Edge of Chaos

Overview of Book 2 - Agents of Chaos

Aquitain wakes up in a Llanllean spider body within a protective circle of candles that provided a protective shield against being scryed. He remembers that he had been killed and reincarnated by the Lady at Miranda’s request after being attacked by renegade druids in Quab’s sanctuary.

He attends a celebration with a little people tribe in the shape of a yellow scaled little person, gets drunk and is seduced by Shastritara a red scaled little person with a hidden agenda while Miranda is absent.

Miranda is full of doubt about her own Newman identity believing that she might actually be a Llanllean so travels to the portal to her mother’s world intent on questioning her mother. Her mother is absent. Her childhood nanny greets her but refuses to tell her whether her doubts are true or false.

On returning to Aquitain she is captured by some of her druid colleagues and put on trial for murdering the druids at Quab’s sanctuary. She is sentenced to death but before the sentence can be carried out she is rescued by her mother.

Aquitain visits Queen Snowbelle’s Gateworld searching for Miranda where he is entertained by Snowbelle pretending to be Miranda. He realizes that she is a fake but gets some interesting information out of her about the little people before the real Miranda shows up.

They flee with Miranda’s nanny Allalanllea who has betrayed the queen by tipping off Miranda about her mother’s deception.

Allalanllea answers Miranda’s question about her past but reveals that the Lady has made unknown changes to the tattoo that seriously complicates its removal. Aquitain discovers that Miranda has sorcerous powers as well as her druid abilities. They get calls for help from both the little people and the water elementals and decide to split up to investigate them.

Miranda travels to the Wolf people’s village to investigate a mysterious gateway portal, closes it and narrowly avoids being eaten by a Wyvern but is captured by an Elendari Huntmaster, who takes her prisoner and then transports her to Moonmist to meet his boss an Elendari Lord called Darkmantle.

Aquitain investigates the water elementals problem and is tipped off that his cousin Zephira and his memcrystal Alpha are on another world called Moonmist. He hears that Miranda has been captured and taken there as well, so he decides to follow.

Miranda is imprisoned by Darkmantle. Prendergrass, the family wizard is ordered to give her a new identity. The wizard recognizes her as Snowbelle’s daughter and fears for her safety. He changes her face using powerful magic so that Lord Darkmantle wouldn’t recognize her. He also covers her with a glamour making her look greenish and insect like to match her new name of Dragonfly.

On the way to Moonmist, Aquitain is held up on Astaria, a mysterious gateworld that exists in between Mudrun and Moon mist. Llanlorian the ruler of Astaria offers him a job to work for her if he helps her defend the Gate world. He accepts.

Aquitain travels to Moonmist and meets Llalorax, the royal magician of the Queen of Moonmist. They are rudely taken prisoner by the Queen’s guard and accused of treachery by the Queen and gaoled in a prison in a bottle. Aquitain with the help of a fairy-like person called Glammer escapes the prison bottle.

He is attacked and his spirit is pulled out of his body and captured in a soul crystal by a malign chaotic spirit called Schlum that has been inflicting its ill will on the people of Moonmist for years.

In the soul crystal, his spirit form meets the spirit of Llanlorian’s healer sister Yllandril and they exchange stories. Aquitain gets information from her allowing him to discover a way to read his own spirit aura which allows him to unlock previously locked memories.

Miranda is tortured to convince the guards that she has lost her memory and been changed to her new identity as Dragonfly. She meets Zephira who has had her memory wiped and identity changed and is now known as Lash. She goes on a mission along with Darkmantle’s soldiers and her body is possessed by the malign spirit Schlum, who had earlier captured Aquitain’s spirit.

Her spirit controlled body accompanies Darkmantle and his attack force as it invades her home gateworld in Snowbelle’s absence. She witnesses her people being slaughtered and is traumatized by the events that happen.

While in his soul crystal prison Aquitain discovers how to open a divinity seed hidden in his spirit and uses it to gain the knowledge to create two small bodies out of chaos clay to house his and Yllandril’s spirits.

With Glammer’s help he creates the bodies and Glammer smashes the soul crystal allowing him to escape from the crystal into their new bodies. He and Yllandril teleport into the prison bottle to hide from Schlum but the malign spirit leaves Miranda’s body and follows them. Aquitain cunningly works out a way to trap it and destroys it.

Aquitain is hailed as a hero by the Moonmist Collective mind and honored with the title Lord Warden of Moonmist for killing Schlum. He is given a pure heart, a very special type of magic that has both good and bad features. He helps out the Moonmist Collective and is further rewarded with knowledge of illusions and fear magic.

He accepts a reconnaissance mission from Llalorax to investigate the palace prior to the Queen’s spring ball and meet some Trixies. In the mean while Llalorax rescues Miranda and Yllandril helps her recover from her trauma. They discovered she was Aquitain’s partner.

Aquitain visits the Trixies and finds out they definitely yellow scaled little people but many are malformed. He meets Bellen who shows him around and takes him to the dragon throne.

Aquitain checks out the crown on top of the dragon throne and discovers one of the crystals is sentient. It attacks him but he destroys it releasing the spirit of Granite, an elemental dragon that had been trapped there for ages. While waiting on top of the dragon throne’s head to watch the spectacle of the spring ball, Aquitain is overwhelmed by all that has happened begins to believe it is all a dream.

