Gaspi’s apprehension. “If you knew these things before you began to learn our ways, you would have found it harder to abandon forcefulness and to yield to elemental magic. In truth, I would delay telling you this for longer if I could. I sent Hephistole a message several weeks ago asking if you could extend your stay, but he wants you back in Helioport when the three months are up. Time is no longer on our side.” Gaspi sat in silence waiting for the hammer blow he felt sure was coming.

  “We druids belong to a reclusive and mysterious order,” Heath continued softly, causing him to lean forward to hear better. “We guard our secrets well, and as I’m sure you can imagine, we don’t have a lot of volunteers seeking to be members. In all, there are fewer than one hundred of us across the continent.” Gaspi didn’t find this surprising. In all the time he’d been with Heath, the druid had only received a handful of messenger birds.

  “There are a few crucial tenets of our philosophy which all druids adhere to, without which we wouldn’t be an order at all. You know most of these already: we are servants of the land and not its masters; there is no place for forcefulness in our practice; we live our lives in harmony with nature, yielding willingly to its times, rhythms and seasons. You also understand something of our relationship with spirits of nature, and the ways of elemental magic. What I have to tell you about today is the one thing you do not know.”

  “Our order was started by a man who lived over a thousand years ago - Jonas Brightstaff. He was a recluse, a hermit, living alone in the forest, until the day he came across an elemental playing in a stream. The spirit hid from him at first, but he was fascinated by it, and over time it became comfortable manifesting in his presence and they developed a bond. This was the first relationship between an elemental spirit and a human being.

  “When their bond was well established, the spirit showed Jonas that it was sent to him by the elders of its kind, and that together they would start the druidic order. Everything we believe and practice today stems from that relationship. The important thing to recognise here Gaspi, is that it was elementals and not humans that started our order. We have always been their servants, though it may not seem so at first glance.”

  Gaspi nodded slowly as the pieces came together in his mind. He hadn’t fully understood the implications of elemental magic until that moment, but now it all made perfect sense. He suddenly understood the importance of giving up total control to the spirits when he performed a healing. That was definitely more the act of the servant than the master, though the elementals never lorded it over them. It was more of a symbiosis, but if anyone was the master, it was the spirits.

  “I see you understand,” Heath said gravely. “And this leads me on to what I must tell you. The spirits believe that they must one day play a part in saving humankind from a great and deadly destruction. They believe that a mage will arise with powers akin to their own - power over fire, wind, earth and water. They believe that they must give up their role as master, and choose to serve him as he seeks to vanquish that evil.” Heath paused, watching him carefully before speaking again. “Gaspi, they believe that mage is you.” Gaspi’s mouth hung open in shock. If he didn’t know the druid better he’d think this was a joke.

  “But…but…” he started, unable to get any words out. Heath didn’t say anything more, giving him time to process what he’d just been told. He finally found his voice. “But I’m not the first Nature Mage. I know there haven’t been many, but there was one a couple of hundred years ago. Hephistole told me.” His voice sounded shrill and whiny in his own ears.

  “That’s true,” Heath said. “But for reasons known only to the elementals, they did not align themselves with that man, or any of the others that came before him. There have been five Nature Mages since the birth of our order, but the elementals believe that they were just shadows, pre-echoes of the one to come. They believe that you are that mage, Gaspi. You will struggle to talk them out of it.”

  He was still in shock. He supposed he should be used to all this heavy talk of destiny by now, but he felt like he’d run into a solid wall. When his magic had first revealed itself, the village healer’s wife had made a dramatic prophecy about his importance. Hephistole often talked of the significance of his gift, and it seemed an almighty coincidence that someone with his powers had arisen just when Shirukai Sestin was about to act out his evil plans. Hephistole would have been captured last year if not for him, used by Sestin for whatever cruel purpose he had in mind, and the role he’d played in the battle had been crucial. Somehow he’d been able to accept all of that, but what Heath was telling him took it to a whole new level.

