He spoke theword ‘Glammer’ and he was teleported out of the bottle.
He appeared ina darkened room. As his dark vision adjusted to the new low lightconditions and he looked around. There were coffins piled allaround the edges of the room. He was in some sort of crypt. Thisfelt a little spooky. He noticed some movement to his right. Therewas a large steel cage and in it was someone familiar.
‘Well fancymeeting you here, Ansidian.’
Ansidian jerkedhis head up and spotted the gnome.
‘Who is it? Isit you, Aquitain?’
‘None other.Someone has finally had the sense to lock you up.’
‘You mustescape from here immediately. You don’t understand. When I met youin the cave with Somanller I was possessed by deranged spirit. Itis around here somewhere. You must escape. The plan has gone wrong.Immediately he had Aquitain’s undivided attention.
‘What plan?Who’s AG?’ he said but unfortunately it was too late.
Aquitain’s bodywent cold all over and froze rigid with fear. He had never felt soscared in all his life. He wanted to shut off his mind, retreat tosomewhere safe, run, hide, scream, anything to get away from herebut his body wouldn’t respond. He vaguely saw the same reactionfrom Ansidian. It wasn’t only him. He was a mind wizard. Hestruggled for mental control. He created a small room within hismind and fled within it locking the door securely behind him. Oncesafely inside he quickly tried to categorize the threat.
‘It’s the madspirit that Ansidian mentioned, it’s using powerful fear magic onme.’ he thought.
‘No!’ hescreamed, ‘You can’t have this body it’s mine. I only just got it.’and his spirit clung on tightly to his body and refused entry tothe alien spirit. It pushed and barged and prodded all to no avail.He was still paralysed but totally determined that it was notcoming in.
There was ashort period of time and just as he thought that it must have givenup, the pressure was reversed. Instead of a pressure pushing in onhim his spirit was literally sucked out of his body into some typeof storage container. He had a brief glimpse of the room as heentered the crystal then darkness.
Aquitain feltperfectly normal except he was no longer in his Llanllean body. Heguessed he was in some sort of soul crystal. He had heard all aboutthese from his granddad. He had seen them, touched them, butcouldn’t remember being in one, yet somehow it didn’t feel strangeto him. It felt almost like a body. His spirit started expandingand could feel the minute density variations of the crystal.
He used hiscrystal sight and the internal structure of the crystal lit up. Hecould see the flow of the grain, the small flaws and the slightgreen glow indicating the magic infused into the crystal. It alsohad a little magic essence stored. As his senses probed the crystalhe became aware of someone else there as well. It quickly occurredto him that as he expanded within the crystal the other was beingcompacted into a smaller area. He immediately stopped expanding butcontracted and imagined himself as having a small discrete roughlyNewman shaped body to house his spirit.
The otherspirit expanded to fill the container obviously unaware of hispresence. He thought about these types of containers. From memory asoul crystal should only house one spirit. If another was forced inthe first was forced out. Unless there was another body or othertype of receptacle to hold it then it would die. The malign spiritthat forced him in expected the previous occupant to die. He hadjust saved its life. Then the thought occurred to him that it mightbe his guardian’s spirit or even Slivver’s.
‘Is that youSlivver?’ He asked using mindspeak.
‘What ...what’s happening?’ said the other. ‘Where are you? Who areyou?’
‘I askedfirst.’ said Aquitain as he sent a mental image of a gnome.
‘You’re agnome. Will you let me mindlink with you?’
This quitesurprised Aquitain. Only a mind wizard would ask that type ofquestion. It wasn’t Slivver. Whoever it was wanted to look at hisspirit aura to see what it was dealing with. A reasonableprecaution, but of course that works both ways.
‘Okay’ saidAquitain and he felt the link take form. Immediately he recognizedthe spirit aura of the other as a Llanllean magic user. The otherwas not as reassuring.
‘What are you?’it said.
‘I’m aLlanllean like you.’
‘Not likely.’replied the other. ‘I’m a specialist in spirit auras and I’ve neverseen one of my kin with a spirit aura like yours. It looks twice ascomplex as normal.’
This baffledAquitain for a while then he realized that the guardian had saidthat he now wore the mark of his father. Perhaps the mark was onhis spirit aura and this person obviously didn’t recognize themark.
‘I think I knowwhat the problem is. I’m a citizen of Astaria. When I was made acitizen it changed me somehow.’
The other wasquiet for a while then said
‘Perhaps you’reright. I can’t remember seeing any spirit auras of people fromAstaria. My memory is fading, I’ve been in here too long.’
‘Hold on. Ithought soul crystals only held one person at a time.’ said theother.
‘You’re quitecorrect.’ replied Aquitain thinking about it.
‘I have a rareability to see within crystal structures called crystal sight. WhenI was forced in here I looked around and saw that I was pushing youout so I stopped expanding my spirit so that there would be roomfor the two of us.’
‘That’s anamazing story but a bit hard to believe.’
‘Then look atwhat I can see.’ replied Aquitain as he redirected his vision tothe other person.
‘Why don’t youtry and contract your form to something resembling a body. I’llproject what I see. To you it’ll be like looking into a mirror atyourself.’
The other setto work and after considerable effort managed to contract its formto a spherical blob.
‘Good.’ saidAquitain finally. I think introductions are in order. Don’t you?After all we may have to spend quite a bit of time in heretogether.’
‘Okay, I’mYllandril, a Llanllean healer. Who are you?’
‘I’m Aquitain,a mind wizard from Astaria.’
‘OK. Aquitain.Tell me about Astaria and its ruler.’
Aquitaindescribed Astaria in general terms but described Llanlorian indetail as he had a feeling that