During one of the entertainment events in the ball, Queen Aurora of Moonmist is caught in a trap set by Darkmantle and dies. Darkmantle proclaims his girlfriend the Princess Gemelica should be crowned Queen but many of the other lords are not happy about this.

Llalorax, the dead queen’s magician convinces Miranda to challenge for the throne of Moonmist. Both Miranda and Gemelica are tested and found suitable. Darkmantle claims to be Gemelica’s champion. Aquitain agrees to be Miranda’s champion and they duel using conjured animal illusions.

The contest is interrupted by a fake queen lookalike possessed by a Mentarin spirit. The fake queen’s assistants use magic that shatters Aquitain’s crystal body and encases Miranda in rock. Aquitain repairs himself while the fake queen’s attention is diverted by Yllandril. Aquitain conjures up a mass illusion that panics the fake queen and her spirit supporters who flee the ball taking Miranda’s spirit with them as a hostage. Aquitain is heartbroken, disillusioned and wants to wake up from the dream.

The story continues here in book 3.

Chapter 1 M’Lady Warden

The spring ball was over. Aquitain, the new Warden of Moonmist stood in the Elendari throne room watching the people depart. Beside him was Rat Catcher, the grey and black striped cat lying back licking her fur and Yllandril, the small stone spider.

He was sad. The dream was over and he was patiently waiting to return to his mundane existence in his Grandfather’s magic shop. It was like the end of a wonderful adventure story. He had countless priceless memories but the most enduring would be the memory of Miranda, his wonderful druid princess.

He was mainly sad because he had promised to help her find her missing father and to remove the magic tattoo that was a physical barrier stopping them from joining. He was betrothed to her and he loved her dearly. She was so beautiful, so exciting, so loving, caring and trusting. He felt guilty as if he was deserting her and betraying their love. Perhaps he could try and come back in another dream and continue on from where this one had ended.

The Elendari Lords and their Ladies were leaving discussing the amazing events that had occurred. There was talk of forming a council to discuss the Mentarin threat and a new Queen. Darkmantle and Llalorax had something urgent to do and vanished. The Trixies were starting to clean up.

Bellen and several of his Trixie friends had Miranda’s body, which had been transformed to stone, on a trolley and were wheeling it down the service corridor within the walls of the palace to a position of eminence within the garden maze. Miranda’s spirit had been stolen by one of the Mentarin. Her body was still technically alive as it had the spirit of Slivver, Miranda’s parasitic creature companion within it.

‘When am I going to leave this damn dream and wake up, Terren.’ asked Aquitain impatiently.

‘Terren is dead my Lord’ said the Rat Catcher through the mind link. ‘but he did give me a message for you before he died.’

‘He said that there has been a problem. You can’t leave yet. In fact it may be some time before you can leave. He said he was going to try and fix it. He suggested that you continue your heroic deeds as normal; find Miranda as she’s lost and in trouble again; help the Elendari fight the Mentarin; fight dragons and the like.’

‘Really! Oh Granddad will be disappointed. However, I guess he will keep trying. I think I will go and save Miranda. It would be fun to make her Queen of all Moonmist. Maybe then I can be her king and remove that damn tattoo. I’ll bet Terren’s not dead only trying to make me more independent.’

‘Yllandril, we have work to do! So let’s get on with it!’

He stood thinking about the problem of Miranda’s body. He was sure that within a minute or two after the polymorph power wore off the body would turn to flesh. Slivver’s spirit might be able to keep it alive long enough for Aquitain to do something he never thought he would do.

Through his mindlink with Bellen which was still intact he said,

‘Hello Bellen. Is there any way we could make a copy of Miranda’s body?’

‘Um it’s possible Milord, we Trixies knows lots a magic powers but the Queen Aurora says we can’t use them as it wears out the magic. I never knew that, so we does most things without magic these days.’

‘Really!’ said Aquitain ‘that explains a lot. I wondered why you didn’t use magic to help set the tables and serve the food.’

‘The queen is gone now and I need a copy of Miranda just as she is now. I want to put a copy of her body in the maze garden rather than the real one.’

‘Good idea Milord.’ replied Bellen.

‘The lichen and moss will grow over her very quickly and then she won’t look so pretty. What do yer want to do with this statue?’

‘I want you to keep her real body hidden and secure here in the palace. Can you do that?’ asked Aquitain.

‘To be sure! I’ll put it in the room of faces. No one goes there except me.’ replied Bellen.

‘That’s an excellent idea. Wait until I join you. Can you put it there first and then go and find out how to make a copy.’

Bellen waited for Aquitain to arrive then teleported Miranda’s statue, Aquitain, Yllandril, the Rat catcher and himself to the room then left them.

‘What are you up to?’ asked Yllandril who was riding along on the body of Miranda just a bit further down from Aquitain. The Rat Catcher was not interested; she was sniffing around the room for mice.

‘Both of us have lost our own bodies. I don’t want Miranda to suffer that loss if I can help it. I’ve always been against mind control, possession and anything like that and I know you feel the same way but I also know how important above all it is to have your own body.’

‘I’m going to try to preserve Miranda’s body until I can give it back to her. If I don’t do something it’ll truly die and be lost permanently.’

‘How do you know her spirit hasn’t gone to the realm of the dead?’ asked Yllandril.

‘I don’t.’ replied Aquitain. ‘However, I’ll bet the Mentarin have her spirit imprisoned in a soul crystal somewhere like they did with us. They will probably try to use her spirit as a hostage to ensure Gemelica is made Queen. Until I can find out I have to believe she is alive and preserve her body for her.’