  It was the thought that these spiritual beings believed in him, that Loreill believed in him, and had anticipated his birth for at least a thousand years. He didn’t feel for one moment that he could live up to that. He shook his head at the enormity of it.

  “I need to think,” he said, getting out of his chair. Heath made to stand up but he held out a hand and the druid sat back down. “Please,” he said. “I just need to be on my own.” He walked off in a daze, heading instinctively for the pool. When he reached it, he pulled off his clothes and sank into its waters, staring into space numbly as he tried to come to terms with what Heath had told him. A flash of green light alerted him to Loreills’s presence. He came soaring through the trees, weaving playfully around the trunks and coming to a halt in front of him.

  “Not now Loreill,” Gaspi said brusquely. The spirit recoiled, backing away from him, and he instantly felt guilty. “Sorry,” he said. “I just really need to be alone.” Loreill turned and glided slowly away into the trees, his head hanging low. Gaspi felt awful. He’d never spoken harshly to Loreill before and the elemental clearly didn’t understand, but he still needed time to think, and Loreill’s presence would just interfere with that. He’d give anything to have Emmy or Taurnil with him. Emmy would know what to say to make him feel better, and he could hear what Taurnil would say in his head:

  “Well mate, you know I’m in it with you, whatever it is.”

  Against his will, Gaspi smiled. He wouldn’t have to deal with this alone even if he wanted to. Talking his friends out of standing with him would be like telling a mountain to grow legs and walk away. Somehow that cheered him up, taking the fearful edge off his thoughts. He still felt anxious and overwhelmed, but the thought of his friends’ support made a crucial difference. Buoyed up, he decided to take control and face his reaction head on. He began the breathing exercises he always did at the beginning of a meditation.

  He sat there in the water for a long time, relaxing his body and mind, letting the stream wash over him. As he meditated, his fear slowly receded, replaced by a calm acceptance of what he had to do. An important thought nudged at his consciousness, and then crystallised in his mind. Ultimately, if he was destined to do great things, then someone or something had chosen him, and had given him that destiny. It was up to whatever or whoever that was to equip and help him at the right time. It wasn’t his responsibility to figure it all out; he just had to be willing to do his part. Looking deeply into himself, Gaspi knew that he was willing, and that thought put
his mind at rest. These were troubling burdens that Heath had laid on him, but in the end, he could only do his best, and that was what he intended to do.

  In the midst of those thoughts, he realised he had come to believe in something, or someone, that might be understood as divine. It was impossible to believe in destiny without believing in a force or being behind that. It just didn’t make sense otherwise. The elementals obviously believed in something, as did Heath, and since learning to meditate and use magic, Gaspi had always been aware of a vast Source of Love that he occasionally tapped into. If he was destined to play an important part in these things, then Gaspi would just be willing and available, and that Source would have to play its part in things too. Breathing comfortably in quiet acceptance, Gaspi opened his eyes to find Loreill hovering in front of him, looking at him with what Gaspi thought might be concern. How a face devoid of normal human expression could show emotion, he couldn’t quite define, but nevertheless, that’s what he felt from the spirit. Smiling, he reached out a hand, and Loreill eagerly wound himself around his arm and then over his shoulders, draping himself over Gaspi in his favourite position.

  “I’m sorry for being rude to you earlier,” Gaspi said. He felt forgiveness radiate from Loreill, and suddenly he understood. That was how he could read emotions into Loreill’s expressions. It wasn’t that there was any change in the spirit’s features, but their bond was so strong now that they were communicating telepathically. His smile broadened even further. Suffused with warmth and contentment, he climbed out of the pool, dried off and got dressed. He knew he should go and talk to Heath before the druid went spare with worry.

  …

  Heath was relieved when Gaspi returned, and after he explained his change of perspective, peace was easily restored between them. They spent the afternoon performing chores around the clearing – weeding the garden, preserving fruit, curing a haunch of boar and cleaning the “indoor” portion of Heath’s tree-root house, during which time the druid finished explaining what he’d started to tell him that morning.