Officially, the gatewayand the two wizard towers were set on a roughly semicircular rockyheadland that jutted out to the east for security reasons, althoughAquitain now knew better. It was surrounded by sea on three sidesand cut off from the town by a high stonewall which ran in anorth-south direction parallel to the coastline. On the gatewayside of the wall were four buildings. One was the barracks for theninety-five gate guards and officials and the other three were usedfor customs and storage of goods traveling through the gateway.
The town was spread outto the west of the wall and consisted of a shopping area containinga dozen general merchants, several artisans, two inns and severalboarding and eating-houses. In the centre of the town was a largefountain, which provided the town’s fresh water. Since everyonewent there for water, and most of the eating-houses were locatedaround its periphery, it acted as the central meeting place andpromenade. Further to the west towards the jungle edge were smallfarms, which grew most of the town’s fresh food.
As he trudged around,the smell of the sea air mixed with rich perfumes of the exoticflowers and bushes growing in profusion around the town gave it arelaxed holiday atmosphere. The few people who were about watchedhim pass by but didn’t talk to him. They weren’t exactly hostile,but they weren’t friendly either. At the fountain, several womenwere collecting water and chatting among themselves, but all weretoo shy or afraid to talk to him, and they hurried off as heapproached.
The fountain was arelatively simple affair consisting of a knee-high tiled pool aboutseven paces across. In the centre of the pool was a three-tieredrock structure that looked like three large inverted brownbreakfast bowls, each sitting on top of the other and each onesmaller than the one below. Water cascaded out of the top bowl fromfour equally spaced openings around its side. It was obviously thetop bowl that had exploded a few weeks ago, as it appeared to bemuch newer than the rest of the fountain.
He walked around thefountain several times trying to spot anything unusual but wasdisappointed, as nothing happened. The fountain seemed to workperfectly. After a couple of minutes, a lone man wearing blacksmithattire approached him with a hammer in his hand.
‘You there, stranger.What are you doing! People need to get water.’
‘I’m not stopping them.I’m Aquitain the new wizard artisan. I’ve been asked by the HighWizard to find out what’s wrong with the fountain, but it lookslike it’s working perfectly well at the moment.’
‘Oh. I’m sorry. It’sjust that you’re so different. My name is Lanthum, I’m theblacksmith, very nice to meet you Aquitain. The problem with thefountain’s got some people a bit nervous. It’s been happening overthe last few months and it only happens after dark and when thewind blows in from the sea. There seem to be invisible spiritsfighting there. Some think it’s the spirits of people who have diedin the sea. The spirits generally ignore anyone standing nearby,but a few weeks ago their dispute got so violent that theydestroyed the top section of the fountain and flying pieces of itinjured two people.’
‘Do you think they’llbe here tonight?’
‘It’s quite possible.The wind direction is right,’ said the blacksmith.
‘Well I’ll see what Ican do.’ Aquitain was feeling like a knight asked to vanquish adragon. He knew that this was a typical job asked of a fieldwizard, but he wasn’t experienced in this type of work. He was anartisan but it did feel exciting, so he hurried off to prepare. Hewas sure that this was a test given to him by the High Wizard andthe druid Quab had realized it too, and left it for Aquitain tosolve.
Several hours laterZephira called in to see him again. She was excited, but tired. Hewas busy loading some powder into small boxes.
‘Hi Aquitain! How’syour day been? I had a great time this morning showing a group ofyoung wizards my defender technique. By the Powers, it smells a lotbetter than this morning. You’ll have to watch out what you eat oryou’ll lose all your customers.’
‘I might need your helptonight, Zephira. I’m going to try and exorcise a possessedfountain,’ Aquitain informed her.
‘What are you talkingabout?’ she asked, suddenly realizing that he didn’t seem to bejoking.
‘There is a disputebetween two groups of elementals, and they’re fighting at night inthe town fountain. Some people were injured recently. I’m going totry and fix the problem.’
‘But you’re not thattype of wizard. Granddad specifically forbade you from learning anyfighting magic.’
‘Who said anythingabout fighting? I’m going to try and arbitrate their dispute, butjust in case it doesn’t work, I was hoping that you would back meup.’
‘You mean protect youwhen they all try to beat you to a pulp?’
‘That’s a definitepossibility. Are you with me?’
‘Of course I am, Ican’t have my favourite cousin being beaten up, besides I’m bustingfor a good fight, it’s been too long.’
‘Good but I want you toonly use violence as the very last option. Let’s try diplomacyfirst, second and third. Go and get a meal, then meet me at thefountain just after dark.’
Aquitain was quitepleased with himself. He had prepared for every eventuality that hecould think of, including learning key words and phrases of bothair and water elemental languages; and he had conducted a magicritual, which allowed him to comprehend other languages moreefficiently. He had used this ritual on quite a number of occasionsover the years when dealing with customers to the magic shop fromremote worlds that couldn’t speak trade common very well.
Elementals werecreatures whose bodies were made of one of the four elements, air,water, fire or earth. In their own element they were almostinvisible, hence they were rarely noticed. They generally ignoredother sentient creatures including newmans unless they got in theway or were attacked. In either case, they attacked fearlessly andrecklessly worrying little about their own safety.
With the fountain, theproblems only occurred when the wind blew in a certain direction,suggesting that the air elementals were coming into the town withthe sea breeze. It was quite possible that young water elementalscame out of the fountain at