‘How can you preserve her body?’ asked Yllandril a little worried. ‘That type of knowledge is forbidden.’

‘Yllandril I don’t know if I can yet but as you know I have a lot of information locked up in my mind and some of it may show me the way. As a mind wizard I have been taught that no knowledge is inherently good or bad, it is the intentions behind it’s use that may be good or bad.’

‘I know your intensions are good but I worry about the road you are taking.’ replied Yllandril. ‘I have firsthand knowledge of possession and it is malevolent no matter how you argue its benefits. What will you do with her body if you discover she is truly dead?’

‘I don’t know. I will have to consider that problem when it happens. No more discussion please I must act now or we might lose it.’

Aquitain in his miniature green crystal body was standing on Miranda’s stone abdomen. He looked around the room and spotted what he needed. The mirror used by Bellen to show trixies fitted with magic wooden masks their new faces. Using telekinesis he picked it up, moved it across the room and laid it on Miranda’s abdomen and stepped onto it.

He activated his ability to see spirit auras and viewed his own spirit aura in the mirror. He noticed immediately that it was different from before. Terren or his father must have done something to him but he didn’t feel any different. He pondered on what it meant for a while then decided to continue with his current course of action.

He placed his mind in a state of autohypnosis and called forth the sealed divinity seed that he had taken from the malign spirit Schlum and chanted the mantra to open it.

He withdrew from the state of autohypnosis and sought the knowledge of how his spirit could escape from his physical body. It turned out to be remarkably simple. The spirit and the body both appeared to have a unique individual identification. By marking the spirit with a sort of psychic tattoo identifying the body in which it was housed, the spirit remained in that body and couldn’t leave it unless the body was destroyed. On the body’s death the tattoo was erased allowing the spirit to leave.

The divinity seed gave instructions on how to erase and write a new tattoo onto a spirit. This would allow someone to escape their own body and enter and use another body as their own. It also gave him a wealth of other knowledge on the nature of the spirit and how it interacted with the body. He would have to spend considerable time thinking about it to understand how this new knowledge would mesh in with the rest of his knowledge.

The one real problem was that it didn’t give any indication as to the hazards of leaving his body and he guessed that there would be a few. With great apprehension he chanted the new mantra that allowed him to wipe his body’s identification off his spirit.

His senses immediately felt dulled. His sense of touch felt more like he was wearing thick gloves and his vision was more like he was inside a building looking out through a window, then remembering back to the time when he was a slime mould, he pushed out a small pseudopodium-like part of his spirit and budded it off.

The ritual to create a construct was normally quite detailed and took a lengthy amount of time. With his new knowledge he now knew how to do it very quickly.

‘Hello.’ he said using mindspeak to the small part of his spirit he had separated from the main.

‘My name is Aquitain. You are a part of me. You are a construct. Your name is Crys. You will follow only my commands. You will keep this crystal body alive and safe. You will watch and listen. You will communicate with me by mind speak.’ And then with a series of high Draconic command words it was done.

Aquitain wrote the crystal body identification onto the small part of his spirit called Crys then flowed the bulk of his spirit out of his crystal body into Miranda’s stone body. Slivver’s spirit was pushed back into his small body, which had also been turned to stone. He immediately felt the effect of the power that had polymorphed Miranda’s body to stone. It was like a paralysis numbing his mind and body.

Bellen returned and using his magic wand made a stone copy of Miranda then asked what he should do with it. Yllandril told him that the Warden was busy trying to somehow preserve Miranda’s body but wasn’t quite sure how he was going to do it.

‘Bellen I need you to dispel the magic in Miranda’s body. Can you do that for me.’ He asked using mind speak.

‘I can surely do that for yer but I’m not sure what will happen if her spirit is no longer within it.’ he replied and left again.

Twenty minutes later he returned and used his marvellous wand again this time dispelling the polymorph effect. Aquitain knew the feeling instantly. He was Newman again but now even though he thought of himself as a male his body was in reality female and he could definitely feel differences. His senses were still dulled as he hadn’t labelled his spirit with the body’s identity but otherwise everything seemed okay. He put himself into autohypnosis and used a mantra to write Miranda’s body’s identification onto his spirit.

On dismissing the autohypnosis the body was as real as if he had lived all his life in it. It was the most wonderful feeling. This was how he had wanted to feel for ages. He had emotions and real feelings again. Now he could feel real anger at what the Mentarin had done. Now he could use his animal emotions to fight and even up with those Mentarin bastards who took Miranda’s spirit but for now it must be cool controlled anger. The beast in him would have its chance later.

Slivver noticed the change in Miranda’s body first.

‘It’s really you again.’ said Slivver quite astounded. ‘You won’t harm me will you. I belong to the mistress now.’

‘No. Slivver. You have done a wonderful job looking after Princess Miranda’s body. I am going to look after it for a while until we can find her and give it back. You may stay with me but that means I will be watching you. I’m sure you know I have much more power now. Watch but don’t interfere or I will cast you off. You may talk occasionally if you wish. I will welcome any local knowledge that you have which may be of use to us. Do you agree?’

Slivver agreed. Why wouldn’t he? This was an opportunity of a life time. He had the best seat in the house to see what might be history being made. Yes he agreed.

Aquitain suddenly sat up on the trolley. Crys and the mirror slid off his abdomen and fell to the floor with a crash startling Bellen.

