‘I want one of you of each colour to come closer so that I cansee you better.’ said Aquitain.
No one cameforward.
‘I’m not going to eat you. I’m trying to work out a way to putyou back together. You do want to be remade into one again don’tyou?’
‘You can’t do that. You wouldn’t know how.’ said thecollective of the reds with a haughty tone.
‘And how do you know that?’ asked Aquitain.
‘He told us you hardly had any power and you turned intoanimals all the time to hide as you were scared of him.’
‘Granite said that to you recently?’
‘No silly the Dark One did. We share our secrets with him andhe tells us where to find more.’
‘Aren’t you supposed to find out secrets for Granite?’ askedAquitain.
‘Yes but he hasn’t been around for ages. The Dark One knowslots of secrets and tells us where to find more.’ replied thereds.
‘He tells us where to find more secrets than you.’ said theblues suddenly. ‘No we hear more secrets.’ yelled thebrowns.
‘How does he tell some of you secrets when you are all mixedup together with the others in the same body?’ asked Aquitain alittle confused.
‘He sings and all the others go to sleep.’ replied the reds.‘Then, he tells us secrets just for us.’
On hearing thisadmission the blues, greens and browns got quite agitated and beganabusing the reds.
‘Calm down all of you.’ said Aquitain. ‘I’ve got a suspicionthat each of you colours has a similar secret. How about you bluesdoes he put the others to sleep and tell you specialsecrets?’
All the blueswent quiet and pretended that they were deaf.
‘Come on out with it. Let’s clear the air.’
‘Yes he does that for us as well.’ replied the bluescollective. The browns and greens also admitted that he put theothers to sleep and told them secrets as well.
‘I’m ashamed of all of you. You were specifically formed byGranite to be neutral in all your decisions. It sounds to me likeyou are all being persuaded to think in a certain way by the DarkOne. Your secrets you keep from each other are no more thaninstructions on how to make the other members of the collective todo what the Dark one wants. By cheating on each other you have notonly let Granite down you let the whole of your world down. I’vechanged my mind about putting you back together again. I think it’sbetter you stay apart. That way you can cause no moretrouble.’
‘Please’ said the collective mind of the browns. ‘You mustremake us.’
‘Why?’ asked Aquitain.
‘Yes you must remake us.’ said the collective of blues and thereds and greens.
‘Why?’ repeated Aquitain impatiently. ‘I’mwaiting?’
‘We must all join together to answer you.’ said theblues.
‘OK.’ said Aquitain ‘but no fighting among yourselves ortrying to do anything silly again or I’ll stun the lot ofyou.’
The fourseparate clouds moved together and mingled then the full collectivespoke to Aquitain and he recognized the voice in his mindimmediately. It was Glammer.
‘Hello Aquitain. I caused the separation so that you wouldknow my true nature. I’m not truly neutral but equal parts good andbad, chaos and order each part has had its own agenda just like theMoonmist collective. I have a vast amount of knowledge dispersedamong the members of this collective but the loss of one memberwould render much of that knowledge unusable.’
‘You should know that you are a pawn in a game played bymighty Powers. By finding and releasing the dragon Granite you havesucceeded in changing the balance on this world that has existedfor nearly fifty Moonmist years. This will have great repercussionsboth within and outside Moonmist. You will have attracted theattention of the gods and other lesser Powers and that is not good.You will be much more vulnerable than before and I wish to helpyou.’
‘Why?’ asked Aquitain again.
‘I believe that we were joined together for a purpose but wehave never been able to determine what it was. When Granite createdGlammer and made her an assistant collector we believed he had somehigher purpose in mind but he would never tell us.’
‘When we first saw your spirit aura we knew that you were muchmore than you appeared, you were like us. You were made for apurpose. If you remake us as Glammer then our destinies will beintertwined. We will help you find your purpose and you will helpus with ours.’
Aquitain wasquite surprised at this revelation but also quite excited. Maybe hecould get a few answers.
‘So you want to form an alliance with me?’ heasked.
‘Yes you could call it an alliance.’
‘May I ask you some questions before I decide?’ askedAquitain.
‘You may ask but I may not know the answer until I am madewhole.’
‘I guessed that might be the case.’ stated Aquitain. ‘Butlet’s try anyway.’
‘What is Granite?’
‘He is a powerful elemental dragon.’ replied thecollective.
‘Is he some type of Power or deity?’ askedAquitain.
‘Yes he is very powerful but not a god.’ replied thecollective.
‘Does he have a title?’ asked Aquitain.
‘He was the Warden of Moonmist before you.’ said thecollective.
‘Yes and what else?’ asked Aquitain.
The collectivewere silent as if trying to decide whether they should tell himanymore.
‘If we are in an alliance together we need to be honest witheach other. What are his other titles?’ asked Aquitain.
‘He is the Lord High Protector of Crystalhaven which is like aWarden.’ said the collective as if it meant something.
‘Where is Crystalhaven?’ asked Aquitain.
‘Crystalhaven is the old name for Mudrun before the storm.’replied the collective hesitantly.
‘Ah so he’s the Warden of Mudrun.’ thought Aquitain. Thisconfirmed what Terren had said.
It all startedto make sense. If Granite was the Warden of Mudrun and the WardenMoonmist then he would have visited both. During one of his visitshere he was trapped. If he was imprisoned here for about fiftyMoonmist years then owing to the time difference between worlds hewas away for roughly 250 Mudrun years.
