Miranlla noddedher approval and wondered how powerful Granite really was?
‘Oh. Quite Powerful. Now where are we? Ah yes. Let me look atyou for a moment.’ and Miranlla felt that he knew everything abouther.
‘Hmmm. The Lady has invested a lot of power in you. I wonderwhat she intends to do with it all?’
‘You’ll have to ask her as she hasn’t confided in me.’ repliedMiranlla.
‘Somehow I thought you might say that.’ he replied. ‘Let metell you a little story.’
‘A long time ago the Lady in her wisdom decided to set up alot of temples on Crystalhaven for the benefit of the stone dragonsand herself. You might say it was a sort of leisure centre forstone dragons and they paid her with certain knowledge. She createdthe little people to run the temples and nominated four immortalspirits to act as their protectors. These were K’wala, R’ptor,Barra and Tuatara.’
‘The stone dragons appointed a protector from amongst theirranks and that person was me. The four spirits were to report to meand only consult with the Lady if we could not agree. The littlepeople together with the four spirits and I were consideredpowerful enough to stop any trouble that might occur here and thatdid seem to be the case for hundreds of years.’
‘One of the rules that the spirits and I had to agree to wasthat we would not have any offspring as they could compromise ourpositions. Unfortunately I was arrogant and indiscrete and had anaffair with a female stone dragon and while I believed that we hadtaken suitable precautions I was wrong. The female became pregnantand we had a son. I submitted my resignation as guardian but afterbeing in the job so long the other stone dragons refused to acceptit and asked me to continue which I did.’
‘A few years later I was trapped in the prison that Aquitainreleased me from and in my absence everything went wrong. K’waladisappeared looking for me I suspect.
‘Oh that’s not so good. If K’wala was appointed by the Lady Ican see how they might have thought the Lady was involved.’ repliedMiranlla.
‘Exactly! replied Granite.
‘Many of the stone dragons believe that she was somehowinvolved with the Lady if not directly responsible.’
My stone dragoncolleagues somehow got the impression that the Lady and K’wala wereinvolved in my disappearance and threatened revolt unless I wasreleased. Apparently she either didn’t know where I was or refusedto have me released.’
‘The stone dragons revolted and destroyed two or three of thetemples to prompt her into action and guess what happened. Thosetemples caused other temples to explode and before they knew itmost exploded causing the Great Storm.’
‘So that’s how it happened.’ replied Miranlla. ‘Okay so whydon’t you get to the point.’
‘The point is that I was released by K’wala’s avatar and son.’he replied. ‘That means she is still alive somewhere, most probablyin Astaria.’
‘So you are saying her avatar has breached K’wala’s oath ofabstinence. And that will count against K’wala.’
‘I can see you have a good understanding of the situation.’replied Granite. ‘But there is more.’
‘The four spirit immortals and I were employed under acontract called the Pact of Crystalhaven Defence. It bound the godsand the elemental dragons to an agreement to make Crystalhaven asanctuary for the elemental dragons. We were employed to enforce itand toss out any trouble makers.’
‘The pact was obviously useless after the Great Storm hadstarted so it was replaced with another.’
‘When the storm ended the Lady offered to bring her druidshere to renew the world. The little people were unhappy and foughtthe druids at first but eventually peace was restored under a newpact named the Pact of Renewal. That pact is still in force at themoment. Should it be broken then the little people will get into alot of mischief and perhaps get themselves wiped out. I wouldn’tlike to see that.’
‘Oh. That’s not good. So why are you telling me this?’ askedMiranlla.
‘Isn’t it obvious. The Lady has invested much power in you.Your chosen is related to K’wala. You are destined to be importantin what happens in the future. If the Pact of Renewal is brokenchaos will follow like night follows day. This world and perhapsothers will become battlegrounds.’
‘While I am no longer bound by contract I feel obligated tothis world as it was my stupidity in getting trapped that hascaused this problem.’
‘My conscience requires me to investigate K’wala’s part in theGreat Storm and if I find that she was directly involved then Iwill be duty bound to go before the pantheon of gods. That coulddivide the pantheon and bring about the Time of Chaos which no-onewants.’
‘If the Lady and K’wala were somehow involved in causing theGreat Storm I would expect her to clean up the mess before I findout. Since you and Aquitain are clearly likely to meet K’wala soonas her avatar spirit will have to return you must act in everyone’sinterest not just your own.’
‘By the Lady are you trying to lay the fate the worlds on myshoulders? You seem to believe that K’wala is guilty before youhave found out what has happened. I’m sure that if the Lady wereinvolved in any way she would own up to it as would any of herservants.’ replied Miranlla with conviction.
‘Hmm. You are new at this game. I know many gods and eachbelieve that what they do is the only truth. The elemental dragonswere the first of the creator’s servants. The gods came after usand we have suffered under them and no longer trust any gods. I amnot judging K’wala yet. She was a stone dragon but after becomingan immortal chose to assist the Lady and therefore she might beconsidered less trustworthy by other elemental dragons.’
‘And what if I discovered that your son Aquiveritas wasinvolved? What should I do then?’ asked Miranlla.
‘Well I should imagine the same situation would apply. No onewants the Time of Chaos to occur. I might expect that you mightgive me fair warning so that I could clean up the mess.’ repliedGranite.
‘You wish to be Queen of Moonmist. Let