‘Oh I am sorry Crys.’ he said as he looked around to see who was present then climbed off the trolley and picked up Crys.

‘It’s wonderful to see yer alive again Yer Majesty.’ said Bellen.

‘I have made a copy of yer and we was going to stick it in the maze garden.’

‘Bellen, I’m not Queen Miranda. Her spirit has been stolen. I’m Aquitain. I’ve taken control of her body so that it doesn’t die. When I find her spirit I’ll give it back to her.’

Bellen saw Crys moving its arms and with a confused look on his face asked.

‘How can yer be in Queen Miranda’s body and yer own at the same time?’

‘I have left a small part of my spirit in my crystal body. It will keep that body alive until I need it again. It is now like a construct and I have named it Crys. You must keep this a secret between the four of us here in the room.’

‘Er … which four of us Lord Warden, unless me fingers have changed, I think there’s five of us.’ said Bellen a little confused.

‘Sorry Bellen, I counted myself only once. You’re quite right, I should have counted myself twice.’ he said as he thought to himself.

‘In fact I had better be careful because there’s two more bits of me out there somewhere as well. I wonder how many bits of my spirit I can lose before I stop being me?’

‘This is likely to be quite confusing.’ said Yllandril huffily not sounding too pleased.

‘What do we call you now? You are neither Miranda nor Aquitain but something in between.’

‘You’re right Yllandril. It is too confusing.’ so he shape changed to his old male body shape of Rob Theolaur.

‘This is how I looked before when I had a Newman body. Is this better?’

‘By the powers!’ said Bellen. ‘Yer a shape shifter! Can you mimic other people and creatures?’

‘Yep’ replied Aquitain with a grin. ‘I want this to remain a secret between us okay.’

‘Okay, Lord Warden.’ replied Bellen but Yllandril was noticeably quiet.

‘Are you going to do something about Astaria now my Lady?’ asked the Rat Catcher.

‘What do yer want to do with the statue of Princess Miranda.’ asked Bellen.

‘What are we going to do about the spirit creatures?’ asked Yllandril.

‘Okay! Okay all of you. I know we’ve got lots of problems to sort out but I feel a little disoriented in this female body. I used to be a male you know. In fact my stomach feels unwell and my head aches.’

‘That’s probably because Miranda got dead drunk on Trixie brew yesterday and her, I mean your body, still hasn’t recovered yet.’ said Yllandril.

‘Thanks Yllandril I was tempted to think that it was somehow caused by me taking over this body. I’ll adjust my metabolism and see if that will ease the problem. Now to work!’

‘First I want the statue of Miranda placed in the maze garden as planned. It will be a good decoy. They will think that we believe she is dead and hopefully that will buy us some time.’

‘Will you look after that please Bellen? Also remember that you think she is dead so act like you believe it. Do whatever you do when someone important dies.’

‘Okay Lord Warden, I will do that for both of yer.’ he replied.

‘But first I will need to get some help to lift the statue onto the trolley.’

‘Wait I might be able to help.’ said Aquitain.

‘You sure?’ asked Bellen, ‘Yer don’t look that strong.’

‘My Granddad always said the body’s weak compared with the mind.’ and with a smile as he used his new telekinesis ability. The statue seemed to effortlessly pick itself up, rotate to be parallel to the ground and float over to the trolley then lower itself down onto it.

‘Yer sure got some good muscles in yer head Lord Warden. I’ll take her to a nice spot,’ said Bellen then he placed his hands on the statue and trolley and teleported away with them.

Aquitain thought for a few seconds.

‘He’s right, my mind is definitely getting stronger. I wasn’t sure that I could lift that statue at all, let alone that easily.’ he thought.

He checked his source again. It was bigger than ever and definitely seemed to be growing. He was sure it was now as large as he remembered Granddad’s to be and he was considered a very powerful mind wizard. He thought about it for a while then decided there was much still to do and returned to the current problems.

‘OK, Yllandril, it’s now your turn. I’ve been thinking about the mutations among the Trixies. There has to be something causing it and I don’t think it is the throne.’

‘Now I remember that you told me that in your capacity as Royal Healer you were concerned about the problem and working on it prior to being possessed by that spirit Schlum. Was anyone else concerned and looking into the problem?’

‘Yes.’ replied Yllandril. ‘I originally became concerned after old Lord Darkmantle had a chat with me during his youngest son’s wedding to the Newman druid woman Sindel who is now known as Snowbelle. He was a kindly old Lord who spent his time hunting and breeding wyverns, dogs, coursers and other animals.’

‘He asked me if I had noticed the increased number of mutants among the animals. I said a couple of other lords had asked me the same question. He told me that he had been breeding animals for over a hundred years and had kept records during the whole period. He had gone through his records and found that there had been a steady increase in mutations among his breeding animals. He had also noticed more mutant animals during his hunts. He said he was quite pleased that his son had married the druid Sindel as she might be able to work out what was happening.’

‘I wasn’t worried about the animals but it did make me think about whether it might be connected to the Elendari secret.’

‘What’s that?’ asked Aquitain now rather curious.

‘You have only been here a couple of days. If you had been here longer you would have noticed that there are almost no children. One of the reasons that the Elendari have been capturing men and women from Mudrun has been to see if they could have children with them. In some cases it has worked but mostly not. I suspect that a part of old Darkmantle’s joy was that he might get a grandson from his son’s union with the druid.’

