‘Who is myfather, Terrin?’
‘The Lady knewwho your father was and the little people worked it out as well.That should be enough for a smart person like you.’
‘Fare wellAquitain!’ said Terrin as he teleported away.
After an hourthe light intensity started to fade. His diamond heart lost itswhite-hot look and cooled down in minutes through a variety oforanges to a dull red. His crystal body would still be hot forhours but the crisis was over. He would live.
‘Glammer areyou around here somewhere?’ he called using mindspeak.
She reappearedonly a pace from him flying so that that her face was level withhis.
‘It doesn’tlook like you’re going to blow up any more. I thought for sure thatyou would. You are truly amazing.’
‘Whathappened?’ he asked.
‘That bluestuff in the memory bubbles was a crystalline form of magicessence. When the memory bubbles became unstable, all the magicessence wanted to get out. Somehow you managed to control itsrelease. You have greatly impressed the Moonmist Collective withyour magnificent feat of selfless courage in destroying thathorrible spirit. You have no idea how much trouble it caused. Theywish to honour you.’
Moments latertwo other Truth Radiants identical to Glammer appeared, one oneither side of her. One began a ritual and the whole area forthirty paces around him lit up with a golden glow, the breezebecame still and the night became hushed as if something grand wasabout to happen. Dozens of miniature radiants the size of mothswith glowing bodies of all colours, air elementals and other smallmagic flying creatures that he had no name for started collectingin the area of the golden glow until there were hundreds ofthem.
The mostbeautiful music he had ever heard began playing gently and themyriad of small creatures formed a large circular procession aroundhim slowly flying and pulsing their glowing coloured bodies inharmony with the music. As the music became louder and the tempofaster the procession began streaming and flowing faster with thesound, their little bodies glowing brighter and pulsing faster.When the tempo reached a fever pitch the colours of the flashingbodies began to synchronize forming into bands of brilliant vibrantraw colour.
The atmospherewas hypnotic and the air reeked of intense magic, as he stoodtransfixed inside the cylindrical rainbow of power. Glammer took ona rich greenish hue while the Truth Radiant on her right became abrilliant deep sea blue and the third bright sunny orange. Themusic became muted as the blue one spoke first.
‘My name isAurabelle. I am leader of the order faction of the MoonmistCollective Mind. We wish to applaud and honour your mighty feat ofcourage in destroying the Agent of Chaos known as Schlum that hasbeen causing so much death and destruction during the last fewyears. We have petitioned the Council to honour you with itsgreatest title, ‘Warden of Moonmist’.
Aquitain smiledinwardly as his little crystalline face couldn’t really smile andusing mindspeak said
‘Forgive me butI’m not a great warrior. I didn’t seek it out to destroy it for anyaltruistic reasons. It came after my friends and me. I didn’t eventry to kill it. I didn’t think I could. I just tried to stay aliveand believe me I don’t intend to chase any more of them.’ saidAquitain.
‘Your modestyis admirable. It’s a title in recognition of your triumph over apowerful malign creature that has caused much disruption, pain andmisery on Moonmist. You have shown to all that your heart ispure.’
‘Constructsdon’t have hearts.’ said Aquitain.
‘Of course theydon’t, it’s a metaphorical heart.’ said Glammer a bit miffed. ‘Doyou want to know about it or not?’
‘Okay.’ hereplied, ‘I’m listening.’
‘If you acceptthe title, you will be entitled to all the rights and privileges ofa Lord of the Realm under the Charter. In addition the council hasdecreed that you will be granted the protection of a pure heart,which will confer immunity to fear, domination and possession asthese were the tools employed by the chaotic spirit that youdestroyed.’ said Aurabelle.
‘However, thereis a down side.’ said the orange radiant rudely cutting into theconversation.
‘I amBelladonna and I represent the chaos faction. You have done us adisservice by destroying the spirit that we hoped would bringchange to the rigid structure of the society on Moonmist that isthe root cause of the pain and misery. Should you accept the titlewe have the right to place a curse on you.’
‘As a Warden ofMoonmist you will carry the curse that you will not earn anypersonal glory while your spirit is cowardly hiding within the pureheart. No one but you will know or remember your deeds. You willget no credit, no honour or glory for your actions. It will be ahollow useless title.’
‘Could you giveme some more details about this pure heart.’ asked Aquitain notquite sure how this was going to work out.
‘It will actlike a spherical shield of magic that will surround your body. Youcan create it when needed and dispel it when you don’t.’ answeredGlammer.
‘Glammer Ipresume you represent the neutral faction on the council. What doesyour faction have to say?’
‘The award iswell balanced. Both the pure heart shield and the curse have bothbeneficial and detrimental points some of which may not be obviousat present. It will be up to you to determine when and how to useit.’
Aquitainremained quiet for a while thinking about what Glammer had said. Ifit wasn’t for her he would still be trapped, if not in the prisonbottle then certainly within the soul crystal. It sounded like adouble-edged sword. If he could use it carefully then maybe itwould be useful as she suggested. Finally he made up his mind.
‘I wish tothank the council. I would be honoured to accept your title.’
‘Wonderful.’said the blue radiant who then flew down and kissed Aquitain on thecheek. He felt a wonderful glow all over and a beautiful heartshaped diamond with a golden glow appeared in his chest and hisspirit took on a bluish tinge. Next the orange radiant flew overand kissed him on the other cheek. The feeling of happiness andeuphoria disappeared and the diamond heart took on a sickly redcoloration and he felt depressed and unwell.
Finally,Glammer flew down and kissed him on the lips. This time the diamondchanged to a faint greenish
