‘Amazingly beautiful, isn’t it?’ said Ignatius, ‘butincredibly deadly at the same time. If the force bubble were toburst, then we’d be dead so quick we wouldn’t even knowit.’
‘The dragons come here and dump their loads of crystallinemagic essence. It can freely pass through the bubble wall into thelava to super heat it. The lava then spurts out releasing heatenergy into the air, warming Moonmist. Neat isn’t it. This was mycontribution. I built this.’
Both Qin andQan had to admit this was engineering far beyond anything theycould have imagined. ‘I’m impressed.’ said Qin and he really was.‘I bet it impressed your colleagues when you built it.’
‘Not really.’ said Ignatius. ‘Only a couple have ever beenhere to have a look. They’re all too busy with their owncreations.’
Both Qin andQan could clearly sense a tone of disappointment, almost bitternessin Ignatius’s voice. Here was an engineering masterpiece and hiscolleagues couldn’t be bothered to see it.
‘Let’s get going. Just phase slowly through the force fieldinto that dark rock then relax your mind and the Rock elementalvision will cut in. Then we’ll swim off and have a look at thequartz shelf. By the way, there could be a few other elementalsaround. Keep a good thirty paces distance from them and we shouldbe okay. If an unforeseen problem occurs then head backhere.’
They passedthrough the bubble wall into the rock and a form of vision verymuch like his crystal vision allowed him to see off into thedistance as though the rock was translucent shades of grey ratherthan opaque. The rock here was warm like a hot day on Mudrun. Heturned and could see the turbulent swirling flow of the larva onlya few paces away. With Rock elemental vision it looked black ratherthan bright orange as they didn’t have colour vision like Newmansalthough they could see the purples of magic.
The edge of thequartz shelf was only a few paces away and extended off into thedistance. It glowed a deep purple colour. Qin swam over to theshelf and touched it. Magic essence flooded into him. The feelingwas ecstatic, the most beautiful feeling he had ever felt. Thepower was exhilarating. Suddenly it stopped as Ignatius broke theconnection.
‘Are you trying to kill yourself?’ he said. ‘Elementals mightbe able to drink in pure magic essence but we can’t. I’m surprisedyou haven’t exploded already. You better get rid of that essencebefore you change back or you probably won’t survive.’
‘Qin looked internally at their source and was shocked. It nowshone ten times brighter than any spirit aura that he had everseen. How could he actually hold this much power, it scared him buthe felt thirsty for more. It was the most addictive feeling he hadever felt. He wanted more. He fought for control.
‘Help me.’ He yelled to Qan who moved their body away andsaid,
‘Get a hold of yourself, will you! There doesn’t seem to beany danger. I think the elemental dragon half of our ancestryallows us to hold more magic essence than any Newman. That’sprobably why they are using dragons to transport the magic essencethrough Astaria.’
‘You’re right.’ replied Qin. ‘and that’s why our source is solarge.
‘Maybe I should get some more and see how much we can reallyhold.’
‘No. Let’s just be content with what we’ve got at the moment.’said Qan. ‘Ignatius is correct. We don’t know our limit and couldexplode.’
‘Okay.’ said Qin quite disappointed.
‘I guess you’re right. By the Powers, that stuff’s potent.What are we going to do with all this power? Should we dump it likeIgnatius suggested?’
‘I suppose we could wait a while and see what happens.’ saidQan.
‘Okay.’ replied Qin and refocused his attentionexternally.
‘Are you okay?’ asked Ignatius.
‘I’m sorry I should have warned you about that danger. Rockelementals seem only concerned about two things, certain types ofrock crystal, which they eat to grow larger; and sources of magicessence, which they drink and use as food. You must have just had abanquet as you’re glowing brightly with magic essence.’
‘Oh. I think you’ve attracted some attention. Some elementalshave moved in behind us. Let’s just swim casually on and see if wecan circle around back to the gate.’
Unfortunately,this didn’t happen as more and more elementals appeared, blockingtheir way and slowly shepherding them away from the gate andfurther under the magic essence saturated quartz shelf.
‘They seem to be herding us.’ said Qin. ‘That showsintelligence.’
‘Yes and I don’t like it. I’ve never seen this many here andsome of them are much larger than I’ve seen before. If they becomehostile we can teleport away I suppose.’
‘I can’t teleport without a ring.’ said Qanquickly.
‘That’s okay, I can take us both, but we might as well findout what they’re up to. I must say this is rather exciting, they’venever shown the least bit interest in me before.’ repliedIgnatius.
They keptmoving guided by an increasing number of elementals. As they movedfurther under the shelf the elementals became larger and brighteralthough Aquitain’s body outshone all of them. After severalminutes they came to a semicircular line of elementals, whichjoined up with those herding them. Both Qin and Ignatius lookedaround. They were completely surrounded by hundreds of elementalsof all sizes.
‘I think that we must have accidentally walked into a party orconvention uninvited.’ said Ignatius. ‘I hope someone speaks ourlanguage.’
A minute or twolater the Qin and Qan noticed the ring open to admit twoelementals, both were very bright but one was physically enormous,at least twice the size of any of the others. They headed straightfor Aquitain stopping about twenty paces away.
Suddenly, bothQin and Qan found themselves as a pair of avatars in a mind arena.They were in their green crystal half dragon form standing besidean avatar of Ignatius in his Newman form. The two elementals lookedlike piles of rock hewn into a roughly Newman shape. One was largerthan the other.
‘I am the Brightest, who are you that wishes to challenge me?’said the large one in a deep bass voice using low draconic. ‘Youare not of our kind.’
‘Let me handle this.’ said Qin suddenly.
‘I am the Warden of Moonmist but I am not here to challengeyou Rock brother.’
‘Then why are you here burning so brightly.’ asked the largebright