‘Unfortunately he died not long later from a strange illness which neither I nor any other healer had ever seen before or since. Needless to say most people believed that Sindel was involved. I got to know her quite well and while I did suspect her for a while at the time, I now don’t believe that she was involved. She was just as shocked as anyone else as she had really liked the old fellow. She also tried to cure it but had no success.’

‘Considering the comments that Darkmantle made about the Mentarin spirit called Schlum that was haunting him and the large number of the Mentarin spirits that were manipulating the people here, I think that it’s likely that the Mentarin were involved in old Darkmantle’s death and possibly even the mutation and the Elendari infertility problems.’

‘That’s exactly what I am thinking.’ replied Aquitain.

‘The mutations and the Mentarin are linked somehow. What we need to do is to find out how, then we might be able to work out what to do about both problems.’

‘There’s one more thing. When those Mentarin left they teleported to somewhere else on this world not off it. Where could they have gone? Is there a map of this world I could look at?’

Yllandril stood thinking for a while then replied

‘No. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a map of this world.’

‘Then how do you visit people?’

‘We simply teleport to their estates.’ replied Yllandril.

‘What about the hunts? Don’t the hunters make maps of the territory in which they hunt?’

‘No. I think they all do it from memory.’

‘Hasn’t anyone explored this world?’ asked Aquitain rather surprised.

‘No. Not that I’m aware of. It does seem rather strange now that you have pointed it out doesn’t it?’ replied Yllandril.

‘I’m beginning to think that you and the Elendari have been kept in the dark much longer than you realize. It seems that the Elendari have had no ambition to do anything other than hunt and enjoy themselves for hundreds of years.’

‘There’s been no improvements, no new knowledge, no change, no nothing. You just exist doing the same old things. It must get boring yet no one does anything about it. Well things have changed! I’m here now and it’s time for action. I’m going to shake things up a little. I want you to go and find out everything anyone knows about mutations and infertility.’ said Aquitain.

‘Get them to talk so that we can find out about how big the problem is and ask about maps. If we can find the Mentarin camp we will find Miranda and the bastard that’s behind our problems. Keep me updated and be careful as you’re probably going to stir up trouble.’

‘You’re right.’ replied Yllandril as the truth dawned on her.

‘I thought leaving the crystal was going to be wonderful. I could simply restart my old life again. Now I can see that I must have had my eyes closed before. We’ve been slaves to the Mentarin without even knowing it. It’s time to fight back. I’ll find out everything I can.’

Yllandril was so excited she was almost trembling. She had suddenly found a new purpose in life, to liberate her people.

‘OK Rat Catcher, it’s your turn. Tell me about yourself.’

Aquitain sat on the floor and the Rat Catcher came and sat next to him and began purring then after a minute or two began talking using mindspeak.

‘I was not always a cat. I think once I was something else. It’s been so long now that I’ve forgotten. I think I was in Astaria before Llanlorian arrived but can’t remember anything about those times. I do know Llanlorian befriended me and I have protected her as best I could.’

‘Shortly before I came here we were suddenly attacked by many of the Mentarin who just appeared out of nowhere. She and Terren tried to fight them but there were too many and they were too powerful. Just before they died she commanded me to seek you and tell you that when you became a citizen she gave you the powers of a gatekeeper. Astaria’s future now depends on you.’

‘By the Powers!’ thought Aquitain. That must be why my spirit aura looks different and so powerful. She imbued me with a lot of her powers but why? Asterix said that nothing ever happened there. Perhaps she wanted me to uncover the secrets of Astaria. Maybe she knew that the Mentarin were likely to attack Astaria. Perhaps it’s got something to do with my father.’

‘What about Asterix. Is he alive?’ asked Aquitain.

‘Asterix opened a gate for me to leave, so I left. He should have left close behind me but he never emerged from the gate so I don’t know his fate. He may have been caught by them, chose to hide or perhaps even escaped out another gateway.’

‘Why are you called Rat Catcher?’ asked Aquitain.

‘When Llanlorian first came and befriended me she discovered that there were many rats is Astaria. She gave me the job of eliminating them. I have managed to get all of them except for six who seem to have a charmed life. I suspect they are not what they seem. Perhaps they are Mentarin or something else I do not know.’

‘Interesting.’ said Aquitain. ‘May I create a mindlink with you?’

The Rat Catcher agreed and Aquitain created a mindlink with the cat and examined her aura. It looked like the spirit aura of a cat but Aquitain was still not satisfied. Cats don’t generally use mindspeak and teleport around.

‘May I hypnotize you?’ asked Aquitain.

‘Yes if it will help you discover the truth, my Lord.’ replied the Rat Catcher.

Aquitain hypnotized the cat and went into a state of autohypnosis so that he could use the Mantras of Yith to examine the cat’s spirit aura. He discovered very quickly that the cat’s spirit aura was totally unresponsive to his tinkering. It was sealed by magic. Someone very powerful was making sure that he didn’t learn too much and that annoyed him.

He removed the cat from of the state of hypnosis and said.

‘If you were originally something else it’s not showing. How did you find me?’

‘My collar is tuned to teleport me to the Lord of Astaria. I only have to think of a special word and I am transported to your side.’

‘Will it also transport you back to Astaria?’

‘Yes. There is a second special word which will take me back to the nearest gate.’

‘Can you open the gate by yourself?’

‘No. I can only pass when someone opens it for me.’

‘There’s something that I’m missing here!’ thought Aquitain. ‘Llanlorian always kept the cat close to her while I was there. I wonder why?’

‘Did Llanlorian train you or have you do anything other than chase rats?’

‘Only one thing, she changed my eyes so I could see spirits.’ replied the Rat Catcher.

‘And you were to tell her immediately any were around.’

‘Yes, My Lord.’

‘Excellent.’ said Aquitain. ‘I want you to alert me any time you see a spirit.’

‘As you wish, My Lord. Is there anything more?’

‘Yes, may I examine your collar?’

The cat agreed and Aquitain removed the collar and used his ability to detect magic. The collar was strongly magical. He examined it very carefully looking for signal devices that might be used to track the cat but found none. He analysed the magic spectrum and found evidence of transport magic consistent with it being used as a teleport device. There was also a trace of divine magic that seemed to be a ward of some type.

He replaced the collar and suggested that the cat get some sleep while he stood watch and it curled up and went to sleep near his leg. The cat posed a real problem. Was it genuine or a trap of some sort? If he kept it close it could be used to find and identify him, yet if it could see the Mentarin spirit creatures then it was incredibly useful. The teleport feature of the collar also gave Aquitain quick access to the Astarian gateway, which he could open.

‘This has to be a trap’ said Slivver suddenly.

‘I tend to agree with you Slivver.’

‘Did Llanlorian tell you anything before she placed you on me when I was a Llanllean?’

‘No. I was just told to help you stay alive and make sure you returned. She was most insistent on that. I had to make sure that you return. Why I don’t know. That’s why I think it’s a trap.’

‘Yes, I think you’re right. Miranda could even be there. It seems that Astaria holds the answers to a few questions and like it or not I’m going to have to return but not yet. I have a few things to do first.’

‘By the way did you tell Miranda that you were on my Llanllean body before you were on her body?’ asked Aquitain out of curiosity.

‘Of course I can’t keep any secrets from the mistress.’ replied Slivver innocently. ‘I told her all about your exploits with the Llanlleans in the cave.’

‘And what did she say?’ queried Aquitain.

‘She said that you will make a wonderful king one day and I agree. I can’t wait to be there on your joining night it will be an epic event.’ said Slivver excitedly.

Aquitain laughed loudly.

‘I wouldn’t hold your breath – that’s likely to be a long way off yet.’

Chapter 2 Glammer’s Secret

Aquitain sat considering the huge task ahead. He shifted back to Miranda’s shape to conserve his source. The problems seemed to be increasing and getting tougher every day. He began to have a few doubts about how this whole adventure was going to turn out.

All he had set out to do a couple of weeks ago was to find Miranda, his cousin Melanie and his memcrystal Alpha. Now was he supposed to be an Agent of Chaos. He had to change the world. People needed him to save them and their world. It was such a big job. What if he failed? People would suffer and he would be responsible. He felt scared. Suddenly he burst into tears.

‘Why me?’ he thought. ‘Why are they doing this to me?’ and he cried his heart out while imagining what his Grandfather might say.

‘Look what a few minutes in a female body has done to you. You’ve turned into a blubbering schoolgirl. Is it all too hard for you? Do you want to leave it to someone else who can do the job? Why not just go play with your magical toys.’

After a couple of minutes he felt a small raspy tongue licking his face.

‘Don’t cry My Lady, there’s always hope while you still have friends and I’ll be your friend.’

‘Thank you Rat Catcher, you’re right. I have got friends and together we’ll do our best to save this world and our own.’

He cuddled the cat with his eyes closed revelling in the soothing feeling of its lovely warm furry body. Eventually, he looked up, tears still slowly running down his face and saw Glammer hovering in the air an arm’s length from him looking on rather thoughtfully.

‘I think you are better as a Newman female. I didn’t think you had any emotions before. Why are you in Miranda’s body?’

Aquitain mentally chanted a calming mantra and thought. ‘By the Powers it’s great to really feel Newman again but I’ll have to take care with the emotional side of this female body. Now back to the business at hand.’

He stood up placing the cat back on the ground.

‘It sounds like you must have missed the excitement at the ball.’ he said.

‘No I witnessed it all. You have upset the balance as the Mudrun Collective had hoped. Your actions over the next few days are critical in how it re-establishes itself and may set the balance for many years to come. I was called away and specifically commanded not to help you in any way.’ she replied.

‘I had a good chance to think about Moonmist problems before the ball and in particular where you fit in. I came to the conclusion that you are a part of the problem. You have been stealing secrets from people’s minds and blocking off memories that you think they should forget. You may think that you are helping them but you leave them incapable of making changes to help themselves and others.’

‘Mudrun made me its Warden because it feared what was happening but could do little to stop it. Before you said you were sent by the Collective to help me but now when things are critical you are now instructed not to help me. I don’t believe that. You are supposed to be neutral yet by stopping the Elendari from helping themselves you are not acting neutral but preventing change. Change is necessary for people to adapt to changes in the world they live in. I think that you have upset the balance and are worried that I may be able to restore it.’

‘No we are not the problem.’ said Glammer.

‘Quiet! say nothing.’

‘No! we have kept quiet too long.’

‘She is right we are the problem.’

‘Stop it you will destroy us all.’

‘No! we must tell her.’

Glammer began writhing as if struggling internally with some great problem. She then began violently flashing a multitude of colours and her body shape melted into an amorphous mass then suddenly exploded in a rainbow of colour.

The Rat Catcher ran for cover and Aquitain dived for the floor as a reflex expecting a huge release of energy but there was none. As he stood up again he noticed a huge cloud of moth radiants in the room fluttering around all arguing with each other using mindspeak.

‘What just happened?’ he asked but they were all too busy arguing to answer him.

He stepped back a few paces to get a better view. The cloud of mothra was made up of an equal number of four types each with a different coloured body and each glowing with a related colour. There were browns, blues, reds and greens. The brown one glowed yellow and the others the colour of their body, red for red and so on. On closer examination they all seemed to be arguing with each other in tiny squeaky voices.

‘Stop arguing!’ he shouted. ‘Separate now or I will be tempted to punish you.’

They all stopped arguing, looked at Aquitain and separated into four clouds based upon their body colour and began blinking in the same way that Aquitain had observed during the ball.

‘Oh damn.’ thought Aquitain. ‘I’ve done it now, the little beggars want to fight me.’

Moments later beams of heat, cold, acid and electric energy shot out of the groups at Aquitain’s chest. His heart almost stopped as he mentally readied to block the pain but none came. It would be difficult to determine who was the more surprised Aquitain or the mothra. Aquitain looked down, it was the armour. He was still wearing Miranda’s brilliant armour. It was absorbing the different types of energy attack.

‘Are you finished? Now that you all know that you cannot harm me I wish to talk to you.’

They ignored him and all began pulsing in synchrony and the air began cracking with energy.

‘This doesn’t look good.’ thought Aquitain, ‘They’re going to do something much more powerful.’

Quickly he sent a mental blast in the direction of two of the groups and immediately most of the members of the two groups went rigid and fell to the floor. Normally Aquitain didn’t use mental blasts as they required considerable magic essence but with his larger source it was now a useful weapon for incapacitating people without harming them.

He then pointed at the remainder and said

‘Stop that pulsing immediately. I am the Warden of Mudrun. You will obey me and answer my questions.’

They stopped pulsing.

‘You are our Warden! Oh what were we thinking? Please Lady had we known we would not have harmed you. It’s just we are confused. Our knowledge and memories are scattered between all of us. Unless we are together we can tell you nothing and since you have killed half of us all our knowledge is lost.’

‘I have not killed anyone.’ replied Aquitain. ‘I was forced to stun some of you to stop you all from harming yourselves. They will recover in a minute or two. Now tell me can you reform back to the single one called Glammer?’

‘It has only ever been done once. We were formed into Glammer by the elemental dragon Granite hundreds of years ago,’ said the collective mind of the blues.

‘Do you know how he did it?’ he asked hopefully.

‘He chose twenty five of each of the colours to represent each of the elements. We then danced the Dance of the Elements and we were joined.’

‘What normally happens during the Dance of the Elements?’ said Aquitain.

‘We do not know.’ replied the collective. ‘We are entranced by the music.’

‘How do you start the dance?’

‘Someone must first play the music then we dance.’

‘Did they do the Dance of the Elements when I was chosen to be Warden of Moonmist?’

‘Yes. Yes. That was the Dance of the Elements.’ replied the collective.’

Aquitain closed his eyes and tried to visualize the amazing sight that had occurred when he had been made Warden only a few days ago. There had been hundreds of mothra present then. The power generated had been immense and the display awe inspiring. Would it be possible to repeat such a dance? It had to be. Glammer held many secrets and to get her back she must be remade.

Slowly the effect of the mind blast on the stunned mothra wore off and they fluttered up forming a cloud muttering amongst themselves.

Aquitain stood pondering on how Granite might have formed Glammer. He knew how to make a new body for himself using the first divinity seed. He now knew how to tie a spirit to a body using the second divinity seed but the knowledge of how to make a hundred little bodies merge and form into one larger body he was unsure about. He needed time to think about it.

After several minutes of thought he decided that there must be both a body as well as energy transformation occurring during the Dance of the Elements. These little mothra could alter the type of energy that they used. He had seen it at the ball. One moment their bodies generated and used heat energy then seconds later they switched to lightning energy. That was unprecedented. That would require changes in their bodies and there was a way to find out.

‘I want one of you of each colour to come closer so that I can see you better.’ said Aquitain.

No one came forward.

‘I’m not going to eat you. I’m trying to work out a way to put you back together. You do want to be remade into one again don’t you?’

‘You can’t do that. You wouldn’t know how.’ said the collective 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 into animals 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 and he tells us where to find more.’

‘Aren’t you supposed to find out secrets for Granite?’ asked Aquitain.

‘Yes but he hasn’t been around for ages. The Dark One knows lots of secrets and tells us where to find more.’ replied the reds.

‘He tells us where to find more secrets than you.’ said the blues suddenly. ‘No we hear more secrets.’ yelled the browns.

‘How does he tell some of you secrets when you are all mixed up together with the others in the same body?’ asked Aquitain a little confused.

‘He sings and all the others go to sleep.’ replied the reds. ‘Then, he tells us secrets just for us.’

On hearing this admission the blues, greens and browns got quite agitated and began abusing the reds.

‘Calm down all of you.’ said Aquitain. ‘I’ve got a suspicion that each of you colours has a similar secret. How about you blues does he put the others to sleep and tell you special secrets?’

All the blues went 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 blues collective. The browns and greens also admitted that he put the others to sleep and told them secrets as well.

‘I’m ashamed of all of you. You were specifically formed by Granite to be neutral in all your decisions. It sounds to me like you are all being persuaded to think in a certain way by the Dark One. Your secrets you keep from each other are no more than instructions on how to make the other members of the collective to do what the Dark one wants. By cheating on each other you have not only let Granite down you let the whole of your world down. I’ve changed my mind about putting you back together again. I think it’s better you stay apart. That way you can cause no more trouble.’

‘Please’ said the collective mind of the browns. ‘You must remake us.’

‘Why?’ asked Aquitain.

‘Yes you must remake us.’ said the collective of blues and the reds and greens.

‘Why?’ repeated Aquitain impatiently. ‘I’m waiting?’

‘We must all join together to answer you.’ said the blues.

‘OK.’ said Aquitain ‘but no fighting among yourselves or trying to do anything silly again or I’ll stun the lot of you.’

The four separate clouds moved together and mingled then the full collective spoke to Aquitain and he recognized the voice in his mind immediately. It was Glammer.

‘Hello Aquitain. I caused the separation so that you would know my true nature. I’m not truly neutral but equal parts good and bad, chaos and order each part has had its own agenda just like the Moonmist collective. I have a vast amount of knowledge dispersed among the members of this collective but the loss of one member would render much of that knowledge unusable.’

‘You should know that you are a pawn in a game played by mighty Powers. By finding and releasing the dragon Granite you have succeeded in changing the balance on this world that has existed for nearly fifty Moonmist years. This will have great repercussions both within and outside Moonmist. You will have attracted the attention of the gods and other lesser Powers and that is not good. You will be much more vulnerable than before and I wish to help you.’

‘Why?’ asked Aquitain again.

‘I believe that we were joined together for a purpose but we have never been able to determine what it was. When Granite created Glammer and made her an assistant collector we believed he had some higher purpose in mind but he would never tell us.’

‘When we first saw your spirit aura we knew that you were much more than you appeared, you were like us. You were made for a purpose. If you remake us as Glammer then our destinies will be intertwined. We will help you find your purpose and you will help us with ours.’

Aquitain was quite surprised at this revelation but also quite excited. Maybe he could get a few answers.

‘So you want to form an alliance with me?’ he asked.

‘Yes you could call it an alliance.’

‘May I ask you some questions before I decide?’ asked Aquitain.

‘You may ask but I may not know the answer until I am made whole.’

‘I guessed that might be the case.’ stated Aquitain. ‘But let’s try anyway.’

‘What is Granite?’

‘He is a powerful elemental dragon.’ replied the collective.

‘Is he some type of Power or deity?’ asked Aquitain.

‘Yes he is very powerful but not a god.’ replied the collective.

‘Does he have a title?’ asked Aquitain.

‘He was the Warden of Moonmist before you.’ said the collective.

‘Yes and what else?’ asked Aquitain.

The collective were silent as if trying to decide whether they should tell him anymore.

‘If we are in an alliance together we need to be honest with each other. What are his other titles?’ asked Aquitain.

‘He is the Lord High Protector of Crystalhaven which is like a Warden.’ 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. This confirmed what Terren had said.

It all started to make sense. If Granite was the Warden of Mudrun and the Warden Moonmist then he would have visited both. During one of his visits here he was trapped. If he was imprisoned here for about fifty Moonmist years then owing to the time difference between worlds he was away for roughly 250 Mudrun years. The Great Storm happened a few hundred Mudrun years ago. If he was imprisoned before the Great Storm then perhaps the storm happened because he wasn’t there to watch over Mudrun.

Perhaps Granite was an Agent of Chaos and the society there got out of balance because he wasn’t there. Perhaps the Agent of Chaos Schlum had been sent here before Aquitain to find Granite and had been somehow corrupted. He began to see himself in a new light. Perhaps Agents of Chaos are really necessary after all. Maybe Glammer was involved.

‘I’m guessing that you were somehow involved in Granite being imprisoned here. I am right?’ asked Aquitain.

The collective was silent.

‘Oh that’s great! You want to form an alliance so that I will protect you from Granite? You have got to be jesting! He is the most powerful being I have ever met. I shall have to think deeply about this.’ And he sat and adopted the position for meditation. He needed to logically and unemotionally consider what to do.

‘Let’s first consider the advantages.’ he thought.

‘Let’s face it I’ve got many more problems than answers and Granite hasn’t been any help. Glammer has a lot of local knowledge, which could be very helpful in solving some of the problems. She is also scared of what Granite might do to her and the other Radiants. If she thinks that I might be able to help defend her in some way that will make her very keen to help me. I have much more to gain than lose.’

‘Now on the negative side remaking Glammer is likely to really upset Granite but what is he likely to do? I released him from his prison so he owes me. He has no reason to harm me although he might still wish to punish Glammer. If I remake Glammer then I could argue that I intend to make her atone for her deeds. He might buy that.’

The collective started talking again.

‘We admit that we have helped your enemy but he also knows that we have helped you. If you remake us to our oneself then we will help only you. Now that each of the factions knows that the Dark One has corrupted us before we will be able to resist his interference. We may be able to find your love one’s spirit and help her if she has not passed over to the realm of the dead.’

‘Are my cousin Zephira and my memcrystal Alpha still alive?’

‘We believe they are.’ replied the collective.

‘Am I able to remake you?’

‘You have the power within you.’ replied